CHAPTER ІІ
(You can find Chapter І here:
CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE
ADVENTIST DOCTRINES
A. The teaching for
the Sabbath and Sunday
The Adventists
consider that from the stony scrolls only the ten commandments, which they call
moral ones, are still valid out of the Law of Sinai (Codex Sinaiticus). All the
other rules of the Law are defined as ceremonial and thus are not mandatory in
New Testament times. The fourth of the moral commandments concerns the Sabbath
and, according to them, we sin if we disobey it. But “…whoever keeps the whole
Law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James
2:10), i.e. Christians will not be saved, because of their systematic and
purposeful breaking of that commandment (just as the ones who break some of the
others - “idolaters, adulterers, thieves…will not inherit the kingdom of God”-
I Corinthians 6:9-10). However paradoxically this could sound to Adventists,
the Christians keep perfectly the New Testament Sabbath, while their movement
doesn’t do it the right way, since it had set aside only a single day for God’s
ministry.
According to the
Adventist doctrine, the Sunday began to replace the Sabbath in the period from
70 AD to 135 AD.[*] Adventists associate the confirmation of the Sunday as the
day for worshipping God with the Catholic church, in which the ”spirit of the
Antichrist…try to change the set times and the law” (I John 4:3; Daniel 7:25).
Since there is no
direct explanation of the question about the Sabbath and the Sunday in the New
Testament, we shall use all the relevant verses to see to what conclusions they
would lead.
І.The perfect
fulfillment of the biblical Sabbath
The Christians make a
substantial theoretical mistake in their view of the New Testament Sabbath,
that’s why all of their attempts to influence the Adventists draw blank at this
point. They consider that the fourth commandment of the Decalogue dropped out.
Most of them forget, that this happened only literally, but not spiritually.[1]
The spiritual Law is a reflection of the holy character of the Lord, that‘s why
it is perfect, immutable and eternal. The life and teaching of Christ are in
complete concordance with this law and are given to us as an example to follow.
The Law of God was presented to bring into the light the sin of men, to help us
comprehend that we cannot fit its requirements by ourselves and to lead us to
full and unconditional repentance. It was Christ only, who fulfilled the law
and bore the guilt of our transgressions on the cross. God imparts into us His
righteousness through grace (undeserved mercy) because of the faith, that we
have decided to follow. After all mentioned so far, we can conclude that the
Gospel sets us free from the punishment of the law, but not from the duty of
obeying it.[2]
Let’s take heed of the
words of Jesus in Matthew 5:17-19: “Do not think, that I have come to abolish
the Law or the Prophets, I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest
letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the
law, until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of
these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in
the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be
called great in the kingdom of heaven.” He says He didn’t come to abolish, but
to fulfill all the rules of the Law and the predictions of the prophets. We are
also appealed to keep even the smallest commands of the whole Law of Moses.
Jesus said also: “It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the
least stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law” (Luke 16:17). The justice, i.e.
the righteousness of the Lord will reign in the new heaven and earth, which is
based on the perfect “law” of love, according to which Christians are living nowadays (II Peter 3:13).
But Jesus talks about
a perfect accomplishment of the Law. Let us get a glance at the two commandments,
mentioned here, first: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago
“Do not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement”. But I tell
you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement.
Again, anyone who says to his brother “Raca”, is answerable to the Sanhedrin.
But anyone who says “You fool”will be in danger of the fire of hell.” And “You
have heard that it was said ”Do not commit adultery”. But I tell you that
anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart” (Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28). Obviously Jesus teaches us to abstain
not only physically from committing such things, but also spiritually (and it
seems that the latter is even more important).
-------------------------------------------
[*] “Is the fourth commandment
valid for the Christians” p.11
1
From the whole context
of the New Testament we can resolve how are we to keep spiritually the commands
of God (Exodus 20:1-17). The first commandment is: “I am the Lord your God who
brought you out of Egypt
------------------------------------------
[*] “Knowing the Holy God” , p. 12
[*] “Knowing the Holy God” , p. 12
2
“You shall not
murder”, says the sixth commandment. We can murder someone not only physically,
but spiritually as well, by hurting him with our words and acts and by
contributing to his loss of belief. This is much more serious, since it leads
to the spiritual death of a person, i.e. to his/hers separation from God.
Whoever commits such things, puts himself in danger of the “fire of hell”
(Matthew 5:21-22). Moreover, we have led the Son of God to miserable death
”…and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). Just as
it was stated very precisely: “it were not the nails, that held Jesus on the
cross, but our sins”. The seventh commandment says: “You shall not commit
adultery”. Jesus explained unambiguously that any sexual relations outside the
family are sin, as well is the imaginary desire for such things (Matthew
5:27-28). In Old Testament times, God had many time accused the Israelites of
spiritual adultery, i.e. that they had committed adultery by following other
gods (see Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, etc.). James tells us in his message: “You
adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred
toward God” (James 4:4). The eight commandment requires: “You shall not steal”.
The theft includes beside the misappropriation of someone else’s belongings,
the exploitation of one’s labor (physical or intellectual) with no proper
payment: “Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that
is coming upon you…Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your
fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the
ears of the Lord Almighty.”(James 5:1, 4). We steal from God as well, when we
do not give away the necessary time, labor and money for ministry, when we are
negligent to His work and so on. ”Will a man rob God? Yet you rob Me. But you
ask: ”How do we rob you?” In tithes and offerings…” (Mal. 3:8). “A curse on him
who is lax in doing the Lord’s work!" (Jeremiah 48:10).
The ninth commandment
is: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor”. Any false
presentation of the things in the reality, which purposes a conscious
misleading of other people, is a lie. In such a manner, we can attempt to
manipulate other people, to derive some benefits from them, to present
ourselves in a misguiding light and so on, but the liars will not enter the
kingdom of heaven (Revelation 21:27; 22:15). We may also try to cheat God about
the true motivation of our acts, thinking that He doesn’t see our hidden
thoughts and intentions. Apostle Peter told Ananias and Sapphira: “You have not
lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:1-10). The last tenth commandment is to prevent
us from the temptations at their very beginning. It says: “You shall not covet
your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his
manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your
neighbor.” The coveting often becomes envy of material things, official
position, talents, respect, etc., which belong to someone else. Deeply in our
hearts we wish we could have them as our own. Anyone, aspiring to unlimited
power, seizes God’s sovereign government over the whole world. The Antichrist
will be a person, who will ascribe to himself an acknowledgment as a god, i.e.
almighty. (As we can see, the last six commandments do also concern our
relationship with God). So far, we can come to the conclusion, that the
literal keeping of the law and the ten commandments is not enough, but we
should aim at their perfect spiritual fulfillment.
Jesus pointed out some
examples from the rites of the Israelites as well: “Therefore if you are
offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has
something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go
and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift” (Matthew
5:23-24). The ceremonies were to lead them to some spiritual truths. What are
in this case the offering, the priests, the altar, the temple, according to the
New Testament teaching? “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s
mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasant to God -
this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1). The old person in us
ought to die (to be offered as a sacrifice), so that the new one may resurrect,
i.e. we have to deny our lives in order to do God’s will. At the end of his
life, Apostle Paul says: “I am already being poured out like a drink offering”
(II Tim. 4:6). Our spiritual ministry in the field God had settled for us, is
like a pleasant offering at His altar. We all are God’s priests (I Peter 2:9)
and the work we do was defined as a ministry (Romans 15:16). The temple of
Jerusalem exists no longer, but we, like living stones, are being built into a
spiritual house - the body of Christ, which is the temple of God (I Peter 2:5;
Revelation 21-22). In other words, the ritual commandments are still valid as
well, but in their perfect spiritual sense.[4]
3
Jesus also reminded
those commandments, which had to bring justice: “You have heard that it was
said, ”eye for eye and tooth for tooth” (Matthew 5:38). These are the juridical
rules in the Law of Moses, which relate to the civil, the criminal, the
contractual and the hereditary law. These community relations are to exist in
future, too; though in the kingdom
of God
Some people think that
if we are justified through faith only, then we are free from the Law. There
was a group of “Christians” in Paul’s times (the so-called “antinomians”) who
used to think that the more they sin, the more God’s grace toward them, is
revealed. They misinterpreted his words: “When sin increased, grace increased
all the more” (Romans 5:20). But he answers them: “Someone might argue “If my
falsehood enhances God’s truthfulness and so increases His glory, why am I
still condemned as a sinner?”Why not say - as we are being slanderously
reported as saying and some claim that we say - ”Let us do evil that good may
result”? Their condemnation is deserved” (Romans 3:8). And finally he concludes
his reflections thus: ”Do we, then, nullify the Law by this faith? Not at all!
Rather, we uphold the Law!” (Romans 3:31).
Apostle John tells as
well, that whoever loves God, strives to keep His commandments and whoever
loves his neighbor, will not commit any evil to him (I John 2:4-5; 3:10-11).
“Therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law”, resumes Paul (Romans 13:10).
Just as our lawyer V. Valchanov has said: “The spiritual law is a revelation by
God of that kind of relationships, which is based on love”.[*]
We finally conclude
that the New Testament considers a perfect spiritual law, that we fulfill as a
result of our faith and that takes its sources from love. It creates an
exquisite order and harmony in the relationship between God and people.
What law then, was
told to have faded and have been “nailed to the cross”? “For all the prophets
and the law prophesied until John” (Matthew 11:13; Luke 16:16), “…by dying to
what once bound us, we have been released from the law” (Romans 7:6), “…the
dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its
commandments and regulations” (Eph. 2:15), “…having canceled the written code,
with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us, He took
it away, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2:14). All these quotes show that the
old, literal form of the Law of Moses - the covenant of Sinai, has been
removed.
Therefore the Old
Testament is taken away in Christ (II Corinthians 3:14) and is replaced by a
new eternal covenant (Hebrews 13:20), in which the very inner nature of the
things is revealed. ”For if there had been nothing wrong with that first
covenant, no place would have been sought for another” (Hebrews 8:7), in other
words everything in the Old Testament (including the Sabbath - commandment),
have had something wrong or incomplete. But “the old has gone, the new has
come” (II Corinthians 5:17). It was also written, that the old wine is to be
kept in old wine-skins, and the new wine – in new, i.e. the two covenants are
separated (independent), although their spiritual contents are in unity
(Matthew 9:17; Luke 5:37-38).[5]
In this sense we have
to search the meaning of the perfect keeping of the Sabbath in the light of the
New Testament. (After "everything has become new", the fourth
commandment ought to be understood in a new way as well. It’s impossible that,
while all the other commands have a new - larger and deeper spiritual
interpretation, this one could remain in its literal form only.) The Sabbath
commandment in the Law of Moses has two sides: first, the Sabbath is a day
for serving God. And second, it is a weekly feast, on which special sacrifices
are offered in the temple.
Let us take a look now
on the way these two aspects of its keeping are presented in the Christianity.
Firstly, the Sabbath
as a ministry
God had commanded the
Israelites to do all their works in the six days of the week, and on the
seventh day (which is the Sabbath) to walk not in their own ways and to follow
not the desires of their own hearts, but to have a holy congregation, i.e. to
dedicate this day to ministry to God (Exodus 20:8-11; Isaiah 58:13).
The author of the
letter to the Hebrew Christians (who was most likely Paul), have explained them
how this commandment is to be kept perfectly now. He points them an example out
of their history: “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken
later about another day” (Hebrews 4:8). At the siege of Jericho Jericho
-------------------------------------------------
[*] “Bible and Law. The Law of God” p.53.
[*] “Bible and Law. The Law of God” p.53.
4
Let us see the way
this plea was fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ, Who was given to us as the
perfect example for ministry: “Here is My Servant, whom I have chosen, the one
I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and He will proclaim
justice to the nations.” (Matthew 12:18; Isaiah 42:1-4). Jesus used to go round
preaching the Good News incessantly, with no rest. In the days of the week He
was talking in towns and villages and even outside them, and on the Sabbath day
He entered the synagogues, where all people were gathered together. He was
healing the sick ones, casting demons away, doing miracles and wonders every
day, including the Sabbath. (The Apostles used to do the same, even after His
ascension. Paul later did the same as well). But our Savior obeyed His Father
in everything, so He said: “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will,
but to do the will of Him who sent me” (John 6:38).
