Is Steps to Christ Authentic?
I have been reading your literature and watching your videos. Is the book Steps to Christ an authentic book? Would you recommend it to a new believer?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: No, Steps to Christ is not a Christian book. It was primarily written by Ellen White’s ghost writer Marion Davis who wrote under her name. The book stresses obedience to the law and demands that the reader live according to Christian principles and practices. Even the name gives away the non-Christian nature of the book: there ARE NO steps to Christ! The Father draws us and gives us faith to believe; He reveals Jesus to us, and when we hear the gospel of our salvation and believe, we are sealed with the indwelling Holy Spirit of promise (Eph 1:13, 14) and pass from death to life (Jn 5:24).
God finds us and brings us to life. He does not ask us to take spiritual steps to draw closer to Him. We learn to live by His word as the indwelling Holy Spirit teaches us to apply it to our lives, but the new covenant reality is that we are made completely new when we believe. We literally pass from spiritual death to spiritual life. Our focus and learning occur as we submit to His word and immerse ourselves in it. The Author of Scripture now teaches us to live by the Spirit instead of by the law and by external disciplinary practices designed to increase our spirituality.
When the Bible explains that good trees bear good fruit, the fact is that good trees represent those who trust Jesus and are born again, indwelled by the Holy Spirit. We DO bear good fruit because God literally changes us, and we see reality from His perspective instead of from ours. We change because He gives us new power, new purpose, new impulses, new desires, and new ability to discern good from evil.
When our older son was born, my husband Richard decided he had to get busy and live right. He dug out Steps to Christ and read it; when he finished he was utterly discouraged. He put the book away and realized he would NEVER be able to be righteous as that book described righteousness. He felt hopeless. When the Lord finally revealed the gospel to him, he was completely changed. He realized he didn’t have to do anything to recommend himself to God. He had to feed on God’s word and learn to see reality as God reveals it; He, not we, are the focus of the Bible!
Ellen White is a false prophet, and we should never immerse ourselves in her writings. God has given us His word, and in it is all we need for life and godliness. Ellen White has a different worldview from Christianity, and her writings teach her great controversy worldview.
Here is an article that may help you understand the Adventist worldview more clearly. Please feel free to email anytime.
Testing Adventism
I’m actually not a former Adventist. I became Adventist after my own conviction about the Sabbath. I have some issues with the SDA Church including EGW, and with some doctrines like 1844, Sunday law, and such.
So I’m interested in doing some research and testing the church on what you’d possibly call salvational issues.
I’m going to look around. I’m listening to your podcasts and things, but if you had one thing that you could share, possibly the most compelling, send it over. I’d like to check it out.
Thanks.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Thank you for writing. The reality of Adventism is largely hidden under the surface. Its worldview is different from a Christian worldview because it denies that humans have a spiritual component separate from the physical body. This belief is taught to Adventists from the cradle onward, and it changes what they believe about the nature of Christ, the nature of sin, and the nature of salvation. Because they use words that Christians use, people who are not raised in the “system” do not at first realize what Adventists mean by the words they use.
Adventists have two great needs: the need to know the true source of authority, and their need to know the true gospel.
Because these needs are intertwined with each other, it’s hard to explain them with a few words. I will link three resources as a place to start. The first deals with the “Adventist gospel” which includes Sabbath-keeping. Unless one understands the biblical covenants, the issue of Sabbath is confusing. Sabbath belongs to the Mosaic covenant and was not established at creation. There were no commands to keep a day until Israel was in the wilderness. There are no commands to keep any day in the new covenant/Testament. The first resource I will send is a link to Dale Ratzlaff’s book Sabbath in Christ which systematically and clearly deals with every Adventist proof-text and argument for keeping the seventh-day Sabbath: https://lifeassuranceministries.org/sabbath-in-christ-2/.
The second resource is Ratzlaff’s book Cultic Doctrine of Seventh-day Adventists in which he outlines, sequentially and with receipts, the development of the investigative judgment/1844 doctrine and shows how EGW had progressive and contradictory visions and how the founders scrambled to change their minds and teachings as time went on: https://lifeassuranceministries.org/cultic-doctrine-of-seventh-day-adventists/
The third resource is an article that outlines the contrast between the Adventist worldview and a biblical worldview. This article is a great place to start because it sets out the basic differences in the ways Adventists think about biblical topics: https://lifeassuranceministries.org/2022/08/18/what-is-seventh-day-adventism/
I hope these help. Please feel free to email anytime! †
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