17 October 2002 Guest Editorial: Right in Our Own Eyes:
The Illusion of 'Non-Fundamentalist' Adventism

A recent issue of Adventist Today magazine suggests what a persistent group has claimed for several decades -- that one can be a legitimate Seventh-day Adventist while disagreeing with one or more of our fundamental doctrines (1).

The litany is the same, only louder. "Progress" and "modernization" become code words for the loss of faithfulness (2), "humility" and "learning" become a mask for doubt and skepticism (3). Denouncing strongly the statement of one church editor that the denomination has the right to enforce the parameters of our faith, one Adventist Today author insists that "some of these parameters (for example, a recent worldwide flood or that the Adventist institutional church is the 'remnant church' of the book of Revelation) are, to use his [the editor's] own term, 'wacky'" (4).

Quite obviously, these people mean business. They view key doctrines and principles of our faith as absurdities to be laughed at. And they want the church to accept, with open arms, those who heap such scorn on the Advent message. Those who still think current divisions in the church involve only minor technicalities need only to peruse statements such as the above to learn how serious the present divide in the church truly is.

What the "non-fundamentalists" among us don't seem to understand is that Adventism isn't the only casualty if their view of spiritual reality is embraced. The entire Christian message is lost if one believes as they do.

The Bible not only assumes that an absolute standard of right and wrong exists; it assumes that this standard is knowable by finite humans here on earth. This standard is necessary to define sin and thus to show our need of a Saviour (1 John 3:4; Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:24). A correct knowledge of divine truth, as revealed in God's written counsel, is not merely optional. It is a salvation issue. Which is why Scripture states as follows:

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee (Hosea 4:6).

God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

The Adventist Today author quoted above writes as follows:

The true basis of unity in any Christian body should be the same as that which united the earliest Christians -- the confession that Jesus is Lord. Everything else is commentary (5).

But what did Jesus Himself say? "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21). "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). "If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed" (John 8:31).

Jesus' prayer in John 17 that His followers be one (verse 21) was prefaced by His prayer that they be sanctified through the truth of God's Word (verses 17,19). Certainly Jesus fostered no illusion that some ambiguous confession of His Lordship -- apart from doctrinal and moral rectitude -- was all anyone needed to be part of His church.

Doctrinal pluralism was certainly not on the agenda of the apostle Paul. He wrote:

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed (Gal. 1:8).

And if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15).

In short, to assume that the confession of Jesus' Lordship is something other than faithfulness to the full doctrinal and moral agenda of Holy Scripture, is to deny the plainest statements of the apostles and of our Lord Himself.

The editor of Adventist Today disputes a Sabbath School teacher he heard, who said: "What gets us into trouble is our attempt to interpret the Bible" (6). But the teacher is right. We have no business interpreting the Bible. The Bible declares itself to be its own interpreter. It is inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:20-21), and what the Spirit inspires is to be understood by comparison with itself (Isaiah 28:9-10; 1 Corinthians 2:12-14). Ellen White tells us her writings are to be understood in the same way:

The testimonies themselves will be the key that will explain the messages given, as scripture is explained by scripture (7).

Elsewhere she clarifies that no matter how infinite divine truth may be, human beings cannot fail to understand it:

That which in the councils of heaven the Father and the Son deemed essential for the salvation of man, was defined from eternity by infinite truths which finite beings cannot fail to comprehend (8).

In this way men and women from all walks of life, from the least to the most educated, can understand God's will. When one listens to the so-called "progressives" among us, it is hard to imagine that anyone other than a trained scholar is capable of knowing what the Bible says. And since this mentality can easily lend itself to an incredible elitism, such persons generally hasten to assure us that what we need to know for "salvation" -- Jesus, His love, etc. -- needs no scholarly explanation in order to understand. But as we have seen, the Bible nowhere allows itself to be divided into "salvation" and "non-salvation" parts.

The editor of Adventist Today writes, concerning those who think as he does:

Non-fundamentalists are not a monolithic group. Their departures from historic Adventism take them in all sorts of directions. They argue with each other. What unites them is a common heritage and the grace to honor what God is doing in people who have different convictions and habits (9).

It has happened before. The Bible speaks of a time in Israel's history when "every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). One quickly sees, in context, that this wasn't exactly the most pleasant time to be alive!

The above editor writes: "Non-fundamentalist Adventism is alive and growing" (10). I hate to ruin his day, but so is fundamentalist Adventism. Even among the church's youth and young adults, the special target of non-fundamentalists, there is a growing interest in the distinctive message God gave to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. They look around themselves and see anchors adrift, values vanishing, and clarity crumbling. And more and more, as they look at the world outside and the church near at hand, they see fulfillment of the predictions made so long ago in the writings of the church. Rather than crafting for themselves some new spiritual identity, they are accepting the one God designed for them in the prophetic scheme of sacred history.

The war for the soul of Adventism is on. We praise God for revealing the outcome in advance.

1. John McLarty, "Nonfundamentalist Adventism," Ervin Taylor, "The Fundamentalist Factor: Another Perspective," Adventist Today, July-August 2001, pp. 2,7. Note: Although dated as August-July 2001, this issue was actually published approximately October 2002.
2. McLarty, "Nonfundamentalist Adventism," Adventist Today, July-August 2001, p. 2.
3. Ibid.
4. Taylor, "The Fundamentalist Factor: Another Perspective," Adventist Today, July-August 2001, p. 7.
5. Ibid.
6. McLarty, "Nonfundamentalist Adventism," Adventist Today, July-August 2001, p. 2.
7. Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 42.
8. ________, Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 408.
9. McLarty, "Nonfundamentalist Adventism," Adventist Today, July-August 2001, p. 2.