Vol. 22, No.10 Straight and Nar row Oc to ber 2013

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.10 Straight and Nar row Oc to ber 2013 Let him [the father] point them [his children] to the beautiful flowers, the lofty trees, in whose very leaves they can trace the work and love of God. He should teach them that the God who made all these things loves the beautiful and the good. (The Adventist Home, p. 222)

2 On April 14, 2003, research ers announced that the Human Genome Pro ject had com pleted a high-qual ity sequence of essen tially the entire human genome. Today you can buy the Geno 2.0 Genographic Pro ject Par tic i pa tion and DNA Ances try Kit from the National Geo graphic Soci ety, and your DNA will be ana lyzed so that you can sup pos edly know your ances tors. The Mor mon website, gene al ogy.com, adver tises to build your fam ily tree and search the world s larg est online fam ily his tory resource for fam ily sto ries. It is not wrong to desire to know your gene al ogy. The Bible speaks a great deal about gene al ogy. Argu ably the great est sci en tist of all time, Isaac New ton, was a stu dent of biblical gene al ogy and chro nol ogy and wrote more on the Bible than he did on math and sci ence. While the Bible gives a selected gene al ogy of all the twelve tribes of Israel, it spe cif i cally deals with the gene al - ogy of our Lord Jesus Christ. The first sev en teen verses of Mat thew and the sec ond half of Luke 3 deal with Christ s earthly gene al ogy. We have been told: The story of Beth le hem is an ex haust less theme. In it is hid den the depth of the riches both of the wis dom and knowl edge of God. Romans 11:33. We mar vel at the Sav - iour s sac ri fice in ex chang ing the throne of heaven for the man ger, and the com pan ion ship of ador ing an gels for the beasts of the stall. Hu man pride and self-suf fi ciency stand re buked in His pres ence. Yet this was but the be gin ning of His won der ful con de scen sion. It would have been an al - most in fi nite hu mil i a tion for the Son of God to take man s na ture, even when Adam stood in his in no cence in Eden. But Je sus ac cepted hu man ity when the race had been weak ened by four thou sand years of sin. Like ev ery child of Adam He ac cepted the re sults of the work ing of the great law of he red ity. What these re sults were is shown in the his tory of His earthly an ces tors. He came with such a he - red ity to share our sor rows and temp ta tions, and to give us the ex am ple of a sin less life. (El len G. White, The De sire of Ages, pp. 48, 49; all em pha sis in this ar ti cle sup plied un - less oth er wise noted) A Total Saviour When peo ple dis cuss their gene al ogy, they like to note the famous and nota ble peo ple in their her i tage. It is inter est ing to note, how ever, some of the cast of char ac ters that are in the line of Jesus Christ s gene al ogy. Notice this illus tri ous list: Ja cob: Mat thew 1:2 Ja cob means sup planter or de - ceiver. He cheated his brother Esau out of the birth right bless ing. Thamar: Mat thew 1:3 De ceived Ju dah and played the role of a pros ti tute Rachab: Mat thew 1:5 A Canaanite pros ti tute Ruth: Mat thew 1:5 A Moabitess Da vid: Mat thew 1:6 A murderer, liar, and adul terer Manasses: Mat thew 1:10 Wicked be yond mea sure (2 Kings 21:1 9) Of unique inter est is the name Jacob. Jacob over came and was named Israel and over two hundrd times in Scrip ture, Yahweh calls him self the God of Israel. Yet, he also calls him self the God of Jacob twenty-five times. For exam ple, in Psalm 20:1, we read: The LORD hear thee in the day of trou ble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee. Thus God shows that he is will ing to asso ci ate his holy name with the name of a sin ner and be his or her help. Help is cer tainly what the sin ner needs, for we are told: Be cause the car nal mind is en mity against God: for it is not sub ject to the law of God, nei ther in deed can be. So then they that are in the flesh can not please God. (Romans 8:7, 8) The car nal or fleshly mind (spirit) is not sub ject to the law of God, and it is so depraved that it can not be sub ject to God s law. Unaided, man can not live a righ teous life and please God: In our own strength it is im pos si ble for us to deny the clam ors of our fallen na ture. Through this chan nel Sa tan will bring temp ta tion upon us. Christ knew that the en emy would come to ev ery hu man be ing, to take ad van tage of he red i tary weak ness, and by his false in sin u a tions to en - snare all whose trust is not in God. And by pass ing over the Old Paths October 2013

3 ground which man must travel, our Lord has pre pared the way for us to over come. (The De sire of Ages, pp. 122, 123) Of course, the Father and his Son well under stood the plight of man, and Jesus came to walk in the same path that man must walk to be able to pre pare a way for sin ful man to cease to be sin ful and to over come sin and to live in har mony with the law of God. The Early Years Scrip ture shares very lit tle on the early life of Jesus. The Spirit of Proph ecy calls this period the hid den years (Ellen White, Tes ti mo nies on Sab bath School Work, p. 105). The Bible tells us that the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wis dom: and the grace of God was upon him (Luke 2:40). This text tells us that he grew. This means that in some real, con crete man ner, Jesus matured and devel oped. Luke 2:52 says that Jesus increased in wis dom and stat ure, and in favour with God and man. Jesus not only grew in stat - ure, or phys i cally, but he grew and increased in wis dom. If Jesus came to this earth omni scient, then he could not have increased in wis dom, for to be omni scient means that one already has all the knowl edge of the uni verse. Ellen White draws back the cur tain on the hid den years some, though, and tells us: This re cord of the child hood and youth of Je sus is to be an en cour age ment to all chil dren and youth. Je sus is the per fect pat tern, and it is the duty and priv i lege of ev ery child and youth to copy the pat tern. Let chil dren bear in mind that the child Je sus had taken upon him self hu man na ture, and was in the like ness of sin ful flesh, and was tempted of Sa tan as all chil dren are tempted. He was able to re sist the temp ta tions of Sa tan through his de pend ence upon the di vine power of his heav enly Fa ther, as he was sub ject to his will, and obe di ent to all his com mands. He kept his fa ther s stat utes, pre cepts, and laws. He was con tin - u ally seek ing coun sel of God, and was obe di ent to his will. (Ellen White, The Youth s Instructor, Au gust 23, 1894) Here we are told that Jesus is the per fect pat tern. A pat tern is used so that some thing can be repro duced in the same fash - ion. While Jesus is our sub sti tute, he is also clearly our per fect exam ple, even the per fect exam ple for chil dren. His vic tory over sin was accom plished by his depend ence upon the divine power of his heav enly Father. He did not depend upon divine power within him self. That would not help me. I nat u rally have no divine power within me to draw upon in my bat tle with sin. If Jesus had access to some thing I cannot access, then how can I over come as he over came? Writ ing to her nephew, Frank E. Belden, Ellen White explained the near ness of Jesus Christ to human ity: He was made like unto His breth ren (He brews 2:17). He felt both joy and grief as they feel. His body was sus - cep ti ble to wea ri ness, as yours. His mind, like yours, could be ha rassed and per plexed. If you have hard ships, so had He. If you have con flicts, so had He. If you need en cour - age ment, so did He. Sa tan could tempt Him. His en e mies could an noy Him. The rul ing pow ers could tor ture His body; the sol diers could cru cify Him; and they can do no more to us. Je sus was ex posed to hard ships, to con flict and temp ta tion, as a man. He be came the Cap tain of our Sal va - tion through suf fer ing. He could bear His bur den better than we, for He bore it with out com plaint, with out im pa - tience, with out un be lief, with out re pin ing; but this is no ev i dence He felt it less than any of the suf fer ing sons of Adam. 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. (Manu script Re leases, vol. 20, p. 72) The Temptations No per son has ever been tempted more than, or as severely as, Jesus was. It is not a sin to be tempted. James tells us, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God can not be tempted with evil, nei ther tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed (James 1:13, 14). It is not a sin to be tempted, but it is a sin to give into temp ta tions. Often when we think of temp ta tion, we think of the devil and his imps encour ag ing us to do wrong things, but this text teaches us that we do not need a devil or any one else in order to be tempted. The draws of the flesh from within, our own lusts, entice us and nat u rally pull us away from God. Was this, how ever, also true for Jesus? Did he strug gle with the desires with which we suf fer? When Jesus was upon the cross, he cried out: Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou for saken me? (Mat thew 27:46). Was there mean ing in this for Jesus and for us, or was this just play-act ing? Paul writes and notes that we have not an high priest which can not be touched with the feel ing of our infir - mi ties; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet with out sin (Hebrews 4:15). If Jesus was not tempted from within as we are, but only from with out by Satan or his agents, how could Paul truly say that Jesus was tempted in all points like we are tempted? 1 The truth is that he can not! Un less there is a pos si bil ity of yield ing, temp ta tion is no temp ta tion. Temp ta tion is re sisted when man is pow er - fully in flu enced to do a wrong ac tion; and, know ing that he can do it, re sists, by faith, with a firm hold upon di vine power. This was the or deal through which Christ passed. He could not have been tempted in all points as man is tempted, had there been no pos si bil ity of his fail ing. He was a free agent, placed on pro ba tion, as was Adam, and as is ev ery man. (The Youth s In struc tor, July 20, 1899) 1. The expression all points in the Greek text is panta which is an adjective form of the Greek word pas which means all. There is no noun in the text for panta to modify; therefore, a word must be supplied. The thrust of the text is that Christ was tempted in all all ways, all points with nothing excluded! Vol. 22, No

4 Passions With temp ta tions that are within, the con cept of pas sions can not be left out. The lower pas sions have their seat in the body, and work through it. (El len White, Spalding and Magan Collection, p. 209) Our im pulses and pas sions have their seat in the body, and it must be kept in the best con di tion phys i cally and un - der the most spir i tual in flu ences in or der that our tal ents may be put to the high est use. (El len White, Christ s Ob - ject Les sons, p. 346) We all have to con tend with pas sions due to inher i tance. We, how ever, do not have to allow evil pas sions to con trol us. Why? Because through Jesus, we may over come our pas - sions as he over came. Did Jesus have to con tend with such pas sions? Yes, or he was not tempted as we are and could not be the total Sav iour. He lived as we may live: He knows how strong are the in cli na tions of the nat u ral heart, and He will help in ev ery time of temp ta tion. (El len White, Tes ti mo nies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 177) Ques tions and con cerns about the incar na tion of Jesus are not new. In Ellen White s time there were ques tions and erro - ne ous ideas: Let ters [plu ral] have been com ing in to me, af firm ing that Christ could not have had the same na ture as man, for if He had, He would have fallen un der sim i lar temp ta tions. If He did not have man s na ture, He could not be our ex am - ple. If He was not a par taker of our na ture, He could not have been tempted as man has been. If it were not pos si ble for Him to yield to temp ta tion, He could not be our helper. It was a sol emn re al ity that Christ came to fight the bat tles as man, in man s be half. His temp ta tion and vic tory tell us that hu man ity must copy the Pat tern; man must be come a par taker of the di vine na ture. (El len White, Selected Messages, bk. 1, p. 408) The vic tory gained was de signed, not only to set an ex - am ple to those who have fallen un der the power of ap pe tite, but to qual ify the Re deemer for his spe cial work of reach ing to the very depths of hu man woe. By experiencing in him - self the strength of Sa tan s temp ta tion, and of hu man suf fer ings and in fir mi ties, he would know how to suc cor those who should put forth ef forts to help them selves. (El len White, The Re view and Her ald, March 18, 1875) Man s plight has not always been so dis mal. When Adam first came from the hand of his Cre ator, all things were per - fect. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the eve ning and the morn ing were the sixth day (Gen e sis 1:31). When Adam was first cre ated, he could only be tempted from with out, for he had no bent from within to evil. After Adam sinned his nature was changed, and he then pos sessed a bent to evil. If Jesus was going to be tempted in all points as we are, then he must, too, be able to be tempted from both with out and within. The great work of re demp tion could be car ried out only by the Re deemer tak ing the place of fallen man. Bur dened with the sins of the world, he must go over the ground where Adam stum bled. He must take up the work just where Adam failed and en dure a test of the same char ac ter but in fi nitely more se vere than that which had van quished Adam. It is im pos si ble for man to fully com pre hend the strength of Sa tan s temp ta tions to our Sav iour. Ev ery en - tice ment to evil which men find so dif fi cult to re sist was brought to bear upon the Son of God in as much a greater de gree as to man as was his char ac ter su pe rior to that of fallen man. When Adam was as sailed by the tempter he was with out the taint of sin. He stood be fore God in the strength of per - fect man hood, all the or gans and fac ul ties of his be ing fully de vel oped and har mo ni ously bal anced; and he was sur rounded with things of beauty, and con versed daily with the holy an gels. What a con trast to this per fect be ing did the sec ond Adam pres ent, as he en tered the des o late wil der ness to cope with Sa tan, sin gle-handed. For four thou sand years the race had been de creas ing in size and phys i cal strength, and de te ri o rat ing in moral worth; and, in or der to el e vate fallen man, Christ must reach him where he stood. He as sumed hu man na ture, bear ing the in - fir mi ties and de gen er acy of the race. He hu mil i ated him self to the low est depths of hu man woe, that he might fully sym pa thize with man and res cue him from the deg ra - da tion into which sin had plunged him. (El len White, The Spirit of Proph ecy, vol. 2, p. 88) The fight against sin which Christ entered was no play or sham; it was real, and there was eter nal risk. In Isa iah s famous proph ecy the gov ern ment, we are told, would be upon his shoul der (Isa iah 9:6). This cer tainly was no earthly gov ern ment, but rather the gov ern ment of God;the sta bil ity of the whole uni verse was at stake. Sa tan in heaven had hated Christ for His po si tion in the courts of God. He hated Him the more when he him self was de throned. He hated Him who pledged Him self to re - deem a race of sin ners. Yet into the world where Sa tan claimed do min ion God per mit ted His Son to come, a help - less babe, sub ject to the weak ness of hu man ity. He per mit ted Him to meet life s peril in com mon with ev ery hu man soul, to fight the bat tle as ev ery child of hu man ity must fight it, at the risk of fail ure and eter nal loss. The heart of the hu man fa ther yearns over his son. He looks into the face of his lit tle child, and trem bles at the thought of life s peril. He longs to shield his dear one from Sa tan s power, to hold him back from temp ta tion and con - flict. To meet a bit terer con flict and a more fear ful risk, God gave His only-be got ten Son, that the path of life might be made sure for our lit tle ones. Herein is love. (The De sire of Ages, p. 49) Old Paths October 2013

