Gilbert Jorgensen’s Weblog

Hebrews 10:25 exhorts us not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is. Adventists promote a unique belief that Christians assembling themselves together on any day other than Friday night sundown to Saturday night sundown are ignoring the fourth commandment of the Old Covenant decalogue. They specifically target those who, in the spirit of Hebrews 10, assemble themselves together on Sunday with the admonition that they will receive the "mark of the beast" for doing so.

If we are exhorted by the writer of Hebrews to assemble "ourselves together … so much the more, as ye see the day approaching", does this mean that we should be assembling ourselves together more times on the Jewish Sabbath, or do other days of the week count as well?

Hebrews 10:23-25 (King James Version)
23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

The more I think about it, the more I am impressed with the fact that it is impossible to have a correct teaching of the gospel of Christ, while promoting a faulty understanding of what constitutes the body of Christ. They go hand in hand. The body of Christ represents the "bride of Christ", the object of his supreme affection. The gospel represents the rescue process that He went through to rescue His "bride".

It makes me really angry when I realize what Adventism has done to malign Christ’s definition of "His bride". Men. How do you feel when someone attempts to redefine who your wife is? Surely Christ is every bit as jealous of "His bride" — His church, whom he came and died for.

It seems to me that there are two points where Adventism is forced to display her truly demonic heart — the fact that Satan is at the helm of Adventism, and it is every bit as demonic as Satanism masquerading in Bible "proof texts". Satan can be much more effective if he can mislead people to think they are promoting Christ, while he changes the definition from that defined in the Bible.

1. What does the Bible teach the good news of the gospel is?
2. Who is Christ’s church — the body of Christ?

Like a dog with a stinky sock, Adventists will try to drag us into their "doghouse" to focus on their "red herring", the Jewish Sabbath. I submit to the thoughtful Bible student that any serious understanding of the message and meaning of Christianity must begin with a correct understanding of these two foundation doctrines.

Until Seventh-day Adventism is willing to fully engage in meaningful discussion, combined with repentance and a contrite heart that truly demonstrates both a correct understanding of what the gospel is, and is not — and what constitutes Christ’s bride, they are an instrument of Satan, pure and simple.

Adventists must show a willingness to engage in genuine discussion on these two points. I was deeply, deeply disappointed when I tried to engage an SDA pastor recently on the subject of the body of Christ. He simply could not bring himself to embrace the biblical concept of what constitutes Christ’s bride. Instead all Christendom is view as "Adventist" or "non-Adventist". That is clearly unbiblical.

Adventists have a very clear choice to make. Forget everything else, and just focus on who the Bible clearly states constitutes the body of Christ — Christ’s cherished bride. Adventism totally fails on this point. Adventists have no other alternatives but to make this choice. It is a fork in the road, as it was for us as former Adventists. Does the seeker of truth cling to the "remnant church" concept, or do they follow the Bible.

My heart yearns for even one Seventh-day Adventist, in a spirit of genuine sincerity and searching for truth, to be willing to put all on the line, to commit themselves fully to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and actually engage us in real Bible-based discussion on this point. This does, of course, mean ultimately abandoning Adventism. There is no middle ground.

That is why whenever I bring up the subject of the biblical definition of the body of Christ — of who makes up the "bride of Christ" — Adventists go silent. They either don’t respond at all, they play games as the SDA pastor did. They attempt to stonewall, or just plain won’t engage in any meaningful discussion.

After having attended a mainstream Christian denomination for the past two years after 54 years as an Adventist, I must admit I was quite shocked to see how the current Seventh-day Adventist adult Sabbath School Quarterly on "The Wonder of Jesus" treats the subject of Christ’s resurrection. For Christians it is the premier event that all Christendom uses as its reference point.

Let’s see how Adventism relates to it since this week’s subject is "The Power of His Resurrection, June 7-13. (www.absg.adventist.org/2008/2Q/TE/PDFs/ETQ208_11.pdf)

Here are some of the highlights.

The Student Will:

• Know: Recall that there truly was a literal, visible resurrection of Jesus, and many people were witnesses of that event.
• Feel: Rekindle his or her gratitude to Jesus for giving His promise of eternal life.
• Do: Comfort one another with the hope of the Resurrection to come.

Summary:

• The resurrection of Christ was an actual event witnessed by many people, including the disciples. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we, too, have the hope of a resurrection. p. 127

Further Study:

• “Over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, Christ had proclaimed in triumph, ‘I am the resurrection, and the life.’ These words could be spoken only by the Deity. All created beings live by the will and power of God. They are dependent recipients of the life of God. From the highest seraph to the humblest animate being, all are replenished from the Source of life. Only He who is one with God could say, I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again. In His divinity, Christ possessed the power to break the bonds of death.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 785.
• “During His ministry, Jesus had raised the dead to life. He had raised the son of the widow of Nain, and the ruler’s daughter and Lazarus. But these were not clothed with immortality. After they were raised, they were still subject to death. But those who came forth from the grave at Christ’s resurrection were raised to everlasting life. They ascended with Him as trophies of His victory over death and the grave. These, said Christ, are no longer the captives of Satan; I have redeemed them. I have brought them from the grave as the first fruits of My power, to be with Me where I am, nevermore to see death or experience sorrow.”—Page 786.

