Expert: Sal - 9/16/2010

Question
I'm an Adventist and I would like to know this information so that I can be aware of the truth out there.  I just want to do God's will and follow the Bible.


6)The SDA believe that when one dies the soul “sleeps” unconscious until the Second Coming of Christ. The CC teaches that the dead are conscious.

What the CC teaches about death is scarry.  Why would someone want to be in the grave and be conscious?  That scares me more than hell.

When and who changed the Sabbath to Sunday?  Where does it say in the Bible that it was changed?  I have the New King James Version.  Send me the Bible text where it says the day was changed.  

Answer
Dear Vicki:

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to clarify these concerns of yours.

1.   The Catholic Church, like most Christian churches, teach that the soul is conscious after the death of the body. However, the soul is not in the grave. The soul upon the death of the body is judged and taken to heaven or hell. I can see where you would be scared if the soul was trapped in a coffin! But only the body is in the grave your soul will be with the Lord in heaven (we pray!).
2.    There is no Bible text that I’m aware of that says that the Sabbath was changed to Sunday (I’m supposing that you mean as the day of worship). In the New Covenant there is no day above another. “One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5). A better question would be whether or not the Sabbath command is still valid for God’s people in the New Covenant? To that I can say most confidently that it is not. I cannot find any New Testament text that commands a Christian to keep the Sabbath as a necessity. We Christians enjoy the freedom to worship on whatever day we like. You can, as a Christian, worship on the Sabbath and I can worship on the Lord’s Day. Both are choices honored by the God. Therefore, we as children of God should not argue over such a trivial thing as what day one worships on.



"But when the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 'Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?'Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:34-40).

God Bless You,
Sal