Seventh-Day Adventist Church
By: L. Labrier
1.) Adventist Origins and their Voice of Authority.
The Seventh-Day Adventist Church was formally organized on
May 21, 1863 and numbered around 3,500 members. Ellen G.
White (1827-1915) is generally known as the Seventh-Day
Adventists (SDA) founder, prophetess, and spiritual leader.
The SDA claim that the Bible is their final authority, but
in addition they tightly cling to the visions of Ellen
White, which are believed to be divine revelations from God
which must be obeyed. Ellen White wrote a book called The
Great Controversy which holds her many beliefs and is
referred to by her followers as “one of our standard
books.” Both the Scriptures and Ellen White’s publications
are believed to be inspired by God. Consequently,
Seventh-day Adventist adhere to Ellen White’s writings just
as carefully as they hold to the teachings of God’s Word.
2.) The Adventist Doctrine of Investigative Judgment
This unbiblical doctrine originated on Oct. 22, 1844 when
Christ had failed to return for the believers as Adventists
had predicted. The investigative judgment is explained by
Ellen White to be an act in which God opens the book of life
and looks at the lives of every believer at death. He blots
out the name of any person that has unrepented and
unforgiven sin and erases every good deed that person
performed from the records. Only those who have sincerely
repented of their sin, believed on Christ’s atonement, and
followed God’s law will be pardoned and worthy of
everlasting life.
This view places conditions upon salvation, making salvation
a “faith plus works” based system which is contrary to the
Scriptures (Eph. 2:8-9, Titus 3:5). SDA claim that a
believer’s sins are forgiven, yet his sin record is not
blotted out until the Judgment. According to God’s Word,
believers will be judged to determine their rewards, but not
judged with respect to their salvation as the Seventh-Day
Adventist believes (2 Cor. 5:10). Seventh-Day Adventists do
not believe that they can be eternally certain of their
salvation, since they can lose their salvation through
sinning. God’s Word assures us that if we believe in Jesus
Christ as Savior we will have everlasting life and will not
come into judgment (Jn. 5:24, Jn. 10:28).
3.) Sabbath-Keeping
This doctrine is probably emphasized publicly more than any
other doctrine in the SDA congregation. The Seventh-Day
Adventists’ name originated from their belief that worship
should only be performed on the seventh day of the week-
that being Saturday. According to Ellen White, those who
know this and practice worship of the Lord on Sunday will be
under the mark of the beast as recorded in the book of
Revelation.
This doctrine of Sabbath keeping did not come into existence
through examining the Scriptures, but rather through a
vision Ellen White received as the result of a Sabbatarian
by the name of Bates who influenced her. The problem isn’t
so much that Adventists worship the Lord on a different day
as it is that Sabbath keeping is a decisive factor in
receiving salvation. Hence, they added the works of the Law
to salvation, which Paul clearly denounced in the book of
Galatians (Gal. 3:1-3). God’s Word teaches that it is
impossible to receive salvation by faith plus works, because
one would, of necessity, cancel out the other (Romans 11:6).
4.) Soul Sleep
Soul sleep is the belief that a person’s soul will not exist
from the time he dies until his body is resurrected. The
doctrine of soul sleep originated through the SDA denial
that the soul is immortal or everlasting. Within this
doctrine they claim that a person is a soul, but without an
eternal soul. They use Numbers 19:18 to support this view.
The Seventh-Day Adventists use Ecclesiastes 9:5 to maintain
their belief that the soul does not live apart from the
human body. On the contrary, the Bible does prove that the
soul lives apart from the body (Matt. 10:28, Luke 16:19-31,
as well as
2 Corinthians 5:1-8, and Phil. 1:23,). Furthermore, they
claim that a believer essentially does not have eternal life
until his body is raised from the dead. Yet, the Scriptures
clearly show that a believer can have assurance of salvation
at the moment he trusts Christ as Savior (Jn. 5:24, Rom.
10:9; 1 Jn. 5:11-13).
5.) Annihilation of the Wicked
The Seventh-Day Adventists hold that the wicked person will
conclude his eternal existence when he dies, instead of
suffering everlasting punishment in hell. Yet, God’s Word
contradicts this view in Matt. 25:46, “And these will go
away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into
eternal life.” Their reasoning for this doctrine is
that God is a God of love and would not permit anyone to
suffer for all eternity. God is a loving God (Jn.
3:16, 1 Jn. 4:7-10) and this is the very reason that God
sent His only Son to pay the price for our sin, making a way
for us to escape condemnation and spend eternity in heaven
with Him. Consequently, anyone who rejects this free gift of
eternal life will not escape eternal punishment for his sins
(Rom.3:23, Rom.5:8, Rom.6:23).
You can be sure you have had your sins forgiven and you can
be certain of eternal life. For more information, consider
reading Knowing God, or
contact us!
Berry, Harold J., What They Believe- Seventh-Day
Adventists. Lincoln, Ne:
Back To The Bible Publication, 1987.
Berry, Harold J., Examining the Cults. Lincoln, Ne:
Back To The Bible
Publication, 1979.
Martin, Walter. The Kingdom of the Cults.
Minneapolis, Minnesota:
Bethany House Publishers, 1997.
http://www.ellenwhite.org/egw36.htm
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2 Tim 4:2
Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season;
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
KJV
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