The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant. Psalm 25:14

Transcription

1 Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16 The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant. Psalm 25:14 Vol. 22, No. 11 Straight and Nar row No vem ber 2013 Prayer Re quests Brother Lynnford Beachy recently fell from a two-story build ing, suf - fer ing skull frac tures and bro ken bones in one arm. After spend ing the night in the ER and then time in an ICU, he has made rapid prog ress toward recov ery. By the time you read this, he may be out of ther apy and at home, rest ing and recu per at - ing. Thank you for your inter ces sory prayer s for him, and we ask that you con tinue to pray for Brother Lynnford s com plete recov ery, as well as for his fam ily. Please also keep Brother Aland Ash ton in Peru in prayer, as his health has been very chal lenged. Pas tor David Sims sends greet - ings from Fiji, say ing the work is going very well, and requests your prayers for his work and his health. We also request prayer for those in Europe who attended the recent meet ings held by Pas tor Stump. May the seeds of truth sown yield a rich har vest is our prayer. In This Is sue Paul and the In car na tion, Part 1... p. 2 File Cab i net of His tory... p. 4 Paul and the In car na tion, Part 2... p. 5 Set Thine Heart to Un der stand... p. 9 Youth s Cor ner... p. 10 The Big Lie, Part p. 15 YouTube Site.... p. 24 Tasty Rec ipe... p. 24

2 Paul and the Incarnation, Part 1 Introduction The impor tance of a cor rect under stand ing of the incar na tion of Jesus Christ should never be under es ti mated. We have been told it means every thing to us: The hu man ity of the Son of God is ev ery thing to us. It is the golden chain that binds our souls to Christ, and through Christ to God. This is to be our study. Christ was a real man; he gave proof of his hu mil ity in be com ing a man. Yet he was God in the flesh. When we ap proach this sub - ject, we would do well to heed the words spo ken by Christ to Mo ses at the burn ing bush, Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. We should come to this study with the hu mil ity of a learner, with a con trite heart. And the study of the in - car na tion of Christ is a fruit ful field, which will re pay the searcher who digs deep for hid den truth. (The Youth s Instruc tor, Oc to ber 13, 1898) The Jewish Mindset As we begin our study, we need to under stand the mindset of Paul and of every devout Jew. As we exam ine some Scrip - tures, we can see that cer tain prej u dices were easy to develop. The prin ci ple of the one true God who was far above human ity was deeply ingrained within the mind of the com mon Jew. The Shema of Israel stated: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD (Deu ter on omy 6:4). Num - bers 23:19 states: God is not a man, that he should lie; nei ther the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spo ken, and shall he not make it good? It would have appeared to the com mon Jew in Paul s day that Chris tian ity went too far beyond the lim its of their his - tory and teach ings: But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to for give sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. (Mat thew 9:6) For a man to claim to have the author ity to for give sins was blas phe mous to the Jews. And, be hold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, ly ing on a bed: and Je sus see ing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be for - given thee. And, be hold, cer tain of the scribes said within them selves, This man blasphemeth. (Mat thew 9:2, 3) Nei ther Paul nor the ordi nary Jew could see any good com ing out of the reli gion started by the Gal i lean car pen ter. Paul was zeal ous for the God of his fathers and decided that action was needed. He was one who would stand in the gap! Paul declared that he had received let ters unto the breth ren, and went to Damas cus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jeru sa lem, for to be pun ished (Acts 22:5). And Saul was con sent ing unto his death. And at that time there was a great per se cu tion against the church which was at Je ru sa lem; and they were all scat tered abroad through out the re gions of Judaea and Sa maria, ex - cept the apos tles. And de vout men car ried Ste phen to his burial, and made great lam en ta tion over him. As for Saul, he made havock of the church, en ter ing into ev ery house, and hal ing men and women com mit ted them to prison. There fore they that were scat tered abroad went ev ery where preach ing the word. (Acts 8:1 4) Yet this one who became a man and for gave sins met the Apos tle Paul on the Damas cus Road: And Saul, yet breath ing out threatenings and slaugh ter against the dis ci ples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And de sired of him let ters to Da mas cus to the syn a gogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Je ru sa lem. And as he jour neyed, he came near Da mas cus: and sud denly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice say ing unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Je sus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. (Acts 9:1 5) Who was this Jesus? What did the name Jesus mean to Paul? Of course, the name Jesus, Yashua in Hebrew, meant Old Paths November 2013

3 Sav iour, but to Paul this name had meant noth ing more than a Gal i lean car pen ter who had brought con fu sion into the Jew - ish faith and who had died, seem ingly for saken of God, on the cross because he sought to destroy the tem ple ser vices. Paul must have been puz zled about what could be driv ing this new reli gion. Could it have been the reports of Jesus res - ur rec tion? Despite being a Phar i see who believed in a res ur rec tion, Paul did not accept the res ur rec tion of Jesus. He believed the lying report of the guards which the priests sug - gested, say ing that his dis ci ples came by night, and stole him away while we slept (Mat thew 28:13). Most of the data that Paul had gath ered from his ortho dox sources con vinced him, and seemed to ver ify, that this Jesus was sim ply a man. Could not Paul have real ized that God had a son? Though the Hebrew text of Prov erbs 30:4 asks who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gath ered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a gar ment? who hath estab lished all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son s name, if thou canst tell, we must under - stand that the 30th chap ter of Prov erbs and the first nine verses of chap ter 31 of the Hebrew text are not included in the Sep tu a gint, the Greek trans la tion of the Old Tes ta ment that was uni ver sally used by Paul and other Jews at the time of Jesus. Paul could have known, how ever, that Nebuchadnezzar looked into the fiery fur nace and said in amaze ment, Lo, I see four men loose, walk ing in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God (Dan iel 3:25). Paul could have real ized that one like the son of man would come before the Ancient of Days (Dan iel 7:13). Paul could have real ized that God had an asso - ci ate in cre ation: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our like ness (Gen e sis 1:26). Today we look at the mindset of Sunday-keep ing Christians and won der why it is so hard for them to break the tra di tions of their lives in spite of over whelm ing evi dence, but per haps Paul faced a greater task in his day. Now this MAN revealed him self to Paul as the Lord of glory. How could the divine Son of God, deity, become a man and not be rec og nized as God? To Paul this for ever remained what he would, thirty-three years later, call the Mys tery of God li ness (1 Tim o thy 3:16)! Blinded and hum bled, Paul was now led into Damas cus. His mind was begin ning to be cleared of the pro pa ganda of his eccle si as ti cal supe ri ors, and he began to see the words of the Old Tes ta ment as God wished him to under stand them. We are told: Stricken with blind ness, help less, tor tured by re morse, know ing not what fur ther judg ment might be in store for him, he sought out the home of the dis ci ple Ju das, where, in sol i tude, he had am ple op por tu nity for re flec tion and prayer. For three days Saul was with out sight, and nei ther did eat nor drink. These days of soul ag ony were to him as years. Again and again he re called, with an guish of spirit, the part he had taken in the mar tyr dom of Ste phen. With hor ror he thought of his guilt in al low ing him self to be con trolled by the mal ice and prej u dice of the priests and rul ers, even when the face of Ste phen had been lighted up with the ra di ance of heaven. In sad ness and brokenness of spirit he re counted the many times he had closed his eyes and ears against the most strik ing ev i dences and had re - lent lessly urged on the per se cu tion of the be liev ers in Jesus of Nazareth. These days of close self-ex am i na tion and of heart hu - mil i a tion were spent in lonely se clu sion. The be liev ers, hav ing been given warn ing of the pur pose of Saul in com - ing to Da mas cus, feared that he might be act ing a part, in or der the more readily to de ceive them; and they held them selves aloof, re fus ing him their sym pa thy. He had no de sire to ap peal to the un con verted Jews, with whom he had planned to unite in per se cut ing the be liev ers; for he knew that they would not even lis ten to his story. Thus he seemed to be shut away from all hu man sym pa thy. His only hope of help was in a mer ci ful God, and to Him he appealed in brokenness of heart. Dur ing the long hours when Saul was shut in with God alone, he re called many of the pas sages of Scrip ture re fer - ring to the first ad vent of Christ. Care fully he traced down the proph e cies, with a mem ory sharp ened by the con vic - tion that had taken pos ses sion of his mind. As he re flected on the mean ing of these proph e cies he was as ton ished at his for mer blind ness of un der stand ing and at the blind ness of the Jews in gen eral, which had led to the re jec tion of Je - sus as the prom ised Mes siah. To his en light ened vi sion all now seemed plain. He knew that his for mer prej u dice and un be lief had clouded his spir i tual per cep tion and had pre - vented him from dis cern ing in Je sus of Naz a reth the Mes siah of proph ecy. (The Acts of the Apos tles, pp. 118, 119) The Riches and Poverty of Jesus Christ This theme of Old Tes ta ment proph e cies and sto ries would form the empha sis of Paul s teach ings. When he was first ordained and sent out, dur ing his first recorded ser mon at Antioch (Acts 13), we see this theme and man ner of pre sent - ing Jesus. Paul noted that the rul ers and dwell ers of Jeru sa lem rejected Jesus because they did not believe the voices of the proph ets that were read to them every Sab bath: For they that dwell at Je ru sa lem, and their rul ers, be - cause they knew him not, nor yet the voices of the proph ets which are read ev ery sab bath day, they have ful filled them in con demn ing him. (Acts 13:27) Paul also appealed to the sec ond Psalm as proof that Jesus had been raised from the dead (Acts 13:33). And con cern ing David, Paul said: Of this man s seed hath God accord ing to Vol. 22, No

4 his prom ise raised unto Israel a Sav iour, Jesus (Acts 13:23). The Son of God would be from the seed of human ity. There can be lit tle doubt that Paul pon dered upon the points of the incar na tion as much as, or more than, any other issue he faced, for even his the ol ogy of jus ti fi ca tion by faith would be based upon and steered by the rev e la tion that the Son of God became the son of man. Paul came to under stand one of the great est rev e la tions of his day, some thing that we might today take for granted that Jesus Christ was the vis i - ble leader of the chil dren of Israel: More over, breth ren, I would not that ye should be ig no - rant, how that all our fa thers were un der the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all bap tized unto Mo ses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spir i - tual meat; And did all drink the same spir i tual drink: for they drank of that spir i tual Rock that fol lowed them: and that Rock was Christ. (1 Co rin thi ans 10:1 4) Paul, in his reflec tions, began to con trast the glory of the eter nal God, a glory that was man i fested in the Shekinah glory upon the sacred ark within the most holy place, with the human ity of Jesus. Jesus had been rich, not just in wealth, but in iden tity! Jesus had glory with God before the earth began. The night before his cru ci fix ion, he had prayed: And now, O Father, glo rify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was (John 17:5). His nature was divine! Who, being in very nature God (Philippians 2:6 NIV). Yet we are also told that he did not con sider equal ity with God some thing to be used to his own advan tage; rather, he made him self noth ing by tak ing the very nature of a ser vant, being made in human like ness (Philippians 2:6, 7 NIV). Paul calls this human ity poverty: For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his pov erty might be rich (2 Corin thi ans 8:9). The Greek for pov - erty means to to be a beg gar, be des ti tute (New Amer i can Stan dard Hebrew-Ara maic and Greek Dic tio nary, Logos Edi tion). Jesus said, Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head (Mat - thew 8:20). He laid aside His royal robe and kingly crown, and stepped down from His high com mand, to take the place of a ser vant. He was rich, but for our sake, that we might have eter nal riches, He be came poor. (El len White, Spe cial Tes ti mo nies, Series B, no. 1, p. 23) Jesus declared, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the king dom of heaven (Mat thew 5:3), and he warned against the deceit fulness of the riches of this world (Mat thew 13:22). But the pov erty that Paul speaks of is not sim ply a pov erty of the riches of this world, but is that Christ accepted the basic pov erty of man, the pov erty of sin itself. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righ teous ness of God (2 Corin thi ans 5:21). In the incar na tion, Jesus took upon His sin less nature our sin - ful nature (Med i cal Min is try, p. 181) and upon the cross, the sins of the world were laid upon him (Isa iah 53:6). Because of Jesus pov erty he under stands and is able to help the help less sin ner. Allen Stump From the File Cab i net of His tory Old Paths November 2013

