WHICH DAY IS
THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH?
By Herbert W.
Armstrong
Does it
make any difference WHICH day we observe -- or whether we keep it? Does the
Bible establish SUNDAY as the LORD'S DAY? Was the Sabbath given for the Jewish
people only -- while Christians are commanded to keep SUNDAY as the LORD'S DAY?
Contents
Chapter 1. BUT DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?
Chapter 2. WHO MADE AND ESTABLISHED THE SABBATH?
Chapter 3. GOD -- NOT MOSES -- GAVE THE LAW
Chapter 4. A SPECIAL ETERNAL COVENANT
Chapter 5. WHICH DAY FOR GENTILE CHRISTIANS?
Chapter 6. WHY
Chapter 7. IS SUNDAY MENTIONED IN THE NEW
TESTAMENT?
Chapter 8. THE AMAZING TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTIAN
FELLOWSHIP
Chapter
One
CERTAINLY MOST professing Christians
accept SUNDAY as the New Testament Lord's Day. Moslems observe Friday. Some
religions observe no day.
But there are those who insist the
seventh-day Sabbath is still binding. Failure to keep it, they claim, is SIN --
and the punishment is DEATH for eternity!
Now that is a pretty serious claim!
Few take it seriously -- but that does
not disprove or dismiss the challenge. Have YOU ever seriously looked into this
question?
If someone tells me my house is on
fire, I'm not going to laugh at him and refuse to take it seriously. I'm going
to examine, and BE SURE! If he's wrong, then at least I shall KNOW my house is
safe. I learned years ago that it can be very dangerous to carelessly ASSUME,
or just take for granted. It's much wiser and safer to get all the FACTS, and
then decide.
And one's LIFE for eternity is much
more precious than his house.
Few realize, today, but the Sabbath vs.
Sunday controversy raged during the first three centuries of the Christian era.
Violence and bloodshed mounted. Millions were tortured and put to death over
this question.
WHO IS RIGHT?
And, after all, does it make any
difference?
Changing Times
Years ago I had to face this question.
My wife said she had found, in the Bible, that Christians are bound to keep the
Sabbath -- Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. I was shocked, angered. To me this
was rank fanaticism. I had arguments -- plenty of them!
"You can't tell me that all these
churches could be wrong!" I said in confident indignation.
I was challenged to look into this
question -- to GET ALL THE FACTS! I was angered into serious research. I could
not ignore the question. I had this question to live with! It had invaded my
home!
Immediately when this question is
raised, numerous other questions flash to mind.
Don't we have to adjust our religion to
the changing times? After all, wasn't the Bible completely written some 1900
years ago? We live in a different world today! That's one argument. Yet, are we
free to reason out our own religion? Are we going to render the decisions on
our own fates, in the final judgment? Perhaps we'd better get the TRUTH!
Some will ask, "How can this
world, as it is now organized, keep the seventh-day Sabbath? The world is
geared to SUNDAY."
Or, "Suppose you're traveling on an ocean liner. Would you expect them to stop
the engines and cease steaming forward at sunset Friday?"
"What about public utilities in
the big cities? Electricity, water, gas. Must the
police departments shut down and let criminals have a holiday?"
"Suppose the nation is at war.
Should our forces stop fighting at sunset on Friday? The enemy might not see it
that way!"
"But hasn't TIME been lost? How
can we know whether the Saturday of today is the same day of the week as it was
at creation -- or in Moses' day? Hasn't the weekly cycle gotten mixed up since
creation?" That question, too, will be answered with the PROOF in this
booklet.
"Anyway," one may reason in
conclusion, "what possible difference can it make WHICH day, or WHETHER we
observe it?"
These questions -- and more -- must be
answered! And will be, in this booklet.
First of all, in a world where
established, organized Christianity observes Sunday, where perhaps most people
do not seriously observe any day as really sacred, HOW CAN WE KNOW?
Is there any SUPREME AUTHORITY, with
the power of life and death over our eternity, with POWER to declare, and
ENFORCE the right answer?
By WHAT AUTHORITY do Christians observe
Sunday; Moslems, Friday; Sabbatarians, Saturday; and
others, no day?
Is there any authority for observing
Friday, or Sunday, or Saturday? It certainly is apparent all do not recognize
the same authority.
IF There Is NO GOD!
Let me say candidly right here, that if
there is no God -- if I were to leave GOD out of the picture -- then I could
not see how it could possibly make any difference!
There is no way I can imagine how a man
could reason out in his own mind, apart from any Supreme AUTHORITY, WHY it
could make any difference which day -- or whether we observe it.
But the Almighty Creator GOD does
exist! His existence is easily proved. God is emphatically IN THE PICTURE,
whether a man recognizes that fact or not! That Great God has set in living, inexorable motion invisible LAWS respecting this
very question. That God and those laws EXIST -- they LIVE -- they are ACTIVE!
And their existence, and their action, do not depend
on one man -- or all mankind -- realizing their existence.
The Almighty GOD holds the keys of life
and death! By Him your fate is being determined! For all ETERNITY! And that is
the reason why it does make all the difference -- for your well-being now, and
for your eternity!
So first of all, we must settle once
and for all, WHAT, or WHO, is the SUPREME AUTHORITY before whom we shall stand
in judgment. Does such authority explain WHY it makes a difference -- and what
are the consequences for disobedience or neglect?
Did you realize that there is one
religious body which lays claim to being the sole infallible authority? It
claims the Bible "is not a sufficient guide to heaven." It claims,
through its own church leaders, that it, by its own infallible authority,
substituted Sunday for the Sabbath.
This religious body offers the very
fact that all Sunday-keeping people -- which includes the Western world as a
whole -- have bowed down to its dictum on Sunday observance as PROOF of its
absolute authority.
Some time ago one ecclesiastical
authority stated that you may search the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and
you cannot find one line or verse authorizing Sunday observance -- that the
Bible enforces the keeping holy of the seventh-day Sabbath -- and that the sole
authority for Sunday observance is based on edicts of men.
The claim is that a succession of human
ecclesiastical leaders has replaced the authority of Jesus Christ. This may
surprise many religious people.
It is claimed that Christ turned
HEADSHIP of the Church over to Peter and his successors. In plain language,
that Christ "bowed out," as it were -- that men rule in place of
Christ, as HEAD of the Church.
But many churchgoing people do not
accept this idea of infallibility.
WHAT, then, is the TRUTH?
Have you ever stopped to really PROVE
whether GOD exists? Can you actually PROVE, by irrefutable and positive PROOF,
that God is Creator -- that He Rules as the SUPREME AND INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY
over all His creation -- over all the universe?
Yes, you can prove that -- unless you
are unwilling to accept TRUTH! We offer you that proof in the free booklet Does
GOD Exist?
Can you PROVE, also, that THE HOLY
BIBLE is the very authoritative WORD OF GOD -- His inspired Message and
instruction Book to mankind -- the SOLE INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY, by which humanity
shall be JUDGED?
Yes, you can prove that, also, unless
you refuse to accept TRUTH!
Jesus Christ is the FOUNDER of the True
New Testament Church of God.
WHEN Did Christ
Build the Church?
But when did Christ actually found, or
start God's Church -- while still a mortal human, or after His resurrection and
ascension to heaven?
He merely taught HIS MESSAGE -- His
GOSPEL -- to His disciples during His mortal human lifetime! But THE CHURCH OF
GOD was founded -- was started -- on the day of Pentecost, 31 A.D., AFTER
Christ had been resurrected, glorified, and ascended to the throne of God in
heaven.
Now WHEN is Christ supposed to have
"bowed out," as Head of the Church, turning headship of the Church
over to men? Not after the CHURCH was founded and in being -- but before there
was any Church to turn over!
Why then do church leaders reject the
authority of the Scriptures -- yet attempt to ESTABLISH their authority on the
authority they reject and deny -- by quoting Matthew 16:18?
Jesus had just asked His disciples whom they believed He, the Son of MAN, really was. And Peter
had answered that He was the Christ -- or prophesied Messiah -- the Son of the
Living GOD. Jesus had answered that no man had revealed it to him, but it had
been revealed by His FATHER in heaven.
Then Jesus added: "And I say also
unto thee, That thou art Peter" (Greek inspired
original word, Petros, meaning a stone), "and
upon this rock" (Greek inspired original word,
Now, since it is claimed that the ROCK
on which the Church was founded refers to Peter -- and not Christ -- notice the
true meaning, as originally written by Matthew. Matthew wrote in the Greek
language. There was no English language then. The English versions of today are
translations from the original Greek language.
Peter was also called Cephas (Greek Kephas, from the
Aramaic Kepha). In John 1:40-42, is related how
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, found Peter, and brought him to Jesus. "And
when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona:
thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by
interpretation, a stone" (verse 42). The English word "stone" is
translated from the Greek word petros, meaning a
single stone or loose stone. Also the Greek word Kephas
means such a stone, referring definitely to a human MAN.
But when Jesus said "upon this
ROCK I will build my church" (Matt.
"... And That Rock Was CHRIST"
Notice a few other passages where this
same Greek word
In Matthew 27:60, it is stated that the
tomb in which Jesus was buried, after the crucifixion, was hewn out in the ROCK
-- in the
The Greek
According to the Liddell-Scott
Greek-English Lexicon, "There is no example, in good authors, of [
That settles the question, once and for
all!
CHRIST Is Head of Church!
Was Peter the head of the Church? WHAT
DID PETER himself say? Peter, speaking of Christ and the Church, wrote as
follows: "Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay
in
In the above passage Peter is speaking
TO the Church. He quoted from Isaiah 28:16: "Therefore thus saith the Lord
GOD, Behold, I lay in
In the passage in I Peter 2, the word
"stone," in each case, is translated from the Greek word lithos -- NOT petros. Lithos is defined as a stone, a millstone, a stumbling stone. The same word is used for the stones of
which the
The CHURCH is described in Ephesians
The REAL FOUNDATION of the Church is
CHRIST. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ" (I Cor.
Many teach that Christ left -- went
"way off," forsook the Church -- turned its leadership over to Peter
and his successors. But Jesus Himself said: "I will never leave thee, nor
forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5). He is shown in Revelation 1:13, 18 to be the
Living Head, spiritually in the midst of the Church.
Who does the Word of God say is the
Living HEAD of the CHURCH -- Peter, an ecclesiastical leader, or CHRIST? READ
IT! CHRIST is the HEAD OF THE CHURCH! (Eph. 5:23.) Read it also in Ephesians
4:15;
Jesus Christ ROSE from the dead! Jesus
Christ LIVES TODAY! WHY then is Christ pictured either as a helpless babe in
His mother's arms, glorifying the mother even ahead of Christ -- or else
hanging dead on a cross? JESUS CHRIST IS ALIVE TODAY! For more than 1900 years,
He has been the Living HEAD and High Priest of the
The AUTHORITY Is Christ!
So the True New Testament Church of God
was founded by JESUS CHRIST -- not the Apostle Peter. It was the resurrected,
Living Christ, AFTER HIS ascension to God's throne in Heaven, who actually
founded the Church. It was on the day of Pentecost, 31 A.D. On
that day, Christ, as He had promised (John 16:7), sent the Holy Spirit to enter
into His disciples, thus baptizing -- or plunging them into, THE CHURCH.
The
"By ONE SPIRIT are we all baptized
into one body" -- the Body of Christ the True Church of God (I Cor.
So it was JESUS CHRIST, who went to
heaven, and sent God's Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, who FOUNDED the
Church. The same resurrected, Living Jesus Christ, has been the HEAD of the
So we have found the one and ONLY
infallible AUTHORITY to settle this Sabbath question, once and for all!
That SUPREME AUTHORITY is Jesus Christ,
and His written Word, THE BIBLE.
EVEN SO -- What's the Difference?
But even if Jesus Christ is the Living
Head of the
Most people today leave GOD out of the
picture. People today take sin lightly. And as I said before, if GOD is not in
the picture, then you cannot possibly see any reason why it makes any
difference which day, or whether you observe it.
But GOD IS IN THE PICTURE!
True, God doesn't seem real to most
people. But YOU are a creation of God! God Almighty put humanity on earth for a
PURPOSE! His laws and His decrees determine your happiness, well-being and
success here and now -- and your fate for eternity! When you appear at the
final Judgment -- YOU won't be the Judge.
The Eternal GOD created the entire
universe -- He set in motion, and sustains, and controls, every power and force
and energy. He Rules His creation. And the LAWS He set in living motion
determine your well-being or lack of it. Oh, yes, HE is in the picture!
And, is the SIN question involved? WHO
determines what is sin -- and just what difference
does it make?
Most people do not know what sin is.
Some say dancing is a sin -- others say it is not. Some say smoking is a sin --
others say it is not. Different people -- different churches -- have different
IDEAS.
But that could be very costly
ignorance! The first thing you need to get settled in your mind is this: THE
LIVING GOD OF ALL POWER DOES NOT ALLOW US TO DECIDE WHAT IS SIN. HE DETERMINES
WHAT IS SIN, AND COMPELS YOU TO DECIDE WHETHER TO SIN! And the PENALTY of sin
is DEATH FOR ETERNITY! That penalty is real! It is a terrifying, frightful
fate!
SIN is doing what GOD SAYS is harmful
and injurious to you -- and/or others! Sin is doing what deprives you of God's
blessings -- peace, happiness, security, abundant and joyful living, as a
condition to God's supreme gift of ETERNAL LIFE!
Yes, the Living Jesus Christ -- and the
Holy Bible -- constitute the sole Supreme AUTHORITY to
settle this question once and for all! The question of WHICH DAY is directly
concerned with your connection with GOD! And that is directly connected with
your welfare here and now, and your ETERNITY. It makes
a tremendous difference to GOD!
Jesus Christ is the Living personal
Word of God. And the Holy Bible is the written Word of God, by which CHRIST
speaks to you! Christ is the active HEAD of the only
So now let us see what CHRIST, through
the BIBLE, says about which is the day to keep in this NEW
Testament era -- and whether it makes any difference.
Chapter
Two
WHO MADE AND ESTABLISHED THE SABBATH?
JESUS CHRIST had considerable to say
and to teach about the Sabbath, and its observance.
In Mark's Gospel we read of the
beginning of His ministry, and the GOSPEL He taught. Repeatedly He said this
GOSPEL came direct from God the Father -- GOD'S Message to mankind.
Mark 1:1: "The beginning of the
GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST." The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a gospel from
MEN about the PERSON of Christ. The GOSPEL OF CHRIST is Christ's Gospel -- the
Gospel Christ preached -- the Gospel GOD SENT by Jesus for mankind!
Gospel of Kingdom
Jesus came into
He called His disciples, and
immediately "they went into
That same synagogue where Jesus
attended at
Also the synagogue at
Jesus preached in the synagogues in
towns throughout
Jesus, teaching as part of HIS GOSPEL
how to observe the Sabbath said: "The Sabbath was made for man, and not
man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath"
(Mark
It Was MADE!
I want you to read that pivotal text
again!
Jesus said, "The Sabbath was
made." It is one of those things that was made.
It had to have a MAKER. Who, then, made the Sabbath?
God is the Creator. But it is written
in Ephesians 3:9, "... God, who created all things by
Jesus Christ."
John's Gospel begins: "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... ALL
THINGS were made by HIM; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men ....
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him ..." (John 1:1, 3-4, 14-15).
That "Word" was CHRIST.
Christ was with God the Father from eternity. Christ was God! ALL THINGS WERE
MADE BY HIM -- Jesus Christ! The Sabbath is one of those things that was MADE. So it was Jesus Christ who MADE the Sabbath. God
made it through Jesus Christ or by Him!
Notice further: "For by him
[Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible ... And he is THE HEAD OF THE BODY, THE CHURCH (Col.
1:16, 18).
Very few realize it today -- but the
Sabbath was MADE BY JESUS CHRIST! No wonder, then, He said plainly that He is
LORD also of the Sabbath! (Mark
When, and for Whom?
Notice Mark
If it was made for mankind, we should
suppose it was made when man was made. But we must not "suppose." We
must have BIBLE AUTHORITY!
Let's turn back to the description of
the time when MAN was made.
"And God said, Let us [more than
one -- the Father and Christ] make man in our image, after our likeness ... So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and
female created he them" (Gen. 1:26-27).
Now when was this? Verse 31 says it was
the sixth day of creation week. Further, man was the very last thing or being
created on that day. Man came into being, then, probably in the late afternoon
of the sixth day.
Now continue: "And on the seventh
day God ended his 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: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and
made" (Gen. 2:2-3).
NOTICE NOW! When "God said, Let us
make man," who did the speaking? The original Hebrew word here translated
"God" is Elohim. This Hebrew word for God is a uni-plural word
(collective noun) meaning more than one Person, yet one GOD. God is a Kingdom
-- a FAMILY. There is the Father. Jesus is the SON. Christ is also the WORD --
that is, the Spokesman. He speaks only as the Father directs. God created all
things by Jesus Christ! Therefore, it was Jesus who SPOKE! It was Jesus who
said: "Let us make man." It was Jesus who did the WORK of creation,
as directed by the Father!
NOTICE AGAIN! Did Jesus complete His
CREATING on the sixth day? Does it say that on the seventh day he ceased to
CREATE? Not at all! Notice more carefully. "On the seventh day God
ended" -- WHAT? Not creating! He ended "his WORK which he had
made."
There were a full SEVEN DAYS of
creation! Not six -- SEVEN! On the seventh day He MADE THE SABBATH! But the
Sabbath was made, not by WORK, but by REST. What He ended on the seventh day
was the WORK of creation -- that which was created by work! On the seventh day
He rested! He created the Sabbath by resting.
Was God Tired?
Now why did Jesus Christ, who had done
the WORK of creation, rest? Was He "all tired out"? Was He so
fatigued He was forced to stop and rest? Positively not, for God "fainteth not, neither is weary"! (Isa. 40:28.)
Yet, this was a real rest, because in
Exodus 31:17 it is written: "... in six days the LORD [Christ] made heaven
and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." Since He
was "refreshed" by this rest, it was a real rest. Yet He was not
tired or weary!
WHY did He rest? To put His DIVINE
PRESENCE IN THAT DAY! He MADE the Sabbath on that day by resting, whereas He
had made all other things by working!
NOTICE FURTHER! Also He blessed the
seventh day, and sanctified it"! What does "sanctified" mean?
Look in your dictionary. It means "set apart, for HOLY use or
purpose." He set apart this day from other days -- set it apart for HOLY
use -- for a day of physical rest, in which His people may assemble and worship
God!
Also He "HALLOWED the seventh day
of every week (Ex.
Now ask yourself, and answer: Does any
man have authority to make future time HOLY? No man is holy of himself. No man
has power to make anything holy. GOD ALONE IS HOLY -- or whatever God has made
holy! No group or organization of men has authority to make future time HOLY!
The Sabbath is a space of TIME. God set
it as that space of time from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. Whenever that
time comes to us, we are in holy time! It is GOD's
time, not ours! God MADE it HOLY -- and in the Ten Commandments, as we shall
see in detail a little later, He commanded us to keep it holy! Many do not
realize today that it is a SIN to profane that which is HOLY to God!
"Take Your Foot Off"
But does it make any difference whether
we keep this very day God blessed and made holy? Must the Christian respect
what God makes HOLY?
God gives us a very plain explanation
in an experience of Moses.
Moses, raised from a baby as a prince
by Pharaoh's daughter, had killed an Egyptian guard, and fled to the
The Eternal (Christ) called to Moses
out of the midst of the burning bush.
"Moses! Moses!" called God,
"... put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is HOLY GROUND" (Ex. 3:2-5).
Now suppose Moses had been like most
people today. He probably would have argued:
"Well, Lord, I don't see where it
makes any difference WHERE I take off my shoes. I don't want to take them off
here, on this ground. I'll wait and take my shoes off a mile down the
way."
Had Moses rebelled and said that, he
would have never been used to lead God's people out of Egyptian slavery.
The ground a mile away was not HOLY.
Why did it make any difference whether Moses took off his shoes -- or where?
Here is why! THE GROUND WHERE HE THEN STOOD WAS HOLY. He was required, by God,
to treat HOLY ground with a respect he did not treat other ground.
And why? Well, what made that particular bit of
ground holy? GOD'S VERY PRESENCE WAS IN THAT GROUND! God is HOLY! God's
presence in that bush made the ground around it HOLY!
In the very same manner, GOD'S PRESENCE
is in His Sabbath. He rested on that first Sabbath to put His presence in that
day! This made it HOLY TIME! Four thousand years later, when this same
"Logos" or "WORD" was made flesh -- when He came as Jesus
Christ in the human flesh -- HE WAS STILL PUTTING HIS PRESENCE IN THAT SAME
WEEKLY RECURRING SABBATH -- HE WENT INTO THE SYNAGOGUES AS HIS CUSTOM WAS!
Jesus Christ is still the SAME, today,
as He was yesterday, and shall be forever (Heb. 13:8). Do you believe that? Is
your Bible an AUTHORITY? Do you accept it as AUTHORITY? Unless Jesus Christ, in
Spirit, is today living in your flesh -- actually living your life for you --
you are none of His -- you are not a Christian (Rom. 8:9). And if He is, HE HAS
NOT CHANGED -- He is still putting His presence in His SABBATH!
Moses was commanded, by the Eternal, to
take his shoes off that HOLY GROUND. Disobedience would have been SIN, with the
penalty eternal DEATH.
Mankind is commanded, by the same
Eternal, to take his foot off from trampling over and profaning God's HOLY DAY!
God requires His children to treat that HOLY time with a respect not required
in other time.
Notice a PROPHECY -- for our time now:
"If thou turn away thy foot from
the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my HOLY DAY; and call the Sabbath a
delight [not a yoke of bondage], the HOLY OF THE ETERNAL, honorable;
and shalt honor HIM, not doing thine own ways, nor
finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou
delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places
of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the
mouth of the Eternal hath spoken it"! (Isa. 58:13-14.)
There is a plain "THUS SAITH THE
LORD!"
We honor God
by keeping holy those things that He has made holy! We dishonor
Him when we speak our own words, saying, "Well, I think the ideas and ways
of MEN -- of all of this world's CHURCHES -- must be right. I'd rather do as
they do, and honor them, and be well thought of by
them."
God commands: "Take your foot off
My HOLY TIME! Quit trampling all over that which is HOLY and SACRED TO ME! Quit
profaning MY HOLY THINGS -- whether it be MY name, My
tithe of your income, or MY holy day."
The SIN is in profaning that which God
made HOLY!
God has never made any other weekly day
HOLY! Man has no authority to make a day HOLY. You cannot KEEP a day HOLY,
unless God has first made it holy, any more than you can keep cold water hot --
unless it has first been made hot! God made this space of time HOLY -- He
commands you to keep it that way!
Abraham Kept It
This world,
and all its civilization -- including its religions -- consists of a system of
beliefs and customs that have been derived from "the way that seems right
to man." God says that way incurs the penalty of eternal DEATH. That way
-- the way that seems RIGHT -- is the way of SIN.
If the world's religions really
accepted the BIBLE as their authority, they would all believe exactly the same
thing -- all would follow GOD'S WAYS, and the customs HE has ordained. Many who
profess Christianity also profess to follow the Bible -- and the Bible only.
Yet they believe the very opposite of the plain teachings of Scripture and of
Christ. They follow customs of pagan origin condemned by God in the Bible!
Truly this world is deceived!
Men evolve many arguments to evade the
commandments of God -- because the carnal mind is hostile to God, and is not
subject to His LAW! (Rom. 8:7.) When men reject the commandments of God, that
they may hold to their traditions (see Mark 7:6-9) they must devise arguments
to justify their rebellion. One of the arguments is that God's Commandments did
not exist until the children of
But Abraham kept God's commandments 430
years before his descendants reached Sinai.
READ IT IN YOUR OWN BIBLE!
"Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, MY COMMANDMENTS, MY
STATUTES, AND MY LAWS" (Gen. 26:5). GOD is speaking. He is explaining why
He made the great promises to Abraham.
So ABRAHAM KEPT GOD'S SABBATH!
We read in the New Testament that to
break any one of the commandments is SIN (James
Some try to argue that "perhaps
time became lost. Perhaps they lost count of which day was
the same seventh day of every week that God rested on."
Was TIME Lost?
Adam was created and living when sunset
came that sixth day of creation week -- when God rested from His work. Adam
knew which was the seventh day. Jesus called Abel
"righteous" (Matt.
Noah certainly learned from them, and
others, which was the same seventh day. And Noah kept it, because Noah was a
preacher of RIGHTEOUSNESS (II Peter 2:5) -- and "all thy commandments are
righteousness" (Psalm 119: 172).
Shem was also righteous, and he lived
until Abraham was 150 years old. Noah died only about 2 years before Abraham
was born.
No, time was not lost down to the time
of Abraham. For seven complete and irrefutable proofs that it has not been lost
down to our day, now, write for our free booklet, Has Time Been Lost?
But, after the death of Jacob, and of
Joseph, the children of
The Egyptians observed no Sabbath. They
lashed the Israelites in their slave-labor, on the Sabbaths the same as other
days. So these Israelites, for some 150 to 175 years -- several generations --
were not permitted to keep the Sabbath. They had no priesthood. There was no Sabbath nor religious service. Probably there was no
religious teaching -- certainly none was allowed on an organized scale.
And there was no BIBLE -- no written
record of God's instruction, or of GOD'S LAW! The Bible says "The Word of
the Eternal endureth forever." IF any inspired
Word of God had been written prior to Moses, it would be in evidence today. The
first Scriptures were written by MOSES, after the Israelites were delivered out
of Egyptian slavery.
The generation of Israelites which
Moses led out of
NOW NOTICE! These Israelites, some
three or four million in total number (600,000 men above age 20), came to the
wilderness of Sin two months after leaving Egypt, and some two weeks BEFORE
arriving at Mt. Sinai. Remember, this is weeks before God gave them the Ten
Commandments. These people were griping and grumbling because of scarcity of
food in the desert.
Miraculously Revealed
And here God revealed to them, by
MIRACLES, which day was the Sabbath, and whether it makes any difference
whether it is kept.
"Then said the Eternal unto Moses,
Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and
gather a certain rate every day," -- WHY? -- "that
I may prove them, WHETHER THEY WILL WALK IN MY LAW, OR NO."
Read that again! This was more than two
weeks before they received the Ten Commandments -- before the Old Covenant had
so much as been proposed -- before the Law of Moses. But GOD'S LAW was in force
and effect. God was going to prove them, whether they would obey one of its
points.
"And it shall come to pass, that
on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be
twice as much as they gather daily" (Ex. 16:4-5).
I will show you that God was speaking
to them on a Sabbath. It is evident that the Eternal (who, in human flesh later
became CHRIST) first preached to man on the first Sabbath. Adam was created on
the sixth day of creation week. Evidently he was created in the late afternoon,
since the creation of man was the last act of creation on that day. When the
sun had set, immediately after Adam's creation, God preached to him, offering
him the GIFT of eternal life (through the tree of life), and warning that the
wages of sin is DEATH (Gen. 2:15-17).
And here God is again preaching to
Read the next verses in Exodus 16.
Verse 9, Moses and Aaron gathered the people. Verse 10, they all saw the glory
of the Eternal. Verses 11-13, between the two evenings -- at dusk --
immediately after sunset on that Sabbath, God sent the quails for food, and
next morning the manna was on the ground.
Now notice the next miracle. Verse 20:
some tried to save a supply of manna over until next morning, contrary to God's
command. "It bred worms, and stank."
Now verse 22: On the
sixth day they gathered a double portion of manna. Verse 23: Moses explained that
"Tomorrow is the rest of the HOLY sabbath unto
the Eternal." And on this sixth day, they were commanded to lay up the
Sabbath supply of food, which they did. And, verse 24, it did not breed worms
nor decay, as on the preceding five days! Here was another MIRACLE from God,
showing them which is the right seventh day!
When the next morning came -- the
Sabbath, Moses said (verses 25-26) "Today is a sabbath unto the Eternal: today ye shall not find it
in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the
sabbath, in it there shall
be none."
But, DID IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?
Was it not all right to go ahead and
work on the seventh day, and then rest on the first
day of the week? Just like most professing Christians today, some of these
Israelites thought that would be better.
NOTICE WHAT HAPPENED! The next verse --
verse 27: "... there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to
gather, and they found none"! These people thought it made no difference
which day, or whether they kept it. BUT IT MADE A DIFFERENCE TO GOD! On the six
weekdays GOD had HIMSELF gone to the WORK of raining down manna. But GOD
HIMSELF DID NONE OF THIS WORK ON HIS SABBATH -- HOLY TO HIM! On this seventh
day GOD HIMSELF rested from sending them manna!
Does It Make Any Difference?
Notice verses 28-29: "And the
Eternal said unto Moses, HOW LONG REFUSE YE TO KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS AND MY
LAWS? See, for that the Eternal hath given you the sabbath,
therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every
man in his place, let no man go out of his place [to gather -- to work] on the
seventh day"!
And after that blazing rebuke from God,
the people rested on the seventh day! It certainly does make a difference to
GOD! And God is the SAME today as he was yesterday, and will be forever (Heb.
13:8).
Notice, now again, these miracles by
which God revealed to them which day is HIS day -- His Sabbath. Manna fell for
six days -- but none on the seventh day. God Himself worked by sending it the
six weekdays, but He rested on the seventh day. On the first five days of the
week, the manna would decay and breed worms if any was saved over, but on the
eve of the Sabbath, the night after the sixth day, it did not decay but
remained fresh in perfect state of preservation -- and they had no
refrigerators! On the sixth day God gave them twice as much. On the seventh day
He gave them NONE.
