Theology

As we encounter another Sabbath day, I encourage you once again to keep the Sabbath as a day to set aside the things of this side of the Jordan so that you can more fully interact with family, community, and God. When we do this, we can truly begin to see the other side and more fully partake of the blessings of eternity.

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This is Chapter 1 of the book Christ and His Righteousness by E. J. Waggoner. The chapter is entitled, "Christ and His Righteousness."

The chapter is read by Sherman Haywood Cox II.

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This is Chapter 12 of the book Consecrated Way to Christian Perfection by A. T. Jones. The chapter is entitled, "Perfection."

The chapter is read by Sherman Haywood Cox II.

Download file at this link

How often do we rob ourselves of the rest that God has provided because we want work?

Sometimes we want rest on our own terms rather than God's terms. And in the process end up with no rest at all. How many of us add "church" as simply another burden to the work that we already have?

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We have killed the Sanctuary Message. We all have contributed to its demise. From the local elder who drones on and on about the color of the tassel the priest was wearing to the pastor who oftentimes just ignores the whole message. From the Bible Teacher who made it merely a mathematical calculation to the lay person who goes to sleep every time it comes up. We have Killed the Sanctuary Message!

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I was talking to a friend about the presentation of Adventist fundamentals by some. It appears that often these teachings are ignored by many of our pastors and preachers, but when they actually do preach or teach them, the sermon turns into a theological lecture to enlighten the mind but not inspire the soul.

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The Burnt Offering provides many lessons for our perusal. First of all, the burnt offering was a voluntary offering. (Leviticus 1:3) It was not necessarily done in response to sin, although it could be added to the sin or trespass offering. It was something that demonstrates complete consecration. The whole of the offering was consumed. Interestingly enough the sacrifice was washed in water and set in order on the alter before it was consumed. (Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17) Here God was teaching us both that God is a God of order, but also that Cleanliness is important.

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Sacrifice was an important component of the Ancient Hebrew System. It was through that symbol that the people gained a glimpse at the great cost to the well being of the community that sin played. Sin hurt the one who is sinned against. Sin hurt everyone connected to that one sinned against. Sin hurt the community. In addition, sin hurt the sacrifice. Sin presumably hurt the sinner who felt the pain of killing the sacrifice and making amends to the one sinned against.

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M. L. Andreasen in his very helpful work The Sanctuary Service discusses two primary lessons that the sacrificial system impressed on the mind of the petitioner. The first lesson is Sin Means Death. We are told this explicitly in Romans 6:23 that the wages of sin is simply death. When we sin we are simply buying death, we are setting in motion a death cycle in our lives. We are simply setting ourselves up for future and sometimes present difficulties. The sacrificial system taught the petitioner clearly that sin means death.

The next thing that Andreasen notes is that sacrificial system taught is that forgiveness of sin requires confession and ministration of blood. Sin requires death, to be saved from sin requires the death of the sacrifice as well as confession of sin.

These two primary lessons were taught to those who offered a sacrifice in the typical service. Sometimes preachers note how difficult it was for those who lived under the Typical system. They "had" to bring a lamb, kill it, etc. Often preachers are attempting to describe the great difference between then and now where we presumably don't have to do any of these things, however, the system lets us know that while we don't kill a lamb, we kill the Lamb of God. While we don't go to Jerusalem, we do by faith go to the heavenly tabernacle where Christ ministers. We can never let the "ease" of our forgiveness hide from us the great cost of our salvation to the Son of God.

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine who was wondering about the whole issue of perfection. This is not as prevalent a subject as say a few years ago, but it still rears its head on occasion. Members can get ruffled over whether perfection is possible or not. I think that often the argument disintegrates into one side accusing the other of thinking that they have made perfection, and the other side accusing the other of denigrating obedience, and a another side saying that the argument for or against perfection is tired and irrelevant.

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