Discussion Questions:

• Take another look at 1 Corinthians 15, the flagship theological defense of the Resurrection in the New Testament. Follow Paul’s arguments in favor of this basic Christian teaching. Why do these texts make little sense if you believe that the righteous dead go immediately to heaven at death? How is our understanding of the state of the dead vindicated by these texts? What makes the promise of the Resurrection so crucial to us as Seventh-day Adventists with our view of the state of the dead?
• Think about this question, and then bring your answer to class: How differently would you live if you believed that at death everything ended forever?
• Go over all the textual evidence you can find that helps affirm the resurrection of Jesus. Bring it to class and together review the evidence. How compelling is it? How can you put this material together in a way that could be used as a powerful witnessing tool?

I am at a loss for words. This emphasis on using the resurrection to focus on the Adventist teaching of "soul sleep" is just so different from how we Christians celebrate Easter Sunday and the resurrection of Christ. For us it is the high point of the year, a time for rejoicing, a time for recognizing the true cost of Christ’s sacrifice for us, a time to reflect on, yes - eternal life, but so much more — to reflect on the meaning of the cross and how we are indeed saved by grace, not by our works. The price has already been paid in full, and we do have assurance that we are indeed saved!

These subjects are totally absent from the Adventist study of the resurrection. It is worse than theological white bread. It is a total rejection of the real significance of the cross. It is not about Jesus. There is no assurance of salvation. Just a hope. It is about rationalizing and justifying the Adventist doctrine of "soul sleep". Even the references provided for additional study — two quotes by Ellen White, and none from the Scriptures provide a lethargic response that totally misses the real joy that Christians associate with Christ’s resurrection. While Adventists look far into the distant future for the Second Coming Christians are experiencing the benefits of His resurrection today. It is by His death and resurrection that we can say we are redeemed — today, not sometime in the distant future.

E. B Jones, for twenty years a Seventh-day Adventist and formerly a missionary to India, wrote a little booklet called, "The Answers and the Reasons — Eye-Opening Information Regarding Deceptive, Soul-Enslaving Seventh-day Adventism".

In it he lists fifteen "Truths" that must be unlearned before one can be completely liberated from the false belief system called Seventh-day Adventism.

1. One must unlearn the basic delusive teaching of Seventh-day Adventism that Mrs. E. G. White, the psuedo-prophet of the sect, spoke and wrote with as much authority for God as did "holy men of old" who, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, wrote the Bible.
2. One must unlearn the presumptuous and malicious fallacy of the Adventists that their self-styled "church" is, as they ardently claim it to be, "a movement of prophecy, raised up of God ‘for such a time as this’"; that it is "the remnant church," or the one true Church of the last days; that all other religious bodies within Christendom have been rejected of God, and constitute "Babylon"; and that the Seventh-day Adventists alone hold and teach the full truth of the Bible.
3. One must unlearn the blasphemous, Deity-denying teaching of the cult that Jesus Christ, the holy Son of God, was born with "a sinful nature," "bad blood and inherited meanness," and that He entered upon His earthly ministry "at the risk of failure and eternal loss."
4. One must unlearn the Gospel-denying tenet of Adventism that Christ did not complete the atonement — did not finish His God-ordained work of reconciliation — when He shed His blood on the Cross.
5. One must unlearn the slanderous, Christ-denying dogma of the cult that, not our inherently holy Savior, but "Satan, the author of sin," is to be man’s sin-bearer — the one "upon whom the sins of the truly penitent will finally be placed."
6. One must unlearn the pernicious heresy of the sect that it is "a dangerous error" to believe that salvation may be obtained by faith alone.
7. One must unlearn the Gospel-corrupting tenet of the Adventists that by faithfully adhering to their vegetarian "health reform" program one may be "fitted for immortality."
8. One must unlearn the Gospel-contradicting doctrine of Adventism that "all who have ever named the name of Christ" must face an "investigative judgment" (supposedly in progress since 1844!) in order to determine their worthiness or unworthiness of receiving eternal life.
9. One must unlearn the Gospel-denying heresy of the sect that no person, no matter how genuinely converted, should either believe or declare that he is saved.
10. One must unlearn the Bible-distorting fallacy of the cult that the Jews as a nation have been forever cast off of God as His chosen race, and that the Seventh-day Adventists now constitute His special people, the true Israel.
11. One must unlearn the Bible-conflicting doctrine of Adventism that when Christ returns, He will translate only 144,000 persons, all of whom will be keepers of the seventh-day Sabbath, and that all other inhabitants of the earth ("the wicked," whom the Adventists confuse with "that Wicked," or the "man of sin," mentioned in II Thessalonians 2:8) will then be destroyed.
12. One must unlearn the Scripture-perverting, fear-instilling doctrine of the Seventh-day Adventists that all who keep the seventh day of the week (the old covenant Sabbath) have the "seal of God," referred to in Revelation 7, while those who observe the first day of the week (the new covenant Lord’s Day) have the "mark of the Beast," referred to in Revelation 13 and 14, and must eventually suffer the wrath of God for that supposed grievous sin.
13. One must unlearn the Bible-conflicting doctrine of the sect that when a Christian dies, his whole being (composed, they teach, only of soul and body, not of "spirit and soul and body," as the Word teaches in 1 Thessalonians 5:23) — that all the components of which man consists, go to the grave and remain there in complete inertness and unconsciousness until the resurrection.
14. One must unlearn the absurd, Scripture-perverting fallacy of the Adventists that during the Millennium this earth will be a place of utter destruction and desolation — the "bottomless pit" — where Satan in remorseful solitude is to be imprisoned ("bound by chains of circumstances") for one thousand years.
15. One must unlearn the Bible-denying heresy of Adventism that there is no such thing as eternal conscious punishment for the wicked in hell, and that Satan and all the unsaved, following the judgment of the great white throne, will be annihilated — become extinct, and, throughout Eternity, remain as though they had never existed.

