Participants: Stephen Bohr
Series Code: BOT
Program Code: BOT000007
|
00:31 Well, hello again everybody.
00:32 It's good to have you here once again to continue our study 00:35 on The Bible or Tradition. 00:37 And today our topic is titled, Sabbath Controversies 00:43 and Tradition. It's presentation number seven in this series, 00:47 The Bible or Tradition. 00:49 But before we enter a study of God's Word, we want to do what 00:53 we also do, and that is to ask for the Lord's presence. 00:56 And so I invite you to bow your heads with me as we pray 01:00 to ask God to be present with us. 01:01 Father in heaven, we come before Your throne again this evening 01:06 knowing that our wisdom is insufficient to understand 01:10 and grasp the great things from Your Holy Word. 01:13 Therefore we come imploring divine wisdom. 01:16 We ask that You will help us to handle Your Word appropriately, 01:21 and correctly. We ask that You will open hearts and minds. 01:24 We're going to study a very important subject today, 01:27 and I ask that You will not only give us understanding, 01:31 but that You will give us a willingness to live in harmony 01:34 with what we study. 01:35 And we thank You for hearing our prayer, 01:37 for we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. 01:40 The most revered institution in Judaism 01:47 is the seventh day Sabbath. 01:49 For the rabbi's the Sabbath was equal in importance to all 01:56 of the other precepts that Moses wrote combined. 02:00 In fact, one rabbi once stated, He who observes the 02:06 Sabbath is kept from sin. 02:09 Another rabbi wrote, If Israel were to keep two Sabbaths, 02:15 according to the laws thereof, they would be 02:19 redeemed immediately. 02:20 And Rabbi Levi, a very famous rabbi once stated, If Israel 02:27 kept the Sabbath properly, even for one day, the Son of David 02:30 the Son of David would come. 02:33 Why, because it is equivalent to all the commandments. 02:39 But the question that we want to ask today in our study 02:44 is whether the Sabbath of the rabbi's, the Sabbath that these 02:48 rabbi's mentioned, is really the Biblical Sabbath 02:51 or the Sabbath of the Lord, or is it a different Sabbath 02:56 than the one that we find in Scripture? 02:58 The rabbinical Sabbath is different than the Sabbath 03:03 that we find in the writings of Moses. 03:06 I want to read a statement from Robert Johnston, 03:10 who is a Seventh-day Adventist historian. 03:13 He taught at the Seminary at Andrews University 03:15 for several years. 03:16 He's an expert in the literature that was written in the 03:20 Intertestimonial Period. 03:21 That is between the end of the Old Testament 03:23 and the beginning of the New Testament. 03:24 And this is what he had to say about the transmission 03:28 of oral tradition by the rabbi's. 03:32 It says in his book, The Sabbath In Scripture and History, 03:37 page 70. 04:09 We've studied this before by using other writings. 04:12 It's interesting. You have this same concept again that 04:16 you have a process of transmission from one generation 04:19 to another, beginning with Moses through the great assembly 04:23 in the times of Ezra, all the way till the times of Christ. 04:27 He also says on page 70 of the same book: 05:01 And for that reason the oral traditions were eventually 05:05 codified in two Talmud's. 05:08 That is the collection of oral laws, and oral traditions 05:12 that had been handed down. 05:14 One is known as the Babylonian Talmud, and the other one is 05:18 known as the Palestinian Talmud. 05:20 Basically the oral laws that supposedly had been passed along 05:25 by Moses, throughout the generations all the way to the 05:29 times of Christ were placed in a book or in a Code. 05:33 Now the Old Testament, if you read carefully, has very few 05:38 Sabbath prohibitions. 05:39 Actually, it has four Sabbath prohibitions. 05:44 That is the written books of the Old Testament. 05:46 The first thing that is forbidden is work. 05:49 Secondly, kindling a fire. Third, trading. 05:55 That is doing business on the Sabbath. 05:57 And 4. Cooking. But the Rabbi's expanded these prohibitions 06:04 into an entire system of rules and regulations. 06:09 On the basis of Deuteronomy 25:3 which, by the way, in context 06:15 has nothing to do with the Sabbath. 06:17 They established that there were 39 major activities which were 06:22 forbidden on the Sabbath. 06:23 But each of these 39 were subdivided into smaller laws, 06:30 into an almost endless list of prohibitions of things that 06:35 could not be done on the Sabbath. 06:37 Now I'd like to read a statement here from Deuteronomy 25:3, 06:43 and actually we'll begin at verse 1 through verse 3, 06:47 and you tell me if this passage has anything 06:50 to do with the Sabbath. 06:51 The only thing that it has is the number 39. 06:55 Now notice what it says. 07:33 So just to be safe, they said, you could only give 07:36 an individual 39 blows. 07:38 In other words, you can only beat a criminal 39 times. 07:42 And so, basically, they said this applies also to rules 07:47 regarding Sabbath observance. 07:49 And so they came up with a list of 39 things that cannot be 07:53 performed on the Sabbath, and I'd like to read those. 