But there were false prophets also among the people,
even as there shall be false teachers among you,
who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them...
A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject;
2 Peter 2:1/ Titus 3:10
Ripped from the Cyberpen of Loren Seibold at so-called Adventist Today (2/18/2023)...a psuedo-Adventist journal
"I just read that the death toll of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria 
is estimated to have passed 46,000. It may be more. 46,000 people perished in a matter of
minutes. Or maybe they wished it were minutes: for some, it was days of
suffering, dying of thirst or slow blood loss, limbs crushed, while no
one could reach them. Most pastors I know are drawn to a
sort of technical, philosophical theology. They love using Hebrew and
Greek words. They love showing off their knowledge of stuff like
covenants and using words like soteriology and exegesis and
hermeneutics. Can you believe that most sermons in
Protestant history have been composed largely at this level of
discourse?
The people I admire most are the
long-suffering church attenders who have sat patiently and listened to
such nonsense for hours of their lives, hoping they’d get some meaning
out of it."
So he begins with a tirade against having an understanding of Biblical Doctrines such as about the Covenants (which are in the Bible for a reason--to learn it) and salvation issues (soteriology). He uses as a backdrop for cover of the spewing his disdain the death of thousands in an earthquake.
Now let's keep this real.
1) There have always been earthquakes, whether 10 die or tens of thousands...how exactly is that minimized by understanding Scripture's teachings? It isn't.
This is veiled disdain for God's Word.
2) He opens with his first word of his piece...it symbolically says a lot. We'll leave it at that.
"But I’m retired, and need no longer try
to please you. I can say at last that I have a greatly diminished
interest in philosophical theology."
Yes, he can now be honest about his disdain for God's Word, and God (which he will reveal in a moment) and not worrying about getting fired before he gets his retirement package. Now that he's retired...he can unleash what lies under....sorry, but just keeping this real.
"And now I can also admit this: I’m
having a hard time forgiving God for the endless suffering and death
that’s happening on this earth, while God does nothing."
There it is....his ANGER at God on display. At his age, as long as he was a pastor, he should know better.
He actually does know....but they don't satisfy his opening word of his piece.... Again, sorry but just keeping this real.
"There was a time when I thought that the
great controversy motif 
was a good explanation for why people suffer
and die. I don’t anymore. The story itself is largely mythological—it’s
not in Scripture as such. (Prove me wrong. The passages used in Ezekiel
28 and Isaiah 14 are clearly about human figures, not heavenly ones, and
you have to indulge in some serious contortionism to say they describe a
proud heavenly angel who went to war with an omnipotent God—and won,
sort of.)."
Well there it is...He rejects Biblical teachings about Lucifer in Ezekiel and wants nothing to do with the idea of a Great Controversy raging between God and His opponent. Not sure what he thinks is going on then on this space fabric of time.
"Why is it that we credit God with a
whole range of infinite qualities, and yet we have to make excuses for
why he’s constricted by our free will?
Besides, what did my free will
(or anyone’s) have to do with that earthquake? "
WOW. Unbelievable. Now he has a rant about free will and weirdly wonders aloud in cyberspace what free will has to do with an earthquake.
Well, Loren, the tectonic plates are out of whack because of the global flood--all because humans rebelled against God and became violent. Now those plates shift from time to time and you get earthquakes. The whole creation groans because of sin--then and now.
"No, I’m through making excuses for God. God can make God’s own excuses. I hope to hear them someday.....
No, God doesn’t get off the hook by letting a few minor “miracles” happen, while tens of thousands suffer and die."
Notice, the suffering and death he attributes to God--whether directly or by lack of intervening--yet he doesn't want to blame the opponent of God.
And the idea of him not letting God "off the hook" really speaks volumes of how spiritually dead this man is.
Picture the scene---one day Loren showed up for his very first day to his first class in college to be a pastor and serve God...Q: What went wrong since? Q: What has he imbibed on that made a shipwreck of his faith?
"But I think the time has come that we
insignificant little preachers should quit making excuses for God. If we
must, we will ignore that omnipotent but apparently very limited God
and get on with the work of Jesus: helping who we can, as little as that
is."
Pretty sure Jesus has a different view of God than Loren.
Again, just keeping this real....but the "helping" is only about making oneself feel good and bantering around the name of Jesus, while dissing God, isn't what Jesus would do.
