A few days ago a friend shared with me an online announcement that a small group of erstwhile Seventh-day Adventists have decided to form a new denomination. Because I don’t wish to give their cause any needless publicity, I have chosen not to give any links to their announcement, and have likewise chosen not to mention their group’s new name.
In sum, this group believes that after Ellen White’s death, certain of our pillar doctrines as Seventh-day Adventists were set aside, and that therefore, Ellen White’s warnings against entering into a “new organization” [##1|Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 2, p. 390.##] apply to what they call the “nominal SDA Church,” which they believe has started the new organization Ellen White warned about.
The leaders of this group cite the following inspired statement which they believe defines the false reformation and new organization of which Ellen White was speaking:
The enemy of souls has sought to bring in the supposition that a great reformation was to take place among Seventh-day Adventists, and that this reformation would consist in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization. Were this reformation to take place, what would result? The principles of truth that God in His wisdom has given to the remnant church, would be discarded. Our religion would be changed. The fundamental principles that have sustained the work for the last fifty years would be accounted as error. A new organization would be established. Books of a new order would be written. A system of intellectual philosophy would be introduced. The founders of this system would go into the cities, and do a wonderful work. The Sabbath, of course, would be lightly regarded, as also the God who created it. Nothing would be allowed to stand in the way of the new movement. The leaders would teach that virtue is better than vice, but God being removed, they would place their dependence on human power, which, without God, is worthless. Their foundation would be built on the sand, and storm and tempest would sweep away the structure [##2|——Selected Messages, vol. 1, pp. 204-205.##].
It is the conviction of those starting this new denomination that the false reformation described above has effectively taken over the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and thus it is time, in their view, to re-establish true Adventism with a new organized body.
False Pillars
Many readers familiar with the above inspired statement can likely see, as does the present writer, a fulfillment in contemporary Adventism of any number of the dire predictions found in the above statement. The big problem is that those starting this new denomination have identified doctrinal and other reasons for their decision to leave which lack support from either the Bible or the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy.
Much could be said about the affirmations and denials of this new group, many of which would lead us far afield. Many of their affirmations and denials are in fact embraced by faithful members, workers, and leaders within the mainline Seventh-day Adventist Church, because they harmonize with Scripture and the writings of Ellen White. But other of this group’s pronouncements cannot be thus accepted, because they either add to—or contradict—the inspired text.
One such denial is the group’s insistence that the papacy is not in fact the king of the north in Daniel 11. While one can argue the merits or lack thereof in this position, one finds it difficult to see the need to make this denial an article of faith when our original pioneers held varying views on this subject, with the only inspired pioneer—Ellen G. White—never taking a stand in either direction.
But far more serious is the group’s denial of the Trinity doctrine—the belief that the Godhead consists of “three co-eternal Persons” as taught in the Bible, the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy, and the Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church [##3|Seventh-day Aventist Church Manual, 2015 edition, p. 162.##]. Those interested in an in-depth consideration of the Trinity issue are invited to consult an article by the present writer on this website [4], together with a three-part sermon series by the same author, also on this website [5]. We of this ministry affirm without qualification that the doctrine of the Trinity as taught by the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist body is in fact the teaching of the inspired writings, and that any rejection thereof constitutes a rejection of some of the plainest pronouncements found in both Scripture and the writings of Ellen White.
The group also insists that the practice of abortion is murder, and is thus not to be left to the conscience. This teaching on their part is entirely extra-Biblical, and is also absent from the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy. Whatever one chooses to believe regarding this procedure, the fact remains that it has been controversial in human civilization for thousands of years, and that despite this continuing controversy, the witness of the inspired pen from Moses to Ellen White is utterly silent concerning it. It is for this reason, not for moral cowardice or fecklessness, that despite grave reservations regarding the practice in question, the General Conference Executive Committee has chosen to leave this issue to the discretion of the conscience [6].
The last of the group’s stated denials is their rejection of vaccine mandates which, in their view, violate liberty of conscience. Here again we see a tenet of belief on their part which entirely lacks support from the inspired text. Opposition to vaccine mandates is based, not on Scripture or the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy, but on culture-war polarization and pseudo-science laced with untenable conspiracy theories. As with similar requirements relative to other diseases and remedies, the collective weight of evidence gravitates decidedly toward recognizing these mandates as an issue of public safety, not religious liberty. To reject these mandates as a violation of religious liberty is no more valid that for a Jehovah’s Witness parent to risk a child’s life by forbidding the receipt of a blood transfusion on religious grounds. (Jehovah’s Witnesses, in case some have forgotten, oppose blood transfusions as a part of their religious beliefs [7].) All freedoms, including religious ones, have their limits.
Why the Seventh-day Adventist Church is Still Not Babylon
This new group doesn’t identify the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists as a part of Babylon, but it isn’t hard to imagine their arriving at this conclusion on account of the direction they have taken. In response to those in her day who were denouncing the Seventh-day Adventist Church as Babylon, Ellen White wrote the following:
The fallen denominational churches are Babylon. Babylon has been fostering poisonous doctrines, the wine of error. This wine of error is made up of false doctrines, such as the natural immortality of the soul, the eternal torment of the wicked, the denial of the pre-existence of Christ prior to His birth in Bethlehem, and advocating and exalting the first day of the week above God's holy and sanctified day. These and kindred errors are presented to the world by the various churches [##8|White, Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 61-62.##].
