I started listening to a series on YouTube done by an ex-7th Day Adventist, and I couldn't believe how similar their experiences are to ours. If you visit an ex-JW forum, you find the same sort of thing.

It's funny that when you're in an organization like this, you truly believe that you're a part of something where there's nothing else like it on earth. It's shocking to realize that Mormonism is simply one of them. Not THE anything.

I wrote down some points that this guy said about the Adventists:

- They have the one and only true church.
- They have a superiority complex.
- Others not of the church are Gentiles.
- They are the Elite of the earth. They have present-day truths that other people on Earth do not have.
- One day of the Lord equals one year in our time.
- They will be judged by their works. By their works, they will be written in the Book of Heaven.
- Sins not repented of will not be pardoned and will stand as a witness against that person on the day of Judgment.
- No matter how hard you work, it’s never enough. You can never be good enough.
- They just want to get people into the organization, and indoctrinate them, in order to receive their tithing.
- They desperately want to be considered to be evangelical Christians.
- If people no longer believe in the words of Ellen White, they can be ex’d or asked to resign. They must choose between the words of Ellen White, or the Bible.
- They can be shunned if they are suspected of apostacy. - - Church members will attack their character, call them a demon, etc.
- They cannot leave the Adventist Church and still be considered to be Christian.
- There are 27 points of doctrine.
- A Saturday Sabbath marks the people of God. That’s the seal of God, which is the Holy Spirit. Sunday worshipers are the mark of the beast.
- The Church attempts to cover up the truth of Ellen White’s lies, and their history.
- Mrs. White’s writings are not of human origin. She has authority from God. She receives inspiration as a prophet. She was as the prophets of old. She wrote in the English language so that they were not confronted with the problems of translation.
- If there’s an argument over doctrine, the definitive answer will always be from an Ellen White quote, rather than from the Bible.
- She added to the Bible.
- She contradicted herself, she plagiarized a lot in her writings, and she made predictions which did not come true.
- She said the Tower of Babel was built before the Flood. The church corrected her mistake in later editions.
- They are taught to become perfect in Christ. They must perfectly obey the law. They must perfectly overcome their sins. The people become discouraged and tend to drift away from Adventism. They don’t tend to attend other Christian churches. They just leave religion instead.
- True-blue Adventists will not look at, or listen to, anti-Adventist truths.

Now I'm listening to a lady who is talking about Reiki - how you get indoctrinated, how you're told that you're special, etc.

It's all the same.

I am somewhat familiar with the Adventists church. But what exactly does this religion consider a sin. Can you have premarital sex? I assume theirs no food or drink restrictions. And how much is their tithing?

They didn't mention in the videos I was watching how much their tithing is. They did mention that the founder taught very strongly against masturbation, and Adventists are supposed to be vegetarians.

Wow. well great article. This church is pretty similar to TSCC. Still I think I might rather be an Aventists rather than a mormon. Or better yet neither.

I had a boss that is SDA. I worked with him for about 17 years. He was an asshole. He was just has bad has the worst mormon you could meet. I can not stand there cult any more then the one we left. I really can not say witch one is the worse.

I was just really startled by the similarities. I've realized that they're all the same.

In his book "Insiders Veiw..." he mentions that in the 1980's they discovered that Whites works were all forgeries. Subsequently, they began to morph into a more typical Christian denomination. He compared them to the RLDS/Community of Christ's efforts to do the same after accepting the truths about their own history with JS.

I don't really know much more than that, but the points you made look very much like the LDS church in many ways. It's always interesting how much various churches have in common, especially those on the fringes.

I listened to a Catholic sermon once and I was so shocked at how similar it was to Mormon thinking. It was all about how they were the right church. I swear I could have printed it out, changed a few key words such as "Catholic" and "pope," given it to some TBMs, and they would have thought it was a conference talk. It was kind of eerie to realize that all these religions are not that different. On an atheist/agnostic forum I belong to, I have been very surprised at the similarities in stories there too. They mostly talk about fundamentalist Christianity.

As for the Adventists, when I was in high school, I took a world religions class and a minister from the Seventh Day Adventists came to talk to the class. He said he went to Mormon church when he was young and thought it was too quiet.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/18/2010 11:32PM by Apatheist.

Yep, controlling, abusive religions tend to be very similar to each other under the superficial differences. :)

I was raised in the Christian church but am now a Mormon. I'm actually very happy in the church, even though I know the truth about it. I went into it after reading here thoroughly and still felt it was right for me. Why? Crazy as it seems,because I was so hurt/jaded from the mainstream Christian church but also missed it on some levels. I wanted to distance myself from that but still find a way to be spiritual. I have my own relationship with God and take bits and pieces from the Mormon church as well. Weird, I know, and please don't flame me, but that's my story.

Like Buddhism and Hinduism, as well as more moderate christian thingies. Choose one that is welcoming, not cultish, and cheaper than mormonism.

Hummm.....doesn't the pressure to conform and comply with all the demands and subjecting yourself to teachings you know to be false every week of the Church irrate you?

I know that I also was able to sift out the spiritually in all the messages that they taught, because that’s me, but in the end I found I could not support or be counted a member of an organization that was so exploitive of the it’s members in general and how much it’s teachings hurt those innocents who literally believed and were killing themselves trying to please and conform to the false teaching.

In the end for the weaker spirits of the church, the Church was destroying their natural spiritual gifts and replacing it with religion. That I can’t abide.

Only the stronger, more mature and in tune with God get out, meaning that honesty and integrity come first, confident in the knowledge that God would not want them to support or participate in such a fraudulant organization.

I know I now come off as arrogant; but that’s were I stand on this issue now.

I don't think I would be able to give at least 10% of my money to an organization that I knew was willingly defrauding me.

I know it's odd, and I see your points. For me....I like the focus on family, and I like the structure of the church. Also, I've found that the people in my ward (I'm in the south) are some of the nicest, most giving people I've ever met. However, I'm only moderately involved. I don't tithe, and I have no intention of going to the temple. They pretty much just leave me alone and let me do my thing.

It's really hard for me to keep my mouth shut about my feelings. I'm an Aspie (Asperger's) and we sometimes find it hard not to just say what we're thinking. I simply couldn't pull it off. LOL

But yeah, I sometimes miss my social connections a lot, and wish I could go just to see them and visit with them.

But I know I can't, and probably shouldn't.