“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” (Genesis 2:1-3).
The word “Sabbath” in Hebrew means to cease, to rest.
The question at hand today is, “Do I observe the Sabbath day at my choosing or the Sabbath day is appointed in creation by God?”.
There are people in our community who are totally in the dark about observing the 7th day Sabbath. They say, “You are wrong, this is a cult.” It’s only going to get worse. I want you to be prepared to stand for what is right.
When I just started pastoring, two Advent Christian ministers brought me to a book store. One of those men grabbed “Great controversy”, handed it to me and said, “You need to read this.” I was spellbound. I connected with the mission for my life, what God wants me to do. The controversy is not between us and Satan, but between God and Satan. We are in the center, because we are on God’s side. We are successful, because we stay the course with God.
I came to understand that I was worshiping on a wrong day. In observing the Sabbath day there is a protection, joy. It goes back to honoring what God has established. I heard all those excuses, “it is really does not matter what day to worship on.” If it does not matter, why not to give up your Sunday? It mattered to God; it should matter to us - to observe the 7th day.
“And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. 9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb” (Revelation 14:8-10).
What He is saying in verses 9-10 - if we continue the trend of following the traditions of men after God is showing us what He wants then we are drinking of that cup and going into our own damnation, in bondage, that will come on them. This has been a mesmerizing passage to some, “Oh, we will receive an implant or a tattoo.” The passage is so simple, if you understand the Bible. (more…)
I was born in Iraq in city of Nineveh 8 miles away from the tomb of Jonah. I lived a wonderful contented life until I went to the Seventh Day Adventist church. It ruined my life, made me angry with God for 4 years and caused lots of problems for me. I was beaten almost to death, thrown out on the street and abandoned by my family. 30 years later I discovered that I am alive today because of that beating.
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Throughout the centuries Christians have speculated about the meaning of “the Mark of the Beast” and “the Number “666″ of the Beast” mentioned in Revelation 13. Today the interest continues unabated for this apocalyptic endtime Antichrist who will control the economic, political, and social life of mankind by placing a mark and a number upon people.
The panel was composed of scholars from La Sierra and Loma Linda Adventist Universities: Professor Fritz Guy and ProfessorKendra Haloviakfrom La Sierra University School of religion, Larry Christoffel, Pastor of the Loma Linda campus Hill church and ProfessorJon Paulien, Dean of the School of Religion at Loma Linda University, the moderator of the discussion.
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Jon Paulien, PhD:Let me introduce our members. We’ll be going a little less than an hour, and around 5 o’clock written questions will be delivered to me and by some magical system I will choose a few of those to share with the panel. …
We haveFritz Guywho is with us from La Sierra University - a systematic theologian, philosophical theologian, and one of my Professors at seminary, for which I will always be grateful.
We haveLarry Christoffel, who is one of the pastors here at the campus Hill church. He will bring us, I think, a bit of a perspective of practical pastoral theology.
To my right isKendra Haloviak, who I was deeply privileged to have as a student at the seminary. And sometimes your students go beyond you, and Kendra would be one of those who I’m very proud of. And she is at La Sierra University, and we share a specialty in the New Testament and in the book of Revelation in particular.
To my left of course in the man of the hour [Dr.Desmond Ford] and I’d like to open this discussion with a short testimony. We have hardly ever met, I think just in passing a couple of times. So this is really our closest acquaintance. And I would like to tell you that growing up as a Seventh Day Adventist I was one of those weird children who spent a lot of time in the Bible, and kind of knew the Bible back and forth. I was even in New York City on some Bible quizzes and came out very successfully over the radio as a small child. But there were two books of the Bible that always troubled me. They were not Daniel and Revelation, they were Romans and Galatians. And it just seemed to me, if somehow those could be left out of the Bible, the Adventism I knew could be perfectly defended [laughter in the audience].
In the 1860’s the early “Adventists” chose a special name as the religious institution I belong to was being organized. They chose this name because it directly pointed to the two most important doctrines they had learned from Scripture.
Those two doctrines were and are the Seventh day Sabbath and the soon return [Advent] of Jesus to complete His redeeming of our bodies. All other doctrines were considered secondary to those two doctrines. While the church may have shifted focus in many areas, but these are still the two key identifiers of believers.
Until the death of Ellen White in 1915 Seventh Day Adventists were clearly known as the people of the Book, referring to our teaching doctrines from Scripture. Gradually, laziness and ignorance crept in as we began to use the writings of Ellen G. White to explain the meaning of Scriptures. (more…)
At our church our brother Tim Conley, told us about Bible discussions he was having at work with his coworker Kevin Campbell. They were discussing the Sabbath. Tim later told of Kevin discussing keeping the Sabbath. Another member of our church, Frankie Cox, told of visiting a church nearby which had just started keeping the Sabbath. We later got directions to that church from Frankie. In December of 2003 we visited the congregation that had begun keeping the Sabbath.
As it turned out, the new congregation of Sabbath-keepers meets in Penn Laird. The church is a simple building in a country location.
When I wrote my first study (Daniel) I said that I did not know why I was compelled to write it. I have learned that the process of writing has refined my knowledge of God’s Word, bringing me closer to what Daniel refers to as “insight”. A few of my acquaintances have asked to look at my work, and I pray that they have been as blessed by reading as I have been by writing.
