Here's the question that we have tonight.
James actually puts this in.
Subject line, A.P.T.
The church is Seventh-day Adventist.
James says, for what it's worth, I've had different emails on this topic in
the last months, as in it is becoming more of a common question right now.
This question comes from Vicki Howe, or Hugh.
And she says, hello Pastor Tim, I recently decided to join the church I
grew up in.
The church is Seventh-day Adventist church.
From my personal experience, the church teached me a lot about the Gospel.
But I know that the church is considered a cult in Christian society.
I also know sometimes the doctrines set up by the founders of the church,
out of the love of Christ, were sometimes misinterpreted by some members today.
Should I join anyway?
Or should I leave it and find a new church?
So the question is about the Seventh-day Adventist church.
I received a book in the mail.
Maybe you guys did too.
What was it?
Four months ago maybe, I received a book in the mail.
It has every appearance of being Christian of some sort.
And Joshua and I were going somewhere, and so I threw it over to Joshua.
I said, Joshua, start reading that book.
I said, we'll determine whether it's good or bad.
Let's just start reading and we'll compare it to Scripture and see.
Well, that came from the Seventh-day Adventist church.
And they don't put Seventh-day Adventist right on big letters on the front.
They really don't want you to know.
Let me tell you this, Seventh-day Adventist church is definitely trying to
sell themselves as mainstream Christianity.
They want you to believe that.
She said that she knows that the Seventh-day Adventist church is considered
a cult.
Let me tell you something about the cults.
Do I consider it a cult?
Yes, I do.
Now, I don't want to just say that.
I want to prove that to you.
But the thing about cults, they are hungry for souls.
Cults, we read in Scripture about demon doctrine.
Demons are behind false doctrine, false churches, false Christ, false
teachers, false prophets.
Demons are behind it.
They are messengers of Satan.
They come as angels of light.
And they are hungry for souls.
Because Satan is hungry for souls.
Hungry to deceive.
The thing is, we want to be careful.
Be careful about, a lot of times we get these, we hear something.
We hear some Christians say, Oh, Seventh-day Adventists, they are a cult
because they say this and they do this.
Well, be careful.
Be careful that you don't too easily set up a straw man.
And what do I mean by that?
A straw man is when you project somebody else in a light that is kind of true,
but not exactly true.
And what you've done is you've actually built it up in a way that that man is just
easy.
He's easy to argue.
He's easy to refute.
He's easy just to blow away.
And so, you come along and you say, Oh yeah, Seventh-day Adventists,
they're a cult.
Why?
Well, they teach works and they teach that you have to keep the Sabbath.
And they say that the Sabbath is the mark of the beast.
And some of these things are true.
But the thing is, it's not like you're going to go to their writings,
and they're going to say, You're not saved by grace, you're saved by works.
Satan is far more subtle than that.
Typically, what Satan does is he likes to use the exact terminology of the Bible,
only give different meaning to the words.
That is one of his...
Yes, I know, I know.
I know you can always find the cult that's out there that's, you know, off the wall,
fanatical.
But listen, the ones that are most dangerous are typically the ones that say
things in a way that it sounds right.
It sounds almost right.
And it's hard to discern.
And if you're not discerning, you can easily be washed away with it.
And typically, the cults, typically the cults, false religions, are going to tell
you that they believe the Bible.
I know there's the ones that will tell you.
They don't believe the Bible.
I recognize that, but I'm talking about the dangerous ones.
I'm talking about the mainstream cults.
And I would put Catholicism in there as well.
Dangerous and deadly to the soul.
Catholicism, Mormonism, the Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists.
You can keep going down the line.
They want to tell you that they adhere to Scripture.
Now, there's a lot of things we could look at.
There's a lot of things we could say about Seventh-day Adventists.
I don't think you're being faithful unless and until you go and look at what the
founders of a religion actually believe.
What they taught.
I don't think you're being...
And what you want to do is you want to hear...
You want to hear what Catholics believe from Catholics.
Not from somebody that's already got their mind made up that Catholicism is a false
religion.
Because when you've already got your mind made up, like I say, you can build a straw
man.
Basically what you do is you build up Catholicism in a way that is just...
It's very clear that it's erroneous.
But when you actually listen to Catholicism very closely, when you
actually listen to their theologians, they don't say it so clean cut.
They actually use a lot of biblical language and they say it in ways that
sound almost right.
The devil is crafty and he doesn't deceive the multitudes that he does by being very
blatantly a liar.
He mixes his lies with truth.
And so what I want to do is...
You might think, oh, Seventh-day Adventist.
Well, you're going to look at the fact that they keep the Sabbath.
They say you've got to keep the Sabbath.
No, I don't even want to go there.
I know this.
The devil hates two things with a passion above all passions.
What do you think I might be talking about?
He hates the Word of God and he hates the atoning work of Jesus Christ.
And if you want to really find out what anybody's about, go to Catholicism.
Now see, they won't say that they deny Scripture.
Oh, I know.
I know Islam.
I know that there are religions that do.
But I'm talking a lot of the very deceptive false religions that we
encounter.
Do Mormons say that they adhere to the Scriptures?
Yep.
Do the Jehovah's Witnesses claim to adhere to the Scriptures?
Yes, their New World Translation, which they would claim to hold to the
Scriptures.
Do Catholics claim to hold to the Scriptures?
You better believe they do.
Do Seventh-day Adventists believe?
Yeah, you better believe they do.
They say so.
You see, you're not going to go and find a statement from these religions that says,
Oh, we deny Scripture.
