SDA Church Invites Catholic Priest to Preach for Lent

TOP TEN MELODRAMATIC ELLEN WHITE QUOTES ON THE SINS OF EATING

There is something about character of Hyacinth on the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances that reminds me of Ellen White. Hyacinth invites her kind neighbor over for coffee but so over-emphasizes the importance of her china that the neighbor is made miserable for fear of dropping and breaking her cup.  

Ellen White has a way of taking a basically sound principle and theologically spotlighting it to the point that it gives you heartburn just to read her writings on the subject. You'll see what I mean as I count down the top ten most melodramatic and exaggerated theology-of-eating quotes from Ellen White's book Counsels on Diet and Food between pages 49 through 64. 

Please keep in mind as you are reading. Ellen, like many food gurus of her time, thought there was a direct link between eating and immorality. The idea was that if food digested slowly, it would overstimulate the bowels making one obsessed with sex. 

Intemperance in eating and in drinking, and the indulgence of base passions, have benumbed the fine sensibilities, so that sacred things have been placed upon a level with common things.

Those who permit themselves to become slaves to a gluttonous appetite, often go still farther, and debase themselves by indulging their corrupt passions, which have become excited by intemperance in eating and in drinking. They give loose rein to their debasing passions, until health and intellect greatly suffer. The reasoning faculties are, in a great measure, destroyed by evil habits.—Spiritual Gifts 4a:124, 131, 1864 {CD 62.}

(SDAs: No offense intended. Just needed to lighten things up around here... and also italics are mine.)

Countdown Begins:

No. 10: The Great Sins of Old--Appetite!

The people who lived before the flood ate animal food, and gratified their lusts until their cup of iniquity was full, and God cleansed the earth of its moral pollution by a flood.... The same sins of gluttony and drunkenness benumbed the moral sensibilities of the inhabitants of Sodom, so that crimes seemed to be the delight of the men and women of that wicked city....[Christ] would lay before us the danger of making eating and drinking paramount. He reveals the result of giving up to indulgence of appetite. The moral powers are enfeebled, so that sin does not appear sinful. Crimes are winked at, and base passions control the mind, until general corruption roots out good principles and impulses, and God is blasphemed. All this is the result of eating and drinking to excess.... The transgression of God’s commandments has caused His prospering hand to be removed. {CD 60, 61}(Spiritual Gifts 4a:121, 1864) 

No. 9: Don't Indulge Your Pastor's Appetite!

Some persons bring upon the campground food that is entirely unsuitable to such occasions, rich cakes and pies, and a variety of dishes that would derange the digestion of a healthy laboring man.... The minister should decline this well-meant but unwise hospitality, even at the risk of seeming discourteous....They err when they tempt the minister with unhealthful food. Precious talent has thus been lost to the cause of God; and many, while they do live, are deprived of half the vigor and strength of their faculties. {CD 55.2}

No. 8: Sanctification is Controlling Appetite!

[Sanctification] requires that our habits of eating, drinking, and dressing be such as to secure the preservation of physical, mental, and moral health, that we may present to the Lord our bodies,—not an offering corrupted by wrong habits, but “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.” Our habits of eating and drinking show whether we are of the world or among the number whom the Lord by His mighty cleaver of truth has separated from the world. It is intemperance in eating that causes so much invalidism, and robs the Lord of the glory due Him. Because of a failure to deny self, many of God’s people are unable to reach the high standard of spirituality He has set for them, and though they repent and are converted, all eternity will testify to the loss they have sustained by yielding to selfishness.—Letter 135, 1902, The Review and Herald, January 25, 1881, Testimonies for the Church 6:372, 1900 {CD 57-58}

No. 7: You are Unworthy Because of Appetite!

If they will gratify a gross appetite, and by so doing blunt their sensibilities, and becloud their perceptive faculties so that they cannot appreciate the exalted character of God, or delight in the study of His word, they may be assured that God will not accept their unworthy offering any sooner than that of Cain. God requires them to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord.—Spiritual Gifts 4a:148, 149, 1864 {CD 49.4}

No. 6: The Spirit Cannot Come Because of Appetite!

No man can become a successful workman in spiritual things until he observes strict temperance in his dietetic habits. God cannot let His Holy Spirit rest upon those who, while they know how they should eat for health, persist in a course that will enfeeble mind and body.—Undated Manuscript 88 {CD 55.3}

The Spirit of God cannot come to our help, and assist us in perfecting Christian characters, while we are indulging our appetites to the injury of health, and while the pride of life controls... It is impossible for those who indulge the appetite to attain to Christian perfection.—Testimonies for the Church 2:400, 1870, The Health Reformer, September, 1871 {CD 57}

No. 5: Tea and Coffee Make You Lust!

