Lesson 1: “Paul’s Ministry in Corinth” or Adventists Don’t Like Paul
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! Magazine |
Adventist, what is your gut reaction when you think of Paul’s New Testament epistles? Do you think of Paul as a misogynist who wrote for a specific time? Do you find him confusing? Does he put a primitive emphasis on penal substitutionary atonement instead of on God’s grace and kindness? Do you even know that he wrote about the state of the dead and explained that “we” are immaterial spirits that leave our bodies at death and go to the Lord who keeps us and where we can please Him even when we’re outside of our bodies? Do you know that in his two letters to the Corinthians, Paul dismantles Adventism’s core beliefs of soul sleep, the permanence of the Ten Commandments, and the angelic inspiration of Ellen White? Did you know that in 1 Corinthians Paul explains that believers are not under the law but are under the law of Christ?
I’m Colleen Tinker, and this is Former Adventist Fact Check. Before we examine this introductory lesson entitled “Paul’s Ministry in Corinth” for the new third-quarter Sabbath School quarterly for 2026, please remember to Like, Subscribe, and share the Former Adventist YouTube channel and hit the notification bell to be alerted whenever we upload new material. Be sure you subscribe to our weekly Proclamation! email at ProclamationMagazine.com and receive our new articles and links to our podcasts—including our Former Adventist Podcast with Nikki Stevenson and me—as well as links to our videos every Friday in your inbox! And if you wish to support the work of Life Assurance Ministries and our ministry to Former Adventists, use the “Donate” tab on the homepage of Proclamation! magazine.com.
What’s So Important About Paul?
This week’s introduction to the quarter’s lessons on 1 and 2 Corinthians focusses on Paul’s “ministry” to the church at Corinth. The thirteen weeks of this third quarter of 2026 are dedicated to “studying” Paul’s two letters to this church. At best these thirteen weeks can only provide an overview, yet from this first lesson we see how superficially the author treats these books.
Written by Adenilton Tavares de Aguiar, PhD, a professor of Biblical interpretation at the Theological Seminary at the Adventist University Center of Sao Paulo in Brazil, this introduction camps on Paul’s identity as an apostle and establishes the purpose of Paul’s writing these epistles.
The writing in these lessons is superficial and even condescending, and it obscures from the reader the depth of Paul’s calling from God and the theological correction these two letters provide to people who have been steeped in a non-biblical worldview. True converts to Christianity who have been born again when they hear the true gospel of Christ’s finished work of salvation still need to learn to define reality by biblical standards. These two epistles are some of the most comprehensive and powerful sources for exposing and correcting a secular worldview. In fact, these two books are essential for former Adventists to understand how to think rightly of the the nature of humanity, of the Lord Jesus, of their prophetesses’ claims to inspiration, and to the place of the law. Yet these lessons obscure the profound truth contained in these lessons, beginning with the purpose of the Lord Jesus appointing Paul as the apostle to the gentiles.
For example, Sunday’s lesson gives texts to support Paul’s appointment as an apostle, but as the author explains Paul’s calling, he says:
Whether Paul preaches or teaches, Christ is always in evidence. In short, Paul is an apostle of Jesus.
Jesus is not only the center of Paul’s apostleship; He is the center of Paul’s life. Paul’s thoughts and feelings were filled with the presence of Jesus. Evidence of this fact is that he refers to Jesus repeatedly in the opening and in the thanksgiving section of 1 Corinthians (nine times in nine verses). Paul loved Jesus so much that he couldn’t stop thinking and talking about Him. He wanted to share Jesus with those under his care so that their lives would be Christ-centered, too. While he was called to be an apostle, they were called to be faithful followers of Jesus in whatever capacity to which the Lord called them.
First, Paul’s calling was specifically for the purpose of explaining how the gentiles were brought into the benefits of the new covenant in Jesus’ blood. He was sent to the gentiles and also tasked with explaining the mystery God had revealed through Jesus’ finished work: the reality of how the new covenant “worked” and that God was now personally indwelling all who believed in Jesus:
To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the good news of the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for all what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly [places].—Ephesians 3:8–10 LSB
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and I fill up what is lacking of Christ’s afflictions in my flesh, on behalf of His body, which is the church, of which I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God given to me for you, so that I might fully carry out [the preaching of] the word of God, [that is], the mystery which has been hidden from the [past] ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.—Colossians 1:24–27 LSB
The lesson does not emphasize the uniqueness of Paul’s calling. He alone was tasked with being the apostle to the gentiles and with explaining in detail how the church is different from Israel, how Christ’s completed atonement has opened a new reality that transfers believers from the natural state of their spiritual death into the kingdom of the beloved Son where they are brought to spiritual life.