07:56 I'm actually reading now from the Talmud. It says: 08:04 That means thirty-nine. 08:05 Now here comes the list of prohibitions, which are not 08:09 found in Scripture, but are based on oral tradition. 09:11 What do you think? 09:13 Are any of those things mentioned as Sabbath 09:16 prohibitions in Scripture? Absolutely not! 09:19 In fact Deuteronomy 25:3 is not even talking about the 09:23 Sabbath, and yet the rabbi's said by extension, 09:26 Deuteronomy 25:3 is actually speaking about prohibitions 09:31 of things that you cannot do on the Sabbath. 09:34 Now some of the rules that the rabbi's added to the Sabbath 09:38 to protect it from being broken, were the following... 09:41 And you're going to snicker at some of these, but these were 09:44 actual laws that the rabbi's said were contained in the 09:48 oral tradition, and they said they're contained in principle 09:52 in Scripture as well. 09:53 But they're not contained in Scripture. 09:55 Now notice I'm going to share some of these with you. 09:58 You could not eat a fruit on the ground that you found under 10:03 a tree because it might have fallen on the Sabbath. 10:06 You could not remove an egg from a nest on the Sabbath, 10:11 but you could protect it until after the Sabbath 10:14 when it could be eaten. 10:15 Instrumental music was forbidden on the Sabbath. 10:19 If your house caught fire on the Sabbath you could save life, 10:24 but you could not save any property in the house. 10:28 All sacred books could be saved from the fire, and enough food 10:33 and drink for the remaining Sabbath meals. 10:36 It was a cardinal offense to tilt a lamp in order to make 10:41 more oil run toward the wick because this would make it 10:45 burn brighter, which was the sin of kindling. 10:48 You could not read by the light of a lamp on the Sabbath. 10:52 You could not touch money, or any of the tools of your trade, 10:56 even if you did not intend to work with them. 10:58 Climbing a tree, swimming, clapping the hands, slapping 11:03 the thighs, and stamping the feet were forbidden. 11:06 Burials and weddings could not take place on the Sabbath. 11:10 Writing was forbidden on the Sabbath. 11:12 You could not drag a chair across the floor and make a 11:15 furrow with it if you intended to do so, but if you did not 11:19 intend to do so it was allowed. 11:21 You may not directly carry a stone, but you were permitted 11:26 to lift up the child, even if he had the stone in his hand. 11:29 So you can imagine, you know, just tell the child, 11:31 Pick up the stone, and so that way you could 11:34 transport the stone. 11:35 Here's another one: treatment of non-mortal ailments, 11:38 and handicaps could not be treated on the Sabbath. 11:42 But an eye salve could be placed on the eye before sundown 11:47 on Friday, or a plaster could be placed on the wound so that 11:50 the healing continued on the Sabbath. 11:52 If a deer wandered into your house on the Sabbath, one man 11:56 could not trap it, but two could do so. 11:59 You could not tithe on the Sabbath. 12:02 No Jew was allowed to travel more than 2,000 cubits beyond 12:06 the city limits where he lived. 12:08 Now notice how they escaped from that prescription. 12:12 To mitigate the 2,000 cubit limit, one need only deposit 12:17 enough food for two meals at 2,000 cubits distance, 12:21 and declare the place his temporary abode. 12:24 And then from there he could travel an 12:27 additional 2,000 cubits. 12:29 So what do you think about this? 12:31 Is there any inkling in the Bible of any of these 12:35 rules and regulations? Absolutely not! 12:38 So the question is, Where did they come from? 12:41 They did not come from the written Scriptures. 12:44 They were prescriptions that were established by the rabbi's 12:48 by oral tradition that were passed along, supposedly from 12:51 the days of Moses, from generation to generation. 12:54 And they said, These rules are as important to obey 12:59 as the writings of Moses. 13:02 Now of all of the theological controversies that Jesus had, 13:07 there was no greater controversy and conflict with the 13:12 denominations of His day, than over the Sabbath. 13:15 In fact the religious leaders despised Jesus because He did 13:20 not keep their Sabbath. 13:22 Some evangelical scholars have said that Jesus actually 13:26 broke the Sabbath. 13:27 But the question is, did Jesus break the Bible Sabbath? 13:32 I don't think Jesus broke the Bible Sabbath. 13:35 In fact I know Jesus did not break the Bible Sabbath. 13:38 But Jesus did break the Sabbath of the rabbi's. 13:42 He broke the Sabbath of oral tradition, because that was not 13:46 God's Sabbath, that was the Sabbath of the theologians. 13:50 Now Jesus, the cases of individuals that He healed 13:56 on the Sabbath were chronic cases. 13:59 For example, you have an individual who 14:03 had been born blind. 14:05 Could Jesus have waited until after the Sabbath 14:08 to heal the blind man? 14:09 Of course He could have. 14:10 A paralytic for 38 years. 14:14 Would he have died if Jesus had waited just until sundown 14:17 to heal him? Absolutely not! 14:19 A woman who could not straighten out for 18 years. 14:23 Could Jesus have waited until sundown to heal this woman? 14:27 She wouldn't have died. Of course! 