"God's Character & The Final Generation: New Books, Old Error" by Pastor Larry Kirkpatrick

institutional seventh-day Adventist presses haven't addressed but suddenly in 2018 last year several new books came off the press and so we had God's character and the last generation with I think 12 seminary professors and then we have George Knight in time events in the last generation the explosive 1950s and we have salvation I think this was 19 offers from the seminary and soteriology the study of salvation and this one came out last year and then in all humility saying no to last generation theology theology was another volume that came out suddenly after 20 years of basically nothing suddenly four books at one time total totally a coincidence like I guess trees were manufactured into paper so that these books would exist and so the time was only going to give us a brief opportunity here to share from really from one of the books and so we're going to spend most of our time we do have here addressing this book God's character in the last generation which is a pretty familiar title after yesterday yesterday evening until now now along with George Knight's book this this book have been these two books have been distributed all across the North American division they've been given to many of the pastors in many of the conference's I haven't been able to confirm that has been given to every single of the 59 conferences in North America but it's gone too many of our workers and so we have a little widespread stirring that's come from this so now the issues set forth in God's character in the last generation they fall into two categories this we would call disagreements and misrepresentations now before we consider that book though I think we need to double check something why are we wearing a pair of glasses that we don't even know we have on so our pastors and church school teachers go through denominational schools they're assigned what's called required reading about Adventist history and for decades the church's understanding of Adventist history has been especially shaped by the writings of George Knight and Woodrow Witten in fact I have a couple of their many volumes here this is from 1888 - apostasy this is George Knight's book about the the life experience of a T Jones and then we have by the way I'm not recommending all these books just you'll know the difference this book is woodrow Witten and the title of this one this is another biography this is the from physician of good news to agent of division this is the biography of EJ Wagner and so those are a couple of books just samples out of the many books that would your wedding and also George Knight have written now the years from 1957 to the publication of questions on doctrine from that time to the 1980 dismissal of Desmond Ford set up a changed Theological landscape characteristic Adventist reviews about Jesus obedience overcoming the close of probation and the sealing didn't fit well in this new atmosphere and it was within this milieu that what I would call the night Witten narrative the night Whidden narrative arose the night Whidden narrative provided an updated salvation understanding that was more evangelical II defined teachings by key figures including as you saw 80 Jonesy Jay Wagner ml Andreasen and even Ellen White those figures their teachings and writings became the subject of updated shall we say explanations long years of book releases articles classroom representations and speaking events made the the kwn the Nightwind narrative they made that the institutional self understanding of the church now George Knight's book in time events in the last generation you know my wife was right I brought too many books George Knight's book here introduces to lists and what I want to do is just go down these lists that George Knight is provided on page 79 of this book he has a list and he lists certain names and sort of a sequence and so those names are in order Herbert Douglas Colin Standish Russell Standish Dennis Priebe and then and then my name Larry Kirkpatrick so that's one list of persons that are called the the the Andreus and supporters then George Knight has another list in his book on pages 82 to 86 he goes through when he calls these people the reactor's these are people who've popularized persons who popularized a different view theologically in his list of the reactor's you see there on the screen according again to a George Nights list edward Heppenstall desmond ford Morris venden Hans Lee kala rondell George Knight and Woodrow Witten so I didn't really name these people George Knight did now Knight sees the inclusion of Desmond Ford and in actually a positive a very positive way he actually says this in the book that I was just showing you what so here's the quotation from page 84 one area where Ford and Heppenstall found common ground was soteriology that's the doctrine of salvation here Ford has often been misunderstood according to Knight but he did the denomination of service by highlighting the fact that righteousness by faith in the New Testament is restricted to what Paul calls justification by faith and did not include sanctification that's what George and I tells us now I want you to understand the significance of these things that we're hearing from these books night places here in ford's salvation theology in contrast with the churches previously established theology we shouldn't miss that night the night wit and narrative writers have and with some success they have recast Jones and Waggoner animal Andreasen as villains more or less and so that's that's kind of a challenge for us now it's true these people Jones and Waggoner did depart in many respects from that they failed after they were treated poorly and they still have their own you know their own responsibility for their failure but still what we really want in history is an honest history we don't want a spin history we want to be really careful with our facts in what we say about those facts so so where are my there they are more books so what I have here is I've created a little downloadable resource that anybody who wants to can download and we didn't this is not one of the