Which Day is the Christian Sabbath?
See also sabbath sabbathfredcoulter and fourthcommandement and sundayisitthesabbath
See also http://www.ecclesia.org/truth/sabbath.html and http://www.sabbathtruth.com/
for a very thorough treatise on the sabbath.
Staggering events will soon jolt this world out of its normal routines. Everything around you is going to change in the very near future! Man has now come to the time when he can destroy this planet many times over. And history shows that advanced weapons of destruction, once invented, have always been used by warring nations. |
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Jesus said that—at the end
of this age—only God's direct intervention would stop man from
destroying all human life from this planet. He said, "And unless those
days were shortened, no flesh would be saved [alive]; but for the elect's sake
those days will be shortened" (Matthew 24:22).
As we swiftly approach the END of this present
age of man's rule under the influence of Satan the Devil, it is vitally
important that we consider whether or not we are really obeying the God who
gives us life and breath. For the Jesus Christ of the Bible taught time and
again that "empty faith" is NOT enough! In His concluding remarks in
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord,
Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of
My Father in heaven" (Matthew 7:21).
In this regard, He asked, "But why do you
call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?" (Luke 6:46).
And in a heated discussion with the Pharisees, Jesus quoted Isaiah's prophecy,
saying, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written:
'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And
IN VAIN they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men'"
(Mark 7:6-7). Think about that! Jesus clearly stated that it is
possible to worship God—and yet worship Him IN VAIN by following the
teachings of men! Then Jesus said to them, "All too well you reject
the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition" (v. 9).
Clearly then, when the traditions of men
conflict with the commandments of God, we face a HUGE problem according
to Jesus Christ!
Did you know that your willingness to keep holy
the true Sabbath day, which God made holy, directly affects
whether or not you will be granted eternal life in the Kingdom of God? Did you
know that keeping the true Sabbath is—and always has been—a special
"test" commandment in God's sight?
Which Day Is the Biblical Sabbath?
Jesus Christ taught us,
"Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God" (Luke
4:4). Jesus also made it clear that the Bible does NOT contradict itself. He
showed that the teaching of Scripture is consistent. For Jesus said, "the
Scripture CANNOT be broken" (John 10:35).
The Apostle Paul expanded on this theme, saying,
"ALL Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good
work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
If you are willing to BELIEVE these inspired
statements, then you will have no problem understanding this vital
subject. For the Bible teaches us about God's true Sabbath day from Genesis to
Revelation. In fact, it is one of the clearest and most easily understood
subjects in the entire Bible—IF you honestly look at the facts and are not
fearful about "what other people think." Remember that in Jesus' day
many of the religious leaders knew that He was the Christ, but would not
confess Him for this very reason: "For they loved the praise of men
more than the praise of God" (John 12:43).
Do you have the faith and courage to do
what God clearly commands—regardless of what others think?
All right. Let's get down to clear, absolute
PROOF regarding the true Sabbath of Almighty God. Let's assume that you were
beginning your search for the true Sabbath on the proverbial desert island and
that the only written materials you had managed to preserve after a shipwreck
were the Holy Bible and a calendar. If you began your search with a completely
open, objective mind, and had perhaps even forgotten the day you had
previously observed, which day would you HAVE to keep after such an
objective study?
"Sunday," you say?
"No way!"
WHY? Because the Bible never commands anyone
to observe Sunday as a weekly day of worship! Rather, it instructs us to work
on that day. In fact, from Genesis to Revelation, many verses in the Bible
clearly show that, rather than observing the first day—Sunday—it
was the seventh-day Sabbath (from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset)
that was kept by all of God's faithful servants in both Old and New
Testament times. And this same seventh-day Sabbath will continue to be
observed by Christians on this earth during Christ's soon-coming 1,000-year
rule! (cf. Revelation 20:4-6).
Notice the teaching of Jesus Christ in Mark
2:23-28. Jesus allowed His disciples to pluck heads of grain to eat as they
walked through grain fields on the Sabbath. He was challenged on this point by
the Pharisees, who had added more than 60 legalistic "dos and
don'ts" to the Sabbath—of their own human devising. But Jesus
said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath" (vv. 27-28).
Christ did not say that the Sabbath was
made for the Jews—but for "man." He said the Sabbath (not Sunday)
is the day He is "Lord of." Jesus did not give the slightest hint
about abrogating the Sabbath commandment. Rather, He showed both here and in
the verses that follow, how to keep the Sabbath in a more meaningful
way. Again, Jesus said that the Sabbath was "made for man"—for him
to keep—LONG BEFORE the Jewish people even existed.
At this point, let us look at the inspired
account of when God made mankind—and subsequently gave man the Sabbath. In
Genesis 1:1 we read, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth." This original creation may have been billions of years ago. The
next verse shows that the earth came to a state of chaos and waste. And the
succeeding verses describe how God reformed our planet about 6,000 years ago
and created the progenitors of the plant and animal life forms that presently
inhabit it. Now notice verse 26: "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our
image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and
over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'" So mankind was
created in God's "image." We were given "dominion" or RULE
over all the rest of creation. But how was mankind to keep in contact
with his Maker? How were we to remind ourselves that the true God is,
in fact, the CREATOR of all that is?
Genesis 2:2-3 begins to provide the answer:
"And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He
rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God
BLESSED the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from
all His work which God had created and made."
Notice that God "ended" or completed
His work of creation by resting on the seventh day of the week. The
word "Sabbath" is derived from the Hebrew word Shabath, which
literally means "rest" or "cessation." God created
the Sabbath by resting on this day and ceasing from creating material things.
And He "blessed" and "sanctified"—that is, set apart for
holy use—this day and no other! By blessing and sanctifying the
seventh-day Sabbath, God showed that His presence is IN this day in a
very special way. For of all the days of the week, this one ALONE points to
Him in a unique way as the true God, the One who created and now governs the
entire universe.
Sunday in the New Testament
The word "Sunday"
does not even appear in literal Bible translations. We do find the
phrase "first day of the week" in the New Testament, but this occurs
just eight times. Five of those references (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1-2; Mark
16:9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1) describe Mary Magdalene and others coming to the
tomb AFTER Christ's resurrection. As we prove elsewhere in this booklet, Jesus
was resurrected Saturday evening—NOT Sunday morning. So those references
have nothing to do with observing the day of Christ's resurrection!
In John 20:19, we read that on "…the
first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were
assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to
them, 'Peace be with you.'" This was not a worship meeting celebrating
the resurrection; Scripture tells us that until they saw Him, they did not
believe that Christ was risen! (Mark 16:14; Luke 24:27-41).
The book of Acts recounts the development of
doctrine and practice in the early Church. Yet the first day of the week is
mentioned only once, in Acts 20:7-12. "Now on the first day of the week,
when the disciples came together to break bread [i.e. eat a meal], Paul, ready
to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until
midnight" (v. 7). This was a one-time farewell meeting and meal, not a
regular worship service. And when we understand that by biblical reckoning
days are from sunset to sunset, we can see that the before-midnight portion of
"the first day" is actually on Saturday. This "first day"
gathering was a Saturday evening event! And at sunrise Sunday morning, Paul
began the hard work of a 20-mile hike (vv. 11-14)—not what one would expect
if he considered Sunday his Sabbath day of rest!
In 1 Corinthians 16:2, the Apostle Paul
requested: "On the first day of the week let each one of you lay
something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections
when I come." This is no endorsement at all of Sunday worship. Notice
that the practice was meant to stop when Paul came to Corinth!
And notice that these verses say nothing about gathering for a weekly worship
service to do this collection. This was not a collection of money, but of food
to assist the poor in Jerusalem, suffering from drought and famine (cf. Romans
15:25-28). Until Paul's arrival, each individual was asked to "store
up" his contributions—surely in his home. Paul knew that the collection
would be bulky enough that it would take several people to transport it to
Jerusalem (v. 4)—not what one would expect if money were collected.
One more verse that some use to justify calling
Sunday the "Lord's Day" is Revelation 1:10. Here, the Apostle John
says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind
me a loud voice, as of a trumpet." But this does not refer to worshiping
on the first day of the week—or any day of the week, for that matter.
Revelation is a "prophecy" (1:3) of end-time events. Clearly, then,
the "Lord's Day" is synonymous with the "Day of the
Lord"—a future time, mentioned more than 30 times in Bible prophecy,
when God will supernaturally intervene in human affairs, executing punishment
on the nations and finally sending Jesus Christ back to this earth to bring
world peace at last. John meant that he was carried in vision by God's Spirit to
that time.
But even if this were talking about a day
of the week, which day would it be? Remember what Jesus said: "The Son of
Man is… Lord of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:28). Also, the preincarnate Christ
called the Sabbath "My holy day... the holy day of the Lord" (Isaiah
58:13). And in the fourth commandment, He said, "The seventh day is the
Sabbath of the Lord your God" (Exodus 20:10). Obviously, then, the
seventh-day Sabbath is not our day. It is—without question—the Lord's
day! Weekly Sunday observance, therefore, has absolutely no biblical
foundation.
