Lesson 1: “The Creator Speaks”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! |
The heart of Adventist doctrine is Ellen G. White. Despite all protests about Adventism being about Christ and His return and the Sabbath, in reality Adventism hangs on the influence of Ellen White. Even among progressive, “evangelical” Adventists, Scriptural interpretation cannot deviate from the worldview established by Ellen White’s visions. This new quarter’s Sabbath School lessons, which are written by The White Estate, are dedicated to solidifying Adventists’ belief and faith in Ellen’s inspiration and in her role as a supposedly God-given gift to modern man.
This article examines the first lesson of the fourth quarter’s Sabbath School curriculum. The Bible Study Guide is entitled, The Gift of Prophecy, and this first lesson is “The Creator Speaks”.
Using Hebrews to Hide Heresy
Saturday’s lesson introduction lays the physicalist foundation for Adventism’s defense of Ellen White, but it does so subtly. Ironically, it gives the week’s memory verse before any defense of Ellen White occurs—and this verses is one which former Adventists understand to be an indictment of Ellen White’s authority. Here is Hebrews 1:1,2 from the NKJV as printed in Saturday’s lesson:
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:1, 2, NKJV).
Clearly the author of Hebrews establishes that God revealed His will and purposes to the “fathers”—the patriarchs and ancient Israelites—through prophets. In these “last days,” however, He has “spoken to us by His Son”. The Old Testament need for prophets is over. Today, the gift of prophecy as Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 12–14 and in Romans 12 is a gift of speaking forth messages for God. We have the written canon of Scripture, and we have no need for prophetic messages establishing doctrines or the understanding of the gospel of God’s will. We have God’s word.
Yet as the church was being planted, God used apostles and prophets as the foundation of the church (Ephesians 2:20). During those early days of the church, Paul gave instructions that anyone claiming to have a message from God had to submit their messages to the church’s judgment to determine if the message was valid. Paul cautioned that just because a person claimed to receive a message from God, that claim did not validate the person’s message. Hebrews 1:1,2 clarifies that today, our final message of revelation from God is in the person of the Lord Jesus. Before He came, prophets revealed God’s will and purposes.
Yet if the church needs an encouragement or direction from God, He can provide those as needed by His Spirit’s direction to people He may choose—and the church (the REAL church, not individual congregations and not cults) must validate their messages. In fact, the validation must be accepted by believers from the whole church, not just individuals who meet the prophet. GotQuestions.org gives the following analysis:
The potential prophet should humbly submit his or her message to the leaders of the church for confirmation. Paul’s directive suggests that the gift of prophecy was already beginning to wane as an authoritative gift at the time 1 Corinthians was written.
A preacher or pastor today fulfills a prophetic role to the extent that he proclaims and explains the written Word of God. However, pastors are never called “prophets” in the New Testament. The pastor can confidently say, “Thus saith the Lord,” if he follows it up with chapter and verse. Unfortunately, some pastors assume a prophetic mantle and make pronouncements that are not from God but from their own imaginations.— https://www.gotquestions.org/prophecy-prophesy.html
We have already commented on the clarity of Hebrews 1:1,2, that Jesus is God’s final word to us that we no longer need prophets and partial revelations to direct us. Why, then, does the lesson use this verse as the memory verse to establish Ellen White’s authority? I believe the use of this verse is to deflect from the heretical role she plays within Adventism. In fact, Adventism holds tightly to Ellen White’s role as a prophetic voice because without her, they would never arrive at their central doctrinal pillar: the investigative judgment.
Even more, the White Estate is interested in suppressing Ellen’s own claims to be God’s voice in “these last days”. Look for example, at this quote written in 1906:
All these truths are immortalized in my writings. The Lord never denies His Word. Men may get up scheme after scheme, and the enemy will seek to seduce souls from the truth, but all who believe that the Lord has spoken through Sister White, and has given her a message, will be safe from the many delusions that will come in in these last days.—21 Letters and Manuscripts, Lt. 50, 1906, par. 6
And notice her claims to be God-inspired in this testimony to a certain Brother and Sister G:
There are some in these last days who will cry: “Speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” But this is not my work. God has set me as a reprover of His people; and just so surely as He has laid upon me the heavy burden, He will make those to whom this message is given responsible for the manner in which they treat it. God will not be trifled with, and those who despise His work will receive according to their deeds. I have not chosen this unpleasant labor for myself.—Testimonies for the Church v. 4, p. 231.3
Notice also how Adventism’s Fundamental Belief #18 echoes 2 Timothy 3:16 to describe Ellen’s writings. First, here is 2 Timothy 3:16 as it appears in the New King James Version:
All Scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness—2 Timothy 3:16 NKJV
Now, here is Fundamental Belief #18:
The Scriptures testify that one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy.
This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and we believe it was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G. White. Her writings speak with prophetic authority and provide comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction to the church.
They also make clear that the Bible is the standard by which all teaching and experience must be tested.— https://adventist.org/beliefs#belief-18
Notice that this statement of belief not only echoes the sense of 2 Timothy 3:16 but also claims for Ellen “prophetic authority”—a phrase which endows her with official authority to state God’s will to the people. That is a phrase which binds the consciences of Adventists.
Flawed Foundation
Before we go further into the flawed Adventist foundation presented in these Sabbath School lessons, remember that you can contact us as FormerAdventist@gmail.com. Visit our website ProclamationMagazine.com, and remember that we have another podcast as well—Former Adventist Podcast—with Nikki Stevenson and me. And don’t forget to like and subscribe to our Former Adventist YouTube channel!
In order to lay a foundation for Adventists to accept the ongoing prophetic authority of Ellen White and her physicalist worldview, the lesson reinterprets the story of the Fall. Significantly, the lesson never states that Adam and Eve died spiritually the day they ate the forbidden fruit. Instead, Saturday’s lesson sets the stage this way:
This week we will be reminded that human beings were created for a face-to-face relationship with their Creator.
Sin, however, destroyed this intimate connection long ago. To restore that communication with His beloved creatures, God has provided ways to speak to us. His most recognized form of divine interaction with humankind is carefully chosen spokespersons, known as prophets, who reveal His messages to us. These prophets often have writings in the Bible, but not always.
God’s ultimate plan is to restore His image in us, the image that sin has shattered. This is what the plan of salvation is about: restoration, a restoration that will be complete when God creates “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet. 3:13, NKJV).
Until then, God still talks to us, and He still uses His prophets to do just that.
Yet Scripture never suggests that God had to find ways to speak with humanity after Adam sinned. Adventism teaches that Adam and Eve’s sin resulted in God’s removing humans from the experience of face-to-face communication with God and from physically experiencing the things, the territory, of God, if you will. God was never without a way to communicate with man! Even when Adam and Eve hid, He found them and spoke to them—and they understood Him. Even Cain directly spoke with God when God warned him to resist sin because it desired to have him (Genesis 4:6–15).
In fact, if God were looking for a way to communicate with humanity, directly speaking might have seemed more efficient and plausible than conscripting various humans to speak for Him second-hand. The model of God re-etablishing a way to communicate with man does not describe the biblical account.
The real problem when Adam and Eve sinned was not PHYSICAL. They were not suddenly cut off from being able to see God face-to-face or from being able to live and move within His territory. The REAL issue was that they died the day they ate: exactly as God said they would:
And Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may surely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it; for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”—Genesis 2:16, 17 LSB
God did not speak metaphorically. He literally said they would die the day they ate—and they did. Their human spirits died; the immaterial part of them that could know God DIED. Their spiritual death became evident: they knew shame; they knew they were naked; they hid; they blamed and took no responsibility for their own sin.
Yet Adventism cannot teach Adam and Eve’s literal spiritual death because they deny that humans have immaterial spirits. In fact, it was Jesus who told us that “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth”—John 4:24 LSB
Adam and Eve were created in God’s image—spirit beings like God; spirit beings that could worship God—but their spirits died that day. Their bodies housed their spirits, as Paul explicitly explain in 2 Corinthians 5:1–9, and eventually the consequence of their spiritual death was their physical death as well.
The spiritual death of Adam was his legacy to the entire human race. In fact, in the Genesis account, there is no mention of the spiritual consequence of death—shame, hiding, blaming—when Eve ate but only when Adam ate. It was Adam’s sin that sentenced all humanity to death. Adam is held responsible for sin and death coming to all mankind; Satan, just by the way, is NEVER held responsible for human sin.
The lesson also ignores Paul’s clear words about what happened when Adam sinned and plunged humanity into spiritual death:
And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.—Ephesians 2:1–3 LSB
All this is to say that the problem God faced was not restoring communication with humanity. The REAL problem was that humans were spiritually dead and under His curse of death. Even more, the problem was not God’s problem. He always knew He would provide Himself as the means of redeeming humanity from His own curse which had sentenced them to be born under His curse.
Adam deliberately sinned; He directly opposed God’s command and ate the fruit, knowing (but apparently not fearing or believing) that God’s word meant something as bad as it was. He ate—and before his eyes, he and Eve died spiritually. They lost the life of God that had given them the ability to know and worship God. They had cut themselves off from His Spirit, and nothing could restore them except an intervention from God. The issue was not communication; it was LIFE. Adam and Eve had died, and all humanity in them. Only God could make the dead live again.
