SEVENTH DAY ADVENTISTS AND THE SABBATH

By Nana Yaw Aidoo

The most distinctive feature of Seventh Day Adventists is their emphasis on the keeping of the Sabbath. Christians contend that the old covenant with all of its precepts is a dead and obsolete covenant (Col.2:14; Heb.8:6-13; 10:9), and that keeping even a single precept of the old covenant, this side of the cross, is spiritually fatal (Gal.3:10; 5:4; 2 John 9). Nonetheless, Adventists are resolute in their stance and still keep the old covenant anyway.

As has already been pointed out, the most distinctive feature of Adventists is their keeping of the Sabbath. I submit that Adventists do not keep the biblical Sabbath, but follow the uninspired opinions of a very interesting and imaginative woman. These are 2 reasons why;

1. Under the biblical Sabbath, burnt offerings were made each Sabbath day. "'And on the Sabbath day two lambs in their first year, without blemish, and two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour as a grain offering, mixed with oil, with its drink offering-- 'this is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, besides the regular burnt offering with its drink offering" (Num.28:9-10). If Adventists contend that Christ took away the burnt offerings but left the Sabbath, then we are patiently waiting for them to prove to us where in the scriptures this is taught (1 Thess.5:21). Personally, I won't hold my breath.

2. Violation of the biblical Sabbath led to death. "Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh day shall be a holy day for you, a Sabbath of rest to the LORD. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death" (Exo.35:2). If like Adventists say, the death penalty has been taken away but the Sabbath law still remains, then pray tell me, what makes the Sabbath a law? The motivation to keep any law is in the penalty that is paid for violating the law. Imagine the president coming out and saying even though murder is still outlawed, there is no punishment for violating the law. That would be pure folly on the part of the president. And oh yes! Adventists have our Lord Jesus Christ, doing that which even we humans consider to be pure folly.

Seventh Day Adventists simply have no excuse and it's clear from this note that the kind of Sabbath that Adventists claim to keep is nothing like the biblical Sabbath that was meant for the nation of Israel and the nation of Israel alone (Psa.147:19-20). The bible still says; "having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross...Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ" (Col.2:14-17).

In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away (Heb.8:13).