Unfulfilled Prophecies
The [podcast] on the last half of Daniel 11 was very interesting. You also mentioned other Bible verses that seemed to fit into the 70th-week timeline.
In Isaiah 17:1,2 is another event that may fit there. It foretells the destruction of Damascus, Syria, and the area around it. It becomes a desolate heap where shepherds graze their flocks. I can find no evidence from history that this has happened. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on Earth.
I’m really looking forward to your next podcast!
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Thank you for writing. How interesting about Isaiah 17. Thank you for your encouragement.
Shocked At Being Deceived
Thanks for being there.
I am shocked at discovering that I have been deceived. However, I feel very strong in my relationship with Jesus my Savior who holds me through the Holy Spirit.
My oldest daughter discovered the plagiarism perpetrated by this so called prophetess Ellen White, but I couldn’t believe the evidence, so I denied it until one day in silence I asked the One who cannot fail: God.
I said, “Lord, if this is true and, you know because you see and hear everything, please show me.”
Three days later my husband showed me some very well-documented videos, and I have already read The White Lie and what a revelation.
Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:32). Now I understand the meaning of that verse because I have been set free.
Thanks to my Savior for taking care of me and loving me this much.
—VIA EMAIL
Are Adventists Saved?
As I’m listening to your podcast I have a question about salvation. All of my Adventist friends believe they are saved. I grew up believing it as well, especially because I never understood the investigative judgment. However, you keep saying that they don’t know they are saved, and I don’t really understand this.
—VIA EMAIL
Nikki’s Response: When I was in my 20’s as a Seventh-day Adventist, I would answer the question of whether or not I was saved with a yes. I believed I knew the truth and had the way of salvation. I believed that Jesus died on the cross for my sins to save me. I had all the words. However, when it came down to it, I was insecure. I’m not sure I ever would have said that out loud, but I knew the sin in me and I feared that if the Lord returned I would be lacking in faithfulness.
If someone asked me if I was saved I would say yes, but if they asked me if I could lose my salvation if I gave up Sabbath-keeping I would have also said yes. After all, this was what the final test was all about, right?
I didn’t understand that answering both questions with a “yes” meant that I was holding dueling positions. The notions of knowing you’re not saved by your works, and of believing you can lose your salvation based on your works are incompatible. They are mutually exclusive claims. They cannot both be true, in part, because the nature of salvation is eternal life and the nature of eternal is that it doesn’t start and stop.
Either we are saved by Christ alone, or we aren’t—it can’t be both. The gospel of Scripture is that we are only saved by placing our faith in the singular work of Christ on our behalf. If we divide our faith between what we think He did and by what we think we may need to do, that isn’t faith. That’s hedging our bets.
When we’re saved it changes us, and we begin to experience changes in our own will and our desires will shift as we grow in our knowledge and love of the Lord. This change will be reflected in our life as we begin to do the works God puts in front of us to do in service to Him—but it’s not these works that maintain salvation. These works are personal and given by God Himself to each of His children as they walk in obedience to Him and abide in His word.
In Adventism we’ll use the word “saved” in the past tense, but most Adventists don’t believe that salvation is something that’s a done deal. Most Adventists believe that as humans with free will we are capable of “messing up” badly enough to lose our salvation. In large part this is because in Adventism, salvation is an ascent to a worldview and a lifestyle change that accommodates it. This is why their fundamental beliefs books says that being born again is like a do-over. They say we are born again when we’re baptized, and then if we stray we can be born again, again, by being re-baptized. In Adventism being born again is decisional. The Bible, though, says that being born again is the monergistic work of God and is not by the will of man (John 1:12,13).
The Bible teaches that the new birth is a spiritual birth (John 3:5,6) and that we literally become a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). We move from death (we have living bodies with spirits born dead in sin) to life. God brings our spirit to life and permanently puts His Spirit in us as a promise, a guarantee, a certainty that we have been given eternal life that will not stop and start based on our behavior but that will bring us all the way home based on God’ promise—praise God! (Eph 1:11,14; 2:1-10; Ezk 36:25-27, Col 1:13,14).
So, when most Christians says they’re saved, they mean that they are eternally secure (though there are some groups who don’t see it this way, but their understanding doesn’t reflect the Adventist understanding either).
There are so many convoluted doctrines in Adventism that even if they use words that reflect security it’s usually only a matter of asking a few direct questions before the insecurity is revealed.
That’s not to say it isn’t different with you and your friends. I would just say that you guys would be an anomaly within greater Seventh-day Adventism. Our loved ones need the gospel of Scripture. They don’t have to live with insecurity because the very nature of believing the gospel is believing they are secure in the work of Christ alone. Once we understand this, the unique tenets of Adventism become irrelevant, so the organization has had to use evangelical words in ways that keep the insecurity alive and well under the surface. This is usually done with dueling doctrines.
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