Excessive eating of the best of food will produce a morbid condition of the moral feelings.... Abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul,” is the language of the apostle Peter. Many regard this warning as applicable only to the licentious; but it has a broader meaning. It guards against every injurious gratification of appetite or passion. It is a most forcible warning against the use of such stimulants and narcotics as tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, and morphine. These indulgences may well be classed among the lusts that exert a pernicious influence upon moral character. The earlier these hurtful habits are formed, the more firmly will they hold their victim in slavery to lust, and the more certainly will they lower the standard of spirituality.—The Review and Herald, January 25, 1881 {CD 62.5}

No. 4: Eden Lost Because of Appetite!

As our first parents lost Eden through the indulgence of appetite, our only hope of regaining Eden is through the firm denial of appetite and passion. {CD 59.1}

No. 3: Health Reform Brings Sanctification!

He who cherishes the light which God has given him upon health reform has an important aid in the work of becoming sanctified through the truth, and fitted for immortality.—[Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene, 10] Counsels on Health, 22, 1890 {CD 59.4}

No. 2: Control Appetite, Control Sin!

The controlling power of appetite will prove the ruin of thousands, when, if they had conquered on this point, they would have had moral power to gain the victory over every other temptation of Satan. But those who are slaves to appetite will fail in perfecting Christian character. Testimonies for the Church 3:491, 492, 1875 {CD 59.3}

No. 1: God Ignores You Because of Appetite!

Those who bring disease upon themselves, by self-gratification, have not healthy bodies and minds. They cannot weigh the evidences of truth, and comprehend the requirements of God. Our Saviour will not reach His arm low enough to raise such from their degraded state, while they persist in pursuing a course to sink themselves still lower. {CD 49.3}

SWALLOWING A CAMEL

"La Sierra University faculty...who do not believe in and endorse the voted SDA belief in creation be released from service for La Sierra University," says GC President Ted Wilson

http://spectrummagazine.org/blog/2013/05/21/revealing-another-conversation-could-impact-lsu-story


La Sierra, a Seventh-day Adventist university, has teachers who do not believe in a young earth. This upsets the General Conference so much that the teachers who believe in an old earth are to be fired. This is what the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists are upset about when it comes to La Sierra. 

Yet, there has been not a word spoken against this:

La Sierra University's Edward C. Allred Center honors notorious abortionist!

http://advindicate.com/?p=2560&cpage=4

Seventh-day Adventist David Read writes, "Edward C. Allred made a fortune owning a chain of abortion clinics, personally aborting hundreds of thousands of fetuses, and currently owns gambling venues in California and New Mexico. In 2010, La Sierra University founded the “Edward C. Allred Center for Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship” in his honor."

For those Adventist out there reading this, you should be considering putting on sackcloth and throwing ashes upon your heads. This is a scandal beyond belief. 

The church that stands strong against tobacco and beer and wine. The church that claims it promotes the Ten Commandments. The church that clings to the Sabbath for its very life, but will rejoice and honor a man known for bragging during a 1980  interview with a Los Angeles Times reporter, "to have, personally aborted a quarter of a million fetuses in the preceding 12 years. It may seem difficult to believe that one man could perform so many abortions, but Allred tried to spend no more than five minutes with each pregnant woman."

And said: 

"Population control is too important to be stopped by some right-wing pro-life types." Edward C. Allred, M.D. quoted in Anthony Perry, “Doctor’s Abortion Business is Lucrative,” San Diego Union, October 12, 1980, pages A-3 and A-14.

The Adventist Gosnell. 

Adventists friends and family. Wake up. Protest this as you would a Sunday law. 

The Sabbath, It is Finished

For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Matthew 5: 18 

I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Matthew 26:29

Seventh-day Adventists believe that in these two texts Jesus was speaking of the fulfillment of all things at the Second Coming. That the law given to the Hebrews at Sinai is still in effect (at least some aspects of it) for Christians today because the Kingdom hasn’t yet come. According to Adventists, not a jot or tittle can be changed because at the Cross, all things were not fulfilled, God’s Kingdom did not come.

But what if, what if, at the Cross all things were fulfilled and the Kingdom of God came? Think about it. What if the Kingdom of God actually came at the Cross and resurrection of Christ and God mission was fulfilled --every single jot and tittle?

That is why today, most Christians do not follow the Old Covenant, but the New Covenant. We believe God absolutely fulfilled all of His mission to save at the Cross and with the resurrection the Kingdom of God came onto the earth.

