Nine Months Pregnant: A Women’s Ordination Allegory

– GUARANTEED. YOU READ THIS BOOK ON WOMEN’S ORDINATION AND YOU WILL DECIDE TO STAND WITH THE BIBLE!!
– COMPELLING EVIDENCE
– A MUST READ
– DECISIVE AND VERY INTERESTING READ!!
– BE INFORMED ON THIS SUBJECT WHICH IS DIVIDING GOD’S PEOPLE FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA!!!

Nine Months Pregnant – The Seventh-day Adventist Church: A Women’s Ordination Allegory by Rick and Gwen Shorter is a common sense approach to the issue of women being ordained as pastors and elders and strongly defends the validity of God Word, which is now being attacked, with a vengeance.

To challenge the word of God by endeavoring to change its meaning about leadership and ordination is deception and nothing less than sin. The Bible was written by “Holy men of God“ as they were moved and taught by the Spirit of God. Most Christians believe just that. There are others who allude to this belief when it aligns with their own comfort zone, and when it does not, they try to adjust the word of God by adding to it, taking away from it or just stating, “I have a problem with that.”

In this book we, by no means, will attempt to prove the verity of the word of God, the Bible, by using man-made tactics. We would never take the time or space to try and match our wits against those of the so-called intellectuals and theologians who disagree with the writers of the Bible. The Bible writers were given thoughts from God to give to the human race and, above all, to professed Christians. The Bible explains itself.

EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK NINE MONTHS PREGNANT

Chapter 10: Where Have All the Pages Gone?

Some years ago, back during my New York show business days, before I became a Christian, I recall a conversation with one of my many strange associates. I imagine that some of them may have viewed me in the same light. But I must say that, in the vernacular of those days–the 60’s, this associate of mine was considered as being “deep,” another word for very different. During the course of one of our conversations about religion and the Bible, he informed me of his wonderful ongoing project. He shared with me in very serious tones, “Rick, I’ve been writing my own ‘bible'”. At that time in my life I had seen and heard so many strange ideas offered by so many strange individuals that what he told me didn’t make much of an impression. It went in one ear and out the other as they say. Years later and especially now, as a Christian, what he told me has become a very serious issue for me.

When my life was changed, by the Lord, my wife and I decided to become full-time Medical Missionaries as members of the SDA church. We launched out into the deep by opening a Vegetarian Restaurant in New York City. This former associate of mine along with his group of friends quite often would stop by our place and enjoy a good vegetarian meal. They were all vegetarians and felt right at home except for the fact that we were Christians and they were all Spiritualists. Yes, my “bible-writing” friend had written himself right into the Devil’s hands. The written Word of God was not good enough for him and so there was really no where else to turn, but to the word of Satan.

There were some Sundays when he and his friends would come into our restaurant for dinner, after leaving the seance that they had just attended. On one occasion, I somehow happened to mention the name of another former associate. He told me that that person was doing very well, just fine and that they had just recently spoken with him. That person had been dead for some years, but they had “spoken” to him in one of their recent spiritualistic seances and when they “called him up” from wherever his body was, he had told them that he was doing “just fine.” There was another time when I noticed that one of the group, an attractive young woman, was not with them and so, in passing, I asked about her. My former associate, in a matter of fact way, merely said that she had died. We later discovered that she had died while in a trance. What an unnecessary loss! His self-written “bible” hadn’t been of any value to him or his friends.

Why do I relate this story? Here’s the reason “in a nut shell”. There are factions in the SDA Church, some knowingly and some unknowingly, systematically tearing out the pages of God’s Written Word, belief by belief, and in doing so are writing their own “bible!” Reader, how would it strike you if you saw someone tearing out the pages of the Bible that deal with God revealing to humanity the way He created this world that we live in and how long it took Him to do the job, so to speak? Would that get your attention?

I should really be asking, why hasn’t this gotten the attention of every member of the SDA church? The theory of evolution has already found its way into some of our educational institutions. The creation story pages are being torn out. Haven’t we been hearing for sometime now that the writings of the prophets are not for our day? So, let’s just tear out those Bible pages that aren’t relevant to our time. Some say, “the Spirit of Prophecy is inspiring and can be useful if you need to make an impressive point; but don’t take the prophets too seriously when they try to tell us how to live!” They were only people just like us. They take up too much space in the Bible and on the bookshelf anyway. Let’s write some books of a “New Order” that will catch the attention of the SDA people as they browse through the ABC store bookshelves.

The commandments of the Lord are not merely suggestions, but instead they are tender, loving directives. There are some of our people who believe that the pages of the Bible that give us direction regarding lifestyle should be eliminated. The counsel given on things like, how to dress, eat, drink, carry one’s self, and how to keep the Sabbath are just a few of the issues with which they are at odds. There are other directives such as what we should not put before our eyes, the type of music we should not listen to, who we should not associate with, not being a part of worldliness and more are recorded in the Bible for the good of mankind.

But these things interfere with the lifestyle of many unconverted SDAs and so they mentally tear out those pages that pertain to these things as well. Then there are the more theological portions of the Word, such as righteousness by faith that go against the grain of some so-called believers. Now those pages don’t get torn out, but they do get very wrinkled up in “The New Theology” that is really nothing more than “Cheap Grace.”

“Jesus did it all for us at the cross; there’s no way that we can be sinless until Jesus comes.” For some time now, we’ve been hearing the sound of those pages, that do support true righteousness by faith, being wrinkled up or torn from the Bible. Some say, “Oh yes, we believe in what is written on the pages of the Bible regarding leadership in the church of God, but not what the Apostle Paul states about headship. Unless the church changes the term headship to mean gender-inclusive, we’ll just remove those pages from the Bible one way or another.”