Two great errors: the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness

[Robert]

"Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome." [EGW]

 

What are the issues with these two errors? How do these two errors attack the gospel?  Remember that all false doctrine attacks the gospel.

[Robert]

the  devil   wants  people to worship  him---Sunday sacredness goes  against  GOD'S SABBATH

When I look at the 4th commandment I find nothing about worship.  The Sabbath is primarily a sign of God's creative (Gen 2:1-3) & redemptive (Heb 4:9,10) work and secondarily a day of worship (attending church).  The attack will be against the Sabbath as sign of redemption.

[Sojourner]

Reflecting on this I can see her point that views on immortality can relate to Spiritualism. The fact is that we are totally reliant on the presence of God for life in His kingdom. There is no other way as Spiritualism suggests in so many different ways. 

 

As for the Sabbath and Rome, I have a different view yet not one that is in conflict. The Creation Science movement in Australia have a picture of the books of the Bible in the form of a castle and Genesis is the bottom brick/rung of the castle. They show the enemy attacking the foundation of the castle (Genesis) to bring down the whole castle. Many in the Creation Science movement claim to believe this, yet when questioned about why they do not defend the Sabbath from attack as its given to all of Creation in Gen 2:3. There is no answer. My view is that the attack on Genesis is designed to attack the Gospel by proxy for this purpose. 

[Robert]

Theistic Evolution has already attacked the 7th-day Sabbath of creation. 

[LifeHiscost]

When I look at the 4th commandment I find nothing about worship.  The Sabbath is primarily a sign of God's creative (Gen 2:1-3) & redemptive (Heb 4:9,10) work and secondarily a day of worship (attending church).  The attack will be against the Sabbath as sign of redemption.

'You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you....Exodus 31

 

12"Also I gave them My sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.....Ezek 20

 

20'Sanctify My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.'....Ezek 20

 

13"If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot From doing your own pleasure on My holy day, And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, And honor it, desisting from your own ways, From seeking your own pleasure And speaking your own word, 14Then you will take delight in the LORD, And I will make you ride on the heights of the earth....Isaiah 58

 

Couldn't find anything linking sabbath with redemption or creation together. However rest and gathering together.

 

"You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly. It is the LORD's Sabbath day, and it must be observed wherever you live....Lev 23

 

8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,^e just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.....Heb 4

 

5And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” 6Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, 7God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.”

 

God is Love! Jesus saves!

[JoeMo]

I am personally convicted of the conditional immortality of the soul and the Sabbath; and find the immortality issue a major gateway to spiritual deception.  I find it important to discuss these things with all tastefulness and discretion.  When the subjects come up, I always limit my comments to how I believe and back it up with scripture or logic appropriate to the conversation.  I will never (with God's help) try to couch that discussion in a way that would appear to back the other person into a corner.

 

Sometimes the Sabbath or unconditional immortality will come up as a rabbit trail in a totally unrelated discussion.  Those are the most effective times of witness - when the other party's mind is more open to the discussion.

[Robert]

ROBERT

 

IN  REV 14: 7  it says  that we(all  people on earth) are to  worship  GOD that  made heaven and   earth---IN GEN 1: the whole chap 

talks  about  creation  ---since  GOD  created  all  things (including the  sabbath  to  worship  GOD on)  then  the  SABBATH is  a  worship  issue

 

dgrimm60

 

There's no mention of worship in the 4th commandment:

 

 8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

[LifeHiscost]

 

 

There's no mention of worship in the 4th commandment:

 

 8 "Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. 11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

And you believe they gathered together on the Sabbath for what reason?

 

the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly....Lev 23

 

God is Love! Jesus saves!

[Robert]

I am personally convicted of the conditional immortality of the soul and the Sabbath....

 

 

Well, it was conditional immortality.  As long as Adam & Eve remained loyal to God they would have access to the Tree of life.  

 

Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 

 

Even then, most Christian Churches teach that the soul or spirit of man is immortal.  The problem is immortality is linked with righteousness and mortality is linked with sin.  If something in me is immortal then something in me is naturally righteous.  

 

What does Paul teach?

 

Rom 7:18 For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh (my humanity). I can will what is right, but I cannot do it....

 

In other words there is nothing in us that is capable of living a life of agape.  We have only self-love by birth.  

 

To teach that we have something in us that immediately goes to heaven upon our death attacks the truth of justification by faith (the gospel received by faith).

