Revelation Today 2013: Ron Halverson Speaker

When I attempt some  constructive criticism of Seventh-day Adventist televangelists usually these men are within a decade or so of my age, so I don't feel my critique is disrespectful to an elder. But this year, I am cringing because Revelation Today, the  annual Seventh-day Adventist seminar for proselytizing,  is being performed by Pastor Ron Halvorsen. (I wince.) 

Pastor Ron was the pastor of the Keene Seventh-day Adventists Church in Texas when I grew up. We often drove from Dallas to the little Adventist town to see relatives and attend the yearly camp meetings.  

Keene was a scary place back then because it was so wild compared to Dallas. So it needed Pastor Halvorsen. I remember the scandal of the Keene SDA teenagers sitting up in the balcony gambling during his fiery sermons. I heard that once he stopped in mid sentence at the pulpit, stomped up there and confronted the kids! I kept up with whom his son was dating, because I planned on marrying a pastor (I was called to be a pastor's wife, I thought) and figured he was a prospect, a tall, tall prospect. (Ron, Jr is like six foot ten or something.) 

Then years later when my family moved to Keene so that we could all attend the Adventist college there, that same son, Pastor Ron Halvorsen, Jr., was my pastor.  I think the world of all the Halvorsens and wouldn't want in any way to insult them. So I am praying I can write this in a way that is not seen as disrespectful,  mean-spirited or personally critical. But it will, I am afraid. It's part of the pain of constructive criticism. It never seems constructive. 

Well… on to it and I pray I can write this as sweetly as I mean it. 

This year's Daniel and Revela-thon is being held in Charlotte, North Carolina and is basically the same old, same old. A few weeks of building up to tell us that: we soul-sleep after death, we are being judged investigatively  we need to worship on Sabbath and the mark of the beast is popery. And Adventists are all going to be persecuted for keeping the Sabbath by Catholics and Apostate Protestantism. 

[My family really tries to make it seem like the Adventist church is past its Ellen White last-day prophecies. But it's not.  These seminars prove it year after year.]

I know many Adventists sincerely believe their doctrines. They were weaned on them and are utterly convicted of them and are loyal to the deepest parts of their souls to this message. And they will go to their deaths believing the SDA message is solidly Biblical. But the message is founded upon false information. It is largely based from the mind of a young, uneducated woman who was in a accident and suffered "visions" as a result of a tragic head wound.

The SDA prophetess Ellen G. White twisted history and the Bible to fit what she thought she was being "shown" in visions by her accompanying angel. 

And Revelation Today is recycling these same old inaccuracies.

It is hard for me to understand how grown-ups can  blindly pass on historical fiction year after year. I am so embarrassed for them. It makes them look like cultists. I just don't get it. These men all seemed so much smarter and more holy than me! They were who I looked up to as a kid. And they, I pray, are just either completely blind to the inaccuracies of what they preach or they are, gulp…not brave enough to face the truth. But that turns my world upside down. They were my heroes! They are supposed to be teaching me these things. 

But for the sake of those who might really want to know the truth about the SDA yearly mantra of Daniel and Revelation prophecies, I will force myself to comment.

I hope that refuting a few of Elder Halvorsen's claims will be enough to prove the entire SDA theology suspect and unreliable. And to make certain this post isn't too long, I will be linking you to some answers rather than reposting them here.  

We'll deal with the Mark of the Beast, one of the last of this year's topics. 

To watch the video I am discussing, click here:

Revelation Today: The MARK of the BEAST

• At minute 38 in the video, Pastor Halvorsen begins to identify the remnant of Revelation 12:17 as those who keep the commandments. (Spoiler alert: It will be the SDA church. Adventists teach that they alone are the remnant church.) 

This is wrong because Adventists really only teach one of the ten commandments: the fourth. I have never heard another Revelation Seminar dedicated to preaching that adultery, stealing, coveting or idolatry is a sin. They focus on one commandment. And notice the text says that the remnant are those who keep--not teach--the commandments. How many Adventists would admit they keep all ten commandments? The remnant keep them, not preach them. 

Also, the official SDA church's position on abortion is pro-choice and some of their  hospitals do abortions on demand. Therefore, they are exactly like all other churches they claim only keep nine of the ten. Because of the "thou shalt not murder" commandment (that would include abortion), Adventists cannot consider themselves a ten commandment preaching church.

At minute 45, Pastor Halvorsen refers to the Donation of Constantine which is a document known to be a hoax for centuries. Even if it were an authentic document, the mythical exchange wasn't even what the pastor presented it as. The Donation of Constantine didn't give Pope Sylvester rule over the empire, it was an honorific.  When Constantine died, he gave the empire over to his four sons. 