The Test Commandment
As all Bible students know,
the patriarch Abraham was the great-grandfather of Judah—from whom came the
"Jews." Did he keep God's true Sabbath? Absolutely!
For God said, "Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My
commandments, My statutes, and My laws" (Genesis 26:5).
Succeeding generations of Israelites clearly
understood from these verses that Abraham kept the seventh-day Sabbath—the
Sabbath that God had "sanctified" at the creation of mankind.
And in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul tells us that Abraham is the
"father" of the faithful (Romans 4:11, 16).
Many will argue that the Ten
Commandments—including the fourth one about keeping the Sabbath holy—were
just part of the "Old Covenant" that God made with Israel at Mount
Sinai in the days of Moses. These people contend that, because the Old
Covenant ended at Christ's death, the Ten Commandments—with the Sabbath
requirement—ended also.
But it was at the beginning of human history
that God made the seventh-day Sabbath "holy time." And about 2,000
years later, Abraham, the father of the faithful, set for us an EXAMPLE of
faithfulness by keeping God's commandments and statutes—obviously
including the observance of the Sabbath day. Remember, this was still LONG
BEFORE there was any Old Covenant with Israel!
Hundreds of years later, we find Abraham's
descendants being led out of Egyptian slavery by Moses in the Exodus. Several
weeks before the Old Covenant was proposed at Mount Sinai, God wanted
to remind His people of the true Sabbath, which He had given mankind at
creation. In case any of them had forgotten or become mixed up about His
Sabbath—which was possible since the Israelites had been in Egyptian slavery
for several generations—God gave His people a series of signs to make clear
to them which day He had made holy.
Now examine the account in Exodus 16:1-30. The
people of Israel were "murmuring" against God because they wanted
more food. So God said, "I will... TEST them, whether they will walk
in My LAW or not" (v. 4). Interesting. Because this is more proof
that God's law was definitely in effect even BEFORE the giving of the
Old Covenant at Mount Sinai!
So God explained that He would perform the
following miracle. Every day of the week, except Saturday, a special food from
heaven called "manna" would blanket the ground in the morning like
dew. The people were to gather it up each morning and eat it that same day.
They could not keep it overnight, because that would cause it to breed worms
and stink.
But there would be no manna on the ground
on Saturdays. What, then, were they to eat on that day? God's answer:
the second phase of His miracle. Every Friday, He would give
them a double portion of manna—one portion for that day and another
to be kept overnight and eaten on Saturday (v. 23). This would require a third
phase of the miracle. God would allow manna collected on Fridays to remain
unspoiled overnight, so that it could be eaten on Saturday. From Friday to
Saturday was the only time each week they were permitted to keep food
overnight—for God was showing them that Friday was the preparation day
for the Sabbath.
Thus, God was arranging things so they wouldn't
have to do the work of gathering manna on Saturday—enabling them to rest
on the Sabbath, yet still have something to eat that day. "So they laid
it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there
any worms in it. Then Moses said, 'Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath
to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field'" (vv. 24-25).
Remember that this was a TEST—to see whether
they would follow God's law or not. So what did the people do?
As human beings so often do, they did NOT take
God seriously! Some Israelites went out and tried to find manna even on the
Sabbath. "And the Lord said to Moses, 'How long do you [people]
refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See! For the Lord has given you
the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days.
Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the
seventh day.' So the people rested on the seventh day" (vv. 28-30).
On this occasion, several weeks before
Israel came to Mount Sinai, God began performing a weekly three-phase
miracle to show His people WHICH DAY was—and had always been—His
holy Sabbath. When some tried to work on that day anyway, the Creator
thundered, "How LONG do you refuse to keep My commandments and My
laws?"!
Who Gave the Ten Commandments?
The Ten
Commandments—including the Sabbath-day requirement—have been in existence since
mankind was created. God was simply reminding the people of this
important fact.
Next, we come to God's codifying of the Ten
Commandments for His nation of Israel. This was truly an awesome occasion.
Thunder roared. Lightning flashed. And the earth SHOOK with the power of the
Creator. Then God Himself—not Moses—spoke the Ten Commandments!
(Exodus 20:1). Many think that God the Father gave these commands and
that Jesus Christ later came along and did away with them. But Jesus told the
Jews that they had "neither heard [the Father's] voice at any time, nor
seen His form" (John 5:37).
So just who was this God with Israel in
the Sinai wilderness? He was often called the "Rock" of Israel
(Deuteronomy 32:4, 15, 31; Psalm 18:2, 31, 46, etc.). In the New Testament,
the Apostle Paul was inspired to write about Him. He says the Israelites
"all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual
Rock that followed them, and that Rock was CHRIST"! (1 Corinthians
10:4). The Bible makes it abundantly clear that the Person in the Godhead who
spoke to ancient Israel was the One who later "emptied" Himself and
became Jesus Christ!
During His human lifetime, Jesus told the
belligerent Pharisees, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham
was, I AM" (John 8:58). Many respected Bible commentaries acknowledge
that in this verse Jesus is clearly indicating that He was, in fact, the God
of Israel now made flesh.
Regarding this phrase, "I AM," the Expositor's
Bible Commentary states:
"I AM" implies continuous existence, including existence when Abraham appeared. Jesus was, therefore, asserting that at the time of Abraham's birth, he existed. Furthermore, I AM was recognized by the Jews as a title of deity. When God commissioned Moses to demand from Pharaoh the release of the Israelites, he said, "This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you'" (Exod. 3:14). [One scholar] states that "the phrase harbors within itself the most authentic, the most audacious, and the most profound affirmation by Jesus of who he was" [vol. 9, p. 99].
Yes, Jesus Christ was
certainly the God of the Old Testament—the "Word," as the first
chapter of John's Gospel calls Him, who spoke on His Father's behalf (To learn
more about this subject, please write for our free booklet, The Real God).
The Bible also shows that Christ was the One through whom God created all
things (John 1:1-3, 14; Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 1:2-3). This
means that Jesus Christ is the One who originally created the
Sabbath by resting on the seventh day! No wonder He is Lord of that
day, as we have seen from Mark 2:28. For He MADE the Sabbath!
We can now see that it was Christ's own voice
that SHOOK the mountains as He set forth the great spiritual LAW of God. As we
have noted, that law had existed even from creation. But the Israelites
had been in slavery, and no doubt their knowledge of the law and the Great God
behind that law had become foggy over the centuries. So now God—in the
person of the "Word," Jesus Christ—spoke that law and then inscribed
it on tablets of stone (Exodus 31:18; 34:1).
Near the middle of that law—with more space
devoted to it than any other—is the fourth commandment, in which God
reminded Israel again to keep the seventh-day Sabbath: "Remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no
work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your
maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For
in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is
in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath
day and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:8-11).
Notice that God said to "remember" the
Sabbath. They had already been instructed about the Sabbath from
creation and again in Exodus 16—as we have seen. Then God said to
"keep" it holy. You cannot keep cold water hot! Likewise, the
Sabbath had to have been made holy or Israel could not have kept
it that way! Only GOD can make something "holy"—in this case, a
period of time. And, as we shall see, the seventh day is the ONLY weekly
period of time that God has ever "sanctified" or set apart as holy
time.
In verse 11, God reminds us that the Sabbath
points to creation. After God had spent six days creating, He
"rested" on the seventh day. "Therefore the Lord blessed
the Sabbath day and hallowed it." Again, no other day of the week has
been blessed by God—that is, had His divine favor put upon it—in this way.
But wasn't the Sabbath a part of the Jewish
sacrificial or ceremonial law that was done away? Some theologians try to
contrive arguments along these lines. But if you will just study your own
Bible, it is easy to see through this false reasoning. Note that in Exodus
20, NOTHING is said about animal sacrifices, washings or any ceremonial duties
being connected with the Sabbath (cf. Jeremiah 7:22-23). For, as the inspired
account in Deuteronomy tells us, the Ten Commandments stood ALONE as the great
spiritual law of God. As Moses reminded the people, "these words the Lord
spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the
cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and HE ADDED NO MORE. And He
wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me" (Deuteronomy
5:22).
A Sign Between God and His People
Later, God-again in the
person of Jesus Christ-made a special covenant with Israel concerning the
Sabbath. God said, "Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: 'Surely
My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a SIGN between Me and you throughout
your generations, THAT YOU MAY KNOW that I am the Lord who sanctifies
you'" (Exodus 31:13).
The emphasis here is that we "know"
the true God who sets us apart if we keep the "sign" of His
Sabbath, which points to Him as the CREATOR.
The preincarnate Jesus continued, "Therefore
the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath
throughout their generations as a PERPETUAL covenant. It is a SIGN between Me
and the children of Israel FOREVER, for in six days the Lord made the heavens
and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed"
(vv. 16-17).
A "mark" or "brand" is
something that is usually forced on a person or animal. But a
"sign" is something voluntarily displayed, such as a sign
that reads "Jones & Sons" outside a business establishment. In
the case of the Sabbath, it points out who God's faithful people are.
