The reader ought not to judge this book by its small size. Far-reaching spiritual implications are found on nearly every page of this closely argued treatise on God's plan of salvation according to both Scripture and the writings of E. G. White. The subtext of this book is that Adventism is again at a crossroads similar to that of 1888, when two young pastors, students of Holy Writ, presented what they had learned about righteousness by faith to the leaders of the church. Like the early Adventists, the authors fear that our emphasis on Adventism's unique doctrines relating to the Sabbath and the Second Coming have taken the focus of our outreach and our in-reach away from the core of the Christian Adventist faith: God's generous and comprehensive love, as manifest through Christ's death "for all sinners" and His plan that this forgiveness should be transformative in the human life. The gift of forgiveness born of God's amazing grace is at the center of our faith, a fact that we neglect at our own eternal peril.
For the authors, God's forgiveness not only erased past, present, and future sins but also launches the process of justification by faith, which produces sanctification (victory over temptation) and leads ultimately to glorification. This is the heart of the message of the latter rain and of the entire plan of salvation. They approach their study by asking how it is that if Christ died for all sinners, a sinner should ever have to die for his/her own sin in the lake of fire. Their effort to resolve the problem of this version of "double jeopardy" takes them on a journey to understand salvation, focusing on what the death of Christ on the cross really meant in terms of God's forgiveness.
They begin by eschewing the Calvinist concept of the "elect" foreordained for salvation, as well as the Universalist conclusion that since Christ died for all, all are forgiven and eternally saved. More interestingly, Duncan and Peters address what they call "Adventist Arminianism." According to this understanding of the plan of salvation, Christ died for all humans, but His death is not equivalent to forgiveness, in any sense of the term. Thus, Adventists hold that only those who believe receive remission of sin. In other words, Jesus' death on the cross was not really applicable to all humans; something more is required to produce forgiveness. Because of a failure to identify the two aspects of forgiveness, the Arminian premise leads to a legalistic understanding of salvation by the Adventists and a cheap grace understanding of salvation by the Universalists and many others. Citing Ellen White's writings, the authors conclude that she refutes the concept of salvation partly by faith and partly by works. Salvation is entirely a divine gift. The gift of salvation is not to be received by a holy person but by a wholly undeserving one. Therefore, salvation is entirely and exclusively God's prerogative to give. His love prompts Him to forgive "all," without exception.
Do they suggest that good works are unrelated to our salvation? Hardly! But it is where in the process that works have a role that is important to understand. To address the question of the relationship between faith and works, the authors highlight two Greek words for "forgiveness" (charizomai and aphiemi) to make their case that God through Christ forgave (charizomai) "all," even the ungodly. That phase of forgiveness is equivalent to what they call "corporate universal justification," and it explains why Adam did not die immediately, despite the death sentence which was incurred when he sinned. The Son of God stepped into the gap with His grace and forgave Adam's and, by extension, our sin, placing us under grace. Christ's death on the cross represented this first phase of God's unfathomable forgiveness.
On the other hand, citing 1 John 1:9, the authors show that there is a second phase to God's forgiveness. Paraphrasing Ellen White, they write that God's forgiveness is "both a judicial pardon and a reclaiming from sin" (106). In other words, God's "aphiemi" includes deliverance from the power of sin. This phase is applicable only to the believer (107). What is important here is that both the gratuitous and comprehensive forgiveness of all humanity and the reclaiming from sin are initiated by God and provided through the death of Jesus Christ. The only role humans play in all this is to accept what has already been done for them. Some will, and some won't.
Is distinguishing between these two meanings of divine forgiveness really that important? The answer is that we need more than judicial pardon to enter heaven. We need righteousness provided by the second phase of God's forgiveness. In this phase, Christ's righteousness is imputed and imparted to the believer by faith, for the purpose of character transformation. Genuine obedience is not a condition for receiving salvation but the fruit of it. No inherent value is found in obedience if it does not arise out of the grateful and humble soul of one who understands him- or herself to be the object of an infinite, divine love gift.
What if a human chooses not to accept this gift? This, called the unpardonable sin, the authors take great pains to explain in relation to God's forgiveness. Since all that we are asked to do is to accept the gift of God's forgiveness, the only sin for which Christ did/could not die was the sin of rejecting Him. The authors' explanation of this concept makes for an illuminating read.
Above all, this study paints the picture of a God whose unspeakable love for the human race is such that there is nothing He would not sacrifice to raise us all up and seat us "in high places" with Him. Ours is a God who will deny us nothing of the privileges of holiness that He Himself enjoys and embodies. This forms the core of the Gospel, say the authors, and it is what every sermon and every Bible study should focus on. To realize that we are all "born forgiven" will make the reader fall in love with Jesus all over again! Our salvation has been handed to us, undeservedly, by the hand and heart of an infinitely loving God. Yet, like Jacob and Esau, we all have a birthright to cherish or despise, as the authors conclude. In this sense, the only obstacle to our salvation is our unwillingness to receive it--our insisting on earning it.
You will be blessed by this opportunity to refocus your spiritual eyes on Jesus and rekindle your love and gratitude for what He has done and continues to do for you and in you. Truly, this is the message of the latter rain.
Lourdes Morales-Gudmundsson, Ph.D.
Riverside, California