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Paul and Terry Mirra originally met as students at Newbury Park Adventist Academy in Newbury Park, California. They formally left the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 2004. They live in Highland, California, where Paul works as a Supervising Criminalist in Firearms for the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. Terry has a degree in nursing from Loma Linda University but is now a stay-at-home mom involved in the women’s and children’s ministries at Trinity Evangelical Free Church in Redlands, their home church. Their oldest daughter, Megan, is a senior at Long Beach State and is president of the on-campus Christian sorority, Alpha Delta Chi. Amy, 13, and Autumn, 11, are involved with the middle-school and children's ministries and love serving for Jesus!
TERRY MIRRA
Divorce is an ugly word. It evokes images of fighting, legal battles, and dissension of every sort. Divorce is defined as: “total separation; disunion.” While divorce in the marital context is never in God’s plan (except in cases of marital unfaithfulness), there are some circumstances and relationships along life’s path necessitating a divorce—a disunion—in order to walk in harmony with God’s plan for our lives.
hen a person leaves the Seventh-day Adventist Church for the sake of truth, it’s a positive step, but relinquishing denominational allegiance is only the first part of the journey towards gaining freedom in Christ. People raised in an organization riddled with false teaching and scriptural inconsistencies need to process and own the heresy before they can fully comprehend the biblical gospel message. The only way to heal and preserve integrity is to sever completely the relationship with the false religion—a spiritual divorce. Only with time, distance from the warped theology, and immersion in the unadulterated word of God can one attain a proper perspective.
Just as in marital divorce, moreover, there is loss and grieving—but it’s a necessary loss, a growing pain. While it’s especially painful to scrutinize what one once believed was the “truth”, ignoring the implications of those false doctrines merely delays growth and resolution. Close examination and understanding of what one believed shows a person how he has been shaped and impacted over time. Debriefing false teaching is imperative; one cannot accurately evaluate something one hasn’t analyzed. In other words, not knowing what one doesn’t know can hurt a person and hinder one’s growth. Understanding God’s truth requires open scrutiny in order to see error and make a conscious separation from it toward the true gospel (1 Cor. 15:3, 4).
The first step in dealing with a problem is to admit there is a problem. For example, if I’m on the Titanic, I dare not sit and marvel at the engineering genius of a failed system—I must get on a lifeboat. Similarly, without honest admission of denominational heresy, it’s easy to gloss over false doctrines (1 Jn. 4:1). Many rationalize and make excuses for discrepancies, minimizing the errors of the Adventist “gospel”. It takes humility to walk head-on into the necessity of dissecting one’s belief system. It requires vulnerability.
God’s word as our spiritual compass
When a person has been raised in a belief system built on false doctrine, one’s focal point is off-center. This skewed focal point leads to bizarre and even dangerous conclusions. For example, if a ship’s captain relied on a faulty instrument that registered a mere one degree off course, what would result? While the impact might seem insignificant initially, the end result would be devastating! Deceptions that are closest to the truth are often the hardest to discern; people tend to write off the hard-to-see discrepancies as “no big deal”. To be sure, most people can spot a bizarre cult—but what about 99% truth with just a smidgeon of heresy? Consider two identical bowls of punch—identical, that is, except for the single drop of cyanide in one of the bowls. Would it matter which bowl contained the poison when one needed a drink?
It is widely known within the banking community that the best way to spot a counterfeit bill is to know real currency impeccably. While it would be too overwhelming to learn every counterfeit possibility, it’s fairly simple to spot an impostor when a person knows the real deal; if anything is out of alignment, no matter how seemingly inconsequential the detail, the bill is an impostor.
