Lesson 10: “Upon Whom the Ends Have Come”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! Magazine
Central Problem In This Lesson:
This lesson reveals Adventism’s view of Scripture as collected accounts providing us moral instruction and future foreshadowing instead of as God’s personal revelation of His dealings with us.
The eisegesis in this week’s lesson confirms Adventism’s unique doctrine, the investigative judgment, and develops the contemporary Adventist emphasis that during the millennium (which they place in heaven—something no Christian denomination teaches) they themselves will peruse the heavenly books of record to discover exactly why some were saved and others were not. This deep dive into God’s heavenly records will, they say, vindicate God’s character and prove to the watching universe that God really is fair and Satan really is wrong in his accusations against God.
Yet these unique doctrines and the convoluted ways the Adventists take us “there” are not new. Methods may differ, but the goal is always the same.
What is significant in this lesson, however, is the clarity with which the authors of the lesson and the teachers comments reveal the truth about Adventism’s view of Scripture. It is this view and use of Scripture that permits Adventists to misuse it in such a way that they can appear to write their unique doctrines into the biblical text.
We know that Adventism does not hold to the doctrine of scriptural inerrancy. The Fundamental Belief #1 states in part:
“In this Word, God has committed to humanity the knowledge necessary for salvation. The Holy Scriptures are the supreme, authoritative, and the infallible revelation of His will.”—Seventh-day Adventists Believe, p. 11
We also know that in their book Seventh-day Adventists Believe they also admit that the Bible is given to us to help us understand the great controversy:
The Holy Spirit gave the [Bible] writers special insight so that they could record events in the controversy between good and evil, which demonstrate the character of God and guide people in their quest for salvation.—Seventh-day Adventists Believe, p. 16
From this brief quotation from Seventh-day Adventists Believe that explains their first Fundamental Belief, we see that Adventists understand the Bible as supporting and explaining their great controversy paradigm—a worldview that is decidedly NOT in Scripture. We also see that the great controversy is the Adventist framework that “demonstrates” God’s character—again, an unbiblical viewpoint. Further, we know that Adventism teaches that the Law is the “transcript of God’s character”, so Adventists use the Bible to develop their idea that the Law is eternal and necessary to guide people “in their quest for salvation”. And just what is a “quest for salvation”?
Salvation is the work of God. By nature we do not seek God nor please Him (Rom. 3:9–18). Only those drawn by the Father come to God (John 6:44). Salvation is not a quest; we do not go looking for it. We do not attain salvation by following the guidance of biblical stories. It is a miracle of grace, and He opens our eyes and gives us faith to believe.
The Bible As a Guide Book
The official Adventist position on the Scriptures as mentioned above is echoed in the Teachers Comments of this week’s Sabbath School quarterly. The overview of the comments says this:
God also spoke of the end, existentially and implicitly, in the Scriptures, and thus, in His Word, He gives hints of various aspects of eschatological history. This notion teaches us an important principle: human history, which unfolds from the holy pages of Scripture, is not simply edifying information about what took place in the far distant past, the knowledge of which ensures “that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:17, NKJV). Because God’s intention for humanity was, essentially, eternity, we may confidently expect that the message of future eternity also is contained in the biblical stories.
From this quote alone we see that the Adventist understanding of Scripture is that it is a collection of “holy pages” delivering two things: information about past events—information which fulfills 2 Timothy 3:17—and the “message” of eternity.
In other words, Adventism uses the Bible as an anthology supporting its unique worldview and ideas about God. Significantly the lesson does not affirm that the Bible is God’s personal revelation of His own will, purposes, and interactions with humanity. Rather it is presented as an important guide to direct Adventists on their salvation question.
Also significantly, Adventism does not affirm scriptural inerrancy. In fact, Adventism teaches Scripture is NOT inerrant but that it is infallible—it will not fail to accomplish its purpose—but they believe Scripture actually has errors that must be interpreted and harmonized. They believe that Scripture has errors because they also know that their prophet Ellen White has errors, and they believe she was inspired just as the Bible writers were.
Adventism does not believe that Scripture is alive and sufficient to expose us to ourselves and to reveal God’s purpose and power, as Hebrews 4:12, 13 say:
For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we have an account [to give].—Hebrews 4:12, 13 LSB
Without inerrant Scriptures, Adventism can play with the Biblical text and interpret it according to its own predetermined model. In other words, EGWs great controversy vision and her doctrine of the physical nature of man provide the framework for the Adventist worldview. This worldview is Adventism’s bottom line, and Scripture is their defense of their bottom line.
Abraham Prefigures the Investigative Judgment?
Understanding that EGW’s great controversy, not the inerrant Bible, is the paradigm that determines Adventist doctrine and practice explains statements such as this one from page 128 in Wednesday’s lesson:
As the final warning is being issued, God discusses with Abraham what is about to happen, and He willingly subjects Himself to the patriarch’s questions.
“ ‘Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked,’ ” Abraham comments, and then asks, “ ‘Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?’ ” (Gen. 18:25, NKJV). Abraham is not only examining the case of Sodom, but he is also examining the character of God. Likewise, before the end comes, God opens the books of heaven (Rev. 20:4, 11–15) and allows us to investigate the evidence before He finally brings fire down on the earth. That is, we will have a thousand years to get a lot of questions answered that, for now, remain unanswered.
Unbelievably, the lesson, on Ellen White’s authority, uses Abraham as the model for their spurious investigative judgment and their unique millennium!
Genesis 18, the chapter to which the above quote refers, contains two accounts: first is the account of the three strangers who visit Abraham and Sarah and promise that in one year, Sarah will have a son. Second, the chapter ends with Yahweh revealing to Abraham that He is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham questions God, asking Him if He would destroy the cities if there were even ten righteous people living there, and God replied No. Even if ten righteous were there, He wound’t destroy the city.
Yet the lesson states that Abraham is “examining the character of God” by asking him questions!
He is doing no such thing! He is not putting God on trial; God does not have to prove His mercy or fairness; Abraham, in context, is, as a trusting believer, asking God two things: how bad are Sodom and Gomorrah, and is God willing to kill righteous people for the sake of punishing evil?
He is not examining God’s character; he already trusts God!
Further, the lesson asks this at the end of the study:
Before the Lord will bring down final judgment upon the lost, He gives us a thousand years to understand what will happen to whom and why. What does this tell us about His character and about how open He is to scrutiny by created beings—beings fully dependent upon Him for existence—and who have no inherent right to know these things?
NOWHERE does Scripture suggest that we will have the opportunity to question God about each person who doesn’t make it to heaven. Nowhere does Scripture suggest that we vindicate God’s character by examining His records of His decisions! Even more, righteous Abraham was NOT questioning God in order to discover if He was fair or not! He knew God had absolute authority to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and there is nothing in the biblical account that informs or suggests an eventual investigative judgment nor a millennium in which we examine God!
Even more explicitly, Thursday’s lesson on page 129 states that Abraham foreshadowed the judgment by pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah—apparently an attempt to make Abraham a type of Christ in the investigative judgment in heaven! Here is what author Boonstra says:
The story of Abraham’s pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah—a type of the judgment—offers us some important insight into judgment. The sins of Sodom were obviously being investigated; God mentions that the wickedness of the city had given it such a reputation that the outcry against it was great (Gen. 18:20). But it was not only Sodom and Gomorrah that were investigated prior to their destruction. God also opened the door for Abraham to study whether or not God was acting righteously in His decision to destroy the wicked.
In order to properly evaluate this astonishing quote, let’s look at what Genesis 18 actually says:
Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, while Abraham was still standing before Yahweh. Then Abraham came near and said, “Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will You indeed sweep [it] away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to put to death the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are [treated] alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do justice?”
So Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place on their account.” And Abraham answered and said, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am [but] dust and ashes. Suppose the fifty righteous are lacking five, will You destroy the whole city because of five?” And He said, “I will not destroy [it] if I find forty-five there.”
Then he spoke to Him yet again and said, “Suppose forty are found there?” And He said, “I will not do [it] on account of the forty.”…And as soon as He had finished speaking to Abraham, Yahweh departed, and Abraham returned to his place.—Genesis 18:22–29, 33 LSB
Abraham repeated his question to God until he reached the number of ten righteous people, and God affirmed that He would not destroy the city if there were even ten righteous ones there. We know, however, that there were not even ten. God sent angels to rescue Lot, Abraham’s nephew, and his family. Lot’s wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt; Lot and his daughters alone were escorted to safety before the cities were destroyed with burning sulfur.
The Biblical account gives us no hint that Abraham was pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah! Even more, God was not offering Abraham a chance “to study whether or not God was acting righteously”!
This is only one (very clear) example of the way Adventism uses Scripture. It does not take the words of Scripture and see them as God’s revelation of His decisions and actions and purposes as He interacts with humanity, but it makes the human the one in the “driver’s seat” passing judgment on God’s decisions and character! Adventism takes EGWs great controversy paradigm and appropriates Scriptural passages to support Ellen! It’s completely upside-down and backwards!
