Divisions Criticism of the Seventh-day Adventist Church includes observations made about its teachings, structure, and practices or theological disagreements from various individuals and groups.
In the middle of the 20th century, evangelical Walter Martin and the Christian Research Institute concluded that the Seventh-day Adventist church is a legitimate Christian body with some heterodox doctrines and stated, "They are sound on the great New Testament doctrines including grace and redemption through the vicarious offering of Jesus Christ 'once for all'.
[9][10][11][12] Some Seventh-day Adventist scholars have acknowledged that the church's view of the Trinity differs in several aspects from the traditional Christian doctrine.
[13] In an 1893 (November 27th, para.5) article in Signs of the Times, White wrote, "The words of Christ were full of deep meaning as he put forth the claim [in John 10:30] that he and the Father were of one substance, possessing the same attributes".
The view of the Trinity that they and White eventually came to is essentially orthodox, but it rejects "three of the philosophical presuppositions undergirding traditional trinitarianism: (a) the radical dualism of spirit and matter, which concluded that God could not have a visible form; (b) the notion of impassibility, which held that God had no passions, feelings, or emotions, hence could have no interest in, or sympathy with, humans; and (c) the dualism of time and timelessness, which led to the notions of 'eternal generation' and 'eternal procession'."
[22] The church argues that its doctrine is based on the following Christian biblical texts: Adventist doctrine states that God embraced "man's nature in its fallen condition," yet "Christ did not in the least participate in its sin," portraying Jesus as having post-fall humanity while remaining sinless like Adam before the fall.
Seventh-Day Adventism has been attacked for allegedly holding semi-pelagian soteriological views; for example, Roger E. Olson said: "Mormons and Seventh-day Adventists have tended to promote Semi Pelagian [sic] views of salvation, although the latter have been moving more toward orthodox Protestant Christianity in the second half of the twentieth century.