Why I Don’t Want to Go to Heaven
New America Media, Commentary, Edwin Okong'o Posted: Sep 28, 2009
When I was a child, I wanted to go to heaven. But today, after nearly 15 years in the United States, I’m absolutely sure that heaven is not for me. Before I explain my decision, let me tell you a little bit about my upbringing.
In our village of Makairo, Christian believers – and who wasn’t a believer – described the Promised Land as an Eden of milk and honey, fruits and sweets. But that seemed a perfectly reasonable description of the world I had been born into.
At first, I couldn’t imagine a place more beautiful than my ancestral home in the Gusii highlands of southwestern Kenya. The sun never failed to rise, even in the rainiest of the seasons. Everything grew big: bananas, avocados, passion fruits, sweet potatoes, corn, flowers. Unending plenty. There was a creek to swim in every mile or two.
Oh, but as in any Eden, there was a snake. My father cracked the whip in ways that made Kunte Kinte’s whippings in the movie “Roots” look like a joke. Corporal punishment was routine in my world, including in school, but not with my father’s punishing intensity. Could there be a place, I used to wonder, without such suffering?
Sokoro, my grandfather, had no doubt.
He was a man of great religious influence in the village. Sokoro was a holy man, the first one (so it was said) to bring a white man – a missionary, of course – to Makairo. Like most families in the highlands, we belonged to the Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA). Sokoro read the Bible everyday. Ask my grandfather about Adventists and he'll spin you a yarn so captivating you'd think he used to walk to school holding hands with Ellen G. White, the American founder of the Adventist movement.
My grandfather repeatedly told us during Bible study that, like the founder of the Adventist movement, Americans were extremely religious. In my imagination, America was gateway to heaven, a place people went for orientation to life in the Promised Land.
But as children we dreaded Sokoro praying during family Bible study meetings. His prayers lasted an eternity and we had to be on our knees. We used to joke that Grandpa prayed for everyone, including God.
The old man was said to be a successful businessman. He lived in Kapenguria, a town 200 kilometers from Makairo. Grandpa spent a few weeks every year in Makairo, where my grandmother and her children still lived.
There was no mistaking my grandfather when he walked up the path that led to our homestead from the main road. The walkway was the widest in Makairo. He had designed it wide enough so his children could drive their cars home when they were done with college and had good jobs. When he walked home, he always wore a suit and a newsboy cap. He carried a brown leather briefcase containing only a Bible. He needed no clothes. He had a closet in his house in Makairo. He walked with a cane, slightly hunched, but fast. To us, his grandchildren, he was a blessing, for his visits brought the only candy we would have in the year. I, especially, celebrated his presence because my father never hit me when grandfather was around.
As I grew older and began to wonder why my father was so abusive, I ran into an unfortunate irony: My grandfather, my role model and the man who brought joy to my life, was the reason. He had abandoned his children for another family. With him he took the key to the bank. His wife and children toiled on the tea field he owned, he came home a few times a year and took all the money supposedly to repay a loan he had taken to buy land for his sons. In a culture where a father ranks slightly below the Holy Trinity and is believed to have the power to condemn a son to eternal misery, my father and his siblings did not challenge him.
My father, who had been admitted to one of the best high schools in the region, dropped out after one year. In an era when Kenya was newly independent and high education paid immediately, some of my father’s classmates went to universities and became leaders of the new Kenya. Having missed out, he vowed to live that life through me, his firstborn. Unlike his father, he was going to give me everything to make it possible for me to succeed. When I didn’t live up to his high expectations he turned violent. “If 90 percent is the highest, why would they have 100?” he would ask.
Thanks to men like my grandfather, by the time I was born in the early 1970s, Gusii was an Adventist stronghold. But by the time I was six years old, Adventists had begun to lose numbers to the Catholic Church. One of the people responsible for the growth of the Catholic Church was an American priest named Fr. John Anthony Kaiser. He was the first white man I ever met. Fr. Kaiser lived in the Catholic mission in Kebirigo, a small town near Makairo. Because the Catholic faith was new in the area and lacked qualified priests, Fr. Kaiser presided over mass in several churches, including one two miles from Makairo.
