Sabbath Is a Way of Life for Me
Thank you so much for your response [on YouTube]! I appreciate your time. Please forgive me for my ignorance here, but I have to just probe a little further to try to capture what you’re saying. I’ve been in Adventism for over 30 years (I’m a lifer), and untying the knots has been a struggle. With that said, please help me clarify this. If keeping Sabbath then makes me obligated to keep the WHOLE law and be judged by it, then wouldn’t my simply actively trying not to commit adultery or steal or murder put me in the same predicament? Or put another way, what about Sabbath-keeping not as a means of making myself right with God or for “salvational” purposes, but simply out of praise and honor? After all, Romans 14 says that he who observes the day observes it to the Lord, just as he who doesn’t observe the day does that unto the lord. What I’m saying is that shouldn’t the Gospel transcend cultural boundaries? Sabbath is literally a way of life for me. I don’t even know how to view the world except through looking forward to the next Sabbath. Sabbath was never a burden for me, it is a delight. Doesn’t Jesus accept me just how I am?
—VIA YOUTUBE
Response: Adventism did not teach us the biblical covenants. The Sabbath was the ritual that God placed in the center of His covenant with Israel as a sign (read Exodus 31). It, along with all the other sabbaths, as Paul explain in Colossians 2 and Galatians 4, was a sign, a shadow of the reality which is found in Christ (Col 2:16, 17). When Jesus came and fulfilled the law, the shadows of the Sabbath (along with the monthly and yearly sabbaths) were fulfilled IN HIM. Hebrews is a detailed walk through the way Jesus fulfilled the entire law and became the One in whom we find our rest and our everything. Hebrews 4:1–10 even explains that God set a new day and called it TODAY, saying if you hear His voice TODAY, enter His rest.
The Sabbath is not intrinsically holy. It is a created thing. God the Son is OVER all creation; the Sabbath was a shadow of Him. When Jesus instituted the new covenant in His blood, He gave the disciples a new “Remember”. He asked them to take the Lord’s Supper in remembrance of Him. The rest of the Ten Commandments articulated moral behaviors and attitudes that can come only from God; the New Testament lists those requirements as well, but the New Testament is not a repetition of the Law; it is a NEW law, the law of Christ (1 Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2).
Just as the laws of England and the USA have similar requirements and consequences, they are not the same law. If I as an American citizen commit treason, I will not be judged by the laws of England because I am not UNDER the laws of England. I am under the law of the United States, my country. Just so the biblical covenants. When I believe in Jesus and am born again, I am transferred into a new kingdom (Col. 1:13) and am made a new creation (2 Cor. 5) and indwelled by the Holy Spirit Himself (Eph 1:13,14).
These realities were not part of Israel’s experience. The Old Testament law was for Israel; the law of Christ (indeed, all the New Testament commands) are for born again believers and are brought into fruition in believers by the Holy Spirit working from the inside. But the ritual signs and shadows of the Sabbath(s) are not part of the new covenant because we have the REALITY: Jesus. When we who once had the Sabbath as part of our evidence of salvation—part of our salvation package—come to know Jesus, we have to give up all those “holy things” we honored before we knew Jesus.
Adventism has made Sabbath an idol, the thing which identifies that we alone had the true worship and worshiped the right way. This claim is nowhere in Scripture. Because for us the Sabbath was an idol, and part of the salvation package, we have to consciously refuse to honor it “just in case” or because we loved the day. (I, too, used to LOVE the Sabbath.) We have to place our behavior where our beliefs are. We have to risk giving up the thing we formerly believed would mark us as saved or lost in order to place our trust entirely on Jesus alone. Just as Jesus told the rich young ruler he had to sell what he had, give to the poor, and follow Him, Jesus asks us to give up what we love and follow Him alone.
It is perhaps our greatest test of faith. For those who never believed the Sabbath was required of believers, observing or not observing it is a non-issue. It’s just like any other day. But for us, it’s a test of faith to give up the day and trust Jesus alone. My suggestion: Get a notebook and begin, a few verses at a time, copying the book of Hebrews. Ask the Lord to show you what it really says and to teach you what He wants you to know!
And here’s the truth that we can’t know until we experience it: when we let go of the Sabbath for Jesus, we experience His presence in a way that surpasses anything we ever had on the Sabbath. He is everything!
Help! My Son Is Dating an Adventist
I greet you in the lovely name of our Lord Jesus.
Thank you so much for answering my comment [on YouTube]; I just took such a big chance and your response has been a blessing to me.
My son has not been in the Adventist church for more than a year, but he has made wonderful friends there, and the love of his life also goes to the same church. He is an intelligent young man and a strong leader. If he commits to something, it is very hard to persuade him otherwise.
I have sent him your teachings, which I find fascinating because I am learning so much. It feels as if the Holy Spirit fills me up, and great joy has entered my life again because you are so passionate and on fire for Jesus.
Would you please be so kind as to send me your weekly articles? I will forward the newsletter to him.
He gave his life to Jesus four years ago and was so on fire for the Lord. I pray each day that the Holy Spirit will lead him back to the truth.
I want to thank you and Nikki for your compassion and diligence to your ministry. It is so refreshing.
May you be blessed, and I know you are reaching people all over the world.
—VIA EMAIL
Response: I am so, so sorry about your son. This is a very hard situation, and you are not the first mom of a believing son who has contacted us because the son began dating an Adventist. Adventism looks so good on the outside, but the deeper you go into it, the darker it appears. The thing I know is that if a Christian marries an Adventist, when the children come, the Adventist almost always wants the children raised Adventist. It is taught, either subtly or overtly (because Ellen White said this to be the case), that parents are held responsible in the judgment if their children are not Adventists. The pressure is profound and often inarticulate because the Adventist doesn’t always know the source of the deep conviction that he or she MUST raise their children Adventist. This push, this insistence, is part of the spiritual power that defines Adventism and claims its members. It is a spiritual battle to overcome Adventism. The weapons against it are Scripture and prayer.
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Response to our Commentaries on the Sabbath School Lessons
Adventism treats Revelation as a history lesson of the church, not as prophecy of endtimes. I don’t know if you have ever studied Revelation as presented by them, but they really destroy it and its message. They even deny that the tribulation is a literal seven-year time period.
As for the teaching of evolution in Adventist colleges, I know that for a fact. A relative went to Walla Walla University and came out a liberal, pro-abortion believer in evolution as a biology major! Oh my!
—VIA EMAIL
Response: I have become convinced that Adventism actually functions from an evolutionary perspective in spite of its hammering on the six-day literal creation in order to promote Sabbath. At the GC level, there’s the creation push, but at the science level in Adventist universities, the actual practice is often evolutionary.
The physicalism of Adventism is not biblical; it fits an evolutionary model much better than it fits a creation model. The survival of the fittest is purely physical and has no spirit, no intervention from God involved.
The teaching and practice of abortion definitely fits an evolutionary framework, even if they don’t fully admit it.
Adventism is a classic example of “hide in plain sight”. They are not Christian in their beliefs about the nature of man, the nature of Christ, the Trinity, or the atonement—not to mention the commentary of an extra-biblical prophet that overlies all doctrinal interpretations. They do not function as if every life is truly planned and gifted by God. They mouth nice words, but their arguments are word salads, and their actual practice, on a cooperate (not individual) level is a devaluing of humanity.
Dragged Kicking and Screaming
I am thrilled listening to your podcast. I stumbled on FAF one day when I searched EGW to find some YouTube videos about her just out of curiosity. What a can of worms. I grew up an Adventist since I was four years old. Dad dragged our family kicking and screaming into this strange religion. I remember missing hotdogs and chicken a lot. That was in the early 70’s. I think I’ll have to share my testimony someday. Believe me when I say this FAF channel and this podcast are a blessing straight from Heaven.
—VIA YOUTUBE
Response: We would love to read your testimony! What a journey you have been on. I am so sorry thinking about the cultural change that happened to you as a young child. I can totally understand how much you missed hot dogs and chicken! If you would like to receive our weekly Proclamation! e-newsletter, just write to us at proclamation@gmail.com, and we’ll add your name to our list.
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