This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
Lesson 12: “Covenant Faith”
It should have been obvious to me long ago, but this week I finally saw, clearly, that the heart of Adventist soteriology is the Ellen White legacy belief that humanity owed an unplayable debt to the Law. At its core, Adventist soteriology doesn’t say humanity owed a debt to God; our debt is to the broken Law.
I knew Adventism said Jesus came to vindicate the law and to establish its authority forever. I knew Adventism said the cross was for the purpose of turning humans back to the Law where they could find the heart of God as they learned to keep the law on the basis of their faith in Jesus. But somehow I never saw that mankind’s original sin was against the LAW, not against God!
I’m going to list several sentences from this week’s lesson that demonstrate the inside-out and backwards understanding Adventists have about salvation. I will list them and give the pages on which they are found.
- P. 150: Why could only Someone equal with God ransom our souls?
- P. 151: Only those who do not understand the seriousness of sin could believe that God was under some obligation to save us. On the contrary, if anything, there was only one obligation, and that was what we owed to the violated law.
- P. 152: We have this promise of eternal life, because Jesus alone could repair the breach that first caused us to lose that eternal life. How? Because the righteousness and infinite value of the Creator alone could cancel the debt we owed to the broken law…
- P. 152: Only Someone who is equal to God Himself…could have paid the ransom required to free us from the debt owed to the law.
- P. 153: The immediate context of the verse helps us understand just how great Abram’s faith was, believing in God’s promise of a son despite all the physical evidence that would seem to make that promise impossible. It is the kind of faith that realizes its own utter helplessness, the kind of faith that demands a complete surrender of self, the kind of faith that requires a total submission to the Lord, the kind of faith that results in obedience. This was the faith of Abram, and it was counted to him “as righteousness.”
- P. 153: Read Romans 4:1–7. Look at the context in which Paul uses Genesis 16:6. Pray over those verses, and write out in your own words what they are saying to you.
- P. 154: This great truth, that of being declared righteous, not because of any act that we can do but only because of faith in what Christ has done for us, is the essence of the phrase “righteousness by faith”…All else that follows—obedience, sanctification, holiness, character development, love—stems from this crucial truth.
- P. 156: Old covenant, new covenant: Jesus paid the debt owed to the law, so that we can stand righteous in the sight of God.
What’s wrong?
From the very first day’s lesson, we find the underlying view of Jesus that defines Adventism: He is someone who is merely “equal with God”.
Jesus Is God! He was never exalted to be equal with the Father as Ellen White states in her pre-history story. His equality with God did not trigger Lucifer’s jealousy and spark the cosmic great controversy that defines Adventism’s worldview.
No! Jesus IS GOD, and He is the Creator who made Lucifer and all powers and authorities in all creation!
With a diminished Jesus who is merely “equal with God”, Adventism does not have a truthful understanding of the nature of man, much less of our sovereign, almighty, triune God. This opening statement confirms Adventism’s adherence to Ellen White’s Heavenly Trio, a tritheism that they disingenuously call the Trinity—or more comfortably, the Godhead.
Debt to the Law
The next statements that we humans owe a debt to the violated law reveals Adventism’s bottom line: the Law, not God, is their ultimate value in the universe. Adventism has made Law greater than God. Law, they say, is eternal. Law is something even God must honor and keep.
They define sin as humanity’s violation of the Law. One would think, from their use of “Law”, that the Law was their God: sentient, offended, and powerful even over their tritheistic godhead.
In fact, the violated law was a cosmic offense, and only someone with God’s power could vindicate it and ransom us from the debt we owed the Law!
I find it incredible that these ideas are even put into words. They reveal that Adventism does not honor and worship God as God. No! They honor God’s creation, the Law, and they reverence and pay it homage instead of its Author!
The Old Testament if full of declarations that Israel sinned, not against the law, but against God! For example, in Judges 10:10 “the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, ‘We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.”
When Solomon was dedicating the temple to God, He prayed:
“When your people Israel are defeated before the enemy because they have sinned against you, and if they turn again to you and acknowledge your name and pray and plead with you in this house, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel and bring them again to the land that you gave to their fathers (1 Kings 8:33–34).
…then hear from heaven your dwelling place their prayer and their pleas, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you. Now, O my God, let your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place (2 Chronicles 6:39–40).
David cried to God,
As for me, I said, “O LORD, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!” (Psalm 41:4).
From his exile in Babylon Daniel prayed,
To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you (Daniel 9:8).
These are just a few of the many examples of God’s people admitting they have sinned against God. When Israel broke the Law, they knew it was not the Law that carried a debt toward them. God carried that debt! The Law had been God’s covenant with them, and their repeated breaking of that covenant did not put them in debt and unreconciliation to the Law. They sinned against God Himself. Their debt was to God! Nothing had to be made right between mankind and the Law!
The fact that Jesus came and paid for human sin, reconciling us to God, reveals that our debt could only be paid by the eternal, sovereign One whom we had wronged. Jesus, fully and eternally God (not just equal to God), took human flesh and became the one Mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5–6). In Himself Jesus was the eternal God against whom we sinned, and in Himself was humanity—the guilty party who had sinned against God. Both parties were in Jesus, and as a Man He shed the human blood that had to pay for human sin. As God He was eternal and could carry the sin of His entire human creation in Himself.
In Jesus the penalty was both carried and paid for. Jesus showed that He was both just and the justifier of those who believe in Him! (Rom. 3:25-26).
Jesus did not vindicate the law. He did not pay a debt owed to the Law. It was owed to HIM. The Law merely revealed the sin of Israel who, although they had the oracles of God (Rom. 3:1-3), they could not please God!
Righteousness by Faith
One of Adventism’s most deceptive phrases is “Righteousness by faith”. The Bible never uses this phrase. Rather, it says we are justified by faith—and that is very different from righteousness by faith. The faith of Abraham is the faith that demonstrates how people are saved, but this lesson shows that even Abraham’s faith is not understood.
In the quote from page 153 listed above, the lesson’s authors describe Abraham’s faith with many words not included in Genesis 15:6. Ultimately, Adventism uses Abraham’s faith as an example of a “faith that works” and says that obedience is part of Abraham’s faith, that His faith was one that “requires a total submission to the Lord, the kind of faith that results in obedience.”
To be sure, people who are counted righteous when they believe God do obey Him—but this obedience is never described as law-keeping. More importantly, Abraham’s faith is never described in Scripture as a means to law-keeping. In fact, in this lesson, Abraham’s faith is never accurately described.
First, we learn of Abraham’s faith first in Genesis 15:6—and in that verse, it isn’t even called “faith”. Rather, Abraham is said to have “believed God”. Here is the verse:
And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6).
The lesson complicates this declaration and insists on saying Abraham obeyed God because he was counted righteous. They miss the whole point! Abraham BELIEVED God’s words to him. He believed that God was telling him the truth and that, no matter what it took or how unbelievable God’s promises appeared, they WOULD COME TO PASS.
That was what Abraham believed! He believed God; he believed God’s word could not fail!
Then the lesson asks the reader to read Romans 4:1–7, to “pray over it”, and to write out in their own words what it means to them.
First, this instruction is backwards. We are never to approach Scripture and ask ourselves what it means to us! We must first submit to read it and to understand the context. Who is writing? To whom? What are the circumstances? What are the commands or needs expressed?
Then we must ask ourselves how the first audience would have understood those words. We can’t even begin to apply those words to ourselves until we know how the first audience would have understood them—and then the application to ourselves cannot be different in effect and principle from what it meant to the first audience!
The lesson is leading the reader to become further trapped in subjectivism. Reading Scripture from a “What does it mean to me?” perspective will cause us to completely miss the meaning of the words!
Here is Romans 4:1–7:
What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:
“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;”
Significantly, however, they stopped at verse 7 and did not ask the reader to finish the sentence with verse 8:
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”
There is a reason they omitted verse 8: in the Adventist investigative judgment paradigm, God DOES continue to count men’s sins against them even after they have “accepted Jesus”. Those sins remain listed in heaven, but they are only covered with Christ’s blood, not fully forgiven. They are only “pardoned” when the sinner remembers to specifically confess each one. Only then can Jesus “apply His blood” to them in the heavenly sanctuary as He intercedes and peruses the books of remembrance!
Notice further that verses 7 and 8 are quoting David! David was an Old Testament saint who lived before Jesus came, and he also believed God. In fact, God gave David the understanding that He would not just cover people’s sins but not count them against them when they believed God!
In the passage above, Paul is showing that the faith that is counted as righteousness—the faith Abraham had as God’s gift to him—was a faith that simply believed. He even says that David spoke of “the blessing of the one to whom god counts righteousness apart from works!
False gospel
Adventism teaches a false gospel. It makes the Law the “offended one”. It makes Law the thing which creation must honor. It eclipses the Author of the Law with the Decalogue of Sinai!
The sin of Adventism is the sin of idolatry. They have a god before God. They have made the Law their god that must be vindicated and restored. They make God the servant of His own Law!
I appeal to any Adventist reading this to read Romans 4 and 5 and to ask the Lord to reveal His truth which He knows you need to know. I appeal to you to stop reading Ellen White and her pious-sounding heresies. God’s word is found in Scripture alone, and He reveals the truth about Himself.
Ellen White will only deceive and confuse you. You owe absolutely no debt to the Law!
Our debt is entirely owed to God, and Jesus paid that debt in full on the cross. When we trust Him and believe in His completed atonement, we recognize that we are by nature under His wrath. We realize that we need Him to redeem and reconcile us with His blood.
When we trust in Jesus alone, God Himself imputes Christ’s personal, eternal righteousness (not His law-keeping but His own character) to our account.
Please, ask the Lord to show you how to let go of the clever deception from Ellen White’s worldview and to see the truth about our Lord Jesus. Only HE can save you, because your debt is owed to Him.
You are not in a relationship with the Law but with the sovereign, triune, eternal God. Your debt which you owe Him is either on you, or it is on Jesus.
Trust Jesus! †
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The devil can only be successful in your life if you are submitted to the law . The devils strategy for us , is to keep the law , because he knows we will break the law . Failure brings condemnation , shame and guilt . With success comes boasting . Satan wins either way . Satan uses the law to manipulate you , getting you to focus on what you have done wrong or right . The law keeps you focused on what you need to do , to maintain your relationship with God . Satan will get you when you shift into self effort and then he will condemn you when you miss the mark . Because of sin in your life , heart and mind will be filled with fear and doubt , that what God has promised will not come to pass .
The Adventist Church is a bunch of inferior people with guilty consciences . Many leave the church . The effort required is too much and too hard . I can’t do this . It’s impossible for me to do this . I quit .
My daughter Sharon , attended a junior youth camp at the Adventist camp ground , Yarrahapinni NSW Australia . The youth pastor’s sermon was the Investigative Judgement . Sharon came home very discouraged . ” Mum and Dad , I have to remember every sin I have committed and ask Jesus for forgiveness ” . We did our best , but to no avail . Sharon’s life was one step forward and two
backwards . She had a lot to confess . Sharon stopped attending church and died 4th June 2012 aged 31 . Ellen G White killed my daughter .