RICK BARKER
Seventh-day Adventists are often misinformed regarding how others view doctrinal teachings. For instance, some SDAs are under the mistaken impression, because it is directly taught to them, that if someone attends a church on Sunday they are observing the Sunday as Sabbath. There are Sunday Sabbatarians, but there are significant numbers of people who believe that the weekly Sabbath has been fulfilled in Christ, just as the annual and Jubilee Sabbaths have been. Worship on Sunday doesn’t make Sunday a Sabbath anymore than Wednesday evening worship makes Wednesday a Sabbath.
Adventists are likewise misled regarding views of the law held by others. As a result, SDAs falsely claim that other churches are teaching that the law is abolished and that these churches are therefore antinomian (literally “against the law” or “opposed to the law”) or lawless. I believe that this is a result of a poor understanding by SDAs about the basic principles of the law as seen in other churches.
Adventists often view law as being synonymous with the Ten Commandments. This is a much more narrow view of law than we see in most churches.
Adventists often view law as being synonymous with the Ten Commandments. This is a much more narrow view of law than we see in most churches. Different theological heritages have different ways of explaining the broader sets of laws, but I think that it is reasonable to describe all of these within the definition of law as “anything God commands of man”.
Everyone recognizes in their theology, although some hesitate to state it outright, that although God doesn’t change, His specific commands to people have changed over time. Case in point, we don’t have a tree that we are forbidden to eat from under the penalty of death. Once this basic fact is established, one can begin to see the difference between law being abolished and fulfilled. A command from God may exist for a specific person or set of people, for a specific time, in order to teach a specific point, or points. SDA theology recognizes this in regards to the sacrifice of animals. This command was not a “forever” command, but a command that pointed forward to the death of Christ. So a key difference in theology between SDAs and many other churches is NOT that these other churches have set aside the law, or concluded that it has been abolished. Instead the difference is about which laws are fulfilled and therefore no longer apply to believers.
There are further differences between Christian groups that SDAs rarely study sufficiently so they end up grouping everyone else together as simply “not-SDA”. For example, on the surface Reformed theology shares much of an understanding of law with SDAs (and one of the largest places you will see an emphasis on Sunday Sabbatarianism is within Reformed theology). Yet the concept of different covenantal periods taught within Reformed theology leads to some very different conclusions about the nature and role of the law.
The Lutheran theology of the law is even further away from an SDA mindset. For a Lutheran, Law and Gospel are contrasts. Law continues to function (albeit with some differences in commands from the Mosaic Law) for both believers and unbelievers. But its function is to point people to the cross and the Gospel.
Dispensational theology takes the basic concepts of Reformed theology a little further. In this approach, each time period (Dispensation) has its own set of “laws”. Again, there is no claim that we are without law, or that law is abolished.
There is another concept that sometimes overlays either Dispensational theology (as seen among New Covenant Theology authors) or Lutheran theology (see Douglas Moo). In this approach, law applies for judgment of non-believers and as a means of convicting the non-believer of their sin and need for a Savior. However, once a person has been joined to Christ they are filled with the Holy Spirit and it is the Holy Spirit that directs the believer’s behavior rather than any written rules. Notice that even in this view that the law is not abolished. It remains and has a role to this very day. Referring to this viewpoint as antinomian or lawless is a misrepresentation and ultimately involves bearing false witness against others. †
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Rick, thank you for “unpacking” the varying ways Christians understand “Law”. You have stated so well the fact that true Christians, those born of the Spirit, are not “unlawfiul” or antinomian. Being submitted and surrendered to the Lord Jesus is a far more demanding law than an external decree. And thank you also for “unlumping” all Christians and showing how varying understandings vary in their view of law—yet how they all honor God and His word and consider every word He spoke to be His revelation to humanity.