With so many people and even churches taking out the old testament from their beliefs, parsing the verses in the New Testament, ignoring basic scriptural doctrines, etc.. Are Adventist the only ones truly following Gods word and the testimonies of Jesus Christ?
Here is a excerpt on the subject by Richard W. O'Ffill:
"...
Even we Adventists wondered if we had salvation, being the kind of Adventists that we knew that we were! So back then everybody was lost but you and me, and sometimes I worried about you! Today the thinking has changed. Today, everybody is as saved as everybody else, so why worry?
Of course, if that is true, it brings up another question: If everybody is as saved as everybody else, aren't we Adventists going to a lot of trouble for nothing? In the 21st century many of us have gone in our thinking from ridiculous to the sublime. It seems to me that it is important, both corporately and from a personal point of view, that we come to grips with the matter of, Why are we Seventh-day Adventists? Why am I a Seventh-day Adventist? Has our church simply become "our favorite charity?" Is the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the 21st century just another option?
Yes, many of us used to feel that we were the only ones going to be saved. This feeling was driven by the fear that we felt we had a life and death message for the world, and this message was so important that if a person didn't accept it they would be lost. Another question: Was that ever really true? Or more importantly...is it true now?
Speaking of the Message. We used to talk about the "Message;" now we are more likely to talk about "Adventism." I would like to ask you, is there a difference in concepts when we say "Message" or when we speak of "Adventism?" I think there is an important difference of concept expressed by the two words, because to me it seems that a "Message" would be something for everybody while "Adventism" would be for Adventists. That would make "Adventism" an option to be considered like the other "isms" like Methodism or Catholicism.
I believe in another generation we had a clearer vision of who we were because we had a sense of relevancy. You have heard the word "relevant." We say something is relevant or irrelevant. "Relevant" is a word that has to do with the here and now. We say something is relevant or irrelevant based on its relationship to the here and now. Something is considered relevant if it has to do with what is going on; it is considered irrelevant if it doesn't have anything to do with what is going on.
The founders of our faith believed that the hour of God's judgment had begun. They believed that the coming of Jesus was "at the door." In fact, they were so convinced about the nearness of the Second Coming of Jesus that their life's decisions were actually influenced by this conviction. This little dish that I have in my hand is a piece from a set of dishes that was sold by a family that disposed of everything that they had to get ready for October 22, 1844. To put it in plain language, those people put their money where their mouth was.
A study of the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church will soon lead you to conclude that the message of this church only has relevancy if you believe in the concept of the Investigative Judgment, and also that the signs indicate that His return is even now at the door. By the way, the doctrine of the Investigative Judgment is not complicated. Basically, it means that Jesus decides who will be saved or lost before He comes. The average person in the street essentially believes that they have until the moment that Jesus comes to get ready.
But let's go on. If a person believes that the Coming of Christ is open-ended, and that there is no Investigative Judgment or close of probation, then the message we have is at worse emasculated and loses relevance or at best it simply becomes institutionalized. What was once a "Message," then becomes simply another institution. Another institution which takes its place in the Hall of Fame where the other respected institutions who got there first reside: The Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Churches of Jesus Christ, ect..."
"...Is the Adventist message relevant in the 21st century? Or let's put it in a different perspective: Is the Adventist message a matter of life and death in the 21st century? The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is a thousand times YES. Even though it seems to us that the Lord is delaying His coming, this is only a perception on our part. He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness. Contrary to what many of us think, the Second Coming of Christ is not a floating event carried along by the tides of human events. The flood of Noah came on time. The children of Israel came out on the self-same day. The captivity ended in 70 years. Jesus died in the fullness of time. The Investigative Judgment began when it was supposed to. God has always fulfilled His purposes on the day appointed and I believe the Second Coming of our Lord will be no exception. Who is in charge here? Him or us?
Beloved, believe it or not, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Now hang on to your seats. The generation that is alive when Jesus comes the second time will not only see Jesus face to face, they will have seen the Devil face to face. But he will not appear as the Devil. He will appear as Christ himself. Ladies and gentlemen, listen to what happens just before Jesus comes.
II Cor. 11:14, "And no marvel! For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."
Matt. 24:24, "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, in so much that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."
Revelation 16:13-14, "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."
II Thess. 2:8-12, "And there shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His Coming! Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
The deception that is referred to in these texts is not perpetrated against the lost. Why should the Devil worry about deceiving his own? The great deception of the evil one is directed against those whose names are found written in the Book of Life, whether they be Baptists, Methodists, Assemblies of God or Catholics. The great deception is leveled by the Devil to deceive and snatch away those who have given their hearts to Jesus and who have salvation.
Remember, to get your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life, to receive salvation, to get saved, you have only to believe in Jesus and accept Him as Savior with all your heart. No questions asked. The Great Deception then, if it is to be a deception at all, must be targeted toward those who have the promise of salvation no matter what denomination they are from. The purpose of the great deception is to deceive them into giving up their salvation and throwing in their lot with the Antichrist, which in those days will be Satan himself.
So where do Adventists come in? It's right here. At this time in earth's history, here is where having all our doctrinal ducks in a row not only is essential for our salvation, but for the salvation of the whole Christian world. Do you have to be an Adventist to receive salvation? No. But if you are a Baptist or Methodist or Catholic, you had better listen to what Adventists are saying or you could lose your salvation, because the deception that is played out by the Devil on the last generation deceives, if possible, the very elect...."
