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Letter to Walla Walla College Church
August 25, 2006
SDA College Church Walla Walla College College Place, WA 99324
Dear Church Board Members,
Having anchored our lives in the New Covenant teachings of Jesus Christ, we can no longer consider ourselves Seventh-day Adventist's. We hereby request our names be removed from the membership roll of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. To avoid any misunderstandings about our reasons for leaving, we have copied this letter to our family and friends.
Please do not think our decision to leave Adventism is prompted by bitterness over unkind treatment. And we certainly do not consider ourselves backsliders. This has been an agonizing journey, because we fear our decision to leave the SDA church will prompt some life long friends and even family members, whom we love, to sever their relationship with us. Our decision to leave is based on the realization of just how unscriptural and historically false the claims of Adventism are. These claims include:
- The Adventist Church is the Remnant Church. The Bible says those believers who surrender total control of their lives to Jesus are His people. (Jn 6:37,40; 10:1-16; Eph 1:7-14; 4:4-6; Col 3:23,24; 2 Thes 2:13,14)
- The doctrine of "Investigative Judgment". This belief cannot be supported by the Bible in anyway. There is absolutely no Biblical mention of Jesus being anywhere but at the right hand of God. God is Godwhy would He need to be vindicated? In Christ we have no condemnation NOW. (Rom 8:1,2)
- The Sabbath is the seal or sign of the seal of God. The Bible says the Holy Spirit is the seal of God (2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13; 4:30). Paul tells us in Romans 14 not to judge people by the day they worship. (Rom 14:5; Heb 4)
- There will be a national Sunday law at end times. There is no Biblical support for this belief.
- Ellen G. White is the Lord's messenger. The Bible tells us it is through the Holy Spirit that God reveals all truth in His Word and through the life of Jesus (Heb 1:1-3). We have found, through research, that EGW's books and writings contain a great deal of plagiarized material, copied from those she later identified as "apostate protestants". To our further amazement and disappointment, we learned that the Adventist General Conference has been aware of this "literary borrowing" for over eighty years and has not denied it. Instead, the Conference has gone to great lengths to excuse it. As we continued to study her writings, those of her critics and apologists, the authors she copied from, and the Bible, we have concluded that she is neither a prophet nor are her writings inspired by God. We chose to have God's Word as our ONLY rule of faith and practice.
We could continue for pages as we have spent a great deal of prayerful study examining Scripture and SDA doctrine. Our decision to follow Jesus only does not need to be defended. He is the Way, the Truth, the Life and Light of the world. He is our Savior forever. "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 8:1) Without any doubt, our salvation is secure. Jesus secured it for us once and for all time 2,000+ years ago (Eph 1:7,11-14; 2:8; 1Pet 1:18,19; 1 Jn 1:9; 2:1,2,25; 5:11-13).
In Christ alone,
Greg, Denise and Kelsey Hutton
Cc: Family members and friends
Letter to Family and Friends
August 26, 2006
Dear Family and Friends,
Enclosed you will find a letter we have written asking to have our names removed from the SDA Church. Some of you may be uncertain as to why we would send you a copy. Others of you may not even care. But in light of being open, not wanting heresy to cloud the truth of our decision, we want to share with you the main reason for making this life changing decision. We also want to make it clear, as far as we are concerned, we see no reason why our relationship with you should change because we no longer consider ourselves Seventh-day Adventists.
We know some of you will immediately be concerned for our eternal destiny. As Adventists, we have been told there would be family members and friends who would leave the church because of "false teachings". Both of us remember being told these very people would be the ones to bring much suffering to the lives of Adventists during the Sunday Laws at the time of trouble.
For many Biblical reasons, we know this is not true. For one thing, we are not Sunday worshipers. We are Jesus worshipers. Just because the church we attend meets on Sunday does not mean we are worshiping a day. We attend a church which teaches that the true, authentic Gospel is Jesus the Christ. It holds no special meaning to us to meet on a Sunday. We have determined Jesus is central in our beliefs, not a day.
Jesus is our reason for leaving Adventism, not bitterness or needing "freedom to sin". It is our desire to put Him first, to revel in His grace and the freedom He purchased for us. It is surrendering to His will, His leading and a true rest in Him that we want. For us, Sabbath is not a one day experience but a seven day experience.
Jesus Himself told it this way, "Come to Me, all you who labor and I will give you REST. Take My yoke and learn from MeMy yoke is easy and My burden is light."
We have been torn between sending all of you a copy of this letter or just keeping it to ourselves, but we decided it was better to discuss our desire to follow Jesus than to leave anyone wondering if we had made this important decision without earnest study and prayer. If any of you would rather not discuss this with us, we understand but please know we are not ashamed of our decision to leave Adventism and we are happy to talk about this further with any of you who would like additional explanation. It is our hope and prayer that our relationship with you will continue on through eternity.
With love,
Denise and Greg
Encl.
Letter to Church Board President
To: College Church Board President
From: Greg and Denise Hutton
Date: August 25, 2006
Please find the enclosed copies of our letter to the Church Board. Please give each church pastor and board member a letter at your next board meeting. We would appreciate a letter from you confirming our names have been removed from the membership roll of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Thank you for your time and assistance.
Greg and Denise Hutton
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GREG AND DENISE HUTTON