late and sinless mother [Protestants do not teach this, as Adventists very well know], inherited no tend encies to sin, and for this reason did not sin, removes Him from the realm of a fallen world, and from the very place where help is needed. On His human side, Christ inherited just what every child of Adam inherits — a sinful, fallen nature. On the divine side, from His very conception He was begotten and born of the Spirit. And this was done to place man on vantage-ground, and to demonstrate that in the same way everyone who is ‘bom of the Spirit’ may gain like victories over sin in his own sinful flesh. Thus each one is to overcome as Christ overcame (Rev. 3:21). Without this birth there can be no victory over temptation and no salvation from sin (John 3:3-7).” This poisonous teaching brings Christ down to our level — one who would need a Saviour Himself. In the first place, this reference to His being tempted in all points (which would include murder, adultery, every crime in the catalog, if that is what it meant) does not imply that it would have been possible for Him to yield to Satan. J. N. Darby’s excellent literal translation from the Greek is a great help in understanding Hebrews 4:15: “ For we have not a high priest not able to sympathize with our infirmities, but tempted in all things in like manner, sin apart.” Our salvation was not accomplished on the mount of temptation but on the mount of Calvary where Christ once and for all destroyed the power of the devil. The temptations of Satan made no appeal to Christ. They only proved what He was and who He was. Had it been possible for Him to yield, He would not have been the holy God and Saviour that — thank God — He is! Before we go further into this matter, I want you to recall that this statement from Bible Readings from the Home Circle was published from 1888 to 1944 or longer so that three generations of Adventists have been indoctrinated in their own “ home circles” with this slander against the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in the new edition on another page (p. 120), this passage has been restated under the heading, “ Christ’s Humanity and Temptation.” If you read it carefully you will note that it is saying the exact same thing as formerly only in different terms. Here is the new quotation: “ Jesus Christ is both Son of God and Son of man. As a member of the human family ‘it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren,’ — ‘in the likeness of sinful flesh.’ Just how far that ‘likeness’ goes is a mystery of the incarnation which men have never been able to solve. The Bible clearly teaches that Christ was tempted just as other men are tempted — ‘in all points . . . like as we are.’ Such temptation must necessarily include the possibility of sinning; but Christ was without sin.” Now instead of clearing up this great “mystery,” which is no mystery at all to anyone who goes to the Word of God and learns from it that the incarnation made no change in Christ’s essential nature, the writer of the foregoing attempts to divert the reader’s attention to something extraneous: “ There is no Bible CONTINUED 27
Lord Jesus Christ is God]: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man” (James 1:13). My third quotation is from one of the favorite devotional books of the Adventists, Bible Readings for the Home Circle. The first copyright date in an old volume which I possess is 1888. The book is now issued in a smaller, more compact edition and is now entitled, Bible Readings for the Home. I do not know how long ago the statement I am about to quote appeared in this book but I have the 1944 edition of the older book, Bible Readings for the Home Circle, and on page 174, as in the 1888 edition, the statement appears. Now this is important, so please follow me closely. You can'get hold of these volumes at libraries and Adventist bookstores and check it yourself. At
Gal. 2:20 — "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not 1, but Christ liveth in me . . .” If I would keep apart from pain and tears, From sharing travail with the groaning earth, Drift through my life-long days with ease and mirth —
Then I must turn from love, all that endears; Be unconcerned, thus safe from anxious fears. Keep heart and soul stagnated by a dearth Of outward flow — bastioned secure from birth To death by walls of self through barren years . . . Not I ! Such cowardice my soul decries! Though loving puts me in another’s power, And giving rends my heart until it bleeds -—- I would not, could not have it otherwise For I once died to self, and since that hour Christ lives in me, to serve another’s needs!
— Rachel Friend Capehart
least from 1888 to 1944, and maybe longer, the book, Bible Readings for the Home Circle went into Advent ist homes to be read to their children, supposedly bearing the true message of the Lord. That is a long time — 56 years! Do you think this statement “ just happened to get in” ? That is too absurd to consider. This is an official textbook of Adventism. I quoted this passage in my booklet, Wfleet’s Wrong with Seventh-day Adventism? and I feel it is necessary to do so again. Here is the quotation on page 174: “ In His humanity Christ partook of our sinful, fallen nature. If not, then He was not made ‘like unto his brethren,’ was not ‘in all points tempted like as we are,’ did not overcome, and is not, therefore, the complete and perfect Saviour man needs and must have to be saved. The idea that Christ was bom of an immacu
APRIL 1957
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