Is the Church of 7th Day Adventist an Apostate Church?

The Seventh Day Adventist church is essentially a mainstream Protestant church, distinguishable primarily because it observes the Jewish sabbath instead of Sunday as the day of worship.

It, in fact, holds this out as a sign they are the remnant church, and all others have followed the early Roman church into changing the day of worship to Sunday.

They have some pretty good arguments in that regard.

Known for their healthful lifestyle, the church has many physicians and health care workers among its membership and long has had hospitals and medical schools around the world.

Ellen G. White is a strange case. Long revered within the church as a modern prophet whose writings were essentially on par with the Bible, blatant cases of plagiarism on her part have been documented in recent decades, leading many SDAs to wonder if she was more inspired by God or by the library.

Her many visions began after she was hit in the head with a rock as a teenager, and ceased entirely after menopause. As part of the movement of William Miller who had predicted the return of Christ to earth in October of 1844 based on a reading of the books of Daniel and Revelation, Ellen White essentially became the symbol of those who went through “The Great Disappointment” of 1844.

The SDAs are coming to grips with the fact that Ellen G. White was something less than earlier believed, and also coming to grips with the concept that the second coming of Christ isn’t just months away, as they have been told monthly since 1844.

The church has an extensive number of private schools from kindergarten through the university level, and a fairly extensive overseas evangelical effort. It’s not a cult by any means. They do have a slightly irrational fear of the Catholic Church based on their readings of Revelation, but it doesn’t achieve kookiness level.

“not and issue with Catholics, Orthodox, or Mainline Protestant Churches”

or any evangelical Bible believing church, or Orthodox churches.

Your non-trinitarians are your JWs, your Mormons, your Unitarians. . . the trinity is confessed throughout church history and is part of all major creeds and councils. I don’t believe a non-trinitarian is a Christian.

SDAs are trinitarian to the best of my knowledge.

Another mark of a true Christian church, for me, would be a confession that the Bible is the word of God.

