Saturday, October 08, 2011

Great is Thy Faithfulness


Uploaded by on Aug 18, 2011

Please click to play all the featured Christian hymns:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2018498757FD7A76&feature=mh_lolz


Are You Washed in the Blood?


Uploaded by on Mar 14, 2008

A well-known Christian hymn written by Elisha A. Hoffman in 1878. Sung in the video by the Antrim Mennonite Choir, from their album 'Amazing Grace.'

Please click to play all the featured Christian hymns:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2018498757FD7A76&feature=mh_lolz


He Lives


Uploaded by on Jan 28, 2011

Rwanda speaker inspires Bellarmine students

By Olivia Welsh

Published: Thursday, October 6, 2011

Updated: Thursday, October 6, 2011 16:10


Carl Wilkins

Photo Courtesy: Samantha Ortiz

Carl Wilkins

Photo Courtesy: Samantha Ortiz

Carl Wilkins, director of World Outside My Shoes and an Adventist missionary, gave a speech in Bellarmine's Amy Cralle Theater on Tuesday, Sept. 27. Wilkens spoke of his decision to be the only American remaining in Rwanda when the genocide began in April of 1994.

Wilkins' wife, Teresa, described their visit to Rwanda as "initially our easiest assignment," since they had already spent much time in Africa previously. Six months after the couple and their children arrived in Rwanda, however, the war had begun. His family chose to leave Rwanda while Wilkins decided to stay to fight the genocide, a decision that he and his wife both made together.

In Wilkins' speech, he spoke deeply of those he met on his journey in Rwanda. He opened with a story of two women who inspired him to keep fighting. Wilkins emphasized the importance of women's roles in these types of situations, saying there is "potential destruction of a family, community, and country when the women aredestroyed." He described his neighbors who protected him as "courageous, resilient, and compassionate" women. "If you want lasting stability, security, and development, then make sure young woman get an education." Wilkins described this as "the Girl Effect."

Wilkins' audience, made up of mostly college students, was impressed and inspired with his story and his decision to stay in Rwanda. "The speech tonight was especially meaningful to me because of my experience in South Africa," said Bellarmine junior Karen Thomas. "I believe people need to hear stories of despair, but also stories of hope."

Junior Samantha Ortiz was very moved by Wilkins' story. "It's amazing to see the capacity for compassion that people have in their hearts," she said, "We don't see many people like Wilkins, or the inspiring women in Rwanda, in our own society very often."

Wilkins encouraged his audience to take something away from his speech. "I believe that when we engage our mind and our muscles," he said, "it has a huge potential to change the way we think, which changes the way we feel and act."

Wilkins encouraged his audience to read and explore what is happening in Rwanda today. He explained that Rwanda is on the road to recovery now, but help is still needed in the country. He said we can help in many ways, whether it is by reading his book, "I'm Not Leaving" or just posting a link on Facebook with information about Rwanda's situation.

Wilkins stressed the significance of knowing what has happened in Rwanda. "I hope you go out of here with a deeper commitment...with a shift from ‘me' thinking to ‘we' thinking."



Source

*A small note about Bellarmine, after whom the university is named:

Robert Bellarmine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Bellarmine (full name in Italian: Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino) (4 October 1542 – 17 September 1621) was an Italian Jesuit and a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was one of the most important figures in the Counter-Reformation. He was canonized in 1930 and is a Doctor of the Church.
Saint Robert Bellarmine
Bishop, Confessor and Doctor of the Church
Born4 October 1542
Montepulciano, Italy
Died17 September 1621 (aged 78)
Rome, Italy

Church pastor suspended after being arrested on sex charges


Photo (Courtesy) http://salinapost.com/2011/10/07/salina-pastor-arrested-on-sex-charges/

10/8/2011

By the Salina Journal

A Salina church pastor was suspended Friday after being arrested Thursday on sex charges.

Birger Draget, 54, of 503 Claremont, was arrested Thursday on charges that include rape, aggravated indecent liberties and aggravated criminal sodomy.

Draget is pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist church in Salina.

Carson Mansfield, deputy Salina police chief, said authorities began investigating after a teenage girl reported to police that she had suffered years of sexual abuse.

