(Chapters 7 through 9)
It is true that Satan has counterfeited the cross and made its emblem the insignia of his kingdom. But it is also true that the principle of the cross is totally absent in Spiritualism and in apostate Christianity—the cross on which self is crucified "with Christ." A prominent opposer attributes to Sequeira (and by implication, the 1888 Message Study Committee) the suspicion of Spiritualism, because we speak so much about the agape-love revealed there. They warn us that if we hear someone talking about the love of Christ, get your guard up—beware.
Jones and Waggoner understood that "Christ and Him crucified" is the essence of the "third angel's message in verity." Ellen White agreed. How does Sequeira view the cross? This must now be the focal point of our investigation, because if Satan has inspired this book as his "masterpiece of deception," surely in this section we will find evidence of his slimy trail of deceit.
We note several points:
(a) "God took this apparent defeat [of Christ's cross] and turned it into a glorious victory by which the whole human race could be saved" (p. 73). Clearly, Sequeira does not teach that the "whole human race" will be ultimately saved. He says, "could be." By "saved" he means saved from premature death, saved in the same sense that a drowning man is saved from death by his rescuer. This "salvation" Christ has secured for "all men." In this sense He is "the Saviour of all men" in the present tense (1 Tim. 4:10).
(b) "At the cross ... Satan ... was totally defeated, judged, and condemned," past tense. Ellen White also recognizes that at the cross Satan suffered his determining defeat (Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. 69, 70; The Desire of Ages, pp. 679, 761). The fact that Satan was defeated at the cross does not deny that the closing issues of the great controversy are yet to be determined as God's people also defeat him "by the blood of the Lamb."
(c) Sequeira teaches a view that some Seventh-day Adventists have difficulty accepting—that the death of Christ was the equivalent of the second death. He arrays Scripture evidence to support this view, and relates this to practical Christian living: "Through the cross, we have said goodbye forever to the life we inherited in Adam. In exchange we have received the life of Christ. This truth, above any other, will determine whether we remain carnal Christians, living like ordinary men and women (see 1 Corinthians 3:1-3), or become spiritual Christians bearing the fruit of Christ's life (see John 15:4-8)" (p. 86).
(d) This view of the significance of Christ's death is totally different from that of the Evangelicals, and cannot be a "resurgence of the 'new theology.'" On the contrary, it is a "resurgence" of the view of Jones and Waggoner. It exalts the cross and inspires the receptive heart to exclaim, "God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." The result: total obedience to the commandments of God, joyously motivated.
As we study every sentence of these three chapters, we believe the careful reader will be convinced they are not inspired by Satan.