Adventism from a non-former Adventist’s perspective

Brownpau as he describe his encounter with Adventist theology.

If you’ll notice, this thing has been my preoccupation in the last several posts. This is not Adventist-bashing. I love my Adventist family and friends. I’m just saddend in seeing most of them being overwhelmingly covered by the clouds of legalism. And legalism has the worst effect in a person’s life, as partially outlined in this document:

Self-punishment. Legalists make vows not to sin. Then, when the vow is broken, they are plagued with guilt. Guilt drives them to perform acts of “penance” to undo the sin. The cycle goes on like this until either the sin is rationalized away (“I guess it’s not really all that bad”), or the legalists concludes that there’s just no hope for them (“hey, that’s just the way I am–you’ll just have to accept it”).

Duty focus. The Christian life is driven by a sense of obligation. Service to others or participation in fellowship is viewed as something we “have to do.” Legalists often resent ministry, but at the same time, derive their identity from it because they get positive reinforcement.

Condemning others. Legalists are able to see all too clearly the failures of others because they are so preoccupied with their own. It makes the flesh feel better to knock your neighbor down a few notches. They exerience the momentary delusion of moral superiority.

Join me in praying for my friends and relatives so that they will see more fully the grace of God.

Life outside Adventism

(This one’s a letter I wrote to two of my relatives present during that “discussion” i had with my Adventist friends back home I felt that I owe them an apology at the same time explain where I am at right now in terms of my relationship with God — something I wasn’t successful doing that time. I’m making it public because 1) I know some of my relatives are visiting this blog and 2) there might be some former Adventists that will read this and probably draw strenght from)

I pray that you had a great flight upon reading this letter. I’m writing you not just to wish you well but also to say sorry for having myself engaged in a theological debate with the Jaen Adventist brethren. It wasn’t my intention. It wasn’t my desire to argue with anyone simply because he does not share with my belief. I’m really sorry about it.

It is evident that I have turned away from the beliefs that I grew up with. I know you are disappointed with me. Rest assured, though, that even if I have left the Adventist church, I never turned my back on God and I have an exciting and dynamic relationship with Him.

When I mentioned during our discussion that I have restudied my beliefs in year 2000, I have no hidden agenda for doing so. I did not do it simply because I want to justify whatever desires I have that might contradict with the practices of the Adventist church. I still pay my tithes, in fact, sometimes more than 10% of my income because my giving to the Lord is not governed by any rules rather by my relationship with Him. I still worship God not just on a Sabbath day, but everyday of my life since I accepted Jesus as the ultimate Sabbath rest for my soul. I still don’t eat pork or any of those foods that you consider unclean, although I don’t consider eating or not eating of those foods will ever determine one’s salvation.

The only reason why I reviewed my belief system is to become like the Bereans (Acts 17:11). The Bereans did not simply listen to Apostle Paul and accept everything he preaches. They searched the scriptures themselves and check whether Paul was proclaiming the truth or not. And I believe that, if it’s my salvation and the salvation of my family is in line here, I ought to do what the Bereans did. I had to go back to the Bible and see for myself if the things that were taught me by the church is really correct or not. After several months of prayer and studying the Bible, I have come to a conclusion that I can no longer support the ideals of the church I loved.

After my decision to leave the church, a lot has changed. And I would like to share with you some:

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Free Christian digital books

I was amazed of the generosity of author John Piper for allowing a digital, downloadable copies of his books. I can’t really recommend them *yet* since I haven’t read one. I am interested in “Counted Righteous in Christ” . But isn’t making it downloadable for free fairly good enough? I remember one of his book “The Passion of the Christ” was highly distributed — for free — in churches during that Mel Gibson movie hype last year.

Go check it out!

thru Keren Tan.

Rock and worship

I have been discussing Christian rock and music in the church with my friends back in my college singing group. This is issue is dear to all of us since we all share the same passion for Christian music during those days.

I’d like to share my discoveries over these past few years on the issue of contemporary Christian music.

