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Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Ben Carson Is A Member Of The Seventh Day Adventist Church: Its History And Beliefs

Alan: Typically, I begin posts with a pictorial image.

Not so in this instance...

Today I have a specific political agenda and for the sake of clarity I preface my remarks.

It is my goal to prevent the election of Republican candidate, Ben Carson M.D.

On one hand, I agree that all constitutionally-qualified candidates -- including Ted Cruz who was born in a foreign country of a Cuban father and an American mother -- have the right to campaign for the presidency and, if elected, to occupy the office.

However, I also recognize that "Washington is broken," a fact disproportionately attributable to conservative politicians' refusal to compromise.

The Tea Party and the House "Freedom Caucus" bear witness to the intransigence of American conservatives.

This intransigence is rooted in conservative Christianity whose practitioners are not only proud of their refusal to compromise but consider diehard obstructionism a religious duty. 


It is ironic that a party which cannot govern itself wants to govern us all.

"Are Republicans Insane?" Best Pax Posts
"To promote a more perfect union, to establish justice, to insure domestic tranquility and to promote the general welfare," I oppose the election of intransigent Christians just as I oppose the election of Islamics who promote the implementation of Sharia Law.

With The Preamble as my touchstone, I note that conservative Christians are intrinsically divisive (not uniting); despise any vision of justice that takes economics into account; are reflexively inflammatory (not "tranquil"); and rankle at mere mention of "the general welfare." 

The conservative social agenda of the Seventh Day Adventist Church -- coupled with Dr. Carson's political positions (most notably his moral equation of Obamacare with slavery, and frequent comparison of "Obama's America" with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust) persuade me that conservative Adventist values render him unable to promote indispensable American values established in The Preamble. https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/preamble
"Dr. Carson, Please Read Holocaust History"
Ruth Marcus

Strategically, I am appealing to conservative Christians who comprise most of the Republican Base -- people whose psycho-religious makeup would usually oppose Dr. Carson if they knew the unorthodox religious beliefs of The Seventh Day Adventist Church, including the church's foundational conviction that Jesus' Second Coming began in 1844 and that Christ's first litmus for judging "The Saved" and "The Damned" has been to determine whether people who profess Christianity celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday, or -- if deluded by "the whore of Babylon," i.e., the Pope -- they persist in the 1500 year old heresy of celebrating Sabbath on Sunday. (The bewildering details of "Sabbatarianism" are given below. Prepare to wince.)
"Christian Conservatism: "The Saved," "The Damned," "The Rich," "The Poor"

Jesus Walks Back Comments On Poor

To be clear, I do not argue against the legitimacy of Dr. Carson's candidacy just as I have no objection to American Islamics or other religious conservatives (Mitt Romney among them) running for political office. But given their fundamental preference for theocracy over democracy I consider their religious values ill-suited to the long-term survival of American democracy. 

"American Theocracy," By Kevin Phillips
"Mormonism Is Not A Christian Religion 
And Founding Prophet Joseph Smith Was A Sex Pervert"


Conservative Christianity routinely contradicts the nature of Liberal Democracy - the wellspring of American democracy - and on whose qualities the health and survival of American democracy depend.
Liberal Democracy: Born In The 18th Century "Enlightenment" And Not What The Uneducated Think
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/11/liberal-democracy-born-in-18th-century.html

This preface is now complete. 

 On to the main event... 

William Miller.jpg
Baptist Preacher, William Miller, founded Millerism 
from which Seventh Day Adventism sprang.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerism 

Alan: Although Rev. William Miller was responsible for two ridiculous errors in 1844, Seventh Day Adventists still point to that year as having singular cosmic importance.

If at first you fail to prophesy, lie, lie again?  

"Millerism"
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millerism
You really must read "Millerism" to understand the depth and breadth of the bogosity "in play."
I marvel that a major American religion started over a guessing game (masquerading as prophecy) as to when Jesus would return.

If Jesus wanted us to know "the day and hour," would he leave that communication to a divining preacher who, on his signature "issue," guessed wrong twice? 

