If you were to leave the Adventist church, where would you go?

[abelisle]

My wife and I have had this discussion over the years, me being more liberal, she being more conservative. There are clearly some things about Adventism that I either don't believe or I'm not sure about. But when I think about where I would go to worship, Adventism for me still seems to be closest to Biblical truth.

Sometimes I wish I never knew about the SOP and other times I find it to be quite illuminating. Sometimes I wonder why, with all the spiritual insight we have, there seems to be a disconnect between our secular and spiritual lives? Am I a Christian first, Adventist second?

Why is our evangelism thrust focused on prophecy rather than Christ? When I've asked this question to evangelists, their reply was "then how would we be different than other Protestant churches?" My thinking on this is that if you put Christ first and point people to the Bible, the Holy Spirit would sort things out?

So, for all its foibles, misunderstandings, de facto segregation, EGW cult followers, top-down organizational structure et al, I still feel Adventism is better than anything else out there.

Just my thoughts and my opinions.

Alex

[SivartM]

I would probably be a Quaker. I wish that the Adventist church were more Quaker. I love the Quaker ideals of pacifism, tolerance, love, and hearing God's voice (outside of in-depth Greek studies done by professional theologians). A combination of the two (Adventist doctrine + Quaker practice) would be what I consider closest to true Christianity.

[phkrause]

I've thought about that myself, and also have come to this conclusion. And like dgrimm mentions, no other church follows the principals of the Bible. I think that our problem's lie in the fact that we look to much at others, instead of the head of the church Jesus, and say this church sucks. You could compare this to lets say your work. At work how many people there would you emulate there work habits? Probably not many if any at all. When I had a job and went to work everyday, my first priority was I did my job to be honorable to God first, to make myself approved to him and not my boss or fellow workers. How does that verse in the Bible go, show yourselfs approve of your father in heaven? Something like that. I kind of look at the church that way. So like Sivart mentioned that he appreciated how the Quakers as a people are, we could be just like that in our church. Just be the person that the HS wants you to be. Your there for God not the person sitting next to you at church. I believe there is a place for all those things that we dislike about church, because there are others besides ourselves that maybe require something form church very different that what we might want from our Sabbath or Christian experience. Like the Jews there whole world center around there religion not just one day of the week but everyday. So Alex to me I'm a Christian first than an Adventist. Thanks is the way that I see it. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that I'm a good SDA but could mean that I'm a good Christian. Of course in the end that's God's call.

pk

[Liz]

My dh and I have this discussion all the time. We would like to combine the best of all the religions, then we would have some awesome Christians. To have the devotion to prayer that the Catholics and the Muslims have, to have the worship and praise service that the Pentacostals have, to have the friendliness and helpfulness of the Baptists, the gentleness of the Quakers, the fire to proselytize like the Jehovah's Witnesses with the truth of the SDA's, what a fearsome Christian to behold.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

I can think of an Adventist like that....he was also guilty of spiritual abuse.

[Gail]

I'm a "anywhere and nowhere" type of person so that is the direction I would most likely take.

[Woody]

First of all ... thanks Liz for a great post.

And now to answer from my perspective ... the OP.

I would go with cog7 (Church of God seventh day)

[Kountzer]

I first encountered this church and its belief system when I was 5 to 9 years old, somewhere in that timespan. I knew then that it was the truth. Maybe the Holy Spirit confirmed it for me. I don't know, I just knew.

Still, a part of me wanted the world. As a child I wanted to watch cartoons and play with my friends on Saturday mornings. I wanted to watch the Friday night lights of the high school football games. I wanted to rock out to soul music and Jimi Hendrix.

So, I searched for loopholes in this adventist thing. I could not find one. Adventists always had the answers. Their answers always made sense. I can't say the same for religious stuff I heard from other sources.

I don't think there is another church to go to. This is the place. It is not easy, but nothing worthwhile is.

DB

[olger]

Ain't nowhere else to go..

g

[Dr. Shane]

I think there is way too much spiritual pride held by way too many people. It makes no difference where I would go. The church doesn't need me nearly as much as I need the church. It is not as if my endorsement of a specific denomination holds some sort of high value. I don't believe in every single doctrine of the Adventist church but then I am probably wrong about a lot of what I believe. I am a sinful and erring human very much subject to being wrong.

The question that is more realistic for me is, where would I go if the Adventist church expelled me? I would probably first find a counselor to help me deal with the rejection. Once I worked through that I would look for a Sabbath keeping church that would allow me to attend - maybe a different Adventist congregation. If that was not an option, I would probably attend a nondenominational church and continue to honor Saturday as the Sabbath.

