I think there is way too much spiritual pride held by way too many people. It makes no difference where I would go. The church doesn't need me nearly as much as I need the church. It is not as if my endorsement of a specific denomination holds some sort of high value. I don't believe in every single doctrine of the Adventist church but then I am probably wrong about a lot of what I believe. I am a sinful and erring human very much subject to being wrong.

The question that is more realistic for me is, where would I go if the Adventist church expelled me? I would probably first find a counselor to help me deal with the rejection. Once I worked through that I would look for a Sabbath keeping church that would allow me to attend - maybe a different Adventist congregation. If that was not an option, I would probably attend a nondenominational church and continue to honor Saturday as the Sabbath.

When there has been a disconnect in my life I have had no one to blame but the man in the mirror. Once I started spending time in the Bible every day, quit watching evening sit-coms and dramas and tuned in 3ABN or Hope Channel instead and started to listen to Christian radio - - - that disconnect suddenly disappeared.

Prophecy = Christ

One element I would like to see more of is creationism being worked into evangelism. Many believe Christ is the Creator but do not see the Creation-Sabbath link. Evangelical Christianity is filled with anti-evolution people but only the Adventists are the ones honoring the memorial of creation.

[In response to a now deleted non-substantive and disruptive post objecting to even asking this sort of question, etc...]

I always thought that God encouraged free thinking; that He even gave us free will (including the angels). And shouldn't we question our church in order to hold them to task as keeping in line with their self-proclaimed title of "the remnant church?" In addition, if we have to worry that questioning will lead us astray, what does that say about our faith?

Lord, forgive me if I have become "a stumbling block."

Your brother in Christ
Alex

Interjecting a thought...

Why is it commonplace that so many Adventist families would ask themselves this question "a lot"? What is happening (or not happening) within the Adventist Church that causes this question to ever come up? Are these families not happy in the Adventist Church?

It is my understanding that our relationship with God is supposed to be like a marriage. If the question, "Who would [you] be married to if you weren't married to [your spouse]?" comes up a lot, wouldn't that indicate that there was something missing in that relationship?

...back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Just to answer the original question: We'd go to the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod).

This would be a tough one; but I feel that there are two things in the Seventh-day Adventist church. On the one hand the underlying church it self is very moderate, but on the other hand our members tend to lean more to conservative and less interested in Adventistism and applying it to modern Biblical studies and more interested in defending tradition and applying it to what we knew about the Bible 135 years ago, and we have tendencys of grabing about half the truth and running with the half of the truth that we understand and ust that to fight the rest of the truth. I love Mrs. White's great Controversy philosophy: The 3 aspects of the trinity, the law of God being Self-Sacrificing love. The 3 deceptions of Satan attacking the 3 aspects of the trinity, connected to most if not all the three's n the Bible. How Christ dealt with the deceptions. How the 3 beasts of Rev. 12 and 13 are based on this, and how they are fully answered in the 3 angels message, and the nature of hell fire and how God distroys the lost. I love the doctrine of the Investigative Judgment; the age of exogesis and deeper Bible study; and that it reminds us that we are all in this together and always have room for growth. That our expirence with God is more important than saying the magic words about accepting Jesus and being saved, but that while beig a Christ

Thanks Aubrey for your thought. Seems like there are two marriages we're talking about? My marriage relationship with God has been a lifelong one and for the most part a good one. But my marriage relationship with the Adventist church has been quite rocky.

When I spoke with God in prayer about working out some of our rough spots, He was very gracious, understanding and merciful. When I tried to communicate with church leadership about some things, I was essentially stonewalled.

Maybe that's why Adventists are asking this question?

Alex (just want you to know that I/we are working hard to keep both marriages strong )

Yes, I sheepishly admit that there are really two different
"marriages" in my post.

So, what it is about the Adventist Church (which many profess as the only church that teachees the Truth) that makes members consider going elsewhere?

To me, it seems as if people are considering sacrificing Truth for Relationship. In the grand picture, which is more important?

This is happening in our Conference as we speak by our Conference President. He nearly wiped me out of Creation DVDs yesterday on his way out.

The church on earth is where we can put our faith in Jesus to the test as far as relationships go (just like a marriage). It is interesting watching that process in action!

Where would we be without each other?