Neo-Adventism is a term you may hear us use in article or video. We coined it to distinguish traditional, orthodox Seventh-day Adventist doctrine from its modernized reinterpretation(s). This newer flavor of Adventism reflects a blending of evangelical thought with the foundational Seventh-day Adventist framework, particularly the Great Controversy theme (GCT).
While Neo-Adventists often profess alignment with the denomination’s stated beliefs, they frequently articulate positions that diverge significantly from orthodox SDA teachings. This inconsistency can create confusion among those seeking clarity about Adventist doctrine and practice often making Neo-Adventism far more theologically dangerous.
Some key areas where we have noticed significant inconsistencies include:
Jesus Having A Sinful Nature (Click to Learn More)
Rooted in the GCT, the Seventh-day Adventist theological framework portrays Jesus as the Great Example or the Model Man. Within their suggested cosmic conflict between Christ and Satan, it is asserted that God is on trial, requiring vindication from Satan’s accusations regarding the Ten Commandments. This belief underpins the Adventist understanding of why Jesus incarnated as a man and came to earth. As Ellen G. White writes:
Not to see the marked contrast between Christ and ourselves is not to know ourselves. He who does not abhor himself can not understand the meaning of redemption. To be redeemed means to cease from sin. No heart that is stirred to rebellion against the law of God has any union with Christ, who died to vindicate the law and exalt it before all nations, tongues, and peoples.
Ellen G. White, The Watchman, April 23, 1907, par. 2
Christ left His position in the heavenly courts, and came to this earth to live the life of human beings. This sacrifice He made in order to show that Satan’s charge against God is false—that it is possible for man to obey the laws of God’s kingdom.
Ellen G. White, Lift Him Up, pg. 235 (LHU 235.2)
From the first the great controversy had been upon the law of God. Satan had sought to prove that God was unjust, that His law was faulty, and that the good of the universe required it to be changed. In attacking the law he aimed to overthrow the authority of its Author. In the controversy it was to be shown whether the divine statutes were defective and subject to change, or perfect and immutable.
Ellen G. White, Patriarchs & Prophets, pg. 69 (PP 69.1)
This paradigm suggests that Satan and God are in conflict over the 10 Commandments. The model also suggests that this is why Jesus came—to vindicate God from Satan’s accusations, showing that the law is fair, it can be kept, and it is immutable. Not only this, but also that you, with His help, can also keep the law like he did and also vindicate God, silencing Satan. This is actually what their model puts forth is the central core of the gospel—the vindication of God from Satans charges.
With that being the case, orthodox SDA teaching also puts forth that Jesus was man’s Great Example, who came with a sinful nature like ours, showing us that the law is fair, it can be kept, it is immutable, and Satan is a liar. Ellen White writes:
It would have been an almost infinite humiliation for the Son of God to take man’s nature, even when Adam stood in his innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted humanity when the race had been weakened by four thousand years of sin. Like every child of Adam He accepted the results of the working of the great law of heredity. What these results were is shown in the history of His earthly ancestors. He came with such a heredity to share our sorrows and temptations, and to give us the example of a sinless life. (The Desire of Ages, pg. 49). Those who claim that it was not possible for Christ to sin, cannot believe that He really took upon Himself human nature. But was not Christ actually tempted, not only by Satan in the wilderness, but all through His life, from childhood to manhood? (SDA Bible Commentary 7:929). Our Saviour took humanity, with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man, with the possibility of yielding to temptation. We have nothing to bear which He has not endured.
Ellen G. White, Faith I Live By, pg. 49
Our great Exemplar was exalted to be equal with God. He was high commander in heaven. All the holy angels delighted to bow before Him. “And again, when He bringeth in the First-begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him.” Jesus took upon Himself our nature, laid aside His glory, majesty, and riches to perform his mission, to save that which was lost.
Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 2, pg. 426 (2T 426.2)
Christ, the second Adam, came to a world polluted and marred, to live a life of perfect obedience. The race, weakened in moral power, was unable to cope with Satan, who ruled his subjects with cruel authority. Christ came to stand on the field of battle in warfare against all the satanic forces. By representing in his life the character of God, he sought to win man back to his allegiance. Clad in the vestments of humanity, the Son of God came down to the level of those he wished to save. In him was no guile or sinfulness ; he was ever pure and undefiled; yet he took upon him our sinful nature.