• As always, much is made about the pope being called the "vicar of Christ." Which is simply used to show that the pope represents Christ. 

Here's a video that gives a short explanation of how Catholics see the church which might help Pastor Halvorsen understand why some of his accusations are false:

What we need to realize is what the word Christian means. In Antioch where followers of Christ were first called Christians, it was to mock them as being little Christs. Little Christs would be as much as a title of authority of Christ as vicar! We are in one sense all vicars (representatives) of Christ on earth.

• Then Revelation 13: 3 prophecy that the "world wandered after the beast" was introduced (the papacy.) Can you show me when the entire world was following the papacy? Never. Christendom was only in the west. And please read history. The Vatican was always in a power struggle with the Catholic kings. They never had any real ubiquitous power. 

Then the SDA interpretation of Rev. 12:14, "times, time and half a time" as the beginning and end of papal rule. This 1260 day prophecy timeline of papal power supposedly began in 538. Yet, Pastor Halvorsen just "proved" the papacy was given power in 318 AD with the Donation of Constantine? So, which is it? Why would the fall of Rome two centuries later be when the papacy gained its power? And then the fatal "wound" was when Emperor Napoleon took the pope into captivity (1798). 

Yet why not choose the wounding of the papacy as the 14th century captivity of the popes in France? Why not choose the sack of Rome by Catholic Charles V in the 16th century or when the papal states were taken away in the 19th century? These were much bigger wounds to the Vatican than Napoleon's. The Vatican has been under siege many times and lost and won back its power. The use of Napoleon as the point where the papacy was "wounded to death" and the 1929 Concordat with  Mussolini as the definitive moment the wound was healed is simply picking out dates to make things fit SDA eschatology.  The pope lost power and land many times and it made concordats with many nations before WWII. These dates are forced and contrived.

• Then Pastor Halvorsen perpetuated the myth that the Catholic Church killed 50 million people as heretics. (I don't blame the pastor, his sermon topics were already predetermined.)

All serious scholarship debunk that number. Actually, statistically it is the Protestants who are the better persecutors. 

• The pastor attacked (as it has become almost obligatory)  the sacrament of confession to a priest.

Here's a bit of a rebuttal on that. Then came the idea that the pope believes himself to be God on earth and the attempt with some misunderstood quotes pulled from billions of words written by the popes. The pope claims to have the chair of Peter. The pope isn't God nor teaches that he is.

Were there a few popes (out of the 266 that have faithfully served God) that abused their power and acted as if they thought they were God? Maybe even written that way? Yes. But look to official titles, official theology. Pulling a few quotes from the ocean of written material by the popes and cardinals and priests to force a point that perhaps one isolated pope or priest or bishop thought the way the SDA's prophecy needed them to think…. is simply bad history.

That would be like a Catholic pulling a quote from Doug Batchelor reporting that the televangelists admits publicly that the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists went against scripture and promoted women's ordination. Or quoting Cliff Goldstein about evolution and then assigning his position to all Adventists. Bad form.

•  As far as the pope's title "Vicar of the Son of God": 

The Latin, "Vicarius Fili Dei" is not and never has been an official title of the pope, nor is there any evidence that it was imprinted on a tiara. (All photographic evidence have proven to be hoaxed.) Yet, even if it had been an unofficial title, is that truly evidence that the pope is the antichrist? What is so amazing is that Pastor Halvorsen doesn't tell you that Ellen G. White's name adds up to 666 also! ELLen GoVLD VVhIte 50+50+5+50+500+5+5+1=666).

Vicarius Christi is one of the popes titles and it adds up to 214. So the SDA church has some real credibility problems here. Keep in mind that the antichrist isn't mentioned in Revelation. The number of the beast isn't directly related to the antichrist, that is a conflation of the two. In his letters, St. John warns that the antichrist denies that Jesus is the Christ. (I John 2: 22) and that Jesus if from God (I John 4:3) and that He came in the flesh (2 John 1:7). No pope I know of denied these things.

St. John also clearly says that the antichrist comes out of the true church. So if the antichrist comes from the Catholic church it would identify the Catholic Church as the true one. If the SDA church would like to think of itself as the true remnant church, then they would predict the antichrist comes out of it. (Perhaps being a former Adventist.)

• One of the persistent claims by the Adventists is the idea that some pope or church decree changed the seventh-day Sabbath to the first day of the week. Completely false. The Catholic Church did not change the Sabbath to Sunday. 

Link: The official documentation. I would extend a challenge to my SDA friends about the supposed change of the Sabbath. And, here's a link the early church writings about the Sabbath and Sunday.

It is hard to watch people I love perpetuate distortions and mislead Christians. And do not be naive, Adventists target ignorant Catholics. They are not out there bringing the gospel message, they are trying to bring all  Christians into their church by convincing them that other churches haven't really been obedient to Christ and scripture. Every other church is Babylon. 

They alone are not apostate from truth. They twist history and scripture to convince other Christians that they are the true and only remnant. 

What is heartbreaking is that by their zealousness to confuse and mislead other Christians they break the commandment, "thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbors."

I hurt for the Halvorsens because I love them. I don't write that flippantly. Ron, Jr. has helped me out in ways he will never know. He is a good man.

Yet…. (despairing sigh) Pastor Halvorsen is  leading the children of God into error. This is a very, very serious situation, for God says it is better that a millstone be place upon the neck of one who leads the little ones astray. He is bearing false witness against his Catholic and Protestant neighbors.

My Love for Adventists

It is frustrating year after year when people misunderstand your motives. I can clearly see how they would misunderstand, for I did the same when I was Adventist. They think I hate them or are bitter towards my former church. No such thing is true.

Rather, I see myself as someone who has escaped from a dark cave. I know Adventists will think comparing their faith with a cave is such an insult. I am not attempting to insult them, only tell the story of how I felt within Adventism's doctrine. The people were wonderful, but so much of the doctrine was dark, paranoid, confusing and unbiblical. Think about it. They think they will one day be the focus of a modern Catholic witch hunt and the entire globe will turn and hunt them down because they worship on Sabbath. Their whole world is defensive and irrational, seeing sinister conspiracies in every black helicopter and papal decree. Everyone is a potential enemy, even Christians!

So, I will characterize some SDA doctrine as cave-like in order to be experiential rather than insulting.

For years, I searched this theological scary, dank cave and its dark places with bats and spiders hoping for some light. In my quest, sometimes there was so little light I felt like giving up and remaining within the dark cave. Yet for me, I saw that I was so much closer to the entrance than most, that I had to keep looking. Most of these cave dwellers were farther, in little groups, much deeper in the cave complex than I had been raised.

Many people were hiding in the shadows, afraid. Too afraid and too proud to believe that there was something warmer, healthier, brighter and more wonderful out there towards the light.

Over time, I met up with a few others who were escaping and with their knowledge of things I didn't know and with my own studying of the cave, we finally got out.

Of those who escaped, some just kept going, so glad to be out that they walked on and now are happily dancing merrily in the light of the sun, singing like Maria von Trapp "The hills are alive with the sound of music!" But a few of us, thought about those back in the cave. Maybe some of them would like to know what it is like out here in the sun! Perhaps some would like to quit being scared and proud. There had to be many more like me. So, reluctantly, a few of us went back into the cave.

We knew the cave dwellers and their resistance. While a couple of those who had seen the light came in shouting that the cave dwellers were stupid, deceived and they better get out, I took a passive approach. I knew that many of them liked dwelling in the dark. They felt safe there and might need to watch a few people more go out and come back with good news before they would try and leave what they had always known--what they had grown up in. I was there only to help those like me who wanted light, no matter what.

I held up a sign with the words illuminated, "It's okay to leave the cave. It's good out there! Follow us and we will take you out." We didn't try and force people out, but many who read the sign panicked and tried to convince everyone out there that we were liars and deceivers. They told us that we hated the cave dwellers. That the cave is where God wants them and we are of the devil to say that there is something better outside the cave. They have all they need there, they are safe there. No place other than the cave gives them such sharp sight and white skin.

We showed a few people out and watched their eyes as they saw the green meadows and blue sky and felt the warmth of the sun. We cried as we saw their happiness. Then we thought we would love to show even more how wonderful it is outside. So, with reluctance and bolstering our courage, we went back into the cave. We thought it was the sacrifice God wanted of us--to do for others what we would have loved someone to have done for us.

Some of the cave dwellers, upon seeing us back, smirked and said that if we loved the light so much why would we be hanging around in the cave? We must really think the cave is better.

Some of those who came back to help got so sick of the abuse, they just left with a huge "good riddance." They are now all living with such happiness out in the light.

I know my time to help the cave dwellers is growing short. There are now others who have been in the light who wish to go back and help and I can rest, knowing I did my best. But I can't go quite yet, God says I still have a few trips left.

I wouldn't go back into the cave unless I loved the people I was rescuing. I hate the cave. It smells and I am no longer used to the cold, my eyes have adjusted for the sun and I can't see as well as I used to in there. So going in is hard on me, I do it only because of love.

