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 13: “The Ultimate Rest”
This week’s lesson opens with the reminder that “the great controversy also is being played out on a much more personal level.” The point of this reminder is to remind Adventists that they can rest in their version of Jesus—at least for the “short term”: “This week, we look at how we can rest in Jesus in the face of global unrest and our own unknown future, at least in the short term. In the long term, things look very promising, indeed!”
This statement in the first lesson for the week betrays Adventism’s complete lack of understanding of the true gospel and the true atonement of the real Jesus. They can only experience provisional rest on this side of the second coming.
The Bible, however, tells us something completely different: resting in Jesus is a real, permanent, eternal reality the moment we believe in Him and trust His shed blood to cover our sin!
Significantly, this lesson summarizes this quarter about “Rest” by focussing on the great controversy and eschatology. Of course! Eschatology and the Sabbath are the essence of Adventism’s distinctive identity. Those two things are the organization’s name. It would be impossible for them to actually have their members study the idea of “rest” without tying it to their unique view of end times, the fourth commandment, and Jesus’ return which is the culmination of their aberrant soteriology!
The Teachers’ Comments on this lesson state that the Three Angels’ Messages “are rapidly proclaimed to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people to prepare the world for His soon return. It is the message of the “everlasting gospel” of God’s amazing grace for an entire planet. It is a call in the light of the gospel to live obedient lives, glorifying God in all we do in the judgment hour. It is an appeal in an age of evolution to worship Him as the Creator. It is an end- time message of hope.”
After twelve weeks of showing how Adventism distorts the biblical teaching of rest and Sabbath, there is no need for me to backtrack and repeat the points we’ve made. Instead, I will address this final lesson with an appeal: Go to Scripture!
Adventism has been teaching what Paul calls “another gospel, which is no gospel at all” since its inception. Ellen White, a false prophet who received visions from a spiritual being who was NOT from God, left a legacy of a false Trinity, a fallible Jesus, an eternal “holy” day who importance overshadows the Lord Jesus. She left a legacy of a false view of the nature of man, and she included Satan in the worldview and soteriology of Adventism.
Dear Adventist, if you are reading this, please consider what Jesus said in Matthew 24:9–14:
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Ellen White could not have been a prophet of God. She consistently and subtly, systematically, taught untruths about our Savior! God’s prophets never speak untruth about the Lord Jesus, our Father, or the Holy Spirit!
Jesus came and fulfilled the Mosaic covenant—a temporary covenant which began 430 years after Abraham and lasted “until the Seed” (Gal. 3:17–21).
Jesus is EVERYTHING. He has completed the atonement for sin and has done everything needed to save us and make us His.
I leave you with a challenge: leave all your Adventist materials behind for six months, and read only Scripture. Ask the Lord to teach you what it really says and to show you what He wants you to know.
Get a notebook and start with Galatians. Do one chapter at a time, and copy the words of the book in your notebook. Consider every single word, and remember that “Words matter, and context is everything”. The verb tenses mean what they say; the prepositions tell you where and why God has done things.
When you finish Galatians, go to Hebrews and then to the Gospel of John. God’s word is alive, and it always accomplishes what He sent it to do. It is alive and eternal—it is the eternal word of the eternal God!
Adventism cannot help you; it can only entrap you in a false worldview and a false gospel. If this sounds harsh, remember this: I speak from the perspective of one who loved being an Adventist—but the Lord Jesus is even greater! He rescued me from my anxiety and my perpetual failure to live up to God’s standards, and He showed me the truth about what Jesus really did. He died for our sin according to Scripture; He was buried, and He rose on the third day according to Scripture.
He is the only way to salvation, and this biblical Jesus is not the Jesus of Adventism. The real Jesus cannot fail, and He will never leave you. He will bring your dead spirit to live when you trust His finished work, and you will know that you are eternally secure!
Worship Him, and leave the anxious strivings of Adventism with its false prophet and its false Sabbath. Jesus is our Sabbath rest! †
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