The Fourth Commandment

[Liane H]

Sister Ele:

Here is a list of those close to me:

My father, dead, who committed incest with my sister and me, never repented of what he did to us and called us liers to the family.

My mother, dead, who became Jew, rejected Jesus, never accepted Christ that I know of.

My sister, alive, agnostic, prays to a god,  does not accept Jesus as her personal Saviour.  

My friend Geri, who I spent many months in study with. She has a set of the Spirit of Prophecy books that she got at a garage sale, very old, will not sell them to me. Said I wonder if it was good for me to have learned all this, maybe I would have been better off not having learned all this.

My friend Carolyn, who once was a SDA and has left the church. The very person that I love and now live near, who helped give me this wonderful place to live at, taunts me about the Sabbath, trying to get me give up on the SDA church. Believes I am being led by a Devil. We agree to disagree.

All these people I care about. If they all get to be with us on the new earth I will be pleased to no end. I they are not, then I trust in the perfect Character of God and His judgments.

That is the bottom line, we must trust in the judgment of a perfect God who does not and make mistakes. He can read what we cannot read and that is the deep heart of a person.

Let us leave those we have concern about in His hands and there will be peace. All we can do is continue to reach out to the living that surround our lives and witness to them for as long as they will listen.  our lives  

Can I ask you dear sister have they ever asked you to stop writing and sending anything to athem?

My sister use to laugh at me when I talked about my God and Jesus, the Bible and what I knew, the Sabbath, etc. She is not doing that anymore. Things I have said are happening now and she wonders now.

Liane      

[Richard Myers]

All one has to do is to follow some of the discussions here at TRO to understand that there are some difficulties in coming into unity. God does not force the mind to accept truth. I am reminded of a man, William Miller who had many "experts" explaining the Sabbath commandment to him, yet he could not see it. He went into the grave in a saved condition breaking the fourth commandment.

God is indeed the only one who can judge the heart. We may see bad fruit, the works of the flesh, but we are erring humans and cannot sit on the judgment seat. We can know sin and we can call it by its right name. But, this does not mean that others understand it to be sin. We need to be very gentle with those not of our faith who have not seen the light.

Even if some may reject the truth while outside of Christ, there is hope that by sharing Jesus they will grow to love Him. This is our greatest ministry and it will be most successful if we are reflections of Christ. If we do not walk in the light ourselves we are doing great damage to the gospel. Others will not believe us when we speak of doctrinal matters. Those to whom we witness must see Jesus in us.

The Sabbath of the fourth commandment will be the last test to come to man before Christ comes, but Jesus is to be the focus of our evangelism. When Jesus comes into the heart, then the Holy Spirit is able to open the mind to more truths as the mind is able to accept them.  Hope this helps some dear Sister Ele.

[This message has been edited by Richard Myers (edited 04-17-2004).]

[Ele Holmes]

All quotes taken from 2T 693.
"Those who died before the light was given upon the law of God and the claims of the fourth commandment were not guilty of the sin of violating the seventh-day Sabbath." This I knew.  

But then, "Previous to His coming to judge the world in righteousness, He sends forth a warning to arouse the people and call their attention to their neglect of the fourth Commandment, that they may be enlightened, and may repent of their transgression of His law, and prove their allegiance to the great Lawgiver."
When they do this they are forgiven and If they should die they will be saved.  If they do not repent and die and KNOW THE TRUTH are they saved? This is up to the Lord, you all say.... I sure hope so....If they have lived a good life, and love the Lord, they may be saved or may not be saved.
When gieven the truth by a worldly person, they may not believe he is telling them truth. Does God except this?  We will soon see. Won't we?  When Jesus comes!

"Sufficient light has been given to this generation, that we may learn what our duties and privileges are, and enjoy the precious and solemn truths in their simplicity and power." They accept the truth and are saved.

But, when the time comes and they accept the mark of the beast then they are lost.  Correct??? Yes!

[This message has been edited by Ele Holmes (edited 04-17-2004).]

[Richard Myers]

Yes, Sister Ele. God only requires that our hearts be pure and honest. His Spirit in fallen man empowers him to walk in all the light that he has understood. The last test to come to man before Christ comes will be the Sabbath truth. All will be shown the truth and will either reject it or accept it. Then all of God's children will see the light and walk in it.

[Ele Holmes]

It is time to bring up a most holy important subject again:  THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT.  In Sabbath class  Isaiah 8:16 speaks of God's law,  "Bind up the testimony seal the law among My disciples."

