C U L T S : Part 6
Seventh-day Adventism
M em b e r s o f the small ( 2 7 5 , 7 3 3 ) Seven th -day Adven tist Church are
the top m on ey -g iv er s o f any church bod y in Am erica . This is the first o f three articles giving the h istory and beliefs o f this sec t
B y Louis T . Talbot
I consider Seventh-day Adventism to be the most de ceptive of all the cults because it hides its identity and origin so well that many true Christians fall into its trap without being aware of what they actually teach, and thus go into darkness and confusion. Many Protestants believe that the only difference between Seventh-day Adventists and evangelical Christians is that they keep the Jewish sabbath, or Saturday, while we wor ship on the first day of the week, in commemoration of the resurrection of Christ. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It is true that their insistence that keeping the seventh day is necessary to salvation does separate them from other Christians. But in many other doctrines they differ as radically from orthodox Christianity as do Chris tian Scientists, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Rosicrucians and the like. They display the Bible prominently and thus attract many -Christians who are soon in bondage to this "Jewish system with a Christian dress.” May God use these brief messages to deliver these who are so enslaved! When I was delivering these lectures in the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles, a man wrote me as follows: "I am sorry you are taking up these cults. In business we do not spend time knocking the other fellow’s goods. We simply press the superiority of our own. I have competitors in my business, but I never mention them. So why don’t you lay off the cults, and spend your time declaring what you understand the Bible to teach?” I replied: "My friend, I see your point, and it is well taken. The major part of my time is taken up just as you suggested— giving out the Word of God as I understand it. But I want you to consider this for a moment: Suppose a competitor were using a counterfeit of your product. You had the original, but he copied it, and was selling it with your label on it. He was adding some innovations of his own, but was calling it by your name. What would you do then?” He hadn’t a word to say. These cults all come in the name of Christ, all claiming to be the only true revelation of God. O f all of them the Seventh-day Adventists are most successful in posing as true evangelicals, for they use the words salvation, com ing of Christ and other Christian terms in a way that mis leads. For they do not mean the same thing by these words that the Bible does, as we shall soon see. On their "Voice of Prophecy” radio broadcast they are careful not to emphasize their heretical teachings. As a
consequence, thousands of Christians are supporting this program without knowing its source or its sponsor. I my self over the years have received many letters asking me about it. The Adventists have no fellowship with other Christians, but they are not above using their names to further their cause. In the book of their great prophetess, Mrs. Ellen G. White, entitled The Great Controversy, much is made of Luther, Wycliffe, Huss, Jerome, the Waldenses, the Wesleys and other great church leaders, although not one of these believed or taught the peculiar Adventist doctrines, nor did they keep the Jewish sabbath. V ery recently the Adventists tried another trick to make it appear that evangelical Christians were on their side. They sent requests for articles to men like Dr. Oswald J. Smith of the People’s Church, Toronto, Canada; Dr. V. Edman of Wheaton College; Dr. Clarence McCartney o f the First Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh, Pa.; Dr. Billy Graham, foremost evangelist of our times; Dr. Walter Wilson of Kansas City, Mo., and others, without revealing the fact that the magazine was a Seventh-day Adventist publication. The men generously and kindly responded with short articles on subjects such as salvation, the judgment, the return o f Jesus, Bible and Science and prayer, to be incorporated under a general title of Here We Stand, based upon Luther’s famous declaration, "Here I stand.” It was to the astonishment and embarrass ment of these men that they found that they had sent arti cles and their pictures for a four-page spread in a Seventh- day Adventist publication. Since it came from Nashville, Tenn., they did not suspect such a thing. The magazine is entitled These Times, and the issue is August, 1954. O f course, these tactics will not bolster Adventism, but will be used of God to discredit their unscriptural teachings, for these evangelical leaders will make much o f the fact that they did not know they were being used to appear to be on the side of Seventh-day Adventism. God will use the words they wrote, for they were based upon the Word of God. But it is an illustration o f the deceptive nature of the sect. It is exactly as the late D. M. Canright, who for many • years was a prominent worker among the Adventists, and later saw their heresies, and left them, stated: "There is a streak of deception in the whole work of Seventh-day Adventists, from first to last.”
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TH E KING 'S BUSINESS
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