We shall discuss the
healing of the sick man, who had stayed at the pool of Bethesda
While Jesus was
healing, it was a creative act - repairing the structure of the impaired organs
in the human body, so that they could function normally again.[9] The example,
mentioned above, was not an incidental case of healing on the Sabbath day - let
us recall the case of the crippled woman (Luke 13:10-17), the man with a
shriveled hand (Matthew 12:9-14), the man born blind (John, chapter 9), and
perhaps there were still many others, which were not described in the Gospels
(John 21:25). The mentioned diseases did not necessitate an urgent
interference. It was possible to wait in order not to break the Sabbath, if God
really had rested on this day. But Jesus said: “…It is the Father, living in
me, who is doing His work “ and “…whatever the Father does, the Son also does”
(John 14:10; 5:19). It is also written, that the Holy Spirit has taken part in
His acts: “for God gives the Spirit without limit” (John 3:34). Through the
Spirit of God, Jesus used to cast demons away and did wonders and miracles as
well (Matthew 12:28).[10]
Those of the heavenly
creatures, who are faithful to God, serve Him incessantly, too. The seraphs
keep shouting day and night: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty…”
(Revelation 4:8; Isaiah 6:3), and the cherubs are always standing before His
throne (Ezekiel, chapters 1 and 10). The archangels and their armies keep
fighting against satan and his powers (Judah
5
Concerning the
Christians, the question is: how are they to keep the New Testament Sabbath in
relation to their ministry to God? There is in the Gospels an exclusive example
(Matthew 12:1-8; Mark 2:23-28; Luke 6:1-5). On a Sabbath day, while Jesus was
walking through the fields with His disciples, they were picking ears of wheat,
grinding them with their hands and eating. They were doing a thing, forbidden
to be done on this day by the Law, since their first act was in fact reaping,
the second - threshing, and the third - milling of the wheat.[11] The Pharisees
didn’t miss the chance to accuse them. Jesus did not disprove their claim, that
the letter of the Law was not preserved, but rather reminded them the case with
David and his men, who had eaten of the consecrated breads (I Samuel 21:1-6).
Only the priests had the right to eat them, as they were ritual. But the main
purpose of bread is to keep people alive. If David and his soldiers did not eat
of the bread, they would have died from hunger (or would have been captured by
their enemies and killed because of their exhaustion). They had used the bread
as life-saving, for the Law was given first for the welfare of man and its
second meaning is ritual, i.e. symbolical.[12] In the same way, the Sabbath was
given to the welfare of the people “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for
the Sabbath”, for we have been created for God. That’s why Jesus said, that being
a Son of Man, He is also Lord of the Sabbath, i.e. He can do on this day what
is most useful for the people.[13]
In this occasion, our
Lord mentioned another important thing: ”Or haven’t you read in the Law that on
the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? I
tell you that one greater than the temple is here.” In all the days of the
week, including Sabbath, the priests used to slay and prepare the animals,
settle the fire and offer sacrifices.[14] As we have already mentioned,
according to the New Testament all Christians are priests and are to serve God
in His temple - the Body of Christ, i.e. the church, day and night. At another
place, Jesus reminded the Israelites, that even according to the Law, the
ministry to God ought to be incessant. When it happens to be the seventh day
(if it is the eight one after the birth), when a child is to be circumcised,
they take him to the priests to do the ritual, although thus the Sabbath is
broken (John 7:22-24).[15]
Since Jesus first
called His disciples, they used to stay with Him all the time (so was He with
them - “to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Once a wealthy young man
said he had kept the commandments to love his neighbors and asked what more
does it it take to inherit eternal life. And He answered him: “If you want to
be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me!” (Matthew 19:16-22; Luke 18:18-24).
These words concern us, too (though it is not always necessary to sell our
belongings), but we should not be addicted in our hearts to what we have, so
that we can be at His disposal any time: “those who have wives should live as
if they had none…those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep;
those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them” (I
Corinthians 7:29-31). The incessant following of the Lord represents in fact,
the requirement for perfect New Testament preserving of the fourth commandment,
which is hard for everyone to fit. Paul the Apostle told this by the words: “He
who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord” (Romans 14:6). The one who
keeps each day of the week, keeps it to serve the Lord, and who doesn’t, goes
his own ways, i.e. goes after the intentions of his own heart. (Will thus some
of the Adventists be surprised, if God declares to them that they have never
kept the Sabbath the way they ought to). An unknown author said: “It is
great to die for Christ, but it is still greater to live for Him every day”.
Jesus did not blame
His disciples for doing work on the Sabbath day by picking, grinding and eating
wheat-ears. (He had to be the first to condemn them for breaking the law, being
the holy God Himself). That’s why, if we do some work to satisfy our vital
necessities, but in the whole context of our ministry to God, then we do not
break the Sabbath. But if we strive to getting richer or living better in this
world, and are not grateful for what we have, we serve no longer God, but
ourselves and finally we shall fall apart from the belief (I Tim. 6:8-10). The
Gentiles’ Apostle has given us another example for this: “…these hands of mine
have supplied my own needs and the needs of my companions” (Acts 20:34). He and
his companions have worked tirelessly to provide for their ministry everything
needed: “nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. On the contrary,
we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden
to any of you.” (II Thessalonians 3:8). Any labor of ours is to be for God’s
sake in our being Christians: ”Obey them not only to win their favor when their
eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your
heart” (Eph. 6:6). After the example of our great High Priest we ought to devote
our whole lives to ministry toward God - all we do is to be in fulfillment of
His will and to His glory: “In the same way, let your light shine before men,
that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew
5:16).
6
Finally, the Lord
rebuked the Pharisees on their hard-heartedness: “If you had known what these
words mean ”I desire mercy, not sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the
innocent”. The Israelites had hardened their hearts and had offered sacrifices
without mere understanding that all the rules of the Law were only projections
of the rules of love to God and the neighbor. The fourth commandment reveals
its nature in the love towards God, which produces in us the eagerness to be
with Him forever and to obey Him in everything; and in the love toward our
neighbors, which makes us compassionate and ready to help them at any time.[16]
But if we cannot keep
even the Law of Moses by ourselves (which is just a shadow of what is in
Christ), is it possible then to fulfill this perfect spiritual law, written
down on “tables of flesh”, i.e. in our hearts (Ezekiel 11:19-20; II Corinthians
3:3)? The Apostle says: “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength”
(Phil. 4:13). That is why we have to be always guided by the Holy Spirit
”because those who are led by the Spirit of God, are sons of God” (Romans
8:14). He is the one who produces His fruits in us - love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and enables us to “walk in the Lord”
(Gal. 5:22; Genesis 5:24).
Moses made the
tabernacle after the pattern he saw on the mountain (Exodus 25:40). This tent
was made as a model of the heavenly temple (Hebrews 8:4-5), which is spoken of
in Psalm 8:6, Isaiah 6:1, Rev. 11:19; 15:5-8. In other words, the Old Testament
form of ministry was a shadow of the things in heaven now, which will exist to
the end of this world. The New Testament ministry, however, is eternal and will
go on in the future heaven and earth. Apostle John talks about the holy city of
Jerusalem
Secondly, the Sabbath
as a festival
In Leviticus, chapter
23, the Sabbath was pointed out as the first one of the Lord’s feasts: “The
Lord said to Moses: ”Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ”These are my
appointed feasts, the appointed feasts of the Lord, which you are to proclaim
as sacred assemblies.
There are six days
when you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a day of sacred
assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the
Lord (Leviticus 23:1-3).
All the feasts had a
ritual character, whose meaning was revealed in the New Testament. For example,
the Passover symbolized the shedding of the blood of the Lamb of God in
redemption of our sin (Lev. 23:4-8; I Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 9:22). The first
fruits had to be offered on the day after the Sabbath. Christ was resurrected
on this day, so it is said that He is the first fruit of the dead ones, and at
His return the ones who belong to Him, are going to be revived the same way
(Lev. 23:9-14; I Corinthians 15: 20-23). Pentecost is the feast of weeks. The
details in its description symbolically show the pouring down of the graceful
gifts of the Holy Spirit over the Christians (Lev. 23:15-22; Joel 2:28-32; Acts
2:1-4). The feast of trumpets is likely to have the meaning of the resurrection
and the Rapture of the believers (Lev. 23:23-25; I Corinthians 15:51-52; I
Thessalonians 4:16-17). The Day of Atonement - the day when the Jews were to
confess their sins. This prophecy concerns the Great tribulation, when the
whole nation of Israel
The Sabbath had its
ceremonial meaning as well, since it was connected to the ministry in the
temple. On it the replacement of the consecrated bread took place: “Take fine
flour and bake twelve loaves of bread…Set them in two rows, six in each row, on
the table of pure gold…This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly,
Sabbath after Sabbath…” (Leviticus 24:5-8). Special sacrifices were also
appointed for this feast: ”On the Sabbath day, make an offering of two lambs a
year old without defect, together with its drink offering and a grain offering
of two- tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil. This is the burnt
offering for every Sabbath, in addition to the regular burnt offering and its
drink offering.” (Numbers 28:9-10).[18]
7
What is the meaning of
the rest on the festive Sabbath day? In Hebrews 4:9-10, this aspect of its
spiritual nature was revealed to us as well. “There remains, then, a Sabbath-
rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest (through faith),
also rests from his own work, just as God did from his.”
“God is light; in Him
there is no darkness at all”- He is absolutely holy (I John 1:5). The holiness
is lack of sinfulness, so God has got a perfect peace, i.e. concerning Himself,
He is in rest. But the world is ruled by the evil - the physical and the
spiritual order in it have been shaken. That is why since the fall of man until
the final triumph of good, God is in active work concerning the world, which is
to end up with the destruction of the old and the creation of the new world.
Because of our sinful
nature, our inner harmony is broken, as it is written: “There is no peace, says
the Lord, for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22; 57:21). But if we have been purified
through faith in the blood of His Son, God imparts into us His righteousness
(holiness) and we have a perfect peace in Christ (Eph. 2:14-22; Phil. 4:7). So,
when we start to believe, we enter His spiritual rest (Hebrews 4:3).
However some may ask:
“Aren’t we God’s fellow workers and take part in His activity (I Corinthians
3:9)? Haven’t we, then, the necessity for some physical rest, too?” We are not
getting weaker in spirit, as we are one with God (I Corinthians 6:17) and His
grace acts within us (I Corinthians 15:10), but our flesh, which is ruled by a
sinful law (Rom. 7:23), needs rest. Our Lord told His exhausted disciples: “The
spirit is willing, but the body is weak” (Matthew. 26:41).[19] But at what time
is this rest to take place? It is written in the Old Testament: “There is a
time for everything” (Eccl. 3:1). If a man is led by the Holy Spirit, He will
give him not only strength for all works, but also – time for physical rest.
But as we are commanded to keep telling the Good News to the non-believers
incessantly: “Preach the Word, be prepared in season and out of season” (II Tim
4:2), i.e. to collaborate (work along with God) for their salvation, we ought
to be always in a ministry. Therefore, the physical rest, which the Holy Spirit
will give us, can be at any time, not on Sabbath only. On this day (just
like all the other days), we can serve Him or rest (according to His will),
being His priests. (If the Adventists disagree, let them ask themselves: "When
did the Old Testament priests rest?")
The New Testament
sense of the Sabbath rest has been clearly explained by a lot of Christian
authors, so it would be of no use to discuss it again. We shall quote Dimitar
Hristov here as the one who probably went to the deepest into this matter with
his book: “The Sabbath problem”:
“1. A conclusion about
the Sabbath problem from Hebrews 4:9
This verse says:
“There remains, then, a Sabbath - rest for the people of God”.
It is well known that
each verse from the Bible should not be taken to examination independently, out
of its context and isolated, but together with the verses coming before and
next to it, as well as in the light of the whole Bible. The explanation of the
verse, given above, is in accordance with a number of biblical texts, related
to the Sabbath question, which are taken to consideration further in this
monograph.
If we trace out the
Apostle’s thoughts from verse 1 to 11 in chapter 4, we shall see that:
- God had promised
people to enter His rest; though not everyone will reach to it (verse 1).
- in order to enter
God’s rest, it is necessary the Word of God and the Good News, which we have
heard, to combine to faith within us (verse 2).
- The believers enter
the God’s rest (verse 3).
- God’s rest began
after God had finished His works at the very beginning (the Creation) of the
world (verse 3). Therefore, every day now is one of the days of this rest, for the
Creation is a completed work – it is not still going on…
- The time when God
had rested from all His works, was called “seventh day” (verse 4).
- God’s rest, i.e. the
seventh day, is not just a period of time, but a state as well, in which people
can either enter or not (verse 5).
