A well-researched undermining of SDA belief that should stir interest and outrage in the SDA fold.
A scholarly self-help book for those who feel trapped in the Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) church, a booming Protestant denomination with roughly 15 million members worldwide.
Think Y2K was anticlimactic? Consider the year 1844, when tens of thousands of believers in prophet William Miller’s prediction that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent on October 22 witnessed that date come and go without so much as a peep from Jesus. After wonderfully capturing this frenzied historical context and end-times hysteria, the Beems introduce prophetess Ellen White, a key figure in the founding of the SDA church in 1863 and an eccentric visionary who believed that Miller wasn’t necessarily wrong in his end-times calculations, he just didn’t realize that Jesus was starting His judgment in heaven instead of on earth. Nice spin. The authors pick apart White’s life and writings to destabilize the historical, scriptural and doctrinal pillars of the SDA organization. Exposure to mercury vapors and a violent head injury as a schoolgirl, for instance, are posited as possible causes of White’s visions. And White’s recommended diet, including the prohibition of alcoholic beverages and tobacco, are unveiled as unoriginal ideas. The Beems continue to shake the other pillars of the church, specifically the Three Angels’ Message in the book of Revelations and the near obsession of honoring the Sabbath on the seventh day, Saturday; the closing chapter, a step-by-step exit guide for SDAs, rounds out the book nicely. On the whole, the Beems put forth a strong argument that White and the SDA church can’t see the forest for the trees, focusing intently on despair-inducing, doom-and-gloom scenarios instead of rejoicing in the good news that one need only believe in Jesus to be saved. But the evidence is laid on thick–perhaps too thick at times–and one can’t help but wonder if the Beems would have benefited more from publishing a pared-down manifesto and softening their criticisms with a little more subtlety to avoid inevitable accusations of the book being a retaliatory strike at their former church.
A well-researched undermining of SDA belief that should stir interest and outrage in the SDA fold.Pub Date: July 24, 2008
ISBN: 978-1419654671
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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