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A. Graham Maxwell is the best known and most beloved teacher on the meaning of Christ's atonement in the Seventh-day Adventist church. Thousands of Seventh-day Adventists the world over listen to Dr. Maxwell's weekly Sabbath School lessons on tape in the context of his version of "the great controversy." Maxwell's theology is an accepted teaching in the church. Seventh-day Adventists do admit that his message is controversial or heretical but messages within the organized church structure suggesting strong dissent or in any way expressing the danger of it, are not permitted.

Dr. Maxwell has summarized the essence of his message in a taped evangelistic series at Andrews University. A condensed summary of it is presented here. Dr. Maxwell's answer to the question, "Why did Jesus die?" has been excerpted from a transcribed tape called The Serpent Speaks on file at the Biblical Research Institute, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

There is no need to fear

Why Did Jesus Die?

“I would like to talk to you tonight about what Jesus did on the cross has to do with our being His servants or His friends. It is the essence of the meaning of all 66 books, and I would like to summarize it in less than half an hour.

“You remember that when Jesus answered questions, He often went back to the beginning, which always takes a little time. But you remember when they brought up the question of divorce, He said, Well, if you have the time, let Me go back to the beginning. In the beginning it was not so, and so on. And with this most serious of all questions, and the costly answer, that makes it possible for the universe, the whole vast universe, to be secure for eternity, we need to go back to the beginning always. In the beginning God spoke those terrible words, ‘In the day you eat thereof, you will die.’ Now, if Satan is right, if God has lied to us, that is the end of trust. But if God really meant it when He said, ‘You will die,’ how will we die? Will He kill us? In the day you eat thereof, I will kill you. Is that the way our Father runs His family? Obey Me, or I will kill you.

“I thought God wanted love and friendship. Is it love Me, or I will kill you?”

“If the soul is mortal, how long will the mortal soul live in the fierce final fires? You die quickly in fire. How is it that some will live longer in the fire, and you know the verses—Luke 12:47,48. Some have more stripes than others. Do you know what this means? If God is the executioner, He will have to perform a miracle to keep you from dying prematurely from shock or suffocation in the flames, and the message is, Love Me, accept Me, or I will torture you in the flames. And you will never get a friend that way. We will all turn into fearful, trembling servants. And He doesn’t want that. Do you know what torture is? In any dictionary? The worst kind of torture is inflicting exquisite pain before execution. Do you think our God will do that? I have read in books that even is the loving thing to do.

“Be my friend, or I will torture you to death, but I won’t torture you one minute longer than you deserve. Oh, I love that.

“So, I stand at the foot of the cross, and I say, Jesus, hanging there on the cross, what did You mean when You said, Love and obey Me or you will die? And Jesus could reply, I am showing you right now. What was He showing them? As you read on through the 66 books, there are so many references to God’s wrath and His anger, some day to be poured out without mixture on the rejecters of His love, especially in the third angel’s message. What is this wrath? Is it love and obey me, or in the fury of my wrath I will destroy you?

“I remember more than forty years ago I determined I had to work that out. I searched all through the Bible for the meaning, and most helpful was the book of Romans. In Romans 1:24, 26, 28, God’s wrath is clearly described as His turning away in loving disappointment from those who do not want Him anyway, thus leaving them and giving them up and handing them over to reap the awful consequences.

“And that wasn’t new with Paul. It’s all through Hosea, chapter 11. God says, My people are bent on leaving Me. I’ll have to let them go. But how can I give you up? How can I let you go? Many other places like that.

“Now, was God’s wrath poured out on His Son? Well, let me ask you, Did He give Him up? Did He let Him go? Romans 4:25, I am sorry some versions say He was put to death for our transgressions. There is not a word in the Greek about being put to death. It is exactly the same word as in Romans 1:24, 26, 28. He was given up. He was handed over for our transgressions. Yes, the wrath of God was poured out on His Son, as it will be poured out on unsavable sinners at the end.

“What was Jesus' cry on the cross? Why are you torturing Me to death? No, Why have you given Me up?

“If you want to know how the sinner will die, go to the cross, watch Jesus die, and hear His sad cry, Why have you given Me up? Why have you let Me go? It would be better to come even earlier to Gethsemane, where Jesus began to experience the sinner’s separation from the Father. His unity with the Father breaking up. And Jesus fell dying to the ground. Did the Father kill His Son? He didn’t even touch Him. And the angels looking on got the costly answer to their questions. Does sin result in death? Indeed it does. But is it the result of God torturing us to death? He never touched His Son.