- The Lord has given
people the opportunity to enter His rest and some really will. The ones, who
heard first the message, i.e. the Jews, did not enter God’s rest (except for
the faithful ones - Deuteronomy 1:35, 36, 38; I Kings 19: 18, etc., and many of
the Jews who accepted Jesus), because of their lack of faith (verse 6). So, if
some remain to enter God’s rest, they can belong to any race; this rest is
accessible to people from all nations (Matthew 22: 1-10; Romans 11:11, 15, 25).
8
- For these other
people, i.e. the nations from all over the world, God has appointed as a day
for rest every day -“today”. They can enter God’s rest any day, if they do not
harden their hearts when they hear the gospel, but believe in it (verse 7).
- And so, each day can
turn into this “other day” (verse 8), which the Lord has set for the believers
to enter His rest.
- That’s why for God’s
people, i.e. for the ones who believe in the Word of God and the Good News of
the New Testament, “remains a Sabbath - rest” (verse 9).
- What is the sense of
this Sabbath - rest for the New Testament believers? The believer rests from
his own deeds, entering a status, like the one of God (verse 10). And the
status of God is one of holiness. Therefore the holiness or the freedom from
sin is the one who gives us the true rest. It is the one who leads us into the
“God’s rest”. “Without holiness, no one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
- How can we enter
this rest? – We understand once again, that this can be through faith only
(verse 11). We are justified and saved (i.e. enter God’s rest) through faith
and not through deeds (II Corinthians 5:21; Rom. 4:5; Phil. 3:9; Gal. 3:11;
Hebrews 10:38). Our faith, which is both condition and prerequisite to this, is
based on the redeeming death of Christ. It is a complete work, as well
as the creation is a complete work, on which God’s rest is based (Genesis 2:2;
Exodus 20:11). The analogy is evident.
The sincerity of our
faith though, is to be confirmed by our deeds (James 2:17, 21, 25). Is the
literal keeping of the Old Testament commandment a deed, which confirms our
faith and obedience to the Word of God? – No! It is rather an expression of
disobedience - we do not believe the clear and explicit words of the Holy
Scriptures, that the Old Testament has passed away and has been replaced
totally and perfectly by the New Testament (Hebrews 8:6, 7, 13; II Corinthians
3:6, 14). We don’t believe the clear and categorical words of the Bible, that
the Sabbath is a mark of the Old Testament, too (Exodus 31:13, 16, 17; Ezekiel
20:12, 20). The eagerness for literal keeping of the Old Testament Sabbath
commandment is a partial return to the requirements of the Old Sinai Law, given
to the fleshly heirs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Exodus 19:8; 20:1, 2; 24:3,
7; Lev. 26:42, 46). Claiming the Sinai Sabbath commandment as obligatory for
the Christians is in contradiction with the words of Jesus Christ in Luke 5:38,
that ”new wine must be poured into new wine-skins”. Altogether, this statement
of the Adventists is in contrast to the letter and the spirit of the New
Testament books.
Conclusion: The Word of God
teaches that: “The righteous will live by faith” (Rom. 1:17). When we put our
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we give Him our sinful burden and earthly
troubles (Matthew 6:30-34; 11:28, 29; I Peter 5:7; Eph. 2:14-22; Phil. 4:7) and
we shall thus get a life of godly peace and consolation (Sabbath rest) – Jesus
gives His children peace, comfort and rest every day. This spiritual
rest of the New Testament believers (“the spiritual Israel
In addition, we’ll
give the explanation of Hebrews 4:9, which we find in the book “Our Love” by
archimandrite Seraphim, 1958, Sofia
“…But if we look in
the Greek original for this verse (Hebrews 4:9 – author's note/D.H.), we shall
understand that it doesn’t speak at all about the Saturday in its common sense,
since the noun Saturday has not been used (in Greek- “Sabbath”- author’s
note/V.V.), but a rather different word - “Sabbathismos” (sabbatarianism). This
sabbatarianism does not mean some rest on the seventh day of the week, but a
completely different thing – rest in the heavenly kingdom of Christ
9
As we know, a huge
number of persons, rules, events, rituals and things from Old Testament times
are symbols or foreshadows of Jesus and His redeeming work, of New Testament
things. For Christ, by example, many Old Testament symbols can be listed. One
of them is the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:3). The circumcision of the flesh was a
symbol for the circumcision of the heart (Rom. 2:29). Egypt Egypt Col
2. A conclusion about
the Sabbath problem on the basis of Romans 14:5.
This verse says: “One
man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day
alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind”.
Out of any doubt, this
concerns the respecting of one day of the week more than another day or the
equal respect for all the days. This evangelical principle can be spread over
days, which are celebrated only once a year - one man may consider some day of
the year special as an annual feast - public, church or personal, a birthday
for instance. Evidently, this principle points out the freedom Christians have
in choosing what days and feasts they will regard as more important than the
others in the week or in the year. This principle is in a total contradiction
to the letter of the Old Testament Law – Exodus 20:8-11; Leviticus, chapter 23.
If the Sabbath commandment of Sinai was obligatory in the literal sense in
the New Testament time, Paul would not dare to write this verse.
Romans 14:5 gives a
Christian the right to choose any day of the week for rest and worshipping to
God. He may choose the Saturday as well – but not because of the Sabbath
commandment from Sinai, it would be up to his own choice, absolutely free. He
is to be “fully convinced in his own mind” in doing this and to act in a
perfect faith and conviction (Romans 14:22, 23). If he had chosen voluntarily
(and not by a command) the Saturday or any other day of the week to have a
rest, he won’t be burdened by the heavy load of the Old Testament Sabbath
commandment…
(In the Roman church
there was a number of Jewish Christians as well, which can be seen from the
regards Paul sent to his fellow-countrymen, according to the letter to the
Romans, chapter 16. After the coming of Christ the rules of the Law had lost
their validity, but the keeping of the Sabbaths, the New Moon, the religious
feasts and so on, was to testify about their belonging to the Jewish nation.
Freedom was given to all, to keep their national or personal feasts, which did
not offend the Christian belief, in order to prevent the Jews from trying to
impose their rituals, and the gentiles from forbidding them to preserve their
traditions. The ones, who regarded all days as equal, were encouraged for doing
the right thing as well, because we have to stand always rightly before God. Thus,
we can resume, that there was no obligatory rule for regarding a certain day
more than the others, for sure. –author’s note/V.V.)
10
3. A conclusion about
the Sabbath problem on the basis of Galatians 4:9-11.
This text says: “But
now that you know God – or rather are known by God – how is it that you are
turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved
by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons
and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.”
This text (Gal 4:9-11)
shows that the teachings of observation of days, months, etc. are “primitive
teachings” – they originate from the time before Christ. The Apostle
characterizes them as “weak and miserable”. Such teachings about the
observation of days (the Sabbath), months (new moons – Numbers 10:10;
28:11-15), times (feasts – Leviticus, chapter 23) and years (the Sabbath year
and the jubilee – Lev. 25:2-13) were obligatory to the Old Testament believers.
Paul rebukes the New Testament believers from Galatia
The evangelical
belief, the Christian life, the worshipping God have two sides – an outward,
visible, ritual and an inner one - hidden, spiritual. The Old Testament
ministry and worship had many commanded rituals. They were an outward, visible
expression of the faith and hope in God of the Old Testament believers, of
their love and obedience to Him. The Samaritan woman did not understand what
was the right place for the believers of her time to worship God – in Jerusalem
Indisputably the
observing of days and feasts is a ritual or material expression of our faith. It is comparatively
easy to achieve, except if associated to some very strict requirements. The
inward worship to God “in spirit and truth” is the difficult and exalted one in
the Christian belief. The difficult thing is to turn to Him from the bottom
of one’s heart, the deep and sincere repentance, the purity of heart (the clear
conscience), the constant caution to one’s thoughts, words and acts, the
incessant prayer to our Creator, the strong faith, trust and hope in God under
any circumstances, especially when we are going through big temptations. The
difficulty is to achieve the blessings in Matthew, chapter 5, “the fruit of the
Spirit” in Gal. 5:22, 23, the love in I Corinthians, chapter 13, I John 3:18;
John 13:34; 15:12, to their full extent. The difficult is to rejoice sincerely
with the ones who rejoice, and to weep from our hearts with those who weep
(Rom. 12:15). The difficult is to reach a consecration of our person (Hebrews
12:14). The prerequisite and the beginning of the whole spiritual growing up of
the believer, is to be born again (John 3:3, 5). The “new creature” is the
important one in the life of a Christian, not the observing of bodily rules
(Gal. 6:15).
The conclusion from
Gal. 4:9-11 adds to the one from Rom. 14:5, which we have already come to. In
New Testament times, if the believers observe a certain dayes., they do it of
their own will, of their own decision and not because of some commandment in
the Holy Scriptur The commandment fixes strict and, sometimes impossible to
fit, conditions. The celebrating of a day for God is to bring us joy. The
strict commandment brings no joy, but fear and trouble. As we can see from the
evangelical books, the Christians ought to live not in fear, but in joy and
with a free spirit (John 8:32; Gal. 5:1). For some believers, however, it may
still be hard to familiarize and cope with the conditions of the New Testament
freedom. That is why they seem to prefer the thing, they are already used to -
to live under the guidance and the custody of the strict ritual rules for
observation of days and feasts, for eating and non-eating, for keeping of
certain church traditions and so on. In this way they seem to feel some
satisfaction with doing something for God and with the explicit and canalized
form of their Christian activity.
……………………………………………………………………………….
8. A conclusion about
the Sabbath problem on the basis of Colossians 2:16
In the New Testament
books of the Bible we can find three evangelical texts, that directly disprove
with no need for any interpretations, the statement that the Old Testament
Sabbath commandment was obligatory for the Christians. These texts are: Romans
14:5; Gal. 4:9-11 and Col. 2:16. The two of them we have already discussed in
p. 2 and 3. Now we will pay attention to the third verse – Col. 2:16. It says:
“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard
to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day”.
11
From this verse we can
clearly see, that the believers in Colossae in
Frygia – Asia Minor , were blamed for things,
which they ate or drank, as well as for festivals, New Moons and Sabbaths,
which they did not observe. Doubtlessly the rebukers were converted Hebrews,
who still kept the Law. Acts 15:1, 5, 24 talks about the same disturbers in the
church in Antioch Colossae
Let us compare Col.
2:16 to II Chronicles 2:4, Ezekiel 46:4, 6, 11. It is apparent, that Paul has
only quoted from those biblical verses in the reverse order the phrase
“festivals or New Moons or Sabbaths”. Do these verses, when speaking about
burnt offerings on the Sabbaths, mean the festival Sabbaths from Leviticus,
chapter 23 or the weekly Sabbaths from the Sinai Law? If we compare it to the
Numbers 28:9, 10, we shall see that for the weekly Sabbaths burnt offerings
have also been commanded. Furthermore the weekly Sabbaths were regarded as more
important than the festive ones. So we have no grounds to accept that the
weekly Sabbaths were disregarded in the phrase ”festivals or New Moon
celebrations or Sabbaths”.
…But there is
something about this verse, which is sure and indisputable. It is the fact that
Paul did write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit did know,
beyond any doubt, that this Epistle was going to be a part of the New Testament
books, canonized and obligatory for all Christians in all the centuries,
even until now. It is impossible for this message, being a Godly statement,
to bring obscurity and uncertainty to the believers and to contain ambiguous
phrases. It is inadmissible to think, that it may mislead us to committing
a sin by disregarding the Sabbaths, if their observation was obligatory in New
Testament times. Any normal person, any unprejudiced believer throughout the
centuries, up to now, thinks about the weekly Sabbaths whenever he hears the
word “Sabbath”. Even children know this word’s meaning, as they learn the days
of the week in their very youth.
There are words in
every language, which have several meanings – usually a main or basic one and
the others - additional or derivative. For example the word “eye” has its basic
meaning of a biological organ. An additional or derivative meaning of this word
is the hole of a needle. When we mention the word “eye”, we think mainly about
its basic meaning (translator’s note: In the original text in Bulgarian the
example is with the word “tooth” – basic meaning as a biological organ;
additional meaning as a mechanical element). It’s the same with the word
“Sabbath” or “Sabbaths”. Its basic or normal sense concerns the weekly
Sabbaths (Saturdays).
The word “Sabbath” was
used 60 times in the books of the New Testament (according to H. M. Wriggle).
