I Came Out Today

As some of you know, I teach a Bible study every Tuesday afternoon at the house of a friend and fellow Church member, and have been for over six years now.

For the past ten years I have been studying the doctrines of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and have, (through much prayer) come to believe their way. Not that there is that much difference from the doctrines of the church I am going to at the moment, but there are some, not the least of which is that the SDA Church worships on Saturday, (The Biblical Sabbath), plus a few other little things that are not really consequential to ones salvation, but to some in the church, a few of these little things could be construed as heresy. So for the past eight years, you might say that I have been living as a "Closet Seventh Day Adventist". That is until today.

Some weeks ago we started studying the book of Revelation. I knew it would be difficult, and I knew there were places in Revelation where I would have to declare my belief or lie to those in the class by saying that I believed something else.
I used the Bible as it's own interpreter, and presented my case. At the same time, making it clear that they did not have to believe the way I did, knowing they had been taught something else all their christian lives, though I did think that I had presented a pretty good case.

I told them that if they thought I was teaching heresy, they could fire me as their teacher, or they could report to our Pastor that I was teaching heresy, but to my surprise they thought that was funny, and said, "No way was I ever going to be fired", in fact at least two people agreed with my theology.

I then told them that my beliefs were those of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and I got another surprise when everyone told me what a great Bible study it was, as my wife and I left to go home.

Now you might be saying, "If you are a Seventh Day Adventist, why aren't you going to one of their Churches"? The answer is, the nearest church is a little over twenty miles away from my house, and my social security check doesn't stretch too far with gas prices the way they are.

I really feel a lot better now that it's all out in the open, but now I still have my Sunday School Class to face, and I'm sure they will all know about it by Sunday. We shall see. I'm not too concerned though, because I've talked it over with the One who really matters.