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Without the New
Covenant, there is no gospel message, no
Christianity, no salvation, no inclusion of
Gentiles in God’s promises. Without the New
Covenant, the Jews would still be bound by
the Old Covenant law, having to make animal
sacrifices for their sins, and we as Gentile would remain in
darkness.
This is what
Ellen G. White said about the New Testament
and the command to keep the Sabbath.
Ellen G. White admitted that there is no
command
in the New Testament for us to keep
the seventh day Sabbath.
“The New
Testament does not re-enact the law of the
tithe, as it does not that of the Sabbath;
for the validity of both is assumed.” — The
Faith I Live By, page 244. Taken from the
Review & Herald, May 16, 1882 par. 29.
So when Seventh-day Adventists quote the
gospels as
proof for New Covenant Sabbath-keeping, they are
actually going
against their own prophet’s interpretation
of the teachings of the New Testament.
Ellen G. White and the Sabbath rest mentioned in Hebrews 4:9-11.
After quoting Hebrews 4:9, 11, Ellen
White said:
“The
rest here spoken of is the rest of grace,
obtained by following the prescription,
Labor diligently. Those who learn of Jesus
His meekness and lowliness find rest in the
experience of practicing His lessons. It is
not in indolence, in selfish ease and
pleasure-seeking, that rest is obtained.
Those who are unwilling to give the Lord
faithful, earnest, loving service will not
find spiritual rest in this life or in the
life to come. Only from earnest labor comes
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit—happiness
on earth and glory hereafter.
Let us therefore labor. Speak often words
that will be a strength and an inspiration
to those who hear. We are altogether too
indifferent in regard to one another. We
forget that our fellow laborers are often in
need of words of hope and cheer. When one is
in trouble, call upon him and speak
comforting words to him. This is true
friendship.” — Manuscript 42, 1901.
This is a fairly good article
on Hebrews 3-4, in Ministry
Magazine entitled, “What Does Hebrews 4
Really Say?”
“Before attempting to describe the “rest”
of Hebrews 4:9, we must ask: (1) To whom is
the rest available? And (2) how is it
entered?
From the general argument of
the book of Hebrews and also from such texts
as Galatians 3:26-29, it becomes clear that
the wandering people of God since the cross
are no longer the Jewish nation exclusively,
but all those who are Christ’s. Hebrews 4:9,
R.S.V., declares that the rest remains “for
the people of God,” and verse 10 adds “whoever enters,” indicating the rest is
available to anyone who accepts Christ and
the rest He offers.
How does one
enter this rest? Hebrews 4:3, R.S.V., says,
“For we who have believed enter that rest.”
The word faith (pistis) appears repeatedly
in these verses and is clearly the criterion
for entering God’s rest. Faith and unbelief,
obedience and disobedience, form a continual
contrast in the context of Hebrews 3-4.
“Whoever enters God’s rest also ceases from
his labors as God did from his” (Heb. 4:10,
R.S.V.). Faith, obedience, and ceasing from
our works as God does from His gives us the
key to unlock the meaning of the rest (sabbatismos)
in Heb. 4:9.
Throughout Hebrews 3 and
Hebrews 4 the author refers to the rest of God (katapausis)
as the goal to be entered. But in Heb. 4:9,
R.S.V., he uses a different word for rest.
“There remains a sabbath rest (sabbatismos)
for the people of God.” This new word has
been interpreted in many different ways, of
which we will deal with only two.
One
interpretation sees sabbatismos, together
with the illustration from Genesis 2, as a
“proof text” for the necessity of observing
the seventh day Sabbath in the New
Testament. According to this view, if God
didn’t want the Sabbath kept after the
cross, “would he not afterward have spoken
of another day” (Heb. 4:8, K.J.V.)? This
interpretation is not consistent with the
context, the language, or the main point of
the author’s argument.
A second
interpretation denies any implications
whatsoever concerning the seventh day
Sabbath and sees sabbatismos totally inter
changeable with katapausis, both referring
only to the deeper rest of righteousness by
faith, which the Jews under Joshua failed to
enter. This argument also fails to consider
adequately the total context or to account
for the change from katapausis to
sabatismos,
a word possibly coined specifically for this
occasion, and that possibly has as its root
the Hebrew shabath (“sabbath”). Neither does
this interpretation take notice of the
symbolism of Genesis 2.
