General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 59th Session

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General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Yes, Creation!

Kwabena Donkor

Evolutionary thought, Spiritualism and the End of Time

Lee Spencer

How Many Dinosaurs Were On the Ark?

Ariel Roth

Some scientific data that favors a recent creation

Stan Hudson

The Biblical creation is central to the local church

Greg King

Is Biblical Creation Passé?

Nikolaus Satelmajer

Rollin Shoemaker

Sabbath and Creation

Paleontology and the Bible: Science in action

John Baldwin

Why Does a Good Creator Permit Evil?

JoAnn Davidson

...and it WAS good

Jim Gibson

Lions in the Garden of Eden

Richard Davidson

Does Genesis Really Teach a Recent, Literal, Seven-Day Creation Week and a Global Flood?

Tim Standish

DNA and Design

Jacques Doukhan

Creation, the Heart of SDA Theology

How to share creation in outreach on secular campuses

Do millions of years solve the problem?

Ed Zinke

Theistic evolution and the end of Adventism

Ronny Nalin

Dealing with uncertainty

Ted N.C. Wilson

God’s Literal, Six-day, Recent Creation--The Church’s Position

Creation and Evolution: A brief history

Clifford Goldstein

Seventh-day Darwinians

Raul and I are delighted to make this presentation to you.

We have been colleagues and friends for quite a few years and we enjoyed working together on this paper.

We thought it would be good to interchange.

He and I have different interests when it comes to this topic, and we thought we could bring our strengths and probably our weaknesses into the project that way.

We're going to put on the screen, screen there, some of the main points.

And we'll tell you how you can get the whole text later, but we're going to put the main points on the screen, points 1 through 6, as we get to them.

Otherwise, we'll be alternating our reading of the manuscript.

God connected the Sabbath to himself and all his creation, including human beings, during the creation week.

God, the Creator, pronounced the seventh day as the Sabbath as he ended his work of bringing our world into existence.

If God was not the creator, then the Sabbath would be merely a human memorial to an unplanned and chaotic process of evolution.

If we do not recognize God as the creator, including the creator of the Sabbath, then the Sabbath holds only a symbolic value or symbolic meaning assigned by humans.

Apart from God and his creation the Sabbath may have some value but could not be considered as a special day created by God.

You can take away the Sabbath as a symbol of freedom from bondage and injury, but you still have the Sabbath of creation.

You can take away the ceremonial Sabbath, but you still have the Sabbath of creation.

In some instances, the Sabbath amplifies certain temporary or symbolic functions, but cannot be defined by them, nor does its existence or role depend on them.

Thus, God gave the Sabbath as a holy gift to his creation.

The Sabbath has meaning in a sinful and a sinless world because the sacred day was given by God and is 1 of the definers of the relationship between God and his creation.

Genesis announces the Sabbath is for all, God and God's creation, including human beings.

At the other end of the Bible, in the context of final events, God as creator reminds us of the centrality of God in creation.

This paper will focus purposely on the relationship of the Sabbath to God, God's creation, and the implication of these perspectives to the humans created by God.

There are many other biblical, theological, historical, and practical aspects of the Sabbath that are not being addressed in this lecture.

In the remainder of this paper we will focus on the relationship between God, the Sabbath, and the creation and explore some of the ways this relationship impacts our lives.

Number 1, the Sabbath is movement from chaos to order.

The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

This description from the New Revised Standard Version stays faithful to the Hebrew text, declaring the region in which God steps as a region with darkness over the deep, a region without form.

The text literally states that these primeval waters were covered with blackness.

They were like a chaotic ocean, a cosmic abyss, covered by a deep, impenetrable darkness.

In effect, the declaration of this verse declares complete and utter confusion.

When the storm of God swept over this ocean of lifelessness, God began his work of creating an inhabited world with words and actions, which brought order out of this chaotic, lifeless abyss.

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.

And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done.

And he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.

So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it, God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.

The seventh day was the day God completed his work.

It was not completed on the sixth day as the Septuagint says.

The words of Genesis 2.1, the heavens and the earth were finished, emphasize what is going to be said in verses 2 and 3.

In verses 2 and 3, God brings to completion His work on the seventh day.

The completion of His work consists of secession of the labor of creating.

God also in completing his work blessed and sanctified the seventh day.

In sanctifying the seventh day, God set it apart to be exclusively dedicated to himself, even though God presented the Sabbath in such a way that it would be a blessing to humanity.

Among other blessings, the Sabbath brings into remembrance the entire week, specifically God's role as Creator.

The Sabbath ends the week as the exclamation point, which started in chaos but ended in perfect harmony.

