iShare 2012

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Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

iShare 2012 Seminar: Cutting Edge 2 - The Sequel

Anil Kanda

What Atheism and Adventism Have In Common...

Thank you so much for coming out to this seminar.

The name of the seminar is called, What Adventists and Atheists Have in Common, The Damnation of Damnation.

I believe that God is going to bless abundantly, but before we start or go any further why don't we bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Let's pray for the Holy Spirit to be here.

Father in Heaven thank You so much again for Your grace, for Your mercy.

Lord, many of us are exhausted and tired but we thank you Lord that in your Sabbath we can find rest.

So Jesus, we pray and ask that your Holy Spirit would give us rest at the same time invigorate our mind and encourage us Lord with this precious truth that you have given us.

Just letting you guys know, the second presentation is entitled, Genocide in the Old Testament.

And I have been blown away by the study of that topic.

So if you can make it, please come on out.

And the third topic will be Ellen White outside Adventism.

Some remarkable encounters have taken place between Ellen White and non-Adventists and I really believe you're going to be encouraged by that.

I was also told by some of the leadership here that the other seminars are empty.

So if you want, after this seminar you can head out to another seminar.

But I know the Spirit of God will lead you to where you need to be.

It's a common verse used by people who are defending the Christian faith.

1 Peter 3, verse 15 says this, sanctify the Lord God in your what?

Hearts and always be ready to give in defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and what?

Folks, I want you to understand this point.

It's not simply just having truth, but inherent to truth is its very communication.

It's not just about having the truth or giving the truth, but what is inherent to the truth is its very communication.

As you see in 1 Peter 3, verse 15, it's very important that as we are sharing the truth of God, that we make sure we communicate it in a very humble way.

He says this, the question of being an apologist, an apologist is someone who defends a certain idea or topic.

The question of being an apologist is not so much whether you use an apologetic in answering someone's question but whether the apologetic you already use is a good 1.

Somebody once said to me, they said, oh it's not really good to be arguing about the Christian faith.

But here's the thing to understand, the very person who is saying that is giving an argument of why it's not good to argue about the Christian faith.

He's saying this, that everybody here gives a defense for something they believe in.

The question is whether or not it's a good defense.

The topic that we're going to be covering today has to do with the topic of hellfire.

It happened to me about 2 years ago and this is why I'm so passionate about trying to understand this topic like never before.

I was preaching an evangelistic series, and the weekend that I was supposed to speak about the state of the dead, and about hellfire, and what the Bible teaches about that, I got deathly ill.

Now, I don't get sick very easy, but when I do get sick, it's like Ebola.

So I got deathly ill on the very day that I was supposed to present the state of the dead, and then the very next day when I was supposed to present the topic about the good news about hellfire.

And so the Bible worker and some of the young adults came and they prayed over me and they did this hydrotherapy and I got better.

But let me tell you something, when I actually preached that message, I mean I got up there And it was just like the Spirit of God came upon me, and it was so powerful.

But as soon as I actually walked off that stage, I was like, oh my goodness.

And I couldn't even get to a chair in time.

But praise the Lord, it was just a powerful weekend, and the Spirit of God blessed abundantly.

Now you're thinking to yourself, okay, but still, what's the big deal about Hellfire?

The next day, 1 of the church members, 1 of the people who had been attending the series came up to me and they said, something interesting took place on the very weekend that you were presenting the topic about hellfire.

He said this, I actually went to the local mega church on Sunday and the pastor had a very unusual sermon.

He said the very night before, while he was dreaming, He dreamed he saw hell.

It just lets you know there's a great controversy.

And as he was taken into this vision of hell and this journey going through the underworld, He saw the most horrific scenes.

He saw people just burning and being tormented just moment after moment.

And just in that dream, he was just locked in this view and he saw everything all around him.

He saw these caverns that were full of lava and fire.

And then when he came out of it, he knew he had a message to give the church Sunday morning.

And so Sunday morning came and he told his church that right now as we speak, there are people who are being burned and tormented by God.

And so he told this congregation, he said this, if you do not repent, you're going to suffer the same fate as those people and that is the message of God to you today.