5 Paul and the Incarnation, Part 2 In the first part of our study, we exam ined the back ground of Paul and Juda ism, as they would be able to relate to the rev e - la tion of the Son of God becom ing the son of man. The sec ond part of this study on Paul and the incar na tion will exam ine Paul s the ol ogy in Galatians, Romans, Philippians, and Hebrews. Paul in Galatians Paul, writ ing to the churches in Galatia, noted that when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adop tion of sons (Galatians 4:4, 5). The expres sion under the law is void of the arti cle in the Greek, where the expres sion is sim ply hypo nomon (ujpo; novmon). Christ was born under law, but what law? As we come to the 125th anni ver sary of the 1888 Gen eral Con fer ence Ses sion this month, we are reminded of the con - tro versy over the law of Galatians 3. What law was to be our school mas ter bring ing us to Christ? E. J. Waggoner took the posi tion that it rep re sented the moral law. Some of the older breth ren, like G. I. But ler, believed it was the cer e mo nial law. Ellen White helped to clar ify the issue when she wrote, I am asked con cern ing the law in Galatians. What law is the school mas ter to bring us to Christ? I answer: Both the cer e - mo nial and the moral code of ten com mand ments (Selected Messages, bk. 1, p. 233). Though closely con nected in arrange ment to Galatians 3:24, the focus of Galatians 4:4, 5, how ever, shifts. Here Paul is not speak ing about the moral or the cer e mo nial law. Nei - ther of these fit the con text. Instead, Paul is speak ing of the law of hered ity, that which is asso ci ated with birth. This is the law Christ was born under. Paul says that Christ was made of a woman, made under the law. The Greek word trans lated made twice in this verse is genomenon (genovmenon) which means to cause to be or to become. Just as Jesus was born of a woman, so also was he born under, or made under, law. Christ would be sub ject to the Jew ish law. He was cir cum - cised (Luke 2:27) and par tic i pated in the feasts (John 13:1, 2), but this is not what Paul is speak ing about. No, Paul is speak ing of redemp tion for all who are under the law of hered ity, all who have received the sin ful nature from Adam, that they might receive the priv i lege of son ship, whether they be Jew or Gen tile. But as many as re ceived him, to them gave he power to be come the sons of God, even to them that be lieve on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12, 13) Paul clearly speaks of Christ s human source in the incar - na tion and ties to that the results of his human involve ment that we might receive adop tion to son ship. Sin began in Eden with the woman, and it would be her seed that would break the domin ion of the ser pent over man. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel (Gen e sis 3:15). Men and women have, all their life times, been sub ject to bond age but through Christ, they are to receive power to become sons of God, being born again, born from above of God. Thus the domin ion of sin because of the law of hered ity is bro ken and the orig i nal rela tion ship, reflect ing the image and char ac ter of God, is rees tab lished. For this to be accom plished, Christ came under the same law of hered ity to break the domin ion and power of sin. This is the prin ci ple that Christ him self pro jected when he asked about bind ing the strong man of a house: Or else how can one enter into a strong man s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? and then he will spoil his house (Mat thew 12:29). Jesus entered the strong man s house he was born of a woman, born under law. When Adam s sin plunged the race into hope less mis - ery, God might have cut Him self loose from fallen be ings. He might have treated them as sin ners de serve to be treated. He might have com manded the an gels of heaven to pour out upon our world the vi als of His wrath. He might have re moved this dark blot from His uni verse. But He did not do this. In stead of ban ish ing them from His pres ence, He came still nearer to the fallen race. He gave His Son to be come bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. (Australasian Un ion Con fer ence Re cord, June 1, 1900) Paul in Romans Paul begins his famous epis tle to the Romans by writ ing: PAUL, a ser vant of Je sus Christ, called to be an apos tle, sep a rated unto the gos pel of God, (Which he had prom ised afore by his proph ets in the holy scrip tures,) Con cern ing his Son Je sus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of Da vid ac cord ing to the flesh; And de clared to be the Son of God with power, ac cord ing to the spirit of ho li ness, by the res ur rec tion from the dead. (Romans 1:1 4) The gos pel of God is the gift of his Son who was made of the seed of David. The good news of Jesus Christ is the rev e - la tion of the power of God that oper ated in his incar nate life and revealed the righ teous ness (right doing Christ s Object Lessons, page 312) of God. For I am not ashamed of the gos - pel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto sal va tion to every one that believ eth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righ teous ness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is writ ten, The just shall live by faith (Romans 1:16, 17). The gos pel has two points in Romans 1 first what was done by Christ because of the incar na tion and sec ond what is to be done in the one who accepts by faith the power obtained Vol. 22, No

6 through the atone ment and inter ces sion of Jesus Christ s priestly min is try. The mys tery of god li ness (1 Tim o thy 3:16) is the rev e la tion that Paul saw con nect ing heaven and earth and enabling man to break the shack les of sin and once again serve God. The gos pel is con cern ing his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made (genomenon) of the seed of David accord ing to the flesh. Later in Romans 8 Paul speaks of the neces sity of the incar na tion due to man s weak ness: For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God send ing his own Son in the like ness of sin ful flesh, and for sin, con demned sin in the flesh: That the righ teous ness of the law might be ful filled in us, who walk not af ter the flesh, but af ter the Spirit. (Romans 8:3, 4) Because of the weak ness of the flesh, the sin ner can not obey the law of God in his unregenerated state. For to be car nally minded is death; but to be spir i tu ally minded is life and peace. Because the car nal mind is enmity against God: for it is not sub ject to the law of God, nei ther indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh can not please God (Romans 8:6 8). The law could not be obeyed in the flesh, but God sent his Son and for sin, con demned sin in the flesh. The Greek expres sion and for sin is kaiv periv ajmartivav (kai peri hamartias). Accord ing to Thayer s Greek-English Lexicon, periv is used [here] of the design or pur pose for remov ing some thing or tak ing it away: periv ajmartivav, to destroy sin, Ro. viii.3... (Thayer s Greek Eng lish Lex i con of the New Tes ta ment, p. 501). The power of sin was to be destroyed at its source man s flesh. To do this, Christ came in the like ness of sinful flesh. The flesh is set in con trast to the spirit in Romans 8. The Greek word for flesh is savrx. Accord ing to Thayer, savrx when ei ther ex pressly or tac itly opp. to to; pneu:ma has an eth i cal sense and de notes mere hu man na ture, the earthly na ture of man apart from di vine in flu ence, and there fore prone to sin and op pose God; ac cord ingly it in - cludes what ever in the soul is weak, low, de based, tend ing to un god li ness and vice... (Thayer s Greek Eng lish Lex i - con of the New Tes ta ment, p. 571) Luther said: Thou must not un der stand flesh, there fore, as though that only were flesh which is con nected with unchasity, but St. Paul uses flesh of the whole man, body and soul, rea son and all his fac ul ties in cluded, be cause all that is in him longs and strives af ter the flesh. (Lu ther, Preface to the Epis tle to the Romans; quo ta tion taken from Thayer s Greek Eng lish Lex i con of the New Tes ta ment, p. 571) To meet man s need Jesus came to where man was. But now we ask the ques tion, does likeness mean a real iden tity? If Jesus came in the like ness of sin ful flesh, was this a real ity or just a some thing like sin ful flesh? Philippians 2:7 states that Jesus was made in the like ness of men, and the Greek expres sions are the same. Jesus was a real man, not a phan tom or some ghost! Thayer indi cates that the word o;moiwma, trans lated like - ness, means resem blance, fre quently such as amounts well-nigh to equal ity or iden tity (Thayer, p. 445), and Thayer lists Romans 6:5; 8:3 and Philippians 2:7 as examples. One stu dent of the incar na tion explained the bal ance between Christ s accep tance of the sin ful nature of man and his nonpar tic i pa tion of sin in this way: Paul was very care ful in how he ex pressed this con cept. He did not say, that Christ was in the like ness of the flesh of a sin ner, and thus mak ing Him a par taker of sin, nor did he write that Christ was merely in flesh, which would have omit ted any con nec tion be tween the Man hood of Christ and sin. He stated they God sent His Son in the like ness of sin ful flesh thus mean ing... He had a na ture like sin ful hu man na ture, but had not Him self a sin ful na ture. (Wil - liam Grotheer, In the Form of a Slave, pp. 45, 46; the quo ta tion within this quo ta tion is from Al ford, p. xxx; el - lip sis in original) Ellen White never wrote that Jesus had a sin ful nature, but rather that He took upon His sin less nature our sin ful nature, that He might know how to suc cor those that are tempted (Med i cal Min is try, p. 181). She fur ther wrote: How few can un der stand the love of God for the fallen race in that he with held not his di vine Son from tak ing upon him the hu mil i a tion of hu man ity! He gave up his dearly be loved to shame and ag ony, that he might bring many sons and daugh ters to glory. (The Re view and Herald, March 18, 1875) Though He had all the strength of pas sion of hu man ity, never did He yield to temp ta tion to do one sin gle act which was not pure and el e vat ing and en no bling. (In Heav enly Places, p. 155) Christ has suffered for us and knows our temptations in a way that we know he knows. Paul in Hebrews Paul, the writer of Hebrews, begins his great epis tle with a strong expres sion of the deity of Jesus Christ, so that the humil i a tion of Jesus in the incar na tion might be better appreciated. Paul states that Jesus is the express image of his [the Father s] per son (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus has by inher i tance obtained a more excel lent name than the angels (Hebrews 1:4). Old Paths November 2013

