Dear Seventh Day Adventist,
It is true that the SDA use the very same Biblical language that Baptists do in regard to salvation. You profess to believe in salvation by grace without works through faith in Jesus Christ alone. However, that is all we have in common – the language. How you define those words and how you ultimately explain salvation has no resemblance to the Bible or to Baptists.
The problem between the SDA and Baptists begins over the hope offered by the Gospel. The Gospel offers the present possession of “eternal life” to all who believe and the promise that those believing the gospel “shall never die” and “never perish.” However, the SDA believes that at the moment of physical death the entire human being ceases to exist completely. Both Baptists and the SDA agree that at death the physical body dies and perishes but that is all they agree on. Baptists believe that the spiritual nature of man has been born of God (Jn. 3:6) and is immortal and shall never perish. At death the spirit of man instantaneously enters into the presence of God. It is these “DEPARTED” saints that Paul says that Christ will “bring WITH him” when he comes back for the living (I Thes. 4:13-17).
The promise of “eternal life” which guarantees that the believer “shall never die” presents a huge problem for the SDA church. Since they believe in the complete cessation of the believer at physical death they cannot accept such promises at face value. What does the SDA do with this language? The SDA takes the same language and redefines it. They take the terms “eternal life” and make it refer to this present temporal life being lived out prior to physical death. The SDA believe that when a life is being lived out in obedience to the Law of God it is considered to be “eternal” as to QUALITY or CHARACTER but not quantity or duration. Hence, if you are living in obedience to the Law then what you are living is “eternal” as to its essential character before God. Where there is no GOOD WORKS there is no ETERNAL LIFE and where there is ETERNAL LIFE there is OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW. Hence, according to the SDA, the promise to “never die” or “never perish” does not refer to the duration of any aspect of your being at physical death but rather to the character and quality of the life you lived before physical death.
However, such an idea has problems. For example, the thief on the cross, according to the SDA was not told that He would be with Christ in paradise that very day but rather Christ was merely informing him as to what day it was (as though he didn’t know) on which they were conversing with each other. This maneuver does not help them at all. It does not matter to the SDA that the thief possessed no “lived out life in keeping with the Law” and therefore was without the SDA idea of “eternal life” altogether and yet Christ promised him that he would be in paradise (without the SDA interpretation of eternal life!!!!!).
There are other problems this SDA gospel of works has. They have defined “eternal” life to be the “quality” of life being lived out in OBEDIENCE to God’s Law. Eternal life is LAW KEEPING to the SDA. The Bible consistently uses the terms “good works” or “the works of the Law” to refer to such LAW KEEPING. Now the SDA must reconcile how their definition (law keeping = eternal life) can fit with the clear and repeated scriptural teaching that eternal life is a free gift of God WITHOUT the (good) works of the law (Rom. 4:4-6; Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 11:6; etc.). How can the SDA gospel claim “eternal life” IS at one and the same time a life of GOOD WORKS and yet at the same time claim that “eternal life” IS without good works. Even a school child can see this is a blatant contradiction of terms.
The SDA attempts to maneuver around this obstacle by redefining “works” to mean “human ability” rather than “observance of the law.” With this new twist, the SDA asserts that they do believe in salvation by grace without works (human ability). Thus this definition of “works” no longer refers to the “obedience to the law” but rather to “human ability” neededto perform obedience to the law. Hence, the SDA gospel is supposedly God’s call to LAW KEEPING not by human ability but by the free unmerited gift of divine ability obtained through faith in Jesus Christ.
Can this new definition stand up to the Scriptures? No! First, the term “work” in contexts of salvation always refers to “Law keeping” rather than mere “ability.” Second, if the term “works” means merely “ability” then it cannot be restricted to “human” ability in contrast to “divine” ability as the same term is used equally for God as well as for man. To say that man is saved “without works” (meanng “ability”) would equally deny both “human” or “divine” as it is used of both.
Third, this view would completely invalidate the substitutionary law keeping of Christ by enabling the sinner to “live out” THEIR OWN LAW KEEPING for eternal life.
Moreover, this SDA twist does not remove their original problem. They are attempting to remove all “human ability” as the cause of law keeping. However, in their own scheme of things, the ability to continue in law keeping is ultimately determined by HUMAN ABILITY to choose to continue in Christ. The SDA believes that such “eternal life” can be forfeited by HUMAN WILL POWER. So in reality, SDA salvation is not completely or ultimately “WITHOUT works” even as they define it (human ability). Indeed, human ability must continue to cooperate with the gift of divine ability if eternal life is to be lived out. Hence, there new definition does not rid them of the original contradiction they were trying to evade.
Confusion of
Sanctification with Justification:
How does the SDA gospel measure up to the Bible? The SDA gospel of Law keeping is somewhat near the Biblical doctrine of progressive sanctification. The difference between the SDA good works scheme and the Biblical doctrine of progressive sanctification is that sanctification has nothing to do with being accepted or rejected by God as His child. Biblical sanctification deals with the present state of fellowship, growth, usefulness and testimony of a child of God and the future state of rewards and position in God’s kingdom in the new earth (I Cor. 3:11-14).
