World Christian Fellowship

www.wcflondon.com
[email protected]

Seventh Day Adventist

Here are nine things you should know about that denomination:

1. Seventh-day Adventists:
18.1 Million in the World
1.2 Million in USA

The word seventh day is in line with keeping up with the

4th Commandment of God which never ever practiced by
early church or it is been commanded by the New
Testament.

The word "Adventist" refers to the Second Advent, the

return of Christ. An "Adventist" is someone who has an
obsessive interest in the timing of Christ's return. Jesus
Himself said Matthew 24:42, “Therefore keep watch,
because you do not know on what day your Lord will
come.
Matthew 24:36, “But about that day or hour no one
knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but
only the Father.
Because no one knows when it will be, and if someone
starts giving you a time frame, steer clear.
2. SDA – History.
The seeds of Seventh-Day Adventism were sown first,
with a document published in 1822 by William Miller in
upstate New York. (It would be forty years before
Seventh-Day Adventism would organize formally, but
that document in 1822 was the beginning.)
Started New York in the 1840s, an offshoot of the
Millerite movement, which arose during the religious
revival known as the Second Great Awakening.
William Miller, a Baptist preacher, predicted and
preached that, based on his reading of Daniel 8:14,
Christ would return sometime between March 21, 1843,
and March 21, 1844.
The failure of this prediction that known as the “Great
Disappointment” led many Millerites to become
disillusioned.
But Hiram Edson claimed to have seen a vision of Jesus
standing at the altar of heaven and concluded that
Miller had been right about the time but wrong about
the place. “In other words, Jesus’s return was not to
earth but a move into the heavenly sanctuary as is
referenced in Hebrews 8:1-2.” The development of this
doctrine, known as “Sanctuary/investigative judgment”
influenced Joseph Bates and James and Ellen White, the
founding pioneers of the SDA church.

Ellen Harmon was twelve years old and an

impressionable child when her parents became
followers of William Miller in 1840. (She married at age
19, and we know her today by her married name, Ellen
G. White.) In 1844, when Adventist expectation was still
at its peak, Ellen was a seventeen-year-old. She was
subject to fainting spells and already beginning to
exhibit an overbearing disposition. When the Great
Disappointment made it clear that William Miller's
predictions were wrong, Ellen began to experience
visions. These experiences always took place in crowded
meeting halls and other public places. She had almost
200 of these seizures. Her son, William C. White,
described it this way: "She would fall helpless to the
floor, stop breathing, and yet her heart beat, and she
would speak." It was all very melodramatic.

She said the Lord had revealed to her that those who
remained faithful and expectant would soon see the
Lord in glory and be taken immediately to heaven, but
the door of salvation was now permanently closed to
those who rejected William Miller's teaching or lost faith
after Miller's predictions failed. Her prophecies regularly
indicated that the Lord's coming was very near.
She said the angel promised her that she would be one
of those living who would witness the coming of Christ.
But her visions over the next few years kept revising the
timing.
The first official Seventh-Day Adventist Church was
formally established in 1863.
Ellen White claimed that a supernatural being in the
form of a young man guided her through these visions.
Adventists today refer to this as "the spirit of Prophecy."
Ellen White refers to the spirit as her "accompanying
angel." That sounds suspiciously like what Scripture
refers to as a "familiar spirit." Given the complexity of
her visions and the influence they have had, these may
be demonic visitations either Satan or one of his
messengers, disguised "as an angel of light," as Paul says
in 2 Corinthians 11:14-15.

The article, written by Ron Graybill, a leading Seventh-

Day Adventist historian and apologist, reflects the
denomination's official position about Mrs. White and
her works. The article is titled, "Ellen White's role in
doctrine formation," and it says this:
“We believe the revelation and inspiration of both the
Bible and Ellen White's writings to be of equal quality.
The superintendence of the Holy Spirit was just as careful
and thorough in one case as in the other.”

Evangelicals universally referred Christian Scientist,

Mormon, Jehovah witness and SDA all these four groups
as cults.
➢ All of them claim to have recovered vital truth
lost to the church for centuries.
 ➢ All of them regarded every other denomination
as utterly false.
➢ All of them have made proselytes by feeding on
evangelical churches through stealth and
deception. They all claim that they believe the
same things we do, or they try to hide who they
really are.
➢ They hate to be called cults, and they insist they
are gentle, kind and biblical.
➢ All these groups are quasi-Christian, sub-
orthodox, and they themselves all claim to be
the one true church. So, they are properly
labelled cults. And I believe Seventh-Day
Adventism deserves that label as well.

What is a cult?
The characteristics of a cult. "A cult is an authoritarian,
elitist religious sect who teach that salvation hinges on
membership in their group, and yet they depart from
one or more essential points in the ancient ecumenical
creeds."
But in common usage, especially in evangelical circles,
the expression is normally reserved for groups that
encourage a kind of obsessive commitment to a very
narrow set of doctrines, authoritarian leadership, and
their own body of extrabiblical revelation. They are
basically closed communities, fully committed to some
novel system of doctrine shared by no one else.
Several of the new cults were offshoots of Seventh-Day
Adventism including the Branch Davidians, the
Worldwide Church of God, "The Shepherd's Rod," "The
Church of Bible Understanding," and the Seventh-Day
Adventist Reform movement.

First is extrabiblical revelation. All the major cults have

some source of authority outside the Bible, and this
becomes the lens through which they read and interpret
Scripture. Therefore, the stuff they attach to the Bible
governs what they can see in the Bible.
For Mormons, it's The Book of Mormon.
For Jehovah's Witnesses, it's the Watchtower magazine.
For Christian Scientists, it's a book called Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures.
For the Seventh-Day Adventists, the key that unlocks the
Bible's true meaning is the voice of their founding
prophetess, Ellen G. White.