Facts Seventh-day Adventists Won't Tell You Seventh-day Adventists won't tell you they are behind the "Revelation Seminars" they sponsor. They act all" interdenominational" if questioned. Watch out for these SDA outreaches as well: Voice of Prophecy, Faith for Today, It is Written, The Quiet Hour, Amazing Facts etc. They also hide behind Heath oriented shows on the networks, and sponsor stop-smoking clinics etc, all as introductions to Seventh-day Adventism. Often, the only tip-off that what you are reading originates with them is that it is published by "Pacific Press". They produce bright and colorful Children's books, often seen in medical and dental offices, and of course, unsuspecting Church libraries. They very much want to be perceived as Evangelical Christians, seeking a place on the ministerial fellowships. All this is good PR for them, but what do they really believe? What facts won't they tell you? They won't tell you that they consider themselves to be the only, true, remnant Church. Their prophetess, Ellen G. White, whom they revere and believe without question has told them that "...Satan has taken full possession of the Churches". (Spiritual Gifts V.l,p.189-90) They also believe our prayers are an "abomination" to God. (Spiritual Gifts, V1 p.190). That is what they think of you and your church, even if they won't say it out loud in public, or to your face. They revere their founding prophetess, Ellen G. White, and made this statement in their "Ministry" Magazine of Oct. 1981 and have never retracted it: "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". They won't tell you too much about Ellen G. White at their public seminars, but their goal is to bring the person attending to the point of conversion and baptism. Their 2000 baptismal certificate poses questions to which the candidate must answer "yes". Question 8 says, "Do you accept the biblical teaching of spiritual gifts and believe that the gift of prophecy is one of the identifying marks of the remnant church". If the candidate says "yes" and is baptised, they soon learn that the "gift of prophecy" is Ellen G. White's writings. Point 13 has them accepting that the SDA Church is the remnant church of Bible Prophecy. They have been baptized into an exclusive group, but they don't know how exclusive it is, yet! No doubt they will be urged to avail themselves of a "Clear Word Bible". This publication of theirs has inserted the words and doctrines of Ellen G. White right into the Bible text, insuring that the person studying it will have the mind of Ellen G. White. Slowly, but surely, the new SDA will come to believe these extra-biblical doctrines that set the SDA church apart from Evangelical Christianity. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doctrine on Christ Seventh-day Adventists, in the early days, denied the Trinity, but now they accept it. However, they have "leftovers" from this heresy. Ellen G. White wrote in Patriarchs and Prophets, page 761, "...He (Jesus) was revealed to them as the Angel of Jehovah, the Captain of the Lord's Host, Michael the Archangel". Adventists, you can't have it both ways! Either Jesus Christ is God, or He is some kind of an Angel. You can't talk out of both sides of your mouth to try to cover up embarrassing statements by Ellen G. White. They won't tell you she was wrong - when its "her or the Bible", she always wins! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doctrines on Salvation If you receive Christ as your Saviour through the SDA's, only your past sins, up to that moment are forgiven. Now you must get to work to earn your salvation. Ellen G. White said in the Advent Review and Sabbath Herald of 10-26-1897 this statement, "...The terms of salvation for every son and daughter of Adam are here outlined. It is plainly stated that the condition of gaining eternal life is obedience to the commandments of God". Of course, it is the fourth commandment that is stressed, since Ellen saw this one glowing in one of her visions. Salvation now becomes dependent on which day of the week one observes. Modern Adventists keep sundown Friday to sundown Saturday as the Sabbath, but earlier in their history they kept 6 p.m. Friday to 6 p.m. Saturday. The rest of us "Sunday keepers" are doomed to receive the "mark of the beast" and lose our eternal life. (The Spirit of Prophecy V. 4, p. 505). They sure don't say this at their seminars! Christ exclaimed "It is finished" when He died for our sins, but it is not finished in Seventh-day Adventism! EGW wrote in "The Faith I Live By" p. 211, "At the time appointed for the judgement - the close of the 2300 days, in 1844&endash;began the work of investigation and blotting out of sins...both the living and the dead are to be judged "out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works". (Rev. 20:12". People are never told at Seminars that if they become SDA's and are baptized, a recording angel is watching their every move to determine their salvation eventually. EGW issues this warning in The Faith I Live By, page 210, "Every man's work passes in review before God...Opposite each name in the books of heaven is entered, with terrible exactness, every wrong word, every selfish act, every unfulfilled duty, and every secret sin, with every artful dissembling. Heaven-sent warnings or reproofs neglected, wasted moments, unimproved opportunities, the influence exerted for good or for evil, with its far-reaching results, all are chronicled by the recording angel." It's not much fun being an Adventist and being watched constantly by that recording angel with his "terrible exactness". Prepare to become very uptight. Christians will say, "sure we slip sometimes into unintentional sin, but we have a mediator in Christ Jesus". No, you don't in Seventh-day Adventism. Be prepared for this SDA doctrine by Ellen G. White: "...Those who are living on the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above are to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator. Their robes must be spotless, their characters must be purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling. Through the grace of God and their own diligent effort they must be conquerors in the battle with evil....". (The Great Controversy p. 425). Obviously they have chosen EGW's doctrine over that stated in the Bible in Hebrews 7:25, "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them". Where would we all be without Christ as our mediator, EVER making intercession for us? Christ bore our own sins in his body on the tree according to the Bible. 