This poignant email came to us this week from a never-been-Adventist Christian in Switzerland. The writer has been studying with an Adventist family, doing her best to help them understand the biblical gospel, but recently the Adventists put on their brakes and would go no further. The author writes about her hurt and grief over their rejection of her and her message of Jesus.
Because this letter so clearly reveals the underlying proselytizing agenda of Adventist friendships with “outsiders” and because it so sharply contrasts the spiritual darkness of Adventism when it encounters gospel truth, I am sharing this letter in our online magazine this week along with my response to the writer.
Dear Colleen,
First of all I want to wish you a blessed 2021 in the knowledge that God is in control of this year and He will give us all that we need to continue to be His salt and light to the world that is in desperate need of true security and eternal victory!
I just wanted to share with you how my walk with my Adventist friends went and how it sadly came to an end, at least for now.
I have been walking with them for 19 months, and now it has come to a very sad end. In the beginning of our “walk together” I could not really identify what was wrong. I felt strongly that we seemed to be talking about the same thing, and yet we were not at all talking about the same thing. I was not able to put my finger on it, even though I could feel that tension when we would read the Bible together. We used the same words, but the intent was different. Then God brought Life Assurance Ministries across my path, and that definitely was His leading. With the podcast, the conferences, and your emails I could quite quickly start to understand what the differences were between them and me, and I started to really study the history of Adventism and took EGW under the loop. The results of her “walk with God” became very clear to me, that she was a sheep in wolf’s fur.
When we read the Bible it was very clear that their foundation was EGW teaching. I then started to put some information together concerning EGW and to show them that as a real prophet, she constantly disqualified and failed, starting with her not repenting for the date setting of her colleague and instead setting up the investigative judgment (even though the Bible has about eight verses that CLEARLY say that when Jesus went back to heaven, He went to the Father and was seated there), moving to the “closed door” that all of a sudden opened again, to the reform dress which she suddenly abandoned a little later, to her whole view on sexuality (she definitely did not represent God’s view of sex!!), and so on.
I very soon realized that my research on Ellen White did not impress them, and they told me that I would stand before God as I am blaspheming against His prophet, and that for them it is a total TABOO to criticize her in any way, and that it was sin to do so (even though it says in the Bible that many false prophets will come and we NEED to check them). The brain washing is so heavy on them—it made me really sad.
The the idea came from my friends side that we could go through all the covenants, starting with Noah, then Abraham, then Israel, and then the new covenant. I thought that was a brilliant idea because then we really could see that the old covenant was for Israel alone, and that they could really see it in context. Then we would go through the new covenant.
At first all went quite well, and we arrived at the old covenant. The husband of this couple then said that as believers, we are Israel; thus we need to keep the Sabbath and other parts of the law. I showed them verses in Romans where there is a clear definition that Israel as a nation and as Jews are not the same as the church nor gentiles.
We were just about to move to the new covenant, and I was very excited about studying it with them, trusting that Jesus would reveal the truth to them, but they said that they first wanted to watch a seven-part series of sermons concerning the old covenant. I was not too happy about that, but I thought, if it takes that to get to the new covenant, I will do it.
I did say before watching their sermons that they needed to promise me that after we finished, we would go right into the new covenant, and I then wanted to show them a series on that topic. They agreed and promised that we would do so! So I watched a series of seven sermons, one and one-half hours each.
After that ordeal was over and they saw that I was not convinced that we are under the law, all of a sudden they had no interest whatsoever in pursuing the new covenant. I mentioned their promise a few times and asked them to give me some dates so that we could start watching the new covenant series, but instead of setting a date, two months later I got an email saying that I was leading them away from Jesus!!!
What????
That really hurt me for different reasons. First, they did not stick to their promise; further, they said I was pulling them away from Jesus! Their withdrawal also made me sad because I could see how bound they were and how a totally different spirit has them in full control, but they seriously think that they are in the spirit of God.
They sent me the Bible passage Ecclesiastes 7: 23-29 and said that I was that kind of a women. They also referred me to the verses in Matthew where is says that if you want to follow Jesus, you need to let go of family and friends.
That REALLY brought me into a deep sadness, and it is very hurtful (even though I can see that this struggle is not against flesh and blood). So, at the moment there is no friendship with them since they have pushed me out and really have been treating me like “a whore of Babylon” as they call the Sunday church-goers.
I have invested time to really build friendship with them; I had them over for meals and brunches, went on hikes with them, and so forth. It seems now that the 19 months that I have invested have been for nothing, but I do trust that God will use that time.
I will continue to pray for them and as well to lay my hurt and my disappointment before the cross of Jesus, asking for Him to heal my heart and to continue to love them with the love of Christ. My flesh does want to tell me to just forget about them, but I know that is not God’s heart. Yes, there is no friendship there, but I still can pray and intercede for them.