Something I have been really thinking about over the past week is the very interesting way that Adventist doctrine (Fundamental Belief #18) not merely elevates Ellen White to the level of the Bible prophets, but actually puts her over them!

As Christians, when we look at the Bible we treat each of the Bible prophets as being equally "inspired". Their inspiration came from the same source. We are told,

2 Peter 1:21 (King James Version)
21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

I believe that. Let’s for a moment ignore testing any new prophet that comes along, such as Ellen White, and just assume that she also speaks as she is moved by the Holy Ghost.

Let’s go one step further and say, for sake of discussion, that everything she wrote agrees with the prophets of the Bible. To further clarify, we will assume that Ellen White has the same spiritual "gift of prophecy" that the Bible writers had.

This means that she meets the following three standards that the Bible prophets all meet.

1. have the Biblical "gift of prophecy".
2. speak as they are moved by the Holy Ghost.
3. everything they write harmonizes with the rest of the Bible writers since they are inspired by the same source

First a new prophet would have to meet these three requirements. Let’s assume that Ellen White does.

Next let us consider the following statement:

"It is from the standpoint of the light that has come through the Spirit of Prophecy (Mrs. White’s writings) that the question will be considered, believing as we do that the Spirit of Prophecy is the only infallible interpreter of Bible principles, since it is that Christ, through this agency, giving real meaning of his own words." (from the tract The Mark of the Beast, p. 1, G. A. Irwin, General Conference President)

As a Christian, what do we do with this statement from the President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists? Since when does having the "gift of prophecy" entitle one prophet to be the only infallible interpreter of Bible principles — in effect of all the rest of God’s prophets?

In one stroke, Adventism has placed Seventh-day Adventist prophetess Ellen White above the Bible as the final court of appeal for any doctrinal discussion! Her word is final. It matters not what the rest of the Bible prophets said. If it appears to us that she disagrees with them, it is because only she can "correctly interpret what they really meant to say. Only she can rightly interpret what they really meant!

To me this is so significant that I want to say this again. We have all the Bible prophets speaking in agreement as they are inspired by the Holy Spirit. And then we have Ellen White exalted to a position of sole arbiter of what is truth. Only through her can we arrive at a correct interpretation of what Scripture says! It matters not that, as New Covenant Christians, the same Holy Spirit now dwells within us.

According to Adventist doctrine, the Holy Spirit within us cannot communicate to us the truths of Scripture, that He communicated through the Bible prophets to those before us, without the aid of Ellen White to function as the only infallible interpreter of Bible principles!

She makes this clear in the following statement.

I am instructed to say … we are not to receive the words of those who come with a message that contradicts the special points of our faith. They gather together a mass of Scripture, and pile it as proof around their asserted theories. This has been done over and over again during the past fifty years. And while the Scriptures are God’s word, and are to be respected, the application of them, if such application moves one pillar from the foundation that God has sustained these fifty years, is a great mistake. He who makes such an application knows not the wonderful demonstration of the Holy Spirit that gave power and force to the past messages that have come to the people of God.–Letter 329, 1905 (Selected Messages, Vol 1, page 160-161).

