Explanation of Are you a Protestant or a Catholic?

Our church once had an Evangelical Adventist pastor, who had studied under Dr Desmond Ford. One afternoon he gave the church a quiz entitled 'Are you a Protestant or a Catholic?'. The *whole church* gave Catholic replies!

What was the quiz about? Had we all started praying to the Virgin Mary and wearing rosaries? No, it was about faith and works. The questions each posed alternative statements about the faith and works, one was a 'Catholic' reply, the other a 'Protestant' reply. The fact that our whole church of Traditional Adventists had given Catholic replies proved to me that the church needed to look again at her understanding of the law.

I posted these same questions to the list many weeks ago and have continually urged Traditional Adventists to answer the questions, but none have done so. The reason can only be that they are unsure of the answers and would rather not reply than get them 'wrong'.

In order to explain why the church is still 'in Babylon' in her understanding of the law we need to turn to Scripture. Time and again Protestantism has discovered that church 'tradition' is in conflict with Scripture, and the meaning of the term 'the law' is a classic example of this.

My simple contention in an earlier posting was this:

In the Bible the term 'the law' refers to the whole law of Moses, all the commands and decrees, and not just the Ten Commandments.

There have been a number of replies to my mail on the law. I have generally responded to each reply, but decided it would be useful to bring all the responses and replies together. I have done this in two postings within this group. The first deals with misunderstandings, where people seem to think I am saying something I am not, so I have covered these first. The second deals with actual arguments made against my claim, and my responses to them. I have also included some related mails, marked REPOST: so it is easy for people to find related material.

Finally, this discussion appears negative - it is attacking a Traditional Adventist doctrine. However its purpose is positive. Seventh-day Adventism is the completion of the Reformation. How can it be the completion when it still holds doctrines on the law inherited from the Catholic church and not from the Bible? Adventism has changed doctrines before and can do so again, truth is not something to be afraid of. I am convinced that by embracing Scripture and leaving tradition, the church can only grow stronger. This is also true for individuals. If you can discover the truth in Scripture, when before your belief was based on human tradition, you will have a better understanding of God and his revelation which can only help your spiritual life.

John