Creation was now completed and approved by God since he rested on, blessed, and sanctified the seventh day.

Number 2, the specificity of the Sabbath.

Remember this Sabbath day and keep it holy and you recall the rest of the passage.

We now move from the creation through the fall which allowed sin to enter followed by death as Romans 5 12 says to Mount Sinai.

Israel has come to Mount Sinai to be established as a nation with God as its Lord.

The Lord delivers the 10 words on 2 tables of stone, which are the essence of the covenant between God and his people Israel.

In the heart of these tables of stone we have the fourth commandment that directs all to remember the Sabbath day.

God set apart the seventh day to be wholly dedicated to himself.

Indeed, on the Sabbath day, every occupation is to cease and everyone rest.

The Sabbath significance is found in God's blessing and sanctifying the seventh day of the week at creation.

When we worship on the Sabbath, we recognize God as our creator and sustainer.

We have ceased from our normal pursuits and enter into a day of enjoyment, recognizing God for who he is, the creator and sustainer of all life in the universe.

Number 3, the third point, the Sabbath just as creation was given by God for the benefit of humanity.

Then he said to them, the Sabbath was made for humankind and not humankind for the Sabbath.

So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.

The Sabbath was made for humanity and was not to be a burden on the people.

We could literally write, the Sabbath came into being, was made, for humankind and humankind did not come into being on account of the Sabbath.

The word, aginato, translated came into being is an allusion to John 1, 3 and reads, All things through him came into being, a Ginetto.

And apart from him not 1 thing came into being, a Ginetto.

All creation has its source in God, and all things came into being through Jesus Christ.

In fact, the creation of humans took place before the Sabbath, as humans existed before the Sabbath was set apart as a day to be sanctified.

The Sabbath was instituted in order to be a blessing to God's creation.

This statement of Jesus not only brings out the true intent of the Sabbath, but also the entire law.

The Sabbath commemorates God's creative and saving action for the benefit of humanity.

Therefore, Mark 2.27 means that when humanity receives the Sabbath as a gift, humanity recognizes God as its Creator, Sustainer, and recognizes God as the 1 who brings joy and peace with the promise of an eternal future.

Number 4, in the context of the great controversy, the Sabbath recognizes God as Creator.

He said in a loud voice, Worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.

The part of this angel's first message concerning us is the command to worship God the Creator.

The Greek expression, topoi esanti, translated him who made, is the creator, leads us to 3 Old Testament texts, Exodus 28 and 11, the Sabbath commandment, Genesis 1.1 stating that God created the universe, and Genesis 2.1-3 stating that God finished His work on the seventh day, thereby set it apart by blessing, sanctifying, and resting on it.

Revelation 14.6 addresses all humanity when it addresses every nation, tribe, language, and people.

Thus, in the heart of the book of Revelation, we have the command to worship the Creator.

This command means that the contrast between Christ and Satan is over the issue of who is Lord.

Is it a Creator Lord or is it Satan who is our accuser?

When we worship the Creator who made the heaven, earth, sea, springs of water, we give our allegiance to the Creator as Lord.

When we worship the Creator, we worship as the Sabbath commandment specifies on the seventh day, for it was on the seventh day that God brought his work to completion and blessed it and sanctified it.

The Sabbath is a concrete reminder that God will restore his creation.

For the creation was subjected to frustration, that is transitoryness, not by its own choice, but by the will of the 1 who subjected it, in the hope that creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay, that is corruption, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

In Romans 8, 19, Creation awaits the revelation of God's sons and daughters.

Creation awaits the redemption of God's children because it has been subjected to worthlessness by the 1 who rules.

This reminds us of Ecclesiastes' expression, vanity of vanities, which in the Septuagint uses the same word for vanity, metaiotes, that is used here for frustration, worthlessness, or transitoryness.

The word means emptiness, vanity, fruitlessness, futility, as well as frustration, worthlessness, or transitoryness.

The text says that creation did not willingly choose to be subjected to this uselessness.

But when Adam committed the transgression, the 1 who subjects, that is God, subjected creation to frustration, mataiotes.

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Series

Yes, Creation!

Sabbath and Creation

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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Recorded

Eighteen Reasons

Eighteen Reasons, Pt. 2

13m

Pause for Peace

43m

Rest in a Restless World

54m

Falling Back In Love

To Rest From All Your Works

40m

The Sabbath

The Sabbath - Who Does It Identify?

48m

The Presence of God

29m

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Sanctuary

10 The Repairers of the Breach

1h 19m

Is Creation Important to SDA Doctrine

55m

Sound Doctrine