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DID ELLEN G. WHITE
"THINK TO CHANGE

TIMES AND LAWS"?

John Vega
January 5 at 1:08pm PST


Dear Friends,

Over the last 23 years I have shared the remnant Seventh-day Adventist Church feast day truth with many lovely people like yourself to the very best of my ability but if there is anything I said or did that prevented you from receiving the truth of the feast days, I ask your forgiveness.
I do realize that some people have a hard time learning from certain personality types and they desire Messiah to reveal things directly to them Himself and experience an Aha moment through a personal study of the Word or the SOP rather than through a person that they don't know or trust.

The following article was originally written by my good friend Brian Allen. I took liberty to edit and refine some of Brian's insights. I pray this article brings clarification to the controversial and sometimes confusing subject of the duty of Christians to observe the feast days of Leviticus 23.

DID ELLEN G. WHITE "THINK TO CHANGE TIMES AND LAWS"?

In a desperate attempt to escape the obligation of Christians to observe the feast days listed in Leviticus 23, many Seventh-day Adventist appeal to a quote from the book written by Ellen G. White titled Desire of Ages. On page 652 of this book Sister White writes "The national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever ". But before we continue, I want to make it clear that I agree with Ellen G White 100% in writing this and I believe it is the truth. Now in this article we will examine this sentence in light of the context of the entire paragraph from which it was taken.

What is obvious to me is that generally speaking, people don't exercise or work hard enough and this causes their minds to become narrowed and cramped, in most cases from living a sedentary lifestyle, studying too much and not working hard enough. They have tunnel vision and focus in on one sentence without looking at the big picture and reading the context and the entire paragraph. In this study we will analyze what is being said before and after the all-time favorite anti-feast quote of many Seventh-day Adventists. This quote is taken from the chapter titled "In Remembrance of Me".

Here is the entire paragraph from whence the sentence was taken.

"Christ was standing at the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals. He, the spotless Lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He would thus bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that for four thousand years had pointed to His death. As He ate the Passover with His disciples, He instituted in its place the service that was to be the memorial of His great sacrifice. The national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was to be observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages."

Okay, now let's begin with a careful examination of the first sentence.

"Christ was standing at the point of transition between two economies and their TWO GREAT FESTIVALS."

Wait a minute, is communion really a "festival" that lasts only 20 minutes, four times a year? It sure never felt like much of a festival to me. Maybe the Seventh-day Adventist corporate Church does not really interpret Sister White's writings properly. Let's examine this passage in greater detail so we can understand what Sister White was really saying to us. You mean to tell me that Sister Ellen is calling not only the Passover a festival but also the Master's Supper a "festival"? Since when has any 501(c)(3) nonprofit, state approved church ever celebrated Yahushua's Supper as a festival for seven days or much less, even one or two days? In the Seventh-day Adventist Church communion lasts for about 20 minutes and with the accompanied sermon it might make it a full hour. The Seventh-day Adventist Church does "communion" four times a year in conjunction with the movements of the sun, the spring equinox, the summer solstice, the autumn equinox and the winter solstice around Christmas. Where in the Bible is it instructed for us to do it that way? Who changed the time in this law? The church of Christ denomination does communion every Sunday, along with the Catholic Church where mass is every Sunday or sometimes every day. Okay, now let's get back to the rest of the paragraph from the book Desire of Ages.

"He, the spotless lamb of God, was about to present Himself as a sin offering, that He would at last bring to an end the system of types and ceremonies that for four thousand years had pointed to his death. As He ate the Passover with his disciples, He instituted in its place The service that was to be a memorial of His great sacrifice. The national festival of the Jews was to pass away forever. The service which Christ established was to be observed by His followers in all lands and through all ages."

Now let us us continue to examine what has been written. What does "in it's place" mean? It seems that most people read it as "take its place", which could mean the same thing. I always have understood "in it's place" to mean in it's place on the calendar and that we should celebrate Messiah's Supper on the 14's of Abib, thus I always thought we should celebrate Messiah's supper at the same exact time as Passover. Makes sense to me. I never believed that the Messiah was guilty of changing times and laws and therefore the statute of Leviticus 23:5 would still stand after the cross of Calvary. But if you choose to undermine or change the timing of Messiah's supper, I guess you could change or undermine any other laws in the Bible which is exactly what the papacy did. But we know that Yahushua was sent to "magnify the Torah and make it honorable." Isaiah 42:21 and that he did not come to do away with or to change the Torah.

With this interpretation in mind I was able to maintain what I always believed and what the Bible actually teaches and that is that the statute should be obeyed, only now it is not a national festival of the Jews to celebrate their deliverance from Egyptian bondage, but instead it became an international festival for all nations to celebrate the deliverance from the bondage of sin and death by way of Yahushua the Nazarite and king of the Jews.

Maybe I can illustrate it this way: Thanksgiving is one of our national festivals here in the United States. It doesn't mean much in Mexico or Africa and especially not in Europe from whence we fled from religious intolerance. Christmas, on the other hand is more international because Babylon made all nations drink her wine. All around the world they celebrate the sun (old winter solstice on the Julian calendar) at the same date.

The Passover with it's symbolism actually was an illustration pointing to the death of Yahushua Messiah. The blood of the Passover lamb which atoned for the broken law was seen in the Passover imagery by putting the blood on the doorpost where they had been instructed to write the law. (Deuteronomy 11:20).

The apostles obviously understood these things. Paul did not say "Messiah our Passover is sacrificed for us, therefore let us not worry about actually keeping the feast". No! On the contrary Paul said "Messiah our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast." 1 Corinthians 5:7, 8
So today the festival is no longer limited to the nation of the Jews but has become an international festival to be celebrated by all people in all nations who want to walk with Messiah and forsake their Torah breaking, sinful ways. Those who followed the apostolic faith continued to observe passover after Messiah's death for seven days eating unleavened bread as the statute requires. Let's concentrate more on this Passover theme in the next article.

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