Would The Messiah want a repeatedly mistaken seer" to be founding-leader of a "Christian" religion with 20 million devotees?

And why was Rev. Miller prophesying "The Second Coming" when Jesus himself, in Matthew's 24th chapter, clearly lays the matter to rest: “About that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father... Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. http://biblehub.com/context/matthew/24-36.htm

The very fact that Miller was prophesying about "The Second Coming" impresses me as not only arrogant but contumacious, as if this "little man" believed himself capable of outwitting The Son of God. 
At least from the Christian point of view, what hubris!

Any "professed Christian" granting credence to a 19th century crackpot who deliberately contradicted Jesus' direct counsel has abandoned trustworthy epistemology and will, forevermore, remain pre-disposed to nonsense.

I am aware that religious fervor "sweeps people away" and that customary "rules of evidence" do not apply in the minds of "true believers."

Still, at some point, the "straight face test" seems in order.

Seventh Day Adventist Church
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_G._White#Mental_illness

Ben Carson's Truth-Fiction File Fact-Checked By Politifact. 57% Of Carson's Statements Are Lies

In the background of all this is the fact that Christianity's nit-picky insistence on historical and credal particulars is coming to an end, an epochal shift spearheaded by Pope Francis.

People are no longer moved by "dogmatic abstractions" and "structural formalities" promising "salvation" through profession-of-faith and strict adherence to ritual forms.
Jesus Rails Against Human Traditions Of "Our Great Leaders Who Lived Long Ago"
For better or worse, humans are now convinced that "experience" is not only central but foundational and that it is necessary to immerse oneself in the innards of Life as passionately as Baptist ministers once immersed the faithful in local swimming holes to wash their sins away.

What used to be salvation-through-verbiage -- e.g., "I accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior" -- has given way to "salvation through the experience of soaring spirit" and the soul-drenching satisfaction such experience provides.

 Primacy of The Word has given way to an indispensable need to commune with The Incarnation, to enter into God's own "Enfleshment" here on earth.

 Christians are well-advised to remember that "The Word was made Flesh" -- not the other way around.

 Now, attentive to The Word that "dwells among us," enfleshed humans are called upon to participate fully in The Incarnation.

 Here and now.

 Not "then and there."

 Not "pie in the sky."

 It is not humankind's "calling" to retreat from The Flesh to The Word but to delight in the palpable holiness of Earth and The Word Made Flesh.

Humans are now realizing that they are "ordained" to acknowledge that their own flesh is one with the divinized flesh of "the world God so loved that he sent his only son into it."
John Ford, John Wayne, Aquinas And Theosis (Christian Divinization)

"Religion" -- and the parallel phenomenon that many people now call "spirituality" -- have come to signify merger and harmony. An intimacy as close as coitus.

 In the words of Duke Ellington's lyricist, Irving Mills: "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing."

 Increasingly, "sola fide" -- or "salvation by faith alone" -- is cold comfort.  http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/05/first-stone-it-is-not-enough-to-do-what.html

 Just yesterday, Pope Francis warned against the "aridity" of faith that lets believers ignore the struggles of people.

Pope Francis Warns Against The Arid Faith Of Those Who Ignore People's Struggles
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/11/pope-francis-warns-against-arid-faith.html

 This sea change in human religiosity is rooted in "the history of pain" and our common human need to "deal with it."

 Consider.

 Until 1750, half of humankind died by age 8.

 Until 1850 humans lived half their lives with toothache. 

Absent any scientific remedy, the bedeviling combination of relentless physical pain and continual bone-cracking grief of parents burying their children forced people to clutch at straws, often "miraculous" straws requiring the bookish, formulary and "magical" mediation of priests. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/07/since-god-cant-heal-amputees-mankind.html

 Notably, the word "curate" first meant "one who cures" and only later acquired its modern meaning of "priest."

 In modern times, as the relentless ubiquity of pain recedes, it has become ever less necessary to "bargain with God" and in that bargaining to submit to the ministration of "curates."

