amazing thing happened as I started real contextual, inductive Bible study and teaching. I began
to see a new harmony in Scripture. I began to realize that often my previous Bible study was
clouded by interpreting "the greater light" through the foggy lens of the "lesser light". At the end
of the six months I was in love with the Bible as never before. I began to realize that not only
was Adventist's 1844 sanctuary theology in error, but contextual study through the New
Testament did not support several of the unique teachings of Adventism.
Since leaving Adventism I have made two profound conclusions. You, and perhaps some
readers of Proclamation!, may find these very offensive, but I believe they are nevertheless
patently true and are of utmost importance, and that is why I share them here:
One cannot understand the Bible correctly when continuing to read the writings of
Ellen White. While an Adventist I would have reacted violently to this statement as some
readers may now be doing! The concept is more easily acceptable, however, if applied to other
religious groups. No Mormon will be able to understand the Bible correctly while continuing to
read Joseph Smith's The Pearl of Great Price and Doctrine and Covenants. No member of the
Christian Science Church will be able to understand the Bible correctly while continuing to read
Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. No Jehovah's Witness will
understand the Bible correctly while continuing to read the Watchtower. All these groups would
argue vehemently they were indeed interpreting the Bible correctly. In fact, they would say that
their interpretation was the only correct interpretation and other churches were wrong. Why
would this be? Because all these groups would be looking at the Scripture though the veil of their
modern prophet or the official teachings of their organization. It is my settled conclusion that the
same thing holds true in Adventism. The second weighty conclusion I reached is this:
Where the Bible is clear we can and should be certain. Where the Bible is unclear or
honestly open to several interpretations we must be tentative. The recipe for cultic teaching
is to find some obscure passage, define what that passage means, and then make that
interpretation normative for others. For example, Mormons find in 1 Cor. 15:29 an elaborate
theology of baptism for the dead. They go to great lengths in tracing their genealogies back as far
as possible and then make sure they get baptized for their ancestors. However, other Bible
scholars do not find this theology in this passage. Why can only the Mormons find it there? It is
because Mormons read into the Bible the theology of their modern prophet. The same could be
said for Jehovah's Witnesses. Using some of the same prophecies early Adventists used, they,
after several failed predictions and later reinterpretations, come up with an invisible second
coming of Christ in 1914. Herein lies what I have concluded to be the fundamental error of
Adventism. Early Adventist theology was built on obscure, apocalyptic, passages, and frequently
even these were taken out of context. Ellen White said that Daniel 8:14 is the "central pillar of
Adventism." This text is, without question, one of the most obscure texts in the whole Bible.
Like it or not, this is the foundation stone of Adventist teaching. Adventism's 1844 Sanctuary
theology is like an octopus with tentacles around and under nearly every unique teaching of
Adventism