Jess,

A belated welcome from me as well to 4TG.

For the last couple of years now, one of my prayers has been, that when I grow up(if that ever happens), I want to be able to write like Jess.

I now recognize that your gift, is the product of much pain and anguish and your finely crafted words continue to be part of the healing process. Thank you for giving words to the experiences you have been through.

I have been so blessed, and again today that blessing continues. Your characterization of the emphasis regarding Adventist evangelism is spot on. The “Church”, and membership in it is of primary importance, even more so than the relationship with Christ our Saviour.

As I transitioned out of Adventism two years ago, I had discussed this very topic with my dear mother on more than a few occasions. I recall one email sent back to her, where I pointed out that I could be a dead in the water Adventist, with no spiritual walk, and nobody would bat an eyelash, but leave the Adventist Church with a strong personal relationship with Christ, and my soul was at risk. I think she finally got my point.....although she still no doubt questions my salvation.

As I have been reading some of the “Progressive Adventist” blogs I have noted a shift among many of the academics. It seems that almost anything goes in the name of Diversity. The concepts of “Present Truth” and “Progressive Revelation” now allows them to believe in Ellen White as a prophet, and yet disagree with what she says. It leaves me bewildered.

Greg, thank-you for the Brimsmead quote, growing up I had heard his name mentioned often as one of those offshoots....! I now come to realize that much of what he wrote and taught is pure Gospel. I believe his take on the Adventist Church in the above quote is painfully true. Thank you again.

Randy

Posted anonymously by: phen

There are so many stories that sound so familiar, as if all the people telling them grew up in the same family.
I know, it’s the SDA family and the ‘children’ all had the same ‘parents.’
The stories refering to “bacon and coke” respectively are very real. In my family there was always this fear of going to the home of our relatives who cooked pork.We also promising not to drink any more coke when we were baptised. Concerning being baptised into the Adventist church instead of into the Lord Jesus Christ, just have a look on the internet at the SDA fundamental beliefs.
I recently witnessed an SDA baptism. These young children were asked about paying tithe, believing in the “prophetic gift as the identifying mark of the remnant church as manifested in the ministry of Ellen White” and the whole nine yards.
In another SDA church some time ago, at communion,a lady elder read the chapter in Desire of Ages that talked about the last supper, instead of reading the bible.
The recent discussions on the internet concerning ‘progressive adventism’ are just an attempt to appear relevant so as to try to close the back door.
As long as there is this belief that SDAism is ‘unique’ and ‘special,’ there is an agreement with all the Adventist beliefs.
All of Adventism is heavily salted with Ellen White’s pronouncements.
When salt is concentrated, one only has to imagine what the taste is like.This is the reason the Christian is to be in the world but not of the world. They will salt the world with the right amount, and it will taste good.
LOVE does it, and the world will see Jesus.

Phen,

you make some valid and cogent observations.  I found myself almost to the point of feeling tears coming as I read your description of your own experience of attending an Adventist baptism and Communion service. 

Oh how tragic, after enjoying your own returned eye-sight after divine Gospel surgery, to then view the blind leading the blind and absolutely resisting any suggestion that they are blind!

Praise God that our Redeemer IS “the” LIGHT of the world!

Jess

Randy,

Thank you for the warm welcome to 4TG forum and for your
kind comments regarding some of my posts.  Your kind words, however, I cannot make into a comfortable fit, as I virtually always write with a personal sense of inadequacy and lack of confidence.  But your kind words do encourage me to not pull back from posting anything, as I have often done.

I simply write from my heart from my own inner, deep feelings.  And I pray earnestly over all that I write. I truly never want to mis-direct anyone or to speak contrary to the clear will of the Spirit of Christ Jesus. I have only given a mini-glimpse into the depth and amount of pain I have experienced.  Not all has been associated with Adventism.  I was psychologically damaged as a result of the Ellen White FIRM-HAND STRICTNESS to
ABSOLUTE OBEDIENCE style of discipline under my mother’s hand.  I never knew a father, since he was killed and died ten days before I was born.  While my mother loved me,
once she became an SDA, from attending a series of those proselytizing meetings held in Dayton, Ohio by a young licensed minister named Cal Osborne (John’s brother), she
was determined to guarantee that I would reach perfection and she used the “rod” to drive that home.  I was forever displeasing and disappointing Jesus, so with my natural conscientious, sensitive nature, I fell into a life-pattern of seeking to earn God’s love, blessing and approval.  And how I did try!

