| Author | Message | ||
| Chris Registered user Username: Chris Post Number: 635 Registered: 7-2003  |
I have a former-SDA friend who was pastoring 4 churches out east before he left 1 1/2 years ago. He tells the exact same story of sitting at his computer screen sobbing as he read about EGW. Isn't it odd that so many people could have the exact same experience miles apart? I find that truly amazing. Chris | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 1032 Registered: 3-2004  |
I had not liked to hear EGW mentioned in a sermon for a long, long time. The earliest memory I have of that is when my son was a little guy. I remember sitting in church and hearing the preacher quote her and me thinking "if there are any non-SDAs here, they will not believe the SDAs, because that is not the Bible." And every since then I have not liked to hear her mentioned. I found the web site about EGW and her plagiarism while I was living in VA and forgot all about it. After I moved into my house her in Henderson and had my computer hooked up and 5-6 months after I moved in I saw the link in my favorites and having forgotten what it was about I logged onto the site and really read it. I was open mouthed in shock. I had been about to rejoin the SDA church and I think that God said this is the right time to bring this to Diana's attention again. About that time the pastor of the SDA church had challenged our SS class to start reading the Bible, only the Bible, starting with the NT. So here I am reading the NT and finding out about EGW. I do not remember if I cried, but what I do remember is having this burden literally lifted off my shoulders. I did not realize that burden had been there. It was a couple months later I asked you folks what I needed to do to be a Christian and what you told me coincided with what I had been reading and marking in my Bible. I found the FAF in one of the links at one of the websites. I found out that salvation comes through my belief and love for Jesus Christ. It is a gift. I had forgotten lots of my SDA doctrines and what I had learned in my 12 step program had me questioning certain things I had learned growing up. Like keeping the Sabbath. Why was God blessing me when I did not keep the sabbath or pay tithe??? My program taught me God loves me and that He did not make junk. It is not a church related program, but its principles are Biblical. I used to tell myself, if my keeping the sabbath and paying tithe are the ways you want me to show you my love, I am not doing that and yet you still shower me with blessings. I even asked God to show me how to love Him, in the manner He wanted. I wanted, so much, to love God. I am not remembering all the things I used to question, but God has shown me the answers. They are there in the NT for anyone who wants to know and are easy to understand. He is an awesome God. What more can I say? Diana | ||
| Cy Registered user Username: Cy Post Number: 7 Registered: 1-2005 |
Dane, Hannah, Esther, Chris, Pheeki, Colleen, Jeremy, PraiseGod, and Diana, it is wonderful and comforting to read your stories and share this experience with you! I am really touched by all that we have in common. I wish we could all meet sometime to really share in ways that aren't possible just through the computer. It's very interesting to me that I had never truly fully accepted Ellen White as an authority. A lot of things people claimed she said never made sense to me, but I thought what I believed was based totally on the Bible, not Ellen White. Well, after academy, I stayed away from the SDA church during my college years and a few years following. In 1993 I felt I needed Christ, read the Bible for myself, and decided to begin attending the SDA church again. I still wasn't entirely comfortable with Ellen White but even thought that my new relationship with Christ was compatible with the SDA belief system. I've been elected to leadership positions in the SDA churches I've attended, and a few years ago a committed Christian man who joined the SDA church after an evangelism series came to me with lots of stuff printed out about Ellen White that he found on the Internet. Sadly, I explained my position on Ellen White without giving his papers a serious read and told him that I didn't think the problems with Ellen White were an obstacle to my belief in the SDA theology. Now, finally in the past year, I've discovered how mistaken I was these past 3+ decades. My sister actually suggested to me to Google for information, and I want to ratzlaf.com, sdaoutreach.org, ellenwhite.org, and this site. My wife knows I love spending time with my computers, but last fall I spent a *lot* of time just reading (frequently picking my jaw up off the floor after finding something completely new and extraordinary) on all these sites. I can't say that I had an "ah-ha!" moment that left me shaken and crying, but over a period of weeks and months I finally made my decision to follow Christ and Christ alone! I still worry sometimes about my shaky new faith, though. God has always provided an answer to every question that comes up (e.g., John 14:15 is prominently displayed in the SDA church where I still have leadership duties). I'm not sure I'm ready to debate an SDA devotee (not that I want to, but I'm sure the time will come when I'll need to), but I'm continuing to grow in faith. God bless everyone, and praise Him! "Cy" | ||
| Randyg Registered user Username: Randyg Post Number: 14 Registered: 12-2004 |
I can relate to many of the above testimonies each of you have shared.As I have been navigating some very stressful midlife challenges, I decided to seek guidance by digging deeper into my spiritual side. What a shock I have received. The term 'soul anquish' best describes it.To realize many of my long held beliefs had no sound biblical basis hit me like a ton of bricks. I am very fortunate to have quickly grasped the concept of grace, and the gift. I thank God that he has allowed me to be receptive to change at this time in my life. I wait to see what He does with those around me. They have to feel the need to ask questions, seek answers and then be prepared to accept God's leading. Please pray for my family.Randy | ||
| Dennis Registered user Username: Dennis Post Number: 307 Registered: 4-2000  |
Chris, Thank you for sharing your pursuit of doctrinal purity. Your apt description of access to online information is right on target. There is not a week that goes by without my sobbing at my monitor when I read emails from struggling Adventists. My tears of joy really flow when they ask me how they can be born again or when they report that God is calling them out of Adventism. It is very difficult to be a Seventh-day Adventist. It is a sobering thought that without the amazing grace of God, I would still be enslaved in legalism as well. The call to leave Adventism is nothing short of a miracle from God. Sylvia and I still marvel how it could have happened. We were so entrenched in our cultic ways. By the way, Sylvia and I were dining at Valentino's restaurant this week when an Adventist lady asked us why we no longer attend her church. Sylvia used to teach piano to her children when we were still Adventists. I briefly told her that I no longer believe that way. She asked me to personally deliver to her my testimony that appears on this website. She is not computer savvy. Her children have also left Adventism. She really wants to know the facts about Seventh-day Adventism. As more people leave the College View SDA church, the members are beginning to notice our absence. Dennis Fischer | ||
| Packer_eric Registered user Username: Packer_eric Post Number: 19 Registered: 3-2004 |
Hello, gang: It is early here in CO, but I feel compelled to place a post on this topic. Many of you have laid out a "brief" synopsis of your journey through and out of the SDA circle. I don't know that I can actually fit that bill, but I would like to share my walk. Let me preface by saying that I have a 50+ year-old brother who is a pastor of a very large church in Hawaii. He has been there for nearly 3 years. Prior to this he was a health/missions teacher at a now-defunct academy in NW Oregon. Two of his younger children went there and graduated recently. His oldest daughter graduated in 1999 from an academy in OK. Before this, he and his family were missionaries (via Adventist Frontier Missions) in Burkina Faso, Africa - 1993-1999. I tell you this as he is the reason for not only my venture into SDAism, but, quite frankly, the reason for a (positive) ripple through my entire tutti-frutti Christian family. My mother and father are devout Catholics - for most of my life, my older brother and his family are very active non-denominational church-goers in Northern California, and my sister and her family are attending church and doing fine in Southern Washington. My oldest broher made such a huge turnaround after attending college that he left all of us very amazed and impressed at his changes. He graduated from U of Washington in 1975, and soon moved back home to look for work (Washington). I was just 14 at the time, very impressionable. I remember talk after talk after talk about how he'd "found" what he was looking for, and was baptised a SDA. That hurt my parents very much, as, they raised us all in the Catholic church, and, well, you can just imagine all the "talk" about end times, Catholicism, Sunday-keeping, meat-eating, confession, purgatory, etc. I