“Turning Hearts in the End Time”—Lesson 13
By Colleen Tinker
The Sabbath School lessons for this “Thirteenth Sabbath” are, on the surface, an attempt to call Adventist families back to loyalty to their Adventist roots and to look to Elijah and John the Baptist as models for exposing false doctrines and bringing new life to families.
The lesson walks through Jesus’ statements about John the Baptist being the “Elijah that is to come”. It recounts John’s message of repentance and then takes the reader to 1 Kings to read about Elijah’s sacrifice on Mt. Carmel after which he slew the 400 priests of Baal before leading Ahab’s chariot through the drenching rain that broke the three-year drought of judgment God had brought onto Israel.
In recounting Elijah’s sacrifice, however, the lesson embellishes the story by stressing that his coming to the altar with a sacrifice was a reminder of God’s “redemptive plan revealed in the sanctuary service”. It further takes “Elijah’s focus on Jehovah’s altar” as an example of families going to the family altar during family worship when family members can “receive anew His free gift of salvation”.
The lesson also takes the reader to Elijah’s bringing to life the son of the widow of Zaraphath. It correctly points out that the widow was in the pagan region of Sidon from where wicked Jezebel had come. It failed, however, to show the biblical context that Jesus stressed when he said in Luke 4:24, 25 that there were many widows in Israel during Elijah’s day, but he went to a gentile widow in the gentile region of Sidon, not to a widow in Israel. The implication in context, both in Jesus’ reference and in 1 Kings, is that there was so much apostasy and so little faith in Israel that Elijah found refuge and restored the son of a gentile woman whose heart was open to truth and became a believer in the true God. Ironically, this faith was found in the homeland of the wicked queen who hastened Israel’s apostasy and idolatry.
Additionally, the lesson states that Adventists see themselves as having an Elijah role in the last days. They are the organization that is sent to draw people’s hearts back to the Lord and back to love for one another. They have the John the Baptist job of calling the world to repent and return to God.
Reading these things from the perspective of being a Christian attending a vibrant Christian church, this somewhat arrogant stance looks grandiose. Without stating what Adventists are supposed to be proclaiming, the implication is that they are simply to be calling the world to repentance and to the kingdom of God as John did.
In reality, they believe they were given the seventh-day Sabbath and the second coming as their message for the world. They believe God raised them up to restore attention to the “forgotten day” of Sabbath and to the “forgotten” expectation of the second coming. These details are not mentioned in the lesson, but the special assignment of being God’s last-day Elijah is stressed. Adventists, the lesson is clear, are supposed to spread Adventism. They are to make proselytes.
Overall the lesson is moral exhortation based on the Adventist worldview that says one can lose one’s salvation and must be continually brought to a place of accepting Jesus and His forgiveness. It assumes (without overtly stating) that God tries to get people’s hearts to turn, but people’s free-will is always honored and cannot be forced. This moral lesson drives home the idea that the readers are to be committed to calling people to repentance and commitment—to Adventism.
None of the lesson’s mildly guilt-inducing pleadings really “work” in a biblical way. In reality, God is sovereign, and He alone can turn the hearts of unbelievers to Himself. The lesson does not deal with the gospel of the Lord Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. Repentance is not clearly defined, nor is the goal of repentance. Faith is not clearly defined but is assumed to be embracing the tenets of Adventism.
Hidden in the Teachers’ Comments
Only in the Teachers Comments is the REAL agenda revealed. This lesson, the last one of this quarter, is really about bringing former members back into Adventism.
The Teachers Comments even acknowledge that there is a prevalence of polarized attitudes and practices within Adventism. How is one to know which Adventist church is correct?
Horrifyingly, the author uses John the Baptist and Jesus as examples of the extreme ends of Adventist polarity and says they are on the same page. We must help people come to church and see that they are in the right place, that even Jesus and His forerunner were poles apart. The teaching guide states in part:
Local churches and the unfortunate cliques and politics that are sometimes found therein can get in the way of a believer’s sincere efforts to encourage a friend or loved one to return to Jesus. How many times has it been said, “How can I invite so-and-so to church with all that is going on here?” There is definitely a spectrum of beliefs and practices within our church that can cause tensions. However, the fact that Jesus and John were condemned for appearing to be on opposite ends of that spectrum should offer some perspective. John’s strict lifestyle pegged him as being demon-possessed. Jesus’ preferred associations resulted in His being labeled as an indulgent glutton. Yet, Messiah Jesus and His prophetic forerunner John were both on the same page. There existed a profound harmony between them, coupled with a deep commitment to God and to spreading His kingdom message.
This harmony is encouraging news for one returning to the Lord and starting to attend church again. It means that the different “camps” within a given church, though looking very different, may both be striving to please the same God. It means that God accepts their wor- ship, imperfect though it may be. It also means that one does not have to figure out which camp is the “right” one and then feel obligated to join. You can never go wrong in joining Jesus’ side—proving all things and holding on to the good (1 Thess. 5:21). This perspective does not mean that all groups are equally correct in what they maintain. But it should serve to remind returning members that intrachurch factions have no authority to set the stage for an individual’s church experience. Always look for the third option between two extremes…
The Teachers Comments go even further and illustrate clearly the Adventist perspective that Jesus is our great Example. All through this lesson on urging repentance and a return to “faith”, the true gospel of Jesus’ life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension are missing. In the following excerpt from pages 172 and 173 of the Teacher’s edition of the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, we see this focus clearly:
Both John and Jesus led lifestyles that others pointed to in order to discredit their relationship with God. Remind people returning to the Lord that if the people in Jesus’ day did that to the Son of God and the greatest “ ‘born among women,’ ” people in our day might do it to them too. Brace yourself and count it a privilege to walk in those men’s shoes.
“ ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’ ” (John 3:30, ESV). John the Baptist was the first prophetic voice in 400 years since Malachi. Through him, the return of Elijah was fulfilled. John had disciples who called him rabbi. He received the highest endorsement from the Messiah Himself. His fame was real and widespread throughout Jerusalem. But his influence and popularity were about to take a nosedive in contrast to the skyrocketing fame of his younger cousin. His response to that was “ ‘Therefore this joy of mine is now complete’” (John 3:29, ESV). If there is a quality of John’s character worth imitating, it is his humility. Returning to the Lord, and perhaps to a church one once belonged to, can be a humbling experience. But humility is a beautiful thing. If it can be embraced on one’s journey back to Christ, the journey will be all the sweeter.
This week’s lesson ultimately is an exhortation to Adventists to stay engaged and to go bring back the lost and the disenchanted. It is a call to them to see themselves as modern John the Baptists going to their friends and former members and exhorting them to repent and to return to the “church”.
It is horrifying to use the biblical typology and the biblical accounts of Elijah, John the Baptist, and the Lord Jesus as examples for how members of a false religion should behave.
Our Lord Jesus is not an example for how to be godly. He is our perfect Sacrifice who is our Savior. He did not live on earth in order to show us how to become righteous or to execute righteousness. He came to be the propitiation for our sins.
The readers of this lesson need the gospel, not a moral exhortation to bring people back to Adventism. They need the truth of what Jesus has done. They need to believe and trust His finished work, and they need to be born again and sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. †
Link to Adventism’s official Adult Bible Study Guide
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