I Have Found My Rest

MICHAEL WERK

 

The year was 1969, when a young man from England met a farm girl from the Canadian Prairies. He was working in Canada that summer to pay for university. Their time together was short-lived, and soon he returned home for school. Little did either of them know the last time they saw each other that months later a baby would be born. The two would lose contact with each other, and a single 17-year-old, along with the support of her parents, would have to raise her son without his father. 

That young woman was my mother, and she would later marry another man who would become my dad. My parents would have two more children, and so my brother, sister, and I would be raised in Western Canada. Dad was raised a Seventh-day Adventist—a third generation Seventh-day Adventist—but he had left his church to pursue the world, much like the prodigal son. After a few years of marriage, however, he returned to the Adventist church of his roots, and he along with my mom were baptized as Seventh-day Adventists. 

My parents raised us siblings as fourth generation Seventh-day Adventists. Other than a couple years of high school, I was educated from the first grade through college in the Adventist school system. I grew up in the Adventism of the 1970’s and 80’s, a time when it was a rules-based religion preaching salvation by works—you know, salvation based on being vegetarian (a rule which thankfully we never followed), salvation based on keeping the Sabbath, and salvation based on not drinking alcohol or caffeine, just to name a few of our distinctive practices. Sadly, there are many Adventists who still believe that salvation requires keeping these rules today.

 To say we were indoctrinated as Adventists is an understatement. Our lives were centered in the church, and almost all our friends were Adventist. Yet from this sheltered world I still claim some of my closest friends. Some of them have been in my life going on 40 years. They are friends who are closer than family, friends who wrapped their arms around my family and me when my dad lost his life in a plane crash 25 years ago. 

My biblical knowledge and my great controversy worldview I learned through the lens of Adventist teachings I received in their schools and churches. We were taught how to study the Bible by picking a verse here or there to support the Adventist doctrines. We were never taught to read in context. Even minoring in religion in college, I was only taught the Adventist way of studying, which always included Ellen White’s writings. 

As Adventists we already had all the answers on topics such as the Sabbath, the coming Sunday laws, death, and how the world was going to end. What more was I—or anyone else—going to add? Besides, Adventists could “prove” everything through their selective picking of verses in the Bible combined with—of course—Ellen White. 

Oh, I knew all the main Bible stories, but my depth of understanding was determined by the lens of Adventism. I accepted Jesus as I understood Him and was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church at the age of 12. Looking back, I realize just how ignorant I was of true biblical knowledge. 

 

What do I believe?

A few years later as I was flying to serve as a student missionary, a fellow passenger asked me about my church. All I could tell her was that we went to church on Saturday Sabbath and had 27 Fundamental Beliefs. I honestly did not know the gospel, and I was never able to explain Adventist doctrine. She was shocked that a church would send someone to be a missionary who could not explain what his church taught and believed. 

After my year abroad I returned home to finish college. It was during that time I decided to look at God more logically. As I saw it, there were two choices: either God wasn’t real, so I might as well enjoy what life had to offer because there was nothing afterwards; or second, God was real, so I needed to obey and hope that I would be good enough to be saved. I reasoned that as an Adventist, at least we had issues like the Sabbath, death, and hell right, not like those Sunday-keepers who believed in life after death and eternal punishment. So I stayed in the Adventist church. 

I think Jesus spoke of me in the parable of the prodigal son. In the story there are two sons. Everyone focuses on the one that left, and rightly so. But what about the other son, the one who stayed behind? I was like the son who hadn’t run off. I stayed home; I stayed in the church because I believed that my staying in the ‘right church’ would somehow be enough. Yet I was just as lost as the son who had left. 

 

Spiritually empty

As Adventists we were not taught the inerrancy of the Word of God, and because the Bible supposedly had some errors in it, we were taught that God provided Ellen White to help us understand and interpret His Word. I believed in God, but I wanted proof, something more than just hope and faith. Sadly, I had never read the gospel—the evidence I craved—found in 1 Corinthians 15:3-6: 

Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time ….

The gospel is simple, compelling, and complete—but I did not know it. 

After college I married an Adventist girl, and off we went to start our lives. We settled on an Adventist church where we felt we could put down roots and raise our family. The years went by, and three children later, in the middle of our careers, I realized I was spiritually empty. 