So in a very personal way, the glorious authentic Gospel of Christ Jesus is the ONLY “truly significant” message my heart hungers for more of,(admitting a horrible sentence) daily more, more, more, more. And that is why once His Spirit opened my own blinded eyes to finally SEE it; to sacrifice my retirement pension from the denomination, my profession as a minister, my source of financial security and much of my self-identity became a NO BRAINER for me.
I never even contemplated giving the four point public loyalty statement the Conference President said I would give or else lose all chance of ever pastoring again; I only knew I could NOT cease from preaching this TRUE “Good News” I had discovered.  I only wanted my congregation to discover for themselves their own personal absolute assurance of salvation.  And so my termination came to me as an unbelievable reality.  Only when thrust out into the big wide world “out there” was I forced to face the reality of how to provide for a family of wife and four children with food, clothing and housing.  I was not emotionally, mentally or psychologically prepared for the reality of
life outside of denominational employment and church affiliation.

I don’t see myself as being strong.  I still don’t.  I was absolutely confused and scared beyond words to describe.
All Iknew was that the Gospel I had seen, embraced and preached and refused to stop preaching when told “Preach anything BUT the gospel.” (A direct quote!)… was the truth of God that fired my soul like it had never been fired before.  I knew I had THAT which my heart had longed for in it’s ignorance all my life.  Nothing else seemed to matter.  But that was before I slipped into my own dark sepulchre of dark depression.  I entered the furnace of fire and for me God disappeared and turned His back on me.
That was how it felt.

And now?  I honestly feel like a kindergarten student when it comes to studying the gems of truth in Scripture.  I now approach every interpretation as if it is new for the first time, rather than from the self-righteous pious position which I held as an Adventist minister.  The fine points of
hair-splitting theological discussions holds little interest for me now.  I want to know how every truth, every doctrine fits in with and harmonizes with Jesus Christ and His message in the New Covenant atmosphere.
Where is Jesus in this interpretation?  That is my compass
pole today.  Siimplistic?  I won’t deny that.  But from my heart I hear playing one song over and over again,

“Take the world, but give me Jesus!”

I keep holding you in prayer, Randy.

Jess’t another pilgrim.

[quote author="JessD"]And now? I honestly feel like a kindergarten student when it comes to studying the gems of truth in Scripture. I now approach every interpretation as if it is new for the first time, rather than from the self-righteous pious position which I held as an Adventist minister. The fine points of hair-splitting theological discussions holds little interest for me now. I want to know how every truth, every doctrine fits in with and harmonizes with Jesus Christ and His message in the New Covenant atmosphere.

There’s something about the gospel that can only be heard and experienced by “the poor in spirit”.  It’s voice is most truly discernable in the poverty of the spirit, in the estrangement, alienation and abandonment of everyday life, and the pride and self-assurance that goes with it. 

I second Glenn’s comments.  The good news of Jesus Christ can only be truly precious if we’ve first heard the bad news.  For some, this experience is laced with heartache and pain.

Jess, I am humbled you would choose to share your pain with us so we might learn from your experience.  I almost feel guilty that God has allowed me to walk a more trouble-free path.  Physically and emotionally, I may have been better off, but spiritually I was not.  In fact, my relative contentment with life was one of the biggest obstacles to seeing my need for Christ.  I was like the woman at the well, who didn’t know enough to ask Jesus for living water.  I had no need for it, so I didn’t ask.  My religion filled my superficial need, but covered my deeper need for redemption.

Jess, did I read you correctly?  You were told to preach anything BUT the gospel?  Reading your words reminded me of something the apostle Paul said: “For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16 ESV).  I’m sure you had similar thoughts when you were forced to decide between preaching the good news and keeping your job.  Not everyone faced with this choice has made the same decision you have.  Keeping the status quo is so much easier, but it carries eternal consequences.

