BEYOND PITCAIRN 

Vance Ferrell

11: Birth of a World

All around, for vast distances, can be seen island universes. 100 million of these galactic nebulae are within reach of our present telescope lenses. And each island universe contains perhaps 200 quadrillion immense suns, stars.

Circling each of these stars there are probably planets, and some of them will be inhabited. We know this, for Scripture tells us that God creates with a purpose: He creates that there might be inhabitants (Isaiah 45: 18).

Countless millions of people love God and obey Him throughout the vast depths of space. Keep this thought in mind as you trace your path through this present life. It you love God and are trying to obey Him, you are on the side of the majority.

Scriptural records indicate that it was about 6,000 years ago, that a new world was created--ours!

The day came when the inhabitants of all those earths paused to watch God make an entire world and everything in it. And what they saw took place within a single week.

Here are the first words of holy Scripture: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day." Genesis 1:1-5.

And reading further, we find that on each successive day more things were made. We are told repeatedly that each day was composed of the night and the day portion, each was one twenty-four-hour day, as we would call it.

How did God make everything in one week? If you and I wanted to make something, we would form it out of something already in existence. But God made this world and everything in it, out of nothing! Scripture tells us that He simply spake it into existence.

"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and I all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. For He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast."  Psalm 33:6-9.

God made this world for you and me. He made it to be inhabited. "For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited." Isaiah 45:18.

God the Father made this world, and everything else, through God the Son:

"All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." John 1:3. "For by Him [the Son] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible. .all things were created by Him and for Him." Colossians 1: 16. "God ..hath ..spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed Heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds." Hebrews 1:1-2.

And God, who made all things by His word, sustains it by His word.

"Upholding all things by the word of His power." Hebrews 1:3. "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being." Acts 17:28.

Never forget that there is power in everything that God says. By the enabling grace of Christ, listen to those words, think about those words, and obey those words, and you will inherit eternal life. .

The Creation of this world reveals the massive immensity of God's power. It also reveals the fathomless depths of His love.

"As the earth came forth from the hand of its Maker, it was exceedingly beautiful. Its surface was diversified with mountains, hills, and plains, interspersed with noble rivers and lovely lakes; but the hills and mountains were not abrupt and rugged, abounding in terrific steeps and frightful chasms, as they now do; the sharp, ragged edges of earth's rocky framework were buried beneath the fruitful soil, which everywhere produced a luxuriant growth of verdure. There were no loathsome swamps or barren deserts. Graceful shrubs and delicate flowers greeted the eye at every turn. The heights were crowned with trees more majestic than any that now exist. The air, untainted by foul miasma, was clear and healthful. The entire landscape outvied in beauty the decorated grounds of the proudest palace. The angelic host viewed the scene with delight, and rejoiced at the wonderful works of God. E. G.. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 44.

God made this beautiful world in six literal days, and at its close gave mankind the Seventh-day Sabbath. Wisely, He knew that if we were to forget Him and His Creatorship, we would turn this world into a hell.

Why is it so important that we remember our Creator? Because it is our Creator alone who is to be worshiped. Only the One who made us is our God; only He is to be bowed down before and given our heart's deepest devotion.

Never underestimate the Bible Sabbath. You need it and everyone else does also. A people that knowingly leaves the Sabbath will always leave the God of the Sabbath. All true worship of God is based on Sabbathkeeping.

On the Sixth Day of Creation Week, God made the land animals and man. Then, on the Seventh Day He rested. And that day He did something else: He blessed that last day in the weekly cycle and hallowed or dedicated it for mankind to sacredly observe thereafter.

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 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."Genesis 2:1-3. 

This is God's own day, the day of the Lord, the Lord's Day, given to mankind to worship Him upon.

We have just learned that Jesus Christ created all things (Col 1:16; Jn 1:3; Heb 1:1-3). He calls Himself the Lord of the Sabbath (Matt 12:8; Mk 2:28). It is His day: the Lord's Day. He calls it, "My holy day" in Isaiah 58: 13, and He not only wants us to keep it, but to restore it in the hearts and lives of those around us who may have forgotten it:

"And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places. Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

"If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, not speaking thine own words;

"Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isaiah 58: 12-14.

Jesus made the Seventh-day Sabbath for man, all mankind, 2000 years before the first Jew, Abraham, was born. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and if, as sincere followers of Christ, we would keep the Lord's Day, we must rest from our labors on the Seventh-day Sabbath and worship Him on that day.

And He said unto Them, The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath." Mark 2:27.

2500 years after this world was created and the Bible Sabbath was first given to mankind, the Moral Law of God was written down for the first time.

Some people think that there was no moral code for people before it was written down on Mount Sinai. But this is not true. If there were no Ten Commandments before that time, then it would have been all right for Cain to kill Abel. But it is clear from Genesis 4 that it was not right for him to do this. Can you imagine a parent bringing a child into the world and then raising him without teaching him any moral standards? It would not be a very good parent who would do such a thing. And our Father, the God of heaven, is a good parent. We can know that He immediately explained the principles of morality to Adam and Eve.

And then, 2500 years after giving them the Seventh-day Sabbath, He wrote it on the most enduring thing in the world--rock.  

BEYOND PITCAIRN

12: To Meet The King

  It was about the year 1445 B.C. Dusty from traveling over the desert, the two men, who had only been In the country a day or two, entered the palace of the Pharaoh of all Egypt. Passing through a gateway which towered above their heads to a height of twenty-six feet, they approached the royal precinct and felt themselves dwarfed by its size, for it covered , approximately thirteen acres of ground. The outer wall alone was twenty-one feet thick.

But no wave of welcome awaited them at the opening of the gates. The guards saw before them only two of the hated Hebrews. "Which slave labor gang did they run away from?" a guard may have remarked as they walked by.

It is a miracle that Moses and Aaron were permitted that day to pass from hall to hall and finally stand before the godking of this ancient land.

And now they stood in the throne room itself: On either side were massive limestone columns that were elaborately carved, painted and gilded with figures of the Pharaoh standing before the other gods. Beyond them, on either side, the stuccoed walls and floors gleamed with brilliantly-painted scenes. Shafts of sunlight, streaming down from narrow clerestory windows higher up, lighted up the gold, glitter and brightly-painted figures.  

Far away, down the length of the throne room could be seen the throne of the Pharaoh above a raised platform. The throne and everything nearby was made of solid gold. As the two men drew closer, they could see carefully-wrought figures on the side of the platform, showing enemies whom the Pharaoh had captured prior to enslaving or killing them.

Amid such majestic grandeur and surrounded by armed guards, and now with the eyes of Pharaoh upon them, who could have found voice to speak at such a moment?

But Moses was made of sterner stuff. He came with a message from the God of Heaven. The time had come for the eighty-year old shepherd to deliver what would become a death warrant to thousands in Egypt.

Stepping up before the astonished ruler, Amenhoptep II, Moses demanded that he let the people of Israel go.

"Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Let My people go." Exodus 5: 1.

The story that followed is a familiar one. Stubborn resistance to the will of God brought one plague after another, each more devastating than the one before it, until the land was finally desolated and the people of God departed from the country.

They had left to meet with the King. Traveling swiftly over the shifting sands of the desert, that vast people, numbering nearly two million, knew that they were not out of danger yet. At any time Pharaoh and his well-trained and equipped army might pursue them to again take them into bondage.

High overhead, an immense cloud shaded them from the heat as they traveled. And it also guided them, for it stretched before them, they followed as it led, for so Moses had instructed them to do.

But now darkness was nearing as they hurriedly moved in a south-easterly direction, and the hearts of many sank: Before them was an impassable mountain on the south, and to the east lay the Red Sea: ocean water stretching for miles, and beyond it the distant shore of the Sinai Peninsula.

This was where the miraculous cloud had brought them. What were they to do now? There was no way they could proceed further without heading toward Egypt.

And then screams were heard. "They are coming! They are coming!" Pharaoh and his entire army were rapidly approaching from the rear.

And now the cloud seemed to be leaving them also! Slowly it lifted majestically and moved to a point midway between the Israelites and the Egyptians. And as they gazed in astonishment, it drew to a stop, and turned into a boiling pillar of fire before their eyes!