Now see, we might paint a picture of them as denying Scripture, and see,
that's easy to knock, Oh, they deny the Scriptures.
They exalt.
But you don't listen so much...
I mean, you want to listen to what they say.
But you want to watch what they do.
You want to look at their practice.
But I want to hit these two things.
What I did was I did some digging, and I came up with what...
You got to know that Ellen White was the prophetess who started the Seventh-day
Adventism.
I mean, she supposedly had repeated words from the Lord as a prophet.
She believed in New Testament prophecy, and believed that she was, in fact,
a New Testament prophet, in accord with Joel's prediction.
She believed that that was the case.
The Seventh-day Adventist church believes that that is the case, and that God gave
her words.
And so I want to quote from her, and I want to quote from their church
positions, their church documents.
Just on two things.
The Scriptures and the atonement.
Just those two things.
Because the devil is going to attack right at that point.
Be certain.
Oh, you can look at lots of different things.
You know, Jehovah's Witnesses, they want to tell you you shouldn't get
blood transfusion.
We can always go and deal with these side issues.
Go to the heart of the matter.
What do they say about the Word of God?
What do they really believe about the Word of God?
What do they believe about the atonement of Jesus Christ?
Now listen to this.
Scripture.
Okay.
Listen carefully.
This comes from a document issued by the Seventh-day Adventist church.
In December 23, 1982.
Listen to it.
Seventh-day Adventist church's understanding of Ellen White's authority.
Exhibit 1.
From the Adventist Review, December 23, 1982.
Also appeared in ministry, February 1983.
The inspiration and authority of the Ellen G.
White writings.
Ten affirmations and ten denials on Ellen White's authority.
Issued by the Biblical Research Institute of the General Conference of Seventh-day
Adventists.
A statement of present understanding.
So as of the early 80's, and there's no indication whatsoever that they've ever
rescinded these views.
This is what they believe.
Now listen.
Just listen to this.
Listen for anything that sounds off.
The Bible.
The supreme standard.
You good so far?
Seventh-day Adventists.
Just listen.
Listen to this.
Seventh-day Adventists fully support the Reformation Principle of Sola Scriptura.
You can let down your guard.
Embrace them.
My brothers in Christ, right?
Isn't that just...
I mean, see, things can sound so good.
But you don't want to put down your guard.
You want to listen.
All the way to the end.
The Bible as its own interpreter and the Bible alone as the basis of all doctrines.
So, let's join that together.
Seventh-day Adventists fully support the Reformation Principle of Sola Scriptura.
The Bible as its own interpreter and the Bible alone as the basis of all doctrines.
Wonderful.
The founders of the church developed fundamental beliefs through study of the
Bible.
They did not receive these doctrines through the visions of Ellen White.
We got it from the Bible, not from Ellen.
Ah, that sounds good.
Her major role during the development of their doctrines was to guide in the
understanding of the Bible.
So now her major role is to guide us in our understanding of the Bible.
So we need a woman prophetess to help guide us in our understanding of the Bible
and to confirm conclusions reached through Bible study.
To confirm conclusions reached through Bible study.
Okay.
Perhaps that's okay.
If somebody really comes alongside and helps me to understand truly what the
Bible says.
But as soon as you introduce somebody that I need to have help me, other than the
Holy Spirit, come to the proper conclusions, you start to wonder whether
I'm studying the Bible and she helps me come to conclusions or whether she comes
with her conclusions and presses them on my Bible study.
But anyway, Article 17 of the same document, The Gift of Prophecy.
This is big because they believe that she was a New Testament prophet.
One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy.
This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the
ministry of Ellen G.
White.
So, Holy Spirit?
Did the Holy Spirit give a New Testament gift of prophecy?
Yes.
Their conclusion, their assumption is Ellen G.
White received this gift.
Now perhaps they test her, because doesn't Scripture say we're supposed to test the
spirits?
We certainly are.
We don't get any testing of the spirits here, necessarily.
Not by them, but in their own statements that they make in this same document that
I haven't told you about yet.
You see if you can discern the spirits.
So, as the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source
of truth.
Which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction.
And if you know your Bibles, that is subtly quoted right out of 1 Corinthians
14.
As to what New Testament prophecy is supposed to do.
Comfort, guidance, instruction, correction is indeed what Paul says it
should do.
But did you hear what they said?
Her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth.
Listen to their affirmations.
They give a list of affirmations, and then a list of denials.
Listen to these things.
1.
We believe that Scripture is the divinely revealed Word of God, and is inspired by
the Holy Spirit.
Go to the side door please.
Did we lose them?
Did you find them?
How you doing?
Okay, now that you...
Listen, discern this.
Here's what the church...
This isn't what one of us thinks, or some guy that wrote about them thinks.
This is what their church says.
Here are their affirmations.
2.
We believe that Scripture is divinely revealed Word of God, and is inspired by
the Holy Spirit.
Okay, that's pretty good.
3.
We believe that the canon of Scripture is composed only of the 66 books of the Old
and New Testaments.
Yeah, our statement of faith says something almost identical to that.
See, you can start to let your guard down.
They're orthodox.
4.
We believe that Scripture is the foundation of faith and the final
authority in all matters of doctrine and practice.
We say something almost identical to that in our statement of faith.
5.
We believe that Scripture is the Word of God in human language.
6.
We believe that the Scripture teaches...
Now watch the subtle shift right here.
7.
We believe that Scripture teaches that the gift of prophecy will be manifest in the
Christian church after New Testament times.
Hey, we got guys today.
Like Mr. Grudem out here that's writing books on New Testament prophecy for today.
