HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2008 / MAY/JUNE / LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

MAY / JUNE 2008
VOLUME 9, ISSUE 3

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D E P A R T M E N T S

LETTERS to the Editor

 

Ratzlaff on the atonement

I just finished reading your article on the Atonement in Proclamation! Very well done! Thanks for the careful exegesis and clear exposition. I know you'll get the usual brickbats from the "true believers", but someone out there needed to read exactly what you wrote.

Corinth, TX

 

Truly set free

It's been a year ago since we exchanged e-mails. I have done much searching of the Bible, and God has used Proclamation! and my pastor to explain so many things about the Sabbath and other issues. He did several weeks of sermons over Galatians (comparing it with other books of the Bible). I never told him I was raised an Adventist, so it was definitely a "God thing".

I also just recently ordered [several books], and I am truly set free as of two days ago after reading White Washed [by Sydney Cleveland] and Discovering the New Covenant [by Greg Taylor]. I was 90% convinced before that, but I still did not feel 100% sure until I read those two books. When I SAW the discrepancies in [Ellen White's] writings versus what the Bible actually said and understood the whole mess with 1844 and her other prophecies, I no longer have any doubt at all that she is a false prophet used by Satan.

My family are all Adventists, and right now there is NO way to talk to them about it, but I am praying for the Holy Spirit to open their hearts and minds to the truth....

I felt that God wasn't leading me to stay in that church…I never saw love or compassion or felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, but my family kept making me feel so guilty that it was hard to break away. I got down on my knees and cried and cried and begged God to lead me back to the Adventist church so my family could go to heaven, but instead He showed me the real truth.

You had sent my sister, who lived with us for a while, a copy of Proclamation! I couldn't give it to her because she wasn't living there anymore, so I looked at it. I saw what it was and decided immediately to toss the lying thing in the trash when God told me, "No, you need to read it." So I did…I read every article, and some I read twice. (I know my getting it was no accident). That's when I started questioning everything. God has used you and my pastor to give me my freedom in Christ. I'm forever grateful.

I am thankful for you and all of your loving work. I would also like to be put on the mailing list for Proclamation! It's easier for me to understand what I'm reading when I actually have it in my hands…I know it has to be hard when you hear from those who call you liars and tell you to take them off of your mailing list and say mean things. But I am one that now knows that you speak the truth, and the truth has set me free. So much love and gratitude!!

South Haven, KS

 

See you when you burn

You keep this Proclamation! rubbish away from me. I don't want no Sunday believers around me. You people are under the devil himself. Goodbye—good riddance—and I'll see you when you burn. Bye.

Voicemail message

 

Obelisk on White grave

In the 30 years of being an Adventist and over the past 20 years of being a Christian I have heard many theological discussions about Adventist doctrine. However, I have never heard anyone question why this prophetess of God, Ellen G. White, has an obelisk on her gravesite.

I can know what clothes to wear, what to eat, why not to ride a bicycle, the perils of Sunday worship, etc. But where, exactly is the "lesser light" on this subject [of the obelisk]?

Another great Proclamation! Praise God He chose us through the Son to reveal Himself to us by His Holy Spirit instead of by a religion of "the books".

Snohomish, WA

 

Peace I always wanted

In "What is the Meaning of the Cross?" Dale Ratzlaff illuminated several errors with SDA theology in one significant article. The truths concerning the nature of Christ, the completion of the atonement at the cross, the gift of justification by His grace apart from law, the scapegoat representation of Christ our sin bearer and many other salient points were properly presented. I also appreciated his interpretation of Rom 5:18-19 "…the many will be made righteous."

Your articles are such a blessing to all of those who enter a period of crisis when discovering major problems within their "remnant" church. What a reassurance it is to know that one is not alone in what they are discovering in God's word. Your magazine has helped to clarify difficult topics of study, validate my personal findings, and bring comfort in my journey out of Adventism. The peace that I now experience every day is what I have always wanted but could somehow never attain before discovering the errors in my belief system.

This is to thank you for being patient with me and sending me your thought-provoking magazine even though as of now you have received nothing in return. This will soon be rectified. Please keep the information out there and available for others to find. With hearts open to the Holy Spirit and the correct information in hand, lives are changed.

Calhoun, GA

 

Before it's too late

The devil is a deceiver - Rev. l2:9. You are deceived by him but there is still hope for you. Please yield yourself completely to Jesus, and by His power, recover yourself out of Satan's snare—ll Timothy 2:26—so it can be said of you, "Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" (Zechariah 3:2) before IT'S TOO LATE!

Via email

 

Back to Bible Study

Thank you so much for your magazine. It has led me back to studying what the Bible has to say. I left the SDA church and joined a wonderful local Christian church but still believed many of the teachings I had learned were truly "biblical." I had learned all the texts in school. I am now learning new info and love it. I was wondering if you could write an article on the state of the dead.

Via email

 

Editor's Response: We plan to address the human spirit in the next issue of Proclamation!

 

Live like the heathen

"All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12).

I have read enough of your publication Proclamation! to know no one in your following wants to suffer in any way and therefore they are willing to turn the truth around in such a way to fit their own "itching ears" and allow them to live and do as they please.

