Have you ever noticed how former Adventists rarely go far when they leave the church?
No matter how vigorously they denounce their erstwhile spiritual home, no matter how injurious and destructive they claim their experience in the church to have been, a good many of them can’t seem to “get a life.” Usually they stay within a stone’s throw—and throw stones they do.
Maximilien Robespierre, one of the leaders of the French Revolution, is reported to have said while urging the execution of King Louis XVI, “A people cannot establish liberty while it respects the memory of its chains.” Those who leave the Adventist Church may not respect their former religious community, but no matter how they profess to revile their denominational past, they seem to keep it at the fore of their minds a good deal of the time.
The Internet and social media abound with the rants of these former brothers and sisters of ours. It is truly amazing how much time they spend regurgitating and abominating their Adventist memories. Some of them spew their rage for years, on Facebook pages and website forums. Many of them claim to have found the “peace of the gospel” and a supposedly joyous, honestly free intellectual life in their post-Adventist years. And yet, they persist in hanging around the edges of the church, deploring its doctrines, despising its standards of living, and prating ad infinitum about the alleged hypocrisy and mistreatment that drove them away.
Why, one asks, if their memories of life in the Adventist Church are so painful, do these people insist on indefinitely reliving them? One might have more respect for them if they simply “tipped their hats,” figuratively speaking, and went on their merry way. But perhaps that’s just the point. Maybe the way they’re now following isn’t so “merry” after all.
Facing Reality
Let’s not deny reality here. Negative experiences inside Adventism are not all the figment of people’s prejudiced imaginations. Some Adventists aren’t nice people. Some Adventist parents, teachers, pastors, and other authority figures have notably failed to show the caring, gracious, loving spirit that without exception is imperative whenever admonition and correction are administered. While it isn’t possible to know all the varied dynamics and circumstances that attend the journeys of those who abandon Adventism in particular or Christianity in general, all can attest to the brutal fact that the Christ-centered, love-focused message of the inspired writings has too often been ignored when instruction and discipline—however needful—are applied to old and young alike.
Looking Deeper
But perhaps another factor is operative here, one few if any former believers would ever acknowledge without a fundamental change of heart.
Could it be that those who outwardly scorn and scoff at our faith are really trying to convince themselves, rather than others, of its untruthfulness? It wouldn’t be the first time. Ellen White speaks of how, when the animals came miraculously into Noah’s ark, the unbelieving antediluvians “banished their rising fears by boisterous merriment” [1]. Whether through the voicing of skeptical doubts, the venting of anger, or the indulgence of mockery, many in every age have tried to silence the call of objective evidence when its appeal is strongest.
Only God knows the heart, of course (I Kings 8:39). But I have long suspected that many who constantly attempt to cast shame on their Adventist heritage are still—despite public claims to the contrary—significantly unsure as to the rightness of their decision to leave that heritage behind. It’s like what a college professor of mine said about the writings of Mark Twain, that famous 19th-century infidel, who wrote so much against the God of Scripture. My professor said, “Anyone who spills that much ink attacking God believes in Him.”
Perhaps the same holds true for those today who spill so much ink attacking the Seventh-day Adventist faith.
Conclusion
In his fictional account of an exiled Egyptian physician during the reign of the Pharaoh Akhenaton, Finnish novelist Mika Waltari wrote, “He who has once drunk of Nile water will forever yearn to be by the Nile again; his thirst cannot be quenched by the waters of any other land” [2].
I believe the same holds true for the great majority who, for whatever reason, have separated themselves from the fellowship of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. And it’s quite understandable. The beauty, coherence, and splendor of the Adventist doctrinal edifice and prophetic worldview are not easily lost, and no volume of negative cultural or personal memories can fully eclipse the wonder and glory thereof. As one who has perused a wide range of Christian thought through study and observation, and who has witnessed up close and personal the desolating impact of leaving religious faith behind altogether, the parallel between Waltari’s exile and today’s estranged Adventists is hard to escape.
But in the end, the inspired pen offers hope to those within a stone’s throw—or a country mile perhaps—of their former church. The modern prophet writes that “when the storm of persecution really breaks upon us, the true sheep will hear the true Shepherd’s voice. Self-denying efforts will be put forth to save the lost, and many who have strayed from the fold will come back to follow the great Shepherd” [3]. Then will the third stanza of one of my favorite hymns find its ultimate meaning and fulfillment:
Sound it in the hedge and highway,
Earth’s dark spots where exiles roam.
Let it tell all things are ready
Father waits to welcome home [4].
REFERENCES
1. Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 98.
2. Mike Waltari, The Egyptian (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1949), p. 4.
3. White, Testimonies, vol. 6, pp. 400-401.
4. “Watchmen, Blow the Gospel Trumpet,” Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal, no. 368.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan