It's interesting how even without the Spirit, an Atheist would instinctively know it is wrong to murder or steal, but would have no instinct whatsoever about setting up a weekly ritual on Saturday to observe a sabbath. When such Atheists are born again and receive the Spirit and become Christians, they still know it is wrong not to murder or steal, and loving others would come naturally through the Spirit, but would still have no knowledge of setting up a weekly sabbath ritual unless someone specifically informs them and frightens them into doing it based on cherry-picked scripture verses and threats of eternal condemnation.
God has His Spirit everywhere:
God prepares Northwest Alaska
In 1867, God was working within the hearts of Inupiat people while the United States negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia. Although that contract was ridiculed and called
Steward’s Folly because Secretary of State Steward bargained for what was termed a worthless frozen wilderness, God was instructing an Inupiat native (popularly called Eskimos) named Maniilaq in changes that would forever affect these people. God esteems them more precious than minerals and petroleum an industrialized society coveted.
This prophet Maniilaq knew God was speaking and although he was belittled and scorned, a time would come when his contemporaries understood unseen forces loved them. These Eskimos would soon learn how modern conveniences could lessen their everyday cares and about a cosmic conflict where choices have eternal consequences.
A day to keep sacred
One day in seven, later known to be Saturday, the Sabbath, Maniilaq’s beating drum echoed in the hostile wilderness calling his people to a place where he foretold of unimagined changes. Like the children of Israel elevating a serpentine pole in the wilderness, Maniilaq elevated a staff with a dead animal’s skin attached indicating Saturday was a sacred day. It was also time for Eskimo people to hear of God’s plans. It was God’s Son whose body was also elevated upon what was called the death on a tree. His sacrificial death became the substitutional cloak for humankind’s unworthiness.
Some revelations are still future
Maniilaq’s revelations were and are for everyone. When associated with Bible prophecies, they reveal God’s providential care for His entire creation. This allows humanity to prepare for coming food shortages, higher ocean levels after glacial ice melts, and an apocalyptic climax to scriptures that none can escape.
Lifestyle, social and religious change
In the mid 1800s these Eskimos knew nothing of the government to the south that purchased their homeland. Never hearing of a white man, the Ten-Commandments, or Jesus, yet similar to John the Baptist’s mission to Israel, the prophet Maniilaq prepared Eskimos for important lifestyle and social changes. Terror had gripped natives of other Inupiat tribes who first saw white-faced men yet those who heard Maniilaq were composed.
In a wooing manner, God spoke softly to Maniilaq, telling of the Father and Son above who are the Source of intelligence and thought. Then God revealed to him even greater truths.
Natives elsewhere hear of God
Maniilaq’s story reminds us of other visionaries in isolated locations where God similarly prepared natives to receive His Sabbath truth and learn of Christ’s great sacrifice for humanity.
God prepares South America
Perhaps the most famous such case among Sabbath-keeping Christians is the tribe of Davis Indians in South America. Nearly a century ago,
Chief Auka was told by a divine being to hang a rope with seven knots, resting weekly on the day of the last knot—this being Saturday. This shining angel introduced them to the seventh-day Sabbath long before Sabbath-keeping Pastor Davis worked with these natives.
They were vegetarians and looked for a white man carrying a book telling about God. So much of Chief Auka’s tribe were already aware of Bible truths. They kept telling Pastor Davis, “We already know this, teach us something new.” This remote tribe is quite civilized today and speaks English fluently.
God prepares African natives
The
Bushman Sekuba, an African of the mid 1900s, is another native prophet. A glowing being told him to travel eastward to find the Sabbath-keeping pastor Moyo who had a black book explaining about God. After hiking more than one hundred miles, a cloud appeared in the distance and led him another hundred miles to an Adventist missionary compound. There Sekuba received a Bible (that he could miraculously read). Those at the compound kept a Saturday-Sabbath and possessed the Ellen White, “
Testimonies”, as the angel had instructed.
Maniilaq revered God’s Sabbath
Most biographies about Maniilaq are written by Sunday-keepers. These chronicles report he observed one-day-in-seven, thinking it was Sunday. Quakers were the first to evangelize the Inupiat; sometime afterward they changed to Sunday observance.
Inupiat elders hold Maniilaq in the highest regard as a true prophet of God. To preserve his history for future generations, in 1978 Eskimos who knew of Maniilaq were invited to speak at The Nana Elders Conference. This meeting was transcribed and is similar to our Bible that preserves ancient history of God’s dealings with humanity.
In
this document, an Eskimo named Aqsivaabruk is quoted as remembering earlier years when they
kept Saturday sacred because Maniilaq rested every seventh-day.
Initially the Inupiat were confused on Maniilaq resting. Accusing him of being lazy, he responded by saying
he kept the commandments of his heavenly Grandfather. Then Aqsivaabruk recalls how his people later followed the teachings of those who changed their Sabbath to Sunday.
How easy it is to adopt the teachings of authority figures in the church who, like the priests of Jesus’ day, “nail jots and tittles” of God’s law to the cross (Matthew 5:18). It is imperative we
do not follow the traditions of men but obey Christ who said: “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:9).