The birth of the Seventh-day Adventist church was intended to call a people back to the true worship statutes of YHWH’s Commandments, statutes and judgments—the Torah. Indeed, this is engraved in the concluding lines of the
Third Angel’s message: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev 14:12.
It is most atypical then to see the bastion of “the commandments of God,” now walking in lock-step with the papacy, mimicking their every move in doctrines, church ministries, and leadership functions. You no doubt have seen some of my posts in recent months calling attention to the abject apostasy now rampant in our midst as Adventists, yet the apostates are seemingly winning the approval of many in both leadership and lay membership alike. It was not long ago that Adventists knew that an alliance with the beast power of the papacy was an abomination before our God, yet today, friendship with Rome is now deemed as “inclusive” theology, consigning the former positions to the “historical trash heaps, in so far as the Seventh-day Adventist Church is Concerned.”
Let us, for a moment, ponder the following statement from the former world president of the SDA denomination, the father of the current church president, Ted Wilson: “There is another universal and truly catholic organization, the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”[1]
While the word catholic does mean “universal,” I personally find it a play on words to show that the Adventists are not merely a universal or “world church,” but that we are also wedded in the embrace of the Roman Catholic Church—Babylon!. In the popular vernacular we call this type of subliminal messaging “telegraphing.” The intent of the telegrapher is to transmit a message which projects a specific meaning, but at times can be overlooked by the casual observer, based on the knowledge base of the recipients. We send telegraphic messages in our body languages as well as in verbal and other non-verbal communicated statements. There are many ways opposite sexes seek to gain the notice of the other, most of which are by telegraphed non-verbal communications.
Not desiring to preemptively rattle the cages of the laity, yet at the same time desiring to please their papal overlords, the Adventist leaders have become skilled in this subliminal telegraphy, and are now, to a great extent, transporting the masses of church membership in their apostasy towards Romanism, with the full cooperation of the faithful tithe-payers, without their conscious knowledge.
What is my authority, you may ask, for making such bold statements? The answer will surprise you, but let me first share this, the church leaders have for years been flirting with doctrinal creep towards Catholicism, yet few in the membership are taking notice. Let me illustrate below by reviewing statements from the 2015 Doctrinal changes made at the 60th General Conference Session:
“Many of the proposed changes were minor, such as the replacement of the word ‘which’ with ‘that’ to reflect modern usage. Instances of ‘man’ and ‘mankind’ were changed to ‘people’ and ‘humanity’ to make them gender inclusive.”[2]
This statement provides a classic case of telegraphing a message to the homosexual community, which suggests that in a matter of years, if not sooner, the barriers which now prohibit them from inclusion to membership and leadership within the family of Adventism will soon be torn down. When one’s fundamental beliefs are changed to become “gender inclusive,” then you know they are messaging to that sector of society whose “gender” issues prohibit them from participating in church membership or leadership roles. So this doctrinal change, which seems rather innocent on the surface, will in a short while reap its own harvest—one in which appeal will be made to this very “change” point, and official license will then logically follow in approving same-gender marriages in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Be aware of this salient fact that all the churches that have adopted “female clergy” and “gay marriage,” have walked this same road before. Hence it is not a supposition on my part when I say, these are the germinating seeds for “gay marriage” acceptance within Adventism. Who is leading this charge? The theologians within the once “faithful city” who are now romancing with the “harlot.” Read. Isa. 1: 21.
Let me hasten to say that I have no personal vendetta against those who practice homosexual relationships, only deep love for them, that they would learn the truth of YHWH’s Torah (God’s holy Law), and repent from a lifestyle which guarantees them a home in the lake of fire! This position of mine holds true for all other sinners who struggle with sinful practices not necessarily of a sexual nature. But because the headwinds of change towards homosexuality` are blowing so furiously, I must warn you of the Trojan horse of “sensitivity,” and fake “compassion,” and “emotive connectivity,” and “tolerance,” among other emotionally charged words which are quickly descending the faith once and for all time delivered unto the saints, into a Babylon of heathen practices!
These doctrinal changes are necessitated because of the little-known fact that the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination has made legal commitments to the United Nations in a number of ways, and are directly participating in the two leading global initiatives of that body—the Millennial Development Goals (MDG’s) and the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG’s). In order to appreciate what will come next, it is helpful to take a step back to see another doctrinal change the denomination has made a few decades ago, that has paved the way forward for the full-blown acceptance of the homosexual agenda.
In 1974–1975, the United States initiated a lawsuit against the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists alleging their violation of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act by the Pacific Press Publishing Association, regarding the salary of a number of individuals formerly employed by the denomination. Judge, Charles B. Renfrew was then presiding over the US District Court, in San Francisco. The General Conference made very astounding statements regarding the church’s organizational arrangement, principles, and theology on the papacy. Elder Neal C. Wilson, then a vice-president of the General Conference, made the following admissions in the Reply Brief for Defendants (the SDA Church), verbatimly reproduced below:
“Although it is true that there was a period in the life of the Seventh-day Adventist Church when the denomination took a distinctly anti-Roman Catholic viewpoint, and the term ‘hierarchy’ was used in a pejorative sense to refer to the papal form of church governance, that attitude on the church’s part was nothing more than a manifestation of widespread anti-popery among conservative Protestant denominations in the early part of this century and the latter part of the last, and which has now been consigned to the historical trash heap so far as the Seventh-day Adventist Church is concerned.”[3]
A court brief is a statement from the proponent or defendant, made under oath; thus, the above testimony under oath is a binding claim of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. That it is of a theological nature makes it more interesting, for it immediately establishes itself as of doctrinal worth. In short then, this sworn testimony of Elder Wilson’s is now a part of the catalogue of Seventh-day Adventist theology, demonstrating its doctrinal stance towards the papacy!
How does the defense brief of the man who would later become the longest reigning world president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists square with the Denomination’s charge against The Shepherd’s Rod?[4] Does Elder Wilson’s admission regarding “the historical trash heap” square against the charge of the Rod’s interpretation of the leopard-like beast and for which it has been condemned? You see, in the 1930’s the Adventists condemned the Rod for being too soft on the papacy, and today they have flipped to the other end of the pendulum, yet they still condemn the Rod, alleging that it calls the church Babylon, when it has not. What is more frightening though, is that church members still preach hatred against believers of The Shepherd’s Rod, even banning them from church attendance, while at the same time they open their arms to welcome the Gays and Lesbians into church membership and church leadership! More Christian “compassion” is exercised towards the Jihadists, the Islamists, ISIL (ISIS) and Roman Catholics than is extended towards fellow Adventists who believe the Rod message of revival and reformation.
Although the denomination’s interpretation of the Rod’s message is incorrect, it does not take The Shepherd’s Rod to associate the Seventh-day Adventist Church with “Babylon”—the Roman Catholic Church and her daughters, for the SDA leaders have repeatedly proven their bond of fellowship with the papacy on their own volition, and Neal Wilson’s reply brief to the California Court sounds more loudly each day than any other voice could ever have done. If anything, by its own actions, the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination is proving the teachings of The Shepherd’s Rod more and more relevant with the dawning of each new day, for today, the church has actually capitulated on its “anti-roman catholic doctrines,” and has only admiration for the leadership of the Vatican. How do I know this? Read on…
Adventism’s Homecoming To Rome
Back in April of this year (2015), the Adventist church leaders had a summit with the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. This meeting with the Adventists was held sometime after the UN leader had met with the current pope, Francis. It was out of that meeting that Mr. Moon was set on a new trajectory of reaching all groups: Christians, Muslims, Jews, etc., under the global agenda of unity and inclusion, to “protect our common home,” and to fight against our common enemies—world hunger, climate change, and terrorism. But when the world leader met with the Adventists, he had some strong words to share, words which resulted in their non-committal attitude to the rare evangelistic opportunity which landed on their doorsteps, when the Pope visited the Washington DC, the UN, and Philadelphia, back in September.
From that “first meeting,” we learn from the Adventist news sources that Ban made some proposals to the church leaders, and they, in turn, made some commitments to him.
“United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed concerns about growing religious intolerance worldwide during a private meeting with Adventist Church leader Ted N.C. Wilson, and he invited the Seventh-day Adventist Church to work with the UN in helping people.
“Wilson, the first Adventist Church president to meet with a UN chief, noted that the church has long supported religious liberty and said it was willing to team up on initiatives that followed Christ’s ministry of helping people physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually…
“Ban spoke about global issues such as poverty and a lack of education before voicing his concern about religious intolerance reaching unprecedented levels globally. Just last week, a militant Islamist group killed 148 people in an attack on Christians at a Kenyan university.
“Ban underscored his belief that people should cultivate a respect for all, including those of other faiths. He indicated that he appreciated the Adventist Church’s work in promoting religious liberty as well as education, health, and humanitarian aid through the Adventist Development and Relief Agency. ADRA has worked with the UN in assisting refugees in the Middle East and elsewhere. Wilson thanked Ban for the meeting and told about various church initiatives that correspond with the UN’s mission to help people…
“Diop [associate director of the Adventist world church’s public affairs and religious liberty department] said he also saw ways that the church and UN could cooperate, particularly in eradicating poverty and promoting education and healthcare.
“The impressive portfolio that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has developed for service to the whole human family remarkably resonates with the Millennium Development Goals and the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN,” he said in a statement.”[5]
Why are Adventist leaders now paling around with the UN’s envoy to the Papacy? The answer is blowing in the wind. Now to gain an appreciation for why the Adventists have practically changed their teaching about the Papacy in their Revelation Seminars, is to take a journey back to Rome with Ban Ki-Moon.
“I was especially privileged to meet Pope Francis as we mark 1000 days to the deadline to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We discussed the need to advance social justice and accelerate work to meet with the MDG’s this is vital if we are to meet the Millennium promise to the world’s poorest”.
“I was also very heartened by the commitment of Pope Francis to build bridges among the communities of faith. I strongly believe that inter-faith dialogue can point a way to a deeper appreciation of shared values which in turn can lead to tolerance inclusion and peace. This is the driving force of the UN’s ‘Alliance of civilizations’ initiative and I greatly appreciated the opportunity to speak with Pope Francis about furthering this work”.
“It was an uplifting and hopeful meeting. Pope Francis is a man of peace and purpose. He is a voice for the voiceless. I look forward to continuing our conversation. In this period and following in the tradition of his predecessor I was delighted to invite Pope Francis to visit the United Nations at his earliest convenience”. [6]
The accompanying picture shows another hidden dimension of papal expansionary moves in both the political and religious arenas. It shows Ban in company with Ted, and also in company with Pope Francis. So let’s use the mathematical relationship to unpack the subliminal message being communicated: Since the Adventists did not want to be seen publicly in company with the Pope, they instead held a summit with the UN leader after he had communed with the pontiff. Here is the relationship: if A=B and B=C then by axiom of logic, A = C. Similarly, if Ban is in company with the pope on “interfaith” dialogue, and simultaneously he is in discussions with the Adventists on “interfaith” relations, then by axiom of reasoning the Adventists are in talks with the Vatican on “interfaith” matters, through the UN Chief as their proxy messenger!
It must also be noted that Ban’s April visit was only the opening salvo of a growing and continued alliance in interfaith and church-state negotiations with the United Nations and by extension the papacy, but a subliminal message that he was the pope’s viceroy, and would message back the contents of his SDA-generated conversation to Rome. Less than three weeks after the pope’s 2015 American visit, the UN High Command held another joint meeting with the Adventist world leaders, on October 13th. Let’s see the scope of that meeting in the church’s own words:
“A senior United Nations official visited the Seventh-day Adventist world church headquarters to learn more about the church, meet church leaders, and to discuss current humanitarian issues…Wilson first met Riza in April during a visit with UN Secretary-General Ban at the United Nations headquarters in New York. That meeting was the first between an Adventist Church president and a UN secretary-general. Riza’s visit to the Adventist headquarters followed an invitation extended by Ganoune Diop, director of the church’s public affairs and religious liberty department.”[7]
Now you can clearly see who inspired the pope’s American trip, and why Mr. Moon met with the Adventists in April 2015 to continue his “inter-faith dialogue” which he had begun with the pope back in 2013, and why also that “first” meeting with the Adventist church leaders spilled over into the October 13th follow-up one with them. Be assured that this will not be their last meeting either, as it was only a follow-up for ironing out the details of the first. Where will this journey end? Well, that is not a difficult question anymore, as it is obvious that all roads lead to Rome. I know there are many Adventists who are reveling in the idea that our Church has arrived, and that we are now earning the recognition and respect of the UN, but what they are totally ignorant of are the compromises being made along the way.
Can you imagine that the perfect moment had arrived for the widest distribution of The Great Controversy throughout the United States, on the very doorsteps of the General Conference, and the Adventist church leaders sat on their hands, and rather than priming up the printing presses to circulate this book as the leaves of autumn, they were instead tuning their voices to sing a cantata to the pope’s homily on the family—“Love at Work musical!”
To a practicing Adventist, the phrase “religious liberty” means to have the freedom to pursue one’s own religious convictions freed from the interference of the State, but it does not have the same meaning to a UN delegate. Religious liberty by the UN standards means to not make anyone from another belief system feel uncomfortable about their past, present or future theological positions and practices in relation to the Bible, and that such ones religious privileges should be protected from proselytizing (evangelizing). In short, it holds that all religions are the same, and must be respected by all, and protected by the state from persecution, and from proselytizing. It is the doctrine of inclusion that your truth and my truth may be different, but we all worship the same God, falsehood that is being projected. This is venomous false doctrine and an affront to true religious liberty! There is only one truth in this wide world of ours, and it is constituted in a person called Truth—the One called “the way the Truth and the life” (John 14: 6), Jesus Christ our Saviour (Y’shuah the Messiah).
While the Adventist church is now opening its doors to welcoming gays and lesbians into her communion for membership and leadership roles, she is simultaneously purging the church, and “disinviting” those from her midst, who seek to lift up the standard of the Torah in her midst. The writer himself has been on the receiving end of these abuses, as can be seen in this recent letter given him by the Pastor of the Stafford SDA Church in northern Virginia. The reason for taking this action against my family (including a two-year-old child), is that I publish views on my website: www.sdapropheceis.com, which are “inconsistent” with the doctrines and teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church! So while on the one hand, they protect the “religious liberty” of the gays, lesbians, and Muslims, etc., they trample to destruction, the religious liberty of those in their own communion. Of this class, our Saviour rightly lamented: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” Matt. 23:15.
Below is the letter I received from the Stafford SDA’s, warning me not to anymore attend that church, on account of my website: http://www.sdaprophecies.wordpress.com. Please note that truncation to the right column of that letter belongs to the original document given me. Begging as I did, for a clearer copy, the pastor was unwilling to issue me a correctly formatted letter. Let the reader be the judge of the intention of this letter, and for this reason, I now conjure up the courage to share it in a public setting, almost seven months after the fact, for the first time. (Please click on the letter to enlarge it for legibility).
After receiving this letter, I decided to reach out to the pastor and give him a chance to know me on a personal level, which he declined. Here’s my letter to him:
Dear Pastor Wayne:
Thanks for your very kind letter dated April 24th, demanding that I no longer attend your church. In it, you cited a clandestine meeting with members of your church board, with me on March 21, 2015. While you were not there, you correctly noted that I had requested a letter from you if at any time you deemed it necessary that I no longer attend your sheepfold. You have, however, overlooked or ignored another request of mine at that meeting, and so I am making that request to you at this time: please provide me an unedited copy of the video tape recordings of my family in that unannounced meeting. I believe you are a man of integrity and will respond kindly to this request.
Additionally, the copy of your April 24th letter was very carelessly reproduced, resulting in the truncation of most of the words on the right column of the page. With my desire to correctly represent your letter to the media, I am asking that you please send me a clean scanned PDF copy of the original letter, at your earliest convenience.
Wayne, I wish to extend an invitation to you and your dear wife to my home at a mutually agreed upon time, where we can explore our common Christian bonds. It is quite possible that we will find broad agreement in many interest areas, which will help to shape your opinions of my family. Please let me know if this is acceptable to you. My wife and I are both former workers in the church, and have no desire to tear it down, contrary to popular notions, but that aside a friendly visit from you to our humble home would be appreciated.
Wayne, I could not help but to ask your elders yesterday if they thought they were pursuing a course similar to Christ’s in their asking for my absenting myself from your church. You see, Jesus knew Judas more than anyone else, yet he included Judas among his disciples, for the wheat and tares must grow together till the angel’s separate them. Frankly, I would caution you to leave the work of angels to “angels” while you devote yourself to the faithful preaching of the Word of righteousness, ever exemplifying the love of our Saviour.
Thanks for noting the items herein discussed, and for your timely reply.
Sincerely,
Garrick Augustus[8]
To the above letter, the pastor totally disregarded my right to having a properly reproduced letter, when he knew I would take it to the media, but instead responded in the following manner.
Dear Mr. Augustus,
Thank you for acknowledging receipt of and understanding the intent of the Stafford Church’s letter to you; therefore, preparation of another draft seems unnecessary.
With regard to the video, it has no bearing or relationship to the matter as pertaining to our request stated in the letter to you, and is the personal property of the owner and therefore not under my control.
Thank you for your kind invitation to your home; however, my current workload and responsibilities at home do not make this possible in the foreseeable future, but your expressed hospitality and invitation are appreciated.
It is not our intention to question your devotion to Christ and your faith, but your theology and views are incompatible with the positions and beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. We wish you no ill will, we will not denounce you in the media, nor do we seek to prevent you from worshiping in whatever way you please. We make no effort to interrupt or thwart the free expression of your faith. We only wish for you to find another place to worship where your views and fellowship are acceptable.
Yours Sincerely,
Pastor Wayne Spangenberg[9]
Note that at no time in his correspondences has the pastor ever acknowledged me with the personal “brother” greeting, but instead the impersonal “Mr.” When they do this in Adventism, it gives them the additional right to prosecute me in a court of law, because in their mind they are not persecuting a “brother,” but only a person, even a heathen. This is similar to how fights start in which physical blows are exchanged. The assailant first dehumanizes the victim in his eyes, and only after this does he feel justified in striking even murdering the other. This is how nations go to war as well, they demonize the other “enemy” nation, telling their citizens that the enemy is doing all these things, including stockpiling “weapons of mass destruction,” and this now justifies them to stop this “butcher” for the good of humanity! But this behavior is only a vail and a front for their more sinister deeds, be they political, religious or economic.
Realizing that the pastor was unwilling to honor any of my requests, I again approached him the same day, and made more clearly my request for the document, and now videotape which he saw, although he was absent from the church on that Sabbath when his “bouncers” met with me, but was unwilling to transmit to me. And truly, if it were worth it to me, I could have subpoenaed the item, but the evidence that they refused to turn it over on their own free will should speak volumes to the reader. So here’s my response letter and appeal to him.
Pastor Wayne:
Thanks for your reply. I believe you did not read carefully my request concerning the letter. I am not asking for a revised copy of your letter, instead, I am asking for a correct representation of the original, as the current copy is truncated on the right-hand column. I saw the letter to C .B. for example, and hers was not truncated.[10] All I’m requesting is a representative copy which is reproducible without a negative reflection on your penmanship.
You now know that I’ve been a worker for the church as you currently are, and I’d imagine that your letter was reviewed by Adventist Risk Management, hence it is safe to be level with me and grant a clean and representative copy of the letter. Again, this is not asking for a new letter to be written, but to exercise care in ensuring that the letter is complete. For example, the year on your letter (see the scanned copy back to you), is 201 instead of 2015, and almost every word on the right column is truncated by one letter. Being a professional, and a wordsmith, I’d think you should be proud to see a letter bearing your signature, as an accurate reflection on your attention to details, every jot and tittle (smile).
My dinner invitation is open-ended with no termination date, so whenever time permits, please let me know. I do realize you’re a busy man, but I’m asking like Zacchaeus that you come to my house today (whenever you find today as applicable). Think of this: if you should see me in the public square, I hardly think you could spot me out by name. That’s how little of a relationship we’ve shared, and I really want to open my heart to you as a member of the SDA (we officially don’t use this abbreviation) to a pastor. If dinner will be too lengthy, let’s plan for a one-hour meeting. Since your church does not have a Sabbath afternoon program, I should hope that a Sabbath day would be a perfect meeting time for us.
Pastor, your statement “your theology and views are incompatible with the positions and beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church,” begs the question: are people who have different views on the Bible than the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist church worthy of being saved? If so, how about me? If not, why? And finally, I know that the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church regarding the “stone” in Daniel 2 is that it came from a number of places, such as: “nowhere, heaven, the sky, Daniel does not tell us, God, etc.” From your reading of the Scriptures, where does Daniel say the stone which smote the great image came from? Just curious…
Thanks for your time.