After all those generations of slavery
in
But God revealed by these many miracles
WHICH day is His Sabbath. God gave them blazing rebuke for not keeping His
SABBATH. He revealed that the keeping holy of the Sabbath was HIS LAW, many
days prior to the proposing of the Old Covenant, or the giving of the Ten
Commandments in the form God spoke them at Sinai.
Thus did God reveal which day is HIS
SABBATH, and also that it DOES MAKE LIFE-AND-DEATH DIFFERENCE -- for to break
God's Holy Sabbath is SIN, and the penalty is eternal DEATH!
Notice, too -- verse 29: "The
ETERNAL hath given you the Sabbath." Nowhere in all God's Word can you
find any statement that "The ETERNAL hath given you SUNDAY." Who,
then, did give the professing Christian world its SUNDAY? You can easily find
the answer in HISTORY -- carnal MAN gave professing "Christianity"
its Sunday -- pagans cut off from God -- men in rebellion against God! It came
out of paganism! And the world follows the custom!
What is the SOURCE of your religion? Is
it MAN -- and majority public opinion and custom of MAN -- or is GOD ALMIGHTY
the source of what you believe and DO? Which? Is your AUTHORITY preponderant
HUMAN acceptance, or is GOD your authority, and GOD'S WORD, the Holy Bible?
WHICH?
Your ETERNITY hangs on your answer to
that question!
Moses NOT Giver of Ten Commandments
Millions of people have been taught
that MOSES gave the children of
One Sunday morning in 1933, I walked
into a church in southern
But immediately a startling and most
peculiar thing happened. The teacher of the class stuttered around a minute or
so, but was utterly unable to get started teaching his lesson. Then, suddenly
turning to me, he blurted out: "Mister, I don't know who you are, but for
some reason I just can't teach this class this morning -- and I know you can.
Would you take my place and teach us?"
It was like a sudden bolt out of the
blue. WHY was he suddenly unable to teach a class he had been teaching
regularly? WHAT made him turn to me? WHY did he seem sure I could teach them,
when he had never seen me before, and we had not even been introduced? I did
not know -- unless it was because I was the only man in the class who had
brought a Bible.
"Well," I responded,
"that's a rather sudden and peculiar request to make of a perfect stranger
who has never been here before. I have taken a quick glance over this
quarterly. I will have to say to you that I would be unable to teach you from
it, because what it says is not true. But if you men want me to teach you, from
the BIBLE, the truth about who did give the Ten Commandments to the children of
Israel, I could do that -- but it's only fair to warn you in advance that your
quarterly is totally unscriptural and in error."
All the men in the class wanted me to
go ahead and teach them.
Chapter
Three
GOD -- NOT MOSES -- GAVE THE LAW
THIS, THEN, is what I taught that
class: In the third month (of the new Sacred Calendar God had given the
Israelites in
Remember they were at least three to
four million strong. There were 600,000 grown men of age 20 and above -- not
counting women and children.
The Vast Assemblage
This tremendous assemblage of millions
of Israelites pitched tents, forming a gigantic encampment -- a huge tent-CITY
(Ex. 19:2). This, of course, consumed some little time -- though they were
highly organized.
Then (verse 3), Moses went up the
mountain to meet God. And there the ETERNAL gave him a proposition to lay before those millions of people. This proposition -- or
agreement -- was that which we call the "Old Covenant" -- the
covenant agreement for making of these people a NATION -- God's own nation on
earth.
The proposition provided that GOD was
to be their sole King and Ruler. Their government was to be a theocracy. God
was the Law-Maker, not a congress, or parliament. God would appoint leading men
to execute His orders. Moses returned to the vast tent-city.
Thereupon, "Moses came and called
for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words"
(verse 7). The people unanimously accepted God's proposition. You see, in this
proposition, the people were so intent on receiving what God PROMISED in this
contract -- "ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me ABOVE ALL
PEOPLE" -- that is, the greatest, most prosperous, most powerful nation on
earth -- that they did not consider too seriously the condition: "IF ye
will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant."
And what was to come from the very
VOICE OF GOD for them to obey? A great law that already
existed even as the laws of gravity and inertia -- the laws of physics and
chemistry -- already existed. Only this was a SPIRITUAL law! God's voice
was to reveal that living, inexorable law in specific words, as a definite
code.
A Harsh Law?
WHY this law? It's high time we of
today realized the true answer. God Almighty not only is Creator and Ruler over
His endless and vast creation of the entire universe. He is a God of LOVE.
In LOVE God created man in His own
image. God LOVES human beings. God wanted the humans He was to create to be
happy -- to have peace, and to enjoy life in security and interesting,
vigorous, abundant living. In order to make such a happy state possible, God
set in living motion the spiritual laws which form THE VERY WAY to every
physical, mental and spiritual well-being -- to AVOID sorrow, suffering,
anguish, insecurity, boredom, emptiness, frustration, violence and death. These
spiritual LAWS provide THE WAY to happy, invigorating, vital, interesting and
joyful LIVING.
God IS love -- and God knows that LOVE
is heart-warming and good. So He fashioned and set in living motion a LAW OF
LOVE -- a law fulfilled, obeyed, performed by LOVE.
What a wonderful, glorious GIFT to
mankind! You'd think humanity would rejoice and give God ceaseless thanks and
praise in deep GRATITUDE! But humanity doesn't! Good and glorious as this law
is, human nature is hostile to it! It was then. It is today. Human nature is
the inward pull of vanity, selfishness, greed. Selfishly, it wants to take
everything God's WAY of life would bring -- but, rebelliously, it resents traveling that road to obtain these lavish blessings.
LOVE is an outgoing concern. It is the
WAY of giving, serving, sharing. Human nature wants to
take.
All good things, blessing, benefits,
come from GOD. He is the SOURCE of everything good humanity craves. In God's
proposition to be their King and Ruler -- to make them the world's
most prosperous, most blessed and powerful nation -- they were to have the
supreme blessing of having the guidance, protection, help, of the All-Wise,
All-Loving, All-Powerful GOD!
Of course this vast congregation of
people looked only to the end-PROMISE -- to what they would GET -- and glibly
agreed to the terms of God's proposition before they heard them.
Then (verse 8), Moses climbed the
mountain again to report to God.
The POWER and the GLORY!
God instructed Moses: "Go unto the
people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow ... And be ready against the third
day: for the third day the ETERNAL will come down in the sight of all the
people upon mount Sinai." On that great day, in
the morning, there was a tremendous display of thunder and lightning up on the
mountain.
Can you picture it? I think I can -- at
least partially. Years ago -- in early winter, 1934 -- I was driving around the
Mt. Hood Loop in
I thought, then, of only one thing --
this very experience when GOD thundered down from Mt. Sinai HIS GREAT SPIRITUAL
LAW! Only I realized that what I saw and heard must have been tame by
comparison. Yet it caused me to realize what an imagination -- defying
experience occurred in the sight of all
Imagine that vast SEA of people --
millions of them -- stretching as far as eye could see! Then terrifying flashes
of blinding lightning, and crashes of thunder that would almost break eardrums!
And the GREAT GOD HIMSELF in the midst of this eye-blinding, ear-splitting
display, preparing to THUNDER His GREAT LAW in the hearing of that vast
assemblage!
No wonder the people were frightened
and asked Moses to stand between them and God!
Amid this tremendous manifestation of
GOD'S POWER AND GLORY, Moses "brought forth the people ... to meet with
God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was
altogether on a smoke, because the ETERNAL descended upon it in fire ... and
the whole mount quaked greatly" (verses 17-18).
WHAT A SETTING for the receiving of
GOD'S LAW!
This was no ordinary occasion! God
wanted the paramount IMPORTANCE of THIS LAW -- God's perfect WAY OF LIFE --
impressed on His people!
Think of it! A whole NATION of MILLIONS
gathered together in one vast, tremendous, history-making assemblage! And the
very GOD HIMSELF speaking through FIRE, and flashing lightning, and deafening
peals of THUNDER, and a great supernatural VOICE that needed no microphones or
loudspeakers or public-address systems to be heard by MILLIONS.
That was not a throng of 100,000
people, such as we see each year here in
It was not Moses' voice which delivered
God's LAW. It was THE VOICE OF GOD! The whole nation of people heard the VOICE
OF GOD!
"And God spake all these words,
saying, I AM the ETERNAL thy God ..." and then the voice of GOD spoke to
that mass of people THE WORDS OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS!
The Voice of GOD -- Not Moses!
How significant! On that very first day
of Pentecost (called Festival of Firstfruits, or Festival of Weeks in the Old
Testament), amid this tremendous and awesome manifestation by the very forces
of nature, God gave HIS LAW -- His WAY OF LIFE -- to the only ones on earth who
were HIS PEOPLE. This came at the founding, and setting up, of God's NATION on
earth.
Then, many centuries later, on the day
of Pentecost, 31 A.D., with a tremendous and awesome manifestation, God gave
HIS HOLY SPIRIT to His people -- the LOVE OF GOD to fulfill
that law. And that came at the founding, and setting up, of GOD'S CHURCH on
earth!
WHO gave the people the Ten
Commandments?
Notice it carefully! The people did not
receive the Ten Commandments from Moses, as most people seem to believe today.
Moses was hearing the very first delivery of the Commandments, in this form,
ALONG WITH THAT WHOLE NATION of MILLIONS of people! It was not Moses who gave
this law to the people -- but "GOD spake all these words."
Next, notice Deuteronomy 5:4-22. This
is later. Moses is talking to the people of
READ THOSE PASSAGES AGAIN! Why have you
been taught that MOSES "gave the law"? WHY has this law been called
the "Law of Moses"?
The Ten Commandments did not come from
Moses but from GOD! The Ten Commandments were not given to the people by Moses,
but by GOD to all the nation, assembled. Moses says:
"The ETERNAL talked with YOU face to face" -- with the vast assembly
of the whole PEOPLE!
Moses explains (verse 5), that because
the people were frightened, in order to reassure them, he stood in front of
them -- but HE WAS WITH THEM, AS MERELY ONE OF THAT VAST ASSEMBLY.
But God spoke to ALL THE PEOPLE
ASSEMBLED, not only to Moses!
Notice further -- after completing, in
verse 21, the rewriting of the words of the Ten Commandments which GOD spoke,
Moses continues, verse 22, to say to the people of Israel: "These words
the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the
fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added
no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto
me."
Read that again carefully! That is not
what you probably have been told. Read it in your own Bible!
These words of the Ten Commandments the
LORD spoke. To whom? "Unto ALL
YOUR ASSEMBLY. The people did NOT receive the Ten Commandments from
Moses, but direct from the very voice of GOD, which they all heard!
"And He added no more." That
was a COMPLETE LAW! It is a SPIRITUAL LAW. It is COMPLETE. He added no more --
to THAT LAW! Any other laws are different, separate laws -- NO PART OF THAT
SPIRITUAL LAW! It is complete in itself!
And if you think this law was for
"Jews only," you couldn't be more wrong! Have you not read, in Acts
7:38, that those Israelites "received the lively oracles to give unto
US" -- for US who, under the NEW Testament, are
Christians?
All other nations had turned from God
and HIS WAYS. Now God was choosing a downtrodden SLAVE people as His nation --
the ONLY people on earth who had not cut themselves completely off from God.
This was the BASIS upon which the Old
Covenant was made -- but what is the basis of the NEW Covenant? Read it, in
Hebrews 8:10: "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
It will be made eminently plain, in
this booklet, that this was 1) no temporary law to end at the cross; and 2) no
special law for one nation only, and forbidden to other nations. God is no
respecter of persons (Acts
The Sabbath Command
Observe more closely, now, the Sabbath
command.
"REMEMBER the sabbath
day, to keep it holy" (Ex. 20:8). God said REMEMBER this day! So men have
insisted on forgetting -- or trying to change it to a different day!
Christ said, in the sermon
on the mount: "THINK NOT that I am come to destroy the law,"
so professing Christians think He did come to destroy it!
Christ said, in the same sermon on the mount: "Swear not," so professing
Christians universally hold up their right hands and swear.
Christ said: "LOVE your enemies,"
so professing Christians -- pretending to follow Him, HATE their enemies and go
to war to kill them.
Christ said: "Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is
perfect," so, professing Christians say, "It's impossible to keep
God's Law, let alone to be perfect. Christ kept it in our stead, and then
abolished it."
Christ commands "DO!" -- and His professed followers DON'T!
Christ commands "DON'T! and His professed followers DO!
Christ commanded: "REMEMBER the
Sabbath day! So pretending followers FORGET it!
But notice the rest of that same
sentence -- "to KEEP it HOLY." The word "keep" means to
preserve in the same condition. You can't KEEP ice water hot -- you can only
keep HOT water hot. You can't keep an unholy day holy. The only weekly day God
ever made holy is His Sabbath. It is utterly impossible to keep Sunday or
Friday HOLY -- because God never made them holy, and man has no power to make
anything holy. These are not arguments -- they are FACTS that will judge you in
God's JUDGMENT!
Now notice verses 9 and 10 (Ex. 20):
"Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is
the sabbath of the LORD thy
God: in it thou shalt not do any work ...."
Not just any seventh day! Not "one
day in seven" -- Christ said "the seventh day!" In Matthew 28:1
-- after the crucifixion and resurrection -- after whatever was "nailed to
the cross" had been nailed -- you will find it is the seventh day of the
week -- the day before the first day of the week!
Notice further! Christ did not say,
"the sabbath of the
JEWISH PEOPLE. He said, distinctly, the sabbath of
THE LORD THY GOD!" If it is the LORD'S Sabbath -- the Sabbath OF THE LORD
-- then the Sabbath is, truly, "the LORD'S DAY."
Right here, let's put an end to the
rebellious ARGUMENTS about Sunday being the "Lord's Day." I will make
to any reader this challenge: Produce any passage in the Bible identifying
Sunday -- or the first day of the week -- as "the Lord's Day," and I
will proclaim the truth of that passage to the millions of people who hear The
WORLD TOMORROW program on the air in every inhabited continent on earth, and
publish it prominently in The PLAIN TRUTH, which now has a reading audience of
about seven million people around the world.
God has placed before me one of the most vast audiences in the world today. If you believe
Sunday is "the Lord's Day" and can prove it by the Scripture, here is
your opportunity to get it before many millions of people! But before anyone
sends in Revelation 1:10, let me call to your attention
the fact that 1) This verse is not referring to any day of the week, but to the
general period of prophecy mentioned in more than 30 prophecies, as "the
day of the Lord." In this present time we are in the day of man. The
"day of the Lord" is the era of time when God is going to intervene
directly and supernaturally in world affairs, and begin the take-over of the
governments of all nations. And, 2) This verse and its
context make no reference to any day of the week, nor do they in any manner
mention Sunday or "the first day of the week." There is absolutely
nothing in this verse or context associating it with a weekly day of worship,
or changing the day to Sunday. Those who have associated it with Sunday have
done so without Scriptural authority, and have thus deceived millions of
people.