5 The Purity of Christ Though Jesus took upon His sin less nature our sin ful nature, that He might know how to suc cor those that are tempted (Ellen White, Med i cal Min is try, p. 181), he was not defiled by sin. Jesus could come in direct con tact with sin - ners and not receive con tam i na tion. Mark records one of the most unique gos pel accounts: And he preached in their syn a gogues through out all Gal i lee, and cast out dev ils. And there came a leper to him, be seech ing him, and kneel ing down to him, and say ing unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Je - sus, moved with com pas sion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as he had spo ken, im me di ately the lep rosy de - parted from him, and he was cleansed. (Mark 1:39 42.) Jesus did some thing that had prob a bly never been done before in the his tory of human ity he vol un tarily touched a leper. Those who did this were to be unclean, but not Jesus. He received no pol lu tion, and the leper was imme di ately cleansed. Thus it is with the lep rosy of sin, deep-rooted, deadly, and im pos si ble to be cleansed by hu man power. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no sound ness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and pu tre fy ing sores. Isa iah 1:5, 6. But Je sus, com ing to dwell in hu man ity, re ceives no pol - lu tion. His pres ence has heal ing vir tue for the sin ner. Who ever will fall at His feet, say ing in faith, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean, shall hear the an - swer, I will; be thou made clean. Mat thew 8:2, 3, R. V. (The De sire of Ages, p. 266) This expe ri ence has an impor tant les son beyond the basic nar ra tive. In accept ing our fallen human ity, Jesus was in con - stant touch with the drives, the strengths of pas sion, and the incli na tions of human ity. We are told: With his hu man arm, Christ en cir cled the race, while with his di vine arm, he grasped the throne of the In fi nite, unit ing fi nite man with the in fi nite God. He bridged the gulf that sin had made, and con nected earth with heaven. In his hu man na ture he main tained the pu rity of his di vine char ac ter. (The Youth s In struc tor, June 2, 1898) Paul, writ ing to the church at Rome, stated a great truth: 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 after the flesh, but after the Spirit (Romans 8:3, 4). Of inter est is the term sin ful flesh. The Greek phrase is sarkos hamartias (sarko;v ajmartivas) which lit er ally trans - lates of flesh of sin (both words are in the gen i tive case). God sent his Son to bat tle sin in the flesh that knew sin and its weak nesses. When we trans late sarkos hamartias as sin ful flesh, we should real ize the mean ing of the suf fix ful. As Ralph Larson noted: Dic tio nar ies of fer as a meet ing of the suf fix ful, to have a ten dency to ward. (See Web ster s Un abridged: The New Amer i can Handy Col lege Dic tio nary, et al.)this falls short of de scrib ing an ac tual act. The term sin ful, ac cord - ing to this us age, does not re fer to any act of sin ning, much less to be ing full of sin, as some would read it. It means hav ing a ten dency to ward sin, which ac cu rately de scribes the flesh (na ture) in which we fallen hu mans live. (The Word was Made Flesh, p. 16; em pha sis in the orig i nal) Though Jesus accepted the fallen flesh of human ity with all of its abil ity to tempt from within, Jesus was pure and spot less in con nec tion to sin: We should have no mis giv ings in re gard to the per fect sin less ness of the hu man na ture of Christ. Our faith must be an in tel li gent faith, look ing unto Je sus in per fect con fi - dence, in full and en tire faith in the aton ing Sac ri fice. This is es sen tial that the soul may not be en shrouded in dark - ness. This holy Sub sti tute is able to save to the ut ter most; for He pre sented to the won der ing uni verse per fect and com plete hu mil ity in His hu man char ac ter, and per fect obe di ence to all the re quire ments of God. (Selected Messages, bk. 1, p. 256) While Inspi ra tion states that Jesus took upon him self our sin ful nature, it never hes i tates to state that Jesus had per fect sin less ness which would be defined as a state of being sinless. Jesus is able to save today, and he touches human ity today because with his human nature he reaches to human ity but with his divine nature, he reaches to the throne of the infi nite God. In his per fect human ity and in his per fect divin ity, Jesus is able to bridge the gulf between you and God. He is able to lift you up and pres ent you fault less before God. Jesus reaches us not in some sham, but with the gen u ine arti cle of his own per fect righ teous ness. Jesus still keeps bad com - pany, and he will keep com pany with you! He is able to save you to the utter most (Hebrews 7:25). I have a friend whom we will call Rob ert. Rob ert was a sol - dier in the United States Army dur ing the Viet nam War. He has described some of the hor rors of the war to me. He has told how inno cent chil dren would be strapped with bombs and sent into the Amer i can troops as sui cide bomb ers. At times the only way to live or to save his fel low sol diers was to shoot and kill these chil dren. Rob ert sadly esti mates that he may have killed over one hun dred chil dren, beside enemy sol - diers. As ter ri ble as that is, the blood of Jesus is able to save Rob ert, for the blood of Jesus is able to save to the utter most! The Greek word for uttermost means through all things. We look at this tem po ral life as being eter nal, but God sees time in its cor rect value. Because of the death of his Son, God can for give the sin ner. We can not take eter nal life from some - one, only their tem po ral life, and only God can take eter nal life. We are told to fear not them which kill the body, but are Vol. 22, No

6 not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell (Mat thew 10:28). We should fear, respect, and love the one who can give eter nal life. The Lord s Supper When we think of Satan s weap ons, we might think of his false teach ings, such as Sunday wor ship, the trin ity, the immor tal soul, the atone ment fin ished at the cross, and other abom i na tions, but there are two tools with which he finds great suc cess which do not deal with doc trine. They are not alco hol and tobacco, though they may become indi rectly involved. These two weap ons, in fact, we pro vide to him. They are the hered i tary nature of man to sin and the cul ti - vated ten den cies of man kind to sin. As we exam ine the last few hours of Christ s life, let us see how he pro vides total vic - tory, since he is the total Sav iour. Mat thew, Mark, and Luke are called the syn op tic gos pels because they form a gen eral out line of the life of Jesus and give a sum mary, or a syn op sis, of his life. Con cern ing the com mu nion ser vice, we learn of the bread and the cup in the syn op tics. Mat thew 26 begins with the rul ers con spir ing against Christ, fol lowed by Mary anoint ing Jesus, Judas betrayal, the Pass over, Christ tell ing of the betrayal, and then the Lord s Sup per. Mark 14 begins with the con spir acy against Jesus and fol - lows with the anoint ing, Judas betrayal, Christ tell ing of the betrayal, the Pass over, and then the com mu nion. Luke 22 begins with the leaders con spir acy against Jesus and their cov e nant with Judas and then pro ceeds to the betrayal, the Pass over, the com mu nion, and the state ment of betrayal by Peter. In the com mu nion ser vice we com mem o rate the Lord s death till he comes again. The bread and wine rep re sent the body and blood of Jesus. We acknowl edge and accept his sac ri fice through the par tak ing of the com mu nion sym bols. John s gos pel is dif fer ent. John focuses upon the events prior to the bread and juice. John s gos pel is the didac tic gos - pel, from the Greek word didaskô which means to teach. The didac tic gos pel is inter ested in teach ing the main les sons of Jesus. Inter est ingly, the com mu nion ser vice is not touched upon in John, but John men tions the foot-wash ing, some - thing that the syn op tics do not include. And sup per be ing ended, the devil hav ing now put into the heart of Ju das Is car iot, Si mon s son, to be tray him; Je - sus know ing that the Fa ther had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; He riseth from sup per, and laid aside his gar ments; and took a towel, and girded him self. Af ter that he poureth wa - ter into a bason, and be gan to wash the dis ci ples feet, and to wipe them with the towel where with he was girded. Then com eth he to Si mon Pe ter: and Pe ter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Je sus an swered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know here af ter. Pe ter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Je sus an swered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. (John 13:2 8) It was the cus tom dur ing the time of Jesus for a ser vant to wash the dusty feet of the mas ter, when he entered the room. Accord ing to Jew ish cus tom extend ing back prob a bly to the time of Jesus, the wash ing of the mas ter s feet was one of the duties of a for eign slave... Inas much as no ser vant was pres - ent on the occa sion of the Last Sup per, one of the dis ci ples should have under taken the task, but none vol un teered (Sev enth-day Adven tist Bible Com men tary, vol. 5, p. 1028). This was not done because none of the dis ci ples was will ing to per form this ser vice. The Bible says that Jesus laid aside his gar ments; and took a towel, and girded him self. The Greek word for gar ments is himation, an outer gar ment (Interme - di ate Greek-Eng lish Lex i con, Lid dell and Scott). This removal was sym bolic of his lay ing aside his divine power to accept the slave nature of man which was sym bol ized by his gird ing him self with a towel (Greek: lention). Thayer s Lex i - con states lention was that which it was sup posed the nakedness of persons undergoing crucifixion was covered. Jesus Christ, who was Michael and who shared the glory of God, his Father, was will ing to become and to serve as a slave so that sin ners need not per ish. Paul says that Jesus divested him self of the form of God: Who, being 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 (Philippians 2:5 7). The Eng lish Stan dard Ver sion trans lates it like this: Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equal ity with God a thing to be grasped, but emp tied him - self, by tak ing the form of a ser vant, be ing born in the like ness of men. (Philippians 2:5 7) Ellen G. White states: Now, of the hu man: He 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. He vol un tarily as sumed hu man na ture. It was his own act, and by his own con sent. He clothed his di vin ity with hu man ity. He was all the while as God, but he did not ap pear as God. He veiled the dem on stra tions of De ity, which had com manded the hom age, and called forth the ad mi ra tion, of the uni verse of God. He was God while upon earth, but he di vested him self of the form of God, and in its stead took the form and fash - ion of a man. He walked the earth as a man. For our sakes he be came poor, that we through his pov erty might be made rich. He laid aside his glory and his maj esty. He was God, but the glo ries of the form of God he for a while re lin - quished. (The Re view and Her ald, Sep tem ber 4, 1900) Je sus Christ laid off His royal robe, His kingly crown, and clothed His di vin ity with hu man ity, in or der to be come a sub sti tute and surety for hu man ity, that dy ing in hu man - ity, He might by His death de stroy him who had the power Old Paths October 2013

