Discovering the New Covenant by Greg Taylor - exAdventist Outreach

DISCOVERING THE NEW COVENANT
Secondly, the word John uses for commandments
(entolé in Greek) is never used in John’s writings to refer to
the Ten Commandments. When John is speaking of the law
in general, or the Ten Commandments in particular, he
always uses the Greek word nomos for law. When John
uses entolé he does so in conjunction with the instructions
of Jesus for practical love of one another. He never breaks
this pattern. 3 So Revelation 12:17 is not speaking about the
Old Covenant Ten Commandments at all. We must be
consistent in translating John’s writings if we wish to arrive
at his intended meaning. It became apparent to me that the
SDA position had not only ignored the context of the New
Testament for the Seal of God, but had missed the
consistent use of the Greek language by the writer John.
With this pattern clearly in mind, Revelation 12:17 is
properly translated into English (in harmony with John’s
use of entolé) “those who truly love one another, and are
telling the world about Jesus.” To translate it to mean the
observance of law, specifically Sabbath observance, is
reading into the text preconceived ideas, rather than letting
the text speak for itself.
The Holy Spirit according to John 13-16 is another
Comforter. He lives in us and guides us. He is the
indwelling Jesus in our lives. The Seal of God in the last
days represents those who have a daily personal walk with
Jesus through the agency of the Holy Spirit. This is what it
means to be sealed. When we receive the gift of the Holy
Spirit by receiving Jesus, we enter the daily rest experience
of God’s amazing grace. This is the same message as found
in Hebrews 3-4. When we are resting in Jesus today and
every day, He is our Sabbath. The Spirit is the guarantee of
our inheritance! (Eph. 4:14) In short, the Seal of God is
Jesus living in us through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
3 Dale Ratzlaff, Sabbath in Crisis (Glendale, AZ, 1990) pp 310-311.
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