Since I have had to answer many objections to our book, I thought I would send some of them to you, so you might use our answers to give you ideas in formulating your own.
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Objection: Adventists do so much good with ADRA and their health institutions? Doesn't their good fruit prove they have the truth and are of God?
Our answer: All religions are active in charitable works and many charitable organizations have no religious foundation. All good comes from God, but not all good works prove a group has sound theology.
Objection: But if your book destroys Adventism, you will be destroying all those good works Adventists do!
Answer: God's people will continue to do good works no matter what denomination they call themselves. The benefits for others will just simply be changed to a different name--not disappear.
Objection: But you must admit you are trying to destroy Adventism?
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Objection: Adventists do so much good with ADRA and their health institutions? Doesn't their good fruit prove they have the truth and are of God?
Our answer: All religions are active in charitable works and many charitable organizations have no religious foundation. All good comes from God, but not all good works prove a group has sound theology.
Objection: But if your book destroys Adventism, you will be destroying all those good works Adventists do!
Answer: God's people will continue to do good works no matter what denomination they call themselves. The benefits for others will just simply be changed to a different name--not disappear.
Objection: But you must admit you are trying to destroy Adventism?
Answer: The book is attempting to help heal those who feel Adventism destroyed them.
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Objection: Your book is full of lies and is hateful.
Answer: (Most people who say this will admit they haven't read the book.) We did not anticipate that Adventists would agree with our analysis of the facts, but we did spend years researching it. If you did find something that was not correct, please let us know specifically so we can correct it.
(Usually people disagree with an analysis of the facts, not the fact itself. Some people then start talking about typos or how we spelled a name incorrectly.)
Objection: You made Adventism seem like a cult. Adventism is mainstream
Answer: Keeping Sabbath as the exclusive end-time proof of remnant-hood and true Christianity cannot be found in either the Bible or mainstream Christianity. Most Christians would be either highly offended or highly amused that your church prophesies they will come and persecute you in the last days. The Three Angels' Message and the Investigative Judgement is against orthodox Christianity.
Objection: You book is out of date. Adventists don't preach those things today.
Answer: You need to watch 3ABN or the Hope Channel. You need to attend a Adventist End-time Prophecy Seminar. A lot of these "older traditions" are still required beliefs when you sign a Adventist baptismal certificate.
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Objection: You are a Jesuit.
Answer: (Don't laugh... you may actually be accused of this. We have been!) We just smile and tell them we love them and wish them the best. The are too gone at this point to be reasoned with.
Objection: Don't you realize you and your book are on the Devil's side?
Answer: It is the Devil who is the author of all lies. We have found many things in Adventist doctrine that cannot withstand critical examination by Biblical standards. That has nothing to do with our character.
Objection: This book and you are PROOF that EG White's prediction about Adventist "stars" falling in the last days are true! You have proved her a correct prophet!
Answer: We predicted in the book you would say that.....
So does that make us true prophets?
That is the nature of predictions. If you predict something obvious, it just simply is not a miracle when it occurs. Ellen knew very clearly that there would be people who rejected her bizarre claims. It is not rocket science to predict that. Rather it was a type of religious terrorism and manipulation to keep people confused and inside Adventism.
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The number ONE objection to the book: You wrote it because someone in the church hurt you and you are attempting revenge.
Answer: (We have never found any answer to this that in any way changes anyone's mind. They simply cannot assimilate that someone would leave Adventism over doctrine. It causes a cognitive dissonance that would melt their brains if they accepted it.) If you do have an answer to this one, let me know!
In the end, we have learned to simply love people who are shocked by our move out of Adventism and our book. It is Christ who will ultimately have control over the situation. But it is nice to have a short answer ready so tempers don't flair!
God bless you all,
Teresa
6 comments:
Goodness, Theresa, I know all of these sorts of accusations, and unfortunately, I have to hear them all the time... I have for years.
P.S. Ha, "Jesuit." I remember in college where a student accused a female professor of being a Jesuit. As I told him, "a married woman makes a poor celibate man."
The number ONE objection to the book: You wrote it because someone in the church hurt you and you are attempting revenge.
