| Author | Message | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 2202 Registered: 7-2007 |
I just wrote an appeal to a relative, and I thought I'd put part of the letter here. The religion that you and I grew up in is like an exercise machine - only it's one that you can't take a break from. If you step off the never-ending treadmill and "rest," then Ellen White accuses you of drifting away from Jesus and losing your salvation. Only while you're on it, exercising, can you be "safe" according to her, and even then you have no sense that you're really "safe." When a person finds out that Christianity is a RELATIONSHIP with the eternal God and that HE does all the work, oh what REST one has! They find out that salvation really is a FREE GIFT, just like the Bible says in many places such as Romans 5:15. It's like a person hiking on a hot day, when they come upon a waterfall and pool of clean, cool water! They drink their fill and rest in the shade of the trees. They can either rest in the shade and drink their fill of the life-giving water, or they can listen to Ellen White standing out in the sun and yelling at them to keep going and to get away from that water and shade! You were raised in a religion that took away every bit of rest and told you that you had to work for your salvation. Ellen White confused you by taking verses out of context for the religion's "proof texts," to "PROVE" to you that if you slacked off from "working" for your salvation, you'd "lose" it. If only you'd accept Jesus' free gift and experience God's love for you. Adventists even take that away from you by saying that you have to "make everything right with everybody" first. That's not true. When a person accepts Jesus, they are saved THEN! Right that moment. Have you wondered how Ephesians 2:8-9; 2nd Timothy 1:9 and Titus 3:5 can say that a believer has BEEN saved??? Have you wondered how a letter written to believers - 1st John 2:12 can tell them that their sins HAVE BEEN forgiven??? They hadn't even gotten the letter yet! Please accept Jesus' free gift. It wouldn't be a free gift if you had to work for it. | ||
| Asurprise Registered user Username: Asurprise Post Number: 2203 Registered: 7-2007 |
How about the rest of you? What tiresome "exercises" have you had to go through in order to think you were "keeping" your salvation, when you were an Adventist? | ||
| Kelleigh Registered user Username: Kelleigh Post Number: 164 Registered: 7-2011  |
I didn't realise I was on 'the treadmill' until I disembarked! I experienced my first true sabbath rest when I gave up trying to observe the sabbath. No more rushing around on Friday or distress about not being ready when the shadows lengthen. I found rest - not in a day -but in the person of Christ Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath. An unexpected side-effect - a sense of total acceptance by God. Because my efforts no longer played a role in my salvation the associated self doubt was removed. Blessed assurance. | ||
| Rain Registered user Username: Rain Post Number: 20 Registered: 9-2011  |
The "exercises" were (and are) so ingrained in my everyday life that I didn't even notice most of them. There are still more I probably can't even think of or haven't even noticed. I was vegetarian for a while, but never really thought that eating meat was the sin that many Adventists did. However, I did avoid the unclean meats religiously. It's nice to be able to not have to reject people's food when it's offered (except when it's pork, but that's because I'm actually allergic). I always wondered about SDAs not accepting a host's food. Wouldn't that make someone get angry, and thus stumble? And doesn't Paul mentioned going ahead and eating food offered to you? I've seen SDAs make a huge deal out of food, as I'm sure many of you here have. Anyone else ever notice that little twinge of pity or superiority that would spring up around those "Sunday keepers?" I admit it, I had it and I'm ashamed of it. It wasn't that this necessarily kept my salvation, but knowing who "they" were would keep me from falling into "their" trap in the End Times. I was already drawing lines between myself and "the enemy." I still actually have to stifle panic when I'm talking religion with someone who goes on Sunday. It's like my mind goes automatically into a panic and I think, "Oh yeah. I can calm down. I'm one of them now." Not wearing jewelry somehow made it onto my exercise list. I have no idea what that ever had to do with salvation, but I didn't do it for a little while. I thought it was stupid at first. When I first started at SWAU I wore my jewelry because, you know, the whole rest of the world does and I was from outside of the SDA world. Man, I got some flak. So I stopped. Then I felt guilty. Now I wear my pretty bling proudly.  