 Little realizing that the cloud had become a great wall of impenetrable darkness to the Egyptians, the Hebrews watched in amazement as Moses arose from prayer and walked calmly over to the bank of the sea, and raised his rod over the sea, and it split into two parts!

A powerful wind hurled water into two immense walls, and just as miraculously, immediately dried up the bed of the sea which only a moment before was many feet thick with mud.

Picture it for yourself! Two million men, women and children, with all their cattle and flocks, walking across the channel, now totally dry, amid mountains of living, seething, foaming masses of water, held back moment-by-moment by a miracle of God!

People spoke in solemn tones as they made their way across, for they well knew that they had been saved from a fate worse than death, only because they were willing to trust God and obey His every command.

And so it will be today, if you and I will trust and obey Him also. The only reliable thing we have is the Word of God. That Bible in your home is the only imperishable thing there. For it contains principles that are eternal. And if those principles are in your heart and life, you will be safe in the care of the God of Moses. The Creator of the universe was leading out a people to serve Him. They were to be His special people, called to learn His will and declare it to all nations on the face of the earth.

And so it was that He brought them to the valley of Jebel Musa, the Mountain of Moses, that they might learn the Divine Will and do it, and teach it to all about them in the years ahead-until the whole world could know the truth that amid all the false gods, there IS a True God. And that all the world might know that He has a Moral Law of Ten Commandments, and all men everywhere must, in His strength, obey that Law.

Arriving at the mountain (also called Mount Sinai or Horeb), they spread their tents in the valley beneath its massive granite walls, and quietly awaited the next revealing of the will of God for them.  They had come to meet with the King over all kings.

"On the morning of the third day [after arriving at the Mount], as the eyes of all the people were turned toward the mount, its summit was covered with a thick cloud, which grew more black and dense, sweeping downward until the entire mountain was wrapped in darkness and awful mystery. Then a sound as of a trumpet was heard, summoning the people to meet with God; and Moses led them forth to the base of the mountain. "From the thick darkness flashed vivid lightnings, while peals of thunder echoed and re-echoed among the surrounding heights. 'And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.' 'The glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount' in the sight of the assembled multitude. And 'the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder' ..And now the thunders ceased; the trumpet was no longer heard; the earth was still. There was a period of solemn silence, and then the voice of God was heard.

"Speaking out of the thick darkness that enshrouded Him, as He stood upon the mount, surrounded by a retinue of angels, the Lord made known His Law." E.G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 304.

On what other occasion, later in the Old Testament, did the God of heaven give such a massive display of power and glory to a group of people? He never did. On what occasion in the New Testament or afterward, down to our own time, has He done so? At no time.

And why did he do it then? Because He wanted all men everywhere to know--either in person or from reading the written record--that the Moral Law of the Ten Commandments should be one of the most important things in their lives. It should lie at the foundation of all their religion. It should guide and direct all their secular duties.

The twin truths that we can and must obey God and that we can and must do it only through the grace of Jesus Christ lies at the heart of all holy Scripture. "Trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey" is the basis of Christian experience. And it is your pass-port to heaven. For God will take no one to heaven, who on earth was determined to live in sin and disobey His Law.

Here is the great Moral Code for mankind. Every part of it is perfect, for it was given to us by our Creator:

AND GOD SPAKE ALL THESE WORDS, SAYING:

"I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT

"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

"Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me. And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.

THE THIRD COMMANDMENT

"Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.

THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT

"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 Lord thy 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: where- fore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT

"Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT

 "Thou shalt not kill.

THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT

 "Thou shalt not commit adultery.

THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT

"Thou shalt not steal.

THE NINTH COMMANDMENT

"Thou shalt not bear false witness. 

THE TENTH COMMANDMENT

"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's." Exodus 20:1-17.

On Mount Sinai, the God of heaven spoke the Ten Commandments and then wrote them on rock, as His Moral Law for mankind. Rock is the most enduring thing in the world. And God's Law, written on rock, will endure as long as the boulders of the mighty mountains around us. "His commandments . . stand fast forever." Psalm 111:7-8.

But His Law is not only to be placed on rock. It is also to to be written in our hearts.

