Nairobi News

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has defended itself from claims that some of its teachings are not Biblical.

The church said it values formal education and medicine and does not offer teachings contrary to what it implements.

This is after an investigative story about the SDA church was aired on NTV on April 7, 2024.

The news feature highlighted how a man lost his wife to what he claimed to be wrong teachings from the Adventist church.

According to the investigative feature, an off-shoot of the SDA church has introduced extremism and cultic teachings.

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The splinter group was reported to be threatening the legitimacy of the church and creating a fight between extremists and Adventists.

Members of the splinter group are reported to have abandoned formal schooling terming it as ungodly.

Now, West Kenya Union Conference President Samuel Misiani has responded to these claims, saying they are untrue and meant to taint the image of the Adventist church.

In a message to other Adventists through the church’s TV station, Hope Channel Kenya, Misiani said the video only highlighted the trouble of one family and had no connection to the entire church.

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He said the assertion created about the church is misleading and in bad faith.

“These people do not qualify to be referred to as members of SDA church. We are Bible-believing Christians and our teachings are based on the Bible alone,” the clergyman said on Friday.

Mr Misiani further said the church should not be dragged into operations of the splinter group.

According to the cleric, the church’s membership in Kenya currently stands at 5 million congregants who worship in more than 12,000 congregations.

Mr Misiani also said the SDA church is proactive in the education sector. He said the church runs two institutions of higher learning in Kenya – the University of Eastern Africa Baraton and the Adventist University of Eastern Africa.

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“SDA has 83 denominationally maintained primary schools and 32 secondary schools. We also sponsor 771 primary and secondary schools across the country,” he said.

In addition, the church runs two special schools, one medical college and one technical training institute.

Mr Misiani said the church also runs several health programmes including managing hospitals as well as distribution of health books.

He therefore termed as untrue, claims that the church bars its members from formal education and medicine.

“We also teach agriculture and provide relief food to different parts of the country when disaster strikes,” he said.