1. Music is neutral — it isn’t good nor bad. It’s how one uses it that makes it good or bad. When I was in college, I have attended almost every seminar and video showing that discusses the “evil that is rock music”. Years after graduation, I realized that the primary reason why they placed an “of the devil” name tag to rock music is primarily because of rock groups like Bon Jovi, AC-DC, Metalica and the likes. These groups declares that they “are of the devil”, “the devil made us famous” and “we love Satan”. Those are the primary reasons why rock music is tagged as devilish and therefore cannot be used by God and should not be used as a music in the church.

A knife is a neutral object. Place it on top of a table and it does nothing. If one grabs it to cut cucumber into pieces, it becomes useful for cooking but becomes destructive when someone uses it to stab a nagging wife. :-) That’s the very same thing with music. Rock is simply a musical genre as with Jazz, Pop and Gospel. If someone uses rock to worship the devil, that doesn’t necessarily mean that that genre automatically becomes of the devil. What if a group like Petra who declares:

Gonna say it loud – gonna say it proud
Hey! I, I love the Lord
I, I love the Lord

(from the song “I love the Lord”)

Does that mean that this song — a song of declaration of love to God — is still “of the devil” simply because the artists used rock as a musical genre?

You see, even musical styles like jazz, country or pop can be used to praise the devil. Ah, and yes even classical music (really! here’s something interesting about 16th century violinist Niccolò Paganini and stories of his being in league with the devil). Not just rock for that matter! So what makes the difference? If, by using these creative sounds praises and gives glory to the One who deserves all the glory, then even rock music becomes holy in the sight of God!

The hardest thing to do is to prove biblically that rock music is created by the devil because according to my observation, any conclusions that supports it is a product of a biased mind — they simply do not like that genre, and they doesn’t want anybody else to like it too.
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Jesus came to fulfill the law

From the bereans apologetics and research ministry website.
jesus says he came to fulfill the law NOT DESTROY IT! which means the ten commandments! not moses law… i am nto a seventhday adventist and even i can see that with clear eyes… also the Sabbath command is the only commandment that says REMEMBER, so OBVIOUSLY it existed BEFORE God wrote the ten commandments with His own FINGER. please research better. there was obviosuly a difference between the sabbath(s) of the mosaic law and hte Holy Sabbath, or there wouldnt be such an emphasis on it written in stone by the hand of God. Jesus was our example, and he dint keep the mosaic law that the pharisees condemned him for NOT keeping, but HE DID KEEP THE HOLY SABBATH,,,hmm, wonder what that means…i’ll be praying for you all.
> > ra…s@hotmail.com

Hi,

Thank you for writing us. I’d like to share two things that I hope can answer your concerns.

First, Matt. 5:17 says ‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to FULFILL.” To understand what Matt is talking about when he used the word “fulfill”, we need to see the the other verses where he used the same word.

Here’s the link to help you out

If you will notice, whenever Matthew uses the word “fulfill”, he does not necessarily mean “to obey”. He means, “to come into pass” or to “do something that was prophesied”. Jesus came to do something, and that is bring out those who are under the law and place them under grace — Read Roman chapters 3-11, Paul discusses this topic very well.

Imagine, if “fulfill” in Matt. 5:17 means “to obey”, take note that the preceding verses also mentioned “not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen” will disappear. And Jesus mentioned the “law and the prophets”.

Something to ponder upon: if Jesus came to “obey the laws and the prophets (basically, that means the old testament — the “law” means the Torah and “prophets” means the books of prophets ie Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc), then why don’t we kill Sabbath breakers today? (Exo. 35)

Jesus came to fulfill the laws, and when he fulfilled it, he said “It is finished”. You are not under the law, my friend. You are now under grace.

Secondly, the Sabbath law is nonexistence before Mt. Sinai contrary to what you imply. Think about this, the Sabbath law mentioned about “not allowing your servants to work on a sabbath”. If this law is existing during the time of Adam and Eve, who are their servants? Do they have? Also, the Sabbath law mentioned about “stopping from all your work”. Tell me, in Eden, did Adam and Eve actually labor during those times? Or do they have a 24/7 sabbath rest with the Lord?

You see, the Sabbath law applies to a certain group of people to a certain time. God intended it that way. God also intends that we find our rest not in a day, but in a person. I suggest that you find your rest in the person of Jesus Christ. He alone can give you rest. (Matt. 28:11)