Seventh Day Adventists

[alex_playford]

I just started talking to a Seventh Day Adventist. I’m looking for some good resources to educate me on this particular church. Also, he talks about scripture interpreting scripture and the “law of first mention”. I’d appreciate your thoughts and any resources you could direct me to.

Thank you.

 

[Veronica_Anne]

Hi. I did a search on this forum’s “non-Catholic religions” sub-forum for wherever the word “Adventist” appeard in the title of a thread.

Here ya go.

forums.catholic-questions.org/search.php?searchid=587325

There’s also 7 tracts on Seventh Day Adventist topics at the Catholic Answers site, here…

catholic.com/library/noncatholic_groups.asp

***Are They Awake on the Watchtower

Distinctive Beliefs of the Jehovah’s Witnesses

The God of the Jehovah’s Witnesses

History of the Jehovah’s Witnesesses

More Stumpers for the Jehovah’s Witnesses

Strategies of Jehovah’s Witness

Stumpers for Jehovah’s Witnesses***

Hope this helps. By the way (but not by the way), I wound up, like you, starting to talk with a JW when I (innocently) asked her at lunchtime… “so, you got any plans for this weekend?”

She answered “oh, yes! I’m going to be doing service.”

I told her that I thought that was great, and, oh, what kind of service is that?

She explained it was going door-to-door to teach the faith. Before long, she was asking me what the definition of a Christian was.

It sounded so PLANNED… like the start of a step-by-step convesation she had memorized for what to say no matter what the person who answers you says in answer…

It gave me the creeps.

You’ll want to take a look at what they call the Bible. Notice the first line of what that book says in their book of John.

“In the beginning was the word, and the word was a god.”

 

[Veronica_Anne]

Especially, please check out this post:

forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=8249&postcount=10

#10 May 26, 2004, 08:26 PM
thornbristle
Junior Member Join Date: May 21, 2004
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 5

Re: Please help me with a Seven Day Adventist!!!

---

Whenever you are speaking to someone of a different faith, it helps if you already know something about their religious background, theology and history. Here are some websites to
bring you up to snuff:

sdaoutreach.org/

ellenwhite.org/

ex-sda.com/

home.global.co.za/~skorsman/sda/
(a Catholic website on the SDA church, very good)

catholic.com/thisrock/2000/0003chap.asp
The Pagan Influence Fallacy by Jimmy Akin

catholic.com/library/Is_…icism_Pagan.asp
Is Catholicism Pagan?

ralphwoodrow.org/books/babylon.htm
Ralph Woodrow offers his book, “The Babylon Connection?” refuting Alexander Hislop’s “The
Two Babylons.” The book is only $8.

Ralph Woodrow’s little book refutes in short order the lie by Alexander Hislop, and repeated by many since, that the Catholic Church is a pagan derivative from the Babylonish culture. Such well known and popular author’s, like Tim LaHaye, still adhere to this old saw.

May the Lord be with you as you attempt to talk sense into your Adventist friend!

–Thornbristle

 

[juno24]

Veronica Anne:

Hi. I did a search on this forum’s “non-Catholic religions” sub-forum for wherever the word “Adventist” appeard in the title of a thread.

Here ya go.

forums.catholic-questions.org/search.php?searchid=587325

There’s also 7 tracts on Seventh Day Adventist topics at the Catholic Answers site, here…

catholic.com/library/noncatholic_groups.asp

Are They Awake on the Watchtower…

Just an FYI-- Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists are not the same. The Watchtower tract and all the other ones you linked to are information on Jehovah’s Witnesses, not Seventh Day Adventists. I don’t know much about SDA’s, so I can’t answer the original poster, but I don’t want him or her to get confused between the 2 groups.

 

[SDA2RC]

alex_playford:

I just started talking to a Seventh Day Adventist. I’m looking for some good resources to educate me on this particular church. Also, he talks about scripture interpreting scripture and the “law of first mention”. I’d appreciate your thoughts and any resources you could direct me to.

Thank you.

Alex_Playford,
Hi…
The Law of First Mention is roughly a concept that once something is mentioned in scripture it’s relevance or meaning remains the same throughout the rest of scripture. An example, would be to look at the instances of when God has given a person a new name, every time this happens from the first, to the last time recorded, it is meant to denote a change in role/relationship/importance.

As far as a “good” resource… that is hard, there are many resources, but I have yet to see a comprehensive one on the religion that deals with specifcally catholic vs. SDA issues in depth. Joao Machado has a site that deals with some SDA issues, he is also a member of this forum, his site is at machado-family.com/Q&A.htm. I have also done some writings for my family and friends on various issues, and would be MORE than happy to help you answer any specific challenges that you face.

Finally, the idea that scripture interprets itself is a very common presumption in the SDA Church. The idea is based on some creative “proof texting” and does not stand up to scrutiny on many levels. Even the SDA Church’s own “guidelines” on how to interpret scriptures states:

“l. 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 (for example, see *Evangelism, *256; The Great Controversy, 193, 595; Testimonies, vol. 5, pp. 665, 682, 707-708; Counsels to Writers and Editors, 33-35).” adventist.org/beliefs/other_documents/other_doc4.html

The above statement alone contradicts the assertion by your friend that SDA’s only rely on scripture to interpret scripture. Read the rest of the document and I am sure you can see more contradictions to your friends assertions. The church calls for the use of history, scholarly resources, etc…etc…etc.

SDA’s generally fall back on the “scripture interprets scripture” when most other sources they would point to, contradict them, therefore it is easier to twist scripture without any external reference point.

Drop me a private Message or e-mail if you would like to talk more.

Brandon