stood back and took it all in. Was never reallly aloud in the conversation, and frankly, didn't want to be as it got "ugly." Eventually, my brother and I would have some talks. I remember reading some "Amazing Facts" pamphlets and BOOM - my crusade began. I believed everything I read at face value. Heck, I remember in 10th grade doing a US History term paper on "The World is Ending and This is Why." I still have that paper. My teacher was an atheisit (HA!), but he gave me 348/350, I had two typos!! I spent virtually every waking hour during the spring of my 10th grade year on that paper. That brought me to the Bible. And, ironically, that search brought the Bible to life for me. As a young Catholic boy, there were a lot of rules, dos and donts for example. Still, I soaked up all the SDA material I could...still a bit leary as I didn't want to hurt my parents (not knowing that we are called by Christ to seek our own and not let others, much less our families, influence our decisions. Hence, the "personal walk" with Christ.) I graduated H.S. and went off to college. In another post I mentioned how I had this in my mind that I was going to "change the campus." I lived in a dorm and could not believe what I saw and heard. My spiritual journey was overwhelming at times, as school took a back seat to "evangelism". I set foot in an SDA church for the first time as a college sophomore. It was actually a very laid-back church. But the whole "going to church on Saturday, the dos and donts mounted, the cafeteria at school had very few vegetarian choices, so it was quite the ordeal." Upon graduation from college in '83, I took a job THE NEXT DAY in Northern Califiornia as a disc jockey on a small radio station - and it happened to be in a town where my SDA brother and his young family lived. I stayed there for a month - it felt like a year. I would go to work at 6 pm and work til midnite - making crapola wages. STILL, I was having fun for the first time, yet, living under his house. He was not strict with me at all, but he was living a typical SDA lifestyle. He didn't totally approve of my "job," but saw that I was enjoying what I was doing. At the time, I had dreams of being the next Howard Cosell, so I tried to stick it out. But I got so bored living in that town, single, etc...I moved back to Washingotn to live with my folks. I went off to grad school and for the next two years spent my time pursuing a Master's Degree in Sports Administration. I wanted to work for the Green Bay Packers!!! And I came close, having an interview with the Cleveland Browns. My internship just prior to graduation (from Ohio State) was with the NFL in Wash. D.C. What a great experience. God was great, but just didn't seem to make it happen for me (career wise.) I was in and out of all kinds of churches...knowing that I didn't want to leave Christ out of my life. An SDA church here and there, a Lutheran church, an LDS church - just "testing the waters." Well, I have indeed rambled, but am almost through so bare with me gang! I received a job working in minor league baseball in North Carolina (following the release of the movie, Bull Durham.) It was there that, one nite, I picked up the phone and looked in the yellow pages for churches...I came across the Durham SDA church and gave theh pastor a ring. He was so nice to meet with me the next day - running gear and all. That is what intrigued me - he was not your typical suit and tie guy - Bible in hand, etc. He was down-to-earth. He ran a campus ministry (with Duke) and I felt comfortable being around the college-aged folks again. I started attending the church every Sabbath, going on all the vesper outings, Saturday "fun nights," etc. They even allowed me to "teach" a high school division of Sabbath School...and I wasn't even a member..that is rare. Well, in March of 1990 I chose to be baaptised, (for the third time in my life) informing the pastor that I was uncomfortable with a few of the "Beliefs." (EGW in particular.) He more or less responded that 25/27 is good enough. Hmmm...ever since then, some 15 years later, I have struggled with that...and, just last week, thanks in great part to the power of The Internet, and reading wonderful posts by the likes of you guys, I sent in my letter to "my local church" - Idaho) requesting my name be withdrawn. My letter was not a brief one - I was sincere and honest, I just mentioned that the SDA church will not save me, it will be my faith in God and my walk with Christ that will enable me to see Heaven. Nothing I can do will break the bond I have with Him...it is a free gift, not one of dos and onts - that is available for everyone. Now, at this time, and who knows how long it will continue, my ministtry is