Love – Godly Love

This topic takes a look at love, primarily godly love, according to Bible verses about love.

1Jn.4:16 “God is love.”  Although God is love, God is greater than love.  His character exudes love.  And He has put within the human spirit of man, made in God’s image & likeness, the capacity to love.

One reason we’re on earth is…to learn how to love!  The Christian life consists of learning the principles of love and then practicing love.  The ultimate goal is for us to live forever together with God, in love.

There are at least five types of love indicated in the Bible Greek – philáutia, stórge, éros, philéo, agápe.

Philautia (Strongs g5367 phíl-autos) is the love of self.  The term occurs only in 2Ti.3:2.  Philautia can be good or bad.  It is inward; concerned with one’s own health (cf. Da.1:8-16), happiness, avoidance of pain, self-preservation, self-esteem, etc.  Some or most aspects of self-love come naturally to us.

Storge (stór-yee) is family love.  It develops between parents & children, siblings, extending to grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.  It’s a familiar love with commitment which can increase over the years.  The Greek term doesn’t occur in scripture.  A form of storge is seen in Ro.12:10 in regards to the at-large family of sons and daughters of God. “Be devoted [g5387 philóstorgos] to one another in brotherly love [g5360 philadelphía].”  (Philadelphia is called the ‘City of Brotherly Love’.)   Family love is evident in the Bible accounts of Abraham & Isaac (Ge.22:2), Jacob & his sons (Ge.49:1, 50:14), Job & his children (Jb.1:4-5), Mary & Martha & Lazarus (Jn.11:1-ff), Jáirus & his daughter (Lk.8:41-ff), etc.  Family love grows via attachment and dependency, by living together and relatives visiting.

Eros (áir-os g2064.2 in the Old Testament (OT) Septúagint/LXX Pr.7:18, 30:16) is a sensual or sexual desire/lust, physical attraction or ‘chemistry’, romantic or passionate love.  Testosterone and estrogen (created by God) causes desire.  The next two verses contain a form (g2037.1) of eros.  Pr.4:6 LXX figuratively, “Love her [wisdom], and she will guard you”.  Est.2:17 LXX “The king loved Esther, and she found grace and favor beyond all others.”  Desire is seen in Pr.5:18-19. “Rejoice in the wife of your youth. As a loving deer and graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; be ravished always with her love.”  Eros relates to self-satisfaction or self-gratification, though both partners can be gratified.

Phileo (phil-éh-o g5368) is the love in (deep) friendship.  This verb occurs 25 times in the New Testament (NT) and 27 times in the OT LXX.  The noun phílos (fée-los g5384) occurs 65 times in the LXX, and 28 times in the NT where it is translated “friend”.  Phileo is more general, present in various relationships.  It includes respect, shared goodwill, lovingkindness, fondness or affection – towards one dear, beloved, cherished, or a thing.  Ge.27:4-5 LXX Isaac loved (g5368) venison.  Father God phileo loves in Jn.5:20 & Jn.16:27.  Ge.37:4 LXX Jacob loved Joseph.  Phileo can be a powerful emotional attachment or bond.  Ge.29:11 LXX “Jacob kissed [g5368] Rachel.”  Phileo is part of being ‘in love’.  Rachel Pace writes, “Love, value, care, respect, and trust are the fundamentals around which emotional attraction is built.”  Phileo connects one with a ‘soul-mate’, and may lead to family/storge.  Phileo combined with eros can be exhilarating!  (Note: There is a degree of overlap between the types of love.)

Agape (ah-gáh-pay g26) is the Greek noun for universal love, empathy for all people.  In the NT, it is seen as godly love, transcendant, outgoing, unconditional.  It’s the highest form of love in the Bible!  Early Christianity viewed agape as the spiritual love God has for humanity, and the love man has for God.  Agape occurs 115 times in the NT and 15 times in the OT LXX.  A Greek verb meaning ‘to love’ is agapáo (ah-ga-páh-o g25).  It occurs 140 times in the NT and nearly 200 times in the LXX.  In OT times, agapao could resemble phileo.  Jesus loves with agapao in Jn.19:26, 21:7, 20, and with phileo in Jn.20:2; with agapao in He.12:6, and with phileo in Re.3:19.  The Creator too expresses various types of love!  After Peter denied Jesus 3 times (Lk.22:34, 54-62)…Peter phileo loves Jesus, he didn’t yet agapao love Jesus (Jn.21:15-16).  (But Peter as an old man agapao loved Jesus; ref 1Pe.1:8.)  Also, the adjective agapetós g27, translated as “beloved”, occurs 60 times in the NT and 15 times in the LXX.

{Sidelight: Agapao in the NT usually indicates a godly love.  His own benevolent, unselfish agape that can be present without reciprocity (Ro.5:8).  But agapao doesn’t always indicate godly love.  Sinners can agapao sinners who agapao them (Lk.6:32).  Also people can agapao darkness (Jn.3:19), the praise of men (Jn.12:43), and unrighteousness (2Pe.2:15)!  Those verses aren’t indicative of a divine love.}

Greek Bible scholar Dr. Spiros Zódiates: “Agapao is used of God’s love toward man and vice versa, but phileo is never used of the love of men toward [Father] God. Agape isn’t found in classical Greek, only in revealed religion.”  Only through godly love can man truly love God.  Such love originated with God.

Again, 1Jn.4:8, 16 “God is love [g26].”  How may we express benevolent godly love?  1Jn.5:2-3 “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.”  Godly love (g26 in v.3) includes as a priority the keeping of His commandments!  Our obedience reflects love.

What are His commandments?  We may say, they are God’s instructions, His guidelines for right living.  To begin, 1Jn.3:23 “This is His [God’s] commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He [Jesus] commanded us.”  It is crucial to believe in and honor Father God’s Son Jesus, who died for our sins!  1Jn.2:23 “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father.”  And Jesus the Son said in Jn.14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments”.

As we’ll see, Jesus’ commandments reflect love to God, love to our neighbor, and love to ourselves.  It’s natural to love ourselves, our own flesh.  Who is my ‘neighbor’?  In the broad sense, my neighbor is…other humans.  Jesus’ commandments tell us how to love God, other people, and ourselves.

According to John, Peter, Paul…the pre-incarnate Christ, the primordial word of God (Jn.1:1-3, 14), was the God of ancient Israel.  He was the Lord God, the Shepherd of Israel who dwelt above the cherubim in the Most Holy Place of God’s tabernacle & temple (Ps.80:1, Jn.10:14).  see the topic “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.  Christ gave His commandments, His instructions, His principles to Moses/Israel.

Let’s now identify Jesus’ commandments of love.  There are two main commandments.  In Mk.12:28-31 a Jewish scribe asked Jesus, “What commandment is the foremost of all?”  Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. The second is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Jesus’ many commandments are summarized into these two broad categories.  They represent enduring moral principles for mankind, and are seen in the OT.  De.6:5-7 LXX “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.”  Le.19:18 “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  (We can’t love others if we don’t love ourself!)  Love (g25) God and your fellow man.

Christ’s Ten Commandments, the Decalogue or Testimony, describe how to love God and love others.

Ex.20:1-11 the first four commandments pertain to loving God.  Christ said in v.6, “Those who love Me and keep My commandments.”  Man is not to have any god beside the true God, is not to make any idols or images depicting God, is not to use God’s name for a wrong purpose.  Observing the fourth commandment, “Remember the sabbath [h7676 Hebrew] day to keep it holy”, honors God and signifies that our God is the Creator.  Ge.2:1-3 God ceased/rested (shabáth h7673 on the 7^th day of Creation.

De.5:12-15 allowing people under our charge to rest also shows love to others.  Jesus said in Mk.2:27-28, “The sabbath was made for man…the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath.”  Jesus is Lord, of the 7^th day sabbath too.  He was the Creator who ordained the sabbath.  He made it for the benefit of mankind.  Resting on the sabbath encompasses love for ourselves too.  Our body has a circaseptan rhythm which requires rest approximately every 7 days to keep our immune system strong.  Sabbath rest even shows love to work animals.  The Lord’s creatures that work for man in agriculture and other uses need rest too.  (see the series “Sabbath 7^th Day”, and the topic “Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job”.)

Ex.20:12-17 commandments #5 through #10 describe how to love others. “Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet.”  Adultery is engaging in sexual relations with another man’s wife.  Analogous to not bearing false witness in court is Col.3:9, “Lie not one to another”.  Wrong coveting is desiring something we cannot rightfully have some day.  Christ’s Decalogue reflects enduring principles of love.

But godly love involves more than the Decalogue.  Ge.14:18-20 Abram tithed or gave a tenth to the priest-king Melchisedek, representative of church & state.  Our tithes or giving to church ministries contribute to their efforts of sharing/spreading the good news of God’s love and His Kingdom.  Paying just taxes to our government provides funds for societal benefits & entitlements for our neighbor and ourself.

Also, we show love to others by giving from our means to the poor & needy (Ja.2:15-16, 1Jn.3:17).

Paul wrote a strong admonition in 2Th.3:10-15. “If anyone does not work, neither let him eat”.  We are to work an honest job so we have money to help support the Lord’s commission of spreading the gospel.  And earning money buys food for our own family table…loving ourselves.

Ge.1:26-28 God created man in His own image and likeness.  God said, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it”.  Humanity has the God-given mandate/command to raise families, to produce offspring through the generations as caretakers to manage the earth and its resources God created.

Le.20:13 same-sex marriage violates God’s mandate for mankind to reproduce.  (It is understood that some couples are unable to have children.)  John R. Diggs MD The Health Risks of Gay Sex “Common sexual practices among gay men lead to numerous STDs, some of which are virtually unknown in the heterosexual population. Lesbians are also at higher risks for STDs.”  Disease isn’t love.

Le.18:23 beastiality, sexual relations with another kind, is vile.  Christ told Moses/Israel, “It is a perversion”.  Horrific Risks of Sex With Animals “The likelihood of disease transmission from an animal to a human is high.”  This demeaning practice harms; it doesn’t show love.

Ps.139:14 “I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”  The psalmist David loved himself and understood it was the Lord who’d designed our remarkable human body.

John wrote in 3Jn.1:2, “I pray in all respects that you may prosper and be in health”.  We want to have good health.  We love ourselves (phílautos g5367).  Again, God’s instructions tell us how to rightly love ourselves.

De.14:2-21 our refraining from eating unclean creatures which are parasitic or carcinogenic reflects love to self.  Also, by refraining from feeding unclean creatures to others we show love to our neighbor.  Ge.7:2 even the antediluvian patriarch Noah (who wasn’t Jewish) understood the difference between clean and unclean!  (see the topic “Unclean versus Clean Food”.)

Abstaining from blood pertains to loving our self.  God told Noah in Ge.9:4, “You shall not eat flesh with its life [or soul], its blood”.  The life/soul is in the blood.  Blood is the carrier of both life and disease.  Le.17:10-16 “No person among you may eat blood, nor may the alien who sojourns among you eat blood.”  Nor are we to eat an animal that dies of itself, is suffocated or “strangled” (Ac.15:29), or roadkill.  Improperly bled carcasses attract harmful organisms.  (see “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.)

Le.3:17 “You shall not eat any fat or any blood.”  We avoid eating animal fat, which can contain toxins.

Le.18:19 “You shall not approach a woman to have relations during her menstrual period.”  Blood is present.  We should abstain from menstrual sex.  It puts women at risk for disease.  Dr. (Ms) De Souza Dangers of Sex During Menstruation “Irritation and an introduction to infection are major risks. Any wound or bleeding is a gateway to infection.”  (see “Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism”.)

All the above are Christ’s commandments…they reflect love to God, to other people, and to ourselves.  In a broad sense…Ro.13:10 “Love is the fulfillment of the law”.

God gives believers His Holy Spirit (HS).  The HS enables us to love God, other people, and ourself in the right way.  It’s a spiritual love.  Ga.5:22 “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace [etc.].”  Godly love is present now in us through the indwelling HS (1Co.3:16).  Ro.5:5 “The love of God has been poured forth into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”  The love of the Spirit should flow from us.  Christians are to be reflectors of God’s divine love.  Jesus said in Jn.13:35, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples [adherents], if you have love for one another”.

1 Corinthians 13 is known as the ‘Love Chapter’.  In it, Paul lists some facets or reflections of love (agape g26)…loving attitudes, mindset, words, and proper restraint & self-control.  1Co.13:4-8 “Love is patient, love is kind, it isn’t envious; love doesn’t boast and isn’t proud; love isn’t rude, it isn’t self-centered, isn’t quick-tempered to anger, doesn’t keep an account of wrongs suffered; love takes no pleasure in evil but rejoices with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope and endurance never fail. Love never ends.”  Godly love is eternal.  Benson Commentary 1Co.13:8 “It [love] accompanies us to, prepares us for, and adorns us in eternity…of heaven.”  Love is forever.

Godly love is pure, altruistic, wanting the best for others, self-giving, self-sacrificing.  Mk.10:45 “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”  Jn.15:13 “Greater love has no man than this, that a person lay down his life for his friends.”  Jesus’ sacrificial death redeems us from the consequences of sin.  Jn.3:16 “For God so loved [agapao g25] the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.”  ref 1Pe.1:18-19.  God willingly gave up Jesus to death, to die for our sins.

Divine love has a moral core.  It is dutiful, active, and obedient.  Yet godly love isn’t without right emotion.  Although godly love is compassionate, it can be ‘tough love’ too (cf. Lk.12:49, Jn.8:7).

God’s divine love is perfect.  It can be present with and enhance all types of love…agape, philautia, storge, phileo, and eros.  (God is responsible for placing sex hormones and right desire in mankind!)

