2014-4 proclamation letter - life assurance...

EDITORrsquoS C O M M E N T S

We entered 2018 riding a wave of changeour church plant Redeemer Fellowship

moved into its own space on January 2 Thatmove left us just over a month to prepare the fa-cility for our first FAF Conference in our ownchurch in Loma Linda

Besides its being our first conference in LomaLinda the 2018 FAF weekend will always re-mind me of the paradigm-shattering realizationwe had as we prepared for it Adventism has in-tentionally taught that Jesus is an old covenantpriest by depicting him wearing the garments of

Aaron in the heavenly sanctuary In other wordsin opposition to Hebrews 7 Adventist artteaches the investigative judgment subliminallyby showing that Jesus is like Aaron not likeMelchizedek

The year brought other landmark events aswell Even though our print magazine has re-duced to two issues this year Proclamation hasexperienced a growing online audience and in-creased its content by delivering new materialevery week through its email and blogs

In October my mother died Even though shehad been on hospice for several months her finalstroke came without warning For just over aweek we sat with her sang to her and comfortedher as she made her transition from life in herbody to being fully alive in her Lord Jesus

Two weeks after her memorial service weboarded a plane for Midway airport in Chicagowith fellow Life Assurance Board membersCheryl Granger and Carel Stevenson and hisfamilymdashNicole Joshua and Abigail We were tomeet Dale and Carolyn Ratzlaff at The Chapelin St Joseph Michigan where we were conduct-ing a one-day FAF Conference and three train-ing meetings for the members of The Chapel

On the day we convened in St Joseph Daleand Carolyn learned that their grandson haddied tragically and they had to leave immedi-ately to be close to their son We reconfigured acouple of the meetings and the Lord enabledus to carry on with the conferences and keptthe Ratzlaffs safe as they drove back to theSouthwest

Vol 19 Issue 2 bull Fall 2018

Founding Editor Dale Ratzlaff

Editor Colleen Tinker

Design Editor Richard Tinker

Copy Editor Cristine Cole

Contributing Editors Rick Barker Martin L Carey Nicole Stevenson

Proofreaders Carolyn Ratzlaff Jordan Quinley

Life Assurance Ministries IncBoard of Directors

Richard Tinker PresidentCheryl Granger SecretaryMartin Carey Dale Ratzlaff Carel Stevenson

Proclamation is published by Life AssuranceMinistries Inc 1042 North Powderhorn RoadCamp Verde AZ 86322 Copyright copy2018 LifeAssurance Ministries Inc All rights reservedPrinted in USA

Editorial Office phone (909) 794-9804

Web LifeAssuranceMinistriesorgE-mail ProclamationgmailcomYouTube FormerAdventist

hellipWE ARE TRUSTING GODrsquoS DIRECTION AS WE LOOK FORWARD TOCONDUCTING MORE TRAINING SEMINARS IN LOCAL AREA CHURCHESWHERE THERE IS A DESIRE TO UNDERSTAND ADVENTISM

C O L L E E N T I N K E R

2 | FALL | 2018 | PROCLAMATION

Now completing our year-end edition ofProclamation as we rush into Christmas we arethanking our Father for providing for us and forconfirming that He has given us not only thework of helping Adventists transition out of theirreligion but also of helping Christians to under-stand Adventism The Michigan conferencehelped us clarify the needs Christians have forunderstanding the differences between their be-liefs and Adventist beliefs so that they can haveproductive conversations with the Adventists intheir lives

As we look forward to 2019 we are preparingfor our second FAF Conference in Loma Lindaat Redeemer Fellowship ldquoPure Gospelrdquo is thetitle of the conference which will take place theLord willing February 15ndash17 You may registerwith the registration form in this magazine oryou may register online at the URL listed on theConference page We would love to meet asmany of you as can come

As we end this year we thank each of you forbeing part of this ministry Your support of LAMis an encouragement and a blessing and we aretrusting Godrsquos direction as we look forward toconducting more training seminars in local areachurches where there is a desire to understandAdventism

In this issue we share Kaspars Ozolins faithstory and Richard Tinker shows how Ephesians21ndash10 explains his growth in the Lord from hischildhood in Adventism to his work with LifeAssurance Ministries Wes Ringer tells us how hewas fired from his Adventist teacher position andhow he came to be a Wycliffe Bible translator inthe Sudan Martin Carey shows us how Jesus isour intercessor forever and Rick Barker unpacksAdventismrsquos twenty-fifth Fundamental BeliefNicole Stevenson reminds us that contentment isGodrsquos gift to us as we thank Him for His provi-sion for our Life After

We pray for the Lord to bless us all as wewalk into the next year He is already in the fu-ture

THE LORD IS IN THE FUTURE

Your help is neededThe costs of maintaining this ministry

are high but the results are priceless

Use the envelope in the center of this

magazine today

This Christmas season let us focus on the significance ofthe birth of Christ rather than on the event

But when the fullness of the time came God sentforth His Son born of a woman born under the Lawso that He might redeem those who were under theLaw that we might receive the adoption as sons Be-cause you are sons God has sent forth the Spirit ofHis Son into our hearts crying ldquoAbba FatherrdquoTherefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if ason then an heir through God (Gal 44-7)

But when the fullness of time cameThis required the sovereignty of God working through

Caesar Augustus to declare acensus so that Joseph and Marywould be forced to go to Bethle-hem in fulfillment of Micahrsquosprophecy It required Mary togive birth during the time sheand Joseph were in BethlehemIt required Jesus being born atthe right time so years later Hisministry would culminate in thecrucifixion when the PassoverLamb was killed

God sent forth His son born of a womanImmediately we note that contrary to Jewish custom no

human father is mentioned He who created the human familynow becomes a member of the human family

Born under the Law so that He might redeem those who wereunder the Law

The law could not save it could only point out sin and be ashadowmdashnot the realitymdash of grace By being born of awoman Jesus came under the law He who was greater thanall law placed Himself under the law He who was greater thanHis mother became her child Jesus came under the law sothat He could once and for all time redeem us from the domi-nation of the law

That we might receive the adoption as sonsThe law said ldquodordquo or ldquodonrsquot dordquo The problem with the law

was that no one was able to do all the good that the law re-quired nor was anyone able to refrain from doing all the lawforbade As Paul said earlier in Galatians no one is justified by

the Law before God for ldquoTHERIGHTEOUS MAN SHALLLIVE BY FAITHrdquo Howeverthe Law is not of faith on thecontrary ldquoHE WHO PRAC-TICES THEM SHALL LIVEBY THEMrdquo Christ redeemedus from the curse of the Lawhaving become a curse for us(Gal 311-13)

Because you are sons God has sent forth the Spirit of His Soninto our hearts crying ldquoAbba Fatherrdquo

Now that we have been redeemed from the law God sendsforth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts We now cry out ldquoAbba[Daddy] Fatherrdquo We do not earn sonship we ldquoreceiverdquo it Wewere not born free rather our Lord adopted us Unlike livingunder the law we do nothing but receive His grace and power

Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if a sonthen an heir through God

Now understanding the significance of the birthof Christ we understand why the heavenly hostsang ldquoGlory to God in the highest and onearth peace among men with whom He ispleasedrdquo We realize why the magi traveledlong distances to see the baby King and whythey fell to the ground and worshiped Himpresenting to Him gifts of gold frankincenseand myrrh This Christmas season letrsquos reviewthe Christmas story but more than that let usunderstand the significance of the birth ofChrist the Savior of the world

Dale Ratzlaff is the founder of Life Assurance Ministries and Proclamationmagazine

Dale and Carolyn Ratzlaff have authored six books Sabbath in Christmdasha volume that ex-plains new covenant Sabbath rest Cultic Doctrine of Seventh-day Adventismmdashexplores thefalse Adventist doctrine of a pre-advent judgment that decides eternal destinies Truth About

Adventist ldquoTruthrdquomdasha little bookthatrsquos perfect to give to Chris-tians that need to understandAdventism Truth Led Me Outmdashin which Dale Ratzlaff tells hisown story of following Jesus nomatter the cost Gospel Trans-formation mdashwhich teacheswhat the Gospel is and accom-plishes and Romans AlivemdashDalersquos study on the first eightchapters of Romans Each of these books is avail-

able at Ratzlafcom or by phon-ing (928) 554-1001

FALL | 2018 | PROCLAMATION | 3

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LORD JESUSrsquo BIRTH

JESUS CAME UNDER THE LAW SO THAT HE

COULD ONCE AND FOR ALL TIME REDEEM US

FROM THE DOMINATION OF THE LAW

ASK THE P A S T O R


artin Luther the great Protestant Reformer gave thefollowing instructions regarding this verse (above)ldquoRead these words with great vehemence lsquolives in mersquohellip lsquoloved mersquo hellip lsquogave himself for mersquordquo

The fact of the matter is as a Seventh-day Adventist I couldnot have followed Martin Lutherrsquos instructions I could not readthis verse in that way because I could not and did not under-stand it in that way I believe now that I did not have the spiri-tual eyes to see that verse because of the organization thatshaped my background

I am originally from Latvia a country in Northern Europe(which explains my strange name) When my brother and Iwere still very young we moved to the United Kingdom inorder that my father could pursue an education at NewboldCollege which is a major Seventh-day Adventist educational in-stitution in Europe

As a matter of fact I have very deep Adventists roots I was afourth-generation Adventist My ancestors were some of the firstpeople to be evangelized by Adventist missionaries in Latvia Myfather is to this day a Seventh-day Adventist minister and semi-nary professor We would eventually move to the United States toLos Angeles after my father had completed his education at New-bold I went through the entire Adventist educational systemstarting from first grade through high school and then to New-bold College where I returned to study for a semester

I grew up in a very loving family with wonderful parents Insome ways we were raised as traditional Adventists I remembervividly Friday evening preparations for the Sabbathmdashcleaningthe house getting everything ready Then came sundown devo-tions Sabbath school the next day and the iconic Sabbath activ-ities potlucks (with haystacks which I still love to make)afternoon nature walks and so forth All these are still clear inmy memory and in some ways I feel a great warmth about mychildhood Yet in other respects we were perhaps not so tradi-tional

My father rarely talked about Ellen White and almost neverpreached referencing her I would come across Whitersquos writingson my own initiative not his and gained some interest in themin my early teens There were also stimulating conversations inour family about legalistic Adventism and this or that othernegative aspect of our religion

In my childhood I acquired something of a reputation of aBible nerd I would carry around a big blue NIV Bible almosteverywhere with wonderful life-like Bible illustrations I was al-ways active in Sabbath School and later on I would occasion-ally teach or lead discussions I was baptized in my teens by mydear father which was a very emotional event both for him andme These things I believe make it hard for some to believethat I really could have been lostndashndashan unbeliever at heartndashndashandnot truly born-again

M

K A S P A R S O Z O L I N S

There is a passage from Scripture that has become something

of a life verse for me in the time that I have been a born-again

Christian Galatians 220 Paul says ldquoI have been crucified with

Christ It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me And

the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God

who loved me and gave himself for merdquo

S T O R I E S OF FAITH

I WAS DEADBUT NOW I

Kaspars and IevaOzolins shown withtheir two sons

I entered college first in Newbold and later in Latvia whereI got my Bachelorrsquos degree and also got to know and fall in lovewith my future wife Ieva I was an active participant in churchlife there as well I remember fondly engaging in spirited theo-logical discussions and debate with my Latvian grandfather wholeaned more to the conservative wing of Adventism eventhough he was a very sharp thinker and open to new ideas Hehad been horribly persecuted for keeping the Sabbath during hismandatory army draft which occurred at a time when Latvia wasillegally occupied by the Soviet Union

Denying JesusI returned to the United States after graduating with my

Bachelorrsquos degree and began my studies at the University ofCalifornia Los Angeles as I had been planning to do I studiedfor a PhD in historical linguisticsndashndasha field concerned with an-cient languages and their evolution across time I rememberhaving great ambitions for scholarly and financial success yetthese desires were also mixed with my sad realization that lifewas short that an academic could never hope to attain theriches success fame and power of someone like a president orCEO of a major corporation or like an innovative scientistThese trappings of success were the very things I craved yetthey eluded me I thought a lot about mortality and was quite

morbid about death although I donrsquot think I evidenced it exter-nally Life seemed unfair It felt like I was grasping onto some-thing with as firm a grasp as I could musterndashndasheven as that verything was slipping from me before my eyes In fact I had astrange preoccupation with the subject of death as I used toread about the deaths of celebrities with a mixture of fascinationand horror

Besides this restlessness and death-fixation I had begun toslip further and further into sin While outwardly I still playedthe part of ldquothe Bible guyrdquo I fell into secret sin and became en-slaved to it Yes I knew what I was doing was wrong but it washere that my Adventist understanding of God sold me shortPaulrsquos letter to the Thessalonians instructs Christians not to livein the passion of lust like the Gentilesmdashwho do not know God

You see I didnrsquot know God In particular I didnrsquot know theattributes of God I was like the wicked man in the Psalms whosays in his heart ldquoThere is no Godrdquo as he lives and sins as ifthere were no God In particular the concept of Godrsquos utter ho-liness and wrath against sin and even sinners was foreign and ab-horrent to me

This ignorance of God expressed itself in certain ways Mybrother had meanwhile begun his own journey of doubt andafter reading Richard Dawkinsrsquo book The God Delusion he cameto me really frightened that he might lose his faith which he ab-solutely did not want to do I myself had even begun entertain-


LIVE

ing little doubts about Godrsquos existence and I distinctly remem-ber telling him one day ldquoLook donrsquot be afraid to go where thetruth leads You have to be brutally honest with yourself Ifthere is no God there is no Godrdquo

Looking back now I am amazed and think to myself ldquoDoesthat really sound like someone who knows Jesus Christrdquo An-other time I remember driving home one evening from Malibuwith my wife and she asked me ldquoSo you know my boss is Jew-ish Do you really think that hersquos not going to be in heaven sim-ply because he doesnrsquot believe in Jesusrdquo My answer wassheepish ldquoI donrsquot know Irsquom not the judge Itrsquos up to God Wecanrsquot know these thingsrdquo I didnrsquot realize it then but I had de-nied Jesus Christ before men

I am Godrsquos propertyIn my darkness an intellectual pursuit of mine became watch-

ing YouTube debates between atheists and Christians on the sub-ject of the existence of God In the process however I cameacross some YouTube sermons by Francis Chan a well-knownpastor whose ministry has impacted many lives If yoursquove everheard Francis preach you know he has an earnestness and pas-sion that I havenrsquot seen anywhere else He preaches constantlyabout eternity about the nature of God about sin I was struck bya number of things while listening to him They might sound ob-vious and apparent to you but they got to me in a very profoundway My first realization is hard to describe and may sound trivialbut I kept saying in my mind ldquoThere is a God There is a Godrdquo

Francis used to use an illustration that demonstrated Godrsquoscentrality and sovereignty in the lives of all human beings(whether or not they acknowledge Him) in a powerful way Heasked his congregation to take a breath Then another one Hethen said ldquoDonrsquot you realize that God just gave you thatbreath And the next one Every single breath every momentof life is a direct gift from God Donrsquot you realize that Hecould take away your breath your life just like thatrdquo

How much had I thought about this truth if ever I realizedthat the vast majority of human beings go about their daily livesplanning working playing and busying themselveshelliphowmuch do they even stop and think about their Creator He whomade them personally owns them I am Godrsquos personal prop-erty He has a right to me by virtue of His having created me

It was at that point that I began to understand the ugliness ofsin Up until then I had nursed a grandfatherly image of Godthat I believe came partly from my Adventist background I had anebulous concept that Godrsquos grace would somehow eventuallycover everything but I had no understanding of the basis and ap-plication of the biblical concept of grace I had to come to termswith the Being against whom I was sinning

