Knowing the Covenants Puts Sabbath In Its Place

COLLEEN TINKER

Adventism’s belief that man is purely physical makes its soteriology dependent upon man’s sanctified behavior. Adventists believe that God’s promises are always conditional upon human obedience, but the Bible describes only one conditional covenant: the Mosaic. All of God’s other covenants are unconditional. God’s promises will come to pass in spite of man’s obedience or disobedience. His word cannot fail.

As an Adventist I was not taught the biblical truth about God’s covenants. I understood that there was only one eternal covenant that applied to all people for all time. Any individual covenants that might be mentioned in the Scripture, I learned, were simply new bits of information that were added to the one big covenant God made with humanity. 

Central to this one big covenant, I learned, was the Law God gave through Moses, and I understood that the Law God gave was the Ten Commandments. These were eternal, existing before God wrote them on stones and lasting forever into eternity future. I further learned that this Law was the “transcript of God’s character” and revealed His marching orders to all His creatures—including His Sabbath command which applied to everyone who ever lived. 

These were the things I understood as an Adventist.

Some things did confuse me, though. For example, I remember reading in Hebrews 8 as an Adventist and puzzling over these words:

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest (Heb. 8:10, 11).

I knew “Sunday Christians” who believed in Jesus and lived godly lives, but they felt no conviction about worshiping on Sabbath. I saw in the New Testament that God said He would write His law on the hearts of His people and that when He did, they wouldn’t have to teach each other to know God. I could see that “Sunday Christians” were convicted of nine commandments out of the Ten. They loved God and despised idolatry, and they would never defame His name. They honored their parents, would never kill, commit adultery, or steal. They even had soft hearts that believed they should not covet. 

Yet one thing puzzled me: these earnest, sincere, godly “Sunday Christians” had no heart conviction that the Sabbath was holy. They had to be TAUGHT that Sabbath was holy. 

This fact confused me. If the law was written on their hearts, where was the fourth commandment?

What is the gospel?

Then came the day in the mid 90’s when I heard Dale Ratzlaff explain that the covenant God made with Israel through Moses at Sinai was fulfilled in Jesus. He drew charts demonstrating the differences between the old and the new covenants, and he explained that Jesus, as our Substitute, not only kept the requirements of the old covenant on our behalf, but He also keeps the terms of the new covenant with the Father on our behalf. 

That day was the first time I began to understand that the new covenant was completely different from the old. Moreover, I saw for the first time that the gospel was summed up in Jesus, not in my obedience to the law. 

My husband Richard and I delved into studying what the Bible said about the law and the covenants, and I realized that I had never understood the gospel as an Adventist. Ultimately, I realized that understanding the gospel was inseparable from really understanding the biblical covenants. As the reality of Jesus’ atonement and finished work came into focus, I began to see that the Bible’s revelation of God’s covenants explained how God works in and among us.

I had to face the fact that my blurred understanding of the Adventist “gospel” contradicted what Scripture reveals about God’s promises. 

When I tried to define what “the gospel” was from my Adventist perspective, I realized there were many different ways to explain it. In fact, different Adventists had different definitions which often included different “components” and practices. 

Some “gospel definitions” within Adventism include: Jesus died for my sins; the Three Angels’ Messages (the gospel in verity); the health message; all sins are forgiven; I would have to “opt out” in order to be lost; God is forgiving and doesn’t require Jesus’ blood in order to erase our sins.

There are many other details that Adventists may include in their definitions of “gospel” including keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, the state of the dead, and the sanctuary doctrine. Some may say those Adventist “distinctives” are not specifically part of the gospel, but they may say that these doctrines are necessary in addition to the gospel.

In fact, I realized that within Adventism, the word “gospel” is murky and is mostly understood to mean “good news”. The exact definition of that news was never clearly explained, but it was generally understood to mean that God would somehow forgive sins, and we could benefit if we did the things God wanted us to do. 

You might resonate with my surprise when, some years later, I learned from our pastor Gary Inrig that there is a central passage that defines the gospel: 1 Corinthians 15:3–5:

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

In other words, the gospel is not an indistinct piece of news that may be understood different ways by different people. On the contrary, it is precise and simple, and its definition cannot be misunderstood. The gospel is the reality that Jesus died for our sins as Scripture said He would. He truly died and was literally buried, and on the third day, just as Scripture said He would, He rose from death. 