Threatened by the rise of the Catholic faith, Adventists, who used to preach love and kindness, added a new line to their sermons: Saturday, the Sabbath, was the true seventh day – the day God chose to rest after six days of hard labor creating the world.
In private, small-group conversations, Adventist pastors and their flock became more forceful and explicitly. They called Catholics witches. I began to hear more about Armageddon from people besides my grandfather. The rise of the Catholic Church was a sign that the war that would test our faith had begun, they would say. It would be between the Catholics and us. They don't respect our Sabbath. They worship idols hung around their necks. They go to church only for an hour.
"Can you believe they smoke cigarettes and drink booze after church?" one good Adventist would whisper, upon sighting a Catholic.
"In fact, they are already drunk when they leave church," another would correct.
According to the prophecy, they say, the Catholics are going to lose the war and go straight to hell. In the beginning it might seem that they are winning. They will unleash terror on us and try to convert us. But if you stand firm and protect the Sabbath, God will intervene because he loves Adventists.
My mother rarely went to church and my father was a heathen in denial. He only listened to sermons if he was at funerals, which in our customs are held in the yard of the deceased. But my parents considered themselves Adventists. My father also believed that heaven belonged to children, and he had Matthew 19:14 to support his belief. “Let the little children come to me … for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them," he would say over and over when he was drunk. He commanded that my siblings and I go to church every Saturday.
As I grew older, I began to stray from the Adventist movement. The hateful gossip; the parents telling their kids to pinch us and make our lives miserable so we can stop coming to church in “rags;” the constant staring to see if the poor kids were going to offer God a penny or a quarter; I was tired of it all.
Meeting Fr. Kaiser was also instrumental in my journey to leave the church. At the mission where he worked, the Catholic Church ran a clinic that served all people, regardless of their religious affiliation. I remember being taken to the clinics during one of the many stomachaches I had invented to avoid my father’s whip. Fr. Kaiser had been very gentle, unlike the government clinics where they yelled at the sick. While my Adventists were waiting for heaven to ease our pain, this good priest was doing it here on earth. (Fr. Kaiser defended Kenya’s poor to his death in 2000, when someone murdered him).
I became a teenager and went to a boarding high school in Tabaka, in the same Gusii highlands. There I got to see Tabaka Mission Hospital, which I had heard was the best in the region. It was then that I realized that while my Adventists were busy hating and condemning sinners, Catholics were building schools and hospitals.
Four years at my high school also taught me that all Adventists did was hijack public schools and label them SDA. Mine was TABAKA S.D.A. HIGH SCHOOL, but all the Adventists contributed was the pressure they put on the teachers to force students to hold prayers for two hours on Friday night and church services for six hours on Saturdays. They had Pathfinders, Adventist student officials, who caned you and made your life hell if you did not obey.
Unable to comprehend why my church was so dysfunctional, I concluded that it must have been because we it lacked white men like Fr. Kaiser. During my high school years I attempted to defect by attending a few Catholic services, but my father caught word and threatened to kill me. That would have to wait until I went to America. Ironically, it was learning more about the good Christian white men I admired as a child that strengthened my faith in the decision to leave the church altogether.
But that came later. In Kenya, I was still thinking of America as the gateway to the Promised Land. That belief was strengthened when one of my uncles gained admission in 1980 to a U.S. university, and began to send money home shortly thereafter.
When my uncle visited from America briefly in 1986 my kinsmen sat under omotembe, a sacred tree in front of my grandmother’s house, to listen as he told us about this magical place he lived in. They were not interested in how people in America earned money. They knew it was easy because my uncle returned with a lot of it and fed them for nearly a week. They wanted to hear about how amazing America was: the technology, the automobiles, the paved highways, the malls. My uncle described a box where you insert coins; the machine gives you food and beverages.
