"THE ENIGMA OF ADVENTISM

OF THE SEVENTH DAY"

Walter Martin

“THE PUZZLE OF SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM”

Preface

In a book such as this, which deals with the problem of non-Christian cults, the question might be logical: "For what reason is the Seventh-day Adventist movement included in this collection, how soon did the author himself recognize Adventism as a Christian doctrine?"

The answer to this question may be found in the fact that for more than a hundred years, Adventism has been labeled a non-Christian cult system. Whether this was true or not in the early stages of Adventism has already been discussed in detail in my previous book, but it is necessary to pay close attention to the fact that Seventh-day Adventism today is different in many respects from the Adventism of 1845, and with these changes the need for a transformation of the movement naturally arose.

Together with the evangelical organization (founded by Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse and publisher of Eternity) several years ago, I conducted a thorough reassessment of Seventh-day Adventists, the results of which are detailed in my book, The Truth About Seventh-day Adventism (1960, Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing Company) and later in the first editions of this collection.

In my opinion, it is impossible to be a sincere adherent of such cult systems as: Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Scientologists, Unitarians, Spiritists, etc., and to be a Christian in the biblical sense of the term; But it is quite possible to be a Seventh-day Adventist and be a sincere Christian, despite some unorthodox (heretical) concepts that will be discussed below.

Christian leaders such as M.R. DeHaan, John R. Rice, Anthony L. Hoekema, J. K. VanBaalen, Herbert Byrd, and John Gerstner took the position that Adventism was a cult system. While the late Dr. Gray Barnhouse, I, E. Schuyler English, and several other scientists expressed exactly the opposite opinion.

Since these polar points of view have been widely discussed for a long period of time, I have found it necessary to include Seventh-day Adventism in this collection as a kind of counter-balance, presenting a different side of Adventism and showing the theological teaching of Adventism that has not been turned into a caricature by most critics.

This fact, of course, can by no means be regarded as a complete endorsement of the theological structure of Seventh-day Adventism, some of whose teaching is apart from the mainstream of historical Christian theology, and which I have taken the liberty of refuting. But I believe that it is just and ethically correct to consider both sides of the extremely complex and provocative poles, which in our time show only a slight tendency towards rapprochement.

In fact, for the past ten years (since the early 1970s), the Seventh-day Adventist movement has experienced turmoil, both in terms of governance and in terms of doctrine itself, which is more painful and widespread than any other disorder in the history of the organization. As for the managerial part of Adventist problems, there are a number of movement leaders who have been removed from their posts due to suspicion

(justified and unjustified) in illegal financial activities, including misappropriation of the organization's funds. At the U.S. government level, the FBI, the Legal Department and other government agencies have launched an investigation into Seventh-day Adventist conference administrators facing fraud charges. In terms of doctrine, there is a great gap between those leaders and members who are firmly evangelical Christian and those who draw on their own experiences of spiritual life and the prophetic teachings of Ellen G. White, and who can lead the organization far away from the Christian camp and even into pure cultism.

Ever since I began to give priority to the importance of the issue of the integrity of the doctrine of the movement in my analysis of religious movements, it seems to me that the fundamental upheaval in the doctrine of Adventism is a matter of special interest. And so, on February 16, 1983, I sent a public and official statement to the general conference of Seventh-day Adventists questioning or even denying the validity of the Adventist book Doctrinal Matters, which is an extensive publication, and on which I based my early evaluation and the previous book. On April 29, 1983, W. Richard Lesher, vice president of the General Conference, replied to me in a personal letter: "First of all, you ask whether Seventh-day Adventists adhere to the answers to your questions that they gave in Doctrinal Questions in 1957. The answer is yes. You note in your letter that some people gave contradictory answers at the time, and that this situation remains to this day. I hasten to assure you that the vast majority of the members of this organization are in agreement with the views expressed in the book Doctrinal Questions.

Second, you ask about the interpretation of Scripture in the writings of Ellen G. White. We have come to trust Mrs. White as the owner of a prophetic gift that has been proven many times in fact, and accordingly we trust the information we receive through Ellen White's revelations. However, we do not believe that Ellen White's writings completely replace the meaning of Scripture. We continue to adhere to Ellen White's positions as set forth in Doctrinal Matters."

On the basis of the above letter, dialogue with some Adventist leaders, and ongoing changes within the organization itself, I have been forced to retract my original assessment of Seventh-day Adventism in my first book on the subject and later in this collection in early editions. Only the future can prove me right. I pray that the false currents of modern Adventism will not prevail and that Adventism will continue to be a Christian and evangelical doctrine, albeit unique in its own way. Dr. Donald Barnhouse said that the mere fact that a person is a representative of a particular creed and expresses certain ideas about that creed cannot be judged of the creed as a whole and whether or not it should be recognized as heretical. Just as it is impossible to recognize all Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists, the Episcopal Church, etc., as heretics from individual statements. Thus, in our opinion, Seventh-day Adventism, as a doctrine, is essentially Christian in the sense that all religious movements professing Christ are Christian in essence if they are committed to the basic mission of Christianity as set forth in the Bible, in the Symbol of Faith, and in the decrees of the councils. But this by no means means means means that all Baptists, Methodists, episcopicists, Lutherans, or Adventists are necessarily Christians. The question of religion is exclusively a question of the relationship between each individual and God and should be considered only in the light of the Revelations of the Holy Scriptures and the prophecies of the Holy Spirit.