Seventh-day Adventist belief breakdown: belief 14 of 28

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has 28 fundamental beliefs. I list the underlying unspoken beliefs whilst snarking as possible. Belief 14 is "Unity in the Body of Christ".

Jun 07, 2024

Intro info: All beliefs are from the official Seventh-day Adventist Church website, Adventist.org. https://www.adventist.org/beliefs/

Per their website, Adventists reserve the right to change or update beliefs.

Therefore, this page is archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20240127045827/https://www.adventist.org/beliefs/

Seventh-day Adventists refer to themselves as “SDA” or “Adventist” for short. My writings do too.

Links to all prior snarked beliefs are available at the bottom of this post.

Exhaustive source to debunk Adventist doctrine of pseudoscience Young Earth Creationism, and scholarly source showing Adventist prophetess Ellen White’s plagiarized “visions from god” sources, are also at bottom of this post.

Onto snark of SDA belief 14!

14. Unity in the Body of Christ

Mostly unstated backstory in prior SDA beliefs:

So there's an immortal being who made everything and humans call him god. Adventists say his pronouns are he/him, that he’s all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing. God lives in a perfect utopia called “heaven”. Per Adventist plagiarizing prophetess Ellen White, heaven is located in the Constellation Orion.

Long ago god made perfect immortal supernatural beings called “angels”. God has rules for how beings must live. One angel rebelled against god’s rules and convinced 1/3 of the angels to join him. God kicked that angel out of heaven and now that angel is called “Satan”. Satan and the 1/3 of angels that joined him are here on earth and called “demons”.

God made a perfect immortal planet earth around 6k-10k years ago. It took him six literal days. He rested the seventh day and declared it holy. This is why Seventh-day Adventists go to church on Saturday.

All scientific evidence to an older earth is from Satan.

God made two perfect immortal humans and told them to not eat a certain fruit. Satan convinced them to eat the fruit. Because those two humans disobeyed god’s rules, death and suffering entered planet earth. Disobeying god’s rules is called “sinning” and all the death, suffering, and bad things on earth are “a result of sin”.

God had zero options than to have all humans, animals, plants, microbes suffer and die because two humans disobeyed his rule for living.

There are “worlds upon worlds” of sinless aliens watching planet earth to learn the results of sin, per SDA plagiarizing prophetess Ellen White.

Now god is one whole god and comes in thirds, called the Trinity. There's God the Father who made everything, God the Son who sacrificed himself to the other 2/3rds of god for all of humanity’s sin, and God the Holy Spirit who is on planet earth and functions as every person’s conscience.

One can live forever with god in heaven if they tell god they are sorry for sinning and they accept God the Son’s sacrifice for their sins. This is called “being saved”. It's a Protestant Christian thing; Catholic Christians don't have to become saved.

God and Satan are fighting over what happens to humans after god brings heaven to planet earth, or after humans die, whichever comes last. When god finally brings heaven from the Constellation Orion to planet earth, god will raise all humans from death. The saved ones will go to live forever with god in heaven. The unsaved ones will be burned to death along with Satan and his demons (Adventist hell). Then god will create a new perfect planet earth and all the saved humans will live with him forever, because god will put heaven on planet earth.

In the meantime, one must be saved and follow God the Holy Spirit’s guiding by obeying their conscience. If one fully follows their conscience, they'll become Adventist.

God had Middle East Bronze Age humans write manuscripts that got collected into a book called the Bible. Only the Protestant Christian 66-book version of the Bible is the correct Bible. One reads the Bible to learn how to follow god’s rules for living. The Bible is literal and infallible.

All archeological evidence that contradicts the Bible account is from Satan.

One needs to attend a church too. God will lead folks to Adventist churches.

That's enough to be getting on with. Belief 14 begins in italics below:

The church is one body with many members, called from every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.

Translation: So here we Adventists are using pretty language to make it sound like we believe in universal Christian Church as referenced in the Nicene Creed:

“We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.” Mainstream Catholic and Protestant churches use this circa 300CE Christian creed for their belief system. Adventists are using this language to better appeal to mainstream Protestants.

Those who want to learn more about this creed can start here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_versions_of_the_Nicene_Creed

We Adventists are also referencing the Bible verses that call the “group of Christians who worship god with each other regularly” a “church” and “the body of Christ”. We also pulled the phrase “from every nation, tribe, tongue, and people” from a verse in the Bible book Revelations.

In this belief, we Adventists actually mean: “The Church” = “the humans who follow their conscience, but really the ones who do what Adventists perceive as good in the world and/or seem like nice people, and also Adventists”.

“Called from” = “these people believe in the Protestant god and believe god told them to do certain things like not eat pork and go to church on Saturday, but primarily Adventists mean the heathens/nonAdventists who converted to Adventism”.

“Every nation, kindred, tribe, tongue and people” = “the people worldwide who follow their conscience, but especially all the ones Adventist missionaries convert”.

