An Index of SDA (Seventh Day Adventist) Errors

[mmksparbud]

Why is every one picking on SDAs we should not throw stones especially when our own denomination has a huge plank sticking out of its eye.

Pentecostals - drunk in the spirit, prosperity gospel, preachers having affairs.
Lutheran - ant Semitism, lesbian preachers
Catholic - well you that are Catholic are aware
Presbyterian - allowing gay marriage
Baptist - focused more on numbers than scripture (I know this I was Baptist for years) being relavent
Messianic - adopting Jewish tradition of man and using Talmud as scripture.
Those are just to name a few.
Not every person that identifies with a particular denomination holds true to the errors that others partake in.
I see a lot of people picking on SDAs on this forum and it really makes me sad. Let's not be a bunch of hypocrites guys!
Shalom

LOL---we're used to it! It happens every once in a while. Someone gets a thread going, or resurrects an old one. Some are by ex SDA. I'll answer them, but it does get a little monotonous at times. Going over the same stuff. But, everybody gets a turn around here---the Mormons get it a lot, and I've been quite active on those at times. They can leave me in shock at times.
I realize we are different in many of our believes and don't mind questions--some people can get pretty mean though.

 

[mmksparbud]

I agree with you about Elijah (of course!). Concerning Moses I am unclear what the devil meant to do with his body and what actually happened. Which spirits that were waiting since the days of Noah do you believe Jesus preached to? And what does it mean to be out of the body and with Jesus? Also, why would Jesus use a false concept to teach truth? God's word is eternal so He knew they would be read or heard outside of first century Israel.

Not ignoring you--just got things going on and can't take the time right now--maybe someone else can fill in till I recoup.

 

[1John2:4]

LOL---we're used to it! It happens every once in a while. Someone gets a thread going, or resurrects an old one. Some are by ex SDA. I'll answer them, but it does get a little monotonous at times. Going over the same stuff. But, everybody gets a turn around here---the Mormons get it a lot, and I've been quite active on those at times. They can leave me in shock at times.
I realize we are different in many of our believes and don't mind questions--some people can get pretty mean though.

I just feel pretty bad for you guys, plus my grandmother was SDA so I already have a heart for SDA. It just seems every thread I am on a member of SDA is getting attacked for their doctrine. I have seen stranger doctrine in other camps especially whose preachers are on TBN.

 

[BelleC]

Not ignoring you--just got things going on and can't take the time right now--maybe someone else can fill in till I recoup.

I didn't feel ignored! I was too busy feeling guilty for not being able to check back in myself!

I truly hope you don't feel attacked in this thread. I look at this as a place to wrestle with these issues. I hardly think I have all the answers.

On the issue of death/afterlife I'm of the firm conviction that we will only truly know when we get there. Between now and then my job is to trust our loving God, His mercy, and my Savior. We have the Bible and it gives us hints but I don't see this topic spelled out so clearly that people may not end up with different views. From my reading and from reading other Christian writers, I believe that the soul is more than the union of breath and body. If Christ warned us to fear the one who could destroy both body and soul in hell then I understand that God IS able to destroy it but that it is more than breath.

 

[mmksparbud]

I didn't feel ignored! I was too busy feeling guilty for not being able to check back in myself!

I truly hope you don't feel attacked in this thread. I look at this as a place to wrestle with these issues. I hardly think I have all the answers.

On the issue of death/afterlife I'm of the firm conviction that we will only truly know when we get there. Between now and then my job is to trust our loving God, His mercy, and my Savior. We have the Bible and it gives us hints but I don't see this topic spelled out so clearly that people may not end up with different views. From my reading and from reading other Christian writers, I believe that the soul is more than the union of breath and body. If Christ warned us to fear the one who could destroy both body and soul in hell then I understand that God IS able to destroy it but that it is more than breath.

Ahh! I forgot about you! I've had health issues and have to go to dr tomorrow. I've been on several threads about an everlasting burning hell. I've never been able to accept that idea. I've read all the arguments for it. But I don't see it, the verses they claim for it are few and the wording can be used in other ways---such as, Sodom and Gomorrah are not still burning, but they were destroyed with an everlasting fire. Death was the penalty for sin from the very beginning in the garden of Eden. God said death, not eternal separation from Him. Separation came immediately upon sin and Adam and Eve were separated from Him from then on---they never had the same relationship again. He did not walk with them as He had before. We all die, but the 2nd death the redeemed are saved from. But the penalty remains, death. You might want to think about the scapegoat in Leviticus 16--read that chapter and see who pays that penalty for the saved. Jesus blood cleanses us, and forgives us, but the penalty is still left to be paid and who gets the blame for those sins?---they are placed on the scapegoat who is lead away to the wilderness to eventually die. The lost do not have a scapegoat, they must pay that penalty themselves, their sins are not forgiven, the penalty is not transferred to the scapegoat. They must pay it.
At least you acknowledge the possibility.

