SEVENTH DAY Adventists (SDAs) are actively propagating their false doctrines while at the same time claiming to be “evangelical”. Their pastors take their place as members in Ministers Fraternals and they have no shortage of funds because they own Sanitarium Foods and Hospitals. They have large finances available to use in propagating their doctrines.
Usually Adventists do not mention the false doctrines of Mrs Ellen G White until a person is committed to their church. Radio broadcasts make little mention of keeping Saturday Sabbath, the doctrine of the santuary or about not eating meat. Their radio and TV programs are produced with beautiful hymns and convincing evidence on creation and they claim to believe the Bible. They appeal to conservative people. But hidden beneath the fascade is a system built on lies, distortion of history, and a works-based Gospel that leads people into a false hope.
No Seventh Day Adventist can believe the false doctrines of Mrs White and be sure of heaven. A pastor in a Seventh Day Adventist Church visited me and when I asked him if he was sure of heaven he assured me he was. So I asked him if he believed Mrs White’s teaching that Jesus was presently examining his record to see if he was worthy of the first resurrection
and sheepishly, he then admitted that he could not be sure of heaven because he might fail the test! So he was lying and really trusting in his performance to gain access to heaven. He didn’t believe salvation was “not of works lest any man shall boast” (Eph.2:9).
How sad that this man can preach that Christ died for our sins and at the same time not believe in the sufficiency of the precious blood of Christ to atone for every sin past, present and future!
The Gospel is not Christ PLUS my good works; it is Christ alone! The moment I believe on Christ I have His promise of eternal life and a mansion reserved in heaven. The Galatian Christians were troubled by Jews who sought to add works to faith for salvation and Paul warned them that it was “another Gospel (of a different kind); which is not another (of the same kind)”. He said that if anybody preached another Gospel “let him be accursed” (Gal.1:6-8).
SDAs Mix Law with Grace
“By grace (undeserved favour) are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph.2:8).
There are two Covenants. The old covenant was made with Israel at Mount Sinai when God gave Israel His law to obey but later He promised of a New Covenant “not according to the covenant that I made with the house of Israel”. The new covenant gave a “better hope” “by which we draw nigh to God” (Heb.7:19). It is a “better covenant” based on “better promises” (Heb.8:6: Jer.31:31).
The New Covenant is based on a better sacrifice, not of an animal, but of the Son of God. At the Last Supper Jesus took the cup and said:
“this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you” (Luke22:20).
There was no lamb eaten by Jesus and His disciples at the Last Supper because He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.
The sign of the old covenant was circumcision and if any man was not circumcised they were cut off from Israel but when the Gentile Church was formed the Apostles declared
“that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood” (Acts15:19-20).
Under the old covenant it was mandatory to keep the sabbath. When a man gathered sticks on the sabbath day he was put to death (Num.15:32) yet the Apostles made no mention of the sabbath or circumcision in Acts chapter 15. When Judaizers came to Galatia with another gospel saying that the Christians should be circumcised Paul opposed them.
The sabbath was a sign between God and Israel for ever (Exod.31:17) and has nothing to do with the Church. In fact there is no day commanded by God for Christians to keep. Paul stated
“One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it.” (Rom.14:5-6).
That does not mean that Christians should not gather together for fellowship. We are commanded:
“Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Heb.10:25).
In China some House Churches meet on a week day to avoid detection by authorities.
On the day of Pentecost the Church was formed and it consisted of Jews and Jewish proselytes but soon Gentiles were saved and the Jews persecuted the Christians.
It was the custom of the early Church, Jews and Gentiles, to gather on the first day of the week to “break bread” (Acts 20:7) and bring their offerings to the Lord (1Cor.16:2) on that day!
When the Church was established on the day of Pentecost it was on a Sunday (Lev.23:15-16) and the disciples called it “the Lord’s Day” because it was the day the Lord rose from the grave.
About 64 years later John was a prisoner on the Isle of Patmos but even there he observed “the Lord’s day” and on one of those Sundays about AD96 Jesus appeared to him and gave him the Book of the Revelation to complete Divine Revelation (Rev.1:10). Seventh Day Adventists lie and say that the Lord’s Day was the sabbath but that has no Biblical or historical basis. The writings of the early Church Fathers of the 2nd and third centuries confirm again and again that Christians gathered on the first day of the week which they called the Lord’s Day because it was the day the Lord rose!
If the Lord’s Day was a Saturday as Seventh Day Adventists suggest, then Jesus would have had to rise on the seventh day of the week but scripture expressly states
“The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre” (John 20:1).
Did Emperor Constantine Change the Day from Saturday to Sunday?
Seventh Day Adventists claim that Christians always kept the sabbath until the 7th March AD321 when Emperor Constantine changed it to Sunday in honour of the Sun god. Is that true? Does history support such a claim?
