It was Will Rogers who once said of U.S. President Herbert Hoover: “It isn’t the things he doesn’t know that bother me; it’s the things he knows for sure that just ain’t so.” When I hear some Adventists talk about the assurance of salvation, I find myself bothered for the same reason.
Years ago, one church administrator (now retired) in the North American Division made the statement that if he, as a pastor, were visiting an attractive married woman who proceeded to seduce him into adultery, following which her husband unexpectedly came home and shot him dead, that because he (the pastor) was covered by the Lord’s justifying righteousness, he would be saved. This statement was repeated in public a number of times by this pastor-turned-administrator, including two occasions when pastoral colleagues of mine were present.
During my graduate school years at a prominent Adventist university, I heard similar sentiments from a pastor one Sabbath morning, who insisted that David remained a man after God’s own heart even while committing adultery and murder!
Numerous problems arise with illustrations and assertions such as these, problems which go beyond the likelihood of encouraging moral turpitude in any number of lines. One major problem is the underlying assumption that God is taken by surprise in the course of human events, thus necessitating some celestial “insurance policy” to cover earthly believers in case of “accidents.” As we will see, this is not how the inspired pen portrays divine guidance and governance of human affairs, nor how it portrays David’s relationship with God at this point in his spiritual journey.
David’s Fall
It is one of the saddest stories in the Bible.
The great king of a united Israel, the founder of his country’s longest-lasting royal dynasty, the progenitor of the Savior Himself, takes his ease on the palace rooftop at a moment when nearly all his enemies have been reduced to submission. Some have said that David should have been in the field with his army, as indeed this was the time “when kings go forth to battle” (II Sam. 11:1). But even if Israel’s legendary warrior needed a break, and could trust the competence of his generals to finish what was left of the victory, no excuse can be contrived for the dark deed that followed. Moreover, what a moment that would have been for the triumphant monarch to compose yet another psalm of praise, thanking with new flourishes of joy the God who had taken him from so little to so much!
But as the sight of something that was not his gave birth to lust and covetousness, holiness and the divine character surrendered to fleshly urges, adultery was consummated, and frantic means to hide the consequences followed in quick succession. In the end, murder became the only apparent path to cover-up. The inspired narrator hardly needs to tell us that “the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (II Sam. 11:27).
But as happens so often in the saga of human scandal, the cover-up unraveled. Ellen White recounts what happened next:
As time passed on, David’s sin toward Bathsheba became known, and suspicion was excited that he had planned the death of Uriah. The Lord was dishonored. He had favored and exalted David, and David’s sin misrepresented the character of God and cast reproach upon His name. It tended to lower the standard of godliness in Israel, to lessen in many minds the abhorrence of sin; while those who did not love and fear God were by it emboldened in transgression [##1|Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 720.##].
“Thou art the man!”
From the inspired record, and from what we know of ancient royal protocol, we can reconstruct the scene in King David’s palace that fateful day. Chances are, the prophet Nathan didn’t ask for a private audience; considering the public awareness at that point of the king’s misdeeds, that wouldn’t have made sense. We can imagine domestic and foreign dignitaries waiting their turn to approach the throne—Israelite elders and priests perhaps, possibly ambassadors from nations as distant as the Greek states, Babylon, even India and Tibet. Royal guards and high officials surround their sovereign, eager to do his bidding.
As the prophet leads the king through the parable that followed (II Sam. 12:1-6), identifying the monarch himself as the one whose crime his own outrage has condemned (verses 6-7), the hush that settles over the royal audience hall is palpable. Foreign emissaries likely suspect that at any moment this impudent intruder will be hauled out and executed. But instead, the king acknowledges his sin before all, very likely with tears and a breaking voice, and the prophet assures him that the God who knows his heart has witnessed his repentance and granted him pardon (verse 13).
I’ve often wondered what conversations could have been heard that night at the inns and restaurants throughout Jerusalem. Perhaps an Egyptian diplomat in a hotel dining room turns to a nearby priest whom he had seen at the palace, asking him what kind of society this was where a simple subject could rebuke the king’s behavior in a public venue. The priest could then tell the ambassador that in Israel the king was not an absolute monarch, that he was constrained to rule in accord with the law of Israel’s God. What a testimony that would have been to the uniqueness of the Israelite state in the world of that time!
Was David in a justified state when this happened?
Some have alleged that when David prayed in the 51st Psalm, “Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation” (verse 12), that this means David had only lost the joy of salvation by his transgression, not salvation itself. No one has yet, of course, demonstrated from Scripture that such a thing as joyless salvation exists! Taken as it reads, this verse is clear that David was no longer a saved man while these heinous deeds were committed and so long as they remained unrepented of.
Writing of David’s repentance and restoration, the modern prophet observes:
David was pardoned of his transgression because he humbled his heart before God in repentance and contrition of soul, and believed that God’s promise to forgive would be fulfilled. He confessed his sin, repented, and was reconverted [##2|——Our High Calling, p. 83.##].
Describing the consequences of the king’s fall, she writes elsewhere:
The prophet, in his reproof to David, had declared concerning his sin, “By this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.” Through successive generations infidels have pointed to the character of David, bearing this dark stain, and have exclaimed in triumph and derision, “This is the man after God’s own heart?” Thus a reproach has been brought upon religion, God and His word have been blasphemed, souls have been hardened in unbelief, and many, under a cloak of piety, have become bold in sin.
