The next few weeks were traumatic. Word was now out in the entire church about our situation. Our elders, now fearful of our being fired, came to our house trying to persuade us to give up worrying about the investigative judgment doctrine. One elder offered to fly Dale to Lorna Linda University to visit with Dr. Graham Maxwell, who “had all the answers,” Dale was told. Dale and several of the elders did make this trip, and Dale came home with no answers- as he knew would be the case.
Dale obtained permission from the local elders to have one last talk with the congregation. This was advertised as “Crisis in Freedom”. Many of our friends from MBA were present. One of Dale’s teachers from PUC, the late Dr. Fred Veltman, was there as well as the late Dr. Raymond Cottrell and both spoke on Dale’s behalf. Dale’s talk focused on the issue of being free to study the Scripture. He emphasized the need for openness and for allowing for a difference of opinion regarding doctrines that are not clear in Scripture. He also spoke of the need to love those who may come to different conclusions. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
When he was finished, I went to the microphone and said, “I want it to be known that I am taking my stand with Dale on the side of freedom within a church that fights for religious liberty. I am publicly standing with Dale.”
A few days later Dale was called into the conference for another visit. I was not included. In this visit Dale was told he must not only believe in, but teach all of the 27 points on the Seventh-day Adventist doctrinal statement. Again, Dale said he would do this if someone could show him how to get from Daniel 8:14 to 1844 and the investigative judgment doctrine. Elder Cook promised to study with Dale, but when the time came, he called saying he could not meet with Dale and asked him to meet with two other pastors. In this meeting both pastors agreed with Dale that the investigative judgment doctrine was not biblical, and recommended to the conference committee that Dale be reinstated m good and regular standing as a senior pastor.
I had not been giving any Bible studies since Dale had been suspended, as the mandate was that “we” must not visit with any of our people. We complied with the request, but people were coming to see us. I was studying my Bible and wondering how I would share this with my parents and four sisters.
When we were on our way to the Dominican Republic we had stopped in Denver to visit with my sister Millie and her husband Bill. They took us to the mountains for a beautiful hike. On this hike Dale and Bill walked close and visited, and Millie and I walked close behind and talked. I began sharing with her some of the problems we had recently been presented with regarding the investigative judgment doctrine and the plagiarism of Ellen White. She was silent during most of the hike.
After visiting in Denver, we went on to Weiser, Idaho, to spend the weekend with my parents. My sisters Jeanine and Marie were also visiting. On Sabbath my parents wanted to stay home from church to hear all that Dale had been learning. Dale shared the many problems regarding Ellen White and the investigative judgment doctrine with them that we had been studying. Then he shared the wonderful news of salvation by faith, reading so many good gospel texts. My sister Marie saw the truth of the gospel for the first time, she told us later, and was relieved to learn that she did not have to believe in Ellen White in order to be saved. She was also relieved to know that she could have the assurance of salvation by just believing in Jesus as her Savior. She had grown up with so many fears regarding the Ellen White statements on end time events. My parents, at least my dad, seemed to agree that what Dale had presented was true.
I wondered what their reaction would be now that it looked like we would be fired. Would they be so devastated they would no longer include us in family events? I was troubled and burdened by these thoughts. Furthermore, what would be the reaction of our boys? Mike was away at college, and when Dale would talk with him telling him of the things we were learning, he cautioned, “Dad, be careful. Are you sure you know where this is leading, and what you are doing?”
Bruce was still living with us, and we had been sharing with him much of what we had been learning. He was interested and agreed that the things we were sharing made sense, and he could accept them. If our boys knew this information and our decisions were now leading to our being re leased from the SDA organization and our only source of employment and income would they still be as supportive?
There were a few more phone conversations between Dale and Charles Cook, and then, on a Friday, Dale was called into Cook’s office for one final visit. Again, I was not invited.
At this visit Elder Cook told Dale that he must resign or be fired. Dale said he had no intentions of resigning. He said God had called him to the ministry, and he still believed that is where God wanted him. Elder Cook then told Dale that if he did not resign, he would be fired. Furthermore, if Elder Cook had to fire Dale, he would not receive any severance pay. Dale finally said he would resign.
