Objection 95: Christ is the center and circumference of salvation. Paul declared to the Corinthian church: "I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." 1 Cor. 2:2. But Seventh day Adventists, in their emphasis on the law and the Sabbath, and other peculiar doctrines, markedly fail to give Christ that central, dominant position that true Christians give to Him.
We believe our “peculiar doctrines” strikingly emphasize Christ. Note these facts:
1. Law: We teach that "sin is the transgression of the law," and that all mankind stands guilty and condemned before God. If God's law could have been abolished, Christ's substitutionary death on our behalf would not have been necessary to our salvation.
Could the law have been set aside, Christ’s death on Calvary would serve only as a beautiful exhibit of a good man's dying for a noble ideal, and setting before us a noble example. This position, popularly known as the “moral influence theory,” is indeed held by many Christians today. But this view of the atonement robs Christ's death of its legal necessity, and hence of its salvific significance.
By contrast, Seventh-day Adventists hold that God's law could not be set aside; hence a guilty sinner’s only hope is found in Christ, who bore his sins and died in his stead. How could we give greater significance to Christ as our savior and redeemer?
2. Sabbath: As set forth elsewhere (Objections 45 and 46), the seventh day Sabbath focuses the worshiper's mind on the great truth that Christ created the world in six literals days, and rested on the seventh day, the truth denied by evolutionists today. God the Father “created all things by Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 3:9. "For by Him [Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him." Col. 1:16. So Christ is just as much the Creator God as God the Father.
Now what would we think of Christ if He created, as the evolutionists allege, through a slow process, requiring millions of years of predation, animal suffering, and death? We would think that Christ is a cruel creator indeed. But the Adventist doctrine, which keeps in memory that Christ created a good world, free of death, disease, and predation, in six literal days, and rested upon the seventh day, protects Christ from this charge of being a cruel creator.
The Sabbath doctrine also emphasizes Christ’s role as redeemer from the Fall. Because our minds are weekly focused upon the original perfect world of the seventh day of that first creation week, we realize how terrible was the fall of our first parents, and how necessary and important is Christ’s role as redeemer from the Fall.
The Fall makes no sense to someone who has been raised and educated in the Darwinian tradition because, according to Darwinism, mankind never fell. To the contrary, he began as an ape-like animal some two million years ago, and has been improving steadily, both intellectually and morally, ever since. As a race, we have raised ourself up from mere beasts to a race of creative genius and astonishing accomplishments, finally setting foot on the moon. There was no first Adam, he is mere myth, so we have no need of a second Adam to redeem the race from the catastrophe of Adam’s Fall.
It is only by contemplating each week the fact that we were created in innocent perfection and fell into sin that we see the necessity for our redemption both as a race and as individuals. Hence, the Sabbath doctrine greatly glorifies Christ in His role as the Second Adam, the redeemer of the race that the first Adam caused to fall into sin.
3. Sanctuary. We keep before our adherents the earthly sanctuary service, given to the Israelites by God through Moses, teaching that it was a type of the heavenly service that is conducted for man's salvation. The system of animal sacrifices makes vivid to men the reality that the shedding of Christ’s blood was necessary for the remission of sins (Heb. 9:22), a truth de-emphasized in today’s Christian world, especially in mainline Protestantism, which has abandoned biblical Christianity in favor of chamber-of-commerce-style civic boosterism and self-improvement.
We see in the earthly lambs slain a type of the Lamb of God who was slain from the foundation of the earth (Rev. 13:8); in the earthly Passover, a type of "Christ our Passover,” who is-sacrificed for us; in the earthly priests, a type of Christ our high priest who ministers in heaven above for us. (See 1 Cor. 5:7; Heb. 8:1) How could we more highly emphasize or honor Christ in our teachings?
4. Conditional immortality. We take literally and truly believe that, "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternally life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” We believe in death because the Bible has much to say about it (1 Cor. 15:21-22). The first death, suffered by all (Heb. 9:27), has no ultimate significance, because of the resurrection of the dead.
But the second death is the fate of all who reject the salvation provided by Jesus Christ; that death means annihilation, because from it there is no resurrection. Hence, we are led most fully to exalt Christ as the only hope of life. We take literally His words: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10. We believe that 1ife and immortality were brought to light through the gospel of our Lord, and in no other way. (2 Tim. 1:10.)
Since Christ is the ultimate judge of everyone—Scripture tells us that the Father has committed judgment to Christ (2 Tim. 4:1; John 5:22; Acts 10:42)—what would we think of Christ as the judge of the whole world if every unsaved person regardless how they lived their lives, was condemned to be tortured eternally in Hell? Just as, under the evolution doctrine, Christ is a cruel creator, under the immortal soul doctrine, Christ is a astonishingly cruel judge.
The doctrine that death is real, and the unsaved will really die and not be tortured forever, greatly glorifies Jesus Christ in his role as judge of the universe! How could we more highly honor Christ than by teaching that death is, in fact, very real, and that we are immortal only by and through the grace of Jesus Christ?
5. Prophecy: It is in the books of Daniel and the Revelation, so frequently the basis of the sermons at our evangelistic meetings, that we find some of the most glorious passages describing Christ's power and coming kingdom. The opening words of the Revelation state, “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass.” Rev. 1:1. We show Christ walking amid the seven candlesticks (Rev. 1:13) in the sanctuary in Heaven, to Christ "a Lamb as it had been slain" (Rev. 5:6), to Christ as "King of kings, and Lord of lords" (Rev. 19:16) coming to set up His everlasting kingdom.
When we preach from the prophetic book of Daniel, the 2,300 days prophecy opens to view Christ’s role, after the cross, of making intercession for Christ’s people. (Heb. 7:25; John 2:1), then, beginning in 1844, Christ’s central role in the judgment. (2 Tim. 4:1; John 5:22; Acts 10:42). Comprising the first part of the 2,300 days is the seventy-weeks prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27, which points unmistakably to the first advent of Jesus Christ. This prophecy proves that the Christ who was born in Bethlehem was indeed "Messiah the prince," whom "Moses and all the prophets" had foretold. Christ is at the very center of Bible prophecy as understood by Seventh-day Adventists.
We have considered briefly how just five of our distinctive teachings emphasize Jesus Christ and vindicate His great love, mercy and justice. Yes, Christianity is all about Jesus Christ, and the distinctive teachings of Adventism elevate Christ, and draw attention to Christ’s various ministries on our behalf.