1/1/17
Sanctuary Under Siege:
Last Generation Theology
In order to facilitate covering all the intended
information for this seminar, please hold and
write down your questions until the seminar is
completed. If time allows there will be a
segment for questions at the end.
Information will be given at the end of the
seminar of a time and location when further
dialogue can take place later this evening.
There will be a link provided at the end for
downloadable seminar notes.
1/1/17
Format
Andreasen
QOD
Heppenstall
Reflections
If time: Questions
M.L. Andreasen
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It is impossible to overestimate the influence of
M.L. Andreasen on twentieth century Adventist
theology. His theological package is so central to
modern Adventist development that a person is
forced to respond in one way or another to it.
Individuals and groups within the church either
agree with his theology or they must react against
it. Neutrality is not an option for those who
understand his teachings
George Knight, Search For Identity
Sin
Nature of Christ
Christ as Example
Eschatology - LGT
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Christ is waiting with longing desire for the
manifestation of Himself in His church. When
the character of Christ shall be perfectly
reproduced in His people, then He will come
to claim them as His own.
Ellen White, Christs Object Lessons, 309
Questions on Doctrine
1/1/17
Classic Augustinian View
Questions on Doctrine easily qualifies as the
most divisive book in Seventh-day Adventist
history. A book published to help bring peace
between Adventism and conservative
Protestantism, its release brought prolonged
alienation and separation to Adventist factions
that grew up around it.
George Knight
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Heading number II (in QOD on the nature of
Christ) has been seen as problematic
because it implies that Ellen White believed
that Christ took sinless human nature when
in fact she claimed the opposite. For
example, in 1896 she wrote that Christ took
upon him our sinful nature (RH, Dec. 15896,
p. 789). Again in 1900 she penned that he
took upon himself fallen, suffering human
nature, degraded and defiled by sin (Youth
Instructor, Dec. 20, 1900, pl. 394)
Thus Questions on Doctrine not only supplied
a misleading heading, but it also neglected to
present the evidence that would have
contradicted the that heading. The result has
been that Questions on Doctrine has been
vilified by many Adventists and has probably
done more to create theological division in
the Adventist church than any other
document in its more than 150-year history.
- George Knight, Annotated QOD Footnotes
1/1/17
Whether Froom and his colleagues were
willing to admit it or not, the view of Christs
human nature that they had set forth was a
genuine revision of the position held by the
majority of the denomination before the
publication of Questions on Doctrine.
George Knight, Annotated QOD Footnotes
Edward Heppenstall
1/1/17
"The most influential scholar to come out
against Andreasen's final generation theology
was Edward Heppenstall.
George Knight, A Search For Identity, p. 171
While Heppenstalls writings were influential,
his teaching career was much more so. He
influenced a generation of preachers and
religion teachers through his college and
seminary lectures. Themes highlighted by
Heppenstall would echo in other classrooms
through such teachers as Hans LaRondelle
and Raoul Dederen and in the pulpit
through Morris Venden throughout the 1970s
and 1980s.
George Knight, A Search For Identity, p. 173
1/1/17
Edward Heppenstall is the most
influential theologian of this
generation Woodrow Whidden
Sin
All men are born in a state of separation from
God. This is the original sin, a state into
which all of us enter the world.
- Edward Heppenstall
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Where man is separated from the presence
and reality of God is any way and to the
slightest degree, there sin exists in some
formAll sin springs from separation God.
- Edward Heppenstall
Christology
A third group of theologians and church
members emphasize that although Christs
nature was fully human and that he could
yield to temptations, Christ did not inherit
our inner inclinations and predispositions to
sin He could sin, and he was tempted to
sin, but all his temptations came from
outside of himself as was the case with
Adam and Eve before the fallThis
position is held by the following
theologians: Edward Heppenstall
- Denis Fortin, paper Ellen White on the Nature of Christ
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Christ as our Example
There is no salvation in the life example of
Jesus, the Carpenter of Nazareth if that is all
there is.
-Heppenstall, The Man Who is God, p. 37
Eschatology
The Christian believes that there still remains
in the regenerate man a fountain of evil, that sin
always exists in the saints till they are divested
of their mortal bodiesThis original sin
remains in Christians and non-Christians until
they die or are translated.
Heppenstall, Definition of Righteousness, syllabus
lessons, pp. 18-20
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Reflections
Sin
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Our understanding of sin must be consistent
with the sanctuary service and the blotting
out of sin.
Our understanding of sin must be consistent
with the sanctuary service and the blotting
out of sin.
Our understanding of sin must come from a
biblical understanding of human nature.
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Our understanding of sin must be consistent
with the sanctuary.
Our understanding of sin must come from a
biblical understanding of human nature.
Our understanding of sin must be
compatible with our eschatology (the close
of probation and living without a mediator).
Sin is the transgression of the law. This is
the only definition of sin. Without the law
there can be no transgression. By the law is
the knowledge of sin. The standard of
righteousness is exceeding broad, prohibiting
every evil thing.
- Ellen White, Manuscript 27, 1899
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All sin is selfishness.
- Ellen White, 1888 Materials, p. 1763
Christology
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Nature of Christ
Divine
Human
Nature of Christ
Divine
Human
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It would have been an almost infinite
humiliation for the Son of God to take man's
nature, even when Adam stood in his
innocence in Eden. But Jesus accepted
humanity when the race had been weakened
by four thousand years of sin. Like every
child of Adam He accepted the results of the
working of the great law of heredity. What
these results were is shown in the history of
His earthly ancestors. He came with such a
heredity to share our sorrows and
temptations, and to give us the example of a
sinless life.