"The seal of God's law is found in the fourth commandment.  This only, of all the ten, brings to view both the name and the title of the Lawgiver. It declares Him to be the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and thus shows His claim to reverence and worship above all others.  Aside from this precept, there is nothing in the Decalogue to show by whose authority the law is given.  When the Sabbath was changed by the papal power, the seal was taken from the law.  The disciples of Jesus are called upon to restore it by exalting the Sabbath of the fourth commandment to its rightful position as the Creator's memorial and the sign of His authority."

YES!  DID YOU HEAR THAT WORLD?
Let us not hesitate in giving this message to the world.
They learned of God's true love from the movie that was presented all over the world, now they are ready to hear about His creation, redemption, salvation...HIS SIGN!

[Richard Myers]

It is very interesting as we study God's law. That one commandment would be done away with or rather changed brings questions to the mind of all who are sincere in their search for truth. Why would we accept nine and not ten?

[Sister Marie]

I believe that this very fact is one of the greatest deceptions satan has ever given. It is so fully excepted and when the error or it is brought to the minds of those deceived very few will see truth for they have excepted a lie. They will fight to defend what don't even make sence by human common sence. How can they be so deceived? They have believed the words and teachings of men in favor of what the Holy Bible says about it. It is sad indeed!!

------------------
With Christian Love,
Sister Marie

[M.A. Crawford]

"My family (sister and brother and their families) lives in Cleveland, Ohio. For the last 17 years I have been praying for them, slowly sending them letters of belief, Bible truths. But still to this day they will not accept the Sabbath, nor the Bible truths from me, but they are strict Catholics and will accept the priest's statements."

First of all, just because they have not responded to your spiritual promptings IN A MANNER IN WHICH YOU FEEL THEY SHOULD does not mean they have not been touched and pricked in their hearts by the Holy Spirit. I am hard pressed to believe that anyone who is SINCERE ABOUT BEING SAVED is not affected in some manner when they encounter, or come in contact with, the Truths of the Bible. It might take time (sometimes more time than we are willing to allow) for the full impact of God's Word to make an impression upon the human heart, which brings me to my second point.

Secondly, where the Word of God and salvation are concerned, all we as humans can do is SOW THE SEEDS OF TRUTH. We cannot bring ANYONE to repentance by way of our words, or our tracts. ONLY THE HOLY SPIRIT CAN BRING MEN AND WOMEN TO REPENTANCE!! The Holy Spirit, who is God, sees the honesty and sincerity of those who are truly repentant and infills us with His Spirit empowering us with the Holy Ghost WHICH GIVES US THE POWER TO OBEY and live by every Word that proceeds out of the Mouth of God (John 16:7-14; Acts 1:8; Matt. 4:4).

So, keep on doing what you are doing, Until probation closes, all who are desirous still have a chance to accept Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and be saved.

"I am told that when they find the truth and do not accept it they will be lost. Will they be lost if they died even now, before they have to choose?..."

Again, "who" is saved and "who" is lost is determined by God AND HIM ALONE based upon a Standard of Judgment He has established. ONLY GOD KNOWS THE HUMAN HEART (1 Sam. 16:7). Therefore (please don't miss this), just because a person does not join the Seventh-day Adventist Church WHEN WE THINK HE OR SHE SHOULD JOIN does not mean that an individual has not accepted Jesus Christ and the Word of God:

"And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them must I also bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." John 10:16.

Notice Who does the bringing. It is God Himself!! WHEN that "bringing" occurs is not for us to know. God has His time and place when true conversion takes place in the life of an individual that is known only to Him. Many are in graves who have died, but ONLY GOD AND HIM ALONE knows their true spiritual condition in death. For those who are alive and remain, I very firmly believe that when both the truths this church has been teaching AND THE TIME OF TROUBLE BECOME A REALITY, many who are not now identified as Sabbathkeepers will come over on the side of Bible Truth. But for right now, all we can do is pray for those for whom we have labored.

M.A.    

[Ele Holmes]

Thank you so much M.A. for your quotes and entire post....I agree with you and I do believe that there may be more Catholics in heaven than Seventh-Day-Adventists.  I  know it is wrong, but sometimes I pray that the Lord would take them now before they make the choice...But that is so wrong.  I must leave it up to God.  Even if they did die now, would they be saved after me telling them all these years that there are Ten Commandments not nine and we are to keep all ten.  The Bible tells us, that  "Him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not it is a sin."  Like you and Marie stated it is up to God....I just keep praying.  I guess we all have relatives, or friends that we want in heaven.  The first thousand years are not going to be too happy until God takes away our memory and we forget who did not make it to heaven.  It will hurt, to some more than others.

Notice, in Revelation, after the thousand years is when they tell us that all tears will be gone, death and pain also.  But not sooner.    

God be with you and us all and I pray  we all meet there soon.