with the local public high school. So many wonderful faculty members - Christian people - whom I call upon frequently. The kids there (kids everywhere!) need those that care about them as more than just students - they are human beings, loved by God and cherised by Christ as well. I take every opportunity on a daily basis to impress upon the children that I AM DIFFERENT aNd there is a reason why. Seeds are planted, times are indeed tough at times, but I will continue to plug away and do HIS work. And most of my Adventist friends and family look to this type of ministry and view it as second rate. The air just comes out of the balloon when I think about that scenario. We can do HIS work in any capacity...the SDA faithful need to unerstand that it is bigger than them...thankfully, my recent local SDA church accepted me for my position of influcuence and I didn't get the impression that they were judgemental. Still, the journey continues, and my family and I are without a church family, so, in many ways FAF has been my haven for the better part of a year - and Christ wil be faithful to lead. I appreciate the opportunity to ramble and inform. Your brother in Christ, Eric | ||
| Melissa Registered user Username: Melissa Post Number: 718 Registered: 7-2003  |
Thanks for sharing your story, Eric. I don't think you rambled at all... | ||
| Esther Registered user Username: Esther Post Number: 127 Registered: 5-2004  |
I just love seeing everyone's stories. They are all unique, and yet very familiar. I think we are all so blessed to be able to have them  | ||
| Chris Registered user Username: Chris Post Number: 636 Registered: 7-2003 |
Thank you for sharing Eric! I just love these photos! Esther, your are not at ALL how I had you pictured. When I was in PT school at AU, I had an Esther in my class. Esther the PT student was of Asian heritage, so for no logical reason (other than the fact that you work at AUPT) I've always pictured you looking like the Esther that I knew AUPT. I know that's silly, but it's just the avatar that my mind picked. Chris | ||
| Susan_2 Registered user Username: Susan_2 Post Number: 1487 Registered: 11-2002 |
Packer, What island is your brother pastoring on? Is he SDA? Thnks for sharing your story. | ||
| Jeremy Registered user Username: Jeremy Post Number: 339 Registered: 10-2004  |
Eric, I have met your brother and his family. I just looked some stuff up on Google and confirmed it. My family used to follow their "missionary" work in the Adventist Frontier Missions magazine. While looking him up, I found his church listing on the official SDA web site adventistdirectory.org. Did you all know that they now give the exact second of sunset for the specific latitude/longitude of each church, on that official GC web site?!?! (Although it looks like the pages aren't updated very often.) Wow. Legalism run amok. Jeremy | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1387 Registered: 12-2003  |
Eric, thank you so much for sharing your story! God has, indeed, been leading you, and I know how important your ministry is to your high school students. During the past five years that I taught (after a nine-year hiatus), I realized some things about teenagers in a new way, because my boys were also teenagers. (Funny how certain behaviors inside your HOUSE look somewhat different than when you see them on other's kids inside your CLASSROOM!) One of the most significant things I realized is how much teenagers (both boys and girls) NEED adult mentors/role models besides their parents. I know that observation sounds pretty unremarkable, but I've come to believe that it's a profound need for kids. Teens that don't have some "outside" adult whom they can validly admire and learn from, either up close or from a bit of a distance, are impoverished. Several years ago I began praying that God would send the mentors my boys needed into their lives, and He has been faithful to do that. It was really quite humbling and amazing to me to watch God bring students into my life who seemed to need my input and attention while he simultaneously brought other adults into my sons' lives. It's amazing how the body of Christ works! So, Eric, I completely support and applaud your ministry at school. God will continue to bless you as you surrender to His Spirit and hold your students up to Him in prayer. He will also guide you and your family to the church where He knows you will be able to grow and flourish. There really is nothing to equal the support and sharing of worship and Bible study that one finds in a healthy church body. Colleen | ||
| Seekr777 Registered user Username: Seekr777 Post Number: 42 Registered: 1-2003  |