Moreover, He had eyewitnesses who saw Him after He rose from death. His resurrection, in other words, was not an unsubstantiated rumor. In His resurrection body He appeared to hundreds of people (v. 6) who would be able to attest to His being alive. 

I saw that definitions matter; an unclear gospel does not lead to salvation. Only the simple gospel of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection leads a person to repentance and saving faith. I realized I had to be willing to submit my Adventist worldview and my Adventist definitions of biblical terms to the words of Scripture. I had to let go of what I thought was reality and allow God to renew my mind with His own words. I had to repent—to turn away from—my Adventist worldview and commit myself to God’s definition of me and of Himself. 

This realization and repentance was not a mental decision, although I did make a choice. It was an act of God. When He showed me what His word said, I had to trust it, but He had to give my heart the ability to believe. I had been trained to resist anything that contradicted my Adventist understanding. It took God’s intervention to open my heart and mind to the truth of reality.

Adventism’s gospel confusion

Because I know the confusion of the “Adventist gospel”, I also know the Adventist confusion of how to be saved. I also know Adventism’s refusal to admit a person may know without doubt that he or she has eternal life and cannot lose it. 

If I were to ask Adventists how to be saved, I could expect a variety of answers, depending on the individuals and upon the “brands” of Adventism they endorse. Adventist answers might include any of the following: Accept Jesus (what does that mean?). Follow the teachings of Jesus. Renounce the false Sunday Sabbath and keep the seventh day. Renounce “life after death”. Keep the Ten Commandments and overcome sin. Accept and practice the health message. Obey each new “truth” as you learn it. Believe in a loving God who forgives.

The Bible, interestingly, never tells us to follow Jesus’ teachings in order to be saved. Instead, Scripture says God must grant us “repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:25). This repentance given by God is a move away from our false beliefs and our false view of reality. It is a turning away from our internal deception toward God and His word.

When we have repented of our cherished beliefs and personal idols and turned to God for truth, we are asked to believe in the Lord Jesus and His finished work—the gospel of our salvation (Eph. 1:13-14). 

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved,” (Acts 16:31) Paul told the Philippian jailor. 

“This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent” (Jn. 6:29), Jesus told the Jews.

Jesus, God the Son, also made this astonishing statement—a statement I never really “saw” when I was an Adventist:

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life (Jn. 5:24).

The Bible is very clear how one is saved and that we can know that we are saved eternally. How, then, is Adventism so unable to define the gospel or to teach the finished work of Jesus? Why can’t Adventism offer assurance of salvation?

The answer is complex, but there is one core reality: the doctrines of Adventism are not truly Christian. It is a “new religion” that has been designed to mimic Christianity, but it was founded by anti-trinitarians who by their own admission did not understand the Bible (Lightbearers to the Remnant, Dept. of Ed., General Conference of SDAs, 1979). Adventism’s theology is established on the idea that when one “accepts Jesus” it leads one back to the law where one learns how to please and obey God. 

This Jesus-back-to-the-law understanding is exactly the opposite of biblical teaching. Galatians 3:15–29 explains that the law was given to guard God’s people until Jesus came, and once He came, His people no longer need the law’s guardianship. The law led people to Jesus; Jesus does not lead us back to the law.

Jesus doesn’t save people by making bad people good; He makes dead people alive (Jn. 5:25). 

Adventism’s emphasis on obedience to the law (especially to the Sabbath) reveals its misunderstanding not only of what Jesus has actually done but also of the covenants God made with His people. His covenant with Israel on Sinai was what Hebrews calls the “old covenant” which has become obsolete (Heb. 8:13). The new and living way opened to the Father through Jesus’ body and shed blood (Heb. 10:20) is the “new covenant” Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied. Adventism utterly misses the significance of these covenants.

What is a covenant?

A covenant is a treaty or alliance. In the ancient near east, there were two kinds of covenants: covenants between equals, and covenants between vassals and lords, and they were enacted with blood sacrifices and self-maledictory oaths.

