https://youtu.be/L48kU9NPggw
American history is peppered with nation-wide revivals, often called “Great Awakenings.” The first was in 1730. The next started in 1800, and had an unusually powerful impact. Baptist, Methodist and other established churches still numerically small in the colonies, enjoyed substantial growth. The Second Great Awakening gave rise several movements. One would become known as the Seventh-day Adventists church.
A Baptist preacher, William Miller planted the seeds of the SDA church by attempting to set the date of Christ’s second coming . He predicted, based on symbolic numbers in highly figurative Bible passages Jesus would come again October 22, 1844. Crowds waited on a hill for Christ’s second advent. When the Lord didn’t show, many returned home humiliated. October 22 became known as the “Great Disappointment.” Of course, the Bible plainly states no human can determine when Jesus will again appear. God’s son said in Matt. 24:36 “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone.” Adventism teaches other serious errors. Let’s consider a few.
First, Adventism teaches Christians are subject to the ten commandments. Yet the Bible says the commandments are not divine directives for Christians. Jesus’ death replaced Moses’s law with “a new and living way” (Heb. 10:20). ) Ephesians says, in 2:15 “he abolished… “the Law of commandments contained in ordinances.”
The Galatian church was seduced by false teachers who advocated tenants of Christianity were secondary to Moses’ Law and Paul condemned them writing they were not only embracing false teaching but by it jeopardizing their souls. Galatians 1:6-9 says:
I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another…But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.
No wonder their 19th century contemporaries called Adventists “Galationists!” To make Moses’ laws greater than Christ’s is to subject Jesus to Moses. Galatians 5:4 says, “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from Grace.” Christ is God’s final solution to the problem of sin, and to fail to accept that is to condemn one’s soul. According to 1 John 2:2, “He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”
Second, like the Biblical Galatians, SDAs don’t accept Moses’s law was only a schoolmaster to prepare Jews for Jesus. They instead adhere to certain parts of the old law as though Moses’ words express God’s last will for humanity. Paul wrote in Galatians 3:24-26 “…The Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
Third, Adventists follow non Biblical Dictates of Ellen G. White. After falling down stairs when still a child, White received a purported revelation exalting the Sabbath. )White’s written works which SDAs follow contains as many as 8,000 plagiarisms. Adventists counter White plagiarized only two times Even if that is an accurate count, she twice stole the intellectual property of others and dishonestly claimed it was original to her.
No credible Bible student has accused the apostles and other inspired New Testament authors of plagiarism. Even two intellectual property thefts the SDA church admits are red flags Of the man of sin, part of the great apostacy of the early church the Bible says “that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders… (2 Thess. 2:9). Pilfering is dishonest and bearing bad fruit. Matthew 12:33 say, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. 2 Th. 2:9 “that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders…”
Conclusion
The Bible condemns Christians who attempt to merit, or earn, salvation. Ephesians 2:8-10 poses a paradox-sounding statement:
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not…of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God. Prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Christians do not earn heaven by works, yet Ephesians 2:10 says the nature of the saved is to do to do good works. Considering James 2:20 and 26 in light of Ephesians clears up misunderstandings: “But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?… For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.”
Humans cannot boast about working their way to heaven because it is impossible. The normal result of salvation is to do good through immense gratitude, love for Christ, and demonstrating our faith. Those motives clarify John 9:4: “We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”