How Did Christ Fulfill the Law?

By Kelly McDonald, Jr.

In Matthew 5:17-18, Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” (KJV).

There are people who have used these verses to say that Christ did away with the Law of God by fulfilling it. They say that since He did it all, including keeping the Sabbath, then we do not have to do any of it. We must realize that these verses are a fulfillment of a prophecy. In Isaiah 42:21, God said, “The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable” (KJV). This scripture is a prophecy about Jesus, who came to magnify or enlarge the Law.

When you take a magnifying glass and put it over something, that object becomes larger. Jesus magnifies the Law by adding the requirement of inward obedience. He reveals how the Law is intended to be kept. Jesus said that He did not come to do away with the commandments. The Greek word for destroy is kataluo, and it means to dissolve, disunite, or to loosen something that has been joined together. Christ did not come to loosen the Law’s requirements, but to fill their meaning to the full or tighten its requirements. Christ fulfills the Law in that He fills their meaning to the full by adding inward obedience to the outward obedience that was already required.

He goes on in Matthew 5 to give us a whole chapter about how He magnified the Law. For instance, the commandment “Do not commit adultery” is magnified in Christ. He reveals to us that we should not even lust in our heart or mind. The commandment against murder is magnified in Christ because He reveals that hating others in your heart is committing murder. The Sabbath is magnified in that we should not even think about breaking it. This means that we must still obey the commandments outwardly, but we must also obey them inwardly. The requirements of the Law become magnified or enlarged in Christ.

Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12). Since He kept the Sabbath, then we need to as well.

Kelly McDonald, Jr.

BSA President – http://www.biblesabbath.org

The King’s Daughter and Other Stories For Girls

By J.E. White

This book contains stories to teach girls character and how to deal with difficult moral decisions. These stories were compiled from orphanage stories used in the United States many years ago. Fortunately, Godly character does not have a time period attached to it. These timeless stories will encourage girls to choose right from wrong. Read them to your children and even grandchildren!

To order this book, just click the link below:

https://biblesabbath.org/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=47&=SID

Sojourner Truth, Part 3 of 3

By Dianne D. McDonnell

Who first protested blacks being required to sit in the back of a bus or train? If you guessed Rosa Parks you are about 100 years too late! Sojourner Truth publicly protested riding in the back of trains many years before the Civil War!

But Isabella, i.e. Sojourner Truth, never advocated violence. When she and the famous Frederick Douglass were speaking at the same meeting, Douglass, also a former slave, began to drift into proposing violence as a means of freeing slaves. The crowd was churning with this potent poison and about to erupt into action when Sojourner Truth arose, standing very erect to all six feet of her height, and in a deep, booming voice she asked the younger man, “Frederick, is God dead?” The meeting went silent, and then again grew calm. She averted what could easily have become a blood bath that hurt the cause of freedom for the salves. Frederick Douglass never again advanced violence.

Such was the strong spirit and commanding presence of this amazing former slave who spoke forcefully, enthusiastically, and with “flint-like common sense” whether she was speaking as an orator, evangelist or advocate of a woman’s right to vote. While brave, she also had great humility and a sense of humor. Once a white man told her that her speeches were no more important than a flea bite. She replied, “Maybe not, but the Lord willing, I’ll keep you scratching.” (from Spartacus-educational.com)

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote “Sojourner Truth, The Libyan Sibyl” and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and managed to shine a bright light into the dark reality of slavery. These two historic books affected the opinions of many northern and southern Americans in the turbulent pre-war years of the 1850’s and early 1860’s. It also widened the fame and influence of Sojourner Truth.

`Baptized by Sabbath-keeping Uriah Smith, Sojourner Truth had the fiery fervor of an evangelist and the backbone of steel to do the job. One night she faced an unruly mob of about 100 young men armed with clubs who had disrupted an outdoor Adventist meeting and then gathered at a nearby hill. After a silent prayer, she had walked bravely in the moonlight to the assembled ruffians and stood among them singing a hymn and songs she had written. She began speaking saying, “Well, there are two congregations on this ground. It is written that there shall be a separation, and the sheep shall be separated from the goats. The other preachers have the sheep. I have the goats. And I have a few sheep among my goats, but they are very ragged.” The men laughed and were curious at this lone black woman among white men with clubs. They asked for more and more from the “old woman” as they called her. With their help she climbed up on a wagon and with humor, preaching and singing she reached the hearts of the young rioters. Finally she persuaded them to leave the Adventist meeting ground. They ran off in a mass like bumblebees to the utter amazement of the other very frightened Adventist preachers and listeners only a short distance away.

When the Civil War came in 1864 she helped recruit black soldiers, and had a personal meeting with President Abraham Lincoln. After the war was over, many blacks didn’t know how to continue their lives or provide for themselves and their families. It was a time of confusion as they adjusted their lives to finding ways to earn money, learning how to buy and sell, and how to deal with freedom. Sojourner helped many of them, and she led a movement to aid many former slaves as they moved West to resettle and begin new lives.

She died November 26, 1883 and her age is estimated from 86 t0 105 since no record was made of her birth into slavery in rural New York. But God knows her exact age and all the accomplishments of Sojourner Truth! Surely, the last shall be first.

You and I who can read and write, and have known education, family and freedom all of our lives—what are we doing with the wealth of God’s Truth we know? Are we making anybody “itch”? Are we finding ways to speak out or to help those who need us? If she could do all this, isn’t there something each one of us can do—with God’s Help, Strength and Power?

Dianne McDonnell is the founder of Freedom Ministry.

http://www.freedom-ministry.com/

Sabbath Truth – Free Sabbath Videos!

This free website has instructional videos and articles about the Sabbath. One of the prominent features available through this group is a 10-part series understanding the history of the Sabbath.

Just click the link below to access this FREE resource!

http://www.sabbathtruth.com/free-resources/seventh-day-video-series/id/966/the-seventh-day-part-1

Preserving the Sabbath for the Next 100 years

By Eva June Narber

(this article is an excerpt from the March-April 2001 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel)

“Through out the ages, there have been small pockets of Sabbath keeping and Bible fearing people around the world. At this point in history, we have more people exposed to the truth of scripture than at any other time. This is partly due to the explosion in world population; and partly due to the popularity of mainstream “missions” that have been adopted by many Sabbath keeping churches and assemblies. In retrospect, do we need to be concerned that the Sabbath truth in particular will still be as widely known 100 years from now? Consider these facts: a) In the splinter groups of the former Worldwide Church of God, the majority of people who attend are over the age of 45; b) all churches report losing their youth to popular cultures and; c) not much innovative thinking is going into solving the current problem, except for using conventional methods which have always been used. In just thirty years, a good number of the current readers of this magazine will be awaiting the resurrection of the dead. In fifty years, most living ministers will be deceased.

Action needs to be taken now to attract more young people to the Sabbath-keeping community and to keep the ones we already have. If we don’t, it is likely there will come a time when the number of Sabbath keepers decreases to a level that “requires” another “great leader” to come on the scene to bring the Sabbath truth to light once more. While this may very well happen, I believe that we are wasting our talents and our current resources to ever allow such a lapse in the Sabbath keeping truth to occur…”

To read the rest of this article, which starts on page 14, click this link:

http://biblesabbath.org/tss/488/tss_488.pdf

Sojourner Truth, Part 2 of 3

By Dianne D. McDonnell

Isabella, later known as Sojourner Truth, had a heart-rending problem. While she was still a  slave in rural New York, her five year old son Peter was sold and then relocated several times until he was taken to a plantation in Alabama. By New York law it was illegal to sell a slave to any southern state. Now she was free, but her son was a plantation slave far away.