The boldness of this statement leaves me speechless!

I am instructed (by the Same Holy Spirit)  to say that

• We are not to receive the words of those
  • who come with a message that contradicts the special points of our faith.
  • that gather together a mass of Scripture, and pile it as proof around their asserted theories.
• This has been done over and over again during the past fifty years.
• While the Scriptures are … the application of them, if such application moves one pillar from the foundation that God has sustained these fifty years, is a great mistake.
  • God’s word
  • to be respected

The Scriptures are to be respected? That’s all? Believing as we do that the Spirit of Prophecy is the only infallible interpreter of Bible principles …

I am in shock!

Today I would like to take a closer look at Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Belief #12 - The Church. This Fundamental Belief, while relegated to position #12, really sets the stage for the special nuances embedded into all the rest of the Seventh-day Adventist Fundamental Beliefs. The inevitable conclusions are eye-opening.

12. The Church:
The church is the community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. In continuity with the people of God in Old Testament times, we are called out from the world; and we join together for worship, for fellowship, for instruction in the Word, for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, for service to all mankind, and for the worldwide proclamation of the gospel. The church derives its authority from Christ, who is the incarnate Word, and from the Scriptures, which are the written Word. The church is God’s family; adopted by Him as children, its members live on the basis of the new covenant. The church is the body of Christ, a community of faith of which Christ Himself is the Head. The church is the bride for whom Christ died that He might sanctify and cleanse her. At His return in triumph, He will present her to Himself a glorious church, the faithful of all the ages, the purchase of His blood, not having spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish. (Gen. 12:3; Acts 7:38; Eph. 4:11-15; 3:8-11; Matt. 28:19, 20; 16:13-20; 18:18; Eph. 2:19-22; 1:22, 23; 5:23-27; Col. 1:17, 18.)

This is a most interestingly worded belief. It states:
1. The church is the community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour.
2. The church derives its authority from Christ, who is the incarnate Word, and from the Scriptures, which are the written Word.
3. The church is God’s family; adopted by Him as children
4. Its members live on the basis of the new covenant
5. The church is the body of Christ, a community of faith of which Christ Himself is the Head
6. At His return in triumph, He will present her to Himself a glorious church, the faithful of all the ages, the purchase of His blood, not having spot or wrinkle, but holy and without blemish

and includes the following obfuscation:
7. In continuity with the people of God in Old Testament times, we are called out from the world
8. We join together for worship
9. We join together for fellowship
10. We join together for instruction in the Word
11. We join together for the celebration of the Lord’s Supper
12. We join together for service to all mankind
13. We join together for the worldwide proclamation of the gospel.

It’s interesting to note how there is so much to agree with Biblically in points #1-6 of SDA Fundamental Belief #12, but then they juxtapose points #7-13 and give me whiplash.

This is a very typical example of how Adventists will vigorously announce that they teach from the Bible and the Bible only. Once a recipient internalizes that thought, then Adventists proceed to "re-arrange the chairs", all the while piling up proof texts to make it appear as though they are remaining Biblical. This is deceptive. This happens with just about every SDA belief. Here is a perfect example of this evangelistic "bait-and-switch" technique.

First it sounds like they are talking about the entire "community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour." They even go so far as to appear to renounce an earthly hierarchy by stating "The church is the body of Christ, a community of faith of which Christ Himself is the Head". Very good. Very Evangelical.

For extra measure they even state "Its members live on the basis of the new covenant." One assumes they are referring to the same "new covenant" that the rest of the Christian world, and the Pauline epistles, refer to. So far this all sounds most admirable. There is plenty to agree with here.

Then the tense all of a sudden changes to "we". Since the "we" is embedded in this paragraph about "the church" one might presume that there is somehow a connection.

Since we know that "we" is authored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church we wonder for a moment if we are reading one of Richard Brautigan’s books where the reader thinks he understands what he has just read, and then all of a sudden the writer switches the context.

Especially unusual are statements such as "We join together for worship" and "We join together for fellowship". Since the SDA Church maintains a visible distance from the rest of the "community of believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour" (otherwise labeled by Adventists as "Apostate Protestantism") one has to wonder if they have read this right. "Join together for worship"? With whom? Certainly not any "Mark of the Beast" Sunday-keeping church. I don’t remember ever joining together with the local Jewish synagogue either for Saturday worship. Talk about "double-speak"!

Noticed also the following statement:

"In continuity with the people of God in Old Testament times, we are called out from the world;"

One can’t help but wonder if the authors are unable to find any support for this from the New Testament. This is an especially disconcerting statement since "Its members (supposedly) live on the basis of the new covenant".

One has to wonder how the SDA Church can fulfill the gospel commission to "go ye into all the world" while at the same time they "are called out from the world"!