End of allegory.

What I wish to tell everyone plainly is that my ministry to Adventists is about love.


I have never known an Adventist I didn't like. (There are some I dislike but I have never met them, like SDA abortionists. I am praying for, but I don't hate them.) To a SDA worldview, for me to forcefully disagree with some of the SDA doctrines is tantamount to hating Adventists or being very "disturbed". I have as much hope of disabusing them of that self-deception as of helping them to see the error of their doctrines. I will love them at a distance and hope that one day they will get to walk in the light and see the flowers and mountains and beauty of God, outside their cave of theology.

SDA pride will tell them I dislike them and that makes me so sad because they don't even know that they are fearful and prideful.

It's not about anything but love. I absolutely do love Adventists.

Revelation Today--SDA Pastor John Bradshaw's Series

Ah, this ongoing series brings back so many childhood memories--as this is exactly the same Revelation Seminars the SDA church has always put on. I  thought something would be new, something other than the newest world tragedies. 

This is the exact same program format and topics, the same its-so-obvious-and-Biblical--no-question-about-it-delivery as has been done all over the SDA world for the last fifty years. Same world-toppling scare tactics, same bogey-man. The only thing missing is the Seventh-day Adventist name. But, interestingly, the name of the church sponsoring on the program has been missing for several of the last Revelation seminars. 

I will spare you all the observations I had about the down-undah enthusiastic Pastor John Bradshaw, (they were all good) and Yves Monnier the host at the Las Vegas Cashman Center (I’m sure he is a nice guy). 

Let’s be honest. The whole thing is about the Sabbath in these seminars, all else is just the golden halo around it. The Sabbath doctrine, if wrong, is where Adventism stands or falls. For them it is the cornerstone of their theology. Without it all their raison d’etre would be crying “Jesus is coming again, soon” along with every other denomination out there.

Why not just tackle that subject and be done with it.

You see, Adventists very subtly set up false premises then prove the false premises wrong and shout victory. For those not educated in scripture and who don’t ponder what is being taught, it is all shivers and good bumps awaiting the end of time when Adventists become top billing in the cosmic horror show, Armageddon.

Yet if we examine what is taught, seeing where a little is added here and there to scripture, a slight shift in the direction, a tiny misinterpretation--we will see how that shift can lead you completely off the road into a theological ditch. And a dark scary one too!

Watch how it is done:

1st wrong premise: The Church claim is that the “Everlasting gospel” of the Third Angel’s Message in Revelation is a different gospel, a different end time message than that of Christ and the Apostles.

Wrong: The Greek word agonies (everlasting) means “since the beginning, without beginning and end” so this is not something new. The word for gospel is eujaggevlion and is the exact same word used throughout the New Testament for the gospel proclaimed by Jesus Christ and the Apostles. This isn’t anything different. It means The Messiah is God and came as a human to suffer, die and be resurrected for our sins. Nothing anywhere at all about Sabbath in that. 

This new and everlasting gospel (different from what the Apostles passed on) was given to the Seventh-day Adventists alone. They claim that in the last days there will be a divide between those who worship God the Creator and those who worship the creation. Well enough, okay on the idea that Christians and non-Christians will divide on how creation occurred. But then they add something outside of anything in scripture. 

2nd wrong premise: Then the church links this true and false worship of the creation back to the story of Genesis claiming that on the seventh day God gave us a day rest as an eternal commandment. 

There is nothing in the Genesis story that says the 7th day was a literal day. Please go back and read a fascinating fact. All the other days had an evening and morning. Not so with the seventh day as it was supposed to be an eternal day of rest. The idea of the day being a weekly day of rest is an addition to the text. 

Little shifts, little shifts set them on a totally wrong course!

3rd wrong premise: Then Pastor Bradshaw jumps to the Ten Commandments. And claims that because they were written on stone means it is an eternal covenant for all time.

Another false assumption. If you do a word search you will find that throughout the Old Testament, many times, stone and rock symbolize God himself, not an eternal covenant. 

Also if they writing them on a stone was supposed to mean how eternal they were, why would Moses smash them after leaving the presence of God? God wasn't upset with him for doing it either. I would think if the stones had that kind of symbolism, God would have mentioned to Moses to care for them a little better.

4th wrong premise: The weekly Sabbath was an eternal sign. (Bradshaw uses Ezekiel 20: 12 for proof.)

Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.