Monday’s lesson referred to another of Ellen’s statements without acknowledging her. In her twelfth volume of Letters and Manuscripts, Ms. 145, 1897, par. 3, Ellen wrote:
The garments of innocence, the presence of light which surrounded them, a covering from God, had departed. They supplied the place of the heavenly garments by sowing together fig leaves for aprons.
The Bible never hints that Adam and Eve were physically hidden inside “light”, and that when they sinned the light went out and they suddenly saw they were naked. Monday’s lesson says this:
After they disobeyed God, their eyes were immediately “opened,” and they saw that they were “naked.” God’s “garment” of light and glory (Ps. 104:1, 2), which reflected the divine “image,” was gone. They were no longer covered by that which God had provided for them. No wonder Adam and Eve hid themselves from their Creator (as if it were really possible to hide from God).
Without believing the biblical witness that God’s image in man is His bestowing us with a spiritual identity that is separate from our bodies, Adventists have absolutely no way to describe what happened to Adam and Eve when they sinned. They have to understand their change in physical terms, and Ellen has given them the framework for understanding that God’s “light” ceased to cover them. Yet they knew they were naked because they were no longer alive in God. They were filled with guilt and shame, and their immediate impulse was to hide themselves—not only from God but from each other.
God’s provision of prophets was not His attempt to find a way to communicate with man. It was His chosen way of revealing His purpose to send the Messiah—God the Son, Yahweh Himself—to take human flesh and to atone for human sin.
While the lesson does say that God promised Adam and Eve to send a deliverer to crush the serpent, and it does acknowledge that God’s “most effective way in which God has spoken to us is through Jesus Christ”, and the authors also say that after Jesus’ ascension, “the Holy Spirit has continued to guide us”, yet the overarching message is that God has continually been seeking ways to bring humanity back into communication with Him.
Focus on Ellen
Friday’s lesson reveals that throughout this quarter the reader will learn that God “speaks to human beings in perpetuity, and His words will be manifested in modern ways until Christ returns.” The rest of the day’s study is a recounting of Ellen’s conversion story (which leaves out significant details leaving one wondering exactly what happened). The first paragraph of the Teachers Comments also emphasizes Ellen’s importance:
“Today, God continues communicating through the Scriptures, where the prophets and apostles bear unified witness to Christ. As a contemporary manifestation of this divine communication, Ellen G. White also points to Christ by affirming the biblical witness.”
The fifth point of the Commentary section of the Teachers Comments states, “Ellen G White’s conversion experience prepared her to be a Christ-centered, contemporary manifestation of the prophetic gift.”
Did you notice that? Her “conversion experience” which included unnamed details in connection with Methodist preacher Levi Stockman and which also were connected, according to Friday’s lesson, with understanding “the doctrine of the ‘state of the dead’” and gradually grasping “the idea that there was no forever-burning hell” is what prepared her to be a contemporary manifestation of the prophet gift!
Never does Scripture describe a prophet in terms of his or her “conversion” or understanding. Certainly never does embracing a non-biblical doctrinal position qualify a prophet to deliver God’s word! The biblical prophetic gift was always given directly by God, and the true prophets delivered biblical doctrines and taught people to worship the one true God—besides the fact their prophecies always came true, and their messages agreed with God’s revealed word.
Finally, the fifth Life Application question in the Teachers Comments reveal the Adventist ignorance of our natural spiritual death and our need of being born again and made alive by the resurrection life of Jesus. It asks,
How can we cultivate a deeper personal relationship with God daily, as Adam and Eve once experienced in Eden?
The truth is that we can’t cultivate a deeper personal relationship with God so that we experience what Adam and Eve had in Eden. The Bible never asks us to do recreate what Adam and Eve had—nor even to try! What we ARE commanded to do is to BELIEVE in the Lord Jesus and His completed atonement for our sin. We are asked to recognize our true need: to become spiritually alive. We need a Savior, because we cannot acquire spiritual life. We must trust Jesus alone to be rescued from God’s wrath and the curse into which we are born in Adam. Jesus said,
“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
The Jesus who commanded us to believe, who took our sins in His body on the cross and died our death, suffering God’s wrath in our place, the Jesus who rose from the grave on the third day and shattered our death sentence, the Jesus who is our Creator and who eternally identified with us, His creatures, is the One who gives us His own life, places us in Him when we repent and believe, and who eternally intercedes for us with His blood.
This Jesus is God’s final word to us. He has spoken, and He IS the truth! Believe in the Lord Jesus today. Believe in God’s final word to us, and trust His revelation of love and justice, wrath and mercy which He revealed in His own death, burial, and resurrection.
Admit that you are dead in sin and need to be made alive, and trust Jesus’ finished atonement. You WILL be made alive. You WILL pass from death to life—and you will see that you never need to worry again about whether or not Ellen White might be telling the truth. You will have Jesus, and He is all you need. †
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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