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Luke 8:17 says, “For
nothing is hidden that will not be made
manifest, nor is anything secret that will
not be known and come to light.”
The New World Encyclopedia has this
to say about the Seventh-day Adventist
Church:
The Seventh-day
Adventist Church traces its roots to the
preaching of William Miller, “Originally a
Deist, William Miller converted to
Christianity and became a Baptist lay
leader. After years of intensive Bible
study, Miller concluded that the Second
Coming of Jesus Christ was near. He took a
passage from Daniel 8:14, in which angels
said it would take 2,300 days for the temple
to be cleansed. Miller interpreted those
“days” as years.
Starting with the
year 457 BC, Miller added 2,300 years and
came up with the period between March 1843
and March 1844. In 1836, he published a book
titled Evidences from Scripture and History
of the Second Coming of Christ about the
Year 1843.
But 1843 passed without
incident, and so did 1844. The nonevent was
called The Great Disappointment, and many
disillusioned followers dropped out of the
group. Miller withdrew from leadership,
dying in 1849.
Many of the
Millerites, or Adventists, as they called
themselves, banded together in Washington,
and New Hampshire. They included Baptists,
Methodists, Presbyterians, and
Congregationalists.
Ellen White
(1827-1915), her husband James, and Joseph
Bates emerged as leaders of the movement,
which was incorporated as the Seventh-day
Adventist Church in May 1863.
Adventists thought Miller’s date was correct
but that the geography of his prediction was
mistaken. Instead of Jesus Christ’s Second
Coming on earth, they believed Christ
entered the tabernacle in heaven. Christ
started a second phase of the salvation
process in 1844, “Investigative Judgment,”
in which he judged the dead and the living
still on earth. Christ’s Second Coming would
occur after he completed those judgments.
Ellen White’s Vision of the
Church:
Ellen White,
continually active in the church, claimed to
have visions from God and became a prolific
writer. During her lifetime she produced
more than 5,000 magazine articles and 40
books, and her 50,000 manuscript pages are
still being collected and published. The
Seventh-day Adventist Church accorded her
prophet status and members continue to study
her writings today.”
[1]
Ellen G. White’s prophecies and
visions were central to the early growth and doctrinal beliefs
of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
But what kind of person was Ellen G.
White?
Ellen G.
White lied about her sources on many
occasions, and she was afraid of being sued
for stealing the writings of other authors
on other occasions.
[2] She
made many false prophecies about people and
future events: the Civil War, England
Invading the United States, the Shut Door,
Sunday worship and the nations, including
England, Israel and the United States.
[3] The
Seventh-day Adventist Church continues to
lie about the Pope’s title adding up to
“666”. No evidence has ever been produced by
Seventh-day Adventists to substantiate the
claim that the title “Vicarius Filii Dei” is
used to designate the Pope.
[4]
The Seventh-day Adventist Church
focus on last day events!
We have to be careful not to place too
much emphasis on the last days. We will
never know exactly how all the end-time
events
will play out until we are in the middle of
it all. Eschatology is given to inspire hope in
us that God will ultimately win so we can have assurance that we will be
with Him for eternity. Eschatology is not a
crystal ball that tells us every little
detail about what the future holds.
Christians
can
disagree about the timing of the Second
Coming. If there will be a secret rapture
seven years before Christ comes? If the Millennium
is a
literal 1,000 years long, or if it is figurative?
We can disagree about how the Judgments will take place, and in what
order. No one can say for certain about many of
the details regarding last-day events
because they haven’t happened yet, but we can
know for certain that they will take
place because God knows how everything will
play out.
Cultic religions like the
Seventh-day Adventist Church often focus on
last-day events to bring people into their
churches. Most cults teach they alone have
the special, last-day message for the world
and the Seventh-day Adventists are no
different.
1 Corinthians 13:12 says, “For now we
see in a mirror dimly, but then face to
face; now I know in part, but then I will
know fully just as I also have been fully
known.”
We need to focus on
our relationship with Jesus Christ and know
that the last days will work out just as God
expects them too.
The
Seventh-day Adventist Church has been trying
to gain acceptance as part
of the orthodox, Bible believing community
for a long time. However, the following points
show they do not hold to the “faith that was
once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).
The false doctrines of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church need to be understood by the
evangelical world. Seventh-day Adventism was
founded by a false prophet, Ellen G. White
and a group of lay ministers and teachers
who were all Arian cultists that denied the Biblical
teaching of the Trinity.
[5]
It is a dangerous thing to lead a person
into a false religion. We have been warned
many times about false prophets in the last
days. As a buyer, beware!
The Cultic
Doctrines of
the Seventh-day Adventist Church:
The Seventh-day Adventist
Church teaches many doctrines that are false
and even cultic compared to the historic
beliefs of the Christian Church.
