HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2012 / SUMMER / LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

S U M M E R • 2 0 1 2
VOLUME 13, ISSUE 2

 

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D E P A R T M E N T S

LETTERS to the Editor
 

 

Thanks for God's Big Yellow Truck

I just had to tell Dale Ratzlaff that his article on, “What's in God's Big Yellow Truck?" was fantastic. It took my husband and me three days to get through it. We were going back and then back again and again, trying to understand and to be clear in our minds exactly what the Bible was saying. After 50 years in the Adventist church, it takes some doing and some time for the Holy Spirit to get through to us. But Praise God, the Holy Spirit got through to us. I love the way Dale laid it out so plainly; I had been trying to pull it all together, but I just could not do it. This article was wonderful. Thank you, thank you. The rest of the magazine was great also; we always look forward to getting it. I wish it were not so long in between issues. We just started getting your magazine; I think this is the second or third time we have gotten it. Thank you so much again for all your work in putting this magazine out, it is much appreciated!

Loon Lake, WA

 

Thank you for new birth article

Colleen Tinker's last article was such an eye-opener. Thank you for your teachings. More and more, through Proclamation!, I'm learning who Jesus is. I have just turned 79, but it's never too late. I now know to whom I belong. I'm still looking for a church family. God bless you.

Pembroke Pines, FL

 

Taking exception to gospel

With all due respect for Proclamation!, I really must take exception with Ms. Tinker's article that our salvation "hangs entirely" on our sinless Savior's death, burial and resurrection, to the exclusion of any law-keeping on the part of Jesus' actual life. Romans 5:10 was frustratingly and without explanation, dismissed out of hand which says that we are indeed saved by both His life and His death, and as a matter of fact, "how much more...shall we be saved through His life."…

It is of course true, that upon believing in the cross-work of the Redeemer, we are gifted with the presence of the Holy Spirit, and we are on solid ground to be incorrigibly cheerful, per 1 Thessalonians 5:16 bidding us to "rejoice evermore" as He lives His life through us. However, no matter how grand the work of the Spirit in us is, we will always fall short of perfection this side of heaven (Phil. 3:12). Ergo, our right standing before the judicial bar of the Almighty, cannot be based on any imperfect law-keeping on our part—it is true, but it does have everything to do with the sinless, perfect law-keeping on His part. For it is by His obedience, that the many will be appointed righteous (Rom. 5:19). He obeyed, and thereby fulfilled the whole moral law, amounting to a full and sufficient righteousness for all to whom it would be imputed.…

As happy as I am that CT embellishes the death of Christ on her behalf, I feel compelled to ignite a storm of controversy within her soul, suggesting that what may be missing from her theology is that His death is actually the climax of a perfect life of righteousness which is imputed to our account (Rom. 3:21-22, 4:6, 11, 2 Cor. 5:21)…In just the same manner that our sins being imputed to Christ did not make Him (subjectively) a sinner, neither does His righteousness imputed to us make us (subjectively) righteous. It is a gift of righteousness (Rom. 5:17), so that He may be called, "The Lord Our Righteousness" (Jer. 23:6). Hence, salvation is not based on the holiness of the one who believes, but on the holiness of the One in whom the sinner believes, and that, therefore, includes the life He lived, not just His death.

via email

 

Editor's response: I believe the writer above confuses the nature of Christ's righteousness and obedience and also the nature of the righteousness imputed to us when we believe. The above letter makes the point that Christ's righteousness was demonstrated by His perfect obedience to the law and that this perfect obedience amounted "to a full and sufficient righteousness for all to whom it would be imputed." The writer also mistakes the "life" of Jesus by which we are saved, interpreting Romans 5:10 as suggesting it was Jesus' life of perfect law-keeping prior to His death that is the life that saves us.

I challenge the writer to find one text of Scripture to support these interpretations. To be sure, Jesus' life prior to His crucifixion was sinless, yet Scripture does not identify this "sinlessness" as being defined by or tied to law-keeping.

Romans 3:20 states that "by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified," and this declaration applies to Jesus in the flesh as well. Moreover, the last part of this same verse identifies the actual function of the law: "through the law comes the knowledge of sin." In other words, the law does not define righteousness, nor does law-keeping identify righteousness. Rather, the law identifies sin. Jesus' law-keeping was the result of His sinlessness; it was not His law-keeping that qualified Him as our Substitute.

Romans 3:21 further says the righteousness of God has now been manifested "apart from the Law". Moreover, this righteousness of God which is "apart from the Law" was witnessed, or foretold, by the Law and the Prophets. In other words, God's righteousness (which is the righteousness of Jesus, God incarnate) is not defined by the law or law-keeping. Rather, the law as well as the prophets foreshadowed this surpassing righteousness that is above, beyond, and apart from law. Jesus' righteousness has nothing at all to do with law, and His law-keeping does not qualify Him as our Substitute.