Reformed.
And you could make a good, strong, biblical argument based on especially 1
Corinthians.
But listen to this.
Listen to the shift here.
After saying we believe that Scripture teaches that the gift of prophecy will be
manifest in the Christian church after the New Testament times.
We believe that the ministry and writings of Ellen White were a manifestation of the
gift of prophecy.
We believe that Ellen White was, listen to this, was inspired by the Holy
Spirit.
And that her writings include guidance in understanding the teaching of Scripture
and application of these teachings with prophetic urgency to the spiritual and
moral life.
When you say that Ellen White is inspired,
whatever the New Testament prophets did, however they were used, Scripture never
calls them inspired.
It only called the men inspired who wrote Scripture.
Now, listen to this.
We believe that the purposes of the Ellen White writings include guidance in
understanding the teaching of Scripture, application of these teachings with
prophetic urgency.
We believe that the acceptance of the prophetic gift of Ellen White is important
to the nurture and unity of the Seventh-day Adventist church.
We believe that Ellen White's use of literary sources and assistance finds
parallels in some of the writings of the Bible.
That's kind of an odd statement.
It's like, well, what she did in her use of sources and assistance we think can be
backed up in some places in Scripture.
And then there are denials.
Listen to the first one.
We do not believe that the quality or degree of inspiration in the writings of
Ellen White is different from that of the Scriptures.
Whoa.
You see, it started good.
But, here's the problem.
Anybody who ever has said, We highly cherish the Scriptures.
We highly regard the Scriptures.
But anybody who has ever had any writings or any traditions that they have set
alongside the Scripture that they have claimed have had equal authority,
It's a lie.
You look practically, it's never equal authority.
Look at the Catholic Church.
When the Catholic Church's traditions conflict with Scripture, what do they do?
They go with tradition.
And they deny Scripture.
Tradition says, we need idols of Mary.
Oh, we're going to change the Ten Commandments.
Because we want to justify our idolatry.
Well, yeah, we hold to the Scriptures, but we believe it includes the Apocrypha.
Because we believe it has things that help substantiate purgatory.
You see, you don't want to buy this.
The Mormons can come along and tell you that they adhere to Scripture.
But it's their Book of Mormon that they rest their souls on.
The Bible doesn't say anything about the things that they hold to primarily.
The Bible doesn't say anything about the devil being, what, the brother of Jesus?
It doesn't say anything about some world that you are going to inhabit in the
future as you become like God.
The Bible doesn't say anything about this totally fictitious world that they have
dreamt up.
About supposedly Christ coming to this hemisphere at a different time than He
went to the other hemisphere.
And went to be born in Bethlehem and did His ministry in Canaan.
Scripture doesn't say anything about that.
You see, what happens is when people say, well yes, it's Scripture plus.
Be certain it's demonic.
Be certain it's satanic.
And be certain that the devil will have them go with that which is extra-biblical,
not with the Bible itself.
See, it's a deception.
It's a lie.
Because what do they do in here?
Well, eventually, where do they end up?
They end up saying,
Ellen, you heard it for yourself.
We do not believe that the quality or degree of inspiration in the writings of
Ellen White is different from that of Scripture.
Listen to Ellen White herself.
Jesus promised, now listen, listen very carefully.
This is her speaking.
Not the church, but her herself.
Jesus promised His disciples, now again, listen for truth.
Listen for deception.
You tell me when something sounds off here.
Jesus promised His disciples, the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things and bring
all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you.
Did Jesus teach that?
Most definitely.
When He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.
Now see, listen to those two things.
He will bring all things to your remembrance.
He will guide you into all truth.
Now, I would just ask you this.
That was being said to the disciples, to the apostles, right before Jesus left.
Which seems like it was Jesus preparing the way for these guys to be the authors
of New Testament Scripture.
The Spirit would bring them into remembrance.
You and I didn't walk with Christ.
The Spirit doesn't bring us into remembrance, because we don't have that to
remember, because we weren't there.
But what the Spirit did was brought to their mind, to their memory, everything
that He did and everything that He said.
So that they were able to pen these things.
She's applying what Jesus said to those guys, to all of us universally,
but to herself principally.
Listen to this.
And He will show you things to come.
Scripture plainly teaches that these promises, so far from being limited to
apostolic days, extend to the church of Christ in all ages.
You see what she has to do?
She has to take those words given to the apostles and say, they're for all of us
for all time.
In other words, every one of us should expect that if the Spirit of God can deal
with us at any time and in any place in this generation, the Spirit of God can
come and bring us into remembrance and guide us into all truth, just as with
those apostles at first.
Basically, she is opening the door for us to be put in that same place with those
apostles in the beginning.
And what she does then, is she says that this extends to the church of Christ in
all ages.
And how do we know it?
Well, because the Savior assures His followers, I am with you always,
even to the end of the world.
Matthew 28.
Now that is a promise that is given to the church to the end of the world.
But that promise is not given.
That's given in Matthew 28, when Christ is going to ascend up to His Father,
and He's given instruction to the whole church before He leaves.
That's different than John 14, 15, 16, when Jesus is giving His final
words before His crucifixion to His apostles, who He is preparing to have
write Scripture.
Now listen, here is Ellen White again.
She says this.
Notice her presupposition here.
Little heed is given to the Bible.
That's her assumption.
Nobody's paying any attention to the Bible today.
Notice what she says.
Little heed is given to the Bible, and the Lord has given a lesser light,
her, to lead men and women to the greater light.
Don't you like that?
It takes her to lead us to the greater light.