1 Peter 2:24 says, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree...". Become a SDA, and it will be Satan who will eventually bear your sins! Ellen G. White wrote, "...so Christ will place all these sins upon Satan, the originator and instigator of sin...so Satan, bearing the guilt of all the sins which he has caused God's people to commit, will be for a thousand years confined to the earth, which will then be desolate...".(The Great Controversy p. 485). You won't hear this one at the Seminars! They keep their radical teachings for later. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- False Prophecies You Won't be Told About Seventh-day Adventism grew despite endorsing a false date for Christ's return. What a dubious beginning! Ellen G. White endorsed a false prophecy by William Miller that Christ would return, first in 1843 and then 1844. Miller repented when Christ didn't show up on his date but Ellen didn't want to be viewed as a false prophetess for endorsing him through her visions. The idea was concocted by one of her followers that the date was right, but the event was wrong. Ellen eagerly accepted this "out", and this explanation was offered to explain away the false prophecy: Christ didn't come visibly to earth, but He, invisibly, in heaven, changed compartments from the Holy to the Most Holy in 1844 and began the work of "investigative judgment" that we have discussed previously. This false date and its failure triggered other heresies on the atonement of Christ which continues to this day. Honest-hearted SDA's who have pointed out the error of the 1844 investigative judgment have been shown the door by their Conference. You sure won't be told the true history behind the 1844 doctrine by SDA's! Embarrassing false prophecies by EGW have been, altered, covered up, and locked up by the SDA's. You won't be told about them, but here are a couple. One false prophecy done in the name of the Lord marks that one as a false prophet (See Deut. chapter 18). Ellen G. White said people alive in 1856 would be translated at the 2nd coming of Jesus. (Testimonies, V1, p 131,132). She said in Testimonies for the Church, Volume 1, p. 259, that the United States would be "...humbled into the dust" by England during the Civil War. No wonder Jesus told us to "Beware of the false prophets". Time is their enemy. These false prophecies will never be mentioned by the SDA's. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cult Links You won't be told at the SDA Seminars about the things they have in common with the Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. SDA's share their early history with the Jehovah's Witnesses. An early Adventist, N. H. Barbour co-published with Charles Taze Russell. They had a falling out over (what else?) dates for the end of the world! (1844 and 1874), and parted company. Both, however, kept heretical doctrines to this day like Jesus being Michael the Archangel, the denial of Hell, and both still advocate soul sleep. Both invented invisible occurrences in heaven for their failed dates for Christ's visible return, investigative judgment for the SDA's and Christ's invisible "presence" for Jehovah's Witnesses. There is Mormon link also for the SDA's. It is a proven fact that Ellen G. White plagiarized most of her writings. The Church has been challenged by Walter Rea, author of the White Lie to prove that even 20% of her writings are original. They can't. Their weak defense was that there were no copyright laws in Ellen's day, so what she did was legal. You will never be told of her plagiarism by the SDA's. As Ellen was rising to prominence, Joseph Smith had just died. Her writings contain many phrases used by Joseph Smith. Mind you, he has also been accused of plagiarism. I have a thick file of similarities, but time does not permit details at this time, but it does illustrate just how far her "borrowing" went. You will definitely not be told of her similarities to Joseph Smith at the Seminars! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Consulting the Dead You really won't be told about Ellen G. White's engaging in necromancy, communication with the dead, expressly forbidden by God in Deuteronomy 18:10-12 "There shall not be found among you anyone...who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord..." This particular necromancy occurred after the death of her husband James, whom she called "Father". She recounts the experience in a letter to her son published in "The Retirement Years" p. 161 - 163. She begins her letter by stating that she was seeking God regarding her future, "A few days since I was pleading with the Lord for light in regard to my duty"... It is evident she believed this dream was in response to her prayers to God. James (whom she called "Father") appeared beside her as she was in a carriage. She reported he looked "very pale, but calm and composed". (After all, he was dead!) She says, "...I saw you die; I saw you buried. Has the Lord pitied me and let you come back...?" We are not to have conversations with the dead, but Ellen and James converse back and forth about church matters and their health. At one point James foretells the future for Ellen, "...Now, Ellen, calls will be made as they have been, desiring you to attend important meetings...". James, her dead husband, goes on to tell her she must avoid taxing her strength by going to meetings and retire and write instead. He tells her "...Make this your first business". Ellen now makes an agreement with her dead husband to stay in touch, "Well, said I, James you are always to stay with me now and we will work together". This would involve further communication with the dead. Ellen recounts that she then awoke and took the whole matter as being from the Lord in these words, "...I feel no duty to go to Battle Creek...I have no duty to stand in General Conference. THE LORD FORBIDS ME. That is enough." Well, that is enough to conclude, not only the letter, but the fact that Ellen consulted the dead and took it all as coming from the Lord. She indicated she wanted to continue this practice. Can we trust this dream? No, of course not. How then are we to trust her other 200 or so "inspired by God" dreams and visions