"7th Day" Churches? 

I had the opportunity to teach at a classical Christian school for a few years and across the street from the school resided a 7th Day Adventist Church (SDA). Several times I received questions from students asking what “7th Day Adventist” meant and why they were different from what we believed. This is good question and apart from the idea that they seem to have a strong feeling about Saturday, what actually do they believe? 

This brief post will certainly not be long enough to cover all the nuances and multi-faceted teachings of the movement that traces its history back to the mid 19th century but will attempt to provide an overview.

7th Day Adventism finds its historical roots in the “Adventist Movement” which propagated the prophecies of William Miller who prophesied the return of Christ in either 1843 or 1844.  His followers were originally known as “Millerites” but grew almost entirely disfranchised when 1845 rolled around without Christ’s second coming/ second advent. The event became known as the “Great Disappointment.” However, several faithful disciples of Miller sought to defend their leader and explain that he was not wrong! They found their answer when it was decided that Christ must have returned to the “Spiritual Temple” and not the “Physical Temple.” One of the influencers of this explanation was a 17-year-old girl named Ellen G. Harmon. Her influence exploded as she quickly claimed to have received over 2,000 prophetic visions from God. It became only natural that followers of the Adventist movement championed Ellen as their new leader as previosuly divided factions united around her. 

Following her marriage to an Adventist preacher, now Ellen White became convinced that the law to keep the Sabbath was a directive for every Christian and became a primary doctrine for the movement. The Adventists who united around her became known as the “7th Day Adventists” in 1847. Ellen White spent the next several years writing prolifically both her received visions and prophecies as well as her interpretations of these revelations. Over the course of her life, she wrote nearly 10,000 pages of revealed material. 

Some of the highlights of her visions included a vision of a heavenly batter raging between Jesus and His angels and Satan and his demonic forces. This vision became known as the “Great Controversy.” Other visions included her “Gospel of Health” in which she put restriction on certain foods including meat or “flesh food.” Following that declaration other Adventist leaders began to place other restriction on their adherents’ diets like butter, margarine, shellfish, caffeine, spicy condiments, etc. The rational from Ellen White was that these things could harm the body and anything that harmed the body could and would harm the soul and therefore must be rejected. 

One of White’s more theologically errant doctrines was the teaching that a dead human remained in “soul sleep” awaiting the resurrection rather than being in torment (for the unsaved) or going straight to heaven (for the believer.) This doctrine was developed to include annihilation of the soul for the unsaved after the final judgment rather than teaching eternal punishment in Hell for the unredeemed. This teaching rejects Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 which comforts the Corinthian believers that in death to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Also, in Philippians 1:23 Paul explained his desire to depart and “be with the Lord” rather than to continue to suffer here on earth. Annihilationism also rejects biblical teaching. Though the teaching is tragic and heartbreaking (spurring us on to evangelistic fervor and dedicated prayer for the lost) Revelation 20:11-15 is quite clear that after the day of judgment, “If anyone s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Rev. 20:15) The gospel accounts describe this lake as a place of eternal darkness, weeping, and gnashing of teeth.

Another extremely troubling teaching by Ellen White was that Satan, not Jesus Christ, was the “scapegoat” who bore the sins for believers. (The Great Controversy, p. 422, 485). This is a terrible reversal from Peter’s teaching about Jesus that, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Pet. 2:24) White also identified Jesus as “Michael the Archangel” in Jude 1:9, thereby denying his truly divine nature.

In summary, there is much troubling doctrine/ teaching prevalent in the SDA originating from failed prophets and prophetesses who had a penchant for accepting extra-biblical material as divine truth and corrupting the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Paul said, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but 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.” (Gal. 1:6-8)

Can a person be a Christian and attend a 7th Day Adventist Church? SDA churches are incredibly diverse, so I am not prepared to say that every single church is equally errant, but I do feel confident in encouraging every seeker to check any teaching/ doctrine against what is found in the inspired Word of God (66 canonical books). 

A word of caution in kindness. 

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