The battle between Ted Wilson and Jonathan Leonardo part 1

 At the 2023 Fall Council Ted Wilson said the following at 2:48.30

“There are misconceptions and false doctrines circulating about the salvation process these false doctrines diminish sanctification one false movement you may not have heard about it and that's fine but it is circulating among some of our university and college campuses it's called love reality and it's been teaching this false understanding about Christ's full justifying and sanctifying righteousness now these are derivatives of the false doctrine of once saved always say which Seventh-Day Advent unfortunate it is promoted that behavior is not important since God loves you and just don't worry about what you're doing as long as you feel embraced by God's love god's love is powerful important but these folks doctrines are very dangerous and should not be accepted since they destroy the entire understanding of Christ justifying and sanctifying righteousness we are facing ion we are facing the shaking and sifting. Now, there are those who are drifting out of a clear understanding of who we are and what we believe do not be tempted with false doctrines that take you away from God's Remnant church we have been chosen for mission…”

Yesterday 1/12/2024 Ted Wilson put out a video entitled A Message from Pastor Ted Wilson: The Foundation of Salvation The beginning of this video shows that it is intended to be his response though somewhat cloaked to Jonathan Leonardo and his Love Reality tour. My original intention was to deal with Ted Wilson's inaccurate assertion that Jonathan Leonardo was teaching a once saved always saved doctrine which very clearly he is not doing and in general the Adventist conception of once saved always saved is a fiction and not what those who believe in eternal security believe at all. The Adventist mythology is that once saved always saved is just say you are saved and do whatever you want. They forget the whole thing about repentance, regeneration a new life, etc.  But as of a day or two ago, it appears that Ted Wilson has refined his thinking a bit. What he has literally done however is to assert against Jonathan Leonardo’s free from sin presentation with Wilson's preferred Last Generation Theology which asserts that at some time there will be a final generation who perfectly reproduce the character of Christ and through Christ’s power, they live a sinless life. Notice in the closing section Wilson says:

  “May each of us be so filled with the power of the Holy Spirit that people will say those seventh day Adventists they know Jesus he lives in their hearts and they are the greatest Proclaimers of Christ's righteousness. I hope that will be your experience and mine.” 

In the Last Generation Theology link above Wilson says in the interview:

“As we consecrate ourselves to Christ and allow Him to work in us to stay close to Him and His Word, we can then realize that beautiful quotation from “Christ’s Object Lessons”: “Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own” (p. 69).”

 

If there were Adventists that were already living the perfect righteousness of Christ this would not be something he would have to point to it as a hope for our and his experience. So it only works as a last-generation thing. For everyone else they simply must endure until the end always at risk of losing one’s salvation. But that is another subject.

 

 

Ted Wilson begins:

“Greetings friends today we are considering a very important question what is reality especially the reality when it comes to our Salvation some say there is something called love reality and while there is a love that is real it is important that we understand that true love the true reality of love only comes from God and it is defined in his word now in 1 John chapter 4 veres 7 to8 we read beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God he who does not love does not know God for God is love you see God is indeed love and nowhere is his love revealed more clearly than in the Plan of Salvation The Book of Matthew records a fascinating parable of Jesus it's about a wedding and a proper wedding attire in…”

Like most parables, the intent is not to symbolize a bunch of different aspects of the story. You can do that and make it fit with things that have happened easily enough but those hearing the story could not do that because those things that people use to symbolize in the story had not happened yet. For instance, someone could say that the destruction of those who rejected the first invitation is symbolic of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. It fits well but could not be what Jesus intended to mean to those who heard the story. In short, the message of the parable is summed up in the final line, “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” All have been invited, but not all have accepted the invitation. Likely the person without the wedding garment is a reference to the Pharisees who Matthew 22 refers to after the parable in verse 15 : “Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.”

People who were there with Jesus, hearing his words of the Kingdom but actively trying to work against Jesus, which I would speculate that those hearing Jesus did have some understanding of the Pharisees' animus toward Jesus.

Wilson then follows with some of the language he used in his Oct. 2023 sermon in reference to the Love Reality Tour and others confusing the brethren.

3:54 "Today as God's message is proclaimed there will be people who aren't aligned with God's holy word but will be part of those who come to the very end of time there will be the good and the bad the wheat and the tears but there will be a shaking and in fact I believe the shaking has begun there's only one way you and I can prevent ourselves from being swept up with erroneous ideas and cultural implications that push against God's word there's only one way from being shaken out and that is complete Reliance upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ we must receive Christ's justifying power his sanctifying power his justifying righteousness and sanctifying righteousness is Reviving and reforming power and righteousness you see the Bible is filled with beautiful  promises showing what Jesus can and will do for us when we accept his robe of righteousness as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe on his name Philippians 2:5…”

 

I will note here that as many Adventists do Wilson misuses the wheat and tares parable but he also introduces another non-Biblical idea referred to in Adventism as “the shaking”. As  Ministry Magazine writes about the shaking way back in 1931 the only verse they can find is this:

“In that day the glory of Jacob will fade;  the fat of his body will waste away. ⁵ It will be as when reapers harvest the standing rain, gathering the grain in their arms— as when someone gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. ⁶ Yet some gleanings will remain, when an olive tree is beaten, leaving two or three olives on the topmost branches,  four or five on the fruitful boughs,” declares the Lord, the God of Israel.”

The King James Bible uses the word shaking of course, but the harvest is those that are shaken from the trees not the few that remain on the tree. They had to work to keep this idea of the shaking in Adventism!

 

But to get on with his method of interpretation he inserts some more Ellen White’s perspective into the story as follows:

 6:13 Asked how did you come in here without a wedding garment the man was speechless this poor fellow even though he'd been given a perfect suit didn't accept and wear it the king not only invites us to the wedding of his son he also provides the right clothing as a gift when Christ provides his robe of righteousness it's a perfect fit and it fits everyone we just need to accept it and put it on that magnificent book Christ's Object lessons I hope you've read it I hope you will read it it delves deeply Into The Parables of Jesus Christ there we read in that book that the wedding garment represents the pure spotless character which Christ's true followers will possess please notice it's not our character it's Christ's character it is the righteousness of Christ his own unblemished character that through faith is imparted to all who receive him as their personal savior.

  Do we really believe this now on the following page we read this wonderful promise only the covering which Christ himself has provided can make us meet or prepared to appear in God's presence this covering the robe of his own righteousness Christ will put upon every repenting believing Soul this robe woven in the loom of Heaven has in it not one thread of human devising Christ in his Humanity wrought out a perfect character and this character he offers to impart to us all our righteousness are as filthy rags by his perfect obedience he has made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments

 So dear friends don't fall for the Trap that people set up when they say it's not possible to keep the Commandments it's not possible to live a perfect life it's true that you can't live a perfect life on your own there's no possible way but with the robe of Christ's righteousness covering us and his power his sanctifying power living within us we are able to follow wherever he leads and then something else happens sanctification starts to move in and that is Christ's righteousness when we submit ourselves to Christ the heart is united with his heart the will is merged in his will the Mind becomes one with his mind the thoughts are brought into captivity to him we live his life this is what it means to be clothed with the Garment of his righteousness.

 Righteousness is right-doing and it is by their deeds that all will be judged our characters are revealed by what we do the works show whether the faith is genuine.

 Now we read further that it is in this life that we are to put on the robe of Christ's righteousness this is our only opportunity to form characters for the home which Christ has made for those who obey his Commandments take  heed lest you be found at the king's Feast without a wedding in garment are you willing my friend to receive from the hand of Christ his covering garment that will enable you to be a co-laborer with Heaven accepting the beautiful gift of Christ's robe that covers and transforms us into His Image is foundational to becoming a follower of Christ.

  May each of us be so filled with the power of the Holy Spirit that people will say those seventh day Adventists they know Jesus he lives in their hearts and they are the greatest Proclaimers of Christ's righteousness I hope that will be your experience and mine.

  I invite you to pray with me just now Father in Heaven thank you for the righteousness of Christ for his grace and his provision for eternal life as we lean completely on the righteousness of Christ his justifying righteousness his sanctifying

Part 2 on Jonathan Leonardo coming soon.

Break Out of Chains

I have been staying away from sermons for the past several weeks. After all when you try to talk to your pastor through the written word and he ignores you after his initial response there appears little reason to expect worthwhile material to come from him through the efforts of a sermon. To use the biblical metaphor of being faithful in little things, how can someone who can’t defend or expound his ideas in direct communication hope to do so in the larger sermon context.

So it being Easter Weekend we were treated to the efforts of the Pastor to explain the meaning of the Resurrection. Which he did an adequate job on. Of course he had to include the idea that Jesus paid our penalty and that He was our Substitute, including the special music of the song “The Day He Wore My Crown”. Because of course we being human with the virus of sin, are sick and we deserve to be killed on a cross while wearing a crown of thorns. After all as the lesson study of our church for April 2010 said “the fact of the matter is we all deserve death." Isn’t it strange how when Christians talk religion they use such ideas as we all deserve death but when someone’s child or loved one dies we don’t tell them well he or she deserved to die after all. No it is a phrase we use when we want to talk God’s atonement. Like this worksheet from a Christian church says:

“I am guilty before God and I deserve death and hell, and the death penalty must be paid. God the righteous Judge cannot overlook sin. The Lord Jesus came to earth and paid the death penalty for me. He died as my Substitute.”