7 Jesus is described as being wor thy of wor ship. In fact, the Father com manded such worship: And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God wor ship him (Hebrews 1:6). The Father exalts Christ to be God upon a throne: But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scep - tre of righ teous ness is the sceptre of thy king dom (Hebrews 1:8). Yet this deity stooped to accept human ity and that in its fallen nature. But we see Je sus, who was made a lit tle lower than the an gels for the suf fer ing of death, crowned with glory and hon our; that he by the grace of God should taste death for ev ery man. For it be came him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bring ing many sons unto glory, to make the cap tain of their sal va tion per fect through suf - fer ings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanc ti fied are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them breth ren, Say ing, I will de clare thy name unto my breth ren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Be hold I and the chil dren which God hath given me. For - as much then as the chil dren are par tak ers of flesh and blood, he also him self like wise took part of the same; that through death he might de stroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And de liver them who through fear of death were all their life time sub ject to bond age. For ver ily he took not on him the na ture of an gels; but he took on him the seed of Abra ham. Where fore in all things it be - hoved him to be made like unto his breth ren, that he might be a mer ci ful and faith ful high priest in things per tain ing to God, to make rec on cil i a tion for the sins of the peo ple. For in that he him self hath suf fered be ing tempted, he is able to suc cour them that are tempted. (Hebrews 2:9 18) For as much then as the chil dren are par tak ers of flesh and blood, he also him self like wise took part of the same. Jesus partook of the same flesh and blood that we, the chil dren, have. It was in the or der of God that Christ should take upon him self the form and na ture of fallen man, that he might be made per fect through suf fer ing, and him self en dure the strength of Sa tan s fierce temp ta tions, that he might un - der stand how to suc cor those who should be tempted. (The Spirit of Proph ecy, vol. 2, p. 39; em pha sis supplied) Christ s iden tity with human ity is expressed by Paul as an obli ga tion. In Hebrews 2:17 it is stated that it behoved him to be made like unto his breth ren. The Greek expres - sion for behoved is w feilw (opheilo), and it means to be indebted, to owe, or to be oblig a tory in view of some moral require ment (Dic tio nary of Bib li cal Lan guages with Seman tic Domains: Greek, Logos Edi tion). Hav ing accepted the respon si bil ity to redeem man, Christ was under moral obli ga tion to be made in all things like unto his breth ren whom he came to save. While made in all respects like his breth ren, he did not do all the things his breth ren did. Je sus was sin less and had no dread of the con se quences of sin. With this ex cep tion His con di tion was as yours. You have not a dif fi culty that did not press with equal weight upon Him, not a sor row that His heart has not ex pe - ri enced. His feel ings could be hurt with ne glect, with in dif fer ence of pro fessed friends, as eas ily as yours. Is your path thorny? Christ s was so in a ten fold sense. Are you dis tressed? So was He. How well fit ted was Christ to be an ex am ple! (El len White, Manu script Re leases, vol. 4, p. 235; writing to son Willie C. White) Paul Lee Tan, in his book of illus tra tions, shares the fol - low ing true story that helps to illus trate the incar na tion: Dr. Stu art Nye Hutchison tells us about a boy whom he knew who had lost his right hand. He felt so badly about it that he did not want to see any one. His fa ther said, I m go ing to bring the min is ter in to see you. The boy said, I don t want to see him. But the fa ther brought him in. When the boy looked up he saw that the min is ter had no right arm; there was an empty sleeve. He came over to the boy and said, I have n t any hand, ei ther. I lost mine when I was a boy, and I know how it feels. It was n t hard for the boy to get ac quainted with the min is ter who knew how it felt. So Christ has suf fered for us and knows our temp ta - tions. (Paul Lee Tan, En cy clo pe dia of 7700 Il lus tra tions: Signs of the Times, Lo gos Edition) Christ has suf fered for us and knows our temp ta tions in a way that we know he knows. I remem ber once, as a young min is ter, try ing to con sole a brother whose wife had left him and who was going through a divorce. After shar ing some Scrip ture, I remarked how sorry I was for him and said, as so often we say in sit u a tions like this, I under stand how you feel. To these attempted words of com fort, he replied; No, you don t! He was right. I did not know, and he knew I did not know. My words came across empty and shal low to him. I then asked an older brother, whose wife had, years before, also left him, to visit this griev ing brother. He did not have any dif fer ent Bible texts to share, but he was able to help in a way I could not because the griev ing brother knew the older brother fully under stood his posi tion. Jesus per fectly under stands our posi tion, and he is able to help those who are tempted. For in that he him self hath suf - fered being tempted, he is able to suc cour [help] them that are tempted (Hebrews 2:18). For we do not have a high priest who is un able to sym - pa thize with our weak nesses, but one who in ev ery re spect has been tempted as we are, yet with out sin. (He brews 4:15 ESV) Christ pos sessed the same na ture that man pos sesses. He was tempted in all points like as man is tempted. The same power by which He obeyed is at man s com mand. (That I May Know Him, p. 92) Vol. 22, No

8 Hebrews 5:7 9 says, Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and sup pli ca tions with strong cry - ing and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he obe di ence by the things which he suf fered; And being made per fect, he became the author of eter nal sal va tion unto all them that obey him. The Greek for the word from in the expres sion save him from death is ek, and in this verse is better trans lated out. Jesus was not saved from death, but out of the expe ri ence of death. Yet, Jesus died; the one who was sin less died for our sins. He was kept from sin ning by the power of God. He was heard, yet he died for our sins. [Je sus] learned obe di ence by the things he suf fered. Now what we al ready know, we do not have to learn. Je sus did not be gin the strug gle and the days of His flesh as an al - ready per fected Be ing. He learned obe di ence, and be ing made per fect through the ex pe ri ence of con flict with sin, He be came the au thor of eter nal sal va tion. The ex am ple of sanc ti fi ca tion set for man by the One who sanc ti fies was not even for Him an in stan ta neous pro cess, but a growth in grace. One with us in blood and flesh; one with us in temp - ta tion and trial; He now wants us to be one with Him in the pro cess of re demp tion learn ing obe di ence, and be ing made per fect. (Wil liam Grotheer, In the Form of a Slave, p. 48) Paul in Philippians This epis tle is con sid ered by some to be the height of Paul s the ol ogy on the incar na tion. The key text is: Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Je sus: Who, be ing in the form of God, thought it not rob bery to be equal with God: But made him self of no rep u ta tion, and took upon him the form of a ser vant, and was made in the like ness of men: And be ing found in fash ion as a man, he hum bled him self, and be came obe di ent unto death, even the death of the cross. (Philippians 2:5 8) Paul says that Jesus was in the form of God. The Greek work for form is morfh: (morphe) which always sig ni fies a form which truly and fully expresses the being which under lies it (James Hope Moulton, The Vocab u lary of the Greek Tes ta ment, p. 417). The NIV trans lates Philippians 2:6 as: Who, being in very nature God, did not con sider equal ity with God some - thing to be used to his own advan tage. So com pletely did Christ enter into the work of our redemp tion that he yielded up the form, or nature, of deity and accepted the form of a ser - vant (Greek: doulos, a bond slave). Jesus emp tied him self or made void him self. Jesus sub ju - gated him self to the very depths of the slave expe ri ence of man, the bond age of death, even the death of the cross. The human ity he accepted in the incar na tion will ever be his and more impor tantly, it will ever be ours. Unto us a son is given (Isa iah 9:6). To as sure us of His im mu ta ble coun sel of peace, God gave His only-be got ten Son to be come one of the hu man fam ily, for ever to re tain His hu man na ture. (The De sire of Ages, p. 25) Jesus was and shall be glo ri fied in the form of human ity for his vic tory over sin and death. Where fore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should con fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9 11). It is the man Christ Jesus that medi ates at the throne of God: For there is one God, and one medi a tor between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim o thy 2:5). Conclusion Paul writes that ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his pov erty might be rich (2 Corin thi ans 8:9). Paul is not speak ing of lit eral pov erty and of lit eral riches. While it is true that Jesus had lit tle to noth ing of this world s goods and that we shall one day walk upon a street of gold, this verse is not speak ing of lit eral wealth or the lack of it, but of spir i tual wealth and pov erty. It is through his pov - erty in the incar na tion that his divin ity may be joined with our human ity that we may become rich with all the fulness of the God head. Christ yielded up the form, or nature, of deity and accepted the form of a slave. In 1959 John Howard Grif fin, a white Amer i can, sought to under stand the plight of the Afri can Amer i can. He believed that the only way he could truly under stand their con di tion was to become one of them. Using oral med i ca tions, sun lamp treat ments, and stains, he dark ened his skin. Then Griffin began to trav el through the South to find out what would happen. The results were unbe liev able. Grif fin learned firsthand of the inhu man treat ment that his fel low Amer i cans lived with each day. He could not ride in cer tain vehi cles or eat in cer tain res tau rants. Water foun tains and bath rooms once open to him were now as dry as a desert to him. There were also hotels where he could n t sleep. Grif - fin was per se cuted, slighted, and cheated, and the effect was last ing. Grif fin wrote about his treat ment in his book Black Like Me, a grip ping account of life on the other side of the tracks. Beloved, Jesus became human like me and like you. He came to the bot tom of the lad der so he could save from the bot tom up, and he is able to help save you to the utter most. Allen Stump Old Paths November 2013