What then is
the “rest” of God? It is evident the rest
does not refer to an external observance of
the seventh day Sabbath or merely to
entering the Promised Land. Joshua and the
Israelites did both and yet did not find the
true rest (Ne. 9:28). The only way to
understand the true rest is to follow our
author’s illustration back to the first
Sabbath when God looked at His work of
Creation and said, “It is good.” God then
blessed the day and rested. God did not
cease all activity; therefore, the rest man
enters is not one of idleness, but of proper
activities. In the context of Hebrews 3 and
Hebrews 4 the author points to Christ’s rest after
His perfect work of Creation, and also to
His rest following the perfect work of His
human life, which is the basis for the
confidence man is to have. This reminds us,
incidentally, of Christ’s cry, “It is
finished” (John 19:30), after His completed
work of re-creation just before He rested in
the tomb on the Sabbath.
Therefore,
in Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4 sabbatismos is the
author’s term for man’s entering into God’s
katapausis [rest].
Sabbatismos of Hebrews 4:9 is
clearly not a proof text for Sabbath
observance,
but obviously the author is
uniting the deeper rest experience,
to which
God calls His people,
with the symbol of
faith that God Himself instituted—the
Sabbath. Man is to enter by faith and
obedience into God’s completed work for him.
His rest is not in his own accomplishments,
but in God’s.
After quoting Hebrews 4:9, 11,
Ellen White says: “The rest here
spoken of is the rest of grace, obtained by
following the prescription, Labor
diligently. . . . Those who are unwilling to
give the Lord faithful, earnest, loving
service will not find spiritual rest in this
life or in the life to come. Only from
earnest labor comes peace and joy in the
Holy Spirit happiness on earth and glory
hereafter.” —The SDA Bible Commentary, Ellen
G. White Comments, on Heb. 4:9, 11, p. 928.
2.
Jesus said, “Come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). This is the
rest of Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4. The wandering
people of God enter today by faith into the
rest of grace, trusting Christ’s completed
work for them. Then as they get into His
yoke they find, not idleness, but beautiful,
restful activity.”
[1]
Hebrews 3 and Hebrews 4 are very clear
that the rest spoken of is the rest of
faith! It is not the seventh day Sabbath that the
Jews failed miserably to enter into time and
again. It is also not the rest of entering
into the Promised land that was promised to Israel
had they been faithful to God, but were not!
The rest in Hebrews 4 is the eternal rest of
salvation that God offers
to each of us
through faith that begins the moment we are saved and continues
on through eternity.
Ellen G. White,
the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary,
and Ministry Magazine all agreed that the
Sabbath rest of Hebrews 3-4 is not the
weekly seventh day Sabbath but the divine
rest of salvation faith, trusting in the finished
work of Jesus Christ alone for your
redemption.
Only in recent
years have Seventh-day Adventists
tried to make Hebrews 4:9-11 into something that
it is not. They do this because they know
they have no command in the New Covenant to
keep the weekly, seventh day Sabbath.
The author of the
article sums up his study of Hebrews 3-4 with this statement,
“While I no
longer see Hebrews 4:8-10 as a proof text
for the Sabbath, the message of Hebrews 4
has become laden with a deeper meaning for
the seventh day Sabbath.”
[2]
Hebrews 3-4 is speaking about an
entirely different kind of
Sabbath rest than Israel experienced.
Hebrews 4:7-9 says, “again
he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying
through David so long afterward, in the
words already quoted, “Today, if you hear
his voice, do not harden your hearts. 8 For
if Joshua had given them rest, God would not
have spoken of another day later on. 9 So
then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the
people of God.”
Seventh-day Adventists
try desperately to make this about the
seventh day Sabbath and miss the point of the
passage altogether. The author is not saying
anywhere in the book of Hebrews to keep the
seventh day Sabbath.
The Sabbath rest of Hebrews 4 is NOT the
seventh day Sabbath that the Jews were
required to enter into under the Old
Covenant, and it’s
NOT the rest of the land inheritance that
the Jews entered into either.
The rest spoken
of in
Hebrews 3-4 is a unit and has to
be understood together.
Hebrews 3:5-15 says, “Now Moses
was faithful in all God’s house as a
servant, to testify to the things that were
to be spoken later, 6 but Christ is faithful
over God’s house as a son. And we are his
house if indeed we hold fast our confidence
and our boasting in our hope. 7 Therefore,
as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you hear
his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as in
the rebellion, on the day of testing in the
wilderness, 9 where your fathers put me to
the test and saw my works for forty years.
