Editorial

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S U M M E R • 2 0 1 3
VOLUME 14, ISSUE 2

D E P A R T M E N T S

Editor's COMMENTS

They're still

I was watching a segment on the history of the Adventist organization last Monday when the reporter on Adventist News Network startled me. She told of Adventist co-founder Joseph Bates conversing with a friend who asked him, “What is the 'good news’?”

Bates responded, “The 'good news’ is that the seventh day is the Lord’s Day.”

“And,” the reporter continued, “that is how he shared the good news about the Sabbath.”

Of course. The Sabbath has been the Adventist good news for 150 years. I pondered then that “good news” isn’t the only Christian term reinterpreted within Adventism. “Hope” has a unique Adventist meaning as well.

In 1962 Wayne Hooper composed a theme song for the General Conference session held that year in San Francisco, California. “We have this hope,” the song began, “hope in the coming of the Lord.” The Adventist version of the second coming, however, includes the preliminary time of trouble during which the righteous will have to stand at the end of the investigative judgment without a mediator. The “hope” that is the Adventist second coming includes the first resurrection when the righteous dead will discover at last that they were safe to save. “This hope” has been the Adventist uncertain wish for 150 years.

Seventh-day Adventism has claimed the terms “good news” (or “gospel”) and “this hope” to define their identity described by their name. Scripture, however, defines these terms differently.

Peter identified the good news as “peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all)” (Acts 10:36), and further defined the gospel as the three-fold fact that Jesus died for our sins according to Scripture, that He was buried, and that He was raised from the dead on the third day according to Scripture (1 Cor. 15:3-4).

Moreover, the Bible defines “hope” not as something that might be good news for us, depending upon whether we were faithful enough to be saved, but as a certainty. It is not a “maybe”. Furthermore, the Bible never describes “hope” as the second coming. Biblical hope is the risen Jesus, the “hope of Israel” (Acts 28:20). Hope is the fact that through faith in Jesus we have peace with God and already stand in His grace, rejoicing “in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1-2). Hope is the mystery of Christ in us (Col. 1:27).

In short, the good news is that God has kept His promises and has sent His Son to die for sin, to be buried, and to rise from death to free us from our natural state of sin and death when we believe in Him. Because of this good news, when we believe, we live in the already-accomplished hope that we have peace with God and eternal life that cannot be taken from us (Jn. 5:24; 10:28-29). We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and Christ lives in us. Our souls are anchored in the presence of the Father by the risen and ascended Lord Jesus whose blood has purchased us from death.

Adventism, on the other hand, has identified itself for 150 years by a substitute gospel of seventh-day sabbatarianism and by a wish—not true hope—that the second coming might be a time of discovering they’re saved and not doomed to burn. The Adventist second coming is an event which members believe they have delayed by their disobedience—a delay which is already a judgment on them for their failure to finish the work.

In this issue we look at the implications of this year’s 150th anniversary of Adventism. Steve Pitcher shows how The Clear Word confirms that Adventism’s claim to sola scriptura is trumped in practice by Ellen White’s prophetic voice. Dale Ratzlaff discusses the nature of truth and challenges us to receive truth no matter the cost. Carolyn Macomber looks at God’s justice and mercy, and Elaina Matthews shares her faith story. Rick Barker examines the sixth Adventist Fundamental Belief, and Chris Lee asks, When does it end?

We pray that the real good news of Jesus and the certain hope of being eternally anchored in Him will be more real than the fear of questioning the 150-year legacy of our shared past. †

Life Assurance Ministries