May-June 2009 / Iyar-Sivan-Tammuz 5769
Many of our visitors at Congregation Melech Yisrael are from the Seventh Day Adventist Church (SDA). They come because they have heard we are Messianic Jews that believe in Yeshua and who, of course, worship on the Shabbat. These are lovely people, and after service I usually get an opportunity to share with some of them. Most of the people after experiencing our services, have told me that the SDA Church is very much like our congregation. They say, “We worship on Shabbat, and you worship on Shabbat. We observe the feasts, and you observe the feasts.” True, Seventh Day Advents worship on Shabbat and, as of late, they observe the Biblical Feasts, although not all of them, and yes they believe in Yeshua as the Mashiach (Messiah), but that is where our similarities end. The Seventh Day Adventist Church is basically a cult, perhaps not as fanatical as other cults, but it is still a cult. Allow me to give you a little historical background on the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
The Seventh Adventist Church was started by William Miller. He served as a chaplain in the American armed forces. In 1833 he was licensed to preach by the Baptist Church however, he was never ordained by them.
In 1818 William Miller announced to the world that in 25 years (March 1844) Yeshua HaMashiach (the Messiah) would return to the earth. At the height of his ministry Mr. Miller had gathered some 50, 000 followers. These followers become known as “Adventists,” because they awaited the advent of the Mashiach. When March 1844 came and went with no sign of Yeshua having returned, Miller recalculated the new date to October 22, 1844. When Yeshua still did not return on October 22, 1844, the entire Adventist movement began to unravel because his follower’s lost faith in him. So Mr. Miller revamped his doctrine to say that Mashiach had in fact returned, but that He first had to come to the “Heavenly Sanctuary,” which He now claimed Yeshua was in the process of cleansing. He went on to say that once Yeshua had things cleaned up in heaven He would come back to the earth. The remnant of his Adventist group that bought into this new lie formed the Advent Church and in 1845 William Miller became its first president.
With the collapse of Mr. Miller’s prediction that Mashiach would return in 1844, the movement needed a cause in order to survive. It was time for the Advent leadership to hammer out some kind of theology that could be used to attract new converts to their fold. They eventually came to the conclusion that potential congregants just having a practical experience or hearing modified doctrine or interpretation of Scripture would not draw the people to the church. What they needed was something divine to have a real draw on the people. Then Ellen Gould, who became Ellen G. White after marriage, had a convenient vision from the Lord, and vegetarianism was introduced to the church as a “THUS SAYS THE LORD”.
The name of the church was later changed to Seventh Day Adventists. When William Miller died in 1849, a new false prophet took over as leader, Ellen G. White. However, before Ellen G. White became the leader of the SDA Church she had a vision and felt that she was transported to heaven and shown that Mashiach could not come back to the earth until the Great Commission has been fulfilled. This happened while she was holding a prayer meeting on December 1844. This revelation was later mixed in with William Miller’s teaching that Mashiach had come back in 1844, but that He stopped in the Heavenly Sanctuary to cleanse it. This vision conveniently helped cover up William Miller’s false prophecy that Mashiach would return in March and then October of 1844. This, of course, was just one false prophet covering for the other.
The Seventh Day Adventist’s often make every effort to appear evangelical, even though they are not. They do it by joining in with inter-ministry groups and trying to blend in with the greater Christian community. However, let us make no mistake about it; their beliefs are not compatible with ours. The sad part is that they believe that their doctrine is exclusively correct because they recognize and follow their prophetess Ellen G. White.
The SDA church still holds Ellen White’s writing in very high esteem using it as inspired revelation. Some even say that the divine revelation and inspiration of Ellen G. White is equal to that of the Bible, if not superior! Hence why some SDA churches, on many occasions, will take her teaching over what the Bible has to say!
Here is some of the present day false teaching of the SDA Church with comments in italics:
- The Shabbat is the day of worship not Sunday and if anyone does not keep the Shabbat they cannot be saved. The Bible teaches we are saved by faith not works (Efesos / Ephesians 2:8-9)
- Yeshua is Michael the Archangel and this is the name used for Him in the Tanach (Hebrew Scriptures). Yeshua is G-d (Yochanan / John 1:1-3), but an angel is a created being.
- Atonement through Yeshua is not complete until He returns. The Bible teaches that Yeshua’s atoning work is now complete… (Ivrim / Hebrews 9:12).
- There is no eternal punishment of Satan and his fallen angels. The penalty for sinning against a Holy G-d is merely annihilation. Satan is the scapegoat; the sins of the believers are laid upon him, and he and these sins are finally burned up. The Bible says that Satan and his fallen angels will be cast in the Lake of Fire (Hitgalut / Revelation 20:10-15).
- Vegetarianism is taught and encouraged. The Bible does not teach vegetarianism. G-d commands us to eat meat (Shemot 12. 8).
- Soul sleeping, which is a doctrine that states that the souls of believers in Mashiach are not in heaven, but are sleeping in their graves? The Bible says those who were saved on earth by receiving Yeshua HaMashiach as their Savior and died are now in heaven. (Hitgalut / Revelation 7:9-17)
It is dangerous and deceptive to believe that every church that presents itself as being Christian, even if they believe in Yeshua, are truly Christian. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” We are living in very perilous times where the devil is roaming around, now more than ever, seeking whom he might devour. Do not allow yourself to be his next victim.
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