Brethren, I'm telling you, when anybody sets themselves up as the light to lead
you to the light, be careful that light is not darkness.
Remember what Paul said.
They come as angels of light.
Does she identify herself as light?
Oh yeah.
As an angel of light.
As a messenger of light.
The Lord has given a lesser light to lead men.
See, she's putting herself in a position to lead men.
Her assumption, the assumption she wants you to buy into, is, Oh!
She's exalting Scripture.
She calls it the greater light.
So I'm comfortable.
Let down your guard.
Oh no.
Be careful who sets themselves up as the primary authority.
When I say, God has put me in the place to lead you to the light, who really is the
primary light?
Be very careful.
Because I'm suddenly in the place where I'm interpreting Scripture for you.
Because I'm leading you to the light.
I'm telling you what it means.
You see, that's what the Catholic Church does.
You cannot depend on the Spirit of God.
You need somebody to show you.
Ah!
The Bible's neglected.
You see, that's the starting point.
No, no.
We're not neglecting.
Folks in our church are not trying to neglect the Bible.
We're trusting that we can sit down with this Book and the Spirit of God will lead
us into truth.
Isn't that what Scripture says?
Isn't that what 1 Corinthians 2 says?
Now that doesn't mean that we negate teachers.
But I'll tell you, John also says that we don't need anybody to teach us.
In other words, the Spirit of God does things with us that we don't need men
necessarily to intervene to take us to truth.
I know God raises up teachers in the church.
And they can be very helpful to us.
She's the lesser light.
Listen to this.
These are her words again.
The Word of God is sufficient to enlighten the most beclouded mind.
It may be understood by those who have any desire to understand it.
But, notwithstanding all this, some who profess to make the Word of God
their study are found living in direct opposition to its plainest teachings.
Then, to leave men and women without excuse, God gives plain and pointed
testimonies.
Now, by the way, when she speaks about testimonies, she's speaking about her
writings.
Her writings are called the Testimonies of Jesus Christ.
Those testimonies that she wrote are given by God, she says, to bring men and women
back to the Word that they have neglected to follow.
So it takes that.
You see, it's not enough to say, Oh, you're strained.
Return to the Word.
No, you need me to guide you back.
God has raised me up to lead you back.
The Testimonies that she wrote are to bring plain lessons from the Word.
These are her words again.
In the Scriptures, God has set forth practical lessons to govern the life and
conduct of all.
But though He has given minute particulars in regard to our character, conversation,
and conduct, yet in a large measure, His lessons are disregarded.
She loves to emphasize that.
The Bible's disregarded.
The Bible's not read.
And so for all you disregarding people, how cunning.
You go to people, well, I know you're ignoring them.
You've been reading the Bible?
Go up and down the street.
Go to people's doors.
You've been reading the Bible?
No, I neglect it.
Ah, we have a prophetess who's meant to lead us back.
That's why God raised her up.
For people just like us.
In the Scriptures, God has set forth practical lessons to govern the life and
conduct of all.
But though He has given minute particulars in regard to our character, conversation,
and conduct, yet in a large measure, His lessons are disregarded and ignored.
Besides the instruction in His Word, notice that, besides the instruction in
His Word, the Lord has given special testimonies.
Again, that's what her writings are called.
The Testimonies of Jesus Christ.
Besides the Word, the Lord has given special testimonies to His people.
Oh, not as a new revelation, but that He may set before us the plain lessons of His
Word.
Notice how cunning that is.
That little insertion.
No!
Not as any new revelation.
See, that sounds bad.
But then, you know what?
You can say something, and it sounds really good.
And by your very next words, you can deny the very thing that you said.
But because you don't deny it in plain, outright denial, you can feel like,
well, it must not mean the opposite of what just got said.
Because, obviously, you wouldn't contradict yourself that close.
The very next thing that is stated is a direct denial of the thing that was just
said.
Listen to this.
Not as new revelation.
Okay.
As what?
But that God may set before us plain lessons of His Word in her writings,
that errors may be corrected.
Well, oh no, it's not revelation.
But if you don't have this, you're not going to figure out the errors that you
might otherwise fall into because of your inability to properly interpret Scripture.
If you can't hear the exact error of the Catholic Church...
Now, Seventh-day Adventists hate Catholics, and they blame all sorts of
stuff.
But can't you hear the very same thing the Catholic Church said in the dark ages?
Don't read your Bibles.
You need somebody to interpret it.
Otherwise, you're going to fall into error.
The common man cannot interpret.
The common man just disregards Scripture.
The common man is prone to all manner of error.
We're not talking about new revelation.
No.
But, if you want to avoid the error, there's a lesser light to lead you to the
greater light.
That errors may be corrected, that the right way may be pointed out, that every
soul may be without excuse.
Oh, that's why her writings are given.
So that you might be without excuse.
You see, without saying it, it's subtly saying, Oh, if you just have the
Scriptures, nobody understands the Scriptures.
You have an excuse to go wrong.
But, once the lesser light comes, well, now you don't have excuse.
Brethren, these are dangerous words.
But, so subtle and so mixed with, Oh, yeah, we hold to Sola Scriptura.
That is a lie.
Sola Scriptura does not say that we need the writings of Ellen G.
White to figure out the errors we would otherwise fall into in Scripture.
That is an absolute denial.
Now, let me tell you, in the few minutes we have left, the atonement.
Okay, Ellen White, this is subtle.
Ellen White said, and I'm going to read to you from her writings.
This is concerning the atonement.
She said this, Well, if you go back and you look at Old Testament worship,
when the lamb had its neck slit, and the blood was poured out and the
animal died, sin was not atoned for.