14:29 A man with a withered hand. 14:31 I mean, could Jesus have waited until after the Sabbath 14:34 to have healed this withered hand? Of course. 14:38 And, then, of course, He healed Peter's mother-in-law 14:40 from the flu. She probably would have recovered even if Jesus 14:44 had not healed her, but Jesus wanted to alleviate her 14:47 suffering on the Sabbath. 14:49 Now Jesus said that it was lawful to do these 14:53 things on the Sabbath. 14:54 The scribes and the Pharisees said that it was unlawful 14:58 for Jesus to do these things on the Sabbath. 15:00 And, of course, the critical question is this: on what basis 15:05 did the scribes and the Pharisees say that it was 15:08 unlawful, and on what basis did Jesus say that what He was doing 15:13 was lawful? In other words, what was the source of authority 15:17 for the scribes and Pharisees to say that what Jesus did 15:20 wasn't lawful, and what was the standard that Jesus used to say 15:24 that what He was doing was lawful? 15:27 The fact is folks, that there is nowhere in the Old Testament 15:32 where we are told that it is wrong to alleviate suffering on 15:35 the Sabbath, or to heal someone who is sick on the Sabbath. 15:40 There is nowhere in the written scriptures of the Old Testament 15:43 any prohibition to alleviate suffering and sickness 15:47 on the Sabbath. In fact, Isaiah 58, the last few verses, say 15:53 that the Sabbath is a special day to alleviate suffering, 15:57 to visit prisoners, to feed the hungry, and to clothe those 16:01 who are naked, and those who are afflicted. 16:03 In other words, Isaiah 58 says that it is lawful to 16:08 do good on the Sabbath. 16:09 So Jesus was obeying Isaiah 58. 16:13 Let me ask you, the laws of the scribes and Pharisees, 16:17 were they making the written scriptures of no effect? 16:21 Of course they were! 16:22 Jesus was saying, Isaiah 58 says it is alright to do good 16:27 on the Sabbath. It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. 16:29 You say that I can't. 16:31 I'm in harmony with the written Scriptures and you are not, 16:34 because you are following your oral traditions. 16:37 Now let's take an example of something that Jesus did, 16:45 or the disciples of Jesus rather, did on the Sabbath 16:47 that created a great theological conflict. 16:51 You remember that one Sabbath Jesus and His disciples were 16:55 walking through a field, and His disciples were hungry. 16:58 And so the Bible says in Matthew 12 that His disciples plucked 17:04 some ears of grain, and they started eating on the Sabbath. 17:08 Now according to Sam Bacchiocchi, who actually went 17:13 to the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome 17:16 and wrote his dissertation on the Sabbath, stated that by 17:21 doing this the disciples were breaking four rabbinical rules. 17:26 First of all they were reaping by picking the ears. 17:30 Secondly they were threshing, because they would have to take 17:32 the grain off of the ears. 17:34 Third they were winnowing, which they were separating 17:38 the chaff from the good grain. 17:40 And number four, they were preparing a meal. 17:44 In other words, they were breaking four rabbinical rules 17:48 by what they did on the Sabbath. 17:50 In other words, they were accused by the scribes and 17:54 Pharisees of breaking the Sabbath. 17:56 But were they really breaking the Biblical Sabbath? 18:00 Folks, the Bible does forbid harvesting your fields 18:03 on the Sabbath for commercial purposes. 18:05 But there's nowhere in Scripture that would forbid an individual 18:09 to pick, or pluck an ear of grain in order to satisfy hunger 18:15 on the Holy Sabbath. 18:16 That came from the rules that had been established by oral 18:20 tradition by the scribes and the Pharisees. 18:23 The question is, how did Jesus answer the accusation of the 18:27 scribes and Pharisees against His disciples? 18:30 The answer is very simple. 18:32 Not only on this occasion, but on other occasions, Jesus quoted 18:37 Scripture to show that what they were teaching was not Biblical, 18:41 and what He was teaching was Biblical. 18:45 Let me give you three examples. 18:47 In Mark 2:25-27 the Lord Jesus used two texts from the 18:52 Old Testament to defend what His disciples were doing. 18:57 He used 1 Samuel 21:6 where David entered and he ate 19:02 the shewbread, even though the Old Testament said that only 19:06 the Priests could eat the shewbread. 19:07 And then Jesus also quoted Genesis 2 where it says that 19:12 God made the Sabbath for man. 19:14 He made man, and then He made the Sabbath for man. 19:16 And so in Mark 2 it says the Sabbath was made for man, 19:20 and not man for the Sabbath. 19:22 Jesus is referring to the written Scriptures to defend 19:26 the behavior of His disciples. 19:28 In the case of the woman who was bent over and could not 19:32 straighten out for eighteen years... 19:33 That story is found in Luke 13. 19:36 Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 5:14. 19:38 He said to them, which of you if you have an ox 19:42 won't take the ox, out of mercy for him on the Sabbath, 19:45 so that he can go and drink water? 19:47 That comes directly from Deuteronomy 5:14. 