Misrepresenting Adventism by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 17, 1907

Misrepresenting Adventism

By Editor

A MAN in Ohio who says that he was “for over seventeen years a minister in the ranks of the Seventh-day Adventists,” and who knows that “they are in the most part sincere in their convictions,” now offers to “go anywhere for expenses and entertainment” to deliver his lecture “From Adventism to the New Testament Faith,” in order to save as many as possible “from the delusion of this doctrine.” Now while we freely grant the right of any man to change his views and to labor to overthrow the doctrines which he formerly advocated, yet in doing so one ought not to misrepresent the movement with which he was at one time connected.

It is perfectly clear to us that any one who describes his experience in renouncing the teaching of Seventh-day Adventists and returning to the creeds of the other Protestant churches under the title “From Adventism to the New Testament Faith” has utterly failed to understand the real meaning of the advent doctrine, and to appreciate for what this movement stands. It is, of course, plainly implied in this title that Adventism and the New Testament faith are two distinct things, and that to be a Seventh-day Adventist is to reject the New Testament faith; but while it is readily possible that this may represent the lecturer’s experience in Adventism, it is none the less a misrepresentation of genuine Adventism. On the other hand, if by New Testament faith this lecturer means a kind of faith which sets aside the claims of God’s law and makes the work of Christ an excuse for disregarding his Father’s commandments instead of the provision for enabling all believers to keep them, we must conclude that he entertains an altogether unscriptural idea of New Testament faith. In either case he is an unsafe guide to those who are really seeking to know the truth.

The one purpose of this threefold advent message is to bring out a people who shall “keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” This “faith of Jesus” is certainly the New Testament faith—that saving faith through which alone the merits and righteousness of Christ are imputed to us and his life becomes effective in us in the way of obedience. But the faith of Jesus, working in his own experience while here upon earth, did not lead him to refuse obedience to his Father’s law, which was his delight and was written in his heart (Ps. 40:8), neither did it manifest itself in an obedience which was to be used as an excuse for a wilful disobedience to that same law on the part of his followers. On the contrary, the proof of discipleship is revealed in following in his steps. “Hereby we know that we are in him: he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk as he walked.”

Furthermore, the New Testament faith does not differ in its essence from the Old Testament faith, since both of them center in “Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith.” In no other part of the Scriptures is this fact made so clear as in the New Testament itself. One quotation will suffice: “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Know therefore that they that are of faith, the same are sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed. So then they that are of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham. . . . Now to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. . . . And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.” Abraham believed in Christ as the one through whom the promised salvation and the promised inheritance were to be received, and his faith is commended to us for our imitation.

Seventh-day Adventism, when correctly understood, and the New Testament faith, when rightly interpreted, are synonymous, and there is no such experience as changing from genuine Adventism to the real New Testament faith. Any one who claims to have made such a change certainly misrepresents either Adventism or the New Testament faith, and possibly both.