Not until the high priest took the blood into the Holy of Holies and threw the
blood on the mercy seat.
So, Jesus shedding His blood at the cross,
that did not put away your sin.
Christ had to enter the heavenly sanctuary, where He is now using His blood
to wash the sanctuary, and He is presently in the process of atoning for us.
And because it wasn't until the high priest laid his hand on the scapegoat and
imparted the sins to the goat, and the goat was sent off, it won't be
until the final day, when our sins are laid on Satan, and he is thrown into
oblivion, basically, that our atonement will be full.
She uses that imagery and would say,
look, Christ's work is identical to that.
And because sin wasn't actually atoned for just when the blood was shed, the priest
yet had to take it to the mercy seat.
Christ had to take the blood into heaven, where He is now working out our atonement,
cleansing the temple.
And it won't be until the last day that sin not gets laid on Him, but sin gets
laid on the devil.
And then the devil, like the scapegoat was sent out into the wilderness, the devil,
they don't believe in eternal hell.
They believe in annihilation.
But he's sent off into some oblivion of annihilation.
If you look at that and you say, well, what's wrong with that?
The author of Hebrews would say, there is a bunch wrong with that.
Listen, Ellen White says this, when Christ, now listen very carefully,
when Christ, the mediator, burst the bands of the tomb and ascended on high to
minister for man, He first entered the holy place, where by virtue of His own
sacrifice, He made an offering.
Now did you get that?
He goes into the holy place, and there He makes an offering.
You say, well, isn't that what the Bible teaches?
Does the Bible teach that He made an offering there?
And listen to what the offering is.
She says He made an offering for the sins of men.
Okay, I mean, sounds biblical.
But you want to get your times down.
Why?
Because Scripture says, that He paid for those sins once.
And it's done.
You say, well, why does it matter?
Because as soon as you say that the atonement is not complete yet,
that Christ is still in heaven, cleansing the temple, further working out
our atonement, when you say that it's not done yet, for one, you're denying the
outright teaching of Scripture that says it is done.
But what you do is you massively open the door for something.
What you do is you open the door for our works.
And I'll show you exactly how that happens.
Listen to what she says.
He made an offering for the sins of men.
And you say, that sounds good.
Listen to what the offering is.
With intercession and pleadings, when He went into the heavenly temple,
here's His offering.
He presented before God the prayers and repentance and faith of His people.
Purified by the incense of His own merits.
And you can say, well, is there anything wrong with that?
Brethren, open your Bibles.
Open your Bibles to Hebrews.
It's so subtle.
And it uses terminology that we're familiar with, but the offering is said to
be prayers and repentance and faith.
You see, if He's in that heavenly temple, and He is still further working out our
atonement, and it's being worked out by the offering of our faith, our repentance,
and our prayers, guess what you just opened the door for?
Our works are playing a part in our atonement.
And it's so subtly thrown in.
Now listen, she's not so subtle as we further go on.
But I just want you to hear the subtleties.
But listen to what Scripture says.
Oh, brethren, Scripture is glorious.
Hebrews 8.
Hebrews.
When you go to Hebrews 8.1, the point in what we are saying is this.
We have such a high priest.
Has the high priest ascended so that He might continue to make atonement for us by
offering repentance and offering faith and offering prayers?
Is that what He does?
Listen, I am not going to argue about whether or not He purifies our prayers,
our faith, and our repentance so that they are acceptable to God.
But be very careful here.
What she is saying is that He is further working out our atonement in the heavenly
sanctuary by offering these things.
Listen to what Hebrews 8 says.
The point in what we are saying is this.
We have such a high priest.
One who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.
A minister in the holy places.
In the true tent.
Did He do a work in the true tabernacle?
You better believe.
For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices.
Thus it is necessary for the priest also to have something to offer.
Did you get that?
Something to offer.
Well, what is this offering?
Look at Hebrews 7.27.
What is this offering?
Is it our prayers?
Is it our faith?
Is it our repentance?
Like Ellen White says?
Look at Hebrews 7.27.
He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily.
Is He still doing something?
Is He still offering sacrifices daily?
Is He still working out our atonement?
No!
He has no need to do any sort of ongoing work.
First for His own sins.
And then for those of the people.
But notice that.
He doesn't need to offer daily sacrifices for the sake of His people.
Since He did this, what?
What?
Once for all when He offered Himself.
Once for all when He offered up Himself on that cross.
Once for all.
Listen.
Ellen White says now Christ is in the heavenly sanctuary.
What is He doing?
I'll tell you what Hebrews teaches.
He sat down.
Why?
After making purification for sin.
What does Ellen White say?
These are her own words.
What does she say?
Christ is in the heavenly sanctuary.
And what is He doing?
That's a tremendous question.
He's making atonement for us.
You know what?
That's using biblical terminology.
But you ought to be able to recognize right away that is blasphemy.
That is saying that His work on the cross was not sufficient.
His work on the cross needed something added to it.
I'm telling you.
The devil will come after the Word of God and he comes after the atonement of Jesus
Christ.
And it can come in ever so subtle terminology.
Biblical sounding terminology.
This is what she says.
He's making atonement for us.
How is He presently making atonement for us?
Cleansing the sanctuary from the sins of the people.
Now did you hear?
See what he does.
What she is saying is, it's the prayers of the people and the faith of the people and
the repentance of the people that has to be offered.
And He's up there and He's scrubbing it.
He's making it clean.
And thereby working out our atonement.
Our atonement takes our prayers, our faith, our repentance.
Yes, He has to add something to it.
