There are many reasons for questioning the authority of the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference today. One of these is the fact that the General Conference is merely numerically the largest of several splinter groups that claim to represent Adventism. One of the two necessary factors for the validity of the authority of the General Conference in session is that it represent the entire world church, which it (as well as any others) has not done since 1915.
But the General Conference denies some of the fundamental features of the Advent movement prior to 1915, the year in which Ellen White died.
1) The present Fundamental Beliefs adhere to the doctrine of the Trinity. All early Adventist writers either opposed the doctrine of the Trinity outright, or expressed clearly non-Trinitarian beliefs. Ellen White never even uses the word Trinity. She espoused the same basic beliefs as other Adventists of her time, that is, the belief in a tangible God and a real, pre-existent Christ, both with bodily form, and a real Spirit of God and Christ, which is not immaterial, though existing without permanent bodily form. (We simplify here, since there were individuals who denied the reality of the Holy Spirit, at least in the earlier days.) All forms of the classical Trinitarian doctrine considered the three persons to be mere hypostases or persons appearing as such, representing an immaterial God of one substance, by which is not meant material substance, but an immaterial foundational reality. The Trinity doctrine thus denies the tangible reality of God as a being in Himself, and of Christ as a distinct being as well.
2) The present Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists deny the early Adventist belief that the Atonement takes place in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary after the year 1844. This early belief has been replaced by the Evangelical belief in the atonement finished on the cross. The pagan idea of the death and resurrection of a god-man in atonement and for well-being originated in the Middle Eastern solar cults, was transmitted as individual salvation cults in the mystery religions, and finally made its way into Christianity along with many other pagan practices during and after the time of Constantine. In order to be like Evangelical Christians, modern Adventists have accepted this pagan doctrine of the atonement finished on the cross and thus made of no effect the work of atonement presently going on in the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary.
These are the two most outstanding doctrinal points of apostasy in the Seventh-day Adventist church today. However, there are other alarming trends. In recent years the General Conference has failed its constituency in regard to the character and activity of the Papacy. Instead of warning the people, it has engaged in ecumenical endeavours to co-operate with Rome.
Although the General Conference has not given up Biblical, Seventh-day Adventist standards of dress, diet, and entertainment, and these remain published in General Conference publications and the Church Manual, the policy in practice does not support standards. In fact, specific names and dates of churches ostracizing and persecuting members who uphold standards could be given. Unless one conforms to worldly standards of dress, diet, music, sports, and entertainment, it is likely that one will become marginalized in a SDA congregation, and possibly even suffer extremes of reaction. This is known to have happened even in cases where the people involved have not borne any spoken testimony in favor of standards, but only quietly followed them in practice.
I know of a case in which an elderly, retired Adventist General Conference worker was ostracized and harassed for years in the church where he retired for refusing to eat pork at SDA potlucks. He was commanded to do so by the pastor of the church, and when he refused, a program of persecution followed for nearly ten years until his death.
WLC provides a solution to these and other problems by posting the original Seventh-day Adventist beliefs of 1872 and encouraging people to live by Bible standards of dress, diet, and entertainment. Worshiping in small groups in homes has been shown to be the best way to maintain these features without drawing persecution down upon oneself.