Oh, I believed in God, but I had little more. Sadly, I did not know my wife felt the same way I did. We found ourselves so occupied with the busyness of church, kids, and work that we did not know how spiritually empty we were. Little did I expect that God wasn’t finished with me yet. 

Have you ever heard the saying, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear”? Well, that’s what happened to me when I received a text message from Scott, a former Adventist, who was inviting me to his Bible study. I readily accepted. 

I have to add that I was not looking to leave the Adventist Church; rather, I wanted a better understanding of God and of the Bible. Had my wife known what would happen as a result of that study, I wonder now if she would have encouraged me to attend. 

We spent the next four months reading line by line, verse by verse, the book of Galatians. We read verses including:

…knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified (Gal. 2:16).

 For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly (Gal. 2:29).

For as many as are under the works of the Law are under a curse (Gal. 3:10).

Here in these texts was the proof of grace alone, and yet my Adventist doctrine stood in opposition to it. 

Let me add that I was never a big fan of Ellen White or the investigative judgement, but I thought as most Adventist do, that we could pick and choose what we wanted to believe and follow. I even thought the Adventist organization could survive without its prophetess and its central doctrine! 

Sadly, however, every doctrine and practice of Adventism is based on Ellen White and the investigative judgment. 

Armed with questions, I turned to my former Adventist friend for answers, and that’s when I learned about Dale Ratzlaff. I learned Dale was a former Adventist pastor who had all the answers to my questions. I ordered Cultic Doctrine of Seventh-day ­Adventists and began to read that book and others. 

As I studied, attending church on Sabbaths became increasingly difficult as everything I heard seemed to stand in opposition to the Bible. I started to see that keeping the Sabbath and the food laws were things I was doing for my salvation.

As my wife and I discussed these ideas in disagreement, she continued to focus on what she had to do for salvation, and I kept reminding her, it’s not about YOU! It was not a happy time in our household! 

By the fall of 2015, I knew I could not continue attending the Adventist church. Telling my wife I was going to stop attending church with her and our children was the hardest discussion we have ever had, and certainly it was one neither of us had ever dreamed would occur. 

I immediately stepped down from my church positions and stopped attending. I stopped attending because it became an issue of integrity for me; I could not continue to attend and lie about what I believed. I knew it would be impossible to change the church from within, so I would have to leave. Besides that, what would my kids think when they grew up and learned the errors of Adventism and learned I kept them there? 

 

Relearning

The gospel was so clear to me now, and I was so frustrated that my wife could not see it. I shared with my children that I no longer believed what the Adventist church taught and needed time to figure things out. 

My first Former Adventist Fellowship (FAF) Conference was in 2016, and Gary Inrig walked through the prophecies of Daniel and utterly destroyed the horrible false teachings of the investigative judgement that the Adventist organization continues to propagate. 

Dale Ratzlaff, Colleen Tinker, and others built my confidence that leaving the Adventist church was the right choice. But I still had so much more to learn. Dale and Carolyn had a Q&A session, and I decided to question Dale on the topic of death! As I used those familiar Adventist talking points, he gracefully used the Bible to explain death. 

Even though I had left the Adventist church, I still was thinking like an Adventist. 

Later I would ask my kids questions, probing what they learned in Sabbath School, and I tried to explain to them about Ellen White and how she was not a true prophet of God. 

One night I asked my wife and kids where Adam was when Eve took the fruit in the garden and sinned. They all answered that Adam was in the garden away from Eve. I asked them to get a Bible and look at Genesis 3:6: 

So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 

Our kids thought maybe the difference in Adam’s being away or “with her” was just the version they were reading, so they brought out every Bible version we had and began to read Genesis 3. Surprisingly, every Bible version said the same thing—Adam was “with her”—every version, that is, except for the Adventist The Clear Word. No surprise there! 

The seed was planted; maybe Dad wasn’t so crazy after all. If all the Bibles were so clear on this simple point, maybe there were other things they had learned that were wrong. 

Let me add here that I was just a little upset at God because my family had not left with me. We were not on this journey together. I had considered removing my membership, but I really did not want to take that step without my wife. I honestly doubted that she would ever leave, but I continued to act as if she would. 

Thankfully my wife said I needed to find a church; she would never be open to the idea of not attending church with our children. 

That first Sunday was not easy because those old Adventist tapes still played in my head, but I had gone to Redeemer Fellowship, and Gary Inrig preached on Jesus from the Gospel of John. I knew that’s where I needed to be: a church where real biblical expository preaching was happening. 

