HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2014 / WINTER / FAITH STORY BY ROLAANT MCKENZIE
I was born and raised in a Seventh-day Adventist home. My father was an educator who served as principal of an Adventist academy in California and as president of Adventist colleges and universities in several countries in Africa. My mother served as a nurse for many years at an Adventist hospital in Los Angeles. Because my grandmother on my father’s side had converted, I could claim that I was a third generation Adventist.
I was baptized into the Adventist Church when I was 11. I remember standing before the congregation with another man in baptismal robes expressing agreement with a list of vows presented by the pastor. Among them were the following:
6. Do you accept the Ten Commandments as still binding upon Christians, and is it your purpose, by the power of the indwelling Christ, to keep this law, including the fourth commandment, which requires the observance of the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath of the Lord?
8. Do you accept the Biblical teaching of spiritual gifts, and do you believe that the gift of prophecy in the remnant church is one of the identifying marks of that church?
9. Do you believe in God’s Remnant Church, and is it your purpose to support the church by your tithes and offerings, your personal effort, and influence?
11. Knowing and understanding the fundamental Bible principles as taught by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is it your purpose, by the grace of God, to order your life in harmony with these principles?
13. Do you believe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the remnant church of Bible prophecy, Rev. 12:17, and that people of every nation, race, and language are invited and accepted into its fellowship? Do you desire to be a member of this local congregation of the world church?
At the time I did not perceive anything wrong with this list of vows, including the five in particular quoted above. I knew nothing but Adventism and was really unaware of anything else with which to compare it. I was taught that what we had—the Sabbath, our distinctive teaching on the Sanctuary, Ellen White’s “inspired” writings, and so forth—was “the truth”. It certainly did not occur to me for some years that I should test those teachings by the Bible alone without help from the “little red books” by Ellen White.
Unease
I attended Adventist schools exclusively from kindergarten through college. I attended Loma Linda University (La Sierra Campus) in Riverside, California, where I graduated with a theology degree. After that, I served a term in South Korea as an English teacher at one of the many Adventist English language schools in that country.
I was quite immersed in the beliefs and culture of Seventh-day Adventism. In fact, it was my whole life, and in some ways it was easy to be comfortable in there, and all my immediate family and friends were a part of it.
Uneasiness grows
Yet concurrently, there was an underlying uneasiness deep within that was with me much of my life. As an Adventist I was never sure I would make it to heaven. In fact, I never felt good or worthy enough to be allowed into God’s kingdom. I knew myself well enough to know that there was more than ample sin in my life to sink me. If, as I had been taught, I forgot to confess a sin I had committed, I was doomed. Furthermore, if I were to be alive during the time of trouble described in Ellen White’s book The Great Controversy, I had no hope that I would be able to stand sinless before a holy God without the benefit of Jesus being my Mediator (p. 425). I did not understand at the time that the Bible taught something completely different and better. Hebrews 7:23-25 says:
The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.
If someone were to ask me if I believed I was going to heaven, I would have said that I hoped I would make it, but I really had my doubts. I used to pray to God asking Him to burn me quickly if I didn’t make it! The reason I thought this way is that Seventh-day Adventism teaches that the unsaved are eventually annihilated in the lake of fire and will cease to exist, rather than believing the Biblical teaching that the lost suffer eternal punishment (Mt. 25:41-46; Mk. 9:43-48; Rev. 14:9-11). I lived under the assumption that I would likely be lost because I would never reach a state where I would be able to keep all the commandments of God or the rules of Ellen White perfectly. I knew my frailties all too well.
Discoveries in Special Collections
While I was attending Loma Linda University (LLU) pursuing a theology degree, I worked at the university library in the Special Collections department, or the “Ellen White Room”. It was the mid-1980s, and the controversies surrounding Desmond Ford and Walter Rea were creating waves throughout Adventism.
