Dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Today, I wanted to share with you some thoughts on doctrinal history about the Seventh-Day Adventists. As most of us only know, including myself before I did some research on Seventh Day Adventism was that their first prefect of faith is that they worship on Saturdays, not Sundays. But there’s more to this unique sect, than Saturday worship.Historical background
The Seventh-Day Adventist church can be traced back to an American preacher William Miller (1782–1849), a Baptist who predicted the Second Coming would occur between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. Because he and his followers proclaimed Christ’s imminent advent, they were known as "Adventists." (Catholic.com) When Christ failed to appear, Miller reluctantly endorsed the position of a group of his followers known as the "seventh-month movement," who claimed Christ would return on October 22, 1844 (in the seventh month of the Jewish calendar). (Catholic.com)Is it ironic that majority of sects like Jehovah witnesses, Seventh Day and many others during their formation have tried to predict the coming of Christ, when it’s clearly written in the scriptures that no one knows of the time of Jesus’ return, it will come as the thief of the night. So, why predict and live in a faulty delusion. The amount of energy spent calculating his coming could have been spent else where. Now, I understand and realize I cannot judge any one based on their righteousness. As human one cannot judge who might be more close to GOD. But, when the scriptures have told of his coming, which again no one on earth or heaven except GOD knows, why waste the time and create and recreate doctrines, Christian sects, Christian churches, falsify and misinterpret scriptures.
Anyhow, again we see with Miller’s origin of his claims are based on his misinterpretation of Daniel and Revelation, that Christ would return in 1843–44 to cleanse "the sanctuary" (Dan. 8:11–14, 9:26), which he interpreted as the earth. After the disappointments of 1844, several of his followers proposed an alternative theory, another pitfall, trying to recalculate the return using human intellect. One of Miller’s followers by the name of Hiram Edson during his morning walk on October 23, 1844, the day after Christ failed to return, according to him received a spiritual revelation that indicated that Miller had misidentified the sanctuary. It was not the earth, but the Holy of Holies in God’s heavenly temple. Instead of coming out of the heavenly temple to cleanse the sanctuary of the earth, in 1844 Christ, for the first time, went into the heavenly Holy of Holies to cleanse it instead. (Catholic.com)
Now, the doctrine which is the forefront of the Adventist faith is the observation of the Lord’s day, which was influenced by Joseph Bates, a retired sea captain, who in 1846 and 1849 issued pamphlets insisting that Christians observe the Jewish Sabbath—Saturday—instead of worshipping on Sunday. This helped feed the intense anti-Catholicism of Seventh-Day Adventism, since they blamed the Catholic Church for changing the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. (Catholic.com)
So, in 1860 the Seventh-Day Adventist denomination was formed by Ellen Gould White who had claimed to have received many visions confirming the two main doctrine of their faith, Christ entering the heavenly sanctuary and the need to keep the Jewish Sabbath.(Catholic.com)Today the denomination reports that it has 780,000 members in the United States and 7.8 million members elsewhere, many in Catholic countries. (Catholic.com)
Propaganda
Ellen Gould White received her first several hundred visions in December of 1844. She soon gained recognition in the Adventist faith as the prophetess and became the church’s leader. According to the Adventist faithful she assisted on nearly fifty books which include on health, education, finance. Her most influential works that are still being used by the Seventh-Day include The Desire of the Ages and The Great Controversy. Her works are held by her followers to be inerrant on matters of doctrine, as is the Bible, though they are on a slightly lower plane of honor than the Bible. Her books are still in print by the Adventist publishing house; however they often appear with different covers and titles. The Great Controversy is often marketed as America in Prophecy. They are printed whole or in excerpted form. Sometimes Ellen Gould White’s name appears on the cover, sometimes a less well-known form of her name appears (e.g., E. G. White), and sometimes her name does not appear on the outside of the book at all. (Catholic.com)
“This allows Adventists to put White’s works in the hands of non-Adventists without alerting them that they are reading an Adventist publication until they are well into the work. Adventist publishing houses also keep the terms "Seventh-Day" and "Adventist" out of their names. Typical Adventist and Adventist-related publishing houses have names including Inspiration Books, Amazing Truth Publications, Review & Herald Publishing Association, and Pilgrims’ Press. (Catholic.com)Generally, Adventist-related publications are mass mailed under the Amazing Truth Publications’ anti-Catholic volume, National Sunday Law. (Catholic.com)
Adventist Beliefs
Seventh-Day Adventists agree with many Catholic doctrines, including the Trinity, Christ’s divinity, the virgin birth, the atonement, a physical resurrection of the dead, and Christ’s Second Coming. They use a valid form of baptism. They believe in original sin and reject the Evangelical teaching that one can never lose one’s salvation no matter what one does (i.e., they correctly reject "once saved, always saved").
