Ephesians 2:16-22
Context is a crucial item for understanding any statement, so before we continue with Ephesians 2 by looking at verses 16–22, it is important to review the key context from earlier. The earlier blog article outlines a key difference between the Seventh-day Adventist and mainstream evangelical understandings of the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles that existed before the Cross. According to The Clear Word and the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary (SDABC), this dividing wall is an attitude of superiority on the part of the Jews. According to the Scripture, however, the dividing wall is “the law of commandments expressed in ordinances”.
Mainstream evangelicals understand that the laws given directly by God served to separate the Jewish nation from their neighbors. The God-given law, not the attitude of the Jews, was responsible for dividing Jews and Gentiles.
Although the last installment ended with verse 16, this installment will pick back up with that same verse, although looking at a different aspect.
For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility (Eph 2:14-16 ESV).
Previously we were focusing on the nature of the hostility. Now we will focus on the reconciliation. Significantly, however, The Clear Word doesn’t use the word “reconcile”`. Instead it says that “Christ wants to bring us together in one body, having put to death our hostility towards each other at the cross.”
Does it really matter that The Clear Word uses “bring us together” instead of “reconcile”?
I believe that it does. “Reconcile” is a theologically loaded term, like justify, sanctify, or atone. The meaning associated with the term runs much deeper than just “bring together”.
By contrast, the SDABC does point out clearly that the word reconcile has these deeper theological meanings, so the concept certainly isn’t absent from Adventist theology. However, the absence of the term from this verse in The Clear Word makes sense within the context of the Adventist understanding of the hostility. The Clear Word focuses on the reconciliation of the two parties (Jews and Gentiles) with each other—“bring us together in one body, having put to death our hostility towards each other”.
This emphasis on “bringing us together” is very different from the description in Scripture of “[reconciling] us both to God”. In other words, The Clear Word focuses on our relationship with each other; we are one body because of our relationship to each other. The Bible, in contrast, focuses on our relationship with God; we are one body because we are all reconciled to God.
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph 2:17-18 ESV).
This passage is one section where there is little, if any, difference to be found between Adventist and evangelical understandings of the passage.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit (Eph 2:19-22 ESV).
In verse 19 The Clear Word adds a substantial element that is not based on context or found elsewhere in Scripture—“Because of Jesus Christ, you’re now citizens of God’s kingdom together with believers everywhere and all those throughout the universe who make up God’s wonderful family.”
This rendering is not phrasing to make a passage more understandable. Rather, this paraphrase is a blatant addition to Scripture in order to lay the foundation for one of Adventism’s most hideous heresies.
In Adventist theology, God is on trial in front of the universe of unfallen worlds. Satan has accused God, and God must prove Himself just in order to remain the King of the universe. This scenario is the Great Controversy. The elements necessary for this doctrine, however, aren’t found in Scripture, so they must be inserted. Historically, this interpretation occurred through the way Bible passages were understood in light of the special revelation given to Ellen White. With the publication of The Clear Word, however, these hidden meanings that Adventists have read into Bible passages for decades have now been directly added into the passages of the Bible.
I have to admit, I was initially perplexed by the language of The Clear Word in verse 20 describing being “cemented to Jesus Christ” since no mention of any bonding materials exists in the scriptural account. It states, “To use another analogy, you’re like living stones of a beautiful temple carefully and securely laid on the foundation of the apostles and prophets who, in turn are cemented to Jesus Christ.”
I looked deeper to see if I could find any theological significance to this phrasing. What I found instead was a very pleasant surprise in the SDABC. It contained a description that captured the meaning in this passage as well as any of the other commentaries that I had read. “The church is not a pile of stones come together by accident; it has form and coherence. Each stone has its proper place.”
The one thing that I find missing in Adventist discussion and commentary on this passage, however, is the concept of the universal church. Adventism has a “problem” with the universal church. That problem seems strange, though, since Adventist Fundamental Belief #12 talks about the church as “the community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour”.
This seemingly evangelical view must, however, be balanced against the words in the very next Fundamental Belief Statement: “The universal church is composed of all who truly believe in Christ, but in the last days, a time of widespread apostasy, a remnant has been called out to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”
Adventism teaches that we are in these last days, and that they are this remnant church that has been called out. It is impossible to believe in a special church that has been called out as the remnant and also maintain that the universal church continues to exist. As this passage in Ephesians makes clear, however, God doesn’t maintain two bodies and two temples, but only one. The Seventh-day Adventist teaching that they are God’s remnant church denies the core teaching of this passage that all who believe are part of one body.
How Ephesians Contradicts Adventism #1
How Ephesians Contradicts Adventism #2
How Ephesians Contradicts Adventism #3
How Ephesians Contradicts Adventism #4
How Ephesians Contradicts Adventism #5
How Ephesians Contradicts Adventism #6
How Ephesians Contradicts Adventism #7
How Ephesians Contradicts Adventism #8
How Ephesians Contradicts Adventism #9
- Our Journey Out of Adventism - July 27, 2023
- 30. Adventism’s New Earth - July 27, 2023
- 29. The Adventist Millennium - July 20, 2023