Not long after The Great Disappointment of 1844, God began to lead the little company of Adventists to the messages of the three angels of Revelation 14. They discovered that God’s eternal law was a transcript of His character and thus had been the special object of Satan’s attack.

Adventists saw their role as a prophetic voice to call all Christians back to their Creator and obedience to His immutable law. Human nature being what it is—this knowledge, this sense of being right—has produced institutional pride. For the way the message of moral accountability has been delivered, Adventists have often been rejected and accused of opposing the gospel of freedom.

By 1888, a distorted emphasis on the law had produced a crisis in Adventism. There was much debate regarding the law and righteousness by faith. Interestingly, in 1883, Ellen White tried to redirect the church’s emphasis by commissioning a new version of a previous depiction of the plan of salvation. As you can see, the cross became the central theme in the new work and the focus on the Ten Commandments was completely eliminated.

In the past few years, the Ten Commandments have been the subject of political debate. This has been of particular interest to Seventh-day Adventists, who have related to the discussion with mixed emotions.

In response, Don Schneider, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, stated: “While I am grateful for the coming emphasis on the Ten Commandments, I certainly hope that no one feels that an appropriate course of action would be to require people to keep all of God’s law against their will. God gave us the power of choice. We must never take away any individual’s right to this God-given principle.

"It is my prayer that the balance between God’s law and religious liberty will be maintained as Seventh-day Adventists join others in proclaiming the righteous requirements of God as reflected in His Ten Commandments.”

The cross represents the supreme sacrifice to protect liberty of conscience and the freedom to make a personal choice. The life of Jesus gives us a model of how to live by the principles of God's character, as expressed in the Ten Commandments, while lovingly serving those who choose otherwise.

Gary Burns is the Lake Union Conference communication director and Lake Union Herald editor.