Seventh-day Adventists
An in-depth teaching series that looks at what the Seventh-day Adventists believe and teach and how as Christians we are to respond Please click on the PDF links to read each article in full.
Part 1 - An Introduction to the Seventh-day Adventists
When one goes to the official website of the Seventh-day Adventist Church to look at their statement of ‘Fundamental Beliefs’; upon first glance, one finds nothing of real concern. They believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures, the doctrine of the Trinity, the deity of Jesus Christ, substitutionary atonement and salvation by faith as a gift of God’s grace. However, Seventh-day Adventists are adept at saying one thing out of one side of their mouth while taking it back out of the other. In continuing to explore what else is included in their Fundamental Beliefs, emerging cracks begin to appear, which when further investigated reveal a rupture in the foundations!
In this introductory teaching, we shall discover what Seventh-day Adventists believe and why they are classified as a cult.
Part 2 - Ellen G. White and Adventist History
The Seventh-day Adventist Church arose out of the Great Millerite Disappointment of 1844. The nineteenth century saw a literal explosion in the number of cults and religious groups springing up in the United States. Early on in Adventist history, Ellen G. White stamped her mark as a prophet, claiming to receive visions from God which guided and shaped the movement.
Without Ellen G. White, there is no Seventh-day Adventism. In this teaching we take a look at the early beginnings of Seventh-day Adventism and in particular, the nature of Mrs White’s visions and the substance of her writings. What does make of someone who teaches others one thing regarding the eating of meat, while at the same time eating meat herself? I shall allow the evidence to speak for itself.
Part 3 - Was Ellen G. White a Prophet?
Ellen G. White had over 2000 visions during her lifetime and the content of those visions resulted in over 100,000 pages of writings which the Seventh-day Adventist Church consider to be inspired by the Holy Spirit and a continuing and authoritative source of truth. Ellen White claimed that her visions and writings were not simply expressions of her ideas, but originated from God.
What do you call a prophet who prophesies things that don’t come to pass? What do you call someone who steals from others' works while trying to pass them off as writings inspired by God? In this teaching, further investigation is given to Mrs White’s prophecies and writings to determine whether or not she was a prophet called by God.
Part 4 - Is the Law Binding Upon Christians?
Many of the misconceptions surrounding the question of this teaching arise from a failure to rightly understand the nature of a covenant. When the children of Israel said, “…All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient” (Ex. 24:7), the ALL consisted of far more commandments than only ten. The children of Israel committed themselves to the keeping of some 613 commandments, all of which were binding upon them. Furthermore, as one reads the passage in Exodus 24, one very quickly realises that at Mount Sinai, the Israelites were not simply agreeing to keep a set of laws; they were entering into a covenant with Yahweh, their God, that involved the sprinkling of blood.
As one reaches the end of the Book of Malachi in a Christian Bible, one passes from one covenant to another - a New Covenant not instituted with the blood of animals, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. By the bringing in of a new covenant, the first, by definition, has become old and has been made obsolete. Once one understands this, the answer to the question, “Is the Law Binding Upon Believers” becomes an oxymoron, and the Adventist case for the continuation of the Ten Commandments is dismissed.
Part 5 - Is the Law Necessary for Salvation?
The question that has plagued the Church of Jesus Christ for the duration of its 2000-year history is the question that shall be answered in this teaching. The oldest heresy in Christianity was not the denial of the deity of Christ, nor was it baptismal regeneration. The oldest heresy can be traced to the fifteenth chapter of the Book of Acts, to a sect of men who came down from Judea to the Gentile congregations of Antioch and the surrounding regions, who began teaching the Christians that Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved (Acts 15:1). Thank God that this question was not left open for proceeding generations to play guess-work. The answer to the question; Is the Law necessary for salvation?, was answered conclusively 2000 years ago in the first council of Jerusalem, and its conclusions have been set out in that 15th chapter of Acts. If this was not sufficient enough, God inspired the pen of Paul to write the Book of Galatians, whose whole purpose is to repudiate the false claims of the Judaizers and to warn the Gentile Christians not to fall into the snare of Mosaic legalism. Then there is the Book of Hebrews, written not to Gentile believers, but to Jewish believers who were in danger of returning to the Mosaic Law. One would think that this mountain of evidence would be enough to turn any law-seeking believer away from such pursuit and to guide them back to safety.
Some 2000 years on, the answer to the question, "Is the Law necessary for salvation?" is still a resounding yes for some. Leading the way is the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Part 6 - Answering Adventist Arguments for Law
According to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, love for Jesus Christ is manifested by one’s obedience to the Ten Commandments; without obedience to these commandments, no man shall enter the kingdom of heaven. The goal of this teaching is to establish what commandments Jesus had in mind when He said, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love” (Jn. 15:10).
In addition to answering this question, consideration shall be given to arguments raised by Seventh-day Adventists to support their claim for the continuing binding nature of the Ten Commandments.
Part 7 - Should Christians Keep the Sabbath?
As one combs the pages of the New Testament Epistles, one will find that nine of the ten commandments written on tablets of stone are also explicitly prohibited by the New Testament writers except for one, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). Ironically, the only commandment of the ten, not brought across into the new, is the commandment which Seventh-day Adventists major on the most.
To understand why the Seventh-day Adventist Church places such emphasis on the seventh day, one has to first understand the emphasis placed upon this day by its prophet, Ellen G. White. In this teaching, we shall take an in-depth look at what Mrs White and the Adventist Church teach regarding the continuing biding nature of the Sabbath and ask ourselves whether it is the same as what the Bible teaches.
