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And on the seventh day God ended the work which He had made; and He
rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it Gen 2:2-3.
God created all physical things, as we know them in six days and rested on the seventh day, sanctifying the seventh
day. To sanctify, means to set apart for holy use. This is a holy day. It is God's time, it is NOT
our time. On this day we are to do those things that God wants us to do, we are NOT to do those things that we desire
to do Isaiah 58:13-14.
On the seventh day God rested from His work, to spend time with the man that He had made.
So we must rest from our work and spend time with our Creator. For it is clearly His will that man and God spend
this time TOGETHER.
God spent the seventh day with the man that He had made. This man Adam was the father
of all future generations of men. The sabbath was made for them, ALL MEN Mark 2:27. The sabbath was meant to provide
a rest for man from labours and an opportunity for man to benefit from Communion with his Maker. It was meant to be a memorial
of a completed creation and it was to be prophetic of a millennial rest in the presence of God.
Those called out
of Egypt, a type of those called out of this world as a kind of firstfruits of a New Covenant, were commanded to Remember
the Sabbath Ex 20:8-11. Even as the type were commanded to keep the sabbath, so must the true firstfruits honour God
by observing this day. Benefiting from spending time with our God.
When is the Sabbath? Jesus Christ observed
the Sabbath on the very same day as the Jews of His time observed it. They have continued to mark the Sabbath at the
same time every week for thousands of years, as has the Church of God. When was this? It has always been from
sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. For more see the CALENDAR page. The command of Jesus Christ to keep the commandments
of God Rev 22:14 and the example He set should be sufficient for us. He did NOT change the day of the Sabbath.
The Roman Sun Worshipper Constantine, forced Sylvester Bishop of Rome to observe the Venerable Day of the Invincible Sun in
exchange for being made Pontifix Maximus of the Roman Empire. There is NO AUTHORITY in all the Bible for weekly worship
on the first day of each week, Sunday. This was FORCED on all people by the Emperor Constantine and Bishop Sylvester
in defiance of God's Word. Anyone NOT agreeing was KILLED by the power of Rome. Anyone who defiles the Sabbath,
even if they worship on Sunday is NOT keeping the commandments of God. They are merely doing what they want, rather
than what Almighty God requires and that is the definition of sin, for SIN IS THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE LAW 1 Joh 3:4.
We are not to do any work, nor are we to require any work to be done by anyone for whom we are responsible, anyone
within our gates Ex 20:8-11. The sabbath was made for ALL MANKIND, we are not to interfere with anyone's ABSOLUTE
RIGHT to rest on this day. We are even to allow our animals to rest from their labours.
The sixth day is
the day of PREPARATION for the sabbath. On the sixth day we are to do all our cooking, cleaning and household labour
in preparation for the sabbath rest. We are NOT to COOK or PREPARE FOOD Ex 16:23 on the sabbath, or to travel Ex 16:29.
We are not to do any work or even to bear burdens on penalty of death and destruction Jer 17:21-27. For the sabbath
is God's time, not our time, it is HOLY TIME, it is NOT our own. To do our own pleasure is to STEAL from God something
that belongs to Him.
It is lawful to seek the things of God on the sabbath. To pray and study His word, to meet
together in holy convocation Lev 23:3 with like minded believers. To do good Luk 6:9, by healing or visiting the sick, elderly
and to alleviate the suffering of man and beast. It is lawful to cope with genuine emergencies, like fire, broken pipes
or the ox in the ditch Luk 14:5, but beware of making such excuses to justify habitual sabbath breaking. If an
ox falls into a ditch many times, one should perhaps repair ones fence! That, is to say, that most of these so called
emergencies come through a simple LACK OF PROPER PREPARATION. It is not wrong to find a beautiful or peaceful place
to meditate Acts 16:13 and relax, enjoying God's creation.
A convocation is ONLY holy if it is God centered!
If you go to a service to hear a sermon and then talk ONLY about work and business, the weather, clothes and babies you have
PROFANED that convocation and God's sabbath. Out of one's mouth come those things that are dearest to one's
heart Mat 12:34. If your heart and mind are not on the things of God, your mouth will reveal this. We should be
thinking deeply and discussing the things of God always, especially on the sabbath. How do you ever expect to begin to UNDERSTAND
the things of God, if you do not think and talk about them? Behold, God will preserve those who think upon His name Ezek9:4-6,
Mal 3:16-18.
It is NOT LAWFUL to buy goods and services in restaurants or other establishments. To say that
we may buy, because they are going to work anyway, makes a mockery of God's way. For that excuse justifies ALL SIN,
there is NO SIN that men are not going to do ANYWAY! Let us then use the whore, for she will do it anyway. Why
not have our enemy murdered, for the killer will kill anyway. This is a juvenile and pathetic excuse to justify SIN.
We are supposed to set an EXAMPLE of a better way 1 Thes 5:22.
If we say that we are not paying them, we must admit
that we are paying the establishment that hired them. So we are admitting that we are paying the establishment to induce
people to sin! We have CONDEMNED OURSELVES with our own mouths! If we would not work for them on the sabbath in
order to obey God and WE PAY THEM TO HIRE OTHERS ON THE SABBATH, WE ARE HYPOCRITES. There is no other word for it.
