Law & Grace in Adventism

[Gregory Matthews]

The author of the following article is a historian employed by the General Conference:

http://spectrummagazine.org/article/2017/08/04/face-law-and-grace-adventist-views-salvation-and-how-we-speak-about-them

 

[CoAspen]

For me, I would ask the question, is all of our expounding, writing, explanining, confusing, detailing, etc, etc simply another excursion into the wilderness? 

[JoeMo]

5 hours ago, CoAspen said:

For me, I would ask the question, is all of our expounding, writing, explanining, confusing, detailing, etc, etc simply another excursion into the wilderness? 

Yup.  Why not go there?  I like hearing different people's views on things, whether they be whimsical or serious. - as long as we can discuss without becoming personally insulting or offensive.

[CoAspen]

How long did the people wander? How many died? Could they have gone into the promised land without wandering? Who was the wandering beneficial to? Was it because they wanted different views or just didn't believe?

[phkrause]

On 8/5/2017 at 9:03 PM, CoAspen said:

How long did the people wander?

40 years

 

On 8/5/2017 at 9:03 PM, CoAspen said:

How many died?

All the ones that voted with the 10 spies

 

On 8/5/2017 at 9:03 PM, CoAspen said:

Could they have gone into the promised land without wandering?

Yes

 

On 8/5/2017 at 9:03 PM, CoAspen said:

Who was the wandering beneficial to?

God I would think, since he needed those that were afraid to enter the first time the spies checked it out to pass away

 

On 8/5/2017 at 9:03 PM, CoAspen said:

Was it because they wanted different views or just didn't believe?

They didn't believe

[CoAspen]

PK, 

I am not against study of the Bible, but it just seems that much more is read into it than out of it.  As the article said, there is often much confusion and so many write, etc to lessen the confusion. However.....

My thought is and always is, why not just let the HS guide each individul and promote such a process for a  personal relationship with ones belief and God. I do  not believe that God designed His words that they  should be so difficult to understand. Do we use 'dificult to understand' as an excuse??

[pierrepaul]

There is nothing new under the sun. Law and Grace have been debated by theologians since before Augustine; the debates probably go back to St. Paul and St. James. Paul had the humility (although he was taught directly by Jesus) to state that he saw through a glass darkly.

Pure grace, whereby man can do nothing to gain salvation, where even the acceptance the free gift of salvation cannot come from man, if pushed to its logical conclusion leads one to a strong form of Calvinistic pre-destination and a denial of free will.

Arminianism (or Pelagianism or semi-Pelagianism) where man must "do" something to gain salvation, even something as little as accepting the free gift, but of man's own volition, puts man in the driver's seat regarding his own salvation (God sets the conditions; man is now in control to accept or reject).

Sanctification, or "Lordship" to use the terminology of recent times, whereby law-keeping is merely a natural outgrowth of being saved, still leads to law-keeping as the litmus test of salvation (you aren't saved by works; but works are evidence of being saved, so without works one is not saved). This appears to contradict "grace". But rejecting sanctification, obedience or Lordship, while claiming grace (so-called "cheap grace), leads to antinomianism and the notion that one's behaviour is irrelevant to the issue of salvation.

None of the theoretically pure forms of these concepts is satisfactory. All can be supported by scripture (and contradicted by scripture). Men and women will continue to debate these issues until the second coming. There is nothing new under the sun.

[LifeHiscost]

5 hours ago, pierrepaul said:

 

None of the theoretically pure forms of these concepts is satisfactory. All can be supported by scripture (and contradicted by scripture). Men and women will continue to debate these issues until the second coming. There is nothing new under the sun.

Although this sounds unequivocal. 

12Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”....Acts 4

God is Love!~Jesus saves!