Stuck In An Adventist Home
I just want to mention that your podcast has blessed me so much, and God uses it to speak to me often! Now I would like to hear your point of view about a situation! I am a new former Adventist. I’m 20 years old, and I live under the roof of deeply-rooted Adventist parents. It is very hard for me to step out of all the Adventist ways of living and thinking since I am forced to go to church on Saturdays, to enter into the Sabbath on Friday evenings, not to celebrate Christmas, and so on.
God is freeing me of all of these, but at the same time I am physically still in the Adventist environment. I don’t know what to do because I already tried to talk to my parents, and they said that Satan was in my head, trying to separate me from God.
I know that convincing them is not my job, but without being convinced, they will never understand, and I will still be stuck there. I can’t move out either. All of this brings a lot of anxiety into my life. What would you do in my situation? God bless you all!
—VIA EMAIL
Response: You are in a really difficult situation. I understand your parents’ responses to you as well; those types of remarks are typical and so very discouraging.
I don’t have a clear answer about what to do. Are you in school? Do your parents believe that you should live at home with them until you are married? Do you have a car—are you able to go places on your own without them?
I will share what Richard and I did when we realized we had to leave. We were deeply embedded in Adventism in Loma Linda. Our work, our kids’ school, our clients, our church—every single part of our lives was within Adventism and supported by Adventism. We were overwhelmed as we tried to figure out how to disentangle. We began to pray that the Lord would open the doors through which He wanted us to walk. We had no idea exactly how to start because wee were really embedded.
God was faithful. He really did open doors, one at a time. Events occurred, people around us made choices that pushed us out of situations we had been in, and so forth. One committee, one responsibility at a time just became no longer available for us. There was a sense of loss at times, even of “unfairness” as people made politically-charged “power plays”, but we realized that God was answering our prayers. He was pulling us out of the entanglement with Adventism one step at a time.
Here’s what I realized: if at any point we had refused to walk through the next open door, we would have “stalled”, and we would have remained stuck. But when the doors opened, even if they were somewhat painful doors to walk through, the Lord walked with us, and the freedom and new opportunities on the other side were things we could not imagine before walking through that open door.
I really do not know how your situation will develop, but I do know this: if you trust God and ask Him to lead you and to show you clearly how He wants you to walk toward Him and away from Adventism, He will do it. It’s possible that your parents will not be reconciled but will be upset with you, but even if that happens, the Lord will hold you and will deal with them as well. You will not be alone, and He will deliver you into a new situation where His mercy is clear and His joy is real.
So, if I were in your situation, I would ask God to show me what to do and to open the next door He wanted me to walk through. I would stay immersed in His word, and I would be asking Him to keep me faithful and to know how to love my parents FOR HIM (not for myself or even for their sakes but for Him) and to trust Him enough to walk when He says, “Walk!”
Countering Adventist “Grace”
Last Sabbath my brother-in-law gave a sermon at my wife’s Adventist church. What he said was based on Ellen White. I know it is wrong, but my wife believes it. I would like to be able to explain clearly how it misuses “grace” and contradicts Scripture. This is a touchy situation.
Here is the quote:
Grace is divine favor extended to those who stand guilty and condemned to die before diving law. The necessity for divine grace arises from the sinner’s inability to satisfy the demands of the law, except by his or her own death. Were out possible to change or abolish the divine law, there would be no need for grace. The sinner cannot bridge the gulf that his or her transgression of the law has made; the sinner cannot restore himself or herself to favor with God. Law and grace are not contrary to each other. They are not mutually exclusive. Grace offers salvation from the penalty of the law, through the righteousness of Christ. It preserves both the honor and the majesty of the divine law and government, while giving life to those who have violated the law and rebelled against the government of heaven. Grace is not emancipation from the law, but it is emancipation from sin and from the penalty of the law. Grace provides salvation not by canceling the requirements of the law, but by cooperating with the law. The law condemns the transgressor; grace meets the penalty and sets the sinner free. Grace honors the law by presenting the perfect obedience of Christ in place of the sinner’s disobedience. Grace does not lessen the authority of the law, but recognizes and maintains its authority by satisfying its claims. Grace forgives, but it leads those who have been forgiven to serve God in newness of life, according to His righteous will. Grace delivers the sinner from the condemnation of the law in order that he or she may obey and honor the law by a new and holy life.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: EGW/Adventism does not define “grace” biblically, nor the “righteousness of Christ”. When they say grace offers salvation from the penalty of the law through the righteousness of Christ, here is what they mean: to an Adventist, Christ’s righteousness is not referring to his innate character as God which is loving and just, merciful and wrathful. By the “Righteousness of Christ”, Adventists refer to Jesus’ perfect law-keeping as a man.
