Back to Cults Reports
Back to the Way of Life Home Page
Way of Life Literature Online Catalog

Let us investigate exactly what Seventh-day Adventism teaches about the Sabbath. Following is a breakdown of these teachings from their own publications.

WHAT ADVENTISM TEACHES: The Sabbath is eternally binding upon men from creation. Seventh-day Adventism says the Sabbath was made for mankind in general and was given to Adam in the Garden of Eden. Sabbath-keeping, therefore, is a sign of loyalty to God, the Creator.

"God instituted the Sabbath in Eden; and so long as the fact that He is our Creator continues to be a reason why we should worship Him, so long the Sabbath will continue as its sign and memorial. ... The keeping of the Sabbath is a sign of loyalty to the true God" (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 386).

"The Sabbath was kept by Adam in his innocence in holy Eden; by Adam, fallen yet repentant, when he was driven from his happy estate. It was kept by all the patriarchs, from Abel to righteous Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob." (Ibid., p. 398).

3. Ellen White added to Scripture in teaching that Adam and the patriarchs kept the Sabbath. The Bible says absolutely nothing about this. In fact, it cannot be true. If the Sabbath had been kept by mankind in general from the creation, it could not have been given as a special sign to Israel.

WHAT ADVENTISM TEACHES: The Sabbath continues to be binding upon New Testament believers.

"...from this it is evident that all Ten Commandments are binding in the Christian dispensation, and that Christ had no thought of changing any of them. One of these commands is the observance of the seventh day as the Sabbath..." (Bible Footlights, p. 37).

WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES:

1. The New Testament is the only infallible guide of what part of the Mosaic law continues to be binding in any sense upon the church age believer. The New Testament plainly teaches that the believer today is not bound to the Sabbath law! "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ" (Col. 2:16-17).

2. According to the New Testament epistles, the Sabbath question has no relevance to the church. In all the instruction God gave the churches in the epistles, there is only one mention of the Sabbath—Colossians 2:16—and that one mention was only to show that it is not binding upon New Testament believers. Is it not strange, in light of the fact that the New Testament epistles mention the Sabbath only once and that only to show it is not now binding, that Seventh-day Adventism makes such a big deal over Sabbath observance? Surely, the SDA denomination has a very different understanding of the Sabbath than did the Apostles! The Apostles, in their writings, placed absolutely no importance on the Sabbath. The SDA, in their writings, place great importance upon it. With one of their correspondence courses, the SDA sent me a lovely printing of the tablets containing the Ten Commandments. This was printed on expensive gold foil, and the Sabbath was highlighted, allegedly as it was highlighted in Ellen White’s visions. I assume I was supposed to treasure this. No, my friends, I do not glory in the Sabbath. The Apostle Paul said the Sabbath is not for me.

3. The Sabbath was a type of salvation. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his" (He. 4:9,10). Adventists admit that the Old Testament types and shadows, such as the Levitical offerings, were fulfilled in the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, yet, they maintain that the weekly Sabbath was not a type that was fulfilled by Christ. In Hebrews 4, though, the Sabbath is presented as a type of salvation. As God rested on the seventh day from His work of creation, the true believer today rests in the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to enter God’s rest, a person must quietly accept God’s work and cease from his own work. Salvation is God’s gift.

WHAT ADVENTISM TEACHES: The Sabbath law has been changed, with the harsh demands of the Mosaic system no longer binding. Adventists do not keep the Old Testament conditions of the Sabbath, but they claim they do not have to because the conditions pertaining to the Sabbath have allegedly changed in this age. One of Ellen White’s visions is offered as proof for this.

"In the most holy place she saw the ark that contains the law, and was amazed to note that ‘the fourth, the Sabbath commandment, shone above them all; for the Sabbath was set apart to be kept in honor of God’s holy name...’ There was also shown her the change of the Sabbath, the significance of Sabbath observance..." (Messenger to the Remnant, p. 34).

"The institutions that God has established are for the benefit of mankind. ... The law of Ten Commandments, of which the Sabbath forms a part, God gave to His people as a blessing..." (Ellen White, The Desire of Ages, pp. 245-246).