 

[Commander Xenophon]

I am not going to address any SDA errors. Rather, I wonder if we all might have a valuable lesson to learn from the Adventists? I recall a television news report from a year or so ago about a city in California which has a large Adventist community. It seems that this town has an unusually high number of elderly citizens above age 90 and the reason offered is that the SDA community there emphasizes eating little or no meat. Perhaps we all should do the same if we wish to live a long life?

Living a long life is dead last among the reasons why a Christian might consider abstaining from meat, because the point of our religion is eternal life.

Orthodox Monastics abstain from meat usually to control the passion of gluttony, although they usually eat fish and dairy products on non fasting days and lamb on Pascha in commemoration of the resurrection of our Lord.

 

[Commander Xenophon]

Good chance on the last day, when we are all raised from the dead, our Lord may well say to those two sultans "wrong place at the wrong time eh boys?".

LOL Mark! You card! That's brilliant!

Ive been very sick for weeks so ot was a blast to come back to CF.com and read THAT.

 

[mmksparbud]

It's not just living longer---thought the longer one lives, the longer God can use your abilities to help others. It's also to not be sick so much during those years.
Deu 7:15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

It's no great thing to live a long life and be sick and miserable most of the time. He wants us to have an abundant life--not just a long one. Not that thrilling to have a short and sickly one either.
Jos 14:10 And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.
Jos 14:11 As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.
Deu_34:7 And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

 

[Commander Xenophon]

It's not just living longer---thought the longer one lives, the longer God can use your abilities to help others. It's also to not be sick so much during those years.
Deu 7:15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

It's no great thing to live a long life and be sick and miserable most of the time. He wants us to have an abundant life--not just a long one. Not that thrilling to have a short and sickly one either.
Jos 14:10 And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.
Jos 14:11 As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.
Deu_34:7 And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

Setting askde the similiarities between SDA diets and Orthodox fasting, for instance, xerophagia, with the noted exception that we proudly consume pork, shellfish and caviar and live into our 90s and 100s in the rural regions of countries like Georgia, and in our monasteries, the most powerful means by which we receivenourishment is by partaking of the very flesh and blood of our Lord, which cures the infirmities of those who partake worthily just as it can be toxic to those who consume unworthily (1 Corinthians 11:27-34). In addition, the sacrament of holy unction in which the sick are annointed with oil works many miracles, and this is a sacred mystery of the church. The artoklasia, or holy water, amd the blessed bread, or antidoron, which are generally made available to visitors as well as the faithful, are also extremely curative.

Our monks fast in order to mortify the flesh and overcome the passions by acquiring physical meekness, but they wind up living into their 80s or 90s anyway; it is the Eucharist and the Jesus Prayer and the other mysteries which sustain them, and not the meagre amount of food they eat.

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Living a long life is dead last among the reasons why a Christian might consider abstaining from meat, because the point of our religion is eternal life.

Orthodox Monastics abstain from meat usually to control the passion of gluttony, although they usually eat fish and dairy products on non fasting days and lamb on Pascha in commemoration of the resurrection of our Lord.

LOL Mark! You card! That's brilliant!

Ive been very sick for weeks so ot was a blast to come back to CF.com and read THAT.

Glad you are feeling better (eating too much meat per chance?), and glad you got a kick out of that!

 

[bbbbbbb]

It's not just living longer---thought the longer one lives, the longer God can use your abilities to help others. It's also to not be sick so much during those years.
Deu 7:15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.

It's no great thing to live a long life and be sick and miserable most of the time. He wants us to have an abundant life--not just a long one. Not that thrilling to have a short and sickly one either.
Jos 14:10 And now, behold, the LORD hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the LORD spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.
Jos 14:11 As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.
Deu_34:7 And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

Alas, had my poor mother only have known of such things. She was cut down in the prime of life at the tender age of 91 as a result of a diet of pork and other meat and all manner of fish. Fortunately, though, she was in good health almost to the end.

 

[mmksparbud]

My grandmother lived to 85---she loved the fat from the roasts, of which pork was her favorite. She drank wine and smoked.
But I do wonder how long she would have lived with a different diet.---Her daughter is the one that lived to over 100---vegetarian, non smoker or drinker.
No one will ever have to answer to any SDA for their diet. The bible says we are His temple and whatsoever we eat and drink is to be to His glory
1Co_10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.
God knows the heart of us all, and that is what He judges. If we do the best we can, the best we know how, that is all that God asks. Can't do what you don't know. It's refusing to do what the Holy Spirit has asked you to do that is the problem.

 

[FaithfulPilgrim]

I've actually been considering becoming SDA for awhile now.

Some of their beliefs concern me, but Idk of anything that is outright heretical.

That only a minority believe in the Trinity surprises me, though.

My two main qualms with the denomination are annihilationism and its eschatology.

 

[bbbbbbb]

I've actually been considering becoming SDA for awhile now.

Some of their beliefs concern me, but Idk of anything that is outright heretical.

That only a minority believe in the Trinity surprises me, though.

My two main qualms with the denomination are annihilationism and its eschatology.

