Concerning the keeping of Shabbat
[Sabbath] on the seventh day. How clear does the Eternal Father have to be, in
order for us to get a grip on what His intentions are for His people? Is our
heavenly Father double minded? Does He give us His instructions [Torah], only
to change His mind at a later date? If He gives His instructions for living to
one group of people, only to abolish them at a later date for another group of
people, would that not make Him a respecter of persons? Would that not make Him
untrustworthy? The words of the Eternal Father are eternal. He says what He
means, and He means what He says. There is no shadow of turning with Him [James
1:17], and He is not a respecter of
persons [Acts 10:34], neither does He change [Malachi 3:6].
Genesis 2:2 & 3;
" 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." (KJV)
Exodus 31:11 & 17;
"And the
LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel saying: Surely
My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your
generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. You shall
keep the Sabbath therefore, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it
shall surely be put to death; for whoever does work on it , that person shall
be cut off from his people. Work shall be done for six days, but the seventh is
the Sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does work on the Sabbath day, he
shall surely be put to death. Therefore
the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath
throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me
and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens
and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.'" (NKJV)
Our Creator is setting an example
for His children in Genesis. It is the example He expects His children to
follow, and it starts right there with the creation. He rested on the seventh
day, setting the groundwork for all eternity. Nowhere in Scripture, is there
one verse, that does away with, or alters this example. Look closely at the
wording in Exodus 31:12 - 17. How long are the children of Israel to observe
the Sabbath? What do the words "perpetual covenant" mean? To
whom, is this to be a sign between? How long is this to be a sign between them?
When did forever end?
Many, who believe the lie of
replacement theology, believe, that these verses are now speaking allegorically
about the church, because, in their thinking, the church has replaced Israel,
and is now the "New Israel." If that were true, wouldn't this
covenant also apply to the so-called "New Israel," if indeed the
covenant is a perpetual covenant, and the covenant is with Israel forever? Wouldn't
it also apply to the "New Israel," or has the Almighty changed, and
made Himself to be an untrustworthy liar? Their logic amuses me. If the
Almighty changed His mind about the Hebrew people, will He someday change His
mind about the Church?
We need to learn, to rightly divide
the Scriptures, according to the leading of Ruach haKodesh [the Holy Spirit],
and not according to the wisdom and doctrines of men. I am always amazed, as to how the church, somehow seems
to always skip over Romans, chapter eleven, and boast upon themselves, as
though the Almighty has forever rejected His people Israel. Nothing could be further
from the truth. The Gentile believers are grafted into Israel. It is not the
other way around. Israel was the original called and chosen people of the
Eternal Father. The words of Paul are perfectly clear in Romans 11:29;
"For the
gifts and calling of God are irrevocable."
Yet, to this day, there are people
who cannot get their hands around this fact. It seems, that people want to read
into the Scriptures, what they want to believe, instead of believing what the
Scriptures actually say.
Many Christians, have never come to
the understanding, that if we are grafted into the olive tree, we are in fact,
of the commonwealth of Israel. We are one new man, and are no longer strangers
to the covenants. Therefore, we are bound by the same covenants, that the Eternal
Father made with them [read Ephesians 2:11 - 22]. There is One people, one
Spirit, and one Elohim [God]. There are no Scriptures, that declare the church
[ekklesia], to be separate from Israel. The early believers all observed the
Shabbat on the seventh day of the week, without exception. It was not until the
pagans and Hellenists began coming to Messiah, that there was a departure from
the seventh day Shabbat.
The Sunday Sabbath is rooted in pagan worship of the sun god. I have read
volumes on this subject, and continue to do so. I find it interesting, that so
many, who claim the Sunday Sabbath is not pagan, are also the same people who
question the divine inspiration of Scripture. More likely than not, they
approach the Scriptures from the Hellenistic view, rather than the Hebraic
perspective from which they were written. The vast majority seem to approach
these matters from a secular, intellectual view, void of any spiritual
revelation. They are constantly trying to disprove the Scriptures, rather than
trying to confirm them. They rely heavily upon the non-canon books, in an attempt to make their point, and it is
their common practice to quote Scripture out of context. They like to quote
people like Ignatius, and Justin Martyr who had a hatred for the Jews. They seldom
quote Constantine, even though they consider him to be a great father, and liberator
of Christianity. Ignatius, (circa 50 - 110 C.E.) is considered by many, to be an Apostolic
father. Let's examine some of the writings of this man, and it is not difficult
to see his hatred for the Jews. In his Epistle to the Magnesians, Ignatius
wrote;
VIII. "Be not seduced by false
doctrines and antiquated fables. If we still live after the manner of Judaism,
we avow that we have not received grace...."
Isn't it odd, that Peter, Paul,
John, James and all the other disciples still lived after the manner of Judaism
until their deaths?
IX. "If then those who had
lived under the old covenant attained to a new and higher hope by abandoning
the observance of Sabbaths and by keeping the Lords day - the memorial of
Christ's resurrection, whereby we found life through His death, which some deny
but which to us is the ground of our faith and the strength of our endurance;
if, I say, this be so, how can we live without Him?....."
Again, where did the original
Apostles abandon the seventh day Shabbat? It seems they have given a new
meaning to "the Lord's Day," that is contrary to the Hebrew Scriptures
definition of the Lord's Day, or the Day of the Lord, which is speaking of the
tribulation, that is yet to come upon the whole earth. When you look at the
context of the words "Lord's Day," it does not mean the day of the
Lord's resurrection. It is always pointing forward to a time, yet to come. A
great example of this, is the book of Revelation, given to John. He was in the
Spirit on the Lord's day. When you continue reading, it should become quite
evident, that Yeshua translated, or propelled John forward in time, to the very
end of the age, and was revealing to John what was to come to pass in the
future, during the Day of the Lord. He was not, by any stretch of the
imagination, in the Spirit on Sunday. The context makes that assumption absurd.
X. "Let us not be insensible to
His goodness. If He were to treat us, as we treat Him, we should indeed be
lost. Therefore, as His disciples, let us learn to live Christian lives. He who
is called by any other name than Christ's, is not of God. Put away the sour and
stale leaven of Judaism, and replace it with the new leaven of Christ. Be ye
salted in Him, that ye may escape corruption. It is monstrous to name the name
of Christ and follow Judaism. Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but
Judaism in Christianity, wherein all nations and tongues were gathered unto
God."
("The Apostolic Fathers" Lightfoot,
Part 2, Vol. 2. Hendrickson. 1989 pp 124, 128, 133.)
I suppose, Ignatius had never read
Paul's letter to the Romans. Especially Chapters, ten, eleven and twelve. I
would imagine, the other disciples, who remained Torah observant Jews
throughout the rest of their lives, might have taken offence to this
anti-Semitic epistle.
Any Christian, with minimal study under his belt,
understands, that Scripturally speaking, leaven is a type of sin. Apparently Ignatius
did not have a grasp of this fact. Are we to put away the sour and stale sin of
Judaism and replace it with the new sin of Christ? Only a man speaking under
the influence of anti-Christ would make such an absurd blunder.
"On account of their unbelief and other insults which they heaped upon Jesus, the Jews will not only suffer more than others in the judgment which is believed to impend over the world, but have even already endured such sufferings. For what nation is in exile from their own metropolis, and from the place sacred to the worship of their fathers, save the Jews alone? And the calamities they have suffered because they were a most wicked nation, which although guilty of many other sins, yet has been punished so severely for none as for those that were committed against our Jesus."
( "Against Celcus." In The Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson (Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1956), Vol. IV, pp 433.)
Hippolytus (170-236 C.E.) was obsessed with the belief that the Jews were receiving, and would continue to receive God's punishment for having murdered Jesus. Hippolytus writes;
"Now then, incline thine ear to me and hear my words, and give heed, thou Jew. Many a time does thou boast thyself, in that thou didst condemn Jesus of Nazareth to death, and didst give him vinegar and gall to drink; and thou dost vaunt thyself because of this. Come, therefore, and let us consider together whether perchance thou dost boast in unrighteousness, O, Israel, and whether thou small portion of vinegar and gall has not brought down this fearful threatening upon thee and whether this is not the cause of thy present condition involved in these myriad of troubles."
(Ibid, Vol. I, p 219.)
As the
Hellenists and pagans began to outnumber the Jewish believers, it was not long
before the hatred of anything Jewish became commonplace. Paganism and
Hellenism homogenized with Christianity to the point, that the worship would
not be recognized by those who worshiped
in the earlier days in Jerusalem. Despite the heavy persecution, the church
throughout the early centuries remained distinctly Jewish, and it was alive.
Miracles were commonplace, and people broke bread regularly in their homes.
Ruach haKodesh (the Holy Spirit) was still at work in the true believers.
Emperor Constantine (272 - 337 C.E.) pretty much put the nail in the coffin of
the Hebraic worship. Constantine, like most Romans of his time, had a deep
hatred for the Jews. Especially since the destruction of their temple and holy
city Jerusalem in 70 C.E., the horrors of Masada in 73 C.E., and the defeat of
the Bar Kokhba rebellion in 135 C.E.. By the time of Constantine, the
congregations at Rome and Alexandria were already Hellenized, and he began to
cleanse the congregations of all the Hebraic elements. In
312 C.E., prior to his pivotal victory over his rival Maxentius at the Battle
of Milvian Bridge, Constantine supposedly became a “Christian” after claiming
to see in a vision “a cross above the sun” in broad daylight, with these
words emblazoned, “in hoc signo vinces” (by this sign conquer”). After
defeating his enemies and becoming Emperor of Rome, Constantine presided in
full royal pomp over the “First Council of Nicea” in 325 C.E.
As a
shrewd political genius, his scheme was to unite Christianity and paganism in
an effort to strengthen his disintegrating empire. Constantine, being a
worshiper of Mithras himself, knew that
pagans throughout the empire worshiped the sun on “the first day of the
week,” and he discovered, that many Christians, especially in Rome and
Alexandria also kept Sunday, because Christ rose from the dead on that
day. Nowhere in Scripture is there a command to worship on the day of Messiah's ressurection. So, Constantine developed a plan to unite both groups on the common
platform of Sunday keeping. On March 7, 321 C.E., he passed his infamous national
Sunday law, as stated below.
“On
the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities
rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country, however, persons engaged
in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits; because it
often happens that another day is not so suitable for grain-sowing or for
vine-planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the
bounty of heaven should be lost. (Given the 7th day of March, Crispus and
Constantine being consuls each of them for the second time [C.E. 321].)”
Source: Codex Justinianus, lib. 3, tit. 12, 3; trans. in Philip Schaff, History
of the Christian Church, Vol.3 (5th ed.; New York: Scribner, 1902), p.380, note
1.
Now a professed
Christian, Constantine nevertheless remained a devout sun worshipper. “The
sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of
Constantine,” notes Edward Gibbon in his classic Decline and Fall of the
Roman Empire, ch. xx, par. 3.
Circa C.E. 364, the Catholic
Church outlawed Sabbath keeping in the Council of Laodicea, when they decreed their 59
Canon laws. The following is the relevant Canon law: Canon XXIX:
“Christians must not judaize by resting on the
Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if
they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be
judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.” (Percival
Translation).
It should be quite clear, that although Constantine did not
outlaw the seventh day Sabbath, he paved the way for the Church to do so, at a
later time. The source for Sunday worship, can only find its foundation in the
pagan Mithras (sun god) worship. It cannot be found in Scripture.
Shalom Ahlaychem,
Barry W. Gaugler
© 2012
© 2012
Thank you, Barry. This is a very interesting piece on the Sabbath vs. Sun-day. A lot of references I look forward to reading.
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