Back in 2007 an anonymous Seventh-day Adventist wrote a letter to the Zola Levitt Ministries which was published on page 23 of The Levitt Letter as Adventists Are Now God's Chosen People!?
Dr. Jeffrey Seif rightly responded to the objectionable contents.
Embarassed and offended by what this anonymous Adventist wrote, I called Zola Levitt Ministries (25 Nov. '07) apologizing for what this guy wrote. Not satisfied with only a phone message, I decided to write Dr. Seif an apology via email and published the apology on my blog as a post titled The Levitt Letter. You can read my response here.
Just yesteday a reader, J. Trade, responded to my post with the following comment:
I believe it was a little naive to believe that the letter to Jeffrey Seif was actually from a Seventh-day Adventist. First clue is that it was ANONYMOUS! Secondly, the remarks appear to be intentionally inflamatory (intended to get a negative reaction towards Adventists). Thirdly, the content of the remarks do not reflect what the Seventh-day Adventist Church teaches. Put it all together, I would be probably more correct in accessing that it was written by a bitter person who may had some association with Adventists in the past or an enemy of the Adventist church whose intent is malicious.
I agree with you J. Trade and want to add some further comments.
While it is perfectly acceptable, IMO, to critique the views and doctrines of any church or religion, it is NOT acceptable to use deception or mis-characterizations in doing so.
From a Christian point of view, the Holy Spirit does not use lies, deception, innuendo, misrepresentation, or any under-handed means. It is not a mark of being under the influence of Christ to intentionally lie about, or misrepresent anyone.
If someone is a Christian and they are worried a friend is going down the "wrong path" or in the "wrong religion", the Christian (myself included) is not allowed to use anything but fair and honest discourse if they want to dissuade their friend from the "wrong path."
I saw this happen on more than one occasion. For example, I remember back in 1999 (or was it 1998?) when I was teaching at La Sierra University. There were several students on campus who were members of a different (locally popular) Christian denomination. Adventist colleges typically admit students from other faith traditions so long as they abid by the student code of conduct, e.g., no smoking, drinking, etc. However, these "undercover agents" would consistently approach relatively new adventist converts, misrepresenting themselves and their intentions, and use innuendo and deception to try to lead the new converts from the Adventist church.
Mind you, I have no problem with someone being straightforward and honestly representing themselves and telling any Adventist that the SDA church was wrong, and then to honestly argue why one should leave the Adventist church. That is called intellectual discourse and is perfectly fine in my book.
However, that is not what these individuals were doing. They were deliberately using dishonest and/or misleading methods. It even reached the point that these "undercover agents" vandalized campus property as well as papered trhe cars in the parking lot with false and inflammatory material about the SDA church.
To make matters worse, I contacted the pastor of the church the agents attended and informed him of what was going on and what had happened. He said he knew who they were and refused to identify the individuals involved. Basically, he covered their tracks for them. (I eventually figured out who these individuals are, but it was not until about 8 months later, after they had already graduated.)
I am sorry, but if any one tells lies about Mormons, Jehovah's Witnessess, Buddhists, etc. or uses any other form of deception, then your master is not Jesus Christ.
You are using the methods of a different master.
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