Introduction
My dear friend,
Would you like to know the truth about the Sabbath? Not a truth taught by mere
men, by the truth taught by God's Word and confirmed by historical documents?
One of the hardest things for me when I left the Seventh-day Adventist church
was to be forced to face the reality about the Sabbath. I firmly believed that
God's Sabbath had to be kept by ALL Christians and I believed it was clearly
taught throughout the Bible.
However God had other plans. My prayer about "God, please me to your truth" was
not only answered by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but also by guiding me to a
discovery that took me months to accept and apply in my life.
One Sabbath, while I visited with my mother-in-law, I went on her computer
searching for a source for free Bibles to hand out to people. Instead of using a
search engine, I just tried to type URLs containing the word Bibles. The first
site I went to was
http://www.bible.ca
As I was scanning through that site, I somehow ended up at
http://www.bible.ca/sabbath.htm
and I started to giggle "How can they refute the Sabbath? This is ridiculous!"
However, I was attracted to the site:
http://www.bible.ca/H-sunday.htm , and to my horror, I found historical
quotes from our early church fathers. I quickly decided this was not for me, and
I got off the computer.
However, I was burdened by some of the information that got into my
subconscious, and although I didn't want to go back to that site, the next
Sabbath I found myself going back - just to quiet my conscience, I told myself!
I sped read through some of the documents and quickly concluded (falsely) that
Christians from the first century were keeping the Sabbath and coming together
on the first day of the week as well, as a commemoration of Jesus' resurrection.
My conscience continued to bother me, however, but each time I argued that I had
done my job and had arrived at my conclusions. Period. But (sigh!!) God had
other plans. He is very patient. Three months later, during my Christmas
holidays, I was cleaning "my favorites" from my Explorer program, and I ended
checking this link
http://www.formeradventist.com/taylor.html . Here, I found a site put
together by a former SDA pastor. The description of what he had gone through and
how it had led him to leave the church was so similar to mine, that I was
intrigued. This gentleman also took the time to share a study on the Sabbath.
His study opened my eyes. I hadn't been ready to hear the truth, and God had
patient waited 3 months to prepare me for what I would learn.
I love each of you, my Adventist friends. I feel no animosity towards any of
you. I used to be one of you, and my heart goes out to you. I used to think I
was in the true church, that I belonged to the remnant church. In reality, I was
blinded by doctrines from men. I would read my Bible in search of conformation
of SDA doctrinal teachings. Anything I found that seemed to be in contradiction
of these beliefs would be discarded. After all, I reasoned, the SDA theologians
must know what they are doing!
But I was to learn an important truth. My friends, God is not a God of
doctrines. Truth is found in a person: John 14:6-7:
Jesus answered, "I am the
way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Truth can only be found in Jesus Christ and He wants to have a personal
relationship with you!
Jesus cares so much for the truth that He made this promise: John 16:13
"But
when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth." God's
Holy Spirit guides us to God's truth, which is Jesus. Truth is not to be found
in a church or in any human individual or institution. Truth can only be found
in God.
My friends, the way I see it, when you get to this portion of this website you
are faced with three choices:
Choice #1: You can discard this message and say
"This is ridiculous!" If you did, I wouldn't blame you, for I also did the same.
But ask yourself this important question: If you discard this message, will you
being doing God justice? Will you have peace of heart, knowing that you have
thoroughly searched the Scriptures? Will you be placing your trust in an
omniscient God who is big enough to guide you into ALL truth?
Choice #2: You can decided to read through this material, all the while looking
to find fault, ever holding fast to the position that your church holds over the
Truth found in the Word. But please remember, Satan destroys, but God builds up.
Are you willing to risk putting away God's truth to promote your own truth? John
8:32 tells us that only "the truth will set you free."
Choice #3: The final choice would be to read through this and ask God to reveal
His truth to you. I can promise you that God is never wrong and He will guide
you.
The choice is yours my friend. If you decide to go over this study, please base
your observations on God's Word, the Bible, and on nothing else. It is easy to
base our beliefs in other people's commentaries, however, only God's Word is the
truth, and it MUST be our sole guide! Please join David in his plea for truth:
Ps 25:4-5 "Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your
truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day
long."
Click here to go to: Chapter 1: The first mention of the seventh day.
Chapter 1: The first mention of the seventh day.
Chapter 2: The Sabbath from Genesis 3 to Exodus 16.
Chapter 3: The first mention of Sabbath.
Chapter 4: The Sabbath in the 10 commandments.
Chapter 5: The Sabbath in the ceremonial law.
Chapter 6: Jesus and the Sabbath.
Chapter 7: The Sabbath after Jesus' resurrection.
Chapter 8: Jesus New Commandments.
Chapter 9: Possible Objections.
Chapter 10: Historical texts of Christians meeting together.
Chapter 11: The New Testament and the first Day of the week.
Chapter 12: The difference between the two Testaments.