What does it imply when a Bible is present on the table of the inauguration ceremony if we are not certain that the one stating his or her commitment when taking office, submits to the authority of God and His Word? The swearing of allegiance to the Republic / Country (and its people) by a new President is a constitutional requirement and a formal ceremony held during the presidential inauguration, where the incoming leader takes an official Oath of Office to legally bind themselves to the country and its Constitution. In doing so a Bible is presented which would implicate an acceptance of a Godly calling where God is honoured with words in an oath, taken in a public statement to be faithful to the specific country. To obey, to observe, uphold and maintain the Constitution and all other law of the Republic; and to solemnly and sincerely promise to always-
• promote all that will advance the Republic or country, and oppose all that may harm it;
• protect and promote the rights of all South Africans;
• discharge my duties with all my strength and talents to the best of my knowledge and ability and true to the dictates of my conscience;
• do justice to all; and
• devote myself to the well-being of the Republic / country and all of its people.
So help me God.
Where this statement and list of commitments were made with no true regard for the God, our Heavenly Father or His Word, where the declared Oath was made in its presence and even concluded by calling Him for guidance & assistance, it would be futile and of no value.
In Scripture, as written in thus Bible at hand on the table during the Oath, it is quoted in Deuteronomy 17:18 to 20 it reflects on the obligation of instated Kings which would clearly be applicable to today’s appointed Presidents as follow:
V18 When he becomes king (President), he is to HAVE A COPY OF THE BOOK OF GOD'S LAWS AND TEACHINGS…
V19 HE IS TO KEEP THIS BOOK NEAR HIM AND READ FROM IT ALL HIS LIFE, so that he will LEARN TO HONOR THE LORD AND TO OBEY FAITHFULLY EVERYTHING THAT IS COMMANDED IN IT.
V20 This will keep him from thinking that he is better than other and from disobeying the Lord's commands in any way. Then he will reign for many years,… Let us all take hands with SATM (Southern Africa Truckers Ministry) in praying that all Presidents would take heed and honour their Oath taken during their inauguration. May they accept accountability for this enormous responsibility to a country and its people who look up at him, and where he did not accept this responsibility, may God forgive Him and bring such President to his senses. Please be safe on the road and arrive

When Jesus continues His teaching after He was accused of casting out demons using Satan's power and warning that those who blasphemed the Holy Spirit have no chance at forgiveness any longer. He then expands on that teaching by emphasizing a comparison of trees and treasure.

It is not logical to approach a Manchineel tree expecting to pick an apple. The Manchineel tree is considered the most poisonous tree in Florida. It is often called the tree of death as a simple touch can cause great, lasting pain. In this tree are fruit called the apples of death for their extreme toxicity.

Now, this tree serves a purpose in God's creation that has nothing to do with this lesson. So, we will use that as our example of a ‘bad tree’. But Jesus says quite clearly that a bad tree won't produce a good fruit. Likewise, a good tree doesn't produce a bad fruit.

In the same way, the teachings of these Jewish leaders were ‘bad trees’ from which nothing good can come. Granted, our culture idolizes the idea of the “good” that can come from a bad source. Hollywood has for decades made movies about a demon with a conscience. The entire series of Supernatural was utter blasphemy considering God as the bad guy.
So when Jesus tells them that they will know whether a tree is good based on whether it produced good fruit. If it doesn't, it's a bad tree.

He turns the anger toward the slandering Jewish leaders. Sons of snakes He calls them, Their disposition is not one of intellectually honest Jews. They acknowledged miracles were done, but because their power was threatened they then ascribed the power Jesus had to Satan.

He straight up calls them evil. Not ‘misled’, not ‘sincerely wrong’ but evil. What they spoke came from their heart which was also, evil. Jesus tells them our words we speak come from our hearts, and if our hearts are evil, how can anything good be p4oduced by that same heart.

Now Jesus gets scary. He says that we will give an account for all we've said. Careless Words He calls them. What is the lesson here?

That a good person doesn't produce bad, for his heart is filled with the goodness of God, His word and the Holy Spirit. Ask yourself, what am I producing?
That at judgment words we speak will be used to condemn and judge us, or to bless us. Ask yourself, am I regularly speaking ill of someone? Swearing too much? At all?
Matthew 12:33-37


[33] “Either assume the tree to be good as well as its fruit good, or assume the tree to be bad as well as its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. [34] You offspring of vipers, how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart. [35] The good person brings out of his good treasure good things; and the evil person brings out of his evil treasure evil things. [36] But I tell you that for every careless word that people speak, they will give an account of it on the day of judgment. [37] For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Hosea 4:1-14 (NRSV):
1. Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel, for the LORD has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or loyalty and no knowledge of God in the land.
2. Swearing, lying, and murder, and stealing and adultery break out; bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3. Therefore the land mourns, and all who live in it languish; together with the wild animals and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea are perishing.
4. Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.
5. You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night, and I will destroy your mother.
6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge! Because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me; and since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
7. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; they changed their glory into shame.
8. They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity.
9. And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.
10. They shall eat but not be satisfied; they shall prostitute themselves but not multiply, because they have forsaken the LORD to devote themselves to
11. prostitution. Wine and new wine take away the understanding.
12. My people consult a piece of wood, and their divining rod gives them oracles. For a spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have prostituted themselves, forsaking their God.
13. They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and make offerings upon the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters prostitute themselves, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
14. I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with female attendants; thus a people without understanding comes to ruin.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.bibleworld.new_revised_standard_version_bible_nrsv

The Advent Truth
Modern Christianity has largely traded obedience for convenience. The very Law of God that once defined sin, revealed righteousness, and pointed people to Christ is now mocked, ignored, or explained away. The Fourth Commandment is treated like a burden instead of a blessing. The Sabbath God sanctified at creation is cast aside for tradition, while many openly teach that the Ten Commandments are no longer binding.

But the Bible warned this would happen.

In Hosea, God said:

“There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.” Because of this, swearing, lying, killing, stealing, adultery, and bloodshed filled the land. Then God says something shocking: “Therefore shall the land mourn… the beasts of the field… the fowls of heaven… and the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.” (Hosea 4:1-3)

Notice the connection. Rebellion against God’s Law did not just affect humanity. It affected society, nature, animals, health, and the land itself.

Ezekiel 8:17 says they “filled the land with violence.” Does that not sound like today? Violence glorified in entertainment. Sexual immorality celebrated. Corruption everywhere. Confusion over even the most basic truths of life. Addiction. Broken homes. Depression. Disease. Greed. Death.

The problem with modern Christianity is not that it talks too much about grace. The problem is that it talks about grace while rejecting the very Law that defines sin. Romans 7:7 says, “I had not known sin, but by the law.” 1 John 3:4 says, “sin is the transgression of the law.”

When a church teaches people the Law is abolished, it removes the biblical definition of sin itself.

Jesus did not die so we could continue in rebellion. He died to save us FROM sin. He said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

The Sabbath was never the problem. God’s Law was never the problem. Sin is the problem.

And the fruits of rejecting God’s commandments are everywhere around us.

The answer is not more worldly religion. The answer is repentance, surrender to Christ, and returning to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

A Little Light Reading.
BEYOND MERCY,
The unpardonable sin.

Doug Bachelor.

