Recently I read an online article lamenting the rejection of the LGBT+ lifestyle in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, urging that the church instead “become a community committed to living the teachings and leading of Jesus.” The author goes on to extol the benefits supposedly to be gained by “historical-critical theological research,” while identifying herself as “an Adventist follower of Jesus.” (Perhaps she hasn’t stopped to consider how those two agendas are mutually exclusive. Historical-critical research has long reduced Jesus in the Christian mind to just another human teacher, devoid of supernatural origin or any claim to transcendent authority.)
The author says she yearns to “be like Jesus,” describing the diverse community Jesus gathered to Himself as “the beating heart of discipleship.” She closes her observations by saying, “I wish we would emulate Jesus by calling out leaders who place heavy burdens on the backs of suffering people.”
A Fictive Jesus
To analyze this author’s claims in depth could lead in a variety of directions. One of the least sound of her arguments implies that Jesus was accepting of homosexual practice because He healed the centurion’s servant at Capernaum (Matt. 8:5-13; Luke 7:2-10), some alleging that this servant was the centurion’s gay lover [1]. But even if this claim regarding the servant were true—and the Biblical evidence comes nowhere close to supporting such a claim [2]—this would no more prove Jesus’ endorsement of homosexual conduct than it would prove His endorsement of slavery. (The word for “servant” in the aforementioned Gospel passages is the Greek word doulos, the same word translated “slave” in Galatians 3:28, which speaks of how “there is neither slave nor free . . . for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”)
The loving acts of our Lord extended to all, regardless of their beliefs or practices, but in no way does this imply that acceptance within Christ’s kingdom is open to all, regardless of what they choose to believe or how they choose to live. God’s love encompasses the whole world (John 3:16), but the whole world will not be saved. Jesus taught repeatedly throughout His ministry that divinely-empowered obedience to His commandments is the unalterable condition for entrance into His kingdom (Matt. 7:21; 19:16-26; 25:31-46; Luke 10:25-28; John 8:11; 14:15).
It is amazing how postmodern notions of acceptance, diversity, and discipleship find their way into the church, especially when the Bible teaches exactly the opposite. The Jesus of Scripture stands entirely apart from the fictive Jesus of postmodern spirituality. The Jesus of Scripture declared, “Narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matt. 7:14). “Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24).
The fictive postmodern Jesus was certainly not the Jesus encountered by the rich young ruler, who was told not only that the condition of gaining eternal life was the keeping of God’s commandments (Matt. 19:17), but that in the young ruler’s case it was necessary to divest himself of worldly possessions in order to follow the Savior (verse 21). The open-ended inclusiveness of postmodern spirituality stands far removed from the teachings of the Biblical Jesus.
Burdens on the Suffering
We noted earlier the statement of the author expressing the hope that we would “emulate Jesus by calling out leaders who place heavy burdens on the backs of suffering people.” But the guilt-burden imposed by the violation of Biblical sexuality standards—or any Bible standards, for that matter—is not placed on them by human leaders, but rather, by the Holy Spirit who convicts men and women of sin (John 16:8). If people experience suffering because of the angst that results from trying to simultaneously serve two masters (Matt. 6:24), this suffering can hardly be blamed on those who seek to lead others to follow the Biblical message.
None will deny that Biblical standards have at times been applied without grace or compassion. There is no excuse for this. No one seeking to be part of God’s final, victorious generation of Christians can do anything but condemn this harshness. But if the only acceptable definition of grace or compassion becomes allowing Christians to revert to the days of Israel’s judges, when “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25), no one who adheres to the Biblical lodestar can travel in that direction.
Conclusion
The Jesus of Scripture declared, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). One is fascinated by Ellen White’s use of language in one of her best known statements on the necessary balance between sensitivity and sternness:
Jesus did not suppress one word of truth, but He uttered it always in love. He exercised the greatest tact and thoughtful, kind attention in His intercourse with the people. He was never rude, never needlessly spoke a severe word, never gave needless pain to a sensitive soul [3Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 12.##].
The words “needlessly” and “needless” are pivotal here. The inspired writer doesn’t say Jesus was never severe, nor that He never caused pain. She only says He was never needlessly severe, never causing needless pain. Here, as in Scripture itself, the Biblical Jesus parts company with His postmodern caricature. The gurus of postmodern spirituality desire no severity or pain-causing rhetoric in the Christian message—unless, of course, severity is directed at sins considered culturally unpopular.
One thinks of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous articulation of his dream for a day when people would be judged “not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” In the world of postmodern spirituality, the very notion of “judging”—for any reason—is abhorrent. Such persons happily cite Jesus’ admonition to “judge not” (Matt. 7:1), while conveniently ignoring His subsequent admonition, “By their fruits ye shall know them” (verse 20).
Seventh-day Adventist Christians must return without qualification to the Jesus of Scripture, discarding all competing notions of acceptance, justice, and tolerance. The faith community sought by our Lord is one where obedience to the Sacred Word stands supreme above all else. Only from those can God assemble a global cadre of witnesses of whom He can at last declare, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12).
REFERENCES
1. “Healing the centurion’s servant” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healing_the_centurion%27s_servant
2. Ibid.
3. Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, p. 12.
Pastor Kevin Paulson holds a Bachelor’s degree in theology from Pacific Union College, a Master of Arts in systematic theology from Loma Linda University, and a Master of Divinity from the SDA Theological Seminary at Andrews University. He served the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for ten years as a Bible instructor, evangelist, and local pastor. He writes regularly for Liberty magazine and does script writing for various evangelistic ministries within the denomination. He continues to hold evangelistic and revival meetings throughout the North American Division and beyond, and is a sought-after seminar speaker relative to current issues in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He presently resides in Berrien Springs, Michigan