Brother Richards Comment:
"The creation of such false stories causes reproach to fall not only upon Seventh-day Adventists, but upon Christians in general. And, when those who believed such lies, find out they were misled, some will lose their faith in God".
I am not convinced that Ron W. was a SDA. He did seem to believe as we do. But when talking about who believed his sightings and who did not, he clamed that "the Seventh-Day Adventists" gave him more un-belief than any other faith. Brother Standish being the one he quoted from most of the time, as he fought it tooth and nail. Don't recall which brother Standish.
I myself am not taking a stand on this one way or the other because I simply don't know. But my eldest son bought his tapes and books. The first thing that hit me was that the tapes appeared to be very "home done" and not at all professional. But I was not going to make a call because of that.
I have done a lot of reading of his books, especially of the one where he answers the questions that people have brought up, including many by brother Standish. He is most convincing. One of the things I recall on the place of the ark and also about the mountain where Moses got the Ten Commandments and where also died is that he has found that the place "man" says these places were was not correct. I can believe that. He gives plenty of proof for this and it makes very good sense. Why, because the Bible really does give clues where the mountain where Moses died is, and it is not where they say it is. So I can believe that he could be correct about the Ark too.
As far as what Dr. John Baumgartner said. I would only take it with a grain of salt at this point.
He really did claim to find the Ark of the Covenant. His story was so believable and amazing that I almost fell for it. To this day there are SDA's that teach it is not true. But I am holding out on that one too because I don't know. His work was closed up on that do to the Jews not wanting it to go any farther and do to getting where they needed to in order to get it out was next to impossible. Getting a small person in there was hard enough. If it is true, it must not have been the right time.
The Turks have no problems with people believing where the ark is, as long as they are not right.
Ron W. almost lost his life going back to where he believes Moses died. And he even returned again after that with the right people so he did not get arrested that time. But they fenced it off after that.
Even reading all I did on it, I cannot say if it is true and not. But I could never say he was wrong, but I don't know if he was right either. I do know that reading it was a powerfully interesting read. How one man could claim all of it with such convincing proof (and believe me he had it) is something I don't know how one man could make up all that. He also had the answer for the real place that Moses crossed over and all the E. army was killed. It made powerful sense.
But even feeling this way, I can't say it is true or even some of it is. I don't feel anyone knows except maybe those who may not want the world to know the true answer. I leave it in God's hands. In time, if it is His Will, man may know the answer to some of these things without doubt.
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With Christian Love,
Sister Marie