adventist review

“Seventh-day Adventist pioneers and their protest against systemic racism” by Kevin Burton is rank error

This is a rebuttal of Kevin Burton’s article in the Adventist Review, which claims that basically everything the early SDA pioneers stood for, was intertwined with a stance against American “systemic racism”.

The original article can be found here:
https://www.adventistreview.org/seventh-day-adventist-pioneers-and-their-protest-against- systemic-racism

Kevin Burton is a Ph.D. Candidate (Florida State University), who teaches in the History and Political Studies Department at Southern Adventist University and is writing his doctoral dissertation on Millerite and Seventh-day Adventist involvement in the abolition movement.

So it should be obvious that he is trying to tie the core of SDA beliefs to his specialty. And it is no wonder that right now his thoughts on the matter of race in the SDA Church are in high demand.

It appears that he is very well read in early Adventist history, as may be imagined. And while he doesn’t appear to be quite as far removed from true SDA belief like George Knight is, he seems to have some similar biases, as he has reviewed a book titled “Adventist Maverick: Celebrating the work of George R. Knight” in which he writes: “Eve sinned before eating the forbidden fruit” and says of this book about Knight that one: “can now drink in the wisdom of Adventism’s most influential author within the last 35 years”.

After George Knight had disparaged Bible writers by calling them “goat herders” at a meeting of his I attended at Southern Adventist University in 2010, I told him directly that all the words in the Bible were from God. He laughed at me. With “wisdom” like that, you can get a pretty good idea whose side Kevin Burton is on.

Anyway, regarding his most recent article in the Adventist Review. He makes quite a bold statement in the first paragraph: “The second advent movement was inseparable from the abolitionist call for the immediate and total destruction of slavery and the demand for equal rights for the oppressed.” Well, it’s odd that no one had that idea until over 160 years after it happened! It is true that many of the early pioneers were abolitionists, but they were first and foremost Seventh-day Adventists who grew out of the Millerite Movement of 1844.

“they made protest against racial injustice inseparable from their Adventist faith.” No they didn’t. This is revisionist history. Mr. Burton seems to have forgotten that not all Adventists were Americans, and that this is not true even of all American Adventists. Some, like Joseph Bates, did so. Many did not. Some Adventists were even Southern sympathizers.

“Adventists were inspired by their Christian faith to fight against systemic racism in America.” Now this term “systemic racism” was not even used back in the 19th century. It has a very specific construct in 2020, as it means police brutality against blacks. Never, ever did “racism” mean that among the Adventists of 160 years ago. Some black Adventists were NOT involved in “black protest”. Painting broad brushstrokes is, in fact, being racist himself.

He speaks favorably of the Bates’ family working against the law prohibiting interracial marriage in Massachusetts, but fails to mention the times that Ellen White, inspired, wrote that “there should be no intermarriage between the white and the colored race.” –Manuscript 7, 1896.

Then Mr. Burton gets in earnest about trying to twist the facts to support his political views: “in the 1850s and 1860s, Sabbath-keeping Adventists petitioned against more issues, like the death penalty (believing that both slavery and capital punishment “represented systems of brutality that coerced individuals””. Well, it’s very possible that a few did write against the death penalty, but, as in the example above of interracial marriages, that certainly was not God’s position! God mandated the death penalty, and to attempt to make us SDA believe in 2020 that our spiritual Adventist forefathers were against what God instituted, is reprehensible.

“The second angel warned that Babylon was fallen, and Millerites came out of the Protestant churches (Babylon) because those churches supported slavery. Ellen White specified that any Seventh-day Adventist holding pro-slavery sympathies must be immediately disfellowshipped.” Now he is just making up history as he goes along. This is completely in error. I’ve read plenty of Ellen White material, and unless he has access to some secret vault articles that the public has no access to, he is not being truthful here. Tellingly, he has not given a reference for this bald- faced untruth. Ellen White makes it clear that the Adventists left the fallen churches because those churches rejected William Miller’s message, showing to all that they weren’t interested in seeing Jesus come back at all. That’s why the Millerites left the fallen churches.
*Reference Advent Movement Illustrated

“Finally, Seventh-day Adventists connected the third angel’s message against worshipping the beast with the antislavery cause. Revelation 13:1-18 reveals that the two-horned beast enforces idolatry, and Adventists identified America as this beast because it professed to uphold religious and civil liberty (the two horns) but, in reality, denied those privileges to religious and racial minorities.6” I have checked out his Ellen White references supposedly supporting this statement. They do nothing of the kind. Check Testimonies Vol. 1 p. 259, 358, & 360. His other reference is to a sermon by Charles Fitch, who died just before October 22, 1844, so never could have even known what the Third Angel’s Message was, as no one understood it until AFTER October 22, 1844.

