God's Sabbath

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E NTERING INTO G OD ’ S S ABBATH R EST

Thus Adam made his choice, usurping God’s position as the Problem Solver. Although his motive was love for Eve, it would have been a wiser and more perfect expression of that love if Ad am had chosen to let his Creator handle the problem for him.

Thou Shalt Not be Thine own Problem Solver

In this way sin, with all its attendant woe and misery, became established in the world. It came as a direct consequence of God’s children appointing themselves as problem solvers and plan makers in His place. It was the attempted exaltation of the crea ture to the level of the Creator. That was the real sin committed in Eden. Partaking of the forbidden fruit was but the means of expressing the decision to replace God with His creatures. Some may contend that the sins committed in Eden were di rect violations of the individual commandments. When Eve be lieved Satan’s lies about God and carried these to her husband, she was certainly a bearer of false witness. Furthermore, she coveted the fruit before she stole it, and by thus bringing death upon herself, her husband, the Son of God, and all her children, she also broke the command forbidding murder. Adam joined her in sin, and by entering into a relationship with Satan in the place of their true husband, Jesus Christ, they committed adultery. In so doing they dishonored their heavenly Parents, had another god before the real One, worshiped an ob ject as the symbol of their ambitions, and held God’s name in vain. Furthermore, by depriving God of His rightful position as Problem Solver, they also broke the Sabbath in principle, losing their Sabbath rest. It is therefore true that they broke every one of the command ments, but we need to see more deeply into the meaning of their transgression. If we evaluate those laws from the perspective of God’s role, we can see that each of them is a prohibition against our solving our own problems. Why do people remove others by killing them? It is usually because the victim has become a problem to them, and the only way they can see of solving the difficulty, is to kill the person who stands in their way. Some killings appear