Some questions about the beliefs of the Adventists

[Alepte]

Good morning,

I am a Spanish 26 years aged girl. In my environment, catholicism was the predominant faith, but in the last 3-4 decades the faith has faded quite much in my country owing to mass media. I was interested in religion and spirituality when being a child. In my late teenagehood I was getting prepared for the confirmation sacrament and assisting a course which was a requierement for doing the sacrament, but my faith lessened and found some information about incoherences of the catholicism, so I quitted the course and stopped being willing to do the confirmation. I assissted a sect for 1 year when being 17 years old. Next, I was switching from deist to atheist and then back from time to time. I became to be interested in the New age since last year but I am not very fervent of that spirituality and do not do many practices because I heard about stories of people being attacked by demons when doing those practices. Even a man who recommends meditation and yoga, admitted that a person can be attacked by demons when meditating if some factors take place. I watched some videos about people switching from the New Age to Christianism (in some cases catholicism and in other cases protestant religions). Then, I attended a mass, visited some churches (catholic) and felt a little well.

The downside of the catholicism are its incoherences and the fact that (at least according to me) people do flagellate psychologically a bit ("we are sinners", "my blame"). I do not mean we are perfect or gods, and people also have bad features, but I think that the catholicism use these facts to flagellate psychologically people. Another feature that I dislike about the catholicism is that in that faith people encourage to deny oneself and commend entirely to God. I even have heard from a Catholic man that personal development is bad because it is done from the self and not by commending to God and he reccommended to convert oneseff. I think but we do not have to be excessively self-centered, but consider that we should take importance about us and take care and attention about us, at least partially, and commend to God but not denying ourselves. I may be too self-centered. I also have heard and read about catholic people that we do not deserve the wells and skills we have but they have bestowed to us by generosity of God. In my opinion, all people deserve a mininum of material elements which able them have a somewhat good quality of life.

Are believes and attitudes written in the second paragraph part of the Adventist faith? I would thank know that.

[Alepte]

I also would like to know if you believe that Jesus had siblings and if you accept the Book of Enoch and which gospels you accept (canonical and not-canonical).

[Alepte]

Another question I have is what you think about repetitive prays (which are acceptable and even encouraged to be a way to communicate to God in catholicism).

[Gregory Matthews]

Alepte:  Welcome to this forum.  There are a large diversity of people who come here and post in this forum.  Some are traditional Seventh-day Adventists.  Some have a SDA relationship, but, in some ways hold to minority views.  And some are not Seventh-day Adventist in any manner.  As an example we have a devout Roman Catholic who posts in this forum on a regular basis.

In addition, Seventh-day Adventists are simply people who are on a spiritual journey.  We are not all at the same place in that journey.  This results in SDAs holding to a wide-variety of belief and practice.  Yes, there may eb an official teaching on a doctrinal issue.  But, that does not mean that all SDAs believe and accept it.

On another aspect, there are doctrinal teachings that are important for spiritual life.  Justification by faith is one.  But, there are others that really are not important to one's salvation.  Whether the Children of Israel spent 430 years in Egypt or 215 years is probably one question that is not important to salvation.

 

[Gregory Matthews]

Alepte:

*  Seventh-day Adventist accept the books generally accepted by most Protestants.  IOW  66 books, 27 in the New Testament and 39 in the Old Testament.

*  Some Seventh-day Adventists are going to believe that the brothers of Jesus had Joseph as their Father from a previous marriage and other SDAs are going to believe that the brothers of Jesus had Mary as their Mother.

 *  The book of Enoch is not accepted as canonical.

*  Some non-canonical books have historical value even if not a part of the Bible.

*  The SDA Chruch does not dictate the exact manner in which people pray to God.  However most probably do not pray in the manner that you ask about.

 

 

[Alepte]

2 hours ago, Gregory Matthews said:

Alepte:  Welcome to this forum.  There are a large diversity of people who come here and post in this forum.  Some are traditional Seventh-day Adventists.  Some have a SDA relationship, but, in some ways hold to minority views.  And some are not Seventh-day Adventist in any manner.  As an example we have a devout Roman Catholic who posts in this forum on a regular basis.

In addition, Seventh-day Adventists are simply people who are on a spiritual journey.  We are not all at the same place in that journey.  This results in SDAs holding to a wide-variety of belief and practice.  Yes, there may eb an official teaching on a doctrinal issue.  But, that does not mean that all SDAs believe and accept it.

On another aspect, there are doctrinal teachings that are important for spiritual life.  Justification by faith is one.  But, there are others that really are not important to one's salvation.  Whether the Children of Israel spent 430 years in Egypt or 215 years is probably one question that is not important to salvation.

 

I figure that in the Seventh-day Adventist religion there are more ways of thinking about God, of having the relationship with God, and more ways for interpreting the Sacred Book than in other religions, leaving aside the basic doctrinal issues and questions. Am I right?

[Gregory Matthews]

Other religions may be quite diverse.  So, I am not going to compare.

Your question also involves the question as to what is a religion.  I come from a background that says that Christianity is a religion.  Catholics, Adventists, Baptists, Methodists and others are all sects that exist within the Christian religion.

