By Dr. Royce Mitchell
(This article appeared in the Jan-Feb 2024 edition)
As everyone undoubtedly knows who is familiar with the Bible Sabbath Association (BSA), we have just finished the Association’s quadrennial election process for its governing Board. The new Board of Directors as well as the outgoing Directors have all been notified. Soon, we will begin the process of moving the BSA forward for another 4 years of service to the people of God.
As the new board prepares to take up the reins of governance, it might be fitting to rehearse the purpose and goals of the BSA for all of the members and readers. To do so, a rehearsal of the mission given to us by our Savior would seem to also be in order, providing us with a framework for our BSA mission.
Before ascending to heaven to take up His rightful place at the right hand of the Father, Jesus gave a commission to His disciples. Many people use the following scriptures to form the basis of a “Great Commission.”
In Mat 28:18-20 we read the following: “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority is given to Me in Heaven and in earth. Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world.”
Much mischief has been done through the misapplication of that scripture. However, I’ll leave that for another time. What should be focused on is another scripture which is truly the mission Christ gave to His disciples when He walked the earth. That commission can be found in Joh 13:34-35: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another. By this all shall know that you are My disciples, if you have love toward one another.”
Jesus expanded on the idea through another statement that He made to His disciples in Joh 15:12-14 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”
The command then is that to show our love for God and our fellow man, we ought to be willing to lay our lives down for one another. Too often that idea is taken to the extreme that Christ had to take it so that we had access to salvation, and to the Father, through Him. And, if the truth is to be told, there have been times in the past where that ultimate sacrifice was required of some of the brethren.
But—and this is your author’s opinion—Jesus was not indicating that unless our love was so strong such that we submitted to martyrdom then we don’t love Him and are not His disciples. If we take the rest of scriptures into consideration, including the Decalogue, it becomes easy to see that any way we set aside part of our lives to help others, especially the brethren, we are in effect laying that
part of our lives down for them.
Your new Board of Directors for the BSA have generously decided to lay down a part of their lives for the purpose of causing the BSA to be a tool of unity in the Spirit. They are sacrificing a part of their lives to reach across corporate barriers in an effort to have all of God’s Children see the many ways that we see things alike, just as past boards have done for the brethren.
The outgoing Board, under the leadership of Kelly McDonald, made great strides in this effort to bring fellowship to the many differing groups of brethren who have in common the keeping of God’s Sabbaths and the desire to promote Jesus as the Messiah. We who will serve on the incoming board ask that everyone pray that we are able to build on the great foundation laid by our past leadership on the Board.
To accomplish one part of our commission, we at the BSA have been, and will continue to be, promoting the keeping of God’s Sabbaths. The world at large claims it worships Jesus but refuses to accept what He said to us all. He told us, “… It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” Mat 4:4.
The churches of the majority teach that we don’t need to keep God’s Sabbaths, but those words are God breathed! While not having repeated every commandment specifically in the New Covenant, Jesus did have this to say about them. When the rich young man came to Him and asked what good thing He could do to enter into life, Jesus responded thusly, “And He said to him, Why do you
call Me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. He said to Him, Which? Jesus said, You shall not
murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, and, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Mat 19:17-19.
Jesus repeated those parts of the Commandments that related to how to love our neighbors as ourselves, one of the two Great Commandments. In another place Jesus explained that loving our neighbors as ourselves would not just be refraining from killing another, but to even refrain from hating them. Shouldn’t that include ALL Sabbath keepers as well?
He also tied the Commandments all together when He dealt with the young expert in the Mosaic Law who tested Jesus with a question. In Mat 22:36 we read: “Master, which is the great commandment in the Law?
“ Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment.
“And the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
If the final six commandments apply to loving our neighbors as ourselves, then the first four must apply to loving the Lord our God with our hearts, souls and minds!
Therefore, since in no place have we ever seen God-breathed words stating that we need no longer obey ALL of God’s Commandments, then we must default to Christ’s admonition to live by every God-breathed word. We can’t rationalize around those words of God like so many do who want to keep their own traditions rather than doing what God has asked us to do.
If we do try to rationalize around God’s spoken words then we will be among those Christ described here: “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord! Lord! shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord! Lord! Did we not prophesy in Your name, and through Your name throw out demons, and through Your name do many wonderful works? And then I will say to them I never knew you! Depart from Me, those working lawlessness!” Mat 7:21-23.
These blind-leading-the-blind preachers of the world are teaching people to rebel against God, to hate His Sabbaths, and to continue in sin in the name of Jesus. That is not the message that Christ brought to the world and it is likewise the antithesis of the message that the BSA is promoting.
Moreover, they ignore the plain words of Jesus wherein He says that all of those who claim to have been doing great works in His Name will be turned away as strangers who are unknown to Him. One would think that such an admonition would be enough for those “teachers” to stop teaching the lie and instead to teach what God has to say!
Jesus told us all to love. That is the great commission given to us. He explained to us that loving God and our fellow man so much that we would never consider trespassing against either should be the goal for every minute of our lives.
Summing up, preaching and teaching Jesus as our Savior necessarily means speaking the words that He spoke, teaching the concepts that He taught. That has been one of the goals of the BSA—part of its Mission Statement if you will—for over 75 years. Jesus wants us to have unity in the Spirit—unity with Him and with the Father. We can’t have unity if we are always focusing on what makes
us different from one another. Indeed, that focus is a divisive one and we know who the author of division is; it certainly did not come from the mouth of God.
Instead, as we have been teaching at the BSA for many decades, we need to focus on loving one another. When we love one another we are to do so as Christ loves us. When we love we overlook things that bring discord between us; it becomes much easier to see each other as God sees us. And, after all, should that not be part of our goals individually, also?
To do this great work, however, we need many hands. This small team can be your hands and the hands of God to accomplish this ministry, but hands need a body to direct them to accomplish the will of God. We need writers, donations and prayers! Won’t you join with us in this
worthy goal?
View the Jan-Feb 2024 edition at https://biblesabbath.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/SabbSent0124_Proof.pdf
To learn more about the BSA, visit http://biblesabbath.org
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