Page 597 - Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible Christianity. Based on the King James Bible

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM

stressing its importance conducted through the “...this dispensing with one of the precepts of the
heavenly sanctuary. In the most holy place she saw the Decalogue and substituting in its place a day God
ark that contains the law, and was amazed to note that never commanded, is claimed by this power as the
‘the fourth, the Sabbath commandment, shone above mark of its authority to bind the consciences of men.
them all; for the Sabbath was set apart to be kept in However appalling the revelation, this establishment of
honor of God’s holy name. THE HOLY SABBATH the first day of the week as a day of worship in spite of
LOOKED GLORIOUS—A HALO OF GLORY WAS ALL God’s clear word that the seventh day is His Sabbath—
AROUND IT...’ this, by overwhelming evidence and unashamed
“THERE WAS ALSO SHOWN HER THE CHANGE OF admission, is the mark so soon to be
THE SABBATH, THE SIGNIFICANCE OF SABBATH imposed!” (George Vandeman, Planet in Rebellion, p.
OBSERVANCE, THE WORK BEFORE THEM IN 386).
PROCLAIMING THE SABBATH TRUTH, the What the Bible Says
relationship of Sabbath observance to the troublous The idea that Sunday observance will be the mark of
times before the loyal people of God, climaxing in the the beast is certainly not found in, nor supported by,
second coming of Christ bringing final deliverance. The Scripture. This is an idea conjured up by Ellen White
relationship of the Sabbath to the third angel’s message
was also revealed: ‘I was shown its importance and its and accepted as dogma by Seventh-day Adventists. It is
place in the third angel’s message’” (E.G. White letter true that the Antichrist will “think to change times and
2, 1874). laws,” yet nowhere does the Bible say that this will
In spite of the Adventist’s denial, it is clear that these involve the sabbath or Sunday. The Bible does not reveal
supposed visions of Ellen White are the real authority exactly what laws the Antichrist will change.
for the doctrine that they are the remnant church of the Whence cometh the Seventh-day Adventist ideas,
last days raised up by God to proclaim sabbath worship then? On the back cover of an edition of Ellen White’s
to all the world. Here again we find a key Adventist The Great Controversy that I have in my library, it is
doctrine formed upon the visions of its prophetess. written of its author that “she is considered to have
We repeat, without Ellen White there would be no been inspired of God.” In this book White describes the
Seventh-day Adventist Church. Many of their major doctrines she supposedly was taught by angels through
doctrines could not have been derived from the Bible several visions. It is here, among other strange doctrines
alone, except that one approach the Scriptures with and additions to God’s revelation, that she develops the
ideas preconceived from an extra-Biblical source. The idea of Sunday observance as the mark of the beast. She
SDA, as do other heretical cults, look at the Scriptures wrote:
only through their strangely-tinted heretical spectacles. “Through the two great errors, the immortality of the
Without the Mary Baker Eddy “spectacles” there would soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the
be no Christian Science. Without the Joseph Smith people under his deceptions ... the Protestants of the
“spectacles” there would be no Mormonism. Without the United States will be foremost in stretching their hands
Charles Taze Russell/Joseph Rutherford “spectacles” across the gulf to grasp the hand of spiritualism; they
will reach over the abyss to clasp hands with the
there would be no Jehovah’s Witnesses. These various Roman power
personalities have provided their followers with a set of “It will be declared that men are offending God by the
heretical ideas by which they interpret the Bible. The violation of the Sunday sabbath; that this sin has
Seventh-day Adventists obtained their eyeglasses from brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday
Ellen White. observance shall be strictly enforced; and that those
Eighth Adventist Teaching about the Sabbath: Sabbath- who present the claims of the fourth commandment,
keeping will be the test of obedience during the Great thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of
Tribulation. They believe that during the Great the people. …
Tribulation, Sunday observance will be the mark of the “Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be
beast. All who observe Sunday worship in the Great denounced as enemies of law and order. ... As
Tribulation will be taking the mark of the beast and will, Protestant churches reject the clear Scriptural
therefore, be lost. arguments in defense of God’s law, they will long to
silence those whose faith they cannot overthrow by the
“Adventist interpreters understand this mark to be not Bible. ... The dignitaries of church and state will unite
a literal brand but some sign of allegiance that to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the
identifies the bearer as loyal to the power represented Sunday ... even in free America” (The Great
by the Beast. The controversy at that time will center Controversy, pp. 515, 517-519).
on the law of God, and particularly on the fourth It cannot be denied that Mrs. White had an unusually
command. ... Hence, the observance of Sunday will vigorous imagination! There is no biblical support for
constitute such a sign” (News From Jesus—part two, p.
28, Adult Sabbath School Lessons, third quarter, 1974). this.

Way of Life Encyclopedia of the Bible & Christianity 597