What Seventh Day Adventists are not

I will try to correct some erronous statements that have recently been made about the Seventh day Adventist Movement and the assumptions they have produced . What prompted me to express myself on this issue is the article titled:

"BEN CARSON'S CHURCH BELIEVES THE U.S. GOVERNMENT WILL TEAM UP WITH THE ANTICHRIST", 

by Jay Michaelson in The Daily Beast, yesterday.  Since October 27, 2015, the Seventh day Adventist name has been a hot button issue.  Frankly, I recognize that the current situation started about two weeks ago, when Presidential Candidate Ben Carson questioned fellow Republican, Donald Trump's Christianity as a Presbyterian.  Last Sunday, on the Morning's Talk Shows, Donald Trump stated that he knew nothing about Seventh day Adventists, which Ben Carson is purported to be.  Everyday this past week Ben Carson and Adventists have in the headlines on the airwaves and in cyberspace.

Let me start by correcting a few inaccuracies and misrepresentations, I read in the Jay Michaelson article previously mentioned:

The Seventh day Adventists do not normally speak about an Antichrist as several denominations are used to doing. That is a term used by the likes of Hal Lindsey and the authors of the Left Behind Series.  Instead, Adventists (I will use to refer to Seventh day Adventists for simplicity's sake), speak of the Beast, the Image of the Beast (or the Second Beast of Revelation 13), and the Mark of the Beast; these titles are used quite frequently.  Adventist sometimes refer to the Man of Sin or the Son of Perdition, these are the same person and represent the Bishop of Rome or Pope.  The term Antichrist appears only 4 times in the Bible, and refer to anyone who denies that Jesus has come in the flesh; therefore several religious (or atheistic) people, and their religions fit that category and can be considered to be Antichrist.

Secondly, Jay Michaelson remarked that a prominent Adventist pioneer said that Christ had come in a certain sense in 1844.  Michaelson must be confusing Adventists with another denomination;  Ellen G. White, James White, or their peers never mentioned any such thing.  October 22, 1844, was the date on which Jesus Christ entered the Most Holy Place, or Holy of Holies of the Sanctuary in Heaven, where He is officiating presently as our High Priest.  Also, the Investigative Judgement of the dead began on that date.  In regards to the Adventist belief that the dead are in a form of sleep, that is true;  And by the way, no, Hell is not a place that people are burning eternally.  Hell as it's referred to in most Bible passages (Sheol) means the grave, because there is no life after death unless the Lord resurrects when He returns in the clouds in Triumphant Glory with millions of angels.  The wicked (unrepentant) will be consumed with fire, but will not burn for ever. God is love, not a sadistic tyrant.

Jay Michaelson mentioned a "Messianic Fervor" as a form of ridicule, when he described the spiritual revival of the 19th century.

Does anyone dare criticize Hasidic Jews as having a Masiachic Delirium over their religious beliefs in the Torah? Speaking of fanaticism, Adventists are not Branch Davidians, or the Shepherd's Rod who sometimes people confuse with the denomination.   Most Adventists are pacifists, they are not fanatics, subversives, anarchists, or militants.

In fact they normally do not fight wars, are conscientious objectors in times of conflict.  Adventists are peace loving people, but, are avid students of prophecy. Desmond Doss, an Adventist, was a famous and highly decorated American Medic during World War II, he would not fight, but saved many of his fellow soldier's lives.

Operation White Coat was a Department of Defense Medical Experiment Program in which thousands of Adventists willing participated in (were experimented on) during the 1950-1960s.

Now, let me point out what Adventist do believe.  They believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the Harlot of Babylon, the Papacy is the Beast, which the Harlot rides, and the Pope is the Son of Perdition and the Man of Sin;  The Mark of the Beast (the Papacy) "will" be Sunday worship. And the Adventist believe the Lord God Almighty created everything there is and rested on the Seventh Day, and made it Holy, it was the first HOLYDAY, which is still in effect 6 Thousand years later.

In Conclusion, Jay Michaelson was partially right in one point, and right on point in another instance.  The United States will join hands with the Papacy (we saw a preview of this fact during the Pope's barnstorm {Dry Run} visit to Washington, New York, and Philadelphia), to enforce Universal Sunday Rest Laws perhaps under a Climate Change pretext.  America's Evangelicals (previously Protestants) and Catholics will first dissolve the Separation between Church and State and form a bond with the government to legislate the country back to prosperity, back to church, back to the good old days.

This Church/State hybrid will then enforce laws that will violate the Constitution and impinge on the people's consciences.  Eventually, the U.S. politico-clerical conglomerate, the bulk of nonbelievers, animists, pagans, and the Papacy will join forces to persecute anyone who will not conform to this Universal Religion World Government.  This is when anyone who refuses to rest on Sunday, the Mark of the Beast, will be persecuted, also won't be able to buy or sell.

Finally, what in Heaven's name is a God fearing Prophecy knowing peaceful Conscientious Objector doing running for president?  I guess Dr. Ben Carson didn't see what happened to John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X Little, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy?

I don't claim to be a spokesperson for the denomination; but just ask around to see if I stated something contrary to the Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh day Adventists.

Arsenio A. Lembert Jr.

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P.S.
The Adventist Denomination is a Sect?
What then is an idol worshiping, repititious prayer, celibate clergy who are called "father", Multi-billion dollar church/state, a mainstream religion?

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