Seventh-Day Adventists and the Bible
2016-12-19
The Seventh-day Adventist religion branched from the Millerites in the nineteenth century. William Miller had predicted the return of Christ in 1844, and when the Lord did not return, the movement was labelled the “Great Disappointment.” Many of his followers disbanded after that; however some of them continued on. One such group became known as the Seventh-day Adventists.
Prophetess Ellen G. White
Ellen G. White was considered the founder and prophetess of this religion. She experienced thousands of paranormal experiences and wrote thousands of articles and many books. According to their website, White’s writings speak with prophetic authority. Also, she was known to go into trances and exhibit bizarre behavior, which included gaining super human strength and going extended periods of time without breathing.
The first problem that should immediately be recognizable is that the founder of this religion was a woman preacher:
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. (1 Timothy 2:11-15)
God commands that women should not have teaching authority over men. By nature, this denomination deliberately disobeyed this command, which is why this religion teaches so many non-Biblical things. I have addressed the issue of authority and women elsewhere.
When studying religions in general, whenever the Bible is considered one among many authoritative writings, the Bible is the one that gets left behind. As we will see, Ellen G. White’s teachings will trump what the Bible says.
Sanctuary in Heaven Cleansed
To compensate for the failed prophecy, the Seventh-day Adventist religion stated, that instead of the physical returning of Christ to earth, the sanctuary in heaven was cleansed in 1844. The Biblical text used to justify the 1844 date was the following:
Then I heard one saint speaking, and another saint said unto that certain saint which spake, How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot? And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed. (Daniel 8:13-14)
They changed the 2,300 “days” to “years,” and then took the historical date of the decree to rebuild the temple (around 457 B.C.) to say that Christ’s return was around 1844. When the Christ did not return, 1844 was considered the year that Christ entered the heavenly sanctuary to cleanse it. There are a few problems with this.
First, why would the heavenly sanctuary, created directly by God, ever need cleansing (Revelation 11:19)? Did anything in heaven, the throne room of God, ever have impurity in it?
What in the context suggests that “days” means “years”? Where else in the Bible do we do that?
Finally, the cleansing of the temple would be due to the defiling described in Daniel 8:11-12. This defiling could refer to two things, either the sacrificing of pigs on the altar by Antiochus IV Epiphanes which was around 168 B.C., which prefigured the abomination of desolation in the end times, or the abomination of desolation itself. If it is the former event, then 2,300 years later, if we changed God’s word to accommodate their belief, is the year 2132. If the latter event is meant, then clearly, the event has not even happened yet.
The heavenly sanctuary theory does not hold water for any reason whatsoever. William Miller and his followers allegorically interpreted this prophecy to fit their own needs, and the disciples of Ellen G. White are perpetuating this baseless theory to this day. However, this prophecy is the basis for their “investigative judgment” doctrine.
Investigative Judgment
Investigative judgment, according to this religion, takes place in heaven to see if we are good enough to go to heaven by doing enough works. No matter how much the Seventh-day Adventist pays lip service to the doctrine of salvation by grace, the amount of good works you have done is the real gauge of your worthiness to be saved. These good works are sought out in this mythical research the Lord has to do in heaven. Since when did the Lord have to research to know what your works are like? On the contrary, He tells us, “I know thy works” (Revelation 2:2, 9, 13, 19; 3:1, 8, 15). Our salvation is based on Christ crucified and risen again, and any works are the fruit in our lives of what He has already done.
They Say Hell is Not Forever
The Seventh-day Adventists believe that the punishment of hell is not forever. Every normal person in the world would want to believe their doctrine concerning this. However, it is a very deceitful lie that we must expose. We want people to be saved from the eternal reality of hell. The Bible tells us,
The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:10-11)
For more information, proceed to a study on hell here.
Soul Sleep
Another tenet of the Seventh-day Adventist religion is that they do not believe that people who die in the Lord immediately go to be with the Lord. The body and the soul are indivisible and cannot be separated. The Bible, however, has many examples to the contrary:
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
Paul was in prison, and there was quite the possibility he was going to die. However, he was comforted in that if he died, he was going to be with Christ. This is reaffirmed in another Pauline epistle:
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:6-8)
For us to be “absent from the body” is to be in His presence. This will be even more clear on the Day of Christ:
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17)
When Jesus returns, He is going to bring with Him those who have died with Him. The dead will rise (1 Thessalonians 4:16), but Jesus is bringing the same people with Him (1 Thessalonians 4:14). In addition, we know that the souls of those who have been martyred are in heaven before the Day of Christ (Revelation 6:9). Their bodies are still on the earth.
They Say Jesus is Michael
Like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Seventh-day Adventists believe that Jesus is Michael the Archangel. I discuss why that is false here.
Sabbath Observance
Every covenant in the Bible has a sign associated with it. For the Mosaic covenant, the Sabbath was its sign: “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you” (Exodus 31:13). It is interesting that a covenant that required so much work had “rest” as its sign!
The book of Hebrews talks a lot about entering into the Lord’s rest. The Sabbath days prefigured this rest fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ:
For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. (Hebrews 4:3-11)
(Note: In Hebrews 4:8, the name “Jesus” here refers to “Joshua,” as the name “Joshua” and “Jesus” are the same name. The name Joshua is transcribed from Hebrew, while the name Jesus is transcribed from Greek.)
The real rest is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ: not seeking to please God by our own good works, but rather entering into the rest Christ offers us by faith. Furthermore, the book of Colossians plainly says:
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)
The Sabbath is a prefiguring of the Lord Jesus Christ’s rest He gives us.
However, we read from the White’s The Spirit of Prophecy, Volume 4 (p. 281) that “the keeping of the counterfeit Sabbath is the reception of the mark.” The mark of the Beast, according to White, is worshipping God on the “wrong” Sabbath! There are major problems with this:
- How do we know if our Saturday corresponds with the Sabbath in Biblical times? God created the world in seven days. Seven days later was another Sabbath, and seven days, another, and so on. After thousands of years, how do we know that we are on the same seventh day as back then? It could have been what would be our Tuesday today, but we have no idea!
- In some parts of Europe, Sunday is the seventh day of the week. Which part of the world has the right seventh day? Who should we believe is worshipping on the right seventh day?
Conclusion
The Seventh-day Adventist religion departs from the Bible on many key issues, such as justification by faith in the Lord Jesus alone, the eternal reality of hell, and the requirement of worshipping on the “correct” day. The religion is also a product of a woman preacher and based off of a false prophecy of Jesus’ return. Because of these things, we know that this is a false religion that we must avoid.