1. Parabolic Methodology or Death - You Choose (02-10-2021).
03:30 - Prophecy and morality are the same thing. Since the message has become so moralistic, humanistic, people have stopped caring about organisation and are disrespectful toward leadership. People are opening businesses and pursuing careers and the cares of this life. "What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Cor. 6:19, 20). So please consider your duties and obligations to God's church.
12:30 - This is not a humanistic movement. It is a movement which follows prophecy and is committed to law keeping. Jesus says, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." (John 13:34) So this humanistic modeling that we study is the commandment that we had forgotten. It is not actually new. Love one another, the church members, not love yourself. Not take care of yourself, or even your family.
15:30 - 2John 1:5 repeats these words of Jesus. Just because we study human relationships, it is still all prophecy. We have studied from Christ Object Lessons a great deal and Jesus did not speak in parables, He was a parable - as a person thinketh in their heart, so are they (Proverbs 23:7). Adventists do not understand why did Jesus die, and where did Jesus die? The second question can only be answered if you understand parable methodology. The only way to understand the spiritual Being, God, is to understand the human. Your relationship to God can only be discovered, understood, and learned through human relationships. This is why the message seems to have shifted to what people call prophecy, to morality.
20:15 - Someone had to reteach us because we were liars. 1John 4:20, we loved the invisible God more than we loved the visible human form. We focussed on the fourth commandment until our lives and our message became as dry as the hills of Gilboa. Following in the footsteps of our foreparents. So we were sent a messenger to get us back on track, just as God had to send the messengers in the 1888 history. So even though the message may seem moralistic, the only way it can be understood is using parables.
23:20 - People get excited and all they want is the answers and not the methodology. There are several problems to this, one being Mark 8:18.
27:30 - "...having ears, hear ye not..." (Mark 8:18). People do not listen to what Elder Parminder is saying. People are wrapped up in their lives now, they have forgotten that their liberty was given to them as a gift. Although eternal life is not a gift. It cannot be bought with money but it costs you everything. So when you start to focus on the cares of this life, because you think eternal life is cheap, you are making a mistake to your own destruction. But for the past 18 months we have been teaching to love your fellow church members.
30:30 - This is a prophetic message not a humanistic message, and it still follows the same rules as it always has. That was all an introduction to an issue we will address now. Christians think marriage is the greatest thing. This movement has a very high separation and divorce rate, which is a good thing. Marriage is one of five relationships which we have discussed previously many times. We have been discussing Matthew 19 for several presentations now, about the rules of marriage and divorce.
34:30 - We are all excitedly asking, When can I remarry for any reason that takes my fancy? Many of us are asking, can we remarry after we have divorced due to abuse. Last month, on the September 11th 2021 presentation at one hour and ten minutes, Elder Parminder did not give permission to remarry after divorce due to abuse. The compare and contrast was choice v no choice using the example of an abused wife.
43:00 - One of the reasons she is forced to stay in the abusive marriage is because she has no financial freedom. We could call it being in economic slavery to her husband. That would especially apply to at least three quarters of the countries in this movement.
49:30 - Elder Parminder fears that even people in this meeting will lose their salvation because they have a superficial commitment. While people think this message gives them more liberty, in fact the standards of behaviour are much higher than they were three or five years ago. For example, ten years ago we would say look at the message not the messenger. Do not pry into people's private lives. If a speaker abuses his wife, who are we to judge, and quote an Ellen White statement about the sacred family circle. Now that abuse is exposed and no longer tolerated. So Heaven is harder to attain today, not easier.
53:30 - When people disrespect the elder's eldership, they only hurt their own salvation.
57:00 - When Elder Parminder began speaking about homosexuality, the rights and wrongs, everyone was expecting him to deal with the six verses, three from the Old Testament and three from the New Testament; Leviticus, Romans, Ephesians, Timothy. They wanted him to deal with these verses and he did not do that. He approached the subject from a better way. It is really important when you are a teacher to consider how you approach a subject.
58:50 - It seems inappropriate just to go into those verses sequentially. If he had done that we would not have won the argument. Explaining verses does not help people. An example is the summer of 2019 in France and God says to Elder Tess, Tell the women to wear trousers. And the rest of us are thinking, Doesn't she know the verses? In the studies she did there was no mention of Deuteronomy, no discussion about what Ellen White said. She did not express it this way, but she was telling us, God told me this is what we are going to do so we are going to do it. And we are all saying, By what authority are you going to make these changes?
61:30 - That was July, and if we go forward six months in Uganda, and now we are going to tackle the verses, six months after the commandment comes. This is how God operates. Go back 14 years to 2007. Elder Jeff is teaching error, saying, God told me that the latter rain is before the Sunday Law. We know that is not true. So when members started standing up and resisting that, saying that is not according to Inspiration, he told them to leave, literally. And they did. They left the movement and are lost. Approximately eight or nine years, not six months, is how long it took this movement to give an answer to that question.