handouts we have a handout we'll get to in a couple of minutes but there is a resource here and this is my website great controversy org began in 1997 and has been up and down a couple times but I has been running for at least a year now since it had was down last but great controversy org is my website and all these resources will be available there for you if you see the pain on the left side and go down to there's an email list you can subscribe to but if you go down to where it says resources if you're watching this online or you want to get this resource I'm telling you about you can go there where it says resources and at the top the very top most one is the one we put I put up the other day which is for this seminar this symposium and there's something called the some initial some initial it's called the night wedding remember what I called it here some initial resource is correcting the night wedding narrative and it's just to pay a list of four pages of footnotes from these books this is Rhonda field return of the latter rain Volume one and this is a really wonderful history book that helps us understand it gives us another slant on history and there are a lot of footnotes here this goes through the period working way up into 1888 and then this is another one by Rhonda field and this is called wounded in the house of his friends and the resource that I'm mentioning to you is just a list of footnotes from their books that you can look at yourself where they document some misrepresentations or representations that are made by night and Whidden and some others that are shall we say problematic sometimes and sometimes worse than problematic now Ron Duffield doesn't know I was going to mention these so he has total deniability but those I'd recommend those books to anybody who has an interest in following this up and checking for themselves so not saying that everything that night and Whidden have said is prized wrong I'm not saying that at all I'm only saying that when it comes to certain areas of Adventist history there's a certain slant or there's a certain viewpoint that's been expressed and it has become the established viewpoint really among among North American Adventists and there are some some really substantial problems in several places with that so you can look at that and study it for yourself if you'd like well let's go on to our our books our wonderful book here so by the way a lot of the authors in this book I know them and know of anything against them these are a lot of good people not when I say the things I'm going to say here passing on into our actual looking at the book a little bit and none of it I hope comes across as mean-spirited in it in any way I think these are good people like them all to be my neighbors both here on earth and in the new king the new earth but there are some times when we have to look at the same material and disagree because these are matters that are really important I mean it comes down to what is our identity as a people so let's talk a little bit of in then about the about that about that book I want to first of all give you three general observations about God's character in the last generation of the book so first of all this is a book of opinions and so what you're going to see here and we won't read them all but you're gonna see they're in their slides that there's a lot of opinions represented in this book here's just a few of them it seems then that humans would not be able to perfectly overcome it tends to place the emphasis on human works and suggests this it's it appears this way it it suggests this this could be it makes it seem it could have been and the pager numbers were all there if you want to look at them it tends to imply page 37 such an argument insinuates this page 114 all the way through the book this book God's character in the last generation is very largely a book of opinions and that's one thing to understand as we begin to look at the book secondly I'd like to point out that the book is filled with mischaracterizations synthetic blob statements and straw men for example God's character and the last generation presents the following and I call it a blob statement this is this is a few slides we'll look at here that gives you kind of a summary viewpoint of supposedly what last generation theology is so let's see what this blob statement says some Adventists affirm what has come to be known as last generation theology lgt it goes on to say we might minimally define it as the view that there must be a last generation of humans who become absolutely sinless and perfect in order to provide the grounds to vindicate God's character and win the great controversy in this regard generally speaking lgt affirms that an additional phase of atonement is necessary beyond the Ministry of Christ in order to finally defeat Satan specifically there must be a final entirely sinless generation of humans that by completely overcoming sin provides the grounds for the vindication of God's character playing a crucial role in deciding the in the gray controversy in this view then Satan was not defeated at the cross some group of humans must become perfectly sinless in order for Satan to be defeated that's page 17 of that book almost every part of the statement is a misrepresentation no one on the planet holds such a belief as that statement word for word the way it was given it's a false representation and you know you put one up and you can take it down very easily and there's no reason for there to be a false statement like that because those of us who have addressed this kind of a theme have done it I think with usually with some care another example of an unfair representation in God's character in the last generation is is is this statement this is page 104 and 105 so here's what here's what the Blue Book says God's character and last generation the sacrifice of Jesus is said to be of sufficient value to save me but it is not said to be of complete sufficiency and merit in subtle ways lgt affirms the insufficiency of christ's sacrifice and the added value of one's obedience to the experience of salvation such obedience is unmistakably meritorious well