What are 7th Day Adventists like?

I don’t know anyone personally, except to say I might have met someone who was a Seventh Day Adventists (SDA) and I didn’t know it.

I do tell the story of the Kellogg’s brothers at times, because I like it, and they were SDA, which was the foundation of their ficus on grains/cereal.

I don’t hear of them as being cult like, but I don’t hear much about them in general. I would assume that means they aren’t far out of the mainstream, but you know what they say, don’t assume.

We had a family of 7th Day Adventists who lived across the road from us. They went to their church regularly, beyond an occasional reference to their church, they never discussed their faith with us (and our children played together). I don’t know if they were typical. I have no idea how devout they were.

I worked with a guy who was a pastor from the 7th Day Adventist church. Their sabbath is on Saturday, so on Friday, he’d have to get home by sundown. He didn’t discuss his religion at work or try to push it on people.

Right. Sabbath on Saturday, similar to the Jews. Vegetarian (although not all are strict vegetarians). I’m pretty sure no alcohol or smoking like the strict Baptists and Mormons.

They are Christians.

I remember the Saturday Sabbath and they have a strict diet thing.
I’m asking this because my neighbours are 7th day and he’s a pastor. They seem nice enough and they are foreigners here, like me. They gave my son a kickbike in exchange for soap making lessons. They seem really nice, but when ever people seem nice, I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I live in an area with lots of 7DAs. They are kind, conservative people who work to help the community, and are very charitable in allowing other churches to share their facilities. (7DAs hold their services on Saturday). They are not pushy with their faith, but they do talk about it if you are receptive.
While I do not share their beliefs (I am a Baptist), I am happy having them around.

@cazzie If it were me, I wouldn’t be suspicious of their niceness. I can’t guarantee you anything obviously, but everything I’ve ever heard is positive. My sister had some friends in the past. She’s vegetarian, so they probably had that in common. I assume at school I probably knew some and didn’t know, simply because I went to school in Michigan. I also had friends in the “Jewish” dorm and it wouldn’t surprise me if SDA lived there also, because that dorm had more vegetarian dishes than most for those who tried to stay close to kosher rules.

My grandfather had a business associate of that religion. They do not work from sundown Friday (as I recall) to sundown Saturday.

The family across the road from me never caused any problems. The children all played together and they were a nice, quiet family.

The only difference between a cult and a religion is the number of followers.

My paternal grandmother was a Seventh Day Adventist. What I remember is that she practiced the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, like the Jews, and they went to church on Saturday, not Sunday. She wasn’t vegetarian, but practiced dietary restrictions broadly similar to Kosher restrictions. Red meat was ok, fish was ok, shellfish was not, nor was pork. She frowned on alcohol consumption (ironic, given that her family were moonshiners). She wouldn’t drink anything with caffeine.

She didn’t believe that you went to Heaven or Hell when you died. Her belief (and thus, I assume, SDA belief) was that when you die you simply remained dormant until the day of final judgment, at which time you would ether be bodily resurrected, on Earth, or your soul would be extinguished. No torment, no eternal punishments, just oblivion. In fact her tombstone reads “Asleep, awaiting the final resurrection”.

My sister raised her kids Adventist. Although their doctrine doesn’t say they’re the only ones going to heaven, many of their members believe just that.
Many are vegetarian, mainly because it’s an easy way to adhere to many of the Old Testament dietary restrictions.
Most of their kids go to Adventist schools and they send their kids off to Adventist boarding school for highschool. Part of the reason they did it when my sisters kids were in school was because they could pre fund the highschool and by the time they were out they could say that they hadn’t supported their children for 4 years and not have to use the parents income on the FAFSA.
This was the early 80’s so it was possible to get a full ride without loans if you didn’t have any money.
Their prophet is a Woman named Ellen G White who had some strange prophesies that were supposed to add to the bible but not carry as much weight.

They are not considered to be a cult by other mainstream Christian groups. They don’t do pressure tactic recruiting and indoctrinating (brainwashing)ike most cults do.

They’re basically ordinary Christians who keep the Sabbath on Saturday and are more dedicated to healthy living and diet than most people in general. That’s why the majority are vegetarians.

What @Darth_Algar described about their after-death belief is accurate and is termed “soul sleep”. They are not the only grouo believing this and there is Biblical foundation for this view.

So, they aren’t really that far on the fringes at all and generally not aggressive about proselytizing the way that the JWs are. They also don’t ostracize other family members who do not share their beliefs.

That, is one of the chief markers of cults.; the attempt to keep members isolated from family. Scientologists (as well as others are known for this).

I doubt you need to be more concerned about interacting with them than you woukd be about most Christians in general.

BTW: Wintley Phipps is a SDA pastor with a wonderful singing voice. He is close with Billy Graham and family and has participated in numerous BG Crusades.

If this grouo were a cult, I can’t imagine Billy Graham having anything to do with them at all, much less feature one as a musical guest in meetings.

BTW AGAIN: For those of you who enjoy videos of hymns being sung in the beautiful surroundings of nature, there is a small Adventist boarding school in BC Canada that has made this thei r specialty and they go to quite some great lengths to accomplish this.
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Check out this sample. Can you imagine how much work was involved in setting up the piano and positioning the students? It’s pretty impressive.
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https://youtu.be/INo42lyvszY
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And for those of you who don’t enjoy this, no one is forcing you to watch :)

No need to get offended. Just ignore the link.

Yeah, my upstairs neighbours are JW’s and I probably know more about their religion because I studied with a JW in New Zealand for a while. I rejected joining their religion at the end of our study together, so I was…. what do they call it? I became a non-person to them.