A man visiting Scotland for the first time went to
a place on the coast featuring a beautiful bay
beach. Up along the beach, soft, sandy hills rose
up sharply into a steep, rocky cliff that dropped down
right along the narrow shore. The man was enjoy-
ing his time, meditating and studying the shells. He
noticed the tide had gone out, exposing a lot of new
beautiful rocks and shells. So he continued to walk—
the ocean on one side, the beach beneath him, and
the sheer rock cliff wall that stretched for miles on the
other side.
As he traveled up the shore, he came to a rusted
steel post in the ground hoisting a metal sign that had
words painted in bold, clear letters:
“Warning!
Danger: If you go beyond this point, you will
not be able to escape the incoming tide.”
The man looked behind him and thought, “Well,
I might not be a marathon runner, but I can surely get
back to the safe zone before the tide overtakes me. I’d
like to go a little farther. These are some of the best shells
and tidal pools I’ve ever seen.” Besides, the tide was a
good way off.
He walked on, well past the sign—preoccupied
with the starfish, seashells, and curious little crabs
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that were now skittering from hole to hole. Along the
way, every so often, he would think: I’ll just keep an
eye on the surf and, when I see it start to change, I’ll
head back to the safe section of the beach.
But once he had gone beyond that sign, he had
already gone too far. He did not realize in that part
of Scotland, during certain seasons and moon phases,
the tidal cycle is often powerful and swift. So he kept
walking, meandering along the wet sand.
Not long after, he saw the tide had changed and
the waves were beginning to come in, so he turned
around. But the tide was surging very fast, charg-
ing in like a galloping horse. He’d never seen a tide
roll in so quickly! No sooner had he turned to make
a hasty retreat, than the waves were upon him like
miniature tsunamis. He began to run, but the rising
waves slapped against his legs, repeatedly knocking
him over. Soon the waves were dragging him right up
against the rocky cliffs!
People sightseeing above the cliffs saw him strug-
gling and watched helplessly as the man was pum-
meled time and time again against the unforgiving
sheer rock.
His lifeless body was found the next day.
What happened? He had gone beyond the warn-
ing sign.
Yes—he was alive and well for a while after he
passed the warning sign, but there actually was no
hope because he had reached the point of no return.
There is, in certain situations, a very clear point of
no return. The military even has a term for it: “PNR.”
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
And with good reason too. We hear about Navy he-
licopters that are sent on rescue missions. As they’re
flying out over the ocean from their aircraft carrier,
they have a special instrument labeled PNR*—the
point of no return. When they reach a certain point,
an alarm goes off. It tells them, basically, that it’s now
or never—they’ve reached the halfway point of their
fuel supply. It means that, even if they see the person
they’re trying to rescue just a little farther beyond, if
they continue to fly away from their vessel, as well-
intentioned as they might be, based on the laws of
physics, they are going to run out of fuel before they
can get back. They’ll be ditching in the ocean.
Like that man who died on the Scottish shore,
if they don’t turn around right then and there, they
might not make it home by air.
No Turning Back?
Along these same lines, the Bible teaches that there
is a point you can go to in sinning against God where
your life might still be active—your lungs are breath-
ing, your heart is beating—but you are doomed, just
as surely as if the gates of Hades had already closed
behind you. That is, it is possible for a person to have
gone so far away from God, from the promptings of
the Holy Spirit, that they have spiritually reached the
point of no return and, perhaps, even have gone well
past it.
It is called the “unpardonable sin,” and we’re deal-
ing with this because so many worried and confused
* Now also called “Point of Equal Time” (PET) or “Critical
Point” (CP).
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Christians are wondering, “Have I committed the un-
pardonable sin? What hope can you give me?”
No question, in our ministry, we frequently meet
those who have wondered if they have committed
this unforgivable sin. A man feels his prayers seem to
bounce back from the ceiling, or a woman feels there
is no hope of receiving God’s favor or forgiveness. Yet
they can’t identify any particular sinful act that severed
them from the hope of salvation. God just seems si-
lent. How can they tell if they have actually committed
the unpardonable sin? Can any person really know?
Why Does This Matter?
A few years ago the psychology department of
Duke University carried on an interesting experi-
ment. (It would never be allowed today.) They wanted
to see how long rats could swim based on hope. In
one container surrounded by sheer walls, they placed
a rat for whom there was no possibility of escape. He
swam in circles a few moments and then gave up, re-
signed to drown. In the other container, they made
the hope of escape possible for the rat. A little ladder
was placed just out of reach. The rat swam for sev-
eral hours before finally drowning. We usually say, “As
long as there is life, there is hope.” The Duke experi-
ment proved, “As long as there is hope, there is life.”
Some people believe they have committed the un-
forgivable sin and have lost hope and stopped living.
So before answering these troubling questions
about the unpardonable sin, a glorious truth first
needs to be recognized: We serve a God of infinite
love and compassion! It is not His will that anyone
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
be lost. He has made provision in His Word for every
soul to be forgiven and saved. The incredible promise
of 1 John 1:9 applies to every man, woman, and child
in the world today: “If we confess our sins, he is faith-
ful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.”
On the condition of a sincere confession, God
promises to forgive any sin, regardless of its nature.
“Come now, and let us reason together,” says
the Lord, “Though your sins are like scar-
let, they shall be as white as snow; though
they are red like crimson, they shall be as
wool” (Isaiah 1:18).
Here God is saying, “You have sinned. I know that.
But I still love you and want you to have salvation so
badly that I sent my Son to die on the cross for you, to
pay the penalty for your sins. Why, therefore, don’t you
accept what I have done for you?”
What a special assurance for those who have vio-
lated every law of God and man in their wild plunge
into degradation. God loves them still! There is no
guilt too great for Him to cleanse away. He waits with
outstretched arms to receive those who take the first
step toward His forgiveness and mercy. After all, look
at what happened at the cross! The ultimate price
was paid for our redemption from sin. The God who
would do that for us wants us to have the salvation He
offers, a salvation that cost Him so much.
At the same time, however, people can commit
the unpardonable sin, which will put them out of the
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reach of salvation and eternal life. What is this sin
which heaven regards with such abhorrence? Why,
too, will God deal so severely with those who are
guilty of it?
To the human mind, a great number of depraved
and cruel acts might fall into such a category, but
which one of them would God count so heinous that
it could never be forgiven? This is the crucial question
that we are going to explore in this short book.
A Fearsome Warning
Let’s first look at what the Bible specifically says
about this sin.
Indeed, the most fearful words ever spoken by
Jesus had to do with the fateful possibility of commit-
ting the unpardonable sin. He said,
“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blas-
phemy will be forgiven men, but the blas-
phemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven
men” (Matthew 12:31).
Here it is again:
“Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be for-
given the sons of men, and whatever blasphe-
mies they may utter; but he who blasphemes
against the Holy Spirit never has forgive-
ness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”
(Mark 3:28, 29).
And again, in Luke 12:10:
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
“And anyone who speaks a word against the
Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to
him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit,
it will not be forgiven.”
Let’s look at these texts closely. “I say to you,” Jesus
said, “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven.” We
should be so thankful that the Lord is a God who
forgives “every sin and blasphemy.” After all, human
beings are capable of some pretty gruesome and de-
praved acts, are we not? And yet Jesus here is very
clear: All can be forgiven. That’s how powerful and ef-
fectual Christ’s death on the cross was. It was enough
to cover every sin and blasphemy.
But we would be remiss to end right here, because
Jesus doesn’t end right here.
He goes on to say something very grave. He says
that the “blasphemy against the Spirit will not be for-
given men.” Amazing! “Anyone who speaks a word
against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him.” Yet
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven!
Right after some religious leaders in Israel, in cahoots
with the Romans, crucified Jesus, He prayed, “Father, for-
give them.” Would Jesus have uttered that prayer if it was
not possible for them to be forgiven? Even something as
horrible as crucifying the Son of God was forgivable.
But what did Jesus say in another place? “But
whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be
forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come”
(Matthew 12:32).
That’s heavy! They could be forgiven for driv-
ing nails into Jesus’ hands and hoisting him up on a
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ragged cross but not for “speaking” against the Holy
Spirit. No forgiveness—not now, not in judgment day,
not in the resurrection…not ever!
Again, we see this same contrast in Mark: “All sins
will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blas-
phemies they may utter.” That’s encouraging; is it not?
God is so merciful that He can forgive us all sins and
blasphemy. But then we are given this warning: “But
he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has
forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation”
(Mark 3:28, 29).
How much clearer could Jesus be? We obviously
don’t want to blaspheme against the Holy Spirit be-
cause it will lead to “eternal condemnation.” Thus,
how important it is that we learn two things:
• First, what does it mean to “utter blasphemy”
against the Holy Spirit?
• Second, how can we make sure that we don’t do it?
What the Unpardonable Sin Is Not
Now, whenever people hear about the unpardon-
able sin, their first question is, “What is it?”
In search of the answer, they often go the book of
Exodus and look through the Ten Commandments,
where they try to conjure up what they think is the
worst possible sin; that sin is surely, they surmise, the
unpardonable one.
For instance, one might believe that innocent life
is certainly the most important thing, and if someone
were to take an innocent life—that is, commit mur-
der—that would have to be the unpardonable sin.
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
After all, once a person is dead, there’s nothing that
can be done to bring that person back.
That makes sense, of course. Murder is horren-
dous. However, we clearly find examples in the Bible of
those guilty of murder who we believe will be in heaven.
First, there’s Moses. Exodus 2:12 says the great
prophet “looked this way and that way, and when he
saw no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the
sand.” That was the sin of murder. God didn’t want
Moses to commit it, but God did forgive the imperfect
prophet and even used Moses to do a great work in
leading the children of Israel out of Egypt.
How about David? In 2 Samuel 12:9, the prophet
Nathan said to David, “Why have you despised the
commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight?
You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you
have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed
him with the sword of the people of Ammon.” So, be-
sides murder, we can add adultery to David’s grievous
sin. Neither murder nor adultery, bad as they are (and
they are bad), can be the unpardonable sin, because
we know from the Bible that God forgave David both
of these sins—though, of course, the king did have to
live with the terrible consequences of his sins, which
is another matter entirely.
In our culture, perhaps the worst crime is when
someone sexually abuses or otherwise harms or kills
an innocent child. Truly, how much lower can a per-
son stoop? Even Jesus says, “Whoever causes one of
these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would
be better for him if a millstone were hung around his
neck, and he were thrown into the sea” (Mark 9:42).
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If anything were the unpardonable sin, one would
think it would be harming an innocent child.
This crime is actually mentioned in the Bible too.
As a matter of fact, in some pagan nations, infanticide
was part of their worship. They would kill their chil-
dren and burn them on altars, all to supposedly ap-
pease their gods. In the Bible, it’s referred to as making
their children “pass through the fire.”
It’s referenced in Ezekiel 16:20–22 as one of the
things that was especially offensive to the Lord re-
garding the nations that surrounded Israel. But what
made matters worse was that some Israelites began
doing the same thing to their own children. Despite
all the light that they had been given, they had fall-
en into one of the most awful and degrading of all
pagan practices! “They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons” (Psalm 106:37).
Now what could be worse than that—especially for
a people who should have known better because of
all the special revelations given to them as God’s
chosen nation?
But there’s somebody in the Bible who did this,
yet, according to the biblical record, we can believe
that person is forgiven. Manasseh was a king in Israel
who was guilty of infanticide. A king! 2Kings 21:6
says: “He made his son pass through the fire, prac-
ticed soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted
spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight
of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.” It was child
sacrifice, pure and simple. But you read on and the
Bible tells us that this king fully repented, accepted the
Lord, and even implemented a reformation in Israel.
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
It’s unimaginable to us that someone, after they get
involved in child sacrifice, could be forgiven. God is,
obviously, more gracious and merciful than most of
us would be, that’s for sure!
(Maybe you’ve heard of Ted Bundy, a vicious se-
rial killer of young women. The murders were espe-
cially horrific. When he was finally caught and put in
prison on death row, he confessed and ostensibly went
through a conversion process and accepted Jesus. The
respected family counselor Dr. James Dobson went to
visit Bundy before his execution, and the Christian
leader came away believing that God can even forgive
someone who did the horrible things that Bundy did,
as unimaginable as that might seem to us.)
Thus, when Jesus says there’s a sin for which you
can’t be forgiven, it must be really bad! Worse than
adultery…worse than murder…even worse than
child sacrifice!
Could it be the act of denying Christ? Well, can
we think of somebody in the Bible who openly and
blatantly denied Christ yet was forgiven? The book