“By incorporating antislavery arguments into their presentation of the three angels’ messages, Seventh-day Adventists made a protest against systemic racism an important part of their fundamental beliefs. They challenged their spiritual descendants to carry on this faith.” Since we’ve already debunked his claim regarding this earlier, there is no need to do it again. He is just reiterating his falsehood in order to make it stay in your brain, make you feel guilty, and to make you leave the firm platform of truth that God has founded for His renmant church.

Of course we should be against racism. At the same time, we shouldn’t jump on the media’s bandwagon just because this is a hot topic now.

Why do I feel deja-vu all over again, just like what happened after 9/11, and our Adventist “scholars” and “leaders” fell all over themselves trying to make us feel bad for having supposedly anti-Islamic views? When are we SDAs going to wake up, and throw off the chains of Sadducees and Pharisees who are working together to destroy Jesus in the person of his saints?

Let’s be good Bereans, and follow our perfect example, the one altogether pure and lovely – Jesus Christ.

Seventh-day Adventist leaders bow to anarchists over George Floyd’s death

It’s really sad to see how so many of God’s church’s leaders bow down to the god of public opinion and media frenzy. This post is in response to articles on the Adventist Review, who deleted nearly all of my comments to their articles.

Right now, Adventist Review has at least 5 articles all of which support the false narrative of “anti-racism”. They are:
1. https://www.adventistreview.org/this-intractable-lie
2. https://www.adventistreview.org/deeds-not-only-words
3. https://www.adventistreview.org/the-work-of-god-will-not-be-finished-until-we-demonstrate-gods-love
4. https://www.adventistreview.org/church-news/story14966-i-am-determined-oakwood-will-continue-to-be-a-center-of-empowerment-and-witness
5. https://www.adventistreview.org/church-news/story14938-only-connection-with-god-can-overcome-global-rise-in-evil

Number 1 is by Wintley Phipps, who has served as the SDA church’s official representative to the U.S. Congress. In it, he talks about how much money he’s made, and moving into an upscale majority-white neighborhood. His claim to racism is that the FBI stopped and asked him questions about drugs because he flies so much. Yes, and white people get stopped and asked too. He also writes: “the shocking savagery of the Puritans and Pilgrims”, which is denigrating the founders of this country, which God has told us thru Ellen White is the greatest country on earth. He also approvingly quotes Nelson Mandela, a renowned Communist who killed many people to achieve his political goals.

Number 2 is by Ella Smith Simmons, a Vice President of the General Conference of SDAs. She writes: “the loss of my great-uncle to the ravages of emotional despair in his inability to cope with unchecked societal injustices”. Yes, so have white people. This idea of blaming all the bad things in life on SOMEBODY is a symptom of someone who is not studying and believing the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. She also says not to “only pray”, in the sense that prayer isn’t very effective……

Number 3 is by North American Division president Dan Jackson. He writes: “a horrible illustration of what happens when men feel that they are superior to others”. Or maybe the police officer was trying to do his job? This brings up one of the clearest sins in all of these “pro George Floyd” articles – they have ALL judged before the time, something Jesus has expressly told us not to do. America used to be a place where people were considered innocent until proven guilty. But with everyone loving Hollywood and a good story, emotions is what holds sway now among many. So when they see a picture or video of something that looks horrible – rush to judgment, and forget about Jesus Christ’s words.

Number 4 is by Oakwood College’s president. It is not worth quoting anything, as it is basically what you can read in any newspaper about how all Blacks are supposedly trodden down by whites. Right. Like that can be easily disproven by just opening your eyes and looking around you. How much does this black man earn? No doubt it’s 5 to 10 times above the average American salary. Phipps? – a multi-millionaire. GC vice president? No doubt well off too, much, much richer in material things than I ever will be (on this earth). There was even a black president in America for 8 years, and by this man’s omission admission, he was complicit in tramping down black people.

Number 5 is by Ted Wilson, also judging before the time.

Where is the outrage when literally thousands of the least of these my brethren are ripped out of their mommy’s wombs and thrown in the trash can every day? No? Nothing? You mean it’s only when the frenzied media barks that God’s remnant church wags its tail? Is it because the little ones aren’t going to loot, rob, steal, burn, shame, or otherwise doing something to you that you don’t like? Where were the strong denouncements of Christians being murdered in Nigeria? Oh, that’s right. They aren’t newsworthy, because they don’t fit the media’s agenda of creating a frenzy to make people emotionally unstable so they will do things they would normally not think of doing – like abolishing police departments.

