HALLELUJAH! ALL I HAVE IS CHRIST!

By Nicole Stevenson

I had heard the song many times before. In fact, it’s a favorite to which I often listen, but this time, it seemed different. This time, it seemed to tell my story. As I rounded the corner at the park where I was walking, the lyrics pouring into my mind via earbuds were somehow impacting my heart; I almost felt as if I had bumped into something which I hadn’t seen coming. The words grabbed my attention and gave words to what my heart was being called to remember:

I once was lost in darkest night, yet thought I knew the way…

I may not have had biblical words for it, but I knew, as an Adventist, that I was in darkness. I truly felt lost. I knew my thoughts, my desires, my temptations, and my heart. I went through many mental gymnastics to try to convince myself I had saving faith because I had evidence in my works—in my Sabbath-keeping. Still, I never truly had assurance. I remember weeping alone many times and feeling as if I was falling deeper and deeper into a black hole of hopelessness. Even so, I persevered the only way I knew how, the only way I had ever been taught was God’s way—the way of the “remnant” who faithfully keep the Ten Commandments and keep away from the deceptions of Babylon. 

The following are the words of Seventh-day Adventist prophet, Ellen. G. White:

“It is argued that ’church of God’ is the only right and proper name for the remnant, because we are God’s people by adoption. But God has always had an adopted people, and they have sometimes been called ’Israel.’ Does not the name, Seventh-day Adventists, relate to our Maker as definitely as Israel? We have always contended that God’s seal and royal name was the seventh-day Sabbath, and that in keeping it we have the Father’s name written upon our foreheads; that it was God’s memorial, and the only shield against idolatry. Instead then of this name savoring of Babylon, its adoption places an impregnable wall between us and Babylon, so long as we remain worthy of it. In taking this name we are taking long steps out of the great city of confusion” (Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald, November 19, 1861, P. 197.4).

The sin that promised joy and life had led me to the grave…

Adhering to, teaching, promoting, and supporting the doctrines of Seventh-day Adventism is sin. This statement may seem profoundly unfair and harsh to those who have not studied and have not seen how darkly these doctrines oppose the nature of all three persons of the Trinity, of man, of sin, of the gospel, and of all components of salvation (justification, imputed righteousness, reconciliation, sanctification, adoption, the new birth, and so on). Please know, however, that while I believe it is sin, I do not say it with bitter arrogance but with sobriety and deep sadness. 

There is no time here to fully expose the evil that lies at the heart of the distinctives of Adventism, but if you are Adventist, or are partial to Adventism, I urge you to do the very emotional, thorough, and difficult work of looking into these things. Among other places, Life Assurance Ministries has offered you a wealth of resources for your study, but ultimately it is unwavering trust in the Word of God that will reveal truth to you. This is a study that brings heartache, but Lord willing, it will also bring repentance and life! For now, the following quotes offer limited examples of the seemingly endless teachings of Ellen G. White which undermine the word and work of God to elevate her cultic Great Controversy worldview which demands a pivotal role for the “law” (which she defines as the Ten Commandments) in the saving of souls.

It is the sophistry of Satan that the death of Christ brought in grace to take the place of the law. The death of Jesus did not change or annul or lessen in the slightest degree the law of Ten Commandments (Faith and Works, 30.2).

Here we see that Ellen G. White uses “the law” and “Ten Commandments” synonymously. She will say in other places that it’s in keeping them that we can be trusted to be in the family of God. We will see below that Scripture tells a different story. 

She also taught that the Ten are eternal and were in Heaven before the creation of the earth. She believed that Satan’s desire to no longer keep them while in heaven was what precipitated his rebellion, giving birth to sin, and that the purpose of Christ’s coming to earth and going to the cross, was to redeem the Ten Commandments from the slander of Satan by magnifying them through his death. 

Satan declared that he had no need of the restraints of law, that he was holy, sinless, and incapable of doing evil; and those who boast of holiness and a state of sinlessness, while transgressing the law of God, while willfully trampling under-foot the Sabbath of the Lord, are allied on the side of the first great rebel. If the sanctified, holy angels became unsanctified and unholy by disobedience to God’s law, and their place was no longer found in heaven, think you that men, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, will be received into glory who break the precepts of that law which Christ came to magnify and make honorable by his death upon the cross? (Signs of the Times, April 28, 1890, par. 3).

God requires perfection of His children. His law is a transcript of His own character, and it is the standard of all character. This infinite standard is presented to all that there may be no mistake in regard to the kind of people whom God will have to compose His kingdom. The life of Christ on earth was a perfect expression of God’s law, and when those who claim to be children of God become Christlike in character, they will be obedient to God’s commandments. Then the Lord can trust them to be of the number who shall compose the family of heaven. Clothed in the glorious apparel of Christ’s righteousness, they have a place at the King’s feast. They have a right to join the blood-washed throng (God’s Amazing Grace, 148.4).

As said above, Scripture tells a different story:

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph. 2:8-9).

We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified (Gal. 2:15-16).

Adventism promises physical and mental health, career success through their educational systems, a “whole” life, and joy in knowing that one is “in the remnant truth”—all while offering a chance at “salvation” through false doctrines! 

The sin that promised joy and life was the path I forged at a steady clip directly toward the grave! 

