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Seventh-day Adventism
By James
BjornstadI.
History - Origin of Seventh-day Adventism
A. The historical setting was during the great A Second Advent@
awakening of the 19th
century.
B. In 1818 William Miller, a Baptist minister, read Daniel 8:14 and
predicted Christ's
return in twenty-five years - between March
21, 1843 and March 21, 1844 [2300
years from 457 BC]. Later his associates
set the date for October 22, 1844.
C. During the years 1844-1847, three groups came together to form
Seventh-day
Adventism:
1. Hiram Edson, Western New York - Provided
the doctrine of the Sanctuary and
Christ's final ministry
in the Holy of Holies [the Investigative Judgment]. As he
walked across a cornfield
on October 23, 1844, suddenly there burst upon his mind
the thought that there
were two phases to Christ's ministry in the Heaven of
Heavens, just as in the
earthly sanctuary of old. In his own words, an overwhelming
conviction came over him
that instead of our high priest coming out of the most holy
of the heavenly sanctuary
to come to this earth on the tenth day of the seventh
month at the end of the
twenty-three hundred days, He for the first time entered
on that day the second
apartment of that sanctuary, and that He had a work to
perform in the most holy
before coming to this earth. (Froom 4: 881)
2. Joseph Bates, Massachusetts and New
Hampshire - Provided the doctrine of
seventh-day worship, the
Sabbath.
3. Ellen G. Harmon [White], Maine -
Provided the doctrine of the Spirit of Prophecy.
Her visions and
prophecies brought the theological notions above together to form
a unique religious
system.
II. Theology
A. Seventh-day Adventists are in basic agreement with historic,
biblical Christianity in
many areas:
1. The inspiration and inerrancy of the
Bible.
2. The Trinitarian nature of the Godhead:
the Fatherhood of God, the deity of Jesus
Christ, and the person
and deity of the Holy Spirit.
3. Man was created in the image of God, but
is in a fallen state of sin and in need
of redemption.
4. Jesus Christ was virgin-born; lived a
sinless life; was crucified, dead, and buried;
and rose bodily from the
grave.
B. Seventh-day Adventists also have a number of distinctive
doctrines not in accord with
historic Christianity:
1. The Role of Ellen G. White
a. Seventh-day Adventist
claims for Mrs. White. For example:
Seventh-day Adventists hold that Ellen G. White performed the work
of a true
prophet
during the seventy years of her public ministry. As Samuel was a
prophet,
as
Jeremiah was a prophet, as John the Baptist, we believe that Mrs.
White was
a
prophet to the Church of Christ today. (The Advent)
One of
the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an
identifying mark of
the
remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G.
White. As the
Lord's
messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source
of truth
which
provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and
correction. They
also
make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching
and
experience must be tested. (Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual
40)
b. Mrs. White's claims.
For example:
When I
send you a testimony of warning and reproof, many of you declare
it to be
merely
the opinion of Sister White. You have thereby insulted the Spirit
of God.
(Testimonies 4: 661)
c. Problems with Mrs.
White's gift of prophecy:
(1) Her
plagiarisms. See, for example, Walter Rea The White Lie.
(2) Her
errors. For example:
Under
these circumstances I yielded my judgment to that of others and
wrote
what
appeared in number eleven in regard to the Health Institute, being
unable
to give
all that I had seen. In this I did wrong. (Testimonies 1: 563)
2. The Person of Jesus Christ
a. Some early Seventh-day
Adventists contended that the Son was not fully equal
to the
Father, and that the former must have had a beginning in the
remote past.
(Questions 46-49)
b. The name Michael is
applied not to a created angel but to the Son of God in His
pre-Incarnate state. (Questions 71-83)
c. When Christ became a
man, He took upon Himself human flesh and a human
nature,
but no human soul as a distinct immaterial substance.
d. [Christ] could have
sinned, He could have fallen, but not for one moment was there
in Him
an evil propensity. (Nichol, Seventh-day Adventist Bible
Commentary 4: 1128)
3. The Sleep of the Soul and the
Destruction of the Wicked
a. The soul represents
the whole man and the whole man [the body] remains in
the
tomb until the resurrection morning.
