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Which Commandments are God’s Remnant Church Still Keeping? — 10 Comments

  1. Hello William,

    Thank you for clearly showing how Paul’s words in Colossians 2:13-15 have been misinterpreted by those who wish to have the Law abolished to justify the keeping of the Sunday instead of God’s Sabbath, his memorial of his creation and of his salvation. I have always thought of Paul’s words as an allusion to Deuteronomy 31:24-29, where Moses, knowing full well the character of the people of Israel, states exactly how they will apostatize, writes a song about it and teaches it to the people, that the song may stand as witness against them.

    Moses then instructs the Levites to “Take this book of the law [that he wrote] and place it beside [not in] the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may remain there as a witness against you. For I know your rebellion and your stubbornness.” (Deuteronomy 31:26-27a NASB1995, emphasis mine.) In this context, the words of Moses are the “handwriting of ordinances that was against us” that was nailed to the cross. (Colossians 2:14 MKJV.) This is what was “taken out of the way” that all who are in Christ might be fully reconciled to God in spite of who and what they are.

    The people of Israel were good at “having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it.” (2 Timothy 3:5 MKJV.) It is to this behaviour that “handwriting of ordinances” is addressed, not God’s Sabbath.

    Richard

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  2. Thank you so much for this post, brother William. When you say…

    The principle of every commandment is consideration for others. Whenever we put self first, it does not matter which commandment we broke. If we break one commandment, we break the principle of the entire law.

    …it reminds me of an image of a piano hanging by cables up in the air. If one of the cables is cut, that piano will crash to the ground.

    All of God’s Commandments support His precious instrument of grace, which is love for God and love for all people.

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  3. The original Greek word for “remnant” in Revelation 12:17 is λοιπός (“loipos”), which can mean “final” and which sounds similar to the English word “loyal.” So, God’s final, loyal believers keep His commandments and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. But what does that mean? Jesus says that the most important commandments are to love God and to love all our fellow humans (Mark 12:29-31). Thus, a hateful or bigoted person is not part of God’s remnant, no matter how well he appears to keep the Ten Commandments.

    However, a truly loving person will obey all the Ten Commandments, in obedience to Jesus Christ, who said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15.

    That especially includes the commandment in Exodus 20:8-11 to keep the seventh day (Saturday) holy, because God says that keeping that day holy keeps us holy too. Specifically, God says, in Ezekiel 20:12, “I gave [believers] my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them.”

    Because the Sabbath is God’s “sign” of sanctified people, the Sabbath is also the “seal of God” in Revelation 7:2 and Revelation 9:4. Keeping the Sabbath helps us stay connected to God’s Holy Spirit, who seals God’s truth into our minds. See Ephesians 1:13 and Ephesians 4:30.

    So, when Revelation 12:17 says that God’s final people will keep His commandments, that means — among other things — that we will be thoroughly loving, unbigoted people who keep the Saturday Sabbath and who are thereby filled with the Holy Spirit.

    But Revelation 12:17 also says we must have “the testimony of Jesus Christ,” which in Greek is:
    τὴν μαρτυρίαν τοῦἸησοῦ Χριστοῦ.

    To my understanding, the first word of that phrase, “the,” specifies that the testimony we have about Jesus Christ is special, not just “a” testimony about Jesus, but “the” factually correct testimony about Him, which is rooted in the Bible, testimony about Jesus the Anointed One, the Divine Son of God. And the Greek word for “testimony” is based on the same Greek word as “martyr” (meaning “witness” in the sense of “eyewitness”), which implies that the Biblical facts that we testify about must be part of our actual lives, something we have personally witnessed as being useful and powerful, something we would give our lives for as needed.

    In Greek, the words “of Jesus Christ” are written in the possessive, perhaps implying that this testimony is not only a message that we share that belongs to Jesus, but is also a message that Jesus shares with His Father and with the world about the people belonging to Him. (If my interpretation of this is off, then please forgive me, because I’m mostly self-taught in Greek, though I’m a lifelong Christian, a fourth-generation Adventist and a graduate of Oakwood University — and Vanderbilt University Law School — who has known and taught the Bible my whole life).

    Regardless, Revelation 19:10 says, “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy,” which logically connects the remnant, last-day church to God’s promise, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.” Joel 2:28.

    So, in summary, Revelation 12:17 tells us that God’s final people will be deeply loving, will lovingly keep all Ten Commandments, including the Saturday Sabbath commandment, will be free of bigotry, will testify about Jesus Christ in a Biblically factual way and from personal experiences, and will be part of a Holy Spirit-filled movement that includes end-time prophets. Those prophets are screened by Biblical tests in Deuteronomy 18:10-22, Isaiah 8:19-20, Matthew 7:15-27, 1 Corinthians 12-13, 1 John 4:1-3 and elsewhere. Adventists apply those tests to Ellen G. White when judging her to be a credibly inspired spiritual leader, and all Christians should apply the same tests to her and all other spiritual leaders.

    God bless you.

    Respectfully,

    J. Maverick McWilliams, Esq.

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    • Mr. McWilliams – I read your comment with great interest and appreciation. To help me further understand your insights, would you please share your thoughts regarding Rev.19:10 when placed in context of the setting of Rev. 19:6-10?

      In v. 9, the angel refers to the words he shares with John the Revelator as “these are the true sayings of God” - i.e. prophecy. In v. 10, he admonishes John not to worship him because “I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

      Does this reference of the spirit of prophecy which the angel acknowledges that he shares with John, refer to the Holy Spirit as being the spirit of prophecy? He, as an angel, includes himself as one of ‘your’ (John’s) brethren ‘who have the testimony of Jesus’, i.e. the 'spirit of prophecy' - the Holy Spirit.

