What the enemy meant for evil…

BY “A FORMER ADVENTIST”

I have been listening to (and being ministered to by) the podcast, and I just want to say how GRATEFUL I am to have found a community of former Adventists!

I grew up in an Adventist home (my mom was Adventist and dad married into it). I went to the K–12 Adventist school in Denver, Colorado, then went to Adventism’s Pacific Union College (PUC) in Northern California. After studying abroad for a year in France, I returned to PUC to complete my degree. Now more worldly and less convinced of this religious system I belonged to (because aren’t all religions the same anyway?), I started dating a guy out of a broken and lost place. 

I became pregnant in the fall of my senior year, and in secrecy and shame, we decided to get rid of it and move on with our lives so that no one would know. I was very deliberately running from God at this point, and I believed He was always looking over my shoulder, waiting for me to look at Him so He could shame me. So I ran. 

It was outside an abortion clinic in Sacramento, California, when Jesus revealed himself to me as a merciful, loving Savior—a Jesus I had never truly known before. No one was with me, but the Holy Spirit fell on me, and I chose life that day—for my child and for eternity. I returned to my parents’ home in Denver, Colorado, with no more answers than I had before but with all the hope and security I had lacked. Now a young, single mom, I became immersed in reading the word of God—out of hunger and belief! The fruit of the Spirit was being borne in my life! For the first time, He revealed the truth of the gospel, and the deception of Adventist doctrine became clearer and clearer through none else but His holy word! 

I was living with my parents at the time. My mother and I began this journey of questioning Adventism together, and she learned about Life Assurance Ministries through a local radio program that happened to feature Colleen Tinker. [That show occurred in 2010 when Richard and Colleen Tinker attended the Evangelical Ministries for New Religions (EMNR) Conference at the Calvary Chapel South Denver. The pastor, Gino Geraci, hosted a radio show in which he answered theological questions. That day he featured Paul Carden of The Centers for Apologetics Research who was also attending the EMNR Conference. Paul asked if Colleen could join them that day, and the show addressed questions about Adventism.]

Together, we decided to visit an evangelical “Sunday church” for the first time, and though it was strange, it felt alive—not dead like the Adventist churches we had been a part of. I remember visiting Calvary Chapel one Saturday evening (I hadn’t been weaned off of Sabbath keeping yet) and Mark Martin just happened to be the guest preacher (praise God!). I spoke with Mark after the service and asked him about his statements on Grace, questioned his subtle reference to Adventist doctrine—and discovered that he, too, had studied at PUC. 

I remember him shaking with passion when he spoke to me that evening—I still had not completely renounced Adventism, and I’m sure he sensed the wrestling taking place in my spirit; though I had been born again, my brain had to catch up  with the “why” behind the stirring my spirit felt when I moved further away from the Adventist church. God moved and made it clear that I needed to trust Him for all the unanswered questions I still had about Adventism. I obeyed and followed Him out of the Adventist church. 

I married a Christian man who adopted my sweet girl, and we found a non-denominational church in which to plant our family. Fast-forward eight years later, and I remember reading in Scripture about baptism as a significant act of a born-again believer. Realizing I hadn’t been baptized as a non-Adventist, I signed up right away to get baptized at my church!

Fruit of LAM

The fruit of Life Assurance Ministries has much to do with my journey out of Adventism and subsequently, my parents’ as well! I’m so grateful for you. The podcast has been healing to me because while I can do Bible study with other Christians, there are some things that have a deeper meaning and a need to unpack when you have an Adventist background. 

I recently heard a podcast by Preston Sprinkle in which he interviewed an Adventist professor/pastor’s wife here in Denver. Preston, not being familiar with Adventists, innocently asked her about her tradition, and she described it by saying, “We’re like Jews who believe in Jesus. We’re still evangelical Christians, but the only difference is Adventists keep a Saturday Sabbath and don’t eat pork”.  

Obviously, you and I know this description is incorrect and deceptive. We also know that the deception runs so deep that, when you’re in it, you can speak those words and believe them while simultaneously knowing it not to be completely true on some level. Preston then asked how this tradition came to be, and she goes on to say that the founding Adventists came from the Methodist movement, and a woman named Ellen G. White had a vision for the church—and that’s how it started.

I have to say, this explanation alone triggered me as I heard this person representing Adventism in this way, and I had to discontinue the podcast. 

I wrote this to you to say, DO NOT STOP speaking truth. I am so thankful for you. I pray for your ministry and am continually blessed by it, and I do hope to meet you all one day! 

And by the way, I now work as a Director of Client Services for a Christian organization (www.youhavealternatives.org) that provides free counseling and medical services to women and men facing an unplanned pregnancy. To God be the Glory. What the enemy meant for evil, God intended and consecrated for good! †