In every generation the issues of that time have been put forth as apocalyptic at best. The issue of ordination of women is now apocalyptic to some. In time very recent people died for practice and belief differing from that of Christendom, Islam, etc. is this the great divide that will end it all? It would be incredibly arrogant ant self-centered to assume so. Yes, I have close friends who believe that today's vote means we have reached the point where the church falls apart and all hell breaks loose on mankind. This was thought for any of thousands of small changes in Christianity over the past 2,000 years. What incredible arrogance would bring us to assume that our small dispute is the greatest in all the history of Christianity?
It still amazes me how at an early age of 5 or 6 I understood what great upheavals would take place in connection with the Church of God. I understood those as being both internal and external, but I did not understand the detailed problems that would cause the internal shaking of the church.
Singing "Jesus loves me, this I know. . ." became the expression of my faith, while the Bedtimes Stories gave some hints indicating how a number of practical problems could be solved within the Christian family. The history of our Church evolved around Ellen G. White and her calling. I loved her and her straightforward messages to the believers, and therefore I never had any problems with the distinction of gender among those who worked for the Lord. My father was the hard working literature evangelist while my mother was my Spiritual guide and pastor of the home. She also had the education required of pastors in her day in Denmark, and she had worked as an associate - yes, they called them Bible Workers in those days.
In Seminary we had both male and female teachers. The females had to be a lot better than the men in those days.
Gradually I saw a growth, fully in harmony with Scripture and EGW as women were appointed to pastor churches around us, expecting to be fully ordained like the men, when their testing period was fulfilled.
Although i was not a delegate then, four members of our family went to Utrecht as observers at the GC session. I had never expected to experience anything like it. Just like a demolishing thunder from a clear sky came this blasting manipulation of Scripture aimed at the female pastors among us. It slowly dawned on me that our beloved Church was doomed for internal turmoil because of that blast. Delegates struck by fear that here was the great Day of Judgment, trembled as they held up their voting cards, hardly realizing what they were doing, but acting s if the were scrambling for their lives.
It was the beginning of the woes for our church. The tone of the preaching we heard from certain quarters changed. It was no longer sermons on Righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ, but a justification by rejecting female preachers as detestable as jewelry and moral iniquity. When I objected to some statements made by a preacher in a Sabbath sermon, he promised he'd show me in the writings of EGW that female pastors were forbidden in the church. He never brought that promised quotation. Neither has anyone else.
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Topic: PUC to vote to change bylaws August 19 (Read 30311 times)
