YES, THERE IS LIFE AFTER ADVENTISM!

Did you ever think about why some folks stick with the SDA Church even if they don't agree with everything it teaches? Maybe they feel they don't have many other choices because other churches don't fit their beliefs as closely. Lots of Adventists feel this way, and they might also be hesitant to leave because of their job or family ties.

Some people who used to be Adventists have joined different religions after leaving the SDA Church. Some have become Jehovah's Witnesses, others have chosen Islam, and some have joined Iglesia ni Cristo (1914) or Eliseo Soriano's Ang Dating Daan (MCGI). In Lambunao, Antique, I talked with a former SDA elder who switched to Ang Dating Daan after the local SDA church changed into Soriano's MCGI church.

It's important to say that mentioning Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, Iglesia ni Cristo (1914), and MCGI doesn't mean these religions are true. The point is to challenge the idea that Adventists can't change their beliefs because they think no other denomination teaches things "closer to the Bible." This idea isn't strong because it's based on personal feelings rather than facts. The real test should be the Bible itself, understood by its teachings, not personal feelings or church rules. For 24 years, I strongly believed in the Seventh-day Adventist church and thought it was the only true church. I didn't consider any other beliefs as true. But as I read the Bible more carefully guided ny the Holy Spirit, I noticed some things that didn't make sense and raised questions. This made me want to find the the truth that will set me free (John 8:32).

I hesitated to leave my church because I didn't know where else to go if I left the SDA church. But after praying and thinking about it, I realized I misunderstood what the church really means according to the Bible. The word "church" isn't just about which denomination, organization, or group you belong to. It's about a community of people who sincerely worship God and believe in Jesus as their only Savior, no matter where they are or what group they belong to (John 4:24; 1 Cor. 1:1, 2; 1 Pet. 1:1).

I also found out that since the time of the apostles, the only real measure of true faith is the Gospel, not the specific beliefs of a certain group, like the Seventh-day Adventist church's 28 Fundamental Beliefs. This is something the apostle Paul stressed:

Galatians 1:6-9 (NLT) 6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. 8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed.

Since the time of the apostles, the way to know if someone truly believes is not by looking at what their church teaches or what they believe, but by seeing if they follow the "Gospel." Paul's writings really emphasize this idea.

1 Corinthians 2:2 (NLT) 2 For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.

In the New Testament, Paul's letters talk a lot about how important "only Jesus Christ and his crucifixion" are as the gospel or good news. Let's listen to what Paul has to say about why this is so important.

Romans 5:6, 8-11 (NLT) 6 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

The reason why Jesus Christ's death on the cross is called "Good News" is because it saves people from their sins and brings them back to God. Since the time of the apostles until now, the message of bringing God and people back together has been the main message of Christianity.

2 Corinthians 5:18-21 (NLT) 18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:1-5 (NLT) 1 Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. 2 It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. 3 I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. 4 He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. 5 He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve.

The main message of the gospel, as the apostles taught it, is still the same today. Many people still need to make peace with God through Christ, so the unchanged message of the gospel is just as important now as it was back then.

Jude 1:3 (NLT) 3 Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.

The gospel preached by the apostles remains the standard for truth. It's not our doctrinal knowledge but acceptance of Christ's crucifixion as the sole means of salvation that reconciles us with God. This immutable truth serves as the criterion for evaluating diverse beliefs.

We don't have to look at all the different beliefs of every church to find the true one. The only thing that matters is if a church focuses on Jesus and His salvation by grace alone as the centeral message of preaching and his sacrifice on the cross as the only way to be saved. Whether a church is big or small, if it teaches that Jesus brings people and God together through grace, that's what truly matters in Christianity.

The importance of being saved is more significant than small differences in beliefs. This message isn't just for certain groups like Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Iglesia ni Cristo, Ang Dating Daan, and Islam, which sometimes think you have to do good things to be saved.

Understanding what the gospel really means changed how I saw salvation when I was a Seventh-day Adventist preacher. Instead of only talking about Adventist teachings, I talked about coming back to God through Christ's sacrifice on the cross, which helped many people decide to be baptized and saved.