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
Question QUESTION: Concerning Matthew 5:17-19, you mentioned "which of the commandments
are the least?" i like the way the GOD'S WORD® Translation put it. "So
whoever sets aside any command that seems unimportant and teaches others
to do the same will be unimportant in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever
does and teaches what the commands say will be called great in the kingdom
of heaven." It wasnt about which commandment was the least, because sin is
equal. When i mean equal, i should clarify that. In severity? no. In penalty?
yes. in Forgiveness? yes. james 2:10-11 says
"2:10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point,
he is guilty of all.
2:11 For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if
thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of
the law"
Sin is sin. the penalty of sin is death, whether it be stealing or mass
murdering. In matthew 5, its not talking about sins that are greater. Its
talking about people who THINK that. like saying stealing isn't as bad as
killing. I love what marty said before, "Even the elect shall be decieved"
As for ezekiel 8, The day was important. People didnt worship the sun god in
ancient times every day, different gods had different days. The sun god, was
obviously worshiped on sunday. The sun worshiping was mentioned last,
remember. I dont quite believe the day is important, but think of where we
get sunday worship from, its origin - SUN Worship. hence, the day was of
significance it ezekiel 8.
AGAIN. God was not saying things were worse abominations than others, or
that "killing pre-born humans" is worse than sunday worship. Out of all the
abominations shown, sunday worship was the most SEVERE.
As for a guide, JESUS is our guide. Jesus followed the 10 commandments,
jesus went into the synagogues on the sabbath and preached. Even jesus kept
the Sabbath! Jesus never gave any "new" commandments to us.
“Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together.
One of them, an expert in the Law, tested him with this question: “Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
“Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself. All the Law and
the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 21: 34-39
Deuteronomy 6:5 The wording of Matthew 21:37 is found in this verse in
the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy Chapter 5, Moses reads The Law (Ten
Commandments) to the people of Israel. Then in Chapter six he summarises
the first four Commandments.
Leviticus 19:18 Again Moses does in the Old Testament what Jesus does
in the New Testament, He summarises the last six commandments.
ANSWER: Dear Mike
Thank you for your questions and concerns. I don’t like the God’s Word Translation. The problem with that translation is that it makes God punish someone who thinks some command is unimportant. “So whoever sets aside any command that seems unimportant and teaches others to do the same will be unimportant in the kingdom of heaven.” Why would God punish someone because he, in all sincerity, thought something to be unimportant?
Jesus did not come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I don’t believe Jesus meant the Ten Commandments or the prophets. Remember brother that for the Jews the Law referred to all 613 commandments of the Mosaic Covenant. The commandments were all those found in the first five books of the Bible. The “least of these commandments” refers to the least of the 613 commandments not the least of the Ten Commandments.
Again I say that it’s not worshipping on Sunday that’s the abomination. It’s worshipping a false god that’s the sin. This passage in Ezekiel 8 cannot be made to apply to Christians worshipping the Trinity on Sunday.
You ask, “think of where we got Sunday worship from.” We got Sunday worship from Jesus. Most Christians worship on Sunday because Jesus rose from the dead on that day—Sunday. It was the greatest day of salvation history—Sunday. If Jesus rose on the Sabbath we would be worshipping on that day, but since he chose Sunday so do most Christians.
Jesus was a Jew; therefore, he kept all Jewish laws. It’s not good logic to say that non-Jews should, therefore, keep all the Jewish laws because Jesus, a Jew, did. Indeed SDAs do not even keep all the laws that Jesus did. They pick out the Sabbath and forget all the other Jewish feast days that he kept just as holy as the 7th day Sabbath.
Jesus absolutely disagrees with you when you claim Jesus never gave us a new commandment. "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:34-35). Jesus specifically states that this is a new commandment.
I find it interesting that in Jesus’ answer to which of the commandments is the greatest he does not name any of the Ten Commandments, but two of the other 603 commandments of the Law.
God Bless You,
Sal
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: it wasn't god thinking something was unimportant. it was people thinking that certain laws are more important that other, so they keep some laws, but not others.
