25AR30-36

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AR 30:36 - Adventism, neither Christian, nor a church?

In this issue:

FALUN GONG - "It's not as simple as 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.'" It rarely is.

HINDUISM - "an introduction to the third-largest world religion"

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM - "fundamentally mired in unresolvable contradictions about its identity"

Apologia Report 30:36 (1,725)
October 11, 2025

FALUN GONG
"Why I'm leaving The Epoch Times and Falun Gong after 20 years" (John Smithies Substack, Jul 4 '25) -- after some introductory concerns, Smithies explains: "In Falun Gong, it's generally understood that practitioners shouldn't die. Instead they should become more and more youthful the more they practice. If they die, it must be the result of them 'having attachments,' or being persecuted by the 'old forces' - Li's name for gods other than himself [referring to Falun Gong founder, Li Hongzhi] - or because they were to be made an example of for practitioners to see.

   "And yes, you read that right: Li is regarded as a god by practitioners, which includes the entire upper management of The Epoch Times.

   "The 'Creator' that he is referring to in 'Why The Creator Seeks To Save All Life' is himself. But he won't spell this out explicitly in order to maintain a little plausible deniability. 'I never said I was the Creator.'

   "Just like he never told people not to go to the hospital when they get sick. Except you'll have failed in some aspect of your practice if you do. But he never said not to go.

   "Many readers of The Epoch Times are Christian, and indeed Falun Gong's political support, especially with the recent Falun Gong Protection Act, has largely come from Christian lawmakers.

   "But what these people don't know is that Falun Gong practitioners do not believe that Jesus saves people any more. Only Li can save people because he is the highest god. The god of all gods, if you will. The 'Fa' - which was created by Li - has actually created 'millions and millions of Jesuses and Sakyamunis,' he said in 2002. ... By labeling it a cult they will say I am 'perpetuating the narrative of the Chinese Communist Party.'

   "But two things can be true. The CCP can be persecuting Falun Gong - though the extent of this is very difficult to ascertain - and Falun Gong can still be a cult.

   "It ticks all the boxes: messianic leader, in-group and out-group dynamic, information control, illegal exploitation of members, imminent 'apocalypse' driving fanaticism.

   "So why am I telling you this? Because I have a deep sense of shame over my 20 years in the practice. I was fooled.

   "It's nothing to do with intelligence. There are many extremely intelligent people still in Falun Gong. Many I would call friends, though it remains to be seen how long that is true.

   "But they are also extremely stupid, because they have been blinded by mind control. Myself included. ...

   "One colleague who was forced to leave - and her content almost entirely erased - was journalist Simone Gao. In early 2024, Falun Gong website Minghui announced she was no longer a practitioner. In my time as a practitioner I've only seen this happen to people if they are outed as 'spies.'

   "So what was Simone's misdemeanor? She asked publicly whether there was any truth to the allegations emerging around the abuse of child dancers at Shen Yun. She had committed thought crime.

   "Shen Yun is known as 'Master's project.' Therefore, anything negative - no matter how truthful - must be evil.

   "This is why over the last year or so, practitioner-run media have relentlessly tried to paint the former Shen Yun dancers - who were children at the time they were in Shen Yun - as 'disgruntled former employees' or CCP stooges.

   "The New York Times, likewise, has been painted as a CCP mouthpiece, with journalist Nicole Hong and her father, seemingly only by virtue of their Chinese heritage, as extensions of the communist regime. Truth be damned. ...

   "A practice that regards 'truth' as a core tenet has discarded it to focus on protecting Li and the practice."

   Smithies concludes: "I could go on and on, and I expect in the coming years I may well do so. Because for me, this is the beginning of the rest of my life.

   "For practitioners, my suggestion is to try stopping reading Zhuan Falun every day. Try stopping the exercises. See how you feel. What surprised me is that I didn't feel like evil was dragging me down. I didn't feel overcome with human thoughts. In fact, I felt more or less the same. I stopped over a year ago and none of you could tell. So what did over 20 years of 'cultivation' amount to?

   "For lawmakers, please do your due diligence before supporting Falun Gong. It's not as simple as 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend.'" <www.tinyurl.com/yc4sdh3s>

   Visit <www.tinyurl.com/AR-Falun-Gong> for more from Apologia Report.

 ---

HINDUISM

"On Krishna's birthday, an introduction to the third-largest world religion" by Marvin Olasky, editor-in-chief, World magazine (Christianity Today, Aug 11 '25) -- somewhat jarringly titled, "One Billion Hinduisms," we used the subtitle to introduce this piece instead as it better conveys Olasky's general approach.

   "Krishna Janmashtami, a two-day festival [Aug 25-26 '25] is a happy day for 1.2 billion Hindus, 95 percent of whom live in India. It's the day they say a deity took on flesh 5,000 years ago as Krishna, often shown in his blue skin playing a flute and standing near a sacred cow. ...

   "Worshipers dance around a Krishna idol - the Hindus I met in India don't shy away from the i-word - and offer it sweets. ...

   "Every Hindu family can have its own shrine, its own worship, and its own choice of what to worship. ...

   "They say the idols merely represent various incarnations and manifestations of the supreme deity and function in a way analogous to clothes: People wear different ones in different situations.

   "Some Hindus also say their numerous names for deity signify not confusion but an intimate knowledge of divinity. ...

   "Hindus say the existence of multiple forms of deity manifests what they see as a variety of spiritual forces. 

   "The supreme being, they say, is a force without starting point or end that manifests itself in different ways. ...

   "Since Hindus worship multiple forms of deity, they can choose the form that works best in each specific instance. ...

   "Moreover, variety is the spice of Hinduism. Urban temples in India typically have many objects of worship. ...

   "Another way to understand Hinduism is that the name itself arose to describe a place, not a religion. ... Sometime after AD 600, Arabic texts referred to Hind, the land beyond the Indus. A millennium later, English merchants used Hindoo to describe the people they met in the subcontinent. ...

   "Bal Gangadhar Tilak, whom Gandhi called 'the Maker of Modern India,' defined Hinduism in 1915 as 'acceptance of the Vedas [the most ancient Hindu scriptures] with reverence; recognition of the fact that the means or ways to salvation are diverse; and realization of the truth that the number of gods to be worshipped is large.' India's Supreme Court in 1966 and 1995 called this an 'adequate and satisfactory definition.'

   "The Vedas ('knowledge') are ancient Sanskrit poems written between 1500 and 500 BC, about the same time Moses and his successors composed the Old Testament. ...

   "In the meantime, the idea is to perform rituals as 'a bridge between the human realm and the spiritual plane.' ...

   "Followers of Vishnu, 'the preserver,' say he comes to earth in human form as different avatars to save his followers from tyranny or natural disasters. ...

   "The other two more popular deities are Brahma ('the creator') and Shiva ('the destroyer'). Hindus refer to the three not as a trinity but as the Trimurti and use the sound Om as a summary of them, as well as a tool for meditation." Any questions? <www.tinyurl.com/2788vzun>

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SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM

"Seventh-day Adventism: Neither Christian, Nor a Church" by Kaspars Ozolins (Proclamation!, Aug 14 '25) -- begins: "The well-known church historian Carl Trueman has recently penned a striking opinion piece for World magazine <www.tinyurl.com/39p3hwb4> reflecting on the Church of England's continued compromise on matters of biblical sexuality. The title echoes his frank prescription for the historic denomination: 'It's time for a change of name.' Trueman argues that the Church of England no longer has any right (or argument) for retaining the designation 'church' and should therefore drop it for the sake of honesty. Such a shocking conclusion might be jarring to some, even offensive. 

   "Yet this does raise an important question. Which organizations have the right to call themselves a 'church'? More fundamentally, which religious groups are entitled to call themselves 'Christian'?"

   Ozolins makes the connection with "the various differences and similarities between the three major Restorationist movements arising in the wake of the 'burned-over district' in early 19th century New York: Mormonism, Adventism, and the Bible Student movement (from which the Jehovah's Witnesses arose)."

   One distinction between the three that one may not realize is that "Adventists call themselves 'Protestants,' something neither of the other two groups have ever claimed to be." Similarly, each of the three identify as "Christian," yet deny that right to the others in the trio.

   In many, if not most, localities outside North America, all three each furiously apply the same stigma to any church outside their specific movement as well. Spend enough time in their local meetings near you, and you may well pick up this attitude among the faithful in America as well - but not by a local leader, at least while they are speaking publicly.

   Ozolins adds that within their own doctrine, among the official 28 Fundamental Beliefs, "what Adventism understands (and means by) their 12th belief fundamentally depends on their understanding of the 13th belief, that of the remnant." It reads: "The universal church is composed of all who truly believe in Christ, but in the last days, a time of widespread apostasy, a remnant has been called out to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This remnant announces the arrival of the judgment hour, proclaims salvation through Christ, and heralds the approach of His second advent. This proclamation is symbolized by the three angels of Revelation 14; it coincides with the work of judgment in heaven and results in a work of repentance and reform on earth. Every believer is called to have a personal part in this worldwide witness."

   "Notice the first vital definition: the 'universal church is composed of all who truly believe in Christ.' This entire claim, straightforward and simple as it is, is completely undone by the rest of the statement, which speaks of a 'remnant' that has been 'called out.'"

   Ozolins (himself a former Adventist, and "Assistant Professor of Old Testament Interpretation" for the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, KY) points out numerous even more broadly useful challenges that clarify how such reasoning, in this case, reveals that "Seventh-day Adventism, along with its fellow [JW and LDS] Restorationist religions, is fundamentally mired in unresolvable contradictions about its identity and claims to being part of the church and a true Christian movement." <www.tinyurl.com/3ty8x8ne>

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