God’s blessings to you and family,
Garrick Augustus[11]
With full intention not to turn over a true and accurate reproduction of the original letter debarring me from future church attendance, the pastor sent this final letter to me.
Mr. Augustus:
I understand clearly your request for a better copy of the personal letter delivered to you by the Stafford church; however, from a reading of your last email, there appears to be no misunderstanding of its purpose and or content and, therefore, its intent has been served and a better copy is unnecessary. I hope you have a blessed day.
Pastor Wayne[12]
The final exchange from me to the pastor is now shown below.
Pastor Wayne:
I thought you were a man of integrity and would do the right thing by giving me a clear and legible copy of the letter your members gave me with your signature, even while you saw that the letter was not properly reproduced, but this you refuse to do, for reasons you alone know.
I can only say you’re fighting the wrong battle. What will you do with the homosexuals who will soon attend your church, if they’re not there already? Are you going to dismiss them as you did me based on dogma? Think about this and see whose side you’re defending. I pray that you find peace with YHWH.
Have a blessed day, and may the God of heaven speak to your conscience. Just remember this: it was a church board that decided on crucifying the Jesus you preach, and throughout the history of the church, it has been the church boards who have been the perennial persecutors of the saints. Are you really excited about walking down this forbidden path?
Shalom to you, from our Messiah King, Y’shuah,
Garrick[13]
I share these correspondences I had with the pastor that the reader may get a sense of how the Seventh-day Adventist Church sees Rod believers, and those descending from corporate doctrines and policies; they are perceived to be beyond the grace of Christ and are unworthy to be saved and unsafe to be fellowshipped with. Adventists are currently actively pursuing an approachment methodology to Muslims, a people proverbial for some of the most breathtakingly brutal and barbaric atrocities in human destruction of all times, than any other group known to modern man, yet they are not seen as being beyond the reach of God’s grace, but not so with a Shepherd’s Rod believer, they must be debarred from the doors of the Adventist church for time and for eternity. How is that for intra-denominational religious tolerance religious liberty!
What are The MDG’s & SDG’s?
These are United Nations policy action items that they are interested in implementing by the close of 2015. They have some very ambitious aspirations, among which they propose to ending poverty among humans, gain international commitments to reversing the threat of global warming, and eradicating violence among women and girls.
“The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the eight international development goals that were established following the Millennium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration. All 189 United Nations member states at the time (there are 193 currently), and at least 23 international organizations, committed to help achieve the following Millennium Development Goals by 2015:
- To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
- To achieve universal primary education
- To promote gender equality [this includes same-sex marriage, female pastors, etc.]
- To reduce child mortality
- To improve maternal health [this includes abortions and other control growth methods]
- To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
- To ensure environmental sustainability [this includes promoting earth-day Sunday]
- To develop a global partnership for development [this includes Church-State alliances]
“Each goal has specific targets, and dates for achieving those targets.”[14]
According to the UN, there are 17 Sustainability Development Goals (SDG’),, and I want to call attention to three of them below:
- Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
This shows why our church is under such great pressure to recognize female pastors. This is how “end it now”—Adventists say NO to violence against women and girls, got started: “About enditnow: a campaign to stop violence against women. enditnow is a global campaign to raise awareness and advocate for the end of violence against women and girls around the world. It aims to mobilize Adventists around the world and invites other community groups to join in to resolve this worldwide issue.”[15]
- “We have collected more than 600,000 signatures so far,” said Mrs. Small. “We are taking it to the United Nations because the Adventist Church has never made a public stand on this issue and we believe it Is time.”[16]
- Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. [This includes recognition of “earth day”—Sunday sacredness, see recent papal encyclical on Climate Change # 237.]
- Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
“Justice for all” requires an international standard of conduct and legal institutions through which these legal codes can be enforced. This means national courts will give way to international courts, based on international laws governing all nations.
“The SDGs established so far consist of 17 goals that will be finalised in September 2015… “The SDGs are focused around three pillars that UWS [United World Schools] sees are crucial for the sustainable and long-term reduction in children out of school: empowering girls, mobilising the local community, and partnering with local and national governments.” [17]
From this messaging, we should expect to see some official ruling on the Church’s part close to September of 2015, to demonstrate that they are committed to achieving these UN target dates. Already, I have shown you language that has been adjusted at the last General Conference Session, to start that process rolling. And before long, there will be another one to shore up same-sex unions.
Woe unto the men of our world, as the spirit of “the woman” will be “ruling the world” of tomorrow—riding the beast, so to speak. Is this our calling, to clasp hands with worldly institutions to bring about a more just and perfect world based on international codes of conduct? Ten-thousand times, NO!
While I do admit that there is a crime against women and girls, this in no way gives us permission to start paling around with “the United Nations,” an institution which is at its core, the voice of Romanism. Further, this one-sided justice of protecting the “women and girls” at the expense of men and boys, is in itself a crime against humanity, for it values females lives, and sends the deafening message that “females lives matter!”
Campaigns of this sort are first of all, divisive, and should never be done under the “moral leadership” of worldly institutions or the Papacy, for too late it will be for us, when they will have greater expectations and impose higher obligations on us to meet, and then we are caught. The principle of justice demands that “injustice against one, is injustice against all,” hence, as followers of the Lamb, we ought to advocate on behalf of all human beings. From the sacred desk of the pulpit, by pen and by voice through the printed pages, hosting workshops and community intervention programs in our churches and community outreach groups, such as schools and hospitals, without ever soiling our hands with the agents of Rome. In other words, we must be the “moral leaders” and not the followers of Papal dictations. There are many and better ways for us to be change agents in our world, than by pandering to the ecumenical aspirations of the Vatican.
Let’s focus on Crime in Jamaica, for example, in comparison to the enditnow campaign by the SDA church there: In the same year when enditnow was launched on the island, Jamaica ranked 5th among the 44 highest violent crime hot spots around the world! This should call for “enditnow” for all lives—a call to end the violence now, and most of the murders! But that was not to be:
“Jamaica has been constantly ranked as one of the country’s [sic] with the highest levels of crime. Both petty crimes and murders have fluctuated over the years. Mostly increasing by large percentages and decreasing by smaller numbers. The country has one of the world’s highest per-capita murder rates… In 2005, Jamaica had 1,674 murders or a murder rate of 58 per 100,000 people. That year, Jamaica had the highest murder rate in the world.”[18]
With such a high murder rate, you’d expect to see a stronger push to end violence against humanity, instead of being sexist about it. But in the face of astronomical bloodletting against people in general, and men in particular, we are seeing a one-sided justice bid— “save our women and girls, from violence!” This balancing of justice was best articulated by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he declared these famous words in his letter from a Birmingham Jail: “I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”[19]
The correct Biblical response to violence against women and girls—enditnow, is to equally support non-violence among and towards men and boys, without appealing to the UN, for the church is the “moral leader” of the world, and not the other way around. But when we systematical inch our way into the arms of the papacy by promoting their initiatives, it won’t be long before the final step is taken, and we find ourselves home at last—completely trapped in her embrace, What a calamitous day that will be! We have been given inspired counsel that such a state of affairs would be realized in our denomination, for Ellen White did dream of the church leadership morphing into “a Catholic procession.”[20]
“As the storm approaches, a large class who have professed faith in the third angel’s message, but have not been sanctified through obedience to the truth, abandon their position and join the ranks of the opposition. By uniting with the world and partaking of its spirit, they have come to view matters in nearly the same light; and when the test is brought, they are prepared to choose the easy, popular side. Men of talent and pleasing address, who once rejoiced in the truth, employ their powers to deceive and mislead souls. They become the most bitter enemies of their former brethren. When Sabbathkeepers are brought before the courts to answer for their faith, these apostates are the most efficient agents of Satan to misrepresent and accuse them, and by false reports and insinuations to stir up the rulers against them.”[21]
“The prophecy of Rev. 13:3, “And the world wondered after the beast,” reveals a great apostasy. The Biblical number “seven” includes everything represented by the heads (riding on the beast and headed by the devil). Note the name of blasphemy is upon all seven heads,–symbols of impious religious leaders, mocking the personality or authority of God, under the cloak of Christianity. The intention of the complete satanic scheme is to deceive the whole world. The statement made by Christ is true, that he (Satan) will try to “deceive even the very elect [the 144,000] if it were possible.”[22]
This book, originally written in manuscript form in 1929 had already predicted the “great apostasy” we are now witnessing.
From Yesterday’s Idolatry to Today’s Homosexuality In Church Leadership
Have you noticed that the churches today are changing fast after the manner of the world? From music, to dress, to sexuality, the popular culture latched itself to church life like a leech to a human’s body, and there appears to be no end in sight. The new drive now is to be politically correct in America, and show openness to homosexuality, as reflected below in the new official stance of the Adventist church.
- “Many homosexuals have been bullied, beaten, or even killed in various parts of the world. Gay persons have not felt welcome in some churches and have often been the victims of gossip and crude jokes. Some have been expelled from our Christian schools when they revealed their attraction to the same sex. Most, if not all, have heard sermons that condemn homosexuals as persons, failing to distinguish between homosexual attraction or orientation and the practice of homosexuality. All persons, including practicing homosexuals, should be made to feel welcome to attend our churches while non-practicing gay persons should be welcomed into membership and church office. All should receive spiritual care from the Church (Gal 6:1).”[23]
- “If I accept myself as a gay or lesbian person, do I have a place in the Church?” We are a Church made up of sinners saved by grace with love as its foundation (Matt 22:36–40) and such love should be shown equally to all members. Gay and lesbian members who choose to, and remain abstinent should be given the opportunity to participate in all church activities including leadership positions in the Church. Those who struggle with temptation to sin should be treated the same way as other members who struggle with sexual sin (Matt 18:4; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31; 19:10). We strongly affirm that homosexual persons have a place in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”[24]
It is remarkable to see how the attitudes of church members are changing along these lines. I noted with interest, that we would not seek to have a pedophile leading our pathfinders’ club, or a prostitute teaching sexual purity, yet we are willing to now hand over church leadership to homosexuals! Is that consistent? I think not.
What many people are stultifying reasoning to ignore is the basic truth that when we come to Christ, we are changed! So if I were a homosexual before I met the Saviour, I am no longer walking in that way, nor am I later on described by that vice. When I become one of His disciples, I now become a new creation, old things are passed away, and all things made anew. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2Co 5: 17.
The Bible further teaches that that life is our past, and does not define our future:
“9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were [not are?] some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. “ 1 Cor. 6: 9-11.