Webster’s Dictionary gives this
definition of a cult:
1.
“A cult is a system of religious beliefs and
rituals that is regarded as unorthodox or
spurious, with a great devotion to a person,
idea, or thing.”
2. A great devotion to a
person, idea, object, movement, or work
(such as a film or book).
So, a
Christian cult is a religious group that
differs significantly from the churches that
are considered to be the mainstream, normative
expressions of biblical Christianity in our
culture. A cult often has, or has had in the
past, a charismatic leader who is, or was, a
strong authority for the believers and has a
strong influence on the religious teachings
of that group. Cults often have unique
doctrines that make it very difficult for a
cult member to leave the organization.
Seventh-day
Adventism is a cult according to every
definition of a cult there is!
Listed below
are some of the
heretical
and cultic beliefs of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church:
1).
Christ’s atonement was not completed at the
cross:
Ellen G. White said:
“The blood of Christ, while it was to
release the repentant sinner from the
condemnation of the law, was not to cancel
sin.... It will stand in the sanctuary until
the final atonement.” — Patriarchs and
Prophets, page 357.
“Now while our great High Priest is making
the atonement for us, we should seek to
become perfect in Christ.” — The Great
Controversy, page 623.
“...instead of coming to the earth at the
termination of the 2300 days in 1844, Christ
then entered the most holy place of the
heavenly sanctuary to perform the closing
work of atonement preparatory to His coming.”
— The Great Controversy, page 422.
An Unbiblical Understanding of
Christ’s Work of Atonement:
“The New Testament teaches that
Christ’s work of atonement was fully
completed at the cross (John 19:30). After
fulfilling His earthly mission, the Lord
Jesus sat down victoriously at the right
hand of the Father. The author of Hebrews is
clear:
“Every priest stands daily
ministering and offering time after time the
same sacrifices, which can never take away
sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice
for sins for all time, sat down at the right
hand of God, waiting from that time onward
until His enemies be made a footstool for
His feet. For by one offering He has
perfected for all time those who are
sanctified.” - Hebrews 10:11-14.
Any
notion that Christ needed to perform an
additional work of atonement in heaven (as
SDA theology teaches) runs contrary to those
verses, and mitigates against the
once-for-all nature of His finished work on
Calvary.
There are major deficiencies
within Seventh-day Adventist theology that
ought to give evangelical Christians serious
pause. In the Old Testament, when the high
priest went into the Holy of Holies (on the
Day of Atonement), he entered into the
presence of God’s shekinah glory (Lev. 16:2).
The SDA teaching that Christ did not
enter the heavenly Holy of Holies until
October 22, 1844, inaccurately implies that
the Lord Jesus did not enter the glorious
presence of God until that date. But that is
clearly not what Scripture teaches (Acts 7:55-56;
Rom. 8:34; Eph. 1:20; Col. 3:1; 1 Pet. 3:22).
Once inside the Holy of
Holies, the high priests of Israel were
instructed to perform their duties quickly
and leave. As sinners, they were not
permitted to tarry in God's presence. But
when the Lord Jesus entered His Father’s
presence, He sat down (Mark 16:19; Luke
22:69; Heb. 1:3; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2)—not only
because He was perfect, but also because His
atoning work was fully accomplished.
Through His redemptive work at Calvary,
Christ provided access into the presence of
God for all who belong to Him (Heb. 4:14-16; 10:19-20).
The veil that separated the Holy
of Holies from the Holy Place was torn in
two at the moment of His death (Mark 15:38),
not eighteen centuries later. To claim that
Jesus waited until 1844 to enter a heavenly
Holy of Holies undermines the full and final
work of atonement He accomplished at the
cross.
It should also be noted that
this SDA doctrine, in which Jesus began a
work of “investigative judgment” as part of
His final atoning work, runs contrary to the
biblical doctrine of justification by faith.
Because this investigative judgment focuses
on the works that Christians perform, it
mitigates against the truth that believers
are saved by grace alone through faith alone
on account of Christ alone.”
[6]
(Further reading: Heb. 9:26; Rom. 5:8-11; cf.
John 5:24; 10:27-28; Rom. 3:23-25; 1 Cor. 15:3-4; Eph. 2:8-10; 1 Jn. 5:13).
2). Believers enter into a judgment
of works which determines their salvation:
Ellen G. White said:
“At the time appointed for the judgment....
All who have ever taken upon themselves the
name of Christ must pass its searching
scrutiny. Both the living and the dead are
to be judged “out of those things which were
written in the books, according to their
works.” — The Great Controversy, page 486.
