"If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Psalm 11:33If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? (Psalm 11:3). This was our feeling when we reviewed a recent issue of Our Hope magazine in which the editor practically gave a clean bill of health to the "Seventh-day Adventist" cult. Our Hope is now in its 63rd year of publication; its present publisher is Frank E. Gaebelein (son of its founder), and its editor is E. Schuyler English. It has been respected for its faithful adherence to the basic truths of Christianity concerning the Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. While we have not always agreed with its Biblical interpretations, it is not our policy to attack those whose views differ from our own. In this instance, however, because of its being read by many earnest Christians, and because the veritable truths of Scripture are in danger of being undermined by its endorsement of Seventh-day Adventism, which cult places the writings of a woman on the same level as those of Holy Scripture, we must speak out.
We were utterly amazed when we read the following in the February, 1956 issue of Our Hope:
"To Rectify a Wrong"
"The Editor made a grievous mistake in one of his 'Current Events' paragraphs in the issue of January, 1955. There, under the caption, 'Report on Church Giving' (pp. 409, 410), he implied that the Seventh-day Adventists are affiliated with the National Council of Churches and stated that the Adventists deny Christ's Deity and disparage His Person and work.
"The Editor was in error in making such statements. Several months' correspondence with Dr. L. E. Froom of the Department of Church History, Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C., has brought to our attention the following pertinent facts, among others, as to the doctrinal position of the Seventh-day Adventists:...
"Seventh-day Adventists believe implicitly in the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, a fact that is attested in the volume, American Church of The Protestant Heritage, etc
What now are we to think when the editor of a staunch periodical is ensnared by "good words and fair speeches" of a leader of a thoroughly heterodox cult? Did he not look beneath the surface? Did he merely accept the clever protestations of pure Biblical Christianity without ascertaining the facts from their own publications?
It has been our observation for some time that the "Seventh-day Adventists" are seeking to cloak their real teachings and to parade under the banner of orthodox evangelicalism. They are now co-operating with the American Bible Society. Their agents sell their Bibles and distribute their circulars; then they present their own books, which are carefully prepared to conceal their origin. Why should they deem it necessary to hide the fact that they are "Seventh-day Adventists" if they have nothing to conceal? Why not come out plainly if their teachings will not turn people away from them? Why should their radio programs have such harmless titles as The Voice of Prophecy, perhaps introduced with John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16), with nothing to indicate to the hearer that he is listening to "Seventh-day Adventism"? Let the reader or listener beware lest he become ensnared in the soul-damning and Christ-dishonoring doctrines of the false system.
Our Hope quotes at length from Dr. Froom. We cannot here produce it in its entirety, but we shall quote from it:
"Seventh-day Adventists place their sole hope of salvation in Jesus Christ, pre-existent from all eternity, who took our flesh through the virgin birth, lived a sinless life, wrought many miracles, was betrayed and went to the cross where His blood was shed in our stead."
Many people may be deceived by this statement from Dr. Froom, but let us look a little deeper. Remember that Dr. Froom contends (and Our Hope concurs) that the "Seventh-day Adventists" believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ; that is, that He is God, and God from all eternity. Yet an old book of theirs entitled, "Christ and His Righteousness," by E. J. Wagoner, states that He had a beginning; he said, "It was not given to men to know when
or how the Son was begotten.... We know that Christ 'proceeded forth and came from God' (John 8:4242Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. (John 8:42)), but it was so far back in the ages of eternity as to be far beyond the grasp of man." (p. 9.) To state that the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, had a beginning is to deny that He was the eternal God (Isa. 9:66For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)); it is a denial of His, deity. The Word of God says of Him, "In the beginning was the Word"; whenever that was, He was there. Dr. Froom does state that He "was pre-existent from all eternity," but either their own writings do not agree, or the truth is later lost in a maze of equivocal evasion.
Let us examine Dr. Froom's own statement: "Jesus Christ,... took our flesh" (p. 468). This may seem innocuous, but is it? What does he mean by He "took our flesh"? Simply this, that at the incarnation the Son of God took our sinful nature. It is blasphemy, but it is a cardinal point of this deception to contend that the Lord Jesus, as a man, had a "sinful nature with evil tendencies." In their periodical, "The Signs of the Times," for March, 1927, L. A. Wilcox wrote, "In His veins was the incubus of a tainted heredity... bad blood and inherited meanness." We shrink from even quoting this damnable heresy; it is shocking to every right-minded Christian.
In a recent book by Milton E. Kern, entitled, "Bible Reasons Why You Should Be a Seventh-day Adventist," the author takes the ground that they "in common with other Christian Evangelicals, recognize the divine as well as the human in the mystery of the babe of Bethlehem." By this "human" he means fallen humanity; the difference between Mr. Kern and true Christian Evangelicals is, that while they fully believe in our Lord's humanity, they recognize that it was perfect, holy humanity.
