Ever since Philip Yancey’s bestselling book labeled it the “last best word” [##1|Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing Co, 1997), p. 11.##], grace in many Christian circles has devolved into a synonym for ambiguity, leniency, and a soft approach to fashionable sin. Though correct in many of its observations, Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace? is seriously problematic in its portrayal of a key divine attribute. Rather than spending so much time quoting playwrights, novelists, and other uninspired sources, a simple trek through a Bible concordance would have given the author a more balanced picture of what Scripture calls grace.
Wherever the influence of Yancey’s theology has been felt in postmodern Adventism, its impact has been nothing short of desolating. According to such persons, to be “grace-oriented” means to be less insistent on faithfulness to the inspired text, whether the Bible or the writings of the Spirit of Prophecy. In Yancey’s spiritual worldview, to be “grace-focused” is to prize flexibility over clarity, forgiveness over transformation, openness over obedience. Never mind the Bible’s countless exhortations to divinely-empowered sinless conduct (e.g. Psalm 4:4; 119:1-3,11; Zeph. 3:13; John 8:11; Rom. 8:3-4; I Cor. 15:34; II Cor. 7:1; 10:4-5; Eph. 5:27; I Thess. 5:23; I Tim. 6:13-14; I Peter 2:21-22; 4:1; II Peter 3:10-14; I John 1:7,9; 3:2-3,7; Jude 24; Rev. 3:21; 14:5), Yancey insists:
It is our human destiny on earth to remain imperfect, incomplete, weak, and mortal, and only by accepting that destiny can we escape the force of gravity and receive grace [##2|Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? p. 273.##].
Grace and Prophecy
A recent article on a liberal Adventist website makes the following claim:
Whether understanding prophecy is necessary to be Adventist, Christian, or saved—I would say this: prophecy is not the requirement of salvation; grace is, and grace leads to relationship. Prophecy becomes meaningful in relationship with Jesus, as a way to trust God’s movement through history and to recognize the ways his justice and mercy are at work in the world [3].
Much of what the above statement says is true. However, few exercises are less profitable than the attempt to divide Scripture into “salvation” and non-salvation” parts. Jesus declared to Satan in the wilderness that man shall live “by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). That includes the story of Noah’s Flood as truly as that of Jesus blessing the children, the beasts of Daniel and Revelation as well as the Beatitudes of our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. It includes Daniel 8:14 as surely as John 3:16, Revelation 13 as surely as First Corinthians 13.
The apostle Paul speaks of both the Spirit’s sanctification and belief in the truth as essential to salvation (II Thess. 2:13), declaring at one point to Timothy:
Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine: continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee (I Tim. 4:16).
No part of the Bible—no doctrinal, prophetic, or behavioral counsel, no narrative in the Sacred Story—can be relegated to the “non-salvational” margins. Every portion of Scripture reflects one or another aspect of God’s grace. The problem with too many is that they decide what God’s grace is before the considering the entire Biblical witness. It’s like a document I saw years ago in which a particular presenter listed a cluster of Bible references and stated afterward, “These are all ‘good news’ texts.” The implication, in context, was that other Bible passages should be viewed as other than “good news” texts.
Whenever the Word of God is approached in this manner, confusion and error follow in its wake. Only when the Bible’s message is embraced in its totality can its divinely-imparted clarity and balance be understood and internalized.
Regarding grace and prophecy, the first prophetic message in all of Scripture is the promise to our first parents of the coming Savior:
And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel (Gen. 3:15).
According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus began His earthly ministry with a reference to prophecy:
Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe the gospel (Mark 1:14-15).
Ellen White speaks of how the time referenced by Jesus in this passage is the seventy-week prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27 [##4|Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 233.##]. This is the same prophetic time frame referenced by the apostle Paul in the epistle to the Galatians:
But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law (Gal. 4:4).
Here we see grace and prophecy interconnected and blended together. Grace is the underlying and overarching theme of the Bible story, the heartbeat of its doctrinal and moral imperatives and the rationale of its prophetic revelations. Everything in the Bible is about God’s grace; everything in the Bible is about God’s salvation. If we can’t see grace and salvation in certain parts of the Bible, it means we haven’t permitted the Bible to define what in fact grace and salvation are.
REFERENCES
1. Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing About Grace? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing Co, 1997), p. 11.
2. Ibid, p. 273.
3. Ezrica Bennett, Krystalynn Westbrook-Martin, “Prophecy is Not the Requirement for Salvation, Grace Is,” Spectrum, April 28, 2025 (italics original) https://spectrummagazine.org/sabbath-school/prophecy-is-not-the-requirement-for-salvation-grace-is/
4. Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 233.
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