10 Therefore I was provoked with that
generation, and said, ‘They always go astray
in their heart; they have not known my
ways.’ 11 As I swore in my wrath, ‘They
shall not enter my rest.’” 12 Take care,
brothers, lest there be in any of you an
evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall
away from the living God. 13 But exhort one
another every day, as long as it is called
“today,” that none of you may be hardened by
the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have
come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold
our original confidence firm to the end. 15
As it is said, “Today, if you hear his
voice, do not harden your hearts as in the
rebellion.”
And Hebrews 3:18-19 says, “And to
whom did he swear that they would not enter
his rest, but to those who were disobedient?
19 So we see that they were unable to enter
because of unbelief.”
Hebrews, chapter four picks up
where chapter
three left off:
Hebrews 4:1-3
says,
“Therefore, while the promise of entering
his rest still stands, let us fear lest any
of you should seem to have failed to reach
it. 2 For good news came to us just as to
them, but the message they heard did not
benefit them, because they were not united
by faith with those who listened. 3 For we
who have believed enter that rest, as he has
said, “As I swore in my wrath, ‘They shall
not enter my rest,’” although his works were
finished from the foundation of the world.”
And Hebrews 4:6-11 says, “Since
therefore it remains for some to enter it,
and those who formerly received the good
news failed to enter because of
disobedience, 7 again he appoints a certain
day, “Today,” saying through David so long
afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden
your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them
rest, God would not have spoken of another
day later on. 9 So then, there remains a
Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for
whoever has entered God’s rest has also
rested from his works as God did from his.
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest,
so that no one may fall by the same sort of
disobedience.”
The disobedience
that the author mentions in Hebrews 3-4 is
the refusal to believe and trust in God
alone for salvation, and the
refusal to believe in His promises. It was the
sin of unbelief that the author was so concerned
about.
The seventh day
Sabbath has nothing to do with salvation,
and nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus
Christ. It was never part of the message of
the New Covenant Church. The message of the
gospel is
always one of liberty, never one of
restrictions on a particular day of the
week (Rom. 14:1-12; Col. 2:14-17; Acts 15:1-20).
God accepts us because of who we are in Christ Jesus,
and what He accomplished for us, not because of
anything that we do. We are saved by God’s grace
— through faith,
not by our good works. We are to trust in Jesus Christ
alone for our salvation (Eph. 2:1-10).
We cannot live by both law and grace!
You must
live by one or the other. The book of
Hebrews is in no way saying Christians are
required to keep the weekly, seventh day Sabbath
from the Old Covenant. We
are to rest in Jesus Christ alone for our
salvation. His rest is the rest of faith in
the finished work of redemption.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all who
labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and
learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in
heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden
is light.”
And John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal
life; whoever does not obey the Son shall
not see life, but the wrath of God remains
on him.
Jesus Christ is the rest
that God wants us to enter into, and we can
do that right now. We can do that today.
When you rest
in the eternal promise of salvation you enter into the
Sabbath rest that God has always wanted for
us.
The Life Application Study Bible
says this about Hebrews 4:8-11; “God wants
us to enter his rest. For the Israelites of
Moses’ time, this rest was the earthly rest
to be found in the Promised Land. For
Christians, it is peace with God now and
eternal life on a new earth later. We do not
need to wait for the next life to enjoy
God’s rest and peace; we may have it daily
now! Our daily rest in the Lord will not end
with death but will become an eternal rest
in the place that Christ is preparing for us
(John 14:1-4).”
Follow-up to
article published in Ministry Magazine about
Hebrews 4:
After the author
discusses the meaning of Hebrews 3-4, he
circles back and tries desperately to
reaffirm Sabbath-keeping by concluding his
article with this statement.
“Therefore, the
Sabbath is not the “rest” that remains, of
Heb. 4:9, but is the God-given symbol and
sample of that very rest of grace into which
believers can enter in a special sense on
the seventh day of every week.”
Unfortunately for the author, he has already
show that Hebrews 3-4 has nothing to do with
keeping the weekly, seventh day Sabbath from
the Old Covenant.
We have to wonder at the
Seventh-day Adventists today who try to use the
book of Hebrews to justify a mandatory,
seventh day
Sabbath-keeping.
Ellen G. White, the Seventh-day Adventist
Bible Commentary, and their own Ministry
Magazine all agree that the rest of Hebrews 3-4
is the divine rest of salvation, and
NOT the weekly, seventh day Sabbath from the
Old Covenant.
Was Ellen G.
White right, or wrong?
If
you say Ellen G. White was wrong about how
she understood Hebrews 4, then what you are
really saying is that
she was a false prophet and a false teacher.
References:
1.
“What Does Hebrews 4 Really Say?” by
Ministry Magazine.
2. ibid.
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