The "Lord's Day" is the day
the LORD is lord of -- the day that is HIS day -- and in Mark 2:28 Jesus Christ
said He is Lord of the Sabbath -- not of Sunday.
In this present verse -- Exodus 20:10
-- He said to all the people assembled, "But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God."
Not the Sabbath "of the Jewish people" -- but "of the LORD thy
God."
Sabbath Not MY Day
Let me illustrate this verse further.
Some 30 years ago, when I was holding night services in the Chamber of Commerce
Auditorium, in downtown
"Mr. Armstrong, I have been told
that Saturday is your day. I do hope that is not true!"
"It certainly is not true," I
replied. "Sunday is my day."
"Oh, I'm so glad!" she
exclaimed.
"But wait a minute," I said
quickly. "I see you don't understand. Sunday is my day -- and Monday, and
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday -- those are all my days -- but Friday
sunset until Saturday sunset is not MY day -- THAT IS GOD'S DAY -- that is THE
LORD'S day!"
Read the wording of Christ in the
Commandment again: "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work"
-- those are OUR days, for OUR work -- "But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God"
-- the SEVENTH DAY is the LORD'S DAY. This very Commandment, in the law which
defines sin, plainly says so!
In I John 3:4
you read the BIBLE definition of what constitutes SIN. "Sin is the
transgression of the law." In Romans 7:7 you read which law it is SIN to
disobey -- the law that says, "Thou shalt not covet" -- quoted from
this very law -- Exodus 20:17. In James 2:9-11 you will read which law defines
sin. It is a law subdivided into "Points" (verse 10). One of its
"Points" is "Do not commit adultery," quoted from this very
law (Ex.
In James
This is probably far from what you have
believed or been taught. But if any wish to argue, I should suggest they save
their arguments for the Judgment, and then try to argue face to face with their
Saviour and their Maker, Jesus Christ!
Called Sabbath From
Creation
Before leaving Exodus 20, notice one
more important fact.
In verse 11 you will read, "For in
six days the LORD made heaven and earth ... and rested the seventh day:
wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath
day, and hallowed it."
Now when did the LORD bless and hallow
this seventh day? You will read, as explained before, in Genesis 2:3, that He did this blessing and hallowing on that seventh
day of original CREATION WEEK. And this Sabbath Command says plainly, "The
LORD blessed the sabbath day." He did this
blessing and hallowing the very day after the creation of Adam and Eve. And
what He then blessed and hallowed, says Exodus
Many have used the deceptive argument
that God never MADE the Sabbath until He gave the Ten Commandments at
So, the LORD Jesus Christ, as the
"Logos" (John 1:1 -- Greek), or the "YHVH" (Hebrew) of
Genesis 2, who MADE everything that was made, did make the Sabbath, as Jesus
plainly stated in Mark 2:27. It is one of the things he MADE -- and it was MADE
on the seventh day of the very first week -- creation week. The Sabbath has
existed FROM CREATION, and, more than two millenniums later, this same LORD,
the Person of the Godhead who became Jesus Christ, COMMANDED His people to keep
it holy! And, about another two thousand years after that, He said He is LORD
of that day!
Chapter
Four
A SPECIAL ETERNAL COVENANT
WHAT GOD commanded to REMEMBER,
rebellious men will resort to every argument of human reason to justify
forgetting!
Consequently, many have used the
argument, without any Scriptural authority of course, that the Ten Commandments
were abolished at the cross. Of course they never stop to realize that, if
there is no law, there is no transgression -- as Paul plainly states in Romans
4:15 -- and no one has sinned since the cross -- and therefore we should not
need a Saviour!
Yet, even if this perverted and
deceptive argument were true -- if God had abolished all ten of His
commandments at the cross, and then brought back nine of them in the New
Testament, in order to get rid of the Sabbath -- as many do teach -- still THEY
ARE WITHOUT EXCUSE!
For God made of the Sabbath a special
and separate COVENANT, binding forever!
Covenant Complete
You will remember that to the Ten
Commandment Law, God added no more (Deut.
The Ten Commandment Law is complete --
God added no more. Also, the Old Covenant was confirmed, as described in Exodus
24:4-8. It cannot be added to.
Later, after both the Ten Commandments
and the Old Covenant had been made complete, ratified, put in force and effect,
God made ANOTHER TOTALLY SEPARATE and eternally binding covenant with His
people.
WHY the Sabbath?
God never does anything in vain -- that
is, to no good and useful purpose. When God does anything, or makes anything,
there is a reason -- an important PURPOSE.
God created MAN and put him here on
earth. But mankind has lost knowledge of His PURPOSE. God had an important
reason. You were put here for a very important PURPOSE.
God, through "The Word" (John
1:1-3) who became Jesus Christ, made the Sabbath. He made it for man.
But WHY?
What PURPOSE does it serve? Mankind has
lost knowledge of that important purpose, too! Jesus Christ (Mark
That is why this special, separate
SABBATH COVENANT is important. For it reveals THE REASON -- the basic purpose.
Therefore it becomes important to study it carefully.
It is found in Exodus 31:12-17:
The Special Sabbath COVENANT
"And the LORD spake
unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of
Notice again! He said: "My
Sabbaths ye shall keep." In Exodus 20:8 we saw that He commanded to
"keep it HOLY" -- God made it HOLY TIME, and commanded us to keep it
holy -- NOT TO PROFANE WHAT IS HOLY TO GOD.
Now study this special covenant a
little further:
"... for
it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know
that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you" (Ex. 31:13).
What tremendous meaning is packed in
that portion of this sentence! Yet most people read right past it, failing to
get the vital TRUTH it contains!
Notice! Here is the purpose of the Sabbath.
"... for it is a SIGN ...." What is a sign?
You walk down a main street in the
business section of a city. Everywhere you see signs identifying stores,
offices, factories. If you want to know what a sign is, just turn to the word
in the "yellow pages" -- the classified business listings of your
telephone directory. You will find such names as "Jones Neon Sign
Company," or "Smith Brothers Signs." If you call one of them on
the telephone and ask, "What do you make, or sell?" he will tell you
that they make signs for business firms, institutions, or professional
individuals to hang out in front of their place of business. The sign
identifies whose establishment, institution, or office is inside.
A sign is a badge, symbol, or token of
IDENTITY. You see the sign, "A. B. Brown, Furniture and Furnishings."
The sign identifies the owner. It tells you what kind of business he owns.
Webster's dictionary defines a sign
thus: "A publicly displayed notice on a building, office, etc., to
advertise the business there transacted, or the name of the person or firm
conducting it. Something indicating the existence of a thing;
a token." And, of course, there are the special technical meanings
in mathematics, medicine, astronomy.
The word which Moses wrote, in the
Hebrew language, which is translated "sign" is 'owth,
and the Hebrew-English dictionary defines it as "a signal, as a flag,
beacon, monument, evidence, etc. -- mark, miracle, sign, token." A flag
identifies a nation. A beacon is a signal to announce the existence of
something warned about. A token is a visible sign; something that serves as an
identifying signal to make something known, as, a white flag is a token of
surrender.
God commanded His people to keep His
Sabbath as a sign. It is a sign between God's people and God -- "... a
sign between me and you," the Commandment says. It is a badge or token of
IDENTITY. It advertises, or announces, or proclaims certain identifying
knowledge. But WHAT KNOWLEDGE? God answers: "...
that ye may KNOW that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you."
WHO Is God?
NOTE THOSE WORDS CAREFULLY!! It is the
sign that IDENTIFIES to them who is their GOD! It is the sign by which we may
KNOW that He is the LORD!! It IDENTIFIES GOD!
BUT DOESN'T EVERYBODY KNOW WHO GOD IS?
ABSOLUTELY NO! This whole world is
deceived -- so says your Bible (Rev. 12:9).
This world has a god -- a false god --
Satan the devil! He pretends to be "an angel of light" (II Cor.
Many have appropriated the very name
"Christian," whose ministers, says your Bible, actually are Satan's
ministers: "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed
as the ministers of righteousness" (II Cor.
But do they actually call themselves
the ministers of CHRIST? Read the verse just before the two just quoted --
verse 13: "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ." Yes, Satan is the great
counterfeiter.
He palms himself off as GOD. He is
called, in your Bible, the god of this world (II Cor. 4:4). He palms off his
ministers as the ministers of CHRIST -- accusing the true ministers of Christ
of being "false apostles" to divert suspicion from themselves!
Does this world's
"Christianity" really know the TRUE GOD? It is deceived into
believing it does, and a deceived world may be sincere in that false belief.
But the True GOD is the one whom we
obey.
This world is not taught to OBEY GOD!
Its false "Christianity" teaches that God's Law is "done
away." It actually puts human conscience, actuated by Satan's false
teaching, in place of God's Law! It does not teach, as did Christ, that we must
actually live by every word of GOD -- of the BIBLE!
It OBEYS Satan by sinning!
The PURPOSE of the Sabbath
God gave man His Sabbath, for THE
PURPOSE of keeping mankind in the true knowledge and true worship of the True
GOD.
But HOW does the Sabbath IDENTIFY God
-- how does it point to the True God, rather than the false? Does not Sunday do
just as well?
POSITIVELY NO!!
Notice verse 17 of this special Sabbath
covenant: "It is a sign between me and the children of
It was on the seventh day of that
creation week that He rested from the work of creation. Not Sunday, the first
day of the week. Only the seventh day of the week points back to CREATION.
How does that identify who GOD is?
If you believe anyone else or anything
else is God, I will prove that my God is the True God, because whatever else
you may think is God was made or created by the True GOD. He who created and
made everything else is GREATER than whatever He made -- superior to anything
else that could be called God.
CREATION is the PROOF of God -- of His
existence. It -- the act of creating -- identifies Him!
So God took the most enduring, lasting
imperishable thing man can know -- a recurring space of TIME -- the only day
that is a memorial of THE ACT OF CREATING. He took the only day which points,
constantly, every seventh day of the week, to the existence of the Almighty,
ALL-POWERFUL, ALL-RULING GOD -- the Creator!
And God set that particular day apart
from others as HIS day -- God made that particular day sacred and holy to HIM
-- designating it as the very day on which HE commands His people to assemble
for WORSHIP -- the day man is commanded to REST from his own work and physical
pleasure -- and to be refreshed by assembling with other obedient worshippers
in spiritual fellowship!
No OTHER DAY is a memorial and reminder
of CREATION. True, Satan has deceived a deluded world into supposing Christ's
resurrection occurred on Sunday morning at sunrise -- the very time which has
always been the time of pagan SUN-worship. BUT THIS IS NOT TRUE! Write for our
free booklet The Resurrection Was Not on Sunday. You will be amazed! Also write
for our special free booklet "The Plain Truth About
Easter." It is a shocking eye-opener -- and it is the TRUTH you can verify
and prove at your public library.
The resurrection of Christ actually
occurred on the Sabbath, not on Sunday! And, further, nowhere in the Bible does
God tell us to celebrate the day of Christ's resurrection! That is a pagan
custom of MEN, on apostate MAN'S authority alone -- contrary to the commands of
GOD!
So here we find a GREAT PURPOSE in the
Sabbath. It identifies God! The very day which GOD set aside for assembly and
worship points as a memorial to WHOM we are to worship -- the CREATOR-RULER of
all that is!
But that is not all!
The Sabbath also was given as a SIGN
which identifies WHO are the PEOPLE of God and who are NOT!
Notice! Not only does this special
covenant say, "... that ye may know that I am the LORD ..." but read
the remainder of that sentence: "... that ye may know that I am the LORD
that doth sanctify YOU" (Ex. 31:13).
Notice the tremendous MEANING of that!
What does the word "sanctify"
mean? It means "to set apart for holy use or purpose." On the seventh
day of the very creation week, the ETERNAL sanctified -- that is, He SET APART
for HOLY use -- the Sabbath day. But now we see that God says it is a sign that
He, the ETERNAL, also sanctifies -- SETS APART FROM OTHER PEOPLE AS HIS, FOR
HIS HOLY PURPOSE -- those who are HIS PEOPLE.
In Old Testament times HIS PEOPLE were
the people of the Congregation of ISRAEL. In New Testament times, HIS PEOPLE
are those of GOD's OWN CHURCH -- the truly converted,
Spirit-begotten CHRISTIANS!
But HOW does the Sabbath set them apart
-- separate them -- from those who are not God's own true people? Well, if you
have begun to keep God's Sabbath holy, as He commands, you have found the
answer already, by actual experience. If you haven't, just start keeping God's
Sabbath holy as He commands you -- and you'll soon learn that you are
automatically set apart from all other people! Yes, sir!
The Sabbath is God's SIGN, which
identifies not only GOD as CREATOR-RULER but it also identifies those who are
truly HIS.
But How?
Definition of God
Let me give you still another
definition of GOD. Although the only Wise and True God is the Great
CREATOR-RULER of the universe, there are many false or counterfeit gods. Satan
palms himself off to the deceived as God -- and indeed the Bible plainly calls
him the god of this world. Idols were worshipped as gods -- and still are,
today, even in so-called "Christian" churches. Whoever,
or whatever you serve and obey is your god!
The very word LORD means ruler, master,
boss -- the one you obey! Jesus exclaimed: "And
why call ye me, LORD, LORD, and do not the things which I say?" (Luke
6:46.) If they did not OBEY Him, then He was not their Lord! So
WHY did they call Him LORD, when He was not their Lord?
Then again, Jesus said: "Not every
one that saith unto me, LORD, LORD, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but
he that DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER which is in heaven" (Matt. 7:21). Only
they who OBEY God can be His children, and enter His Kingdom! God is the one
you OBEY!
Notice again: "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to OBEY,
his servants ye are to whom ye OBEY? (Rom.
Regarding IDOLS as false and
counterfeit gods, the Second Commandment says: "Thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them, nor serve them" -- that is, OBEY them -- "for I the
ETERNAL thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity [disobedience] of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that
hate me; And showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, AND KEEP MY
COMMANDMENTS (EX. 20:5-6).
How SIGNIFICANT! THE SABBATH COMMAND IS
THE ONLY one of the ten which is a SIGN identifying WHO are the real and true
Christians today! It is the real TEST Command! The people of the world are
willing to acknowledge the other nine Commandments -- but the Sabbath Command
is the one they positively REBEL against! It is THE ONE that is the crucial
test of obedience!
It IDENTIFIES those who have
surrendered their wills to God -- who OBEY God, regardless of persecution or
cost!
Oh, it SETS YOU APART, all right!
What a SIGN! It identifies the TRUE God
on the very DAY He set apart for assembly and worship. It identifies the REAL
people of God!
