Lesson 11: “What More Could I Have Done?”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! Magazine
Central problem:
God is vindicated in two judgments: the “pre-Advent judgment”, and the “post-Advent judgment” when all our questions will be answered.
This lesson presents Jesus as pleading with us mortals to see that He has done everything He could to save mankind. It presents Him as needing us to acknowledge He has been fair and self-sacrificing and to admit there was nothing more He could do, and the lesson ends with a plea for everyone to speak of God’s justice and fairness and love.
After all, God’s character cannot be vindicated against Satan’s accusations unless we mortals see and believe that there was nothing more for Him to do. The cross is said to be the place where His forgiveness and His respect for our freedom in love is demonstrated—but in the entire lesson, there is no mention that Jesus’ blood atoned for all of our sin.
Instead, the cross is presented as a demonstration of God’s love and justice—a demonstration necessary to prove and convince the watching universe and also humanity that God is loving and fair. By demonstrating God’s love through the way we live our lives, we will help Jesus to prove that Satan is a liar and that God is love.
This lesson perfectly represents EGWs great controversy paradigm, and it once again hides the truth about Jesus’ death on the cross and makes it a demonstration of the fact that God couldn’t have done any more than He did to show us that He is just, loving, and forgiving. His self-sacrifice was the ultimate proof of the lengths to which He would go for us poor, guilty mortals.
Cosmic conflict demands public demonstration
After talking through the parable of the vineyard which culminates in the vinedressers killing the vineyard owner’s son, the author says this in Wednesday’s lesson:
What more could He do? The Father loved us so much that He gave His beloved Son (John 3:16). If the cosmic conflict is of the kind suggested here, it could not be settled prematurely by exercise of divine power but required first a public demonstration of God’s character. This demonstration has been set forth ultimately in the work of Christ (Rom. 3:25, 26; Rom. 5:8). What more could we ask than that God (in Christ) give Himself to die for us so that He might justify us without in any way compromising His justice and perfect love?
Once again the author explicates EGWs great controversy theme. God’s reputation is in doubt because Satan has slandered Him and declared Him to have given an unfair law and to have shown unfair preference for Jesus over himself. To settle the question of whether or not God is fair, He couldn’t just destroy Satan. Had He done so, the universe would have said He was an arbitrary tyrant. So God, compelled to answer Satan’s accusations in a way that would not only demonstrate divine power but also give believable data to His creatures, sent Jesus to die.
The lesson, on the authority of EGW’s great controversy paradigm, explains the “work of Christ” as a “required…public demonstration of God’s character.”
Think about that. The creatures required visible, tangible “proof” that God has a loving character! EGW has taught Adventists to believe that Satan’s accusations against God (which are NOWHERE recorded in Scripture) have placed a doubt in the whole universe about the character of God!
God’s character has never been in doubt! There is no unanswered accusation hanging in the universe! By establishing this scenario, EGW has placed the creatures OVER the creator. She has established that the creatures have placed a shadow on God’s reputation, and we are OWED an explanation. Further, if we do not receive an adequate explanation of why God does what He does, we will be justified in believing Satan instead of God.
Wednesday’s lesson further says this:
The cross event demonstrates that God has done everything that could be done to mitigate and eliminate evil, but without destroying the context for the flourishing of genuine love…When we look at the Cross, we can, indeed, see what suffering and pain sin has brought to God Himself. Yet, so sacred was the freedom inherent in love that Christ was willing to endure this in our behalf.
Notice that even as the author mentions the cross, there is no hint that the death of Jesus atoned for sin. Rather, the Cross is presented as a DEMONSTRATION of how loving God is. He was willing to suffer and endure pain because our sin drove Him to such an extreme act. By dying on the cross, God showed us that He considers our personal freedom to be an integral component of love, and He was willing to suffer to honor our freedom in love.
Even this explanation is vague and flowery—and really makes no sense at all. How on earth could Jesus’ death on the cross be a demonstration of His valuing our freedom in love? What does that even mean?
There is no mention of our sin being fatal to us, of justice requiring the death that God said is the consequence of sin. Adventism utterly ignores that Scripture tells us we are born dead in sin and condemned to hell, under the wrath of God (John 3:18 and 36), by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3). Adventism cannot explain that we are naturally dead in sin because Adventism teaches that humans have no immaterial part of themselves that CAN be dead and separated from God. They have no means of explaining how Jesus’ death was truly an act of ultimate justice done by the One who IS our Justifier.
God’s vindication in two phases
Thursday’s lesson further drives home the Adventist doctrine of the investigative (pre-Advent) judgment and a final (post-Advent) judgment. The author emphasizes these doctrines by teaching the worldview without actually naming the infamous “investigative judgment”!
Interestingly, the defense of this egregious anti-biblical doctrine hangs on the false assumption that Satan has slandered God—and his supposed slander is threatening to lock the universe in distrust of God.
The unbelievable arrogance of declaring that any creature could threaten God’s reputation reveals a complete lack of belief in the biblical worldview that declares God to be sovereign over all creation, and we creatures to be under His authority. For example, look at this quote from Thursday’s lesson:
In the end, God is vindicated at the cross and through the entire plan of redemption. In the pre-Advent judgment, God is vindicated before the onlooking universe.
Then, in the post-Advent judgment, during which the redeemed will even “judge angels” (1 Cor. 6:2, 3), God is vindicated, as the redeemed have been given the opportunity to review the records and see for themselves why God has acted as He has, and that all of God’s judgments have always and only been perfectly righteous and loving. Who among us doesn’t have a lot of questions that need answering? Before it’s all done, we will have those questions answered (see 1 Cor. 4:5).