65:00 - Go back to 2007 and we lost half a continent and Elder Jeff did not care. You either get on board or you leave, and you are not going to get a proper answer for eight or nine years. So if you do not know what Elder Parminder is talking about, because he does things in a different way, be patient. It will not be eight years before he answers. He does not do things in the conventional way. In fact, God does not! Expect the unexpected.
66:45 - If you stick with the methodology it will all make sense. Since the formalisation of the message in August 2021 up till now, Elder Parminder is looking at the subject of homosexuality and same-sex marriage and explore the subject from the perspective of Inspiration, and Inspiration is more than six verses, it is thousands of verse. If Elder Parminder chooses to go to Matthew 19 to begin the subject do not be surprised.
2. Some Things are Difficult to Understand, This is Not One of Them (02-10-2021).
02:30 - We have been discussing same-sex marriage, beginning in Matthew 19. Elder Parminder said the verses in Matthew 19 were definite proof that we should have same-sex marriage. If you explore other verses and Spirit of Prophecy and put them in sequential order, you could develop a water-tight argument to show the validity of same-sex marriage based upon one ordinance, that of celibacy. There is only one type of celibacy and that is voluntary celibacy.
07:00 Then all you need to do is collect some verses together, and you can prove the validity of same-sex marriage, based on the principle of choice, and the example of celibacy. Elder Parminder tries to take the entire subject of same-sex marriage and just examine one small aspect of it. That one aspect is one stepping stone to the conclusion. In this particular study, you can actually draw a conclusion just from that one particular stepping stone. In some subjects, that one stepping stone only gives you a partial answer to just one piece of the subject.
10:00 But this time, just with the principle of choice and the example of voluntary celibacy, you can demonstrate that same-sex marriage is allowed. So we have to change our minds and God's position today has to be legal, has to follow law, no matter what God has said in the past. God has to follow one of the fundamental laws of Heaven, the nature of choice. For example, we know love cannot be forced as it is against the rules of Heaven. But if you are not going to force people into celibacy, which means no pressure nor manipulation, then you have to use some other motivating factor. We can just call it love.
13:30 A message to parents. The technique of manipulating the truth to get a desired result, to make your children behave, is not only wrong and dangerous, it is counterproductive. You will never take someone to the truth by telling them a lie. Whether it is lying to your children or forcing your church members into doing things by an untruth, because you think it is a good way does not make it right. We develop all these ideas just within this first stepping stone. The principle and example of voluntary celibacy as a choice, proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that same-sex marriage has to be approved. And what we authorise here on Earth shall be ratified in Heaven, because God is bound by the same law that we are bound by.
17:20 When Christ talks about taking Heaven by storm, by force, this is what is meant. You can force God to do something, if it is in agreement with the law. It may sound provocative or even blasphemous, that we are telling God what to do. But God would want you to tell God what to do. As long as it is in agreement with the law and God's will, because it demonstrates to God how you think, who you are, and the direction in which you are heading. Elder Parminder used all of these principles just on this one stepping stone, hence the strength of this argument. So you can prove the conclusion of this entire subject just in the first step that we have taken.
20:30 But this is just the beginning and there is much to learn, so do not think we are experts. You cannot get one principle or one verse to fight against another. Inspiration must complement, not contradict.
22:55: Elder Parminder wants us to be clear that when he said it's a shut case, it's all been proven now, he has not given definitive proof. He has not even looked at the six verses yet. But he just wants to emphasise what he thinks is a really profound and beautiful revelation. That Matthew 19, a passage that is dealing with the laws of divorce can be used to demostrate the veracity and the truthfulness of same-sex marriage in the 21st century. This is not fighting Inspiration as you have to understand the context of Matthew 19.
24:40 What God said yesterday meant one thing yesterday, but that does not mean the same thing today, because you have to understand the context. Yesterday God said kill all your enemies, but now God says love your enemies. You have to understand the context. Teachers need to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Everyone contextualises Inspiration, but most will pick and choose how, when and what to contextualise. You must be consistent and contextualise everything, and you must know your enemy and know when they are manipulating you. Remember that 99 percent of the time they are not doing it deliberately. Remember those things and you will be a good teacher.
28:30 Remember the subject is not about celibacy, it is about eunuchs. In Matthew 19 Jesus says, if you are a man and cannot produce babies you are not allowed to get married. We know that is not true, and that was not the point Jesus was making. Jesus was speaking specifically to the Jewish economy which is very different to ours today.
31:30 Elder Parminder is not making any point about anybody personally having children today, but asks, how do you increase the kingdom of heaven? Today, it is not by having children. Today the best way is evangelism.
35:50 In Matthew 19 Jesus' point is that the purpose for marriage is to produce babies, which was for the sole purpose of keeping the glorious land, Palestine, safe and secure and prosperous. And do not forget, Jerusalem was supposed to stand until the end of Earth's history. But now, holy Jerusalem of Bible prophecy has been destroyed in 70 A.D. Since then, if you do not need people to take care of the city then you do not need all the children. Again, this is not a study on the rights and wrongs of having children today. It is a study on the kingdom of Heaven, and about 2000 years ago, there was a fundamental change. Jesus was changing how the kingdom works right before the eyes of the disciples, but they did not like it.
