I opened my mailbox recently to find a paperback stuffed inside
with the title, “The Great Controversy” and this teaser question on the cover,
“How Will It End?” Perhaps you received
a copy, or might soon.
This is a mass-mailing of the Seventh-day Adventists. The book was authored by E. G. White—Ellen G.
White—their prophetess. If the writing
style seems antiquated, it is because she wrote the book about the time of the
Civil War.
It came out of a “vision” she had. Although the SDA Church
Had Ellen White read Galatians instead of writing visions it
would have been more helpful. She and
others in the SDA movement follow the same error Paul refuted—mixing law and
grace—and thus promoting a different Gospel.
That is not something to take lightly.
Here is what Paul said, “I marvel that you are turning away
so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,
which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert
the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or
an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached
to you, let him be accursed. As we have
said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you
than what you have received, let him be accursed.”(Galatians 1:6–9 )
If White is the “mother” of this movement, William Miller is
the “father.” Miller was a Baptist
pastor who became convinced that he knew the relative date for Christ’s
return. He said, “My principles in brief, are, that Jesus
Christ will come again to this earth, cleanse, purify, and take possession of
the same, with all the saints, sometime between March 21, 1843, and March 21,
1844." It didn’t happen, so he
recalculated and came up with October 22, 1844—and once more his prophecy
proved false. Had he been living under
the Old Testament law which Adventists advocate so strongly, the head of their
movement would have been stoned to death for the false prophecy!
Even White, in
the aforementioned book tried to make excuses and stated, “William Miller and
his associates did not, themselves, fully comprehend the import of the message
which they bore. Errors that had been
long established in the church prevented them from arriving at a correct
interpretation…” (Great Controversy, p.185).
The name Adventists is drawn from this prime focus of the movement on
the end time events—which they misinterpret still.
The explanation
for what happened on that date which SDA promotes is that Christ rather than
return to earth, entered into the Heavenly Sanctuary to carry out, “an
investigative judgment” to determine who is truly saved. Only in keeping the law—dietary regulations,
Sabbath observance, etc.—will one become fit for heaven, along with trusting in
Christ. Failure to do so may mean our
names are blotted out of God’s Book.
Other errors they
promote are:
1)
Satan
has a part in bearing our sins.
2) When people die, the soul sleeps until the
Judgment Day—they are in a state of unconsciousness until the resurrection.
3) Those judged to be wicked will be
annihilated—they do not suffer torment forever in hell.
4) Failure to keep the Sabbath and choosing
to worship on Sunday is in the end to take the Mark of the Beast.
All of these
false teachings are easily corrected by the Scripture.
Harold J. Berry
wrote this, “Because of their deviation from the Scriptures, the Seventh-day
Adventists cannot be called evangelicals.
This does not mean that every person in the Seventh-day Adventist
movement is unsaved. Any person who trusts
Christ alone for salvation has
eternal life, regardless of his religious affiliation. However, it is regrettable that most of those
in this movement are blind to the Galatianism which their church teaches and
which has never been renounced by its leaders.” (Examining the Cults, pp.111-112).
I wanted to warn
you, lest you be troubled by SDA teaching.
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