#Seventh Day Adventist

[marabarl-and-marlbara]

ellen g white, modern prophet of the SDA, again

[spurgie-cousin]

if you're still interested in seventh day adventists, knowing better on youtube just put out a nearly three hour video on their history. i'm about two hours in and have found it really interesting.

i will check that out, thank you for the recommendation!! i'm definitely still interested, but because they're a smaller church it's definitely been a little bit harder to find ex-SDA stuff just compared to some other groups.

[magicaldogtoto]

Long video (about three hours), but this is an interesting outsider's look at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, aka the church denomination I grew up in.

I still frequent Adventist circles due to most of my family and friends coming from the same community, though my friends and I have a... complicated relationship with the church (degrees of complication vary from person to person). I still have memories of being told that someday the government will break into our home and kill my parents while I have to run to the mountains and hide, waiting for the world to end. A lot of my parents' friends still bemoan the need to get out of LA and move to the desert because the government is going to start hunting Christians for sport at some point. There was a general sense in my parents' church during 2020 of "We should wear masks and socially distance, but also this is the United Nation's latest step in taking over the world." (The church owns numerous hospitals and medical facilities here in California, by the way.)

Funnily enough, what happened in Waco, TX was never brought up in my time going through the Adventist school system (I got out in college; if I had stayed, I theoretically could have spent my whole life from school to work in the church in some capacity).

Fun fact, if you ever keep track of my OCs and they mention being Christian, it's most likely this type of Christian. How much that affects them depends on how much I want to address things in my writing.

[carriedbychrist]

In this Agape Revealed video, I explore the Fall of Man. Through this, we learn about who our enemy is. This series will challenge what you know about God.

[that-cunning-witch]

Seventh Day Adventists want to be Jewish so bad but the SDA isn't ready to hear that

[apenitentialprayer]

Atheistic Repression and Protestant Flowering in the Soviet Union

Yaroslavsky set out to demonstrate the [Atheist] League's achievements by including a religious question in the 1937 census. The results were disastrous for the future of the League of Militant Atheists, which was disbanded in 1941, and religious survey questions never reappeared in subsequent Soviet censuses. Although no detailed results from the 1937 census can be reported because data analysis was quickly aborted, Soviet documents indicate that just over 56 percent of the population admitted to being religious believers. Yaroslavsky also ambiguously maintained that most (around two-thirds) of the religious believers resided in rural areas. These crude results indicate a dramatic drop in religiosity when one considers that in 1900 nearly 100 percent of people that lived in regions that would eventually constitute the Soviet Union were religious believers. Regardless, Yaroslavsky and Stalin viewed the number of atheist converts (even with probable inflation) as unsuccessful. The findings were disappointing because the "science" of atheism had predicted a different outcome. Communists expected individuals to abandon religion with fervor. As it turns out, Russians did leave the Russian Orthodox Church in droves but did not abandon religion at the same rate. In 1900, non-Orthodox Christian groups represented around 10 percent of the Russian population. These groups included Baptists, Evangelicals, Flagellants, Mennonites, Old Believers, Pentecostals, and Tolstoyans, to name a few that were most visible at the beginning of the 20th century. By mid century and toward the end of the Soviet era, Hare Krishnas, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and various "charismatic" sects entered the religious landscape. Quite interestingly, data confirm that while membership in the Russian Orthodox Church declined under communism, Protestants and various Christian sects slowly proselytized new members. From 1900 to 1970, the percent of non-Orthodox Christians (not including Roman Catholics) went from 11 to 31 percent of the Russian population. Small proselytizing groups partially thrived under communism because they continued to seek converts while being savy to the dangers of religious expression. Prior to the revolution, the Tsarist regime effectively banned many of the small religious sects and cults while actively promoting the dominance of the Russian Orthodox Church. Nondominate religious groups throughout Russia were accustomed to religious repression even before the rise of the Communist Party and the ubiquitous promotion of scientific atheism. Active religious sects developed tactics to recruit and retain members under conditions of repression in pre-Soviet times.

- Paul Froese ("Forced Secularization in Soviet Russia: Why an Atheistic Monopoly Failed")

[throughthelens89]

"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching."

Hebrews 10:24-25

[tajcox]

[msnikkimoneypenny]

I feel like single seventh day Adventist women need a support group for us.

Dating culture is hard for us.

