Adventist teaching: Yes
Biblical teaching: No
A common claim often made by SDA apologists in favor of seventh-day sabbatarianism is that it is eternal. The common set of claims being that it was around before the creation of the earth, it was the seventh day before the fall of man, and it will carry over into heaven. This is said to then prove their position. But all three of these premises are false.
1. Seventh Day Sabbath Was Around Before the Creation of Earth
This is strictly coming from Ellen G. White, who the SDA Church believes was divinely inspired and corrects inaccurate interpretations of scripture. In her Testimonies for the Church, Vol 6, she writes:
All heaven is keeping the Sabbath, but not in a listless, do-nothing way. On this day every energy of the soul should be awake, for are we not to meet with God and with Christ our Saviour? We may behold Him by faith. He is longing to refresh and bless every soul.
Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, pg. 362
She also writes, speaking about intelligent beings on other worlds, that they are keeping the 10 Commandments:
The Lord has given me a view of other worlds. Wings were given me, and an angel attended me from the city to a place that was bright and glorious. The grass of the place was living green, and the birds there warbled a sweet song. The inhabitants of the place were of all sizes; they were noble, majestic, and lovely. They bore the express image of Jesus, and their countenances beamed with holy joy, expressive of the freedom and happiness of the place. I asked one of them why they were so much more lovely than those on the earth. The reply was, ‘We have lived in strict obedience to the commandments of God, and have not fallen by disobedience, like those on the earth.
Ellen G. White, Early Writings, pg. 39
This is to say the SDA Church believes there is all sorts of other intelligent life on other worlds that never fell into sin and who keep the 10 Commandments perfectly. These worlds were created before the creation of the earth.
This is central to the SDA Church’s great controversy worldview which asserts that Satan began attacking the 10 Commandments in heaven, prior to earths creation, claiming that God’s law is arbitrary and not fair.
Yet Jesus plainly taught that the sabbath was made, it isn’t eternal, and it was made for man, not angels in heaven or beings on other worlds (Mark 2:27).
2. The Sabbath Was the Seventh Day Before the Fall of Man
The root problem of this claim is the lack of reading carefully. Unlike most Christians, this platform does uphold the belief that the sabbath was instituted prior to Moses and is a memorial of creation, rest, and redemption (Exodus 20:8-11, Deuteronomy 5:15-18). However, the first sabbath of Adam and Eve was not their seventh day—it was God’s.
Man was formed and fashioned on day 6, which is preparation day, and was formed and fashioned to then enter into holy communion with God at the beginning of their week before fulfilling the dominion mandate to subdue the earth (Genesis 1:28). Based on evening to evening, which even the SDA Church recognizes is how a full day was to be understood, Adam and Eve’s first day would have been God’s seventh. The pattern later given to national Israel modeled God in creation, where day 6 was also their preparation day before entering into rest (Exodus 16:22-3).
Which means that the sabbath wasn’t man’s seventh day prior to the fall. It was man’s first. It’s after the fall that even the rest of man becomes tainted by sin and moves to the end of the week where man will now work by the sweat of his brow before being able to rest. The Second Adam, Jesus Christ, then comes and redeems the creation that fell into sin, including the rest of man, and reorients things back into that pre-fall orientation. Which is why His church universally worships on the first day of the week now—the memorial of the new creation that Christ inaugurated.
3. The Seventh Day Sabbath Will Carry Over Into Heaven
To try and further support the seventh day sabbath’s eternality, Adventists will often appeal to Isaiah 66:22-3. We have addressed this in detail here.
The sabbath is predicated upon sun and moon cycles. There will be no sun and moon in the New Heaven and the New Earth (Revelation 21:23). The sabbath will have served its created purpose by that point and will no longer be necessary. Once the body receives glorification (Philippians 3:21, 1 Corinthians 15:42), rest will no longer be necessary, for we will be in the eternal rest of God—which is ultimately what the sabbath is about (Hebrews 4:1-11).
This is subject is downstream of the SDA Church’s larger claim that the 10 Commandments are eternal.
