I thought it would be fun to start one of these blogspots to share not just what going on in my life (which is never very much I am afraid) but also to share and discuss the many thought that are going through my mind. Lately I have been really interested in the history of the church and the seventh day (ie. the fall of Jerusalem, the establishment of the pope, the reformation, the reign of terror, the millerite movement, etc.). Did you know that Ethiopia is the longest seventh day keeping country in the world? I have really been interested in following through history how the Sabbath has been almost extinguished, then made a come back over and over again. I am reading the Great Controversy right now and I think you should too, Lyndsey. Vanessa, I am sure you know much more about all this history than I could wish to.
All of this has been making me think that we need another call for Sabbath Reform. Since Satan's greatest weapon is to get into our churches and make us sleeping Christians, I think that we need to be awakened to the fact that we need to watch what we do on the Sabbath and how we keep it. How are we going to stand out as Sabbath Keepers when the Sunday Law passes if we are not really keeping it now? So how does one keep the Sabbath in a media driven culture? We are so used to our tvs, ipods, computers, etc that it's hard to go 24 hours without them. I am trying to come up with a list of ideas of ways to keep the Sabbath better so I don't revert to one of these multi-media devices.
The only commandment the Lord told us to "Remember" was the Sabbath commandment. I believe this is going to be what it all comes down to. Who worships the Lord truly on His Sabbath. And I guess that is why I am so interested in the History of it. I think it will kind of repeat itself. Ellen White says in the Great Controversy that there isn't really any persecution of Christians right now because the church has fallen so far away from what true religion is. When we do come back to it, the persecution will begin again.
I also find it interesting that four of five world powers are going to be electing new presidents and prime ministers in this next year. A lot can change in a year. Or maybe not. But I think it wont be long....
1 comment:
Hey Taumi,
I remember thinking after I finished reading the Great Controversy how the Sabbath message needs to be spread urgently and that it was crazy that White wrote the book more than a century ago and a lot of people still didn't get it.
In a class I took called History of Adventism, my teacher pointed out that White's books written after 1888 were focused much more on Christ than those written before. That year was when there was a conference that defended righteousness by faith and the doing away with the law. The Great Controversy was written before 1888. The Sabbath being a sign is still a relevant message, but we have to beware also thinking that we want to keep the Sabbath so we will be among the redeemed. That's legalism. We have to remember that keeping the Sabbath won't make us righteous, neither will keeping any or all of the rest of the commandments, because we will always be unworthy of being saved of our own merit. Our redemption is a free gift from Christ, that we could never earn. I know you know that, but anyway, my point is I think Ellen White overemphasized the Sabbath in her early writings. Keeping God's commandments can be seen as the fruit of a relationship with Christ. Anyway, I think that concern about keeping the Sabbath I felt after reading the Great Controversy has changed a lot since taking that class, and now I think it's more important to remember to keep your focus on Christ and let those changes come naturally from what bubbles up from within.
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