Christ and Coffee
I love that you suggest getting a cup of coffee at the beginning of your podcasts! Many years ago I saw a sign at a little deli shop apparently run by Christians that I’ve never forgotten.
Coffee Means:
Christ
Offers
Forgiveness
For
Everyone
Everywhere
I attended the organization at the time, and I wondered why, if Adventists seem to rely heavily on BEANS, they are so down on coffee since they are BEANS?!
I finally saw the light, and now I look forward to your newsletter every Friday. One of my pastors always told us, “Don’t believe what I say, look it up yourselves.”
That was the beginning of the end for me as there was so much that didn’t make sense then. I had not studied the Bible much until my introduction to Adventism, so I am grateful that it spurred me on to an investigation of Scripture and the reading of Dale’s books and others that told the “behind the scenes” situations to which those in the movement are not privy—unless they have a desire to learn what Adventism is all about. Thank you for all you do.
—VIA EMAIL
I Need Help With the Sabbath!
Pastor Dale, I finally finished reading Truth Led Me Out, and I also had a chance to listen to the video “Three Adventist Doctrines That Compromise the Gospel” with my husband, and he is willing to study further! He mentioned he always had some doubts about EGW and other things, but he wasn’t quite sure. His heart is definitely open. He has been going to local Bible based church with me but I know he needs to unlearn and re learn.
He also thinks you are saved through Jesus, so it doesn’t matter if you belong to certain denomination or religion. He is also very still caught on the Ten Commandments and the law. The biggest question he wants to explore now is how Sabbath was changed to Sunday. I wanted ask both Dale and Colleen which YouTube sermon I should listen to. There are so many, and I myself have not listened to all of them.
He is the type of person who needs facts and evidence to support his decisions. So I would appreciate any documents or quotes or anything you can recommend. He is also interested in attending the FAF future conference, so I hope that we can really make it next year! Thank you! I will also soon order Sabbath in Christ.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: The explanation of the Sabbath question is found in a study of the biblical covenants. As Adventists we were not taught the truth about the biblical covenants. Dale’s book Sabbath in Christ is the one book on the subject which I consider a “must read”. He systematically addresses every Adventist Sabbath argument and shows from Scripture how the Bible does not teach the continuation of the Sabbath because the Mosaic covenant was fulfilled in Jesus, and now He is the substance of the Sabbath.
Meanwhile, we have a wealth of online materials that can help. First, here is a link to Dale’s article on The Covenants: The Continental Divide of Biblical Interpretation.
Here is a video explaining the biblical covenants, which ones are UNCONDITIONAL and which one is CONDITIONAL, and how the law is the statement of the Mosaic covenant (Ex. 34:27, 28): https://youtu.be/GtM9MqR1dCc
Here is another explaining What Happened To the Law?
Here is a third video, “Does The Sabbath Continue In the New Covenant?”
Our YouTube channel has all of our conference videos available; you might enjoy pursuing that site: https://www.youtube.com/user/FormerAdventist/featured
Also, every Friday you receive the Proclamation! email newsletter. We have new articles every week and links to our Former Adventist Podcast and online magazines and articles. If you haven’t been listening to the podcasts, you might find those very helpful. Our series on the covenants may be very useful as well as our series on Adventism’s 28 Fundamental Beliefs and our current series through Galatians. Here is a link to the podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/former-adventist/id1482887969
Christians do not believe there was an official change of day from Sabbath to Sunday. That idea is Ellen White’s creation, and it’s not what Christianity teaches. In the new covenant, there is no “sacred day”. Hebrews 3 and 4 say that because Israel did not enter God’s rest, He set again a certain day, calling it TODAY. If you hear His voice, enter His rest today. People worship on Sunday not because it is holy nor has it replaced the Sabbath. It is, rather, the day we honor the risen Christ. In all the New Testament accounts of the first Christians meeting, it is on the first day. That was the day Jesus rose from death. That is the day the Holy Spirit filled the new believers—the Day of Pentecost—and something BRAND NEW occurred: the church was born! The first day reminds us of the Lord Jesus who broke the curse of death and created a new “race” of men, the born again indwelled by the Holy Spirit—His body the Church! Sunday is our collective birthday!