that occurred over her lifetime? We can't, if we judge matters by the word of God. You won't be told EGW practised necromancy at the Seminars! Assorted Silliness Often, cult research is tedious and boring. I am grateful to EGW for being humorous, ridiculous, and just plain silly. Her writings bearing her name are 17 times as long as the Bible&endash;plagiarized or not. Many of them have to do with her doctrines on health and food. As an SDA you will be encouraged to become a vegetarian. Ellen indicated that your salvation could be dependent on giving up meat . No meat-eaters will be "translated" at Christ's coming (Counsels on Diet and Foods p. 380). You won't be told this scripture by SDA's "...he who is weak in faith eats vegetables only..." (Romans 14:2). (Fun to read to vegetarians). She taught in Counsels on Diet ..on p. 390 (some editions) that "...if we subsist largely upon the flesh of dead animals, we shall partake of their nature". Partake of their nature? This is against God's creation laws of "kind", and Impossible. Also conveniently forgotten is Paul view, "Eat anything that is sold in the meat market, without asking questions for conscience' sake." ( 1 Cor. 10:25). Obviously no vegetarians evident in the early church! Most of EGW's concerns over diet were in an effort to control what she considered to be an excessive sex drive in the male. She devoted endless pages to discussing "secret vice" (masturbation) and blamed the practice for a wide range of diseases. Here, in "Solemn Appeal" page 12 are a few of the diseases said to be caused by "secret vice" "...dyspepsia, spinal complaint, headache, epilepsy, impaired eyesight, palpitation of the heart, pain in the side, bleeding at the lungs, spasms of the heart and lungs, diabetes, incontinence of urine, fluor albus or whites, inflammation of the urinary organs... rheumatism, affected perspiration, consumption, asthma, catarrah, polypus of the heart, affection of the bones, fevers, ..etc. etc. The cure for secret vice was even funnier. The perpetrator was to sit in a sitz bath at as low a temperature as possible. At the same time, he was to have a hot foot bath, while applying cold cloths to his forehead. He was also to wear an abdominal bandage or wet girdle at night "to good advantage". She concludes, "Cool bathing of the parts affected is also beneficial". To those SDA's who write me that I must be endorsing masturbation by making this public, let me assure you that this is not the case. Why don't they charge their leader with the same accusation? She wrote about it much more than I ever have! I am merely exposing her silliness in health matters. You'll never hear these ridiculous topics from the Adventists! Thanks to Ellen White's influence, the Kellogg brothers were inspired to develop cold corn flakes, as hot porridge could "heat the blood" with undesirable results! She sternly warned against using feather beds for the same reasons, but I found a letter from her asking someone to send her her featherbed! (EGW Vol 3, p. 341). She also developed a "reform dress" on instructions from God, which was a bulky affair with pants under a long dress. She gave up on wearing hers finally, and so did the other women, after years of suffering discomfort. Other assorted nonsense included Angels needing golden cards as gate passes to get in and out of heaven. (Early Writings p. 37-39), She also "travelled" to other planets in her visions, and also claimed to have met Enoch (more necromancy). (EGW: The Early Years Vol.1 p. 114; p.157). She taught that certain races of men are the result of amalgamation between man and beast. (SG Vol 3, p. 64,75). Which races? You won't be told this one at the Seminars, or even later! Her silliness extended to wigs as well. Any woman daring to wear one would "...lose their reason and go hopelessly insane". (Christian Mothers, # 2, p. 121). Well, that's about enough of the silliness. We could go on, but won't. In conclusion, it is amazing to me that the SDA Church reveres Ellen G. White, choosing her visions, dreams, doctrines and teachings above the Bible. Other women had better run for cover, however, as they wouldn't dream of ordaining a woman in their denomination which is totally male dominated. Adventists love to quote Walter Martin who was "had" by them as a young man and believed their statements without checking matters out closely, to prove they are not a cult. However, before he died, he made this statement on the John Ankerberg Show: "I fear that if they continue to progress at this rate, then the classification of a cult can't possibly miss being reapplied to Seventh-day Adventism, because once you have an interpreter of Scripture, a final court of appeal that tells you what Scripture means, as soon as you judge Scripture by that, as soon as you have someone who has made doctrinal errors in the past, even on the deity of Christ and the doctrine of the atonement and other things, and that person is raised to that position or authority, you have polarization around that person". By their own actions and stubborn clinging to Ellen G. White, her extra-biblical teachings, visions, and doctrines, the Seventh-day Adventists have placed themselves in the category of a cult. They certainly won't tell you this fact! They are a cult! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IN CONCLUSION SDA's often make every effort to appear "evangelical", joining in with inter-ministry groups and trying to "blend in" with the Christian community. However, make no mistake about it, they believe they are exclusively correct because they recognize and follow Ellen G. White. Among themselves, they mock the Christian's beliefs, calling our concept of salvation, "cheap grace". They privately consider themselves to be spiritually superior to the rest of us. The sources of many of the above points can found in more detail in the other articles on our web and in the book: SDA's and the Writings of E. G. White. Also in the doumentation book that goes along with the SDA video. (Available in our catalog). Check out our SDA video ... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information and documentation on the SDA church visit these webs. http://www.exadventist.com http://www.Bible.ca/sabbath.htm http://www.truthorfables.com/ http://www.ratzlaf.com http:// www.servant@ellenwhite.org http://members.tripod.com/~Help_for_SDAs/index.html