1. The Sabbath law was severe and rigid. (1) No work, Ex. 20:10; 31:14-15; (2) bear no burden, Je. 17:21; (3) light no fire, Ex. 35:3. Only in relatively warm climates such as that in Israel could this be reasonably observed. The law of the Sabbath was so severe that God had an Israelite stoned merely for gathering sticks to build a fire because by this he broke the Sabbath law (Nu. 15:32-36). The law was not given to be a blessing. The Apostle Peter had lived under the law all his life until he was converted in his adult years, and he called it a yoke of bondage "which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear" (Acts 15:10).

James 2:10 informs us that the law cannot be broken. Thus, anyone desiring to observe the Sabbath of the Mosaic law must observe it exactly as God demanded in the Old Testament. And such a one must observe every other detail of the law. The Old Testament law is not the Christian’s standard; Christ is!

By reducing the requirements of the Sabbath law, the SDA church destroys the power of the Mosaic law to reveal the need for the Savior. The Mosaic law was never intended as a way of life for the justified man—"knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man..." (1 Ti. 1:9). The law was intended solely as a schoolmaster to bring the sinner to the Savior and to His salvation.

2. There is no Bible authority for a change in the Sabbath law. The Lord Jesus did not change the law. He simply condemned the traditions of the Pharisees which had been added to the law. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled" (Mt. 5:17-18).

3. This is another instance of Ellen White adding to the inspired revelation. Mrs. White saw the Sabbath law as more important than all others; it "shone above them all." The inspired Apostles saw no importance in it at all for the New Testament believer.

WHAT ADVENTISM TEACHES: Since Jesus and the Apostles kept the Sabbath, Christians should today.

"The example of Jesus is clear and consistent. His custom was a Sabbath-keeping custom. ... Yet in spite of this, we find a strange situation in the world today. For though we have the same Christ as our example, the same Bible as our guide,, yet we find two Sabbath days kept by Christians..." (George Vandeman, Planet in Rebellion, p. 277).

"Christ’s followers were careful to keep the Sabbath on which their buried Lord rested from His death struggle with sin" (New Life Bible Correspondence Course, Guide #16).

WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES:

1. Jesus kept the Sabbath because He was born under the law to fulfill the demands of the law. "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons" (Ga. 4:4-5). The Lord Jesus willingly made Himself a servant, born under the Mosaic law, that He might redeem sinners from the curse and bondage of the law into the eternal liberty of sonship. In Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus expounded the demands of the law, which is perfection. Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it, which He did. Jesus was under the law that believers might not be.

2. It cannot be proved that the Apostle Paul and the early churches observed the Sabbath. Adventists teach this as fact, but it is mere conjecture. It is true that Paul met in the synagogues on the Sabbath in order to preach to the Jews assembled there, but this does not mean that he observed the Sabbath law of the Mosaic system. Rather, Paul testified concerning the Sabbath question, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or the Sabbath days" (Col. 2:16).

The Apostle Paul plainly taught that Sabbath keeping is not binding upon New Testament believers. To observe or not to observe holy days is a matter of individual Christian liberty. "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind" (Ro. 14:5).

According to the Bible, the reason Paul visited synagogues on the Sabbath was to preach the gospel. Paul’s burden after conversion was to preach Christ. He was burdened for his own people, the Jews. So, he went where the Jews were to preach Christ to them. Consider Acts 13:14-44; 16:13-14; 17:2-4; and 18:4. "And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures."

The fact that Paul went to synagogues on Sabbaths does not prove he kept the Sabbath law any more than his going to the feasts in Jerusalem proves he believed himself bound to the laws of the feasts. He felt bound to none of these things. He was free in Christ. He went as a soul winner to witness to his kinsmen of the freedom in Christ that he himself enjoyed.

3. There is much evidence in the Bible and in other historical sources that the early Christians, from the days of the Apostles, met and worshipped on the first day of the week rather than on the Sabbath. The reader is referred to the documentation that follows under the next point.

WHAT ADVENTISM TEACHES: Rome changed the day of worship from Sabbath to Sunday in the fourth century. Adventists contend that the law of the Sabbath was kept by Christians until Constantine, the Emperor of Rome, required all men to observe Sunday. Adventist leaders see Constantine as a type of the future antichrist, who (they believe) will make Sunday worship a law binding upon all men.

