AboutSal Expertise I am privileged to be able to offer an alternative insight into the complicated world of Seventh-Day Adventists (SDA) theology. I will rely heavily on the Bible, but will also consider history and use logic in exposing deficiencies in SDA teachings. I would ask anyone who is considering becoming a SDA or if you are already in the SDA church, but are searching for the truth, to please allow me to offer a different explanation for the claims of the SDA. Remember : "The truth will set you free" (John 8:32). I can answer your questions pertaining to the beliefs and history of the SDA. I am not able to answer questions concerning spirituality or church discipline.
Experience I have extensively studied the theology of the Seventh-Day Adventists (SDA) for a number of years. I have many books and tape sets produced by experts in this field of study. I have debated current members of the SDA church. I have a great desire to help these people see the truth.
Education/Credentials M.S. degree in Food, Nutrition, and Dietetics
I agree with your assessment of the Sabbath and it being given to Israel at Horeb. I can’t find mention of anyone observing a Sabbath in Genesis.
My wife is an SDA and tells me that God blessed the seventh day and made it holy so we are to keep it holy by worshiping on the seventh day. When God finished his work on the seventh day, and blessed it and made it holy, what significance did that have for Adam, Eve, their descendents, and us today?
God Bless!
David
ANSWER: Hello David:
The short answer to your question is that it has no significance for Adam and Eve or us Christians today. Genesis 2:2-3 is a description no a command. It simply says that God ceased from creating at that time. In other words, God had created all that He wanted to create and stopped. The text says nothing about God creating the Sabbath and Adam and Eve never knew of nor observed a Sabbath in their long lives. The Sabbath was first given to Israel in the desert in Exodus 16. It was placed in the center of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20. It was then made the special sign of the covenant between God and Israel in Exodus 31. Why is it in the Ten Commandment document? Because the Ten Commandments were the covenant document or contract between God and Israel. Such contracts of the time had a ceremonial sign usually placed in the center of the covenant document as does the contract between God and Israel.
God Be With You,
Sal
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hi Sal,
Since God made the seventh day holy at creation, should it be held at a higher level than the other six days of the week or has the new covenant changed that. Was God referring to a day as a 24 hour day?
God Bless!
David
Answer Hello David:
God made holy the 7th day. He set it apart for holy use by the Israelites. When did He do this? I believe that God made the 7th day holy after the Exodus not during Creation Week. I say this because if God sanctified the 7th day and set it apart for holy use why wasn’t Adam and Eve told to observe the Sabbath? Why didn’t anyone observe this so-called holy day until the time of Moses? If the day was made holy and set apart at creation wouldn’t that mean that for many centuries it was profaned? Wouldn’t that profanation be God’s fault since He didn’t reveal this to anyone until Moses?
I believe that it is more reasonable to conclude that Genesis 2:3 is Moses’ commentary. Moses wrote v. 3 after the Israelites were already keeping the Sabbath. He related to them that their Sabbath keeping was like God resting after He finished creating. Moses else where stated things that had not actually happened yet, but that he knew would later be true. These are known as literary prolepsis. This is treating a future event as if it had already happened. For example, Moses wrote, “The man called his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living” (Genesis 3:20). She had not had the first baby yet, but Moses knew that she would. Moses wrote, “The name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that winds all through that land of Cush” (Genesis 2:13). Cush of whom the land was named would not be born for centuries, but Moses knew that the land would be one day be called “Cush”. Moses also wrote of “Bethel” (see Genesis 12:8) even though during the time period that he was writing about that city was called Luz, but he knew that one day it would be renamed Bethel. One more example, “So Aaron placed it (manna) in front of the commandments for safekeeping, as the Lord had commanded Moses” (Exodus 16:34). Yet the stone tablets and the ark did not then exist! But Moses knew that one day they would and the manna and the stone tablets would be kept in the ark for safekeeping (see Exodus 25:16, 21; Hebrews 9:4). Likewise Moses wrote in Genesis 2 that the 7th day was made holy because he knew that one day God would indeed make it holy for the Israelites. Other Bible writers also used literary prolepsis. One example is that St. Luke in his listing of the Apostles wrote “Judas Iscariot, the traitor” (6:16). Yet Judas was not then a traitor, but St. Luke knew that one day Judas would become the traitor.
The 7th day was “unsanctified” because it was part of a covenant that became “obsolete” and was “taken away” by our Lord (see Hebrews 8:13, 10:9). If the day was still holy then St. Paul could not have said what he did in Romans 14:5: “If one man keeps certain days as holier than others, and another considers all days to be equally holy, each must be free to hold his own opinion.”
Many other Old Covenant things were made holy by God, but were only holy until the covenant to which they were attached ended. For example, holy Israelites (Leviticus 20:8), holy high priest (Exodus 28:36), holy Levitical priests (Leviticus 21:8), holy outer sanctuary (Exodus 26:33), anything that touched the altar was holy (Exodus 29:37), holy animal sacrifices (Leviticus 27:9), holy substitute animal sacrifices (Leviticus 27:10), holy tithe of the land (Leviticus 27:30), holy tithe of the flock (Leviticus 27:32), holy anointing oil (Exodus 30:26), anything that touches something anointed with the holy oil was holy (Exodus 30:29), holy peace offering (Leviticus 19:8), holy Jubilee (Leviticus 25:12), holy furnishings and utensils of the tabernacle (Numbers 4:16), holy water (Numbers 5:17), holy wave offering (Numbers 6:20), holy censers (Numbers 17:3), holy first-born cattle, sheep, and goats (Numbers 18:17).
God also called many things most holy or holier than the holy things. For example, most holy inner sanctuary (Exodus 26:33), most holy altar (Exodus 29:37), most holy altar utensils (Exodus 40:10), most holy grain offering (Leviticus 2:3), most holy sin offering (Leviticus 6:17), most holy guilt offering (Leviticus 7:1), anything owed and devoted to God was most holy (Leviticus 27:28), anything anointed with holy oil was most holy (Exodus 30:29), most holy incense (Exodus 30:36), most holy showbread (Leviticus 24:9).
So the 7th day having once been holy (to the Israelites) does not mean that it is holy above all other days to us Christians. The holiness of the 7th day was part of the Old Covenant. Since that covenant has ended so has all things attached to it.
It is certainly debatable whether the "days" of Genesis were actual 24 hour days or not.
Thanks for the question. Please ask another other questions as a new question and not a follow-up.
