Criticisim of Seventh day Adventist
📚 A Simple History of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church
🔹 1. It Began with a False Prophecy (The Millerite Movement)
A man named William Miller, a Baptist preacher in the U.S.
What did he teach?
• He studied the Bible (especially Daniel 8:14) and calculated that Jesus would return in 1844.
• Many people believed him, sold their belongings, and waited for Christ’s return.
What happened?
• Jesus did not return in 1844.
• This became known as “The Great Disappointment.”
📖 Deuteronomy 18:20-22 (KJV) But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. 21 And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken? 22 When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.
2. Jehovah’s Witnesses (Watchtower Society)
• Predicted the return of Christ in:
• 1914 – invisible return (didn’t happen)
• 1925 – resurrection of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (didn’t happen)
• 1975 – beginning of Christ’s 1000-year reign (didn’t happen)
📛 Every failed date proves false prophecy.
3. Harold Camping (Family Radio)
• Predicted the rapture on May 21, 2011.
• Said the world would end in October 2011.
• When it didn’t happen, he apologized, but the damage was done.
🔎 By biblical standards, he was a false prophet.
🔹 2. What Happened After 1844?
After Jesus didn’t return, Miller admitted he was wrong, but some of his followers refused to accept it. Instead of admitting the prophecy failed, they came up with a new idea:
“Jesus DID come but not to earth. He entered a special place in heaven to begin a new phase of His work.”
This idea became known as the Investigative Judgment, a doctrine unique to Seventh-day Adventism.
🔹 3. Along came Ellen G. White – the SDA Prophetess
One of the key leaders who emerged after the 1844 failure was Ellen G. White.
• She claimed to have over 2,000 visions and dreams.
• She taught that God had specially chosen her as a prophetess.
• Her writings became foundational to SDA beliefs.
🔍 We need to watch out when people claim that God has chosen them to be a prophet (meaning you need to listen to me or else) because real prophets of the bible did not brag about being a prophet nor did they use that ability to trick people into following them. This is a big issue because a lot of the newer religions that sprang out of or after The Second Great Awakening like Pentecostalism, Mormons, JWs and Seventh day Adventist, they all used this tactic to gain a following since no one would listen to them, they used the Mohammed trick “Gabriel spoke to me”. Self proclaimed prophets are a danger.
📛 Many SDA doctrines, including the Investigative Judgment, dietary rules, and Sabbath observance, were either taught or promoted by her visions not just the Bible.
🔹 4. Formation of the SDA Church
• In 1863, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was officially organized.
• “Seventh-day” = they keep the Saturday Sabbath.
• “Adventist” = they believe in the Second Coming (Advent) of Christ.
📚 Understanding the Sabbath
The Sabbath day is one of the main teaching of the SDA group and they condemn any other day of worship like that of Sunday, but let’s look at the sabbath in the New Testament.
🔥 Each day is optional
📖 Romans 14:5 KJV “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemed every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”
✅ Explanation:
• Paul allows liberty in how Christians view days.
• If Sabbath-keeping were required, Paul would have said so.
• New Covenant believers are not under the same calendar observances.
🔥 Sabbaths are a shadow of Jesus
📖 Colossians 2:16-17 (KJV) Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
✅ Explanation:
• Paul says we are not to be judged about Sabbath-keeping.
• Sabbaths were a shadow pointing to Christ, not the substance.
🔥 Observing days is like being in bondage
📖 Galatians 4:9-11 (KJV) But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.
✅ Explanation:
• Paul rebukes believers for going back to observing Old Covenant practices.
• The Sabbath, like feast days and ceremonial laws, is part of what Paul calls “weak and beggarly elements.”
🔥 Jesus is our Sabbath rest
📖 Hebrews 4:1-11 (KJV) Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. 2 For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. 3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. 4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. 5 And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest. 6 Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: 7 Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 8 For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
✅ Explanation:
• The entire chapter argues that true “rest” is found in Christ, not a day.
• The Greek word used for “rest” here is sabbatismos a “Sabbath-like rest,” fulfilled in salvation, not the 7th day.
❌ ANSWERING COMMON SDA ARGUMENTS
🔸 “Jesus kept the Sabbath, so we should too.”
✅ Answer:
• Jesus lived under the Old Covenant
📖 Galatians 4:4-5 (KJV) But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
📌 What people misunderstand a lot of the times is the transition period of the Old Testament to the New testament, because even though the New Testament started the Old Testament was still in effect.
