Seventh Day Adventists...Denomination or Movement?

[Stryder06]

What do you think? I've heard several pastors say that the Adventist church is not a denomination, but a movement. How do you feel about that?

 

[EastCoastRemnant]

I think its playing semantics when they say that to distinguish us from other denoms... I'm not exactly sure what a denomination is or os not that a movement is or is not. I guess some definitions would be in order.

 

[EastCoastRemnant]

Denomination

de·nom·i·na·tion
   /dɪˌnɒməˈneɪʃən/ Show Spelled[dih-nom-uh-ney-shuhn]
noun

1. A religious group, usually including many local churches, often larger than a sect: the Lutheran denomination.


2. A class or kind of persons or things distinguished by a specific name.



Movement

move·ment

 muvmənt/ Show Spelled[moov-muhnt]
noun


1. A group of people with a common ideology esp a religious or political one.

2. The organized action of such a group

 

[DarylFawcett]

I always thought that our church was a denomination, however, I can't find anything saying that in our Church Manual.

 

[EastCoastRemnant]

Personally, I see no differentiation between the two.... as I said, it seems to me that it is something to make us seem different from the other protestant denoms... maybe if we were really different, we wouldn't need to trumpet a label.

 

[DarylFawcett]

No big deal to me.

One thing for certain is that we are a movement, a movement of destiny.

 

[EastCoastRemnant]

Yes, we do know that His church will endure to the end and that there won't be another raised up... can't wait for that revival to ramp up

 

[Stryder06]

Perhaps the difference between the two is that denominatons are stagnant, but a movement is not. You figure, at the beginning, the SDA group was composed of individuals from many different groups, and a name, at first, had not been attributed to them. They were simply people interested in getting back to what the bible said.

 

[keyboard321]

You can search in youtube "SDA Cult or Christian ?. part 1"

Doug Batchelor talks about that but not that detailed. You can jump to 4:00 part of the video because that is where he talk about that

 

[OntheDL]

We are a movement, never meant to be a denomination. Ellen White wrote that it's good to organize for making use of the tithe, publishing... But it was never meant to have a hierarchical system where a standing ruling body of oligarchy reign over the members. That hierarchical system is the epitome of evil. The General Conference was originally the General Conference in session, not a standing ruling body. The General Conference was originally an agent acting on behalf of the interest of the local churches, not the other way around that is today.

The denomination will not go to heaven. Not one of the Laodicean church will go to heaven. The Laodiceans must become Philadelphians, the people whom God called out to for the last days work of 'prepare to meet thy God'.