By Colleen Tinker
The Adventist Review has released the third of seven podcasts it is producing to address seven “core beliefs of Seventh-day Adventists”. The June podcast addressed the Mark of the Beast; July’s addressed the Adventist’s view of the Trinity. (Our responses to these two subjects are here and here.)This month the subject—surprisingly—is Deception.
In thinking about Adventist doctrines and core beliefs, “deception” seems like a surprising topic to devote to one seventh of their content intended to dig deeper into the core of their religion when “deception” is not mentioned in any of their 28 Fundamental Beliefs. Yet, ironically, deception is the heart of Adventism. It’s not surprising that the organization would frame this subject in a way that its members would automatically attribute doubts to Satan. If they can remember to blame Satan for their questions, they will be all the more likely to dig deeper into their Adventist worldview.
This podcast featured interviews with three well-known Adventists. The first featured Richard Davidson, the J. N. Andrews Professor of Old Testament Interpretation at the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary at Andrews University. (It must be noted that the Adventist university and seminary are named for a founding Adventist who was openly anti-trinitarian.) The main point of his interview was Satan’s supposed introduction of deception into heaven during pre-history and his subsequent introduction of deception into the Garden of Eden and thus to all humanity.
Mark Kellner was the second man interviewed. Mark is a journalist and spoke about how he believes people can know what is true when every media outlet has its own version of reality.
The final interview was with Dr. John McVey. McVey was a professor of New Testament at Andrews University Theological Seminary before becoming its dean from 200–2006. Currently he is president of Walla Walla University. His main point was how to avoid the end-time deceptions that Jesus said would, if possible, deceive the elect.
Davidson on Satan
The podcast began with the traditional Adventist teaching that underlies it view of all sin: Satan is a “master deceiver” who successfully persuaded one-third of heaven’s angels to rebel against God and thus be thrown out of heaven after which he brought his deception to the freshly-minted humans, Adam and Eve.
Significantly, without any reference to Ellen White (from whom this scenario comes), Davidson declared that Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 identify both Lucifer and the nature of his sin. Davidson explained that in Ezekiel 28:16, where it says “By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within,” he thinks the word “trading” means “trading in words of slander and deceit.” He then stated as fact that Lucifer went from angel to angel in heaven, slandering God and lying about His character, accusing Him of being unjust.
Of course, this idea is nowhere in Scripture. It is pure Ellen White and defines the foundation of the Adventists’ great controversy paradigm. Nevertheless, Davidson, the Old Testament scholar, used the Old Testament to provide a framework for an Ellen White paradigm which almost every Adventist would hear without a question and acknowledge as truth.
Davidson further stated that a number of deceptions (thanks to Satan) have gradually emerged from truths found in the first three chapters of Genesis. He concurred with the interviewer that “God instructs us to keep the seventh day holy as a memorial of creation. But He’s got lots of people who are followers of Jesus convinced that they can worship on some other day.”
Besides the Sabbath and its “deceptive” counterfeit, other deceptions Davidson defined include the conviction held by “most of the world” that “death is not really death but passage into a higher existence.” This deception deriving from Satan’s first lie, “You shall not surely die,” led to a related deception of doubting God’s word. Consequently, he said, “So much of the Christian world today no longer takes the Bible seriously.”
Two other deceptions Davidson sees deriving from Genesis truths are Satan’s “counterfeit to the divine institution of marriage” and the abandonment of the substitutionary atonement and/or the adoption of gospel counterfeits such as “some sort of works” or a human mediator.
What is one to do with so much deception abounding in the world?
Davidson had the answer, and it came from his “favorite author outside the biblical writers.” These are the words of Ellen White which Davidson quoted from The Great Controversy: “None but those who have fortified the mind with the truths of the Bible will stand through the last great conflict” (p. 593.2).
Davidson ironically concluded his belief that only “filling our minds with the truth of Scripture” and staying in touch with Christ Jesus will equip us to stand. Significantly, it was Ellen’s words that the victors in the Time of Trouble will be those who fortify their “minds with the truths of the Bible.”
Since we know that our salvation is determined by our faith in the Lord Jesus, not in attempting to avoid sin during the Time of Trouble, Ellen’s apparently pious statement is actually a dark deception. She appears to advocate dependence upon the Bible, but she negates the certainty of the new birth resulting from trusting Jesus. Davidson’s conclusion reveals that his hermeneutic is shaped by Ellen White, and even his advocacy of the Bible is supported by Ellen White’s endorsement.
Kellner on True News
Mark Kellner has over 40 years of “journalism experience”, including having been a national reporter for the Deseret News in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a news editor for Adventist Review and Adventist World magazines.
Kellner’s focus in his interview was how to evaluate what one hears in the media. He states that there is “no real objectivity in journalism” because everyone brings his own perspective to reporting. One may come closer to find the truth, however, if one reads reports that give details from both sides of the story.
The interviewer asked Kellner how to know if what one hears is truth or not. Kellner’s answer said that his “Seventh-day Adventist Christian” worldview is shaped by the Bible and by Ellen G. White and her “spirit of prophecy” writings. He was quick to add, “The Bible first and foremost, of course. Bible above everything.”