The Lord has given us the capacity to love in its various forms, and to share love.  Col.3:14 “Above all, put on love [g26], which binds all things together in perfect unity.”  Godly love is as a garment which binds us in harmonious moral perfection.  Ep.3:17-19 “That you, being rooted and grounded in love [g26], may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and height and depth, and to know the love [g26] of Christ.”

Christ’s character, morality and principles of love are the same yesterday, today, and forever (He.13:8).  2Jn.1:6 “This is love, that we walk according to His commandments.”  As we’ve seen…God’s commandments convey how to properly love God, other people, and ourselves, through the Holy Spirit.

Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism (2)

This Part 2 is the continuation and conclusion to “Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism (1)”.  Part 1 should be read first.

There are presently more than 2.2 billion Christians worldwide.  But they are divided into more than 40,000 denominations, sects, or groups!  Disunity within Christendom not only divides the body of Christ, but the perception of Christian disunity also hinders evangelism both here and abroad.

Answers.com How Many Christian Denominations Are There? “Different people have different beliefs in Christianity. Unfortunately, those differences lead to divisions. God requires unity. Jesus’ last prayer was for His disciples to remain united (John 17). The Lord never intended for His church to be divided into competing groups teaching different doctrines. The Lord is not the Lord of confusion. Much of Christianity has been polluted by other false pagan religions, which has led to differing beliefs and unscriptural practices which has caused them to break apart.”  Unscriptural practices cause division!

The apostle Paul exhorted Titus in Ti.2:7, “Be an example of good works, with soundness in doctrine”.

The question was posed: What if all Christian beliefs and practices were based on scriptural doctrine, with no pagan or contradicting unscriptural practices based on man’s traditions that cause disunity?

Most Christian churches make the claim that their beliefs, teachings and practices are based on the Holy Bible.  The late Dr. Myles Munroe wrote in 2008, “The Bible is the Constitution of the Kingdom of God”.  Pastor Benny Hinn says, “The Holy Spirit authored the Bible”.  That’s the written scriptures.

The inspired word of God, the holy scriptures of the Bible, is the true standard for our faith!  1Ti.4:13 Paul told Timothy to do public reading of Old Testament (OT) scriptures in church.  The written word of God is the basis, the foundation, of true knowledge…unlike various dogmatic traditions of men.

Our topic is addressing four points of Bible doctrine which impact Christian unity and evangelism.  Part 1 addressed two causes of disunity…controversy concerning #1) Clean vs Unclean and #2) Blood.  (also see the topics “Unclean versus Clean Food” and “Acts 15 – Four Prohibitions”.)  Now in Part 2, we’ll address two other causes of disunity, #3) and #4), also pertaining to doctrine.

#3) 7^th DAY SABBATH rest:  There’s been much controversy in the church over whether Christians should keep the 7^th day sabbath of scripture, or the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) and Protestant Sunday of tradition, or neither.  Let’s see what the scriptures reveal.

The 7^th day sabbath has its beginnings at Creation.  The Holy Spirit and Christ, the Spirit and the Word, are the Creators (ref Ge.1:1-2, 26; Jb.33:4; Jn.1:1-3; Col.1:16), being the divine agents of Father God.   

When Creation was finished, Christ ceased (shabáth Strongs h7673, Hebrew verb) or rested.  Ge.2:1-3 “By the 7^th day God finished His work which He had done, and He ceased on the 7^th day. Then God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified it, because in it He ceased from all His work which He had created and made.”  Although the first six days were all good, only the 7^th Day did Christ bless and sanctify or make holy!  This is the great prototype of the weekly 7^th day sabbath, an intermission dedicated to God.

The 7^th day sabbath is a sign which identifies God as the Creator of all.  No other day of the week so reflects God as Creator.  By resting on the 7^th day, the believer shows that his God is the Creator.  We may choose to rest or worship God on other days too.  But as Lord of the 7^th day sabbath, Christ ordained at creation (when there were no Jews!) the 7^th day as holy or sanctified…and no other day of the week.  And throughout the Bible, Christ nowhere rescinded His 7^th day as holy time!

“Sabbath” is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.  JFB Commentary Ge.2:3 “The institution of the Sabbath is as old as creation.”  Benson Commentary Ge.2:3 “God blessed the seventh day’. He…separated it from common use…that it should be spent in His worship. It appears evidently by this, that the observation of the sabbath was not first enjoined when the law [Mosaic] was given, but it was an ordinance of God from the creation of the world.”

Theóphilus, bishop of Antioch (175 AD) To Autolýcus 2:12 “The 7^th day, which all men acknowledge.”  The 7^th day rest time is universal, from Ge.2:3.  Not Sunday, not any other day of the week is holy.

RCC Archbishop James Gibbons wrote in The Faith of Our Fathers, 1876, p.89 “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.”

Irish RCC Father Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, 1851, p.174 “She [RCC] substituted the observance of Sunday the 1^st day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the 7^th day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”  The RCC admits the RCC made the change!  Christ didn’t.

Jesuit Father Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About, 1927, p.136 “Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday. The Church…instituted, by God’s authority, Sunday as the day of worship.”  These RCC admissions are surprising!?  Also non-RCC:

Evangelist Dwight L. Moody, Weighed and Wanting, p.47 “The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This 4^th commandment begins with the word ‘remember’, showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away when they will admit the other nine are still binding?”

Methodist theologian Harris F. Rall Christian Advocate, 1942, p.26 “The matter of Sunday…There are indications in the New Testament [NT] how the church came to keep the first day of the week as its day, but there is no passage telling Christians to keep that day, or transfer the Jewish Sabbath to that day.”

Pulpit Commentary 1Co.16:2 “This verse can hardly be said to imply any religious observance of the Sunday.”  Cambridge Bible Ga.4:10 “There is clearly no exemption here from the obligation of the observance of ‘the 7^th day’. The law of the Sabbath…is as old as the Creation.”

Adam Clark Commentary Co.2:16 “There is no intimation here that the Sabbath was done away, or that its moral use was superseded, by the introduction of Christianity. ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’, is a command of perpetual obligation.”  JFB Commentary Col.2:16 “The weekly sabbath rests on a more permanent foundation, having been instituted in Paradise to commemorate the completion of Creation in six days.”  And Jesus Himself, the Creator in the flesh, observed the sabbath day (Lk.4:16).

Lutheran August Neander, The History of the Christian Religion and Church, p.186 “The festival of Sunday, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect…to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.”  Jesus’ apostles didn’t try to change the 7^th day sabbath.  The NT never says Sunday is the church or gentiles’ sabbath, in the manner that Saturday is sabbath holy time.  It shouldn’t be about gentiles vs Jews racism!

Anglican priest and scholar Joseph Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church “The ancient Christians were very careful in the observation of Saturday, or the 7^th day. It is plain that all the Oriental churches, and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a festival. Epíphanius says the same.” (v.2, b.20, ch.3, sec 1, 66)  “Athanásius says: They met on the Sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the sabbath.” (b.13, ch.9, sec 3.)  The 7^th day sabbath and its observance long predates Judaism.

Many other reputable theologians say the 7^th day sabbath is holy time, unchanged by God since Creation.  (see “Sabbath 7^th Day” series, and “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome” for man’s steps of change.)

Christ said in Ex.20:8, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”.  Since it was holy at Creation.

The customary practice of setting aside Sunday as the day of Christian worship is man’s tradition.  But some Christians have rightly viewed God’s word, not the traditions of men, as the true authority!  Church traditions have divided Christ’s body.  Jesus accused the Pharisees in Mk.7:8-9, “Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men”.  The Pharisees were popular.  Yet Jesus was against their wrong traditional dogmatic views (and their burdensome minutiae of sabbath observance).

The RCC Sunday tradition is a form of Phariseeism.  And most Christians ignore Christ’s holy time that has come & gone every 7^th day since Creation…to keep the RCC (and ensuing Protestant) tradition.  Dr. Dave Miller Unbelief and a Divided Christendom “When people introduce personal creeds, human interpretations, and religious additions to God’s doctrine, disunity inevitably results.”

Sabbath is cessation, rest.  Even most of those who customarily attend church on Sunday don’t really rest on that day.  We want Jews to be converted to Christ.  But mainstream Christianity appears false to them.  Christians eat the unclean (unlike Jews and many Muslims), and don’t fully rest (on Sunday) as religious Jews rest on Saturday.  Christian efforts at evangelism are thereby hindered.

There’s a health benefit too in sabbath rest.  The need for rest every 7 days is built into our human bodies, as Christ created us.  Wikipedia: Circaseptan “A circaseptan rhythm is a cycle consisting of 7 days in which many biological processes of life evolve.”  Several of our bodily processes and defenses reset approximately every 7 days.  For example: Immune response to infections, blood & urine chemicals, blood pressure, heartbeat, coping hormones.  (ref Erhard Haus Chronobiology in the Endocrine System.)

Mankind’s body clock is ticking to the ‘beat of 7’…we can’t annul it!  But we can violate it by not resting every 7 days.  Jesus said in Mk.2:27-28, “The sabbath was made for man”.  He’s the Creator of it; and He knows our physical and spiritual needs.  (I’m not Seventh Day Adventist.)

#4) FEASTS observance:  Some minority groups today think Christians should observe the OT pilgrim feasts which the Lord gave to ancient Israel…Passover, Péntecost/Shavúot, Booths/Tabernacles/Sukkót.

Scriptural guidelines regarding #1) Clean vs unclean, #2) Blood, #3) 7^th Day Sabbath rest…are seen in Genesis before there was ever a nation of Israel or Jews or the Mosaic Law.  But not so with the Feasts.  Unlike the weekly sabbath rest day of Ge.2:1-3, there were no pilgrim feasts prior to Moses.

The three pilgrim feasts of Israel were to be kept only at the location where God placed His Name, the site of the physical tabernacle/temple sanctuary.  De.16:5-6 “You are not allowed to sacrifice the Passover in any of the towns which the Lord your God is giving you, but at the place where the Lord chooses to establish His name.”  ref also De.12:5, 14, 17-18, 26, 14:23-25, 16:1-2, 10-11, 15-16, concerning keeping pilgrim feasts in that one place only.  God’s one place was in the Holy Land, not elsewhere in other nations!  The timing of the feasts was based on the agricultural cycle in Israel.

God’s people were to keep the feasts solely at the city where the sanctuary was, never at two or more locations simultaneously!  (see the topics “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews” and “Ark of the Testimony – Journeys”.)

Neither in the OT nor in the NT do we read of people, with or without the Holy Spirit, keeping pilgrim feasts in a town away from the environs of the central sanctuary in Israel where God had put His Name!  All NT passages about pilgrim feasts show them being kept only at Jerusalem, where the temple was.

Another of God’s requirements for keeping the ceremonial feasts was physical circumcision.  ref Ex.12:48, Ezk.44:9, Lam.1:10, Ac.21:28-29.  Uncircumcised gentiles weren’t allowed in the temple where the Passover and other pilgrim feasts were kept by circumcised Israelites/Jews & Jewish proselytes!  Outsiders could come no closer than the Court of the Gentiles.  (Note: Physical circumcision isn’t necessary for salvation.  see “Circumcision in the Bible” and “Passover and Peace Offerings”.)

G.J. Goldberg wrote, “With the destruction of the Temple, the pilgrimage festivals could no longer be observed in their prescribed forms.”  It’s impossible to really keep a scriptural pilgrim feast today!  For nearly 2,000 years, the required singular earthly sanctuary where God’s Name was…hasn’t existed!

Jews today do a ritual seder (‘order’) for a traditional retelling of ancient Israel’s exodus from Egypt.  But the seder isn’t an actual Passover feast (and isn’t meant to be), as the scriptures define Passover.  And 90% of Jews normally work during the pilgrim feast days of Sukkot/Booths and Shavuot/Pentecost.  Also, Muslims don’t keep these feasts.  (I’m not Jewish or Muslim.)

And in scripture, pilgrim feasts weren’t authorized to be kept just anywhere by people whose bodies are the temple of God via the Holy Spirit (1Co.3:16).  Without that one place available (Jerusalem temple), there was no lawful pilgrim feast!  Other simultaneous sites would be counterfeit pseudo-feasts.

In Ro.10:2, Paul wrote of those who “have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge”.  Although there are well-meaning ‘Hebrew roots’ groups and Christians who think they’re observing pilgrim feasts in other cities simultaneously…scripturally, such practice isn’t to be done (cf. 1Ki.12:32–13:5).

Christian groups who traditionally promote pilgrim feast-keeping today may pharisaically cause other Christians, who don’t claim to be observing pilgrim feasts, to feel less righteous or perhaps lacking in Bible understanding.  This harms the body of Christ and causes division.  And disunity is further caused by calendar differences even among the groups trying to promote and pinpoint the exact when for their pseudo-feast observances.  It is confusion.  (also see “Days Israel Observed – God-Ordained”.)

Concluding: The four scriptural points of doctrine addressed in Part 1 and Part 2…most (mainstream) churches rarely examine in-depth.  Yet these points contribute to our living a harmonious healthy life in Christ (Jn.10:10).  Perks of His Kingdom!  Jn.17:17 “Thy word is truth.”  That’s all the written scripture of the OT too.  Again, ref “Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism (1)”.  (for more on early evangelism, see the topic “Evangelism in the Apostolic Church”.)

I like to believe that, as time goes on, more of the church at large will honor these four points.  This will increase unity in Christendom.  A fractured Christianity has hindered evangelism.  Dr. Dave Miller op. cit. “Disunity confuses and discourages honest searchers of truth.”  Jn.17:11 Jesus prayed that His disciples would be unified, as one.  And this unity should contribute to furthering our evangelistic success…making Christians, Jews and Muslims more like-minded in these truths of God’s word.

As we and mankind learns the Lord’s principles of life (De.30:14-16), the church as a whole will benefit from less disunity and better (table) fellowship.  And when our days are fulfilled, we’ll live with Jesus in eternity!  Praise the Lord!

Ten Commandments in Genesis & Job

This topic will focus on the Ten Commandments, as found in the books of Genesis and Job.  Prior to the time God gave the Ten Commandments (so-called) to Moses/Israel at Sinai in Exodus 20.

The books of Genesis and Job reflect most of the moral directives or laws that were later codified for Israel and the Jewish people in the Mosaic Law.  My topic “Genesis Principles Predate Moses” notes three dozen of God’s principles seen or implied in Genesis.  James Bruckner Implied Law in the Abraham Narrative, p.67 “Genesis is embedded with law.”

God’s righteous standards for mankind and the Kingdom of God, and even glimpses of Christ’s gospel, are seen in the book of Genesis.  Albertus Pieters Notes On Genesis “Whoever has learned the Genesis stories has learned all the chief things that can be known about God (apart from the incarnation of God in Christ)…of permanent institutions for the well-being of mankind; we have here the institution of the Sabbath, marriage, government, and worship.”  A careful reading of the Genesis narrative bears this out.

Genesis was written/compiled by Moses, as inspired by God’s Holy Spirit.  It tells of ancient non-Jews.  Some of them applied God’s ways, while others violated the principles of God and His Kingdom.

The Lord said of the gentile/non-Jew Abraham in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed My voice, kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws”.  Also Wisdom of Sirach 44:20 KJV 1611 edition “Abraham kept the law of the Most High.”  Abraham, living ca 2000 BC, was obedient to the Lord.  Abraham followed God’s principles/commandments, known in Genesis.  (also ref “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.)

The book of Job shows that Job practiced the Golden Rule.  Jesus said in Mt.7:12, “However you want people to treat you, so treat them”.  Jb.1:1 “Job was blameless, upright, fearing God.”  Righteous Job (Ezk.14:14) cared for others (e.g. Jb.31:16-20)….ca 1700 BC.  Jb.1:8 the Lord called Job “My servant”.  Job was the greatest man in the East (Jb.1:3).  He wasn’t Jewish.  The patriarch Job lived for 200 years (cf. Jb.42:16).  Job’s trials probably were in the 1700s BC.  see “Job and the Land of Uz”.

Among the ancient gentile Godfearers who obeyed God…were Abraham (Ge.22:12) and Job (Jb.2:3).

In Genesis and Job, there’s no nation of Israel.  Later, the Lord had Moses codify the Decalogue or Ten Commandments, seen in Ex.20 & De.5.  The Old Covenant for Israel/Jews contained the Ten Commandments and other moral precepts/laws existent in Genesis, which ancient righteous gentiles such as Abraham & Job obeyed earlier.  (The Old Covenant also contained ceremonial rituals not seen in Genesis or Job.)

Expositor’s Greek Testament Ga.3:19 “The prohibitions of the Ten Commandments….these sins prevailed before the law [of Moses].”  A close reading of actions in Genesis and Job reveals both knowledge of and violations of the commandments which later became the Decalogue for Israel.

Evangelical Old Testament scholar Walter Kaiser wrote in God’s Promise Plan and His Gracious Law: “So endemic is the moral law to the whole of the Mosaic law that evidences for its abiding nature can be found in the fact that even before it was given on Sinai it was held to be normative and binding on all who aspired to living by faith. In fact every one of the Ten Commandments is already implicitly found in the Genesis record even before their publication on Sinai. Moses didn’t invent the moral law; God did, and He had already been holding men and women responsible for heeding it millennia before he finally wrote it on tablets of stone.”  Living by faith included living by God’s Ten Commandments.

We’ll now go through the Ten Commandments from 1 to 10, according to Ex.20:1-17.  As we go, we’ll also show them as implied in the books of Genesis and Job….obeyed or disobeyed…prior to 1700 BC.

#1) Ex.20:1-3 “God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I AM the Lord your God…You shall have no other gods besides Me.”  In Ge.1–2 the Lord God is identified as the Creator.  He is the true Deity.  God told Abram in Ge.15:7, “I AM the Lord who brought you out of Ur”.  Abraham’s servant said in Ge.24:48, “I bowed and worshiped the Lord; and blessed be the Lord, the God of my master Abraham”.  Jb.1:21 “Job said, ‘Blessed be the name of the Lord.”  Jb.42:1-2 “Job answered the Lord, ‘I know that You can do all things.”  Abraham and Job knew the Lord God.  They didn’t worship pagan gods.  Ge.35:1-2 “God said to Jacob [Abraham’s grandson]…‘make an altar to God.’ So Jacob said to his household and to all with him, ‘Put away the strange gods which are among you.”  Jacob rid his house of other gods.

#2) Ex.20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourselves an idol or any likeness [graven image or petroglyph] of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath….you shall not worship them or serve them.”  The Lord forbad the worship of carved images or heavenly bodies.  Jacob’s father-in-law Labán was an idolator.  Ge.31:35 “He [Laban] searched, but didn’t find his idols [terraphím, Hebrew].  Again, Jacob and his household put away their own idols.  Ge.35:4 “Jacob buried them [idol gods] under the oak near Shechém.”  Job acknowledged in Jb.31:26-28, “If I regarded the sun in its radiance or the moon, so that I worshiped them with my mouth and hands, that would have been iniquity…I would have denied God above.”  Job knew that worshiping/idolizing heavenly bodies would’ve belied the true Creator God.

#3) Ex.20:7 “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.”  Abraham enjoined his servant in Ge.24:3, “I will make you swear by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of earth”.  Abraham’s requirement that his servant take a solemn oath in the name of the Lord indicates they understood the name of God isn’t to be taken in vain.  Abraham himself swore in Ge.14:22, “I raise my hand to the Lord God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth”.  Misusing God’s name can mean taking His name lightly, blaspheming or cursing Him.  Job’s wife berated Job in Jb.2:9-10, “Curse [or renounce, Cambridge Bible] God and die….In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.”  In all his trials, Job didn’t take the Lord’s name in vain.  Job blessed God’s name (Jb.1:21).

#4) Ex.20:8-11 “Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, and rested on the 7^th day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”  In the Bible, the 7^th day was the first thing God made holy!  After Creation, Christ ceased or rested in Ge.2:1-3. “By the 7^th day God finished His work which He had done, and He ceased on the 7^th day. Then God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which He had created and made.”  This was the beginnings of 7^th day sabbath rest.  JFB Commentary Ge.2:3 “The institution of the Sabbath is as old as creation.”  Pulpit Commentary Ge.2:3 “A 7^th day Sabbath must have been prescribed to man in Eden.”  Dwight L. Moody Weighed and Wanting, p.47 “The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since.  Matthew Henry Commentary Ge.8:12 “Having kept the sabbath with his little church, he [Noah] expected special blessings.”  JFB Ge.8:12 “Seven days – a strong presumptive proof that Noah observed the Sabbath in the ark.”  Ellicott Commentary Ex.16:23 “Much can be said in favor of the primeval institution of the Sabbath, and its having been known to the family of Abraham.”  Matthew Henry Ge.2:1 “Sabbaths are as ancient as the world; and I see no reason to doubt that the Sabbath…was religiously observed by the people of God throughout the patriarchal age.”  The patriarchal age included Abraham & Job.  The 7-day week, known by the ancients, was a customary time period for feasting (Ge.29:27) and mourning (Ge.50:10, Jb.2:13).  Ex.16:27-29 God’s 7^th day sabbath law already existed before He gave the Decalogue in Ex.20.  In the (supposed) Book of Jasher 70:47, a Pharaoh had decreed 7^th day rest for Israelites decades prior to the Exodus.  (also see the series, “Sabbath 7^th Day”.)

#5) Ex.20:12 “Honor your father and your mother.”  We see examples in Genesis of sons honoring, and dishonoring, their parents.  Ge.25:8-10 “His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him [Abraham].”  They gave their father a proper burial.  Ge.28:7 “Jacob obeyed his father and mother [Isaac and Rebekah].”  But Ge.9:24-26, “When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him.”  Dishonoring a parent or grandparent is wrong.  Ge.38:8-10 Onán disobeyed his father Judah, and the Lord took Onan’s life.  Job’s trials included the deaths of his sons & daughters (Jb.1:18-19).  Job was stripped of his honor and dignity; his relatives and associates avoided him (Jb.19:9-19).  However, respect or honor for elders in general is seen in Job.  Jb.32:4-7 “Elihú had waited to speak to Job because they were years older than he.”  The younger man Elihu deferred to Job and Job’s three friends, allowing them to speak first.  JFB Commentary “In deference to the seniority of the friends who spoke.”

#6) Ex.20:13 “You shall not murder.”  Murder was committed in Ge.4:8. “Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.”  Consequently, God cursed Cain from the land (v.9-13).  God commanded Noah in Ge.9:5-6, “Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God He made man”.  Murder is a capital crime; it was condemned from the beginning.  Jb.24:14a “The murderer arises at dawn; he kills the poor and the needy.”  The poor may be cruelly killed, because they have no more that can be taken from them.  Job asserted himself against any charge of hypocrisy in Jb.31:39. “If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or caused the owners to lose their life.”  Pulpit Commentary “Either by actual violence or by depriving them of the means of support.”  Job was a wealthy man of renown.  But he didn’t kill others to take possession of their land (cf. 1Ki.21:18-19).

#7) Ex.20:14 “You shall not commit adultery.”  Adultery occurs when a man has sexual relations with a woman who is married or betrothed to another man.  The ancients knew adultery was sin.  Ge.20:6-9 conversing with Abraham, Abimélech referred to adultery as a great sin.  Also ref Ge.26:10-11, where sleeping with Isaac’s wife Rebekah would’ve brought guilt upon anyone who did so.  Ge.39:7-9 “The master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph and said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘How could I do this great evil and sin against God?”  Joseph viewed adultery as a great evil!  Jb.24:15 “The eye of the adulterer waits for the dusk, thinking, ‘No one is watching us.’ He disguises his face.”  Also Jb.31:9-11 “If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or I have lurked at my neighbor’s door….it would be an iniquity.”  Having sex with a neighbor’s wife is iniquity.  Adultery was sin for gentiles/non-Jews too…long before Christ’s Decalogue was codified for Israel at Sinai.

#8) Ex.20:15 “You shall not steal.”  Regarding Jacob’s wages, Jacob said to Laban in Ge.30:33, “If I have any goats that aren’t speckled or spotted, or any lambs that aren’t black, it will be counted stolen by me”.  Joseph’s brothers asserted to his house steward in Ge.44:8, “How then could we steal silver or gold from your lord’s house? If any of us has it, let him die.”  Many ancient nations had severe (or excessive) punishment for theft.  Jb.24:14b “At night he is as a thief.”  The Sabeáns and Chaldéans raided & stole Job’s livestock in Jb.1:14-17.  Theft was a crime from the beginning.  Robert Flockhart The Street Preacher, p.16 “Eve stole the forbidden fruit, and Adam partook of it [Ge.2:16-17, 3:6].”

#9) Ex.20:16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”  The Lord God said man would surely die if he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Ge.2:17).  But the serpent then spoke falsely to Eve about God’s declaration.  The serpent said in Ge.3:4, “You shall not surely die”.  In Ge.39:14-20, the wife of Joseph’s master falsely claimed that Joseph had tried to rape her.  Her false charge resulted in Joseph being sentenced to prison (perhaps for life).  False witness and lies can have grave consequences.  Job maintained his integrity, as seen in the following verses: Jb.6:28 “Please look at me, and see if I lie to your face.”  Jb.24:25 “If this is not so, who can prove me false and make my speech worthless?”  Jb.27:4 “My lips will not speak falsehood, and my tongue utter deceit.”  Jb.31:5-6 “If I have walked with falsehood and my foot has hastened to deceit, let God weigh me on just scales.”  Jb.36:4 “Be assured that my words are not false.”  False witness and lies were wrong…before Sinai.

#10) Ex.20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”  To covet wrongly is to (illicitly) desire something we can’t come to rightfully have or obtain someday.  Ge.3:6 “The woman [Eve] saw that the tree was good for food, that it was a delight to the eyes, that it was desirable to make one wise.”  Eve coveted the fruit from the forbidden tree…and she ate from it.  Wrong coveting can lead to overt sins such as stealing, adultery, violence and murder.  Ge.6:5 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great, and that every intent of the thought of his heart was evil continually.”  Coveting begins in the heart.  Laban coveted wealth and cheated Jacob (Ge.31:7), who worked for him.  Job said in Jb.31:7 ISV, “If my heart covets whatever my eyes see….”  Carteret Carey Theology in the Book of Job, p.27 “Covetousness is regarded in the light of idolatry (31:24-25).”  The apostle Paul tied coveting to idolatry in Col.3:5. “Covetousness [or greed], which is idolatry.”  Wrong covetousness was in Eden.  also see the topic “Coveting – Wrong and Right Desire”.

In the above paragraphs, we’ve found the Lord’s Ten Commandments (implied) in the books of Genesis and Job, for ancient gentiles/non-Jews.  Yes, God had moral laws in Genesis, from the beginning.  1Jn.3:8 “The devil sins from the beginning.”  Sin isn’t imputed when there is no law, according to Paul (Ro.5:13).  Barnes Notes Ro.5:13 “There must have been a law of some kind.”  God’s laws, which show how to love God and love our neighbor, existed from Creation…for all of mankind.

Bruckner op. cit., p.208-209 “Law is presented, in this first canonical book of scripture [Genesis], as part of the created order….The basis for all cultures and times. Thinking of Biblical law in the context of creation as prior to the Sinaitic covenant…establishes Biblical law as operative beyond the confines of a historical past or a single culture, and establishes it in the bone and flesh of created humanity.”

