HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2008 / JANUARY/FEBRUARY / LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2008
VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1

---

D E P A R T M E N T S

LETTERS to the Editor

 

Hang in there!

We just received our November/December issue of Proclamation! I read the Letters to the Editor and am still numb from the scathing rebuke you received from Wadena, Minnesota. Whoa! How sad that someone felt the need to lash out like that.

I just wanted you guys to know that my husband and I both have enjoyed every issue of Proclamation! and that we look forward to receiving it every other month. Thanks for the great work you do! Both of our fathers (both raised in the Adventist Church) and one brother are also receiving your publication. We know it blesses them too. I can only imagine how tough it must be to receive such critical letters from supposedly happy SDA members. Please know that you do a wonderful and life-changing work for the glory of God. We thank Him for you, your commitment to the truth, and your ministry.

Yucaipa, CA

 

Great reference

What a way to end the year —wow—what a year of brilliant articles on which to draw to enhance ones understanding of the SCRIPTURAL GOSPEL.

Again, I wish you to know that your efforts are really, really appreciated. It is great to initiate discussions and then be able to refer the discussee to the printed word which is so well presented as well as being readily accessible for reference and downloading. It really gives the discussee something concrete to play with. (Some of 'em are really confounded.)

I am in the process of reallocating priorities (finance wise) so that I can in a small regular way contribute as a partner in the ongoing production of this very necessary magazine.

I wish you all God's continuing blessings for another successful year of endeavor.

Australia

 

God have mercy

Please remove my name from your mailing list. You are being led by the devil. May God have mercy on all of you.

Hillsdale, WI

 

No more

Quit sending me your lies. As a former Adventist you are now working for the devil. I hope you come to your senses before it is too late.

Shermans Dale, PA

 

Saddened

I am saddened as I read this November/December issue of Proclamation! There is so much effort and finance expended here trying to convince people you are right in what you are advocating, when you in your own heart know better. Think of those who are suffering from starvation and deprivation who could be helped, if your efforts were directed toward that area. Just because you are miserable, please don't try to make others follow down the dead-end road you are going. You have twisted the Scriptures to fit your needs, trying to convince yourself, and others, you are correct in your thinking.

I'm sure there are many who are taken in with your warped way of thinking, who never have studied for themselves. David Koresh, Jim Jones, and others like them preyed on people who were very intelligent, and of course those who were less inclined, and they acquired a large following. You too will be successful in leading people away from the truth, but when all is over and the dust settles, where will you stand in that great day?

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. 14:12).

I have been a Seventh-day Adventist for many years. If there was a church out there with a message of truth more so than the Adventist church I would have left it long ago. But there isn't. And most assuredly your ministry doesn't qualify for that position. Please don't fool yourself.

So, please remove my name from your mailing list. Thank you.

Alvarado, TX

 

Pain and division over Adventism

I would like to receive your magazine; my husband was getting them in the mail, and I found them in his garbage. He is a Seventh-day Adventist and an elder in the Adventist church. I am a Christian and have been all my life. We have been together for twenty-seven years; he was not in church when I met him; I was.

I didn't know about Adventism, but he always told me it could break us up. Well, the time finally came when he started back attending church about 16 years ago, and it's been all but easy in our home.

Our children were brought up in church and accepted Christ while attending with me; eventually he required them to go with him. The three younger ones were not allowed to attend on Sunday anymore.

Our oldest son recently, within the last four years or so, has switched over to Adventism. It has caused so much pain and division in our home. I've tried going with them, but I do not agree with all that the Adventists teach and how heavily they rely upon Ellen White.

I've prayed and prayed, and then I found your Proclamation! magazine, as I stated, in the garbage. I was only able to enjoy some copies and ordered one for myself, but…they have not come since your May/June 07 issue.

I would like to continue receiving Proclamation! It was starting to give me some answers to this religion that I don't quite understand. [It was helping me] understand why they are the way they are.

