How Do I Tell My Family I’m Leaving?
I have been on this amazing journey in my walk with God. I have decided to leave Adventism but am struggling with sharing my decision with my family. I will see them in September and want your support as to how to go about sharing with them. I’m enjoying your podcasts.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Thank you for writing! Praise God for His work in your life! Leaving Adventism is so, so hard—but so, so rewarding! I don’t think most of us realize how deeply our leaving will impact us before we actually leave. Adventism is surprising because it poses as Christian, and we always believe ourselves to be Christian. Yet when we leave, we begin to realize that the Adventists in our lives don’t see our leaving as a move within their “Christian” circles. Actually, it’s when we leave that the reality of Adventism’s deception becomes more clear.
You are right that it is a struggle to share your journey with your family—yet once you have done it, you will feel so much more clear and free. Yes, you will experience the invisible divide between those who are still in the domain of darkness as you navigate your new citizenship in the kingdom of the Beloved Son (Col 1:13). It’s sometimes shocking and sad as you realize that you can’t share your new understanding of the Lord Jesus and His finished work with those who don’t yet want to see.
Jesus promised, though, that He would not leave us orphaned and lonely. He said this in Matthew 19:29:
“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive one hundred times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”—Matthew 19:29
Ask the Lord to give you courage and words. He is faithful. He WILL help you say what needs to be said. And also remember that the Lord loves your family even more than you do, and He is also revealing Himself to them and is using you in the process. You can trust Him with them, and He will comfort your heart as well.
I don’t have a magic formula except to say, tell them the truth. Tell them what you have learned about the Lord Jesus and His finished work. Tell them what you have learned about Adventism, and tell them why you can’t stay.
Ask the Lord to guide you to a church where you can find true fellowship and hear the Word of God taught. He knows where you need to be. And if you wish, we would love to have you join us Friday evenings at 7:00 PM Pacific time for our weekly FAF Bible study. If you want a Zoom link so you can participate, just email FormerAdventist@gmail.com and ask for a zoom link to the FAF Bible study. Richard sends out an email every Friday afternoon with the zoom link and with a link to the song we’ll sing as well as a PDF with the study sheet for that night.
Please feel free to email anytime.
Israel Is Not Israel (Pushback on “Remnant: Israelites Not Adventists”)
God made Israel jealous. He kept His promises to them. The modern nation which calls itself Israel is not the Israel of Scripture in any shape, form, or fashion.
The elect remnant of the Jews was regrafted into Israel (the church) at the end of the temporary hardening. The remnant of Israel never ceased to be the nation of Israel because the church is Israel. The apostasy which in A.D. 70 ended the civic entity created by the Mosaic Covenant continues, and the emergence of a nation that pretends to the continuation of old Israel cannot effect old Israel’s resurrection. No, it isn’t merely man’s doing, any more than the existence of Britain; God ordained both. But also, we ought not fool ourselves into thinking that the name “Israel” bears ant resemblance to that described in Scripture or that God has prescribed or promised it.
—VIA FACEBOOK
Response: The modern nation is in unbelief. They are not the promised kingdom when God takes away their sin and turns their hearts to Him. Yet the existence of the nation cannot be dismissed as incidental or accidental. God raises up the nations. Furthermore, the prophecies of the future require the existence of the nation. We can’t treat Israel as if it is God’s kingdom. Yet we can’t pretend that the existence of a nation of Israel is meaningless. No, the Jews in Israel are not the “remnant”. Yet the remnant will come out of national apostasy. The nation is a different “thing” from God’s remnant—and God’s promises that included a physical nation cannot be reinterpreted. The fact that Israel exists, however, and the fact that God promised there would be a regathering and a nation does not prescribe our political reaction to it. What God has promised and what He is doing does not mean we owe unquestioning political support. It just means that God is keeping His promises, and we as His people in a dark world dare not explain away His promise-keeping. We need to be open to His word and be willing to see when He moves. A nation that did not exist for 2,000 years and suddenly exists is not merely man’s doing. God determines when and where the nations exist! (see Acts 17.) But no—the nation is in unbelief. We are not called to endorse their godlessness.
The problem is how we read Scripture. If we read it at face value, believing that the words mean what they say in context and that the original meanings cannot be changed with time unless explicitly stated in Scripture, then we have to see that God’s unconditional Old Testament promises are still good. In fact, this is Paul’s argument in Romans 11. We can’t say that the church is the new iteration of Israel. Paul clearly explains in Romans 9—11 that they are separate. Israel is God’s firstborn son (Ex 4:22). The church is His new creation. They are different. Today believing Jews are part of the church. Yet a time is coming when God will still keep His promises to un-harden Israel (according to Romans 11 that time has not yet happened, and it will happen when “the full number of gentiles” has come in). He will bring a remnant which He has preserved to Himself—and they will not be “the church”. They will be Israel. That promise has not yet been fulfilled. But God’s gifts and promises are irrevocable. They will happen! Seeing the church as today’s “Israel” requires reinterpreting the Old Testament promises and giving them new meanings and fulfillments. We have to allegorize God’s Old Testament promises and reinterpret them. Yet Scripture never gives us permission to do that. If I can’t believe the words to mean what they say, both Old Testament and New Testament, then I find myself trusting something other than God and His word as my authority. †
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