Besides that, those Sunday “keepers” weren’t as crazy as I had been led to believe as an Adventist. 

I knew there were former Adventists in attendance, and it seemed every Sunday Carel Stevenson and I would discuss a different doctrine as he helped me see that the words of the Bible meant what they said, and I could trust them. 

Slowly, one by one, my family agreed to attend church with me. Maybe they agreed to go for the free donuts after the service, I don’t know, but I knew if I could just get them in church, they would hear real Bible preaching. It took time, but eventually they started to come with me every week. 

We learned Redeemer Fellowship had an FAF Bible Study on Friday nights, and at my wife’s insistence, we decided to attend. Within months I learned more than I had in the previous two years on my own. I watched as Nikki Stevenson, Cheryl Granger, Colleen Tinker, and the other women wrapped their arms around my wife and did what I was unable to do. 

It was as if God said to me, “Watch!”, and in January, 2018, my wife told me that she needed to leave the Adventist Church. 

I don’t want to share her story—that’s for her to tell—but I was given a front row seat to watch as that veil described in 2 Corinthians 3 was torn from her eyes. She began to see the gospel and clear away the false teachings of Adventism. Suddenly my children wanted to come to church and wanted to come Friday night to Bible study. Church was no longer a burden. We all wanted to share this good news with our Adventist friends and family, and we all have a burden to help others see the false doctrines of Adventism.

 

Change of identity

Let me add here that we all had different “ah-ha” moments that caused us to question what we knew as Adventists. For me it was the gospel I learned studying in Galatians. My wife’s “ah-ha” was the plagiarism of Ellen White, but for my children it was the story of Adam and Eve. 

I know that every former Adventist saw or heard something that made him or her question the religion. Keep questioning, keep searching; God isn’t finished with us yet. 

In June, 2018, we decided together as a family that it was time to leave formally. We met with the Adventist pastor to let him know we were leaving the Adventist church together, as a family. 

I share with you our letter: 

 

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Dear Pastor, 

It is our desire to have our names removed from the membership of the Seventh-day Adventist Church along with membership in the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

This decision was not taken lightly and was not caused by the actions of any individuals. Over the years we have received friendship and love from the pastoral staff and made many lifelong friends within the church.

Our decision is based solely on our study [which showed] that the Fundamental Doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are not in harmony with the Bible. Issues include, but are not limited to:

• Ellen G. White as a prophet, a continuing and authoritative source of inspiration;

• The fundamental doctrine and belief of the Investigative Judgment;

• The belief that the Sabbath is required for salvation and is the Seal of God.

As third generation Seventh-day Adventists, it pains us to see the church has continued to propagate doctrines that are not in harmony with sound biblical teachings. In good conscience we can no longer remain Adventist.

We therefore respectfully ask you to fulfill our request to remove our membership, and we request a letter confirming that this action has taken place. 

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A few months later we received our letter confirming that our membership was removed. Praise God. 

I am so grateful to Dale and Carolyn Ratzlaff who started Life Assurance Ministries so many years ago, not knowing that the foundations they laid would impact my life and the life of my family. I thank Richard and Colleen Tinker for continuing their work, for the Stevensons, the Grangers, and the Careys who share in this work as board members of Life Assurance Ministries and now people whom I call my friends. 

God’s plans for my life started by bringing two unlikely people together. In His perfect timing I met my biological father on Father’s Day, 2009, and he met the son he never knew. That September, as I met my Grandmother, we stood, just the two of us, and I knew I was home. I was fully loved and fully accepted in that moment. 

I’ve often imagined what heaven will be like when I get to see my Lord, and now I know. I know that I am fully accepted, fully loved, and fully forgiven, not because of anything I have done, but because My Lord Jesus has called me to be His Own. My salvation is secure in Him, and in Him I have found my rest. †

 

Michael Werk lives in Riverside, California, with his wife Laurie and children Austin, Ethan and Megan. Born and raised in Western Canada, Michael was a third generation Adventist who was educated in Adventist schools starting in first grade. He earned his Bachelors Degree in Education from Union College and later a Masters from Cal State San Bernardino. For over 20 years Michael has taught high school students with learning disabilities. Michael and his family currently attend Redeemer Fellowship in Loma Linda, CA.