Presenting a Biblical response by concerned former Seventh-day Adventists to the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide.

This website is NOT connected to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The offical Seventh-day Adventist Church website is linked here.

HOME | 2009 | THIRD QUARTER | WEEK 1 | DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7

BibleStudiesForAdventistsHead

Commentary on "Jesus and the Johannine Letters"

COLLEEN TINKER

 

Day 1: Sabbath Afternoon, June 27, 2009

Week one begins with an overview of the three epistles by John. The first paragraph is a series of questions:

"False teachers spreading errors among the saints? Deviant views on the nature of Christ? Power struggles in the church? Theological errors spreading in the pews? Folk needing assurance of salvation? Others needing to know that faith must lead to obedience to the law?

"Sounds like our church, right?"

The lesson ends with the conclusion that there is nothing new under the sun, that John not only presents the problems in the church but points to who God and Jesus are, what they have done for us, and what we must do in return.

 

Problems

This lesson is skewed from its inception by the lack of articulating the foundation of Adventist belief. For example, the last sentence of the first paragraph gives away the underlying driving principle of Adventist soteriology: "faith must lead to obedience to the law."

This summary of John's intent is likely a summary of 1 John 2:3: "B

This interpretation ignores the context of John's epistles and the whole of John's writings. First, in John's books, the Greek word "entole" underlies the word translated as "commandments". When John uses "enotle", a word which means "teachings" or "instructions", he never refers to the law. When John refers to law, he uses the word "nomos" or else the inclusive "torah".

Second, John himself recorded Jesus' giving a new commandment for His disciples: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (John 13:34). Jesus' new commandment is far more difficult than keeping the 10 Commandments. In fact, His new command is impossible for anyone to keep—apart from being made alive by the Holy Spirit and united with God. Loving one another as Christ loved us means willingly giving up everything dear to one, including life itself, for the sake of truth and another's eternal salvation.It is sacrificial love, and that kind of love is not human.

One cannot derive from John's epistles the claim that "faith must lead to obedience to the law." Rather, true faith leads to sacrificial love that is completely self-denying for the sake of Jesus, not for the sake of service. When a person has this kind of sacrificial love, he will honor God and honor the life of all people. He will not merely seek to be "moral" or "fair", but he will offer himself as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) for the sake of the eternal well-being of those God brings into his life.

The entire issue of heresy, error, assurance of salvation, and obedience is understood only in the context of being born again. These subjects cannot be understood or analyzed on the basis of logic or mere literary analysis.

Since the foundation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church was founded on a false prophecy, on Arianism, on soul sleep which denies the immaterial part of man that knows God, on an addition to the gospel of "sacred time" as the mark of true loyalty to God, and on the guidance of a extra-biblical prophet, none of which have been renounced and repented, it is impossible for the Adventist organization to accurately discuss heresy. When one's core beliefs are shaped by heresy, that one's analysis of heresy is unreliable.

 

Summary

 

Copyright 2008–9 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised June 26, 2009. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.

The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.

 

Official Adventist Resources

Standard Edition Study Guide Week 1

Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 1

Easy Reading Edition Study Guide Week 1

Search the Complete Published Ellen G. White Writings

quarterlyHelps32009
quarterly32009