To relegate the Ten Commandments solely to the Old Covenant of Ex.20 for Israel, is short-sighted.  The principles of the Ten Commandments long predate both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant!  They are common to all mankind.

Between the lines of Genesis and Job are seen God’s righteous standards, including the Ten Commandments.  Re.22:14 KJV “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life.”  Gentiles and Jews who are obedient to God’s commandments, living forever with the Lord Jesus.  Praise God!

Church Structure and Member Functions

Many Christians try to attend church every week or two.  Others attend only occasionally or just at Easter and Christmas.  Some are so turned-off with religion and churchianity…they just stay home.

Many atheists, Jewish anti-missionaries, Muslims, and other non-believers are opposed to people becoming believers in Jesus as Savior.  The institution of church and our assembling together provides a measure of protection for our belief in God and the truths of the Bible.  This topic is about church fundamentals and believer functions, from the New Testament (NT).

The saints of the early church assembled together.  Originally the NT church was a gathering of people…not the building where they met!  The Greek term for church is ekklésia, Strongs g1577, occurring 118 times in the NT.

Lk.4:16 it was Jesus’ custom to attend the formal style of service of His day at synagogue (g4864) on the sabbath (g4521).  This custom resulted from the instruction God gave to Moses/Israel in Le.23:3. “On the 7^th day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. It is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.”  Jewish synagogues were lay institutions with unpaid elders (h2205 zaqén, Hebrew).  see the topic “Synagogue Influence on the Church”.

Mt.18:15-20 Jesus authorized His own future assemblies or messianic Beit Din (‘House of Judgment’) with zaqen/elders overseeing decisions…to “bind and loose” (forbid and permit), Mt.16:19.  Two or three local elders helped resolve internal disputes and made legal decisions for each local congregation (ref Mt.18:15-18, 1Co.6:1-5).

But Jesus said church leaders aren’t to be lords (Mt.20:25-28).  Jesus is Lord (Ro.10:9).  He is the only Head of the church (Ep.5:23)!  He died and rose again…and His church was launched in Acts 2, ca 30 AD.

In the early church of the 1^st century, a group of believers usually met in a large room or courtyard of a believer’s house.  See Ro.16:5, Col.4:15, Philemon 1:2, 2Jn.1:10 for evidence of house churches.

The apostle Paul planted churches on his missionary journeys.  The churches Paul started were structured (similar to the synagogue pattern).  As Paul departed a city on his journey, a few local elders would emerge to lead & guide that new church group.

In Ac.20:17, 28 Paul instructed the elders [g4245 presbúteros] of Ephesus, “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers [g1985 epískopos, bishops], to shepherd the church of God.”  Church overseers/bishops care for the figurative ‘sheep’.  Often one elder was the householder where that church met.

Ti.1:5 Paul instructed the church planter Titus to appoint elders who’d emerged in cities on the island of Crete.  After a period of time, Paul or another church planter (e.g. Peter, Timothy, Titus) would revisit the local group.  Churches grew & spread as believers shared the gospel with family, friends, associates.

Apostles/church planters had spiritual authority.  The Holy Spirit (HS) confirmed them.

Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in 1Co.4:21. “Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love and a spirit of gentleness?”  Later in 2Co.7:13-16, “He [Titus] remembers your obedience, how you received him [Titus] with fear and trembling”.  Also ref Philemon 1:8-9 and 1Ti.5:19-21 regarding authority.

By the time the 1Timothy letter was written, ca 63 AD, many churches were being established throughout the Roman Empire.

Guidelines were to be observed for each local NT assembly.  Although leading men should be honorable, the NT doesn’t indicate that local elders were imbued with the same degree of spiritual authority the apostles/church planters had.

Ti.1:5-9 and 1Ti.3:1-7 distinguish the characteristics of elders & overseers.  1Ti.3:8-13 distinguishes the characteristics of deacons (g1249 diákonos).  Dr. Spiros Zódiates “Deacons in this sense were helpers or servants of the bishops or elders.”  Php.1:1 Paul addressed this letter to the saints, overseers/bishops (plural) and deacons at Phílippi.

It appears the NT church government was more like an oligarchy, not a hierarchy.  Ga.2:7-9 Paul indicated that Peter, John, James apostled mostly physically circumcised Jews; whereas Barnábas & Paul went more to uncircumcised gentiles.

There was no Pope!  The HS is the ‘vicar of Christ’, so to speak.  The apostolic church wasn’t an immoral, indolent, corrupt monopoly.

The Lord gave Jewish and gentile Christians various spiritual gifts & functions via the HS.  Ep.4:11-13 “He gave some apostles, and prophets, and evangelists, and shepherds/pastors, and teachers; for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. ‘Til we all come into the unity of the faith.”  Many of the functions indicated in Ep.4:11-13 are performed by elders.

In addition to the NT model eldership structure, the HS has also blessed and gifted the church.  Anointing with oil while praying for the sick to be healed is an example of a local function done by elders, Ja.5:14-16.

Yet, in a sense, all Christians are priests in God’s holy royal priesthood (1Pe.2:5, 9)!

Several believer functions are listed in 1Co.12:27-31.  These functions and gifts are distributed by the HS among the saints (in local areas).  1Co.12:27-31 “God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, gifts of healings, admins, tongues.”  Yes, miracles & healings are for the church (Ja.5:14-16).  see “Spiritual Gifts and ‘Tongues”.

Also Ro.12:4-8, 13 is in regards to believer functions. “Just as we have many members in one body and all the members don’t have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us.”  Here Paul includes serving, exhorting, giving, contributing to the needs of others, hospitality, etc.  also see “Female Roles in the Early Church.”

1Co.12:29-30 not all Christians are apostles, or prophets, or teachers, etc.; all aren’t pastors; all don’t speak in tongues.  All haven’t been given evangelistic gifts or talk about Jesus well one-on-one.  Those who don’t speak in tongues or evangelize well, for example, shouldn’t be made to feel inadequate.

Paul’s summation in 1Co.14:1, “Pursue love, yet desire spiritual gifts”.  It’s not one or the other.  It’s spiritual gifts and love…both.  The various gifts and love from the HS enables those so gifted to spread the gospel and knit the church together in godly love.  Personal evangelism (by those who have that gift) is key to a living and growing church.  Of note, it wasn’t the apostles who evangelized in Ac.8:1-4.  also see “Evangelism in the Apostolic Church”.

Gentile peoples come from backgrounds of different cultures, customs and beliefs.  Even the Jews had their own sects.  (see “Jewish Sects of the 1^st Century”.)  As the gospel went to the nations, the result was a much diverse group coming into the church at large.  And differing customs can cause some disunity.  Also see “Doctrinal Disunity Impacts Evangelism”.

Jesus prayed there would be unity.  Jn.17:11 “Holy Father, keep them in Your name, that they may be one.”  Continuing in Jn.17:22-23, “That they may be one, just as We are one, that they may be perfected in unity”.  Jesus prayed that all Christians would become unified, as one in Spirit with God.

Paul didn’t charge money for the gospel.  Nor did he cause division for the church in regards to points of Levitical ceremonial laws or Judaism’s oral traditions from his background.  1Co.9:18-23 “When I preach the gospel I offer the gospel without charge. To the Jews I became as a Jew, though not being myself under [man-made oral?] law; to those [gentiles] without law as without [oral?] law, though not being without the [written] law of God….that I may by all means save some.”  Paul was willing to set aside Jewish oral traditions (but not the Lord’s written principles) to help grow God’s Kingdom.

Our Christian journey is a process of personal growth and learning.  There were big differences and some problems, for example, among the seven churches of western Turkey (Rev.2–3)!  Yet they were all still Christ’s churches (Rev.1:13, 20), though some desperately needed to repent more fully.

All Christian churches today lay claim to the Bible as the written word of God.  This written word, as inspired by the HS, is the universal standard and unifying instruction guide for the Body of Christ.  As Jesus & Paul affirmed when referring to the Old Testament…“It is written!” (e.g. Mt.4:4, Ro.3:10.)

But to fully obey God’s word, we must be willing to lay aside traditional (and nationalistic) differences which contradict His word.  see “Governmental Loyalty for Christians”.  Also we should be willing to de-emphasize any differences regarding non-salvation issues so-called, and speculations.

Jesus said in Jn.13:34-35, “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another”.  What is godly love?  1Jn.5:3 provides a definition of true godly love. “This is the love of God, that you keep His commandments.”  As we obey God while loving each other, and do our part to spread the gospel…the Kingdom of God will be expressed more and more.  The church has been called the Kingdom of God in miniature.  (see “Kingdom of God” and “Love – Godly Love”.)

Although there are apostles, elders, etc., the bottom line is…all believers are necessary parts of the Body of Christ…whether they’re an eye or a hand or a part less noticeable (1Co.12:20-25).  As our body parts come to the aid and defense of our physical body; the church provides protection from false teaching, and from those who reject Jesus as Savior.  Our local assembly is part of our spiritual immune system.

God’s people are exhorted to maintain the habit of gathering together regularly in an approved manner, based upon what we see in the NT.  Individually a believing member may be a figurative hand, or finger, foot, toe, ear, lung, etc., of the Body of Christ.  (Christ is the Head.)  But no body part can exist alone!  Each group or congregation is a local body where believers are to function in sync with each other.

The writer to the Hebrews urged believers to meet & commune together.  He.10:24-25 “Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good works, not forsaking our own assembling together.”

We’re to share in a unified local body.  Through the HS within us, we can be living examples of God’s written principles in our thoughts, words, actions, conduct and habits.  Then our purpose and destiny will be…we ourselves unified together with God for all eternity!  What a glorious future we have!

So let’s look to spread the gospel as the opportunity arises…and carry-on the church practice of meeting together, as did the New Testament saints who went before us.

Day of Atonement (2) – in Revelation

This Part 2 is a continuation of “Day of Atonement (1) – Sacrificial Blood”.  This topic’s foundational verses are addressed in Part 1.  Only the initial paragraphs from (1) are repeated here in (2).

In ancient Israel, the weekly 7^th day sabbath and the annual Day of Atonement (approximately Oct 1) were the only full sabbath days.  The Day of Atonement was the holiest day.  The Septúagint/LXX identifies the Day of Atonement as a double sabbath.  Le.23:26-32 LXX “On the 10^th day of the 7^th month is the day of atonement, holy to you. It is a perpetual precept throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath [Strongs g4521, Greek] of sabbaths [g4521].”  Le.16:29-31 LXX “On this day he [high priest] shall make atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the Lord, and you shall be clean. It is a sabbath [g4521] of sabbaths [g4521] to you, and you shall afflict your souls [fast].”

Unlike God’s pilgrim temple feasts, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kíppur h3725, Hebrew) was kept in all their dwellings.  Jewish Virtual Library “The most important day of the year. It was said that even if all the other festivals were to be abrogated, the Day of Atonement…would remain.”  It was the Lord’s day.  And this annual double-sabbath was the only recurring day of fasting commanded by God.

Luke wrote in Ac.27:9, “Sailing was now dangerous, since the fast was already past”.  The Day of Atonement was then being observed within the Roman Empire.  Cambridge Bible “The fast here meant is that of the great Day of Atonement.”  Ellicott Commentary “The date may have been fixed on St Luke’s memory by St Paul’s observance of the Fast.”  The fact that Luke refers to it indicates the Day of Atonement was being kept by Jews, and probably by many Christians too, outside the Holy Land.  Adam Becker The Ways That Never Parted, p.268 “Gentile Christians from Syria-Palestine continued to celebrate Yom Kippur together with their Jewish neighbors until at least the 4^th century, as sermons by Origen and Chrýsostom prove.”  The Day of Atonement was a well-known occasion.

Some think John (a Jewish Christian) had been fasting when he received the book of Revelation.  John eats a scroll (Re.10:9-10), but no food is indicated.  Franklin Hall Glorified Fasting “The Revelation of Jesus Christ was given to John on the rugged Isle of Pátmos, where he’d been placed to starve to death. John converted his intended starvation into one of the greatest consecration fasts. Revelation of this kind almost always came to a prophet on an empty stomach.”  Also seen in Revelation, is atonement.

The Lord had instructed Moses/Israel in Le.25:8-10, “You shall sound the trumpet [LXX g4536] abroad on the 10^th day of the 7^th month, on the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet. You shall thus set apart the 50^th year as holy, and proclaim liberty throughout all the Land unto all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee for you.”  The Day marked the jubilee special event.  (Part of this verse was inscribed on the Liberty Bell at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA in 1752 AD.)

I awakened the sabbath morning of May 7, 2016 with Isaiah 58 impressed on my mind.  The chapter is about a proper fast.  Is.58 was traditionally read in the synagogue on the Day of Atonement!  The Lord instructed the prophet Isaiah in Is.58:1, “Shout aloud, don’t hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to My people their transgression.”  Proclaim it loudly, like the sound of a ram’s horn, a shofár (h7782).  In Is.58:1, the Greek LXX trumpet is g4536 Strongs.  Is.58:1 refers to the Day of Atonement.

God continued in Is.58:2-3, “Yet they [Israel] seek Me daily. ‘Why have we fasted’, they say, ‘and You don’t see? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You don’t notice?”  Though they afflicted their souls on Yom Kippur (Le.16:29, 23:27, Nu.29:7), their fast was insincere.  Pulpit Commentary Is.58:3 “The fast spoken of is probably that of the great Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement was, like the sabbath, a day on which no work was to be done (Le.16:29).”  Ellicott Commentary Is.58:3 “Only one fast, the Day of Atonement, was prescribed by the Law.”  Benson Commentary Is.58:3 “Wherefore have we afflicted our soul’ – defrauded our appetites with fasting.”  To fast was to afflict one’s soul.