📖 Hebrews 8:7-13 (KJV) For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
📌 We see here that the writer of Hebrews is in the New Testament yet the Old Testament is still alive ready to vanish meaning that all people have understood that the old testament is past.
• So Jesus kept the law perfectly, including the Sabbath, to fulfill it.
• We are not under the law (Romans 6:14).
🔸 “The Sabbath was instituted at Creation.” (Genesis 2:2-3)
“God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it…”
✅ Answer:
• The word “Sabbath” is not used in Genesis.
• No command to keep it is given until Exodus 16.
• Adam, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob never commanded to keep the Sabbath.
🔸 “The Ten Commandments are eternal, including the 4th.”
✅ Answer:
• The Ten Commandments were the heart of the Old Covenant
• The Old Covenant is done away in Christ (Hebrews 8:13, 2 Cor. 3:7-11).
📖 2 Corinthians 3:7-15 (KJV) But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: 8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? 9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. 10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. 11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. 12 Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: 13 And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: 14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. 15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
• Nine of the Ten are repeated in the New Testament except the Sabbath.
✅ The 9 Commandments Repeated in the New Testament
1. No other gods
📖 “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” — Matthew 4:10
2. No idols
📖 “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” — 1 John 5:21
📖 “We know that an idol is nothing in the world…” — 1 Corinthians 8:4
3. Do not take the Lord’s name in vain
📖 “That the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.” — 1 Timothy 6:1
📖 “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth…” — Ephesians 4:29
4. ❌ Sabbath Command – Not Repeated
❗ Not commanded for Christians
✅ Colossians 2:16-17 says it was a shadow
✅ Romans 14:5 says we are not bound to keep any specific day
✅ Hebrews 4 points to a spiritual rest in Christ, not a physical day
5. Honor your father and mother
📖 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother…” — Ephesians 6:1–2
6. Do not murder
📖 “Thou shalt not kill… whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.” — Matthew 5:21
7. Do not commit adultery
📖 “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” — Matthew 5:27
Jesus goes further: “…whosoever looketh on a woman to lust…” — Matthew 5:28
8. Do not steal
📖 “Let him that stole steal no more…” — Ephesians 4:28
9. Do not bear false witness
📖 “Lie not one to another…” — Colossians 3:9
📖 “Speak every man truth with his neighbour…” — Ephesians 4:25
10. Do not covet
📖 “Thou shalt not covet.” — Romans 7:7
Paul even says this command revealed his sin!
🔸 “Jesus said He didn’t come to destroy the law.” (Matthew 5:17)
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law… but to fulfill.”
✅ Answer:
• Jesus fulfilled the law — He completed it.
• Fulfilled doesn’t mean we still keep it — He satisfied its demands.
• Romans 10:4 — “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness…”
🔸 “The Sabbath is forever (Exodus 31:16)”
✅ Answer:
• “Forever” in Hebrew (olam) can mean “for a long time” or “as long as the covenant stands.”
• Many things called “forever” in the OT ended (e.g., Levitical priesthood, sacrifices).
📌 Technically speaking the sabbath is forever because we are resting in Jesus just like the priests hood is now in all the believers and the temple of God is our bodies, everything from the physical covenant is now spiritualised by the new testament which is far better.
📖 Hebrews 8:6-7 (KJV) But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 7For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
🧾 Conclusion: Why Seventh-day Adventism Is a False Religion
The Seventh-day Adventist Church may appear Christian on the surface, but when tested by Scripture, it is built on the sinking sand of false prophecy, extra-biblical visions, and legalism. It began with William Miller’s failed prediction of Christ’s return in 1844 a clear violation of Deuteronomy 18, which defines a false prophet. Rather than repenting, early Adventists invented a new doctrine, the “Investigative Judgment,” which has no foundation in the Bible. Their teachings on Sabbath-keeping, soul sleep, and diet are heavily influenced by Ellen G. White, a self-proclaimed prophetess whose writings contradict the clear gospel of grace.
While they speak of Jesus, they distort the gospel by adding Old Testament laws to salvation and placing visions above Scripture. God’s Word warns us to test every spirit, and by that test, the SDA movement is not the true church, but a religious system that subtly leads people away from the sufficiency of Christ. As believers, we are called to stand on the unchanging truth of the Bible alone not failed prophecies, not visions, not legalistic shadows but on Jesus Christ, in whom we find our full rest, righteousness, and redemption.
“Ye shall know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:16)
“If any man preach any other gospel… let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8)