"Constantine was the Roman emperor. He was a sun worshiper, but he was also a keen politician. He wanted to please everybody. It was while still a pagan that he decreed that all government offices should be closed upon the first day of the week—’the venerable day of the sun.’ The church, which had now been established in Rome, had been quick to see the temporal advantage of compromise with paganism ... so it was that after a few brief years, when Sunday had gained a foothold, the Roman church in the Council of Laodicea set aside the clear command of God and decreed the change from the seventh to the first day of the week" (Planet in Rebellion, p. 290).

WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES: There is much evidence in the Bible and in other historical sources that the early Christians, from the days of the Apostles, met and worshiped on the first day of the week, rather than on the Sabbath.

1. On the first day Jesus rose from the dead (Mk. 16:9).

2. On the first day Jesus first appeared to his disciples (Mk. 16:9).

3. On the first day Jesus met with the disciples at different places and repeatedly (Mk. 16:9-11; Mt. 28:8-10; Lk. 24:34; Mk. 16:12-13; Jn. 20:19-23).

4. On the first day Jesus blessed the disciples (Jn. 20:19).

5. On the first day Jesus imparted to the disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit (Jn. 20:22).

6. On the first day Jesus commissioned the disciples to preach the gospel to all the world (Jn. 20:21; with Mk. 16:9-15).

7. On the first day Jesus ascended to Heaven, was seated at the right hand of the Father and was made Head of all (Jn. 20:17; Ep. 1:20).

8. On the first day many of the dead saints arose from the grave (Mt. 27:52-53).

9. The first day became the day of joy and rejoicing to the disciples (Jn. 20:20; Lk. 24:41).

10. On the first day the gospel of the risen Christ was first preached (Lk. 24:34).

11. On the first day Jesus explained the Scriptures to the disciples (Lk. 24:27,45).

12. On the first day the purchase of our redemption was completed (Ro. 4:25).

13. On the first day the Holy Spirit descended (Ac. 2:1). Pentecost was on the 50th day after the Sabbath following the wave offering (Le. 23:15,16). Thus Pentecost was always on a Sunday.

14. The Christians met to worship on the first day (Ac. 20:6,7; 1 Co. 16:2). Sunday is "the Lord’s Day" (Re. 1:10) (D.M. Canright, Seventh-day Adventism Renounced).

Since those days, the vast majority of Christians have always met to worship on the Lord’s day, the first day of the week. They do this in honor of the resurrection of their Savior. Christ was in the tomb during the Sabbath, and rose as the firstborn from the dead on the first day. The Sabbath signifies the last day of the old creation (Ge. 2:2). Sunday is the first day of the new creation.

Historical Evidence that Early Christians Worshiped on Sunday.

The Epistle of Barnabas (about A.D. 100). "Wherefore, also we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead."

The Epistle of Ignatius (about A.D. 107). "Be not deceived with strange doctrines, nor with old fables, which are unprofitable. For if we still live according to the Jewish Law, we acknowledge that we have not received grace ... If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death."

Justin Martyr (about A.D. 140). "And on the day called Sunday all who live in cities or in the country gather together in one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read. ... But Sunday is the day on which we all hold a common assembly, because it is the First day of the week on which God ... made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead."

Bardesanes, Edessa (A.D. 180). "On one day the first of the week, we assemble ourselves together."

Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 194). "He, in fulfillment of the precept, according to the gospel, keeps the Lord’s Day ... glorifying the Lord’s resurrection in himself."

Tertullian (A.D. 200). "We solemnize the day after Saturday in contradiction to those who call this day their Sabbath."

Irenaeus (about A.D. 155-202). "The Mystery of the Lord’s Resurrection may not be celebrated on any other day than the Lord’s Day, and on this alone should we observe the breaking off of the Paschal Feast."

It is obvious that Christians worshipped on Sunday long before the fourth century.

WHAT ADVENTISM TEACHES: The church has changed the Sabbath to Sunday without Bible authority.

