MAY 25–31 COMMENTARY

“Times of Loss”—Lesson 9

By Jeanie Jura

This week’s lesson deals with loss in the areas of health, trust, freedom (focusing on addiction), and finally, life itself. There are some good points and suggestions such as the need at times for professional help and counseling for addictions. 

But throughout the lesson, there are subtle, and at times not-so-subtle, areas of quicksand that suck you back into Adventist double-think. If you don’t read this lesson with discernment, you may miss the reliance on Adventist beliefs that are simply assumed but never proven Biblically. 

The first of these is in the very first sentence in the first day’s lesson:

“The moment Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they experienced their first loss, the loss of innocence. And this lost innocence was replaced with selfishness, conflict, blame, and a desire for control and supremacy over each other.”

While they did lose their innocence, their much greater loss was that of life itself. God had told Adam, as recorded in Genesis 2:17, 18: 

“The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.””

Notice the three words underlined above. They are rarely dealt with in Adventist writings, and when they are referenced, they are changed to mean that they will start to die. This is interpreted to mean the beginning of physical degeneration and death as Adventist theology does not accept the Bible’s clear teaching that we are spiritual beings as well as physical. Therefore, it cannot accept the spiritual deal that actually did occur at that moment. 

The sin of disobedience to the one, single command from God—do not eat—was the cause of the separation of their spirits from that of God. As God is wholly pure and sinless, His presence cannot abide with sin, and being separated from His Spirit is instant spiritual death for us.

The lesson then goes on to mourn over their losses: their perfect garden home, their son Abel, the eventual loss of the spouse (whoever died first) and finally his or her own life. 

All of these losses are significant but they fade into insignificance when held up against the loss of spiritual life itself. They did indeed die “that very day” and they knew it, as evidenced by the fact that they knew they were naked. This was so much more than just noticing for the first time that they wore no clothes—it indicates that they realized their separation from God. They felt the terrible loss of that close relationship. Before, they had had close, intimate spiritual connection with their Creator but now, they must have felt the separation and knew it for what it was. They were so aware of it that they hid themselves from God when He came to them.

Of course, they didn’t realize the extent of the loss until the curse was pronounced in Genesis 3. And even then, it must have taken years for the full extent of their loss to become painfully evident with each successive death, every painful sore muscle and blister from fighting weeds and the evidence of the consequences of sin over many years as they observed the increasing sinfulness and degeneration of their descendants.

In short, to demote the losses Adam and Eve experienced to merely that of things in the physical realm, is to greatly decrease the seriousness of sin itself. All in an effort to deny the presence of the human spirit and call it just “the breath of life”.

Loss of health

In Sunday’s lesson, dealing with the loss of health, we see this statement: 

“In many ways, sickness and suffering will remain a mystery until death is finally defeated at Jesus’ return.”

Having just celebrated Easter, we have been reminded anew of the wonder of the cross and the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf—and of the even greater wonder of His resurrection. 

And here is where Adventist theology again raises its ugly head. It has been observed that in Adventist churches, there is little attention paid to the resurrection itself. It’s added as an afterthought, but little importance is given to it. This is because of the belief that when Jesus said “it is finished”, He didn’t really mean it. It was only one step in the plan of salvation, not the culmination of it, so the fact that He was raised is not thought to be very important. Adventists put faith in being perfect enough to pass the Investigative Judgment far more than in Jesus’ perfect life and sacrifice on our behalf and in His resurrection.

In fact, it’s the resurrection itself that broke the power of death on our behalf! It is not something in the future, at the second coming, but it is a fact now! Sin has been conquered on our behalf, and the devil is already defeated! 

A few sentences later, we are told that Paul’s ‘thorn in the flesh’ was a physical illness. While that may be true, when one consults commentaries by those who know and read Greek, one finds other possibilities. That phrase can have other meanings such as the physical attacks Paul suffered—the beatings, imprisonments—or even demonic attacks. Since we are not told specifically in the Bible, it should not be assumed that it was just a physical illness. 

But of course the author has to call it that because that is what EGW called it, and her word stands over the Bible.

The questions for thought at the end of Sunday’s lesson may sound good on the surface, but they seem to continue the thought that the cross was all about the physical suffering and death. With physical illness, it is comforting to know with certainty that Jesus is with us, but much more important to one facing death is the absolute certainty, the guarantee, that Jesus defeated death on our behalf. With that certainty, we need not fear dying. Oh, our physical being will fight it, but our fear does not need to be in the dark, uncertainty of the grave. Jesus rose, and that is our guarantee that He will raise us and give us eternal spiritual life with Him after our bodies die!

Loss of trust

In Monday’s lesson, we deal with loss of trust, but it is put only in the realm of marriage. As such, we find this curious statement: 

“You could even say that one of the purposes of marriage is to teach us the lesson of how to rebuild trust when it is broken.”

I’m not even sure how to get to that conclusion. The Bible repeatedly uses the marriage relationship to illustrate the close relationship we are to have with God. 

Look at Hosea for a good example of the destruction that comes from the violation of that trust. God used that to illustrate the destruction coming to Israel for their breaking of the relationship with Himself. 

