THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER
"Search the scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. " (John 5:39)

VOLUME 4, NUMBER 53, JANUARY 2, 2005

UPON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK

PART 4

            This continues the text of a lecture I am scheduled to give in Florida in February.  I pray it is helpful to you in your study.  It was very helpful to me to prepare it.

            Since God made know the Sabbath at Sinai it is obvious that it had not been enjoined upon anyone from the Garden of Eden.  When it was finally made known at Sinai, was Sabbath keeping bound upon all men for all time?  That is the position espoused by Seventh-Day Adventism.  In a pamphlet entitled Amazing Facts That Affect You, Number 1, the following question and answer are presented on page 6:

            “Does Sabbath-keeping affect me personally?  Answer: Yes, by all means, the Sabbath is YOUR Sabbath.  God made it for YOU, and if You love Him, YOU will keep it, because it is one of His commandments.  Love without commandment-keeping is no love at all (1 John 2:4).  YOU must make a decision.  YOU cannot escape.  No one can excuse YOU.  YOU yourself will answer before God on this most important matter.  God asks YOU to obey NOW!”

            The truth is that the requirement to keep the Sabbath was bound upon no one except the Jews.  We find in Exodus 31:16-17, “So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath, to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.  It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He creased from labor, and warefreshed.”  The same point is made in Ezekiel 20:12, “And also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sing between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.”  If Sabbath-keeping was truly bound upon all men of all nations for all time, how could it be a sign between God and the nation of Israel?

            Does this then mean that the fact that God rested from His labor of creation on the seventh day has no significance whatsoever for the Christian today?  No, for the Hebrew writer tells us in Hebrews 4:9, “There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God.”  In Hebrews For Every Man, Jay Bowman explained that Sabbath rest:

            “What kind of rest is it?  It is the rest God entered when He completed the creation of the universe.  God has not been idle between creation and the present (John 5:17).  But when He finished creating the worlds, He paused to enjoy the beauty of His creation.  Man has been invited to join Him in one eternal day of reverence and wonder, a Sabbath day (Heb. 4:9) in which all who love to worship and commune with God can enjoy the bliss and glories of their Creator.  He who will have entered the ultimate rest will have taken his place with his Creator in an eternal rest.  Hence, the author to his generation concludes, ‘Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience’ (Heb. 4:11) (91).”

            What of the second of the basic assertions of Seventh-Day Adventists, that there is a distinction to be made in the Old Testament Law?  They assert that one must recognize a difference between the Law of God and the Law of Moses, sometimes stated as a difference between the moral law and the ceremonial law, or the eternal law and the temporary law.  Passages such as Colossians 2:13-17; Ephesians 2:14-17; Galatians 3:23-25, 4:21-31, all of which teach that the Law of Moses has been fulfilled and taken out of the way, force the sabbatarians to make this distinction in order to continue to embrace and bind Sabbath-keeping.  In Who Are Seventh-Day Adventists? We find this example of their teaching:

            “Nor could there be a change in the Sabbath for it is an integral part of the  Decalogue, the eternal and unchangeable law of God.  Right in the heart of that code of morals which forbids the worship of false gods, murder, covetousness, adultery, stealing, etc., we find the command to keep the seventh day holy.  Exodus 20:3-17.   These commandments constitute a holy law (Rom. 7:12), and they stand fast forever as the very foundation of God’s government throughout the universe (Psalm 111:7,8).  The Decalogue is not confined to any age or race, but is obligatory  upon all men at all times…When Christ died on the cross, the laws contained in ceremonies and ordinances pertaining to the temple service and typifying the sacrifice of Christ were done away, having served their day of usefulness.  They were only ‘shadows’ of Christ, the Lamb of God (66).”

We will answer the false teaching contained in that quote next week, if the Lord wills.

                                                            Greg Litmer

NUMBERS

            Numbers do not tell the tale of a congregation, nor are they the criterion by which God determines faithfulness or worth.  In Deuteronomy 7:7-8, we find, “The Lord did not set his love upon  you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: but because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you  out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”  Again I say, numbers don’t tell the whole story, but there are some things numbers can tell us.

            In 2004 we averaged 176.26 in attendance Sunday morning.  We will account for the .26 by counting those as the different pregnant women through the year.  Sunday evening, we averaged 134.79, and I am not sure how to account for that .79.  I  don’t have the final Wednesday numbers because too many of them were not listed.  However, the numbers do indicate a bit of a problem.  Taking into account those who work and others who cannot drive at night, as well as sickness; there is still too great of a drop-off in numbers from Sunday morning to Sunday evening and Wednesday night.  Where were you?  Here, or someplace else?