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 | 2011 | FOURTH QUARTER | WEEK 5 | DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6 | DAY 7

BibleStudiesForAdventistsHead

Commentary on "Old Testament Faith"

PHIL HARRIS

 

Day 2: Sunday, October 23, 2011 - The Foolish Galatians

 

Overview

Today’s lesson focuses on the mindless foolishness on those who have been regenerated from their passed life of sin by accepting the finished work of Jesus and have begun their new life as saints of God by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit only to turn to the works of the law as the path to perfection.

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Gal 3:1-3 ESV)

Paul suggests that their minds are being influenced by the demonic.

 

Observations

A person such as myself who has rejected Adventist theology but studies today’s quarterly lesson, does so in wonderment because what is said here contradicts your own theology. How in the world can any Adventist theologian, pastor or teacher accept what is being said here and not realize that you are promoting two totally different doctrines that are in opposition to each other.

First and foremost with regards to the Law, the written Mosaic Law, where in scripture has any sinner been allowed to arbitrarily determine which part of it is now obsolete and no longer needs to be obeyed but other parts just as arbitrarily declared to be eternal because they are moral? When the bible speaks of the Law, the Mosaic Law, the Book of the Law or the Written Law there is only one law in mind. All the books of the Old Testament written by Moses are considered the books of the law. Either all the written law applies to a Christian or none of it.

Paul here in the epistle of Galatians tells us there is only one gospel. Since Adventist teach a health message that is called ‘the right hand of the gospel’ but is not mentioned in the bible by the apostles when they preach the gospel message, are you not teaching a false non-gospel?

When you teach that ‘Sabbath Keeping’ is the sign of who is a true Christian in the End Times you are contradicting the very words of Jesus Christ himself who clearly states that the sign and seal of all true Christians is the regenerative indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Are you not also teaching a false doctrine which is another non-gospel message?

How can you teach that Jesus is Michael the Archangel and basically equal with Satan with an ongoing struggle called ‘The Great Controversy’ when Jesus is declared in scripture to be eternal God equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit? While Satan faces a coming battle his defeat has already been declared certain and complete. There is no watching universe mentioned anywhere in scripture waiting to see if God can vindicate himself. Furthermore, God answers to no one as revealed by God when challenged by Job to give him a reason for his afflictions that he perceived as being unjust.

After God challenges Job in chapters 40 and 41, Job responds:

Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:1-6 ESV)

Clearly, there are none who can challenge God. Therefore there are none anywhere in the universe that can challenge God and expect God to justify his actions. We all, whoever that may be, must kneel before God as Job did and acknowledge to God ‘I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted’. Anyone preaching that God must vindicate himself is teaching heresy.

 

Summary

  1. The wonder of today’s quarterly lesson is how the authors and supporters of what is being taught in this lesson do not see the hypocrisy of their own words by not admitting that they are the very mindless persons Paul is addressing, since they advocate the very things Paul is condemning.
  2. The great lesson from the account of Job’s tribulations is that God does not need to explain himself to anyone and there are none that can expect God to vindicate himself before ‘a watching universe’. This biblical truth undermines one of the foundational explanations for the supposed mythical ‘Great Controversy’ supported only by the writings of Ellen White.
  3. Adventist theology can be summarized as the very non-gospel Paul is attacking. Either the law plays some part in our salvation or it does not. You cannot agree with Paul that our salvation is ground on faith alone yet still maintain that certain parts of the Old Covenant law still are binding upon our lives and destiny. Not even the Jews who still adhere to the Old Covenant teach anything like the Adventist health message and other heresies that are attached to the real gospel message Paul proclaims to us in the New Testament scriptures.

 

GO TO DAY 3

 

Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised October 18, 2011. 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 5

Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 5

Easy Reading Edition Study Guide Wk 5

SSNET Study Guide Week 5

Search the Complete Published Ellen G. White Writings

 

Please Support This Project

ONLINE DONATIONS

white20114
Quarterly20114