September 5, 1999 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368
866-295-4143 (toll free), fbns@wayoflife.org) -

The following is Part II of II of "Why Walter Martin Considered Seventh-day Adventism Evangelical" --

THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS ARE THE ONES WHO SEPARATED FROM AND DERIDED OTHER CHURCHES. IT IS STRANGE THAT THEY NOW APPEAR HURT BECAUSE THESE SAME CHURCHES CONSIDER THEM HERETICAL.

Consider the following statements from SDA publications attacking the orthodox doctrines of the Christian faith:

The Doctrine of Conscious Existence after Death Is Called the Devil’s Lie: "And today from pulpits all across the nation we hear the devil’s great lie upheld each time a minister assures us that the soul of man lives on after death…" (These Times, November 1976, p. 5).

The Doctrine of Eternal Torment Is Called Blasphemy Against God: "It is beyond the power of the human mind to estimate the evil which has been wrought by the heresy of eternal torment … The appalling views of God which have spread over the world from the teachings of the pulpit have made thousands, yes, millions, of skeptics and infidels" (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 470).

Sunday Worship Will Be the Mark of the Beast: "While the observance of the false Sabbath in compliance to the fourth commandment, will be an avowal of allegiance to a power that is in opposition to God, the keeping of the true Sabbath, in obedience to God’s law is an evidence of loyalty to the Creator. While one class, by accepting the sign of submission to earthly powers, receive the mark of the beast, the other, choosing the token of allegiance to divine authority, receive the seal of God" (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 531).

Churches That Observe Sunday Worship Are Part of the Great Religious Whore of Revelation 17: "In amazement they hear the testimony that Babylon is the church, fallen because of her errors and sins, because of her rejection of the truth sent to her from heaven [this refers to Adventist doctrines of Sabbath worship, soul sleep, etc.]. As the people go to their former teachers with the eager inquiry, are these things so? The ministers present fables, prophesy smooth things, to soothe their fears and quiet the awakened conscience" (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, pp. 531,532).

Quotes such as these demonstrate that it is the Seventh-day Adventist denomination itself that has stood apart from other churches and caused divisions by its heretical views. Is it not strange now that they want to be accepted as orthodox Bible-believers by the very churches from which they willfully separated and which they have condemned? These are the subtle games that false teachers play.

ONE OF DR. MARTIN’S PRIMARY REASONS FOR ACCEPTING SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM AS NON-HERETICAL IS THAT THEY HOLD MANY MAJOR DOCTRINAL TRUTHS, SUCH AS THE TRINITY, THE DEITY OF CHRIST, AND THE INFALLIBILITY OF SCRIPTURE.

"It is puzzling to me, as a student of non-Christian cult systems, how any group can hold the above doctrines in their proper Biblical context which Dr. Hoekema admits the Adventists do and still be a non-Christian cult … suffice it to say that the Adventists do have a clean bill of health where the major doctrines of Christian theology are involved" (Kingdom of the Cults, p. 370).

One error here is in Martin’s use of the man-made term "cult." It can be defined in numerous ways. By Martin’s definition, perhaps, Seventh-day Adventism was not a cult. By Dr. Hoekema’s definition, Seventh-day Adventism is a cult. Whether or not Seventh-day Adventism is a cult, though, is not as important as whether or not Seventh-day Adventism is faithful to the Bible and the New Testament faith.

The Apostle Paul, in his condemnation of the Galatian heretics, mentions only one error: the perversion of the gospel. The Galatian legalizers were apparently sound in such major doctrines as God, Christ, and the Scriptures. In fact, they were almost sound in their doctrine of salvation, yet they were under God’s curse! They Seventh-day Adventists are modern-day Galatian heretics. They believe the cross leads the believer to the law, not to perfect, once-for-all and eternal liberty in Christ entirely outside the law of Moses.

The warning of Romans 16:17 is to mark and separate from those "which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned." Paul does not say to mark and avoid those which cause divisions contrary to only some of the doctrines we have learned. The Seventh-day Adventist denomination teaches many doctrines that are contrary to those taught by the Apostles. God’s Word commands that we mark them as false teachers and separate from them. That is not what Walter Martin did, though.

The Doctrine We Have Learned: "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" (Romans 3;28).

Seventh-day Adventist Doctrinal Offences: "Christ says to every man in this world what He said to the rich young ruler: ‘If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments’" (Saved By Grace, pp. 45,46).

The Doctrine We Have Learned: "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him" (Romans 5:9).

Seventh-day Adventist Doctrinal Offences: "… Ellen White … she was a fellow Seventh-day Adventist … with no assurance of salvation except as she was faithful and trusted in the merits of her risen Savior" (Messenger to the Remnant, p. 127).

The Doctrine We Have Learned: "Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster" (Galatians 3:24,25). "And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work" (Romans 11:6).

Seventh-day Adventist Doctrinal Offences: "The fact that all who are redeemed are saved by grace does not dispense with the law of God any more in the one dispensation than in the other. The law is not against grace, and grace is not against the law … It is very evident, then, that in the new covenant we do not see the law as a thing of no consequence, but we find it occupying the center of the covenant" (Saved by Grace, pp. 11,36).