God's SIGN is one you accept
voluntarily -- of your own volition, or not at all. But the "Beast"
(symbol of the coming resurrected, so-called "Holy"
But Is It a COVENANT?
I have said that God made the Sabbath a
SEPARATE, ETERNAL, and PERPETUAL COVENANT, entirely separate and apart from
what we term "the Old Covenant" made at
How, then, is it a COVENANT?
Let's define the word
"covenant." Webster defines a covenant as: "An agreement between
persons or parties. A solemn compact." A covenant
is a contract, or agreement, by which one party promises certain rewards or
payments, in return for certain stipulated performance by the other party.
The Old Covenant between God and the
children of
Once a covenant is signed, sealed, or
ratified -- confirmed -- it cannot be ADDED TO (Gal.
We do not come to the making of this special
eternal Sabbath covenant until seven chapters later. It is, therefore, NO PART
OF the Old Covenant!
But, again, is it a COVENANT?
The wording in your Bible says it is!
Notice, Exodus 31:16: "Wherefore the children of
"Perpetual" means continuous,
and unbroken. But was it to last FOREVER? Read the following verse: "It is
a SIGN between me and the children of Israel FOREVER."
Now what is the condition to be
performed? The keeping holy of the Sabbath! "It is HOLY unto you,"
says God (verse 14). And what is the REWARD PROMISED upon performance of the
condition? It is not only a SIGN, but also a compact or COVENANT "between
me and you," says God, "that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth
sanctify you."
There it is! God promises TO SANCTIFY
THEM -- He will set them apart as HOLY -- as HIS HOLY PEOPLE! Can you ask for a
BIGGER promise?
Yes, it is a COVENANT! It is a
separate, totally different covenant. Even if one tries to argue that the Old
Covenant is "abolished" and that therefore the Ten Commandments are
abolished, he cannot argue that this covenant was to last only until the cross.
This covenant is binding "throughout your generations" (verse 13);
"a perpetual covenant" (verse 16), and "forever" (verse
17).
Sign for
"Yes," says the rebellious
one, who would argue his way out of obedience, "but it is between God and
the children of
Oh -- then you admit it is binding
FOREVER on ISRAELITES -- and throughout their generations? There are TWO
answers to that argument that will condemn you, if you so argue, into the
1) No one can deny that this absolutely
BINDS the people of
Also you have to admit that salvation
and Christianity are OPEN TO JEWS AND ALL ISRAELITES. The Gospel is the power
of God UNTO SALVATION to every one that believeth; TO THE JEW FIRST, and also
to the Greek (Rom.
So, then, the Jew can be a converted
CHRISTIAN! Indeed, the Church at the beginning was nearly altogether Jewish! So
the JEW, even though a Christian, in God's CHURCH, is BOUND to keep God's
Sabbath as a perpetual covenant, throughout his generations, FOREVER!
Now, does God have TWO KINDS of
Christians? Is it SIN for a Jewish Christian to break the Sabbath, and sin for
all others to KEEP IT? Must Jewish Christians assemble on the Sabbath, and those of other nationalities on Sunday? Didn't
Jesus say a house divided would fall?
Are there TWO KINDS of Christians? Read
Galatians 3:28-29: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond
nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS.
And if ye [ye Gentiles] be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the promise."
So, since the Sabbath is BINDING TODAY
on the Jewish part of God's Church, and there is no difference -- we are all
ONE in Christ -- it is also binding on Gentiles!
We Are
2) But there is another answer to this
argument: The peoples of the
Now, in the light of this Sabbath
truth, MORE THAN EVER, it is important that you read, study, and check the
PROOF of this identity in our free book, The United States and
But IF the Sabbath is God's SIGN to
identify His people
The answer to that question is the
answer to another: WHY are the Ten Tribes of the HOUSE OF ISRAEL called
"The LOST TEN TRIBES"? AND WHY do our nations think they are
Gentiles? WHY don't they KNOW their true identity?
Ah, NOW we have a staggering,
startling, surprising truth to reveal!
WHY Ten Tribes Became LOST!
Here's a dumbfounding TRUTH, far
stranger than fiction!
Here are FACTS, hidden for centuries,
more intriguing than a mystery novel! WHY is the Sabbath called,
disrespectfully, sneeringly, "the Jewish Sabbath"? WHY does the world
think all Israelites are Jews, and that the Jews are ALL of the Israelites?
Here's an astonishing surprise to those
who have believed that! The Jewish people are only a small minority of the
Israelites, believe it or not! The very first place in all the Bible where
you'll find the name "Jew" or "Jews" is in II Kings 16:5-6
-- and believe it or not, there you'll find the
Yes, there it is!
Strange as it may seem, the children of
After the death of King Solomon, the
people of the nation
The people demanded tax reform of King
Rehoboam, son of Solomon. But he was young. He had young ideas. He surrounded
himself with a "brain trust" or "whiz-kids." They, too, had
young ideas. They counseled, "Tell the people
you'll show them who's their master -- tax them even higher
than your father did." Rehoboam scorned the counsel of older, wiser
heads. To him they were the reactionaries of his day.
The PEOPLE staged a gigantic mass
rebellion. They rejected Rehoboam, and set up Jeroboam, who had been promoted
to high position by King Solomon, as their king.
But the tribe of
Nowhere in all the
Bible are any of the ten-tribed nation
Almost immediately on being made a
king, Jeroboam became afraid that, when his people journeyed to
The tribe of Levi composed the
priesthood. They were the leaders -- the best-educated. The Levites had enjoyed
incomes two or three times larger than the other tribes -- living off the
tithes. With one swift stroke, Jeroboam demoted the Levites, set the lowest and
most ignorant of the people to be the priests. He could control them! Thus he
would control the religion, as Gentile kings had always done. Thereupon many,
if not most of the Levites went back into the
So immediately Jeroboam set up two
great idols for his people to worship. He ordered the fall Festivals (including
the annual Sabbaths) to be observed in the EIGHTH month, at a place in the
NORTH of HIS choosing -- instead of in the seventh month, and at
But in 721-718 B. C., God caused the
House of ISRAEL to be invaded and conquered by the
Two or three generations after the
captivity of
The Assyrians later left their land,
north of
The people of ten-tribed
NOW WHY did they come to be known as
the "LOST Ten Tribes"?
THEY HAD LOST THEIR NATIONAL
IDENTIFYING SIGN!
All of
After several generations, the tribe of
Joseph divided into the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh which today are the
British and American people.
The tribe of Reuben settled in the
country that is
The TEN TRIBES, known as the House of
ISRAEL, lost their identifying tag -- God's Sabbath. THAT IS WHY THEY LOST
THEIR NATIONAL IDENTITY!
WHY Jewish People Are Recognized
But
RESULT? All the world looks on them as
THE CHOSEN PEOPLE OF GOD! The world thinks they are
The identity of the Jewish people has
NOT been lost! And, since their identity as racial
descendants from ancient
And so, here again, the WHOLE WORLD IS
DECEIVED, even as to the true identity to who really are the chosen birthright
people of God!
The reader, if he has not already
carefully read it, should write immediately for our free booklet, The United
States and
Yes, the Sabbath, GOD'S day -- the true
LORD'S DAY -- is, after all, the day FOR OUR PEOPLE doubly -- first, because it
is for ALL people of GOD, EVEN GENTILE BORN PEOPLE WHO ARE NOW CHRIST'S;
SECONDLY, BECAUSE RACIALLY, EVEN BY FLESH BIRTH, IT IS GOD'S DAY WHICH HE GAVE
OUR OWN FOREFATHERS, AND COMMANDED TO KEEP HOLY FOREVER!
Chapter
Five
WHICH DAY FOR GENTILE CHRISTIANS?
"BUT LOOK!" -- one might still argue -- "wasn't that Sabbath Covenant
for
The answer is absolutely NO!
Let's UNDERSTAND! Let's get this
straight!
Exclude Gentiles?
God gave the Sabbath COVENANT to
identify first the TRUE GOD, as distinct and separate from false gods, and
second to identify those who are HIS PEOPLE as separate and distinct from those
who are NOT GOD'S PEOPLE!
It was not given to distinguish between
two kinds of GOD'S PEOPLE -- that is, for example, two kinds of CHRISTIANS,
such as those who were Jewish-born from those who were Gentile-born. GOD DOES
NOT HAVE TWO KINDS OF CHRISTIANS -- whether Jew or Gentile-born, whether male
or female, we Christians are all ONE in Christ Jesus (Gal.
UNDERSTAND THIS!
In Old Testament days, the ONLY people
on earth who were GOD'S people were the Israelites! And the Sabbath was the
SIGN identifying them as GOD'S people.
Have you not read, in Hosea, how God
pictured the HOUSE OF ISRAEL (the
"Therefore," said God to this
idolatrous Sabbath-rejecting house, "behold, I will hedge up thy way with
thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths" (Hosea 2:6).
That is, the House of Israel shall lose her way -- as she migrates from
Assyrian captivity, to the north-west into Europe, to the Atlantic coastlands,
Scandinavia, and Britain -- she shall lose her identity -- BECOME LOST -- the
LOST Ten Tribes!
Read these first two chapters of Hosea
-- a prophecy for the Ten-Tribed HOUSE OF ISRAEL. It portrays them as having
lost all knowledge of WHO their True God is!
Prophecy for Now
Note it! "For
she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her
silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal" (verse 8).
That pictures
So, notice, verse 9, what God is going
to DO about it!
"Therefore will I return, and take
away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof ..."
-- that is, the FAMINE already now beginning in its early years -- prophesied
by Joel, Ezekiel, by Christ, and in Revelation! Yes, this is a prophecy for
NOW! FOR OUR PEOPLE! It is even NOW, as you read, beginning!
Continue! Notice what else God is NOW
about to do to US: "I will also cause all her mirth to cease, HER feast
days" -- those of Baal -- Christmas, New Year, Easter, Lenten season,
Halloween! They are NOT GOD'S days! Continue: "her new moons and her
Sabbaths ..." (NOT GOD's, but those of Baalism, which our people call THEIR Sabbaths -- the pagan
SUNDAY!) (verse 11).
God continues: "And I will punish
her for the feast days of the Baals ... when she
forgot me, says the Eternal" (verse 13, Revised Standard Version).
For over thirty-eight years, on The
WORLD TOMORROW program, and in The PLAIN TRUTH magazine, I have been shouting
God's prophecies to our people -- that we are going to have such total DROUGHT
and disease epidemics that it will take one third of our people! And, unless
our people as a nation wake up and REPENT of these SINS, we shall then be
INVADED, and once more TAKEN CAPTIVE AS SLAVES. You may scoff. You may ignore.
But NOT FOR LONG! In the near future it will STRIKE! You won't scoff then!
But what is the END of this particular
prophecy of Hosea?
READ IT!
"Therefore, behold, I will allure
her [
Probably you never understood the
prophecy of Hosea before! It cannot be really understood unless you first
understand the SABBATH COVENANT of Exodus 31:12-17!
Now back to the original question of
this chapter.
Does not this special Sabbath COVENANT
exclude Gentiles? Was its purpose to identify
When
The Jewish people continued to
recognize the Sabbath -- and the whole world called them "the CHOSEN
PEOPLE"!
A LIGHT to the Gentiles!
Then WHY did God make this special
everlasting Sabbath Covenant with
Simply because all Gentile nations had
cut themselves off, totally, from God. All had gone into idolatry. None knew
the true God.
Simply because God had taken a
down-trodden slave people -- yet a people of superior heredity through Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob and Joseph -- who were not inoculated with ANY religion, and
made them HIS nation.
Simply because God
then gave this called-out people that was HIS nation HIS
TO BE A LIGHT TO THE GENTILES!
God did it to SHOW OTHER NATIONS what
BLESSINGS would follow obedience to HIS LAWS! To set an example to other
nations!
God gave HIS
All other nations had lost knowledge of
God -- LOST KNOWLEDGE OF HIS IDENTITY. Their ancestors had once known who God
was. But so many fictitious and imaginary gods and demigods had been set up in
their minds, originally as intermediaries between humans and the One Supreme
God, that all knowledge of the ONE God had been erased.
At the very beginning of humanity, God
talked to Adam and Eve personally. He gave them His instruction -- preached to
them His Gospel. They knew that God offered them eternal life as His gift. They
knew the wages of sin is DEATH. But they reasoned their way around this truth
-- just as some of you reading this are reasoning your way around what God
would like to give you. Adam and Eve rebelled. They willingly obeyed Satan.
God made mankind with free moral
agency. God always has made His Truth available. And God has decreed that man
MUST CHOOSE! God does not allow man to reason out or to decide what is sin. But God forces every man to decide WHETHER to sin.
God has made it SIN to break His Sabbath. YOU must decide! And as you sow, you
shall reap!
Adam's children made their decisions.
Abel made the right decision. Jesus Christ said Abel was righteous. His reward
is assured! Cain made the wrong decision, and sealed his own fate. Almost 2000
years later only one man on earth -- Noah -- was obedient to God. Later, Shem
apparently followed God's way. But after the Flood the rest of the world followed
Nimrod, founder of this world's civilization.
Mankind made its decision. It REBELLED
against GOD'S
WHY the Nation
It was in such a world -- cut off from
God -- that the Eternal called out a despised,
humiliated, SLAVE people, descended from Abraham. They had listened to and
obeyed God. It seems human nature and human degradation are such that God had
to take a debased, beaten-down, SLAVE people as the only ones who were humbled
enough to listen to and obey the Creator! But, remember -- though reduced to
slavery by circumstances, they were a
Of this people, God said: "This
people have I formed for myself" -- that is, to be His instrument, so that
Gentile nations would see the desired results and tremendous blessings and
national PROSPERITY that would inure to
Of course, these Israelites had human
nature. Even
Later, during Christ's earthly human
ministry and after, God used His CHURCH. Christ called out THE CHURCH as
special called-out people, not merely to preach His GOSPEL to the world, but to
SHOW the world the desired RESULTS reaped from OBEDIENCE! As ancient
"Ye are the light of the
world," said Jesus to His disciples. "Let your light so shine before
men, that they may see your GOOD WORKs! (Matt. 5:14,
16.) That is, SET THE EXAMPLE! Let the world see the happy results!
The
The Ephesians
were Gentiles. But they heard Christ's Gospel, and they repented, believed --
OBEYED. They became converted CHRISTIANS.
To these Gentile-born Christians, Paul
wrote: "Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles ... That
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of PROMISE, having no hope, and
without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ ... Now therefore ye are no more strangers
and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of
GOD" (Eph. 2:11-19).
Gentiles NOT Excluded
To become a converted Christian, one
must become, spiritually, AN ISRAELITE! Salvation, as quoted before, is for
"EVERY ONE that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek"
(Rom.
But were not GENTILES EXCLUDED, UNDER
THE OLD TESTAMENT?
THEY WERE NOT!