But our atonement is being worked out.
You see how she cunningly brought works right into that picture.
She goes on to say, Then we must enter by faith into the sanctuary with Him.
In other words, He's there working out our atonement for us.
We have to enter in with Him.
See how it's making us part and parcel.
We must commence the work in the sanctuary.
We must go to work too.
We must commence the work in the sanctuary of our souls.
We're to cleanse ourselves from all defilement.
Does that sound familiar?
It better, because that's what we've been looking at in 1 Corinthians 7.
We must cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
You see how she subtly brought a Pauline text and made it into our joint effort
with Christ in working out our atonement.
Brethren, I'm telling you, this is a direct attack on the cross and it's
blasphemous.
And it immediately introduces works.
Now listen to this.
Satan will come and tempt you.
But you give way to his temptations.
What then?
Why come and humble your hearts in confession and by faith grasp the arm of
Christ in the heavenly sanctuary.
Trust Him.
That's what she's saying.
Trust Him up there.
Continuing to work out your atonement.
Believe that Christ will take your confession and hold up His hands before
the Father.
Hands that have been bruised and wounded in our behalf.
And He will make an atonement for all who will come with confession.
You see again, our confession.
It's absolutely necessary in order for atonement to take place.
You've got to have that.
You've got to have the confession.
The confession is the root of the Master.
Look Father, look at the wound.
This is how He's working out the atonement.
Not an atonement that's already complete.
Brethren, the author of Hebrews.
Watch what he does.
You saw it there in 727.
He did this once for all when He offered Himself up.
Follow this.
Follow this over to Hebrews 9.12.
He entered once for all into the holy places.
Not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood.
Thus, He secured an eternal redemption.
You see, it's secured.
That eternal covenant has been secured, or the eternal redemption rather,
has been secured by means of His own blood.
It's secured.
Brethren, listen to Ellen White's words.
The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant sinner from the
condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin.
It would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement.
You see, what happened on the cross was not final atonement.
The final atonement is not going to happen until Christ is done cleansing,
and until the last of our sins are laid upon the head of Satan, who is Ellen's
scapegoat.
She says this, The blood of Christ, while it was to release the repentant
sinner from the condemnation of the law, was not to cancel the sin.
It would stand on record in the sanctuary until the final atonement.
So, in the type, the blood of the sin offering removed the sin from the
penitent, but it rested in the sanctuary until the day of atonement.
She says this, She admits, While the sin offering pointed to Christ as a sacrifice,
and the high priest represented Christ as a mediator, the scapegoat typified Satan,
the author of sin, upon whom the sins of the truly penitent will finally be placed.
When the high priest, by virtue of the blood of the sin offering, removed the
sins from the sanctuary, he placed them upon the scapegoat.
When Christ, by virtue of His own blood, removes the sins of His people from the
heavenly sanctuary, which that's what He's doing now, He's up there in the sanctuary,
perhaps she believes it was completed by 1844.
Now, something further is being required to bring all of this to pass before the
final judgment.
It's all very convoluted.
But at the close of Christ's ministration, He will place our sins upon Satan,
who in the execution of the judgment must bear the final penalty.
The scapegoat was sent away into a land not inhabited, never to come again to the
congregation of Israel.
So will Satan be forever banished from the presence of God and His people,
and he will be blotted from existence in the final destruction of sin and sinners.
She says this, The intercession of Christ in man's behalf, in the sanctuary,
above, is as essential to the plan of salvation as was His death upon the cross.
By His death He began the work, which after His resurrection He ascended
to complete in heaven.
We must by faith enter within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered.
There the light from the cross of Calvary is reflected.
There we may gain a clearer insight into the mysteries of redemption.
The salvation of man is accomplished at an infinite expense to heaven.
The sacrifice made is equal to the broadest demands of the broken law of God.
That all sounds good.
Jesus opened the way to the Father's throne.
Through His mediation the sincere desire of all who come to Him in faith may be
presented before God.
And yet she's saying, The shed blood of Christ does not cancel sin.
It's only Jesus ascending and continuing to do that work there.
Only then.
She says, For eighteen centuries this work of ministration continued in the first
apartment of the sanctuary.
The blood of Christ pleaded in behalf of penitent believers, secured their pardon
and acceptance with the Father.
Yet their sins still remained upon the books of record.
Did you hear that?
For eighteen centuries, up till 1844, you know what happened?
She predicted Christ would return.
And when He didn't come back, she invented this convoluted idea that for eighteen
centuries, the work of ministration continued in the first apartment of the
heavenly sanctuary degrading the wonderful, or rather, the blood of Christ
during those eighteen centuries pleaded in behalf of penitent believers, secured
their pardon and acceptance with the Father, yet their sins still remained upon
the books of record.
As in the typical service, there was a work of atonement at the close of the
year.
So, before Christ's work for the redemption of men is completed,
there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin from the sanctuary.
This is her big thing.
This is the service which began when the 2300 days ended.
At that time, as foretold by Daniel the prophet, our high priest entered the Most
Holy to perform the last division of his solemn work to cleanse the sanctuary.
See, that started in 1844, and now it still goes on.
And remember, there's got to be confession on our part, and there's got to be our
prayers, and there's got to be faith, and there's got to be repentance that are
being thrown in the mix to bring about the fulfillment of all of this atoning work.
You go to Hebrews 9.25.
Let's go to 24.
Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the
true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on
our behalf.
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places
every year with blood not his own.
There's no ongoing work.
For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the
world.
For as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself.
How does it get put away?
By the sacrifice of himself.