when I read that I was interested because he was quoting from my book or at least he was talking about my book cleansing clothes last generation theology and fourteen points so if you'll indulge me just one moment I'm gonna read what I actually wrote page 65 and 66 from my book so here's what I actually said we cannot possibly keep the commandments of God without the regenerating grace of Christ do we realize how ready he is to empower to recreate he is seeking us desiring to make us conduits for faith he does not save us by law neither will he save us in disobedience to law neither faith nor obedience saves but neither does salvation come without the obedience of faith without the faith that obeys authentic Christianity is impossible and then down the page just a bit further I said this all the merit toward my salvation comes through Jesus his merit is valuable enough to save but that is only the objective portion of a two-part plan my obedience is also necessary now listen in itself it is insufficient to save me it is a non meritorious condition a necessary but insufficient condition so we're not saved by our obedience and it's not meritorious and in my book I said it's not meritorious but in the other book they said I said it was meritorious so yes you can decide what what do you think so anyway that's another example from that book now if you go down the third item here just these are just three general points about the book God's character in the last generation most of God's character in the last generation doesn't even refer to authentic statements by the named contemporary lgt authors in attacks so if you look at the book there's 936 footnotes so I went through the footnotes 9 of the 14 chapters do not refer in any place to these at these lgt source documents that I spoke about 9 of the chapters there's don't even refer to it and then in the in the chapter notes half of the chapter notes cite George night or woodrow Witten more often than they cite the lgt source documents half the footnotes or rather half the chapters so those are three general observations it's a book of opinions it has Blob statements that sort of characterize us as teaching thus and so when we don't and then finally it doesn't really use the main source documents the way it probably should so those are three general things now let's talk about some specifics in here I think there's been a handout that you've all received it's just a little helper handout I've taken the mini charges here and condensed them really into six there's more but anyway we can look at these six as we look at this so if you look at the handout and we'll we'll have a link here yeah you have the handout on the screen and those of you that might be watching this again at a future time or if somebody who's watching it online you'll see a link in a minute from my website where you can get the the handout you can download the PDF if you wish effect we can put that up right now so I'd like to go through this and just tell you quickly about this this little handout there's four columns the first column categorizes the charge the second column in bold gives the God's character and last generation it gives their basic complaint what they're saying about what our teaching is the third column presents short quotations and references from the book and it also shows interestingly similar claims from books by George Knight because all the things pretty much that you'll find in this book have virtually all been said by him many many times over for the last 30 or 40 years just kind of repeated we're kind of repeating those things over and over so and then in the last column the fourth column you'll see a little bit more accurate representation maybe of what we do believe with with references so anyway let's look now at each of these charges so I'd like to go to the first of the six charges I want to address here and I want to look at the question about it being dependent on humans so here's what here's the chart that lgt makes the charges that lgt makes god dependent on humans so years ago in a search for identity - one of George Knights book he wrote this Andreus ins final generation theology he said makes God dependent upon human beings namely the Adventist Church for his justification and final triumph that's page 152 and God's character in the last generation the blue and white book also as it does with most most of Knights other charges it repeats this claim here's what it says in page 17 of the book the 2018 book lgt makes God's victory in the great controversy dependent upon the fidelity of mere creatures thus requiring the view the divine revelation and action are insufficient to win the great controversy but must be supple by human action unquote now this book wants readers to think that the biblical teachings like a fallen nature Jesus victory over sin and justification that includes regeneration in action that this book wants us to think that those those things are are problematic that they're human centered and in the end God's character in the last generation recycles nights disagreement so you find it there just again in case you missed it the first 18 times he talked about it so what's the question though what is this question is can an infinite being an infinite being can an infinite being even be dependent on humans and I think that's a pretty good question to raise that is an interesting question God is faithful to humans because of his self obligation we heard it today in Titus 1 verse 2 in Sabbath School God cannot lie we see it in 2nd Timothy 2 verse 13 if we are faithless as the Bible if we are faithless he remains faithful he cannot deny himself we see it in James chapter 1 he and he's the father of lights and there's no shadow of Darkness or turning in him at all God is true always and so he cannot lie God has authority to limit his own course of action it's it is an expression of His divine sovereignty he is omnipotent but there are things that he could do which he wills not to do he has freedom to obligate himself to man and across the history of his people he very frequently does have you read Genesis lately did did Abraham have something that God owed