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 7: “Jesus, the Anchor of the Soul”
COLLEEN TINKER
Problems with this lesson:
- This lesson emphasizes the Adventist paradigm that people can fall in and out of salvation and can completely lose their salvation if they do not fix their attitudes and behaviors.
- The author fails to see that Adventist theology tramples the blood of Jesus and insults the Spirit of Grace, a situation that Hebrews 10 says leaves one without a sacrifice for sin.
This lesson emphasizes the fear and insecurity Adventism teaches its members. Using the warnings against apostasy in Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10, the author warms the readers against losing their salvation (or, more properly, the hope of salvation) by falling away from their commitment to “Jesus” and Adventism. While the author tries to harmonize the Adventist belief that people cannot know they are saved before Jesus’ second coming and that they cannot be considered “saved” before their name comes up in the investigative judgment with the declarations of Jesus’ eternal intercession for our security, the lesson nevertheless gives the familiar Adventist message: BE CAREFUL! You can lose your salvation if you grow lax and careless!
Instead of addressing the convoluted teaching in this lesson directly, I will address the overriding message of Hebrews 6 and 10 and put the warnings in context. Then I will show that Adventism actually has no biblical authority to address how to be saved because their “gospel” tramples on Jesus’ blood and insults the Spirit of Grace. Adventism is a religion of defeat and death.
The Warnings
The first warning that brings ice to the heart of a fresh Former Adventist is Hebrews 6:1–8:
Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.
This passage is not a warning for people who have been truly born again and adopted by God. Rather, the best way to understand this warning (as well as the warning in Hebrews 10) is to remember the parable of the soils. In Matthew 1:1–23 Jesus tells the story of the four soils: the hard, bad soil, the rocky soil, the weedy soil, and the good soil. Each of the soils had gospel seeds fall on them. The hard rocky soil had no response to the gospel at all; the seeds remained on the surface and were eaten by birds. The rocky soil received the gospel seeds and even germinated gospel plants. But because the soil had no depth, the plants grew no roots, and when the heat was on, the gospel plants withered and died.
Similarly, the weedy soil received the gospel seeds and also germinated gospel plants. But that soil was crowded with wordily cares and concerns about money, and all those worldly concerns consumed the nourishment of the weedy soil and choked out the gospel plants. They never matured and bore fruit but were puny and unfruitful.
The good soil, however, received the gospel seed and nourished it. The seeds germinated and put down deep roots in the soil; the plants flourished, grew, and produced much fruit.
These soils represent people. Some people DO hear and like the gospel and are attracted to it. They even “accept Jesus” and align themselves with the church, the body of Christ. They like the life of the Body, and they do resonate with the truth about Jesus—but some—the rocky and the weedy—are compromised.
Although they are drawn to the gospel and even publicly declare they are committed to Jesus, they do not give it an unqualified, deep acceptance in their hearts. They may give mental assent and external assent, but their hearts are not given to the Lord. When the heat is on, when life’s pressures become too great, or when their own daily concerns for their lives consume them, the gospel plants are pushed out and wither.
The good soil, however, is a person who truly understands who Jesus is and believes and trusts Him, repenting of their sin and throwing themselves on His mercy, accepting the forgiveness bought by Jesus’ blood and trusting Him with their lives.
In every church congregation there are at least three kinds of people: true believers who have been born again and made alive, transferred out of the domain of darkness. There are also representatives from the rocky and weedy soils: people who are attracted to the gospel and even seem to be actively engaged in church life and missions. There may also be unbelievers present, people who observe and are curious about the church, checking it out but holding themselves aloof—unbelieving.
We cannot always tell what kind of person we are observing. The rocky and weedy soils may appear to be true believers, but over time, their distraction and divided hearts begin to reveal themselves.
When the author of Hebrews writes these warnings, He is directly warning people who may profess to believe but who actually haven’t. In fact, we can see the evidence that he is addressing compromised believers at the end of the passage above where he says, “For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.”
Like the weedy and rocky soils, this author is addressing people who are in the presence of the Lord and His body. They receive blessings from the Lord along with the body, and like Judas, even experience the power of the Holy Spirit if they engage in evangelism or good works for the Lord. But if they have not truly been born again, these outward manifestations do not indicate secure salvation.
Paul is calling people to examine themselves and to commit fully to the Lord and His word. Furthermore, even believers can become discouraged and can begin being distracted from the work God has given them to do. This passage is in the context of growing spiritually.
All believers are to continue to immerse themselves in Scripture and in the encouragement of interacting with other believers in order to grow deeper in the Lord. And those who are compromised and have not committed themselves to complete trust in Jesus are being asked to believe!
Adventism and Hebrews 10
The irony of Adventism attempting to teach its members Hebrews without dealing with the true gospel of Jesus reaches its apex in Hebrews 10:29. The author is reminding his audience, believing Jews who are being pressured to return to the law or to adopt the law along with the gospel, that one cannot go back to the shadows once one has Jesus. The author, however, tortures the text by trying to assign meanings to the trampling and rejection of Jesus and His blood and the Spirit of grace. He applies this warning to “apostates” who reject Jesus.
