You Have a Choice to Make

By Pastor Aubrey Duncan

The Power of Choice

Choices have consequences. The God of all creation has endowed humans with the power to choose. It is the governing attribute in the nature of man.

Everything we do depends upon the choices we make. God desires us, as His fondest creation, to choose His ways and be obedient to His will. Nevertheless, He does not deprive us of our choice to disobey His commands and walk on a path that is contrary to His will. This is the epitome of God’s love, and it is at the very foundation of the great controversy in which we are all involved.

God’s highest creation was Lucifer, now called Satan. He was the captain of the angelic host, but he was dissatisfied with his position and coveted God’s position. He sought to take the prerogatives that belong only to God, his Creator. Isaiah gives us some more details of Lucifer’s thoughts, choices, and actions: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most-High” (Isaiah 14:12–14).

The prophet Ezekiel records Lucifer’s heavenly power and position: “Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee” (Ezekiel 28:14–15).

Ultimately, Lucifer exercised his God-given power of choice to disobey his Creator and follow his own way. His disobedience has resulted in untold pain, misery, suffering, and death, not only to humanity but also to the environment.

Nevertheless, because of His character of inestimable love, God allowed Lucifer to make his choice to oppose Him. Lucifer’s choices led to rebellion in heaven, but he lost and was cast into the earth. John reports: “And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7–10).

In that cosmic conflict, the most powerful of God’s created beings lost his position but none of his power. The rebellion continues today on planet Earth, in the hearts of men and women. Beginning with our first parents, the battle for our choices, and ultimately our worship, has never ceased. Every human being that was ever born has to contend with Satan’s opposition to Jehovah. In these closing scenes of earth history, the battle is raging at its most intense pitch. The issue in the final battle of the Drama of the Ages is God’s Sabbath as opposed to Rome’s Sunday tradition. Each of us has to make a choice between obeying and worshipping the God of creation or following the tradition of men who, like Satan, attempt to usurp the position of God. There is no exception. No middle ground exists.

The Great Controversy

God created His Sabbath and has bestowed it to all of humanity as an emblem and reminder of His creative and redemptive power. He has embedded it in His holy Ten Commandments as a reminder to all humanity. Our Creator bids us: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8–11).

Nowhere in sacred writ has it been stated, alluded to, or implied that the God of Creation has changed His holy Sabbath day from the seventh day of the week to the first. But the Roman church claims: “Perhaps the most revolutionary change the church ever did, happened in the first century. The holy day, the Sabbath, was changed from Saturday to Sunday. ‘The day of the Lord’ (Dies Dominica) was chosen, not from any directions noted in the Scriptures, but from the church’s sense of its own power … people who think that the Scriptures should be the sole authority should logically become 7th Day Adventists, and keep Saturday holy” (Saint Catherine Catholic Sentinel, May 21, 1995).

Again, the massive European Ecclesiastical Establishment boasts: “Sunday is our mark of authority … the church is above the Bible, and the transference of Sabbath is proof of that fact” (Catholic  Record, September 1, 1923).

Consequently, there is a great controversy. The contest is not only for controlling your mind and your worship but also for the rulership of the universe. The conflict is between our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and His archenemy, Satan, who is ultimately the antichrist. This battle, which began in heaven, has continued for millennia here on earth. It is drawing to a swift conclusion in our time. The parties, Christ and Satan, are each represented by their servants, in the personages of angels, institutions, and humans. John reports: “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him…And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:9,17).

At the center of the conflict is the matter of worship. The apostle Paul declares: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness” (Romans 6:16).

The writings of the popes illustrate the nature of the conflict. The late Pope John Paul II quotes a previous pope: “When, through the centuries, she has made laws concerning Sunday rest, the Church has had in mind above all the work of servants and workers, certainly not because this work was any less worthy when compared to the spiritual requirements of Sunday observance, but rather because it needed greater regulation to lighten its burden and thus enable everyone to keep the Lord’s Day holy. In this matter, my predecessor Pope Leo XIII, in his Encyclical Rerum Novarum, spoke of Sunday rest as a worker’s right which the State must guarantee” (Pope John Paul II, Dies Domini, Section 66). He continued: “The celebration of the Christian Sunday remains, on the threshold of the third millennium, an indispensable element of our Christian identity” (Section 31, Dies Domini). He also stated, “Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their right to keep Sabbath (Sunday) holy” (Section 67, ibid).

