The Seventh-day Adventist church
claims to be
the remnant church
of Bible prophecy

Historic SDAs hold that they are the true, remnant church depicted in Revelation 12. The Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists, No. 12, entitled, “The Remnant” reads as follows:

    "The universal church is composed of all who truly believe in Christ, but in the last days, a time of widespread apostasy, a remnant has been called out to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This remnant announces the arrival of the judgment hour, proclaims salvation through Christ, and heralds the approach of His second advent. This proclamation is symbolized by the three angels of Revelation 14; it coincides with the work of judgment in heaven and results in a work of repentance and reform on earth. Every believer is called to have a personal part in this worldwide witness" (emphasis added).

    Note well that it is “this remnant.” No other church holds the 1844 investigative judgment hour message of SDAs. This is their unique “contribution” (they say) to Christian theology. Also, note that “every believer” is called to have a personal part in “this [SDA’s] worldwide witness.”
All Sunday-keeping churches are a part of the great “apostasy,” “Babylon” or the “daughters of Babylon”. So even as SDAs acknowledge that “God has His children in all churches,” they add, “but through the remnant church He proclaims a message that is to restore His true worship by calling His people out of the apostasy and preparing them for Christ’s return.” A Christian, then, is not prepared for Christ’s return unless he has joined the remnant, the Seventh-day Adventist church.
    This one doctrine mandates the raiding of other churches. SDAs feel called, not only to reach non-Christians, but to convert Christians to the “truths” of Adventism. Thus, their Revelation Seminars and other evangelistic programs are structured to get people to make a decision to join the remnant church—meaning the SDA church. Those who do are said to have finally “come into the truth.”
One can immediately see how difficult it is for informed Evangelicals to work with historic Adventists who hold such teaching. It is also difficult for Adventists to honestly work with Evangelicals.
    Traditionally, Adventists have supported their claim to be the remnant church of Bible prophecy by linking their two “proof texts” of Revelation 12:17 and 19:10.

    "And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Rev. 12:17

    From this text they seek to “prove” that the rest (remnant, KJV) have two identification marks: (1) they keep “the commandments of God” and (2) they have the “testimony of Jesus.” The commandments are interpreted to be the Ten Commandments, including the fourth command­ment of the seventh-day Sabbath.
    The second identification of the remnant, Adventists teach, is “the testimony of Jesus.” To explain what this means, they immediately jump to Rev. 19:10 where they read,

   "And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said to me, 'Do not do that; I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus; worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'”

    From this verse they define the "testimony of Jesus" as the spirit of prophecy. So, they say, the remnant church will keep the Sabbath and have the "spirit of prophecy". According to the Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists, No. 17,

    "One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G. White. As the Lord’s messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction…"(emphasis added).

    Here, right in their doctrinal statement, SDAs list the prophetic ministry of Ellen White as “an identifying mark of the remnant church.”

    The SDA claim to be the remnant church of Bible prophecy rests, then, upon their Sabbath keeping and their acceptance of Ellen White as “the spirit of prophecy.”
    Adventists fail to observe that in the writings of John, the Greek word, entole, and translated “commandment” in Revelation 12:17 is never used for the old covenant, Ten Commandment, law. Rather John always refers to old covenant law by the Greek word, nomos, translated, “law.” Thus, their claim that the Sabbath commandment is in view here is without warrant.

    Adventists’ use of Rev. 19:10 puts EGW in the place of Christ! Our Lord Jesus Christ, however, and not Ellen White, is the spirit and theme of all prophecy. Note how the following Bible translations have captured this thought:

    "Those who bear testimony to Jesus are inspired like the prophets" (The New English Bible).

    "For the truth revealed by Jesus is the inspiration of all prophecy (Weymouth).

    "For the testimony of Jesus is what inspires prophecy." (Goodspeed).

    "It is the truth concerning Jesus which inspires all prophecy" (Knox).

    "The purpose of all prophecy and of all I have shown you is to tell about Jesus" (Living Bible).

    Jesus is the theme and spirit of all prophecy. This text has nothing to do with Ellen White! Jesus said,

    "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; John 5:39."

    It is very clear that Adventists misuse both Revelation 12:17 and 19:10 in their claim to be the true, remnant church of Bible prophecy.
     The reason this doctrine is so hurtful to the church at large is obvious. How can an Evangelical honestly see an Adventist as a brother in Christ when the Adventist subscribes to this fundamental belief? Remember it says, every believer is called to have a personal part in this [SDA] worldwide witness.

For a complete listing of the 27 Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventists, see Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook, Review and Herald Publishing Association, Hagerstown, MD, 1996, pp. 5–27.

Historic SDAs.

In recent years much new evidence has surfaced which demonstrates the many problems associated with the writings of Ellen White. In order to keep these as “inspired writings,” SDAs have had to liberalize their concept of inspiration to allow for such things as massive plagiarism, historical errors, suppressed visions, inaccurate statements, and self contradictions and contradictions to the Bible.

“Adventists who deny this historic equation (Bible study + EGW confirmation = Adventist distinctives), for whatever reason, are forced to go back into the confusion….To ignore history would put us back to the same uncertain playing field where all other churches are each contending that it alone believes in ‘the Bible and the Bible alone.’ The deep doctrinal struggles within Evangelicalism today are fought by strongly convinced men and women who believe their positions rest on the Bible only. Without Ellen White, that same impasse would continue to fragment the Adventist denomination.” Quoted from Robert S. Folkenburg, From the G.C. President, “Off the Back Burner,” January, 22–April 22, 1996.

Much of the best material is copied from others. See Walter Rea, White Lie, for many illustrations of plagiarism.

See: Ratzlaff, Cultic Doctrine; Anderson, White Out and Cleveland, White Washed for many examples.

Early Writings is a title of one of EGW’s books. However, I use the term here to include all of her early writings, many of which contain much error.

Ellen G. White, Spiritual Gifts, Vol. 1, pp. 135, 140, 155, 156, 169, 172.

See Dale Ratzlaff, Cultic Doctrine, chapter, “Lumps Under the Rug”.

See Ratzlaff, Cultic Doctrine for a thorough evaluation of this unbiblical, anti-gospel doctrine and/or Desmond Ford, Daniel 8:14, The Day of Atonement and the Investigative Judgment, Euangelion Press, Casselberry, Florida, 1980.

P.G. Damsteegt, et al., Seventh-day Adventists Believe…A Biblical Exposition of 27 Fundamental Doctrines, [Washington D.C.: Ministerial Association, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1988] p. 168; emphasis added.

In the back of a series of Bible studies, author Mark Finley has instructions on how Adventists can best convert Christians from other churches to Adventism.

“Come into the truth” is a term frequently used by SDAs when speaking of other “Christians” who have accepted the teachings of Adventism.

See Ratzlaff, Sabbath in Christ, p. 374–376, LAM Publications, LLC for a thorough discussion of this topic and a complete listing of entole and nomos in the writings of John.

Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists, No. 12.