In light of what we here see, it is totally disingenuous to label a victorious Christian who once walked in the perversion of homosexuality, bestiality, prostitution, debauchery, drunkenness, murder, or any other evil, as a member of that community from which he or she were saved. The command of the Saviour to every sinner was clear and definite: “go thy way and sin no more.” Yet even when we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Y’shuah the righteous one.
Once ago, certain practices were not welcomed among true Christians (Disciple of Y’shuah), but today there is an “anything goes” attitude, because truth is fallen to the streets. But the once fallen truth will rise again through a people who shall follow the Lamb wherever He goes! May we strive with all the power God has given us to be numbered among them, the 144,000 strong, is my prayer.–Garrick Augustus, October 25, 2015.
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
Breaking News–Now we flaunt it…
Palm Springs Adventist Church: Saturday, December 19, 10 a.m. – 12 Noon. Featured musicians include the Palm Springs Gay Men’s Chorus, a 40 voice male choir that performs a variety of concerts yearly in Palm Springs and the surrounding area. They will perform Hodie, Every Valley, Salvation Is Cleared, and Gloria Fanfare. Professional violinist Zlata Grekov, and bass soloist Rick Schaffner will also perform along with church musicians Doris Borg, Jiggs Gallagher, and T.J. Berger…
The pastor also expressed gratitude to the many guests who will be contributing. He especially thanked the gay men’s chorus “for being our friends and for contributing your talents to the benefit of our worship celebration. In the final analysis,” He said, “it’s not about us anyway. Its about a God who loves and saves, and who keeps making his circle of friends ever larger.”
Read more here: Palm Springs SDA Church website
EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! Added September 27, 2018
List of References
[1] Neal Wilson, Adventist Review, March 5, 1981, 3; italics added.
[2] Adventist World—NAD, Special Issue, 60th General Conference Session, September 2015, p. 21
[3] Reply Brief for the Defendant, p 4, EEOC vs. PPPA and GC. Civil Case #C-74-2025 CBR. March 30, 1975; italics added.
[4] Compare the Church’s former position: “N.B.: The Shepherd’s Rod pointedly disagrees with the teaching of the Seventh-day Adventist Church concerning the seven-headed or leopard-like beast of Revelation 13. The assertion that Sister White and the Seventh-day Adventist denomination is one of those blasphemous heads, is similar to the assertion that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is Babylon. ‘Seventh-day Adventist Teaching versus The Shepherd’s Rod,’” 1; January 1936.
[5] Adventist Review Online, April 6, 2015, also at: http://www.adventistreview.org/church-news/story2513-adventist-church-president-holds-first-meeting-with-un-chief
[6] Vatican Radio, The voice of the Pope and the Church in dialogue with the World; 09/04/2013
[7] http://www.adventistreview.org/church-news/story3356-united-nations-adviser-visits-adventist-church-headquarters; italics added.
[8] Letter (e-mail) from Garrick Augustus to Pastor Wayne, April 26, 2015.
[9] Letter (e-mail) from Wayne Spartanburg, Pastor of the Stafford SDA Church, April 26, 2015; italics added.
[10] Sister C.B. and family are regular attendees on my Bible study conference line, and she was also given a letter to cease and desist that same Sabbath. So in one day they cleansed their church from the error teachers, thereby ostensibly left behind a congregation of saints, as the proverbial “tares” are no longer tarnishing their camp!
[11] Letter (e-mail) from Garrick Augustus to Pastor Wayne, April 26, 2015; italics added.
[12] Letter (e-mail) from Wayne Spartanburg, Pastor of the Stafford SDA Church, April 27, 2015. This letter was penned two months prior to the US Supreme Court’s sweeping approval of same-sex marriages throughout the USA!
[13] Letter (e-mail) from Garrick Augustus to Pastor Wayne, April 28, 2015; italics added.
[14] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Development_Goals [Added]
[15] http://www.enditnow.org/about-end-it-now
[16] http://www.enditnow.org/jamaican-adventists-march-in-support-of-enditnow
[17] http://www.unitedworldschools.org/sustainable-development-goals-sdgs-and-uws/?gclid=CMfS06_shsgCFdYXHwodlDYMqQ [Added]
[18] http://www.nationmaster.com/country-info/profiles/Jamaica/Crime
[19] King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail, April 16, 1963; http://okra.stanford.edu/transcription/document_images/undecided/630416-019.pdf .
[20] Testimonies for the Church, Volume 1, p. 578
[21] Ellen G. White, 1888, The Great Controversy, p. 608.2
[22] Victor T. Houteff, 1930, The Shepherd’s Rod book, Vol. 1, pp. 214-215
[23] An Understanding of the Biblical View on Homosexual Practice and Pastoral Care, A Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Position Paper Voted on October 9, 2015 p. 16.
[24] ibid, pp. 17-18; https://www.andrews.edu/sem/statements/seminary-statement-on-homosexuality-edited-10-8-15-jm-final.pdf ; emphasis added.
To subscribe yourself or a friend to my e-mail posts, contact Garrick Augustus at Gaugustus336@gmail.com, or write to P.O. Box 961 Dumfries, VA 22026
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The Adventist's Understanding of Prophecy 
Thanks for clarifying what those in initoatives are and include, along with the statement from Ted Wilson’s mouth. Sad sad
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You say the following
“Many of the proposed changes were minor, such as the replacement of the word ‘which’ with ‘that’ to reflect modern usage. Instances of ‘man’ and ‘mankind’ were changed to ‘people’ and ‘humanity’ to make them gender inclusive.”[2]
This statement provides a classic case of telegraphing a message to the homosexual community, which suggests that in a matter of years, if not sooner, the barriers which now prohibit them from inclusion to membership and leadership within the family of Adventism will soon be torn down. When one’s fundamental beliefs are changed to become “gender inclusive,” then you know they are messaging to that sector of society whose “gender” issues prohibit them from participating in church membership or leadership roles. So this doctrinal change, which seems rather innocent on the surface, will in a short while reap its own harvest—one in which appeal will be made to this very “change” point, and official license will then logically follow in approving same-gender marriages in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Be aware of this salient fact that all the churches that have adopted “female clergy” and “gay marriage,” have walked this same road before. Hence it is not a supposition on my part when I say, these are the germinating seeds for “gay marriage” acceptance within Adventism. Who is leading this charge? The theologians within the once “faithful city” who are now romancing with the “harlot.” Read. Isa. 1: 21.’
The language and tone may seem different from their previous mantra they borrowed in part and ‘improved on from the rhetoriticians that made up ex gay ideology in the 1970s themselves took it on from outdated psychiatry and behaviorists during the time from the 1930s -1960s.
It’s easy to go off the subject at hand
My main point is it’s one thing to talk about these subjects with flowery language but it does not mean the church machine is going to one day mandate lgbt inclusion and or bible based affirmation, performing marriages to stay employed by the church….
For example whether it’s to placate right wing people or whatever, the gc, the president tells you to invite their current ‘change is possible, necessary’ ministry (coming out ministries is a group of partner ministries) talking to your church, school university etc.
You add
‘Let me hasten to say that I have no personal vendetta against those who practice homosexual relationships, only deep love for them, that they would learn the truth of YHWH’s Torah (God’s holy Law), and repent from a lifestyle which guarantees them a home in the lake of fire! This position of mine holds true for all other sinners who struggle with sinful practices not necessarily of a sexual nature. But because the headwinds of change towards homosexuality` are blowing so furiously, I must warn you of the Trojan horse of “sensitivity,” and fake “compassion,” and “emotive connectivity,” and “tolerance,” among other emotionally charged words which are quickly descending the faith once and for all time delivered unto the saints, into a Babylon of heathen practices!’
At this stage, that may be so that you don’t feel you have these vendettas, you got accustomed to gay subjects with this language, my main comment is it’s always been charged; primarily because like most people from the church, that Sodom and Gomorrah is shorthand for gay men, that the grenade verses in Leviticus 18,20 apply to all of these guys, are a accurate discription of their relationships… Moving on from that, buying into and promoting inaccurate, outdated, and harm inducing mantra that being gay Is one or more of the following, a condition, an illness, a choice, a crime, a sin, majoring on ‘the homosexual lifestyle, homosexual agenda’, and whatever other tropes.
‘These doctrinal changes are necessitated because of the little-known fact that the Seventh-day Adventist Denomination has made legal commitments to the United Nations in a number of ways, and are directly participating in the two leading global initiatives of that body—the Millennial Development Goals (MDG’s) and the Sustainability Development Goals (SDG’s). In order to appreciate what will come next, it is helpful to take a step back to see another doctrinal change the denomination has made a few decades ago, that has paved the way forward for the full-blown acceptance of the homosexual agenda.’
The more you hear about Neal wilson, the more it is as though everyone in his orbit was played…
That could be the game ted is playing aswell.
That presupposes; 1) there is such a fiction as a monolithic agenda every gay man in the church, in the world is part of, pushing, 2) that the un is in on it. 3) that the Catholics are; and 4) despite his rhetoric, that ted wilson and his organization is part of it, pushing it as well.
The more you think about the more absurd it becomes…
‘Operation Posture-Shift to “Lead Them Home”. As inviting as this title may seem, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is now through its educational outreach arm–the second largest educational system in the world, courting the LGBTQ+ community to “lead them home,” without any appeals to their compliance with God’s laws! This is reminiscent of Barack Obama’s “evolving” on the question of gender identity, after he became President, as he vigorously sought to cajole the State of North Carolina to disregard a person’s gender identified on his or her birth certificate. In their own words, Posture-Shift declares, “We have never — and will never — practice reparative or conversion therapy. Our only objective in spiritual care is to offer safety, acceptance, protection and a place for people to share their story and grow in their faith without judgment.”–Lead Them Home
Yet, the same church has turned a black eye to the racial abuse handed down against its own church-grown children of a different pigmentation at the denomination’s prestigious Andrew’s University in Berrien Springs Michigan. Read the report and watch the video here: Adventist Today
Sadder too, while church leaders are reaching out to the LGBTQ+ community, they are actively demonizing all who embrace belief in the Shepherd’s Rod Bible-based teachings, even removing from membership anyone who should as much as express interest in studying the truth behind that message’s rejection.’
In all those words, it doesn’t effect the changes that you are saying it does, maybe it should but it doesnt. It however has under it’s top layer veneer that being gay Is sexual brokenness, that the only valid relationships are Adam and eve, that the Lord mandated all marriages to be a man and a woman.
And like many other commenters that the church has had that view of relationships for the 2000 odd years it has been around…
It’s problem is it holds out indefinite celibacy out for all gays.
It promises a future in the church, being included in the cause of the organization, etc etc etc
But it does not result in anything like that.
In contrast, you face endless debates, endless talkfests, endless delays on getting ahead, facing invisible, magic barriers and ceilings on how much you can meaningfully engage and participate in church life, work life.
I’ve heard similar sentiments about the corporate church being more interested in ecumenical, evangelical, Catholics than right wing people into egw, pillars, pioneers…
Being sidelined by mainstream adventism, you could be gracious or more gracious to other people like lgbt people.
While it’s easy to point out that the evils the church is upto, the same thing for the Catholics, evangelicals, There’s what life is like in (your instance) dsda gatherings, organizations and so on.
I myself mainly know from what filtered in from church and secular people.
Most notably leading upto the shoot out and end of the road for koresh and supporters at the waco compound.
As a movement are you interested in secular people, winning them to the Lord?
does dsda have currency without cycling through adventism?
Do you have to sign up to the people like houtoff ,roden, whoever else regarded themselves as inspired?
What if you read modern bible versions?
What if you’re divorced, Re married?
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Hi Eli:
Thanks for sharing your perspectives. I shall now attempt to respond to your questions:
1) As a movement are you interested in secular people, winning them to the Lord?
Yes, and as a testament to that I host a daily Prayer Meeting and Bible Study Class for all peoples. You’re welcome to join here:
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2) does dsda have currency without cycling through adventism?
Yes, it does, but your question is deeper, and I shall redirect to you: Does Christianity have currency without Judaism? The fact is clear, truth is progressive, and rather than attempting to see the DSAD Message as a monolithic structure, it ought to be seen in the lines of progressive revelation. Just as one part of the Bible explains the other, the Shepherd’s Rod Message is only one step in the progression of Truth. The Lutherans brought the message of Salvation by Faith alone, the Wesleyans brought Salvation by Grace alone, John Knox, brought the light of the active workings of The Holy Spirit in the life of believers, The Millerites bought the light of the 2,300 day prophecy, etc. To single out DSDA as having currency on their own, is similar to asking, do SDA’s have currency on their own without the Millerites? You be the judge.
3) Do you have to sign up to the people like houtoff ,roden, whoever else regarded themselves as inspired?
I do not accept that Roden was a prophet, or inspired messenger from God, whereas I do of Houteff. Their work have NO power to stand apart from the crutch they attempt to find in Houteff’s Writings, but strange as it may seem to you, Houteff’s work stands apart, and does not need the SDA doctrines to establish it. For example, Houteff’s message brings “light” and corrects many of the blatant doctrinal errors in the SDA denomination. For example, the error that the “stone” of Dan. 2 came from the “sky”, or “heaven” has been taught by SDA’s and other Protestant groups from the earliest of times, and Houteff’s writings have correctly presented the case of the stone’s having been “cut out of the MOUNTAIN without hands.” Try to ask any seasoned SDA this simple question: “where does the stone in Daniel 2 come from?” I’d be very interested in your response if you’ve interviewed at least 10 random individuals from the Church. I’m not aware if you know that I have published a book on this subject, “What Every Seventh-Day Adventist Should Know About the Shepherd’S Rod”, here’s a link to it: https://www.amazon.com/Every-Seventh-Day-Adventist-Should-ShepherdS-ebook/dp/B07GKRK894/ref=sr_1_1?crid=HWBYVYCVGH2R&keywords=what+every+SDA+should+know+about+the+shepherd%27s+rod&qid=1669816717&sprefix=what+every+sda+should+know+about+the+shepherd%27s+rod%2Caps%2C42&sr=8-1
4) What if you read modern bible versions?
Most modern Bible versions are more explicit about the homosexual practices that is the KJV. I personally prefer the KJV over other translations for the reason that it is the most faithful to the original text of Scripture, and is freed of sectarian doctrinal insinuations.
5) What if you’re divorced, Re married?
The Bible does provide room for Divorce and remarriage, and I’ve also dealt with this topic. You may check it out here; https://fccdl.in/oZBuzgFm4f
Regarding your understandings of Koresh, I’d recommend to you my book, for most of what you’ve seen and heard are “fake news”. For example, Koresh did NOT have a ministry in Waco, Tx, but you’ll need to know why the world Media houses have called his camp in Elk, Waco.
Shalom in Messiah.
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I should have said before, I mainly asked about new versions due to various people that take preferencing kjv to the next level and seeing the versions since as substandard, corruptions e.g. that you have trouble coming up with 1844, other things you hear don’t work state of the dead, the Sabbath.
Surely if all that is dependent on using one version, the person should spend time with other versions to have a grasp on what they have to say, have a more balanced view.
I can accept kjv has it’s charms, having been around it alot, you can have how it says verses ingrained but not be sure what it means in recent English.
I don’t think it floated down from the sky with various people that do comments over the 4 centuries from then u until our time.
Similarly, I don’t think modern versions are perfect.
Though they are often easier to get a handle on what they have to say, I’ve found it helpful to read what a different version says in familiar verses.
In relation to the previous comment, whether it’s improved or whatnot there is how the NRSVue did 1st Corinthians and 1st Timothy verses
Instead, brothers and sisters go to court against one another, and this before the unbelievers.In fact, to have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud—and brothers and sisters at that. Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, men who engage in illicit sex, – 1st Corinthians 6 6-9
……
the sexually immoral, men who engage in illicit sex, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching – 1st Timothy 1 10
The intent could be captured in the Message
These court cases are a black eye on your community. Wouldn’t it be far better to just take it, to let yourselves be wronged and forget it? All you’re doing is providing fuel for more wrong, more injustice, bringing more hurt to the people of your own spiritual family. Don’t you realize that this is not the way to live? Unjust people who don’t care about God will not be joining in his kingdom. Those who use and abuse each other, use and abuse sex, use and abuse the earth and everything in it, don’t qualify as citizens in God’s kingdom. A number of you know from experience what I’m talking about, for not so long ago you were on that list. Since then, you’ve been cleaned up and given a fresh start by Jesus, our Master, our Messiah, and by our God present in us, the Spirit.
1 Corinthians 6:7-11 MSG
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I largely agree with you that different translations of the Bible can be helpful at times, and in this spirit I do glance on various translations to see how they express ideas that amplify the KJV’s. As stated before, I belie the KJV, while not “perfect” is the “most faithful” to the original text, and is also devoid of sectarian religious mores. I find that in many more modern translations of the Bible, the translators have gone out of the way to destroy the Law of God, the State of the Dead and other kindred truths. Here’s an easy example:
Rev. 22: 14
“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” KJV
““Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.” NIV
There is a far cry of a difference between “they that DO His Commandments”, and “those who wash their robes,” for the aim is to completely close all discussions about the Law of YHWH. This much should be very clear. Having said this, there are specific passages especially in the Old Testament that are more lucid when read in the NIV, but personally, I do not rely on it as an interpretative authority. And if the KJV fails, on account of its multitudinous “these’s” “thou’s” and “thy’s”, etc., there is the NKJV that dispenses with these and reads in modern form the thoughts of the Old KJV.
Further too, since homosexuality has been legalized merely 7 years ago, it would be hard to take issue with the Bible for condemning that practice LONG before it was being agitated in the world, as a political and social issue. It is suggested that King James was himself a gay man! If that is true, it makes his translation more authoritative, for though being gay, he did not muffle the Bible’s condemnation against that lifestyle, at a time when he could have done so with ease!
I’ll says this much: If you are personally struggling with Homosexual tendencies or practices, it is NOT the unpardonable sin! And, if you are interested in a theological discussion on that subject, I’d be happy to engage, as long as the Bible is the authority to which we will appeal as the FINAL word of Truth.
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Alright, they were a further split from previous davidians.
As far as the media was concerned, they had davidian in their name, also having adventist in their name.
Which the denomination sought to say, ‘they had no involvement with us’.
You yourself, why dsda , when there are plethora of groups that orbit egw and more or less the gc?
There’s secrets unsealed, There’s saved to serve, There’s truth truth triumphant, There’s free adventist, There’s sdarm, there’s smyrna, There’s renewed heart ministries, There’s pioneer health & missions, etc etc
On bible versions, There are things that are in kjv that are due to their time and place being England in the 17th century.
Language that permits bishops, hell, lords and so on.
You say and others support your views that many modern versions are clearer and more explicit on being gay,
You probably aren’t aware, that the rsv translators merged the Greek words in 1st Corinthians that resulted in that version and others that say ‘homosexuals won’t inherit the kingdom’
(malakoi and arsenokoites).
A few years after that version was done in the late 1950s, they admitted it was inaccurate but were locked into the changes they had made already and weren’t to do anything further for 25 years.
(Until the late 70s when the first rsv update was done)
In that time niv, nasb, nkjv, living bible, good news bible, and a slew of other versions used rsv when they were translating and consequently they say the verses in question the same.
They don’t have discussion in their translation notes why they merged the two Greek words, they lived in the late 1920s, 30s (worked on 1st Corinthians 1935-1937) when they were working on that book, in which time prevailing views were homosexuality was seen negatively as
Sexual deviency
Out of control lust
Pedophilia
Criminal behavior
See ‘walking the bridgeless canyon’ baldock
Ebooks normally come with locations rather page numbers
Arsenonkoit
‘1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:9-10.
