We got mail…

Searching for truth

I have grown up Adventist. I went to Adventist schools except for kindergarten through second grade. My family has never been overly legalistic or vegetarian. I eat meat and don’t follow or agree with the health message. My conviction against it has been even stronger of late because I found out that even after giving the health message, Ellen ate meat. Anyway, my experience suggests that science doesn’t back up a lot of the claims in the “health message”…

My wife and her parents are, in my opinion, very legalistic Adventists. They are vegetarian and very strict on Sabbath observance to the point that her kids (my stepchildren) believe that both diet and Sabbath observance are salvation issues. My wife doesn’t claim to believe those things are salvation issues or to have taught them that; maybe she didn’t. If not, it came from her mother who, just like Ellen, believed that “obeying parents is obeying God”. I do know that I see so many contradictions about Sabbath and its observance that it makes me laugh. 

My journey probably started when my first marriage broke up and I decided to read through the Bible. That reading created in me a deep love for reading and for Scripture which has grown. I started reading other theological books—and yes, I read through the Conflict Of the Ages series. I also love reading commentaries.…

My love for Scripture has grown over the years, and even though I have been taught like most Adventists the whole idea of “thought inspiration”, I deep down don’t think I have ever totally accepted that explanation. Also, in the past year or two I have done a lot of reading on the “Hearing God’s Voice” teaching that is prevalent in today’s Christianity. While I didn’t believe that teaching and believe that the cannon was closed and that God speaks through His Word, I would be asked by my Adventist family, “What about Ellen White then?” I had no answer. 

My search for the true gospel, I believe, is what led me to the FAF YouTube page, and in the last week I have watched a lot of those videos along with listening to the Former Adventist Podcast. Those resources led me to put  “The Desire of Ages” down and just go back to the Bible this last week. I believe the Gospel is so simple, yet Adventism along with some other groups make it so difficult. So while I have not totally given up some of the doctrines of the Adventist church, I do know now that the gospel it teaches is not the true and correct gospel. 

Here is a list of the things I believe now:

• The gospel is expressed in 1 Corinthians 15:1-4.
• I still believe in the Sabbath but I don’t agree with how most Adventists keep it. All I see is “don’t work”. 
• I still believe in the state of the dead and Hell as annihilation. 
• I still hold to the same view of the second coming, but I don’t agree with all the timelines, and I don’t see anything about a Sunday law in the Bible. 

I know you said it’s a process to unpack the Adventism from my worldview. I am going to continue to study and trust that God will lead me into truth. 

—VIA EMAIL

Response: I just want to say that the issue of the Sabbath is fully explained when we understand the biblical covenants—which Adventism never taught us. These articles will be helpful: The Biblical Covenants and Jesus Is Not An Old Covenant Priest. In brief, the Noahic, the Abrahamic, the Davidic, and the New Covenant are all UNCONDITIONAL covenants which God unilaterally promised to fulfill without corresponding promises or participation from those receiving them. The Mosaic covenant, however, is CONDITIONAL.

Adventism teaches that All God’s promises are conditional—but that is not true. The Mosaic covenant is the one CONDITIONAL covenant in Scripture, and Galatians 3:17–19 tells us it was given 430 years AFTER Abraham and lasted “until the Seed” came. It had a beginning and an end, and Jesus Himself fulfilled all its terms. The book of Hebrews walks through how Jesus fulfilled that covenant.

 

Scared and sad in a pandemic

I hope you’re doing well. I started to seriously studying the Bible last year, and while I was studying the Scriptures, I came to realize that some doctrines that I was taught in the Adventist Church were not accurate. This really broke my heart. I continued praying and asking God for His guidance, and I came to realize that my place was not in this church.

I read your articles and I read your podcast transcripts, and they really helped me, so I want to say thank you for your amazing work. Thank you for helping me and many other people to understand God’s Word better.

However, it hasn’t been long since I decided to leave the church, and sometimes I still get scared about whether or not I’m doing the right thing. I’m scared of disappointing God, even when I read His word and I know He loves me. I’m scared of being led astray, and since I’m only 20 years old, my mother says that I’m being deceived and that I don’t know what I’m doing when I share my thoughts with her.

So I was wondering, can you please tell me how to overcome this fear, this anxiety about not being on the right side with God? Even though I prayed about it, I’m still so heartbroken and sad about the fact that all the Ellen White teachings and the doctrines in the Adventist Church that I was taught are not true. 

I’m just going through a tough time, especially in the middle of a pandemic, and I was wondering if you could please help me with this anxiety?

Thank you very much again, and may God bless you abundantly.

—VIA EMAIL

Response: It is devastating to realize that Adventism lied to us and taught us a false gospel, effectively hiding Scripture from us by teaching us it meant things it doesn’t mean through the out-of-context use of proof-texts and the “hidden” interpretation of EGW.