7 of death. He could not have done this as God, but by com - ing as man, Christ could die. By death He over came death. The death of Christ bore to the death him who had the power of death, and opened the gates of the tomb for all who re ceive Him as their per sonal Sav iour. (Manu script Releases, vol. 10, p. 173) Calvary After wash ing the dis ci ples feet, Jesus asked the ques tion, Know ye what I have done to you? (John 13:12). The wash ing of the dis ci ples feet was a sym bol of their being washed in his shed blood at Cal vary. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faith ful wit ness, and the first begot ten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood (Rev e la - tion 1:5). At Cal vary an infi nite sac ri fice was made for man kind: Christ has made an in fi nite sac ri fice. He gave His own life for us. He took upon His di vine soul the re sult of the trans gres sion of God s law. Lay ing aside His royal crown, He con de scended to step down, step by step, to the level of fallen hu man ity. He hung upon Cal vary s cross, dy ing in our be half, that we might have eter nal life. (The Re view and Her ald, April 30, 1901) For Jesus to fully help his peo ple, he had to bat tle as they have to bat tle and to fight as they must fight. At the cross the final and full real ity of this expe ri ence was exem pli fied. At his birth Jesus accepted the fallen nature of man, and at the cross he accepted the com mit ted sins of man kind. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniq uity of us all (Isa iah 53:6). For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righ teous ness of God in him (2 Corin thi ans 5:21). When Christ bowed his head and died, he bore the pil - lars of Sa tan s king dom with him to the earth. He van quished Sa tan in the same na ture over which in Eden Sa tan ob tained the vic tory. The en emy was over come by Christ in his hu man na ture. The power of the Sav iour s God head was hid den. He over came in hu man na ture, re ly - ing upon God for power. This is the priv i lege of all. In pro por tion to our faith will be our vic tory. (The Youth s In - structor, April 25, 1901) Through death the Sav iour de stroyed him that had the power of death. In the very act of grasp ing his prey, death was van quished; for by dy ing, Christ brought to light life and im mor tal ity through the gos pel. Never was the Son of God more be loved by his Fa ther, by the heav enly fam ily, and by the in hab it ants of the un fall en worlds, than when he hum bled him self to bear dis grace, hu mil i a tion, shame, and abuse. By be com ing the sin-bearer, he lifted from the hu man race the curse of sin. In his own body he paid the pen alty of that on which the power of Sa tan over hu man ity is founded sin. (The Youth s In struc tor, June 28, 1900) Christ in his own body brought down the two pil lars upon which the king dom of Satan rests. The first pil lar is the weak - ened hered i tary nature of man. The sec ond pil lar is the cul ti vated ten den cies to sin that reside in us because of our lives of iniq uity that have formed unbreak able habit pat terns. For thirty years Jesus dem on strated that weak ened hered i - tary was no excuse for sin, but what of the cul ti vated ten den cies to sin? Could Jesus carry the weight of this accu - mu lated trans gres sion and remain faith ful and true? Could Jesus under stand and over come the habit pat terns of sin? No won der heaven looked on with amaze ment as the cup trem - bled in the hand of the divine Suf ferer! Yet, he drank the last, bit ter dregs: The dark cloud of hu man trans gres sion came be tween the Fa ther and the Son. The in ter rup tion of the com mu - nion be tween God and His Son caused a con di tion of things in the heav enly courts which can not be de scribed by hu man lan guage. Na ture could not wit ness such a scene as Christ dy ing in ag ony while bear ing the pen alty of man s trans gres sion. God and the an gels clothed them - selves with dark ness, and hid the Sav iour from the gaze of the cu ri ous mul ti tude while He drank the last dregs of the cup of God s wrath (Let ter 139, 1898). (El len White, Sev - enth-day Ad ven tist Bi ble Com men tary, vol. 5, p. 1108) In his clos ing hours, while hang ing on the cross, he ex - pe ri enced to the full est ex tent what man must ex pe ri ence when striv ing against sin. He re al ized how bad a man may be come by yield ing to sin. He re al ized the ter ri ble con se - quence of the trans gres sion of God s law; for the in iq uity of the whole world was upon him. (The Youth s In struc tor, July 20, 1899) Notice that Jesus real ized how bad a man may become by yield ing to sin. He did not sim ply under stand what hered i - tary does, but also what yield ing does. Even though the Father had hidden his pres ence from the Son in the dark ness and though he could not see through the por tals of the tomb (The Desire of Ages, p. 753), Jesus, by faith, grasped the pil - lars of Satan s king dom and brought them down, pro vid ing an exam ple to man: Through the Spirit the be liever be comes a par taker of the di vine na ture. Christ has given his Spirit as a di vine power to over come all he red i tary and cul ti vated ten den - cies to evil, and to im press his own char ac ter upon the church. (The Re view and Her ald, May 19, 1904) The book of Judges pro vides an expe ri ence that par al lels the expe ri ence of Jesus at the cross. In the clos ing expe ri ence his life, Sam son grasped the two pil lars that sup ported the tem ple of Dagon, and Sam son destroyed that Satanic tem ple into a heap (Judges 16:26 30). As Sam son brought down the tem ple sup ported by its two pil lars, it brought about his own death. Even as it cost Sam son his life, so it cost the Son of God his life. He resisted unto blood, as his life strived against sin. Vol. 22, No

8 When Jesus cried out, It is fin ished (John 19:30), he was declar ing that the great dem on stra tion had been com pleted, the law of equiv a lence had been met, Satan s charges had been refuted. Christ, as man, had over come Satan, using only the power avail able to human ity. A. T. Jones said, O, He is a com plete Sav iour. He is a Sav - iour from sins com mit ted and the Con queror of the ten den cies to com mit sins. In Him we have the vic tory (General Conference Bulletin, Feb ru ary 21, 1895). First Corin thi ans 15:57 says, But thanks be to God, which giv eth us the vic tory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is true in him; let it be true in you. Allen Stump Youth s Cor ner The Maiden Mar tyr of the Solway When thou passest through the wa ters, I will be with thee. (Isa iah 43:2) The field preachings were on in Scotland. In those days people generally were supposed to accept change of religious faith along with change of government. Episcopacy had come into power by the union of England and Scotland. The Scottish people of Presbyterian convictions refused to accept prelacy. The solemn covenant was signed in old Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh, and approved by hearts over all the realm. There is on record a covenant drawn up and signed by young girls, in earnest but childlike phrase pledging themselves to listen only to the ministry of the word by their own beloved pastors. But field meetings, or conventicles, were forbidden. Attendance at them was a crime, and the Covenanters were hunted over moor and mountain men, women, youth, and children. There was living in Glenvernock a man of means, named Wilson, who conformed to the Episcopacy. His children, however, Margaret, aged eighteen, Thomas, sixteen, and Agnes, thirteen, would not attend the Episcopal service, but fled to the hills, bogs, and caves, says the old Scottish writer, Wodrow, though they were yet scarce of the age that made them obnoxious to the law. Young as they were, their parents were forbidden to harbor them, supply them, or speak to them, or see them. The boy got away to Flanders, across the sea. The two girls were finally seized and condemned to death at Wigtown. The father was allowed to purchase the freedom of Agnes, but Margaret was led out to die along with another Margaret, a M Lauchlan, aged sixty-three. They were to be tied to stakes, set in the Wigtown sands at the mouth of the Solway, so that the rising tide would cover first the elder Margaret, then the younger, except they renounced the Covenanter faith. Truly the grace of Christ has sustaining power for those whose trust is in the living God. At the stake young Margaret sang the twenty-fifth psalm from verse seven downwards. Here are a few of the verses in the Scottish psalm book meter, inspired prayers and promises that were Margaret s strength and support that day: My sins and faults of youth do Thou, O Lord, for get: After Thy mercy think on me, and for Thy good ness great. Now for Thine own name s sake, O Lord, I Thee entreat To par don mine iniq uity; for it is very great. Mine eyes upon the Lord con tin u ally are set; For He it is that shall bring forth my feet out of the net. Turn unto me Thy face, and to me mercy show; Because that I am des o late and am brought very low. O do Thou keep my soul, do Thou deliver me: And let me never be ashamed because I trust in Thee! So the young girl prayed in the psalmist s words as the waters rose. All thought of who was looking on was banished; Margaret Wilson had seen the elder Margaret far out go down beneath the waves that now crept higher and higher about her with every wash of the incoming tide. And these words of God, expressive of communion with Him, held true. The divine words are sufficient for the supreme hour when the soul is face to face with God and eternity. The cord that held her close to the stake was loosened once, as the waters were covering her; and she was drawn up a bit, and asked finally to yield her faith and conform. No, she cried, no; let me go. I belong with the Lord s scattered people. At the very last, as the waters rose about her neck, Margaret repeated or read from her treasured Testament the closing verses of Romans 8. How truly does the believing heart in dire need turn to the word that answers always with comfort and hope! Who shall sep a rate us from the love of Christ? shall trib u la - tion, or dis tress, or per se cu tion, or fam ine, or na ked ness, or peril, or sword?... Nay, in all these things we are more than con quer ors through Him that loved us. For I am per suaded, that nei ther death, nor life, nor an gels, nor prin ci pal i ties, nor pow ers, nor things pres ent, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other crea ture, shall be able to sep a rate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Je sus our Lord. (Romans 8:35, 37 39) How sweetly, powerfully, must the words have come! They were all-sufficient then for one true heart; they are surely all-sufficient still for the heart that believes. Then as Margaret prayed, the water covered her. As her face turned upward on the wave, said those who watched, the sun burst through a rift in the clouds, full shining in glory upon her face as it sank below the waters. Much more to be noted is it that the glory that is above the bright ness of the sun shone into Mar ga ret s soul. And through her, again, as through oth ers aforetime, was left the wit ness for all time that the prom ise of God never fails: When thou passest through the wa ters, I will be with thee. W. A. Spicer Old Paths October 2013

9 The Lu nar Sab bath A Wind of Doc trine Last month we began a focus on the lunar Sab bath which included an arti cle by Dr. Gerhard Pfandl, of the Sev - enth-day Adven tist Bib li cal Research Insti tute, and the first part of an arti cle by Brother Lynnford Beachy. Due to a very busy sched ule, Brother Beachy is not able to pres ent the sec - ond part of his study this month, but we hope to offer it soon. This month we are begin ning Michael Pedrin s exten sive study on the lunar Sab bath enti tled The Big Lie. We will print his study in install ments over the next few months and then pub lish it as a book. The fol low ing arti cle is the first part of an updated ver sion of a study on the lunar Sab bath I orig i nally wrote for Old Paths in It looks at the issue from a bib li cal per spec - tive, but it does not cover the topic of the length of the Sab bath day because this was cov ered last month in Brother Beachy s arti cle and because it is also cov ered in detail in Brother Pedrin s study this month. The con clu sion of my article will be pub lished in a later issue and will be on the true Sab bath, as detailed in the Spirit of Proph ecy. May God sin cerely bless you as you endeavor to keep both the com mand ments of God and the faith of Jesus Christ. Introduction When I became a Sev enth-day Adven tist in 1978, the church was being rocked by issues con cern ing the sanc tu ary that were being raised by Desmond Ford. I later learned that this was not the only attack upon the truths that God had given to the rem nant peo ple. Many years ear lier the stage had been set, so to speak, with the SDA-Evangelical con - fer ences which resulted in the book Ques tions on Doc trine. Ford was merely a chicken come home to roost. Not only was the sanc tu ary under attack, but the truth on the incar na tion was also being under mined. A new view of the Spirit of Proph ecy, as well, was com ing into the church. How sur - prised I was to learn that all of these changes were pos si ble because of even ear lier com pro mises and changes in the doc - trine about God. Yet amid these her e sies, the Sab bath, though lightly regarded, seemed safe from attack. No lon ger! A recent move ment has focused on the lunar Sab bath. The Lunar Sabbath The con cept of the lunar Sab bath, like the trin i tar ian doc - trine, is tedious to define, for there are var i ous inter pre ta tions to it. Most vari a tions state that when the moon is in its new moon phase, the month begins, and bib li cally this is the way the chil dren of Israel counted their months after the exo dus. We agree with lunar Sab bath-keep ers on this point, but the lunar Sab bath pro po nents claim that the Sab bath is then deter mined by count ing seven days after the new moon. Most peo ple who believe in the lunar Sab bath teach that the eighth, the fif teenth, the twenty-sec ond, and the twenty-ninth days of the lunar month are Sab bath days. With this sys tem, the day of the week of the Gre go rian cal en dar on which the Sab bath falls var ies each month. This is because the weekly cycle of days becomes dis rupted. In other words, dur ing some months the lunar Sab bath comes on what is com monly called Sunday. In the next monthly cycle, the lunar Sab bath may move to Mon day, with a month of Sab - baths on Mon day. Each month the day of the lunar Sab bath will change. Thus, the Sab bath floats each month from one day of the week to another. (Float ing from one day of the week to another is based on the stan dard seven-day week with which we are famil iar, as in the Gre go rian cal en dar.) Fur ther more, the cycle of the week is bro ken at the begin ning of each month. While the weeks of the lunar Sabbitarians are said to be seven days long, there is an inter val of one or two days between the last day of the prior month s last week and the first day of the new month s first week! So the time between the last Sab bath of the cur rent month and the first Sab bath of the next month will be either eight or nine days. Some times it is claimed that the extra days are not actu ally part of the week, but are spe cial days (tran si tion days). How - ever, this destroys the con cept of the week as being a sub di vi sion of time. It would be like say ing an hour is sixty min utes long but some times there are an extra three or four min utes between hours that really do not fit any where else. The doc trine of the lunar Sab bath teaches that the sev - enth-day Sab bath, as we have com monly under stood it and upon which we have been wor ship ing God, is a prod uct of Satan. It is said that the lunar Sab bath was the Sab bath of the patri archs but that some how it was lost. There are dif fer ent ver sions of when it van ished, but many say that it hap pened dur ing the Bab y lo nian cap tiv ity and that when the Jews returned to Jeru sa lem they con tin ued to fol low the Bab y lo - nian cal en dar that they had become accus tomed to. There is, how ever, no reli able his tor i cal doc u men ta tion to prove this. In Romans 10, we find coun sel from Paul that would be wise for us all to heed: Breth ren, my heart s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved (v. 1), and I hope that is your prayer for me, and it is my prayer for you and for all of God s peo ple. We should have a great desire that all will be saved. For I bear them record that they Vol. 22, No

