HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2008 / MARCH/APRIL / LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

MARCH / APRIL 2008
VOLUME 9, ISSUE 2

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D E P A R T M E N T S

LETTERS to the Editor

 

To our unsuspecting partners…

Several years ago, we bought seven pairs of breeding parrots—Africa Grays, the kings of the talking birds. We fully expected them to provide some extra income for our retirement. Evidently the birds had other plans; after producing some babies, they stopped! We had no baby birds and no eggs for well over a year.

Finally, after a nice rain, the birds began to lay once more. We had eggs at last; by all rights these should within a month turn into baby birds. Out of four eggs, two hatched and one lived. Hugh, my beloved and long-sufferingly patient husband, out of some deep longing, one morning during our devotional told God that if these birds lived—if we had any birds in the future which we could sell—we would give a tenth to Proclamation! magazine. Let it be noted that this was entirely his idea—and a great one!

It turns out that God is interested in your endeavor, because the birds began to hatch—and live. We pull them from the nest (and away from their angry parents—wanna see the scars?) as soon as they hatch, and three birds were well and healthy. The last was so weak we doubted that he would live through the night. Hugh spent the entire night feeding him every two hours all night long. Maybe I should mention that we hand feed these babies, and that means for the first weeks of their lives, every two hours around the clock. This allows one of us to get some sleep early nights, and the other to sleep late in the morning. Against all odds, this tiny creature survived and, in fact, thrived. He tackled the feeding time as an endurance trial, lying on his back, kicking at the air, and screaming at the brutality of it all.

The first bird sold today. Friends simply came for dinner and fell in love with the bird. Who but God could orchestrate that?…It won't be a lordly sum, but you will get another [check] with each sale, and we still have three more birds and seven eggs—which may or may not hatch—I choose not to wager against God.

I've never doubted God's leading but was truly astounded (oh lack of faith) by the way things have been working out. I might warn that it's not a good idea to make a deal with God unless you are completely ready to handle your part of the agreement.

You might say a small prayer of thankfulness, and that our bleary vision due to lack of sleep and our patience hold. We're now tied to home. We are unable to go anyplace together, at least anyplace where we might be gone for more than two hours—they're now on an every three-hour feeding schedule, but don't forget the eggs. Normally they wouldn't all hatch, but I'm not making any bets on these.

Thanks for your inspiration and your comfortable assurance,

Visalia, CA

 

Experience the seven last plagues

I have read your magazine and feel sorrow for not only your rejection of the truth but also your attack on God's faithful remnant.

In the book of Revelation (after reading your information, Dale, I feel you no longer find it relevant) it repeats seven times a fate that states, "He who overcomes will have right to the tree of life and live forever in Heaven." I am sure you feel that means overcoming Adventism, but no, Dale, it means overcoming sin. Sin is defined in Scripture as "the transgression of God's law." And God's law is the Ten Commandments. Not nine, but ten.

Your rejection of the Fourth Commandment will put you in that group of people who will experience the seven last plagues. You will be in that group who will experience the second death. When the national Sunday law is passed—whose side of the great controversy will you and your followers be on? Those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus, or those who follow the devised fables of men? There are only two sides, Dale, and I pray you will repent and follow Scripture.

Please remove my name from your mailing list. Do not send my household any more information from your organization, for as I see it, your organization is working for the Lord like the devil.

Hutchinson, MN

 

Offended

I am offended by your magazine. Please do not send me another issue. Your twisted stories do no good, only harm, and I am embarrassed that anyone seeing it in my mail may think I am as twisted as you are. Just in case you think I am an uneducated Adventist who has been duped as your magazine seems to think we all are, I have a masters in education and have worked for 25 years as a teacher of all grades, preschool to college. I teach Bible also, and I was once searching and have studied with the Baptists, First Christian, Nazarene, Assembly of God, Jehovah's Witness, Catholic priests, and my mother's original church the Methodists and the Dutch Reformed. If you don't think I see the truth when it is presented to me, you are wrong. The Ten Commandments including the Sabbath are still alive and needed as much today as when Christ Himself reaffirmed them. I DO NOT NEED your magazine. I think of it as propaganda. No thanks, been there done that. Do not answer this either. I study my Bible daily and I am not open for discussion with someone whose mind is set, but I will pray for you and your readers. Looking for the Lord's coming and hoping that you, too, will look for Him in truth.

Holbrook, AZ

 

Receiving a blessing

Thank you so much for your ministry. We receive such a blessing from your magazine. Please keep up the good work! The ones that we have asked to be put on the mailing list are receiving a blessing also. You are so appreciated!

West Carrollton, OH

 

Remembering why I left

Thank you for writing Sabbath in Christ, Dale. The Spirit spoke through your book and changed my entire way of thinking. I'm another damaged former Adventist; the books from your website have opened my eyes to the truth. Praise the Lord, I've finally found peace and many answers to many questions! It was Colleen and FormerAdventist.com forum that sent me your direction.

When I read your letters section I remember why I left the Adventist church. "By their fruits you shall know them" comes to mind. It is not the content of the emails but rather the spirit they are written in that is most revealing. All I see is hatred and anger. Well done for publishing all opinions, it takes courage and honesty. I know of another organization that would not be so forthcoming.