Law Is Not the Means Of Pleasing God
Friday’s lesson consists of a quote from Patriarchs and Prophets by Ellen White. In this quote we find the core of Adventism’s great controversy and false gospel. She has created a scenario in which Satan has power over humans only when they disobey the law. Even more, she says that Jesus’ obedience to the law is what gave Him all power in heaven and earth. Here is an excerpt from the quotation:
“Satan’s accusations against those who seek the Lord are not prompted by displeasure at their sins. He exults in their defective characters; for he knows that only through their transgression of God’s law can he obtain power over them.…
But Jesus, our Advocate, presents an effectual plea in behalf of all who by repentance and faith have committed the keeping of their souls to Him. He pleads their cause, and by the mighty arguments of Calvary, vanquishes their accuser. His perfect obedience to God’s law has given Him all power in heaven and in earth, and He claims from His Father mercy and reconciliation for guilty man.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 101, 102
This quotation reveals Adventism denial of the biblical view of the nature of man. Adventism teaches that humans are bodies that breathe, that they do not possess an immaterial spirit that survives death. Even more, they deny that “spiritual death” is literally a human spirit that is disconnected from the life of God. Rather, they say that man’s inherited sin from Adam is passed on physically by the gene pool, that people’s disobedience to the law is what defines human sin.
They deny that we are literally born depraved, under the wrath of God (Jn. 3:36) and by nature dead in sin and children of wrath (Ephesians 2:1–3). Instead they say we have “propensities to sin” that we have to learn to overcome—and EGW even said that Jesus had to learn to overcome propensities to sin which He inherited as Mary’s Son.
Paul tells us that we are by nature, because of our spiritual death, under Satan’s power:
And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.—Ephesians 2:1–3 LSB
Yet the lesson reflects Ellen White’s teaching: breaking the law is what constitutes our sin, and Satan can only have power over us when we break the law.
Nowhere does the Bible say such a thing! We are by nature condemned, and by God’s permission, we are born spiritually dead and under the power of Satan.
By saying that our sin is defined as disobedience instead of being defined as our spiritual legacy in Adam, Adventism changes the nature of salvation. If disobedience is our sin, then our salvation hangs on our being able to obey. This model ignores Jesus’ own teaching that the one thing necessary to see the kingdom of God is actually being born again! We have to be brought from death to life!
We can only be brought from death to life because we have a Savior who was our complete Substitute! He became sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21). He didn’t just die to forgive our past sins and then help us keep the law to avoid future sins. He literally took our sin by imputation, suffered God’s wrath against our sin, died our death, and broke the curse of death on the third day because His blood paid the full price God demanded for our sins!
Yet the quote above from the lesson actually says that Jesus’ “perfect obedience to God’s law” (meaning the Ten Commandments from an Adventist perspective) is what gave Him “all power in heaven and in earth”!!
Not true!
Jesus’ obedience to take our sins and die on the cross is the one act of righteousness (Romans 5:18) that satisfied God’s justice.
Adventism’s “plan of salvation” is all about the law. God’s salvation as revealed in His inerrant word is all about our natures: we are by nature dead in sin and under His wrath. The Lord Jesus is by nature perfectly sinless, the human son of Mary in the line of Judah, and the Son of God. Jesus took responsibility for us. He didn’t just step up to help us; He literally became our Substitute.
He took our sin; He took our just punishment; He died our death—and He literally broke our curse of death!
It is not the law which becomes the measure of our salvation; it is our spiritual life or death. We are by nature dead and condemned; we remain under God’s wrath until we believe in the Lord Jesus and His finished work (Jn. 3:18). In fact, when we believe we pass from death to life and will not come under condemnation (John 5:24)!
Adventism teaches a false gospel and has a different Jesus—a Jesus who gained God’s favor by law-keeping and not by dying and taking the full wrath of God. We are not saved by keeping the law; we are saved by believing in the Lord Jesus and His finished atonement for our sin!
God has given us His Word to reveal truth and reality to us. He shows us in Scripture that He has sent the Lord Jesus to take our sin and to die our death, and He is our Rescuer so that He can transfer us out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of the beloved Son (Col 1:13).
We needed a rescue, not an example. We had to have new life, not new will power. We needed life instead of our natural death.
The Lord Jesus has given us what we actually need—and we are asked to believe.
If you have not believed that the Lord Jesus died for your sin according to Scripture, that He was buried, and that He rose on the third day according to Scripture—bring your sin and helplessness to Him now. Hear Him TODAY asking you to give up your old worldview and to accept a biblical one in which the Lord Jesus is your Substitute.
If you hear His voice today—believe! When you believe in the Lord Jesus, you will be born again, and you will pass at that moment 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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