9 Set Thine Heart to Understand The study of the brain in this cen tury has far exceeded the entire study of the last cen tury. In addition to MRIs, CTs, and PET scans, we now have the oppor tu nity of explor ing the brain using nanotechnology and micro pro ces sors and just a few days ago, the Human Brain Pro ject offi cially opened in Lausanne, Swit zer land. Attend ing were hun dreds of scientists from the lead ing uni ver si ties and research cen ters of Europe, each one com ing together in the hope that biol ogy can converge with twenty-first cen tury com puter technology, start ing with the brain s pro cesses at the extremely small (nanometer 1 ) level, in order to better understand the brain. In April 2013 Pres i dent Obama announced a brain mapping pro ject set to launch in Enti tled The Brain Activ ity Map, this pro ject will last sev eral years and will attempt to map the cir cuitry of the brain, beginning with the sin gle neu ron and mov ing up in com plex ity to the cir cuitry of a mil lion neu rons work ing together. Until now we have not had the techniques nor the tools to study more than a sin - gle neu ron at a time: Cur rently, sci en tists can mon i tor the activ ity of a single neu ron using elec trodes. They can watch the whole brain in action using func tional mag netic res o - nance imagining (fmri) and other tech niques, 2 but the area between the sin gle neu ron and the whole brain how the brain net works within itself is uncharted ter ri tory. The brain-map ping project hopes to gain new infor ma tion that will shed light on autism, schizo phre nia, demen tia, depression, and other mental and neu ro log i cal dis eases. In addition, the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Lis bon, Por tu gal, opened its doors in 2010; a research cen ter at the Hebrew Uni ver sity in Jerusa lem is near ing com ple tion and will house thirty lab o ra to ries; and new cen ters for the study of the brain are expected to open soon in New York and in Lon don. Brain research is com pli cated and detailed and must integrate many lev els of infor ma tion, includ ing ana tom i cal units, elec tro-chem i cal sig nals, and high-level phe nom ena, such as per cep tion, action, and emo tions. This research involves the nanometers of pro teins and genes and moves through the microm e ters, mil li me ters, and cen ti me ters of nerves and their con nec tions to the larger units of behav iors and dis eases. The more the brain is studied, the more we see how all the parts of this amaz ing organ func tion together in a precise manner heretofore unappreciated. Dr. Idan Segev 3 says this con cern ing the study of the brain in the twenty-first cen tury: I want just to also say a word about the struc ture of such brain cen ters. Unlike clas si cally, where we thought the brain be longs to bi ol o gists, so to speak, and [where] only bi ol o gists can un der stand the brain, we now un der stand that ac tu ally the peo ple that will un der stand the brain will be the Le o nardo da Vinci s of the brain. There will be a very re nais sance type of re search ers that... will have to mas ter many, many fields. They will have to mas ter theory, phys ics, and math e mat ics, and com puter sci ences. They will have to mas ter some as pects of diseases neurological and psychiatric diseases. They will have to mas ter anat omy and cir cuit struc ture of the brain. (Idan Segev in a class room lec ture en ti tled The Blos som ing of the Brain, ac cessed at coursera.org on ) And that leads us to the real pur pose of this arti cle the blos som ing of what we could call the Leo nardo da Vinci s of God s word. These da Vinci s will have a renais sance-type of knowl edge of Scrip ture; they will set their hearts to under - stand (in a Dan iel way) the major themes of the Bible. In a sys tem atic style they will be able to move from one bib li cal topic to the next, mak ing the con nec tions between them, just as neu rons make con nec tions with other neu rons. Today we think we under stand the sin gle neu ron and that we will even - tu ally under stand how that one neu ron net works with numer ous other neu rons; accordingly, the stu dent of God s word may under stand well a par tic u lar topic of the Bible, but the true stu dent will need to know how that topic con nects with the other teach ings of God s word. Being able to do so is a sweet work in prog ress, so to speak, and requires inter fac - ing the many lay ers of Chris tol ogy, soteriology, escha tol ogy, ecclesiology, the sanc tu ary, the god head, the Sab bath, the law of God, and more, and depend ing on the the o ret i cal approach, this sci en tific-type research into God s word might be called a sys tem atic the ol ogy, a bib li cal the ol ogy, a prac ti cal the ol ogy, or even some thing else, but regard less of the approach, the texts (and con texts) of a par tic u lar topic are first gath ered and stud ied and then are con nected into a fam - ily of texts, just as neu rons con nect with other neu rons into a net work of neu rons. Then that bib li cal topic is con nected with another bib li cal topic (which has also been first stud ied and joined into its own fam ily), and so on. Our peo ple need to un der stand the or a cles of God; they need to have a sys tem atic knowl edge of the prin ci ples of re vealed truth... (El len White, Tes ti mo nies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 273; all em pha sis sup plied) Con tin ued on page One billionth of a meter (A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick; your fingernail grows about 1 nanometer/second.) 2. Stephanie Pappas, Obama Announces Huge Brain-Mapping Project, livescience, April 02, 2013; accessed at on Professor of computational neuroscience and the former director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Neural Computation at Hebrew University, Jerusalem Vol. 22, No

10 Youth s Cor ner In the Round Tower of Con stance (This month we con tinue a series based upon the book Youth ful Wit nesses by W. A. Spicer, pub lished in This month s story is Chap ter 14.) Not accept ing deliv er ance; that they might obtain a better res ur rec tion (Hebrews 11:35). What a story of faith and con stancy and of enabling grace would be told if the stones of some old prison keeps still stand ing could cry out! To this day, it is said, a stone in the Tower of Con stance, at Aigues-Mortes, France, bears lit er - ally the reg is ter of one young woman s answer of endur ing faith to the offer of quick deliv er ance by com pro mise of soul. One unnamed writer has summed up the gen eral his tory of the prison Tower of Con stance as fol lows: Aigues-Mortes is sit u ated on the south ern coast of France, on the Gulf of Ly ons, about four miles from the Med i ter ra nean. The pop u la tion is about five thou sand. It is of great his tor i cal in ter est, and is sur rounded by the most perfect old embrasured wall in France, built in the form of a par al lel o gram. The wall is thirty-six feet high, and is flanked by fif teen mas sive tow ers, one of which is the fa - mous round Tower of Con stance. This tower is ninety-six feet high and sev enty-two feet in di am e ter, and con tains two vaulted su per im posed cir cu lar cham bers used by Louis XIV and Louis XV as pris ons for their Protestant sub jects of both sexes, who here suf fered such cru el ties that the Dutch and Swiss gov ern ments were roused to in - ter fere in their be half, and even Fred er ick the Great is said to have interceded for them, but in vain. One occu pant of the woman s prison was a young girl, Suzanne, brought from a dis tant part and immured here for her Protestant faith. She had left a mother and a sis ter in the faith back in the old home vil lage. And how love does bat tle to find a way to send its mes sages! Once a year, the story goes, the mother and the sis ter, dis - guised as beg gars, made the long jour ney to Aigues-Mortes. They watched by the tall Tower of Con stance until the sen ti - nel was at a dis tance from the part where their loved one was immured. Then clearly they sang a psalm, one of the hymns of the old home cir cle. Then Suzanne! Suzanne! cried the mother. From a nar row open ing, far above, we are told, would come the reply, Ma mère! Ma mère! (My mother! my mother!) That was all. Then the sen ti nel on his beat would be com - ing back. There was no pos si bil ity of con ver sa tion. But just to hear the daugh ter s voice, just to send a mes sage of love that lasts till death, the mother would take the long and per il - ous jour neys. This, too, was the scene of Marie Durand s life long wit - ness to the spirit that no power of earth can crush, because it is the gift of Christ, the faith ful and the true Wit ness. Her story is well-sketched by an unnamed writer, as fol lows: In the vi cin ity of the city of Aigues-Mortes lived Ma rie Durand, her fam ily, and a young man, Matthieu Serre, to whom she was en gaged. Ma rie Durand s mother died when Ma rie was a young child, leav ing her and a brother sev eral years older to be brought up in the Protestant faith by their godly fa ther. The son be came the min is ter of a Hu - gue not con gre ga tion in a near-by town. About the time the daugh ter Ma rie was fif teen years of age, per se cu tion broke out afresh, and the king s sol diers ar rested, among many oth ers in the town, her fa ther and Matthieu Serre, to whom she was be trothed. The only pre - text for their ar rest was that Etienne Durand was the fa ther of a Hu gue not preacher, and that Matthieu Serre was be - trothed to the preacher s sis ter. These two men, the fa ther and the lover, were dragged away to a prison on an is land within sight of the shore. Within a short time Ma rie, too, was ar rested for the sole crime of be ing a sis ter of a Protestant min is ter, and was sent to the aw ful Tower of Con stance, a young girl only fifteen years old. While in these sep a rated pris ons, al most in sight of one an other, the fa ther and daugh ter and the lover were per mit - ted to cor re spond with one an other. Many of the let ters have been pre served. They show not only the intensest af - fec tion, but the sweet est Chris tian spirit and en deavor to en cour age one an other un der their tri als and to con firm their pur pose to stand fast in the faith. How well this pur pose was kept is re vealed when we know that to Ma rie Durand and her many com pan ions in suf fer ing, ev ery week on Thurs day the of fer of free dom was made. A priest came to the door of the cells and of - fered lib erty to ev ery one who would re cant. Very few in the course of years ever em braced the op por tu nity. Ma rie traced her an swer deep in the stone curb, Re sist. What that meant can be re al ized when it is known that youth passed, mid dle age dragged its slow length along, old age and white hair set their seal upon her, and dis ease racked her frame, but never for thirty-eight years did she change her an swer to the weekly in vi ta tion, or pass out of the tower; for never would she re nounce the Bi ble as her all-sufficient teacher. There is in ex is tence to day a list of pris on ers at one time in that tower. Af ter each of the thirty-three names are writ - ten by their jailer these sig nif i cant words, Sa croyance toujours la même (Her faith al ways the same). Old Paths November 2013

11 Walls of the city of Aigues-Mortes, with the Round Tower in the distance In the course of years her fa ther was re leased, her lover was re leased, her brother died a mar tyr s death, and most of her rel a tives be - came ref u gees in Swit zer land. No one of them changed his faith, but all ob tained their lib erty through the in flu ence and ef - forts of Prot es tants in var i ous Eu ro pean countries. But those in the Tower of Con stance were firmly held, Ma rie Durand with them, un til the year 1768, when she was per mit ted to go out from her fright ful prison, leav ing her name as a syn onym of that love and faith in God and His di vine word which is more than con queror over all the oppressions of men. Some years ago the edi tor of the Lon don Sunday at Home, Mr. F. G. Smith, who evi dently, only a short time before writ - ing, had vis ited the tower, made some obser va tions that add inter est to the story of Marie Durand. He wrote: More lib er ally ed u - cated than the ma jor ity of her com pan ions, it is she who be comes the com forter and ad viser of the lit tle com mu nity. It is she who at tends the sick, reads aloud the word of God, takes the lead in sing ing the psalms in which the French Prot es tants were ac cus tomed to breathe their as pi ra tions, and en cour ages her weaker sis - ters to re main faith ful and true. In the whole his tory of Prot es tant ism there is noth ing more pa thetic than the sim - The en grav ing of Ma rie Durand that trans lates Re sist Vol. 22, No

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14 ple in scrip tion, roughly scratched by Ma rie Durand on the stone edge of the grat ing in the ward, an in scrip tion that can still be seen, though al most ef faced by time Résistez (or in the orig i nal, but in cor rect or thog ra phy, Reçister). The char ac ters are ir reg u larly formed, the spell - ing is in cor rect, but what or a tory from im pas sioned lips can equal the sub lim ity and el o quence of that sim ple word with which a brave heart sought to en cour age her sis ters in the faith? Résistez! What ever the spell ing scratched labo ri ously into the stone, whether an error or a pro vin cial ism, the word was writ ten cor rectly in Marie Durand s heart. The poet pen of an Eng lish writer, Mr. W. Stevens, passes on the mes sage of the Tower of Con stance : More drear, more drear the cir cling years Within those walls of gloomy fame, Where the bright dawn like eve appears, And joy and sor row seem the same. None goeth forth but must for swear The faith that is the soul s true breath; Yet love is stron ger than despair, Life crowns the faith ful unto death. The Round Tower of Con stance (Photo cour tesy of Ingo Mehling) Here pines the mother for her child, The wife laments her hus band lost, The grandame with ers, maiden mild Droops like a flower in north ern frost: Slow pass the years, yet each one grows To riper vir tues in her lot; Come sum mer heats, come win ter snows, She knows the Christ who changeth not. Here weaker woman waits and prays, Endur ing in the strength divine; A sim ple faith her spirit stays, And round her unseen glo ries shine: She fades and dies. One word alone She leaves to rouse the droop ing will, Fast graven in the dun geon stone, Résistez! There it speaketh still. Hu gue not women in the Tower of Constance The years shall come, with sum mer glow, Past shin ing seas, o er lands all fair, And wide the gloomy por tals throw, And breathe the life of God s free air. Résistez! still that word abides, In stren u ous strife of good with ill; When plea sure lures, or scorn derides, Résistez! gird thy faint ing will. W. A. Spicer Old Paths November 2013