him God went out of his way to obligate himself to Abraham in God throughout the Bible comes to two people and he makes an obligation he's the one that came up with the Covenant he's the one that comes with the gospel opportunity Jesus died on the cross for us we didn't die on the cross for him God is making a way and he is inviting us to participate and so God shows voluntarily to do this for us he is holy he is selfless and therefore he is unalterably opposed to sin and self-serving he sets the conditions within which he operates when after Jesus death on Calvary Satan brought forth new charges and that's desire of Ages 7 62 and 7 63 when he brought those charges God chose voluntarily to address them here's some of those charges by his life and death Christ Christ said that God's justice does not destroy his mercy but that sin could be forgiven and that the law is righteous and can be perfectly obeyed Satan's charges were refuted God had given man unmistakable evidence of his love but you know it goes on to say that now this was to be now new deceptions were brought forward and there's a whole list of new charges that Satan introduced into the mix and so God shows voluntarily that he would address these new charges he didn't have to he didn't have to for you we didn't have to for me he certainly was not obligated to Satan to do it but God in His sovereignty decided that he would address these charges and so that is the way that God is he could have left satan's claims unanswered but he chose to engage in a demonstration of the validity and fairness of his law and of the availability and efficacy of his power to enable believers to overcome didn't have to but said I'm going to do it and in his wisdom I'm sure he knows that it's a good thing to do long ago God exercised His divine sovereignty when he asked Satan have you considered my servant job that there's none like him on the earth a blameless and upright man one who fears God and shuns evil he exercises his divine sovereignty again at the end of time when he declares here or this is the patience of the saints here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus these are Bible clear Bible cases where God is making a demonstration job was a demonstration of God's grace at work in one man it was God's sovereign idea Jesus was a demonstration of God's grace and a man who was God it was God's sovereign idea the final generation will be a demonstration of God's grace at work in an entire church family of believers and you know what it's God's sovereign idea God chooses to impose upon himself a condition to be met before Jesus return he has chosen to demonstrate that his law can be kept by a group who live fully for Jesus and the result is found in great controversy page 665 as the redeemed have beheld the power and malignity of Satan they have seen as never before that no power but that of Christ could have made them conquerors in all that shining throng there are none to ascribe salvation to themselves as if they had prevailed by their own power and goodness nothing is said of what they have done or suffered but the burden of every song the key note of every anthem is salvation to our God and unto the lamb that is the feeling that they will have on that beautiful day when they see the face of Jesus friends God provides the atonement non divine humans do not provide the atonement the movement for human salvation doesn't come from man it comes from God in signs of the times April 22 1903 Ellen White wrote this all that we have was entrusted to us in order to fulfill his mediatorial plan so notice his mediatorial plan not ours his God has a mediatorial plan now listen we were brought into existence because we were needed Wow how sad to thought that if we stand on the wrong side in the ranks of the enemy we are lost to the design of our creation you and I we were brought into the again to existence because according to the inspired writing because we were needed the infinite God who doesn't need anything brought us into existence to show forth his power in His mercy and his selflessness and it was his design that you would exist and that through your life his goodness would would pass into the universe expressed and so this idea that well last generation theology is very human centered it's a bad thing I guess we can think about that some more but I would take into account the fact that the fact that we were brought into existence because we were needed and maybe Satan wanted to destroy every possible mirror that could give glory to God and reflect his beauty the beauty and holiness back into the universe God imposes upon himself the task of securing a universe in which beings are given free choice it's not our business to tell God how to win the war just as it was not job's business to tell God how to win the war our business is to do what our master sends us to do and let him win the war let's move to another issue and in the book it's called can the Fallen human condition be transcended but pardon me for being a little bit old-fashioned I'm gonna throw away that theological terminology and I'm gonna say can man experience victory over sin okay well address it that way so the second issue is can man experience victory over sin so the issue under this heading is really very simple no matter how you speak of it we're talking about the question of original sin and this has many headings and many many phrases have been sprung upon the church to try to explain this original corruption the the the Fallen human condition and so on and so on but we're talking about really effectively in original sin God's character in the last generation puts it this way quote Adams first sin was voluntary but after this he and his descendants possess a corrupt nature and therefore we both sui sin both voluntarily and I agree with that we send both voluntarily and involuntarily and he goes on to say sin is a lack of conformity to the will of God either an actor state into which we are born and then it calls it original corruption now the Bible is clear we fall in humans are called to transcend our situation in this present age in the power of Jesus the sin issue is central Matthew 