In fact, the SDA are in practice at variance with their very own dogmatic assertions about the Sabbath. All details concerning the observance of the Sabbath commandment are found in Exodus 16:23, 20:10, 35:2,3. Do they indeed keep the biblical injunctions concerning the Sabbath?As my father was an SDA, I have learnt through sad experience that they are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 3:7). Thus, I will make this my final reply and then “shun profane and vain babblings” (2 Tim. 2:16). THE following questions are based on 2 Cor. 3:3-16. (Cf. Exodus 34:27, 28.) 1. Was "the ministration of death" (verse 7) written and engraven on stones? Yes or No? 2. Were the Ten Commandments written and engraven on stones? Yes or No? 3. Was anything else written and engraven on stones? Yes or No? 4. Then does this mean the Ten Commandments? Yes or No? 5. Was that which was written and engraven on stones called "glorious"? Yes or No? 6. Was that which was glorious to be done away? (Verse 11). Yes or No? 7. Again, does this mean the Ten Commandments? Yes or No?Again and again in the New Testament occur passages which show that the covenant which was written on tables of stone was brought to an end at the cross. 2 Cor. 3: 3-14 is especially significant: "Our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able witnesses of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory . . . For if that which is done away is glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious." The apostle institutes a number of contrasts between the two covenants. It will help us if we set them side by side. 2 Cor. 3: 3-14Old Testament (14) New Testament (6) Tables of stone (3) Tables of the Heart (3)The Letter Killeth (6) The Spirit giveth life (6)Ministration of Death (7) Ministration of Spirit (8)Glorious (11) Much more glorious (11)Ministration of Condemnation (9) Ministration of Righteousness (9)Done away (11) Remaineth (11) Note that the apostle speaks of that which was written and engraven in stones as a ministration of death, glorious indeed, but "done away." The Adventist seeks to avoid the force of this passage by quibbling about the word "ministration." But the sturdy fact remains that whatever the ministration of death was, it was that which was written and engraven in stones (7) glorious though it was, that was "done away" (11). But the Jews of Paul's day failed to see it, even as the Adventist fails to see it to-day. "Their minds were hardened: for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remaineth, it not being revealed to them that it is done away in Christ" (14) Am. R V.The Lord's Day. The disciples of the apostolic age, and the Christians in all the ages since, have observed the first day of the week, and not the seventh day sabbath, as the weekly day of worship and Christian activity. The obligation to keep the first day of the week as the Lord's day is not in any way associated with the Sabbath law of the Old Testament. The Sabbath commandment is often quoted as the authority for our observance of the Lord's Day. But this use of an Old Covenant law for a New Covenant institution leads to confusion, and is quite unnecessary. The Lord's Day does not need to be associated with the Sabbath law to give it sanctity. It stands in its own right. It is to the Christian the perpetual memorial of our Lord's resurrection, as the Sabbath was to the Jew a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt.The First Day. The Sabbath has not been changed. God did not change it. The pope did not change it. The Emperor Constantine did not change it. The sabbath was the seventh day of the week; the Lord's day is the first. The one was a day of rest for the Jews, the other is a day of worship and service for Christians. Our Lord himself signalised the first day of the week in such a way as to make it, for his disciples, the "day of all the week the best." Could any one, after an earnest and careful study of the following facts, doubt that the Master intended the first day of the week to have special significance for his disciples? On the first day of the week 1. Jesus rose from the dead (Matt. 28:1; Luke 24:1) 2. He appeared to various disciples (Matt. 28 etc.) 3. He appeared again the next Lord's day (John 20:26). 4. He gave the apostles legislative authority (John 20:23) 5. He gave them the great commission (Luke 24:36-39 Mark 14:14-16). 6. The Holy Spirit came at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4; cf. Lev 23:15, 16). 7. The gospel was first preached (Acts 2:22). 