“Every case had been decided for life or
death. While Jesus had been ministering in
the sanctuary, the judgment had been going
on for the righteous dead, and then for the
righteous living.” — Early Writings, page 280.
“So in the great day of final atonement and
investigative judgment the only cases
considered are those of the professed people
of God.” — The Great Controversy, page 480.
“as the books of record are opened in the
judgment, the lives of all who have believed
on Jesus come in review before God.
Beginning with those who first lived upon
the earth.... Every name is mentioned, every
case closely investigated. Names are
accepted, names rejected. When any have sins
remaining upon the books of record, unrepented of and unforgiven, their names
will be blotted out of the book of life, and
the record of their good deeds will be
erased from the book of God’s remembrance.”
— The Great Controversy, page 483.
But what do the scriptures say?
John 5:24 says, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, whoever hears my word and believes him
who sent me has eternal life. He does not
come into judgment, but has passed from
death to life.”
John 10:27-28 says,
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me. I give them eternal
life, and they will never perish, and no one
will snatch them out of my hand.”
Romans 5:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we have
been justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through
him we have also obtained access by faith
into this grace in which we stand, and we
rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “For it is by
grace you have been saved, through faith–and
this not from yourselves, it is the gift of
God–not by works, so that no one can boast.”
And 1 John 5:13 says, “I write these
things to you who believe in the name of the
Son of God that you may know that you have
eternal life.”
What is the
judgment seat of Christ?
Both Romans 14:10 and 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 speak of the “judgment seat” of
Christ. This is a translation of the Greek
word, “bema” which was the tribunal bench in
the Roman courtroom where the governor sat
while rendering judicial verdicts.
Metaphorically it refers to the place where
the Lord will sit to evaluate believers’
lives for the purpose of giving them eternal
rewards.
Salvation and sin are not in
view at this judgment (as that was paid for
by Christ on the cross), but only
faithfulness in Christian service. Selfish
works or those done with wrong motives will
be burned up (the “wood, hay, and stubble”
of 1 Cor. 3:12). Works of lasting value to
the Lord will survive (the “gold, silver,
and precious stones”). Rewards, which the
Bible calls “crowns” (Rev. 3:11), will be
given by the One who is “not unjust; he will
not forget your work and the love you have
shown him” (Heb. 6:10).
(Further reading: Rom. 8:1; cf. Rom. 4:7-8; 7:17, 20;
John 3:1, 18; Gal. 3:13).
3).
Grace
plus works equals salvation:
Ellen G. White said:
“The judgment is to set, the books are to be
opened, and we are to be judged according to
our deeds.” — Testimonies for the Church, Vol.
1, page 100.
“While good works will not save even one
soul, yet it is impossible for even one soul
to be saved without good works. God saves us
under a law, that we must ask if we would
receive, seek if we would find, and knock if
we would have the door opened unto us.” — Selected
Messages, Book 1, page 377.
“Not one of us will ever receive the seal of
God while our characters have one spot or
stain upon them. It is left with us to
remedy the defects in our characters, to
cleanse the soul temple of every defilement.
Then the latter rain will fall upon us as
the early rain fell upon the disciples on
the Day of Pentecost.” — Testimonies for the Church,
Vol. 5, page 214.
“Now is the time to prepare. The seal of God
will never be placed upon the forehead of an
impure man or woman. It will never be placed
upon the forehead of the ambitious,
world-loving man or woman. It will never be
placed upon the forehead of men or women of
false tongues or deceitful hearts. All who
receive the seal must be without spot before
God—candidates for heaven.” —
Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, page 216.
Ellen White was saying that each person must
make themselves pure and spotless before God places His
seal upon their lives. She said, “It is left
with us to remedy the defects in our
characters, to cleanse the soul temple of
every defilement.”
But
nothing could be further from the truth!
The Bible tells us that when we come to
faith in Christ, God imputes Christ’s
righteousness to our account. Imputed
righteousness means that a sinner is
declared righteous by God purely by His
grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone.
When God looks at us, He sees Christ’s
perfect righteousness rather than our own.
Romans 4:3-6 says, “For what does the
Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to
the one who works, his wages are not counted
as a gift but as his due. And to the one who
does not work but believes in him who
justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted
as righteousness, just as David also speaks
of the blessing of the one to whom God
counts righteousness apart from works.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake
he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so
that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.”
Philippians
3:7-9 says, “But whatever gain I had, I
counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because
of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered
the loss of all things and count them as
rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and
be found in him, not having a righteousness
of my own that comes from the law, but that
which comes through faith in Christ, the
righteousness from God that depends on
faith.”
And Romans 3:21-22
says, “But now the righteousness of God has
been manifested apart from the law, although
the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
the righteousness of God through faith in
Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there
is no distinction.”