15 The Big Lie (Dr. Pedrin has gra ciously granted us per mis sion to pub lish his book, The Big Lie. This is the sec ond install ment. He may be con tacted through his website, clearbibleanswers.org. Editor) The Unleavened Bread Let us see how they [the lunar Sabbatarians] twist the cal cu - la tion of the Feast of the Unleav ened Bread: And on the fif teenth day of the same month is the feast of un leav ened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat un leav ened bread. (Le vit i cus 23:6) In the first month, on the four teenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat un leav ened bread, un til the one and twen ti eth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses. (Ex o dus 12:18, 19) 4 From the above pas sages of scrip ture, we under stand the feast was to be cel e brated from the eve ning of the four teenth day to the eve ning of the twenty-first day, a total of seven days. Now look at how they twist the sim ple state ments of scrip ture to fit their ideas: Un leav ened bread was eaten on the 14th day of the first month at eve ning, (along with the rest of the Pass over meal, Ex o dus 12:8) and was to be eaten un til the 21st at even. This is parts of 8 days, yet Ex o dus 12:15 says to eat it for seven days. And so it is. The day part of the 14th is over when eaten on the 14th, so un leav ened bread is only eaten on DAYS 15 through 21. (Troy Miller, When Does Scrip ture Say A Day Be gins?, p. 4; ac cessed at em pha sis in original) That seems to be a very smart way of get ting out of trou - ble. But trou ble is still there! It is not just the eat ing of unleav ened bread that the pas sage men tions, but also the putt ing away of leaven from the houses, and notice when the leaven has to be put out of the houses: Seven days shall ye eat un leav ened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses. (Ex o dus 12:15) If the first day is the day light of the fif teenth, then they had to have put away the unleav ened bread on the morn ing of the fif teenth, but we see they ate the unleav ened bread on the pre vi ous night (the night of the four teenth) which means the leaven was put out of the houses not on the morn ing of the fif teenth, but on the pre vi ous night! So a day does n t begin in the morn ing, but on the pre vi ous night! Another lunar Sabbatarian camp agrees that the Feast of the Unleav ened Bread (or the Feast of the Pass over, as it is com monly called), which begins on the fif teenth day of the first month, began on the night of the four teenth. Here is their statement:... be cause it was the Feast of Pass over, a Holy Con - vo ca tion, and also called a yearly Sab bath. This Feast of Pass over was the only Holy con vo ca tion to be kept dur ing the dark hours, which be gan at sun set on the 14th of Abib. This was not be cause a sev enth-day Sab - bath was to be gin at sun set. (Ac cessed at gin/i-was-taught-that-the-yahushua-was-cru ci - fied-on-a-fri day.html; em pha sis in orig i nal) They have not found a way of escape from this plain text of scrip ture which proves that a day begins at sun set; there fore, they say that this is the only holy con vo ca tion to be kept dur ing the dark hours which began at sun set on the 14th of Abib. The very fact it is called a Sab bath shows that it is related to the sev enth-day Sab bath rest. Then how can the sev enth-day Sab bath be only from sun rise to sun set, when a yearly Sab bath, based on the pat tern of the sev enth-day Sab - bath, begins it holy hours, called Sab bath, at sun set? So again the lunar Sabbatarians are flawed in their inter pre ta tion. The Day of Atone ment One of the clear est pas sages of the Bible where the reck on ing of a bib li cal day is given is in the feast of the Day of Atone ment. Also on the tenth day of this sev enth month there shall be a day of atone ment: it shall be an holy con vo ca tion unto you; and ye shall af flict your souls, and of fer an of fer ing made by fire unto the LORD.It shall be unto you a sab - bath of rest, and ye shall af flict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye cel e - brate your sab bath. (Le vit i cus 23:27, 32) 5 Lis ten to what the lunar Sabbatarians have to say about this most clear pas sage of scrip ture: No tice it says that this ap pointed time was to be gin on the 9th at even, and end on the 10th at even. If the 10th day of the sev enth month is Day of Atone ment, why did n t YHVH just say keep the 10th as a fast? The point is, the af - flic tion of the soul be gins on the 9th day at even (this does 4. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land. 5. These verses may seem to offer two different times for the Day of Atonement to begin. Verse 27 begins by stating that it is on the tenth day but verse 32 later states in the ninth day of the month at even. Remembering that the biblical day begins in the evening, we then can understand that just after the end of the ninth day, at the end of the light portion of the day, the evening of the tenth day and the Day of Atonement begins. Vol. 22, No

16 not mean the be gin ning of the day) and ends on the 10th day at even. This time of af flic tion is spread over two days. (Miller, Ibid.) Does the scrip ture say the afflic tion spreads over two days? For what so ever soul it be that shall not be af flicted in that same day, he shall be cut off from among his peo ple. (Le vit i cus 23:29) There are not two days of afflic tion dur ing this sin gle Day of Atone ment. If the afflic tion lasted two days, then the word day should have been plu ral days but Moses wrote that same day. Apart from Levit i cus 23, there are two other places in scrip ture that men tion the Day of Atone ment and the afflic - tion, and in none of these pas sages will you see that the afflic tion is for two days. It is only on the sin gle Day of Atone ment. And this shall be a stat ute for ever unto you: that in the sev enth month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall af - flict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own coun try, or a stranger that sojourneth among you. (Le vit i cus 16:29) And ye shall have on the tenth day of this sev enth month an holy con vo ca tion; and ye shall afflict your souls: ye shall not do any work therein. (Num bers 29:7) So the Day of Atone ment is on the tenth day of the sev enth month. It is a day of afflic tion, and it is called a Sab bath because no work was to be done on that day, just like the weekly Sab bath was a day of rest. The scrip ture is abso lutely clear as to when the Day of Atone ment (called also the Sab - bath) starts and fin ishes from even to eve ning. Also on the tenth day of this sev enth month there shall be a day of atone ment: it shall be an holy con vo ca tion unto you; and ye shall af flict your souls, and of fer an of fer ing made by fire unto the LORD.It shall be unto you a sab - bath of rest, and ye shall af flict your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye cel e - brate your sab bath. (Le vit i cus 23:27, 32) So we have seen how the lunar Sabbatarians are flawed in their inter pre ta tion of the Day of Atone ment. In the Time of Nehemiah The book of Nehemiah is spe cific as to the tim ing of the begin ning of the Sab bath. It com mences when it is dark and not when it is bright. And it came to pass, that when the gates of Je ru sa lem be gan to be dark be fore the sab bath, I com manded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till af ter the sab bath: and some of my ser vants set I at the gates, that there should no bur den be brought in on the sab bath day. (Nehemiah 13:19) What do the lunar Sabbatarians have to say about this clear text? Nehemiah was guard ing the edges of the Sab bath so to speak. The Sab bath did not start un til dawn... ( - gin/what-about-nehemiah-1319-it-gives-sup port-to-sun s et-to-sun set-day-length.html) If the Sab bath was to start twelve hours later, how can sun - set be the edges of the Sab bath? What about the edges of the Sab bath the other side, that is, after the Sab bath? Would the guard ing extend twelve hours after the Sab bath is passed? The whole pas sage in Nehemiah 13:15 22, is not talk ing about guard ing the edges of the Sab bath, but about guard ing the Sab bath itself! When some thing is on the edge of some thing else, it means it is touch ing the other thing. Let me illus trate. If a per - son is sit ting at the edge of a bench it means he is in con tact with the bench. If he is out side the bench then he is not at the edge of the bench, but close to the bench. When were the gates shut? began to be dark before the sab bath, I com manded that the gates should be shut (Nehemiah 13:19). The gates were shut before the Sab bath, while it was begin ning to be dark. When were the gates opened? and charged that they should not be opened till after the Sab bath (Nehemiah 13:19). They were opened after the Sab bath. All of us agree that the Sab bath ends at sun set. So the gate was opened after sun set. Why did Nehemiah close the gates? that there should no bur den be brought in on the sab bath day (Nehemiah 13:19). Accord ing to the lunar Sabbatarians the holy hours of the Sab bath are only twelve hours from sun rise to sun set. Instead of clos ing the gates for just over twelve hours, Nehemiah closed the gates for close to twenty-four hours! That s not allow ing trade for two dif fer ent days! But Nehemiah shut the gate so that no bur den be brought in on the sab bath day. He was only guard ing the hours of the Sab - bath day which were twenty-four hours from sun set to sun set. If the Sab bath began at sun rise and Nehemiah was to close the gates from trade and com merce dur ing the Sab bath hours, then the text should have read when the gates of Jeru - sa lem ended to be dark before the sab bath, I com manded that the gates should be shut, but Nehemiah wrote when the gates of Jeru sa lem began to be dark before the Sab bath (Nehemiah 13:19). The rea son the ancient cit ies had gates was to pro tect the city from strang ers enter ing in at night. The gates of the cit ies were closed every night. This was a cus tom that was prac - ticed by all. For exam ple, look at the city of Jeri cho. They, too, closed their gate when it was night, when it was dark: And it came to pass about the time of shut ting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out. (Joshua 2:5) But Nehemiah shut the gates of Jeru sa lem, before the usual time because he wanted to pro tect the Sab bath hours Old Paths November 2013

