Our Greatest Need Ron Spear - The Eternal Gospel Church

CONFUSION AT THE END 53Our confusion is further demonstrated by the following quotationon page 94 of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide for thethird quarter of 2003:The sacrifice of Christ assures Christians of two greatfacts: First, the Act has been done that solves the sin problem.They don’t have to strive and stretch, to hunger andthirst, to press and prevail, in the frantic, frenzied—and futile—effortto find cleansing from their sins. By one sacrificefor all time God has utterly dealt with sin. Nothing we mightdo can add to that or diminish from it. Calvary gives us absoluteconfidence of the putting away of sins.Second, Calvary assures us of our full access to the presenceof God. No matter who we might be, we belong inJesus Christ. The gates of the temple stand flung open. allwho believe may enter—not cringing, but boldly. William G.Johnsson, In Absolute Confidence (Nashville: SouthernPublishing Association, 1979), 118. Emphases in the original.Again, we see an imbalanced, uplifting of the cross to the neglect ofthe importance of Christ’s present heavenly ministry. It fails to pointout that we must obtain mercy “and grace to help in time of need”from Christ’s throne of grace in our “bold” entering of the temple above.It is a distortion of the equal necessity of mercy and grace—pardonand victory, justification and sanctification—in the salvation equationas presented in Hebrews 4:15, 16:For we have not an high priest which cannot be touchedwith the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points temptedlike as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldlyunto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and findgrace to help in time of need.Many Seventh-day Adventists will perceive these, and other incidences,as serious attempts to teach Sabbath School members thatwe can still be Seventh-day Adventists without believing in the importanceof 1844, the investigative judgment, and the cleansing of theheavenly sanctuary as reflective of Christ’s cleansing of His earthlytemple—His church members on earth. Some will see this as an at-