Sanctification is an ongoing process whereas Justification before God is always viewed as a finished and completed act in the past at the precise time of initial faith in the gospel. The Gospel is the presentation of the truth of justification not sanctification. The Gospel of Christ is not that we are going to be able to finish the law by God’s power but rather that Jesus FINISHED the law’s requirements in behalf of the believer once and for all. The Gospel of Christ is not that we will be able to live out a quality of life that is eternal but rather that we have been given eternal life freely. Justification does not include nor consider the life of the believer before or after salvation whether it is lived out by man’s ability or God’s ability. The Gospel is of Christ’s life and death not man’s.
The SDA gospel of “divine ability to perform the Law” not only contradicts the gospel of Christ but changes the standard of the Law from absolute perfection to something less than perfection. Jesus makes it clear that the standard of the Law is to be perfect “EVEN AS” the Father is perfect (Mt. 5:20,44). This means that the Law will not accept anything less than absolute perfection from your birth to your death. If between birth and death you failed even by omission one time you are condemned for all time (James 2:10).
The SDA gospel takes the previously condemned sinner and places him back under the law not only a second time but potentially many times. What they place back under the Law for the Law’s acceptance is still an IMPERFECT being living an IMPERFECT LIFE. I John 1:8-10 denies that any man no matter how divinely enabled is absolutely perfect in this life. The SDA try to reinterpret this passage to mean something less than absolute perfection. That very interpretation proves they are guilty of reducing the standard of the law in order to escape the condemnation of such a text.
Dear SDA person, where are you going to get perfection “EVEN AS” perfect as the Father in heaven? You have already blown it completely and your present acts of righteousness are still blowing it completely as they are full of “omissions” to the Law (as well as commissions). The only hope you have is in the gospel of Christ and His substitutionary righteousness as a free gift.
The Bible says that justification is “WITHOUT” good works and the Bible forbids any interpretation of grace that might include works (Rom. 4:5; 11:6). The SDA gospel mixes grace with works. It defines grace to be the ability to keep the law by good works. Hence, SDA grace is law keeping which in turn is eternal life. The SDA gospel is a PROCESS of law keeping in order to justify the GODLY. The Biblical doctrine of justification is not a process but the completed justification of the UNGODLY through faith in a Substitutes law keeping.
Unlike the doctrine of progressive sanctification the doctrine of justification is always treated as a past tense completed act and never an on going process like the SDA doctrine. In regards to Justification, eternal life has ALREADY been completely OBTAINED for the believer so that they have already passed from death unto life (Jn. 5:24) and therefore in some sense of their own being will “never die.” In Physical life HE LIVES WITHIN them and at death they depart this body to LIVE forever with the Lord. This was the expectation of David in the Old Testament (Psa. 89: 23-25) “Nevertheless I AM CONTINUALLY WITH THEE: thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. This is the expectation of Paul in the New Testament (Philip. 1:10-11; 2 Cor. 5:7-9 – the infinites deny the SDA interpretation). When placed between the two schools of thought concerning continued existence of the soul (Pharisees) or the complete cessation of the soul (Saducees) Paul chose to side with the Pharisees while the SDA and JW’s and LDS choose to side with the Saducees.
Furthermore, this “quality” error leads to the error of “The Investigative Judgment.” Although the Scriptures repeatedly confirm over and over again that the Lord already knows who are his elect (Jn. 10:26-30) and has known them BEFORE the beginning of the world (Eph. 1:4; 2 Thes. 2:13), the SDA invents a doctrine that has Christ looking through books IN ORDER to determine the lives of those who are worthy of eternal life. Not only does this doctrine distort and deny the absolute Deity of Christ (omniscience) but it denies the Biblical assertion that one can ALREADY KNOW FOR CERTAIN that they are ALREADY SAVED and going to heaven and will not come into any type of condemnation or judgement IN REGARD TO ACCEPTANCE INTO HEAVEN (“they shall not perish” “shall never perish” “shall not come into condemnation” “shall never die” etc.). The only judgment that believers will enter into is one for REWARDS and POSITION upon the new earth.
Conclusion:
A person MAY be saved and then be deceived into believing the SDA gospel. However, if this is what was first believed at the time of professed salvation, then there is absolutely no possibility that such a person is saved or a member of God’s family as that very definition is a total rejection of Jesus Christ and His righteousness altogether as well as a total rejection of the grace of God (Rom. 10:1-4). As Paul said, such people have a religious “zeal” but not according to knowledge as they are going about trying to establish their OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS (in the name of Jesus and in the professed power of the Spirit) but are in reality DENYING the righteousness of God found only and wholly in Jesus Christ and His completed work of substitionary good living and death. Paul says that “Christ is THE END of the law for righteousness” whereas the SDA says “Christ is the BEGINNING of the law for righteousness.” Indeed, the SDA view of salvation is essentially the same as that of the Roman Catholic Church and their view of sanctification. This should not surprising as one of their leading theologians was a graduate of the Roman Pontificate College. Indeed the SDA religion is simply a mix of Roman Catholocism and The Watch Tower Society and Judaism.