I refer to the short article by Merle Poirier in the August 2018 edition of Adventist Review on the spaghetti harvest. In 1957 I was living in Britain and saw that video clip when it aired. Author Poirier said that in 1957 “most of those living in the United Kingdom had only heard of spaghetti.” This is not true. Spaghetti and other pasta varieties were available in the grocery stores, and there were Italian restaurants and diners serving a variety of pasta dishes. So spaghetti was quite well known.
But spaghetti’s origin was not so well known. What made this hoax so successful was that the BBC was a trusted source of information. It had a reputation for truth and accuracy in reporting. So those who didn’t know any better were easily deceived by this clever piece of “reporting”; I think this is important to note.
We are unlikely to be deceived by anyone we don’t trust anyway. Trusted sources will have the greatest power to mislead and deceive. When friends, or even pastors, present us with “messages” or “doctrines” we haven’t heard before, we need to take the advice of author Poirier and pray for guidance of the Holy Spirit as we study carefully what God has revealed to us in His Word and in the Spirit of Prophecy.
Kathleen King
Australia
I understand that the July issue of the Adventist Review was dedicated to convincing those of us who do not feel comfortable calling the Godhead the Trinity that we should, in fact, do so. I do not get the point of Gerald Klingbeil’s article, “So What?” It really has nothing to do with the Godhead.
Joel Ridgeway wrote: “It [is] self-evident that there are three divine persons in the Godhead.” Then he says that “they are not three Gods.” That being the case, then they are not the Trinity, which I understand is defined as three gods in one.
Therefore, we should do as Ellen White says—call the three persons of the heavenly Trio the Godhead and not try to be as much like the Roman Catholic Church as possible.
You will not find the word “trinity” in the Bible or in the Spirit of Prophecy. We are advised by Ellen White that we should not accept a doctrine that is not plainly taught in the Scriptures. One of our prominent evangelists gets around this problem by defining “trinity” to be three personalities of the Godhead. We could probably all agree with this definition, but why not just follow the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy and call the Godhead what it is: the Godhead.
Philip Lewis
Seaman, Ohio
We recently got around to making Merle Poirier’s Gluten-free Sweet Potato Cake recipe and it was wonderful! With two members of our family who have celiac disease, we are always looking for good recipes we can all enjoy with a good texture. Even though this is quite belated, please accept our sincere gratitude for the inclusion of the recipe in the December 2017 issue!
Jaclyn Knight
New Market, Virginia
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