Brethren, what is the offering that God had Christ offer to him?
What is the offering?
Is it our prayers?
Is it our faith?
Is it our confession?
Is it our repentance?
Is that what we're told here in the book of Hebrews?
What is the offering?
Look at what the offering is.
Hebrews 7.27.
We saw it was not to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins,
but to offer a sacrifice once for all when he offered up himself.
What's the offering?
If you go to Hebrews 9.12, what's the offering?
He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats
and calves, but by means of his own blood.
What's the offering?
It's his own blood.
It's not the blood of goats and calves.
He's secured in eternal redemption.
If the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with ashes
was ever sanctified for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered what?
Himself.
Did he offer our prayers?
Is that how our atonement is accomplished?
By the offering of our confession, our faith, our repentance, our prayers.
It's by the offering of himself.
That's what he says there.
He offered himself without blemish to God.
How much more will that purify our conscience from dead works to serve the
living God?
He's the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the
promised eternal inheritance since the death has occurred that redeems them from
the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
You go back and look in Hebrews 9.25-26 again.
What's offered?
Himself.
It wasn't to offer himself repeatedly.
No, it was to offer himself once.
As the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own.
See, it's blood.
Then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the
world.
For as it is, he appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the
sacrifice of what?
What is the offering?
What is the sacrifice again?
Himself.
That's the offering.
Or you can go further.
Hebrews 9.28 So Christ having been offered once.
What was offered?
My prayers, my faith, my repentance?
No, Christ having been offered.
What was offered to the Father?
Christ offered a body God prepared for Him.
His blood.
Brethren, Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many.
Does the devil bear our sins?
He bore our sins.
He is the scapegoat.
Our sin was laid on Him.
And they've now been cast as far away as the east is from the west.
Not to deal with sin.
Notice this.
He's not further working out this atonement.
You see, Ellen White would have us to believe that He's going to work this
atonement all the way until the last day.
But let me tell you, when He comes, it's not to finish the atonement.
You see what it says there at the end of 28?
Not to deal with sin.
He's done dealing with sin.
He dealt with that once.
But to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him.
Or how about you go to chapter 10.
Look at this.
Verse 5, "...sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have
prepared for Me.
In burnt offerings, sin offerings, you take no pleasure." Then I said,
"...Behold, I have come to do your will, O God." What is that will?
"...And it is written Me of the scroll of the book." When He said, "...And above,
you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings,
and burnt offerings and sin offerings.
Those are offered according to the law." Then He added, "...Behold, I have come to
do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
And by that will, we've been sanctified.
How?
Through an offering.
What?
How have you been sanctified?
This is not talking about progressive sanctification.
This is talking about being set aside once and for good.
A people set aside by Christ.
This is a positional reality.
And how does it happen?
By what sacrifice?
Your prayers?
Your repentance?
Your faith?
That's blasphemous.
What does it say?
Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Once for all.
Not ongoing.
Not some perpetual cleansing.
Or 18th century cleansing in the first part of the sanctuary.
Only to enter the second part in 1844.
Now to sanctify the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, until He comes again.
Needing our repentance and our faith and our confession.
None of that.
There is no ongoing atonement, brethren.
It's once for all.
Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.
Every priest stands daily at His service.
You see, she would have us to believe He's doing His ongoing service.
None of that.
She would have us to believe He's still standing.
Do you recognize that?
You see, she failed to mention that, right?
She wants to take that picture out of the Old Testament.
Well, you tell me this.
When the high priest was in the first part of the temple, and when he was in the
second part of the temple, did he ever sit down?
No.
There was no chair there.
He never sat down.
You know why he never sat down?
Because his work wasn't done.
That's what she wants us to believe.
His work's not done.
But Hebrews 1 puts an end to it.
Hebrews 1 shuts Ellen White's mouth.
He sat down.
After he made purification for sins, it's done.
He finished it.
If he's still in the inner sanctum, in the Holy of Holies, still purifying it,
he doesn't sit down.
Brethren, Hebrews 10.12 10.11 Every priest stands daily at his service, offering
repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
If he's up there doing something that once and for all doesn't take away sins,
you know what Scripture teaches?
Then it can never take away sin.
If it wasn't finished at the cross,
then there's nothing more that he can do that will take it away.
Because if that didn't finish it, if he's still doing more, you see the
argument?
If he's still standing, if he's still doing the work of a high priest,
then it can't take away sins.
And that's actually what she says.
They're still on the books.
I'm telling you, this is damnable.
Look at 10.12 When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins,
He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies
should be made a footstool.
He's not working out our atonement.
That's done.
Why does He sit and wait now?
He sits until He is totally conquered.
For by a single offering, He's perfected for all time those who are being
sanctified.
Ellen says, no, He's up there working and you've got to work with Him.
Better jump in.
And if you don't, you're not going to make it.
Because it depends on you and Him.
And as soon as you say that anything that Christ did depends on anything you do,
you've undone.
That might sound good to say, well, He's got to show His wounds.
Yeah, but if He's working out atonement, it takes your confession.
Run from that like the plague.
Run from it.
Abominate it.
Hate it.
It's bad.
She says, Important truths concerning atonement may be learned from a typical
Old Testament service.
A substitute was accepted in the sinner's stead, but the sin was not canceled by the
blood of the victim.
You see, she goes back and she looks at that and she says, the high priest had to
take the blood and actually had to go into the Holy of Holies and cleanse.
And until that happened, the blood didn't take away any sin.
It's very crafty.
But then what she does, is she leaves us a picture of Christ still doing it and
needing to do it.