Bordon, United Kingdom

 

No outdoor toilet

I just wondered why you thought I'd want to get this paper that you're sending in the mail. I've gotten rid of my outdoor toilet, so I don't need paper like this.

Voicemail message

 

Editor's note: If you call to have your subscription cancelled, please leave your name and address. We occasionally receive calls and even email or letters asking to be removed from the mailing list, but the names and addresses are not included.

 

Finished at the cross

Regarding the latest copy of Proclamation! (Jan, Feb. 2008) and the article "Doctrine Determined by Faulty Hermeneutics", I believe we can look at this from another perspective, and that is strictly from God's word. There are 13 references in the New Testament (NT) regarding Jesus and His place of residence after His ascension to heaven; they are: Mark 16:19; Luke 22:69; Acts 2:33; 5:31; 7:55, 56; Rom 8:34; Col. 3:1; Heb. 1:3, 13; 10:12; 12:2 and I Pet. 3:22.

Referencing the Bible texts above, I have two simple questions for my Adventist brothers and sisters that I would like to ask: if Ellen G. White was really God's messenger and was led by His Spirit, how could she be so incorrect on the Investigative Judgment topic? Would God have not shown her that she was promoting the wrong message regarding Christ's work in the heavenly Sanctuary? God and Christ finished the work of redemption at the cross, so there was no need to start it all over again (sanctuary services). The Epistle of Hebrews speaks specifically about where Christ is (the Holy of Holies) and the work He is currently performing on our behalf.

My prayer is that God will open the eyes of all those that are truly seeking Him so that they will see that "we are saved by grace through faith… not by works" Eph. 2:8, 9.

Solsberry, IN

 

Additional information for you

Hello to you who search for faith and Christianity. I want to help you find what you are looking for in the Bible.…

What is said in the Holy Bible in Genesis is that "he rested on the seventh day from all the work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." That means that the seventh day is special to God. Now, if something is special to someone and you ignore it, just maybe that being will ignore you, when it comes to take you to where he wants to take his "saved" beings from this earth.

So, what the Ten Commandments do to this "rest" is specifically outline some items that God does not want you to do on his special day. As Exodus 20: 8 to 11 says, "Remember", and then God outlines what he says He wants you to remember.

Now, if your acknowledged "Higher Power" says to "remember" something and notes to you how and what to remember, I suggest it might be important to remember it. Yes, even managers and bosses on this earth will terminate you from their organizations if you don't recognize them and do what they tell you— specifically, if they say to you "remember", and you don't do it.…

I would note here that if there is any hint of my being left out of a life with my Savior Jesus Christ, I want you to know that I would not risk the loss of my future life over such a "little" thing as thinking that I am better than He who came to rescue me from a failing and condemned world or thinking that my pride in my understanding is better than the printed (or handwritten) words of Jesus Christ…

So yes, you are all "FREE" to do what you want on the weekly seventh day. But then, Jesus is also totally free NOT to accept you as one of His saved persons from this earth, in that you have NOT followed His commandments and the faith of Jesus.

May I suggest that you all reconsider what you believe and who the ultimate being is that determines your future life?

Via email

 

Moses, resurrection, and the IJ

Concerning Colleen's editorial in your January/February issue. When Adventists and Ellen G. White teach that Moses has already been resurrected, they contradict their investigative judgment [IJ] doctrine. Why? Because they teach that Jesus did not even "open the books" until 1844, and only then did He begin [reviewing names starting] with Adam. Since Moses' life had not been "investigated" before 1844, then he could not have been resurrected. That would also apply to the Adventist viewpoint of Enoch and Elijah.

Russell Earl Kelly, author of Exposing Seventh-day Adventism

 

Rest

We enjoy the Sabbath rest, thanking God for the salvation he has freely given us. Just because something God made (i.e. the Sabbath) has often been misused, does not make it bad or wrong.

If, as you say: "This removal of the law-the entire Mosaic law including the Decalogue-literally occurred..." then to be consistent you should ignore the other nine commandments as well, not just the one you have a problem with.

We are sorry that you have chosen to be so negative about your previous experiences. God wants you to be free, but not to indulge the sinful nature, Gal. 5:13, "biting and devouring" others, v.15 , or promoting "dissensions and factions" v.20.

We love you! We will pray for you! Please delete our name from your unsolicited mailing list. Sincerely your friend.

Loma Linda, CA

 

Keep doing what you do

Considering how much Dale's books and all the wonderful columns and articles in your magazine have helped me in my own journey, it seems only fair to offer my help. Please keep doing what you do. Thanks.

Spartanburg, SC

 

Soon we'll know…

It saddens me to see how Satan works in such deceitful ways and how many people will be and are being led astray by your ministry. In the Bible we are warned of false Christs and false prophets. Only by a thus saith the Lord can they be detected.

