What is Seventh-Day Adventism (SDA)?

from the old testament

• Because modern Seventh-Day Adventism relies on extra-biblical visions to interpret Scripture and to provide guidance, it denies Scripture’s sufficiency. In contrast, Scripture considers itself self-interpreting and complete. For example, after finishing the Torah, Moses said, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:2). He understood that what God reveals is enough.
• However, the Old Testament was added to over time because God was still writing it. His authorized writers were prophets through whom He spoke. But there were also false prophets who claimed to speak for God. Moses also acknowledged this. Regarding such false prophets, he said, “And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18:21–22). The test of true prophecy is a 100% accuracy rate because God is never wrong. If any prophecy fails, then the prophet is not speaking for God and must be avoided.
• A feature of the SDA movement is its adherence to certain Old Testament commandments. One in particular is the Sabbath. However, the Sabbath was a covenantal sign between God and Israel (cf. Exodus 31:12–17). That means it was a particular feature of that particular relationship. This does not mean worshiping on the Sabbath, rather than Sunday, is inherently bad (cf. Romans 14:5), but requiring believers to worship on the Sabbath misunderstands the distinction between Israel and the church, misses the pattern the New Testament set about the church meeting on Sundays in honor of Jesus’ resurrection (cf. Acts 20:7), and adds requirements Scripture doesn’t add (Galatians 5:1).
• The Old Testament anticipated that salvation would come outside the Mosaic system. After God told Abraham that He would give him many generations, in Genesis 15:6 we read, “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.” Later, Paul would use this to show the Jews in his day that legalistically obeying the Old Testament commands to obtain salvation missed the fact that salvation comes through an Abrahamic-like faith (cf. Romans 4:3), who was saved long before the Mosaic Law existed (Galatians 3:16–17).

from the new testament

• The SDA movement began, as have other heterodox movements, by trying to predict Jesus’ return. This is despite Jesus saying, “concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only” (Matthew 24:36). When one tries to predict Jesus’ return and it fails (as Jesus indicates such predictions are always based on a lack of knowledge, not insider knowledge), a movement becomes disenfranchised. It often looks for alternative explanations to maintain they were correct about a date while explaining the differing result. The SDA is no exception to this pattern.
• In the SDA’s case, over time, the prophetic visions of Ellen Gould White became a guiding light. They claim that this “lesser light” pointed to the “greater light” (Scripture), but in practice, her visions are often treated with the authority of Scripture. But Paul said of the Scriptures, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16–17).
• Being “God-breathed” means that all Scripture comes directly from God, and being “profitable … that the man of God may be complete” means it is sufficient in itself. Peter, for his part, said, “no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20b–21). He meant that external interpretation is unneeded because the Holy Spirit moved the writers to say what He wanted them to say, and the Spirit helps believers understand what He wrote (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:12–14).
• In terms of salvation, the New Testament is clear that the Old Testament Mosaic Law never saved (Romans 3:20). Instead, it was given to the Israelites to show them that they were sinful (Romans 3:19–20) and thus needed a Savior. In contrast to being saved by obeying the Mosaic law as the SDA implies through its legalistic requirements upon its members, “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9).
• Paul warned that any other gospel than this brings condemnation. Speaking against Jews who were adding legalistic obedience to salvation through Christ, Paul said, “There are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:7–9).
• In another place, Paul argued that since Jesus canceled the record of sin and its consequence of death (Colossians 2:14), to “therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God” (Colossians 2:16–19).
• SDA is considered heterodox because, while it holds certain doctrines that are accepted as orthodoxy, its insistence on legalistic obedience to elements of the Mosaic Law and reliance on extra-biblical visions undermines both the gospel as being by faith and Scripture as sufficient.

implications for today

Seventh-Day Adventism is a modern example of the dangers of not remaining firmly rooted in Scripture’s teaching. While perhaps well-meaning in its early beginnings, after committing itself to the failed end-times prophecy and then introducing other prophetic works that placed restraints on believers, the movement quickly derailed from biblical to heterodox. It now stands as a sad example of how humanity’s desire for rule-based salvation can turn even Christianity into a religion of legalistic obedience rather than faith-based.

But what are we to do with the Seventh-Day Adventists we know? The reality is that, because we share Scripture, we will agree on several points of doctrine. This means we will often sound like we are more in agreement than in disagreement. However, because the movement adheres to extra-biblical teachings that undermine the purity of the gospel, we should encourage its members to leave.

Jude wrote to believers dealing with other false teachers who were Christian in name but who were teaching extra-biblical ideas. He answered the question about dealing with those who are mixed in with those groups. He said, “keep yourselves in the love of God … And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh” (Jude 21–23).

We must look to pull others out of that fire, making sure we don’t become stained by it while showing those in the movement mercy and the hope found in salvation by faith alone in Jesus Christ.