The Remnant Church

by Dr. Philip (Sunni) E. J. Moreno

The Seventh-day Adventist church lays claim to this title and they give 2 verses to support their claim.

“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev 12:17)

“At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” (Rev 19:10)


They say that they are the remnant church because of the following facts from the two verses above:

1. They keep the 10 commandments, most specifically the Sabbath.
2. They have the gift of prophecy, which they say manifested through Ellen G. White.
   

By this declaration they eliminate by default all Christian believers outside their doctrinal walls, and in a sense claim sole heirs to salvation.

Incredible! Anybody can organize a church and quote scripture to say that they are God’s true church. But can their claims stand the Bible test?

What is the testimony of Jesus?

• It is the gospel that saves all men and it is about the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus (2 Cor 15). In essence, it is the spirit of the Old Testament prophecies manifested as the New Covenant.

What is the Spirit of Prophecy?

• It is the Holy Spirit that was prophesied in Jeremiah 31 and Joel 2. This Spirit is the Seal of God and gives identity to the saved (Eph 1:13,14)

The Bible teaches about salvation and this is based only on the gospel which in itself is the “Commandments” of the New Covenant. It also teaches about an identifying mark of God - the Holy Spirit. These all will tell us that the saints will stand before God in the last days because:

1. They believed the gospel [the testimony of Jesus], and
2. They have the seal of God – the Holy Spirit [the spirit of prophecy].
3. They keep the New Covenant commandments – the Royal Law (James 2:8) and the Law of the Spirit (Rom 8:2)
   

As mentioned earlier the SDA church’s claim to the title – the Remnant church, is based on two things: Obedience to the 10 commandments and the presence of a prophet by which most of the church’s doctrines were defined.

Does the Bible teach that obedience to the 10 commandments or the presence of a prophet in a church have a part in the salvation of the Christian? NO.

Reasons why the SDA church cannot be the Remnant Church:

1. They deny that the Holy Spirit is the seal of God by proclaiming that God’s seal is the Sabbath.
2. They bind themselves to the 10 commandments to define their ethical standards and thus reject the Holy Spirit to work out God’s ways in their lives.
3. The New Covenant rendered the 10 commandments as obsolete (Heb 8:13), only until John the Baptist (Luke 16:16), replaced by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 3), has nothing to do with salvation (Gal 2:16), was put to an end by Jesus (Rom 10:4), etc. and therefore the word “commandments” in Revelation cannot possibly mean the 10 laws engraved on stone.
4. Their gospel is tainted, impure and condemnable. They combined the Old Testament and the New Testament to produce their gospel, which is far from Paul’s gospel.
5. Ellen G. White is not a spirit and therefore cannot be called the spirit of prophecy.
6. Ellen G. White’s prophecies are not only non-biblical, they also contradict the Bible in many points.
7. The Bible is sealed and the added prophecies of E.G. White regarding the last-day events are condemned in the book of Revelation.

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Published with the permission of Dr. Philip Moreno

Seventh-day Sabbath and Creation

Many believers are taught that the seventh-day Sabbath was instituted at creation. I want to share some bible verses which will hopefully shed light on the topic. Whether we are obligated to keep the Sabbath as Christians is another question, I will discuss at later time. The purpose of this article is to make clear when was the Sabbath first mentioned in the bible and if God really established it as a day of rest for all creation in the Garden of Eden.

Notice what Genesis 2:3 says: "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." You can read Genesis up and down all you want, but you won’t find any scripture indicating that God instructed Adam or Eve to keep the seventh day. It’s not even called Sabbath. Keep in mind the book of Genesis was written by Moses who is very familiar with God’s Law. If Sabbath was really given at creation, don’t you think Moses would have felt it is important to write about it in Genesis? Not one word was said about keeping the day. One would say “but Got sanctified the seventh day”, this is not evidence at all, as many things were sanctified by God and this doesn’t make them a law.

On the account of Genesis 2:3, God ceased from His work and Adam entered into continuous rest with Him, it wasn’t just for one day, it was meant to be forever. Notice that all six days of creation were described by having a morning and an evening except the seventh day on which God rested, where we see no such description, which indicates to me that our rest in the Lord was intended to last forever.

Did you ever ask yourself the question why God ceased from work on the seventh day? Here’s why - the work was COMPLETED, it was DONE, it was FINISHED. He saw there was nothing more to add, it was PERFECT. So God rested and Adam, who didn’t do a thing, entered into a continuous rest with God.

Now let’s make a parallel to what Christ accomplished on the cross. It was the PERFECT sacrifice, substitution for the penalty awaiting us sinners, it was DONE, it was COMPLETED, "It is FINISHED" He cried (John 19:30). Once again there is nothing more to add, we couldn’t do a thing to “help” Him accomplish the plan of salvation. Now those who profess faith in Christ can rest from the works of the Law, accept the gift of salvation by faith and enter into continuous rest in Him. Jesus is our Sabbath!