If we pay others to do what we would not do ourselves, on moral grounds; WE HAVE BECOME HYPOCRITES!
To say
that because we have an ox in our ditch, it somehow justifies painting our house on the sabbath is ridiculous! Yet some
say the very same thing. They say that because they have to cross a toll bridge on sabbath to attend a service, it somehow
justifies them buying goods and services. This excuse is also ridiculous! THE ONE, DOES NOT JUSTIFY THE OTHER!
Some say that proper sabbath observance is some kind of burden that God's people should not have to bear.
Yet these same people say to the poor man. You must tithe, have FAITH and God will work things out for you. I ask YOU;
WHERE IS YOUR FAITH? If you make an HONEST EFFORT TO PLEASE GOD, don't you think that He
WILL HELP YOU? Most problems involving sabbath pollution through buying and selling can be resolved simply and easily,
with a little forethought, planning and effort. I have avoided this sin for twenty five years and it has been difficult
at times but God has always provided a way. If you lose a job, God will provide and if you miss a meal, maybe
you will be properly prepared next time. And as for a social gathering, a good discussion of God's word is far more
important than what is on the menu. Some bread and cheese and fruit, together with each other and our God, would make
for an uplifting evening. And probably a healthier one as well! For far too long. the church has been more of
a social club then a church of GOD! It's time we became more GOD CENTERED and less concerned with social activities.
Yes social things are important but the central thing should be OUR GOD. How we impress Him is far more important then
how much we impress each other!
Did you think that God created the sabbath for your hurt? It was made for
our benefit, the benefit of all mankind. You should enjoy the sabbath, but you should not infringe upon the potential
enjoyment of this blessing by others. Remember that the burden of Christ is light and His yoke is easy Mat 11:30,
it is satan who comes along and tries to make the burden SEEM HEAVY by persecuting us. When you can fully understand
that satan is the true source of all our heavy burdens, the true source of SIN, which causes our sufferings and that God's
way is really liberating us from that burden, you will have no problem in keeping ALL GOD'S COMMANDMENTS! It is
by the doing that we learn! By the proper observance of the sabbath, we may learn many things and we will show our God
how very much we LOVE HIM and HIS WAYS! On the other hand, by not keeping the sabbath in the commanded manner, are we
really keeping it at all, when we do not keep it in a manner acceptable to God?
What can we learn? Why FAITH
and TRUST in GOD, as well as all those things that we learn in our studies, meditations and talks. Remember that the
spirit is given to those who obey Him Acts 5:32 and that it is that spirit which shall lead you into the truth Joh 16:13.
If you want to know the things of God, you must keep all the commandments of God, in all things, and be pleasing to HIM 1
Joh 3:22.
May God smile upon all those who love Him and keep all His commandments!
The following
material was compiled by Kenneth Hoeck of Truth on the Web and is reprinted by permisson.
Luthers
Friend - The Sabbath-Keeper Carlstedt
Andreas Carlstedt was a leading churchman and friend of Martin
Luther. Carlstedt tried to convince the reformers to follow the bible and not the tradiitions of the Catholic Church. Although
Luther is famed for "Sola Scriptura," that the bible alone should be a Christian's authoritative word, he deviated
from this and clung to Rome's Sunday observance rather than embrace the biblical 7th day Sabbath advanced by his scholarly
friend Carlstadt. Luther faltered between two opinions and his friend's biblical stance can be shown to have had some
effect on him. The Reformation may have succeeded had it dumped Rome's traditions and returned to the Word of God.
"God blessed the Sabbath and sanctified it to Himself. It is moreover to be remarked
that God did this to no other creature. God did not sanctify to Himself the heaven, nor the earth, nor any other creature.
But God did sanctify to Himself the seventh day…The Sabbath therefore has, from the beginning of the world, been set
apart for the worship of God….God willed that this command concerning the Sabbath should remain. He willed that on
the seventh day the word should be preached." (Martin Luther, Commentary on Genesis, Vol.1, pp.138-140)
"Hence you can see that the Sabbath was before the law of Moses came, and has existed
from the beginning of the world. Especially have the devout, who have preserved the true faith, met together and called upon
God on this day." (Martin Luther,
Comment on Exodus 16:4, 22-30. Translated from Luther's Old Testament Commentary, in Sammtliche Schriften [Collected Writings],
edited by J. G. Walch, vol. 3, cal.950.)
"When servants have worked six days, they
should have the seventh day free. God says without distinction, 'Remember that you observe the seventh day'…Concerning
Sunday it is known that men have instituted it …It is clear however, that you should celebrate the seventh day."