19:52 Jesus is using written Scripture to defend His point of view. 19:57 And then, in another case, in John 7:22, 23, Jesus uses the 20:03 example of circumcision in the Old Testament to defend 20:07 His healing of the paralytic in John 5. 20:11 He says, Listen, if an individual is born, and eight 20:15 days later falls on the Sabbath, the law says that you're 20:18 supposed to circumcise that individual the eighth day. 20:20 And so if it's the Sabbath you will circumcise that child 20:24 even if it's on the Sabbath. 20:26 And so you are accusing Me because I heal someone on the 20:31 Sabbath, when you are willing to circumcise someone 20:34 on the Sabbath. And so Jesus is using Scripture to defend 20:39 His observance of the Sabbath. 20:42 Jesus made it clear that in not helping the needy 20:46 the Pharisees were actually breaking the Sabbath, 20:49 while He was keeping the Sabbath. 20:51 In other words, their tradition had made of no effect 20:55 the written word of God. 20:57 Their rules were intended on protecting the Sabbath, 21:01 but actually their rules led them to break the Sabbath 21:05 that is written in Holy Scripture. 21:08 Actually, the scribes and the Pharisees had several 21:12 interesting things in their observance of the Sabbath. 21:17 First of all their Sabbath was a counterfeit Sabbath. 21:20 Would you agree that their Sabbath was a 21:22 counterfeit Sabbath? 21:23 Because it wasn't the Biblical Sabbath. 21:26 Was their Sabbath a man made Sabbath? 21:28 Their Sabbath was a man made Sabbath. Yes! 21:31 Was their Sabbath based on human tradition? Yes, it was. 21:36 Did they create their Sabbath rather than God? 21:40 They most certainly did. 21:41 Were they practicing false worship by their observance 21:45 of the Sabbath made by man, instead of made by God? 21:48 Absolutely! Now you say, why do you bring all of this up? 21:52 There's a very specific reason. 21:54 As Seventh-day Adventists we believe that the great issue 21:59 in the final controversy in this world is going to be 22:04 the commandments of God versus the commandments of men, 22:08 and true worship and false worship; the genuine Sabbath 22:13 of the Lord and a counterfeit Sabbath. 22:16 Now the question is, will the final conflict involve a false 22:21 Sabbath and a true Sabbath? 22:22 The answer is yes. 22:25 Now listen carefully, the only difference between the times of 22:30 Jesus and the end time, is that the Pharisees and the scribes 22:35 kept the Sabbath in the wrong way. 22:37 And yet it was a human Sabbath because they created it that 22:42 way, and they kept it in their own way. 22:45 At the end of time we believe that Scripture indicates that 22:49 the Christian world will keep the wrong day, 22:52 but the principle is the same. 22:54 It doesn't matter whether you keep the Sabbath in the wrong 22:57 way, because the Sabbath is made by a human being; 23:01 or you keep the wrong day, because if you keep the wrong 23:04 day, you're still keeping a day that God did not create. 23:07 You're keeping a day that man created for worship. 23:11 The principle, in other words, is the same. 23:14 So basically the conflict in Christ's day is the same 23:19 conflict that is going to exist at the end of time. 23:22 The conflict is between the Sabbath of the Bible, 23:26 and a Sabbath that has been created by human tradition. 23:29 It is between keeping the Sabbath in honor of the Creator, 23:33 the Sabbath of the Bible; and keeping the counterfeit Sabbath 23:37 which is practicing false worship. 23:38 Because you're keeping the day that was established not by God, 23:43 but by human tradition. 23:44 Now it's interesting as we examine the gospels that the 23:50 Pharisees not only broke God's Sabbath by abstaining from doing 23:54 good on the Sabbath, but they also intended to kill 23:58 Jesus Christ on the Sabbath. 24:00 You can read that in several places: for example, Mark 3:6. 24:04 We won't go there now. 24:06 Matthew 12:14, and John 5:14 says that they wanted to get rid 24:12 of Jesus. They wanted to kill the Lord Jesus for healing 24:15 people on the Sabbath. 24:16 Now it's interesting, irony of ironies folks, they condemned 24:20 Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, but they wanted to kill 24:24 on the Sabbath because they thought He was not 24:27 keeping the Sabbath the way it should be kept. 24:30 Was their Sabbath making the law that says, Thou shalt not 24:36 kill, of none effect? Absolutely! 24:39 They were not only destroying the Biblical Sabbath, 24:42 but they were violating by intending to kill Jesus 24:45 on the Sabbath for what He did, they were violating the 24:48 commandment that says, Thou shalt not kill. 24:52 Now does this ring a bell when we come to the end time? 24:56 Is there going to be a death decree against God's people? 25:00 Yes. In fact most of the Christian world, with what I'm 25:03 going to share now, they would say, Ah, this is never 25:07 going to happen. That's impossible! 25:09 You know, we live in a civilized world. 25:11 But, you know, the heart of man, without the influence of the 25:15 Spirit of God, can be very cruel. 25:17 As Seventh-day Adventists, we have taught that Sabbath keepers 25:21 will be accused at the end time of being legalists. 