magine you're you living in the times of the first Temple; imagine, too, your disgust at the compromise, worldliness, and accommodation of paganism that had become so rabid the people would sacrifice their children to idols and, later that same day, worship the Lord at the sanctuary (see Eze. 23:39).

Or imagine you're you living during the times of the second Temple, and imagine your disgust with the regnant legalism, so icy and extreme that even Jesus had been accused of breaking the law (John 5:16).

In either scenario the question is Where would you go? Back to Egypt and worship Bastet, the cat goddess? Or to Babylon and its moon god Sin? Or (in the latter period) maybe you could offer sacrifices to Jupiter. Or join one of the cults that worshiped Caesar. Or if none of these satisfied the longing of your soul, there was always astrology.

But you're you today, not then, even if parallels exist. Depending upon your theological perspective, either the Seventh-day Adventist Church is filled with the same earthliness, compromise, and accommodation that ruined Israel in the first Temple's period, or (from the other side) the Adventist Church is as dogmatic, insular, legalistic, and unprogressive as Israel in the days of Christ.

Aficionados of either perspective, however, face the same question as those who lived in either historical period, which is: Where would you go? If you still want to keep the Sabbath, you wipe out about 99 percent of all your options. If you also wouldn't feel comfortable joining a fellowship that teaches that at death your immortal soul immediately soars into the endless bliss of heaven or descends into the fiery pits of eternal torment, then you've eliminated probably 99.9 percent of the 1 percent of the choices left. Not much remains.

Maybe that's the way the Lord meant it to be. Maybe truth has always stood out so clearly and distinctly that once people find it and love it, there are few, if any, competitors. I'm not saying that the differences between Adventism and other Protestant faiths are as great as the differences between ancient Judaism and the pagan faiths around it; that would be pushing it. What I am saying, however, is that the differences between Adventism and these churches are still great enough to limit severely the options of someone who, frustrated with the Adventist Church, wants to leave and yet maintain any theological integrity.

Though it was not easy to become a Seventh-day Adventist, now that I'm here it's easy to stay; because as long as I cling to the Sabbath and the nonimmortality of the soul, reality doesn't offer anything close enough to tempt me. If there were all sorts of Sabbathkeeping churches—which taught that death is a sleep until the first or second resurrection—then I might have a problem. But there aren't any, so what's the problem?

Of course, the Adventist Church is an easy target. Whether on the "right" or on the "left" (and even in the "middle"), whether bemoaning the liberalism or the calcified dogmatism within our ranks, people will always find something to complain about, to criticize, and to lambaste. (Have you been on the Internet lately?) And no doubt in some cases the complaints, the criticism, and the lambasting are deserved.

Nevertheless, the question remains: Where else would you go? Just as truth in the Bible times stood out so clearly in contrast to the error around it, it does today as well. Look around at your options, at what's being taught—eternal torment in hell, the secret rapture, 200 million Chinese invading Israel in the battle of Armageddon, and of course the belief that Jesus changed the Sabbath to Sunday.

I can see the letters coming now: Goldstein, you're so arrogant. Goldstein, you're so narrow. Goldstein, you're such a denominational jingoist. Blah, blah, blah . . . (I get so many nasty letters that my frontal lobe has assumed the texture of limestone.)

Maybe, I'm all those things and worse; but my character defects aren't the point. The point is this: As long as you believe that the Sabbath and the state of the dead are too important to abandon, you have no real serious options other than the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Get over it. And use your influence for good.

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Clifford Goldstein is editor of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide.