The Background
The Bible seems to be clear that the Sabbath was created for man on the Seventh day of creation.
"And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." - Genesis 2:2,3
"And He said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.' " - Mark 2:27,28
The Bible also seems clear that there are other inhabited worlds that God created.
"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds." - Hebrews 1:1,2
"Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them." - Job 1:6
"Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD." - Job 2:1
So the Bible says that Jesus created worlds, and in Job we find the heads of these worlds coming before God as well as Satan coming as the head of this world, a position originally given to Adam.
"Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, 'All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.' " - Luke 4:5-7
"Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out." - John 12:31
So the Bible is clear that Satan is/was the "ruler" of this world (at least until Christ died on the cross and bought it back). Though, in actuality, it always belonged to God.
"For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is Mine, and all its fullness." - Psalm 50:10-12
The Bible also says that the Sabbath will continue throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity in heaven.
"'For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me,' says the LORD, 'So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,' says the LORD." - Isaiah 66:22,23
The Question
This is not intended to be a discussion regarding these points of theology. This question is directed to Adventists who already have a correct understanding of what the Bible says about the Sabbath and about the structure of God's heavenly kingdom.
Do other worlds observe the Sabbath? Did the Sabbath exist before the seventh day of creation? Will all worlds keep the Sabbath throughout eternity?
Thanks for the thoughts on Sabbath.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the following might be of interest on this topic.
Before this world was created the Bible says there was 'war' in heaven. This 'war' was focused on an attempt to 'change' the universal form of government.
The results of this 'war' in heaven was that those who chose 'change' rather than God's will couldn't find what they wanted in heaven and consequently 'cast out'(left, departed) from heaven - God's immediate presence.
Even though peace was restored in heaven there were still remaining some questions even in the minds of those who had chosen to remain loyal to the Creator God. God knew about those questions and one way He chose to 'answer' was by creating this earth. Every act of God in creating this world provided a 'very good' place for human beings to live AND 'answered' questions still remaining about His love based government.
After creating human beings, God pronounced His creative work as 'very good' and then He 'rested' His case.
In the book of Job it describes the whole loyal universe as taking part in a super grand hallelujah chorus celebrating the creation of this new earth as well as affirming their loyalty to the Creator God.
As the hours of that first Sabbath ended God spoke good to His family (blessed). Then the Bible states that God 'sanctified' (set apart for a holy purpose) the Sabbath and 'hallowed' it (made it special).
By this act God established the Sabbath as the 'outside' (observable, viewable) sign or symbol of loyalty to the Creator God.
Prior to the 'war' there had been no need for a 'sign' of loyalty. But since there was now more than one 'form of government', God chose the Sabbath as His designated sign of loyalty.
There is much more to His Story in relation to the Sabbath for anyone interested.
Bravo, Bringer of Peace! An excellent explanation. Sounds reasonable to me, is that information from the spirit of prophecy?
ReplyDeleteThat makes me wonder about another question...once sin has been abolished and we're all under God's reign again, why will we continue keeping the Sabbath? Ahhh...maybe then it will be a sign of our salvation...of the recreative power of God...of our rest in Christ...in addition to a sign of our continuing loyalty.
Thank you for the beautiful insights, please keep them coming!
One question down, a million more to go ;-)
Does the book of Job really say that the "sons of God" that present themselves to God are leaders of planets that are inhabited?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I have completed my Bible study on the holy days, whether God's Church should observe them today, and I have posted it in my blog.
Well, I didn't want to focus on that particular point of theology, but...
ReplyDeleteYou've got these people identified as the "sons of God"...the phrase itself indicates a relationship of direct creation like Adam, who is also called the "son of God" in Luke chapter 3.
Adam was created by God in a unique way that no other human was...we are all the result of procreation where he was the result of creation. So, in a very real sense, he was a son of God in a different way than the rest of us.
Adam was originally the leader of this world but gave up his position when he sinned. This is why Satan now claims to be the ruler of this world and have authority here. Satan certainly didn't get the authority from Christ...for Christ never gave up any authority...but Adam did.
So since we see that Adam was created to be the "head" of this world, we can look at the passage of Job and see some very interesting points.
Firstly...those beings that come to present themselves before the Lord are also called "sons of God." I do not think this is a mere coincidence. The phrase points toward their position of authority as the first created beings on their world, who now come to these heavenly counsels as representatives of their respective worlds.
Secondly, we see they "come" to present themselves before the Lord in Job chapter 1, then later they "came again" to present themselves before the Lord. So it is clear that these "sons of God" do not live and dwell in the presense of God like the holy Angels, but instead dwell in a place away from God and periodically "come" to present themselves before the Lord. Since they don't live in heaven with God, they must necessarily live on other worlds.
Thirdly, we see "they" came to present themselves before the Lord, and later "they" came again to present themselves before the Lord. So, we see they come as a group, at an appointed time, and not randomly and individually. This fact shows that they are a specific group of beings called to counsel with God at specific times.
I think there's more that I'm not remembering off the top of my head but this will have to suffice.
So, in review, we see:
Adam, called a son of God, was created as the head of this world but gave up his authority to Satan.
A specific group of beings, also called sons of God, who don't dwell in heaven with God so must necessarily dwell in other worlds, come at specific times, together, to present themselves before the Lord.
And, to top it all off, the spirit of prophecy confirms it. :-)
Mrs. White states that there are millions of other worlds that did not fall, they passed the test that God gave to them as Adam. This Earth was the last to be created and the smallest of all. She describes one as having living green grass, people of different sizes, noble and beautiful. Check Early Writings and you will get a lot more information. I believe that God created all these other worlds the same way he created this one. At the end of creation of these worlds, He rested and made a Sabbath for each one. The sons of God you refer to is the counsel meetings that God requires and they are not called on the Sabbath. She said the she saw good old Enouch who had been translated there in this world. I agree with your comments and I hope this helps too.
ReplyDeleteIs there any objective evidence that Mrs. White was ever a true prophet of God? There has to be some proof. Two things are required: she must be 100% in agreement with the Bible, and she must be able to show some evidence that God has spoken to her directly by being able to make predictions that come to pass in a way that shows that she is not just using her own judgment or is the beneficiary of a lucky coincidence.
ReplyDeleteI also know that the Bible teaches absolutely that God's annual holy days and festivals, that is, Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Last Great Day, are days to be kept by the true Church today. If she is a true prophet of God, did she accept what the Bible teaches about these days or did she reject the Bible, teaching that these days are no longer required to be kept by the Church?
These days help to make clear God's plan of salvation for mankind. If one does not believe what God says about these days, if one does not believe the Bible which is God's word, how can that person have any real wisdom or understanding?
Moreover, the Bible shows that the true Church is always called, "Church of God", so how can a group that rejects that name and calls itself "Seventh Day Adventists" be the true Church?
Every indication I have seen is that Mrs. White is NOT a true prophet of God, and if she spoke about life on other planets, she most likely is speaking out of her own imagination and delusions, if she is sincere. There is also the possibility, if she did receive real supernatural visions and messages, but not from God, that she was influenced deceived and given false messages by one or more demons or Satan himself.