10 have a zeal of God, but not accord ing to knowl edge. For they being igno rant of God s righ teous ness, and going about to estab lish their own righ teous ness, have not sub mit ted them - selves unto the righ teous ness of God. For Christ is the end [or the goal] of the law for righ teous ness to every one that believ eth (Romans 10:2 4). Paul is speak ing of peo ple who are look ing for righ teous ness and who have a zeal for God but it is not accord ing to knowl edge. Today, there are many who are seri ous about the lunar Sab bath. In fact, in read ing through some of the lit er a ture on the lunar Sab bath, I have seen a peo ple who appear very sin cere in want ing to know and fol low truth, but I have to say that Paul would declare their ear nest ness to be a wrongly-placed zeal. I want to empha sis very plainly, unequiv o cally, and with - out any ques tion that I believe the lunar Sab bath con cept to be a trap of Satan to use the good zeal of the saints to finally dis obey God, and I will show you why I say this before we are fin ished. In this study, I want to re-exam ine the Sab bath of the Bible and to explore the rea sons why I find it impos si ble to rec on - cile the lunar Sab bath with the Bible. The Seventh-day Sabbath Founded at Creation The first part of this study should be old school to most of us, but I want to review the bib li cal teach ing of the Sab bath, for there may be those who do not under stand this con cept. We will start in chap ter 1 of the book of Gen e sis. In the first chap - ter of the first book of the Bible, we have the ini tial account of cre ation. The Bible teaches that in six lit eral days God cre - ated the heaven and the earth. In chap ter 2, we read: Thus the heav ens and the earth were fin ished, and all the host of them. And on the sev enth day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the sev enth day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the sev - enth day, and sanc ti fied it: be cause that in it he had rested from all his work which God cre ated and made (vs. 1 3). Chap ter 1 of Gen e sis pro vides an out line of what was cre - ated on each day of cre ation week, and on the fourth day it says that God cre ated the heav enly bod ies: And God said, Let there be lights in the fir ma ment of the heaven to di vide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for sea sons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the fir ma ment of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the fir ma ment of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to di vide the light from the dark ness: and God saw that it was good. And the eve ning and the morn ing were the fourth day (Gen e sis 1:14 19). Some have argued that the moon was cre ated on the first day and was declared on day four to be a sign for sea sons and times, but notice the lan guage of the verses. God is speak ing, and when he spoke, cre ation occurred. (See Psalm 33:6, 9.) Gen e sis 1:16 plainly says God made the sun, moon, and stars; and the ref er ence point given in verse 19 is the fourth day. Now, it is inter est ing that although it does say the sun, moon, and stars are to be for signs, and for sea sons, and for days, and years, noth ing is men tioned about weeks here. In Gen e sis chap ter 2, we read that God blessed the sev enth day. The lunar Sab bath teach ing says that the Sab bath is the sev enth day after the new moon; how ever, this is very hard to rec on cile with the cre ation account because on the first Sab - bath the moon was only three days old, hav ing been cre ated on the fourth day. Even if that moon was in its new moon phase when God cre ated it, the sev enth day of cre ation was still too early for a lunar Sab bath. It might be argued that the moon was cre ated in a phase that was four days after a new moon. That is pos si ble; how ever, guess work or con jec ture must be employed to arrive at such a posi tion, and that is never safe. God would not require his peo ple to base some - thing as impor tant as the Sab bath on spec u la tion. The Bible says the sev enth day was blessed (Gen e sis 2:3), and we know that the Bible says the sev enth day is the Sab bath (Exo dus 20:8), the great memo rial of cre ation. This is impor tant to remem ber. Some have argued that the Sab bath is never called a memo rial of cre ation. While it is true the exact phrase memo - rial of cre ation is not in the Bible, the con cept surely is. In both Exo dus 20:8 11 and Rev e la tion 14:6, 7, we see a call to wor - ship God as the cre ator and the Sab bath is the reminder of it. J. N. Andrews, in his book The His tory of the Sab bath, writes: The im por tance of the Sab bath as the me mo rial of cre - ation is that it keeps ever pres ent the true rea son why wor ship is due to God. For the wor ship of God is based upon the fact that he is the Cre ator and that all other be ings were cre ated by him. The Sab bath there fore lies at the very foun da tion of di vine wor ship, for it teaches this great truth in the most im pres sive man ner, and no other in sti tu tion does this. The true ground of di vine wor ship, not of that on the sev enth day merely, but of all wor ship, is found in the dis tinc tion be tween the Cre ator and his crea tures. This great fact can never be come ob so lete, and must never be for got ten (p. 510). This state ment was felt to be such a valid point that it was included in The Great Con tro versy on pages 437, 438. The Sabbath in the Heart of God s Law One thing I like about the mes sage we call the truth about God is that it is a straight-for ward and plain mes sage. When I lis ten to trinitarians, I lis ten to many assump tions, and I hear a lot of ambi gu ity in phrases, such as it is assumed or only by faith can we accept this. I am glad that the truth about God is very plain and straight-for ward, and I believe the same is true about the doc trine of the sev enth-day Sab bath. It is a plain, straight-for - ward truth and for over one hun dred sixty years, the Advent Old Paths October 2013

11 peo ple have been preach ing it. We have been preach ing that it is a plain, straight-for ward truth. It is not a truth that is found in hints and in insin u a tions. Right in the mid dle of God s Ten Com mand ment law, in the fourth com mand ment, we read: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the sev enth day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work [notice the pro hi bi tion against doing any work] thou, nor thy son, nor thy daugh ter, thy man ser vant, nor thy maid ser vant, nor thy cat tle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: 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 sabbath day, and hal lowed it (vs. 8 11). In Gen e - sis we read that God blessed the sev enth day and in Exo dus 20, the day he blessed is called the Sab bath day. Inter est ingly, in Exo dus 31:15 17, we read: Six days may work be done; but in the sev enth is the sab bath of rest, holy to the LORD: who so ever doeth any work in the sab bath day, he shall surely be put to death. Where fore the chil dren of Israel shall keep the sab bath, to observe the sab bath through - out their gen er a tions, for a per pet ual cov e nant. It is a sign between me and the chil dren of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the sev enth day he rested, and was refreshed. Who rested and who was refreshed? God! Is it not amaz ing that God was refreshed on the sev enth day Sab bath? God was say ing, in effect: I have enjoyed this expe ri ence so much that I want this expe ri ence to con tinue every week with my peo ple. So God insti tuted the Sab bath. If you look at the record, he rested first and then insti tuted the Sab bath. He did not insti tute the Sab bath and then rest. Some times we gather on the eve ning of the Sab bath to wel come the Sab bath, but, friends, it is not the Sab bath that we are to wel come. We are wel com ing the God of the Sab bath. That is the point. The Sab bath pro vides a spe cial time of bless ing whereby we can asso ci ate, com mu ni cate, and com mune with our God in a spe cial, close way that we do not have dur ing the rest of the week. What is it that really makes some thing holy? It is the pres - ence of divin ity. When Moses was at the burn ing bush (Exo dus 3), he was instructed to take off his shoes, for the ground he was stand ing on was holy ground because the Lord was there. In Colossians 1, we find the Son active in the cre ation with the Father. Refer ring to Christ, we read: In whom we have redemp tion through his blood, even the for - give ness of sins: Who is the image of the invis i ble God, the first born of every crea ture: For by him were all things cre - ated, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, vis i ble and invis i ble, whether they be thrones, or domin ions, or prin ci - pal i ties, or pow ers: all things were cre ated by him, and for him: And he [Jesus] is before all things, and by him all things con sist (vs ). Did Christ have any thing to do with the Sab bath day? He surely did. He played just as much a part in the insti tu tion of the Sab bath day as did the Father. In Mat thew 12:8, Jesus says: For the Son of man is Lord even of the sab bath day. The Sab bath is a memo rial of Christ s cre ative power, not only to cre ate the heaven and the earth, but to rec re ate a new heart in us. That is truly the impor tance of the mat ter. In Psalm 51:10, we read David s prayer: Create in me a clean heart. How was his heart to be cleansed? Through the Word of God! The Word is pow er ful (Hebrews 4:12); it is full of power to bring about sal va tion. Jesus said, Now ye are clean through the word which I have spo ken unto you (John 15:3). First Corin thi ans 1:30 states: But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wis dom, and righ teous - ness, and sanc ti fi ca tion, and redemp tion. The Sab bath is not only a memo rial of cre ation, but it is the sign that Jesus has the power to cre ate in us a clean heart. That is why in Ezekiel 20:12, we read: More over also I gave them my sab baths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanc tify them. God has mea sured off the days of cre ation, begin ning in Gen e sis 1 and 2. Seven con sec u tive days are men tioned, and there is no ref er ence of any days before this. Gen e sis 2:3 is either men tion ing the sev enth-day of the week or the sev - enth-day of the month. The month could not have begun before Cre ation. Unlike the day, month, or year which depend upon the heav enly bod ies for their cycles, there is no ratio nal for the week in the heav enly bod ies. When you look at the law as given at Mt. Sinai, what is the fact upon which the Sab bath is based? It is the fact that God cre ated every thing in six days. Noth ing is said at all con cern - ing the moon. If the Sab bath was to be on the eighth, the fifteenth, the twenty-second, and the twenty-ninth of each month, why did God not make it clear when he made all the other com mand ments so clear? There is no rea son to believe that the weekly cycle has been bro ken from the time of cre - ation until today. As Sev enth-day Adven tist peo ple, we carry a pecu liar mes sage. We carry a mes sage that is very strange to many peo ple, and we know this mes sage spe cif i cally as the three angels mes sages. The three angels mes sages are what Adventism is built upon. It is part and par cel of all that we are and of who we are. Rev e la tion 14:6, 7 says: And I saw an other an gel fly in the midst of heaven, hav - ing the ev er last ing gos pel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to ev ery na tion, and kin dred, and tongue, and peo ple, Say ing with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judg ment is come: and wor ship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the foun tains of wa ters. As Adven tist peo ple we have been quick to rec og nize that these verses are vir tu ally a quo ta tion from the fourth com - mand ment of the Decalogue, and it is a call to return to the wor ship of God as the Cre ator. As a peo ple we have his tor i - cally rec og nized this call to be a call to keep the sev enth-day Vol. 22, No

12 Sab bath. God s creatorship is given in his Word as the rea son he is wor thy of wor ship. In Jer e miah 10, we read: But the LORD is the true God, he is the liv ing God, and an ev er last ing king: at his wrath the earth shall trem ble, and the na tions shall not be able to abide his in dig na tion. Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heav ens and the earth, even they shall per ish from the earth, and from un der these heav ens. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath es tab lished the world by his wis dom, and hath stretched out the heav ens by his dis cre tion. (vs ) God says, This is one way you know that I am God I have cre ated all things. Again, the memo rial to that cre ation is the sev enth-day Sab bath. The Seventh-day Sabbath in the New Testament In Rev e la tion 4, we read about how the heav enly hosts wor - ship God. 2 Verse 11 records what these hosts say to the Father, who is sit ting upon the throne: Thou art wor thy, O Lord, to receive glory and hon our and power: for thou hast cre ated all things, and for thy plea sure they are and were cre - ated (Revelation 4:11). Did Jesus keep the Sab bath? Let us look at Luke 4:16: And he [Jesus] came to Naz a reth, where he had been brought up: and, as his cus tom was, he went into the syn a gogue on the Sab bath day, and stood up for to read. Now, what ever day this is, it is a day that he had acquired a cus tom in keep ing, and it is a day that was observed at the syn a gogue on a reg u lar basis. There are peo ple in the syn a gogue. Jesus is not meet ing there by him self. This is clear from the con text because quite a com - mo tion arose over what he read. Jesus tried to cor rect many of their mis con cep tions about the Sab bath. He told them that the Sab bath was made for man and not man for the Sab bath and that he was Lord of the Sab bath day (Mark 2:27, 28). Jesus was accused many times of break ing the Sab bath day because he did not keep it as the reli gious lead ers of his day held it but inter est ingly, he was never accused of break ing the Sab bath because of when he kept the Sab bath. Isa iah 42:21 proph e sied that Christ would mag nify the law, and make it hon our able. In John 15:10, Jesus said: I have kept my Father s com mand ments. The Sab bath that Jesus kept when he was in the syn a gogue with the wor ship ers is the same Sab bath we know today. It is the same Sab bath that clearly has been con tin ued his tor i cally from the time of Christ until today. There is a verse in Acts 15 that helps us to under stand this very clearly. Dur ing the coun cil at Jeru sa - lem, James said: For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the syn a gogues every sab bath day (Acts 15:21). He said, Moses is preach ing in the syn a gogue every Sab bath day. Now, it is inter est ing to note that the text does not say being read in the syn a gogues on what they believe to be every Sab bath day or on every false Sab bath day. It says very plainly that they acknowl edged that what was going on in those syn a gogues was dur ing the Sab bath day. Now, per haps you think James was wrong or mis taken. The Bible is inspired of God, and we know it is a true record, but we real - ize that not every thing in it that is spo ken of is a truth. Some times lies were told, and those lies are faith fully recorded. (See 1 Kings 22:11.) You might think that James did not under stand this truth and that he was mixed up, but Peter was pres ent and he did not cor rect James, nor did Paul, Barnabas, or any disciple correct James. Acts 13:14, 15 speak of Paul and Bar na bas at Antioch: But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the syn a gogue on the sab bath day, and sat down. And after the read ing of the law and the proph - ets the rul ers of the syn a gogue sent unto them, say ing, Ye men and breth ren, if ye have any word of exhor ta tion for the peo ple, say on, and of course they spoke on. The story con - tin ues in verses 42 44: And when the Jews were gone out of the syn a gogue, the Gen tiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sab bath Now when the con - gre ga tion was bro ken up, many of the Jews and reli gious pros e lytes fol lowed Paul and Bar na bas: who, speak ing to them, per suaded them to con tinue in the grace of God. And the next sab bath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. We might say that the Sab bath these verses speak of is a lunar Sab bath, but there is no con tex tual evi dence for this. It would go against the his tor i cal record that the Jews at this time were keep ing the sev enth day of the week, what we call Sat ur day today, as Sab bath. We real ize the name Sat ur day has no author ity under inspi ra tion, but if you look at the his tor i cal cycle of the seven days, it is the day that we put on the end of the cal en dar week, regard less of what it is called. Acts 17:2 records Paul being at Thessalonica, and it says: And Paul, as his man ner was, went in unto them, and three sab bath days rea soned with them out of the scrip tures. Again, Sunday-keep ers take this verse and say: It is not because the sev enth day was the Sab bath any more that Paul went there, but because it was still the the Jew ish Sab bath and Paul went there to wit ness to the Jew ish peo ple. This, of course, is read ing some thing into the text that is not there. Nowhere in the Bible is the Sab bath called the Jew ish Sab bath. In Acts 18:4 Paul is at Ephesus, and he rea soned in the syn a gogue every sab bath, and per suaded the Jews and the Greeks. We see that the apos tles were preach ing to the peo - ple in the syn a gogues on the Sab bath, and there is no men tion 2. Dr. Richard Davidson has stated: I believe the celestial worship in the heavenly sanctuary is the divine pattern after which the earthly sanctuary rituals of the Torah are based, and could well provide a blueprint for all earthly worship, be it Christian or Jewish [Shabbat Shalom, 53, no. 3 (2006): 5; accessed at Old Paths October 2013