Draget was being held in the Saline County Jail.

Administrative leave

Church officials placed Draget on administrative leave immediately after hearing about the allegations.

Ron Carlson, president of the Kansas-Nebraska Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, said he was "shocked and dismayed."

He said that the church would cooperate with the investigation in any way it could.

"He will have no responsibility for the congregation" until the case is resolved, Carlson said. "We certainly want to provide a safe environment for our young people."

Carlson said Draget had been pastor of the Salina church for more than five years.

Church leaders in Salina were being informed of Draget's suspension Friday evening.


Related:
Abuse Happens, Even in Church

Why the church needs an Abuse Prevention Emphasis Day.



Cleansing of the Camp



We must as a people arouse and cleanse the camp of Israel. Licentiousness, unlawful intimacy, and unholy practices are coming in among us in a large degree; and ministers who are handling sacred things are guilty of sin in this respect. They are coveting their neighbors’ wives, and the seventh commandment is broken. We are in danger of becoming a sister to fallen Babylon, of allowing our churches to become corrupted, and filled with every foul spirit, a cage for every unclean and hateful bird; and will we be clear unless we make decided movements to cure the existing evil?
- Letter 51, 9/6/1886



Also found in:
-TSB 188
-21MR 380


A Song of Praise and Worship

Psalm 95

1O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

2Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

3For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

4In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

5The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

6O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

7For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,

8Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

9When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work.

10Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:

11Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.


"The Way"



Uploaded by on Aug 24, 2011

Friday, October 07, 2011

On train ride north, hungry migrants grab sustenance from Mexican women

LAS PATRONAS Oct-6-2011 With photos. xxxi


By David Agren
Catholic News Service

LA PATRONA, Mexico (CNS) -- The horn sounds and the ground rumbles, setting off a mad dash by a group of women armed with food and drink for the hundreds of hungry migrants riding atop "the train of the flies."

Once at the nearby railway line, the women and several helpers assume positions along the tracks, holding out sacks containing lunches and bottles of soft drinks tied to long strings to reach the migrants' outstretched arms as the train passes in a blur.

The scene plays out daily in La Patrona, where a group of 14 women have fed an ever-growing number of hungry Central American migrants for more than a decade, despite scant resources, trouble with the authorities and negative local attitudes.

The women never take a day off -- "Not even for Christmas," says Norma Romero, coordinator of the group known as Las Patronas. The name is drawn from their community of cane and coffee farmers in Veracruz state and refers to Our Lady of Guadalupe.


Las Patronas worked for years in anonymity but have gained international attention, reflecting an awareness of the hardships faced by northbound migrants transiting Mexico who have been kidnapped and preyed upon in large numbers over the past four years.

Romero downplays the attention.

"The migrants are the famous people. They're confronting the obstacles," she said. "We're here to accompany them."

Las Patronas work with the Mexican bishops' human mobility ministry and sometimes accompany migrants by more than just providing food -- such as helping those who fall from the trains and lose limbs.

They also give talks in private universities
, which now take up collections to provide staples such as rice, beans and cooking oil.

The speaking trips into big centers such as Puebla and Mexico City are bit much for some of the ladies.

"We're simple farm folk," Romero said, but she added, "We're making people more conscious of migration."

Las Patronas began helping migrants in 1995, when several of Romero's sisters provided milk and bread to hungry migrants asking for assistance.

They had spotted migrants riding atop the trains rolling through La Patrona, 185 miles southeast of Mexico City. But Romero says most people thought the migrants were just joyriders, hopping the trains on a lark.

"I didn't know a thing about Central America or what's below us," Romero said.

Las Patronas learned soon enough about the migrants and began preparing bagged lunches for those riding the rails. Soon enough, word spread. The trains would slow sometimes slow while passing La Patrona. Migrants, meanwhile, were told by those going before them to watch for the nearby sugar mill.

Finding food for the migrants was difficult at times, Norma said. The ladies even picked mangos when resources were scant. They knocked on doors, asking for donations.

Equally difficult were the authorities: Romero says Las Patronas began working at a time when helping migrants was a crime. She recalled a local doctor refusing care to a sick migrant, saying he would be breaking the law.