But please note that the sabbaths are a sign--the high annuals sabbaths as well as the weekly sabbaths. (See Deu. 6: 1, 8; 11: 18; 28: 46)

These sabbath signs for Israel absolutely including Passover: 

Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to Jehovah.... And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thy hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the law of Jehovah may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath Jehovah brought thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year. Ex. 13: 6-10

So if the sabbaths are a sign for everyone, then we should be keeping all the sabbaths, the annual, monthly and weekly. 

5th wrong premise: That the Sabbath was not just for Israel alone, but all of us, even today. Again, the Bible would disagree with the SDA church on this claim.

Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily ye shall keep my sabbaths: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am Jehovah who sanctifieth you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that profaneth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to Jehovah: whosoever doeth any work on the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.  Ex. 31: 13-17

There are some important things to note about this. Though God reckons the Sabbath back to creation, He also does not include anyone else in the sabbath requirement making it between God and the children of Israel forever.

The fact that God sanctified a day at creation doesn’t mean it was meant to be universal. And keep in mind that anyone who profanes the day is to be put to death. If Adventists really believed that the sabbath requirement was for Christians today, they would then have to impose the death penalty. 

Bradshaw quipped that “they weren’t Ten suggestions.” Well Pastor Bradshaw, we have to be honest with the text, the commandment to put to death anyone who profanes the sabbath is not a suggestion. It is a direct command.

6th wrong premise: Then Pastor Bradshaw jumped to the New Testament and reminded us that Jesus didn’t come to destroy the law, but fulfill it.

And that is exactly what He did at the cross.

For the SDAs to teach that we are still required to keep Sabbath is saying that Jesus didn’t fulfill the law at the Cross. Hebrews tells us that the Sabbath was a shadow fulfilled in Christ. 

But, he asks, “Are we now allowed to kill? Steal?  Jesus didn’t do away with the Ten Commandment law.

Right, and wrong.

Jesus expanded the Old Covenant at the same time He fulfilled it. 

The Temple sacrifice--with all its rituals and ordinations--wasn't done away with, but replaced by a much better, in fact, perfect one-time sacrifice of God's only Son. God didn't get rid of them, He fulfilled them. The Ten Commandments were, like the sacrifices, pointing to a permanent, eternal Covenant with a new and better set of laws.

Look at Jesus’ words. “You have heard it said” These are not the words of someone reiterating the gravity of the law--Jesus didn’t even source it as God’s! He just spoke, “You have heard it said, ‘you shall not...’ But I SAY.” This is Jesus taking authority over His Ten Commandments and changing them, reforming them, making them into the more perfect law of the New Covenant. They are better--expanded. But different. 

How did Jesus expand the fourth? Adventist might claim that He didn’t say anything about that one. Yet he didn’t say anything about stealing either, but it was expanded. Now we are to give rather than receive. Now we are to give our cloak instead of our shirt when someone tried to rob us of what is rightfully ours. Later Jesus will say “come all ye who are weary and I will give you rest. 

Hebrews tells us that the sabbath shadow was fulfilled in Christ. Sabbath hasn’t disappeared but our Sabbath rest is Christ, the day has expanded to a forever day--an eternal day of rest from the Creation account itself. The curse has been lifted and the original creation plan of an eternal rest with a 7th day without an "evening and morning” has finally been fulfilled in Christ.

It isn’t wrong to keep a day that is a rest once a week. That is fine. In fact Paul says:

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days. Col 2:16

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day [alike]. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. Rom. 14: 5

7th wrong premise: Then Pastor Bradshaw makes the false assumption that since the Apostles went to the synagogue, they were keeping sabbath. This is just full of erroneous assumptions. 

The Apostles worshipped everyday and preached daily. Being in a synagogue on Sabbath isn’t keeping the Sabbath commandment to rest. It is showing up where Jews will be. 

Adventists draw a direct line between a Sabbath rest and someone going to a synagogue on Sabbath (as if worshipping and resting are one in the same). This is a non-sequitor. 

There is not one shred of evidence in the Bible post resurrection that the Apostles rested on Sabbath or commanded anyone to rest on Sabbath. The 4th commandment is a requirement for Israel to rest.

8th wrong premise: The pastor claims that Jesus' warning to pray that the Hebrew’s flight out of Jerusalem in the last days not be in winter or the sabbath (Matt.24:20) is a slam dunk for proving sabbatarianism post-Cross. Yet, this is hardly proof. Christ knew that His followers would be preaching in the Temple every day (Acts 2:46). The slaughter the Romans could acheive would be most devastating on Sabbath because so many Jews would be there too. It is a prayer for Jews because it would be especially hard for them to flee if caught inside the Temple on Sabbath, in winter or if they were pregnant.