Ford, while expressing his admiration of Ellen White and her ministry, nevertheless disagreed with the investigative judgment doctrine that she endorsed. He wrote a nearly one thousand page treatise presenting his Biblical presentation of Jesus’ atonement and judgment versus the investigative judgment. Also during that time, Rea, an Adventist pastor for several decades and a devotee of Ellen White, discovered in his research that she copied (or plagiarized) much of her writing from other authors, some of whom were her contemporaries while others pre-dated her. All the while, she claimed her words were inspired by God, and she denied copying from others. Both men in time were relieved of their employment and of their ministerial credentials in the Adventist organization.
These events had a significant impact on me in that they encouraged me to do my own research into these matters. In retrospect, it was God’s providence that these historic upheavals happened while I was working in the “Ellen White Room”, particularly in the room at the LLU library on the La Sierra campus. To my knowledge, no other “Ellen White Rooms” at Adventist colleges or universities contained the breadth of material found at LLU. There I had access to the latest editions of Ellen White’s writings and to earlier editions of those same writings, to apologetics by those who defended her prophetic role as well as to critiques by those who did not believe in it, and to the writings of those from whom she copied. This unique situation provided an excellent opportunity for me to discover the truth.
Stunned
I was stunned at what I discovered. For example, I found in an earlier edition of Spiritual Gifts dated 1864 that Ellen White stated the Tower of Babel was built before the flood rather than after it, as the Bible says:
The Lord first established the system of sacrificial offerings with Adam after his fall, which he taught to his descendants. This system was corrupted before the flood by those who separated themselves from the faithful followers of God, and engaged in the building of the Tower of Babel (Spiritual Gifts, vol. 3, p. 301, 1864 edition).
This mistake was later expunged from the 1870 edition of Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 266.
I also found an example of a false prophecy in Early Writings, p.75-76:
Then I was pointed to some who are in the great error of believing that it is their duty to go to Old Jerusalem, and think they have a work to do there before the Lord comes. Such a view is calculated to take the mind and interest from the present work of the Lord, under the message of the third angel; for those who think that they are yet to go to Jerusalem will have their minds there, and their means will be withheld from the cause of present truth to get themselves and others there. I saw that such a mission would accomplish no real good, that it would take a long while to make a very few of the Jews believe even in the first advent of Christ, much more to believe in His second advent. I saw that Satan had greatly deceived some in this thing and that souls all around them in this land could be helped by them and led to keep the commandments of God, but they were leaving them to perish. I also saw that Old Jerusalem never would be built up; and that Satan was doing his utmost to lead the minds of the children of the Lord into these things now, in the gathering time, to keep them from throwing their whole interest into the present work of the Lord, and to cause them to neglect the necessary preparation for the day of the Lord.
Another example of a false prophecy occurred just over 158 years ago. Mrs. White declared, during an 1856 meeting in Battle Creek, Michigan—purportedly based on a vision from an angel from God—that some of those present at the meeting would die, some of them would live to experience the seven last plagues, while still others would be alive at Jesus’ return:
“I was shown the company present at the Conference. Said the angel: “Some food for worms, some subjects of the seven last plagues, some will be alive and remain upon the earth to be translated at the coming of Jesus” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, pp. 131-132).
One can travel to Jerusalem today and see a large, very built-up city of nearly one million people. Furthermore, there are no Adventists today that can be found who were at the 1856 conference meeting. These were only a few of a number of examples I found that certainly qualify as false prophecies subject to the condemnation of Deuteronomy 18:20-22.
Doctrinal discrepancies
The investigative judgment is a key distinctive doctrine of Seventh-day Adventism largely because it was endorsed by Ellen White’s claimed revelation. According to this doctrine, beginning on October 22, 1844 (not at His ascension), Christ entered the Holy of Holies in heaven (The Great Controversy, p. 362-373). It maintains that Christ transferred the record of believer’s sins to the heavenly sanctuary where sins that have been specifically confessed will be cleansed at the conclusion of the investigative judgment, Adventism’s day of atonement. On that day, unconfessed sins are not cleansed and remain to condemn the believer.
Ellen White said:
The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant sinner from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin. It would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 357).