of Matthew records how Peter swore up and down
that he would be faithful to Jesus no matter what.
However, when accused of being a follower of Christ,
he openly denied it—three times, even! “Then he be-
gan to curse and to swear.” It was bad enough that he
denied Christ, but he did it with cursing and swearing
as well! (See Matthew 26:69–75.)
Publicly denying Christ, renouncing that you know
Him, and doing it with an oath and foul language…
that’s pretty bad, especially for someone who had been
as privileged as Peter, who had been part of Jesus’
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intimate inner circle for so long and who had seen so
many miracles! Could that sin be forgiven?
Obviously it can, because Peter was not only for-
given his sin, he also became a leader in the early New
Testament church. Here are the words of Jesus to him
after Jesus had been raised from the dead:
“So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said
to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you
love Me more than these?’ He said to Him,
‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said
to him, ‘Feed My lambs.’ He said to him again a
second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love
Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that
I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Tend My sheep.’
He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, son of
Jonah, do you love Me?’ Peter was grieved be-
cause He said to him the third time, ‘Do you
love Me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know
all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said
to him, ‘Feed My sheep’” (John 21:15–17).
If that doesn’t sound like forgiveness, what does?
What About Suicide?
This is obviously a very emotionally charged sub-
ject. Indeed, who doesn’t know, either directly or in-
directly, someone who committed suicide? Sometimes
suicidal people call our radio program asking, “If I
commit suicide, can I still be saved?” What do you
think we tell them? We discourage them in every way
possible. We suggest to them that if the last act of a
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
person’s life is an act of utter hopelessness and faith-
lessness, and if the Bible tells us that without faith it’s
impossible to please God, what can we say? We do all
we can to dissuade them from the thought, reminding
them if the last act of their lives is self-murder, obvious-
ly, that wouldn’t bode very well for their eternal future.
At the same time, who doesn’t know someone
whose loved one, a child, perhaps, has taken his or
her own life? These dear people are so devastated by
the thought that a loved one’s next conscious thought
is that they are eternally lost, they do everything they
can in their reasoning to widen that gate. And, indeed,
we need to be careful not to be dogmatic about the
eternal destiny of anyone, including a suicide. Only
God knows the state of the heart and mind in those
last moments of life.
Besides, we have an example in the Bible of some-
one who committed suicide yet was still deemed faith-
ful: Samson. Judges 16:30 reads, “Then Samson said,
‘Let me die with the Philistines!’ And he pushed with
all his might, and the temple fell.” Yes, the temple fell
on the lords of the Philistines, killing them, but its walls
also fell on Samson. Some might argue, “Look, they were
getting ready to kill him anyway; he just thought to take
his enemy with him. Thus, Samson’s act of war was re-
ally a sacrifice and not a suicide. Nevertheless, Samson
knew that by knocking down the walls, he would kill
himself as well—and that is a form of suicide.
Will Samson be in heaven? In Hebrews 11, he’s
listed among the faithful. Suicide, though tragic in ev-
ery way, cannot be the unpardonable sin.
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The Horror of Hopelessness
On December 17, 1927, while surfacing, the US-
S-4 submarine was accidentally rammed and sunk by
the Coast Guard destroyer Paulding. The entire crew
was trapped in its prison house of death. Ships rushed
to the scene of disaster off the coast of Massachusetts,
where the doomed men clung to life as the oxygen
slowly gave out.
A diver placed his helmeted ear to the side of
the vessel and listened. He heard a tapping noise.
Someone was tapping out a question in the dots and
dashes of Morse code. The question came slowly:
“Is…there…any…hope?”
Sadly, despite their best efforts, there was no rea-
son for hope and all six men perished.
This seems to be the cry of humanity: “Is there
any hope?” Hope, indeed, is the basis of all human ex-
istence in Christ!
You have heard the expression, “Where there is
life there is hope.” This comes from the Bible, where
Solomon says, “But for him who is joined to all the liv-
ing there is hope, for a living dog is better than a dead
lion” (Ecclesiastes 9:4).
So far we have looked at some pretty heavy sins,
and yet we have reason to believe that, as bad as these
sins are, not one of them is the unpardonable sin that
Jesus spoke so strongly about.
What, then, is the sin that is so bad that it cannot
be forgiven, no matter what? What sin is so bad that
even the death of Jesus isn’t enough to save the guilty
one from condemnation? What sin leaves them with
no hope?
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
After all these years, who isn’t still disturbed by
the images from the 9/11 attacks on America? Some
are very graphic, like when photographers captured
images of those desperate and trapped workers in the
World Trade Center. They have photos of people on
the higher floors who found their way to the windows
in an effort to escape the flames. They couldn’t make
it down because the fires trapped them, but once
they got to the windows, then what? In some cases,
they were 40 stories above the ground, yet with no
other recourse, they jumped to their deaths rather
than be burned alive inside the building. Talk about
utter hopelessness!
Or what about this situation? He was a parachute
instructor who had spent so much time making sure
that his students were all suited up and cinched in
tight that one day he had forgotten, believe it or not,
to put on his own parachute. He then jumped out of
the airplane to his death! Can you imagine what he
must have felt like on the way down, knowing that
he was going to die? All that training for others…yet
he ended up doing something so careless. Again, talk
about an awful sense of hopelessness!
We use these two sad stories as an analogy for
what it must be like to have the Lord declare to a per-
son, a family, a nation, a city, or the world that there’s
no hope for them, that they are eternally lost. To still
be alive and know that your situation is hopeless is a
dreadful thought. It’s like that with the unpardonable
sin, the one sin that cannot be forgiven. So again we
ask, “What is it?”
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Blasphemy
As we saw above, in Luke 12:10, Jesus said, “Any-
one who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will
be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against
the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven” (emphasis sup-
plied). It is someone who “blasphemes” who cannot
be forgiven. Thus, we need to decipher what blasphe-
my is, because, obviously, it is a crucial component to
understanding the unpardonable sin.
In the Greek, the word is blasphemos and, accord-
ing to one dictionary’s concise definition, it means “to
vilify, to speak impiously, to defame, to rail upon, to
revile, to speak evil, to hurt or blast the reputation,
nature or works of God.” So to speak evil of God—
to defame, to vilify, to undermine Him with your
words—is blasphemy. There are some other defini-
tions, but this one is principally the one that Jesus uses
in this warning.
In the American Heritage Dictionary, blasphemy
is defined as “a contemptuous or profane act, utter-
ance, or writing concerning God or a sacred entity.”
It also gives another definition: “the act of claiming
for oneself the attributes and rights of God.” We ac-
tually believe this last one is closer to the definition
we’re looking for when the Bible speaks of blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit. But if you aren’t sure about dic-
tionary definitions, then let’s let the Bible define itself.
In the Bible, we find some stories in which blas-
phemy is cited, such as in John 10:33. At one point,
some of the leaders in Israel were trying to find a
reason to stone Jesus. “The Jews answered Him, say-
ing, ‘For a good work we do not stone You, but for
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make
Yourself God.’ ” Thus, man putting himself in the place
of God is a Bible definition of blasphemy, just as it was
in the dictionary.
Now look at Luke 5:21. “And the scribes and the
Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this who
speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone?’ ” Now, Jesus had just said He could forgive the
sins of a paralytic. The religious leaders were angry,
because they realized that by forgiving the man’s sin,
Jesus was putting Himself in the place of God.
In other words, suggesting that what you think is
more important than what God says. Isn’t that put-
ting yourself in the place of God? Some people might
not have considered that they’re at risk of committing
the unpardonable sin because they are claiming the
prerogatives of God for themselves. They’re making
themselves their own god. They’re not listening to the
words of God; instead, they’re saying, “My reasons are
more important than the commandments of God.” A
man putting himself in the place of God. That’s pretty
heavy. If that’s not blasphemy, what is?
Of course, blasphemy itself is not the unpardon-
able sin. In fact, we all have probably committed vary-
ing degrees of blasphemy at some point or another.
After all, the apostle Paul had been a blasphemer,
and we can be assured that Paul will be in heaven. In
1Timothy 1:13, he writes: “Although I was formerly a
blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I
obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.”
God’s grace to us is exceedingly abundant; it for-
gives even blasphemy. Indeed, right in Matthew 12:31,
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Jesus says: “Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiv-
en men” (emphasis supplied). Again, God’s grace is
amazing! All kinds of blasphemy are forgiven…ex-
cept the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.
Thus, in order to understand what blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit is, we also need to understand
what the Holy Spirit does. Once we grasp that, we can
then better understand what it means to blaspheme
the Holy Spirit and why it’s been deemed the unpar-
donable sin.
Three Functions
What does the Holy Spirit do? Why is His func-
tion so crucial that blasphemy against Him is so seri-
ous a sin that it cannot be forgiven?
Jesus said, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in My name, He will teach you
all things, and bring to your remembrance all things
that I said to you” (John 14:26). First, the Holy Spirit
teaches us things—the things we need to know for
our salvation.
Next, besides teaching us all things, Jesus indi-
cated that the Spirit will also “guide you into all truth”
(John 16:13). Every searching student of the Word has
probably experienced this guiding influence of the
Holy Spirit. There can be no true insight into biblical
truth without the enlightenment of this Spirit of God.
Finally, the mission of the Holy Spirit is to con-
vict of sin. Jesus said, “It is to your advantage that I go
away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come
to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And
when He has come, He will convict the world of sin,
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
and of righteousness, and of judgment” (John 16:7, 8).
It is the special work of the Holy Spirit to reprove us
and convict us of our sin. When wrongs are commit-
ted, the conscience is pricked with a sense of guilt—
that is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Thus, we see that the Holy Spirit 1) teaches us
what we need to know, 2) guides us into truth, and 3)
convicts of sin. This is His work. It is logical, therefore,
to conclude that as long as we allow the Holy Spirit
to teach us, to guide us, and to convict us, we could
never be guilty of committing the unpardonable sin.
But suppose we refuse to acknowledge these
three operations of the Spirit in our personal expe-
rience with God? That is exactly when people begin
to approach the deadly parameters of the worst sin
on record.
A Powerful Example
It is intriguing to study the actual examples of the
unpardonable sin in the Bible record. For instance,
at one time, practically everyone in the world passed
over that point of no return. Here is what the Bible
says about the state of the world before the global
flood: “And the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive
with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days
shall be one hundred and twenty years’” (Genesis 6:3,
emphasis added). That’s a scary declaration!
God is saying that at some point, enough is
enough. Look at what the pre-flood people were like:
“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord
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was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and
He was grieved in His heart” (Genesis 6:5, 6). If every
thought of their hearts was evil, imagine what their
words and deeds were like! They were so bad that God
was even sorry that He had created them.
These texts speak of the antediluvian world,
which perished in the global flood. For more than 100
years, the Holy Spirit pleaded with that wicked gen-
eration through the preaching of Noah. Although the
imagination of nearly every heart was evil continually,
a small remnant responded to the Spirit and entered
the ark. All the rest were swept away in the raging wa-
ters, which covered every inch of the earth’s surface.
After years of patient striving, the Spirit withdrew to
leave the stubborn sinners to their chosen fate.
Could the same thing happen again? There is an
amazing parallel between the days of Noah and today.
Jesus said, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be
also in the days of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:26). The
very same excesses of the pre-flood world are being
committed right now in the great cities of our world.
Perversions of the worst degree continue to mark the
carnal course of every nation under the sun as few
seek the safety of God’s hands.
It’s curious, of course. Why did the vast majority
of pre-flood people refuse to enter the ark of safety?
Many of them probably helped Noah construct that
huge vessel; they saw all the animals go aboard peace-
fully. Surely the Holy Spirit stirred them with convic-
tion, but they would not obey the message. Finally,
God said, “Let them alone. My Spirit will no longer
strive with them.”
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
Here we see a key issue that should help us un-
derstand the point of no return. God’s Holy Spirit
no longer strove among those people. That is, they
were so hardened in their rejection of the Spirit and
His pleadings with them that God finally had to say
enough is enough—no more.
We also see here at a corporate level what we’re
trying to find on an individual one: what it means to
spurn the Holy Spirit at such a level that nothing more
can be done for us because we have, indeed, reached
the PNR—the point of no return.
How crucial, then, it is for us as individuals to
make sure we don’t make the same mistake that these
people did and fall headlong into the same trap.
Conviction
The good news is that we don’t have to fall into that
trap, not as long as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit
in our lives. Remember, one of the things He does is
convict us of wrongdoing. “When He has come, He
will convict the world of sin” (John 16:8). To refuse,
