Why a Christian Writes About Adventism

Doctrine, Feature

Sometime in high school, perhaps younger, I developed in interest in Christian apologetics. This began, I think, with a challenge about the theory of evolution when I was in seventh grade. In the years that followed, I learned more about a number of perverted forms of Christianity including those taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and by Jehovah’s Witnesses. I also looked into Roman Catholicism. These seemed to be the “big three” as far as I was concerned. There are a myriad other splinter groups, of course, but who has the time? I wasn’t in professional ministry or anything. But I had some friends who were Jehovah’s Witnesses, and attended a couple high school missions trips to speak with Latter Day Saints in Manti and Salt Lake City in Utah. In community college, I developed a friendship with a Latter Day Saint and we talked a lot about these matters. I even attended a Sunday service of hers and got her to attend a service of mine. Eventually, I even attended her wedding (not the temple service, naturally, but the reception they hold which non Church members may attend).

Seventh-day Adventism barely crossed my mind. Growing up, we had a number of theology books stashed in the garage, mostly holdovers from my father’s time attending a Christian college. I didn’t know where most of them came from, to tell the truth, but one of them was Walter Martin’s Kingdom of the Cults. At some point, I read about the Adventists in that book, and was basically assured that though Adventists might be a little off the beaten path, and had corporate worship on Saturdays, they were essentially alright.

After moving to Redlands and eventually getting plugged into a Bible study and a church where I met Richard and Colleen Tinker, Carel and Nikki Stevenson and others personally familiar with SDA, people began talking to me what SDA actually teaches. The more I was told by former Adventists, the more surprised I became. Adventists, even those that emphasize SDA distinctives, naturally think of themselves as Christians, as followers of Jesus. As such, even those born again believers who have come out of Adventism may not realize how shocking the unique teachings of SDA are to a Christian who did not have an SDA background. As someone who came from a solid evangelical home, here are the SDA doctrines and flabbergasted me most:

  • SDA had a modern, inspired prophet, Ellen G. White. In Adventism, White was not just a gifted teacher who clarified the true interpretation of Scripture; she was a prophet who received new revelation directly from God. Whenever a religious movement begins with such a figure, red flags should be springing up all over the place. In evangelicalism, Scripture is the final authority, and the completed nature of the canon of revelation is hammered home as a basic tenet.

  • The Bible may be in error in some places, even in regards to theology. For evangelical Christians, this is not an option. Adventists pay the Bible lip service, but allow themselves an out if the biblical language becomes too hard to interpret within their theological framework. And that’s precisely the problem. If the Bible may be in error, who is to say where or in what ways? Basically, it allows for almost any deviation from orthodoxy.

  • People have no souls. We are body and breath—purely physical beings. Really, I could hardly believe that Adventism would teach this. For all their emphasis on young-earth creationism, they still end up with a conception of the human being barely distinguishable from that of the atheist evolutionist. Furthermore, the apostle Paul clearly believed in an immaterial part of the human being that is the seat of the mind and that outlives the body, as shown, for example, in 2 Corinthians 5:6–10. While verses 6 through 9 are self-explanatory, I include verse 10 here because Paul says, “so that each of us may receive what is due us for things done while in the body.” In Adventism, what is ever not done “while in the body”? Paul seems to presume that people are being judged and (consciously) receiving rewards while in a disembodied state for things done in a previous, embodied state (i.e., during this earthly life). No Christian I know ever even questioned whether people had souls, so obvious does it seem from Scripture.

  • God also is a physical being who looks like a human male! This may be the most astounding thing of all. And this is an ontological pronouncement in regards to God’s essence, not merely some poorly worded statement about the incarnation of the Son. It is, as with some others of the above, a belief shared by Latter Day Saints. But I did not expect it in Adventism. It seems so contrary to what the Bible says, and also seems so outlandishly implausible. This would mean, for instance, that God always existed in three dimensional space (so space has also always existed), that God has mass, and is localized, and that the human form is an eternally existing reality and thus not an a creation of God’s something that God conceived of. This latter observation raises the impossible question of why God looked as he did and not some other way, for there would have to something inherently necessary about the human body plan. But no such inherent necessity can possibly be imagined. Much more could be said about this, but I’ll leave it at that.

  • The investigative judgment. This odd doctrine flips the gospel on its head by asserting that Jesus, as Judge, is combing through the works, not of unbelievers, but of those who profess belief in God. If I understand this doctrine correctly, the records of the dead are examined first, and only those found worthy through their obedience to God’s law are accepted by God and have their sins forgiven. At some point, Jesus begins to examine the records of those currently alive. If your record reveals too much sin, or if you’re sinning while Jesus (your “savior”!) is reviewing your record, you’re unlikely to be accepted by God. And those who do pass muster at the time of the judicial review must live from that time forward without any intercessor, basically having to prove their own worth by their lifelong obedience to the law! This is a complete perversion of the hope and assurance of the gospel. The gospel is the good news that even though we are sinners, God, by the work of Jesus, fully forgave us and declared us righteous in his sight, “not because of righteous thing we have done, but because of his mercy … so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5, 7). Furthermore, the investigative judgement teaches that Jesus did not finish his work of atonement at the cross as he declared (“it is finished!”), but will finish it only after fully completing this investigative judgement just prior to his second coming. To a Bible believing Christian, the investigative judgement is not only bizarre but completely incomprehensible.

The average Baptist, upon learning accurately about SDA, would not think of it merely as another denomination that’s “a little off,” but as a heretical departure from true Christianity, as a group that needs to hear the gospel. I’m grateful for my opportunity to contribute to the Life Assurance Ministries blog. As someone who was blessed to know the Scriptures, in a manner of speaking, “from infancy” (2Ti 3:15), I thought I might be able to share the perspective of a believer who is not a former Adventist. †

Jordan Quinley
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