Seventh Day Adventist – Ellen G. White is the founder of this well known cult. It arose out of the “Adventist” movement of the mid-1800’s (a belief that they are the fulfillment of prophecies pertaining to the latter days) and the Seventh Day Baptist apostates (a focus on sabbath worship and the keeping of the Law). There are more than 5 million members worldwide in over 27,000 SDA churches. Here are just a few of the many heresies found in their false belief system:
Salvation by works; Soul sleep; Investigative judgment; and, Sabbath keeping.
SDA teaches that Sabbath keeping will be the test of obedience during the Great Tribulation, and contends that Sunday observances are the mark of the Beast, and those observing it will be lost.
“To obey the commandments of God is the only way to obtain His favor.” (Testimonies, Vol. 4, p.28 – Ellen G. White).
“Man, who has defaced the image of God in his soul by a corrupt life, cannot, by mere human effort, effect a radical change in himself. He must accept the provisions of the gospel; he must be reconciled to God through ‘obedience to His law’ and faith in Jesus Christ.” (Testimonies, Vol. 4, p.294).
Mrs. White had a vision, in which she asserted she was taken to heaven, and shown the sanctuary and its appointments! A description of her vision is given: “Jesus raised the cover of the ark, and she beheld the tables of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written. She was amazed as she saw the Fourth Commandment in the very center of the ten precepts, with a soft halo of light encircling it.” This is where keeping the Sabbath holy became the focus for her and her followers.
SDA’s teach that in order for sinful man to obtain favor with God, he must obey the commandments, with careful attention to keeping the Sabbath holy. At the end of the age, all will be judged and those who are found faithful to keeping the Law, they alone will enter into “Heaven”; all the rest will simply cease to exist (Annihilation).
Who was the Sabbath for?
The Sabbath was only for the nation of Israel; it was a ‘sign’ between them and God: Ex 31:16-17 “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.”
In Neh 9:13,14, the Bible shows that the Sabbath was not given to Israel until Moses’ delivered to them the 10 commandments; thus, the Sabbath was not in effect prior to this (for they did not even know of it).
“Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: 14 And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:”
When did the Sabbath begin
However, SDA’s claim that God’s people have been keeping the Sabbath holy since the Creation.
Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
However, this passage does not instruct anyone to keep it holy, as a perpetual law. Many centuries later, God instructed only one people to keep it holy; Israel.
There is not a word about it being given to Adam and Eve as a commandment. You don’t hear another word about the Sabbath in the entire book of Genesis. Other than this creation account, all fifty chapters are silent about the Sabbath.
You do not hear that the righteous Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob kept the Sabbath. There is a conspicuous silence for 2,500 years after the Fall of man. It is not until after the redemption of God’s people Israel out of Egypt that the Sabbath is mentioned again. (Exodus 16:22-30).
You do not see Adam, Enoch, Noah, nor Abraham (the first Jew) keeping the Sabbath, or even talking about the Sabbath.
The Christian churches of the New Testament speak absolutely nothing about keeping the Sabbath, but instead point to the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week.
The first day of the week was not selected as a replacement for the Sabbath, it is totally separate from it; right after Christ ascended to His Father, it was appointed to be the day that Christians would meet together to celebrate the Saviour’s resurrection. Sunday is not the Christian’s Sabbath. The Sabbath is the 7th day…always.
Is the 10 Commandment Law ‘Eternal’?
No, the Law is not eternal. Galatians 3:19 gives the purpose of the Law. It says: “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.”
The law was given 430 years after Abraham. ” And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.” (Galatians 3:17-18).
The Law had a definite beginning time (430 years after Abraham) and a definite ending time, –When the promised Seed (Christ) came.
Did Jesus Christ keep the Sabbath?
The “Adventists” state that since Jesus kept the sabbath, so should we.
Well this kind of reasoning is flawed because it only chooses Jesus’ Sabbath keeping and rejects the rest of His Jewish lifestyle. Jesus also kept Kosher laws. He kept the Passover, Sukkot, Hanukkah, and worshipped in the temple. Are we to follow everything He did?
Jesus kept the sabbath because He was born under the Law to fulfill the demands of the law – He kept the Law for He was to fulfill all the Law (Ga 4:4). (Ro 10:4) He was the end of the Law. Jesus fulfilled this in His sinless perfection. Everyone else, however, would fail and would thus need a Perfect One to redeem them from all evil.
If He wanted to be our “example” in Sabbath keeping [why did He repeatedly break the Sabbath]?! Not only did he break it, He admits to it. He also admits that His disciples were breaking the Sabbath and He defends them.
Everytime the Jews brought up the Sabbath to Jesus, He rebuked them for their ‘technical, nitpicking, critical, unloving hearts’ and basically told them that the Sabbath was for doing good, even if it involved work.
Paul did at times go to the synagogue on the Sabbath, but that was to do only 1 thing, to preach Christ to the lost!
