THE WORD Of GOD
Versus
SEVENTH DAY ADVENTISM
By Maurice M. Johnson
"Either make the tree good, and his fruit good;
or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt:
for the tree is known by his fruit."
—Matt. 12:33.
IS IT ANOTHER BIBLE OR "OLD WIVES' FABLES"?
Mrs. Ellen G. White is THE one through whom Seventh Day Adventism comes. Hear the editor of their official paper: "Mrs. E. G. White was the prophet of God to the remnant church the same as Samuel was the prophet to the church in his day." —(Adv. Rev. & Sabbath Her., 1-30-30) If that be true, then none of her words have or shall ever fall to the ground, for "Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground."-1 Sam. 3:19. The same official Adventist paper carried this in the issue of Nov. 24, 1927: "For a period of about seventy years she occupied the position of the Lord's special messenger to the remnant church." Referring again to the 1930 official paper we read: "Her instruction to the church was based upon what was given her by divine revelation." Commenting upon the literary value of her writings, this paper tells us (Sept. 16, 1926) that no better explanation can be given than that which a Harvard professor gave concerning the Scriptures: "The only ultimate explanation of the literary value of the Bible is the fact of inspiration."
When the Adventists say that they do not believe that Mrs. White's writings constitute another Bible, we (in the light of the above quotations from their official writers) must know that they are either wilful liars or they are utterly incapable of telling us what they believe about Mrs. White's "inspired revelations from God." We cannot possibly find better expressions with which to describe how the writers of the Bible got their writings than are here used to describe how Mrs. White got her "revelations." "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; . . . "1 Tim. 4:1-7.
MRS. WHITE'S SECT IS A RELIGIOUS CHRISTMAS TREE
That she was inspired, all admit. That her inspiration was of God, I must deny. In the text quoted at the beginning of this study, we should note very carefully that little word, "his." "The tree is known by his fruits." Satan is a masterful decorator. He can take an ugly pine tree, pull off the needles and burs, rob other trees of their fruit and tie it on his "Christmas tree" until you would never recognize the original pine. Mrs. White and her masculine (?) preachers are decorators, indeed. Their tree is very attractive, even to Christians who casually examine it. Upon a biblical examination of it, however, one sees that it is an "evolutionist's tree that has been artificially made to bear fruit that it would and could never have borne of itself. It is found to be a tree "whose fruit withereth," being set out by the burning sands in the wilderness of sin at the foot of death-dealing Mt. Sinai. Since their "Jesus" had "bad blood and inherited meanness" (note paragraph below), we are forced to admit that their "tree of life" is "a vine of Sodom . . . their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter: . . . "— Deut. 32:32-33. Let us not forget that God's enforced order is that every tree shall bring forth fruit "after its kind."
MRS. WHITE'S "JESUS" IS A VILE COUNTERFEIT!
"For four thousand years the race had been decreasing in physical strength, in mental power, and in moral worth; and Christ took upon Him the infirmities of degenerate humanity . . . He took our humanity with all its liabilities . . . with the possibility of yielding to temptation." These horrible "old wives' fables" are in Mrs. White's "The Desire of the Ages," 1898 edition. See also her "Early Writings," pp. 150 and 152. This quotation appeared in "The Signs of the Times," March, 1927, with this additional blasphemy: "In His veins was the incubus of a tainted heredity like a caged lion ever seeking to break forth and destroy . . . Temptation attacked Him where, by heredity, He was weakest, attacked Him in unexpected times and ways . . . In spite of bad blood and inherited meanness . .. He conquered." (Wilcox, writer.)
This diseased and putrid "Jesus" is no more the "Holy child, Jesus" whose body was miraculously "prepared" by God (Heb. 10:5) than Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy's "idea Jesus" is the Christ whom the Bible pictures as "Immanuel, God with us." Surely the Seventh Day Adventists' "christ" is not the "Tree of Life" but is "a vine of Sodom."
Shall we be simple minded enough to allow these deluded people to fool us when they tell us that they believe in "the precious blood of Christ"? No wonder Mrs. White had all of those "visions" about the heavenly sanctuary, with the blasphemous teaching that our sins are on Christ now in heaven. "The sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ, and transferred, in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary," she said. The believers' "sins remained on the records" in heaven until 1844, at which time Christ entered the second compartment ("the holy of holies") bearing our sins. Thus we have a lovely "holy of holies" where the Seventh Day Adventists' "Jesus" has gone with his own "inherited meanness and bad blood" and "the repentant believers' sins." (Great Contr., pages 421-2)
Do you know why this "Jesus" made this move in 1844? Well, Mrs. White's special angel took her to this "second" room in heaven and showed her that her "bad-blooded Jesus" moved in there in 1844 to "cleanse the sanctuary and make a special atonement." (Early Writings, p. 251) "In a flaming chariot He passed within the second vail." This "special atonement" was to be "the final atonement . . . for all who could be benefited by His mediation . . . for the righteous dead as well as the righteous living." (Ibid., pp. 253-4)
THE REASON FOR THESE WILD DREAMS
Mrs. White was one of the large company of "Millerites" who believed that Christ was going to return to the earth in the seventh month, 1844. After two disappointments, Miller confessed his mistakes and his sins of date setting, but Mrs. White grabbed most of his followers by having scores of "visions" as to just what "really" happened in 1844. The above "sanctuary" visions furnish examples of her silly and blasphemous "wresting the scriptures." By utterly failing to "rightly divide the word of truth," paying no consistent attention to the command to "give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God," she tries to make "the times and seasons" in which God has dealt with and is again going to deal with His earthly people, the Jews, apply to and explain the course of this present age, the "church age." Among her "fables" of prophecy is that concerning the stars falling in 1833. She tells us that those falling stars were the ones spoken of in Matt. 24, and that "this generation" that "shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled" was the generation of people who saw those falling stars in 1833. It is now one hundred and five years since that (1938), and her "generation" is getting pretty thin. (It is now 1972 at the present printing of this study.)
She caught the disappointed Millerites by having "visions" which "explained" why poor Miller was so deceived. She "was shown" that God had played hide and seek with him. "God designed to prove them. His hand covered a mistake in the reckoning of the prophetic periods . . . The message was sent in mercy to arouse them to seek the Lord with repentance and humiliation . . . " Thus we see how the Seventh Day Adventists' "God" had to use deception in order to bring about spiritual results. That, of course, is quite consistent with their "Jesus" who has "bad blood and inherited meanness" and who went into a filthy "heavenly sanctuary" in 1844. Mrs. White was a sort of intimate or favorite with "God," for she tells us that "God's hand was removed from the figures, and the mistake was explained" to her, though poor Miller was deliberately deceived by the same "God." (Great Contr., pp. 353, 391; Early Writings, pp. 74, 235, 242) Any honest person who reads these references in her "inspired" writings will see that I am fair in my references to this deceived woman's visions.
CHRIST'S "ONE SACRIFICE" VERSUS ADVENTISTS' BLASPHEMY
"Christ is entered into heaven itself" (not WILL enter in 1844), "now to appear in the presence of God for us . . . Once hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself . . . We are sanctified by the body of Jesus Christ once for all . . This man (Christ), after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; from henceforth expecting (waiting) till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified . • . And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin . . . Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree," not in His blood as a babe, nor did He bear them into heaven after He had cried as the God-forsaken Lamb "that taketh away the sins of the world." Why did the Father forsake His Son on the cross and ONLY there if it were not that it was ONLY on the accursed tree that "God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him"? When we contrast these plain passages from God's Word with Mrs. White's blasphemy about Christ's "special" and "final atonement" since 1844, we must repudiate the Seventh Day Adventists' whole system as being utterly false, for we see that the "tree is corrupt," and we are commanded to call its fruit "corrupt," also. This must be done in spite of the apparent "good fruit" that has been tied onto Mrs. White's religious Christmas tree. (Heb., 9th and 10th chapters; 1 Pet. 2:24; 2 Cor. 5:21)
Thus, you see, 1 repudiate Mrs. White's sect on the grounds of what she teaches about Christ. The question of the Sabbath does not properly belong in here. If I were dealing with the Seventh Day Baptists, it would be necessary to come quickly to the Sabbath, for those Baptists are biblical, I understand, in their teachings about CHRIST as Saviour. I shall touch the Adventists' doctrine of the Sabbath briefly, anyway.
1. Most Seventh Day Adventists are unsaved. To them, Christ's death does not end their existence "under the law." They are not "crucified with Christ" and therefore not "dead to the law by the body of Christ." (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 7:4) They are merely redeemed from "past transgressions" through the merits of Christ's blood and given the opportunity to "by obedience be brought back to the garden from which they were driven . . . " For Mrs. White says, "The condition of eternal life is now just what it always has been, just what it was in paradise before the fall of our first parents, perfect obedience to the law of God." Referring to Christ's drinking the cup in the garden, Mrs. White says: "It was for me, that I might form a character for the future immortal life." Again she says: "None need err, if they will submit to the conditions laid down in the Word of God. Probation is granted to all that all may form characters for eternal life." (Early Writings, p. 126; Steps to Christ, p. 64; Testimonies to the Church, Vol. 2, p. 20) Now notice this : " . . . (a) dangerous error, is that, since by faith alone we become partakers of the grace of Christ, our works have nothing to do with our salvation." Contrast this with the inspired apostle's words, "Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness ... Not of works lest any man should boast." (Rom. 4:4-5; Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5)
Seventh Day Adventist leaders positively lie when they say that they believe we can actually be saved NOW, can have eternal life and know that we ALREADY HAVE received the seal of God which assures us that we are already saved. Read carefully Eph. 1:13-14; 4:30; 2 Cor. 1:21-22; John 5:24; 10:27-29; 1 John 5:13. Note that these passages written to us believers in this, the "church age," do not offer us the "promise" of final salvation but assure us of the present FACT of salvation. This, the Seventh Day Adventist people cannot possibly believe, for their "Jesus" is not yet through with his "final atonement" and his "investigative judgment in the sanctuary," and they are not yet through with "forming their righteous character" and obeying what they think are God's present requirements for them.
(This paragraph should be carefully studied.) The Seventh Day Adventists' "Jesus" with his "bad blood" couldn't wash anyone from his sins with such blood. NOTE THIS WELL.
2. Being unsaved, of course the Seventh Day Adventists cannot understand the Bible, for "the natural man receiveth NOT the things of the Spirit of God . . . "-1 Cor. 2:12-15; Rom. 3:11; 2 Pet. 3:16; 1 Tim. 1:7-10. (Note this last passage.)
3. Being unsaved, the Seventh Day Adventists know nothing of the "mystery" which is revealed only to those who have been "quickened" and have been already raised up to heaven and seated with Christ at the right hand of God in the glory.—Eph. 1:9, 15-23; 2:1-10, 13-22; 3:1-6; Col. 1:25-28; 2:6-17, 20-23; 3:1-3; Phil. 3:3; 1 Cor. 12:12-13.
These glorious truths concerning this age which show us that our "citizenship is in heaven" where we are "seated together in the heavenlies in Christ" plainly teach us that we are already saved and seated in heaven for eternity. Therefore, the thought of our having "works to perform for salvation," including rest days, is utterly out of harmony with
"present truth" — the truths given to the church through the Apostle Paul.
Paul's distinct apostleship and his unique revelations are unknown to these exponents of "old wives' fables." Read Gal. 2:1-9; Rom. 11:13; 16:24-27; 3:1-10; Col. 1:24-27.
4. Being unsaved, the Seventh Day Adventist teachers cannot understand the question of the law. 1 Tim. 1:3-11; Rom. 3:19.
They do not understand that Gentiles (sinners) are saved exactly as Abraham was saved. Rom. 4: 1-16; Gal. 3:6-18. Note that Abraham was justified by faith "before God" (Rom. 4:2-3), but it takes "works" to show a man that you have faith. (Jas. 2:18)
Abraham had no ten commandments that he had to keep, no water baptism and no circumcision when he was saved. Gal. 3:16-18; Rom. 4:9-11; Deut. 5:1-21.
5. Being unsaved, the Seventh Day Adventist teachers utterly fail to see the distinctions plainly given concerning the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles during the Book of Acts period (the first thirty-five years after the resurrection of Christ.) Although the ground for the destruction of the "middle wall of partition" between Jew and Gentile believers was the cross of Christ, nevertheless the FACT was not revealed until after Paul made his final declaration to the Jews, telling them that they were set aside "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in." Note well that the truth that was first revealed in Eph. 2:13-22 and Col. 2:16-23 could have had no place in the program being carried out by the Spirit-led apostles during the Acts period. Acts 15:19-20; 19:28-29; 16:1-5; 21:18-26 (Note verse 25.)
Thus we see why it was that the apostles and their fellow Jewish believers practiced circumcision, divers baptisms (Heb. 9:8-10), temple worship, head shaving and Sabbath keeping. No Gentile believer after Acts 15th chapter ever did so. Acts 15: 28-29; 21:25; Gal. 4:8-11; 5:1-16.
After the glorious truths concerning "the new man," the "church which is Christ's body," were revealed we see the new and heavenly character of the laws and worship of these new creatures. "If any man be IN CHRIST, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."-2 Cor. 5:16-17; Phil. 3:3. Do you really believe that "old things are passed away" and that "all things are become new"? "All things are become new"? There is no ten-commandment system of righteousness now, for you have "Christ in you." "For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth." The END of the law! The END! The law demanded perfect righteousness. Rom. 2:6-7; Gal. 3:10; Jas. 2:10. We are all unrighteous.—Isa. 56:3; Rom. 3:10. Christ Himself is the righteousness demanded by the law and pictured in the law. Therefore, all who have Christ have the "end of the law."
The Seventh Day Adventists' wilful twisting of Jas. 5:11 is worthy of those whose "Jesus" had "bad blood and inherited meanness." Read the passage in Job 42:10 from which James quotes: "Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."—Jas. 5:11. How plain it is that James is speaking of the Lord's end FOR Job, or the end of Job's life that the Lord gave him in contrast with the earlier part when Satan had charge of Job's body and physical possessions. When the Spirit of God says, "Christ is the end of the law," He means just that.
The law has been established! It has done that for which it was given, namely: to try, convict, sentence, and kill the guilty Israelites. In the case of all believing Jews, that has happened. He is "dead to the law by the body of Christ." Rom. 3:19; 7:4; 2 Cor. 3:6-9; Gal. 3:19. As Christians, we are governed by the church epistles, primarily.
The Ten Commandment Law was given to RESTRAIN and CONVICT the Adamic Nature and Adam's family, whereas the "Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ" was given to CONSTRAIN and DIRECT the New Nature and God's Spiritual Family. (See I Tim. 1:9 and Rom. 8:1-4.)
This writer has been crucified with Christ and is forever done for, so far as the records in heaven are concerned with my old Adamic nature. The ten commandments tried, convicted, and put me to death in the person of my substitute, Christ.-2 Cor. 3:7; 5:16-17; 5:21. I am now being dealt with as a member of the body of Christ—a citizen of glory. It makes no difference whatsoever to me when the sun comes up or goes down for I am seated in the SON far, far above the sun. I do not have seasonal life but eternal. Col. 3:1-3; Phil. 3:3; Gal. 4:9-11. I, with Paul, am "afraid" of those Christians who know so little of "'church truth" as to be trying to observe days, etc.
The reason Spirit-taught Christians do not murder, steal, commit adultery, etc. is not because the ten commandments say: "Thou shalt not . . . " but because we are given full instructions concerning how to behave in the church of God (1 Tim. 3:15), how children of God should live BECAUSE THEY ARE children, not in order to finally "form a character for immortal life." And remember that in all of these church epistles, we are never told to keep a rest day but are positively told not to observe days.—Col. 2:6-17; Gal. 4:10.
6. The Seventh Day Adventists' teaching about Daniel and Revelation is false for they fail to "rightly divide the word of truth."-2 Tim. 2:15. Therefore, they fail to see that both of those prophetic books have to do primarily with Israel and are altogether for a future age—after this "mystery" age with its "new man" is completed and this "new man," the true church, shall have been caught away or called on high, Daniel and Revelation will have their fulfillment.
These poor "blind leaders of the blind" seem to know nothing of the "mystery" of Rom. 11:25-29. They do not believe God is yet to re-gather scattered Israel. The prophetic scriptures are therefore absolutely locked to them (Adventists). Read Jer. 31: 22-40; Acts 15:14-20; Rom. 11:1-2, 25-29.
7. Being unsaved, the Seventh Day Adventist people were easily ensnared by the devil in their effort to understand the meaning of Christ's temptation—"in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."—Heb. 4:15. It is at this point that they bring in their blasphemous teaching concerning the kind of body in which Christ tabernacled. They argue that Christ could not have been tempted in all points like as we unless He had our FALLEN nature.
They ignore the fact that we are sinners, not because we ourselves have sinned, but because Adam sinned. As a man I was tempted only in the person of my forefather Adam, the head of the human race. Christ came down from glory as the "last Adam" and dwelt in a body "prepared" by God for Him just as surely as Adam lived in a miraculously prepared body. Adam was tempted in three points; so was Christ. The first Adam had a sinless nature when tempted; so also did the "last Adam." The first Adam was tempted in three points, the "lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life"; so also the "last Adam was tempted in three points, when He was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He was tempted to turn a stone into bread, "the lust of the flesh"; to win all that He saw, "the lust of the eyes"; and to display His Deity by casting Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, "the pride of life." Note Eve's three-fold temptation: "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat." Gen. 3:6; 1 John 2:16; Matt. 4:1-11; 1 Cor. 15:45.
May the Blessed Holy Spirit be allowed to lead us as Christians to "study to show ourselves approved unto God; a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth" and humbly "walk in Christ Jesus our Lord." And may God grant that some dear souls who have been ensnared in this modern delusion may find herein some of the Holy Spirit's answer and correction. 2 Tim. 2:15; 3:16.
Christians are distinguished from the unsaved not by the day they keep, the food they eat, and the woman "prophetess" they follow. Christians are known only by the fruit of the Spirit. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law."—Gal. 5:22-23. The lives of Christians are governed by the epistles given by the risen Christ speaking from heaven as the Head of the "new man" (the church which is His body). Israel was governed by the law spoken by the Lord on Mt. Sinai. Let us rightly divide God's Word. 2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Cor. 10:32.
(Written in 1937 by Maurice M. Johnson, a servant of Christ)