By Nicole Stevenson
Last week we celebrated Independence Day in the United States. All across our country, Americans remembered winning the Revolutionary War and becoming independent from Great Britain. The landscape was draped in red, white, and blue; the air was filled with the fragrances of barbecued meats, patriotic music, and drifting gunpowder following dazzling displays of fireworks, and families rallied around the American flag and the freedom for which it stands. Freedom is worth celebrating, and we did it well!
What are Christians free from?
Every year when Independence Day comes around, I remember a conversation I had with my grandfather on his deathbed shortly after I was saved. He was a faithful Seventh-day Adventist and had given much of his life to Adventist ministry. As he was coming to the end of his battle with pancreatic cancer, he struggled, wondering whether or not he would be saved. Had he done enough? Was he good enough? Some of his Adventist family tried to comfort him, reminding him of all he had done to serve God and the church.
By the provision of God I was able to fly with my husband and two young children to see him. I was determined to share the true gospel with him and to show him that because of Christ alone he could have eternal life. As we drove the winding New England roads to his home, I worked to memorize 1 John 5:12–13 so I could assure him of this truth:
“He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
After my husband and I quoted John’s words to my grandfather, he raised his finger and pointing up at me said, “It’s just not that simple”.
I was heartbroken. I had been sure that his knowing those words were in the Bible would comfort him, but he didn’t “see” it.
Then, as we talked, he asked me the question that continues to haunt me each year as we approach our national freedom celebration: “What is it all these people are talking about when they go around saying, ‘Jesus set me free! He set me free!’ What do they think they are free from?”.
He seemed indignant that non-Adventists didn’t understand their responsibility in the “plan of salvation”, or their obligation to keep the law and thus vindicate God according to the great controversy worldview.
I was a new believer and was just beginning to unravel the differences between Adventism and Scripture, and I was stunned silent. “Freedom” was a wonderful word to describe my experience and position as a born again adopted child of God, but I didn’t know where to begin to make him understand. His “reality” was defined by an extra-biblical authority, and I was confronted with the kingdom differences between us. I remember knowing that I couldn’t make him see what I knew; I could only pray.
I have thought a lot about his question. Even all these years later, I cannot plumb the depths of the riches of the freedom we now have in Christ, but I would like to consider how we might approach the question, “What are you all free from?!”
Starting at the beginning.
I now realize that the answer to my grandfather’s question must start at the beginning. Adventism does not teach “original sin”; instead, Adventists believe we are born with “propensities” to sin. In other words, we are born sinless but begin sinning immediately. Grandfather illustrated this belief when he looked at us and said, “The Bible says we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, but I know one who never sinned.” Then he asked me if I knew who that person was.
“Jesus,” I responded.
To my shock he said, “No. My baby brother. He died when he was a baby, and he never had the opportunity to sin.” I realized immediately that he did not believe Scripture was the only inerrant source for truth and reality, because the Bible says we are born dead in sin (Eph. 2:1–3). There went sola Scriptura.
What I didn’t understand was that this Adventist understanding was a clear belief in the Pelagian heresy, a heresy, I later learned, which was clearly taught by E.G. White. Pelagius was a Roman teacher from the fifth century B.C. who did not believe in original sin as taught by Scripture. His contemporary Augustine famously rebuked his teachings, and ultimately the church fathers condemned Pelagius as a heretic.
The late R.C. Sproul wrote about Pelagius and Augustine on the Christian blog site Monergism. His clear explanations of the positions of the two men will help us better understand how Pelagianism affects one’s ability to know one’s need for a Savior: “Pelagius categorically denied the doctrine of original sin, arguing that Adam’s sin affected Adam alone and that infants at birth are in the same state as Adam was before the Fall.”
In this same blog Sproul quotes Adolph Harnack describing Pelagian thought:
Nature, free-will, virtue and law—these strictly defined and made independent of the notion of God—were the catch-words of Pelagianism: self-acquired virtue is the supreme good which is followed by reward. Religion and morality lie in the sphere of the free spirit; they are at any moment by man’s own effort.
Harnack also said of Pelagianism,
There has never, perhaps, been another crisis of equal importance in church history in which the opponents have expressed the principles at issue so clearly and abstractly. The Arian dispute before the Nicene Council can alone be compared with it.
