Open Letter to GotQuestions.org

apologetics, Colleen Tinker, Feature

Dear Mr. Houdmann, founder and CEO of GotQuestions.org,

Thank you so much for addressing Adventism. It is a slippery, deceptive phenomenon! 

I am the co-host of Former Adventist Podcast and the editor of Proclamation! magazine, both produced by Life Assurance Ministries, Inc. Our website is ProclamationMagazine.com, and our You Tube channel is Former Adventist. Your website is one of our go-to sources for definitions and historic details; we quote you frequently in our podcasts and articles. Thank you for your great work for the body of Christ!

All of us felt the need to reach out to you after watching your podcast last week, so here I am. We have some details that we believe will help explain Adventism; the reason Adventism is so hard to define is that it has an “invisible” foundation that most Christians do not know exists.  No matter how “evangelical” or “historic” or liberal an Adventist or his congregation may be, all Adventists share this worldview and the definitions inherited from the founders.

ARIAN ROOTS

  1. While the Millerite movement did derive from a Christian milieu, the founders of Seventh-day Adventism were all, with the exception of Ellen Harmon White (at first), solidly Arian or semi-Arian. 
  2. James White and Joseph Bates, co-founders along with Ellen Harmon White, had been pastors and members in the Christian Connexion, widely known to be anti-trinitarian. Ellen, admittedly unschooled and theologically naive, adopted her husband’s anti-trinitarian stance.
  3. All Adventist doctrines to this present day are rooted in the original Arian worldview. All were developed on the basis of James White’s “physical god” (see his 1847 article “The Personality of God”).
  4. Ellen White never adopted the Christian Trinity. 
  5. Today the organization affirms Trinitarianism and sports Fundamental Beliefs that are carefully worded to deceive the public.
  6. Ellen’s “Trinity” is a “tri-theism”. To this day Adventist scholars and evangelists deny that Jesus shares essence, or substance, with the Father. They defend Ellen’s designation of a “Heavenly Trio” and “the Three Worthies of Heaven” who share a will, a purpose, and a name—but who do not share substance.
  7. Their “Jesus” has forever forfeited His omnipresence—a belief that disqualifies Him from being God. Adventists have never understood the Trinity (or the “Godhead”, as they prefer to call Him) as One Being. 
  8. We were taught that Jesus is “all God” and “all man”, yet we understood that to mean that Jesus was like one-third of a pie. One third of an apple pie is “all pie”, but it’s not the full complement of the one apple pie’s attributes. . 
  9. To this day the official SDA website describes the Trinity as a “winning team” who work together for our good. 

The Arian roots of Seventh-day Adventism make it a completely different religion from Christianity. It grew up, like a wild bush, beside the tree of Christianity, but it never shared the apostolic root. Over the years it put out branches with look-alike leaves which have become entangled with the branches of the Christian tree, but if you inspect the leaves and the branches, you will have trouble identifying Adventism as essentially different. You have to literally trace the branches down the trunk and into the Arian roots still nourishing the deceptive bush that has masqueraded as Christian and has deceived many good men—including Water Martin—as their 2003 reprinting of Questions on Doctrine with annotations by SDA historian George Knight has admitted.

PHYSICAL GOD LEADS TO PHYSICAL MAN

  1. The foundational Arianism led to the Adventist belief that humans have no immaterial spirit, no immaterial identity that survives the death of the body. They believe the “spirit” is merely “breath”. When a person dies, their literal breath returns to God, the body decays in the tomb, and the person ceases to exist. 
  2. The Resurrection is actually a re-creation; God forms a new body and “downloads” His memory of the person’a personality into the new body. Ontologically there is no relationship between the original person and the resurrected one. Essentially this new creation is a clone with memories (God’s mental data) infused into the new brain and body. 
  3. Adventists cannot know if they are saved or not and die without assurance. They cannot know until the resurrection whether they come forth for eternal life or for sentencing to the Lake of Fire. The lost will be burned commensurate with their sins before being eternally annihilated. 
  4. This denial of a human spirit that is born dead and must be born again leads to a wrong definition of sin. To an Adventist, sin is also “physical”—a matter of inheriting degraded genes and propensities to sin leading to disobedience to the law. This disobedience flows from one’s brain-based mental decisions and will to obey or not. 
  5. Salvation, therefore, is also essentially physical. It’s not a matter of coming to spiritual life and of having one’s sins fully atoned by Christ. Salvation is a matter of right decisions after “accepting Jesus”. Adventist define “righteousness” as “right doing”. The “righteousness of Christ” to an Adventist is  His perfect law-keeping which qualified Him to go to the cross for us. His perfect obedience is our example for keeping the law as He did. Christ’a righteousness is then an external power which we can ask Him to share with us to help us obey.
  6. This belief justifies Adventism’s endorsement of abortion. Adventist medical schools teach medical students to perform abortions. Adventist doctors perform abortions. The largest independent abortion clinic in California was founded by Adventist Edward Allred and currently is owned and operated by the Adventist Feldcamp family. 

MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

  1. Adventists DO teach that Jesus is Michael the Archangel, but today they say that Michael is “another name for Jesus”. Early Adventists taught and published that before He came to earth, Jesus became an angel (Michael) and went to the fallen angels attempting to get Lucifer to repent. Ellen White stated that Jesus was “exalted” in pre-history to the position of Son. This exaltation of Jesus made Lucifer jealous; the “great controversy between Christ and Satan” was triggered in pre-history.
  2. Ellen White and the SDA organization still teach that Jesus is Michael the Archangel in Jude 9. Michael/Jesus resurrected Moses when the devil fought for Moses’ body. This teaching is necessary because Moses appeared on the Mt of Transfiguration. Adventists cannot have Moses appearing without a resurrection because they teach that the dead DO NOT EXIST. Significantly, Michael rebuked the devil in Jude 9 saying, “The Lord rebuke you.” Adventism denigrates Jesus by teaching “Michael/Jesus” did not rebuke the devil but deferred to “the Lord”. Ellen White said that Jesus is not God Almighty. 

INCOMPLETE ATONEMENT and the INVESTIGATIVE JUDGMENT

  1. The Adventist Jesus was EXACTLY as we are when He came to earth. He had “no advantage” we do not have. He had to overcome sinful tendencies inherited from Mary and temptation without sinning. Adventists have no concept of His having been born spiritually alive, never needing to be born again, possessing God’s essence and power and having life in His human spirit. 
  2. They teach that Jesus’ atonement was not completed on the cross. To mislead Walter Martin, they separated His “sacrifice” from His “atonement”, knowing Martin would not catch the distinction. (2003 Q on D, George Knight annotations). His SACRIFICE was complete, they say, but the ATONEMENT continues in heaven in the investigative judgment. This doctrine is Adventism’s only unique doctrine—its Central Pillar—without which there is no Seventh-day Adventism. This doctrine was developed by Hiram Edson and ORL Crosier and affirmed by a vision by Ellen White to explain what REALLY happened on October 22, 1844. 
  3. Early Adventists did not believe Jesus “came spiritually”.  They taught that Jesus had been in the outer compartment, the Holy Place, of the literal heavenly sanctuary since his ascension. On October 22, 1844, He moved from the Holy Place to the Most Holy Place. God the Father also moved His throne into the Most Holy Place on that occasion as well. 
  4. Ever since then Jesus has been presiding over the books of record, pictured in Adventist art as garbed in levitical high priestly robes and standing in front of the golden Ark of the covenant in heaven. He is completing the work foreshadowed in the earthly Day of Atonement, judging each professing believer to see whether or not his or her sins have been individually confessed. If they have been confessed, He writes “pardon” beside the person’s name. If they have not been confessed, they remain UNFORGIVEN. Failing to keep the Fourth Commandment is the evidence that a person does not worship the True God. When Jesus returns, all those who will be saved WILL BE KEEPING THE SEVENTH DAY. This obedience will be finalized by the passing of national and then international Sunday laws. These law will legalize Christians hunting and killing the Sabbath-keepers for civil disobedience. 
  5. At the end of the investigative judgment, Jesus will place all the sins of the saved onto Satan the scapegoat, Satan will bear the sins of the saved into the Lake of Fire where he will be punished for them. In this way,  sin will finally be destroyed. Satan is held responsible for human sin, and not until Satan is destroyed will sin be destroyed. 

CONCLUSION

  1. Adventists have morphed their wording and redefined their embarrassing investigative judgment, but they have never changed their doctrines. 
  2. Adventists all share the physicalist worldview. They deny depravity and the full essential sharing of the Trinity. They consider Jesus’ earthly life to be their example, showing them how they can keep the Ten Commandments (especially the fourth) by praying as Jesus did. 
  3. Adventists believe man has no immaterial identity or spirit. This belief that the human spirit is merely breath permits them to practice abortions and to teach their medical students to perform them. Their book explaining their Fundamental Beliefs states that “a new soul comes into existence whenever a child is born, each soul being a new unit of life…” (Seventh-day Adventists Believe, 2018 edition, Review and Herald Publishing Association, p. 94). Notice that a new soul “comes into existence whenever a child is born”, not whenever a child is conceived. This wording is deliberate.
  4. Ellen White is universally considered to be the authoritative interpreter of Scripture. Her prophetic role is stated in Fundamental Belief #18.

All Adventists believe that:

  1. Man is merely a body that breathes.
  2. The Trinity is somehow physical—three beings who work closely together
  3. Atonement is two-phased: the second phase is occurring now as Jesus “applies His blood” to confessed sins
  4. Man ceases to exist at death; the final judgment for sin is annihilation.
  5. The health message is the “right arm of the gospel”, a convenient proselyting tool and the means of keeping their bodies receptive to the impulses of the Holy Spirit.
  6. The Holy Spirit communicates through the neurons of the frontal lobe, thus necessitating proper education and physical health for proper reception of divine ideas.
  7. The Sabbath is physically holy: Holy Time. God will keep the Sabbath in heaven with the saved because He honors the day as well. Keeping the Sabbath is the seal of God and the sign that marks those who will be saved when Jesus returns. Those worshiping on Sunday will have the mark of the beast (Sunday worship) and will thus be marked for annihilation when Jesus returns. The Sunday-keepers will also be legally permitted to hunt and kill the Sabbath-keepers.

Neither Adventists nor most Christians understand that Adventists have different definitions for the words they have in common. They talk past each other, and Christians are left feeling a bit confused. Yet Adventists fundamentally believe a non-biblical view of reality. They have a different Jesus, a different salvation, a different definition of sin and salvation. 

Seventh-day Adventism is not Christian. The following articles will be helpful for more understanding: Discovering the Adventist Jesus, What Is Seventh-day Adventism? and Abortion in Adventism: Why Seventh-day Adventism Promotes Choice .

Please feel free to contact us at any time.

In Jesus,

Colleen Tinker, editor
Proclamation! magazine

Colleen Tinker
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