His successor, Benedict XVI, has continued on the same path. The Guardian of London, England, reports, “At an outdoor mass attended by an estimated 200,000 people, he (Benedict XVI) called for the rediscovery of the religious meaning of Sunday as an antidote to the rampant consumerism and religious indifference that was making the modern world a spiritual desert”

All cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and priests have followed their pontiffs’ lead. Unanimously, they have arisen to trumpet the call for Sunday sacredness. The current pontiff, Francis I, is most adamant in that regard. In his Encyclical Letter of June 2015, he makes the case sterner, bolder, and with purposeful enthusiasm: “On Sunday, our participation in the Eucharist has special importance. Sunday, like the Jewish Sabbath, is meant to be a day which heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world. Sunday is the day of the Resurrection, the “first day” of the new creation, whose first fruits are the Lord’s risen humanity, the pledge of the final transfiguration of all created reality. It also proclaims, “man’s eternal rest in God” (LAUDATO SI’, Section 237).

In the first place, there is no such thing as a Jewish or Christian Sabbath. The Scripture only declares God’s Sabbath. (Exodus 20:8–11; Isaiah 56:1-6). Jesus declared it was for all humanity, Jew and Gentile alike (Mark 2:27–28).

How can mere men transfer the meaning, sacredness, and sanctity of God’s Sabbath from the 7th day of the week to Sunday, the first, and by extension relegate the blessings of the Creator’s to a day He has not appointed? But this is indeed what Francis and his predecessors have unabashedly proclaimed, and untold millions are following them instead of obeying the God of Creation whom they claim to serve. Are you one of them?

The Conductor

The call for Sunday sacredness is loud and clear, not only for Roman Catholics but for all people to honor Sunday as a sacred day. The church of Rome has traditionally used the decoy of the secular realm to secure the support of the masses for the recognition and establishment of Sunday as a sacred institution. This is the strategy now being used with alarming success across the globe. The Trojan horse of climate change is being manipulated to implement Rome’s mark of authority, Sunday sacredness. Francis recently announced the planned release of Laudato Si, 2. Laudato Si,1, issued some eight years ago, proposing Sunday sacredness as the panacea for the climate crisis, was an appeal. Laudato Si, 2, enhancing that proposition, is the command for its implementation by all the nations. Francis revealed to a gathering of European lawyers: “On that date [October 4th], I plan on publishing an exhortation, a second Laudato si’,” the Pope said. “Let us join our Christian brothers and sisters in the commitment to care for creation as a sacred gift from the Creator” (Vatican News, 30 August 2023, 11:52).

Rome is leading the charge for Sunday sacredness. Francis is the conductor of a train that seems unstoppable but will crash and disintegrate when it collides with the impregnable wall of God’s Holy Sabbath. On board are untold religious leaders espousing a plethora of Biblically weak arguments to cast aside God’s commands while uplifting the tradition of Rome. Their collective call, soon to become a demand for men and women, particularly Christians, to reject the God of Creation and accept the rule of the pope, will eventually be demolished.

The question is, whom will you obey? God says, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shall thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath-day of the Lord thy God” (Exodus 20:8–9). Jesus further admonishes us: “If you love me keep my commandments” (John 14:15). God makes the loving appeal to His children: “Come out of Her, My people; lest ye partake of her sins and receive her plagues” (Revelation 18:4). He is making a loving appeal: “Fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of His judgment is come and worship Him who made the heavens and seas and fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:7).

A Time to Choose

Following the demise and fall of the political Roman empire, true Christianity was amalgamated with the pagan practices of the Roman state. That amalgamation, initiated by Emperor Constantine, gave rise to the massive structure of deception and false religion called Catholicism. That system, which calls itself Christian, is anything but Christian. The teachings, dogmas, and doctrines of popery are almost exclusively non-Biblical and anti-Christian. Sunday sacredness is the most profound.

But our God of love, creation, and the Sabbath does not condemn those who are caught in this deception. He offers them the truth as it is in Jesus. God gives pardon to those who turn away from their error and come to worship Him in spirit and in truth. He offers forgiveness to those who turn away from their wicked ways and purpose in their hearts to honor Him by keeping holy His blessed Sabbath day. God pleads with the deceived and rebellious: “If my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).

The people of God have to make a decision. Ellen White, a famous nineteenth-century Bible commentator, writes: “The Romish Church now present a fair front to the world, covering with apologies her record of horrible cruelties. She has clothed herself in Christ-like garments; but she is unchanged. Every principle of popery that existed in past ages exists today. The doctrines devised in the darkest ages are still held. Let none deceive themselves. The popery that Protestants are now so ready to honor is the same that ruled the world in the days of Reformation, when men of God stood up, at the peril of their lives to expose her iniquities. She possesses the same pride and arrogant assumption that lorded it over kings and princesses and claimed the prerogatives of God” (E.G. White, The Great Controversy, page 571).

