| Author | Message | ||
| Blacksheep Registered user Username: Blacksheep Post Number: 11 Registered: 3-2005 |
All this SDA trivia is sure familiar to me, at least it's funny now to be able to look back and see how protected I was. First we could not ride our bikes on the Sabbath, then a few years later we could as long as we rode slow. We could not swim, but we could wade, once I remember we were at a swimming hole, and we got farther away from the parents and there was this area where the water had created a place like a slippery slide, needless to say, all of us kids got very wet, but we did not swim!! When I got married, we had a little TV, and I was mesmerized (kinda like I am in front of my computer now--ha!) and I lived for a good couple of months not being able to get any thing done cause I found the sitcoms I had heard about but had never seen, the Beverly Hillbillies, Gomer Pyle USMC, Andy Griffeth, That Girl, Etc. I still cannot sit and watch a whole movie through unless it is very simple. Thanks for the Memories, ya'll!!! But most of all I am thankful for the peace of mind. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1936 Registered: 12-2003  |
Belva, I remember bubble lights! My aunt had some on her tree when I was young, and I was also fascinated by them. As conservative/observant as we were, Christmas was often a time when we ventured beyond our usual boundaries if we celebrated with relatives from my mom's family. If we did, we often had turkey (yum!) in addition to enjoying my aunt's glowing bubble lights. And of course, we always finished Christmas dinner with the VERY RICH, once-a-year Steamed Apple Pudding. (Funny--my family now still thinks of Steamed Apple Pudding as part of the definition of Christmas!) Yes, Blacksheep--the peace of mind and security is greater than everything! Colleen | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 427 Registered: 6-2004 |
I didn't grow up SDA, but reading the memories of different upbringings goes to show how even the most observant SDA's tend to get off the rigid EGW path. For example, no swimming to only wading, no bike ridng to only riding slowly. This is nothing more than just sampling and testing the waters so to speak. I guess some SDA's celebrated Christmas while others didn't. Talk about crossing the line. And it's not only about sabbath keeping, but diet, lifestyle, holidays and relationships. What I can gather is that as long as certain SDA members or councils didn't know every detail of your personal life, you can get away with it. Pretty much nothing more than sneaking around and yet acting holy and perfect. To each their own! | ||
| Belvalew Registered user Username: Belvalew Post Number: 419 Registered: 7-2004 |
That's it, Pw. That's why most SDA's despair of ever really being able to be perfect in the End Times. Which type of perfection will God really require? Thank you, Jesus, for delivering all of us from that confusion! Belva | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 428 Registered: 6-2004 |
That's what confused me about what was allowed or not allowed regarding keeping a sabbath under SDA's regulations. There really are none. The rules seem to be very flexible as they vary from person to person. I never understood how the pastors wife was allowed to work on a sabbath day (she was a nurse) yet others were not. If you really think about it, the pastor works on a sabbath when he's preaching...that's his job and that's what he gets paid for. | ||
| Belvalew Registered user Username: Belvalew Post Number: 423 Registered: 7-2004 |
In SDA Land, health and safety workers are allowed to work on Sabbath so long as they contribute the wages earned on the Sabbath to the church. My mother was a nurse, that's how I know this. Of course, having to pay a tithe AND contribute one whole day's worth of the major breadwinner's income, while maintaining a family of five kids in SDA schools can become very burdensome! | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 429 Registered: 6-2004 |
So, it's ok for health and saftey workers to work on a sabbath as long as they garnish all their wages for the day? How ridiculous. It's so obvious it's all about the money. As there is no Bibical proof for that loophole...oh wait, they will probably use the "sheep in the pit" parable to justify their actions. I can't believe I was part of this nonsense. | ||
| Belvalew Registered user Username: Belvalew Post Number: 425 Registered: 7-2004 |
Me either. Were you born into it? That is the only excuse I lay claim to, because in most things I'm a relatively intelligent person. Only on the outside of this arrangement can you clearly see all of the twisting and turning one must do to validate it as a reasonable lifestyle. Thank you, Jesus, for bringing us clarity. Getting beyond this system is like getting over mumps or chicken pox. Thank God that when you heal up, you won't catch that disease again! | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 430 Registered: 6-2004 |
No, I fell victim to a Revelation Seminar in 1985. I was only with the SDA church for a year and a half. I couldn't take it anymore and quit. | ||
| Belvalew Registered user Username: Belvalew Post Number: 427 Registered: 7-2004 |
Were you of some other Christian pursuasion before joining SDA? My observation has been that if you are coming from another background that had given you at least some information on the Gospel that is credible, you tend to figure it out fairly soon and walk away when you do. You had a relatively short turn-around time period. When prophecy seminars were held in our area when I was younger, we would get a small influx of new members and they would normally last anywhere from six months to two years. Then we'd have to hold another seminar to draw in more recruits. The ones who stayed were usually about 10 percent or less of those who joined initially. Meanwhile, the children of the already members would stay members so long as they were in school. Once they graduated, about 2/3 would fall away. The drop-off rate for them was higher if they remained unmarried. If they married another SDA, they were more likely to remain SDA, which is why there is such a focus on getting the SDA's married to other SDA's while they are in school. | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 432 Registered: 6-2004 |
Actually I had no strong church upbringing background except when I was a little kid we went to either a Methodist or Presbyetrian church, but my parents hated going to church so we all quit. I always believed in God but never understood the Bible or Revelation, and that's what stirred my interest in going to this Seminar. It seemed all so new and different when I learned it (as well as the other issues), but after a year the dogma was making less sense and I was miserable in the SDA system. I quit and never looked back even though I was told I was heading back into the world of Babylon according to the SDA pastor. | ||