40:20 When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman, the Syrophoenician woman, the Ethiopian eunuch, these stories are about the kingdom of Heaven. That's why the disciples were not at home having children. You can have children for your personal reasons but do not have them because you think you are increasing the kingdom of Heaven. Do not think you are having children to glorify God. Psalm 127:3, "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward." Go and ask most parents if that statement is true. You all know it is not. Children are not God's reward, they usually end up being Satan's reward, Satan's heritage. That is what real life looks like.
44:00 Roman 9:6b, "For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel". 1Corinthians 10:18, "Behold Israel after the flesh...". Galatians 4, two wives, two cities, two kingdoms, one natural, one spiritual. Your natural children are not part of God's heritage. That is Old Testament thinking. In the distant past if you wanted to save your children you would smack them, live in a safe place and make them live there with you. Then you're safe and they're safe. Like the story of Noah. The only reason his family was saved is because he was righteous and they just stayed with him. But the context and the rules are different today.
47:00 The purpose of marriage today is not to have babies, because we are not ancient Israel. The purpose of life for ancient Israel was to increase the kingdom of Heaven, and the way to do that, if you are Eli for example, is just to produce two boys. It did not matter if they were good or bad, the high priest just needed a son to carry on being the high priest. Their character is irrelevant, as long as they know how to do their job.
48:30 In fact, that is all this movement was concerned about a few years ago. Our high priest, Elder Jeff, was producing all of these baby boys so to speak. He said, Don't look at their characters, just as long as they can teach the 2520 properly, that is all we care about. If they abuse their wives a bit it does not matter. Just as long as they understand correct doctrine and are competent teachers and are willing to travel. Nothing new under the sun! So let us not be too hard on Eli when our leaders were doing the same thing. Praise God that Paul especially is going to start to change this whole philosophy. The only problem is that Paul gives us half the problems about same-sex marriage that we have to deal with today. Our problem is that we do not understand the context of what he was teaching.
52:00 Do not worry about the verses. Get your mindset in the right place and understand the change in dispensation from the Old Testament to now, and the forty years of the New Testament. That forty year transition from around 30 A.D to 70 A.D. Even today Christians and some of us fail to understand this. Only Jesus and Paul seem to understand how the kingdom of Heaven is formed, created and nurtured, and once it has been nurtured, how it grows - the mechanism. Conservative Christians only think one thing, the man sows his seed to the glory of God and the kingdom of Heaven increases. But it has not worked like that for 2000 years. We are spiritual Israel, not literal Israel, and your children, if they are going to go to Heaven are spiritual children, not literal children.
55:00 So when we start thinking about the terms and conditions of marriage, children are not part of that story. They are not part of the narrative. This is one of the most popular arguments Christians have against same-sex marriage - that the physical parts do not fit together. They argue that if they cannot have children then they cannot get married and use Matthew 19 as their proof text! Again, they do not understand context.
57:00 Having babies has nothing to do with increasing the kingdom of Heaven, because not all of Israel are Israel, or we could say, not all of our literal children are our spiritual children. You cannot give your literal children to God as they are not His heritage. Judah sleeps with his daughter-in-law, then wants to kill her for sleeping with him, and at the end of it all stands as a righteous person! And look Who comes from Judah! Elder Parminder hopes he has given enough examples to show you, you cannot proof text your way out of this problem. You cannot win the argument with people, with your family, your friends, the church by going into the Greek of Romans 1 and prove your point. The conclusion of the study on women wearing trousers was that Deuteronomy 22:5 no longer applies. So if the Bible had 6000 verses, it now has 5999. That one verse is still good for doctrine, for reproof and for instruction but it does not mean it is applicable today. And that was not the answer that people were expecting. This is a subject of philosophy, of psychology, not if you know how to use Strong's, Thayers or Brown Driver-Brigss. Those tools have their use but they will not help you with this particular subject.
63:00 Elder Parminder has tried to explain the direction he has conducted this study and why. Some people complain that he makes studies too complicated and this leads others to try to simplify his studies for others. Peter did not try to simplify Paul's message, Peter correctly identified the real issue and said, "As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood..." (2Peter 3:16). Paul was only hard to understand because people were not willing to accept his methodology. There were members in his church, Ephesus, who refused to accept the premise upon which he taught. Lydia did not have a problem. A few years earlier the Ethiopian eunuch did not have a problem. It was only the people in the church who had a problem, like the Jerusalem council who sent Paul to his death. "...which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction." (Ibid.)
70:00 In other words, Paul talks about these things in his letters and part of what he says is hard to understand. Some ignorant and unsteady people even destroyed themselves by twisting what Paul says and they do not only twist Paul's words, they twist other portions of Scripture so they can fight against Paul. So do not let the errors of evil people lead you in the wrong direction. Do not lose your balance, but rather do the following. Let the wonderful kindness and goodness and the understanding that comes from God and Jesus the Christ help you to keep growing. Praise Jesus now and forever, amen.