The passages contain two Greek words, arsenokoitai and malakoi, crucial to understanding the intent of the verses, yet challenging to translate into modern-day English. Consequently, not all English Bibles agree on how the words malakoi and arsenokoitai should be translated. Many translations, such as the NIV below, combine the two distinct words into one word. We’ll see why this is problematic. Here are 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:9-10 with malakoi and arsenokoitai(s)266 inserted: Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals [malakoi], nor sodomites [arsenokoitai], nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10, NKJV) We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality [arsenokoitais], for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. (1 Timothy 1:9-10, NIV) Let’s start with arsenokoitais in 1 Timothy 1:9-10 before we move on to 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, where both arsenokoitai and malakoi are used. Arsenokoites was rarely used in Greek writings. Paul seems to have coined it from two words: arsen, meaning male, and koites, meaning bed. Some have speculated that the word Paul used comes directly from, and has the same meaning as, arsen and koiten in the Greek translation of Leviticus 20:13: “males who lie with males.” The Hebrew words arsen and koiten, used to describe events 1,600 years before Paul, suggest pederasty, or men having sex with young boys. As used by Paul in the first century, arsenokoitai likely means pederasty. Pederastic relationships, inherently abusive and exploitative, are not equivalent to committed, loving, and monogamous same-sex relationships today. To say that they are would be like saying sex trafficking of young girls is equivalent to marriage. But how can we verify the essence of arsenokoitais in this passage? The only way to get closer to the intended meaning is to find it used in context in other texts around the same general time period—in this case, the first century. This, too, is problematic. Arsenokoites is found in fewer than one hundred writings over a period of six hundred years, and in most cases it is in lists which don’t provide narrative clues. Most frequently, arsenokoites was associated with money and exploitative sex; for example:267 In the Sibylline Oracle, a collection of writings from the second to the sixth centuries, arsenokoites was listed along with stealing, lying, and murder. In the Acts of John, a document dating from the second century, arsenokoites appeared in context with robbery, cheating, and sex with shrine prostitutes. In all translations of nonbiblical texts prior to the 1500s in which arsenokoites was used, it was most closely connected to exploitative sex for money. English translations of the Bible have used the following words (not an exhaustive list) to represent the concept of arsenokoitais: bugger (1557) liers with mankind (1582) sodomites (1735) abusers of themselves with mankind (1885) those who abuse themselves with men (1890) The closest meaning of arsenokoitai over five hundred years of translation was men who took the active role in nonprocreative sex. Arsenokoitai did not define what we would call the sexual orientation of a person; it indicated the role played in the sexual act. A curious shift began to happen for the first time in the late 1940s: Arsenokoitai was translated in the 1946 Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible as “homosexual.” This meant that the translation changed the meaning of the original word from a condemnation of any kind of man who played the dominant role in sex with another male to a condemnation of one specific kind of man—a gay person. After the RSV translated arsenokoitai to “homosexual,” the floodgates opened. Arsenokoitai was soon translated variously: pervert (1962) sexual pervert (1966) sodomite (1966)268 those who practice homosexuality (1978) These changing translations directly reflect the evolving perceptions of gay people in the culture surrounding the American translators of the Bible. Recall that the late 1930s saw the beginning of discrimination against “sexual inverts” by medical professionals, law enforcement, and the mainstream culture. By the 1940s, the government joined in with deliberately discriminatory policies. By the 1950s, the Lavender Scare was in full swing and the “sex pervert” paranoia began sweeping the country. By the late 1970s, when the conservative Christian community turned its full focus on “the homosexuals,” the word arsenokoitai, without benefit of any additional historical information or biblical scholarship, came to be translated, almost universally in English versions of the Bible, as “homosexual.” In the culture in which arsenokoitai originated, the meaning was closest either to pederasty or to a man engaged in exploitative sex with a male with some sort of trade or money involved. Such relationships were not and are not equal-status relationships; one partner has power, while the other is being used and degraded. Furthermore, no one knows the fully nuanced meaning of arsenokoitai, but it is clear from all its contexts that it does not refer to women in any way. Yet, when arsenokoitai was mistranslated to “homosexual,” it immediately, by definition, came to include women as well as men. The translation shift of arsenokoitai from men who engage in exploitative sex with males to “homosexual” referring to both men and women appears to have been “prompted not by criteria of historical criticism”—a respected form of literary scholarship—“but by shifts in modern sexual ideology.”
Malakoi
‘Now to malakoi, which is paired in context with arsenokoitai in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. Malakoi is easier to translate because it appears in more ancient texts than arsenokoitai, yet it suffers other complications when translated to modern English. Older translations for malakoi are:
weaklings (1525)
effeminate (1582, 1901)
those who make women of themselves (1890)
the sensual (1951)
Then, just as happened with arsenokoitais, there was a radical shift over just a few decades. Following cultural stereotyping of gay people, malakoi was translated as follows:
those who participate in homosexuality (1958)
sexual perverts (1972)
male prostitute (1989)
So, how did malakoi shift from its association with character traits to association with specific kinds of people performing sexual acts? The answer lies in another Greek word, malakos, which means “soft.”
A modern reader might consider malakos to highlight the finer qualities of a woman and perhaps then assume an association with “softer,” more feminine men. But this is an ancient word with ancient meanings. Malakos is associated with the traits of women as women were seen in the ancient world: morally weak, given to unnatural vices, lazy, unchaste, lustful, whorish, impure, and taking a submissive role in sex. Malakos was used to characterize men who lived lives of decadence; partook in excesses of food, drink, and sex; were weak in battle; prettied themselves for sexual exploits with women; or even were simply too bookish. Additionally, men who fell deeply in love with women and lost control of their passions or neglected their business pursuits were thought to be effeminate.270
Malakos and “effeminate,” although they did in part describe men who took the role of a woman in sex, encompassed traits beyond just sex roles. Malakos and “effeminate” described a disposition associated with all the negative traits assigned to women. The ancient system and culture of patriarchy, where men ruled, and gender hierarchy, where men dominated women, form an inextricable backdrop to the meanings of malakos and “effeminate.” In those historical social structures, the worst way one could treat a man was to treat him as if he were a woman, and the worst thing a man could act like was a woman.
The historical meaning of malakoi presents a modern translational problem because the most consistent and best historical translation of malakoi really is “effeminate”—but not our modern understanding of “effeminate.” So when the 1552 Douay-Rheims Bible and the 1901 American Standard Version translated malakoi as “effeminate,” the word still included the sense of all the ugly traits thought to be associated with women; it had nothing to do with gay men. Nothing.
Today “effeminate” means “having or showing qualities that are considered more suitable to women than to men.”271 The modern word doesn’t carry the baggage of ancient negative views of women. But Paul was not writing to a world where women were of equal status to men, a world where to be a woman, or to be like a woman, was to be honorable, or to behave honorably.
In light of all this, the best modern translation of malakoi would include in its meaning an indulgent or excessive disposition which may at times include sexual excess. By now it should be clearer why translating malakoi as “homosexual” is completely inaccurate. There are several translators and modern Bible commentators who compound these inaccuracies by further asserting that malakoi refers to the passive partner in gay sex and that arsenokoitais describes the active partner in gay sex. This appears to be a highly biased translation of words to suit modern conservative presumptions.
Translations based on theology or ideology?
The structure of this book examines how systems interconnect and influence one another, whether those systems are medical, cultural, religious, and political, or in the case of Bible translations, a combined linguistic-cultural ideology. No system, whether science, culture, politics, or religion, operates in a vacuum. Obviously, those who translate the Bible live in and are influenced by their own culture.
In the late 1940s, gay people became the scapegoat of the culture and the legal system. Consistent with what was happening in the culture and legal system, malakoi and arsenokoitai(s) came to indicate the two partners in gay sex. Neither word had ever been associated with sexual activities on the part of women. The only association with women had been an extensive list of unfavorable female characteristics from ancient cultures to the 19th century. A quite unfortunate and significant shift in translating malakoi and arsenokoitai occurred in 1971, when the English editors of The Living Bible combined the two Greek words malakoi and arsenokoitai into the single English word “homosexual.” The publishers and compilers of The Living Bible took it upon themselves to effectively ban lesbians from the kingdom of God with a new version of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. This may well be the worst case of a lack of scriptural faithfulness in all the different translations of malakoi and arsenokoitais. The Living Bible editorial team was dominated by evangelical, Southern Baptist, and Assemblies of God pastors and theologians, all conservative voices.272 Over 40 million copies of the English version of The Living Bible have been sold. It was revised and updated to the New Living Translation (NLT) in 1996. In the updated New Living Translation, malakoi and arsenokoitais have been retranslated as “male prostitute” and “those who practice homosexuality,” respectively (the latter still includes lesbians). As of March 2014, the NLT is the top-selling English language Bible.273’
‘First American Christian books about gays
On the coattails of Anita Bryant, conservative Christians accelerated the pace and began to pump out books and create organizations for their part in the “war on homosexuals.” Tim LaHaye (1928– ), best known as the co-author of the Left Behind series, entered the “crusade against homosexuality” early on. Tyndale House Publishing approached LaHaye and urged him to write a book, pleading, “The Christian community needs a penetrating book on homosexuality. Why don’t you write it?” LaHaye consented, convinced that America was experiencing a “homosexual epidemic.”128 Rev. Dr. Derrick Sherwin Bailey had already, twenty-three years before, set the tone for a scripturally and historically accurate, well-researched, medically supported, and thoughtful investigation into homosexuality with movement toward a biblical stance that was both just and compassionate. Though Bailey’s book, Homosexuality and Western Traditions, was available in the United States, the American Christian public was never really given the chance to consider his findings and recommendations. Instead of Bailey’s work, American conservative Christians were presented with LaHaye’s book. As a staunch fundamentalist and part of the evangelical, Christian Reconstructionist, and dominionism movements, LaHaye approached the project from his belief that God would destroy America if we did not stop “the tidal wave of homosexuality.”129 With no expertise on the subject of homosexuality, LaHaye authored The Unhappy Gays: What Everyone Should Know about Homosexuality.