Furthermore, the writer above states that Jesus' obedience to the moral law is what is imputed to us as righteousness, citing Romans 5:19. In fact, the context of Romans 5:19 has nothing to do with Jesus' obedience to the law. Verse 18 contrasts Adam's "one transgression" which "resulted in condemnation to all men" with Jesus' "one act of righteousness" which resulted in "justification of life to all men." This one act of righteousness was Jesus' obedience to His Father in dying on the cross. Verse 19 restates the contrast presented in verse 18 in different words, stating, "as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous." Contextually we cannot conclude that the "obedience of the One" is referring to law-keeping. Instead, Paul is emphatically stating that Jesus' obedience to die is how we are made righteous, or justified.

In fact, Paul continues in verse 20 to articulate again the purpose and function of the law: "the Law came in so that the transgression would increase".

The righteousness imputed to us is not righteousness related to law-keeping, neither ours nor Jesus'. Philippians 3:9 states that the righteousness we receive from Christ is a righteousness that is not "derived from the Law" but is, rather, that "which comes from God on the basis of faith". In other words, our imputed righteousness is the intrinsic righteousness of God; it is completely unrelated to the Law.

Romans 8 explains further that we are saved by Christ's resurrection life. When we are alive in Jesus, we are made spiritually alive by the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 8:10-11) and pass at that moment from death to life (Jn. 5:24). Jesus explained in John 6 that He is the bread of Life, that whoever eats and drinks his body and blood has eternal life. That eternal God-life is what we receive when we believe. The righteousness credited to our account is Jesus' Life, the unbroken connection with the Trinity that was lost when Adam and Eve sinned. It is not "kept laws" that God imputes to us; it is the Lord Jesus Himself who hides us in Him. It is the Lord Jesus whom the Father sees when He looks at us, and He credits Jesus' eternal Life to our account.

 

Beautiful!

What a beautiful spring Proclamation!, Richard, and what wonderful articles. You all are great!! Thank you for your dedication to the Lord.

Coeur d'Alene, ID

 

Subversive

I have no interest in your subversive "ministry" and am embarrassed to find your publication in my mailbox—as if I were a part of your group.

Bryant, AL

 

Prayed for

Bless you! I am so glad you are God's kids. It makes me happy we are "relatives"!…You folks are prayed for constantly. These times are so greatly unstable. We are constantly being amazed at the changes that have been made. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" God bless you and keep you in all you do. Love and prayers.

Cumming, GA

 

Shame on you

I am sorry looking at your magazine that you put down Ellen G. White so many times. God did make her a prophet for His church—a messenger. If you don't believe in her, you don't believe in the Bible. Shame on you!

Sacramento, CA

 

Editor's response: From an Adventist perspective, I couldn't agree with the above writer more! Adventists understand the Bible from an EGW hermeneutic, and they believe Ellen White was inspired exactly as were the Bible writers. Roger Coon, past director of The White Estate, wrote a lengthy series of articles entitled "Inspiration/Revelation: What It Is and How It Works" which were printed in The Journal of Adventist Education between October, 1981, and March, 1982. In his final summary he makes this statement: "Ellen White was inspired in the same manner and to the same degree as were the Bible prophets." It is disingenuous for Adventism to claim that Ellen White's work is not regarded as Scripture while simultaneously asserting her inspiration was in the same manner and to the same degree as the Bible writers'. This work of Coon's is accessible online at The White Estate at this address: www.whiteestate.org /issues/rev-insp.html

 

Discredited like you

The only true and genuine official exponent of Seventh-day Adventism is the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, not the disgruntled members who are confused and don't have the ability to put together two coherent thoughts.

In the Spring, 2012 issue, you have an article by Cherie Skrivan. The poor woman must be so traumatized by her dysfunctional family and upbringing that she is totally confused. In her article "My Two Worlds Collided", if every time she used the word "Sabbath" it were replaced with "murder", "adultery", or with any of the other nine commandments, if you have an average IQ, you'd discover how little sense her article makes and how silly she looks.

I have done that with a couple of editorials by Colleen. I had great fun doing it; it's too bad that Colleen's hatred and Sabbath-phobic attitude has blinded her understanding.

About Carolyn Macomber: if what she writes reflects, even partially, her experience as an Adventist, I pity her as she is the most ignorant of all Seventh-day Adventists I have ever encountered. Expressions like "I had been robbed of the most important kingpin of my faith… Adventism had taught me to minimize the resurrection," just to mention one, show that she never received any Bible studies, read any of our books, or even read her Sabbath School Quarterly!

And you believe her and publish that rubbish. If any serious publication did that, it would instantly be discredited, well…just like you are!

Sanger, CA

 

Ministry behind bars

I use your material in ministry here with those who seek righteousness through Christ vs. the law. Thank you!

Blythe, CA

 

Personal encouragement

I thank you so much for sending the back issues of Proclamation! What a wonderful surprise! I am learning a lot about the problems that legalism causes and finding so much personal encouragement reading the testimonies of transformed lives through Jesus' blood and resurrection. Thank you for all the work you do for my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Yucaipa, CA

 

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