It is a fact that Emperor Constantine decreed that the Roman Empire should make Sunday a day of rest but the question remains: Did the Christians observe Saturday or Sunday before that date? The historical evidence is absolutely clear that Christians from the first to the fourth centuries universally gathered on the first day of the week and not the Jewish sabbath.
Anyone who suggests that Christians kept the sabbath prior to the 4th century is either totally ignorant of the historical writings of the Church Fathers in that era or they are liars.
Why then did Emperor Constantine declare that Sunday should be the day of rest for the Roman Empire?
Constantine’s mother who is known in history as Saint Helena, was a Christian and when Constantine took his army to Rome to become Emperor he claimed he saw in a vision, a bright light in the sky with the sign of the cross and the words, “By this conquer”. He placed that sign on the shields of his soldiers and became Emperor on 25 July AD306. He reigned until AD337.
Constantine is famous because he Christianized the Roman Empire which previously had been a very pagan empire engaging in the worship of many gods and Emperor worship.
Prior to the Edict of Milan in AD311 it was illegal to be a Christian and failure to worship the Emperor carried the death penalty. Beginning with Emperor Nero (AD64) through to AD311 when Galerius, issued the Edict of Toleration, and AD313 when Constantine and Licinius signed the Edict of Milan, there were ten phases of persecution by Roman Emperors. Thousands perished.
One authority states:
“Unlike later Christian traditions, there wasn’t a specific day designated as a day of rest or holiday within the Roman Empire’s legal or cultural framework. People generally worked six days a week, with the seventh day being a normal workday.
In 321 AD, Emperor Constantine issued a decree that made Sunday (dies Solis, the “venerable day of the sun”) a day of rest for judges, city people, and craftsmen, but not for farmers who could continue their work.
While the decree was not explicitly religious, it did reflect the growing influence of Christianity in the empire, as Sunday was already a day of worship for Christians. The decree allowed Christians to more easily observe Sunday worship and rest, as it was now a day of rest for the general population.”
So Constantine adopted Christianity and changed the day of rest to Sunday to conform with what Christians already practiced!
Historical Evidence
The following quotes from the writings of early Church Fathers prove that Christians kept Sunday and not Saturday before Constantine declared Sunday a public holiday.
The Epistle of Barnabas (AD100) Ch.15 page 271 states:
“Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead. And when He had manifested Himself, He ascended into the heavens.”
Epistle of Ignatius (AD30-107) to the Magnesians, page 125:
“If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death
And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ
keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days [of the week]. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, ‘To the end, for the eighth day,’ on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ, whom the children of perdition, the enemies of the Saviour, deny.
At the dawning of the Lord’s Day He arose from the dead, according to what was spoken by Himself, ‘As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man also be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’. The day of the preparation, then, comprises the passion; the Sabbath embraces the burial; the Lord’s Day contains the resurrection.”
Justin Martyr (AD110-165) First Apology of Justin – Ch. 67
Writing about the Weekly Worship of the Christians:
“And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. … when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying
Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons.
But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead… and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.”
Tertullian (AD145 to 220) lived long before the papacy existed and argued strongly that the Church kept the first day of the week. Just three quotations are given; many more could be added.
“We kneel at other times, but on the Lord’s Day, and from the Paschal Feast to Pentecost regarding st we stand in prayer, nor do we count it lawful to fast on Sundays.”
And again:
“The observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary. But the Jews are sure to say, that ever since this precept was given through Moses, the observance has been binding. Manifest accordingly it is that the precept was not eternal nor spiritual, but temporary, which would one day cease.”
“You who reproach us with the sun and Sunday should consider your proximity to us. We are not far off from your Saturn and your days of rest.”
Once Mrs Whites’ teaching about the Sabbath is shown to be based on a lie then her entire teaching as outlined in her books becomes suspect and unreliable.
The very name adopted sums up the teaching of the seventh Day Adventists. They maintain that the seventh day sabbath is binding for all time and they have false teachings about the Second Advent. Both are connected for Mrs White taught that America was the Beast or Antichrist and that in the last days the US Government would pass a law which she described as the Sunday Law. She claimed that failure to observe this Sunday Law will carry the death penalty and that this will be “the mark of the Beast”.
The Seventh Day Church is a “last Days” heresy claiming to have received Divine Revelation since the 19th century when we know that the Apostle John concluded Divine revelation in AD96 with the warning:
“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book” (Rev. 22:18).
Paul warned us that in the last days, “some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy...commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving…” (1Tim.4:1-5).
Seventh Day Adventists abstain from eating meat and there is no doubt that Mrs White’s claims to be inspired marks her as a Last-Days False Prophet and the church she established as an apostate system; a wolf in sheeps’ clothes.
BY John Ecob
