The Bible is to be Our Only Creed !
From their beginnings in the 1840's, Adventists opposed the adoption of a statement of beliefs arguing that the Bible was their only creed.
“Now I take the ground that creeds stand in direct opposition to the gifts. Let us suppose a case: We get up a creed, stating just what we shall believe on this point and the other, and just what we shall do in reference to this thing and that, and say that we will believe the gifts too. But suppose the Lord, through the gifts, should give us some new light that did not harmonize with our creed; then, if we remain true to the gifts, it knocks our creed all over at once. Making a creed is setting the stakes, and barring up the way to all future advancement. God put the gifts into the church for a good and great object; but men who have got up their churches, have shut up the way or have marked out a course for the Almighty. They say virtually that the Lord must not do anything further than what has been marked out in the creed. A creed and the gifts thus stand in direct opposition to each other. Now what is our position as a people? The Bible is our creed. We reject everything in the form of a human creed. We take the Bible and the gifts of the Spirit; embracing the faith that thus the Lord will teach us from time to time. And in this we take a position against the formation of a creed. We are not taking one step, in what we are doing, toward becoming Babylon.”
— James White, Review & Herald, October 8, 1861
"The first step of apostasy is to set up a creed, telling us what we shall believe. The second is, to
make that creed a test of fellowship. The third is to try members by that creed. The fourth to
denounce as heretics those who do not believe that creed. And, fifth, to commence persecution
against such. I plead that we are not patterning after the churches in any unwarrantable sense, in the step proposed." -— John North Loughborough, Review & Herald, October 8, 1861
“The Bible, and the Bible alone, is to be our creed, the sole bond of union; all who bow to this Holy Word will be in harmony. Our own views and ideas must not control our efforts. Man is fallible, but God's Word is infallible. Instead of wrangling with one another, let men exalt the Lord. Let us meet all opposition as did our Master, saying, “It is written.” Let us lift up the banner on which is inscribed, The Bible our rule of faith and discipline.” — Ellen White, Review & Herald, Dec 15, 1885
Sister White also wrote, “We are not saved as a sect; no denominational name has any virtue to bring us into favor with God. We are saved individually as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
— Ellen White, Review & Herald, Feb 10, 1891