They have surrendered to God and are willing to display the
"sign" of the Creator by keeping holy the only day of the
week God ever made that way. And to the faithful themselves, it is a constant
reminder that they do NOT worship "gods" of wood and stone, or
figments of human imagination, but the very CREATOR who made all the
wood and stone-and even the human mind, which often tries to abandon the
Creator and come up with its own concept of "god."
Notice especially that the Sabbath was to be
kept by the Israelites as a "perpetual covenant" between them and
God "forever"! Do we find ANY evidence whatever that Israelites who
became Christians were to forsake that sacred covenant and start
keeping another day? Does God have a double standard when it comes to which
day to keep as the Sabbath?
No. Rather, according to Paul, Gentile
Christians were to be "grafted" into Israel and become spiritual
Israelites (cf. Romans 11:17, 24; Galatians 3:28-29). This same Apostle
was inspired to state very clearly, "For he is not a Jew who is one
outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he
is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in
the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from
God" (Romans 2:28-29). For these reasons, Paul called the New Testament
Church the "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16).
So truly converted Gentiles become part of spiritual
Israel and must also obey the Ten Commandments-the great spiritual LAW of
the Creator. Certainly they must also obey the terms of the
"perpetual" Sabbath covenant that the preincarnate Jesus made with
Israel. It is a sign between Jesus Christ and His people FOREVER!
In Isaiah 56, we find a remarkable prophecy set
right in the midst of END-TIME prophecies-many of which refer to the years just
ahead of us. In this setting, God gives this pointed instruction to men
and women of ALL nations: "Blessed is the man who does this, and the son
of man who lays hold on it; who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and
keeps his hand from doing any evil" (v. 2).
A few verses later, God instructs the Gentiles
or foreigners to keep His Sabbath and describes the BLESSINGS that
would come from doing so: "Also the sons of the foreigner who join
themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be
His servants-everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath, and holds
fast My covenant-even them I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them
joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will
be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for
ALL NATIONS" (vv. 6-7).
As Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for
"man"-that is, for ALL mankind. Now notice how Jesus and the
Apostles continually kept the seventh-day Sabbath-the same day that all
the Jews around them were keeping.
Example of Jesus Christ
God tells us time and again
that Christ was the "light"-the EXAMPLE of how we ought to live. It
is amazing how many professing Christian ministers will give lip service to
this statement, yet "reason" and argue, argue, ARGUE against
following Christ's perfect example in Sabbath-keeping and other acts of
obedience to God's law!
Speaking of Jesus, the Gospel of John tells us,
"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it" (John 1:4-5). Do
most religionists today really comprehend that "light" any more than
they did in Jesus' own day?
Later, Christ said, "I am the light of the
world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light
of life" (John 8:12). What did He mean by this term-"follows
Me"? Can a person reject Jesus' teaching, refuse to follow
His example and the entire way of life He exemplified, and still claim to be
His "follower"? In 1 Peter 2:21-22, God inspired Peter to instruct
us, "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an EXAMPLE, that you should follow His steps: 'who committed no
sin, nor was guile found in His mouth.'"
Yes, in all things Christ set us an example! The
Apostle Paul echoes this theme, telling the Corinthians, "Imitate me,
just as I also imitate Christ" (1 Corinthians 11:1). So we are to
"imitate" Jesus Christ-not just loosely "follow" Him
according to our own human reasoning.
The Apostle John stated, near the very end of
his life, that "he who says he abides in [Christ] ought himself also to
walk just as He walked" (1 John 2:6). The New English Bible
translates this verse thus: "Here is the test by which we can make sure
that we are in Him: whoever claims to be dwelling in Him, binds himself to
LIVE as Christ Himself lived."
And how did Jesus Christ live? The Sermon on the
Mount is usually regarded as the very ESSENCE of His teaching. Here Jesus
stated, "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I
did not come to destroy but to fulfill [i.e. fill to the fullest]. For
assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away [and they
still have not!], one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the
law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the LEAST of
these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom
of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:17-19).
Jesus did not come to do away with the Ten
Commandments that He had previously delivered from the Father in the Old
Testament. Rather, He came to give full expression to them-to show
their real spiritual intent. In fact, He made them even more binding.
For example, Jesus explained that the seventh commandment against adultery
prohibited more than just having sexual relations with someone other than your
spouse. It even forbade lusting after others in your mind (vv. 27-28). And as
we've just seen, He also said that in order to be called "great" in
His coming Kingdom, men must "do and teach" even the least of
God's commandments. How much more vital is it that we do and teach the
very TEST commandment, which points to the true GOD-the Creator!
Now many say that Christ broke the Sabbath
Himself. But that is completely false! The Bible says that He was
"without sin" (Hebrews 4:15). And "sin IS the transgression of
the law" (1 John 3:4, KJV). So we know that Jesus never transgressed
God's law-including the fourth commandment about keeping the Sabbath holy. If
Jesus had broken the Sabbath, He would have earned the wages of
sin-death (Romans 6:23)-and could not have become our Savior. It is clear,
then, that Jesus never broke even the least of God's commandments-nor
taught men so. On the contrary, He said, "I have KEPT My Father's
commandments" (John 15:10).
Furthermore, at the very beginning of His
ministry, Jesus set the standard for what would be His lifelong example:
"So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His
CUSTOM was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to
read" (Luke 4:16). Again, in Luke 13:10, we read, "Now He was
teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath." Certainly, then, we
should follow Christ's example in keeping the same Sabbath day He kept!
And which day was this Sabbath? Why, the very same one the Jews around Him
were keeping, of course-Saturday.
Actually, God's Sabbath-as the Jewish people
understood then and now-was to be observed from Friday sunset to Saturday
sunset. In fact, all the days on God's calendar are from sunset to
sunset-nighttime followed by daytime (cf. Leviticus 23:32; Genesis 1:5-31).
God did NOT have His days begin and end in the middle of the night as
calculated by a man-made clock! In fact, they had no such clocks back then.
But they did have God's BIG "clock" in the sky-the sun. And they had
the stars, by which ALL man-made calendars need to be adjusted, even today.
For in the beginning, God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of
the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and
seasons, and for days and years" (v. 14). So, when we keep holy
the days that God made holy, we find that they are based on His very
creation-with its heavenly bodies marking time-which points to Him, the
CREATOR of all that is!
Incidentally, the fact that Christ kept the same
Sabbath as the Jews shows that the correct day had not been lost in the remote
past, as some today will argue. Remember that the preincarnate Christ had made
a big deal about reminding the Israelites of the correct Sabbath day following
their enslavement in Egypt. Wouldn't He have kept it on the right day during
His human life-even if the Jews had been wrong about it? Of course! But
they were not wrong. Christ was Lord of the day that the Jews kept
as the Sabbath! (cf. Mark 2). And from that time until now, the seven-day week
has remained unaltered.
How can we be sure? The Jews continued to
observe the Sabbath-even after they were scattered. If the weekly cycle had
been lost, Jews in one area of the world would be keeping a particular day
while Jews elsewhere kept other days. But what do we find? In every
nation in which the Jews have been scattered, they are unanimous in keeping
the SAME DAY-Saturday! Thus, Saturday is still the seventh day of the weekly
cycle that began at creation.
Christ and Disciples-Sabbath-Breakers?
We have seen that Jesus quite
obviously kept God's holy Sabbath day, though some today say otherwise. The
Pharisees did accuse Him of breaking it, as in Mark 2 where Jesus' disciples
picked heads of grain to eat when they were hungry on the Sabbath. But
this was NOT a transgression of the Sabbath. It was only a violation of the
legalistic restrictions the scribes and Pharisees had added to the
Sabbath.
Why had these men done this? Well, for
one thing, under the Old Covenant, the penalty for Sabbath-breaking was death
by stoning (Exodus 31:15; Numbers 15:32-35). It was that serious!
Moreover, Sabbath-breaking and idolatry were singled out by God as two of the
major sins for which He had caused Israel and Judah to be taken into national
captivity and slavery centuries earlier-and, according to prophecy, would do
so again (cf. Nehemiah 13:17-18; Ezekiel 20:10-25; 22:6-23:47). And so, as
they did with most points of God's law, the scribes and Pharisees went into
the opposite ditch and began legislating, in extremely minute detail,
everything that was permissible or not permissible to do on the Sabbath. As
noted earlier, they added to God's commandment-attaching more than 60
specific requirements or restrictions. In so doing, they made God's weekly
Holy Day a great burden-which it was never meant to be (cf. 1 John
5:3). For instance, according to them, you could only walk so many steps at a
time on the Sabbath before having to sit down and rest. Yet God's law says no
such thing.
Of course, it was the responsibility of each
individual to make sure that he wasn't overexerting himself on the Sabbath to
the point that his actions would have qualified as work. If Jesus had not been
present with His disciples, it would simply have been a personal judgment call
for them. But Christ was there as a perfect Judge-God in the flesh and Lord
of the Sabbath. And He made it very clear that the scribes and Pharisees
were wrong! Picking a few heads of grain and eating them simply does not
violate the Sabbath command. On the other hand, if the disciples had been harvesting,
that would have been a different matter. But they weren't. They were just
grabbing a bite to eat!