But the history of David furnishes no countenance to sin. It was while he was walking in the counsel of God that he was called a man after God’s own heart. When he sinned, this ceased to be true of him until by repentance he had returned to the Lord [##3|——Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 722-723.##].
In another statement she writes even more strongly on this point:
I was shown that it was when David was pure, and walking in the counsel of God, that God called him a man after His own heart. When David departed from God, and stained his virtuous character by his crimes, he was no longer a man after God’s own heart. God did not in the least degree justify him in his sins, but sent Nathan, His prophet, with dreadful denunciations to David because he had transgressed the commandment of the Lord [##4|——Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 379.##].
Any notion that believers retain their justified state while committing sin is exploded by the following inspired statement:
When man transgresses he is under the condemnation of the law, and it becomes to him a yoke of bondage. Whatever his profession may be he is not justified [##5|——My Life Today, p. 250 (italics supplied).##].
Elsewhere she writes:
Every impurity of thought, every lustful passion, separates the soul from God; for Christ can never put His robe of righteousness upon a sinner, to hide his deformity [##6|——Our High Calling, p. 214.##].
Every transgression brings the soul into condemnation, and provokes the divine displeasure [##7|——Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 623.##].
Despite what some believe, the inspired text doesn’t teach that believers first disconnect themselves from a relationship with God, and then choose to transgress the divine law. The Bible says, by contrast, that “your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you” (Isa. 59:2). Ellen White agrees:
Just as soon as we separate ourselves from God by sin, which is the transgression of His law, Satan takes control of our minds [##8|——Review and Herald, July 12, 1887.##].
“Man turns from God, not God from him”
For those who fear that defining salvation as a work in progress will deprive them of assurance and peace of mind, let them be reminded that the God we serve is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9). According to the inspired pen, repentance includes not only sorrow for sin, but also “a turning away from it” [##9|——Steps to Christ, p. 23.##]. In another statement, the modern prophet assures the Christian:
The angels never leave the tempted one a prey to the enemy who would destroy the souls of men if permitted to do so. As long as there is hope, until they resist the Holy Spirit to their eternal ruin, men are guarded by heavenly intelligences [##10|——Our High Calling, p. 23.##]..
Elsewhere she writes:
No soul is ever finally deserted of God, given up to his own ways, so long as there is any hope of his salvation. “Man turns from God, not God from him.” Our heavenly Father follows us with appeals and warnings and assurances of compassion, until further opportunities and privileges would be wholly in vain. The responsibility rests with the sinner. By resisting the Spirit of God today, he prepares the way for a second resistance of light when it comes with mightier power. Thus he passes on from one stage of resistance to another, until at last the light will fail to impress, and he will cease to respond in any measure to the Spirit of God [##11|——Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 93.##].
Here we find total harmony between the earlier Ellen White statements which speak of the rupture of our relationship with God through sin, and such inspired assurances as the following:
We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged. Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God [##12|——Steps to Christ, p. 64.##]
In other words, while we aren’t cast off by God because of our sins, we in fact sever ourselves from God by choosing to sin. But never should we forget the inspired statements cited above, that “no soul is ever finally deserted of God, given up to his own ways, so long as there is any hope of his salvation,” that “man turns from God, not God from him” [##13|——Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 93.##]. “As long as there is hope, until they resist the Holy Spirit to their eternal ruin, men are guarded by heavenly intelligences” [##14|——Our High Calling, p. 23.##].
Conclusion
The inspired record is therefore clear that neither David nor any other believer who chooses to disobey God remains in a justified condition while practicing sin of any kind. Whether the sin is premeditated, like David’s, or impulsive, matters not. Ellen White declares, speaking of Moses’ sin in striking the rock at Kadesh, “However great the pressure brought to bear upon the soul, transgression is our own act” [##15|——Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 421.##].
Elsewhere she writes:
If we are disobedient, our characters are out of harmony with God’s moral rule of government, and it is stating a falsehood to say, “I am saved.” No one is saved who is a transgressor of the law of God, which is the foundation of His government in heaven and in earth [##16|——Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 315.##].
But as we have seen, our God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9). None need indulge these popular “assurance” illustrations we hear so often, like the one cited at the beginning involving a supposedly “justified” pastor dying in the act of adultery. God is never taken by surprise in the course of history. He wants us in His kingdom more desperately than we want to get there. Thus, “as long as there is hope, until [we] resist the Holy Spirit to [our] eternal ruin, men are guarded by heavenly intelligences” [##17|——Our High Calling, p. 23.##].
REFERENCES
1. Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 720.
2. ----Our High Calling, p. 83.
3. Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 722-723.
4. ----Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 1, p. 379.
5. ----My Life Today, p. 250 (italics supplied).
6. ----Our High Calling, p. 214.
7. ----Testimonies, vol. 4, p. 623.
8. ----Review and Herald, July 12, 1887.
9. ----Steps to Christ, p. 23.
10. ----Our High Calling, p. 23.
11. ----Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 93.
12. ----Steps to Christ, p. 64.
13. ----Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing, p. 93.
14. ----Our High Calling, p. 23.
15. ----Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 421.
16. ----Selected Messages, vol. 1, p. 315.
17. ----Our High Calling, p. 23.
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