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John the Revelator says, “I was in the
Spirit on the Lord's day…” Revelation 1:10. Is the Lord's
day Sunday, the first day of the week? Using the Bible principle
that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable
for doctrine” (II Timothy 3:16-17), we will let the whole Bible interpret
itself.
Is there any day that God has set aside as special, a day that He calls holy, blessed, or sanctified? “But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God… For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed [sanctified] it.” Exodus 20:10-11 (Deuteronomy 5:12-15). “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 [made holy, John 17:17]: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Genesis 2:2-3. God calls the Sabbath “my holy day… a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable.” Isaiah 58:13. Fourteen times in the Bible God calls the seventh-day Sabbath “My Sabbaths.” “Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign [mark of distinction from the world] between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify [make holy] you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you…” Exodus 31:13-14. (See also verses 15 and 17.) The seventh-day Sabbath is wrongly called the “Jewish Sabbath” as it is no more Jewish than is Wednesday. God created or established two institutions at creation: marriage and the Sabbath. This was long before there were Jews and Gentiles. How could God make void His own law, or principles of His government? Jesus said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy [dissolve, overthrow, throw down], but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17. The word fulfil means to satisfy the requirements of the law, to show one how to keep the law to make it honorable. “The LORD… will magnify the law, and make it honourable.” Isaiah 42:21. (see Psalm 34:3; Romans 3:31; Matthew 3:15.) “for verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:18-19. Paul says in Romans 3:31: “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” The word establish means to uphold, continue to abide by, or stand by. God Himself spoke the Ten Commandments and wrote them with His one finger in stone (Exodus 20:1, 31:18). Psalm 89:34 says, “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.” Furthermore, “God is not a man, that he should lie…” Numbers 23:19 (Hebrew 6:18). God also says, “I am the LORD, I change not…” Malachi 3:6 (Hebrews 13:18). God's law, including the commandment regarding seventh-day Sabbath observance, cannot be changed, for it is the representation of God's character. But who changed the seventh-day Sabbath [Saturday] to Sunday? “The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.” Catholic Mirror, Sept. 23, 1893. “From this same Catholic Church you have accepted your Sunday, and that Sunday, as the Lord's Day, she has handed down as tradition; and the entire Protestant world has accepted it as tradition, for you have not an iota of Scripture to establish it. Therefore that which you have accepted as your rule of faith, inadequate as it of course is, as well as your Sunday, you have accepted on the authority of the Roman Catholic Church.” D. B. Ray, The Papal Controversy, 1892, p. 179. “Reason and common sense demand the acceptance of one or the other of these alternatives: either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping holy of Sunday. Compromise is impossible.” James Cardinal Gibbons, Catholic Mirror, Dec. 23, 1893 (official Catholic document). "Nothing is said in the Bible about the change of the Lord's day from Saturday to Sunday. We know of the change only from the tradition of the Church--a fact handed down to us from earliest times by the living voice of the Churc. That is why we find so illogical the attitude of many non-Catholics, who say that they yet will believe nothing unless they can find it in the Bible and yet will continue to keep Sunday as the Lord's day on the say-so of the Catholic Church." The Faith Explained (3rd Edition), by Leo J. Trese, page 246. Nihil Obstat by Louis J. Putz, C.S.C., Univ. of Notre Dame. Imprimatur by Leo A. Pursley, D.D. Bishop of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Many individuals think they are honoring Christ by keeping Sunday holy in memory of His resurrection. But Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” John 14:15. He also said, “For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.” Matthew 12:8 (Mark 2:28; Luke 6:6). The word Lord means supreme in authority. If Jesus is the supreme authority of the Sabbath, He certainly has been quiet about changing it to Sunday. He even kept the Sabbath in His death by resting in the tomb. Mark 15:42 says Jesus was crucified on “the preparation [day], that is, the day before the sabbath.” We can find no Bible text to indicate we should keep Sunday holy. We also find no Biblical directive to hold Easter sunrise services. These services come out of pagan rites and customs which celebrate the return of the sun, thus “Sunday.” The Scriptures do not support the assumption that Jesus rose at sunrise. Mark 16:1-6 states that Mary arrived at the tomb “at the rising of the sun” and Jesus had already risen. Christianity has gone to the world and formed an image (mirror reflection) to the beast (Revelation 13). The Sabbath is a sign or mark of our allegiance to God. “Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them. And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God.” Ezekiel 20:12,20 (Exodus 31:13-17). Conversely, keeping Sunday is the sign of allegiance to, or mark of, the Papacy. Thus the mark of the beast! See Revelation 13:11-18. In “changing” the Sabbath to Sunday, the Papacy fulfilled the
