Lesson 13: “Into Eternity”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! Magazine |
Adventist, do you look forward to the “second coming”, or do you secretly dread it? Do you think you will go to heaven when Jesus returns, or do you doubt that you’ll be saved? How do you “get ready” for Jesus to come? And what will heaven be like? Will it be “Eden restored”, and can you prepare yourself for the next life now? What is your biggest anticipation and your biggest dread about eternity?
Get Ready for the Little Black Cloud
This week’s Sabbath School lesson attempts to put on a brave face as it addresses Jesus’ return. In fact, the second coming is a central doctrine of Seventh-day Adventism; it even identifies the religion as one that is built around the idea that keeping the seventh-day Sabbath is linked with being ready to go to heaven when Jesus comes back.
When Adventism was officially organized in 1863, they were forming themselves around the disappointment that Jesus had not returned in 1844 but instead had gone, they decided, into the Most Holy compartment of heaven instead where He was supposedly performing the investigative judgment and applying His blood to the sins of believers as they remembered to confess them.
The second coming has always been a central tenet of Seventh-day Adventism; the founders insisted that Christianity in general had “forgotten” about the return of Jesus and had ceased to teach it, so they championed the idea. Their focus on keeping the Ten Commandments with special emphasis on the fourth became their unique “gospel” that would prepare believers to be taken to heaven when Jesus finally would finish His investigative judgment and return to collect those who had faithfully obeyed the law and remembered the Sabbath. In fact, their prophetess Ellen White wrote copiously—and even threateningly at times—that obedience to the law and faithful Sabbath-keeping were the marks and conditions of salvation.
These special Adventist beliefs and dynamics are part of every Adventist’s worldview. Yet the lesson does not focus on the relationship between Sabbath-keeping and the Adventist view of the second coming. Perhaps this focus is missing because already Adventists are shaped by the fear and uncertainty of the “end times” and the anticipated Sunday laws. Or perhaps this Sabbath-second-coming connection is not stressed because the organization knows that many of its members lack a strong anticipation of Jesus’ return, and they are also not united among themselves as members of Adventist congregations. Adventists notoriously disagree with each other on specific doctrinal applications, such as the importance of vegetarianism, the marks of true Sabbath-keeping, and even the method and assurance of salvation.
The polarization between Adventist members and even conferences often takes center stage, and the details of being ready for the second coming become eclipsed behind Adventists’ internal differences. Besides, it’s been 163 years since their official organization in 1863 in Michigan; if Jesus has delayed this long, how can they know he’ll be coming back anytime soon?
This lesson attempts to rally the troops around the idea that Jesus is coming back, and they need to become right with God by fixing their relationships with each other.
Sunday’s lesson introduces the perpetual Adventist angst about being ready. While the author is attempting to assuage the readers into hopeful thinking by reminding them to remember how much God has done for them and to pray for Him to shine His face on them, she nevertheless inserts the typical Adventist warning into the study:
And regardless of how long time lasts, our individual lives are always short, no matter how long we live. “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away” (James 4:13, 14, NKJV). We know how true that warning is. Some of you who are reading these words right now might not be alive when the day ends.
And with that reminder of the urgency of needing to get ready, the author moves into Monday’s lesson where she appeals to the Adventist sign that Jesus is coming: the little black cloud:
As the world plummets closer to the end, we know that a small black cloud will one day appear in the eastern sky. As it comes closer and closer, we’ll see that on that cloud sits “One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle” (Rev. 14:14, NKJV). Jesus will be accompanied by thousands upon thousands of angels (Matt. 25:31), and every eye will see Him (Rev. 1:7).
It’s important to know that the Bible NEVER describes Jesus coming out of a little black cloud in the east. The only cloud associated with Jesus’ return is the WHITE cloud on which He sits as He comes:
Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud [was] one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.—Revelation 14:14 LSB
Never is a black cloud associated with the Lord Jesus. It’s important to realize that the dreaded little black cloud in the east that would signal the coming of Jesus was entirely an artifact given to Adventism my Ellen White. That detail did not come from Scripture—and it did not come from God.
