Question

I have an acquaintance who was going to a Baptist church who has moved his membership to a Seventh-day Adventist Church. He says that he believes the same thing as before, but his focus is on end-time theology and sabbath vs. Christ’s amazing work. Don’t all Christians know that we rightfully deserve God’s wrath, our forgiveness is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone? What questions can I ask him to see if he is orthodox in his beliefs?

Answer

Dear friend:

I appreciate your concern for your friend and his change of churches and his soul.

See the following Wikipedia article. It would be good to review this to know in general what the church teaches. But do not then attack the church but instead seek to find out what your friend believes. You might also discreetly seek to find out if something happened at his previous church that put him off orthodoxy. If so, pray, and do not go for fixing right away. There is a better way. You asked a near perfect question: What questions can I ask him to see if he is orthodox in his beliefs?

Here are some questions in general:

• What do you believe about Jesus? (here you are focusing on his relationship to Christ)
• What do you believe about the Bible? (does he believe it is God’s inerrant and infallible word)
• Are you saved and what do you mean by that?

But I can do better for you: work with him by asking the questions of the Westminster Shorter Catechism! The first forty or so can be framed as diagnostic questions. Your goal is to learn what he really believes and at some point you can ask if the Seventh-day Adventist Church teaches the same. I am no expert on that sect but I am guessing if you were to ask those questions, he will help you see what he is being taught.

When you uncover an error, do not simply say they are wrong but show it from Scripture and then ask him if can live with the error and still call himself a Christian. At some point you will uncover errors in the basic doctrines of our faith. Go gently but firmly with your friend and invite him to come to your church for an evening service for about three months and ask him to think about why there are differences.

Do consult your pastor and get prayer support from your fellow members.

At some point, once you have his trust, ask him lovingly, What happened that you stopped going to an evangelical church? Or, How about coming to church with me for a few weeks?

Keep praying.