| Author | Message | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 1985 Registered: 7-2007 |
It's been a little over 6 years now since the Lord rescued me from the SDA church, but I'm still amazed that the ONE TRUE CHURCH turned out to be false! (I didn't start out looking to see whether it was false or not. The Lord worked some miracles and used a friend to show me that it was a false church. It came as a total surprise to me to find that out! Hence the username, "Asurprise.") How about the rest of you?  | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 9293 Registered: 3-2004  |
I was not looking for God or to find out anything about the sda church when the sda pastor challenged our ss class to read the NT without any thing else to help us. It was during that same time frame that God brought my attention to Dirk Anderson's website about egw and how she plagiarized, had others write for her, then said God or an angel told her. So it was all a surprise to me also. Thank awesome God for His surprises. I like them. Diana l | ||
| Jonvil Registered user Username: Jonvil Post Number: 614 Registered: 4-2007 |
The longer I'm out the falsier (new word) it gets | ||
| Believer247 Registered user Username: Believer247 Post Number: 227 Registered: 3-2009 |
We weren't looking to leave the SDA church either. We started attending a Bible study at the home of a new SDA member, with both SDA's & non SDA's in attendance. When we started reading the Bible through, with no extra books or commentaries, just our Bibles, we began to see that what we had been taught as SDA's did not agree with the Bible. I was often asked to pray before we began our Bible study, I always prayed for understanding of what we were reading and that prayer was certainly answered! It still amazes me how we were led out of the SDA church by studying our Bibles in context! | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 12742 Registered: 12-2003  |
Oh, my goodness...I completely relate to each comment above. I remember my amazement when I realized that the SDA Church was the "world" God asked me to leave. I'd have never thought of the Adventist Church as "the world"!! But it was...and contextual Bible study is what did it for us as well. Scripture is alive; it is God's word. It has the power to change lives...God's Spirit speaks to us through it. Colleen | ||
| Starlabs Registered user Username: Starlabs Post Number: 9 Registered: 5-2011 |
I was one of the ones angry with the church because of what leaders had done to me and my family. So when I found things that made we wonder, I studied all the harder to find out as much as I could. I wanted the church to be wrong. Then after a good while I decided that I wasn't being productive in my study. You don't really learn by being angry. Then I ask the Lord to just teach me what I needed to know even if it meant the church was right. God did help me to see that many of the churches teaching were indeed wrong. I'm now not angry but so happy that Jesus opened my eyes. Now I want to help mine and my husband's parents to see the truth. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 12746 Registered: 12-2003 |
So interesting, Starlabs. You were open to learn what was true when you surrendered your right to be angry and submitted to God's Spirit and His word for the sake of knowing truth. Colleen | ||
| Mkfound Registered user Username: Mkfound Post Number: 109 Registered: 1-2011 |
It's been just about one year now for me being out. I grew up being glad that I was in the true church, and that most of my family was, and wasn't that just great Then, after the tragedy of my brother's death, I asked God--'how are we saved?' because I had been a hopeless Adventist, never thinking I'd make it there. In the space of about 2 months since asking God to answer this question of mine--I was no longer an Adventist. Things were just opening up in front of my eyes in the Bible. I would remember reading, and being practically breathless knowing that each new thing I found would be another 'nail in the coffin'. It was an intense struggle during those 2 months. I was vacillitating between remaining in the 'true church' and what I was finding out. I also had nightmares that EGW was coming to kill me because I was contemplating leaving. I remember waking up and saying 'OK, OK, I'm staying in SDAism'. However, that same day again larger and larger pieces of doctrines fell apart. And once it fell apart, it could not be put together again. It took exactly 2 months for me--from June 23rd to August 23 2010, when I declared myself to no longer be SDA. I am so very glad to have this hope now, that I'm saved because Jesus saves, not because of anything that I can do. So glad that the Holy Spirit is with me--God is actually WITH me. That was a new and wonderful concept to discover. I am so GLAD | ||
| Philharris Registered user Username: Philharris Post Number: 2536 Registered: 5-2007  |
