How Do I Talk To my Mom?
So lately I have been feeling as if I want to share the good news of knowing Jesus with my loved ones, but I know you all have mentioned in your podcast that this is a normal feeling and stage. I honestly do not know where to go from here.
My best friend who has seen the truth from many years ago is a huge support to me, and she tells me that what I need to do moving forward is PRAY—pray and continue to remind my Mom that Jesus loves her and that He is enough. I need to continue repeating this to her because my mom has shared with me that she is not well mentally and physically because she has a lot on her plate right now, and of course, I now know that she is not set free by God’s true word.
The other day my mom shared with me that she has been feeling so stressed as she is the caretaker of her mother and that responsibility is very heavy on her. She mentioned that going to church (Adventist) distracts her, especially being in the programs the church has. This is her escape/social life.
She also continues to remind me to “do God’s will so that you are ready for Christ’s return”, and my recent response was, “I am, and I cannot wait till He returns. I would like Him to return TODAY.”
She continued saying to me: “How do you know you are doing God’s will?”
I said to her, “What is God’s will to you?” and she responded, “Keeping His commandments, and not doing the things I want when I know I should be keeping His commandments.”
I know she was implying keeping the Sabbath. Mom knows that I am going to a Sunday church, and this is the root of her concern that I am not doing God’s will. After that, she sent me a video of an Adventist Spanish Pastor talking about the parallelism between Christ’s first coming and second coming. I listened, and it was all about “God’s servant said this, God’s servant said that.”
In other words, he was quoting EGW the whole time. The Pastor also mentioned that there are three groups that knew and waited for Jesus: the Jews, Gentiles, and a third group. He said that we are not considered Gentiles anymore because we have the truth.
That really stuck out to me because all this is EGW! I don’t even know how to respond to my Mom after she sent me that video! I would love to hear your thoughts and/or suggestions. This is such a difficult thing to process. I will continue praying for God’s guidance throughout my life.
Thank you for listening to me.
—VIA EMAIL
RESPONSE: I understand your joy and also your frustration.
I don’t have a “magic answer” for how to talk to your mom, but would she be willing to read the Bible with you even once or twice a week? If she would and if you could, perhaps you could sit with her and literally read a chapter at a time using no outside commentaries. I’d suggest starting with Galatians or Hebrews—Galatians is so startling to Adventists if they are helped to read by just using normal rules of grammar and vocabulary. If you and she could just read the words and believe they mean what they say—and if she suggests interpretations that are not implicit in the text, ask her where in the Bible she sees that idea.
It was reading the Bible with our Christian neighbors, in context, that brought Richard and me to see and understand the gospel.
And would it upset your mom for you to just share the gospel with her, straight out of 1 Corinthians 15:1–4? I’m guessing she doesn’t know what the gospel is: that the Lord Jesus died for our sins according to Scripture, that He was buried, and that He rose on the third day according to Scripture. When we believe, we pass from death to life (Jn 5:24) and do not come into judgment.
As for that video, I think maybe all I would say, if it were me, is that the man is not teaching biblically, so I can’t take him seriously. He has an unbiblical worldview, and his interpretations are not supported by Scripture.
The Lord is faithful! He is leading you.
I pray that He will give you wisdom and courage and that He will open your mom’s heart and give you a way to pursue the Bible with her.
Seeing The World Through Adventist Eyes
What an interesting and exhausting visit we had with our Adventist relatives. I discovered that so much can be learned by just listening and not commenting. I’ve known Adventism was a cult and false doctrine for several years, but looking at it up close in the presence of devoted Adventists was an eye-opener..
I learned that at least some of our relatives believe, in light of recent news reports of immigrant squatters in NYC, that soon this phenomenon will become Christians taking the homes of the Adventists and that Christians will be the next terrorist group.…
One relative was bemoaning the widespread use of internet plagiarism among high school students—a serious moral lapse that caused him to change his usual curriculum. And yet EGW remains his go-to authority on all things regarding his church.
All of their friends are from their years in Adventist schools. They have no other relationships, no one they mention or contact.
Concurrently, they turn away from obvious compromises in standards that they see within Adventist institutions. Even though they see that compromises are made for the sake of monetary advantage, they shrug.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for leading me away from this cult!!!
—VIA EMAIL
RESPONSE: Wow! Thank you for writing your retrospective! Of course they interpret the strange collapse of our civilization as CHRISTIANS gearing up to turn on Adventists! Adventists will completely miss the true spiritual danger of the beast and his image and mark because they are looking for it to appear as a different thing. Yet they are blind to the implications of government grants within their institutions and the compromises necessary to keep receiving the funds.
What an interesting panorama of Adventist worldview observations. The Lord is leading and protecting you.
Thank you so much for sharing this!
YouTube Comments under Podcast “Seventh-Day Waldenses”
WRITER: Born condemned? You think babies who die go to hell?
RESPONSE: Read Ephesians 2:1–3; Romans 3:9–18, and John 3::18 and 36. God knows the babies. They are by nature dead in sin as well, but He knows each one and we can trust Him. If He could make the unborn John the Baptist be filled with the Holy Spirit in His mother’s womb (Lk. 1:15 and 41), He knows how to make any baby His, filled with His life. He knows how to take care of the infants. I believe that He knows and comforts each aborted baby, by the way…they are tiny humans, and they have identities and life. He sees and forms each one (Psalm 139). I trust Him with the babies. He doesn’t waste life—and He doesn’t trick us. We are all by nature children of wrath, born condemned. We have life in Him.
WRITER: So you do. That’s some serious Catholic original sin stuff. Calvinist even suggest that, but not normally out loud.
RESPONSE: I did not say I believe the babies go to hell. I believe, as David said of his baby that died, they cannot come back to us, but we will go to them. I can only say what Scripture says. We are by nature dead in sin, but God in His mercy makes us alive in Christ (Eph 2:1-9). This belief is not Catholic. It is what God’s word says, and we are not asked to explain it but to believe. †
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