This was my realization I was a sinner hostile by nature toGod Because God is infinitely good and wonderful altogetherbeautiful I could never make things right or repay the wrong Ihad done By Godrsquos grace I became utterly convinced that I wason my way to an eternity of eternities in hellndashndasha place that Iwith my Adventist theology had abhorred as being contrary tothe very character of God There was no mistaking that theGod I now had encountered did not match the God I had be-lieved from my Adventist background

No longer the same personI believe now that God saves desperate people I was a des-

perate person faced with a horrifying truth One prominentpreacher I later heard put that truth into stunning words ldquoIfGod is good He cannot forgive yourdquo That comes as a shock tomost people who claim to have some religion But the more Iexamined my life and my sin the more I could see no other ex-planation How could a good God ever forgive me in mywretchedness

The only answer had to be the gospelndashndashthat story that I hadheard a thousand times yet never understood spiritually Thatvery same God who is utterly unapproachable in His holinessstooped down to humanity and took on flesh He perfectly livedthe life I could not live for one second He loved His Father andfellow man with the perfect love that is demanded of all by thegreatest commandment

Yet sinful men took him and beat him mercilessly hanginghim on a tree shamefully Jesus Christ faced the wrath of sinfulman alone More importantly Jesus Christ alone stood in myplace and bore the righteous wrath of a holy God Every sin Ihad ever committed against God and my fellow man everycruel word every sinful glance every prideful thoughtndashndashall of itwas placed upon the Holy One of God He was crushed for myiniquities but praise God three days later He was raised for myjustification Because of my Savior God is now ldquojust and thejustifier of him who has faith in Jesusrdquo (Rom 326)

I praise God for His wonderful Son and I praise God for Hispenetrating Holy Spirit God brought me to the light of thegospel and I became a new creature in March of 2013 I who hadbeen dead in sins and trespasses was now made alive in Christ Inthose early days I remember often singing a song to myselfldquoLord I need you Oh I need you Every hour I need you My


By Godrsquos grace I became utterly

convinced that I was on my way to

an eternity of eternities in hellmdasha

place that I with my Adventist

theology had abhorred as being

contrary to the very character of

God There was no mistaking that

the God I now had encountered did

not match the God I had believed

from my Adventist background

one defense my righteousness Oh God how I need yourdquo Mysins dropped away from me like rocks off a cliff and I was foreverfree from guilt and condemnation God also began a process ofsanctifying me and growing me in holinessndashndasha process that hasoften been painful and humbling But I know whom I belong toand I know that I am not the same person I was

Leaving Adventism to retain integrityMy salvation then launched me on a three-year quest I

wondered ldquoWhy had nobody from my Adventist backgroundtold me that I must be born again as Jesus said in John 3rdquoShould I (or could I) stay in the Seventh-day Adventist churchAt the time although I had serious disagreements with the de-nomination in which I had grown up I was unwilling to con-demn it as a cult outright For a while I continued to believe inthe validity of the Seventh-day Sabbath for Christians I wasalso largely unaware of many of the underlying issues such asthe Great Controversy worldview the Adventist doctrine ofGod and the serious implications entailed by the Adventist un-derstanding of man Along the way however I also began todelve into these issues especially through the online ministryof Proclamation

As I became aware of the cultic origins of the Seventh-dayAdventist church I examined the modern church and consid-ered it I imagined that there were three broad camps in thecurrent church The first historic Adventists fully accepted theteachings of Ellen G White and other Adventist pioneers Thesecond progressive Adventists were largely like progressivemainline Protestants They didnrsquot believe in the supernaturaldownplayed the authority and accuracy of the Bible and mini-mized the gospel My sincere hope was that a third group ex-isted an evangelical group of Adventists if you like Theywould reject Ellen G White as a false prophet and refute theunbiblical Great Controversy worldview

The difficulty was identifying such a third grouping I con-sidered organizations within Seventh-day Adventism such as theOne Project Certainly here was a group that claimed to advo-cate for the supremacy of Jesus Christ in the church Outwardlythe songs they sang and the services they held had the appear-ance of being just like an ordinary American evangelical worshipservice I noted too that one of their preachers had at least ac-knowledged the Arian heresy of the Adventist pioneers Yetwhat was his response to the tritheism into which the early Ad-ventist understanding of Christ had morphed They often usedwords like ldquogospelrdquo but what exactly did they understand it tobe Did they call for sinners to repent and place their entiretrust in Christ and his finished atonement on the cross Didthey understand the absolute deadness of man in his sin and thenecessity of the new birth

I came to realize over a long period of time that it is notenough for a church merely to downplay its old heresy or sweepthings under the rug How could I ever be sure that the old Ad-ventist worldview no longer influenced those who would stylethemselves as ldquoevangelicalrdquo if they refused to acknowledge thatEllen G White was a false prophet By nature I am not con-

frontational at all and I was reticent to call a person esteemedin the church of my family a false prophet In time however Icame to realize that I had to leave the Seventh-day Adventistchurch if for nothing else than to maintain my integrity I un-derstood that if I wanted to be a reforming voice that wouldpoint Adventists to the gospel of Jesus Christ I could not do sowhile still an Adventist myself

Acknowledging this reality was one thing but actually leav-ing was another story After all my beloved family was Seventh-day Adventist The church in which I had served and had somany friends was Adventist The majority of the people I knewon Facebook were Adventists

It took a good bit of coaxing from some dear brothers andsisters on the Former Adventist Fellowship online forum for meto take the final step and write a letter requesting my member-ship removal A month before I left I became a student at TheMasterrsquos Seminary (TMS) a school founded by Pastor JohnMacArthur I like to joke that I am most probably the only Sev-enth-day Adventist who has ever been accepted to TMS

Currently I have just completed my studies and havemoved to the UK for a research position at Tyndale HouseCambridge an evangelical research library that serves theglobal church Thanks be to God for His precious gift of lifefor my dear wife my two boys and above all else the gift ofsalvation through Jesus Christ my Lord ldquowho loved me andgave himself for merdquo dagger


Kaspars Ozolins was born in Latvia to an Adventist family Theymoved to Los Angeles where Kaspars attended Adventist elementaryand high schools in Glendale California and his father was an Adven-tist pastor He met Ieva his wife while studying in Latvia before pursu-ing a doctorate at UCLA in historical linguistics Kaspars justcompleted an M Div at The Masterrsquos Seminary in Sun Valley Califor-nia and lives with his family in the the UK where he is a Research As-sociate in Old Testament and the Ancient Near East at Tyndale Housean evangelical biblical research center in Cambridge

My sins dropped away from me

like rocks off a cliff and I was

forever free from guilt and

condemnation God also began a

process of sanctifying me and

growing me in holinessmdasha process

that has often been painful and

humbling But I know whom I

belong to and I know that I am not

the same person I was


id you try to get better before you finally trusted JesusMaybe you were considering baptism or maybe you werethinking about starting church attendance Maybe youwere just a child and you started to try to not fight with

your brother or sister Some of you might have tried to stop lyingcursing drinking too much or maybe doing drugs or pornographyormdashfill in the blank

How did your plan work Did you make yourself feel goodenough to come to Jesus

As an Adventist I often tried to clean up my act but I never feltgood enough Even now as a born again Christian I see that thereis often a temptation for believers to fall back into this deceptionmdashfeeling that we need to clean up before praying or opening ourBibles or coming to church

Ephesians 21ndash10 is to me one of the best and clearest statementsin the Bible of the progression of the believermdashfrom being dead tobecoming a living worker for the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus

The first time I sat in a biblical church our pastor Gary Inrigwas teaching through this passage I was sure that he must haveheard that I was coming and had chosen this passage just for memdashlater my wife told me she thought that it was just for her

Here is this amazing passage written by the apostle to the Gen-tilesmdashour apostle Paul

Ephesians 21ndash10mdashAnd you were dead in the trespasses and sinsin which you once walked following the course of this world fol-lowing the prince of the power of the air the spirit that is now atwork in the sons of disobediencemdashamong whom we all once livedin the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the body andthe mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest ofmankind But God being rich in mercy because of the great lovewith which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespassesmade us alive together with Christmdashby grace you have beensavedmdashand raised us up with him and seated us with him in theheavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he mightshow the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us inChrist Jesus For by grace you have been saved through faith Andthis is not your own doing it is the gift of God not a result ofworks so that no one may boast For we are his workmanship cre-ated in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared before-hand that we should walk in them

We were deadYoumdashmemdashall of us were born into this world spiritually dead

In fact Paul not only says that we were dead in our trespasses and

sins but we were by nature children of wrath In other words theonly thing we deserved was Godrsquos wrathmdasheverlasting hell

You might ask ldquoWhy were we born deserving wrath and hellBabies havenrsquot committed any sins yet when they are bornrdquo

Remember what God said to Adam and Eve He told them thatif they ate fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evilthey would surely die and they would die the very day they ate itThey did diemdashthey became spiritually deadmdashtheir spirits weredeadmdashand they were unable to be good or seek God (Rom 39ndash18) They hid from Him in shame

Their spiritual death is our inheritance Paul explains in Romans5 and 1 Corinthians 15 Because our first father Adam died he gaveus death for a legacy Now we need a new Father who can makeour spirits alive again

I grew up in Seventh-day Adventism We were taught thatAdam and Eve ldquobegan to dierdquo making Godrsquos statement that theywould die the day they ate the fruit less than accurate Because Ad-ventists donrsquot believe that we have a human spirit that can be sepa-rated from the body they canrsquot understand either spiritual death orspiritual life They donrsquot grasp the truth that we can be born againand made spiritually alive Instead to Adventists like I was humandeath is purely physical and spiritual death is more of a mental atti-tude and bad genetics that cause us to have ldquopropensities to sinrdquo

I did not understand that those who are dead and never respondto Godrsquos call will eventually suffer eternally like those whom Johnsays will worship the beast at the end of the age In the book ofRevelation he describes this reality in the context of those whoworship the beast and its image

helliphe also will drink the wine of Godrsquos wrath poured fullstrength into the cup of his anger and he will be tormented withfire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presenceof the Lamb And the smoke of their torment goes up forever andever and they have no rest day or night these worshipers of thebeast and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name (Rev1410 11)

In my past I did not believe a good God would make people suf-fer eternally for a few years of sinning I believed Johnrsquos words werea metaphor for wicked people suffering until they were burned upSince I didnrsquot understand spiritual death or the sovereign holinessof God eternal suffering made no sense

The Bible tells us the truth though Our natural position beforeour Holy God is that we were born into a lost race We had nomerit in ourselves to change that destiny of an eternal future which

DCreated for W

C O V E R FEATURE

EPHESIANS 21ndash10

involved torment We were ldquodead men walkingrdquo as the sayinggoes as certainly as are those who are on death row as they walk totheir punishment

Adventist beginningsI was born in an Adventist hospital early Sabbath morning I

was born one month early but because my parents couldnrsquot affordthe expensive hospital care that premature babies often need thedoctor declared me healthy enough and sent me home My momtold me later that I looked awfulmdashI had no forehead and shethought I looked like a devil child (The Adventist prophet EllenWhite said that Satan has a sinister sloping forehead and my headreminded my mother of him)

But that assessment was not far from reality Indeed I was borninto the kingdom of darknessmdashI needed to be saved

Hope comes in Ephesians 245

But God being rich in mercy because of the great love withwhich he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses madeus alive together with Christhellip

Did you see that God made us alive together with Christ andwe didnrsquot have to clean up first God gives us life in Christ whenwe are dead

My memories of my religious upbringing centered around ourAdventist ldquomore than a prophetrdquo Ellen G White My family hadworship time twice each day Morning worship almost always in-volved a short devotional reading from Ellen and then at bedtimeworship involved my parents reading the dayrsquos lesson from theSabbath School quarterly The lesson would feature a Bible textand then teaching that was mostly based on Ellenrsquos writings

I began to realize that I wanted to belong to Jesus when I wasabout seven I got a Bible for Christmas and carried it proudly tochurch each Sabbath I tried to read it but soon got bogged downin all the strange statutes and laws that were given to the Israelites

When I was ten I went to summer camp At the first meetingaround the campfire I prayed to God to forgive me and make meHis The camp pastor prayed a prayer that any camper that neededto get right with God wouldnrsquot be able to sleep that night I wentto bed with quite a bit of fear that God would keep me up allnight but I slept very well That was my first glimmer of hope thatsalvation was a gift and not by works

I realize now that God was calling me even when I was a childbut I still thought that works were somehow a part of the salvation

Created for Work R I C H A R D T I N K E R


package These works included Saturday Sabbath observance veg-etarianism and a lot more But that experience at camp showed methat God was the powermdashnot my works

If you reading this look alive to those who see you but youknow inside that you are dead in your sins respond to Godrsquos calland repent of your sins and trust the Lord Jesusmdashtrust his deathburial and resurrectionmdashthat his death has been enough to pay forall the wrath that you deserve

Grace not works

hellipby grace you have been savedmdashand raised us up with him andseated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 256)

Not only is it by grace that we are savedmdashnot by our works orby cleaning up our actmdashbut we are spiritually seated with our LordJesus in heavenly places That promise is real it is not a metaphorDo you live in a tiny apartment or is your house on a street where

drug-trafficking is common This earth is not your home If youhave believed and trusted Jesus you are always with Him in heav-enly places Even death cannot remove you And that spiritual real-ity will become a physical one as well when our Lord Jesus rapturesus to be with Him forever

hellipso that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurableriches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Eph 27)

And this passage says moremdashthis reality that we experience inChrist Jesus is for the purpose of showing the riches of Godrsquos gracewhich cannot be measured His kindness to us in making us alivein Jesus and giving us salvation is Godrsquos Exhibit A of His gracewhich He displays to heaven and earth through all the ages tocome Our eternal life is for His glory

For by grace you have been saved through faith And this is notyour own doing it is the gift of God not a result of works so thatno one may boast (Eph 28 9)

And then to make it absolutely clear in which direction thegood stuff is flowing the passage clearly states that even the re-quired faith is a gift of God We do not generate our own faith

God gives us the faith we need to believe and trust in Jesus Thereis nothing that we do to get this amazing kindness from our Lord

Created for good worksGod doesnrsquot stop with simply saving us Once He makes us new

people with His own eternal life He surprises us again He gives usHis work to do for His glory Verse 10 says

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for goodworks which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them

My training as an Adventist included my not swimming or ridingmy bike on Sabbath or doing anything else that might distract mefrom the holiness of the day I also was taught to eat the Eden dietmdashwhich meant I was a vegetarian We didnrsquot play with regular playingcards didnrsquot go to bowling alleys or movie theaters or even to thecircus The way we dressed was also important Our prophet wrotecouncils against wearing tight clothing or belts so I had to wear sus-

penders for a time in grade school Therewere other things we were compelled todo as well we had to give at least 10 per-cent for tithe but we were strongly en-couraged to give 20 percent

All these dorsquos and donrsquots were theworks I did in my past but are these thegood works that we are created to do

They were works of the flesh not ofthe Spirit They were detailed by a mod-ern prophet and required by a false reli-gion Furthermore there are civic clubsneighborhood watch groups ladies quilt-ing clubs homeless feeding programs

and countless other organizations that exist to do good worksThese good deeds can be done by anyonemdashspiritually dead oralivemdashbut God has created us for good works that are His own

God makes us alive when He saves us and then He gives us Hiswork to do which He prepared for us beforehand What a wonder-ful gracious God we have He saves us He makes us alive and Hegives us work that was prepared specifically for us to domdashit allcomes from the hand of our Father who loves us