The last thing to go before my switch to being a former was music and movies. It was terrible. I, for some reason (that reason being a sermon by my pastor and an online video by Ivor Myers), decided to stop listening to "secular music." Being a musician at my very core , that hurt. For some reason, I thought I'd be more on my way to being saved if I did this. I am very happy to have Pink Floyd back, thank you very much. During that time period I learned to like Christian music, though, so it wasn't a completely fruitless period. I have adjusted my tastes, too, to suit what is my new lifestyle and heart. I've found some things just to really grate on me that used to not do that, so I don't listen to them. It was basically the same story with movies and TV shows, except I stopped watching TV altogether. I only really watch one show a week now aside from the news and make sure I'm not watching junk. Tithe is a big one. I thought it was somehow related salvation before my conversion. Since I've joined here I've read some interesting articles about tithe and now feel pretty put out that I ever gave a single penny to the SDA church. I feel like I was stolen from. Given that I've heard the SDAs have had problems with misappropriating funds, that just adds insult to injury. The biggest one of all is the one day that seemed bigger and more important than Jesus. Most of the time when I was at school I didn't keep the Sabbath and it ate away at me (why I didn't go to church is a loooong story that involves a terrible relationship that ended very badly), so when I came home I tried to keep Sabbath strictly. Having just emerged from the darkness of a bad relationship, I thought I'd get back on the straight and narrow and find some light. I found it impossible and wondered if my salvation was at stake because I was constantly somehow breaking one of the 10 Commandments which, as I understood at the time, was a definition for losing one's salvation. Since I'd already been asking myself questions concerning SDAism, I studied and popped up here. Kelleigh said it like I would have: it's Jesus, not a day. It's Jesus, not anything I can do. That's just plain insulting to say that I can do better than the Son of God. I honestly still wonder sometimes, since it's been discussed on here, if I'm actually been "born again" because I've been worried about myself, being a former and transitioning and all. I think that's an old exercise too. That nagging "am I still safe?" question. I think if I have to ask it then that's an indication I might be okay. | ||
| Nowisee Registered user Username: Nowisee Post Number: 969 Registered: 5-2009 |
Excellent post, Rain. You expressed very well so many of the issues. Boy, did I ever hate Friday sundown! I frequently was not done with housework, so my choice was either being really embarrassed to have people see my dirty floor or break the Sabbath! I tried SO hard. What an indescribable relief to have Jesus as my Rest 24/7!! And how awful to have to compulsively read labels, looking for hidden lard or chicken broth! What a relief to believe Mark 7 and have freedom in eating. And yeah, I paid tithe faithfully, even when there was not enough money to buy groceries we needed. When I found out about tithe money being spent on real estate investments, I never paid another penny in tithe to the SDA organization. Now we happily pay much more than tithe to spreading the true gospel (SDAs call it the 'gospel', but it's really just SDA doctrine/EGW that they are spreading). And no more begging for money for "Ingathering"...it never went to help "the poor and needy" like we were told. (Well, maybe a little did, but I'n not even sure about that now!) | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 13081 Registered: 12-2003  |
What a great thread! Rain, I appreciate your post above. Yes, those exercises were requirements that I managed to believe were "choices" on my part. About the time my first marriage fell apart, I began to question a lot of the peripheral practices of SDA-ism. I began to wear small jewelry, like gold chains with pendants, and when I met Richard, he thought I was sort-of "wild" because I ate meat once in a great while, drank coffee, and wore small gold chains. Sigh... About a year into our marriage, he gave me a gift for an occasion--I think it was Valentine's Day. It was a plain but beautiful herringbone gold chain...distinctly noticeable and about 3/8 " wide. I was overwhelmed; I realized he had reached some internal "place" of acknowledging it was not a sin. Since we have left Adventism, he frequently gives me earrings—almost always dangly—as gifts. It's quite a statement on both our parts! But yes...the exercises were required, and I remember believing they were willing choices. I experienced almost crippling guilt if I re-interpreted or ignored the exercises. One of the things that began to happen during the twelve years between my divorce and Richard's and my ultimately leaving Adventism was that these SDA exercises became increasingly illogical, and as Richard and I began to study the Bible during the three years immediately prior to our leaving, the exercises' craziness became more and more clear. Scripture certainly doesn't require all those things Adventists consider marks of true believers. Colleen |