to reject, and to harden yourself against the convict-
ing influence of the Spirit cannot be something good.
Indeed, as we just saw with those who lived before the
flood, it’s a big step toward crossing the PNR.
Think about it: Is it good to be convicted? If you
are standing in a house that’s caught on fire, your
nerves tell you to run. But if you ignore that pain from
the heat, you’re going to burn. Indeed, pain can be a
healthy thing if it helps you preserve your life, right?
Some unfortunate people have a disease that deadens
the pain nerves in their body. It might sound attractive
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to be unable to experience pain, but the problem is
that the people with this disease sustain all sorts of
injuries the rest of us don’t. For instance, if we were to
put our hand on a hot stove, we would instantly pull it
away. They wouldn’t pull away because they wouldn’t
feel the pain; hence, they would get badly burned in a
way we would not.
Thus pain—conviction—at the right time, in the
right place, is very important. And that’s especially
true when it comes to the work of the Holy Spirit
in bringing to us the conviction of sin. It was the
conviction of the Holy Spirit that led the men to ask
Peter, “What shall we do [to be saved]?” (Acts 2:37).
They were convicted; it was a healthy thing. Yet sup-
pose they were so hardened against the Spirit that
they ignored Peter and his powerful preaching.
One of the most important questions we can ask is,
“What must I do to be saved?” If you don’t ask it, if
you don’t care about being saved, what hope is there
for you?
Indeed, what if you had a son who was regularly
given to cursing, lying, and stealing without any feel-
ings of guilt? Would that not worry you? Wouldn’t
you want your kid’s conscience to bother him about
wrongdoing? You certainly wouldn’t want your son
to feel good, to boast in doing evil! You would want
him to be convicted and to act upon that convic-
tion of wrongdoing, right? It’s an encouraging thing
to see your child feel remorseful about doing wrong.
It’s a sign of growth. But if he’s morally calloused and
doesn’t have any conviction, that’s very dangerous and
any parent should be concerned.
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
Perhaps you remember the story in the book of
Exodus about the Pharaoh of Egypt. Talk about some-
one seeing evidence of the Spirit! What monarch saw
more miracles than he did? Moses would even come
and schedule out the miracles. He’d say there was
going to be a divine plague the next day, and it hap-
pened. Pharaoh personally witnessed the power of
God. How stubborn does one have to be to see a pillar
of fire, to see the Red Sea part, to see the Jews march-
ing through the sea, and yet be so bent on resisting
the evidence of God’s Spirit that he would still attack
His people?
Can you imagine how nervous those Egyptian
soldiers were as they saw the sea part and the chil-
dren of Israel pass through it on dry ground? They
could clearly see that God was with those people. “You
want us to do what? You still want us to attack them
after all these plagues to deliver them?” How stubborn
and ornery can someone be? It’s as if you’d have to
be possessed by another spirit, a dark spirit, to be
that obstinate.
Well, Pharaoh was that stubborn, and that is what
destroyed him in the end—along with his entire army.
He allowed his own heart to become hardened. He was
not able to acknowledge that he was wrong. Despite
all the incredible miracles he had seen, despite all the
evidence that he had witnessed, even the death of his
own first-born son, he refused to acknowledge the
power and sovereignty of the living God.
Take a moment to read these powerful words
from the writer E.G. White:
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“God had declared concerning Pharaoh, ‘I will
harden his heart, that he shall not let the peo-
ple go’ (Exodus 4:21). There was no exercise
of supernatural power to harden the heart of
the king. God gave to Pharaoh the most strik-
ing evidence of divine power, but the monarch
stubbornly refused to heed the light. Every
display of infinite power rejected by him,
rendered him the more determined in his re-
bellion. The seeds of rebellion that he sowed
when he rejected the first miracle produced
their harvest. As he continued to venture on
in his own course, going from one degree of
stubbornness to another, his heart became
more and more hardened, until he was called
to look upon the cold, dead faces of the first-
born” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 261).
We’re now seeing more clearly what this blasphe-
my against the Holy Spirit involves. We should also
start to discern that this lethal sin isn’t just one horri-
ble isolated deed, but a constant rejection of the work
that the Holy Spirit is seeking to do in a person’s heart.
John 16:13 says, “The Spirit of truth…will guide
you into all truth.” As we have seen, the Spirit guides
us, teaches us, and convicts us—but that’s just for
starters. For us to obtain forgiveness, what has to hap-
pen? “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrigh-
teousness” (1 John 1:9).
To receive God’s forgiveness, we must first re-
pent and confess. If we refuse, then we begin to head
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
toward the point of no return. But if our hearts are,
like Pharaoh’s, hardened, if we see evidence of God’s
work in our lives but consistently and repeatedly stifle
the conviction that the evidence brings, it’s not likely
that we are going to confess or repent of anything.
How could we?
The Crucial Context
The topic of the unpardonable sin should start to
be clearer now—it’s like Christianity 101. We need to
repent, we need to be convicted, we need to be guided,
we need to know that we have done wrong, and we
need to confess that wrong.
What brings about all these things in our lives? It
is the work of the Holy Spirit alone. Thus, blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit is rejecting and refusing to re-
spond to the leading, the teaching, and the conviction
of the Holy Spirit. It is closing the only door through
which we obtain forgiveness. That’s why it’s the sin
that cannot be forgiven.
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the sin for
which we will not repent and confess; hence, it is un-
pardonable, and that is why Jesus spoke so strongly
about it. Let’s look at the context in which Jesus ut-
tered one of His warnings about this sin.
Matthew 12:22 reads, “Then one was brought to
Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute.”
This person was in bad shape: blind, unable to speak,
and demon-possessed. The verse continues: “And
He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both
spoke and he saw.” The demon was cast out, and the
multitudes were amazed; they asked, “Could this be
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the Son of David?”—in other words, “Could this be
the Messiah?”
Why would they ask that? The evidence was over-
whelming that Jesus had the power of God against the
devil. He liberated and healed the man’s sight and
speech as they all stood there and watched. Imagine
if you were to see a miracle like that right before your
own eyes. Someone blind suddenly being able to see;
someone voiceless suddenly able to speak!
What, though, was the reaction of the Pharisees
when they heard about this miracle? “This fellow does
not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler
of the demons.” That was a very dangerous attitude
to have in the presence of God’s Son: to disregard the
obvious evidence of the working of God’s Spirit and to
instead call it the working of the devil!
The Pharisees called the work of Jesus the work
of a pagan deity. Beelzebub was a Phoenician god,
about the lowest of the low when it came to gods.
Beelzebub was also known as the “Lord of the Flies,” a
god of filth, because when the Phoenicians saw some
filth, or scum, or even a corpse, they noticed that flies
would land on them and, soon, worms and maggots
would appear. Not knowing about modern science,
they came to the conclusion that the filth and scum
of corpses somehow had the power to give life. They
thought some god must have put that power in there;
thus, they came to worship the “Lord of the Flies,”
Beelzebub. And this was the being that the religious
leaders said gave Jesus His power.
Talk about pushing the envelope.
Talk about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit!
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
They were denying the influence and power
of the Holy Spirit. That’s why Jesus—knowing their
thoughts—said,
“Every kingdom divided against itself is
brought to desolation, and every city or house
divided against itself will not stand. If Satan
casts out Satan, he is divided against himself.
How then will his kingdom stand? And if I
cast out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do
your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall
be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the
Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has
come upon you” (Matthew 12:25–28).
In other words, “If what I’m doing is of God, then
what are you men really doing and saying? What po-
sition are you taking in regard to what God is doing
in this world? You are ascribing to the devil the work
of the very God you claim to worship and serve.” They
were refusing to acknowledge the obvious demonstra-
tion of God’s Spirit. Look again at His statement in
Matthew 12:28: “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit
of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon
you.” He was pleading with them! “The kingdom of
God is come to you. Don’t reject it, don’t deny it, and
don’t mislabel it by calling the obvious signs of that
kingdom the work of the devil.”
But Jesus wasn’t finished. He continued,
“How can one enter a strong man’s house and
plunder his goods, unless he first binds the
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strong man? And then he will plunder his
house. He who is not with Me is against Me,
and he who does not gather with Me scatters
abroad” (Matthew 12:29, 30).
What was Jesus saying here? He was telling the
Pharisees, very clearly and unambiguously, that if they
weren’t recognizing His work as the power of God,
then they would eventually be filled with the power of
the devil. There’s no middle ground; we’re on one side
or the other. There is, indeed, a great controversy be-
tween good and evil, Christ and Satan, and we have to
make our choice about whose side we are going to join
in this conflict. And to be blunt: to not choose Christ
is to choose the other side—the devil’s side.
Now comes Jesus’ zinger:
“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blas-
phemy will be forgiven men, but the blas-
phemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven
men. Anyone who speaks a word against the
Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but who-
ever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not
be forgiven him, either in this age or in the
age to come” (Matthew 12:31, 32).
So now we have the full context in which Jesus
makes His statement about the unpardonable sin.
The Pharisees refused to recognize the work of
the Holy Spirit; they rejected the clear work of the
Spirit of God. Don’t miss this point: If we refuse to
acknowledge and recognize the working of the Holy
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What Is the Unpardonable Sin?
Spirit in our lives, then we are at risk of committing the
unpardonable sin.
Remember back in 2010, when those 33 Chilean
miners were trapped 2,300 feet below the surface? A
narrow, deep hole was dug through the rocky earth to
rescue them. If those miners refused to heed the voice
of their helpers, to escape through that tiny tunnel,
they would have surely died. There was no other way
for them to be saved!
Likewise, as we have seen, if the work of the Holy
Spirit is to guide us into knowledge and lead us to
repentance and conviction, and we reject that very
work, we are in danger of committing the unpardon-
able sin because it’s only through that work we can
be brought to repentance, which ultimately leads
to pardon.
One of the best definitions of the unpardonable
sin that I’ve read comes from E.G. White. She writes,
“No one needs look upon the sin against the
Holy Ghost as something mysterious and
indefinable. The sin against the Holy Ghost
is the sin of persistent refusal to respond to
the invitation to repent” (That I Might Know
Him, pg. 243).
That’s it…pure and simple! “The persistent re-
fusal to repent of sin.” That is the unpardonable sin.
Three Wrong Paths
Now that we better understand what the unpar-
donable sin is, the next question arises: How does it
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happen that someone gets in danger of committing it?
It’s fine that we know what it is, but that’s only part of
the issue. What’s just as important is what we need to
do to make sure we don’t commit it!
What happens, then, that causes people to com-
mit the unpardonable sin—to place themselves in a
position where they can’t be saved, where they have
crossed the point of no return? It happens like this …
Almost imperceptibly, the conscience is seared
and the heart is hardened. In fact, this is why it is
counted as such a terrible sin. Sometimes people don’t
understand why God considers this the worst thing
that can be done, but it is because the Holy Spirit is
the only way God can reach an individual with the
message of salvation. That is the way we are led to
repentance. If we did not have the Holy Spirit, there
would be no hope for us, because we have to repent in
order to be forgiven. If we have no sense of our need
of repentance, we won’t do it and, therefore, we won’t
be forgiven.
Again, it’s like a deep-sea diver. His oxygen tank
has the air he needs to live. His dive computer is al-
ways working to let him know when he’s in danger of
running out of air. But if he ignores the computer and
continues to descend when he knows he should start
ascending, he’s going to run out of air and drown. If he
obeys the warnings of his dive computer and makes
his way to the surface, he will live. But he has no way
of knowing that it’s getting dangerous for him but by
his dive computer—so is it wise for him to ignore it?
In the same way, in this sin-darkened world, the only
way God can reach us is through the Holy Spirit.
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In our analogy, God is the air we need to live;
Jesus is the salvation at the surface. The Holy Spirit
is the dive computer—He warns us that our spiritual
tank is running out of God and we need to surface to
Jesus to be saved. But if we turn away from the Spirit,
if we refuse to listen and obey our spiritual dive com-
puter, God will have to let us go; thus, we will be lost.
And it was our choice!
This was why King David was so deeply con-
cerned in his great prayer of contrition. While pour-
ing out his heart to God in Psalm 51, David prayed,
“Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not
take Your Holy Spirit from me” (verse 11). He realized
that if God removed the Holy Spirit from his life, he
was lost. He would be left alone with no way of being
saved. That’s why Jesus said this sin is the unpardon-
able sin. When you cut yourself off and refuse to listen
to the Holy Spirit, there is no hope for you.
Now, there are three specific ways in which peo-
ple can commit this hopeless sin.
1) The first way is for a person to simply admit
in his life, “I don’t want to be saved; I don’t want to
be bothered with God and the Bible.” Once in a while,
you’ll find a person like this—but not too often. Most
people really want to be saved, but now and then you’ll
find someone who just isn’t interested at all. He’s satis-
fied with his materialistic world even though he knows
it will ultimately lead to a complete dead end for him.
Proverbs 28:13 says: “He who covers his sins will
not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them
will have

