Why Most Professing Christians Keep Sunday Sacred

“By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:  6Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: Romans 1:5, 6.”

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The prime reason most Protestants keep Sunday sacred is because they believe the ten commandment law was nailed to the cross and that the disciples of Christ changed the day. That error is part of their false gospel of defining grace as pardon only, rather than pardon and power given for obedience to the law of God.

 

We cannot co-labor with those who teach a false gospel. Paul says to accurse any who come with another gospel. That does not mean trying to co-labor with them.

 

Gal 1:8 “But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”

Gal 1:9 “As we said before, so say I now again, If any [man] preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”

 

How can one co-labor with one whose gospel he must accurse? And accurse means anathema in this case. Look up the Bible definition of accurse in these verses in a concordance. It would be a bit difficult to work in liaison with anyone whose gospel you would have to continually accurse! That is what SDA leaders must try to do with Rick Warren, Bill Hybel’s and other World Council of Church Babylonians they have aligned with. But it is an impossible task and violates God’s command to accurse any, even an angel, who should come with another gospel.

 

Could you imagine Jesus co-laboring with the Pope? Jesus and His followers did not teach two gospels.


Two different gospels contending for the fore would fight one another and confuse any prospects. God has put a natural enmity between those who teach a false gospel and those who teach a true gospel. Man cannot displace that enmity. Only the Holy Spirit can convert the soul and aid it in learning and accepting the true gospel

 

This is the very reason it is not wise to begin with the Sabbath issue in our efforts to convert prospective proselytes to Adventism. They see the Sabbath as a non-sequitur if the law was done away with at the cross. So the more basic issue to begin with is the law and God’s expectations concerning His law. Then we can progress to a balanced study of faith and works and what is expected of us. No true concept of the gospel can be realized until we make these basics crystal clear and reach agreement thereon. Then the Sabbath issue is automatically conceded to by any rational person seeking truth.

 

The most basic issue relative to Christ’s sacrifice for us is the gift of faith and grace which was made possible by His highest good, crowning gift of His Holy Spirit. These gifts were provided by His atoning act in the heavenly Sanctuary at His Incarnation, and on the cross. But just as mainline protestants consider only one element of grace, namely pardon, so they consider only one element of the Atonement—the cross. They don’t consider what occurred at the Incarnation, whereby the highest good, crowing gift of all was provided—grace power in the form of Christ’s Divine Nature, His Holy Spirit, the soul of His life before and after His Incarnation.

 

"Christ declared that after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.

In the gift of the Spirit [HIS LIFE--THE SOUL OF HIS LIFE], Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow....

The Spirit was given as a regenerating agency, and without this [Holy Spirit of Christ] the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail....

It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon the church." E.G. White, Review and Herald Articles, May 19, 1904, vol. 5, p. 42.

 

Grace Defined

 

What a sad mistake by most of professing Christianity that they understand grace as meaning only pardon. The Bible itself defines grace as power for obedience and apostleship. Romans 1:5, to wit:

 

“By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:  Romans 1:5.

 

Obedience to what? The Holy Law of God, the only standard that defines sin because sin is not imputed after the fact. God would not define sin after we commit it. He defined it before man sinned.

 

“They must have His grace, the Spirit of Christ, to help their infirmities, or they cannot form a Christian character. Jesus loves to have us come to Him, just as we are—sinful, helpless, dependent.” Faith and Works, p. 38.

 

“There must be a power working from within, a new life from above, before man can be changed from sin to holiness. That power is Christ. His grace [the Spirit of Christ] alone can quicken the lifeless faculties of the soul, and attract it to God, to holiness.” (ST, May 28, 1902, par. 3).

 

"The Power of God in the Third Person.--The prince of the power of evil can ONLY be held in check by the power of God in the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit.-- Special Testimonies, Series A, No. 10, p. 37. (1897).

 

 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” Acts 3:26.

 

What is iniquity? It is sin. The Bible agrees with Ellen White wherein she says the evil (iniquity) can only be held in check by the Holy Spirit of Christ. That is why God sent His Son Jesus, to turn us away from iniquity. Iniquity is sin. Sin is transgression of the law. If you can’t convince of this fact, you will never convince of the Sabbath issue.

 

A correct understanding of the Godhead is of crucial importance as you can readily see. Mainline Christianity understands only the cross sacrifice. They don’t understand the highest good, crowing sacrifice made in the Sanctuary in heaven at the Incarnation—the sacrifice of the Son in divesting Himself of His Holy Spirit (DIVINE ONLY) life, and giving that life to us as a regenerating power.