Isabella was six feet tall, lean, fit, very intelligent, and a woman of great faith. At this time she had neither shoes nor money, yet she knew God could help her. Hadn’t He helped her that day at sunrise when she escaped on foot from her master’s farm? So she prayed about it and tried to figure out how to go about getting her son back. Years later she is quoted as saying, ”Does God not love colored children as well as white children? And did not the same Savior die to save the one as well as the other?” (Sabbath School Convention, Battle Creek, June 1863.)

She walked to the home of the family that first owned her son, but they laughed at her. Next she went to the home that sold the boy and demanded her child. The matriarch of the family ridiculed Isabella and said the boy “has gone to live like a gentleman”. Returning desolate, she met a man who listened to her and directed her to the homes of two Quaker families. Although she was a stranger to them, they listened attentively and amazed her by offering a “nice, high, clean, white, beautiful bed” for her to sleep in that night. (Page 23, The Narrative of Sojourner Truth, by Olive Gilbert, first published in 1850.) This was an incredible luxury for Isabella as she always slept on the floor and had never slept in a fine bed. In the morning the Quakers sent her to find the Court House and told her to speak to the Grand Jury. Believing she was looking for a man who looked “grand” with a last name of “Jury” she picked out the “grandest” man she saw and explained her problem. He directed her upstairs where she selected another “grand” man. This man led her to the room where the Grand Jurors were meeting, and she again told her story. A lawyer among them wrote down her words and then gave her a book which she later learned was a Bible. He said she must swear by that book that the boy she talked about was really her son. She pressed the book to her lips and said, “I swear it’s my son.”

The clerks burst into laughter, and then explained how to do an oath. Once sworn, the lawyer directed her to take papers to the constable. He was to serve the writ to the man she named who sold her son into Alabama, Solomon Gedney. Unfortunately the constable served Gedney’s brother instead, and the slave owner was able to escape by boat back to Alabama. His own lawyer warned him that if he didn’t return the boy he faced a thousand dollar fine and fourteen years in prison. He thought it over from fall to spring, but finally returned bringing the boy. Even with the boy finally in New York she could not see him, and legalities were set to drag on months longer before her court date. She prayed, “O Lord, give my son into my hands, and that speedily! Let not the spoilers have him any longer.”

As she was walking along wondering if anyone would help her, a man she didn’t know approached her and asked about her son. Finding out about the long delay, he pointed her towards the home of a certain lawyer saying, “…I think he’ll help you. Stick to him. Don’t give him peace till he does….” The lawyer offered to get her son for her in 24 hours for five dollars. She did not have a single dollar. When she was a slave she had never had any contact with money or managing money. She walked ten miles to where the Quakers lived, and they generously gave her ten dollars, a big sum in those days. She immediately walked ten miles back and handed the lawyer the entire amount. He kept his word.

Finally in court, Peter cried out in fear when he saw her and denied she was his mother. When questioned about a bad scar on his forehead he claimed a horse had kicked him. He explained away each mark of mistreatment while looking directly at his master. The judge realized the frightened boy had been told how to act and what to say by Gedney. The judge immediately awarded the boy to Isabella! When she was able to examine Peter, she found long linear scars on his back from beatings. But now, by God’s miracles, he was free!

God answered the prayers of Isabella, who would later take the name of Sojourner Truth. God had plans for her. Part 3 will tell some of the ways God used this tall, brave woman who could neither read nor write yet she became a well know evangelist who helped ignite the American consciousness against slavery. God accomplished even more amazing things in the life of Sojourner Truth, but that’s for Part 3.

Dianne McDonnell is the founder of Freedom Ministry.

http://www.freedom-ministry.com/

Sabbath Action Blast!

But the rest of us. . . well, we’ll be mentally high-fiving those creative people who’ve found ways to really celebrate God’s special day! In these pages are 101 of the best Sabbath activity ideas that Guide editors have ever seen ─ nearly 2 years’ worth of fun! Some of these activities are great for groups, while others are perfect for solo ventures. And whether you plan ahead or flip through on the spur of the moment, you’re sure to find something to make you smile, laugh, have fun, and learn about God!

To order this book, just click the link below:

https://biblesabbath.org/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=103&=SID