Regarding Some Teaching at Forest Lake Church, Derek Morris and Spiritual Formation

Fundamental Beliefs Attacked from Within

A little over a year ago I began having a dialogue with the author(s) of another "Christian" blog called Doctrine Discussion. At first I was under the impression that the author viewed the Seventh-day Adventist church as a cult because this blog was seemingly focused on attacking the fundamental beliefs of Adventism.

Our discussion went on for about in a month, during which time I found out that not only was this person familiar with Adventist doctrines but he was actually a teacher in the church, holding Bible studies at Forest Lake Church.

When I found that the author of the Doctrine Discussion blog, who was attacking the very foundations of the Adventist faith, was teaching others at Forest Lake Church, I made the difficult decision to contact Dr. Derek Morris and inform him of what was going on. I thought that he would want to know about the falsehoods being taught at his church and would take immediate action to bring these gentlemen back into line with the Gospel of Christ or at least stop them from spreading their errors to his members.

What I want to focus on is what I know: there is at least one person (possibly three) leading Wednesday night/Saturday morning Bible studies at Forest Lake Church who is openly opposed to foundational Adventist doctrine.

These are just a few quotes from the author of the Doctrine Discussion blog, called erp and Erin, who is conducting Bible studies at Forest Lake Church:

"i still fascilitate a wed. night and sat. morning bible study at the Forest Lake SDA Church in Apopka, FL."

"I will briefly say, Adam, Shawn, and I and our families are what the world calls adventist. We chose to call it brother and servant. I was even in sda ministry as I think I mentioned before."

"i have been called here so here i serve until the Lord leads elsewhere."

"yeah i know derek. we were in a bible study together for the better part of last year."

"The ten commandments were the first covenant plain as day it says it right here no mistake."

"Now if the law has not ended for you then you do not believe that Jesus did what He said He did. This is not rocket science."

"If your position is that Christ did not take away the law with commands then you are still the old man, do not desire peace, and are working against the purpose of Christ."

"If we don't believe this then we are simply denying the power of the cross and the work Christ accomplished there. The cross has become of no use or effect for us"

"I believe that sabbath rest is achieved in resting from my own efforts to save myself or conform to the written law." - Shawn

"I have been studying into this more lately and have come to the understanding that spliting off into denominations is sin and is not at all what Jesus intended for us to do." - Shawn

"no record is found in scripture of a group claiming remnancy. for this reason i am confident that God's elect and His Self chosen remnant, "He has reserved them unto Himself", are not and will never be a self proclaiming organization or denomination."

"in the Kingdom of God the phrase and title Seventh Day Adventist means nothing, the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself in love. any other focus takes away from the real spiritual journey of believing. to all my brothers and sisters that claim the name SDA, i send my love and pray for your mercy. the high places still remain, and we can not rest until they are all torn down."

Make no mistake that the mission of this person, or persons, teaching at Forest Lake Church is to destroy the pillars of faith on which the Remnant stands, and to bring down the very Remnant itself. Do not think for one second that the "high places," of which these teachers proclaim that they "can not rest until they are all torn down," are anything other than the Seventh-day Adventist church.

The Doctrine Discussion blog was promptly deleted by the author after our dialogues concluded. However, the author currently has another blog called Come Experience Freedom.

Please know that I hold no ill-will toward these men who are teaching error...I continue to hope they will leave these false teachings and return to the truth of Christ. My only purpose in posting this information is to, hopefully, stop these men from spreading their falsehoods within the doors of the very church they hope to tear down.

Originally, this article contained information about Dr. Derek Morris and his involvement with Spiritual Formation, a practice devised by Ignatius Loyola who also founded the Jesuits. I am not a conspiracy theorist and I firmly believe we should keep our eyes on Jesus Christ and not on the various and sundry forms of evil and corruption in the world. We become like what we behold, so let us continue beholding our Lord.

If you want to learn about Spiritual Formation, I suggest the following sermons by Pastor Rick Howard:

Spirit of Prophecy or Spiritual Exercises

Spiritual Formation, Ellen G. White, and Daniel 11:30-36

If you want more information specifically regarding Derek Morris' involvement in Spiritual Formation, I suggest the following article:

Catholic Studies at Southern College - Spiritual Formation

If you would like the complete document of my discussions with the three men who claimed to be Seventh-day Adventists in name only and who are/were spreading their doctrines within the church, specifically Forest Lake Church, message me.

Ordination of Women in the Northern California Conference

Below is a response I posted to an article at Spectrum Magazine which was speaking of the push for the Northern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists to recommend that the current practice of "ordaining" men and "commissioning" women be dismissed in favor of ordaining both men and women to the pastoral ministry.

"Such clever maneuvering.

1st, "The present system of ordaining men and commissioning women is an exercise in semantics." ...this was a modest enough move to slip by the fundamentals.

2nd, "...supporting the concept that the same language “Ordination” or “Commission” be equally applied to both men and women" ...now that the proverbial snake has been let in the door, the final thrust is made.

The feminist agenda, if you can call it that, is very reminiscent of the homosexual agenda inasmuch as first it's tolerance that is demanded...but eventually the demand is for acceptance. "Live and let live" is not enough for some of these groups...they want to hear the opposition confess that, "Yes, it is perfectly OK...there's nothing wrong with it."

Why would women be so angry that they aren't called to all the same positions as men? Doesn't it scream of pride and arrogance?

I have yet to hear ONE proponent of the ordination of women give ANY scriptural support for the practice. Is the Bible our supreme rule of faith or not? Are we to rely on our own reasonings of what is "fair" and "right" and "good"?"

Amazing Facts Acquires Satellite Channel

Our favorite evangelist, Doug Batchelor, and his inherited ministry, Amazing Facts, have just announced that they have acquired a satellite television channel on Galaxy 19, which covers North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The new channel, Amazing Facts Television (AFTV) will be available to view starting tomorrow, March 19th.

See the official announcement on the Amazing Facts website, here.