13 in any of these exam ples of a moon, a new moon, or of any - thing that would show that the Sab bath was a lunar Sab bath. Problems with the Lunar Sabbath I would like to explain some of the rea sons why I can not accept the lunar Sab bath con cept, beside what I con sider a clear lack of Scrip tural evi dence. The Manna: In Exo dus 16, we have the story of how God mirac u lously fed the chil dren of Israel for forty years with bread from heaven: Then said the LORD unto Mo ses, Be hold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the peo ple shall go out and gather a cer tain rate ev ery day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall pre pare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gath - ered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rul ers of the con gre ga tion came and told Mo ses. And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To mor row is the rest of the holy sab bath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept un til the morn ing. (Ex o dus 16:4, 5, 22, 23) The manna came on a reg u lar basis for five days. Five days they were to gather up a cer tain por tion. On the sixth day the manna came, and they were to gather up a dou ble por tion. If any extra was gath ered up dur ing the first five days and kept over until the next day, the Bible says that it stank and bred worms. In verse 20 we are told some peo ple decided that they would take more than they needed for the day. Per haps their faith was not mature, and they thought that the manna would not be there the fol low ing day, so they gath ered extra. Not - with stand ing they hear kened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morn ing, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them (v. 20). But when they gath ered the dou ble por tion on the sixth day, it did not stink or breed worms. And they laid it up till the morn ing, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, nei ther was there any worm therein (vs. 20, 24). Now, what was the dif fer ence? In verse 24 it is talk ing about the manna they got on the sixth day. The manna they got on the sixth day was mirac u lously pre served, and this con tin ued for forty years. Now, please think about this. If they gath ered extra manna on any day other than the sixth, that manna on the next day would stink and breed worms. On the sixth day they were to take a dou ble por tion. The Bible never makes a pro vi sion for a tri ple por tion or a qua dru ple por tion to make up for the extra day(s) the lunar Sab bath pro po nents claim are at the tran si tion between months and do not belong to any week. Nei ther is there any men tion that after the fifth Sab bath, sup pos edly on the twenty-ninth of the month, the peo ple were to fast. Instead the Bible says this pro cess of the manna con tin ued every week for forty years. The rea son I bring this up is because when the new lunar month begins, the time from the last lunar Sab bath of the prior month to the first lunar Sab bath of the next month always has a time period of either eight or nine days. It is not seven days. The cycle changes because the moon does not change its phase in twenty-eight days, which would be four weeks of seven days each. The moon works in a twenty-nine and one-half day cycle; there fore, you have a shift ing of about a day to a day-and-a-half every month. Exo dus 16:35 says: And the chil dren of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhab ited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the bor ders of the land of Canaan. This con tin ued for forty years, with no record of an inter rup tion. Pentecost: The con cept of the lunar Sab bath also requires me to mis cal cu late Pen te cost. I have a degree in math e mat - ics, but one does not have to be a rocket sci en tist to count to fifty. I say this because God has set things in an orderly way in his word. He is not the author of con fu sion (1 Corin thi ans 14:33). If you look in Levit i cus 23, you will notice the appointed feasts of the Lord and when you come to the one we call Pen te cost, (although it is not called Pen te cost in the Old Tes ta ment), you read: And ye shall count unto you from the mor row after the sab bath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offer ing; seven sab baths shall be com - plete: Even unto the mor row after the sev enth sab bath shall ye num ber fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat [meal] offer ing unto the LORD (Levit i cus 23:15, 16). These verses tell of seven Sab baths, but this is to be under stood as seven weeks. It is speak ing actu ally of weeks. In the Eng lish trans - la tion of the Sep tu a gint, we read: And ye shall num ber to your selves from the day after the sab bath, from the day on which ye shall offer the sheaf of the heave-offer ing, seven full weeks. This feast is also called the feast of weeks in Exo dus 34:22; in Deu ter on omy 16:10, 16; and in 2 Chron i - cles 8:13. If a week is seven days and if you have seven times seven, that is forty-nine days. When you add one more day, you have fifty days. It says that it would be on the fif ti eth day. The term Pentecost means fif ti eth. It comes from the Greek expres sion (pentekoste) which means fif ti eth. Pen te cost was fifty days after the wave sheaf was offered. As we study the his tory of man, we under stand that this earth has been in exis tence for about six thou sand years, and there is going to be a mil len nium (one thou sand years), and these time peri ods the idea of six units and then a sev enth unit par al lel the week. I know that many, if not all, lunar Sab bath pro po nents know about many of the things I am shar ing now, and some of them claim to have hon est answers, just as much as Sunday-keep ers claim to have an hon est answers to Exo dus 20, Gen e sis 2, and many other verses. I have to look, how - ever, at the weight of evi dence and as we look at the evi dence, we will see this brings an indict ment with which the lunar Sabbatarian might not be pleased. Pro hi bi tion against Work: The pro hi bi tion against work on the annual feast days also teaches us an impor tant les son. Vol. 22, No

14 The Sab bath com mand ment states: In it thou shalt not do any work [melakah], thou, nor thy son, nor thy daugh ter, thy man ser vant, nor thy maid ser vant, nor thy cat tle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates (Exo dus 20:10). Life s work is to shut down dur ing the Sab bath. Only the most abso lute essen tials are to be done on the Sab bath. That is why we cook our food the day before, why we iron our clothes before Sab - bath, and why we take care of all the things that are nec es sary before Sab bath. Let us con sider Levit i cus 23. It speaks of the sev enth-day Sab bath, and notice what it says to con firm what we read in Exo dus 20: Six days shall work be done: but the sev enth day is the sab bath of rest, an holy con vo ca tion; ye shall do no work [melakah] therein: it is the sab bath of the LORD in all your dwell ings (Levit i cus 23:3). On the sev enth-day Sab - bath, they were to do no work. Is the pro hi bi tion the same for all the annual feasts? No. The Day of Atone ment has a sim i - lar pro hi bi tion, but let us look at some of the other feasts first. In Levit i cus 23:5 8, we read about the Pass over: In the four teenth day of the first month at even is the LORD S pass - over. And on the fif teenth day of the same month is the feast of unleav ened bread unto the LORD: seven days ye must eat unleav ened bread. In the first day ye shall have an holy con - vo ca tion: ye shall do no ser vile work [abodah melakah] therein. But ye shall offer an offer ing made by fire unto the LORD seven days: in the sev enth day is an holy con vo ca tion: ye shall do no servile work [abodah melakah] therein. Pen te cost is men tioned next, in verse 21: And ye shall pro claim on the self same day, that it may be an holy con vo ca - tion unto you: ye shall do no ser vile work [abodah melakah] therein: it shall be a stat ute for ever in all your dwell ings through out your gen er a tions. Again at Pen te cost the pro hi - bi tion is dif fer ent than on the sev enth-day Sab bath. The Feast of Trum pets is men tioned and in verse 25, the Bible says: Ye shall do no ser vile work [abodah melakah] therein. On the Day of Atone ment, no work at all was to be done. And what so ever soul it be that doeth any work [melakah] in that same day, the same soul will I destroy from among his peo ple. Ye shall do no man ner of work [melakah]: it shall be a stat ute for ever through out your gen er a tions in all your dwell ings (Levit i cus 23:30, 31). The Day of Atone ment was so impor tant that God made it clear the peo ple were not to do any type of work on that day. God pro claimed a fast for that day. They were not to worry about cook ing or pre par ing any food ahead of time, for it was a day of fast ing. We are liv - ing in the antitypical Day of Atone ment, friends, and even though we can not fast every day, we should have that spirit. Now we come to the Feast of Taber na cles: Speak unto the chil dren of Is rael, say ing, The fif teenth day of this sev enth month shall be the feast of ta ber na cles for seven days unto the LORD. On the first day shall be an holy con vo ca tion: ye shall do no ser vile work [abodah melakah] therein. Seven days ye shall of fer an of fer ing made by fire unto the LORD: on the eighth day shall be an holy con vo ca tion unto you; and ye shall of fer an of fer ing made by fire unto the LORD: it is a sol emn as sem bly; and ye shall do no ser vile work [abodah melakah] therein. (Leviticus 23:34 36) The first day of the Feast of Taber na cles was the fif teenth day of the sev enth month. The last day of the Feast of Taber - na cles was the twenty-sec ond day of the month. By most accounts of the lunar Sabbatarians, these days were sev - enth-day Sab baths, but the Bible says that they were to do no servile work. Why did God state it this way instead of say ing no work at all, if these days were sev enth-day Sab baths? God makes a dis tinc tion here. If the fif teenth and the twenty-sec - ond days of the month were sev enth-day Sab baths, then the pro hi bi tion against work should have been total and not just against ser vile work, but it is not! It has been asserted by some advo cates of the lunar Sab - baths that every Sab bath in the Bible that has the day of the month men tioned in con nec tion with the Sab bath occurs either on the eighth, the fif teenth, the twenty-sec ond, or the twenty-ninth day of the month; how ever, exam ples can not be used to prove doc trine. Even if every Sab bath men tioned is on the eighth, the fif teenth, the twenty-sec ond, or the twenty-ninth day of the month, we are not assured that all the other Sab baths were also on these days of the month and if one Sab bath can be found that is not on the eighth, the fif - teenth, the twenty-sec ond, or the twenty-ninth, then we have dis proved the lunar Sab bath the ory. Such a Sab bath is found in Acts 20. Paul at Troas: Paul was trav el ing from Europe to Asia and in Acts 20:6, we read: And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleav ened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days. As you read this, it might seem ambig u ous, and you could think it pos si ble that they left some time after the feast but not imme di ately there af ter, but Ellen White tells us in The Acts of the Apos tles on page 391 that they left right after the feast. The Feast of Unleav ened Bread is fin ished at the end of the twenty-first day of the first month. This would make their depar ture on the twenty-sec ond of the month, a day that is sup posed to be a lunar Sab bath! If the jour ney to Troas took two days, you would expect them to arrive on the twenty-third or twenty-fourth day of the month, but it took five days, bring ing them to the twenty-sixth or twenty-sev enth day of the month, depend ing if they started on the light or on the dark part of the day. After arriv ing, they were there for seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the dis ci ples came to gether to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to de part on the mor row; and con tin ued his speech un til mid night. And there were many lights in the up per cham ber, where they were gath ered to gether. (Acts 20:7, 8) Old Paths October 2013

15 The Bible says: Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the mor row; and con tin ued his speech until mid night. Paul left for Troas after the days of unleav ened bread. 3 It says Paul abode with them for seven days, and if you do the math, friends, it brings the time down to the either the third or fourth day of the fol low ing month, depend ing on if you use inclu sive reck on ing or not. Paul was preach ing to them that night. This was upon the dark part of the first day of the week. It was a Sat ur day night, and the next morn ing Paul was going to be leav ing, which was Sunday morn ing. Any way you do the math and any way you fig ure whether the lunar Sab bath is the twenty-first or the twenty-sec ond, you cannot correlate his leav ing with the lunar Sab bath. It just does not fit. There is no way the math works. Travel on the Lunar Sab bath: On at least one occa sion, the chil dren of Israel were com manded to work on the twenty-sec ond day of the month, which is claimed to be a lunar Sab bath. Num - bers 10:11, 12 say: First Day Second Day And it came to pass on the twen ti eth day of the sec ond month, in the sec ond year, that the cloud was taken up from off the ta ber na cle of the tes ti mony. And the chil dren of Is rael took their jour neys out of the wil der ness of Si nai; and the cloud rested in the wil der ness of Paran. Verse 33 says: And they departed from the mount of the LORD three days jour ney: and the ark of the cov e nant of the LORD went before them in the three days jour ney, to search out a rest ing place for them. This hap pened on the twen ti eth day of the month. If you take three days, any way you add it up, that is trav el ing over the twenty-sec ond day of the month. So, what God was tell ing them to do was, Pick up all the camp, and move the camp dur ing the Sab bath. It is enough work just to pitch camp some place tem po rarily, like at camp meet ing, and it does not seem con sis tent with either the con - cept of the Sab bath nor the weight of evi dence of other things that we will soon exam ine. Break ing camp, mov ing, and then set ting up again for two and a half mil lion peo ple is a lot of work. Accord ing to Jer e miah 17:21, 22, they were not to carry great bur dens in and out of their houses on the Sab bath, let alone carry their houses with them! Inter est ingly in Exo dus 12, we read that the chil dren of Israel departed from Egypt on the fif teenth day of the month, a day that it is claimed to be a Sab bath: And it came to pass, that at mid night the LORD smote all the first born in the land of Egypt, from the first born of Pha raoh that sat on his throne unto the first born of the cap - tive that was in the dun geon; and all the first born of cat tle. And Pha raoh rose up in the night, he, and all his ser vants, Third Day Fourth Day Fifth Day Sixth Day Sabbath Begin - ning of Unleavened Bread End of Unleavened Bread 22 Left Philippi for Troas right after the feast (AA, p. 391) Tran si tion Day Meet ing on the first day of the week which began Sat - ur day night Paul s Travel to and Stay in Troas Arrived in Troas New Moon 1 2 and all the Egyp - tians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Mo ses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my peo - ple, both ye and the chil dren of Is rael; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said. (Ex o dus 12:29 31) We know that the Pass over occurred on the four teenth and on the night after the Pass over, the begin - ning of the fif teenth day, Pha raoh was anx ious for Isra el ites to get out. Seven days before the meet ing on the first day of the week 3. According to Acts 16:11, this was normally a two-day trip. Five days in travel Even if the new moon came one day later, the first day of the week does not come soon enough to meet the require - ments for the lunar Sab bath to be true. If we read Num bers 33:3, we see that they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fif teenth day of the first month; on the mor row after the pass over the chil dren of Israel went out with an high hand in the sight of all the Egyp tians. History of the Week The weekly cycle has its ori gin in Eden and almost all nations and civ i li za tions, even those out side of Chris ten dom, have adopted a seven-day weekly cycle. The ancient Hin dus, the Bab y lo nians, and the ancient Chi nese peo ple all had a seven-day week. The Romans at first had no week, but began to adopt an eight-day cycle, with the mar ket day being the eighth day. I found it very inter est ing, though, that the eight-day cycle began to fall out of cus tom dur ing the time of Augus tus Caesar. Do you remem ber who was born dur ing the reign of Augus tus Caesar? Jesus Christ was. So, even though it was not an offi cial law or set up by the empire to Vol. 22, No