As a child of the God of Creation, you don’t have to be deceived or afraid. In this final conflict, in which all the world is involved, there is but one of two choices to make. One must choose either the Mark of the Beast, Sunday Sacredness, or the Seal of God, His Holy Sabbath-day. To receive God’s seal is to settle in one’s mind the eternal and enduring nature of His moral law, which has the Sabbath commandment as its seal. That law is for all men of all ages. By faith, the true followers of God will choose His Sabbath and strive, by His grace, to keep it holy. Through deception or willing ignorance, most will unfortunately choose the Mark of the Beast.

Contrary to popular belief, the Sabbath is not characterized by an endless series of rites and rituals. It is not a man-made collection of do’s and don’ts. The Sabbath experience is a commemoration of God’s love for us by providing all that we need in this life and throughout eternity. It is a call for sinful men to remember the creative and redemptive power of an Almighty God. True Sabbath keeping is an outworking of our saving relationship with God through His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ. It is not a denominational or religious dogma. The Sabbath is proof that a person has truly been sanctified by the God who created them.

The acceptance and keeping of the Lord’s Sabbath is a believer’s supreme act of faith. It is an open demonstration of one’s trust in the God who created the world and redeemed fallen man from sin. The giving of the Sabbath by God at creation remains the irrefutable foundation of our Christian experience. The Sabbath provides for total and complete surrender to God. Unlike any other day of the week, the Sabbath-day serves not only as a sign of the Christian’s sanctification, but it is also a mark of separation between those who serve the God of creation and those who do not. The Sabbath exemplifies a unique relationship between the Creator God and His supreme creation, man. True Sabbath keeping is the actualization of the gospel.

God declares His Sabbath day to be a sign of deliverance. To the Jews of old, He proclaimed: “And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath holy” (Deuteronomy 5:15). Likewise, today, when, by faith, we are delivered from sin by the grace of God through the blood of His Son, Jesus, we too are admonished to keep the  Sabbath-day holy.

In the process of keeping the Sabbath day holy, we are reminded of a God who created time and gives us a piece of it. It points one in the direction of the origin of his faith. The Sabbath reminds us of what God declared and Moses recorded: “In the beginning God created” (Genesis 1:1). As a Christian, the question is not whether God’s Sabbath is still binding, but rather, do you have enough faith in the God who created you and the Sabbath? Further, the question is posed: Do you have faith enough to obey God’s command rather than man’s traditions?

The times of fear, moral declension, natural catastrophes, and economic uncertainty produce religious zealotry. All seek answers and must make decisions. We are living in such a time. But religious zealotry devoid of Godly wisdom is no substitute for a sanctified heart, as evidenced by an obedient spirit. Sabbath keeping is truly the sign of true obedience and sanctification. As you settle in your heart the question of keeping God’s Sabbath, you must follow Jesus. He is your Supreme Example. You must heed the teachings of the prophets as to what you need to do to comply with God’s requirements to keep the Sabbath-day holy. God promises a blessing for those who accept His Sabbath truth.

Of those that keep God’s Sabbath, thus receiving His seal, John writes: “Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away” (Revelation 14:12; 21:4). The prophet Isaiah promises, “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 66:22–23).

God established the Sabbath truth when the universe was created. It was preached by the prophets and practiced by Jesus. The Sabbath was honored by the apostles and revered by the early church. The Sabbath was lost sight of for a period of time during the dark ages of Roman Catholic apostasy, when the Bible was taken away from the people. God is, in these times, revealing His Sabbath truth to His people. When all is over in this present world and Jesus comes to make all things new, the promise is that His followers will keep the Sabbath in honor of His creative and redemptive work in our lives. The same God who created the heavens, the earth, and all that is in them—and rested on the seventh day—is the same God who recreated us when we submitted or lives to Him by faith in Jesus Christ.

The Sabbath is His sign of creation, redemption, and sanctification. To observe God’s seventh-day Sabbath is to truly show the world that you carry the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel. He created the world and all that is in it. He then gives us the Sabbath as an eternal reminder of who He is. Today, you must decide whose side you’re on. Your decision on the Sabbath will determine where you’ll spend eternity. It will be either with the God of creation or with the man of perdition.

May God guide you to make the decision.

About: Follow Pastor Aubrey Duncan at his Unfolding Prophecy Page