Adventism

Yeah.

So Adventism was a mild form of apocalyptic religion.

And it got started by a Freemason, William Miller.

And in 1843, his first set of prophecies fell flat.

So I started studying, and I studied all the beliefs.

I spent two years studying everything to disprove it, to disprove Adventism.

I read everything against it.

I read everything for it.

For the last 50 years, there's not been one single Adventist pastor, not one single Adventist administrator in no known Seventh-day Adventist church in the country of Libya.

It's been completely closed to Adventism, and there's no way to get in except the right arm.

and so first place they took us so we got dropped off at the hotel after getting like three hours of sleep the night before and flying all night we had an hour at our hotel to get cleaned up and they took us straight over to the ministry of health which is a nice new building we sat down with the minister he welcomed us he said you guys are the first and largest delegations of america's americans that we've had in this country and we're so grateful that you came And Hani Shanib, who is the guy that has the burden to see a heart program established back in his country.

He's a secular Muslim.

1830, the very year.

Seventh-day Adventism.

1830s.

This

And Late October seems like a good time to talk about this as we are coming up on Halloween.

And it seems like generally, but especially around this time of year, we get a lot of messages within conservative Christian culture, including Adventism, about avoiding dangerous or occult or pagan practices.

And I personally have been hearing these messages my whole life, warnings about spiritualism, about going to psychics, about reading your horoscope, even things as benign as going to a yoga class.

And when I think about the list of things that I've been told are dangerous, it includes everything from going to a fortune teller, having your palm read, using tarot cards, believing in ghosts, going to seances, using a Ouija board, casting spells, following astrology or horoscopes, playing Dungeons and Dragons, setting intentions or manifesting, using or wearing crystals, doing yoga, meditating, and of course, dressing up for Halloween.

So I don't remember any stigma, you know, even in church or church school around Halloween when I was a kid.

I feel like a lot of that, and I'm glad to hear in Sophia's childhood it also wasn't, but I know there certainly are a lot of places where the experience is a lot more like yours, Natalie, with a lot of scary messaging for kids around Halloween.

I feel like a lot of that came around both in Adventism and in conservative Christianity generally in the 80s with the Satanic Panic.

So much of this, you know, yes, children are being kidnapped and sacrificed for satanic rituals and all this, you know, demon possession hype.

God's remnant.

We like to think that Everything, and especially this happens, you know, when you come into Adventism and you think you've come into the perfect church, right? And people can get disappointed.

And I'm not making excuses here, because we need to demonstrate and live the character of Christ.

But in the Old Testament, the remnant wasn't perfect, but God was using them to restore true worship.