When Jesus came to earth, He was the Word made flesh. Jesus was God’s Word! Jesus came to fulfill the Law and Prophets. He was the Torah incarnate and with His death a profound change in all human history occurred. With the resurrection a new order was established with a new heaven and a new earth. 

The Kingdom was fulfilled

Let’s look at all the texts in the Book of Matthew that show Jesus fulfilled the Law to the very last jot and tittle while on earth:

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet.” 1:22 

“This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, "Out of Egypt have I called my son.” 2:15

“Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet.” Jeremiah.” 2: 17

“And he went and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” 2: 23

But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented.” 3:15

“...that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.” 4:14

“Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them.” 5: 17

“This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” 8:17

“This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah,” 12: 17

“With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: 'You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive.” 13: 14

“This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” 13: 35

“This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying...” 21: 4

“But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” 26: 54

“But all this has taken place, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples forsook him and fled.” 26: 56

“Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel,” 27:9

Every jot and tittle at the Cross was fulfilled. Now a New Covenant has come. We see this specifically noted in the final moments before Christ died.

The Kingdom came at the cup on the Cross

I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom. Matthew 26:29

At the Last Supper, Jesus declared to His disciples that He would not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom came! Adventists assume this is still to happen when Christ comes again. And yet the scripture indicates that at the cross Christ specifically asked for and drank wine right before His death. 

After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the scripture), "I thirst." A bowl full of sour wine stood there; so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. John 19: 28-30

So at the Cross not only was all finished but the Kingdom of God came. And this mustard seed of a kingdom will continue until Jesus comes in the clouds and brings the New Jerusalem, the capital city of God’s kingdom on earth. 

Pacific Union Votes Against GC.....

http://www.atoday.org/article/1354/news/august-headlines/pacific-union-conference-votes-to-authorize-the-ordination-of-women-to-gospel-ministry

Pacific Union Conference Votes to Authorize the Ordination of Women to Gospel Ministry

Submitted: Aug 19, 2012

By AT News Team

Updated August 20, 2012

For the third time this year a union conference constituency session has voted to authorize ordination to the gospel ministry in the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The vote was 79 percent in favor despite a personal appeal from Elder Ted Wilson, president of the General Conference, to reject the concept and two short speeches by Doug Batchelor, the noted television evangelist and senior pastor of the Sacramento Central Church.

Perhaps the most unexpected development of the day was a speech by Elder Ernie Castillo, a vice president of the North American Division and former executive secretary of the Pacific Union. He pointed out that the actions of these union conferences are in direct response to steps taken last fall by the GC Officers to force the NAD to back off on a policy that would have permitted commissioned ministers, including women, to serve as conference presidents. What is known as Working Policy E 60.

“This is not rebellion,” Castillo said directly to Wilson in front of the entire body. “This is a reaction. People who for 40 years have been repressed and discriminated against will eventually react. That is sociology 101.”

[Teresa Beem's Note: It is extremely difficult to understand Mr. Castillo remark that woman have been "repressed and discriminated" against for forty years. Women have never been ordained in the SDA church neither does it constitute repression nor discrimination for women to be denied ordination. Gender roles represent a beautiful, natural distinction in roles, not discrimination. The illusionary war on women is seeping into even the most remote of places....]

Wilson and Lowell Cooper, one of the GC vice presidents, made the same appeal that they presented to the Columbia Union Conference constituency session in July, although the language was somewhat softened with no reference to unspecified “grave consequences.” The delegates were asked to wait until the GC completes a study of the denomination’s theology of ordination launched last year. “It will be something more than ever before,” Wilson promised.

“It will be a very open and fair process. It is not window-dressing but an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to unite us.”

[The Holy Spirit is going to unite the church in the process of dividing it?]

He indicated that it would be balanced and gender-inclusive with lay members as well as clergy. He stated that the list of members of the committee that will integrate the studies at the world level will be announced soon.

Many delegates throughout the day specifically rejected this appeal largely because the GC has conducted three previous studies of the topic. Each time almost all of the Bible scholars involved have come to the conclusion that there is nothing in the Bible or Adventist heritage to prohibit extending ordination to women, yet the final recommendation is always negative because of “unity.”

“The majority of Adventists are opposed to this,” asserted Batchelor who has circulated video of sermons and printed materials for some time stating that women’s ordination is unbiblical. “There are Bible distinctions between the roles of men and women,” he said, advancing a position similar to that taught by the Southern Baptist Convention. He referred to a statement by Ellen White in the book Acts of the Apostles (page 95) to support his belief that she taught against women serving as ordained ministers despite the fact that she carried those credentials herself.