A Little Light Reading.
How to keep the Sabbath Holy.

Doug Bachelor.

During the Paris Olympics in 1924,
Scotsman Eric Liddell, the son of a
missionary and a celebrated sprint-
er, was expected to win gold in the 100-me-
ter race. However, he discovered that the
time trials for his event were going to fall
on a Sunday, which he believed to be the
biblical Sabbath.
Even though he had relentlessly trained
and his country had emotionally and finan-
cially invested in him, he absolutely refused
to run in a race on that day. This difficult
decision put him under immense pressure
from politicians, teammates, and even some
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friends. “God will understand,” they plead-
ed. “Your country is counting on you! Do it
just this one time!”
But he said, “No. I can’t do it—not even
once.”
Well, it later turned out, providentially,
that Liddell could run in another event that
did not conflict with his beliefs: the 400-me-
ter run. However, during the time trials, he
didn’t perform very well. Teammates won-
dered about his ability to secure even a
bronze medal. But Liddell believed the re-
sults were in God’s hands; all he needed to
do was do his best.
Then, just prior to running the final
heat, he was handed a slip of paper from an
American trainer with this profound mes-
sage written on it: “Those who honor me, I
will honor” (1 Samuel 2:30). When the start
gun sounded, Liddell went off like a shot,
ran like lightning, and broke the standing
record to finish first!
Eric Liddell firmly believed in obey-
ing God no matter the cost—and that
meant following every one of His Ten
Commandments, including the fourth. This
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deep faithfulness and devotion is to be ad-
mired; even if he had the specific day wrong,
he had the principle right.
For him the Sabbath commandment was
no less important than the ones that say, “Do
not murder,” and, “Do not commit adultery.”
It’s very difficult for some people to wrap
their minds around that idea; “After all,” they
say, “It’s just a day!” But I also believe it is
absolutely true that this commandment is
as equally important as any other. Very few
people, after accepting Christ, dispute nine
of the Ten Commandments, but the fourth
they often see as a “personal preference” or
an optional commandment. But it’s not just
a recommendation from Moses; it’s the very
law of the Almighty.
The Bible tells us, “For whoever shall
keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one
point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). The
devil doesn’t care whether your sin is adul-
tery or idolatry or murder or Sabbath break-
ing, just as long as he can get you to sin and
separate you from God.
He knows that in God’s view, the Sabbath
commandment is not any less important
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than the other nine. That’s why I believe it
is the devil’s plan to erode our convictions
about the Sabbath through rationalizations
and compromises, so that when the big test
of the last days comes, when we must choose
whom we will worship on penalty of death,
many people will have been so trained to
stumble that they won’t be prepared to take
a stand. That’s why it is so important to be
faithful now in keeping the Sabbath holy; it’s
all about preparation.
But before we delve too far into the hows
of keeping the Sabbath holy, let’s first begin
by determining what it means for a day to
be holy …
What Is Holy?
Let’s start our study of the Sabbath by
taking a careful look at the commandment
itself, found in Exodus 20:
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep
it holy. Six days you shall labor and
do all your work, but the seventh
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day is the Sabbath of the Lord your
God. In it you shall do no work: you,
nor your son, nor your daughter, nor
your male servant, nor your female
servant, nor your cattle, nor your
stranger who is within your gates.
For in six days the Lord made the
heavens and the earth, the sea, and
all that is in them, and rested the sev-
enth day. Therefore the Lord bless-
ed the Sabbath day and hallowed it"
(vv. 8–11, my emphasis).
God says there is holy time; what does
He mean?
The word “holy” means something “ded-
icated, set apart, or consecrated to God.” And
it’s clear from the Bible that some things are
holy and should not be profaned or treated
as common.
For one, marriage is called holy. You can
court someone for years, but it’s not a holy
relationship until you seal the covenant and
marry him or her. Profaning that holy rela-
tionship is a violation of the commandment
against adultery. Tithe is also called holy
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(Leviticus 27:30). It can be hard to grasp
that one dollar among every ten dollars of
income you earn is considered holy by God,
but nonetheless, using that sacred 10 percent
to make a car payment profanes something
God has declared to be sacred.
Well, likewise, God also points out in
the Sabbath commandment that a certain
amount of time each week is holy—not be-
cause a particular church teaches it, but be-
cause He said so. No man in the world can
call common what God has blessed as holy.
Nor does God say, “Remember the Sabbath
to make it holy.” We can’t make it holy; God
is the one who makes something holy. In the
fourth commandment, He is saying, “I’ve al-
ready made it holy, so recognize what I have
done and respect me.” Keeping the Sabbath
holy is all about a love relationship with God.
The Sabbath Before
the Commandments
Did you know that the fourth command-
ment takes us all the way back to Genesis?
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“Thus the heavens and the earth, and
all the host of them, were finished.
And on the seventh day God ended
His work which He had done, and He
rested on the seventh day from all His
work which He had done. Then God
blessed the seventh day and sancti-
fied it, because in it He rested from
all His work which God had created
and made” (Genesis 2:1–3).
The Sabbath was not made only for the
Jews but for all humanity. This is why Jesus
said, “The Sabbath was made for man”
(Mark 2:27). He is referring back to the time
of the garden of Eden; the Sabbath was made
for all mankind.
The idea that the Sabbath was first
presented at Mt. Sinai is a common
misunderstanding.
Exodus 20 might be where we hear God
first speaking the fourth commandment—in
fact, He hasn’t even written it down in stone
at this point—but it is in Exodus 16, a few
chapters before the commandment is actual-
ly spoken by God, that the Lord rains down
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manna from the heavens six days a week. On
Fridays, the Israelites were to collect twice
as much manna because there would be no
manna raining down from the sky on the
seventh day of the week. God was treating
the Sabbath as if it was something the Jews
already clearly understood. When some of
them went out on the Sabbath looking for
bread, God responded, “How long will you
refuse to keep my laws?” He was calling the
Sabbath a law before they ever arrived at
Mt. Sinai.
Does mankind need rest? Yes! This
principle comes from the very beginning.
Some believe that because the Bible is si-
lent on something, it must not have existed.
Yet because you don’t read a lot about the
Sabbath in Genesis, it’s no reason to assume
that it wasn’t there or didn’t exist. Still, it’s
quite obvious that it was there when God
rested on the seventh day and hallowed
it at the creation. In fact, there is no spo-
ken or written commandment before Mt.
Sinai that says we’re not to commit adul-
tery, but Joseph acknowledged that adultery
was a sin even before God wrote it in the
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Ten Commandments. It’s clearly stated in
Genesis 39:9. And, of course, it was a sin for
Cain to kill Abel long before God said, “You
shall not murder.”
Also take notice—when you look at the
Ten Commandments, how many of them
involve the word “keep”? “Remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” The com-
mandment does not say, “You shall not
keep adultery.” There is one place in the
commandment dealing with idolatry that
says “showing mercy unto thousands that
love me and keep my commandments.” But
that’s really a general phrase for all of the
commandments. So the only law that spe-
cifically uses the word “keep” is the Sabbath
commandment. It seems strange, then, that
it’s really the only commandment that much
of the Christian world says is no longer an
obligation to keep. But as we’ve seen, it was
there in creation at the beginning. And the
Bible promises it’s going to be in the New
Earth (Isaiah 66:22, 23). God wants us to
keep it now—it is an eternal, holy gift to
all creation!
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A Dangerous Topic
Unfortunately, it is easy to be misunder-
stood or to appear to be extreme when some-
one is committed to Sabbath observance—it
might even be labeled “legalistic.” In the
time of Jesus, two fanatical religious groups
struggled for supremacy, the Sadducees and
the Pharisees. They were, for lack of better
words, the liberals and the conservatives of
their day. The Sadducees didn’t believe in
angels or resurrection; that’s pretty liberal
theology. The Pharisees, on the other hand,
were so meticulous in their Sabbath keep-
ing, they manufactured many intricate rules
to ensure you didn’t walk too far on Sabbath
or carry anything that might be considered
a burden.
For instance, I understand that de-
vout Pharisees carried a ball of string they
would unravel to measure off the distance
they travelled to ensure they would only
walk the appropriate distance on any given
Sabbath. They didn’t want to carry a burden
on the Sabbath day either, and if you carried
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a handkerchief to blow your nose on the
Sabbath, it was a burden and you were con-
sidered to be working. So they got around
their own rules by sewing the handkerchief
to their clothes. They’d blow their nose on
the hankie, which was now considered a part
of their clothing. It doesn’t sound very good
to us to blow our noses on our clothes, but
they figured at least they wouldn’t be carry-
ing a burden! They had hundreds of such
manmade rules about the Sabbath and other
religious duties.
Well, Jesus often battled with the
Pharisees regarding Sabbath observance; He
would heal somebody that day and then be
accused of breaking the Sabbath. While the
commandment certainly doesn’t forbid heal-
ing on the Sabbath, and Jesus, God Himself,
did it, we should also realize that Jesus never
responded to His accusers by saying, “You
don’t need to keep the Sabbath anymore.”
Every debate He had about the Sabbath was
about how to keep it holy, not whether or not
to keep it.
Interestingly, the spiritual problem in
the time of Christ was certainly more about
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legalism. But before then, in the time of
Jeremiah and Isaiah, Sabbath problems
were more like the problems we face today.
The Jews in their time were largely ignor-
ing the Sabbath, not keeping it any better
than the pagans. They were being careless
in their Sabbath observance. And that’s the
crisis in the Christian community at large
today: We treat God’s commandment with
sloppy indifference.
As a pastor, I’m not just writing to you.
I’m writing to the Batchelor family. My wife,
Karen, and I are constantly educating and
reminding ourselves about what is right and
what is not right on the Sabbath. We are liv-
ing in such a relentlessly busy culture that
it takes conscious thought, planning, and
effort to really rest. I confess that at times
I’ve neglected to keep the Sabbath the way
I should—so this isn’t about judging you;
rather, it’s a Bible study for all people who
love the Lord and want to do His will. It’s
not legalistic to love the Lord and want to
please Him by showing you’re serious about
keeping the Sabbath day holy according to
His commandment.
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So don’t let people accuse you of being
legalistic because you’re asking practical
questions about what a person should and
shouldn’t do on the Sabbath. That’s our pur-
pose here—to ask realistic questions that
help us get closer to God’s will for our lives.
Finding Out How
to Keep It Holy
The Ten Commandments are, in some
ways, an abbreviation of the law of God. For
instance, when it says, “You shall not take
the name of the Lord your God in vain,” the
commandment doesn’t go into great detail
to explain every possible way in which a per-
son could take God’s name in vain—wheth-
er it’s swearing, using God’s name carelessly,
or claiming you’re a Christian but living as a
hypocrite (Exodus 20:7).
The commandment that says to
not commit adultery is pretty brief (see
Exodus 20:14). But I think you and I know
there is a lot more to that one statement than
a commentary on husband and wife. What
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else does it involve? How about two people
who aren’t married having sex? Is it adultery
then? You must invest a little practical study
and understanding in how to rightly obey the
adultery commandment when you’re mar-
ried and when you’re not married. As Jesus
clearly teaches, it’s broader than the summa-
ry statement you find etched in stone. So the
details of the law require our further study,
and you’ll find examples of this command-
ment being honored or disregarded in other
ways in many places in the Bible.
In regard to our goal of better under-
standing the fourth commandment, we also
need to look at the specifics of Scripture
through a study of Bible principles.
For example, in Hebrews 4:11, we read,
“Let us [labor] therefore to enter into that
rest” (KJV). Laboring to rest? That sounds
like a contradiction, doesn’t it? But that’s
really what happens when we prepare for
the Sabbath. We invest additional labor so
that we might enjoy the blessed rest of the
Sabbath more fully. While I’m not compar-
ing the Sabbath with a typical family vaca-
tion, if you’re going to have a good vacation,
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it does require extra work, planning, and
preparation to make it happen.
I believe that in order for us to really
enjoy the release and peace that God has
designed for this holy day, we must labor
to enter the Sabbath rest. And this involves
educating ourselves. God throughout His
Word gives us a lot more details about what
is involved in keeping the Sabbath holy. As
we’ll see, it does not mean that you simply
swing in a hammock all day long, sipping
pineapple juice through a straw. There’s a lot
more to God’s rich rest!
Of course, the fourth commandment is
also the longest of all the commandments—
precisely because it goes into the most detail.
It says that people are to rest, their animals
are to rest, their servants are to rest—every-
body within their gates, their borders of au-
thority, are to rest and enjoy the fruits of the
Sabbath day.
The Sabbath commandment is also
somewhat different from most of the others
because it makes statements in both a posi-
tive sense and a negative sense. Most of the
others are only stated in the negative—“you
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shall not.” The Sabbath commandment says,
“You shall keep it holy” and “you shall not
work.” It gives both sides, so I’m going to ap-
proach this message in the same way.
Preparing for the Sabbath
John Wesley tells a good story about a
devoted new convert to Christianity who
was hurrying to shine his shoes just before
the Sabbath. It took him about 15 minutes
to do each shoe. Well, he got one shoe done,
but realized the sun would go down before
he could finish the other one, so he put
it away.
Did he make the right decision? He went
to church the next day with one bright, shiny
shoe and one dull, scuffed shoe. Would you
call him a fanatic? Maybe even a Pharisee?
I believe to call this fanaticism is to misun-