At the judgment seat of Christ, our
salvation and sins are not in view because
Christ paid for our sins in full on the
cross. Only our faithfulness in Christian
service is going to be judged (2 Cor. 5:10).
(Further
reading: Eph. 1:7; 2:5-10; Gal. 3:11; 2:16; Luke 18:9-13;
2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5; Rom. 3:20-28; 4:15-16; 6:23; 7:9-13; 8:1-11;
1 Cor. 6:20; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 1:5, 18, 19; 2:24;
Rev. 20:11-15).
4).
Satan is the one who bears our sins:
Ellen G. White said:
“It was seen, also, that while the sin
offering pointed to Christ as a sacrifice,
and the high priest represented Christ as a
mediator, the scapegoat typified Satan, the
author of sin, upon whom the sins of the
truly penitent will finally be placed.” — The
Great Controversy, page 422.
“Their sins are transferred to the
originator of sin.” — Testimonies for the
Church, Vol. 5, page 475.
Christ was both the sin sacrifice and the scapegoat!
Here is
what the Bible says.
1 Peter 2:24
says, Christ “bore our sins in his
body on the tree, that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness. By his wounds you
have been healed.”
Here is an excellent article from
GotQuestions.org entitled, “What is the
meaning of Azazel / the scapegoat?”
“Azazel” or “the scapegoat” is mentioned
in Leviticus 16 as part of God’s
instructions to the Israelites regarding the
Day of Atonement. On this day, the high
priest would first offer a sacrifice for his
sins and those of his household; then he
would perform sacrifices for the nation.
“From the Israelite community [the high
priest was instructed] to take two male
goats for a sin offering and a ram for a
burnt offering” (Lev. 16:5). The priest
brought the animals before the Lord and cast
lots between the two goats – one to be a
sacrifice and the other to be the scapegoat.
The first goat was slaughtered for the sins
of the people and its blood used to cleanse
the Most Holy Place, the tent of meeting and
the altar (Lev. 16:20). After the cleansing,
the live goat was brought to the high
priest. Laying his hands on the scapegoat,
the high priest was to “confess over it all
the wickedness and rebellion of the
Israelites – all their sins – and put them
on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat
away into the wilderness in the care of
someone appointed for the task. The goat
will carry on itself all their sins to a
remote place; and the man shall release it
in the wilderness” (Lev. 16:21-22).
Symbolically, the scapegoat took on the sins
of the Israelites and removed them (Lev. 16:10). For Christians, this is a
foreshadowing of Christ.
Christ is
the complete atonement for our sins. In many
ways, He embodies each aspect of the Day of
Atonement. We are told that He is our great
High Priest (Heb. 4:14). He is also the
“Lamb that was slain from the creation of
the world” (Rev. 13:8) as a sacrifice for
our sins. And He is our scapegoat. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made Him who had
no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we
might become the righteousness of God.” Our
sins were laid on Christ – He bore our sins
just as the scapegoat bore the sins of the
Israelites. Isaiah 53:6 prophesies Christ’s
acceptance of the sin burden: “We all, like
sheep, have gone astray, each of us has
turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid
on Him the iniquity of us all.” After the
sins were laid on the scapegoat, it was
considered unclean and driven into the
wilderness. In essence, the goat was cast
out. The same happened to Jesus. He was
crucified outside of the city. “He was
despised and rejected by men … He poured out
His life unto death, and was numbered with
the transgressors. For He bore the sin of
many, and made intercession for the
transgressors” (Isa. 53:3a, 12). Jesus
embodied what the scapegoat represented –
the removal of sins from the perpetrators.”
Satan plays
absolutely no role in
our salvation! Christ, like the sacrificial
lamb of the Old Testament, died for our
sins, the innocent for the guilty. Such is
the substitutionary nature of the atonement.
(Further reading: Isa. 53:4-11; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 2:24; Matt. 8:17;
Heb. 9:28).
5).
Christians will stand in the sight of God without
Christ’s intercession:
Ellen G. White said:
“Those who are living upon 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. While the
investigative judgment is going forward in
heaven, while the sins of penitent believers
are being removed from the sanctuary, there
is to be a special work of purification, of
putting away of sin, among God’s people upon
earth.” — The Great Controversy, p. 425.
“Now,
while our great High Priest is making the
atonement for us, we should seek to become
perfect in Christ. Not even by a thought
could our Savior be brought to yield to the
power of temptation. Satan finds in human
hearts some point where he can get a
foothold; some sinful desire is cherished,
by means of which his temptations assert
their power. But Christ declared of Himself:
“The prince of this world cometh, and hath
nothing in Me.” John 14:30. Satan could find
nothing in the Son of God that would enable
him to gain the victory. He had kept His
Father’s commandments, and there was no sin
in Him that Satan could use to his
advantage. This is the condition in which
those must be found who shall stand in the
time of trouble.” — The Great Controversy,
p. 623.
