Identifying Jesus with a created being, an angel of any level of authority, is troubling to me. The argument that an Archangel is not an angel is ridiculous on its face.
Lucifer was the highest angel and Michael did not rebuke him in Jude 1:9, but said “The Lord rebuke you.” This is yet another Scripture that shows that Jesus and Michael are two separate beings.
I find myself in a rather odd position, trying to clarify a point of their beliefs that I wholly disagree with, but I’ll try again, and then be done with it.
I agree that it is incorrect, but I suppose they would argue that Michael is not a created being, if in fact they read him as a theophany. I also thought immediately thought of Jude 1:9 when I learned of that particular interpretation, and I agree that the Archangel is not the Savior. Scripture, to me, is absolutely obvious and clear on this point, and I believe any belief that confuses the two likely does so to force some particulars in an erroneous predetermined eschatology.
That said, one could use your same argument of confounding angels and Jesus as evidence of a cult against the rather common interpretation that the Angel of the LORD in the Old Testament is a Theophany. You need not agree with the Angel of the LORD being an embodiment of the Lord himself, but it is a view shared by many mainline protestants. Perhaps I am being too generous with the analogy here, but I just wouldn’t severe fellowship over this particular point.
My posting on this matter is simply that, politics aside, we have an obligation to respect other brothers and sisters in Christ. I believe that SDAs, heterodox though they are in many articles of their faith, are Christians if they, believing in the Triune God, accept redemption and justification on the basis of faith in the finished work of the incarnate (fully God and fully human) Second Person of the Trinity. As such, we need to be more careful in the way that we reprove them. Just asking for grace here in our dealings with other Christians.
I honestly hope you have a pleasant evening and weekend. God bless.