No. They often try and appear as such by using Protestant language such as “sola scriptura” and “righteousness by faith”, but like with most of their doctrine, they use the same vocabulary as Christian’s but not the same dictionary. This is because the organization seeks to appear like just another denomination, when in actuality, they are not.
As SDA historian George Knight documents in his book Search For Identity:
North American Protestantism of the nineteenth century was a child of the sixteenth-century Reformation. Many Adventists are aware of that fact but have mistakenly concluded that their church is an heir of those branches of the Reformation initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin, or Ulrich Zwingli. While it is true that Adventist’s concept of salvation by grace through faith came through the mainline Reformers, the theological orientation of Adventism really finds itself most at home with what church historians call the Radical Reformation or the Anabaptists.
George Knight, Search For Identity: The Development of Seventh-day Adventist Beliefs, pg. 30
What’s fascinating about this is the seemingly conflicting statements to the above that are found in other SDA sources. Such as a paper by retired SDA theologian and professor, Peter M. van Bemmelen, titled Justification By Faith: An Adventist Understanding, where he writes:
Adventists have always perceived themselves as heirs of the great truths recovered and proclaimed by the Protestant Reformers. As stated in the concluding report of another bilateral dialogue: “Adventists have a high appreciation for the Reformation. They see themselves as heirs of Luther and other Reformers, especially in their adherence to the great principles of sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide, solo Christo.” This places Adventists in harmony with the traditional Evangelical understanding of justification by faith and also with the patristic tradition, for, according to Thomas Oden, “The major Reformers’ appeals to sola scriptura, sola gratia, and sola fide are found abundantly in the patristic interpreters of scripture.”
Peter M. van Bemmelen, Justification By Faith: An Adventist Understanding, pg. 1-2
The Adventist Church considers themselves to be God’s special, last days Remnant Church, upholding the 10 Commandments with the “Spirit of Prophecy” (the Holy Spirit supposedly speaking in the writings of Ellen G. White) which is supposedly the identifying mark of this being true. They think that the true Church went completely apostate and needed restored so God raised them up as His last day remnant with a “present truth” message for this time—namely with regards to prophecy and the end times.
As the movement’s prophetess, Ellen G. White, wrote:
In this day, God has called His church [Seventh-day Adventism], as He called ancient Israel, to stand as a light in the earth. By the mighty cleaver of truth,—the messages of the first, second, and third angels,—He has separated a people from the churches and from the world, to bring them into a sacred nearness to Himself. He has made them the depositories of His law, and has committed to them the great truths of prophecy for this time. Like the holy oracles committed to ancient Israel, these are a sacred trust to be communicated to the world.
Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, January 25, 1910
They believe they have been given a special prophetic mission and message to take to the world—including the Christian world—to leave their churches and come join the “Remnant Church” of they will be given the mark of the beast (which will be worshiping on Sunday when a National Sunday Law is passed) and receive the wrath of God.
What is Protestantism?
Being Protestant is more than merely not being Roman Catholic, but means one has roots in the Protestant Reformation as well as the church in history. We define things by what they are and not by what they are not. Not being Roman Catholic does not tell us what one believes.
Church historian Dr. Philip Schaff notes in his book The Principles of Protestantism what the Reformation was where he writes:
In the first place, we contemplate the Reformation in its strictly historical condition, its catholic [universal] union with the past. This is a vastly important point, which thousands in our day appear to overlook entirely. They see in the 31st of October, 1517 [when Martin Luther nailed the 95 Thesis], it is true, the birthday of the Evangelical Church, and find her certificate of baptism in the 95 Thesis of Luther; but at the same time cast a deep stain upon the legitimacy of this birth itself, by separating it from all right relation to the time that went before. In this way, all interest is renounced in the spiritual wealth of the Middle Ages, which however belongs to us of right as fully at least it does to the Church of Rome. And what is worse still, the lie is given practically to the Lord’s promise itself: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.
Genuine Protestantism is no such sudden growth, springing up like a mushroom of the night, as the papist, and certain narrow-minded Ultra-Protestants, would fain have us believe. Its roots reach back to the day of Pentecost. In all periods of the church, in connection with the gradual progress of Romish corruption, it has had its witness, though not always fully conscious of their own vocation.
Dr. Philip Schaff, The Principles of Protestantism, pg. 59-60
Dr. Schaff also writes that:
To be true to its own idea, a Reformation must hold its course midway, or through the deep rather, between two extremes. In opposition on the one side to Revolution, or the radical and violent overthrow of an existing system, it must attach itself organically to what is already at hand, and grow forth thus from the trunk of history, in regular living union with its previous development. In opposition to simple Restoration, on the other side, or a mere repetition of the old, it must produce from the womb of this the birth of something new.
Dr. Philip Schaff, The Principles of Protestantism, pg. 57
True Protestants see themselves as a reform movement within the universal Body of Christ. The Reformation was a pruning of the tree trunk of Christianity. It wasn’t the idea that the entire tree was diseased and a new one needed to be planted—but that certain branches on that tree were diseased and needed pruned off. The branches being representative of doctrinal accretions that were argued to not actually be apostolic in origin.
However, these were not the roots of the tree trunk—they were branches. This is key. The substance and root of the Christian faith did not disappear and need revived or restored—it became overshadowed due to diseased branches clouding things.
The SDA Church did not do this or see itself as being attached to the universal Body of Christ. It sprang up as a pure novel movement in the 19th century with no connection to the church in history. While the organization likes to try and ride the coattails of the Protestant Reformers, a simple study of classical Protestant theology and history in light of their system tells a much different story.
In conjunction with this, Ellen White wrote that the prayers of those outside of the SDA Church are an abomination to God, that Satan has taken possession of the other churches, that those outside of the SDA Church are faithful servants of Satan, are worse than the heathen, and many other slanderous things.
For more on this watch our extensive break down here.
