|
God has always had a
“Remnant”. A group of true believers in
every generation. Israel was unfaithful,
most of the time, but God had a group who
did not “bow the knee to Baal”. Churches are
made up of true and false believers. The
Remnant is that group of people who are
truly faithful to God.
The
Seventh-day Adventists teach they are the
“Remnant”. Only those people who at the end
of time believe as they do constitute the
remnant. They believe that Revelation 12:17
is talking about them. They teach that they
“keep the commandments of God, and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ.
“The SDA
Church teaches that Christianity in its
original form was corrupted in the centuries
after the New Testament era by apostate
Roman Catholic popes. The sign of this
apostasy was the shifting of the sabbath day
from the seventh to the first day of the
week. Throughout history, a small, faithful
group of Christians has maintained true
worship. Today the “remnant” church is the
SDA Church.” [1]
Who really are the "Remnant"
according to scripture?
In
the Old Testament, God always had a remnant
of faithful believers.
2 Kings 19:31
For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and
out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The
zeal of the LORD will do this.
2 Kings 21:14
And I will forsake the
remnant of my heritage and give them into
the hand of their enemies, and they shall
become a prey and a spoil to all their
enemies,
Ezra 9:8
But now for a
brief moment favor has been shown by the
LORD our God, to leave us a remnant and to
give us a secure hold within his holy place,
that our God may brighten our eyes and grant
us a little reviving in our slavery.
Nehemiah 1:3
And they said to me,
“The remnant there in the province who had
survived the exile is in great trouble and
shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down,
and its gates are destroyed by fire.”
Isaiah 10:21-23
A remnant will return,
the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For
though your people Israel be as the sand of
the sea, only a remnant of them will return.
Destruction is decreed, overflowing with
righteousness. For the Lord GOD of hosts
will make a full end, as decreed, in the
midst of all the earth.
Isaiah 37:31
And the surviving
remnant of the house of Judah shall again
take root downward and bear fruit upward.
Isaiah 37:32
For out of Jerusalem
shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a
band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of
hosts will do this.
Isaiah 46:3
“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the
remnant of the house of Israel, who have
been borne by me from before your birth,
carried from the womb;
Jeremiah 6:9
Thus says the LORD of hosts: “They shall
glean thoroughly as a vine the remnant of
Israel; like a grape gatherer pass your hand
again over its branches.”
Jeremiah 23:3
Then I will gather the remnant of my
flock out of all the countries where I have
driven them, and I will bring them back to
their fold, and they shall be fruitful and
multiply.
Jeremiah 42:2
and said
to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let our plea for
mercy come before you, and pray to the LORD
your God for us, for all this
remnant—because we are left with but a few,
as your eyes see us—
Jeremiah 42:15
then hear the word of the LORD, O remnant of
Judah. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God
of Israel: If you set your faces to enter
Egypt and go to live there,
Jeremiah 44:7
And now thus says the LORD God of
hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit
this great evil against yourselves, to cut
off from you man and woman, infant and
child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you
no remnant?
Jeremiah 50:20
In
those days and in that time, declares the
LORD, iniquity shall be sought in Israel,
and there shall be none, and sin in Judah,
and none shall be found, for I will pardon
those whom I leave as a remnant.
Hosea 1:10
Yet
the number of the children of Israel shall
be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be
measured or numbered. And in the place where
it was said to them, “You are not my
people,” it shall be said to them, “Children
of the living God.”
Micah 5:7
Then the remnant of Jacob shall
be in the midst of many peoples like dew
from the LORD, like showers on the grass,
which delay not for a man nor wait for the
children of man. Then the remnant of Jacob
shall be in the midst of many peoples like
dew from the LORD, like showers on the
grass, which delay not for a man nor wait
for the children of man.
Zechariah 8:11
But now I will not deal with the
remnant of this people as in the former
days, declares the LORD of hosts.
In the Old Testament, the “Remnant”
are those believers who survive and remain
true to God at all times.
(See also: 2 Kings 19:30; 2 Chronicles 30:6;
Ezra 9:13-15; Isaiah 28:5; Isaiah 37:4;
Jeremiah 31:7; Jeremiah 42:19; Jeremiah 43:5; Jeremiah 44:12; Jeremiah 44:14;
Jeremiah 44:28; Ezekiel 9:8; Ezekiel 11:13;
Amos 5:15; Micah 2:12; Micah 4:7; Micah 7:18; Zephaniah 2:7-9; Haggai 1:12; Haggai 1:14; Haggai 2:2; Zechariah 8:6)
God speaks of a "Remnant" in the New
Testament also:
Acts 15:17
that the remnant of mankind may seek the
Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by
my name, says the Lord, who makes these
things
Romans 9:27
And Isaiah
cries out concerning Israel: “Though the
number of the sons of Israel be as the sand
of the sea, only a remnant of them will be
saved,
Romans 11:1, 5
I ask, then,
has God rejected his people? By no means!
For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant
of Abraham, a member of the tribe of
Benjamin. . . So too at
the present time there is a remnant, chosen
by grace. (Paul sees himself as part of
God’s true remnant).
Revelation 12:17
And the dragon was wroth with the woman,
and went to make war with the remnant of her
seed, which keep the commandments of God,
and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
(KJV)
To understand this
verse, we have to understand what the
Apostle John means by commandments.
John is not saying keep the Ten
Commandments in Revelation 12:17 or
Revelation 14:12.
In Revelation 12:17; 14:12 (and in
some versions, Revelation 22:14) and John's
use of the same expression in all his
writings - keeping the Commandments is
emphasized. The Apostle John was given the
visions in the book of Revelation and we
have to see how John uses the different
words for “law” and “commandments” to
understand his meaning.
John uses the
words “nomos” and “entolē”. When John speaks
about the Law, he uses the Greek word “nomos”
exclusively. John used “entolē” in
Revelation 12:17; 14:12 and Revelation 22:14 to refer
to the commandments of God. John uses the
Greek word entolē to always mean “ordinance,
moral and religious precept or regulation”.
John never said that we have to keep the Ten
Commandments to be saved under the New
Covenant. We are to keep the “precepts”,
“commands” and “regulations” of God under
the terms of the New Covenant. Each covenant
has its own legal structure and all
Christians are to live by the “Law of
Christ” under the New “Better” Covenant.
Those who are the Remnant are those true
Christians who are faithful to Christ in any
age. As Christians, we live by the New
Covenant Law of Christ now. Seventh-day
Adventists are wrong about the Sabbath being
required under the New Covenant. They are
wrong about who is the remnant.
The
church consists of the body of believers in
Christ. It is the body of Christ in which
the gospel is proclaimed, Christians are
nurtured in their faith, and gifts of the
Spirit are exercised. No single organization
can claim exclusive title as the true or
remnant church. The church includes all the
redeemed of all ages (See: Matthew 16:15-19;
Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12-14;
Ephesians 1:22-23; 3:21; 4:4-13).
[2]
God’s remnant are
those who understand they are saved by grace
and not by works. They do their best to live
for God because they already know they are
going to heaven. God’s remnant are those who
serve God with all their heart and not
because they keep the Sabbath of the Old
Covenant.
(See also: Matthew 16:15-19;
Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12-14;
Ephesians 1:22-23; 3:21; 4:4-13).
References:
1.
https://www.namb.net/apologetics/resource/seventh-day-adventism
2. ibid.
|
