What About Desmond Doss?
I’ve listened to dozens of your Former Adventist Podcasts. Thank you. You’ve been used by the Lord to reveal the many doctrines of demons that have led many astray from the truth of sola scriptura, Bible alone, which will set people free. I agree it’s even paganism to go back to the law after having been set free and adopted by Christ. But, what do I do with Desmond Doss’s story? My brother-in-law and his Adventist family live next door to us. We are Christians. They sure talk the talk of Christianity, even with tears sometimes. Mormons can also display this “seeming sincerity”.
How does the deceiver who is behind Adventist doctrine cause Desmond Doss to stay alive for his many rescues of wounded soldiers in WWII? He is then heralded a complete hero whose beliefs I find even more difficult to reason Adventists out of due to the sheer unexplainable drama of Desmond’s life.
Do demons protect false doctrine to this degree? Do they have the power to pull this off? Don’t get me wrong. I am not tempted to become Adventist myself. Not in a million years. But his story is a tough one for me to wrap my head around. He could not have been acting alone. Nobody survives that without spiritual help. The question is: where did the help come from, light or darkness?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: I admit the Desmond Doss story has been a struggle for me, too. Yet I know this: God uses whomever He will to accomplish His purposes. He even used Egypt to protect His nation Israel until they became huge and ready to leave for the Promised Land. He used Egypt to hide His own Son from Herod. He used Cyrus to help the Jews return to the land after their exile, protected and financed by the Persian government.
Whether or not Doss himself was saved is another question. It is possible that some Adventists trust Jesus IN SPITE of Adventism. Whatever the case with Doss, I know that he was a loyal Adventist, so I have no assurance that he understood the gospel. Yet he may have had a devotion to whomever he understood God to be that God used. And God clearly did equip Doss with courage and strength to save the lives he saved.
Ultimately the issue is not Doss but God. God chose to save those lives, and Doss was responsive to the need. God equipped him to be able to do what he did—and we know that God uses both believers and unbelievers to do His will for His glory. The Doss family focusses on his Adventism and Doss’s commitment to Adventist principles, but this focus eclipses God’s sovereignty. No, demons can’t override God’s will. It is the surrounding community that has made the Adventist doctrines the focus of Desmond’s story, but that focus is backwards. The story is God’s. When people refuse to look at Scripture truthfully and know who God is, that stubbornness does not stop God’s will from being done in the big picture. Doss’s heroism will not be an acceptable reason for people to be Adventist. It was not his Adventism that made him a hero.
Adventism looks at life through the perspective of human experience. Reality reveals that life is about God and His will; He uses us in His story, not the other way around. Adventism says God helped Doss because he was a loyal, good Adventist who sincerely followed Adventist teachings. Reality says that God used Doss because He chose to use Doss, and Doss was responsive to the need God showed him. The movement went from God to Doss, not from Doss’s Adventist loyalty to God.
Whether or not Dos dealt with the reality of Jesus is something we don’t know, but God protected and saved those lives, and God used Doss for His glory!
Prayer that Adventists Be Convicted of Truth
Thank you for the article, “What is Seventh-day Adventism?” So very powerful and beautifully written! My prayer is that ALL Adventists would be convicted of these truths.
I’ve been asked not to share my beliefs with some of my family members anymore, but my mother has come out of the Adventist cult, and a couple of others are questioning—praise to the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit alone!
My heart is to share this article, and I’m praying for discernment.
Thank you for you life’s work in helping to set Adventists free with Biblical truth.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: I pray that you will know whether or not to share the article. I will say that the article was a big factor in a friend of ours firmly deciding he had to leave Adventism. He had not grown up Adventist but had married one and had converted. Later, when he read the article, he realized Adventism was false. I pray the Lord will give you His discernment!
That “Forgotten” Dream Again
Daniel 8:2 King James: “I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because ye see the thing is gone from me.” Many versions use similar language. Many versions also say “because you see that my word is firm” or something like that. There seems to be a disparity in the translations and in the final analysis; what is most important is the understanding of the dream.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: You are right that the KJV uses a translation that sounds as if Nebuchadnezzar forgot his dream. It seems that may be related to the manuscript family from which the KJV is derived, while the NASB, for example, is based on a different “family” that is older than those the KJV used. You are right, however, that the issue is not whether or not he remembered.
Of course, the thing that impacts former Adventists, though, is that their prophet wrote that he forgot—and for some reason that detail is really important in the way the story was embedded in Adventist children’s minds.
If it weren’t for the authoritative ways EGW wrote about it, it would be a non-event, so to speak. It’s just one more thing suggesting that EGW really didn’t get her inspired commentary from God.
Thank you again for your thoughts—and you are right that this detail isn’t the important part of the story!
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