This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
Lesson 8: “Covenant Law”
This entire lesson is built upon a false premise, thus rendering the point of the lesson invalid. The false premise is the same one we have previously discussed; there is not just one “Covenant” in Scripture, nor does the term differentiate between the unconditional and conditional covenants of God. This lesson squishes the Mosaic covenant into God’s covenants with Abraham and with the new covenant. It assumes that the terms of the Mosaic covenant is merely an expansion on His terms with Abraham and with His new covenant terms.
Most importantly, this lesson assumes that the Ten Commandments are applicable in all the covenants—eternal in the heavens and on earth and that they function as a “transcript of God’s character”.
The idea that the law is the transcript of God’s character is found nowhere in Scripture; rather, that is Ellen White’s designation of it. In fact, this lesson is premised entirely on EGWs view of Adventism as the successor to Israel. Page 99 of the lesson has this statement:
“As Seventh-day Adventists, we like to view ourselves as the modern-day counterpart of Israel, called by the Lord, not to be the only ones redeemed but to proclaim the message of redemption to the world, in the context of the three angels’ messages. In short, we believe we have something to say that no one else is saying. This was basically the situation with ancient Israel, as well.”
This statement is false. In fact, the reasons this statement is false renders the rest of the lesson’s arguments null and void. The primary reason this statement is false is that the Seventh-day Adventist organization is NOT Christian. It is not part of the body of Christ, and it does not adhere to the historic, apostolic tenets of Christianity.
In the first place, Adventism is not part of the legacy of Christianity. It is a late-comer, a new religion that organized in 1863. It likes to say that it has a unique message that the rest of the churches are not saying—and as the above quote indicates, they use the “three angels’ messages” as their evidence of their unique message.
First, the three angels’ messages are taken from Revelation 14:6–12:
Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.”
Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”
And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. (ESV)
This passage in context does NOT say what Adventism makes it say. It does not command seventh-day Sabbath keeping. It does not identify churches that meet on Sunday as Babylon, and it does not say the mark of the beast is worshiping on Sunday! Yet this is what Adventism claims this passage commands. Moreover, Adventism believes it is offering the Christian church two teachings that have been “lost” within Christianity: the seventh-day Sabbath and the imminent second coming.
This belief is utterly false. Christians everywhere eagerly anticipate the return of Jesus. Furthermore, Adventists claim that the holiness of Sabbath has been obscured by the Catholic church’s change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
The Catholic church has many problems of its own, but changing the Sabbath is not one of them. The new covenant eradicates the holiness of a seventh-day Sabbath. Hebrews 3 and 4, Galatians, Romans 14, Colossians 2, and Ephesians 2 are utterly clear that the Sabbath was a shadow of Christ. When Jesus came, He fulfilled all the righteous requirements of the law—including the core command that death was required for law-breaking, and He rendered the entire Mosaic law including the Ten commandments obsolete (see Hebrews 8)!
False claims
The lesson further makes the point that “the covenant” and the Ten Commandments are tightly linked. As I’ve already stated, the Mosaic Covenant is unique and is not part of one, overarching covenant as Adventism claims. Rather, it was temporary, beginning 430 years AFTER Abraham and lasting only until the SEED came (Gal. 3:17–19). The lesson quotes Deuteronomy 4:13 to make the case that “covenant” is linked to the Ten Commandments—assuming and implying that the Ten Commandments are God’s eternal law that span the millennia and apply to His “covenant” with all people.
Ironically, the very words of Deuteronomy 4:13 state exactly what the Ten Commandments are: the actual Mosaic covenant, the “words of the covenant” as Exodus 34:27–28 state. Far from being eternal, the Ten Commandments are the actual words of the temporary Mosaic Covenant, and when Jesus had fulfilled the law, the Ten Commandments no longer exert any authority over God’s people.
Instead, as Hebrews 7:12 states, where there is a change of the priesthood from levitical to Melchizedek in the person of Jesus, there of necessity is a “change of the law”. The Law of Christ is what believers in the new covenant follow—when they are born again through believing the TRUE gospel of the Lord Jesus’s death for our sin, His burial, and resurrection on the third day according to Scripture, they are born again and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of promise, sealed and guaranteed of their eternal future (Eph. 1:13–14)! The Author of the Law resides in the new, living spirits of the believers, and they have a far more effective guide for righteousness, conviction of sin, and sanctification than the Israelites ever had under the Mosaic Law and the Ten Commandments.
The Adventists cannot claim to be Israel’s successors not only because they are not Israel and are not living in the time before Christ came, but they cannot claim to be spiritual Israel because they do not embrace scriptural teaching. Adventism claims that Jesus did not finish His atonement at the cross but say He continues his “second phase” of atonement in heaven where He began the investigative judgment in 1844. This embarrassing, face-saving invention denies that Jesus really finished the atonement at the cross—in spite of what He said: “It is finished!”
Further, Adventism says Jesus inherited degraded flesh, that he does not have the physical advantage of Adam, and that He had to overcome temptation in weakened flesh just as we do. (See Fundamental Belief #4 and its commentary in Seventh-day Adventists Believe.) Furthermore, they say that humans are merely bodies that breathe—that they have no immaterial spirit that is separate from their bodies.
These ideas are completely pagan and without scriptural support. Jesus is God the Son incarnated in human flesh, but He never gave up any of His “God-power” or attributes. The fulness of deity dwelt in Him bodily (Col. 2:9).
Even more, Adventism was founded on the basis of the endorsing visions of an extra-biblical prophet, Ellen G. White—a fact which the lesson actually uses to endorse her revelations as being similar to Israel’s revelations from God! Yet Hebrews 1:1–3 explains that Jesus is God’s final word. There will be no more revelations of God or of salvation after Jesus. Ellen White fails on all counts of being a prophet; she was a false prophet who redefined the words of Scripture so Adventism could masquerade as a Christian denomination while actually teaching another gospel which Galatians condemns because it clings to the fulfilled law—a practice which Galatians 5:4 states is having “fallen from grace”.
This lesson falls apart when we begin examining its claims with Scripture. First, there are several biblical covenants, not just one. God’s unilateral covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15 is UNCONDITIONAL and required no commitment from Abraham. In fact, he was put to sleep and not allowed to participate in the covenant. God’s covenant with Noah and with the whole world is UNCONDITIONAL: He will never destroy the earth with water again. Noah did not have to participate at all in that promise. God’s covenant with David to give him an eternal throne, dynasty, and kingdom is unconditional, and the new covenant is also unconditional Only the Mosaic covenant is conditional—Israel participated in two-way promises.
Ironically, it is this temporary covenant that Adventism attempts to make eternal. It desperately tries to make the Mosaic law written on stone eternal!
To learn more about the biblical covenants and about what God asks of Christians, here are some links:
- April 20–26, 2024 - April 18, 2024
- We Got Mail - April 18, 2024
- April 13–19, 2024 - April 11, 2024
The covenant at Sinai and the terms of the covenant , the Ten Commandments are no longer in existence . ” When God speaks of a new covenant , it means he has made the first one obsolete . It is now out of date and will soon disappear ” . { Hebrews 8 : 13 } . The old covenant has been replaced with the new covenant .
The teacher of Lesson 7 at Swan Valley SDA church in Perth Western Australia said the Ten Commandments are eternal .SDA’s are operating under the wrong covenant and believe it should rule over their lives . Whatever agreement we live under becomes our master , whether it is the law or grace .
The age of law has come to an end . God replaced the law with grace . Romans 6:14 says ” we are not under the law but under grace ” . The old covenant of the law is out of use because the season for it has passed . The age of the law has expired , we are now under the age of grace .