derstand the principle that specific time is
declared holy by God. We think, “How can
it be okay to be shining a shoe one moment,
but then after a few more ticks of the clock,
it’s suddenly a sin?”
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Well, in a similar way, a young man
might have a girlfriend he is very fond of,
but it’s inappropriate for him to gaze upon
her unclothed form or to be with her inti-
mately. But after they make some vows be-
fore God in a wedding ceremony, suddenly
what was once a sin is now holy and good.
So yes, little things, like the tick of a clock
or saying “I do,” can mean all the difference
between holy and common.
In many of our Sabbathkeeping homes,
we have become very sloppy, saying, “Oh,
the sun is down, but I’ve still got a few more
dishes to do.” And why stop mowing the
lawn at sundown when you only have a few
more passes to make to complete the job?
“It’s not that big of a deal … right, God?”
For one thing, what is your unbelieving
neighbor thinking as he drives by and sees
that the sun is down and you’re still mow-
ing? What message are you sending to your
family and your neighborhood? In your
mind, the devil is saying it’s not a big deal. In
the mind of the witness, the devil is calling
you a hypocrite. It is part of Satan’s game to
highlight our inconsistencies and to erode
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our commitment. Please don’t let him use
you as a pawn in his game.
And most important, God is watch-
ing. So it truly is better to leave something
common undone than to defile the edges of
the Sabbath.
What Is Your Attitude?
Does God want us to dread the ap-
proaching Sabbath? No! He wants it to be
a blessing. But if we don’t have a love rela-
tionship with Jesus, we’ll be watching the
clock instead of enjoying time with Him.
When the Sabbath nears, we’ll be thinking,
“Oh, heavens! I’ve got all this stuff to do. Is
it Sabbath already? Now I don’t have time to
do it.” It’s as if the Sabbath is a burden rather
than a blessing. That’s not the attitude God
wants us to have. God wants us to eagerly
look forward to the Sabbath.
And who hasn’t heard a young child
say, “Is it still Sabbath?” They’re looking
for the moment they can do whatever they
want, right? I’ve even caught myself looking
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wistfully out the window at twilight and
wondering if the Sabbath is over so I can
get on with my next project. I’m ashamed of
having done that. Should we have that kind
of attitude?
It means we need a change in our hearts.
The Bible mentions that this very thing was
a problem even in Old Testament times. In
Amos 8:5, people say, “When will the new
moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and
the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?”
They were waiting for the sun to go down
and the Sabbath to be over so they could do
their own thing.
Well, let’s suppose a young man is smit-
ten by a young woman, but because of their
schedules, they can only spend a few hours
a week together. He arranges his schedule to
get all of his business concluded, but while
they’re together, she’s talking to him and
he doesn’t seem to be paying attention. As
they’re walking side by side, she says, “You
seem like you’re a thousand miles away.”
He confesses, “Well, you know, I’m
thinking about my next work project I’ve got
coming up this week.”
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Or what if they’re sitting together over a
dinner that she’s spent time preparing and
he keeps checking the text messages on his
phone or looking at the clock, saying, “Is
our date over yet? You mind if I leave ear-
ly?” What would that say about his heart?
Would that hurt her feelings? His words and
attitude indicates something is wrong with
the relationship.
We want the Lord to have our hearts, and
when He has our hearts we won’t be asking
those kinds of questions about the Sabbath.
God wants the Sabbath to be a delight. And
I believe the more we come to know and
love God, the more delightful the Sabbath
will become.
The Sabbath is a time for rest, so it
should start and end with peaceful and
biblical worship. There ought to be de-
cisive beginnings and endings too—we
should “guard the edges” of the Sabbath.
We shouldn’t be scrambling around an
hour after the Sabbath has begun and say-
ing, “Well, I guess we should stop what
we’re doing and have a little prayer.” Instead
of really worshiping, singing, and reading
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something of substance, we’re in a state of
hurried panic.
True, it does take a little more effort
and planning to give God the honor He de-
serves. If a great king were coming to visit
our home, we would plan how to prepare
for his entrance and receive him with hon-
or and respect. Jesus, our true King, said He
will come again. We want to do all we can to
be ready to welcome Him when He returns,
right? Well, every Sabbath we have a chance
to practice welcoming our King as He comes
into our homes to bring us a blessing.
Why put off God to the last minute any-
way? When catching a plane, I like to get to
the airport early. If I’m going to wait a little
while, I would rather wait at the terminal,
packed and ready to go, than to wait at home
and fret over whether some traffic problem
is going to make me miss my flight. I say be
ready early! And that’s the way it is with the
Sabbath. When it’s coming to an end, don’t
watch the clock, blow the whistle, and an-
nounce, “It’s over! We can finally do our own
thing now.” That makes Jesus feel like you’re
in a hurry to show Him the door.
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Remember, if you keep the Sabbath with
your heart, you might be accused of being
legalistic and Pharisaical and fanatical, but it
will always be worth it in your relationship
with God. Jesus is the one you are seeking
to please.
In fact, let’s take some time to see how
God’s people honored Him over their own
self-interests and in the face of persecution
and the doubts of those around them …
Daniel and King Darius
I once watched a Muslim friend excuse
himself from our lively game of racquet-
ball, find a corner in the middle of a crowd-
ed health club, roll out a prayer rug, and
begin praying toward Mecca. Although it
might have seemed odd to most people, the
devoted man knew it was the time for his
prayers—and he did not care what anyone
else around him thought. He was more in-
terested in what his god thought.
Similarly, in Daniel chapter 6, we read
about a political law that required an entire
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nation to pray to King Darius for 30 days;
those who refused faced a grizzly execution.
This meant that the Jews in the land were
legally forbidden to worship their Lord, but
Daniel had a custom he was not about to
break. Three times a day he’d go to an upper
room in his house, kneel down, and, in front
of an open window, pray and give thanks
to God. He always faced toward Jerusalem,
as Solomon said, so passersby would know
the identity of the God he worshiped (see
1 Kings 8:48).
When the law was enacted, Daniel had
to make a choice—to obey an earthly king or
to obey God. But what we sometimes miss
in this story is that Daniel had actually made
the choice a thousand times before when he
boldly and openly prayed to his God in a pa-
gan land. It was his custom. So even though
he risked getting torn limb from limb by rav-
enous lions, it was his custom to honor God
with his regular devotions.
He could have compromised—perhaps
even just a little bit. How easily he could have
said to himself, “Well, look … I don’t want to
offend the king. It might be a bad witness. I
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could look obnoxious, so I’m just going to
shut my window.” It would have been easy
for him to argue within himself, “I’m going
to kneel and pray quietly, but I’ll face the
royal palace so people don’t know that I’m
really praying to Jehovah.” He had so many
rationalizations at his fingertips, but he re-
fused to grasp on to them for selfish reasons.
Did God honor Daniel because Daniel
honored Him? Yes! The Lord delivered his
faithful prophet and destroyed his enemies.
Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego
Then, of course, you have the example
of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in
Daniel chapter 3. The three Jews faced an-
other government law requiring false wor-
ship. The Bible records the decree as saying
that if anyone failed to bow and pray to the
golden image that the Babylonian king set
up, they were going to die in the flaming fur-
nace. The Jews could even see the colossal
oven smoldering in the distance.
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How easy it would have been for the
three Hebrew slaves to say, “When the music
plays and everyone else bows down to the
idol, let’s all just stoop down to adjust our
sandals. I’m not actually going to pray to the
image, but, you know, we don’t want to be a
spectacle and disrupt the king’s party.” They
could have found any number of additional
excuses to look innocent and not really wor-
ship the king. They’d totally pray to the Lord
with all their hearts. After all, that’s what
really matters—right? How many rational-
izations they could have found to just cut
corners, but they said, “No! We will not even
appear like we’re compromising our worship
of God.” They stood up for God, and God
stood up for them!
I can guarantee you—in the same way
the three young Hebrew men probably
had some friends tugging on their trousers
to bow down when the music played, you
will be challenged and tested when you de-
termine to keep God’s Sabbath. As every-
one else bowed to the image in Babylon,
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego prob-
ably heard, “Get down! Are you crazy? Just
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this once. Don’t be a fanatic!” Yes, the world,
even some in the church, probably thought
they were fanatics, but God honored them,
because Jesus said, he that is faithful in that
which is least is faithful also in much.
Mordecai
In the book of Esther, we find a similar
story regarding Haman the Aggagite, one
of God’s enemies, who was descended from
the Amalekites, the first nation to attack the
children of Israel when they left Egypt.
A law was made by the king of Persia
that said everybody was to bow down and
worship Haman. Mordecai, a Jew living in
Persia, said, “I can’t do that, even if it means
that I lose my life.” He knew that his people
would be targeted for his actions, but even
though his devotion might lead to the suf-
fering of others, he said, “I’m not going to
compromise.” And indeed, a law was made
to exterminate all of God’s people. Did God
intervene to deliver His people despite the
threats? He most certainly did. I encourage
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you to read the story for yourself and marvel
at how God will bless you if you choose to
make His worship supreme.
Desmond Doss
I had the privilege of becoming friends
with a man who received the Congressional
Medal of Honor. It’s the highest award that
can be given in the United States. It was
awarded to only one non-combatant in his-
tory—a Seventh-day Adventist Christian
named Desmond T. Doss.
When called to serve during World War
II, he said, “I will serve. I will try to save lives,
but I refuse to pick up a weapon or take lives.”
He also told them right from the beginning
that he wouldn’t work on the Sabbath un-
less it was a medical emergency. Actually, he
didn’t say, “I won’t do it.” He said, “I can’t do
it, because as much as I respect my officers
and superiors, God comes first.”
The army would try to put a rifle in his
hands, and he wouldn’t hold it. They would
try to make him work, and he would say,
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“On the Sabbath, I can’t. I’ll work six days
a week, 24-hours-a-day, but from sundown
Friday to sundown Saturday, I can’t work.” If
a life was in danger, he would gladly assist—
but when it came to chores like sweeping the
barracks or shoveling dirt, he flatly refused.
And for this commitment, he was jeered,
tormented, ridiculed, and given the most
unpleasant assignments all through his mil-
itary experience … that is, until they got to
the front lines in the Pacific theater. His unit
participated in some of the worst fighting in
Okinawa during World War II. They were
once called to storm a Japanese-held escarp-
ment, and a hail of fire was coming down
on them. Many marines and soldiers were
killed, and scores of wounded lay on top of
the bluff.
Doss heard their pleas for help and went
up the cliff time after time to tend to them,
and then lower them back down to safety,
all while under a constant blizzard of ene-
my bullets. Every time he got back, the other
soldiers would say, “You better stop. Don’t
push your luck.” But when he heard anoth-
er person calling out, he went back. No one
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else went. In the end, Doss singlehanded-
ly brought back 70 wounded men! He was
fearless, saying, “I’d rather die than disobey
God’s Sabbath.” Remember, the Bible says,
“Those who honor me, I will honor.”
The Attitude of Devotion
During World War II, many Jews in con-
centration camps were told they had to go
dig up potatoes on Sabbath. The Nazis loved
forcing people to compromise their beliefs.
I have Jewish relatives who experienced this
evil firsthand, and they were made to work on
the Sabbath. Some of the victims were deter-
mined to be true, saying, “I cannot do this. It’s
God’s Sabbath.” And they were either killed or
tortured. Just like that. Others, of course, did
compromise to save their lives, and I’m not
here to judge them in that experience—it’s
nothing I’ve ever had to face in my life … yet.
In the days of Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego, when they stood up, do you
think they were the only Jews in the crowd
that day? I’m sure there were some who
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bowed down. I’m afraid to say that there will
be some Sabbathkeeping Christians who
will go along with the world in the last days
to save their lives. That’s why this message
is important. And if you don’t know how to
make a decision to honor the Sabbath when
it is relatively easy, you need to ask the Lord
for help now. Here’s why …
A Last-day Test
In these stories of Daniel, Mordecai, and
the three Hebrew slaves, the issue was about
whether to obey the commandments of God
or men. (In fact, a dispute over true worship
was also the issue involved when Cain killed
Abel; see Genesis 4:2–15.) Could it also be
that the last test before the end of time also
revolves around the issue of proper worship?
Revelation 13:15 explains that in the
future, a terrible law will be enacted by the
beast power, who is “granted power to give
breath to the image of the beast, that the im-
age of the beast should both speak and cause
as many as would not worship the image of
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the beast to be killed.” A law is going to be
made regarding worship, that if you do not
worship in the way the beast power dictates
you should—at first you will not be able to
buy or sell, then, ultimately, they will declare
the death penalty.
In Revelation chapter 14, where we find
the three angels’ messages, an angel declares,
“Worship Him who made heaven and earth,
the sea and springs of water” (v. 7). That’s a
quote right out of the Sabbath commandment!
“For in six days the Lord made the heavens
and the earth, the sea.” Then Revelation 14:12
says, speaking of the saved, “Here is the pa-
tience of the saints; here are those who keep
the commandments of God.” It is contrasting
those who keep the commandments of God
with those who worship the beast—
“If anyone worships the beast and his
image, and receives his mark on his
forehead or on his hand, he himself
shall also drink of the wine of the
wrath of God, which is poured out
