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Devout_Christian

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Hello I have been having a hard time trying to find an active Christian forum that hasn't been taken over by progressive "Christians". I normally go to Reddit but it's not the best place for any theological discussions. I grew up as a Seventh-Day Adventist and have spent my entire adult life unlearning all the unhealthy and untrue doctrine I have learned in that religion. It has shaped the way I interact with other Christians. I question everything. I don't ever just trust what any pastor says or mega church pastor says. I don't appeal to church fathers. I like to read the history but I noticed that everyone likes to appeal to the early church father of whoever invented that religion. All I ever want to do is attend a small conservative complementarian church where the church is not over run with democrat politics, feminism, prosperity gospel, false prophets or anything seeker sensitive. I feel it has been extremely hard to find discerning women in bible study groups as many women love Christian authors who teach prosperity.

I also find it troubling that no one studies the bible on their own, reads commentaries everyday and tries to study the original language. When I show up to a bible study I have taken the time to read and look for deeper context, read different bible translations and look to see some of the textual criticisms etc. I look up who thinks it's a controversial passage and I try to balance out all of the information with the holy spirit to help me discern the text I'm reading. I ask a lot of questions at home with my husband because of how I think about things. But I overthink things now because of how SDA doctrine was shoved down my throat as a kid and I never want to be misled again by anyone. I think iron sharpens iron and it is great to be in a community where people are able to think through things biblically and be good bereans.
 
Welcome.

We are a diverse group; some leaning towards progressivism, others leaning towards hardcore conservatism which makes for lively debates. Of late, most of the debates have centered on social and political issues and how people of faith ought to stand on the issues.

I can definitely relate to your desire to get into the Word without someone else's interpretation clouding the truth. A good many of us have definite views in that area and would love to talk about them. Just be warned: I hope you have thick skin.

Would love to have you share your background and testimony of coming out of legalism. A bunch of folks here have their own testimonies of coming out of legalism and hypocrisy and searching for balance in the Christian life. I don't recall many coming from SDA so your input may prove interesting.

Again, welcome and I hope you feel free be part of many edifying discussions.
 
Welcome as the others have said.


If you happen to run into any of those progressive leaning members, let me know so I can avoid them like the plague. 🤔
 
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Welcome to our forum!

In sorting out your SDA past,I would recommend that you closely examine its origins, how it came into being, and compare it with the historic creeds and confessions that the SDA and other restorationists have summarily rejected.

The "Restorationist" movement emerged out of the second great awakening resulting in numerous denominations including the Latter Day Saints, Jehovah Witnesses, and Disciples of Christ/Churches of Christ among a number of others.

Long story short (and it can get quite long), they believed that the actual "Church" founded by Jesus Christ had apostatized, disappeared, and needed to be restored. They overlook and disregard pretty much all of Church history along with the processes by which we received our Bible and the core doctrines which define a biblical New Testament Church!

This seminar seems to give a good overview of the restorationist movement:

Got Questions is a good starting point as well.

Restorationists argue that historic creeds and confessions are divisive but the exact opposite are true as the eccumenical creeds and councils served to UNIFY and clarify the core doctrines which define the "catholicity" (universally held beliefs and practices) of the church. The original Protestant reformers (Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, etc.) all affirm the historic creeds including the Nicene-Constantinople, Athanasian, and Calcedonian Creeds.

Many of us (including myself) came out of the "Independent-Fundamental Baptist" movement which was heavily influenced by restorationist thinking and therefore had to unlearn and relearn a good number of things. I won't expound on all of this right now but please start threads, ask questions, and lets stimulate some good dialogue here!

EDIT: You did not mention whether you were connected with a sound, local Bible-based Church with biblically qualified pastors and elders. It goes without saying that this should be your absolute first priority! Your profile says you are from Florida and after listening to the YouTube link I have provided, I believe this church may be an excellent option for you!

Again, welcome aboard!
 
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Baptist Renegade said:
.,.,

Many of us (including myself) came out of the "Independent-Fundamental Baptist" movement which was heavily influenced by restorationist thinking…
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Obviously in the Welcome Forum it wouldn’t be appropriate to start any “fighting”, but I would like to see you take the premise in the excerpt above to the fighting forum and clarify/sustain what you mean.
 
Devout_Christian said:
But I overthink things now because of how SDA doctrine was shoved down my throat as a kid and I never want to be misled again by anyone.
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I come from an RLDS and Pentecostal background. The struggle is real.

I often find myself wishing I had come from a solid orthodox Christian tradition, but to describe myself as being force fed would be a bit unfair to my parents.