      I personally hold that the spirit of prophecy is not a separate spirit, but the expression by the Holy Spirit in/as the manifestation of prophecy. Thank you!

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      • We'll have to see what Maverick has to say. Meanwhile, may I make an observation? Maurice has asked a question that might shed some light on this subject, and surprisingly, no one has ventured to answer it. What does a prophet actually do?

        If we look at the Old Testament prophets, the apostles who wrote the New Testament, and if we look at Ellen White, I think the answer is clear. A prophet delivers messages from God, or speaks on His behalf, both accurately and authoritatively. If anyone making contributions to this blog thinks that he or she qualifies to be called a prophet, I hate to be the first to burst that bubble. The difference between what we are doing, at best, and what a true prophet does, is on an order of magnitude, to say the least.

        According to Luke 11:13, our Heavenly Father is happy to give the Holy Spirit to anyone who sincerely asks. From this, I think it's safe to say that all true believers have the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, by definition, only prophets have the spirit of prophecy. To my mind, this shows that the spirit of prophecy is not the Holy Spirit. Rather, it is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to be distributed to each one individually as He wills. See 1 Corinthians 12:11.

        I hope this helps.

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  4. Very good question -- Which commandments are God's Remnant Still Keeping.

    In reading a bit in history, the idea that the ten commandments were done away with at the cross was not really a Christian belief or Protestant belief in distant past.
    They believed the ten commandments were God's rules given to mankind.

    Of course there were always some who didn't believe that, but as a general thing Christians believed the ten commandments were God's standard for moral conduct. They displayed them in the classrooms, they posted them in their court houses, they built monuments containing them.

    The enmity is against the 4th commandment, resulting in attempts to eject the 7th day Sabbath as God's new testament Sabbath. In building arguments against the Sabbath, many rejected the whole ten commandments.

    But not all Christians go that far. A general belief is: The Ten Commandments are written with room for varying interpretation, reflecting their role as a summary of fundamental principles not detailed rules. These principles can be interpreted by the church.

    It's in this grey area that we see the rejection of the Seventh-day Sabbath even, in some way or other, they still support the ten commandments.
    While playing the piano for various denominational churches, I heard some pretty good sermons in which the preacher was uplifting and explaining the ten commandments. But there was always one thing missing -- the clause about the seventh day in the fourth commandment! The Sabbath commandment itself, was still there, but no 7th day.

    When one goes through the various explanations of Christian churches on the ten commandments it is interesting that almost all of them leave out the seventh-day clause.

    This is from the BBC

    According to Christian belief, the Ten Commandments are important rules from God that tell Christians how to live....
    Keep the Sabbath day holy – One day a week, known as the Sabbath, should be set aside for God. The Christian Sabbath is Sunday, and on this day many people go to church and spend time with their families.

    On an evangelical website we read:

    After Jesus came, died and rose again, the ceremonial laws were abolished. The Ten Commandments remained, except for one commandment. Colossians 3:16.

    The Church of England has this on their website:

    The Ten Commandments set out fundamental principles of how we are to treat God and how we are to treat our fellow human beings. For centuries they were at the center of what Christians learned about their faith....
    Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
    Christ is risen from the dead: set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.

    So, the general Christian belief is that nine of the ten are still in force, and would agree that the New Testament points them out as being still binding.

    It's the 7th Day Sabbath that's removed either by:
    1. Saying the old testament laws are gone, BUT Christ reinstated nine of the ten commandments.
    2. Saying the ten commandments are eternal and binding, all except one, which they claim was part of the ceremonial law which ended at the cross.
    3. Saying yes, the ten commandments are all still binding -- all ten of them, but since Christ, the 4th, the Sabbath commandment, is about Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, and it is to be the holy day of worship.

    With this in mind, I look at your question:

    Which commandments are God's remnant still keeping?

    The answer is all ten as they are in the ark of the covenant, under the mercy seat.
    Rev. 11:19 the ark of the covenant in heaven with its ten commandments will be seen amid thunder and lightning.

    Including the seventh-day Sabbath.

    This revelation that the Seventh-day Sabbath will be the sign, the defining witness, as to where to look for the remnant, does mean all who go to church on Saturday are part of the remnant.

    The remnant, by the grace of God, keep all ten of the commandments in spirit and in truth. That includes the sixth, seventh and eighth, etc. which are being greatly trampled on as well. Outwardly keeping the 4th while trampling on the 7th or any other, would not qualify as being part of the remnant that keep God's commandments.

    But when the religious world swings into power they will enforce changes that are in agreement with the ten commandments as they interpret them, to try to save the family, and society -- but the sabbath which is to be enforced will be on the wrong day.

    At that point it will take great endurance to meet our date with our Creator.(Rev. 14:12)

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  5. So then, which of the 10 commandments does Matthew 18:15-17 and 5:23,24 fall under? I have been a SDA for over 50 years and I have only heard two pastors preach about those verses. But I also have noticed that when an issue comes about a brother having something against another, Pastors and Board members quickly go on and leave these verses of Jesus' counsel and form "Sub committees" to try to solve the issues between brothers and sisters of God's Church Family and then these brothers and sisters go on to become Church Members of other SDA Churches without doing their part to reconcile with each other. But this would not happen if Pastors would be foremost in counseling their members to follow the steps set forth by Jesus to go one on one first rather then to go to them and expect them to do what they do and form "Sub Committees" etc and etc.

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