Harry's Story: Why I Couldn't Stay

Since 1972 I have taught a Sabbath class and I cannot recall ever being guided by the quarterly in an explanation of the “body of Christ” in the context of  a group of born again believers from every kindred, nation and people, united in faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, which body was, on an individual basis, filled with the Holy Spirit, had the righteousness of God in Christ, was seated in heavenly places in Christ, already has eternal life, has been saved by grace, is not under law but under grace, is dead to the law through the spirit, can never be separated from the love of Christ and many more astounding promises. But most of all, the absolute knowledge that we have the assurance of salvation, right now if we have received Christ as our Savior has changed my life.

What we have been taught is that we are awaiting our name to come up in the I.J. (Investigative Judgment) and if any unconfessed sin remains, we are lost. Hopefully everyone knows this is absolutely unbiblical and no other denomination has ever discovered that there has ever been one scintilla of evidence for it found in scripture. Barnhouse expressed his opinion of it as the most colossal, psychological, face-saving phenomenon in religious history. Yet the SDA denomination has yet to repudiate it for fear of denying the central pillar of our faith and the reason for our church to exist. (G.C. page 409) Maybe the central pillar of our faith should be proclaimed as Jesus Christ and Him crucified. We know the I.J. cannot be supported by scripture and yet they don’t have the moral integrity to stand up to the fact and so continue to support, on an official basis, “another gospel”. Paul, in Galatians says that if even an angel comes to you with “another gospel” than that which he preached, let him be accursed and then Paul repeats the curse for emphasis. The I.J. is “another gospel”!  This is pretty risky ground to be standing on!

There must be a paradigm shift in Adventist integrity at the highest levels. We all know the shortcomings of our doctrine; at least we should if we read our Bibles. But they are unmoved at the G.C. level and it filters downward in that we have successive G.C. presidents expressing their staunch support for our historic doctrines saying we should live, teach and preach the Testimonies, emphasizing fundamental belief #18 that Ellen White’s writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth and then trying to sweep some of her teachings under the rug.  Some of these teachings are the I.J., the shut door, her amalgamation statement, Jesus on probation, tennis and cricket idolatry, Jesus’ older brothers, wearing of wigs, mistake if scripture application removes one pillar of SDA faith/doctrine, Satan in full possession of all churches not accepting revised 1844 prophesy and many, many more heretical statements all attributed to God or an accompanying angel.  It is widely acknowledged that we ignore such statements and doctrine yet still support Belief #18. If anyone dares to openly call attention to this hypocrisy, they are immediately labeled..

Another area of confusion is the inability or unwillingness to distinguish between the New Covenant and the Old Covenant. When these are blenderized there is then no distinction between Law and Grace, no distinction about what Heaven now expects from us, no distinct line regarding what works, if any, are now necessary to obtain salvation and also to maintain it. Romans 7 speaks of the woman who would be married to a new husband (Christ, grace, New Cov.) but commits spiritual adultery by trying to be married to the old husband (Moses, works, Old Cov.) at the same time. We are told in Hebrews and 2 Cor. 3 that the Old is fading away, is obsolete, that which had glory, now has no glory in light of that which remains  and uses the Greek word kartargeo which translated means, “cease to exist”. Yet the Church seems unwilling to cast out the Bondwoman of Galatians 4 which refers to Mt. Sinai (Old Covenant) which gives birth to bondage. Perhaps our doctrines can’t be supported unless we ignore such commands. We have a new priest, Christ, and if the priesthood is changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law. (Hebrews 7:12) i.e.: from the works of the law to the works of grace, from the Old to the New.  But we want to grab Old Covenant rules, laws and customs and plant them in the New Covenant without regard to distinct parameters set around the Old and reserving them to the Hebrew people and to operate “until the seed should come”. 

The SDA Church has made the claim to have replaced Israel as God’s favored people in the face of three chapters in Romans about Israel not being forsaken. We have gone so far to say that if you don’t belong to that remnant in the last days, you will be lost. The Abrahamic Covenant should come to mind as an unconditional, everlasting covenant, not to be abrogated by the SDA Church. Zech 13:7 suggests the remnant may be 1/3 of Israel which survives Jacob’s trouble.

Before my final conclusions I want to say a word about The Clear Word, formally called The Clear Word Bible. We have criticized the Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormons for their “bibles” and yet in order to make the Bible say what Adventist doctrine states, the SDA Church has bought into this clear change of God’s word. The Clear Word makes numerous deletions and additions, revising the Word of God to make the Bible teach what it does not teach, Adventist doctrine. God’s commands to not take away or add to His book of prophesy seems to be ignored.

Randy, you have a maverick on your hands and you are going to be held accountable by some people as to what you do with me. There are some who are quick to run to the conference with tales, hoping to obtain some degree of censure for the offender (me). That attitude will spill over onto you. You don’t need that. It would be a very uncomfortable situation to have me as a teacher both for me and the church. “What is he teaching now?” “Who is he misleading now?” “What SDA doctrine is he picking apart?” That’s an untenable situation. And when this all gets voiced around, who would have the courage to sit in my class? Very few. For the past 15 years Elly and I have been studying our way out from under the doctrines of the SDA Church by serious Bible study. We have found too many conflicts with scripture so that we can no longer say that we are Seventh Day Adventists. This has been a long time coming. We initially were going to leave when Larry Gibson left but Gateway was in poor shape so we stayed to help. Now with things going well, it is the time. We cannot stay in an organization that refuses to reflect integrity and clings to unbiblical doctrines to save face.  We do not lay this upon the great people at Gateway but all are in some way affected by leadership and that leadership at the highest levels makes no attempt to correct matters and have not since the early days of this denomination. See the material re: the 1919 Bible Conference.  I have so much more to say but it has been said for me, in a blog that is comprehensive, thorough and so well done by a friend who comes from generations of Adventists. Sogentlybroken.blogspot.com. (Now Truthfulgrace.com) Go there for your own edification.

We are well aware of the Adventist Grapevine and how word will spread that Elly and I have lost our way and have fallen off the path to the wicked world below, are in the grasp of Satan and on our way to perdition and all those ideas which scare people and keep them in bondage. So be it. We have no control over how it becomes automatic destruction to leave “the truth” as warned in the Testimonies. Some people will believe them. We believe we are saved by grace, sealed and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, are joint heirs with Christ, are right now sitting in Heavenly places with Christ, have the righteousness of God in Christ, have eternal life right now because we believe in Christ and Him who sent Him., This is all God’s word. As I said in my letter to the editor, which some of you have seen or heard about, our Sabbath rest is in Christ’s completed work for our salvation, completed on the cross, received by faith, sealed by the Holy Spirit

Gateway has been our family for 12 years and we love everyone. “We have been friends……hope this continues.