everlasting-gospels.gif When Does The Sabbath Begin?-1
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April 28  When Does The Sabbath Begin?-1

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From even unto even, shall ye celebrate your Sabbath. Lev. 23:32.

Unlike the pre-Advent judgment, the central leaders of early Adventism had no dispute with each other on when to begin and end the Sabbath.

In spite of the fact that the Seventh Day Baptists, from whom  Bates indirectly got the Sabbath, observed it from sunset to sunset, Bates himself argued that it should be kept from 6:00 p.m. Friday to 6:00 Saturday.

He put forth that position in his 1846 book on the Sabbath, claiming that "history shows that the Jews. . .commenced their days at 6 o'clock in the evening." I don't know what history he was looking at or if he had inferred his conclusion from whatever he was reading, but he was dead wrong.

Bates also set forth theorientical reasons for keeping the Sabbath from 6:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Put simply, he argued that if anyone honored the Sabbath from sunrise to sunrise or sunset to sunset, then people at different latitudes would be keeping the Sabbath at different times. And God certainly didn't want that. Therefore, he concluded, since sunset was 6:00 p.m. at the equator year-round, if everyone kept that time they would all be observing the same Sabbath, just as God wanted it.

This was no matter of small importance to the good captain. After all, he claimed in 1849, "it is just as sinful in the sight of God to willfully reject the Bible light on the commencement of the Sabbath. . .as it would be not to keep it at all."

That's powerful conviction. And Bates was an enthusiastically powerful and persistent man when convinced about something.

As a result, the church repeatedly got the message that the Sabbath began at 6:00 p.m. Bates managed to sell his interpretation to nearly all the Sabbatarians, including James and Ellen White. Thus, for 10 years they and most other Adventists ketp the Sabbath wrongly.

Now, there is a problem! And what is God's attitude to such a mistake? Did He consign them to the spiritual "slammer" because they were wrong?

Obviously not. There is a wideness in God's mercy. In our sincerity He accepts us where we are. But He doesn't stop there. He also gently leads in the path of truth.

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Christ, the Rock of Ages. In receiving the word, we receive Christ. And only those who thus receive His words are building upon Him. "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Corinthians 3:11. "There is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12. Christ, the Word, the revelation of God,--the manifestation of His character, His law, His love, His life,--is the only foundation upon which we can build a character that will endure(TFMB, 149).
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