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 10: “Giving Back”
COLLEEN TINKER
Problems with this lesson:
- This lesson is a reminder to people to leave part of their inheritance to “the church”.
- The author uses proof texts to create a case for planned giving, being generous with gifts to “the church” while living and designating specific amounts of one’s inheritance to “the church” upon death.
- The assumption that Adventism is “the church” gaslights the readers by the use of guilt to commit themselves to supporting the organization even after death.
This lesson is particularly upsetting to me. Although it is worded benignly, taking a high moral tone and reiterating that one’s loved ones should have their needs met, the point of the entire week’s lesson is that people need to plan for their money (beyond the basic needs of loved ones) to benefit “the church”.
First, Adventism is NOT part of the body of Christ, the universal church composed of those who believe in Jesus alone and are born again. It is, in the words of apologist Paul Carden, a dangerous religious counterfeit. It is even more dangerous than an overt “cult” because it looks like the real thing from a distance.
Adventism, though, teaches another Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel (2 Cor. 11:4). It is not Christian; it has a fallible Jesus who lacks the attribute of omnipresence; the Adventists Jesus is NOT God!
Liberally supported with EGW quotes, this week’s lesson creates a moral argument for leaving one’s money to “the cause”. Here is a quotation from page 126 in The Bible Study Guide, Monday’s lesson:
For those who have possessions at the end of life, no matter how great or small they might be, estate planning can be our final act of stewardship, of carefully managing what God has blessed us with. If you don’t have an estate plan that you have created with a will or trust, the state’s or civil government’s laws can come into play (all this depends, of course, on where you live). If you die without a will, most civil jurisdictions simply pass your assets on to your relatives, whether they need them or not, whether or not they would make good use of the money, and whether or not you would have chosen to give a portion to that person. The church will get nothing. If that’s what you want, fine; if not, you need to work out plans beforehand.
In the simplest terms, we can say that because God is the Owner of everything (see Ps. 24:1), it would be logical to conclude from a biblical perspective that when we are finished with what God has entrusted to us, we should return to Him, the rightful Owner, what is left, once the needs of loved ones are met.
We have said before that the money God grants us is all from Him, and nothing we are or have is ours but is His for our management for His glory. Of COURSE we who know Jesus consider our possessions to be for His glory and for the good of the body of Christ and of those who are ministering His word to people.
I have known fund raisers for Adventist institutions. They visit the elderly, making friends of them and causing them to think they personally care for them. When they have finally gained their trust, the fund raiser will ask the elderly persons about leaving part of their estates to the church or to other Adventist independent organization. They will even help them have their wills or trusts rewritten if necessary.
Frequently these alterations to people’s wills are done without the consultation of the elderly’s heirs or executors or trustees. The changes are made, nevertheless, and the heirs then find out what has been done.
The methods Adventist fund raisers use to gain access to people’s money is often reprehensible and opportunistic. Guilt and gaslighting are common, and this lesson is simply one more cog in the Adventist wheel of guilting people into supporting “the church”.
This entire lesson is based on worldly principles of wealth management. The Bible asks us not to worry about what we eat, drink, or wear. Paul spoke to the Corinthians with these words:
Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children (2 Corinthians 12:14).
Paul, the one who brought the Corinthians the gospel and ushered them into the family of God, is saying to the Corinthians (in the larger context in chapter 12) that he has never been a burden to them. He has never asked them for support, and now that he is planning his third visit to them, he will not ask them for support this time, either.
He considers himself to be their spiritual father, and children are not obligated to save up money for their parents, he said. Parents save up money for their children!
Paul’s instructions to the Corinthians could not have been more opposed to this week’s Sabbath School lesson. Paul did not ask them for support nor guilt them into a feeling of obligation to him. He did remind them of his consistent love for them, but he also reminded them that NEVER had he burdened them financially.
He wants God to make them complete and to give them peace, but he does not ask them for money. He wants their honesty and integrity. He wants them correctly seeing his care of them without guilt or gaslighting.
We need to remember that all of who we are and what we have is from the Lord, and we must honor Him in the use of our money and time. We must care for our children and also see that our elderly parents are not abandoned. We support God’s work with our money, but we are never to give under compulsion.
We give from generous hearts—and we do NOT give our money to false churches or false gospel work.
Adventism’s shameless guilty reminders that its members must support the organization with their money is wrong. Adventism is not a true gospel-teaching church, and to use Scripture to guilt people into giving money to them is dishonest.
For those who know and trust Jesus, He will impress each person and reveal how He wants each one to handle his money in support of truth.
We don’t need an organizational motivational lesson to guilt us into giving. The Lord Jesus knows how to convict our hearts and to cause us to know His will for our money.
Adventism, though, is not the gospel. Each of us must learn to recognize the real gospel and trust the Lord to show us how to use our money. †
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I am in agreement with much of what was written here by Colleen. It does seem as if the motive for this lesson is to get unsuspecting persons to leave their wills, financial assets or perhaps some portion of it to the church. The EGW quotations are used to intensify the claim that we must leave our inheritance/will, other sources of finance or assets to the Adventist Church. What has not been mentioned at all is the work of charities, or other benevolent organizations, not necessarily associated with a denomination or a church, but which nevertheless, do positive work which indeed is the work of God. There is no mention of these bodies at all. Family needs are mentioned and the church. Dont these bodies deserve funds as well?
This lesson provides an example of irony—the SDA church focuses so much on commandment keeping, legalism, etc and yet they completely ignore the command “Thou shalt not covet”. In a very subtle way the underlying view to me is the church coveting the financial resources of its members, and guilting them to believe that, in the event they do not pass on their possessions/resources to the church, they are failing/dishonouring God and He is displeased with them.
I have never seen an Adventist church return excess funds to its members, or tell them not to contribute/donate any more when they have enough funds. Never! In fact, the more funds are donated or given, the more and faster they are accepted. To the contrary, I have seen more and more emphasis on placing more resources into the hands/control of the church which is interpreted to mean the ‘work of God’. The EGW quotes are, as it were, the driving tools to convince members to do this. I wonder if this is a sense of financial brainwashing!
Seventh-day Adventism embraces several means of garnering funds from its members—from tithes and offerings, to investment, to that described in the lesson etc. Colleen is so right—the Scripture does not compel us to give our resources to God. She correctly outlines and describes Paul’s approach, not to be indebted to members or to demand anything from them. The decision to give one’s resources— financial or otherwise—in life or near to death is sincerely up to the believer, subject to the Holy Spirit—not from a lesson which underhandedly seeks to guilt its members to give. This is not the Christian or Christ like approach!
Andrew.