25:25 Aren't we accused of being legalists because 25:27 we keep the Sabbath? 25:28 But you know there's no worse legalism than saying, 25:33 you either keep the Sabbath or we'll kill you. 25:35 And so people keep the Sabbath, not because they love the Lord, 25:39 Sunday because they love the Lord, 25:41 but they keep Sunday because they're afraid of being what? 25:44 Because they're afraid of being killed. 25:46 And when I say the Sabbath, I'm talking about the Sabbath 25:48 that the Christian world believes is the Sabbath, 25:50 which is not the Biblical Sabbath, it's Sunday. 25:52 So there's no worse legalism than saying, You keep Sunday 25:57 or else we're going to kill you. 25:59 That is making the law of God of none effect. 26:03 And, furthermore, we know by the story of Elijah, 26:08 and by other stories in Scripture, as well as from the 26:11 Spirit of Prophecy, that the things in this world are 26:14 going to get worse and worse. 26:16 There are going to be major mega disasters 26:19 one right after another. 26:20 We've seen several of them already, but it's going to get 26:23 worse and worse. Crime is going to get worse and worse. 26:26 There's going to be an economic collapse, and as a result the 26:29 Christian world is going to say, Why is this all happening to us? 26:33 It's because we've gone astray from God. 26:35 So what we need to do is we need to come back to God. 26:38 We need to go to church on Sunday, 26:40 and then God will favor us again. 26:42 What worse legalism can there be than saying, let's get back 26:47 to church so that God will bless us? 26:49 Shouldn't we get back to church because we love the Lord? 26:53 not in order to remove the curse? 26:55 And so Adventists have been accused of being legalists 26:58 because we say that we should keep the Sabbath, 27:02 which is one of the ten commandments. 27:04 And yet the Christian world is going to say, You either keep 27:07 Sunday, and if you keep the Sabbath we're going to kill you. 27:11 And so many people will observe Sunday because they're afraid 27:14 of losing their lives, not because they love the Lord. 27:17 And also the legalism will be manifested by the Christian 27:19 world by saying, Hey, if we eliminate the problem of these 27:25 individuals who have observed the Sabbath, then God is going 27:30 to remove all of these disasters. 27:31 He's going to remove the curse, and that way we 27:33 will earn God's favor. 27:36 Now lets notice what Roman Catholics have to say about 27:41 the Sabbath/Sunday issue. 27:43 Probably many of you are aware of a challenge that John Eck, 27:48 a theologian of the Roman Catholic Church, hurled at 27:52 Martin Luther in a debate that they had. 27:55 I want to read this statement that Johann Eck makes to Luther, 28:00 and Eck got the better part of Luther on this one. 28:03 Notice what he said, because Luther said, 28:07 Sola scriptura, the Bible alone. 28:10 Now notice, Eck says: 28:24 Now notice the terminology. 28:27 What? Remember that word. 28:29 We're going to come back to it. 28:35 That is Sunday, according to the Christian world. 28:43 He says to Luther. 28:55 Notice, the Church. 29:07 Notice what John Milner, another Roman Catholic scholar, 29:12 had to say about the reason for keeping Sunday. He says: 29:20 And then he quotes. 29:39 By the way, up till now he's quoted Genesis 2:3, Exodus 20, 29:44 now he's quoted Matthew 5:17. 29:46 Then he continues saying: 30:06 See, he's quoting Scripture. 30:08 And then notice what he says: 30:52 Here's another statement from a Roman Catholic theologian, 30:57 John L. Stoddard, and he indicts Protestants here by saying: 31:20 And then he's going to give an example. 32:09 On what basis has the Protestant world done this? 32:12 Notice what he says. 32:23 Quite an indictment, isn't it? 32:25 Now here's another statement from Bertrand Conway. 32:29 I'm going to read two statements from him. He says: 32:45 And then he says in a candid and unapologetic way: 33:14 Some Protestant churches baptize children, by the way. 33:33 Amazing statements, aren't they? 33:35 Now notice this one. 33:37 This is from James Cardinal Gibbons, a famous cardinal who 33:42 was in Baltimore, in the Diocese of Baltimore. 33:45 Notice what he had to say. 34:36 Here's another one: Leo Tress and John Castlelot. 34:44 Notice this, the change. 34:51 There's the important word. 34:57 What? Ah, there's the interesting term again. 35:07 That is by the Magisterium. 35:26 So why do Protestants keep Sunday as the day of rest? 35:29 Based on the authority of the tradition of the 35:32 Roman Catholic Church. 35:34 Here is another one. 35:36 This is from the Catholic Mirror, which was the 35:38 publication of the Diocese of Baltimore. It says there: 35:50 Did what? What's the next word? 35:51 Remember that. We're going to come back to it. 36:04 That is the Church. 36:19 That is with the Church. 36:34 That's Sunday, by the way. 36:54 And now listen to this. 36:55 I'm going to come back to it in a few moments. 36:59 Which is Sunday. It's not the seventh day, it's the first day. 37:11 Remember that word. 37:22 So remember that this author in the Catholic Mirror, 37:27 is basically saying that Sunday was born from the 37:32 Roman Catholic Church. 37:33 It is the offspring of the Roman Catholic Church. 