And if you love God you won’t observe laws in an effort to please Him.

That is the walk of works, not the walk of faith.

And there is nothing in the New Testament that even implies that Gentiles were required to observe a seventh day sabbath...or pay a tithe.

Tara another thing you might find interesting is about the Adventist health message. This has long been derided by other denominations but has proven to be very effective. Adventists are some of the longest living and most healthy people in the world.

"And in Loma Linda, California, researchers studied a group of Seventh-day Adventists who rank among America's longevity all-stars. Residents of these three places produce a high rate of centenarians, suffer a fraction of the diseases that commonly kill people in other parts of the developed world, and enjoy more healthy years of life. " National Geographic Magazine

“what Paul taught wasn’t what Christ taught.”

Paul taught nothing in contradiction to Christ. What are you referring to?

Then the Doctrine of the Trinity probably won’t be an issue for this investigator. I didn’t know the beliefs of Seventh-Day Adventists. Yet I would hesitate to prescribe any manmade interpretation of the scriptures as the definitive word on the subject. I prefer to urge people to seek guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

Jesus is God.

God gave us the ten commandments.

Ergo, we should keep the commandments.

Not to “save ourselves,” but to honor Him.

The rich young rules was told to keep the commandments. Also, he was told to sell all he had, give to the poor, and follow Jesus. He was not told “forget the commandments.”

That said, if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself, I dare say you’d be keeping the ten commandments anyway. Would you worship an idol if you loved the Lord? Would you take His name in vain? Would you defraud your neighbor if you love him as yourself? Commit adultery with his wife? Kill him? Of course not.

Do they believe in the Rapture of the Church?

Their view of the Rapture is similar, but they do not hold to the standard premillinalism dispensationalism model. Their interpretation of Revelations gives me a head ache when ever I listen to any of their teachers on TV.

Jesus said he did not come to break the *Law* of the Prophets but to fullfill it...

So if we only walk in faith but deny the works, how can we be doing the will of Christ?

One apology
The Catholic Church modified its view on accepting SDA baptism, AFTER the SDA cult modified its views.

The important point here is that the SDA tries to make points of “contradiction” between the modern Christian Church and the Old Testament -—

However, there are very FEW faiths out there that have modified their “official” views more often, and with more twisted logic, than the 7th Day Adventists:

“Seventh-Day Adventism

Most people know little about the Seventh-Day Adventists beyond that they worship on Saturdays, not Sundays. But there’s more to this unique sect.

Adventist History

The Seventh-Day Adventist church traces its roots to American preacher William Miller (1782–1849), a Baptist who predicted the Second Coming would occur between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. Because he and his followers proclaimed Christ’s imminent advent, they were known as “Adventists.”

