Blessings For Following Convictions
Not only am I a huge fan of your Former Adventist Podcast, but I’m also a big fan of Cultish. A few months back I sent a message to the Cultish podcast’s Facebook page requesting that they do a crossover episode with FAF about Seventh-day Adventism. Jeremiah responded that an interview was already in the planning, and I have been praying for you guys ever since. My prayer is that this goes bigger than the John Ankerberg Show…I have really enjoyed the last two episodes of Cultish [with Nikki Stevenson and Colleen Tinker as guests], and I’m very proud of you ladies for your faithfulness, openness, and accuracy. Blessings to both your families for following through with your convictions.
—CLEBURNE, TX
Response: Thank you for writing, and thank you for your prayers for us. I believe that our prayers for each other are the most important thing we do for the body of Christ!
We are grateful to Cultish for doing excellent research and for organizing these interviews carefully. We thank God for these opportunities!
Thank you again for your support and encouragement.
Serving the Whore of Babylon
Greetings in Christ Jesus our beautiful Savior and Lord who has ALL authority in Heaven and on earth.
I hope you are well and entering the season with great excitement and anticipation. Christmas has to be one of my favorite times of the year; what a gift we were given.
I have struggled with overwhelming depression and family issues after my mother, whom I tried to show what I’ve been learning, went off the deep end and is more Adventist now than ever. She believes I now serve the “whore of Babylon”.
I am hoping I might be able to get some materials from you. The podcast is helping immensely, but I was wondering if there are any materials or notes you could share with me additionally.
I was challenged by Adventist acquaintances after Cultish’s release of the first Ellen White episode that I couldn’t support the claims made in the podcast, and that 90% of what Nikki and Colleen said was lies. Respectfully I said, “It’s fair you feel that way; let’s talk about the things you heard that you thought were lies and work through them together.”
No response—radio silence.
So I’ve decided to write 28 refutations to the 28 Fundamental Beliefs, responding with biblical doctrine and using Seventh-day Adventists Believe, Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, and my Bible, posting my responses to my Facebook profile for any Adventists who may still be following me.
Thank you for all the work you’ve done and are doing to defend the gospel of Jesus. I’ve been profoundly inspired.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Thank you for writing! I’m so sorry that you have been having such a hard time during this last year. I understand that!
And go YOU studying the 28 FBs! Have you listened to our podcast series on them? If not, I suspect they may be helpful. You can find them grouped together here: https://blog.lifeassuranceministries.org/2021/10/04/inspecting-adventisms-fundamental-beliefs/
I would start with these. We also have numerous articles on our website that address the doctrinal issues of Adventism. Here are a few that might be helpful:
Need To Leave
I was a second generation Adventist. My story is long and exhausting and probably similar to most former Adventists. I won’t exhaust you with it, but I am wondering how to go about writing a letter to officially remove myself from the Adventist church. I moved between the general conference and the southern union conference, and I honestly had a hard time actually finding my membership much less knowing which conference it’s in. I really have no desire to sit and talk with someone to figure it out; would you suggest I just write to both? And is there a template on how to write that?
I put my faith in Jesus about two years ago, and since then I have just been blown away daily by Jesus. I’m so happy, but I really would like to completely remove from Adventism.
Thank you for your help and the amazing podcast! Keep it up! We’re listening!
—VIA EMAIL
Response: I completely understand and support your desire to remove your membership. I believe this is an important step.
In Adventism, membership is held at the local church level. If you only write to the conference, they will not remove you but will refer you to the local church. So you will need to write to the last local church where you were a member. I personally would write to them and CC the local conference, because even though the membership is held at the local church level, the conference DOES have a list of members.
There’s no particular formula. You might want to write an explanation of how you have come to know Jesus and disbelieve Adventism, or you might simply want to write and ask that they remove your membership. Whatever the case, I would request a return response. More times than we would expect, they ignore the requests or just fail to act on them. I would persist; if they do not send you a response, I would contact them again.
Email is a good way to do this, or you might do snail mail. However, in these days, email might be easiest, and it is a legal document with a date and time stamp.
I totally support your efforts to leave.
Meanwhile, although we are not currently publishing a printed version of Proclamation! magazine, all our back issues are online here: http://www.lifeassuranceministries.org.
We have also added your name to our weekly Proclamation! email updates. You may need to add the email address LifeAssuranceMinistries@gmail.com to your contacts in order for the email not to be directed toward your Spam folder. These emails will arrive every Friday. Archived articles are available at ProclamationMagazine.com.
You might also enjoy our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/FormerAdventist/featured
You are already listening to our podcasts here; many say these help them unpack the Adventism hidden in the recesses of their minds: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/former-adventist/id1482887969
- May 4–10, 2024 - May 2, 2024
- We Got Mail - May 2, 2024
- April 27–May 3, 2024 - April 25, 2024