“When Jesus ceases to plead for man, the
cases of all are forever decided. This is
the time of reckoning with His servants.”
— Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 2, page 191.
But Christ said He would never
stop interceding for us.
Matthew 28:20 says, “teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you. And
behold, I am with you always, to the end of
the age.”
Hebrews 13:5 says, “Keep
your life free from love of money, and be
content with what you have, for he has said,
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
John 14:16 says, “And I will ask the
Father, and he will give you another Helper,
to be with you forever,”
Ephesians
4:30 says, “And do not grieve the Holy
Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for
the day of redemption.”
Romans 8:34
says, “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is
the one who died—more than that, who was
raised—who is at the right hand of God, who
indeed is interceding for us.”
And
Hebrews 7:24-25 says, “but he holds his
priesthood permanently, because he continues
forever. Consequently, he is able to save to
the uttermost those who draw near to God
through him, since he always lives to make
intercession for them.”
(Because Seventh-day Adventists believe
they will have to stand before God without
Christ as their mediator, most of them fear
for their salvation because they believe
they have to be perfect and sinless before
Christ returns).
(Further reading: Rom. 3:23; 6:23; John 10:28-30;
James 4:17; 1 Jn. 1:8-10; 2:1-2).
6). Christians must be sinless
before Christ comes:
Ellen G. White said:
“Those only who through faith in Christ obey
all of God’s commandments will reach the
condition of sinlessness in which Adam lived
before his transgression. They testify to
their love of Christ by obeying all His
precepts.” — Seventh-day
Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 6, page 1118.
“To be redeemed means to cease from sin.”
— Review & Herald, September 25, 1900.
“In order to let Jesus into our hearts, we
must stop sinning.” — Signs of the Times,
March 3, 1898.
But listen to
what the Bible says.
1 John
1:8-10, “If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we
say we have not sinned, we make him a liar,
and his word is not in us.”
We are declared to be perfect in Christ
Jesus because of what He has done for us,
not because we are without sin in our lives:
Romans 3:23-26, “for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God, and are
justified by his grace as a gift, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God put forward as a propitiation by his
blood, to be received by faith. This was to
show God’s righteousness, because in his
divine forbearance he had passed over former
sins. It was to show his righteousness at
the present time, so that he might be just
and the justifier of the one who has faith
in Jesus.”
1 John 2:12, “I am writing
to you, little children, because your sins
are forgiven for his name’s sake.”
Acts 13:38-39, “Let it be known to you
therefore, brothers, that through this man
forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you,
and by him everyone who believes is freed
from everything from which you could not be
freed by the law of Moses.”
And
Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been
saved through faith. And this is not your
own doing; it is the gift of God, not a
result of works, so that no one may boast.”
Whoever accepts Jesus Christ as
their Lord and Savior has (present tense),
eternal life:
John 3:16,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his
one and only Son, that whoever believes in
him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son
has eternal life, but whoever rejects the
Son will not see life, for God’s wrath
remains on them.”
John 5:24, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes him who sent me has eternal
life. He does not come into judgment, but
has passed from death to life.”
1
John 5:11, “And this is the testimony: God
has given us eternal life, and this life is
in his Son.”
1 John 5:13, “I write
these things to you who believe in the name
of the Son of God so that you may know that
you have eternal life.”
And Romans
6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life in Christ
Jesus our Lord.”
Our goal should be
to become more like Christ in every way!
When we strive to be sinless we are focused
on our performance. Christ wants us to be
more like Him, and we do that by letting the
Holy Spirit into our lives. We need to focus
on Christ to be transformed into His
likeness, and reflect His glory (2 Cor. 3:18;
Rom. 12:1-2; Titus 3:5).
(Further
reading: Phil. 3:7-16;
Rom. 4:4-7; 11:6; Acts 16:31; 1 Jn. 5:4;
Gal. 2:21; 5:18; John 5:24; Eph. 2:4-7).
7). The Sabbath is the
seal of God and those who worship on Sunday
will receive the mark of the beast:
Ellen G. White said:
“The living righteous will receive the seal
of God prior to the close of probation.”
— Selected Messages Book 1, page 66.
“The sign, or seal, of God is revealed in
the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath,
the Lord’s memorial of creation.... The mark
of the beast is the opposite of this—the
observance of the first day of the week.”
— Testimonies for the Church Vol. 8, page 117.
“Sundaykeeping is not yet the mark of the
beast, and will not be until the decree goes
forth causing men to worship this idol
sabbath. The time will come when this day
will be the test, but that time has not come
yet.” — Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, page 977.
