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 2: “The Message of Hebrews”
COLLEEN TINKER
Problems with this lesson:
- The author uses Hebrews 1 to affirm Ellen White’s prehistory idea that God exalted Jesus to the position of His Son.
- The lesson’s ideas that Jesus is King and Mediator ignore the centrality of His death and His fulfillment of all the law, not just the “ceremonial” law.
- The lesson shifts Jesus’ fulfillment of the law onto the readers who are told to live right and do good in order to join Champion Jesus in defeating Satan.
For further study: Former Adventist Podcast #39: “Hebrews 2: Why Jesus Is Human”
Start At the Beginning
The daily lessons ignore Hebrews 1:1–4 and begin with verse 5. While the Teachers Comments do address the first four verses superficially, the lessons do not. Perhaps this omission and shallow acknowledgment of the verses stems from the fact that Ellen White wrote herself into Hebrews 1:2. Here is what the first two verses of Hebrews 1 say:
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world (Hebrews 1:1–2).
In Gospel Writings page 308.1 Ellen White says this about her writings:
God has spoken to us through His word. He has spoken to us through the testimonies to the church, and through the books that have helped to make plain our present duty and the position we should now occupy. The warnings that have been given, line upon line, precept upon precept, should be heeded. If we disregard them, what excuse can we offer?
She even said her writings will speak for all time:
Abundant light has been given to our people in these last days. Whether or not my life is spared, my writings will constantly speak, and their work will go forward as long as time shall last. My writings are kept on file in the office, and even though I should not live, these words that have been given to me by the Lord will still have life and will speak to the people (PH116 13.7)
Hebrews clearly states that God’s time of revealing truth about Himself and salvation through prophets is over. His FINAL WORD is the Lord Jesus, God the Son. Yet Ellen has used the phrasing of this powerful passage and has written her own “testimonies” into it, binding Adventists’ consciences by saying that even after she died, her words would “constantly speak…as long as time shall last.” She even claimed her words HAVE LIFE, a claim that only God’s word has (see Hebrews 4:12, 13). She has given her own words the authority of Scripture, being the medium of God’s speaking to the Adventists for the rest of time!
This eternal authority which she claimed for her own words is the underlying reality that Adventists understand even if they do not know her exact words. They claim, as she did, that her words are not on par with Scripture, yet they also know, confusingly, that they dare not ignore her words. She tells them how to understand the Bible, and her interpretations are timeless.
Affirmation of Fiction
Since Ellen has established that her words live as long as time and speak with God’s authority, it is not surprising that the lesson’s author uses Hebrews 1 to affirm the worldview Ellen established. Her worldview is built upon the Father exalting Jesus to equality with Himself, thus triggering Satan’s jealousy. Here is what she says in 1 SP 17:2:
The great Creator assembled the heavenly host, that he might in the presence of all the angels confer special honor upon his Son. The Son was seated on the throne with the Father, and the heavenly throng of holy angels was gathered around them. The Father then made known that it was ordained by himself that Christ, his Son, should be equal with himself; so that wherever was the presence of his Son, it was as his own presence. The word of the Son was to be obeyed as readily as the word of the Father. His Son he had invested with authority to command the heavenly host. Especially was his Son to work in union with himself in the anticipated creation of the earth and every living thing that should exist upon the earth. His Son would carry out his will and his purposes, but would do nothing of himself alone. The Father’s will would be fulfilled in him. Satan was envious and jealous of Jesus Christ.
The lesson walks through Hebrews 1 and uses the verses as “proof” of these Adventists concepts without directly stating the correlation. People with an Adventist world view would automatically understand the author’s meaning; Ellen White’s scenario is confirmed. Yet in context, this chapter establishes Jesus’ superiority over the angels—not as an exalted being but as the eternal God the Son who became incarnate, and the Father declared that even the angels would worship Him!
These verses declare Jesus’ innate superiority and divinity, His role as Creator; they in no way support the semi-Arian story of the Father exalting Jesus to be equal to Himself—a story perpetuated by a false prophet!
The author also refers to Hebrews 2:14–16 as a passage showing Jesus to be our “Champion” who defeats Satan in a solo battle. Yet it also asks the readers to fall in behind their Champion to do battle with Satan.
This description of Jesus as “our Champion” is utterly different from Hebrews 2:14–16 in context. The Bible makes it clear here that Jesus had to become flesh and blood in order to defeat Satan who held the power of death over us flesh-and-blood sinners. It explains why He had to be human! This passage is not a picture of a hero overcoming the bad guy. It is a passage that explains Jesus’ SACRIFICE as the way we are delivered from the fear of death. It explains Jesus’ substitutionary death and His incarnation as the means of His defeating the curse that binds us all in our natural condition.
The lesson further states that Jesus is a priest according to a different order than Levi—that of Melchizedek—but it fails to explain the proof passages it offers: Hebrews 5–7. These three chapters destroy the Adventist teaching that Jesus is in heaven continuing the atonement garbed in Old Testament high-priestly clothing.
Hebrews 7 explains that the order of Melchizedek is an order of priest that came BEFORE there was a law. Jesus’ priesthood does not preside over the Ten Commandments. On the contrary, the Ten Commandments (and the entire Mosaic law) existed on the foundation of the levitical priesthood! The Ten cannot exist nor function without the levites and their sacrifices.
When Jesus fulfilled the law, He fulfilled the WHOLE law, not just the sacrifices and rituals. As the fulfillment of the whole law, He has become a priest according to a different order—Melchizedek—a priesthood that existed before there was a law!
Moreover, Hebrews 7: 11, 12 states clearly:
Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.
Jesus rules without the Old Covenant law. Contrary to the claim in this week’s lesson, He does not write the Ten Commandments on the hearts of His people. He gives us new hearts and new desires, a new spirit, and He places His own Spirit within us! He writes HIMSELF on our hearts, and the Law of Christ (Gal. 6:2; 1 Cor 9:21) is the law for new covenant believers.
The lesson mentions the new covenant, but it insists the law is part of it—written on people’s hearts. The covenant confusion and the confusion of Jesus’ work and person is a warping lens through this entire lesson.
In short, the subtlety of the lesson is exceeded only by the degree of blasphemy it supports. Hebrews does NOT support the Adventist story of prehistory, nor does it reduce God the Son to Jesus our Champion who leads His people into a battle against Satan.
This lesson completely misses the wonder and power of the fact that Jesus took a human body ignorer to be a human, perfect sacrifice for our sin. He destroyed the power of the devil who held all people in the fear of death by fulfilling the law—the legal proof that we deserved the death penalty—by taking the sentence Himself.
He paid not with a representative death but with a SUBSTITUTIONARY death for all who believe. He satisfied God’s wrath against sin by literally offering Himself as the only Sacrifice that could atone for our human sin. That sacrifice is the reason He became human!
He didn’t have to beg the Father to be allowed to come and die for us. No! The Father loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, and the Son was fully God in a human body!
This lesson diminishes Jesus with high-sounding words and phrases that never teach the truth: Jesus died for our sins according to Scripture; He was buried, and He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Cor. 15:3,4).
The message of Hebrews is NOT merely an encouragement to Christians who are suffering persecution. The recipients of this letter were being tempted to return to Judaism or to add Judaism to their Christianity. They were being seduced to keep the law…and this letter was written to remind them who Jesus IS and what He has actually DONE…and to bolster their faith in Jesus so they would refuse to return to the law!
We cannot marry Christianity and the law; if we try, we commit spiritual adultery (see Romans 7). We are either in Christ, or we have fallen from grace (Gal. 5) and have embraced the law as a guide for pleasing God.
We can only please God by placing our faith and trust in the Son—the One who died our death and paid the price for human sin, who has eternally identified Himself with us, He born-again creation.
Ask the Lord to show you what Hebrews is really saying, and read it, one chapter at a time, as you go through this quarter. †
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