- Desire of Ages, p. 49
Hebrews 2:17 -18
Therefore, in all things He had to be made
like His brethren, that He might be a merciful
and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to
God, to make propitiation for the sins of the
people. For in that He Himself has suffered,
being tempted, He is able to aid those who are
tempted.
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Hebrews 2:11
For both He who sanctifies and those who are
being sanctified are all of one, for which
reason He is not ashamed to call them
brethren
Steps to Christ, p. 93-94
Our Saviour identified Himself with our needs
and weakness, in that He became a suppliant,
a petitioner, seeking from His Father fresh
supplies of strength, that He might come forth
braced for duty and trial. He is our example in
all things. He is a brother in our infirmities,
"in all points tempted like as we are;" but as
the sinless one His nature recoiled from evil;
He endured struggles and torture of soul in a
world of sin.
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All true obedience comes from the heart. It was
heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will
so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so
blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His
will, that when obeying Him we shall be but
carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined
and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing
His service. When we know God as it is our
privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of
continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the
character of Christ, through communion with God,
sin will become hateful to us.
- Desire of Ages, p. 668
The Majesty of heaven undertook the cause of
man, and with THE SAME FACILITIES THAT
MAN MAY OBTAIN, withstood the temptations
of Satan as man must withstand them. This was
the only way in which fallen man could become a
partaker of the divine nature.
Ellen White, 1 Selected Messages, p. 252
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Jesus was born in the nature of Adam
after the fall; however in the full
potential of human sanctification with
sanctified tendencies.
Jesus as Example
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1 Peter 2:21
To this you were called, because Christ
suffered for you, leaving you an example, that
you should follow in his steps.
John 5:19
Then answered Jesus and said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do
nothing of himself, but what he seeth the
Father do: for what things soever he doeth,
these also doeth the Son likewise.
John 5:30
By myself I can do nothing."
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Jesus revealed no qualities, and exercised no
powers, that men may not have through faith
in Him. His perfect humanity is that which all
His followers may possess, if they will be in
subjection to God as He was.
- Desire of Ages, 664
Last Generation
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Revelation 7
Character Transformation
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Revelation 14:1
Then I looked, and there before me was
the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and
with him 144,000 who had his name and
his Father's name written on their
foreheads.
Revelation 7:3
"Do not harm the land or the sea or the
trees until we put a seal on the foreheads
of the servants of our God."
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Jesus does not change the character at His
coming. The work of transformation must
be done now.
Ellen White, Adventist Home, p. 16
When Christ shall come, our vile bodies
are to be changed, and made like his
glorious body; but the vile character will
not be made holy then. The transformation
of character must take place before his
coming.
Ellen White, Our High Calling, p. 278
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51
The central theme of the Bible, the theme about
which every other in the whole book clusters, is the
redemption plan, the restoration in the human soul of
the image of God. From the first intimation of hope in
the sentence pronounced in Eden to that last glorious
promise of the Revelation, They shall see His face;
and His name shall be in their foreheads (Revelation
22:4), the burden of every book and every passage of
the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme,
man's uplifting,the power of God, which giveth us
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1
Corinthians 15:57. Ellen White, Education, p. 125
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Human Merit
"The CLOSER you come to Jesus, the
more faulty you will appear in your own
eyes; for your vision will be clearer, and
your IMPERFECTIONS will be seen in
distinct contrast with His perfect
character. Be not discouraged; this is an
evidence that Satan's delusions are losing
their power"
- Ellen White, Bible Echo 12/1/1892
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Let the recording angels write the
history of the holy struggles and conflicts
of the people of God; let them record
their prayers and tears; but let not God be
dishonored by the declaration from
human lips, "I am sinless; I am holy."
Sanctified lips will never give utterance
to such presumptuous words. Acts of
the Apostels, p. 561-562
None of the apostles and prophets ever claimed to be
without sin. Men who have lived the nearest to God,
men who would sacrifice life itself rather than knowingly
commit a wrong act, men whom God has honored with
divine light and power, have confessed the sinfulness
of their nature. They have put no confidence in the
flesh, have claimed no righteousness of their own, but
have trusted wholly in the righteousness of Christ. So
will it be with all who behold Christ. The nearer we
come to Jesus, and the more clearly we discern the
purity of His character, the more clearly shall we see
the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the less shall we
feel like exalting ourselves. Acts of Apostles, p. 561
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The religious services, the prayers, the praise,
the penitent confession of sin that ascend
from true believers ... to the heavenly
sanctuary.... but passing through the corrupt
channels of humanity, they are so defiled that
unless purified by blood, they can never be of
value with God
- Ellen White, 1 Selected Messages, p. 344
"And any works that man can render to
God will be far less than nothingness. My
requests are made acceptable only because
they are laid upon Christ's righteousness.
Ellen White, Faith and Works, p. 23, 24
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"Oh, that all may see that everything in
obedience, in penitence, in praise and
thanksgiving, must be placed upon the
glowing fire of the righteousness of
Christ.
Ellen White, 1 Selected Messages, 344
Further dialogue
and questions
8:30pm-10:00pm
GYC Speaker Time
Rm #320 ABC
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Next Seminar:
The Omega Apostasy
Saturday, 4:15-5:15pm
Ellen White looked into the future
and trembled. What did she see? An
examination of the Alpha and Omega
apostasy.
To Download ALL Notes:
[Link]
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