16 have a seven-day week, the cus tom of the peo ple by the time of Christ s life was to actu ally have a seven-day week. In AD 321, Constantine made the seven-day week an offi cial part of the Roman cal en dar, but unof fi cially the Romans had been using a seven-day week for over three hun dred years. Dur ing Constantine s reign, the cur rent names were given to the days of the week, but the names have noth ing to do with the cycle of days. The ancient Mayan cal en dar used a thir teen and also a twenty-day week. In ancient Egypt the length of the week was ten days, as it was also in the France dur ing the French Rev o lu tion. Com mu nist Rus sia tried a five and then a six-day week, but these were all excep tions. His tory traced into antiq uity reveals many ancient peo ple observ ing a seven-day week. Also, in almost all ancient lan guages as well as in mod ern lan guages, the word for the sev enth day of the week is Sab - bath. Wil liam Meade Jones was a Sabbatarian who did research in the nine teenth cen tury con cern ing dif fer ent lan - guages, such as Hebrew, Chaldean, Samaritan, Babylonian, Assyr ian, Arabic, Coptic, and many oth ers. He listed the names of the days of the week as the ancients called them. They all had seven-day cycles, and it is inter est ing that the Hebrews would say: One day into the Sab bath, sec ond into the Sab bath, third into the Sab bath, and so on. All these ancient peo ple had a word for the sev enth day that meant Sab bath. This is true for many mod ern lan guages also. For exam ple, the Span ish word for the sev enth day of the week is Sabado and in Por tu guese the word is Sabbado. Wil liam Meade Jones also made a list of over one hun dred lan guages, ancient and mod ern, that used the word Sab bath for the sev enth day of the week. This would be highly unlikely and improb a ble if this idea of the sev enth-day Sab bath did not really orig i nate in Eden many years ago. Sunday wor shipers have said that the Sab bath became changed or the days of the week became mixed up, and we respond that for the days of the week to have got ten mixed up, every Jew ish person would some how have had to have over slept a whole day or a day would some how have had to have passed by with not one Jew ish per son being aware of it. They would all have had to have got ten mixed up at the same time. We under stand that the prob a bil ity of that hap pen ing is astro nom i cal. I have been study ing the his tory used by the pro po nents of the lunar Sab bath. At times they quote Josephus, Philo, and oth ers, and inter est ingly some peo ple who argue against the lunar Sab bath also quote these same his to ri ans and some - times the exact same pas sages to prove their points. There really is no accu rate, reli able, his tor i cal ref er ence or way to ever prove that the lunar Sab bath was some thing kept by ancient Israel, by the apos tles, or by Jesus him self! Keep ing the lunar Sab bath might not be as easy as some might think. I have heard the argu ment that by using the new moon as a guide the com mon shep herd or the com mon per - son in the field can always know when the Sab bath begins; how ever, this is not true. In fact, it is harder for some one to under stand when the lunar Sab bath starts than to keep track of every sev enth day. Let me explain. I have been alive for over fifty years, and I know with out any ques tion or doubt that the weekly cycle has not changed in the last fifty years. If you go back one gen er a tion, my mother or father could tell you the same thing. We can all count seven days. Seven is not hard to count to, but think about this: Sup pose you were a shep herd out in the field, wait ing for the Sab bath to arrive, but a three or four-day storm came, and it was cloudy those nights. It would be hard to know when the new moon truly began, if you did not have astro nom i cal knowl edge. If you were to depend upon sight alone, you would not always be able to see the new moon because some days the moon would be obscured, not allow - ing you to see the con junc tion of the moon. Also, the moon is not a static body in the heav ens. I am sure that most of you are aware of the fact that the moon moves around the earth in such a fash ion that the same side of it faces the earth at all times. The vis i ble side of the moon is always the same. I was lis ten ing to some one speak ing on cre - ation recently. The issue was not the Sab bath or any thing con cern ing lunar Sab baths, but it was an expla na tion on the unique motion of the moon through space. The speaker said this type of motion could not have hap pened by chance. He said there had to be an extremely intel li gent design for this to have occurred, and I believe it. Every other known heav enly body makes its rev o lu tions in such a way that you have the oppor tu nity to see the front, the back, the sides, and all parts of the body in its rev o lu tion, but this is not pos si ble with the moon. The only way we know what is on the back side of the moon is from the pic tures the astro nauts took when they went around the moon. The fact is that from the earth we see only one side of the moon and just as God arranged this in an exact fash ion, he could also have set up an exact twenty-eight day orbit of the earth by the moon with seven-day cycles. It would not have been hard for God to have done this, but he did not. I am going to make a very bold state ment, but I believe it is true. The lunar Sab bath doc trine requires us to believe that the papacy really did not change the Sab bath day; for, and please lis ten very well, the accep tance of the lunar Sab bath requires us to believe that the sev enth-day Sab bath, what we call Sat ur day, is NOT JEHOVAH S day any more than Sunday is Sat ur day is no more the Sab bath than Sunday is! In fact, some claim the Sat ur day Sab bath to be a child of Satan! Inspired his tory, how ever, dis agrees with this concept. Allen Stump Old Paths October 2013

17 The Big Lie (Dr. Pedrin has gra ciously granted us per mis sion to pub - lish his book, The Big Lie. He may be con tacted through his website, clearbibleanswers.org. Editor) PREFACE In my nine teen years of min is try, I had never come across a chal lenge of such mag ni tude. I was intro duced to the lunar Sab bath doc trine when one pre cious fam ily in my local church, which I min is ter to, got trapped into it last year. By the grace of God, truth tri umphed at the end, and they are back into the fold. Of late, I hear that many thou sands of pre cious souls have stopped observ ing the sev enth day Sat ur day Sab bath and are observ ing the lunar Sab bath and feast days and after read ing the erro ne ous mate ri als on the Internet, sev eral oth ers are con fused as to what is the real truth. One thing is cer tain the lunar Sab bath doc trine is not truth and is not from God because it does not con vince peo - ple, but it con fuses them! When some thing is truth even a child can grasp it, but the lunar Sab bath doc trine defies sim - ple rea son ing and math as well. As cre ation was an eas ier pro cess for God than redemp - tion, to get some one to the truth is eas ier than to get them back to the truth, but with God all things are pos si ble. I ded i cate this book to all who are strug gling to see the light. Michael Pedrin, Ph.D. March 2010 Chapter 1 THE CHALLENGE We know that the big gest decep tion is yet in the future when Satan imper son ates Christ. Why does Satan do so? He does it in a des per ate attempt to get one class of peo ple who have not been a prey to his guile. They are ready to receive the seal of the liv ing God and to be declared secure for eter nity. He wants to have a last go at them. In vivid details the Pen of Inspi ra tion lays down this warn - ing mes sage: As the crown ing act in the great drama of de cep tion, Sa - tan him self will per son ate Christ.... he claims to have changed the Sab bath to Sunday, and com mands all to hal - low the day which he has blessed. He de clares that those who per sist in keep ing holy the sev enth day are blas phem - ing his name by re fus ing to lis ten to his an gels sent to them with light and truth. This is the strong, al most over mas ter - ing delusion. (Ellen White, The Great Con tro versy, p. 624) We are warned about great per plex ity and con fu sion creep ing in as a part of the enemy s strat egy to derail the pre - cious faith of the saints: The days are fast ap proach ing when there will be great per plex ity and con fu sion. Sa tan, clothed in an gel robes, will de ceive, if pos si ble, the very elect.... Ev ery wind of doc trine will be blow ing. (El len White, Tes ti mo nies for the Church, vol. 5, p. 80) God will purge His church, and He has many ways to do it. We are told one way is by the intro duc tion of false doc trines: When the shak ing co mes, by the in tro duc tion of false the o ries, these sur face read ers, an chored no where, are like shift ing sand. They slide into any po si tion to suit the tenor of their feel ings of bit ter ness. (El len White, Tes ti mo nies to Min is ters and Gos pel Work ers, p. 112) The Lu nar Sab bath De cep tion Of late, a strange doc trine seems to be trap ping many pre - cious souls into a great decep tion. Many times in the last cen tury it has tried to pop up but since a decade or so, it has gained momen tum, and it seems to be spread ing rap idly on the Internet. From the book of Rev e la tion, we know that the final issue will be the seal of God ver sus the mark of the beast the true Sab bath ver sus the false Sab bath. Why does Satan impose the Sunday law? The only rea son is to force the true Sab bath-keep ers to stop keep ing God s day holy. The rest of the world he does n t need to force he has deceived them already, and they are not keep ing the true day. As the Sunday law is to force Sab bath-keep ers into dis - obe di ence of the true Sab bath, the lunar Sab bath doc trine is to deceive the Sab bath-keep ers into dis obe di ence of the true Sab bath. The tar gets of both are Seventh-day Adven tists. It is claimed that many tens of thou sands of Sev enth-day Adven tists have left the faith and have aligned them selves to this new the ory. A website which was, till late, staunchly defend ing the true Sat ur day Sab bath has moved into the grand decep tion of the lunar Sab bath doc trine. This site boasts of over ninety thou sand mem bers who have joined them in a period of less than a year. There are sev eral other websites and inde pend ent min is tries who are for mer Sev - enth-day Adven tists pro mot ing this spu ri ous doc trine. The Is sues What are the issues and chal lenges of the lunar Sab bath doc trine? Its adher ents agree that the sev enth day of the week is the Sab bath, but they say that the sev enth day of the week is not Sat ur day or Sunday and nei ther is its sev enth-day Sab bath fixed on Mon day, Tues day, Wednes day, Thurs day, or Fri day! They say the Gre go rian cal en dar that we are using now to iden tify the weekly Sab bath is not in har mony with the bib li - cal cal en dar. The solar Gre go rian cal en dar which we use has weeks that are con tin u ous. They claim that the weeks dur ing bib li cal times were based on the luni-solar cal en dar and that the weeks did not run con tin u ously for more than four weeks. Vol. 22, No

