Adventism

[Oldiesfreak1854]

After seeing PioneerProgress's thread on Mormonism and Senator Ben's on Judaism, I thought I would start one on Adventism, since I am an Adventist and know many people have questions about some of our "weird" or unorthodox beliefs.  Admittedly, I'm probably not the most literate person in my Church's beliefs, at least officially, but I just thought I would like to answer some questions about my faith for those who might ask.

[True Federalist]

Which branch?  Seventh-Day or one of the smaller branches of Adventism?

While I'm not a Adventist, nor do I expect I ever will be, (I'm not a believer in a literal inerrancy of the Bible) there's a Seventh-Day Adventist radio station in the area I'll listen to while driving because sometimes it has the best programing on.  I prefer talk radio, but NPR doesn't always have something interesting (or it'll be a repeat as I listen to a lot of it)  Rush and his ilk I can usually only stand in small doses and ever since the local ESPN Radio affliate got sold and reformatted there hasn't been a sports talk station in the area I really like.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Which branch?  Seventh-Day or one of the smaller branches of Adventism?

While I'm not a Adventist, nor do I expect I ever will be, (I'm not a believer in a literal inerrancy of the Bible) there's a Seventh-Day Adventist radio station in the area I'll listen to while driving because sometimes it has the best programing on.  I prefer talk radio, but NPR doesn't always have something interesting (or it'll be a repeat as I listen to a lot of it)  Rush and his ilk I can usually only stand in small doses and ever since the local ESPN Radio affliate got sold and reformatted there hasn't been a sports talk station in the area I really like.

Seventh-Day Adventist, which is my denomination.

[Vasall des Midas]

Hmmm... I read something yesterday about Samoan Sevs (there's a fairly large Adventist presence in the South Pacific). The country moved to the other side of the dateline a while ago, meaning that it jumped a day, and all but one of the Adventist congregations there decided to keep the seven day cycle unbroken and therefore now observe Sabbath on Sundays. Yep, one broke ranks and apparently cares more about the special distinguishing feature of Saturday service than the reasoning behind it.

Anyways, that struck me as funny and memorable and then one day later I see this thread.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Hmmm... I read something yesterday about Samoan Sevs (there's a fairly large Adventist presence in the South Pacific). The country moved to the other side of the dateline a while ago, meaning that it jumped a day, and all but one of the Adventist congregations there decided to keep the seven day cycle unbroken and therefore now observe Sabbath on Sundays. Yep, one broke ranks and apparently cares more about the special distinguishing feature of Saturday service than the reasoning behind it.

Anyways, that struck me as funny and memorable and then one day later I see this thread.

That's odd.  I've never heard of that.  Wonder what the General Conference would think of that...

[Vasall des Midas]

It is of course entirely possible that the General Conference stepped in at some point soon after the archived news item I stumbled upon.

[True Federalist]

The International Date Line is a construct of Man, not of God.  Absent any sort of prophetic revelation on the idea, so long as one believes one is truly setting aside the seventh day it shouldn't be a problem.

If one were to use Jerusalem instead of Greenwich as the Prime Meridian, that would suggest the IDL should be roughly 35 degrees east of where it is now, which would put most of Alaska (sans the Alexander Archipelago) and eastern Polynesia as being currently on the wrong side of the line if the IDL were set based on Jerusalem.

[realisticidealist]

Seventh-Day Adventists, in my experience, have an odd mish-mash of conservative and not-so-conservative sociological beliefs. The town of College Place, Washington is majority SDA, including most of the businesses, which close down on Saturdays (it's a royal pain when I go there). Walla Walla University in College Place has almost BYU-level restrictions on the social lives of its undergraduates. I've heard it observed that SDAs tend to have standardly conservative views on premarital sex, leading to a culture of extremely early marriages (ie late teens), but that after marriage, they break away from the views of Catholics and other conservative Christians by allowing heavy use of birth control and breeding a culture where divorce is not only accepted but the norm in your mid-to-early 20s. Re-marriage is very common.

It just seems bizarre to me.

[Wrecking Ball and Chain]

That reminds me of that Adventist stripper I was briefly involved with. She had 6 kids at the age of 32, ranging in age from 3-13, 5 from her ex-husband (who she divorced, got back together with, and then left again) and one from her ex-fiance who dumped her before getting married and was a former Sunday School (well Saturday School I guess) teacher before she started stripping (which she eventually quit, but then went back to later after her next engagement fell through.) She even admitted to one week on Saturday going to church in the afternoon and then heading off to the club right afterwards as surreal as that might sound to some. Unsurprisingly she wasn't a vegetarian and drank alcohol, and mentioned how her far more observant brother babysat her kids whenever she was at the club, with his attitude basically being "I hate what you do but I love you and will help you out anyway because of that."

[© Tweed the Younger]

That reminds me of that Adventist stripper I was briefly involved with. She had 6 kids at the age of 32, ranging in age from 3-13, 5 from her ex-husband (who she divorced, got back together with, and then left again) and one from her ex-fiance who dumped her before getting married and was a former Sunday School (well Saturday School I guess) teacher before she started stripping (which she eventually quit, but then went back to later after her next engagement fell through.) She even admitted to one week on Saturday going to church in the afternoon and then heading off to the club right afterwards as surreal as that might sound to some. Unsurprisingly she wasn't a vegetarian and drank alcohol, and mentioned how her far more observant brother babysat her kids whenever she was at the club, with his attitude basically being "I hate what you do but I love you and will help you out anyway because of that."

I'd like to serve as your editor and advisor when you commence writing a 200+ memoir on your experiences in hipster chuches and strip clubs and at emo shows.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I'm not a vegetarian, but I tend to have relatively moderate sociological views.  I oppose extramarital sex, smoking, drinking, and drug use, but I have no objections to eating meat (even pork if you choose), dancing, contemporary Christian music, etc.  I guess you could call me a Progressive Adventist.

[Wrecking Ball and Chain]

That reminds me of that Adventist stripper I was briefly involved with. She had 6 kids at the age of 32, ranging in age from 3-13, 5 from her ex-husband (who she divorced, got back together with, and then left again) and one from her ex-fiance who dumped her before getting married and was a former Sunday School (well Saturday School I guess) teacher before she started stripping (which she eventually quit, but then went back to later after her next engagement fell through.) She even admitted to one week on Saturday going to church in the afternoon and then heading off to the club right afterwards as surreal as that might sound to some. Unsurprisingly she wasn't a vegetarian and drank alcohol, and mentioned how her far more observant brother babysat her kids whenever she was at the club, with his attitude basically being "I hate what you do but I love you and will help you out anyway because of that."

I'd like to serve as your editor and advisor when you commence writing a 200+ memoir on your experiences in hipster chuches and strip clubs and at emo shows.

That'd be cool. It probably shouldn't be written until after my 30th birthday though.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Any questions, please?