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October 10, 2011

THE GOSPEL OF FEAR

Even a casual look at the history of Seventh-day Adventism reveals a plethora of stunning conspiracy theories of many kinds.  Scare tactics have always been used successfully by Adventist apologists and public evangelists to both acquire and retain members.  While still an Adventist, I well remember the push to boycott the well-known soap maker, Proctor and Gamble.  This boycott cost  Proctor and Gamble an immense amount of money in legal fees to prove that they were not a devil-possessed company after all.  


With so many Adventists believing and promoting this, the Adventist Review finally carried a small notice saying that the Proctor and Gamble conspiracy theory was completely bogus.  Indeed, Adventist eschatological dogma has inspired this type of behavior over and over again throughout their history.  In truth, the boycott of Proctor and Gamble amounted to nothing less than monetary theft from a reputable company through their loss in sales and costs for legal defense.

From its inception,  Seventh-day Adventism has repeatedly made outrageous claims on topics ranging  from masturbation and vegetarianism to frightening forecasts of impending events that have both disappointed and embarrassed many of its adherents.  The SDA cultic mentality of US versus THEM has fueled this passion to preach a gospel of fear and gloom at every opportunity.  Consequently and sadly, Adventism has fathered an assortment of unsavory offspring like the Urantia Foundation, Pilgrim's Rest, Strong City sex ranch in New Mexico, Shepherd's Rod, and the infamous Branch Davidians.


Liberty  magazine, for example, used to have the highest circulation of any Adventist magazine. However,  the Adventist laity in the pew eventually became suspicious and weary of their organization seeing a Jesuit hiding behind every bush and tree by selling Liberty "bonds" (discounted bundles of subscriptions) to prop up its declining circulation. The dramatic decline in Liberty  magazine subscriptions resulted from Adventists largely realizing that the forecast for a National Sunday Law never looked more unlikely and unpromising than today.  


In spite of this fact, there are still some historic Adventists who nostalgically miss the emotional and frightening Sunday Law sermons of yesteryear.  I was present at a SDA church service in eastern Tennessee when the   speaker passionately denounced Catholicism for nearly an hour to a receptive audience.  Oh yes, he failed to make any comment about the Islamic invasion and Muslim jihadists.  Ellen White failed to comment on the threat of Islam as well. She also never envisioned a day when computers would easily assist in exposing her blatant plagiarism.

With 1.3 billion Muslims in the world today (plus millions of additional devout agnostics, atheists, Buddhists, communists, Confuscianists, Jews, Hindus, Seventh-day Adventists, Sikhists, Shintoists, Taoists, Zoroastrians, etc.), the feasibility of National Sunday Law legislation has never been more bleak and unthinkable.  The intense, even terrorist, hatred against Christians today does not in the least favor groups of unbelievers ever embracing and honoring the greatest event in redemptive history; namely, the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Interestingly, Adventists have increasingly acquired political and social clout throughout the world.  For example, the Chaplain of the United States Senate is a Seventh-day Adventist.  Many Adventists are longtime public office holders in their respective countries.  The SDA General Conference president now claims that Adventists are even a "mainline" Protestant denomination.  With all these favorable factors and trends, it is no wonder that many Adventists no longer see the so-called threat of the "National Sunday Law" on the horizon.  Sane and wise Adventists do not see their Christian neighbors as collectively becoming their killers very shortly over the Sabbath issue.  Indeed, thoughtful Adventists can no  longer maintain their cognitive dissonance--trying to embrace two opposing views at the same time.

Well-read Adventists are aware of how their church has made repeated changes after falsely crying wolf (i.e., Israel never becoming a modern State, the  "King of the North" being Turkey would be destroyed, failed prophecies of Ellen White, ad infinitum). Truly, the SDA track record on futuristic events reveals repeated unreliability and outright deception. After all, Seventh-day Adventism was founded upon the hoax of William Miller claiming that Christ would return on October 22, 1844.  The Adventist gospel of fear and uncertainty is not good news.   


In summary, the  Apostle  Paul warned, even twice for emphasis,  "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed" (Galatians 1:8-9 ESV).  Think about it!  Did Paul preach about the National Sunday Law that would culminate in Sunday keepers actually killing the Sabbath keepers?  Moreover, did Paul list "Sabbath-breaking" as a sin?



Dennis Fischer
Web Chaplain
E-mail:  dfministries@gmail.com
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