 

[JoeMo]

Hi Alepte,

Welcome to the forum.  I am one of those people Gregory referred to above as someone having a long-term relationship with SDA's; but I hold several minority views.  I won't get into those minority views now, since you are searching I don't want to Say anything that would confuse or discourage you.

Like Gregory says, faith is a journey; not a destination. I myself was raised a devout Catholic - so much so I almost became a priest.  As I read the Bible, I - like you - began to see discrepancies between scripture and Catholic doctrine; so I eventually became and SDA.

As I continue to study, I also see discrepancies between my understanding of Scripture and Adventism.  I have also come to the conclusion that spirituality is more about a proper relationship than about correct theology.  If we truly love and trust Jesus, any questions we have on theology will be clearly answered by Jesus in the Kingdom; and because we love and trust Him explicitly, we will believe everything He tells us.

In my humble opinion, not all theology is salvational.  For example, Catholics worship on Sunday; and SDA's worship in Saturday; which is in accordance with the Commandments.  Does that mean that if you don't worship on Sabbath that you will go to hell? In my opinion - NO! Some of the most devout and loyal Christians I know worship on Sunday.  SDA's believe that pork in unfit for human consumption as stated clearly in Leviticus.  Does that mean that people who eat bacon with their eggs in the morning will go to hell: NO!

Do you love God with all your heart. strength and mind?  Do you believe His is the only Name under heaven by which we may be saved?  THAT is the essence of salvational truth, no matter what Christian sect you belong to.

May God bless you with wisdom and discernment on your journey to His Kingdom!

[Gregory Matthews]

Jo Mo is a vauled member of this forum.

[Alepte]

5 hours ago, Gregory Matthews said:

Other religions may be quite diverse.  So, I am not going to compare.

Your question also involves the question as to what is a religion.  I come from a background that says that Christianity is a religion.  Catholics, Adventists, Baptists, Methodists and others are all sects that exist within the Christian religion.

 

What I meant is that there seem to be more personal margin/gap/gape about one's relation with God and about the interpretation of the Bible that I was used to and that is presented in the first post. I tried to comment this some hours ago, but I do not know if finally I did not submit the reply.

[BlessedMan]

On 7/24/2021 at 7:23 AM, Alepte said:

I figure that in the Seventh-day Adventist religion there are more ways of thinking about God, of having the relationship with God, and more ways for interpreting the Sacred Book than in other religions, leaving aside the basic doctrinal issues and questions. Am I right?

Hello and Welcome Alepte

I am glad to see you are searching for truth and wanting to know God better. Most Adventists, no matter what flavour they come from would concur that it is eternal life to know Jesus. (John 17;3. I think you could be right that we have many ways of looking at God and I think that is, as Gregory has stated, we do have a very wide variety of members, and non members.

I think you were asking above re The Book Of Enoch, so I thought for this post I could share our "official" belief about the Bible. This is a short summary of said belief, but its a good place to start:
 

Quote

 

-The Holy Scriptures

The Holy Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, are the written Word of God, given by divine inspiration. The inspired authors spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In this Word, God has committed to humanity the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are the supreme, authoritative, and the infallible revelation of His will. They are the standard of character, the test of experience, the definitive revealer of doctrines, and the trustworthy record of God’s acts in history. (Psa_119:105; Pro_30:5-6; Isa_8:20; Joh_17:17; 1Th_2:13; 2Ti_3:16-17; Heb_4:12; 2Pe_1:20-21.)

 

I hope this helps you a little, and that if you have more questions or thoughts, that you will feel free to come back and share with us again.

[stinsonmarri]

On 7/24/2021 at 4:09 AM, Alepte said:

I also would like to know if you believe that Jesus had siblings and if you accept the Book of Enoch and which gospels you accept (canonical and not-canonical).

It is not canonical at all. It is a mythological lie! It was written thousands of years after Enoch went to Heaven. The writer copy some things from the Bible but it is not creditable. First of all the Bible never give you these names of angels. The only two angels' that are mentioned in the Bible are Lucifer and Gabriel.  Angels has no gender and they do not reproduce in Heaven. They were never kicked out here because this earth was not created at that time. The Bibles makes it clear in Job that the angels who are also spirit beings and sons of YAHWEH are not angels but other's beings created before us.

The Bible also tells us that the angels who fell with Lucifer are in prison known as the bottomless pit. A certain angel has the key and when YAHSHUA returns this angel will place Lucifer now in the bottomless pit! The Greek word "ge," mean land mass or soil and Heaven and other planets have land mass and soil. The Bible shows that the Tree of Life is in Heaven also HIS Temple is build there. YAHSHUA promise that HE will eat with us in Heaven and the New Jerusalem will come down from Heaven and not from a cloud.

Finally, Lucifer had this writer to write a big lie back then that has been accepted now. Lucifer wants people on this earth to believe he is so powerful that his angels can produce having no gender. So the book of Enoch is like the Social Media it is false speech and their is nothing freedom about this book as the lies that are told today. Now you have it!

Blessings!