In Christ we are a new creation;

Translation: We Adventists are using the Bible verse phrase “a new creation” to mean “once someone becomes saved, god sees that person as wholly new”. This means that all the horrible things a human did before they say they got saved are forgiven by god. Therefore, everything a human did before being saved doesn’t really matter. They are forgiven and a new creature in Christ.

Therefore, convicted pedophiles are welcome unattended with young children in Adventist Sabbath Schools. (Read: The Gentle Author encountered exactly this both internationally and in the United States, multiple Adventist churches. This is common behavior in Evangelical Christian churches too.)

Therefore, pedophiles touching underage girls’ hair at Adventist church (read: The Gentle Author’s openly pedophile uncle did this) must be kept attending Adventist churches “because the pedophile really needs Jesus”. (Read: That's what the Adventist church leadership told us when they refused to kick my pedophile uncle from the congregation.)

Therefore, a human’s behavior prior to “being saved” should not be taken into consideration when a person marries, enters into business relationships, houses, deals with things that involve money and trust, etc., with that saved person.

This blatant “ignore the red flags because Jesus” leads to naive trusting Adventist humans getting taken advantage of, abused, and even getting murdered. It is not uncommon.

distinctions of race, culture, learning, and nationality, and differences between high and low, rich and poor, male and female, must not be divisive among us.

Translation: If someone is rightfully calling out wrong behavior, systemic inequality, reporting unacceptable behavior, etc., in Adventist system, Adventists use this “don’t be divisive” to silence that human and maintain the status quo.

Adventists also use Bible verses to coerce stalked, abused, raped, assaulted Adventists to NOT report these crimes to the police. That is, if an Adventist did the stalking, abuse, rape, assault.

Source: I've seen this. My Adventist friends and relatives have told me this happened to them. Also, my pedophile uncle. No charges pressed against him. And myriads of stories like these: https://atoday.org/lawsuit-filed-against-southern-california-conference-glendale-adventist-academy-for-alleged-sexual-assaults-of-student/, https://apnews.com/article/west-virginia-school-sexual-abuse-lawsuit-settlement-703449a43eb04c4e8459aa16a6edcfa2.

Another source: The fact a law business specifically advertises itself for lawsuits against Adventist church for sexually abused Adventists: https://dumasandvaughn.com/finding-justice-for-victims-of-sexual-abuse-in-the-seventh-day-adventist-church/

We are all equal in Christ, who by one Spirit has bonded us into one fellowship with Him and with one another;

Translation:

This idea is radical. All humans being equal, that is. The concept of human equality predates Christianity and one can learn about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_equality

When decent humans actually are treated equally, with love, trust, decency, and respect, good things happen.

The problem with this belief is the “in Christ we are all equal” creates an “us versus them” worldview. Adventists versus nonAdventists. Christians versus nonChristians. Saved versus unsaved people. This creates an “other” sort of person that is treated differently by “us”. This is a classic control tactic used by cults.

And in real-life Adventism and other authoritarian patriarchal systems this “we humans are all equal” thing is promised and does not work. Yes, the Bible verses say we are all equal in Christ. Yes, Adventists of varying economic stripes bump into each other at churches. Good things often happen there. Similar good things happen at the library, at festivals, at college, at coffee shops, at places where people intermingle and meet.

The Adventist Church still has systemic racism. This is obvious in its “separate but equal” Black Conferences: https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=7CDW

This practice started when white Adventist hospital refused to treat a Black Adventist woman in Adventist leadership, and she died thanks to that lack of care. Her name was Lucy Byard. https://atoday.org/racist-treatment-of-lucy-byard-recognized-for-sparking-change-in-adventist-church/

After Black Adventist Lucy Byard died because denied care in white Advrntist hospital, Adventist leadership promptly sent a white preacher to the biggest Black Adventist Church and preached at them to “count it all joy” [Bible verse phrase there] when they were treated with racism from white Adventists.

Systemic racism still is part and parcel of the Adventist Church organization.

we are to serve and be served without partiality or reservation.

Translation: This is great, in pretty words. In practice, this results in Adventist churches coercing people into volunteering unpaid time, skills to an organization that in 1998 had $15.6 billion dollars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wealthiest_religious_organizations

Adventism is a patriarchal society. So women and their skills are taken for granted. People in leadership roles in Adventism are primarily white males with a few token brown dudes. Women are pretty much only the secretaries.

In practice, this leads to things like four-octave talented singer Joyce Bryant, who was Black, relegated by the Adventist Church to teaching kindergarten. Her singing was not valued. Her request for Adventist Church help with equal rights was denied. https://www.factinate.com/people/facts-joyce-bryant

It also leads to heartless, thoughtless voluntold assignments from male church leadership to women and girls. A classic example is my friend Kindly, a woman who suffered untreated postpartum psychosis in the 60s or 70s, killed her infant hallucinating they were the Antichrist, and within months was made to play piano every damn Saturday in Adventist toddler Sabbath School class.