I found out about this, I was so blown away, and then I began to think to myself, how important is this topic about what happens to people in the judgment?

Because it is correct views of judgment that gives us correct views about the cross.

Because remember, the judgment of God fell upon the cross and correct views of the cross give us correct views about what love is.

Incorrect views about the judgment give us incorrect views about what happened at the cross, and if we have incorrect views about what happened at the cross, then we have incorrect views about what godly love really is.

Folks, this is extremely important that we understand this topic like never before.

There abounds in our world today some of the most wicked and diabolical ideas concerning God's dealing with mankind.

1 particular concept that is being debated among thinkers and scholars alike is the subject of hell.

It has been maintained for centuries that for the wicked, a supposed deserved afterlife of endless eternal torment awaits them where there is no mercy, no cessation, and only an infinity of progressive agony.

The righteous will spend eternity happy and enjoy the bliss of heaven, while the unrighteous are ever suffering miserably for 1 lifetime of sins.

Those who propose such a view believe that it is entirely consistent scripturally, and that it is philosophically harmonious with the revealed character of God.

As of more recently, this widely accepted perspective has been challenged.

But traditionally, 2 groups have always rejected the doctrine of a divine eternal punishing, 1 school of thought being atheism and the other Seventh-day Adventism.

Both see the fallacious misuse of philosophy and or scripture to defend these medieval views.

Such a belief is viewed as entirely evil, heinous, monocle, disgusting, revolting, pugnate, inconsistent, illogical, inhumane, Inharmonious, incompatible, irreconcilable, and above all, damnable.

Folks, at Seventh-day Adventist, we have a very special duty to show or to reveal what the character of a God is to this world.

And you see what's very interesting that's taking place in our world today.

We have 1 group of people that is trying to maintain and defend this teaching that right now God is burning and destroying people as we speak, torturing them for trillions and trillions and trillions of years in the future.

Genocide In The Old Testament. Finally, Some Solid Answers!

Father in heaven, thank you so much again for the truth that sets us free.

And Lord, you're showing us how privileged we are to have this truth.

And Lord, we pray and ask that as we go forward in this study, we pray that you would send the greatest of all teachers and preachers the Holy Spirit to us, to enlighten us Lord, to show us great things out of thy law.

Alright, Some people were asking me, they said, hey, where can I get a copy of the presentation?

As far as the audio, it's going to be on AudioVerse, but as far as the visual presentation, there's a little piece of paper here.

After the session, you can fill it out, and you can just write your email.

I promise you I won't send you spam mail.

Or the fact that I won lottery in the UK and you're part of that winning.

Today's presentation is entitled, The Bible and Genocide, Finally Some Answers.

I'm going to start off by sharing with you just the story of this man, Eli Wiesel.

Does anybody know who this individual is?

A very interesting man, a very interesting man.

He was actually in the Jewish intern camps.

He came out And he has just done some wonderful things.

And he speaks on tolerance for all races.

He hates anything that has to do with the thinking of caste, but God loves all people.

But this individual, he wrote some books.

His current position religiously is, he goes back and forth between agnosticism, in other words, believing there's something out there, but not knowing, and theism, believing that there is a God.

And you will find the doubt expressed in a lot of his books.

But he wrote about a very interesting encounter.

You'll notice him in the second row at the top.

But he describes the horrors of being in a Jewish internment camp.

But then he said 1 day while he was laying in his bed, he noticed something.

He popped his head out because he heard some talking.

And there he looked and right there in the middle of the hallway that was right there between the 2 sides of the room which had beds on it, he noticed 4 rabbis.

And he saw these 4 rabbis doing something unusual, and 1 of the rabbis put his hand up in the air and he said, I'd like to call this court case into order.

The individual who is being tried right now is God Almighty.

And so, Elie Wiesel was watching this whole thing and he was watching this thing play out as these rabbis were having a mock trial, and some of these rabbis would stand up and they would accuse God of crimes.

They would accuse God of all the evil things that he has done.

At the very end of it, the judge stands up and he says, I pronounce God guilty.

He said he beheld this whole thing and it really changed his concepts about who God is.

Folks you can imagine that people who have been through some trying circumstances, People have been through some of the most difficult things in life, things that you or me will never ever deal with.