Ephesians 2:15 (King James Version)
15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
As you can see here, i disagree with the abolishing of laws. the law of commandments in ORDINANCES, sounds like Moses law to me!
Also, even after Jesus death, people worshiped on Sabbath. Jesus never chose the day he would die, nobody can choose when they die. Jesus did worship on the Sabbath. He taught in the synagogues! I thought Jesus was to be our example. if Jesus worshiped on Sabbath, i will too.
Mark 1:21, Mark 6:2, Luke 4:16, and Luke 6:6 all say that. Even the apostles went in on the Sabbaths, ie:
Acts 13:14, Acts 13:42, Acts 17:2 even says this!
"2As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures". IT WAS HIS CUSTOM! isn't that something?
As for the origin, it is well documented that Constantine issued a Sunday law. Yes, people had gatherings many times in the new testament on the first day, but they were for collecting offerings, which isn't really a gathering of worship, and when Paul was with the others, they had gathered there because he was leaving the next day. Did they continue worship after? i think not. and for the sake of a short reply, i will post this: http://www.biblehistory.com/The%20Origin%20of%20Sunday%20Worship.html
Constantine had combined pagan worship with Christianity to gain more popularity with the people. If the pagans could worship on the same day as one of their major gods, i think it must've made them happy.
Also, my point wasn't the fact of Jesus not giving a new law, it was giving new laws that abolished or were more important than others! are you going to keep some commands, and not others? God commanded them all, did he not?
Also, maybe you passed this part before.
Deuteronomy 6:5 The wording of Matthew 21:37 is found in this verse in
the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy Chapter 5, Moses reads The Law (Ten
Commandments) to the people of Israel. Then in Chapter six he summarizes
the first four Commandments.
Leviticus 19:18 Again Moses does in the Old Testament what Jesus does
in the New Testament, He summarizes the last six commandments.
They were summaries of the other laws! of course he would pick those two over the 10, because it is obviously easier to recite those two than the whole ten commandments. They have the same meaning, so why wouldn't he? wouldn't you?
I don't understand your mentioning of Jesus keeping the laws. Jesus was the law, or the predictions of the law, of course he kept it. The Sabbath wasn't a law of ordinance. there were other Sabbath'S (plural), like festive Sabbaths, as there were many laws pertaining to them. Does exodus 20 not say
"8Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: 10But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 11For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it. "
THE Sabbath, not Sabbath'S. Also pertaining to laws, theres a big point your missing. There was GODS LAW, and MOSES LAW. gods law was written by his own finger on stone, Moses law was written in a book by Moses, was it not?
Happy Sabbath.
Mike
Answer Dear Mike:
Yes, you are correct that Jesus observed the Sabbath under the bondage of the Old Covenant rules and regulations. “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to ransom those under the Law, so that we might receive adoption” (Galatians 4:4-5). So Jesus kept all the law not just the 7th day Sabbath. Do you follow his example in keeping all the feasts of God as recorded in Leviticus 23? Do you follow Jesus’ custom of going to the synagogue each Sabbath?
You desire to use as an excuse for keeping the Sabbath that Jesus, a Jew, under the authority of the Law kept the Sabbath. You have no case with such an argument. Scripture is clear, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law” (Galatians 5:18). Therefore, Christians do not have to keep the Sabbath as Jesus did because at that time he was under the burden of the Old Covenant Law and he freed us from that very Law by his precious blood. Please listen to Paul’s counsel to Christians that wanted to be under the Law. “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1). The “yoke” is the entire Old Covenant including the 7th day Sabbath.
Further realize that you are following the example of Jesus “before” the Resurrection. You are following the example of a pious Jew living under the Covenant of Law. However, Jesus ratified with his blood the New Covenant of Grace. We should not emulate a pious Jew, but the resurrected King of Glory. Jesus’ example to us post-resurrection does not include any examples of Sabbath observance. In the time Jesus spent with his Apostles before the Ascension he never observed the Sabbath. What he did do was to emphasize Sunday. He consistently appeared on Sunday to teach and celebrate the Lord’s Supper both of which are still important to the Christian Church today. This was his example post-Resurrection. If we are to follow his example it most certainly should be our Lord’s New Covenant example. “Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6). Biblically speaking, Jesus’ example to his Church was to emphasize Sunday and to ignore the Old Covenant Sabbath.
