And yet, for me that exuberance was a little different prior to our conference this year. Every year, it seems, as I prepare to fly to California, I get questions from others about the wisdom of attending FAF, given all the busyness of my life. And as I stop to think about it, I can understand the logic to some degree. This spring semester has been extremely busy for me as I am teaching a whole suite of new courses, with so little time to prepare lecture material and quizzes, handouts, slides, etc. Along with my duties at Southern seminary, I need to give consideration to my family, whom I leave for a few days to attend the conference.
Why spend all this time and energy attacking Adventism? Why not do something more productive with your time?”
Furthermore, I have been out of Adventism for some years now, and people (both evangelicals and Adventists) are often curious about why I keep returning yearly to the conference. “Do you really want to be known mainly for your opposition to Adventism? Why spend all this time and energy attacking Adventism? Why not do something more productive with your time?” If I’m honest, I’ve asked myself that question at times. And each year, after each conference, I know the answer, and I never regret having attended.
Of course, there are a number of obvious answers that I am reminded of after each conference. I still miss California and the wonderful sunshine. Every year, I love the Christian fellowship I get to experience, being together with brothers and sisters in Christ that I only get to see once a year. Being around believers is always invigorating, but when you combine that with our shared experiences coming out of Adventism, it becomes very special. I also feel a wonderful joy in being able to serve and teach others from the Word of God. The times of worship in music that we experience together yearly are truly heavenly.
This list of reasons for attending could be extended. But this year I left the conference with one reason ringing especially clearly in my mind. I realized after this year’s conference that each year I gain a greater clarity about what Seventh-day Adventism truly is. This is quite astonishing when you think about it. To state the obvious, each year puts more distance between me and my former life in Adventism. You would assume that it is those within Adventism who ought to know the most about their religion. And yet it remains true that I now know more about the true reality of my former worldview that I ever had known while still an Adventist. In fact, anyone who spends enough time contrasting biblical Christianity with Seventh-day Adventism will discover many shocking things that have simply been overlooked for decades since the well-known counter-cult apologist Walter Martin gave the organization a clean bill of health in the 1950s.
This is no heresy hunt, but rather an earnest quest to understand the worldview of Seventh-day Adventism and how it fundamentally differs from that of biblical Christianity. Our Lord placed a high value on the truth (John 8:32), and we ought to seek that truth, and having comprehended the truth, we ought to speak it in love to others.
Staring Adventism in the face
In that vein, one word has stuck with me after this year’s conference.
Deception.
Although I had previously heard Adventism described as a deceptive movement, and I would have affirmed this notion, I realize now that I had never truly stopped to think more deeply about the concept. Yes, I had often told the story of Adventist scholars deceiving Walter Martin into thinking Adventism was basically sound. Yes, I had understood how Ellen White engaged in a massive amount of plagiarism while passing off her writings as visions from the Lord. Yes, I understood how cults use special meanings for words that cause doctrinal statements to be viewed in a misleading way.
This deception was so strong that I described it at the close of this year’s conference as a “reality distortion field” that one has to actively fight against.
But prior to this year’s conference, I confess I had never stared Adventism in the face and realized that the whole thing was designed to be a devilishly clever counterfeit, masquerading as Christianity and actually deceiving millions of Adventists and evangelicals. This deception was so strong that I described it at the close of this year’s conference as a “reality distortion field” that one has to actively fight against. I don’t know how else to describe it when so many well-meaning Adventists and Christians point to Adventism and ask what the big deal is when Adventists sing the exact same songs as evangelicals, only on a different day?
The nature of deception
Religious deception is a confusing, disorienting thing. My gut instinct has never been to believe that some person or organization is deliberately being deceptive with me. On an interpersonal level, it’s hard to be that cynical about the one who’s interacting with you. As a person living in the modern world, it’s very hard to respond to someone who claims to love Jesus by dismissing their entire worldview as unbiblical. Moreover, my instincts go against those who dwell on any kind of vast conspiracy theories. For all these reasons, and more, it is understandable that one might be hesitant to describe Seventh-day Adventism as a movement that is deceptive to the core.
For me, it took yet another deep look at the underpinnings of Adventism as I was preparing my talks. It required me to confront the full reality of what the founders of Adventism did, as they launched a movement designed to mislead other people into thinking that their religion was fully aligned with historic Christian orthodoxy. More than that, it required an acknowledgment that these founders knew full well that what they were doing was fundamentally deceptive. James White knew what he was doing when he took language about God lacking “body, parts, and passions” which had been used in multiple historic Christian confessions (including the 39 Articles, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and the London Baptist Confession of Faith). He twisted that language deliberately and arrogantly to describe God in the exact opposite way: “[God] is material, intelligence with body, parts, and passions, possessing immortal flesh and immortal bones.” Ellen White knew what she was doing when she presented a warped understanding of Christ and a gospel that was hopelessly contradictory, mixing Bible-sounding language with flatly heretical ideas.
The outcome of deception
Of course, not everyone who is in a deceptive religious movement is a deliberate deceiver. Many are being deceived by others. Many are deceiving themselves. But regardless of each individual case, Seventh-day Adventism continues to be that which it has been from its very founding: a deeply deceptive religious movement. The many compromises made by Adventist leaders over the century and a half since the movement was founded have contributed in their own way to perpetuating this deception. Beyond that, the compromises that many evangelicals made and continue to make in downplaying the true nature of Adventism, have also contributed in perpetuating this deception. (This is partly due to the fact that they have been misled by Adventists, but also partly because they have failed to truly study the movement.)
Adventist deception leads to evangelical compromises in dealing with Adventism, which, in turn, produces more deception.
The sad reality that dawned on me after this year’s conference is that the evangelical stamp of approval, more than many things, has contributed to lulling far too many Adventists into thinking that their own religion is perfectly acceptable. Adventist deception leads to evangelical compromises in dealing with Adventism, which, in turn, produces more deception. It’s a vicious cycle.
What is at stake?
No form of deception is ever a good thing. But when the deception involves a false Jesus and a false gospel, the consequences are deadly. Though it is increasingly unpopular to say so, I believe with all my heart that Scripture warns us about different “gospels” that cannot save, indeed so-called “gospels” that are accursed.
I have been asked by others (and I sometimes ask myself) whether I am simply “seeing things.” Is Adventism really all that bad? After all, it is one thing to say that Adventism, and Adventists, are mistaken, or hold to incorrect theology. It is quite another thing to say that Adventism is a fundamentally deceptive movement with a false gospel that is constructed to look like the real gospel, and a false Jesus that is designed to look like the real Jesus.
…the core of Adventism has remained the same throughout that entire time, up to the present day.
The reality is that while Adventism may have morphed in its appearance in the decades since the Great Disappointment, the early visions of Ellen G. White, the 1888 message, the 1919 conference after White’s passing, the Questions on Doctrine era, the Desmond Ford controversies, and so forth—the core of Adventism has remained the same throughout that entire time, up to the present day. With eyes to see, one can “see” this when honestly and thoroughly examining the 28 Fundamental Beliefs. One can understand this by looking at the resurgence of Ellen G. White’s writings with the current millennial generation (as witnessed by the beautifully typeset editions of her Conflict of the Ages series published by “Types & Symbols”). One can grasp the true nature of Adventism by examining the statements of its leadership (from the progressive NAD up to GC president Ted Wilson). If, on the other hand, sound doctrine is passé to you, if any form of unity at any cost is paramount, or if you simply don’t care to look carefully enough—you, too, will be deceived by Seventh-day Adventism.
May this never be true of us. May we as believers “love the truth” because we love perishing people and because we care about the glory of God (2 Thess 2:10).
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