Ellen G. White, Review & Herald, December 15, 1896
Think of Christ’s humiliation. He took upon himself fallen, suffering human nature, degraded and defiled by sin. He took our sorrows, bearing our grief and shame. He endured all the temptations wherewith man is beset. He united humanity with divinity: a divine spirit dwelt in a temple of flesh. He united himself with the temple.” The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” because by so doing he could associate with the sinful, sorrowing sons and daughters of Adam.
Ellen G. White, The Youth’s Instructor, December 20, 1900
The orthodox Seventh-day Adventist view posits that Jesus, though sinless, assumed a sinful, fallen nature—one shaped by 4,000 years of human history and degradation. This perspective reflects a misunderstanding of what it means for Jesus to be the Second Adam (Romans 5:12-21; 1 Corinthians 15:22, 44-49; 1 Corinthians 15:45). Jesus is not in the fallen line of the first Adam which is, in part, why the doctrine of the Virgin birth is foundational Christian teaching.
Nevertheless, the belief in Christ having a sinful nature is integral to their theological framework. The reasoning is that if Jesus did not fully identify with fallen humanity—taking on a sinful nature while remaining without sin—He could not serve as a true Example for humanity or effectively silence Satan’s accusations. Thus, the notion of Jesus assuming a sinful nature is essential to maintaining the coherence of their worldview.
Neo-Adventists, however, often reject this idea, influenced by evangelical theologians and pastors who lack a Great Controversy Worldview and would never attribute a sinful nature to Christ. They will often assert that this is Last Generation Theology which they perceive to be incorrect. This divergence creates a theological tension, as rejecting the sinful nature of Jesus undermines a foundational aspect of the Adventist model, leaving Neo-Adventists in a theological dilemma.
To see a practical example of this, watch this presentation and this presentation.
Sinless Perfectionism (Click to Learn More)
Tied to the belief of God being on trial and needing vindicated, Jesus having a fallen, sinful nature, and Him being the Great Example, is the claim that man must keep the law perfectly to demonstrate they can be trusted to not let sin enter Heaven again like Satan did. Which is why orthodox SDA teaching upholds the doctrine of a Second Probation.
Death entered the world because of transgression. But Christ gave his life that man should have another trial. He did not die on the cross to abolish the law of God, but to secure for man a second probation. He did not die to make sin an immortal attribute: he died to secure the right to destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. He suffered the full penalty of a broken law for the whole world. This he did, not that men might continue in transgression, but that they might return to their loyalty and keep God’s commandments, and his law as the apple of their eye.
Ellen G. White, Special Testimony to Battle Creek Church, pg. 32 (PHO86 32.1)
We are not to settle down, expecting that a change of character will come to us by some miraculous work, when Jesus shall appear in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. No, my young friends, we are judgment-bound, and probation is granted to us here in this life, in order that we may form characters for the future, immortal life.
Ellen G. White, Sons and Daughters, (January 3) pg. 9 (SD 9.2)
He [Jesus] came to demonstrate the fact that humanity, allied by living faith to divinity, can keep all the commandments of God. He came to make plain the immutable character of the law, to declare that disobedience and transgression can never be rewarded with eternal life. He came as a man to humanity, that humanity might touch humanity, while divinity laid hold upon the throne of God.
Ellen G. White, Mind, Character and Personality, Vol. 2, pg. 564 (2MCP 564.4)
All who have truly repented of sin, and by faith claimed the blood of Christ as their atoning sacrifice, have had pardon entered against their names in the books of heaven; as they have become partakers of the righteousness of Christ, and their characters are found to be in harmony with the law of God, their sins will be blotted out, and they themselves will be accounted worthy of eternal life.
Ellen G. White, Christ In His Sanctuary, pg. 177 (CIHS 177.2)
If you would be a saint in heaven you must first be a saint on earth. The traits of character you cherish in life will not be changed by death or by the resurrection. You will come up from the grave with the same disposition you manifested in your home and in society. Jesus does not change the character at His coming. The work of transformation must be done now. Our daily lives are determining our destiny. Defects of character must be repented of and overcome through the grace of Christ, and a symmetrical character must be formed while in this probationary state, that we may be fitted for the mansions above.
Ellen G. White, Manuscript Releases 13:82 (1891), Last Day Events, pf. 295 (LDE 295.1)
According to the Great Controversy paradigm, Jesus came to give man a “second probation.” The first probation was Adam and Eve’s. They have an entire theology around probation and it has to do with mankind being created with this controversy already underway. Man was created in the controversy to see if creatures could keep the law or if Satan’s charge was correct.
On this probationary that Jesus allegedly secured for humanity, one must develop an identical character to that of Jesus. As the Great Example, He is supposed to show us that this can be done if we try our hardest in faith, believing that Jesus will do such within and through us. Only those that develop a totally sinless character will be found worthy of the atoning benefits of Christ’s sacrifice, vindicate God before the universe, and be rewarded with eternal life. No change in one’s character is coming at the Second Coming because that is what probation now is supposed to be fore.
This is to say that complete sanctification must take place prior to the close of probation which is either at the point of one’s death or just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus. As the SDA Church published in the December 10, 1889 issue of their church paper—the Review & Herald:
And Enoch walked with God : and he was not; for God took him.” Gen. 5:24. It is only a short journey to the heavenly hills, brethren, if we walk with God. In John 15:10, Jesus tells us he kept his Father’s commandments. He did not say, “I am trying to keep” them, but he says, “I have kept” them. So it is not enough that we try to keep the commandments. We must keep them. The character of the saints is not established by their failures to keep the commands of God, but by their success in doing so. Those who simply try to keep the commandments, are moral cripples; they do not walk with God; they simply hobble along after him…
All through the Bible, God has made it our duty to keep the commandments. And we are to keep them even as Christ kept them. We must do one of two things: we must either keep them, or charge God with mockery. The very fact that God has commanded us to keep them, is evidence that we can do so. If we cannot keep them, the command is tyrannical. If the command is not tyrannical, and we do not keep them, we are morally weak, and do not walk with God.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church, Review & Herald, December 10, 1889
Ellen White, completely in harmony with this, in the same publication, wrote:
God will test all, even as He tested Adam and Eve, to see whether they will be obedient. Our loyalty or disloyalty will decide our destiny. Since the fall of Adam, men in every age have excused themselves for sinning, charging God with their sin, saying that they could not keep His commandments. This is the insinuation Satan cast at God in heaven. But the plea, “I cannot keep the commandments,” need never be presented to God; for before Him stands the Saviour, the marks of the crucifixion upon His body, a living witness that the law can be kept. It is not that men cannot keep the law, but that they will not.
Ellen G. White, Review & Herald, May 28, 1901
This has led to serious confusion within the Adventist world with an unclear path to reconciliation among the various pockets of the movement. These claims from Ellen White are alleged divinely inspired and carry more authority than any Adventist—something else that is a by the book teaching.
At the same time, the Seventh-day Adventist’s Believe book, an official exposition of the fundamental beliefs, outright contradicts Ellen White’s many statements that they tell us are inspired:
Some incorrectly believe that the ultimate perfection that glorification will bring is already available to humans. But Paul wrote near the end of his life, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected, but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the price of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:12-14. Sanctification is a lifelong process. Perfection now is ours only in Christ, but the ultimate, all-comprehensive transformation of our lives into the image of God will take place at the Second Advent.
Seventh-day Adventists Believe, pg. 148
The “some” who “incorrectly believe” must include Ellen White and the SDA pioneers because that is where traditionalist Adventists are pointing to to support this idea. By “transformation of our lives into the image of God,” they mean possession of a totally sinless and perfect character. The exact thing Mrs. White just told us multiple times must be attained before the close of probation.
On this point, there’s a paradoxical sense in which the Neo-Adventists are in line with the exposition of the beliefs, but the exposition is out of harmony with the one who the same book tells us wrote the statements we read under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This creates a dilemma: either Ellen White was correct, and the Fundamental Beliefs book is incorrect—placing Neo-Adventists at odds with Adventist orthodoxy—or Ellen White was wrong, and the present iteration of the Fundamental Beliefs is accurate, thereby calling her prophetic legitimacy into question. They cannot have it both ways.
To see a practical example of this, watch this presentation.
The Remnant/Babylon (Click to Learn More)
Fundamental to the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s identity is their claim to being the Remnant Church at the end of time, separate and distinct from “Babylon.” The claim is that:
In this day, God has called His church [seventh-day Adventist], 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
Evidence of the Seventh-day Adventist movement being the Remnant is their alleged special insights into eschatological prophecy as well as their commitment to the 10 Commandments. They are a people called out of both the world and other churches—which are considered to be Babylon.
The term Babylon, derived from Babel, and signifying confusion, is applied in Scripture to the various forms of false or apostate religion. But the message announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to some religious body that was once pure, and has become corrupt. It cannot be the Romish Church which is here meant; for that church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries. But how appropriate the figure as applied to the Protestant churches, all professing to derive their doctrines from the Bible, yet divided into almost innumerable sects. The unity for which Christ prayed does not exist. Instead of one Lord, one faith, one baptism, there are numberless conflicting creeds and theories. Religious faith appears so confused and discordant that the world know not what to believe as truth. God is not in all this; it is the work of man,—the work of Satan.
Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, pg. 232 (4SP 232.2)
In Revelation 17, Babylon is represented as a woman, a figure which is used in the Scriptures as the symbol of a church. A virtuous woman represents a pure church, a vile woman an apostate church. Babylon is said to be a harlot; and the prophet beheld her drunken with the blood of saints and martyrs. The Babylon thus described represents Rome, that apostate church which has so cruelly persecuted the followers of Christ. But Babylon the harlot is the mother of daughters who follow her example of corruption. Thus are represented those churches that cling to the doctrines and traditions of Rome and follow her worldly practices, and whose fall is announced in the second angel’s message.
Ellen G. White, The Spirit of Prophecy, Vol. 4, pg. 233 (4SP 233.1)
God has allegedly rejected all of the other church’s in the world and this was supposedly announced during the Millerite years in the 1840’s—what Ellen refers to as the Second Angel’s Message. Central to that proclamation was that Babylon has fallen and people need to get out of these “false systems” and join them before it is too late.
According to the SDA Church’s website and their Seventh-day Adventists Believe book, the Remnant has a special mission and message that only they have to take to the rest of the world—the Three Angels’ Messages that we just saw Ellen White mention.
The apostle John, the last of Jesus’ disciples and the one who wrote Revelation, tells us exactly who Satan will target. Satan’s goal is to harm those who keep God’s commandments and believe what Jesus taught.
But among the lawlessness of the corrupted world, God will call for His devoted followers to separate themselves from those who have rejected Him.
“Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of [Babylon], my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities” (Revelation 18:4-5, ESV).
Those who do not come out of the wickedness of the word will be subject to the same fate as Satan—utter destruction. God refuses to let sin go on forever, and those who hold on to sin will have to account for their deeds (2 Corinthians 5:10). But God’s remnant people are not just supposed to hide in holes as they separate themselves from the world. God has a job for his people to do, a message they will deliver.
For many people, this message will make the difference between eternal life with God and the permanent second death. All who hear it will have to make a single, vital decision: either to follow God or side with Satan and share his fate.
Seventh-day Adventist Church, The Remnant & It’s Mission (Fundamental Belief #13)
According to orthodox Seventh-day Adventist teaching, those who reject the church’s special end-times gospel—the Three Angels’ Messages—will ultimately share the same fate as Satan: complete destruction. Rejecting this message is viewed as rejecting God and clinging on to one’s sin. This underscores the Adventist doctrine of the remnant, which ties salvation to accepting their theological system and joining their movement. According to this belief, those outside the SDA Church can only be considered safe if they remain ignorant of the Adventist message.
Neo-Adventists, however, often claim that salvation is not exclusively tied to the SDA Church. They frequently cite anecdotal examples, such as friends they regard as faithful Christians despite being unaffiliated with Adventism. These friends may have heard and rejected the SDA message but remain members of other denominations, such as Baptist or Presbyterian churches.
This perspective, however, is inconsistent with core axiomatic components of orthodox Seventh-day Adventist theology, which centers on the exclusivity of the remnant and the salvific necessity of embracing the SDA message.
To see a practical example of this, watch this presentation.
Conclusion
While it is not a formal term, we are strong believers in terminological clarity which is why we have coined the phrase Neo-Adventist—hoping to better articulate and explain for Christians the complex and deceptive world of Seventh-day Adventist theology.