The Urgency of Doing Right
Although the author attempts to make believing in Jesus and being saved sound desirable and sweet, the underlying Adventist worldview twists the Bible texts and ideas into subtle but powerful demands. Even in this week’s attempt at describing salvation as a comforting reality, the author cannot avoid the Adventist belief that salvation is up to us and our good choices. For example, look at these words from Thursday’s lesson:
The Holy Spirit wants to draw you to Jesus today. Jesus invites you to come to Him, to abide in Him today, and every day, until He comes. When you respond and come to Him, when your heart is soft and your mind surrendered, you will feel peace because you know that He will raise you up, no matter how unworthy you may feel, on the last day of this earth. Jesus said, “Who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37, NKJV).
We should sense the urgency to work with the Holy Spirit to call others to come into a saving relationship with Jesus.
Notice that the burden of response and experience lies entirely on you, the reader. The Holy Spirit WANTS to draw you, and Jesus INVITES you to come, but you have to decide to let Him have His way with you. Furthermore, if you have a day when your mind doesn’t feel surrendered and your heart is not feeing soft and peaceful, you have to go back to square one and try to come to Him again. Your response to Jesus is your responsibility.
It’s important to understand that salvation is not about “being good” or obeying the law or keeping Sabbath. Our true need is not to become “righteous” in our deeds. Behavior isn’t the issue. Our true need is to be brought from spiritual death to spiritual life—and that means LITERAL spiritual life. Self-control and will power are not the issue, and trying to get our hearts soft and surrendered and peaceful isn’t a work we can do. We don’t DO anything to make our hearts change. God makes them change!
The issue we face is BELIEVING in the Lord Jesus and His finished atonement. Look at these verses where God promises to give His people new hearts and where the Lord Jesus Himself says that the Father draws us, and when we believe we pass from death to life:
“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day. … No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.”—John 6:40, 44 LSB
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, [it is] the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast.—Ephesians 2:8, 9 LSB
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”—John 5:24 LSB
Our salvation is entirely a work of God. We are asked to believe, and although we cannot explain this apparent dichotomy, we know that because the Bible says it, both are true. God draws us. He grants us the faith to believe (Ephesians 2:8, 9). And when we believe, we pass from death to life.
Yet Adventism teaches that each person is capable of deciding whether or not to “accept Jesus”. Importantly, the Bible NEVER tells us to “accept Jesus”. The biblical command always is to BLIEVE. In fact, Abraham set the standard for all who are saved:
Then he believed in Yahweh; and He counted it to him as righteousness.—Genesis 15:6 LSB
We don’t accept Jesus and then strive to stay soft and submitted. No! We BELIEVE God; we believe what He asks is to believe: that Jesus died for our sin, that He was buried, and that He rose on the third day according to Scripture. He propitiated for our sin and fully atoned for all of it on the cross! He is not in heaven applying His blood, continuing the atonement when we remember to confess! When we believe, He gives us a new heart, and He seals us with His own, permanently-indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13, 14).
Vertical Depends on Horizontal?
Once again, the Adventist bottom line is most clearly articulated in the Teachers Comments. The focus of these “helps” for the teachers is on developing some way for Adventist to understand how to have hope in salvation while also feeling urgent to make converts. The author uses Asaph’s Psalm 80 as a basis and proceeds to apply Asaph’s prayer to Adventists.
Importantly, Adventism cannot explicate Scripture accurately because it does not believe the Bible’s clear teaching that God is sovereign, humans are by nature dead and condemned, and salvation is entirely a work of God. Adventism does not believe that faith and belief are not decisions that we make.
Furthermore, the Old Testament writers believed God and embraced all He revealed to them in His word. They did not yet have the New Testament, so they wrote from the position of Israel: they believed God, but the new birth which is the new covenant reality that God gives when people believe in the finished work of the Son was not yet a reality for them.
Adventism does not acknowledge the difference between the Mosaic covenant and the new covenant; it does not acknowledge the reality of spiritual death that is reversed through faith, and they do not acknowledge that the new birth is an entirely new creation when God places a new heart in those who trust Christ and the Holy Spirit in each believer as a permanent seal. This permanent indwelling of the Spirit was not a reality for Israel.
Because Adventism focusses on keeping the law as the central means of knowing God instead of on trusting Christ’s finished work and being born again, Adventists cannot properly apply or explain Scripture. Consequently, as the Teachers Comments go through Psalm 80, they apply Asaph’s prayer to Adventists from their own great controversy worldview.