And that’s what these George Floyd riots are all about – they’re not about racial injustice, but about having power over others. How can I say such a thing? Look at the facts: Many states in America were in lockdown over the corona virus up to this point in time. It was deemed “unsafe” to have protests against the lockdowns, and even Christian churches were closed. But now suddenly everybody is cool with gathering for protests, ignoring what they had said and written literally just days earlier about how bad pastors were for wanting to hold church services.

Of course we should not have racism. Jesus never condones it, even a jot. That should be a “given” among people following Jesus, but as is apparent from all these articles, not just many of the laypeople, but the authors of the articles themselves still haven’t learned the lesson.

Several people killed in the riots were black people. Many, perhaps most of the businesses burned to ground were owned by black people. Media outrage? No, almost nothing, like it was acceptable collateral damage to get to the goal of Satan – anarchy which leads to much killing which leads to a dictator which leads to world control.

And to see SDA leaders playing right into Satan’s hands….it’s beyond sad. It’s evil.

I call on all us SDAs who are complicit in bowing down to the howling mob now to repent, or their end will be even worse than it was for the average Christian during the French Revolution.

Adventists can’t bring themselves to identify “Islam” as source of Sri Lankan attacks

On Easter, April 21 2019, there were several horrific bombings targeting churches in Sri Lanka. As of this writing, 321 people were murdered.

Who were they murdered by? Of course, it was by Muslim jihadists who believe in their “holy” book, the Qur’an, that commands them to “fight until all is for Allah”.

So what has this got to do with the Seventh-day Adventist Church? Well, just a few weeks ago, and white man who openly stated that Communist China was his inspiration, shot up a mosque in New Zealand, killing 49 people. The world Church was swift in denouncing the attack of terror, and gushed in several articles about how SDA leaders were reaching out to the Muslim community, praying with them, showing them love, helping them, condemning the hatred of the attacker etc. There were at least 4 articles like this in the Adventist Review.

So you would expect a similar or greater response when terror attacks are carried out on fellow Christians, wouldn’t you? Well, as of this date, there are only 2 articles about it, one a short statement from Ted Wilson where he doesn’t even mention the word “Christian”, and an article about the Sri Lankan SDA president who narrowly missed being near a hotel where some bombs went off.

The latter article is especially revolting, not mentioning “Christian” at all either, like Ted Wilson’s statement, but also pointedly refusing to mention Islam or Muslim, stating instead: “While one group has claimed responsibility for the blasts but without evidence to support the claim…” Adventist Review hates word “Islam”

Appeasement, and pretending there isn’t a problem is what led to Hitler’s rise.
Blood is on your hands, SDA Church.
Repent, and follow Jesus!
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edited to add: Seems the Hindustan Times has no problem pointing out who did the attacks in this article: “India sent three alerts to Sri Lanka before Easter Sunday attack”.

HT spoke to multiple officials in the central intelligence agencies who confirmed that the videos of Hashim, in which he exhorted Muslim youth from Sri Lanka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala to establish an Islamic rule in the region, were analysed in detail and investigated further by India’s external spy agency R&AW (Research and Analysis Wing)

Attacks were to teach non-sharia followers a lesson

That’s pretty bad when Hindus are more open and truthful about things than Seventh-day Adventist Christians!
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edited again: I can’t believe the Adventist Review approved this comment of mine regarding mentioning Muslims as the attackers!! “Why can’t we tell the truth about these terror attacks being the work of Muslims?”

NAD Statement on Shooting Deaths in Louisiana, Minnesota, and Texas

The North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists has been busy the past few years opining on every “social justice” issue that trends on Twitter. Their recent one is regarding the shooting deaths of several citizens and police officers.

As NAD has turned more and more leftward in the past 50 years, it is no wonder that their works often get featured in Huffington Post, which is the standard-bearer for leftist thought.

While the Adventist Review is a little more circumspect, editors/moderators there have a definite left slant to things, so often they remove comments that offend them.

On July 15, 2016, I read this article, and saw a truthful comment by an “Evelyn” that had surprisingly been allowed:

Seems too many of our pastors are too learned to preach the Bible and Spirit of Prophecy . Much of the sermons are more story telling than (milk) than the soul searching messages that we need to prepare us to stand in these days of the investigative judgement. And to make it worse the few who sound the warnings are marginalized , refused hiring and denied speaking engagements by the very leaders who feel sympathy for “racist acts”.

I replied to her:

Your post is powerful, Evelyn!
Seems to me, that our SDA leaders have focused on the dreaded “Religious Right” for so long, that they don’t realize they have been almost totally bamboozled by the “Irreligious Left”.

which got removed.

My takeaway is that our church really is in bed deep with the Irreligious Left, and likes that to be kept quiet.

May we pray for our Church leaders to repent, and follow the example given by our lovely Saviour – Jesus Christ.