(1) The
soul cannot exist apart from the body.
(2)
There is no conscious existence after death.
b. The righteous will be
resurrected and caught up to meet the Lord at His return.
c. The unrighteous will
be resurrected after the millennium and then cast into the
lake of
fire where they will be destroyed or annihilated.
4. The Sabbath and the Mark of the Beast
a. The Seventh-day
Sabbath [Friday evening until Saturday evening] was instituted
by God.
Observance of this day is a test of one's loyalty to Christ.
b. A counterfeit Sabbath
will be proclaimed during the Tribulation period.
(1)
Those that worship on that day will receive the mark of the beast.
(2)
Those who remain faithful to God will continue to worship on the
Sabbath.
5. The Heavenly Sanctuary, the
Investigative Judgment, and the Scapegoat
a. Jesus entered into the
heavenly sanctuary in 1844 to begin a second phase of
His
ministry. (See Robert D. Brinsmead, 1844 Re-Examined, and Desmond
Ford,
Daniel
8:14, The Day of Atonement and the Investigative Judgment, for a
critique)
b. The sins of believers
have been transferred to, deposited or recorded in the
Heavenly Sanctuary, and are now being dealt with in the
Investigative Judgment.
Those
who have died are examined to determine if they are worthy of
being part
of the
first resurrection. The living are also examined to determine who
are abiding
and
keeping God's commandments. When the cases of all the righteous
will have
been
decided [the standard being the Ten Commandments], their sins will
be
blotted
out and Jesus will return to this earth in all His glory.
c. Azazel [the goat the
high priest sent out into the wilderness on the Day of
Atonement] designates Satan.
Satan
makes no atonement for our sins. But Satan will ultimately have to
bear the
retributive punishment for His responsibility in the sins of all
men, both righteous
and
wicked. (Questions 400)
6. Law, grace, and salvation - Two
perspectives: (see Geoffrey Paxton, The Shaking
of Adventism)
a. Justification by faith
alone.
b. Justification by faith
which is demonstrated by obedience to God's
commandments. This view strongly advocates Sabbath-keeping and the
Old
Testament dietary laws which is difficult to harmonize with
Seventh-day Adventist
assurance that salvation is by grace through faith and not of
works. For example:
The
best summary of the requirements for salvation is found in the
counsel Jesus
gave
the rich young nobleman (Mt 19:15-21), If thou wilt enter into
life, (1) keep the
commandments . . . and (2) follow me. There is no other hope of
salvation. By
the
standard of God's holy law we shall be judged in the day of
reckoning.
(Detamore,
Just What 32-34)
As long
as Isaiah 66:15-17 is in this book, how dare I tell you it doesn't
make any
difference whether or not you eat swine's flesh and other unclean
foods? . . . It
would
be much easier for me to say, Go ahead and eat as you please; You
needn't
worry about those things anymore. But God says those who are
eating
unclean
things when He comes will be destroyed. Wouldn't you rather I put
it
plainly
so that you'll not be deceived and be destroyed at our Lord's
coming?
(Detamore,
Just What 22-23)
III. Sharing the Truth
with Seventh-day Adventists
A. Our concern - Evangelicals must confront individual Adventists
with the one true gospel.
1. If an Adventist will admit that Mrs.
White was fallible, that no record in heaven
could possibly bring a
believer into condemnation, and that the works of the Law
such as Sabbath-keeping
are not necessary conditions of salvation, then other
things being equal, he
should be acknowledged as an evangelical.
2. On the other hand, if the Adventist
persists in defending Mrs. White's infallibility,
the Investigative
Judgment and the Old Testament dietary laws, he chooses for
himself the Galatian
heresy and places himself under the curse of the Law
(Gal 3:10) and of
preaching another gospel (Gal 1:8- 9).
