Which major Christian church in the U.S. is closest to the truth?

[bdavidc]

Let me know when you want to start testing the Adventist Church, I'll be glad to help.

You maybe not realise that you've just declared every Sunday keeping church harmful. Not my words my friend.

No, that is not what I said. A church meeting on Sunday is not the same thing as a church teaching Sunday is the Christian Sabbath, or that keeping Sunday saves anyone, proves anyone’s salvation, or is God’s final test. If a Sunday church teaches that, then yes, that should be rejected too.

The issue is not what day a group meets. The issue is whether a system binds the conscience where Scripture does not bind it.

Paul said, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday... or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:16-17).

He also said, “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Romans 14:5).

So no, I did not declare every Sunday keeping church harmful. I said any system is harmful when it replaces Scripture with tradition or adds requirements Christ and the apostles did not bind on the church. That applies to Sunday systems, Sabbath systems, denominational systems, and every other system.

Christ is the issue. The finished work of Christ is the issue. Scripture is the test.

 

[Brakelite]

A church meeting on Sunday is not the same thing as a church teaching Sunday is the Christian Sabbath

I can't believe you said that being an American in the middle of a movement that is linked to government promoting Sunday as exactly as you describe above, because...

that keeping Sunday saves anyone,

Keeping Sunday may not save an individual, but may save the nation. So says many Christian nationalists determined to legislature morality.

 

[ScottA]

Thanks in advance!

I don't know of any church past or present that has not come to believe the doctrine of the "false teachers" Peter foretold of and the "lie" Paul said would cause "strong delusion", except those who expected Jesus to return "soon" and in their lifetime. Not as the Preterists believed, but as Jesus said, and Paul elaborated: "Today", "the dead, we who are alive, but each one in his own order."

 

[Brakelite]

The issue is not what day a group meets

You made it an issue when you said a harmless church is one that doesn't replace truth with tradition. Sunday churches, regardless their commitment, have all replaced God's holy 7th day Sabbath with the first day of the week , Sunday. Sunday is nothing more than a church tradition, having no scriptural teaching in support of it, therefore by your own standards a Sunday church cannot be considered harmless.

 

[bdavidc]

You made it an issue when you said a harmless church is one that doesn't replace truth with tradition. Sunday churches, regardless their commitment, have all replaced God's holy 7th day Sabbath with the first day of the week , Sunday. Sunday is nothing more than a church tradition, having no scriptural teaching in support of it, therefore by your own standards a Sunday church cannot be considered harmless.

That is not what I said, and it is not what Scripture says. A church meeting on Sunday is not the same thing as replacing the Sabbath unless that church teaches Sunday is now the commanded Sabbath. If a church says, “God changed the Sabbath command from the seventh day to Sunday,” then yes, I would ask where Scripture says that. I do not believe Scripture teaches that.

But simply meeting on the first day of the week is not sin. The early believers gathered on the first day of the week in Acts 20:7: “And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.” Paul also told the churches in 1 Corinthians 16:2, “Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store.” That does not make Sunday the Sabbath, but it does show that first-day gathering is not automatically a man-made corruption.

The Sabbath was given to Israel as a covenant sign. Exodus 31:16-17 says, “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath... It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever.” In the New Testament, believers are not commanded to keep the seventh-day Sabbath as a binding covenant requirement. Colossians 2:16-17 says, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday... or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.”

That is the issue. I am not defending Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. I am saying Scripture does not bind the church to Sabbath observance as you are doing here. Romans 14:5 says, “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”

So no, by my standard, a church is not harmful just because it meets on Sunday. It becomes harmful when it binds what Scripture does not bind, makes a day a test of faithfulness, or replaces Christ with law-keeping as the measure of standing before God.