After exposing Pelgianism, Dr. Sproul explains Augustine’s view of the doctrine of original sin:
Augustine’s view of the Fall was opposed to both Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism. He said that mankind is a massa peccati, a “mess of sin,” incapable of raising itself from spiritual death…. Augustine did not deny that fallen man still has a will and that the will is capable of making choices. He argued that fallen man still has a free will (liberium arbitrium) but has lost his moral liberty (libertas). The state of original sin leaves us in the wretched condition of being unable to refrain from sinning. We still are able to choose what we desire, but our desires remain chained by our evil impulses. He argued that the freedom that remains in the will always leads to sin. Thus in the flesh we are free only to sin, a hollow freedom indeed. It is freedom without liberty, a real moral bondage. True liberty can only come from without, from the work of God on the soul. Therefore we are not only partly dependent upon grace for our conversion but totally dependent upon grace.
As I heard my grandfather speak of his baby brother’s early death, I realized that as an Adventist I had also believed as he did about babies and about sin. I had also believed that sin was about behavior, not about our inherited human nature. I also believed that we had the ability within ourselves to seek after and follow God. I used to recoil at the text that says no one seeks after God (Rom. 3:11) because I believed I had spent my life seeking Him.
This Pelagian view of man is quite normal in the Adventist culture. In fact, after leaving Adventism I had a conversation with an Adventist very dear to me who said, “Nikki, I know I am a ‘sinner’, but I’m not that bad. I’ve always tried to do what is right, I’ve never gone crazy and partied or done drugs or run with a bad crowd. I just don’t feel like I need to be rescued from anything. I know in my head I need a Savior; I just don’t understand it or connect to it, but I’ll still obey Him the best I can… and I know I may end up unsaved anyway.”
In his book Knowing God, J.I. Packer writes about this type of thinking. He describes those who have Pelagian or Semi-Pelagian views as well as those who simply do not understand the biblical effectual grace of God, as not understanding their own sinful nature:
…in the moral realm they are resolutely kind to themselves, treating small virtues as compensating for great vices and refusing to take seriously the idea that, morally speaking, there is anything much wrong with them…For modern men and women are convinced that, despite all their little peccadilloes– drinking, gambling, reckless driving, sexual laxity, black and white lies, sharp practice in trading, dirty reading, and what have you– they are at heart thoroughly good folk (p. 130).
Packer then goes on to explain how this twisted view of the nature of man affects the way men deal with sin:
The way of modern men and women is to turn a blind eye to all wrongdoing as long as they safely can. They tolerate it in others, feeling that there, but for the accident of circumstances, go they themselves…Willingness to tolerate and indulge evil up to the limit is seen as a virtue, while living by fixed principles of right and wrong is censured by some as doubtfully moral (p. 130).
Packer also describes how current trends in business and marketing have affected general thought not only about people but also about the nature of God and how He saves. He points to Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends and Influence People which promotes the principle of putting people in a position where they cannot say no. Packer says this interpersonal manipulation trains people to believe that “we can repair our own relationship with God by putting God in a position where he cannot say no anymore.” He further states:
Ancient pagans thought to do this by multiplying gifts and sacrifices; modern pagans seek to do it by churchmanship and morality. Conceding that they are not perfect, they still have no doubt that respectability henceforth will guarantee God’s acceptance of them in the end, whatever they may have done in the past (p.131).
Admittedly, the ideas that we are not born dead in sin and condemned, or that we are able to generate enough moral obedience to affect God’s decision about our eternal destiny, are not unique to Adventism. Even so, much of the teaching that skews Adventist understandings of God and man come from ancient heresies that have influenced generations or people. When the people in our world—in our churches and schools, our doctors, dentists, and family members—believe the same thing, it becomes harder for us to question. If we read a Bible passage that seems to contradict what our entire Adventist culture believes, we tend to rationalize: “Who am I to think I know better?”
Unless these Pelagian ideas are corrected by the word of God, Adventists will go on believing that man is capable of being “not that bad” and that God is “gracious enough” to overlook sin in the lives of those who are at least trying to do well and keep his commandments (the Mosaic law). This worldview is the reason my Adventist family attempted to comfort my grandfather by telling him what a godly man he was and how much he did for the Adventist church and for God while he suffered under the full weight of his own sin.