Greg

Glennspring,

I appreciate being reminded of that insight and truth.  Thank you.  Amen brother (oops, you might be female) lol

Greg,
I would love to pursue the subject you brought up from your own personal experience about not feeling any need UNTIL..... when?  One puzzling burden I carry on my heart is regarding friends and family members whom, by using Christ’s rule “by their fruits you shall know them” or could we add “or know that they are not?” Like the barren fig tree.  There are individuals whom I feel are NOT united to Christ, but most have some sort of intellectual belief in the historic Jesus, the story of the Cross, and some - who knows what this is - apparent comfort level that they will be saved, especially if they still believe in Adventism.  A sister-in-law has even asked me to stop sending ANY information about the SDA Church and/or religion.  That leaves family events and the weather to talk about.  I pray earnestly for these individuals, but
getting back to the point I wanted to focus upon:

It seems, for those whom God knows are His elect, His called and chosen, that there is a time when this mystifying “click” takes place; a shift in consciousness? Whatever one calls it, when they TURN, are born again,
re-generated.  No doubt, many would fit fairly well with your past experience of self-satisfaction.  What do you recall was it, that gave you a sense of need?  Concern over your eternal salvation?  Wanting something more satisfying?  However it announced itself to your consciousness and/or was felt by your center of being.
Do you know what brought it about?

Now as to reading my post correctly.  Yes!  During the heightened time of my being called in before the Conf. President and questioned, a Conference Office, one morning while we waited for the school bus to pick up our kids,
brought up the subject of the “conflict” I seemed to have stirred up by my preaching.  I shall never forget his
shocking words, which WERE these:  “Preach ANYTHING but the Gospel.” I was dumbfounded and I’m sure my expression showed that.  Before I opened my mouth to speak he gave his rationale:  “Because you are confusing, dividing and upsetting your congregation.”

That bothered me.  I went back to my study, fell on the floor and wept before the Lord.  I asked the Lord if He saw an attitude of rebellion in my heart.  Was I presenting this truth at a wrong time, in a wrong fashion?  Was I being too bold in making statements that all the right Sabbath keeping in the world will never add one ounce of merit to “help” qualify me to be saved into God’s heaven?

I felt or sensed no clear answer coming from the Lord,
so wanting NOT to bring disharmony into the church I still believed was God’s church, I prepared sermons on Bible biographies, which was one suggestion given by the Conference officer.  But something strange happened.

In the midst of my sermon on David and Saul, for instance - one I recall, - I would suddenly SEE a gospel principle!
I would be taken over by a force I could not resist and I would depart from my sermon notes and say things like,
“Look!  Here is the gospel right here!” And I would end up preaching the rest of the sermon on justification by faith alone.  After a few Sabbaths of “trying” to preach Bible biographies, I returned to Romans and Galations and never
looked back after that.

I’m sure you see the principle which I see as so destructive, of a primary concern over the Church, the Church, the Church.......not the truth of the Gospel as
clearly declared by Scripture!  Don’t upset the people!
Don’t upset the Conference President! 

After I was given “the boot,” the Conference Treasurer
came to visit us.  In confidence, he told me that the President was absolutely convinced in his own mind that my motive WAS to split the congregation; and because of my popularity, he was convinced a large portion of the congregation would follow my lead and form an independent Fellowship - my own church, if you please.  It was the Conference Headquarters Church, the leading church in the Montana Conference at that time.  There were younger ministers whom he felt would be tempted to follow my lead.
His entire conference control might fall apart.  He was absolutely parinoid over this idea.

Had he only known, that I had NEVER had one single thought
or desire in this direction.  I was still a Seventh-day Adventist pastor/minister when I preached those sermons;
still felt loyal to Church; did not want to hurt the cause of God in anyway.  I just could not cease from proclaiming the BEST NEWS I have ever discovered, ever heard, before my people SO THAT - - my only motive! - - they might individually come to discover their own absolute assurance of their own salvation!  I wanted them to KNOW that they
“were saved” the very day they first believed fully in the
all-sufficiency of the saving merits of Christ Jesus.

No one on this forum has to think it.  I’ll say it for you.
Yes.  I WAS VERY naive!

There are more dramatic experiences that took place that made our experience one of a kind.  But of course everyone’s experience IS “one of a kind” for them!  :c)

Isn’t life’s path fascinating?

You couldn’t pay me enough to be a pastor in the SDA church. It is unbelievable what they have to endure. Jess, I feel for you and your predicament. However, I can’t help but feel that your upbringing had something to do with your outlook on the church now (of course, being booted from it for preaching the gospel didn’t help, I’m sure!)

From my experiences, those who have grown up in a strict environment, when tasting a bit of freedom, usually gobble it up and never look back. I can’t blame this for the conservative element of our church is plain old legalism most of the time.

Those of us who have grown up in a more moderate/liberal SDA environment dont’ experience the detrimental aspects of the SDA church and thus can have a more logical, rational outlook on it.

I wish those who are so hard bearing on their kids that they end up rebelling or completely abandoning their faith would see the damage they are doing to the cause and message of Christ.

Guibox, I just have to chuckle to myself here, because I said almost the same thing you just said, “You couldn’t pay me enough to be a pastor in the SDA church” to my wife about a year before we left.  We had moved to a new area and were looking for new Adventist churches to attend.  Since we only had two Adventist options in our town, we randomly chose one of them.  The prominent theme of the sermon that week was how women should not wear short dresses and jewelry to church, a message I thought had died with the last generation of Adventists.  Obviously I was wrong, and on the way out, I said to my wife in a relieved voice, “Boy am I glad I am not a pastor!” I was reacting to both the message that week and to the somber atmosphere in the church which felt more like a funeral than a worship service.  But I didn’t make the statement in isolation, since I had spent my entire life in the Adventist church receiving all of my education within its confines.  Nothing I experienced in all those years opened my eyes to a living faith in Jesus Christ, even though I had been baptized long before.  This latest sermon on dress standards, directed only at the women in the congregation I might add, was just the latest nail in the coffin of my religious experience.

We settled on the other church, which was bigger and more “evangelical”, yet still decidedly Adventist.  We started attending the adult Sabbath School, and the topic that quarter was the book of Daniel.  Adventists reading this should consider what outsiders think when they stumble upon an Adventist church deep in the throes of Daniel or Revelation, or the recent study on the Sanctuary message, for example.  Even though I was raised in the church, I had somehow managed to miss most of what my church taught about these books.  I began to study for myself and started to realize that most Christian theologians had a dramatically different interpretation of Daniel 8:14 and that even Jews considered the prophecy of the little horn power to have already been fulfilled, to say nothing of the investigative judgment.

Wanting to know what else I had missed in my blissful ignorance, I started reading widely from Christian greats such as Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, John MacArthur, and R.C. Sproul, to name a few.  I saw an intense love for biblical truth in these men, and for the first time, I saw a clear expression of the gospel.  At about this same time, we started attending an evangelical church in our town that was studying, verse by verse, the book of John.  The experience Jess mentioned about the gospel jumping out in every story was happening to me each week!  Suddenly I realized that I had a hunger for good news that I had never known about.  Even though I had never experienced spiritual abuse or a legalistic upbringing, I can honestly say that I had not heard the good news clearly preached in Adventism.  This is not a blanket statement that nobody preaches the gospel clearly in Adventism, it’s just that I somehow missed it.

While simultaneously attending Saturday and Sunday services for several months, the differences between the two churches began to come out in stark contrasts.  While one church was trying to get people interested in singing praise songs and experiencing resistance from the older members, in the other church, both the older and younger members were singing with one voice no matter what the song, because it was about Jesus.  While in one church, the pastor said the most profound chapter of the Bible was Leviticus 16, the other church was studying the book of John verse by verse.  While one church was holding Revelation seminars as a way to draw in new members, the other church was trying to reach nonbelievers with the gospel.

There are many other side-plots to this story, but the thread that runs through it is the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Did my Adventist church preach good news?  After tasting the good news, I had to conclude they did not.

I should mention, in response to guibox, that I wasn’t looking for freedom when I left Adventism.  I sincerely studied Adventist doctrine, wanting on some level to find a way to vindicate it.  But I could not find a way to do this and so I had a choice to make.  Do I stay in the Adventist system and be content to overlook the problems, or do I do what my conscience tells me to do?  It would have been easier to stay, just like it would have been easier for Jess (from a security level) to continue preaching gospel-less sermons.  But having been immersed in the living water of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I could not in good conscience pretend that a church so short on the gospel was a church I should stay in.  I couldn’t in good conscience expose my family to what I knew was a diluted product.  Furthermore, a thirst had been uncovered in me that I didn’t know existed, and I would have been perpetually thirsty if I didn’t go where the good news was dispensed with regularity.

Surely our backgrounds and upbringing factor into almost everything we do, but we should be careful about looking to sociological or psychological factors to explain our religious experience.  Jess and I came from opposite ends of the Adventist theological spectrum, yet our experiences in Christ are remarkably similar.  It is my hope that all who read and participate in this forum will be united in Jesus, Adventist or not.

