Snared by Adventism
I received your email from your website and have subscribed to your magazine.
I am writing to you from South Africa. I am a married Christian man with a wife and a five-year-old son.
During the last year or so we have all (as humanity) found ourselves and our worlds shaken from the norm to what it is now during COVID-19.
Here in South Africa we were put into a countrywide lockdown. Unfortunately I was out of the country for work purposes and got stranded for a number of weeks trying to get a repatriation flight back home. During this time my wife was at home alone and started listening to Walter Veith and his Adventist teachings on Youtube.
I have now found myself in a “Christian” battle of Bible truths and interpretations for which I do not have all the answers. My wife has become devoted to Sabbath-day keeping and insists that if I go to church on a Sunday, I am taking on the mark of the beast. In fact, a lot of the Adventist doctrines are now filtering into my household, and I don’t know how to combat them: soul sleep, vegetarianism, Ellen White etc, and so forth.
My request is the following: please could you or someone give me assistance in trying to show my wife that the truth is certainly not Adventist and that works do not lead to salvation?
I quote a number of Scripture verses to her, but she seems to be blind to what the Scriptures are telling me and insists that the Adventist interpretations are the correct ways to read the Bible. Your website magazine is incredible, and I have found it very, very helpful. My next step is to simply send her the link and keep quiet and not argue anymore.
How do other couples handle these difficult situations?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: What a sad situation you have endured! How frustrating to be locked out of the country and to return home to find this invasion of your household!
Is your wife a Christian? Walter Veith is a sensationalist and is not considered, even by Adventists, to be “main stream”, although they don’t disavow him because he does teach true Adventism albeit in a non-mainstream way. He preys upon people’s fears.
You are not alone in this situation. Many couples find themselves in similar situations. I would suggest, first of all, that in addition to giving your wife the link to the online magazine, you initiate a regular time of Bible study with her—and perhaps with your son present as well. The only real antidote to Adventist teachings is Scripture in context and the understanding of the biblical covenants. I would suggest a regular time where you sit together with no outside sources except the Bible and begin, one chapter at a time, reading through the book of Galatians. It makes it so clear that the law was temporary and for Israel, that one cannot go back to the law after being introduced to Christ without being severed from Christ. It will be important to define the “law”. Adventists insist that the law in Scripture is the Ten Commandments (in spite of context), and they also insist it (and its principles) have existed from eternity, and that Lucifer broke the law in heaven and initiated an ongoing conflict with Christ thereby.
After doing Galatians, I would suggest moving to Hebrews, then to Ephesians and Colossians, and the gospel of John.
Second, I would talk about the contrast between Scripture and Adventist teachings. Your wife needs to understand that Adventism interprets the Bible through a private worldview and definitions that are not publicly acknowledged. The Adventist worldview is formed by Ellen White’s interpretations, and even Adventists who think they don’t know or read EGW nevertheless embrace a physicalist worldview that is established by Ellen White. All Adventists embrace Ellen White if unknowingly by interpreting reality through the Adventist’s private worldview.
I will send you a link to an article that may help you understand the big picture of the Adventist worldview: What Is Seventh-day Adventism? I would suggest to your wife that she read it as well.
Second, I would also suggest that your wife begin listening to our podcast, Former Adventist Podcast. The series we just completed on the Adventist 28 Fundamental Beliefs unpacks the assumptions behind every one of the Adventist fundamental beliefs. She can find this series organized here: Inspecting Adventisms Fundamental Beliefs
The podcasts are all on iTunes and can be accessed through any podcast carrier. You can find all the podcasts and subscribe to them here: Former Adventist Podcast
If you haven’t listened to the podcasts, I suggest that you begin listening as well. You may find them helpful in talking to your wife about the deception behind what she is hearing. I believe it might be very helpful to her to hear the podcasts, and she needs to understand that Adventism grew out of a heresy, not out of the Christian apostolic gospel. In fact, the article on page 6 of this PDF may be very helpful to you in helping her understand that Adventism cannot become Christian when its root is heresy: Proclamation 2007/May,June.pdf
Not all couples navigate this situation the same way. I don’t know how resistant your wife may be; she needs prayer to be protected from deception and to be willing to know the truth. One more suggestion: 2 Corinthians 3 may be an important chapter to read with her. That chapter is very clear that the law written on stone has been replaced by the law written by the Spirit on the heart…and that law is NOT the Ten Commandments as Adventist say it is. Here is an article that exposits this chapter: We Are Ministers of a New Covenant.
I pray the Lord will bless you and open her eyes to the truth.
Is This Belief from Ellen?
