Serious posts, such as the one just before this one, are acceptable, however, the other type of posts, sarcastic and such, are not.

If we can't be respectful to others in our posts, then we shouldn't be posting at all.

Barry,
Debbie has hit it right on the head, and she is absolutely correct. Alot of people just cant stand and have a brutal time with dealing with things a child understands. All of a sudden wewant to make being a Christian something without distinctions, you can talk how you want, do what you like when you worship God. God never set any rules at all, and any "restrictions" are legalism.
What ever happened to guarding the mind, and the heart?
Now think about this one. I have to all of a sudden deal with the happy "spirit filled" brother or sister next to me as they move over into my space cause they are lifting holy hands?
In fact if we are using the Bible to justify what lifting up hands are, then why is it that the same pattern is used in charismatic churches? I would think that anyone worth their salt who firmly believes that we should be able to dowhatever we want will research this and present it, and that is truly interesting. You would think it would be just rasing hands, but people start to move side to side feelin the groove following their heart.
God Bless,
Will

There are things that the penticostal folks do that make the hair on the back of my neck stand straight. I don't like the tongues thing...it makes no sense. But an innocent gesture of lifting one's hand in the air when something is uplifting is nothing more than a physical amen/thank you Lord gesture. If you are not ever moved to that point thats OK. But again, the fact that it may outside of your worship box is certainly no reason to condemn it.

I have worked in years past with some of the finest Penticostal televangelists in our nation.(Kenneth Copeland, Jessie Duplantis, Phil Driscoll, Mac Hammonds to name a few) I know a little more about what goes on in that circle of folks than most cocooned Adventists. And just for the record, the ministries that I worked with in the penticostal realm have far greater integrity than any other organizations I have ever been associated with. Period.

I have often suggested to conference presidents to have pastors attend a sunday church in their community at least once a month. Then write a 1 page report on what they saw. You would be amazed at what you would learn.....if you would. I have been told on more than one occasion that a baptist would rather see a rattle snake crawl up the isle than see an Adventist come in their back door. How sad. I am more than proud to have sang, preached and fellowshipped with Baptist folks all over the SW. If we can't get along with folks here, how will we do it in heaven? God gave me the very first Baptist pastor that I worked with. He and his wife have now been Adventists for over 6 years. Fishers of men. You catch'em....let Him clean'em.........stop the insanity....please.

Interesting you named Kenneth Copeland since I was reading a book by a gentleman who was involved quite heavily in New Age.
This gentleman was intructed specifically to listen and watch Copeland because much of his teachings were new age, and in fact to use it to infiltrate churches. What exactly is your defenition of insanity especially in the context of this topic.
The names of those people you mentioned are short of conmen, and obviously misleading people by the tens of thousands. I dont see any integrity at all in what they do and who they are, and is much along the lines of "Praise the Lord and pass the plate".

Kenneth Copeland? Sitting on the floor with people in church, laughing like maniacal idiots ("holy laughter"), having people bark like dogs and hoot like monkeys, and all the while calling that the work of the Holy Spirit? Pul-lease. If that's integrity, I hope never to have any.

Barry,
You said:

quote:

---

I know a little more about what goes on in that circle of folks than most cocooned Adventists.

---

No one is debating whether you know more than "cocooned" Seventh-Day Adventists or not, but you seem more like them each and every post that goes by.

Also you said:

quote:

---

I have often suggested to conference presidents to have pastors attend a sunday church in their community at least once a month. Then write a 1 page report on what they saw. You would be amazed at what you would learn.....if you would.

---

I am glad that deceptive thought has not come to our church, and our pastor. You use "if we cant get along here" theme as a crutch and a curtain to really say "lets do away with the pillars of our faith". Please do correct me if I am wrong.
I went to disney land many years ago and got really hungry, I mean famished. We went to buy some pizza and cokes, since the pasta looked unappealing, and and after paying $30.00 for 3 slices and 2 cokes I took a bite into what I thought would be great pizza. To my disappointment it was extrmely bland.
The reason why its so bland is because they (disney) has to accomadate all types, some people dont like garlicy pizza, others dont want too much salt, others dont like too much sauce, or too much this or that. The end result was terrible.
Thats what all this ecumenical hogwash is like, a bland tasteless glop of substance passed off as food.

I think this would be a good time to check out a new use for the new live chatroom function. How about all who have issue in this thread gathering there at a specific time to talk. It is my belief that much steam would be let of as much missunderstanding can be dealth with before it would have time to grow any further. I would primarily think myself, Debbie, Barry and Will. Maybe others would come aswell. One of you can propose a time, but remember that I live 6 hours later from eastern US coast and cannot spend early morning hours (02-06) on this.

/Thomas

There are many things that the Pentecostals do that concern me. When I spoke of integrity in their ministry I was refering to how they treat each other and how they treat their employees.

It seems that most folks are afraid of mingling with Christians from other denominations. I am not. Find common ground and work from there. Be a blessing whereever you can.

The fact that we have the "Truth" does not give us license to beat folks with it. Our approach to ministry is acceptance without condemnation. We welcome folks into our fellowship and love them. Then we watch as the Holy Spirit begins to work in their lives. We watch miracles happen each week. Their are hundreds of thousands of former SDAs out in the world that want to come home. The stumbling block is either fear of being hurt again or they just do not know how to come back home.

The insanity is how we treat each other in the name of religion. There are many folks in our churches that are working for God like the devil.

Thanks for clearing that up Barry, and I agree that we should find a common thread with other Christians without having to compromise our beliefs.
I have friends of different denominations, and I talk to them, and we actually study the Bible together, or talk about God's wonderful promises, but when they think about family that are asleep(dead) and tell me how when we die that we go to heaven thats when I begin to ask them how do they know that it is true, and take it from there.
I also agree with the hurt that has gone on, and how many people basically need to be loved back home. Regardless of denomination you will always have those who are extreme, and I mean very extreme.
I don't eat pork or beef, and when someone asks me why I dont beat them over the head with my Bible, but I let them know that its for health reasons, and God gave me this body, and its the temple of the Holy Spirit, so I have to treat it nicely, and take care of it. From there on its smooth sailing.
God Bless,
Will

Thanx for the reply Will,

We love southern gospel music. As an outreach to the community, we have gospel concerts at our church at least once a month. One of the quartets that we are close to told us about a church they were recently booked into.

The church board of this church had recently met and approved two new rules.
1) It would be approriate for the congregation to applaud..........as long as the pastor did not instigate the applause.
2) It would be approriate for people to raise their hands in church provided the hands did not go above the level of the persons ear.

I guess we are not the only denomination that is infected with insanity..........