 

How?

 

If I have something naturally good in me (my soul or spirit) that bypasses the resurrection to perfection then that something doesn't need Christ.  It gets to heaven on its own steam.  

 

Notice what happens at the 1st resurrection:  1 Cor 15:52 "We will all be ​changed,...53 For this...mortal must put on immortality."

 

If I have an immortal soul that part doesn't need redeeming.  I have something in me that doesn't need the righteousness of Christ. So the immortality of the soul is legalistic, self-righteous attack upon  the gospel for Christ came to save 100% sinners, not 50%!

 

The gospel is therefore "not I, but Christ".  The gospel of the self-righteous is "I plus Christ"!

[Robert]

And you believe they gathered together on the Sabbath for what reason?

 

the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly....Lev 23

 

God is Love! Jesus saves!

 

Because they were resting in Christ's finished work of redemption in the NT. See Heb 4:9,10

 

As to the OT quote, you know very well that those days were abolished at the cross:

 

Col 2:16 Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food (meat sacrifices) or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day- 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ. 

 

These Sabbaths pointed to Christ and when Christ died they found their fulfillment.  

[Robert]

And you believe they gathered together on the Sabbath for what reason?

 

the seventh day is a Sabbath day of complete rest, an official day for holy assembly....Lev 23

 

 

By the way...the 4th commandment isn't Lev 23.  It's found in Ex 20:8-11.  

[Robert]

The issue over the Sabbath will not be Sunday worship vs Sabbath worship.  

 

The issue will be are you resting in Christ's finished work completed at the cross, of which the Sabbath is a sign, or are you resting in your own self-righteous pride, of which Sunday will become a sign.

[Robert]

The issue over the Sabbath will not be Sunday worship vs Sabbath worship.  

 

The issue will be are you resting in Christ's finished work completed at the cross, of which the Sabbath is a sign....

 

You see the legalistic Jews were keeping the Sabbath, but yet according to Paul they were keeping it in order to be saved. Let's look at this:

 

Heb 4: 2 For we (Jews) also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did (the Jews of the Exodus); but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest....

 

Believing & accepting the gospel, by faith, is entering God's rest.  The gospel is what Christ did through His birth, life, death and resurrection and nothing else.  That work was completed at the cross.

 

Now the Jews were keeping the Sabbath, right?  Yes, but they hadn't entered God's rest...they hadn't accepted the gospel.  Therefore their Sabbath keeping was meaningless.  They were keeping the Sabbath in order to be saved.  That's salvation by works the very opposite of the Sabbath as we will find out shortly.

 

The Sabbath is in reality a sign of justification by faith.

 

Heb 4:9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest (Sabbath-keeping) for the people of God (the Jews)

 

Weren't the Jews already keeping the Sabbath?  Yes, they were legalistically keeping the day, but they really weren't resting...they were working.  They trying to earn salvation by the keeping of the law. 

 

10 for anyone (not just the Jew) who enters God's rest (i.e., accepts the gospel) also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 

 

What is the gospel?  The gospel is the truth as it is in Christ Jesus.  

 

Heb 10:10  By this will (context: Christ's doing & dying) we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 

 

That is a finished work.  In Christ you are complete.  When you receive this by faith it becomes justification by faith.  The sign of JBF is the Sabbath.  You rest every 7th-day as God rested from His complete and perfect work of redemption in Christ Jesus.  

[Robert]

"Through the two great errors, the immortality of the soul and Sunday sacredness, Satan will bring the people under his deceptions. While the former lays the foundation of spiritualism, the latter creates a bond of sympathy with Rome." [EGW]

 

What are the issues with these two errors? How do these two errors attack the gospel?  Remember that all false doctrine attacks the gospel.

 

So these errors are so because they attack the gospel.  

 

Sunday is man's day....The Sabbath is God's day.  It points to his finished work of redemption.   To reject this is the same as rejecting the gospel or justification by faith.

 

On the other hand the immortality of the soul is once again attacking men's need of Christ.  It too denies men's total salvation in Christ.  Why?  Because this heresy teaches that there's something good in us that transcends death and doesn't need Christ's redemption.  

[Ted Oplinger]

Both of these teachings make direct attacks upon God's character and upon the Gospel.

