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Comments of the Week December 16-22

Comments of the Week December 9-15

“Why did our pioneers make it all about us, when it was clearly about the people who read it back then? This is the best ‘unpacking’ of Revelation in terms of the first century I’ve ever read.” –-Loren Seibold on Revelation

Comments on Revelation, Pagan Christmas, Aunt Sevvy, and more!

What Did Revelation Mean to Its First-Century Hearers?

“Why did our pioneers make it all about us, when it was clearly about the people who read it back then? This is the best ‘unpacking’ of Revelation in terms of the first century I’ve ever read.”

–Loren Seibold

In Praise of Pagan Christmas

“People in all cultures around the world have celebrated changing seasons and solstices. Lighting candles, fires, and firestorms on the darkest day of the year does NOT make one ‘pagan.’ It simply says we appreciate knowing the worst darkness is past and we can look forward to lengthening days.

STOP AWFULIZING AND DEMONIZING EVERYTHING!!!“

–Glenn Sackett

Aunty, I’m considering joining an offshoot that maintains the original Adventist standards. What do you think?

“I agree that high standards are important, but my high standards apply only to me. I have no standards for others. When we have high standards for others, we end up practicing a degree of exclusivity. If others don’t measure up to whatever standards we have for them, we inevitably exclude them from our circle. Christ is all about inclusivity and did not have standards for others, hence, His acceptance of publicans, tax collectors, etc. A quoted phrase from Aunt Sevvy’s post = ‘but those standards should be about how thoroughly a church accepts and loves people, even those who are different, who struggle, who are sinners,’ I am the chief of sinners, so I am not going to put others who are struggling with sin in a different camp from myself.”

–Eric Schilt

“Very much agree with Aunty. Also when Aunty talks about people seeking ‘unique doctrines,’ the thing that strikes me is how obsessed people are with minor ideas that are not even essential SDA beliefs.

It is hard to get many Adventists into talking about, say, God, the Trinity, who Jesus was, how salvation works, or even what happens to us when we die. I would say these are the real ‘essentials.’
Instead, our SDA brethren are often obsessed over things I would consider pretty minor. Like vegetarianism, whether you can swim on the Sabbath, the identity of Michael the Archangel, or all the ways the pope is going to persecute us at the end of time. None of these things are Adventist ‘fundamentals’ even by conservative SDA standards.
I have experienced this myself here on AT or even in official SDA mouthpiece media. I have written an article about salvation by grace through Jesus, and you hardly get a peep. But if you write an article about, say, vegetarianism, then 400 people want to comment in support or outrage.
We risk turning our religion into being professional cheerleaders, who were meant to be there to support the main NFL game but somehow evolved to become a new sport in its own right. And now most of us don’t seem to care about the main event.
We seem to care more about a ham sandwich than whether someone follows Jesus.”

–Steve Ferguson

 

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