 Now, in the relative absence of pain, people are abandoning their former ways of relating to God (which were disproportionately "sacrificial-petitionary") in favor of experiencing "The Divine" directly without reference or resort to intervening formalities.

 In the case of Seventh Day Adventism (discussed below) people are increasingly uninterested in the supposedly "Transcendental Importance" of Jesus "entering the Heavenly Sanctuary" in 1844 to begin "The Investigative Judgment" whose purpose (supposedly) was (and is) to determine which humans are worthy of salvation.

 Instead of the bizarre specificity of 1844 as a cosmic milestone, those virtues that can be experienced-and-lived --- love, mercy, compassion, forgiveness --- are increasingly important.

 Indeed, the "cosmic milestone" of "1844" has become a "cosmic millstone" firmly secured to the necks of "the faithful."

 Life is not a "numbers game."

 We are not here to predict the precise date of Second Coming.

 Nor does God care whether the Sabbath is celebrated on Saturday or Sunday. ("The point" is to have a day of rest so humans can revere the wonder of It All, preferably spending part of each week's restful day celebrating with kindred spirits.)

 Although religious faith may enhance the experience of virtue (which, notably, "is its own reward"), religious faith is no longer conceived as an absolute prerequisite for virtuousness.

The epochal change now taking place in religion is characterized by the abandonment of "absolutism" (and inter-related sectariansim) and the correlative adoption of inclusiveness that transcends the narrow and exclusionary confines of absolutism.
As Pope Francis said in a letter to an atheist: 

Jesus said: "Trust me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on account of the works themselves. I assure you that whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. They will do even greater works..." Gospel of John 14:11-12 

To which I will add... If, as most Christians believe, Jesus is the incarnation of God-who-is-Love, then "believing in Love" is to believe in Jesus even in the absence of professed faith.

Those who behave lovingly -- be they believers or non-believers -- are truer followers of Jesus-Love than many (most?) of the people who proclaim the formulary belief that "Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior!"
Are Highly Religious People Less Compassionate?
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/08/are-highly-religious-people-less.html

Tertullian observed in the 2nd century A.D. that "The soul is by nature Christian."

"The Idea Of Christ Is Much Older Than Christianity"
"The Soul Is By Nature Christian"

The long history of "verbal acts of faith" to prove allegiance to Jesus -- and thus secure salvation -- is increasingly impertinent.

What matters is the embodiment of Love.

The Incarnation.

Are you a bible-banging prick or an atheist surgeon who just got out of bed at 4 a.m. to save the life of your child after a car wreck rendered him a "total body disaster."

"The proof is in the pudding."

In 50 years, the belief that "1844 was a year of singular cosmic significance" will no longer hold anyone's attention.

Instead, 1844 will be considered a dubious (if not discardable) anachronism, a stale leftover from an earlier time when people were essentially forced to believe highly-specific "facts" and doctrines because it was the only way one could belong to a church community, the epicenter of social life - and exclusion from which resulted in horrifying psycho-social isolation. (Hence the tremendous significance attached to anathematizing, shunning, "Scarlet Letters" and excommunication.)

In turn, this psycho-social enforcement of orthodoxy evoked "The Fog Of Religion" by encouraging believers to disregard the essential Christian virtues of love, mercy, forgiveness and service, encouraging them instead to "play at religion" as if it were a "board game."

Lured more by the promise of a distant "heaven" than becoming the body of Christ in the midst of "The Word made Flesh," previous generations of Christians were "situationally obligated" to focus on personal salvation "somewhere over the rainbow," ignoring Paul's vision that "creation itself will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together..."

Or as Yeshua put it: "You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains."

The age-old scam of neverending "justifiable" slaughter (often wrought by religion) will pass away.
Pope Benedict XVI's Question: "Can Modern War Ever Be Just?"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/pope-benedict-xvi-questions-if-modern.html

And in its place will be born "a new heaven and a new earth."

Or so says the prophecy most Christians believe.