"Christians of past generations observed the Sunday, supposing that in so doing they were keeping the Bible Sabbath; and there are now true Christians in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion, who honestly believe that Sunday is the Sabbath of divine appointment" (Ellen White, The Great Controversy, p. 394).

WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES: Sunday is not the Sabbath; it is not even a holy day. Christians do not observe a first day Sabbath in assembling on Sunday. The New Testament believer, redeemed from the obligations of the Mosaic law, is free to observe or not to observe holy days as he pleases. (Of course no Christian should forsake the assembling together on Sundays and other days, but every Christian is free to honor or not to honor days.) Romans 14:1-13 and Colossians 2:16 clearly state that believers are not to be judged in respect to holy days. The Galatians’ observation of holy days caused the Apostle Paul to fear that they were not even saved!

"Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. ... I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you" (Ga. 4:10-11,20).

"Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? ... One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind" (Ro. 14:4-5).

"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" (Col. 2:16).

WHAT ADVENTISM TEACHES: Adventism is fulfilling prophecy by proclaiming the Sabbath. Adventists believe that God has raised them up as the last days remnant church to proclaim the truth of the Sabbath as a test for mankind. This work will culminate in the Great Tribulation, they believe, and in the second coming of Christ. For Bible proof of this, the Adventists point to four major passages: Is. 58:12-14; Mt. 24:14; Re. 14:6-12; and Re. 12:17.

From the very first, Seventh-day Adventists have boldly proclaimed the three messages of Revelation 14:6-12 as God’s last appeal to sinners to accept Christ, and have humbly believed their movement to be the one here designated as the ‘remnant.’ No other religious body is proclaiming this composite message, and none other meets the specifications ... Adventists have recovered these gems of truth and restored them to their rightful setting ... Examples ... the precious Sabbath truth, as opposed to the papal Sunday. Particularly is the Sabbath commandment to be restored to its rightful place in the ten-commandment Law of God. Isaiah declared that God’s remnant people would repair ‘the breach’ made in God’s law when the papacy tore the fourth commandment out of the heart of the decalog... (Prophetic Guidance Correspondence Course, p. 46).

1. The verses used by the SDA to support this idea in no way do so. Neither the Old nor the New Testament speaks of a religious group that is to rise in the last days before the second coming of Christ to proclaim the Sabbath. Though Revelation 14:12 does say the Great Tribulation remnant will "keep the commandments of God," absolutely nothing is said of a special emphasis upon the Sabbath. The interpretation pushed upon this verse by Adventist teachers illustrates their habit of twisting Scripture.

Again, Isaiah 56:1-7 and 58:1-13, which are used by Adventists to support the doctrine of a Sabbath-preaching last days remnant church, say absolutely nothing about such a thing. In these verses, God is simply admonishing the nation Israel to keep her Sabbaths, just as He has throughout Israel’s history. Isaiah 56 and 58 speak of national Israel, not the church of this present age. "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and THE HOUSE OF JACOB their sins" (Is. 58:1). That Isaiah would point Israel to the Sabbath law agrees with other passages which teach that the Sabbath was given to national Israel as a special covenant sign (Is. 66:20-13). Israel will always keep her covenant Sabbath. The church, though, is not the nation Israel, and the church does not fulfill Israel’s prophecies in Isaiah. There are three distinct people spoken of in the Bible—Israel, the Gentiles, and the Church. The Apostle Paul taught this when he wrote, "Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God" (1 Co. 10:32). God’s plan for national Israel, as foretold in the Old Testament, will yet be literally fulfilled in national Israel, not in the church.

...seven months after the Whites commenced keeping and teaching the Sabbath, the Lord gave a vision stressing its importance ... in this vision Mrs. White seemed to be transported to heaven and conducted through the heavenly sanctuary.

In the most holy place she saw the ark that contains the law, and was amazed to note that ‘the fourth, the Sabbath commandment, shone above them all; for the Sabbath was set apart to be kept in honor of God’s holy name. THE HOLY SABBATH LOOKED GLORIOUS—A HALO OF GLORY WAS ALL AROUND IT...’