1:21 Jesus came to save his people from their sins Christianity without victory over sin is not even a New Testament religion and yet the closing pages of God's character character in the last generation hopelessly in tone quote as has been seen in the previous chapters of this book if sin is more than actions including an infection of our very being in character the free will of humans is severely constrained by this enslaving alien force of sin now these are different ways of saying you really can't overcome you're stuck and you are stuck and that is it God's character in the last generation the author of that these chapter chooses not to mention the Bible content which contradicts his idea for example Romans chapter 6 verse 15 what then shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace and Paul's response is certainly not certainly not god forbid in the God's character in the last generation chapter addressing the question of what sin is important scriptures are drawn from Romans chapter 5 verses 15 vs. 16 18 and 19 now Paul does link our sinning to adam sinning there in that place he does but he never says that the give that guilt is involuntarily transmitted there's a connection between Adam's sin and ours Paul tells us that Adam's sin introduced weakness Romans chapter 5 verse 6 Romans 8 verse 3 but also that Christ's victory makes divine strength available so that the Christian is not obliged to follow previously established habit patterns of sinning Romans 8 the same chapter same book rather Romans 8 verse 12 and 13 here's what Paul says therefore brethren we are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh for if you live according to the flesh you will die but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live that is a point pointing to victory for us now there is a sense in which Adam's sin initiate s'what we could say at a series of chain reactions he starts the chain reactions but the sins that follow Adam's sin just as Adams was they are individually chosen if Adam hadn't sinned we wouldn't have inherited weakness because of his sin his descendants inherit a human nature modified for the worse and we've all got it Ellen White gets it though in education page 29 she writes the result of the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is manifest in every man's experience there is in his nature a bent to evil a force which unaided he cannot resist to withstand this force to attain that ideal which in his inmost soul he accepts as alone worthy he can find help in but one power that power is Christ and then she says cooperation with that power is man's greatest need there is in each of us a bent to evil which apart from God's help we cannot resist every human experience is a self-serving self-destructive inclination inevitably unless we are cooperating with God we succumb to this force through our own intentional willful premeditated choices without divine intervention we would destroy ourselves don't leave humans around nuclear weapons don't leave humans around unguarded cookies it's just not good and so each person is born with weaknesses and tendencies to evil each person becomes morally accountable and sins and by a voluntary decision they enter the path of rebellion we've all entered the path of rebellion but we are gifted with that most godlike of attributes free choice free choice oh so much depends on the free choice the Holy Spirit stands ready to empower every believer and to make Jesus victory infected in the life Jesus victory over sin is available to you through the Holy Spirit and so Ellen White can write this in of God's Amazing Grace page 193 read it well it is the spirit that makes effectual what has been wrought out by the world's Redeemer it is by the spirit that the heart is what made pure through the spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature Christ has given his a spirit as a divine power to overcome most hereditary and cultivated I misspoke forgive me as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil and to impress whose character on his church his own character to impress it on his church how does God make righteous those who are in him well Jesus lived victoriously in humanity like ours but that doesn't automatically save us we still determine whether we will give our allegiance to self or to God and so steps to Christ says this page 58 if we are Christ's our thoughts are with him and our sweetest thoughts are of him all we have and are is consecrated to him we long to bear His image to breathe his spirit and to do his will this is an actual change humans cannot be forced to sin we must first consent Christ's indwelling us as Christ's indwelling us is actually righteous and so his righteousness becomes our righteousness when we choose self we choose to reproduce in ourselves the same kind of sin as the first Adam all sin is actual when we choose Christ we are without strength to do right but we invite him into our heart and he indwells us his presence brings an actual righteousness we can never stand apart from his actual righteousness all righteousness is actual we don't have any righteousness we can call our own we always need Jesus we will never come to a time when we don't need him God's character in the last generation mentions Ellen White's statement from Child Guidance page 475 quote as related to the first Adam men received from him nothing but guilt in the sentence of death but any who pause long enough to read the entire passage we'll see that she is commenting on the challenges of parenting and she assures readers that through wise Christian parenting quote Satan's power is broken unquote and the child can become quote a partaker of the divine nature unquote read it for yourself manuscript releases volume 9 page 236 friends the Bible promises us victory over over sin that's a promise to the believer and really what the main dividing line is is in why in last generation theology victory over sin is possible in the revised gospel it's not let's move on to the next one justification more than forensic another dispute is over justification God's character in the last generation author's argument alleges the justification