You have made up your own version of Adventist teaching... As I have quoted above, and as you have repeated numerous times before... And despite being shown precisely what Adventists actually do teach, still you are laboriously demanding we find evidence in scripture of your made up version. That's called a straw man. Of course there's no evidence in scripture for your made up doctrine. That's why we Adventists don't teach it. It isn't in scripture.
However, with that said, let me add, that6 000 years ago, almost to the day, Jesus created a day. He called it the seventh day, He blessed it, sanctified it, making that particular day holy. Nowhere and at no time in subsequent history, up to this day, is there any record or hint that Jesus changed His mind and reversed His earlier classification. Therefore, the seventh day is still holy. And it was just as holy after the crucifixion as it was the day before, as evidenced by it's observation by the women who arrived at the tomb to attend to the body of their Lord on the 1st day of the week.
Now, 1500 years previous to this, as Israel as a nation were being led from Egypt after 400 years of slavery and indoctrination into occult and pagan idolatry, God needed to remind them of one practise that was very important to Him, one that would enhance His newly formed relationship with the children of Abraham, with the view of revealing to the world through them, His power and care and love for those who were willing to obey Him. That very important practise was to remind them to honour and observe the 7th day Sabbath. This practise would set them apart from the rest of the world, and through it, prove God's care and provision. In fact the Sabbath was so important to God, He included it in the Decalogue 3 months later at Sinai.
I believe God is still the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. He still desires that His people reveal to the world God's power, care and love. He also wants His people to be separate from the world. A unique people. Set apart. A people who would demonstrate that God has changed them, that they are truly born again, a people who through their love for God, for one another and their neighbours, are willing to obey all of God's Commandments. And the only way they can do this, the only way anyone can do this, is through resting in Him 24/7.
I don't observe the Sabbath to be saved. I was already fully justified by the blood of the Lamb and had been for 15 years before God showed me a more complete way of honouring Him. I don't observe the Sabbath to complete my salvation. My relationship with God was already established. But the Sabbath totally brought us closer. Nor do I, nor does my church, teach that everyone else who attends church on another day, is destined for hell.
This thread wasn't about whether Sabbath keeping is right or wrong, or whether anyone not observing it are necessarily sinners. Nearly everyone has completely missed the point. America today is in a battle, and has a moral dilemma on their hands. No Christian in their right mind would deny the depths of wickedness that is today pervading western society, and much of it found its woeful beginnings in places like Hollywood, and then exported to the world. America is in trouble because they are looking to correct this state of affairs with the right motives, but the wrong methods. The Bible says,
KJV 2 Chronicles 7:14
14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
KJV Ephesians 6:12
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
While desiring good things for the nation, the church in America has taken up the battle against people. The real enemy isn't those people who identify as another political party to yours. It isn't those who adorn themselves with rainbow colours and want to be "inclusive and tolerant". The enemy isn't sitting next to you in church and moaning about the hard nosed pastor preaching about sin and honouring God. Nor is the enemy Christians who choose to worship in such a manner you find egregious or a contradiction to your personal beliefs. No. The enemy is spiritual. The enemy is one that can be overcome only by prayer. Not by politics. Not by debate and clever polemics. "Not by power, nor by might, but by My Spirit saith the Lord". America is in trouble because she is looking in the wrong direction to solve issues that can be solved only by personal, heartfelt, repentance and consecration to God's will and purpose.
KJV Luke 22:25-26
25 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them (politics); and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. (Or social welfare and government or socialism, consumerism, or capitalism, or communism, or fascism etc etc)
26 But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
America is in trouble because very soon, a union of church and state will be legislating Christian worship practises according to man made and man inspired doctrines. In particular Sunday sacredness. This isn't a new thing. Compelling by force of law and punitive judgements has been behind the establishment of Sunday in the Christian church since the Laodicea council in the 4th century. Quote...
“Christians shall not Judaize (observe the Sabbath)and be idle on Saturday but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honour, and, as being Christians, shall, if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing (observing the 7th day Sabbath), they shall be shut out from Christ” .
Sunday blue laws were not to far in the past, enforced in most states in the US. Today, there are numerous conservative Christian groups seeking to re-establish them, and make them enforceable, including of course the Catholic church which was responsible for baptizing the "day of the sun" very early in Christian history, with recent popes writing encyclicals advancing the interest in Sunday legislation, using climate change, family interests, and the like as catalysts for a political global enforcement of Sunday. This movement toward Sunday will find its fulfilment first in the US. It may begin as a benign observance. Take Sundays off. Relax. Take the family out. Stop work. It's good for the family. Good for the climate. PROJECT 2025 mentioned this. The 180 day mandate for the new government in 2025. Laudato Si, Laudato Diem, and other encyclicals are promoting it. It's coming.
When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman (Catholic) power, when she shall reach over the abyss to clasp hands with spiritualism (Secret societies, Freemasons, occult practises and sorcery, and the current Hollywood free for all in entertainment so welcomed now even in church) when, under the influence of this threefold union, (Revelation 16:13) our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near 5T 451.1
Enforcing by law a religious practice that will eventually displace biblical truth, and then enact punitive punishments (no buy or sell) against those practising Bible teachings according to their own conscience and their God given right to religious freedom, will bring down the nation, and usher in the final movements before the second coming. Personally, I say bring it on. But I'm the meantime everyone, in particular the church, needs to be warned of the direction their leaders are taking them.
KJV Daniel 12:1
1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