Many Adventists look curiously at Christians who tearfully rejoice in their love for the Lord because the Adventists do not know the truth about who they really are, who Jesus really is, or what He did for them. They do not know why they even need Him. Still others will look on with indignation over the “arrogance” with which we proclaim “We are free! We have been saved! It is finished!” because, from the Adventists’ perspective, being saved is the result of moral choices and obedience. They mock the Christian’s assurance because they believe man’s free-will drives one’s salvation.
What is our Need?
Dr. Gary Inrig, the pastor at Redeemer Fellowship in Loma Linda, once said in a sermon, “We are not free to rise above our nature.” If we are in fact dead in sin, than we cannot bring ourselves to life. Dead men cannot give life. When Jesus called Lazarus from the grave He not only commanded him to come forth, He also gave him the ability to obey that command. We need God to cause us to be born again according to His great mercy (1 Pt. 1:3), and only then are we free to obey and serve Him.
Until one understands that we are created in the image of God, that they are a spirit who has a body but that they are literally spiritually dead in their sin and cut off from Him, that they are objects of His wrath who are living as the walking dead condemned to hell already, they cannot understand their need for a savior (Gen. 1:26-27, Jn. 4:24, Eph. 2:1-3, Col 2:13, 2 Thes. 1:9, Matt. 10:28, Jn. 3:18).
Until one understands that they can no more raise their dead spirit to life than a fish can decide to soar through the heavens, they will not know their need for the miraculous new birth or why without it they cannot enter the Kingdom of God (Jn. 1:12,13, John 3:6, Ezk. 36:25-27). Until they understand that they are born in the likeness of Adam whose spirit died on the very day he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that even though their sin “looks different” from his they too are spiritually dead and hostile to God, they will not understand that they are helpless to change God’s decree that they deserve death. (Gen. 2:17, Rom. 5:12, 6:23, Rom. 8:4). Until they know they were born into the kingdom of darkness and that their father is the father of lies, they will not see their need to be rescued and brought into the kingdom of the beloved Son (Col. 1:13, John 8:44). Until they know they are utterly depraved they will not know that they cannot trust their own definitions and interpretations of sin.
What are we free from?
When God graciously opens our eyes to see our true nature, our condemnation, and our helplessness, it is in that place that we can fall at the foot of the cross in repentance and submit our lives to the God who, while we are still dead in sin, makes us alive together with Christ. It is belief in God’s testimony about His son, not do-gooding or moral choices, that qualifies us for eternal life (Eph. 1:13-14, 2:4-10, Col 2:13-15, 1 Jn. 5:9-13)!
When we are drawn by the Father and are born again by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, we are set free by the Son (Jn. 6:44, Ez. 36:26-27, Jn 8:36)! We are free from the law of sin and death because we are made spiritually alive (Rm. 8:2)! We are free from condemnation because we are justified before God and are robed in the righteousness of Christ (Rm 5:1; 8:1, Gal. 3:27)! We are free from the kingdom of darkness and the reign of the father of lies because we are transferred into the kingdom of the beloved Son and are adopted by God who is our Father—the Father of spirits (Col. 1:13, 2:13-15, Rm 8:14-17, Heb. 12:9)! We are free from the law and Old Covenant works-salvation because we are kept in salvation by the power of God and live according to the Law of Christ under the New Covenant (1 Pt. 1:3-5, Rm. 8:1-2, Heb.8:7-13) !
We are free to eat because Jesus has declared all foods clean (Mk. 7:19)! We are free from fear of abandonment because we are sealed by the Holy Spirit who is our comforter and teacher, and we know that He will never leave us or forsake us (Eph. 1:13-14, Jn. 14:16-18, Heb 13:5,6). We are free from the fear of death because Jesus is Himself the resurrection and the life and has conquered death and granted us life eternal (Heb. 2:14,15, Jn.11:25,26, 1 Jn. 5:12,13)! We are free from the fear of man, because no one can separate us from the love of God, and man cannot destroy us (Rm. 8:31-38, Mt. 10:28)! We are free from the wrath of God and the fires of Hell because Christ has justified us and reconciled us to God (1 Thess. 5:9,10, 2 Cor 5:17-20, Matt. 25:41)!
