The Sabbath and the Way-Maker

E. J. Waggoner, in Gospel in Creation writes:

The Sabbath is for the purpose of keeping in mind the creative power of God, which is His distinguishing characteristic. But creative power is the power of the gospel, so that that which celebrates creation also celebrates redemption.

The Sabbath is about celebrating creation and the creative power of God. The Sabbath is the time that we are called to remember what God can do. The Sabbath is about God's ability to create something out of nothing.

Raw Materials for Creation

In Hebrews 11:3 we are told: "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear."

The Sabbath is our faith building device to help us understand that everything that is seen is made of things that we cannot necessarily see or even understand. When someone says that God is a "waymaker," that one is simply talking about God's ability to create a way out of a way that does not appear to be open.

Deliverance from Sin in the Sabbath

The Sabbath reminds us that our deliverance from sin and holy living is not based in what we can see. We may have fallen to that same sin continuously, but the Sabbath reminds us that God is a creator, and creative power doesn't require us to see what God is going to do.

When someone says that "God is able", that one is simply stating that God's creative power is not constrained by circumstances that "do appear," but by God's ability to create something out of nothing. And every Sabbath we come together to celebrate that power.

In the last days, God will have a people who will "worship him who made." (Revelation 14:7). The day designed to remember this creative power is the Sabbath. Let us believe and live as if we are "Sabbath-keepers" who always seek to remember the Creative Power of God.

The Cheap Knock Off of True Faith

We have often heard it said that the Christian life will not necessarily be a smooth one in this life. We could have the same problems and issues others have. A recession can take our job away just like every one else. Our parents die while we are in middle age, like every one else. Unexpected natural disasters and doctor's diagnoses also cloud our horizon. We know of these things intellectually and theologically.

Suspending Our Judgment

However, when we go to church, some of us suspend judgment and start believing anything that is spouted by the preacher. We stat believing that if we plant our seed (pay money in the plate) we will not have the same issues as everyone else. We start believing that God must hook us up with financial blessings that look a lot like American Middle Class values. We start believing that we know that God's will for us is to be the Joneses that elicits envious looks from our neighbors.

There is a Christianity that costs something. Larnell Harris sang the song a while back entitled "When Praise Demands a Sacrifice." In it he looks at the story of Abraham. Abraham was called to give up all on the alter. Some of us think that preaching about American materialism is that of which "relevant" preaching consists. Some of us are too busy following the preaching about cars, houses, and promotions that we miss the essential idea that true Christianity brings sacrifice and persecution. Christianity has become too comfortable in this society. We see Christianity not as an alternative to American Socieity's excesses and materialism, but as an inside help to gain all that any citizen would desire.

Yes God Hooks Us Up

Yes God Hooks us up, no doubt. But Satan, the god of this world, is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8. Yes God places limits on what Satan can do, but Satan is busy attempting to overtake the woman because he knows he has little time. Revelation 12:12. My Sister and Brother preachers, it is time to stop preaching God as if God is simply the inside track to material blessings. It is time to move towards a more mature and deeper faith that can say with the Hebrew boys, "God is able, but if God doesn't, I still will not bow." Daniel 3:17.

We need a But if Not faith if we are going to make it through the dark days ahead. We need a "but if Not" faith if we are going to live the life God would have us to live. We need a "but if not" faith if we will live through the time of trouble such as never was. Daniel 12:1. In fact the hook up is not that you are guaranteed a new car or a new house. The hook up is that God is with you even in the valley of the Shadow of death. The hook up is not that if you lose your job a better paying one is around the corner. The hook up is that with every temptation God provides a way of escape. The hook up is not that you are guaranteed a cure for the cancer. The hook up is that even if you have to die, Jesus has already defeated death. I think that the true hook up is worth more than the materialistic cheap knock off.

The Promise in the Storm

We often find ourselves in the storms of life. One preachers said that in this life we are either entering a storm, leaving a storm, or in the midst of a storm. But God has given us a view of hope in the storm.

Genesis 9:12-16 tells the story of God's promise at the end of the great flood that destroyed the earth. This was a storm. The Bible pictures Noah's precarious journey through a huge flood and God's promise int he midst of the storm. That promise is a colorful bow. Whenever we see a storm and the sun's rays are visible, we can see this magnificent display. God is showing that God is there. God is reminding us that even this storm is under the control of an almighty God.

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So you have storms, look up and find the rainbow. You may have pain, and that pain is just as real as the raindrops of the thunderrstorm, but so is the grace of God just as real as that bow of promise that traces along the sky. You might have struggles, but God is there just as sure as the bow of promise is there.

And you may have a cloud overspreading your horizon that your sins have caused. But don't give in to dispair. Hold on, Hold out, God has a rainbow somewhere. I like what E. J. Waggoner wrote in The Gospel in Creation:

Let the cloud of sins be ever so thick and threatening, the glory of God's word of grace shining upon it will bring into full view the bow of promise, and we shall remember that there is forgiveness with Him. So even the clouds of darkness that overshadow the earth may bear to us a message of comfort.