59 of them speak doubtlessly about the weekly Sabbaths. When they blamed Jesus
of having healed sick people on Sabbath days, it was about the weekly Sabbaths
and not some annual festival – Sabbath (Luke 13:10-16). When Jesus said He was
the ”Lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8; Mark 2:28), we understand the weekly
Sabbath, not some annual feast – Sabbath. It is illogical and unconvincing in
this case, to claim that the 60th place – Col. 2:16, concerns annual festivals,
named “Sabbaths” and not weekly Sabbaths or even all Sabbaths - weekly and
annual. (If the Holy Spirit did not clearly explain in the context, that at
this place, as an exclusion, the word “Sabbath” means “annual feasts” from
Leviticus, chapter 23, then we conclude that this is about the weekly ones, as
it is in the whole New Testament – author’s note/V.V.)
Let’s get back to the
statement of the defenders of the Sabbath, that in this verse in Col. 2:16 the
word “Sabbath” or “Sabbaths” concerned the annual festivals from Leviticus,
chapter 23. If we read attentively this chapter, we comprehend that the word
“Sabbath” was used twice in verse 3, meaning the weekly Sabbath, twice in verse
32, meaning the Day of Atonement in the tenth day of the seventh month; in
verse 38 – it says the plural “Sabbaths” with the sense of the weekly Sabbaths
(the Sabbaths of the Lord). The other festivals, described in this chapter,
though resting days also, were never named “Sabbath”, although the word
“Sabbath” means rest”.
12
Let the defenders of
the Sabbath point out where in the Bible the word “Sabbath” was used to mark an
annual feast, except Lev. 23:32. We don’t know such a test so far. Their statement on
the meaning of the word in Col. 2:16 is evidently tendentious and far-fetched.
They deliberately overstate the meaning of the word “Sabbath” in relation to
annual feasts and depreciate its meaning, related to the weekly Sabbaths. In
some older publications they also point out tendentiously the ”great”
significance of the singular or plural form of the word “Sabbath” in Col. 2:16.
This was, in their opinion, to show that it concerned the annual festivals –
Sabbaths. But the facts are different: there are 52 weekly Sabbaths in the year
and only one Day of Atonement, named “Sabbath” in Lev. 23:32. And more to that,
as we have already said, Lev. 23:38 talks about the weekly Sabbaths in plural.
Other places in the Bible mention the weekly Sabbaths in plural as well – Exodus
31:13; Ezekiel 20:12, 20. Finally, the plural form may admittedly speak for
both weekly and annual festive Sabbaths. Leviticus, chapter 23 begins to
list the feasts of the Lord (verse 2), with the weekly Sabbaths namely (verse
3). They were placed first. Therefore we have no right to overlook the
weekly Sabbaths while mentioning the festivals of the Lord, as well as the word
“Sabbath”. At the end, we have to say also that if one compares the Bulgarian
and some foreign versions of the Bible, he could conclude that in Col. 2:16 it
is not a definite singular or definite plural form.
(If Paul the Apostle
considered Sabbaths = festivals, then his words would have contained
unnecessary tautology: "…do not let anyone judge you by…or with regard to
a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or festivals". After
he had already mentioned “festival”, it is obvious that at the end of the
sentence he speaks about the weekly Sabbaths. Why the Adventist theologians
refuse to admit such a simple thing, but leave no stone unturned in order to
distort the evident sense of this verse in their interpretations? – author’s
note/V.V.)[21]
……………………………………………………………………………………
We have already set
apart too much place to discuss Col. 2:16. Some authors find this verse so
important to the solution of the Sabbath problem, that they take it to a
heading to their works. Col. 2:16 shows us that the observation of the
Sabbath commandment and the Sabbath day in New Testament times amidst the
converted gentiles, was not obligatory as early as the time of the Apostles.
The appearance of this verse is imperative. The Sabbath defenders, in
condemning the other Christians for not observing the Sabbath day, offend this
clear evangelical command. As we know, the disobedience to any commandment
of God, which is obligatory for us today, is a sin.
For what reason was
the Law given to the Israelites?
The Lord did announce
the Hebrews only to be His people, set apart from all the other nations on the
earth (Exodus 33:16; II Samuel 7:24). He made His covenant with them on the mountain of Sinai
Let us turn again
towards D. Hristov to explain us the purpose of the giving of the Sabbath:
“According to the bible texts in Exodus 31:13, 16, 17; Deuteronomy 5:15 and
Ezekiel 20:12, 20, the Lord has given the Sabbath or Sabbaths to the Israelites
only to keep them, sanctify and celebrate them, with this fourfold purpose:
- To recognize Him,
the Lord, as their God (according to Ezekiel 20:20).
- To remind them that
He is the Creator of the Universe (according to Exodus 31:16, 17).
- To make them know
that He is consecrating them (according to Exodus 31:13 and Ezekiel 20:12).
- To remind them that
they have been slaves in the land of Egypt and the Lord has brought them out of
it with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm (according to Deuteronomy 5:15).
13
The Sabbaths, which
the Lord has given to them with this fourfold purpose in order to learn to know
Him as God, Creator, Consecrator and Savior, have lost their significance with
the coming of Christ. The New Testament believers gain an intimate knowledge of
God – the Father as their God, Creator, Consecrator and Savior not through the
weekly Sabbaths any more, but in a much clearer and perfect way – through Jesus
Christ, the Son of God (John 14:9, 10; 17:19; Romans 4:25; Hebrews 1:2, 3;
10:10). In this sense and for this reason the Sabbath was only a shadow of
what was to come, i.e. of Christ (Col. 2:17), and the Old Testament
Sabbath rest was a symbol of the comfort, which Christians get through faith in
the Savior (Matthew 11:28; John 14:27; Phil. 4:7). That is why if we turn
back to the letter of the Old Testament Sabbath commandment, we depreciate the
graceful work of Christ and the more superior way of the New Testament (John
14:6; Hebrews 8:6, 7). Thus we are coming to the danger of being condemned by
Hebrews 10:29 (see John 12:48; Rom. 2:16; I Corinthians 4:5).
There are certain
circumstances, which make it impossible for the gentiles to observe the Sabbath
commandment literally according to the Law of Moses. At the first place we can
list some geographical reasons. The peoples living in colder areas, where the
temperatures are too low during the winter, will freeze if they don’t make
fires (Exodus 35:3).[22] Beside this the Laplanders, Eskimos, etc. who live
beyond the Frigid Zone simply couldn’t celebrate every weekly Sabbath from
sunset until the next sunset, since there the sun doesn’t set beneath the
horizon for several days after June 22nd, and doesn’t appear at all
for the same time, at the beginning of the winter - the 22nd of
December.[23] D. Hristov points out another detail: “Let us see what will
happen if some ship or plane crosses the 180th meridian at the very moment when days shift
there – to the West of the line, the Saturday turns to Sunday for instance, and
to the East of it, the Friday turns to Saturday. While crossing from the West
towards the East, people in the plane (or the ship) will have two consecutive
Sabbath days, and the ones, crossing it in the opposite direction, will miss
the Saturday and go directly from Friday to Sunday in this six-days week.
We can see from these
examples that the accounting of the Sabbath day, as well as any other day, is
conditional because of the spherical shape of the earth’s globe. However we
cannot admit that the salvation of the human soul may depend on such geographic
conditions in the accounting of the days…”
Secondly, the
observation of the Old Testament Sabbath hinders the human progress. It would
be impossible for people, working on foreign-going ships, spaceships, atomic
power-plants, enterprises with uninterrupted production processes, etc., to
stop their work on the Sabbath day. Such an act would surely lead to accidents,
failures and even calamities. Then all the people, who have such jobs, would
have no chance to get saved. (The change of job would not solve the problem
because other people would have to take their places, who would be doomed to
spiritual death, too). That would mean that God did not think of the people,
laboring for the general good (for example, the ones in hospitals, firemen,
police forces, etc.), and even treats them unfairly, so that they can’t get
into the kingdom of heaven. How then the Apostles could claim: ”The Lord …not
wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”, “…who wants all
men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (II Peter 3:9; I Tim.
2:4)?[24]
Thirdly, there is no
way for the ritual requirements and punishments, associated with the Sabbath
commandment, to be fulfilled.[25] We have already mentioned that on this day
the consecrated breads were replaced and two additional lambs for burnt
offering were used together with the daily sacrifice (Lev. 24:5-8; Numbers
28:9-10). Are the temple, the priests and the sacrifices to be restored in
order to give us the chance to fit all the requirements, concerning this weekly
feast? Further more, it was commanded in the Law that the people who don’t
observe the Sabbath, should perish (Exodus 31:14; 35:12). Isn’t it possible for
some insane “prophet” to appear and to order a certain fanatic Adventist
movement to kill everyone, who works on this day (there is a number of such
cases in history)?[26]
14
The Adventists
theoretically claim, that a man is saved “through faith only”. But Christians
have noticed many times that they practically attempt to do the “deeds of the
Law”. They obviously misunderstand it and that is why we are going to try to
explain it simply. In Acts 15:1-5 it is said that some Jewish Christians (the
so-called “legalists”), used to teach the gentiles that they cannot be saved
unless they become circumcised. So in their opinion, man can be saved not
through faith in Christ only, but through keeping of the Law as well. The
discussion on this problem was written down by Paul in many of his letters, but
most of all, in the letter to the Galatians. He had brought the Good News there
himself first, and had established the local churches (Gal. 4:13). He used to
explain the believers everywhere, that the Law remains valid in its spiritual
sense only: “A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is
circumcision merely outward and physical….and circumcision is circumcision of
the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code” (Rom. 2:28-29). The
legalists did come to him wishing to impose the literal observation of the
commandments as well (Gal. 1:6-9; 3:1-3). In his letter, Paul tells his
spiritual children: “If you wish to keep one single commandment in its material
sense, you will have to fulfill the whole Law of Moses, since it is an
unbreakable unity” (Gal. 5:3). For the accomplishing of the circumcision, for
example, the priests are necessary, and they are also associated with the
temple and with the whole sacrificial ritual system.[27] The problem was quite
substantial and so it was discussed at the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem
This is why we are
going to emphasize again that the obligatory literal observation of the Old
Testament Sabbath commandment, leads to the returning to the Law of Moses and
falling away from the grace, that was given to us in Christ Jesus.
The Law in the history
of mankind
The Lord has made us
in His own image, in His likeness. What would have happened if we had remained
in His Love, creating supreme good? Would the commandments of the law have been
necessary then?[29] The man knew and loved the only true God and no other
gods. So he would not have made himself idols to worship. Because of
his respect to the Creator, he would have pronounced His name only when
needed and in a complete reverence. The serving to God would have been
incessant – all the acts would have to be in fulfillment of His will and to
His glory. The family love would have led to a big respect toward the
parents. Love is life-giving, it does not impair, commits no evil, murders
not. When two people are truly in love with each other, they do not
commit adulteries. The theft would have been impossible, for
everything would have been common possession. When we love the others, we
never tell lies to them. Man was given all the precious things on the earth
in abundance and he could covet nothing more. As we can see, when
love toward God and our neighbor fills the human hearts, the Law is totally
idle.[30] When the man took the forbidden fruit, he did not die physically,
but spiritually, since he fell apart from God (Genesis 2:16, 17; 3:24). Only
the conscience remained in us to tell between good and evil. It is guided by
such principles: “do to others what you would have them to do to you” ; Matthew
7:12). Furthermore, the whole creation testifies about(Acts 15:29[*] its
Creator, to Whom we are to give an account (Psalm 19:1-4). All the people have
always had this general revelation, so they remain with no excuse (Romans 1:20;
2:14, 15). Abraham and his heirs were chosen to be God’s own people (Genesis
12:2; Exodus 33:16). They got special revelations as well – Abraham was given
the one about the justification through faith, and later, Moses was given the
law (Genesis 15:6; John 1:17). However man cannot do good apart from his
Creator (John 15:5). The carnal law of egoism, hatred and pride has the power
over him (Romans, chapter 7). The Sinai covenant laid our transgressions bare,
but it could not consecrate anything (Gal. 3:19; Hebrews 7:19). The Lord
Jesus Christ came to purify us from every sin, to grant us the love of God
again and to restore the lost paradise to us (Matthew 26:28; John 15:9; Col.
1:13).
-------------------------------------------------
[*] See this verse in the Bulgarian Synodical version of the Bible.
[*] See this verse in the Bulgarian Synodical version of the Bible.