“Now, that makes sense to me. God doesn’t say, Love Me, or I will kill you. He says what we even say to each other. Love Me, or what else can I do but let you go. But when God says, I will have to let you go, we will die. But God says, I won’t let you go easily. I’ll try everything first. I’ll thunder on Sinai to get your attention. I’ll send she-bears to inspire a little reverence, because if you don’t respect Me, you won’t listen, and I can’t help you. I’ll even come Myself and show you now terrible is the consequence of sin, and if that doesn’t win you, what else can I do but sadly give you up, and we mortals cannot live apart from God. Left to our rebellious selves, we will die.

“The angels watched Gethsemane. But the three disciples chosen to witness that costly event slept through the whole meeting. So the angel strengthened Jesus to go out to Calvary and go through it all over again. Besides, there was another question to be answered. Why, dear God, is it so important that we understand all of this? You are the sovereign Creator. You have the right to govern your universe any way you wish. No one would dare question your right to give orders and expect submission to your every command. Nor would anyone dare to question your right to destroy those who are disobedient. And that is just the point. God has replied, I don’t want you just to be My servants. I want you to be My friends. I could easily have destroyed Satan when he rebelled, but then you would have served Me from fear—not friendship. Even if I had simply let him go, he would have died, just as Jesus has demonstrated. But the angels, never having seen death, would have assumed that the Lifegiver had killed him, and they would have served Him from fear, just the same.

“And so I hear God saying, Oh, My children throughout the universe, I want you to understand that the obedience that springs from fear can produce the character of a rebel. Even as you fearfully obey Me, you will be turning against Me. Now, please go out to Calvary and see that demonstrated. And this is the one thing that is almost always left out of the explanation of why Jesus has had to die. And why it is a terrible mistake, as you may hear sometimes, to call this explanation the moral influence theory. This is an awesome explanation.” —A. Graham Maxwell.

Prayer and Praise Summary Statement For the Purpose of the Cross

“Our Heavenly Father is unwilling to lose one of His children. He wants us to realize the terrible consequence of sin and take sin very seriously. And He wants us to see the falsity of Satan’s lies and accusations. Yes, we will die. But He has not said, Love Me, or I will kill you. It’s love Me, or I will let you go, and you will die. But it is not torture and execution at the hands of our gracious Father. For God does not want us to serve Him from fear. Or we will become His enemies.

I can hear God saying, I want more than anything else freedom in My family. I want peace and joy and love and freedom from fear. Children, I want you all to be My friends. And to tell this and to demonstrate all this costs everything. Truly, only our best friend would tell us. And Jesus went up to heaven, and He went in before the angels, and He asked them, did you get the message? And so after Jesus had heard them tell Him that they got the message, they got the meaning, He came back to this planet to see if the brethren had got it. And He couldn’t find them. They were all in deep depression. Well, they hadn’t even gone to the meetings to get the answers. The three chosen ones who went to Gethsemane slept through the whole evening, and only one went to the cross. And he is the one who later on shows how clearly he understood it.

“You see, they were dears. And the Lord was going to use them to build our church, and I am glad He uses such people, because that means that He can use you and me, but they still were just servants, you see. They still didn’t really understand. So tonight, could you say to Jesus tonight, we get the message. We are your friends. Should we pray.

“Our loving Father in heaven, hopefully, all of us here can join with the loyal angels in saying that we do get the message. What a price Thou hast paid to make it clear that Thou art our friend, and just want us to be friends. What an exalted position that seems to be. But how Thou hast humbled Thyself to come down and be like a human being among us, to make it clear Thou doest not want us to be afraid. And so we thank Thee for making this evidence so clear, and we thank Thee most of all for what it cost. We get the message. We want to be your friends. In Jesus name. Amen.” —A. Graham Maxwell.

   Maxwell’s Church-Sanctioned Spiritualistic Philosophy Replaces Repentance 

“But part of the freedom that comes with friendship, the friendship that is offered in John 15:15, is freedom from fear, and most of all, freedom from the fear of God. And the Bible recognizes that one of people’s greatest fears is the fear of dying. And the devil has made the most of it. Even the atheist knows, and I’ve talked to some. You know, around a medical center you see a lot of people who realize that if there is a god out there, they are about to meet him. And even the atheist knows, though he may have denied all his life that there is a God, that if there is one, he is about to come face to face with him. And he wonders what that powerful something or person will be like. It is very interesting to help such people die unafraid. Or would you think an atheist ought to die scared stiff? He deserves to. You know, even God’s enemies have no need to be afraid of Him.” —A. Graham Maxwell.

Are You Now Ready to Face God Without Fear?

“And last night we discussed one of the freedoms that comes with friendship, the freedom from being afraid of an unfriendly God. And hence, as Hebrews 2 says, losing one of the fears of dying. Because we know that if we should die, we would awaken the very next moment of consciousness, face to face with a very friendly God. Even if we are going to be lost.” —A. Graham Maxwell.