When Christ failed to appear, Miller reluctantly endorsed the position of a group of his followers known as the “seventh-month movement,” who claimed Christ would return on October 22, 1844 (in the seventh month of the Jewish calendar).

When this didn’t happen either, Miller forswore predicting the date of the Second Coming, and his followers broke up into a number of competing factions. Miller would have nothing to do with the new theories his followers produced, including ones which attempted to save part of his 1844 doctrine. He rejected this and other teachings being generated by his former followers, including those of Ellen Gould White.

Miller had claimed, based on his interpretation of Daniel and Revelation, that Christ would return in 1843–44 to cleanse “the sanctuary” (Dan. 8:11–14, 9:26), which he interpreted as the earth. After the disappointments of 1844, several of his followers proposed an alternative theory. While walking in a cornfield on the morning of October 23, 1844, the day after Christ failed to return, Hiram Edson felt he received a spiritual revelation that indicated that Miller had misidentified the sanctuary. It was not the earth, but the Holy of Holies in God’s heavenly temple. Instead of coming out of the heavenly temple to cleanse the sanctuary of the earth, in 1844 Christ, for the first time, went into the heavenly Holy of Holies to cleanse it instead.

Another group of Millerites was influenced by Joseph Bates, a retired sea captain, who in 1846 and 1849 issued pamphlets insisting that Christians observe the Jewish Sabbath—Saturday—instead of worshipping on Sunday. This helped feed the intense anti-Catholicism of Seventh-Day Adventism, since they blamed the Catholic Church for changing the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday.

These two streams of thought—Christ entering the heavenly sanctuary and the need to keep the Jewish Sabbath—were combined by White, who claimed to have received many visions confirming these doctrines. Together with Edson and Bates, she formed the Seventh-Day Adventist denomination, which officially received its name in 1860.

Today the denomination reports that it has 780,000 members in the United States and 7.8 million members elsewhere, many in Catholic countries.

Adventist Propaganda

White claimed to receive the first of several hundred visions in December of 1844. She gained recognition in Adventist circles as a prophetess and became the church’s leader. Over the next few decades, she provided guidance on almost every.aspect of belief and worship, writing over fifty books commenting on health, education, finance, and other topics. Her works are held by her followers to be inerrant on matters of doctrine, as is the Bible, though they are on a slightly lower plane of honor than the Bible.

Her most important books, especially The Desire of the Ages and The Great Controversy, are frequently reprinted by Seventh-Day Adventist publishing houses in a variety of formats. They often appear with different covers and titles. For example, The Great Controversy is often marketed as America in Prophecy. They are printed whole or in excerpted form. Sometimes Ellen Gould White’s name appears on the cover, sometimes a less well-known form of her name appears (e.g., E. G. White), and sometimes her name does not appear on the outside of the book at all.

This allows Adventists to put White’s works in the hands of non-Adventists without alerting them that they are reading an Adventist publication until they are well into the work.

Adventist publishing houses also keep the terms “Seventh-Day” and “Adventist” out of their names. Typical Adventist and Adventist-related publishing houses have names including Inspiration Books, Amazing Truth Publications, Review & Herald Publishing Association, and Pilgrims’ Press.

This is because Adventists have always been regarded suspiciously by Evangelicals and have often been viewed as a fanatical cult (as have some of their offshoots, such as the Branch Davidians). Many Evangelical leaders even have asserted—incorrectly—that Adventists are not Christians, even though they believe in Christ’s divinity and use a valid Trinitarian form of baptism.

Often Adventist-related publishing houses conduct mass mailings of their literature to every home and post office box in a community. This has been done regularly with Amazing Truth Publications’ anti-Catholic volume, National Sunday Law.

Adventist Beliefs

Seventh-Day Adventists agree with many Catholic doctrines, including the Trinity, Christ’s divinity, the virgin birth, the atonement, a physical resurrection of the dead, and Christ’s Second Coming. They use a valid form of baptism. They believe in original sin and reject the Evangelical teaching that one can never lose one’s salvation no matter what one does (i.e., they correctly reject “once saved, always saved”).