Works of God vs Works of the fleshThis subject of good works is often misunderstood Since the

works may look the same how can we tell the difference betweenworks of the flesh and works of God As an Adventist I believedthat all those works I did demonstrated that I loved God Theywere my proof that I was right

Jesus told us the difference between works of the flesh andworks of God in Matthew 722ndash23

On that day many will say to me lsquoLord Lord did we not proph-esy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do manymighty works in your namersquo And then will I declare to them lsquoInever knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessnessrsquo

God not only plans the work for usto do but He knows every day thatleads us to that work


Godrsquos works are His gifts and they flow out of a life that hasbeen made alive in Jesus Works of the flesh flow out of a humanheart that has not trusted Jesus and been born again We cannot al-ways look at another personrsquos good works and know whether or notthey are born again but the Lord knows

When we believe Jesus and trust His blood to pay for our sinsGod gives us new life We are born again From then on He asks usto trust Him and He will give us His work to do He does not askus to work in order to get His approval He asks us to trust Himand He uses us to glorify Him

We might wonder what work God has prepared for us to do Infact the New Testament gives us many examples In I Peter 29 weare told that we are chosen so that we may proclaim the excellen-cies of our God who called us out of darkness

For example Life Assurance Ministries actively calls people outof a false religion into Biblical truth It is so fun to witness new be-lievers who are excited to know Jesus They canrsquot help but tell oth-ers the awesome changes they have experienced by believing andtrusting in Jesusmdashthey canrsquot stop telling of his excellencies

This declaration of Godrsquos goodness is a work of God that Hehas prepared for us

In Hebrews 313 the writer tells of another work that we as be-lievers are called to do The text says

But exhort one another every day as long as it is called ldquotodayrdquothat none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin

We can help someone keep from being hardened by sin byteaching and encouraging them Sometimes we feel down ormaybe even are considering sin and a brother or sister in thechurch gives us wise council and we are encouraged This exhorta-tion and encouragement is the work God gives us to do in theBody to build one another up

Another work that is given to us is made clear in Galatians61-2

Brothers if anyone is caught in any transgression you who arespiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness Keep watch onyourself lest you too be tempted Bear one anotherrsquos burdens andso fulfill the law of Christ

By bearing each otherrsquos burdens we fulfill the law of Christ Iwas raised to believe that my greatest efforts should be directed to-wards the task of keeping the Ten Commandments perfectlymdashandthis obedience would result in vindicating Godrsquos charactermdashas ifany creature can vindicate the Creator But here we find that wecan fulfill Christrsquos law by bearing one anotherrsquos burdensmdashand wecan only do that work by having Jesusrsquo life in us There is no hint ofthe Old Covenant in this command

Remember the judgement scene that Jesus taught about inMatthew 25 He talked about two groups of peoplemdashthose on Hisright and those on His left Those on his right who were savedmdashthe ones whom God knewmdashhad done the good works He hadbrought to them Those works included feeding the hungry givingwater to the thirsty welcoming strangers giving clothes to thenaked visiting the sick and those in prison Those on the left had

not cared for the people that crossed their paths The differencebetween these two groups was their condition the ones who caredfor people were alive in Christ The ones who didnrsquot recognizethose who needed their help were still dead in their sins God didnot ldquoknowrdquo them

So when God makes us alive in Christ He makes us new cre-ations Our new birth is His workmanship and He gives us thisnew life in order to do good works for His glory

Paul talks about how doing Godrsquos work looks in a local churchIn Romans 12 he teaches us how the church body works togethereach member using his or her unique abilities to do the work thatGod has assigned each onemdashmuch like our bodies have many partsthat work together to sustain our life Sometimes the work theLord gives us in His body seems mundane and repetitive yet it iswhat God gives us Sometimes His work is changing diapers anddisciplining our kids or mowing the lawn or caring for an elderlyparent God asks us to honor Him by serving each other joyfully

So Ephesians 210 tells us two important things God creates usnew in Jesus and this new life is His preparation of us to do Hiswork In other words our new birth includes Godrsquos redeeming usfor His glory so that in Him we are equipped to do the work Heplanned for us to do Letrsquos read that verse again

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for goodworks which God prepared beforehand that we should walk inthem

Prepared in advanceWhen I was still wandering in the wilderness of a cultic religion

even though I didnrsquot know it God was preparing me for work Hewould eventually give me Let me tell you about my journey andhow God led me through school and then job after job to prepareme for the work that He had already prepared beforehand

When I enrolled at Pacific Union College all I could thinkabout was being a music teacher I studied music history theorycomposition conducting and practiced endlessly on my tromboneBut God had other plans So he led me through a journey ofchanging majors several times resulting in my learning printingphotography news writing and ultimately I graduated with a de-gree in public relations with a media emphasis But my educationwasnrsquot finished

For a reason unknown to me back then I also took an eveningclass in accounting thinking it might be useful It seemed randomat the time

After I graduated my first job was at the Pacific Union Confer-ence headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist church for thefive-state Pacific Southwest region I ran the print shop and de-signed educational materials for the different departments head-quartered there But God was also teaching me about the inside ofAdventismmdashhow the leaders work and behave in their offices andhow the machinery of the organization functions I saw and learnedthings most young Adventists do not see

I later moved to an Adventist publisher that was in charge ofproducing the Sabbath School teaching lessons for the churchrsquoshigh-school aged students I worked under an amazing designer


who gave me an understanding of the design and layout of publica-tions Because of that good experience I was able to get a job lateras art director at The Quiet Hour Ministries in Redlands Califor-nia There I was in charge of designing all their printed productsincluding magazines books pamphlets and advertisements Godwas still training memdashbut I had more to learn

I was offered a job at Loma Linda Universityrsquos School of Den-tistry in their Educational Support Services department I later be-came the director and learned by experience how to lead a team ofworkers in the production of educational art movies books andonline programming

At each point in my life God was leading me and teaching meso that when I lost my job at Loma Linda I was prepared for thenext step

God knows before we are born the life we will live and the workwe will do God doesnrsquot waste anything Psalm 13916 says

Your eyes saw my unformed substance in your book were writ-ten every one of them the days that were formed for me when asyet there was none of them

Every day of our lives was formed before we were even aliveGod not only plans the work for us to do but He knows every daythat leads us to that work We can trust God with our livesmdashnomatter what stage of life we are in

Furthermore Hebrews 1210-11 explains that the discourage-ment and despair we sometimes feel is part of His teaching us totrust Him so that we can do what He asks us to do

helliphe disciplines us for our good that we may share his holinessFor the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasantbut later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those whohave been trained by it

Sometimes our discipline seems unrelated to our work for theLord but He is teaching us to trust Him and to learn to live by Hisword as His Spirit convicts us God taught me to wait for Him andto trust His timing as I worked in an increasingly hostile place dur-ing my years at Loma Linda University

In June 2006 I was fired on the very day that God had plannedfor me when He had prepared me for His next assignment I wasfired for cause because of my work with Former Adventist Fellow-ship and Proclamation magazine I felt adrift I had no income for

four months and I didnrsquot know what I would do next My wife re-minds me that I even seemed a bit depressed forgetting to shaveand shower sometimes Yet I saw God sustain us until He broughtthe next step to me

That next step was one I never would have planned He gave mework overseeing Life Assurance Ministries a ministry which existsto help others leave the church into which I was born and in whichI had stayed for over 40 years

Now in this job on a daily basis I use all the education andskills and knowledge that my past gave me And that crazy account-ing classmdashit helps me as I serve on three different boards that pres-ent quarterly financial statements that I am expected to understandand it helps me prepare and administer the operating budget forLife Assurance Ministries

Moreover all my knowledge of the dark core of Adventismdrove me to dream of a Biblical church planted in the very townwhere I used to worship each Saturday where I worked long hoursat the School of Dentistry during the week Now by Godrsquos gracewe worship every Sunday at Redeemer Fellowship in Loma Lindaunder the shadow of a Health Sciences University and Hospitaldedicated to the pagan belief that man is only physical and there isno hell to fear

SummaryWe can summarize Ephesians 21ndash10 with four pointsFirst We are born dead in sin Our spirits are dead and each

one of us is by nature a child of wrath following the spirit that isnow at work in the sons of disobedience We are born condemnedto eternal deathSecond God intervenes in our hopeless state Because Jesus

came into our condemned world and died the death our sin de-manded God raised Him from the dead Now when we believeJesus and trust in His blood as the payment for our sin God raisesus to life in Christ

Not only does He raise us to life and literally seat us spirituallywith Christ in heavenly places but God uses our new life in Jesusas His demonstration of who He is His kindness to us condemnedhumans taking us from death to life in Christ is an eternal displayof His grace Third Our new life is a miracle It has nothing at all to do

with any work we do We are saved by His grace throughfaithmdashand even our faith is His gift to us We can never say thatwe are saved because we pleased God worked hard or did ourbest We have faith because God gives us faith and we are savedbecause God raises us to life in His Son when we believe withthe faith He gives us FourthWhen we are born again our new life is Godrsquos

workmanship When He gives us new life in Christ He cre-ates us for His work Our new life and His Spirit in us equip usto do the work which He gives us When we are still dead inour sin the Lord knows who we will become and what He willgive us to do He prepares our work and He prepares us forthat work

We can praise God for rescuing us from certain death for mak-ing us alive in Jesus and for equipping us for His purpose dagger

Richard Tinker is the president of LifeAssurance Ministries and an elder at Re-deemer Fellowship an evangelicalchurch in Loma Linda CaliforniaRichard and his wife Colleen have co-ledFormer Adventist Fellowship since 1999and rejoice in the freedom they havefound in living by the Spirit


COMMENTARY ON THIS STATEMENTThis may be the most orthodox of the 28 Fundamental Beliefs

espoused by Seventh-day Adventists The two most widely acceptedecumenical creeds both state the belief in the Second ComingApostlesrsquo Creed On the third day (Jesus) rose again he as-

cended into heaven is seated at the right hand of the Father andwill come again to judge the living and the deadNicene Creed (Jesus) shall come again with glory to judge the

quick and the deadWithin the Christian Church there are multiple views on the

Second Coming of Christ that are considered orthodox by the ma-jority of people The main views on the Second Coming are oftengrouped according to when the Second Coming will be relative tothe Millennium (1000 years of Rev 204)

bull Premillennial ndash Jesus will return before the 1000 yearsbull Postmillennial ndash Jesus will return after the 1000 yearsbull Amillennial ndash The 1000 years is symbolic of the time between

the Cross and the Second Coming Jesus can return at any time These are by necessity gross over-simplifications of the differ-

ent views Even within one of these groups there may be vast dif-ferences in the details For example premillennialism can befurther split into the groups of Dispensationalism and HistoricPremillennialism Neither Dispensationalism nor Historic Premil-lennialism are single viewpoints either each of these schools ofthoughts have multiple understandings within that viewpoint Forexample Dispensationalists are further split between whether theyadvocate a rapture of the church before (pre-trib) during (mid-trib)or after (post-trib) the Great Tribulation andor 7 last plagues TheSeventh-day Adventist view would fall as a sub-set (one of many) ofHistoric Premillennialism

Dispensationalism with the associated doctrine of the rapture ofthe church is probably the most well-known Seventh-day Adven-tism specifically rejects a secret rapture of the church but proclaimsa visible Second Coming Dispensationalists believe Jesus will rap-ture the church prior to His visible return Most Christians believein a visible second coming and Seventh-day Adventism is withinthe range of normal Christian beliefs on this subject

The resurrection of the dead is a belief shared in commonacross orthodox Christian churches and the inclusion of that state-ment in the Seventh-day Adventist beliefs wouldnrsquot be any reasonfor concern except that Adventism means something slightly differ-ent when it refers to ldquoresurrectionrdquo A more complete examinationof this teaching will be presented in response to Fundamental Be-lief 26 which specifically deals with death and resurrection How-ever in brief Adventism differs from mainstream Christianteaching by proclaiming that there is no part of man that remainsalive between death and the resurrection at the Second ComingThat teaching isnrsquot clear within Fundamental Belief 25 althoughit is made clear in the following Fundamental Belief 26

Similarly this belief statement emphasizes the death of thewicked a teaching that is expounded on in Fundamental Belief27 Technically it isnrsquot the death of the wicked that should con-cern any of us but rather the Second Death described in Revela-tion 2014

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on itFrom his presence earth and sky fled away and no place was foundfor them And I saw the dead great and small standing before thethrone and books were opened Then another book was openedwhich is the book of life And the dead were judged by what waswritten in the books according to what they had done And the seagave up the dead who were in it Death and Hades gave up the deadwho were in them and they were judged each one of them accord-ing to what they had done Then Death and Hades were throwninto the lake of fire This is the second death the lake of fire And ifanyonersquos name was not found written in the book of life he wasthrown into the lake of fire (Rev 2011-15)The wicked dead are raised again to stand in front of the judg-

ment seat of God (v 12) and in accordance with their wickeddeeds are thrown into the lake of fire (v 15) Scripture defines thesecond death as ldquothe lake of firerdquo (v 14) The lake of fire is wherethe devil the beast and the false prophet are placed to be ldquotor-mented day and night forever and everrdquo (v 10)

The final statement that could cause concern is the commentthat we need to be ldquoready at all timesrdquo The concept of being readyis biblical For instance Matthew 2444 states ldquoTherefore you alsomust be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do notexpectrdquo

The only question is what it means to a Seventh-day Adven-tist to ldquobe readyrdquo Like many details in Adventism this question

ADVENTISM E X A M I N E DWITH RICK BARKER

Rick Barker is a native of SouthwesternOhio Rick graduated from AndrewsUniversity in 1987 and received a Mas-ters degree from the University of Day-ton Rick and his wife Sheryl formallyleft the Adventist chuch in 2004 Priorto this they had been active in the Mi-amisburg and Wilmington Ohio Ad-ventist churches

ADVENTISMrsquoS FUNDAMENTAL BELIEF 25The second coming of Christ is the blessed hope of the

church the grand climax of the gospel The Saviourrsquos comingwill be literal personal visible and worldwide When He re-turns the righteous dead will be resurrected and togetherwith the righteous living will be glorified and taken to heavenbut the unrighteous will die The almost complete fulfillmentof most lines of prophecy together with the present conditionof the world indicates that Christrsquos coming is near The time ofthat event has not been revealed and we are therefore ex-horted to be ready at all times

ADVENTISMrsquoS FUNDAMENTAL BELIEF 25

THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30


ne of Godrsquos blessings to me was being raised by parentswho loved me and wanted to serve Christ Anotherblessing was my parentsrsquo consistency in their faithMatthew 2534-40 spoke deeply to my motherrsquos heart as

she sought to live out Christrsquos teaching in practical ways byreaching out to the poor in our community with other ladiesfrom our church In addition my fatherrsquos faithfulness to mymother helped to protect me from my desire to act out sexuallyduring my college years before coming to Christ

In 1969 I went with my parents on a short-term mission toHaiti where my fatherrsquos high school French came back to himHe so much enjoyed his time there that my parents went on toserve in Korea from 1971ndash81 with the Adventist church my fa-ther as a dentist and my mother as a worker in an orphanage Ifollowed their example of mission service by teaching Englishand Bible at the Adventist language schools in Busan and Seoulfrom 1973ndash74

Ultimately their leaving to serve in missions when they werein their fifties led me to follow their steps after my children fin-ished college Instead of going as an Adventist missionary how-ever I left to serve Christ in South Sudan as a Bible translatorBut I am ahead of my story