B. Our response
1. To those who believe faith must be
demonstrated by obedience to God's
commandments:
a. Stress the Biblical
teaching that a man is justified by faith in Jesus Christ apart
from
the deeds of the Law (Rom 3:28; 4:6; Gal 2:16; 3:10-14).
b. Point out that the Law
of Moses [the ceremonial and moral aspects] has been
fulfilled in Jesus Christ. By His perfect life He met all the
requirements of the
moral
aspect of the Law; by His death He fulfilled all the ceremonial
ordinances
which
prefigured His incarnation and sacrifice (Rom 5:10; Col 2:16-17).
c. The law or commandment
which Christians are called upon to follow is the law
of love
(e.g. Mt 22:37-40; Rom 13:8-10).
2. To those who believe the Sabbath is
binding on the believer:
a. Constantine did not,
as Adventists claim, change the day of worship from
Saturday to Sunday.
(1) He
enacted that the first day of the week should be a public holiday.
(2)
Centuries before Constantine, Christians gathered together for
worship on
the first day of the week.
(a) Reference to worship on the first day of the week can be found
in
Scripture - See Acts 2:41; Acts 20:6-7; 1 Cor 16:2; and Rev 1:10
(Note:
both the Didache and Ignatius refer to Sunday as the Lord's Day [Kuriake]).
(b) References to worship on the first day of the week can be
found in the
writings of the early church fathers - Ignatius (110 AD); Justin
Martyr
(100-165 AD); Barnabas (120-150 AD); Irenaeus (178 AD); Bardaisan
(154 AD); Tertullian (200 AD); Origen (225 AD); Cyprian (200-258
AD);
Peter of Alexandria (300 AD) and Eusebius (315 AD).
b. There is no indication
in the New Testament that the observance of the Sabbath
was
binding on gentile believers. On the contrary we find such words
as these:
(1) One
man regards one day above another, another regards every day
alike.
Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes
the day,
observes it for the Lord (Rom 14:5-6).
(2)
Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to . . . a
Sabbath day (Col 2:16)
IV. Selected
Bibliography
A. Books
General Conference of SDA. Seventh-day
Adventists Believe . . . A Biblical Exposition
of 27 Fundamental Doctrines. Washington:
Review and Herald, 1988.
Hoekema, Anthony A. ASeventh-day
Adventism,@ The Four Major Cults. Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1963.
Land, Gary (ed). Adventism in America.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986.
Lewis, Gordon R. The Bible, the Christian
and Seventh-Day Adventism. Nutley, NJ:
Presbyterian and Reformed, 1966.
Martin, Walter R. AThe Puzzle About
Seventh-day Adventism,@ The Kingdom of
the Cults. Revised Edition. Minneapolis,
Bethany Fellowship, 1992.
B. Articles
Samples, Kenneth R. AFrom Controversy to
Crisis: An Updated Assessment of
Seventh-day Adventism,@ Christian Research
Journal, Summer 1988, 9-14.
V. Sources Cited
Brinsmead, Robert D. 1844 Re-Examined. Sydney: Wittenberg Stream
Press, c1976.
Detamore, Fordyce. Just What Do You Believe About Your Church.
Nashville, TN:
Southern Publishing Association, n.d.
Ford, Desmond. Daniel 8:14, The Day of Atonement and The
Investigative Judgment.
Escondido, CA: Operation Glacier View, 1980.
Froom, Leroy. The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers. 4 vols.
Washington, D.C.: Review
and Herald, 1946-54.
Seventh-day Adventist Answer Questions on Doctrine. Washington,
D.C.: Review and
Herald, 1957. This work is better known as
Questions on Doctrine.
Paxton, Geoffrey. The Shaking of Adventism. Grand Rapids: Baker,
1977.
Rea, Walter T. The White Lie. Turlock, CA: M&R Publications, c1982.
Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual. General Conference of
Seventh-day Adventists,
1959.
The Advent Review and Herald. Oct. 4, 1928.
Nichol, Francis D., ed. Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary. 7
vols. Washington,
D.C.: Review and Herald, 1953-57
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