Free SDA

[newbie]

Have you heard of Free SDA church?  Are they safe?  Are they an offshoot?
I have a friend that is interested

[Listen]

Check out their web site, freesda.org  Here is an excerpt.  The whole history is interesting.

Free Seventh-day Adventists find their roots in the formative years of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. They started from very humble beginnings in the early 1900s in a period when segregation and racism was widely practiced in the United States of America and most of its members were people of color and Hispanics or latinos. Since that time, much has changed. Today, the Free Seventh-day Adventist movement is an international body consisting of a multiracial network of Seventh-day Adventist believers who desire to maintain and advance the original beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist faith.
In modern times, this now interracial movement continues to forge forward with a much greater zeal and determination to promote the original teachings of the pioneers of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, at a time when many of the original beliefs, worship style, and practices are being compromised by the established Seventh-day Adventist Church.

There is only one in my state and too far to visit.  I have heard good about them and wanted to check it out for myself but am not able.

[V. Hahn]

I would be careful though.  It is an offshoot if it is not part of the official Seventh-day Adventist denomination.  Satan wants most of all to bring faithful members out of our denomination.  We must stay with the ship.  We are promised it will go through!

I know it can be discouraging because so many of our churches/members are straying from what they should be doing.  But why do you think Satan is attacking our churches so much if it is on a downward spiral from which there is no turning back? He attacks it because he knows this is God's church. 

We know the wheat and the tares will grow together.  Read Matthew 13:24-30.  Also read Last Day Events, p. 52 "God Will Set Everything in Order."  (For some reason I can't cut and paste on this computer, or I would post those quotes.)

[restoretruth]

I would be careful though.  It is an offshoot if it is not part of the official Seventh-day Adventist denomination.  Satan wants most of all to bring faithful members out of our denomination.  We must stay with the ship.  We are promised it will go through!

I know it can be discouraging because so many of our churches/members are straying from what they should be doing.  But why do you think Satan is attacking our churches so much if it is on a downward spiral from which there is no turning back? He attacks it because he knows this is God's church. 

We know the wheat and the tares will grow together.  Read Matthew 13:24-30.  Also read Last Day Events, p. 52 "God Will Set Everything in Order."  (For some reason I can't cut and paste on this computer, or I would post those quotes.)

Good counsel, Viki! Hope you get your computer working right! Have you used the internet to troubleshoot computer problems?

Here are your quotes you wanted to post:

Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 

But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. 

So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares? 
He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? 

But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. 

Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn. Mat 13:24-30 

  God Will Set Everything in Order

There is no need to doubt, to be fearful that the work will not succeed. God is at the head of the work, and He will set everything in order. If matters need adjusting at the head of the work God will attend to that, and work to right every wrong. Let us have faith that God is going to carry the noble ship which bears the people of God safely into port.--2SM 390 (1892).  {LDE 52.1}
 
Has God no living church? He has a church, but it is the church militant, not the church triumphant. We are sorry that there are defective members, that there are tares amid the wheat. . . . Although there are evils existing in the church, and will be until the end of the world, the church in these last days is to be the light of the world that is polluted and demoralized by sin. The church, enfeebled and defective, needing to be reproved, warned, and counseled, is the only object upon earth upon which Christ bestows His supreme regard.--TM 45, 49 (1893).  {LDE 52.2}
 
The bulwarks of Satan will never triumph. Victory will attend the third angel's message. As the Captain of the Lord's host tore down the walls of Jericho, so will the Lord's commandment-keeping people triumph, and all opposing elements be defeated.--TM 410 (1898).  {LDE 52.3} 

[restoretruth]

Check out their web site, freesda.org  Here is an excerpt.  The whole history is interesting.
...
There is only one in my state and too far to visit.  I have heard good about them and wanted to check it out for myself but am not able.

The Oregon church listed on that website is in Milwaukie, OR. They are meeting in the “old, old” Milwaukie SDA church – that was sold many years ago. When it was sold, the church moved into their new church, (a very nice church with a lot of donated labor, including some very nice cabinet work done by relatives of a person who posts on this forum). That church was sold after it became a “celebration church” & became “too small”. So, they sold it & rented space in a very large church that sets across I 205 from Clackamas Town Center. That lasted for a few years while they were building a new, larger church in Milwaukie. There was some discord in the church & it starting splitting apart even before the 2nd new church was finished. The Milwaukie church was disbanded & the new church building sold.

 I have a personal interest in the history of the Milwaukie church. I attended the “old, old” church between the ages of 5 & 12 years old, before we moved to Humbolt County in Northern California. We were at the dedication of the 1st new church, visited the Celebration church a couple of times & visited the last new church that had to be sold. Now that we live in the area again, we drive by these churches often & I fell very sad, thinking about what might have been!

I will visit this church some time out of curiosity & give you as report. Also, I am very interested to know if they still have that old flush toilet in the men’s room, where the tank sits high on the wall & is flushed by pulling on a chain. That really fascinated me as a five-year old!


Back to a serious note:
We don’t have to look far to see the problems that exist in the church & to understand why there are many that form home churches or look for a church family to join that are actively working for the salvation of others & who are for preparing for Jesus’ soon coming!

Perhaps the solution is to accept the challenge at hand: pray, study, give Bible studies, witness, seek the early rain of the Holy Spirit that prepares one for the latter rain. I am convinced that the Holy Spirit will draw many like-minded believers together in small support groups to evangelize our neighbors & our non-believing friends or family members! Jesus is coming soon!

[Ed Sutton]

  http://www.freesda.org/history/freesdabeginnings.html 

My son has personally investigated them, and has found them to have remained faithful and as close to the original denomination as they could get despite human prejudices and bad treatment over the years.  They seem to like SOP better than the NAD SDA Churches, and they were forced out and had to band together to survive.

When the great conflagration hits and all the brick & mortar churches and offices & officers are gone, maybe they will know how to survive.  We might not know how to survive those circumstances.  Something to consider.

[Listen]

It is always good to be careful of different groups but going to an SDA church is no guarantee of not hearing error.  There is much error and apostasy in SDA churches that believe Jesus died to save us in not from our sins.  I get so wearied of the pablum sermons I hear every week. 

The Milwaukie church is where I would visit if able so will be interested in hearing a report on it. 

When the great conflagration hits and all the brick & mortar churches and offices & officers are gone, maybe they will know how to survive.  We might not know how to survive those circumstances.  Something to consider.

Good point, Ed.

[Raven]

I would be careful though.  It is an offshoot if it is not part of the official Seventh-day Adventist denomination.  Satan wants most of all to bring faithful members out of our denomination.  We must stay with the ship.  We are promised it will go through!

I know it can be discouraging because so many of our churches/members are straying from what they should be doing.  But why do you think Satan is attacking our churches so much if it is on a downward spiral from which there is no turning back? He attacks it because he knows this is God's church. 

Good points, Vicki.  Most of the church in Christ's day were out of harmony with truth, especially present truth, but Jesus attended the synagogue every Sabbath.  He must have heard some bad sermons along the way.  How can we be salt and light if we jump ship?  I will follow Walter Veith's counsel and glue my posterior to the pew. 

[newbie]

thank you all for your information...

waiting to see if anyone goes to check it out first hand...

there is one about 2 hours from me...it's a long drive