There is no mention of the Sabbath for the first 2500 years of human history. Nowhere in the bible will you find evidence suggesting that anyone who lived in this period of time kept the Sabbath. Job was a righteous man, but when he makes his protest of innocence before God, he said “I did this, I did that in your honour,... or I didn’t do that in obedience”, but he never once said “I kept your Sabbath”. There’s no indication that Abraham, Isaac or Jacob kept the Sabbath. The first time bible speaks of Sabbath is one month before the Law was given to Israel on Mount Sinai. Moses simply prepares the children of Israel who are about to receive the Law:

“On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much as usual—four quarts for each person instead of two. Then all the leaders of the community came and asked Moses for an explanation. He told them, “This is what the Lord commanded: Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the Lord. So bake or boil as much as you want today, and set aside what is left for tomorrow.” (Exodus 16:22-23) NLT

Notice that the leaders of the people are unfamiliar with the Sabbath, they are confused and they came to ask Moses. If they always kept the Sabbath, would they be wondering why is there twice as much manna on the ground on the sixth day?

Consider the following few verses:

"You came down also on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them just ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments. You made known to them Your holy Sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes and laws, by the hand of Moses Your servant" (Nehemiah 9:13-14).

“Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write down all these instructions, for they represent the terms of the covenant I am making with you and with Israel.” Moses remained there on the mountain with the Lord forty days and forty nights. In all that time he ate no bread and drank no water. And the Lord wrote the terms of the covenant—the Ten Commandments—on the stone tablets.” (Exodus 34:27-28)

“The people of Israel must keep the Sabbath day by observing it from generation to generation. This is a covenant obligation for all time. It is a permanent sign of my covenant with the people of Israel.” (Exodus 31:16-17)

“When the Lord finished speaking with Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two stone tablets inscribed with the terms of the covenant, written by the finger of God.” (Exodus 31:18)

“He proclaimed his covenant—the Ten Commandments —which he commanded you to keep, and which he wrote on two stone tablets.” (Deuteronomy 4:13)

“This happened when I was on the mountain receiving the tablets of stone inscribed with the words of the covenant that the Lord had made with you. I was there for forty days and forty nights, and all that time I ate no food and drank no water.” (Deuteronomy 9:9)

The Sabbath being one of the 10 Commandments is inseparable part of the Old Covenant which God made with Israel on Mount Sinai. According to the scripture, Sabbath was not given to all humankind at Creation and anyone who teaches the opposite is in contradiction with the Word of God. I encourage the reader to open their bibles and study more on this topic.

The Law a.k.a. the 10 Commandments, the Old Covenant

While Dr. Philip E.J. Moreno was still employed by the Seventh-day Adventist church in the Philippines, he was facing a huge dilemma - preach the true gospel of Christ and as a result find himself jobless... or continue to follow wrong doctrinal teachings and enjoy job and pension security as well as good status in the SDA community. This reminds me of a scripture found in Galatians 1:8-10:

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. (NIV)

Bellow is a short article on the law of the Old Covenant (The 10 Commandments). Considering the situation Dr. Moreno was in at the time he wrote it, you will find more bible verses and less comments on his part. He tried to let the Word of God speak to the reader at the same time he didn't want to engage in unnecessary debates with church officials. Of course this was inevitable and later this dear brother lost his job and many friends along with it, because of his decision to stand for the true gospel of Christ.

Enjoy the reading and I encourage you to study more. I pray that the Holly Spirit speaks directly to your heart.

The Law a.k.a. the 10 Commandments, the Old Covenant *
by Dr. Philip Moreno

Down through the ages the truth about this set of laws has been taught and debated, while some groups have twisted and restructured the circumstances surrounding its original setting in an attempt to give support to their stand as a church.

For those who seek the truth about the Law that God gave on Mount Sinai, here is a presentation of the facts surrounding the 10 commandments. I will leave out my own interpretation to give room for your own assessment of the facts, and I pray that you will rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you to the truth.

It was a covenant between God and his chosen people, the Israelites.
“Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant—the Ten Commandments." (Exodus 34:27-28)

“…the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.” (Romans 9:4-5)

It was not given to anyone before the Mount Sinai episode.
“The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.” (Deuteronomy 4:2-3)

It was only given four hundred and thirty years after God made a covenant with Abraham.
“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say "and to seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed," meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.” (Galatians 3:16-17)

It was not given to the non-Israelites/Gentiles.
“He has revealed his word to Jacob, his laws and decrees to Israel. He has done this for no other nation; they do not know his laws. Praise the Lord.” (Psalm 147:19-20)

“Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law…” (Romans 2:14)

“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised"… remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.” (Ephesians 2:11-12)

God said through the prophet Jeremiah that it would be replaced.
"The time is coming," declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt…” (Jeremiah 31:31-32)

With the establishment of another covenant – the New Covenant, these set of laws became obsolete.
“By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.” (Hebrews 8:13)

It had an end.
“Christ is the end of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” (Romans 10:5)


Here are some facts regarding the Christian in relation to the Law.

“For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:14)

“Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” (Galatians 3:25)

“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.” (Galatians 5:18)

“Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)

“I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:21)

“You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.” (Galatians 5:4)

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*Published with the permission of Dr. Philip E.J. Moreno