However, some will persist, surely the Sabbath
was done away upon Jesus' death. But was it? Did His disciples think so?
Notice that after Christ's burial, some of His most dedicated followers
decided to better prepare His body so it wouldn't decay so quickly in the
grave. "Then they returned [home] and prepared spices and fragrant oils. And
they rested on the Sabbath according to the commandment" (Luke
23:56). Luke was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write here that these
dedicated women kept the Sabbath "according to the commandment"!
Even after Jesus' death-even after EVERYTHING that was going to be
"nailed to the cross" already had been-God's Sabbath
commandment still stood inviolate!
Were Christ's disciples substituting Sunday for
the Sabbath at this time? We just saw that they refrained from doing
work on the Sabbath. But notice the very next verses: "Now on the first
day of the week, very early in the morning, they, and certain other women
with them, came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. But
they found the stone rolled away from the tomb" (24:1-2). Now, on Sunday,
they had come to do work. Obviously, the Sabbath they had kept holy was
the previous day-Saturday.
After His resurrection, did Jesus in some way
indicate that His former teaching had been "done away" or
"nailed to the cross"? No-not in ANY WAY! Rather, Jesus instructed
His disciples to go out over the whole earth and teach these same things-even
to the END of this age. "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and
on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching
them to observe ALL THINGS that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with
you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:18-20).
Was Jesus Resurrected on Sunday?
If you visit a mainstream
Christian church and ask members why the day on which they and other people
attend worship services is Sunday, a typical response might be that Jesus was
resurrected on that day. But how well does this idea bear up under close
scrutiny?
Notice what Christ told the Pharisees, who were
looking for a sign of the Messiah: "An evil and adulterous generation
seeks after a sign, and NO SIGN will be given to it EXCEPT the sign of the
prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of
the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the
heart of the earth" (Matt. 12:39-40).
The only sign Jesus gave to prove He was
the Messiah was that the grave would only hold Him for a limited amount of
time-exactly "three days and three nights" (or 72 hours). But the
Easter Sunday tradition maintains that Christ was buried just before sunset on
"Good Friday" afternoon and resurrected early Sunday morning-only two
nights and one day (or 36 hours)!
Some will argue the definition of
"day." But Christ clearly stated that there are 12 hours in a day,
not including the night (John 11:9-10). Therefore, when Easter Sunday
proponents take His remark and conclude that Christ was in the grave three
days x 12 hours = 36 hours, we can see that they are leaving out the
"three nights." There are approximately 12 hours of daytime and
12 hours of nighttime in one 24-hour day! So three days and three nights is
definitely 72 hours. But was it exactly 72 hours? Jesus said He would
rise "AFTER three days" (Mark 8:31)-i.e. no less than 72
hours. But He also said He would rise "IN three days" (John 2:19,
21)-i.e. no more than 72 hours. This is absolutely clear-72 hours
exactly! And God is always right on schedule.
Also consider that, when the women came to His
tomb Sunday morning, "it was still dark" (John 20:1) and He had already
risen. How could this be? The Sunday-resurrection proponents contend that He
had risen just moments before. If they are correct, then "three days and
three nights" earlier would be just before sunrise on Thursday morning.
Yet no one believes Christ was buried on Thursday morning-or any
morning for that matter-and with good reason. When Joseph of Arimathea laid
Christ's body in the tomb, "the Sabbath drew near" (Luke 23:50-54).
Biblical days, including Sabbaths, begin at sunset and end the following
sunset (cf. Genesis 1:5-31; Leviticus 23:32)-a nighttime period followed by a
daytime period.
Christ, then, was buried in late
afternoon-before a particular Sabbath began at sunset. Three days and three
nights later would be the same time of day-late afternoon! Now we have another
problem. If we assume that Christ was buried on Friday afternoon, as the Good
Friday tradition asserts, then His resurrection-72 hours later-would be Monday
afternoon. Yet no one believes this either-again, with good reason. For
remember that Christ had already risen before the women came to His tomb prior
to daybreak Sunday morning! What, then, is the answer?
Why have so many thought that Christ was put in
the grave on Friday afternoon? Mark 15:42 states that "it was the
Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath." Since the weekly
Sabbath always occurred on the seventh day of the week (now called Saturday),
the "Preparation Day" was normally on Friday. However, we have
already seen the problem with this. The answer to the apparent dilemma is that
the weekly Sabbath is not the only Sabbath mentioned in the Bible. Leviticus
23 lists seven annual Holy Days that occur in God's Festivals. Each of
these days was considered a Sabbath (or a "rest" from normal labor).
All annual Sabbaths or "High Days" (except Pentecost) fell on
particular calendar dates rather than set days of the week.
Now the mystery can be solved by reading John
19:31. The Jews wanted to remove the crucifixion victims "because it was
the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the
Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a HIGH DAY)." Christ kept the Passover with
His disciples the night before His death (Luke 22:15). He died on the cross
the next afternoon, which was still Passover (the 14th of Abib or Nisan
according to the Hebrew Calendar-Leviticus 23:5). Leviticus 23:6-7 reports
that the next day, beginning the evening after His crucifixion, was not a weekly
Sabbath, but an annual Sabbath-the first day of the Feast of Unleavened
Bread.
Now put together the facts. It is clear from the
Bible that Christ died and was buried on Passover afternoon-and that the
following day was an annual Sabbath. It is also clear that he was resurrected
at the same time of day-late afternoon. But which afternoon? Since the
women found Him already gone Sunday morning, it would be sensible to conclude
that He had been resurrected the previous afternoon on Saturday! This
would mean He had been buried three days and three nights earlier-Wednesday
afternoon. It would also mean that Passover, Nisan 14, fell on a Wednesday
that year. And, indeed, that is what happened in A.D. 31, a year that fits the
time frame the Bible demands.
Scripture also provides further proof that there
were TWO Sabbaths that week-an annual and a weekly one. In Mark 15:47, Mary
Magdalene and her companion watched Joseph of Arimathea lay Jesus in the tomb
near the end of the Passover. The next verse, Mark 16:1, tells us that after
the "Sabbath," Mary Magdalene and her companions bought spices with
which to anoint Christ's dead body. However, Luke 23:56 shows that they prepared
the spices before the Sabbath. Naturally, they couldn't have prepared
spices before they were even bought! The only explanation that makes sense is
that they bought the spices on Friday and prepared them the same day-after
the annual Sabbath on Thursday and before the weekly Sabbath on
Saturday! Then they rested on the weekly Sabbath-at the end of which Jesus was
resurrected. The next morning, Sunday, they came to the tomb before sunrise
and found him already gone.
But some will point out Mark 16:9, which says,
"Now when He rose early on the first day of the week...." Yet how
can this be? To understand, we should read the verse in the original King
James Version and continue further in the sentence: "Now when Jesus was
risen [the perfect tense is correct here-He was already risen]
early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene." He
was not "rising" on Sunday morning. As we've seen, He rose Saturday
afternoon. So early Sunday morning, He was already "risen." Also
realize that in the original Greek there was no punctuation. Had the King
James translators simply put a comma after the word "risen" and not
after "week," this would make complete sense. The Centenary
Translation renders it this way: "Now after his resurrection, early
on the first day of the week he appeared first to Mary Magdalene."
To conclude, a Sunday morning resurrection could
not be the reason for changing the weekly day of worship from Saturday to
Sunday. But even if Christ were resurrected on Sunday, why would His
disciples-who had kept the seventh-day Sabbath with Him-have abandoned
His example of keeping the Ten Commandments and switched to Sunday-keeping?
And why would they have picked Sunday, a day already associated with pagan sun
worship? But the Bible is very clear that Christ was NOT resurrected on Sunday
morning. So this pitiful attempt to CHANGE God's Law does not hold water!
Practice of the Original Apostles
Throughout the book of Acts,
we find that the Apostles continued to observe the Sabbath regularly. They did
this with Jews as well as with Gentiles, and-guided by the Holy
Spirit-the entire early New Testament Church continued to meet on the
seventh-day Sabbath for decades after Jesus' death. Even mainline Protestant
historians acknowledge this fact. In his book, The Story of the Christian
Church, Jesse Lyman Hurlbut states, "As long as the church was
mainly Jewish, the Hebrew sabbath was kept; but as it became increasingly
Gentile the first day gradually took the place of the seventh day" (1970,
p. 36).
Notice that Hurlbut says the first day
"gradually" replaced the seventh-day Sabbath. Did God gradually
do away with His law? Ridiculous! As we shall see later, conniving me
"gradually" DECEIVED millions of professing Christians into doing
away with not only the Sabbath, but the entire concept of obedience to
God's law!
However, no such change took place during
the lifetime of Christ's original Apostles. Even the Apostle Paul-the
Apostle to the Gentiles-kept the Sabbath regularly. And he wasn't even
converted to Christianity until well after Christ's resurrection.
Notice the account of Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13:14: "But when they
departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down."
"But," some might argue, "Paul
was just meeting with the Jews on Saturday since that was their Sabbath!"