LaHaye had earned degrees from Bob Jones University and Western Seminary and had pastored a church for twenty-five years. You might hope his book would be based upon biblical exegesis of the verses in the Bible often associated with same-sex behavior. One would also imagine that he might have referred to or used Bailey’s book as part of his research. Unfortunately, one would be wrong on both counts. LaHaye’s “research” materials consisted of three books: Anita Bryant’s autobiography, Irving Bieber’s 1962 Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals, and Eros Defiled by John White. Recall that Bieber’s book was based on theories about gay men in therapy and had been fully discounted by the APA. In addition to these weak book references, LaHaye cited two pamphlets, one magazine article, and a National Enquirer piece130 as his resources. LaHaye’s disgust with and fear of gays are apparent on every page of his book. Although he briefly mentions the Bible verses associated with same-sex behavior, his writings place greater emphasis on how disgusting, unfaithful, rebellious, sick, and sexually depraved gay people are. The Unhappy Gays: What Everyone Should Know about Homosexuality was the first American conservative Christian book on the subject of homosexuality, and was presumed by the church to contain expert information. Many gay Christians who were young adults or teenagers in the late 1970s and the 1980s remember this book vividly, as they read it seeking answers about their sexual orientation. Following are a few quotes from LaHaye’s book:
“Moral fidelity among homosexuals is almost unknown.” (p. 31)
“Current research indicates that the family most likely to produce a homosexual is comprised [sic] of a very intimate, possessive and dominating mother and a detached, hostile father. Many mothers of lesbians tend to be hostile and competitive with their daughters.” (p. 71) [Note that this opinion was only given credence in the psychoanalytic community from the 1940s to the 1960s. By 1978, this family-origin theory of homosexuality had been thoroughly debunked.] “Homosexuals who want to change can marry and set in motion a chain reaction in which heterosexual experience gradually increases their ability to experience heterosexual pleasures.” (p. 89)
“All true Christians should oppose homosexuality, for it is wrong and exceedingly dangerous to society.” (p. 149) “
One major objective [of Christian parents] is to raise children to glorify God. Many such parents would prefer the death of their child to him adopting the unhappy wretchedness of homosexuality.” (p. 157) “They are out to force the acceptance of the deviant behavior as normal in the creation of a climate conducive to recruitment. The homosexual community, by militants and secret political maneuvering, is designing a program to increase the tidal wave of homosexuality that will drown our children in the polluted sea of sexual perversion.” (p. 179)
“Many homosexuals and police officials indicate that their number is increasing at an alarming rate because they make it their business to recruit. As I have said before, if some homosexuals didn’t recruit, they would become extinct because they do not propagate.” (p. 193)
This information became a dagger driven into the souls of gay people, many of them young and trying to come to grips with their own sexuality. Many of my older gay friends have told me that The Unhappy Gays: What Everyone Should Know about Homosexuality succeeded in keeping them deeply closeted and fearful, especially if they read it during adolescence, or even their early twenties. Along with Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, it is the resource older gay adults now mention most frequently as the secret reading material they found and investigated as young people hoping to find answers about their sexual orientation. LaHaye’s book in particular helped set the tone for the interaction between the conservative church and the gay community by escalating fear and paranoia.’
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Alright, they were a further split from previous davidians.
As far as the media was concerned, they had davidian in their name, also having adventist in their name.
Which the denomination sought to say, ‘they had no involvement with us’.
You yourself, why dsda , when there are plethora of groups that orbit egw and more or less the gc?
There’s secrets unsealed, There’s saved to serve, There’s truth truth triumphant, There’s free adventist, There’s sdarm, there’s smyrna, There’s renewed heart ministries, There’s pioneer health & missions, etc etc
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Why DSDA?
For the same reason we have Reformed SDA’s today and they are an independent organization separate and apart from the SDA Denomination. My ministry is called “Heralds of the King”, for example, and has neither SDA or DSDA in its title. Actually, today especially, it is not a badge of honor to wear the title SDA, and the Bible says as much:
“15And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen: for the Lord GOD shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name: 16That he who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes.” Isa. 65: 15, 16
Because of the purification announced in Ezek. 9 and Mal. 3, the denomination’s name will be accursed, and YHWH will call His people by a “new name” that comes from His own lips. Forever gone will be the sectarian denominationalism in preference for the Church of the First Born.
DSDA is the first and oldest independent ministry, and it has the WORST reputation, not because it has earned itself a bad name, but such was heaped upon it by “fake news” over the years. When Houteff started out, it was NOT his intention to establish a separate “church” like the other ministries you’ve listed above, but to be a reformatory movement “intestine to” the SDA denomination, but time and laws have forced the need for separate congregations, similar to the ones you’ve listed above.
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On bible versions, There are things that are in kjv that are due to their time and place being England in the 17th century.
Language that permits bishops, hell, lords and so on.
You say and others support your views that many modern versions are clearer and more explicit on being gay,
You probably aren’t aware, that the rsv translators merged the Greek words in 1st Corinthians that resulted in that version and others that say ‘homosexuals won’t inherit the kingdom’
(malakoi and arsenokoites).
A few years after that version was done in the late 1950s, they admitted it was inaccurate but were locked into the changes they had made already and weren’t to do anything further for 25 years.
(Until the late 70s when the first rsv update was done)
In that time niv, nasb, nkjv, living bible, good news bible, and a slew of other versions used rsv when they were translating and consequently they say the verses in question the same.
They don’t have discussion in their translation notes why they merged the two Greek words, they lived in the late 1920s, 30s (worked on 1st Corinthians 1935-1937) when they were working on that book, in which time prevailing views were homosexuality was seen negatively as
Sexual deviency
Out of control lust
Pedophilia
Criminal behavior
See ‘walking the bridgeless canyon’ baldock
Ebooks normally come with locations rather page numbers
Arsenonkoit
‘1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:9-10.
The passages contain two Greek words, arsenokoitai and malakoi, crucial to understanding the intent of the verses, yet challenging to translate into modern-day English. Consequently, not all English Bibles agree on how the words malakoi and arsenokoitai should be translated. Many translations, such as the NIV below, combine the two distinct words into one word. We’ll see why this is problematic. Here are 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:9-10 with malakoi and arsenokoitai(s)266 inserted: Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals [malakoi], nor sodomites [arsenokoitai], nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-10, NKJV) We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality [arsenokoitais], for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me. (1 Timothy 1:9-10, NIV) Let’s start with arsenokoitais in 1 Timothy 1:9-10 before we move on to 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, where both arsenokoitai and malakoi are used. Arsenokoites was rarely used in Greek writings. Paul seems to have coined it from two words: arsen, meaning male, and koites, meaning bed. Some have speculated that the word Paul used comes directly from, and has the same meaning as, arsen and koiten in the Greek translation of Leviticus 20:13: “males who lie with males.” The Hebrew words arsen and koiten, used to describe events 1,600 years before Paul, suggest pederasty, or men having sex with young boys. As used by Paul in the first century, arsenokoitai likely means pederasty. Pederastic relationships, inherently abusive and exploitative, are not equivalent to committed, loving, and monogamous same-sex relationships today. To say that they are would be like saying sex trafficking of young girls is equivalent to marriage. But how can we verify the essence of arsenokoitais in this passage? The only way to get closer to the intended meaning is to find it used in context in other texts around the same general time period—in this case, the first century. This, too, is problematic. Arsenokoites is found in fewer than one hundred writings over a period of six hundred years, and in most cases it is in lists which don’t provide narrative clues. Most frequently, arsenokoites was associated with money and exploitative sex; for example:267 In the Sibylline Oracle, a collection of writings from the second to the sixth centuries, arsenokoites was listed along with stealing, lying, and murder. In the Acts of John, a document dating from the second century, arsenokoites appeared in context with robbery, cheating, and sex with shrine prostitutes. In all translations of nonbiblical texts prior to the 1500s in which arsenokoites was used, it was most closely connected to exploitative sex for money. English translations of the Bible have used the following words (not an exhaustive list) to represent the concept of arsenokoitais: bugger (1557) liers with mankind (1582) sodomites (1735) abusers of themselves with mankind (1885) those who abuse themselves with men (1890) The closest meaning of arsenokoitai over five hundred years of translation was men who took the active role in nonprocreative sex. Arsenokoitai did not define what we would call the sexual orientation of a person; it indicated the role played in the sexual act. A curious shift began to happen for the first time in the late 1940s: Arsenokoitai was translated in the 1946 Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible as “homosexual.” This meant that the translation changed the meaning of the original word from a condemnation of any kind of man who played the dominant role in sex with another male to a condemnation of one specific kind of man—a gay person. After the RSV translated arsenokoitai to “homosexual,” the floodgates opened. Arsenokoitai was soon translated variously: pervert (1962) sexual pervert (1966) sodomite (1966)268 those who practice homosexuality (1978) These changing translations directly reflect the evolving perceptions of gay people in the culture surrounding the American translators of the Bible. Recall that the late 1930s saw the beginning of discrimination against “sexual inverts” by medical professionals, law enforcement, and the mainstream culture. By the 1940s, the government joined in with deliberately discriminatory policies. By the 1950s, the Lavender Scare was in full swing and the “sex pervert” paranoia began sweeping the country. By the late 1970s, when the conservative Christian community turned its full focus on “the homosexuals,” the word arsenokoitai, without benefit of any additional historical information or biblical scholarship, came to be translated, almost universally in English versions of the Bible, as “homosexual.” In the culture in which arsenokoitai originated, the meaning was closest either to pederasty or to a man engaged in exploitative sex with a male with some sort of trade or money involved. Such relationships were not and are not equal-status relationships; one partner has power, while the other is being used and degraded. Furthermore, no one knows the fully nuanced meaning of arsenokoitai, but it is clear from all its contexts that it does not refer to women in any way. Yet, when arsenokoitai was mistranslated to “homosexual,” it immediately, by definition, came to include women as well as men. The translation shift of arsenokoitai from men who engage in exploitative sex with males to “homosexual” referring to both men and women appears to have been “prompted not by criteria of historical criticism”—a respected form of literary scholarship—“but by shifts in modern sexual ideology.”
Malakoi
‘Now to malakoi, which is paired in context with arsenokoitai in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. Malakoi is easier to translate because it appears in more ancient texts than arsenokoitai, yet it suffers other complications when translated to modern English. Older translations for malakoi are:
weaklings (1525)
effeminate (1582, 1901)
those who make women of themselves (1890)
the sensual (1951)
Then, just as happened with arsenokoitais, there was a radical shift over just a few decades. Following cultural stereotyping of gay people, malakoi was translated as follows:
those who participate in homosexuality (1958)
sexual perverts (1972)
male prostitute (1989)
So, how did malakoi shift from its association with character traits to association with specific kinds of people performing sexual acts? The answer lies in another Greek word, malakos, which means “soft.”
A modern reader might consider malakos to highlight the finer qualities of a woman and perhaps then assume an association with “softer,” more feminine men. But this is an ancient word with ancient meanings. Malakos is associated with the traits of women as women were seen in the ancient world: morally weak, given to unnatural vices, lazy, unchaste, lustful, whorish, impure, and taking a submissive role in sex. Malakos was used to characterize men who lived lives of decadence; partook in excesses of food, drink, and sex; were weak in battle; prettied themselves for sexual exploits with women; or even were simply too bookish. Additionally, men who fell deeply in love with women and lost control of their passions or neglected their business pursuits were thought to be effeminate.270
Malakos and “effeminate,” although they did in part describe men who took the role of a woman in sex, encompassed traits beyond just sex roles. Malakos and “effeminate” described a disposition associated with all the negative traits assigned to women. The ancient system and culture of patriarchy, where men ruled, and gender hierarchy, where men dominated women, form an inextricable backdrop to the meanings of malakos and “effeminate.” In those historical social structures, the worst way one could treat a man was to treat him as if he were a woman, and the worst thing a man could act like was a woman.