Mexico has since approved a new migration law, decriminalizing actions in support of those in the country without the legal documents.

Confronting local attitudes presented another challenge. Las Patronas once had nearly 25 members, but many women quit because their husbands disapproved.

"Why are feeding these scoundrels," Bernarda Romero, Norma's sister, recalled some locals saying.

But a core group of ladies persisted, despite the opposition and lack of resources.

"We decided we're going to do what we can, with what little we have," Bernarda Romero said.

Las Patronas now have some resources, which come through donations, but they still dedicate much of their time to preparing meals for migrants.

They begin each day early with a run to fetch baked goods donated by a local supermarket in the nearby city of Cordoba. Meanwhile, some begin cooking big pots of rice and beans over an open flame on a property owned by Romero's family, close to the rail line. Other items prepared for the migrants include eggs cooked with vegetables.

The women say sometimes the meals are the only nourishment many receive while riding a lengthy northbound leg of their journey between Tierra Blanca in southern Veracruz state and Lecheria, a rail yard on the north side of Mexico City.

During a recent visit, the train came early, meaning Las Patronas gave away bags full of pastries and bread, along with a wheelbarrow full of soft drinks.

After returning from the tracks, the women began preparing for the next the next train's arrival, when the beans, rice and eggs would be given away.

Being able to offer such a bounty was unthinkable 15 years ago, said Bernarda Romero.

"When we started, we never thought it would become like this," she said. "Thanks to God, the seed we planted is beginning to grow."

END

Source
.

Late Apple co-founder knew the value of communication, Jesuit says

Like Pope Pius XI, who founded Vatican Radio and built the Vatican train station, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs recognized the importance of expanding communication, a Jesuit told Vatican Radio.

Jobs, 56, died Oct. 5 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Jesuit Father Antonio Spadaro, the new editor of the influential Jesuit journal Civilta Cattolica, told Vatican Radio that Jobs made technology part of the lives of millions and millions of people, not just technicians.

“Steve Jobs had something in common with Pius XI and that is that he understood that communication is the greatest value we have at our disposal today and we must make it bear fruit,” Fr. Spadaro told the radio Oct. 6.

Spadaro said Steve Jobs had a “great ability to believe in dreams, to see life not only in terms of little daily things, but to have a vision in front of him. Basically, Steve Jobs’ most important message was this, ‘Stay hungry, stay foolish’ — in other words, maintain the ability to see life in new ways.”

The “stay hungry” quote was from a commencement address Jobs gave at California’s Stanford University in 2005.

On his own blog — www.cyberteologia.it — Spadaro embedded a video of Jobs giving the Stanford commencement address and wrote about how some of his points echoed points made by the Jesuits’ founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Jobs told the new graduates, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”

For Apple’s 1996 "What's On Your Powerbook?" ad campaign, Jesuit Father Don Doll appeared with musician Todd Rundgren to highlight the disparate ways Mac owners used their laptops.

Spadaro said that in his Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius wrote that one way of making an important choice is to examine how one would go about making that decision if he knew he were about to die.

“In the cases of Ignatius and Steve, death isn’t a bogeyman,” but is present as a reminder that in the face of death, the only thing that remains is what is truly important for each person, he wrote.

“I don’t know if Jobs was a believer,” the Jesuit wrote. In the Stanford speech, he said, Jobs was “speaking simply about the interior disposition one must have when making important decisions in life, focusing on what counts. No one, believer or non-believer, can make choices in life if he thinks he’s immortal.”

[Catholic News Service]


Source


God will guide, protect those who follow him, pope says at audience

POPE-AUDIENCE Oct-5-2011 With photos. xxxi



By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- God will always guide, protect and nourish those intent on following him, Pope Benedict XVI said.

"Following Jesus, the good shepherd, we will be certain we are on the right path and that the Lord will always guide us, be with us and we will lack nothing," the pope said Oct. 5 during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square.

With an estimated 20,000 people gathered in the square, the pope continued a series of talks about praying with the Psalms, focusing on Psalm 23: "The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I lack."

