Adventism’s Fundamental Belief #28: The New Earth—On the new earth, in which righteousness dwells, God will provide an eternal home for the redeemed and a perfect environment for everlasting life, love, joy, and learning in His presence. For here God Himself will dwell with His people, and suffering and death will have passed away. The great controversy will be ended, and sin will be no more. All things, animate and inanimate, will declare that God is love; and He shall reign forever. Amen.
Comments about the belief statement
A quick read of this statement probably doesn’t reveal anything concerning, particularly for those unfamiliar with the details of Seventh-day Adventist theology. The typical Adventist probably wonders why anyone would question the content of this doctrinal statement since this statement doesn’t relate to the typical objections that they are used to hearing.
Seventh-day Adventists claim that all of their beliefs come directly from the Bible, that they do not rely on their prophet, Ellen White, for any doctrines. Fundamental Belief #28 (FB28) certainly isn’t the only belief with clear evidence to the contrary, but that assertion provides a good starting point for examining this final belief statement.
Clearly Scripture teaches that the redeemed will live eternally with God on the new earth. What this belief statement adds to the descriptions of Scripture is that the New Earth is a place for “learning in His presence.” You are likely wondering, “What’s so bad about thinking we would spend eternity learning with God?” By itself, nothing is bad about the concept. However, this assumption is another case of Adventism relying solely on their extra-biblical prophet for the content of their beliefs.
Significantly, the book published by the Seventh-day Adventist organization to explain these beliefs, Seventh-Day Adventists Believe, supports this statement not with a biblical reference but only with a quote from Ellen White as the basis for this statement.1 This reference demonstrates how freely Adventist doctrine intertwines their prophet’s writing into Scripture—and the Adventist members are not conscious of the blurring between EGW’s “prophetic voice” and the Bible’s.
The phrase “sin will be no more” is one of those examples of Adventist doctrine being presented in a way that sounds the same as Evangelical Christianity, but it means something entirely different when stated by Adventists.
The phrase “sin will be no more” is one of those examples of Adventist doctrine being presented in a way that sounds the same as Evangelical Christianity, but it means something entirely different when stated by Adventists. Mainstream Christians who accept the inerrancy of the Bible would contend that sin no longer existing refers to sin, death, Satan, the fallen angels, and unredeemed sinners being completely and eternally separated from God (Matt 8:12, 25:30) existing “day and night, forever and ever” in the lake of fire (Rev 20:10, and 21:8). Furthermore, the end of sin among the believers occurs because we are all changed at the return of Christ (I Cor 15:35-55).
Neither of these understandings of the end of sin, however, is true in Adventist doctrine. When Adventists speak of sin being eradicated, they are making a veiled reference to their doctrine of annihilation. In Adventist doctrine, sin would still exist if Satan and sinners were being eternally punished. Using this loaded phrase, “sin will be no more”, within their doctrinal statements reinforces within the membership the importance of the annihilation doctrine among Adventists. As stated in this doctrine, the Adventist “sin will be no more” links together with other key aspects of Adventist beliefs.
Unless one is an Adventist, however, this implicit reinforcement of annihilation would likely go unseen. This example of Adventism’s “hidden meanings” is one illustration showing why it is difficult for an outsider to understand Adventism reasonably well: their doctrines are full of “code phrases” that weave themselves through multiple beliefs.
There is a second, less obvious, doctrinal implication that goes along with “sin will be no more”, and that is the means by which sin is removed from the followers of God. For the Adventist, there is no change in the character or nature of a person between this life and eternal life. Ellen White states,
“The traits of character you cherish in life will not be changed by death or by the resurrection. You will come up from the grave with the same disposition you manifested in your home and in society. Jesus does not change the character at His coming. The work of transformation must be done now. Our daily lives are determining our destiny. Defects of character must be repented of and overcome through the grace of Christ, and a symmetrical character must be formed while in this probationary state, that we may be fitted for the mansions above” (13MR 82).
