MR No. 1097—The True Sabbath versus the False Sabbath; an Appeal for Total Commitment”
[See note on page 10.]
(14MR 89)
“Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” [Galatians 6:7]. I want to sow for time and eternity. My heart hungers and thirsts after righteousness. I want my life hid in Christ Jesus, that my sowing shall bring me the right kind of harvest. I feel deeply in regard to my own self, for every day, in words or in actions, I am sowing either tares or wheat. I want to sow for time and eternity. I have lived nearly the period of my allotted time, and what shall the harvest be?
(14MR 89.1)
I want a quiet and unwavering trust in the Most High. I have experienced His protecting care in a remarkable manner when following in the path of duty. I want to go down in the grave as a shock of corn fully ripe. I want no complaining in my heart; only gratitude should abide there. God’s mercy and His lovingkindness are to be kept, not as a thing out of mind, but as something so precious as never to be forgotten. As eye-witnesses of His majesty we may exalt and praise His holy name. We are with Him in the holy mount.
(14MR 89.2)
Every moment of time is precious and weighty with eternal consequences. We are in a world of appearances which mock and deceive like the apples of Sodom. Oh, how the Lord looks upon the double-dealing and the duplicity which is in our world. If we could not get a glimpse above and beyond the 90clouds to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness, we might well be downcast. But Jesus lives; the bow of promise encircles the throne as a constant assurance that Jesus lives; and because He lives, we shall live also.
(14MR 89.3)
Whatever may be the needed discipline of the church militant amid the dragon’s wrath against those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus, the benediction is pronounced upon all who love and obey God. The words are positive, but mark their significance. The Alpha and Omega does not utter words that will lead any soul to suppose that a profession of faith without willing, genuine love and obedience, will secure to him the entrance into the Holy City and a right to the tree of life. The Lord declares, “This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me” [Matthew 15:8]. This is mockery to God, speaking with a mouth of guile.
(14MR 90.1)
The discipline in the school of Christ will cause the church to lean upon the arm of her Beloved. The redeemed of the Lord shall at last come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, in victorious triumph. All the angelic hosts will rejoice over them with singing. But what are the qualifications of our citizens? “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city” [Revelation 22:14].
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John in the Revelation writes of the unity of those living on the earth to make void the law of God. [Revelation 17:13, 14; 16:13King James VersionAmerican Standard VersionWebster’s BibleAmerican King James VersionDarby BibleWorld English BibleYoung’s Literal Translation, quoted.]
(14MR 90.3)
All who will exalt and worship the idol sabbath, a day that God has not blessed, help the devil and his angels with all the power of their God-given ability, which they have perverted to a wrong use. Inspired by another spirit which blinds their discernment, they cannot see that the exaltation of Sunday observance is entirely the institution of the Catholic church.
(14MR 91.1)
A corrupt union has been formed to tear down God’s memorial of creation—the seventh day, which He hallowed and blessed and gave to man to be a sign between God and His people, to be observed throughout their generations forever. A period is coming when everyone will take sides between the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, which the Lord has sanctified and blessed, and the spurious sabbath instituted by the man of sin.
(14MR 91.2)
An idol sabbath has been set up, as the golden image was set up in the plains of Dura. And as Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, issued a decree that all who would not bow down and worship this image should be killed, so a proclamation will be made that all who will not reverence the Sunday institution will be punished with imprisonment and death. Thus the Sabbath of the Lord is trampled underfoot. But the Lord has declared, “Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and write grievousness which they have prescribed” [Isaiah 10:1]. [Zephaniah 1:14-18King James VersionAmerican Standard VersionWebster’s BibleAmerican King James VersionDarby BibleWorld English BibleYoung’s Literal Translation; 2:1-3King James VersionAmerican Standard VersionWebster’s BibleAmerican King James VersionDarby BibleWorld English BibleYoung’s Literal Translation, quoted.]
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The Lord of heaven permits the world to choose whom they will have as ruler. Let all read carefully the thirteenth chapter of Revelation, for it concerns every human agent, great and small. Every human being must take 92sides, either for the true and living God, who has given to the world the memorial of creation in the Seventh-day Sabbath, or for a false sabbath, instituted by men who have exalted themselves above all that is called God or that is worshiped, who have taken upon themselves the attributes of Satan in oppressing the loyal and true who keep the commandments of God. This persecuting power will compel the worship of the beast by insisting on the observance of the sabbath he has instituted. Thus he blasphemes God, “sitting in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God” [2 Thessalonians 2:4].
(14MR 91.4)
This worship of a false sabbath is a wedge that split the Protestant churches from God, and left them naked. They had not a text of Scripture to sustain their false God, but yet a deception, hoary with age but still a deception, was commended to reverence, and exalted, while the Sabbath of the fourth commandment was trampled upon and God dishonored. The Bible was before them with a plain “Thus saith the Lord” and the penalty that is the part of the transgressor; but as Adam and Eve in Eden listened to the falsehoods of Satan, so the righteous world are following their example.
(14MR 92.1)
Satan, who was expelled from heaven, is leading the world, blindfolded by his sophistry, in the same way that he led the angels who accepted his theology before a “Thus saith the Lord.” Already the churches are naked and without a covering. Like the archdeceiver they are without excuse, for they have the Word of God, plain and clear and pointed. While they would rein up the faithful and loyal subjects of the kingdom of God, depriving them of their liberty of conscience, bringing them before magistrates and 93judges, and pronouncing sentence against them, delivering them into prison, putting them into the chain gang and even condemning them to death, they themselves before the universe are showing determined and obstinate contempt of the laws of the eternal Jehovah. [Revelation 14:1-4, quoted.]
(14MR 92.2)
One of the marked features in the representation of the 144,000 is that in their mouth was found no guile. The Lord has said, “Blessed is the man ... in whose spirit there is no guile” [Psalm 32:2]. They profess to be children of God, and are represented following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. They are prefigured before us as standing on Mount Zion, girt for holy service, clothed in white linen, which is the righteousness of the saints. But all who follow the Lamb in heaven will first have followed Him on earth, in trustful, loving, willing obedience; followed Him not fretfully and capriciously, but confidently, truthfully, as the flock follows the shepherd.
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Are these the ones who are bruising and imprisoning their fellow men, humiliating them to the depraved association of those who compose the chain gang? Is this the sign of those who follow the Lamb? No, no. All who do this work evidence that they have chosen the side of one who was expelled from Eden, who was a falsifier of God, and who by oppression tries to compel God’s chosen ones to worship an idol sabbath which is without one text of Scripture for its authority.
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Did Christ give His followers any such lesson or example? No; He came, not to break down the moral power of men, but to restore it. He came to 94break the power of oppression. His work was to release those who were in bondage to Satan. Those who say, I am a child of God, and yet do work which will grieve and oppress, executing cruel actions against their fellow men, are not following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, but are followers of another leader. They develop the attributes of Satan, and make it manifest that they are participators and co-workers with him to bind, imprison, and condemn, to cause all the suffering possible to body and mind, because they cannot compel men to be untrue to God and dishonor His work and transgress His holy law.
(14MR 93.3)
These are the ones who have guile in their mouths. These are the ones that profess to be followers of Christ while they are following a leader who was expelled from the courts of heaven. These men, who are working unrighteousness with such zealous zeal, show before the whole world and universe that if Christ was upon the earth, as at His first advent, they would do as did the unbelieving Jews—follow Him as spies, seeking to get Him to say something which they could use against Him to condemn Him to death. If they had opportunity and power, they would do as did Nebuchadnezzar when he set up his golden image in the plains of Dura.
(14MR 94.1)
It is the spirit that dwells in the children of disobedience that decides their future eternal destiny. Men who conceal their convictions of duty because they are afraid of suffering persecution are not following the true, but the false, shepherd. To maintain principle at all hazard is the highest path one can travel, because by doing this we follow Jesus. That 95which has a “Thus saith the Lord” is right and expedient. God has said, “He that walketh uprightly walketh surely” [Proverbs 10:9]. If you suffer for the truth’s sake, you are partakers with Christ in His suffering, and will be partakers with Him in His glory.
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God is weary of professional falseness and hollow hypocrisy. “And in their mouth was found no guile: for they are without fault before the throne of God.” What grand words, how cheering and uplifting. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully,”“he that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness, and keepeth the truth in his heart,”“he shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation” [Psalm 24:3-5; 15:2King James VersionAmerican Standard VersionWebster’s BibleAmerican King James VersionDarby BibleWorld English BibleYoung’s Literal Translation].
(14MR 95.1)
The third angel’s message, following the first and second which have proclaimed the hour of God’s judgment and the fall of mystic Babylon, is proclaimed in louder and more explicit tones, giving a warning to all co-workers in the great anti-Christian apostasy: [Revelation 18:1-5, quoted].
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The whole chapter is full of importance and is of consequence to every human agent. Consider this matter; it will bear close searching. The men who are denying the Sabbath instituted by God Himself, who are trampling upon the commandments of God, are the devil’s spies who seek to find accusation against those who will not reverence a man-made institution and worship an idol sabbath. The observance of the seventh day according to the commandment 96reveals to them a neglect of duties which they owe to God. If there was not a people voicing the third angel’s message, they would have no conscientious scruples for Sunday observance, but it is the truth that they do not wish to receive. The Jews did not want their customs and practices to be disturbed; neither do the professed Christian world of today wish to be disturbed. They reject the message of truth which God in mercy hath sent to them to arouse their moral sensibilities. The Jews treated Christ just as professed Christians of today would treat Him should He come as He did at His first advent.
(14MR 95.3)
The world is in co-partnership with the professed Christian churches in making void the law of Jehovah. God’s law is set aside; it is trampled underfoot; and from all the loyal people of God the prayer will ascend to heaven, “It is time, O Lord, for Thee to work: for they have made void Thy law.” Satan is making his last and most powerful effort for the mastery, his last conflict against the principles of God’s law. A defiant infidelity abounds.
(14MR 96.1)
After John’s description in Revelation 16 of that miracle-working power which was to gather the world to the last great conflict, the symbols are dropped, and the trumpet voice once more gives a certain sound. “Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame” [Revelation 16:15King James VersionAmerican Standard VersionWebster’s BibleAmerican King James VersionDarby BibleWorld English BibleYoung’s Literal Translation]. After the transgression of Adam and Eve, they were naked, for the garment of light and security had departed from them. The world will have forgotten the admonition 97and warnings of God, as did the inhabitants of the Noatic world; as did also the dwellers in Sodom. They awoke with all their plans and inventions of iniquity; but suddenly the shower of fire came from heaven and consumed the godless inhabitants. “Thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed” [Luke 17:30King James VersionAmerican Standard VersionWebster’s BibleAmerican King James VersionDarby BibleWorld English BibleYoung’s Literal Translation].
(14MR 96.2)
The world full of rioting, full of godless pleasure, is asleep, asleep in carnal security, putting afar off the coming of the Lord, laughing at warnings, calling those who try to arouse their attention, almost fanatics, enthusiasts, not levelheaded. The lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God are taken unawares. This is the proud boast that is made, “All things remain as they were from the beginning. Tomorrow shall be as this day, only much more abundant.” We will go deeper into pleasure loving. But, said Christ, “Behold I come as a thief.” When the scorner, the rejecter of truth has become presumptuous, when the routine of work in the various money-making lines is being carried on without regard to principle, when the student is fully engaged in ambitious aims to obtain knowledge of everything but the Bible, Christ comes as a thief. The warning has been given, “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up” [Matthew 24:42, 43]. Every hour that passes is one hour less for you to make preparation of character for this great event.—Manuscript 7a, 1896.
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Ellen G. White Estate
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Washington, D. C.,
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October 9, 1984.
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Entire Manuscript.
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*At the time this manuscript was written, not a few Seventh-day Adventists were suffering persecution for their faith, especially in the Southern states. In 1895 and 1896 “no less than 76 Seventh-day Adventists were prosecuted in the United States and Canada under existing Sunday laws. Of these, 28 served terms of various lengths in jails, chain gangs, etc., aggregating 1,144 days.”American State Papers, p. 562. For additional details see Warren L. Johns, Dateline Sunday, U. S. A., pp. 43-57.
(14MR 98.1)