    In this seminar we will get an update on the fallout of the recent Supreme Court decision and its impact on marriage and witness. We will also look at what a godly Christian witness can do in these trying times.     

ASI 2015: Lift Him Up

<div> <div> <div> <div> <p>In this seminar we will get an update on the fallout of the recent Supreme Court decision and its impact on marriage and witness. We will also look at what a godly Christian witness can do in these trying times. </p> </div> </div> </div> </div>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Health & Family

Jennifer Schwirzer

The Seven Deadly Relationship Sins - And Their Replacements

I want to give a little preface to my presentation this morning that will help us understand where we stand in relationship to psychology.

When I first began to write on the topic of human psychology, I submitted a manuscript to Pacific Press and it ended up this book, 13 Weeks to Peace.

The working title I had for this book was Jesus Psychology, what you see up here on the screen, Jesus Psychology.

I loved that title because it said it all.

It's how Jesus approached the issue of human psychology.

And I felt that I had gone into the word, you know, Jesus is the word, and I'd gone into the word itself, and I had mined out some of the principles of how the human psyche works and how people can get help through the power of God and the leading of the Holy Spirit and so forth.

Pacific Press would not let me use the title.

They said the word psychology in the title will kill the sales of the book because there is so much prejudice against psychology and so much fear of the wrong elements of secular psychology in the church, that if you put the word psychology in the title, it'll kill the sales of the book, and the majority of the sales of the ABC are conservative Adventists and typically the older set.

And they know their market, and I do not fault Pacific Press for saying that.

But that's sad, isn't it, that we're afraid of a word like that?

I'm going to prove to you in a minute that it is not a swear word after all, that psychology is a good word.

But I want to talk a little bit about how we ended up in this place where we're so afraid of psychology.

1 is that historically there was a time in our history when some anti-intellectual fundamentalist elements came into the Adventist church.

And with that package, and I'm simplifying something here, but with that package came a certain fear of really all secular sciences.

Well, because Ellen White talks so much about the work of a physician, we've kind of gotten past that when it comes to medical science, for instance.

But we have never really gotten past it when it comes to the social sciences, such as psychology.

Another reason is that historically, there was a point in Adventist history when the medical work went 1 direction and the ministry went another direction.

I don't know if you've read the book De Sozo by David Fiedler, have any of you read that book?

It's really a fascinating book where he chronicles the history of the health message basically in Adventism and he takes it up to the time of Kellogg and he shows how when Kellogg came along and because of the whole debacle involving Kellogg, there was a parting of the ways.

And the ministry went over here and the health work went over here and they really kind of separated.

And she said in reference to that, we are to be 1 in the faith.

I want to tell you that when the gospel ministers and the medical missionary workers are not united, there is placed on our churches the worst evil that can be placed there.

Because you're implying by the very way you operate that there is a separation between the body and the spirit and you're compartmentalizing them away from each other.

What does the Bible teach about the unity of the human entity?

We teach that we are holistic, that there is a blending of the body, the soul, and the spirit in the human entity.

And when you start to separate those things, essentially what you're doing is you're preaching a false doctrine by the way that you function.

Now I think it's very, very fascinating that we've, in the process of this, left mental health out of the health message.

How many of you know over 5 Adventist physicians?

Raise your hand if you know over 5 Adventist physicians.

How many of you know over 5 Adventist counselors or mental health professionals?

OK, well, you know a lot of Adventist mental health people, and That's really remarkable.

There are many, many institutions, many organizations, many ministries that deal with physical health, many physicians, many professionals in Adventism that deal with physical health.

But we don't have nearly the same amount of effort, energy, and creativity put into dealing with the mind.

And yet, which of the physical and the psychological is closer to the spiritual?

And we should be working with people's minds just as effectively as we are working with people's bodies through the health message.

So what we've effectively done is we've left mental health out of the health message.

And I'm very devoted to bringing it back.

Because I believe it will bridge the gap between the body and the spirit that has come about because of these historic factors.

Here's Adventist health care institutions, hospitals and sanitariums, 175, nursing homes and retirement centers, 136, clinics and dispensaries, 269, orphanages and children's homes, 34, airplane and medical launches, 10, Outpatient visits, over 17 million.

Most of this dealing with physical health issues.

I'm so thankful for the health message, aren't you?

But we need just as much going on in the mental health field.

And I've sort of diagrammed here how the psyche is a natural segue between the body and the spirit.

So if we bring mental health back into the health message, we'll bring those separated parts back together.

And so I'm very devoted to this for that reason, because I want to do my part to mend what is broken in Adventism in terms of our public face and in terms of our ministry presence.

Just a statement for mind, character, and personality.

How many of you have read mind, character, and personality?

You know, Ellen White blows my mind when we read about her advanced knowledge of medical science, for instance, the things that she knew through prophetic illumination that were later validated by science.

It's all the more true when you read the things she said about psychology.

These things are being validated by the day.

As I read through my character and personality, my mind is just completely blown at the insight this woman had.

She said, in these days when skepticism and infidelity so often appear in a scientific garb, we need to be guarded on every hand.

Through this means our great adversary is deceiving thousands and leading them captive according to his will.

And then she says the advantage he takes of the what?

The sciences, and in particular, science is what?

Here, serpent-like, he imperceptibly creeps in to corrupt the work of God.

So we do need to be afraid of bad psychology, amen?

So the solution to this very threatening problem is not to retreat into an anti-psychology mode.

Church members don't have good counseling and they end up developing in their mental health issues and pretty soon they're completely out of control and we just put them in some institution, heavily medicate them because we don't know how to deal with them.

We need to have more on the ground effective professionals that know how to deal with these situations.

Now I'm going to prove to you, I said I'd prove that psychology is not a swear word.

Here it is right from the pen of Ellen White.

She said the word psychology in a non-derogatory sense.

So the true principles of psychology are found where?

And as I said a minute ago, I have tried in this book, 13 Weeks to Peace, to lay down those principles in an interactive, engaging kind of format.

The book is meant to be an individual journey or a group study guide.

At the end of each chapter you find questions, discussion questions.

I love it when people take this book and they can get a bulk discount from me and they use it as a small group study guide and they do it in their churches.

Allen Lloyd

Faster Than the Speed Of Light- How Medical Missionary Work Can Encircle the Globe Quickly

All right, we'll go ahead and get started.

Today I think we're gonna be talking about something that I believe is crucial to the final events that we are fast leading up to.

And so the title of this presentation, Faster Than the Speed of Light, How Medical Missionary Work Can Encircle the Globe Quickly.

1 of the questions that we should ask at a Christian convention that believes in the Bible as why has Christ not come yet?

And when I hear a lot of the comments, particularly recently among some Christians who have not really believed in the soon coming of Christ.

I have a friend of mine that for years I've been working on, so to speak.

He's someone that doesn't, You know, he believes in the Bible, does not believe in the spirit of prophecy, but recently as a result of world events, he has at least stated to me that he will never say anything disparagingly about the spirit of prophecy when he sees what is happening in the world with the beast and with the world wondering and with what is happening.

And many have thought, well, it's because those events hadn't really taken place yet, that's why Christ has not come.

But as you'll find out, it's actually a little deeper than that.

Jesus went about all the cities and villages, and what did he do?

Taught in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, And what else did he do?

He healed all kinds of disease and every weakness and infirmity.

This is the threefold ministry of Christ.

And interestingly, it wasn't just his ministry.

He told the 12 apostles to go and preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand and the first thing that he told them to do when they were to go out was, does anyone remember?

The pioneer work, the first thing that was to be done was the healing ministry, healing the sick, cleansing the lepers.

And he said, freely have received, do what?

Freely give, It is to be a giving ministry, 1 that helps interpret the gospel.

