Standing Without An Intercessor
I am a pastor in Trinidad and Tobago where we are swarming with Adventists. I want to say I admire your work and pray that God would bless and prosper you.
I want to ask a question: I have heard it said that after the investigative judgment, Adventist will have to live without the intercessory work of Christ? I am trying to find the primary source of that doctrine. I can’t find it in the Great Controversy. Is this really their doctrine, and where can it be found?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: You really are in a spiritual battlefield in Trinidad and Tobago. Adventism does not put this detail into its public doctrinal statements. Nevertheless, this idea is in print in various editions of EGW’s writings. I will include a quotation below from The Great Controversy, 1888 version, available online:
When he leaves the sanctuary, darkness covers the inhabitants of the earth. In that fearful time the righteous must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor. The restraint which has been upon the wicked is removed, and Satan has entire control of the finally impenitent. God’s long-suffering has ended. The world has rejected his mercy, despised his love, and trampled upon his law. The wicked have passed the boundary of their probation; the Spirit of God, persistently resisted, has been at last withdrawn. Unsheltered by divine grace, they have no protection from the wicked one. Satan will then plunge the inhabitants of the earth into one great, final trouble. As the angels of God cease to hold in check the fierce winds of human passion, all the elements of strife will be let loose. The whole world will be involved in ruin more terrible than that which came upon Jerusalem of old. {GC88 614.1}
You can go to legacy.egwwritings.org and search for specific words; the site will bring you examples of places where EGW uses those words. The caveat is that you have to know the exact words in order to find the results!
Since EGW IS Adventism’s Fundamental Belief #18, all of her words become official Adventist teachings. Thus, if her more cultic declarations no longer resonate with modern Adventists and they try to reword her ideas or dismiss them or alter their meanings, nevertheless all that she wrote still remains as official revelation from God. All of her words are part of the opus of material that defines Adventism. Interestingly, even her most suppressed ideas continue to have effects on the members years later.
The idea of standing without an intercessor after the investigative judgment closes, however, is in their flagship book The Great Controversy. They really can’t get away from the implications of this part of her scenario, even if they try to make the idea more palatable. Besides, this idea directly contradicts Hebrews 7:25!
I am so thankful that the podcasts are helpful to you!
Of Mormonism, Adventism, and Demons
I have been listening to you all for awhile and am learning so much. Thank you.
I also enjoy Mormon Stories as I see so many parallels between some of those stories and happenings in my own life.
Here is the question: I was listening to them do a breakdown on Mormon “visions of glory”, and I couldn’t help but feel like I had heard some of it before. There is a section where there is a description of demons fighting to enter a person, in this particular instance into a who is watching pornography. Does Ellen White not also have somewhere a description about demons fighting to enter people and how they react while possessing that person and how they line up and fight among each other trying to reenter them when they “fall out”?
If you have time to help me with this I would appreciate it.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Thank you for writing! I do not know of a specific description of demons entering and re-entering in EGWs writings. There is a parable of Jesus, however, which describes a demon leaving and returning with seven more spirits:
“Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find [it.] Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds [it] unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.” (Mat 12:43-45 NASB95)
This parable is not a story to generate fear of Satan. Rather, in context, He is speaking to unbelieving Jews who are refusing to acknowledge Him. He has just told them that “something greater than Solomon is here” and has said that in the judgment the Queen of Sheba will condemn the generation to which He is speaking.
Jesus’ contextual meaning is addressing the idea that if a person decides to clean up his “house”, or his life, and abandons idolatry and false worship but doesn’t FILL his house after the demon leaves—as in to trust and believe in Jesus—because by believing Jesus and trusting Him we receive Him and are sealed with His Spirit—in that condition, the person is vulnerable to deception again. The false spirit the person cleaned out will come back and bring other deceptions with him, and that person is worse off than before.
I see this parable describing, for example, what happens when people leave Adventism but do not go into belief in Christ. Going into agnosticism and unbelief leaves that person wide open for even worse demonic deception. We have to fill our house with the Lord.
The focus here is on the Lord Jesus, not on Satan. EGW did focus on Satan a lot. But the Bible does not make Satan a central player. Jesus is, and Satan is God’s monkey, to borrow a phrase.
Not Interpreting Scripture the Same
Hi ladies. I stumbled across a teaching on the Sabbath by Colleen Tinker months ago and then found your podcast shortly after. It has been very helpful to me in my walk with God.
I am not a former Adventist. A very good friend of mine became a Seventh-day Adventist a year or so ago, getting deeper and deeper into the teachings in recent months. I had never heard of this organization until she started studying their teachings.
It became clear that we were not interpreting Scripture the same, mainly due to the Sabbath, and at first I started questioning what I believe and my salvation through my faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
I never heard the term “easy believeism” until we started studying God’s word together. It was very upsetting to me and has driven an awkward wedge in our friendship.
I pray that God will lead her to His truth and to His salvation in Christ. I just wanted to leave this comment to let you know that I appreciate you both sharing your testimonies about leaving the organization and your studies of Scripture.
May God continue to work through your ministry. In His Love.
—VIA YOUTUBE
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