17 from trade and com merce! Why? Because Sab bath starts at sun set and not sun rise! So we see the lunar Sabbatarians are also flawed in their expla na tion of the pas sage of Nehemiah. The Cru ci fix ion and the High Sab bath The Jews there fore, be cause it was the prep a ra tion, that the bod ies should not re main upon the cross on the sab bath day, (for that sab bath day was an high day,) be sought Pilate that their legs might be bro ken, and that they might be taken away. (John 19:31) The lunar Sabbatarians agree that a high Sab bath or a high day is when the yearly Sab bath and the weekly Sab bath coin cide: A High Sab bath was the term used when a yearly appointed Feast Sab bath landed on a reg u lar sev enth-day Sab bath. (Ker rie L. French, The Twelve Cri te ria of the True Cru ci fix ion Date, p. 3; ac cessed at ti - cles/twelve_cri te ria/03_twelve_criteria.html) I could n t find their rea son as to why the legs of the thieves were bro ken in a hurry before sun set, but I found the pas sage where they give a rea son as to why the embalm ing of Jesus body was not done imme di ately after his death that night. The only rea son Yahushua s body was not embalmed dur ing the dark hours af ter His death was be cause it was the Feast of Pass over, a Holy Convocation, and also called a yearly Sab bath. This Feast of Pass over was the only Holy con vo ca tion to be kept dur ing the dark hours, which be gan at sun - set on the 14th of Abib. This was not be cause a sev enth-day Sab bath was to be gin at sun set. ( -be gin/i-was-taught-that-the-yahushua-was-cru ci - fied-on-a-fri day.html; em pha sis in orig i nal; ac cessed ) French is quoted above as say ing a high Sab bath is when the Feast Sab bath landed on a reg u lar sev enth-day Sabbath, but in the imme di ate quo ta tion above, World s Last Chance (author unknown) states the feast Sab bath began on 14th night and the weekly Sab bath began on 15th morn ing. They are being incon sis tent! How can an annual Sab bath be twenty-four hours and the weekly Sab bath be just twelve hours? John clearly indi cates that the High Sab bath was beginning that night; there fore, they did not want the bod ies to remain on the cross. Now a high Sab bath, accord ing to their belief as well, is when both Sab baths meet together. So, that night both Sab baths started. If this were not so, John should not have called it the high day but should have only called it the yearly Sab bath day. If the Sab bath only began at sun rise, then why were they rush ing to break the legs of the thieves and take them down from the cross nearly fif teen hours before the Sab bath began? 6 This is the pre cise rea son why they did not embalm the body of Jesus that very night (because it was a High Sabbath), and that is also the pre cise rea son why they broke the legs of the thieves so that they would n t be hang ing all night, as the High Sab bath (that is both Sab baths) would com mence that sun down. So we see the lunar Sabbatarians are con tra dic tory in their inter pre ta tion on the High Sab bath. Their expla na tions are flawed. The Third Day and the Res ur rec tion The Bible says in the gos pel of John that Mary found the stone rolled away when she reached the tomb while it was yet dark : The first day of the week com eth Mary Mag da lene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sep ul chre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sep ul chre. (John 20:1) What do the lunar Sabbatarians have to say about this clear text? Now on the first day of the week Mary Mag da lene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb John 20:1 (NKJV) This is one of the cases where there is some dis crep ancy in the Gos pel Ac counts. ( Doc trine and Prac tice ; ar ti cle not avail able on ) When it was yet dark means the sun rise had not yet taken place. John calls this time, the time before sun rise, as the first day of the week which clearly indi cates that a new day began before sun rise. The text of John poses a prob lem to them. So they pre fer quot ing Mat thew, who uses the phrase as it began to dawn, and Mark, who writes at the ris ing of the sun. So the first day of the week is as it began to dawn or at the ris ing of the sun, and that suits their idea of a day begin ning at sun rise. But since John calls the yet dark period as the first day of the week, it s puz zling to them, and they say there is some dis crep ancy in the gos pel accounts! For us, it is no discrepancy. The yet dark period and the ris ing of the sun both perfectly fit the first day of the week for us because the first day of the week started at sun set Sat ur day eve ning and ends sun set Sunday eve ning. John wrote that when Mary came to the tomb it was yet dark, and the other gos pel writ ers wrote it was as it began to dawn or at the ris ing of the sun. That is no contradiction, if we care fully see what each of them wrote. 6. The annual Sabbath that began the night after Jesus was crucified was Unleavened Bread. Vol. 22, No

18 John men tions only one per son, Mary, com ing to the tomb: The first day of the week com eth Mary Mag da lene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sep ul chre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sep ul chre. (John 20:1) Mat thew men tions two peo ple: In the end of the sab bath, as it be gan to dawn to ward the first day of the week, came Mary Mag da lene and the other Mary to see the sep ul chre. (Mat thew 28:1) Mark men tions three peo ple: And when the sab bath was past, Mary Mag da lene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. (Mark 16:1) Luke men tions more than three peo ple: It was Mary Mag da lene, and Joanna, and Mary the mother of James, and other women that were with them, which told these things unto the apos tles. (Luke 24:10) Now were there one, two, three, or more than three women at the tomb? The answer is they all did not come there as the same time. They were not all stay ing in the same house. They would all come from dif fer ent direc tions and meet at the tomb. Putt ing all the records together, we can con clude Mary Mag da lene came first, while it was yet dark, Mary the mother of James joined Mary Mag da lene when it began to dawn, and Salome joined the two Marys at the ris ing of the sun. Here is a con fir ma tion, from the pen of inspi ra tion, of the order of events as we have just seen it from the Bible itself: The Sab bath was past, and Mary Mag da lene came early in the morn ing, when it was yet dark, unto the sep ul cher. Other women were to meet her there, but Mary was the first at the sep ul cher. (Christ Tri um phant, p 284) Mark also con firms that Jesus appeared to Mary first, for she was the first one to come at the tomb. Now when Je sus was risen early the first day of the week, he ap peared first to Mary Mag da lene. (Mark 16:9) So, you see, for the lunar Sabbatarians there is some dis - crep ancy in the Gos pel Accounts, but for us there is a per fect and har mo ni ous gos pel account of the res ur rec tion of our Lord that took place on the first day of the week, even while it was yet dark before sun rise, and that shows a new day is reck oned, not at sun rise, but at sun set. Talk ing about the tim ing of the res ur rec tion, the pen of inspi ra tion records: The night of the first day of the week had worn slowly away. The dark est hour, just before daybreak, had come (The Desire of Ages, p. 779). In the above quo ta tion the pen of inspi ra tion puts the night of the first day of the week before the day of the first day of the week. At the bright est hour of the day, there was dark ness at the cross. Now at the dark est hour of the night, there was bright ness, at the tomb, when the angels of light and glory descended! The Night Be longed to Which Day? We have seen that the night comes first, then comes the day in God s reck on ing of time. The bib li cal time is impor tant to us when it comes to the sacred hours; oth er wise, it does n t really mat ter to us as to which comes first night or day. God s peo ple were under dif fer ent for eign rules from time to time the Egyp tians, the Assyrians, the Bab y lo nians, the Medo-Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, etc. As they were liv ing in dif fer ent influ ences and cul tures, it was nat u ral for them to com mu ni cate daily in the most nat u ral way to them. For exam ple, though we all believe in the bib li cal time-reck on ing, how do we speak today in ref er ence to time? When I ask you about the tim ing of your break fast, lunch, and sup per, you will answer me in today s man ner of speak ing. For exam ple, break fast at 8 a.m., lunch at 1 p.m. and supper at 7 p.m. But this is incor rect as far as the bib li cal reck on ing of time goes 8 a.m. is eight hours after mid night (the Roman reck on ing of a new day is at 12 mid night), 1 p.m. is thir teen hours after the new day began, and 7 p.m. is nineteen hours after the new day began. God s time of reck on ing would be break fast at the sec ond hour (after sun rise, if sun rise was at 6 a.m.), lunch at the seventh hour (after sun rise at 6 a.m.), and sup per at the first hour of the night (after sun set). The lunar Sabbatarians think that the hours in the Bible are only the twelve hours of the day from sun rise, while the nights are not defined by hours, but by an alto gether dif fer ent sys tem of mea sure ment known as the four watches. (Ker rie L. French, - cles/three_months/3_02_the_moun tain.html). But the Bible talks about the hours of the night as well: And he called unto him two cen tu ri ons, say ing, Make ready two hun dred sol diers to go to Caesarea, and horsemen threescore and ten, and spearmen two hun dred, at the third hour of the night. (Acts 23:23) Are we wrong in using the Roman reck on ing of time in our daily speeches? No! The Bible uses it as well. When was Jesus cru ci fied? Mark says it was the third hour. And it was the third hour, and they cru ci fied him. (Mark 15:25) That is the Jew ish method of cal cu lat ing time (3rd hour from sun rise 9 a.m. our time). But look at how the Apos tle John writes: And it was the prep a ra tion of the pass over, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Be hold your King! But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, cru cify him. Pi late saith unto them, Shall I cru cify your King? The chief priests an swered, We have no king but Caesar. Then de liv ered he him there fore unto them to be Old Paths November 2013

19 cru ci fied. And they took Je sus, and led him away. (John 19:14 16) Sixth hour Jew ish time would be twelve noon for us. But we know that Jesus was cru ci fied at the 3rd hour 9 a.m. our time. John was using the Roman method of cal cu la tion here. At twelve mid night a new day begins in the Roman reck on ing, and the sixth hour would be 6 a.m. It is not that John always used the Roman time-reck on ing; he mixed both. In chap ter 4 we see John using the Jew ish time-reck on ing: Now Ja cob s well was there. Je sus there fore, be ing wea ried with his jour ney, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. (John 4:6) That is Twelve Noon When the Bible says tonight or this night as in Exo dus 12, or tomor row or mor row as in the giv ing of the manna in ref er ence to the morn ing hours, or yesternight as in the case of Lot s story, it is the most nat u ral way of say ing it. We who also honor the bib li cal holy hours speak the same way. And don t for get the Isra el ites were used to speak ing in the Egyp tian reck on ing of time when they came out of Egypt, as we are used to speak ing in the Roman reck on ing of time even today being under the Roman influ ence as far as the daily man ner of speak ing goes in ref er ence to time. Pliny, the great Roman author of the first cen tury, gives us details of how dif fer ent peo ple and nations reck oned time: The Bab y lo nians count the pe riod be tween two sunrises, the Athe nians that be tween two sun sets, the Umbrians from mid day to mid day, the com mon peo ple everywhere from dawn to dark, the Ro man priests and the au thor i ties who fixed the of fi cial day, and also the Egyptians and Hipparchus, the pe riod from mid night to mid night. (Pliny, Nat u ral His tory bk. 2, ch. 79, p. 188, as cited by Jack Finegan in Hand book of Bib li cal Chro nol - ogy, p. 8 and by Rob ert L. Odom in Sunday in Ro man Pa gan ism, p. 215) So to make a new doc trine based on pas sages that refer to the com mon way of speak ing is to make unsound doc trine. Would any one like to make a new doc trine that Jesus was cru ci fied twice; because Mark says he was cru ci fied at the third hour and John says he was still in Pilate s hall the sixth hour the same day? Paul cau tions us of such kinds of decep tions: That we hence forth be no more chil dren, tossed to and fro, and car ried about with ev ery wind of doc trine, by the sleight of men, and cun ning craft i ness, whereby they lie in wait to de ceive. (Ephe sians 4:14) But have re nounced the hid den things of dis hon esty, not walk ing in craft i ness, nor han dling the word of God deceitfully; but by man i fes ta tion of the truth com mend ing our selves to ev ery man s con science in the sight of God. (2 Co rin thi ans 4:2) The truth is crys tal clear for all who want to see it. The holy hours of the Sab bath are twenty four hours. The bib li cal Sab bath day is from sun set to sun set. From even unto even, shall ye cel e brate your sab bath. (Le vit i cus 23:32) CHAPTER 3 TWO OR THREE CATEGORIES OF DAYS? If there are three cat e go ries of days new moon days, six work days, and Sab bath days then the pos si bil ity of Sabbaths being fixed on the eighth, the fif teenth, the twenty-sec ond, and the twenty-ninth of every lunar month is feasible. But if there are only two cat e go ries of days (six work days and the sev enth-day Sab bath), then the lunar Sab bath the ory falls apart! The lunar Sabbatarians say that there are three dis tinct categories of days. They quote Ezekiel 46:1: 7 Thus saith the Lord GOD; The gate of the in ner court that looketh to ward the east shall be shut the six work ing days; but on the sab bath it shall be opened, and in the day of the new moon it shall be opened. Their argu ment goes like this: What hap pens if new moon falls on a Tues day (on man s cal en dar)? Is the gate open or shut? There is no right an swer. The so lu tion is that the new moon never falls on a work day be cause it is not a work day. It is a third cat e gory of day. The gate is closed on all six work days.... Do the math you will dis cover that there are three seperate cat e go ries of days in YHWH s calendar: new moon days, work days, and Sab baths. Since Scrip ture in - di cates that these days can not take place at the same time, do not over lap or share the same space, then we need to re - work our un der stand ing of the cal en dar. (Troy Miller, Three Dis tinct Cat e go ries of Days, pp. 1, 2; ac cessed at ategoriesdays.pdf; ac cessed on ; em pha sis in orig i nal) Their argu ment may sound log i cal. If the new moon falls on Tues day (or on any of the work days of the week) in our cal en dar and if we open the gate because it is new moon, then we are vio lat ing the other part of it which says the gate has to be closed on the six work ing days. The same is true the other way around. If we close it because Tues day is a work day, 7. It is not safe to try to build a theology or doctrine upon this section of Ezekiel, concerning a temple which was never built and services which were never performed. This section of scripture, though not to be disregarded, should not be used to determine type and antitype. Vol. 22, No

