Never Without an Intercessor

Mr Venden takes on a topic that has long been debated in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Indeed, in the Protestant church, as well. The SdA church does have a view of Jesus' work in saving His people that are unique to the SdA church. It is our only unique theology. Depending on who you talk to, depends on how this theology is interpreted and represented.

What I appreciate about Mr Venden's explanation is the emphasis that all the work of salvation is done by Jesus and none of it is done by us, except that we accept His work on our behalf and continue to allow Him to do the work of salvation for us and in us. It seems to me that the difference between focusing on staying in relationship with God versus focusing on following rules and creeds is a blurry line that is hard for some to delineate. Venden works to illustrate the differences, and how practicing the presence of God in our lives changes our hearts to be more like His and less like our old sinful hearts. It feels like balancing on a knife's edge, stray but a little and one get's cut, either by relying on our own good behavior to convince God we're worth saving or by falling into thinking that salvation is a matter of finding immortality without consideration for spending eternity with the one who saves us.

I would recommend this book for those who wrestle with how we receive righteousness. Not because it gives an easy answer. Sometimes Venden says things that caused me to wrestle harder rather than feeling I had received an answer. I would also recommend this book to those who are curious about the Seventh-day Adventist theology sometimes called investigative judgment. As always, don't read the book expecting the author to answer all the questions. Be like the Bereans and read it to understand, then examine to see what holds up to God's teaching. Salvation isn't just forgiveness from sin. It is a return to the relationship we humans had before the fall. That is true paradise.