Your whole theory is pure mysticism as the rest of …

Comment on The Sabbath and the Covenants (Old vs. New) by Sean Pitman.

Your whole theory is pure mysticism as the rest of your explanation affirms. The purpose of sanctification on the part of God is to liberate the human will for self government. It is the believing sinner who chooses to have faith and repent, and obey the law of God. It is the believing sinner who chooses to have faith and repent, and obey the law of God. Neither is it “automatic” but by careful evaluation of the will of God and the implications of the outcome if we chose not to accept the free offer. You undermine and in the end, destroy the human factor in salvation and the moral accountability of man.

The problem here is that fallen humanity has no inherent moral power – none whatsoever. It is God who said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers.” (Genesis 3:15). You see, this ability to at all be able to resist sin, to even be attracted to the beauty of holiness, is itself a gift of God.

What this means is that the believing sinner can ask for God’s help, but by one’s self, relying only on human power, it is impossible to generate true love for one’s neighbor or for God – which is the basis of all moral Law. Such love comes only as a Divine gift. It cannot be self-produced – not even a little bit. This is why Jesus said, very clearly, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). That’s literally true. Apart from the Spirit of God we are totally helpless. We cannot “keep the law” since we cannot be selflessly loving.

This is why, if you read the rest of the passage regarding the “working out of your own salvation”, written by Paul, you will discover that it is actually God who gives us to “will and to do” – so that nothing is of our own doing aside from accepting the gifts of God… so that there is absolutely no basis for one to claim credit for one’s own good works based on loving motives. These are nothing more than a gift straight from God for those who accept the call of His Spirit and open the door.

Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12)

In other words, if we simply stop resisting the Spirit of God, we will be drawn into righteousness by Him through His power.

You honestly think that you can simply choose to do good through your own willpower (which is a form of salvation by works), but you just can’t. Such is only possible through the Power of the Spirit of God working within your heart. Otherwise, your situation would be completely hopeless with you completely powerless to change your own heart to even appreciate the things of God.

The same is true for me. Outside of Divine Power, I wouldn’t even be attracted to the Law of Love.

Here’s how Mrs. White put it:

He who is trying to become holy by his own works in keeping the law, is attempting an impossibility. All that man can do without Christ is polluted with selfishness and sin. It is the grace of Christ alone, through faith, that can make us holy… Instead of releasing man from obedience, it is faith, and faith only, that makes us partakers of the grace of Christ, which enables us to render obedience. We do not earn salvation by our obedience; for salvation is the free gift of God, to be received by faith. But obedience is the fruit of faith…

Here is the true test: If we abide in Christ, if the love of God dwells in us, our feelings, our thoughts, our purposes, our actions, will be in harmony with the will of God as expressed in the precepts of His holy law. “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous.” 1 John 3:7. Righteousness is defined by the standard of God’s holy law, as expressed in the ten precepts given on Sinai…

Since we are sinful, unholy, we cannot perfectly obey the holy law. We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. But Christ has made a way of escape for us. Christ changes the heart. He abides in your heart by faith. You are to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of your will to Him; and so long as you do this, He will work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. So you may say, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. So Jesus said to His disciples, “It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” Matthew 10:20. Then with Christ working in you, you will manifest the same spirit and do the same good works –works of righteousness, obedience. So we have nothing in ourselves of which to boast. We have no ground for self-exaltation. Our only ground of hope is in the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and in that wrought by His Spirit working in and through us…

If you will but yield yourself to Him, He that hath begun a good work in you will carry it forward to the day of Jesus Christ. Pray more fervently; believe more fully. As we come to distrust our own power, let us trust the power of our Redeemer, and we shall praise Him who is the health of our countenance.

The closer you come to Jesus, the more faulty you will appear in your own eyes; for your vision will be clearer, and your imperfections will be seen in broad and distinct contrast to His perfect nature. This is evidence that Satan’s delusions have lost their power; that the vivifying influence of the Spirit of God is arousing you.

