I came across a post on TikTok from The Glory Whole page, love her by the way! I never knew Usain was an SDA. The religion was very important to him and he wanted to honor his parents beliefs but it made him choose between Sabbath rules vs pursuing his passion. Had he chosen his parents ways aka a false religion, he would have never been this successful today.

That makes me wonder how many Adventist kids who were great at sports, lost an opportunity to be a successful athlete. How many kids could have been NBA celebs, competed in the World Cup, gone to the Olympics, you name it! It’s really sad that one woman’s false ideas/hallucinations have prevented a lot of us from rising to our full potential.

This same idea also applies to other careers/opportunities. Adventism most definitely shuns worldly success. If you become a successful business owner, reach some sort of fame, focus on your career a lot, love sports, and anything that does not have any relation to their church and their mission, then you are not in Gods will and are not being the best Christian in their eyes.

They love to brag how they gave up amazing career opportunities for the Sabbath, gave up a sports career because of Sabbath, or how they were judged for their beliefs and stood up for their religion to others. It just triggers me a lot, and now as someone who sees the lies of this church, I cringe when I hear these people talk this way. Get a life!

Going back to sports, nowhere in the Bible does it say don’t play sports on the sabbath. Again this is going back to Ellen whites sabbath rules. The 1 million rules she added to the Bible. The Bible says if you add or take from the Bible, that is like a sin to God. The Bible just says to rest on that day, rest can be defined as anything. And in today’s world anyways, people need to make ends meet they don’t have time to decline jobs that require them to work on Saturdays.

Adventist way of life is literal hell, I could never imagine myself keeping this way of life for my future kids.

I experienced my life change when my whole family including myself converted to Adventism becoming paranoid, strict, at some point even sheltering me and my brother from "worldly" people, even when we used attend public schools, etc.

I witnessed or heard of certain people making the dumbest life decisions like moving to a random state or country without doing any research which didn't end well for the them financially, physically, mentally, emotionally, possibly spiritually all because of fearing the Sunday Law and Pope Francis.

Half of them seem to have unusual behaviors like lacking social skills, dietary restrictions, and would seem to become superstitious towards everyday things from people of different beliefs, movie theaters, games, movies, shows, cartoons, music, more I can’t think of, seeming to base their lives on conspiracy theories.

Does anyone else have stories whether it was yourself, people or someone you know, or even a story you heard from someone else?

People in church would often claim to have sensations “that were the holy spirit” that I didn’t feel and it left me feeling like I was left out at the time. 50% of people don’t have it.

Did anyone else encounter frisson experiences or have others that did in church?

</FacePalm>

Hey everyone a little background on myself I used to be a Jehovah’s Witness, and I learned that the cult that I used to be apart of kind of stemmed off of the 7th day Adventist and I’ve always had the curiosity of joining a service just to see how similar or different they are.
I have no desire in becoming one it’s just a curiosity.

What should I expect? What should i wear?

Curious if this is at all related to SDA upbringing or unrelated, but lately I've been trying to understand various negative emotions and have noticed my constant dread of the future. Not the 'something bad is going to happen', but more along the lines of 'what's the point?' No matter the situation, constantly looking into the future is keeping me from being in the present.

Can't enjoy today, cuz I gotta be ready for work tomorrow. At work, but just gotta get through it, but then the thought of 'but why psych myself to get through work? Im going to be back here again anyway..' Anything and everything I do, the future keeps me depressed.

Enter SDAism. I started remembering all the End Time prepping that was drilled into me growing up. "The end times are gonna be hard! Jacob's time of trouble is going to shake everyone and their faith! The Catholics have secret torture chambers waiting for us once the Sunday Law hits! Prepare your mind to not break under the immense physical torture you will inevitably face! You're going to be so hungry! But thank the good lord, hes gonna send us bread via ravens like Elijah! Don't worry about being tortured, God wont give you anything you cant endure"

What. The. Actual. Fuck!

I was a child! A fucking child! And you think this bullshit is ok to fill my head with??? Constant fear of the world being evil, Satan and his angels constantly hovering over me, waiting for God's protection to fall so he can accost me. And on top of all that, please mom and dad, please, I could use some more of that fear you're peddling about the catholic torture chambers! Once a week isnt enough, I need it daily!

Man, I didnt realize how pissed I still am about this after 40 years, but here we are. Anyways, back to the topic. Do yall struggle with chronic anxiety and if so do you think theres a heavy link to it and end times fear mongering? Thanks for reading my journal!

Hello everyone. I just joined this thread, because I've been struggling with feelings of isolation and being unable to be open with others about my true thoughts and feelings. I was hoping to find others I can relate to that would be willing to have meaningful conversations. If you are struggling with your Adventist faith, or even a Christian faith of any kind, and would like to talk about it, feel free to message me. Thanks!