Looking at psalm -- "a text familiar to and loved by all" -- the pope said, "If we walk behind the good shepherd, no matter how difficult, twisting or long the path of our lives may seem, even if often it seems we are in a spiritual desert without water," we can be sure God will protect and provide for us.

The psalm is an expression of "radical trust in God's loving care," which reaches its highest expression in the death and resurrection of Jesus, who gave his life to save his flock, the pope said.

Greeting English speakers at the audience, the pope offered his "prayerful good wishes" to the 35 men scheduled to be ordained transitional deacons Oct. 6 by U.S. Cardinal William J. Levada, prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. The new deacons are preparing for the priesthood at the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Pope Benedict also greeted a delegation of Orthodox scholars from the theology faculty of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. The faculty awarded Pope Benedict its "Apostle Jason of Thessaloniki Gold Medal," which the pope said was "an eloquent sign of the growing understanding and dialogue between Catholic and Orthodox Christians."

Addressing the Orthodox in English, the pope said he hoped the improved relations would be "a harbinger of ever greater progress in our efforts to respond in fidelity, truth and charity to the Lord's summons to unity."

At the end of the audience, Bishop Anthony B. Taylor of Little Rock, Ark., personally handed Pope Benedict a copy of the "Catholic Study Bible," an edition released in June as part of the Little Rock Scripture Study program.

- - -

Editor's Note: The text of the pope's audience remarks in English will be posted online at: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20111005_en.html.

The text of the pope's audience remarks in Spanish will be posted online at: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20111005_sp.html.

END

Source
.

Payrolls +103,000 Jobs , 444,000 Part-Time on Household Survey

Friday, October 07, 2011 10:25 AM


Jobs Report at a Glance


Here is an overview of September Jobs Report, today's release.

  • US Payrolls +103,000
  • 45,000 Striking Workers Return
  • Net effect is +58,000 jobs
  • US Unemployment Rate Flat at 9.1%
  • Participation Rate +.2 to 64.2%
  • Actual number of Employed (by Household Survey) rose by 398,000
  • Unemployment rose by 25,000
  • Those not in the labor force dropped by 224,000
  • Civilian population rose by 200,000,
  • Civilian Labor Force rose by 423,000
  • Average Weekly Workweek rose .1 hours to 34.3 hours
  • Average Private Hourly Earnings rose 3 Cents 10 $19.52
  • Government employment decreased by 34,000

Recall that the unemployment rate varies in accordance with the Household Survey not the reported headline jobs number, and not in accordance with the weekly claims data.

For a change, the labor force actually rose today. This is a welcome sign. However, were it not for people dropping out of the labor force for the past two years, the unemployment rate would be well over 11%.

September 2011 Jobs Report

Please consider the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) September 2011 Employment Report.

Nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 103,000 in September, and the unemployment rate held at 9.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. The increase in employment partially reflected the return to payrolls of about 45,000 telecommunications workers who had been on strike in August. In September, job gains occurred in professional and business services, health care, and construction. Government employment continued to trend down.

Unemployment Rate - Seasonally Adjusted



Nonfarm Employment - Payroll Survey - Annual Look - Seasonally Adjusted



Notice that employment is lower than it was 10 years ago.

Nonfarm Employment - Payroll Survey - Monthly Look - Seasonally Adjusted



click on chart for sharper image

Between January 2008 and February 2010, the U.S. economy lost 8.8 million jobs.

In the last year of the weakest recovery on record, 2+ years old, the economy averaged about 116,000 jobs a month.

Since April, the economy has averaged 72,000 jobs a month, a downright pathetic number.

Statistically, 127,000 jobs a month is enough to keep the unemployment rate flat.

Nonfarm Employment - Payroll Survey Details - Seasonally Adjusted



Average Weekly Hours



Index of Aggregate Weekly Hours



Average Hourly Earnings vs. CPI



"Success" of QE2

Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 1.9 percent. The consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) was up 3.8 percent over the year ending in August.

Not only are wages rising slower than the CPI, there is also a concern as to how those wage gains are distributed.

BLS Birth-Death Model Black Box

The BLS Birth/Death Model is an estimation by the BLS as to how many jobs the economy created that were not picked up in the payroll survey.

The BLS has moved to quarterly rather than annual adjustments to smooth out the numbers.

For more details please see Introduction of Quarterly Birth/Death Model Updates in the Establishment Survey

In recent years Birth/Death methodology has been so screwed up and there have been so many revisions that it has been painful to watch.

The Birth-Death numbers are not seasonally adjusted while the reported headline number is. In the black box the BLS combines the two coming out with a total.

The Birth Death number influences the overall totals, but the math is not as simple as it appears. Moreover, the effect is nowhere near as big as it might logically appear at first glance.

Do not add or subtract the Birth-Death numbers from the reported headline totals. It does not work that way.

Birth/Death assumptions are supposedly made according to estimates of where the BLS thinks we are in the economic cycle. Theory is one thing. Practice is clearly another as noted by numerous recent revisions.

Birth Death Model Adjustments For 2011



BLS Back in Outer-Space

Do NOT subtract the Birth-Death number from the reported headline number. That is statistically invalid.

I am nearly in shock over the negative BLS adjustment this month. The two revision months historically have been January and July. We have not see a negative number other than January or July for as long as I can remember.

Household Data



click on chart for sharper image

In the last year, the civilian population rose by 1,749,000. Yet the labor force dropped by 107,000. Those not in the labor force rose by 1,856,000.

Were it not for people dropping out of the labor force, the unemployment rate would be well over 11%.

Table A-8 Part Time Status



click on chart for sharper image

A year ago there were 8.6 million people who wanted a full-time job but could only find part-time work. In the last month, the number of people working part-time for economic reasons jumped by 444,000.

Part-time jobs are volatile but this is a huge jump.

Table A-15

Table A-15 is where one can find a better approximation of what the unemployment rate really is.



click on chart for sharper image

Distorted Statistics

Given the total distortions of reality with respect to not counting people who allegedly dropped out of the work force, it is hard to discuss the numbers.

The official unemployment rate is 9.1%. However, if you start counting all the people that want a job but gave up, all the people with part-time jobs that want a full-time job, all the people who dropped off the unemployment rolls because their unemployment benefits ran out, etc., you get a closer picture of what the unemployment rate is. That number is in the last row labeled U-6.

While the "official" unemployment rate is an unacceptable 9.1%, U-6 is much higher at 16.5%. The jump in U-6 this month is from part-time workers.

Things are much worse than the reported numbers would have you believe. Moreover, the unemployment rate is barely better than it was a year ago. It would actually be worse than a year ago were it not for people dropping out of the labor force.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com


Internment/Resettlement Specialist

As I contemplate the progression of OccupyWallStreet and watch it spread accross the country; I think back to this article I saw on the web two years ago:


Careers & Jobs
Military police

Internment / Resettlement Specialist (31E)

  • Enlisted
  • Officer
  • Active Duty
  • Army Reserve

Internment/Resettlement (I/R) Specialists in the Army are primarily responsible for day-to-day operations in a military confinement/correctional facility or detention/internment facility. I/R Specialists provide rehabilitative, health, welfare, and security to U.S. military prisoners within a confinement or correctional facility; conduct inspections; prepare written reports; and coordinate activities of prisoners/internees and staff personnel.

Some of your duties as an Internment/Resettlement Specialist may include:

  • Assist with the supervision and management of confinement and detention operations
  • Provide external security to confinement/corrections facilities or detention/internment facilities
  • Provide counseling and guidance to individual prisoners within a rehabilitative program
  • Prepare or review reports and records of prisoners/internees and programs

Training

Job training for an Internment/Resettlement Specialist requires nine weeks of Basic Training, where you'll learn basic Soldiering skills, and eight weeks of Advanced Individual Training. Part of this time is spent in the classroom and part in a field environment. Some of the skills you'll learn are:

  • Military laws and jurisdictions
  • Level of Force Procedures
  • Unarmed Self-Defense Techniques
  • Police Deviance and Ethics Procedures
  • Interpersonal Communications Skills
  • Close confinement operations
  • Search and restraint procedures
  • Use of firearms
  • Custody and control procedures

back to top

Helpful Skills

Helpful attributes include:

  • An ability to think and react quickly
  • An ability to remain calm in stressful situations
  • An interest in law enforcement and crime prevention
  • Being physically fit

back to top

Advanced Responsibilities

Advanced level Internment/Resettlement Specialist provides guidance, supervises and trains other Soldiers within the same discipline. As an advanced level I/R Specialist, you may be involved in:

  • Supervise and establish all administrative, logistical and food support operations, confinement/correctional, custodial, treatment, and rehabilitative activities
  • Responsible for all personnel working in the confinement/correctional facility, including security, logistical, and administrative management of the prisoner/internee population
  • Provide command and control, staff planning, administration/logistical services, and custody/control for the operation of an Enemy Prisoner of War/Civilian Internee (EPW/CI) camp
  • Provide command and control, staff planning, administration/logistical services, and custody/control for the operation of detention facility or the operation of a displaced civilian (DC) resettlement facility

back to top

Related Civilian Jobs

The skills you'll learn as an Internment/Resettlement Specialist will help prepare you for a future with federal, state, county or city law enforcement agencies or the federal penal system. You might also be able to pursue a career as a security guard with industrial firms, airports or other businesses and institutions.

back to top

Civilian Certifications Earned

Learn more about the relationship between military training and civilian certification requirements.

Thursday, October 06, 2011

Forest Lake Church



Staff


Pastoral Staff


Geoff Patterson - Senior Pastor

Roger Anderson - Church Administrator

Evan Chesney - Minister of Music

Delwin Finch - Pastor for Web Ministries

Sanford Graves - Psy. D. - Counseling Ministries

Dany Hernandez - Pastor for Collegiate and Young Adult Ministries

Patty Hofer - Pastor for Worship and Media Ministries

Floyd Powell/Harold Howard - Pastors for Seniors and Visitation

Barbara McCoy - Pastor for Children and Women's Ministries

Mark Reams - Pastor for Youth Ministries

Sabine Vatel - Pastor for Discipleship




Auxiliary Associate Pastors


Marion Kidder - Pastoral Care

Michael Lay - Pastoral Care

Tracey Mastrapa - Family Ministries





Administrative Staff


Lisa Butler

Debbie Pinto

Kirk Campbell

Joyce Mansell


http://www.forestlakechurch.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=23&Itemid=82


P.S. -----The Forest Lake Church, Apopka, Florida

God’s Spirit Gradually Withdrawn

Occupy Wall Street protests are taken up in Los Angeles, as demonstrators march through downtown October 3.

—The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God. The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude.
The agencies of evil are combining their forces, and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones.—Testimonies, vol. 9, p 11. (1909).


Evangelism, p.32.


Ted Wilson

Following are the opening comments by Ted Wilson at the 2010 General Conference Sessionregarding a letter which he read to those in attendance.

I have the great privilege of reading a letter, a letter which you will find of great interest. It has at the top of its letterhead, “The White House, Washington.”

Here are excerpts from that letter:

It [faith] also brings us together to feed the hungry, comfort the afflicted,make peace where there is strife, and lift up those who have fallen on hard times.

As we face the challenges and opportunities of this unique moment in history, may faith move us to unite in common cause, to serve our fellow brothers and sisters.

I hope that as you gather on this special occasion, you are reminded of the abiding truth that each of us has the power to create a better world for ourselves and our children when we do God’s work here on earth.

Barack Obama, President of the United States [applause]

[Wilson]: I want to take this opportunity to thank the government of the United States and so many other governments around the world for their defense of religious freedom, freedom of conscience. Thank God for religious liberty. [applause]

Again, what does the Bible say about crying, “Peace”?

1 Thessalonians 5:2-3

For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.

Additionally, while it is good to feed the hungry and comfort the afflicted, the statement that faith “brings us together” and unites us “in common cause” is completely ecumenical. The terms “common good,” “public welfare,” “equality for all,” etc. are used by Roman Catholicism, communism and fascism. The letter focuses on a social gospel (socialism) that stresses community work (“good deeds” that are characteristic of Catholicism) and mixes politics and the liberal Kingdom Now theology (a better world now) which is popular with the Purpose Driven and emerging churchmovements. A better world will only be when this earth is made new again by its Creator, but never before that. Paganism teaches to be “in tune with the earth and nature.” Those who are fooled by this belief will not be a part of the New Earth which God creates.