Later I came to know that as a vending machine. But in our oral communication tradition my uncle’s story developed into one about a machine that delivers food to people as they work in their offices. Everyone in America was rich and no one wanted to wait tables, my kinsmen said. Even my father, a teacher, often told that version of the story. And my grandfather explained that Americans were wealthy because all of them believed in God.
I finally made it to America and learned very quickly that my people hadn’t prepared me well for this heaven on earth. America wasn’t a place where you “wash cars for a day and make enough money to take the rest of the week off.” Nor was it a country where you buy clothes, wear them once and discard them. And, more surprisingly, it wasn’t that gateway to heaven where people praised God, night and day.
The more I lived with Americans, the more I found out that they weren’t as religious as I had thought. They were not out there using their God-given powers to heal. In fact, many of them were propagating hate. I learned of white supremacists and Christian extremists, who – like the Adventists of my childhood – invoke God’s name as they spread hatred. But unlike my Adventists, these Americans are armed with enough machine guns to start Armageddon.
In 2005, I was shocked to hear Pat Robertson – that grandpa whose show “The 700 Club” I loved to watch on television in Nairobi – call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Most recently in June, the Rev. Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., said he was praying for President Barack Obama's death. And in August, another man of God, Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Ariz., told his congregation that he, too, was praying for the president’s death.
"I'm not going to pray for his good. I'm going to pray he dies and goes to hell,” Anderson told his congregation in a sermon titled, “Why I Hate Barack Obama.”
These are not the men I imagined I would find in heaven.
Page
1 of 1
|
User Comments
Joe Blow on Oct 16, 2009 at 21:46:06 said:
All I can say is that according to this article you have no idea what you are talking about. What crediblity do you have about God or the afterlife?????????? If you except the Holy Spirit as your personal Savior, the you will enter the kingdom of heaven even if you screw up royally multiple times within your life time. It's not about following rules, we are all human and break the rules all the time, it's about recognizing that someone else took my place, your place, when sin takes over in our lives and acknowledging that. If someone asks you if you are going to heaven when you die and you say "yes I am", then what do you base that on???? Being a good person???? Oh wait who pays for that time when you cheated on your wife or that time you lied to your parents...etc. That theory doesn't really hold up does it. There is no one on this planet reedemable in God's eye's unless it's through the acceptance of His son death, Jesus Christ. Otherwise have fun burning....cause that's where I would have been without His grace.
muriuki on Oct 11, 2009 at 18:55:33 said:
Great piece! Not so much for content but style and delivery.Obviously one of the best well written articles, both in grammar and language use, by a Kenyan i have come across in US in recent years. Keep writing. i look forward to read more from you.
muriuki on Oct 11, 2009 at 18:54:19 said:
Great piece! Not so much for content but style and delivery.Obviously one of the best well written articles, both in grammar and language use, by a Kenyan i have come across in US in recent years. Keep writing. i look forward to read more from you.
Anne on Oct 08, 2009 at 07:24:15 said:
Wow! I read this interesting article and also the comments that followed.It is well written and very involving. The ending is a little vague though and does not leave alot to be desired.
I have a motto that I implement daily,"if it does not bring me happiness, its not worth it".As I read your article I was of the assumption that were almost similar in age. Assesing from my point of view bitterness in the past of what did or didn't turn out right is imperative. Religion is what's in your heart.Everything that we do that's good or evil as adults is our own choosing and making. You can't and shouldn't cry over spilt milk. What's done is done your chioce of staying in the past will only cause you misery and frustration.
Move on bro'and thank God for every moment that you are alive and healthy. Does it matter what religion? I highly doubt that. I belive you haven't been through a life changing experience. When you do your article will be very different. Good luck in your future endeavors.
joel on Oct 07, 2009 at 17:39:05 said:
my friend let me advice you.the best standard for you to measure urself with is Christ the son of God.not in any man whether they call themselves evangelists,prophets or apostles.i hope this will cause u to regain ur desire to go to heaven
Gerald on Oct 01, 2009 at 20:05:36 said:
This is a great read. A well presented take on things over decades. thank you our man in america.
Amos on Oct 01, 2009 at 15:22:28 said:
Hi bro,
Good piece - the article is great and your writing skills are excellent. You have exposed the truth about some religious fanatics who preach religion to serve their own interest. I am a christian and I believe in going to heaven. At the same time, I believe that the truth should be told so that the wackos and the psychos can be exposed.
MY ADVICE TO YOU !!! WRITE A BOOK AND YOU WILL BE IN THE NEW YORK BEST SELLERS LIST.
GO BRATHA.
Tony on Oct 01, 2009 at 11:17:02 said:
Edwin,
Amen to all you article outlined.
For most of us who grew up brain washed about church or religion, the religious freaks are really messed up.
America is a phantom arena and I hope people find inner peace, do the right things and forget about religion all together.
Imagine all the money they would be saving too??? ;-)
Jerry on Oct 01, 2009 at 11:16:01 said:
Beloved, if these are the men you "imagine" you will fine in heaven, you are building your decision of rejecting God on the wrong premise.A proper list of those you will not meet in heaven is in I Corinthians 6:9-10. I believe the pastors who use scriptures to justify their hatred of others can be summed up in the "swindlers" group. People should not be your standard but Jesus.
G on Sep 29, 2009 at 23:19:40 said:
Ndugu, I enjoyed your satirical humorous piece of writing and graphic expressions that many literally took for serious allegations and condemnations. Let us sometimes be humorous and articulate as you tried to show the apples from the oranges, or which one did the two early couples eat deceived by the devil? Gotcha!
I hope we all will meet there where there is no tears and gnashing teeth.
Demirew , Toronto on Sep 29, 2009 at 21:33:02 said:
Hi Edwin And Senator Malik
I Hope Edwin this easly will be mislead by the senators comment by stating about slavery and the white people inspierd by a rady made religion called christianity. But befor even the colonialists were taking africans as a slave to their country the Arebs Mainly Muslim Arebs were the slave traders who are also providing slaves to the the so called Christian slavers who came from Europ.
But Edwin, The truth is Christ Teaching Not SDA or Baptist Teachings, So focus on the word of God The bible (By the way it was not written by white people rather by the brothers of those who wrote the Quoran) study it and you will find out Loving God and living according to his will is not religion rather it is a relationship with the holy spirit which will give you the life to start to live eternity right here on earth so going to heaven is dependes how you start it here.
God will be worshiped in the spirit and we live the spiritual lfe we are given but whene we start to live in the flesh we will loose the capacity to view what really Heaven is.
jo on Sep 29, 2009 at 20:34:54 said:
Hi Edwin, I like the way you put the article. I read it with interest.
You are on the right path. You need to upscale your critical evaluation to the chatolic church too. I am sure you will come to the same concluion. And ofcurse then the concept of God. The same is true for me.
I am happy and in peace with my self as compared to my religious seasons.
Good luck
al on Sep 29, 2009 at 19:17:57 said:
Edwin: I am afraid some of the commentators are missing your point. I did not comprehend your bio piece as an accusation against a particular religious order or leader. I thought you were talking about you loss of innocence and becoming a manchild in the promised land. Those of us who "escaped" from Africa to avoid persecution or for economic reasons struggle everyday to reconcile our objective conditions in America with our youthful expectations when we lived in Africa. If it is any consolation, be not concerned about finding any of the "pastors" you mentioned in heaven. They are doing just fine in hell sitting to the right of the Prince of Darkness.
Mark Young on Sep 29, 2009 at 12:24:46 said:
Hello Erwin
I do not want to go to Christian heaven either. According to the Bible, all you get to do in heaven is eat and sing praises to an egotistic god. There will be no animals in heaven, no seas, no sex and no family. Also somehow you will be happy in heaven while knowing many of your unsaved friends at the same moment are being tortured in hell by the orders of the same god you worship. And if we have perfect bodies in heaven, there will be no challenge or chance of self-improvement. Imagine playing golf in heaven, every shot off the tee with result in a hole-in-one.
