questions on Progressive and Traditional Adventists

Happy Sabbath Alex, I will answer your questions after we are done with our Sabbath opening devotional's...

Sorry for not getting back to you sooner...

Basically, the main difference between traditional and progressive Adventists is in our views on the pioneers teachings, especially that of Ellen White.

Progressives are what you would call liberals in their theology, accepting things that are outside of mainstream Adventist teaching.
Traditional Adventists adhere to the pioneer teachings and accept Ellen White as an inspired messenger from God for His people in this end of earths history.

Unfortunately, there has been quite a bit of apostasy within our denomination from the highest levels of the church and traditional teachings are being squeezed out in favour of non Adventist doctrines. Our historic books such as The Great Controversy, are being rewritten, watering down the message that was given over 100 years ago. I would recommend that you find yourself a traditional church and even in that, be strong in your desire for the truth. I will help you in whatever way I can.

I hope this helps as an introduction, please feel free to ask an question you might have... God bless and Sabbath blessings!

@alexsonofmatthew,

*Sigh*, no wonder people are confused:

First of all, the distinction between «progressive» and «traditional adventists” is first and foremost a quirk here at christianforums! Keep in mind that we're talking about differences within the same denomination here. Adventists will rarely apply any of these terms to themselves. On this forum the only difference between the two subforums is that it's okay to argue against the so-called "28 fundamental beliefs" in the progressive forum, but not in the traditional one.

It's true some adventists are progressives in the way that @EastCoastRemnant described, however, I would say that they are a minority. Adventists with liberal attitudes aren't necessarily “progressive” in this sense, and often very conservative people are progressives too.

As for “traditional adventists”, well, this isn't really a common term for any division within the Adventist church. On this forum the term is defined as those who believe in the 28 fundamental beliefs, which in reality could be conservatives, moderates and liberals. However, in practice this distinction (progressive/traditional) has become a way of keeping liberals and conservatives apart from each other here on this forum. If you think this is confusing, then you're right!

Over to the actual theological division in the adventist Church... Generally speaking you have liberals and conservatives, and then you have certain subgroups that belong to the fringes. For instance, on the ultra-liberal side you have people believing in evolution. On the ultra-fundamentalist side you have people denying the trinity and claiming the Church is in apostasy.

However, most adventists belong to the mainstream, they might come in a liberal or conservative flavour, but they generally believe in the 28 fundamental beliefs, in creation and in the trinity.

tl;dr: The distinction between "progressive" and "traditional" adventists is used for convenience here on this forum, and shouldn't be understood as an accurate descriptive of the actual theological divisions within the adventist Church.

There's no such thing as progressive and traditional Adventists in the real world. They just can't get along with each other online.

Kira Light said:

There's no such thing as progressive and traditional Adventists in the real world. They just can't get along with each other online.

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Certain churches and conferences are more 'liberal' in their regard to how the church should be... then there are those churches and conferences that are more 'traditional'.

alexsonofmatthew said:

How does the Seventh-day Adventist Church differ in belief from the Seventh-Day Adventist Reform Movement ?

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Can't say I've heard of them but I do know a few Adventist groups that are teaching pioneer truth and have had to use modified names to escape the General Conferences from suing them in court because they teach differently than the corporate church.

Here's a link to their statement of beliefs... wish there was one near me...

https://www.sdarm.org/about-us/beliefs

The statement of beliefs are exactly in line with what I understand as present truth. I could comfortably fellowship with these likeminded brethren.

EastCoastRemnant said:

The statement of beliefs are exactly in line with what I understand as present truth. I could comfortably fellowship with these likeminded brethren.

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Just a heads up, vegetarianism is a test of fellowship in the SDARM denomination.

The Seventh-Day Adventist Reform Movement is a German offshoot to the adventist Church. They broke with the mainstream Church during WW1 because the local German SDA conference urged young adventist to join the war on the German side, even if it meant carrying weapons and breaking the Sabbath. They then went on to disfellowship people who were pacifists and disagreed with this.

I should point out that the local German conference acted alone in this matter, it wasn't in harmony with the SDA postion in the rest of the world. After WW1 was over, the German SDA church admitted that it had made a big mistake, but schism was already a reality:

"In 1920, Elder Daniells, the General Conference President, traveled to Germany for talks with the German leadership and the leaders of the Reform Movement. Although Elder Daniells made it clear that the German leadership had made a mistake, his attempts to heal the breach between the two sides failed. Because the General Conference did not immediately disband the division and disfellowship the leaders as a punishment for their sins, the Reformers asserted that the General Conference became responsible for their mistakes.

Since the 1920 meeting, several attempts at reunion have been made, but they all have failed due to the unbending spirit of the Reform leaders who believe that Adventists must accept their views in order to be right with God."
https://www.adventistbiblicalresear...rmation-seventh-day-adventist-reform-movement

Ubuntu said:

Just a heads up, vegetarianism is a test of fellowship in the SDARM denomination.

The Seventh-Day Adventist Reform Movement is a German offshoot to the adventist Church. They broke with the mainstream Church during WW1 because the local German SDA conference urged young adventist to join the war on the German side, even if it meant carrying weapons and breaking the Sabbath. They then went on to disfellowship people who were pacifists and disagreed with this.

I should point out that the local German conference acted alone in this matter, it wasn't in harmony with the SDA postion in the rest of the world. After WW1 was over, the German SDA church admitted that it had made a big mistake, but schism was already a reality:

"In 1920, Elder Daniells, the General Conference President, traveled to Germany for talks with the German leadership and the leaders of the Reform Movement. Although Elder Daniells made it clear that the German leadership had made a mistake, his attempts to heal the breach between the two sides failed. Because the General Conference did not immediately disband the division and disfellowship the leaders as a punishment for their sins, the Reformers asserted that the General Conference became responsible for their mistakes.

Since the 1920 meeting, several attempts at reunion have been made, but they all have failed due to the unbending spirit of the Reform leaders who believe that Adventists must accept their views in order to be right with God."
https://www.adventistbiblicalresear...rmation-seventh-day-adventist-reform-movement

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Thanx for the info... I guess I was wrong to make the statement of perfect harmony with their beliefs without doing more research...