Help From Above/Помощь Cвыше

by Richard Noel

In the Autumn of 1844, William Miller, a Baptist in America had been preaching for a few years that he expected Jesus to come soon. He refined his calculations to October 22, 1844. Interestingly, he made a few mistakes in his calculations. First, he assumed that the prophecy was about the Day of Atonement. He expected Jesus to come and then destroy the earth by fire. None of these things happened on the date predicted. The disappointment of his followers was severe. The next day one of them (Hiram Edson) was walking through his corn field to avoid the road and the embarrassment of meeting his neighbors. He was going to meet with a few of his friends to try to understand what went wrong. In the corn field he had a very short vision.

Like many of the prophets he did not understand the vision. He related what he saw to his friends. He told them he had seen a vision of Jesus entering the Most Holy place in the Heavenly Sanctuary. They discussed the vision and came to the opinion that it meant that the prophecy was to be fulfilled in heaven not on this earth. From that conclusion they received comfort that God had not forgotten them.

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Pastor Troy Warner

Many people are taught that gift of tongues is the least of all the gifts and should be ignored, because it does not edify the church. But this gift had a place in the apostolic church when it was an interpretation. Thus it brought edification both to the whole church and to individual believers. 1 Corinthians 14:5: “I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.”

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by Dr. Terry Pooler

http://sabbathgracefellowship.org

Yesterday, after enjoying lunch with a Seventh-day Adventist teacher who has a passion for influencing young minds, he asked me to define the core difference between the church I pastor (Sabbath Grace Fellowship) and the typical Seventh-day Adventist church. When I finished my explanation, he shook his head and said, “That is profound! I had never seen it that way before. You need to write an article on this.” (more…)

Victor Christensen

Editor’s Note:

The paper that follows thoughtfully addresses an issue that troubles many Seventh-day Adventists: “How are we to regard the writings of Ellen G. White?” As such, it tackles a thorny problem. As the author notes, he does regard her as a prophet. Prophets are generally regarded as persons who receive communication from God. Should the writings of a modern prophet be considered equal to the writings we know as scripture? For further consideration, refer to 1 Corinthians 14:29.

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During the last 8-10 years I developed a habit, while preaching in different Adventist churches throughout the US, to ask people, “Do you believe that Christ might come today, tomorrow or this week?” Almost everybody answers, that they do not believe in it. So it won’t be a typical Adventist approach to the 2nd coming of Christ in this sermon. It is opposite to the popular idea as if we are able to influence the thime of His Coming. Instead I want to bring you to conviction, that His Coming in fact is closer to us that when we just first believed.

Dick Coston, Retired Pastor

Part 1.

Duration 28 min.

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Where is the Glory?

by Richard Noel

The legend of sleepy hollow focuses on an uncoordinated, homely person named Ichabod Crane. The author borrowed this name from the only Bible reference using this name. In 1 Samuel 4:21-22, a grandson of the High Priest Eli is born just after Eli’s two sons were killed and after Eli died upon hearing that the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines. His mother named him Ichabod because the Ark had been taken. The name can be approximately translated, “Where is the glory?”.

As I look around many Christian churches including my own denomination, I wonder with the same question, ICHABOD? Where is the Glory? (more…)