Paul going to the synagogue to preach Christ is no reason for Christians today to keep the Sabbath. Of all the Sabbath meetings recorded in Acts not one is a Christian meeting. Luke recorded history. He never tried even once to teach Sabbath keeping for Christians. Also note that the Sabbath is never the main point it is always the preaching of the gospel that is central. The fact that the meetings occur on the Sabbath is incidental. “And according to Paul’s custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer, rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ’” (Acts 17:2-3). Paul’s custom was to go to the town’s synagogue and to preach Christ. Paul was not fixated on a day, but on Christ. In all the Sabbath episodes in Acts nothing is ever taught about Sabbath keeping being a requirement. Paul went to the synagogues when it suited his evangelistic purposes. “And to the Jews I become as a Jew, that I might win Jews” (1 Cor. 9:20). Paul is clear that in his great zeal for Christ he would do whatever and become whatever to win souls for Christ. “I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some. And I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow-partaker of it” (1 Cor. 9:22-23).
In Scripture, the Law of Moses is always spoken of as one unit comprised of 613 commandments. The purpose of the Law was to reveal God’s standard of righteousness and man’s sinfulness. This in turn teaches man that he needs a substitutionary atonement—a savior. The Law of Moses was a monitor over one immature in faith. When one moves to a mature faith, characterized by accepting the finished work of Christ, that person is no longer in the monitor’s charge (see Galatians 3:23-25). Therefore, the monitor has reached its goal and is dismissed. The entire Mosaic Law becomes obsolete and the Christian comes under the Law of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 6:2).
The modern day Judaizers, the 7th day Adventists, want to enforce mandatory 7th day Sabbath keeping on Christians. Even the SDAs realize that the vast majority of the Mosaic Covenant laws are obsolete in the New Covenant. In the hope of salvaging their Sabbath keeping sabbatarians try to force distinctions on the Mosaic Laws. The usual distinctions invented are to call some moral laws (the Ten Commandments), some ceremonial, and some legal or civil. The reason for these unbiblical categories is so that they can claim that Christians are not under the ceremonial or civil laws, but are still under the Ten Commandments.
It is crucial for the serious student of the Bible to understand that the Mosaic Laws, all 613 commands, are viewed as one unit in the Bible. The Bible nowhere gives us permission to separate the laws of the Mosaic Covenant. The word “law” (Torah in Hebrew & Nomos in the Greek) when applied to the Mosaic Law is always singular even though it contains 613 separate commandments. For example, “This is the law which Moses set before the Israelites. These are the ordinances, statutes, and decrees which he proclaimed to them when they came out of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 4:44-45). Clearly “the law” here is all 613 laws not just the Decalogue. “Then were read aloud all the words of the law, the blessings and the curses, exactly as written in the book of the law. Every single word that Moses had commanded, Joshua read aloud…” (Joshua 8:34-35). Again all the law without separation is referred to. “Keep the mandate of the Lord, your God, following his ways and observing his statutes, commands, ordinances, and decrees as they are written in the Law of Moses…” (1 Kings 2:3). All the requirements are the Law. One final example of many, “Many nations will come and say, ‘Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths’. The Law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Micah 4:2). Other passages showing that the Law of the Mosaic Covenant is one unit include Leviticus 18:5; 24:22; Deuteronomy 4:1, 5, 8; 6:25; 31:12-13; 2 Kings 17:3; 21:8; 23:25; 1 Chronicles 16:40; Ezra 7:6; Psalm 78:5; 119:1, 55, 108, 137, 174; 147:20; Proverbs 31:4-5; Isaiah 5:24; Jeremiah 18:18; Lamentations 2:9; Ezekiel 7:26; Hosea 4:6; Amos 2:4; Habakkuk 1:4; Zephaniah 3:4; Zechariah 7:12; Malachi 2:9; Mark 15:31; John 1:17; Acts 13:39; Galatians 3:10; Ephesians 2:14-15; I Timothy 1:7-8; Titus 3:9; Hebrews 10:28; James 2:10.