| Jeremy Registered user Username: Jeremy Post Number: 651 Registered: 10-2004  |
Pw, did you believe that Ellen G. White was a prophet of God when you were in the SDA cult? That is something I've been wondering recently about people who join the SDA, is what causes them to accept EGW as a prophet of God, especially without really testing her? Jeremy | ||
| Dt Registered user Username: Dt Post Number: 30 Registered: 4-2005 |
Jeremy, I have been mulling over this same question recently. How many SDA's really question EGW being a prophet and put her to the same test that they would apply to Joseph Smith or some other prophet? I know that I personally grew up in SDA schools etc. I heard all my life that she was a prophet and everyone I knew just kind of accepted and acknowledged that she was. When I started doing my own research, any belief I had fell away fairly quickly (replaced by anger initially at the way I had been duped by people I respected and who were taking my money every month while lying to me) The funny, or confusing, part is that now I ask other SDA's (I still am one) about her, the overwhelming majority are in the same position I was in, just accepting without documentation. How weird is that? My parents and sisters said they dropped her long ago, not from any research into her credentials or believability but because of her righteousness-by-works dogma and condemnation of everything imaginable. My parents were converts. Others I have asked were also converts and were never given a complete study on EGW and why they should accept her as inspired. They were just eased into it with quotes from the pulpit, elders, quarterlies etc. Very few SDA's that I know read the testimonies faithfully, or anything else of hers for that matter. There are some that I know that know the GC and D of A almost by heart. That is why I am continually puzzled by your question. Why is she accepted as a prophet by so many without question? I just shake my head in wonderment. I am just so glad someone gave me their copy of Proclamation! before they threw it away. The anger and puzzlement remains. Yours in bewilderment, DT | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 1480 Registered: 3-2004  |
The puzzlement still remains for me, but the anger I have handed to God. All I can think is that these SDAs are wearing the EGW lens and cannot see the truth. God is working on them, as we are all asking him to do. When the time is right for each individual, the lens will come off. Then they will see the truth in the Bible as it is and know that Jesus is all they need. Thank you God for hearing our prayers. You are awesome. Diana | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1942 Registered: 12-2003 |
Dt & Jeremy, good questions. I look back on my long half-belief in EGW and wonder how I handled the cognitive dissonance. I'm convinced that the deep indoctrination I received that salvation was linked to embracing "all the light I had" was part of my blindness. Even when Ellen didn't make sense any more, there were still those occasional quotes that sounded Christ-centered, and there were still those warnings about bright lights going out and of making her testimonies of non-account, etc... I felt a bit like hedging my bets. I could displace Ellen, not use her (unless it benefitted my rationale), and write her off as well-meaning but not all the church made her out to be. I'm certain that the veil that kept me holding onto her was a spiritual blindness. Truly, it's only in Christ that that veil comes off! Colleen | ||
| Dt Registered user Username: Dt Post Number: 32 Registered: 4-2005 |
Colleen, I, too, have felt like hedging my bets a lot during the last couple of years. What finally woke me up was reading the circumstances surrounding those quotes, such as the turmoil with A.T. Jones, Dr. Stewart, Dr. Kellogg and others and the way she handled that situation in the least Christ-like way imaginable. When I see those quotes in that light, I see whose side I am standing on when I live in fear of a blasphemer and her fear-invoking statements. Jesus Christ died to save me from her brand of condemnation. She levels the same charge against believers (SDA and other) that she claims satan levels against God, namely that the blood of Jesus just isn't enough without our pitiful efforts at righteousness. Once the blinders come off, they tend to stay off. That is why so few who leave for doctrinal reasons ever come back. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1945 Registered: 12-2003 |
So True!! Colleen | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 433 Registered: 6-2004 |
Yes, I did beleive she was a prophet. I was really gulliable because I didn't know the Bible at all when I went to the Revelation Seminar, only how the SDA taught it (along with White's take on it). What kept going through my mind was "Why isn't the rest of Christianity catching onto to this?". Well, it's obvious now. Out of all the people who attended the Seminar, I was the only one who actually joined the SDA. D'oh! | ||
| Bob Registered user Username: Bob Post Number: 245 Registered: 7-2000  |
I was thoroughly indoctrinated into Adventism before my baptism at age 16, but EGW was not mentioned to me until shortly before my day of baptism. Even then, it was brought up by the lay person who had orginally proselytized me, not by the church pastor. What did I, a 16 year old kid with little knowledge of Scripture, know? I was so convinced of all the rest of the doctrinal package by that time, I accepted the inspiration of EGW without much question. Bob | ||
| Dt Registered user Username: Dt Post Number: 33 Registered: 4-2005 |
Pw, I guess the crux of my question to you, and others including myself, is Why did you believe she was a prophet? Were you given any in-depth studies to show her inspiration? Or was it just assumed that she was and that you would just naturally accept it? I have given and been thru a lot of Bible studies to get people to "accept the truth" but I have never seen a complete series given out to convince new converts about EGW. It is just an assumption. When I think back on my part in this, it just makes me feel "smarmy", like I took part in deception. I won't even go into the seminars and pretending we weren't SDA etc. Why did we just accept it? Do we all subconsciously have a need for a set of rules that are impossible to keep? Is it somewhat like the people who flog themselves to a bloody pulp in an effort to make a sacrifice God can accept? Enough ruminating for one morning. |
