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Hello, I am not a SDA,but have friends that are. Please tell us how you decided to leave the SDA church,what convinced you. Our friends are very gun ho and try to persuade us . They truly believe they are correct,but I believe they are misunderstanding the gospel of Grace. Any help would be welcome,thanks and God Bless!
Thanks for you reply Lonewolf ! I have been to this site and yes it tells their beliefs. My heart is to help our friends to come out from legalism . They believe that yes there is Grace,but you must keep law too, the 10 commandments,the seventh day Sabbath,etc. They keep trying to persuade us and we try to show them how they aren't understanding that law and Grace don't mix. We see the commandants expressed in the N.T. but the Sabbath day is not, it is the Lord's Day because Jesus rose on Sunday.
My question is, if you were a SDA and have left,what persuaded you ,what Scripture verse, etc. So far whatever I tell them that the Sabbath wasn't given at creation, it was given to Israel, they just don't see what I'm showing them. I haven't shown them (yet) Nehemiah 9:13-14 ~~ 13 Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: 14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant
Romans 14:5 ~> Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind..
I think back to my early young years, and to my remembrance come good friendly faces of childhood friends and their parents who I went together with and participated in their Christian fellowship., I cannot judge them as being wrong, for because of them I learned of Christ long before He called me to repent and be baptized (in a diff church).
In my opinion and way of looking at things now -after years of legal"ism" beliefs and many more years of falling away- I think that SDA folks serve the Lord too., for they are no diff than all the rest of us who have it wrong in some if not a lot of things.
Learning the Lord is both a communal and a personal relationship., and in that said personal experience the Lord shows us what is wrong or right in our hearts., and in a communal environment, He does so too!
For sin not only enslaves a man, but it also enslaves a community, a society, a congregation and so forth.
Even so, I do firmly believe that God talks to everyone differently, but yet with the same message of redemption.,
So who's to say that He doesn't see the SDA as trying to fulfill their commitment to His Commandments?
Your outward profession of having put on Christ, has as yet to put off Plato from your heart!
So who's to say that He doesn't see the SDA as trying to fulfill their commitment to His Commandments?
Didn't Jesus fulfill the commandments?
John 5:24 24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.”
-Edward R Murrow
St. Richard the Sarcastic--The Patron Saint of Irony
PaulSacramento wrote:I have come to realize that SOME people NEED a legalized religion.
I have come to that same conclusion too, Paul...
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I realized this after dealing so much with my JW family and their friends.
They NEED someone to tell them what to believe and they need a "process" of DOING things to prove they are doing "The Lord's work".
The whole notion of being self-responsible just doesn't compute.
The very idea of having a personal relationship with Christ and speaking TO Him and trying to find out for THEMSELVES how to worship, what to do, etc is just too much.
I even had on person say to me, " If we are doing something wrong its not my fault, its the elders and governing body, they are the ones making the rules...".
I think when your worship is structure for you, when you know what you have to do to "be saved" and to do the "will of God" and those steps are nice and neat and all the work of finding that out has been done for you already, for some people they find that "safe and secure" because it takes the "guess work" out of it, they have a "check list" of things to do to be saved.
I said it before, somewhere in some topic, that for some, if not the many, having to educate themselves in what it is scriptural and what is not does not as you put it ~> "compute.," for it is not for everyone., most folks are sheep, and their world is more tolerable when they let the pastor do the watching out for the wolf., it is the everyday reality of countless millions of Christian souls., for even though their faith is somewhat facing Christ, nevertheless they are conformed to let someone else do the driving., for most Catholics around me, that is the case., and even for a lot of Christians (non-Catholics) I know it to be so as well., that is how it is., let someone else do the research and teach, and if they say so then that's what must be it., simple minds, simple living, but not much more.
So whether they be Catholics, Anabaptist, Christians, Methodist, Lutherans, Adventist or whatever other name or label you put on your faith, it is the same all around., some desire to learn more, but most simply are content, and so be it.
I will not condemn them., I will not cast the first stone.
Does that mean that I don't think that some of their beliefs or statements of faith are unscriptural and without merit., NO! ., I do see the clear errors in understanding and teaching, but I do not condemn their faith in Christ., for what it is for me to do is to Love my neighbor, and teach one in that ~> Love, one at a time., each one teach one, goes the saying., for we gain nothing by demoralizing each other, and we demonstrate the contrary to Love when we categorize a whole lot of people as -for lack of a nicer term- dumb and dumber.
The wolves are the ones who IMO are the ones who will face the punishment deserved., but the people, the people are who the Lord Loves, and so should we.
That is why I speak kindly of SDA folks., for I have met them and partaken with them, and they are just like us!
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Scriptural speaking., what it is that they miss the point on., I'll bow and give place to someone else to teach.
Your outward profession of having put on Christ, has as yet to put off Plato from your heart!
Our SDA friends are lovely people and so are the ones at the little church here. They thoroughly believe in their prophet E.G. White, and for me I think a bit too much, as they put her above Scripture,at least the ones I know do. My thing is ,these fine folks constantly are trying to convert us. We aren't persuaded to become an SDA and they just keep plugging away in hopes that we will. I wouldn't think of talking them out of their belief, because as long as they are in faith that what they believe is ok, then i know God accepts that and they are ok with Him, because they do believe in what Jesus did on the cross. They do want to mix law with grace though and that's a concern,but the love the Lord,so no I wouldn't condemn them either!
Hello, I am not a SDA,but have friends that are. Please tell us how you decided to leave the SDA church,what convinced you. Our friends are very gun ho and try to persuade us . They truly believe they are correct,but I believe they are misunderstanding the gospel of Grace. Any help would be welcome,thanks and God Bless! 
Thanks for you reply Lonewolf ! I have been to this site and yes it tells their beliefs. My heart is to help our friends to come out from legalism . They believe that yes there is Grace,but you must keep law too, the 10 commandments,the seventh day Sabbath,etc. They keep trying to persuade us and we try to show them how they aren't understanding that law and Grace don't mix. We see the commandants expressed in the N.T. but the Sabbath day is not, it is the Lord's Day because Jesus rose on Sunday. 
