What is the Atonement?

What is the Atonement? When Adam and Eve were created they were at peace with Him. But they sinned. Then God reached out and provided a means of reconciliation--a means of atonement. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible tells the story of the atonement.

After God’s people apostatized from Him, He let down a ladder to make a way of return, providing a means for their sins to be covered--to return again to oneness with Him.

What a Question!

Jesus and the disciples are walking through Jerusalem. They see a man, a blind beggar. None are surprised. They were used to his asking alms; born blind, that was his space. The disciples ask Jesus, “who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

What a question!

The Last Generation: in recent years we are hearing many different things about the idea of the last generation. Some see the idea as simply describing God’s gospel purpose for end-time Christians. Others attack it as an unchristian heresy.

It is fascinating that something so fundamental, something that should be clear and obvious, so indisputably true or false, could come to be so much in dispute. Is it really that difficult to understand the Bible? Are the inspired writings God has given us so plastic and malleable that they can easily be misunderstood? If the core of the message and mission of God’s church is so disputable, how can we anticipate uniting together in a faithful work and seeing Jesus win the great controversy between good and evil?

Four books were published in 2018 taking to task Adventists whose beliefs have been called "Last Generation Theology." Two of these new books are published by the Pacific Press, one by the Pacific Union, and one by Andrews University Press. You may have read the following ad copy in a recent sales catalogue advertising two of these books. The heading says, "What is Last Generation Theology." The reader is asked:

Two Questions

Let's begin with a question. Isaiah 64:6 KJV: Are "All our righteousnesses" "as filthy rags"?

Isaiah says, Yes. Then question two: Is it impossible, in this age, for us fallen humans, to do righteous acts?

Let's study.

Today we begin a short new series: "All our Righteousnesses." Can humans have any righteousness? What is righteousness? Is everything we do tainted? Is any of what we do meritorious? What is and is not sin? Are we born sinners?

The starting place is always, What does the Bible teach? We find the word "sinner" or "sinners" more than 60 times in the Bible. Perhaps we have assumed we are born sinners. But let us turn to these texts and see what they say.

• Introduction
• Author, Date, Purpose
• Sin and Righteousness
  • Sin
    • James on Sin
    • Paul on Sin
  • Righteousness
    • James on Righteousness
    • Paul on Righteousness
• Conclusion