What God gave for
Gentiles always could come into the
congregation (Church) of
In the instructions for observing the
Passover, God said: "And when a stranger [Gentile] shall sojourn with
thee, and will keep the Passover to the ETERNAL, let all his males be
circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one
that is born in the land" (Ex. 12:48). Again, verse 49: "One law
shall be to him that is home born, and unto the stranger
that sojourneth among you."
Always Gentiles could come in and
become naturalized citizens of
Now let the Prophet Isaiah, in a
prophecy for OUR TIME, NOW, tell you whether the Sabbath was for Jews only!
Sabbath for Gentiles TODAY!
Jesus Christ said the Sabbath was made
for MAN! Not Jews only -- not Israelites only -- but FOR MAN! It was made for
ADAM! It was made for MAN, in the 20th century -- and in century TWENTY-ONE!
Now read ISAIAH'S PROPHECY! Isaiah 56,
beginning in verse 1.
Notice, first, it comes from the
Supreme AUTHORITY!
"Thus saith the LORD ..."
There is your AUTHORITY!
Continue: "... Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to
come, and my righteousness to be revealed."
Here is the TIME to which the prophecy
applies. WHEN is God's salvation near to come? WHEN is His righteousness to be
revealed?
That is explained in Hebrews 9:27-28!
UNDERSTAND THIS: And as it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered
to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the
second time without sin UNTO SALVATION."
Christ brings SALVATION, when He
appears the second time! A better translation of the last part of the above
sentence would be: "And unto them without sin that look for Him, shall He
appear the second time UNTO SALVATION.
The Revised Standard Version renders
it: "So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will
appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly
waiting for Him."
WHEN does Christ's SALVATION appear?
That is explained also in Revelation 12:10: "Now is
come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ." That is speaking of the time of Christ's second coming!
Again, Jesus said: "And, behold, I
come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work
shall be" (Rev. 22:12). The TIME: Christ's second coming!
So THE TIME of Isaiah's prophecy is
just shortly before the second coming of Christ. The TIME, then, IS NOW --
TODAY!
Now notice what Christ, the SUPREME
AUTHORITY, says:
"Blessed is the man that doeth
this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that
keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth
his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger [GENTILE],
that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, the LORD hath utterly
separated me from his people" (Isa. 56:2-3).
NOTICE THAT! Let no GENTILE, in our
20th century, now, that has been converted, and joined himself to the LORD
JESUS CHRIST, say that Christ has separated him from GOD'S PEOPLE ISRAEL. No,
the Sabbath was NOT a sign to separate Gentiles from Israelites! Gentiles were
NOT excluded!
Continue, verses 6-7: "Also the
sons of the stranger [GENTILE], that join themselves to the LORD" -- that
become Christians -- "to observe him, and to love the name of the LORD, to
be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath
from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; EVEN THEM [Gentiles] will I bring
to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer ...."
There is PROOF POSITIVE!
There is an irrefutable "THUS
SAITH THE LORD."
The Sabbath was made for MAN -- for
MANKIND -- for GENTILE as well as Israelite.
God Himself made His Sabbath binding
FOREVER -- (Ex. 31:12-17). It is binding FOREVER, perpetually, throughout their
generations, on Israelites. Their generations have not ended. Forever has not
ended.
ISRAELITES become Christians through
Christ, the same as Gentiles. Israelite CHRISTIANS, then, are bound to keep
God's Holy SABBATH.
But what about
GENTILES? They,
too, must keep it. They become Israelites, spiritually, when they receive God's
Holy Spirit and become truly converted Christians. God does not have one WAY
for Jew, and one for Gentile. He does not have one DAY for Jew,
and another for Gentile. CHRIST IS NOT DIVIDED! GOD IS NO RESPECTER OF PERSONS!
We are ALL ONE in CHRIST!
Chapter
Six
WHY
WHAT were the SINS of Jeroboam, so many
times spoken of in Kings and Chronicles, relating the history of ancient
Whatever is SIN for an Israelite is SIN
for a Gentile!
God had reason for setting HIS LAW in
motion. That REASON was our happiness. Every wail of human woe -- every war --
every bit of human suffering and unhappiness, has been the result of SIN. SIN
robs humans of happiness, joy, and prosperity.
God loves humans. Therefore He HATES
sin because sin is man's enemy! God PUNISHES for SIN!
If you take sin lightly -- if you think
GOD does not note, and PUNISH for sin -- you need to learn, now, just HOW God
dealt with HIS
WHY Jews Made Slaves
Do you know WHY the
Do you know WHY the
Does it make any difference? It certainly
made a lot of difference to GOD! And He says He has not changed -- He is the
same yesterday, today, and forever! (Heb. 13:8.)
First, see why
Seventy years after that captivity,
according to Jeremiah's prophecy (Jer. 29:10), many of the House of Judah
returned to the
"In those days saw I in Judah some
treading wine presses on the sabbath, and bringing in
sheaves, and lading asses; as also wine, grapes, and figs, and all manner of
burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the sabbath
day: and I testified against them in the day wherein they sold victuals ...
Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing
is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day? Did
not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and
upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon
There it is, in plain language!
Sabbath-breaking was a prime cause of
It was so IMPORTANT to GOD that He
punished His own chosen people with this most severe national punishment --
defeat in war -- being taken from their land, and made SLAVES in a foreign
land!
SIN is defined by GOD as the
transgression of His LAW (I John 3:4). His LAW says: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy ...
the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy
GOD." To work on the Sabbath, to defile it by your own pleasure-seeking,
doing business, etc., is A MAJOR SIN, punishable by ETERNAL DEATH! (Romans
6:23.)
The House of
The House of Judah was without excuse.
They had been warned by the prophets.
Notice the warning through Jeremiah:
"Thus saith the ETERNAL; Take heed
to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day
... neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath
day, as I commanded your fathers ... But if ye will not hearken unto me to
hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden,
even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath
day; THEN WILL I KINDLE A FIRE IN THE GATES THEREOF, AND IT SHALL DEVOUR THE
PALACES OF JERUSALEM, AND IT SHALL NOT BE QUENCHED" (Jer. 17:21-22, 27).
That was the warning. The House of
Judah did not heed it. Now see what happened!
"Now in the fifth month, in the
tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar
king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain of the
guard [today we would call him General of the Armies, or Field Marshall], which
served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, and burned the house of the
ETERNAL, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the
houses of the great men, burned he with fire" (Jer. 52:12-13).
When God warns, the punishment is SURE!
WHY
Now see what happened to the other
nation of Israelites, the
God had laid down the choice to these
people in the days of Moses, long before they were divided into two nations.
Notice it in Leviticus 26:
"Ye shall make you no idols nor graven image ... to bow down unto it: for I am
the Eternal your God. Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I
am the Eternal" (verses 1-2).
In offering the following promises for
obedience, or punishments for rebellion, in this key prophecy, only the TWO
Commandments were mentioned -- those against idolatry and Sabbath breaking.
Notice HOW IMPORTANT they are:
"IF ye walk in my statutes, and
keep my commandments, and do them ..." God promised abundant production
and wealth, national peace, and national dominance that would have led to world
dominance (verses 3-13).
But, said God (verses 14-33), if they
refused to obey those Commandments, they would suffer sickness and disease,
lose all prosperity for 2520 years, be invaded, conquered, and driven from
their land as slaves to their enemies' lands.
Now remember, God made a special
eternally binding COVENANT with them involving the Sabbath (Ex. 31:12-17). The
Sabbath was made the national SIGN by which the True GOD would be identified
and known to them, and by which they were to be identified as HIS PEOPLE.
After the division into TWO NATIONS --
when the
As God had warned, this resulted in
national invasion by King Shalmaneser of
Now see what God said about it through
the Prophet Ezekiel.
Ezekiel was given a message from God to
the HOUSE OF ISRAEL (not the House of Judah). Ezekiel was among the Jewish
captives, after their captivity, more than a hundred years after
The people of the House of Israel also migrated north-west across
The Prophet Ezekiel was commissioned to
"GO" from where he was, among the Jewish people, to the HOUSE OF
ISRAEL.
"Go speak unto the HOUSE OF
ISRAEL," said God (Ezek. 3:1).
But Ezekiel never took that message to
the lost House of Israel. He couldn't. He was a slave. Yet he is taking it to
them, today, by means of having written it in his book in the Bible -- and by
the fact that it is being taken to those very people today by The PLAIN TRUTH
and The WORLD TOMORROW broadcast!
IT IS A PROPHECY! It is a message for
OUR PEOPLES TODAY! You are reading it NOW! God help you to heed!
Prophecy for US, TODAY!
Speaking first of ancient
"Wherefore I caused them to go
forth out of the
Notice, the exact wording of the
forever-binding Sabbath Covenant of Exodus 31:12-17! Now continue:
"But the house of
Then God pleaded with their children, a
generation later. Notice!
"But I said unto their children in
the wilderness, Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers, neither observe
THEIR judgments, nor defile yourselves with THEIR idols: I am the Eternal your
God; walk in MY statutes, and keep MY judgments, and do them; And hallow MY
Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I
am the Eternal your God" (verses 18-20).
NOTICE IT!
The entire emphasis here is between
GOD'S statutes, judgments, and Sabbaths on the one hand, and their FATHERS'
different Sabbaths, statutes and judgments.
"Notwithstanding the children
rebelled against me," continued God, through the Prophet Ezekiel.
"... They polluted MY Sabbaths ..." (verse 21).
So what did God finally do --
generations later?
He scattered them, in national
captivity and slavery (verse 23).
But WHY?
"Because they had not executed MY
judgments, but had despised MY statutes, and had polluted MY Sabbaths,
and their eyes were after their FATHERS' idols" (verse 24).
THAT'S WHY! Did it make any DIFFERENCE?
But now, continue on in this amazing
prophecy! Notice the prophecy FOR US, TODAY!
Speaking of a time, in possibly this
decade or the next, in OUR time, to OUR peoples, God says:
"As I live, saith the Lord
ETERNAL, surely with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with FURY
poured out, will I RULE OVER YOU (verse 33).
The expression "FURY poured
out" refers to the SEVEN LAST PLAGUES, at the very time of the second
coming of Christ (compare Rev. 16:1). The time when Christ will RULE over us is
at and after His second coming. So this, then, is a PROPHECY for OUR TIME!
Every prophecy in the Bible showing
where our people (Israel) will be, AT the second coming of Christ, and the
coming great Exodus back to the Holy Land, pictures them in captivity and
slavery ONCE AGAIN.
Continue the prophecy: "And I will
bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein
ye are scattered ... with FURY POURED OUT. And I will bring you into the
wilderness of the people [COMING EXODUS -- Jer. 23:7-8], and there will I plead
with you FACE TO FACE (Ezek.
Notice it! This is the WORD speaking --
CHRIST! He will then be on earth again in Person! And then He is going to plead
with our people FACE TO FACE. That will soon happen to YOU, and to YOUR LOVED
ONES.
It's time to AWAKE to the imminency, and the stark SERIOUSNESS of this!
Perhaps only one lone voice is WARNING
You! But God used one lone voice to warn the world in Noah's day -- one lone
voice in Elijah's day -- one lone voice in the day of John the Baptist, and
after he was put in prison, in the Person of Christ Himself!
If you rely on the majority of sinning
PEOPLE, you will suffer their penalties with them!
NOTICE HOW HE WILL PLEAD!
"Like as I pleaded with your
fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, SO will I plead with YOU, saith
the; Lord ETERNAL ... And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them
that transgress against me ... and YE shall KNOW that I am the LORD"
(verses 36-38).
How did He plead with them? He pleaded:
"Hallow MY Sabbaths, instead of your fathers', so that you may KNOW that I
am the LORD.
And how shall we KNOW that HE is the
LORD?
By His Sabbath SIGN!
Read verses 42-44 in your own Bible! He
says our people, when they are no longer rebellious, who will then be keeping
His Sabbath, shall remember their ways in which they were defiled, and shall
LOATHE themselves for their Sabbath-breaking!
This is pretty strong teaching! IT IS
THE WORD OF GOD speaking to YOU!
Chapter
Seven
IS SUNDAY MENTIONED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT?
THE word "Sunday" does not
appear any place in the Bible.
But the phrase "first day of the
week" is found in the New Testament. It occurs in exactly EIGHT places. So
it will not take long to examine these eight texts employing this phrase.
If the day was changed by BIBLE
authority -- if Christians are to find any BIBLE AUTHORITY whatsoever for
observing Sunday as the "Lord's Day" today -- then we must find that
authority in one of these eight texts!
Let us acknowledge at the outset, since
the seventh day of the week is clearly established as the Bible Sabbath up
until the time of the crucifixion, that there can be no BIBLE AUTHORITY for
Sunday observance unless we find it clearly and plainly stated in one of these
eight New Testament passages.
So let us examine them carefully,
honestly, prayerfully.
The Day AFTER Sabbath
(1) Matthew 28:1: "In the end of
the sabbath, as it began to
dawn toward THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
to see the sepulchre." This is the first place in the Bible where
"the first day of the week" is mentioned. Matthew wrote these words,
under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, six years after the
One point is here plainly proved. Many
tell us that the Sabbath command was merely for "one day in seven" --
that it did not have to be THE seventh day of the week, but merely the seventh
part of time. They argue that Sunday, being one day out of seven, fulfills the command. But here is a passage in the NEW
Testament, inspired by the Holy Spirit six years after the beginning of the NEW
Testament Church, stating in plain language that, three days after all
abolished things had been done away, the Sabbath still existed and that it was
the seventh day of THE WEEK -- the day before the FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. That
much is proved, and must remain settled for all who honestly seek and accept
BIBLE authority. But, was the day changed later?
(2) Mark 16:2: "And very early in
the morning THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, they came unto the sepulchre at the
rising of the sun." This is merely Mark's version of the sunrise visit to
the tomb. It was written ten years after the crucifixion. This first day of the
week, also, was "AFTER the Sabbath was PAST," according to verse 1.
So this text proves the same thing as the one above -- that the first day of
the week was not at that time (three days after the crucifixion) the Sabbath,
but the day AFTER the Sabbath. The Sabbath, then, still was the SEVENTH day of
the week.
A Common Workday
(3) Mark 16:9: "Now when Jesus was
risen, early the FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out
of whom he had cast seven devils." This text speaks of Jesus' appearance
to Mary Magdalene later the same day -- the day AFTER the Sabbath.
Nothing here calls the first day of the
week the Christian Sabbath, we must admit. Nothing here calls it "The
Lord's Day." Nothing here hallows Sunday or says God made it holy. Nothing
here commands us to observe it. Nothing here sets it apart as a memorial of the
resurrection, or for any purpose. No command or example of REST on this day --
no authority for observing Sunday here.
(4) Luke 24:1: Now UPON THE FIRST DAY
OF THE WEEK, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing
the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them."