By keeping this section strictly in the realm of marriage, the author is able to ignore the much larger elephant in the room. 

Here there is a missed opportunity to use a very good example of broken trust—that of the repeated, ongoing breaking of the trust by the Adventist leadership. I won’t name any of the situations, but anyone who has followed the goings-on of the leadership will remember numerous times in the last 50 years that the church body was betrayed by greed, lies, and the general inability to admit and confess failures.

As is stated just below that:

“The journey begins with a sincere acknowledgment of the hurt and confession of the truth, whatever the offense and whoever the offender.”

Sadly, the church leadership has not followed that path, choosing rather to trust in the short memories and blind faith of the members in the pews and in the dishonest reporting of the numbers who leave because of the betrayal of trust.

In contrast, Tuesday’s lesson, which continues the theme of broken trust, is an excellent summary of other causes and the need, at times, for professional help in healing.

Addiction

In Wednesday’s lesson, dealing with addiction, we see two confusing and contradictory statement. First this:

“To this day, scientists still don’t understand exactly what causes it”

Followed a little further down by this:

“What makes these things into addictions is the habitual and progressive nature of their use or abuse.”

Which is it? Don’t know? Or do know?

This kind of double-talk is possible when people are conditioned and taught to isolate individual thoughts from one another and see just one at a time. In fact, this cognitive dissonance is the only way to accept all of the Adventist theology and teachings, many of which contradict the others. 

It may seem harmless to those trained in the habit of isolating thoughts, but to the rest of us it makes it difficult to trust anything the author says.

Loss of life

Thursday deals with the loss of life itself, and here again we are exposed to unsubstantiated and unbiblical Adventist theology.

We see this statement:

“If, in the Lord, they close their eyes and in what seems like an instant to them, they are raised to immortality. “

That sentence is followed by this quote from EGW:

“To the believer, death is but a small matter. . . . To the Christian, death is but a sleep, a moment of silence and darkness. The life is hid with Christ in God, and “ ‘when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory’ ”(Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 787).

Both of these statements contradict clear Scripture on the subject. Just for one, see what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:1–9:

For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our dwelling from heaven, inasmuch as we, having put it on, will not be found naked. 

For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.

Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 

Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 

Notice the two underlined phrases. They both say the same thing, stated as opposites. Note, he does not say that being absent from the body, after an unconscious sleep-like state, we will afterwards be present with the Lord. NO. It is one or the other —here in the body, or there with the Lord.

Perhaps much of the dread of death in Adventist theology comes from two things: 1. the uncertainty of salvation which is taught by EGW, and 2. a fear of the time of the sleep-like state which many may fear won’t be so “unconscious” after all. After all, if you don’t entirely trust God to bring you out of the darkness of nothingness, it will be a fearful thought.

One last thought about the question at the end of Thursday’s lesson. The reader is told to take comfort in a passage in Romans 8. Let’s read verses 35 and 38-39:

Who will separate us from the love ofChrist? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?…For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

How ironic to point the reader to these wonderful, powerful promises of never being separated from God while simultaneously holding the idea that this is uncertain. 

Here are just a few EGW quotes about this subject:

Those who accept the Savior, however sincere their conversion, should never be taught to say or to feel that they are saved. 

Those who accept Christ, and in their first confidence say, I am saved, are in danger of trusting to themselves. They lose sight of their own weakness and their constant need of divine strength. They are unprepared for Satan’s devices, and under temptation many, like Peter, fall into the very depths of sin. We are admonished, “Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). Our only safety is in constant distrust of self, and dependence on Christ (Christ’s Object Lessons, 154, 155).

These statements are misleading and say that the falling into sin will separate a person from God.

And this gem:

There are conditions to our receiving justification and sanctification, and the righteousness of Christ. I know your meaning, but you leave a wrong impression upon many minds. While good works will not save even one soul, yet it is impossible for even one soul to be saved without good works (Selected Messages, Bk. 1, p. 377).

Again, here is the threat of separation from God if good works are not done. Simply saying that the good works themselves won’t save does not cancel out the threat in the rest of the sentence. We know that the thief on the cross had no time for any good works following his belief, yet Jesus promised he was saved.

And here is one more:

“I saw that they would have to be sifted and sifted, until they were freed from all their errors, or they could never enter the kingdom” (Early Writings, 62).

This passage is saying that unless we are freed from all our errors, we will be lost. In other words, coming to Christ—salvation—is conditional on subsequent behavior. That idea is in no way a certainty of never being separated from God, so why direct the reader to Romans 8 for assurance?

Friday’s lesson has some good information and encouragement but buried in the middle of it is this bombshell:

“But the good news is that as long as you don’t give up on the Lord, He won’t give up on you.”

Think about that for a minute and follow it through to the logical conclusion. If you don’t give up neither will God—BUT the logical end of that is that if you do give up on God He will give up on you. 

There goes all the good of the assurances in Romans 8. There go all the promises in John 6 and 10 where Jesus Himself says that He holds us and NO ONE can take us from Him.