Ellen White said we must keep
the Sabbath in the last days to be saved.
“In the last days, the Sabbath test will
be made plain. When this time comes, anyone
who does not keep the Sabbath will receive
the mark of the beast and will be kept from
heaven.” — The Great Controversy, page 449.
The “divine institution of the
Sabbath is to be restored… The delivering
of this message will precipitate a conflict
that will involve the whole world. The
central issue will be obedience to God’s law
and the observance of the Sabbath.” — The
Great Controversy, pages 262–263.
“The
Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty,
for it is the point of truth especially
controverted. When the final test shall be
brought to bear upon men, then the line of
distinction will be drawn between those who
serve God and those who serve Him not. …
While one class, by accepting the sign of
submission to earthly powers, receive the
mark of the beast, the other, choosing the
token of allegiance to divine authority,
receive the seal of God.” — The Great
Controversy, page 605.
“It means
eternal salvation to keep the Sabbath holy
unto the Lord.” — Testimonies for the Church
Vol. 6, page 356.
Seventh-day Adventists are well known
for Sabbath-keeping. But many people don’t
know that they teach the seventh day
Sabbath is the seal of God and that those
who worship on Sunday (before the second
coming), will receive the mark of the beast
and be lost. According to Adventist
theology, salvation in the last days is not
about the redemption we have in Christ
Jesus, but comes down to the day you go to
church on!
According to the New Testament, the Holy
Spirit is God’s seal for the New Covenant
believer, not the seventh day Sabbath.
Ephesians 1:13-14 says, “In him you
also, when you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, and believed in
him, were sealed with the promised Holy
Spirit, who is the guarantee of our
inheritance until we acquire possession of
it, to the praise of his glory.”
Ephesians 4:30 says, “And do not grieve the
Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed
for the day of redemption.”
2
Corinthians 1:21-22 says, “And it is God who
establishes us with you in Christ, and has
anointed us, and who has also put his seal
on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts
as a guarantee.”
Christ
places each new member of the body of Christ
in the Holy Spirit for His care and
safekeeping.
1 Corinthians
12:12-13 says, “For just as the body is one
and has many members, and all the members of
the body, though many, are one body, so it
is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were
all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks,
slaves or free—and all were made to drink of
one Spirit.”
And 2 Timothy 2:19 says,
“But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing
this seal: “The Lord knows those who are
his,” and, “Let everyone who names the name
of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
The Holy Spirit is God’s seal and not just
His sealing agent. God promise to give us
the Holy Spirit as the guarantee of our
future hope when we put our trust in the
good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ; not
because we earn His seal by working to keep
the Sabbath.
The New Testament explicitly teaches
that Sabbath-keeping along with all of the
other ceremonial requirements of the Old
Covenant Law are not required for Christians
who live under the terms of the New Covenant (Matt. 11:28-30; 12:1-8;
Acts 15:1-20; Col. 2:14-17; Gal. 4:10-11;
Rom. 14:5-12; Eph. 2:11-18; 2 Cor. 3:3-11; Heb. 3:7-4:13; 8:6-9:4; 10:23-25).
(Further
reading: Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30;
2 Cor. 1:21-22; 2 Tim. 2:19).
8). Soul sleep:
Seventh-day Adventists, like Jehovah’s
Witnesses, teach that when a believer dies
their soul sleeps. Some also believe that we cease to exist
entirely when we die.
The Seventh-day
Adventist Church’s Fundamental Belief,
# 26 (Death and Resurrection) says
this: “The wages of sin is death. But God,
who alone is immortal, will grant eternal
life to His redeemed. Until that day death
is an unconscious state for all people. When
Christ, who is our life, appears, the
resurrected righteous and the living
righteous will be glorified and caught up to
meet their Lord. The second resurrection,
the resurrection of the unrighteous, will
take place a thousand years later.”
Ellen G. White said:
“The saints must get a
thorough understanding of present truth,
which they will be obliged to maintain from
the Scriptures. They must understand the
state of the dead, for the spirits of devils
will yet appear to them, professing to be
beloved friends and relatives, who will
declare to them that the Sabbath has been
changed, also other unscriptural doctrines.”
— Early Writings, page 87 (1854).
“Through
the two great errors, the immortality of the
soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring
the people under his deceptions. While the
former lays the foundation of spiritualism,
the latter creates a bond of sympathy with
Rome.” — The Great Controversy, page 588
(1911).
What the Bible says:
When a
believer dies, they go to be in the presence
of the Lord awaiting the resurrection. All of
God’s people will be raised up together in
the resurrection at the same time (1 Cor. 15:19; 1 Thess. 4:13-14;
Heb. 12:23-24).