8. The church was established (Acts 2:47). Never was there a greater in the history of the world than that on which Jesus rose from the dead. The Jewish sabbath was despoiled of its joy for the disciples, because it was the day on which Jesus lay in the tomb in which their hopes were also buried. But what a day was that which saw his, resurrection from the grave! No wonder it became the great memorial day of the church. "Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord" (John 20:20).After Eight Days. The risen Lord's appearances to various disciples on the first day of the week invest that day with special significance. It is, to say the least, a singular thing that none of these appearances was on the sabbath day. On the first day he showed himself alive by many infallible proofs (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19), he opened their mind to understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45), he breathed on them and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit" (John 20:22)--what sacred associations that day must have had for these disciples! When he appeared again the next week, on the first day of the week, the day was confirmed in their minds as a day of special importance (John 20:26). "After eight days again . . . Jesus cometh." In a desperate attempt to break the force of this mighty stream of emphasis on the first day of the week (the sabbath day, be it noted, does not receive any notice at all in connection with these resurrection days) the Seventh Day Adventists often try to assert that "after eight days" means that more than a week had elapsed. However, the scholars among them recognise that this was a common expression denoting the period of a week. Thus Elder Andrews, a Seventh Day Adventist historian, said that every writer before 170 A. D. calls the resurrection day the first day of the week, eighth day, or Sunday (Quoted by Canright). Justin Martyr, for instance, A. D. 140 says: "The first day after the sabbath, remaining first of all the days, is called, however, the eighth, according to the number of all the days of the cycle, and (yet) remains the first."The Day of Pentecost. Intelligent Bible readers will not need any elaborate statement to prove that the day of Pentecost (Acts 2) fell on the first day of the week. The passage cited above--Lev. 23:15, 16--shows that it was fifty days after the sabbath, on "the morrow after the seventh sabbath." On the first day of the week, therefore, the baptism of the Spirit was experienced by the disciples, the gospel was first preached under the commission, the law went forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, as the prophets had foretold (Isa. 2:1-5; Micah 4:2), the church was established, and the first converts were won to Christ through the gospel. Of such transcendent importance was this great day in the beginning of the gospel dispensation! No wonder is it, therefore, that the first day of the week became known among Christian people as the Lord's Day (Rev. 1:10). Sabbatarians endeavour to apply the name to the sabbath of the Old Testament, because that day was "the sabbath of the Lord" (Ex. 20:10), and Jesus called himself Lord of the sabbath (Mark 2:28). But when Rev. 1:10 was written, the law which enjoined the Jewish sabbath had been abolished sixty years (Col. 2:16; Rom. 14:5; Gal. 4:10). The word "kuriake" translated "Lord" in our text, is an adjective, not a noun, and had we such an adjectival form, the correct rendering would he "the Lordian day." The word is used in but one other passage in the New Testament, 1 Cor. 11:20, where it is applied to another N.T. institution--"the Lordian supper." Ellicott says: "From the Supper it came to be applied to the day on which Christians met for the breaking of bread. The day is still called 'kuriake' in the Levant." That it was the custom of the early Christians to meet On the first day of the week for the breaking of bread we learn from Acts 20:7. Paul was on his way to Jerusalem, and for some reason stayed seven days in Troas. He Passed a sabbath day in the place, but if he observed it in any way, the fact is not stated. But "upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread," the apostle met with them. Note the association of words: First day of the week, disciples, to break bread. Compare it with any record of Paul's preaching on the sabbath day, as for instance, Acts 17:1, 2--"Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews, and Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days, etc." Synagogue, Jews, Sabbath! First day of the week, Disciples, Breaking of Bread! The old and the new! The Jewish and the Christian!A Memorial of the Resurrection. Seventh Day Adventists will object that we read this but once. But if they could find, once only, the statement, "On the sabbath day when the disciples met together to break bread," how that would change the whole outlook for them! They also seek to prove that this event took place on a Saturday evening. The Scripture says it was "the first day of the week." The apostle's direction to the church at Corinth "concerning the collection" (I Cor. 16:1, 2) shows that the Lord's day was a day on which the disciples gathered together. To lovers of the Lord the first day of the week is consecrated as a memorial of the resurrection; and as it was honored in the New Testament church, we seek to honor it as a day of holy joy in the service of Christ.Above quotes taken from: “The Sabbath or the Lord’s