You have identified two major red flags which ought to be enough to cause you very serious concern. Probably the major difficulty with the SDA, IMO, is their adamant insistence on law-keeping. Specifically, they turn the Sabbath into the acid test of salvation. If you do not observe the Sabbath as they have determined, then, according to Ellen White, their great prophetess, you will be sent to hell forever. Thus, she viewed all other Christians as lost heretics.

 

[OzAdventist]

I've actually been considering becoming SDA for awhile now.

Some of their beliefs concern me, but Idk of anything that is outright heretical.

That only a minority believe in the Trinity surprises me, though.

My two main qualms with the denomination are annihilationism and its eschatology.

You should read the official beliefs of the Church

TRINITY
Immortal, all-powerful and all-loving, God is a relationship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The only being worthy of our worship, God is our Creator, Redeemer and Friend.
There is one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, a unity of three coeternal Persons. God is immortal, all-powerful, all-knowing, above all, and ever present. He is infinite and beyond human comprehension, yet known through His self-revelation. God, who is love, is forever worthy of worship, adoration, and service by the whole creation. (Gen. 1:26; Deut. 6:4; Isa. 6:8; Matt. 28:19; John 3:16 2 Cor. 1:21, 22; 13:14; Eph. 4:4-6; 1 Peter 1:2.)

https://www.adventist.org/fileadmin...rticles/official-statements/28Beliefs-Web.pdf

https://www.adventist.org/en/beliefs/

God bless
OzAdventist

 

[Major1]

Adventist teaching and Jehovah's Witnesses are similar in a great many ways. I was raised a JW and while I have great affection towards some of the members, some theological and logical questions present themselves upon even a cursory look at their beliefs.

To their questions about "pagan inspired" holy days: what came first, knowledge of the true, Most High God, or pagan practices? If we believe the Genesis account as true, there can be no doubt about the answer.

Further: who cares. To the victor go the spoils, and Lord Jesus has triumphed over sin and death and His people proclaim this on everyday, but with particular emphasis on certain days throughout the calendar.

Every day on every calendar belongs to God, and He may be rightly magnified.

If we accept Paul's Letters as authoritative, how can Romans 14 not put to rest any concerns about dietary restrictions?

The Sabbath? Romans 14:5.

One really has to engage in significant linguistic and logical gymnastics to get around the plain text understanding of these texts.

I am very glad to hear that you removed yourself from the JW cult!

 

[Major1]

You have identified two major red flags which ought to be enough to cause you very serious concern. Probably the major difficulty with the SDA, IMO, is their adamant insistence on law-keeping. Specifically, they turn the Sabbath into the acid test of salvation. If you do not observe the Sabbath as they have determined, then, according to Ellen White, their great prophetess, you will be sent to hell forever. Thus, she viewed all other Christians as lost heretics.

Agreed.

 

[Major1]

Yes!

This is absolutely what they believe. One cannot be a Christian with an incorrect view of Christ.

And YES I am blessed in that Jesus revealed Himself as the Son of, Second Person of the Trinity and welcomed me into a relationship and communion with Him.

Have you ever had a "close call"? You know, a half step this or that way, and you'd have been a goner, a half-second too early, or too late and BOOM!! no more you? Or maybe a medical scare that could have gone against you, but through grace and by faith, you're okay?

That's how I feel about my "escape" (although it wasn't all that dramatic: my mom just stopped going to their services) from JWs.

Seems to me that God has spoken to you, and called you and saved you.

Yes, it really is an "escape". The JW's are not Christian and I do not say that to be mean spirited, only to state a Bible fact.

God bless you!

 

[Major1]

You are very blessed to have escaped JWism, my friend!

Is it true that JWs like Adventists believe Michael the Archangel and Jesus Christ are the same person?

The Seventh Day Adventists teach that Jesus and Michael the Archangel are one and the same. However, some people mistakenly think that the SDA are teaching that Jesus is a created angel, and therefore not truly divine. But that is not the Seventh-day Adventist position. Instead, they are saying that the Old Testament manifestation of Michael the Archangel was actually the pre-incarnate Christ and that he is not created. They are incorrect in their comparison, but in it they are not denying the deity of Christ.

 

[BelleC]

If you do not observe the Sabbath as they have determined, then, according to Ellen White, their great prophetess, you will be sent to hell forever. Thus, she viewed all other Christians as lost heretics.

“Notwithstanding the spiritual darkness and alienation from God that exist in the churches which constitute Babylon, the great body of Christ's true followers are still to be found in their communion.”—The Great Controversy, p. 390.

Hardly seems like condemnation or that she believes they would burn in hell. Also, there is not a belief in eternal torment in SDA.

we do the best we can, the best we know how, that is all that God asks. Can't do what you don't know. It's refusing to do what the Holy Spirit has asked you to do that is the problem.

I think mmksparbub summed up the sentiment of all but one SDA I have ever met concerning the Sabbath, clean eating, and other unique SDA positions.

A minority of SDA are anti-Trinitarians. I've only come across them online. The official teaching, and the only one I ever heard of growing up, is trinitarian in the traditional sense.