20 then we are vio lat ing the other instruc tion to open it on new moon days. If the new moon day is a third cat e gory of a day, the problem is solved because then it will never over lap, then the com mand in Ezekiel can always be obeyed, and then all the dates of the months are fixed per ma nently to the day of the week the first is new moon; the eighth, the fif teenth, the twenty-sec ond, and the twenty-ninth are Sab baths; and the rest of the days in the month are work days. Let s In ves ti gate Based on the three great accounts of the Bible on the categories of days in Gen e sis and Exo dus, the foun da tional books of the Bible, we find only two cat e go ries of days and not three. The Gen e sis account of cre ation has six work days and the Sab bath day. And God blessed the sev enth day, and sanc ti fied it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God cre ated and made. (Gen e sis 2:3) There are only 2 cat e go ries of days six work days and the sev enth-day Sab bath. In the Exo dus account when God was feed ing his peo ple mirac u lously for forty years with manna from heaven, God rec og nized only two cat e go ries of days: Six days ye shall gather it; but on the sev enth day, which is the sab bath, in it there shall be none. (Ex o dus 16:26) Again at the giv ing of the law, we see only two cat e go ries of days the same two cat e go ries six work days and one rest day. Six days shalt thou la bour, and do all thy work: But the sev enth day is the sab bath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work. (Ex o dus 20:9, 10). Based on these three foun da tional accounts of scrip tural cat e go ries of days, there can not be another cat e gory of day. Every other spe cial day has to fall on either the six work ing days or on the sev enth-day Sab bath. To the lunar Sabbatarians ques tion on what has to be done when the new moon falls on a work day should the gate of the tem ple be opened or shut our answer is open the gate because it is a new moon day. If the new moon is a wor ship day, then it supersedes the work day. Here is their ques tion back to them. Let s look at the Day of Atone ment: Also on the tenth day of this sev enth month there shall be a day of atone ment: it shall be an holy con vo ca tion unto you And ye shall do no work in that same day: It shall be unto you a sab bath of rest. (Le vit i cus 23:27, 28, 32) Accord ing to the lunar Sabbatarians, the eighth day is a Sab bath on any month; so the tenth is the sec ond day of the work week. Do you work on the Day of Atone ment, for it is the sec ond day of the work week and accord ing to the ten-com mand ment law, six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, or do you rest accord ing to Levit i cus 23:28? To solve this do the lunar Sabbatarians want to have a fourth cat e gory of days? And maybe they should have a fifth cat e gory of days, as well, because the final day of the Feast of Unleav ened Bread, which falls on the twenty-first of the first month (the sixth work day of the week accord ing to the fixed lunar cal en dar), is also a day of rest. Do you rest or work? is our ques tion to them. What ever their answer will be to our ques tion, the same will be our answer to their ques tion on Ezekiel 46:1 as to whether the gate should be opened or closed if the new moon falls on a week day! If Ezekiel 46 is taken to prove there are three cat e go ries of days, based on the same method of cal cu la tion, then Leviticus 23 has five cat e go ries of days! They need to re-invent the so-called Bib li cal Cal en dar. I won t be surprised to see another group com ing up with a totally different cal en dar soon, call ing it the The Real Bib li cal Calendar! So you see how the lunar Sabbatarians have twisted the word of God to suit their own scheme of things. Another text the lunar Sabbatarians keep using to prove that there are three cat e go ries of days is found in 2 Kings. When the Shunammite woman wanted to meet Elisha the prophet, her hus band asked her, Where fore wilt thou go to him to day? it is nei ther new moon, nor sab bath. And she said, It shall be well (2 Kings 4:23). The lunar sabbatarians say: It was dur ing a work day that the Shunammite woman s hus band asked (Troy Miller, Three Dis tinct Cat e go ries of Days, p. 2; accessed at, egoriesdays.pdf on ) The text of 2 Kings proves noth ing about three cat e go ries of days. Even in the pres ent Gre go rian cal en dar, the above text per fectly fits. Let us assume: If the new moon is on the elev enth of a particular month in the Gre go rian cal en dar, and the Sab bath is on the four teenth, the woman going to meet Eli jah on the ninth per fectly fits! The ninth (Mon day) is not the new moon (the eleventh Wednes day), nor the Sab bath (the fourteenth Sat ur day). You don t need to have their luni-solar cal en dar to make the text of Sec ond Kings fit. It fits per fectly in the pres ent Gre go rian cal en dar, as well! Are All New Moon Days Non-Commerce Days? Another text the lunar Sabbatarians keep using to prove that there are three cat e go ries of days is this text in Amos: Say ing, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sab bath, that we may set forth wheat. (Amos 8:5) Old Paths November 2013

21 Again this text per fectly fits in our Gre go rian cal en dar, as well, the same way the Shunammite woman s story of Sec - ond Kings fits. The lunar Sabbatarians assume that they believe the new moon is a non-com merce day always, based on this text. That s the way they can have a third cat e gory of a day. The New Moon is not a weekly Sab bath; a new moon day is a non-com merce day; a com merce day is not a wor - ship day. The Sab bath and new moons are wor ship days. (Troy Miller, Three Dis tinct Cat e go ries of Days, p. 2; oriesdays.pdf; ac cessed on ) Scrip ture re veals that New Moons, like the sev enth-day Sab bath, are wor ship days.... Ezekiel 46:1 places New Moons to gether with the sev - enth-day Sab bath, as op posed to the other six work ing days the work ab stained from on New Moons, is linked to the same re straint from work on the sev enth-day Sab baths.... If work were al lowed on New Moons, the backslidden peo - ple would not have been long ing for the days of wor ship to be over so that they could go back to their buy ing and sell ing. ( Can we work on New Moon day?; ac cessed on at The lunar Sabbatarians are clear that new moon is not a work day; it is a wor ship day like the Sab bath. The fact is that the Bible talks about only one new moon as a spe cial day of rest among the twelve months of the year: Speak unto the chil dren of Is rael, say ing, In the sev enth month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sab - bath, a me mo rial of blow ing of trum pets, an holy con vo ca tion. Ye shall do no ser vile work therein: but ye shall of fer an of fer ing made by fire unto the LORD. (Le vit i - cus 23:24, 25) If all new moons were rest days, holy con vo ca tion days, like the Sab bath, then what sense does it make for God to spec ify all these details? Every first day of the month they would nat u rally be doing all this no work ing, rest ing, etc. It is abun dantly clear from sev eral pas sages of scrip ture that God s holy men never con sid ered all new moon days as wor ship days, where rest was com manded. Con sider Ezra the great scribe of God. He trav eled from Bab y lon to Jeru sa lem. When did he start his jour ney and when did he reach his des ti na tion? For upon the first day of the first month be gan he to go up from Bab y lon, and on the first day of the fifth month came he to Je ru sa lem, ac cord ing to the good hand of his God upon him. (Ezra 7:9) Why would the good hand of God lead him to start and arrive on the new moon day if the new moon was strictly a wor ship day? Trav el ing long dis tance, from one coun try to another, is not wor ship, but work! God clearly com manded that no work was to be done on the Sab bath while build ing the Sanc tu ary, even though it was the Lord s taber na cle that was being built! How sacred is the day of wor ship and rest! Six days shall work be done, but on the sev enth day there shall be to you an holy day, a sab bath of rest to the LORD: who so ever doeth work therein shall be put to death. (Ex o dus 35:2) The same Lord instructed Moses when to start build ing and set ting up the sanc tu ary: And the LORD spake unto Mo ses, say ing, On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the ta ber na cle of the tent of the con gre ga tion. (Ex o dus 40:1) Surely the new moon (first of every month) was not a rest day like the Sab bath. It was like a nor mal day of work. Also, look when they fin ished the work in the set ting up of the tem ple. Again, it was on the new moon, the first of the month! And it came to pass in the first month in the sec ond year, on the first day of the month, that the ta ber na cle was reared up. (Ex o dus 40:17) From Scrip ture we see only one new moon day was a day of rest the sev enth month, because that day was the feast day of Trum pets. So, the text of Amos 8:5 of no sell ing on the new moon was a ref er ence to the sev enth-month new moon and not to all new moon days. Theo lo gians from other churches also under stand that there is no com mand that every new moon was to be a holy and rest day. Dr. Adam Clarke, the Meth od ist Bible com men - ta tor, com ments on this text of Amos 8:5: When will the new moon be gone This was kept as a kind of holy day, not by Divine com mand, but by cus tom. The Sab bath was strictly holy. 8 The New Moon and Sab bath of Isa iah 66 The lunar Sabbatarians always quote Isa iah 66:23, as well, to prove that new moon is the third cat e gory of a day. For as the new heav ens and the new earth, which I will make And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to an other, and from one sab bath to an other, shall all flesh come to wor ship be fore me, saith the LORD. (Isa iah 66: 22, 23) This pas sage in no way indi cates that there are three cat e - go ries of days. Because new moon and Sab baths are listed sep a rately does n t mean the new moon and Sab bath can t 8. Dr. Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible, Old and New Tes ta ments, A Com men tary and Crit i cal Notes, vol. 4, p. 690 Vol. 22, No