However, the book of Acts tells us that "when the Jews went out of the
synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next
Sabbath" (13:42). Here was Paul's grand opportunity to inform the
Gentiles that they would now meet on Sunday! But did he? On the contrary! "The
next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God"
(v. 44).
The truth of the matter is that neither Paul nor
ANY of the Apostles uttered one single word about changing God's holy
Sabbath or any part of the Ten Commandments. Rather, as they had been taught
by Christ Himself, they kept, and always assembled on, the seventh day.
What about when Paul traveled through
predominately Gentile areas? God's Word tells us, "Now when they had
passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where
there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his CUSTOM was, went
in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the
Scriptures" (17:1-2).
It was clearly Paul's "custom" to meet
on the Sabbath. Acts 18:4 tells us that "he reasoned in the synagogue
every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks." In example after
example in the book of Acts, when Paul or the other Apostles met to worship,
there is not a single, solitary hint that they ever regularly met on
any other day of the week to worship except Saturday-the seventh-day
Sabbath that they had always observed and that the Jewish community was still
observing.
In fact, if they had started teaching some other
weekly day of worship, it would have caused a literal RIOT among the Jewish
Christians! The only major ministerial conference mentioned in the New
Testament is described in Acts 15. It was occasioned by a bitter controversy
over whether Gentile Christians should be compelled to be circumcised. The
book of Acts notes the incident that sparked this conference: "And
certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, 'Unless you are
circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.' Therefore,
when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they
determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to
Jerusalem, to the Apostles and elders, about this question" (vv. 1-2).
At the conference in Jerusalem, after there had
been "much dispute," Peter rose up and carefully explained how God
had called the Gentile Christians through him apart from any command to
be physically circumcised. Afterward, Paul and Barnabas described the fruits
of their Work among the Gentiles, without circumcision being involved. Then
James, the presiding Apostle at Jerusalem, summarized the matter and stated,
"Therefore I judge that we should not trouble those from among the
Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them to abstain from
things polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from things strangled, and
from blood"(vv.19-20). Finally, a letter was drafted, outlining this
landmark decision and the reasons for it (vv. 22-29). Paul took a copy of this
letter with its decrees and read it to all of the Churches under his
jurisdiction (16:1-5).
Some will argue that the four prohibitions
mentioned here are the only laws from the Old Testament still binding on
Christians. But notice that murder is not listed. Are we, then, free to
commit murder? Obviously not! So why are these points specifically mentioned?
Because the four things Christians are to abstain from here are practices that
were common to pagan religion. In sacrificing to their idols, many pagans
would strangle animals rather than slitting their throats and letting the
blood drain from them. Then they would eat these offerings and commit gross
sexual immorality as religious ritual. The prohibitions in Acts 15 were
originally part of God's statutory law. But they were also listed later with
the ceremonies and rituals of the Levitical worship system to keep the
Israelites from adopting these wrong practices (cf. Leviticus 17:7, 10;
Numbers 25:1-3). The Apostles wanted it understood that, although the
ceremonial and ritual parts of the Old Testament law-including physical
circumcision-were no longer necessary, these four points that were given in
the ceremonial section of the law were still binding. And why were they still
binding? Because they were part of God's original law-which was
still in force!
Bear in mind that this great controversy and
subsequent apostolic conference took place over the ordinance of
physical circumcision. How much MORE of a debate would have raged if the
Apostles had tried to change or do away with one of the Ten Commandments-especially
the one about God's weekly Sabbath, the very identifying "sign" of
God's people?! There would have been an absolute UPROAR. But do we find even
the slightest hint of a dispute over any such change?
We do NOT!
As the expression goes," the silence on the
subject is DEAFENING." There was no such change until scores or
even hundreds of years after the death of the original Apostles! So neither
Jesus nor the apostolic Church EVER attempted to change the Sabbath. They never
attempted to do away with obedience to ANY of the Ten Commandments!
Later Apostolic Teaching
Many Protestant theologians
have been schooled in the theory of "progressive revelation." But we
will see that this theory is nothing less than a complete perversion of the
truth. It conveys the idea that the ancient prophets were simply Hebrew
philosophers trying to devise their own concept of a divine being. Then along
comes Jesus, a Jewish carpenter-heavily influenced by the religion and morals
of His time-living and teaching under the Old Covenant. Jesus' original
Apostles, according to this theory, were, likewise, unsophisticated, backward
and didn't really "understand."
Then comes the Apostle Paul-the
"liberator," as the theory goes-and things begin to get better. For
Paul is said to be willing to "break out" of the Jewish mold and
introduce modern Christianity-Gentile Christianity-which would
be more acceptable to the world at large.
The trouble with the above theory is that it is
GROSSLY INACCURATE! For it attempts to completely negate Jesus' own command, "Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD of God" (Luke 4:4).
And we must remember that aside from the life and teaching of Jesus Himself,
the only Word of God available to humanity when He made this
pronouncement was the Old Testament. This fact poses a major problem for these
progressive theologians. For both the Old Testament prophets and Jesus
Christ very clearly taught OBEDIENCE to the Ten Commandments-including
seventh-day Sabbath observance. Even many Protestant theologians acknowledge
that Jesus taught and kept the Sabbath day.
And what the "progressive revelation"
teachers also cannot explain is that the original apostolic writings very
directly and very powerfully uphold the concept of obeying the Ten
Commandments as the Christian way of life-once again, including keeping
God's Sabbath.
James, the brother of Jesus Christ, who became
the presiding Apostle at Jerusalem, wrote, "For whoever shall keep the
whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For He who said,
'Do not commit adultery,' also said, 'Do not murder.' Now if you do not commit
adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So
speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty" (James
2:10-12). So true Christians are to keep the "whole law." It is a
law with "points"-including the commands against murder and
adultery. Clearly, this law is the Ten Commandments. And James said that if we
"stumble" in failing to keep even one point of this law-obviously
including the Sabbath-we are "guilty of ALL"!
John, the Apostle "Jesus loved," also
wrote about God's law-near the END of the apostolic age. If anyone were
to give us a new "progressive" teaching, it would be him. So
what "progressive revelation," then, did John give us? He was
inspired by God to write, "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we
keep His commandments. He who says, 'I know Him,' and does not keep His
commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him" (1 John 2:3-4).
A person may know about God by coming to
understand only part of the Truth. But to genuinely and personally
"know" Him, John says that we must experience God's way of life
by KEEPING His commandments! For God's kind of love-His very nature and
character-is revealed in the Ten Commandments. Again, as John wrote,
God's very LOVE is expressed in the Ten Commandments: "For this is the
love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not
burdensome" (5:3). And anyone who fails to literally keep the Ten
Commandments-not perfectly, of course, but as a way of life-is
DISOBEYING his Creator and in fact does not really "know" God!
What about Paul? Did he dismiss God's
law? By no means! In Romans 2:13, he wrote, "For not the hearers of the
law are just in the sight of God, but the DOERS of the law will be
justified." And in 1 Corinthians 7:19, he stated, "Circumcision
is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of
God is what matters." Again, this certainly includes the fourth
commandment concerning the Sabbath!
Furthermore, the Apostle Paul is traditionally
understood to have written the book of Hebrews-and there is strong evidence to
support that tradition. Because of his rabbinic training in the technical
intricacies of the Mosaic law, he was undoubtedly the most qualified of all
the Apostles to thoroughly explain the New Covenant that God is making with
all humanity-the very theme of Hebrews. After this book describes how God
spoke of the "seventh day" as the day of rest (4:4), it goes on to
state, "There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God"
(v. 9, NASB).
This is a very interesting passage. Chapters 3
and 4 of Hebrews talk about God's people entering into "rest." The
Israelites in the wilderness wanted to enter God's "rest"-meaning to
finally cease from wandering and settle in the Promised Land. And that did
happen in the days of Moses' successor, Joshua. Yet also mentioned here is the
fact that the Eternal God later inspired King David to write of entering God's
rest as something still future. Hebrews states, "For if Joshua had given
them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day" (4:8).
This is obviously speaking of the coming Millennium, or 1,000-year period, of
Christ's rule on earth-since the future Kingdom of God is the "Promised
Land" for true Christians.
It is in this context that Hebrews talks about a
Sabbath rest remaining for God's people. In almost every case in chapters 3
and 4, the Greek word for physical rest-katapausin-is used for God's
rest. But in verse 9, God inspired a different word to be used-sabbatismos.
Many translations render it simply as "rest," just like they do katapausin.
But that is confusing, since it is, in fact, a different word. The New
American Standard Bible, quoted above, uses "Sabbath rest." But
does this mean literal, weekly Sabbath-keeping? The Anchor Bible Dictionary
says yes, assuring us that sabbatismos refers to "seventh day
Sabbath celebration." Thus, the New Testament states very clearly
that seventh-day Sabbath-keeping is to continue for true Christians.