Anger towards the SDA church or Ellen White had nothing to do with why I departed the SDA church. I had simply given up becoming a perfect person I was certain I never would become. Ten years later, I became acquainted with my real Savior after marriage and starting a family, but there was much for me to learn beyond good biblical doctrines in a Christ centered fellowship. Many years later on I became separated from my wife and joined some very intensive but painful counseling. As I grew in understanding who I was it suddenly dawned upon me that much of how I behaved was centered on things I had not dealt with and were founded upon embedded Adventist concepts. When I realized this I cried and beat upon the walls of the travel trailer I was living in screaming hatred towards Ellen White. Then, in exhaustion, I calmed down and the Holy Spirit quietly whispered to me that I was responsible for my own sins and there was no other person I could blame for this. I prayer God’s forgiveness and in turn forgave Ellen White. With that I fell asleep and went to work the next day. When I returned home from work there was a phone call and my wife wanted to put our marriage back together. I cried again but this time it was of joy. The life I now have is nothing more than a work and miracle of God. There is no room for hatred in my life. Amazingly, there is one forum member here who provided the last link in putting my past behind me along with the last person I had any kind of hatred for…but that is another story of God’s amazing grace. Fearless Phil | ||
| Butterfly_poette Registered user Username: Butterfly_poette Post Number: 44 Registered: 5-2011 |
I read Hebrews and now I can't believe in the Investigative Judgment. | ||
| Thegoldenway Registered user Username: Thegoldenway Post Number: 45 Registered: 5-2011 |
When I renounced SDAism, I was not just renouncing the religion I was also throwing away my family heritage. I was sixth generation SDA and I used to tell people that it was more than a 'religion' to me it was my heritage...it was a part of my DNA. hahaha I just cringe now as I think about saying that I can really identify with Paul when he talks about his heritage in the Jewish religion and how he saw it when he gained Jesus. What he says in Philippians constantly goes thru my own thoughts. "but what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and COUNT THEM AS RUBBISH, THAT I MAY GAIN CHRIST AND BE FOUND IN HIM, NOT HAVING MY OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS FROM THE LAW, BUT THAT WHICH IS THRU FAITH IN CHRIST....." 3:7-9 I am eternally grateful for all that God has worked in my life so far!! | ||
| Nowisee Registered user Username: Nowisee Post Number: 905 Registered: 5-2009 |
Like Butterfly, it was the studying of Hebrews that opened my eyes to the false doctrine of the IJ...also, finding out EGW copied so much, even some of the visions. I had been carrying the heaviest of burdens trying to "keep my record" free of sin so I could pass the IJ, but I failed over and over to overcome my sins. I was so afraid of the Second Coming because I knew I was lost. The real gospel of Jesus' life, death & resurrection to pay for my sins was the best news I ever heard! Wow, Thegoldenway! 6th generation?!...amazing. | ||
| Wiredog Registered user Username: Wiredog Post Number: 221 Registered: 8-2010  |
Amen Amen y'all!! Your stories are ALL WORSHIP and PRAISE to my eyes! The Holy Spirit pricked my conscience one Saturday when I visited my friend's SDA Church. I witnessed a Baptism where the candidate said he was first exposed to Adventism in December of the prior year and decided to be baptized that May. He never was asked to affirm the Baptismal vows in front of the congregation. I was baptized when I was 12 and had a very good SDA pedigree, active in the church and attended many SDA school and La Sierra, I was a militant Adventist but even after these years reading my Bible I still could not accept all the SDA doctrines and I wondered how someone after only 5 months accepted every single one. That's when I came to the realization many Adventists really didn't know what membership in the SDA institution meant they were affirming and the ones that did simply lip-serviced them glossing over the inconsistencies. I asked many Adventist members, pastors, conference men and eventually the GC what the Official Seventh-Day Adventist Catechism was. All along the way I received different answers and explanations and that confirmed to me that most Adventists can't tell you what are the basic common beliefs universally held by an Adventist in the US, in China, in Africa, and in the Philippines; let alone what it is a Christian believes. Yet we were quick to claim we are The Remnant? The Holy Spirit was already using the likes of CT pastors like Alistar Begg & R.C. Sproul to break me free and as I studied more of the Scriptures, read D.M. Canright, prayed with Colleen and Richard, listened to Pastor Mark and Pastor Dale, He finally took the veil off of my eyes by finally closing the Sabbath issue on a flight home in October 2009, I remember listening to Kristyn Getty singing "In Christ Alone" when it happened. My family was fortunate and blessed when we left as were are fed and encouraged in our growth every Sunday by my Sr. Pastor Chuck Swindoll and all our Associate pastors and Sunday School teachers. He placed the right person with humility at the right place and time for us. I shudder to think that could have turned our backs to Christ all together in that precarious moment of looking for a church home. Praise God for calling a wretched militant loyalist Adventist like me. You Sinday worshipers would one day regret for not keeping the Adventist Sabbath and the fiery Baptists where the worst. I know that if He can change my heart break me free He CAN BREAK ANYONE FREE FROM THEIR BONDAGE AND SIN. (Message edited by wiredog on July 18, 2011) | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 12757 Registered: 12-2003 |
Ben, amen to that. I so resonate with your experience! It is a miracle when any one of us leaves for the sake of Jesus. I just praise Him! Colleen |