For the Adventist who holds to this “central pillar” of Seventh-day Adventism, sins are not cancelled or forgiven yet; moreover, those sins forgotten and remaining unconfessed stand against the believer. It is little wonder so many Adventists have no genuine assurance of salvation until this supposed investigative judgment is finished. This doctrine certainly played a key role in my own lack of salvation assurance.
Apart from a gracious miracle of God, the Adventist Church cannot abandon this doctrine on Biblical grounds because it would mean destroying Ellen White’s prophetic status. Moreover, it would mean that her writings could no longer be used as an inspired, infallible interpreter of Scripture. The theological foundation of Seventh-day Adventism and its exclusive claims would collapse.
Thank God, His word provides a different and greater testimony:
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption (Heb. 9:11-12).
Jesus, through His own blood, entered in (past tense) once for all (not in 1844) into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for those who trust in Him. Other passages of Scripture that caused me to reject the investigative judgment include:
Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit (Jn. 19:30).
Christ’s atonement was final and complete. The word translated “finished” in the text is the Greek word tetelestai—a word that means “paid in full.” On the cross Christ paid the full penalty for our sins. It was not a partial payment needing 1844 to come along to continue it.
He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (Jn. 3:18).
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life (Jn. 5:24).
Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness” (2 Tim. 2:19).
I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, (Jn.10:14).
If the Lord already knew His own when these passages were written in the first century A.D., why was there a need to investigate believers starting in 1844? To vindicate God in the eyes of His creation? Not likely, since God’s thoughts are higher than His creation. He does as He pleases and is not answerable to His creation (Is. 55:8; Ps. 115:3; Job 38-42).
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn. 1:9).
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high (Heb. 1:3).
The cleansing of sins was done at the cross, and Jesus ascended to the holiest place in the universe—the right hand of His Father in heaven. He sat down, indicating the atonement was done, not something to be continued centuries later when 1844 arrived.
And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach (Col. 1:21-22).
When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross (Col. 2:13-14).
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation (Rom. 5:8-11).
Hebrews 4:13, moreover, exposes the Adventist limitation on Christ’s omniscience—a limitation which allows Adventists to be untroubled by the idea that God has to investigate His people:
And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Since Jesus knows all cases already, why must He investigate?
Sin-Bearer
A related Adventist doctrine is that Satan, not Jesus, is the scapegoat for sinners who will be saved. Ellen White says in The Great Controversy, p. 422:
When Ch-rist, by virtue of His own blood, removes the sins of His people from the heavenly sanctuary at the close of His ministration, He will place them upon Satan, who, in the execution of the judgment, must bear the final penalty.
Satan, according to Adventists, becomes the scapegoat of Leviticus 16. This lack of clear distinction between the forgiveness of sins at salvation and the blotting out of sins at some time in the future makes it impossible for anyone to know, even at death, whether he is saved or not—in spite of God’s assurance in Isaiah 44:22, to say nothing of His new covenant statements of security throughout the New Testament. This convoluted doctrine destroys true assurance of salvation for Adventists who hold to this teaching of Satan-as-scapegoat and to the investigative judgment. Having the sins of the saved laid on Satan assigns to Satan an indispensable role in the blotting out of sins. This teaching nullifies the all-sufficiency of the finished work of Christ.
Implications
As my study progressed, I found numerous examples where Ellen White made false predictions, contradicted the Bible, added to the Scriptures, and contradicted herself. I was compelled to come to the conclusion that Ellen White was a false prophetess whose writings were not truly a “continuing and authoritative source of truth.”
This realization had some significant ramifications for me. I was pursuing a theological degree with the prospect of entering ministry work in the Adventist Church. I could have continued on in that work and simply ignored what I discovered, promoting Adventist teachings I knew were not Biblical. But I could not live such a dishonest life. I could have tried to work within the system, but eventually I knew that I would be compelled to leave and lose my livelihood.
What I decided to do was to complete my degree program and go into another field of work; I chose to pursue a career in information science. My “compromise” was never to use Ellen White’s writings as a support for anything, but to use just the Bible. I did not yet understand the Biblical gospel, so I remained an Adventist.
