Many areas of Seventh-Day Adventist theology are reliant upon the King James rendering of a particular passage. One of those is Revelation 14:12 KJV which renders the Greek as “faith OF Jesus,” whereas most modern translations render it “faith IN Jesus.” This is significant within SDA theology because a lot is riding on the former over and against the latter.
Speaking on this text in Adventist World magazine, Angel Rodriguez, SDA theologian and former director of the SDA braintrust The Biblical Research Institute writes:
This biblical verse [Revelation 14:12], together with verse 13, closes the three angels’ messages and contrasts those who submitted to the agenda of the dragon and his allies (verses 9, 11) with God’s remnant people [Seventh-Day Adventists] who are loyal to Christ. Concerning the phrase “the faith of Jesus,” the original Greek text is ambiguous and lends itself to different translations.
Angel Rodriguez, Keeping the Faith of Jesus (2021)
He rightly recognizes that this text isn’t as specific and clear cut as the SDA Church often makes it seem which is why there are different translations and what John intended to communicate is ultimately what matters. He concludes his article by saying:
Let me add one more contextual piece of evidence supporting the idea that John is primarily referring to the believer’s saving faith in Christ. In Revelation 14:13 we read about “the dead who die in the Lord.” These are the believers who persevere and who are ready to die for the Lord. Notice that they “die in the Lord.” The phrase “in the Lord” is theologically rich. To be in the Lord means that we found in Him our Savior and that by faith we have been incorporated into His redemptive work and to His people. It appears that it is to this redemptive event that the phrase “the faith of Jesus” is primarily pointing. If I am correct, Revelation 14:12 is describing God’s people as those who keep together, in their personal experience, salvation by faith in Christ’s death and obedience to God’s commandments as their response to such manifestation of divine love: gospel and law.
Angel Rodriguez, Keeping the Faith of Jesus (2021)
When one is able to pierce through all of the Christian-ese Mr. Rodriguez uses one is able to see how the rendering “faith of Jesus” is interpreted to be code speak for Seventh-Day Adventists—”God’s [end time] people.”
When he says being “in the Lord” means one has been “incorporated into His redemptive work,” this is referring to the SDA Church’s doctrine of the Sanctuary and the Investigative Judgment. As is the phrase “faith in Christ’s death and obedience to God’s commandments.” It is their seven steps through the sanctuary model that is in focus for Angel Rodriguez. And it is this to which he refers when he says “it is this redemptive event that the phrase ‘the faith of Jesus’ is primarily pointing.”
By “keep the commandments,” they take this to mean the SDA teaching of perfectionism. One of the identifying marks that the SDA Church is supposedly the end times Remnant is that they “keep the commandments.” Not try, but actually do so perfectly. As can be seen in the December 10, 1889 issue of the SDA Church’s paper, The Review & Herald:
“And Enoch walked with God : and he was not; for God took him.” Gen. 5:24. It is only a short journey to the heavenly hills, brethren, if we walk with God. In John 15:10, Jesus tells us he kept his Father’s commandments. He did not say, “I am trying to keep” them, but he says, “I have kept” them. So it is not enough that we try to keep the commandments. We must keep them. The character of the saints is not established by their failures to keep the commands of God, but by their success in doing so. Those who simply try to keep the commandments, are moral cripples; they do not walk with God; they simply hobble along after him…
All through the Bible, God has made it our duty to keep the commandments. And we are to keep them even as Christ kept them. We must do one of two things: we must either keep them, or charge God with mockery. The very fact that God has commanded us to keep them, is evidence that we can do so. If we cannot keep them, the command is tyrannical. If the command is not tyrannical, and we do not keep them, we are morally weak, and do not walk with God.
Review & Herald, December 10, 1889
As this statement presents, the “character of the saints is not established by their failure to keep the commands, but in their success in doing so” is what Mr. Rodriguez’s statement is ultimately getting at.
