Dear Ray
I now have a collection of twenty, ninety page volumes of your most enlightening writings which are increasing by the day. If your credentials are really true, which I sincerely believe they are, then your exceptional knowledge of the Holy Scriptures can only be of the Holy Spirit and none other, placing you rightly in the illustrious company of the carpenter, tax collector, fisherman and tent maker God bless you and may He continue to inspire you to expose all the charlatans.
I am a struggling believer, filled to the brim with the current traditions, heresies and unscriptural rubbish being peddled by the present apostate church and I am in desperate need of your knowledgeable help. I'm in the process of reading your writing on The Lake Of Fire titled "The Depth of Satan and the Church of God". I have come to the paragraph which reads; "'Now then, is Moses still preached in the churches of God today?"
Sadly or joyfully I don't know which, I happen to be one that believes, unless you can Scripturally help me to change my view, that the observance of the seventh day Sabbath is the identifying sign of a true Christian. This according to the reading places me under Moses' Law and hence in bondage and as such fallen from grace. This is appalling news for me and a terrible shock. Please prove to me that I'm wrong through the Scriptures because according to the ones I've quoted below I cannot see how I can be. If I am still Spiritually blind please open my eyes to the real Truth.
My belief is based on the New Covenant instructions given in the following Scriptures: "Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining." (1Jn.2:7-8). And, "The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us." (1Jn:3:24). And, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome." (1Jn.5:3). And, "By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him;" (1Jn.2-4). And, `"If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments" (Jn.14:15). And, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love." (Jn.15:10).
All these instructions are given under the New Covenant to obey the commandments that were from the beginning,.and what was that commandment from the beginning which even Abraham, four hundred years before Moses came on the scene, obeyed:? “Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” (Gen.26:5). Could it possibly be anything other than the one which was given by God Himself at the very beginning of creation itself: "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made..." (Gen.2:2-3).
Now I accept that we are under grace and not the Law of Moses, but if that includes the commandments, what commandments is Jesus referring to in all those instructions under the New Covenant?
May God bless you AND PLEASE HELP.
Roy
Dear Roy: You have failed to read and understand one of my recent Installments on "The Sermon on the Mount is for YOU." Yes, we are to "keep the commandments"--especially those codified as "The TEN Commandments." They are mentioned and repeated time and again in the New Testament, either in total or in parts. Now then, your reference: “Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” (Gen.26:5), can hardly be summed up in the "seventh day of rest." Does the seventh day of rest constitute [1] God's voice, [2] God's charge, [3] God's commandments, [4] God's statutes, and [5] God's laws? And notice that "commandments, statutes, and laws" are all in the plural. Are ALL of those commandments, statues and laws only the one seventh day of rest?
Yes, we are to keep God's commands and Jesus Christ's NEW commandments (living the law AS Jesus lived the law). But unfortunately, those who speak the loudest about keeping the seventh day sabbath are often those who have turned that commandment into an "Idol of the heart" wherein they worship and made a demigod out of their doctrines rather than what that commandments is supposed to teach. A couple of months ago I also gave a Bible Study on "Keeping Sabbath." It explains HOW we are to keep the sabbath. We are to keep it as Jesus kept it. Jesus mentioned time and time again how that He did not come to do His Own WORKS, but the WORKS of His Father.
Don't you understand that keeping the sabbath in spirit is to STOP DOING YOU WORKS, and letting the Spirit of God work IN YOU. That is how one "enters into His REST" (Heb. 4).
You also state that, "...the observance of the seventh day Sabbath is the identifying sign of a true Christian." Oh really? The orthodox Jews have keep the seventh day sabbath in the physical manner of sabbath keeping Christians, and they have done so for thousands of years. Are they "true Christians?" I think not. To totally reject Jesus as the Saviour. If one doesn't keep the Sabbath day in the spirit, all they will accomplish is a day off from work.
God be with you,
Ray
