From your statement “I advise you to leave the moral …

Comment on Christians and the Sabbath by Ken Christman.

From your statement “I advise you to leave the moral judgment and evaluation of others, other than yourself, in God’s hands”, you seem to have terribly misconstrued what I have been trying to say all along. For the record, let me say that I stand firmly with Jesus and Paul, who taught no condemnation, or judgment, upon those who do not observe the Sabbath. I strongly reject the notion that Sabbath violators will not inherit eternal life. Rather, Ellen White is the one who condemns violators to eternal damnation. I was trying to commend you for your position that “Sabbath observance never saved ANYONE” as being consistent with the teachings of both Paul and Jesus. But then, for some reason, you reversed your position and opened the door to condemnation of some groups but not others.

Presumably, your backtracking was compelled by a greater need to be consistent with the teachings of EGW, who also taught that Sabbath observance MUST be just like the original commandment was give on Mt. Sinai. Since nobody, including Adventists, keep the Sabbath in such a manner today, the direct implication of such a doctrine is that EVERYBODY on earth, including 19 million SDA’s, will all be labeled Sabbath violators and thus forfeit eternal life. That means that the first resurrection will be empty, and we already know from the words of Jesus and Paul that such will not be the case. While your own condemnation of certain groups somewhat reconciled your initial position with EGW, you refuse to agree with her on what constitutes Sabbath violation.

To make matters even worse, Ellen White labels the mark of the beast as a national Sunday law promoting Sunday worship and prohibiting Sabbath worship. This is, of course, not taught by Jesus, Paul, or any other Biblical author. Since we know from Revelation that any who bear the mark of the beast will forfeit eternal life, if EGW is correct on this matter and also correct in the manner in which God expects Sabbathkeeping in this age, we would have additional confirmation that the first resurrection will be empty. If, on the other hand, this non-Biblical doctrine of the mark of the beast is incorrect, you could see 19 million plus SDA’ s possibly extending their right hands to accept a mark of the beast, rationalizing that EGW’s mark of the beast would occur in the future. Such a deception would mean the loss of eternal life to all SDA’s deceived into receiving the mark of the beast due to a prophet’s deception. Please read the story of the man of God who was killed by a lion because he listened to the words of a prophet instead of adhering to God’s mandate. For some reason, you also refrained from labeling the mark of the beast as a Sabbath/Sunday matter. Thus, while you might be consistent with EGW’s labeling of Sabbath violators as forfeiting eternal life, you do not seem consistent with her prescription for Sabbath observance.

Since you consistently refuse to respond to important queries into the matter of Sabbath observance, I will offer my own observations entitled Biblical Facts on the Sabbath. Hopefully, you will be in agreement. If not, you will certainly point out any errors.

In the beginning, God created all life on this planet in 6 literal days, with his crowning effort being the creation of man in His own image. Roughly 6,000 years later, two extremely brilliant but also extremely stupid scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, finally identified the structure of DNA as the double helix. As you well know, there are base pairs interconnecting this structure (A-T and C-G) and the order of these base pairs must be precise in order for the human organism to function properly. When these base pairs become disordered, mutations occur, and mutations are always detrimental to the organism if there is any change at all. Some mutations might not do any harm, but if there is any functional change it will be harmful rather than beneficial. In other words, the human organism never improves with mutations. Any change will bring disease and possibly death. These base pair organizations are necessary for cellular function as they direct proper cellular functions, production of necessary enzymes etc. How many base pairs are there in the human body? About 5 Billion! And, they must all function correctly from the very beginning. Otherwise, you don’t have a functioning body which depends on all the proper cellular functions necessary to maintain life. You don’t see an improvement in the human organism, but only deterioration over time. Such a process could not have occurred by an evolving of a primitive organism over time, but must have had all 5 billion base pairs begin their function simultaneously.

While Watson and Crick won Nobel prizes for their important discovery, they both remained hardened atheists, refusing to believe in an all-powerful God who created this amazing structure by breathing life into a lump of clay, instantly creating a perfect specimen with perfect DNA that would have lasted for an eternity. That is a very, very powerful God, and one who should be loved an respected. Watson and Crick were very stupid in not accepting the only rational alternative to their amazing discovery. I do not have enough faith to accept their conclusions that all this DNA just evolved by some sort of accident, gradually getting better and better.

Well, God created all life on the planet is 6 days and rested the seventh day. He hardly needed to rest, as His creation was literally spoken into existence, and, in the case of man, breathed into existence. There is NO Biblical record of God mandating Sabbath observance in the Garden of Eden, even though He Himself rested. I would strongly urge you to reject any extra-Biblical account of such a mandate. God gave these perfect creatures full dominion over His entire creation with only one mandate, which was to not go near a certain tree and to certainly NOT partake of its fruit. Failure to obey that single mandate resulted in their expulsion from the garden, accompanied by a loss of their perfect DNA which immediately began to deteriorate, ultimately resulting in death.