He then followed this up by claiming those that have this “faith of Jesus”—the Seventh-Day Adventists— are those who “keep together” in their personal experience and belief in the SDA distortion of the law and the gospel. Namely, those who believe the SDA Church’s novel “everlasting gospel.”
To no surprise, he is simply reiterating the SDA Bible Commentary which is coming from Ellen G. White who the SDA Church claims was divinely inspired and correcting of inaccurate interpretations. She is the “infallible interpreter” of scripture. Commenting on Revelation 14:12 she writes:
Apparently the whole world is guilty of receiving the mark of the beast. But the prophet sees a company who are not worshiping the beast, and who have not received his mark in their foreheads or in their hands [the Seventh-Day Adventists]. “Here is the patience of the saints,” he declares; “here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus”
Seventh-Day Adventist Bible Commentary, Vol. 7, pg. 979 (7BC 979.2)
As Angel Rodriguez pointed out, according to Adventism, by the “commandments of God” and “the faith of Jesus,” John is referring to the SDA Church. They are the one’s who “keep the commandments of God” and the “faith of Jesus.” Faith of Jesus, in their system, equates to their system of teachings.
Hence why Adventists and the SDA Church are so adamant on the King James’ rendering of the text and why they must have their interpretation be correct to uphold the entirety of their system. But what ultimately matters is what John intended to communicate, not necessarily a buzzphrase that can be used to shoehorn in foreign concepts and ideas.
In his commentary on Revelation, 19th-century theologian and commentator Albert Barnes succinctly states what is going on in Revelation 14:9-12 and what John was seeking to communicate:
The design of this portion of the chapter Revelation 14:9-12 is to encourage Christians in their trials by the assurance, that this formidable anti-Christian power would be overthrown, and that all the enemies of God would receive their just doom in the world of despair. Fearful as that doctrine is, and terrible as is the idea of the everlasting suffering of any of the creatures of God, yet the final overthrow of the wicked is necessary to the triumph of truth and holiness, and there is consolation in the belief that religion will ultimately triumph. The desire for its triumph necessarily supposes that the wicked will be overthrown and punished; and indeed it is the aim of all governments, and of all administrations of law, that the wicked shall be overthrown, and that truth and justice shall prevail. What would be more consolatory in a human government than the idea that all the wicked would be arrested and punished as they deserve? For what else is government instituted? For what else do magistrates and police-officers discharge the functions of their office?
Albert Barnes, Commentary on Revelation, 14:12
John did not have the Seventh-Day Adventist movement in mind when he penned the Revelation. This is the SDA Church bringing an extra biblical paradigm to the biblical text—the Great Controversy Theme—through which all of the Bible is then read. In this case, the SDA Church has inserted themselves into Revelation 14 as the protagonist character with John seeing their movement at the end of time keeping the 10 Commandments and having the “faith of Jesus”—the SDA Church’s novel gospel message that they and only they are taking to every tribe, tongue, people and nation.
The Apostle was writing to the seven churches in which the Christians in those churches were about to experience great turmoil and persecution. That was the immediate audience that this text was written to. Barnes rightly points out that the modern day application of the text is to all Christians in all ages who are united to Jesus Christ and serves as a reminder that despite whatever persecutions one may face in this life, God is with His people and His church will ultimately triumph over evil because Jesus is the Head of His church and has overcome the world.
While the Seventh-Day Adventist movement might claim to be the “commandment keeping church” in focus in Revelation 14 due to their claim to the seventh day sabbath, the SDA Church preaches a false Christ (violating the first 4 of the 10 commandments) and a false gospel further evidencing they are not what is in focus in Revelation 14.
Whether it’s rendered “faith of Jesus” or “faith in Jesus,” John’s point remains the same. It is not referring to a remnant institution such as the Seventh-Day Adventist church who is exclusively God’s end times people with a special message and mission that only they have to take to the rest of the world—more specifically the Christian world who they believe they are warning to come out of their current church and join them as the Remnant, otherwise the plagues and wrath of God will be poured out on them as a part of Babylon.