This text tells again the same event
recorded by Matthew and Mark, and it shows that on THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK
these women came to do the work of a common weekday, AFTER having rested the
Sabbath day "according to the commandment." For we
read, in the verse just before this, "And they returned, and prepared
spices and ointments; and rested the Sabbath day according to the
commandment." Shall we say these women did not yet know the
commandment was abolished? No, we cannot, for this statement was not made by
the women, but inspired by the HOLY SPIRIT. God did know it was not abolished.
And it was written approximately thirty years after the establishing of the New
Testament Church! God then inspired the direct statement that the
"rest" of these women on the Sabbath day was
according to the commandment, which statement would not be possible had the
commandment been abolished.
This text, then, establishes Sunday as
a common workday, three days after the crucifixion, and it further establishes
that at that time the command to rest on the Sabbath had not been abolished.
(5) John 20:1: "THE FIRST DAY OF
THE WEEK cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the
sepulchre."
This, written sixty-three years after
the crucifixion, is merely John's version, describing the same visit to the
tomb. It confirms the facts above.
Was This a Religious Meeting to Celebrate the
Resurrection?
(6) John 20:19: "Then the same day
at evening, being THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK, when the doors were shut where the
disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the
midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you."
Let us examine this carefully, for some
claim this was a religious service called for the purpose of celebrating the
resurrection. But notice this is the same first day of the week that FOLLOWED
the Sabbath. It was Jesus' first opportunity to appear to His disciples. For
three and a half years He had been constantly with them, on ALL days of the
week. His meeting with them, of itself, could not establish any day as a
Sabbath.
Were they assembled to celebrate the
resurrection, thus establishing Sunday as the Christian Sabbath in honor of the resurrection? The text says they were
assembled "for fear of the Jews." The Jews had just taken and
crucified their Master. They were afraid. The doors were shut because of their
fear -- probably bolted. Why were they assembled? FOR FEAR OF THE JEWS, according
to this text, and also because they all lived together in this upper room (Acts
Lord's Supper Day -- or Workday -- Which?
(7) Acts 20:7: "And upon THE FIRST
DAY OF THE WEEK, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached
unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until
midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were
gathered together."
Here, at last, we find a religious meeting
on the first day of the week. But it was not a SUNDAY meeting!
Notice, Paul continued his speech until
Notice the rendering of Today's English
Version, correctly translated from the inspired Greek text: "On Saturday
evening we gathered together for the fellowship meal. Paul spoke to the people,
and kept on speaking until
WHY Paul Remained Behind
Let us, now, pick up the thread of the
narrative related in this passage. Begin verse 6:
"We sailed away from
Paul and his companions had been in
this town of
Now notice what his companions had
done. "And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos,
there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot. And when he met with us at Assos, we took him in" (verses 13-14).
Look at this on the map (next page).
Paul's companions had to sail around a peninsula -- a distance of fifty or
sixty miles, while Paul, afoot, walked across, a distance of 19 1/2 miles. He
was able to walk this distance in shorter time than they could sail the much
longer distance, which gave Paul the opportunity to remain behind after they
left, for this last farewell sermon and visit.
Now do you see what actually happened?
Paul's companions were engaged in the LABOR of rowing and sailing a boat while
Paul was preaching that Saturday night until
What "Break Bread" Means
But does this text not say, as many
claim today, that the disciples always held communion every first day of the
week? NOT AT ALL!
In the first place, it says nothing
about anything being done EVERY first day of the week. It relates the events of
this one particular first day of the week, ONLY. It is not speaking of any
CUSTOMS, but of the events occurring as Paul and his companions concluded their
seven-day visit in passing by this town.
Jesus had introduced the "Lord's
Supper" as part of the Passover, at the beginning of the annual "days
of unleavened bread." No longer need they kill lambs or eat the roasted
body of Passover lambs, after Christ, OUR Passover, had been once slain for us.
Yet the Passover was ordained FOREVER (Ex.
This year they had observed the days of
unleavened bread and the "Communion" service at
After the Sabbath day had ended, at
sunset, "upon the first day of the week ... the disciples came together to
BREAK BREAD."
People have ASSUMED this expression to
mean the taking of "Communion." But notice! Paul preached, and
continued preaching until
Note it! "Broken bread AND
EATEN." This breaking bread was not Communion -- it was simply eating a meaL This expression was commonly
used of old to designate a meal. It still is used in that sense in parts of
even the
Notice Luke 22:16, where Jesus was
introducing the Lord's Supper, taking it with His disciples. He said, "I
will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the
Notice Acts
Again, when Paul was shipwrecked on the
voyage to
The truth is, NOWHERE IN THE BIBLE is
the expression "breaking of bread," or "to break bread,"
used to signify observance of "the Lord's Supper." In all these texts
it means, simply, eating a meal. So, when we read in Acts 20:7,11, "the disciples came together to break bread,"
and how Paul had "broken bread and EATEN," we know by Scripture
interpretation it referred only to eating food as a meal, not to a Communion
service.
What Was This COLLECTION?
We come now to the eighth and last
place where the term "first day of the week" occurs in the Bible.
(8) I Corinthians 16:2: "Upon the
FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath
prospered him."
Often we see this text printed on the
little offering envelopes in the pews of popular churches, and we have been
told that this text sets THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK as the time for taking up
the church collection for the carrying on of God's work, paying the minister,
etc.
Let us begin with the first verse and
really catch the true intended meaning of this verse.
"Now concerning the collection for
the saints, as I have given order to the churches of
This speaks of a collection -- but for
WHOM -- for WHAT? Note it! Not for the preacher -- not for evangelism -- but
"the collection FOR THE SAINTS." The poor saints at
"But now I go unto
Ah! Did you catch it? It was not money,
but FRUIT that was being sealed for shipment to the poor saints at
Now turn back to I Corinthians 16. Paul
is speaking concerning a collection FOR THE SAINTS. Upon the first day of the
week each one of them is instructed to do what? Look at it! Does it say drop a
coin in the collection plate at a church service? Not at all!
It says, "Let every one of you lay by him in STORE." Note it! LAY BY! STORE UP! Store
up BY HIMSELF -- at home! Not lay by at the church house -- lay by HIM -- at
home.
Now WHY? That there be
no GATHERINGS when I come.' Men GATHER fruit out of the orchard -- they GATHER
vegetables out of the ground, to be STORED UP. But putting coins in a
collection plate at church, or handing in your tithe envelope could not be
called a GATHERING, but an offering or collection.
Notice further: "And when I come,
whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters, them will I send to bring your
liberality unto
Apparently it was going to require
several men to carry this collection, gathered and stored up, to
So, once again, the last and final text
in the Bible where we find THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK mentioned, it is a WORKDAY
-- a day for gathering fruit and food out of the orchards and the fields and
gardens, and storing it up. It was to be the FIRST labor of the week, hence the
first day of the week, as soon as the Sabbath was past!
No Bible Authority
So, finally, we find upon honest
examination that NOT ONE of the texts speaking about "THE FIRST DAY OF THE
WEEK" sets it apart as a rest day. Not one makes it holy, calls it the
Sabbath or by any other sacred title. In EVERY case, the first day of the week
was a common workday.
In NONE of them was there a religious
meeting and preaching service being held on the hours we now call SUNDAY. In
NONE of them can we find a single shred of BIBLE AUTHORITY for Sunday
observance! There is no record in the Bible of celebrating the resurrection on
Sunday.
Sometimes Revelation
But Jesus said He was Lord of the
SABBATH, and if He is LORD of that day, then it belongs to Him, and is His day,
and therefore the Sabbath is the Lord's Day (Mark
In the original commandment, in Exodus
20:10, we read: "The seventh day is the sabbath
OF THE LORD THY GOD." Not MY day, or your day. Sunday is MY day. So is
Monday, and every other weekday, for my labor and my own needs. But the seventh
day is NOT mine -- it is THE LORD'S! It belongs to HIM, and He made it HOLY,
and commanded us to KEEP it that way. We have no right to use it for ourselves.
It is HIS DAY!
The TRUE SABBATH of the NEW
Testament!
Now briefly let us look through the New
Testament to find WHICH DAY Paul kept and taught Gentile converts to keep.
Notice which day Paul and Barnabas used
for preaching to Gentiles:
(1) Acts 13:14-15, 42-44: "But
when they departed from Perga, they came to
Then Paul stood up, and spoke,
preaching Christ to them.
"And when the Jews were gone out
of the synagogue, the GENTILES besought that these words might be preached to
them THE NEXT SABBATH.
Now since Paul was preaching "the
grace of God" (verse 43), here was his opportunity to straighten out these
Gentiles, and explain that the Sabbath was done away. Why should he wait a
whole week, in order to preach to THE GENTILES ON THE NEXT SABBATH? If the day
had now been changed to Sunday, why did not Paul tell them they would not have
to wait a week, but the very next day, Sunday, was the proper day for this
service? But notice what Paul did.
"And the NEXT SABBATH DAY came almost the whole city together to hear the word of
God." Here Paul waited a whole week, passing up a Sunday, in order to
preach to the GENTILES on the Sabbath day.
Gentiles Met on Sabbath
(2) Acts 15:1-2,14-21:
Study this whole passage carefully. Certain men had come down from
At the conference at
"Wherefore my sentence is,"
he pronounced (verses 19-20), "... that we write unto them, that they
abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things
strangled, and from blood."
He did not say they should not keep the
Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were not in question -- but only the
ritual law of circumcision, which was an altogether DIFFERENT law. He merely
mentioned four prohibitions, and otherwise they did not need to observe the law of Moses.
But why WRITE this sentence to them?
Note it!
"... For Moses of old time hath in
every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues EVERY SABBATH
DAY" (verse 21).
Do you see it? The law
of Moses -- the first five books of the Bible -- was being taught in the
synagogues EVERY SABBATH DAY. The apostles were WRITING only these decrees,
BECAUSE GENTILE CONVERTS WERE GOING TO CHURCH ON THE SABBATH DAY. They had
heard God's law read and expounded every Sabbath in the synagogues and did not
need further instructions. It shows that the GENTILE CONVERTS HAD STARTED
KEEPING THE SABBATH DAY, AND WENT TO CHURCH ON THAT DAY! And the apostles letter did not reprove them for this
Sabbath-keeping.
This is very significant, since
GENTILES HAD NEVER KEPT THE SABBATH. Therefore it is something these Gentiles
had STARTED doing after they were converted under the teaching of Paul and
Barnabas!
A Sabbath in
(3) Acts 16:12-15: Here we find Paul
and Silas at
Here again Paul and his companions
waited until the Sabbath, and then went to a place of worship, and preached,
and this woman, probably a Gentile, was converted. The passage indicates it was
the CUSTOM to meet there on the Sabbath, and that it was CUSTOM for Paul and
his companions to go to a place of prayer and worship when the Sabbath day
came.
Paul Worked Weekdays, and Kept The
SABBATH
(4) Acts 18:1-11: "After these
things Paul departed from
If we could find one text in the New
Testament giving as strong authority for Sunday observance as this one does for
Sabbath-keeping, we should certainly have Bible AUTHORITY for it! Here Paul
WORKED weekdays, but went to church and taught GENTILES as well as Jews every
SABBATH.
Now the commandment says: "Six
days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work," just as much as it says
"Remember the sabbath
day, to keep it holy." There is just as much command to work six days as
there is to rest the seventh. And so if the day had been changed, Paul would
have had to work Sabbaths, in order to go to church and preach every Sunday.
But here he WORKED weekdays and went to church and preached EVERY SABBATH --
not just on one particular occasion -- it says EVERY SABBATH.
He preached Christ and the Gospel of
the Kingdom. And when the Jews became offended and blasphemed, he turned away
from the Jews altogether, and from then on preached TO GENTILES ONLY (verse 6),
and he continued there a year and six months (verse 11) -- working weekdays --
preaching to Gentiles ONLY -- EVERY SABBATH!
What MORE conclusive proof could we
desire? What STRONGER Bible evidence than this, as to the true Sabbath of the NEW Testament? For a year and a half Paul continued working
weekdays -- six days -- including Sundays -- and preaching to GENTILES
exclusively EVERY SABBATH! Certainly it was his custom and manner! Certainly he
could not have done this had the Sabbath been done away, or changed.
To these Gentile-born at
And Paul "as his manner was, went
in unto them, and three SABBATH DAYS reasoned with them out of the scriptures
(Acts 17:2). It was his MANNER, his CUSTOM, as we have seen by ample evidence
showing a total of eighty-four different Sabbaths Paul is shown specifically to
have kept.
Did he follow Jesus in this? Why,
CERTAINLY! Jesus, "as his custom was ... went into the synagogue ON THE
SABBATH DAY (Luke
It was Jesus' custom. Paul followed
Him, and COMMANDED the Gentile converts to follow him, even as he followed
Christ.
Chapter
Eight
THE AMAZING TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
Now NOTICE another eye-opening reason
why only the true Sabbath day can be the day for assembled Christian
fellowship.
Jesus Christ said, in John 15, "I
am the vine, ye are the branches" (verse 5). We are told to abide in Him
(verse 4), or, spiritually, we can do nothing. A grape branch cannot produce
grapes unless joined to the vine.
A Divine Fellowship
Next, notice the basis of Christian
fellowship, in I John 1:
"That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our
fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ ....If we say that
we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness [that is, disobey His
commands], we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light [LIVE by
every word of the BIBLE as our WAY OF LIFE, being DOERS of His Law, not hearers
only -- being OBEDIENT], as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth
us from all sin" (I John 1:3, 6-7).
We can have true Christian fellowship
only when each individual Christian is joined to Christ, and to the Father --
as a branch of a grapevine joined to the vine.
Now what joins the many branches of
that vine to one another? When people meet on their own human-appointed day,
trying to JOIN THEMSELVES together in a church group, Christ is not present
with them in that fellowship. He never put His PRESENCE in that day! They are
like a lot of grape branches, cut off from the vine, trying to join themselves together!
Now, HOW did we find that Jesus Christ
put His presence in His Sabbath? On that day HE RESTED, and was refreshed. On
that day, while resting, He blessed that day -- He set it apart for holy use
and purpose as HIS day -- He hallowed it and made it HOLY TIME.
But HOW did He make it HOLY? Remember,
I showed you plainly before, that just as the very ground where Moses stood,
near the burning bush (Ex. 3:1-5) was HOLY GROUND -- because Christ's presence
was there, and Christ's presence makes HOLY whatever or wherever He is -- just
as WE can be HOLY if, and only if, Christ's presence, by the Holy Spirit, is
within us -- so Christ's presence in the Sabbath makes that space of time holy.
When the LORD of the Old Testament, the
WORD (Greek, logos) (John 1:1-3) was made human flesh (verse 14), and was named
Jesus Christ, some 4,000 years after He rested originally on the Sabbath,
putting His presence in it (Gen. 2:1-3), He still kept the Sabbath, and put His
presence in it (Luke 4:16) "as His custom was."
