ADVENTISM’S FUNDAMENTAL BELIEF #25—The second coming of Christ is the blessed hope of the church, the grand climax of the gospel. The Saviour’s coming will be literal, personal, visible, and worldwide. When He returns, the righteous dead will be resurrected, and together with the righteous living will be glorified and taken to heaven, but the unrighteous will die. The almost complete fulfillment of most lines of prophecy, together with the present condition of the world, indicates that Christ’s coming is near. The time of that event has not been revealed, and we are therefore exhorted to be ready at all times.
Comments about the belief statement
This may be the most orthodox of the 28 Fundamental Beliefs espoused by Seventh-day Adventists. The two most widely accepted ecumenical creeds both state the belief in the Second Coming:
Apostles’ Creed: On the third day (Jesus) rose again; he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead.
Nicene Creed: (Jesus) shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead.
Within the Christian Church there are multiple views on the Second Coming of Christ that are considered orthodox by the majority of people. The main views on the Second Coming are often grouped according to when the Second Coming will be relative to the Millennium (1,000 years of Rev 20:4):
- Premillennial – Jesus will return before the 1,000 years
- Postmillennial – Jesus will return after the 1,000 years
- Amillennial – The 1,000 years is symbolic of the time between the Cross and the Second Coming; Jesus can return at any time.
These are, by necessity, gross over-simplifications of the different views. Even within one of these groups there may be vast differences in the details. For example, premillennialism can be further split into the groups of Dispensationalism and Historic Premillennialism. Neither Dispensationalism nor Historic Premillennialism are single viewpoints either; each of these schools of thoughts have multiple understandings within that viewpoint. For example, Dispensationalists are further split between whether they advocate a rapture of the church before (pre-trib) during (mid-trib) or after (post-trib) the Great Tribulation and/or 7 last plagues. The Seventh-day Adventist view would fall as a sub-set (one of many) of Historic Premillennialism.
Dispensationalism with the associated doctrine of the rapture of the church is probably the most well-known. Seventh-day Adventism specifically rejects a secret rapture of the church but proclaims a visible Second Coming. Dispensationalists believe Jesus will rapture the church prior to His visible return. Most Christians believe in a visible second coming, and Seventh-day Adventism is within the range of normal Christian beliefs on this subject.
The resurrection of the dead is a belief shared in common across orthodox Christian churches, and the inclusion of that statement in the Seventh-day Adventist beliefs wouldn’t be any reason for concern except that Adventism means something slightly different when it refers to “resurrection”. A more complete examination of this teaching will be presented in response to Fundamental Belief #26 which specifically deals with death and resurrection. However, in brief, Adventism differs from mainstream Christian teaching by proclaiming that there is no part of man that remains alive between death and the resurrection at the Second Coming. That teaching isn’t clear within Fundamental Belief #25, although it is made clear in the following, Fundamental Belief #26.
Similarly, this belief statement emphasizes the death of the wicked, a teaching that is expounded on in Fundamental Belief #27. Technically, it isn’t the death of the wicked that should concern any of us, but rather the Second Death described in Revelation 20:14:
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:11-15).
The wicked dead are raised again to stand in front of the judgment seat of God (v 12) and, in accordance with their wicked deeds, are thrown into the lake of fire (v 15). Scripture defines the second death as “the lake of fire” (v 14). The lake of fire is where the devil, the beast, and the false prophet are placed to be “tormented day and night forever and ever” (v 10).
The final statement that could cause concern is the comment that we need to be “ready at all times”. The concept of being ready is biblical. For instance, Matthew 24:44 states, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”
The only question is what it means to a Seventh-day Adventist to “be ready”. Like many details in Adventism, this question is tricky to nail down. Some Adventists would tell you that your character needs to be perfect before Christ returns. Others would say that you can’t have any remaining willful sins (apparently “accidental” and “spur of the moment” sins are a different class of sin). I have also heard Adventists who would say that one can’t have any unrepented sins.
None of these definitions of “ready” are discussed in the book Seventh-day Adventists Believe. Rather, those who are “not ready” are described as not having “been sealed by the Holy Spirit” (p. 384). This phrase is a blatant example of Adventist code words. To the person unfamiliar with Adventist doctrine, the statement seems completely reasonable. However, the “seal” in Adventism is the Sabbath. The underlying message here is that those who don’t keep the Sabbath aren’t ready for Christ’s return and will be cast out.
While this statement may be one of the most orthodox-sounding of the Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Beliefs, it still contains references to uniquely Seventh-day Adventist teachings that would not be apparent to the casual reader. Outside of the context of Adventism I could read this statement without having any concerns. This belief statement, however, is not separate from the context of Adventism, and words like “resurrection”, “death”, and “being ready” have special meanings within this context. †
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