This is just a way, an excuse to wear the makeup and jewelry they've always wanted to wear, to dress casually when preaching, and most of all to do as they please on the Sabbath. Just like the Israelites who got tired of following the dictates of God and chose to be like and live like the heathen around them. How sad!

All I can do is feel sorrow for each of you and pray you have not shut out the leading of the Holy Spirit to the point of no return, At this point you are all headed down the wrong road.

With that said, please take us off your mailing list. We don't appreciate receiving a magazine that so obviously twists the Truth.

Praying you'll see the light,

Wolf Point, MT

 

No interest at all

Please take me off your mailing list. I have no interest at all in your Proclamation! magazine. You seem to be very confused and contradictory in the way you choose to interpret God's holy word (The Bible). May God lead you into "all truth".

You have a wrong spirit in you. I am praying that you stop hating the truth as it is in God's word.

Woodruff, WI

 

Why Desmond Ford?

Why did you publish an article by Desmond Ford (see January/February, 2008) when he is still a sabbatarian? I've had several Adventists ask me why I won't keep the Sabbath when Proclamation! is publishing the work of a sabbatarian.

 

Editor's response: We published Des Ford's article on the faulty hermeneutics that gave rise to the doctrine of the investigative judgment because he knows the doctrine intimately and is also expert in the original biblical languages. His research is detailed, and he can explain definitively why the doctrine is not biblical. The fact that he remains a sabbatarian does not diminish his scholarship.

Further, Romans 14 states that we must not divide fellowship with true brothers and sisters in Christ over the observance of a day. Des does not believe the Sabbath is the seal of God (or even the "sign of the seal"), and his sabbatarianism is a matter for his own conscience.

We at Proclamation!, however, do believe that most of us who have kept the Sabbath because we believed it was God's requirement for those who will be saved must come to the place of trusting the Lord Jesus alone for our salvation. If we confess Jesus as our Lord but hedge our bets by clinging to the Sabbath, we never know for sure whether Jesus alone is enough. Clinging to the Sabbath out of deep fear that giving it up could cost us eternal life is to treat the Sabbath as a holy object—an idol. God asks us to surrender to Him everything outside of Himself that holds a hallowed place in our hearts. He alone is holy.

 

Wondering if you'll kill me

Just wondering if your group is familiar with the Great Controversy. If those events take place, will that impact your beliefs at all—for example, a Catholic oriented one-world government requiring Sunday worship? Just wondering if you'll be trying to kill me if I decide to keep the Sabbath.

Cheers!

Via email

 

Thank you, Dale

As a former teacher [at two Adventist colleges] for 13 years, my gifts were not in the theological arena per se. Having two brothers still deeply entrenched in Adventism and knowing nobody in the church had the burden on their heart for their salvation as I did, God laid it upon my heart to try and reach them with the gospel as you said. We have been corresponding almost weekly now for two years, and God has given me the boldness and knowledge of His truth I have never known before to show them that the "Narrow Road" labeled Heaven will not be there for those who desire both EGW and Jesus to lead them.

First of all, I want to thank you, Dale, and Carolyn and the Tinkers (and all others in Proclamation! ministry), for your love and ministry to us former Adventists who, in the beginning, had no forum or voice to turn to. I also want you to know we are all praying for your health and strength to remain faithful to His call to spread the GREAT NEWS of His gospel! Your spiritual strength will last forever while the physical is ever so temporary for all of us.

You are an inspiration and blessing to all of us!

Hudson, WI

 

You will not be saved

I am requesting urgently, that you immediately—I mean immediately—take me off your mailing list. I'm not sure what made you think that I would want this paper that is coming to my home. The disdain I feel every time this trash comes to our mailbox—take it away now, please. I don't need this. This is something that is very displeasing to me. If you continue sending me this I will send it back at your expense. Do you get the picture? Why did you think a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, an Adventist teacher, would want this? I read the first article in the first order I received and asked my husband where this comes from. You do realize you will not be saved—because you know the truth. I do repeat, do not send me one more because you are wasting your time and money.

Via email

 

Demon-possessed first-day Christians

Your theology is shot through with errors, but rest easy; you will not be exposed until the final crisis is upon us. A case in point: the hatred of Jesus by the Jewish leaders really didn't gain exposure until Jesus was arrested and brought to trial. Then it all came out…

The Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians and Catholics had a shot at enforcing their Sunday law in my home-town a few years ago, and we were plunged into a witch-hunt that looked like we were living in 14th century Europe. They arrested women having garage sales on Sunday, children mowing lawns, sales clerks, and you name it. All in the name of Sunday-sacredness spearheaded by first day Christian that didn't know the first thing about "grace" much less Christian charity and fairness. I don't have time to share with you how we got it stopped.

You think being in bed with first day Christians is all peaches and cream, but you're gonna find out they are demon-possessed when given half a chance to enforce their false theology with the power of the state.…Everything the Spirit of Prophecy said would happen is happening right in front of our eyes. How blind and stupid can someone be not to see it. Sleep on, dear friend, and it's going to overtake you like a thief in the night.

Just thought you ought to know.

South Central, KY

 

Value Quality

You are to be thanked and put on notice [that] the laity does read the inserts [included with the receipts] and, most of all, the Proclamation! publication. The value and quality of your writings is greatly appreciated…Thank you for your care.

Palos Verdes Peninsula, 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