which these quotations from the “ Bible Readings” books were handled to put you readers on your guard. When the book by the top Adventist leaders is published this year, I anticipate that it will contain many restatements of their errors rather than out right repudiations. Of course, I am judging by the past. The Adventist way has always been that of evasion and suppression rather than that of outright repudiation. Their action in the matter of “ The Great Disappointment” (“ The Great Blunder?” ), and the “ Shut Door” teaching in the early days of the sect gives abundant proof of that. I fear there will be no real change in the doctrines that I have listed, but there certainly will be an all-out effort on the part of the Adventists to convince evangelicals that such a change has taken place. Will they make such outright declarations as these: “We repudiate our former man-invented, wholly unscriptural teaching of the sanctuary, conditional immortality, investigative judgment — and unreserv edly renounce them all” ? “We have seen the truth in the Word of God in regard to the sinless humanity of Christ and of His finished work on Calvary; of the way of salvation by grace alone apart from works of any kind — even keeping the Sabbath; of the consciousness of the dead; of the certainty of an everlasting hell; and we now come over on to the side of evangelical Christianity in these views” ? “We publicly repudiate the writings of these persons formerly considered our authorities, but now rejected, because of their heresies” ? This would need to be followed by names of authors, titles of books, dates and all essential data. It does not seem likely to me that such statements will be forthcoming from top men in Seventh-day Adventism, but even if such a thing were to be, one
SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISM continued support for the teaching that the mother of Christ, by an immaculate conception, was cut off from the sinful inheritance of the race, and therefore her Divine Son was incapable of sinning.” Of course, there is no scriptural support for the immaculate conception of Mary. That view is held only by the Roman Catholic Church. Why did not the Adventist writer say so? Then he follows with a quotation from Dean F. W. Farrar who was notori ously unsound on the nature of Christ. All of this is quite misleading. Christ’s sinless human nature had nothing to do with Mary; His was the very nature of God Himself. Mary herself con fessed Christ as her Saviour: “ And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour” (Luke 1:47). “ That holy thing,” placed in the virgin’s womb, was the nature of God Himself, housed in that human body for nine months and then clothed with flesh, emerging into the world where He lived in spotless purity for over 30 years, and then went to Calvary as the Lamb of God to die in the body God had prepared for Him A» in our room and stead, to redeem us from sin. The Adventist heresy in regard to the nature of Christ grows out of their complete misunderstanding of His humanity. His humanity was just as perfect as His deity. His humanity was just as sinless as His deity. His humanity was wholly unique. This is explained in 1 Corinthians 15:47: “ The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.” Cain was the second man on earth but in essence he was just another Adam. With Jesus Christ it was different. He was not a reproduction of Adam at all. He was the Second Adam — the unfallen Head of a new line. He was of a wholly new order. He did not inherit the fallen Adamic nature. In Him the entail of sin, condemna tion and death was broken, for He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. As the Second Man, the Lord from heaven, He was the sinless Man, the perfect Man — perfect in His freedom from human depravity, the Holy One manifest in the flesh. There was no stain of sin in the virgin’s holy Son nor was there any sin in His divine nature, for He was, from eternity to eternity, whether on earth or in heaven, . . holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners . . .” (Heb. 7:26). Jesus Himself said: . . the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” (John 14:30). Satan did come to Christ, but there was nothing in our holy Saviour to respond to Satan’s solicitation, for He “ knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:21). Dr. C. I. Scofield expressed it very well: “Were the teaching of the Seventh-day Adventist church true, we would have a monstrosity-deity inheriting a sinful nature. If this could have been so, there could have been no sinless sacrifice, no hope for sinners, no Saviour.” Will There Be a Complete "Right-about-Face"? I have called your attention to the manner in
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ever ask the advice of another about anything God makes you decide before Him. If you ask advice, you will nearly always side with Satan. — Oswald Chambers
such book would not stop the thousands of volumes pouring from their presses daily. Much has been said of their withdrawing certain books from publication and sale but books like Everson’s Mark of the Beast, Ashton’s The Bible Sabbath, and Lickey’s God Speaks to Modern Man were all purchased within the month in Adventist bookstores. These books are official publications of Adventist Review and Herald Pub. Co., Washington, D.C., and they all contain the teachings I have mentioned. Will the correspondence courses called “ Faith for Today” all be withdrawn? I have a complete up-to- date set filled with the same old heresies. I have said before, and I say again, that no one would be happier than I if this sect turned from its errors — all of
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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