When we die with Christ, we become new creations in Him and the old passes away (2 Corinthians 5:17).  Just as Jesus saved the best wine for last at Cana, he allowed me to experience grape flavored drink before indulging me with the vintage grapes of the gospel.

Greg

Posted anonymously by: Phen

JessD,
It is with a feeling of sadness and humility in my heart that I read your post.I can’t imagine finding out that the bible alone is true without the rest of the baggage, as a minister, knowing your congregation don’t have a clue. Looking those precious souls in the face would just tear me apart.
This is how I felt after coming to terms with what I was reading in the bible and going to the lesson study with all this in my head and a burden on my heart. I would sit there and literally look around the church and say to myself, don’t they even know?
Am I really understanding all this the way it says in the bible?
I would hear the arrogant “we have the truth” and say to myself, don’t they know?
No matter what the sermon was about or what the lesson study topic was, there was always some way for someone to squeeze in “but we know we have the truth,” and “God is going to bring his “sheep” into his fold,our church,the true church.”
One of the shocking realizations for me was reading Daniel through my eyesalve washed eyes.
I noticed that Dan.2: 20,21 said, “ ...Blessed be the name of God forever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons...” and I said to myself “this refers to God.” It never dawned on me before.
Along with all that I had read about God doing whatever he wanted in Isaiah and Jeremiah and other parts of the bible, I saw that he also “changed the times and the seasons” as well.
There is this discusion about who changed the “sabbath” and here we see that God can do what ever he wills and no one can ask him why.
As SDAs there is always this “I am God I change not” quoted.It is as if they handcuff God and tell him not to do anything else but what they think he should. This might be insignificant to some but this was huge for me.

Then reading on in Daniel 2, I saw how God gave the dream and he gave Daniel the interpretation right after.Daniel 5 as well,with Bel-shaz-zar the King. There was never a time that God told any of the prophets something and kept them waiting for a long time afterward before he gave them the interpretation as we are told in our former church.  This notion that at the end of Daniel 8:27 ..."and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it” meant that Daniel was not told the interpretation of that vision and had to wait until years after to be told by the angel is just crazy.
Gods’ method was always, give a dream and give the explaination right after.
Over and over again there is the evidence in the bible.
He gave the butler and the baker dreams and in the morning when Joseph came in and was told the dream he gave them the interpretation from God right away.
Pharoah had dreams and Joseph was brought in haste to him and God gave the interpretaion right away. It did not take years for this to be done.The dreams that the king Nebuchadnezzer had was also followed by an interpretation as well, no long delays. This got me thinking that there was no way that God would give Daniel a dream and tell him in 2300 days such and such would be done, and then allow it to take 2300 years to be fulfilled.
Daniel knew that God was going to fulfill the vision in the time he understood it to mean. Whether it was understood to be mornings and evenings, it was not going to be 2300 years.
If one reads the history of God’s dealings with Israel, there is the promise of God to punish Israel for their deeds and then restore them after the chastisement. Daniel knew that the time was not going to be long, because he read Jeremiah’s record of what God told him about the 70 year period of captivity and it was coming to an end.
My view might be simplistic, but I know the event was fulfilled long ago,and was not to last until 1844.
There is this idea in Adventism that the “few” are going on the straight and narrow path to heaven,and the “many” are going to destruction. I think this is why the SDA church hangs on tenaciously to the notion of the “remnant” since in their view, they are a few left at the end.So God has given this unique understanding to the “few” Adventists they think.
It is very sad.

[quote author="Phen"]I noticed that Dan.2: 20,21 said, “ ...Blessed be the name of God forever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons...” and I said to myself “this refers to God.” It never dawned on me before.
Along with all that I had read about God doing whatever he wanted in Isaiah and Jeremiah and other parts of the bible, I saw that he also “changed the times and the seasons” as well.
There is this discusion about who changed the “sabbath” and here we see that God can do what ever he wills and no one can ask him why..

Of course, before one attributes this active changing of the Sabbath to God, one must first prove that it was indeed changed by God instead of starting with the premise that the Sabbath is ‘changed’ and try to find the place where God Himself did indeed change it. I can pretty much say whatever I want according to my theology and say that God Himself endorsed it accepting it as unchallenged truth. However, proving it is another story.

