Posted on Monday, January 03, 2011 - 10:27 am:

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(1) Isn't the Seal of God the Holy Spirit as Ephesians 4:30 says?

Let's read it together:

Ephesians 4:30
And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Notice the word: WHEREBY

Definition:

–conjunction, adverb
1. by what or by which; under the terms of which.
2. Obsolete. by what? how?

Therefore:

1. By what are ye sealed unto the day of redemption? By the holy Spirit of God.
2. By which are ye sealed unto the day of redemption? By the holy Spirit of God.
3. How are ye sealed unto the day of redemption? By not grieving the holy Spirit of God.

Expressly said, you will be sealed unto the day of redemption by the Holy Spirit of God if you grieve it not.

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Posted on Monday, January 03, 2011 - 11:39 am:

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Since the Ten Commandments are a transcript of God’s character it comes as no surprise to discover that they contain the seal of the living God. While some commandments contain God’s name, the fourth commandment alone contains all three elements.

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lordthy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8—11)

Those elements of the seal of God are found in verse 11: God’s name—the Lord; His authority—made (Creator), His region of governance—heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is.

There is a most important reason why the seal of the living God is located in the fourth commandment. This commandment commences,

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8)

There is only one manner in which we can truly keep God’s Sabbath and that is in holiness. In order to keep the Sabbath holy, men must themselves be holy. If one has stolen a hundred dollars during the week and has not confessed that sin nor made restitution, no matter how earnestly that individual may worship the Lord on the holy Sabbath day, he has not kept the Sabbath day holy. It is little wonder that the Jews referred to Friday as the preparation day. It was a day to examine each heart and make right any wrongs so that the Sabbath could be kept in holiness unto the Lord.

Thus the Sabbath is the key to obedience to God’s law, for it is only as we obey each one of the other nine commandments that we can keep the Sabbath holy. The Sabbath commandment with its intrinsic call to a holy life is the only commandment which centers on our total character. Thus it was most appropriate that God placed His seal within this commandment, for the seal of the living God is Christ’s character within the heart.
Two Beasts, Etc, Chapter 23

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Posted on Monday, January 03, 2011 - 1:09 pm:

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"Sinners will never comprehend what Jesus' death meant to the Godhead. From eternity He had been with His Father and the Spirit. They had lived as coeternal, coexistent in utter self-giving and love for one another.

[...]

"Christ became man to die for the race. He valued selflessness more than self-existence." (Seventh-day Adventists Believe: An exposition of the fundamental beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (Second Edition, copyright 2005), chapter 2, "The Godhead.")

"e. Christ's promise to the thief. Christ promised the thief at the cross "'Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise'" (Luke 23:43). Paradise obviously is synonymous with heaven (2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7). As the translated text reads, Christ would go to heaven that Friday to be in the very presence of God, and so would the thief. Yet on Resurrection morning Christ Himself said to Mary as she fell at His feet to worship Him, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God" (John 20:17, KJV). That Christ remained in the grave over the weekend is indicated by the words of the angel: "'Come, see the place where the Lord lay'" (Matt. 28:6)." (Seventh-day Adventists Believe ... A Biblical Exposition of 27 Fundamental Doctrines (First Edition, Copyright 1988), Chapter 25, "Death and Resurrection," Footnote 7 e.)

"<SB 17 (John 10:18). All of Christ Remained in Tomb. <EB--Jesus said to Mary, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father." When He closed His eyes in death upon the cross, the soul of Christ did not go at once to heaven, as many believe, or how could His words be true--"I am not yet ascended to my Father"? The spirit of Jesus slept in the tomb with His body, and did not wing its way to heaven, there to maintain a separate existence, and to look down upon the mourning disciples embalming the body from which it had taken flight. All that comprised the life and intelligence of Jesus remained with His body in the sepulcher; and when He came forth it was as a whole being; He did not have to summon His spirit from heaven. He had power to lay down His life and to take it up again (3SP 203, 204)." (Ellen G. White, S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 5, page 1150, paragraph 6.)

"I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise. Christ did not promise that the thief should be with Him in Paradise that day. He Himself did not go that day to Paradise. He slept in the tomb, and on the morning of the resurrection He said, "I am not yet ascended to My Father." John 20:17. But on the day of the crucifixion, the day of apparent defeat and darkness, the promise was given. "Today" while dying upon the cross as a malefactor, Christ assures the poor sinner, Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise." (The Desire of Ages, page 751, paragraph 3.)