Several generations later, Adam and Eve’s descendants became so wicked that this very powerful God simply had to destroy nearly all life on the planet and start all over. He gave EVERYBODY a choice, just like He did for Adam and Eve. They could either accept the open invitation to enter the ark and be saved, or stay outside and be lost. All except 8 accepted the open invitation. After that, God found it necessary to shorten life spans, which might have been accomplished by simply turning up the mutation rate. That would be a very simple task for an all-powerful God who created 5 billion base pairs perfectly arranged out of a lump of clay which immediately functioned perfectly after inflation.

A few generations afterwards, mankind started misbehaving again, but God found a willing conduit in whom He could trust with His promises–Abraham. He was the recipient of a promise that his descendants would be numerous, would be God’s chosen people, and through his lineage, the promised Messiah would come. The contract God made with Abraham was marked by a ritual known as circumcision, but there is no record of any Sabbath requirement. God made known to Abraham that the cost of the sin problem was very, very high. just like sacrificing Abraham’s own son, the very one through whom the promised Messiah would someday come. Abraham was ready to obey, but fortunately did not have to complete the sacrifice.

Many years later, those descendants were being expected to continue the ritual of circumcision as a sign of the contract between God and Abraham. For some reason, Moses failed to circumcise his own two children, and God was about to extinguish their lives until they were rushed into that meaningful sign of the promise. The first Biblical record of God’s mandating Sabbath observance occurred on Mt. Sinai, and this time, it was a contract between God and all of Abraham’s descendants. It was NOT a contract with any other people. If other people wanted to follow this powerful God, they must join Abraham’s descendants, be circumcised, and follow ALL 613 commandments, along with all sacrifices, which forecasted the coming of the Messiah, who would complete the requirements of this covenant.

While God always kept His part of the contract, His chosen people repeatedly fractured their part by ignoring the Sabbath commandment, falling into idolatry, and generally ignoring their responsibilities. This all powerful God ultimately allowed them to be conquered by a pagan Babylonian king who became the recipient of a dream that his own sorcerers could not help him with. God, however, via Daniel, not only told the King what he dreamed, but also what it meant, with a constellation of future events that was so perfect that centuries later, a pagan philosopher Porphyry decided that nobody could have known the future so perfectly, and thus, the book of Daniel could not have been written by Daniel! Over time, various mystics wrongly interpreted Daniel, but a correct interpretation of this book is so amazing as to compel anybody to believe in this all powerful God.

Ultimately, the Messiah came to dwell amongst His chosen people and become the ultimate sacrifice in order to fulfill the requirements of the Sinaitic covenant and to replace it with a new one. He appeared on time, just as predicted, and fulfilled all the predicted events prophesied by God’s prophets centuries previously. He worked miracles and made it clear that He was the Son of God, or God Himself. He broke the Sabbath, while also going to synagogues on Sabbath in order to teach all who would listen. His teaching was clear. He taught two resurrections, one leading to eternal joy and happiness, while the other one to eternal destruction. He taught that there would only be two classes of people–those who believed and relied on Him as their Savior, and those who refused to do so. He taught that not one jot or one tittle of the Law (Sinaitic Covenant) would be changed until all was fulfilled. He gave them all a choice, and finally allowed Himself to be offered as the perfect lamb in order to fulfill the requirements of this Law. Just prior to His final breath, He uttered those words “It is finished”. In other words, IT IS FULFILLED. At that point, the Old Covenant was replaced with the New Covenant. All 613 of the mandates were met by perfect obedience via the only one who was qualified to fulfill them. Jesus became the Mediator of the New Covenant, converting an impossible contract into one which required only a recognition that we, with our imperfect DNA, are utterly incapable of fulfilling the requirements of that Law. It was replaced with accepting Jesus as the only One who could save us. God caused the veil between the Temple’s Holy and Most Holy Place to be torn from top to bottom, indicating that He no longer resided there, that the Old Covenant was voided and fulfilled, and that from then on, everybody on earth could approach Him directly through His Son. They would no longer go through His chosen people, Abraham’s descendants. They had a choice. Either follow and accept the Mediator, Jesus, and have eternal life, or reject Him and suffer the 2nd resurrection.