Day?”, T. H. Scambler.The Investigative JudgementThe investigative judgment doctrine, peculiar to Seventh-day Adventists, teaches that in fulfillment of Old Testament sanctuary typology, Christ entered into the second apartment of the sanctuary in heaven in 1844 in order to begin a work of "investigative judgment" to see who was worthy of eternal life, both of those still living and those dead.A brief background for this teaching is called for. Ellen G. White, under the influence of William Miller, an early Adventist, agreed with his date for the visible return of Christ. October of 1844 was set for the second coming of Christ. Christ obviously did not return on that date, so in order to "save face" over a false prophecy, "investigative judgment" was born.SDA's use Daniel 8:14 in their reasoning:In 1877, Uriah Smith, an early Adventist, declared, "Christ did not make the atonement when he shed his blood upon the cross. Let this fact be fixed forever in the mind".(The Sanctuary and the Twenty-Three Hundred Days of Daniel VIII, 14, p. 276, quoted in "Are the Gospel and the 1844 Theology Compatible?" by Robert D. Brinsmead, p.17).Ellen White herself declared (or plagiarized) in The Great Controversy that, "before Christ's work for the redemption of men is completed, there is a work of atonement for the removal of sin from the sanctuary. This is the service which began when the 2300 days ended." (1844).Above quotes: copyright, Biblical Discernment Ministries, reserve all rights.Glacier View ControversyA major denominational controversy erupted in 1980 regarding the investigative judgment. On 27 October 1979 Adventist scholar Desmond Ford delivered an address to the Association of Adventist Forums, held at Pacific Union College, in which he outlined the major problems that he perceived with the doctrine.[8] The church’s leadership responded by summoning Ford to a meeting of 111 theologians and church administrators to evaluate his views. The meeting took place at Glacier View, Colorado, from 11-15 August 1980.Ford presented his views to the Glacier View attendees in a 900 page document entitled Daniel 8:14, the Investigative Judgment, and the Kingdom of God. His arguments against the investigative judgment teaching included: _ The "year-for-a-day" principle is an incorrect method for interpreting prophecy. (The 1844 date for the commencment of the judgment is thus invalidated.) _ The prophecy of Daniel chapter 8 is primarily concerned with events in the 2nd century BC (namely, the persecution of the Jews by the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes), and there is no contextual or linguistic support for linking it to the heavenly sanctuary. The "cleansing" in Daniel 8:14 relates to the removal of the desecration caused by the "little horn" (i.e. Antiochus Epiphanes); it has nothing to do with the sins of Christians. In fact, the Hebrew word translated "cleansed" in the KJV (sadaq) is different from the word used for "cleansing" (taher) in the book of Leviticus in connection with the sanctuary; it is more accurately translated "vindicated" or "restored", as in most modern Bible versions. _ The epistle to the Hebrews teaches that the Day of Atonement was fulfilled by the death of Jesus on the cross. In particular, Hebrews 6:19, 9:12 and 10:19-20 teach that Jesus entered into the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary immediately after his ascension, not 1800 years later. Hebrews thus contradicts the traditional Adventist idea of a two-stage heavenly ministry of Christ.The Glacier View meeting ultimately produced two consensus statements, entitled “Christ in the Heavenly Sanctuary” and “The Role of Ellen G. White in Doctrinal Matters.” In addition, a ten-point summary was formulated by six of the attendees, outlining the main points of difference between Ford’s positions and traditional Adventist teaching. One month after Glacier View, Ford's employment with the Adventist church was terminated, and his ministerial credentials revoked. Ford has stated that Glacier View initially "produced a consensus statement that moved towards Dr. Ford's conclusions in seven out of ten of his major positions", but that by the conclusion of the meeting the church "reverted to their former traditional positions". Others have claimed that although theologians present at Glacier View sympathised with Ford's position, they were "intimidated into silence by ecclesiological pressure"; the Adventist church has denied this to be the case. According to a report of a 2005 meeting of the Adventist Forum in Sydney, held as a 25th anniversary of the Glacier View proceedings,"Ford also recalled the moment Raymond Cottrell came to him at Glacier View and with some foreboding said, 'Des, the administrators have not read your manuscript.' Cottrell may have overstated the case but it was a disturbing observation." It is widely held that many denominational ministers resigned (or were sacked) in the wake of Glacier View, because of their support for Ford's theology. It