Sabbath is fulfilled; Jesus has completed everything necessary for atonement and for our salvation, and the shadow of the weekly Sabbath symbolized by Israel resting and allowing God to provide for them has been fulfilled. Now we are alive in Jesus, when we trust Him, and we have become a new creation and have entered HIS rest. Here is another video explaining the history of the Sabbath, what it was, and what our Sabbath rest is now: https://youtu.be/sbXRK84-G3s
Did Jesus Really Give Sabbath Rest?
I have a query I must ask a former Adventist. The pastor of my church, in a sermon series through Leviticus, quoted Matthew 11:28-29, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, for you will find rest for your souls.”
He quoted this verse when teaching about the Sabbath in the book of Leviticus. It is my understanding that the Greek word for “sabbath” is sabaton, while the Greek for “rest” (in Matt. 11:28-29) is anapausis. The pastor said, “Jesus will give you Sabbath.”
Do the Greek words matter in these verses? Is he in error by using “sabbath/sabaton” instead of “rest/anapausis”?
For me, Colossians 2:16 says that the Sabbath is only a shadow, whereas Jesus is the fulfillment of this shadow.
Is this an acceptable reason to switch “rest” to “sabbath” in Matt 11:28-29?
—VIA EMAIL
Response: Genesis 2:2 says that God completed His work, “and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” Exodus 20:8–11 emphasizes that God rested on the seventh day, and that rest—or “ceasing”, which was the meaning of “rested”—was the reality of which the seventh-day Sabbath was a shadow. The meaning of “sabbath” is “a time of rest”, and that idea underlies even such secular ideas as sabbaticals during which professionals take an extended time off from their work so they can pursue other things. It’s a rest from their work.
Hebrews 4:1–9 develops the idea of Sabbath rest—not meaning physical rest per se but rest from our own work of pleasing God. True “Sabbath rest” is only ours, as Hebrews 4 explains, when we believe and trust God’s finished work. For us, on this side of the cross, that trust and belief must be in Jesus and His finished work.
Your pastor was exactly right when he said that Jesus will give you Sabbath. The passage in Matthew 11:28-30 is Jesus Himself saying, “Come to Me; I will give you the rest you have been longing to receive, the rest from your works of trying to please God. Trust ME only, and your work will end!”
Immediately after Matthew 11:23-30 Jesus goes on to have his Sabbath-encounter with the Pharisees in which He explains that He is greater than the temple. In other words, the temple was the center of Jewish identity and religion. Everything they believed and lived for was housed in the temple: the candles representing the Light of the World; the shewbread representing the Bread of Life; the sacrifices; the sprinkled blood for cleansing; the priestly ministry; the mercy seat, and the words of the covenant in and ark. Not only was the furniture there, but the traditional place the presence of God rested was over the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies.
Jesus said, “One greater than the temple is here.” In other words, every single physical shadow represented in and on and around the temple was present in reality in Jesus Himself. He was the Light of the world. He was the Bread of life. He was the living Law; in Him was Sabbath rest, and He was the literal presence of God!
Sabbath was never a test for Israel; It was a sign. If they observed that sign of the covenant, God would work for them and make them more prosperous and successful than any pagan around them who worked 24/7 to please their gods. Israel, though, would be more successful even though they rested one in seven—and NO ONE, not even they themselves, would be able to say Israel prospered because Israel worked harder. On the contrary, it would be obvious that Israel prospered because their God was greater than all gods! Sabbath was a sign that God was doing the work of preserving them and providing for them. As long as they rested in him, they would be blessed.
Yes, Jesus is who gives us REST. Sabbath isn’t about holy time; it’s always been about God’s finished work in which we find rest from our ceaseless efforts to please Him. We rest and trust in Him, and He saves us and keeps us saved. But we have to give up our right to think we can outsmart God or Christianity. Sabbath was never about having a personal vacation. It was always about trusting God’s provision, and now we trust the fulfillment of that provision: the Lord Jesus who paid the price for our sin and broke the curse of death!
Your pastor was exactly right. Sabbath means rest—and we find actual REST when we trust Jesus. The Sabbath was just a shadow for Israel that the real Sabbath was coming. †
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