I am someone that was raised in the church in Southern California, lived in Loma Linda California and I went to the local churches in the area. I am now living in Los Angeles happy and free from the Adventist church and have been free for years now. I saw some crazy things in schools that was okay because it was “ the Christian way “. I went to RAA, and that school had the some of the fakest, cruelest, meanest adventists I have met in my life. My mom, my dad and my sister who was Adventist for years are now no longer Adventist. My whole family has left the faith. Anyone that is an ex Adventist and lives in SoCal, don’t be afraid to DM ME.

So I come from a Hindu-Buddhist-Sikh family. I'll explain how it works. My family isn't devout, just prays occasionally and celebrates festivals as part of our culture. That's it. Basically, you never need to convert, or are forbidden to practice other religions if you belong to the above three. Also, the Buddha and Guru Nanak were Hindu before they founded their respective religions. The three religions are pretty laid back in the sense that, they talk about karma, having a moral code and being a good person. There's other things but this is pretty much the foundation.

My in laws are devout SDA. Some things I experienced/was told sounded absolutely unbelievable as someone from a family where what we were taught at school (science and maths) comes before anything else. Some crazy things I experienced:

• Not believing in Evolution, dinosaurs: I was having a discussion with my mother in law about Australian history. I was leading with the example that Aboriginal peoples have been there for 65,000 years and have been an integral part of Australia. She interrupted me and said, "I don't believe in 65,000 years." I was VERY confused. How does that even work. I remember grilling my partner that night with questions, "so they don't believe in dinosaurs, the paleolithic age, evolution?!"
• My partner wasn't allowed to watch Pokemon as kid: His parents thought it shows evolution, which according to them is wrong and didn't happen. Also, they told him when he was a kid to ignore it if he's taught that in school. (I went to a Catholic school and they never concealed any information).
• Calling COVID vaccines the devil's mark: There's multiple logical and illogical arguments about the vaccines but their logic is calling it the devil's mark. Remember when shops and schools started reopening after the pandemic and you were only allowed entry if you were vaccinated? My in-laws never did. So whenever they went out they were denied entry everywhere, which is sad. But their logic is, it's preparing them for an apocalypse where people like them will be discriminated against, or hunted so they're glad this experience prepared them. WHAT?!
• Praying that I see the "truth": I don't mind holding their hands in prayer, praying to another religion isn't forbidden if you're Hindu. I remember her holding my hands and saying "I hope she sees the truth". At first I found it a bit funny. But now that I think about it, I'm a bit offended. Truth? What truth? So I've been living a lie?
• Making me feel weird for not being Adventist: When I visited my in laws church for the first time, people were happy to meet me. But everyone asked, are you Christian? I said no I'm Hindu. And I saw their smiles disappear. I know I shouldn't be surprised but inevitably I thought, if you walk into a Sikh, Hindu or Buddhist temple, no one would question your religion, and if they do they wouldn't make you feel like you don't belong there but welcome you.

Just sharing some crazy things that I have experienced as a complete outsider to SDA.

Hear me out— the church has always been called a hospital for sick people as an analogy since I was little. My dad would say “of course you find sick people in there, they need to be here to get better. And everyone is a sinner so we all need the hospital.” But the reason this argument falls apart is because you can’t check out of a hospital. You can actually get better in a hospital and leave. You can say “thank you, I feel better now” and go about your business. But if you try to stop attending church or make your visits more sporadically you will be judged and shamed if not outright condemned. If that’s how SDAs treat attendance to church then it’s not a hospital, it’s a prison for the guilty that you’re never supposed to be free from. You’re expected to be Jesus and EGW’s captive for the rest of your life. Doesn’t matter if you’ve embraced the message and you don’t need to be reminded every sabbath to be a good person. You need to hear every weekend that you’re worthless and broken, and if you dare do anything else on a sabbath, you’re worthy of death and hell even more so. There is no escaping this hospital. You are a prisoner the second you become a member. You’re expected to give up all your time on ministry regardless of what you have going on in your personal life. The church will always ask you for help but rarely can or will help those in the church with their own personal needs. Just like a prison, they extract labor from the inmates for the larger complex of power for wealth to build more prisons. But instead of healing broken people it gives them a placebo to mask their deeper pain and to keep them bound.

Any thoughts?

Hello All, I’m reaching out to see if any of you have experience with Thunderbird Adventist Academy. I attended a boarding academy, it was really hard and I’m still working through some of the lingering memories.
Anyway, my cousin is sending her child to Thunderbird Adventist Academy. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Before being employed there I really had never met or interacted with a member of the church before. I feel like I’ve only seen the propagandized view of the religion the company wants to portray to us and the public. Company orientation consists of a brief overview of the history of the religion, Ellen White, ext. But honestly other than a few quirks I don’t see any immediate red flags. I’d be interested to hear some of you alls experiences so I can fully understand the company I work for.

