Its beliefs and practices

Writings of Ellen White: Ellen White is recognized by the Seventh-day Adventist church as having received the gift of prophecy. The written works by Ellen White "are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction." ₁

This produced some conflict within the Church when research in the 1980's suggested that she had borrowed heavily from contemporary writers. However, in our opinion, "An Analysis of the Literary Dependency of Ellen White" by David J. Conklin demonstrates that there is no proof of Ellen White's plagiarism. ₂ He later analyzed:

"... one chapter from Ellen G. White’s Desire of Ages which, of all her works, has received the most extensive investigation regarding alleged plagiarism, and compared it to the corresponding chapters of 47 other works of the same genre and century, using the computerized literary tool WCopyfind to locate parallel phrases between the various works. These parallels are then evaluated for strength and frequency. Study results indicate that un-attributed borrowing of phraseology was rather common, and even considered to be more acceptable among the nineteenth-century authors of this genre than would be acceptable in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The minimal borrowing by Ellen G. White in this chapter was within the acceptable standards of that era." ₇

	believed in Jesus,
	kept God's commandments,
	kept the faith of Jesus, and
	have retained faith in Jesus

will be saved. That is, salvation is dependent upon both one's beliefs and one's works.

When Jesus returns to Earth in the near future at the time of his second coming, everyone's eternal fate will already have been determined. Seventh-day Adventist members note that the Bible states that God's pattern is to investigate before exercising judgment. ₃ Examples are:

	In Genesis 3, God visited Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to determine first hand that they had eaten the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and thus caused the fall or rise of humanity. (Interpretations of the impact of the fruit differ.)
	In Genesis 19, God came down from heaven to learn first-hand what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah.
	In Revelation 20:4-6, at the time of Jesus' second coming, Jesus is described as having arrived on Earth to execute previously determined judgment on humans, not perform investigations to determine what judgment is just for each individual.

"The Church does not serve as conscience for individuals; however, it should provide moral guidance. Abortions for reasons of birth control, gender selection, or convenience are not condoned by the Church. Women, at times however, may face exceptional circumstances that present serious moral or medical dilemmas, such as significant threats to the pregnant woman's life, serious jeopardy to her health, severe congenital defects carefully diagnosed in the fetus, and pregnancy resulting from rape or incest. The final decision whether to terminate the pregnancy or not should be made by the pregnant woman after appropriate consultation. She should be aided in her decision by accurate information, biblical principles, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, these decisions are best made within the context of healthy family relationships."

This practice was changed by the Church Council of Laodicea circa 364 CE, which ordered that future religious observances were to be conducted on Sunday. The Seventh Day Baptist church in the 17th century reverted to the practice of the primitive Christian church and adopted Saturday for religious services. The Seventh-day Adventist church followed suit. 

Saturday worship has caused some employers to discriminate against those Seventh-day Adventist members who feel that they cannot work on Saturday. On the other hand, other companies have found that an employee who is willing to work every Sunday can be an asset.

^{Page Translator:}

This page translator works on Firefox,
Opera, Chrome, and Safari browsers only

After translating, click on the "show
original" button at the top of this
page to restore page to English.