Amazed and Shocked
I have been listening to your podcasts (originally your episodes on Cultish, now Former Adventist) and I have been amazed and shocked at what I’ve been learning over the past two months.
I am a seventh generation Adventist and have never really questioned anything before (I’m 27 now). I grew up homeschooled, reading the Bible and EGW, and I am pretty well-versed in Adventist history. So honestly, it’s been deeply shocking and even terrifying to learn these things that I have accepted as fact since I was born and realize that they might not actually be the truth. At the same time, it’s been amazing to hear the Gospel in a way I have never heard before. I never understood before why Christians called it the Good News, and for the first time in my life, I can actually begin to see why.
Now, this is maybe a strange question, but my question is—how can I progress to reading the Bible and understanding the Gospel itself without the lens of the Adventist worldview? My understanding of the Bible is so incredibly enmeshed (as you all know, I’m sure) in the Adventist worldview that while reading the Bible, it is nearly impossible to separate the two. Are there any resources or recommendations to help in understanding the Gospel that you recommend in basically learning to be a Christian? I’m sorry if this is a confusing question; this whole journey has been a lot to process, but I really do just want to know how to be a Christian.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Thank you for writing, and your question is not at all confusing. We all have had to deal with exactly the same problem.
The Lord is leading you. He is revealing Himself and His word to you, and He will not drop you. Second, ask Him to remove the EGW filter from your mind and heart and to reveal His word as it is meant to be understood. There are several things that may help you.
First, I want to suggest that you register to attend (either in person or online) the FAF Conference which will be held this coming weekend. Here are the details: https://blog.lifeassuranceministries.org/former-adventist-conference-2023/
To register, just email this email address and let us know you wish to attend online, and we’ll send links before the conference starts.
I think the conference will be helpful in contrasting what you have understood to be reality with what Scripture says. If you register, you will not only be able to watch the sessions as they are live-streamed on YouTube (which anyone can watch), but you will also be sent Zoom links for breakout sessions and chat time during conference breaks.
Second, there are some basic tools for reading Scripture that will help you. The first is understanding that “words matter, and context is everything”. We read Scripture just as we would read a normal book of literature, science, or any other genre. We use normal rules of grammar and punctuation, and we begin by asking what the original audience would have understood from the particular book we are reading. Then we observe the passages, not trying to interpret them or apply them; we simply read the words, noticing the verbs and their tenses, the prepositions, the subjects and verbs—the words mean exactly what they say, and we understand them as we would understand any normal book. We use normal rules without spiritualizing or changing the meaning. The last thing we do is to apply the meaning to ourselves. Adventism tends to give us Scripture and asks us to apply the words to ourselves, but that is not the way we read any other book. Application is the LAST, not the first, thing that we do. A passage of Scripture can only have one meaning. Although it may have different applications for us than for the first audience, it will not have a different meaning.
Third, understanding the covenants will clarify Scripture tremendously. In Adventism we were not taught that there were different covenants, but there were, and their terms were specific for the people with whom they were made.
I will give you some links below to help you with some of these things. First, here are some links to some articles addressing how to study the Bible so we understand what it is saying:
- First Steps of Bible Basics: Getting the Big Picture Right
- My Rules For Understanding Scripture
- Anchored Only In The Word
Here is a link to a helpful article about the covenants:
Here are a couple of videos that may help you understand the covenants and their correction of Adventist understanding:
Also, our podcasts #27, 29, 31, 33, 35, and then our series through Hebrews beginning with #37 specifically walk through the biblical covenants and how Jesus fulfilled the old covenant and inaugurated a new one based on His blood instead of the law. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/former-adventist/id1482887969
If you would like to participate in our weekly FAF Bible study by Zoom on Friday evenings at 7:00 Pacific Time, just send us an email to this address and request a zoom link.
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 have already found 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
Finally, Adventism has a spiritual claim on us. When we ask the Lord to remove the spirit of Adventism from our hearts and to place His Spirit in the place where Adventism had been, the freedom and clarity are amazing. Like the Ephesians who burned their books of magic in Acts 19, we have to give up our Adventist identity to God and trust the Savior alone.
Please feel free to email anytime!
The Murder of an Unborn Human
Thank you, Beverly for this great article that makes things so plain!
Now, on the subject of abortion: I was a third-generation Adventist and knew nothing else until age 54 when I began to study the Bible for myself without those blinding SDA/EGW goggles. My study ultimately led me out of Adventism, and I ran into the welcoming arms of my Savior. Like the writer above, I was a bit ambivalent regarding abortion; it was just a “clump of cells”. Then in 1971 we adopted a newborn baby. I would look down into the face of that beautiful little boy, my son, and think, “That woman could easily have chosen to end her pregnancy and kill this precious baby.”
In that moment when they placed my son in my arms, my entire perspective changed regarding abortion. And then, some years later, my daughter became pregnant in her senior year of high school. Her guidance counselors and teachers strongly urged her to “just take care of it,” and get on with her life. My beautiful granddaughter, who has grown up to be an amazing, godly woman, would have never come to be—an added layer of change to my position on abortion. It is the murder of an unborn human being. End of story!
May God continue to bless you and your ministry!
—POST ON PROCLAMATIONMAGAZINE.COM
Confirmation from God
Hi Beverly! Thank you for writing this article. Your section on the Lord’s Supper jumped out at me; I love how God confirms what He’s trying to teach. I learned as an Adventist child that before taking communion I must examine my behavior, and if I considered myself worthy (I guess how I felt at the time), I could partake. If I didn’t feel worthy, I would try to humble myself by feeling shameful and worthless; I thought that’s what made me worthy.
Earlier this week I was studying the origins of the new covenant, and it led me to 1 Corinthians 11:23-28. I just so happened to look at the commentary and found this and wept. (I added the quotes and capitalized NOT.)
To partake in communion in a “worthy” manner is to attribute the full worth of Christ’s redeeming work to this action, to partake with faith in his full forgiveness, full acceptance, and full power, to restore, strengthen, and heal.
It does NOT refer to a person’s examining his or her daily walk with Jesus so as to determine worthiness to partake of communion.
May the God of love, grace, and self-sacrifice bless you, keep you, uphold you, and strengthen you with might by His Spirit in your innermost being forever. I bless FAF ministry in the name of Jesus; I cannot communicate in words how profound the effect God is having on many who have been in invisible chains.
—POST ON PROCLAMATIONMAGAZINE.COM
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