In your podcast series, you mentioned that Jesus had to ask the Father three times to save humanity. Both my wife and I were also taught this growing up. However, I am not able to find this quoted anywhere. Any chance you happen to know if this is from Ellen, or is it just Adventist tradition teaching?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: This idea is from Ellen. Here is a quote from the Signs of the Times, January 30, 1879:
Sorrow filled Heaven, as it was realized that man was lost, and the world which God had created was to be filled with mortals doomed to misery, sickness, and death, and there was no way of escape for the offender; the whole family of Adam must die. The heart of the Son of God was touched with pity for the lost race. Upon his lovely countenance rested an expression of sympathy and sorrow. Soon he approached the exceeding bright light which enshrouded the Father, and he seemed to engage in close converse with him. The anxiety of the angels was intense while Jesus thus communed with his Father. Three times he was shut in by the cloud of glory; the third time he came forth his countenance was calm, free from all perplexity and trouble, and shone with benevolence and loveliness, such as words cannot express. He then made known to the angelic host that a way of escape had been made for lost man. He told them that he had been pleading with his Father, and had offered to give his life a ransom, and take the sentence of death upon himself, that through him man might find pardon; that through the merits of his blood, and obedience to the law of God, man could again have the favor of God, and be brought into the beautiful garden, and eat of the fruit of the tree of life. {ST January 30, 1879, par. 1}
Could Cain Sin If There Was No Law?
My now Adventist ex-husband just asked me a question regarding the law. He does not understand why Cain broke a law (you shall not kill) when he killed his brother if there was no law? Also, he wants to know why the Lord destroyed the world during the flood? How could the pre-diluvians be sinners if there was no law (as this came after Moses)?
I told him that we are not under the law any longer, but we should not kill, steal, and so forth because simply, these things are wrong, and as Christians I feel no desire to do so. However, it seems like my answer is not enough for his Adventist perspective.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Your ex-husband is asking questions that arise out of the Adventist worldview. Adventism says that the Law is necessary in order for moral beings to know right from wrong. In fact, next week’s Sabbath School lesson actually teaches this very idea. The law, they say, existed in heaven as the revelation of morality and right and wrong, and Lucifer sinned (and then Adam and Eve) because right and wrong were known to them because the law existed. They further say that the law is the transcript of God’s character and reveals God.
In fact, Adventism has this idea completely upside-down and backwards. Adventism makes LAW the ultimate arbiter of good and evil in the universe, the “thing” that reveals God. Scripture, however, says that the Lord Jesus revealed God. He IS God, and He said that if people saw Him, they saw the Father. Adventists twist this declaration to say that Jesus demonstrated the deeds and values of God—but Jesus actually said if they saw Him, they saw the Father.
Adventism further says that once people accept Jesus, they then turn to the law and keep it out of gratitude, and God gives them the ability to keep it. Instead, however, Galatians says that the law revealed SIN. Romans 7 says that the law revealed SIN to Paul. Scripture NEVER says that the law revealed GOD. It was given to increase SIN, to reveal to Israel that they could not please God. It also came with provisions for atonement and sacrifice, and it was founded on the basis of the levitical priesthood (Heb. 6 and 7). When Jesus fulfilled the law and became our High Priest according to a new order, that of Melchizedek instead of Levi, the law HAD to change also (Heb 7:12).
No, Adam and the pre-diluvians did not sin because they had the law. They knew who God is and what He desired because God Himself TOLD them. Furthermore, Romans 1:18-22 says that the divine nature and eternal power of God is revealed in what has been made, so all men are without excuse.
The sin Cain committed was not only the murder of Abel; Cain did not trust God’s own word to him. God personally warned him that sin was crouching at his door, waiting to devour him, and he was to resist sin. Cain knew his murderous rage against Abel was sin; God told him and warned him! It didn’t take the law to do that!
Furthermore, in the new covenant, the Holy Spirit has the role of convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment (Jn. 16:8–11). Jesus fulfilled the law, and He instituted a new covenant in His blood. Now the Holy Spirit fulfills the role of the law even in terns of revealing sin, and the new law, the Law of Christ, is what we live under when we believe God. Of course the Holy Spirit uses the entire word of God (which includes the law) to reveal and convict people of their sin—but the law itself is not necessary for people to know they are sinners. God does the work of convicting.
The need of every human is not to become “good” but to be made “alive”. We are born spiritually dead in sin, by nature objects of wrath (Eph. 2:1-3), and we have to made alive. We are made alive by only one means: believing in the Lord Jesus and His gospel! Jesus Himself told the Jews that the work of God was to believe in the One whom He sent [the Lord Jesus] (Jn. 6:29). God is bigger than the law. God defines and reveals and convicts of sin. The pre-flood people had God’s revelation of Himself, but only a few believed Him.
Like Abraham, those who believe God are counted righteous (Gen 15:6; Romans 4). Your ex-husband is seeing these things through Adventism. The Law is not eternal, and the law is not needed to define morality. God is the one in whom morality resides. He created the law and gave it to Israel to make them aware of their DEPRAVITY. The commandments were not to reveal God! The ENITRE law with its sacrifices and priests prefigured Jesus and His propitiation, but the commandments were not needed for Cain to know murder was sin. Ultimately, Cain disbelieved God. That was Eve’s sin with the snake; it is our sin as well.
We are born spiritually dead, and only God can show us our need and convict us of our sin.
For further reading about this subject, see the Sabbath School Commentary for the lesson for November 6 through 12 in this week’s Proclamation! email.
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