Aunt Sevvy, can a person go to heaven without being an Adventist?
20 January 2025 |
Dear Aunt Sevvy,
In order to go to heaven, the Bible says only you must believe in Jesus and be baptized.
But our church says that you must also be an official member of our church, which requires a commitment to 13 baptismal vows and 28 Fundamental beliefs, some of them dependent upon Ellen White’s teachings. I have seen pastors refuse people who have been moved by the Spirit to be baptized because, they say, they need first to understand thoroughly all the teachings unique to Adventists. What do you say, Aunt Sevvy?
Signed, Only One Church?
Dear Only One,
There were no religious denominations or church membership lists in the Bible. People came to John to be baptized for the remission of sins, not to become church members. The disciples were friends and followers of Jesus, not voted-in members of the Jesus church. Early Christians gathered to worship, but it was the Roman church—not Jesus—that created a religious denomination where baptism signified official membership.
If we believe baptism is important, how dare we withhold it until people have a short seminary education in what our denomination believes?
Please understand that there is nothing wrong with our church’s having official membership rolls. But just because Acts 2 says that “they added to their number” after Pentecost doesn’t mean that being voted into a church body is the requirement for salvation.
Aunt Sevvy
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