37:36 Here's another statement. 37:38 This is from F. G. Lintz, another Roman Catholic scholar, 37:41 and it's in question and answer form. 38:03 Is what is being asked of this Roman Catholic scholar. 38:06 Now notice how the Roman Catholic Scholar is going to 38:08 answer whether the day that Seventh-day Adventist's 38:11 keep is the right day. 38:47 That is Protestants. 39:31 These are amazing statements, aren't they? 39:33 And all of them are made by Roman Catholic scholars 39:37 without exception. 39:38 These are not Protestants that are making these statements. 39:40 These are Roman Catholics that are making these statements. 39:43 Now did you notice the number of times in these statements 39:45 that you have the word changed? 39:47 The Church changed, tradition changed? 39:50 Do you know where this comes from? 39:52 It comes from a prophecy that we find in Daniel 7. 39:56 And I'm just going to summarize it very briefly. 39:58 Because many people are acquainted with it. 40:00 In Daniel 7 we have the course of human history, from the days 40:04 of Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, to the very end of time. 40:08 You have, first of all, a lion. 40:11 And what kingdom does the lion represent? 40:13 It represents Babylon. 40:15 It ruled from 605 to 539 B.C. 40:19 And then you have after this a bear. 40:21 What does the bear represent? 40:23 It represents the Medes and Persians. 40:25 The kingdom that conquered Babylon. 40:27 And the Medes and Persians ruled from 539 to 331 B.C. 40:32 And then you have a leopard. 40:34 And the leopard represents which kingdom? 40:36 It represents Greece. 40:38 And Greece ruled from 331 to 168 B.C. 40:42 And then you have a fourth beast. 40:43 The fourth beast is what I call a dragon beast. 40:46 It's a non-descript beast. 40:48 And this beast has three stages of existence, three consecutive 40:51 stages of existence. 40:53 The first stage is this dragon beast ruling by itself. 40:57 It doesn't have any horns on its head when it arises to power. 41:01 It's simply this dragon beast ruling by itself. 41:04 And what does this dragon beast represent? 41:06 It represents the Roman Empire. 41:08 The empire under which the Lord Jesus was born. 41:11 You can find that in Revelation 12 where it says that the 41:14 dragon stood next to the woman to devour her child 41:17 as soon as the child was born. 41:18 Which was the empire that attempted to slay Christ 41:21 when He was born? It was Rome. 41:23 And so this fourth beast without any horns 41:26 represents the Roman Empire. 41:28 But then, interestingly enough, from the head of this dragon 41:32 beast, after it has ruled for awhile, because the Roman Empire 41:35 ruled from 168 B.C. till 476 A.D. when the last Roman 41:41 emperor of the western empire was deposed. 41:44 The Roman empire was divided into ten kingdoms, 41:48 as a result of the Barbarian invasions. 41:51 And therefore from the head of this dragon beast come forth 41:55 ten horns. The ten horns were complete in the year 476 A.D., 41:59 476 after Christ. And then you have a third stage to this 42:04 dragon beast. The first stage is the dragon beast by itself; 42:07 the Roman Empire. 42:08 The second stage is when the ten horns come out. 42:10 In other words that empire is divided. 42:13 And you know, it's still Rome because they come from the head 42:15 of the fourth beast which represents Rome. 42:17 And then among the ten, after the year 476, you have a little 42:22 horn that rises among the ten. 42:25 And it uproots three, and it speaks blasphemies 42:28 against the Most High. 42:30 It persecutes the saints of the Most High, and it thinks that it 42:34 can do something very interesting. 42:37 Notice Daniel 7:25. 42:40 The key word that we notice in several of these statements 42:44 that we just read. 42:45 It says in Daniel 7:25 the following: He shall speak 42:52 pompous words against the Most High. 42:55 Revelation identifies those words as blasphemies. 42:58 Do you know what blasphemy is? 42:59 Blasphemy is defined in the Bible first of all when a mere 43:04 man claims to be God, and secondly when a mere man 43:08 claims to have the power to forgive sins. 43:10 Jesus was accused of blasphemy because He said He was God. 43:14 Well, they were wrong, and He was right, because He was God. 43:16 But He was accused of blasphemy. 43:18 And He was also accused of blasphemy because He claimed 43:22 to have the power to forgive sins, and He did. 43:24 But when a mere man claims to be God, and a mere man claims to 43:29 have the power to forgive sins, that's blasphemy. 43:31 And this little horn speaks blasphemies. 43:34 And then it continues saying: He shall persecute 43:35 the saints of the Most High. 43:38 This would be a persecuting power 43:40 against God's faithful people. 43:42 And then we have this interesting characteristic: 43:47 and shall intend to what? to change times and law. 43:53 If you look at Roman Catholic Catechisms... 43:56 By the way, this little horn represents the 43:57 Roman Catholic Papacy. 43:58 Is the Roman Catholic Papacy Roman? 44:02 Does it come from ancient pagan Rome? 44:05 Did it arise amidst the ten kingdoms represented by the ten 44:10 horns? Did it persecute God's people? 