Paul’s detailed explanations of the new covenant and the need to completely let go of the old covenant law are at the heart of his apostolic assignment. He gave us the most complete explanations of the role of the law as a shadow of Christ, and of the new identities we receive as born-again believers when we trust Jesus. It was Paul who taught us that the Holy Spirit seals all who believe by permanently dwelling each believer. In fact, Paul’s teaching of the Holy Spirit as God’s seal exposes Adventism’s traditional central tenet that the Sabbath is the seal of God.
Look at this passage from Ephesians 1:13, 14:
In Him, you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation–having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of [God’s own] possession, to the praise of His glory.—Ephesians 1:13, 14 LSB
Second, the lesson uses Paul’s identity as an apostle as a bridge to exhort the Adventist readers to figure out their own “calling” and to get busy making proselytes to Adventism. In fact, this application is illegitimate for more than one reason.
Paul’s apostleship is God’s provision for Adventists everywhere. He is not their example of good missions; he is not a dedicated evangelist who is supposed to elicit guilt or conviction among the Adventists who are resting on their Adventist identities and resisting the organization’s demands for members to “share the gospel” (meaning Adventism) with their neighbors.
Furthermore, Paul’s life of faithfulness to the Lord Jesus was not merely an example of single-mindedness. Rather, he literally unpacks the Adventist worldview and leads people steeped in the great controversy idea to see reality from a God-centered rather than a human-centered framework. Yet the lesson completely misses what Paul is saying to Adventists.
First, look at some of the application questions and suggestions from this lesson:
Paul was called to be an apostle. What is your calling, and how do you know that it is your calling? If you don’t think you have one, why not go right now and ask Him to show you the work He chose you to do?—Page 6.
What can we learn from Paul’s missionary activity in Athens and Corinth? What makes sharing the gospel so challenging in our cities and communities today? How can we share the gospel with success in these difficult places? What strategies can we learn from Paul’s missionary activity about how to best do that?—Page 7.
Frankly, Paul’s experiences as an apostle are never meant to be examples for ministry plans or the moral influence needed to motivate the lazy or fearful into action. The Teachers Comments even compare Adventism’s need to consider its own “branding and self-identity”, just as business do in the secular world. Further, the Teachers Comments (p. 16) use Paul’s owning his calling as an apostle as the example of keen awareness of branding: “Paul, too, seems to have known the importance of identity.”
Ponder and discuss how our individual, and corporate, identity as Seventh-day Adventist Christians can help us discover, and meet, the needs of our communities.—Page 17 (Teachers Comments)
Importantly, the letters to the Corinthians do not address Adventists with helpful hints for owning their Adventist identity and for meeting the needs of their communities. Paul’s letters are written to BELIEVERS, to people who have believed and trusted in Jesus’ completed atonement for sin and His resurrection from the dead. His letters are not commands for organizations espousing a false gospel and founded on a false prophet. Adventists cannot find in Paul’s epistles any help at all for establishing them in their great controversy worldview and for helping them spread their religion in the community.
Rather, Paul’s letters to the Corinthians call Adventists to let go of their Adventist identity. They are to turn to Christ and let go of their grip on the law. They are to understand that they are sinners who need a Savior, and they are to believe Jesus alone, rejecting all instructions that come to them from angels of light.
What Do These Lessons Teach Adventists?
The lesson makes the point that the Corinthians church “was full of problems” (P. 5). Yet while Thursday’s lesson lists many of Corinth’s problems, the lesson does not mention how Paul exposes and dismantles Adventism’s foundational false doctrines. Here is the list outlined in Thursday’s lesson:
The problems include factionalism, sexual immorality, lawsuits, and prostitution. Paul also received a letter with specific questions (1 Cor. 7:1). His response fills the space from chapter 7 onward. The questions were related to marriage, divorce, celibacy, food sacrificed to idols, conduct in worship, the use of spiritual gifts, and incorrect understanding of the resurrection. The church of Corinth was very problematic and immature. Perhaps your local church has many problems. Yet the church at Corinth was probably worse.
