Review and Herald
May 6, 1875
The Law of God.
By Mrs. E. G. White
"The fact that the holy pair in disregarding the prohibition of God in one particular, thus transgressed his law, and as the result suffered the consequences of the fall, should impress all with a just sense of the sacred character of the law of God. If the experience of our first parents in the transgression of what many who profess to fear God would call the lesser requirements of the law of God, was attended with such fearful consequences, what will be the punishment of those who not only break its most important precepts, as clearly defined as is the fourth commandment, but also teach others to transgress? {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 1}
All will yet understand, as did Adam and Eve, that God means what he says. Men who pass on indifferently in regard to the especial claims of God's holy law, and who turn from and reject the light given upon the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and seek to ease their consciences by following traditions and customs, will be held responsible by God, and in a greater degree, than if Christ had not come to the earth, and suffered on Calvary. The fact that the redemption of man from the penalty of the transgression, required this wonderful sacrifice on the part of Christ, gives unmistakable proof of the unchanging nature of the law of God. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 2}
God gave a clear and definite knowledge of his will to Israel by especial precepts, showing the duty of man to God and to his fellow-men. The worship due to God was clearly defined. A special system of rites and ceremonies was established, which would secure the remembrance of God among his people, and thereby serve as a hedge to guard and protect the ten commandments from violation. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 3}
God's people, whom he calls his peculiar treasure, were privileged with a two-fold system of law; the moral and the ceremonial. The one, pointing back to creation to keep in remembrance the living God who made the world, whose claims are binding upon all men in every dispensation, and which will exist through all time and eternity. The other, given because of man's transgression of the moral law, the obedience to which consisted in sacrifices and offerings pointing to the future redemption. Each is clear and distinct from the other. From the creation the moral law was an essential part of God's divine plan, and was as unchangeable as himself. The ceremonial law was to answer a particular purpose of Christ plan for the salvation of the race. The typical system of sacrifices and offerings was established that through these services the sinner might discern the great offering, Christ. But the Jews were so blinded by pride and sin that but few of them could see farther than the death of beasts as an atonement for sin; and when Christ, whom these offerings prefigured, came, they could not discern him. The ceremonial law was glorious; it was the provision made by Jesus Christ in counsel with his Father, to aid in the salvation of the race. The whole arrangement of the typical system was founded on Christ. Adam saw Christ prefigured in the innocent beast suffering the penalty of his transgression of Jehovah's law. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 4}
The law of types reached forward to Christ. All hope and faith centered in Christ until type reached its antitype in his death. The statutes and judgments specifying the duty of man to his fellow-men, were full of important instruction, defining and simplifying the principles of the moral law, for the purpose of increasing religious knowledge, and of preserving God's chosen people distinct and separate from idolatrous nations. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 5}
The statutes concerning marriage, inheritance, and strict justice in deal with one another, were peculiar and contrary to the customs and manners of other nations, and were designed of God to keep his people separate from other nations. The necessity of this to preserve the people of God from becoming like the nations who had not the love and fear of God, is the same in this corrupt age, when the transgression of God's law prevails and idolatry exists to a fearful extent. If ancient Israel needed such security, we need it more, to keep us from being utterly confounded with the transgressors of God's law. The hearts of men are so prone to depart from God that there is a necessity for restraint and discipline. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 6}
The love that God bore to man whom he had created in his own image, led him to give his Son to die for man's transgression, and lest the increase of sin should lead him to forget God and the promised redemption, the system of sacrificial offerings was established to typify the perfect offering of the Son of God. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 7}
Christ was the angel appointed of God to go before Moses in the wilderness, conducting the Israelites in their travels to the land of Canaan. Christ gave Moses his special directions to be given to Israel. "Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ." {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 8}
"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink." These words were called out by witnessing a representation by the Jews of water flowing from the flinty rock. This commemoration of bringing water from the rock in the wilderness moves the heart of the Son of God to tenderest compassion and pity for their darkened understanding; for they will not see the light which he has brought to them. Christ tells them that he is that rock. I am that living water. Your fathers drank of that spiritual rock that followed them. That rock was myself. It was through Christ alone that the Hebrews were favored with the especial blessings which they were continually receiving, notwithstanding their sinful murmurings and rebellion. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 9}
In consequence of continual transgression, the moral law was repeated in awful grandeur from Sinai. Christ gave to Moses religious precepts which were to govern the everyday life. These statutes were explicitly given to guard the ten commandments. They were not shadowy types to pass away with the death of Christ. They were to be binding upon man in every age as long as time should last. These commands were enforced by the power of the moral law, and they clearly and definitely explained that law. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 10}
Christ became sin for the fallen race, in taking upon himself the condemnation resting upon the sinner for his transgression of the law of God. Christ stood at the head of the human family as their representative. He had taken upon himself the sins of the world. In the likeness of sinful flesh he condemned sin in the flesh. He recognized the claims of the Jewish law until his death, when type met antitype. In the miracle he performed for the leper, he bade him go to the priests with an offering in accordance with the law of Moses. Thus he sanctioned the law requiring offerings. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 11}
Christians who profess to be Bible students can appreciate more fully than ancient Israel did the full signification of the ceremonial ordinances that they were required to observe. If they are indeed Christians, they are prepared to acknowledge the sacredness and importance of the shadowy types, as they see the accomplishment of the events which they represent. The death of Christ gives the Christian a correct knowledge of the system of ceremonies and explains prophecies which still remain obscure to the Jews. Moses of himself framed no law. Christ, the angel whom God had appointed to go before his chosen people, gave to Moses statutes and requirements necessary to a living religion and to govern the people of God. Christians commit a terrible mistake in calling this law severe and arbitrary, and then contrasting it with the gospel and mission of Christ in his ministry on earth, as though he were in opposition to the just precepts which they call the law of Moses. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 12}
The law of Jehovah, dating back to creation, was comprised in the two great principles, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these." These two great principles embrace the first four commandments, showing the duty of man to God, and the last six, showing the duty of man to his fellow-man. The principles were more explicitly stated to man after the fall, and worded to meet the case of fallen intelligences. This was necessary in consequence of the minds of men being blinded by transgression. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 13}
God graciously spoke his law and wrote it with his own finger on stone, making a solemn covenant with his people at Sinai. God acknowledged them as his peculiar treasure above all people upon the earth. Christ, who went before Moses in the wilderness, made the principles of morality and religion more clear by particular precepts, specifying the duty of man to God and his fellow-men, for the purpose of protecting life, and guarding the sacred law of God, that it should not be entirely forgotten in the midst of an apostate world. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 14}
Professed Christians now cry, Christ! Christ is our righteousness, but away with the law. They talk and act as though Christ's mission to a fallen world was for the express purpose of nullifying his Father's law. Could not that work have been just as well executed without the only beloved of the Father coming to this world and enduring grief, privation, and the shameful death of the cross? Ministers preach that the atonement gave men liberty to break the law of God, and to commit sin, and then praise the free grace and mercy revealed through Christ under the gospel, while they despise the law of God. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 15}
They cast aside the restraint of the law, and give loose rein to the corrupt passions and the promptings of the natural heart, and then triumph in the mercy and grace of the gospel. Christ speaks to such: "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." What is the will of the Father? That we keep his commandments. Christ, to enforce the will of his Father, became the author of the statutes and precepts given through Moses to the people of God. Christians who extol Christ, but array themselves against the law governing the Jewish church, array Christ against Christ. {RH, May 6, 1875 par. 16}
The death of Jesus Christ for the redemption of man, lifts the veil and reflects a flood of light back hundreds of years, upon the whole institution of the Jewish system of religion. Without the death of Christ all this system was meaningless. The Jews reject Christ, and therefore their whole system of religion is to them indefinite, unexplainable, and uncertain. They attach as much importance to shadowy ceremonies of types which have met their antitype, as they do to the law of the ten commandments, which was not a shadow, but a reality as enduring as the throne of Jehovah. The death of Christ elevates the Jewish system of types and ordinances, showing that they were of divine appointment, and for the purpose of keeping faith alive in the hearts of his people. "
Note: We can easily see from the above article that the sacrifices and offerings are no longer required since Messiah laid down His life as the final sacrifice. Absolutely no mention is made concerning the annual feast days. Honest intellectual interpretation of the above would refuse to read into the text that it was the annual feast days that were done away with as the Author simply says nothing of the sort.
We Need The Feast Days Today
6T - Testimonies for the Church Volume Six (1901)
"In the days of Christ these feasts were attended by vast multitudes of people from all lands; and had they been kept as God intended, in the spirit of true worship, the light of truth might through them have been given to all the nations of the world. {6T 39.4}
With those who lived at a distance from the tabernacle, more than a month of every year must have been occupied in attendance upon these holy convocations. The Lord saw that these gatherings were necessary for the spiritual life of His people. They needed to turn away from their worldly cares, to commune with God, and to contemplate unseen realities. {6T 40.1}
If the children of Israel needed the benefit of these holy convocations in their time, how much more do we need them in these last days of peril and conflict! And if the people of the world then needed the light which God had committed to His church, how much more do they need it now!" {6T 40.2}
Statutes Are A Salvational Issue
Feast Days are Statutes
Feast Days (7th Day Sabbath
Included) Are A Salvational Issue
Salvation [is] far from the wicked: for
they seek not thy statutes. Ps 119:155
Note: King David is a type of Messiah and He clearly teaches that the statutes are a salvational issue.
The Scripture is Unambiguous
Feast Days are Statutes
Leviticus 23:14, 21, 31, 41
4 Times In Reference
To The 4th Commandment
14 And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn,
nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have
brought an offering unto your God: [it shall be] a
statute for ever throughout your generations in all
your dwellings. ....
21 And ye shall proclaim on the selfsame day, [that] it
may be an holy convocation unto you: ye shall do no
servile work [therein: it shall be] a statute for ever in
all your dwellings throughout your generations....
31 Ye shall do no manner of work:
[it shall be] a statute for ever throughout your
generations in all your dwellings.....
41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto Yahuwah seven
days in the year. [It shall be] a statute for ever in your
generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
Statutes Prepare Our Characters For Translation
- "God is now testing and proving His people. Character is being developed. Angels are weighing moral worth, and keeping a faithful record of all the acts of the children of men. Among God's professed people are corrupt hearts; but they will be tested and proved. That God who reads the hearts of everyone, will bring to light hidden things of darkness where they are often least suspected, that stumbling blocks which have hindered the progress of truth may be removed, and God have a clean and holy people to declare His statutes and judgments. {1T 332.3}The Captain of our salvation leads His people on step by step, purifying and fitting them for translation, and leaving in the rear those who
are disposed to draw off from the body, who are not willing to be led, and are satisfied with their own righteousness."
Note: To resist, reject and fight against the statutes is tantamount to saying "I'm satisfied with my own righteousness and have no interest in being purified and fitted for translation."
We Need Discernment and Faith To Follow Messiah Rather Than Men. Do You have It?
"Satan is constantly endeavoring to attract attention to man in place of God. He leads the people to look to bishops, to pastors, to professors of theology, as their guides, instead of searching the Scriptures to learn their duty for themselves. Then, by controlling the minds of these leaders, he can influence the multitudes according to his will." Great Controversy, p. 595.
Whatever you do Brian do not exchange a man's leadership and fellowship for fellowship with the Messiah.
Styrofoam Crosses Are No Substitute For Sweet Fellowship With The Messiah
There are many people that are in leadership positions that are exchanging the sweet fellowship of Messiah for the fake, superficial fellowship of men and an easy paycheck. Styrofoam crosses are popular today and appear easier to carry at first but eventually, those of us that are conscientious disciples of the meek and lowly Messiah will be burdened with the heavy weight of a guilty, sinful, shamful, defiled and compromised conscious. My advise to you is to walk uprightly and suffer with the people of Yah for a season rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin and popularity for a season.
"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke [is] easy, and my burden is light." Mat 11:29, 30
Part of being a true disciple of Messiah is to take a stand for truth even when those that call themselves His disciples refuse to experience the ostracism that will result when they embrace and teach certain truths like that of the statutes and the feast days. Do not cower at carrying a cross just because many of your, peers, family and church associates are refusing to carry it. It will cost you your salvation as well as prevent you from being among the generation of the living, translated saints.
So Brother B, many proof texts are right here. There is no doubt in my mind that God is raising up people that will declare His statutes and Judgments. We are challenged to stop looking to bishops, to pastors, to professors of theology, as our guides, instead of searching the Scriptures to learn our duty for ourselves. Will you step out by faith and obey God rather than men and cease teaching the error that the annual feast days were nailed to the cross or will you continue to deny the truth so you can get along with your superiors and continue teaching error to the people Messiah died for?
In the end it is your decision. I simply lay before you life, truth, health and prosperity in exchange for error and man's traditions. Will you man up and take hold of Messiah's promises and reap the benefits of walking in obedience or will you fold under the pressure and reject the statute message so that you can continue to get along with those that are denying the light and calling precious light darkness?
"And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Yahuwah thy Elohim, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I [am] Yahuwah that healeth thee." Exodus 15:26
Note: We must by his grace "keep ALL his Statutes" if we want to avoid the diseases and plagues of Egypt. There are many diseases and plagues that will destroy those that refuse to obey ALL the situates because they chose the fellowship of men and an easy paycheck rather than the fellowship with Messiah in his sufferings. I don't know about you but I do not want to receive the plagues and diseases of Egypt so I will claim the promise and step out by faith and obey the ALL the statutes.
"I can do all things through Messiah which strengtheneth me." Phil 4:13
The decision is yours.
"In seeking to cast contempt upon the divine statutes, Satan has perverted the doctrines of the Bible, and errors have thus become incorporated into the faith of thousands who profess to believe the Scriptures. The last great conflict between truth and error is but the final struggle of the long-standing controversy concerning the law of God. Upon this battle we are now entering,—a battle between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah, between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition." {GC88 582.2}
Your friend in Yahushua Messiah,
John Edward
P.S. Please read my most recent literature distribution adventure at Soquel Camp Meeting 2011
http://totalrestitution.com/articles/egwfeastflyerreport.html