I wonder if James is fair in his picture of this belief.

most adventists have very little interaction with non-sdas discussing bible related issues, dont they/we?

im not talking about the prepared bible studies where the non-sdas sit and listen to the speech.....

How many non-Adventists do you know who are interested in such? The best I had was with the Mormon missionaries, who studied with me for a year. A year! (Of course, they would change partners every six weeks or so, so I studied with a number of them, and not just two the whole time.) Mormons have an understanding of Bible symbols, similar to what Adventists have. Such an understanding is rare among other denominations.

Most non-Adventists are content with their present knowledge of the Bible and do not take time, nor seem to have interest in studying it further. If they did study more, we would have more Adventists.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

i think you proved my point.

or perhaps i didnt make it clear....

im talking about improptu discussions that come up with people we know....neighbors, people we do various business with,...

its kinda hard to think of a time a bible related discussion doesnt come up with someone i know or meet, sooner or later.

Such discussions do come up occationally, but on a somewhat different side of things since my non-sda friends are agnostic at best and atheist otherwise.

I sometimes hear it said as it has been here that non-sda christians are not interested in the scriptures, and before when I only knew about adventist christianity I could believe it. But having heard and read and spoken with such christians, I can only conclude that it somehow gives the person who says it better confidence or is a way of patting oneself on the back or something like that. Because reality and this view of things does not match up. If there is a thread of pet adventist myths on this forum, someone should add the "only adventists are interested in the bible" to it.

since i find so many self-proclaimed, as well as those who make no claim to being, christians interested in the bible i also wonder at the conclusions.

For those of you who appear to be ignorant of my situation, and are making false judgments based upon it, let me inform you.

1) I am not living in the same conditions you may be.
--I do not speak the local language here fluently, so I meet few people with whom I can communicate on a spiritual level (I do not yet have most of the religious words in my Chinese vocabulary).
--Most people here have no Bible, no knowledge of the Bible, and no interest in it. They are not Christians. Perhaps 5% of people you meet here are Christians.
2) I have communicated with a number of non-Adventist Christians on Bible topics in the past. Most of them truly did not have much interest in studying further. They were content, as are most Adventists, with what they already knew.
3) A number of the ones who did appear to enjoy Bible study actually had their own pet agenda to push, which included some improper interpretations (such as "Michael" representing a created being, etc.).
4) I work with one individual who is non-Adventist, but Christian. We have had Bible discussions.
5) Everyone else I work with is Adventist.

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Oh...and I forgot to mention...most of my non-Adventist neighbors around here do not speak Chinese. They speak Taiwanese. I do not speak Taiwanese...so we are at a complete impasse linguistically. In such conditions, how many Bible discussions would you have?

Blessings,

Green Cochoa.

Comparing your points 2 and 3 above, I wonder if those christians you meet in the past would say you had a pet agenda to push?

And of course you are right in pointing out that different circumstances requires different expectations.