It isn’t calling on his disciples to keep the sabbath as a perpetual sign. We know the Apostles were in the temple daily! So the warning wasn’t pray to keep from being attacked on an obligatory sabbath service, but as intercession for their brother Israel. 

End of Part I-

BREAKING THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

I don't mean to be harsh in this post. I just want to show Adventists that they--AS AN ORGANIZATION--their doctrines actually break the Ten Commandments. All of us fall short and we all must rely on God's grace. But within the actual system of Adventism, their doctrines and lifestyle actually TEACH the breaking of the commandments. For example:

1. The Seventh-day Adventist Church breaks the first commandment when they teach that the TEN Commandments were above God. This is part of the vision their prophetess Ellen White claimed an angel told her-- that the Father and the Son were not in the Holiest place until 1844. That put the Ten Commandments in the Holy of Holies, higher than God Himself. The SDA claim is that God was not in the universe's most holy place--in a LESS holy place, for almost 2,000 years. They place the Ten Commandments above God Himself and claim that God is subject to His own laws.

Before the throne I saw the Advent people, the church and the world. I saw a company bowed down before the throne, deeply interested, while the most them stood disinterested and careless. ....And I saw the Father rise from the throne, and in a flaming chariot go into the, within the vail, and did sit. [Into the Holy of Holies] Then Jesus rose up from the throne, and the most those who were bowed down arose with him: and I did not see one ray of light pass from Jesus to the careless multitude after he arose, and they were left in perfect darkness. ....And I saw a cloudy chariot, with wheels like flaming fire, and angels were all around it as it came where Jesus was. He stepped into the chariot and was borne to the Holiest where the Father sat. From the chapter: "A View of Events Occurring at the End of the 2300 Days" {ExV 43.1}

2. The Seventh-day Adventist Church breaks the second commandment by serving the false gospel of sabbatarianism and the Three Angels' Message. The writings of Ellen White claim the new SDA "everlasting gospel" is the highest and most important message of all time. That supersedes the coming of Christ and the cross. This is idolatry.

In a special sense Seventh-day Adventists have been set in the world as watchmen and lightbearers. To them has been entrusted the last warning for a perishing world. On them is shining wonderful light from the word of God. They have been given a work of the most solemn import—the proclamation of the first, second, and third angels’ messages. There is no other work of so great importance. They are to allow nothing else to absorb their attention. The most solemn truths ever entrusted to mortals have been given us to proclaim to the world. The proclamation of these truths is to be our work. {3TT 288} 

3. The Seventh-day Adventist Church breaks the third commandment when they call themselves the sole remnant denying all other Christians called by His name. That is taking His name in vain.

Fundamental # 13. Remnant and Its Mission: The universal church is composed of all who truly believe in Christ, but in the last days, a time of widespread apostasy, a remnant has been called out to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This remnant announces the arrival of the judgment hour, proclaims salvation through Christ, and heralds the approach of His second advent. This proclamation is symbolized by the three angels of Revelation 14; it coincides with the work of judgment in heaven and results in a work of repentance and reform on earth. Every believer is called to have a personal part in this worldwide witness.  

4. The Seventh-day Adventist Church breaks the fourth commandment by working on lunar sabbaths (as this is how they knew the sabbath day in ancient Israel.) They also fail to keep the sabbath by lighting fire and they do not kill people work on Sabbath. Do any gather food, bake or boil it? (Ex. 16: 23)

Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, "These are the things the LORD has commanded you to do: For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it must be put to death. Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day." Ex. 5: 1-3

Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people.  Ex. 31: 14, 15; 35: 2, 3; Lev. 16: 31; Num. 15:32; 

5. The Seventh-day Adventist Church breaks the fifth commandment by encouraging children to become SDA against their parents wishes. (Remember all those mission stories in Sabbath school?) 

6. Adventism breaks the sixth commandment when it allows the murder of innocent unborn children in its hospitals. 

      http://arthurandteresabeem.blogspot.com/2011/01/from-washington-post-jan-24-2011.html

7. The Seventh-day Adventist Church breaks the seventh commandment when it allows SDA leaders who have been divorced for other reasons than unfaithfulness to remain as leaders. Their fundamental beliefs state that when a person divorces for anything other than fornication, they commit adultery. So, according to their own understanding of the commandment, they knowingly allow adulterers as leaders in their church.

SDA Fundamental # 23. Marriage and the Family: ".... Regarding divorce, Jesus taught that the person who divorces a spouse, except for fornication, and marries another, commits adultery. 

8. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has broken the eighth commandment  for they have stolen for decades through its ingathering practices of begging for money for the "poor and needy" and the money ending up paying for SDA schooling and other denominational projects. 

9. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has broken the ninth commandment when it bears false witness against its Christian neighbors by distorting the facts of history by claiming Constantine changed the sabbath, that worshipping on Sunday is wrong, by claiming that the early church didn't worship on Sunday, and teaching the papacy is the antichrist. It's entire message is based upon falsification of its Christian brothers and sisters beliefs and history. 

(see Great Controversy.)

10. The Seventh-day Adventist Church covets its neighbor's media attention, its mainstream status, its Christians (as Adventism's proselityzing leeches off of other Christian denominations), and its Bible--for it stole the words and distorted them in the Clear Word. 

Please feel free to add your own observations!

KEENE, TEXAS

When I grew up, Keene was a dinky, eccentric town of about four thousand Seventh-day Adventists (the few who weren’t SDA, were married to one). About monthly, we would drive the hour south from Dallas to see our family in this quirky, folksy and safe Mayberrry look-a-like. Our family had a lot of big and little fish in this pond: aunt Lilabeth Creel, widowed schoolmarm; the Hopps family cousins--with John as principle of Chisholm Trail Academy. My aunt Maddie Crawford was known for making good veggie burgers in one of the little vegetarian restaurants.

It felt quiet and safe there, so simple.

Keene had begun as a center of education for Adventist offspring in 1890. It had only one church--SDA. Because of its proud religious standards, nowhere in the city could you purchase meat or fish, alcohol, cigarettes or tobacco products. There was no theater and everything was closed on “the sabbath” meaning to a SDA--on Saturday. The United States postal service, as a special religious dispensation, granted that no mail be delivered on Saturday in Keene. Nowhere else in the U.S. was this permitted.

On my extended visits to my aunt Lila Beth’s during summer camp meetings, all my peers were third and fourth generation Adventists going to Keene Adventist Elementary School.

*********

The 1960's and 1970's

I was there and saw it, close up and from the eye of a Adventist youth--the cultural tsunami that hit the quaint, naive town in the late 1960’s and throughout the 1970s that changed Keene forever. Oh, everyone saw it coming, they had been preaching the end of the world since 1830’s. They were just looking in the wrong place, for they expected it to be from Catholics carrying guns coming to take away their sabbath. They were looking up for the ten commandments in the sky with the "golden halo" around the sabbath comandment, when they should have been watching their kids.

The whole western culture has felt the lasting devastation of those years, but in Keene, the kids were particularly vulnerable. There, a concentration of the deadly influences didn’t just wash over and retreat, but pooled leaving a poisoned swamp the children played in. The sweet “Holy City” never recovered and I lived there for twenty years to watch the effects.

Why was Keene more vulnerable than the rest of the society? It was full of good, respectable, kind-hearted citizens who birthed nice children. What went wrong? How could a town of parents who were grieving over the rumor that the city’s worst crime was the black market of Dr. Pepper, really be oblivious to the disturbing, unrestrained drug use and sexual promiscuity? Keene catastrophically collapsed--morally and spiritually. As the older generation stood in church singing, “Jesus is Coming Again” the youth in the balcony were gambling, snickering about what Twyla and Totsie were wearing and passing around joints. All the parents knew was that their kids were in church on Sabbath. That alone made them safe--religiously safe.

For years, living in the Holy City, I sat next to the Keene survivors of the 70's dutifully bringing their toddlers to Sabbath School. I smiled watching their children waddle up in excitement to put animal felt cut-outs on the felt board and sing “Sabbath is a Happy Day!” Then watch them, with agony, grow into rebellious, cynical and disrespectful teenagers, just to have my heart torn out as they end up in jail, in early abusive marriages, divorced, unhappy, suicidal.

These nice Keenite families are still dumbfounded as to what happens to their children and resign the problem to either that the Devil is working harder on the children of the blessed remnant or passively surrender to the culture and assume their kids are no worse than the rest of the “world.”

For years, I have pondered that question of what happened to Keene and here is my assessment:

Apocalypse

While America was being rent in two with the 1960’s and 70’s racial tensions, war and the hippie culture, Adventists, instead of seeing it as their religious and patriotic responsibility to stand against the flood of evil, took these as signs of the last days. Those Adventist who had been rather liberal in the past, hunkered down and clung ever more closely to the church’s teachings seeing these events as “signs of the times.”

