| Author | Message | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 598 Registered: 7-2007 |
Have you heard of scams where a person is notified that they've won a million dollars, but that the winner needs to send a 100 dollar processing fee to get the money? Well, Ellen White is like that scammer. She says you'll win Heaven if you pass the "test of loyalty" concerning Sabbath keeping and if you overcome every sin. It's like she's saying, "pay through the nose, and maybe, just maybe, you'll win the prize." The Bible says that sin has been defeated at the cross. Christ already defeated sin, death and hell and GAVE us the victory! Over and over again the Bible says "free gift" "free gift." The Adventist has to go wink wink, wink wink, as they read that. They can't quite accept that or where the Bible says that the believer "has been saved," because of Ellen White's writings. It's horribly sad. | ||
| Bobj Registered user Username: Bobj Post Number: 393 Registered: 1-2006  |
Asurprise, A couple days ago a dear old adventist pastor showed me an article in which the author insists that there will be no character change in the resurrection--essentially saying that we must become perfect in the flesh now. As these dear people near the end of their lives and realize that they have failed to attain perfection, it is very discouraging for them. After reading Ellen, it is very hard for them to express full confidence in Jesus as Savior. It's frustrating because they don't recognize heresy when it is right in front of them! I honestly worry for their salvation because they are clearly adding man-made qualifications to the gospel. Bob | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 6314 Registered: 3-2004  |
Asurprise, I never looked at it that way, but now that you bring it up, I do agree. I get emails every week saying I won this huge amount of money from various places. I know they are scams. I am so thankful that I am one of the senior citizens that answered God's call 5 years ago. I followed Him right out of adventism. Thank you awesome God. Diana L | ||
| Bb Registered user Username: Bb Post Number: 327 Registered: 7-2004 |
Speaking of Senior Citizens, I had a couple of long talks with my mom about religion these past two days. At one point she threw up her hands and said she was leaving. She was angry and couldn't understand how I would listen to the "garbage" about Ellen White. After we calmed down I was led to go print out a testimony I had read that closely resembled my own feelings about leaving. I gave it to her to read and she did! I think it got her to thinking and she admitted to a bit of doubt about the prophet. She said that she thought the writer was sincere in her quest for truth. Here is the testimony that I gave her to read....it is very powerful, and as my husband said, (as he got choked up) "That says it all!" http://www.ellenwhiteexposed.com/testimonycs.htm | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 9259 Registered: 12-2003  |
Bob, I so understand what you faced. Someone told us recently, in a fit of anger, that if they're wrong about Ellen White, then they'll just go to hell, because they aren't giving her up. At the same time, I believe this person is deeply insecure and frustrated because they know they can't adequately defend their beliefs, and they feel sort-of trapped. It's just really horrifying, actually. Colleen | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 3955 Registered: 9-2006  |
Bb, As a ‘never been’ I often contribute to this forum, I don’t pretend to have ever been a ‘been’. A lot of the time I just write to have something to say to the people who have become close to me and whom I have come to love in one way or another. As a life long student of science I have learned to look for patterns. Looking for patterns helps to identify solutions to problems and over a period of years it has come to be second nature in problem solving. So I look at things in the macro then look at things in the micro. Since I came here in 2006 and as I approach things in my usual way I have begun to see one solid pattern. I have read many stories of peoples journey out from Adventism and there has been one solid pattern emerge to give me a panoramic view. During the exploration of Mars the scientist took a series of pictures by remote electrical control of the terrain on that planet then they assembled them together to get a panoramic view of that terrain. That is much like what I have tried to do here, and I believe I have a pretty good panoramic view of the separate and collective journeys out of Adventism. The journey leads up out of that dark valley to the top of the mountain and the exclamation is the same as they finally look over the top of that mountain to the other side. There may be a rock or a tuft of grass or a tree that looks different, but it is the same old mountain that each has to climb in order to see over on the other side. I often use like things to explain a thing simply because of my habit of looking for patterns, nothing new or unusual about that. When, as a boy I climbed mountains and cliffs I would often climb the same mountain or cliff, but I never approached it from the same direction and I would always have to overcome some different obstacle, but the mountain was the same if you stood back off and looked at it, the overall features of the mountain remained the same. No question about it, it felt dangerous and was dangerous. I used no ropes or crampons or climbing axes, all I had was my hands and feet. At times I would get in a place on some part of the cliff where I would cling to a slight bit of rock outcropping with hundreds of feet below me if I fell and nothing above me that I could see but smooth rock face. I felt at times that if I moved I would fall to my death. I would cling there on the face of that cliff and make the mistake of looking down and begin to shake from fright and it seemed at those times that I was surely facing my death. So I would cling there knowing that if I tried to reverse my direction down that cliff I was a dead man (boy since I was only in my early teens). I had to climb or perish, nothing else to do, no other choice, I had to go up. Eventually I would have to try and get a hold of some minute outcropping or part of rough rock face and climb, at times I had to hold all my weight with the very tips of my fingers and the tips of one toe and with all my strength and determination to live I would proceed up that cliff. At one time I was climbing a straight up precipice and I ran out of anything to hold on too, my uncle was about four feet away and he could see I was in trouble and my hands started shaking. There was nothing he could do to help me because if he did we would both fall to our deaths. He looked over at me and fastened his eyes on mine and said "Don't you dare look down, you must climb." I said "I can't move!" He said "Listen to me, you have got to climb." "Do you hear me?" "Now you start climbing!" Sick with fright and feeling my strength go I looked up and saw a tiny rough place on the rock face and I ever so slowly reached out and put the tips of my fingers into that rough place and the tips of one toe into small outcropping below and I climbed. Eventually we got to the top of that cliff and sat there dangling our legs over the one thousand some odd feet of cliff and it seemed you could see forever as we sat there feeling the cool wind on our sweaty faces. This is no joke or none of my fiction writing. I often look back at those times and wonder how I lived to be sixteen because I spent a great amount of time on those cliffs. Was an unseen hand watching over me? On the face of it I tend to think so. These journeys out of Adventism remind me of my Adventures as a young kid on those straight up rock cliffs. Someone will come on this forum and it seems to me they are hanging on with just the tips of their fingers and perhaps one toe, hanging there on the face of that climb out of Adventism, wanting and needing to get to the top of that mountain. Take it from me my friends, there is no place to go but up. To try to descend that rock face is to surely fall to your death. Unlike my adventures as a youth who had no climbing equipment to make the climb safer, God has equipped you for the climb with his word. You may feel like you have no place to get a hold on at times and it is at these times you cling to a bit of scripture with all you have and there are bits of scripture and its not proof texting the Adventist way. Example: Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. I believe these scripture are written for a purpose and when you hang on the face of a cliff you can grab them and go on. In the story of Lot, his wife paid the price for looking back with longing on that city that was in the process of being destroyed. Listen, God’s Holy Spirit will burn up all the works of the flesh, there will be nothing left as evidence it ever existed no matter how sincere we are about them. All I see in Adventism are works of the flesh mostly if not all. That point of view coming from a ‘never been’ who doesn’t desire to have been a ‘been’. There is no looking back with longing at that city of fleshly works, no place to climb but up. River P.S. Thanks for the story, I do read every one of these carefully. | ||
| 8thday Registered user Username: 8thday Post Number: 624 Registered: 11-2007  |
Thanks for posting that story Bb. Been trying to decide what to give an sda we know who has expressed an openness to take a look at some evidence. I've read it before, but seeing it again, I think it may be helpful. We could tell them ours, but everyone knows we are just crazy. ha. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 9264 Registered: 12-2003 |
River, thank you. Your post is a perfect analogy for the exit from Adventism. You are so right. Colleen | ||
| Bb Registered user Username: Bb Post Number: 328 Registered: 7-2004 |
River, Thank you! Now I have a picture in my mind when I think of this climb out of adventism! I sometimes forget about the top of the mountain and just focus on the struggle. You do have a way with words.  Bb | ||
| ~angel~ Registered user Username: ~angel~ Post Number: 413 Registered: 3-2008  |
Bb I also printed off that testimony and could identify with it. That is a great one. I am going to give it to my dad one day when I know he will be more receptive to it. Great post also River! enjoyed it..... |