However, some argue that this means we should
just rest from our sinful works in our new life in Jesus. But notice what is
added in the next verse: "For he who has entered His rest has himself
also ceased from his works as God did from His." Did God
"rest" from His work of SIN? Of course not. He rested from
CREATING-His occupational work as the Creator. And on what day did God
"rest"-setting us the example? "God rested on the seventh
day from all His works" (v. 4). And so must we.
However, the context of these verses does show
that the Sabbath is more than just a memorial of creation. It is indeed a
physical TYPE of something else-and we should observe it as such. But that
something is NOT primarily the Christian life in this age. It is, rather, our
life in the future millennial rest of TOMORROW'S WORLD-when Jesus
Christ sets up the Kingdom of God over the entire earth.
Notice what the Commentary on the Whole Bible
by Jamieson, Fausset & Brown has to say about Hebrews 4:9: "This
verse indirectly establishes the obligation of the Sabbath still; for the
type continues until the antitype supersedes it." As the coming
millennial Sabbath "will not be till Christ... comes..., the typical
earthly Sabbath must continue till then." Yet, as we will later see, even
in Tomorrow's World human beings will continue to keep God's weekly Sabbath
holy.
How clear! Here in the book of Hebrews we find a
direct New Testament command for Christians to "rest" on the
seventh-day Sabbath! It was probably given, interestingly enough, through the
Apostle to the Gentiles-the very Apostle whom so many Protestant theologians
insist "did away" with God's law!
This section in Hebrews 4 concludes thus:
"Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall after
the same example of disobedience" of those in ancient Israel (v. 11). The
phrase, "the same example of disobedience," should resonate deeply
with students of the Bible. For, just as Sabbath-breaking and idolatry
factored heavily in the Israelites' national captivity and slavery, these two
sins were also major reasons that most of their forefathers died during the 40
years of wandering before inheriting the Promised Land.
Text from Faith of Our Fathers by James Cardinal Gibbons, first published in 1876. This well-known American Catholic leader stated quite clearly that there is no Scriptural authority for changing the day of worship form Saturday to Sunday.
THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS Third—A
rule of faith, or a competent guide to heaven, must be able to
instruct in all the truths necessary for salvation. Now the
Scriptures alone do not contain all the truths which a Christian is
bound to believe, nor do they explicitly enjoin all the duties which
he is obliged to practice. Not to mention other examples, is
not, every Christian obliged to scantify Sunday and to abstain on that
day from unnecessary servile work? Is not the observance of this
law among the most prominent of our sacred duties? But you may
read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a
single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The
Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which
we never sanctify. |
You should read God's
indictment of ancient Israel in Ezekiel 20:10-24. Notice here verses 12-13: "Moreover
I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they
might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. Yet the house of Israel
rebelled against Me in the wilderness; they did not walk in My statutes; they
despised My judgments, which, if a man does, he shall live by them; and
they greatly defiled My Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out My fury on
them in the wilderness, to consume them."
Therefore, repeating the inspired instruction
from the book of Hebrews, let ALL true Christians be careful to NOT follow
that "same example of disobedience" by failing to keep holy the only
day of the week God made holy-the seventh-day Sabbath!
The Diabolical Transfer
The New Testament very
clearly indicates that God's true Church would be small and persecuted.
Jesus instructed His disciples, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is
the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many
who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which
leads to life, and there are few who find it" (Matthew 7:13-14).
Jesus called His Church the "little
flock" (Luke 12:32). And in His Olivet Prophecy, He warned, "Then
they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by
all nations for My name's sake" (Matthew 24:9). Frankly,
"mainstream" Christians are NOT the ones who are going to be
"hated by all nations." Why? Because they fit into the world pretty
well, going along with its customs and traditions-and, all too often, with its
SINS.
But was there an obedient Church such as
Jesus described still in existence after apostolic times-which still
faithfully kept God's true Sabbath day? Yes indeed. In fact, virtually all
church historians acknowledge that many thousands of early Christians
continued to observe the seventh-day Sabbath for many generations!
We have already seen Jesse Lyman Hurlbut's
statement: "As long as the church was mainly Jewish, the Hebrew
sabbath was kept." But was any biblical writer ever inspired to tell
us that the Sabbath was later to be CHANGED?
Of course not.
For the active, living Head of God's true Church
is Jesus Christ. "And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the
preeminence" (Colossians 1:18; cf. Ephesians 1:22). The book of Hebrews
tells us, "Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of
God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. Jesus
Christ is the SAME yesterday, today, and forever" (13:7-8).
Indeed, throughout the entire Bible, only one
day is set apart as the Sabbath-the seventh day. And that day is
Saturday! Here is a quote from James Cardinal Gibbons, who was Archbishop of
Baltimore and probably the most well-known American Catholic leader of his
time. Observe what this highest-ranking Catholic in America wrote about God's
Sabbath in his famous book, Faith of Our Fathers: "You may read
the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line
authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious
observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify" (1876).
And notice this from The Catholic Mirror-the
official newspaper of Gibbons' archdiocese, under his direction: "In the
Old Testament reference is made one hundred and twenty-six times to the
Sabbath, and all these texts conspire harmoniously in voicing the will of God,
commanding the seventh day to be kept" (Sept. 9, 1893). It then states,
"Nor can we imagine anyone foolhardy enough to question the identity of
Saturday with the Sabbath or seventh day, seeing that the people of Israel
have been keeping the Saturday from the giving of the Law."
And look at this from a later article under
Cardinal Gibbons' direction: "God's written word enjoins His worship
to be observed on Saturday, absolutely, repeatedly, and most
emphatically, with a most positive threat of death to him who disobeys"
(Sept. 23, 1893).
How CLEAR can you get? Of course the
commandment-keeping, true Church of God would have persisted in keeping
His seventh-day Sabbath-from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset!
George Park Fisher, who during his life was a
respected professor of ecclesiastical history at Yale University, concurs with
Hurlbut in that the early Christians observed the seventh-day Sabbath.
Professor Fisher writes, "The Jewish Christians at first frequented the
synagogues. They continued to observe the festivals appointed in the law, and
only by degrees connected with them Christian ideas and facts. They kept
the Sabbath on Saturday, according to the Mosaic commandment" (History
of the Christian Church, 1887, p. 40).
So if God's Sabbath is so clearly established in
His Word-and was certainly kept by His Bible-believing Church-then where did
Sunday come in? Renowned modern historian Will Durant writes, "The
serious temper of the Jewish Sabbath was transferred to the Christian Sunday
that replaced it in the second century"(The Story of Civilization,
vol. 3, 1972, p. 599).
How did this happen? A Roman Catholic study
course tells us that "the [Catholic] Church transferred the obligation
from Saturday to Sunday" (Father Smith Instructs Jackson). The
Catholic Mirror agrees: "The Catholic Church... by virtue of her
Divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday" (Sept. 23,
1893). In fact, the Catholic Church's Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome
PUBLISHES a book by Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi, a non-Catholic scholar, which
proves this very fact! Its preface is written by Vincenzo Monachino, chairman
of the university's Church History department. He writes:
We [the Roman Catholic Church] GLADLY MENTION the thesis that Bacchiocchi defends regarding the birth-place of Sunday worship: for him this arose most probably not in the primitive Church of Jerusalem, well-known for its profound attachment to Jewish religious traditions, but rather in the Church of Rome. The abandonment of the Sabbath and the adoption of Sunday as the Lord's Day, are the result of an interplay of Christian, Jewish and PAGAN religious factors [From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity, 1977, pp. 7-8].
Esteeming One Day Above Another?
Some cite Romans 14:5-6 as
proof that it doesn't matter which day we keep as the Sabbath or whether we
keep any day at all. In this passage, the Apostle Paul states, "One
person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let
each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it
to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not
observe it." But is this really talking about Sabbath-keeping?
Notice the rest of verse 6: "He who EATS,
eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who DOES NOT EAT, to the
Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks." What is this about? Romans
14 begins with Paul telling the Christians in Rome to receive those who are
"weak in the faith, but not to [enter into] disputes over doubtful
things" (v. 1)-i.e. things some we are not sure about. In verse 2, Paul
mentions some who would eat only vegetables for various religious reasons-even
though the Bible shows in many places that it is acceptable to eat clean meat.
For instance, the parable of the prodigal son pictures a righteous father
preparing a "fatted calf" to be eaten (Luke 15:23).
In another of Paul's letters, he explains one
particular reason that a number of Christians had become vegetarians. Most of
the available meat in the marketplace had been offered to idols. Of this Paul
says, "Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we
know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God but
one.... However, there is not in everyone that knowledge; for some, with
consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol; and
their conscience, being weak, is defiled" (1 Corinthians 8:4, 7).
Some new converts thought that eating such meat
was participating in idol worship, but went along with other Christians and
did it anyway. That is the worst thing they could have done. For Paul states
in Romans 14 that "he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does
not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin" (v. 23).
Whether something is inherently wrong or not, if you think it might be
and do it anyway, you are sinning!
So to those who thought it was all right to eat
meat, Paul said, "Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat"
(v. 3). But continuing in the same verse, he said, "And let not him who
does not eat judge him who eats; for God has received him." Yet Paul told
those who thought it was okay not to flaunt that in front of those who did not
(vv. 15-22).
