How many of the 28 Fundamental Beliefs can you disagree with and still call yourself an Adventist?
31 March 2025 |
Dear Aunt Sevvy,
How many of the 28 Fundamental Beliefs can you disagree with and still call yourself an Adventist?
Signed, Questioning
Dear Questioning,
Our pioneers wrote in 1872, “We wish to have it distinctly understood that we have no articles of faith, creed, or discipline, aside from the Bible.” Yet in 1980 the church adopted 27 Fundamental Beliefs, and in 2005 added another. The church’s formal baptismal vow now reads, “Baptismal candidates and those being received into fellowship by profession of faith shall affirm their acceptance of the Fundamental Beliefs in the presence of the local congregation or other properly appointed body”—which appears to mean that if you can’t say that you understand and agree with every detail of all of those 28, you shouldn’t be a member.
But what about those of us (including Aunty) who were baptized before these beliefs were formally adopted? No one has asked Aunty to get rebaptized in order to include what wasn’t included then.
There are some deeper questions, too. What does it mean to “believe” something? Does it mean you never have doubts—or merely that you never voice them? Can you ask questions about beliefs? And if you can’t ask questions, then how can truth be progressive—what our pioneers called “present truth”?
Aunty believes that the whole business of Fundamental Beliefs is not only unbiblical, but contradicts our history. Today, the statement that we have no creed but the Bible is simply false: our Fundamental Beliefs are a creed in all but name. Furthermore, church leaders have said repeatedly that we must not only never differ with Ellen White’s interpretation of the Bible, but we must subscribe to everything she has added to the Bible. This is too much for any Jesus-follower to have to shoulder.
One of the earliest Adventist conferences was held in Battle Creek in 1861. They agreed to a simple statement: “We, the undersigned, hereby associate ourselves together as a church, taking the name Seventh-day Adventists, covenanting to keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus Christ.”
That should still be enough today. Aunty believes that if you have an Adventist congregation that studies the Bible together, trusts in the grace of Jesus Christ, and wants to be like Jesus, then rejoice and be exceedingly glad—because you are more in the spirit of the founders of the denomination than the modern creed-makers are.
Aunt Sevvy
Aunt Sevvy has collected her answers into a book! You can get it from Amazon by clicking here.
You can write to Aunt Sevvy at DearAuntSevvy@gmail.com. Your real identity will never be revealed.