In the Bible, there are two kinds of covenants: unconditional and conditional. Unconditional covenants are those in which God makes promises with no requirements imposed upon the recipients, and no human promise back to God is involved. Conditional covenants are those in which God establishes conditions for blessings and curses (blessings for obedience; curses for disobedience); in response, humans promise to do what God required. 

An example of an unconditional covenant in Scripture is God’s promise after Noah exited the ark never again to destroy the earth with a flood. No human was involved in making any promises back to God. Conversely, an example of a conditional covenant was God’s covenant with Israel at Sinai, when He promised to bless the nation if they obeyed and to curse them if they disobeyed. Israel responded that they would do everything God said. 

The covenants in Scripture reveal God’s unconditional and conditional promises, and they reveal His faithfulness to His own word. Understanding God’s covenants explains the function and authority of the law. Even more specifically, understanding the covenants resolves the Sabbath question.

Furthermore, we were not taught that there were “conditional” and “unconditional” promises, or covenants, from God. We were taught that every single promise of God was for everyone and was conditional upon our obedience. We believed that we determined whether or not we received God’s blessings. We simply did not learn that when God makes promises without making demands, those promises WILL be fulfilled. 

We did not learn that God is sovereign over all things; we understood that we had the “last word” about whether or not God would be able to bless us and do what He promised. Our obedience was the key ingredient. This idea is false, and it ultimately covers up the power and sufficiency of the Lord Jesus as our Substitute and Sacrifice. 

Our belief that we determined whether or not God would keep His promises made Him subject to us and cut us off from the gospel. God’s covenants, however, reveal a far different God—a far more powerful and consistent God than the one in whom we believed as Adventists. 

The Biblical Covenants

The Noahic Covenant

The first covenant named in the Old Testament is God’s covenant after the flood. When Noah and his family exited the ark, God made unconditional promises as Noah offered burnt offerings. Genesis 8:20, 21 and 9:8–17 record God’s promise never again to destroy the earth and “all flesh” with a flood. The covenant sign was the rainbow, and it would remind all flesh—and also God (Gen. 9:16)—of His covenant. The earth and all flesh living on the earth are the recipients of God’s covenant promises of that unconditional Noahic covenant. 

The Abrahamic Covenant

The next great unconditional covenant in Scripture is the Abrahamic Covenant. God called Abraham, a moon-worshiper (Josh. 24:2), and promised him seed, land, and blessing (Gen. 12:1–3). After Abraham responded to God’s call, God asked him to prepare animal sacrifices for a covenant He was going to make with him. Genesis 15:8–21 tells the story of this covenant. God was covenanting that He would make Abraham a great nation, that He would give him and his descendants the land later known as Palestine, and that the world would be blessed through him.

According to the custom of the day, the parties of a covenant cut up animals and walked together among those sacrifices making self-maledictory oaths to one another: “So be it to me if I break this covenant.” God instructed Abraham to prepare the typical sacrifices, but he spent all day chasing the birds away from the carcasses—and God did not appear.

Then, as evening approached, Abraham fell into a deep sleep—a sleep which he apparently could not resist. As Abraham slept, God appeared in the forms of a smoking pot and a burning furnace, and those two fiery objects moved among the covenant sacrifices and confirmed God’s promises to Abraham.

Abraham made NO promises to God. He was not even allowed to participate in the covenant’s ratification! God Himself made and ratified the covenant to Abraham—a promise that He would bless the world through Abraham and his descendants. This promise did not depend upon Abraham’s faithfulness or obedience. It was a unilateral promise made TO Abraham BY God. No human participation or promise could make those promises conditional. God’s promises cannot be broken. He absolutely will do what He declares.

God renewed that covenant promise to Isaac and then to Jacob. The patriarchs, as Abraham’s descendants, each received confirmation that they inherited that same covenant promise which God made with Abraham. In fact, the Abrahamic covenant continues throughout salvation history; it does not have an ending point. No subsequent covenant makes the Abrahamic obsolete, and the new covenant enlarges and fulfills the Abrahamic covenant.

Genesis 17:9–14 tells that God gave Abraham a covenant sign: circumcision, and Hebrews 6:13–20 confirms the New Testament fulfillment of this unconditional covenant in and through the person of the Lord Jesus. In Jesus, the promised Seed, God is fulfilling every promise He made to Abraham. 