[Dr. Shane]

When there has been a disconnect in my life I have had no one to blame but the man in the mirror. Once I started spending time in the Bible every day, quit watching evening sit-coms and dramas and tuned in 3ABN or Hope Channel instead and started to listen to Christian radio - - - that disconnect suddenly disappeared.

Prophecy = Christ

One element I would like to see more of is creationism being worked into evangelism. Many believe Christ is the Creator but do not see the Creation-Sabbath link. Evangelical Christianity is filled with anti-evolution people but only the Adventists are the ones honoring the memorial of creation.

[abelisle]

[in response to a now deleted non-substantive and disruptive post objecting to even asking this sort of question, etc...]

I always thought that God encouraged free thinking; that He even gave us free will (including the angels). And shouldn't we question our church in order to hold them to task as keeping in line with their self-proclaimed title of "the remnant church?" In addition, if we have to worry that questioning will lead us astray, what does that say about our faith?

Lord, forgive me if I have become "a stumbling block."

Your brother in Christ

Alex

[Outta Here]

Interjecting a thought...

Why is it commonplace that so many Adventist families would ask themselves this question "a lot"? What is happening (or not happening) within the Adventist Church that causes this question to ever come up? Are these families not happy in the Adventist Church?

It is my understanding that our relationship with God is supposed to be like a marriage. If the question, "Who would [you] be married to if you weren't married to [your spouse]?" comes up a lot, wouldn't that indicate that there was something missing in that relationship?

...back to your regularly scheduled programming.

[Outta Here]

Just to answer the original question: We'd go to the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod).

[Kevin H]

This would be a tough one; but I feel that there are two things in the Seventh-day Adventist church. On the one hand the underlying church it self is very moderate, but on the other hand our members tend to lean more to conservative and less interested in Adventistism and applying it to modern Biblical studies and more interested in defending tradition and applying it to what we knew about the Bible 135 years ago, and we have tendencys of grabing about half the truth and running with the half of the truth that we understand and ust that to fight the rest of the truth. I love Mrs. White's great Controversy philosophy: The 3 aspects of the trinity, the law of God being Self-Sacrificing love. The 3 deceptions of Satan attacking the 3 aspects of the trinity, connected to most if not all the three's n the Bible. How Christ dealt with the deceptions. How the 3 beasts of Rev. 12 and 13 are based on this, and how they are fully answered in the 3 angels message, and the nature of hell fire and how God distroys the lost. I love the doctrine of the Investigative Judgment; the age of exogesis and deeper Bible study; and that it reminds us that we are all in this together and always have room for growth. That our expirence with God is more important than saying the magic words about accepting Jesus and being saved, but that while beig a Christ

[abelisle]

Thanks Aubrey for your thought. Seems like there are two marriages we're talking about? My marriage relationship with God has been a lifelong one and for the most part a good one. But my marriage relationship with the Adventist church has been quite rocky.

When I spoke with God in prayer about working out some of our rough spots, He was very gracious, understanding and merciful. When I tried to communicate with church leadership about some things, I was essentially stonewalled.

Maybe that's why Adventists are asking this question?

Alex (just want you to know that I/we are working hard to keep both marriages strong )

[Outta Here]

Yes, I sheepishly admit that there are really two different

"marriages" in my post.

So, what it is about the Adventist Church (which many profess as the only church that teachees the Truth) that makes members consider going elsewhere?

To me, it seems as if people are considering sacrificing Truth for Relationship. In the grand picture, which is more important?

[Gail]

This is happening in our Conference as we speak by our Conference President. He nearly wiped me out of Creation DVDs yesterday on his way out.

[Gail]

The church on earth is where we can put our faith in Jesus to the test as far as relationships go (just like a marriage). It is interesting watching that process in action!

Where would we be without each other?

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

If I were to leave the Adventist church, I would probably go back to witchcraft, left hand path.

[phkrause]

Good point dgrimm

pk

[Liz]

Exactly Alex, thanks for saying that so well, about the two different marriages.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

I disagree, dgrimm60. I think Satan is happy as a clam with the people in churches they way they are now. And the devil doesn't hate SDA christians anymore than he hates any christian. Just my own perspective....

[phkrause]

I do agree that Satan hates all pretty much the same. But the reason I agree with dgrimm on this is that, first Satan hates the Sabbath because it represents creation and the day that the Lord made Holy. Second the Adventist church most of other churches follows the Bible and Satan hates that. Not saying that there are not good christians in other churches. Satan has hated the Jews from the beginning of there arrival and now the adventist church has bascily taken that of carry the message that God wanted the Jews to do.

pk

[Bravus]

We've been attending a Baptist church, but pastored by someone with an extensive Salvation Army background, for the last year or so, but there's enough of a mismatch that it's not really working. We're currently thinking about finding an SDA church again that works... realising that whatever congregation we choose there will be issues and irritations...