RICHARD TINKER
I was born on a mountain—Howell Mountain adjacent to the Napa Valley in Northern California. This mountain, however, is very similar to another mountain—Mt. Sinai. In order to understand my comparison, we need to look at Galatians 4:21–26 and read Paul’s description of two mountains:
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.
Galatians 4:21–26
After reading Paul’s descriptions, let’s look again at my mountain. It was the site of Pacific Union College where my parents had attended, and it also had Saint Helena Sanitarium and Hospital—that’s where I was born. This Adventist hospital faithfully played organ chimes and music over loudspeakers every Friday evening so that the community knew when the Sabbath had begun. They lowered the lights in the hospital all day Saturday, and unnecessary work was delayed until Sunday.
Although my mother involuntarily labored in the early Sabbath hours, I was the consummate Sabbath baby.
I was born into this Sabbath hush on the first Saturday in August. Although my mother involuntarily labored in the early Sabbath hours, I was the consummate Sabbath baby. My mountain marked me from birth.
When I was a bit older, I remember my parents taking me to the roof deck of the hospital to watch the sun set on Friday, ushering in the Sabbath hours. It all seemed so holy and special, and we were special because we knew that the law demanded Sabbath keeping on the seventh day, from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.
My Sabbath memories of my mountain imprinted me. It compared well with Hagar and Mount Sinai as described in our Galatians passage—I was born into slavery to the law.
Studying with Neighbors
Fast forward to 1994. I was 39 years old and trying to raise two boys and to be a good husband. But I was still part of that mountain of Sinai. I still kept the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments along with a lot of other old covenant laws. I faithfully paid the recommended 20 percent of my income to the Adventist organization. I worked for their premiere university in Loma Linda, and I also continued devoting myself to good works in the church. But I was scared.
I was scared because I didn’t have any idea if I was good enough to be “safe to save”. I had been taught that Jesus died for all my confessed sins of the past, but I still needed to grow to perfection in this life. After all, Jesus had lived a perfect life to show me that it was possible. I needed to be like Jesus—we even sang a song, “I Would Be Like Jesus”. Yet I knew I could never be as good as Jesus, so when we moved to our new house run Yucaipa, I was filled with fear about my future.
Within weeks of moving into our home, I noticed that our neighbors to the east were Christians. They had Bible studies in their home each week, and they were friendly. We started calling them our “Good Neighbors”, and we discovered that they had names, Mel and Monica. I determined to continue my good works by making them into Adventists.
One summer day that same year while I was chatting with Mel over the fence, I asked him if he would be interested in coming to a Bible study at our house. It took Mel and Monica three months to finally agree to study with us.
Our studies had to be adapted to non-Adventists, so we agreed to simply read through one book of the Bible at a time, one chapter each week, in context, and then talk through it together on Tuesday evenings. We started with James and proceeded to study through most of the New Testament along with Daniel—where the foundational Adventist doctrine of the “investigative judgment” is supposedly found—over a period of three years.
We had never been taught to study the Bible contextually, and these studies were eye-opening. They surprised me.
During those three years of study, I tried my best to bring in Adventist ideas and conclusions into our discussions, but the true teachings of the Bible kept appearing.
During those three years of study, I tried my best to bring in Adventist ideas and conclusions into our discussions, but the true teachings of the Bible kept appearing. I kept bumping into the proof-texts I had learned as an Adventist, but they said completely different things in context than I had been taught they said. I was shocked; it seemed as if every week our study of Scripture yielded a new teaching that disagreed with my mother church. The simplicity of the gospel kept showing up.
I met a new Jesus.
The Jesus I met in the Bible didn’t come to show me how to keep the law perfectly. Rather, He came to show me the way to salvation through His death, burial, and resurrection—as taught in the Scriptures, not in Ellen White’s writings. I could trust this Jesus, and I did. My trust in Him gave me the right to claim His gift of salvation with all my sins—past, present, and future—taken care of on His cross. I was no longer living on that old mountain!
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
Galatians 4:28–31
My new mountain is called the Jerusalem above. I am no longer a child of slavery, but a child of the free woman. I am not on the mountain of Sinai with all its old covenant laws and commands. I am under Christ—living for Him, born again with the Holy Spirit’s seal which guarantees my eternal life with my Lord Jesus.
But what about my good works? Where do they fit into the picture?
Once again, Scripture places even my works in their proper context:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2: 8–10
I no longer live in fear that motivated me to try to prove myself worthy. I am saved. Now, the works that I do for Jesus are the works He prepared for me to do, and I do them as my response to Him for what has done for me.
If you are living in fear, read your Bible, especially the gospel of John. Get to know the Jesus of the Bible. He did the work; you only are called to believe. The Jesus of the Bible calls you to leave Mt. Sinai and to believe in Him and His finished work today! Then you will no longer be the son of the slave woman, but you will be free, and the heavenly Jerusalem will be your mother. As Paul said,
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. †
Galatians 5:1
This article is taken from the testimony that Richard Tinker gave at Redeemer Fellowship on June 4, 2023. You can view the YouTube video of his talk below.
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Amazing how God used your plan to convert your neighbors into His plan to show you the Gospel!