Through the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Scriptures

Translation: We Adventists believe the only correct holy book is the Protestant 66-book version of the Bible. We tell God the Son, aka Jesus Christ, that we are sorry for our sins. Thus we become born again.

we share the same faith and hope,

Translation: We Adventists all believe the same things, kinda-sorta-ish, and we all hope that god is real, that Young Earth Creationism is factual, that the Bible actually factually happened as stated. This means we can be immortal one day. Death is ducking terrifying.

We overlook, ignore, and/or demonize all evidence that the planet is ancient, and that the Bible is not an inerrant history book. All science that contradicts our theology will be overlooked, hand-waved away, ignored, and/or demonized, too.

and reach out in one witness to all.

Translation: We’ll try to convert you.

This unity has its source in the oneness of the triune God,

Translation: When an Adventist inevitably learns that Adventism promises things that it doesn’t actually do (Ex: treat people equally), Adventists will tell that person how “The Church is a hospital for sinners! Look to Jesus!”. This usually shuts up that person for awhile.

As a white cis straight person raised in Adventist culture in the United States, I cannot directly speak to the Adventist culture of “let's do it the Adventist way!” and how that destroys families (nonSDA versus SDA puts a real barrier between families), cultural knowledge and customs (traditional dances and songs? Not allowed, dancing is from Satan.), cultural events (luau with roast pig? Not allowed, dancing is wrong and so is eating pork. Going to the pub a la the thing done in Britain? Not permitted, alcohol is from Satan.), traditional cooking skills, etc.

All I can say is I have met an Hispanic mom newly converted to Adventism, trying hard to cook like the white middle aged women in Adventist TV cooking shows. The fact that Adventism taught her to devalue her traditional Mexican food preparation skills was heartbreaking. The fact she didn't understand that nutritionally her cooking (read: She made tortillas from scratch from fresh ground masa. She made amazing salsa from fresh ingredients.) is hella better than typical Adventist TV show food, was also heartbreaking.

That said, I'm happy to tell my fabulous blog readers that yes, syncretism IS a thing in some Adventist circles.

Dear Adventist converts who declare a pig “clean” before eating it (read: pork is unclean and a forbidden food per SDA theology), go you. And the traditional Asian Adventist-convert moms who ensure their kiddos always wear protective jade jewelry, go you.

who has adopted us as His children.

Translation: We Adventists are god’s last true Truth. We will try to convert you.

(Ps. 133:1; Matt. 28:19, 20; John 17:20-23; Acts 17:26, 27; Rom. 12:4, 5; 1 Cor. 12:12-14; 2 Cor. 5:16, 17; Gal. 3:27-29; Eph. 2:13-16; 4:3-6, 11-16; Col. 3:10-15.)

These cherry-picked Bible verses vaguely relate to this belief. We're virtue-signaling that we're a Bible-following true church.

We Adventists support the Zeroth Error, handily quoted here by Exvangelical blogger Roll To Disbelieve:

“THE ZEROTH ASSUMPTION. If something sounds very Jesusy and has a ton of Bible verses to support itself, then it must by definition be both correct AND Yahweh’s perfect plan for humans. It is correct and will work because it was created by Yahweh himself. The only way it can fail is if people don’t follow its rules to the letter. The system works, as long as people work the system.” https://rolltodisbelieve.com/the-zeroth-error-why-complementarianism-fails-so-hard/

This is how Adventist people justify blaming the individual when Jesusing hard doesn’t fix the things. The underlying Adventist system? Can't question that.

End snark of SDA belief 14.

Why The Gentle Author calls Ellen Gould White “the Adventist plagiarizing prophetess”: Test The Prophet first defines “plagiarism” using sources from the American Victorian Era. He shows original books published in the Victorian Era that Ellen White plagiarized from. Then he shows the these writings in Ellen White’s books, where she claims they were her visions from god. https://www.youtube.com/@TesttheProphet

Why The Gentle Author says Young Earth Creationism is pseudoscience: One can find an exhaustive list of Young Earth Creationism claims debunked here. http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/

I was taught about 80% of these claims as fact by the Adventist church. It continues to spread this pseudoscience as “real science” to tens of thousands of SDA students. This hamstrings their knowledge of reliable sources, critical thinking, value of peer-reviewed studies. It primes one to view anecdotes and conspiracy theories as valid “factual evidence”. This contributes to one falling for other pseudoscience, multi-level marketing scams, and actively harming themselves and their children by anti-vaccine and anti-science actions.

All prior Seventh-day Adventist beliefs, snarked:

Belief 1, “Holy Scriptures”, is snarked here:

https://talesfromacult.substack.com/p/adventist-belief-breakdown-belief

Belief 2, “The Trinity”, is snarked here:

https://talesfromacult.substack.com/p/adventist-belief-breakdown-belief-91e

Belief 3, “God the Father”, is snarked here:

https://talesfromacult.substack.com/p/adventist-belief-breakdown-belief-961

Belief 4, “God the Son”, is snarked here:

https://talesfromacult.substack.com/p/adventist-belief-breakdown-belief-0d8

Belief 5, “God the Holy Spirit”, is snarked here:

https://talesfromacult.substack.com/p/seventh-day-adventist-belief-breakdown

Belief 6, “Creation”, is snarked here: