Adventists leaving the church

Here is the crux of a testimony of a woman who left the Advent movement:

Kamy assumes the role of spiritual leader in the home

After my father tragically died at a young and unexpected age, I took up the anvil of the family altar and became an avid student of Ellen White and firmly took my stand with the belief that the Seventh-day Adventist Church was God’s remnant church, that Ellen White was indeed a true prophet and must be heeded as much as any Biblical prophet. I became more conservative even than my father and for a few years believed that participating in certain activities like playing chess, checkers and cards was something to be shunned as Ellen White had clearly written  “heaven forbids” it.  I took off my own wedding ring that I had worn in my more youthful and less conservative years and did my best to be as proper and unworldly as I possibly could. 

In my earnestness I even tried to (with the best of intentions) steer my mom and sisters and their families back on to the “right and proper” path of salvation to their utter disdain and annoyance. They were actually a lot more patient with me than I probably deserved. They knew that I was sincere and truly cared about them or they would have had me tarred and feathered for sure! Again, I say this humorously.

But even in the midst of my soldiering on in the battle of defending my faith I would often stumble upon things that I simply could not understand or see how it fit in with what the Bible seemed to be saying and at those critical junctures I would often throw my hands up resignedly, saying, “well, I don’t understand it, but she is the prophet so who am I to question.”

Wow, it is a painful realization for me now to think that I could have ever turned over my own God given reason to another person when I had the Bible right there in front of me telling me, “this is the way, walk in it.” 

 Kamy’s faith is shaken

It was not until I went through a painful economic collapse, bankruptcy, bitter disappointment and a failed marriage that my faith was shaken to the degree that it caused me to question everything I ever believed and what it was that I was really holding on to. My crutches were completely knocked out from under me and I was truly at the lowest point in my existence, face down and brought to my knees. When the dust finally settled and I looked up Jesus was still standing there. I could hear him saying to my heart, “though others have rejected, denounced, condemned and judged you, I love you. I do not condemn you. I will never leave you or forsake you. I am all you have and I am all you need, go and sin no more, but if you do, confess your sins and I will always be faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness for I ever live to intercede for you.”

I started realizing that although I had been sincere and zealous I had actually been faithful to a cause instead of to Christ. I had made an idol of my way of looking at God and religion and would have made an excellent Pharisee but a very lousy Christian. I determined that I was going to open up my heart and mind in a way that I had never opened it before to Jesus Christ. 

I do not think that now I have all the answers or understand all the truth there is to understand about God. But now it is a lot easier, just using the Bible and letting the Holy Spirit speak to me through it which has led me on a different path than following in the footprints of Ellen White and all the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

There is one thing I know for sure and that is that the love of Christ constrains me and there is nothing that can separate me from His love and mercy and forgiveness. I know that I cannot afford to stand for even one second without Jesus as my intercessor and that I have absolutely no righteousness of my own but that I am covered fully and completely by the grace and righteousness of Christ and always will be, that my salvation is found in Him and Him alone; not in a church, a denomination, a doctrine or a cause, just Jesus Christ. And I am so thankful to finally know that.

I was sad to read this account. I don't know Kamy or her family or Brian. But, I have seen the issues in Adventism that are raised by people leaving the church. I also left for 13 years and spend my years out in the world. During those years, no religion was my path, and raising a family where love could be experienced. I had tasted of real Christian love, but the person who introduced that to me moved on and I was once again left with church life empty of anything worth going there. A country club I didn't want. I wanted love, and playing church didn't satisfy. The person who showed me real, loving fellowship loved Jesus, he loved his Bible, he loved the Spirit of Prophecy, he loved the hymns, he loved the Steps to Christ that he carried around in his pocket, he loved the people in our church and they loved him. I had grown up in that church from age 9 when my father joined the church, and all I ever knew of Adventism was people coming to church, sitting in church, listening to leaders teach them, and then leaving church at noon. But, this young man, an adult to my teen mind, was different. From him I learned about October 22,1844 and church history. From him I learned of the health message that we had had for the previous century. From him I learned the Bible. It was an amazing year and a half! Oh how I loved it! The standard was high; self-discipline was expected; but love made it all possible! Self-denial and love are infinitely better than indifference without love. I love to confess something similar to what Ellen White wrote, "Of all the great [SDA youth groups] since the days of [my time with Richard], none have been [so full of love, and] more free from human imperfection and the wiles of Satan than was that of the [the Fairfax, VA SDA church in 1974-75]. Even now, after the lapse of many years, all who shared in that [youth group] and who have stood firm upon the platform of truth still feel the holy influence of that blessed work and bear witness that it was of God." Great Controversy, p. 401.

When Jesus brought me back to Him, He led me straight back to the where I left Him, into the Adventist church. He gave me a ravenous need to relearn what I had received in my youth, and to understand Bible prophecy. After a few years of a sharp learning curve, He gave me a unique way of seeing the book of Revelation. So, after ten years of struggling to put my learning on paper, organizing my new understanding of the whole Bible in the context of the Revelation message, I published a book that no one bought, except two people. One gave me an A+ and the other gave me an F-.

But, that's OK. All of that behind me now, with confidence I can tell people that, regarding the relevance of Adventism, it is in Revelation and current events. Everything Jesus gave His precious Advent Movement in the Bible and through His last days Moses/Paul, Ellen White, is coming true right before our ever wondering eyes. How can any Adventist call Mrs. White a cult leader/con artist/plagiarist etc.? All they have to do is open their eyes and ears. And how dare Adventists say, "I don't believe in conspiracy theories"! Isn't Satan's great controversy against God the Father and His church a great conspiracy? Often I am astonished at the ignorance of the truth God gave us in the third angel's message, which is all that Ellen White promulgated.

Regarding the prevailing unbelief toward perfection and sanctification for preparation to meet Jesus at His powerful and destructive second coming, as Ellen White faithfully and so energetically laid plainly before us, who can say that her sensible super-high standards did not come from a heavenly fountain of pure wisdom? Anyone who has tried to disregard any of the plethora of her counsels has found only trouble and misery. Let’s get honest and admit that truth is truth, and we can do nothing against it, but for it. Either we prove it correct by honoring it and receiving the great rewards, or we prove it true by dishonoring it and paying the consequences. Her message was the Law of God, just like the messages of every previous prophet of the Lord. Her instructions in righteousness, like Moses and all the prophets like him, are from heaven. Nothing earthly can compare with the volume and the purity of the words from Jesus that flowed through all His messengers since the beginning. And Ellen White was one of His messengers, the final and greatest messenger. She was our John the Baptist who was more than a prophet.

Let no one disregard her anymore. From her own pen: “I saw that the testimony of the True Witness has not been half heeded. The solemn testimony upon which the destiny of the church hangs has been lightly esteemed, if not entirely disregarded. This testimony must work deep repentance; all who truly receive it will obey it and be purified.” Early Writings, p. 270. Every SDA needs to read that short three page chapter. It’s entitled, The Shaking. Pertinant! Pointed! Please people, read and heed!

But, there is another very relevant aspect to Adventism, and it particularly relates to Kamy’s experience and to every Adventist’s experience, as it did to mine. That aspect is heard from the wonderfully analytical apostle Paul:

“But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 

But before faith came, we were kept under ['the curse of" (vs. 13)] the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” (Gal. 3:22-24).

These words speak directly to Adventists more than to anyone else in Christianity. How so? you ask. Let’s place this above text in our present day and you see if it is the greatest truth ever told!

“But the [Spirit of prophecy counsels have] concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. 

But before faith came, we were kept under the [condemnations of the Spirit of prophecy counsels], shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. 

Wherefore the [Spirit of prophecy counsels were] our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be [justified, sanctified, sealed] by faith.”

Now, we need to ask the question, How many Adventists have allowed the counsels of the last days prophet to bring them to Christ for a genuine justification and the new birth? Have not those condemnatory counsels caused most Adventists to 1) check off each and every requirement as having already achieved them or having bent all their willpower to achieve obedience to the requirement one at a time, or 2) be driven to total rebellion against the offense that those counsels waylaid against their fallen nature. Either way, the offense rarely broke their stubborn pride, and brought them to repentance. And that was their primary purpose! Therefore, faith never came to those two majorities, and neither did justification and peace with God. But faith and grace should have been the fruit. What went wrong? Could the formula that Paul said blessed the apostolic church have failed in the Adventist church?

We were kept under the Law, as every prophet of the Lord has done to God’s people throughout the ages. “But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” (1Cor. 10:5). “The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.” (Heb. 4:2).

“While it is said, To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. 

For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. 

But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness? 

And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? 

So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” (Heb. 3:15-19).

However, “not all” rebelled. Not everyone who wandered in the wilderness continuously refused to hear the laws from Moses. And, likewise, not all biding the time for Jesus to return continuously refused to hear the counsels from Ellen White. But most did refuse the humbling of their uncircumcised heart. Most of the children of Israel and of Adventism would not be convicted of sin and be brought to repentance. This explains the dry experience of most Adventists since 1844. But, the scary thing about this comparison with ancient Israel that even Ellen White made in her masterpiece of truth, The Great Controversy, pages 457 and 458, is that if we have been repeating the history of the Israelites in Moses time, then at the end of their privilege of presenting Jesus to the world we, as a denomination, are due to repeat Israel's horrendous history in the days of their Messiah, Jesus the only Begotten of the Father. So, what would be the modern counterpart to the Jews 2,000 years ago? Our generation! Yes, every Adventist must be cognizant of this. We, in our current worldliness and pompous Phariseeism are on the verge of selling our Lord for the price of a slave, and of persecuting the recipients of Jesus' Latter Rain when He will walk among us like He did the apostolic church. The Lord of hosts will count us among His hosts of heaven and earth.

“The power of the Holy Ghost must be upon us and the Captain of the Lord’s host will stand at the head of the angels of heaven to direct the battle. Solemn events before us are yet to transpire.

Trumpet after trumpet is to be sounded; vial after vial poured out one after another upon the inhabitants of the earth. Scenes of stupendous interest are right upon us and these things will be sure indications of the presence of Him who has directed in every aggressive movement, who has accompanied the march of His cause through all the ages, and who has graciously pledged Himself to be with His people in all their conflicts to the end of the world.” Selected Messages, bk. 3, p. 426.

But who will take part in that powerful event? Or who will fight against it like the scribes and Pharisees worked feverishly to undermine Jesus when the Captain of our salvation will once again be in our midst during the Loud Cry of the Latter Rain? Everything depends on the right action of standing before the searching Spirit of prophecy that always calls sin by its right name. Just like the scriptures, No loopholes!

To read Kamy’s story go to: Kamy's Journey - Part 1 | Adventist Soapbox