Jesus even told a parable of the wedding feast, where the invite guests (Jewish people) refused to attend. So, the invitation went to all the poor. Then, the Master sent His servants to the highways and byways, inviting EVERYBODY to the special feast. Many came, but there was one poor chap who somehow got there with his own garments on, rather than accept the free and spotless wedding garment. He was thrown out into darkness. The implications are clear and serious. We cannot get in by our own efforts, which are never going to be perfect. We cannot get in by observing the requirements of an Old Covenant without keeping that Old Covenant PERFECTLY. Since none of us can keep that Old Covenant perfectly, we are doomed to start with.

A few years later, Paul came around, and the early Christian church decided that the only thing that mattered was following Jesus and His commandments, which were to love God with all your hearts, to love your neighbor as yourself, and to follow Jesus’ teachings. All 9 Decalogue commandments were reiterated by Paul and Jesus with the exception of the Sabbath commandment. The early church actually agreed that there were only 3 requirements to be met by Gentile Christians: 1. Do not commit fornication. 2. Do not eat blood or meats that were strangled. 3. Do not eat food sacrificed to idols. That was it. Circumcision and Sabbath observance, so important to God at one time, were replaced by a new and better covenant. now open to anybody who wants it. Circumcision and Sabbathkeeping now will not help at all. As a matter of fact, by trying to keep that Old Covenant as a means to obtaining eternal life would be tantamount to trying to merit something that is impossible for us to attain with our damaged DNA. It would be tantamount to trying to get into the wedding feast via our own soiled garments. It will not work. I will never understand why everybody does not exchange that Old and imperfect Covenant with a New Covenant that is so simple to follow.

The Scriptures teach only two resurrections. The first one is marked by no3%% judgment at all. They are those who fell asleep believing that Jesus died a substitutional death and are covered by His perfection The second death is for everybody else, including scoffers, unbelievers, and those believing they don’t need a Savior and can do it all on their own. They will be brought back to life after the Millenium in order to be judged out of the Book of the Law. None will have a good outcome. They will all fall short. There is a 0.0000% chance of a favorable outcome. Sadly, at that point using the ignorance card will be a very dicey proposition. While there would be nothing to lose for those staring hell in the face, I don’t see it being successful. The sin problem will finally be disposed of as the Devil is thrown into the lake of fire, along with all his followers. That evil Devil, or Dragon, Deceiver, will be Destroyed–the one who was directly responsible for all those other D’s–Deterioration, Disease, Disobedience, Devastation, and Death, will be gone forever. The DNA of those in the first resurrection was restored to its original and perfect state, and they will worship and trust their Creator forever.

Final thoughts. I share with you the above Biblical account, not to win any arguments, but rather, in the hope that you will consider the Bible, and the Bible alone as the gold standard. I would earnestly pray that you not just take my word for anything, but check it all out for yourself. Read both sides of all positions. Keep an open mind and search for truth, wherever it might lead. Sure, read Abraham Heschel’s book on the Sabbath. Remember, he was a mystical Kaballistical Jewish rabbi who observed the Sabbath in a very mystical way, with Friday evening services welcoming the Sabbath as a living entity and departing the following Sabbath in the same manner. If you don’t know what the Kaballah is, look it up and ask yourself if there is any part of the Kaballah which would be acceptable to the Creator God. For some reason, SDA’s like to quote Heschel. I even heard an SDA minister lift an entire sermon entitled Grace Palace from Heschel’s book on the Sabbath. Well, there is nothing about grace in Heschel’s book. It is all about the Law. Furthermore, Heschel did not accept Jesus as Savior. Regardless of how many Sabbaths he observed, do you think he stands a chance at being in the first resurrection? While I did not see you referencing Heschel, you did reference another follower of the Kaballah–Joseph Dan. Does it matter what Jonathan David Brown believes about the Sabbath, Lunar Sabbaths, Klu Klux Klan, etc.?

Read J. N. Andrews’ book on the Sabbath, then investigate the Mill Yard church in London, recalling that Andrews searched them out when he went as first SDA missionary to Europe. Read D. M. Canright, while also reading F.D. Nichol’s response to Canright in “Ellen G. White and Her Critics” Also read what a subsequent Baptist Grand Rapids pastor, Norman Douty, wrote about Canright. Read Ellen White herself. Then read the New Testament, especially the words of Jesus and Paul. Compare them. May God richly bless you as you study His word. I firmly accept the simple promises of Jesus that all I must do to be saved is to accept Him as my Savior, and I will not trade that promise for anything in the world

Ken Christman Also Commented

Christians and the Sabbath
Thank you for your admission that you indeed did alter the record. But, as we both know, these were not mere typos, but rather, clear changes in content. The usual method of altering content is to issue an erratum or addendum, as you must certainly be aware. This is accomplished by simply creating another post! Intellectual integrity is important. Please continue to focus your energy on Creationism, but let us all resolve to keep Creationism above reproach.


