Last Generation Theology and Perfection

What is moral perfection, and how does the Final Atonement relate to our performance?

Three things need to be addressed here:

• We have been too dogmatic about perfection. Sure, doctrine coaches us on how to love, but love cannot be put in the box of doctrine or dogma.
• A focus on perfection turns God into our critic and punisher.
• Many Christians are confused about what it means to keep the law perfectly, and it all comes down to the definition of sin.

It’s All Futile Without Love

In the end, no matter what doctrine we hold to, it will be whether we learn how to love from Christ (and especially how to love those who hold different doctrine) that distinguishes between sheep and goats. Doctrine, held above our gracious treatment of those who disagree with us, is not keeping the law. The rubber meets the road on how we treat others, whether we are Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Christian, or Atheist. See 1 Corinthians 13. There is reason why Saint John’s plea—more than any other—was “My little children, love one another.” God’s love reveals itself in its brightest rays by how we treat others. The problem in the church, and certainly in the Seventh-day Adventist church, has not been to focus too little on the law. Our problem has been to focus too little on Jesus and His love and to make it practical in our lives.

A focus on Jesus will bring us to love each other, regardless of our differences in theology. A focus on Jesus will allow us to work together, regardless of our theology. A love for Jesus will lead us to rejoice together in the Lord, even though our doctrines clash.

The Danger of Focusing on Perfection

Our tendency as humans is to focus on our performance, and systems of theology, like Last Generation Theology, certainly don’t do us any favors. I believe the error of this theology is not so much in theory as in focus. Those who focus on Jesus will grow in grace and perfection unto salvation as naturally as a child grows, regardless of their theology. The danger of Last Generation Theology is its unbalanced focus on perfection. Morris Venden speaks clearly to its failure:

“Perfection is God’s work, not mine…It’s only safe to talk about perfection over easy…because if I spend much time talking about perfections it’s going to focus my attention right in on myself: How far have I come? How far do I have to go? I wonder if I’m going to make it in time for the end of the world? The moment my attention is focused on myself is the moment that there is no hope whatever for perfection, for perfection, overcoming, and obedience all come from looking to Jesus…I will never succeed by focusing on myself.”

Creating a Critical God

A focus on perfection subtly brings us to see God as just as critical toward us as we are toward ourselves. He becomes our critic and faultfinder. It ultimately paints God as our rewarder and punisher, depending on whether we’ve been naughty or nice. Unfortunately, we make God in our own image and then live under the lie of what that image whispers to us. We become like the God we serve.

What Is Perfection?

A critical and legalistic emphasis draws us far away from the truth about what sin actually is. Many believe that bad habits—like smoking, drinking, swearing, and abusing others—are the essence of sin when these things are only the fruits of sin. However, sin is essentially a rebellious attitude toward God, an unwillingness to trust Him, a refusal to be humbly willing to listen to Him.

Once this core of rebellion is overcome in response to God’s love, then we are no longer sinners. We are safe to save—even if it takes a while to work out the bad habits. Graham Maxwell interprets Ellen White’s statement about not sinning, even by a thought, dead on when he says that the long debate between faith, works, and obedience that has troubled saints through the years can be easily resolved if we look at the biblical word for obedience.

Obedience, from the original language, means “listening under,” a humble willingness to listen. If we love and trust God, of course we’ll be willing to listen. Could God’s expectation of our willingness to listen be 100%? Our performance may be weak; we may stumble as we leave our doctor’s office, but is it too much to ask us not to cheat in our willingness to listen? Even the weakest saint can be 100% here. Even the weakest saint can continue to come back to God with a humble spirit every time they fall. If we trust God, that is enough. That is all God ever asked for.

“The word for obedience means ‘listening under’ or ‘a willingness to listen.’ God does not expect perfect performance. If I’ve gone to my physician with an advanced case of arthritis, then he doesn’t expect me to run the 4 minute mile on the way home. He even helps me down the steps into my wheel chair maybe. He says, ‘Do a little better this week and be sure and come back and take your medication.’ All He asks of me is a willingness to listen and cooperate. I might die tomorrow, but I’m going to die His trusting patient. And I will arise His trusting patient, and all will be well.” – Graham Maxwell

The Ultimate Divide

Finally, in Servant God, Dorothee Cole pulls it all together:

“The purpose of the church today is to be active in the world wherever there is need and to suffer when necessary for the good of others. Anything that draws our time and focus from reflecting Jesus in the here and now—be it a preoccupation with the second coming or an excessive focus on doctrines, Bible prophecy, and our own salvation—can become counterproductive to the Kingdom when reaching out to the suffering world around us has taken on secondary importance.”

For many, sin is failing to keep the rules, and salvation is saying with the rich young ruler, “I have kept all these things from my youth up.” In that final day, many will say, “I kept your law. I preached Your true doctrine, and held fast to a plain thus saith the Lord. I held Your standard high and cleansed the Your church of sinners.” Yet the Lord will sadly say, “Inasmuch as you did not love the least of these, you did not love Me.”

Love is where reality meets doctrine. It’s how we treat others, not how well we do church and dogma, that is the thermometer of our devotion to God.