22 over lap. If list ing it sep a rately means they are dif fer ent cat e - go ries of days, then what about Colossians 2:16? Let no man there fore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in re spect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days. (Colossians 2:16) Here, apart from new moon and Sab baths, holyday is men tioned, as well. So accord ing to this faulty rea son ing, there would be four cat e go ries of days work days, new moon, Sab bath day, and holydays. In the city of God there is the tree of life right in front of God s throne. That tree yields its fruit, every month (or every new moon): And he shewed me a pure river of wa ter of life, clear as crys tal, pro ceed ing out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on ei ther side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve man - ner of fruits, and yielded her fruit ev ery month: and the leaves of the tree were for the heal ing of the na tions. (Revelation 22:1, 2) That is the rea son we come before God s pres ence in the new earth on the new moon, not because it is a sep a rate category of a day but because on that day we will be eat ing of the tree of life! The Cre ation Ac count We know that in the Gen e sis cre ation account there are only six work days and a Sab bath day. Look at what the lunar Sabbatarians say about it: Now in Gen e sis chap ter one is the ac count of cre ation week where we also find the six work ing days, the sab bath and the new moon day. New moon day would have to be that day be fore the first day of the week as there are no other types of days left to choose from in scrip ture. So from this bit of in for ma tion ex tracted from scrip ture we find that we start off with the new moon day then the six work ing days end ing with the sab bath. New moon day is not a week day but is the first day of the month. ( Mes siah set tles the is sue for ever ; ar ti cle no lon ger available online) You can not find a greater twist than this! There are only seven days men tioned by God in the Gen e sis account of creation. Where does it say there are eight days? There as six work ing days and one Sab bath day. There is no new moon day men tioned at all. Truth is never assumed; it is never spec u lated upon. These peo ple are spec u lat ing and imag in ing it. We all know from the account of scrip ture that the moon was intro duced only on day four 9, yet the lunar Sabbatarians are see ing a new moon in Gen e sis 1:1, 2 because they need to find three cat e go ries of days some how in this most foundational pas sage of scrip ture. Here is the new moon for them: In the be gin ning God cre ated the heaven and the earth. And the earth was with out form, and void; and dark ness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the wa ters. (Gen e sis 1:1, 2) For them, the phrase God cre ated the heaven means God cre ated the sun, moon and stars in the sky before day one. Ob vi ously, there were many things cre ated prior to day one when light was cre ated. What was the first thing created (as far as mam [sic] is con cerned)? The heav ens and the earth! on this un-num bered cre ation event Yah put into place all the ma te rial He would need, then He advanced upon this ma te rial for six days be fore He rested. (Troy Miller, The Moon Reg u lates the Weekly Sab bath, p. 6; ac cessed on at 672/The_Moon_Reg u lates_the_weekly_sab - bath_-_as_proved_by_the_cre ation_ac count_in_gen e sis_1_-_are_you_sur prised.doc.pdf; em pha sis in orig i - nal) Since the new moon is dark, the dark ness of Gen e sis 1:2 is the new moon that was cre ated, accord ing to them. Some oth ers believe that the dark ness of Gen e sis 1:2 was the devil, as the devil is the prince of dark ness. God never said that it was the devil or the new moon in Gen e sis 1:2. Truth is never based on spec u la tions. Look ing at what God declared and wrote on Sinai, we come to know God never included the period before day one into His reck on ing of time for us: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the sev enth day: where fore the LORD blessed the sab bath day, and hallowed it. (Ex o dus 20:11) If God included Gen e sis 1:1, 2 as part of the reck on ing of time, as the lunar Sabbatarians do (for cre at ing heaven and earth is work as well), then He should have said in seven days God made heaven and earth and rested on the eighth day. The period before the first day account of Gen e sis can not be the new moon because: a) The Scrip tures are silent on this, tell ing us the moon was cre ated on the fourth day and not on the first day. b) If the un-illu mi nated sun, moon and stars were created dur ing that period, God s word should say that and it does n t. (Rather the lunar Sabbatarians are say ing it six thou sand years later!) c) We know that a new moon day has the same length of time, twenty-four hours, in today s cal en dar. If that period was the new moon, it should be twenty-four hours like the rest of the days of the Gen e sis cre ation account. Then why do they keep empha siz ing it is an un-num bered cre ation event? 9. Gen e sis 1: We shall inves ti gate this pas sage in detail under the topic Does the Moon Reg u late the Weekly Sab baths? Old Paths November 2013

23 d) If the new moon was cre ated prior to day one, God should have named his first work period of cre ation as day one and the Sab bath as day eight of cre ation. e) When God is not count ing that period, who are we to count it? When God says in the cre ation account that only six days are counted and then the Sab bath arrives, why are they count ing some thing that God does n t count? Let me illus trate how ridic u lous their cal cu la tion is: We know Jacob had seven chil dren through Leah six boys and a girl (like the six work days and the Sab bath). For us it is no con fu sion as to how many chil dren Jacob bore through Leah, but with the lunar Sabbatarian s ridic u lous method of cal cu - la tions Jacob would have had eight six boys and two girls. And you may want to ask them how, and from where did they get that extra per son? They would then say, did you for get to count the first lady, Leah, whom he mar ried in the dark ness (like Gen e sis 1:2 dark ness) before the kids were born? But the fact is we don t count Leah even though she was a part of Jacob s fam ily. We are just count ing the chil dren of Jacob through Leah and that is six sons and one daugh ter. The same way in the cre ation account God says he has six work days and one Sab bath day. Who are we to put in that extra period of time and to make it a total of eight days? We shall deal more on the folly of their inter pre ta tion of Gen e sis 1:2 in a future chap ter. We have inves ti gated and seen that there are not three cat e - go ries of days at all in scrip ture; there are only two cat e go ries of days the six work days and the sev enth-day Sab bath. All other days new moon days, yearly Sab bath days, and feast days fall either on the six work days of the week or on the sev enth-day Sab bath. To be con tin ued Set Thine Heart to Un der stand con tin ued from p. 9 This acquirement of spir i tual knowl edge begins small, just as our phys i cal brains began small: By the sec ond month of pre na tal life, a sim ple cyl in der of nerve cells forms in the cen ter of the grow ing embryo. From this hol low tube the human brain grows at the incred i ble speed of a quar ter mil lion cells a min ute, going from zero to one hun dred billion cells at birth (Devra Davis, Dis con nect, p. 5). We are liv ing in the last days and if we expect to spir i tu ally stand amid the onslaughts of Satan just before Jesus returns, our minds must be thor oughly grounded in the word of God: Only those who have been diligent students of the Scrip tures and who have re ceived the love of the truth will be shielded from the pow er ful de lu sion that takes the world cap tive. By the Bi ble tes ti - mony these will de tect the de ceiver in his dis guise. To all the test ing time will come. By the sift ing of temp ta tion the gen u ine Chris tian will be re vealed. Are the peo ple of God now so firmly es tab lished upon His word that they would not yield to the ev i dence of their senses? Would they, in such a cri sis, cling to the Bi ble and the Bi ble only? Sa tan will, if pos si ble, pre vent them from ob tain ing a prep a ra tion to stand in that day. He will so ar range af fairs as to hedge up their way, en tan gle them with earthly trea sures, cause them to carry a heavy, wea ri some bur den, that their hearts may be over charged with the cares of this life and the day of trial may come upon them as a thief. (White, The Great Controversy, p. 625) A new kind of bib li cal stu dent is needed for these last days. We have always had schol ars through out the cen tu ries who have deeply researched God s word, but they have been the The brain excep tion. Today, how ever, every one of us needs to be a biblical stu dent who focuses, first and fore most, on that deep, dil i gent search ing that offers pro tec tion from the deceiver and that pro motes a trust in God, to the point that we auto mat i cally cling to the Bible and the Bible only dur ing times of spir i tual dis cour age ment and of wide spread delu sion. In the rev er ent con tem pla tion of the truths pre sented in His Word the mind of the stu dent is brought into com mu nion with the in fi nite mind. Such a study will not only re fine and en no ble the char ac ter, but it can not fail to expand and in vig o rate the men tal pow ers. (White, Pa tri archs and Proph ets, p. 596) Dr. Segev states that the new neu ro sci ence stu dent needs to develop an sub stan tial under stand ing of the ory, phys ics, mathematics, com puter sci ence, engineering, dis ease, anat omy, and the cir cuitry of the brain in order to ade quately par tic i pate in brain research. In like man ner, the ardent stu dent of God s word needs a sub stan tial under stand ing of the great themes of the Bible, the great doctrines that God has gra ciously given us, in order to successively par tic i pate in the big-bang end ing of the great con tro versy. You and I are fac ing that very day, so let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so eas ily beset us (Hebrews 12:1), and let us plant the truths of the Bible deeply into our minds, so that we can not be moved. Those who en deavor to obey all the com mand ments of God will be op posed and de rided. They can stand only in God. In or der to en dure the trial be fore them, they must un der stand the will of God as re vealed in His word; they can honor Him only as they have a right con cep tion of His char ac ter, gov ern ment, and pur poses, and act in ac cor - Vol. 22, No

24 YouTube Chan nel: We are work ing on get ting more vid eos ready, includ ing our series on the incar na tion. We have ser mons and inter est ing sci ence les sons that teach biblical les sons, includ ing the lat est video on polymers. Our URL is: - ture=results_main. Avail able at: Tasty Rec ipe: Ukrai nian Lentil Soup Ingre di ents: 3 big pota toes 3 4 quarts of water 1 car rot 1½ cups of dry len tils or rice 1 medium onion (chopped) Sea son ings to taste, such as bay leaf, onion and gar lic pow ders, and basil Cut pota toes, onion, and car rot and boil together with len - tils. After these are cooked, add sea son ings. Set Thine Heart to Un der stand con tin ued from p. 23 dance with them. None but those who have for ti fied the mind with the truths of the Bi ble will stand through the last great con flict. To ev ery soul will come the search ing test: Shall I obey God rather than men? The de ci sive hour is even now at hand. Are our feet planted on the rock of God s im mu ta ble word? Are we pre pared to stand firm in de fense of the com mand ments of God and the faith of Jesus? (The Great Controversy, p. 593) The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our chil dren for ever, that we may do all the words of this law (Deu ter on omy 29:29).While the secret things belong only to God, great and deep things have been given to God s people, and a sys tem - atic sci en tific-type study of the truths of the Bible will reveal the deep things that God wills man to under stand. In order to do this, how ever, our phys i cal brains need to be in good health. That means we feed them prop - Brain neurons erly with good food and with the trea sures of nature: We may en joy the fruits, the veg e ta bles, the grains, with out doing vi o lence to the laws of our being. These articles, pre pared in the most sim ple and nat u ral man ner, will nour ish the body, and preserve its nat u ral vigor... (El len White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, p. 50) The things of na ture are God s bless ings, pro vided to give health to body, mind, and soul. They are given to the well to keep them well and to the sick to make them well.... Na ture is God s phy si cian. The pure air, the glad sun - shine, the beau ti ful flow ers and trees, the or chards and vine yards, and out door ex er cise amid these sur round ings, are health-giv ing the elixir of life. (Ibid., vol. 7, p. 76) May we treat our brains smartly, and may we also use them dil i gently to search God s word as for hid den trea sure. Onycha Holt Old Paths is a free monthly news let ter/study pa per pub lished by Smyrna Gospel Ministries, HC 64 Box 128 B, Welch, WV U. S. A. The pa per is ded i cated to the prop a ga tion and res to ra tion of the prin ci ples of truth that God gave to the early Sev enth-day Ad ven tist pi o neers. Duplica tion is not only per mit ted, but strongly en cour aged. This is sue, with other gos pel lit er a ture we pub lish, can be found at our website. The url is: Phone: (304) Fax: (304) Sis ters Ira and Veolieta en joy this tasty soup. Ed i tor...allen Stump ed i tor@smyrna.org As so ci ate Ed i tor...onycha Holt onycha@smyrna.org Old Paths November 2013