What False Doctrine Distinguishes Seventh-day Adventists from Christian Denominations?

Mar 27, 2025

Seventh-day Adventism is a sect of Christianity founded in the United States in the 19th century, distinguished by its doctrinal beliefs that the Old Testament Sabbath is still relevant today and is the true God’s biblical sabbath. The creation of the Seventh-day Adventism has its roots in the Adventism movement (known as Millerites) founded by William Miller, a false prophet who had predicted the return of Christ in 1843 or 1844. Miller was initially a Baptist lay preacher who later rejected his Baptist heritage and became a Deist.

In 1833, William Miller began telling people that the Second Advent or return of Jesus Christ would occur in 1843 or 1844. When Miller's prediction of the second coming of Christ did not come true, his followers initially considered possible calculation errors, but Miller admitted that his predictions had failed, and he left the movement. However, a couple of Miller’s followers claimed to have had visions that account for Miller’s failed prophecy. They said that instead of coming to earth, Jesus had entered the heavenly temple. So, according to them, Miller was right, after all, except that his prophecy had a spiritual fulfilment instead of a physical one.

In August 1844, one of Miller's disciples, Samuel Sheffield Snow, also calculated that the Second Coming would occur on October 22, 1844. Again, Jesus did not return, and this non-event became known in Adventist circles as “Great Disappointment”, which resulted in Millerites dividing into various factions. One of these groups, which eventually became the Seventh-day Adventists, was led by Ellen G. White, a Miller's disciple who covered for him since she was a teenager. During a prayer meeting, Ellen G. While, claimed to have seen Adventists on their journey to the city of God. With her first 2,000 purported visions after Miller's disgrace, Ellen quickly became a beacon of hope for disillusioned Millerites. She later retains her status as a prophetess of God!

After her marriage to James White in 1846, Ellen and her husband became fascinated with the teachings of Joseph Bates, who promoted Sabbath observance for all Christians. In 1847, Ellen claimed to have had another vision in which God supposedly showed her the law in a heavenly sanctuary, and the fourth commandment (concerning the Sabbath) was surrounded by a halo of light. Sabbath observance thus became one of the movement's most distinctive doctrines—one of many unbiblical teachings, ranging from aberrant and heterodox to heretical—that, to this day, distinguish the movement from Christian denominations.

In 1855, James White and Ellen G. White settled in Battle Creek, Michigan, and since then this city has become the center of Adventist activity. Representatives of scattered Adventist congregations met there in 1860 and adopted the name Seventh-day Adventists and were officially organized in 1863. Elen G. White did not hold the title of head of the church, but she was one of the founders along with James White (her husband), Joseph Bates (nicknamed the “Apostle of the Sabbath” – and founder of Sabbath Adventism, who promoted the seventh day, Saturday, as the Sabbath) and John Nevins Andrews, who became the first official seventh day Adventist missionary.

Ellen G. White continued to have visions that she attributed to divine inspiration, and her visions were part of her prolific writings. She has been identified as the author of 155 books, approximately 5,000 periodical articles, and 200 pamphlets. Some of her books were published during her lifetime while others were published after her death. The Seventh-day Adventist Church later asserted that there was no difference in the degree of inspiration that Ellen White received from that received by the authors of the Bible (SDA Profile, p2). Therefore, her visions were accepted as authoritative as the Bible.

Many of her visions form the basis of Seventh-day Adventist principles till today. In fact, Seventh-day Adventists consider Revelation 19:10 “…the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” to be a reference to Ellen G. White’s writings. The following statement was approved by the General Conference session in the Netherlands in June 1995:

We consider the biblical canon closed. However, we also believe, as did Ellen G. White’s contemporaries, that her writings carry divine authority, both for godly living and for doctrine. Therefore, we recommend . . . that as a church we seek the power of the Holy Spirit to apply to our lives more fully the inspired counsel contained in the writings of Ellen G. White” (cited in Apologetics Index, accessed on December 31, 2023).

The Seventh-Day Adventist church’s fundamental belief #18 states the following: “This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and we believe it was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G. White. Her writings speak with prophetic authority and provide comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction to the church. …” (SDA Website, Accessed on December 31, 2023). Similarly, in another official SDA document, titled Methods of Bible Study (see point 4.12), they state the following: "Seventh-day Adventists believe that God inspired Ellen G. White. Therefore, her expositions on any given Bible passage offer an inspired guide to the meaning of texts without exhausting their meaning or preempting the task of exegesis". In other words, White's writings are considered an inspired commentary on Scripture.

It is, however, very unfortunate that many of Ellen G. In accordance with the biblical counsel to test prophecies and to test every spirit in the light of the Bible (1 Thessalonians 5:20-21; 1 John 4:1), we find that White's writings contradict Scripture and that she was therefore a false prophetess! Some examples are much evident: At a funeral service in Ohio in 1858, Ellen G. White had a vision, which she later detailed in her “Great Controversy Between Christ and His Angels and Satan and His Angels”. In this book, Ellen dangerously claims that Jesus has been [throughout the ages] in a cosmic battle against Satan in which humans (Christians) help Jesus to win. This vision is inconsistent with the battle described in Revelation 12:7-12. In another book titled “Investigative Judgement”, Ellen G. White also made false claims that divine judgment of professed Christians has been underway since 1844. This claim stands at odd with the Bible that the final judgement will mark the end of human history and the beginning of the eternal state (Revelation 20:11-15). In the same vein, Ellen claimed that eating meat affects the status of our soul. She expressed it this way: “Flesh food (meat) is injurious to health, and whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and the soul” (The Ministry of Healing, Chapter 24: “Flesh as Food,” p. 315). The SDA’s restriction on meat consumption is based on this claim.

There are several erroneous teachings from this false prophetess that are supposedly based on vision. As Ellen White continued to have visions, she began teaching the unorthodox doctrines of soul sleep [Fundamental Belief #26] and wicked annihilationism [Fundamental Belief #27] which contradict Matthew 25:46. Similarly, her revelation that hell is not eternal contradicts Jesus’ words regarding “everlasting punishment” in Matthew 25:46.In the book Clear Word Bible (1994), Ellen White identified Jesus as the archangel Michael (Jude 1:9), which constitutes a denial of the true nature of Christ. Her teaching (in The Great Controversy, p. 422, 485) that Jesus will place Christians’ confessed sins onto the head of Satan, the “scapegoat,” is the opposite of what the Bible says about the One who bore our sins (1 Peter 2:24). Her rejection of the verbal inspiration of the Bible (Selected Messages, book 1, p. 21, Manuscript 24, 1886) is also at odds with passages such as 2 Timothy 3:16 and Psalm 12:6. Please note that these are just a few examples of biblical contradictions taken from many of Ellen's writings and Adventist teachings. We therefore advise that although it claims to be God's special remnant church, SDA presents many teachings that we encourage the public to examine in relation to what the Bible teaches.

So, should a Christian attend a Seventh-day Adventist church or what should an Adventist member do? The first thing to recognize is that a recognized prophetess in their church was a teacher of an aberrant doctrine. Due to the SDA' penchant for accepting extra-biblical revelations and the doctrinal issues noted above, we strongly encourage believers not to become involved in Seventh-day Adventism. It is true that some Adventist members do not accept Ellen White's teachings, but there are still enough potential risks to caution us against joining this church.

Related Articles

Further Resources

Discover online ministry opportunities at Open Christian Ministries
Online Christian degree from Open Christian University (USA)

What False Doctrine Distinguishes Seventh-day Adventists from Christian Denominations?

Discussion about this post