The truth is, God placed us exactly where He wanted us at the time.
 
ALAYMAN said:
Obviously in the Welcome Forum it wouldn’t be appropriate to start any “fighting”, but I would like to see you take the premise in the excerpt above to the fighting forum and clarify/sustain what you mean.
Click to expand...
I may do just that. Hopefully it would make for good discussion.
 
Baptist Renegade said:
Welcome to our forum!

In sorting out your SDA past,I would recommend that you closely examine its origins, how it came into being, and compare it with the historic creeds and confessions that the SDA and other restorationists have summarily rejected.

The "Restorationist" movement emerged out of the second great awakening resulting in numerous denominations including the Latter Day Saints, Jehovah Witnesses, and Disciples of Christ/Churches of Christ among a number of others.

Long story short (and it can get quite long), they believed that the actual "Church" founded by Jesus Christ had apostatized, disappeared, and needed to be restored. They overlook and disregard pretty much all of Church history along with the processes by which we received our Bible and the core doctrines which define a biblical New Testament Church!

This seminar seems to give a good overview of the restorationist movement:

Got Questions is a good starting point as well.

Restorationists argue that historic creeds and confessions are divisive but the exact opposite are true as the eccumenical creeds and councils served to UNIFY and clarify the core doctrines which define the "catholicity" (universally held beliefs and practices) of the church. The original Protestant reformers (Lutheran, Dutch Reformed, etc.) all affirm the historic creeds including the Nicene-Constantinople, Athanasian, and Calcedonian Creeds.

Many of us (including myself) came out of the "Independent-Fundamental Baptist" movement which was heavily influenced by restorationist thinking and therefore had to unlearn and relearn a good number of things. I won't expound on all of this right now but please start threads, ask questions, and lets stimulate some good dialogue here!

EDIT: You did not mention whether you were connected with a sound, local Bible-based Church with biblically qualified pastors and elders. It goes without saying that this should be your absolute first priority! Your profile says you are from Florida and after listening to the YouTube link I have provided, I believe this church may be an excellent option for you!

Again, welcome aboard!
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Thank you for your kind welcome. I am in a bible believing church. I have been church hopping for like a good couple years now. Keep in mind my hubby still identifies as a SDA and I am in this journey. I have tried out non-denominational churches, baptist, church of christ and a handful of reformed churches. I've been in mega churches and small congregations. It's still a journey because I feel I really have to study many religions to really understand the theology, doctrines, hermenuetics, traditions and eschatology to get a handle on things. I try very much to speak to pastors on the phone of churches to get an idea of what the church believes in. I feel it's been hard to get to the truth of matter at certain denominations. I have a lot of things I would like to bring up in other parts of this forums and it seems to be a couple of really active members. Truth is really important to me.

Coming from a religion where they thought a woman, Ellen G White received extra biblical revelation that wasn't canonized in the bible where she wrote/plagarized her visions of angels though they are cessationists never made any logic to me ever even as a 10 year old child. It makes sense why my siblings are atheists because there only blue print of Christianity was Adventism. I agree that is not an accurate representation of being a Christian. Everything in that worldview is about Ellen White's interpretation of end time prophecies and her interpretation of The Great Controversy. A book leading people astray. She reveals her reasoning for why Satan sins and it's like her lore of what happened in heaven. It's disturbing that people eat it up.
 
Devout_Christian, just for clarity, the first part of my earlier post to you I spoke about the KJV being good enough for the Apostle Paul. That was an inside joke for long-time forum members. I didn’t mean to distract from your introduction to the forum.

So, sincerely, welcome.
 
Devout_Christian said:
Thank you for your kind welcome. I am in a bible believing church. I have been church hopping for like a good couple years now. Keep in mind my hubby still identifies as a SDA and I am in this journey. I have tried out non-denominational churches, baptist, church of christ and a handful of reformed churches. I've been in mega churches and small congregations. It's still a journey because I feel I really have to study many religions to really understand the theology, doctrines, hermenuetics, traditions and eschatology to get a handle on things. I try very much to speak to pastors on the phone of churches to get an idea of what the church believes in. I feel it's been hard to get to the truth of matter at certain denominations. I have a lot of things I would like to bring up in other parts of this forums and it seems to be a couple of really active members. Truth is really important to me.

