By Dr. Peter S. Ruckman WHY I AM NOT A SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST Other Materials Available By Dr. Peter S. Ruckman: * Bible Believer’s Commentary Series * Beginning and Advanced Bible Study Material * In-Depth Apologetics * Numerous Pamphlets on Selected Topics * Variety of Gospel Tracts * Audio Cassettes * Video Cassettes Also Available: * AV 1611 Bibles * Study Helps * Concordances * Biographies * Evangelism Material * Material by Other Authors and Speakers www.kjvl611.org For FREE Current Catalog write: BB BOOKSTORE 1130 Jo Jo Road Pensacola, FL 32514 W h y I A m N o t a S e v e n t h - d a y A d v e n t i s t BY PETER S. RUCKMAN B.A., B.D., M.A., Th.M., Ph.D. BB BOOKSTORE 1130 Jo Jo Road Pensacola, FL 32514 Copyright © 1997 by Peter S. Ruckman All rights reserved PUBLISHER’S NOTE The Scripture quotations found herein are from the text of the Authorized King James Version of the Bible. Any deviations therefrom are not intentional. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo­ copying, recording, or any information storage, retrieval system, multimedia, or Internet system, without permission in writing from the publisher. PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Table of Contents Introduction...............................................................vii CHAPTER ONE: A Major Theological Blunder............................ 1 CHAPTER TWO'. The Great Sabbath Breakers.............................. 7 CHAPTER THREE: The Mark of the “Great Pumpkin” ....................13 CHAPTER FOUR: Born-Again Christians Meeting in Synagogues................................17 CHAPTER FIVE: The Four Sabbaths in Hebrews 3-4...................23 CHAPTER SIX: The First Day and the Seventh Day in the B ible..........................31 INTRODUCTION Many years ago (1950-1953) I noticed a pub­ lication distributed widely throughout the Southland called Bible Readings for the Home. It was pub­ lished by some outfit called Herald and Review. Later I found Sunday School Lessons for the Home published by an outfit called The Pacific Publish­ ing Company. And a little later I noticed that the pictures I had found in these publications matched the works of a publishing company called simply The Southen Publishing Company. Two things impressed me at once. The first was that the colored pictures in some of these pub­ lications were the airbrush work of a man who painted large billboards for the Coca-Cola com­ pany. The second thing was that in the “Bible Read­ ings” I learned that Jesus Christ was never going to get a chance to reign on earth anywhere for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-6). Somehow or another, the writers of Isaiah 2, 11, 65; Amos 9; Zechariah 14; and Revelation 20 had gotten Jesus Christ con­ fused with Satan. It was Satan who was going to reign 1,000 years on earth (Rev. 20:1-6) during the Millennium. John had been deceived into think­ ing that the “pit” (Rev. 20:1) was the bottomless pit; the pit was actually the EARTH. I found these books in nine out of ten of the rural homes that I visited in Alabama, South and North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky. Some “colportage” peddlers had done some remarkable business as door to door “drummers” (American for “salesman”: circa 1880). The next thing I noticed about these books was the fact that whoever was publishing them was afraid to tell you the name of the church to which they belonged. Concurrent with their doc­ trinal contents (and matching them) was a weekly broadcast called “The Voice of Prophecy” con­ ducted by their church. I found out, later, that it was the Seventh-day Adventist Church, coming from the old “Seventh Day Baptists” of the Cumberland Valley Revival (1800-1850). Their leading light was Ellen White, a demon-pos­ sessed female. Then, between 1953 and 1963, I gave consid­ erable attention to the doctrinal teaching of these Seventh-day Adventists. I discovered, for example, that Jesus Christ’s death did not cover the MORAL commandments written on Moses’ tablets (see p. ix). It only covered the ceremonial laws that God gave Israel. I then learned that the White Throne Judgment began nearly a century ago, and the “dead, small and great” (Rev. 20:11-14) were NOW being judged there. It was just being done where nobody could see it! Things went from bad to worse when I learned that Satan bore my sins (not Jesus Christ), because he was the “scapegoat” (Lev. 16), not Jesus Christ. If I had ever had any intention of taking this crew seriously when I began to study their literature, I repented whole heartedly by the time I had read less than one-tenth of it. As young as I was in the