I used to be SDA. I think they have many correct points on prophecy, such as the US falling in the last days and being a nation that helps the world fall under the power of the AntiChrist.
However, I think their identity of Rome is misplaced, in terms of traditional Rome being the power of the AntiChrist. I think Fallen Rome will the First Beast, but the Anti-Christ power is socialism. SOcialism bypasses all religions and binds them together. The US is almost the last nation on Earth that hasn’t completely fallen into socialism, so I think it will eventually.
I also think the self-sufficiency of SDA’s, being so confident in being correct will be their downfall, because they think themselves to be so correct in their understanding of Prophecy, that their minds are closed about being wrong and that will be the undoing of those that follow that faith.
But doesn’t the Bible clearly reveal the Anti Christ, the man of sin is a religious power? Paul says he stands in the holy place , proclaiming himself to be God, Daniel says says this power would rule for 1260 years. From 538 to 1798, the papacy ruled. Exactly 1260 years.
She is a counterfeit religious power. She speaks blasphemy, saying she can absolve sins. Jesus was accused of blasphemy by saying he forgave sins of people who came to him. This false power , the papacy, fits all the characteristics of the great pretender. The name of the game in Revelation is deception.
And the protestant reformers themselves said it was the Romish power. Wesley, etc. So this is not new to Adventism. The term Anti Christ means IN PLACE of God, not against God. She stands in the holy place, she is in the church.
There is so much more I could say that reveals who she is....a woman in prophecy is a church......not a secular power. The whore of babylon, babylon represents religious confusion.
Beside, a secular power, like communism or socialism wouldn’t fool anyone. That is why she got into the church...Satan works through his Vicegerant....the man of sin, the religious system of works. And her wound has healed. She now influences the world and bides her time and she will have her power again...even now the evangelicals are reaching out to her....The whore and her daughters....
There’s a guy works at a place close to me. He’s like that - a follower of Herbert W. Armstrong.
We’re actually much closer than he realizes but he’s so angry and combative that you can’t say a thing to him. Only he is correct and if you dare to challenge on any point he responds, literally, with a middle-finger. (4x last time)
I have given up, LOL. I no longer will speak to him at all.
I’ve bought his snack time a couple of times. Dude is well into his 70s and still hasn’t grown up.