full strength into the cup of His in-
dignation” (v. 9).
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The most fearsome curse in the Bible is
found right here in Revelation 14, and it’s
identifying those who worship the beast. Just
a few verses later, on the other hand, it talks
about those who keep the commandments of
God. And it doesn’t mean some of the com-
mandments, because everybody keeps some
of them. It’s talking about a people who con-
sistently keep all of the commandments.
And whether you know something is
holy or not, it’s still holy. Yes, there are go-
ing to be many people in heaven who might
have kept the wrong day as the Sabbath;
they simply did not know the full truth, and
the Lord will judge and bless them accord-
ing to the light they had available. But they
honored what they believed to be His com-
mandments, just as Eric Liddell did.
So now that we have explored and un-
derstand the principles of why keeping the
Sabbath holy should be our priority, what
about some practical ways to ensure you’re
keeping it the way God wants you to keep it?
We’ll cover that in the next section …
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Part 2
A Cornell University study con-
firms the detrimental effects that
work-related stress can have on
families. Married couples with children and
also burdened by long hours of work report
the lowest quality of life among couples.
Additionally, 43 percent of all adults suffer
adverse health effects from stress, and at least
75 percent of all physician office visits are at-
tributed to stress-related ailments, according
to the American Psychological Association.
Stress is also linked to the six leading causes
of death in the United States: heart disease,
cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis,
How to Keep the Sabbath Holy TEXT.indd 39 2/13/14 2:45 PM 40
How to Keep the Sabbath Holy
and suicide. So many people are in desper-
ate need of rest!
Before Moses approached Pharaoh to
seek liberation for Israel, he met with the op-
pressed Hebrew leaders. During this meet-
ing, Moses encouraged the people to conse-
crate themselves to the Lord and told them
that God was about to deliver them from
slavery with a mighty hand.
The Israelites had been laboring seven
days a week to maintain their heavy work-
load for the Egyptians. But after this meet-
ing, they evidently decided to renew their
covenant with God and began resting again
every seventh day. A furious Pharaoh said to
Moses, “You make them rest from their la-
bor!” (Exodus 5:5). The angry king figured
he must do something drastic to keep the
slaves under his control, so in an effort to
crowd God from their thoughts, he drowned
them further in rigorous labor and increased
their workload (see Exodus 5:7, 8). But in an
incredible way, God liberated His people
from their bondage.
Well, God is about to do great things for
His people again. Soon they will be delivered
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from the slavery of sin and journey to the
heavenly Promised Land. And, once again,
as God is now trying to turn the minds of
His people toward the importance of the
Sabbath rest, the devil is seeking to drown
this generation in work and stress.
Most people in the world don’t un-
derstand the dire consequences of break-
ing the fourth commandment. Even many
Christians believe the Sabbath is just a day
where you put in your two hours at church
and then go to a football game, visit the mall,
or mow the lawn. But is this trend a bibli-
cal one? How is a Christian to keep God’s
Sabbath day holy?
And again, before Christ comes, the
Bible teaches that loyalty to God’s Sabbath
will be a dividing issue between God’s people
and the rest of the world. If someday keeping
the Sabbath will potentially cost us our lives,
should we take a soft approach to this sacred
day right now?
It’s like taking a pop quiz in school with
questions that will appear on the final. We’ve
been warned that these quizzes will happen,
so we make choices to prepare ourselves for
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the final test by being ready for the pop quiz-
zes. Passing a weekly quiz now helps us to
be ready for the final test—and in the case
of the Sabbath, that means determining our
commitment to God.
Remember Reminder
The fourth commandment begins with
the word “Remember.” Why does God begin
the Sabbath law with this word? Perhaps be-
cause the Lord knew how inclined we would
be to forget! In fact, notice how within this
one command you will find the what, the
where, the who, the how, the when, and the
why for keeping the Sabbath. God must have
known we would have a lot of questions
about the Sabbath, so this commandment
has more specifics than any other. Let’s look
at the different parts:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep
it holy [what]. Six days you shall labor
and do all your work [how], but the
seventh day [when] is the Sabbath of
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the Lord your God HILARY OKWUDE. In it you
shall do no work [how]: you, nor your
son, nor your daughter, nor your male
servant, nor your female servant, nor
your cattle, nor your stranger HILARY OKWUDE
who is within your gates [where]. For
in six days the Lord made the heav-
ens and the earth, the sea, and all that
is in them, and rested the seventh
day. Therefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and hallowed it Akinbo Victor ”
(Exodus 20:8–11).
God covered a lot of ground in just this
one commandment. Some people think that
this is the least of the Ten Commandments,
one that we can modify on a whim or totally
skip over. But Jesus said, “Whoever therefore
breaks one of the least of these command-
ments, and teaches men so, shall be called
least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever
does and teaches them, he shall be called great
in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19).
Is the Sabbath a “little” commandment?
If you were to pick one commandment to
break, perhaps you might think the Sabbath is
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not as important as not committing adultery,
stealing, or worshiping idols. Yet, in the Old
Testament, the penalty for Sabbath breaking
was death. There was retribution for stealing,
but the Sabbath law had a severe penalty.
Perhaps you’ve read about this incident
of Sabbath breaking in the Old Testament:
“Now while the children of Israel were in
the wilderness, they found a man gathering
sticks on the Sabbath day” (Numbers 15:32).
Here was someone who was clearly violating
God’s holy commandment and went against
the express will of the Lord. This purpose-
ful sin was met with the penalty of death
(vv. 35, 36). I am certainly not recommend-
ing anyone be executed for breaking the
Sabbath, but obviously this commandment
is very important to God.
A message from the Lord through Ezekiel
also brings out how seriously the Lord takes
the significance of the Sabbath:
“Moreover I also gave them My
Sabbaths, to be a sign between them
and Me, that they might know that I
am the Lord who sanctifies them. Yet
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the house of Israel rebelled against
Me in the wilderness; they did not
walk in My statues; they despised My
judgments, ‘which, if a man does, he
shall live by them’; and they great-
ly defiled My Sabbaths. Then I said
I would pour out My fury on them
in the wilderness, to consume them”
(Ezekiel 20:12, 13).
Not only is the Sabbath a sign of our
saving relationship with the Lord, breaking
the Sabbath is not an issue God takes lightly.
Verses 20 to 24 also bring out how earnestly
the Lord feels about profaning the Sabbath
day. If we let our consciences be our guide
and let our feelings determine how to keep
the Sabbath, we will ignore the specific in-
structions given in the Bible for keeping
God’s day in a way that honors Him.
Avoiding Both Extremes
Before sharing some specifics on how to
keep the Sabbath, I want to highlight a couple
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of extremes that can distort our thinking on
how to honor this distinct day.
When Jesus was on this earth, the
Pharisees taught people to keep the Sabbath
in an extremely legalistic way. They went so
far as to accuse Jesus of breaking the Sabbath!
Of course, Jesus never sinned or did any-
thing that violated the Sabbath command-
ment as outlined in Scripture. Jesus said, “I
have kept my Father’s commandments and
abide in His love” (John 15:10).
Christ did violate some of the Pharisees’
manmade traditions regarding the Sabbath.
He said, “For laying aside the command-
ment of God, you hold the tradition of men”
(Mark 7:8). Just before this, Jesus explained,
“In vain they worship Me, teaching as doc-
trines the commandments of men” (v. 7).
Worship and the Sabbath are intimately con-
nected. Mankind’s traditions should never
set aside or eclipse God’s requirements.
Neither Jesus nor His disciples ever broke
the Sabbath or taught others to turn away
from observing God’s holy day. In fact, the
New Testament gives us plenty of examples
of Christ and the apostles worshiping on the
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Sabbath. Luke writes how Jesus “went into
the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood
up to read” (Luke 4:16). Christ not only wor-
shiped on Sabbath, He also participated in
the service. It was His custom. Most of the
conflict over the Sabbath in the Gospels was
Jesus working to clear up the Sabbath from
manmade restrictions.
Another example of distorting the
Sabbath is found in how we might inter-
pret the word “pleasure,” found in this Old
Testament passage that speaks about how to
keep the Sabbath.
“If you turn away your foot from
the Sabbath, From doing your plea-
sure on My holy day, and call the
Sabbath a delight, the holy day of
the Lord honorable, and shall hon-
or Him, not doing your own ways,
nor finding your own pleasure, nor
speaking your own words, then you
shall delight yourself in the Lord”
(Isaiah 58:13, 14).
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The word “pleasure” in this passage
doesn’t mean anything that you enjoy do-
ing is automatically wrong on the Sabbath.
In fact, this passage calls Sabbathkeeping “a
delight.” It is actually speaking of following
your own personal pursuits, your own busi-
ness plans, and your own selfish ways.
If we understood this passage to be a
restriction on anything in which we might
find enjoyment, then we probably wouldn’t
even sit down to a delicious Sabbath meal.
Obviously, that’s not what the verse teach-
es. It means to set aside pleasures that are
self-focused and not God-focused. Walking
through the beauty of nature is pleasurable,
but going water skiing or snow skiing for
the adrenaline rush would likely cause us to
focus more on our own selves and not on the
Lord or His glorious creation.
So we need to avoid extremes in how we
keep the Sabbath holy. We should not be-
come so legalistic with manmade rules that
we find the Sabbath a burden, but neither
should we focus so much on our own plea-
sures that we lose sight of our Lord who gave
us this day.
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Let’s now consider some guidelines and
activities, based on the Bible, for leading us
to truly keep the Sabbath day holy, as God
asks us to do in the Ten Commandments.
A Time for
Corporate Worship
The Sabbath is a day for us to come to-
gether in community worship. Notice how
the Bible speaks about coming together for
worship on Sabbath: “ ‘And it shall come to
pass that … from one Sabbath to another, all
flesh shall come to worship before Me,’ says
the Lord” (Isaiah 66:23). In another place it
says, “Six days shall work be done, but the
seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a
holy convocation” (Leviticus 23:3).
A convocation is an assembly or gath-
ering of people. In Leviticus, it refers to a
coming together of God’s people to worship
the Lord. The last book of the Bible tells us
how important it is to worship. The first
angel’s message states, “Fear God and give
glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment
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has come; and worship Him who made heav-
en and earth, the sea and springs of water”
(Revelation 14:7, my emphasis). Worship fo-
cuses on the Lord as our Creator.
I once read an article in a Christian
magazine that suggested staying home and
worshiping God is just as appropriate as go-
ing to church. To make its claim, the writer
quoted Exodus, where Moses told the peo-
ple there would be no manna on the seventh
day; God says, “Let every man remain in his
place” (Exodus 16:29). According to the ar-
ticle, they were to keep the Sabbath by stay-
ing at home. But that’s not what it means.
Moses was telling them not to go out of the
camp to look for manna (or firewood). The
sanctuary, where they would gather together
and worship the Lord, was in the camp. The
Sabbath is not a day to stay at home.
Now, I realize that some people, because
of illness or injury, are homebound and can-
not get out. This isn’t about their situation,
and God is understanding and merciful. But
the Bible doesn’t support the idea that you
can be blessed just as much by staying at
home on Sabbath as you can be in coming
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together with God’s people. It’s not a time to
just hang out in your “tent” at home; it’s an
opportunity to corporately praise and wor-
ship the Lord as a church family.
I once stumbled across this point while
reading the story of the Shunammite wom-
an’s son who died. When she told her hus-
band she was going to see the prophet
Elisha, he answered, “Why are you going to
him today? It is neither the New Moon nor
the Sabbath” (2 Kings 4:23). Did you catch
the point? In other words, Sabbath was a
day to come together with others, not sit at
home alone.
There are lots of examples in the Bible
that show Sabbath is a day for corporate
worship. One of my favorites is, “And let us
consider one another in order to stir up love
and good works, not forsaking the assem-
bling of ourselves together, as is the manner
of some, but exhorting one another, and so
much the more as you see the Day approach-
ing” (Hebrews 10:24, 25). Not only do we
come together to worship the Lord, but also
to encourage one another. That’s difficult to
do when you are cooped up by yourself. And
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From; Brenda Walsh Ministries.
Bargaining with God
It’s easy to talk about how wonderful God is and how much you love Him when everything is going smoothly in your life. But it is when you’re faced with a crisis that your faith is truly tested, especially if you are not receiving the answer you want and when you wanted it. Perhaps that’s when you’re tempted to start bargaining with God in an attempt to manipulate Him to give you what you want. “I’ll stop swearing if you will just let my child live,” “I’ll give you more offerings if you’ll stop this foreclosure on my house,” or “I promise to start going to church regularly if you heal me from this cancer,” and on and on. But trying to make a deal with God or tell Him how to answer your prayers is not how prayer works. It’s hard to be patient when you are suffering. The devil tempts you to think that because God doesn’t intervene and give you the miracle you demanded that He doesn’t love you. But this isn’t the time to start finding fault with God or blaming Him because of your crisis. It is going through your toughest trial that you need to trust God the most–especially His love for you and His perfect timing! When faced with a crisis, have faith that God will answer according to what is best for you. Psalm 34:17-18 tells us, “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Remember, God loves you more than anyone else possibly could and will always act in your best interest, so put your full faith and trust in God... starting today! Text: Psalm 86:1-13, Isaiah 41:10, Proverbs 3:5-6, 1 Peter 5:7