The Doctrine We Have Learned: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (Colossians 2:16,17).

Seventh-day Adventist Doctrinal Offences: "… it is evident that all ten commandments are binding in the Christian dispensation … One of these commands is the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath" (Bible Footlights, p. 37).

The Doctrine We Have Learned: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24).

Seventh-day Adventist Doctrinal Offences: "As the books of record are opened in the judgment, the lives of all who have believed on Jesus come into review before God … every case closely investigated. Names are accepted, names rejected" (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 425).

The Doctrine We Have Learned: "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord" (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Seventh-day Adventist Doctrinal Offences: "To be dead does not mean to go to heaven; it does not mean to go to hell … Indeed, it does not mean to go anywhere at all. It means simply an end of life" (When a Man Dies, p. 20).

The Doctrine We Have Learned: "If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire" (1 Corinthians 3:14,15).

Seventh-day Adventist Doctrinal Offences: "When any have sins remaining upon the books of record, unrepented of and unforgiven, their names will be blotted out of the book of life, and the record of their good deeds will be erased from the book of God’s remembrance" (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 425).

The Doctrine We Have Learned: "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. … And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:10,15).

Seventh-day Adventist Doctrinal Offences: "The plain doctrine of the Bible is that the devil and all his works will be destroyed, utterly destroyed. … How repugnant to every emotion of love and mercy, and even to our sense of justice, is the doctrine that the wicked dead are tormented with fire and brimstone in an eternally burning hell" (When a Man Dies, p. 58; The Great Controversy, p. 469).

The Doctrine We Have Learned: "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence" (1 Timothy 2:11,12).

Seventh-day Adventist Doctrinal Offences: "Mrs. White’s pre-eminent mission was to help build the dynamics of a Biblical faith into a Christian movement. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is indebted to her as a spiritual leader and a pioneer builder and guide" (Ellen G. White and the S.D.A. Church, p. 2).

These quotes show how the Seventh-day Adventist denomination contradicts many clear apostolic doctrines. There are many other Adventist doctrinal heresies, of course. Upon the command and authority of Romans 16:17, Bible-believing Christians must mark the Adventist Church as false and avoid associations with the group.

The same idea is in Jude 3. We are commanded to "earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints." The faith is that body of truth delivered to us by divine inspiration through the Apostles. If we obey this verse and earnestly contend for the New Testament faith with Seventh-day Adventists, it will quickly be evident that there can be no close fellowship. The doctrinal differences are too great and too serious.

Another relevant passage is 2 Timothy 2:16-18. Here two men are condemned as heretics, yet only one error is mentioned—their view of the resurrection. If Paul warned Timothy to avoid these men because of their false doctrine of the resurrection, should we not more warn Christians today to avoid the Seventh-day Adventist Church based on their many heresies?

The truth is that the Bible does not give Christians the liberty of basing fellowship merely upon two or three major doctrines. The New Testament requires separation based on such things as a false gospel (Galatians 1), a false view of death or resurrection (2 Timothy 2:16-18), a denial of true holiness (1 Timothy 6:3-5), and a denial of the supernatural power of Christianity (2 Timothy 3:5). We are to separate even from true Christians if they refuse to follow the teachings of the apostles (2 Thess. 3:6).

Walter Martin’s chief error about Seventh-day Adventism was his refusal to practice biblical separation. He had a New Evangelical type ministry that focused on unity based on a lowest-common denominator of doctrine. This is why he also did not separate from the Roman Catholic Church.

WALTER MARTIN CONTENDED THAT MODERN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM IS DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF ITS EARLIER DAYS.

"For over a century Adventism has borne a stigma of being called a non-Christian cult system. Whether or not this was justified in the early development of Adventism, I have already discussed at length in my earlier book, but it should be carefully remembered that the Adventism of 1965 is different in not a few places from Adventism of 1845, and with that change the necessity of re-evaluation comes naturally" (Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults, p. 360).

Though we have no doubt that there have been changes in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination during the past 150 years, we must ask whether these changes have affected the basic doctrinal position; and the answer is no. Prophetess Ellen White believed the Adventist system of doctrine was finalized in the early days of her ministry and that this particular system was to be used from then on as the test of truth worldwide. It was not to be changed. Carefully consider the words of Mrs. White herself concerning the possibility of future changes in Adventist doctrine.

"When the power of God testifies as to what is truth, that truth is to stand forever as the truth. No after suppositions, contrary to the light God has given, are to be entertained. … The truth for this time God has given us as the foundation for our faith. He Himself has taught us what is truth. One will arise, and still another, with new light which contradicts the light that God has given under the demonstration of His Holy Spirit. We are not to receive the words of those who come with a message that contradicts the special points of our faith. They gather together a mass of Scripture, and pile it as proof around the past fifty years. And while the Scriptures are God’s Word, and are to be respected, the application of them, if such application moves one pillar from the foundation that God has sustained these fifty years, is a great mistake…" (Ellen G. White Letter 329, 1905, quoted in Messenger to the Remnant, p. 40).