The wine of Babylon is the exalting of the false and spurious sabbath above the Sabbath which the Lord Jehovah hath blessed and sanctified for the use of man; also it is the immortality of the soul. These kindred heresies, and the rejection of the truth, convert the church into Babylon [##9|——Selected Messages, vol. 2, p. 68.##].
This primary focus on Sunday sacredness and natural immortality is understandable, since Ellen White pinpoints these two errors as being those on which the churches of Babylon will unite in the last days:
Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome [##10|——The Great Controversy, p. 588.##].
The reader will notice there is no mention of the Trinity, abortion, or vaccine mandates in any of these passages which note the earmarks of Babylon. At no time, since Ellen White’s death or otherwise, have any of the heresies identified in the above statements been embraced by the General Conference in session, the only body authorized to speak for the official church in matters of faith and practice. No justification whatsoever from the inspired pen can be contrived as grounds for Seventh-day Adventists to consider starting a new church organization.
Conclusion: The Siren Call of Offshoots
In the context of one of the above statements, Ellen White offers the following solemn warning:
I know that the Lord loves His church. It is not to be disorganized or broken up into independent atoms. There is not the least consistency in this; there is not the least evidence that such a thing will be. Those who shall heed this false message and try to leaven others will be deceived and prepared to receive advanced delusions, and they will come to nought [##11|——Selected Messages, vol. 2, pp. 68-69.##].
Offshoot movements which depart from organized Adventism as a protest against problems in the church—real or imagined—carry a powerful allurement for the disenchanted among the striving faithful. Those joining or initiating such movements presume that purity of faith and practice beckons them on, that if only the faithful could start all over they could avoid and preclude the intrusion of all the problems that presently beset the organized church body. Like the man who fools himself into thinking the woes and boredom of marriage would be solved if only he could marry his much-younger, much-prettier secretary, those Adventists attracted to splinter movements fail to consider that all they succeed in doing when starting or joining such a group is to exchange one set of problems for another.
Regardless of its reason for getting started, no offshoot movement in Adventist history has ever prospered. In fact, most have ended in swift and sudden disaster. Splinter groups tend to splinter again quickly; no issue becomes too small to necessitate separation. In the words of The Lay of the Host of Igor, the greatest of early Russian epics: “The princes began to say of little things, ‘Lo, this is a great matter’” [##12|Benson Bobrick, Fearful Majesty: The Life and Reign of Ivan the Terrible (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987), p. 25.##]. Those splinter movements that have afflicted Adventism at various times throughout its history have dutifully followed this pattern.
The solution to the vexing and ever-increasing problems in contemporary Adventism is revival and reformation, not departure and reorganization. As heresy and controversy continue to proliferate in our ranks, the siren call of offshoots will likely intensify. But all the challenges we presently face were known and predicted by God from the beginning. We cannot repeat often enough the following inspired assurance:
Not one cloud has fallen upon the church that God has not prepared for; not one opposing force has risen to counterwork the work of God but He has foreseen. All has taken place as He has predicted through His prophets [##13|White, Selected Messages, vol. 2, p. 108.##].
In still another statement, the ultimate victory of the striving faithful over apostasy is described as following a struggle of triumph interspersed with defeat:
The battle raged. Victory alternated from side to side. Now the soldiers of the cross gave way, “as when a standard-bearer fainteth.” Isa. 10:18. But their apparent retreat was but to gain a more advantageous position. Shouts of joy were heard. A song of praise to God went up, and angel voices united in the song, as Christ’s soldiers planted His banner on the walls of fortresses till then held by the enemy [##14|——Testimonies, vol. 8, p. 41.##].
REFERENCES
1. Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 2, p. 390.
2. Ibid, vol. 1, pp. 204-205.
3. Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual, 2015 edition, p. 162.
4. Kevin D. Paulson, “Three Co-Eternal Persons,” ADvindicate, May 7, 2017 http://advindicate.com/articles/2017/5/7/three-co-eternal-persons
5. ----“Weimar Godhead Series Videos,” ADvindicate, Dec. 24, 2017 http://advindicate.com/articles/2017/12/24/weimar-godhead-series-video
6. https://family.adventist.org/guidelines-on-abortion/
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehovah%27s_Witnesses_and_blood_transfusions
8. White, Testimonies to Ministers, pp. 61-62.
9. ----Selected Messages, vol. 2, p. 68.
10. ----The Great Controversy, p. 588.
11. ----Selected Messages, vol. 2, pp. 68-69.
12. Benson Bobrick, Fearful Majesty: The Life and Reign of Ivan the Terrible (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1987), p. 25.
13. White, Selected Messages, vol. 2, p. 108.
14. ----Testimonies, vol. 8, p. 41.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan