Elce-Junior Thunder Lauriston was an active Seventh Day Adventist evangelist for many years. He left the church subsequent to his studies regarding the new covenant and other scriptures. As he was making his departure known at the University he was attending his professors tried to win him back. That desire in and of itself is something I won’t fault them for and I doubt Elce would either. Since then he has gone on to become a minister in his own right, just not a Seventh Day Adventist one.
There was a recording of this meeting though which I found very interesting and I thought you might too. This recording was taken in March of 2016. What you are going to hear is about an hour or so of conversation where Elce is given a chance to articulate why he is leaving and the strange approach they use to try to win him back.
What I find so interesting is that they don’t actually put up much of a defense of adventist beliefs at all. Instead what I hear is these professors and church leaders trying to share what seems to be their coping mechanisms with the false teachings of adventism to see if Elce will find any of them appealing as a means of keeping his career on track. It sounds to me they already know what they are supposed to teach is false. Had that not been the case an example I would have expected would be for them to show Elce where they think he is interpreting Daniel 8 incorrectly. Instead what I hear is that they share personal workarounds they have personally constructed over the years to cope with the intellectual tension in order to keep their jobs.
I also find it very interesting that they start this meeting out by highlighting Elce’s promising career if he chooses to stay. I just see this as really sad.
When I found the new covenant it was so obvious to me that I didn’t know how any Adventist leader remains one in good conscience. How do you see that pearl in the Bible and not want to sell everything to have it?
If this is something you have wondered yourself now is your opportunity to see it from a church leadership perspective. Pull back the curtain and see what at least some leaders in Adventism think are good coping mechanisms for dealing with the false teachings of the church.
Fascinating!
I don’t know about you but it gives me a little bit of closure. I never had the opportunity to try to tease this one out of adventist leaders myself. Maybe you didn’t either in your journey out. But you don’t have to now, Elce did that one for us. The recording is an hour long and well worth your time.
Armchair Theologian 
I’m not following Elce’s presentation since he does not present something concrete. The foundation of Seventh-day Adventists is not Daniel 8:14, but knowing God’s character and Jesus as a personal friend as we read here: “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3 AV) Searching several non-SDA commentaries for explaining Revelation 10’s little book reveals that they don’t know what it is. SDA’s do and it fits what happened. May the Lord open all eyes as we see things fulfilled as it says here: “And now I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye might believe.” (John 14:29 AV) Be blessed–Cyril PS: Less than 10 years in the church? That’s not long enough for a good study. I’ve been looking at this for 79 years. Maybe the brethren who talked to Elce didn’t have the right approach or answers. However, some people do.
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I understood him to be speaking mostly to adventist particulars. I’m sure you would concede that the investigative judgement isn’t something adventism would be willing to give up would you? That would unwravel alot of SDA doctrine on the end times, there would be nothing to speak of in the daniel revelation seminar. A good deal of ellen whites books would be moot, and alot of the end times stuff plays into the sabbath. So take all that out and what do you have? Maybe you would merge with seventh day baptists at that point. So yeah I think his comment was dead on.
What’s more relevant though?
How they responded to it. They didn’t defend adventism they just gave him tips on how to ignore the stuff he disagreed with and teach around it. How sad is that? See when you leave adventism a question that rises up is why did my leaders teach me things that were so obviously false? Missing the new covenant in scripture is like watching Gone with the Wind and thinking it was a movie about proper farming. Okay, that’s in there but there was like this whole main point you just missed. How would a graduate of seminary who has studied the bible in depth miss such obvious things? Well it seems at least in this case they were aware and had just developed habbits of getting around that which they were offering to Elce. That’s what I took away from it anyways.
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