Thank you for
the special issue “1888: What Happened? And Why Should You Care 125 Years
Later” (Oct. 10, 2013). This was the best Review
I’ve read in years. Usually the Review
has several good articles, but this issue had a dozen or more excellent
articles that every Adventist should read.
What a shame that the Review goes to only 23,117 paid subscribers. I can’t see how a
loyal Seventh-day Adventist can be without the Review. I read each issue from cover to cover. Keep up the good
work.
–Carroll Brauer
Hendersonville, North Carolina
Regarding
“The Prophetic Rendezvous of 1844” (Oct. 17, 2013): We are rightly concerned
about the teaching of Darwinism as fact in our society, but something else can
be worse, namely, popular social sciences: psychology and psychiatry.
As pre-med majors we had to take two largely useless courses in
psychology. In med school psychiatry training was only terminology, nothing
practical. Of all the medical specialties, psychiatrists have the most drug
addiction, sexual perversions, and mental illness.
In the U.S. Army men suffering guilt and pangs of conscience
were sent to a psychiatrist who taught them to drop their conscientious
scruples. Then they could be at peace. Morals are said to be the standards of a
given culture. Psychiatry offers no absolutes of right and wrong, though we
sense them innately. As all popular psychiatry has some errors or limitations,
should Christians not build on the sure word of God?
Sigmund Freud, led by Hegel’s philosophy, developed a 400-hour
life history called “psychoanalysis.” Like a father confessor, he would “dig
for dirt” in someone’s life until he found it. Though brilliant in diagnosis,
Freud admitted that he never helped anyone. In our time he is regarded as the
kingpin of psychiatry.
Psychology is too closely related to religion and character to
be seen as irrelevant to Christians.
–Maurice K. Butler
Morrison, Tennessee
I was
impressed by Bill Knott’s editorial, “Citizenship Test” (Oct. 10, 2013). It
highlighted the fine line we have to uphold the truth while being Christ-like.
And the truth is that we cannot walk this line on our own. Through the presence
of the Holy Spirit in the heart we are enabled to stand for truth and be
peaceable. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Christ always spoke the truth, clearly and firmly, but never with
an argumentative spirit. As Knott wrote, it is not about winning; truth can
stand for itself because it is the truth, and nothing can change that. The
moment we recognize what Ellen White wrote in The Ministry of Healing, no two people see exactly alike, and if we
are certain that our fellow believers equally love the Lord and are earnestly
seeking Him, all we have to do is present the scriptures lovingly and pray for
one another. God gives meat in due season; He brings conviction and
understanding at varying times in our lives as we cooperate with Him.
We are to uphold each other, pray fervently for each other, unwilling
that any of us should go astray or be deceived. It is not always a perfect
understanding of every truth at the same time that determines those who are
children of God. It is the heart that is filled with the Love of Jesus,
manifesting His character and obeying His commands that the Lord recognizes. .
. .
Thanks for calling our attention to this topic.
–Jessica Esochaghi
Regarding Clifford
Goldstein’s article, “The God of the Gap” (Sept. 19, 2013):
My favorite atheistic “gap filler” is the phrase “the brain interprets,”
as in: “The brain interprets electrochemical signals as pain.” Which brings me
to the Achilles heel of all atheistic science: that it is pain insensitive at
all levels of complexity.
The building blocks (the chemical elements and electromagnetism)
are pain insensitive in every known sense of the word, and the laws of assembly
(the laws of covalent and ionic bonding and electromagnetism, etc.) do not
produce pain sensitivity, but rather cause spatial and time variation, changes
in bonding energy, bonding angle, entropy, boiling point, etc.
The only evidence I have that pain exists is experiential
and anecdotal. I know that I experience pain, and you tell me that you do too.
I believe you. The impossibility of atheistic pain agrees perfectly with
Genesis 2:7, where pain cannot exist without the supernatural breath of life.
So if anyone expresses the opinion that God does not exist and
that atheists are right, don’t give some complicated argument, just tell them
to pinch themselves.
“Ouch! This is just too good to be true! I can hardly believe
it! I had to pinch myself!”
–George Day
Frankfort, Kentucky
I am writing regarding
“A Living Testimony” (Page 7, Sept. 19, 2013): This article commends Sarah
Davis as a testament to the Seventh-day Adventist lifestyle of abstinence from
meat, alcohol, and cigarettes.
I felt this statement was rather misleading, since it clearly
stated in the photocopy of the newspaper to the left, that Davis has been a
vegetarian for only five years,
but has abstained from pork, alcohol, and cigarettes throughout her life. That
being said, she lived 100 years of her life while eating meat.
A person can live a healthy lifestyle whether they eat a
balanced diet that includes clean meats, or if they choose to be a vegetarian. After
all, there is more to living a healthy lifestyle than just diet.
–Dawn Glass
Red Lake Falls, Minnesota
Thank
you for the story “Milkweed and Thistles” (Sept. 12, 2013). It’s just the
counsel I need at this point in my life.
Things haven’t been easy lately, but as the
author said, “The very worst of times can turn out to be the very best of
times.” This has happened often in my life, but it helps to be reminded.
Satan wants us to become bitter and
judgmental. But with Jesus we can change such tendencies into new growth that
glorifies Him.
I thank the Lord Jesus for this article,
and for the whole Review.
–Bettylou Moore
Brownsville, California
