12.05.2018 THE CHANGE OF THE LAW And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. Daniel 7:25 (KJV) He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time. Daniel 7:25 (NKJV) We know that Biblical prophecy in Revelation (particularly chapters 13, 17 and 18) tells us that in the end-time, politics, religion and business will be under the control of Satan and his agents. In the religious world, corrupted Christianity will be one of the major players. They are all represented under the symbol of Babylon; that great political power who was an enemy of the nation of Israel, and who, in the end-time is a symbol of spiritual forces of darkness (manifested in politics, religion and business) that rise up against God s spiritual kingdom. While the kingdom of God runs on the principles of self-giving love and self-denial, the principles of Satan s kingdom are force and self-worship. By this, his agents in the end-time will enforce laws that seem moral, but are in contradiction to God s eternal precepts. None of God s laws are enforced upon us, for God gives each person freedom to choose. Why is the Sabbath commandment so important? The Sabbath commandment is the most important of all the commands God has given us in the Bible because it is a revelation to us that: 1. We have done nothing to be given the perfect gift of Creation. 2. We have done nothing to be given the perfect gift of salvation. 3. We can do nothing to make ourselves righteous all our righteousness is like filthy rags all our commandment keeping that is done in our own strength comes short of the glory of God. 4. True Sabbath-keeping is entering into the rest of God. God works so that we can rest in His finished, completed work of Creation, Redemption (Deuteronomy 5:15, Sanctification (Ezekiel 20:12) and Re-Creation (Isaiah 66:22, 23). Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. Genesis 2:1-3 The seventh day of Creation was God s seventh day! It was Adam and Eve s first day. God asked them to rest with Him because He had completed a perfect world for them; they could do nothing to add to it. In resting on the seventh day, they were entering into God s rest. Some commentators bring out the fact that the evening and the morning are not stated with regard to the seventh day as they are with the other days of Creation "there was evening and there was morning" is conspicuously absent on the seventh day. The seventh day has a beginning, but it goes on forever---eternal cessation. There is simply no end to God's rest. Augustine. 5. True Sabbath-keeping is to rest weekly from physical activity as a SIGN that we rest perpetually from our own works to gain salvation. Instead of trying (and always failing Romans 7:15-23) to keep God s laws with the best of intentions ( my righteousness ), I work out my salvation with fear and trembling (self-distrust) and surrender myself continually to God so that He can will and He can work out His righteousness in my life (Philippians 2:12, 13). 6. True Sabbath-keeping is recognising that God is for us and has been working for us from the beginning. Our salvation; our sanctification; our glorification is accomplished by believing in what he has done. Entering into God s rest is all we have to do. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works as God did from his. Hebrews 4:10
God knows how hard it is for fallen man to rest. He always wants to take some credit for what has been achieved. So the author of Hebrews writes: Let us labour to enter into God s rest Hebrews 4:9 All our effort must be directed at distrusting ourselves to do anything that is worthwhile is God s sight and allow God Himself to work in us and through us. This really requires effort for those of us who have been working hard in our own strength to please God. If we really want to please God, we must follow the exhortation below: But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Hebrews 11:6 If we really want to work the works of God, this is what Jesus says we must do: Then they said to Him, What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent. John 6:28, 29 It is important to notice what was done to this day. The record in the second chapter of Genesis, which is the first mention that we have of the Sabbath, says, He rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. It is apparent at once that the Creator of the ends of the earth, who never wearies, and who never is faint, did not rest on that first seventh day because he had wearied himself in the work of creation. Said Christ to the woman of Samaria, God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth. God being spirit, his rest must be spiritual rest. And that is a matter of no small importance, because we overlook the true idea of the Sabbath when we take it to mean merely a day of physical rest. Who rested on that day?-christ, who was the agent in creation, rested on that day. Because he was tired?