No assurance of salvationFrom early childhood I desired to be a Christian yet I was

never certain that I would finally be saved I remember the fearthat I felt during my academy and college years as I thought ofthe future time of trouble when Jesus would cease to be media-tor for our sins I had never met anyone who even claimed tohave reached sinless perfection and I felt certain that I had nohope of ever doing so I was certain that I would never be pre-pared to stand before God without a mediator

I remember a particular Sabbath school discussion when I at-tended Grand Ledge Academy (1963-67) The question wasasked ldquoHow should we answer if other Christians were to ask usif we were savedrdquo After much debate the final consensus wasthis we should ask our questioner for five minutes to thinkabout it After carefully reviewing our memories if we were surewe had confessed all of our sins we could say that we were savedat that present moment Nevertheless we still would not knowif we would continue to be saved tomorrow

By the time that I attended Newbold College in 1968ndash69 Ihad come to despair of ever being saved Then on Easter Sun-day in 1969 I was walking through a park in central Edinburghwhen I came across a group of college students sharing the

FROM ADVENTIST TEACHER TO

BIBLE TRANSLATORW E S R I N G E R

I was raised a Seventh-day Adventistmdasha legacy that

yielded blessings and challenges Ironically the challenges

have ultimately yielded blessings as they helped me pre-

pare to become a Bible translation consultant working to

bring Godrsquos word to the peoples of South Sudan

O


Easter story of the risen Christ Stopping to listen I told myselfthat I was just curious to know what church they belonged toAs I listened however I was impressed that these young peoplereally knew the risen Christ in a personal and living way while Ionly knew about him

I felt my heart grow hungry to know Christ Within a fewminutes one of the young men from the group approached meand asked ldquoDo you know Christrdquo I still remember distinctlythe dilemma that his question posed in my mind I felt that if Isaid ldquoYesrdquo I would be lying but if I said ldquoNordquo I would be deny-ing Christ I actually cannot remember how I answered him butI do remember trying to shift the conversation to the propheciesin Daniel since I had been taking a Daniel and Revelation classat Newbold College Yet as I attempted to shift the conversa-tion I knew that I was acting just like the Samaritan woman atthe well when she tried to shift the conversation away from herpersonal moral failure to a discussion about where one shouldworship God

For the next 18 months I was sustained by my encounterwith those young people in Edinburgh The fact that they reallyknew Christ gave me hope that I could somehow also come toknow him as well I returned in the fall of 1969 to Andrews

University and found myself at a religious retreat at the begin-ning of the year The ldquoJesus Movementrdquo was beginning to flour-ish during the late 60s and 70s and it was impacting AdventismAt that conference I heard Paul Jensen a Seventh-day Adven-tist on staff with Campus Crusade for Christ sharing about hiscampus ministry at Michigan State University

I told Paul about a friend of mine Dennis from my academydays who had left Andrews to get away from ldquoChristiansrdquo andhad gone to Michigan State I hoped that Paul would be able toshare Christ with him Somehow I never seemed to doubt thatGod could save others even though I was certain that I wouldbe lost

After taking down the contact information that I had Paullooked up at me and asked ldquoSo how is it with you and theLordrdquo I was finally ready to admit that I did not know him Hebegan sharing the Four Spiritual Laws with me Nothing thathe shared was new to me and I readily acknowledged my desireto have a Christ-controlled life However when he turned tothe next page which had a prayer to accept Christ I immedi-ately said ldquoI have already done that at least a hundred timesand it just does not workrdquo What I meant when I said that wasthat these prayers of acceptance never assured me that I could

Jackie and Wes Ringer serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators in South Sudan

live a perfect life and therefore finally be saved after Christ hadceased to forgive sins during the time of trouble

Paul then turned to his Living New Testament and began toread from 1 John 59-13

ldquoIf anyone does not believe what God has said about his Son heis calling God a liar He who has the Son has the life He who doesnot have the Son does not have life I have said these things to youso that you might know that you have eternal liferdquo These words struck me like a blow from a sledge hammer

Again I found myself in an irreconcilable dilemma I knew on theone hand that God was not a liar and that His word was true butI also felt utterly convinced that I could not be saved On theother hand I also saw that God clearly said that if I received HisSon I could now know that I had eternal life At the same time Iwas utterly certain that I could not be saved because I did not seehow I could stand before God without an intercessor after Jesuswould cease his work as a mediator for sinners

Grappling with PaulPaul Jensen gave me his pocket Living New Testament and

I read and re-read the Pauline epistles in particular during myjunior year at Andrews I could identify both with Paulrsquos wish tokeep the law of God in Romans 7 and with his inability to actu-ally do it I felt that Paul was trapped as I was with no way ofescape when he cried out ldquoWhat a wretched man I am Whowill rescue me from this body of deathrdquo I could visualize my-

self cornering Paul in a blind alley and demanding that he ex-plain himself

Then to my puzzlement Paul suddenly escaped from hispredicament before my eyes when he cried out ldquoThereforethere is now no condemnation for those who are in ChristJesusrdquo How could Paul who was so unable to keep the law inRomans 7 suddenly have so much confidence that he now stoodun-condemned before Christ at the beginning of Romans 8

One year later at a similar religious retreat at Andrews Iheard many fellow students share how they had come to knowChrist God opened my heart and gave me the faith to believethat He would save me As I accepted Jesus as my Savior andLord God gave me the assurance that I was entered into aneternal relationship with Him as my heavenly Father

As God opened His word to me I began to discover moreand more passages that confirmed the assurance that God hadgiven me that night when He gave me the faith to accept Jesusas my Savior and Lord How sweet it was to wake each morningwith the assurance that I stood without commendation beforeGod only because of the shed blood of his Son

That year was one of deep joy as Godrsquos word seemed to openbefore my eyes I came to understand that my salvation was se-cure because of Christrsquos once and for all sacrifice on the cross Iexperienced deep fellowship with my fellow students who hadcome to Christ and increasingly with non-Adventists when Idiscovered that they knew Christ It was a joy to share Christand I saw many come to know him as their Lord and Savior

During those months Andrews became a place divided be-tween those who knew Jesus as their Lord and Savior and thosewho did not I would often start conversations during mealswith ldquoWhat do you think about what has been happening hereon campusrdquo I could tell by their answer whether or not theyknew Christ

Adventist inconsistencies with the BibleImmediately upon coming to faith I began to wonder why I

had never understood the gospelmdashand what else might not beright in Adventist teaching I decided to put all that I had beentaught on a shelf What I could confirm from a study of Godrsquosword I would take off the shelf and embrace and what couldnot be confirmed I would leave on the shelf

A month later in November 1970 I read through the book ofHebrews I thrilled at what I read of the work of Christ as my highpriest but I was puzzled as to how the book of Hebrews could bereconciled with the traditional 1844 Adventist sanctuary doctrine

As I read Hebrews 9 and 10 it was clear that the work of theearthly high priest on the Day of Atonement was being com-pared and contrasted to the work of Christ as our high priest inheaven Only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Placeand that but once a year He could never enter without takingthe blood of goats and bulls By contrast Christ as our highpriest entered the heavenly Most Holy Place once for all bymeans of his own blood

As I read and re-read Hebrews in November of 1970 anumber of questions came to my mind If Christ at his ascen-


I had never met anyone

who even claimed to have

reached sinless perfec-

tion and I felt certain that

I had no hope of ever

doing so I was certain

that I would never be pre-

pared to stand before

God without a mediator

sion entered the heavenly Most Holy Place as our high priestby means of the blood of his once and for all sacrifice thenwhatmdashif anythingmdashdid happen in 1844 If nothing happenedin 1844 how then could Ellen White be a true prophet ofGod If Ellen White is not Godrsquos true end-time prophet howcould the Seventh-day Adventist Church be the only true rem-nant church on earth

Since I had first read Hebrews in the Living New TestamentI purchased a New American Standard Bible and read throughHebrews over and over again during the next two years lookingup all of the cross references and comparing the account of thework of the high priest on the Day of Atonement in Leviticus16 with Hebrews I noted that the NASB consistently translatedthe Greek word hagia as Holy Place but I saw that when hagiaspoke of the place where the high priest went once a year it wasclearly speaking of the Most Holy Place

I looked up all of the cross references and read extensively ofthe work of the high priest in the Law of Moses I was particu-larly drawn to the account of what happened on the Day ofAtonement in Leviticus 16 and saw how Christ fulfilled the workof the Day of Atonement when He sat down at the right hand ofGod Finally in 1972 I wrote to Roy Allen Anderson (one of theauthors of the infamous book Questions on Doctrine published in1957 to convince Walter Martin not to classify Adventism as acult) about my conflict but I received no helpful answer He justurged me to continue reading the book of Hebrews and EllenWhite He never revealed that he knew the conflict between thesanctuary doctrine and the book of Hebrews to be a deep theo-logical problem in Adventism nor that he had been on a com-mittee that had studied this issue in the 1960rsquos without being ableto explain how Hebrews could be made to fit into the Adventistrsquostraditional teaching about 1844

I do remember observing to myself shortly after coming tofaith in Christ that Paul did not seem interested in promotingthe Sabbath or kosher food laws I noted that Paul certainly didnot see himself as obligated to keep the whole Law of Mosesand he never admonished Gentile believers of their need tokeep the Sabbath In fact Paul in his letter to the Colossiansspoke of festivals new moons and Sabbaths all being a shadowof Christ and as a result believers were not to be judged regard-ing them I saw that Paul had to deal with a whole number ofproblems that new Gentile believers faced as they learned to livenew lives in Christ Certainly Gentiles who had never kept theSabbath would have had many questions about how to observeit but I found that questions about how to keep the Sabbathnever came up in any of Paulrsquos epistles

Furthermore I also had from my Adventist heritage a firmbelief that the Ten Commandments were all part of the un-changing moral Law of God As a result I was uncertain that Icould really trust what I seemed to see Paul saying

Finding peace with PaulIn 1972 I came across D M Canrightrsquos book Adventism Re-

nounced in a Christian bookstore I did not buy the book but I didlook through it to find out what he had to say about the Sabbath I

already well knew that Adventists said Paul was not speaking ofthe seventh-day Sabbath in Colossians 216 because the Day ofAtonement was also called a Sabbath of Sabbath rest I was unpre-pared however for the number of Old Testament passages thatCanright cited that spoke of festivals new moons and Sabbaths Itwas clear from these passages that the festivals referred to theyearly feast days the new moons referred to special sacrifices of-fered at the beginning of each month and the Sabbath referred tothe weekly Sabbath In fact a number of these Old Testament pas-sages also speak of the sacrifices offered every evening and morn-ing I saw that there was clear progression from the yearly to themonthly to the weekly and to the daily

Why I wondered as I pondered these passages would Paulhave used these three terms if he did not intend to include all ofthe holy days of the Jewsmdashincluding the weekly Sabbathmdashasbeing shadows of Christ Yet could I believe that Paul was reallysaying that the weekly Sabbath of the Ten Commandments wassomething that the Gentile believers were never called to keepany more than they were called to keep the Passover Pentecostor the Day of Atonement

I had begun to teach history at San Gabriel Academy in Cali-fornia in 1977 and the next year I was also given Bible classesThen in the fall of 1979 I first heard Desmond Ford on tapeexplaining his own struggle in attempting to reconcile Hebrewswith the Adventistsrsquo traditional understandings of 1844 It was


That year was one of

deep joy as Godrsquos word

seemed to open before

my eyes I came to under-

stand that my salvation

was secure because of

Christrsquos once and for all

sacrifice on the cross

vindicating to realize that I was not the first Adventist to see acontradiction between Hebrews 9 and 10 and the Adventistteaching about what happened in 1844

I was puzzled however that Ford would continue to try toaffirm Ellen White as a prophet while stating clearly that He-brews taught that Christ entered the Most Holy Place once andfor all at his ascension After all it was Ellen Whitersquos early vi-sions occurring between 1844-1851 which confirmed the tradi-tional Adventist teaching and Ford rightly saw them asconflicting with the clear teaching of Hebrews How could atrue prophet have visions confirming something opposed toScripture

Then came the Glacier View meetings where in July 1980Desmond Ford was stripped of his Adventist ministerial creden-tials I clearly saw then that my own days were numbered as ahistory and Bible teacher within the Seventh-day AdventistChurch

I wrestled the longest over whether or not Christians werestill called to keep the Sabbath I read Samuele BacchiocchirsquosFrom Sabbath to Sunday and was surprised that he acknowledgedthat Colossians 216 was talking about the weekly Sabbath Inoted that Jesus healed on the Sabbath and justified working onthat day because his Father was always working

Then in 1981 I did an exegetical study of the book of Gala-tians and saw that Paul clearly stated that the Law was to lastonly until the coming of Christ He uses the example of theslave-paidagogos who supervised the minor child only until he be-came an adult as the illustration of how the Jews were keptunder the Law until Christ would come Once they believed onHim they were no longer under the Law

Finally in the summer of 1981 my fighting with Paul wasover I saw that indeed the weekly Sabbath is a fitting shadowof Christ God called the Jews to remember two things aboutHim as they kept the Sabbath first that He is the Creator ofthe heavens and the earth and second that He redeemed themout of their slavery in Egypt Certainly Christ is both the Cre-ator of all things and our redeemer from our slavery to sin

DisfellowshippedI was suspended from my teaching position at San Gabriel

Academy in August 1981 however I was kindly granted a studyleave by the Southern California Conference of Seventh-dayAdventists This leave extended from August of 1981 to April of1982 and I spent my time reading extensively the primary doc-uments dating from 1840ndash1853 on Ellen Whitersquos first seven


Immediately upon coming to faith I began to wonder why I

had never understood the gospelmdashand what else might not

be right in Adventist teaching I decided to put all that I had

been taught on a shelf What I could confirm from a study of

Godrsquos word I would take off the shelf and embrace and what

could not be confirmed I would leave on the shelf

Wes and Jackie Ringer attending a dedication service for the new Baka New Testament translation

years of visions related to the sanctuary and the Shut-doorWithout this study leave I would not have had the time to havethoroughly read through much of the original sources that I citein the paper that I wrote for the Southern California Confer-ence The Shut-door and the Sanctuary Historical and TheologicalProblems

At the end of this study leave as I gave this paper to an offi-cial at the Southern California Conference he told me ldquoWesyou may well be right but we do not want to deal with it so donot feel bad when we fire yourdquo That same month my wife and Iwere disfellowshipped from the Temple City California Adven-tist Church

Disfellowshipping resulted in a number of changes in my lifeFirst was a change of occupation I spent the next twenty-threeyears as a painting contractor Sadly another change was thatwithin a year and a half of leaving the Adventist church ourmarriage ended in divorce I was left alone cut off from the reli-gious and social circles that had defined my life and stripped ofmy profession to attempt to continue to be a father to our twosmall children

I went through a time of deep grief but God remained faith-ful Gradually He showed me that He had a future plan for mylife I would caution other couples going through the consider-able stress of leaving Adventism to realize this added stress canplace a strain on their marriage It is important to pay attentionto how leaving is affecting each person and to seek to preventthe breakup of their marriage

Gift for languageI never would have guessed that God granted me a gift for

languages I had had a difficult time in my first attempt to learnGerman in college never even understanding the meaning offour English words nominative genitive dative and accusa-tive that I heard repeatedly during the two years that I studiedGerman

Meanwhile I did learn enough Korean to get around andbargain in the market place during the year that I was thereHowever I was impressed that my father was able to recall hishigh school French while in Haiti that he had studied Germanfor two years so that he could speak to his German-speakingdental patients and that in his early fifties he and my motherhad both learned Korean

I also realized that because my BA was in history if I were toconsider myself to be a serious student of the New Testament Ineeded more linguistic studies I needed to be able to read thetext in Greek

For over ten years I had a Greek New Testament and Lexiconsitting in my bookshelf which I would open from time to timeand quickly close again I feared attempting to take Greek atseminary since my first attempt at German had not gone well

Then in 1994 I met a member of my church Chris Gordonat a menrsquos prayer breakfast doing a Greek word study I went upto him afterwards and asked him if he would teach me GreekHe agreed and we studied together once a week for the nextfive years first completing the reading of John and then com-

pleting a beginning Greek grammar I well remember readingJohn 11 and suddenly understanding how the nominative geni-tive dative and accusative cases actually worked in that verse Ilooked forward to our time each Monday evening as we met in acoffee shop and studied Greek

Irsquod had a heart to serve Christ in overseas mission for manyyears a desire planted there I believe first because my parentshad served in Korea and secondly because I had enjoyed livingabroad first in England and then in Korea But in what waycould I best serve

In 1994 I knew that God had impressed on me that I was tolearn Greek well and I developed a faithful habit of almost dailyreading the New Testament Greek text of John 1 John Romans1ndash8 and then other New Testament books I found that byreading and re-reading the text that I grew both in understand-ing of words and most importantly in understanding howGreek sentences carry meaning

It finally began to dawn on me that perhaps I could best servein working with Bible translators So I applied by letter toWycliffe Bible Translators in April 1999 They seemed eager toaccept me to help paint their buildings but they were certainthat at 51 I was too old to work in Bible translation I was dis-couraged but did not give up my ongoing study of the GreekNew Testament


At the end of this study

leave as I gave this paper

to an official at the South-

ern California Conference

he told me ldquoWes you may

well be right but we do

not want to deal with it

so do not feel bad when

we fire yourdquo


On a short-term mission trip to Mexico to build homes forpoor families I poured out my frustration to a friend namedBijan mourning that this door to missions now seemed closedAlmost a year later Bijan heard a mission presentation by RonBinder a representative of Wycliffe Bible Translators of thegreat need for more workers and asked him why they were mak-ing it so hard for me to join them

Ron gave him his phone number and invited me to give hima call I finally called him in January 2001 and he encouragedme to apply again I had purchased a computer in the fall of1999 so that I could now email and send with my application anumber of exegetical papers that I had written using my GreekI sent them off and waited for several months before receivingan invitation from Freddy Boswell to come to Dallas Texas fora job interview

Freddy encouraged me to take a linguistic class or two at BiolaUniversity within an hourrsquos commute from my home I enrolledin August 2001 and graduated with a MA in Applied Linguisticsin 2004 While taking my linguistic classes I also took four upperdivision New Testament Greek classes and a hermeneutics class atTalbot Seminary which was on the same campus I was verythankful that I had begun the study of New Testament Greekwhen I did or I would never have been ready to understand thelinguistic courses that I needed to take for my MA

Finally five and one-half years after initially applying I be-came a member of Wycliffe Bible Translators in November2004 and was given an invitation to join the Sudan Branch totrain to become a translation consultant I arrived in the field inSeptember 2005 Since then I have been pleased that we havebetter translation software called Paratext that now allows me tolearn much about the seven languages that I have worked withon an ongoing basis

I am able to learn much about these languages through theuse of an interlinear window that allows me to see an Englishword or phrase under each of their words Together with mylinguistic studies the interlinear helps me to understand howsentences work and soon after beginning to work with a team Ican spot words or phrases that they are leaving out and oftensuggest the word that is missing

Since coming to Sudan I have had a lot to do with helpingthe Baka Didinga Keliko Gbaya and Tennet translators com-plete not only their New Testaments but also Genesis Exodus1ndash20 Ruth and Jonah It has been a special joy to check thebook of Hebrews with six different languages

I have just now finished reading verse by verse with the useof the interlinear in Paratext with the Gbaya all of their booksIt is an amazing privilege to work with men who have dedicatedyears of their lives to help bring Godrsquos word to their people Ihave developed deep bonds of friendship and have the joy toknow that I have helped to make Godrsquos word clearer and moreaccurate in these languages I look forward God willing to helpin the revision and completion of several more New Testamentsbefore I must retire from the field

I shared earlier the deep pain that I went through when myfirst marriage ended in divorce and wondered if I would everre-marry when I came to work with languages of South Sudan

However God led me to develop first a deep friendship andthen love for Jackie Marshall We married in 2014 with Jackieserving as the director of our work and I as both the translationcoordinator and translation consultant Yes God does plangood things for us that we will discover as we walk faithfullywith Jesus our Lord and Savior Each day I find great joy inserving him dagger

Endnotes1 White Ellen G The Great Controversy p 425 ldquoThose who are living upon

the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary aboveare to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediatorrdquo

2 John 4193 Romans 7244 Romans 815 Assurance of Eternal Life I recall Bible marking classes in my Adventist

church when I was young where we underlined and connected proof textsfor important Adventist doctrines But the assurance of salvation was not oneof those doctrines John 1027-29 Romans 828-39 Ephesians 13-10 Eph-esians 21-10 Philippians 16 Philippians 42 Colossians 11-14 1 John 59-13 Jude 24

6 Hebrews 977 Christ fulfills the work of the High Priest on the Day of Atonement He-

brews 619-20 911-12 924-26 1018-22 1311-138 Wesley Ringer The Shut-door and the Sanctuary Historical and Theological

Problems See Appendix I p7-8 Raymond Cottrell The ldquoSanctuary DoctrinerdquoAsset of Liability I digitized this paper with some updated revisions in 2011It can be down loaded at wwwLifeAssuranceMinistriescom

9 1 Corinthians 919-2110 Colossians 216-1711 Leviticus 1631 2332 σάββατα σαββάτων ἀνάπαυσις sabbath of sabbath rest12 Numbers 28-29 1 Chronicles 2330-31 2 Chronicles 24 2 Chronicles

812-13 2 Chronicles 313 Nehemiah 1033 Isaiah 113 -14 Ezekiel 4517Ezekiel 461-15 Hosea 211

13 Samuele Bacchiocchi From Sabbath to Sunday A Historical Investigation of theRise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity Pontifical Gregorian Univer-sity Press 1977 p 358 The seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary in-terprets the ldquosabbaton-sabbath daysrdquo as a reference to the annual ceremonialsabbaths and not to the weekly Sabbath (Lev 236-8 15 21 24 25 27 2837 38) It is a fact that both the Sabbath and the day of atonement in He-brew are designated by the compound expression shabbath shabbathon mean-ing ldquoa sabbath of solemn restrdquo (Ex 3115 352 Lev 233 32 1631) Butthis phrase is rendered in the Septuagint by the compound Greek expressionldquosabbata sabbatonrdquo which is different from the simple ldquosabbatonrdquo found inColossians 216 It is therefore linguistically impossible to interpret the lat-ter as a reference to the Day of Atonement or to any other ceremonial sab-baths since these are never designated simply as ldquosabbatardquo

14 John 517-18 ldquoJesus said to them lsquoMy Father is always at his work to thisvery day and I too am workingrsquo For this reason the Jews tried all theharder to kill him not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was evencalling God his own Father making himself equal with Godrdquo

15 slave-paidagogos Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament paidagogos (1)literally boy leader a trusted attendant who supervised the conduct andmorals of a boy before he came of age guardian trainer instructor

16 Galatians 319-2517 Exodus 208-1118 Deuteronomy 512-1519 Wesley Ringer The Shut-door and the Sanctuary Historical and Theological

Problems 1982 I revised this paper and digitally formatted in May of 2011It can be down loaded at wwwLifeAssuranceMinistriescom

20 Nominative genitive dative and accusative The nominative is subject ofthe sentence the genitive means the possessive for example something is ldquoofGodrdquo the dative is the location of the instrument for example ldquoin the gar-den with the hoerdquo and the accusative is the direct objectmdashto whom or forwhom something is done

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copyISTOCKPHOTOCOMKISIKA1


n a clear day back then you could gaze up into the blueJudean sky and see forever One afternoon a little clus-ter of people stood together on the Mount of Olives

for a long time gazing upward hoping and longing They couldonly see a bright cloud now receding away into the blue Theykept staring hopefully at the cloud that hid Him from theirsight but He was gone They suddenly noticed two men inwhite standing nearby who now spoke

Men of Galilee why do you stand looking into thesky This Jesus who has been taken up from you intoheaven will come in just the same way as you havewatched Him go into heaven (Acts 111)

That day as they followed Jesus up the hillside aboveBethany they were filled with expectation of what He might sayand do next Climbing the dusty path behind Him theywatched Him and wondered This man was the Jesus they hadknown and loved a man with a real body just as He had proven

to them the night after His rising He had flesh and bones likethem for they touched His scars and watched Him eat broiledfish His body wasnrsquot an illusion or a simulation

See My hands and My feet that it is I Myself touch Me andsee for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that Ihave (Lk 2439)

Jesus Himself was with them again Yet He had changedsince coming out of the tomb On a walk to Emmaus with twodisciples (Lk 24) they were prevented from recognizing HimThey only recognized Him when He raised His hands to blesstheir meal and then instantly He vanished Later that sameevening He suddenly appeared in a room with locked doorsThis was no ordinary human body and with His mysterious ap-pearances and signs they knew He had the power do anything

Jesus had called Himself the ldquoSon of Manrdquo placing Himselfat the center of Daniel 713 where one like a Son of Man waspresented to the Ancient of Days Now the Son of Man and His

INTERCESSORFORM A R T I N L C A R E Y

O

disciples had stopped in a clearing and they gathered aroundHim ready to ask their big burning question

ldquoLord is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom toIsraelrdquo (Acts 16)

He answered with a gentle correction and a promise

It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Fa-ther has fixed by His own authority but you willreceive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you andyou shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and inall Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of theearth (Acts 17ndash8)

This conversation wasnrsquot going the way they expected Jesusrsquokingdom would come with mighty powermdashnot by military con-quest but by proclaiming that His kingdom had arrived TheSpiritrsquos power was coming to equip them to be the Kingrsquos wit-

nesses to proclaim His gospel with power to the world It wastime for cherished beliefs to be overthrown with something muchbetter

After speaking to them He lifted up his hands to bless them(Lk 2451) and while still blessing them His body began to riseoff the ground What a strange way for Him to leave themThere were no lights angel choirs or fiery chariotsmdashjust a manquietly rising higher and higher from the earth blessing themThen the cloud took Him out of their sight

Watching Him they wondered how they could be comfortedwhen Jesus was gone but they knew He had promised to sendthem the Holy Spirit

ldquoI will ask the Father and He will give you another Helperthat He may be with you forever that is the Spirit of truthwhom the world cannot receive because it does not see Himor know Him but you know Him because He abides with youand will be in yourdquo (Jn 1416-17)

By the Spirit of God since His ascension Jesus has becomeever-present with His children and will never abandon them nomatter what Now through His Spirit Jesus lives in us and iscloser to us than He was even to His disciples while they walkedwith Him on earth

Where Did Jesus GoSince Jesusrsquo body ascended into space we wonder where He

went Perhaps if we flew a space ship fast enough we could ap-proach heaven or with a big enough telescope we could sneak apeek at heavenly glory

Some of us tried to do just that Growing up with a love forthe stars I would point my little telescope at a glowing patch inthe constellation of Orion Adventists are taught by theirprophet Ellen White that Jesus will return from somewhere inOrion Whitersquos ldquoOpening in Orionrdquo grew into an elaborate Ad-ventist legend over the years leading us to believe that Godrsquosthrone is somewhere inside the nebula M42 a glowing gascloud Astronomers tell us that M42 is about 1500 light yearsaway1 a relatively close neighbor in our Milky Way galaxy of100000 light years across It is a beautiful object even in binoc-ulars regardless of what its clouds may hide We know that M42fills a limited amount of space about 25 light years across Itglides along in the Orion arm of our Milky Way galaxy and al-though the galaxy is vast it is just one among 200 billion othergalaxiesmdashgive or take a few billion From Ellen Whitersquos twostatements many Adventists have come to believe Godrsquos heavenis contained in a gas nebula nearby For you astronomers thatputs heavenrsquos address at RA 5h 35m | Dec -5deg 232

Does God have an address inside our observable physicaluniverse The reformer John Calvin once remarked

What Do we place Christ midway between the spheresOr do we build Him a cottage among the planets Heaven weregard as the magnificent palace of God far outstripping thisworldrsquos fabric3


REVER


How far into the heavens did Jesus ascend Scripture gives nolocation in the universe for Godrsquos throne nor is there any men-tion of God coming from or living near Orion Jesusrsquo actual as-cension flight plan however is hinted at in Hebrews 414 Ourgreat high priest ldquohas passed through the heavensrdquo He is ldquosepa-rated from sinners and exalted above the heavensrdquo (Heb 726)The writer of Hebrews borrows language from David in Psalm575 ldquoBe exalted above the heavens O God Let your glory beabove all the earthrdquo

Solomonrsquos prayer when he dedicated the temple also revealsGodrsquos transcendence over creation

ldquoBut will God indeed dwell on the earth Behold heavenand the highest heaven cannot contain You how much lessthis house which I have builtrdquo (1Kings 827)

The term ldquoheaven of heavensrdquo is used in Scripture to indicatethe realm of Godrsquos immediate presence beyond the visible starryheavens There is no place loftier or more glorious than Histhrone a place beyond scientific observation The Son of Manrules in heaven a realm fitted for One who dwells in ldquounapproach-able lightrdquo (1Tim 616) where His will is done perfectly (Mt 610)

The Scandal of ChristmasWhen Christians celebrate the Christ child in the manger every

December we sometimes forget the glorious scandal of ChristmasThat night in Bethlehem Mighty God became a crying little babywho needed His mama to change His swaddling clothes Thatnight He brought the kingdom of heaven down to earth TheWord became flesh and when the humble shepherds beheld Hisglory they knelt down to worship the tiny baby Who would be-lieve the shepherdrsquos report

The incarnation of the Almighty is a shocking disruptive evenblasphemous messagemdashthat the eternal creator God entered awomanrsquos womb and became flesh Yet that tiny baby was the Eter-nal One not someone less divine than the Father ldquoFor in Him allthe fullness of deity dwells in bodily formrdquo (Col 29)

Jesusrsquo bodily ascension to heaven is an essential part of thegospel yet its significance has been neglected throughout Christianhistory A manrsquos body ascending into space is a fantastic-soundingstory very hard to believe Yet to many it hasnrsquot seemed spiritualenough writes Gerrit Dawson and we look for ways to spiritualizeJesusrsquo return to heaven4

Ancient Greek philosophers especially Plato still influenceChristians into having a low opinion of physical flesh There is atendency to think that somehow the body corrupts and disables thehuman spirit There is a great deal written about how we must lib-erate our spirits by cleansing our bodies with better diet and exer-cise We tend to equate the bodyrsquos genetic inheritance with ourtendencies to sin especially if we were raised on the Adventisthealth message

Yet Godrsquos incarnation into mortal human flesh does not di-minish His divinity or His humanity That Christmas baby wasMighty God who still held all things together from the feedtrough (Col 117)

We could change the story to say Jesus unzips His skin suitand then ascends to heaven as a spirit Jesus arrives on earth ap-pearing as a man wearing human flesh as a costume only toshed it before returning to heaven Spiritualizing Jesus that wayhas a certain appeal says Dawson5 It might offer us a way to es-cape the messy limitations of physical reality as He did Thischange to the story of Jesus would make the ascension storyethereal and give us a rather ghostly Jesus Absent from earththis ghostly Jesus would need us to finish His work on earth bytransforming the world and building up His kingdom by puttinghumanity back into the presence of God as Chester andWoodrow explain in their book The Ascension Humanity in thePresence of God6