[marabarl-and-marlbara]

ellen g white, modern prophet of the SDA

[spurgie-cousin]

An SDA founded Kellogg cereals in the US and the church has also owned/produced multiple vegetarian food brands. They aren’t as popular as Kelloggs but I grew up in an area with a large number of SDAs and you could find their products in some normal grocery stores in addition to the SDA owned stores. They were originally called sanitarium food company here and also owned by the Kellogg company at one time, but now known as La Loma or Loma Linda foods.

I always get the Kelloggs and Quaker Oats guys mixed up tbh. I remembered that corn flakes were invented to suppress libidos lol but I always think of John Harvey Kellogg as a quaker. But then Quaker Oats wasn't even founded by Quakers, they just used the imagery to try and establish trust with customers 😭

That is so interesting, though. This ask sent me down a few rabbit holes, and I guess SDA also owns the brand that produces Little Debbie snack cakes, which is a huuuuge brand here in the US (the company is McKee foods and they bought out the Hostess-affiliated producer of Little Debbie on the 2010s). And then, in addition to Sanitarium, they own a soy milk/vegetarian food company in South Korea.

It reminds me of the FLDS and other fundamentalist mormon groups, and how they have their hands and money in a lot of business sectors that most Americans don't know about. I'm not sure if SDA is like this, but they also make members (adults and minors) do a lot of unpaid labor for these businesses, sometimes illegally transporting them across the country for extended periods of time. Which is considered trafficking (the FLDS at one time were considered the single biggest domestic traffickers in North America) so they're always under investigation, but for cults that is such a common thing, I wouldn't be surprised to learn SDA does it too.

[tenth-sentence]

Seemingly the FBI didn't consider that an outfit that had stockpiled military-grade weapons and military-issue food rations might possibly have also stockpiled gas masks, but live and learn, right?

"Zealot: A Book About Cults" - Jo Thornely

[carriedbychrist]

In this Agape Revealed video, I explore the first seven days of Earth. Through this, we learn about who our Creator is. This series will challenge what you know about God.

[that-cunning-witch]

Spitballing here. As someone who grew up Christian, I was severely disappointed that whenever I prayed to Jesus that my prayers were never answered.

Now (mostly) healed from my religious trauma, I kind of had an a-ha moment. What if Jesus doesn't answer prayers from those who don't worship Him/His religion correctly?

I DO NOT mean what day one worships Him or how one is baptized or what version of the Bible is read. What I DO MEAN is how one uses the religion of Jesus. Do you better yourself, others, and the world? Or do you use it as an excuse to be bigoted and a piece of shit?

I was raised through the SDA (Seventh Day Adventists) sect where we're taught that gay marriage is a sin, trans people are p3d0s, Catholics and Jews are inherently wrong, people of color are inferior, modern medicine is always wrong, etc.

Because of these beliefs and the fact I was indoctrinated (I use this term bc I truly believe that SDA is a cult), I too was a piece of shit during that part of my life. It's vulnerable to admit this as the internet likes to hold people accountable to an extreme, but when I was younger, I absolutely was homophobic, transphobic, racist, and all of that.

So no wonder Jesus never answered my prayers or the prayers of my relatives and the prayers of the church I attended. It seemed as though nothing was ever done because none of our prayers were ever answered. Because we were using Jesus as an excuse to be terrible and horrible human beings.

At least, that's my take on it. What are other people's thoughts on this?

If I said something incorrectly or something needs to be clarified or said better, please let me know.

TLDR: I am NOT saying that Christianity as a whole is invalid. I'm saying that my current theory is that Jesus/God doesn't answer prayers or stay active in the churches, sects, and people who use Him and His words to hurt others. Jesus invalidates the Christianity that is used incorrectly and supports the Christianity that is used correctly. And my definition of correct/incorrect is on moral standings (bigotry, homophobia, transphobia, racism, etc.) and not differences in religious practices.

[protestantdenominationpoll]

Submission Form

I think most of y'all kinda know the drill here. Submit as many denominations as you want (INDIVIDUALLY), but don't spam the form.

This poll is for PROTESTANT denominations and sub-denominations. Do not submit catholicism, JWs, or Mormons. This poll can also include "non-denominational" organizations so long as they have multiple churches and a distinct interpretation of faith. For example, the IBLP and the New Independent Fundamentalist Baptists can be submitted.

You can also submit denominations just because they suck and you want to see them beaten into the ground.

Here's the link. I'll be taking Top 32 make it into the bracket. The submission form will remain open until I feel that response is sufficient (so probably like 2000 responses).

[thebrandondowning]

UP NEXT (2023), 4 ½" x 7"