After serving the Adventist Church as an English teacher in South Korea for a year, I returned home to attend the University of Michigan to pursue a graduate degree in information science. At that time the Internet was just becoming a popular tool for communication and sharing information with people virtually anywhere in the world. I joined a few Adventist online discussion forums since theological discussion, and most importantly Biblical truth, was still of great interest to me.
I asked a lot of questions and participated in many discussions. It was beneficial to me also to be in discussion with non-Adventists in the online forums. Their understanding of Scripture encouraged me to be a Berean and to search the Bible for myself apart from the filter of Ellen White’s writings. Although I still did not yet understand the Biblical gospel, I nevertheless sought to reconcile what I read online with what Scripture taught. To my growing dismay, I was finding that, more and more, I could not reconcile Adventist teachings such as the Sabbath being the seal of God, the investigative judgment, or the incomplete atonement with what I was reading in Scripture.
Around this time I became familiar with someone in one of the Adventist forums in which I participated. Her name was Janet, and she was as ardent an apologist for Ellen White and Adventism as I had ever seen or heard. Often I would see her postings online in both Adventist and Christian forums zealously promoting Adventist teachings. I considered her like a Saul of Tarsus for Adventism (without the persecution). After some time had gone by, however, I noticed her online messages were beginning to change. They were becoming more questioning of certain “pillar” Adventist doctrines such as obligatory Sabbath day observance for salvation at the end times and the investigative judgment. I was taken aback. I certainly had some questions of my own, but I did not expect someone like Janet to question those doctrines. I decided, therefore, to contact her privately online to ask what had happened to cause her to question what she had been so certain in promoting before. The conversation that began there would eventually have a profound effect on my life and would lead me, eventually, to understand and believe the Biblical gospel unto salvation.
Janet shared with me her attempts to find support from the Bible alone for doctrines including the investigative judgment and obligatory Sabbath day observance. To her surprise she could not. As she dug deeper, she also discovered that Ellen White could not pass the Biblical tests for a true prophet. At the time I was corresponding with Janet, I already realized the problems with the investigative judgment doctrine and Ellen White’s prophetic role, but obligatory Sabbath day observance was still a stumbling block to me. It was preventing me from seeing and understanding the gospel.
Discovering covenants
Pastor Mark Martin, a former Adventist pastor had (and still has) a ministry to current and former Adventists. He had produced a study called The Gospel and the Covenants. Janet sent me a copy of this study, and I examined it closely with my Bible. Pastor Martin showed from the Scriptures that from Adam until the present day, God’s covenants with His people followed a specific pattern. Particularly interesting to me was learning how the Mosaic covenant was different from the other covenants God made.
I had not learned how specific Scripture is about when, why, or for whom God made this covenant, nor did I understand what a covenant sign was.
What is the old covenant according to Scripture?
So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did not eat bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments (Ex. 34:28).
So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone (Deut. 4:13).
Also read Deuteronomy 5:1-22; 9:9-12, 15; 10:4; and 1 Kings 8:9, 21.
What was the sign of the old covenant? Exodus 31:12-13 says,
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.’”
Moreover, the Ten Commandment law was not given before Sinai. Deuteronomy 5:2-3 says,
The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today.
Then he gives the Ten Commandments in verses 6-22. Thus the old covenant including the Ten Commandments had a definite beginning—and it was not at creation. Moreover, Paul clarifies further that the old covenant had a specific ending:
Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made (Gal. 3:19).
This passage clearly states the law was added until the seed should come. Another passage in the same chapter gives even more understanding as it describes the function of the law of the old covenant:
But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (Gal. 3:23-25).
Even more, a new covenant has come to replace the old:
And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood” (Lk. 22:20, see also Heb. 9:15-16).
You may ask, what happened to the Old Covenant?
When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear (Heb. 8:13).
Sabbath Challenge
It never ceases to amaze me how many of us believe something because it is a part of a tradition with which we grew up or that we adopted, only to find out later in life that the belief was not true. For example, I was challenged to find a passage in the Bible that required gentile Christians to observe the Sabbath day. I thought that such a passage would be easy to find, but to my surprise, I found none. I did, however, find a couple of passages I had not really noticed before:
Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day—things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ (Col. 2:16-17).