To be sure, an apostate could fit the description of one who tramples and profanes the blood of the covenant. Yet this lesson misses the horror of Adventism itself as it tries to make sense of this verse while upholding the EGW paradigm of the great controversy worldview.
First, let’s read Hebrews 10:26–31:
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (ESV)
The author of Hebrews compares the seriousness of trampling the Mosaic covenant with the refusal to honor the new covenant. The new covenant is the unconditional reality into which every believer is ushered when he or she trusts and believes in Jesus and His finished atonement accomplished by Jesus’ death for our sins, His burial, and His resurrection on the third day according to Scripture (1 Cor. 15:3,4).
Adventism, however, like the Judaizers threatening the Hebrews to whom this book was written, insists that the law must be added to the gospel. In fact, Adventism says that if a person doesn’t keep the law—especially the Sabbath—when Jesus returns, that person will be lost.
Many Adventists say that they don’t have to keep the Sabbath to be saved, but they would qualify their answer if asked if they would lose their possible salvation if they gave up the Sabbath. Adventists viscerally fear that giving up the Sabbath would mean, for them, being eternally lost.
Yet the gospel states that all that is necessary for salvation was accomplished by Jesus on the cross and in His resurrection. Adventism teaches that Jesus did not complete the atonement on the cross but that He is in heaven continuing the atonement by applying His blood to the confessed sins of the saved. This teaching its heresy!
Furthermore, Adventism does not teach the security of the believer nor the immediate passing from death to life when one believes and trusts the finished work of Christ (see John 5:24). Rather, Adventists must keep the Sabbath and show improvement in their law-keeping throughout their lives in order for Jesus to make up the difference between their lives and perfection. Furthermore, Adventism does not teach the indwelling Holy Spirit who seals believers in eternal life, teaching and guiding them from the inside-out how to please God and honor Him.
Second Corinthians 3 explains the difference between the Mosaic covenant governed by law written in stone and the new covenant of the Spirit, but Adventism does not teach this reality. Instead, it keeps its members imprisoned under the law and under its curse of death.
Hebrews 10:28-29, however, reveals the true nature of Adventism. It reminds us that anyone who trampled the law of Moses was subject to execution on the basis of two or three witnesses. It is far more serious, the author explains, to trample the new covenant based on Jesus’ own blood and sacrifice.
Adventism tramples the Son of God underfoot by insisting that its members turn away from Him back to the law, insisting they live in the shadows instead of living in the life that is ours when we trust the One who fulfilled the shadows.
Furthermore, Adventism profanes the blood of the covenant by teaching that Jesus’ blood alone is not enough to save us. Additionally, Adventism says that Jesus did not complete the atonement at the cross but that it continues in heaven. Even worse, Adventism says that Jesus’ blood transfers the sins of the saved from them to heaven where they remain in the books of record—defiling heaven—until Jesus applies His blood to every confessed sin. In fact, the defilement of heaven is not completed until Jesus places the sins of the saved on Satan, the Adventist scapegoat, and he carries them out of heaven into the lake of fire.
In this way heaven is finally cleansed.
Do you see how dreadful this scenario is? Adventism, via its prophet Ellen White, established a scenario that says Jesus’ blood is the vehicle for defiling heaven, and only when SATAN carries those sins away is heaven cleansed!
Jesus’ blood, however, NEVER defiles. It ALWAYS cleanses! Heaven is never defiled with our sins. Jesus shed His blood at Calvary, once for all, and when we trust Him our sins are completely cleansed. At NO TIME do they reside in heaven, and at no time does Jesus’ blood act as a vehicle for transporting their defilement to heaven!
Finally, by profaning Jesus’ blood and saying it is involved in transporting our sins to heaven, by saying that Jesus’ shed blood on Calvary did not complete the atonement, the Spirit of Grace is outraged. Adventists are not taught that they are kept by the Holy Spirit and taught by Him. Rather, they have to prove they are worthy of salvation by keeping the Sabbath and honoring the law, demonstrating that God is fair and the law can be kept! By turning to the law, they are severed from Christ and fall from grace, as Galatians 5:4 says.
By holding onto the law, by calling the Sabbath the seal of God when Scripture identifies the Holy Spirit as God’s seal, they outrage the Spirit of Grace.
I plead with you, my brother or sister with Adventism shaping your worldview: look at Jesus. Lay aside your Adventist resources—your EGW books, your General Conference materials, your Sabbath School lesson quarterlies, and read Scripture only, asking God to teach you what He knows He wants you to learn.
Get a notebook and begin copying the book of Hebrews, a few verses a day, into that notebook, and allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the wonder and miracle of the Lord Jesus becoming sin for you and taking your death, breaking the curse of the law, and opening a new and living way to the Father.
Trust Jesus alone and find freedom from the dreadful consequence of trampling the Son of God, of profaning His once-for-all blood of the covenant, and for outraging the Spirit of Grace. Look to Jesus and live! †
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