Encountering Adventism changed me
Just to pass on a thank you for the great conference that you had. I didn’t attend in real time, but I have been able to go through all the tubes, and I want to say I was immensely blessed. I specifically loved the one of Counting the Cost, the one Colleen did with her husband Richard…
I am happy to say that encountering Adventism has not left me the same. God has pushed me to seek Him and learn of the truths of the Bible. I am so blessed being on the right track with God’s word.
I see it now that there is nothing that happens to a child of God that God won’t turn out to be good and fulfill his purposes. Out of a hurtful break up, I have learned to search Scripture and interpret it well. I have encountered more Adventists, and I continue to tell them the truth (of course they don’t accept it, but I am learning to evangelize them).…
Just know you people are doing a great job. It’s God who draws people to Himself and not us, and if He wants to, they will come to the saving truth of God’s Word. May you all be blessed in this ministry. Keep praying for me to find a spouse. Am asking the Lord to lead a God fearing gentleman to me.
God bless you.
—FROM UGANDA
How can I spot deception?
Hello; I have a question.
Knowing what you know now about Adventist teachings, looking back at your journey and from your personal experience, how do you think one can know or even sense if a teaching is a lie (especially if the other person gives many Bible verses or recorded facts to support it) ?
Are there hints if a teaching is a lie?
I’m asking this because I can’t believe I was deceived; I thought I was good student of the Bible.
Thank you.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Thank you for writing. You ask an important question—and the answer comes back to knowing Scripture from consistent immersion in it. There is no substitute for regular reading of Scripture in context. Then, when people come to you with strange teachings (or new teachings) and quote Scripture to support their claims, your obligation is to take those texts and go back to the Bible and read those proof texts IN CONTEXT. Read not just the verse but the whole chapter where the verse is found. Adventist proof texts, for example, almost always say something very different when you read them in context.
You have to know that you are using an accurate hermeneutic; you use normal rules of grammar and vocabulary, just as you would in any book, and read in context. You have to see who the book was first written to and ask yourself how the first audience would understand it. The words CANNOT mean something completely different to us today than they meant to the first audience. Further, we cannot apply commands taken out of the old covenant, for example, and apply them to ourselves when we are not under the old covenant.
Adventists say every command is for each of us—but that understanding violates the words of the Bible. The Bible tells us who the audiences were, and it tells us the context for the individual books and commands. Our job is to go to the Bible and examine the teaching we hear by using the full context of those misused proof texts.
Second, Adventists and their “recorded facts” are often lying. They use “recorded facts” to prove that the early church kept Sabbath. In fact, that idea is false. Recorded facts disclose that they did NOT keep the Sabbath generally—unless they were converted Jews. And so forth,
I suggest that you begin an experiment that will help anchor you in context and literal meanings. Get a notebook, and begin literally to copy books of the Bible into it. Begin with Galatians. Do as many verses a day as you wish, but literally let your mind read every single word. Consider the verb tenses, the prepositions, the context. Ask God to teach you what you need to know! I don’t know any other way to avoid deception than to be continually immersed in Scripture at a very basic level: absorbing the literal words, in context, and asking God to give me His wisdom and insight and to plant me in truth and reality.
Adventism IS deception. It very closely mimics Christianity and uses the same words, but it doesn’t affirm the inerrancy of Scripture—and here’s one more key: they have an extra biblical prophet. ANY group that has a prophetic voice that informs the organization cannot be based on biblical Christianity. Hebrews 1:1-3 says that God has spoken to us in His Son in these last days!
Isaiah, the Sabbath, and gentiles
Thank you so much for your always interesting articles. They are all well-researched and informative.
I am from Zimbabwe, Africa, and third generation Adventist. After so much soul searching l ended up not convinced about a number of Adventist doctrines. Your articles have kept me within the faith, and l always look forward to them.
Just recently l came across Isaiah 56 and the mention of the foreigner keeping the Sabbath left me looking for more truth about it.
I will appreciate your perspective about the chapter as it kind-of justifies Sabbath keeping by non-Jews
Thank you and God bless your selfless service.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: In order to understand any biblical passage, you have to know the context in which it was written. You can’t just grab texts and apply them to yourself; they were written to a specific audience, and the way the first audience would understand them reveals the basic meaning of the passage.
Isaiah was writing to Israel before the northern kingdom was swept away by Assyria and before the southern kingdom went into Babylonian exile. They were all living under the Mosaic covenant. For Israel, the sabbaths—weekly, monthly, and yearly—were requirements of the law which constituted the old, or Mosaic, covenant. Israel had to keep the weekly Sabbath as a sign of their covenant with God—but the monthly and yearly feasts were also called Sabbaths of the Lord.
In the New Testament, however, Paul and the book of Hebrews explain that the old covenant was fulfilled by Jesus. The shadows of the law—including all of the shadows of the Fourth Commandment Sabbath and all the shadows of the temple and the priesthood—were fulfilled by the Lord Jesus. The shadow of the Sabbath pointed backward to God’s finished work at creation and forward to Jesus’s finished work on the cross. Hebrews 3 and 4 explain that although the Israelites had the Sabbath and also entered the Promised Land, they did not have the rest God promised. That rest now is not attached to any one day; instead, TODAY, if you hear His voice, enter His rest!
The book of Hebrews explains step by step how Jesus is better than the angels, than Moses, and than all of the law. Every shadow of the law (Heb 10:1) was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. Now our command is to BELIEVE in Him (Jn. 6:29) and thus pass out of death into life (Jn. 5:24). The Sabbath was a shadow of rest in Christ.
We can’t read Isaiah’s words to Israel and take those words as applying to us on this side of the cross. They still have a meaning for us—but it has to be understood through the finished work of Christ. For Israel, their command was to observe the shadow of rest in Christ—Sabbath. For us, the command is to let go of the shadows and to BELIEVE in Christ Himself.
It’s ALL about rest in Jesus, and Isaiah’s admonition to Israel was how they obeyed God, but today, we obey God by believing in the One whom He sent (Jn. 6:29).
Here are some links that might help:
- 3. Israel Learns of the Sabbath - May 9, 2024
- 2. Did Abraham Keep the Sabbath? - May 2, 2024
- 1. Sabbath Not Changed - April 25, 2024