NICOLE STEVENSON
Moments ago I left Richard and Colleen Tinker’s home after recording the podcast episode covering Revelation 16 and the 7 bowls of God’s outpoured wrath. To say that studying the book of Revelation draws the mind to eternal things seems to be an understatement. I carry this book with me everywhere I go. It enters into so many moments of life as I walk day to day. As I watch the news, as I worship with the body of Christ on Sunday, as I think of my children and their future, and as I pray for those I know and love who are unbelieving—Revelation stands fixed in my mind. From the very first chapter I have been drawn into the presence of the Lord Jesus. For many months now my heart consistently returns to scenes in Revelation, and my prayers have been fueled with new depth as I pray in earnest for the lost and thank God for what He has done in Jesus to redeem us.
The Saints in Heaven
When I heard of Dale Ratzlaff entering into the fullness of life in the presence of Jesus something interesting happened. I didn’t picture Dale as just gone like I used to as an Adventist (and even as a new believer still learning to apply Scripture to my responses to life). When I heard he went home I immediately thanked God that he was finally able to see Jesus, and I thought of him as present with the saints in Heaven—the saints I often think of as I study Revelation. My mind counted him among the saints bowing before the Lamb who was slain. I knew completely that Dale stood fixed upon “Mount Zion… the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” and that he stands among, “myriads of angels” and those in, “festal gathering” there among the “assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven” and with “God, the Judge of all, and…the spirits of the righteous made perfect,” (Hebrews 12:22-23).
The first Lord’s Day after Dale went home, I stood at church singing praises to our God through many tears! It’s true—we do not grieve like those who have no hope!
The first Lord’s Day after Dale went home, I stood at church singing praises to our God through many tears! It’s true—we do not grieve like those who have no hope! My tears were not consumed with the pain of the loss of life, but they came from rejoicing in the faithfulness of God who graduated Dale into His glorious presence according to His great mercy and love! As Dr. Gary Inrig said, “The power of our union with Christ is greater than the power of death…death is not going to sever our union with Christ, it is only going to enhance and increase it in significant ways.”
Every time we praise God we can know that we are joining Dale in this great endless chorus of praise sung by all His people throughout all of time. As I stood there that morning singing about God’s faithfulness, I thanked Him for Dale. I thanked Him for the work He did in him and the faithfulness of Dale to share the truth in love to all who would listen—no matter the consequences. Because of God’s faithfulness and Dale’s faithful response to Him, I too can stand in the body of Christ and among those enrolled in Heaven knowing what God has done, walking in what He’s doing, and trusting Him with what He is yet to do.
The Saints Below
That Sunday as I stood singing I not only thought of Dale and the saints in Heaven that I would one day join in the future, my mind was also drawn to remember the saints I have sung praises with in the past. I remembered my first Former Adventist Fellowship weekend in 2010 and the many that followed. I remembered Dale’s faithful teaching and the praise and joy of those who knew the truth and freedom of the gospel of Jesus. I remembered singing shoulder to shoulder with so many of God’s people. I thanked God for the timeless praise of the saints past, present, and future who live forever to honor Him.
If we are born again through faith in Jesus, then our existence is fixed in Him. Whatever else we can say about life on this side of eternity, we can say with certainty that God is faithful, and He will complete what He’s doing in us because the steadfast, loyal love of the Lord never ceases, and His mercies never come to an end—He is faithful!
Just as Dale’s life of doing the next right thing impacted so many for the kingdom, we have the opportunity to live lives of integrity that line up with what we say we believe about God.
Every word we speak and every response we have impacts those who are watching us. Just as Dale’s life of doing the next right thing impacted so many for the kingdom, we have the opportunity to live lives of integrity that line up with what we say we believe about God. Brothers and sisters, I’m honored to be with you among the saints below at this moment in human history. There is so much about his moment that threatens to distract us, but as we respond together, not to the distractions but to the eternal things, we have a collective opportunity to bring light into an ever darkening world.
While it’s true that many are deepening in their suppression of truth, it is also true that more people than ever are in pursuit of the truth as it relates to Adventism and the Bible! It’s an exciting time to be in ministry! Through the Holy Spirit we have the ability to entrust to God the fallout of our faith—just as Dale modeled—and to stand unashamed of the gospel as we reach back to those who don’t yet know the eternally secure life and freedom Jesus offers us through His blood.
We Need Each other
In God’s eternal design for the salvation of humanity is woven the unchanging thread of relationship—relationship with Him, but also with His people. From Genesis to Revelation we see human relationship being integral in God’s plan for us. From Adam to Abraham, from Israel to the church, from the afflicted saints in Revelation to the glorified saints in the new Heavens and Earth, we are called to exist in united relationship with God and with each other.
Following Christ is not a solo sport. Every new believer added to the body of Christ is enfolded into His family with inheritance rights and with accountability both to and for the church.
Following Christ is not a solo sport. Every new believer added to the body of Christ is enfolded into His family with inheritance rights and with accountability both to and for the church. We are gifted for the purpose of building up the body and guarding it from every wind of false doctrine that seeks to tear it down.
The calling of the Christ follower is a call to suffer. Not because God delights in suffering, but because we are exiles in a land that hates God and hates His people. Our primary call is to hold fast in faithfulness to the truth we have come to and to hold fast to those who have joined us in this faith.
The secondary fall out of this is that until Christ reigns over the nations with a rod of iron we will be the victims of targeted rage against God. Whether the world rages covertly through insidious worldviews and prejudice, or overtly in violence or other angry forms of marginalizing, none of God’s people will escape the reality that we have been divided out from an unbelieving world, and we will profoundly feel that shift.
In His merciful provision, the calling of the Christ follower is not only to suffer but also to comfort and be comforted within the body. Paul writes of this in his letter to the church at Corinth,
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort,” (2 Cor. 1:3-7).
It was this kind of comfort and community that I first experienced at the Former Adventist Fellowship Conference in 2010. It was into this kind of nurturing that I was placed when I was newly born in Christ. A place that understood my background and shared a collective story that had different details but the same foundation. This was the community that began to help me unwrap the grave clothes I wore—the whitewashed “Sabbath-best” grave clothes of a counterfeit Christianity. It was also through this community that I would learn to walk in faith through all the fallout that I was yet to face.
While Christian fellowship is not only found among Life Assurance Ministries or the Former Adventist Fellowship Conferences, there is a unique form of comfort and help in healing that exists among this group for those of us who were saved out of Adventism— a 2 Corinthians kind of comfort. The comfort that comes from those having already been comforted and taught by God through the shared affliction of discovering the reality of what Adventism is. The comfort that comes through the reassurances of those who have made the Bible their source for reality and who can show you from its pages that God is faithful, that those who are born again are secure, and that we can trust Him with our unique suffering and losses.
The Wrath of God Was Satisfied
One of the most profound moments at my first Former Adventist Fellowship conference was standing in worship singing “In Christ Alone”. It was a song I’d heard before and even sung before as an Adventist. This time, though, I saw these words for the first time:
“In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save‘Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live”
The wrath of God was satisfied! The wrath of God? I was stunned. I couldn’t sing for the knot in my throat as the tears came. I listened to the people around me praising God for the gospel and rejoined them when I regained composure. If God’s wrath was satisfied in Jesus, then I don’t have to fear His wrath if I’m in Jesus. Something clicked, and it was the beginning of a domino-effect of “clicks” I’d experience over the weekend.
My unique internal responses to what I was realizing over those three days came one after the other, and by the grace of God I was facing reality in an environment where people wanted me to talk about what I was beginning to see, who understood my reactions and questions, and who wanted to open the Bible with me to answer them from Scripture. I was being enfolded into the body of Christ even before I was completely aware of the faith that would be born in me that weekend.
Like being born in a hospital with doctors ready to catch me, I was coming to life among those who understood what I needed to understand.
Like being born in a hospital with doctors ready to catch me, I was coming to life among those who understood what I needed to understand. I needed to understand the gospel of Scripture. I needed to understand that the blood of Jesus doesn’t stand against me in an investigation in Heaven blotting out some sins and refusing to cover others. The blood of Jesus has been fully applied to all who have trusted Him from the moment they’re born again for all of eternity.
When I now read about the wrath of God as I study the book of Revelation my heart breaks for unbelievers. It breaks for the lost, the deceived, and the confused, and it propels me to want to live at the front lines of helping all who will inherit salvation to find the truth in a setting that offers the comfort of Christ, the truth of Scripture, and love of Jesus.
Join Us This Year
Brother’s and Sisters, if you are a born again believer rescued from Seventh-day Adventism, won’t you come join us at this years Former Adventist Fellowship conference to serve those who are appointed to salvation? Whether in person or online, come join us to catch the newly rescued and to comfort them with the comfort we’ve received. Join us in teaching them about the saving blood of Jesus and the adoption and eternal life we now live in. Join us in teaching them that they do not need to fear God’s wrath if they have placed their faith in Christ alone for their salvation.
If you are newly questioning Adventism we hope you will join us at the conference this year.
If you are newly questioning Adventism we hope you will join us at the conference this year. You will be met with people who want to know you and who want to share with you the reason for the hope we have. If you can’t come in person, join us for our live-streaming online. You can register for free at proclamationmagzine.com.
Thank You, Jesus
As we walk into another conference season I thank Jesus for His blood applied that saved my life and the lives of countless others I now call my family. I thank Jesus for the men and woman He has used to carry His truth into our lives. And I thank Him in a special way for the love and ministry of Dale Ratzlaff and the continued love and ministry of his beloved wife, Carolynn Ratzlaff. Will you join me in praise with all the saints thanking Jesus even now? †
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