One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God (Rom. 14:5-6).
These passages helped me to understand for the first time that Sabbath-day observance was not required for Christians, and the Lord used this insight to help me to understand the Biblical gospel.
I finally understood that the law of Moses was a covenant made with the people of Israel who came out of slavery in Egypt. The initiating sign for this covenant was circumcision, and the ongoing sign was weekly Sabbath observance. This covenant was not made with the gentiles. Those who come to faith in Christ as the passage above teaches are no longer under old covenant law.
Under the new covenant, the initiating sign is water baptism while the ongoing sign is the Lord’s Supper. The obligatory observance of the Sabbath day or any other day is not a part of this covenant. That cessation of obligatory day-keeping is the reason the gentile believers coming into the church were under no obligation to observe the Sabbath, or any other of the other days set apart by the Lord in Leviticus 23. The observance of days or their non-observance is left up to the individual believer (Rom. 14:1-5; Col. 2:16-17).
But, I wondered, if the Ten Commandments were a covenant no longer in effect for those believers entering the new covenant, then what about lying, stealing, adultery or the other commandments? I discovered in the New Testament that all of these commands were repeated in the instructions for new covenant living. The only things not repeated as a command were circumcision and Sabbath-day observance (See table).
From my study I learned that the Sabbath was a sign of an old covenant no longer in effect. It was a shadow of things to come. It was a symbol pointing to Christ and to the rest He provides to lost humanity, the rest of perfect union with God that was lost in Eden. I realized that it is not the day that is important anymore, but my relationship with Christ. Anyone who accepts Christ enters into His true Sabbath rest because he is reconciled to God.
Under the new covenant brought into effect by Christ’s blood (Lk. 22:20), there is no longer a holy or sacred day of observance as in the old covenant. After all, if the old covenant was destined to pass away (2 Cor. 3:11; Gal. 4:30; Heb. 8:13), so too were the old covenant signs (Gal. 4:10-11; Rom. 14:4-5; Col. 2:16-17). If someone emigrates from England to the United States and becomes a citizen, that person would no longer live under the laws of England, though many of the laws would be the same (i.e. laws regarding murder, fraud, property rights, etc.). That person would live under United States law.
A flag typically acts as a symbol for a particular country. It is a representation of the principles and culture it embodies. A person who emigrates from England to the United States would no longer live under the Union Jack but under the Stars and Stripes. That person would no longer live under the rule of the Monarch, Prime Minister, and Parliament of England, but under the rule of the President and Congress of the United States. It is the same for one who becomes a Christian. Such a person is not under the Ten Commandments of old covenant law (along with the other 603 commandments) and its signs, or flag—circumcision and the Sabbath (Ex. 31:12-18); instead, he or she observes the Law of Christ, which is the gospel, along with its signs, or flag, water baptism and the Lord’s Supper (Acts 19:3-4; Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:11-12; 1 Pet. 3:18-22; Gal. 5:22-25; Eph. 4:30; Mt. 26:26-28; Mk. 14:22-24; Lk. 22:19-20; 1 Cor. 11:25).
When Jesus was on the mountain where He was transfigured, the Father’s voice was heard by Peter, James and John. His voice continues to echo to this day: “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” (Mk. 9:7; Lk. 9:35).
Jesus makes this invitation to all who listen to Him:
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Mt. 11:28-30).
When I ceased from my efforts to gain God’s favor by trying to be “good” and simply trusted in the merits of Jesus alone, I began to experience the rest given by Jesus as a gracious gift. The gift of eternal life began the moment I entered that rest. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
“But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:7-11). †
Copyright 2015 Life Assurance Ministries, Inc., Camp Verde, Arizona, USA. All rights reserved. Revised January 3, 2015. Contact email: proclamation@gmail.com
W I N T E R • 2 0 1 4
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 4
D E P A R T M E N T S
STORIES OF FAITH
COVER FEATURE
ROLAANT MCKENZIE
FROM ELLEN WHITE TO THE TRUE LIGHT
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying,
“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
JOHN 8:12