"The Parable Of The Good Samaritan"
(Ancient Jews Held Samaritans In Contempt)
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-good-samaritan.html

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is the largest of several Adventist groups which arose from the Millerite movement of the 1840s in upstate New York, a phase of the Second Great Awakening. William Miller predicted on the basis of Daniel 8:14-16 and the "day-year principle" that Jesus Christ would return to Earth between the spring of 1843 and the spring of 1844. In the summer of 1844, Millerites came to believe that Jesus would return on October 22, 1844, understood to be the biblical Day of Atonement for that year. When this did not happen (an event known as the "Great Disappointment"), most of his followers disbanded and returned to their original churches.
Some Millerites came to believe that Miller's calculations were correct but that his interpretation of Daniel 8:14 was flawed as he assumed it was the "earth that was to be cleansed" or Christ would come to cleanse the world. These Adventists arrived at the conviction that Daniel 8:14 foretold Christ's entrance into the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary rather than his Second Coming. This new awareness of a sanctuary in heaven became an important part of their thinking. Over the next few decades this understanding developed into the doctrine of the investigative judgment, an eschatological process commenced in 1844 in which Christians will be judged to verify their eligibility for salvation and God's justice will be confirmed before the universe. This group of Adventists continued to believe that Christ's Second Coming would be imminent. They resisted setting further dates for the event, citing Revelation 10:6, "that there should be time no longer."[13]
The Seventh Day Adventist Church is "distinguished by its observance of Saturday,[4] the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent Second Coming (advent) of Jesus Christ."
Jesus Christ will return visibly to earth after a "time of trouble", during which the Sabbath will become a worldwide test. 

Alan: God is not small-minded enough to make "Saturday Sabbath" a "worldwide test" that Jesus would apply as centerpiece of his "Second Coming." Such mythology may have cachet once upon a time. Now, it's just laughable.Yet, there it is, smack dab at the center of Seventh Day Adventist belief. 

"Dr. Ben Carson and the Seventh Day Adventists: Remarkably Adept At Holding Illogical Beliefs"


http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/11/dr-ben-carson-and-seventh-day.html

Beliefs

The official teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination are expressed in its 28 Fundamental Beliefs. This statement of beliefs was originally adopted by the General Conference in 1980, with an additional belief (number 11) being added in 2005. Acceptance of either of the church's two baptismal vows is a prerequisite for membership. The following statement of beliefs is not meant to be read or received as a "creed" that is set in theological concrete. Adventists claim but one creed: "The Bible, and the Bible alone."
Adventist doctrine resembles trinitarian Protestant theology, with premillennial and Arminian emphases. Adventists uphold teachings such as the infallibility of Scripture, the substitutionary atonement, the resurrection of the dead and justification by faith alone, and are therefore often considered evangelical.[22] They believe in baptism by immersion and creation in six literal days. The modern Creationist movement started with Adventist George McCready Price, who was inspired by a vision of Ellen White.[23]
There is a generally recognized set of "distinctive" doctrines which distinguish Adventism from the rest of the Christian world, although not all of these teachings are wholly unique to Adventism:
  • Law (fundamental belief 19)—the Law of God is "embodied in the Ten Commandments", which continue to be binding upon Christians.
  • Sabbath (fundamental belief 20)—the Sabbath should be observed on the seventh day of the week, specifically, from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.