44:13 Does it claim to have God's representative on earth? 44:16 Does it claim to have the power to forgive sins? 44:19 Did it rule for 1,260 years, for times and the dividing of time? 44:25 Absolutely! Did it claim to have the power to change 44:29 God's holy law? Yes. 44:31 If you go to Roman Catholic Catechisms you'll find 44:34 something very interesting. 44:35 And I checked out fifty of them once in a 44:37 Roman Catholic bookstore. 44:38 You know, it's interesting that the second commandment in the 44:43 Catechism's disappears; the one that says that you're not 44:47 supposed to worship idols. 44:48 Why do you suppose the Roman Catholic Church would 44:51 remove that commandment? 44:52 Well because their temples and their churches are filled with 44:59 idols that people bow before. 45:01 And so they take out the second commandment, and you end up 45:04 with nine commandments. 45:05 So you have to end up with ten, because the Bible 45:07 says that there are ten. 45:08 And so what they do is they divide the tenth commandment 45:11 into two: don't covet your neighbors wife, and don't covet 45:15 your neighbors things basically. 45:17 But the tenth commandment, covetousness, is 45:19 just one commandment. 45:20 I mean coveting things, or coveting your neighbors wife, 45:23 that's just one commandment: Thou shalt not covet. 45:25 And so the Roman Catholic Church has taken out the commandment 45:29 that says don't worship idols, and it ends up with nine, 45:32 so it has to divide commandment number ten into two 45:35 to end up with ten. 45:37 But the Roman Catholic Church has done something else 45:39 to change God's law, which is even more serious, 45:42 and that is all of the statements that we've read 45:45 clearly state that the Roman Catholic Church, by tradition 45:49 has felt that it had the authority to change what? 45:54 to change the Sabbath to a different day, 45:57 the Sabbath to Sunday. 45:59 Are you with me or not? 46:01 Now, why can't Christians see that it was the 46:04 Papacy that did this? 46:05 I'm going to tell you very briefly. 46:08 You see, the Protestant reformers followed a system 46:11 of interpreting prophecy which is known as historicism. 46:15 It's basically the idea that prophecy fulfills with a flow 46:20 without interruption from the times of the prophet, 46:23 till the times of the coming of Jesus Christ. 46:26 It's like Daniel 7. 46:28 You have Babylon, MedoPersia, Greece, Rome, the Roman empire, 46:32 the Roman empire is divided, and then you have another Rome 46:35 that arises immediately after that, which does all of 46:38 the things that we've described. 46:40 Is it very difficult to determine who followed the 46:43 Roman empire when it was divided? 46:45 No, all you have to do is look at the history books. 46:48 Which was the Rome that came up, the religious Rome, 46:51 the little horn Rome that came up after the Roman 46:54 empire was divided? 46:55 I mean there's no debate about it. 46:57 It is the Roman Catholic Church. 46:59 But, you know, the way that Protestants interpret 47:02 the little horn of Daniel 7? 47:04 They've gone astray from the Protestant reformers 47:07 that they came from. 47:09 They say, no, no, no, the little horn represents a nasty 47:15 individual who's going to arise in the future 47:18 after the rapture of the church, over in the Middle East. 47:21 The church will be safe in heaven. 47:24 And therefore the little horn has nothing to do 47:27 with church history. 47:28 And other protestants, the main line Protestants, they say, 47:31 Oh, no, no, the little horn was a nasty individual called 47:35 Antiochus Epiphanes, who lived a 165 years before Christ. 47:39 You know, he desecrated the Jewish temple. 47:41 He sacrificed a pig on the altar and desecrated it. 47:44 That was the little horn of Daniel 7. 47:47 And so, basically, what they're doing is they're projecting the 47:49 anti-Christ to the distant future, or the distant past, 47:52 and therefore they cannot see what the Roman Catholic Church 47:55 did within church history. 47:57 Are you understanding me or not? 47:58 It's because of a wrong interpretation, a wrong method 48:01 of interpreting prophecy, that Protestants have bought into 48:05 the idea that the Sabbath today is Sunday. 48:09 And they think that it's in the Bible, 48:10 but it's not in the Bible. 48:11 In fact in our next lecture we're going to study all of the 48:15 texts of the New Testament that speak about 48:17 the first day of the week. 48:18 We're going to examine every single one, 48:20 there are only eight of them, to see if Protestants can really 48:24 base their idea of Sunday observance on Scripture, 48:29 or whether it is a tradition that comes from 48:31 the Roman Catholic Church. 48:33 I want to read a statement. 48:34 This was written by Ellen White. 48:36 And do you remember the word offspring? 48:39 That Sunday is the offspring of the Roman Catholic Church? 48:44 Now notice this is in the book, Last Day Events, page 123. 48:48 It says there: 49:04 That is the little horn. 49:09 Which, by the way, is the church. 49:44 Here's another interesting statement. 49:46 This one is even more explicit. It comes from: 49:55 Notice the terminology. 