Here is a excerpt on the subject by Richard W. O'Ffill:
"...
- Is it true that you have to be a Seventh-day Adventist to receive salvation and become a child of God?
- Do only Seventh-day Adventists have their names written in the Book of Life?
- Are there true born-again children of God in other denominations?
Even we Adventists wondered if we had salvation, being the kind of Adventists that we knew that we were! So back then everybody was lost but you and me, and sometimes I worried about you! Today the thinking has changed. Today, everybody is as saved as everybody else, so why worry?
Of course, if that is true, it brings up another question: If everybody is as saved as everybody else, aren't we Adventists going to a lot of trouble for nothing? In the 21st century many of us have gone in our thinking from ridiculous to the sublime. It seems to me that it is important, both corporately and from a personal point of view, that we come to grips with the matter of, Why are we Seventh-day Adventists? Why am I a Seventh-day Adventist? Has our church simply become "our favorite charity?" Is the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the 21st century just another option?
Yes, many of us used to feel that we were the only ones going to be saved. This feeling was driven by the fear that we felt we had a life and death message for the world, and this message was so important that if a person didn't accept it they would be lost. Another question: Was that ever really true? Or more importantly...is it true now?
Speaking of the Message. We used to talk about the "Message;" now we are more likely to talk about "Adventism." I would like to ask you, is there a difference in concepts when we say "Message" or when we speak of "Adventism?" I think there is an important difference of concept expressed by the two words, because to me it seems that a "Message" would be something for everybody while "Adventism" would be for Adventists. That would make "Adventism" an option to be considered like the other "isms" like Methodism or Catholicism.
I believe in another generation we had a clearer vision of who we were because we had a sense of relevancy. You have heard the word "relevant." We say something is relevant or irrelevant. "Relevant" is a word that has to do with the here and now. We say something is relevant or irrelevant based on its relationship to the here and now. Something is considered relevant if it has to do with what is going on; it is considered irrelevant if it doesn't have anything to do with what is going on.
The founders of our faith believed that the hour of God's judgment had begun. They believed that the coming of Jesus was "at the door." In fact, they were so convinced about the nearness of the Second Coming of Jesus that their life's decisions were actually influenced by this conviction. This little dish that I have in my hand is a piece from a set of dishes that was sold by a family that disposed of everything that they had to get ready for October 22, 1844. To put it in plain language, those people put their money where their mouth was.
A study of the beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church will soon lead you to conclude that the message of this church only has relevancy if you believe in the concept of the Investigative Judgment, and also that the signs indicate that His return is even now at the door. By the way, the doctrine of the Investigative Judgment is not complicated. Basically, it means that Jesus decides who will be saved or lost before He comes. The average person in the street essentially believes that they have until the moment that Jesus comes to get ready.
But let's go on. If a person believes that the Coming of Christ is open-ended, and that there is no Investigative Judgment or close of probation, then the message we have is at worse emasculated and loses relevance or at best it simply becomes institutionalized. What was once a "Message," then becomes simply another institution. Another institution which takes its place in the Hall of Fame where the other respected institutions who got there first reside: The Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Churches of Jesus Christ, ect..."
"...Is the Adventist message relevant in the 21st century? Or let's put it in a different perspective: Is the Adventist message a matter of life and death in the 21st century? The answer, ladies and gentlemen, is a thousand times YES. Even though it seems to us that the Lord is delaying His coming, this is only a perception on our part. He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness. Contrary to what many of us think, the Second Coming of Christ is not a floating event carried along by the tides of human events. The flood of Noah came on time. The children of Israel came out on the self-same day. The captivity ended in 70 years. Jesus died in the fullness of time. The Investigative Judgment began when it was supposed to. God has always fulfilled His purposes on the day appointed and I believe the Second Coming of our Lord will be no exception. Who is in charge here? Him or us?
Beloved, believe it or not, our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Now hang on to your seats. The generation that is alive when Jesus comes the second time will not only see Jesus face to face, they will have seen the Devil face to face. But he will not appear as the Devil. He will appear as Christ himself. Ladies and gentlemen, listen to what happens just before Jesus comes.
II Cor. 11:14, "And no marvel! For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."
Matt. 24:24, "For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, in so much that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."
Revelation 16:13-14, "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty."
II Thess. 2:8-12, "And there shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His Coming! Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
The deception that is referred to in these texts is not perpetrated against the lost. Why should the Devil worry about deceiving his own? The great deception of the evil one is directed against those whose names are found written in the Book of Life, whether they be Baptists, Methodists, Assemblies of God or Catholics. The great deception is leveled by the Devil to deceive and snatch away those who have given their hearts to Jesus and who have salvation.
Remember, to get your name written in the Lamb's Book of Life, to receive salvation, to get saved, you have only to believe in Jesus and accept Him as Savior with all your heart. No questions asked. The Great Deception then, if it is to be a deception at all, must be targeted toward those who have the promise of salvation no matter what denomination they are from. The purpose of the great deception is to deceive them into giving up their salvation and throwing in their lot with the Antichrist, which in those days will be Satan himself.
So where do Adventists come in? It's right here. At this time in earth's history, here is where having all our doctrinal ducks in a row not only is essential for our salvation, but for the salvation of the whole Christian world. Do you have to be an Adventist to receive salvation? No. But if you are a Baptist or Methodist or Catholic, you had better listen to what Adventists are saying or you could lose your salvation, because the deception that is played out by the Devil on the last generation deceives, if possible, the very elect...."