is strictly forensic that it's it's counted only his views hardly differ from the changed form of Lutheranism that followed Luther's death in the God's character in the last generation in his book in his chapter in the book his theology is Lutheran all the way through when he uses these Lutheran phrases about Simon Lucius yet packet or God is that people are at the same time just in a sinner he talks about Christ's alien righteousness alien righteousness coram Deo how we are in the in the eyes of God and so on he even claims that the idea and justification that God works inside the believer he says that's Roman Catholic but a study of the early Adventist teachings and the writings of Ellen White finds little correspondence with God's character in the last generation with his theology Ellen White's most positive statements about Luther deal with the events of the 1520's not the time between 1530 coming out into the 1580 when you get the formula of Concord the author after quoting Ellen White's corrupt channels statement which will look at him in my talk later this afternoon he claims that our sanctification always fall short of the glory of God page 84 he quotes his favorite Ellen White's statement summarizing the essence of justification by faith here's what he quotes if is his steps to Christ page 62 if you give yourself stood yourself to him and accept him as your Savior then sinful as your life may have been for his sake you were accounted righteous Christ's character stands in place of your character and you were accepted before God just as if you would not send and that is beautiful and true all the way but that's where he stops quoting the quotation continues in the very next paragraph the very next word more than this Christ changes the heart he abides in your heart by faith you were to maintain this connection with Christ by faith in the continual surrender of your will to him and so long as you do this he will work in you to will and do according to his good pleasure amen to that now when Ellen White's view Christ changes the heart and there's more than being accounted righteous the author failed to include this continuation in his main text and so I wish he had put it in there here's another word selective use of Ellen White he says the dangers been presented to me again and again of entertaining as a people false ideas of justification by faith I have been shown for years that Satan would work in a special manner to confuse the mind of on this point faith and works page 18 now a key point in Ellen White's faith and works chapter in faith in the book faith and works is this utter impossibility of our meriting any salvation because of our own works and we agree we agree with that but she also makes clear that God's plan for us is no mere forensic declaration listen page 27 same book the soul temple is to be sacred holy pure undefiled there must be a Co partnership in which all the powers of God and all the glory beagle belongs to God she goes on to say the law of the human in the door in the divine action makes the receiver a laborer together with God it brings man where he can United with divinity work the works of God Humanity touches humanity divine power in the human agency combined will be a complete success for Christ's righteousness accomplishes everything and that goes with the other statement Christ's righteousness accomplishes everything cooperating together with God doesn't mean that our works merit us salvation but White says quote in order for there to be an out flowing there must be an income of divinity to humanity faith and works page 26 that's transformation language and I'm very thankful for it that's why I want to be a Christian I want God to change me now he goes on and in the chapter and he he quotes Alister McGrath summary of the Magisterial viewpoint on justification on page 60 and 61 and he was a nice quotation there from Alister McGrath what's interesting is that he quotes Alister McGrath as an authority and he is an authority about the topic of justification but he doesn't quote some other things by the same fella his book you steeped CD Alister McGrath book also says this when he's talking about the same place in his book page 209 Alister McGrath says the most accurate description of the doctrines of justification associated with the reformed and Lutheran churches from 1530 onwards is that they represent a radically new interpretation of the Paulding concept of imputed righteousness set within an Augustinian soteriological framework in other words McGrath is saying there's something new that happened there and you've got to differentiate between Luther the Luther years and then the melanchthon and onward years because things shift there a little bit McGrath goes on and he cost candidly states this page 213 in his book he says I am aware that neither Martin Luther no Aldrich swingley can be said to have understood justification in precisely this manner see we want to find out what Luther taught about justification not necessarily what the ones that came right after him taught he goes on to say this is again I'll stir McGrath Luther does not make the distinction between justification and sanctification associated with later Protestantism Luther doesn't make that distinction page 227 and McGrath finally points this out the essential distinguishing feature of the Reformation doctrines of justification is that a deliberate and systematic distinction is made between justification and regeneration that is for the first millennium and 1/2 of Christianity justification was understood as including regeneration not until after Luther's active years and he kind of gets into some health issues and becomes less active not until after that his justification commonly referred to in the forensic legally accounted sense sanctification become becoming something very separate not until the period from lengthened des Chemnitz does the teaching become common that regeneration is something separate human and forever incomplete and so I wish that he had not only quoted this person as an authority on the Lutheranism with the thing you did quote but maybe he could have brought up some of these other