Unfortunately, they also hold many false and strange doctrines. Among these are the following: (a) the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon; (b) the pope is the Antichrist; (c) in the last days, Sunday worship will be “the mark of the beast”; (d) there is a future millennium in which the devil will roam the earth while Christians are with Christ in heaven; (e) the soul sleeps between death and resurrection; and (f) on the last day, after a limited period of punishment in hell, the wicked will be annihilated and cease to exist rather than be eternally damned. (For rebuttals of many of these ideas, see the Catholic Answers tracts, The Antichrist, The Hell There Is, Hunting the Whore of Babylon, The Whore of Babylon, and Sabbath or Sunday?)

Many Adventists insist that, as a matter of discipline (not doctrine), one must not eat meats considered unclean under the Mosaic Law (many endorse total vegetarianism), and one must avoid “worldly entertainments” (card-playing, dancing, smoking, drinking, reading non-religious books, listening to non-religious music, watching non-religious television, going to the movies, etc.).

Adventists also subscribe to the two Protestant shibboleths, sola scriptura (the Bible is the sole rule of faith) and sola fide (justification is by faith alone). Other Protestants, especially conservative Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, often attack Adventists on these points, claiming they do not really hold them, which is often used as “proof” that they are “a cult.” However, along the spectrum of Protestantism (from high-church Lutherans and Anglicans to low-church Pentecostals and Baptists), there is little agreement about the meaning of these two phrases or about the doctrines they are supposed to represent.

Adventist Anti-Catholicism

As is clear from some of the beliefs listed above, Adventist theology is intensely anti-Catholic. Many Catholics who do not frequently come in contact with Adventists or their literature do not realize just how hostile they can be toward the Church.

Trying to give others the benefit of the doubt, Catholics may suppose that anti-Catholicism is part of Adventism’s radical fringe. Unfortunately, this is untrue. Adventists who are moderate on Catholicism are a minority. Anti-Catholicism characterizes the denomination because it is embraced in White’s “divinely inspired” writings. A few illustrations help indicate the scope of the problem:

“Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots . . . is further declared to be ‘that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.’ Revelation 17:4–6, 18. The power that for so many centuries maintained despotic sway over the monarchs of Christendom is Rome. The purple and scarlet color, the gold and precious stones and pearls, vividly picture the magnificence and more than kingly pomp affected by the haughty see of Rome” (The Great Controversy, 338).

“It is one of the leading doctrines of Romanism that the pope is the visible head of the universal Church of Christ . . . and has been declared infallible. He demands the homage of all men. The same claim urged by Satan in the wilderness of temptation is still urged by him [Satan] through the Church of Rome, and vast numbers are ready to yield him homage” (ibid., 48).

“Marvelous in her shrewdness and cunning is the Roman Church. She can read what is to be. She bides her time, seeing that the Protestant churches are paying her homage in their acceptance of the false Sabbath. . . . And let it be remembered, it is the boast of Rome that she never changes. The principles of Gregory VII and Innocent III are still the principles of the Roman Catholic Church. And has she but the power, she would put them in practice with as much vigor now as in past centuries. . . . Rome is aiming to reestablish her power, to recover her lost supremacy” (ibid., 507–8).

“God’s word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures, in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be1 repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever believe and obey the word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution” ( ibid., 508–9).

Strong stuff! Unfortunately, most Adventists believe this. Bear in mind that these quotes are not taken from an obscure work of White’s that nobody ever reads. They are from what is probably her single most popular volume, The Great Controversy.

Adventist Eschatology

Seventh-Day Adventism is basically consumed with the concept of the last days. It was formed from the remnants of the Millerite movement, which was created to await the world’s end. In White’s end times view, the Jewish Sabbath and the Catholic Church play prominent roles.

According to her, the papacy is the seven-headed beast from the sea in Revelation 13:1–10. Accompanying this beast is a lamb-like beast from the earth (Rev. 13:11–18). The latter causes the world to worship the former and has an image made of it. White proclaimed that the second beast is the United States (The Great Controversy, 387–8), and that it will force people to worship the papacy by “enforcing some observance which shall be an act of homage to the papacy” (ibid., 389). This observance, she says, is Sunday worship rather than Saturday worship.