is also speculated that a significant number of current ministers privately agree with Ford but refrain from speaking publicly on the issue for fear of losing their employment. Many in the Adventist church feel that the events of 1980 represent a major milestone in the theological development of the church, and that the effects of this controversy continue to be felt today.The SDA and False ProphetsThe Bible lists six identifying marks of false prophets, any one of which is sufficient for identification: (1) through signs and wonders they lead astray after false gods (Dt. 13:1-4); (2) their prophecies don't come to pass (Dt. 18:20-22); (3) they contradict God's Word (Isa. 8:20); (4) they bear bad fruit (Mt. 7:18-20); (5) men speak well of them (Lk. 6:26); and (6) they deny that Jesus, the one and only Christ, has come once and for all in the flesh (1 Jn. 4:3), thereby denying His sufficiency in all matters of life and godliness (2 Pe. 1:3). Most cults are founded upon false prophecies: SDA originated with similar false prophesies about Christ's coming. It began with William Miller's prediction that Christ would return in 1843 (revised to October 22, 1844). Miller admitted his error. However, SDA prophetess Ellen G. White (EGW), who had repeatedly endorsed Miller's prophecy, insisted that Christ had indeed come, but not to earth. Instead, He had entered "the holy of holies" in heaven "to make an atonement for all who are shown to be entitled to its benefits" (The Great Controversy, p. 480). Number 17 of the "Fundamental Beliefs of Seventh-Day Adventists" states: "The Gift of Prophecy: One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is prophecy. This gift is an identifying mark of the remnant church and was manifested in the ministry of Ellen G. White. As the Lord's messenger, her writings are a continuing and authoritative source of truth which provide for the church comfort, guidance, instruction, and correction." Yet EGW made numerous false prophecies: that "Old Jerusalem never would be built up" (Early Writings, p. 75), that she would be alive at the Rapture (Early Writings, pp. 15-16), that Christ would return before slavery was abolished (Early Writings, pp. 35, 276), that Adventists living in 1856 would be alive at the Rapture (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 3, pp. 131-132), and many more. Nevertheless, SDAs revere this false prophet's writings as if they were Scripture.Above quotes: copyright, Biblical Discernment Ministries, reserve all rights.God’s Immutable Promise to Israel as Revealed in the Book of Hebrews6:13 For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself, 6:14 Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. 6:15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 6:16 For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. 6:17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: 6:18 That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: 6:19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; 6:20 Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.The promise mentioned above is eternally operative, immutable and irrevocable. This immutability concerns not just the “spiritual seed,” but also the “national seed.” Such is the testimony of the prophets as seen in the prediction in Zechariah 10:9–12, made after Israel’s return from the Babylonian exile, and also borne witness to in the Apostle Paul’s discourse in Romans 9–11. In love and honour of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, whose life is the life complete in itself, I conclude with a portion of an address by Ian R. K. Paisley: HIS GRACE AND POWER TO SAVE AND SUCCOURThe Lord Jesus Christ possesses all the fulness of the Godhead in a body, and He has all wisdom, knowledge, intelligence and understanding to know all the needs of His elect who were joined to Him in the bonds of the everlasting covenant.IN HIS RIGHTEOUSNESSAaron's robe was merely symbolical, and had to be woven; Christ's robe of righteousness was of His own inherent Self, and as He was perfect God and perfect Man in one Person, He had power and ability to fulfil all the claims of God's holy law, and by His life to accomplish the righteousness of God which He imputes to His people. "Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress; Midst flaming worlds, in these array'd, With joy shall I lift up my head. Bold shall I stand in that great day, For who aught to my charge shall lay, While through Thy blood absolved I am, From sin's tremendous curse and shame?"IN HIS ATONEMENTChrist's precious blood purchased the whole "election of grace" (see Acts xx. 28). It brings redemption (Eph. i. 7) and justification (Rom. v. g), and is still efficacious to "wash" and "cleanse" from sin (Rev. i. 5; 1 John i. 7), in making peace (Col. i. 20), to make nigh (Eph. ii. 13), and ever shall be of power, ability and virtue, "Till all the ransomed Church of God Be saved to sin no more."“Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen.” (Revelation 1:7)