Beatitudes 4

Jesus continues His lesson by covering divorce. In Jesus’ time there were two main schools of thought on divorce. Some insisted that a divorce could be granted for ANY reason and that includes burning her husband's breakfast. Others had a higher commitment to marriage.

But Jesus is saying no. He says the only legitimate reason for divorce is sexual immorality. But Jesus places the burden on the husband, here. Divorce then caused women to be kicked out of the home at the husband's will, Jesus is saying that a divorced woman, if she remarries she is committing adultery and whoever marries her also commits adultery.

This is a hard lesson, but it is ALWAYS God's will that a marriage be a lifetime commitment. Jesus is teaching that the standards for marriage are higher than what the Law demands. Again emphasizing the need FOR and inadequacy OF the Law.

Next Jesus tackles vows.

In Jesus’ time, Jewish leaders were using vows. These vows were often a tit for tat thing with God. In other words, we swear that IF God does X, we promise to do Y. The human element in this vowing added the non-scriptural idea that swearing by the temple is more dedication to the promise than just by swearing on the gold in the temple. Jesus is saying, No. If you are making a vow, let it be a yes or no, not a game of comparing what it is you are swearing by. Jesus is telling them their vow cannot change anything so either say yes, or you say no. Nothing added to or subtracted from the value of the sacred promise.

Next, he covers revenge. Many people misunderstand this passage. Jesus is not advocating for bodily disfiguration. Essentially, He's Saying “Let the punishment fit the crime” In ancient times, Laws were sporadic with Vastly different penalties for breaking the law oftentimes basing the punishment on how people feel about the perpetrator.

In context, Jesus is speaking about their day to day life, not criminal justice. He's saying if someone wrongs you, do not exact revenge on them, instead forgive them. This is all about how we should be behaving. This should be our attitude when treated poorly. He makes this more specific when He says, “Love your enemies.”

And that is the hardest thing for Christians to do these days. The concept of anyone loving their enemies in that time period was unfathomable. We allow our hatred to excuse not reaching out to them because God might forgive them. Sadly, as it happened in Jesus's day, it became acceptable to hate certain groups more than others. Back then there was a hierarchy of hate. It was acceptable, many times so much so to hate enemies that everyone did so. It was more acceptable to hate Romans than it was Samaritans and even more so to hate the Canaanites etc who were sworn enemies of Israel.

What Jesus is saying here is that even God's enemies are blessed by the good He provides for His people. The rain falls to water the crops of the good man as much as it does on the crops of the evil man. Our personal feelings about it are irrelevant, if God is the author of these blessings, and He is, He can choose to continue or to cease these blessings.

This insistence that there is an obligation to hate God's enemies as a believer is simply not scriptural. We are to hate the sin, as it is the very thing that separated from God in the first place. But all the emphasis here is placed on the simple fact that even if we had the ability to avoid all physical acts of sin, which we don't, that ability can't save our soul because it is impossible to exceed the ‘righteousness’ of the scribes and Pharisees.

Unless the righteousness is somehow imparted to us through another means by someone who IS worthy and that can only be done by someone who never owed the penalty we did, death. As in the days of Abram, before legalistic Pharisaical teaching even existed, the righteousness God imparted to Abram came before the Law and its presuppositions were even written to be argued over.

So if perfection is a prerequisite to salvation, and it is, Jesus’ main point in this sermon is to tell us that alone, we can't make it, but with Him, we can't fail. It is our belief, our faith that achieves that, not our earnest efforts to follow a law.




31] “Now it was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away is to give her a certificate of divorce’; [32] but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. [33] “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘ You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ [34] But I say to you, take no oath at all, neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God, [35] nor by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. [36] Nor shall you take an oath by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. [37] But make sure your statement is, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil origin. [38] “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ [39] But I say to you, do not show opposition against an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other toward him also. [40] And if anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak also. [41] Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. [42] Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. [43] “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ [44] But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, [45] so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. [46] For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors, do they not do the same? [47] And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Even the Gentiles, do they not do the same? [48] Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Chapter 75 Time Periods of Daniel 12




Daniel chapter 12 has three time periods: 1260 days (time, times and half a time), 1290 days and 1335 days. Adventists do not really have an explanation for the latter two time periods. Using the year-day principle some Adventist scholars begin the 1290 year period 30 years before 538 AD, ie 508 AD. Beginning the 1335-day period at the same time, 508 AD, it brings us to 1843, the year Miller first thought the Second Advent would be. When they corrected the 2300-day prophecy for year 0 for the transition from BC to AD, and came to 1844, it caused a problem for this explanation of the 1335-year prophecy.

Having rejected the year-day principle in general (except for Dan 9) (chapter 5), another explanation must be found for all of these prophecies. The meaning of the 1260-day prophecy is well established with 7 references to it in Daniel and Revelation (chapter 6). The text that indicates its beginning and end the best is Rev 11:1, 2 (chapter 12):

1 And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.
2 But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and two months.

The beginning is the sealing of the 144 000 – the measuring of the people in the temple. The end is when the gentiles are measured. The gentiles represent, amongst others, the great multitude of the second harvest of the righteous (chapter 56) and their Probation Closes 42 months (same as 1260 days, or 3.5 years) later.

Let us look and see what Dan 12 says about these three time periods, beginning with the 1260-day period. To place the time period in the context of Dan 12 we need to look at the context. Dan 12 begins with Michael standing up to protect His people:

1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.

The time of trouble referred to here is the 3.5-year period. Michael standing up coincides with the sealing of the 144 000. This is indicated by the deliverance of God’s people whose names are written in the book. The book referred to here is the little book of Rev 10 which contains the names of the 144 000 (chapter 60). During the 3.5 years God will protect the 144 000 from the onslaughts of Satan and evil men.

It would seem that some of the 144 000 will be saints of old that are resurrected to be a part of the 144 000. Daniel himself is likely to be one of the resurrected saints:

Dan 12:13 But go thou thy way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot at the end of the days.

This is the special resurrection where some saints and some of the most ardent enemies of God are resurrected to see the triumph of Christ (chapter 67).

The wise referred to in verse 3 are the 144 000 who will be proclaiming the Three Angels’ Messages, bringing many people to accept Christ. So in the context of the 144 000, their sealing and their work, the 1260-day time period is mentioned:

5 Then I Daniel looked, and, behold, there stood other two, the one on this side of the bank of the river, and the other on that side of the bank of the river.
6 And one said to the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?
7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

In Daniel’s vision one of the men on the banks of the river asks the angel standing on the water of the river, how long these things will be. In the context of the first part of Dan 12, the sealing of the 144 000 and their work, it will be a time (1 year), times (two years) and a half (half a year). From their sealing until all things are finished – Probation is Closed - 3.5 years. Mention is made of the scattering of the power of the 144 000. We saw in Rev 11 that when their work is done, God will remove His protection over them, and many of them will be killed (chapter 53). Daniel affirms this with the scattering of the power of the holy people. We see the first half of Dan 12 agrees very strongly with Rev 10 and 11 – 3.5 years, swearing that time will be no more, little book, activities of the 144 000, their death, and the Close of Probation.

Let us look at the 1290-day period:

10 Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.

The removal of the daily sacrifice is when global legislation is incorporated preventing people from worshipping the One True God, enforcing the worship of the Trinity. Legislation for Sunday worship will also be set up. We have seen in chapter 22 that these laws will be enforced when the false Christ appears on Earth (beast with lamb-like horns). This will occur 1150 days before the Close of Probation, but 1290 days before the Close of Probation the legislation will be set up, yet not enforced. This then will occur 30 days before the sealing of the 144 000 – the Outpouring of the Latter Rain (chapter 17). The 144 000 will be humbling themselves before God in earnest prayer for these 30 days – saints purified and made white. A similar process occurred before Pentecost – the Former Rain. Christ told His followers to go to Jerusalem and prepare for Pentecost:

Acts 1:4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day's journey.
13 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

The 1290 days begin 30 days before the 1260 days, and end at the same time, the Close of Probation.

What does Daniel 12 say about the 1335 days?

12 Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days.

It would seem the 1335 days begin at the same time as the 1290 days since verse 12 follows directly after verse 11 which explains the 1290 days. It says blessed is he that waits beyond the end of the 1290 days for another 45 days. What blessing will he receive? The blessing of Christ’s return, the Second Advent. That means there will be 45 days between the Close of Probation to the Second Advent. The Seven Last Plagues, therefore, will be poured out in 45 days.

These time periods are not hard and fast doctrines, but this is my suggestion as to their meaning. Any other thoughts on these periods will be appreciated.

This brings us to the conclusion of this book on an alternative understanding of Revelation. I have laid it out, giving my hermeneutics. It is not a final word, but to me this has made Revelation make much more sense. I am open to any discussion on Revelation, and any other thoughts, since I do not have a final say on prophecy. My email is: martinbredekamp65@gmail.com

May God bless you as you contemplate prophecy, and indeed, see how it unfolds, because the time is at hand. Jesus said all these things will occur in one generation. I believe the end time events are already in motion and the time clock of the one generation is already ticking.

Matt 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

Maranatha.

Hosea 10:

"1 Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.
2 Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.
3 For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us?
4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.
6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.
8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
9 O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.
10 It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.
11 And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.
12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
13 Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.
14 Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.
15 So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off."