Wilson thanked the U.S. and world governments for religious liberty. We can appreciate our religious freedoms, however, please notice the following:

The Great Controversy, (1888), p. 564

The pacific [peaceful] tone of Rome in the United States does not imply a change of heart. She is tolerant where she is helpless. Says Bishop O'Connor: “Religious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic world.”

The U.S. Supreme Court currently consists of six Roman Catholics and three Jews. Not only is themajority of the U.S. Supreme Court of the Roman Catholic faith, there are no Protestants. What message does this send?

The Great Controversy (1888), p. 566

Protestants have tampered with and patronized popery; they have made compromises and concessions which papists themselves are surprised to see, and fail to understand. Men are closing their eyes to the real character of Romanism, and the dangers to be apprehended from her supremacy. The people need to be aroused to resist the advances of this most dangerous foe to civil and religious liberty.

Colossians 2:8

Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after thetradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

2 Peter 3:17

Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

Yes, the White House letter is of “great interest,” especially in light of the ecumenical movement and the words of prophecy regarding the image to the beast.

Wilson stated repeatedly to “go forward.” However, we cannot successfully go forward as a Church until we go back to the “old paths,” start over, and then go forward. We are reminded of Jeremiah 6:16 that reads: “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” The Church needs to go back to “primitive godliness,” to the true worship of the God of heaven, not the false god of this world. The Church needs to go back, not forward, to reassess where it went wrong.

Isaiah 58:12

And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

Jude 1:3

Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

The Faith I Live By, p. 326

It is only as the law of God is restored to its rightful position that there can bea revival of primitive faith and godliness among His professed people.

While God’s faithful can agree with much of Wilson’s General Conference Session sermon of July 3, 2010, will actions follow his words? He counseled that we are to test everything according to God’s Word and the writings of Ellen White, and that we are not to be involved in the megachurch or emerging church movements. He further counseled that we are to rely on “humble pastors, evangelists, Biblical scholars, leaders, and departmental directors who can provide evangelistic methods and programs that are based on solid Biblical principles and ‘The Great Controversy Theme.’ ”

This all sounds good; however, the Church is still in trouble. Those who continue to promote megachurch purpose driven, emerging church ideas are not being disfellowshipped. Those who have been disfellowshipped because they stood for right should be reinstated. The SDA Church likes to talk about those who are “in good and regular standing” with the Church. Yet that “standing” is not necessarily “good and regular” in God’s eyes. Many in the Church say that we should not try to fix the problems but just leave it to God. However, if individuals ignore the problems, they will be held accountable. Where are the humble leaders who are teaching the whole truth?

Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 3, pp. 269-270

The plain, straight testimony must live in the church, or the curse of God will rest upon His people as surely as it did upon ancient Israel because of their sins.God holds His people, as a body, responsible for the sins existing in individuals among them. If the leaders of the church neglect to diligently search out the sins which bring the displeasure of God upon the body, they become responsible for these sins. But to deal with minds is the nicest work in which men ever engaged. All are not fitted to correct the erring. They have not wisdom to deal justly, while loving mercy. They are not inclined to see the necessity of mingling love and tender compassion with faithful reproofs.

Child Guidance, pp. 235-236

Those who have too little courage to reprove wrong, or who through indolence or lack of interest make no earnest effort to purify the family or the church of God, are held accountable for the evil that may result from their neglect of duty. We are just as responsible for evils that we might have checked in others by exercise of parental or pastoral authority, as if the acts had been our own.

There is a great need for strong Church leaders and pastors that will “not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest; men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole; men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall” (Education, p. 57) and will lead in repentance and reformation through to its completion. We need leaders who will actively work to clean up the churches, book centers, schools, hospitals, etc. It is sad to say that the majority of SDA leaders today cannot be depended on for the whole truth. Each must study and pray individually to know all truth.


Chapter 9
Apostasy and Spiritualism in the SDA Church

of the book

the TRUTH, the whole TRUTH, and nothing but the TRUTH