Seventh Day Baptists and Seventh Day Adventists Compared
I'm doing some general research on major world religions and came across your website whilst surfing the net. I'm interested in understanding how your beliefs differ from the other christian group ie catholics, protestants etc. I'm also keen to understand how your beliefs differ from the similarly titled Church of 7th Day Adventists. I'd be really grateful for any information that you could provide.
Many thanks, Debbie
Answer
Who are Seventh Day Baptists?
Seventh Day Baptists are “Seventh Day” because they embrace the primordial sanctity and blessedness of the seventh day Sabbath. (Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, this follows the biblical definition of the "day") They are “Baptist” because they hold historic Baptist and Anabaptist ideals in their concepts of the supremacy of Scripture, the nature of the church, church polity, the place of baptism, and the principle of liberty.
In common with several nineteenth century Baptist historians, Seventh Day Baptist
writers have tended to adopt a defensive historiography that aims to identify
an ecclesiastical heritage which harks back to the first “Sabbath-keeping Baptists”
– Jesus Christ and his disciples. This inclination is to some extent encouraged
in SDB apologetics by the need to answer the plethora of anti-Sabbatarian polemics
which label Seventh-day Sabbatarianism a modern innovation and appeal to catholic
Church history to establish the religious observance of the first day. Hence,
a catalogue of references to the Sabbath in Ante-Nicene and Post-Nicene literature,
coupled with examples of Sabbath-observance among certain minority sects of
the Middle Ages are commonly used to show the regular recurrence of Sabbath
observance throughout the broader history of Christianity. SDB writer Alva L.
Davis explains,
"While Seventh Day Baptists make no pretense of establishing by documentary
evidence an unbroken succession in name and form as we exist today, the two
distinguishing tenets of our faith date from the beginning of Christian history."
The task however is found to be more difficult by the fact that evidence of both major distinctives of the Seventh Day Baptists are less often found together in the brief remarks of recorded history. Nevertheless examples such as that of the Sabbatarian Anabaptists of East Central Europe afford sufficient evidence for many Seventh Day Baptists to circumvent Luther in tracking their spiritual heritage and to identify their distinctive theological roots as emanating from a ‘history’ which precedes the recorded beginnings of their seventeenth century English Sabbatarian Baptist predecessors.
How we differ from Baptists
Seventh Day Baptists are often quoted as saying that “the Sabbath is the only significant point of belief on which Baptists and Seventh Day Baptists differ”. Denominational pamphlets such as A Baptist Church that’s a little different, tend to perpetuate this concept as do SDB Statements of Belief which are purposely generic and rarely betray any major theological variants. However, this definition fails to take account of the diversity of belief and practice which is tolerated by the Baptist ethos. Diversity of belief is perhaps more marked in Seventh Day Baptist Churches than in most regular Baptist churches because of the priority given to the ‘autonomy of the local church’.
Seventh Day Baptists and Seventh Day Adventists Compared
The following extract from a tract, Seventh-day Adventists and Seventh Day Baptists Compared published by the American Sabbath Tract and Communication Council, succinctly compares the two denominations from the American perspective. The important differences to be noted are:
First, in regard to the inspiration of non-biblical writings and utterances.
Seventh Day Baptists hold to the historic Protestant principle that the Bible - and only the Bible - is the authoritative source of our faith. Seventh-day Adventists hold that Mrs. Ellen G. White was an inspired prophetess, and that her writings are to be received as authoritative in the church. Adventists call this unique doctrine "The Spirit of Prophecy."
Second, toleration of doctrinal differences.
Doctrinal differences are tolerated within the [SDB] church family…. Seventh-day Adventist are a creedal people, bound together by their doctrinal uniformity. Doctrinal differences cannot be tolerated ... Seventh Day Baptists believe in individual interpretation of the Scriptures under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. For this reason they allow for differences of belief and understanding of the Scriptures. Seventh-day Adventists have a denominational set of beliefs, which serves as a creed.
Third, key doctrinal differences.
Seventh-day Adventists lay great stress on "The Third Angel's Message" (Rev. 14:9-12); consider that Christ entered the Holy of Holies in 1844 to cleanse the Heavenly sanctuary; that "The Investigative Judgment" of human lives is now going on in heaven. Seventh Day Baptists reject this interpretation. They agree with other Protestants that Christ's atoning work on the cross accomplished our salvation. This present gift of eternal life assures us of a future free from condemnation.
Fourth, differing ecclesiological perspectives.
Seventh Day Baptists do not believe they are the only true church nor the only door to salvation. Seventh-day Adventists believe they compose God's remnant church.
Fifth, major differences in Polity.
Seventh Day Baptists churches are autonomous. They are congregational in organization. Boards, the General Conference and its committees exercise only delegated or advisory powers to effect the will of church membership. Seventh-day Adventists are much more authoritarian in church organization; local churches and individual members are to a large degree directed by and responsible to the national and regional organizations.