 

In short form...Immortality of the soul directly attacks God's truthfulness and trustworthiness by saying a sentient being already has immortality (aka, deathlessness, or more popularly, eternal life) - directly contradicting God at the very beginning. God stated to Adam that in the day he ate of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, he would die. In Ezekiel, God states direct twice the soul who sins shall die. Satan, from the beginning, said God was a liar - sin does not lead to death, but rather a life free from God. No angel had ever died; Adam and Eve did not die upon sinning, even though God said they would - therefore, nothing God says can be trusted.

 

Immortality of the Soul, though, teaches we already have immortality - eternal life does not come at the resurrection, therefore, one does not need to accept Christ to have eternal life. At its foundation, this doctrine teaches a soul is both separate from the body, intelligent, and possesses eternal life because it is a permanent creation of God, and cannot be uncreated...the soul is as immortal as the angels.

 

However, the Bible also says only God has immortality (1 Timothy 6:15-16) - meaning even angels do not have immortality intrinsic to themselves, but must borrow life from the Source of Life, just as we do. Further, the Gospel states clearly that our hope of eternal life is found connected to Christ's resurrection - as He was raised from the dead, so to will people be raised from the dead. ONLY those who have accepted re-connection back to God will be raised in the first resurrection, where immortality will be put on us at that time.

 

This teaching makes God into a liar, and does not require a cross/resurrection for eternal life. No cross means no belief in the name of Jesus is required for salvation.

 

In short...Sunday Sacredness attacks the foundation of God's government by virtue of negating the one commandment which points the sinner in the direction of his Creator/Redeemer, Christ Jesus - the Sabbath commandment.

 

Attacking the foundation of God's government - God says His Law cannot be changed; it is immutable. Even while here on earth, Christ declared God's law cannot be changed in even one tiny stroke of the word. Papal authority, one the other hand, declares that because they represent God on earth, they have the authority from God to change His Law - a matter that God the Son Himself said could not and would not be done. The Law defines both God's character and sin (transgression, or rebellion, against the Law). If the Law can be changed...then the definition of what is rebellion/transgression also changed. If what defines rebellion/transgression can change, then those choosing to rebel against God may demand the Law be changed to accommodate them.

 

Attacking the Gospel - God created the Sabbath in the beginning, blessed it, hallowed it, and sanctified it. God says He rested that day from His creative labors - so resting from such labor is part of God's character...and thus, part of His Law. Hence, when God calls upon sinners to remember and keep His Sabbath holy...God is also simultaneously calling sinners to repent and be changed. Job 14:4 states NO ONE can bring what is clean out of an unclean thing. No sinner, being by nature unholy, can ever keep the Sabbath holy...unless that sinner is not first changed and made clean. The Sabbath commandment points the otherwise helpless sinner to a redeeming Creator, who can create the state of being clean, where before such a state never existed. In short, it is only through the redeeming power of God the Sabbath can be kept. That is why God refers to the Sabbath in Ezekiel 20:12 as His sign between Himself and themselves, so that the penitent sinners will always know it is God who sanctifies them - entering into God's rest brings with it salvation and sanctification.

 

Sunday Sacredness takes that away, by stating it is the sinner's obedience to the transferred day of holiness that brings a small measure of sanctification. That is to say, Sunday is not a sign that our Redeemer God sanctifies us, but rather the sign of fallen man trying to sanctify himself and make himself acceptable before God. Sunday Sacredness teaches people to rest on a day different from the one God rests on - and by default, seeks to exclude such people from entering into God's rest. Sunday Sacredness is truly the sign of salvation by human works alone, as it denies God His work of drawing people into His rest.

 

By seeking to exalt Christ's resurrection, Sunday Sacredness in reality denies the very reason the resurrection was needed - because God could not change the Law to accommodate sin, the death of a Redeemer was necessary. If the Law could be changed, why crucify God the Son first, then change it? If the Law could be changed, then Christ died needlessly.

 

Both of these are in short form, but these convey the basics of why these two errors are so very profound in their impact.

 

Blessings,

[LifeHiscost]

By the way...the 4th commandment isn't Lev 23.  It's found in Ex 20:8-11.  

12Be careful to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy as the LORD your God has commanded you. 13You are to labor six days and do all your work, 14but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You must not do any work — you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey, any of your livestock, or the foreigner who lives within your gates, so that your male and female slaves may rest as you do. 15Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there with a strong hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day....Deut 5

 

The only commandment with the word to remember and of which the vast majority of Christians have forgotten.

 

God is Love!  Jesus saves!