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Let me tell you a story – a true story. Yesterday morning, I ran into an old friend at the bus station. He is now a police officer, and we spent a few minutes catching up, as we had gone to high school together. At that time, I had just recently become a mainstream Seventh-day Adventist, and so I was very excited about the Gospel of the Seventh-day Sabbath. I am sure you know what I mean… I had become convinced that the Sabbath was on the 7th day of the week, and now, if I could just convince others to switch their day of worship from Sunday to Sabbath, I would be helping to save their souls. Clearly, modern mainstream SDAs are practitioners and victims of a works-based religion. I am not saying that every Adventist believes that their works will save them; they do have inspired material that tells them the truth. Unfortunately, they are taught to say, “I believe in salvation by faith, and not works,” while acting, and teaching, and being taught, just the opposite.
Before I learned the true Gospel, of course I was very guilty of this as well. I went to Sabbath school and the weekly sermon every Saturday morning, but because righteousness by faith was not taught, because victory over sin was not taught, because we were convinced that the judgment of the living would sneak up on us and pounce at any moment, we were essentially Sunday-keepers with the wrong day. We had better rules, perhaps, but our approach to and relationship with our Creator was no better than that of a Catholic, Methodist, or Baptist.
Speaking of which, this friend of mine that I met, his father was a Baptist minister. When we were friends in high school, I saw this as something of a challenge, and a great opportunity, because here was someone who knew the Bible, and would be willing to talk about my newly acquired passion. And so, during breaks between classes, he and I would discuss religion. He tried to convince me that the Law had changed at the crucifixion, and I maintained that God’s Law is eternal, not subject to change, and was faithfully observed both before and after the cross.
I don’t remember how many days this on-and-off conversation lasted, perhaps a week or two, but eventually – and in a rare occurrence – he eventually yielded. He could not dispute the Bible verses that I presented. He could not deny the record in the New Testament that after Christ’s death, His followers continued to rest on the seventh day, that Christ had both kept and taught the importance of His Father’s commandments, and that prophecies of the very last days, such as that in Isaiah 65, predict that the Sabbath will always be observed, even in the world to come.
I have to admit, I was surprised by his honesty. He said, to the best of my recollection, “You’ve done your job. You’ve done your job. I cannot argue with what you are saying. Now, let me think about this and consider what to do.”
I thought he was exactly right, that I had “done my job,” and I had done it well. I had succeeded in making a true believer, a true convert to Biblical Christianity. I had won a soul for Jesus.
As might surprise none of you, he never became a Sabbath-keeper, much less an Adventist. In fact, I can’t remember if we ever spoke about the Bible again after that day. I probably convinced myself that he would eventually decide to commit to what he now knew to be the truth intellectually and scripturally.
So, what went wrong? I had used the Bible. I had spoken the truth. I had explained how much closer to God I felt now that I was in harmony with His Law… why wasn’t that good enough? Why wasn’t that brilliant Biblical argument (that won the debate) strong enough to overcome his traditional, but incorrect, views?
Well, let’s consider the matter from his perspective – which is not something I was capable of doing back then. What was he being asked to do? He was being asked to sever a powerful spiritual tie with his family, especially his father. He was being asked to come out from, and stand against, his Church community. He was asked to willingly become an outsider, possibly losing friends, and certainly losing esteem among the people he lived with and among.
And yes, if he was already converted, he would be able to do that. He would be willing, as I was, to give up the comfort of the familiar, the bonds he had formed with his family, his father’s professionally honed viewpoint. I don’t know if he went to his father and become “unconvinced” of what I had been telling him, but I know that what he had with his religious community was stronger than what I was offering him.
You see, I really wasn’t offering him that much. I was offering him a more biblically sound set of behaviors, but behavior doesn’t convert anyone. It doesn’t fill anyone with Christ’s power. It doesn’t make one born-again of the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t give anyone the strength to stand for what is right regardless of consequences. The Sadducees and Scribes and Pharisees were all Sabbath-keepers according to the letter of the Law, but they had no protection against Satan’s temptations, and were completely insensitive to the true majesty of Heaven when He appeared before them in the flesh.
The Bible tells us over and over again: obeying the Law does not provide us with righteousness. Paul, Peter and the others are absolutely right about that, and were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write in eloquent rebuke of those who believed that by becoming more “Jewish,” by seeking justification through obedience, through circumcision, through dietary changes, they were pleasing God. They were writing to rebut the doctrine of the Pharisees, which taught that Cain was right in bringing the best of his labor to the altar, (Gen 4:3) when what Yahweh wanted was something else entirely.
We read, “‘To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me?’ saith Yahweh. ‘I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beast,; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before Me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread My courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me. The New Moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts, My soul hateth; they are a trouble unto Me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” (Isa 1:11-17)
This is exactly what we saw last week, with James’ definition of the Biblical religion: “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27)
Some people – those focused on works – have used these passages to argue against the Sabbaths, New Moons, and Feasts. The Scriptures do not say one negative thing about these whatsoever; there is nothing wrong with the practices listed in Isaiah. The problem is not with the appointed times, it is that they have been tainted, polluted, by the unconfessed sins of Israel, by the unconverted souls of the participants. The hands and hearts of the people were not clean. This is, in fact, the Bible, even the Old Testament, teaching us that righteousness is by faith, not by works. If obedience to the commandments, and the various statutes and ordinances, made one righteous, then Yahweh would never say, “Stop doing these things.” No, if the people were evil, if the people were corrupt, it would be because their works were not sufficient. It would be, “Keep your Sabbaths more diligently. Observe your feasts more strictly. Follow the rules more carefully, then your hands will be cleansed of blood, and your iniquity will be washed away.”