THERE WAS ALSO SHOWN HER THE CHANGE OF THE SABBATH, THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SABBATH OBSERVANCE, THE WORK BEFORE THEM IN PROCLAIMING THE SABBATH TRUTH, the relationship of Sabbath observance to the troublous times before the loyal people of God, climaxing in the second coming of Christ bringing final deliverance.

The relationship of the Sabbath to the third angel’s message was also revealed: ‘I was shown its importance and its place in the third angel’s message’ (E.G. White letter 2, 1874).

‘I was shown that the third angel, proclaiming the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, represents the people who receive this message and raise the voice of warning to the world, to keep the commandments of God as the apple of the eye, and that in response to this warning many would embrace the Sabbath of the Lord’ (Ellen White, Testimonies, Vol. 1, p. 77; Messenger to the Remnant, p. 34).

In spite of Adventist denial, it is clear that these supposed visions of Ellen White are the real authority for the doctrine that they are the remnant church of the last days raised up by God to proclaim Sabbath worship to all the world. Here again we find a key doctrine in the Adventist system formed upon the visions of their prophetess.

We repeat: without Ellen White there would be no Seventh-day Adventist Church. Many of their major doctrines simply could not have been derived from the Bible alone, for they are not to be found there, except that one approach the Scriptures with ideas preconceived from an extra-Biblical source—such as from someone’s visions. The SDA, as do other unscriptural sects, look at the Scriptures only through their strangely-ground heretical spectacles. Without the Mary Baker Eddy "Spectacles" there would be no Christian Scientists. Without the Joseph Smith "Spectacles" there would be no Mormonism. Without the Charles Taze Russell "Spectacles" there would be no Jehovah’s Witnesses. These various personalities have provided their followers with a set of heretical views through which they look at the Bible. The Seventh-day Adventists purchased their heretical eyeglasses from the Ellen White laboratories.

WHAT ADVENTISM TEACHES: Sabbath keeping will be the test of obedience during the Great Tribulation. Adventism contends that during the Great Tribulation, Sunday observance will be the mark of the beast. They say it was the Pope, as a type of the Antichrist, who changed the Sabbath to Sunday. All who observe Sunday worship in the Great Tribulation will be taking the mark of the beast and will, therefore, be lost.

Adventist interpreters understand this mark to be not a literal brand but some sign of allegiance that identifies the bearer as loyal to the power represented by the Beast. The controversy at that time will center on the law of God, and particularly on the fourth command. ... Hence, the observance of Sunday will constitute such a sign." (News From Jesus—part two, p. 28, Adult Sabbath School Lessons, third quarter, 1974).

"...this dispensing with one of the precepts of the Decalogue and substituting in its place a day God never commanded, is claimed by this power as the mark of its authority to bind the consciences of men. However appalling the revelation, this establishment of the first day of the week as a day of worship in spite of God’s clear word that the seventh day is His Sabbath—this, by overwhelming evidence and unashamed admission, is the mark so soon to be imposed!" (Planet in Rebellion, p. 386).

WHAT THE BIBLE TEACHES: The idea that Sunday observance will be the mark of the beast is certainly not found in, nor supported by, Scripture. This is an idea conjured up and promulgated by Ellen White, and accepted as dogma by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. True, the Antichrist will "think to change times and laws," yet nowhere does the Bible say this will involve the Sabbath or Sunday. The Bible simply does not reveal exactly what laws Antichrist will change.

Whence cometh the Seventh-day Adventist doctrine, then? The back cover of the book The Great Controversy states that its author, Ellen G. White, "is considered to have been inspired of God." She was also called an "inspired commentator of the Bible." In this book, White brings out in detail the doctrines she supposedly was taught by angels during several visions. It is here, among other strange doctrines and additions to God’s revelation, that she develops the idea that Sunday observance is the mark of the beast. Mrs. White writes:

Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions ... the Protestants of the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the Roman power ...

...It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday Sabbath; that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced; and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people. …

Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order. ... As Protestant churches reject the clear Scriptural arguments in defense of God’s law, they will long to silence those whose faith they cannot overthrow by the Bible. ... The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday ... even in free America (The Great Controversy, pp. 515, 517- 519).

It cannot be denied that Mrs. White had an unusually vigorous imagination!