Christians and the Sabbath
For some inexplicable reason, you seem to be intent on continuing this Sabbath discussion. For me, however, I conclude that I have labored for you in vain, and not only is this discussion nonproductive, but there is no indication that it ever will be in the future. There seems to be absolutely no desire to accurately interpret Scripture on the basis of common dictionaries, which, I must admit can be restrictive to over-active imaginations. You have severely misquoted even my own posts. You have even altered your own posts! I know because I copied your last post last night, and then, when I read it again on your website, there were additions! Whether or not you have altered my previous posts, I do not know. At this point, I must conclude that this type of intellectual integrity does not lend itself to a rational discussion of things of eternal value. Your sole purpose seems to be winning an argument, while my sole purpose is to understand God’s will for my life.

Your constantly shifting positions on the Sabbath and salvation are sufficient for me to understand that there is great confusion. I am saddened that your definition of Sabbath keeping differs from God’s definition. If, as you maintain, the Roman Catholic Church altered the time definition of Sabbath keeping and you yourself obviously altered God’s definition of the manner of Sabbath keeping, are you any different? You invalidate your arguments by being selective in following the clear commands of both God and Ellen White. These arguments are even more problematic because you claim that those who know the truth about Sabbath observance but reject them are in “open rebellion against God”? Perhaps it is because you forget your own words that you find it necessary to go back and “doctor” your previous posts.

At any rate, I wish you the best, and must leave you to your own devices. While I applaud your efforts in teaching and preaching God’s Creationism in 6 literal days, I hope your style is not a distraction, especially when you claim that something can be both “lawful” and “unlawful” simultaneously.

May God bless you.


Christians and the Sabbath
Your continued insistence that a commandment (law) “can be lawfully broken” is indeed extraordinary. If you are unable to grasp how you cannot be lawful and unlawful simultaneously, I’m not sure I can be of much more help to you. The statement that “Jesus only ‘broke the Sabbath’ in order to relieve suffering is absolutely false. In Mark 2, his disciples were gathering corn on the Sabbath and there was no suffering. This was contrary to the commandment which prohibited gathering food on Sabbath. In John 5, Jesus healed a paralytic on Sabbath then told him to take up his bed and walk–on the Sabbath, and this was completely contrary to carrying a burden o Sabbath. While he did indeed heal, the Jews were indignant about the carrying the bed on Sabbath.

You fabricate a statement that I supposedly made, “You cite a single Saturday night prayer meeting as evidence that they didn’t continue to observe the Sabbath. . . ” when I ABSOLUTELY MADE NO SUCH STATEMENT. I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, AS MOST OF US UNDERSTAND THAT WHAT HAPPENS ON SATURDAY NIGHT AFTER SUNDOWN DOES NOT CONSTITUTE SABBATH OBSERVANCE. I DO NOT KNOW WHY YOU FABRICATE AND TWIST MY STATEMENTS. ARE YOU SURE YOU EVEN READ WHAT I WRITE?

You continue to focus on the shadow of Colossians 2. Hebrews 10:1 also refers to a shadow–“For the law having a shadow of good things to come. . . ” which simply means that the law was a shadow, and the real substance is Christ which replaces the law.

For some inexplicable reason, you continue to maintain that the Sabbath is for all mankind, and claim this is what “anthropos” means. Seriously, we MUST get back to the dictionaries again, as you are violating the Greek dictionary now. Get yourself a good Greek dictionary and look it up. You will find that “anthropos” does NOT mean mankind, and certainly does NOT mean ALL MANKIND. The definition is: THE COUNTENANCE, MAN-FACED, i.e. A HUMAN BEING. This is singular, and not plural. Wikipedia says it is Greek for HUMAN. Matthew 19:5, Matthew 19:10 and I Corinthians 7:1 all use the word “anthropos”, and in each case it is singular.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE respect the dictionaries, whether they be English, Greek, or any other. You do great violence to my the Bible, the words of Jesus, the English and Greek dictionaries, and even what I write.

Your reference to the lake drowning and saying to the rescuer to “get lost” is completely apocryphal. Please restrain yourself from misquoting me.

