Seventh-day Adventist Reform Movement

[Sophia7]

Can you tell me the fundamental differences between the two churches. I didn't realize this had happened. I knew about the branch dividians or the shepards rod but didn't know about the reformed movement.

Read this:
http://www.sdarmgc.org/beliefs.php

And this:
http://www.sdarmgc.org/origin.htm

Those should give you some background info.

 

[Jimlarmore]

Is the bearing of arms in the military the only major differences? I noticed they didn't speak out against alcohol and tobacco consumption specifically.

 

[Sophia7]

Is the bearing of arms in the military the only major differences? I noticed they didn't speak out against alcohol and tobacco consumption specifically.

It looks as if their beliefs are pretty much the same (and perhaps even stricter on some issues, such as health and dress) because those who formed the SDARM still believed in Adventist doctrine, apart from that one issue; in fact, they believed that they were being true to the historic Adventist position on that. They also believed that they had been wronged because they were disfellowshipped for refusing to bear arms during WWI. After WWI the Seventh-day Adventist Church itself moved back toward a position of encouraging its members in the military to be noncombatants. However, the damage had been done.

I noticed that the SDARM statement of beliefs includes links to longer explanations. Here is the one under "Health and Dress Reform":
http://www.sdarmgc.org/beliefs/bible_doctrines2.php?doc=18

This description does talk about alcohol and tobacco, among other things. Here is a portion of it:

Health reform is equated with the moderate use of good things. True temperance requires complete abstinence from all things which are harmful to the system, such as: flesh foods (including fish), animal fat, harmful chemicals added to ready-made foods (such as monosodium glutamate), alcoholic drinks, tea, coffee, caffeinated drinks, tobacco, narcotics et cetera. Since the longest list would still be incomplete, we give only a few examples. Hundreds of new products are launched on the market year after year; therefore, each person should find out for himself which ones are to be rejected. See examples in Judges 13:4, 7; Daniel 1:8, 12-16, 20.

This list is actually more comprehensive than the one in the SDA fundamental beliefs (#22, "Christian Behavior"). The SDARM completely condemns meat eating in its official statement, which the SDA Church doesn't do although obviously we encourage vegetarianism for health reasons. They also seem to take a much more conservative stance on dress than most SDAs.

 

[Jimlarmore]

Thankyou so much for your response. I think maybe it may be time to move for a repatriation of our brothers and sisters in the reformed SDA movement. However they may be happy just as they are and think we are too liberal at this point. They may have a good point. How prevalent are they in the world? I don't remember seeing a reformed SDA church anywhere in my life time.

 

[Sophia7]

I've never seen one either. I've talked to people who have visited SDARM churches, but I don't know where they were. I wonder if they have a church finder on their site; I didn't check for that.

 

[Sunrunner]

http://www.sdarmseusf.org/locations.html

 

[Sophia7]

http://www.sdarmseusf.org/locations.html

Thanks. They're not too widespread, I guess. Nothing anywhere near where I live.

 

[truthmagnet]

I believe that we as individual believers need to gain reform of ourselves by seeking a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit every day. There is no good reason to split from the church. We are the Church. If we can't be reformed, splitting off from the main body of the Church will do no good. If we are becoming reformed, the Church needs us to light a candle there. If we are truly reformed, we will not be pointing fingers, condemning and finding fault over nit-picky issues that have no clear Scriptural mandate.

Our church has a group that keeps all the Jewish Festivals. There's nothing wrong with that. But in private they say that you have to keep them. I have a problem with that. But I fellowship with these people and love them, and have on occasion attended their feasts, because I want to promote harmony and understanding on both sides. People who are seeking the truth the best way they know how need to be loved and encouraged in the faith, not marginalized.

I think all this spin-off madness is Satan's attack on the Church. You can only combat it with love. Satan can fight with arguments, but he hasn't yet figured out an effective counter-strategy to love.

Amen and Amen brother. I'm totally with you. Our church is going through some really nonsense arguing and the pastor doesn't help a bit. in fact he wants our small town of 30,000 people to have 5 more churches! He does little to keep harmony in the congregation we have nor the pews full. i have no clue what he's thinking. there has already been one split over all the squabbling. it seems he wants to bring the worldly ways into our church in order to get the world into the church. i sooooooooo don't get it.

 

[GlorifyHim]

If we go back in time to the original ways of the General Conference and Ellen White ... we would be eating meat and not paying a faithful tithe.

So ... how far back in history should we go?

 

[moicherie]

If we go back in time to the original ways of the General Conference and Ellen White ... we would be eating meat and not paying a faithful tithe.

So ... how far back in history should we go?

Perhaps far enough to when the church was mainly New England white Americans believing in the shut door theory and eating pork? lol Good thing they were not 'Traditional' but were 'Progressive' enough to be open to the Sabbath etc

 

[2honorHim]

Are there any sda believers or sda reform believers reading this post?

 

[Dave-W]

http://www.sdarmseusf.org/locations.html

That link did not work.

Try this one:

Locations – Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement – South East US Field

 

[Gary K]

message deleted

 

[woobadooba]

Perhaps it could be worded thus:

The reformed movement could be the uniformed movement.

But this can go both ways...

For, those who are trying to change/reform what traditional SDAs believe, are, in some ways, inculcating ideas that are actually contrary to what the Apostles taught.

Moreover, there are also those who are unwilling to break away from the traditional
mold that they've been indoctrinated by, thus refusing to see the errors of their ways. Anything that is foreign to what they believe is regarded as heresy, and is therefore shunned. They are not open to the justified change that some would like to bring about in the church, but would rather get those people who are promoting such ideas excommunicated from it.

What it all comes down to is that Christians should take a course in Exegesis and Hermeneutics, and actually learn how to study the Bible aright, while being completely honest with themselves and God when studying the Holy Scriptures. Thus this will serve to safeguard them from false teachings.

It's strange looking back on things I've said years ago and seeing how different I now am from what I was then.