I pray that you will awaken to the error you are proclaiming. An attack on God's last day church is a direct attack on Him. Your publication is so filled with criticism. Where is God's love? It appears that you are very unhappy, and misery loves company. One day soon God's name will be vindicated, and we will know that His commandments are and always have been very vital to our Christian walk. They reflect the very character of God which we are to attain. Please remove my name from your publication.

Green River, WY

 

No longer blind

Thank you for faithfully sending me Proclamation!. I look forward to each issue, read it from cover to cover, and deeply appreciate the spiritual insights contained in the articles as well as the over-all positive tone of the magazine.

All of the 29 years that I was an Adventist, I sincerely believed that Ellen White was an "inspired commentary" on the Bible and spent many hours studying the Bible through the eyes of Ellen White. When I began to seriously question Ellen White in 1980, the scales dropped from my eyes, and I began to study the Bible with the help of the Holy Spirit in a new and exciting way…

As I look back now I see how this dependence upon Ellen White to be the FINAL interpreter of what the Bible was actually saying was blinding me to be able to see what scripture was actually saying. As I'm reading the latest issue of Proclamation!, January-February, 2008, I can really see as never before how wrong it is to think that one person should dominate our understanding of Scripture and how much we need the great Teacher that Jesus promised to send in the Gospel of John. Thank God for that!! Some things you said in your article "Right Message, Wrong Messenger" really spoke to my heart and prompted this letter to thank you personally.

God bless you as you continue to help those who have questions about traditional SDA beliefs. I'm grateful for your ministry. If earlier this type of information had been made available to me, I would have left Adventism much sooner than I did, for I always had so many unanswered questions all of the years I was in it.

Spokane, WA

 

 

Impugn the whole denomination

I have studied the last several issues, which must be coming from an anonymously donated subscription. I just can't stomach it anymore. I am a Bible teacher in the same conference that Ratzlaff taught Bible in. I get that he found some sort of enlightenment causing him to leave Adventism. How he harmonizes that presumable improvement in his life with his campaign to recruit others to follow him escapes me. It might have something to do with the obviously shoddy standards of research and interpretation that he created for himself. And the company he keeps, and allows onto the pages of this rag—for example, Dennis Palmer, on the back page of the recent anti-Sabbath issue—I mean, come on: the International Date Line? Really? My sophomore geography students are able to grasp the difference between that and the Hebrew word for day, Yom (an evening and a morning.) I was taught sound Biblical rules for hermeneutics, such as the difference between a principle and a standard, and I never fail to instruct my students in these rules. I am certain Ratzlaff and Palmer et al were taught these, but to no avail.

And Palmer comes up with Exodus 35:3 as an example of a principle (kindle no fire). Really? A principle?? How embarrassing for you all! (The principle is Sabbath labor, and providing heat to warm meals has become significantly less laborious in the last 2,500 years). The poor guy gave up the Sabbath partly because he was sick of eating cold sandwiches??? And you are dishonestly propagating the idea that this is the sad plight of the average Adventist. Hey, my father-in-law, a recently retired Adventist pastor, is one of the more conservative Adventists I know, and he never had a qualm about whether Exodus 35:3 was a principle which would prevent him from turning the dial on his stove top!! I know possibly thousands of Adventist families, and maybe one or two of them would ever quibble about such a ridiculous thing. Yet you accept donations to create a glossy mag just to make the whole denomination look guilty of those extreme views. Whatever makes you happy, I guess, is your basic right, along with life and liberty.

So, what happens if you find a lynchpin in Adventism, and the whole thing topples (to your cheers and enrichment) and they all join you? What then? Which is the next denomination to get your attention?

On page 14, column 2 of the same issue, you make one of the baptismal vows say what it doesn't say. That's just dishonest and shoddy journalism. The vow correctly claims that the Fourth Commandment requires the observance of the seventh day of the week. I presume that you agree that the wording of Exodus 20:8-12 does in fact refer to the seventh day. The vow mentions that requirement to clarify an Adventist teaching, that Saturday is the Bible Sabbath, and that Seventh-day Adventists observe the Biblical Sabbath. The vow asks baptismal candidates to state publicly whether or not they have added to their worldviews and life philosophies to "purpose by the power of the indwelling Christ to keep this law."

In other words, "Is it your purpose to keep this law of Christ by the power of Christ?" Is the law important to you, as it was to Christ, who died because of the disobedience and distrust of every son and daughter of Adam and Eve? This is the clear intent of the baptismal vow, with an added detail about the fact that Sabbath observance is part of that law. Your so-called Bible study asserts, "It seems clear that this is a requirement to keep the law."

Well, I'm sorry if that seems clear to you, but not one of my teachers ever taught me this perversion of grace you impute to the denomination, nor have I, in turn, taught it to my own students. For twenty years I've listened to sermons and lessons, but not once have I ever heard it put the way you say. And you consistently impugn the whole denomination, rarely if ever admitting to that in every major denomination the moderate majority are content to have at their margins a few who insist on holding extreme (but marginalized) viewpoints.

Well, I have bigger fish to fry, and you have more vulnerable Adventists to send your glossy rag to, so kindly take the following address off your lists, or else you add to your sins the worst of all: unsolicited junk mailer!

Armona, CA

 

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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