prophecy in Daniel 7:25 which says, he shall “think to change
times and laws.” Here the papal power openly sets itself above
God. As you, dear reader, are faced with the decision of which
day to keep, study God's Word. Acts 5:29 says, “We ought to obey
God rather than men.” The Roman Church has not relinquished her
claim to supremacy; and when the world and the Protestant churches
accept a sabbath of Rome's creating, while rejecting the true
Bible Sabbath, they are admitting this assumption. This is the
reception of the mark. Because the law of God is made void in our world, does it make it a virtue to transgress that law? It may appear to the world a very small matter for the Christian to be in harmony with the world by just the act of keeping Sunday for the Sabbath, in the place of the seventh day, but God's Word says the seventh day is His holy day. The man of sin says, “ I make a sabbath for you and you must keep the first day of the week.” The work of Sabbath reform to be accomplished in the last days is clearly brought to view in the prophecy of Isaiah: “THUS saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. 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. Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve 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 will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer…” Isaiah 56:1-2,6-7. These words apply in the Christian age, as is shown by the context “The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.” Isaiah 56:8. Here is foreshadowed the gathering in of the Gentiles by the Gospel. And upon these who then honor the Sabbath, a blessing is pronounced. Thus the obligation of the fourth commandment extends past the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, to the time when His servants should preach to all nations the message of glad tidings. Jesus, pointing forward to the fall of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) and to this time, said, “But pray ye that your flight be not… on the sabbath day.” Matthew 24:20. This “sabbath” is the same Sabbath of when it says “he [Jesus] went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.” Luke 4:16 (Mark 1:21). The Lord commands by the prophet, “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.” Isaiah 8:16. The seal of God's law is found in the fourth commandment. This only, of all the ten, brings to view both the name and the title of the Lawgiver. It declares Him to be the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and thus shows His claim to reverence and worship above all others. Aside from this precept, there is nothing in the decalogue to show by whose authority the law is given. When the Sabbath was changed by the papal power, the seal was taken from the law. The disciples of Jesus are called upon to restore it, by exalting the Sabbath of the fourth commandment to its rightful position as the Creator's memorial and the sign of His authority. While conflicting doctrines and theories abound, the law of God is the one unerring standard to which all opinions, doctrines, and theories are to be brought. Says the prophet, “to the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20. Again, the command is given, “CRY aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” Isaiah 58:1. It is not the wicked world, but those whom the Lord designates as “my people,” that are to be reproved for their transgressions. He declares further, “Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God…” Isaiah 58:2. Here is brought to view a class who think themselves righteous and appear to manifest great interest in the service of God; but the stern and solemn rebuke of the Searcher of hearts proves them to be trampling upon the divine precepts. The prophet thus points out the ordinance which has been forsaken: “Thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD…” Isaiah 58:12-14. This prophecy also applies in our time. The breach was made in the law of God when the Sabbath was changed by the Romish power. But the time has come for that divine institution to be restored. The breach is to be repaired, and the foundation of many generations to be raised up. Looking down 900 years to our day John saw the condition of God's true people. He says, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12. After sin is eradicated forever, God is going to recreate the universe. “The new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD… And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.” Isaiah 66:22-23 (Isaiah 65:17; Revelation 21:1-5). God's character and His laws, including His Sabbath, are eternal. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve”… “If theLORD be God,
follow him: but if Baal [pagan sun worship – Sunday], then follow
him”… “Therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may
live.” Joshua 24:15; I Kings 18:21; Deuteronomy 30:19. |