Adventism is Bleeding

The SDA church had hoped the Former Adventists would just go away quietly. However, we seem to be making an impact, because lately they have been acknowledging us in their different publications. They are starting blogs to defend Adventism because they know the blogs out there by former SDAs are getting a lot of traffic. They are writing books defending their faith. They are no longer remaining passive. I don't blame them. They see this new generation of loud former SDA as fulfilling prophecy and gives them new fodder for victimhood and a new impetus for the cry of the Third Angel.

The are also admitting that up to 50% of their young people are leaving the church. Adventism is definitely bleeding and they are understandably panicked.

So how do we react to this?

One part of me is actually panicking along with them. Adventists are my family and friends, I hurt when I see them cry. I feel so much compassion for them when I hear their fervent prayer for us. I cringe in embarrassment for them when I see them battling with phantom enemies. I don't want to see them hurt or humiliated. Dear Lord, can't this be a death with dignity? Couldn't you just allow the happy Adventists to live their life out in blissful ignorance and when they die, then correct all the falsehood at one time? I don't want to see anyone get hurt in this struggle of truth.

Then I get letters/emails/facebook messages of people who were spiritually sinking in Adventism. Hearing the truth gave them a new life and joy they had never experienced before. And I then remember, there are unhappy Adventists out there. The false information they were given did not yield benign results in their lives. I have to keep telling myself that Satan is the father of lies and that no amount of error is of God. Darkness is where people stumble. We are to be the light of the world.

Adventism is loosing members because it does not give people correct information. Truth is becoming clear and so I really should rejoice and praise the Lord.

But I do want to say to those Adventists and former Adventists, when someone finally lets go of the falsehood, we should never be there to gloat or feel proud of the fact that we got it before them. Their tumble into truth is going to hurt. I want to be there in a great pool of love that lets them know we are so happy for them. We will be there to lay out the red carpet and welcome them into truth as kings and queens. We will join in with the chorus of heaven as the lost lambs are returned to the Great Shepherd.

HELL HATH NO FURY LIKE A FORMER ADVENTIST SCORNED....

In response to Dale Ratzlaf’s former Adventist seminar in Huntsville, Alabama, a

columnist at Adventist Today recently commented, “Hell hath no fury like a Former Adventist [scorned].”

Really?

It concerns me when I read statements like the one above. Adventist doctrines can create a paranoid schizophrenic worldview with touches of megalomaniac delusions and that comment may reveal an inkling of it. Nevertheless, how do we respond to this and other SDA questions like, “Why do we hang around the edges of Adventism [apparently venting our fury]?” or “Why don’t we move on and leave them alone?”

Of course I cannot speak for all Former Adventists but I know I can speak for thousands and thousands.

Why do we dare talk to our Adventist friends and relatives about our new life outside Adventism and compare it with the old? The answer: the gospel of Jesus requires it. We are our brother’s keepers. Believe it or not, we LOVE them! We have been taught since Cradle Roll that we must be willing to stand up and defend truth--that one day we may have to die doing it! No wonder we are so strong in our positions, our characters were honed in Adventism to be Bible-believing, truth zealots!

For my Adventist friends:

Most of us truly understand your feelings about our leaving. We know your fears, your mindset, your prejudices, we WERE YOU at one time. Many of us dismissed and judged former Adventists. I personally remember worrying about the salvation of family and friends who left the church. Knowing that we know you leaves you exposed and vulnerable, so you go on the defensive and we understand that too. We recognize that it is hard to put down one’s sword when defending one’s religious beliefs. Demonizing us as opponents allows you to guiltlessly fight the harder.

But we do not consider you our enemy. Through all the inflammatory rhetoric coming our direction to try and divert us, we persist in gently (and sometimes not so gently) attempting to get your attention on truth. Truth makes people uncomfortable. It made US uncomfortable when we heard it too! So again, it may pain you to hear, but we know what you are going through and the why you may feel it necessary to throw into the debate ad hominem attacks. Truth is searing, truth cuts to the core. Having one’s false beliefs clash with reality is like getting hit with lightning.

I know you think that sounds incredibly arrogant and patronizing, and I apologize that I do not have the writing talent to say it with more meekly. But believe me when I say from my heart, truth humbles a person.

So where do we go from here?

I very much hope we can respectfully dialogue. There is much we can learn from each other. There is a lot of healing for all of us to do. So we hang around you because you are important to us. The more we long to be like Jesus the more we long to be with our family and friends. I cannot speak for anyone else but myself here, but I just get so incredibly excited about what Christ is showing me that I can’t keep my mouth shut. His ways are too good to keep silent about. So many Adventists do not have a clear and vibrant view of the gospel. We former Adventists just want them to see what we see!

Tribute to My Parents

Yeah, they won’t understand this but it is from the bottom of my heart and the depth of my gratitude.

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My Dad (our family, coming home from church, when I was a child):

“I don’t think Pastor X understood that text.....” (Taught me not to believe whatever anyone said no matter what his title.)

“The Bible never says we actually have to go to CHURCH on Sabbath.... only rest.” (Taught me to analyze what the Bible actually says compared to additions people incorporate into it.)

“Why did they read Ellen White from the pulpit, she isn’t equal to the Bible, there’s a debate as to whether she is a prophetess or not?” (Taught me that some points are debatable no matter what your seventh-grade Bible teacher says.)

In addition to teaching me, “honey, don’t be spoonfed--use your brain--think about what they say and don’t swallow anything anyone says” my father drilled us with the idea of a very merciful, loving God who judges us on faith with His Grace. But my father not only taught us that with words but with his life and actions. He was merciful, He was loving, He was faithful... so I could easily believe in a God that was too. In fact, I almost am a universalist because I cannot see my father ever, ever rejecting anyone because he is so generous and kind and merciful a person. So I have a hard time not extending that same characteristic to my heavenly father.

So when I began reading the Bible and “thinking for myself,” I found that, if I was honest about what I read and was the child my father brought me up to be, I would have to reject his denomination. It was hard to break his heart, but to turn from what he taught me, how he lovingly spent his life as my dad, would be the greater heartbreak for us both. I always attributed my grit, my stubborn, relentless standing for truth no matter what the consequences and sacrifices, to my father.

But as I get older and really think back, my mother--to her everlasting annoyance and embarrassment-- should get a lot of blame too for my never-giving-in until you get to the bottom of what is really, truly true.

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My Mother coming home from church:

(six kids all roaming around in a pre-child-seat-belt-law age, fighting noisily,)

“Mother! Heidi bit me, Heidi bit me!” So James takes his fist and rams it into the side of Heidi’s head. Heidi screams until my mother calms everything down--and spanks James for hitting Heidi.

“Heidi! Why did you hit James?” And my mother’s tenacity to get to the truth of what happened would commence. She would interrogate all parties thoroughly, exhaustingly--listening intently and analyzing every word and gesture for information. When most people would throw their hand up and just tell their kids to shut up and give their poor parents some peace, my mother’s Sherlock Holmes detective work would just kick in. She was thorough, excruciatingly thorough in her quest to find out what exactly happened and why and then administer fair, impartial justice. “I’m sorries MUST be said and healing must occur within the family and no one, NO ONE was going to get away with anything while she was mom.

It would be like a tennis match in our car--James would say Heidi stepped on his toe and then took his Little Friend he got in Sabbath school. (I would sympathize with James and think Heidi needed to get it.) Then Heidi said no that James left his Little Friend on the pew, and she stepped on his toe because he threw himself in front of her to get to the car seat he wanted first. (WOW! Heidi, poor Heidi! My twelve-year-old brain would switch sides with each sentence.) Mother would listen and listen all the way home to this.....

What I learned is that both sides of all stories need to be thoroughly researched and sympathies can swing, depending on who is telling their side, so don’t make a quick judgement. What you have heard for years can completely be rejected in an “ahah!” moment when you discover another side. Propaganda is passed on in all levels of life, so research diligently.

Thanks Dad and Mother! I know you look back and are confused at how your lessons of love of truth, of then standing for truth no matter if the heaven’s fall, has turned on you when your beloved children rejected Adventism. I do well understand your grief for I have grown children too. But I sincerely thank you, bless you and know someday that you will feel God's blessing too. The failure you feel now will one day be opened up as the biggest reward for a life well lived. Your children love the Lord and for that you can be proud you taught us the essence of what was important.