'Continue the work of Christ' in Adventist and Catholic theology compared

Koot van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; ThD)

Visiting Professor

Kyungpook National University

Sangju Campus

South Korea

Conjoint Lecturer of Avondale College

Australia

10 April 2011

The Catholic Church is a hierarchical church which means that there are levels of authority with the pope at the highest level. There was a stage in the Donation of Constantine that vicarius filii dei was said to be a title the pope has because he is the power on earth as Christ is the power in heaven. In the Adventist church, there is levels of authority but they are pragmatic and not symbolical. They function and only for the function there is authority needed, but when the essence of Adventism is investigated, it is the member and his/her Bible knowledge that is the key.

On the 7th of April 2011 in the Consistory Hall pope Ratzinger made a comment that is worth looking at since it contrast sharply with Adventist theology on the same issues. He addresses the bishops of the episcopal conference of the Syro-Malabar church on their ad lumina visit.

Outlining the role of the clerics in continuing the work of Christ, pope Ratzinger cited from a document of the Second Vatican Council:

"The Second Vatican Council taught that “Bishops have been designated by the Holy Spirit to take the place of the Apostles as pastors of souls and, together with the Supreme Pontiff and subject to his authority, they are commissioned to perpetuate the work of Christ, the eternal Pastor” (Christus Dominus, 1)."

Whereas in Adventism, following the theology of John 17, the Holy Spirit is the one who continues the work of Christ on earth when Christ went to heaven to work there, it is in Catholicism the clerics that took over from the apostles with the pope as their overseer and supreme command. They are the ones who continue the work of Christ on earth. The church are not to continue the work of Christ on earth in Adventism but to witness and testify the work of the Spirit among them and in them and through them. It is His work but they testify of it.

In Catholicism it is the apostles, and now clerics under the pope who continue the work of Christ on earth. The church is doing it. Whereas Adventism takes the Priestly and High Priestly work of Christ in Heaven in the Heavenly Sanctuary serious according to the book of Hebrews, the Catholic church is quiet about this book and about the theology of the Sanctuary message after Christ's ascension. They are vague and non-specific about it but in Adventism this is well-described and specific.

The Catholic church is trying to set the specifics for interpretation and morals and standards of Christianity and they do this because they are quantitatively the largest religion on earth with over a billion members. For Adventism, it is quality that counts since the quality of truth is the basis of the identity of Adventism. It is derived from the Bible for Adventism while it is for the Catholics derived from the broader Bible [also apocrypa and pseudepigrapha], plus tradition of the Fathers, plus the councils plus the decrees from the papacy. Although Catholicism argues that they are the older of the two, between Adventism and Catholicism, that is actually not true since Adventism started already after the Fall of Man. Expecting the coming of the Messiah is Adventism. Correct Adventism is biblically bound and not anything outside the covers of the Bible. If there is absolute agreement with what is interpreted outside the Bible and the Bible, then that knowledge is also valid but not till then.