Dale came home this time and appeared somewhat relieved. The tension and emotion of the past few months, starting in early 1981 had reached a climax, and it now appeared it was over. It was October. One of the girls from MBA was visiting at our house at the time, and because she was present, I hid my emotions until she was gone. As I sat at our kitchen table visiting with this girl, I could see Dale in the front yard mowing the lawn. Every once in a while I would see him jump as he pushed the lawn mower. In his book, Truth Let Me Out, Dale explains the joy and liberation he was feeling.
My feelings were not exactly all joyous. It is hard to put into words all the different emotions I was experiencing. I did have a great sense of relief, but there were also feelings of “What now?” “Where do we go from here?” Somehow, in my simple faith I believed God would take care of us. I knew we had made the right decision, and that was a good feeling.
Dale shared this news with our elders, and they spread the word to those who were our supporters in the church. They also quickly put together a potluck lunch to be held at one of the doctor’s homes to follow the church service, and we were invited to attend.
We could not go to church, but on the way to the potluck we stopped at our mailbox and found a letter addressed to both of us from Charles Cook. This letter said the conference would keep us employed, but would move Dale down to the valley, (this meant somewhere between Bakersfield and Modesto). He was to be under a “watchful, trusted and respected senior pastor” and must be supportive of, and teach all 27 doctrinal points. I was to stay in our home in Watsonville and continue my Bible studies.
We could not believe this letter. Apparently, the letter was written before Dale visited with Elder Cook on Friday. The conference wanted to separate us-to send Dale away and leave me home by myself! I was flabbergasted, angry, and hurt! I said to Dale, “No way! I am not staying at home while you are living in the valley!”
We now knew that our decision to resign was the right one. For when Dale resigned, I also made my decision to resign with him, although I was never asked for a decision so did not voice this to Elder Cook. Both of us soon received our final checks that included some severance pay. I was never consulted, nor did I ever receive a letter of severance.
When we drove into the driveway of the home where the potluck was being held, many people came to the car to greet us. Dale broke at this time and began crying. This was hard for me to see. The emotion and trauma of the past months were now beginning to be released. My strong husband was overcome with emotion as the love of these dear people was being poured out on us. We loved all of the people in our church. We had studied with and baptized many of them. Others were on the church board and Dale had worked with them and prayed with them. A few were on the visitation evangelism team whom we had trained and taken with us as we visited people who had attended our church. They were witnesses to these new folks receiving Christ as their Savior. Many of those new converts were now in the congregation and at this gathering. Now we were being forced into a position where we could no longer fellowship with or serve these committed Christians. It seemed so wrong. All of this was happening because we had taken a stand for our convictions on the side of what we firmly believed was truth, based on all the evidence we had seen. I remember standing by Dale feeling emotion less-so unlike me. The happenings of the past few months and the letter we had just received left me feeling numb.
People began asking Dale to start a new church. He said he did not want to do this as he thought it would split the church, and he did not want to do that. They said they could not go back anyway. Many of these people had looked at the evidence we had and believed the same things we did. They needed a place to worship. “Why not?” they kept asking.
Dale’s book, The Cultic Doctrine of Seventh-day Adventists, spells out the issues we were faced with in learning that the 1844 investigative judgment doctrine is a non-Biblical doctrine and about the plagiarism of Ellen White. The more evidence we saw, the stronger the Holy Spirit seemed to be speaking to us to take a stand for truth based solely on Scripture. Dale’s motto, and it became mine also, is that “truth needs no other foundation than honest investigation under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and a willingness to follow truth once it is revealed.” We, and these dear people, had been presented with evidence we could not ignore.
The group called a meeting after lunch and agreed to have a meeting at our house on Sunday evening to discuss what to do. About 70 people came and voted to begin services at our house the next Sabbath. Without our asking for it, an offering was taken amounting to about $7,000. The money was given to the church treasurer who had joined us, and she opened an account that week in the name of Biblical Adventist Church, which we soon renamed the Biblical Fellowship Church.