So why did Paul break from his dissertation on
eating or not eating meat by mentioning the esteeming of days? Because it
involved the same principle! There were some weak new converts who
thought certain days were better than others for fasting or eating or
abstaining from particular foods. Others thought all days were the same in
regard to what could be eaten.
Christ said that when we fast, it should be to
God and without others knowing unnecessarily (Matthew 6:16-18). But Jews and
Gentiles both practiced "semifasts" on particular days of the week
or month. The Pharisees fasted, according to custom, "twice a week"
(Luke 18:12). And the Jews as a people fasted during certain months (Zechariah
7:4-7). However, the Jewish religious authorities were divided on some of
these matters. The Gentiles, too, were divided over when and if to abstain
from certain foods (cf. Hasting's Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics).
The only way the Sabbath could have been a
factor here is if some thought it could be used as a fast day and others did
not. However, that is not stated, and if Paul had been talking about the
Sabbath, he probably would have mentioned it by name-just like he did in
Colossians 2:16, where Gentile converts to Christianity were being criticized
for how they were keeping God's Sabbath and other Festivals. Whatever
the case, the controversy in Romans 14 about esteeming particular days had
practically NOTHING to do with God's Sabbath or His other Holy Days!
No, whether or not to keep the days that GOD
made holy was not even at issue. This was all about MAN-made traditions-some
of which were okay to follow but not okay to impose on others. In God's
eyes, it doesn't matter when we fast (except for the Day of Atonement,
on which God commands us to fast). What matters to Him is that we do it
with a right attitude-and that we do not judge each other according to our
personal ideas.
The Right to Change the Day?
Little by little, gradually
and stealthily, Satan was able to influence misguided Catholic theologians to
begin introducing the ancient "venerable day of the Sun" in place of
the weekly Sabbath. After all, millions of pagans had always observed that
day-Sunday-as part of their worship of the sun itself and of other heavenly
bodies. These deceived theologians thought that a change to Sunday worship
would make it easier for the heathen to "convert" to Christianity!
But what kind of "Christianity"
is it when you change God's Ten Commandments and then go on to water down the entire
way of life taught by Christ and the original apostolic Church? Is it
still true Christianity? Again, we must listen to Jesus' own words:
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of
heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven" (Matthew
7:21).
Under Satan's deceptive influence, the
Protestant churches have followed "mother Rome" in rejecting God's
true Sabbath. Though they repudiated a number of Catholic teachings, the pagan
practice of Sunday worship was not one of them. However, many of the
early Protestant scholars of the Reformation era were better informed. They,
in fact, knew what the Bible actually teaches! Notice what Martin
Luther, the very father of the Reformation from whom the Lutheran
Church is named, wrote: "Indeed, if Carlstadt [one of the few that argued
against Sunday observance] were to write further about the Sabbath, Sunday
would have to give way, and the Sabbath-that is to say, Saturday-must be kept
holy" (Against the Celestial Prophets). But Luther wouldn't
change back to the right day. He wrote in his Larger Catechism that "to
avoid the unnecessary disturbance which an innovation would occasion, [the
worship day] should continue to be Sunday"(The New Schaff-Herzog
Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, "Sunday").
This is why the Catholic Church will
"gladly mention" that it changed the day! For it shows that the
Protestants are not relying on the Bible as their only rule of faith-as they
claim-but are instead acknowledging the "authority" of the Roman
Church to change God's law. Here's how The Catholic Mirror explains it:
"The Protestant world at its birth found the Christian Sabbath [Sunday]
too strongly entrenched to run counter to its existence; it was therefore
placed under the necessity of acquiescing in the arrangement, thus implying
the Church's right to change the day, for over 300 years. The Christian
Sabbath [Sunday] is therefore to this day the acknowledged offspring of the
Catholic Church... without a word of [protest] from the Protestant world"
(Sept. 23, 1893).
Incredible? Yes! Of course, the Catholics had no
such "right" to change the day. Nevertheless, that is just what they
did. And the Protestant churches have followed suit. Meanwhile, the true
Church has continued in keeping the true Sabbath-just as it did in
apostolic times. Before concluding, take one more look at that period.
Respected scholar W.D. Davies writes:
Everywhere, especially in the East of the Roman Empire, there would be Jewish Christians whose outward way of life would not be markedly different from that of the Jews. They took for granted that the gospel was continuous with [the religion of Moses]; for them the New Covenant, which Jesus had set up at the Last Supper with His disciples... did not mean that the covenant made between God and Israel was no longer in force. They still observed the feasts of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles; they also continued to be circumcised, to keep the weekly Sabbath and the Mosaic regulations concerning food. According to some scholars, they must have been so strong that right up to the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 they were the DOMINANT ELEMENT in the Christian movement [Judeo-christianisme,"Paul and Jewish Christianity,"1972, p. 72, quoted by Bacchiocchi, p. 151].
If the Sabbath-keepers were the "dominant element" of Christianity for some 40 years after the death of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit, shouldn't that tell us something? Isn't it obvious that if Jesus Himself, Peter, James, Paul and MOST of the Christian Church of that time observed the seventh-day Sabbath-then THAT is the day we ALL ought to be keeping? That is the day the original Apostles of Jesus Christ kept until they died. How DARE these later theologians of the Dark Ages place the name of Christ on a day He never kept-NEVER sanctified! How DARE they replace God's holy Sabbath with the pagan "day of the Sun"-Sunday! How DARE they pervert the very "sign" that identifies the CREATOR and those who worship Him!
Saturday vs.
Sunday Jesus Christ said of the Pharisees, "'In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men.... All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition" (Mark 7:7-9). Yet notice what other churches admit regarding their observance of Sunday instead of Saturday. ROMAN CATHOLIC Stephen Keenan, A Doctinal Catechism, p.
174: The
Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, 3rd ed., p. 50: Catholic
Press, Aug. 25, 1900 METHODIST Charles
Buck, A Theological Dictionary, "Sabbath": Clovis
Chappell, Ten Rules for Living, p. 61: PRESBYTERIAN The
Christian at Work", April 19, 1883, and Jan. 1884: ANGLICAN Isaac
William, D.D., Plain Sermons on the Catechism, vol. 1: EPISCOPAL Philip
Carrington, Toronto Daily Star, Oct. 26, 1949: BAPTIST Harold
Lindsell (editor), Christianity Today, Nov. 5, 1976: |
But, under the powerful
influence of Satan the Devil, "who deceives the whole world"
(Revelation 12:9), they have done it! (To learn more about the change
from God's holy Sabbath to the pagan Sunday, please write for our free
booklet, The Beast of Revelation.)
Obviously, then, to really follow what the BIBLE
teaches, you MUST observe the seventh-day Sabbath-from Friday sunset to
Saturday sunset. But if you are willing to COMPROMISE on the very commandment
that points out the true God, then you might very well end up observing the
"day of the Sun" right along with the vaunted majority-the countless
millions that prophecy shows will soon be subjected to the greatest
TRIBULATION in human history because of their rebellion against the
true God! (cf. Matthew 24:21-22).
How to KEEP the Sabbath
Just how are we to keep the
Sabbath? As we have seen, the scribes and Pharisees tried to legislate, in
minute detail, all that was acceptable or unacceptable to do on the Sabbath.
In doing so, they made the Sabbath a great BURDEN- something God never
intended (cf. 1 John 5:3). He gave the Sabbath and magnified it in
other places in His Word with some specifics, but mainly by expounding
broad, spiritual principles.
What does God tell us? In the fourth commandment
itself, God says, "Six days you shall labor and do all your work"
(Exodus 20:9). Many would be surprised to know that this is actually part of
the commandment. God ordained the first six days of the week for our business
and work. Our Creator intended that we be busy and productive-earning
our daily bread. In Proverbs 19:15, He tells us, "Laziness casts one into
a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger" (NKJV, 1988). The
person who shirks his responsibilities the first six days of the week is just
as guilty of breaking God's law as he who works on the seventh!
That brings us to the next injunction in this
great law: "But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.
In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor
your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who
is within your gates" (Exodus 20:10). So you are not to do any kind
of real work on the Sabbath-be it your occupation, personal business,
housework or any strenuous activity. And neither are those in the environment
over which you have control. Of course, preparing-or cleaning up after-a light
meal would not be wrong. For we find a number of occasions when Jesus enjoyed
a Sabbath meal with others. And He never condemned the practice of
hospitality on the Sabbath (cf. Luke 14:1-6).
But cessation of labor is not the only
requirement God makes. He also gives positive instruction. In Moses'
recounting of the Ten Commandments, the fourth one begins by enjoining us to
"OBSERVE the Sabbath day, to KEEP IT HOLY" (Deuteronomy 5:12). We
must look to God to tell us how to do that. Leviticus 23 lists "the
feasts of the Lord [not the Jews], which you shall proclaim to be holy
convocations." God says, "These are MY feasts" (v.
2). The first one mentioned is the weekly Sabbath: "Six days shall work
be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy
convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the Lord in
all your dwellings" (v. 3). God then lists His seven other Feasts or
Festivals, which contain seven annual Sabbaths. These days are also
embraced by the spirit of the Sabbath commandment.
God's Sabbaths-weekly and annual-are to
be holy "convocations" and are, therefore, days commanded for
worship services. When we fellowship with other people in whom God dwells, we
are, in fact, also fellowshipping with Him (cf. 1 John 1:3, 7). The New
Testament states that we must make sure we are "not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting
one another, and so much the more as [we] see the [millennial Sabbath] Day
approaching" (Hebrews 10:25). We must not forsake assembling on the days
God has appointed for that purpose.
Finally, to really understand how God intended
the Sabbath to be used, look at what He said in Isaiah 58: "If you
turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day,
and call the Sabbath a delight... not doing your own ways, nor finding your
own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in
the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth"
(vv. 13-14).
So we are not to be doing our own pleasure on
God's Holy Day. That means we aren't to be pursuing our hobbies or leisure
activities. That does not preclude doing any enjoyable things on the Sabbath
whatsoever, for we are to find DELIGHT in it. The point is that, whatever we
do, God must be an intrinsic part of it. A family walk through a natural
setting, for example, is a wonderful way to get in touch with the great God
who made the beautiful creation we see.
When the seventh day arrives, we must stop
pursuing our "own ways" (the things we normally do), seeking our
"own pleasure" (just trying to have fun) and speaking our "own
words" (the everyday things we talk about that do not involve God). This
last one is often VERY HARD to follow because "out of the abundance of
the heart the mouth speaks" (Matthew 12:34). To truly keep the Sabbath in
the spirit, we must focus our MINDS on God and those things He wants us to be
concerned with during His holy time. Then, as God promises, we will be truly
blessed.
Furthermore, in addition to worshiping with
God's Church on His weekly Holy Day, we should remember Christ's approach that
"it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:12). So this is
a day we can use for making encouraging phone calls or writing letters to the
sick, the "shut-ins" or fellow Christians who are lonely. It may
also be possible to visit the sick or others in need on the Sabbath-or
to have them over for a Friday evening meal (cf. Matthew 25:34-36; James
1:27).
So we should not think of the Sabbath as the day
we "can't do" this or that! Rather, we should approach this very
special day as a period when we can and should really TAKE TIME
to deeply study and thoughtfully analyze the Bible. It is a time
when we can sit quietly, meditating over and thinking through the truly
big issues of life: Why were we born? What is the PURPOSE of life? What is the
WAY to achieve that purpose? How are we personally doing in moving toward that
objective? In addition, the Sabbath is the perfect time for unhurried,
thoughtful, heartfelt PRAYER to our Father in heaven-to "commune"
with our Creator, to worship Him, to get to know Him intimately.
This, then, is how to KEEP God's Sabbath holy.
Of the Ten Commandments, the fourth
one-concerning the Sabbath day-is and always has been the real
"test" commandment (cf. Exodus 16:4). Many can accept the other
nine-don't worship other gods, honor your parents, don't murder, don't commit
adultery, don't steal, don't lie, etc. But the fourth commandment is
different. To keep it means visibly living quite differently from the society
around you-perhaps even being looked upon as odd or weird. Yet Jesus said,
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and
children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My
disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be My
disciple" (Luke 14:26-27, Today's English Version).
Do you love the "praise of men"
more than the praise of God? Or do you have the FAITH and the COURAGE to obey
God's commandments-even if you were to lose your job, your friends and perhaps
some of your relatives?
True Christians OBEY The Fourth Commandment
Throughout the Bible, God
shows that His true followers keep His commandments. In Revelation 12,
God describes the true Church-the little flock-that had to escape the
bonds of the Roman Empire during the Dark Ages (v. 6). Then, He foretells how
this will happen again-in our day (v. 14). Finally, God describes
Satan's RAGE against the Church: "And the dragon was enraged with the
woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the
commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (v. 17).
In Revelation 14:12, God describes the character
of His saints, saying, "Here is the patience of the saints; here are
those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."
Notice that the saints do not merely observe some "new" commandments
of Jesus. They observe God's commandments through the faith OF Jesus
Christ-not merely their faith IN Him (cf. Galatians 2:20, KJV). For, through
the Holy Spirit, they have Christ living His life in them and
empowering them to overcome themselves, the world and Satan-and are therefore
able to OBEY God's spiritual law!
And Revelation 22:14 describes those who will
live with God the Father and Christ throughout eternity in the New
Jerusalem: "Blessed are those who DO HIS COMMANDMENTS, that they may
have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the
city."
In His famous Olivet Prophecy recorded in
Matthew 24, Jesus describes the time when true Christians will, once again,
have to FLEE for their lives. This time is just a few years ahead of us-for
it is placed in this prophecy just BEFORE the Great Tribulation, in which ALL
humanity would be exterminated, were it not for God's supernatural
intervention. Warning His true servants as to what we should do when
that Tribulation approaches, Jesus said, "And pray that your flight
may not be in winter or on the SABBATH" (v. 20). Obviously, Jesus knew
that His true disciples at the time of the end would still be KEEPING the
true Sabbath day!
In another inspired END-TIME prophecy, God's
Word shows that His true servants will be keeping the Sabbath day holy even
during the 1,000-year reign of Christ here on this earth: "'For as the
new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me,' says
the Lord, 'So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come
to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another,
all flesh shall come to worship before Me,' says the Lord" (Isaiah
66:22-23). So obedience to the fourth commandment is not "old
fashioned." It is instead the "wave of the future"! For ALL
HUMANITY will learn to obey God's commandments-and keep holy the days
God made holy-in the soon-coming Tomorrow's World, when the Kingdom of
God is set up on this earth!
We who are willing to heed and OBEY our Creator
now-through Jesus Christ living His life within us-will be given the awesome
opportunity to serve under Him in ruling the cities and nations of the world
at that time. For we are the true pioneers preparing for Tomorrow's
World. We are overcoming-standing up against the prevailing forces and
trends of this materialistic, Satan-influenced society. Jesus said, "He
who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over
the nations-'He shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the potter's vessels
shall be broken to pieces'-as I also have received from My Father"
(Revelation 2:26-27).
Yet, even now, in this carnal society, you are
not completely alone by any means. For when you include the Orthodox Jews, the
Seventh-Day Adventists, the Seventh-Day Baptists and many from the various
Churches of God, there are millions of people who observe the
seventh-day Sabbath. They have found, and you will find, that it is
possible to keep this "test" commandment and still be blessed and
made prosperous in many ways. You may even find in our diverse society a
number of people who will admire your courage and dedication, even though God
may not be "calling" them to full spiritual understanding at this
time.
Remember, there are millions of people who
sincerely want to do the right thing. Yet Jesus said, "NO ONE can come to
Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the
last day" (John 6:44). But, if God is calling you and is now
opening your mind to His full Truth, then you have a RESPONSIBILITY TO
ACT upon that Truth. For as James 4:17 states, "to him who knows to do
good and does not do it, to him it is sin."
If you, then, are sincerely interested in truly
obeying God and being one of the "firstfruits" of His salvation in
this age, you may wish to contact Christ's "little flock," which He
has preserved even in this mixed-up generation. A significant branch of this
body of believers is doing the Work of God. It is the Church that sponsors the
Tomorrow's World program on radio and television and that publishes the
Tomorrow's World magazine, which goes into many nations. We are called
the Living Church of God, and you will find our regional addresses and
phone numbers at the end of this booklet. We have representatives in many
major cities around the globe. So if you would like to ask questions about how
to properly observe the Sabbath or about meeting with others in your area-or
if you have other questions about true Christianity-just drop us a line or
give us a call. No one will be sent to call on you unless you request
it. Our representatives will simply talk to you on the phone or answer in
writing. We will NOT use any "high-pressure" tactics to get you to
join or support us. For we want to be sure that God is truly
"calling" you.
Do you want the opportunity to observe the true
Sabbath, to enjoy warm, loving fellowship with others of similar
beliefs and to learn more fully the plan and PURPOSE of the Great GOD?
Do you want to participate with others in this CRUSADE to prepare the way for
the return of Jesus Christ to this earth? We hope so, because all of this is
so enormously helpful in assisting your spiritual growth. Unless you meet with
others of the true faith of Jesus Christ and are nourished with His Word
rather than the traditions of men, you may easily "die"
spiritually. The book of Hebrews, in a passage quoted elsewhere in this
booklet, says, "Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and
good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is
the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see
the Day approaching" (10:24-25).
Will you, personally, exercise the faith
and the COURAGE to obey the God who gives you life and breath? Or will you
follow the deceptions of this world under Satan's powerful influence? You now
KNOW that the God of the Bible commands you to observe His holy
Sabbath. And the ultimate penalty for disobeying God's law is DEATH in
the Lake of Fire. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is
eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23; cf. Revelation
21:8).
As God spoke to ancient Israel, so now-through
His inspired Word-He speaks to you in Deuteronomy 30:19: "I call heaven
and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and
death, blessing and cursing; therefore CHOOSE LIFE, that both you and your
descendants may live.
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