ONE LAW AND ITS APPLICATION

These verses by themselves refute the claim by SDA leaders that there are two laws: God's moral law (the Ten Commandments) and the ceremonial law (the law of Moses).  You have a choice!  You can accept the false teachings Ellen G. White and the SDA organization or believe Jesus Christ and God's Word.

Matthew 22:34-40  But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

ONE LAW AND ITS SIGN

In previous dispensations (A stage in the progressive revelation of God constituting a distinctive stewardship or rule of life) God made covenants through various people. Some of the covenants were conditional— depends upon man, and some were unconditional— depends upon God. Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses are some of the most prominent people with whom God made covenants. Under each of these agreements, God gave stipulations that had to be obeyed in order for the covenant blessings to continue. As a result of man’s breaking his part of the agreement, the LORD had to intervene and extend mercy and grace in order to continue fellowship with the crowning objects of His creation. Under each of these covenants, the LORD God gave a sign to the recipients. These signs were given to the people to be a constant reminder of the covenant they had made with the LORD their God. The signs also inspired the people to worship, and they strengthened the people’s faith in times of no open revelation.

SIGNS OF THE EDENIC AND ADAMIC COVENANTS

The Edenic covenant was rather simple compared to those that would follow it. In order to retain the blessings of Eden, God said, “Don’t eat from the tree in the midst of the garden.” During the innocence dispensation, the sign was God’s awesome presence with man in the midst of the Garden. After the fall, God provided aprons made of animal skins (most likely a lamb) which initiated the Adamic covenant. It began the blood-substitutional, sacrificial system of atonement. This was God’s sign to fallen mankind that He would deliver them from the sin through the seed of the woman and abolish the curse that would plague the entire world. This promise is given in Gen 3:15:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

SIGN OF THE NOAHIC COVENANT

After the flood God made a covenant with Noah. He gave him a sign that would be visible to all following generations. It is probably the most remembered of the signs and is still present today. The sign of the rainbow was a reminder that God would never destroy the earth again by a flood.

Gen 9:13-16 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token (sign) of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

SIGN OF THE ABRAHAMIC COVENANT

This covenant is laid out in Genesis chapter 12, verses 1-3. God promised Abraham that He would make of him a great nation and a great name. It was an unconditional and everlasting covenant. The Abrahamic covenant is probably the most disputed of all the covenants, for the seed of Isaac and Ishmael are still in disagreement as to the beneficiary of this promise. Today the Arabian race (Ishmael’s seed) and the Jews (Isaac’s seed) are still at war because this dispute will not be settled until Messiah comes (Revelation 19).

The sign of the Abrahamic covenant was circumcision of all males on the eighth day. It began with Abraham and Ishmael, and then his entire household. Circumcision served as an outward sign of inward dedication to the God of Abraham. It had no virtue of itself, but was a sign of distinction, purity, and possession that marked a people separated unto God by faith which was counted by God for righteousness. The God of grace was gracious.

Gen 17:11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token (sign) of the covenant betwixt me and you.

SIGN OF THE MOSAIC COVENANT

Moses, like Abraham, was the founder of a new nation. He chose to suffer the reproaches of Christ rather than be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He was chosen by God to lead Israel from the bondage of Egyptian slavery into freedom in the promised land. The Mosaic covenant was perhaps the most conditional of all the covenants. It is described in part in the following verses:

Exodus 19:5-8 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. 8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD.

This new covenant with the people of God was the beginning of the dispensation of law. Its full blessing could only be obtained by complete obedience—of course this is in part why Jesus Christ came. The law would reign until it could be fulfilled. God’s sign for this covenant was the Sabbath.

SABBATHS: THE SIGN OF THE MOSAIC COVENANT

Exodus 31:13 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you (the people of Israel).

SIGN OF THE NEW COVENANT

During the days of the prophets and the law, God had promised a new covenant that would supersede the covenant of the law. This is a scriptural fact that stands above any SDA leader’s claim to the contrary. Here is God’s promise concerning the New Covenant:

Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Heb 12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

Heb 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.

The Superseder of the law was none other than God Himself manifest in human flesh as stated in John 1:14. Jesus said the sign of the New Covenant or New Testament would be His resurrection on the third day, which would fall on the first day of the week, Sunday.

Matt 12:38 Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.

39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

CONCLUSION

As seen from the scripture, the Sabbaths were a sign, like many other signs, designated by God to reflect upon the covenant of the law which He had made with Moses and the people of Israel. Like the other signs, the Sabbaths did not precede that which it was intended to designate. To demonstrate what this means can be illustrated by using God’s covenant with Noah. God gave Noah various stipulations and promises and then gave the sign of the rainbow. The rainbow did not precede the covenant; it followed it. SDA leaders have the Sabbath preceding the covenant with Moses. It’s just not so. It’s not according to scripture. Now, you have a choice whether to believe the Bible or SDA leaders. Give God the glory and choose the Book.