Jennifer's Story: Me? Leave Adventism??

Honestly, I’m the last person I would have ever imagined leaving the Adventist Church.  For most of my life, I truly felt so fortunate to be part of the “only true remnant church.”  I understood, and really believed, the church’s unique doctrines.  Since I was a vegetarian, wore no jewelry, paid a ten-percent tithe, attended church each Sabbath, was a “faculty wife” in the academy system, and was employed by the denomination for a number of years, I was considered a “good Adventist.”

My life in Adventism began at age five when my parents came into the church through a series of Daniel and Revelation meetings. I was privileged to attend the church’s elementary school grades 1-8. We had a vibrant local church family that blessed my growing-up years with many friends and wholesome social activities. I have so many precious memories and owe those dear people so much. 

At one point in elementary school, I decided to read through the Gospels.  However, I became rather disillusioned with Bible reading through that experience.  When I came to the passage in Mark 7 where Jesus declares all foods clean, it created a lot of confusion in my young mind.  It left me feeling that I couldn't understand what the Bible was saying, for surely Jesus was not saying what it seemed He was saying!  I was part of the true church, and our prophet told us we were not supposed to eat any meat, but especially not the foods listed as unclean in the Old Testament.  Overall, I just felt like understanding the Bible was out of my reach.  After that, I tended to read books published by the church rather than study the Bible for myself.

Following elementary school, I attended Maplewood Academy for three years, graduating in 1994. Again, I had an overall wonderful experience in the SDA school system where I met many life-long friends and was nurtured by caring, dedicated teachers.

Years later, my husband, Joe, and I attended a non-traditional Sabbath School class at the SDA boarding academy where Joe taught. Our text was the Bible, and I remember studying the books of Acts and the Gospel of John. This was the first time I’d ever been part of a group like this, and I found it stimulating. One time, the question was asked, “Why did God give the Ten Commandments?” A thought just popped into my mind and I spoke it out: “To show us we couldn’t keep them.” That was weird! I thought. I’d never entertained such a radical notion before. At the time it didn’t change my thinking about the importance of Sabbath-keeping, but it did plant a seed of puzzlement regarding the purpose of the Ten Commandments.  This past year, I've fallen in love with how Pastor Mark Martin paraphrases Galatians 3:24:  "The law herds us to the cross."  What a glorious truth!

Several years after this experience, my brother-in-law sent us a study he’d written based on his recent research into Ellen White’s writings. Whoa!  We were set back on our heels. Immediately, we began looking into the problem areas as well. It wasn’t long before I was convinced that Ellen White was not a prophet of God. My husband, however, was much more guarded in making a final decision. Joe had read Prophetess of Health and The White Lie while in college, which led him to give up belief in Mrs. White’s authenticity for a year or so. However, after talking with his spiritual mentor, he’d again accepted her prophetic role by reworking his definition of a prophet. 

Obviously, he didn’t want to be a “flip-flip-flopper,” so he spent the next five years reading Mrs. White’s writings extensively. During this time, Joe also read many church-published books in defense of Mrs. White’s inspiration, as well as books by SDA historians. In the end, however, it was primarily her strong perfectionist teachings that caused him to doubt, and finally reject EGW as a prophet. Her early “shut door” visions and her distortions of the incident with Israel Dammon also played significant roles in disintegrating our faith in her prophetic veracity. The books I most highly recommend are The Fake Controversy  and White Out by Dirk Anderson, White Washed by Sydney Cleveland, The Life of Mrs. E.G. White: SDA Prophet by D.M.Canright, and Prophetess of Health by Ronald Numbers.

The hitch for us, though, was that we still believed wholeheartedly in the Sabbath, soul sleep/annihilation, and to a lesser degree, the Investigative Judgment. Perhaps, most awkwardly, Joe was a teacher in the SDA academy system. Both of us had lived our lives within the Seventh-day Adventist system in one way or another. So, we followed the path of least resistance and continued to function in our roles while feeling very alone and out of step with our Adventist sub-culture. I remember the sadness of knowing that if we were to share our honest findings with our friends and co-workers, those relationships would become strained and we would be suspect--quite possibly even lose our jobs.

Within a few years, Joe’s brother and sister-in-law left the Adventist Church and abandoned the Sabbath, as well. We were very concerned for them and assumed they’d just taken “the easy way out.”  Joe wrote them a 15-page paper defending the Sabbath via the New Covenant. We couldn’t conceive of any biblical grounds for their discarding the seventh-day Sabbath. Sure, Ellen White wasn’t a prophet, but for goodness’ sake, don’t throw out the Sabbath! When my sister-in-law visited after the birth of our son in 2006, I flat out told her, “Don’t even bring up the issue of the Sabbath with me. You believe one way and we believe another. I don’t want to strain our relationship by discussing this issue.” She respected my request, and that was the end of that! Or so I thought.

By late 2007, Joe had hit a spiritual low. It was then that the Lord strongly impressed him to get up one Sunday morning and go to church. He obeyed. Before the birth of our son, we had occasionally visited churches on Sunday after we'd come to the conclusion that it was not actually wrong to worship on Sunday. We still believed in the 7th-day Sabbath, and I continued to take our young son to Sabbath School at the local SDA church. I know now that Christians who attend church on Sunday would not think to say, “We believe in Sunday.”Joe came home from his second visit to New Life Tabernacle profoundly affected. The praise and worship awakened in his heart an awareness of the presence of the Living God. All he could do was sit and weep. He was hungry for the touch of His Savior and returned for more week after week. He experienced Jesus there in ways he had never known in the SDA church. He begged me to come with him, and finally I conceded. I, too, was deeply moved by the services as I cried my way through true worship. The Holy Spirit was working in our hearts.