Mrs. White, Steps to Christ, p. 57-65

Sean Pitman Also Commented

The Sabbath and the Covenants (Old vs. New)
Response to a comment of a friend of mine posted in another forum:

    “Before the way of FAITH IN CHRIST was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, UNTIL the way of faith was revealed. The law was our guardian UNTIL Christ came; it protected us UNTIL we could be made right with God through FAITH. And now that the way of FAITH has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. For you are all children of God through FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS.” Gal3:23-26

Faith is certainly what saves. This has always been true since the very beginning. Even those righteous persons who lived before Jesus was born into this world as a human being, even Moses or David for instance, were not saved by the works of the Law, but by Faith. The purpose of the Law was never to save, but to convict the sinner of a need of a Savior – since all have sinned against the “Royal Law.” It is faith in the Savior that saves. The work of the Law, carefully considered, is to lead us to know that our only hope of salvation is faith in what Jesus, our Savior, did for us and is doing for us. Yet, this faith does not nullify the Law or make the Law pointless when it comes to its job to constantly remind us of our need of a Savior – a saving Power outside of ourselves. Rather, the Power realized through this faith actually enables us to keep the Spirit of the Law as it was originally intended to be kept – through selfless love for God and for our neighbors.

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, makes this point particularly clear:

Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. – Romans 3:31

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous. Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts… If a man who is not circumcised keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? – Romans 2:13-15, 26

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! – Romans 6:15

What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” … So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good… For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. – Romans 7:7, 11, 22-25

For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit… The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. – Romans 8:3-4, 7

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. – Romans 13:8-10


The Sabbath and the Covenants (Old vs. New)
Pastor Bill Loveless often used the term “mysticism” in a rather unique way which Mrs. White would have never applied to herself. She often spoke against spiritualism and mysticism as it relates to spiritualism. Here is an example of what she wrote against mysticism vs. true sanctification in Christ:

All this spiritualistic love is a mysticism that saints will not for one moment allow their minds to be drawn away to—considering the presumptuous thought of sanctifying adultery to become lawful. We all need now to come to a knowledge of saving truth by a living, daily, proved experience of the sanctifying of the soul through the truth. Coming to Christ in living surrender of the soul is the coming to a personal Saviour to be a partaker of His divine nature, having overcome the corruption that is in the world through lust. It is by the Holy Spirit’s direct guidance that each believing soul may sanctify himself through love of the pure principles of the truth. (Mrs. White, False Ideas of Sanctification, MS 241, 1902)


The Sabbath and the Covenants (Old vs. New)
Neither Venden or MacCarty believe or teach that faith removes individuality or personality or free will. Rather, as Mrs. White puts is, they promote the idea that faith allows the Spirit of God to create in us growing oneness of mind, character, and purpose with God in our daily walk with Him while still maintaining our own individual personalities.

Here the position of Jesus Christ in reference to his Father is brought to view. While they are one in purpose, and one in mind, yet in personality they are two. May we not learn from this that there is to be unity between believers? There is no reason why one should feel that it is necessary for him to bring others to the exact line of his own individuality. So long as we are subject to the temptations of Satan, we shall each have all we can possibly attend to, in order to maintain a right relation to God, that Christ may do for us his atoning work. And though we may differ in the form of words, and in the expression of our individuality, yet our words may be sanctified, and our characters purified through the sacrifice of Christ. (Mrs. White, R&H, 1907).

This is not spiritualism or mysticism, but the true Christian walk that is also based on faith in the Power of God to lead us in His way.


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Beyond this, the GC Leadership did, in fact, write in support of personal religious convictions on this topic – and there are GC lawyers who have and continue to write personal letters in support of personal religious convictions (even if these personal convictions are at odds with the position of the church on a given topic). Just because the GC leadership also supports the advances of modern medicine doesn’t mean that the GC leadership cannot support individual convictions at the same time. Both are possible. This is not an inconsistency.