KASPARS OZOLINS
The introductory page of LeRoy Froom’s work The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers notes that the writing was “[p]repared under assignment from the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and approved by a representative group of more than sixty recognized scholars––theologians, Bible teachers, editors, historians, scientists, physicians, and librarians.” This monumental undertaking endeavored to demonstrate that Seventh-day Adventism, far from being a heretical sect, was deeply rooted in the “faith of our fathers”––that is to say, the writers of the Old and New Testaments, and the leaders of the early Christian church. Similarily, Ellen G. White even linked the Advent movement she was a part of to the 16th century Protestant Reformation, claiming:
“The Reformation did not, as many suppose, end with Luther. It is to be continued to the close of this world’s history. Luther had a great work to do in reflecting to others the light which God had permitted to shine upon him; yet he did not receive all the light which was to be given to the world. From that time to this, new light has been continually shining upon the Scriptures, and new truths have been constantly unfolding” (The Great Controversy, p. 148).
I would like to do the reverse in this post. With the use of various quotations from the Bible and the early church, on the one hand, and the “Advent” movement, on the other––I want to show how diametrically opposed, and foreign, Seventh-day Adventism is to historic orthodox Christianity.
The early beginnings
In the 8th century, BC, the prophet Isaiah, living in Israel, foretold a great future deliverance amid the frightening collapse of the northern kingdom of Israel:
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.”
This deliverer would be none other than God Himself. In fact, the one whom Isaiah saw, “high and lifted up” (Is. 6:1) in his theophany and call to ministry, was the same one who would one day be “high and lifted up” on the cross (Is. 52:13). Isaiah saw the full humanity and the full deity of the Son of God––on full display. This was the faith and hope of God’s own people, Israel.
When this deliverer came, His actions and words caused those who followed Him to speak of Him in ways that they would never speak of another human being, even an angel. Doubting Thomas called Him “my Lord and my God.” Paul identified him as the one whom Israel put to the test in the wilderness. Jude confessed that He led His own people out of Egypt. The entire apostolic ministry of the early church was founded upon and given authority by one name, that of Jesus Christ.
What about Adventism?
What of the early beginnings of Seventh-day Adventism? This movement, founded upon a failed date for the end of the world, was also founded on an utterly false understanding of Jesus––a different Jesus. Russell Holt, a Seventh-day Adventist scholar, acknowledges that in early Adventism, the “field was dominated by” antitrinitarians, most of whom are household names in Adventism: James White, J. N. Andrews, A. C. Bourdeau, D. T. Bourdeau, R. F. Cottrell, A. T. Jones, W. W. Prescott, J. Edson White, and M. L. Andreasen.
Horrifyingly, D. T. Bourdeau admitted in 1890 that, “[a]lthough we claim to be believers in, and worshipers of, only one God, I have thought that there are as many gods among us as there are conceptions of the Deity.” According to Uriah Smith, the early view (namely, that Christ was wholly a created being), eventually gave way by 1888 an understanding that the Son had preexisted from “so far back in the days of eternity that to finite comprehension” he was “practically without beginning.”
Practically God. 99.999% God. According to the Bible, that is no god at all, since there is a Grand Canyon-sized gulf between the creature and the Creator. A statement by Joseph Bates, often quoted, gives an illustration of the views of these Adventist pioneers: “Respecting the trinity, I concluded that it was an impossible for me to believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, was also the Almighty God, the Father, one and the same being.”
In fact, Ambrose C. Spicer, originally a Seventh-day Baptist (and father of GC president William Spicer) “grew so offended at the anti-trinitarian atmosphere in Battle Creek that he ceased preaching.” Indeed, no Christian can long endure such denigration and mockery of the Son of God without likewise being offended.
Building on the foundations
To give but a glimpse into what Christianity was like in the early days, we can quote a famous letter of Pliny (governor of Pontus from AD 111–13) to the emperor Trajan. The governor was writing to the emperor asking for advice about how to deal with Christians who had been caught by the state. He described them as follows:
They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food––but ordinary and innocent food.
In this amazing picture we see early Christians singing joyfully to Jesus Christ and giving him the glory that no creature can ever be worthy too receive.
What, by contrast, do see we going on in the next phase of Seventh-day Adventism’s historical development? Adventists love to brag about how Ellen G. White “cured” the church of its antitrinitarianism. They point to various statements in her works, especially The Desire of Ages. The following “seven-word comment” of hers, according to Adventist historian Jerry Moon, “would begin to turn the tide of antitrinitarian theology among Adventists”:
“In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived” (The Desire of Ages, p. 530).
Such a statement (and others), “came as a shock to the theological leadership of the church.” The hardened antitrinitarian M. L. Andreasen “claimed that the new concept was so different from the previous understanding that some prominent leaders doubted whether Ellen White had really written it.” As Moon recounts:
After Andreasen entered the ministry in 1902, he made a special trip to Ellen White’s California home to investigate the issue for himself. Ellen White welcomed him and gave him “access to the manuscripts.” He had brought with him “a number of quotations,” to “see if they were in the original in her own handwriting.” He recalled: “I was sure Sister White had never witten, ‘In Christ is life, original, unborrowed, underived.’ But now I found it in her own handwriting just as it has been published.
The truth of the matter is that Ellen G. White had blatantly lied to Andreasen and to the leadership of the church. The actual original quotation can be found in a commentary on the Gospel of John published in 1856 by a Christian pastor, John Cumming: “In him was life,––that is, original, unborrowed, underived.” It would appear that White deliberately cloaked her true antitrinitarianism from her own church by sprinkling her writings with various statements stolen from actual Christians. Thus, in large part, she set the church on the deceptive trajectory where it has found itself ever since then. The actual views of the church, inherited from its very beginnings, are cleverly disguised to both Adventists and non-Adventists.
White’s actual views about God are clear to the very end of her life, most evidently in her language about the “heavenly trio.” In a letter repudiating John H. Kellogg’s pantheistic tendencies, she struck out a different path for Seventh-day Adventism, setting up a distinctly non-biblical conception of a very physical and compartmentalized god: “There are three living persons of the heavenly trio; in the name of these three great powers––the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit––those who receive Christ by living faith are baptized, and these powers will co-operate with the obedient subjects of heaven in their efforts to live the new life in Christ.”
Millennia earlier, the ancient church had come to serious blows with the heretical Arians over a single Greek letter––a litle iota (i)––which made all the difference in the world: Is the Son homoousios (of the same essence), or homoiousios (of a similar essence) to the Father? The Son may well be eternal, but if he is not of the same essence as the Father, he is a false god. An alternative god. Everything, even eternity, lay in the balance.
The ancient Christian Athanasian creed (late 5th century AD) was at pains to use all the human language at its disposal to describe the mystery of God’s trinitarian oneness. Restating this point, again and again, in various ways, it aimed strenuously to safeguard the absolute oneness of God:
And the catholic faith is this: that we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Essence. For there is one Person of the Father; another of the Son; and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the Glory equal, the Majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is; such is the Son; and such is the Holy Ghost. The Father uncreated; the Son uncreated; and the Holy Ghost uncreated. The Father unlimited; the Son unlimited; and the Holy Ghost unlimited. The Father eternal; the Son eternal; and the Holy Ghost eternal. And yet they are not three eternals; but one eternal. As also there are not three uncreated; nor three infinites, but one uncreated; and one infinite. So likewise the Father is Almighty; the Son Almighty; and the Holy Ghost Almighty. And yet they are not three Almighties; but one Almighty. So the Father is God; the Son is God; and the Holy Ghost is God. And yet they are not three Gods; but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord; the Son Lord; and the Holy Ghost Lord. And yet not three Lords; but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity; to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord; So are we forbidden by the catholic religion; to say, There are three Gods, or three Lords.
Christianity and Adventism today
What of these two religions today? For Christianity, although one could argue that some of the ancient roots of the early church’s rich understanding of God’s trinitarian nature have been neglected, the study of this area has also recently experienced something of a renaissance. Christians have the privilege of being able to turn to the church fathers, and to other Christians saints throughout the ages as they study God’s Word. God has given Spirit-led teachers of his inerrant Word, building on the foundation of the prophets and apostles, as promised in Ephesians 4:11–12: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”
By contrast, Seventh-day Adventism enjoys no such legacy, for its roots (poisonous roots, at that) go back no further than the Restorationist and antitrinitarian foundations of the new 19th century American religious movements. This tainted theology drips even from the organization’s friendly and welcoming online website: “All three members of the Trinity are working together to make it possible for you to be an heir of eternal life. There truly is a ‘dream team’ ready to sustain you, guide you, and redeem you.” I for one, want nothing to do with the Adventist “dream team” concept of god.
I instead confess with believers stretching back many centuries that my hope is in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, truly God and truly man. He suffered and died for our sins and rose from the dead on the third day, defeating death on behalf of his own. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. One day he will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body, and so we will be with our Savior forever and ever. Amen.
ENDNOTES
- Some of the material in this post has been sourced from Jerry Moon, “The Adventist Trinity Debate. Part 1: Historical Overview,” Andrews University Seminary Studies, vol. 41, no. 1, 113–29.
- John Cumming, Sabbath Evening Readings on the New Testament: St. John, p. 5. Boston: John P. Jewett & Company, 1856.
- Overthrowing the Son: How Adventism Denies God His Glory - May 2, 2024
- Coming To Grips With the Deceptive Nature of Adventism - March 14, 2024
- Truth Led Him Out. Truth Led Him Home. - January 11, 2024