The ascension however protects us from such perversions ofJesus It keeps us from reinventing Him into a ldquoChrist principlerdquosays Dawson or from creating a ldquoChrist in yourdquo ideal or whateverelse our imaginations desire The truth is that Jesus is the man whowalked the earth 2000 years ago bringing us to know and worshipthe wondrous person who gave His life to save the world The as-cension keeps us grounded in the Jesus of Scripture7

If the incarnation was scandalous it was even more scandalousto both Jews and Greeks for Christ to return to heaven with ahuman body as Chester and Woodrow point out How could God(or any god) humiliate Himself by first becoming flesh and then bycarrying a lowly servant body back to the heavens

The scandal is not just that God has left heaven to be lsquoenfleshedrsquoon earth but that God returns to heaven in the flesh As John(lsquoRabbirsquo) Duncan the Scottish theologian and missionary saidlsquoThe dust of the earth sits on the throne of heavenrsquordquo8

Origen a third century church theologian and philosophertaught that Jesus did not retain His human body when He as-cended to heaven but returned to His previous form as a spirit toexist only as pure intellect As a universalist Origen believed thatexisting as only mind was the goal of salvation for all that salvationcomes by attaining purity of intellect over the flesh9

In fact Origenrsquos thinking is alive and well today among certainmodern theologians who promote Christ not as a person but as aset of principles and ideals that we emulate

What does Scripture teach us about the present form of the as-cended Christ

For there is one God and one mediator also between Godand men the man Christ Jesushellip (1Tim 25)

The ascension of the man Jesus to heaven shows us that His in-carnation being made flesh with us and for us is a continuous in-carnation He is the same Jesus but now He has a gloriousresurrection body that we will share with Him

For our citizenship is in heaven from which also we ea-gerly wait for a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ who will trans-form the body of our humble state into conformity with thebody of His glory (Phil 320-21)For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are

all from one Father for which reason He is not ashamed tocall them brethren (Heb 211)


Jesusrsquo humanity is an inseparable part of His nature (Jn 114Phil 27) qualifying Him as a priest forever (Heb 620) In fact wecan call Jesus our Brother because He took our flesh and blood sothat we might become like Him

Open The GatesAfter Jesus ascended and was taken by the cloud it was time for

His return to the royal residency He had left 33 years before Whatwas this reunion like and what happened there From Psalm 24 wehave a glimpse into that heavenly drama The Son has changedsince He left home now He comes back as not only as the Son ofGod but also as the Son of David In Psalm 24 King David de-scribes a royal arrival that begins with ldquoThe earth is the Lords andall it containsrdquo He asks in verse 3 ldquoWho may ascend into the hillof the LORD And who may stand in His holy placerdquo Only theone with clean hands and a pure heart with nothing false in himmdashhe can stand in Godrsquos presence and be blessed Who is pureenough to stand in His holy place (v 4) There is only one ldquowhocommitted no sin nor was any deceit found in His mouthrdquo (1 Pet222) That blameless man can approach the gates of Zion withconfidence

Psalm 24 has been called the ldquoSong of Ascensionrdquo to be sungduring Davidrsquos reign when the ark of the covenant was carried upthe road to the gates of Jerusalem We discover that this arrival ofthe ark to the holy city was a shadow of something greater the ar-rival of the Lord of Glory the Son of David The triumphant kingreturns from battle and seeks entrance into the city The King hascome ready to enter through the ancient doors in triumph

In this Psalm we can imagine Christrsquos ascension and return toheaven Charles Spurgeon wrote

ldquoOur Lord Jesus Christ could ascend into the hill of the Lordbecause his hands were clean and his heart was pure and if we byfaith in him are conformed to his image we shall enter too We havehere a picture of our Lordrsquos glorious ascent We see him rising fromamidst the little group upon Olivet and as the cloud receives himangels reverently escort him to the gates of heavenrdquo10

The Son of Man approaches the eternal gates of heaven know-ing they have been shut tight against any man since Adamrsquos rebel-lion But now as He approaches thousands of excited angels gatheraround Him and they shout to those inside ldquoLift up your heads Ogates and be lifted up O ancient doors that the King of glory maycome inrdquo (v 7)

Those behind the gate ask ldquoWho is this king of gloryrdquo From the outside comes the shout ldquoThe LORD strong and

mighty the LORD mighty in battlerdquo and they shout all the louder ldquoLift up your heads O gates and be lifted up O ancient doors

that the King of glory may come inrdquoldquoWho is this king of Gloryrdquo They want to hear His name

againldquoThe Lord of Hosts He is the King of gloryrdquoThe Lord Jesus is the Son of Man prophesied in Daniel 7 and

He has arrived in a cloud of glory to be given sovereignty over allthe kingdoms of the world (Dan 714) Now having triumphed

over all His enemies through the blood of His cross He has onepressing appointment that cannot wait Jesus immediately sitsdown at the right hand of His Father at His side as the co-regentof all creation He told His disciples ldquoAll authority has been givento me in heaven and on earthrdquo (Mt 2818) His ascension was theinauguration ceremony for the King of Kings and He remains asour sovereign King to this day

Now reigning in the heavens Jesus is establishing His kingdomby sending us His Spirit by distributing spiritual gifts for buildingup His church (Eph 47-12) by representing us to the Father andby asserting His control over all the powers of this world Hispower extends to everywhere As Tim Keller has stated Jesus is stillhuman and our Advocate ldquoyet now he has been so glorified thateverything he does has a cosmic scope any time-space limita-tion passes awayrdquo11

The Veil Was TornAdventists have taught that Jesus had been in the first apart-

ment of the heavenly sanctuary the Most Holy Place makingintercession for us until 1844when He entered the MostHoly Place and began a workof judgment to see who wasworthy This belief is centralto the Adventist doctrine ofthe investigative judgmentwhich we will not discuss indetail In fact Ellen Whitesaw a vision in which Jesuswas ministering in the HolyPlace in heaven together withGod the Father12 Accordingto this vision God the Fatherentered the Most Holy Placejust before Jesus did The vi-sion implies that for over1800 years Jesus and His Fa-ther were not in the MostHoly Place which apparentlystood empty all that timeWith Father and Son absentthe mercy seat was apparentlyabandoned with no divinepresence there During thattime before the Father and Jesus entered it the Most HolyPlace in heaven was being polluted by the accumulating sins ofGodrsquos people At some point according to Ellen Whitersquos reve-lation the heavenly sanctuary must be ldquocleansedrdquo of all thatpollution

This doctrine raises some questions1 Why would Jesus imitate the futile ancient daily sacrifices

which never took away sin His completed atonement put awaysins once for all (Heb 1011-12)

2 If God was not present in the Most Holy Place before 1844what made it holy Isnrsquot the most holy place where God is

FROM ELLEN WHITErsquoS

TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS

HAVE COME TO BELIEVE

GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY


3 Why would the heavenly sanctuary need two compart-ments divided by a veil The veil of the earthly temple was ashield between the glory of God and the sinful priests That veilwas torn down the moment Jesus died announcing completeaccess to the Father Jesusrsquo torn body gave us fearless entranceinto the very throne room of the Father

Letrsquos look again at a famil-iar text and consider if anyChristian believer since AD 33was ever excluded from com-plete immediate access to themercy seat and the Father

Therefore brethren sincewe have confidence toenter the holy place by theblood of Jesus by a new andliving way which He inaugu-rated for us through theveil that is His flesh andsince [we have] agreat priest over the house ofGod let us draw near with asincere heart in fullassurance of faithrdquo (Heb101-22)

When Jesus was woundedfor our transgressions heavenand earth were shaken to allowbelieving sinners bold entryinto the throne room Jesuswent immediately to the Fa-therrsquos right hand where Hehas remained for 2000 years

As Charitee Lee Bancroftwrote ldquoBefore the throne of

God above I have a strong and perfect plea A great high priestwhose Name is Love Who ever lives and pleads for merdquo13

Who Shall Separate UsHe entered heaven in our name so that by His blood we may

enter also even though we are by nature filthy and unworthysinners That statement means that right now if you know andtrust in Christ you are seated with Him in heavenly placesThis fact is not just a pretty metaphor but a spiritual reality Helives in us by His Spirit (Eph 113-14) and we have our life inHim The Christianrsquos life is joined to Christrsquos life forever

For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ inGod When Christ who is our life is revealed then youalso will be revealed with Him in gloryrdquo (Col 33-4)

Full assurance of faith stands in contrast with the teachings ofEllen White who said that at some unknown moment Jesus will

abruptly end His priestly intercession in heaven for us On thatday there will be no further possibility of any sins being forgiven

ldquoThose who are living upon the earth when the intercessionof Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above are to stand in thesight of a holy God without a mediator Their robes must bespotless their characters must be purified from sin by the bloodof sprinkling Through the grace of God and their own diligenteffort they must be conquerors in the battle with evilrdquo14

Many Ellen White statements threaten believers with Jesusabandoning them if they are not perfect when their names comeup for judgment Thank God His word remains true even dur-ing the Time of Trouble

Who is to condemn Christ Jesus is the one who diedmdashmore than that who was raisedmdashwho is at the right hand ofGod who indeed is interceding for us Who shall separateus from the love of Christ (Rom 834-35)ldquoI will never leave you nor forsake yourdquo (Heb 135)But he holds his priesthood permanently because he con-

tinues forever Consequently he is able to save to the utter-most those who draw near to God through him since healways lives to make intercession for them (Heb 724-25)Nothing ldquocan separate us from the love of God which is

in Christ Jesus our Lordrdquo (Rom 837-39)

Our Mediator will never walk off the job or turn against Hisown children for His priestly work always continues Would Heever stop making intercession for us No His intercession andour eternal life are guaranteed because Jesus can never dieagain (Rom 69) With Him our place in heaven is as secure asHe is where no power can remove Him

As Charitee Bancroft continues in her poem ldquoMy name isgraven on His hands My name is written on His heart I knowthat while in heaven He stands No tongue can bid me thencedepartrdquo15

We Have Such a High PriestThe high priests of ancient Israel were men appointed to me-

diate between sinful people and their holy God Moses set thepattern for them when he ascended Mt Sinai and entered thecloud alone to speak with God (Ex 2021) Later the tabernaclebecame the meeting place between God and man On the Dayof Atonement every year the high priest entered the most holyplace of the tabernacle carrying the blood of sacrifice to themercy seat on behalf of all Godrsquos people (Lev 1629-34) WhenJesus ascended to heaven as our High Priest the Father had al-ready accepted His shed blood on behalf of all who trust inHim As our Substitute Jesus had broken the curse of deathand we who believe enter the presence of God in Him If youtrust in Jesus you are there now with the Father with no ldquosinpollutionrdquo barrier We have ldquothis seal lsquoThe Lord knows thosewho are Hisrdquo (2 Tim 219) The Ascended One personallybrings us to God

FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS

PRIESTLY INTERCESSION

IN HEAVEN FOR US


For Christ also died for sins once for all the just for theunjust so that He might bring us to God (1Pet 318)

Jesus is a better high priest because He is not like the priestsof the Old Covenant

1) He is a priest forever unlike the priests of old who died (He-brews 724) He ldquoalways lives to make intercession for themrdquo (v 25)

2) He was the perfect and sinless priest and sacrifice (v 26)He is ldquoholy innocent undefiled and separated from sinnersrdquo

3) He made one sacrifice ldquoonce for all when He offered upHimselfrdquo (v 27)

To be all of those things Jesus had to share our flesh andblood to be our sympathetic and merciful high priest He knowswhat pain joy grief and fear all feel like because He is ourbrother

Therefore He had to be made like His brethren in allthings so that He might become a merciful and faithfulhigh priest in things pertaining to God to make propitia-tion for the sins of the people (Heb 217)

Our high priest is forever one of us and only in Him we arecomplete and ldquofaultless to stand before the thronerdquo

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul a hope bothsure and steadfast and one which enters within theveil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us havingbecome a high priest forever according to the order ofMelchizedek (Heb 619-20)

Standing before the Father Jesus is our Mediator and Inter-cessor He prays for our salvation for our joy for protectionagainst the evil one (Jn 179-14) Jesus knows what we needevery moment

Just how desperately do we need His prayers My mom wassingle when she raised us three kids and was often at her witrsquosend dealing with us I confess we were a handful I remembercertain nights hearing her fervently praying for us in her bed-room She sounded so helpless and needy as she poured out hertears on the throne of grace I wondered if God was taking herseriously Now years later I know the answer We have someonepraying for us in the very highest heaven one whose prayers arepowerful and never failing We are more helpless and waywardthan we can know As Robert Murray MrsquoCheyne wrote

ldquoIf I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room Iwould not fear a million enemies Yet distance makes no differ-ence He is praying for merdquo16

He will never abandon the struggling soul who calls on Himfor He saves to the uttermost We are commanded to put sin todeath and live by the Spirit (Rom 814) As we will and work toplease Him our victory only comes by His willing and doing inus (Phil 212-13) It is foolhardy to think of ever living apartfrom Himmdashas if we could prove our ability to live on our mer-its He has a better plan

For I am confident of this very thing that He whobegan a good work in you will perfect it until the day ofChrist Jesus (Phil 16)

If you trust in Jesus you are there with Him now victoriousin the Fatherrsquos presence He will be our righteous Mediator to-morrow at worldrsquos end and a trillion years from now Our livesare always hidden with Him

ldquoOne with Himself I cannot die My soul is purchased by Hisblood My life is hid with Christ on high With Christ my Sav-ior and my Godrdquo17

Endnotes1 Kenneth Hewitt-White ldquoObserving the Great Orion Nebulardquo Sky and Tele-

scope httpswwwskyandtelescopecomobservingcelestial-objects-to-watchobserving-the-great-orion-nebula

2 Earthsky ldquoMessier Objects Messier 42 Orion Nebulardquo httpearthskyorgclusters-nebulae-galaxiesorion-nebula-jewel-in-orions-sword

3 John Calvin Tracts and Treatises of John Calvin Wipf and Stock Publishers2002 290

4 Gerritt Dawson ldquoWhy the Ascension of Jesus Matters An Interview with Gerritt Scott Dawson and Jonny Woodrowrdquo 582013 httpswwwdesiring-godorginterviewswhy-the-ascension-of-jesus-matters-an-interview-with-ger-rit-scott-dawson-and-jonny-woodrow

5 Dawson Ibid6 Tim Chester and Jonny Woodrow The Ascension Humanity in the Presence of

God Christian Focus Publications Fearn Scotland amp Porterbrook Net-work Sheffield UK pp 80-81

7 Dawson Ibid8 John Duncan quoted by Tim Chester and Jonny Woodrow The Ascension Humanity in the Presence of God Christian Focus Publications Ltd Scotland 58

9 Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy ldquoOrigen of Alexandriardquohttpswwwieputmeduorigen-of-alexandriaSH5b

10 Charles Spurgeon Treasury of David Psalm 24 httpsbiblehubcomcom-mentariestodpsalms24htm

11 Tim Keller Encounters With Jesus Unexpected Answers to Lifersquos Biggest Ques-tions Penguin Books New York New York 176

12 Ellen White Early Writings p 55 httpwwwgileadnetegwbooks2early-writingsew2300dayshtm

13 Charitee Lees Bancroft ldquoBefore the Throne of God Aboverdquo httpswwwhymnalnetenhymnh327

14 Ellen White The Great Controversy p 42httpwwwwhiteestateorgbooksgcgc24html

15 Bancroft Ibid16 Robert Murray MrsquoCheyne The Robert Murray MrsquoCheyne Resource

httpswwwmcheyneinfoquotesphp 17 Bancroft Ibid

Martin Carey grew up as a ldquono-madicrdquo Adventist in many placesHe works as a school psycholo-gist in San Bernardino Califor-nia Married to Sharon he hastwo sons Matthew and Nick As-tronomy research and too manypets keep him in joyful disarrayYou may contact him at martin-careysbcglobalnet