  • Second Coming and End times (fundamental beliefs 25–28)—Jesus Christ will return visibly to earth after a "time of trouble", during which the Sabbath will become a worldwide test. The Second Coming will be followed by a millennial reign of the saints in heaven. Adventist eschatology is based on the historicist method of prophetic interpretation.
  • Wholistic human nature (fundamental beliefs 7, 26)—Humans are an indivisible unity of body, mind, and spirit. They do not possess an immortal soul and there is no consciousness after death (commonly referred to as "soul sleep"). (See also: Christian anthropology)
  • Conditional immortality (fundamental belief 27)—The wicked will not suffer eternal torment in hell, but instead will be permanently destroyed. (See: Conditional immortality, Annihilationism)
  • Great Controversy (fundamental belief 8)—Humanity is involved in a "great controversy" between Jesus Christ and Satan. This is an elaboration on the common Christian belief that evil began in heaven when an angelic being (Lucifer) rebelled against the Law of God.
  • Heavenly sanctuary (fundamental belief 24)—At his ascension, Jesus Christ commenced an atoning ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. In 1844, he began to cleanse the heavenly sanctuary in fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. (Alan: The Great Disappointment -- and subsequent re-framing of proto-Adventist William Miller's colossal error -- fail the straight face test. Admittedly, humans can -- and at times "must" -- believe patent nonsense. Even so, The Seventh Day Adventist Church "should" acknowledge the foundational error of the Great Disappointment and refuse to prolong the pretense that 1844 is a cosmically momentous year in which, according to The Credo, an inimitably important occurrence happened on "a spiritual plane" which, conveniently, no living human can access or report upon. Yes, people are at liberty to believe this kind of otherworldly nonsense -- according to its original meaning, "unrelated to sense"-- but must also be prepared for ridicule at their persistent representation of irrational absurdity.)
  • Investigative Judgment (fundamental belief 24)—A judgment of professed Christians began in 1844, in which the books of record are examined for all the universe to see. The investigative judgment will affirm who will receive salvation, and vindicate God in the eyes of the universe as just in his dealings with mankind.
  • Remnant (fundamental belief 13)—There will be an end-time remnant who keep the commandments of God and have "the testimony of Jesus"  (Revelation 12:17) This remnant proclaims the "three angels' messages" of Revelation 14:6-12 to the world.
  • Spirit of Prophecy (fundamental belief 18)—The ministry of Ellen G. White is commonly referred to as the "Spirit of Prophecy" and her writings are considered "a continuing and authoritative source of truth",[24]though ultimately subject to the Bible. (See: Inspiration of Ellen White)

"Donald Trump: No Apology For Questioning Ben Caron's Seventh-Day Adventist Faith"

Alan: I heartily applaud Seventh Day Adventism in four areas:

 1.) I applaud Seventh Day Adventism's assertion that "the damned" are not subjected to eternal punishment but rather are extinguished from existence.

 2.) I admire Seventh Day Adventism's focus on holistic health, particularly the fundamental importance of diet.

 3.) I admire Seventh Day Adventism's unrelenting focus on healthcare and its continual determination to put its money where its mouth is by building and staffing hospitals worldwide.

 4.) Although there is some dispute concerning Seventh Day Adventism's original view of black people, it seems to me that the church's commitment to abolition in the decades leading up the Civil War was authentic, courageous and sustained.

Compendium of Ben Carson Weirdness

Ben Carson Is A Member Of The Seventh Day Adventist Church: Its History And Beliefs
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/11/ben-carson-is-member-of-seventh-day.html

Ben Carson's Truth-Fiction File Fact-Checked By Politifact. 57% Of Carson's Statements Are Lies


Ben Carson Admits Fabricating His West Point Scholarship

Ben Carson Believes Pyramids Were Built By Abraham's Great Grandson Joseph To Store Grain

"Dr. Ben Carson and the Seventh Day Adventists: Remarkably Adept At Holding Illogical Beliefs"


Ben Carson's Dire Warning: Loss of Keystone Pipeline Leaves U.S. With No Place to Store Grain

"Ben Carson Hopes Debate Will Focus On Lost City Of Atlantis," The Borowitz Report


"The Victim Card: Joe Scarborough Slams Ben Carson For Claiming Unfair Media Scrutiny"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-victim-card-joe-scarborough-slams.html

 "Alan, I Like Ben Carson... How Do You Feel About Him?"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/11/alan-i-like-ben-carson-how-do-you-feel.html

Carson Made Big Money With Help Of A Felon Convicted Of Health Care Fraud: His "Best Friend"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/11/carson-made-big-money-with-help-of.html

The Guardian's Coverage Of Ben Carson's "Believe Anything You Want To Believe" Speech
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-guardians-coverage-of-ben-carsons.html

Ben Carson: If You Just Saw It The Way I Do, There'd Be No Need For Facts (Or Factchecking)
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/11/ben-carson-irked-with-media-for-doing.html


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