The Lord continued in Is.58:6, “Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen…?”  The Day of Atonement was set by the Lord.  Pulpit Commentary Is.58:6 “This passage stands like a homily for the Day of Atonement.”  God ordained it, not man.  It was the Lord’s day, quite unlike any other day!

We read in Le.25:9 and Is.58:1-ff that the trumpet sounded on the Day of Atonement (especially in the jubilee year).  It was the only double-sabbath day of the Lord.  It is present in the book of Revelation.

Re.1:9-11 “I, John…was on the island of Patmos. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet [g4536], saying, ‘Write in a book what you see.”  Notice the similarity to Le.25:9 and Is.58:1.  It was on this holiest day of the year, the Lord’s Day of Atonement fast, when the trumpet was loudly sounded (Le.25:9).  John hears Jesus’ voice loud like a trumpet on the Lord’s Day (Re.1:10), and Isaiah was to raise aloud his voice like a trumpet on this fast day (Is.58:1).

John told Jesus’ message to the seven churches of Asia Minor in Re.2–3.  Then John writes in Re.4:1-2, “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice, which I had heard like a trumpet [g4536], said, ‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. A throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne.”  John sees the heavenly sanctuary!

There was only one day of each year when man was permitted entrance to the Most Holy Place of God’s tabernacle/temple sanctuary.  (ref Part 1.)  On the Day of Atonement the high priest was allowed to approach the Lord who dwelt between the chérubim atop the ark.  That Day the trumpet sounded; the priest saw the ark.  John wrote in Re.11:19, “The sanctuary of God was opened in heaven, the ark of His covenant appeared in His sanctuary”.  John too saw the ark (containing the Decalogue) on that Day.

God had said in Is.58:13, “If you will turn away your foot from the sabbath, from doing your interests on My holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord”.  Ellicott Commentary Is.58:13 “The sabbath is as holy ground.”  Matthew Poole Commentary Is.58:13 “Whether we understand it of the occasional sabbath in solemn humiliations or otherwise set apart for sacred services, which is called a sabbath, Le.16:31 [Day of Atonement].”  The sabbath fast of Yom Kippur was the most sacred day.

Matthew Henry Commentary Is.58:14 “Even in Old Testament times the sabbath was called the Lord’s Day, and is fitly called so still; and for a further reason, it is the Lord Christ’s day, Re.1:10.”  Matthew Henry identified “the Lord’s Day” of Re.1:10 as a sabbath.

Whereas John refers to Sunday as the “first of the week” (Jn.20:1, 19)…not “the Lord’s day” of Re.1:10.  The Lord’s Day…“My holy day”…was a sabbath.  (also see the topics, “Sabbath 7^th Day” and “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”.)

Wikipedia “The shofar is blown in synagogues at the end of every Yom Kippur. The Rabbis created the practice of the Shofar’s sounding every Yom Kippur rather than just on the Jubilee (once in 50 years).”

Yet that Lord’s Day sabbath of Re.1:10 may have been an actual Jubilee Day of Atonement!

The prophet Ezekiel recorded years by counting from their captivity and/or the jubilee year.  Each new jubilee cycle was proclaimed by a trumpet sounding on the 10^th day of the 7^th month…Yom Kippur.

Ezekiel wrote in Ezk.1:1-2, “In the 30^th year…I was by the river Chebár among the exiles. In the 5^th year of King Jehoiachín’s exile, the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel the priest in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar.”  ref 2Ki.24:10-16.  The river Chebar in N. Mesopotámia flows into the Euphrates.  King Jehoiachin/Jeconiáh/Coniah and Judah were taken captive by Babylon in 597 BC.  Jewish Virtual Library “In the winter of 597 BCE Nebuchadnézzar exiled him.”  The 5^th year of exile was 592 BC.

Later Ezk.40:1-3, “In the 25^th year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the 10^th of the month in the 14^th year after the city was taken, on that same day the hand of the Lord was upon me. In the visions of God He brought me into the Land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain.”  The previous civil year ended as the new year began near the autumnal equinox (Sep 20), see Ex.23:16 & Ex.34:22.  New Year’s Day was Rosh Hashánah, the 1^st day of the 7^th month Tíshri.  The 10^th of the month was the Day of Atonement (followed by the Feast of Ingathering/Booths).  Jerusalem was destroyed in 587-586 BC.

God gave Ezekiel visions on that jubilee Day of Atonement!  The year was 573-572 BC.  Ezekiel was fasting.  The “30^th year” prior to Ezk.1:1 was the previous jubilee of 622 BC.  Barnes Notes Ezk.40:1 “If that was a jubilee year, which is highly probable, this vision also falls in a jubilee year. The jubilee year began with the month of Tishri, a sufficient reason for speaking of the time as ‘the beginning of the year.’ The 10^th day of this month was the day of atonement, Le.16:29-30.”  The civil year (not the sacred year) began on Tishri 1.  Geneva Study Bible Ezk.40:1 “This is to be understood as September.”  Rodger C. Young The Jubilee and Sabbatical Cycles “The prophet Ezekiel, aware that the Day of Atonement in his 25^th year of captivity would mark the beginning of a year of Jubilee….”  Jacob Milgrom Ezekiel’s Hope “The probable reference of the ‘25^th year’ to the jubilee year, which begins in the fall (Le.25:9).”  622 – 50 = 572.

Chronology of Jubilees “It can more firmly be established that Ezekiel could have received his vision of a new Temple around the time of a 50^th year of a 50-year cycle. Essentially, the year 572 BC hypothetically did correspond with around the time of a jubilee year.”  Yom Kippur proclaimed jubilee.

rootsweb.ancestry.com Ezekiel 1:1-2 & Ezekiel 40:1 “The final year or the Jubilee year which began on the 10^th day of the 7^th month on the 49^th year and then concluded with the 50^th year. Now one should be able to see that if the 5^th year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity was in fact the 30^th year of the Jubilee count and that 20 years passes that it would then be the 50^th year or the Jubilee year in which King Jehoiachin’s 25^th year of captivity came to pass as the scripture gives note.”  Ezekiel noted it.

The remainder of the book of Ezekiel, chapters 40–48, consists of the awe-inspiring visions God gave beginning on that Day of Atonement fast!  Pulpit Commentary Ezk.40:1 “Of the prophet’s [Ezekiel’s] utterances, it was beyond question the grandest and most momentous.”  Given him on that Lord’s Day.

Similarly, it seems the awesome visions which John recorded in Revelation came on the Day of Atonement, centuries later!  The day wasn’t just some Sunday.  Continuing in Ezk.40 are verses which compare with Revelation.  Ezk.40:2 & Re.21:10 both Ezekiel and John envisioned a very high mountain.  Ezk.40:3 & Re.11:1 both Ezekiel and John envisioned a measuring rod.

Also on Yom Kippur, God executed His judgment of His people, sealing the verdict.  Again Re.4:1 “I saw a door standing open in heaven.”  That was between the Holy Place and Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement.  v.2 John sees the throne inside the Most Holy Place on that Day.

Re.8:1-3 “When He [Jesus the Lamb] broke the 7^th seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him to offer with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar before the throne.”  (He.9:3-5 describes the earthly sanctuary type of the heavenly. “There was a sanctuary called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar/[censer] of incense and the ark of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim….”)

Continuing with Re.8:4-5, “The smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God. And the angel took the censer and he filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth [Land].”  The high priest took a golden censer into the Holy of Holies only on the annual day of atonement.

Following is Isaac Newton’s commentary tying Re.8:1-5 to the Day of Atonement…William Whitla Sir Isaac Newton’s Daniel and the Apocalypse, p. 314-315: “The 7^th seal was therefore opened on the day of expiation [day of atonement], and then ‘there was silence in heaven for half an hour. And an angel (High-Priest) stood at the altar having a golden censer; and there was given him incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints, upon the golden altar which was before the throne.’ The custom was….while he offered the incense, the people prayed without in silence, which is the silence in heaven for half an hour. When the High-Priest had laid the incense on the Altar, he carried a Censer of it burning in his hand, into the most holy place be­fore the Ark. ‘And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.”

But in Re.8:5, the angel overturns the golden censer, to pour out God’s judgments upon the Land!  The Lord chooses to ignore prayers of Judah, and refuses the atonement.  Ellicott Commentary Re.8:5 “As in the parallel vision in Ezk.10:2 when the man clothed with linen is bidden to ‘go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill his hand with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the doomed city’; so here the ashes fall—the judgments are at hand.”  The doomed city in Ezk.10:2 also is Jerusalem (ref Ezk.8–11).  Jerusalem previously was destroyed in 586 BC.

Again, the ark in the Holiest Place was seen by man only on the Day of Atonement.  Re.11:19 – John Tudor Church of England Quarterly Review “The temple of God is then opened, and the ark of his testament seen, 11:19; and the voice issues from the throne, 16:17; both expressions equally denoting the holy of holies, which was only en­tered once a year….All the imagery in this poem was taken from the Day of Atonement—the golden censer, the incense, the deep affliction, the temple opened, and the ark seen indicating the opening of the veil on the day of atone­ment.”  Now let’s go to Re.15….

Re.15:5 “The tabernacle of the testimony is opened.”  God’s testimony was the Decalogue (Ex.31:18).  It was written on two tablets and contained in the ark, which was in the Holy of Holies.  The Lord’s judgment is based upon His commandments and principles.

Re.15:6 angels therein are clothed with linen (g3043).  Only on the Day of Atonement could the high priest enter the Holiest Place clothed in linen holy garments (Le.16:4, 23, 32 LXX), not his everyday priestly attire.  Matthew Poole Commentary Re.15:6 “These angels came in the habit of high priests.”

Blood was carried into the Most Holy Place.  The high priest sprinkled the blood of atonement seven times on the altar of incense before the Lord (Le.16:19).  But in Re.15:7, angels representative of the high priest have seven bowls filled with the blood-red wine of…the wrath of God (cf. Re.14:10)!

Re.15:8 “And the sanctuary was filled with smoke.”  A cloud or smoke-screen had protected, in a sense, the high priest in the sanctuary, lest he die (Le.16:12-13).  This event occurred only on Yom Kippur.

Then in Re.16, God executes His verdict/judgment.  Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe Lead to the Time of Judgment “Yom Kippur. That’s when the judgment falls.”  The bowls containing God’s blood-red wrath…are poured out upon the Land!  Re.16:3-5 two angels pour out their bowls; the sea, rivers, springs became blood!  Josephus Wars of the Jews 3:10:9 “The lake [of Gennesarét] is all bloody, and full of dead bodies.”  That was the Sea of Galilee during the Roman-Jewish War of 66–70 AD.

Peter J. Leithart Atonement Inverted (9/25/2015) “Though the Jews who killed Christians think they are doing service to God, this offering is rejected, and the blood is instead poured out on the land.  Instead of cleansing the land, this rejected atonement pollutes it.”

This inversion atones for the innocent blood shed in the Land.  Re.16:6-7 “For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou have given them blood to drink. They got what they deserved.”  Blood for blood.  The blood of martyrs is figuratively poured back upon the guilty Land, defiled with blood.

In Mt.23, Jesus had prophesied woes upon the Jewish leaders who opposed Him.  Mt.23:33-37 “You serpents, you brood of vipers. Upon you shall come the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on the earth [Land]. Truly I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, you that kill the prophets.”  The Lord declared His judgment upon those responsible for the blood of righteous Israelites & Jewish Christians.  It happened.

Le.24:17 “If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death.”  The lifeblood of man atones for the blood of man.

Atonement makes possible the reconciliation of man, and even God’s creation, to God.  It involves His judgment.  Nu.35:33-34 “You shall not pollute the Land in which you are; for blood pollutes the Land and no expiation can be made for the Land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it. You shall not defile the Land in which you live, in the midst of which I dwell.”

Leithart op. cit. “Here [in Re.16], the blood of the saints is poured out on the land, and calls up an avenger of blood who will bring the blood of the killers to return on their own heads.”

Centuries earlier, the Lord had denied the atonement for the northern kingdom of Israel.  He sent them into captivity to Assyria in 721 BC.  Later, the Lord denied the atonement for the southern kingdom of Judah.  He sent them into captivity to Babylon; Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC.  Likewise, the Lord denied the atonement for Judah after Jesus was crucified.  Titus destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD.  For more on this aspect of God’s justice, see the topic “Babylon the Great’ in Revelation”.

In conclusion…the book of Revelation, the judgment of God and the wrath of the Lamb (Re.6:16-17, Lk.23:28-30) may seem severe.  But God is just and fair.

The good news for Israel is…Israel and the Jewish people can be re-grafted in!  The apostle Paul wrote in Ro.11:21-26, “Behold the kindness and severity of God. If they [Israel] don’t continue in their unbelief…God is able to graft them in again. And thus all Israel shall be saved.”

“All Israel” includes the Jews.  Paul didn’t know dates…but in God’s good time.  The Lord loves the Jewish people.  As discussed in Part 1, Christ’s atoning blood applies to all peoples, through faith (Ro.3:23-25).  And the final chapters of Revelation are the silver lining after the storm.  Praise the Lord!

Day of Atonement (1) – Sacrificial Blood

Atonement has to do with expiation for sin and reconciliation with a holy God.  In this topic we’ll preview the gospel of salvation through the Old Testament (OT) Day of Atonement and sin offerings.