Now interestingly, he did not state those to the left of Peter and John are going to be involved in healing and those to the right are going to be involved in preaching.

And when he sent out the 70, he didn't divide them up and say, okay, now you're going to be the ones involved in healing and now these over here are going to be involved in preaching.

He sent all of the 70 to go out and to heal.

He, meaning Christ, did not wish the medical missionary work to be separated from the gospel work or the gospel work separated from the medical missionary work.

The medical missionary work is to be regarded as what type of work?

It is to be the means of breaking down prejudice.

As the right arm, it is to open doors for the gospel message.

And why Christ has not come, I think you'll see evidence of it as we go further, but why he hasn't is his people have not taken up the three-fold ministry in a global way.

They've taken up in many respects a two-fold ministry, but not the three-fold ministry, and he's not going to come while his people bypass the major element of what he did and what he told us to do and what he modeled.

I think it's pretty true today that there's only 1 Protestant church left in the world.

The other churches have come together and they say the protest is over.

And they're clasping hands with Rome in all sorts of different ways.

Interestingly, I was actually talking with a professional the other day who was believing that what's happening in Islam has a lot to do with the closing events in Earth's history, and I was disagreeing with that fact.

I think the Lord has utilized Islam in some ways to forward his work, believe it or not.

Protestantism would have never taken hold had it not been for the diversion of Rome attacking the Islams.

And it's very clear, Luther, very true that Luther and the other reformers would not have ever been able to gain a foothold had the armies not been diverted.

And so we don't need to look at those world events.

There is a diversion that's occurring, but that diversion sometimes occurs to protect God's people.

And the Bible and the Bible only, when Protestantism got out of hand, so to speak, for the Roman power, and they could not contain it because it was exponentially growing.

They put together their own council where the counter-reformation began, but it was an interesting council.

They stated, Protestantism is the Bible and the Bible only and we are tradition and the Bible.

And they looked at that and they bounced it around and studied it for a while and they said you know is Protestantism true?

And they stated in that council, their final analysis was no, it's not the Bible and the Bible only is our rule of faith and practice, it is Bible and tradition and even you Protestants, although you claim the Bible and the Bible only, you don't believe it.

And the example they gave was because the Protestants were still keeping Sunday.

And they said that's tradition, It's not the Bible and the Bible only.

And so you claim you're Protestants, but you're not.

But now, and the Protestants disagreed with that, they said, no, we believe in the Bible and the Bible only, and they used the Bible in ways in which they thought to justify it, but now they're saying there is no protest.

And really, we're back to the Bible and tradition, not the Bible and the Bible only.

It's clear that the deadly wound has been healed.

But the reason why Christ isn't coming tomorrow is the right arm of God's church is still largely withered.

Here's what we're told will happen before He comes.

We shall see the medical missionary work broadening and deepening at every point of its progress because of the inflowing of hundreds and how many?

Streams until the whole Earth is covered as the what?

That's what is predicted will happen with medical missionary work.

Christ healing ministry among his people taking it to the world before he comes.

Now some have seen that and said, well, doesn't look like it's going to happen in my generation.

Things are, you know, it's taken a long time to even get this far.

In regards to his healing ministry, 3 times in the book of Revelation we're told this, that the wrong power will deceive them that dwell on the earth by means of what?

Those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast.

So interestingly there is going to be a healing message and even miracles on the wrong side.

So if that's the case, why is this so important?

When the wrong side, 3 times, we're told they're going to be deceiving, it's going to be their final deception.

Final way of deceiving is going to be by means of a healing ministry, miraculous works of healing.

The way in which Christ worked was to preach the word and to relieve suffering by miraculous works of healing.

But I am instructed that we cannot now work in this way, for Satan will exercise his power by what?

God's servants today could not work by means of miracles because spurious works of healing claiming to be divine will be wrought.

For this reason the Lord has marked out a way in which his people are to carry forward a work of physical healing combined with the teaching of the word.