"Only the Father Could Release Christ.—He who died for the sins of the world was to remain in the tomb the allotted time. He was in that stony prison house as a prisoner of divine justice. He was responsible to the Judge of the universe. He was bearing the sins of the world, and His Father only could release Him. A strong guard of mighty angels kept watch over the tomb, and had a hand been raised to remove the body, the flashing forth of their glory would have laid him who ventured powerless on the earth.

"There was only one entrance to the tomb, and neither human force nor fraud could tamper with the stone that guarded the entrance. Here Jesus rested during the Sabbath. But prophecy had pointed out that on the third day Christ would rise from the dead. Christ Himself had assured His disciples of this. 'Destroy this temple,' He said, 'and in three days I will raise it up.' Christ never committed sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. His body was to come forth from the tomb untarnished by corruption (MS 94, 1897)." (Ellen G. White, S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 5, 1114.1-2.)

"The women who had been Christ's humble followers while He lived, would not leave Him until they saw Him laid in the tomb and a stone of great weight placed before the door, lest His enemies should seek to obtain His body. But they need not have feared; for I saw that the angelic host watched with untold interest in the resting place of Jesus, earnestly waiting for the command to act their part in liberating the King of glory from His prison house." (Early Writings, 180.2.)

"To the honor and glory of God, His beloved Son—the Surety, the Substitute—was delivered up and descended into the prisonhouse of the grave. The new tomb enclosed Him in its rocky chambers. If one single sin had tainted His character the stone would never have been rolled away from the door of His rocky chamber, and the world with its burden of guilt would have perished. But it was only for a little while the divine Vanquisher seemed the vanquished. The serpent had bruised the heel, but Christ could not be holden by death. The stone was rolled away. The Lord Jesus walked forth from His prison house a triumphant, majestic conqueror, and proclaimed over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, 'I am the resurrection and the life' (John 11:25).—Ms. 81, 1893, p. 11. (Diary entry for Sunday, July 2, 1893, Wellington, New Zealand.) White Estate Washington, D. C. April 27, 1981" (Manuscript Releases, Volume 10, 385.1.)

"Now, priests and rulers, where is the power of your guard? Brave soldiers that have never been afraid of human power are now as captives taken without sword or spear. The face they look upon is not the face of mortal warrior; it is the face of the mightiest of the Lord's host. This messenger is he who fills the position from which Satan fell. It is he who on the hills of Bethlehem proclaimed Christ's birth. The earth trembles at his approach, the hosts of darkness flee, and as he rolls away the stone, heaven seems to come down to the earth. The soldiers see him removing the stone as he would a pebble, and hear him cry, Son of God, come forth; Thy Father calls Thee. They see Jesus come forth from the grave, and hear Him proclaim over the rent sepulcher, 'I am the resurrection, and the life.' As He comes forth in majesty and glory, the angel host bow low in adoration before the Redeemer, and welcome Him with songs of praise." (The Desire of Ages, 779.3)

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"In the council of peace it was the Father's plan that Christ should die and rise again for the redemption of sinners. At the same time Jesus Himself chose this, with no constraint but that of love. The Father reawakened Him to life and to divine consciousness at the resurrection. Had not the Father raised Him, Christ would have forever remained quiescent in the tomb.

Ellen White makes two significant statements on this:

When Christ was crucified, it was His human nature that died. Deity did not sink and die; that would have been impossible.—The SDA Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, on Mark 16:6, p. 1113.

This does not mean that Christ's deity was conscious while in the tomb and ultimately brought about His own resurrection of the body. Such a thing would have made Christ's death unreal, and the whole sacrifice of the Son of God a deception by having a human body that died while His deity remained consciously alive.

All that comprised the life and intelligence of Jesus remained with His body in the sepulcher.—ELLEN G. WHITE, The Spirit o f Prophecy, vol. 3, p. 204.

He who died for the sins of the world was to remain in the tomb the allotted time. He was in that stony prison house as a prisoner of divine justice. He was responsible to the judge of the universe. He was bearing the sins of the world, and His Father only could release Him.—The SDA Bible Commentary, Ellen G. White Comments, on Mark 16:6, p. 1114. (Italics supplied.)

How, then, do we harmonize the many texts affirming that God the Father resurrected His Son from the dead, and the two texts that give Christ a part in His own resurrection? The Father by His power reawakened the Son to life. That life that was in Christ and belonged to Him was restored to consciousness by the act of the Father. All members of the Godhead were involved in His resurrection. Christ then came forth from the tomb by the life that was in Himself." (Edward Heppenstall, The Man Who Is God, Chapter 5, "The Center of Christ's Consciousness.") http://www.sdanet.org/atissue/books/mangod/manch5.htm

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