Posted on Friday, June 22, 2007 - 4:12 pm:

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Over the years I have encountered many Seventh Day Adventists who have told me that to worship on Sunday is to take the mark of the Beast. Far from being monolithic, however, Seventh Day Adventism is multifaceted.

First, there are Adventists who are thoroughly orthodox. As such, they embrace the essentials of the historic Christian faith. While we may vigorously debate secondary issues we are unified around the essentials for which the martyrs shed their blood.

Furthermore, there are Adventists who are thoroughly liberal. They not only compromise and confuse but consistently contradict essentials of the faith such as the virgin birth, the bodily resurrection, and the infallibility fo Scripture.

Finally, there are traditionalists who major on aberrant Adventist doctrines including soul sleep, Sabbatarianism, and the seer status of Ellen G. White. In sharp distinction to soul sleep the Bible provides ample evidence that the soul continues to exist apart from the body (Phillipians 1:23-24).

Likewise, God himself provided early Christians with a new pattern of worship through Christ's resurrection on the first day of the week as well as the Spirit's descent on Pentecost Sunday. Additionally, while Ellen White (1827-1915) claimed divine authority for her prophecies, she was obviously wrong when she prophesied that she would be alive at the second coming of Christ.

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For further study, see Hank Hanegraaff, "Why do Christians worship on Sunday rather than on the Sabbath day?" and "Is there evidence for life after death?" The Bible Answer Book Volume 1 (Nashville: J. Countryman, 2004), 70-72, 165-169.

Hebrews 4:9-10

"There remains then, a Sabbath--rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his." [Excerpts from Hank Hanegraaff's THE BIBLE ANSWER BOOK, Volume 2, pp. 134-135]

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Posted on Friday, June 22, 2007 - 4:48 pm:

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Although some Christian traditions denounce Sunday worship as the end time "mark of the beast," there are good reasons why millions of Christians gather on the first day of the week for worship.

First, in remembrance of the resurrection the early Christian church changed the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. Within weeks, thousands of Jews willingly gave up a theological tradition that had given them their national identity. God himself had provided the early church with a new pattern of worship through Christ's resurrection on the first day of the week as well as the Holy Spirit's descent on Pentecost Sunday.

Furthermore, Scripture provides us with the reasons behind the symbol of the Sabbath. In Genesis, the Sabbath was a celebration of God's work in creation (Genesis 2:2-3; Exodus 20:11). After the Exodus, the Sabbath expanded to a celebration of God's deliverance from oppression in Egypt (Deuteronomy 5:15). As a result of the resurrection, the Sabbath emphasis shifted once again. It became a celebration of the "rest" we have through Christ who delivers us from sin and the grave (Hebrews 4:1-11). For the emerging Christian church, the most dangerous snare was a failure to recognize that Jesus was the substance that fulfilled the symbol of the Sabbath.
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In the end, religious rites must inevitably bow to redemptive realties.
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Finally, if you insist on being slavishly bound to Old Testament laws you should also be forewarned that failing to keep the letter of the law might be hazardous to your health. According to the Mosaic Law, anyone who does any work on the Sabbath "must be put to death" (Exodus 35:2). As the apostle Paul explains, however, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for sin, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree'" (Galatians 3:13). The Sabbath was "a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ" (Colossians 2:17). In the end, religious rites must inevitably bow to redemptive realties. [Excerpts taken from Hank Hanegraaff's THE BIBLE ANSWER BOOK, Volume 1, pp.70-73]

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