The Chapel in St Joseph Michigan gave a gift to the Life As-surance Ministries board on the first weekend of November

this year It wasnrsquot a gift in the tangible sensemdashbut it was a gift thatcontinues to encourage us

The gift we received was The Chapelrsquos commitment to knowingthe truth about Adventism Pastor Phil Bubar and his staff asked usto conduct three educational meetings for their congregation Be-cause The Chapel is located just minutes from Berrien Springs thehome of Andrews University and the Adventist seminary themembers encounter Adventists often Pastor Bubar has a passion toequip his sheep with the understanding they need in order to talkwith Adventists without being deceived or dismissed

The Chapel agreed to hosta one-day Former AdventistFellowship conference duringthe weekend before we beganour meetings for the churchso on Saturday November 3the Tinkers the StevensonsCheryl Granger Tim Martinfrom The Centers for Apolo-getics Research and JimValentine from ChristianApologetics Research and In-formation Services conducteda day of meetings for a groupof nearly 30 people question-ing or processing AdventismOne attendee was a Bibleteacher from a neighboringBible church who wanted to learn more He had already beenteaching classes about Adventism to a Sunday school class usingRick Barkerrsquos articles on the Adventist Fundamental Beliefsfrom Proclamation magazine as his primary source material

On Sunday we were able to address nearly all the adults of thislarge church in two combined Sunday school classes Richard Tin-ker interviewed former Adventist Rolaant McKenzie who talkedabout his research in the Heritage Room at Loma Linda Univer-sity in the 80s and Colleen Tinker addressed the underlying im-pact of Adventismrsquos skewed ldquonaturesrdquo the nature of man of Godof sin and of salvation and explained how these unseen but pow-erful skews alter the way Adventists hear the gospel when Chris-tians talk to them

Sunday evening Carel Stevenson shared his faith story withThe Chapel members and Tim Martin gave a presentation onAdventismrsquos confusing history of Arianism anti-trinitarianism

trinitarian-sounding statements and its current vague stance re-sembling tritheism In the process Tim clarified the difference(which Adventists have trouble seeing) between a ldquoBeingrdquo and aldquoPersonrdquo One new former Adventist said ldquoI understand whatthe Trinity is now for the first timerdquo

On Monday night Richard Tinker and Carel Stevenson ex-plained the way Adventists understand certain common Chris-tian words compared with the wordsrsquo actual meanings Wordsthey discussed included grace sanctification born again faithhope and others Colleen Tinker then showed how the ldquoFiveSolasrdquo of the ReformationmdashSola fide (faith alone) Sola Scrip-tura (Scripture alone) Solus Chrisus (through Christ alone)

Sola Gratia (by grace alone) andSoli Deo Gloria (glory to Godalone)mdashwhich define evangeli-cal Christianity are reinter-preted within an Adventistframework

Although Adventists wouldlikely affirm these five ldquosolasrdquo ifquestioned in practice they in-terpret each of these five in pri-vate unique ways that changetheir understanding of Godrsquosword the gospel and the iden-tity of Jesus

Monday eveningrsquos presenta-tion ended with a Q amp A withPastor Bubar moderating thequestions directed to a panel of

all the presenters who were there The Q amp A session was high-lighted by an Adventist woman who had attended both the Sun-day school presentations as well as Mondayrsquos program She camearmed with a ldquopaperrdquo she had written which she demanded thatshe be able to read

ldquoThis will only take five minutes yoursquove already had 30 min-utesrdquo she said as she insisted we had twisted the truth and didnrsquotreally understand Adventism Pastor Bubar reminded her that all ofus had been Adventists and she got up and walked out

Why Adventism needs to be exposedThe womanrsquos outburst may have been extreme compared to

many Adventistsrsquo public presentations yet it was an indication oftrue Adventism Historically Adventism thrived on public debatesmarked by rapid-fire proof-texts designed to confuse and silence

Why Christians Need toUnderstandSeventh-day Adventism

The Christian concern that explaining

Adventism might put peoplersquos

attention on falsehood instead of

truth is a fear not a reality It is not

possible for us to explain Adventism

without defining biblical truth

MINISTRY N E W S


Christians who frankly do notunderstand the Adventistsrsquo argu-ments or agenda

In fact although thewomanrsquos interruption seemedirregular it illustrated PastorBubarrsquos conviction that hiscongregation needs to under-stand Adventism in order toengage effectively with Adven-tists

Many Christians believe thatthey should be known not forwhat they oppose but for whatthey believe Their argument isimportant because Christianityis being eclipsed in many circles today by inclusive language thatobscures Jesusrsquo penal substitutionary atonement the nature ofChrist and the Trinity not to mention the inerrancy of Scripture

While the basics of Christianity must be taught however thereis a parallel need to inform Christians of the skews of the ldquoChrist-ian cultsrdquo Adventism especially must be exposed because it mostcleverly uses the same words Christians use espousing the samebeliefs the same salvation and the same Jesus

Their words are deceptive however and Adventists do not be-lieve in the same Jesus the same way of salvation or in the in-errancy of Scripture

Perhaps most skewing of all Adventists do not believe in thesame nature of man that the Bible teaches Because Adventists holdto a materialistic view of man without an immaterial spirit theymean something different than Christians mean when they ldquoagreerdquoabout human sin about Jesusrsquo ministry on our behalf about the na-ture of salvation and about Jesusrsquo role in the Trinity

Many Christians who do not understand an Adventistsrsquo privatedefinition of Christian words believe the Adventists to whom theyspeak know Jesus and are ldquotrue Christiansrdquo They are confused byAdventistsrsquo questions and may be puzzled by an Adventistsrsquo decla-rations of ldquoloving Jesusrdquo

Conversely an Adventist who desires to ldquodo the right thingrdquoneeds to hear how his private beliefs are wrong If an Adventistwere to step into a Bible-teaching church he would likely agreewith most of what he heard Because Adventists themselves do notusually understand that their definitions of Christian words differfrom their true meanings when they hear a Christian talk the Ad-ventists generally agree What an Adventist needs is for a Christianto be able to confront his understanding with truth

Unless Christians understand how Adventists ldquohearrdquo words likeldquowe are saved by grace through faith in Christ alonerdquo both the Ad-ventist and the Christian may think they are in agreement Unless aChristian knows that an Adventist does not believe he has an im-material spirit that is born dead the Christian will not realize thatan Adventist thinks of ldquoconversionrdquo or ldquonew birthrdquo as a mentalagreement rather than as onersquos spirit literally becoming alive

Adventists who hear Christians teach the Bible and explain thegospel usually agree with them privately amending the Christianrsquostalk with words such as ldquoPoor manmdashhe just doesnrsquot understand the

lsquoSabbath truthrsquordquo or ldquoWell theGod I serve would never punisha person in eternal hellrdquo

Adventists edit their Chris-tian friends internally whenthey hear them talk The Ad-ventists believe they espouse allthe truths a Christian believesbut they also have ldquothe rest ofthe truthrdquo Christians will notrealize the Adventists have a dif-ferent worldview underlyingtheir words and Adventists donot realize that their own defi-nitions of Christian words arenot accurate

Because of these deliberate deceptions built into Adventismit is imperative that Christians understand Adventism in orderto communicate truth to an Adventist

Includes the truthImportantly helping Christians understand Adventism must

always include clear teaching about biblical truth It is true thatmany Christians are not clear about their own central doctrinesBecause of this lack of clarity such Christians would be unableto help an Adventist even if they understood what an Adventistbelieved

When we teach Christians what Adventism teaches we alwaysexplain what the Bible says about each doctrine We explain howAdventism obscures the power of the gospel and we state what istrue using Scripture as the foundation that reveals reality and ex-poses the Adventist ldquoskewrdquo

The Christian concern that explaining Adventism might putpeoplersquos attention on falsehood instead of truth is a fear not a real-ity It is not possible for us to explain Adventism without definingbiblical truth

Looking back at our weekend in St Joseph we are thankful tothe pastors and also the congregation for their desire to understandhow to talk to Adventists Their interest in knowing what Adven-tists believe so that they could speak to them without being con-fused has renewed our energy and commitment to this work towhich God has called us

If we assume that Adventists are actually born-again Christiansbecause they say they are we risk cutting them off from the gospelWhen an Adventist uses words that Christians use he likely doesnot mean the same thing Christians mean

Because Adventism teaches a false gospel based upon an incom-plete atonement and a weak Jesus Adventists are likely not believingunto salvation They are believing a substitute idea that includestheir own obedience as part of their salvation requirements

We owe it to our brothers and sisters in Christ to explain Ad-ventism to them for two reasons we are commanded by Scriptureto contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints(Jude 3) and we have to understand how Adventists misunderstandthis delivered faith dagger

Richard Tinker and Carel Stevenson compared the meanings of common Christianwords with the Adventist meanings of those same words


Deceived and trickedI just wanted to tell you how

grateful I am for the wonderfulwork you all are doing in helpingpeople to come to know the bibli-cal truth I was an Adventist forthirty-five years and left that de-nomination two-and-a-half yearsago During my long stay therewas often something inside me thatkept saying something was notright Many of their doctrinessounded contrary to what the Biblesaid If I went to an elder or some-one better versed in the Bible andEllen White than I was they wouldexplain anything I wanted to knowIt would sound so right I alwaysbelieved that I could trust a pastor

or someone else that was more fa-miliar with the Bible than I sonaively I would believe

I always heard of the investiga-tive judgment but I didnrsquot under-stand it For some time I had beenfeeling quite uneasy about whatthey were teaching [it seemed that]no matter what I did it was a sin Iwould pray and ask God to help meobey all the rules and regulationswhich I really thought were fromHim My salvation means every-thing to me but as time went on Iknew Irsquod never make it I couldnrsquotdo anything right

Then after much prayer andpleading with God to show me thetruth I came across your website Iread everything you wrote andbought all your books and watchedyour YouTubes and I decided tostudy the Bible myself with noEllen White books just Godrsquosword I did use some of your helpsbut I also had to make sure youwere teaching biblically

During the next six months Istudied day and night and what Ifound shocked me By then I wasso confused and sad I couldnrsquot be-lieve what I had learned I wouldtake Godrsquos word and put it next towhat the Adventists and EGWtaught and nothing matched upOf course I took what the word ofGod said above anyone else

I canrsquot begin to tell you thedeep sadness I then experiencedAt first I thought that I must bewrong so I re-studied everythingmany many times but it came outto the same thing I had been de-ceived and tricked into a cult how

could I have let that happen to meHow could I have been so stupid Ilost all that wasted time when Icould have been worshiping Godthe correct way and could havebeen much happier

So many times in that thirty-five years I would ask God to giveme the rest that He promises inHis word but I could never seemto find it However when I finallyrealized through continued studythat the rest was actually in JesusChrist I finally found my rest andpeace that I had never had before

I didnrsquot have to be a vegetarianI didnrsquot have to keep all thoserules and regulations that theytaught I had known when theytaught that I would have to standbefore God without a mediatorthat something was very wrongIn fact that was the point that Istarted studying deeply into Godrsquosword to find truth

Your work has helped me somuch It helped me to realize thatso many others were going throughthe same thing I cried so manytimes over many othersrsquo testi-monies it was like hearing themdescribe the exact same thing I wasgoing through

Because of your site I havehelped two others out of darknessinto the true light I will always lovemy Adventist friends even though Iam basically shunned from them Iwill always pray for them and all theother so-called cultic churches thatthey will find the true Jesus and thepeace that only He can give

I continue to go to your siteand read and study What a bless-

ing you all are I especially likehow I can go back to previousmagazinesmdashall the way back toyour beginning

Now for my last question myfriends and I who have left that Ad-ventism would like to know how somany get caught up in such lies anddeceit How do people like doc-tors lawyers and highly educatedpeople get drawn into a cult Infact how does anyone fall for suchlies Even when I try to show themwhat the Bible says and what thechurch teaches and the contrast isplain as day they will not accept it

I will continue to pray for yourministry that many others like mewill find their rest in Christ Godbless you all

PELHAM NH

Editorrsquos response Christianswho become caught in Adventismare usually unaware of two thingsFirst they often do not really knowthe biblical teaching of the newcovenant and the fact that Jesus ful-filled the law making it obsolete(Heb 813) In other words theydonrsquot really understand the impactof the gospel that Jesus died ac-cording to Scripture was buriedand rose on the third day accordingto Scripture (1 Cor 153ndash4)

Second they do not know thatAdventists have a completely differ-ent worldview than biblical Chris-tians have They do not know thatAdventists believe humans do nothave an immaterial spirit that is bynature dead in sin the object ofGodrsquos wrath (Eph 21-3) BecauseAdventists have an unbiblical view

L E T T E R S TO THE EDITOR

is tricky to nail down Some Adventists would tell you thatyour character needs to be perfect before Christ returns Oth-ers would say that you canrsquot have any remaining willful sins(apparently ldquoaccidentalrdquo and ldquospur of the momentrdquo sins are adifferent class of sin) I have also heard Adventists who wouldsay that one canrsquot have any unrepented sins

None of these definitions of ldquoreadyrdquo are discussed in thebook Seventh-day Adventists Believe Rather those who are ldquonotreadyrdquo are described as not having ldquobeen sealed by the HolySpiritrdquo (p 384) This phrase is a blatant example of Adventist

code words To the person unfamiliar with Adventist doctrinethe statement seems completely reasonable However theldquosealrdquo in Adventism is the Sabbath The underlying messagehere is that those who donrsquot keep the Sabbath arenrsquot ready forChristrsquos return and will be cast out

While this statement may be one of the most orthodox-sounding of the Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Beliefsit still contains references to uniquely Seventh-day Adventistteachings that would not be apparent to the casual readerOutside of the context of Adventism I could read this state-ment without having any concerns This belief statementhowever is not separate from the context of Adventism andwords like ldquoresurrectionrdquo ldquodeathrdquo and ldquobeing readyrdquo havespecial meanings within this context dagger

MISSIONTo proclaim the good news ofthe new covenant gospel ofgrace in Christ and to combat theerrors of legalism and false reli-gion

MOTTOTruth needs no other foundationthan honest investigation underthe guidance of the Holy Spiritand a willingness to follow truthwhen it is revealed

MESSAGEldquoFor by grace you have beensaved through faith and that notof yourselves it is a gift of Godnot of works that no one shouldboastrdquo Ephesians 289

LIFE ASSURANCE MINISTRIES

ADVENTISM E X A M I N E DCONTINUED FROM PAGE 13


of humanity and thus of Jesus theirdoctrines teach another gospel thanthe gospel of Scripture

Christians need to know whatthe Bible actually teaches and theyneed to know what Adventism ac-tually is

Donrsquot need religion with errorsNeither my mother nor I ad-

here to your teachings and can seemany errors in your understandingIf you are interested my motherwould be happy to share her rea-sons for this

For the record my mother hastried to unsubscribe in the past butwas told it had to come from methe addressee I do have to apolo-gize for not getting around todoing it before now and thank youfor your generosity in sending themagazine in the past It was cer-tainly helpful when I first came outof Adventism However since weboth decided to follow the Scrip-tures starting at the beginning ofthe book and allowing the Spirit toteach and guide us in our under-standing of His Word we donrsquotneed church or religion in whichtruth and error is taught Conse-quently we have not read the mag-azine for some years now

My mother and I would bothappreciate it if you could please un-subscribe me from your mailingdatabase

QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA

I finally understandOnly those willing to ldquocome out

of herrdquo know just how dark thedarkness of Adventism is and howthe legalism and fear choke the lifeout of a person I could not evenshower without hearing in my headjust how EGW said I should do itI understand how hard it is toleave I came close to a breakdownwhen I left

I loved God (still do) but EllenWhite reminded me how I keptfailing to show my love Now I re-alize her counsels were nonsenseand brain washing of sorts

Then I remembered what ahappy Christian I had been beforejoining that church Everythingseemed to snowball then The Ad-ventists followed us and threatened

us when we visited another churchWe began doing research intosome of Adventismrsquos statementsand found they distorted and liedThen we received a copy of WalterRearsquos The White Liemdashand then mymarriage of 15 years suddenlyended

I was reeling God got us (thekids and me) through it all Thatwas in 1987 and I STILL did notknow all that Adventists believe atthe start of this year 2018 I stillwondered about the Sabbath Iwondered about some lessons that

never made sense Nothing seemedto answer the Sabbath issue author-itatively to me I felt like I was ra-tionalizing

Thanks to you I finally under-stand and am totally free I praiseGod for your ministry Thank you

RESPONSE TO A PROCLAMATION BLOG

Your heinous doctrineLAM take my name off of your

mailing list I want nothing to dowith an organization that believesthat our loving God would tortureHis enemies for eternity withoutend That doctrine makes a liar outof Jesus who said in Matthew 544and Luke 727 ldquoLove your ene-miesrdquo

Also Paul tells us in Romans623 ldquoFor the wages of sin isdeathrdquo Death is not death if yoursquorealive forever being tortured

Your heinous doctrine makes aliar out of Jesus and Paul

I am destroying and discardingyour magazine without reading it Ialso threw away all your books

FORMER ADVENTISTGILBERT AZ

Editorrsquos response WhenJesus said that the wicked wouldldquogo away into eternal punish-mentrdquo He used the same wordldquoeternalrdquo that He used to de-scribe ldquoeternal liferdquo in the sameverse (Mt 2546) Punishment in-volves knowledge and awarenessFurthermore the second deathidentified as the lake of fire inRevelation 2014 is not describingldquoliferdquo

Adventismrsquos materialistic viewof existence cannot conceive ofldquodeathrdquo meaning anything other

than non-existence For an Ad-ventist to cease to breathe is tocease to exist Yet Scripture de-scribes the death of the body asdistinct from the life of the spirit1 Corinthians 51ndash9 explains thatwhen our bodies die we are ab-sent from them and present withthe Lord a condition Paul says isldquovery much betterrdquo than remain-ing alive on earth (Phil 122ndash23)

The second death the judg-ment of being thrown into thelake of fire for eternal punishmentdoes not describe either life ornon-existence A person who isresurrected for judgment is notldquoaliverdquo in the lake of fire he is verydeadmdashspiritually deadmdashjust as weare when we are born ldquoby naturechildren of wrathrdquo (Eph 23)

The Adventist definition ofldquodeathrdquomdashnon-existencemdashis not abiblical definition Life in Scrip-ture requires spiritual life beingreconciled to God and alive withHis life

Eternal punishment is deatheven if one is conscious Hebrews1031 says ldquoIt is a terrifying thingto fall into the hands of the living

Godrdquo and Hebrews 1229 saysldquofor our God is a consuming firerdquo

If the consequence for believ-ing in the Life Giver is eternal lifewith Him the consequence fornot believing must be equally seri-ous but opposite We are borndead in sin but in His mercy Godsent His Son to be a propitiationfor our sin To refuse to believe inHim is to remain under the curseof sin spiritually dead

Eternal punishment is thejudgment on all who refuse to be-lieve the Life Giver I can think ofnothing worse than falling intothe hands of the Living God andbeing unable to be in relationshipwith Him because of refusing Hislife That condition is death

Leaving is like divorceI have been reading your mag-

azine since the first edition camein the mail and have very muchbenefited from the enlightenmentit brings me Your magazine issuch a treasure and is visuallybeautifulhellip

The Spring 2018 edition waswritten just for me I did not real-ize it but I have been needing thearticles you wrote Finally I haveclarity on the reasons for my con-fusion about the sanctuary thepriesthood the scapegoat and theinvestigative judgmenthellip

Thank you for all your effortsto bring to us the truth aboutwhat we have believed all ourlives Our decision to leave Ad-ventism is like a divorce There isso much emotion guilt and lossEven when we are convinced thatthe teaching of Adventism isheresy it is still in our bones andthere are so many triggers thatbring back the feelings of doubtYour magazine and books clarifybiblical teachings which make ourjourney in leaving Adventism eas-ier and reveal Jesus in every word

OOLTEWAH TN

MAIL LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO Editor ProclamationMagazine PO Box 7776 Redlands CA 92375OR EMAIL EDITOR proclamationgmailcom

OUR DECISION TO LEAVE ADVENTISM IS LIKE A

DIVORCE THERE IS SO MUCH EMOTION GUILT AND

LOSS EVEN WHEN WE ARE CONVINCED THAT THE

TEACHING OF ADVENTISM IS HERESY IT IS STILL IN

OUR BONES AND THERE ARE SO MANY TRIGGERS THAT

BRING BACK THE FEELINGS OF DOUBT

ldquoRejoice in the Lord always andagain I say rejoicerdquo (Phil 44)

For many of us whorsquove left Adven-tism the holidays can be particu-

larly tricky and sometimes painful Noteveryone experiences the consequencesof leaving Adventism in the same waybut for many the fallout is real and oftendevastatingmdashespecially inside the familyIn spite of the trials though the holi-days are also a time for celebrating ourGod and for focusing on the gift of JesusChrist and the salvation He brings

Scripture tells us that followingChrist brings consequences that evenfamily relationships may be severed forthe sake of the gospel Even so we canrejoicemdashreturning to the source of ourjoy and offering our broken hearts asplatforms of praise to our God who isthe heartbeat of these holidays we love

Rejoicing often comes for me as Isurround myself with music rich in the-ological truths or when I read and copyScripture Returning to the source ofmy joy means setting my heart andmind on the truths of who God is andwhat He has done

When I focus my mind on what theholidays really honor my emotions are also refocused and the joyof the Lord becomes my strength even when I feel loss When Iexpress my thankfulness to God I remember that I no longer livelocked in the confusion of my depravity or under the weight of my

sin and shame or in the uncertaintyof life after death Those chains havebeen broken by the miraculous incar-nation death burial and resurrectionof the Lord Jesus

I have been escorted into the lightof Christ and transferred to the King-

dom of the beloved Son where Irsquove beengiven new life and the ability to knowtruth Irsquove been reconciled to andadopted by the Father and I am sealedforever by the Holy Spirit who guaran-tees my salvation This new reality isThanksgiving Christmas and Easter allpackaged together

We can rejoice and be content nomatter what we face this holiday sea-sonmdashbecause of a baby This helplessbaby the incarnate Word gifted to usby the Father grew up knowing re-sentment rejection and hate FinallyHe was led to the slaughter on our be-half This holy helpless infant bornunder the cloak of night bore the full-ness of God into our evil world to res-cue His people from the clutches ofsin and death

It is to Him our Most High Godthat we owe our deepest loyalty andgratitude our fullest attention and ourhighest praise It is to this Merciful Onewho knows what it is to suffer that wecan bare our broken hearts placing ourburdens at His feet and thank Him forwhat He is doing in us in the midst ofour trials and loss

Our Savior knows what it is to walka path paved with the certainty of calamity for the glory of GodBecause we share in His sufferings and His comfort we canknow His compassion through trials and cling to hope no mat-ter the outcome

All the power of the Trinity works to lead us home Though wemay walk through dark valleys of loss or rejection we are neverwithout our Great Shepherd We fix our eyes on Him and ourhearts rejoice and praise Him for the life we now havemdashin spite ofour personal losses It is in this place of worship lived outmdashwithour minds fixed on truth and our spirits worshiping Godmdashthat wefind our deepest and most lasting contentment in the Life After dagger

NON-PROFITUS POSTAGEPAID

SAN BERNARDINO CAPERMIT No 2244

Editorial OfficePO Box 7776Redlands CA 92375-0776

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

PROCLAMATIONMAGAZINECOM

Nicole Stevenson lives in Southern California with her husband Carel and her two children Joshua and AbigailNicole graduated from La Sierra University with a degree in social work and is currently staying home to raise theirkids Nicole with her husband Carel was on the launch team of Redeemer Fellowship an evangelical church inLoma Linda California

LIFE AFTERWITH NICOLE STEVENSON

FindingContentment

This Christmas season let us focus on the significance ofthe birth of Christ rather than on the event

But when the fullness of the time came God sentforth His Son born of a woman born under the Lawso that He might redeem those who were under theLaw that we might receive the adoption as sons Be-cause you are sons God has sent forth the Spirit ofHis Son into our hearts crying ldquoAbba FatherrdquoTherefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if ason then an heir through God (Gal 44-7)

But when the fullness of time cameThis required the sovereignty of God working through

Caesar Augustus to declare acensus so that Joseph and Marywould be forced to go to Bethle-hem in fulfillment of Micahrsquosprophecy It required Mary togive birth during the time sheand Joseph were in BethlehemIt required Jesus being born atthe right time so years later Hisministry would culminate in thecrucifixion when the PassoverLamb was killed

God sent forth His son born of a womanImmediately we note that contrary to Jewish custom no

human father is mentioned He who created the human familynow becomes a member of the human family

Born under the Law so that He might redeem those who wereunder the Law

The law could not save it could only point out sin and be ashadowmdashnot the realitymdash of grace By being born of awoman Jesus came under the law He who was greater thanall law placed Himself under the law He who was greater thanHis mother became her child Jesus came under the law sothat He could once and for all time redeem us from the domi-nation of the law

That we might receive the adoption as sonsThe law said ldquodordquo or ldquodonrsquot dordquo The problem with the law

was that no one was able to do all the good that the law re-quired nor was anyone able to refrain from doing all the lawforbade As Paul said earlier in Galatians no one is justified by

the Law before God for ldquoTHERIGHTEOUS MAN SHALLLIVE BY FAITHrdquo Howeverthe Law is not of faith on thecontrary ldquoHE WHO PRAC-TICES THEM SHALL LIVEBY THEMrdquo Christ redeemedus from the curse of the Lawhaving become a curse for us(Gal 311-13)

Because you are sons God has sent forth the Spirit of His Soninto our hearts crying ldquoAbba Fatherrdquo

Now that we have been redeemed from the law God sendsforth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts We now cry out ldquoAbba[Daddy] Fatherrdquo We do not earn sonship we ldquoreceiverdquo it Wewere not born free rather our Lord adopted us Unlike livingunder the law we do nothing but receive His grace and power

Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son and if a sonthen an heir through God

Now understanding the significance of the birthof Christ we understand why the heavenly hostsang ldquoGlory to God in the highest and onearth peace among men with whom He ispleasedrdquo We realize why the magi traveledlong distances to see the baby King and whythey fell to the ground and worshiped Himpresenting to Him gifts of gold frankincenseand myrrh This Christmas season letrsquos reviewthe Christmas story but more than that let usunderstand the significance of the birth ofChrist the Savior of the world

Dale Ratzlaff is the founder of Life Assurance Ministries and Proclamationmagazine

Dale and Carolyn Ratzlaff have authored six books Sabbath in Christmdasha volume that ex-plains new covenant Sabbath rest Cultic Doctrine of Seventh-day Adventismmdashexplores thefalse Adventist doctrine of a pre-advent judgment that decides eternal destinies Truth About

Adventist ldquoTruthrdquomdasha little bookthatrsquos perfect to give to Chris-tians that need to understandAdventism Truth Led Me Outmdashin which Dale Ratzlaff tells hisown story of following Jesus nomatter the cost Gospel Trans-formation mdashwhich teacheswhat the Gospel is and accom-plishes and Romans AlivemdashDalersquos study on the first eightchapters of Romans Each of these books is avail-

able at Ratzlafcom or by phon-ing (928) 554-1001


THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LORD JESUSrsquo BIRTH

JESUS CAME UNDER THE LAW SO THAT HE

COULD ONCE AND FOR ALL TIME REDEEM US

FROM THE DOMINATION OF THE LAW

ASK THE P A S T O R









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I WAS DEADBUT NOW I










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C O V E R FEATURE

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COST









ADDRESS ________________________________________________________________________________

CITY____________________________________________ STATE________ ZIP ______________________

EMAIL___________________________________________ PHONE ________________________________
















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REVER












































TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS


GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment









M









I WAS DEADBUT NOW I










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C O V E R FEATURE

EPHESIANS 21ndash10
















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SIGN UP NOW





COST









ADDRESS ________________________________________________________________________________

CITY____________________________________________ STATE________ ZIP ______________________

EMAIL___________________________________________ PHONE ________________________________
















O

















REVER












































TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS


GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment









LIVE



































































DCreated for W

C O V E R FEATURE

EPHESIANS 21ndash10
















Grace not works













































































































O






























































































we fire yourdquo


























SIGN UP NOW





COST









ADDRESS ________________________________________________________________________________

CITY____________________________________________ STATE________ ZIP ______________________

EMAIL___________________________________________ PHONE ________________________________
















O

















REVER












































TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS


GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment



































































DCreated for W

C O V E R FEATURE

EPHESIANS 21ndash10
















Grace not works













































































































O






























































































we fire yourdquo


























SIGN UP NOW





COST









ADDRESS ________________________________________________________________________________

CITY____________________________________________ STATE________ ZIP ______________________

EMAIL___________________________________________ PHONE ________________________________
















O

















REVER












































TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS


GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment
















Grace not works













































































































O






























































































we fire yourdquo


























SIGN UP NOW





COST









ADDRESS ________________________________________________________________________________

CITY____________________________________________ STATE________ ZIP ______________________

EMAIL___________________________________________ PHONE ________________________________
















O

















REVER












































TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS


GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment























































































O






























































































we fire yourdquo


























SIGN UP NOW





COST









ADDRESS ________________________________________________________________________________

CITY____________________________________________ STATE________ ZIP ______________________

EMAIL___________________________________________ PHONE ________________________________
















O

















REVER












































TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS


GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment






























































































we fire yourdquo


























SIGN UP NOW





COST









ADDRESS ________________________________________________________________________________

CITY____________________________________________ STATE________ ZIP ______________________

EMAIL___________________________________________ PHONE ________________________________
















O

















REVER












































TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS


GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment


























SIGN UP NOW





COST









ADDRESS ________________________________________________________________________________

CITY____________________________________________ STATE________ ZIP ______________________

EMAIL___________________________________________ PHONE ________________________________
















O

















REVER












































TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS


GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment











O

















REVER












































TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS


GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment

















REVER












































TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS


GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment












































TWO STATEMENTS

MANY ADVENTISTS


GODrsquoS HEAVEN IS

CONTAINED IN A GAS

NEBULA NEARBY






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment






















FULL ASSURANCE OF

FAITH STANDS IN

CONTRAST WITH THE

TEACHINGS OF ELLEN

WHITE WHO SAID THAT

AT SOME UNKNOWN

MOMENT JESUS WILL

ABRUPTLY END HIS


IN HEAVEN FOR US


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment


























































MINISTRY N E W S









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment









































PELHAM NH

















































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment





































OOLTEWAH TN




























FindingContentment





















FindingContentment

2014-4 proclamation letter - life assurance...

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