EDITOR’S COMMENTS
In the past nine months, Richard and I have each lost a parent. My mother died in October, and Richard’s dad died in July. Losing our parents has sent both of us to God’s word to find a safe place to stand as we process loss and the unknown.
My mother, a former Adventist, did trust Jesus for forgiveness and salvation. Shortly before her stroke, she said, “I know my sins are forgiven. I want to be with Jesus.” Although she had much unresolved trauma and pain, I know that I will see her in the kingdom, and I know that she is now with Jesus (2 Cor. 5:1–9).
Richard’s dad was a loyal Adventist. Although his health had been failing over the past months, his death came suddenly. He lived in Oklahoma, and because of the distance, he died without saying “good-bye”. His passing left us with a sense of unfinished business and uncertainty.
As I reflect on these two deaths, I thank God for two things His word has taught me. First, He is sovereign. He knew and designed every one of us before one of our days came to be (Ps. 139:16). He ordains our births and the days of our deaths. Second, salvation is of the Lord, not of ourselves (Eph. 2:8, 9). He knows how to deal with each person, and He can meet people even as they face death. His Spirit can deal with the human spirit in a place that doesn’t need a person’s full consciousness. Whatever uncertainties we have about our loved one’s salvation, we can trust our faithful Father to be both just and merciful.
I thank God that His word dispels the fear and uncertainty of the Adventist belief that we are merely bodies plus breath. The Adventist worldview is built on the belief that both God and man are primarily physical beings. James White introduced the idea that God has a physical body in Adventism’s earliest days, and with that belief established the religion’s physicalism.
The denial that man has a spirit that survives death means Adventists understand humans to be merely bodies that breathe. Thus, salvation depends on physical obedience to the law. The Bible, however, declares that salvation is based solely upon spiritual new birth through belief in the shed blood and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
In fact, Adventism’s physicalism declares that the seventh day, a created segment of time, is eternally holy. Physicalism also demands adherence to the health message to bolster the body’s strength and ability to hear the Holy Spirit. It denies that we know God through our spirits (Jn. 4:24; Rom. 8:16), and it declares that we cease to exist when we cease to breathe. The hopelessness and despair of believing that physical bodies and breath comprise human existence leave most Adventists fearful and resentful as they face death.
In this issue, Jordan Quinley, one of this magazine’s proofreaders, has written a response to James White’s pamphlet Personality of God, showing that biblically God cannot be physical. Rolaant McKenzie argues that Adventism’s date-setting leavened the organization with heresy to the point that it dehumanizes the unborn, rendering them vulnerable to abortion.
Rick Barker examines Fundamental Belief #26, Death and Resurrection, and shows that this doctrine denies the literal human spirit. Dale Ratzlaff explains that the epistle of James is not promoting physical obedience to the law but rather shows that spiritually born-again believers will display their salvation through good works born of their new hearts and spirits.
I discuss the biblical covenants and explain that all are unconditional, depending only on God’s unfailing promises, except for the Mosaic covenant. Only it demanded human obedience. The New Covenant is kept between the Father and Son, and in Christ, we are inheritors of all God’s promises on the basis of His faithfulness. Finally, Nicole Stevenson explores what it means to be born again.
We pray that the reality of our eternal, sovereign God who is Spirit will forever change your paradigm of salvation and bring you to life in Jesus through faith in His shed blood and His resurrection! †
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