I had no hope that You would own a rebel to Your will…

There was no hope found within the doctrines of Adventism. In fact, Ellen G. White was very clear that we could not know if God would ultimately own any of us: 

Not all who profess to keep the Sabbath will be sealed. There are many even among those who teach the truth to others who will not receive the seal of God in their foreheads. They had the light of truth, they knew their Master’s will, they understood every point of our faith, but they had not corresponding works. These who were so familiar with prophecy and the treasures of divine wisdom, should have acted their faith. They should have commanded their households after them, that by a well-ordered family they might present to the world the influence of the truth upon the human heart (Christian Experience and Teaching, 189.1).

Not one of us will ever receive the seal of God while our characters have one spot or stain upon them. It is left with us to remedy the defects in our characters, to cleanse the soul-temple of every defilement. Then the latter rain will fall upon us as the early rain fell upon the disciples on the day of Pentecost (Ibid., 189.2).

Those who accept the Saviour, however sincere their conversion, should never be taught to say or to feel that they are saved (Christ’s Object Lessons, 155.1). 

And if You had not loved me first I would refuse You still…

It was nothing short of an act of God that allowed me to see His truth in the pages of His word and ultimately to repent and trust Him. Ironically, it happened on a Saturday morning when I awoke early and “randomly” opened my Bible to Galatians. As I read that precious letter, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes and brought me to tears in my living room. 

I realized for the first time that we Adventists had been lied to. The Lord was calling me to Himself, and the following morning, a Sunday, my family went to church. Going to a “Sunday church” was not something I was seeking, nor did I impose it on the text. The truth, however, is just all there, and the Lord made me see it. If you have not seen it, I urge you to read Galatians daily and pray without ceasing until you can. 

But as I ran my hell-bound race, Indifferent to the cost…

While I was not indifferent to my fear of ultimately being rejected by God, these lyrics immediately made me think of my lack of belief in eternal punishment as an Adventist. Even if I weren’t saved, I hadn’t believed I was hell-bound. It was a point of pride for me that “my God didn’t send people to hell”. I believed that people who taught eternal punishment were simply manipulating others and maligning God’s character. The wages of sin was annihilation in my world, so I never gave much thought to what the cost would be were I not saved.

 Ellen G. White treated the teaching of eternal punishment as foolishness:

Remorse for sin sometimes undermines the constitution and unbalances the mind. There are erroneous doctrines also, as that of an eternally burning hell and the endless torment of the wicked, that, by giving exaggerated and distorted views of the character of God, have produced the same result upon sensitive minds (Counsels on Health, 324.2).

How repugnant to every emotion of love and mercy, and even to our sense of justice, is the doctrine that the wicked dead are tormented with fire and brimstone in an eternally burning hell; that for the sins of a brief earthly life they are to suffer torture as long as God shall live. Yet this doctrine has been widely taught and is still embodied in many of the creeds of Christendom (The Desire of Ages, 16.1).

Interestingly, retrospectively I can see that God’s justice is only limitedly displayed in the Ten Commandments. If the Ten are in fact a perfect “transcript of His character”, one might think they would perfectly include His justice. His justice is seen in the parts of the Torah which Adventist doctrines have separated from the Ten Commandments and say were nailed to the cross—seemingly divorcing God’s justice from His moral character. I do pray that Adventists, and all Christians, would learn to know God’s character through His Word which reveals His attributes to us and manifests God to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ! 

You looked upon my helpless state and led me to the cross…

I was truly helpless! The God who sees, the God who created me—who knew me before creation, who knew I would be His, appointed a time in my life when He would intervene, open my ears and eyes, and walk me (or perhaps drag me) to the foot of the cross. I didn’t even know my need for this intervention. I thought I was living according to a biblical knowledge of the cross and what it meant. I thought I had “done that” already. But God, rich in mercy and abounding in loving kindness toward me (and my children who would now be raised in a God-fearing home), brought me to life from total spiritual death—100% by His own work, His own power, and His own sovereign will.

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” John 6:44

“We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us;” 1 John 3:16a

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)… (Eph. 2:1-5).

And I beheld God’s love displayed you suffered in my place…

While a large segment of Adventism denies penal substitutionary atonement, it is the heart and heartbeat of the gospel of the God of the Bible, and Isaiah 53 is one of the most beautiful places to behold this display of God’s perfect love:

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities (Is. 53:4-11).

You bore the wrath reserved for me now all I know is grace!
Hallelujah! All I have is Christ!
Hallelujah! Jesus is my life! 

As the song progressed that morning, the tears did, too. I found myself lost in worship at the park as I rejoiced in the Lord Jesus for the life and the freedom from the kingdom of darkness that He gave to me! I was overwhelmed again by the deep sense of loyalty and love I feel for my God, my Savior! I no longer fear rejection or wrath from God, and when my heart condemns me, I only need to look to Christ and remember that, by the grace of God, He is my righteousness, He is my life, and He is exceedingly sufficient! 

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it (Jn. 1:4).

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone and live so all might see the strength to follow Your commands could never come from me…

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it (1 Thess. 5:23,24).

O Father, use my ransomed life
In any way You choose
And let my song forever be
My only boast is You
Hallelujah! All I Have is Christ!!!

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Nicole Stevenson

Nicole Stevenson lives in Southern California with her husband Carel and her two children, Joshua and Abigail. Nicole graduated from La Sierra University with a degree in social work and is currently staying home to raise their kids. Nicole, with her husband Carel, was on the launch team of Redeemer Fellowship, an evangelical church in Loma Linda, California.

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