Personal
Evangelism Handbook
CHAPTER XVI
Seventh-Day Adventism
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
William Miller is the
forerunner of Seventh-Day Adventism, although the person
most identified with the movement is Ellen G. White.
In 1818 Miller, a New England
farmer, predicted Christ was coming again on March 21,
1843. (This date was decided upon by interpreting the
2300 days of the prophecy in Daniel 8:14 as years and
adding 2300 years to 457 B.C.) Of course, Christ did not
return that year.
The date was changed to October
24, 1844. Again, Christ did not appear. Miller was
bitterly disappointed. Before his death in 1849 he even
said, "We expected the personal coming of Christ at
that time; and now to contend that we were not mistaken
is dishonest. We should never be ashamed frankly to
confess our errors. I have no confidence in any of the
new theories that grew out of the movement . . ."
(Good News Broadcaster, June, 1964).
However, many who followed
Miller started their own groups, and one of them became
the foundation of modern Seventh-Day Adventism. Ellen G.
White was one of the leaders of this group. Instead of
admitting a mistake in calculation as Miller had done,
this group insisted that Christ had come in 1844. They
said instead of coming back to the earth, He entered the
"Heavenly Sanctuary" to (supposedly) finish
the atonement and that when Christ is through with the
atonement, He will come the rest of the way to the
earth. (See Heb. 10: 12-the atonement is finished! )
Mrs. White did a lot of
writing. Among her books are The Desire of the Ages,
Patriarchs and Prophets, The Acts of the Apostles,
Prophets and Kings, and a very popular booklet, Steps to
Christ. This booklet has had a distribution of millions.
The attitude of those who follow her is that there are
no errors in her writings. However, not all Adventists
concede that she is a prophet in the same sense as
Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.
Some Christian leaders of our
day are saying that modern Adventism has departed enough
from its original view that it should not be considered
"heresy." If its errors were completely on
minor points, we might tend to agree with them. However,
since it puts works into salvation, we have no other
choice than to point out that such teaching is
definitely unscriptural.
BRIEF DOCTRINAL COVERAGE OF
ADVENTISM
Questions on Doctrine, 1957,
says that Ellen G. White's book The Great Controversy is
"one of our standard books." In this book are
found many doctrines strange to the Word of God.
SALVATION
Mrs. White says, "As the
books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of
all who have believed in Jesus come in review before God
. . . 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 . . . All who have truly
repented of sin, AND by faith claimed the blood of
Christ as their atoning sacrifice, have had pardon
entered against their names in the books of heaven; as
they have become partakers of the righteousness of
Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony
with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and
they themselves will be accounted WORTHY of eternal
life" (The Great Controversy, p. 483).
According to this statement of
Mrs. White's, even though one "believes on
Jesus" he will still be lost if he dies with any
sins on his record that he had not repented of. But if a
person believes in Jesus AND his character is good, God
will give him what he has EARNED through his faith and
worthy deeds ...eternal life.
Remember that Romans 11 :6
tells us if a person is saved by grace then he CANNOT be
saved by works also. Grace means "mercy," and
if you work for something and receive a wage for it,
that wage is not given to you out of mercy: It is given
to you because it is owed to you . . . you deserve it
(Romans 4:4, 5). But NO MAN DESERVES SALVATION. God does
not owe man anything! We deserve hell, but God in grace
gives eternal life to those who trust in Christ and His
payment for all their sin. Eternal life does not come to
us through faith AND "worthy deeds." It
doesn't come through faith AND anything. It comes
through FAITH ALONE in Christ's finished work for us.
What passage in Galatians comes to your mind when you
hear of someone trying to be saved by grace and works of
the law? Galatians 5:1-4.
"As the priest, in
removing the sins from the sanctuary, confessed them
upon the head of the scapegoat, so Christ will place all
these sins upon Satan, the originator and instigator of
sin . . . Satan, bearing the guilt of all the sins which
he has caused . . . will at last suffer the full penalty
of sin in the fires that shall destroy all the
wicked" (ibid., pp. 485, 486).
But God's Word plainly states,
"The Lord hath laid on Him (CHRIST) the iniquity of
us all" (Isaiah 53:6). CHRIST is the One who has
been "made sin for us" (II Cor. 5:21). Since
all of our sins were placed upon Christ, what need is
there for any other sinbearer? This doctrine is
blasphemy!
SOUL-SLEEP
Adventists teach that the
unsaved will be annihilated and not spend eternity in
the lake of fire as the Scriptures teach. Neither do
they believe that a person has any consciousness
after death. This belief is
called "soul-sleep" and contradicts precious
Scripture on behalf of the believers who have gone home
to be with the Lord. See I Thess. 4:17; II Cor. 5:6-8;
Phil. 1:21, 23; Rev. 6:9, 10; and Psalm 116:15.
THE SABBATH
The unique issue among
Adventists is their teaching that one must keep the
Sabbath (Saturday) to be saved. This again is the issue:
Are you saved by LAW or GRACE?
Any of the following Scriptures
answer this, and you should learn to apply them to any
issue such as this as you witness. Keeping the Sabbath
or any other "work of the law" has nothing to
do with salvation.
"Be it known unto you,
therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: and by Him
ALL THAT BELIEVE are justified from all things, from
which YE COULD NOT be justified by the law of
Moses" (Acts 13:38, 39).
"Therefore by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight:
for by the law is the knowledge of sin. . . . Therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith WITHOUT the
deeds of the law" (Romans 3:20, 28).
"For as many as are of the
works of the law are under the curse; for it is written,
Cursed is every one that continueth not in ALL things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. But
that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
it is evident: for, the just shall live by faith. AND
THE LAW IS NOT OF FAITH . . ." (Gal. 3: 10-12) .
"Is the law then against
the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a
law given which could have given life, verily
righteousness should have been by the law. But the
Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the PROMISE
BY FAITH of Jesus Christ might be GIVEN TO THEM THAT
BELIEVE" (Gal. 3 :21, 22).
If they want to keep the law to
be saved, how much would they have to keep? They would
have to keep the WHOLE law, because if they failed in
just one point they would then be sinners, and have the
results of sin-death (James 2:10; Rom. 6:23).
Christ asked a pointed question
in John 7:19, "Did not Moses give you the law, and
yet NONE of you keepeth the law?"
It is rather foolish to try to
keep the law to be saved, or to try to keep the law
after you are saved SO THAT you will stay saved.
"Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are
ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal. 3:3)
Regarding the Sabbath, God
says, "One man esteemeth one day above another:
another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be
fully persuaded in his own mind" (Romans 14:5). God
doesn't give the power to the local church to tell you
that you must observe a particular day above an other.
"Let no man (even
Seventh-Day Adventist) therefore judge you in meat, or
in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new
moon, or OF THE SABBATH . . ." (Col. 2: 16) .
Agree with them that Saturday
is the Sabbath, the seventh day, because it is. The
Sabbath has never been changed from the seventh day. But
the day one chooses to worship God is not really the
issue. You should worship the Lord EVERY day. How one is
saved is the important point. Incidentally, the Sabbath
was given as a day of REST, not as a day of WORSHIP.
When the Adventists go to meetings on Saturday, they are
DOING much more and TRAVELING much more than the laws
governing the Sabbath allow!
If the Adventists followed the
punishment Scripture attaches to disobedience of the
Sabbath as prescribed by law, they would soon
exterminate themselves. See Numbers 15: 32-36 and Exodus
35:2.
Christians worship on Sunday
because the Apostles did, Acts 20:7; and the Apostles
did because Christ rose from the dead on the first day
of the week, Luke 24: 1.
SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR
WITNESSING
(1) Be cautious of the subtle
approach used by the Adventists to lure the unsuspecting
public through their radio program, "The Voice of
Prophecy," and their telecast, "Faith for
Today." You can listen to or watch these programs
without ever hearing of the false doctrine taught by the
Seventh-Day Adventists. When you read their literature,
the difference between their beliefs and the Bible is
more obvious.
(2) At Christmas season a truck
full of carolers may ride down your street. As they sing
the beautiful songs of Christmas, nice, clean-looking
young people will come to your door asking for
contributions for missionary hospital work being carried
on throughout the world. They are Seventh-Day
Adventists, but you would never know it. They don't tell
you, and neither can you discover who printed the
beautiful literature they leave with you . . . it
doesn't say. Sometimes way down on the bottom of a page
in very small letters you might see three letters: SDA.
The Seventh-Day Adventists
really do much good in maintaining hospitals and schools
and promoting high morals. This is one reason people
fail to see that it is a dangerous "religion."
They see the good works of their members and assume it
must be a good religion. As a soul winner, remember the
teaching of II Cor. 11: 13-15, that Satan's ministers
OFTEN promote "righteousness." More people are
"sucked into it" that way.
(3) The Southern Publishing
Company in Nashville, Tennessee, and the Review and
Herald Publishing Company in Washington, D.C., are their
publishing houses. Southern puts out a ten-volume set
called the Bible Story, especially for children, you
should be aware of.
(4) When witnessing to an
Adventist, remember that INDIVIDUAL members of the
church may not believe everything taught by the group as
a whole. Some, no doubt, know the Lord as their Saviour
. . . through God honoring a portion of the Word they
perhaps have heard. You need to question each one to
determine what he is trusting in to take him to heaven.
Invariably you will find that you must go over SIMPLE
verses on salvation, especially those that point out
that salvation is purely by grace apart from any works
or lawkeeping (Romans 4:5; 3:28; 11:6; Eph. 2:8, 9;
Titus 3: 5) .
(5) The official teaching (and
general belief among the members) is that you cannot be
sure of salvation now, and that though you may be saved
now, you might lose your salvation before you die. In
other words, they do not believe the gift of God is
ETERNAL LIFE (Rom. 6:23). You may have to go over this
truth again and again before they see it. Refer to
Chapter Two for more on eternal security.
(6) No matter how hard they try
to turn the conversation from the gospel to the Sabbath,
etc., you must keep the conversation on the gospel. The
gospel is good news, especially to those people who have
been under the burden of thinking they have to keep the
law to be saved.
"Walk in wisdom toward
them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your
speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye
may know how ye ought to answer every man" (Col.
4:5, 6).