The truth is that Seventh-day Adventism today does not differ in any significant doctrinal way from the Seventh-day Adventism of Ellen White’s day, except that it presents its doctrines in a more subtle manner today. If the Seventh-day Adventist leaders were to change their major distinctive doctrines as outlined by Ellen White, they would be denying their prophetess and pulling the pillars from under themselves. The Adventist Church admits this in the following statement from one of their recent publications:

"Great lines of truth were gradually unfolding before them [Ellen White and early Adventist leaders]. … Now the time had come for the convergence of these truths into one body of doctrine. This was brought about in 1848, through a series of Sabbath conferences. Five in all were held. At the earlier of these, the doctrines were clarified and bound together as a unity of truth; the later conferences served largely as teaching and unifying agencies.

"A careful study of documents of the time reveals what was denominated ‘present truth’ in this formative period … made up of vital ‘essentials,’ ‘pillars,’ ‘foundations.’ These may be listed as: 1. The second advent of Christ. 2. The binding claims of the seventh-day Sabbath. 3. The third angel’s message in its fullness, in correct relationship to the first and second angel’s messages. 4. The ministry of Christ in the heavenly sanctuary, which ministry would cease not long before the second advent (with emphasis on the work beginning the tenth day of the seventh month, 1844). 5. The non-immortality of the soul.

"These structural doctrines formed the ‘firm platform’ which, in 1858, was described by Ellen White, upon which ‘nearly all stood firm’ … These constituted the ‘landmarks’ enumerated by Ellen White thirty years later…" (Messenger to the Remnant, pp. 39,40).

Since Mrs. White and the Adventist Church teach that their major doctrinal platform was finalized in their early days (and since the Adventist Church tells us that Mrs. White was an inspired prophetess), there is no need for re-evaluation of this group. A study of recent Seventh-day Adventist publications confirms this judgment, since they continue to teach the same heresies promulgated by Ellen White and other early Adventist leaders.

As a group, the Seventh-day Adventists today are the same divisive heretics they have been from their origin. To deserve a re-evaluation and re-labeling, they would have to denounce and turn away from every one of their heresies, including the foundational heresy that Ellen White was a prophetess of God.

Between 1976 and 1981 I completed three or four official correspondence courses on Seventh-day Adventism produced by the Adventist Church itself. These courses promote the very same doctrinal platform that was laid down by Ellen White and the early Adventist leaders. Until such time as the Adventist Church denounces its heresies, Christians who follow the faith of the New Testament must mark avoid this group in obedience to Romans 16:17.

On an individual basis, only those Adventists who reject the heretical distinctives of the Adventist Church and hold only to pure New Testament doctrine can properly be accepted as brethren. No doubt there are some genuinely saved people within the Adventist Church, but they are saved in spite of Adventism and not because of it. Even so, they are living in disobedience to God’s Word by being affiliated with an unscriptural organization. 2 Thessalonians 3:6 and 2 Timothy 2:24-26 are our guidelines for dealing with such people.

"Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us" (2 Thessalonians 3:6).

"And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will" (2 Timothy 2:24-26).

The Adventist denomination is the same heretical entity that was so plainly and firmly condemned by Bible-believing churches in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is the Bible-believing churches that have changed. Popular evangelicalism today has become too blind to discern truth from error and too weak to condemn error when it is found. Just a few decades ago men such as A. Hoekema, John R. Rice, and M.R. DeHaan, who considered Seventh-day Adventism a dangerous false group, were in the overwhelming majority among those who professed to be evangelical Bible-believing preachers. This is not so today. Most major evangelical publishing houses, for example, will no longer publish material derogatory toward Adventism or Catholicism.

It is not that the Adventist Church has moved closer to the Bible in the past 50 years, it is that the evangelicals have moved farther away from the Bible in that period.

For Part I of this article see the Cults section of the End Time Apostasy Database at the Way of Life Literature web site -- http://www.wayoflife.org/

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The previous article is from the book AVOIDING THE SNARE OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM by David W. Cloud. Called the best on the subject by the editor of The Baptist Challenge, this book is diligently researched from official publications of the Seventh-day Adventist organization. The author proves conclusively that the Seventh-day Adventist gospel is false. The two major divisions of the book are: "Adventist History Proves It is Heretical" and "Adventist Doctrine Proves It Is Heretical." The book analyzes Adventist doctrines such as Sabbath-keeping, Soul-sleep, Annihilation of the wicked, Ellen White as a Prophetess, Investigative Judgment, and Misuse of the Mosaic Law. Another chapter is titled "Why Some Have Considered Seventh-day Adventism Evangelical." This analyzes Walter Martin's (author of Kingdom of the Cults) faulty view of Adventism. The 2nd edition (1999) includes selections from D.M. Canright's 1898 book Seventh-day Adventism Renounced. Canright was an early leader in Adventism who left and became a Baptist pastor. The 2nd edition also includes a chapter entitled "Adventists Wanted Me to Revise This Book," describing the attempt by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination to have me change the book. 161 pages, 5 X 8", perfect bound. $5.95 + $4 S/H.

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