Comments of the Week Jan 27-Feb 2
Comments of the Week Jan 27-Feb 2
“Who is a ‘Good Adventist’?” – Daniel Robobassie Melbourne, on Aunt Sevvy’s Question: Does God do more miracles for good Adventists?
Comments on Contemporary Thinkers, Hazing at Mt. Pisgah Academy, Posting the 10 Commandments, the Close of Probation, and Aunt Sevvy
Engaging Contemporary Thinkers: Hollywood & Mars Hill
“I loved The 3-Bodies Problem series as well. Part of my PhD dissertation is to identify sin as a complex dynamical system, and by doing such, because I am engaging with a relatively new scientific theory, I engage with the theologically minded scientist and philosophers. There seems to be a small movement within the realm of complexity that are thinking about origins of this complexity, namely the universe itself (cosmic panpsychism). Some scientists not only think the universe is conscious but that this consciousness is divine. In many ways it sounds like the Holy Spirit. How are you purposing to find common ground without distorting the Holy Spirit? BTW I’m presenting a paper at the Helsinki Analytic Conference on theology and aliens in April on ‘Animals, Angels and Aliens: Soteriology that Entails the Extraterrestrial.’ My thesis is the cosmic conflict view allows the salvation of all when the system of sin is destroyed by the catalyst of Jesus’ return. I believe salvation is not just individual and personal but reorients the entire universe. When we confine salvation to merely humanity we reveal our egocentric ways of thinking. God loves his entire creation. Thank you for an interesting article.”
Mount Pisgah Academy Disciplines Students for Hazing Incident
“Kids do stuff. They always have. Expulsion is warranted. Maybe more. I don’t blame the school for it having been ongoing. They reported it when they found out and are working with authorities. I went to a day academy where I was sexually assaulted. I never told anyone because I was afraid of what they’d say about me. I didn’t want to be blamed for it or to be called cruel names. Forty-plus years later, as I watched Bret Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS confirmation hearing, Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford’s testimony gave me the courage to tell my husband and to confront my assaulter. Those kids were sexually assaulted. I understand why it didn’t come out right away.“
–Karen Daugherty Kory
Which Ten Commandments Should We Post in Public Places?
“I believe that the central issue of this post was answered very directly by God Himself in the person of Jesus, when He answered the question, which was the greatest of the commandments. His summary points us to the reality that underlies God’s ‘law.’ That reality is far simpler than it is so frequently presented: love God wholeheartedly, love ourselves appropriately, and love others as ourselves. He specifically reiterates this to His disciples when He says, 34 ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ John 13: 34-35. These words tell us exactly how His ‘commandment’ is to be presented to the world. Not in abstraction, but in action, Just as God chose to live it.”
–Leland Yialelis
“The Ten are not meant for the public square. They are meant as spiritual guidelines for a good and practical life; offering us a chance to develop our own human character that will make each of us a quality, fellow citizen. Since they are not exactly like human laws (very different), therefore are not to be in the public domain.”
–William Pritchard
The Close of Probation, Revisited
“What ultimately puts the nail in the coffin for this doctrine is this: the idea that a group of people will be able to live in perfection without a mediator. This means that it is possible to obtain a measure of perfection that makes Christ’s sacrifice obsolete. This is salvation by works and it contradicts what the Bible teaches. And when it’s taught by a religious group that exclusively claims the mantle of ‘God’s true church,’ it is spiritually arrogant.
Aunt Sevvy, does God do more miracles for good Adventists?
“The only miracle – maybe 2 miracles – I ever saw as a hospital chaplain were to Catholic families. I saw pretty much every other denomination, SDA included, lose babies and children, including Catholic. And I angered families when I couldn’t heal their 5th child to die of the same form of cancer or raise a stillborn child from the dead. The two Catholic babies on the brink of death made it. One baptised by the priest, the other my myself when no priest was available on Christmas Day. (Yes, I’m a heretic chaplain.)“
–Janet Lisa
“Who is a ‘Good Adventist’?”
–Daniel Robobassie Melbourne