These are just a few of the things from which we have been set free because of the great work of God on our behalf. We now have a new citizenship and an unshakeable kingdom (Hb. 12: 22-24, 28-29)!
While Americans may celebrate their American citizenship and their Independence Day with great joy, those who belong to God celebrate their kingdom citizenship and their great dependence on the Triune God of the Bible with greater joy! We too celebrate with music, with food (the Lord’s Supper), with family (the body of Christ), and with great triumphant procession as we seek to live as those who bear the name of Christ into the world.
While I know that Adventists are often programmed to believe that those who leave Adventism do so to revel in antinomianism and “enjoy their freedom”, we who have left for the gospel know that our joy and freedom are not about indulging the desires of unregenerate man. Rather, we rejoice in the freedom of our new nature which allows us to serve the God who loved us so much that He died in our place to give us life and make us His, and who prepared unique and specific works for each of us to do in His service to the praise of His glory (Eph. 2:8-10).
So, if you are ever asked by an Adventist what it is that you are free from, I recommend that you take a breath, say a prayer, then start at the beginning.
Source:
https://www.monergism.com/pelagian-captivity-church-0
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I submit that we are free from EVERYTHING, as it relates to salvation, and that freedom is the result of the choice of grace, not of the choice of flesh.
This means that we are FREE even from the burden of choosing. For as the Good News Translation so wonderfully states the truth, “His choice is based on His grace, not on what [the chosen] have done. For if God’s choice were based on what people do, then his grace would not be real grace (Romans 11:6).” We are saved by the faith OF Jesus Christ, not by our faith IN Him. In other words, it is Jesus’s faith that saves us, not our own. Our faith is not out of us, it is God’s gift to us (Ephesians 2:8) and not the result of our own works (2:9), lest any of us boast of our own achievement (Ibid.). We are HIS achievement, not our own, and even our good works are made by Him for us to walk into.
Also, there is no word in the scriptures that means ‘eternal’ — not one. The word ‘eternal’ used in almost all the English versions of 1 John 5:13 is a mistranslation of the Koine Greek word αἰώνιος aiōnios, which means ‘eonian’ and not ‘eternal’. That which is eternal can have neither beginning nor end. Obviously, only God is eternal, thus no human being can have eternal life because every human has a beginning. God IS (not potentially can be) the Savior of ALL mankind (1 Timothy 4:10), but the salvation that is “especially of believers (Ibid.)” is eonian life — life for the eons — not eternal life, which is an impossibility.
“For freedom Christ frees us! Stand firm, then, and be not again enthralled with the yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1).”
Rio, Jesus Himself is very clear that those who believe in Him will NEVER die. Of course, we are not eternal in a “backwards” direction, but from the moment we believe, we will never die (John 5:24; John 3:18, Acts 16:31, etc.).
Quibbling about whether our salvation life is eternal or not obscures the reality: we will never died. We will never die because we have been reconciled to God, and He imputes the personal righteousness of Jesus to us (Phil. 3:9), and the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead gives life to us as well (Rom. 8:9–17). The Bible is very clear that Jesus IS the Savior of humanity, but we are actually saved only by believing in Him (Jn. 6:29, 1 Jn. 5:11–13).
“And the testimony is this, that Good has givens eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 Jn. 5:11-12).
The life we receive when we believe is not life imparted to us. Rather it is imputed to us; it is part of the righteousness of Christ. As v. 11 says about, this life is “IN IS SON”. That means that the eternal life we receive is actually Jesus’ eternal life. He births us and adopts us into Himself and His family, and His eternal life is ours when we believe. No, it doesn’t give us a past existence, but from here on out, we lie eternally with the eternal life of the Lord Jesus.
These vocabulary quibbles are resolved when we look at the big picture taught in Scripture. Jesus said we would have eternal life, and the contextual meaning of those passages show us that we are brought into Christ and live in Him on the basis of His own eternal life. Our future is secure if we have believed in Jesus…and the Lord has to awaken us from our natural death and give us that life!
