And where did you find this information in scripture? I see that the sabbath was the 7th day from the beginning:
Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Nowhere in scripture do I read about man having the authority to change a day created holy by the Lord to any other day. Even if you associate with a church that has "esteemed" one day over the true sabbath, then that doesn't change the fact that the Lord's sabbath is still holy.
All the other commandments are inherently recognizable by the human soul, as is the need for rest.
I have no idea what this means. The world is full of sin. The world is full of sinners. In fact, the world is populated exclusively by sinners. The human "soul" does not and cannot recognize the things of God:
1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Hence, there is no harshness in God’s punishment against those in Genesis who violated it: they should have known better. But how can one intuitively discern which day of the week is the seventh?
Your premise is faulty. There is "harshness" toward everyone who violates God's commandments. Small or great. The harshness is death.
Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
It is ONLY by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that we escape the harshness of death. And that alone should make you WANT to obey his commandments out of gratitude and a sense of thanksgiving.
You are a legalist, Doug. The principle, which must always be kept, is that people must reserve time for God altogether. The regulation is that the day was chosen to be Saturday, since that day was the day which God had shown his greatest love to mankind. Since the resurrection, the Church has said, “God first, work later,” and celebrated the resurrection first.
I am a legalist because I believe the bible instead of your tradition? Good. I will gladly accept that title and consider it an honor and a blessing.
But I did recognize that this was all to promote your little wierdo cult... Say, did the anniversary of Waco get you all in the mood to debate or something?
Wow. Talk about harshness. I understand that my beliefs challenge your own. That they make you uncomfortable. Because if scripture is actually right, then what you've been taught and learned by your tradition is wrong. If I were in your position, I might make the same type of comment. Or at least think about it. But if I did I hopefully I would recognize it as a fault I would need to overcome.
Here’s why I bring up Waco: the 7th-Day Adventist movement has a bad history with cults and for a very good reason: It plays directly into the beliefs that everyone else has been subtly deceived, despite intending to the right thing, and, therefore, they’re all facing horrific torture by an enraged God. Mankind knew murder, adultery, idolatry, false testimony, fornication, jealousy, etc., was wrong and chose to do them anyway, because of his sinful nature. How was mankind to know Saturday was the Sabbath?
See, the other regulations of Mosaic law were legalisms to meet a purpose: to set apart a chosen race. That part of the law, once fulfilled, is moot. What remains are but two commandments. You’re trying to bring back the law through which death was judged apon Man.
When Peter did away with circumcision, what scripture guided him? What scripture told him, essentially, to do away with this one aspect of the law?
The fact that all the commandments are revoked means they are not without purpose, however; this claim is not, as you made it seem at the start, an assertion of licensiousness. Now that we know WHY the commandments exist, we can CHOOSE, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to decide for ourselves how to meet their purposes, which are the two great commandments.
But instead of promoting love of their fellow men, the 7th-Day adventist movement gets people to view all outsiders suspiciously, as mere tempters towards destruction. Given that view, it’s no wonder why the movement has had problems with cultist splinter groups.
The Branch Davidian sect is no historical anomaly; it is still alive and thriving.
From its origin, the 7th-Day Adventist was a doomsday cult, with the Great Disappointment of Oct. 22, 1844. Next came Ellen Gould White, who taught that the Pope was the antichrist, because if you add up the Latin-alphabet letters of “Vicarivs Filii Dei,” you get 666. The problem was that in no authentic Catholic-Church document was the Pope ever refered to as that. And of course, Church Latin uses “u,” not “v.” (It’s Christ’s role as the Son of Man which the Pope serves as vicar of.) Oddly, by her own logic, Ms. White (”eLLen goULD VVhIte”) is the antichrist. This is especially interesting, given that her followers consider her a modern-day prophet.
It may seem strange to Christians that Branch Davidians could be all that related to 7th Day Adventists, because, after all, wasn’t Koresh teaching entirely un-Christian things? But little do most Christians know that many other 7th-Day Adventist groups deny Jesus’ divinity, and believe him, instead, to be an angel with a fallen soul... like David Koresh.
The spread of 7th-Day Adventism is a cancer in Christianity. The movement can claim a remarkable one million converts per year, but also loses 10 percent of its membership every five years. Further, its brutal attacks on mainstream Christianity leave most of these people completely without any Christian faith, and arguably sows significant distress and discord among far more people for whom the Adventists’ attacks haven’t inspired conversion, but have destroyed their incumbent faith.