In ancient Israel, only the weekly 7^th day sabbath and the annual Day of Atonement (approximately Oct 1) were full sabbath days.  The Day of Atonement was the holiest day.  The Septúagint/LXX identifies the Day of Atonement as a double sabbath.  Le.23:26-32 LXX “On the 10^th day of the 7^th month is the day of atonement, holy to you. It is a perpetual precept throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a sabbath [Strongs g4521, Greek] of sabbaths [g4521].”  Le.16:29-31 LXX “On this day he [high priest] shall make atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the Lord, and you shall be clean. It is a sabbath [g4521] of sabbaths [g4521] to you; you shall afflict your souls [fast].”

The Lord Christ authorized His OT pilgrim feasts to be kept only in the environs of the tabernacle or temple; ref De.16:5-6, 15-16.  (see “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.)  Unlike the temple feasts, the Day of Atonement (Yom Kíppur, in Hebrew) was to be kept in all their dwellings.  Luke wrote in Ac.27:9, “Sailing was now dangerous, since the fast was already past”.  The Day of Atonement was then being observed within the Roman Empire.  Benson Commentary “The fast here spoken of was the day of atonement.”  Cambridge Bible “The fast here meant is that of the great Day of Atonement.”  Ellicott Commentary “The date may have been fixed on St Luke’s memory by St Paul’s observance of the Fast.”  The fact that Luke refers to it indicates the Day was being kept by Jews, and probably by many Christians too, outside the Holy Land.  Adam Becker The Ways That Never Parted, p.268 “Gentile Christians from Syria-Palestine continued to celebrate Yom Kippur together with their Jewish neighbors until at least the 4^th century, as sermons by Origen and Chrýsostom prove.”

Some Christians today still honor the day.  Pastor Don Finto said on Sunday 9/15/2007, “The [upcoming] Day of Atonement is the holiest day of the year”.  Benny Hinn “Join Pastor Benny Hinn in fasting on the Day of Atonement on Monday 9/28/2009.”  Those pastors aren’t Jewish.

The Day of Atonement (h3725 kippur) is also known as Yom Kippur by Jews.  Yom Kippur means ‘day of covering’.  Sins were covered by blood on Yom Kippur.  Let’s look at forgiveness in the OT:

At the annual temple service, Yom Kippur was the national sin offering day for ancient Israel.  Blood was brought into the Most Holy Place by the high priest (Le.16:14-16) only on this holiest day of the year.  The Lord commanded a fast on this day (Le.23:27).  The offerer wasn’t authorized to eat his own sin offering (Le.6:30)!  The slain goat wasn’t eaten (Le.16:27).  It is appropriately a day of fasting.  (This was unlike the Passover animals, which were peace offerings, not sin offerings.  The spring Passover sacrifice from the flock and herd, De.16:2-3, was eaten.  see “Passover and Peace Offerings”.)

The Lord said in Le.17:11, “The life [or soul, h5315 néphesh] of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. The blood by reason of the life makes atonement.”  Blood is the principal carrier of life in the body.  De.12:23 “The blood is the life [soul].”  Ge.9:4 “Its life [soul h5315], that is, the blood.”  The lifeblood.

Sin is so serious…God required the death of His creatures, clean domestic animals, to expiate lesser (menial) human sin.  Sin kills.  Sin offerings were accepted at the tabernacle/temple during the year.

Blood was necessary for forgiveness, to atone.  Le.4:1, 2-35 shows sin offerings for unintentional sins.  Le.4:11-12, He.13:11 the animal was afterwards burned, not eaten.  Le.5:1-19 shows sin/guilt/trespass offerings.  These were for sins of ignorance, omission, and against holy things.  (Le.5:11-13 the poor may offer birds…or grain.  He.9:22 “Almost all things are cleansed by blood.”  But not quite all…God allowed the very poor, who didn’t have an animal/bird or couldn’t pay for one, to offer grain.)

Le.6:1-7, 19:20-22 shows intentional sins (and the guilt/trespass offering).  They’re more serious than unintentional, accidental or inadvertent sins.  But these sins in Le.6 also aren’t capital sins.

Individuals made sin/guilt offerings during the year…but they weren’t made for unknown (secret) sins.

Le.16 reflects the annual Day of Atonement service for the nation of ancient Israel as a whole.  It was a day of national repentance.  Only on this most solemn day was the high priest allowed into the Holiest Place behind the veil.  To atone for Israel’s sins, known and unknown, the Lord required that blood be sprinkled at the mercy seat on the Ark of the testimony.  To avert God’s wrath.  So that Israel could be forgiven, remain the people among whom God dwelt, and not be sent into captivity or cease as a nation.

The Lord instructed Moses/Israel in Ex.30:10, “Aaron shall make atonement…on it [altar of incense in Holy Place] with the blood of the sin offering of atonement once a year throughout your generations. It is most holy to the Lord.”  This was the holiest ceremony of the year.  God is very holy; He won’t dwell with sin!  He.9:7 refers to the Day of Atonement. “Only the high priest enters, once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.”

In the annual service, the high priest first atoned for his own sins with the blood of a bull, Le.16:11-14.  Two goats were involved in the ceremony, for the people.  The high priest offered the blood of one goat (v.15-19).  Then he laid his hands on the head of the second goat and transferred the sins, iniquities and transgressions of the people onto this goat.  The goat, bearing all their wrongs, was released alive into the wilderness (v.20-22).  One goat was slain to atone, the second lived to carry away their sins.  David wrote in Ps.103:12, “As far as east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us”.

But there was no animal blood sacrifice/substitute to expiate major capital sins!  The penalty for capital offenses was death, upon the testimony of two witnesses (De.17:6-7, 2Co.13:1).  From personal, and circumstantial, evidence.  Capital sins are, e.g….murder, adultery, kidnapping, blasphemy, false witness in capital cases.  Also Nu.15:28-31, the person who rebelliously defied God and despised His word was utterly cut off.  No sacrifice for these sins.  The prescribed penalty was death without mercy (He.10:28).  Though usually a commensurate fine was instead paid, except in cases of 1^st degree murder, Nu.35:31.

For capital wrongs, the sinner’s own blood is required by a just God.  Harvard University’s Jacob Neusner Judaism When Christianity Began, p.153, 158 “Offerings then expiate those sins which are not committed as an act of rebellion against God. The ones that embody an attitude of rebellion, by contrast, cannot be expiated through the surrogate, the blood of the beast, but through the sinner, who is put to death by the court or is flogged by the court’s agents or is cut off in the prime of life. So God sees into man’s heart….Above all, death marks the final atonement for sin.”

The end of a person’s biological life, death, is the consequences of sin for everyone (eventually).  De.24:16 “Everyone shall be put to death for his own sin.”  (cf. Ro.6:23 “The wages of sin is death.”)

The Day of Atonement service reflected the highest mediatorial work of the high priest (Encyclopedia of the Bible).  This OT service did remove sins and “sent them away”…but it didn’t remove the sin nature from people’s hearts (He.10:1-4).

Along with animal sacrifices for sins, a sequence of repentance, confession, restitution was required for forgiveness (cf. Le.6:1-7).  This mindset/action was concurrent with the ‘work’ of doing sacrifices.  Philo The Special Laws 1:43:236 “Pardon shall be given to such a man…by works.”

It wasn’t choosing one or the other!  But today there’s no temple at which to expiate (lesser) sins.  Many (non-Christian) Jews have said the non-sacrificial elements alone are sufficient to cover sin.  But that’s not what the word of God reveals and requires!  Without a physical temple, what did the Lord provide as a just blood substitute to expiate sins?  (To pay the penalty for, or to make amends.)

Is.53:1-12 reflected a prophesied future sinless human sacrifice.  v.12 “He poured out His life [soul h5315] unto death…He bore the sins of many.”  This will be Jesus.  Benson Commentary “He willingly laid down His life.”  JFB Commentary “His life, which was considered as residing in the blood.”

Paul wrote in 1Co.15:3-4, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He was buried and was raised.”  He.4:14-15 Jesus, our great high priest in the order of Melchisedek, was sinless.  1Pe.1:18-19 Christ’s precious lifeblood redeemed mankind.  He.9:28 “Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many.”

Jesus bore our sins on the cross.  He died…and yet He lives at Father God’s right hand in heaven (Ac.2:32-33).  The OT type was in the Day of Atonement temple service…the one goat was slain, and the second scapegoat or escape-goat bore Israel’s sins and lived (Le.16:21-22).  They pictured Christ who died, was resurrected, and now lives!

The New Testament writers and early Jewish Christians had faith that Yeshúa’s (Jesus’) sacrifice was sufficient to cover their sins.  We don’t read of them bringing any offerings for sin or guilt to the temple, which existed until 70 AD.  (Nu.6:13-21 the sacrifices for voluntary vows did include a sin offering, cf. Ac.21:23-26.)  Jesus’ sinless Divine life (via the virgin birth) is worth more than the sum of all human lives…and much more than animals’ lives!  His blood is enough.  see “Jesus’ Virgin Birth”.

But “Jesus” isn’t a name magically invoked, and then we merely return to willingly commit more sins or carelessly ignore God’s laws that identify sin…the violation of which animal sacrifice was required by Christ for forgiveness in the OT.  That kind of cheap grace, so-called, is a sham.  We’re to obey the Lord.  God gives the indwelling Holy Spirit, enabling us to overcome the sin nature (Ro.8:4-14).

What about the more serious capital sins for which death was prescribed, upon the testimony of two witnesses?  e.g. 2Sm.12:7-14 no animal blood could atone for David’s adultery, murder and despising of God’s word (Nu.15:30-31)!  Whether or not witnesses came forward…the Lord knew what David had done.  Neither the Day of Atonement sacrifice, nor an individual sin offering, could expiate David’s major sin!  Only David’s own life, or the life of a sinless human victim, could atone/substitute.

2Sm.12:15-18, 24 David’s capital sins were covered by the death of his innocent newborn son.  The baby was sinless, knowing no sin which later would be atoned by his own death.  The Lord chose to take his life in place of David’s life.  This little one was a type of Christ, if you will.  David was forgiven.

2Co.5:19-21 “He [God] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.”  Christ became that which He did not know.  Jesus was completely sinless.  He’d committed no sins for which His own death on the cross must atone.  His life as Creator God (Jn.1:1-3, He.1:2) is worth more than the sum of all our lives…so Jesus’ sacrificial death was sufficient to atone for our sins in the eyes of God.  (Though we all still die physically, we’ll live forever in eternal life!  see “Life After Death – for Saints”.)

Ac.13:38-39 “Through Him [Jesus] forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him all who believe are justified in all things from which you couldn’t be justified by the Law of Moses.”  Capital sins couldn’t be justified by the Yom Kippur goats or sin offerings, according to the Law of Moses.

Matthew Poole Commentary Ac.13:39 “There were some sins which by the ceremonial law there was no sacrifice appointed for.”  Major sins/crimes.  Matthew Henry Commentary “By Jesus Christ we obtain a complete justification; for by him a complete atonement was made for sin.”

After our belief, confession of sin, and repentance…through Christ’s sacrifice we stand justified from all kinds/categories of sin.  We’re not condemned by God.  Pulpit Commentary “Upon the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, a free and full forgiveness of sins to all that repent and believe the gospel.”

Reading through the chapters of Hebrews 9–10 will provide a more complete understanding.  They go into more detail about Jesus’ sacrifice as related to the Day of Atonement.

We’ve all sinned.  Christ is our atonement or propitiation through His blood.  Ro.3:23-26 “He [God] passed over our sins previously committed.”  We receive the gift of total expiation for all sins we’d done.  Ro.5:8-9 “Much more then, having now been justified by His [Christ’s] blood, we shall be saved from God’s wrath [condemnation] through Him.”

Human courts may (justly) condemn a criminal to physical death.  But upon repentance and belief in Christ’s sacrifice, the condemned man stands un-condemned by God.  Thank You, Lord!

Lk.23:39-43 shows that a criminal, condemned by the courts, can be forgiven and be with the Lord.  Unrepentant thieves, kidnappers, murderers, adulterers, haters of God, etc. won’t inherit the Kingdom of God, 1Co.6:9-10.  v.11 “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”  All the repentant who believe in His sacrifice!

Ro.8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”  No eternal condemnation.  Jesus/Yeshua has atoned for all our sins.

Ti.2:11-14 “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.”  Gentiles too can be redeemed from all wrongs and be saved!  People who didn’t know of Yom Kippur.

1Jn.1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us.”  Our confession is still required, including sins and transgressions in the future.

The song title has it…Nothing But The Blood of Jesus.  Christ’s precious blood/life/soul is our atonement…even for capital offenses repented of (such as David’s)!

Jesus fulfills both atonement goats of Yom Kippur.  (For that matter, He fulfills the Passover, the burnt offerings, etc….Christ fulfills all the OT sacrificial types.  also see “Sacrifices and Burnt Offerings”.)

Father God saw Christ’s atoning blood poured out.  God’s justice has been upheld.  We stand reconciled to the Father.  The ancient Day of Atonement service and sin offerings foreshadowed the real living gospel…the gospel of eternal salvation through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ our Lord!  He is the propitiation, the appeasing, the atonement, for the sins of the whole world (1Jn.2:2).

This topic is continued in “Day of Atonement (2) – in Revelation”.

Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome

This topic traces the church’s transition from meeting on the 7^th day sabbath to Sunday observance during the early centuries AD.  What factors led to the change?

Ge.2:1-3 “God blessed the 7^th day and made it holy.”  He sanctified His 7^th day cessation as holy time!  The vast majority of people today are unaware that since Creation a specific day of holy time comes & goes each week.  All things were created by Jesus the Word (Col.1:16, Jn.1:1-3, 14).  Jesus said the weekly sabbath was made for man, and He as Creator is Lord of the sabbath (Mk.2:27-28)!  Since Jesus said the sabbath rest was made for man, it is illogical to assume that God withheld knowledge of the sabbath day from man for millennia until the time of Moses!  (see the “Sabbath 7^th Day” series.)