Sleep is used as a
metaphor to describe the state of a
believer’s body in death (Job 19:23-27;
Ps. 49:15; 71:20; Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:3;
Hosea 13:14; John 11:24; Acts 23:6; 24:15; 2
Cor. 5:1-4; 2 Tim. 1:10).
When a believer dies, their body is said
to sleep and their soul goes to be with God
(Luke 23:43). Believers are forever safe and
secure in God’s presence (2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23;
Heb. 12:1; 1 Thess. 5:10; Luke 16:19-31). The term
“sleep” is never applied to the soul, or the
spirit, only to the body.
Notice how the Apostle Paul describes death:
Philippians 1:21-24 says, “For to me to
live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am
to live in the flesh, that means fruitful
labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I
cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the
two. My desire is
to depart and be with Christ, for that is
far better. But to remain in the flesh is
more necessary on your account.”
And 2 Corinthians 5:1-10 says, “For we
know that if the tent that is our earthly
home is destroyed, we have a building from
God, a house not made with hands, eternal in
the heavens. For in this tent we groan,
longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if
indeed by putting it on we may not be found
naked. For while we are still in this tent,
we groan, being burdened—not that we would
be unclothed, but that we would be further
clothed, so that what is mortal may be
swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us
for this very thing is God, who has given us
the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always
of good courage. We know that while we are
at home in the body we are away from the
Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Yes, we are of good courage, and we would
rather be away from the body and at home
with the Lord. So whether we are at home or
away, we make it our aim to please him.
For we must all appear before the judgment
seat of Christ, so that each one may receive
what is due for what he has done in the
body, whether good or evil.”
The Believer’s Study Bible has this to say
about Paul’s teaching on death and the
after-life.
“By “naked,” the
apostle means a disembodied state. At the
moment of physical death, the immortal
spirit of a Christian goes to be with the
Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). The dead in Christ are
actually alive in heaven, experiencing all
the glories of that place; but the saint
himself is without a body temporarily, a
state which Paul calls being “found naked.”
Paul would prefer to be alive at the return
of Jesus, “desiring to be clothed with our
habitation which is from heaven,” i.e.,
having a glorified body (2 Cor. 5:2-3). On
the other hand, the apostle does not fear
death because he knows that “to be absent
from the body” is “to be present with the
Lord” (2 Cor. 5:8). Therefore, the doctrine
of “soul-sleep,” which states that at death
a man sleeps, unconscious until Jesus comes,
is refuted. Jesus’ words to the repentant
thief on the cross are in perfect harmony
with this text (cf. Luke 23:42-43).” [The
Believer’s Study Bible: 2 Corinthians 5:3]
So, to be away from the body means to be
at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). Paul was
saying that God’s people go to be in His
presence at the time of their death. And
when we die we will have conscious
fellowship with the Lord, safe and secure in
God’s presence forever more (Phil. 1:23; cf.
Luke 23:43; 1 Thess. 5:10).
9).
Seventh-day Adventists deny the biblical doctrine of Hell:
Seventh-day Adventists do not teach the
biblical doctrine of hell. They, like
Jehovah’s Witnesses, teach that unbelievers
will be annihilated and that hell is only
a temporary punishment.
Ellen G. White
said:
“How repugnant to
every emotion of love and mercy, and even to
our sense of justice, is the doctrine that
the wicked dead are tormented with fire and
brimstone in an eternally burning hell; that
for the sins of a brief, earthly life they
are to suffer torture as long as God shall
live.” — The Great Controversy, page 535.
“There is not one Place of Scripture
that occurs to me, where the word Death, as
it was first threatned in the Law of
Innocency, necessarily signifies a certain
miserable Immortality of the Soul, either to
Adam, the actual sinner, or to his
posterity.” — The Ruin and Recovery of
Mankind, page 228, (as quoted in Froom,
Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, Vol. 2,
page 220).
The following is
an article from the Holman Bible Dictionary
on Hell.
The New Testament
has three words used to describe hell.
“The three Greek words often translated
“hell” are hades, gehenna, and
tartaroo.
Hades was the name of the Greek god of the
underworld and the name of the underworld
itself. The Septuagint—the earliest Greek
translation of the Old Testament—used hades
to translate the Hebrew word Sheol. Whereas
in the Old Testament, the distinction in the
fates of the righteous and the wicked was
not always clear, in the New Testament hades
refers to a place of torment opposed to
heaven as the place of Abraham’s bosom
(Luke 16:23; Acts 2:27, 31). In Matt. 16:18
hades
is not simply a place of the dead but
represents the power of the underworld.
Jesus said the gates of hades would not
prevail against His church.
