Religious rites signifying the special bestowal of divine grace upon those who participate in them. In common with most Protestants, Seventh-day Adventists recognize baptism and the Lord’s Supper as sacraments. Seventh-day Adventists believe these sacred rites to be outward signs of the inward operation of God’s saving grace upon the heart. They do not believe that these rites, in and of themselves, confer grace, but that they accompany the work of grace, and that by participating in them the recipient testifies to his or her faith in, and acceptance of, grace. For this reason SDA s prefer not to use the word “sacrament,” which in a technical theological sense is often understood as implying that the rite itself confers grace.
In A.D. 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council fixed the number of sacraments at seven, with the addition of confirmation, marriage, ordination, penance, and extreme unction, and decreed them to be channels of grace. Seventh-day Adventists regard marriage, ordination, and the anointing of the sick as solemn religious rites having a scriptural basis, but prefer to reserve “sacrament”—if, indeed, it is used at all—for those rites that signify the reception of God’s saving grace. Seventh-day Adventists find no NT basis for either confirmation (which presupposes infant baptism) or penance (which presupposes that righteous acts a person may perform earn merit before God). In harmony with our Lord’s command in John 13:14 , SDA s do, however, practice the ordinance of humility, or foot washing. In Seventh-day Adventist polity, only an ordained minister may perform baptism or conduct a wedding or ordination service. In a church in which the individual has been elected to serve and in the absence of an ordained minister, an ordained local church elder may conduct the Lord’s Supper or anoint the sick and, under special circumstances, baptize ( see Baptism ).