The Sabbath/Sunday controversy

[Robert]

Whenever the issue of the Sabbath-Sunday is brought into focus, one’s attention is immediately turned to the Sunday keeping Christians versus the Sabbath keepers. This, I believe, is not the real issue. There are today many sincere Christians who are fully resting in Christ for salvation but are Sunday keepers. They are keeping the wrong day for the right reason. Likewise, there are many sincere Sabbath keepers who believe their Sabbath keeping will save them. They are keeping the right day for the wrong reason. Both need correction and this the Holy Spirit, who is to lead us into all truth, will do.

When this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations [Matthew 24:14]; it will polarize or divide the human race into only two camps — believers and unbelievers [1 John 5:19], those who are fully resting in Christ and those who have ultimately rejected Christ. All who come under the banner of Christ will in the end-time worship the Lord of the Sabbath and their Sabbath keeping will be the outward sign or seal of the righteousness they have already received by faith, just as circumcision was to Abraham “a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised” [Romans 4:11].

Those who have deliberately and ultimately turned their backs to the free gift of salvation in Christ will all worship the dragon which gave power unto the beast [Revelation 13:3-4]. These will exalt Sunday as man’s day of rest in defiance of the Sabbath, God’s rest day. The issue then in the final conflict will not be between two groups of Christians or even two rest days, but two opposing methods of salvation: the Sabbath, signifying salvation by faith alone, versus Sunday, signifying salvation by works or human effort.

When man turned from God-dependence, at the fall, and consequently had to eat his bread by the sweat of his brow [Genesis 3:19], a human rest day became necessary. Today, Sunday is that international day of rest, established by the world under Satan. Since man was also created a spiritual being, his departure from God-dependence to self-dependence also meant a departure from God-worship to subtle forms of self-worship [Romans 1:21-23; Isaiah 53:6; Philippians 2:21].

This spiritual departure led man from righteousness by faith to righteousness by works [self-righteousness – Genesis 3:7; 11:4-9]. The New Testament describes this as the religion of Babylon based on the claims of Nebuchadnezzar, the great king of ancient Babylon [Daniel 4:30,31; Revelation 14:6-11]. [it must be noted here that the word Babylon derived its name from the ill-fated tower of Babel, meaning Gate (Bab) of God (el), symbolizing man trying to reach heaven by works.] The fundamental issue is all of scripture is salvation by faith versus salvation by works. At the heart of the Bible message is salvation by grace made effective through faith alone [Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 3:28; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-9; Hebrews 10:38-39; 11:1-40]. At the heart of every false religion is salvation by works.

In ancient times, Sunday not only became man’s day of rest from physical and mental work but, above all, symbolized man’s spiritual day of rest and worship based on the pagan belief that the sun was the god of gods. This became prominent in Christ’s day in the Roman Empire. Hence, at its very foundation, Sunday rest is a pagan institution representing self-righteousness; this is in complete contradiction to God’s Sabbath, His sign to man of righteousness by faith [Exodus 31:13, 16; Hebrews 10:14]. These two opposing concepts of salvation can never be reconciled and have been in conflict ever since the fall.

When the true gospel of righteousness by faith will be fully recovered and preached into all the world, every person will have to make the choice, either for or against Christ [Deuteronomy 30:19,20; Joshua 24:13-15; Romans 9:30-33; Philippians 3:3-9]. At that time, the Sabbath will become the seal of God, representing righteousness by faith. In contrast, Sunday will represent the Mark of the Beast, signifying man’s rejection of God’s saving grace in Christ [Revelation 14:10-11]. Therefore, when the Sunday (blue) law will be legally established, it will indicate the world’s deliberate and ultimate rejection of God’s loving offer of salvation through His Son.

This is the “abomination of desolation” Christ spoke about [Matthew 24:14-22]. Those who will then insist on Sunday rest, in willful opposition to God’s Sabbath rest, will receive the plagues, the wrath of God poured out without mixture [Revelation 14:9-11]. In contrast, those who will stubbornly keep the Seventh-day Sabbath will be manifesting a faith in God that is unshakeable. They will go through the great time of trouble and wash their robes white in the blood of the Lamb.

Because of the mixed, confused ideas of salvation, the true controversy between God’s Sabbath and man’s Sunday is today still foggy and not clearly understood. But when the two opposing methods of salvation come into clear focus, then the true importance of the Sabbath will be seen clearly. May God give us, at that time, the grace and courage to stand for truth. [JS]

[doug yowell]

Whenever the issue of the Sabbath-Sunday is brought into focus, one’s attention is immediately turned to the Sunday keeping Christians versus the Sabbath keepers. This, I believe, is not the real issue. There are today many sincere Christians who are fully resting in Christ for salvation but are Sunday keepers. They are keeping the wrong day for the right reason. Likewise, there are many sincere Sabbath keepers who believe their Sabbath keeping will save them. They are keeping the right day for the wrong reason. Both need correction and this the Holy Spirit, who is to lead us into all truth, will do.

While I agree with most of the overall conclusion of your piece I still find it irritating that so many Adventists still refer to the rest of the Christian world as "Sunday keepers"? If one actually pays attention to both the teachings and the practice of contemporary non-SDA "believers" they should quickly be able to discover that the overwhelming majority of them no longer teach or practice the need to literally"keep" the Sabbath whether it be the 1st or the 7th day of the week. So now the entire meaning of the Sabbath has become the issue, not which day of the week is one can "rest in Christ".

Attached to that is the fact that now even SDA's now seem to question what the meaning of "holy" entails. To many it simply means that Sabbath is primarily the "right day to go to church on". The result of this thinking is that the rest of the day is spent in pursuing every other day, normal, secular activities (or no activity at all).

So the character of God is still in question as to whether a literal (and simple)adherence to His Word reflects happiness or a burdensome work.