Lesson 13: “Epilogue: Knowing Jesus and His Word”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! Magazine
Problems with this lesson:
- Jesus’ restoration and command to Peter is misconstrued to teach not depending on anyone but Jesus.
- This lesson shames those who ignore Scripture’s conviction while protecting their own beliefs.
- Adventism’s central belief is revealed: being drawn to Jesus is only INITIAL; we keep ourselves united to Him after that.
This last lesson of the quarter on the gospel is most clearly dedicated to showing that Jesus is God reveals Adventism’s twisting of God’s word in subtle but powerful ways.
Great Controversy worldview interprets Scripture
Ironically, this lesson, entitled “Knowing Jesus and His Word”, camps on Adventism’s core teaching that members must train their hearts to be loving and not merely intellectual, and they must discipline themselves to stay obedient and “abiding in Him” in order to really know Jesus and be saved. Saturday’s introductory study ends with this sentence:
In this, our last week in John, we will look at some of this Gospel’s key points, which can help us move beyond the mere head knowledge of Jesus to, instead, knowing Him better and more closely abiding in Him and in His Word.
To an uninitiated person looking at Adventism from the outside, these words would sound unremarkable. To an Adventist, though, these words would subtly confirm that he or she must adhere to the unique Adventist doctrines (because they’re based on the Bible alone!), and also that he or she must be careful to obey what they’ve been taught are the Bible’s commands: keep the Sabbath, take care of their bodies by observing the health message, deny eternal hell and an immaterial human spirit, confess every sin and will themselves to be submissive and obedient—in order to “abide in Him and in His word”.
Even though these specifics aren’t mentioned, the message of “abiding in Christ” and abiding in God’s word means choosing every day to be loyal to Adventist doctrines. To an Adventist, the ideas of Christ and God’s word is understood through the grid of Ellen White’s great controversy worldview and the physicalist view that they themselves have no immaterial spirit that must be born again. They further believe that God is three separate members of a Godhead—and they deny that these persons share substance.
These foundational doctrines based on Adventism’s physicalist, great controversy worldview shape the way they understand all of Scripture. This lesson provides some windows through which this profound skew is briefly visible.
Humility Qualifies For Adventist Ministry
In Sunday’s lesson the authors look at Jesus’ final discussion with Peter, when three times the Lord asks Peter, who denied Him three times, if he loves Him. In His first two questions, Jesus used the Greek word agape—the love in which the entire personality, including the will, is implied. The third time Jesus uses the word phileo——the work expressing affection and fondness. In all three of his answer, Peter uses the word phileo.
We can’t be sure exactly what the significance of these differences are, but likely Jesus had a specific purpose in mind. In a general sense, though, we can see that Jesus was concerned with whether or not Peter really loved Jesus. Jesus reinstated Peter and let him know that He was assigning him the responsibility of following Him and of shepherding and feeding His sheep—and His assignment was based upon Peter’s genuine love for Him. Furthermore, Jesus let Peter know that he would die a martyr’s death.
In John 21, Jesus follows this exchange with Peter with His words to Peter about the disciple John. Peter saw John following him and Jesus as they talked, and he asked Jesus, “What about this man?”
Jesus’ response to Peter was:
“If I want him to remain until I come, what [is that] to you? You follow Me!”—John 21:22 LSB
In other words, Jesus was saying to Peter, “I only tell you your own story and give you your own assignment. I do not tell you my plans for others!”
The lesson, however, takes these last verses of John 21 and interprets them in unexpected ways. First, it deals with Peter’s use of phileo this way:
Some note that Jesus uses the verb agapaō, which means to love, in questioning Peter (except for the last time), and that Peter always responds with phileō, which means to love, but just as a friend. The implication is that Peter has not achieved the higher kind of love.
Actually, Peter’s response is focused on humility. With Peter’s failure ever before him, it is more likely that he humbly uses a “lower term,” daring not to claim too much for himself. And it is this humility that Jesus affirms, and which becomes crucial in restoring Peter to ministry. No question, humility is one of the greatest qualifications for ministry because the focus then becomes Jesus Christ and not self.
The context of John 21, however, does not suggest this interpretation at all. There is no sense of Peter’s using a “lower term” nor of Jesus’ restoring Peter to ministry based on his humility. To be sure, humility was part of Peter’s repentance—but this passage is not suggesting that Jesus could now use Peter because he was so humble. Context simply doesn’t let us know why Jesus used two forms of “love”, nor does it suggest that Peter was demonstrating his submission by using the word for affection and friendship.
The lesson is conscripting this exchange to deliver to Adventist members the notion that they must submit themselves to what Adventism tells them is truth, and the humble, submissive member is the one best suited to serve. After all, a leader with his own ideas about the Bible and about Jesus might become “trouble” for the organization.
This exchange with Peter is not a platform for demonstrating that humility keeps one focussed on Jesus instead of on the self!
Don’t Look to Others
Second, the authors of this lesson conscripts Jesus’ conversation with Peter about John to teach Adventists not to look to their friends or leaders for guidance or support. Rather, they are to independently stay obedient regardless of what others do.
As we stated above, Jesus was simply telling Peter that His assignment and calling of him was the Lord’s personal commission to Peter. What other disciples would be asked to do or to suffer was not part of the Lord’s call on Peter’s life. In other words, Jesus does not tell us each other’s stories. What He takes each of us through is His own decision for His glory and our good. We cannot compare our assignments or sufferings in any way, because the Lord deals with us as He chooses. Our proper response is to trust Him.
The lesson, however, twists this account into the typical Adventist admonition NOT to worry about other people’s success or failures. Adventism uses this model to keep members from being critical of unscrupulous and abusive behaviors among church leaders and authority figures.
For example, Adventism is infamous for not truly disciplining church leaders caught in abuses. Instead, the organization tends to move people laterally from one position where they were “caught” to another where their problems are not yet known: professors who have affairs with students, for example, get moved to campuses across the continent instead of being terminated from employment. Administrators who are caught in illegal financial schemes may be “let go” for a time but not truly fired; they reappear after the smoke clears and are given new venues for employment—sometimes even in similar capacities. Pathfinder leaders who are found to be predators or pedophiles may be removed from active leadership but seldom are they legally charged.
In such situations, the members who have been affected are typically admonished to “Look to Jesus, not people”. People will disappoint us, but Jesus will be true.
This week’s lesson approaches this habituated Adventist response as it deals with Jesus telling Peter not to worry about John. In the account, Peter was NOT worried about John, nor was he in danger of being disappointed by John. Rather, Peter was wondering about Jesus—was Jesus treating John similarly to him?
Jesus responded by saying, essentially, that how He dealt with John was not Peter’s business. Peter was to trust HIM and know that He was being just and righteous in His dealings with both of them, for their good and for God’s glory.
The lesson, however, twists the account this way and leads to these thought questions:
The idea of focusing on Jesus, instead of on other people, is a powerful lead into the rest of the week’s lesson. Jesus, and Jesus alone, is our Savior. People will inevitably disappoint you, perhaps even hurt you, as well.
The truths covered for Tuesday through Thursday will pick up on the theme of understanding the Word of God, with the aim of knowing and following Jesus, who alone should be our Master and Guide—regardless of the help, counsel, and guidance that others might give us.
How often have others, whom you might have looked up to, disappointed you? What lessons, however hard, did you learn from that experience?
Not only does Monday’s lesson make this illogical application of this account, but the Teachers Comments end with discussion questions including this:
Knowing that someday we may face the time of trouble alone, how dependent should we be on other Christians around us? Do we still need others to prop us up, or have we learned to draw strength from our companionship with Jesus? Explain.
Adventist Eschatology Keeps Fear Alive
The discussion question above derives from the lesson’s treatment of Jesus’ words to Peter about John. Contextually, there’s no way to get “here” from John 21—but Adventism is using Jesus’ words to make an internal point.
First, the great controversy model has convinced Adventists that there will be a Sunday law at the end of time that will permit Christians (and non-Christians) to hunt and kill seventh-day Sabbath keepers. Adventists believe that if they are alive at the end of time, they must be willing to die for the Sabbath—not for Jesus, but for the Sabbath. They believe they may have to watch their children being tortured and killed by Sunday-keepers; they believe that if they are not willing to die for the Sabbath, they will deny Jesus and not be saved.
The quotes about about not depending on “other Christians around us” and about looking to Jesus only are built on that implicit part of the Adventist worldview: they will have to stand alone, without an intercessor, at the end of time. They will have to have their obedience and their characters so perfected that they will withstand the pressures of weaker friends or foes who try to intimidate them to give up the Sabbath.
There is absolutely NO CONTEXT whatsoever in Scripture, let alone in this restorative discussion between Jesus and Peter, to justify using this account to reinforce fear and guilt in Adventists. The Lord Jesus will NEVER leave His born again believers, and no believer has to face persecution alone! The Lord Jesus will never leave us nor forsake us. Jesus individually ministers to us eternally when we are His!
When the Bible Steps On Toes
Tuesday’s lesson mentions John’s use of the theme of light versus dark—but it uses this theme to support the implicit teaching that Adventism IS truth. The day’s lesson ends with these words and discussion question:
Those who do not stand in the truth speak from their own resources.
They “see” the meaning of a text only from a human perspective. By contrast, we must accept that Christ is the light of the world and follow Him in our interpretation of His Word. In contrast, the devil speaks from “his own resources” (John 8:44, NKJV). If we are not careful and are not surrendered in faith and obedience to God, we are in danger of doing the same thing: reading the text based only on our own desires, wants, and perspectives, which is much easier to do than we might realize.