 

In the Sanctuary of Heaven, the Incarnation took place. At that Incarnation sacrifice, the former Holy Spirit (DIVINE ONLY) existence (life) of the Son was divested from the personality of His humanity and THEN became independent of it. This sacrificial act made possible the “highest good, crowning gift that heaven could bestow” – namely the Divine Nature life and soul of Christ proffered to man in the form of the Holy Ghost of His former Being. This is the greatest sacrifice of the son which resulted in a third person being added to the Godhead. The Holy Ghost is not mentioned until the first chapter of Matthew, for a good reason. The Ghost of the Son, His Holy Spirit, did not accrue until the Incarnation sacrifice in the heavenly Sanctuary, when His humanity was divested from His former Holy Spirit ONLY essence, substance, because humanity cumbered that Holy Spirit Being, in which form He has eternally existed.

 

Mainline Christianity denies the highest good, crowning sacrifice made in the heavenly Sanctuary, and thus the Sanctuary/Atonement is rendered as gone, for without that sacrifice, no regenerating agency would be available to man. The Trinity Doctrine, Rome’s central doctrine, bypasses that Sanctuary/Atonement in heaven. Thus, the entire Christian economy is swept away. The SDA church adopted that doctrine in 1980. SDA pioneers never accepted the Trinity Doctrine.

"The darkness rolled away from the Saviour and from the Cross. Christ bowed His head and died. In His Incarnation He had reached the prescribed limit as a sacrifice, but not as a redeemer." E.G. White Manuscript Releases Volume Twelve, p. 409.

 

What was the prescribed limit as a sacrifice in the Incarnation BEFORE THE CROSS? It was by fulfilling the Testator’s covenant to die to something forever. What He died to forever was His DIVINE ONLY EXISTENCE before His Incarnation, to be forever after combined with humanity. He became our redeemer on the cross by dying for our sins, but that would have been of no avail if He had not AT HIS INCARNATION SACRIFICE, provided the means, the highest good, crowning gift of the life of His former Holy Spirit as a regenerating agent that we might overcome sin. His death on the cross was the pardon. His Divine Nature Holy Spirit imparted is the CURE for sin.

 

Testator’s  Covenant

 

The Testator’s Covenant is totally misunderstood by mainline Christianity. They believe Christ could die for three days and nights and be resurrected again and thus pay the penalty for our wages of sin which is eternal death. That is a lie. Christ had to die to something forever, and what He died to forever was His DIVINE ONLY STATE OF BEING before His Incarnation, after which He became combined with humanity forever. That way He paid an eternal death for our wages of sin. If He did not die to something forever, then the testament is of no strength at all.

 

Hbr 9:16

For where a testament [is], there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.

http://www.blueletterbible.org/gifs/copyChkboxOff.gifHbr 9:17

For a testament [is] of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.

 

 

"No one but Christ could redeem man from the curse of the law. He proposed to take upon Himself the guilt and shame of sin,--sin so offensive in the sight of God that it would necessitate separation from His Father. Christ proposed to reach to the depths of man's degradation and woe, and restore the repenting, believing soul to harmony with God. Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, offered Himself as a sacrifice and substitute for the fallen sons of Adam, though in this offering all heaven was involved in infinite sacrifice." {ST, December 15, 1914 par. 10}

 

Again for emphasis:

 

"Cumbered with humanity Christ could not be in every place personally, therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them to go to His Father and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit.” E.G. White, (Manuscript Releases Volume 14 (No’s 1081-1135) MR No.1084.

 

Some, like Robert Sessler, Nic Petula, Laval Picard, and others, fully deny that Christ divested Himself of His past Divine Only Holy Spirit, to bequeath it to us as heaven’s “highest good, crowning gift.” That is blasphemy of the highest order, and yet such men claim to be giving the last message of mercy to a dying world. The truth about the Godhead is the greatest supporter of the Law of God, for it offers the only means for obedience to that law and how and when that “means” was provided for, even before the cross. Such false teachers render the Sanctuary/Atonement GONE, in the Omega, just as Ellen White prophesied of the Alpha:

 

Sanctuary Gone Atonement Gone -- "In a representation which passed before me, I saw a certain work being done by medical missionary workers. Our ministering brethren were looking on, watching what was being done, but they did not seem to understand. The foundation of our faith, which was established by so much prayer, such earnest searching of the Scriptures, was being taken down, pillar by pillar. Our faith was to have nothing to rest upon--the sanctuary was gone, the atonement was gone." E.G. White, The Upward Look, 152.

 

An improper teaching on the Godhead thus sweeps away the entire Christian economy:

 

"In a representation which passed before me, I saw a certain work being done by medical missionary workers. Our ministering brethren were looking on, watching what was being done, but they did not seem to understand. The foundation of our faith, which was established by so much prayer, such earnest searching of the Scriptures, was being taken down, pillar by pillar. Our faith was to have nothing to rest upon--the sanctuary was gone, the atonement was gone." E.G. White, The Upward Look, 152.

 

The atonement is related to the Godhead issue. The Trinity Doctrine obfuscates the Atonement by discounting the sacrifice of Christ in emptying Himself of His Divine Nature in order to give it to us for regeneration. Ellen White said without that sacrifice, the cross would have been to no avail, and the Trinity Doctrine obviates that sacrifice by saying that it NEVER TOOK PLACE because the Holy Spirit always existed as a third person. That is blasphemy against the "greatest good and crowning sacrifice" gift that heaven could bestow. The personality of God and Christ is thus involved in the omega apostasy involving the Godhead vis a vis the Trinity Doctrine.

 

"The spiritualistic theories regarding the personality of God [the Godhead], followed to their logical conclusion, sweep away the whole Christian economy. They estimate as nothing the light that Christ came from heaven to give John to give to His people. They teach that the scenes just before us are not of sufficient importance to be given special attention. They make of no effect the truth of heavenly origin, and rob the people of God of their past experience, giving them instead a false science." E.G. White, 1SM, p. 204.

 

"Those who seek to remove the old landmarks are not holding fast they are not remembering how they have received and heard. Those who try to bring in theories that would remove the pillars of our faith concerning the sanctuary or concerning the personality of God or of Christ, are working as blind men. They are seeking to bring in uncertainties and to set the people of God adrift without an anchor." {MR760 9.5}

 

One Eternal Spirit That Makes God ONE GOD

 

All three persons to the Godhead have the same essence, substance, THE ONE ETERNAL SPIRIT. That is what makes them ONE GOD.

 

1Cr 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

1Cr 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether [we be] Jews or Gentiles, whether [we be] bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

Eph 2:18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

1Cr 12:8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

1Cr 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. 

1Jo 5:8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

 

Hbr 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 

 

Jhn 4:24 God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.

 

“They have one God and one Saviour; and one Spirit—the Spirit of Christ” (9T p. 289)

 

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is; there is Liberty.” (2 Cor. 3:17)

 

“For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.” John 5:26.

 

"He (Christ) suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which WAS His." Desire of Ages, p. 25 1 Cor. 11:24-265, cf. John 6:53, 54, Titus 3:5, 6.

 

"Christ declared that after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy of his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.

In the gift of the Spirit, Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow....

The Spirit was given as a regenerating agency, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail....

“It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon the church." E.G. White, Review and Herald Articles, May 19, 1904, vol. 5, p. 42.

 

"While we are to be in harmony with God's law, we are not saved by the works of the law, yet we cannot be saved without obedience. The law is the standard by which character is measured. But we cannot possibly keep the commandments of God without the regenerating grace of Christ. Jesus alone can cleanse us from all sin. He does not save us by law, neither will He save us in disobedience to law." E.G. White, Faith and Works, p. 95.

 

If we cannot possibly keep the commandments of God without the regenerating grace (HOLY SPIRIT GIFT) of Christ, then how can any man boast of his goodness? Who gets the credit? Christ does, but He imputes His righteousness to our account when we accept the impartation of His Divine Holy Spirit Nature and let Him indwell us.

 

This is what Paul meant when he said we are saved by grace and not works lest any man should boast. If this were not what he meant, he sure would have contradicted himself in the following verses by him and Peter:

 

1Cr 1:30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

1Th 4:3 For this is the will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

1Th 4:4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

2Th 2:13 But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

1Pe 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

Hbr 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

 

If the law was nailed to the cross, there is no standard to define sin. There would be no sin because God’s Word defines sin as transgression of the law. If there is no law, there is no sin, because God does not impute sin after the fact.  there is no need of grace as pardon and power to overcome sin.

 

1.    Romans 4:8
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Romans 5:13
For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

 

Our Dispositions Unchanged

 

“If you would be a saint in heaven you must first be a saint on earth. The traits of character you cherish in life will not be changed by death or by the resurrection. You will come up from the grave with the same disposition you manifested in your home and in society. Jesus does not change the character at His coming. The work of transformation must be done now. Our daily lives are determining our destiny. Defects of character must be repented of and overcome through the grace of Christ, and a symmetrical character must be formed while in this probationary state, that we may be fitted for the mansions above.”--13MR 82 (1891).  {LDE 295.1}

 

“The Glory that the Father gave to Christ is given to us: “Jesus is waiting to breathe upon all his disciples, and give them the inspiration of his sanctifying spirit, and transfuse the vital influence from himself to his people . . . Christ is to live in his human agents, and work through their faculties, and act through their capabilities. Their will must be submitted to His will, they must act with His Spirit, that it may be no more they that live, but Christ that liveth in them. Jesus is seeking to impress upon them the thought that in giving His Holy Spirit He is giving to them the glory which the Father has given Him, that He and His people may be one in God.” Signs of the Times, October 3, 1892, par. 4.

