Seventh-day Adventism vs. Mormonism - Melissa Duge Spiers | Ep. 2149
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 18 May 2026
⏱️ 161 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
For the first time on Mormon Stories Podcast, we’re diving into the world of Seventh-day Adventism. John sits down with Melissa Spiers, a former Seventh-day Adventist, to explore the history, beliefs, culture, and practices of the SDA Church—and to compare them with Mormonism along the way.
In Part 1 of this two-part series, Melissa gives an overview of Seventh-day Adventist origins, theology, lifestyle standards, and church culture, while John and Melissa discuss some of the surprising similarities and key differences between the SDA and LDS traditions.
Then later this week in Part 2, Melissa shares her personal story of growing up in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, her experiences within the faith, and the reasons she ultimately chose to leave.
If this topic interests you, be sure to check out Melissa’s book, "Holy Disobedience: Sex, Sin, and Secrets in the Biggest Church No One Knows."
You can purchase it here.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast. I'm your host, |
| 0:03.4 | John DeLinn. It is May 13th, 2026, and today we have one of my favorite types of Mormon stories |
| 0:10.7 | interviews. We're interviewing an ex-member of another cult or high-demand religion, and we're |
| 0:17.6 | covering a high-demand religion or cold that we've never covered before on Mormon stories. |
| 0:22.8 | And it's bigger and more powerful and significant. |
| 0:26.6 | I doubt richer, but definitely bigger and maybe even more powerful or significant than the Mormon church. |
| 0:32.2 | Definitely more claimed members. |
| 0:34.6 | Today we are going to be covering in a two-part episode, the Seventh-day Adventist |
| 0:40.2 | Church or Movement. It's known as the, I don't know, the biggest church you've never heard of |
| 0:45.8 | before, which I thought was kind of interesting. They claim 25 plus million members worldwide, |
| 0:53.4 | as I understand it. |
| 0:55.0 | They were founded around the same time that the Mormon Church was founded in the United States. |
| 1:02.4 | They have, I found, several really significant and meaningful similarities between the Mormon Church and its culture and its heritage and, you know, its own |
| 1:14.2 | traditions. |
| 1:14.9 | We're so lucky, so fortunate to have in studio a very vocal sort of activist speaking out against |
| 1:22.9 | the problems with the Seventh-A Adventist Church and its culture. |
| 1:27.4 | Her name is Melissa Dugie Spires, |
| 1:30.7 | and she's here all the way from California. Hey, Melissa. Thank you for having me. Hi. Thanks so |
| 1:36.1 | much for joining us. So happy to be here. Yeah, we're really thrilled. And I want to just start by |
| 1:43.0 | by saying you've got a book out. |
| 1:45.0 | I do. |
| 1:45.6 | Tell us about your book. |
... |
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