What about early Christians?
There are historical quotes by church “fathers” that qualify church meetings held on the first day of the week (Barnabas, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Bardesanes, Clement, Tertullian, Irenaeus, Cyprian, to name a few).
Justin Martyr (145-150 A.D.) – “And on the day called Sunday all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read….But Sunday is the day on which we all hold a common assembly, because it is the first day of the week on which God…made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead.”
Are there any records of early churches keeping the Sabbath? No! Why has no Sabbatarian every produced even one historical quote (75-500AD) that says Christians kept the Sabbath?
Do the Sabbatarians obey the commands concerning the Sabbath?
Ex 34:21-23 To be a true Sabbatarian, you need to work 6 days, not 5; and you need to truly rest on the 7th and do no work; and you need to keep the other feasts.
What happens if, as a Seventh Dayer, you fail one time when you were young to keep the Sabbath holy?
You are doomed! You are suppose to be stoned. Num 15:32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. 35 And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.
Sabbatarians allow for ‘minor work’ to be done on the Sabbath.
When the counsel of Acts 15 convened to determine what Gentile Christians must observe, Sabbath keeping is conspicuously absent. Peter exhorts the leadership of the Church not to place the Gentiles under the Law:
Acts 15:10 Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
The final judgment of the Jerusalem Council contains no reference to Sabbath keeping. Circumcision was discussed and deemed unnecessary (vss. 5-6; 19-20). If Sabbath keeping were to be an essential part of the New Covenant relationship with God it would have been mentioned in the discussion because it would have been an unfamiliar practice to the Gentiles. Sabbath keeping was not even discussed because it is not a requirement for New Covenant believers:
Acts 15:28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; 29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
Nine of the Ten Commandments are reiterated and supported in the New Testament, but one is not…the 4th…Keeping the Sabbath holy.
1). To worship the Lord God only (1st commandment): no less than 50 times
2). Idolatry (2nd commandment): condemned 12 times
3). Profanity (3rd commandment): condemned 4 times
4). Honoring parents (5th commandment) is taught 6 times
5). Murder (6th commandment) condemned 6 times
6). Adultery (7th commandment) condemned 12 times
7). Theft (8th commandment) condemned 4 times
8). False Witness (9th commandment) condemned 4 times
9). Covetousness (10th commandment) condemned 9 times
Why is it that the duty to keep the Seventh day as Sabbath is not mentioned once in the New Testament?!
When the NT gives a long list of sins, Sabbath-breaking is absent:
In Mark 7:21-22 13 sins are listed. Jesus did not mention breaking the Sabbath.
In Romans 1:29-32 20 sins are listed and not one of them is Sabbath breaking.
In Galatians 5:19-21 a list of 15 sins are given,
In 2 Timothy 3:1-4 there’s a list of 18 sins, but not once is Sabbath breaking mentioned!
Why is it that nowhere in the NT is it taught that the 4th Commandment must be observed?
Why is it that nowhere in the New Testament is failure to keep the Sabbath day condemned as sin?
If the Sabbath keeping is so important for a disciple of Christ, why was it not mentioned in His sermon on the Mount or in any of His teachings?
THE LORD’S DAY
The concept of “the Lord’s day” is Scriptural:
Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
What day is this? The Sabbath? No, for John would have referred to it as such as it has been for thousands of years. The only other day of the week that holds any Scriptural precedence is the first day of the week.
The significance of this day comes directly from Jesus’ resurrection:
Luke 24:1-3 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord’s Day is the only day mentioned in the New Testament when Christians assembled together:
Acts 2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
This day has been calculated to have been on the first day of the week. Upon this day, that first church (and subsequently all other churches from her) was empowered with the Holy Spirit. What a very special day indeed.
Acts 20:7 And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
John 20:19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
1 Cor 16:1-2 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.
Why weren’t they instructed to do this on the ‘ever-famous’ Seventh Day?
The Bible says that no-one is to judge a Christian involving whether or not they keep the Sabbath
Col 2:16 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.
Paul wrote this to the Gentile church at Collosea; he was instructing them about the Jewish heretics that were demanding that they keep the Old Testament Law, including the Sabbath. Thus, if we were actually suppose to keep the Sabbath holy, then fine…but, others (SDA’s) should not judge us on that.
On the first day of the week Jesus appeared to His disciples (Mk 16:9); He met with them at many different places (Mt 28, Lk 24, Mk 16, Jn 20) and the Bible doesn’t show Him meeting any other days of the week, specifically; He ascended to Heaven (Jn 20:17); many dead saints arose from the grave (Mt 27); was the day of rejoicing for the disciples; the gospel was first preached on this day (Lk 24:34); the Holy Spirit descended on the church on Pentecost which is always the first day of the week; Christians met to worship on this day (Ac 20, 1Co 16).
Keeping the Sabbath does not help you get to Heaven
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.