By Yvonne Kanyi, student writer
Clifford Goldstein, noted Seventh-day Adventist author and editor, will speak for Union’s March Power Pac event on Friday and Sabbath in the College View Church.
For the first talk for Family Worship on Friday night, Goldstein will share his personal story about how a quest for the truth transformed his life. At the Sabbath morning worship service on March 17, he will deliver a sermon titled “The Thief of the Cross” at 9:15 a.m. and noon.
A prolific author, Goldstein has written 21 books including an autobiography, The Clifford Goldstein Story. One of his popular books, Graffiti in the Holy of Holies, addresses claims that the 1844 investigative judgement and Ellen White’s prophet status are a sham. In another of his books, God, Gödel and Grace, he creates a scientific foundation for faith. In most of his books, Goldstein aims to reveal the truth behind various beliefs and doctrines. He has also been the editor of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide since 1999.
Where did the Pizza come from?
Born in 1955, he was raised in a secular Jewish home in Miami Beach. Goldstein was a regular young man who loved to travel and write. But change came knocking on his door in his early 20s while he attended college in Miami.
“I was just a skinny kid, doped up half the time,” confessed Goldstein in a video interview produced by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. “I knew I had a lot of creative ideas… I knew I was gonna do something with it in my life. I wanted to be a novelist.”
At age 21, in his senior of college, he began writing a novel that would eventually consume him. For more than two years he poured all his resources into the book. “The book controlled my life more than I controlled the characters in the book,” he said. “But, in the midst of all this, I was always a seeker.” Eventually, his seeking nature led him to God.
“One day I was sitting in a pizza parlor and I was reading the work of a philosopher and he said something that changed my life. He said that in order to live the most perfect life on this earth you need to find out the reason you are here and then live your life accordingly.” recounted Goldstein. “I was eating this pizza in front of me and you could have had a thousand different people with a thousand different views on how the pizza got there. Somewhere out there, there must be an explanation for the pizza. It hit me, in the same way, that there’s got to be an explanation for the pizza, something had to explain the world, the universe. And then it hit me. Whatever that is, that is the TRUTH. I wanted to know it and didn’t care what it cost me.”
His quest for the truth led to him establishing his life in God. He burned his novel—the book that consumed his life. While the fire devoured the pages he finally surrendered, professing, “Okay God, I want truth. I want you.” He knew nothing about Jesus or the plan for salvation, all he knew is that he wanted the truth. “It was 1979 and I have never been sorry or had doubts,” Goldstein said.
The Power Pac is a monthly event featuring a guest speaker for weekend worship services. The talks will be held in the sanctuary of the College View Seventh-day Adventist Church located at 48th and Prescott on the campus of Union College. All events are free and open to the public.