The idea that the Law of the Lord equals the Ten Commandments and that the Law of Moses equals the now obsolete ceremonial law is not supported by Scripture. The ceremonial law is called “the Law of the Lord” numerous times in Scripture. “From his own wealth the king allotted a portion for holocausts, those of morning and evening and those on Sabbaths, new moons and festivals, as prescribed in the law of the LORD” (2 Chronicles 31:3). This obvious reference to the ceremonial laws (weekly, monthly, yearly sequence) is called the Law of the Lord and not that of Moses as the SDA thesis requires. In Nehemiah 8 we have the example of the “Law of Moses” and the “Law of the Lord” being used to refer to the same books. “…they called upon Ezra the scribe to bring forth the book of the law of Moses…” (v.1). “Ezra read plainly from the book of the law of God…” (v. 8). In a clear reference to the ceremonial law we read, “They found it written in the law prescribed by the Lord through Moses that the Israelites must dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month” (v. 14; see Leviticus 23:33-36). From what book was this read? “Ezra read from the book of the law of God…” (v.18). This passage from Nehemiah 8 uses the two terms in question interchangeably. Other passages where the ceremonial law is called the Law of the Lord are Exodus 13:7-9; 1 Chronicles 16:40; 2 Chronicles 31:3-4.
In the New Testament we read from the lips of our Lord, “Have you not read in the Law how the priests on temple duty break the Sabbath rest without incurring guilt?” (Matthew 12:5). This is a clear reference to the ceremonial law called by Jesus “the Law”. This indicates that Jesus considered the Mosaic Law to be one inseparable unit—the Law. When Jesus was asked which of the commandments of the Law was the greatest he quoted two commandments neither of which was from the so-called moral law, that is the Ten Commandments (see Matthew 22:34-40). Instead he quoted from the so-called ceremonial or civil law (see Deuteronomy 6:5 & Leviticus 19:18). Again it seems that Jesus understood the Mosaic Law to be one inseparable unit. One final new Testament example, “When the day came to purify them according to the law of Moses, the couple brought him up to Jerusalem so that he could be presented to the Lord, for it is written in the law of the Lord, ‘Every first born male shall be consecrated to the Lord’. They came to offer in sacrifice ‘a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons’, in accord with the dictates in the law of the Lord (Luke 2:22-24). Here we see once again the Law of Moses and the Law of the Lord equated. The ceremonial law is clearly in view, as also can be seen in Luke 2:39, and is referred to as the “Law of the Lord.”
The obvious truth is that the Bible never even once makes any distinction in terms of the Law between one moral and one ceremonial. On the contrary the 613 laws of the Mosaic Covenant are always viewed as one unit. This helps to explain why we read, “Cursed be he who fails to fulfill any of the provisions of this law!” (Deuteronomy 27:26). “It is written, ‘Cursed is he who does not abide by everything written in the book of the law and carry it out’” (Galatians 3:10). “Whoever falls into sin on one point of the Law, even though he keeps the entire remainder, he has become guilty on all counts” (James 2:10). These Scripture makes perfect sense if the Law is one inseparable unit. The Old Testament has over 200 references to the Law. The much shorter New Testament has almost 200 references. The New Testament is full of discussions on the Law. Yet in all of these discussions never is the observance of the Ten Commandments mentioned as necessary for Christians. It is never stated to be our standard. The reason is simply because the Ten Commandments were treated as 10 of the 613 commandments God gave the Israelites through Moses. The New Testament is very clear that the Mosaic Covenant is no longer binding on Christians. We have a new covenant. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood” (1 Corinthians 11:25). “When he says, ‘a new covenant’, he declares the first one obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13). In the New Covenant we are obliged to follow a much higher moral standard (see Matthew 5:20-48). The New Testament appeals to Jesus when telling us to be moral, it never appeals to any of the Ten Commandments (see 1 Corinthians 6:18-20).
In conclusion, the Bible knows nothing of the man-made divisions of the Mosaic Law. It is all one unit all of which has become obsolete.
Please do not ask anymore follow-ups. Ask anymore questions that you may have as new questions.