We read in the New Testament (NT) that the saints of the apostolic church assembled together.  Originally the NT church was a gathering of people…it wasn’t the building where they met!  The Greek term rendered “church” is ekklésia, Strongs g1577; it occurs 118 times in the NT.

Lk.4:16 it was Jesus’ custom to attend the formal style of service of His day at synagogue (g4864) on the sabbath (g4521 sábbaton).  This custom resulted from the instruction God gave to Moses in Le.23:3. “On the 7^th day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. It is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings.”  “Sabbath” is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.

But Jesus said His followers would become persecuted in synagogues, and eventually would have to leave them to avoid persecution.  Jn.16:2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue.”

Mt.18:15-20 Jesus authorized His own future assemblies or messianic Beit Din (‘House of Judgment’) with elders overseeing decisions…to “bind and loose” (forbid and permit), Mt.16:19.  Two or three local elders helped resolve internal disputes and made legal decisions for each local congregation.  Jewish synagogues were lay institutions with unpaid elders (zakén h2205, Hebrew).  Some Jewish Christians would call their own assemblies “synagogues” g4864, as James wrote in Ja.2:2.

But Jesus said church leaders aren’t to be lords (Mt.20:25-28).  Jesus is Lord (2Jn.1:3).  He is the ‘architect’ of His assembly (Mt.16:18)!  He died and rose again, and His NT church began in Acts 2.

All the earliest converts were Jewish Christians/Messianic Jews.  Then Ac.8:1-5, there was persecution at Jerusalem and a scattering (to Judea & Samaria) in the aftermath of Stephen’s martyrdom.

Then in Acts 10, uncircumcised gentiles (Cornelius et al) received the Holy Spirit too.

In Acts 13, Paul (Saul) went out evangelizing with Barnabas.  They went first to synagogues.  Eight synagogues are named in the NT where Paul is at synagogue.  Ac.13:14, 43-48 nearly all the people (Jews and gentiles) at Pisidían Antioch in Galatia went to synagogue on the sabbath day to hear Paul speak.  Paul said the gospel should be preached to the Jew first (cf. Ac.1:8).  Paul’s custom (and Jesus’ custom) was to attend synagogue on the sabbath day, ref Ac.17:1-2, 18:1, 4.

In Phílippi of Macedonia there were few Jews and no synagogue.  Yet Paul and Luke still worshiped on the sabbath day by the riverside with a few people to whom they could share the gospel, Ac.16:12-15!

Again, Jesus Himself attended synagogue on the sabbath day.  Lk.23:55-56 a few hours after Jesus died, the loyal Galilean women who witnessed His crucifixion “rested on the sabbath according to the commandment” (ref Ex.20:8-11).  The Jewish people (including Paul) have perpetuated the sabbath time God ordained at Creation.  The church emerged from this sabbath and synagogue background.  see the topic “Synagogue Influence on the Church”.

The gospel is also for gentiles, non-Jews (e.g. Ac.15:7-8).  Early-on these gentiles were God-fearers who frequented the synagogues (periphery of) on the sabbath day, Ac.13:14-16.  These God-fearers had different social customs, but believed the God of the Jews really is God! (cf. Ac.10:1-2.)

Jesus said synagogue persecution would come.  As Jewish Christians were forced out of synagogues, and the gospel spread into gentile areas, local assemblies with Jewish & gentile Christians together were raised up.  For various reasons, many of them began meeting after the sabbath day ended at sunset (Saturday evening), or on Sunday.  The reasons follow:

Earliest Christianity was viewed as another sect of Judaism.  Ac.24:5 Paul was a leader in the sect of the Nazarenes, Jewish Christians.  (see “Jewish Sects of the 1^st Century”.)

But near the end of the 1^st century, disbelieving Jews added a synagogue curse, the Bírkat HaMinim, upon Jewish Christian ‘heretics’ (so-called) in synagogues.  Everett Ferguson Backgrounds of Early Christianity “Gamaliél’s grandson Gamaliel II (active 80–120 AD) introduced into the Eighteen Benedictions the curse, ‘Let the Nazarenes and the heretics perish as in a moment, let them be blotted out of the book of the living’, which effectively excommunicated Christians from synagogues and formalized the break.”  Gary Morton Theological Vignettes “Around 100 years after the death of Christ, rabbis excommunicated the Christians, leaving them out of the synagogue and the Sabbath.”

Jewish Christians refused to recite the curse (against themselves), and quit the synagogues.  Marriage and forms of commerce with Christians became prohibited by Jews!

After the Jerusalem temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the Jewish temple tax was replaced by the fiscus judaicus tax of Emperor Vespasian (69–79 AD).  Jews paid it to the heathen temple of Jupiter Capitolinus!  Emperor Domitian (81–96 AD) broadened the levy to include other people who observed Jewish customs or lived like Jews.  (The tax continued until 360 AD.)

But if Christianity became a separate religion from Judaism…it wouldn’t be subject to the tax!  That’s what occurred.  Christianity became separate, no longer considered a sect of Judaism.

Lawrence Schiffman Christianity Parting of the Ways “The emperor Nerva (96–98 CE) freed the Christians (probably including the Jewish Christians) from paying the fiscus judaicus, the tax decreed as a punishment in the aftermath of the [Jewish] revolt of 66–73 CE. The Romans now regarded the Christians in general as a separate group.”

This discriminatory tax, paid to a pagan god, motivated gentile Christians to quit Jewish customs.  The customs included meeting on God’s 7^th day sabbath.  Historically, there was racial bias & animosity between Jews and gentiles anyway (ref Ac.11:2, 21:28).  Ingrained differences existed.  In any event….

Jewish and gentile Christians began the practice of meeting after the sabbath ended at sunset, or on Sunday…distinguishing them from hostile disbelieving Jews who met in synagogues on the 7^th day!

Also a factor in Sun-day meetings was the association of Jesus with the sun.  In scripture, Jesus is the prophesied “Sun of Righteousness” (Mal.4:2), and the symbolic “Sunrise from on high” (Lk.1:78).  Furthermore, Christ rose from the dead on a Sunday.  Commemorating the day of the week on which Jesus was resurrected became a primary reason for traditional Sunday observance over the centuries.

However, the 1^st day/Sunday isn’t referred to as ‘Resurrection Day’ in scripture.  That doesn’t appear until later writings.  Jesus didn’t designate worship of Him or rest on a Resurrection Day or Sundays!  Rather, that’s man’s tradition.  God never commanded in scripture Sunday/1^st day observance as a sabbath.  The leading NT apostles, Peter-John-Paul, didn’t try to change 7^th day holy time to Sunday!  Of note, Sunday isn’t mentioned in 1Clement, written from Rome to Corinth in the late 1^st century.

The Epistle of Barnabas, of uncertain authorship, is dated ca 100 AD.  It posits that the 7^th millennium fulfills God’s 7^th day sabbath rest.  Barn.15:9-10 “The 8^th day, that is, the beginning of the other world. In which cause we observe the 8^th day with gladness, in which Jesus rose from the dead.”  It advocates commemorating the eschatological 8^th day on the 1^st day of each week.  However, this epistle contains bias against Jews.  Graham Harter The ‘Letter of Barnabas’ “There is a definite undercurrent of hostility towards the Jewish people.”  Joe Watts Thoughts on Barnabas’s Epistle “Barnabas is stating that everything from Moses to Jesus is simply wrong. Barnabas several times says the covenant is ours (i.e. Christians) and not the Jews.”  Barnabas’ error contradicts Je.31:31 & He.8:8, which clearly states the New Covenant is with Israel/Judah.  Regardless of bias, Barnabas indicates Sunday meetings had begun.

The gentile Justin Martyr (100–165 AD) noted to a Jew in Dialogue With Tryphon XVI, “Cursing in your synagogues them that believe in Christ”.  Justin First Apology, Ch 68 (ca 150 AD) “But Sunday is the day on which we hold our common assembly, because it is the first day of the week and Jesus our savior on the same day rose from the dead.”  Sunday meetings were becoming widespread by 150 AD.

Also Sun–day meetings attracted heathens from old sun–worship (ref Ezk.8:16, Jb.31:26-28, 2Ki.23:5, 11, De.4:19) and from Míthraism.  Usage of the 7-day planetary week grew in the 1^st century.  (However, ancient Israelites and the Jews based their 7-day week on Ge.1:1–2:3 & Ex.16:22-30, and the Assyrians also had a 7-day week.)  The good news that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (Jn.4:42) was accepted by peoples who’d viewed blood sacrifices as pleasing to their many heathen gods, 1Co.8:5 & 10:20.  (also see “Evangelism in the Apostolic Church”.)

The desire to attract pagans to Jesus led to more Sunday worship.  But this isn’t to say that all heathen gentiles as Christians worshiped the sun on Sun-day.  However, as these pagans came into the church, some of their past festive practices and art became assimilated…e.g. sun-disks, mistletoe, wass-ale-ing.

Pagan practices added to tensions between Jewish and gentile Christians, past idolators.  Gentiles BC had been viewed as outsiders, distinct from Jews.  (see “Gentiles’ in the Bible”.)  Racism existed.  The church gradually split into Jewish and gentile factions.  Gentiles began to outnumber Jews in the church.

In addition to persecution from disbelieving Jews (in and out of synagogues), Christians suffered persecutions from the heathen Roman Empire on-and-off for approximately 300 years.

In 274 AD, Roman Emperor Aurélian made the ‘Invincible Sun’ the official protector of the Empire!

Then in 312 AD, Emperor Constantine accepted a form of Christianity!  Christianity was formally recognized as a religion in 313 AD at Milan.  As a political move, Constantine instituted Sunday rest in his edict of 321 AD. “On the venerable day of the sun let the magistrates and people in cities rest.”  Although he was supposedly converted in 312 AD, Constantine still venerated the Sun/Sol in 321 AD.  Wikipedia: Sol Invictus “Constantine’s official coinage continues to bear images of Sol until 325 AD. His triumphal arch was carefully positioned to align with the colossal statue of Sol by the Colosseum.”

Sylvester I was Pope (314–335 AD) during Constantine’s reign.  “The same pope [Sylvester I] decreed that the rest of the sabbath should be transferred to the Lord’s Day [Sunday].”  Quoted by Rábanus Máurus (776–856 AD), archbishop of Mainz, Germany in De Clericorum Institutione (On the Institution of the Clergy), bk. 2, chap. 46, in MPL, Vol. 107, col 361. Trans. from the Latin.

Eusebius (264–340 AD), bishop of Caesárea and court theologian for Constantine, wrote in his 338 AD Commentary on the Psalms, (Ps.92) Vol. 23, cols 1171-2. “All things whatsoever that it was the duty to do on the Sabbath, we have transferred to the Lord’s Day.”  Rome and the church…men…made this change.  Not God!  Pressure from Rome and ‘the Church’ led to increased Sunday observance.

At the 363 AD Council of Laodicea, sabbath observance was officially banned. “Christians shall not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honoring the Lord’s Day, resting then.”  To an increasing extent, the 7^th day sabbath had become changed to Sunday!

In the Edict of Thessalonica of 380 AD, Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire.

Later, Pope Gregory 1 even associated sabbath day rest with Antichrist!  He wrote in 597 AD, Letters 13:1 “It has come to my ears that certain men of perverse spirit have sown among you some things that are wrong and opposed to the holy faith, so as to forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day. What else can I call these [men] but preachers of Antichrist.”

And yet it was Christ…not Anti-christ…who’d revealed His 7^th day sabbath rest to Moses/Israel!  e.g. Ex.16:11-30 manna, 20:8-11 keep the sabbath day holy.  (see “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)

{Sidelight: It appears the NT church government was more an oligarchy, not a hierarchy.  As Peter, John & James went to the physically circumcised, Barnabas & Paul went to the uncircumcised gentiles (Ga.2:7-9).  Php.1:1 this letter was addressed also to the overseers/bishops (plural) and deacons in Philippi.  Plural bishops in one city.  In the apostolic church, there was no Pope!  The Holy Spirit is the ‘vicar of Christ’, so to speak.  The apostolic church wasn’t an indolent, immoral, corrupt monopoly.} 

But many Christians disregarded man’s attempt to change or ban meetings on God’s sabbath.  The 5^th century church historian Scholásticus wrote in Ecclesiastical History, Bk 5, Ch 22. “Although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries [of the Lord’s Supper] on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome have ceased to do this.”  Bk 6, Ch 8 “I mean Saturday and Lord’s Day of each week, on which assemblies are usually held in the churches.”

Furthermore, his contemporary Salmínius Sozómen wrote in Ecclesiastical History, Bk 7, Ch 19. “The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.”  Rome essentially changed the sabbath to Sunday!  Others have followed suit.

Peter Heylyn, The History of the Sabbath, 1613. “Ambrose, the celebrated bishop of Milan, said that when he was in Milan he observed Saturday, but when in Rome observed Sunday. This gave rise to the proverb ‘When you are in Rome, do as Rome does.”  (Ambrose lived in the latter 300s AD.)

History indicates that some Christian masters in the Roman Empire gave their slaves both Saturday and Sunday off from work.  The late 4^th century Apostolic Constitutions, Bk 8, Ch 33. “Let the slaves work five days; but on the Sabbath Day and the Lord’s day let them have leisure to go to church for instruction in piety….The Sabbath is on account of the creation, and the Lord’s day of the resurrection.”