This sounds like the kind of exegesis that got SDAs in trouble with 1844 to begin with.

Posted anonymously by: Phen

Guibox,
When I wrote that, I knew someone would probably misconstrue my remark. Please do not read into it anymore than what it is. My main thrust was about change and how God is in charge of all things.
It was unfortunate that “sabbath” change was mentioned right after that sentence. Although I know that Jesus IS the Sabbath rest and it is true that God can do what ever he wills.

Posted anonymously by: Anonymous

Some people have the mistaken idea that the people who had strict upbringings in their families as Adventists are the ones who are happy to be free of all the structure of Adventism. This notion that a person is bitter with the SDA church could not be further from the truth.
Adventists cannot get over how a person could read the bible and come to a different conclusion than what was believed in Adventism, I know because I used to be appalled when I heard that someone had left the church. I had never heard of anyone leaving because of doctrine. I always heard and thought as well,that they left because they wanted to “do whatever they want.” I know differently now.
My parents were Christians before they met with the “truth” of Adventism. They loved Jesus and we had a Christian home. My father was not convinced that the SDA church was all that they said it was, but he never prevented my mother. She was an exemplary Christian woman.I grew up seeing the Ellen White books in our home but never saw my parents reading them. I understood that buying them was something you were “supposed” to do as an SDA.
I looked inside those books accasionally because they were there.We would actually look to check out the pictures. My mother always was reading her bible, but she was also reading her “quarterly.” Not much of a difference because the quarterly was full of quotes out of those books anyway.
What I remember most is the treatment of other children in the church. Their parents were strict.The church leaders were also over the top.
I could never forget how they handled any young lady who got pregnant. It was just horrific.There was never any mention of what they did to the boy, maybe because the girl never told.
I remember how scary it was when there was a crusade. The bible workers came to your house to get the children baptised and we young ones went along and got baptised because our older siblings were going to get bread and wine, so we felt left out. After baptism, that is where
the scary “pork and coke” story came in, we had to make sure we did not eat any food that contained pork and not drink any cola beverage from our relatives. What a thing to make a child do,watching what you ate constantly.( I have never visited a vegetarian home where they cook chicken or beef just to make sure their guests feel at home, but we cooked something vegetarian when we invited people over, just in case. My mother never was vegetarian).
It was when I got older that I actually started to read Ellen and soaked it all up, but I had lots of discussions about a lot of the unbelievable things she said as well, many of you have read from other people who had the same kinds of questions and doubts. Nevertheless, there was never anything substantive to give me the push out of the church, although I saw a LOT of unchristian behavior and would shake my head.
I know God works in his own time, and when he knows we are ready to accept what he has for us, then he draws us out slowly or suddenly like Paul.
The only rational thing that could shake me out was reading without the Ellen White goggles and seeing for myself that the doctrines were the problem.
By the way, a lot of those people who I grew up with, whose parents were really strict when it came to SDA beliefs are still in the SDA church and still at the same stage of growth. This is not a judgement on them, when ones sees the fruit.Only a few have left it and have never returned, but they also have not joined another church.When you talk to them they will proudly tell you that they still don’t eat pork or are still vegetarian, but ask them if they read the bible and that is another story.

Posted anonymously by: Phen

That last comment was mine. Phen

[quote author="Phen"]Adventists cannot get over how a person could read the bible and come to a different conclusion than what was believed in Adventism…

This is a problem common to most Fundamentalist expressions of Christianity. I know what you’re talking about regarding SDAism, but one could substitute any variety of denominational or creedal affiliations for Adventists in that statement and have it be applicable: “Calvinists cannot get over how a person could read the bible and come to a different conclusion than what was believed in Calvinism"*, or “Fundamentalists cannot get over how a person could read the bible and come to a different conclusion than what was believed by Fundamentalists”, etc.

The problem essentially is an inability or unwillingness to weigh evidence, or to at least grant some space and toleration to other interpretations and applications. And where extreme Fundamentalism resides, there is typically an extra-biblical source of authority that forms the foundation of the Fundamentalist’s mindset. Another factor I’ve noticed that is instrumental in stifling spiritual inquiry is the perpetuation of a Crisis mentality--the denomination is always under fire, always under threat from without and within, so not only is there no time or space for testing the prophet or pillars, to do so would in fact be traitorous and salvationally speaking, of great danger.

*Not that there’s anything wrong with Calvinism.