 

The Glory that the Father gave to Christ is given to us: “Jesus is waiting to breathe upon all his disciples, and give them the inspiration of his sanctifying spirit, and transfuse the vital influence from himself to his people . . . Christ is to live in his human agents, and work through their faculties, and act through their capabilities. Their will must be submitted to His will, they must act with His Spirit, that it may be no more they that live, but Christ that liveth in them. Jesus is seeking to impress upon them the thought that in giving His Holy Spirit He is giving to them the glory which the Father has given Him, that He and His people may be one in God.” Signs of the Times, October 3, 1892, par. 4.

 

“Christ gives them the breath of His own Spirit, the life of His own Life.” Desire of Ages, p. 827, par. 3.

 

“The Holy Spirit is the breath of life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ.” Desire of Ages, p. 805.

 

“They have one God and one Saviour; and one Spirit—the Spirit of Christ—is to bring unity into their ranks.” Testimonies, Vol. 9, p. 189.

 

Our Security: “Christ has made every provision for us to be strong. He has given us His Holy Spirit, whose office is to bring to our remembrance all the promises that Christ has made, that we may have peace and a sweet sense of forgiveness. If we will but keep our eyes fixed on the Saviour and trust in His power, we shall be filled with a sense of security; for the righteousness of Christ will become our righteousness.” My Life Today, p. 45.

 

The Lord Jesus seeks the co-operation of those who will become unobstructed channels for the communication of His grace. The first thing to be learned by all who would become workers together with God is the lesson of self-distrust; then they are prepared to have imparted to them the character of Christ. This is not to be gained through education in the most scientific schools. It is the fruit of wisdom that is obtained from the divine Teacher alone.”  {DA 249.4}

 

Did you ever wonder how and why Kellogg’s pantheism swept away the entire Christian economy? It did so by bypassing the Sanctuary/Atonement in the Heavenly Sanctuary. It taught that the Holy Spirit was in everything. That is not true.

 

It took the Incarnation sacrifice in the heavenly Sanctuary to make the gift of the Holy Spirit possible. So in saying that the Holy Spirit was in everything since creation, or whenever, that was saying that there was always a third person, but that did not occur until the divestation of the personality of Christ’s Holy Spirit from His humanity at His Incarnation. The Trinity Doctrine does the same thing. It bypasses the same heavenly Sanctuary/Atonement sacrificial gift that constituted a cure for sin. Both of these spiritualistic theories of man sweep away the entire Christian economy by teaching error that denies the gift proferred for the cure of sin and paid the eternal wages for our sin.


     “Already there are coming in among our people spiritualistic teachings that will undermine the faith of those who give heed to them. The theory that God is an essence pervading all nature is one of Satan's most subtle devices. It misrepresents God and is a dishonor to His greatness and majesty. {8T 291.1}

 

     Pantheistic theories are not sustained by the word of God. The light of His truth shows that these theories are soul-destroying agencies. Darkness is their element, sensuality their sphere. They gratify the natural heart and give license to inclination. Separation from God is the result of accepting them. {8T 291.2}

 

     Our condition through sin has become preternatural, and the power that restores us must be supernatural, else it has no value. There is but one power that can break the hold of evil from the hearts of men, and that is the power of God in Jesus Christ. Only through the blood of the Crucified One is there cleansing from sin. His grace alone can enable us to resist and subdue the tendencies of our fallen nature. This power the spiritualistic theories concerning God make of no effect. If God is an essence pervading all nature, then He dwells in all men; and in order to attain holiness, man has only to develop the power that is within him. {8T 291.3}

 

     These theories, followed to their logical conclusion, sweep away the whole Christian economy. They do away with the necessity for the atonement and make man his own savior. These theories regarding God make His word of no effect, and those who accept them are in great danger of being led finally to look upon the whole Bible as a fiction. They may 
                                                                            292
regard virtue
as better than vice; but God being removed from His position of sovereignty, they place their dependence upon human power, which, without God, is worthless. The unaided human will has no real power to resist and overcome evil. The defenses of the soul are broken down. Man has no barrier against sin. When once the restraints of God's word and His Spirit are rejected, we know not to what depths one may sink. {8T 291.4}

 

     Those who continue to hold these spiritualistic theories will surely spoil their Christian experience, sever their connection with God, and lose eternal life.” {8T 292.1}

 

I pray that you fully understand why we cannot co-labor with any who teach another gospel, and why it is not wise to begin witnessing with the Sabbath issue. It would be better to begin studying about the full meaning of grace, obedience (Rom. 1:5), the Laodicean message on faith that works by love, the Godhead, the everlasting Covenant, the Testator’s Testament, and the Sanctuary Service for God’s way is in the Sanctuary.

 

—rwb