Book: The Kingdom of the Cults - On the Seventh-Day Adventists (part 3)

[Continuing on from my previous posts here, here, here, here and here]

The Seventh Day Adventist doctrines of the "Sanctuary" and "Investigative Judgment" having being thus disproven, we will now look at the practical fallout of embracing such errors.

The doctrine of "Investigative Judgment" refers to the doctrine that Christ is now (after 1844) investigating the worthiness of believers to be saved. This is a grevious heresy of work-righteousness, by making the salvation of believers dependent on their obedience to the commands of God. Slice it any way you want, but it is still work-righteousness, and God through Paul anathemizes and condemns all who believe in such a doctrine to hell (Gal. 1:8-9). Let it be said that the error of the Judaizers in Galatia at that time was NOT that there were teaching salvation by works, but salvation by faith plus the doing of works to retain their salvation status, which is similar to what the Adventists teach. Yes, they do claim and preach that salvation is by grace and not by works (Questions on Doctrine, Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1957), but claiming as such does not mean anything, because the Judaizers can also subscribe to the same statement of salvation by grace and not by works, especially since the Adventist statement can be taken to mean that the intial aspect of salvation is by grace through faith apart from works (I.e. Works are to preserve salvation, not to gain salvation).

Closely associated with the Galatian heresy, such a teaching comes with a denial of the reality of the assurance of salvation and the denial of the preservation of the saints. Adventists thus can never be assured of their final salvation if they live consistently with their doctrines. This obviously contradicts Scripture at various places (E.g. Jn 6:37; Rom. 8:30; 1 Jn. 5:13), not to mention that it makes the atoning sacrifice of Christ a total mockery.

Another heretical fallout from the "Investigative Judgment" doctrine is a partial denial of God's foreknowledge, at least in the area of soteriology. This is because the only reason that Christ must investigates before the Final Judgment is only if he does not know or has limited knowledge of who is or is not saved. This is a altogether heretical notion which not even the most libertarian free-will subscribing evangelical would subscribe to. Even evangelical Arminians do not deny that God knows the future!

Due to the serious heretical fallout of these two unbiblical doctrines of the Adventists, Seventh Day Adventism is relegated to the status of a Christian-based cult.

With this settled, let us look at Martin's defence of the Adventists as being a denomination within the pale of orthodoxy. As I have labeled the Adventists as being a cult solely based on their soteriology, Martin's defence of the Adventists against the charges of Calvinist Dr. Anthony Hoekema on this particular subject would be looked at.

Martin primarily defends the Adventists by maintaing that the Adventists believe that 'salvation comes only by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ's sacrifice upon the cross' (p. 562). However, this only shows that Martin is not eligible to speak on this particular field, since this expression is not characteristic of true orthodox Christianity (it cannot prove orthodoxy), which believes in salvation by grace alone through faith alone, not just salvation by grace through faith. As I have shown above in the case of the Judaizers condemned by God through Paul, such a statement as subscribed and believed by the Adventists can be similarly believed by the Judaizers and thus that statement meant nothing at all! Judging by the Adventist' embrace of the error of "Investigative Judgment" shows that they are no different from the Judaizers. And this is not a Calvinism/ Arminianism difference, since in principal evangelical Arminianism also believes in salvation by grace alone through faith alone, though they redefine what grace alone mean, of course.

Martin carries on defending the Adventists by attempting to use the argumentation format of Reductio Ad Absurdum. This he does by stating that if Hoekema condemns the Adventists based on the ground of them being consistently Arminian and denying the perseverance of the saints, then why doesn't Hoekema applies the same logic to Seventh-Day Baptists, 'Pentecostals, Methodists, Anglicans, Episcopalians, Lutherans and others who accept the same Arminian premises, though they have not carried them out to the literalism that the Adventists have in the investigative judgment?' (p. 562). Unfortunately for Martin, I'll bite the bullet for this one. Why shouldn't the other denominations be apostate too? Since the Word of God is the guide for our doctrine, then just because if it leads to a certain unfavourable conclusion, does that mean that we throw out the Truth because we don't LIKE the conclusion?! God forbid! This type of reasoning is illogical and does not honor the Word of God, which should be our supreme authority in all things, including whether any particular denomination is apostate or not.

Of course, I don't subscribe to the view that these other denominations are apostate, at least in general, with the exception of Seventh-Day Baptists since I do not know their views and thus I would withhold comment. The reason why this is so is seen in Martin's last sentence on that page which I had quoted earlier, which states that the other denominations did not carry them out to the same literalism that the Adventists have in their investigative judgment. This is precisely the reason why these denominations in general are not apostate. All of these denominations, however inconsistenly they are in their doctrines, believe in assurance of salvation and the perseverance of the saints, which they commonly call eternal security. Furthermore, the Anglican/Episcopal denomination have a Calvinistic confession in the 39 articles (although their clergy oftentimes do not believe it), the Lutherans have a semi-Calvinistic, monergistic confession of faith, the Methodists and Pentecostals have evangelical Arminian beliefs which, although Arminian, still keep vital Evangelical truths in logically inconsistent tension with Arminians beliefs. And this is precisely the reason why they are different from the Adventists, who allow their Arminian beliefs to mature to full consistentcy no different from the Remonstrant heretics who are condemned by the great Synod of Dordt.

In conclusion, I think that it has been proven that Seventh-Day Adventism is a Christian-based cult, and that Walter Martin was mistaken in his classification of the Adventists as a hetero-orthodox Christian denomination. With that said, let it be said that there are probably many true Christians within it, due to the Evangelicalization of the denomination with its adoption of more Evangelical language and the verbal softening of its stand on errant doctrines such as the "Sanctuary" and the "Investigative Judgment", as well as others like "Saturday Sabbath" etc. If the Seventh-Day Adventists were to one day desire to be recognized as truly Christians, let them throw away the doctrines of the "Sanctuary" and the "Investigative Judgment", their insistence on Saturday Sabbath only and their inherent bent towards legalism. It would also be good if they would throw away the doctrines of soul-sleep and of annihilation too, and embrace the doctrines of grace while they are at it.

THE END