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A Response to the Video:
Seventh-day Adventism, the Spirit Behind the Church

by Bob Pickle

Answers to Questions Raised by:
Mark Martin, Sydney Cleveland
Dale Ratzlaff, The White Lie
. . . and Others

Discern Fact from Fiction

Wrapping Up the Case

#193: "Today, Seventh-day Adventists strive to be included as mainline, evangelical, Protestant Christians, and therefore object very strongly to any hint that they may be teaching cultic doctrine."—Steve Cannon.

#193: They strive to be included as mainline, evangelical, Protestant Christians. Actually, there really isn't all that much striving. And why should there be, given Adventism's strong stance on the final authority of Scripture? That used to be one of the cornerstones of Protestantism, but it's been abandoned by many mainline churches.

Representatives of the largest church in the world have declared that Adventists definitely are Protestants, since they repudiate tradition in favor of what the Scriptures teach. Here's one such quote:

The Protestant, claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday. In this matter the Seventh Day Adventist is the only consistent Protestant.—"The Question Box," The Catholic Universe Bulletin, Aug. 14, 1942, p. 4.

Seriously, why should "the only consistent Protestant" have to strive? Rather, the churches who are following tradition instead of the Scriptures are the ones who ought to be striving.

Other quotations from Catholic writers on the subject follow:

People who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority, should logically become 7th Day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy.—Saint Catherine Catholic Church, Sentinel, May 21, 1995.

[Seventh-day Adventists] are the most fundamental of all the fundamentalist sects, holding to literal interpretation of the Bible . . . .—Kenneth Ryan, What More Would You Like to Know About the Church, p. 137.

If the Bible is the only guide for the Christian, then the Seventh Day Adventist is right in observing the Saturday with the Jew.—Bertrand L. Conway, The Question Box (1903 ed.), p. 254.

Cath.: Is the Bible the rule or guide of Protestants for observing Sunday?

Prot.: No, I believe the "Seventh Day Adventists" are the only ones who know the Bible in the matter of Sabbath observance.—The Bible, an Authority Only in Catholic Hands, pp. 26, 27.

If you follow the Bible alone there can be no question that you are obliged to keep Saturday holy, since that is the day especially prescribed by Almighty God to be kept holy to the Lord. In keeping Sunday, non-Catholics are simply following the practice of the Catholic Church for 1800 years, a tradition, and not a Bible ordinance. What we would like to know is: Since they deny the authority of the Church, on what grounds can they base their faith of keeping Sunday. Those who keep Saturday, like the Seventh Day Adventists, unquestionably have them by the hip in this practice. And they cannot give them any sufficient answer which would satisfy an unprejudiced mind. With the Catholics there is no difficulty about the matter. For, since we deny that the Bible is the sole rule of faith, we can fall back upon the constant practice and tradition of the Church which, long before the reign of Constantine, even in the very days of the apostles themselves, were accustomed to keep the first day of the week instead of the last.—F. G. Lentz, The Question Box, pp. 98, 99.

The last quote put the change of the Sabbath back in the days of the apostles, or thereabouts. This is what tradition says happened, which is good enough for some, but there is no biblical or historical basis for such a claim.

At any rate, the major points these Catholic authors make is that:

1. The Bible says to keep Saturday.
2. The Bible doesn't say to keep Sunday.
3. Protestantism claims to go by the Bible alone.
4. Protestants who keep Sunday are being inconsistent. [p. 129]
5. Seventh-day Adventists as Protestants are being consistent by keeping Saturday.

So say representatives from the largest church in the world.

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