A Statement of Faith for the Traditional Adventists Forum

[DarylFawcett]

Since the FSGs are gone, we have been working on SOFs (Statement of Faith) for the congregations.

In most cases, we used the FSGs as information.

We do not want to add things already covered in the Nicene Creed which is the site SOF.

We have the following as a working draft -

Traditional Adventists - a forum to discuss and fellowship.


A few things to know about SDAs:

• The fourth commandment of God's unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath.
• The second coming of Christ is the blessed hope of the church, the grand climax of the gospel. The Saviour's coming will be literal, personal, visible, and worldwide.
• The wages of sin is death. But God, who alone is immortal, will grant eternal life to His redeemed. Until that day death is an unconscious state for all people.
• There is a sanctuary in heaven, the true tabernacle which the Lord set up and not man. In it Christ ministers on our behalf, making available to believers the benefits of His atoning sacrifice offered once for all on the cross. He was inaugurated as our great High Priest and began His intercessory ministry at the time of His ascension. In 1844, at the end of the prophetic period of 2300 days, He entered the second and last phase of His atoning ministry. It is a work of investigative judgment which is part of the ultimate disposition of all sin, typified by the cleansing of the ancient Hebrew sanctuary on the Day of Atonement.

To learn more about what we believe please see: the Official 28 Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventist Church

.House Rules:
All posts must adhere to the site wide rules found here. In addition, you may discuss and debate issues, but you may not post against any of our 28 Fundamental Beliefs. You may post in fellowship.

Now what is needed is constructive advice/criticism about the SOF itself - not about the site in general.

Is there anything that needed to be added? Wording that is a problem?

Please be aware that off topic posts, if disruptive, and also inappropriate posts, will be removed,

 

[DarylFawcett]

If I don't receive any replies, I will assume that all is well and go from there.

This is your chance to give us some input, however, this opportunity is only open for a short time.

 

[OntheDL]

Since the FSGs are gone, we have been working on SOFs (Statement of Faith) for the congregations.

I

.House Rules:
All posts must adhere to the site wide rules found here. In addition, you may discuss and debate issues, but you may not post against any of our 28 Fundamental Beliefs. You may post in fellowship.

Now what is needed is constructive advice/criticism about the SOF itself - not about the site in general.

Is there anything that needed to be added? Wording that is a problem?

Please be aware that off topic posts, if disruptive, and also inappropriate posts, will be removed,

My question is how will the house rule be reinforced. We can see it's now being violated constantly by a few. If there is no proactive way of reinforcing, then we need to change the house rule.

 

[DarylFawcett]

Once the SoF has been decided and posted as a sticky, enforcement will be done.

 

[RND]

What is to stop arbitrary enforcement by the mods? That is, giving warnings to regular members of this forum for discourse with others that seem to be here to not want to play within the SoF?

 

[FreeinChrist]

My question is how will the house rule be reinforced. We can see it's now being violated constantly by a few. If there is no proactive way of reinforcing, then we need to change the house rule.

In what way? Are you referring to the D&D?

 

[reddogs]

Yes, I think the regular Traditional forum has been relatively troublefree and D&D is the one causing problems, but I feel the D&D needs to be either a forum for full discussion and debate with rules that allow for it, or just a restricted forum for members only to discuss and debate church or doctrinal issues with fellowship posts by non-members. Do we want D&D as a place to discuss just among Adventist members or do we want to share why we believe with others who may not be Adventist. We need to decide what we want then be ready for enforcement accordingly.

I would rather go with allowing non-members to discuss or debate but you have to allow that they have different ideas on beliefs and doctrines and not penalize them for saying it in their posts. Everyones thoughts...?

 

[reddogs]

Also, lets not forget, we need to adjust the rules for New Adventist/Bible Study sub-forum Here what we had for this section:

The New Adventist/Bible Study sub-forum is mainly a Bible study forum for new members or advanced studies and the study of the daily Sabbath School Lesson and does not allow any debate. Only designated teachers may start or lead Bible study threads. Designated teachers must be members in good standing of the Seventh-day Adventist Church for at least one year, must have an application that has been approved by the members on file, and sign off at the sign-in thread within the forum that agree with the requirement that their posts and threads will be in accordance with official church statements and the 28 Fundamental Beliefs before starting their thread. New teachers applications will be brought before the members and if any challenges, a vote of 50% plus one, to approve them will be taken. Any teacher violating any of the rules of this sub-forum will lose their teacher status, and their study thread will be closed. Bible studies can deal with any subject that is in harmony with Scripture. Studies and their discussions must be in agreement with the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist church.

 

[honorthesabbath]

I think the debate area should be restricted to SDA's ONLY to discuss and debate amongst ourselves. However, I do want non-SDA's to be able to ask questions about our faith, but NOT debate WHY we believe how we do.

IOW--allow them to come in, ask a question, get that question answered and LEAVE! But no more long drawn out debates by non-SDA's as to our doctrines.

If they do not like what we believe then don't come in here--period.