Coming from a religion where they thought a woman, Ellen G White received extra biblical revelation that wasn't canonized in the bible where she wrote/plagarized her visions of angels though they are cessationists never made any logic to me ever even as a 10 year old child. It makes sense why my siblings are atheists because there only blue print of Christianity was Adventism. I agree that is not an accurate representation of being a Christian. Everything in that worldview is about Ellen White's interpretation of end time prophecies and her interpretation of The Great Controversy. A book leading people astray. She reveals her reasoning for why Satan sins and it's like her lore of what happened in heaven. It's disturbing that people eat it up.
Click to expand...
You're very welcome! Something I had thought about although I probably need to do a little more research on is how quickly the early Church started meeting on the "First Day" of the week (Sunday). Does meeting for worship (Going to Church) actually constitute "Observing the Sabbath?" Since most of the early Church were believing Jews, wouldn't it stand to reason that they were observing the Sabbath as well? They were still active at the temple and in synagogues so I believe this is a noteworthy observation! Jews attending Synagogue on the sabbath was a new thing that came into being after the exile. Prior to this, what exactly did observing the sabbath actually look like? perhaps someone has some insight here? Perhaps dig around and find some resources that either support or refute such a hypothesis?

Hopefully you understand the implications here and will perhaps help get you away from the SDA biases? I have a SDA friend myself I keep inviting to Church and this is one of his hangups as well. It is clear that the early church meet on the first day of the week but who says they did not meet at a time before or after their normal "work day" routine?

As I said, I am pretty much just "theorizing" here and not trying to make any sort of a dogmatic statement here, Perhaps I am onto something? Perhaps I am way out in left field? Either way, It think it is worthy of discussion!
 
ALAYMAN said:
Devout_Christian, just for clarity, the first part of my earlier post to you I spoke about the KJV being good enough for the Apostle Paul. That was an inside joke for long-time forum members. I didn’t mean to distract from your introduction to the forum.

So, sincerely, welcome.
Click to expand...
I figured it was an inside joke. I know there is a whole debate about KJV only crowd. I'm always interested in which translations people lean towards. Some people take it super seriously like my pastor liking NIV and I felt iffy about that translation. I do like my KJV and NKJV for daily readings though to be fair.
 
Baptist Renegade said:
You're very welcome! Something I had thought about although I probably need to do a little more research on is how quickly the early Church started meeting on the "First Day" of the week (Sunday). Does meeting for worship (Going to Church) actually constitute "Observing the Sabbath?" Since most of the early Church were believing Jews, wouldn't it stand to reason that they were observing the Sabbath as well? They were still active at the temple and in synagogues so I believe this is a noteworthy observation! Jews attending Synagogue on the sabbath was a new thing that came into being after the exile. Prior to this, what exactly did observing the sabbath actually look like? perhaps someone has some insight here? Perhaps dig around and find some resources that either support or refute such a hypothesis?

Hopefully you understand the implications here and will perhaps help get you away from the SDA biases? I have a SDA friend myself I keep inviting to Church and this is one of his hangups as well. It is clear that the early church meet on the first day of the week but who says they did not meet at a time before or after their normal "work day" routine?

As I said, I am pretty much just "theorizing" here and not trying to make any sort of a dogmatic statement here, Perhaps I am onto something? Perhaps I am way out in left field? Either way, It think it is worthy of discussion!
Click to expand...
I think you're on to something here. I have been studying my way out of SDA teaching for about 15 years now or longer. There are some good channels on YouTube that speak on it. Many who have left the faith have published books about leaving the denomination and how hard it is for them to start over. I have a better understanding of the old and new covenant which includes the sabbath. I noticed now some evangelicals have tried to say they keep Sunday as a Sabbath but the reality is we are no longer the old covenant that was given to Israel. We don't circumsize either. Just like we don't follow ceremonial laws. Many SDAs literally think they will go to hell if they switch to "Sunday" church because that is what Ellen G White says. Sunday church is the mark of the beast for them so it's hard for them. Every single sermon at church was teaching the Sabbath as taught from the Genesis account. How in their mind God taught that he rested on the 7th day because this is an eternal commandment.
 
Ekklesian said:
I come from an RLDS and Pentecostal background. The struggle is real.

I often find myself wishing I had come from a solid orthodox Christian tradition, but to describe myself as being force fed would be a bit unfair to my parents.

The truth is, God placed us exactly where He wanted us at the time.
Click to expand...
What's an RLDS background? Is that Latter Day Saints? I dont know what the R stands for? Or am I way off base?
 
Devout_Christian said:
What's an RLDS background? Is that Latter Day Saints? I dont know what the R stands for? Or am I way off base?
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The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The group of Mormons that didn't accept Brigham Young after the assassinations of Joseph and Hiram Smith.
 
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