Thanks!

I checked the times of both events, looks like the fire was at its peak just as the eclipse was looking spooky. Apparently no photojournalists on the scene were Adventist, I haven’t seen a shot of the burning building under the eclipse yet.

Now, this was the “old church” for everyone, ex or not, the new church is actually just a mile down the road from my house 😅😅 Very unfortunately, the historic building had been purchased by the neighboring church to renovate for a shelter, the area is very close to a bunch of health systems main hospitals, and a shelter is needed.

But considering how many Revelation Seminars were held in that building… if it has to burn, I appreciate the symbolism. Also, looks like no one was hurt, and no other buildings were damaged. Just a total loss on the old church.

Hopefully, this means a beautiful, new shelter can be built on the site! 🤞🏼🤞🏼

Reactions from my still practicing family incoming, this should be fun 🍿

Ok, so the caller has kind of an inside out upside down Adventist end times view. Enjoy!

One of my friends is ex-Amish. He is the first one in his family to have left…He can trace his Amish roots to the 1500’s…Imagine walking away from hundreds of years of religious belief! I think a lot about why some people leave their entire way of life behind, and others stay forever locked in rigid beliefs…

Sim é como você leu kkkk eu queria poder criar um grupo específico de dissidentes adventistas que estudou/estão estudando a fundo o espiritismo e propor uma junção - quase impossível - dessas duas doutrinas. Vocês acham que dá certo? Você que hoje é espirita e já foi adventista do sétimo dia participaria? O que você esperaria dessa comunidade? O que você NÃO esperaria? Hsuhauaj

I have Adventists on my wife’s side of the family. My wife herself isn’t Adventist, but she grew up around it and is still influenced by some Adventist beliefs and ways of thinking. Because of that, I’m genuinely interested in hearing from people who were actually inside the church.

Was there a particular doctrine, Bible passage, historical fact, issue with Ellen G. White, or something else that first made you seriously question Adventism?

And more importantly, what ultimately convinced you that Adventism’s claims were not true?

Looking back, what would have been the best way for someone to challenge your beliefs without immediately putting you on the defensive?

Edit: I’m especially interested in hearing from those who left Adventism but remained Christian. What specifically convinced you that Adventism was wrong without leading you to reject Christianity itself?

I understand if someone is forced or has strict parents, but I will never trust someone who’s still has free will to go anywhere else instead deciding to spend time with people they aren’t that fond of, and being around those who aren’t sharing the same beliefs as them.

I am questioning my friendship with someone who has been saying they don’t like or trust most SDA’s, had bad experiences, but still chooses to go back or participate in other Adventist churches and surrounding themselves with SDA people. They even discovered this specific subreddit mentioning how they will post stories, but never did saying they are procrastinating. I saw recent pics of them on social media going back and deciding to attending a not so great environment which doesn’t make sense anymore. They haven’t been reaching out to me like they used to instead prioritizing specific people that they don’t truly like, and said some really messed up things about them. It all feels dishonest and off.

Any thoughts on this or people who still continues doing things like this?

My mom had one of his albums that I remember listening to all the time in the car. I guess he's still around, performs on 3ABN and occasionally puts out albums, but apparently never managed to make it anything more than a pretty major side hustle because he still works as a dentist in Battle Creek.

From my memories of his music he's actually not bad, some of his songs have pretty positive messages by SDA standards including proclaiming assurance of salvation and encouraging people not to beat themselves up over past guilt, and musically some of his stuff is actually kind of interesting, a little bit old-fashioned but not traditional hymn-type stuff and also not just another "Christian rock" artist, some of his songs have a bit of a "swing" to them that I kind of like.

That said, he is still very much an Adventist, and his music is not without problems. The song of his that's burned the most into my memory (probably because it was my favorite when I was a kid) is called "Mr. Darwin" and the whole song is about denying evolution ("For it was God who formed me from the dust and gave my body shape, And it is he that I'm descended from and not some hairy ape" 😂) and the last verse almost gleefully anticipates the eternal condemnation of Charles Darwin ("Because when Jesus comes he's going to take his children off the ground, And you're just goin' to have to stick around!"). And that line in particular sticks in my brain as an illustration of just how hilariously obsessed so many Adventists and Christians in general are with this dead 19th century scientist and how much they hate him, as if he is single-handedly responsible for people figuring out that no, God didn't actually breathe magic air into a dirt man to make humans, and that we didn't just "descend" from apes, we are apes.