We had church the next several weeks in our home, until we rented a church, with about 70 people present each week. After the church service, we enjoyed a potluck meal together. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and rejoicing in the Lord and the freedom of serving Jesus. These people were committed to serving one another and others who did not know Jesus.
There were funds for the church expenses and our salaries for several months, and then it became clear that I would need to find other employment. I began working at a software company in San Jose, com muting one hour each way.
About two years after leaving Adventism people began asking Dale to study the Sabbath doctrine. We had first studied baptism, learning that one did not have to believe in anything but Jesus to be baptized. We had studied several other doctrines learning the Bible taught something different from what we had previously believed. Now everyone wanted to study the Sabbath doctrine.
We were only a few months out of Adventism when some people came to our house and insisted it was no longer necessary to consider the seventh day as the Sabbath. Their arguments seemed weak and wrong to me. When they left, we had just barely closed the door behind them, I exclaimed in anger, “Those people have no right to come to our house, sit there,” as I gestured with my hand toward where they had been sitting, “and tell us we no longer need to keep the Sabbath!”
Shortly after this my parents were visiting. Dad wanted to hear the whole story. I related to him all that had taken place over the months since we had visited them in Idaho. When I finished I said, “Dad, if you had gone through what we have just gone through, what would you have done?”
His reply was quick. “Exactly what you and Dale have done,” he said.
Mother, however, expressed her concern over our decision in leaving Adventism. She said, “Well, I surely hope you never give up the Sabbath.”
“Oh, mother,” I said, “we are still strong believers in the seventh day as the Sabbath. We will never give up the Sabbath.”
Dale finally agreed we would examine the Sabbath topic in our study hour before the worship service. He agreed to do this if everyone would agree to throw out all current beliefs he or she held about the Sabbath and would look objectively at every text in Scripture regarding the Sabbath. He did not know what the result of this study would be, but everyone committed to searching the Scriptures for truth. Nearly everyone attending the church service also came to the “Searching the Word” study hour. We met in small groups around tables. Dale had a study guide prepared for us to study and discuss. I was leading one of the groups, and as we studied the covenants in the Old Testament, it was clear that the Ten Commandments are the words of the covenant.
So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Com mandments (Exodus 34:28).
We looked at many other texts and everyone was satisfied. As we moved to the New Testament to study the covenants it was fun and rewarding to see that “eureka” look on the faces of the people in my group as they realized there IS a new covenant, and it replaces the old. I was finally getting answers to the questions that had plagued me since that Bible study with the Church of Christ lady in Hollister. I had the privilege of going over the lesson before class time and was having my own “ah-ha” experiences at home as the truth of the covenants was becoming clear.
This new covenant is between Jesus and the Father, not Israel and God. A new commandment Jesus gave to us to love one another. We are to cast out the old covenant and keep the new covenant. Hebrews and Galatians made this so clear. Jesus is our Covenant Keeper! We knew we could not go back.
Dale gives all the details and Scripture verses in his book Sabbath in Christ.
My Cup Overflows. Copyright © 2009 by Carolyn Ratzlaff. All Scripture quotations—except where otherwise noted—are from The New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1979, 1994 by the Lockman Foundation, used by permission. All rights reserved. Life Assurance Ministries, Inc.
Carolyn has always been a positive person enjoying life and outdoor activities such as hiking and gardening, and she and her husband currently raise a good portion of their own food in small grow boxes. She also reads many health journals and is often surprised at the contrast between what was taught through the writings of Ellen White on forbidden items of diet and health, and the beneficial evidence of these same items which is supported by a plethora of scientific studies.
She and her husband Dale Ratzlaff have two married sons and four grandchildren.
- 25. That Very Special Occasion - March 24, 2022
- 24. Living in the New Covenant - March 17, 2022
- 23. Crisis in Freedom - March 10, 2022