nemic beginnings!

We shall with this article begin a series analyzing seven slippery slopes of the Sabbatarian movement. These constitute problems with such denominations as the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. These things are not written out of malice or mischievousness, but out of the love for truth and enlightenment. 

      When one looks at the church (not the degenerated denominational world of today, but the pure and pristine church which Jesus Christ built and we read about in Scripture), one finds a beginning that can be classified as “powerful,” “explosive,” and “world turning.” But when one looks at the beginning of Adventism, one sees a dismal and anemic beginning, one that is rooted in a fellow by the name of William Miller.

      The Lord’s church began about 30 A.D. It was built by the grand Architect and purchased with the blood of God (Acts 20:28). It was foretold hundreds of years in advance (see Is. 2:1-4). Her Founder was born of a virgin; He lived sinlessly but was murderously put to death. However, He resurrected and afterward convened with men. Then forty days later He was seen with human eyes ascending into the heavens (Acts 1:9-11). On the other hand, Mr. Miller was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts on February 15, 1781 and died at Low Hampton, New York, December 20, 1849.

      The Holy Spirit brought forth the Lord’ church with power during the Jewish feast of Pentecost; the apostles preached the first gospel sermon and about 3000 souls were added to it (Acts 1:1-47).  She began in Jerusalem, had apostles and prophets who spoke accurately the things of God and certified such by marvelous works (Eph. 4:11; 2 Cor. 12:12; Rom. 15:19; 1 Cor. 14:18). Yet, when one looks at Adventism, one sees that it began in Massachusetts, that its founder, William Miller, lived and died around 1800 years afterwards, and he predicted things which have never happened. Mr. Miller tried to forecast the Lord’s second coming as occurring in Jerusalem between March 21, 1843 and March 21, 1844.  Other dates were guessed at when these failed (i.e., October 22, 1844 espoused by Joshua Himes), but was proven to be false like all other predictions. That year and century has come and gone, and continues to show just how much of a blunder Miller’s prophetic calculations were. Miller’s follower, Mrs. Ellen G. White, a woman given to fits of hysteria and seizures, yet one who claimed to be inspired, tried to repair Miller’s mistakes by spinning the issue saying, “God designed that his people should meet with disappointment.” She added the “Sabbath” to their doctrinal practices.

      With this, one can see a small snapshot of the fragile broken beginnings of Adventism, an integral part of Sabbatarianism. With Adventism, you see the wrong place, the wrong person, the wrong date and mistaken prophesies. After serving as a minister in the Seventh-day Adventist denomination for 28 years, D.M. Canright’s penned 26 reasons for renouncing it. His first was:

“It [Seventh-day Adventism, sjw] was born in a mistake. The origin of Adventism was in the Millerite time-setting of 1843 and 1844, which all know was a mistake” (Seventh-day Adventism Renounced, 1914).

      Its origin is interlocked with falsehoods. Recall Moses’ words, “When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously . . .” (Deut. 18:22).