He had not changed. Jesus Christ is the
SAME STILL TODAY (Heb. 13:8).
So His very presence is in HIS DAY, the
same today as then. When God's own obedient children, each joined to Christ --
each walking with Christ in harmony, obedient -- assemble on His Holy Day, they
actually have fellowship with CHRIST. He is there, in their midst, in Spirit!
And then CHRIST joins them together in FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM AND THE FATHER!
When people assemble on Sunday,
Christ's presence is not in that day! You may argue to have your own way,
rather than surrender to this truth, but this is truth which will judge you
when you face Christ in the Judgment!
Can You Worship Christ in Vain?
Then what about public or church-group
worship in a weekly service on Sunday -- or Friday?
LISTEN and HEED! Your Bible says:
"God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and
in TRUTH" (John
What do the churches of this world say?
"Worship God according to the dictates of your own
conscience." THAT IS CONTRARY TO WHAT GOD SAYS!
How do you worship God in spirit and in
truth? What is TRUTH? Jesus said plainly: THY WORD IS TRUTH. God's Word is the
BIBLE!
The BIBLE authorizes only the Sabbath
as God's weekly Holy Day for joint assembly and worship. The Bible is the
AUTHORITY OF GOD! WHAT AUTHORITY DO PEOPLE HAVE FOR SUNDAY?
To worship God in spirit and in TRUTH
is to worship Him how, and when (so far as congregational assembly is
concerned) He says in HIS WORD, which is TRUTH!
God Himself set apart the one and only
day that IDENTIFIES HIM as the CREATOR! He set it apart for a BLESSING! For our
physical rest! For spiritual refreshing!
And the day on which we cease from our
business or labors, HE set apart as "an holy CONVOCATION" (Lev. 23:2 3), which means a
COMMANDED ASSEMBLY, at which our presence is commanded. It is the very day when
His divine spiritual presence is there, also. He set apart as the day for that
joint worship together the one day which identifies the God WHOM we are to
worship!
NO OTHER DAY CAN FULFILL THAT GREAT AND
GLORIOUS PURPOSE!
Yes, GOD has a reason for the Sabbath
-- a PURPOSE in it!
Those who assemble to worship God and
the Lord Jesus Christ in any way contrary to the way, or the time GOD'S WORD
commands are not worshipping Him in spirit and in TRUTH. God will not accept
their worship.
Did you realize that Christ Himself
said you can not only profess His name and call yourself a Christian, but you
may actually WORSHIP HIM -- and do it in vain? Still totally
"unsaved"?
Listen to the very words of Christ:
"Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the
tradition of men ... ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your
own tradition" (Mark 7:7-9).
Assembling for worship on Sunday is nothing
but the tradition of MEN -- and a pagan tradition at that! Those who do so
reject the Commandment of GOD, disobey God's Commandment to keep His Sabbath
day holy, are guilty of COMMITTING SIN, and SUCH WORSHIP IS UTTERLY IN VAIN!
Jesus Christ said so!
NOT "Jewish" Sabbath
Yet, in spite of all the scriptures in
the whole Bible -- in spite of direct commands from GOD -- many have heard or
read of the Sabbath being called "the Jewish Sabbath" so many times
that their minds will argue immediately: "yes, but all this about the
Sabbath being holy -- about the Sabbath covenant, doesn't apply to ME; all that
was for the Jewish people -- and I'm a Gentile."
O yes, this DOES apply to YOU!
Jesus Christ says, "The Sabbath
was made for MAN" -- for all mankind! Remember? It was made WHEN man was
made -- at the time of Adam! There were no Jewish people then! God Almighty
does not have one standard for Jewish people and another for Gentiles. No
Gentile can become a Christian until he becomes an ISRAELITE -- read Ephesians
2:11-22. God says, through the Apostle Paul to GENTILES: "There is neither
Jew nor Greek ... for ye are all ONE in Christ Jesus. And if ye [Gentiles] be
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed [children], and heirs according to the
promise" (Gal.
You cannot find any such term as
"the Jewish Sabbath" anywhere in the Bible! That is a derisive,
scornful, contemptuous epithet. It came from non-Christian "wolves in
sheep's clothing" as Christ labeled them. They
intended to deceive by creating prejudice against the Truth of God. It is the
slurring, discrediting, misleading language and terminology employed by
DECEIVERS, false prophets, and upholders of pagan doctrines and customs
contrary to God's Word.
IT IS NOT BIBLE LANGUAGE!
Yet, perhaps even most of you who read
this have been so prejudiced by that contemptuous term that it is very
difficult for your mind to comprehend, and to accept, the PLAIN TRUTH of your
own BIBLE!
Read again Ephesians 2:11-12. YOU HAVE
TO BECOME AN ISRAELITE TO BE SAVED! You have heard a lot of false and
anti-Scriptural teaching leading you to suppose salvation is for Gentiles. IT
IS NOT!
All the PROMISES were given to
Listen! Read carefully, and UNDERSTAND!
All nations had gone into anti-God, false, pagan religions. In such a
God-rejecting world, God raised up, from the children of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, in the days of Moses, a special nation to be HIS nation -- to be a light
to the non-believing Gentiles. Incidentally, the very name
Gentile MEANS unbeliever.
God gave this special called-out nation
HIS right ways of life -- and to them were given the
PROMISES which include salvation (
Salvation is of the Jews (John
You can have no salvation unless you
become, spiritually, a JEW! (
So the true Christian will put out of
his heart that prejudice and hatred against Jews.
Is Christ IN You?
Once again, DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE
which day, or whether we keep it?
The BIBLE DEFINITION of a CHRISTIAN is
one who has received the gift of God's Holy Spirit, and is being led by the
Spirit of God. In other words, CHRIST IN YOU IS YOUR HOPE OF GLORY! (Col.
1:27.)
The Holy Spirit is the life-imparting
Spirit that emanates from the very Person of the FATHER, and of CHRIST! The
HOLY SPIRIT IN YOU puts in you not only the love, the power, the faith, and the
life of the Ever-Living CHRIST -- but also THE MIND OF CHRIST. (Phil. 2:5.)
It means, literally, that Christ
Himself is IN YOU -- not in Person, but IN SPIRIT (Gal.
IT MEANS THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LIVING
HIS LIFE WITHIN US! Or, in other words, it means that we yield to let Jesus
Christ live our lives for us!
Now IF Jesus Christ is IN YOU (and you
are not a truly converted Christian unless He is!), will He, in you, profane
His Holy Day, and observe a pagan day?
IMPOSSIBLE!
Jesus Christ has not changed. He is THE
SAME, yesterday, today, and forever! (Heb. 13:8.)
It is CHRIST who made the Sabbath. It
is CHRIST who rested on that very first Sabbath! It is the ETERNAL, (YHVH) who
became the Christ who spoke to the Israelites on the Sabbath (Ex. 16). It is
CHRIST who kept the Sabbath as His custom was (Luke
Jesus Christ has always put His
Presence in His own Holy Day! IF Christ is IN you -- He, in you, can keep no
other day NOW! And IF you, having read the truth in this booklet, now make
excuse, or rebel, and refuse to keep holy Christ's Holy Day, then on His
infallible authority, I say to you that He is not IN you!
It is just that serious!
God gives His Holy Spirit ONLY to them
THAT OBEY HIM! (Acts
Sin is the transgression of God's Law
(I John 3:4). That law is a spiritual Law (Rom.
There are no loopholes! There is NO
ESCAPE, for those who disobey! God's laws are enforced automatically! God needs
no human policemen to catch you! There will be no human court trial with a jury
of 12 fallible and easily misled human jurors.
No, there will be NO ESCAPE! This is
the ALMIGHTY GOD you are dealing with, on this question!
God is LOVE! God loves mankind. God
loves YOU! God made His Sabbath holy for a purpose -- to keep YOU in His
FELLOWSHIP! His LAW is LOVE. It takes love to fulfill
it! It requires a spiritual love to fulfill the
spiritual Law. You were not born with that love. God freely offers it to you --
HIS OWN LOVE, "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" (Rom.
5:5). When you surrender, repent, believe, God promises His Holy Spirit. His
Spirit imparts to you the spiritual LOVE to fulfill
His Law!
It is truly WONDERFUL!
It keeps you in CHRIST'S OWN FELLOWSHIP
-- in close contact. It bestows upon you His SECURITY, peace of mind,
happiness, abundant living!
"But," one may still object,
"how could I live, if I can't kindle a fire on
the Sabbath, or even eat any food?"
LET'S UNDERSTAND! The prohibition
against "picking up sticks," or "kindling a fire" on the
Sabbath was part of the added CIVIL and RITUALISTIC or CEREMONIAL law of Moses
-- no part of the Ten Commandment SPIRITUAL Law!
Because of transgressions -- that is,
because the spiritual Law was being broken -- God added, 430 years after
Abraham, through Moses, a material and physical law of rituals and ceremonies
(Gal. 3:16-19). That law was a PHYSICAL law, including animal sacrifices. It
was a SUBSTITUTE for Christ's sacrifice and the Holy Spirit, which was not
given to Old Testament Israelites. The Holy Spirit gives us, now, POWER to
obey. These rituals and sacrifices consisted of physical labor -- things to do
morning,
When the REALITY came (Christ -- and
the gift of the Holy Spirit), the substitute ended.
The SABBATH command is a SPIRITUAL
command. It has to do with our fellowship, assembly, and worship of God. It
forbids our regular weekday work or labor by which we earn a living -- our JOB,
or BUSINESS.
But the Sabbath was made FOR MAN -- as
a BLESSING to man! It was made to be ENJOYED -- to spiritually REFRESH, in
blessed fellowship and communion with CHRIST!
Jesus Christ KEPT THE SABBATH while He
lived as a human on earth. And whole CHAPTERS in the four Gospel books are
devoted to recording HOW He taught us to keep the Sabbath.
The Pharisees of Jesus' day observed
some 65 stern regulations of "do's and don'ts" which the human rabbis
had instituted to make Sabbath observance a "yoke of bondage." Jesus
Christ swept those human regulations aside.
On one Sabbath He and His disciples
were going through a cornfield. The disciples plucked ears of corn to eat. The
Pharisees complained. But Jesus rebuked them -- showed it is RIGHT to do minor
work to gather or prepare food to eat on the Sabbath. That was the very
experience that caused Him to say, "The sabbath
was made for MAN, and not man for the sabbath,"
and to proclaim that HE is LORD of the Sabbath -- and therefore the Sabbath is
the LORD'S DAY!
Jesus HEALED the sick on the Sabbath.
This was not doing business or labor by which He earned a living. It was an act
of mercy -- and of LOVE. Jesus said it is right to DO GOOD on the Sabbath day.
He showed it is even right to pull an
ox out of a ditch on the Sabbath -- but too many today would throw the poor ox
in the ditch on Friday, so they could have an excuse to pull it out on the
Sabbath! Jesus expected us to use wisdom and judgment -- and BE HONEST!
Many, having read this far, will say --
"But I can't keep the Sabbath. I'd lose my JOB."
Let me tell you something! I have known
of hundreds of such cases! It takes living FAITH to OBEY GOD! Can you TRUST
HIM, even with your job? Unless you can, I wouldn't give you a counterfeit
penny for your chances of escaping the
Never ask an employer if you can have
Saturdays off. Use a little wisdom -- and PRAY for God's help. Then tell your
employer, in a quiet but earnest and positive manner, that you have learned
that those hours from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset have been made HOLY by
GOD, and that He commands you to keep them holy. You are very sorry if it
inconveniences him in any way -- but you will not be able to work any more
during those hours. Say it in a friendly, but FIRM manner. Tell him you are
willing to work Sundays, if that would help.
Out of HUNDREDS of experiences, I have
found that nine in ten DO NOT LOSE THEIR JOBS! If you
first pray, and ask God sincerely to give you grace and favor
in your employer's eyes, and then tell him firmly but politely and kindly, it
makes it pretty hard for an employer to interfere with your religion!
Nine in ten have NOT lost their jobs,
as they probably expected they would. And the one in ten who did? Nearly always, the few who did lose their jobs SOON FOUND BETTER
ONES.
You CAN TRUST GOD!
This is where you have to mix living
FAITH with obedience!
Finally, remember once again, GOD has
decided what is sin -- He compels YOU to decide
WHETHER to sin, or to OBEY!
Now It's UP TO YOU!
It is now UP TO YOU!
I have given you God's Word faithfully.
It is not popular. It is not what the popular majority tell you.
But NOW YOU KNOW! You will be JUDGED by
what you do with this knowledge!
You must make your own choice. Rebellion
means eternal PUNISHMENT of everlasting DEATH. God will save no person He does
not RULE.
You must choose between GOD'S ways, and
MAN'S ways he falsely calls "Christian."
My responsibility ends with TELLING
you. I have cried aloud. I have lifted my voice. I have TOLD YOU YOUR SIN in
this regard. God calls you to repentance. But He will not force you. You must
make your own decision, and what you sow you shall reap.
You shall be saved by GRACE, but God
does lay down conditions. You can comply, and receive glorious GRACE -- or you
can rebel, and pay the DEATH PENALTY -- for eternity!
Where to Keep the Sabbath?
Often, when people learn about the
Sabbath, they seek some religious group to assemble with. But it is not enough
to meet with just any religious body because it may accept the "Sabbath
argument." This does not necessarily mean it is the
God commands us to seek the body -- the
Work -- which is empowered by God.
There is only ONE such Church!
It is doing THE WORK OF GOD. It is, as
Jesus said it would be, a "little flock," persecuted, despised by the
world. But it does have dedicated, consecrated, converted, fully instructed and
trained, ordained MINISTERS in all parts of the world -- available to call on
you, visit you in your home, answer your questions about the Sabbath, explain
the Bible to you -- IF YOU REQUEST IT! But none of them will EVER call on you,
unless YOU of your own free will request it.
But if you, of your own volition, want
to know MORE about the very Church which Jesus Christ founded, and heads today
-- if you'd like to ask questions about it, why not request a personal visit?
We may be able to have one of God's own ministers call
on you quite soon.
Hundreds and hundreds -- yes, thousands
upon thousands -- are being converted -- their lives CHANGED -- by this WORK OF
GOD, through The WORLD TOMORROW broadcast and telecast worldwide, through The
PLAIN TRUTH, the Ambassador College Correspondence Course, and the ministry of
the Worldwide Church of God. Some, not realizing one of God's own called and
consecrated ministers could call and explain, and answer questions, have JOINED
one of the churches of this world. You cannot JOIN the true
But if you have questions about the
Sabbath, Christian fellowship, doctrines or practices -- or ANY questions about
the Church or the Bible, or the Christian LIFE, write me. I cannot call and
visit with you personally any more (as I used to do and wish I still could),
but God has now given me many truly called and chosen men who CAN.
Weigh carefully the FACTS, according to
your own BIBLE. Then make your decision and take what steps GOD shows you.