Probably it's very interesting to know how quickly they would change their religious beliefs.

And this world is a world of ideas, amen?

And it's very important that we get the right ideas.

And I like what 1 of my favorite Christian apologists says, he says this, the truth is the most important thing in the world, it's so important, it's often hidden by a bodyguard of lies.

Folks, we need to understand the truth about who God is.

And that's what's encapsulated in the Adventist message.

But you take a look at this world today, you see some of the most vicious things, you see some of the horrors of past history, of the Rwanda genocide, you read about genocides that are still taking place today as we speak.

You read about all sorts of evil things that have taken place in Earth's history and many people question the goodness of God, the loving kindness of God, the justice of God, if all these wicked things are taking place.

It's very interesting, even in India right now, there is a genocide taking place as we speak.

That 1 day, during the thousand year judgment, God will make all things clear, amen?

And I love what Ellen White says as we get into this topic about genocide in the Old Testament.

She says this will be, this will take place at the very end.

She says this, every question of truth and error in the longstanding controversy has now been made plain.

The results of rebellion, the fruits of setting aside the divine statutes, having been laid open to the view of all created intelligences, the working out of Satan's rule in contrast with the government of God, has been presented to the whole universe.

Now watch this, Satan's own works condemn him.

God's wisdom, his justice, and his goodness stand fully, what?

It is seen that in all his dealings in the great controversy, that all his dealings in the great controversy have been conducted with respect to the eternal good of his people and the good of all the worlds that he has created.

In other words, what we will understand at the very end is that all of God's dealings, His intentions and motivations have always been best for all of humanity.

And I praise God because this needs to give us, this will give us a good perspective as we're looking at the Old Testament.

But know this, this is very important, that anything that God has done or has allowed to take place has always been done for what motivation?

To the eternal good of His created beings.

And that's very important to notice, because as we get into this, we need to understand some very simple things.

The whole idea of genocide, this idea that God is exterminating people, that he has completely wiped out people in the Old Testament, has often been used by skeptics and infidels to show that God himself is not consistent.

That the God of the Old Testament is much different than the God of the New Testament and it's good for us to worship Jesus but the guy in the Old Testament, whoo, we ought to run for that guy right there.

But you're going to discover that the God of the New Testament is still the God of the Old Testament.

God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Now let's get into this first line of reasoning we need to understand.

His law is simply a transcript of His own character.

The first thing that people tend to bring up when it comes to the things that were taking place in the Old Testament is that God kills.

Well, let's take a good look at, first of all, the commandment.

In some translations of the Bible, the second commandment is stated, thou shall not kill, or thou shall not murder.

It means literally to dash into pieces, to murder, or to be a man-slayer.

The difference being 1 is justified and 1 simply is not.

The justification always requiring the most necessary circumstances and the most selfless motives And in today's world you will see why sometimes the taking of life is completely justified and no 1 will argue that point.

Murder then would be the unjustified taking of life and very incorrect intentions underlining the actions themselves.

Jesus himself equivocated murder with being angry without a what?

So the difference between murder and the taking of life is that murder is unjustified taking of life.

So when God has to take life, He is in no way violating His own law.

Ellen White Outside Adventism. Honored Outside the Church

So let me bow our heads for a word of prayer and let's get started with this last presentation.

Father, we just thank you so much again for being so willing to share with us, Lord, the secrets of the universe.

Thank you God that we don't have to be in front of the veil, Lord, but you take us past the veil.

We ask and pray that we would see you some more, Lord, and understand the beautiful things that you have in store.

The last presentation is entitled Ellen White Outside Adventism.

We're gonna be looking at some very interesting things regarding Ellen G.

Now, this woman has been 1 of the most special gifts that God has given to me.

I know he has been a special gift given to you as well.

1 of my very first encounters with this woman, it took place when I was becoming baptized.

The person who brought me to the Lord failed to tell me who she was.

And so as we're getting the baptismal studies, And our Sabbath school teacher was giving us those studies.

White, I never forgot, I turned to my friend and I said, Who is this woman?

He turned to me and he's like, Ah, don't worry about her.

But, you know, that brother's changed a lot.