Adventists also subscribe to the two Protestant shibboleths, sola scriptura (the Bible is the sole rule of faith) and sola fide (justification is by faith alone)However, they also hold many false and strange doctrines. They consider the following: (a) the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon; (b) the pope is the Antichrist; (c) in the last days, Sunday worship will be "the mark of the beast"; (d) there is a future millennium in which the devil will roam the earth while Christians are with Christ in heaven; (e) the soul sleeps between death and resurrection; and (f) on the last day, after a limited period of punishment in hell, the wicked will be annihilated and cease to exist rather than be eternally damned. (For rebuttals of many of these ideas, see the Catholic Answers tracts, The Antichrist, The Hell There Is, Hunting the Whore of Babylon, The Whore of Babylon, and Sabbath or Sunday?) (Catholic.com)Many Adventists insist that, as a matter of discipline (not doctrine), one must not eat meats considered unclean under the Mosaic Law (many endorse total vegetarianism), and one must avoid "worldly entertainments" (card-playing, dancing, smoking, drinking, reading non-religious books, listening to non-religious music, watching non-religious television, going to the movies, etc.). (Catholic.com)
Adventist against the Catholic teaching:
Adventist theology is intensely anti-Catholic. Many Catholics who come in contact with the Adventist publications do not realize just how hostile Adventist could be towards the Catholic Church. Anti-Catholicism characterization is mainly because of Ellen Gould Whites “divinely inspired” writings which as stated before was embraced and played a major role in the adaptation of the key doctrinal principles that formed the Seventh - Day Adventist.
Eschatology
Seventh-Day Adventism basic doctrine of faith is surrounded the revelation of end or last days. As stated above they see “Papacy” as the seven-headed beast from the sea as they misunderstand and misinterpret Revelation 13:1-10.
According to her, the papacy is the seven-headed beast from the sea in Revelation 13:1–10. Accompanying this beast is a lamb-like beast from the earth (Rev. 13:11–18). The latter causes the world to worship the former and has an image made of it. White proclaimed that the second beast is the United States (The Great Controversy, 387–8), and that it will force people to worship the papacy by "enforcing some observance which shall be an act of homage to the papacy" (ibid., 389).
This observance, she says, is Sunday worship rather than Saturday worship. Seventh-Day Adventism cannot change its views on the Catholic Church being the Whore of Babylon without admitting that it was wrong on Sunday worship. It cannot admit that Sunday worship is not the mark of the beast without changing its views on the Jewish Sabbath. Seventh-Day Adventism cannot cease to be anti-Catholic without ceasing to be Seventh-Day Adventism. (Catholic.com)
By virtue of their valid baptism, and their belief in Christ’s divinity and in the doctrine of the Trinity, Seventh-Day Adventists are both ontologically and theologically Christians. But Christians, once separated from the Church our Lord founded, are susceptible to being "tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14). (Catholic.com)
Reference and Sources:IMPRIMATUR: In accord with 1983 CIC 827 permission to publish this work is hereby granted. +Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004http://www.catholic.com/The Great Controversy, by Ellen Gould White