(Andres Carlstadt [Andreas Rudolf Karlstadt], Von dem Sabbat und gebotten feyertagen [“Concerning the Sabbath and Commanded
Holidays”], 1524, chap.4, pp. 23-24) [Karlstadt (1480-1541) joined Luther at Wittenberg in 1517, and later taught at
Bazel from 1534 onward]
“Indeed, if Carlstadt
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.“ (Martin Luther,
Against the Celestial Prophets, quoted in Life of Martin Luther in Pictures, p.147)
"They [Roman Catholics]
refer to the Sabbath Day, as having been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalogue, as it seems. Neither
is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath Day. Great, say they, is the power
of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!" (Augsburg Confession of Faith art. 28; written
by Melanchthon, approved by Martin Luther, 1530; as published in The Book of Concord of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Henry
Jacobs, ed. 1911, p. 63)
Regarding the Ten Commandments, Martin Luther claimed that :
“I wonder exceedingly how it came to be imputed to me that I should
reject the law of the Ten Commandments…Whosoever abrogates the law must of necessity abrogate sin also.” (Martin Luther, Spiritual Antichrist, pp.71,72)
"God threatens to punish all who break these commandments...Therefore, we should also love and trust
in Him and gladly do what He commands"
(Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 1986, p.12).
"The fruits of this sin are afterwards the evil deeds which are forbidden in the Ten Commandments...we
hold that the Law was given by God, first, to restrain sin by threats and the dread of punishment, and by the promise and
offer of grace and benefit " (Luther
Martin. The Smallclad Papers. 1537. Translated by F. Bente and W. H. T. Dau Published in: _Triglot Concordia: The Symbolical
Books of the Ev. Lutheran Church_. (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), pp. 453-529).
Furthermore the
Christian Questions and Their Answers section of that book states (it is unclear he Martin Luther actually wrote that section,
though it is ascribed to him),
"1. Do you believe that you are a sinner?
Yes, I believe it, I am a sinner. 2. How do you know this? From the Ten Commandments, which I have not kept...The Ten Commandments
are the law of God" (Luther’s
Small Catechism with Explanation. Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, 1986. pp.39-40,53).
Martin Luther wrote,"...whoever wishes to know and to do good works needs nothing else than to know God's
commandments. Thus Christ says, Matthew xix, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." And when the
young man asks Him, Matthew xix, what he shall do that he may inherit eternal life, Christ sets before him naught else but
the Ten Commandments" (Luther
M. Treatise on Good Works, March 29, 1520).
"For even if a Moses had never appeared and Abraham had never
been born, the Ten Commandments would have had to rule in all men from the very beginning, as they indeed did and still do"
(Luther, M. Against the Sabbatarians:Letter to a Good Friend, Part II, 1538).
---------------------------------
Sabbath Not Sunday
"The festival of Sunday, like
all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a
Divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic Church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to
Sunday. Perhaps, at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear
by that time to have considered labouring on Sunday as a sin." (Augustus Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, (Rose's translation), Vol. 1,
p.186)
"They [Roman Catholics] refer to the Sabbath Day, as having been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary
to the Decalogue, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath
Day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!" (Augsburg
Confession of Faith art. 28; written by Melanchthon, approved by Martin Luther, 1530; as published in The Book of Concord
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Henry Jacobs, ed. 1911, p. 63)
"But
they err in teaching that Sunday has taken the place of the Old Testament Sabbath and therefore must be kept as the seventh
day had to be kept by the children of Israel….These churches err in their teaching, for Scripture has in no way ordained
the first day of the week in place of the Sabbath. There is simply no law in the New Testament to that effect." (John Theodore Mueller, Sabbath or Sunday, pp. 15, 16.)
"For when there could not be produced one solitary place in the Holy Scriptures which testified that either the Lord
Himself or the apostles had ordained such a transfer of the Sabbath to Sunday, then it was not easy to answer the question:
Who has transferred the Sabbath, and who has had the right to do it?" (George Sverdrup, A New Day)
"The
taking over of Sunday by the early Christians is, to my mind, an exceedingly important symptom that the early church was directly
influenced by a spirit which does not originate in the gospel, nor in the Old Testament, but in a religious system foreign
to it." (Dr. H. Gunkel, Zum Religionsgesch. Verstaendnis des NT. p.76) American Congregationalist Lyman Abbott, in Christian Union,
June 26, 1890, states: "The current notion that Christ and his Apostles authoritatively
substituted the first day of the week for the seventh is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament."
British Anglican Dean F. W. Farrar, in The Voice From
Sinai (1892), page 167, says: "The Christian Church made no formal, but a gradual and almost unconscious, transference
of the one day to the other."
"Sunday
is our (Catholic Church) MARK of authority. ...the church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance
is proof of that fact" ~ Catholic Record of London, Ontario Sept 1,1923.
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Links for more info:
Should I Be Observing
the Biblical Holydays? at http://www.truthontheweb.org/whyfeast.htm
Sabbath Commandment Vs Sunday Law at http://www.truthontheweb.org/sunday.htm
Sabbath/Sunday : Notes & Quotes at http://www.truthontheweb.org/notes.htm
New Testament Sabbath (A.N. Dugger) at http://www.truthontheweb.org/nts.htm
The Catholic Record: Sabbath Observance at http://www.truthontheweb.org/cathrcrd.htm
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