Sanitariums are to be established and with these institutions are to be connected workers who will carry forward what type of medical missionary work?

And of course 1 of those things of genuine medical missionary work is when the gospel and healing go hand in hand and they come together.

So We are to do the healing ministry and sanitariums are to be established.

Interestingly, Weimar Institute is starting a nursing program, starting up next week as a matter of fact.

And we're told in this section called nurses as what?

Christ, the great medical missionary, is our example.

He healed the sick and what else did he do?

In his service, healing and teaching were what?

The nurses who are trained in our institutions are to be fitted up to go out as medical missionary what?

Don Mackintosh

Same-Sex Marriage, Your Marriage, the Sabbath, and Present Truth

What we're going to try and cover today, where are we in terms of this discussion, how did we get here, the abandonment of coverture and the historic definition of marriage, same-sex marriage is a tipping point and what should we do.

The recent ruling of the case of same-sex marriage occurred on June 26, 2015, And the court decided in a 5 to 4 decision that the 14th Amendment requires the state to license a marriage between 2 people of the same sex, to recognize a marriage between 2 people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out of state.

So the law of the land in America, they saw great benefit in not being ununited in their approach to this issue, and so they did not let states go their own way in this ruling, and they said, we want to all do the same thing.

And of course, people were, Some were very upset with this because it was taken out of the legislative process and was decided by 9 attorneys and there's been a lot of discussion of that.

More recently then, this month, there's another bill that's being suggested in the Senate following up that Supreme Court decision, the Equality Act that will expand that ruling that was made by the Supreme Court to various areas of business and employment, education, and it's getting great traction because many people are beginning to get behind that in actually 1 side of the house, if you will, and on the other side as well.

A vast change of a definition that really has been there for millennia, and then agitation to take that definition, that redefinition, and expand it into every area of society.

Well, as you may remember, this debate has gone on for some time and there was a rapid change that began around 2007 and 8, you can see there, and the opinion of the country basically flipped.

You might say that the final movements were rapid ones, And there was a flipping of the understanding of marriage, the Defense of Marriage Act that was passed back during the Clinton administration was, you know, jettisoned by this recent Supreme Court ruling.

It was interesting to read and listen to all the oral arguments leading up to the decision.

How many of you were able to listen to those or read those?

I'm not saying it was something you had to do, but it certainly was interesting and as I read through those, I went through them more in depth, like I said, in those other presentations, but I want to kind of cut to the chase today.

Arguing for the same-sex marriage, Mary Bonauto of Gay and Lesbian Advocates, who's been a defender of many of these cases, got into a dialogue with the Chief Justice Roberts, and as they began discussing and talking about the definition of marriage, I just will remind you of some of the things that the Supreme Court justices said in their oral arguments.

Every definition that I looked up prior to about a dozen years ago defined marriage as unity between a man and a woman, a husband and a wife.

Justice Antonin Scalia added, I don't know of any society prior to the Netherlands in 2001 that permitted same-sex marriage.

Even during oral arguments, Justice Kennedy, who would ultimately write in favor of same-sex marriage, had the question, this definition has been with us for millennia and it's very difficult for the court to say, oh well, we know better, which is exactly what they did.

But at that point he was questioning that.

And then Justice Samuel Alito, well, how do you account for the fact that as far as I'm aware, until the end of the 20th century, there never was a nation or a culture that recognized marriage between 2 people of the same sex.

How can we infer from that that those nations and those cultures all thought that there was some rational, practical purpose for defining marriage in that way, or is it your argument that they were all operating independently based solely on irrational stereotypes and prejudice.

And this was really the line of reasoning for those that were on the court that were against same-sex marriage, and that was that there was a millennia of precedent and there must be a good reason for that.

In a response to that question and then in the response that Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion for the recent ruling, kind of follow the same kind of reasoning.

And again, those just coming in were talking about how did we get where we are in this particular case.