Gehenna
is the Greek form of two Hebrew words ge
hinnom meaning “valley of Hinnom.” The term
originally referred to a ravine on the south
side of Jerusalem where pagan deities were
worshiped (2 Kings 23:10; Jer. 7:32;
2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6). It became a garbage dump
and a place of abomination where fire burned
continuously (2 Kings 23:10; compare Matt. 18:9;
Mark 9:43, 45, 47; James 3:6). Gehenna
became synonymous with “a place of burning.”
One time the Greek word tartaroo “cast
into hell” appears in the New Testament
(2 Pet. 2:4). The word appears in classical
Greek to refer to a subterranean region,
doleful and dark, regarded by the ancient
Greeks as the abode of the wicked dead. It
was thought of as a place of punishment. In
the sole use of the word in the New
Testament it refers to the place of
punishment for rebellious angels.
Punishment for sin is taught in the Old
Testament, but it is mainly punishment in
this life. The New Testament teaches the
idea of punishment for sin before and after
death. The expressions “the lake of fire”
and “second death” indicate the awfulness of
the fate of the impenitent. Some insist that
the fire spoken of must be literal fire, so
to interpret the language as figurative
means to do away with the reality of future
punishment. One can, however, maintain this
position only if they see no reality
expressed by a figure of speech. Jesus spoke
of a place of punishment as “outer darkness”
(Matt. 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). Can a place have
both literal fire and literal darkness? What
reason does one have for taking one
expression as literal and not taking the
other as literal? Literal fire would destroy
a body cast into it.
Language about
hell seeks to describe for humans the most
awful punishment human language can describe
to warn unbelievers before it is too late.
Earthly experience would lead us to believe
that the nature of punishment will fit the
nature of the sin. Certainly, no one wants
to suffer the punishment of hell, and
through God’s grace the way for all is open
to avoid hell and know the blessings of
eternal life through Christ.” By Ralph L.
Smith.
Note:
Regarding hell, it should be noted that many
good, Bible believing Christians throughout
the ages have believed that the duration of
hell is not eternal, but only its
consequences. We may not understand
everything about how the end will play out,
but we do know this, however God deals with
the lost it will be fair and loving because
God’s desire is for everyone to be saved and
come to a knowledge of the truth, and He
takes no pleasure is the death of the wicked
(1 Tim. 2:3-4; Ezek. 33:11).
(Further reading: Rev. 14:11; 21:1;
Matt. 25:41-46; Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-26;
2 Thess. 1:7-9).
The list of 9 doctrines
above is adapted from, “A Quick Introduction to
Seventh-day Adventism” by exAdventist
Outreach.
[7]
Christians have
always disagreed about end time issues. There
are different schools of thought on the
subject, and I
think any group that makes their
understanding of future events (eschatology),
a test of fellowship is completely wrong to
do so.
Seventh-day Adventists, like other cults,
insist that their way of believing is the only
right way and
everyone else is wrong. In their
beginning, many Seventh-day Adventists followed
the false prophecies and teachings of
William Miller; after him came the false
prophet and teachings of Ellen G.
White.
Seventh-day Adventists claim
they believe the Bible only but they actually
put the writings of Ellen G. White above the Bible itself.
Ellen G. White said that we had to
either believe everything she said was from
God, or none of it was.
“The
visions are either of God or the devil.
There is no half-way position to be taken in
the matter. God does not work in partnership
with Satan. Those who occupy this position
cannot stand there long. They go a step
farther and account the instrument God has
used a deceiver and the woman Jezebel. If
after they had taken the first step it
should be told them what position they would
soon occupy in regard to the visions, they
would have resented it as a thing
impossible. But Satan leads them on
blindfolded in a perfect deception in regard
to the true state of their feelings until he
takes them in his snare.” — Letter 8, 1860,
pp. 16, 17, to Brother John Andrews, June
11, 1860. 1MR 307.1.
“I am
presenting to you what the Lord has
presented to me. I do not write one article
in the paper expressing merely my own ideas,
they are what God has opened before me in
vision- precious rays of light shining from
the throne.” — Testimonies for the Church
Vol. 5, page 67.
Who are you going to follow, the false
beliefs of Ellen G.
White and the Seventh-day Adventist Church,
or the Bible? You cannot be true to both!
Remember, when the foundation
is flawed — the building will crumble (Luke 6:46-49).
References:
1. The
New World Encyclopedia: The Seventh-day
Adventist Church.
2.
Life of Paul Plagiarized.
3.
Five Failed Prophecies.
4.
Bible Truth Versus SDA Truth: 666 and the
Pope.
5.
Does Seventh-day Adventism Teach the
Trinity?
6.
Evaluating Seventh-day Adventism
7.
A Quick Introduction to Seventh-day
Adventism.
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