conclusions by the same person which are good correct conclusions by the way original sin you have above I think we have a slide of this here the book of Concord is is got all this Lutheran theology and you couldn't quite see it but in the next slide the at the very first thing on the list there on the left side the very number one is original sin so these things all kind of fit together one piece well let's move on rapidly we have to go on to other items so what about the charge in the book God's character in the last generation that humans must attain absolutely we teach that humans must attain absolute perfection absolute perfection pretty good goal right so according to them we teach that we must believe absolute perfection in order to be saved and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps because and then we'll no longer need Christ here's how here's how our book says this last generation theology advocate advocates perfectionism which maintains that humans can become absolutely sinless this tends to place the emphasis on human works and suggests that one might reach a point prior to the glorification glorification when one is perfectly sanctified and the sin no longer in need of the imputed righteousness of Christ if they must live in the sight of a holy God without an intercessor does that mean that they must have fully overcome sin in all respects prior to glorification and in a way that they no longer need the work of Christ and their behalf by the way I found this the most the most offensive item in the whole book to think that that some of us are teaching that we come to a place where we don't need Jesus that out George and I had the same allegation years before here's what he wrote in search for identity page 151 in actuality according to his he's talking about a male Andreasen his theology humans must get to the place where they don't need Christ where they can stand without a mediator on the basis of their own achievements we don't teach that we've not taught that night repeats his charge verbatim in in the book we have here the new books lather rinse and repeat but none of us have taught that we must attain to absolute perfection ever we agree that without Christ we were hopelessly lost weak never reached down inside of ourselves for righteousness we can never in eternity come to a place where we no longer need Christ more than we need air to breathe we need Christ for spiritual life so what about these phrases these phrases in these books of a new order that they put into our mouths phrases like absolute perfection sinless perfection absolute sinless and this perfectly sinless what about those phrases I don't use them Dennis Priebe doesn't use them Herbert Douglas didn't use them ml Andreessen didn't use them haiti jones didn't use them ej Wagner didn't use them Ellen G white didn't use them nor did anybody in the Bible use them and yet these phrases supposedly represent last generation theology viewpoint such phrases occur 69 times in God's character and the last generation and 18 times in the endtime events the gorge night one which is a much skinnier book otherwise it'd be there more I pretty sure like fact I can only think of one individual on our side of the question who even uses these kind of phrases this kind of phraseology is it fair to tar a whole group on the basis of one individual using ill-advised terminology is that fair let's move on because there's a lot more in the book and we're really just let's go on to the question about Jesus is Jesus as the book claims is Jesus just like us just like us according to the authors of the material found in these two books according to them those who believe in last-generation theology insists that and I quote we can be absolutely sinless even as Jesus was absolutely sinless in order for Christ to be our example it is argued he must have been and then it's italicized he must have been just like us if he did not he's not fully human like us God's character and last generation page 18 now the only problem with this is again that it is not a fair or accurate representation of what lgt teaches none of us teach without qualification that Jesus is just like us there are many respects in which Jesus is not just like us would you like to see if you for example Jesus is not just like us in that he is God eternal and pre-existed his experience as a human being he never sinned his character is sufficient in value to redeem all of humanity by his life of meritorious obedience he condemned sin in human flesh he is equal to the Father he is one person of a three-person self existent being all things are placed in subjection to him he tastes death for every human Jesus alone is the great high priest he has authority to lay down and take up his own life he alone has authority to forgive sin these are ways that Jesus is not like us and they're nothing new there's nothing new here that we just figured this out Jesus is like us though in these respects these are not everything but these are samples he is like us he took our infirmities he bore our sicknesses he took upon him the form of a servant he was made in the likeness of men he was tempted in all points like as we are he is able to die he took on him the seed of Abraham an inferior to angelic nature his experience in our humanity gives us an example of victory his mind thoughts and attitudes can be echoed in our humanity you know Philippians 2:5 let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus and so Ellen right Ellen White rights in selected messages book 1 page 247 247 Christ did not make believe take human nature he did verily take it he did in reality possess human nature as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same and she also said this in Christ - page 208 Christ's perfect humanity is the same that we may have through connection with Christ Christ took our nature fallen but not corrupted and would not be corrupted unless he received the words of Satan in the place of the words of god those are pretty insightful items I hope I hope you're noticing from the pan of Ellen White yes we believe in Adventism or in other words last generation theology I think they're