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

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

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

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

Just my thoughts and my opinions.

Alex

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

ALEX

I have thought along those lines a few years back
and I came to the conclusion that I just would have
to go to no chruch at all.... because to attend
any other christian denomination on a regular basis would be
to me that I would be going against the bible
truths that I KNOW..... but then to not attend any
church would be not healthy also.....
the S.D.A. church is not just another chruch
it is a way to help others understand the bible truths


dgrimm60

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

pk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DB

Ain't nowhere else to go..





g