The Confessing Seventh-day Adventist

I'm new here and am a little hesitant to approach this subject, but it is something that I'm not sure what one should do. How should a child of God react to personal attacks from fellow church members? These people have never come to me directly, but choose to tell half truths to the new Pastor and literally blackballed me and my family from serving in any church positions. Your input , except for the blanket statement " that I need to be better than them" will be appreciated.

DigitalDon,

I appreciate your inquiry because it happened to me. What you’re really asking is, “If I was in the deepest darkest jungles of Africa, being stalked and hunted by cannibals, what should I do?” Here’s a link to explain what I mean:

My Thoughts On Predatory Cannibalism

If you were a Seventh-day Adventist—you could be, I invited many here—I would mention that Ellen White suffered through the very same experience in her home church at Battle Creek. See Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 1 pp. 569-612.

For those who are not Adventists but are willing to learn from the experiences of others, the complete published Ellen G. White writings are available online. Click here.

Unless God works a miracle, I’m afraid that not much can be done.

Thanks for your response and the analogy to cannibalism is entirely to good. I agree that God has to work a miracle and even then our local church will never be the same. We are praying that we can be forgiving and loving in our interactions with the very people that did this. People that live in metropolitan areas do have an advantage, they can choose a different church, but in rural areas that option is not there. I must admit that I'm starting to see some of the leaders of the church realizing they had been duped because they are the ones under attack now. Thanks for letting me vent. 8O

Since you’re praying, I will too. Please feel free to post an update when the situation changes.

Brother Digital: I think you need to work on the problem from underneath. Whether or not you are accepted for office in the church may be very important to you, but what's even more important, I think, is how it hurts and hinders your relationship with the church. You may pretend not to care, but in heart you know you do. Do you have actual brothers and sisters in your family? If not, do you recall how you were with your classmates in elementary school? You probably felt equal to them and not bothered a bit by anything they didn't like about you. What I'm trying to say is that having God and His strength in the core of your being, as your Father, makes you feel that all other people in the world are "just family", just sisters and brothers, not any better or worse than you. Leaning only on God for approval makes you grow unmoved by the opinion of other people. But you have to really FEEL that from deep experience with it. You get so you no longer compete with church members for respect or worth, for you realize that only can come from God as His gift to you. I know this a hard subject, as I went through it in a most painful, intensive way. But I know how much I changed when I worked on it by making God my center and talking to God about it. After that, I could take or leave honor and office, as Providence would have it. Does this resonnate at all with what you are discussing? :)

I could entertain you for hours on this subject.
I too got to the point where I was not allowed to hold an office but it was alright that I was a DEACON as I was usefull.
The SDA school closed and I set out single handed to reopen it. I could see I embarrised the outfit.
The people on the nominating committees are interesting as the paint pictures in secret and never approach one in person. I even found out there names. Once I had to see the pastor ans had to wait in an ajoining room and I could here all this slander going on in the next room.
Different relations of mine also got on the nominating committees and their stories were outrages for people who claim to be children of the heavenly KING. All this back chat should surface and come head on to the people concerned.
Remember THOU SHAT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS but few care.