49:57 That's the little horn, or the beast. 50:11 What? Ah, there's the offspring idea again. 50:23 In other words rocks it in the cradle. 50:36 In another statement that's found in... She says: 50:53 And then she says in Volume 9 of the Testimonies, page 211, 51:13 And you say, Pastor, it's not the same to worship the sun 51:17 as it is to worship on the Sunday, is it? 51:19 It most certainly is in principle. 51:22 Let me explain the reason why. 51:24 Let me ask you, who made the first day of the week? God did. 51:29 Did He make it for worship? 51:30 No, it's a work day. 51:32 So what happens if you make the first day of the week 51:35 a day of worship? What is that called? 51:39 It's idolatry. Let me ask you, Who made the sun? 51:42 Did God make the sun for worship? 51:45 So what happens if you make the sun an object of worship? 51:48 What is that called? idolatry. 51:51 You see, it doesn't matter whether human beings make 51:54 the sun an object of worship, or make the 51:57 Sunday a day of worship. 51:59 Whatever man makes for worship that God did not make 52:02 for worship is what? is idolatry. 52:05 So it doesn't matter if it's a day. 52:08 It doesn't matter if it's the sun. 52:10 The principle is that whatever man makes for worship that 52:14 God did not make for worship, is idolatry. 52:17 In Review and Herald, March 8, 1898, the same author says: 52:47 Do you see what the issue is? 52:49 You see folks, the final issue is going to be one of authority. 52:53 Will it be God and the Bible, and His Holy Sabbath, 52:59 or will it be the Papacy, and tradition, and its Sabbath? 53:04 Is homage going to be paid to God, by worshipping on the day 53:08 that He created for worship, or are we going to pay homage to 53:12 the Papacy by keeping the day that the Papacy established 53:16 as the day of worship? 53:17 Thus to worship God is keeping His commandments, 53:22 whereas worshipping the beast means to keep the commandments 53:26 of the beast. Are you seeing what the issues are? 53:29 Folks, it's not an issue of one day versus another day. 53:33 The days are simply the way in which God tests us to see 53:36 if we will obey Him, or whether we will obey the beast. 53:40 It is a matter of which authority you accept. 53:43 When you keep God's Holy Sabbath, you are saying, 53:47 I am keeping the day that God established for worship. 53:50 God is my authority. 53:52 But when you keep Sunday as the day of worship, 53:55 you're saying, I am honoring the power that claims to have 53:58 changed the day of worship. 53:59 You are honoring the Papacy who claims to have changed 54:02 the day of worship from Sabbath to Sunday. 54:05 The issue is who will be the authority in your life? 54:08 In Volume 19, of Manuscript Releases 244, Ellen White makes 54:15 this interesting statement. She says: 54:30 They have what? subverted the Christian faith into what? 54:58 You see, the Bible in terms too clear to be misunderstood, 55:02 repeatedly tells us that the seventh day is the Sabbath 55:07 of the Lord. And yet the Roman Catholic Church and Protestants 55:10 inform us, No, Sunday is the Sabbath. 55:13 On what grounds can they do this? 55:15 Certainly not on Biblical grounds, but on the basis 55:19 of human tradition. 55:21 But, you know, the Roman Catholic Church, in the course 55:24 of time has become craftier. 55:27 John Paul II wrote a pastor a letter called Dies Domini, 55:30 and in that document, which we're going to study in our 55:34 next lecture, he made a valiant effort to defend Sunday 55:38 sacredness from a Biblical perspective. because he's trying 55:41 Because he's trying to convince Protestants that Sunday 55:45 observance is something that is found in Scripture. 55:48 But when you examine this letter that he wrote, Dies Domini, 55:52 which means, On the Lord's Day, he appealed to all kinds of 55:57 philosophical arguments, sophisticated philosophical 56:00 arguments based on human reason. 56:03 Yet none of his arguments are persuasive to those who take 56:07 the Bible as their only standard of truth. 56:11 In our next lecture we are going to take a look at the arguments 56:15 that were used by John Paul II in his document, 56:20 or in his pastoral letter, Dies Domini. 56:23 So the question, folks, then is this, 56:26 which will be our authority? 56:29 Will it be God's written word, or will it be human tradition? 56:34 You see, folks, what existed in the days of Christ 56:38 exist in the Christian world today. 56:40 In the days of Christ the Sabbath that the Pharisees 56:44 established was a human Sabbath created by them by tradition. 56:47 At the end of time, the Sabbath that is kept by the Christian 56:51 world, is also a man made Sabbath. 56:54 A Sabbath based on tradition. 56:55 The only difference is that in the times of Christ they kept 57:00 the Sabbath in the wrong way, whereas at the end of time 57:04 the Christian world will keep the wrong day. 57:07 But in principle it's the same. 57:09 It's man made Sabbath versus God's Sabbath. 57:13 And that will be the issue that will separate humanity. 57:17 It will be the crisis over the seal of God, which is God's 57:21 Sabbath, and the Mark of the Beast, 57:23 which is the counterfeit day of worship. |
Revised 2014-12-17