15
After the creation of
the world, the Lord said He had rested from all His works. His rest though, was
not because of some fatigue, rather it means seizing of His creative activity
(see note 8). After the words of an author: ”He felt satisfaction with the
creation, so He blessed and sanctified the seventh day”.[31] The texts in
Genesis 2:2, 3: “by the seventh day God…rested from all His work. And God
blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the
work of creation that He had done”, is narrative, not imperative (i.e. it is
not a command). The man needed not to be reminded to keep one day only for God,
because he had lived totally in the presence of God and all he was doing, was
the best according to His will (Genesis 2:15). Adam, apparently, did not sin
while working in the garden on Sabbath days, otherwise he would have been
forbidden to labor on this day. The only commandment which he got, was: “…You
are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but thou must not eat from the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely
die” (Genesis 2:16, 17). After he disobeyed it, the man was set apart from God
and cast away from heaven. He was told to till the ground with sweat on his
brows, with no limitation on which days he should work or rest. This is the
comment of prof. Totthew Koev to this verses: “It is true, that ”The Lord God
took the man in the garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” (Genesis
2:15). These words show that labor was blessed by God and that Adam and Eve did
work as early as the fall. But we ought to distinguish between the labor before
and after the fall of man. Before the sin the first human couple used to
contemplate on God with their pure spiritual eyes. The work used to give them
heavenly satisfaction instead of fatigue and need for rest. Being made in the image
of God (Genesis 1:26-27), Adam and Eve reflected the work of God in their
creative work (i.e. they did not get “exhausted and weak” as well – author’s
note). The punitive character of labor was a result of the fall of man: “Cursed
is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the
days of you life. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food.” (Genesis
3:17,19). After such an exhausting labor, rest is necessary, but this still
doesn’t mean it ought to have been on the Sabbath day. If it was on this day,
then after the words “all the days”, would have to be written “except for the
Sabbath”.[*]
All the people on
Earth - the righteous Abel, Seth, Enosh, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, etc., as
well as the unrighteous ones, did have no other judge beside their own
conscience. There is not any biblical text, from which we could make a
conclusion that before the Law was given, the fourth commandment had already
existed.[32]
During the time of
Egyptian slavery, the Hebrews have been obliged to do the hardest work (Exodus
1:8-14). If they had to have an obligatory Sabbath day – rest, they would have
broken it systematically in relation to their constant pressure of work (since
the Pharaoh did not take to his mind the laws of their God not in the least –
Exodus 5:2). Moses never mentioned such a thing, which is to show us that they
did not regard such a weekly feast. Only after the Lord led them out of Egypt and gave them the manna in the Desert of Sin Egypt
In consent with the
aforementioned reflections, we can categorically judge, that from the very
creation of man until the bringing out of the Israelites from Egypt
-------------------------------------------
[*]“Faith and life” p. 398.
[*]“Faith and life” p. 398.
[**]“Faith and life” p. 399.
16
Even after the
Resurrection and the Ascension of the Savior, the Jewish Christians have gone
on holding to all the rules of the Law of Moses, although it was not valid
anymore (see Acts 21: 17-26). They have done this not as a requirement to be
saved, but to declare their belonging to their race. After the destruction of Jerusalem
The conclusions we’ve
made about the two spiritual senses of the New Testament Sabbath commandment,
have been splendidly confirmed in the work “Stromati(a)” of St. Clement of
Alexandria (194 AD): ”From the very Scripture we learn that God had given the
circumcision as well not as a work of righteousness, but rather as a sign,
through which the heirs of Abraham can be recognized. (The forefather of the
Hebrews was first justified through faith, and then accepted the circumcision
as a seal or a sign for the righteousness through faith – Rom. 4: 9-12 –
author’s note/V.V.). For it is said: “Then God said to Abraham…Every male among
you shall be circumcised. You are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the
sign of the covenant between Me and you” (Genesis 17: 9-11). He talks to the
Hebrews likewise concerning the Sabbath: “You must observe My Sabbaths. This
will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so you
may know that I am the Lord, who makes you holy.” (Exodus 31:13). And so these
rules were given as signs. The circumcision of the flesh was to be a
symbol of the spiritual one, since according to the Apostle, we have undergone
“not a circumcision done by the hands of men but…the circumcision done by Christ”
(Col. 2:11), and the prophet says: “Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do
not be stiff-necked any longer” (Deuteronomy 10:16). Thus the Sabbaths
taught people to get used to serve God every day. For the Apostle Paul
says: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to
be slaughtered” (Rom. 8: 36), i.e. we have devoted ourselves to God and
serve Him at any time, walking in our faith while abstaining from every
greed, we gain and own no earthly treasures. Besides, the Sabbath also
points out the peace of God after the Creation, i.e. the Kingdom of God
ІІ. The Sunday – a
symbol of the new Creation
The first day is
related to the creative principle. The heaven and earth were made on this day,
and later on – all that is in them as well (Genesis, chapter 10). However,
after the fall of man, the old creation was subordinated and handed over
to destruction (Rom. 8:20-21). But the Lord planed an act of redemption for the
whole Universe, which was fulfilled through the Savior’s death on the cross
(John 3:16). With His resurrection, the renewal of everything was started
(II Corinthians 5:17). God revived us together with Him and made us to become the
first fruits of the new Creation (Eph. 2:5-7; James 1:18). At the end, He
will make a perfect world, inhabited by all the righteous creatures
(Rev. 21:1-7).
The greatest event,
which set the beginning of the new world, was prophesied in the very Psalms: “Therefore
my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body will also rest secure, because
you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see
decay”, ”O Lord you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down
into the pit” (Psalm 16:9-11; 30:3). Another place says: “The stone the
builders rejected has become the capstone; The Lord has done this, and it is
marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice
and be glad in it” (Psalm 118: 22-24). Christ is the Stone the builders
rejected (I Peter 2: 4-8). But He became the cornerstone and the church was
built on Him (Eph. 2: 20, 21). On the “day”, when our Lord resurrected, we
have to rejoice and jubilate, for He overcame the death, hell and the devil.
As it is written: “who had destroyed death and has brought life and immortality
to light”, “Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your
destruction?” , “by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death
– that is , the devil” (II Tim. 1:10; Hosea 13:14; Hebrews 2:14). An old
Passover song says: "Let all the nature rejoice: The heavens should
rejoice righteously, the earth should jubilate and the whole visible and
invisible world should celebrate, for Christ, the eternal justice, resurrected
from the dead."
What day the official
Christian worship has been carried on?
The Adventists think
that if Christ and the Apostles visited the synagogues on Sabbath days, this
certainly means that they approved the worshipping on Sabbath. That is why the
first Christians, according to them, used to get together on the Sabbaths.
17
Our Savior lived at
the end of the Old Testament age, when all of the Israelites have gone
regularly to the synagogues, where on the Sabbath day the Law of Moses was read.
So it is not strange that He used for His preaching the assembly of the
believers (Matthew 4:23; John 18:20). All the other days, the Lord taught the
people at any place – in towns and villages and in the countryside. He used to
spend the important annual feasts in Jerusalem
At the beginning, after
His ascension, the disciples went daily to the temple and the synagogues,
preaching repentance and forgiveness for sins in the name of Christ (Acts
2:46-47; 3:1-26; 5:12-14, 42; 6: 7-10). They were later forbidden to spread out
their belief by the chief priests and after the tragic murder of Stephen by the
furious adversaries of the Christianity, the disciples stopped visiting the
Jewish religious centers and began to assemble at their homes only (Acts 4:18;
5:40; 7:60; 12:12-17).
When Apostle Paul
entered a certain town, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath days first,
since he had to bring the Good News to the Jews at the first place. But after
he was cast away from there by the opposition-minded, he established a new
church with all of the believers (Acts 13:14-52; 14:1-7; 16:13-15; 17:1-17;
18:4-21; 19:8-10).
In all the similar
occasions, mentioned in the New Testament, it concerns the worshiping according
to the Jewish religion, to which Jesus and the Apostles were invited as guests
to read the Scriptures and preach. There is no hint in all of these passages
that Christian assemblies got together on Sabbath days also.
There are, however, a
number of texts saying directly or indirectly what day the Christians did
celebrate. When Jesus resurrected, in the morning of the first day He revealed
Himself to the women who brought the spices, in the afternoon – to the two
fellow-passengers on the way to Emmaus, and in the evening – to all of his
disciples who were gathered together in a room (Matthew 28:1-9; Luke
24:13-32,33-42). By His second appearance in eight days, on the Sunday again,
He confirmed this day as the time for the Christian worshipping (John
20:26-29). The fact that the pouring down of the Holy Spirit on the Pentecost
when the church was established and given power, happened on a Sunday too, is
significant. (Acts 2:1-4; see Lev. 23:15, 16).
The Apostle Paul
writes to the Corinthians: “On the first day of every week, each one of you
should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so
that when I come, no collections will have to be made.” (I Corinthians 16:2).
Why did he point out the first day and no some other day of the week? It is
obvious that Paul didn’t know when exactly he would come, but their general
assembly was to take place on the Sunday. For this reason, they had to bring
with them what they had set aside in order to give it to him personally and not
to start to gather their gifts then. (We know from Acts 11:27-30 that at this
time there was a severe famine in Judea .
Evidently, the Apostle was in a hurry to send the gifts to Jerusalem and to get
them distributed out to the ones in need – I Corinthians 16:3,4).[34]
There is a text, which
shows with an absolute certitude on what day did the Christians gather
to worship: “On the first day of the week we came together to break
bread. Paul spoke to the people, and because he intended to leave next day,
kept on talking until midnight.” (Acts 20:7). The Adventist theologians strive
eagerly to dim the clear sense of this verse and to ascribe it a completely
different meaning. They say that it concerns an additional meeting on Saturday
evening after the sunset (when the first day had began), because Paul had to
depart the next morning. As they try to put this passage to discussion, we
shall scrutinize in its whole context. The Apostle had been for seven days in Troas (verse 6). If he had to depart in such an
emergency, he could have ordered all people from the church to be notified to
get together so that he may tell them his directions, and then leave for Jerusalem
We shall conclude that
the Christians observe perfectly the New Testament Sabbath by living a devoted
life in continuous ministry to the Lord and find their spiritual peace in it.
They worship the Lord on the first day of the week according to the example
given us by the church of the Apostles. The Sunday rapturously reminds us of
the resurrection of Christ by which the victory over the death was announced,
and symbolizes the new creative principle of spiritual and physical change of
the whole creation.[37]
18
Historical evidence
We have good reason to
think that Adventist historians deliberately manipulate their followers about
the teaching of the early church concerning the Saturday and Sunday. They do
not quote objectively and completely the most important writings on this
topic by the Christian authors from the period after the Apostles, but give
mostly their own interpretation of their works which is in many cases, false or
distorted. We shall adduce here short passages from the works of the Church
Fathers from the beginning of the 2nd to the middle of the 4th
century, so that each reader may make his own mind on this question.
At the end of his
life, the Apostle John was in charge of the churches in Asia Minor. Because of
his activity in the years around 90-100 AD, he was sent into an exile to the
island of Patmos. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him in a vision there and
gave him messages to some of these churches (Revelation, chapters 1, 2, 3). But
none of them contains an accusation that the Christians have disobeyed “the
most important commandment” by changing the weekly worship from Sabbath to
Sunday (according to the Adventists this has happened between 70 and 135 AD).
We say the mentioned
above because there is, in addition, a preserved document by his disciple St
Ignatius Theophorus, in this time – bishop of the church in Antioch (which was
also in this region). In his Epistle to the Magnesians (107 AD), he says: “Each
loving Christian is to regard the day of the resurrection (Sunday) as a feast
of the Resurrection of Christ, the most glorious of all the days…Let us not
give in to the fallacies of strange teachings and old stories, which are
useless. For if we live keeping to the old Jewish law, we shall thus show that
the grace did not touch us. So let the one who was brought up in the old law
and later came to the light of the new hope, abandon the observation of the
Sabbath and regard the Resurrection (the Sunday), settled by the death of
Christ and which revealed to us the life in Christ.”
Another (independent)
source says also that the Christians have gathered together on Sunday morning.
The procouncil Plinius (governor Pliny) the Younger writes in a letter to the
emperor Trayan (in 106 AD ): “The Christians have the habit of gathering
together on a certain day before sunrise and singing to Christ as to a God.
This day is the eight one, when Jesus Christ has resurrected”.
In the “Epistle by the
Apostle Barnabas” (120 AD), chapter 14, we can read: “That is why we keep
overjoyed the eight day, namely the day on which Jesus resurrected from the
dead”.
“Apostolic directions”
(125 AD), vol. VII, chapter 30: “On the day of the Lord keep gathering
together, thanking to God and telling how were you benefited by Him in
Christ…Gather in the house of God on the day of the Resurrection of Christ…go
to the temple on the day of the Lord because of the teaching of the devotion
and to the remembrance of His resurrection”.
From some works by St
Justin Martyr (which have been confirmed by Eusebius as well), we comprehend
that he celebrated the Sunday as early as the time when he had lived in
Ephesus, i.e. before 135 AD (he moved to Rome later). In his “First apology”
(155 AD) to emperor Antoninus, chapter 67, he says: “What was not obligatory
from the beginning, is not obligatory now in Christ as well. If circumcision
was not necessary until the time of Abraham and the Sabbath – until the time of
Moses, then now when, by the will of the Father, the Son of God Jesus Christ
was born sinless by a virgin, they are not necessary either…But Sunday is the
day when all of us assemble to worship, since it is the first one, on which God
had made changes in the darkness and the substance – He created the world, and
our Savior Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead ones on the same day. Because
He was crucified on the day before the one of Saturn (Saturday), and on the day
following it, which is the day of the Sun (Sunday), appearing to His disciples,
He taught them these things, which we have presented to you as a food for
reflection”.
The same church mentor
says in his book “A conversation with the Jew Tryphon” (165 AD), while
mentioning the names of Adam, Abel, Enosh, Lot and Melchizedek that: “All these
righteous men, though they did not observe the Sabbaths, did please God”. He
asks at another place: “Is there anything else, my friend, about which you
could condemn us except for not living according to the law, not circumcising
ourselves like your forefathers, and for not observing the Sabbaths like you
do?”
St. Irenaeus of Lyons
says shortly and clearly in his work “Against the heresies” (203 AD), vol. IV,
chapter 30: “Abraham believed in God with no circumcision and no Sabbath”.
19
Tertullian, “Versus
The Jews” (223 AD): “Since the Lord has placed Adam with no circumcision and
observation of the Sabbath, He had favor to his son Abel who did sacrifice
offerings with no circumcision and no Sabbath – observing, either. He
mercifully accepted what Abel had offered Him pure-heartedly and rejected the
sacrifice of Cain who consecrated it in a wrong way. This same God saved from
the flood Noah and his family with no circumcision and observation of the
Sabbath. Even the righteous Enosh was taken out of this world with no such
things. He didn’t taste death and pointed out that even without the yoke of the
Law of Moses, it is possible to please God. Even Melchizedek, the priest of the
Almighty God, was introduced into the ministry without circumcision and
Sabbath-observation.”
St Peter of Alexandria
(311 AD), rule 15: “We celebrate the Sunday as a day of joy because of the
Resurrection which happened on it”.
Eusebius of Caesarea
(340 AD), vol. I, chapter 4, mentions while talking about the Patriarchs: “They
had neither circumcision, nor observed the Sabbath, like us… such things are
not for the Christians”.
The church councils
express best the opinion of the Christians in that time. The twentieth rule of
the First Oecumenical Council, which took place in the town of Nic(k)ea (325
AD), says: “Because some people kneel down on Sundays and on the Pentecost, so
in order to have a total unity in everything in all the parishes, the holy
council determines the days mentioned above for prayers and worship to God”.
Later on the local
council in Laodicea (343 AD), enacted by its 29th rule: “Christians
are not allowed to imitate the Jews and to celebrate the Sabbath, but they are
to work on this day. Being Christians, they are to observe the Sunday.”
(Contrary to the opinion of some Adventist authors, the Pope was neither
present, nor sent delegates to this council.)
From all said thus far
one can understand that the teaching about the Sabbath and Sunday has its
grounds in the New Testament and was observed as early as the appearance of the
Christianity and remained immutable in the church until today. (The Adventist claims
that it was imposed by the Roman Catholics not before the 4th
century and spread throughout the world, have no reason at all. As we have
already said in the first chapter, there was never a papal supremacy over the
whole church).[38]
We shall conclude with
the confession of the former Adventist preacher D.M. Canright, who was once a
high-rank person in their society in the United States: “After I had accepted
the seventh day and had preached it widely for a quarter of a century, I am
content that it was only a fallacy and the blessing from the Lord does not come
along with its admission. Like thousands of others, when I embraced the
Sabbath, I was thinking that all the reasons were on one side so clear and
complete that no man could have cast the Sabbath away and still remain honest.
I was only surprised that not all the people saw and accepted them.
After I have observed
the seventh day for 28 years; after I was more convinced than thousands of
others who keep it; after I’ve read the Bible more than 20 times; after I‘ve
searched up to my limits, every single text, line and word, which had even the
slightest relation to the Sabbath problem; after I’ve come through them in
original and many versions and translations; after I’ve dug into dictionaries,
concordances and interpretations; after I’ve read piles of books on the
question pro and con; after I’ve read every single line by the Church Fathers
on this topic and after I’ve written myself several works in favor of the
seventh day which satisfied my brothers; after I’ve seen the fruits of the
observation of the Sabbath day; after I’ve taken to consideration all the data
in fear of the Lord, I finally made up my mind that the facts are versus the
observation of the Sabbath day.”[*]
Many Adventist leaders
are perfectly aware of the unsoundness of a number of their teachings, but they
still maintain them because of their commitment to this church, their job and
material status. Thus they confirm a fallacy in the minds of their followers,
which leads them away from the Christianity. But let’s point them out, that in
this way they run the risk to lose not only the salvation of their followers,
but their own as well (their responsibility before God will be even bigger than
the one of those, who listen to them).[39] More and more of the ordinary
members of this movement begin asking themselves nowadays to what extent their
doctrines and practices are trustworthy in the light of the New Testament. So
it is our friendly advice toward the Adventist leaders to turn to the Christian
positions – this is the only way to prevent cataclysms in their church and to
save their followers.
(In the second part of
the book we shall discuss the rest of the heretic doctrines of this movement –
the Eschatology (2300 days, the investigative judgment, interpretation of the
Revelation), the teaching of the unconscious state of the souls after death,
the destruction of the wicked ones in the lake of fire, the sinful nature of
Jesus Christ, etc.).
---------------------------------------------------
[*] “Sabbath and Sunday in the light of the Holy Scripture” p.69.
[*] “Sabbath and Sunday in the light of the Holy Scripture” p.69.
20
NOTES:
[1] The rule
concerning the Sabbath was one of the Ten Commandments written by God
personally, that are the base of the Law of Moses. The first four of them
regulate the proper relations between God and man and the other six – the moral
relations among the people. In our survey, we’ll show that in the New Testament
the spiritual nature of all the commandments from the Sinai Code, including the
Sabbath, has been revealed quite clearly. (There are two very important
spiritual dimensions of the fourth commandment which are still of significance
for the Christians).
[2] The laws of nature
were settled and meant to maintain the structure of the Universe. Their
breaking would lead to chaos and disorganization in the material world. It is
the same with the laws of God, but in the spiritual domain. In a vertical plane
they define the right relations between God and man, and in the horizontal –
the relations among people. What is going to happen if some commandment, for
example from the Decalogue, is broken? Granted, the first one could allow
worship to other gods. Each one of them would have different (often totally
contradictory) requirements, which would be impossible to fit. Or if the 9th
commandment changed to “give false testimony”: if we give one another false and
untrue information, no act or work with a purpose would be possible to be done.
And a commandment stating ”murder” would lead to the destruction of mankind –
people would kill each other (even if one of them survived at the end, he would
have to die with no heirs, too). The reader can make up his own conclusions
about the consequences of the disobedience to the rest of the commandments. In
other words, breaking of the law leads to evil only, and keeping to it
contributes to the benefit of man. We can see that the establishing of any
spiritual order in the society and the creation of anything good, just and
beautiful would be impossible without it. (We shall explain further in the text
that this concerns not only the spiritual nature of the commandments on the two
plates of stone, but also the whole Law of God).
[3] However, when
someone creates pictures, monuments, etc., expressing scenes from the heavenly
or earthly life as works of art, this isn’t still an idolatry. The Lord had
commanded Moses to embroider the curtain in the temple with heavenly cherubs
and also to place two cherubs of pure gold on the altar, which stood on the top
of the Ark of the Covenant. But if someone begins to hold in special honor such
images and objects, consider them as an object to worship, ascribe them
miraculous abilities, this already makes him breaking the commandment.
[4] The commandments,
related to different rituals, were also said to be eternal (see the books of
Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, etc.). The ceremonies revealed in a spiritual
sense the justice and mercy of God – crime, punishment, redemption and
forgiveness. Their pictures and symbols had to help the Old Testament believers
to understand the salvation through the sacrificial “Lamb”. In this sense they
are a shadow, which passes away, but their eternal immutable nature still
remains – Christ (Hebrews 10:1-10). In general, the whole Law of Moses was
named an “eternal covenant” (Deuteronomy 5:29), but the eternal in it was
not “the letter” – the rules, but rather “the spirit” – the principles of love
toward the neighbor and God.
[5] The Adventists
divide the Old Testament law in two parts – “moral” (the ten commandments on
the plates of stone) and “ceremonial” - all the rest of them. We think that
such approach is incorrect – nowhere in the Bible can such a division be found.
Let us take for granted this point for a moment, though. The Adventists claim
that the “moral” law is still valid and the “ceremonial” has fallen away. Then
the priest and the Levite have done nothing wrong by passing round the hurt
person and not helping him (the parable of the good Samaritan), for they did
not break any of the ten commands (Luke 10:30-35). Then Jesus would have no
absolute reasons to distinguish the “sheep” from the “goats”, since the latter
may have never done anything good to the ones belonging to Him, but have not
sinned also, according to the “moral” commandments (Matthew 25:31-46). Such
sins like egoism, pride, treachery, heartlessness, ungratefulness, lack of
self-control, love of money, drunkenness, etc., are not mentioned in the
Decalogue as well, but they are discussed in the New Testament (II Tim. 3:2-5).
The two appeals for love toward the neighbor and God are listed in the
“ceremonial” commandments and so they ought to have fallen away or to be only
“shadows” (Deuteronomy 6:5; Lev. 19:18). All this is to show that the division
mentioned above, even if we consider it only a conditional one, is
inadmissible.
From Biblical point of
view the moral can be defined as “norms, which determine the behavior
of the person toward God and the society”. The Creator of the Universe has
settled certain moral principles to maintain the justice and order. Every
conscientious creature is responsible before Him for observing them in his
life.
The ceremonies (the rituals), which
the priests in the temple were accomplishing – the offering of the sacrifices
on the altar, the incense, the purifications, the washings and so on, were
in relation with the ministry to God, so they can be included in the list of
the first four commands. All the civil, ethical, judicial, hygienic, etc. norms
were given to the benefit of man and so they contrive to the normal life in the
society – they belong to the second six commands. The inner content of these
two groups of rules crystallizes in the eternal spiritual commands: “Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
strength”, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Deuteronomy 6:5; Lev. 19:18).
The Law of Moses is a wholeness (it is unified and indivisible) – this is the
“covenant” which God has made with the Israelites on the mountain of Sinai.
“The New Testament” in the blood of Christ is also an entity (unified and
indivisible).
In this way the whole
Old Testament literal form of the law has fallen away (not only the “ceremonial
rules”) and has been replaced by a new perfect form, which is in fact its
spiritual nature, and remains in the eternity. Apostle Paul himself says that
he is not under the “Jewish” law, but he is not without a (“spiritual”-
author’s note) law concerning Christ (I Corinthians 9:20-21). At another place
he says: “…He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the
letter (i.e. the Old Testament – author’s note) but of the spirit; for the
letter kills, but the spirit gives life” (II Corinthians 3:6).
[6] If we carefully
survey the content of the Old Testament, we shall see that the revealing of the
deeper spiritual compound of the Commandments, has started already at that time
(as well as the salvation through faith only). In the New Testament all this
was made systematic and summarized and the very spiritual nature of things was
completely and entirely brought out (compare Genesis 15:6 – Gal. 3:8/ Genesis
17:10; Deuteronomy 10:16 – Rom. 2:28, 29; Col. 2:11/ Deuteronomy 6:5; Lev.
19:18 – Luke 10:27/ Joshua, chapter 6 – Hebrews 4:8; see also the explanations
we have given about the spiritual sense of the Decalogue, the ritual
commandments, etc.).
[7] Did Jesus break
the Sabbath by telling this man to take his mat (Jeremiah 17:21-22)? Under the
walls of Jericho the priests were carrying the Ark of the Covenant on the
Sabbath as well, thus expressing the glorious presence of God. The paralytic
also took his mat to glorify God – to show in the eyes of everyone his
miraculous healing.
[8] The rest described
here is not due to fatigue, but is associated with the seizing of the creative
work of God “…The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the
earth.. He will not grow tired or weary” (Isaiah 40:28).
[9] In the beginning
of Genesis the creative activity of God was expressed in two different
directions. To begin with, the creation of the earth (and of the
Universe later) out of nothing. And secondly, the arrangement
of the formless and empty earth and creation of the highly organized systems of
the living creatures – the plants, the animals and the man. Most believers
think that, perhaps, the Lord had made figures out of clay and then had given
them life (and obviously concerning the water creatures, He had to make figures
out of this liquid). However such an opinion is wrong, since the percentage
parts of the chemical elements in the compound of the living organisms, does
not correspond exactly to the one of the elements in the content of soil and
water. All this is to show that God has simply “taken” the atoms of the
necessary elements and “arranged” them in the complex molecules of the organic
and mineral substances, simultaneously “forming” their bodies from them. (It
would be more adequate to say that He had commanded and this happened – Genesis
1:3, 6, 9, 14, 20, 24, 26; Psalm 33:9).
When Jesus was
healing, He was also “arranging” regularly the biological structure of
the impaired cells, tissues, organs and systems, so that they could function
again, i.e. recover. In the occasion with the man born blind – John 9:1-7, it
is even possible that some part of the ocular system was missing and that God
had “made” it out of clay (otherwise he wouldn’t have had to use “creative
material”). Therefore whenever He made miracles, Jesus was doing the same
work every day as in the days of the creation (he “worked” or “labored”).
[10] If the Adventist
teaching about the Sabbath was correct, Jesus would have had to tell the
chronically sick people: “God rests on this day and I likewise am not working.
So listen to My words which will grant you eternal life, and after the Sabbath
is over, I am going to heal you.”
[11] God had allowed
people to eat from the vineyards and the cornfields of their neighbors, only to
satisfy their hunger (Deuteronomy 22:24-25). But no activities, associated with
harvesting and threshing were allowed on the Sabbath day, so formally the acts
of the disciples looked like doing work on this day, which was a reason for
their adversaries to blame them (Exodus 34:21).
[12] God also sees our
motives to do certain things. In this case, David and his men strived to
survive in order to serve God. In II Chronicles 26:16-23 another case is
described of breaking the law. The king Uzziah wanted to be a priest as well,
i.e. he wanted to have a ministry, which was not to be assigned to him. His act
looked quite like the one of Lucifer who wanted to be something more than
“anointed as a guardian cherub” (Ezekiel 28:14; Isaiah 14:12-15). That is why
Uzziah was punished with leprosy and was taken off the throne for his pride
like Satan was cast away from heaven (Isaiah 14:15; Luke 10:8; Rev. 12:9).
[13] If something has
been made for man, then he is lord over it. For instance, the Earth was created
for man and he had to rule over everything on it (Genesis 1:28). (Strictly God
is Creator and a sovereign Lord over the whole creation, and we are only
householders over all that is entrusted to us.)
[14] The treatment of
food was also forbidden on the Sabbath day (boiling, baking), lighting of fire,
gathering wood, carrying loads and generally doing any kind of work (Exodus
16:21-30; 35:3; Numbers 15:32-36; Nehemiah 13:15; Amos 8:5; Jeremiah 17:21-22).
[15] Jesus did not
observe the Sabbath according to the views of the priests and the Pharisees, so
they kept discussing: “This man is not from God for he does not keep the
Sabbath” and had the desire to kill him because of this: “For this reason the
Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath…”,
“So from that day on they plotted to take his life” (John 9:16; 5:18; 11:53).
But if He had broken even one only point of the Law, He would have been guilty
of sin and could not have become our Redeemer. “For the wages of sin is death”
(Rom. 6:23). And if His own life did not belong to Him (i.e. if He was sentenced
to death), He could not have offered it as a ransom for our salvation. However
we know this isn’t true. He asked the Jews: “Can any of you prove Me guilty of
sin?” (John 8:46). Even His worst enemies could not present any proof that He
had never committed anything wrong. His disciples testify also: “…in Him is no
sin”, “…a lamb with no blemish or defect”, “…who had no sin” (I John 3:5; I
Peter 1:19; II Corinthians 5:21). Therefore Jesus as a High Priest in the
order of Melchizedek kept perfectly the Sabbath in a new way. Not to the Old
Testament letter, like some attempt to keep it even nowadays, but in the spirit
of the New Testament time by serving God constantly (let us recall the acts of
the Israelites at the walls of Jericho). We are to do the same, being priests
of God, for He has given to us an example to follow.
[16] If the ancient
Hebrews had had the right to feed, water and take care of their animals every
day (furthermore – even to strive to save them in cases of danger on the
Sabbath day), then we are obliged to help our neighbors at any time to a much
bigger extent. The Adventists might think about this, as they are ready to take
their animals out of the pit, but not to come to help to their neighbors on
this day, just like them. “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on
the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more
valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the
Sabbath” (Matthew 12:11-12). If we let God work in us according to His will,
what we daily do will be only for good – to lead everyone to repentance
(Eph. 2:13; James 1:17; Rom. 2:4).
[17] For what reason
is the heavenly temple (with the ark of the covenant in it) going to remain
until the Day of Judgment, while the Old Testament ministry has passed away on
the earth (Rev. 11:19)? We can understand from the Scriptures that all the
non-believers will be resurrected then and will be judged by the law, by
their works (Rev. 20:11-15). But Christians are not “under law, but under
grace” for their sins are forgiven and they “will not be condemned, but have
crossed over from death to life” (Rom. 6:14; John 5:24). They will take part in
this judgment but as judges together with Christ (John 5:22; Matthew 19:28; I
Corinthians 6:3). In the new Jerusalem there will be no temple, because all of
its inhabitants will be righteous and the perfect “law” of love will be written
down on their hearts.
[18] Here are the
symbols for these rituals:
Jesus told the Jews:
“I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven,
but it is My Father who gives you the true bread from heaven…This bread is My
flesh, which I will give for the life of the world” (John 6:32, 51).
The exchange of the
two covenants, as well as the one of the animated and the spiritual body (I
Corinthians 15: 42-49), i.e. the old and the new bread, has happened while He
was in the grave on the Sabbath day.
The offering of the
lambs points out to the sacrifice of the “Lamb of God” and the bread – His
body.
[19] When we get new
spiritual bodies we shall probably get no tired anymore.
[20] The whole context
of the passage in Hebrews 3:7-19; 4:1-11 says, that: “there remains one
Sabbath-rest” for the Christians in the heavenly kingdom. The Hebrews used to
keep a lot of weekly Sabbaths, but nonetheless they did not enter the
rest of God because of their lack of faith. The faith is credited to us as
righteousness, on the basis of which we enter the rest of the Salvation. (author's
note/V.V.)
[21] In some later publications,
the Adventists admit that this may concern the weekly Sabbaths, but they add
also that the Colossians were not to be blamed for not observing the Sabbath
according to the directions of the Rabbis. (These were additional prohibitions
for what was not to be done on this day, written down by the elders). I.e. the
direction, according to them, was saying: “Let no one blame you for not keeping
the human directions in relation with the fourth commandment. You have to
observe the Sabbath only after what was told to you in the Decalogue.” But if
Paul meant such a thing, he would surely have made it clearer through the
context or somewhere in his Epistles. In the sentence “festivals”, “New Moon
celebrations” and “Sabbaths” are placed at the same level. This is to show that
the gentiles ought not to keep the rules of the law, concerning them. They were
not to keep the Jewish traditions either.
Likewise Gal. 4:10,11
is interpreted: “You are observing special days and months and seasons and
years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you”. They
claim that the “days” (i.e. the Sabbaths) were charged with some Jewish-style
keeping of the law by worshipping angels and heavenly bodies. Apostle Paul
advised the Galatians not to keep the Sabbath in this way. But what meaning are
the “months” (the New Moons), the “seasons” (the festivals) and the “years”
(the jubilee years) charged with, then? As a disproof we can quote the same
arguments as the mentioned above.
The Hebrew Christians
who used to insist that the gentiles had to keep the law of Moses, would not
dare to require also keeping of the traditions of the elders, since Jesus had
already categorically denied them – Matthew 15:1-9; Mark 7:1-13. Generally, in
the books of the New Testament the defenders of the circumcision are not
mentioned to have taught that any orders outside the law were to be kept. If it
was so, they would have been attacked for sure at the Apostolic council because
of this too. The verses in chapter 15: 1, 5, 21, 24, 28 and 29 reveal clearly
that only the Old Testament law was a question for discussion.
(Some say that if the
problem of the Sabbath was not taken to discussion at the council, then the
gentiles are likely to have kept it and there was nothing to be disputed on this
topic. However Acts 15:5 says that the converted ones from the Pharisees had
insisted not only that the gentiles were to be circumcised, but that they were
to keep the whole law as well. When the leaders of the Christian church
discarded the rules of the Law (except for a few things) as unnecessary for the
gentiles, they have also rejected the need for literal keeping of the fourth
commandment (Acts 15:6-29). /Paul has had disagreements with his adversaries
not on the circumcision only, but also on the keeping of the Sabbath – see the
comment to Rom. 14:5; Gal. 4:9-11 and Col. 2:16. In this way all of the
disagreements were set clear by the conclusions of the council/).
[22] Today’s heating
could be by electricity, steam, gas, etc., but in all cases someone would have
to work every day to maintain it.
[23] On the basis of a
biblical study in 1855 by J. N. Andrews the Adventists decided to sanctify the
Sabbath from the sunset on Friday until the sunset on Saturday (like the
ancient Hebrews did).
[24] If we know that
someone has stolen a lamb and still we eat it together with him, aren’t we
turning into breakers of the law, too? The same way the Adventists use every
single day the different good things of contemporary life – electricity,
water-supply, heating, transport, etc., while at the same time they condemn the
ones who labor on Sabbaths. How is the Lord going to look at their hypocrisy?
We shall give them an
example as food for reflection. An Adventist family lives in a village where
there is no church. With their own car they get to the next town on Friday
evening to worship. But on their way back, the car gets out of order. What will
they do? Will they remain on the road for 24 hours until the Sabbath is over
and then fix the car? Or perhaps they will wait until some unbeliever comes and
repairs it (taking thus the sin on himself)? Would they help other people in
such a need themselves? Life offers many situations like this one, how do they
manage with them?
[25] One can say “We
ought to observe only those requirements for the Sabbath, which are listed in
the Decalogue”. But that is not true! The rest of the commands are associated
with these ten and explain more clearly the way they have to be observed. For
example, we may have found some livestock of our neighbor, which has been lost.
We can tell ourselves: ”We have not stolen it, anything that is found is ours,
therefore we shall keep it.” Nevertheless there is an additional explanation to
the law “Do not steal”, which obliges us to give it back: “If you see your
brother’s ox or sheep straying…be sure to take it back to him…” (Deuteronomy
22:1-3). Otherwise it is as if we have stolen it, i.e. we have broken the
command not to appropriate anything, which belongs to someone else. It’s the
same way with the Sabbath. All of the directions related to it have to be
accomplished, otherwise it will be broken.
(Dear Adventists,
don’t trust your “theologians” blindly! Open up your Bibles and see for
yourselves that there are a lot of other commandments like Deuteronomy 22:1-3
in the Law of Moses, which are not “ceremonial” at all).
[26] In the judicial
system if the punishments, related to the breaking of a certain rule, get
removed, it would turn into a recommendation only. The Old Testament Sabbath
will be likewise deprived of sense, if the punishments listed by the law in
case of its breaking, are not valid anymore.
Unfortunately, the
worst expectations are being met – the so called "reconstructionists"
are ready to execute anyone, who does not obey the requirements (including the
commandment of the Sabbath) of the Law of Moses: http://kosmos-21.blogspot.com/2011/07/blog-post_22.html
[27] Deuteronomy 27:26
says categorically that we cannot obey some of the commandments of the law
while breaking others: “Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this
Law by carrying them out”. The brother of the Lord James confirms: “For whoever
keeps the whole Law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking
all of it” (James 2:10).
