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Sabbath and Matthew 24 (Split from "Sadly, some people have no respect . . .")

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TrustAndObey

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I just thought of a couple of verses that put my reasoning into perspective:

Matthew 7:21 - Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Luke 6:46 - And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

Luke 9:23 - And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

And of course there's John 3:16.



 
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Eila

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I haven't really discussed it with other Adventists. To me it's more of a common sense thing since Mary said she needed a Savior and she accepted Christ as the Messiah that God promised.

Accepting Christ as your Savior and following Him is the definition of a Christian.

The Bible says Christ became the author of eternal salvation to all those that obey Him, and that none would enter the Kingdom of Heaven without believing in Him.

If anyone else has a definition of what being a Christian is I welcome you to post it here. At least in my mind, that's exactly what it is. Accepting Him as the Savior the Father promised, and picking up our crosses to follow Him.

I understand the SDA belief about salvation. I was specifically wondering about whether it was common for SDAs to believe there were Christians before the death and resurrection of Jesus.
 
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RC_NewProtestants

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All I know is I was in a discussion with someone else and you're suddenly asking me to discuss with YOU reasonably?

So you never addressed any posts to me and I never had anything to say, I am just an intrusion into a private conversation on a public forum, is that what your defense is going to be. The Subject was how you interpret the reference to the sabbath in Matthew 24, pray that your flight will not be on the sabbath or that you are pregnant of nursing.

I should not have to keep reminding you to stay on topic but clearly you are eager to talk about anything but the subject. Fine have it your way.
 
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T

TrustAndObey

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So you never addressed any posts to me and I never had anything to say, I am just an intrusion into a private conversation on a public forum, is that what your defense is going to be. The Subject was how you interpret the reference to the sabbath in Matthew 24, pray that your flight will not be on the sabbath or that you are pregnant of nursing.

I should not have to keep reminding you to stay on topic but clearly you are eager to talk about anything but the subject. Fine have it your way.

No, my "defense" is that I answered your question more than once and not everything I said was directed at you. I was in a conversation with someone else.

I have said, repeatedly <knocking on the glass....is this thing on?> that I believe the verse in Matthew is referring to the fall of Jerusalem. I don't know how to say it any plainer than that.

And if people want to ask me questions that have nothing to do with your posts, that is their call, because you're right, it's a public forum.
 
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RC_NewProtestants

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No, my "defense" is that I answered your question more than once and not everything I said was directed at you. I was in a conversation with someone else.

No you have not answered it once yet. I have posted the questions at least twice, you could always copy them and then put them as a quote with your answer.

I have said, repeatedly <knocking on the glass....is this thing on?> that I believe the verse in Matthew is referring to the fall of Jerusalem. I don't know how to say it any plainer than that.

Well so what, I don't know of any Christian who does not think the verses referred to Jerusalem siege. The question was asked what does the mention of the Sabbath there mean to you? Why does that have anything to do with the idea of the Sabbath being a continual command for all Christians? Clearly to the Jews in Jerusalem travel over a certain distance was not permitted on the Sabbath and sometimes the gates were even closed on the Sabbath.

You brought it up to Freeindeed asking why he did not address the usage there when he debunked the way many Adventists use Isaiah 66 taking only a part of it and ignoring the rest of the context of the verses. You then had a self admitted rambling post where you asserted among other things that the prophecy was specifically to Christians.
 
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honorthesabbath

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Okay then, what is a Christian? Is it not someone that follows Christ and His teachings? Just because someone was born a Jew doesn't mean they have to die one.
Lainie- I believe your definition of what constitutes a "Christian" is correct. Even Abraham of old could logically be called a Christian. After all-it's always been Jesus that is the God of the OT! Paul says that it was the CHRIST who led the Israelites from Egypt thru the wilderness and on to the promised land.
(1Co 10:2 And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; 3 And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.)
So for some to try to define a "Christian" as someone only AFTER the name appears in the bible, is not seeing the big picture.
 
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RC_NewProtestants

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So for some to try to define a "Christian" as someone only AFTER the name appears in the bible, is not seeing the big picture.

That is funny, so by that logic the Israelites of the Old Testament were Christians.
 
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T

TrustAndObey

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I understand the SDA belief about salvation. I was specifically wondering about whether it was common for SDAs to believe there were Christians before the death and resurrection of Jesus.

I'm sorry, I completely missed this post when I was in here earlier.

I don't know what's "common" for Adventists. I'm speaking merely from the observation that Christ didn't have to die and resurrect before He had followers that recognized Him as the promised Messiah.

Does that answer your question?

RC said:
Well so what, I don't know of any Christian who does not think the verses referred to Jerusalem siege.

You said you couldn't understand why some Adventists felt those verses were talking about the end of the earth. Now you're saying you don't know any Christian that feels that way?

Why was Christ concerned about practices of the Sabbath at all if He knew it was going to be nailed to the cross with Him? That prophecy would've been a really good time just to leave the Sabbath completely out or mention that they're lucky that was the ONE commandment God decided to change His mind about.

Yet Christ mentioned the Sabbath specifically.

I hold to my belief that Christ was talking to His people and warning them of the coming desolation. And yes, I think some of His believers were in Jerusalem. Scripture tells us that.

Why would people that didn't believe Christ was the Messiah listen to His prohecy anyway? Some guy claiming to be the Son of God. They didn't listen to Him about other things, so how did they all know when to flee and decide to listen this time if they didn't believe in Him?

I totally admit that I've rambled a few times. I don't understand the whole hangup on Jew vs Christian when ANYONE can accept Christ as their Savior and become a Christian, so I had to get a little side-tracked to address that issue.

But speaking of not answering questions...you've skipped a few of mine. Did the WORD "Christian" have to be mentioned in the Bible before someone could actually become one?

I've also asked you what you think the definition of a Christian is.

Back to studying.............
 
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T

TrustAndObey

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RC, I have another question for you. You go to an Adventist church every Sabbath. I'd like to know the reason you do that.

If I'm not making a compelling argument for Christians to keep the Sabbath then please share yours. Obviously you don't believe that just that one commandment was nailed to the cross either.

If I'm not reaching out to people in the right way and you know of a better way, I am really asking you to please share your view here.
 
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Eila

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I'm sorry, I completely missed this post when I was in here earlier.

I don't know what's "common" for Adventists. I'm speaking merely from the observation that Christ didn't have to die and resurrect before He had followers that recognized Him as the promised Messiah.

Does that answer your question?

Thanks :) You helped settle an issue between my husband and myself. I told him about this belief when I read it and he said the consensus would be one way and I said it would be the other. Well, he was right as usual :D Someday I'll learn that he's always right ;)
 
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RC_NewProtestants

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You said you couldn't understand why some Adventists felt those verses were talking about the end of the earth. Now you're saying you don't know any Christian that feels that way?

No I never said that, you have a real problem misquoting me, and that should not be a problem in a written medium like this, you could simply quote me and then no one would have to depend on your memory or non memory of the words. The fact is that most all Christians think that those verses are describing at least the siege of Jerusalem and others the idea of last days tribulation also. That includes non Adventists also, clearly they don't look at the verses as indicating it is meant to convey the continuation of the Sabbath command for Christians. So the question was to you how do you see the Sabbath mention there in respect to a tribulation in the Last days? Do you still have travel restrictions that would somehow stop you from fleeing a presumably worldwide persecution, or is this limited to a certain city that you could travel away from. Just what does the verse mean to you in that context of an end time tribulation, the only thing I can think of is if you still held to some type of travel restriction on the Sabbath.

Why was Christ concerned about practices of the Sabbath at all if He knew it was going to be nailed to the cross with Him?

I don't know why you keep bringing that up as it was not the text we were talking about, rather the text was let no man Judge you on the days you keep, festivals, new moons and Sabbaths. But to help you out no commandments were nailed to the cross. What was nailed to the cross was our guilt of violations of the law. In other words it was forgiven if we should accept the forgiveness offered.

Since I better answer all your questions:
Why would people that didn't believe Christ was the Messiah listen to His prohecy anyway? Some guy claiming to be the Son of God. They didn't listen to Him about other things, so how did they all know when to flee and decide to listen this time if they didn't believe in Him?

Even if some did not believe He was the messiah that does not mean that they did not believe Him as a prophet. Who knows, we can only guess who even heard what he said, the account in the gospels was not written until after the fall of Jerusalem even according to most conservative scholars who date the books of the Bible. It was a siege by Rome against a Jewish uprising and it is not surprising that over the time of several years before the final siege people could see that the Jews rebellion was not going well.

I totally admit that I've rambled a few times. I don't understand the whole hangup on Jew vs Christian when ANYONE can accept Christ as their Savior and become a Christian, so I had to get a little side-tracked to address that issue.

Well taking A&P you should have learned this by now. Words have meanings. And a word does not have a meaning until the word is created and used with a meaning. You will find as you study history that there were several types of Christians as well as several types of Jews. Thus they have further names created to identify their postitions as well such as gnostic Christians. There were Ebionites who were Jews who accepted Jesus as Messiah but also maintained that all Jewish laws and traditions be maintained. The point is words have meaning.

But speaking of not answering questions...you've skipped a few of mine. Did the WORD "Christian" have to be mentioned in the Bible before someone could actually become one?

Yes, because before that they were called followers of the Way, disciples or apostles of simply people who recognized Jesus as rabbi, teacher or master. Christian is a word used to describe those followers. The people could certainly follow Jesus but they were not called Christians.

I've also asked you what you think the definition of a Christian is.

Of course I did in fact answer that question all the way back in post 6
I said:
No that would be totally out of the context of what He was saying in that verse. The only way you can get that is by reading something into his words. A Christian is one who follows Jesus Christ like the Apostle Paul who is the one who wrote the verse about not judging people about festivals or new moons or sabbath days. Clearly Paul did not feel it was necessary to carry on all Jewish traditions even though Jesus practiced them during his time on earth. Otherwise he would not have been so hard on the Judizers.
http://www.christianforums.com/showpost.php?p=33280948&postcount=6


RC, I have another question for you. You go to an Adventist church every Sabbath. I'd like to know the reason you do that.

There are a number of reasons, there are also a number of churches with Saturday evening services here also, if going to a church on saturday was the issue I could go to them. But it is not. Reason for going to a church have many factors and it is pretty much never just about what day the church meets. As you could fulfill the rest requirments at home and you could meet with other believers at any number of times. We don't live the way they did in the pre printing press days when you had to go to the synagogue to hear scriptures read to you because there were precious few copies.

If I'm not reaching out to people in the right way and you know of a better way, I am really asking you to please share your view here.

Simply pay attention and you will see that indeed there are better ways, reasonable ways and ways that build peoples understanding.
 
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freeindeed2

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Luke 23:56 - And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.

You mentioned that it was Mary's custom to keep the Sabbath day commandment, but even the verse we're discussing makes it clear that it was a commandment and not just a custom.

She had long been a Christian by this time. She followed Christ and His teachings, and that is exactly what a Christian is.
Of course she did. She was a Jew!
 
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T

TrustAndObey

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RC said:
Well taking A&P you should have learned this by now. Words have meanings. And a word does not have a meaning until the word is created and used with a meaning. You will find as you study history that there were several types of Christians as well as several types of Jews. Thus they have further names created to identify their postitions as well such as gnostic Christians. There were Ebionites who were Jews who accepted Jesus as Messiah but also maintained that all Jewish laws and traditions be maintained. The point is words have meaning.

Taking A&P I DO know that words have meanings. I also know that life isn't rocket science and the things that we sometimes think might be over our heads, are quite easy when we apply ourselves and seek to know them.

If a Jew today accepted that Christ was the promised Messiah, is he not a Christian from that point forward? Does he remain what we refer to as a "Jew" for the rest of his life?

When people say "Jew" they automatically think of someone that doesn't believe Christ was the promised Messiah, right? Mary believed He was, so what does that make her?

RC said:
Yes, because before that they were called followers of the Way, disciples or apostles of simply people who recognized Jesus as rabbi, teacher or master. Christian is a word used to describe those followers. The people could certainly follow Jesus but they were not called Christians.

The fact that they weren't called Christian really doesn't change what I was trying to say. Someone with the exact same beliefs today IS called a Christian and no title is going to change the fact that it's someone that follows Christ.

Someone (Mary) that followed Christ kept the Sabbath commandment after His death and that was my whole point.

I'll write more in a minute, duty calls.
 
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T

TrustAndObey

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RC said:
There are a number of reasons, there are also a number of churches with Saturday evening services here also, if going to a church on saturday was the issue I could go to them. But it is not. Reason for going to a church have many factors and it is pretty much never just about what day the church meets. As you could fulfill the rest requirments at home and you could meet with other believers at any number of times. We don't live the way they did in the pre printing press days when you had to go to the synagogue to hear scriptures read to you because there were precious few copies.

The sabbath is referred to as a holy convocation. I'm sure you know what that means.

You are an Adventist when you want to debate in this forum, but very non-committal when it comes to defending any of our beliefs. I think that's very dishonest, Sir. It's also very obvious, just so you know.

I can't always keep up with posts in here (especially now that this thread was split) and I have tried not to misquote anyone. If I have, I do sincerely apologize. I'm taking an extreme course load this semester and struggling to hold on to a 4.0 GPA, which isn't easy. Plus I have no choice but to just pop in and out of here as time permits, and this forum doesn't even come close to being a high priority in my life right now.

That being said, I will make an extra effort to make sure that I quote you from now on before addressing any quesiton you might have-to avoid confusion.
 
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RC_NewProtestants

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You are an Adventist when you want to debate in this forum, but very non-committal when it comes to defending any of our beliefs. I think that's very dishonest, Sir. It's also very obvious, just so you know.
Possibly one of the biggest problems in Adventism today is this concept that an Adventist must be in complete agreement with what Adventism has traditionally believed. In the whole history of Judeo-Christian religion there is one thing that stays the same and that is that the religions change. We as Adventist came out of a movement that said we don't agree with what all these other churches are teaching. But now if you don't agree with the theology of the 1800's now we have traditional Adventist that will call you dishonest.
Is it dishonest to state what you believe? No, is it dishonest to disagree with certain church doctrines? No, so what is dishonest with what I have been saying? The only possible answer is that I am a SDA who disagrees with Traditional SDA's. That is why we came up with the name Progressive SDA's so that we can actually progress in our knowledge rather then wallow in the ruts of traditional Adventism. Which frankly I can't see the attraction to the ruts, I mean when I discuss things with the traditional SDA's they usually become incredibly defensive and emotional and flee from rational thought.
 
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TrustAndObey

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Possibly one of the biggest problems in Adventism today is this concept that an Adventist must be in complete agreement with what Adventism has traditionally believed. In the whole history of Judeo-Christian religion there is one thing that stays the same and that is that the religions change. We as Adventist came out of a movement that said we don't agree with what all these other churches are teaching. But now if you don't agree with the theology of the 1800's now we have traditional Adventist that will call you dishonest.
Is it dishonest to state what you believe? No, is it dishonest to disagree with certain church doctrines? No, so what is dishonest with what I have been saying? The only possible answer is that I am a SDA who disagrees with Traditional SDA's. That is why we came up with the name Progressive SDA's so that we can actually progress in our knowledge rather then wallow in the ruts of traditional Adventism. Which frankly I can't see the attraction to the ruts, I mean when I discuss things with the traditional SDA's they usually become incredibly defensive and emotional and flee from rational thought.

What a shock to learn that I'm just wallowing in ruts of traditional Adventism considering I only became Adventist a couple of years ago. And for the record, I did so after I sought a church I felt taught scripture after reading the bible for the very first time. My entire family is Baptist (with a few scattered Pentecostals), and I've had to defend my faith for two years now anyway...not something I enjoy doing with someone that goes to the SAME church.

Every time I turn around someone is asking me HOW I could possibly believe in something that doesn't agree with the bulk of Christianity.

I'm not wallowing in anything and you are just going to have to accept the fact that the people in here are quite capable of making eyes-wide-open decisions that won't always agree with yours.

Because I don't agree with you my thoughts aren't rational? Come on, now THAT is defensive, and it belittles a person's intelligence, which surely you're not meaning to do.

So I'm wallowing, I don't pay attention, and I'm naive. Is there anything else I should know about myself since you're so quick to point out my downfalls? I have never once attacked you personally or called your intelligence into question.

I do, however, question your motives in here, and I won't lie about it.
 
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O

OntheDL

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Possibly one of the biggest problems in Adventism today is this concept that an Adventist must be in complete agreement with what Adventism has traditionally believed. In the whole history of Judeo-Christian religion there is one thing that stays the same and that is that the religions change. We as Adventist came out of a movement that said we don't agree with what all these other churches are teaching. But now if you don't agree with the theology of the 1800's now we have traditional Adventist that will call you dishonest.
Is it dishonest to state what you believe? No, is it dishonest to disagree with certain church doctrines? No, so what is dishonest with what I have been saying? The only possible answer is that I am a SDA who disagrees with Traditional SDA's. That is why we came up with the name Progressive SDA's so that we can actually progress in our knowledge rather then wallow in the ruts of traditional Adventism. Which frankly I can't see the attraction to the ruts, I mean when I discuss things with the traditional SDA's they usually become incredibly defensive and emotional and flee from rational thought.

God does not change. What was true biblically before will forever be true.

Do you think it's possible the same biblical truth of today was revealed to the believers 6000 years ago.

Jude 1:3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

The particular brand of progressive thinking shown in your posts so far is none other than the New Age thinking.
 
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thecountrydoc

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Hello once again to RC_N.P., and anyone else who may read this thread.

RC_N.P. may I put this question, of TRADITIONAL SDAs v. PROGRESSIVE SDAs, into a very simple context that perhaps you will understand.

First I would like everyone to understand some very basic concepts. When I say concepts it starts with proper concepts of God and His Theology. It is of the uttermost importance that we grasp these concepts, because it is from these concepts that we can establish Christian principals. It is with the application of Christian principals that we can understand the Scriptures and take action to apply those principals in our daily lives. Let me explain.

The very first concept that must be grasp is the hardest for human beings to comprehind. It is the fact that God has told us, through His Word, that there are two great mysteries in the the bible and that it is clear, that we won't understand them until we are no longer mortal but have been transformed into imortality. They are; "The Mystery of Iniquity" and "The Mystery of Godlyness."

The Mystery of Iniquity:
How was it possible for sin to start in heaven?

The Mystery of Godlyness:
How could God know all things from before the begining of time or space, until the end of eternity, known what was going to happen, not change things in advance, and plan an "escape route" for mankind?

I have an emergency that must be taken care of andwill return to finish this post.
 
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