interchangeable we who believe in Adventism do point to our understanding based on the Bible and that's supported by Ellen White that Jesus human nature is like our own Jesus was made like his brethren Ellen White that there's so many Ellen White courts two of them temperance 107 the Savior took upon himself the infirmities of humanity and lived a sinless life that men might have no fear that because of the weakness of human nature they could not overcome that's why Jesus did it she goes on to say Christ came to make us partakers of the divine nature and his life declares that humanity combined with divinity does not commit sin our future quotation from signs of times October 14 1897 our future eternal happiness depends upon having our humanity with all his capabilities and powers brought into obedience to God placed under the control of divinity many have no real faith in Christ they say it was easy for Christ to available of the Father for he was divine but God's Word declares he was tempted in all points like as we are and we could go on now the last segment is have we delayed the second coming this is the weakest material in this book it's very weak doesn't dress any of the key quotations really from Ellen White's pen doesn't address the main texts you know we need to make a distinction between personal salvation and God's character vindication demonstrated by God's people it's one thing to be saved it's another thing to be used by God to vindicate his character and those are two we need to keep those two items distinct I'll read just one of these and then we'll come to our conclusion here we have desire of Ages 633 all right desire of Ages 633 by giving the gospel to the world it is in our power to hasten our Lord's return we are not only to look for but to hasten the coming of the day of God 2nd Peter 3:12 and she says this had the Church of Christ done her appointed work as the law as the Lord ordained the whole world would before this have been warned and the Lord Jesus would have come to our earth and power and great glory when was a desire of Ages written 1898 before then Second Coming 1898 would have come none of these Ellen White statements were even mentioned in the chapter and God's character in the last generation so that chapter was kind of a problematic well let's go to our conclusion where do we land where do we really land with all this half of the charges against last generation theology are relatively straightforward disagreements you know you say this about what justification is we say this you say this about what sin is we say this half of them are like that but a lot of them the remaining three that I've picked out here are straw man representations you know it's like as a scarecrow you set it up and then you you can wipe it out real easy and those are things that really are problematic when we what then about these books that we've spoken of today what about these books that that our ministers are being reading and thinking about what do we do with a book like that you know a few years ago we were here and we talked oh I talked a little bit about questions on doctrine questions on doctrine has some real giant problems I'll tell you what though questions on doctrine has some redeeming features questions of doctrine has some good historical material the chapter in questions on doctrine on Michael the Archangel is very good there's some it's there's some very bad things there but there's some very good things in the mixture Qod has some redeeming features this book gives us no particular help where we have straightforward disagreements about teachings in it's worse than useless because of its decided misrepresentations this book actually yeah this book pretty much goes in the same spot so so for someone who really wants to understand last generation theology the to the 2018 books are really a needless waste of trees I like trees I lived in northern Idaho for five years and loved the trees and I feel sad that a book would be turned into a tree to be turned into a book like this but I don't think that people I hope they weren't mean-spirited when they created this I think they meant well but they just didn't represent it fairly okay so let's have care for them into our presses I guess I would say this it could just be me but very few of my church members are clamoring to buy books filled with ten two-seam twos it could be ease and it might be ease and repeating the gorge night thoughts about 1888 it could just be me now those who do wish to understand last generation theology what would you do if you want to understand it start by immersing yourself in the Bible read from the Bible read the writings of L&G white you might also read to other sources email Andreessen wrote a book in in 1937 called the sanctuary service and you'll find some really helpful things there about the last generation go there to the original source and read it from you know Andreus and and and wherever my book went this one also you might find it useful maybe - I don't know if there's any of those left and there might be a few left yes Oh damned an East River has all the rest of the copies left now the all 10,000 are gone almost but we've got a few I guess so let me conclude with this then our time has run out let's critique the the real sources rather than make up sources and then critique those just seems fair to me the night wedding narrative has become the establishment story night Whidden the kwn stands in exact contrast to the authentic Adventists positions a chasm divides scholars from lay people who read the Bible and Ellen White writings there are different conceptions of Adventism these books take matters too far I hope that we've come to a time when many of our some of our younger scholars will think for themself and revisit nice representations concerning last generation themes the way I see it it's basic Adventism versus the Nightwind narrative and so let's be faithful to the message that God has delivered us let's finish the work and let's see Jesus shall we do that amen you

Channel: Sacramento Central Seventh-day Adventist Church

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Published: Mon Apr 22 2019