The 1888 Message
and Legal Justification

A Response to Larry J. Kane by Robert J. Wieland

This pamphlet discusses what Paul says:

"All have sinned, … being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:23, 24, KJV). "All alike have sinned, … and all are justified by God's free grace alone" (NEB).

"The judicial action … issued in a verdict of condemnation, but the act of grace … issued in a verdict of acquittal. … It follows, then, that as the issue of one misdeed was condemnation for all men, so the issue of one just act is acquittal and life for all men" (Romans 5:16, 18, NEB).

The problem:

  1. Calvinism says the "all men" are only the elect, legally justified or acquitted."

  2. Universalism says it means that no one will be lost at last.

  3. Arminianism says that Christ's sacrifice does no one any good unless he chooses to accept, that the "verdict of acquittal" applies only to those who believe.

  4. The 1888 message recognizes that on His cross Christ legally justified the entire human race and won for "all men" a "verdict of acquittal" that reversed the "condemnation" "in Adam." But the sinner may choose to resist and reject what Christ has already given him, and thus elect to be lost.

Which view is true?

Click this link for A Response to Larry J. Kane by Robert J. Wieland

 

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