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What do Seventh-day Adventists believe?

The short answer

Seventh-day Adventists are evangelical Christians in most central doctrines, as their own 28 Fundamental Beliefs state: the Trinity, Jesus as God and Saviour, salvation by grace through faith, and his literal return. They differ in keeping Saturday as the Sabbath, in teaching that the dead sleep until the resurrection, and in the investigative judgment, the belief that since 1844 Christ has been reviewing the records of believers in heaven. Scripture answers that the Sabbath was a shadow pointing to Christ, and that his one offering has perfected for all time those being sanctified.

The fuller answer

Fairness first, because Adventists are often misdescribed. The Seventh-day Adventist Church's official statement, the 28 Fundamental Beliefs, confesses one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the full deity of Christ, his virgin birth, sinless life, atoning death, resurrection and coming return, and salvation by grace through faith alone. On those points Adventists stand with other evangelical Christians, and their schools, hospitals and health teaching grow from that faith. The distinctive teachings are three: Saturday kept as the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, the sleep of the dead until the resurrection, and the investigative judgment in the heavenly sanctuary.

Paul tells the Colossians not to let anyone pass judgment on them in questions of food and drink or in regard to a festival, a new moon or a Sabbath. Christians differ among themselves about the Sabbath, and this page answers only the claim that Saturday observance binds every believer or marks the faithful in the last days. Paul treats the Sabbath as part of a shadow whose substance belongs to Christ. A day kept freely in honour of the Lord is a matter of conscience. A day required as a test of loyalty to God is a different claim, and Paul's sentence stands against it.

The investigative judgment teaches that in 1844 Christ entered a new phase of ministry in heaven's sanctuary, reviewing the lives of professed believers to determine who is worthy of salvation, before the resurrection and the return. The writer to the Hebrews describes a simpler order: man dies once, and after that comes judgment, with Christ appearing a second time to save those eagerly waiting for him. The judgment in Hebrews follows death and precedes no long review that believers must anxiously await. It is announced as settled by Christ's finished work, not opened as an audit of their records.

The next chapter gives the reason. By a single offering Christ has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Perfected, for all time, by one offering, is difficult language to fit around a heavenly process, begun in the nineteenth century, that still decides whether a believer's name is retained. Adventist friends will answer that the judgment vindicates God and the believer alike, and that assurance rests on Christ. The conversation worth having is the assurance one: whether a Christian today can know she is accepted, resting on a finished offering, rather than wait on a review she cannot see.

Sources

• Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
• Seventh-day Adventist 28 Fundamental Beliefs

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.