Answer: (We have never found any answer to this that in any way changes anyone's mind. They simply cannot assimilate that someone would leave Adventism over doctrine. It causes a cognitive dissonance that would melt their brains if they accepted it.) If you do have an answer to this one, let me know!
Reply: Why then can't you realize that someone would recognize that you work for the Papacy? Can Adventists realize why you would make light of the last day prophecies of danger and don't even tell the United States government that God will protect her from defeated dictators behind no-fly-zones in Iraq, BUT THE JESUITS WRITE SO MUCH ABOUT A PROPHET WHO DIED ALMOST 100 YEARS AGO? Why then do the Jesuits know so much that God's true people are PARANOID?
Answer: In the end, we have learned to simply love people who are shocked by our move out of Adventism and our book. It is Christ who will ultimately have control over the situation. But it is nice to have a short answer ready so tempers don't flair!
God bless you all,
Teresa
Reply: We have simply learned to love people too. That's why we remind you that you are Jesuits and that is why you bizarrely place your time and effort in the most assinine things and still don't feel it necessary to deal with people who post that all who are not Catholic must die.
It's love that tells you even from the book of Revelation that you and all cults reject that the servants of the Antichrist will go into perdition.
Ted, I actually don't know how to reply to your post. So all I will say is God bless you. We will just have to disagree and pray for each other.
Seventh Day Adventism & Colossians 2:16f
Seventh Day Adventists are a denomination of Protestantism that are best know for their stand that the Sabbath Day (7th Day of the week) is God's true day of worship, and that "Christendom" as a whole has corrupted this, making Sunday the day that Christians should set aside to worship on. The subject of this post is whether their position aligns with Scripture, in which Catholics and most Protestants believe no.
Most Adventists are aware of Colossians 2:16-17,
16Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Here, non-Adventists argue that according to the plain teaching of Scripture, the Sabbath Day regulations have been abolished, thus refuting an essential tenet of Seventh Day Adventism. Most Adventists are aware of this passage and argue that it isn't talking about the 'Seventh-Day-Sabbath' because the Greek term for Sabbath in this passage is in the plural (i.e. Sabbaths), and thus it must refer to the annual 'feasts days' of the Old Testament sometimes referred to as "Sabbaths" (e.g. the Day of Atonement, Lev 16:31).
But is that response valid? Here are two considerations which indicate a negative response to that question:
1) The Greek term for Sabbath - "sabbaton" (sabbatwv) - is in plural form in Col 2:16. However, this same plural form is used in Mat 28:1, Luke 4:16, and Acts 16:13, yet they all are in reference to the 7th-Day Sabbath. The plural form even appears in the Greek Old Testament in Exodus 20:8, which is discussing the 7th-Day Sabbath of the 4th Commandment! Thus the plural form can easily mean 7th Day Sabbath, and there is no indication it is used in the New Testament in the form of Day of Atonement type sabbath.
2) The format of Col 2:16 is that of: Yearly-Monthly-Weekly. This three-term format appears in various Old Testament passages, referring to yearly feasts, new moons, sabbaths. Given this, it wouldn't make sense for Paul to say the Sabbath in Col 2:16 is the Day of Atonement Sabbath, because that would fall under the yearly feasts category he just mentioned.
The more important point to consider here is that those were all foreshadowing Christ in some way, and thus were pointing to something bigger than themselves. So the Sabbath being the day of rest in the OT was actually the day Jesus was in the tomb, preparing the way for New Life, Sunday. Further, Hebrews 4 speaks of the Sabbath in it's fulfilled sense as being reconciled and thus at peace with God, not a day of the week, but a state of being.
While SDA reasoning can at first seem valid, it really doesn't do justice to the Biblical testimony.
The answers to objecctions given above would have sounded like the answers that mainline Judaism would have given at the time of Jesus, in an effort to defend their mainline judaic teachings, when there was a transition to true christianity. Not everything that mainline or mainstream christianity teaches is biblically correct. Eg. Secret rapture. The charges against adventist have been long responded, yet they seem to resurface as if nothing was said about them. Adventist's believe based on what scripture has to say. Well ofcourse "All scripture", not just some selected texts from the new testament.
This is all I can say, Religion isn't that important as long as you follow God's Words. That's all there is to do.
Please check out Tim jones spokane. He's got something to say about this.
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