AdventHealth, formerly known as Adventist Health Systems, has been a part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church since 1981, when it was founded to carry out the church’s mission. [1] Regrettably, some revolting practices have become entrenched in the church today. These situations will only grow and influence others if they are not removed as soon as possible. What more fundamental principle does a Seventh-day Adventist have than to safeguard and keep holy God’s Sabbath? Unfortunately, some in Adventism do not regard the Sabbath with the reverence that God commands in His word.
AdventHealth is conducting a sweepstakes, which is a type of contest and/or gambling, to encourage people to compete to win a prize and to ultimately promote a product or an event. What is the event in this particular case? It’s a Friday night basketball game. AdventHealth’s sweepstakes winner will receive “tickets, food, beverages, a parking pass, and two Orlando Magic player bobbleheads,” with a “total approximate retail value of $735.” The tickets are for the Orlando Magic vs. Toronto Raptors game scheduled on Friday night, April 1, 2022, at 7:00 p.m. [2]
In other words, AdventHealth will send a few lucky winners to the Orlando Magic basketball game, which will be held during the holy Sabbath hours. How do we teach people about the sacredness of the Sabbath when we send them to violate its precious hours? How can we present the sealing message, which is the keeping of the Sabbath during the mark of the beast, when church entities openly promote the violation of the seventh-day Sabbath through worldly sports entertainment? It is impossible for God to bestow His blessing on us while we promote the sounds of cheers, applause, music, sports, festivities, worldly commerce and secular activities on the Lord’s sacred Sabbath.
In the image above, we can see AdventHealth using Facebook ads to heavily promote tickets to an upcoming Friday night basketball game. This is the new Sabbath-breaking evangelism. As a result of their corporate partnerships with professional sports teams [3], AdventHealth has become part of the worldly culture as they are now promoting the Sabbath basketball games of their business associates instead of defending God’s law and the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist faith. [4]
Godless subjectivism is sweeping through Adventism, as our institutions are run by woke modernists who have no interest in safeguarding the hours of the Sabbath. This is something the church cannot accept or support, and if we continue to remain silent in the face of such blatant disobedience, others will be influenced to break God’s commandments as well. This is not the time for the church to lower God’s moral standards; rather, it is the time to raise them so that others can learn about God’s seventh-day Sabbath and His final warning message.
“We must firmly refuse to be drawn away from the platform of eternal truth, which since 1844 has stood the test. I am instructed to speak plainly. ‘Meet it,’ is the word spoken to me. ‘Meet it firmly, and without delay.'” (Selected Messages, Book 1, pp. 199, 200).
In Selected Messages, Book 1, Chapter 24, we are are told to oppose any revisions or deviations from the truth. “Meet it firmly,” is God’s command. Sin and apostasy should be dealt with swiftly and decisively, but the current leadership is refusing to do anything. As a result, the number of instances of the Sabbath being openly violated grows with each passing year. AdventHealth is only this culmination of the scandal and not the beginning.
If we don’t do anything about this situation, which is arguably one of the worst examples of the truth of God being trampled, then when will we ever do anything? What will it take to turn this deplorable situation around? Will it be necessary to install new people in positions of trust who are going to be faithful? Will the current leadership experience a miraculous, overnight conversion? Or will they stick to their “business as usual” approach? Well, here is what God predicts will happen if nothing changes. In the same book, Selected Messages, Book 1, Chapter 25, we are warned:
“The Sabbath of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure” (1 SM 204, 205).
Sources
[1] https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=20139 [2] https://www.infinitesweeps.com/sweepstake/230139-Advent-Health-Orlando-Magic-Basketball.html [3] http://adventmessenger.org/adventists-are-spending-millions-of-dollars-on-naming-rights-contracts-with-major-sports-teams/ [4] https://www.adventhealth.com/hospital/adventhealth-orlando/blog/3-ways-get-excited-about-orlando-magic-season
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Mark 9:43-48 tells us to cast off the offending members lest they prevent us from entering into the kingdom of heaven. Though I’m sure there are a few literal cases, I’d hazard a guess that the eye, hand and foot were more metaphorical, perhaps even with multiple meanings. However, if as pertaining to the body of the church, perhaps this is to mean impotent depts such as PARL or associations with other non commandment keeping entities such as adventhealth.
3T,267.1 Those who receive the pure mark of truth,wrought in them by the power of the Holy Ghost,represented by a Mark by the man in linen, are those ” that sigh and that cry for the abominations that be done in the church.Ezekiel 9:4. 5T,212.3 The seal of God will be placed upon the foreheads of those ONLY who sigh and cry for the abominations done in the land.
I have been a Seventh-day Adventist since 1985, but recently I have seen some subtle pulling-away-from everything we’ve been taught, and now this…which is the second thing I’ve seen that isn’t so subtle at all. You cannot have it both ways. The Sabbath either starts at sunset or it doesn’t. It either starts on Friday or it doesn’t. It’s a holy time without secular activities or it isn’t. And…isn’t there a little something about gambling in the Doctrines? The time has come for me to “fish or cut bait.” For the past 14 months, I have been attending a Messianic synagogue, which started as a temporary worship solution while my own Church was closed for covid…but I’m still here. It’s time for me to withdraw my SDA membership and be immersed as a Messianic Jewish believer in Yeshua.
The waters maybe turbulent but hold the course sister, stay true even though some fall to the left and some to the right. God hasn’t changed his church.
Train up a child in the way he should go and he’ll remember it when he is old.
Please don’t be discouraged, or jump ship! This is still God’s church, and it is to be expected (sadly) that not all may be faithful, and some may actually be enemies. But there are many faithful churches and people too. Look for them! You will find them!
I think the root cause is being unequally yoked. We are advised against entering into such businesses partnerships
The name Advent (&) health should both be removed, they should have some name that isn’t as damning for them, They aren’t awaiting a Healthy Advent but sadly Damnation at this point.
As a college student at SMC (now called “Southern Adventist University”), my dad was a member of the Board of Trustees at then Florida Hospital (Advent Health now). While I’m sure there were likely “infractions” of right and wrong then, I’m certain it was not elevated to this point highlighted here. There is no excuse for this. None.
“The love of money is the root of of all evil.” This applies to individuals as well as institutions. As an outsider looking in, it became apparent this was so, when Florida Hospital began performing non-emergent scheduled surgical procedures during Sabbath hours as opposed to emergent cases only. This “raffle” is a move motivated solely for profit. The watchmen on the walls are more enamored with the party going on inside the walls than watching for danger. They don’t recognize that the danger has already entered the city and is preparing it’s destruction.
In Revelation 13, we are told of two beast, one being the Vatican and the other being the United States. I know and believe this representation are true, but let’s also compare the recent happenings in our beloved church to verses 11 – 17, “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
HAVE WE BEGUN LIKE A LAMB AND ARE ENDING BY SPEAKING AND LIVING LIKE A DRAGON, AND AIDING THE ENEMY OF CHRIST TO FIGHT CHRIST IN CHRITIANS?
THE RECENT EVENTS INVOLVING OUR LEADERS AND WE THE MEMBERS GRIEVE MY SOUL SO MUCH, BUT ALSO URGES ME TO WATCH AND PRAY ERNESTLY, WHILE SOUNDING ALOUD THE TRUMPET OF CHRIST’S SOON RETURN TO SAVE AS MANY AS SHALL HEED THE CALL; THAN STAND IDLE AND COMPLAIN.
GOD SAVE US AND YOUR CHURCH.