He further said that he believes a person can prove what is true from the Bible, “in every instance”.
He concluded by recommending that people “get news from as many legitimate news sources as humanly possible,” and listen to “contrasting opinions”. “Finally,” he said, “cling closely to the Bible and to truths that have been established.”
He did not expand on how or what truths “have been established”, but in the context of the podcast, he was referring to Adventists beliefs and traditions that have been established. Since Adventists publicly claim that all of their doctrines are based on the Bible, this sort of statement would sound natural to any Adventist listener. Adventist doctrines have been established, and there is no doubt that they are truth within Adventist ranks.
John McVery and how to avoid deception
McVey opened by saying he believes the key to avoiding end-time deceptions is Jesus’ sermon in Matthew 24. McVey talked about Jesus’ references to false teachers and false Christs. He acknowledged that there are false prophets today who “offer a brand of solutions” that claim to help us be ready for Jesus’ return.
Ultimately, though, McVey referred to Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:31–46 when He taught the judgment of the sheep and the goats. In this passage Jesus tells those who are saved that they had fed the hungry, given drink to the thirsty, taken in the strangers, clothed the naked, visited the sick and imprisoned, but to those who did not do these things, Jesus say they will be condemned to eternal punishment.
McVey then revealed his belief. Jesus’ warnings in Matthew 25 took him back to Jesus’ sermon in Matthew 24 in which Jesus warned his disciples against deception. As he read Jesus’ dire warnings in chapter 25, he thought about how to prevent being deceived. He said he realized that part of preventing ourselves from being deceived is intellectual preparation so we cognitively know what to expect, how He will come, and so forth.
Part of prevention, McVey says, “is a deep, thorough-going experiential preparation. He’s inviting us into ministry to the marginalized of our society. He’s saying, ‘You want to avoid deception and false messiahs? Engage with me in this work . Enter into my work of healing and ministry, and doing so you will enter into my very character and you will know me in a powerful way. This experiential preparation will enable you to avoid deception, avoid false messiahs, because you will know the true one, and you will have engaged in my work.”
Notice McVey’s advice for avoiding deception; it’s not examining Ellen White against Scripture, or holding Adventist doctrines to the scrutiny of Scripture without Ellen. It’s certainly not searching Scripture to determine what it teaches about how we are saved.
Rather, his solution to protecting oneself from deception is to immerse oneself in Adventist good works of healing and ministry to the marginalized in society. He is calling Adventist to become engaged in social good works—works which can be done by either born again or non-born again people—as the personal safeguard against deception.
Certainly I am not advocating AGAINST good works! Nevertheless, good works are not intrinsically spiritual. They may be the fruit of a born-again person who shares the resurrection life of Jesus, or they may be works of the flesh one does in order to “be good”. Good works, however, have no power to protect us from deception. Only knowing Jesus and submitting to Him and His word alone protects us from deception.
Conclusion
Ellen White said, “It is a fact widely ignored, though never without danger, that error rarely appears for what it really is. It is by mingling with or attaching itself to truth that it gains acceptance” (Education, p. 230.4).
Adventism is a vivid example of Ellen White’s own warning. The dark deception that shapes this religion does not initially appear to be error. It mingles with truth and deceives the unsuspecting, those who are not well-grounded in Scripture.
In fact, just prior to the above quotation from Education, Ellen said this: “As the student sacrifices the power to reason and judge for himself, he becomes incapable of discrimination between truth and error, and falls an easy prey to deception. He is easily led to follow tradition and custom” (Education, p 230.3).
Ironically, this third podcast (of seven) reveals Adventism’s dark secret: deception actually IS one of its core components. Even though these three interviews were designed to sound erudite, scholarly, and Bible-based, they all revealed the bottom line: Adventism is concerned with protecting its members from discovering they are deceived.
All three men interviewed, two of whom are biblical scholars, revealed their commitment to the Adventist worldview. In spite of the fact that they refer people to the Bible, their interpretations and advice reveal they live within the great controversy worldview.
Adventists spend much energy warning against being deceived, and this podcast is no exception. The concern behind these warnings, however, is not surprising. Because Adventism is NOT truthful, its lies can be discovered.
Thus, as the Adventist Review spends seven months examining the religion’s core beliefs, it includes warnings against deception in the middle of its series. By giving one-seventh of the series to deception, Adventism ironically reveals the truth: the organization is not a Christian church; it is a false religion based on deceptive teachings.
Only an organization with something to hide would include “deception” in a list of its core beliefs. Furthermore, warnings against deception will not keep a person from being deceived. People need biblical discernment to protect them from deception. This podcast, however, directs Adventists to immerse themselves in Adventist practices and beliefs as a means of avoiding the questions that could lead them to discover the deception inherent in their religion.
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1
a : the act of causing someone to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid : the act of deceiving resorting to falsehood and deception used deception to leak the classified information
b : the fact or condition of being deceived the deception of his audience
2
: something that deceives : trick fooled by a scam artist’s clever deception
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/deception