And therefore, He's not finished.
And He never sits down.
He has not completed purification for sins.
And it opens up the door for our works to enter in.
Because like she says, it needs our faith, our repentance, our confession,
our prayers.
Just one more here.
As anciently the sins of people were by faith placed upon the sin offering and
through its blood transferred in figure to the earthly sanctuary, so in the new
covenant, the sins of the repentant are by faith placed upon Christ and transferred,
in fact, to the heavenly sanctuary.
See, our sins are transferred there where He still has to make atonement for them
there.
And as the typical cleansing of the earthly was accomplished by the removal of
the sins by which it had been polluted, so the actual cleansing of the heavenly is
to be accomplished by the removal or blotting out of the sins which are there
recorded.
You see what she's saying?
Every time we sin, it gets recorded in heaven.
Every time you and I sin now, it stains the heavenly temple.
Dirt goes there.
And so Christ has to go back and scrub it away.
And then you sin again, and He has to go back and scrub it away.
And His work's not done.
But before this can be accomplished, there must be an examination of the books
of record to determine who through repentance...
Notice how subtle again our works come in.
This can't be done until the books are looked at to determine who through
repentance of sin and faith in Christ are entitled to the benefits of His atonement.
You see, in the end, it's really based on you.
The cleansing of the sanctuary, therefore, involves a work of
investigation, a work of judgment.
This work must be performed prior to the coming of Christ to redeem His people.
This is necessary to redeem you.
For when He comes, His reward is with Him to give to every man according to his
works.
Thus, those who followed in the light of the prophetic word, her word, she is the
prophet, saw that instead of the coming to the earth at the termination of the 2,300
days in 1844, Christ then entered the most holy place of the heavenly sanctuary to
perform the closing work of atonement preparatory to His coming.
Your atonement's not yet complete by Ellen White's estimation and won't be until the
second coming.
I was reading you her words.
This is no straw man.
This is her.
It is salvation by works.
It is a denial of the atonement of Jesus Christ.
And it is her setting herself up as the lesser light to lead you to the greater
light.
Which, that's just a mirage for really saying, you can't know the greater light
except by me, which makes me the authority to interpret it for you, which in the end
makes me the real authority.
Don't fall for that garbage.
That's a mirage.
That's smoke screens.
That's a way of saying something that sounds good, but it's just like the
Catholic Church.
Oh yeah, we hold Scripture high.
Which, after all, you need us to interpret it for you.
So in the end, who is really the authority?
It never ends up being the Word, because where your prophet, or prophetess,
or pope, or church council, or church tradition disagrees with Scripture,
who do they go with?
And if you don't think Ellen White doesn't disagree with Scripture based on the
teaching of Hebrews on the atonement, she is diametrically opposed to it.
But who would she have you believe?
Oh, well you can't interpret those things unless her lesser light helps you to see
through the errors that we all fall into.
We all neglect Scripture.
We're all prone to error.
God had to send her to leave us without excuse.
You see what's subtly being said?
Oh no, well, Ellen, I went to Scripture and I found out He sat down.
I find out our atonement's done.
Once for all.
Well, see, you're really only without excuse if you deny her teaching.
That's what she's saying.
You're not without excuse if you go to Hebrews and come up with a wrong
conclusion.
You're without excuse if she with her extra light comes along and you don't
agree with her.
Then you're without excuse.
Beware.
Satan, he paints his errors with Scriptural words and terminology.
But I went after the two primary things tonight.
When Satan attacks, yea hath God said.
It's been that way from the beginning.
He goes after the Word of God.
And he goes after the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Every false religion on the face of this earth attacks the atonement of Jesus
Christ.
The Person and the work of Christ.
Everyone without exception.
Why?
Because Satan can't leave that alone because it's the heart of the Gospel.
He's not going to go out here and mess with the periphery things because if
people look and say No, this doesn't have anything to do with my faith, with my
prayers, with my confession, with my repentance.
It is Christ alone on that cross.
He paid for it.
It's done.
It is finished.
There's no further work of atonement.
My hope is there.
My faith, my repentance, my confession, my prayers, those are granted by God.
Those are gifts of God.
That's God at work in me.
But my atonement was 100% completed at that cross.
And my faith is there.
That is my hope.
You see, Satan can't leave that alone because if he just goes after blood
transfusions and you believe that, you're going to heaven.
He means to destroy you.
Not just keep you from getting blood transfusions when you get sick.
Somebody come along, no matter who they say, I mean, you want to know whether
somebody's a cult?
Go look at what they truly teach about the Word of God and about the atonement of
Jesus Christ.
Oh, there's other primary places.
But those two are fundamental.
They are the foundations.
You go wrong at either of those, it's damnable and you watch out.
Anybody substitute any other authority for the Word of God, anybody in any way,
shape, or form, attack.
You know John said it.
If you deny Jesus Christ, you're in trouble.
And to deny Him is simply to redefine Him or His work.
That's denying Christ.
Not to say, oh, I don't believe Jesus Christ ever existed.
That's not the only way.
That's not even the primary way that the antichrists were denying Jesus.
They acknowledged Jesus was a real person.
They denied that He was the Christ.
They denied that He was the Son of God.
They denied essential realities about His person.
That's damnable.
So, this young lady, I would say to you, please, run from the church, suppose it,
run from the Seventh-day Adventist church like your life depends on it.
Because it does.
Flee from it like the plague.
Flee from it as you love your soul.
Flee from it.
Father, I pray, may somebody deceived, somebody have their eyes opened.
I pray, Lord, in Christ's name, Amen.