| Author | Message | ||
| Freedom55 Registered user Username: Freedom55 Post Number: 87 Registered: 3-2008 |
As some of you are aware, my sister passed away about a month ago. I was sharing this with some friends who are ultra conservative/historical adventists. The first question they asked was, yes you guessed it: "Was she a sabbath keeper?" The implication being that our ticket to heaven is determined by whether we are sabbath keepers or not! There were no questions about her faith in Jesus. Just if she was a sabbath keeper. I was shocked but somehow not surprised. It's almost as if sabbath trumps Jesus! I shook my head and walked away. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 14530 Registered: 12-2003  |
Oh, Freedom, I so understand. I am so sorry...it's hard enough to lose someone so dear, but to have people miss the essence of her life is so painful. You are right...it's shocking and predictable at the same time. Sabbath does, indeed, trump Jesus in their minds. When pushed, they fear losing Sabbath. They have no emotional connection to keeping or losing Jesus. It's unbelievably sad when one knows Him. Colleen | ||
| Punababe808 Registered user Username: Punababe808 Post Number: 492 Registered: 4-2012 |
Dear Freedom, My condolences on the death of your sister who I'm sure in your heart you will forever love. Yes, I'm not surprised at that question. Not to make light of it but at least you weren't asked if she was vegetarian. To alot of SDA's Jesus is an afterthought, kinda way down the line of thoughts starting with The Sabbath. | ||
| Mkfound Registered user Username: Mkfound Post Number: 207 Registered: 1-2011 |
Dear Freedom, I hear you. My condolences for the loss of your sister. I just wanted to share my story, which is similar in the works aspect of salvation, among sdas. When my brother passed away suddenly 3 years ago at 17, I was staying at my parents home to help and stay with them for a week. Our first visitor (sda) came the day after he died. My brother had stopped going to church with my parents for about a year prior to his death. We all assumed it was a 'teenage' thing. So when the lady came, she had not seen my brother in all that time and the first thing thing she said when she came in was 'how was he doing spiritually". My mother replied, sort of shocked, 'how is anyone doing spiritually, how are you doing spiritually" and the woman went on giving a list of all the things she does. 'I give tithe, I hand out Bibles, I pray every day, I go out witnessing on sabbaths, i read my Bible and SOP everyday...' and on and on. Obviously this woman's idea of salvation was works-centric. This struck my mother as a very unkind question because my brother had not been to church and the question was really more of a statement than a question. You know how non-church going is viewed... My brothers salvation was on all our minds, between my mom, dad and me. It was unspoken at first. The following day I asked God to give me 2 sign whether my brother would be saved, and He answered yes. I asked God to show me how I could be saved too and within the week, I had read through Romans and believed. Sdaism took a couple of months to unravel for me, finding out that believing and working for salvation were incompatible. Later I found out that my brother had been researching sdaism weeks before his death, and had been reading former sda websites. I believe, in hindsight and piecing evidence together that God had been working with my brother to reveal what was true, and it wasn't something to be found in sdaism. Amazing that God used a tragedy to reveal Himself to me too. Even that lady with her judgmental attitude and a few other happenings in those early weeks really made me question what was true, and God even used those things, when they were negative. And Freedom, back to your post, yes, in sdaism, it all comes down to works, whether sababth keeping or other. Officially, they'll give you spin about grace that enables you 'love' God and keep his commandments, etc. But when it comes down to the nitty gritty, its all about works. Hence why the final moments of someones life are so under the microscope when they die in sdaism - we believed it was that final decision that God would especially look at, in the context of weighing the works they had done all their lives. | ||
| Butterfly_poette Registered user Username: Butterfly_poette Post Number: 337 Registered: 5-2011  |
I am sorry for your losses, Freedom55 and Mkfound. I do agree that SDAs made such a big deal about keeping the Sabbath, wearing the "right" attire, and eating the "right" food. It made me sick how many people were such conservative Adventists who didn't know God at all. | ||
| Gcfrankie Registered user Username: Gcfrankie Post Number: 948 Registered: 1-2007 |
I am sorry for your loss Freedom 55 and MKfound. I sat with a woman who was dying and she just had the look of fear on her face wondering if she was really saved without verbally asking. It broke my heart to see this sadness because she was such a wonderful woman. I wish sda's would quit teaching the doubt (fear) of whether or not you are saved. | ||
| Mjcmcook Registered user Username: Mjcmcook Post Number: 1142 Registered: 2-2011  |
IMO~ adventists cannot stop teaching their heresy regarding a person's salvation! If they did~ they would have to give up "egw"~ without her, they are nothing as a denomination. ~mj~ |
