Lesson 4: “Standing for the Truth”
COLLEEN TINKER |
Before we launch into a look at this week’s lessons which are based on Ellen White’s The Great Controversy chapters 4–6, I have to share that I learned an interesting back-story to this quarter’s series. It Is Written is doing videos of each week’s Sabbath School lessons featuring assistant speaker Eric Flickinger and lesson author Mark Finley. In an introduction to the lessons, Finley said that 2024 and 2025 are designated as the year that Seventh-day Adventists have a “massive project” of distributing “millions and millions” of hard copies of the full edition of The Great Controversy as well as online copies. This is a worldwide project, and Finley was specifically asked by General Conference President Ted Wilson to write this series of lessons as a companion to this church-wide project. So, what we are getting in this quarter’s lesson series is the Adventists’ focus on equipping every member to know the essential outline of The Great Controversy and the Adventist worldview as they blanket the world with copies of this book. This is a massive proselytizing effort as well as a deliberate reinforcement of Adventist indoctrination of its members.
Problems With this Lesson:
- This lesson establishes Adventism’s “day for a year” prophetic time principle.
- This lesson applies texts to Adventism that actually indict Adventism’s false doctrines.
- The author ignores EGWs mis-teaching about Waldenses and uses them as contributing to the “ethos” that impelled Adventism in the 1800s.
Adventism, based on Ellen White’s assertions in The Great Controversy, has always seen itself as the “inheritor” of the Reformation. Adventists believe that they have continued the reforms and restorations that the Reformers failed to complete—meaning especially the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath and the news of Jesus’s second coming. Of course, the church—the true body of Christ—has never been without a Christian doctrine of Sabbath rest, and it has never forgotten the doctrine of the second coming. Ellen White, however, developed a unique prophetic grid to explain Adventism’s existence after the failed Millerite movement, and the seventh-day Sabbath became the primary external “mark” of this religious movement which really is based upon an unbiblical view of man, of the Trinity, of sin, and of salvation.
This week’s lesson takes us into their unique interpretation of prophetic time periods which leads the Adventist right up to the Millerite movement and the formation of Adventism.To get the reader into this Adventist time frame, Mark Finley directs us though a truncated outline of Ellen White’s confusing redefinition of years and days and of her placing certain early Reformers into this time framework in order to build her unique paradigm.
Year For A Day Principle
Sunday’s lesson takes us to the confusing heart of Adventism prophecy. It introduces the heartbeat of the Adventist timeline—the “year for a day” principle—and with a few references to out-of-context texts and a reference to a supposed expert, William Shea, Finley tells us that the Bible’s 1260-day prophecy refers to the years between 538 and 1798 AD.
First, This day’s lesson begins with the command to read Daniel 7:23–25 and Revelation 12:6, 14 and asks, “What prophetic time periods are referred to in these passages?”
Daniel 7:23–25 is the description of the fourth terrible beast of Daniel’s vision. In context, this beast describes the gentile world power that succeeded the empire of Greece, and it continued until God destroys this beast and gives the “kingdoms of the whole heaven…to the people of then saints of the Highest One” (Dan. 7:27).
Furthermore, Daniel 7:25 is important for this lesson because it says,
‘He will speak words against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make changes in seasons and in law; and they will be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.’— (Dan 7:25 LSB)
We see this same cruel political power and the time limit established by God for its authority to persecute God’s people described in different words in Revelation 12: 6, 14. Notice that we are using the texts that Finley used to establish this time period according to Ellen White’s unique prophetic “math”:
Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days. … But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. (Rev 12:6, 14 LSB)
We see here that the persecution of God’s people and His protection of them is described both in Daniel’s vision and in John’s. We see also that both prophets, separated by hundreds of years, were given the same time frame: 1260 days, or three and a half times (years), to define the length of time this persecution would last. Both of these visions are describing a time of tribulation that is in the future—it has not happened yet—and it will end when God destroys the persecutor.
(For more detailed discussion about these visions and time frames, go to the Former Adventist Podcast and listen to my discussions with Nikki Stevenson of Daniel 7 in our series on Daniel and also of Revelation 12 in our currently ongoing series on Revelation.)
Finley then develops the Adventist explanation that the woman described in Revelation 12 is “the church” fleeing into the wilderness. In context, however, the woman is established as Israel who gives birth to the Messiah who is caught up to heaven and thus escapes being devoured by the dragon. Yet the EGW interpretation of this woman as the church is necessary for her unique timeline.
Finley then correctly equates the reference to 1260 days with the time, times, and half a time—but then his explanation becomes pure confusion.
It’s not surprising, though—he is merely explaining Ellen White’s redefinition of this time frame. Finley says this:
Biblical prophecy is often written in symbols. In the prophetic portions of Daniel and Revelation, one prophetic day equals one literal year. We find this day-year principle in Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6.
The day-year principle rests not on these two texts only, but on a broad scriptural foundation. William Shea, chronologist and Old Testament scholar, gives twenty-three lines of biblical evidence throughout the Old Testament for this principle. Bible interpreters have used it throughout the centuries.
The Visigoths, Vandals, and Ostrogoths were tribes that believed doctrines differently than Rome’s official teaching. The 1,260 days began when the last of these barbarian tribes, the Ostrogoths, were driven out of Rome in a.d. 538. This period of spiritual darkness continued until a.d. 1798, when the Napolean’s general Berthier removed the pope from Rome. Countless Christians were martyred during this long period because they obeyed the Word of God.
White there are many details Daniel and Revelation do not tell us about this particular period of three and a half years, these two books are very clear that this time period defines a terrible tribulation that will occur right before the Lord Jesus returns to earth. It is not referring to the middle ages and the time of the Reformation!
Furthermore, Numbers 14:34 and Ezekiel 4:6 describe two events in Israel’s history. The Numbers passage gives God’s prophecy to Israel that, because they refused to trust Him and to enter the Promised Land after the spies returned from their 40-day reconnaissance trip, they would wander in the wilderness for 40 years—one year for each day of the reconnaissance mission—until the unbelieving generation died. He would lead their children into the land instead.
The Ezekiel passage describes God’s command to the prophet that he was to act out His punishment of Israel and Judah for their iniquity. Ezekiel was to lie on his left side and “bear [Israel’s] iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. Now I have set a number of days for you corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days…” Ezekiel was also to lie on his right side for forty days, bearing the iniquity of Judah, “”a day for each year.”
In other words, these passages have nothing at all in them to establish a prophetic “day for a year principle”. These were direct commands with specific meanings and applications, and there was no prophetic principle in them.
Furthermore, Finley mentions William Shea, “chronologist and Old Testament scholar”, as a source of 23 lines of “evidence” to support this principle. Shea was a Seventh-day Adventist. In fact, I couldn’t find any Christian scholars who supported a day-for-a-year principle. I did discover, though, that Jerry Moon from the Adventist seminary at Andrews University wrote a defense for this idea and also referred to William Shea.
Interestingly, Wikipedia says that the day-for-a-year principle
“is used principally by the historicist school of prophetic interpretation.It is held by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the Christadelphians. The day-year principle is also used by the Baháʼí Faith, as well with by most all astrologers who employ the “Secondary Progression” theory, aka the day-for-a-year theory, wherein the planets are moved forwards in the table of planetary motion (known as an ephemeris) a day for each year of life or fraction thereof.”
Waldenses
In The Great Controversy Ellen White famously wrote that the Waldenses, a group of Catholic reformers who became a movement in the twelfth-century century, were seventh-day Sabbath-keepers who were pursued and persecuted by the Catholic Church. In fact, the Adventists published children’s and adults’ books about the Waldenses who hid in the hills as the Catholics pursued them to the point of death because they were loyal to the Sabbath.
In reality, however, the Waldenses were not Sabbath-keepers but were initially lay Catholics who distributed the Bible in the vernacular languages, not Latin. They were pursued and persecuted for three hundred years, and they did hide in the Alps in order to survive. GotQuestions.org says this about them:
In 1487 Pope Innocent VIII pronounced a crusade against two Waldensian groups in the Cottian Alps along the French-Italian border, and many villages were devastated…The towns were destroyed, the women were raped, and about four thousand people killed. In response to such severe persecution, many Waldensians fled to Geneva, Switzerland, where they found refuge with John Calvin.