Importantly, Abraham’s response to God’s unconditional promises is the prototype of how every person is declared righteous: he believed God, and God credited that belief to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). All the descendants of Abraham—all Jews and gentiles who believe God and trust His promises and provision (Rom. 4)—will inherit the promises God made to him.

The Mosaic Covenant

Four hundred thirty years after God covenanted with Abraham, He made a covenant with the nation of Israel (Gal. 3:17). God met Israel at Mt. Sinai and spoke to the fledgling nation through Moses their leader. This covenant was temporary: it was to last “until the Seed” would come (Gal. 3:19).

Unlike the Abrahamic covenant, this Mosaic Covenant was two-way, not unilateral. God and Israel made promises to each other (Ex. 34:27, 28), and the terms were simple: blessings for obedience, curses for disobedience. The sign of the covenant was the weekly honoring of the seventh-day Sabbath (Ex. 31:12–17). 

This covenant was conditional; its promises depended upon the Israelites’ keeping their promises to God. If they failed to be obedient to their covenant promises, God would punish them with drought, famine, illnesses, attacks from enemies, and ultimately exile. 

This covenant was mediated by Moses who offered sacrifices and sprinkled the people with blood as they affirmed their acceptance of the covenant (Ex. 24:1–8). 

Unlike God’s unconditional covenants which are eternal and do not depend upon human cooperation or promises, this conditional covenant is temporary and impermanent. It includes faulty human promises (Heb. 8:6, 7), and its blessings are not guaranteed as are unconditional covenant blessings. This conditional covenant functions as a temporary guardian (Gal. 3:23–25).

As Adventists we were taught that the Decalogue was eternal, something that existed from eternity past and was the “transcript of God’s character”. We understood that the Ten Commandments were incorporated into the Mosaic covenant but were not its “essence”, and we believed those commandments—including the fourth—applied to all people for all time, even in eternity with God where we would keep the Sabbath with Him. 

Scripture, however, teaches differently. The Ten Commandments are part of the CONDITIONAL, not any unconditional, covenant. In fact, God “wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments” (Ex. 34:27, 28). They were the actual words of the conditional Mosaic covenant. They were not an eternal list, but they were the essence of the temporary covenant. 

Moreover, the New Testament tells us the truth about the Ten Commandments. They kill and are the “ministry of death” (2 Cor. 3: 6, 7). They veil Christ (2 Cor. 3:14), and they are merely shadows of Christ (Heb. 10:1) and are obsolete (Heb. 8:13). 

What, then, was the purpose of the Mosaic law which included the Ten Commandments? 

God gave them to Israel to increase sin (Rom. 5:20). They were intended to imprison people under sin (Gal. 3:22) and to be a tutor to lead people to Christ (Gal. 3:24). They witnessed of the righteousness of God (Rom. 3:21), and they foreshadowed the reality in Christ (Heb. 10:1). 

Importantly, the law did not replace the promises God made to Abraham (Rom. 4:13–15; Gal. 3:17, 18). Rather, it made people aware of their depravity and of the atonement necessary to resolve the problem of sin. Jesus fulfilled the law, and when He did, the law became obsolete (Heb. 8:13). 

It’s important to understand that the Mosaic covenant operated parallel with the Abrahamic covenant. It was not added to the Abrahamic covenant as many people are taught. In fact, they could not be combined because they were completely different kinds of covenants made with different parties. Instead, Israel as a nation operated under the terms of the Mosaic covenant for a period of time while the promises of the Abrahamic covenant never changed. God’s promises to Abraham are unconditional and have no ending point. The Mosaic covenant, however, was a temporary provision for a nation, and this conditional covenant operated separately from the Abrahamic covenant but under its eternal promises. 

The Mosaic Covenant has specific inheritors of its promises: the nation of Israel. The Israelites made reciprocal promises to God. They agreed to receive blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, and they promised to do all that God had said. The covenant blessings apply only to the obedient Israelites who were part of the two-way promises with God. 