Second feature all cults share: They believe their sect is

the one true church.
Each one claims to be the one true expression of
genuine Christianity. The DNA of every true cult is a
belief that their group alone represents true
Christianity, and all other denominations are apostate.
 A third characteristic of the cults is their superstitious
attachment to a self-styled prophet, leader, or novel
system of doctrine.
People who belong to cults are spiritually in a state of
demonic bondage, and that's obvious because (even
when they recognize their leaders are untrustworthy or
even guilty of prophesying falsely) they often stay in the
cult, constrained by the superstitious fear that if they
leave, they might forfeit salvation.

Fourth, all these cults preach a different gospel,

incompatible with the core gospel truths we find in
Scripture. Their teaching fatally corrupts the gospel.
Most of them mingle grace and works.

So, a cult is,

1. Extra Biblical revelation
2. They are the true church (Elite Group)
3. Authoritative leader – Enslavement
4. Doctrinal errors

3. SDAs claim the Bible as their “only creed” and consider

the movement to be “the result of the Protestant
conviction Sola Scriptura—the Bible as the only standard
of faith and practice for Christians.”
They hold “certain fundamental beliefs to be the
teaching of Holy Scriptures,” doctrines known as the 28
 Fundamental Beliefs, which are organized into six
categories.
1. the doctrines of God,
2. man,
3. salvation,
4. the church,
5. the Christian life, and
6. last day events.

4. The 28 Fundamental Beliefs are considered descriptive

of the church’s official position, but they are not
prescriptive for membership.
Baptism by immersion is the criteria for membership,
which is predicated on a public examination of
candidates either before the entire congregation, a
church board, or elders.
The minister or elder can give the candidate one of two
sets of baptismal vows, one consisting of 13 vows or one
consisting of the following three questions:

a) Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour and

Lord, and do you desire to live your life in a saving
relationship with him?

b) Do you accept the teachings of the Bible as expressed in

the Statement of Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-
day Adventist Church, and do you pledge by God’s grace
to live your life in harmony with these teachings?
c) Do you desire to be baptized as a public expression of
your belief in Jesus Christ, to be accepted into the
fellowship of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and to
support the church and its mission as a faithful steward
by your personal influence, tithes and offerings, and a
life of service?

5. Most of the 28 Fundamental Beliefs are similar to

doctrines professed by evangelical Protestant
denominations. The three main SDA doctrines
considered heretical by evangelicals are
1. Sabbatarianism (a required observance of the
Sabbath, which they believe falls on Saturday),
2. The gift of prophecy as “manifested in the ministry
of Ellen G. White,” and
3. The Sanctuary Doctrine.

6. The Sanctuary Doctrine is the most distinctive Adventist

doctrine. Orthodox Christians commonly hold that
Jesus, as our high priest, intercedes for us at God’s right
hand. Hebrews 4:14-16; 6:20; 7:25.
But SDAs also believe that Christ entered the “sanctuary
in heaven” and after a “prophetic period of 2,300 days”
(ending in 1844) he entered the second and last phase
of his atoning ministry, a work of “blotting out” sin.
From Jesus ascension until 1844, Jesus had been
applying the forgiveness he purchased on the cross in
 the first compartment of the sanctuary, but in 1844, he
entered the second compartment and began to
investigate the lives of those who had received
forgiveness to see if they were worthy of eternal life.
Only those who passed this judgment could be assured
of being translated at his coming. This doctrine gave rise
to what later became known as the sinless perfection
teaching. Following the investigative judgment, Christ
would come out of the heavenly sanctuary and return to
earth bringing to every man his reward, and ushering in
the great and terrible day of the Lord. It is 1844, and the
events described above, which mark the beginning of
SDA.

7. The other unique belief of SDA is in the “prophetic”

ministry of Ellen G. White (1827-1915).
During her lifetime White produced more than 5,000
periodical articles and 40 books totalling some 25
million words. (SDAs claim, probably correctly, that
White is the “most translated woman in literature.”)
From the time she was 17 years old until she died 70
years later, she claimed to have had approximately
2,000 visions and dreams, ranging from less than a
minute to four hours. The 27 Fundamental Beliefs
states, “Her writings speak with prophetic authority and
provide comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction
to the church. They also make clear that the Bible is the
standard by which all teaching and experience must be
 tested.” Some Adventist scholars claim that as much as
90 percent of White’s writings were imitative, though
the White estate claims it is only about 2 percent.

8. The question and answer sessions between evangelical

and SDA scholars in the 1950s led to the release of the
Adventist publication Questions on Doctrine, a
document considered to be the origin of “Evangelical
Adventism.”

1. Righteousness by faith: Righteousness by faith

included both justification and sanctification. Our
standing before God rests both in the imputed and
imparted righteousness of Christ (God's work for me
and in me). Justification is for sins committed in the
past only.

2. The human nature of Christ: Jesus Christ possessed

a human nature that not only was weakened by sin
but had inclinations toward sin itself. His nature was
like that of Adam after the fall. Because of his
success in overcoming sin, Jesus is primarily our
example.

3. The events of 1844: Jesus entered into the second

compartment of the heavenly sanctuary for the first
time on October 22, 1844 and began an investigative
 judgment. This judgment is the fulfilment of the
second phase of Christ’s atoning work.

4. Assurance of salvation: Our standing before God

rests in both the imputed and imparted
righteousness of Christ; assurance of salvation
before the judgment is presumptuous. As Jesus, our
example, showed us, perfect commandment
keeping is possible.

5. The authority of Ellen G. White: The spirit of

prophecy was manifest in the ministry of Ellen White
as a sign of the remnant church. Her writings are
inspired counsel from the Lord and authoritative in
doctrinal matters.