This study represents a side trip for me. I was deeply involved in the companion study to Daniel: Revelation. As visions of fantastic beings and events filled my notebook, our pastor chose to present a sermon on the Sabbath. (Please note that, as I began writing this study, I was attending the Church of the Nazarene, a spirit-filled, but Sunday keeping church.)
I found myself in profound disagreement with Pastor Page on a number of points as he spoke. After the sermon he asked me to come during the week and study the subject with him. I prepared as rapidly as I could, hoping to find a Biblical excuse for Sunday observance.
14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.
This text presents the classic antinomian (Greek nomos = law) argument: “We are under grace, not under the Law.” The implication is that the Law is no longer important. God’s grace will take care of everything. You don’t have to worry about obeying the old commands: they have been abolished! This is clearly an attractive thought for many people. However, taken logically, this is absurd. For if the law doesn’t matter, then we can rape, pillage, and murder, and God’s grace will cover it all.
What is the law? Where do we find it? In the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 4, we find two sets of laws mentioned.
13 “So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone.
14 “And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that you might perform them in the land where you are going over to possess it.
God gave the Ten Commandments. He spoke them (Exodus 20:1) and wrote them with his own finger on tables of stone (Exodus 31:18). God also commanded Moses to instruct the people in “statutes and judgments”. We find these “statutes and judgments ” discussed at length in Exodus and Leviticus. They are the laws of civil governance and of the ceremonies of the Tabernacle. Moses wrote them down, then commanded in Deuteronomy 31:26
Why did God create the Sabbath? It had to serve some purpose. All of the other commands He gave served an apparent purpose. Certainly the Sabbath is no exception. (more…)
A large number of Christians (nearly all) make no pretense of observing the Sabbath. In fact, most of them are largely unaware of any concern regarding the issue. To them, Sunday is the natural day to go to church and observe an hour of worship prior to the sporting event of the day. Can all those people be wrong?
The New Testament, after the Gospels, is largely the record of the apostolic church. If the Apostles taught that Sunday was the proper day to observe, then we certainly should see evidence of it. Many theologians think that they see such evidence. Let’s look at it.
Since we have found that the texts purported to support Sunday observance are incapable of withstanding examination, what evidence do we have of Sabbath observance? Is the NT as silent about Sabbath as it is about Sunday? Or did the apostles leave a record of their Sabbath-keeping?
As the truth of the Sabbath is presented, one difficulty repeatedly presents itself. No matter how much one tries, there can be found in the NT no explicit repetition of the Fourth Commandment. Five of the ten are quoted in full, and four of the other five are implicit in numerous statements. But, of all ten, the NT after the gospels appears on first glance to be silent on teaching the Sabbath. Are we to assume that they taught nothing about it? Or, did they teach about it, but regard it as so fundamental that it required no further written explanation?
9 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.
This text generates a considerable amount of argument. Is it referring to the final “Sabbath rest” for the saints in heaven? Or does it refer to Sabbaths in the present day? (more…)
Since it must be clear by now that Jesus kept the Sabbath, the apostles kept the Sabbath, and the early church kept the Sabbath, what happened? How, without anything remotely approximating a divine command, did the common day of observance get changed from Sabbath to Sunday? I will attempt to briefly summarize the history of the change. Please keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive review. Anyone wishing to pursue the issue in greater depth is referred to the books by Bacchiocchi and Odom.
The first hint of change did occur during the lifetime of some of the apostles. The first Jewish revolt (66-70AD) led to a change in the way the Jews were treated by the Romans. It began with a decision by the priests to quit offering prayers for the benefit of the Emperor. Cestius Gallius, the Roman governor of Syria, marched to Jerusalem to put down this insurrection. The church, heeding Jesus’ warning (Matthew 24:15-20) left the city when Gallius inexplicably withdrew. The revolt continued, and in 70AD, the Roman army under Titus destroyed the city with massive loss of life, but without loss to the church.
No historical fact is better established than the fact that the Sabbath which Jesus observed began at Friday sundown and extended to Saturday sundown. This is so well established that most modern theologians simply take this fact as a given when writing on the subject. But some Christians have objected, pointing out the obvious fact that the Bible does not use the word “Saturday” for the Sabbath. How do we really know that Saturday is the Sabbath?
It has been pointed out by many authors that the weekly cycle was observed carefully since creation. However, we do not need to go back that far. When Jesus was on the earth, he observed the Sabbath. In doing so, He, as God, confirmed the correctness of the observation of the weekly cycle since creation up to His time. Our task, then, is to confirm the maintenance of the weekly cycle since Christ. In the process, we can attach modern names to days.
Why are we looking into the book of Revelation? After all, the word “Sabbath” doesn’t even appear in John’s prophecy! Could it be that there is something in the time of the end that bears on whether we should keep the Sabbath? I know that as I first considered the question, I figured it was nonsense. I rejected any thought that the seal of God or the mark of the beast had anything to do with the Sabbath. It had to be a feeble effort by Sabbatarians to strengthen their arguments for the Sabbath. The Bible should allow me to refute any connection. Then, as I followed God’s command to study (2 Timothy 2:15), I faced a choice: either I accepted the role of the Sabbath in the time of the end or I rejected the Bible.
What was so compelling? Let’s take a look. (more…)
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” (Genesis 2:1-3).
