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Letters to the Editor

Appalling Assertion

How can anyone say that without the Ten Commandments, anyone is free to “cheat, steal, murder, and commit adultery” (quoted from your editorial on Friday, June 17, 2022)? Such an assertion appalls me.

Can it be that anyone who can say that has never read their Bible beyond Exodus chapter 20? Have they never read the teachings of Jesus or the writings of Paul, Peter, Jude, and John? 

Here are some of the references I have collected during my study of the Bible/New Testament:

  • Matthew 5:48; 6:33; 25:34–40; Luke 6:46–49
  • Romans 12:9–21: Christian conduct
  • 2 Corinthians 5:17: Becoming a completely new person in Christ
  • Ephesians 4:17–32: Putting off the old and and putting on the new
  • Ephesians 5: Entire chapter
  • Ephesians 6:10–17: The whole armor of God
  • Philippians 1:9–11: Right standing with God
  • Philippians 2:15: Blameless
  • Colossians 1:10-: Walk in a manner worthy of God, desiring to please Him
  • Colossians 1:22: Holy, faultless, irreproachable
  • Colossians 3: Christian behavior
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:22: Abstain from evil
  • 1 Timothy 6:11: Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love
  • 2 Timothy 1:9: Called to a life of holiness 
  • 2 Timothy 2:19: Depart from unrighteousness
  • Titus 2:11, 12: Christians are to live godly lives
  • Titus 3:2, 8, 9: Forbearance ad courtesy; do good deeds
  • Hebrews 12:14: Without holiness no one will see God
  • Jude 24: Unblemished, blameless, faultless
  • 1 Peter 1:15: Be holy
  • 1 John 5:17: All unrighteousness is sin

In the new covenant, God gives us a new heart so that we don’t want to sin; we want to do right! In his book on Galatians, Timothy Keller says, “The more joy we have in our gracious salvation, the more we are driven by love and gratitude to do good for the sheer beauty of good, for sheer delight in God, for the sheer love of others” (p. 140, par 1). 

—NOBLESVILLE, IN

 

Damaged By False Religion

Thank you for the touching story of Mary Hartwell. I imagine many were damaged emotionally by the leaders of a false religion and that there are even greater disappointments for the adherents of that religion today.

—VIA EMAIL

 

Sabbath Before the Jews?

I hadn’t realized that the weekly Sabbath was also considered as a “ceremonial sabbath” [as per Leviticus 23], and my only concern would be how could we reconcile that with the Sabbath in Genesis 2:2-3 before the Jews came into the picture? Why would God want to bless and sanctify the Sabbath day? And why would Jesus’ disciples and apostles continue to keep the Sabbath after the cross? Thanks once again for your feedback.

—VIA EMAIL

 

Response: the word “Sabbath” is not used in Genesis. Instead, God rested (ceased) from His labor on Sabbath because it was FINISHED. HE rested because there was no more work to do. He declared His finished work holy, and significantly, the language of the seventh day in Genesis is different from the other six days—they both have the boundary of “the evening and the morning” marking each day—but the seventh day had no boundary. It was God’s ceasing when He completed His work that He declared Holy. That seventh day of God’s ceasing didn’t end and then usher in God’s continuing work on the next day. No. He ceased—and His ceasing was permanent. There was no day the God ceased resting and worked again. His work was DONE.

Hebrews 4 explains that the seventh day did not bring Israel into God’s rest because they were unbelieving, so God set a new day: TODAY. TODAY if you hear His voice, enter His rest!

Furthermore, the articles in this week’s Proclamation! email by Wes Ringer and Richard Foster should help demonstrate that most Christians did NOT keep the seventh-day Sabbath after Jesus’ resurrection. 

I will give you some links that may help you.

Have you been listening to the Former Adventist Podcasts? If not, I believe you would find them helpful:

 

Present Truth is NOT What Jesus Did 2000 Years Ago on the Cross

 
It is very hard for me to believe, or accept, that the little book, “Steps to Christ,” was written by one called Fanny Bolton!
 
Do you know that little book has brought millions of people to the knowledge of God and Salvation? I read it daily, and also hear it via the audio book, every day! I get fresh Revelation of the Gospel in that little book!
 
To credit that book to be written by one called, Fanny Bolton is a big lie! If that Fanny Bolton is the author of that powerful little book, then my next question is what other books has she written with the same tenor of inspiration? The clear answer is a big “NONE OTHER BOOK!!!”
 
Your influence to discredit Ellen G. White, is a very shameful and disgraceful thing you are doing!!!
May God help you to repent from this disgraceful work you people are doing!
 
You are the subtle enemies of the Present Truth! In your zeal to present the Gospel, you people are doing more harm to the SDA Church, than any good!
 
I do agree that the Adventist Church leaders with all their many departments today have become very  blind to the “Present Truth,” and they are promoting their own “departmental goals and statistics” to their own destruction!
 
But your influence also is not building the cause of Present Truth!
 
May God open your eyes to the Present Truth! The Present Truth is NOT what Jesus did 2000 years ago on the Cross, BUT what Jesus is doing for us NOW in the Sanctuary in Heaven! What Jesus did 2000 years ago on the cross IS IMPORTANT AND VITAL TO OUR SALVATION, but what He is doing for us NOW is the PRESENT TRUTH, and hence most relavant now!!
—VIA EMAIL
 
 
Response: Thank you for writing. First, I believe you have misunderstood who we are: we are not Adventists attempting to reform Adventism. We are former Adventists committed to helping Adventists to see and understand the biblical gospel of Jesus’ finished work!
 
Second, there is no “present truth” except the clear biblical gospel that Jesus has completed His atonement of our sins by His death for our sins according to Scripture, by His burial, and by His resurrection on the third day according to Scripture (1 Cor. 15:3,4). Furthermore, there is no prophetic voice today that gives us any new revelation or information concerning our salvation or our Savior (Heb. 1:1–3). Ellen White did not write the biblical truth about our Lord Jesus; she did not tell us the truth about our triune God nor about our own nature as humans. 
 
Salvation is through Jesus alone. The Sabbath is not the seal of God nor the “sign of the seal” of God. It is not the mark of the saved, nor is Sunday-worship the mark of the beast. Scripture NEVER says these things—only Ellen White. 
 
Scripture is God’s eternal, living word, and we cannot add to it nor take away from it. Our salvation was entirely purchased by the Lord Jesus on the cross, and He broke death and gives us His eternal life when we believe and trust in His finished work (Jn. 5:24). There is no “investigative judgment”, and Jesus is not in heaven sprinkling His blood on the sins we remember to confess. When we trust in Him, ALL our sins—past, present, and future—are paid for by His blood. 
 
Here are a couple of links to help you understand what Adventism teaches compared to what the Bible teaches.
Please feel free to email anytime.
Colleen Tinker
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