HOME / PROCLAMATION! MAGAZINE / 2010 / APRIL MAY JUNE / THE LIFE EXAMINED WITH CAROLYN MACOMBER

Carolyn Macomber

 

I was nervous about the upcoming weekend. It would be the first time I had encountered a Bible study on Revelation since leaving my Adventist roots.

As we drove to the conference, the conversation in the car turned spiritual. I hesitatingly became vulnerable and shared my fears. My new friends gently asked questions about my former understanding of Revelation. We all pulled out our Bibles except, of course, the woman behind the wheel!!

I had my friends turn to Revelation 14 and expounded on the Seventh-day Adventist interpretation of the three angels' messages. I shared how Adventists believe they are the remnant church of prophecy. The other women listened carefully as I spoke of the Adventist focus on Saturday as the "right" day of worship. I informed them how the phrases, "worship Him who made heaven and earth, the sea, and springs of water" from Rev. 14:7, and the phrase from verse 12, "those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus," are used by Adventists to argue that Saturday is the day for worship. My friends reacted saying, "That's a stretch!"

John, the author of Revelation, defines "commandments" in 1 John 3:23-24 as, "And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he has commanded us. Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us." John also identifies salvation in 1 John 5:11-13 as belonging to Christ and Him alone.

As we talked in the car two words, "Worship Him" (Rev. 14:7), jumped off the pages of my Bible. Those two words have plagued my mind for several months.

My obsession with those two words has taken me into a long personal study of Revelation. I have and continue to be blessed by studying this book as promised by John (Rev. 1:3).

One of the main themes of Revelation is worship. John chronicles amazing pictures of worship and praise (Rev. 4:8, 11; 5:9-10, 12-13; 7:12; 11:17-18; 15:3-4; 16:5; 19:1,3,5-6). "Holy, Holy, Holy" is repeated throughout this Biblical book in regards to the worship of God.

With what is right and true concerning God, there is often a counterfeit. Revelation warns of this counterfeit in the chapter before 14, "And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?'" (Rev. 13:4). The dragon is clearly identified in Revelation 12:9 as that "ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world".

"Worship Him" of Revelation 14 is illogically interpreted in Seventh-day Adventist theology as a command to worship on a particular day, because Revelation 13 clearly identifies the counterfeit worship with a "who", not a "when". You either worship Satan,—or the Lord Jesus Christ.

My never-been Adventist friends have often shared with me how they have seen Seventh-day Adventists as the "weaker" brother—Christians who worship on a different day and who eat kosher. When I share with my Christian friends that Adventists identify Sunday worship as the mark of the beast—my friends are horrified by the implication. Placing such strong emphasis on a day verges on worshipping an image, a counterfeit, and missing the real—Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus clearly identified Himself as greater than a "day". He speaks of Himself as "Lord of the Sabbath" (Matt. 12:8; Mk. 2:28; Lk. 6:5).

If you have not received Jesus as your sole source of salvation, I encourage you to put down this magazine, kneel humbly in prayer, and repent of your pride in thinking the day you worship is more important than the "Who" you worship—or that the day you worship represents the "Who". Ask Jesus to become Lord of your life.

Jesus Christ, the one true God, who elicits praises of "Holy, Holy, Holy" and "Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever," should be the focus of our worship.

"Worship Him"! †

 

 

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Carolyn Macomber is a doctoral student at Andrews University. Discovering increasing inconsistencies between Adventism and the Bible, she withdrew her membership from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 2009. She is a member of The Chapel Evangelical Free Church near Andrews University in St. Joseph, Michigan, is a children's teaching leader for the St. Joseph Bible Study Fellowship, and is co-founder and leader of the Former Adventist Fellowship at The Chapel. She will share her discoveries in this column, and you can read her experiences of processing out of Adventism into the Christian community at her blog or watch her testimony HERE.

April May June 2010
VOLUME 11, ISSUE 2

D E P A R T M E N T S

The life EXAMINED with Carolyn Macomber

 

 

 

The first angel's message:
Worship Him