Notice that the investigative judgment is affirmed as the means of vindicating God before the universe! The idea that Jesus, dressed as a levitical priest, is in heaven poring over the records of sin of professed believers and is applying His blood to those which are individually remembered and confessed is pure heresy. Even more, the idea that such a false scenario can be said to vindicate God before His own creation is blasphemy. God is pure, holy, and righteous, and He needs no vindication. To say that an unbiblical second-phase of atonement is rescuing God’s reputation is such blasphemy against our sovereign Creator that it cannot be more clear that this doctrine is evil.
In addition, this quote states that in the “post-advent judgment” God is further vindicated as the redeemed “judge angels” and have all their questions answered.
This “post-Adventist judgment” is not the great white throne judgment depicted in Revelation 20:10. Rather, what is described here is the Adventist millennium. In this teaching, the redeemed are taken to heaven when Jesus returns, and for 1,000 years, while Satan is on earth “bound” by the emptiness and the lack of people to tempt, the righteous are in heaven poring over the heavenly records that explain every act of God which we mortals failed to understand. If we wonder why Aunt Sue is not in heaven, our question will be answered. If we wonder why thousands were killed in the Lisbon earthquake—those questions will be answered. If we wonder why our grandfather abused his children, we will have our questions answered. If we wonder why our enemy is saved, we will have our questions answered.
This belief is completely false. First, the Bible clearly describes the millennium as taking place ON EARTH. No matter what view a Christian has of eschatology and the kingdom, there is no Christian view that places the millennium in heaven. Second, we are NEVER told that we will have all our questions answered! Look at these texts, for example:
“The secret things belong to Yahweh our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”—Deuteronomy 29:29 LSB
“Behold, let me answer you; you are not right in this, For God is greater than mortal man. Why do you contend against Him? For He does not give an answer for all His doings.”—Job 33:12, 13 LSB
So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? WILL THE THING MOLDED SAY TO THE MOLDER, “WHY DID YOU MAKE ME LIKE THIS”? Or does not the potter have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?—Roman 9:18–21 LSB
Adventism teaches that humans ultimately have the right and authority to demand that God explain Himself—and He will. This idea is completely unbiblical. Yet Adventists comfort themselves with the idea that in the end, they will understand God, and others will understand them. This idea is nowhere in Scripture.
We are instructed to TRUST God. He knows what we do not know, and we can trust Him because His promises cannot fail.
Look at how Ellen White teaches Adventists exactly the opposite of what Scripture teaches in this quote taken from Friday’s lesson:
“All that has perplexed us in the providences of God will in the world to come be made plain. The things hard to be understood will then find explanation. The mysteries of grace will unfold before us. Where our finite minds discovered only confusion and broken promises, we shall see the most perfect and beautiful harmony. We shall know that infinite love ordered the experiences that seemed most trying. As we realize the tender care of Him who makes all things work together for our good, we shall rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”—Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 9, p. 286.
These promises from Ellen White are words from another source. God has not told us these things.
The thing that will cause us to “rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” is not having all our questions answered. It is knowing the Lord Jesus who took our sins in Himself, endured the wrath of God for them, died, was buried, and rose again on the third day, breaking the curse of death!
Why Adventism can’t understand the cross
The reason that Adventism cannot teach the biblical truth about the cross and what Jesus did is that Ellen White bequeathed Adventists with a false definition of the nature of man. She taught that man has no immaterial spirit separate from the physical body.
With this definition, sin is only physical. Adventists believe we inherit sinful tendencies from our gene pools, and we have to learn to overcome those impulses and temptations as Satan tempts us to self-indulge. Yet this teaching is not biblical.
The Bible tells us that Adam died the day he ate that forbidden fruit, and every person born since Adam—with the exception of the Lord Jesus—has been conceived spiritually dead and must be born again, made alive with the resurrection life of Jesus and the Spirit of God.
We are by nature children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3), and we are by nature dead in our sins (Ephesians 2:1, 2). When we believe in the Lord Jesus and His finished atonement for our sin, we pass from death to life (John 5:24). We are made eternally alive, and we are sealed by the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13, 14).
When Jesus took a physical body, He was not born in Adam. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and He brought spiritual life into our dark world. He died a sinless death—but He shed human blood for our human sin. Moreover, because He is our Creator God, He had the authority to take responsibility for us all. His death was sufficient to atone for the sins of every person ever born.
When we trust Him, we enter that new life through the blood of the new covenant. We are placed in Christ, and we are made spiritually alive.
The cross was the place where Jesus fully paid for human sin, and the resurrection is what broke our curse of death because His blood was sufficient.
Adventism cannot teach this saving gospel because they have a false worldview with an unbiblical belief in the nature of man and of the purpose for Jesus’ death on the cross.
I appeal to anyone watching or reading this: trust the true Jesus. Get a notebook and begin copying the book of Romans, pondering each verb tense, each preposition, each statement of truth, and know that the words mean what the words say.
Ask the Lord Jesus to remove the veil of the EGW great controversy worldview from your spiritual eyes and to reveal Truth to you. Ask Him to plant you deeply in truth and reality.
Come to Jesus and admit that you need a Savior. Let His word speak to you, and bring your sin to His cross. Ask Him to forgive you and to wash you clean with His blood. Believe in Jesus today—and you will be born again. Believe—and you will pass from death to life! †
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.
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