HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2011 / APRIL MAY JUNE / LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

April May June 2011
VOLUME 12, ISSUE 2

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D E P A R T M E N T S

LETTERS to the Editor

 

Didn’t know

I really enjoyed the last edition of Proclamation! I didn't realize the Adventists’ view of the resurrection...wow.

Glide, OR

 

Ben and Delina McPhaull’s story

I really enjoyed that article. It was moving and powerful and a blessing to me. I wish [Ben and Delina] the best, and I know that God will continue to lead them into all truth, even if it's a truth they never expected. 

I am an Adventist, not because I believe everything but because, as I have studied other denominations, Adventists are closest to biblical truths. However, God is awesome, and He meets us where he knows he will be most likely to get our attention. Sometimes that attention comes in ways that are different from what we could have imagined or expected. As the Bible says, We will find Him, if we search for Him with all our heart. 

Again, thanks for the article. It is certainly thought provoking.

via email

 

On Lucifer’s path

Please remove me from your mailing list. While your magazine is well put together, the arguments presented always fall well short of presenting new light. Usually just a variation or rehash of the same arguments the Catholic church used when it transferred the sacredness of Saturday to Sunday, or even worse, the argument of if everyone else is doing it, maybe I should too.

As for your Easter articles, the disciples preached the importance of the resurrection, not the worship of it. It's always difficult for people to turn their backs on that which they know to be true, and so we look for the assurance that we are right in our ability to convince others to follow our thinking. Really the same path Lucifer took all those years ago.

Spangle, WA

 

Editor of Adventist Today magazine asks, “Am I working for God or for the devil?”

I have just read the report of the “sixth annual former Adventist conference the best ever.”  And I rejoiced when I saw that several people gave their lives to God at those meetings. I always rejoice when people come into a saving relationship with Jesus.

However, as I read your magazine I get the impression that you think there is nothing good in the Adventist Church, that grace is not to be found there, and people cannot be saved there and continue in a saving relationship with Jesus there.

I am reminded of what Jesus said to the disciples when they came to him and said, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him because he is not one of us” (Lk. 9:49).  And Jesus replied “Do not stop him. For whoever is not against you is for you” (v. 50).

It seems to me that you have a decision to make about the Adventist church which you have never clearly set out. Is it for Jesus or against Jesus?  Is it of God or of the Devil? There is no third option.  Jesus said “He who is not with me is against me” (Matthew 12:30).  To put it  bluntly:  Am I working for God or for the Devil?

I can testify of changed lives in my congregation. I can testify that grace and the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, lived, and practiced at New Hope Adventist Church. Doctrine does not save us. Jesus does. Doctrines are humans’ imperfect way of trying to understand God. There will never be perfect doctrine. So I would like to know from your perspective who I am working for.

J. David Newman, Adventist pastor; Editor, Adventist Today magazine

Fulton, MD

 

Editor’s response: I cannot determine for whom you are working; that evaluation belongs to the Lord Jesus. I do know Jesus’ words declare to me: “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day” (Jn. 12:48).

All born-again believers are called “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Proclamation! is not here to judge the eternal destinies of individuals. Rather, we exist to contend for the true gospel and to show those we love how biblical reality differs from the Adventist “great controversy” worldview. Professions of changed lives do not qualify as proof of an organization’s biblical legitimacy. Mormons, for example, have similar stories. Only being spiritually made alive, born again by the Spirit of God, qualifies a person to see and enter into the kingdom of God (Jn. 3:4-6).

I believe that once we have realized our helpless sinfulness and repented before God, accepting the blood of Jesus as the eternal sacrifice for all our sin and have been born of the Spirit, He will not let us rest until we face the ways we live deceptively, rationalizing to retain what feels familiar. Allowing Him to remove my Adventist identity was terrifying and humiliating; trusting Him alone to be my identity, my provider, my healer, and my security has surprised me with mental peace, contentment, meaning, and love.

I do not have to decide for whom you work. In a post-modern world, Scripture still stands as God’s revelation to us, and Jesus is His final word (Heb. 1:1-3). God’s word judges us all.

 

Amazing work

I eagerly devour each copy of Proclamation! when it comes to my office. I am not a former Adventist, having rather grown up in a mainline Protestant denomination in the 60's. I find, however, many, many remnant traces in my own experience of a legalistic “grace + something” perspective that developed in much of mainline protestantism…when the mainline churches lost hold of (in large part) a properly focused understanding of the true significance of Jesus' atoning death, burial and resurrection. Your magazine helps me identify—so that I can deal with—that latent legalism in my own perspective.  Keep up the amazing work!

Concord, NC

 

Status

Please remove my name from your list. We enjoy being God’s Chosen People.

Alma, AR

 

Talbot article helpful to me

I went to Adventist schools since my senior year of academy, and later I graduated from Loma Linda University School of Dentistry. Now I am retired from my professional career and continue to study my Bible daily.

The latest edition of Proclamation! with “Why Seventh-day Adventism is Not Evangelical”, part three [by Louis Talbot], is very effective for exposing the wrong doctrines of Adventism.

I appreciate the many good works which the Seventh-day Adventist people do, but their belief based on their church doctrines is not correct. That is the reason I do not associate with their institutions or churches.

Your magazine is really helpful and beneficial to my Bible study and daily devotions. God bless you continuously.

Redlands, CA

 

Important and unenviable

You are in an important, unenviable ministry. I'm sure it's often a thankless job filled with haters and fiery arrows from the devil himself. Thank you for all that you do in spite of it all. I pray that in the coming months and years you continue to be blessed by your front row seat watching captives set free.

Cleburne, TX

 

Praying for God’s strength

Thanks for the back issues of Proclamation! This is such an encouragement, and the historical context around the QOD and Martin/Barnhouse is so useful. Praying that God will lead and bless you, your work and the ministry of LAM in strengthening those of us who are "detoxifying" after Adventism.

via email

 

No love or concern

I have read myriads of “anti-SDA” literature, and all of it is more of the same, just like Ratzlaff's allegations. What I visibly noticed about these former Adventist pastors who now are bent on destroying the church is they only concentrate on the negative side of the coin, but have never once mentioned the many spiritual/godly admonitions of Ellen G. White, etc. They never mention to the readers all the good things the church is doing the world over, how they help people quit smoking, how for 100 years now the church has been helping the blind, how they encourage their members to become not only spiritually healthy but also physically healthy by eating more veggies and fruits and eating meat sparingly. These are only a few of the good things I can mention that the SDA church does for its members and for the world.

Surely you can find something true, noble, right, lovely and admirable about the SDA church, right?

Accokeek, MD

 

Uplifting and Christ-centered

We simply can’t put into words how much we look forward to every issue of Proclamation! It is one of the most uplifting, faith-and-Christ-centered magazines ever. It always points us to Christ in a wonderful, refreshing way and cements us more firmly in Christ, who is our Life.

Keep up the Christ-centered work you are doing, and we will do all we can to support you.

We just finished the latest magazine; [the magazines] are always so good that we can’t choose a favorite article!

San Manuel, AZ †

 

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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

Send letters to the editor to:

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

Or email editor: proclamation@gmail.com

Is it of God or of the Devil? There is no third option.  Jesus said “He who is not with me is against me” .  To put it  bluntly:  Am I working for God or for the Devil?

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