Second Edition
An Initial Inquiry Into the Doctrinal
Position of a Millennarian Sect
by Mark Mountjoy
Introductory Remarks
First century Christians seemingly have in the Seventh Day Adventist Church spiritual protégés whose end-times beliefs seem to perfectly reflect what the New Testament everywhere advocates: The speedy end of the age, Second Coming of Christ, judgment and the kingdom of God. At first glance and even upon closer inspection, the doctrines, claims and beliefs of the SDA church seem to be completely accurate and on target. But in this short inquiry we want to zero in on seven aspects of their teachings to see if, in fact, they truly mirror what is said and taught in the Bible, the Word of God.
A False Bible Prophecy Timeline and Other
Doctrinal Corruptions of the SDA Church
The seven items we will examine today will be (1) The Bible prophecy timeline of the four kingdoms of Daniel chapters 2. Daniel 2 does not stand alone. In chapters after Daniel 2 (e.g., in Daniel 5:24-30, 7:2-27, 8:15-27, 10:1-20 and 11:1-32) information can be utilized to buttress a credible timeline that establishes a stable timetable to support a reliable Bible prophecy calendar that is radically different from SDA beliefs, claims and notions.
In the order that they appeared, the four kingdoms are: Babylon, Medeo-Persia, Macedon and Judæa. The dates of each are in the endnotes below.1
And, as you can see, none of these kingdoms (except, of course, the kingdom of God) extends to today being limited, every one of them, to less than 300 years apiece.
But the significance of these short periodic episodes must not lead us to think Bible prophecy has nothing to do with us, the opposite is true!2
Out of Judæa came the kingdom of God, 2,000 years ago, and it is in this kingdom of God that we enjoy salvation, fellowship and the hope of eternal life.
In other words, the great mountain extends from the fourth kingdom from then, now, and into the unending future, just as the Scriptures have proclaimed (Isaiah 9:6; Daniel 2:44 and Luke 1:33)!
The Soul Sleep Doctrine
(2) Soul sleep. The next doctrine we will take a look at is called "soul sleep." This is the notion that, after death, a person ceases to have conscious awareness of existence. This belief is shared by other groups such as the Christadelphians, splinter sects of Charles Taze Russell's International Bible Students Association, including the Jehovah's Witnesses who, like the SDA movement, have their origins in the 19th century Millerite Movement, an apocalyptic heresy which suddenly sprang up in the NW region of the United States.
All these groups strongly oppose the idea of the immortality of the soul and decry and denounce eternal conscious torment for the wicked in an everlasting lake of fire, therefore, an examination of these serious denials is certainly in order. Follow this link to a study of this issue here.
Prophethood Qualifications
(3) Prophethood qualifications. Seventh Day Adventists regard Ellen G. White to be a legitimate last days prophetess of God. They constantly refer back to her writings and view them almost, if not altogether, on par with the Bible. Moreover, they have corrupted their Clear Word Bible to conform to the basic 
We will discover whether or not Ellen G. White passes the test of a prophet in the Bible. Was she 100% correct in her prophecies? Did her testimony match the testimony of Jesus Christ? Did she agree with all the words, doctrines and teachings of the Holy Apostles of the New Testament?
A Trail of Failed Prophecies
(4) Failed prophecies. The Seventh Day Adventist church has behind it an extensive wreckage of failed prophecies which, thanks to their being recorded and preserved in books by the movement, are easy to establish for audit, documentation, and review.
False prophecies about the so-called "Shut Door" provided a sense of urgency that fueled the rapid influx of members into the early SDA movement. It proved to be a false doctrine, as we shall see. Prophecies about the Second Coming, which were made by William Miller, were said to be accurate, according to E.G. White "to test" as it were, God's people. We will see that this notion of God lying to test the people in what has been called the Great Disappointment is completely contrary to the Spirit of Truth of the New Testament.
An examination of White's failed prophecies about the American Civil war and other aspects of her prophetic ministry will determine if she was a true prophetess or not.
The Saturday Sabbath and Special Sabbaths
(5) Sabbath days. That the God of Israel established the material world out of nothing in six days of work is, of course, clear in the Bible; his ordination of the seventh-day Sabbath for Israel is, too. However, in this examination, we want to go further and explore and discover what the Bible says about the special Sabbaths—holy days that lift any day of the week and make it a "Sabbath" in spite of it not falling on the seventh day of the week.
From our research into this matter, the Day of Pentecost, which fell on Sivan 6 on the first day of the week and was, in fact, a special Sabbath day. Now, SDA enthusiasts will vehemently deny thus in their futile efforts to disregard and denounce a day in which God, in his wisdom, has made holy and good and pure. However, their denials notwithstanding, the Christian church surely began on a Special Sabbath that just happened to be on the first day of the week.
