The following “Question” was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and “Answered” by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed by Anjela Paje of Spokane, WA, from the tape, GC 70-24, titled “Questions and Answers Part 52.”  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.  ©2003. All Rights Reserved.

Questioner

I have a friend who goes to a Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and I know we have a lot of differing beliefs, but I didn’t realize how drastically so until she asked me to read this book called, The National Sunday Law. And the author concludes at the end that Sunday worship is the mark of the beast. And, my question to you is, if they believe so strongly that they should be worshipping on Saturday and not Sunday, are we breaking a commandment of not honoring the Sabbath, if it is supposed to be Saturday? And, my second question would be, what can I do to lead her from that church?

John MacArthur's Answer

Let me answer the question by having you get a tape that I did. I did a tape when I was doing Genesis. Let me find out what verse it is. I, I don’t ever remember the names of the tapes or any of that, but I do remember the verses that I taught. And, in going through Genesis, we came to verse 2 of chapter 2, “On the seventh day, God ended His work which He had done and rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.” Connection with that verse and the next verse, I did a message [see below]. Get the tapes I did on the Sabbath [see below]. And, on the Sunday study because they’re really very important.

The issue with the Seventh-Day Adventists is not the Sabbath. The issue is that the Sabbath is reflective of a "works system." The idea is that if you want to get into the kingdom, you have to keep the Ten Commandments, and that’s one of them. Dealing with Seventh-Day Adventists is not easy because they’re sort of all over the map. There’s a wide spectrum of what they believe. But, predominantly, they started out as a cult. They started out as a cult with a woman prophetess who got direct revelation from God, wrote The Desire of the Nations, and other things, in which was espoused salvation by LAW, salvation by works, a works system, the way all cults do. It has modified and changed through the years, and there have been many people who have moved away from that. I would think, toward true faith in Christ. But, still that’s in the system. That’s part of the core. And, what you’re seeing in that Sabbath LAW book is symbolic of a righteousness gained by keeping the LAW. Now, there’s two ways to deal with somebody like that. First of all, you can dismantle that idea of Sabbath, which I tend to do in those two tapes, and it can be a tough pill for them to swallow. The other thing you need to do is to get them to understand the doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone. Those are the two issues. Okay? But, get that tape.

Creation The 'Rest' of Creation (Genesis 2:1-3) 
Sabbath [01] The New Testament and the Mosaic Sabbath - 

In the Church of Jesus Christ there has long been discussion about the Sabbath, or Seventh Day. Questions relating to the weekly day of rest come up again and again. The basic issue can be summed up like this,
1. Are Christians obligated to keep the Sabbath—the Sabbath of Old Testament Judaism?
2. Are Christians obligated to turn Sunday into a kind of a Sabbath with similar restrictions?
3. Are Christians to reject all Sabbath Law and enjoy freedom from that Sabbath Law and leave any other designated day alone, as to prescribing any specific restrictions?.
Sabbath [02] The Lord's Day--Does It Matter? 

Sunday, as we call it, has always been and is today, among Christians worldwide, the day of worship, and that poses the question, “Why”? Is it arbitrary? Is it traditional? Who started it? How did it get started? How are we to conduct ourselves on this day?

Well, many churches today want to give people as much of Sunday as they possibly can for them to do what they want, so they have reduced Sunday worship to a one-hour, sort of non-intrusive experience that you can have on your way to the beach, or to the ball game. It’s extremely casual; it’s sort of a “drop-by” deal that doesn’t intrude--you sort of “slot” it in between “brunch” and “beach”. And, as I said, there are many churches that offer a Saturday night service, because it is too dark to play anyway, and that leaves Sunday completely free for games and recreation and the mall. Does that matter? Well, I want to show you that I think it does

Sabbath [03] Are Christians under the law of the Sabbath? Is Sunday the Christian Sabbath? Can you wash your car or cut your grass on Sunday without sinning? Includes two articles, I have also included all the verses that reference the Sabbath.
Sabbath [04] The Sabbath of Moses - Are we still under Sabbath law? Are we still under some seventh day obligation? Is the first day of the week now our Sabbath, and should it have all of the compunctions and all of the prescriptions of the Old Testament Sabbath? Or should it not? Well, we have to understand the Mosaic law and the New Covenant to answer those questions, and let's begin with the Mosaic law. So we now turn now from the seventh day of creation to the seventh day Sabbath of Mosaic law.
Sabbath [05] The Sabbath Question: The Nature of the Old Covenant - Now, when you come to the New Testament, the question is: Is the Sabbath law still in place? And that's where we are now.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's “MacArthur's Questions and Answers” by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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