A few ways Adventist teachings diminish Jesus
The so called investigative judgement doctrine/belief subtly makes Jesus very “small.” He somehow needs to go over records to decide if someone will be saved or not. What happened to His Omniscience? It apparently takes Him a lot of time to do this, and when He passes from reviewing records of dead people, He will move to the living. Then He will also supposedly look at your life, right then, when He is determining whether or not to save you. He is apparently now no longer able to exist outside of earth time, because He’s been doing this since 1844. What happened to omnipresence?
Adventists (at least the churches I attended my whole life) made very little of resurrection weekend. They said, “Wow! Even in Death, Jesus kept the Sabbath!” As if the Creator of all things bowed to the Sabbath! They make nothing at all of His resurrection; instead, they essentially seem to enjoy and focus on His death instead of His resurrection—another way they subtly try to diminish Him.
Jesus created a new and living way, a new covenant, but you will never hear an Adventist praising Him for that. Their religion (which I was in for 56 years) does everything it can to pretend that Jesus coming to earth and dying and being resurrected did nothing more than buy Him the “option” of saving some people, depending on their behavior and works.
In my experience as an Adventist, I did not know what Jesus was “good for.” He lived a perfect life, without sin; therefore, I was supposed to be able to do that—but I never could. He was just an example, not my substitute.
The less a person understands what really happened at the cross, the more likely they are to be deceived. Adventists understand very little of the cross. They cannot focus on it, because if they did, they would come to understand that Jesus instituted a New Covenant! He can do that! He is God! He is not tied to the Old Covenant. They desperately ignore the New Covenant.
Sabbath-keeping is not required; an all knowing, all powerful God, The Word, The great I AM, does not need to spend time investigating anyone. He knew all of us long before we existed. He calls those who are His, and He knows us.
No one can afford to be lazy about their own salvation, letting others, or their religion lull them into complacency. Please, please as an Adventist, be willing to consider the possibility that you may not know everything, and that the church you love may have embraced teachings that diminish Jesus. Anyone or anything, any church that teaches anything to diminish Jesus, cannot be true. That fact is according to God the Father.
I am grateful for Life Assurance Ministries, Richard and Colleen Tinker, Dale Ratzlaff, DM Canright, Nikki Stevenson, and all the rest who fight the good fight against false teachings. I know it is hard to hear what they say. It is hard to realize you’ve been deceived. It is very hard to change religious beliefs, especially when we are older. It has been hard to learn to eat what I used to think was unclean. It was hard to leave friends in my old church. It IS hard to be the only person in my family who isn’t an Adventist. It was hard to hear my best friend tell me I was being deceived by the devil when I left the church.
I am here to say I would do it all again a thousand times over just to have the assurance I have now of my salvation. I absolutely know I was called out of that church, and I will be forever thankful to the Good Lord for doing it.
—VIA ONLINE RESPONSE
Sanctification Is God’s Work
Adventists are taught that justification and sanctification are two different things. The first is what God does in declaring us righteous; the second is what we do, with God’s help, in our lives as we overcome sin over time.
God said:
“Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you” (Exodus 31:13).
“Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them” (Ezekiel 21:12).
“Sanctify” is a verb in these verses. It is what God does. Doesn’t it basically mean that God set Israel apart for a holy use? Israel was given the sabbath to remind them that they had agreed to let God use them as He wanted. Even their evil deeds were used, and are used, by God to demonstrate to the world His holiness as He punishes Israel, scattering them around the world. “Sanctification” is being set apart to be used by God as He sees fit.
When God says He does something, it is done. The Old Testament demonstrates that Israel was not what Adventists’ say sanctification is. Therefore the word “sanctify” does not mean what they say it means.
As long as we have the idea in the back of our minds that sanctification is something demonstrated in our lives by living as God desires, we can not understand what sabbath meant to Israel. To be “sanctified” meant that Israel was used to reveal both God’s mercy and his wrath.
It is a fearful thing to be “sanctified” by God. I wonder what God will do to those who take the sabbath, saying they are Israel, when they are not?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: The writer has described what we often call “positional sanctification”: our position before God which is determined by His declaration. The Bible also describes “progressive sanctification”, but the writer is correct that even this progressive sanctification is not our work. Colossians 2:6 tells believers, “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.”
We received Him by faith alone. We learn, as born-again Christians, to trust God in our lives by faith alone, and our growth in godliness is never “our” work. It is the fruit of our being alive in Christ, the work of the Spirit in us. Adventism misses the significance and power of the new birth and of the fact that sanctification is not part of our qualification for salvation but is a gift of grace to us as we learn to live by faith AFTER being transferred out of death into life (Jn. 5:24).
Faith in Faith or in God’s Purposes?
Just a word of praise and thanksgiving for the ministry of FAF. You are becoming more precious to me every day as the podcasts reveal more of the Jesus of Scripture.
First, I just listened to the most recent podcast on COVENANTS! So, so grateful. Agree heartily! When I was saved, I delved into studying Scripture. I was scared because, after all, THE TRUTH, as I had been taught, was an abject LIE. How was I to recognize truth?
I was blessed to be saved at Grace Community Church where Scripture is taught and encouraged to be studied individually. I volunteered at Shepherd’s Conferences. I had access to great books at great prices. I bought a book on Covenant Theology (yep, it was there in the bookstore, and I wanted to know what it was), and I also listened (and still do, cautiously) to RC Sproul. But I had problems with both because some things they assumed, as you mentioned, were not in the Bible.
I joined Dispensational/Covenantal groups on Facebook until the bickering and sarcasm became more than I felt was honoring to Christ. It is so reassuring to hear what you discussed and the conclusions you have drawn, as they are what I have learned from studying my Bible. Thank you for your courage—which is God’s gift to you—to continue to present truth. You are not against Adventism. Truth is! Truth exposes untruth and half-truth!
Second, I am re-listening to the podcast on Faith, and I am remembering my biggest confrontation with faith as an Adventist, the birth of my son. I remember zealous and earnest Adventists telling me God could heal him if I had enough faith. Even our pastor, who was a returned missionary, expounded on stories of miraculous healings they had witnessed in other countries that could only be ascribed to faith. I had two disturbing and angry thoughts:
1. My son has a genetic, chromosomal abnormality affecting every cell of his body. He does not have a broken leg!
2. God is infinite and sovereign. He created my son just the way he was. If He wanted to heal him, He could. He did not need my faith in Him! Was it God who gave me faith to trust in Him for His purpose, or was it faith in my faith to control God for my purpose?
The wrestle to understand faith was the beginning of my transformation even though it was many, many years later that I was saved. My heart and soul defended God out of the love for my son. GOD DOES NOT MAKE MISTAKES! There was a purpose in my son’s life, and though I could not imagine at the time what it was, I KNEW there was. I also believed Creator God could make Blake’s chromosomes normal, and I thought what pride that would produce in me as it would be known all over the world and I would become famous. Yes, I was in touch with my own vanity to a small enough degree to understand that God may have reasons for my son’s life that would defy the concepts of faith as I, as an Adventist, understood it.
I am so thankful for a faith that was God’s GIFT to ME through His infinite grace. He has caused me to TRUST Him, little by little. How amazing He is!
—BEVERLY BESSADA
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