The only way in Adventist theology to keep heaven pure and sin free is to exclude all sinners, as described in Seventh-Day Adventists Believe, “The guarantee that the new earth will remain ‘new’ despite the influx of immigrants from the sin-polluted, old Planet Earth is the fact that God will exclude the ‘vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars’ (Rev. 21:8, NIV; 22:15). He must—for whatever sin enters, it ruins.”2
This belief that God must exclude any person who commits any sin relates directly to the great controversy doctrine referenced in the statement of Fundamental Belief #28. The fact that the Adventist church believes and teaches a doctrine of the so-called great controversy isn’t a secret. In fact, they have included a Fundamental Belief—#8 to be precise—which deals exclusively with this doctrine. Readers should review the comments on that belief statement in order to better understand what FB28 is really saying when it mentions the “great controversy”.
In fact, to understand the great controversy, one must also understand the number of extra-biblical sources necessary to arrive at such a doctrine.
In fact, to understand the great controversy, one must also understand the number of extra-biblical sources necessary to arrive at such a doctrine. In short, one must understand the details of the great controversy doctrine in order to understand how the teaching about sin assumed in FB28 fits in—but clear descriptions of this doctrine are hard to find. This lack of clear explanations for the organization’s defining worldview is not surprising. Adventism is a great deception; one doesn’t “see” the implications of the great controversy by looking at Adventism from the outside. One must be an insider, taught and shaped by Sabbath School lessons, sermons, Ellen White’s books, Adventist evangelistic presentations such as The Voice of Prophecy, Amazing Facts, and It Is Written—even Adventist books and mission stories—in order to absorb the great controversy worldview that makes the Adventist unbiblical doctrines seem normal to “insiders”.
The central point of the great controversy doctrine is that Satan accused God of being unfair, of imposing a law that couldn’t be followed. Everything in the history of the human race boils down to resolving this conflict. In order for God to demonstrate that His law is fair, His people must keep the law (at least that remnant of followers who remain alive at the Second Coming must keep it perfectly). This final generation of followers must be able to stand before God with such sufficient righteousness that they have no need for Christ as their Mediator, because there will be a period of time in which no Mediator is available. Such perfection can only be accomplished by people who have no spot of sin on their character. An interesting corollary to this teaching is the Adventist belief that Christ can’t return until His character is perfectly reflected in His followers.
However, this sinless state of the final generation isn’t the most heretical aspect of the great controversy doctrine. The truly twisted aspect of this doctrine is hinted at in this sentence of FB28: “All things, animate and inanimate, will declare that God is love”.
While this statement sounds good, it isn’t a teaching found in the Bible. It is another case of changing Scripture to fit Adventist doctrine. Scripture says “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil 2:10-11).
According to Adventist doctrine, God must be vindicated from Satan’s accusation.
Adventist apologists need to change this teaching slightly to support their great controversy doctrine. According to Adventist doctrine, God must be vindicated from Satan’s accusation. All of creation, including the angels and the “unfallen worlds”,3 will judge between Satan and God. If God isn’t declared to be righteous and just, Satan will assume control of the universe. Thus, all things declaring that God is love announces this judgement and final vindication of God. Of course, an “outsider” would not see that this belief lies behind the innocuous-sounding words of FB28!
Seventh-day Adventists are likely to reject this characterization of the great controversy doctrine as being the “historical” Adventist view and out-of-touch with current Adventist understanding. However, these same Adventists are unable to provide a church-published document that provides any comprehensive explanation of a “new” view on the great controversy. This lack is particularly intriguing since the great controversy is part of the Fundamental Beliefs and one of the predominate threads weaving Adventist doctrine together. This lack of support for claims of a new view of the great controversy would be like Calvinists who are unable to provide any documents explaining how they understand predestination or Baptists who couldn’t provide a clear statement about immersion.
Any time that a Seventh-day Adventist says that a criticism of their doctrines isn’t accurate, one should insist on being provided with an an official Seventh-day Adventis-published source explaining what they do believe on that subject. When Adventists say that their church “used to teach that” but no longer does, one should insist on seeing a statement from the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference about the change in that belief.
The secretive nature about core Adventist doctrines should be a sufficient reason for anyone to distance themselves from this sect. †
Endnotes
- Page 422 quotes and cites Ellen White, The Great Controversy, page 677.
- Page 423.
- Adventists believe that there are many other worlds that didn’t fall into sin, and all of the inhabitants of those worlds are watching what happens on earth.
- Our Journey Out of Adventism - July 27, 2023
- 30. Adventism’s New Earth - July 27, 2023
- 29. The Adventist Millennium - July 20, 2023