And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul’s message. They searched the Scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth. Acts 17:11 NLT 

In Revelation 22:8-9 John the revelator wanted to worship an angel.  What is interesting about this is John just warned the world against worshiping a man in Revelation 13. This just goes to show how easy it is for us to worship God’s created beings instead of God only. If John had to be reminded to only worship God we too need to be reminded not to worship and follow pastors. We must worship God and follow the Lamb. 

One morning last fall a former Adventist member on Facebook Messenger sent me a video of a former Adventist pastor who had left the church. My former Adventist friend thought that would “wake me up” to see that an Adventist pastor had studied his way out of the Adventist church. However it did not faze me at all. You see, I don’t follow Adventist pastors. So the fact that the video was by someone who was an ordained pastor of the Adventist church did not carry any weight with me. I follow the Bible and my conscience. So when an Adventist pastor leaves the Adventist church I am not going to follow him out of the church beings how I was never following him even when he was in the church. 

A few former Adventists have accused me of being Adventist just because I was born a 5th generation Adventist. Here are some things to consider. First I was not born a 5th generation Adventist. We are not born Adventist. We are not born anything. I decided on my own to become an Adventist. To say that I am an Adventist just because my parents and ancestors are Adventist is to ignore the fact that many in my same family are not Adventist. We all make our own choices regardless of the choices our parents made. As a matter of fact I do not know that my exact stand on every issue is the same as the stand my parents and grandparents had. We all have different ideas about Sabbath keeping just for starters. I don’t know that we are all in agreement about the 144,000 or exactly what our diet should be like. While we are all loyal Adventists if you put us all in the same Sabbath school class we would have some interesting disagreements and you may not realize we are related. That’s because we don’t follow our grandparents or each other. We follow the Bible. 

Another point to consider when former Adventist claim I am only an Adventist because I was born one is the fact that millions of first generation Adventists are joining our church family. You can’t say they are just Adventist because their families are Adventist because they are not. So to claim that I am just because I was born one is pretty much an attack on my intelligence. Its saying that while millions of first generation Adventists are smart enough to make their own choices I am not. Besides, this is all former Adventists making such accusations. If they could leave on their own free will don’t they think I can too? 

But I digress. From an early age I fell in love with the Bible. While many former Adventists attack Ellen White in an attempt to attack Adventism that does not faze me at all. In recent years I have not read all that much of Ellen White. Oh I believe she is inspired and has a message for our church. I lover her writings and believe was a prophet. I read her writings just not as much as my former Adventist friends think I do. I am not avoiding her writings as much as I just love reading the Bible! This is also why I am not into devotional books. I just love reading the Bible. During the quarantine while churches were closed I had a couple people ask me which Adventist pastors I was following on TV and social media. I was not following any of them. I was reading my Bible. I was actually saddened to find how many of my Adventist friends were watching 3ABN more instead of reading their Bibles more. 

In Genesis 2 God said if Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit they would die. In Genesis 3 the serpent simply says you will not die and for some reason that’s all it took to convince Eve. God’s Word against the serpent’s word and in Eve’s mind the serpent’s word trumped God’s Word. Why was Eve so easily convinced? Why so easily led astray? Paul gave Timothy a clue as to why people are so easily deceived. They want to be deceived. 

For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.  They will reject the truth and chase after myths. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 NLT 

Its always amazes me how I can study with someone in the Bible about the sanctity of the Sabbath and then they go to their Sunday pastor and without a lick of Scriptural evidence all he has to say is “It doesn’t matter” and they are convinced of the pastor’s word over God’s Word! Just as Eve was convinced by a simple lie “You won’t die.” 

It all boils down to this.

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. Luke 9:23 KJV 

In the garden God taught Adam and Eve to deny themselves. Without one lick of evidence the serpent said they didn’t have to deny themselves. Without one lick of evidence Adam and Eve believed what they wanted to hear over what they knew was right. Today the Sabbath and Spirit of prophecy are under attack because like God in the garden, the Sabbath and Spirit of Prophecy both teach self denial. Mankind today does not like that teaching anymore than Adam and Eve did which is why mankind is so easily led astray. 

Yet I still have to practice self denial not because its taught by Ellen White or my favorite Adventist pastor. I practice self denial because the Bible teaches it.

I don’t follow Adventist pastors while they are in the church or out of the church. I follow the Bible. So when an Adventist pastor leaves the Adventist church it does not faze me. It does not make me question my Bible beliefs because Adventist pastors have nothing to do with my faith in God’s Word. During the quarantine while many were finding Adventist preachers on TV to follow I was reading my Bible. When former Adventist pastors are posting videos about why they left the church, by God’s grace I will just be studying my Bible. 

I don’t worship pastors in the church or who have left the church. I don’t follow pastors into the church or out of the church. I worship God alone and follow the Lamb.

You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.