Taking a Bite out of Adventism

Wrong, Right, or Irrelevant? You know there is no greater crime than to preach an irrelevant message. An irrelevant message is by definition unimportant and a waste of time. We all have heard wrong messages. Many of us have heard right messages. These messages inspire in us a desire to do something. They inspire us to move forward. Or maybe they just inspire us to attack the message. Yes it may be wrong, but it is important enough for the speaker to present it, therefore it is probably important enough for me to attempt to correct the speaker.

Right, Wrong or Irrelevant?

However, there is another category of message. This is the "irrelevant ones." These are the messages that are only of "academic" interest. You may be right, I may be right, but in the end, it really doesn't matter. For most of us, when we immediately recognize such a message, we ignore it and move on. There are some of us who actually specialize in this type of message, and soon we find ourselves in a position where no one will listen to us.

Is Our Contribution Irrelevant?

Interestingly enough, there are some among us who think that Adventism's contribution to the Christian world is an irrelevant add on. We talk about the Sanctuary Message being the doctrine that we bring to the Christian world. But then we immediately assure our Christian brothers and sisters from other denominations that this message does not really affect our understanding of the Gospel. No our understanding of the Gospel is just the same as yours, we just have added this doctrine to talk about it. No the sanctuary does not really mean that Christ will one day stop doing the work of forgiveness while he will ever retain the work of empowerment. No the sanctuary just means that God investigates who will be saved before Jesus returns. It is not about soul transformation, no we are just like you as far as the Gospel in concerned. We just fiddle around with some mathematical calculations that end up at 1844, but you don't really have to know that, all you really have to know is what you already know.

The Neutered Message

What we have ended up doing is neutered the sanctuary message so that the Christian world will not see it as a barrior to fellowship. Once you have done that, then you end up with a doctrine that is meaningless. And why preach a meaningless doctrine? And so we don't. We set it aside and forget about it. No we ain't been called to ignore that message. Neither have we been called to neuter it so that others will not find it offensive. Neither have we been called to turn it into a mathematical calculation or a celestial book-keeping operation that has no meaning for my contemporary living.

In short, I would rather you defend the real sanctuary message that includes soul cleansing. But if you must go ahead and attack the real sanctuary message. But please don't continue to promote the ignoring of this important message by turning it into meaningless drivel that we pull out once in a while at revelation seminars.

Too Many 2300 Days Knowing, Vegemeat Eating Legalists?

While listening to much of the discourse in the sermons from many preachers one can come to a few interesting conclusions. First, vegetarianism must somehow be related to a meanspirtedness. In addition, this meanspirited vegetarianism must be rampant in the church. Why would I make this assumption? Well because often in the illustrations it is the vegetarian who is the foil. He is the one that is upsetting the equilibrium and hurting the new Christians who are seeking to follow God but have not grown to the full stature of Christ. Now certainly there is a place for this type of rhetoric. There are some who use vegetarianism as some sort of "get out of hell" card when it was never meant for that kind of thing. However, my problem is that the proper purpose of vegetarianism is hardly ever spoken of. When you hear about it, it is usually the obviously problematic person in the story that the preacher is speaking of.

Sanctuary and Vegetarianism? Anti Christian?

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The same again with the knowledge of the 2300 days. There are some preachers who never even refer to the 2300 days or the sanctuary message except when saying that a knowledge of it is not necessary for some reason. They may preach that you need to know Jesus more than you know the Sanctuary. OK, I can go along with that to a certain extent, but doesn't the Sanctuary tell us something about who Jesus is and what Jesus is doing? (but i Digress)...The same preacher may preach a story about the person who studies the Sanctuary doesn't have the Love of God. Certainly there are those types of people. But when you never balance this rhetoric with either a proper presentation of the Sanctuary (demonstrating the unavoidable description of Jesus) or a proper role for the doctrine in the Christian life, then we end up with a distorted view that seems to think that these doctrines are almost problematic for Christian living.

Never Placing the Doctrines in Proper Context

Certainly many of these preachers are not saying that explicitly. Many of these preachers don't even mean that at all. However if you only speak of the Sanctuary within the context of the hypocrite and the unloving foil and you never place the Sanctuary in the proper context of a loving Christian experience, then you are in essence teaching that the Sanctuary is a useless appendage. The same with other doctrines and vegetarianism.

Certainly there are some preachers who go to the opposite extreme, and there are some who place all of the doctrines in the context of Biblical Christ-centered Christianity. But in much of the discourse there is a strong undercurrent that seems to imly that the Sanctuary, vegetarianism, and other things that we have been called to teach are actually problematic. In short, if the Sanctuary is not a Christ-centered doctrine, then we either must start teaching it correctly, or openly toss it out, but we cannot continue to badmouth the very doctrines that were given to us to help us understand our purpose in these last days.

The God of Creation and the Advent Faith

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The Second Advent Movement has a two fold reason to emphasize the importance of the creative power of God.  The first of these points is the Sabbath.  The fourth commandment tells us to remember the Sabbath day for it was on that day that God created the heaven and the earth.  (Exodus 20:11).

In addition, Revelation 14 :7 tells us of a last day revival of this important work as the first angel yells "Worship him who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and the fountains of waters!"  For these reasons, the creative power of God is an important message for these last days.  In this audio, Pastor Cox emphasizes these points as well as the "gospel connection" for an emphasis on creation.

Will God Hook Us Up?

Is God going to hook us up? Is that the Gospel? What has God told us?

What has God Promised us?