Here's a belief of the SDA church, up for discussion and criticism.
This is about the Sabbath commandment. It's not the first fundamental belief, but as the name of the denomination notes, it's one of the major distinguishing factors that the church was built on. First, I'd like to clear up a few misconceptions about it, and then I'll add the supporting evidence. First, Seventh-day Adventists believe that the majority of true Christians are NOT in the Adventist church, and are also NOT keeping the sabbath as the bible prescribes, so while there are some Adventists that are a bit militant about it, most Adventists understand that one must be convicted of something before they can be held accountable for disobeying it. That being said, Adventists do believe that it's a major truth of the bible that was removed by the paganism that crept into the church in the dark ages, and that it will again become a test of obedience near the end.
Ok, now these are just my personal reasons, and I can summarize my personal reasons for keeping the sabbath in 3 statements. There is much more biblical evidence than this, but this will get us started.
1. Jesus is our example, and Jesus kept the Sabbath, it was His custom. He even rested in the grave on Sabbath. He finished his work of salvation on Friday, and rose again on Sunday morning. He never changed or removed the Sabbath or instituted a new day of rest, in fact, He counseled the Jews to pray that their retreat from persecution would not be on the Sabbath, which would be after His death and resurrection. Jesus is the Son of Man, the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath, the Sabbath is the Lord's Day. Paul also speaks of the rest in Jesus for Christians, he relates it directly back to the 7th day rest that God instituted at creation, resting from work, just like the 7th commandment states. Isaiah also records God saying that the gentiles who unite with Him will have a better name than the sons and daughters of Abraham if they keep His Sabbath.
Matthew 24:20
But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
Hebrews 4
4For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
5And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
6Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
7Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
8For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day?
9There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
10For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Isaiah 56
2 Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
3 Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
4 For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
5 Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
2. For me, it perfectly displays God's equality and fairness and love. It's the only really arbitrary commandment of God, yet instead of asking for some kind of service or work to be done in His name, the thing that He asks from us is for us to rest with Him. From the greatest king, to the lowest servant, the strangers in our hospitality, down to the animals in our care. God has commanded rest for slaves, no master can force his slaves to work while the master rests. No owner can force his animals to work while he rests, everyone gets a break from their labor to fellowship with their creator. It's really a beautiful thing.
3. We are no longer under the law, the only reason to obey the sabbath commandment is out of love and respect for our creator. One of the last proclamations in the bible is to worship Him who created everything. What day did God institute at creation, and asked us to remember at Sinai as a memorial of that creation? Also, even as new Christians no longer under the law, what is the purpose of the law? The law points out sin. What is the definition of sin? Sin is the transgression of the law. What law? James 2:11 identifies that law using the commandments forbidding adultery and murder, and that if any offend in one point, they are guilty of all. As new creatures, we are no longer to continue in sin.
Revelation 14
7Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Romans 7
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
1 John 3:4
4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
Romans 6
6 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
James 2
11For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
James 4
17Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Now, I don't want any one to misunderstand me, the Sabbath is not some dusty section of the old law that was dredged up to make your life hard, on the contrary, it's a massive blessing and relief to understand it and why God instituted it. I can't describe what it feels like to know that God has intended for us to have a stress-free holiday, once a week, to spend in His presence. Also, a couple caveats. Going to church and worshiping God is not in the commandment. You can go to church everyday, you can worship God everyday, but God only chose one day to literally make holy and rest from labor on. Basically, and it may sound harsh, but if you're picking the day to keep holy to the Creator, isn't that making the commandment of God to be of no effect and replacing it with your own "tradition"? And if we look to history and the claims of the Catholic Church, Catholics basically mock protestants who still respect the "authority" of the "Mother Church" in their decree to transfer the solemnity of the Sabbath to the first day of the week in honor of the resurrection of Jesus(which definitely isn't a bad thing to celebrate, but still).
Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism 3rd ed., p. 174.
"Question: Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
"Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her-she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority."
Daniel Ferres, ed., Manual of Christian Doctrine (1916), p.67.
"Question: How prove you that the Catholic Church hath power to command feasts and holy days?
"Answer. By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of, and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same Church.'
Feel free to post your thoughts or arguments or corrections or questions!
Colossians 2:16,17: Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religous festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
EVERY DAY was the Lord's day for the early saints: Acts 2:44-46: All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. EVERY DAY they continued to meet together in the temple courts.
But we're talking about a commandment of God which was instituted before Jews existed. We're not talking about ceremonial feast days and Sabbaths that were part of the Levitical sanctuary service or that were fulfilled in Christ, which is what Paul was talking about in context. In the new testament, God and Jesus and the Apostles all regularly reminded us of every single one of the ten commandments, even the sabbath. However, they all also constantly reminded us that the ceremonial law was nailed to the cross, but not the royal law. If the 10 commandments were nailed to the cross along with the ceremonial law, how do we know what sin is? Are we still supposed to keep any of them? Just nine? With no command from God to ignore the 4th one? Alright, so if we're only supposed to keep the two summaries of the law which Jesus spoke of, how do we love our neighbor? Do we steal from them? No. Do we bear false witness against them? Nope. Do we dishonor our parents? That's dangerous from my experience. Do we covet? Do we murder? Do we commit adultery with their spouse? Also dangerous. So if you love your neighbor, are you fulfilling the whole law? YES. How about with God? If you love God with your entire mind/heart/strength/soul, do you worship other Gods? Do you bow to idols? Take His name in vain? Do you work on the memorial of His creation? I consider the 10 commandment law to be the instruction manual on how we show love to God and our neighbor, how readest thou?
Luke 11
26He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.
All of the commands of the 10 commandments are repeated in the NT except Sabbath laws. In the OT anyone who lights a fire on the sabbath is to be put to death in Israel which has a warm climate like unto Savannah Georgia. You would of course freeze to death in
many areas if you could not light a fire.
I was a missionary in Israel and the Orthodox religious Jews do not drive vehicles on the Sabbath because pistons light fires. The also have many coal burning utilities in Israel so the Orthodox Jews turn on the lights before the Sabbath begins and leave them on during the Sabbath which is ridiculous and hypocritical since the coals are on fire while the lights are on during the Sabbath. And so it would be a sin for everyone who has coal burning utilities to turn on the heat or lights during the sabbath or to drive a car during the Sabbath. And I see 7th Day Adventists sinfully :-)))) driving to church during the Sabbath and they also turn on the lights and heat during the Sabbath when they have coal burning utilities :-))!! It would also thenbe a sin for an eskimo to light a fire to keep from freezing to death.
The Sabbath is mentioned a lot in the new testament, with direct observance of it by Jesus, and even the apostles after His death. I mentioned where Jesus told people to pray that their flight would not be on the sabbath, and in many other places, he rebuked the pharisees observance of that Jewish legalism on the sabbath. He is quoted as saying that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. What you cannot find anywhere in the bible, is a place where Jesus or the apostles are quoted as saying that it's not to be observed anymore. SDA's are not hypocritical for following the 10 commandments and not the laws for the governance of the Jews. God thunder-spoke and then personally wrote the 10 commandment law from Exodus 20 onto slabs of stone and had it placed it inside the ark of the covenant. The law of Moses was written in a book and placed in the side of the ark as a witness against Israel.
Deuteronomy 31:26 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.
Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
Even under your logic, a 90% affirmation of the 10 commandment law should hold a lot of evidence that there was a "law" that was still for us to follow, even though a "law of ordinances" was nailed to the cross. The argument that Sabbath-keeping is not mentioned(even though it is many times) can still be very easily explained(apart from the many times it's mentioned) by the fact that there was only one Sabbath, therefore no argument about which one to keep holy and no command or reason to change it except thru a man's tradition at a later date, which the bible clearly warns against and the catholic church proudly claims credit for.
Mark 7
7Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
8For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
10For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death:
11But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free.
12And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother;
13Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
