Fundamental Belief #12: The church is the community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. In continuity with the people of God in Old Testament times, we are called out from the world; and we join together for worship, for fellowship, for instruction in the Word, for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, for service to all mankind, and for the worldwide proclamation of the gospel. The church derives its authority from Christ, who is the incarnate Word, and from the Scriptures, which are the written Word. The church is God’s family; adopted by Him as children, its members live on the basis of the new covenant. The church is the body of Christ, a community of faith of which Christ Himself is the Head. The church is the bride for whom Christ died that He might sanctify and cleanse her. At His return in triumph, He will present her to Himself a glorious church, the faithful of all the ages, the purchase of His blood, not having spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish.
While the Seventh-day Adventist (Adventist) Fundamental Beliefs splits the description of the doctrine of the church from the doctrine of the remnant church, these two teachings cannot be completely separated within Adventism, and we address them together in a single article.
As we have seen in many previous Fundamental Beliefs, this 12th Adventist doctrinal statement contains wording that would appear consistent with evangelical Christian teaching about the universal church. In fact, I found its wording so convincing that when I initially reviewed the Fundamental Belief statements, I didn’t look at the book Seventh-day Adventists Believe to read the official commentary on the belief. Instead I simply concluded that this belief statement accurately presents the biblical concept of the universal church. Unfortunately, however, Fundamental Belief #12 is completely negated by Fundamental Belief #13 regarding the “remnant church”.
The incongruence between a universal church of all believers and a remnant (Adventist) church should be apparent no matter the amount of Adventist double-speak on the subject.
The incongruence between a universal church of all believers and a remnant (Adventist) church should be apparent no matter the amount of Adventist double-speak on the subject. I was a little surprised, however, how plainly Seventh-day Adventists Believe explained the Adventist code words for us:
Just so today, He intends to lead His people into His visible church, characterized by loyalty to God’s commandments and possessing the faith of Jesus, so they may participate in finishing His mission on earth (Rev. 14:12; 18:4; Matt. 24:14; see chapter 13 of this book).1
Everyone familiar with Adventism knows what specific “visible church” the passage is describing with the familiar phrasing of Rev 14:12—loyalty to God’s commandments (or “keeping the commandments of God”) and possessing (having) the faith of Jesus. These words, quoted from chapter 12 of Seventh-day Adventists Believe, are describing the same church as that which is explained in chapter 13, “The Remnant And Its Mission”: the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
When we understand that Adventists have defined the “visible church” as their own church organization, their definition of the invisible or universal church begins to become clear:
The invisible church, also called the church universal, is composed of all God’s people throughout the world. It includes the believers within the visible church as well as many who, although they do not belong to a church organization, have followed all the light Christ has given them (Jn. 1:9). This latter group includes those who have never had the opportunity to learn the truth about Jesus Christ but who have responded to the Holy Spirit and “by nature do the things contained in the law” of God (Rom. 2:14).2
In other words, according to Adventists the universal church consists of Adventists (visible church) and many who do not belong to a church organization. It even consists of those who have never heard of, or learned about, Christ. Instead of salvation only being available through faith alone in Christ, according to this Fundamental Belief, a person can be counted by God as being one of His people simply by doing good things.
There is no mention here or anywhere within the chapter of people in other churches also being part of the universal church. In contrast, a typical, mainstream Christian expression of the universal church would be similar to this explanation:
At the same time, all believers are members of the universal church. The universal church is made up of every single person who has exercised faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, including members of every local church body throughout the earth (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 1:22-23).3
Endnotes
- Seventh-day Adventists Believe, 2005, Pacific Press Pub. Assoc., P. 171, par. 5.
- Ibid., par. 3
- http://christianity.about.com/od/churchandcommunity/a/thechurch.htm
- Our Journey Out of Adventism - July 27, 2023
- 30. Adventism’s New Earth - July 27, 2023
- 29. The Adventist Millennium - July 20, 2023