18 How is the luni-solar cal en dar dif fer ent from the Gre go - rian solar cal en dar that we use today? The Gre go rian cal en dar is not guided by the phases of the moon. The new moon can fall on any date of our months. The months in our cal en dar have thirty or thirty-one days, except Feb ru ary which has twenty-eight or twenty-nine days. In the luni-solar cal en dar, the new moon begins a new month, and the months have twenty-nine or thirty days. Why it is that one month has twenty-nine days and the next month thirty days? It is because there are about twenty-nine and one half days from one new moon to the next new moon. Since we can not have half days, they alter nate between twenty-nine and thirty days. Now, twelve lunar months of twenty-nine and one half days will be about 354 days. That is close to eleven days short of the a solar year that has about 365 days. As the solar cal en dar adds one day (Feb ru ary 29) every fourth year, the luni-solar cal en dar adds one extra month (a thir teenth month) every two or three years. In a nine - teen-year period, they add seven months extra. In our cal en dar, the days of the week are inde pend ent of the months. Whether a month has twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty, or thirty-one days does not affect the weekly cycle. The weekly cycle is a con tin u ous cycle, and the Sab bath comes every sev enth day of the week, regard less of the num - ber of days in a month. The lunar Sabbatarians say that the week is reg u lated by the new moon. Now, the new moon is the begin ning of a month in the Bible. Accord ing to them, the week-count begins the next day after the new moon, so the first day of the week is the sec ond day of the month, and the first Sab bath of the month, there fore, will be on the eighth of the month. The Sab baths are, there fore, fixed for them. They are always on the eighth, the fif teenth, the twenty-sec ond, and the twenty-ninth of every month, and the first of every month is the new moon. Lunar months alter nate between twenty-nine and thirty days. Six times in the year the months have thirty days. What do they do with the extra day, the thir ti eth day, because the twenty-ninth is their fixed Sab bath and the first is the new moon? They call the extra day either a tran si tion day, a repair ing day, or the trans la tion day of the new moon. Two or Three Cat e go ries of Days? We believe that there are just two kinds of days six work days and the sev enth-day Sab bath. At no time in our cal en dar can the Sab bath come on a work day. That is because they are two dis tinct days. They believe there are three kinds of days six work days, the Sab bath day, and the new moon day. They quote a verse in Ezekiel which says: 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. (Ezekiel 46:1) In our pres ent cal en dar the new moon can fall on a Sab bath (it does once in a while) and based on the above text of Ezekiel 46:1, the gates had to be opened on new moon days and on Sab bath days. So, it is no prob lem; the gates can be opened. Again, based on our pres ent cal en dar, the new moon can also fall on one of the six work days of the week (and most of the time this is so), but if the new moon falls on one of the six work days of the week, what has to be done? Are the gates to be opened or closed? The text in Ezekiel says to keep them open six work ing days and keep them closed on the new moon days. So, do we keep them opened or closed? The prob lem, they say, is solved only when we con sider the new moon as a third cat e gory of the days in the month. The three cat e go ries of the days are the new moon, the six work days of the week, and the sev enth-day Sab bath. These are three dis tinct days, and they don t over lap one another, so they say. Accord ing to the lunar Sabbatarians, the new moon day, there fore, does not fall on a Sab bath or on the six work ing days of the week. The new moon day is the first day of the month. The first day is a wor ship day like the Sab bath, but is not a Sab bath day, nei ther is it a work day of the week. If that is the case that the new moon day is a sep a rate day that does not fall on one of the six work ing days then there is a seri ous prob lem because then Sat ur day can not be the sev enth day of the week and can not be the Sab bath! Accord ing to the Bible the new moon is always the first day of the month. The new moon starts a new month. The word month comes from the word moon and accord ing to the lunar Sabbatarians, since the new moon is not a Sab bath, nei - ther is it a work day of the week. The work days of the week and the Sab baths of the month are fixed on par tic u lar dates of the month, just like the new moon is. The lunar Sabbatarians say the weekly Sab baths are always fixed on the eighth, the fif teenth, the twenty-sec ond, and the twenty-ninth of each and every lunar month, with out any excep tions. Accord ing to them, the bib li cal cal en dar is like this: the first is the new moon; the eighth, the fif teenth, the twenty-sec ond, and the twenty-ninth are Sab baths; if there is a thir ti eth day, it is the trans la tion day of the new moon or an extra day of the new moon; and the remain ing days are the work days of the week. The Two Proofs: The Manna and the Cru ci fix ion The lunar Sabbatarians pro vide at least two proofs to show that the Sab baths always fall on one of the above-men tioned dates. The Old Tes ta ment proof they show is the manna, and the New Tes ta ment proof they show is the days of the week in the cru ci fix ion account. When did the chil dren of Israel arrive at the wil der ness of Sin? Old Paths October 2013

19 And they took their jour ney from Elim, and all the con - gre ga tion of the chil dren of Is rael came unto the wil der ness of Sin, which is be tween Elim and Si nai, on the fif teenth day of the sec ond month af ter their de part ing out of the land of Egypt. (Ex o dus 16:1) When did God prom ise to give manna? I have heard the mur mur ings of the chil dren of Is rael: speak unto them, say ing, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morn ing ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God. (Ex o dus 16:12) Based on the above two verses, they claim that the manna started to be given on the morn ing of the six teenth. Did God give them manna on the Sab bath? 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) If the com mence ment of the manna was on the six teenth day of the month and that was the first day of manna-giv ing, then the sev en teenth was the sec ond day of manna, the eigh - teenth was the third day of manna, the nine teenth was the fourth day of manna, the twen ti eth was the fifth day of manna, the twenty-first was the sixth day of manna, and the twenty-sec ond was the sev enth day with no manna because it was the Sab bath. So if twenty-sec ond of that month was a Sab bath, the next Sab bath would be seven days later the twenty-ninth. The pre vi ous Sab bath before the twenty-sec ond would be seven days ear lier the fif teenth and the pre vi ous Sab bath before fif teenth would be seven days before that, the eighth of the month. This is their solid Old Tes ta ment proof that the Sab baths are fixed always on eighth, fif teenth, twenty-sec - ond and twenty-ninth of each and every month. Their New Tes ta ment proof is the cru ci fix ion of Jesus Christ. Jesus died on the Pass over day, and the Pass over day is always on the four teenth day of the first Jew ish month: In the four teenth day of the first month at even is the LORD S pass over. (Le vit i cus 23:5) The day after Jesus died was the fif teenth day of the first month, and was n t it the sev enth-day Sab bath? Luke calls the day Jesus died as the prep a ra tion day, and the next day was the Sab bath. Luke wrote: And that day was the prep a ra tion, and the sab bath drew on. (Luke 23:54) If the fif teenth day of that month was a Sab bath, then seven days before that was the eighth, and seven days after the fif teenth was the twenty-sec ond, and seven days after the twenty-sec ond was the twenty-ninth. So even in the month Jesus died, you have the eighth, the fif teenth, the twenty-sec - ond and the twenty-ninth as Sab baths! They claim these two great proofs from the Old and New Tes ta ment make their point that Sab baths are always fixed on the eighth, the fif teenth, the twenty-sec ond, and the twenty-ninth and are almost indis put able! They have other nar ra tions from Scrip ture that they use to fur ther prove that the Sab baths are fixed on the above-men tioned dates, but those other nar ra tions are even less force ful than the manna and the cru ci fix ion accounts. We will look at the other accounts later. An other Is sue Another seri ous issue the lunar Sabbatarians have raised is the reck on ing of a bib li cal day. We believe a day is counted from sun set to sun set, but they say that a day is reck oned from sun rise to sun rise. They show many texts, but here are a few: And the peo ple stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gath ered the quails. (Num - bers 11:32) In the above text we have that day, that night, and the next day. What they are say ing is that there are two days men tioned in the above verse that day and next day, and one night in between called that night. If a new day begins at night (after sun set), then the night should be called next night. Since it is called that night, it is a proof to them that the night belonged to the pre vi ous day and not the next day. So accord ing to them, a day should be from sun rise to sun rise and not sun set to sun set. Also, they quote the kill ing of the Pass over lamb which was on the four teenth day of the first month: In the four teenth day of the first month at even is the LORD S pass over. (Le vit i cus 23:5) We know from the Scrip tures that the death angel came at night. Now look at the word ing of the Scrip ture care fully: For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night. (Ex - o dus 12:12) The lunar Sabbatarians say if at sun set a new day begins and God was vis it ing His judg ments on the Egyp tians at mid - night, then the night should be referred to as the next night but by call ing the night of four teenth as this night, it indi cates that the night belonged to the four teenth and not to the fif - teenth! That is another proof for them that a new day is reck oned from sun rise to sun rise. They quote other sim i lar texts as well. Twelve-Hour Sab baths? They also say that the Sab bath is only the day light part of the day just twelve hours and is not twenty-four hours. They say that nowhere does the Scrip ture men tion Sab bath night, but only says Sab bath day. Just like we believe that the Sab bath ends at sun set, the lunar Sabbatarians, too, believe the same. But we say it is from sun set to sun set, but they say it is from sun rise to sun set. The sun set end ing is clearly indi cated in the min is try of Jesus while He was work ing mir a cles. When Jesus was heal ing the peo ple on the Sab bath day, the lead ers of Israel told the peo - ple not to come for heal ing on the Sab bath day. Vol. 22, No

20 And the ruler of the syn a gogue an swered with in dig na - tion, be cause that Je sus had healed on the sab bath day, and said unto the peo ple, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them there fore come and be healed, and not on the sab bath day. (Luke 13:14) That is the rea son we see peo ple com ing to Jesus after sun set: And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were dis eased, and them that were pos sessed with dev ils.... And he healed many that were sick of di - vers dis eases, and cast out many dev ils. (Mark 1:32, 34) So end ing at sun set is not an issue for either group. The dif fer ence is whether the Sab bath begins at sun set or sun rise. For them, all the days begin at sun rise, so the Sab bath also begins at sun rise. They quote the story of the giv ing of the manna to prove that the Sab bath started in the morn ing: And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To mor row is the rest of the holy sab bath unto the LORD. (Ex o dus 16:23) They say that if Sab bath was to begin at sun set, Moses should have said tonight is the rest of the holy Sab bath; how - ever, Moses said to mor row is the rest. The Main Points These are the main points in the lunar Sab bath chal lenge: a) The Sab baths are fixed on the eighth, the fif teenth, the twenty-sec ond, and the twenty-ninth of every month in the Bible. b) A day is reck oned from sun rise to sun rise and not from sun set to sun set. c) The holy hours of the Sab bath are only the twelve hours of day light and does not include the twelve hours of night. Chapter 2 WHEN DOES A DAY BEGIN? We say a bib li cal day begins at sun set. The day is from sun set to sun set. The lunar Sabbatarians say a bib li cal day begins at sunrise. They say the day is from sun rise to sun rise. Let Us Investigate What is men tioned first in the first chap ter of the Gen e sis cre - ation record dark ness or light? And the earth was with out form, and void; and dark ness was upon the face of the deep. (Gen e sis 1:2) Dark ness was there even before the light was intro duced. Log i cally speak ing, the light that came later can not be placed ahead of dark ness in regard to time. That is exactly what the word of God says about each cre ation day dark ness first, light next. God then pro ceeds to make two dis tinct peri ods of time where pre vi ously only one darkness existed: And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God di vided the light from the dark ness. (Gen e sis 1:3, 4) God then names those two peri ods of time: And God called the light Day, and the dark ness he called Night. (Gen e sis 1:5) So, light and day are syn onyms, and dark ness and night are syn onyms. And God called the light Day, and the dark ness he called Night. And the eve ning and the morn ing were the first day. (Gen e sis 1:5) There are only two seg ments in the twenty-four-hour orbit of the earth light and dark ness. We now have dif fer ent ter - mi nol o gies for the two seg ments of time in the above verse of Gen e sis 1:5 light, day, dark ness, night, eve ning, and morn - ing. Light, day, and morn ing are syn onyms. Dark ness, night, and eve ning are syn onyms. Look at the order of the two peri ods of time: And the eve ning and the morn ing were the first day. (Gen e sis 1:5) There are only two peri ods of time dark ness/night/eve - ning and light/day/morn ing. So, eve ning and morn ing means night and day or dark ness and light. How do we know that the eve ning and the morn ing of Gen e sis 1 embraces a twenty-four-hour period and not a twelve-hour period, as the lunar Sabbatarians believe? This same phrase of the eve ning and the morn ing is used also in the book of Dan iel and is clearly a twenty-four-hour period of time. This is the only other place, apart from Gen e - sis 1, where the phrase the eve ning and the morn ing is used: And the vi sion of the eve ning and the morn ing which was told is true: where fore shut thou up the vi sion; for it shall be for many days. (Dan iel 8:26) How many days are the eve ning and the morn ing of Daniel? And he said unto me, Unto two thou sand and three hun - dred days; then shall the sanc tu ary be cleansed. (Dan iel 8:14) The Hebrew words trans lated days in Dan iel 8:14 are the same words in the Hebrew of Dan iel 8:26, where it is trans - lated as eve ning and morn ing. The Hebrew words are ereb and boqer which are the exact words used in Gen e sis 1 for eve ning and morn ing. The two thou sand three hun dred eve nings and morn ings are two thou sand three hun dred full twenty-four-hour peri - ods. The lunar Sabbatarians also agree to this. If the eve ning and the morn ing is a twelve-hour period only, the two thou - sand three hun dred eve nings and morn ings would be just 1150 days (half of two thou sand three hun dred days) and would end in AD 694 instead of in AD Old Paths October 2013

21 So, if the lunar Sabbatarians agree to the two thou sand three hun dred eve nings and morn ings as two thou sand three hun dred twenty-four-hour days, then it is incon sis tent to inter pret the eve ning and the morn ing of Gen e sis as just com pass ing twelve hours. From the very first chap ter of the Bible, we see when a new day begins. It begins in the eve ning, at dark ness. The Unleavened 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) So, the feast of the unleav ened bread starts on the fif teenth day, and it con tin ues for seven days. If a reck on ing of a twenty-four-hour day begins at sun rise, then it has to start on the morn ing of the fif teenth but as we saw in the Gen e sis cre - ation record, a twenty-four-hour day begins at eve ning. Notice when the fif teenth day begins: 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) Gen e sis gave us the rule of how to reckon a day and from when to reckon it. Exo dus con firms the same reck on ing it is from eve ning to eve ning. 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. (Le vit i cus 23:27) Notice, when does the tenth day begin, accord ing to God, on the morn ing of the tenth or on the eve ning of the ninth? 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 23:32) Here we have the first three books of the Bible in a row Gen e sis, Exo dus and Levit i cus all attest ing to the eve ning as the begin ning of a new day! The Time of Nehemiah 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) The Sab bath begins when it is dark, when the sun is set. Began to be dark is the time when the sun is begin ning to set, just before the Sab bath. The gates were closed just before the Sab bath com menced. The above phrase began to be dark before the Sab bath clearly indi cates that the Sab bath began when it was dark. Began to be dark means the dark ness was immi - nent dark ness fol lowed not later, but imme di ately. Before the sab bath means the Sab bath was immi nent the Sab bath fol lowed not later, but imme di ately. The Cru ci fix ion A per son wor thy of death was to be hanged on a tree, but God instructed His peo ple to fol low a pro ce dure; they were not to remain hang ing at night. And if a man have com mit ted a sin wor thy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree: His body shall not re main all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is ac - cursed of God;) that thy land be not de filed, which the LORD thy God giv eth thee for an in her i tance. (Deu ter on - omy 21:22) Joshua fol lowed this rule when he hanged the king of Ai: And the king of Ai he hanged on a tree un til even tide: and as soon as the sun was down, Joshua com manded that they should take his car case down from the tree. (Joshua 8:29) At the time of Jesus, this rule was fol lowed as well. 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 Pi - late that their legs might be bro ken, and that they might be taken away. (John 19:31) The bod ies were not to remain on the cross dur ing any night. How much more so when it was a Sab bath night! 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? There is no com mand in the Old Tes ta ment that the bod ies should not remain on the cross on the Sab bath. The com mand was that the bod ies should not remain on the cross at night. It does not say in John 19:31 that the bod ies should not remain on the cross at night, but that the bod ies should not remain upon the cross on the sab bath day. This clearly implies that the Sab bath started that night, at sun set, and not at sun rise. This man went unto Pi late, and begged the body of Je - sus.... And that day was the prep a ra tion, and the sab bath drew on. (Luke 23:52, 54) The Revised Stan dard Ver sion trans lates Luke 23:54 this way: It was the day of Prep a ra tion, and the sab bath was be - gin ning. The sab bath drew on or the sab bath was begin ning does not make sense if the Sab bath was begin ning nearly fif - teen hours later! This again shows that the Sab bath began not at sun rise, but at sun set, the end of the sixth day. Vol. 22, No