How do you respond to truths that “step on your toes,” as opposed to how you should respond to those truths?
To that question I want to say, “Adventist, how do you respond to the biblical statements that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:1–9)? How do you respond to Colossians 2:16, 17 and declares Sabbath to be a shadow of the reality found in Christ? What do you say in response to Jesus’ words that when a person believes, he passes out of death into life (John 5:24)? Or what do you say to Jesus’ words that if a person believes in Him will never die—ever—even if his body dies? (John 11:252,26)? How do you explain that Jesus sat down at the Father’s right hand when He ascended and is NOT perusing books and applying blood like a levitical priest in Heaven?
This lesson assumes and gas-lights its readers into believing that Adventism is truth—and they must always be vigilant to resist ideas that “step on their toes” when outsiders show them from Scripture what God says is true. But this lesson reveals that Adventists are guilty of exactly what they warn their members not to do. They instill fear and deception to guilt their members away from biblical truths that “step on their [Adventist] toes”.
Coming to Jesus is only “initial”
Finally, this lesson makes it clear that trusting Jesus is not the essence of the Adventist gospel. The Teachers Comments say this on page 174, completing the deceptive words with a quote by EGW:
When Jesus was “lifted up from the earth” (John 12:32), He drew many unto Himself, and He still draws many today. But being drawn to Christ is just the initial step in our saving relationship with Him, for we must continue to walk with Him and abide in Him, which requires determination and steadiness in our spiritual journey.…
“Fiber by fiber and vein by vein, [the graft will] become knit with the Vine, and partake of its life. . . . As the graft receives life when united to the vine, so the sinner partakes of the divine nature when connected with Christ. Finite man is united with the infinite God. When thus united, the words of Christ abide in us, and we are not actuated by a spasmodic feeling, but a living, abiding principle.”—Ellen G. White, Sons and Daughters of God, p. 291.
It’s not often that we find this fact about the “Adventist gospel” so clearly stated, but here the author says that being drawn to Christ “is just the initial step” in our salvation. We ourselves use continue to walk and to abide in Him. This requires diligent effort, and EGW confirms that WHEN a sinner is connected with Christ (exactly how, we are not told—apparently by feeling drawn and then determining to make it work), then we are “actuated” by a “living, abiding principle”.
But what does that even MEAN? The Bible tells us something different:
“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
In Him, you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of [God’s own] possession, to the praise of His glory.—Ephesians 1:13, 14 LSB
But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus—Ephesians 2:4–6 LSB
“Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your house.”Acts 16:30, 31 LSB
Adventism never teaches the biblical new birth. Because it denies that humans have immaterial spirits that are born dead in sin and must be made alive through belief in the Lord Jesus alone, they have to use Christian-sounding words while avoiding the plain truth: We are saved by belief ALONE. We are not saved by being “drawn to Jesus”; we are saved by recognizing that we are sinners who cannot be saved apart from an act of God.
When we hear the gospel of our salvation—that the Lord Jesus died for our sins according to Scripture, that He was buried, and that He rose on the third day according to Scripture—shattering the curse of death into which we were born—when we recognize that we need this Savior who took our sin and paid its full price by enduring God’s wrath as He hung on the cross in our place—when we believe and trust that His blood has fully paid for our sin, then at that moment we are born again.
Our dead spirits literally come to life, and we pass at that moment from death to life. Even if we die, our spirits will never die, and we will always be with the Lord!
When we believe, we are literally indwelled—permanently—by God the Holy Spirit. He is our guarantee that our future is certain, and He is our guarantee and protection that keeps us secure through every trial of our lives.
We are not given access to an “abiding principle”—we are literally made alive with Jesus’ resurrection life and indwelled by God! We are made new creations, and we go from being in Adam to being literally in Christ, born of God, members of a new “race” of spiritually living people who are citizens of the kingdom of the beloved Son (Col 1:13)!
Ellen diminished Jesus and obscured the new birth. Furthermore, she obscured our true need: we aren’t just prone to sin, we are DEAD by nature. We need Jesus!
We do not keep ourselves saved; rather we live just as we received Christ: by faith (Colossians 2:6).
As we end this quarter of lesson going through the gospel of John, I appeal to you: take the Bible seriously. Ask the Lord to remove the lens of EGW that has colored your sight and shaped your worldview. Ask Him to teach you what His word actually says, and allow God’s word to step on your Adventist toes. Let God show you the lies and expose the deception of your Adventism, and trust the One who died for you!
Have you trusted Jesus? If you haven’t, ask Him to reveal your true need to you. Ask Him to grant you faith to believe and to be willing to let go of your Adventism and to trust Jesus and His word alone.
Get a notebook, and begin copying the book of John into it, asking God to teach you what He knows He wants you to learn.
The truth will set you free. You can trust the One who Is truth. Believe Him today—and you will know what it means to pass from death to life. †
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