The Davidic Covenant

This unconditional covenant stated in 2 Samuel 7:8–17 is one most of us as Adventists were not taught. God promised David an eternal throne, a dynasty, and a kingdom. His descendant would have God as father and His eternal lovingkindness. This covenant was a one-way promise God made to David, and David made no promises back. God required no conditions for this covenant to be realized, but He unilaterally promised He would give David an eternal throne. 

In Psalm 110 David connects his kingship with an eternal king and priest in the order of Melchizedek, and Hebrews 7 uses Psalm 110 to confirm Jesus as the promised Davidic King and Priest. 

Ultimately the Lord Jesus is the One who receives the eternal Davidic throne. All believers, however, benefit from the Davidic Covenant in the person of the Lord Jesus. 

The New Covenant

The new covenant was promised in several places, but Jeremiah 31:31–34 is a central passage that is quoted in Hebrews. It is completely NEW. In it God promises that His laws will be written on our hearts. He promised that He would be His people’s God, they His people, and they would know Him. He promised to forgive their iniquity and forget their sins. 

God even gave a new “remember” in the new covenant: the Lord’s Supper. Those under the old covenant were to “remember the Sabbath”; in the new covenant we remember the Lord’s death and burial until He comes. We eat and drink in remembrance of Him. 

It is new because it is inaugurated by a unique sacrifice: Jesus’ “blood of the covenant” (Mt. 26:27–29). It opened a “new and living way” through the veil—Jesus’ body (Heb. 10:20). Now all people may approach God directly on the basis of Jesus’ blood. 

The new covenant has a new priesthood in the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 7) as well as a change in the law (Heb. 7:12). Now Jesus eternally intercedes for us (Heb. 7:23–25); we no longer need a temporary human priesthood, and we will NEVER stand without an intercessor before God! Furthermore, our Intercessor is our sufficient sacrifice (Heb. 7:27).

Most importantly, the new covenant is superior to the old covenant because it is enacted on better promises than the old one: God’s promises (Heb. 8:6). There are no sinful human promises involved anywhere. In fact, the new covenant is guaranteed by Jesus Himself (Heb. 7:22). 

The inheritors of the new covenant promises are all of Abraham’s descendants, Jew and gentile, who trust in Jesus’ shed blood, burial, and resurrection for the atonement of their sin (Rom. 4). (See covenant chart below.)

The chart shows how the biblical covenants relate to each other. The Noahic covenant continues from the time Noah exited the ark, and its promise is forever. The earth will never be destroyed again by water.

In the Abrahamic covenant, God promised eternal blessings for him and all his descendants. He covenanted a holy Seed and descendants of promise that would outnumber the stars and the sand, and He guaranteed that the descendants of promise would ultimately inherit the land. Most importantly, the Abrahamic covenant is unconditional. God cannot lie, and His promises cannot fail. These promises will come to pass without human cooperation.

The Mosaic Covenant came 430 years after the covenant with Abraham. It was a two-way agreement, a conditional covenant, between God and Israel, the promised sons of Abraham’s body. The Mosaic Covenant defined a tangible religion for Israel which foreshadowed the work and person of the promised Seed. It provided governance and culture which separated God’s people from pagan corruption. 

The Mosaic covenant provided definitions of sin, and it specified the consequence for sin: the curse of death. This curse sentenced all people, because no one is without sin. In fact, it had built-in failure: Israel could not keep its covenant promises. 

The Davidic Covenant unconditionally guaranteed there would be a king from David’s lineage with an eternal throne—and that king is our Lord Jesus who already sits at the Father’s right hand!

God’s unconditional new covenant guaranteed that He would give His people new hearts and spirits. He would write His laws on their hearts, and He would be their God and they His people. He promised that all would know Him, and He would both forgive and forget their sins. 

The UNCONDITIONAL covenants reveal God’s work that never stops. They show us His faithfulness and sovereignty over our faulty promises and failures. On the other hand, the CONDITIONAL, Mosaic covenant revealed Israel’s work and failed promises. 

Jesus is the Singularity who fulfilled the Mosaic covenant, who further revealed God’s promises to Abraham, and who ushered in the new covenant. 

What we learned and what we know

As Adventists we learned that we were spiritual Israel and entrusted with the law (and the Sabbath). If we kept the law, God would bless us with salvation, but if we disobeyed (and trampled the Sabbath) we would be lost. 

We believed there was only one covenant which had different expressions, and we thought we had to keep the covenant with God in order to obtain His blessings. In fact, we believed that all God’s promises were conditional, based on people’s obedience or disobedience. 

The truth, however, is revolutionary. God’s unilateral promises are UNCONDITIONAL and cannot fail! In fact, God’s conditional covenant was made only with Israel, and Jesus, the Perfect Israelite and the promised Seed, fulfilled every shadow of the Mosaic Covenant. He was sinless and perfectly obedient; He was the sufficient sacrifice. He became a curse and became sin for us (Gal. 3:13; 2 Cor. 5:21), taking the law’s death sentence and breaking its power over humanity.

As the Son of Man and Son of God, Jesus kept all of Israel’s promises to God. He fulfilled God’s requirements of perfect righteousness and death for sin, and He shattered death and redeemed humanity. Only as the Son of God could He have shattered death and redeemed us, and only as the Son of Man could He have paid the price for human sin.

Jesus, not we, fulfilled the Mosaic covenant, and when we trust His finished work, our lives are hidden with Him in God (Col. 3:3). Then, hidden in Christ, we are credited with Jesus’ own righteousness (Phil. 3:8, 9) and inherit all new covenant promises. We are eternally secure because we are in the Son!

The new covenant is NEW because Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection opened a new way to God. When we trust Him, we are born again and made spiritually alive; we become new creations. We don’t have to please God to be saved; rather, Jesus has kept all the righteous requirements as our Substitute. 

When we trust Him, we pass from death to life (Jn. 5:24) and are transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of the Beloved Son (Col. 1:13). Because Jesus has pleased the Father as our Substitute, when we trust Him we are credited with His own righteousness!

Now, in the new covenant, Jesus is the covenant partner with the Father who guarantees our security when we trust Him.

Implications

Because Jesus perfectly kept and fulfilled every requirement of the law, which was only a shadow of “good things to come” (Heb. 10:1), it is now obsolete (Heb. 8:13). Because Jesus replaced the Levites with His eternal priesthood in the order of Melchizedek (Heb. 7:11), the law has been changed (Heb. 7:12), and we are now under the law of Christ (2 Cor. 9:21). Now the sign of the obsolete old covenant—the Sabbath—is replaced with the remembrance of the Lord’s Supper. 

Because of Jesus’ blood, the temple veil tore, and all may directly approach God in repentance (Heb. 10:20). Because Jesus has fulfilled every shadow of the law, we have to leave the law behind. A veil covers our hearts when Moses is read, but that veil is removed in Christ (2 Cor. 3:14–16).

We have to face the fact that we cannot enter the new covenant and cling to the sign and governance of the old covenant (Acts 15:1–21). The Sabbath, which was the sign of the old covenant, ties us to the law, but Scripture is clear: to return to the law after knowing the gospel is to fall from grace and to be enslaved by what is “no god” (Gal. 4:8–11). 

When we see the reality of the new covenant, we who have been Adventists must repent for having believed a false gospel that diminished Jesus and made us responsible for our own salvation. When we repent and believe that Jesus is our Substitute who took God’s wrath for our sin, we inherit the unconditional promises of the new covenant in Jesus’ blood. 

As heirs of God’s new covenant promises, we are His born-again, adopted children (Rom. 8:14–17), and nothing can ever snatch us out of His hand (Jn. 10:29, 30). †

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Colleen Tinker

Colleen Tinker, the editor of Proclamation! magazine, and her husband Richard left Adventism in 1998 with their two sons, Roy and Nathanael, who were in grades six and ten. They have co-led the Former Adventist Fellowship since 1999. Colleen, a graduate of Walla Walla University, is a former high school English teacher and also the former managing editor of Adventist Today magazine. Colleen became the stepmother of Roy and Nathanael in 1989, and in 2008 she adopted them. Romans 8:15-17 has assumed new depth and significance for her and Richard since she and her sons chose to claim each other legally and permanently. She and Richard share an office and a commitment to sharing the gospel of the true Jesus with all of those seeking a way out of the bondage of the false gospel of Adventism.

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