Just look at the world. The more religious a place is, the worst it is. Africa is the most religious continent in the world and also the poorest. In places like Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Australia and Japan, most people are not religious, and yet these places are has close to heaven as you can get. The have little crime, violence, good health care and citizens who live long happy lives. That should be proof enough to your third world readers (who no doubt would love to move to the west) that religion is a destructive force in the world.
To the people of the third world, QUIT RELIGION. You will save yourself money. Instead of reading the Bible or Koran, read books about computers or learn another language. Instead of spending hour in church, spend more time in school. Instead of praying to god for what want, work for it instead.
Best Wishes
Mark
Truth shall prevail on Sep 29, 2009 at 09:03:55 said:
Mr Edwin,
Thank you for the article. But, I have to confess that, you were fooled up the whole of your life. Here is the reason.
According to theological teachings, Heaven is the best place, the best of every thing and every place, that you can't even imagine.
If Heaven were a reality, neither the Arabs, nor the Jews would tell you its existance.
How on earth can you imagine, that these greedy people, who kill each other on this world ('the bad world'), would ever love to share with you that best place (heaven), if it were a reality?
k. Ayana on Sep 29, 2009 at 09:00:11 said:
Brothet Edwin.
This is not suprising.People we call Christians could say anything they want to say.But, make sure that we can't deny the real word of the Scripture. You know what the Scripture says about Rev. Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif.,'When you ask, you do not recieve.because you ask with wrong motives. James 4;3 He is on the wrong side of 'his' Scripture. On the top of that, he lost his worship, but as to you don't miss the living God who will prepare a place for us in heaven. Don't be fooled like others who hate their brothers. Know that, if they hate someone they hate God.I know what is going on nowadays, most Christians are preaching that the end is coming because Obama is the cause for everything. They want to drive God the way they want to. But, God is not like that.They can say what they feel but I will pray for all including you. God bless you. Know this, Jesus died on the cross to save a place for you.Feel free to contact me for any question you might have.
Lemlem Tsegaw on Sep 29, 2009 at 08:54:42 said:
Dear Mr.Okong\'o
First and foremost, I understand your pain that prompted you to right the article. I too am the 3rd generation of SDA members and live in the USA. I have personally experienced racism while nursing some of them in their dying bed even among SDA members. However, I have also met White Americans who are SDAs, hard working, and loving to a point of contributing to my education anonymously.
I share this brief story just to make a point that evil and good make the nature of all human beings except some water their evilness while others water their good nature. Remember, it was the “Children of God” who insisted to crucify Christ. My brother, please rethink to go to heaven, I say, do not be a looser twice. Your first lose is the hardship you experienced growing up and the 2nd will be losing heaven. I hope you take my suggestion seriously. Prayerfully, Lemlem Tsegaw Virginia
william Okweari on Sep 29, 2009 at 08:14:50 said:
Dear Mr. Okongo thank you very much for your article about your life experiences, truly all human being went through life confusions. Until the time Jesus came and showed us the right way. The Jews wanted to Kill Jesus because Jesus Healed people on Sabbath. Human beings have missed what is that God wanted from them. In simple way we need the Holy Spirit from God through believing in Jesus Christ alone. To keep Days, months and traditional worship like the Jews did, they misunderstood Jesus Mission of Healing the Sick, raising the Dead, and feeding the Hungry.
Jesus Said the Kingdom of Heaven is within you therefore Heaven is not something we hope for. But is somewhere we go to when we obey Jesus Commencements, Love God with all your heart, with all your souls and Love your neighbor as you Love yourself. Mankind today condemned each other thinking they’re keeping God's commandments. The Bible is clear. There is Devil in this world confusing the mind of people; we can only worship God in the Spirit and in the Truth. It does not matter which day of the week. Keeping the Sabbath will not save you. But Believing in the Name of Jesus alone can save you. And be Baptist in the Water and the Holy Spirit and Fire.
Diimaa on Sep 29, 2009 at 08:03:57 said:
Most refugees from Africa get to America and expect to be treated like some kind of village chiefs as they were in their own villages. I encountered many Africans who lie to whites by claiming that they're sons/daughters of village chiefs ( they actually say kings, and queens) as if that is bound to change the white folks attitude towrds them. And when they don't get the adoration they imagined in their kiddie fantasies, they turn to bitterness. Oh! it must be racism. It must be hate for blacks. Don't Africans spew hate agaisnt eachother within Africa more than whites do to blacks in America? Don't Muslims in Nigeria unleash unheard of rampages against their fellow blacks who happen to be Christians? The Sudan? Muslim Somalis against Muslim Somalis? By that standard, American white Christians are angels...Aren't the Catholic missionaries he is fond of ( who provided him with medical care) funded by yes white, American Catholics? Aren't the left ( secular anti-church crowd) advocating the murder of our 43? Didn't they even make a movie that showed him being assasinated? Or are you going to excuse them in the name of "art"? I'm not saying it is okay to wish ill of 44 (Obama) but maybe you're so fired up against these "evil" Christians and "evil" whites because the president they seem to be riling up against is black! Go check if you aren't racist black yourself or if you weren't worshipping the white Fr or Ellen White. IF you looked upto Christ and did your part ( not murdering, not advocating murder, not hating, not being angry, bitter, etc.), that is what gets you to heaven not emulating a Fr or ellen White or anyone for that matter. Learn to live for yourself instead of living by others' example. You're a grown up man now, or are you?
Diimaa on Sep 29, 2009 at 07:49:39 said:
Why is everyone grovelling at this man's feet? He imagined a Utopia and was disappointed. We all have created our own Utopias and probably got disappointed as well. Instead of spewing his own hate, bitterness and self-inflicted disappointment ( like imagining where he would be working a day and resting 6 days even though the religion he professed to have followed preaches working 6 days and resting one day) he could have readjusted to reality, shut his big mouth and get to work.
This man was obviously worshipping white men instead of Jesus Christ, The creator of white men and black men alike, and he has only himslef or his perpetual kiddie fantasy to blame.
Every speech pastors make has context.
The context in which Pat Robertson called for the assasination of Hugo Chavez was this: Instead of marching with an army of 100's of thousands and sending american men to death ( risking a few thousand American men dead, why not kill the thug) and get over with it? Do I weep for a thug who usurps power and oppresses people? Not a bit. I'm a christian and am not ashamed wishing the death of one perpetrator to avoid the death of thousands of innocent civilians. If Hitler was assasinated right awaym, the death of 6 million Jews and close to 20 million christians could have been avoided. Learn to read speeches within their context. Christianity isn't against killing, but against murder.
Regarding the President Obama, I was appalled as well. I hope the SS is on their behind.
Christians have nothing to apologize for unlike our President goign around the world apologizing to Muslims and every living creature, instead it is Muslims who should be apologizing to Christians, Blacks and all the people of the world for wreaking havoc on their lives since the 7th century.
Christians, keep your heads up...If a person would rather go to hell than heaven, it is his/her choice. God created him/her with free will and persuasion, coaxing, begging can only do so much. WE absolutely have nothign to be ashamed of or apologize for. Let Obama and his race-baiting simpletons do the apologizing.
Bula Neger on Sep 29, 2009 at 06:22:22 said:
Agree with Edwin
Edwin, though I am from Orthodox religion, I have gone thru more or less your experiences. After seeing and expriencing many things, just like you, I no longer believe in religion or heaven. As Malik pointed out,religion was created to serve the colonialists/slave masters though I am not sure Malik's position when it comes to Islam as well.
BEZAA on Sep 28, 2009 at 22:58:20 said:
Dear Edwin,
I am very sorry to read your article. I am from Ethiopia and seventh day adventis who is living in USA. Hate for anyone nor denomination for that matter or wishing death for anyone is not seventh day Adventist teaching, mission or vision. In Ethiopia, we have one of the best schools, clinics, hospitals churches etc. in the country. The missionaries taught us how to love God and all human kind regardless of there race or color. I pray that the holy spirit to guide you to search the truth about Seventh Day Adventist teaching on the internet or by calling General Conference Of Seventh Day Adeventist Church at Silver Spring Maryland USA.Edwin, keep one thing in your mind. All human kind are sinners. Even our spiritual leaders are human beings too. The best way to go is to keep your eyes on almighty God who created this univers and human kind in his image.The nature of God - Sun raise and sun set, rain-fall, flowers in all possible colors attests God's presence and his love for all humanity.Please Pray for thos who mislead you and I will pray for you and myself not to be mislead by satan agents. Edwin, please sit back and rethink again. I am sure everyone who is reading this article loves you and moreover, God Loves you. May the Holy Spirit of God guide everyone who is reading this article to search the truth about Seventh Day Adventist teaching!! AMEN!!
Waynigus Debeb on Sep 28, 2009 at 20:35:23 said:
Dear Edwin,
I am an Ethiopian who live in USA. I feel sorry for what has happened to you in Kenya growing up as SDA. Unlike yours my experiance with the Seventh Day Adventist church has been beautiful. I chose to join the church. The missionaries as well as regular church members in Ethiopia were not perfect but they have been very caring and loving people. They have built schools, clinics, hospitals and churches.
I hope readers will not condemn the SDA church because of bad apples here and there.
Take care.
May God bless you brother.
Waynigus Debeb
Seattle WA
sagegrass Blue on Sep 28, 2009 at 14:09:15 said:
I am very sorry to read of this horrible situation you grew up in. I am a sabbath keeper but not a Seventh Day Adventist. I attend several of the many churches of God who keep the Sabbath. I would like to sugest that you do some more research on the sabbath and you will see that there are other churches that also keep the sabbath. They all do not call themselves Adventists. And many of the churches were keeping the sabbath long before the Seventh day Adventist became a church. As a matter of fact the early church Jesus started on the day of Penticost were keeping the sabbath and his followers have been keeping God's sabbath down through history. If you study history and the Bible you will find out that many Christians had to give up their lives in order to keep the sabbath. According to history it was Constintine who made it a law for the people to rest on Sunday. So it came to be that it was against the law of man back then to rest on the sabbath. They were required to rest on the day of the Son which is called Sunday.They substituted the sun God for the Son of God. God's Church kept the sabbath from the begining and still do. And even right up to the time of the end.
Howard on Sep 28, 2009 at 10:47:02 said:
Dear Edwin,
It is unfortunate that one have to suffer because of another person sinful nature. I am an Adventist too, i'll never tell you that my Church is perfect , but what i do know that it is the safest ship on planet Earth , and with Jesus as our Captain we can never sink. The Adventist Church does not encourged nor preach hate against any one , nor denomination. While we differ from many protestant beliefs , Christ Admonished us in John 10:16\" and other sheep I have which are not apart of this fold:them also shall i bring , and they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be one fold , and one shepherd\" . Condemnation belongs to God \"He\'s our Creator\" Edwin, I pray for your healing , that only God can give .
Edwin , while i feel your pain and your hurt. Heaven is a real place , a place where sinful people will neverr exits . And i say to you wheather we or black or white , rich or poor, educted or uneducated , Adventist or Catholic, or any other protestant Religion, if we don not abide by the principles of God found in the Bible ..hell will be our destination. Wheather we feel love or hurt by someone in the Church , if we fail to allow God to redirect out steps , in His foots steps we are going straight to hell. An like those Adventist who treat you badly , if they don\'t repent and your don\'t abide by God\'s words both you and them will go straight to hell. Sorry for being so practical but think about it . Howard
Jeremy on Sep 28, 2009 at 08:18:32 said:
Great article Edwin, and best of luck.
Hilarious comments from Chris. Allow me to paraphrase this exchange;
Edwin's article; I don't like Adventists because they are hateful and wish for people to suffer.
Chris' comment; I'm very sorry, the teachings of Adventists is against hate and wishing for people to suffer and the people who mislead you about this *will be punished!*
Contradiction much?
Malik Al-Arkam on Sep 28, 2009 at 06:26:06 said:
The European colonizers of Africa consistently used their alien religion, Christianity, as a weapon of mass cultural destruction. All of the slave-trading nations, including of course Britain and the USA, were Christian nations which were very comfortable professing their faith in a white Jesus who allegedly died for the sins of the world, then rose from a physical grave, then floated up into the sky to wait 2,000 years for the Judgment...while these hypocritical nations exploited, raped, mutilated and murdered many millions of African slaves and their descendants. It was a Catholic Pope, Alexander VI, who divided all the slaves and gold in the New World between Spain and Portugal in The Treaty Of Tordesillas in 1503. As long as Africans and Afrodescendants look to malevolent Europeans and Caucasian Americans for spiritual and political guidance, they will remain subjugated and exploited. Today the Afrodescendants who are making the most progress are those who are demanding Human Rights and Reparations in the international legal arena.
Sincerely,
Senator Malik Al-Arkam
www.allforreparations.org
Darren on Sep 28, 2009 at 01:32:18 said:
Edwin, unfortunately, your story is one repeated by many ex-adventists and members of other prominent christian religions and myself! Born and brought up an adventist, I used to watch people "high up" and think, I'll never get to heaven beacuse I'll never attain those levels; I couldn't never recite scripture like that, pray like that, preach like that, etc. But then that moment comes when the "human" of that person or as I like to call it, the mask being lifted and that person does something that shocks all your beliefs! " How could someone so close to God do that" and it's worse when many people follow as well! It's potentially life damaging especially when you've admired them for all your life. Thankfully, I've discovered that God's way is not man's way. Pastors, missionaries, lay preachers, whatever, included!
Role models are great but you must always see them in the light that they are human and just like the guy down the street they are all open to abusing power and positions that they are in. All sinners!
They always say there is one role model to follow and that is Christ and you never really understand until you are let down by the human version. Yep, some adventist can be the worse judges of all and as my dad said, some adventists will be surprised who goes to heavene while they watch. Revisit the bible for yourself and see what heaven really is and who inherits this gift. I'm sure you'll change your mind!
Darren
Christian Hoffmann on Sep 28, 2009 at 01:19:12 said:
Dear Edwin,
-->I am very sorry to read this story. I am from Germany and grew up as Adventist. Even though there have been strange teachings and strange people in the church all my life, I started digging up the origins. I started reading what the writers of the Bible and also what Ellen White really wrote. I am very sad about what your parents and even the church in your hometown did to you. Please believe me, the Adventist faith in its origins does not instruct you to hate Catholics, nor does it allow you in any way to hate someone or wish for his or her death. Adventist hospitals I know have always been helping out anyone of any religion and those who don't do not act according to the Adventist faith nor to the writings of the Bible and Ellen White. I am so so sorry and wish I could undo all the things that have been done to you to come to this conclusions. As a Seventh-Day-Adventist let me assure you that I think that these people are rather going to be punished for what they did than you not going to heaven. The bible writes that "at the times of ignorance God winked at" (meaning if you've been taught falsely God will not punish you for drawing the consequences). If you read the story of the good Samaritan in Luke 10:30 and onwards, you will see how God wants us to help everyone, no matter what they believe (Samaritans and Jews had theological conflicts that led them to hate each other - but still Jesus commanded them to love, help and save each other!!).
I would love to set things right, but I understand the circumstances you've been in.
If you can in some way, start digging for youself! You'll soon find that those who taught you were wrong.
Anyways - if you need someone to talk to, please don't hesitate to write me some words.
May the loving God bless you richly!
chris