Would you be so kind as to please send me back and current issues so I can learn from those who have experienced this first hand?

If you publish this, please don't include name/state; it would only add to the fire.

 

Save the forest; take me off

There must be some misunderstanding. My experience in the Seventh-day Adventist church over the last 60 years does not seem to be the same as yours and many of your readers. While the church has gone through different periods of putting too much emphasis on works over grace, I think that there has been good dialogue through it all for the most part. I really think that your mission, motto and message statements could just as easily come from the Adventist Review. Usually when an organization such as yours goes all out attacking as you do, they have come in contact with someone or some administrator that did not rightly represent the true spirit of the church. I would just like to apologize for that because I think you have not really seen the true church through the correct lenses. I truly hope and pray that you may have another experience that may shed better light on your path so that you may see God's church the way He would want it seen.

I do have to mention one more thing. Why don't you find a different identity? If you say you are former Adventists I think I know what you mean, but it could give someone the idea that you also no longer believe in the Advent of our Lord. Will you take that away too?

Save the forest; take me off your mailing list.

Brewster, WA

 

Word of God does not change

I have enjoyed reading your thought-provoking periodical for quite a while now, probably since you first began your publication. When I first began receiving it, my husband and I were active SDA members at Mentone SDA Church in Southern California. We are no longer SDA members, which is a very long story in itself, but God has never left our side. I am so grateful for His loving care and saving grace. I have noticed that no matter the persuasion of the Christian, if the true Spirit of Christ resides in the heart, it is reflected in all that is said and done.

I am grieved to hear the viciousness of those who disagree with positions of the various articles when they write to express their views. I expect Christ is saddened by it also.…

When pondering about coming back to the SDA church I thought perhaps I should read Steps to Christ just one more time and maybe get it "right" this time. I never was very good at living up to the impossible standards put forth by EG White in the first place. Her statement that only one in 20 Adventists would be saved is abysmal and a lie. As a teenager, I always prayed that God would not give up on me; I really wanted to be the that one that was the exception to her rule. However, I found that the back-biting and "I am better than Thou" attitudes of many SDA's I grew up around just did not appeal. Then I heard the still small voice tell me to "Just read the Bible." So I did and continue to do so. What joy and grace are found in those precious pages telling of the saving grace and precious gift of Jesus.

I hope you are able to continue to put forth these thought provoking articles. The truth of the word of God can always stand up to questioning and searching. It does not change.

Princeton, IN

 

Anger, bitterness, and ridicule

If you believe in your convictions to the degree that you have stated in your work, then it will grow without the high pressure and heavy handed techniques you have employed to date. In addition, the amount of bitterness and anger that comes through in many of the articles in the form of ridicule toward Adventism serves to undermine you as well…It seems as though your main issue is Sabbath keeping. (The others such as the investigative judgment, the heavenly sanctuary, etc. seem to get some lip service but are not the main deal.)

[Your] desire to shop, go to movies, participate in sports, and generally behave like the rest of the world does, really smacks of much different issues—mainly of selfishness and self-interests—than it does of theology. But that is your business with Christ, not mine. Having the patience to remain committed may make a world of difference for many of you in the long term. I know it is gratifying in the near term to just live however you'd like, but are you really placed in the world for just you? Or were your days ordained for the higher purpose of serving God according to HIS calling and HIS purposes?

Evidently you have decided to follow Jesus according to your way and your understanding, and not His. …I just would like to keep your ideas out of my mailbox. They are not what I adhere to, nor does my husband, and we are training our children according to our understanding of the Scriptures, and your magazine would be very confusing to them at the current time considering their ages and maturity levels. When they are adults, I will be placing their spiritual connection in the Father's capable hands according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They may opt to view all this differently than I do, and as in your case, that will be their option at that time. But right now, it is mine, and I opt out of your agenda. Your departure from the denomination is regrettable, because clearly you have a tremendous number of evident gifts, but please be clear about why you left. It is about selfishness—period.