In the same way, it is imperative to know God’s truth. When being off-center has been a person’s “normal”, one’s sense of direction is distorted. When one becomes a believer, however, it is essential to study truth and align with it daily (Ps. 119:133). We may think that we’ve left Adventism behind and have embraced being a “regular Christian”, but unless we unpack the errors that we learned and compare them to Scripture, it is not possible for us to fully embrace truth. This process is much like untangling a wad of Christmas lights that have become impossibly twisted—it’s hard to know where one strand ends and the next one starts. Only by unpacking each doctrine individually can we compare it to what the Bible says or doesn’t say. What we once thought was biblical is often a denominational “extra” mixed in with what the Bible says. This untangling process is important for people examining their Adventism because of the confusion that is the legacy of the Adventist prophetess, Ellen G. White (Heb. 1:1, 2). Many of her “truths” are deceptively mixed in with what the Bible says, and it takes a long time to untangle God’s reality from the destructive heresies introduced by a false prophet (2 Pet. 2:1). As we pursue this untangling process, however, we are less and less likely to turn a blind eye to inconsistencies.
Just as a surgeon spends many years studying and practicing to be able to excise not only a visible tumor but also all invisible disease below the surface, so we must be diligent to study God’s word so we can spot what is “diseased”—a corruption of God’s truth (Ps. 119:15; Ps. 119:78), and excise it all. We may think nothing of spending decades of our lives perfecting our careers, yet we often invest little time pursuing mastery of God’s word—a pursuit yielding eternal value (1 Tim. 4:8).
In physical conditioning, lasting life and dietary changes won’t occur unless we untangle our emotional attachments to our unhealthy habits. Similarly, we can’t completely lose false beliefs without examining our emotional attachments to them and to our Adventist identity. Without in-depth dissection we remain confused, often in subtle but profound ways, about the character and nature of Christ as revealed in His word.
Causes of spiritual compromise
Many people who leave the Adventist organization never fully embrace the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of them discard organizational beliefs, never fully understanding why—they just know they don’t believe them anymore. Others claim to be true evangelical Christians, but they never talk about their previous life as Adventists, stating that they don’t need to dwell on the past; they just want to move forward. The following are a few common reasons people refuse to examine their Adventist upbringing.
Fear
It’s horrifying to realize that the “truth” to which we clung may really be a lie—not just a slight aberration, but a bold-faced lie. It’s tempting to rationalize that our beliefs might have been slightly “off” in a few areas. After all, what’s the big deal if we went to church on Saturday instead of Sunday?
It’s disorienting to learn that our beliefs were “off”, but it’s unnerving to find out that much of what we were taught was in direct contradiction to God’s word. Rather than experience the anger these discoveries bring, many of us want to believe we’ve just “moved on” because we didn’t believe in Ellen White, or because Sabbath-keeping just didn’t fit our lifestyles anymore. We don’t want to admit that Adventism is fatally flawed and that it betrayed us.
The truth is, however, that we cannot separate the organization from its core values and doctrinal roots. When we eliminate all the doctrinal details we deem irrelevant or unimportant, the whole system collapses. Without these components, there is no Seventh-day Adventist Church. We either accept or reject the entire package—Ellen G. White, soul sleep, the investigative judgment, mandatory Sabbath-keeping, the Three Angels’ Messages, the health message—in short, all 28 Fundamental Beliefs. While we might not personally understand every nuance of the Adventist organization, it’s important to understand that it grew out of failed date setting (Matt. 24:36, Acts 1:7) and a disturbed, deceitful woman who was elevated to the status of a prophetess (Matt. 7:15, 16; Deut. 18:21, 22; Heb. 1:1, 2). When we look at the facts, we inevitably conclude that the Seventh-day Adventist organization and God’s church are in direct contradiction with each other in many major doctrinal areas and cannot be reconciled in good conscience (1 Tim. 6:3, 4).
Another facet of the fear we face is the fear of rejection and social isolation. We live in a culture where being politically correct or tolerant is valued over truth. The default presumption in our society is that everyone’s deeply held beliefs are valid, and by definition this tolerance requires us to find the lowest common denominator in our spiritual agreement. Jesus, however, because of His finished work on the cross, claims exclusive rights as our way to salvation (Jn. 14:6). While most religions agree on the Golden Rule, their core doctrines are simply beyond reconciliation with Christianity. On the surface the Adventist faith can seem nearly identical to the evangelical position in many doctrinal areas, but upon close examination, major differences surface, although many Adventists won’t freely admit this fact, even to themselves.
When they begin to realize there are serious disagreements between the Christian faith and Adventism, many Adventists bargain internally by rationalizing that they will remain Adventist in order to work to “change the church from the inside”. While there are exceptions to every rule, this desire to stay inside the Adventist system is often fear or compromise in disguise. There is great fear in facing the unknown or in being “found out” by friends, family, or co-workers. There’s also insecurity in one’s ability to defend the faith (Mk. 13:11, Lk. 12:12). Moreover, compromise is always easier than change. To be openly honest within the system is usually tantamount to social and professional suicide, although the repercussions may appear subtle to those observing from the outside (Jn. 15:21). A blatant turning away from Adventist doctrines is usually viewed as leaving “the truth” and defecting to “the other side”.
Embracing and facing our fear should force us to take a stand. Compromise is never a solution, only a delay tactic. When it comes to the true gospel of Christ, there cannot be compromise. Too often we rationalize our actions when we may, in fact, be acting cowardly and avoiding confrontation. To remain silent, to ignore or downplay blatant heresy just to remain cordial or to maintain a relationship for one’s personal gain, is to deny Christ and His finished work on the cross. There is no neutral position; for the transitioning Adventist, to remain silent is to support Adventism. Taking a stand means creating ripples—opposition against which one may have to defend oneself.
Pride
This is a hard thing to release when leaving the Adventist faith. It’s one of the most powerful driving forces of our sinful human nature. It’s what led to Satan’s fall (Is. 14:14, 15; Ezek. 28:13-19). Pride in her ability to obtain wisdom (and know what God knows) was what enticed Eve to take the apple in The Garden of Eden (Gen. 3:5, 6). Anything that moves the focus from Jesus and onto us is deception and is motivated by pride.
The Sabbath and the dietary laws are two distinct doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventists that are performance-based. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with worshiping on any day of the week or with observing good dietary practices, the pride associated with Adventists’ pursuit of these requirements is unbiblical and self-serving. In Adventism, Sabbath-keeping is the sign that ultimately separates the saved from the lost, and healthful living is a multi-faceted practice that prolongs life, allows the Adventist to hear the Holy Spirit with better clarity, and avoids stimulating one’s “animal passions”.
Moreover, these two activities are given disproportional importance over the finished work of Christ on the cross (which really isn’t finished according to the Adventist doctrine of the investigative judgment). To assign any measure of righteousness to works such as these, however, is prideful and heretical (Rom. 11:6). Pride, along with fear, are two of the biggest reasons people won’t leave the Adventist faith. Once a person has left Adventism, it’s a huge step to let go of the pride that’s been fostered since birth. Adventism teaches that it is the only true religion, and its members are God’s chosen remnant who keep the commandments of God, specifically the fourth (Rev. 12:17). Using the passage in Rev. 19:10, they say that “the testimony about Jesus” (also known as the “spirit of prophecy”) is the mark of the remnant, or true church, which finds its fulfillment in its co-founder Ellen G. White. Letting go of the “chosen people” identity requires a humility and dependency that only God can bring about.
We believed the lie, hook, line, and sinker. Gnostic beliefs (special revelations) are popular and attractive because of our sinful and prideful nature—we all want to believe we’re extra-special and have special insight into something unique and exciting that only we know about. The biblical principle that we’re all a part of the larger body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27) commissioned to serve people by bringing the gospel (not the Three Angels’ Messages) to the whole earth (Matt. 28:19, 20) is antithetical to what we’ve believed growing up in the Adventist organization. The realization of who we really are (prior to accepting Christ)—hopeless sinners in desperate need of a Savior—is sobering. We’re not special because of the day we go to church, nor are we special because of the food we put into (or don’t put into) our bodies (Matt. 15:17-19).
All of a sudden we’re just ordinary people in need of an extraordinary Savior. It’s not about us! Relinquishing the pride requires hard soul-searching and examination of our motives. It can be a very difficult task, perhaps even triggering a grieving process of sorts. Losing our Adventist pride is a loss. We have to ask ourselves if we seek truth and integrity, or if it is more important to us that we be right, special, politically correct—or even just comfortable?
Another form of pride, although more subtle, is believing we’re “above” needing to deprogram our false belief system. We’re all human and are, at least partially, products of our experiences in life. While God can and does redeem anything we’ve experienced, He doesn’t always spare us from, nor allow us to fast-forward through, the hard things that we need to process. It is often in the low times and in the dark and humble places where He does His greatest work in our lives. In these times we’re the most vulnerable and pliable in His hands. He asks us to submit even our beliefs and our worldview to Him and to allow Him to cleanse us from spiritual and intellectual pride. It’s all part of His plan and His work in us.
Apathy
This hits everyone on some level. The reality is that it’s hard work and it takes diligence to be ready at all times in the fight for the cause of Christ. Submitting to Jesus is an active pursuit, not a passive one. As stated before, the first step is to admit the problem and un-do, piece by piece, the entanglement of the faulty belief system. The next step is actively to replace false teaching with God’s Word and His truth. If the heresy isn’t replaced with grounding in biblical truth, it leaves us exposed to be mentally and spiritually deceived (Eph. 4:14). There is a much higher probability we’ll be misled and enticed by another false concept or doctrine. Scripture reveals True North; if we do not immerse ourselves in God’s word, True North is blurry, and we remain off course. Because Adventists teach that those outside their denomination are evil at worst or uninformed at best, we need to hear the real gospel and meet the Lord Jesus to dispel false teachings and to replace the old rhetoric with healthy biblical truths about His forgiveness, grace, and salvation. It’s important to obtain correct grounding to give us the only real point of reference for life—the Word of God.
It’s so easy to become side-tracked and apathetic in our study of God’s Word and the pursuit of His truth. Our culture equates sincerity with truth, encouraging people to latch on to whatever doctrine or system tickles their ears—if they’re sincere enough, then that’s all that matters (2 Tim. 4:3). In a tolerance-driven climate such as the one in which we now live, we can be labeled intolerant simply by supporting an unpopular viewpoint, even if we do so respectfully. This phenomenon is largely due to the widespread belief that truth is unknowable and thus not worth argument. If truth doesn’t matter, we can believe whatever we want. All views can be accepted, because no view describes anything real. By crying, “We cannot know truth”, we’re in effect dodging personal responsibility. If we don’t know what’s required of us, how can we be held accountable for it? It’s easy to become weary and to succumb to an attitude of, “Why bother? Is it really that important?” Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”.
Learning the truth in God’s word is never in vain, and His word never returns void (Is. 55:11). John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (emphasis added), and the Word is the author of the word.
His word is always True North and will never fail us (Ps. 119:105). He reminds us what and Who Truth is (Jn. 14:6). He tells us to not be afraid—if He is with us, who can be against us (Rom. 8:31)? He warns us about pride (Prov. 16:18) and tells us to be humble (Lk. 18:14), servants for His kingdom—everything contrary to what our culture and human nature tells us to be.
Most of all, we’re to trust in Him, and in Him alone (Prov. 3:5; Ps. 118:8). As we shed the false teachings and fill our minds and hearts with God’s word, the pride and fear fade away, and God’s peace takes its place (Jn. 14:27). When we fully realize who we are in Christ and His finished work on the cross, all else pales in comparison (Col. 3:3, 4). Jesus and the gospel, in all their simplicity, take center stage and command our full attention. God will never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5, 6), and we can count on His promises (Josh. 23:14). †
Copyright 2013 Life Assurance Ministries, Inc., Casa Grande, Arizona, USA. All rights reserved. Revised April 3, 2013. Contact email: proclamation@gmail.com
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VOLUME 14, ISSUE 1