I have a question for you before I address your concern about how you can know what you’re doing is the right thing. Have you trusted Jesus alone to do deal with your sin? Have you realized that you can never please God naturally and trusted Jesus’ completely finished atonement in His blood shed for you? Have you put all your “weight” on Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection, knowing that He is your substitute and Savior, and only in Him do you have eternal life?

If you have trusted Jesus completely, you are born again. The Holy Spirit has indwelt you (Eph. 1:13-14), and you can now read Scripture and understand what God is teaching you. If you have been born again, His word can provide you with the stability you need as you walk this rocky pathway OUT of Adventism. When we left Adventism, I periodically had fierce and paralyzing doubts. All the old fears would flood into my heart: what if I was fulfilling EGW’s prophecy that people who left her teaching would ultimately leave the Bible and God? What if I was wrong? How would I navigate leaving everything I knew—even the people and family who were Adventists who would try to talk me out of my decision? What was REAL?

The thing that always stabilized me was God’s word. When those doubts and fears would hit, I would go back to Scripture and read the promises Jesus made that I knew could not be wrong: he who believes has passed out of death into life and does not come into judgment (Jn. 5:24). Jesus said He brought a sword into the closest relationships; our enemies are the members of our own families (Mat. 10:34–39). God will give us a hundredfold what we lose In this life for His sake (Mk. 10:30). The law on stone is a law of death; the covenant of the Spirit is life (2 Corinthians 3:3–18). 

I have a suggestion: get a notebook and begin copying the book of Hebrews into it. Just do a chapter at a time—more or less—depending upon how much time you have. Ask God to teach you what He knows you need to know from it. You will see things you never noticed before as you deal with each word individually. God’s word is living and active (Heb. 12:12-14), and it really does calm us and grounds us. Also, listen to good worship music. Two groups I recommend (you can find them on YouTube) are City Alight and Sovereign Grace. I also recommend Keith and Kristyn Getty. Let the words of truth about God calm your heart as you hear them set to wonderful music. 

You are not alone; your feelings are normal as you literally grieve Adventism. The Lord, though, is faithful, and He is bigger than the spiritual opposition you face as you realize what Adventism is and as you leave it. I often pray that the Lord will plant me in truth and reality, and His is faithful!

 

Podcast blessings

I have been on the journey of leaving Adventism basically by myself (now with two other friends) for two, almost three years, with the Holy Spirit as my teacher. It has been so confirming and assuring to find out that I’m not alone, and that I am on the right track! I have been loving the podcast and have been listening almost non stop for a while now, trying to get caught up (you guys should really have transcripts)! Thank you so much for all you guys do…

A friend and I have been compiling resources and verses on how Adventism and EGW contradict the Bible to prepare us for discussions with family. Your podcasts have been such a blessing (I mentioned I’ve been binging them—today I realized I’ve listened to over 70 episodes this week! Almost caught up!). 

I do have a question for you/the podcast/whatever you think appropriate: how do you respond to Adventists or even former Adventists who don’t believe the church preaches/teaches what we say it/EGW teaches? My family has definitely denied many of the concepts EGW put forth or say oh, take her with a grain of salt. Some of them seem to have radically different experiences than I did and don’t feel this pressure to keep Sabbath or to be perfect. Some seem to have a closer-to-real version to the gospel but still can’t see the fault in the great controversy or how works-based adventism still is. 

—VIA EMAIL

Response: We are uploading transcripts of the podcasts regularly. You can find them at this address: https://blog.lifeassuranceministries.org/category/former-adventist-podcast/

Our new podcast series on the Fundamental Beliefs of Adventism does address the issue that so many Adventists say: that they can be Adventists without believing EGW, or that they believe the doctrines without believing in EGW. Many pick and choose which doctrines they embrace, as if it’s possible to tease Adventism apart and deny the aspects they don’t like. Adventists all know their unique “origins story” from EGW that says Satan became jealous of God’s exaltation of Jesus and thus launched the great controversy. This belief in a false story predating creation takes them into a false reality and a different end point. 

The fact is that Adventists, regardless of their type, share a worldview. It underlies how they see reality. Adventists all share a physicalist view of humanity, and many even see God as having a body. They believe man has no spirit other than breath, or a “life force”, that he does not have a spirit that leaves the body at death and goes to the Lord. Likewise they believe that the Lord Jesus ceased to exist when He died and that He didn’t really say to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” They instead claim “translator error” and say the Bible translators put the comma in the wrong place, so that Jesus is made to say, “Truly, truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.” In doing this alteration, they change the meaning of the original Greek. 

In other words, Adventism’s physicalism changes all their definitions: the nature of man, the nature of Christ, the nature of sin and salvation. 

As for the blindness of Adventists to the true nature of Adventism, 2 Corinthians 3:12–18 explains that phenomenon: “But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a ver lies over their heart, but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away…”

Adventists can change the “window dressing” of their beliefs, but they retain their worldview, and that worldview is what determines their inability to perceive truth. I am attaching a link to an article that will explain the differences between an Adventist and a biblical worldview in more detail: What Is Seventh-day Adventism?