Grew up being raised by SDA grandparents. JW Parents regained custody from three yrs old to five yrs of age when I was returned to grandparents by father. My impression of JW religion was that it was based on a very ignorant interpretation of scripture. It's really a nasty religion that creates a culture of finger pointing and vicious interpersonal politics so as a five year old I was happy to be back with my grandparents but that feeling changed the older I got.
Adventism is also cult like in it's approach to religious doctrine. Their revered church prophet frequently clashed with anyone who disagreed with her and would openly condemn her detractors as heretics.
By my teen years I began to have questions of my own so around twenty I was sort of taking her writings with a grain of salt.
By thirty I was having heated arguments with others at church and I just stopped going. Reading scripture on my own crystallized my views as church hypocrisy became more obvious.
At 45 I got my first computer and started researching church history with particular attention on E. G. White. Like the founders of Mormonism and JW i found her to be a complete fraud propped up and used by the emerging SDA church for their own agenda. Within a few months I was openly sharing my findings with relatives who were not pleased to say the least.
"Reading scripture on my own crystallized my views as church hypocrisy became more obvious."
You are not alone by any means. The deceptions of established denominations are many. At the present moment I don't want to give a long diatribe of my disagreements with the church, but all I will say is reading scripture and using Strong's Concordance for the original Greek translation helps immensely in understanding it. The Hebrew is 'okay' to use, but checking it against the Greek helps for better insight.
True on all points. You could write a huge book on all the bullshit doctrines the churches shovel into the itchy ears of their believers.
Just one topic alone caused me to take a deep breath when I noticed. Tithing which is the bread and butter of most every church is a huge scam.
First off, tithing was by land owners and businesses. A tenth "of all thine increase" was the standard. It was never meant for the laboring poor who relied on their daily wage to survive.
Next, the tithe went directly to the local synagogue, where one tenth of the tithe was sent on to the temple in Jerusalem. This is important for at least a couple of reasons. First, the system was by nature decentralized. A hierarchy of control over who got what could not be imposed from Jerusalem. Second, if God were to bless the religion, he could do that directly by creating bountiful harvests and prospering business efforts.
Compare that to the way the Adventist church operates. Monies collected from the wages of the congregation is all sent to headquarters from which all pastors and workers are paid. Fall out of favor with church and get "defrocked". The checks stop and the local congregation has no say in the matter.
Suppose a local group takes up donations and builds a church. They want to be SDA. To use the church name they must donate the building to the church. Failing to do that results in an expensive lawsuit and injunction. Parishioners who have defied the wishes of the church have arrived on Saturday morning to find the doors locked, the pastor and all the people evicted and told to go kick rocks. Not very Christlike if you ask me.
"Reading scripture on my own crystallized my views as church hypocrisy became more obvious."
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