When the author ends her commentary on the psalm, she says in her conclusion:
Our vertical relationship with God depends on the quality of our horizontal relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. The religion that makes us long for heaven will not succeed if we fail in our ethical duties and in our relationships with our neighbors. At the same time, we must ever bear in mind that apart from God’s grace, we will not be able to love our neighbor, who is made in the image of God.
This conclusion is upside down and backwards. Our relationship with God does NOT depend upon our relationship with our brothers and sisters! On the contrary, our relationships with one another depend upon our relationship with God! When we have trusted the Son, we are literally made new, and our relationships with each other change completely. We learn to love one another for Him. We don’t perfect our relationship with God by deciding to fix our interpersonal relationships!
Yet in the Life Application section of the Teachers Comments, the first activity is as follows:
Activity 1: See the face of God in your brother or sister (read Matt. 25:35–45).
Train yourself to see the best in someone you struggle to get along with or like. Ask God to help you in this endeavor. As soon as you witness something negative in his or her words or behavior, counter it with the memory of something positive about this person. In this way, work to change your enemy into a friend. Here are some other things you can do in this person’s company or for him or her:
- Smile.
- Converse.
- Associate.
- Share something positive.
- Pray for or with this person.
- Bring this person a gift.
- Refrain from speaking badly about him or her. Instead, praise this person without exaggerating.
- Invite him or her to lunch. Find some opinion or taste you share in common and discuss or share it.
- If he or she has done harm to you, forgive.
This list of tips for trying to improve one’s relationships is just a form of self-help. Anyone can decide to do these things and even perhaps improve a difficult relationship superficially. But these good ideas will not change one’s heart. They will not produce compassion and love. In fact, these tips may actually become manipulative.
We cannot improve our relationships unless we first know and believe God. We don’t improve our “vertical” relationship by improving our horizontal ones!
If we do trust God, though, and if we are committed to honoring Him, we can bring our feelings to Him. We can ask Him to show us how to love a difficult person for Him. We are not asked to love difficult people for their sakes or for our own sake; we are asked to love them for God.
We, as God’s own children, stand before the difficult people in our lives submitted to our Lord. We ask Him to love those people through us, even if we aren’t aware of exactly what we need to do. We trust Him to grant us wisdom and insight and willingness to trust Him with the unknown. We ask Him to show us how to demonstrate His love to that person. We give up our right to be understood and trust the Lord Jesus to see and know us, to protect and guard us, and to grant us His peace and love as we interact with a difficult person.
This week’s lesson tries hard to cajole its Adventist readers into better behavior, into getting along and living in peace with one’s fellow church members. The goal of this “getting along” is to help the members to feel hope and commitment to hastening the second coming of Christ.
Adventists intuitively do not look forward to Christ’s return because as a whole, they are not born again. They do not believe Him as He has revealed Himself. Rather they have identified with Adventism, and they trust Adventism for their salvation instead of the Lord Jesus Himself. It’s hard to help someone look forward to seeing Jesus when they don’t actually KNOW the real Jesus! They can’t manipulate that relationship with Jesus, either, by doing good things to others and hoping to change their minds. One’s relationship with Jesus is only possible through trusting Him alone.
There is no hope for helping Adventists look forward to Jesus’ coming as long as they hold to their Adventist doctrines. Jesus will come at the time already determined to gather up all those who have trusted Him alone! His coming will be the day of greatest joy to His church! It is the day which all believers anticipate, and our joy will be in Jesus alone! Because we already know Him, we greatly anticipate being physically with Him for eternity.
Adventist, Jesus’ return is truly the most anticipated day in the history of the earth. Yet unless you know Him and are born again, that day is not a day of joy. Each person on earth will spend eternity, consciously, either with the Lord or in a place where they can never be in relationship with Him.
Those who trust Him alone and give up all that they love—including their Adventist identity—and believe that He has paid for all their sin will be born again. God will give them new hearts, new spirits—and He will place His own Spirit in them as a seal and guarantee of their eternity with Him.
Believe in Jesus. Believe His words, and believe that He tells the truth. Believe HIM—and you will pass from death to life. Your eternity will be secure in Him. †
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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