[28] The Adventists
surely think that they please God more by attempting to observe some things
from the Law – they keep the Sabbath, they eat only clean animals, they give a
tithe and so on. But let us remind again that we are either saved by “works
according to the law”, or by “faith in Christ”. Both ways are not possible to
work simultaneously, being totally incompatible. Apostle Paul talks about the
Hebrews: “…but Israel who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it.
Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works.”
(Rom. 9:31, 32).
[29] In the beginning
the Adventists claimed that the ten commandments of the Decalogue were valid as
early as in the Garden of Eden. Later they changed their mind by saying that
God had only put them “in principle” in Adam and Eve. But what they mean by the
words “in principle”, no one still knows.
[30] Imagine that
there is a strong friendship between you and some other person. He invites you to
guest, but he gives you certain directions: “When you come to my house, you
should not steal anything, you should not kill my children or commit adultery
with my wife”. How will you feel after such warnings? In love there is no need
for any rules for abstaining from evil, since it does good only. Any law of
this kind only destroys and kills it. “We also know that the law is made not
for the righteous but for law-breakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful…” (I
Tim. 1:19).
[31] We don’t know for
sure how long were the “creative days”, described in Genesis, chapter 1. (We
don’t claim here that it has taken millions of years for some kind of “theistic
evolution” to happen, since it is in contradiction with the Biblical story of
the Creation). We can talk about a twenty-four-hour period only after the
fourth “creative day”, when the sun, the moon and the stars were created.
Let’s see what had
happened in the sixth “creative day”, described in Genesis 2:7-25. In the
beginning of the day, God created Adam and made him till and care for the
garden of Eden. The man had to spend certain time with the animals in order to
name them according to some of their special features (like some contemporary
tribes, living closer to nature, still do).If we consider that only a few
thousand terrestrial vertebrates were named, for 12 hours (the part of the day
when there is light), our ancestor couldn't have possibly named all of them.
For a certain period of time, the man communicated with these creatures and
saw, that no one of them could be his aide.
Then the Lord let the man fall asleep and made Eve out of his rib, Adam
came to love her and so the creation was completed. In this way we see that a
“creative day” is not equal to an earthly 24-hour-period. (The days on Earth are a transfiguration of
the "creative days", but this does not imply that they are of similar
duration.)
About the last seventh
“creative day” it was never said to be completed (it is not said that “there
was evening, there was morning”), i.e. it was meant to be endless. So the rest
after the creation, blessed and sanctified by God (“the Sabbath”) is the sinless
state of physical and spiritual peace, harmony and order, in which the
perfectly created world dwelt.
The conclusion, which
we can make from all up to now, is that Adam and Eve did not observe the
Sabbath as a period of 24 hours, but have rather lived in God’s peace
incessantly (i.e. in a state of innocence), until they broke the command not to
eat of the forbidden fruit.
(Because of the
redemption, we enter God’s rest too and we celebrate an eternal Sabbath. Just
like St John Chrysostom have said joyfully: “…you would say that Christ has
destroyed such a great good (the Sabbath). Not in the least, He has rather made
it greater…There was no longer need to celebrate a single day for the ones, who
have been commanded to celebrate all life long…So what’s the necessity of the
Sabbath for the one, who celebrates eternally and lives in heaven? Let us
celebrate continually, keeping away from evil. That’s the sense of the true
feast.” – Works, part 39, p. 289.)
[32] God justifies the
ones who have walked according to the law of their conscience (Rom. 2:12-16).
Via it, we can understand when we are doing good or evil to our neighbor, but
we can get no rebuke for not keeping the Sabbath. Therefore the Old Testament
righteous people have been justified even without the literal observation of
the fourth commandment of the Law of Moses.
The text in Rom.
2:14-15 also says that there will be gentiles who will be saved because they
have obeyed their conscience. But they will be justified if they had been led
by it continuously all their lives (not on certain days only), i.e. in some way
they have also kept perfectly in a spiritual sense the Sabbath
commandment.
[33] Is the text in
Matthew 24:20 to be interpreted as a direction for the observation of the
Sabbath? We shall quote a part of the book by the orthodox author G. Ibrishimov
“The Sabbath and the Sunday in the light of the Holy Scripture”, p. 48: “ …the
words of Jesus Christ “Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or
on the Sabbath” don’t mean that the Sabbath was to be observed, since then the
winter as a period of time was to be observed too. And what’s more, the winter
was placed first and the Sabbath comes next. St Mark when narrating this case,
doesn’t even mention the Sabbath. He repeats the words of the Savior: “Pray
that this will not take place in winter”(Mark 13:18). Jesus Christ mentioned
the winter and the Sabbath not to signify that they are to be observed, but
rather as obstacles for flight.
He has spoken these
words, because the Hebrews were in danger. In 70 AD at the attempt for
rebellion of the Jews, the Roman army invaded Judea and besieged Jerusalem on a
Sabbath day. At this time there was a feast in the city and about 2 mln of Jews
were gathered together, according to the Hebrew historian Joseph Flavius. It
was Sabbath and the city gates were locked, so no one could flee. The siege was
hard and long. The same historian tells that whoever tried to run away through
the city walls, was captured and crucified. The whole vicinity was covered with
crosses of crucified Hebrews. It was a horrible view. The food was over and the
people were starving. A woman driven mad with hunger slaughtered her child,
baked it and had already eaten the half of it before her crime was disclosed
(Deuteronomy 28:57). This terrified the inhabitants of the city and the gates
were opened. Jerusalem was conquered and burnt down and the temple was razed to
the ground, so that in it there was not left a stone standing (Matthew 24:1,
2). A big part of the people was murdered, and the ones who remained alive,
were captured and sold in slavery.
The converted to
Christ Hebrews remained untouched by this calamity. According to the church
historian Eusebius of Caesarea, they were warned by a revelation and moved
beyond the river of Jordan in Pella.
Two things were
hindrances for escape from this calamity – the winter and the Sabbath day. The
winter was hindering since the refugees would have nowhere to hide because of
the cold weather. The Sabbath was a hindrance too, as the gates of the city
were locked on Sabbath days and no one could flee from the city (see Nehemiah
13:19).
These were the two
impediments, which Jesus had meant by saying: “Pray that your flight will not
take place in winter or on the Sabbath”, and not the observation of the
Sabbath.
[34] The Church
Fathers also talk about the tradition of gathering the gifts on Sunday. St
Justin Martyr, for example, wrote in his “First apology” (155 AD) to emperor
Antoninus in chapter 67: “On the day called the day of the sun (Sunday), the
ones living in the towns or the region gather together, and the writings of the
Apostles are read, as far as the time allows. And whoever wants to do good and
have the desire to, give away according to their will, and what is thus
gathered is given to be kept by the deacon, who helps orphans, widows, the ones
in need because of an illness or some other reason, the ones who are in prison
and the strangers dwelling among us, i.e. he takes care of everyone in need”.
This practice has been preserved until nowadays, that is why the gathering of
the gifts in the Christian churches takes place on the Sunday mainly.
(We are attempting to
prove every Christian teaching on the basis of the New Testament. The
quotations outside the Scriptures which we have used, may testify to something
(for example about the maintenance of a certain theory or practice by the
church through the ages), but have not the power neither to confirm, nor to
disprove some biblical doctrine).
[35] The phrase
“breaking of bread” is obviously related to the Lord’s Supper, since it is
mentioned that Apostle Paul ate his dinner later (verse 11). The Adventists say
that if the chronology of the death of Christ and His resurrection is to be
observed, then this ought to take place on Thursday evening. The first
Christians though, used to celebrate these two events together. The wine and
the bread symbolized the death on the cross of “the Lamb of God”, and the
Sunday – His resurrection (I Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 24:1-8).
We have other data
from the first centuries as well, which mention this Christian tradition. For
example, Victorinus of Pyctivia (Pettau) says in his work “The creation of the
world” (300 AD), p.48: “On the day of the Lord (the Sunday) we come up to the
bread (the Eucharist), by giving thanks. That’s why we have to fast strictly on
the Friday in order to claim that we keep no Sabbaths as the Jews. The Lord
Himself, the master of the Sabbath, talks about it through His prophets, that
His soul abhors it and that He has canceled it through His body”. It is sad
that only a few churches take the Lord’s Supper every Sunday nowadays.
[36] When did the
Hebrew Christians worship God? The Scripture does not answer directly to this
question, but we can think this way: 1) The day, pointed out by God for the
Christian congregation in the New Testament, is Sunday; 2) They had to keep the
Sabbath, being Jews (otherwise their fellow-countrymen would have the right to
kill them with stones – Exodus 31:14; Numbers 15:32-36). Therefore they are
most likely to have rested on Saturday and gathered to worship on Sunday.
Our reflections are
confirmed by the early Christian writers. St Ignatius for instance, in his
letter to the Magnesians (107 AD), wrote: “We celebrate no longer the Sabbath
but we live in the Lord, for our life is in Him. The ones who lived by the
ancient order, seized to keep the Sabbath as well, after they began to live the
life of the resurrection…It would be absurd to confess Christ and to live
Jewish-like.” (We can conclude from these words that the Hebrew Christians have
“seized to keep the Sabbath” as late as his time, if there was no explanation
that the mentioned above had happened right after they have “began to live the
life of the resurrection”, i.e. about 30 AD when this great event did happen).
Eusebius confirms the
same in his church history (340 AD), vol. II, chapter 24: “They – the Jews who
accepted the Christianity, keep the Sabbath and the rest of the rules like all
the Jews, but keep with us the day of the Lord also as a remembrance of His
resurrection”.
[37] Some think that
the Sunday has taken the prerogatives of the Old Testament Sabbath. In our
opinion this is completely wrong. It is as if we are recovering the fourth
commandment of the Law of Moses, but in a distorted form, i.e. we observe it on
the first day of the week – a statement with no Biblical grounds whatsoever.
[38] It is true that
some catholic theologians claim that their church had settled the Sunday as the
day for worshiping God. We find such statements quite unsound for these
reasons: first, the Sunday was pointed out as such a day in the very Holy
Scripture – Acts 20:7. Secondly, even in the first centuries when the church
was still not separated into different denominations, all the authors testify
that the Christian worship took place on the first (eight) day. (There are
sources from the 4th century and later who mention, that in some churches worship
happened on both Saturday and Sunday, but Acts 20:7 does not support such a
practice.) The Catholic church could claim that it has created also the
teachings about the Trinity, the godly and human nature of Jesus and so on –
will the Adventists deny them then? Thirdly, if someone dares to subtract or
add something to the Holy Scripture, this would be for the sake of his own doom
(Rev 22:18,19).
The following question
could arise: "shouldn't the the 4th commandment be strictly
obeyed, as are the other commandments in the Decalogue?" But we can answer
to such an objection that after we serve God all the days, these include the
Sabbath, as well. Since we are constantly in God's rest, this includes the
Sabbath too. What is changed, is only the day for the official ministry to God.
Let's reconsider once again on on what purpose: the Sabbath witnesses for the
primordial Creation and is a sign of the Old Testament i.e. the Sabbath is gone
with the passing of the latter. The Sunday shows the new Creation, that starts
with the resurrection of Christ, the spiritual renewal of every person, which
belongs in Him. It ends with the creation of the eternal and intransitive
perfect world.
[39] The “convicted”
followers of Ellen White do their best to hide from the contemporary Adventists
those of her “revelations”, which compromise her most. She had said, for
example, that there is a people of three-meter-high men, observing the Sabbath,
on Jupiter (a letter to Mrs. Truesdale from 27 January 1891). However, in her
time, it was still not known that there is no solid surface on this planet (its
mantle consists of liquid and metallic hydrogen). Beside this element, its
atmosphere contains helium, methane, ammonia, ammonium sulphide and water
vapour. Its effective temperature is about 150 degrees below zero, which makes
it unfit for life. The space drill “Galileo” , which reached it on the seventh
of December,1995, examines the planet in details and no civilization is found
on it thus far (the astronomers would doubt the mental state of a person,
believing in such a thing). After all said up to now, if one still goes on
trusting that Ellen White was under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we
could say about such people only “your blood be on your own heads” (see Ezekiel
3:16-21; Acts 18: 5-6).
REFERENCES
1. The Bible – the
Holy Scriptures of the Old and the New Testament
2. Charles C. Ryrie,
Basic theology (Sofia: Veren, 1997)
3. E. Cairns,
Christianity through the centuries (Sofia: New man, 1998)
4. W. MacDonald,
Believer’s Bible Commentary – New Testament (Sofia: Veren, 1993)
5. A. W.Tozer, The
knowledge of the Holy (Sofia: New man, 1993)
6. Josh McDowell, Don
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