Mr. Kern censures the author (E. B. Jones) who wrote,
"Forty Bible-Supported Reasons Why You Should Not Be a Seventh-day Adventist," for saying, "Christ possessed the nature of holiness," and says that he recognized "no HUMAN element in Christ." This charge is unsound. Every Christ-honoring, true believer accepts the truth of the real humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and bows in worship before Him who was also truly God. Again we say, His humanity was pure and holy and without any taint of sin. His glorious Person is an inscrutable mystery—"No man knoweth the Son, but the Father." Matt. 11:2727All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. (Matthew 11:27). A poet of old has said:
"His glory—not only God's Son- In manhood He had His full part- And the union of both joined in one Form the fountain of love in His heart."
Mr. Kern approvingly quotes from Dean F. W. Farrar (a clergyman who contended against the truth of eternal punishment) who called people "intemperate and ignorant," who "claimed for Him [the Lord Jesus] not only actual sinlessness but a nature to which sin was divinely and miraculously impossible." He also quotes others who wrote in the same vein. Does he not know that the daring impiety of others will not mitigate his guilt or the guilt of his Christ-dishonoring cult?
Regardless of Dr. Froom's protestation of holding to the deity of Christ, and Our Hope's acceptance of his claims, we boldly state that to deny the absolute holiness of the Man Christ Jesus is to deny His deity; He could not be God and have an evil nature. Such facts are mutually exclusive of each other, for "God is LIGHT" (1 John 1:55This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5)). What is LIGHT? It is the effulgent excellence of His Person which positively excludes and precludes sin in nature or in act. To claim that the Lord Jesus partook of fallen, sinful nature is to deny that He was God. There is no alternative! When He was in the world, He was its light, but men rejected Him, THE LIGHT, because their deeds were evil. When Peter got one little glimpse of His glory he fell at His feet and said, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord." Luke 5:88When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. (Luke 5:8).
When the coming of the Savior was announced, it was said, "That HOLY THING which shall be born of thee." Holiness and innocence are not the same things. Adam before he fell was innocent, and so, sinless, but he was not holy; he fell and became sinful and lost his innocence.
Holiness supposes the knowledge of good and evil, but absolute abhorrence of evil, and love of good. The Lord Jesus was "holy, harmless, undefiled." "In Him is no sin"! No taint of sin was in Him. There could not have been, else He could not have been the Savior, for God has nothing but condemnation for sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3)).
Let us read further from Rom. 8:33For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: (Romans 8:3): "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." In this sublime statement His holiness in flesh is carefully guarded—He was sent in "the likeness of" sinful flesh; that is, He came down to man's low estate and was made like him, but not made the thing man was. He, blessed be His name, was not made sinful flesh. A poet back in 1697 suitably wrote:
"Thou wouldst like wretched man be made
In everything but sin,
That we as like Thee might become
As we unlike had been."
Of course Dr. Froom says He "lived a sinless life," but is that all? No; He was absolutely without sin in His nature; He not only "did no sin," but
He "knew no sin." Heb. 4:1515For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) says He "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Notice that the words "we are, yet" are in italics, showing that they were supplied by the translators. What the verse means is simply this: "He was tempted in all points, sin apart." It was not that He was tempted by sin and then did not yield, and so "lived a sinless life," but rather that when confronted with all the temptations to which man has yielded, they found no response in Him. He was intrinsically holy. The trial was there, but there was nothing in Him which answered to the proffered bait.
Back in the Old Testament types of the Lord Jesus, the meat (or meal) offering prefigured Christ in His life down here; and the sin offering, Christ bearing the sins of His people. It is striking that in both of these types the Spirit of God was careful to guard against this very evil of "Seventh-day Adventism" by stating of the meal offering, "It is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Loan made by fire." Lev. 2:33And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons': it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. (Leviticus 2:3). Then in Lev. 6:1717It shall not be baken with leaven. I have given it unto them for their portion of my offerings made by fire; it is most holy, as is the sin offering, and as the trespass offering. (Leviticus 6:17) He says, "It is most holy as is the sin offering."
Man would sully His holiness in His humanity, or attach some sin to Him in suffering for sin on the cross, but the Spirit of God would guard against all such effrontery.
Again Dr. Froom says, "He took upon Himself a human bodily form, and accepted the limitations of human bodily life." What does he mean by this somewhat ambiguous statement? Does he mean that He took the limitations of the human body brought under the dire effects of sin? This is in keeping with their teaching about his taking our fallen flesh. It would make Him inherit a body subject to death. This is utterly false. True, He assumed a body that could die, for He did die in it; but it was NOT subject to death, nor could be. He voluntarily "offered Himself without spot to God" to put away sin; He died for us that we might live.
Mr. Kern defends their great teacher, Ellen G. White, in saying: "Into the world where Satan claimed dominion God permitted His Son to come, a helpless babe, subject to the weakness of humanity. He permitted Him to meet life's peril in common with every human soul, to fight the battle as every child of humanity must fight it, at the risk of failure and eternal loss." 0 the daring of that statement! How could the Son of God—God manifest in flesh—fail? In Psalm 40, quoted in Heb. 10, we are let into the counsels of the Godhead in a past eternity; and there in the book of God's counsels it was written, that the Son said, "Lo, I come... to do Thy will, 0 God." Could God fail? Was there any doubt about the outcome? No, never. He said before His death that He would be taken, crucified, be buried, and rise the third day. Was there any doubt about the outcome of His mission? The 16th Psalm, which gives us His life down here in this world, closes with the hope of resurrection; yet Mr. Kern defends Mrs. White's blasphemy: "The Savior could not see through the portals of the tomb. Hope did not present to Him His coming forth from the grave a conqueror." Again, we say, the "Seventh-day Adventists" do in fact deny the deity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
One more point on this subject: this false cult teaches that when the Lord Jesus expired on the cross, God died—that He, the Holy One,
ceased to exist for the time He was in the tomb. Why claim to believe the Word of God at all, when they distort it so! He Himself said, "I lay down My life, that I might take it again," and "I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again." How could one who ceased to exist—one who no longer was—take up his life? It is an absurdity, and an impossibility; but "Seventh-day Adventism" must square with itself if not with the Word of God. They teach the pagan doctrine of soul-sleeping, so they must support it by denying that when the Lord Jesus died, He was in paradise, whence He received the repentant thief that day. Quite obviously, if they state that He ceased to exist, they of necessity deny His true deity, all claims to the contrary notwithstanding. Could Deity cease to exist?
Dr. Froom further states, "In some inexplicable way Christ so united Himself with the human race that He bore in His body, and personal experience, the weight of its sorrows and guilt, but not its inherent evil propensities or passions. And through the incarnation Christ snatched the scepter from Satan the usurper, and sealed his doom." These smooth words seem harmless enough, but a careful examination will prove them to be otherwise. He is speaking here of His incarnation, of what was true of Him in His pathway, and Our Hope heads the quotation with this: "Dr. Froom gives also an important pronouncement pertaining to the Seventh-day Adventists' position concerning the incarnation of the Son of God." Did His incarnation cause Him to bear the "sorrows and guilt" of the "human race"? It is perfectly in keeping with their false teachings already referred to, but to attribute to Him in His life the personal experience of one bearing the sorrows and guilt of fallen humanity is heresy of the worst kind. He did NOT in life have the experience of one bearing the guilt of fallen humanity. He did bear their sorrows on His heart during His life (see Mathew 8:17), but He had no personal experience of guilt. It was only in the latter three hours on the cross, the hours of darkness, that He bore sins. To connect with Him in incarnation the experience of guilt is gross error.
It is true that Dr. Froom added, "but not in its inherent evil propensities or passions," but this statement and previous ones are mutually contradictory. It has all the appearance of his saying what will please the ear of evangelicals for the purpose of gaining their support, which Dr. Froom certainly accomplished in the endorsement of Our Hope. We are not surprised at Dr. Froom's statements, for we have long known his organization's teachings, and some of their ways, but we cannot comprehend how an evangelical monthly, respected for years for its orthodoxy, could be seduced to accept heterodox statements and print them, adding, "We rejoice to learn of their adherence to the Scriptures as to the Deity of our Lord and His atoning sacrifice of Himself for sin." This, and their expressed sorrow for "grave misstatements" made in Our Hope regarding the teachings of "Seventh-day Adventists" will do more damage than many issues of "The Signs of the Times," which periodical is dressed for the unsuspecting.
We simply cannot accept anyone's assurances that the "Seventh-day Adventists" are sound as to the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ when they teach doctrines which when examined are found to undermine His deity. Nor can we accept statements that they are sound regarding the atoning sacrifice for sin. To touch the attributes of His deity will necessarily affect His atoning sufferings, and consequently the salvation of the lost. The whole structure of true Christianity will fall if His essential deity is denied in any way. There are also ways in which they deny His finished work at Calvary, but we have not space for that in this month's issue. We shall, the Lord willing, further examine the false doctrines of "Seventh-day Adventism" in a later issue. May what we have already written keep the feet of Christians from becoming entrapped in this delusion, and may God graciously deliver anxious souls from falling a prey to that which cannot lead them to the knowledge of the Christ of God, nor bring them into settled peace with Him.