Thank you for your response. If I may go deeper into detail may I ask follow up questions? If you don't have answers to these that's fine, maybe someone else does. I am not trying to do any more than get answers to questions. They are sincere and not leading. Please take them at face value. You are very kind to spend time and it's obvious you care. Thank you.
I know that God asked Abraham to circumcise all the males of his household including himself as part of that covenant setting his family apart for a special purpose for God, but when we get to the new testament it is not necessary and more of a choice matter in our time. Being circumcised has nothing to do with salvation.
Would the churches beliefs include these things?
Deuteronomy 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked .
Colossians 2:11 In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
We believe that the 10 Commandments are still valid today and serve the purpose of showing us what sin is leading us to repentance to come to Jesus and accept Him as our Savior and receiving the gift of salvation and grace that is offered to us. We do not believe the 10 Commandments were nailed to the cross but were fulfilled at the cross. God's laws of the 10 are still a valid guideline showing the rules of God's government that even the Angels follow.
Is there any more to the law that is observed like Leviticus 19 and Deuteronomy 6 concerning in the principles of loving God and our Neighbor?
Is the temple made without hands related to the principles of the temple worship in the Old Covenant like the priest being a foreshadow of Christ and laying hands on the head of an animal for the one offering to be connected with the sacrifice? Such as these for example. I know there's more.
In Isaiah it says from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another all will come and worship before the Lord so I believe that we will still celebrate the Sabbath in heaven with God and all the heavenly hosts.
Does the church include this understanding within the Sabbath?
Hebrews 4:1 Let us therefore fear , lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Hebrews 4:10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
The first day of the feast of tabernacles, which was a Sabbath, the Israelites worked very had to build booths.
Leviticus 23:39-40 Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the LORD seven days: on the
first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath. And ye shall take you on the
first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
I don't know when the new testament began as a lay person I just know in my Bible it begins with Matthew so this question is beyond my study or knowledge.
This is only for your understanding
Hebrews 9:16-17 16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator . 17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth .
So I do believe the sacrificial law was nailed to the cross in the form of Jesus dying there but it was fulfilled at that point. Salvation only comes through Jesus and His blood that covers our sins
Amen. I also believe that. Does the church believe that sacrifice continues in principle after we are born again?
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 1
Corinthians 15:31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily , and follow me.
We believe that we are living in the end times and that Jesus could come anytime as a thief in the night. God only knows when he will come.
Does the church believe in a pre-tribulation rapture?
Matthew 24:29-31 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened , and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken : And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn , and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other .
I was dead before but now with God I am alive. "
May God bless you in your walk with Jesus. Look in your quote area I answered best I could.
Thank you so very much for your time and patience with me. As I have said concerning these follow up question, they are not to put you “on the spot” or anything of the sort. My wife and I are in the process of finding a church. Our neighbor is leaving their church because of a certain type of dictatorship endorsed there, and we are planing to attend the SDA this Saturday to investigate and see if it is right for us and if God approves. Everything else you have said that I didn't quote is right on in my estimation.
