Dear SDA Family and Friends:

Jesus is so precious! His love is so complete, His salvation so immediate, permanent, and free!

Prayer and reflection have led us to an overwhelming feeling that time on earth is short, and that Jesus will call His people home soon. We are not claiming any special revelation for this statement, so we could be wrong, but the impression is so powerful that we feel compelled to give it voice. Only the forbearance of God holds back the strife that will soon break upon this wicked world.

As you all know, we left the Seventh-day Adventist Church several years ago, but we never surrendered our love for our Adventist family—both those who are related by blood and those related by the deep bonds of friendship and shared experiences. It pains us to know that our understanding of the gospel is fundamentally different from the gospel that our loved ones are taught in the Adventist Church, and we are deeply concerned that the two gospels are salvationally incompatible. The Adventist gospel is that God gradually changes us into the image of His Son. Consequently, Adventists pray to be “ready” for the return of Christ. The Reformation gospel is a gospel of salvation by faith alone. According to this gospel, we are irrevocably saved in an instant. We no longer pray to be ready for Christ’s coming because we know that we are already covered by the blessed life-blood of Christ.

“And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13-14, NIV).

According to the Bible, believers are sealed “when” they believe, which means the moment they first believe. In addition, the seal with which believers are marked is the Holy Spirit, not the Sabbath. Finally, the Holy Spirit guarantees the salvation of believers, which demonstrates that God will never let His people fall away. The salvation of believers was finished two thousand years ago, and Jesus will never relinquish that for which He paid such a precious price!

The SDA gospel and the evangelical gospel are not only different, but they are incompatible. One is done, the other is being done. One brings peace—the other brings constant striving to attain readiness for heaven. And only one gospel can lead to heaven because there is only one true gospel of Jesus Christ:

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse!” (Gal. 6-8, NIV).

Please forgive us for being so blunt. Adventism teaches that those who leave the Sabbath are lost. They will receive the Mark of the Beast for worshipping on Sunday. We are comfortable with the knowledge that you probably believe we are lost, if you accept the teachings of the SDA Church in that regard. When we left the SDA Church, we realized that we were changing our eternal destiny. Therefore, we agonized over that decision, as we could not afford to be wrong!

What you may find offensive is the flip side of the SDA teaching about the Sabbath as the Seal of God. If the Sabbath is not the Seal of God, then are Adventists sealed (or on the path to being sealed)? Because if the Seal is the Holy Spirit, not the Sabbath, Adventists may be left holding the Sabbath in burned-out lamps when the Bridegroom comes.

If Adventists have the wrong gospel and the wrong Seal, can they still be saved?

But there’s more…. Since our Sabbatismos Website was launched at the end of 2009, we have received hundreds of e-mails from Adventists—most of whom wished to defend the seventh-day Sabbath and/or the necessity of keeping the Ten Commandments. We can’t recall any Adventist being willing to discuss the inspiration of Ellen White in any depth, so we conclude that most Adventists must know deep down that Ellen White is a false prophet. No one has seriously challenged our conclusion that she is a false prophet, other than to say that we are being unkind by saying so. No one has cared to explain the large collection of unbiblical statements and false prophecies by EGW that we document on Sabbatismos.

Where do false prophets lead?

“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)—if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment” (2 Pe. 2:1-9, NIV).

It’s impossible that a false prophet could lead someone to heaven. According to Peter, false prophets lead their followers to damnation.

Again, please know that we love you all deeply and pray for you daily! We are not trying to offend, but the Holy Spirit compels us to witness for the joy we have in Christ! Please consider—what if Adventists have a false gospel, a false Seal, and a false prophet? If even one of these statements is true, what might the consequences be? We aren't saying that Adventists are lost, but we are saying that we are concerned due to so many troublesome SDA teachings.

And there is even more theological error. Ellen White states clearly and repeatedly that Christ’s atonement is ongoing—that it consists of two phases (cross and Investigative Judgment). But the Bible speaks of only one atonement:

“And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement” (Rom. 5:11, KJV).

“Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb. 9:25-26, NIV).

The false ongoing atonement offered by Ellen White deprives her followers of absolute security because, while they can be saved as a result of the cross, they can later be unsaved when the Investigative Judgment finds that their deeds don't measure up to their profession of faith. People who believe they can lose their salvation inevitably focus on the doing of the law rather than the done of Calvary. Instead of moving to another phase of the atonement in 1844, Christ “sat down at the right hand of God” at His ascension, indicating that His atonement is completely finished:

“Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb. 10:11-14, NIV).

Adventism makes unique claims. If those claims are correct, then you will be blessed if you follow the Adventist teachings. But if those claims are not correct, the logical conclusion is too painful to mention. We believe the Adventist Church has a false gospel, a false Seal, a false prophet, and a false doctrine of the atonement. If any or all of these concerns are valid, then the SDA Church is a danger to souls. Please—study and know the truth! Start with Ellen White. If she is not a prophet, then run! Pray for the Holy Spirit, submit your wisdom to the Lord, and receive guidance from above….

Many of you already know (or suspect) that Ellen White is a false prophet. You privately tell us, “Oh, I don’t follow Ellen White—I only follow the Bible.” So do you think God is impressed by your faith? You don’t really believe in Ellen White as a prophet, but you remain in the church she founded—and you are silent when the Sabbath School Quarterly quotes her as an authoritative interpreter of scripture, and you sit quietly in the pew as the minister quotes from his “favorite Christian author.” Do you think God will reward your silence? Or will He say, “You knew, and yet you said nothing”?

So many of our dear friends are Adventist pastors and teachers, and many of you do not believe Ellen White was a prophet. You contend that you are trying to change the church from within, but what does the Bible say?

What does the Bible say about prophets who have false theology and make false predictions?

"But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death. You may say to yourselves, 'How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?' If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed" (Deut. 18:20-22, NIV).

The Bible says we must separate from all falsehood—have nothing to do with it.

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Cor. 6:14, NIV).

And yes, false prophets and those who stubbornly persist in following false prophets are unbelievers. It deeply pains us to say this. We are not judging anyone, even Ellen White. We hope she repented of her sin. And we know that God is leading thousands of His people out of Adventism. But what of those who refuse to leave in spite of the evidence, or those who refuse to investigate the evidence that is so readily available? We don’t know the answer, but we are deeply concerned. That’s why we plead with all Adventists to compare the writings of Ellen White with the teachings of the Bible, praying that the Holy Spirit will guide.

Please, time is so short. Come out of Adventism, if you feel the Holy Spirit calling you! If Ellen White is a false prophet, then she is part of the false religious system represented as Babylon. And if Ellen White is part of Babylon, will her followers suffer the fate of Babylon?

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Heb. 10:19-29, NIV).

We are not judging your salvation in any way.  We hope you are saved right now, but we are simply concerned because SDA theology is unbiblical in so many crucial areas. And where does unbiblical theology lead? We believe that very little time is left on earth, and that Christ will come suddenly to take His people home.

Please know that we will always love you, and please don’t be offended by this letter. We are just begging you to re-examine the teachings of Adventism, and we pray that the Holy Spirit will guide. And if we are wrong, we pray that God will likewise guide our study of scripture to His glory.

Much love and many prayers,

Joe & Jennifer



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