Adventists cannot even address these issues among themselves unless they first deal with the Lord Jesus. They cannot deal with Jesus unless they are willing to face reality: God is sovereign, they are dead in sin, and they need spiritual life.
Let’s look at some texts from 1 and 2 Corinthians that address Adventism’s false worldview:
But if the ministry of death, in letters having been engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, which was being brought to an end, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be even more in glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had been glorious, in this case has no glory because of the glory that surpasses [it]. For if that which was being brought to an end [was] with glory, much more that which remains [is] in glory.—2 Corinthians 3:7–11 LSB
The law—represented by the Ten Commandments—were a ministry of death. They condemned humanity! We have to turn AWAY from the law and look only to Jesus. In HIM their is life, glory, and freedom. The law condemns us! We now have a new covenant and a new Sacrifice that opens a permanent access to God—the blood of Jesus. All who trust Him and believe in His penal substitutionary atonement are made alive and enter new covenant glory.
Now look at this paradigm-shattering passage from 2 Corinthians 5:
For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. … Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord– for we walk by faith, not by sight– we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.—2 Corinthians 5:1, 6–9 LSB
“WE” live IN our bodies. Our personal identities are immaterial, but they are not part of our body. When we die, “we” leave our bodies and go to the Lord. Furthermore, notice verse 9; when we are absent from our bodies—when our immaterial spirits are with the Lord—we make it our ambition to please Him! We cannot please Him in death if we do not exist separate from our bodies in a conscious existence. Only a living being can have an ambition or can please the Lord!
This passage reveals that becoming “obedient” is not the essence of our salvation. “We” need eternal life. We learn from other passages (Ephesians 2:1–10, for example), that we are born spiritually dead and must be made alive by Christ. This miracle saves us and gives us eternal life with the Lord even when our bodies die. When we receive spiritual life through Jesus’ sacrifice for sin, “we” live with Him apart from our bodies after we die while we wait for Him to return for us.
Furthermore, Paul exposed false teachers and prophets who claimed to have new revelation from an angel of light:
But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be corrupted from the simplicity and purity [of devotion] to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you bear [this] beautifully. … For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.—2 Corinthians 11:3–4, 13–15 LSB
Adventist, I am speaking to you as one who was Adventist for 45 years. I was born into Adventism, and I loved being an Adventist. Yet God opened His word to me, and I realized at last that Ellen White’s great controversy paradigm was deception. It was the subtle, powerful, disorienting type of deception that the serpent presented to Eve.
Adventist, you do believe a gospel that is not the one Paul preached. He preached that the blood of Jesus substituted for our death when we believe and trust Him. He has already fully atoned for our sin. When we believe, we pass from death to life.
Yet the Adventist prophetess claimed to receive her dreams and visions from a handsome young man, a brilliant angel who filled her room with light. She claimed to even to have received her information from “the lovely Jesus” himself. Yet these claims are deceptions.
God has given us all we need in His word, and His apostle Paul was specifically sent to inform our gentile minds of the truth of Jesus and of how He fulfilled the prophecies and shadows of the Old Testament.
This quarter’s lessons claim to be helping Adventists learn more about functioning successfully as ADVENTISTS, spreading their Adventism in their communities, avoiding quarrels and sins within their congregations. Yet this approach to the letters to the Corinthians will not help Adventists to be mores successful; it will leave them in greater despair. Paul is not a moral example; his writing is not a mission strategy, a set of instructions to reach corporate success. Rather Paul’s letters are for the purpose of drawing his readers to the true REALITY, to the TRUTH of the man Christ Jesus.
Adventist, you need to let go of our Adventism, to lay down your picture of yourself as an Adventist and to see yourself as a hopeless sinner, dead in sin. You need to see that the Lord Jesus has already completed on the cross everything necessary for your redemption and salvation.
You need to embrace Jesus alone and let go of Ellen White. Ask the Lord to teach you what is real and true and to open His word to you. Ask Him to give you faith to believe, and trust in Jesus’ completed atonement for your sin. His blood is the new and living way for you to approach the Father, and when you trust and believe in Jesus and His death for your sin, His burial, and His resurrection on the third day according to Scripture (1 Corinthians 15:3, 4), you will be made alive, born again with the resurrection life of Jesus in your spirit.
Trust Jesus, believe Him today—and you will be set free from the bondage of Adventist despair and from the never-ending guilt that results from never measuring up to all the moral demands in the Sabbath School lesson. Trust Jesus—and pass today from death to life! †
This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
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