The world was about to end, so they didn’t feel the urgency or need, or even have the tools in which to teach their children how to cope with the temptations of this new drug-infested and sexually permissive culture. They kept trying to bandage the wrong wound. While they were cauterizing what they thought were the sinful sins of attending a theater to watch Disney’s “Love Bug”, drinking caffeinated beverages and eating out at Jose’s Mexican Restaurant on Sabbath, blood was draining out of the vital organs as Bible teachers were sneaking high school girls out to get abortions, children were being sexually abused, dropping acid and there was a thriving drug market selling from inside the little town.

The Keene kids felt abandon and alienated from their parents. The parents protected the church more than their own children. Parents would not see the changes in Keene and wanted it to be the charming, safe, sweet little city it had been before.

Rather than stand as heroes for their children and fight for the right; the passive, conscientious-objecting mindset of the Adventists turned them inward, shunning the “worldly.” They acquiesced in religious apathy. This was foretold, they pointed out, so what were they supposed to do about it?

The Keene SDA kids were emotionally and spiritually abandoned in the new environment as their parents became detached from reality, finding their solace in prophecy.

Crisis

Adventist doctrine itself wasn’t immune to the western crisis of values. Everything was being critically examined. From the 1950’s on a slowly creeping questioning of some of the pillars of the faith caused the church to react. At the same time that it was preaching end-times prophesy seminars, some of the prominent SDA scholars were seeking mainstream status and watering down the pillars of faith so that they would no longer be considered a cult. SDA kids were exposed to this internal struggle over doctrine, were shown some of the hypocrisy of the rules and began questioning themselves. “Why can’t we wear earrings, but old ladies can wear ornate pins and expensive watches and drive luxury cars? Why can’t I drink coffee when we can drink hot chocolate which has caffeine? Why can I wade in water on Sabbath, but not swim?”

Orthodoxy

In the 1960’s and 1970’s Keene was full of second, third and even fourth generation Adventists, who had little contact with non-Adventist and certainly had not been confronted about their doctrines. They had been educated in Keene SDA institutions and had trusted their families and teachers and pastors to be telling them the truth. After all, these were sweet people, they wouldn’t lie! These were the remnant living in the Holy City.

They had not been a questioning generation. And these parents were totally unprepared to deal with their children’s inquiries about their faith. Now both parents were working to be able to afford to send them through SDA private elementary school and high school and college, they were too tired, too stressed to even have the time for this. After all, isn’t that why their grandparents and parents had moved to the Holy City--to send their kids to get an SDA education so they wouldn’t have to be the ones answering these questions? Keene was supposed to spiritually protect them.

Parents reacted by either disregarding their children or making them feel guilty for not passively accepting the church’s teaching.

Keene Left Vulnerable

The greatest problem of all, which permeated all facets of Keene, was that these sweet and innocent people were easy prey for the lion seeking whom he may devour. They had been raised with the idea they were different. They were God’s special remnant and although they eagerly preached and anticipated an imminent Second Return, they also knew that before that, their very lives would be at stake in a world-wide manhunt. Other Christians, who did not accept the saving “Everlasting Gospel” of Adventism were soon to reject God and spill their wrath upon the Adventists for keeping the Sabbath holy. For over a hundred years they had been preparing themselves and their children for martyrdom for the holy Sabbath.

Adventists are raised in distrust and paranoia of other Christians. When evidence of their deep dysfunction was exposed their only salve was secrecy and plunging ever more into deeper spiritual dysfunction. They have no outside remedy--for all other people do not have the truth. They see all others as lesser Christians that may unwittingly and with all sincerity deceive them if they leave the protection of Adventism.

No Escape

Other than faulty doctrine, Keene had relied totally on its sandy foundation of nice people. While other Christians survived the cultural onslaught of the 1960‘s and 1970‘s forever crippled, Keene didn’t withstand Satan’s brutal attack and collapsed. The golden years of the Holy City are only a memory now and it is sweet to recall those innocent days.

What is dangerous is that those in Keene today are still in oblivious denial. They know something happened to their precious little safe town, but they cannot deal with the reality of it and change. For to do so, they would have to deny the very reason for Keene--to prepare a people to preach the Everlasting Gospel of Adventism.

They would have to step into the real gospel of Jesus Christ and let go of their remnant-hood. They would have to unite with the Body of Christ and release their delusional futuristic persecution complex. They would have to be more than a one-commandment church. They would have to reject fear and embrace God’s love.

Keene, we who once walked your safe and quirky streets going to Sabbath School, who fed the ducks at the Duck Pond and sneaked up onto Leiske-Pultar auditorium after a hot camp-meeting night to watch the stars, we are so privileged to pray for you and ask the Lord to grant you the knowledge of the true gospel so that we will no longer grieve your stolen children, your stolen innocence and your stolen lives.