Your Honor, my position is that times can blind, and if you think about the example of sex discrimination, and what it again, I assume it was protected by the 14th Amendment, but it took over 100 years for this court to recognize that a sex classification contravened, was in conflict with the Constitution.

And then came, and then she cited these cases, which we'll look at briefly, Craig v.

So let's just look at those briefly because when we enter into discussing what the court is trying to think, we have to look at how they got there.

Oklahoma passed a statute prohibiting the sale of non-intoxicating 3.2% beer to males under the age of 21, but allowed females over the age of 18 to purchase it.

So the statute was challenged as a 14th Amendment equal protection violation by a man who was over 18 but under 21 and an Oklahoma vendor of alcohol.

So that was the first kind of thing, like can you treat the genders different concerning alcohol?

The court held that the gender classifications made by the Oklahoma statute were unconstitutional.

So that was the first kind of discussion about, you know, should they have a difference based on gender for alcohol?

Hartwick in 1986, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld a 5-4 ruling that constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law criminalizing oral and anal sex in private between consenting adults when applied to homosexuals.

And the majority opinion that was written by Byron Wright was that it was a fundamental right that the Constitution did not confer a fundamental right to engage in homosexual sodomy.

Concurring with that, Justice Warren Burger cited the ancient roots of prohibitions against the homosexual sex, quoting William Blackstone, which is an English jurist from the late 1700s, description of homosexual sex as an infamous crime against nature worse than rape and a crime not fitted to be named, Berger concluded in his concurring opinion that to hold that the act of homosexual sodomy is some way protected as a fundamental right would be to cast aside millennia of moral teaching.

And so this 1986, not so long ago, for those of us who are a little bit older, the opinion was that moral teaching could be appealed to.

Evans, it was the first Supreme Court case to address gay rights since that case we just mentioned.

And the court decided in a 6-3 decision that a state constitutional amendment in Colorado preventing protected status based upon homosexuality and bisexuality did not satisfy the equal protection clause.

But that was all going to change in the next case, in Lawrence v.

The landmark decision, 6-3 ruling, the court struck down the sodomy law in Texas, and by extension, invalidated sodomy laws in 13 other states, making same-sex sexual activity legal in every U.S.

The Court overruled its previous ruling on the same issue that we had just cited, Bowers v.

Hartwick, when it appealed a challenged Georgia statute and did not find a constitutional protection of sexual privacy.

In the majority opinion, and this was the same person that penned the majority opinion of the last same-sex Marriage Act that we just had, that we mentioned at the beginning.

Justice Kennedy said, the court upheld that homosexuals had protected liberty interests to engage in private sexual activity, that homosexual moral and sexual choices were entitled to constitutional protection, and that moral disapproval did not provide a legitimate justification for Texas law criminalizing sodomy.

In other words, something outside the law as defined by the justices, does not allow you to be the basis of moral disapproval.

Justice Kennedy wrote in his majority opinion, the petitioners, Lawrence and Garner, are entitled to respect for their private lives.

The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime.

Kennedy reviewed the assumption the court made in Bowers using the words of Justice Berger, it's a concurring opinion in the case that condemnation of homosexual practices is firmly rooted in Judeo-Christian moral and ethical standards.

So Make no mistake, when the court said you're no longer going to have moral standards guide you, it was specifically speaking about Judeo-Christian moral guidance.

Another way of saying the Bible no longer can guide in these areas.

It was wrong that we let it guide before.

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Health & Family

Same-Sex Marriage, Your Marriage, the Sabbath, and Present Truth

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Attachments

Parts

The Seven Deadly Relationship Sins - And Their Replacements

1h 16m

Faster Than the Speed Of Light- How Medical Missionary Work Can Encircle the Globe Quickly

1h 30m

Same-Sex Marriage, Your Marriage, the Sabbath, and Present Truth

1h 15m

The (Epi)genetics of Sin and Salvation: The 3rd and 4th Generation Effect

1h 28m

Sound Doctrine