I explained to you that the Sabbath carried a capital punishment ant that at least one man in the Old Testament was stoned to death for violating the Sabbath commandment. It therefore follows that those who obeyed and did NOT violate the commandment during that time period avoided death and lived. This is a simple concept, yet you disagreed and said “No, that’s not right”. I’m not sure I can be of much more help to you if you cannot grasp simple inverse relationships. Perhaps I’ll make one final attempt. If Adam and Even had NOT eaten the forbidden fruit, would they have died? They ate it, then died as God told them. On the contrary, if they had not eaten, are you claiming that they would not have lived? If you truly are not able to follow this very simple logic, continue violating Scripture, dictionaries, etc., I suppose I’ll have to leave you where you are, hoping that you will someday appreciate Biblical truths for what God is actually trying to tell us.

This has been an interesting excursion, and I’ve been dragged all over the landscape. First, you claimed that Sabbath observance never saved anyone. Then, you claimed that it saved some, but not others. Some “ignorant” souls could be saved while other “ignorant” souls presumably not saved. Then, you maintained that those who knew the “Sabbath truth” but ignored you were in open rebellion against God and could not be saved. Now, you seem to have made a full circle, and your last post said “Keeping the commandments of God aren’t what saves a person.”

Jesus spelled out the process of salvation in John 3. Please read His words closely. He is my Mediator, and He should know.


Recent Comments by Ken Christman

Most Species the “Same Age” with No “In-Between” Species
Decay is perfectly natural in a sinful world. There was NO decay prior to the Fall. Non-decay does not require active maintenance on the part of God. His creation was perfect and did not require maintenance like human creations require. Model T’s require active maintenance as they are human creations. The human body God created would have lasted an eternity if sin (disobedience) had not interrupted such perfection. That is when decay started. That is when the genomic code started to deteriorate. It ultimately led to disease and death. God cannot be compared to a mechanic in heaven, as His perfect creation does not require repairs. While the price of sin (disobedience) has been fully paid for, the restoration to perfection has not happened yet. Once it occurs (which I believe will be soon), there will be a complete restoration that will not require a “mechanic” for active maintenance, as decay, degeneration, decay, death (all those ugly D’s) will no longer exist.

As for assuming that genetic mutations have occurred at a constant rate since the fall of Adam and Eve, we should consider the fallacies of assuming constant degradation of Carbon-14 and the problems such assumptions have created. As Creationists, we should exercise caution in making assertions we cannot prove.

As for God being bound by His own laws, let us consider Jesus bringing perfect peace and tranquility just by commanding the elements to be still during a raging storm. We cannot understand such divine power over EVERYTHING, including the power to breath life into a lump of clay which was instantly transformed into a perfectly fine human body with over 5 billion base pairs (the human genome) and able to perfectly replicate without decay or deterioration of the system. Satan also has supernatural power, but God’s power is infinitely greater. Whenever there is supernatural activity, it can come from only of two sources. We do know for a fact that postdiluvian human life spans rapidly contracted from ca. 900 years to circa 70 years in just a few generations. I’m sure most Creationists would agree that God had a hand in this, and that this was not “natural”. Whether He did this by altering the mutation rate, we have no way of knowing, as mutation rates were not measured at that time and there is no way for us to reconstruct those past mutation rates.

As for Einstein, Newton, and others, I would exercise restraint in following any of their religious or theological assumptions.


Most Species the “Same Age” with No “In-Between” Species
We may have observed mutation rates in the recent past, but how do we know what mutation rates were 100 years ago, 1,000 years ago, or 6,000 years ago? Prior to roughly 6,000 years ago, we can safely say mutation rates were ZERO, as God’s creation was perfect, and there was no sin, death, or deterioration in the genomic code!


Most Species the “Same Age” with No “In-Between” Species
While data suggesting the hand of the Creator God in the creation of all living things is always welcome, one should exercise great caution in assuming the constancy of mutation rates. After all, God shortened human lifespans from ca. 900 years to ca. 70 years in only a few generations. Do you suppose He might have done that by altering mutation rates? Do you suppose that a powerful God who breathed life into a lump of clay could easily tinker with mutation rates? Furthermore, mutation rates would have highly variable effects on life forms in different species based upon average lifespans. Let us hope and pray that more scientists will be troubled by uncovering data that will lead them to trust the Genesis creation account as the only scientifically logical explanation of how we got here.


The Sabbath and the Covenants (Old vs. New)
Your concern about mysticism within Adventism is well founded. Pastor Bill Loveless identified Ellen White in the pages of the Adventist Review as a “true mystic.” “Mysticism” is defined in the dictionary as a euphemism for the occult. Look it up.


The Sabbath and the Covenants (Old vs. New)
You are right. I am totally confused as to what distinguishes “Historical Old Covenant” from “Old Covenant Thinking”. You and Chris White maintain that Sabbath observance is not necessary for salvation. Ellen White clearly states that it is necessary. Chris and Ellen CANNOT both be correct.