49. Do all Adventists believe in the doctrine of the Investigative Judgment and 1844?

No.  Regardless of whether one thinks this travesty or blessing, a large portion of Adventists do not believe in the doctrine of the Investigative Judgment.  However, of those who question the SDA Church’s traditional stance, many would still believe in the pre-Advent Investigative Judgment as a broad concept of phased judicial and executive judgment – just question the start date of 1844.  Even though a majority of Adventists do still believe, it is mostly down played and rarely mentioned in most congregations today.
As noted above, the SDA Church has no formal creed and has had a history of divergent views on a range of subjects. During the 1980s Adventist theologian Dr Desmond Ford sparked a controversy by calling for the abandonment of the Investigative Judgment doctrine, on a claim of being unsupported by scripture.
The matter remains a very divisive one within the SDA Church today. However, it does demonstrate that it is slightly disingenuous, as many critics do, to portray all Adventists as one belonging to one homogeneous 'cookie-cut' mould.

1 comment:

  1. 1844 is not a SDA invention:

    http://everlasting-gospel.blogspot.com/2011/09/non-adventist-sources-457bc1844.html

    ReplyDelete