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Thought Provoking Questions
Hi
I am wondering how you know for sure that the feast days were the teaching/discussion of 1888? Where does the SOP say that we must keep the feast days?
Where does it say in SOP that we must keep the feast days to receive the latter rain?
Why are the feast days not preached by Mark Finley and other knowledgable preachers is our salavation is involved? How is our salvation tied to keeping them? I have been an Adventist for many years and would think that this teaching would have been made clear over the years.
Thanks Jean
by John Vega on Tuesday, December 21, 2011
Hello Jean,
Thank you very much for your thought provoking questions.
I'm not trying to be rude by answering your questions with more questions but rather I'm hoping that as you dig deep to answer the questions I pose to you that you will learn more of Yahushua (Hebrew for Jesus) and His beautiful character. Yahushua was the greatest teacher of all time and he often taught people by asking questions. I can only imagine that He did this not because He was trying to confuse his questioners but rather for the purpose of helping them experience the joy of discovering truth for themselves while searching for the answers. A sort of self realization was likely what motivated Yahushua to teach by asking questions.
Unlike Yahushua, I can not answer all the questions that I pose to you but none the less I think this series of questions will help you to take a more serious look at the subjects of the statutes/feast days.
Why were the religious leaders of Yeshua's day His worst enemies?
Can we expect a similar response from the religious leaders of our day when we take a stand for Yahushua and the present truth?
"There is to be in the [Seventh-day Adventist] churches a wonderful manifestation of the power of God, but it will not move upon those who have not humbled themselves before the Lord, and opened the door of the heart by confession and repentance. In the manifestation of that power which lightens the earth with the glory of God, they will see only something which in their blindness they think dangerous, something which will arouse their fears, and they will brace themselves to resist it. Because the Lord does not work according to their ideas and expectations they will oppose the work. "Why," they say, "should we not know the Spirit of God, when we have been in the work so many years?"--RH Extra, Dec. 23, 1890. {LDE 209.3}
Why was it that Jesus had to work outside of the established political and religious system of His day?
Why was it that Jesus and the Apostles continued to observe the feast days after the cross?
"And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed [it], and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight." Luke 24:30
Here we see that Yahushua blesses the unleavened bread that the apostles were eating the very day of His resurrection. Why did he not reprove them and ask them why they were still practicing the "ceremonial law"? Could it be that the only laws that were no longer necessary to perform were the laws concerning blood sacrifice?
"And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." Acts 2:1
Why is it that Ellen White told us that we were to experience more light in every generation?
"In every age there is a new development of truth, a message of God to the people of that generation. The old truths are all essential; new truth is not independent of the old, but an unfolding of it. It is only as the old truths are understood that we can comprehend the new. When Christ desired to open to His disciples the truth of His resurrection, He began "at Moses and all the prophets" and "expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself." Luke 24:27. But it is the light which shines in the fresh unfolding of truth that glorifies the old. He who rejects or neglects the new does not really possess the old. For him it loses its vital power and becomes but a lifeless form." {COL 127.4}
"But the path of the just [is] as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Proverbs 4:18
Why did the Apostle Paul keep the feast of Passover for eight days with his Gentile converts, the Philippians AFTER the cross?
"And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days; where we abode seven days." Acts 20:6
"At Philippi Paul tarried to keep the Passover. Only Luke remained with him, the other members of the company passing on to Troas to await him there. The Philippians were the most loving and truehearted of the apostle's converts, and during the eight days of the feast he enjoyed peaceful and happy communion with them." {AA 390.4}
Why did the Apostle Paul later tell his gentile converts, the Philippians to follow his example two times?
"Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample." Philippians 3:17
"Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you. Philippians 4:9
Are we commanded anywhere in Scripture to follow the example of any other group of people besides the apostles and Yahushua when it comes to our religious faith and practice?
Why do many, many Seventh-day Adventist corporate approved publications tell us that the feast days "WERE shadows of things TO COME" when in reality the verse that they are quoting actually says that the feast days "ARE a shadow of things TO COME;"? Colossians 2:17
Did Ellen White ever claim infallibility?
"We have many lessons to learn, and many, many to unlearn. God and heaven alone are infallible. Those who think that they will never have to give up a cherished view, never have occasion to change an opinion, will be disappointed. As long as we hold to our own ideas and opinions with determined persistency, we cannot have the unity for which Christ prayed." {RH, July 26, 1892 par. 7}
Did Satan hate and make war with God's statutes before the earth was even created?
"To the very close of the controversy in Heaven, the great usurper continued to justify himself. When it was announced that with all his sympathizers he must be expelled from the abodes of bliss, then the rebel leader boldly avowed his contempt for the Creator's law. He reiterated his claim that angels needed no control, but should be left to follow their own will, which would ever guide them right. He denounced the divine statutes as a restriction of their liberty, and declared that it was his purpose to secure the abolition of law; that, freed from this restraint, the hosts of Heaven might enter upon a more exalted, more glorious state of existence." {GC88 499.2}
Is Satan still in the same business today?
"The harmony of nature between Satan and evil men is the key to all religious persecution from the day when Cain killed Abel to the present time. The same principle that actuated Satan in the courts of heaven to war against God is now working in the children of disobedience, and actuates them to manufacture spurious commandments that contradict the statutes of Jehovah. It is the power of apostasy that exalts religious potentates to the place of God. The false is honored above the true; and thus it is that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is trampled in the dust, while the spurious sabbath is exalted by earthly powers." {ST, June 11, 1894 par. 5}
Religion in the Home.--The light esteem in which the law of God is held, even by religious leaders, has been productive of great evil. The teaching which has become so wide-spread that the divine statutes are no longer binding upon men, is the same as idolatry in its effect upon the morals of the people. Those who seek to lessen the claims of God's holy law are striking directly at the foundation of the government of families and nations. Religious parents, failing to walk in his statutes, do not command their household to keep the way of the Lord. The law of God is not made the rule of life. The children, as they make homes of their own, feel under no obligation to teach their children what they themselves have never been taught. And this is why there are so many godless families; this is why depravity is so deep and wide-spread. {CE 220.1}
Did the statutes preexist the Exodus?
Gen 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that [are] not clean by two, the male and his female.
Gen 7:8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that [are] not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 7:9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
Genisis G8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Did Abraham keep the statutes some 400 years before Moses was born?
Gen 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
What does the word "statute" mean?
H2706
חק
chôq
khoke
From H2710; an enactment; hence an appointment (of time, space, quantity, labor or usage): - appointed, bound, commandment, convenient, custom, decree (-d), due, law, measure, X necessary, ordinance (-nary), portion, set time, statute, task.
Are the feast days statutes?
Leviticus 23:14 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.
23:21 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.
23:31 Ye shall do no manner of work: [it shall be] a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
.
23:41 And ye shall keep it a feast unto the LORD seven days in the year. [It shall be] a statute for ever in your generations: ye shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
Did Abraham and Lot celebrate the feast of unleavened bread before Moses wrote the law?
Genisis18:6 And Abraham hastened into the tent unto Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal, knead [it], and make cakes upon the hearth.
19:3 And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.
Does Ellen White prophecy of a time when God's people will experience "a revival of primitive godliness such as has not been witnessed since Apostolic times"?
"Notwithstanding the widespread declension of faith and piety, there are true followers of Christ in these churches. Before the final visitation of God's judgments upon the earth, there will be, among the people of the Lord, such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon his children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and his Word. Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time, to prepare a people for the Lord's second coming. The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it, by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power, he will make it appear that God's special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world." {GC88 464.1}
Can you imagine the Apostles erecting a Christmas tree in the synagogues and places of worship in their day?
Did Ellen White prophecy of a time when God would have a pure and holy people to declare His statutes and judgments and that this message woud prepare them 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. "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" No greater delusion can deceive the human mind than that which leads men to indulge a self-confident spirit, to believe that they are right and in the light, when they are drawing away from God's people, and their cherished light is darkness." {1T 333.1}
Why would Ellen G White encourage us to keep the annual Biblical feast days of Leviticus 23 and yet not actually observe them herself?
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}
I would like to reiterate that as you study to answer these thought provoking questions I hope you experience a richer and fuller relationship with our Lord and soon coming King Yahushua the Messiah.
Sincerely,
Johnny Vegas
John@totalrestitution.com
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