-not in any sense. It was a spiritual rest. He rested and was refreshed. He took delight in viewing the works which he had made. That was the rest. Sabbath means rest, and from the very nature of the institution of the Sabbath, it means spiritual rest. Observe the practical application of that idea. If physical rest is the only idea of the Sabbath, man can rest on one day just as well as another. He can do more; he can divide up his rest during the several days of the week, and he can rest three or four hours each day, as may suit him. He may rest rainy days and work sunshiny days if he pleases, if physical rest is the only idea of the Sabbath. Let it be understood that merely refraining from work is not God s idea of Sabbath-keeping. It may be Sunday-keeping; it may be Saturday-keeping; it may be Friday-keeping; it may be Monday-keeping; but it is not Sabbath-keeping. It is not Sabbath-keeping, because the idea of Sabbath is spiritual rest. And in no other way can the Sabbath be kept in the fullness of its meaning than as a spiritual rest. It will therefore be seen at once that all theories of Sabbath-keeping which rest upon the idea of physical recuperation, are good for nothing. Man can enforce abstinence from labour, but he cannot enforce Sabbath-keeping. A man may be forced to refrain from physical work; he may be kept in idleness, but no one can enforce Sabbath-keeping. It is a spiritual thing entirely. It is true that in genuine Sabbath-keeping there will be an entire cessation from unnecessary physical work; but that is not in itself Sabbath-keeping. The reason why we cease from labour on the seventh day, the Sabbath of our Lord Jesus Christ, is that we may be at liberty to contemplate God as manifested to us in Jesus Christ. And the resting from physical labour is an outward sign of the fact that we have ceased from sin. For we which have believed do enter into rest, and he that hath entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from his. Now our works are always sinful works. The one who is converted, in whom the power of God through Jesus Christ has been manifested to create him anew, to create a new heart in him, stops his own works. His own works are sinful. He ceases from his own works as God did from his. The Sabbath was a memorial of the fact that God in Christ rested from his work. The Sabbath is the sign to the Christian that he has rested from his work, and that the power of God is working in him both to will and to do of his good pleasure. When we cease from our works, which are sinful, we are saved from sin. But it is creative power alone which can save from sin, and that creative power is always manifested through Jesus Christ. And this work going on in us is the work of sanctification. Then the blessing of the Sabbath is the blessing of sanctification by the power of God working through Jesus Christ. WW Prescott: Christ and His Sabbath. Available at: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/1291.64
Is it any wonder then, why Satan hates the Sabbath and will do all he can to destroy it by any means. He has been very successful throughout history. Some of the methods he uses are simple; others so profoundly deceitful that they deceive even sincere Christians. Here are some of his methods: 1. Tempting us to simply disobey the commandment. 2. Deceiving us into believing that adhering strictly to the command to refrain from physical activity is the sum total of Sabbath-keeping (remember the Pharisees?) 3. Corrupting Christianity and getting the Sabbath rest changed from the seventh to the first day (see additional notes at end). 4. Corrupting many to believe that holiness is no longer binding for Christians after Calvary. This is a particular form of blindness, for Christ died on Calvary so that sinful men might receive a new nature and be holy and without blame (Ephesians 1:4) 5. Changing the purpose of the Law : this is one of the most pervasive and subtle forms of deception practised by Satan. When he fails to achieve his purpose by the above methods, he uses this method; He tells us we have to keep the Law to be saved. The Law was never given to make men righteous; it is impossible for fallen man to attain to righteousness by Law-keeping. The Law is a standard of righteousness; by it we can see our defects of character and unrighteousness. If we look to Christ, the ultimate standard of God s righteousness, our defects of character and our unrighteousness seems multiplied. But the wonderful news is that Christ is not only our standard of righteousness, He Himself is our Righteousness. He gives the gift of His righteousness as soon as we believe in Him, and He sends us His Holy Spirit to live in our spirits and produce His righteousness in our lives; the very righteousness of God. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Galatians 5:4, 5 I ask, How can I present this matter as it is? The Lord Jesus imparts all the powers, all the grace, all the penitence, all the inclination, all the pardon of sins, in presenting His righteousness for man to grasp by living faith--which is also the gift of God. If you would gather together everything that is good and holy and noble and lovely in man and then present the subject to the angels of God as acting a part in the salvation of the human soul or in merit, the proposition would be rejected as treason. EGW: Faith and Works: p.24 To believe that we can do anything to attain to salvation, (apart from accepting God s great gift of salvation daily) is to reject the great salvation God offers in Christ alone; it is also a rejection of the spiritual meaning of the Sabbath. It has eternal consequences. In the last days God s servants will be sealed (Revelation 7:3). It is the Holy Spirit who seals God s people (Ephesians 1:13). But the seal itself signifies that these servants of God, like their spiritual father Abraham, have attained righteousness by faith. While circumcision was a seal of righteousness by faith limited to Abraham and his natural descendants, the Sabbath is the everlasting seal or sign of righteousness by faith that marks God s people (spiritual Israel) throughout time and eternity. The sealed servants of God cry out, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! Revelation 7:10 In the time of the end, the great crisis of conscience will be: Choose you this day who you will serve. God or Satan? God or Mammon? God or Self? At that time, the dividing lines will be clear, the issues made plain to all. There will be no excuse of ignorance then (which can well be true now, and which God is gracious towards Acts 17:30). In that time, the reason for Sabbath-keeping will be clear. And all will make a choice that has eternal consequences. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship Him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship him in spirit and in truth. John 4:23, 24
Let us each one, examine our hearts and ask the Holy Spirit to show us whether we are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5); whether we are true Sabbath keepers, trusting only in Christ Jesus who is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy (Jude 1:24). Additional notes: --------------------------------------------- Changing the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day: "But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify." James, Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of our Fathers, 88th ed., pp. 89. Question: Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?" Answer: Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her-she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority." Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism 3rd ed., p. 174. Question: Which is the Sabbath day? Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day. Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Answer. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday. Peter Geiermann, C.S.S.R., The Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1957), p. 50 "Regarding the change from the observance of the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts: 1) That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe the Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man. 2) We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life, has the right to change the ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws, for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood, the laws concerning mixed marriages, the regulation of Catholic marriages and a thousand other laws. "It is always somewhat laughable, to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible." Peter R. Kraemer, Catholic Church Extension Society (1975),Chicago, Illinois. Of the eleventh horn of Daniel's fourth Beast. (Daniel 7:7, 8, 23-28) [1]_Now Daniel, considered the horns, and behold there came up among them another horn, before whom there were three of the first horns pluckt up by the roots; and behold in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things,_--and [2] his _look was more stout than his fellows,--and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them_: and one who stood by, and made _Daniel_ know the interpretation of these things, told him, that [3] _the ten horns were ten kings that should arise, and another should arise after them, and be diverse from the first, and he should subdue three kings,_ [4] _and speak great words against the most High, and wear out the saints, and think to change times and laws: and that they should be given into his hands until a time and times and half a
time_. Kings are put for kingdoms, as above; and therefore the little horn is a little kingdom. It was a horn of the fourth Beast, and rooted up threeof his first horns; and therefore we are to look for it among the nations of the _Latin_ Empire, after the rise of the ten horns. But it was a kingdom of a different kind from the other ten kingdoms, having a life or soul peculiar to itself, with eyes and a mouth. By its eyes it was a Seer; and by its mouth speaking great things and changing times and laws, it was a Prophet as well as a King. And such a Seer, a Prophet and a King, is the Church of Rome. A Seer, [Greek: Episkopos], is a Bishop in the literal sense of the word; and this Church claims the universal Bishoprick. With his mouth he gives laws to kings and nations as an Oracle; and pretends to Infallibility, and that his dictates are binding to the whole world; which is to be a Prophet in the highest degree. Sir Isaac Newton: Observations on the prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St John. -----------------------------------------------------------