Behavior in Adventism and its Relationship to Salvation

Introduction

Just the other day a link to an Adventist Review article appeared in the timeline ticker of updates in the upper right

Philippians 413 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

corner of my facebook page. From it one of my friends had commented on a quotation which was very much a disingenuous statement especially looking back on what I was taught growing up in Adventism. So in this article we are going to look at that quote and discuss how the behavior of an individual within Adventism is in fact used as a factor in determination of not only their walk, but in relationship to Salvation.

An Interesting Quotation

So let’s take a look at the quotation taken from this article: Adventist Review Article

“Our standards should be higher than those of any legalists because we understand that our behavior doesn’t determine our salvation, so why not aim high?”

The first thing that should be noted is that apparently the author of the article really thinks that the Adventists must be the most in tune, best, finest, legalists with the highest standards possible. That smacks of pride and reminds me of how Paul viewed himself looking back on who he once was:

³ For we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh— ⁴ although I once also had confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more:⁵ circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

Philippians 3:3-6

Remember that Paul was once Saul, and he was a member of the Pharisees, the adamant Legalists of the day. He attempted to bring the Christian Church to ruin before God caused him to be Born Again on the road to Damascus. This transformation can be seen in the next few verses of Philippians 3:

⁷ But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.⁸ More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.

Yet Saul, renamed on rebirth to Paul considered all the legalistic perfectionism of his past to be filth, useless, now that he has gained Christ and been found in Him.

If this is the case with Paul, what of the author of the article. It seems to me that he clings to the pride of legalism over anything else. Let’s break down the next portion of the quotation after the break.

A Dangerous Role to Play

If I were still an Adventist I would NOT be playing the role which I am playing for my friend Writer/Director/Producer  Daniel Medina Jr. in his upcoming Christian film The Thief in the Night. Since however I’m now a Christian my Salvation is secure and I’m sealed by The Holy Spirit as a Guarantee/Down payment for a certain place in Heaven. No longer do I have to be afraid of falling out of…and climbing into Salvation.

I’ve said this a number of times in the past but that Adventist teaching of salvation is woefully inadequate, Jesus saves By Grace through Faith- PERIOD!

Salvation is not a revolving door, it is not the hokey pokey.

So Adventists are Delaying an Imminent Event?

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I ran across a quote from Ellen G. White today from the book Christ’s Object Lessons I’ll quote it now and then we’ll discuss it and compare it to what scripture teaches.

‘Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church.  When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.’

As usual with quotes from Ellen it sounds holy and quite wonderful, I’m certain that if I were reading this before I was born again I would heartily agree with this statement.

(This section is written from a true Adventist perspective)

After all as an Adventist Jesus and I are alike. We are both body+breath=living soul. He could have lied, and to be honest I constantly lie. Yet He perfectly kept the Law, so that proves that I can perfectly keep the Law, as long as I truly follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit as it directs my life from the outside. And I HAVE to be able to PERFECTLY keep the Law under my own power because eventually I will have to stand without a Mediator. And not only that Christ’s character MUST be perfectly reproduced by not only me but everyone in THE CHURCH, it has to be possible because only then will He come to claim us as His own and take us to Heaven.

Back to reality.

To my Adventist friends if you are reading that and nodding enthusiastically then it may come as a shock to you that the paragraph below…and Ellen White’s quote…are entirely without Biblical Support.

Let’s break all this false teaching down.

Adventists Claim Points of Familiarity with Muslims?! Divert even further from Mainline Christianity!

I feel it’s about time to address something very important and very dangerous and unfortunately very real. Adventism is now  distancing itself from Christianity-by drawing dramatically close to Islam.

In a recent article from Adventist World.Org Adventist’s claim that Islam shares five opinions with Adventism and that such an understanding means that Adventists are uniquely positioned to reach out and save Muslims. However the article itself seem more to be speaking of joining up with Muslims in their beliefs.

This is happening in the Christian world too and has a name Chrislam.

Let’s take a look at the commonalities between Adventism and Islam which the article states.

One: Belief in Jesus

Wretched Radio Reveals Adventist Realities

Yesterday on Wretched Radio Todd Friel spent an hour discussing Seventh Day Adventists with Colleen Tinker a former Adventist and friend of mine. The whole program is fantastic as it enables to listener to experience a never been and former Adventist openly discussing what is not generally openly discussed in Adventism.

Todd and Colleen also enable you to compare the beliefs of Adventism and Christianity and see whether they are are complimentary and Biblical- or opposed and unbiblical.

If Adventism is proven to be in opposition to Biblical teaching I would recommend giving up yourself and your knowledge- and accepting the leadership of the Holy Spirit in your life. Let the Holy Spirit illumine the Word…and not the lesser light.

Here’s the links to listen to the file:

Wretched Radio @ Former Adventist Upper right under news updates.

Wretched Radio @ LAM Upper left news updates.

I pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to lead you into the truth of Freedom in Christ whose blood IS the New Covenant!

U.A.

Related articles

• Adventists Reveal Self Truth in Flashmob! (thebiblerunner.wordpress.com)
• Harold Camping meets the Not So Amazing Facts (thebiblerunner.wordpress.com)

Adventist Growth Numbers Boosted by Immigration

I’m going to place a few quotes from the Christian Century Article on the seemingly impressive Adventist growth numbers and then simply a link to the full article which is fantastic.

“If the church founded by visionary Ellen G. White is posting membership gains, especially at a time when liberal and conservative churches are suffering from a demographic malaise, it certainly deserves a closer look. But one thing closer scrutiny reveals is that the membership growth is largely attributable to the influx of immigrants from countries where the church’s missions have en­joyed great success. This trend is ac­knowledged by re­searchers and Adven­tist leaders in the U.S.”

“The dropout rate among Adventist youth in the developed world is 50 to 60 percent in spite of the fact that in America close to half have attended church-sponsored schools,” added Lawson, who cited data from an Adventist sociologist. “The realization that there are probably more former Adventists than currently attending members in America has caused heartburn,” he said.

For more visit the following article: Christian Century Article

U.A.

The Mathgebra of Adventist Salvation

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For those who don’t like math I apologize for the following post because it is full of math in its own way. Now before I get into Adventist Salvation Mathgebra 101 I’ll show you the Biblical formula as a baseline.

Here is Biblical Salvation:  Grace (from God)+Faith(From God) = Salvation (From God).

Grace, Faith and Salvation are all gifts from God.

In our natural state none of us are aligned to interest in God, we are all born dead in sin, our our hearts full of sin. Our Spirits our dead. Our hearts are deceitfully wicked above all things and we have no natural inclination to turn to Him. Yet God guides us to Himself through the Holy Spirit, He gives us a searching, seeking, asking, knocking heart. God promises that we will find Him if we seek for Him with all of our heart. If we are serious and willing He is equally serious and willing. He gives us faith to believe in  the Bible and what it says about Him and His plan for the Ages. Especially about Salvation. When we understand Salvation and the need to go to the Cross of Christ in faith, repenting of our sins, God gives us Grace (wholly unmerited favor), and through that another gift Salvation or eternal life.

The Jesus of Adventism

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The Jesus of Adventism

The incorrect understanding of the Holy Spirit is the Achilles heel of all false conversion and misunderstanding in religion. Problems of understanding the Holy Spirit end up effecting multitudes of doctrines not the least of which is a correct understanding of Jesus Christ himself. Adventism paints a picture that ends up being a spectacular deception; an utter failure to give Jesus Christ what the Bible says He had.

The Creation of Man

 In order to tackle the enormity of this Frankenstein of a Jesus presented to Adventists we must go back to Genesis and the creation of man. It is in the presentation of the creation of man that we find the truth behind the makeup of the Son of Man.

 (Gen 1:26)

Then God said, “Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness. Let them rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the domestic animals all over the earth, and all the animals that crawl on the earth.”

(Gen 1:27)

So God created humans in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female.

“…in our likeness…”

The first part of God’s image and the only part I’ll address in this article is the fact that God is in fact Spirit.

While there are a plethora of texts equating God with having say a mighty right hand, that doesn’t mean that God has a literal mighty right hand. If he did have a literal hand it would have to be larger than infinity, God did not have skin and a literal body until he was born in Bethlehem as Jesus Christ. In Genesis 2:7 it says God formed man out of the dust, it doesn’t say how He did it, on this was can only speculate but I have a hard time thinking He would change His modus operandi and not use His Word. The Word which happens to be equated not with just the Bible, but with the Son Jesus Christ. 

Looking at a few Adventist Issues

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Looking at a Few Adventist Issues

There is much discussion that the majority of SDA’s are not Christians, that these wonderful religious people, people that I still call brothers and sisters in Christ are not in fact saved. Unfortunately I believe that the previous statement is 100 percent accurate. As we begin to look at Adventism I, as your guide, am just beginning to realize how interconnected their beliefs are, and this is a huge problem.

It means that in order to get a complete view of Adventist beliefs it will take us a long time, we’ll have to address each doctrine one at a time. Only by breaking down each and every doctrine can we give Adventism a fair shake, in other words a fair hearing. We are doing this because we want to look at all the evidence no matter how long it takes because it is only fair.

In this first post we’re going to look at a few basic issues which need to be addressed before we get into any kind of deep discussion of doctrine.

No Turning Back

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Hello.

If you made it here congratulations and I hope you’ll stay for more than five minutes. This blog will be growing quickly over the next few weeks as I begin to address the key diferences between Adventism and Evangelical Christianity.

I will make it quite clear now that as a former 3rd generation Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) Pastors Kid I know just how much the SDA church would rather not be exposed. If they get wind of this website they might try and shut it down, if they do it will return, because the truth needs to get out.

You no longer need to be a slave to fear or failure you simply need to be a slave to Jesus Christ!

In Christian Love,

U.A.