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Commentary on "The Promise of His Return"
Day 4: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 - Our Great Assurance
Overview
Today is an extension of the previous lesson with an explicit emphasis of assurance, written with the liberal Christians in mind, who spiritualize the second coming and see it only as a subjective event taking place in the believer's hearts. The Adventist author doesn't fail to mention that the Adventist understanding of the state of the dead adds a further motivation to believe in a physical, literal return of Christ with a physical resurrection, without which the whole Adventist system of belief would crumble. Also, she mentions the fact that Jesus at his first coming paid a ransom for our souls which is the greatest assurance that He will come to take to Himself those for whom he paid for.
Observations
It's strange that the Adventist author mentions his own understanding of the state of the dead as motivation for belief in the future resurrection. Without much analysis the Adventist state of the dead doctrine has an opposite effect. It makes belief in resurrection impossible. According to the Adventist understanding, the soul is not a non-physical, spiritual entity but is something composite made from a physical body and the energy that animates it, the life-principle. At death both of these elements go into nothingness, and no shred of the individual remains. Practically, there is nothing to be resurrected; the individual remains only in God's memory, in the Creator's being, not in the creation. Inevitably, according to this belief, the resurrection will imply a new creation, since the individual as a creation of God no longer exists.
Also, the future individual is more like a clone. He may be replicated an infinite number of times, since nothing prevents the information retained in God's mind from being replicated in an infinite number of individuals. Perhaps a good illustration is the way in which a computer program may be run on an indefinite number of computers, all replicating the program in different places. If Adventists want to make a good case for resurrection, they need to get rid of the doctrine that prevents it: the state of the dead.
A move in the right direction that needs to be appreciated in this lesson is the mention of Jesus' final work of ransoming people as a guarantee of His coming to get what he paid for. But does it guarantee that the individual who put his trust in Jesus will enjoy the future kingdom? Not according to the Adventist understanding. From their perspective trusting Jesus is just the first step, a necessary condition, but not a sufficient one. Jesus may have paid for the sins, the believer may trust Jesus for this, but it's not enough. Only those who are sanctified enough, those who confessed and won the battle with every sin will be those whom He will finally take into the kingdom. The ransom paid by Jesus doesn't guarantee that He will come to get what he paid for, because, if nobody fulfills the conditions, if nobody will confess and conquer every sin, there is no need for Jesus to come because nobody will qualify to be taken into the kingdom. Rather, this situation, which is not hypothetical, guarantees that He will stay indefinitely away, waiting for the perfect generation to manifest itself before He will come and bring it into the kingdom.
Fortunately the biblical record emphasizes again and again that the believer can have, right now, assurance that all he has to do is already done. Jesus took care of it. The reader is urged to prayerfully consider God's infallible words and notice that in the present, not in the future, there is a full assurance of redemption.
"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" Romans 8:1
"when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." Hebrews 10:12-14
"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him." Col. 2:13-15
"May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." Col. 1:11-14
Copyright 2012 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised March 26, 2012. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Camp Verde, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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