White claims that the papacy changed the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday, making this change a mark of its authority. In her view, there will come a time when the United States will establish a “national Sunday law” and compel its citizens to worship on Sunday and thus take the mark of the beast. It will not compel them to become Catholics, but to join a Protestant state-church that is an “image” of the papacy, and thus, “the image of the beast” (ibid., 382–96).

Seventh-Day Adventism cannot change its views on the Catholic Church being the Whore of Babylon without admitting that it was wrong on Sunday worship. It cannot admit that Sunday worship is not the mark of the beast without changing its views on the Jewish Sabbath. Seventh-Day Adventism cannot cease to be anti-Catholic without ceasing to be Seventh-Day Adventism.

There is a “moderate” wing of Adventism that is more open to Catholics as individuals (though still retaining White’s views concerning the papacy). In fact, White was willing to concede that—in the here and now (before the end times)—some Catholics are saved. She wrote that “there are now true Christians in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion, who honestly believe that Sunday is the Sabbath of divine appointment. God accepts their sincerity of purpose and their integrity before him. But when Sunday observance shall be enforced by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God, to obey a precept which has no higher authority than Rome, will thereby honor popery above God” (ibid., 395).

Unfortunately, this one tolerant statement is embedded in hundreds of hostile statements. While this.aspect of her teaching can be played up by her more moderate followers, it is difficult for them to do so, because the whole Adventist milieu in which they exist is anti-Catholic. The group is an eschatology sect, and its central eschatological teaching, other than Christ’s Second Coming, is that the Second Coming will be preceded by a period in which the papacy will enforce Sunday worship on the world. Everyone who does not accept the papacy’s Sunday worship will be killed; and everyone who does accept the papacy’s Sunday worship will be destroyed by God.

By virtue of their valid baptism, and their belief in Christ’s divinity and in the doctrine of the Trinity, Seventh-Day Adventists are both ontologically and theologically Christians. But Christians, once separated from the Church our Lord founded, are susceptible to being “tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Eph. 4:14).

NIHIL OBSTAT: I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004

IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004

http://www.catholic.com/library/Seventh_Day_Adventism.asp

Paul taught nothing in contradiction to Christ

Did not say that he did...but if if you've read the Gospels and then Acts and the Epistles you'll see a difference.

If we are not observing the Saturday Sabbath are we apostate?

I found it interesting one of our local TV stations broadcasts the local Seventh Day Adventist church sermon on Sunday (apparently taped from the previous day) and thought, "gee, are they going to hell like the rest of us for having service on Sunday?" It just struck me as somewhat humorous.

Jesus is God.

There is your fundamental problem...Jesus is the SON of God.

Until you can regocnize who Jesus is and who he isn't you will never go far spiritually.

Heck, even satan knows that Jesus is the Son of God!

You are the one saying to deny works, not I.

Very clever twisting of words, whether intentional or not.

My dear Eagle Eye, I have read my Bible through repeatedly for 25 years. I hear it preached twice a week, taught in Bible Study once a week, and have Sunday School once a week. I have taught it, plenty of New Testament, and you know, ultimately, since it is inspired of God and not the mere writing of a collection of diverse men, there is no “difference” unless you are referring to things being fulfilled, i.e., in the gospels Jesus was set to die, then died, then resurrected, in Acts the full power of the Holy Spirit was given, etc.

Do you like apples?

Care to show me where Jesus once taught about the Church of Christ, the mystery of the one body, or of salvation by grace?

How about them apples?

Jesus taught that John baptized with water but that someday his followers would baptize with holy spirit.

Paul teaches of there being only one baptism.

So is it water or spirit?

No- I was just trying to claify with you, when you said we are not obligated to obey the Ten Commandments because they were not given to gentiles only to the Children of Israel.

Did John the Baptist “Baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit”??

Of course not, since the concept of the Trinity could not possibly have been known by John, at that time.

Your question is silly.