22 The Resurrection The apos tle John gives us the period dur ing which Mary Mag da lene vis ited the sep ul chre to anoint the body of Jesus: 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) 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. This proves that the first day of the week started even before the sun could rise! That means the first day of the week, accord ing to John, did not start at sun rise but at sun set the pre vi ous night. The Third Day Res ur rec tion For he taught his dis ci ples, and said unto them, The Son of man is de liv ered into the hands of men, and they shall kill him; and af ter that he is killed, he shall rise the third day. (Mark 9:31) The lunar Sabbatarians agree that Jesus died on Fri day, the sixth day of the week, at 3 p.m. Accord ing to the above text of Mark 9:31, after Christ was killed, the third day He would rise. The day of His death was Fri day (sixth day of the week), the next day after His death was Sat ur day (sev enth day of the week), and the third day was Sunday (the first day of the week). If sun rise is the begin ning of a new day, accord ing to the lunar Sabbatarians, and not sun set, then Jesus rose on the sec ond day and not the third day! Here it is John wrote: 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) If the stone was removed from the sep ul chre while it was yet dark, it means Jesus rose while it was yet dark! Let s count it from the lunar Sabbatarians view point: On the sixth day of week Jesus died (the first day of His death), the sev enth day of the week Jesus rested (the sec ond day from His death), and the first day of the next week Jesus rose before sun rise (still the sec ond day). If sun rise begins a new day, then Jesus rose on the sec ond day and not the third day! Sab bath Twelve Hours or Twenty-Four Hours? The lunar Sabbatarians believe that the holy hours of the Sab bath are just twelve hours and not twenty-four hours. The rea son they believe this is because if the Sab bath is twenty-four hours long, then the quails pose a very big prob - lem. The lunar Sabbatarians believe that the fif teenth of any month in the Bible was a Sab bath, but God sent quails on the fif teenth!... on the fif teenth day of the sec ond month af ter their de part ing out of the land of Egypt.... And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and cov ered the camp. (Ex o dus 16:1, 13) So how do they escape? Since quails came in the eve ning, after sun set, the lunar Sabbatarians came up with the the ory that the holy hours of the Sab bath are only the day light part and not the dark part! This is what they say: Have you ever heard of a Sab bath night men tioned in Scrip ture or were we only told to re mem ber the sev enth DAY? (Elesha YisraEl, quoted by Troy Miller in When does Scrip ture say a day be gins? p. 10; em pha sis in orig i - nal; ac cessed at at the link en ti tled When does a day be gin, eve ning or morn ing, mid night or noon? ) That expla na tion is totally unac cept able and illog i cal. For exam ple, when a per son is born in the night, it is still called birth day and not birthnight! Don t peo ple have birth day cel - e bra tions in the night as well is that wrong? It does n t mat ter at what part of the twenty-four-hour period an event occurs it is still called Inde pend ence Day, Lib er a tion Day, Anni ver sary Day, etc. And those who work on night shifts, while on vaca tion, they say I am on holidays, and not holinights! Just because it is called Sab bath day, to con clude there is no Sab bath night is absurd! The day before the Sab bath is called the prep a ra tion day: And now when the even was come, be cause it was the prep a ra tion, that is, the day be fore the sab bath. (Mark 15:42) If the Sab bath hours are only from sun rise to sun set (twelve hours), then why do we need a prep a ra tion day, just the prep a ra tion night might be all that would be required! Hav ing a prep a ra tion night, instead of a prep a ra tion day, could make sense if the Sab bath were just twelve hours! Does Day Mean the Day light Part Only? The lunar Sabbatarians keep empha siz ing that a day in the Bible is only the day light part and not the night: The word day re fers to light only. (YisraEl, p. 10; em - pha sis in orig i nal) They for get to real ize that the word day has more than one mean ing in Scrip ture and also in Eng lish and other lan guages. Yes, day can mean the day light period, when the sun shines, in con trast to the night, the dark part: Je sus an swered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, be cause he seeth the light of this world? (John 11:9) But day in Scrip ture can also mean a twenty-four-hour period the dark part and the light part com bined: Seven days shall ye eat un leav ened bread... In the first month, on the four teenth day of the month at even, ye shall Old Paths October 2013

23 eat un leav ened bread, un til the one and twen ti eth day of the month at even. (Ex o dus 12:15, 18) So here, seven days means seven days and seven nights. Day in Scrip ture can also mean a big ger period of time: For he saith, I have heard thee in a time ac cepted, and in the day of sal va tion have I suc coured thee: be hold, now is the ac cepted time; be hold, now is the day of sal va tion. (2 Co rin thi ans 6:2) Can any one say that since sal va tion is called the day of sal va tion, one can not accept the gos pel mes sage in the night? The lunar Sabbatarians keep say ing day means day and night means night, and you can t make the day as night and the night as day. Then what do they do with the fol low ing text? But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. (2 Pe ter 3:10) Though the Lord comes as a thief in the night, it is called the day of the lord and not the night of the Lord! If it is true, as quoted ear lier, that the word day refers to light only, what do we do with the words of Jesus in gos pel of Mark? And Je sus saith unto him, Ver ily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, be fore the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. (Mark 14:30) The above state ment was made dur ing the night hours, after the Lord s Sup per was over, while they were head ing towards Geth sema ne. And Christ called the night as day! They have noth ing to say for this. Would they like to accuse Jesus of doing this? The lunar Sabbatarians are twist ing sim ple math. In the website arti cle quoted ear lier, this is what they say: Ac cord ing to Le vit i cus 8:35, Aaron and his sons were to re main at the door of the Ta ber na cle, day and night, seven days. How many nights did they re main? (A) - Six nights. Count em... D N D N D N D N D N D N D [A for an swer, D for day, N for night]. (YisraEl, p. 11; em pha sis in orig i nal) First, please note that they are mis taken and then, let s expose their math e mat i cal tricks. The day and night, seven days ends on the eighth day and not on the sev enth day. Just two verses later, in the very first verse of the next chap ter, Moses writes about the day when Aaron and his sons came out of the Taber na cle: And it came to pass on the eighth day... (Le vit i cus 9:1) So, if it ended on the eighth day, the sev enth night is included in the day and night, seven days. Period! Let us see a par al lel reck on ing of time. For how long did it rain in Noah s time? And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. (Gen e sis 7:12) A lit tle fur ther down, the Bible uses a lit tle dif fer ent method of count ing: And the flood was forty days upon the earth. (Gen e sis 7:17) When we com pare the above two pas sages, there is no con tra dic tion for us forty days equals forty days and forty nights but for the lunar Sabbatarians who say the word day means light only, there is a prob lem! Did it rain just dur ing the light hours, as per Gen e sis 7:17? Or did it rain dur ing the light and dark hours, as per Gen e sis 7:12? Or were there two floods one for forty days only and the other for forty days and forty nights? From cre ation to res ur rec tion we have clear proofs from the word of God that a bib li cal day is counted from eve ning to eve ning, from sun set to sun set, and not from sun rise to sun rise! Also, we have seen the word day does n t always mean the light part, when the sun shines. Day also means the dark and light parts com bined as well, apart from hav ing other mean - ings too. Only Twelve Hours of Wor ship? The lunar Sabbatarians use the text of Psalm 113:3 to prove that Sab bath wor ship is just twelve hours from sun rise to sun set: If the cel e bra tion of our Sab bath days and our new moons (Isa iah 66:23) be gins in the eve ning when the sun is go ing down, why would Our Cre ator state that all na - tions shall praise His Name and wor ship Him from the ris ing of the sun un til the go ing down of the same (sun)? From the ris ing of the sun unto the go ing down of the same YHVH s name is to be praised (Psalm 113:3). (A[nswer]) If the Sab bath started in the evening, as many of our peo ple be lieve, then this verse would make no sense whatsoever. (YisraEl, p. 11; em pha sis in orig i nal) The above quoted verse or even the entire Psalm of 113 does not men tion the Sab bath or Sab bath wor ship at all! If that text of Psalm 113:3 is the rec om mended time to wor ship God, what about Psalm 55, which comes before Psalm 113? Eve ning, and morn ing, and at noon, will I pray, and cry aloud: and he shall hear my voice. (Psalm 55:17) This looks more like Sab bath wor ship, for it starts at eve - ning, then morn ing, and then noon. But we don t inter pret scrip tures based on assump tions. If Psalm 113:3 is the rec - om mended time of wor ship for them, then what about Paul and Silas prais ing God at mid night? And at mid night Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the pris on ers heard them. (Acts 16:25) This text of Acts 16 looks more like a con gre ga tion at wor - ship than does Psalm 113. In Acts 16 there was a gath er ing of peo ple (pris on ers) pres ent too, apart from Paul and Silas preach ers and sing ers! And, it was a midnight ser - vice, not midday! Again, we don t build our doc trines on assump tions! We build our doc trine on the plain com mand of Scrip ture which Vol. 22, No

24 says, From even unto even, shall ye cel e brate your sab bath (Levit i cus 23:32). The eve ning and the morn ing of Gen e sis 1 What do the lunar Sabbatarians have to say to these many clear-cut proofs that we have for a sun set reck on ing? We will now look at their expla na tions to the texts we have quoted and see why their inter pre ta tions are flawed and not sound. This is what they say: The Gen e sis ac count de fines the day as eve ning and morn ing, which are the two parts of the ra di ant sun - shine of day light, and have noth ing at all to do with the night. (Ker rie L. French, Three Months in a Row, Part 2 The Manna ; ac cessed at ti - cles/three_months/2_02_the_manna.html#.uh-heraf Mpo) Eve ning and morn ing is not syn on y mous with night and day, but rather eve ning and morn ing are two halves of the day light hours... (Ker rie L. French, Part 3 The Moun tain ; ac cessed at ti - cles/three_months/3_02_the_moun tain.html#.uh-jbhaf Mpo) The eve ning to gether with the morn ing make up the first day light. This is a sim ple math equa tion: = 1 whole day light. There fore the first day light was made up of two parts, morn ing and eve ning. Morn - ing be gins at dawn and ends at noon; eve ning be gins at noon and ends at dusk. (Un known au thor, When Does a Day Be gin? ; ac cessed at en - dar/when-does-a-day-be gin.html) If God meant the eve ning and the morn ing to be the two halves of the day light hours, as they claim, then there was an easier way of putt ing it. God should have said it the other way around that the morn ing and the eve ning were the first day, etc., and not the eve ning and the morn ing! Was God calculating back wards? The lunar Sabbatarians say, as quoted above, that the eve - ning together with the morn ing make up the first day light, but the Bible says that the eve ning and the morn ing were the first day (Gen e sis 1:5). The Bible does n t say first daylight, it just says first day! The lunar Sabbatarians are mak ing peo ple believe some - thing that the Bible does not say! The lunar Sabbatarians also say, as quoted above, that the Gen e sis account defines the day as eve ning and morn ing, which are the two parts of the radi ant sun shine of day light, and have noth ing at all to do with the night. Now look at a story where God sent quails in the eve ning and manna in the morn ing: At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morn ing ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God. (Ex o dus 16:12) The quails came on the eve ning of the fif teenth (they agree to this). If eve ning and morn ing are the two parts of the day - light, did the quails come on the day light of the fif teenth? And if quails came dur ing the day light of fif teenth, then by their own rule the quails came on the day light of the Sab bath! (For them, the day light of the fif teenth of any month is a Sab - bath.) That should be the end of all issues regard ing the lunar Sab baths! So you can see how they have mis in ter preted the Gen e sis reck on ing of time of the eve ning and the morn ing. To be con tin ued Fractal: The above image is called a fractal and is gen er ated by a math e mat i cal for mula. A fractal is defined as a geo met - ric pat tern that is repeated at ever smaller scales to pro duce irreg u lar shapes and sur faces that can not be rep re sented by classical geometry. Fractals are used espe cially in com puter mod el ing of irreg u lar pat terns and struc tures in nature ( Mathematicians have discovered, that fractal features are in tree branch pat terns, blood ves sels, snow flakes, and even DNA. God cer tainly is a won der ful Archi tect! 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. Du pli ca 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) Editor...Allen Stump ed i tor@smyrna.org Associate Editor...Onycha Holt onycha@smyrna.org Old Paths October 2013