From: James Mahaffy (mahaffy@mtcnet.net)
Date: Sat Sep 20 2003 - 21:55:10 EDT
Folks,
I thought Michael Roberts recent response to Allen Roy [although Allen
comes close to matching tit for tat] was a little harsh when he said,
> Sorry to be blunt, but but those who want to add to the revelation of Christ
> are totally and utterly wrong and should not be regarded as anything but some
> kind of heretic. It would be far more honest to say that you reject the
> teaching of science because of the visions of a Victorian lady and not to
> pretend that your beliefs have any scientific substance to them.
This is a reference to Seventh Day Adventists. It is true that
historically they have been classified a cult, but I think it is also
true that many SDA's would consider themselves evangelical although
there apparently are still two strains in the denomination. The more
evangelical wing often does not elevate the teachings of Ellen White to
the same level as scripture. See:
http://millennium.fortunecity.com/lincoln/666/1993-cri-report-pt-1.html
I am not an expert on this area, but this looked like one good site.
I think I heard that SDA's commitment to a flood model [but not
necessarily a young earth] did originally stem from Ellen's writings [so
M.R. might be partly right]. However, I imagine they would claim it is a
scriptural position regardless of what White wrote.
However, SDA's have and do made a significant to scholarship that is
often lacking in some YEC circles. Their academics have remained active
in sharing their work in mainstream publications. I have come to really
appreciate Art Chadwick and suggest to my students that if they want to
keep their YEC position to read Roth's 1998 book so they know one of the
better defenses of the position. Take a look at Jon Clarke's words in
an earlier post to this list. It can be found at url:
http://www.calvin.edu/archive/asa/200101/0142.html And some of the best
scholarship on the history of Creationsism in the US was done by an ex
SDA, Ron Numbers.
If we want to understand the YEC movement, communication with some of
the SDA scholars would be good. This list needs Allen Roy and Bill
Payne [not SDA].
Now I am curious Allen. I assume you are a scientist, but can you tell
me or us more about yourself? Do you teach in an SDA college?
Blind copy to Art and Jon [I don't want their e-mails on the public
archives - in case spammers harvest from the archives]
-- James and Florence Mahaffy 712 722-0381 (Home) 227 S. Main St. 712 722-6279 (Office) Sioux Center, IA 51250
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