I always wonder when I read these types of statements “cannot overlook sin” if these people have any conception of what the word forgive means. After all it is in the rather famous Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” (Luke 11:4). Now that statement is far more philosophical than actual because we are pretty poor at forgiving other people even at our best and we would certainly hope that God forgives us better than we forgive others. So the statement is more likely indicative of the concept that God completely forgives us and we need to strive to follow His example and be willing to forgive others. But how would that work if one believed that there was no forgiveness unless first a penalty had to be paid?

But it sounds so religious to say we all deserve death. It’s what all the preachers are saying so we keep saying it. It has become tradition. Now there is certainly some truth in the concept, we are mortal, we will die, it is a fact of nature and the statistical rate of death to life is pretty much 1:1 for the last several thousand years. If God did not do something about it then that death would be certain and final. So if God chooses to give eternal life to someone it is all God’s doing and not because anyone was deserving of God giving them a special gift. As if they had something over God and God just had to give them a gift to return the favor that person had shown to God.

So what is easy and correct and inarguable “we are mortal and we die” turns into “man deserves to die”, and we don’t even believe it but because we keep hearing it from our religious teachers we parrot it back because if you parrot back what your church says they will give you leadership roles in the church, they will count you as wise in the ways of the spirit.

To get back to my experience with the sermon today. The pastor at one point reflected upon the statement of Christ:

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6 NIV)

As part of the resurrection sermon he used this statement to indicate that the only way to salvation is through Jesus. So what does that mean to all of the millions or billions of people that have never heard of Jesus Christ? Well according to fundamentalism it means they have no shot at salvation. The Website Religious Tolerance notes several statements from Fundamentalist Christians including the following:

A Christian missionary, William Carey, and generations of missionaries who followed in his wake...who "believed...that...Personal faith in Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation for all peoples everywhere, and those who die without this saving knowledge face eternal separation from God."

Of course that makes little sense because if you had to believe in Jesus Christ how could any of the Old Testament folks be saved. The apologetics website CARM says the following to answer this predicament:

As you can see, the Bible tells us that Abraham was justified by faith (see Rom. 5:1 and Eph. 2:8-9). That is, his faith is reckoned as righteousness, v. 4 above. They were saved by faith in the Messiah in whom they were trusting. Only, for them it was a trust in the future Messiah. They knew He was coming as had been prophesied.

In other words when the Bible talks about these people having faith in God it meant that they had faith in the Messiah who was to come even if they really had no knowledge of said Messiah and even though the Old Testament writings give very little foreshadowing of the Messiah. If you look up the texts which CARM uses you will see that they say noting about the Old Testament folks having faith in a coming Messiah but since they have made an exclusivist claim they have to insert new meanings into the Bible to back up their incorrect ideas.

But just like the religiosity of saying we all deserve death there is a traditionalism that sounds so good in saying that the only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ paid the penalty and became our substitute. After all we all have to have a substitute or God will have to kill us because we deserve to die because God cannot overlook sin, someone has to pay the penalty or there is no forgiveness from God. I know it does not sound very logical and it is not logical it is traditional, it is what we have allowed our preachers and their sermons to tell us without questioning what they are saying. After all how many times have you heard your pastor answer questions after he gives a sermon? Never for most of us, yet for some reason we think we are being trained in our Christian spirituality in those passive presentations by pastors who hardly ever see, read or hear contrary ideas to their traditions. They don’t go out and look for them, they usually don’t go to Sabbath School classes where real discussions occur preferring rather to lead their own Sabbath School classes or avoiding them altogether as they prepare to give their sermons.

If the pastors got out and listened or read more widely they could certainly come up with better material and they could explain logically verses that say there is no other way to salvation than through Christ. Because after all it is easy to do. Jesus Christ is God there is no salvation except by God granting salvation and He knows the heart of everyman whether they will accept His gift or not accept His gift, whether they would be happy to have a relationship with God or not. We don’t get to God, God gets to us, He is the prime mover He is the one who made the first move and ultimately the most revealing move through the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We did not go up to heaven to see a revelation of God, God incarnate came here. But that certainly does not mean that God is restricted to salvation of those who have heard the story of Jesus. That is not even a controversial idea in Adventist history as Ellen White who Adventist tradition has labeled a prophet expressed the idea that there will be many in heaven who never heard the name of Jesus Christ. But because there is this dogma so prevalent thanks to fundamentalism my pastor made the statement just like any fundamentalist would make. I am pretty sure he does not believe it the way he said it, but it is a sermon and sermons are meant to sound pleasing and spiritual and the best way to do that it seems, is to preach in trite statements, words that please the traditions of the consumer.

Christianity has to change; we have to move away from sermons the training ground for passive Christians to an engaged and thinking Christianity. I suppose that there will have to be another Reformation of Christianity to break us away from our traditional chains, but as I was reading the latest issue of Charisma Magazine online I see that the young leaders they highlighted are nothing close to the Reformational leadership the Christian church needs. There needs to be a movement from the ground up, an uprising against our own leadership. Think how much better God would be served if our leadership actually helped instead of hindered.

Please break your chains.