In closing, I respectfully request no answer to this email. I don't need one. God be with you all, and I pray grace for each of you.

EMAIL

 

God is crying out to Adventists today

Recently after getting broadband internet I finally had the chance to watch the streaming videos online of The Spirit Behind the [Adventist] Church, the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) story Called to be Free and The Bible vs. The Book of Mormon all in one sitting. My immediate impression was how incredibly similar the three experiences were. Although each cult has had different beliefs, the way in which they were created, defended, supported and maintained were uncannily similar. It became screamingly obvious to me for the first time how Seventh-day Adventism is plainly just a cult, period.

I had known much of this before, but I had shied from saying so for one reason or another, mainly not wishing to offend friends still in Adventism whom I know do love the Lord. In saying that Adventism is a cult, I'm not saying every Adventist is cultic (it depends mostly on the degree of exposure to core "Adventist truths"). Yet foundationally, organizationally and doctrinally, Adventism is rightly in the same class as Latter-Day Saints (LDS) and Jehovah's Witnesses (JW). God is able to save people in these churches just as it was possible for Him to save people in Ahab's Israel—but just as in Ahab's Israel, today the authority (the church, its foundation, its doctrine) is one that oppresses and hampers the Word of God, and the people are continually led astray by spiritual "parents".

While countless people are kept in darkness and bondage in the "kingdom" of Adventism, well-intentioned counselors in the system (who are themselves captive) advise us that the only way to change is by being an "Erasmus" or "Obadiah"—not speaking out boldly but working quietly. Like Dr. Martin Luther King's critics they caution against "moving too fast."

Instead I believe God is calling us to behold His wounded and abused children in Adventism and receive His heart for them without restraint. I believe He is calling for people so full of His heart for His beloved children that they will stand up and cry out the Gospel from the mountaintop! I believe He is calling for Elijahs who will proclaim the Messiah—the Lord Our Righteousness—is the only salvation for the abuse which spiritual fathers have passed onto their spiritual children.

I believe God is crying out to Adventists today—and especially to spiritual fathers, mothers, and shepherds—saying, "How long will you waver between two opinions?" If Adventism and Ellen White's "God" is the true Biblical one, then serve him. But if he does not stand the test of the Bible, then serve the one true God of the Bible.

I know many people think that former Adventists pick on too many little things, on seemingly harmless doctrines like soul sleep and annihilationism. If only one of these doctrines were in a Gospel-grounded church and were not a criteria of judgment or a prophetically-announced "truth", then former Adventists wouldn't harp on them. But in Adventism there are so many of these "little things". Once you see videos like those about the LDS or former WCG, then you understand that accumulating too many of these little "deviations" is a classic symptom of a larger problem—a larger spiritual sickness. They are symptoms of a cultic system of belief with a cultic foundation.

Finally, the striking similarities in the letters to the editor section of Proclamation! magazine and the letters to the editors of former-Mormon and former-JW ministries is testament enough to the truth about Adventism being a cult. Adventist apologists will try to make out such inflammatory comments as being the few odd apples in an overall good batch, yet if you read your Ellen White and early Adventist literature, you'll note that it is these inflammatory comments which most resemble Ellen White's letters and the spirit of foundational Adventism. The modern apologists are the ones that Mrs.White and the other early Adventist leaders would have disfellowshipped as apostates and consigned to "Babylon".

Again, "How long will you waver between two opinions?" If Adventism is Biblical, follow; but if it does not stand the Bible test, follow the God of the Bible.

Osaka, Japan

 

---

Send letters to the editor to:

Editor, Proclamation! Magazine
P.O. Box 7776
Redlands, CA 92375

Or email editor: proclamation@gmail.com

Life Assurance Ministries

Mission

To proclaim the good news of the new covenant gospel of grace in Christ and to combat the errors of legalism and false religion.

 

Motto

Truth needs no other foundation than honest investigation under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and a willingness to follow truth when it is revealed.

 

Message

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God; not of works, that no one should boast." Ephesians 2:8,9