The historical meaning of malakoi presents a modern translational problem because the most consistent and best historical translation of malakoi really is “effeminate”—but not our modern understanding of “effeminate.” So when the 1552 Douay-Rheims Bible and the 1901 American Standard Version translated malakoi as “effeminate,” the word still included the sense of all the ugly traits thought to be associated with women; it had nothing to do with gay men. Nothing.
Today “effeminate” means “having or showing qualities that are considered more suitable to women than to men.”271 The modern word doesn’t carry the baggage of ancient negative views of women. But Paul was not writing to a world where women were of equal status to men, a world where to be a woman, or to be like a woman, was to be honorable, or to behave honorably.
In light of all this, the best modern translation of malakoi would include in its meaning an indulgent or excessive disposition which may at times include sexual excess. By now it should be clearer why translating malakoi as “homosexual” is completely inaccurate. There are several translators and modern Bible commentators who compound these inaccuracies by further asserting that malakoi refers to the passive partner in gay sex and that arsenokoitais describes the active partner in gay sex. This appears to be a highly biased translation of words to suit modern conservative presumptions.
Translations based on theology or ideology?
The structure of this book examines how systems interconnect and influence one another, whether those systems are medical, cultural, religious, and political, or in the case of Bible translations, a combined linguistic-cultural ideology. No system, whether science, culture, politics, or religion, operates in a vacuum. Obviously, those who translate the Bible live in and are influenced by their own culture.
In the late 1940s, gay people became the scapegoat of the culture and the legal system. Consistent with what was happening in the culture and legal system, malakoi and arsenokoitai(s) came to indicate the two partners in gay sex. Neither word had ever been associated with sexual activities on the part of women. The only association with women had been an extensive list of unfavorable female characteristics from ancient cultures to the 19th century. A quite unfortunate and significant shift in translating malakoi and arsenokoitai occurred in 1971, when the English editors of The Living Bible combined the two Greek words malakoi and arsenokoitai into the single English word “homosexual.” The publishers and compilers of The Living Bible took it upon themselves to effectively ban lesbians from the kingdom of God with a new version of 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. This may well be the worst case of a lack of scriptural faithfulness in all the different translations of malakoi and arsenokoitais. The Living Bible editorial team was dominated by evangelical, Southern Baptist, and Assemblies of God pastors and theologians, all conservative voices.272 Over 40 million copies of the English version of The Living Bible have been sold. It was revised and updated to the New Living Translation (NLT) in 1996. In the updated New Living Translation, malakoi and arsenokoitais have been retranslated as “male prostitute” and “those who practice homosexuality,” respectively (the latter still includes lesbians). As of March 2014, the NLT is the top-selling English language Bible.273’
‘First American Christian books about gays
On the coattails of Anita Bryant, conservative Christians accelerated the pace and began to pump out books and create organizations for their part in the “war on homosexuals.” Tim LaHaye (1928– ), best known as the co-author of the Left Behind series, entered the “crusade against homosexuality” early on. Tyndale House Publishing approached LaHaye and urged him to write a book, pleading, “The Christian community needs a penetrating book on homosexuality. Why don’t you write it?” LaHaye consented, convinced that America was experiencing a “homosexual epidemic.”128 Rev. Dr. Derrick Sherwin Bailey had already, twenty-three years before, set the tone for a scripturally and historically accurate, well-researched, medically supported, and thoughtful investigation into homosexuality with movement toward a biblical stance that was both just and compassionate. Though Bailey’s book, Homosexuality and Western Traditions, was available in the United States, the American Christian public was never really given the chance to consider his findings and recommendations. Instead of Bailey’s work, American conservative Christians were presented with LaHaye’s book. As a staunch fundamentalist and part of the evangelical, Christian Reconstructionist, and dominionism movements, LaHaye approached the project from his belief that God would destroy America if we did not stop “the tidal wave of homosexuality.”129 With no expertise on the subject of homosexuality, LaHaye authored The Unhappy Gays: What Everyone Should Know about Homosexuality.
LaHaye had earned degrees from Bob Jones University and Western Seminary and had pastored a church for twenty-five years. You might hope his book would be based upon biblical exegesis of the verses in the Bible often associated with same-sex behavior. One would also imagine that he might have referred to or used Bailey’s book as part of his research. Unfortunately, one would be wrong on both counts. LaHaye’s “research” materials consisted of three books: Anita Bryant’s autobiography, Irving Bieber’s 1962 Homosexuality: A Psychoanalytic Study of Male Homosexuals, and Eros Defiled by John White. Recall that Bieber’s book was based on theories about gay men in therapy and had been fully discounted by the APA. In addition to these weak book references, LaHaye cited two pamphlets, one magazine article, and a National Enquirer piece130 as his resources. LaHaye’s disgust with and fear of gays are apparent on every page of his book. Although he briefly mentions the Bible verses associated with same-sex behavior, his writings place greater emphasis on how disgusting, unfaithful, rebellious, sick, and sexually depraved gay people are. The Unhappy Gays: What Everyone Should Know about Homosexuality was the first American conservative Christian book on the subject of homosexuality, and was presumed by the church to contain expert information. Many gay Christians who were young adults or teenagers in the late 1970s and the 1980s remember this book vividly, as they read it seeking answers about their sexual orientation. Following are a few quotes from LaHaye’s book:
“Moral fidelity among homosexuals is almost unknown.” (p. 31)
“Current research indicates that the family most likely to produce a homosexual is comprised [sic] of a very intimate, possessive and dominating mother and a detached, hostile father. Many mothers of lesbians tend to be hostile and competitive with their daughters.” (p. 71) [Note that this opinion was only given credence in the psychoanalytic community from the 1940s to the 1960s. By 1978, this family-origin theory of homosexuality had been thoroughly debunked.] “Homosexuals who want to change can marry and set in motion a chain reaction in which heterosexual experience gradually increases their ability to experience heterosexual pleasures.” (p. 89)
“All true Christians should oppose homosexuality, for it is wrong and exceedingly dangerous to society.” (p. 149) “
One major objective [of Christian parents] is to raise children to glorify God. Many such parents would prefer the death of their child to him adopting the unhappy wretchedness of homosexuality.” (p. 157) “They are out to force the acceptance of the deviant behavior as normal in the creation of a climate conducive to recruitment. The homosexual community, by militants and secret political maneuvering, is designing a program to increase the tidal wave of homosexuality that will drown our children in the polluted sea of sexual perversion.” (p. 179)
“Many homosexuals and police officials indicate that their number is increasing at an alarming rate because they make it their business to recruit. As I have said before, if some homosexuals didn’t recruit, they would become extinct because they do not propagate.” (p. 193)
This information became a dagger driven into the souls of gay people, many of them young and trying to come to grips with their own sexuality. Many of my older gay friends have told me that The Unhappy Gays: What Everyone Should Know about Homosexuality succeeded in keeping them deeply closeted and fearful, especially if they read it during adolescence, or even their early twenties. Along with Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex but Were Afraid to Ask, it is the resource older gay adults now mention most frequently as the secret reading material they found and investigated as young people hoping to find answers about their sexual orientation. LaHaye’s book in particular helped set the tone for the interaction between the conservative church and the gay community by escalating fear and paranoia.’
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With respect to this topic, I’d refer you to this resource, as I find it an excellent treatment on thee topic of “malakoi and arsenokoites”
https://gospelreformation.net/pauls-understanding-of-sexuality/?print=print
Relative to Bible Translations, please check out my new post regarding the death of the Thief on the Cross.
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Here is as good place to respond to yours in one place
I know there’s alot in what I said last
Little doubt it’s vastly different commentary you sign upto and re-use.
We’re in this mess because the status quo views reading and interpretation known as hermeneutics got us here.
The church(es) have prefferenced these non lgbt affirming methods of translation, interpretation and application.
Now we’re about the stage when going in circles begins.
We can idealise the kjv, use it as the benchmark and when/ new versions differ they are castigated for tampering with gods word etc, There’s a time gap that gets bigger the further away we get from the 17th century.
So we without realising stand in the time period ideologically with this stuff (say the 70s, 80s or 90s) and read these verses with our current lenses of what they mean.
The current comments that suggest James I was gay, bi could also give us pause as to what that version means.
It has his name but obviously, it was other people that did the work that ended up in that bible version.
‘Further too, since homosexuality has been legalized merely 7 years ago, it would be hard to take issue with the Bible for condemning that practice LONG before it was being agitated in the world, as a political and social issue. It is suggested that King James was himself a gay man! If that is true, it makes his translation more authoritative, for though being gay, he did not muffle the Bible’s condemnation against that lifestyle, at a time when he could have done so with ease!’
Some of us take issue with translations and interpretations that conclude with that endpoint.
‘I’ll says this much: If you are personally struggling with Homosexual tendencies or practices, it is NOT the unpardonable sin! And, if you are interested in a theological discussion on that subject, I’d be happy to engage, as long as the Bible is the authority to which we will appeal as the FINAL word of Truth.’
I don’t see it that way,
You seem to suggest I’m gay because I’m talking about these things, but I’ve seen a few of your posts, articles and they seem to me overly concerned on ‘gay issues’ in the church and similarly the world.
How you talk about it all as lifestyles, practice, agendas not the unpardonable sin does not suggest you can handle this kind of self revelation.
To dispel misconceptions, I’m not interested in changing your views but to hilight there are other takes than the status quo.
What does egw say? that there is nothing to be feared from new light. (Old) truth can stand investigations (scrutiny) we could see the bible as the beginning point to conversation rather then it being used to put the brakes on it.
At sometime, new conceptions are going to to unseat ‘what we have always thought, said’.
In one article you go from a line she said that isreal doesn’t have a role in end time prophecy, then a hundred years after early writings was 1948 when the current isreal state came into existence.
With endless presuppositions…
That the modern state is synonymous with the old testament iteration of isreal
That it’s agendas are wholesale ordained/preordained by God
That God has two or more groups of people, if you have problems with sda’s, evangelicals well shape shift to be Zionist, or various forms of current judaism (reformed, reconstructionist, conservative, orthodox)
All that can be seen in various degrees.
There’s seeing the state as valid, There’s seeing it as a bin fire, There’s seeing both isreal / Palestine as equally valid, There’s seeing isreal the state as occupiers, having a form of apartheid.
All that can be distinct from seeing it as prophetic, part of the time events.
It could be said as far as evangelicals are concerned, their support for isreal is to bolster their own theology, empires spiritual and to whatever degree it is physical with bigger churches, more money, political influence etc.
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