False Doctrine Sticks In the Brain
I was re-listening to one of the 28 Fundamental Beliefs podcasts, and Nikki mentioned she had a compilation of Scripture references to the Spirit and our spirit. May I get a copy of that please.
I enjoy your podcasts and the magazine very much, and they help me a lot. Although we have never met, I feel like y’all are friends. I hope to be able to attend a conference one of these days!
I find it strange that the false doctrine can stick in your brain for so long.
Have a blessed week!
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Here is a link to the article Nikki wrote about that Fundamental Belief: How The Bible Convinced Me We Have Spirits.
I hope this helps, and thank you for writing! Praise God that His word untangles our brains! We hope that we will see you at a coming conference.
Resources about Death
Would you be able to recommend a YouTube video on what happens after death? My husband is asking about this subject. There is a huge difference between what Adventists believe and what Christians believe. Also, he also wants to know what happened to people in the past who never ended up believing in Jesus. Are they saved? How about people who are in a false religion? Are they saved?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Here is a video of Martin Carey speaking at our recent conference and addressing the nature of man.
This video from our 2018 Michigan conference explains the fact that we are born with spirits that are dead and are made alive when we believe in the Lord Jesus. This understanding of our true human nature is necessary for us to understand what happens at death. How To Be Secure In My Salvation.
Second Peter 2:9 tell us what happens to the wicked when they die: “[T]he Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.”
In other words, God does receive the unregenerate, dead-in-sin spirits of the wicked when they die, and He keeps them under punishment until the day of judgment when they will be resurrected for punishment as described at the end of Revelation 20. We aren’t told what that intermediate punishment looks like, and we aren’t told what being with the Lord looks like, but we are told that these things are true.
The “thing” that determines whether or not people are saved is whether or not they believed God—the real God of Scripture—as He has revealed Himself. Abraham is our great “father of faith”; he believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). On this side of the cross, God’s revelation to us is in His Son who died for our sin, was buried, and rose on the third day—all according to Scripture (1 Cor. 15:3,4).
Here are a couple of articles that will help; I understand that your husband may prefer the video format, but if you read the articles, you may be able to help him understand.
Better Catholic than Adventist?
I was reading a testimony of a lady who was Adventist for nearly 50 years and happened upon your magazine, read it cover to cover, and actually left the Adventist church and became a Roman Catholic. I was curious what your thoughts are regarding this? I’m assuming it’s better to be Catholic than Adventist?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: The issue at the heart of leaving Adventism is the gospel, the biblical gospel of the Lord Jesus which is the good news that Jesus died for our sins according to Scripture, He was buried, and He rose from the dead on the third day according to Scripture (1 Cor. 15:3, 4). Jesus completed His atonement of our sins and now sits at the right hand of the Father, completely victorious over the devil, and He gives us new, eternal life—His resurrection life—when we trust Him.
Catholicism, like Adventism, does not teach a COMPLETED atonement. It teaches, rather, that Jesus continues to apply His blood to our sins when we confess them. In other words, Catholicism, like Adventism, teaches that our salvation is not secure just because we say we believe in Jesus. They both teach we have to continue to do certain works to stay saved, or to be sanctified, and they both teach that sanctification is part of becoming saved. They do not teach sanctification is the fruit of being saved. Adventism requires keeping the law—especially the Sabbath—and the food laws as well. Catholicism requires the mass—going to confession and then taking the mass every week so that one’s sins can be forgiven.
Neither teaches a once-for-all forgiveness when we trust Jesus.
The Bible, however teaches that when we trust Jesus’ finished work for our sin, we pass at that moment from death to life (Jn. 5:24; 3:18) and do not come into judgment. We are sealed at that moment with the indwelling Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13, 14) who teaches us and opens Scripture to us and shows us how to live by faith—but our salvation is secure the moment we trust Jesus because we are literally born again of the Spirit and given eternal life in Jesus. The Bible teaches that sanctification is the FRUIT of being saved. Adventism and Catholicism both teach that sanctification (works we do by their definitions) are helping to make us saved.
So, the response to your question is—Adventism and Catholicism are surprisingly similar in their teaching of how to be saved. The details are different, but the soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) is surprisingly similar.
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