Eventually, most Waldensians became part of the churches of the Reformation, such as Presbyterian, Lutheran, or Reformed. But today there are still Waldensian churches in existence in Germany, Italy, Uruguay, Argentina, the United States, and elsewhere.—(https://www.gotquestions.org/Waldensians.html).
Finley, however, writes about the Waldenses as early Reformers who were persecuted for their dedication to Scripture without mentioning that the Adventist prophet was completely wrong about them. Here is just one of her statements about them:
Through ages of darkness and apostasy, there were Waldenses who denied the supremacy of Rome, who rejected image worship as idolatry, and who kept the true Sabbath. Under the fiercest tempests of opposition they maintained their faith. —(TGC 1988, p. 65).
This is just one more example of Adventism’s quietly suppressing embarrassing evidence that their prophet could not have received her information from God. She taught generations of Adventists something false about a clear historical fact: Waldenses were not seventh-day Sabbath keepers. Moreover, most of them became members of churches with strong traditions of worshiping on Sunday!
More Misused Texts
Ironically but not surprisingly, this lesson again appropriates texts which, in context, indict Adventism and its deceptions but are used internally to boost Adventists’ confidence in their own religion. For example, Monday’s lesson asks us to read Jude 3, 4 and asks, “What’s the warning here and how did it apply to the later Christian church?” Jude 3, 4 says this:
Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you exhorting that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.—(Jude 1:3-4 LSB)
Contextually, this passage is a warning against the deceptive teachings of Adventism. In fact, Adventism are often embraced as fellow Christians by others who work with them in ministry and community outreach. In reality, Adventism is dedicated to stealing the sheep from Christian congregations and places high value on being perceived as “safe” and just another part of the Christian community. They hide in plain sight while unsuspecting Christians are beguiled into defending and then into believing Adventism.
The lesson here, however, is reinforcing to the Adventist reader that he or she “has the truth” and must be careful not to be swayed into questioning Adventism. The author here uses this passage to cement the Adventist into his unique beliefs instead of being able to question them and to see that Adventism contradicts the pure gospel.
Thursday’s lesson also uses John 5:24, John 11:25, 26, and 1 John 5:11–16 and asks the reader, “What assurances do these promises give you personally?”
These are some of the most compelling statements in Scripture about our eternal security when we believe and trust the Lord Jesus and are born again by His Spirit. Here is John 5:24, for example:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” (John 5:24 LSB)
Here Jesus Himself says that when we hear His word and believe in Him who sent Him, we have eternal life. We do not come into judgment but literally pass out of death into life! The other two passages are equally reassuring; I encourage you to read them. Yet the lesson uses these passages within the context of the great controversy worldview, and the Adventist who reads them only understands the Adventist “hope”: that when he hears Adventism and believes, when he embraces the law and keeps the Sabbath and commits himself to obedience, then he is on the road to salvation.
Adventism means the complete opposite of what this verse assures us!
As we have seen in this lesson, Adventism, on the authority of Ellen White, has twisted church history, has delivered false information, and has established a false system of understanding prophecy. The entire worldview of Adventism is based upon falsehood: a false view of the nature of man, of sin, of salvation, and of the Trinity, a false system of understanding prophetic days, and a false prophet who established these false fundamentals. These foundational falsehoods justify their proof-texting Scripture out of context so that the verses appear to mean things they do not mean.
Adventism is not Christian. It masquerades as Christian, but its worldview hides the pure gospel of the Lord Jesus. It confuses and entraps its members in a chimera, a false reality, and they have no awareness of how to find resolution or peace because they don’t understand the Bible when they read it.
If you haven’t trusted the real Lord Jesus as the sufficient Sacrifice for all your sins, ask Him to show you your true need and His true identity. When you see that He took all your sin, that He died and rose again, breaking the law’s curse of death, believe Him. In Jesus you will find freedom from all the confusion of Adventist prophecy and find that Jesus alone is all you need, and He is with you. †
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.
- April 27–May 3, 2024 - April 25, 2024
- We Got Mail - April 25, 2024
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