But in the beginning he has some issues with Ellen White, but as he continued to grow in the Lord he became very convicted about her writings.

When I became a baptized Adventist, you know, I did, as I said before, I came from Hinduism and Hinduism teaches pantheism, the idea that God is in everything.

I grew up coloring pictures of God, a picture of a tree, and the caption saying God's in the tree.

I grew up coloring pictures of God, a picture of a tree, and the caption saying, God's in the tree.

I grew up coloring pictures of the forest, and the caption would say, God's in the forest.

Not that God created the forest, but that God himself is in the forest in actuality.

After I became baptized, 1 of the very first things I actually read in the writings of Ellen White was Volume Chapter 9, where she actually deals with the subject of pantheism.

She's writing to Harvey Kellogg, and she addresses the issue of pantheism with such clarity, it helped me to understand some things about God that I previously did not understand.

When I was about to leave for school to go up an avenue to school up north, I never forgot 1 of the church ladies, sweet church lady, she came to me and she says this, she said this, you need to see a difference between those who study the writings of Scripture and those who study the spirit of prophecy and scripture.

She said you will see a difference in their knowledge, in their devotional life, in their spiritual life, in their witness.

There was a line of demarcation between those who studied the spirit of prophecy with the scriptures and those who just studied the scriptures themselves and it was so powerful I never forgot I was praying I said Lord please bless me with some books the day I was supposed to leave somebody shows up they open up their trunk and there's all the red books they said here these are all for you and it was so awesome I was like yeah praise the Lord praise God for them right we all have the red books but you know as 111 preacher said he said they ought to be called the unread books these days.

You know, 1 of my friends I just baptized, actually about 2 years ago I did an evangelistic series.

He just got, he got baptized 2 years ago.

And you know, when you bring up Ellen White, you bring it up and you know, you don't make it a doctrine that people die on.

Like Ellen White herself says, she says, have the people go forward and have them to trust and test them out themselves.

I tell people what we believe about Ellen White and I said you'll have to study out the writings for yourself to ultimately know what the truth is regarding this gift from God.

But this friend, his name is George, I told him about that.

And he actually said, okay, he'll check it out.

And a week later, he gets this call from his uncle, and his uncle was somebody who cleaned out houses for real estate.

And the uncle said, hey, there's a box of books here.

But George is like, you know, After you go to an evangelistic series, you know how you're like, you're just like super careful of anything Catholic?

He was like, I don't want to read anything if it's got just a little bit of Babylon in it.

Well, it's so interesting, his uncle said, hey, I got these box of books.

And sure enough, they were the hardback cover of Ellen G.

White's entire Conflict of the Ages series.

It was the hardback book, so it was really expensive ones too, if you take it from a call porter.

He knew that it was a gift from God and he was so blown away by it.

I've been so blessed by her writings and I have grown in understanding things and she invites you to come in and to learn more about the truths that God has given to us.

And so we're going to learn some interesting things about the spirit of prophecy.

Here are some unusual, fascinating facts about Ellen G.

White wrote more than 100, 000 pages, a total of more than 25 million words.

The text most often referred to in Ellen White's writings is Matthew chapter 5, verse 14 through 16.

The text refers to Christians as the light of the world.

More specifically, she says, you are the light of the world.

1 of Ellen's favorite hymns was, Wind Peace Like a River.

She always asked for it when attending Healdsburg College, Colorado.

Ellen White's favorite dishes were baked corn souffle, tomatoes and macaroni, and tiny mustard greens cooked.

Ellen White's last known writing is the letter entitled, The Victorious Life.

You may read it in her book, Testimonies to Ministers.

The letter's a message overflowing with hope and assurance for Christians.

I challenge you to check out that message.

White wrote that she knew how to feed and treat animals with affection.

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Series

iShare 2012 Seminar: Cutting Edge 2 - The Sequel

Ellen White Outside Adventism. Honored Outside the Church

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

Sponsor

Recorded

Attachments

Parts

What Atheism and Adventism Have In Common...

49m

Genocide In The Old Testament. Finally, Some Solid Answers!

43m

Ellen White Outside Adventism. Honored Outside the Church

38m

Sound Doctrine