That isn’t how the Biblical religion works. A person must be converted, must love Yahweh, must honor His Law in his heart, and then his mouth will speak righteous words, and his hands will do righteous works. Yes, the Law reveals what conversion looks like. Yes, the commandments show us what righteousness is, so that we may observe ourselves in the mirror of holiness, and recognize that we need and must have a Savior. But when we are given that Savior, the mirror does not crumble away to dust. The mirror remains, so that we may look into it and see Christ, the beauty of Yahshua, in even our mortal flesh.
We are called to see Him in us, to be one with Him through the Gospel, and so inherit His just reward: eternal life before the Heavenly Father.
I wasn’t offering any of this to my friend. I was saying, not in these words, but in effect, “Look, I can prove that you’re doing something wrong. Do something else instead.”
My intentions were good, inasmuch as I knew my own intentions at the time, but I didn’t really have a superior spiritual experience to share. The right actions will always be better than the wrong actions, but that kind of approach doesn’t touch the heart, or convince the sinner of his need.
There was no invitation in my words or arguments to an encounter with the divine nature. There was no call to unity, to become a member of a Family with loving relatives both in Heaven and here on earth. There was no community of saints to replace the community of the deceived that was, to him, the only spiritual family he had ever known. And yes, if he was converted, or if my defense of the Sabbath had converted him, he would be willing to make any sacrifice, to pay any price… but I was not in a position to facilitate anyone’s conversion, and certainly, becoming more obedient to the Law by exchanging the seventh day for the first in one’s affections is not the conversion experience that the Bible offers.
The truth of the matter is that nothing we do as evangelists, as messengers of the Gospel, has any value if it does not include an invitation – a call to unity.
Obedience to the Commandments of Yahweh is not the same thing as unity with Him, but those commandments do provide an avenue to two kinds of unity.
There is unity with the Father, expressed by those converted and living by faith, in which we have no other God, worship no idols, respect His holy name, and honor Him as the Creator with our Sabbath-keeping. These are works that correspond to our covenant with our Father, and that is one aspect of Biblical unity.
There is unity with the saints, with members of Yahshua’s Church on earth, expressed by those living by faith, in which we honor our parents, do not do any kind of harm to our fellows, and do not become jealous of their blessings. These are works that correspond to our covenant with our fellow believers, and that is the other aspect of Biblical unity.
Without these, based on faith, no work has any merit. Without these, nothing we do or can do, pleases the Father. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” (Heb 11:6) A Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, not of them who diligently obey Him. Not to down play the value of obedience, but Those who seek him will find Him, and those who find Him will love Him, and those who love Him will agree with Him, and those who agree with Him will obey Him. But obedience comes at the end; that chain of behavior does not work backwards. One does not obey Him in order to agree with Him or love Him or find Him; the love comes first, the desire and drive to seek Him comes first, or it does not truly come at all.
Unity is the result of obedience that is based on love. In other words, unity is the result of righteousness that is based on faith.
When we see independent ministries and self-sent messengers calling on people to congregate around a particular little group, a particular little message, a particular little individual, that is all incorrect. Some may ask, “But, doesn’t the CSDA Church do the same thing? Aren’t you calling people out of the Churches, even the conference-led SDA church that keeps the commandments, and telling them to worship with you instead?”
That isn’t a proper understanding of our message, or our invitation. Our message is not, “Come to spend time with our group instead of any other group.” Our message is, “Come to where Christ is. Come to where victory over sin, and righteousness by faith, the Biblical explanation of salvation, is taught – unlike any other place in the world.” For those who accept that offer, they establish a covenant with the Father, and so find themselves bound to Him, and they establish a covenant with that same Father’s other children, and so find themselves bound to the Bride of Yahshua, His Church here on earth. Some groups pride themselves on having an interpretation of the Bible, or the prophecies, that they believe is correct. That was certainly my condition as a conference SDA in high school. Others believe that they have some kind of “line of orthodox descent” from Christ’s original apostles, like the Catholics through the papacy, or some Adventist groups through more convoluted attempts at spiritual genealogy. We know that true son-ship, true family, comes only from Christ, and those who speak according to His Spirit and Power.
I did not know any of this when I was a mainstream SDA, trying to convince a high school friend to become a Sabbath-keeper. I could not invite him to know Christ, because I did not know Him properly. I could not invite him to a deeper understanding of the Gospel, because my own understanding was shallow, and did not go much further than the letter of the Sabbath and the advice of Ellen White about Christian behavior. I was a member of a congregation, and as much as I appreciated those people for who they were, we were not the family of Yahweh here on earth, and so I could not invite him to that family either.
