There are two characteristics of SDA eschatology that should be mentioned.
First, their writings are extremely anti-Catholic in nature. They have been from the beginning and continue to be so to this day. The Catholic Church is blamed for the abolition of Sabbath-keeping, and the papacy is considered to be the Antichrist. Ellen White hated “Romanism” with a passion, and she correctly predicted that the Protestant world would become more accommodating to Catholicism.12
Another characteristic of SDA end time prophetic interpretations is Replacement Theology. They teach that the Jews got what they deserved in the First Century when God poured out His wrath in 70 AD on Israel and Jerusalem. They believe the Jews have been set aside as God’s Chosen People, and that the Church has replaced them, inheriting all the promises that were made to them in the Hebrew Scriptures.
The amazing thing is that these anti-Semitic views are expressed very strongly by two SDA spokesmen who happen to be Jews — Doug Batchelor and Steve Wohlberg!
In a book entitled Exploding the Israel Deception, Steve Wohlberg asserts that the book of Revelation must be read with “Middle East symbolism glasses” and not with “literal Middle East glasses.”13 When read with symbolism glasses, Wohlberg asserts that we will understand that the prophecies apply to spiritual Israel (the Church) and not to literal Israel. The booklet concludes with a remarkable paragraph:14
If you have been led to believe that the prophecies in the book of Revelation apply to an Israel in the flesh, these lies must be unmasked. If you have been taught that Revelation’s statements about Jerusalem, Mount Sion (sic), the temple, God, Magog, Babylon, and the Euphrates River apply to those literal places in the Middle East, these errors must be shattered. If you have accepted the idea that the Antichrist will one day walk into a rebuilt Jewish temple during a final seven-year period of tribulation, this false theory needs to be blown up. If sincere people have convinced you that Armageddon centers around Russian, China, and the modern State of Israel, then someone must push the button which reads: “Destroy Global Delusions.” It is now time to flee from all frogs and fables!
This paragraph unmasks the fundamental problem with SDA prophetic interpretation. They take a symbolic rather than a literal approach. Instead of accepting the prophecies to mean what they say, they spiritualize them, making them say whatever they desire for them to mean. They ignore the fact that the First Coming prophecies meant exactly what they said. Why then do not the Second Coming prophecies mean what they say?
In the last part of this series on what the Seventh-Day Adventists believe concerning the end times, we’ll discover if their claim that Sunday is an unbiblical day of worship is historically accurate.
Notes
12) E. G. White, The Final Events of Bible Prophecy, page 37-43.
13) Steve Wohlberg, Exploding the Israel Deception, (Endtime Insights, 1998), page 99.
14) Ibid., page 126.
Jeremiah Films has produced an outstanding video about the SDA entitled “Seventh-Day Adventism: The Spirit Behind the Church.” It includes interviews with seven former SDA pastors and four former SDA members. You can order a copy from their website at www.jeremiahfilms.com.
Hello Nathan
Reading this has given me a cold and horrible feeling that the 'church growth movement' may believe, at least in part, the same as SDA concerning sordid replacement and the spiritualizing of all things Israel?
God forbid that it is true, but it would explain a lot! Have you any idea if they do??????
Romans 11.
~~~Shudder~~~
MARANATHA!
Sue
x
The irony is that Wohlberg has made it a point to go after dispies and premillers for not being "biblical" yet he will be very selective over which passages are to be understood literally or reasoned around.
Sue, replacement theology has become an epidemic throughout the church. They don't like to call it that but they can argue till they're hoarse – RT is what it is. As the saying goes – you can put lipstick on a pig but…
Rant over 😉
rg
Hello Rg
I almost wish I hadn’t asked!
I suppose I have known it all along, but couldn’t, and cannot bear to think of those I love more than breathing itself are offending our precious Jewish Messiah and His loved people Israel.
In their ignorance of His Word, they are grieving The Holy Spirit; so whatever ‘spirit’ is it they are they raising and manifesting? I can only hope and pray they repent from this wicked trickery sooner, rather than later. Thank God He is longsuffering, but how long before they quench Him from working in their lives and He ‘gives them over’ to their imitation of The Faith? Please Father, deliver them from their badly informed folly; it is because they have sought you out of love and to do your will that they have been snared and deceived. Lord please have mercy.
Tomorrow FRIDAY could be a seriously pivotal day if the UN agree to divide Eretz Israel yet again; those who are aiding and abetting them to ‘lift the burdensome stone’ are heading for serious discipline if not worse.
God bless rg
Sue
x
PLEASE! All Purpose Driven, Seeker Sensitive, ‘Dominionist’s’ ALL who have been taught that the church has replaced Israel.
ROMANS 11
The Apostle Paul is clear that God has not cast off His ancient people. The Church is NOT ‘spiritual Israel’; she is a NATION of a God given land on earth. The Church (Jew AND Gentile)is Christ’s Body and Bride who are citizens of heaven and not promised a land, we are NOT a nation like Israel is.
WAKE UP! You are all FAST ASLEEP!
Your lips are praising the Lord but your hearts are far from Him. Friendship with the world is enmity with God. PLEASE Listen to the Word of the Lord! If you cannot read very well, find the following Scripture on line with the AUDIO BIBLE.
Zechariah 12:1 The burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him,
2."Behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege is against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah.
3."It will come about in that day that I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; ALL WHO LIFT IT WILL BE SEVERELY INJURED. And all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it…………
For ‘ALL the nations’ read the U.N. the ‘United Nations’ who defy and mock God’s Word.
I'm researching this, with little time spent at this point, somforgive my ignorance… I read Romans Chapter 11 as was suggested and then read Chapter 9 and found that the interpretation gets a bit further involved than what I'm seeing in these posts including the original article. No offense, but mostly all I see is critisism of a denomination; no facts that I can look to that will resolve this issue in my own mind. Maybe there is one of you who can direct me to some verses that you're basing your opions on. I really prefer to make my decisions based on the Bible rather than opinions.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Take Care and God Bless
Rod :~)
Th bible clearly shows the Jews do now as then forfeit their place as the chosen people for they rejected Christ then and do now…they should have been the one's to take the light of salvation to the Gentiles as the scriptures should have shown them yet they became an elite group excluding all others from salvations…this is shown also in the fact the Paul was brought in to take the light of salvation to the Gentiles…thus spiritual Jerusalem is NOT a nation it is a people who follow after Christ in this context: Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.