 

[OntheDL]

In what way? Are you referring to the D&D?

Yes. I'm referring to the DD area.

I don't mind exchanging ideas and even debate with non-SDA members. But a few come here just to disagree. One even admitted in a recent post he got 'hit over the head' with too much Adventist doctrine in his past Adventist upbringing. He comes here just to exact some personal vendetta.

This forum has been quiet, almost dead for a long time. Many members left and won't return because of this kind of repeated fighting.

We should use this opportunity to address this problem.

 

[DarylFawcett]

I am assuming that you are all OK with the first part, therefore, I will focus on the House Rules part that I am again quoting below:

House Rules:
All posts must adhere to the site wide rules found here. In addition, you may discuss and debate issues, but you may not post against any of our 28 Fundamental Beliefs. You may post in fellowship.

This is the part that determines what type of posts can or can't be made here, therefore, this is your chance to suggest how you would like to see this worded, bearing in mind that it needs to remain in this type of a format.

 

[honorthesabbath]

Daryl--your link doesn't work for the site rules. But I have read them anyway just thought you should know.

 

[OntheDL]

I am assuming that you are all OK with the first part, therefore, I will focus on the House Rules part that I am again quoting below:

This is the part that determines what type of posts can or can't be made here, therefore, this is your chance to suggest how you would like to see this worded, bearing in mind that it needs to remain in this type of a format.

When you say 'this type of format', I assume you meant the house rules define what can be discussed in DD, but not who can discuss in DD. Am I correct?

 

[reddogs]

Yes. I'm referring to the DD area.

I don't mind exchanging ideas and even debate with non-SDA members. But a few come here just to disagree. One even admitted in a recent post he got 'hit over the head' with too much Adventist doctrine in his past Adventist upbringing. He comes here just to exact some personal vendetta.

This forum has been quiet, almost dead for a long time. Many members left and won't return because of this kind of repeated fighting.

We should use this opportunity to address this problem.

I quess I dont see it as 'fighting' but more as a struggle in finding and accepting truth or you have some others who show the result of rejecting the truth and hardening once's heart against it. They want to shut it out or stamp it out so they can justify their actions. We want to allow those struggling to find truth, and decide how to handle the others.

 

[honorthesabbath]

Fellow SDA's. Don't look to get any fairness here in the Trad area--it WON'T happen. So the ONLY way to avoid this constant harassment by some posters, is to ignore their attempts to harass. Just plain don't respond to them.

My Mom used to tell us kids when someone was bothering us, "Just ignore them and they will go away". And you know what? She was right. They always did. Bullies just require an audience, let's not give them one!

 

[honorthesabbath]

Originally Posted by OntheDL

Yes. I'm referring to the DD area.

I don't mind exchanging ideas and even debate with non-SDA members. But a few come here just to disagree. One even admitted in a recent post he got 'hit over the head' with too much Adventist doctrine in his past Adventist upbringing. He comes here just to exact some personal vendetta.

This forum has been quiet, almost dead for a long time. Many members left and won't return because of this kind of repeated fighting.

We should use this opportunity to address this problem.
​

DL--I'd like to add that many of them (including myself for a long time) left because of the out right prejudice that CF displayed when the horrible fighting was going on with the progs. They pretty much left because of how CF split our forums and allowed those who oppose the SDA church to continue to use the name.

And yes--there are other reasons as well--but I won't go into them.

 

[reddogs]

I am assuming that you are all OK with the first part, therefore, I will focus on the House Rules part that I am again quoting below:
.House Rules:
All posts must adhere to the site wide rules found here. In addition, you may discuss and debate issues, but you may not post against any of our 28 Fundamental Beliefs. You may post in fellowship.

This is the part that determines what type of posts can or can't be made here, therefore, this is your chance to suggest how you would like to see this worded, bearing in mind that it needs to remain in this type of a format.

How does it affect the Traditional Main Forum and the New Adventist/Bible Study sections as it only seems to be directed at the D&D section...?

 

[DarylFawcett]

Thank you for the heads up, which I have now corrected in the OP.

Daryl--your link doesn't work for the site rules. But I have read them anyway just thought you should know.

 

[DarylFawcett]

It is really being directed at the whole Trad Adventist area with the intent that the main forum will be for fellowship posts only and with the New Adventist/Bible Study one continuing to have the same purpose and function.

Perhaps this needs to be worded into the House Rules.

How does it affect the Traditional Main Forum and the New Adventist/Bible Study sections as it only seems to be directed at the D&D section...?

 

[DarylFawcett]

As they show in the OP:

House Rules:
All posts must adhere to the site wide rules found here. In addition, you may discuss and debate issues, but you may not post against any of our 28 Fundamental Beliefs. You may post in fellowship.

Possible new wording:

House Rules:
All posts must adhere to the site wide rules found here. In addition, you may discuss and debate issues in Discussion and Debate, but you may not post against any of our 28 Fundamental Beliefs. You may post in fellowship in the Main Area.