Babylon the Great and the Mark of the Beast
(6 & 7) The identity of Babylon the Great and the occasion for the implementation of the Mark of the Beast. The final two items we will address in this essay will be the identity and meaning of Babylon the Great and the phenomenon of the Mark of the Beast. The SDA church has much to say about both for, not only are they entertwined ideas in the Bible, they are also interrelated in the thinking of SDA people.
But for SDA Babylon the Great carries a significance that was long ago established in Protestant anti-Roman Catholic polemics, but will not and cannot be sustained in light of the Bible.
It cannot be established that Christianity (or any part of it, e.g., the Roman Catholic Church or Protestantism) is what the Bible anywhere means by 'Babylon the Great.'
This can be cogently demonstrated by simply asking, Did the Roman Catholic Church or any of the many Protestant churches kill Jesus?
Or, was the capital of the Roman Catholic Church ever in Jerusalem (as Revelation 11:8 indicates)? Or did Jesus say that the Vatican or the Papacy would be requited for killing the prophets, apostles and saints in Matthew 23:29-39 or Luke 11:45-51? If he did not, then the doctrinal idea that Babylon the Great is somehow "evil Christianity" apart from Adventism is completely false on the very face of it!
Simply put, Babylon the Great was the apostate city of first century Jerusalem (Revelation 18:20-24 cf. Acts 7:51-53; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16 and Revelation 19:1-4).
We have two conclusive studies about Babylon the Great City on this website. See the small study here. A link to the larger study of Babylon can be found at the end of the small study.
What About the Mark of the Beast?
The SDA approach to the issue of the Mark of the Beast, like its approach to who Babylon is, is from the perspective of frontier American predilections, which extend mainly from Protestant hostilities and polemical inclinations which devote and pervert the Apocalypse and its symbols to castigating the Papacy and nearly all things Catholic.
But it is wanting in respect to any first century Christian concerns and has nothing to do with anything that they had the remotest prospect of ever having to face!
What did they have to face? They faced calls to fight on behalf of their country, which, according to the Law of Moses, was mandatory and carried with it stipulations which could not be violated without consequences (Deuteronomy 20:19-20; 23:10, 15 and Deuteronomy 24:5).
Revelation chapter 13, on the other hand (in its Second Jewish Commonwealth context) has to do with militant conspirators who were responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem (in other words, not Sunday worshippers, but Saturday worshippers: the Zealots and the Sicarii).4 It is these men, who lived in the shadow of and in context with the then-upcoming Fall of Jerusalem.
It is these men who branded their right hands in a suicide pact in what Jews now call "the War of the Destruction" (see the Wars of the Jews 3.8.6:386). This mark has nothing to do with people worshipping God on the first day of the week, but everything to do with people who insisted on worshipping God on the seventh day of the week, a day they were only too eager to kill and create havoc (see the Wars of the Jews 2.19.2:517-518).
On these seven counts the SDA Church bases its identity and confidence, but, as we have seen, this basis is faulty and very wide of the mark when it comes to reflecting what the Bible says. This is why in the history of SDA teachings it has demonstrated, over and over, that it is established on a foundation of sand and not the solid rock of the claims of Jesus Christ and the teachings of the Apostles of first century Christianity.
Endnotes
1 Babylon: 609-539 B.C., Medeo-Persia: 539-323 B.C., Macedon: 323-141 B.C., Hasmonean Judea: 141-37 B.C., Herodian Judæa 37 B.C.-A.D.66, the kingdom of God came with power in the autumn of A.D.66 and continues to the ages of the ages. Zealot wars: A.D.66-A.D.136. Note: the kingdom of God began its course as a continuous historical mountain after the dispersal of the power of the holy people as foretold in Daniel 2:25; 12:7 and Revelation 20:11.
2 The Second Coming of the entire New Testament comes in proximity to the first Christians only; it cannot happen after thousands or millions of years, let alone the end of time. See Comments on Matthew 10:23 The Second Coming in Light of the Social World of the Apostles.
3 On the Clear Word Bible and its corruptions click here.
4 An examination of SDA eschatology will reveal a tangle of unrelated claims about the Mark of the Beast, Sunday and the end of the world. Further research into this dense matter can happen with familiarity with issues they conflate and inbue with artificial significance. See more here.
Roots, Shoots, and Those in Cahoots
Tim Martin
Captions: (1) Almost Armageddon, by Ellen G. White, 1973, Theater of the Universe. (2) The four kingdoms of Bible prophecy in the order that they appeared in Jewish salvation history: Babylon, Medeo-Persia, Macedon, Hasmonean and Herodian Judea, the Zealots wars stretched from A.D.66 to A.D.136 in the second century of our common era. (3) Ellen G. White. Source: pinterest.com
See also, Three Adventist Doctrines That Compromise the Gospel by Dale Ratzlaff http://www.truthorfables.com/