We have four Gospel Books that outline the earthly life and works of Christ Yahshua. What did that life, and those works, reveal? They reveal, that there is a call to unity in everything the divine will does among mankind. When we cooperate with the Mind of Christ, with the Spirit of Yahshua, we will find that everything we do in Yahshua’s name takes on the same quality, that same call, that same invitation to unity.
Remember that, in earlier studies, we saw that the prophet Elijah, Eli-Yah (My God is Yah), had two tasks to accomplish in his ministry. One was to repair the unity among the tribes, and the other was to repair the bond between Yahweh and His people. We read, “And Elijah said unto all the people, ‘Come near unto me.’ And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of Yahweh that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of Yahweh came, saying, ‘Israel shall be thy name.’ And with the stones he built an altar in the name of Yahweh, and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed … Then the fire of Yahweh fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” (1Kings 18:30-32, 38)
Here is the pattern, here is the order, and it is very simple: First, the covenant with Yahweh was restored, signified by the rebuilding of the broken altar. Next, the covenant among the people was restored, signified by the gathering of the twelve stones and the building of the second altar. After that, fire from Heaven fell. If you aren’t paying attention, you will miss it, but EliYah actually built two altars there – signifying two covenants, or perhaps more accurately, a single, grand covenant with two dimensions or aspects. The first is “the altar of Yahweh that was broken down,” and the second is “an altar in the name of Yahweh,” that one on behalf of the people and the covenant among the tribes. Thereafter, Yahweh’s favor was revealed by fire from Heaven. Here we see, in symbol, the commandments of Yahweh in both of its spiritual “directions,” the Altar of Yahweh representing the commandments that tie us to Him, and the Altar of Israel, representing the commandments that tie us to each other, that teach us how to display agape-love for our neighbor. EliYah was repairing the family. Consider this carefully, for an altar is an indicator of a covenant, of a relationship.
In our next study, of which this one seems to be serving as an introduction, we are going to look at the parallels between the work of EliYah and the life of Christ, because we are going to establish, and very clearly, that every work that Yahshua did was for exactly the same purpose as the ministry of EliYah – to repair altars, to repair relationships, to bring about unity.
Yahshua said this in His prayer to the Father before His disciples: “And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are one.” (John 17:22) That is a most powerful statement, that Yahshua has given to us the glory that the Father gave Him, and because we have that glory, we are one, even as the Father and Son are one.
So, when we meet again, we are going to examine that glory, to go through the teachings and miracles of Yahshua, and we are going to see, very clearly, how each of these incidents was a call to unity, an act to bring about the divine family here on earth, and we will rejoice that this work has succeeded… despite the fact that we are few, and to the world the ministry of Christ seemed to end in failure. But each of us is here, and each of us has been given that invitation, that glory, to share with others, because Yahshua did just what He set out to do.
For this week, as I close this introductory chapter, I urge you to learn from my experiences. Speak and act according to the Spirit that Yahshua has placed within you. Let the work of EliYah, and the mind of Christ, work through you. Let your every word on behalf of the Kingdom be an invitation, to the truth as it is in Yahshua, to the Gospel that saves from sin and, most importantly for the hearts and minds of those who hear you, let each word be an invitation to the divine family. The Family of Yahweh is better than the natural family. It is better than anything the world and its friendship has to offer. It is better than anything esteem, or familiarity, or comfort, can provide. The family of Yahweh on earth is a loving and sanctifying community that Yahshua lived, and died, and rose again, to create. Let our rejoicing, let our joy in Yah’s salvation, be the message that we bear to the world. That we are privileged to be a part of that Family, that divine family here on earth, is the very heart of the experience to which we are calling others.
David.
An Enduring Witness
“The teachings of popes and priests had led men to look upon the character of God, and even of Christ, as stern, gloomy, and forbidding. The Saviour was represented as so far devoid of sympathy with man in his fallen state that the mediation of priests and saints must be invoked. Those whose minds had been enlightened by the word of God longed to point these souls to Jesus as their compassionate, loving Saviour, standing with outstretched arms, inviting all to come to Him with their burden of sin, their care and weariness. They longed to clear away the obstructions which Satan had piled up that men might not see the promises, and come directly to God, confessing their sins, and obtaining pardon and peace.” [The Great Controverys, p. 73]
“We are not merely to observe the Sabbath as a legal matter. We are to understand its spiritual bearing upon all the transactions of life. All who regard the Sabbath as a sign between them and God, showing that He is the God who sanctifies them, will represent the principles of His government. They will bring into daily practice the laws of His kingdom. Daily it will be their prayer that the sanctification of the Sabbath may rest upon them. Every day they will have the companionship of Christ and will exemplify the perfection of His character. Every day their light will shine forth to others in good works.” [Counsels for The Church, p. 262]
“God regards us as His children. He has redeemed us out of the careless world and has chosen us to become members of the royal family, sons and daughters of the heavenly King. He invites us to trust in Him with a trust deeper and stronger than that of a child in his earthly father. Parents love their children, but the love of God is larger, broader, deeper, than human love can possibly be. It is immeasurable. Then if earthly parents know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more shall our Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” [Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 142]