In April 2008, we visited Joe’s brother and family. While there, I engaged my dear sister-in-law on the issue of the Sabbath. In a rather accusatory tone of voice, I said, “It seems like you guys just want to get rid of the Sabbath. Why aren’t you telling people they’re free to lie, steal, and commit adultery, as well?” She explained that in the New Covenant, Jesus had given us a much higher standard of morality. She also talked to me about the Old Testament shadows, of which Jesus was the substance. I didn’t really have a clue what she was talking about, but I intended to find out. Before we headed home, I asked her if I could borrow one of her extra copies of the book Sabbath in Christ by Dale Ratzlaff.  

Joe was dubious about my reading the book, but I was at a breaking point. I just had to know  why they had abandoned the Sabbath!  So, I began reading, and what I found in that book just clicked---I understood every point the author was making from scripture---it made perfect sense!  I clearly remember sitting there reading while tears dripped down my cheeks and off my chin. I knew that I was hearing the true gospel message for the first time in my life. Through the working of the Holy Spirit, I was finally willing to listen. The God who created the universe had just exploded out of the little seventh-day Sabbath box I’d had Him in my whole life. Praise the Lord! Jesus Christ Himself is our Sabbath rest. His boundless grace is the sabbatismos spoken of in Hebrews 4:9.

For me, another very significant revelation was the discovery that the Holy Spirit is the seal of God (according to three N.T. Biblical witnesses) ---NOT the seventh-day Sabbath!  Ratzlaff points out that the 4th commandment was the sign of the Old Covenant (Exodus 31:13, 16-17), just as circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant. It was placed directly in the center of the Ten Commandments in the tradition of the ancient Near Eastern treaties of its time. In contrast, the sign of the New Covenant is the observance of the Lord's Supper (Luke 22:19-20 & I Corinthians 11:23-25). As an Adventist, I'd thought that my knowledge of scripture was more complete than non-Adventist Christians, but as it turned out, I had much to learn---and unlearn.

When I was done with the book, I told Joe I no longer believed in the continuing validity of the weekly Sabbath. He was alarmed that I should be so deceived. He felt compelled to read the book so that he could point out its errors. Because his job took so much of his time, he started reading the shorter book Discovering the New Covenant by Greg Taylor first.  Taylor showed from scripture that the “Sabbath days” referred to in Colossians 2:16-17 always referred to the weekly Sabbath rather than the ceremonial Sabbaths as we’d been taught in Adventism. With that understood, it suddenly became clear to him! “Therefore 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. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” Col. 2:16-17 (NIV). By the time he finished reading, he saw that the Sabbath was only a shadow pointing to the real Sabbath, Jesus Christ.                                       

Since discovering that the main doctrine of Adventism was in error, I knew that it was also important to investigate the other teachings that differ from historical Christian belief and doctrine. As I placed each one under the magnifying glass of the Bible they came up woefully short of truth, as well. There are so many amazing truths to discover in God’s Word if only people will abandon the interpretations of a false prophet and let the Holy Spirit become their guide. To do so requires relinquishing the pride involved in believing that the Seventh-day Adventist Church has been honored with “special revelation.” I challenge each of you to read through the studies on Gently Broken, keeping an open mind and spirit, listening for the Holy Spirit’s voice. I have done so myself, and found that they point to the Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit, as the only safe guide to belief and doctrine. I would also encourage you to read the book of Galatians---more than once!  It seems that it was written with Adventists in mind. Other texts that bring clarity to the study of the law (Old Covenant) versus the New Covenant include 2 Corinthians 3, Romans 3-5, and Hebrews 7-9.

Now, to wrap up my story:  The summer of 2009 my husband resigned from his job with the SDA school system. It was a significant, faith-building step for us. Adventism had been our identity and security for so long, but now we have found these things in Christ alone! Faith in Him IS enough! In June, we were baptized into Christ---not into a denomination or its 28 Fundamental Beliefs, as we were as Adventist children. On July 4, 2009, we wrote our resignation-of-membership letter to the SDA Church, briefly outlining the reasons for our decision to leave. Since then we have joined the joyful, grace-based, non-denominational church that has become our family over the past year and a half. We are rejoicing in our salvation, which Jesus guaranteed with His death on the cross 2000 years ago. We are now born-again Christians---saved forever by His blood!

Amazingly (or maybe not so surprisingly--considering the God we serve!), the Lord has made a way for us where we could see no way. I am going back to school at an evangelical Christian university to pursue an undergraduate degree in theology. My school awarded me $10,000 in yearly scholarships, making this educational pursuit possible. God is so good! My husband is also back in school to earn his master’s degree in a field that will allow him to pursue a new career. To watch the Lord work out every detail of our transition last summer (2009) has been such a faith-building experience. He rewarded our small step of faith with blessings that overflow and continue to amaze and delight me. He is truly so faithful to keep His promises. Thank you, Jesus.  I love You and live to praise Your holy name!