Christians refer to His innate righteousness which qualified Him to offer the sufficient sacrifice. Adventists always come back to Christ’s righteousness being His law-keeping without sin, His human life lived without sin. The Bible refers to the actual righteousness of God Himself in His innate perfection and holiness when they refer to Christ’s righteousness.
Adventists say that Jesus’ fulfilling the law meant He kept the commandments and died on the cross to fulfill the shadows of the sacrifices. They deny that His fulfilling of the law means that the law is now obsolete because its reality is in the risen Christ.
Adventists have no sense of Jesus’ fulfillment of the law primarily being that He paid for human sin fully and thus broke the curse of death because His sacrifice was sufficient to remove the curse from those who believe.
Adventists say that Jesus died on the cross because He was sinless and kept the law perfectly so he could fulfill the sacrifices; they have no concept of His sacrifice being sufficient for God’s curse of spiritual death to be revoked for believers. They do not see that Jesus made the law obsolete by fulfilling its death sentence. Hence, Adventists have no sense of being believers or of being able to KNOW they are saved.
The law was not given as a standard for living. It was given to increase sin and to reveal that humans could NOT keep the law. They needed a Savior. Adventists treat the law as a standard for righteousness. If they break the law, they fall out of favor with God. They do not recognize that they are spiritually dead because they deny their own spirits’ existence. They have no concept of eternal life being spiritual; they believe it’s entirely about the body.
For Adventists, salvation must be about behavior and obedience to the law because they don’t see the spiritual reality that they are dead, that the law reveals their spiritual death, and they must be born again.
The best way I know to get underneath this mess is to persist in prayer and to keep reading Scripture with with your wife. Scripture is alive.
How Do I Find a Church?
I have been watching the Former Adventist Fellowship videos on YouTube and related videos about the cult from other sources. Aside from my hunger to study the word, I am anxious to find a body of believers to worship with. Can you give me any suggestions as to what church to go to that is a Bible teaching church? I have no clue. Is a non-denominational church best? Some are actually Pentecostal-mixed. I’m hoping you can suggest some to try. I do realize I am in another state, but still, you may be able to suggest a few to try?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: I’m so sorry that I do not know what churches may be good where you live. I would start by checking their doctrinal statements online. If they place the gospel, the expository preaching of God’s inerrant word, and the Trinity at the core of their beliefs, that would be a place I would visit. I would avoid the charismatic-leaning churches. They pursue the experiences of spiritual gifts rather than the understanding of God’s word and the gospel of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit’s work is to teach us about the Lord Jesus and to reveal Him and the Scripture’s meaning to us—Jesus is the center of our attention. The Holy Spirit helps us know Jesus and does not put Himself in the limelight.
It’s not possible to choose a church without actually visiting it. I would suggest that Bible churches (often non-denominational) may be good places to start. Also, many Baptist churches also offer good expository Bible preaching and small groups. Some Presbyterian Churches of America are also good, but they tend to operate from a place of saying the law continues as a rule of faith and practice for the church, so sometimes Presbyterian churches are Sunday-sabbatarians or have an undue focus on the law. They do understand the gospel, but they don’t tend to see the new covenant as completely replacing the old.
The main thing is that you be able to hear God’s word preached and taught and find good Christian fellowship. I am attaching an audio link of our pastor teaching at one of our early FAF Conferences about how to find a church: https://lifeassuranceministries.org/faf2007/GaryInrig2007.mp3
I’m sorry I can’t be mores specific. Above all, pray that the Lord will lead you to the place where He knows you will grow and deepen in Him.
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