MORE TO FEAR FROM WITHIN. By Clifford Goldstein

I'll never forget what it was like, almost about 28 years ago, when I first became an Adventist. Having come out of pretty much a secular atheistic (and Jewish) background, I faced quite a shock, culturally and intellectually, when I joined the SDA church. Unless you've been there, you have no idea how large a gap I had to cross. Yet, it was, by far, the greatest thing to ever happen to me.

I, still, too, can remember being in bed at night, unable to sleep because my heart was racing in awe, excitement, trepidation: Wow, there really is a God! Wow, this God died for me! Wow, God has raised up this church, and I am part of it! Wow, the Sabbath is really Saturday, and one day the "mark of the beast" will come!

Of course, not too long after I joined the SDA church I got a glimpse of what was going on in it. Though I hardly expected perfection (I was cynical enough to know better than that), what I didn't expect was to find, almost from the start, were SDAs who were openly skeptical about teachings of the church itself and seemed bent on doing their best to promote their skepticism, much to the detriment of the church.

How right EGW was when she wrote:

"We have far more to fear from within than from without. The hindrances to strength and success are far greater from the church itself than from the world. Unbelievers have a right to expect that those who profess to be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, will do more than any other class to promote and honor, by their consistent lives, by their godly example and their active influence, the cause which they represent. But how often have the professed advocates of the truth proved the greatest obstacle to its advancement! The unbelief indulged, the doubts expressed, the darkness cherished, encourage the presence of evil angels, and open the way for the accomplishment of Satan's devices." (1SM 122.3)

I mean, we have one dear brother, in the blog across the way, advocating evolution. It astounds me how anyone thinking evolution is true can't see how that would, completely, totally and categorically annul Adventism or anything even close to it.

Almost from the start, I had to deal with SDAs who were attacking one way or another the ministry of EGW. If that woman weren't of God, and her ministry not of God, then, folks, there is no God--and of all people, SDAs should know that. And yet, what? Those among us have been and still continue to be some of her biggest critics and scolds. (Most likely, I guess, because she points out their favorite sins and they don't want to be reminded of them.)

And then there's the horrible perfidious doctrine of the pre-advent judgment, or the investigative judgment. I mean, unless you believe in once-saved-always-saved, unless you believe that once a person accepts Jesus, then there's no way that person can call fall away, then what's the problem with the idea of a final judgment, in which God separates the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats, among the professed followers of Jesus? Seems very biblical to me. And yet, the tirades, the accusations, the calumny raised by those in the church against that doctrine never seem to end.

I could go on and on. On a sister website I saw someone blogged about the "The Myth of the Flood" or some of silliness like that. I assume the person was an Adventist, or at least a professed one. I remember, too, on another blog, I mentioned that those who believe in evolution probably aren't going to stand for Sabbath when the "mark of the beast" comes. An SDA, a professor at one of our schools, answered something to the effect of, "Well, no one else believes in Sunday as the mark of the beast, so why should we?"

Brilliant, just brilliant.

It's sad, has been from the day I first encountered it, that the ones who have assaulted my beliefs the most haven't been pork-eating-Sunday-keeping-eternal-torment-in-hell Protestants but, instead, SDAs, or those who claim to be. And, I figure, it will only get worse, not better, before all those things that they mock come to pass, and if the past is any precursor to the future, they'll continue to mock, even when the predicted events unfold right before their eyes.

The little old lady was, par usual, right: "We have far more to fear from within than from without. "

No kidding.

Link: AdventistToday.com, posted November 1st, 2008
Author: Clifford Goldstein