Years ago, a popular Christian author wrote a book titled, The Jesus I Never Knew [##1|Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing Co, 1995).##]. Sadly, some contemporary Adventists are promoting a Jesus the Bible never knew.

A recent editorial on a liberal Adventist website promotes this fictive view of Jesus. The editorial is brief enough to reproduce here in its entirety:

“A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: ‘If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they … will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever’ ” (Revelation 14: 9–11).

Revelation’s author believed that there were people in the Roman Empire who deserved God’s worst punishment. Emperor Nero, for example: he is said to have murdered his mother, burned Rome, and tortured Christians. Though historians say not all the stories about Nero are true, some Christians identified him as Revelation’s beast.

But Adventists did something different. We said the beast wasn’t someone back then, but someone now. That someone is the pope, and the “mark” for which he and his fellow Roman Catholic believers are tormented, according to Adventists, is worshiping Jesus on Sunday. His “image” is all the Protestants who also worship Jesus on Sunday.

So according to the usual Adventist interpretation, Jesus and the angels will be spectators as Roman Catholics, including Leo XIV (loves the White Sox and Chicago pizza; favorite movie It’s a Wonderful Life; favorite book Brother Lawrence’s The Practice of the Presence of God) are tormented with “burning sulfur.” The “image” suffers, too, so that means Billy Graham and his fellow Baptists will burn “for ever and ever.” (Billy and Leo and their followers, don’t forget, are resurrected just to be burned!)

And why are they thus tormented in Jesus’ presence? Because they worshiped him in a different building and on a different day than we do!

It is time to disown this teaching. Not nuance it. Not avoid mentioning it. Not try to explain it.

To simply deny it wholly. Because Jesus isn’t like that [2].

The few short words quoted above can lead us off in numerous and perhaps distracting directions, though for anyone to try mitigating history’s condemnation of Nero is appalling, to say the least. One need not accept the premises of Scripture or classic Seventh-day Adventism to recognize the despicable, grotesque character of this particular Roman emperor; a quick perusal of Miriam Griffin’s acclaimed biography, Nero: The End of a Dynasty [##3|Miriam T. Griffin, Nero: The End of a Dynasty (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984).##], is sufficient to confirm this ruler’s negative profile so far as credible history is concerned.

Moreover, how can anyone educated in the Seventh-day Adventist Church fail to understand that the phrase “for ever and ever” means everlasting consequences, not everlasting pain, so far as the punishment of the wicked is concerned? And the notion of consigning specific Christian leaders to the fires of hell, as the above editorial presumes so far as classic Adventism is concerned, has no basis whatsoever in the witness of mainstream denominational sources. Seventh-day Adventists have consistently held that God has faithful followers throughout the professed Christian community [##4|Ellen G. White, Last Day Events, pp. 197-198.##], and that ignorant adherence to unscriptural teachings does not disqualify a person for heaven (Acts 17:30; James 4:17) [##5|——Early Writings, p. 254.##].

The Jesus of Scripture

The core problem with the above editorial, however, is not the above misstatements and misperceptions, but its abysmal ignorance of the teachings of Scripture regarding the Jesus the author and his fellow travelers claim to adore.

For starters, on what basis does the author of this editorial determine what in fact Jesus is “like,” if it isn’t the Biblical record? The Jesus described in the Gospels could certainly be severe at times, as His driving out of the money-changers from the temple and similar experiences bear witness. Jesus’ message to the church of Laodicea notes the need for corrective though loving severity in the words: “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent” (Rev. 3:19). And at His second coming, the following is said of Jesus:

And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God (Rev. 19:15).

The editorial in question finds it reprehensible to believe apparently sincere Christian people will suffer punishment in hellfire one day “because they worshiped [Christ] in a different building and on a different day than we do” [6]. And yet, according to the Bible, our first parents were expelled from Paradise because they ate fruit from a tree God forbade them to partake of (Gen. 3:6,22-24). Nadab and Abihu were struck dead for using the wrong fire to offer incense in the tabernacle (Lev. 10:1-2); and Uzzah met a similar fate for “steadying” the ark of the covenant in an act many would regard as reflexive common sense (II Sam. 6:6-7). Moreover, King Uzziah was smitten with leprosy for daring to burn incense in the temple, something only the priests were allowed to do (II Chron. 26:16-22).

Many other examples could be given as to how the God of the Old Testament—with whom the New Testament repeatedly identifies Christ (e.g. I Cor. 10:1-5)—was very particular about obedience. (Just ask Lot’s wife.) Reaffirming the teachings of the Bible on this point, Ellen White speaks of how the One who forbade Lot and his family to look back as they fled Sodom was Jesus Himself [##7|White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 160.##], and that it was “in obedience to the command of Christ” that the angel of the Lord slew 185,000 of the Assyrian army [##8|——The Desire of Ages, p. 700.##].

So to claim that Jesus wouldn’t inflict the torments of hellfire on people who violate one of His commandments is to deny the collective witness of Scripture as to God’s imperative of loving but faithful obedience on the part of His people, and the dire consequences of choosing a contrary course.

Conclusion

When we begin to judge God and the Bible based on humanly contrived notions of love, grace, and mercy, we invite spiritual misguidance and eventual disaster. The inspired guardrails are given for a purpose. Wandering outside of them—“thinking outside the box,” as some call it—in theological and moral speculation, is never wise. What Jesus is like is not for us to decide. God’s Word has already done that.

REFERENCES

1. Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing Co, 1995).

2. Loren Seibold, “EDITORIAL: Jesus Isn’t Like That,” Adventist Today, Oct. 17, 2026 https://atoday.org/editorial-jesus-isnt-like-that/

3. Miriam T. Griffin, Nero: The End of a Dynasty (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984).

4. Ellen G. White, Last Day Events, pp. 197-198.

5. ----Early Writings, p. 254.

6. Seibold, “EDITORIAL: Jesus Isn’t Like That,” Adventist Today, Oct. 17, 2026 https://atoday.org/editorial-jesus-isnt-like-that/

7. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 160.

8. ----The Desire of Ages, p. 700.