[Well, I am finding out I agree with Doug Batchelor! Leaving the SDA church, many SDAs think you go stark raving mad and become liberal and lawless. But actually, quite the opposite is true. Most former SDAs become more conservative and more solidly based in scripture--which makes you more traditional....]

“It feels like there has not been fairness” in presenting the case against women’s ordination, Batchelor said. “This has been presented as an issue of equality,” stated Elder Steven Bohr, pastor of the Fresno Central Church, “but it is not really about equality. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are equal, but have different functions.” He cited an editorial (not written by Ellen White) in the Signs of the Times (January 24, 1895) which he said states that women should not serve as local elders.

The recommendation of the union conference executive committee to authorize ordination without gender discrimination was presented by Elder Larry Caviness, president of the Southern California Conference, and Elder Randy Roberts, senior pastor of the largest Adventist congregation in the world, the Loma Linda University Church. Roberts said that the recommendation is rooted in one of the fundamental doctrines of the denomination, number 14 among the 28 fundamental teachings, which states that “differences between high and low, rich and poor, male and female, must not be divisive among us. We are all equal in Christ” and cites Galatians 3:27-29.

Roberts pointed out that there are at least five policies on this topic that are clearly stated in the Church Manual and the General Conference Working Policy which are disregarded in many parts of the world and these variances have not caused significant disunity. He named these policies: (1) that deaconesses are to be ordained, (2) that women may serve as local elders, (3) that women serving as local elders are to be ordained, (4) that women may be employed as pastors, and (5) that women employed as pastors may conduct baptisms, weddings and the same sacred duties that men conduct.

Roberts called upon his training and experience in family counseling to make the observation that “there are few ways to more quickly fracture a family than to require uniformity.” He stated that the church in North America has no agenda to force the church in other parts of the world to implement the five policies cited above. “Where they feel it is inappropriate in their cultural context to implement these policies” they should be free to do so, and in Europe and North America “where it is necessary in our cultural context, we should be free to move ahead with the ordination of women to the ministry.”

[Randy, Randy, Randy... your experience in Catholic South America needs to be recalled to mind. The very people you seek to convert, where the SDA population is actually rising, as opposed to N. America where it is shrinking and dying--is where you are going to find the greatest theological pushback of women's ordination. Your targeted Catholic populous will NOT understand nor accept this and--if known by your proselytes--will cause them to rethink converting. Now AS a Catholic I am very hopeful this step will prevent new SDA members.... but advising you as a Christian who truly desires that you remain within the Body.... I mean, really, I LOVE you guys and are praying for you to step back INTO the gospel, not liberalize.... However, St. Paul says that division are needed so that those who are truly of God can be known.]

Others who spoke in favor of the recommendation included Elder Ben Maxson, pastor of the Paradise (California) Church and a former department director at the GC; Elder John Brunt, senior pastor of the Azure Hills Church in Grand Terrace (California) and a respected New Testament scholar and former dean of the School of Religion at Walla Walla University; Elder Charles White, pastor of the Camelback Church in Phoenix and a great-grandson of James and Ellen White; and Dr. Randal Wisbey, president of La Sierra University. His father, Ron Wisbey, a retired minister and former union conference president in the Columbia Union, made one of the most moving statements.

“I have waited for over 30 years to be able to attend a meeting like this and speak to an actual motion to end gender discrimination in ordination,” the elder Wisbey said. “We allowed women pastors to baptize and the church did not split. We gave them the same level of pay as men and the church did not split.” Wisbey stated that he was told at each step that it would split the denomination. “Getting out in front has always been the road to change.”

Earlier in the afternoon it appeared that the proposal might not be approved. The bylaws committee had recommended a small change in the wording of one article which reads, “All the policies, purposes and procedures of this Union shall be in harmony with the working policies and procedures of the North American Division and the General Conference …” The proposed amendment would have inserted “in general” at the beginning of this article and replaced “shall” with “will” in order to provide some small latitude for policy variances.

This amendment failed by about four votes because changes in the bylaws require a two-thirds majority. A solid majority of 280 to 149 voted in favor, but that was only 65 percent of the delegates voting. The union conference officers were prepared for this and went ahead with the rest of the agenda. There was an appeal from delegates as to whether it was legal to do so and the parliamentarians ruled that the recommendation about ordination did not require that the bylaws amendment be adopted.

Wilson spent considerable time in this presentation responding to points made in articles by Gary Patterson and J. David Newman that Adventist Today has published recently. He did not name Patterson, Newman or Adventist Today, but clearly had these items in mind in his indirect references. In fact, he expressed appreciation for the “homework done on this topic,” but expressed the view that their conclusions were wrong and “more homework needs to be done.”