Eric, Thanks for your testimony of how God is leading in your life. I'm some years older than you but then again I've always felt I was about a generation behind everyone else in my walk. IE: about 20 years behind. May God continue to bless you, Richard | ||
| Esther Registered user Username: Esther Post Number: 128 Registered: 5-2004 |
Chris, I can understand the suprise. Some other people on this forum have done the same for me. "Esther" is not actually a very popular name for my generation in our culture...so normally, I'm confused for someone's aunt After talking with people via the phone, then it's fun to watch their faces as they process seeing me It's funny what our brains do to "file" things away relative to what's already known. Colleen, though I don't know much about having your own kids yet. Both my husband and I have worked very closely with teens that come from troubled backgrounds. My husband grew up in the perfect home environment with a wonderful family, so he fills the role model shoes very well. And while I was in college I pulled from my own tramatic experience and had the opportunity to work with girls who were struggling with eating disorders and abusive relationships. Anyway, that's the thing that we both have noticed with teens is that whether or not they come from good or bad backgrounds...they all need mentoring from someone other than their parents. I think it's impressive that you have prayed for that for your boys. They are very lucky! | ||
| Seekr777 Registered user Username: Seekr777 Post Number: 43 Registered: 1-2003 |
Eric, Thanks for your testimony of how God is leading in your life. I'm some years older than you but then again I've always felt I was about a generation behind everyone else in my walk. IE: about 20 years behind. May God continue to bless you, Richard | ||
| Susan_2 Registered user Username: Susan_2 Post Number: 1490 Registered: 11-2002 |
Jeremy, yes, I knew they give the EXACT time of sunsets. Because he Hawaii'an Islands cover such a large area if you log onto the Hawaii'an SDA webpage you can get the math formula to figure out the exact sunset for your locatioon any of the islands. Something really funny appened in my life several weeks ago involving Saturday sunset. My mom had told me that after Sabbath was over she needed me to take her on an errand. Well, she came to my house and told me she was ready to go. I said, "I thought you wanted to go after Sabbath is over. Look, it's still daytime." She then told me she was going by the sunset times listed in the Review, not by how light is was outside. I just shrugged and took her on her errand. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 1037 Registered: 3-2004 |
Eric, Thank you so much for sharing how God has led you all your life. It is always interesting to see how God leads each of us to Him. I am glad you are here to share with us and what God is doing for you. Every time I read a story about how God has led them I am reminded that God is awesome. Diana | ||
| Lindylou Registered user Username: Lindylou Post Number: 22 Registered: 1-2005 |
Wow! What wonderful testimonies! What a blessing to read them all. Thanks for sharing. When is the first "formers reunion"? Sign me up! I can imagine that the sound in the room would be ear-boggling as we all met each other and shared our stories. And even tho we don't really know each other - it would seem as if we were old friends. Sounds like a good time to me! Happy evening to all. lindylou | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 1040 Registered: 3-2004 |
Lindylou, There was a Former's reunion this summer in Fort Worth, TX last July. We have all made suggestions as to where the next one should be. I voted for and continue to vote for Sin City, USA, i.e., Las Vegas, NV. My church has adopted the saying that what changes Las Vegas changes the world and as a part of God's family here in Vegas, I want to do my part, what ever it is. Yes, it would be thrilling to meet each of you. I am sure I would be laughing and crying, all at the same time. Colleen has helped expidite the exchange of e-mail addresses of those of us who are interested and I am so glad to know these folks by email now. Diana | ||
| Susan_2 Registered user Username: Susan_2 Post Number: 1493 Registered: 11-2002 |
All these stories are very touching as well as interesting. LV would be a good place. Thay say what happens in LV stays in LV. Esther, it is wonderful that you and your husband can have such a positive impact on the youth. Colleen, there is the Christian Educators Association. I think most of the teachers in the association are elementary and high school teachers in public schools but maybe teachers in private schools can be involved, too. It might be an oranization worth looking into. |