I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments, and do them." Ezekiel 36:27. "I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Jeremiah 31:33. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people." Hebrews 8:10.

The Seventh-day Sabbath is the sign that He is our Creator and Redeemer: ..Keep the Sabbath. to observe the Sabbath forever. . for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and on the Seventh day He rested, and was refreshed." Exodus 31:16-17.

Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you." Exodus 31:13.

"Morever also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them." Ezekiel 20:12.

"And hallow My Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you that ye may know that I am the Lord your God." Ezekiel 20:20.

Thus we see that the keeping of the Seventh-day Sabbath is a sign that He is our Creator (Ex 31:17), our Redeemer (Ezek 20:12), that we belong to Him (Ezek 20:20) and that He is sanctifying us (Ex 31:13).

We cannot know our duty toward our God unless we find it in the Bible. It is not a matter of what others around us do. It is a matter of what is written in the archives.

The story of the rosebush will help you understand this.  

BEYOND PITCAIRN

13: Opening the Archives

  One of the czars of Russia, while walking in his park, came across a sentry standing guard over a little patch of weeds.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

The sentry replied, "I don't know. All I know is that the captain of the guard ordered me to stand over this spot."

The czar sent for the captain.

"Captain, what is this man guarding?"

The captain answered, "All I know is that the regulations call for a sentry to be posted here. "

Then the ruler ordered a major investigation, but no one in the government of Russia could discover why that spot needed guarding.

Then they opened the royal archives containing accurate records of the past and the mystery was solved.

The chronicles showed that a hundred years before, in the late Eighteenth Century, Catherine the Great, queen of the Russians, had planted a rosebush on that plot of ground. So satisfied was the watching Queen when the gardeners had completed their work, that she ordered a sentry to be posted there to keep people from trampling on it.

Eventually the rosebush died, but nobody thought to cancel the order, especially since it had been issued by such an important person.

And for a hundred years men stood guard over a spot where a rosebush once had grown and didn't know what they were guarding.

Year after year. At first, no one knew how long. Guarding something that wasn't there.

Men today are carefully guarding Sunday. They rest on that day; they attend weekly church services on that day. Many do it because they think that God commanded it.

But it is not until we open the archives of God's Word that we can see the truth of the matter. There is no Sunday sacredness in the Bible. There is no command there to keep it holy. There was no changing of Sabbath to Sunday by Heaven in those hallowed pages.

Then we open the archives of history, and we learn that Sunday keeping, like a little rosebush, was indeed planted in the Christian Church. But it happened after the Bible was finished and the Bible writers were all dead.

God has a beautiful plan for your life. He is part of that plan, and you are in it too. He asks us to come apart and rest with Him on His holy day, that we may deepen our hold on Him. "Abide in Me, and I in you," He tells us (John 15:4). Our greatest need is to be linked with Christ. And it is the Sabbath rest that can give us the blessings we crave. "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing." (John 15:5).

That first Sabbath must have been a sweet experience. All the earth was brand new, and the first sunset that Adam saw, began a Sabbath. On this first Seventh day the Creator rested, and Adam rested with Him.

The Sabbath is something special that has come down to us, all the way from Paradise. It is worth finding. It is worth keeping. .for the remainder of our lives.

And ever since Eden, God has planned for the Seventh-day Sabbath to be a holy meeting-time between Himself and His people. You see, the Sabbath is a cord of love that binds the created to his Creator by providing a closer fellowship than could be obtained on the six working days.

God intended that the Sabbath would be something that He and His earthly children would keep together through all time to come. And so the Lord declared the Sabbath to be a "perpetual covenant." (Exodus 31:16-17) How thankful we can be for this, for because of God's everlasting purpose, His faithful ones will honor the Sabbath for eternity in the new earth:

"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before Me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that I from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before Me, saith the Lord." Isaiah 66:22-23.

How long is eternity? It will have to be experienced to be realized. And the Sabbath will be part of that experience. As one begins to see the Sabbath as a token of God's love, both in creation and redemption that day becomes very precious. Again, let me say it: In a very special sense, the Bible Sabbath is an important link, uniting you with God. Don't run from this beautiful truth, but accept it. For it will draw you nearer to your Creator. The more we pattern our lives after Scripture, the happier we shall become.

We have already seen that God calls the Sabbath a "sign" by which to recognize our connection with Him (Exodus 31:13,17; Ezekiel 20:12,20). True Sabbath keeping is a link that will hold men true to their God, if, by faith in Christ, they will always sincerely keep it. Worshiping God on His holy day will draw us nearer to Him all through the week.

Jesus Christ was born into this world just before the beginning of the Christian Era. He grew up and was baptized in A.D. 27, and then began His three-and-a-half year ministry. There had been no prophets or Bible writers for four centuries. Then John the Baptist was sent as a forerunner, to proclaim that the time had come for the Messiah to appear.

While here on earth, Jesus gave us a careful example of obedience to the Sabbath day He had earlier given to mankind. "And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read." Luke 4:16.

His custom should be ours, for He is our Example. He gave us an example of obedience that we should follow.

"He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John 2:6. "Leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps." 1 Peter 2:21. "I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love John 15: 10. "For this is the love of God: that we keep His commandments." 1 John 5:3.

During His earthly life, Jesus had continually given an example of obedience to the Moral Law of Ten Commandments. And He told His disciples to obey it also.

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:17-19.

Just as Jesus has not changed, neither has His law changed. There has been no restructuring by our heavenly Father of the moral principles that govern mankind since the Creation of this world. Morality has not changed, as far as God is concerned, even though some would wish that it had.

Not only did Christ give us a careful example of obedience while here on earthbut He also rebuked man-made attempts to change His laws.

"But in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Matthew 15:9. "Thus have ye made the commandments of God of none effect by your tradition." Matthew 15:6. "Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" Matthew 15:3.

Throughout His life, He did as Scripture predicted He would do: He magnified the Law and made it honorable.

"The Lord is well pleased for His righteousness' sake; He will magnify the Law, and make it honorable." Isaiah 42:21. "Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of Me: I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart" Psalm 40:7-8 (compare Hebrews 10:5,7).

And He did this in the sight of a generation like all the others in history--crooked and perverse and stubbornly rebellious at the thought of obeying God.

He also taught that others should obey the Law of God, as He was doing: "Not every one that saith unto Me, lord, lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven." Matthew 7:21.

"Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:19.

"Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And He said unto him, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Matthew 19:16-17.

And yet we fully realize that we are incapable of rendering this obedience to God apart from the enabling grace of Christ.

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing." John 15:5.

In an earlier chapter ("The Forgotten Prayer") we have seen how concerned Jesus was that His followers continue to observe the only Bible Sabbath to be found anywhere in holy Scripture, and to cling to it decades and centuries after His crucifixion. (Matthew 24:20) And this is very significant. There are so many people today who will tell you solemnly that the Sabbath ended at Calvary, and God did not want anyone to keep it afterward. If you then mention that the Sabbath is the Fourth of the Ten Commandments, they will reply that that is all well, for God got rid of all ten of the commandments at the cross!

Astounded, you then inquire, "Is there then no moral standard to govern the conduct of a Christian today?" And yet some reply: "No moral standard whatever. Jesus fulfilled the law and we no longer need obey it. Love has taken the place of obedience to the Moral law."

One wonders how such a view can be called "Christian" According to this theory, people before the crucifixion had to obey the Ten Commandments and not live in sin; but God sent His Son to earth so that men could henceforth live in sin and be saved in sin. Such an error is not to be found in Scripture.

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people FROM their sins." Matthew 1:21.

Here are some of the things that God said about His Moral Law and the importance of our obeying it:

"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.

"Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4.

"For by the law is the knowledge of sin." Romans 3:20. "For the wages of sin is death:" Romans 6:23. "What shall we say then? is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Romans 7:7. "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." Romans 3:31.

"For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also. Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." James 2:10-11.

"For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:3.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do His commandments."-Psalm 111:10.

"If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land." Isaiah 1:19.

"Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them." Psalm 119:165. "0 that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Isaiah 48:18.

"For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Romans 2: 13. "But he that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth, but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing." James 1:25 R.V.

"By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments." 1 John 5:2. "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Revelation 14: 12.

It is the Ten Commandment law of God that the saints will keep. When asked "which law? Jesus replied by naming several of the Ten Commandments (Matthew 19:17-19). And the Apostle James did likewise (James 2:10-12).

Men today claim that there is no law since the death of Christ. But the Bible teaches that where there is no law, there is no sin! Indeed, without the law to identify sin, we cannot know what sin is. Apart from the presence of the law, sin does not exist.

Where no law is, there is no transgression." Romans 4:15. "Sin is not imputed when there is no law." Romans 5:13. "For by the law is the knowledge of sin." Romans 3:30. I had not known sin, but by the law." Romans 7:7.

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin IS the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:4.

The only thing abolished at the cross was the ceremonial law, contained in ordinances. These were the sacrificial laws. After Christ's death, it was no longer necessary to sacrifice lambs at the temple, for Christ our Lamb had died. But after the death of Christ we were still obligated to keep the Moral Law.

Daniel 9:26-27 predicted that at His death, Christ would "cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. And the Apostle Paul tells us that this is exactly what happened. When Christ died, the ceremonial ordinances were blotted out. The sacrificial services in the Temple no longer had meaning in the eyes of God.

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross." Colossians 2:14. "Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." Ephesians 2:15-16.

A leading Protestant writer, Dr. Albert Barnes, in commenting on Colossians 2:16, said this: "But the use of the term ["sabbaths"] in the plural number, and the connection, show that he [Paul] had his eye on a great number of days which were observed by the Hebrews as festivals, as a part of their ceremonial and typical law and not on the Moral law, or the Ten Commandments. No part of the moral law, no one of the Ten Commandments could be spoken of as 'a shadow of things to come.' " Dr. Albert Barnes, Commentary, on Colossians 2:16.

The "shadow laws" were the ones that foreshadowed the coming of Christ: the slaying of lambs and goats, the keeping of the yearly Passover, etc. All these ceremonial laws were taken away by the death of Christ.

"For the [sacrificial] law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins." Hebrews 10:1-4.

And these sacrificial laws included yearly holy days, or yearly "sabbaths." The weekly Sabbath was given to man- kind at the foundation of the world and is Fourth of the Ten Commandments. But the yearly sabbaths were gatherings for special sacrificial services, and foreshadowed the death of Christ. At these services there were special "meat offerings" and "drink offerings." A list of these yearly sabbaths will be found in Leviticus 23:4-44. The weekly Seventh-day Sabbath is called "the sabbath" in the Bible, but the yearly sabbaths are easily identified: When mentioned together, an "s" is added: they were the "sabbaths" or "sabbath days." All these yearly gatherings were also abolished at the cross. Paul calls them (and their meat and drink offerings) a "shadow."

"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." Colossians 2:16-17. "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect." Hebrews 10:1.

This is because the meaning of the Temple services ended when Christ died. At that moment a hand reached from heaven and tore the veil of the temple in two, thus desecrating it and destroying its significance:

"Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost [died] .And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." Matthew 27:50,51.

"Then said I [Christ], Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God. .[and] said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin Thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein: which are offered by the law; then said He, Lo, I come to do Thy will, 0 God. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second." Hebrews 10:7-9.

The first the shadow laws and ceremonies were taken away by the death of Christ, that He might solidly establish by His death the principle that man must obey God and through the merits of Christ can be empowered to do it! 

As we come to Jesus just now and accept His life and death for us, we can receive "the righteousness which is of God" (Philippians 3:9), for we are beholding "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29. If we will cling to Him, He will enable us to stop sinning and live clean, godly lives. He will take away our sins.

We come to Him in repentance for our sinful past, and we are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus". (Romans 3:24) And then we are to begin a walk with Christ and a life in Christ. We choose Him in place of our former sinful ways.

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" Romans 6: 1,2.

"If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love," Jesus tells us (John 15:10).

The case is clear. We are opening the archives of Scripture and the archives of history and both reveal the truth about the Bible Sabbath and Sunday.

The Seventh-day Sabbath is the only weekly holy day that the God of heaven ever gave to mankind. And Sunday is not that day.

Here are the facts about the first day of the week-facts from the Bible: