(“ the messenger of the Lord to the Adventist people” as she is described in their official writings), entitled, The Desire of Ages, edition of 1898, published by the Pacific Press Association, an official Seventh-day Adventist house. On page 49 of this volume this state ment in regard to the incarnation of Christ occurs: “ Yet into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, sub ject to the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet life’s peril in Icommon with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss. “ The heart of the human father yearns over his son. He looks into the face of his little child, and trembles at the thought of life’s peril. He longs to shield his dear one from Satan’s power, to hold him back from temptation and conflict. To meet a bitterer conflict and a more fearful risk God gave His only begotten Son, that the path of life might be made sure for our little ones. ‘Herein is love.’ Wonder, 0 heavens! and be astonished, O earth!” On the face of this quotation, it may sound very sweetly sentimental but when you analyze it, it shocks you. For it was of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, this deluded woman was speaking. There was no “ risk” involved in His encounter with Satan. It was as impossible for Christ to sin as for God the Father Himself to sin. For Jesus Christ is God. How true is that stanza by John Newton: What think y e of Christ? is the test To try both your state and your scheme; You cannot be right in the rest Unless you think rightly of Him. Mrs. White and her followers are certainly not thinking rightly of the Lord Jesus Christ when they dare to suggest that the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, spotless Son of God, eternal Son of the eternal Father, might have fallen prey to Satan’s temptations, and that the Father was risking our eternal salvation on one who might have failed! When you strike at the sinless human nature of the Saviour, you are undermining the rock upon which the truth of His essential deity is founded. My second quotation is from L. A. Wilcox, for many years an editor of Signs of the Times, which according to the latest figures given by the Adventists has been published by them for 82 years. Certainly a statement by an editor of that publication may be considered official. I am sure anything that Mr. Wilcox wrote did not just “ happen to get in.” In March 1927 he wrote: “ In His [Christ’s] 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.” And again in the December 1928 issue of the Signs of the Times this editor, Mr. Wilcox, stated: “ Jesus took humanity, with all its liabilities, with all its dreadful risks of yielding to temptation.” Listen to what the Scriptures say: “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God [and our
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM continued And to climax this whitewashing process: “As noted, the serious disagreement that might most naturally arise in three areas — sleep of the dead (and annihilation of the wicked); the Sabbath; and the sanctuary-investigative-judgment theory — can be greatly mollified by understanding the true Adventist position on these doctrines . . . True Seventh-day Adventism, despite its differences from us, is one with us in the great work of winning men to Jesus Christ and in preaching the wonders of His matchless, redeeming grace” (p. 40). The conclusion is wrong because the premise is wrong. These terrible heresies when considered in the light of God’s holy Word, each and every one of them, make fellowship impossible. It is not at all difficult to understand Seventh-day Adventism if one can read. The only way to “mollify” (the word means “ soften” ) these heresies is to close your eyes to them. In their determination to make Adventism “ evangeli cal” that is just what these editors have done. Further more, Adventists are not “winning men to Jesus Christ” — alone; they are winning them to Him and their Galatian system, “ the Jewish system with a Christian dress” ; they do not preach “matchless, redeeming grace” alone, but grace-p/ws-law; grace- p/ws'-sabbath-keeping! What does fellowship with other Christian workers involve? It means that you pray for God’s blessing upon their labors; that you contribute offerings to their work. I could not in all conscience do this for Adventists as they are now constituted. I will, how ever, help any dear soul entangled in Adventism to see the way out of bondage into the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free! In order for Adventists to enjoy fellowship with evangelicals, they must repudi ate every single heresy that I have mentioned and a good many more and “ come clean” all along the line. The issue is too clear-cut; you have to be on one side or the other. What Think Ye of Christ? The Test In this introductory article, space permits us to discuss only the first reason I have given for rejecting Seventh-day Adventism as evangelical, and that is their blasphemous teaching in regard to the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Next month we will take up the unfinished atonement-sanctuary theory. I will quote from three Seventh-day Adventist authorities regarding the nature of Christ. Leaders of this denomination have persuaded the Eternity editors that some of these statements “ occa sionally got into print” ; that they were not official; and that some of the writers may be considered as being on the “ lunatic fringe.” I think you will agree with me that the three sources from which I quote are official, impeccable and authoritative; not only that, but it happens that in each case these identical statements have been going into Seventh-day Ad ventist homes for more than 50 years! First, we quote from the book by Mrs. E. G. White
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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