Adventist Today has been told that the North Pacific Union Conference has decided not to move ahead with an action similar to those taken in the Pacific Union, Columbia Union and North German Union. Adventist Today has also discovered that the rumor published by Spectrum, the journal of the largest organization of Adventist academics, that Wilson had a teleconference with union conference officers to discuss sanctions against these unions is not true. It remains to be seen what the next developments will be n this topic.

Adventist Today would like to hear from members of local conference executive committees that may discuss presenting female candidates for ordination. Adventist Today would also be interested in hearing about conferences that may vote resolutions against the practice, advocating continued gender discrimination.

[In general, all denominations are polarizing between the liberals and conservatives. This is not just an SDA problem. While today we see the fragmenting and shattering of Christ's Body all over the spectrum of those who call themselves Christians, I foresee in the future--maybe as early as in the next fifty years-- of healing and unity. It HAS to happen, not only because it was commanded, but to survive, Christians will have to unify. My fear is that because of Ellen White's prophecy of a world-wide false unity among Christians, they will be left out of the true union of God's people. 

We keep praying for you Adventists! This is all in the Master's plan.... to mold and shape and concentrate His people into a single fold that they may be one....]

Revelation Today--SDA Pastor John Bradshaw's Series

Ah, this ongoing series brings back so many childhood memories--as this is exactly the same Revelation Seminars the SDA church has always put on. I  thought something would be new, something other than the newest world tragedies. 

This is the exact same program format and topics, the same its-so-obvious-and-Biblical--no-question-about-it-delivery as has been done all over the SDA world for the last fifty years. Same world-toppling scare tactics, same bogey-man. The only thing missing is the Seventh-day Adventist name. But, interestingly, the name of the church sponsoring on the program has been missing for several of the last Revelation seminars. 

I will spare you all the observations I had about the down-undah enthusiastic Pastor John Bradshaw, (they were all good) and Yves Monnier the host at the Las Vegas Cashman Center (I’m sure he is a nice guy). 

Let’s be honest. The whole thing is about the Sabbath in these seminars, all else is just the golden halo around it. The Sabbath doctrine, if wrong, is where Adventism stands or falls. For them it is the cornerstone of their theology. Without it all their raison d’etre would be crying “Jesus is coming again, soon” along with every other denomination out there.

Why not just tackle that subject and be done with it.

You see, Adventists very subtly set up false premises then prove the false premises wrong and shout victory. For those not educated in scripture and who don’t ponder what is being taught, it is all shivers and good bumps awaiting the end of time when Adventists become top billing in the cosmic horror show, Armageddon.

Yet if we examine what is taught, seeing where a little is added here and there to scripture, a slight shift in the direction, a tiny misinterpretation--we will see how that shift can lead you completely off the road into a theological ditch. And a dark scary one too!

Watch how it is done:

1st wrong premise: The Church claim is that the “Everlasting gospel” of the Third Angel’s Message in Revelation is a different gospel, a different end time message than that of Christ and the Apostles.

Wrong: The Greek word agonies (everlasting) means “since the beginning, without beginning and end” so this is not something new. The word for gospel is eujaggevlion and is the exact same word used throughout the New Testament for the gospel proclaimed by Jesus Christ and the Apostles. This isn’t anything different. It means The Messiah is God and came as a human to suffer, die and be resurrected for our sins. Nothing anywhere at all about Sabbath in that. 

This new and everlasting gospel (different from what the Apostles passed on) was given to the Seventh-day Adventists alone. They claim that in the last days there will be a divide between those who worship God the Creator and those who worship the creation. Well enough, okay on the idea that Christians and non-Christians will divide on how creation occurred. But then they add something outside of anything in scripture. 

2nd wrong premise: Then the church links this true and false worship of the creation back to the story of Genesis claiming that on the seventh day God gave us a day rest as an eternal commandment. 

There is nothing in the Genesis story that says the 7th day was a literal day. Please go back and read a fascinating fact. All the other days had an evening and morning. Not so with the seventh day as it was supposed to be an eternal day of rest. The idea of the day being a weekly day of rest is an addition to the text. 

Little shifts, little shifts set them on a totally wrong course!

3rd wrong premise: Then Pastor Bradshaw jumps to the Ten Commandments. And claims that because they were written on stone means it is an eternal covenant for all time.

Another false assumption. If you do a word search you will find that throughout the Old Testament, many times, stone and rock symbolize God himself, not an eternal covenant. 

Also if they writing them on a stone was supposed to mean how eternal they were, why would Moses smash them after leaving the presence of God? God wasn't upset with him for doing it either. I would think if the stones had that kind of symbolism, God would have mentioned to Moses to care for them a little better.

4th wrong premise: The weekly Sabbath was an eternal sign. (Bradshaw uses Ezekiel 20: 12 for proof.)

Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.

But please note that the sabbaths are a sign--the high annuals sabbaths as well as the weekly sabbaths. (See Deu. 6: 1, 8; 11: 18; 28: 46)

These sabbath signs for Israel absolutely including Passover: 

Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to Jehovah.... And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thy hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the law of Jehovah may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath Jehovah brought thee out of Egypt. Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in its season from year to year. Ex. 13: 6-10

So if the sabbaths are a sign for everyone, then we should be keeping all the sabbaths, the annual, monthly and weekly. 

5th wrong premise: That the Sabbath was not just for Israel alone, but all of us, even today. Again, the Bible would disagree with the SDA church on this claim.

Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily ye shall keep my sabbaths: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am Jehovah who sanctifieth you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that profaneth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a sabbath of solemn rest, holy to Jehovah: whosoever doeth any work on the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.  Ex. 31: 13-17

There are some important things to note about this. Though God reckons the Sabbath back to creation, He also does not include anyone else in the sabbath requirement making it between God and the children of Israel forever.

The fact that God sanctified a day at creation doesn’t mean it was meant to be universal. And keep in mind that anyone who profanes the day is to be put to death. If Adventists really believed that the sabbath requirement was for Christians today, they would then have to impose the death penalty. 

Bradshaw quipped that “they weren’t Ten suggestions.” Well Pastor Bradshaw, we have to be honest with the text, the commandment to put to death anyone who profanes the sabbath is not a suggestion. It is a direct command.

6th wrong premise: Then Pastor Bradshaw jumped to the New Testament and reminded us that Jesus didn’t come to destroy the law, but fulfill it.

And that is exactly what He did at the cross.

For the SDAs to teach that we are still required to keep Sabbath is saying that Jesus didn’t fulfill the law at the Cross. Hebrews tells us that the Sabbath was a shadow fulfilled in Christ. 

But, he asks, “Are we now allowed to kill? Steal?  Jesus didn’t do away with the Ten Commandment law.

Right, and wrong.

Jesus expanded the Old Covenant at the same time He fulfilled it. 

The Temple sacrifice--with all its rituals and ordinations--wasn't done away with, but replaced by a much better, in fact, perfect one-time sacrifice of God's only Son. God didn't get rid of them, He fulfilled them. The Ten Commandments were, like the sacrifices, pointing to a permanent, eternal Covenant with a new and better set of laws.

Look at Jesus’ words. “You have heard it said” These are not the words of someone reiterating the gravity of the law--Jesus didn’t even source it as God’s! He just spoke, “You have heard it said, ‘you shall not...’ But I SAY.” This is Jesus taking authority over His Ten Commandments and changing them, reforming them, making them into the more perfect law of the New Covenant. They are better--expanded. But different. 

How did Jesus expand the fourth? Adventist might claim that He didn’t say anything about that one. Yet he didn’t say anything about stealing either, but it was expanded. Now we are to give rather than receive. Now we are to give our cloak instead of our shirt when someone tried to rob us of what is rightfully ours. Later Jesus will say “come all ye who are weary and I will give you rest. 

Hebrews tells us that the sabbath shadow was fulfilled in Christ. Sabbath hasn’t disappeared but our Sabbath rest is Christ, the day has expanded to a forever day--an eternal day of rest from the Creation account itself. The curse has been lifted and the original creation plan of an eternal rest with a 7th day without an "evening and morning” has finally been fulfilled in Christ.

It isn’t wrong to keep a day that is a rest once a week. That is fine. In fact Paul says:

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days. Col 2:16

One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day [alike]. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind. Rom. 14: 5

7th wrong premise: Then Pastor Bradshaw makes the false assumption that since the Apostles went to the synagogue, they were keeping sabbath. This is just full of erroneous assumptions. 

The Apostles worshipped everyday and preached daily. Being in a synagogue on Sabbath isn’t keeping the Sabbath commandment to rest. It is showing up where Jews will be. 

Adventists draw a direct line between a Sabbath rest and someone going to a synagogue on Sabbath (as if worshipping and resting are one in the same). This is a non-sequitor. 

There is not one shred of evidence in the Bible post resurrection that the Apostles rested on Sabbath or commanded anyone to rest on Sabbath. The 4th commandment is a requirement for Israel to rest.

8th wrong premise: The pastor claims that Jesus' warning to pray that the Hebrew’s flight out of Jerusalem in the last days not be in winter or the sabbath (Matt.24:20) is a slam dunk for proving sabbatarianism post-Cross. Yet, this is hardly proof. Christ knew that His followers would be preaching in the Temple every day (Acts 2:46). The slaughter the Romans could acheive would be most devastating on Sabbath because so many Jews would be there too. It is a prayer for Jews because it would be especially hard for them to flee if caught inside the Temple on Sabbath, in winter or if they were pregnant.

It isn’t calling on his disciples to keep the sabbath as a perpetual sign. We know the Apostles were in the temple daily! So the warning wasn’t pray to keep from being attacked on an obligatory sabbath service, but as intercession for their brother Israel. 

End of Part I-

KEENE, TEXAS

When I grew up, Keene was a dinky, eccentric town of about four thousand Seventh-day Adventists (the few who weren’t SDA, were married to one). About monthly, we would drive the hour south from Dallas to see our family in this quirky, folksy and safe Mayberrry look-a-like. Our family had a lot of big and little fish in this pond: aunt Lilabeth Creel, widowed schoolmarm; the Hopps family cousins--with John as principle of Chisholm Trail Academy. My aunt Maddie Crawford was known for making good veggie burgers in one of the little vegetarian restaurants.

It felt quiet and safe there, so simple.

Keene had begun as a center of education for Adventist offspring in 1890. It had only one church--SDA. Because of its proud religious standards, nowhere in the city could you purchase meat or fish, alcohol, cigarettes or tobacco products. There was no theater and everything was closed on “the sabbath” meaning to a SDA--on Saturday. The United States postal service, as a special religious dispensation, granted that no mail be delivered on Saturday in Keene. Nowhere else in the U.S. was this permitted.

On my extended visits to my aunt Lila Beth’s during summer camp meetings, all my peers were third and fourth generation Adventists going to Keene Adventist Elementary School.

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The 1960's and 1970's

I was there and saw it, close up and from the eye of a Adventist youth--the cultural tsunami that hit the quaint, naive town in the late 1960’s and throughout the 1970s that changed Keene forever. Oh, everyone saw it coming, they had been preaching the end of the world since 1830’s. They were just looking in the wrong place, for they expected it to be from Catholics carrying guns coming to take away their sabbath. They were looking up for the ten commandments in the sky with the "golden halo" around the sabbath comandment, when they should have been watching their kids.

The whole western culture has felt the lasting devastation of those years, but in Keene, the kids were particularly vulnerable. There, a concentration of the deadly influences didn’t just wash over and retreat, but pooled leaving a poisoned swamp the children played in. The sweet “Holy City” never recovered and I lived there for twenty years to watch the effects.

Why was Keene more vulnerable than the rest of the society? It was full of good, respectable, kind-hearted citizens who birthed nice children. What went wrong? How could a town of parents who were grieving over the rumor that the city’s worst crime was the black market of Dr. Pepper, really be oblivious to the disturbing, unrestrained drug use and sexual promiscuity? Keene catastrophically collapsed--morally and spiritually. As the older generation stood in church singing, “Jesus is Coming Again” the youth in the balcony were gambling, snickering about what Twyla and Totsie were wearing and passing around joints. All the parents knew was that their kids were in church on Sabbath. That alone made them safe--religiously safe.

For years, living in the Holy City, I sat next to the Keene survivors of the 70's dutifully bringing their toddlers to Sabbath School. I smiled watching their children waddle up in excitement to put animal felt cut-outs on the felt board and sing “Sabbath is a Happy Day!” Then watch them, with agony, grow into rebellious, cynical and disrespectful teenagers, just to have my heart torn out as they end up in jail, in early abusive marriages, divorced, unhappy, suicidal.

These nice Keenite families are still dumbfounded as to what happens to their children and resign the problem to either that the Devil is working harder on the children of the blessed remnant or passively surrender to the culture and assume their kids are no worse than the rest of the “world.”

For years, I have pondered that question of what happened to Keene and here is my assessment:

Apocalypse

While America was being rent in two with the 1960’s and 70’s racial tensions, war and the hippie culture, Adventists, instead of seeing it as their religious and patriotic responsibility to stand against the flood of evil, took these as signs of the last days. Those Adventist who had been rather liberal in the past, hunkered down and clung ever more closely to the church’s teachings seeing these events as “signs of the times.”

The world was about to end, so they didn’t feel the urgency or need, or even have the tools in which to teach their children how to cope with the temptations of this new drug-infested and sexually permissive culture. They kept trying to bandage the wrong wound. While they were cauterizing what they thought were the sinful sins of attending a theater to watch Disney’s “Love Bug”, drinking caffeinated beverages and eating out at Jose’s Mexican Restaurant on Sabbath, blood was draining out of the vital organs as Bible teachers were sneaking high school girls out to get abortions, children were being sexually abused, dropping acid and there was a thriving drug market selling from inside the little town.

The Keene kids felt abandon and alienated from their parents. The parents protected the church more than their own children. Parents would not see the changes in Keene and wanted it to be the charming, safe, sweet little city it had been before.

Rather than stand as heroes for their children and fight for the right; the passive, conscientious-objecting mindset of the Adventists turned them inward, shunning the “worldly.” They acquiesced in religious apathy. This was foretold, they pointed out, so what were they supposed to do about it?

The Keene SDA kids were emotionally and spiritually abandoned in the new environment as their parents became detached from reality, finding their solace in prophecy.

Crisis

Adventist doctrine itself wasn’t immune to the western crisis of values. Everything was being critically examined. From the 1950’s on a slowly creeping questioning of some of the pillars of the faith caused the church to react. At the same time that it was preaching end-times prophesy seminars, some of the prominent SDA scholars were seeking mainstream status and watering down the pillars of faith so that they would no longer be considered a cult. SDA kids were exposed to this internal struggle over doctrine, were shown some of the hypocrisy of the rules and began questioning themselves. “Why can’t we wear earrings, but old ladies can wear ornate pins and expensive watches and drive luxury cars? Why can’t I drink coffee when we can drink hot chocolate which has caffeine? Why can I wade in water on Sabbath, but not swim?”

Orthodoxy

In the 1960’s and 1970’s Keene was full of second, third and even fourth generation Adventists, who had little contact with non-Adventist and certainly had not been confronted about their doctrines. They had been educated in Keene SDA institutions and had trusted their families and teachers and pastors to be telling them the truth. After all, these were sweet people, they wouldn’t lie! These were the remnant living in the Holy City.

They had not been a questioning generation. And these parents were totally unprepared to deal with their children’s inquiries about their faith. Now both parents were working to be able to afford to send them through SDA private elementary school and high school and college, they were too tired, too stressed to even have the time for this. After all, isn’t that why their grandparents and parents had moved to the Holy City--to send their kids to get an SDA education so they wouldn’t have to be the ones answering these questions? Keene was supposed to spiritually protect them.

Parents reacted by either disregarding their children or making them feel guilty for not passively accepting the church’s teaching.

Keene Left Vulnerable

The greatest problem of all, which permeated all facets of Keene, was that these sweet and innocent people were easy prey for the lion seeking whom he may devour. They had been raised with the idea they were different. They were God’s special remnant and although they eagerly preached and anticipated an imminent Second Return, they also knew that before that, their very lives would be at stake in a world-wide manhunt. Other Christians, who did not accept the saving “Everlasting Gospel” of Adventism were soon to reject God and spill their wrath upon the Adventists for keeping the Sabbath holy. For over a hundred years they had been preparing themselves and their children for martyrdom for the holy Sabbath.

Adventists are raised in distrust and paranoia of other Christians. When evidence of their deep dysfunction was exposed their only salve was secrecy and plunging ever more into deeper spiritual dysfunction. They have no outside remedy--for all other people do not have the truth. They see all others as lesser Christians that may unwittingly and with all sincerity deceive them if they leave the protection of Adventism.

No Escape

Other than faulty doctrine, Keene had relied totally on its sandy foundation of nice people. While other Christians survived the cultural onslaught of the 1960‘s and 1970‘s forever crippled, Keene didn’t withstand Satan’s brutal attack and collapsed. The golden years of the Holy City are only a memory now and it is sweet to recall those innocent days.

What is dangerous is that those in Keene today are still in oblivious denial. They know something happened to their precious little safe town, but they cannot deal with the reality of it and change. For to do so, they would have to deny the very reason for Keene--to prepare a people to preach the Everlasting Gospel of Adventism.

They would have to step into the real gospel of Jesus Christ and let go of their remnant-hood. They would have to unite with the Body of Christ and release their delusional futuristic persecution complex. They would have to be more than a one-commandment church. They would have to reject fear and embrace God’s love.

Keene, we who once walked your safe and quirky streets going to Sabbath School, who fed the ducks at the Duck Pond and sneaked up onto Leiske-Pultar auditorium after a hot camp-meeting night to watch the stars, we are so privileged to pray for you and ask the Lord to grant you the knowledge of the true gospel so that we will no longer grieve your stolen children, your stolen innocence and your stolen lives.