Colleen, thanks for your reply.
It is never “quibbling” to insure that we clearly understand what the scriptures actually say. While it is beyond dispute that the salvation of ALL mankind means that, once the last man has been raised from the dead and vivified, the last enemy, death, will be abolished (1 Corinthians 15:26), this is NOT ‘eternal’ life: it is immortality.
But more important, neither ‘eternal life’ nor immortality was what John was referring to in 1 John 5:13. He was referring to ‘eonian life’ or, stated differently, life for the eon of the eons. It cannot be stressed too forcefully how crucial it is to understand this, because without understanding we are led into all manner of error. After all, if all of God’s words are pure, like silver refined seven times (Psalms 12:6), then should we not conclude that each one has been carefully selected by the Author in order to convey His message clearly and with the greatest precision? Should the earnest believer not then desire to know PRECISELY what God has said, and why? I should think that, given your background, your answer ought to be a most emphatic “Yes!”
How then do we dare take the word He chose, ‘eonian’ (αἰώνιος aiōnios), and for it substitute a word that means something entirely different instead? By what right do we edit the Author?
Jesus never said that “we” would have ‘eternal life’. He spoke only of ‘eonian life’ — life for the eon. Dear sister, you are allowing the traditions and doctrines of men to displace the carefully chosen words of God. There is not even a Greek word that means ‘eternal’ and so such a word is NEVER used in the scriptures. (NOTE: The finest study of the word AION (the root of αἰώνιος aiōnios) is “Life Time Entirety. A Study of AION in Greek Literature and Philosophy, the Septuagint and Philo” by Heleen M. Keizer, 2010. It is available from Google books at https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Life_Time_Entirety_A_Study_of_AION_in_Gr.html?id=l-SmshbeyUsC and is an exhaustive doctoral thesis on the subject — the only one of its kind. I have read it several times and I highly recommend it to you and your readers. But be warned: it is not light reading. It takes a real commitment and scholarship to read this doctoral candidate’s thesis.)
An eon is a measure of time, with both a beginning and an end. Thus, when used as an adjective to modify the word ‘life’ that life can neither be eternal nor immortal. The rational expositor may only conclude that ‘eonian life’ is something altogether different from either eternal life or immortality. That ‘something’ is even more glorious than any of the traditions or doctrines of men allow.
The salvation of all mankind has been achieved. It was done by Jesus Christ on the Cross and confirmed when He shouted out, “It is finished!” This is beyond dispute. But only those who have been chosen by grace shall have life for the eons of the eons. God is the Savior of ALL mankind (1 Timothy 4:10) but ‘eonian life’ is part of the salvation that is ESPECIALLY of believers.
Thank you for this article! I remember a time as a young Adventist that I believed exactly as your friend, that I really wasn’t that much of a sinner, I didn’t drink, party or swear like other kids my age. I didn’t understand my deep need for a Savior and I didn’t understand that sin encompassed my whole being. I thought that as long as avoided specific “behaviors” I was good to go. I never thought for a moment that even my own self-sufficiency was a sin, believing that I was able to save myself by producing good works so Jesus didn’t really have to spend a lot of time forgiving me. I was so naïve! I didn’t understand that comparing myself to others and believing that I was a little more holy than they were was a sin either. As I began to study the New Testament through new eyes (without reading it to justify my belief system or prove a doctrine, but to actually read it for what it meant in my own life) I realized the enormity of the gift that Jesus had provided for my sins and that yes I was a big time sinner! Every day and in every way! I was so grateful for the freedom that He gave me through His death on the cross, freedom to really feel saved and to be saved. To know that He offered me the gift not as a one time thing that He would randomly take back when I didn’t perform well, but an everlasting gift that kept forgiving and saving and freeing. So beautiful and beyond words. The crazy thing was that when I truly experienced that freedom for the first time, I realized that I felt even more accountable to what Jesus asked me to do, which was to love God with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself. Instead of feeling the freedom to go hog wild and do whatever I wanted, I felt that I have been given such a precious gift that I wanted to spend my life serving the gift giver. It was the first time in my life when I really started to surrender self and dedicate my life to Christ completely. The freedom He offers is life changing!