I do see that the past 19 months have driven me not only deeper into the Bible but also deeper into the appreciation of the New Covenant and the GRACE that we are under to be sons and daughters of the Most High and to have security if we are followers of Jesus Christ, led by the Holy Spirit, even if we are not perfect.
I do have a question about the judgment that the Bible talks about in Revelation and other places. Do you have a document that explains what these judgments are really talking about?
Sorry for this long email, but I did want to share with you where things are at.
Big warm hug from cold and snowy Switzerland!
Dear Friend,
It’s good to hear from you! What a sad story about your friends. I am so sorry. The loss and grief over that is heart-wrenching, and it clearly illustrates the reality of Adventism. I am so sorry, but I know this: the Lord will not waste this experience in your life. He has revealed these things to you for His glory and His purposes.
Regarding the judgments in Revelation: that issue is one of the things that makes me so upset about Adventism! They appropriate words to fit their scenarios!
First, no. We do not have any articles identifying the judgments of Revelation. Context is the clearest indictor of what the word means when it appears. I know that Adventists use Revelation 14:6–12 as their central passage for what they call their “Three Angels’ Messages”, the passage that Ellen Whited called “the gospel in verity”. They have appropriated this passage as their scriptural framework to support their entire great controversy paradigm, and they use the clause “The hour of His judgment has come” to prove that the investigative judgment is going on now. They have developed a whole unbiblical rationale which they teach “outsiders”, complete with fast-paced supporting proof-texts taken out of context also, to convince people of their investigative judgment.
In context, Revelation 14 is a vision of events at the end of time before the fall of Babylon which is described in Revelation 18. When the angels say the hour of His judgment is come, they are referring to God’s judgment of sin in the world. The wrath of God will eventually be poured out on the world before the Lord Jesus sets up His throne, and His judgment on the world will be horrific. These angels are calling people to come out of Babylon before God’s judgment destroys it, and it’s calling them to worship God, the true God.
We know from other places in the New Testament what worshiping God looks like: it is believing in the Lord Jesus (Jn 6:29) and being born again (Jn. 3:1-6), being born of God (Jn 1:12-13), and being transferred out of the domain of darkness (Col 1:13). It has nothing whatsoever to do with keeping the Sabbath!
Adventists say that the judgment in Revelation 14 is the investigative judgment (IJ), but it absolutely is not. The rest of Scripture proves that the IJ is heresy, and the context of Revelation 14 has nothing at all to do with that idea. Furthermore, one never derives doctrine from eschatological passages. They are figurative and metaphorical, and they are not intended to teach doctrine. Doctrine is always derived from clear didactic passages in Scripture. But Adventism can’t derive their IJ from didactic passages of Scripture, so they use obscure eschatological passages to “prove” their unique doctrine which contradicts all the doctrinal, didactic passages of Scripture! Eschatological passages (and poetic passages like the wisdom literature of the Old Testament—the psalms, proverbs, Ecclesiastes,) can be great supportive texts, but they can’t be central passages to support doctrine. They can indicate what we can know about the future, but they aren’t doctrinal proof.
The judgments in Revelation are announcements of God’s impending judgments on intractable sin in the world. Those passages simply cannot be used to apply to an IJ. The way Adventism uses Revelation 14 to support the IJ is unconscionable. First, the passage is eschatological, not related to the nineteenth century. Second, fearing God and giving glory to Him, worshiping the One who created heave and earth, is NOT a call to remember and keep the seventh day! The New Testament is abundantly clear how Jesus fulfilled the law and fulfilled the shadow of Sabbath.
That angel’s call is a call to worship Jesus, the Creator—not to keep Sabbath holy as an act of true worship. Jesus, not the Sabbath, is what people are called to honor! The Adventists’ twisting of this prophecy to make it about SABBATH is horrifying blasphemy! And their insert their heresy about worshipping on Sunday as the mark of the beast the angel warns against is equally horrifying. Talk about eclipsing reality!
Jesus, not a day, is the sole object and purpose of worship!
Knowing how Adventists use Revelation 14, I hope this helps! †
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To our friend from Switzerland,
Firstly I’m from the UK so not far from you, I’m sending virtual hugs right now to you.
I am very sorry for your experience and though it may not feel like it right now, you’ve had a lucky escape.
Those verses from Ecclesiastics take offensive to whole new level and know this though the Lord has never allowed anyone at anytime to use His word to be deliberately offensive to anyone.
Adventists don’t have true friendships and the level of work you had put into maintaining that friendship far outweighs their commitment.
Know that God is with you even in this time of hurt made worse because of the pandemic.
I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers you have been shown the truth and even though you tried to share it their ear were turned away and their eyes are closed.
You have been chosen by God He will keep His promises to you
Take care x