Yet the 7^th day as holy time/rest remains unchanged in scripture, regardless of other meeting days!  Roman Catholic Archbishop James Gibbons admitted in The Faith of Our Fathers (1876). “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.”  Albert Smith, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, replied for the cardinal in a letter of Feb 10, 1920. “If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath Day, that is, Saturday. In keeping Sunday they are following a law of the Catholic Church.”  Not a law of God.  (I’m not 7^th Day Adventist.)  Again, ref the “Sabbath 7^th Day” series.

To recap, the main reasons behind the change from the 7^th day sabbath rest/observance to Sunday:

#1 Jewish Christians were forced out of synagogues which kept the sabbath; the synagogue curse was added.  #2 Rome levied the fiscus judaicus tax against those who observed Jewish customs (such as the sabbath).  #3 Prejudice between Jews and gentiles.  #4 Sunday meetings distinguished Christians from disbelieving Jews who met in synagogues on the 7^th day.  #5 Since Jesus rose on a Sunday, men began the tradition of observing Sundays.  #6 Heathens accustomed to pagan sun-worship were attracted to Christianity by Sun-day meetings.  #7 Roman Emperor Aurelius made the ‘Invincible Sun’ the official protector of the Empire; Emperor Constantine accepted Christianity and mandated “rest on the venerable day of the sun” in cities.  #8 The institutional church council outlawed 7^th day sabbath rest.

Thus Sunday meetings became prominent over the centuries, and through Roman Catholic Church influence.  Yet man cannot change the actual 7^th day holy time sanctified by God from the beginning!  God’s word in the scriptures is authoritative, regardless of man’s traditional practices or decrees.

However, the word ‘sabbath’ means ‘cessation’…not ‘worship’, not ‘go to church’.  (Though worship and church are done on the sabbath.)  We may worship the Lord and attend church gatherings/events any or every day.  But only the 7^th day sabbath is holy time, ordained by God for man at Creation.

Sabbath 7th Day (3)

The weekly sabbath was addressed in “Sabbath 7^th Day”, Parts (1) and (2).  This Part 3 concludes (1) and (2).  Part 1 contains the primary verses; so it should be read first.  Also, the change from Saturday to Sunday observance is outlined in “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”.  That topic includes early church background and meeting custom.  In regards to the change, statements by Roman Catholic Church (RCC) theologians were quoted in Parts (1) and (2).  Following are statements by non-RCC:

Anglican Isaac Williams Plain Sermons on the Catechism, vol.1, p.334-6 “Where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the 1^st day at all? We are commanded to keep the 7^th; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the 1^st day. The reason why we keep the 1^st day of the week holy instead of the 7^th is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the church has enjoined it.”  It’s a church tradition which comes down from 2^nd century Rome and the RCC.

Lutheran August Neander The History of the Christian Religion and Church, p. 186 “The festival of Sunday, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic Church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.”  Jesus’ apostles didn’t try to change the sabbath.

“Sabbath” is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.  The customary practice of setting aside Sunday as the day of Christian worship is tradition.  But the New Testament (NT) never says Sunday is the church or gentile sabbath, in the manner that Saturday is sabbath holy time.

1Clement was written from Rome to Corinth in the latter 1^st century.  It doesn’t mention Sunday church meetings.  Sunday observance first appears in 2^nd century writings.  And over the centuries, most Christians have continued observing and worshiping on the 1^st day, Sunday.  Men and the RCC have tried to do away with the Lord’s 7^th day sabbath rest!

This hoax exchanged a 1-hour church service Sunday morning for a 24-hour day of cessation and devotion to God.  In Parts 1 & 2 we referenced verses and commentaries which show the 7^th day sabbath was made holy by God at Creation in Ge.2:1-3.  Man is unable to alter God’s holy time!

RCC Archbishop James Gibbons admitted in The Catholic Mirror, 1893 “The Catholic Church ….by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.”  Many in the RCC so admit.

Peter Heylyn The History of the Sabbath, 1613 “Ambrose, the celebrated bishop of Milan, said that when he was in Milan he observed Saturday, but when in Rome observed Sunday. This gave rise to the proverb ‘When you are in Rome, do as Rome does.”  Ambrose lived in the latter 300s AD.

Anglican priest & scholar Joseph Bingham Antiquities of the Christian Church “The ancient Christians were very careful in the observation of Saturday, or the 7^th day. It is plain that all the Oriental churches, and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a festival. Epíphanius says the same.” (v.2, b.20, ch.3, sec 1, 66)  “Athanasius…says: They met on the Sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the sabbath.” (b.13, ch.9, sec 3)  The sabbath and its observance predates Judaism.

Over the centuries, others besides Rome have tried to enforce Sunday observance (e.g. the Puritans).  Continuing from Part 2, there are NT passages which some use to negate God’s 7^th day sabbath.  Re.1:10 John wrote, “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day”.  Some think John had in mind Sunday.  But in his gospel (Jn.20:1, 19), John refers to Sunday as the “first (day) of the week” (sábbaton Strongs g4521, Greek), not the “Lord’s day”.  Whereas Mk.2:28 shows that the sabbath is the Lord’s day!  Christ ceased on the 7^th day of Creation.  He’s the Lord of the sabbath, and He told ancient Israel about it.  In Is.58:13-14, Christ the Lord of hosts calls the sabbath “My holy day”.  Matthew Henry Commentary Is.58:14 “Even in Old Testament times the sabbath was called the Lord’s day, and is fitly called so still; for a further reason, it is the Lord Christ’s day, Re 1:10. If we thus remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, we shall have the comfort and profit of it.”

The first clear references to Sunday as the Lord’s Day aren’t until the mid-to-latter 2^nd century (Gospel of Peter, Dionýsius, 2Clement).  It became a tradition of men.

Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, v.4, p.2259-60 “Sunday was adopted by early Christians as a day of worship…It was called the ‘Lord’s Day’…no regulations for its observance are laid down in the New Testament, nor indeed, is its observance even enjoined.”  Christ didn’t change His sabbath.

Ga.4:8-10 Paul wrote, “In time past you were slaves to those who are no gods. Why do you return to the weak and worthless elements to which you desire to be enslaved? You observe days, months, times and years.”  Benson Commentary Ga.4:8 “No gods.’ This is a description of idols worshiped by the heathen.”  Those gods aren’t the true God who made the sabbath day holy.  e.g. astral veneration of Saturn isn’t holy.  Surely the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments which Christ gave to Moses/Israel, aren’t the “weak and worthless elements” to which Paul refers.  Ex.20 God’s Decalogue prohibitions against murder & theft, with His commands to keep the sabbath & honor one’s father/mother…obviously aren’t weak and worthless!  Paul himself wouldn’t knowingly violate any of the Decalogue.  (Paul wrote in Ro.7:12, “The commandment is holy, just and good”.)  Ac.16:12-14 Paul & Luke worshiped on God’s sabbath day in European Phílippi.  Cambridge Bible Ga.4:10 “There is clearly no exemption here from the obligation of the observance of ‘the 7^th day’. The law of the Sabbath…is as old as the Creation.”

Presbyterian T.C. Blake, D.D. Theology Condensed, p.474-475 “The Sabbath is a part of the decalogue – the Ten Commandments. This alone forever settles the question as to the perpetuity of the institution…Until, therefore, it can be shown that the whole moral law has been repealed, the Sabbath will stand…The teaching of Christ confirms the perpetuity of the Sabbath.”  De.5:12-14 allowing those under our charge (and our work animals) to rest on the sabbath is a moral principle of loving our neighbor!  To say we ‘rest in Christ’ (work animals?) is a good spiritual principle, but doesn’t abate physical fatigue.

The same sense regarding the Decalogue can be applied to the controversial Col.2:16-23.  A syncretistic form of religion with Jewish & pagan Gnosticism existed at Colóssae.  Paul in this passage merges: whether to eat/drink/fast, feasts, new moons, the sabbath, asceticism, worship of angels, man-made religion, commandments of men.  v.16-17 “Let no one judge you in eating and drinking, or in part of a feast or a new moon or the sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come; but the body of Christ.”

Besides God’s Day of Atonement, Jews ordained their own fast days (Zec.8:19); some fasted twice-a-week (Lk.18:12).  Dietary customs of neo-Pythagoréans were there.  God’s feasts, authorized to be kept only at the temple (no uncircumcised men), were Passover, Pentecost, Booths.  Jews ordained Hánukkah & Purím feasts.  Rosh Hashánah fell on a new moon.  New moons were traditional holidays for women.

But God sanctified the 7^th day sabbath at Creation!  False teachers, Pharisees, etc. were acting as judges of how to keep various occasions.  Ellicott Commentary Col.2:16 “Let no man judge you’, that is, impose his own laws upon you.”  Rather, the Body of Christ is the judge, not the “commandments of men” (v.22-23).  Christ authored His Ten Commandments, including the sabbath.  And it’s the longest of the Ten!

For Paul to disregard any part of the Decalogue would’ve been viewed as hypocrisy.  The sabbath is in God’s Top Ten!  Some do’s & don’ts of sabbathkeeping promoted by Judaism in Colossae were false.  Yet true sabbath rest is a divine blessing for the Body of Christ.  (I’m not 7^th Day Adventist/SDA.)

Peter’s “shadow” remained visible in the sunlight for healing; it didn’t disappear (Ac.5:15-16)!  Adam Clarke Commentary Co.2:16 “There is no intimation here that the Sabbath was done away, or that its moral use was superseded, by the introduction of Christianity. ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’, is a command of perpetual obligation, and can never be superseded but by the final termination of time.”  JFB Commentary Col.2:16 “The weekly sabbath rests on a more permanent foundation, having been instituted in Paradise to commemorate the completion of Creation in six days.”  Fast days, pilgrim feasts, new moon observances, Israel’s sanctuary…were later additions.  The sabbath remains.

He.4:9 “There remains therefore a sabbath rest [g4520 sabbatismós, only NT occurrence] for the people of God.”  A sabbatism.  He.4:4 this cessation is associated with the 7^th day of Creation (Ge.2:1-3), which is the great prototype referred to in Ex.20:8-11. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”  The book of Hebrews was written to Jewish Christians.  They were sabbathkeepers.  Joshua, David, Jesus, too were sabbathkeepers.  The writer isn’t defending the 7^th day sabbath; it’s observance is a given among those Israelites.  And 7^th day observance now foreshadows our future rest in glory.

JFB Commentary He.4:9 “It is Jesus, the antitype of Joshua, who leads us into the heavenly rest. This verse indirectly establishes the obligation of the Sabbath still; for the type continues until the antitype supersedes it….the typical earthly Sabbath must continue till then. The Jews call the future rest ‘the day which is all Sabbath.”  Ellicott Commentary He.4:9 “The Míshna speaks of Psalms 92 as a ‘Psalm for the time to come, for the day which is all Sabbath, the rest belonging to the life eternal.”

In Ga.6:16, Paul referred to the “Israel of God”.  Most commentaries say Paul’s “Israel of God” meant all Christians, both Jewish and gentiles grafted-in…the church.  (Whereas the 1Co.10:18 “Israel after the flesh” meant disbelieving Jews.)  The early church kept the sabbath before Rome & men intervened.

Anglican clergyman Jeremy Taylor, The Whole Works of Jeremy Taylor, vol.IX, p.456 “The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews…therefore the Christians for a long time together, did keep their conventions on the Sabbath, in which some portion of the Law were read: and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council.”  At Laodicea in 363 AD the church outlawed resting on the sabbath!

Mt.24:20 “Pray your flight be not in winter, nor on the sabbath.”  Jesus indicated the sabbath day would still exist…His holy time wouldn’t have somehow become obsolete!  Barnes Notes Mt.24:20 “Jesus teaches his disciples to pray that their flight might not be on the Sabbath, because, if they should not go farther than a Sabbath-day’s journey, they would not be beyond danger.” (ref Ex.16:29, Ac.1:12, Is.58:13 relating to excessive/tiresome travel on the sabbath.)  JFB Commentary Is.58:13 “The Sabbath, even under the new dispensation, was to be obligatory.”  Bengel’s Gnomen Mt.24:20 “Because it is peculiarly miserable on that day, which is given to joy, to break off the rites of worship and flee.”

Shabáwth (h7676, Hebrew) implies a rest.  Besides the sabbath being time holy to God, the rest is needed for our physical bodies.  We’re refreshed.  The relatively new scientific field of chronobiology has found there is a circaséptan (Latin sept = 7) rhythm in the bodies of humans & animals.  Every 7–8 days our body clock, so to speak, resets or renews.  This is separate from cultural evolution or religion.  It’s not some new age bio-rhythm quackery.  Rather it’s an innate system we’re not conscious of which God hid in our cell structure.  Seven is God’s number, and is the ‘beat of life’ inherent in His creation!

Wikipedia: Circaseptan “A circaseptan rhythm is a cycle consisting of 7 days in which many biological processes of life are resolved.”  Jeremy Campbell Winston Churchill’s Afternoon Nap, 1988, p.75 “Circaseptan, or about weekly, rhythms are one of the major surprises turned up by modern chronobiology. Fifteen years ago few scientists would have expected that seven-day biological cycles would prove to be so widespread and so long established in the world. They are of very ancient origin.”

Erhard Haus Chronobiology in the Endocrine System. Adv Drug Deliv Rev. 2007; 59(9-10):985-1014 “A seven-day cycle was found in the blood pressure fluctuations in the acid content in the blood, in erýthrocytes, in a heartbeat, the oral temperature, the temperature of the female breast, chemical and urine volume, rate of two important neurotransmitters – norepinéphrine and epinéphrine – and the increase and decrease of various body chemicals, such as coping stress hormone, cortisol.”

They claim that approximately every 7 days our heart rate slows slightly (and then resumes normalcy), and our immune system resets.  If our immune system is violated or becomes too stressed, sickness and even death can result.  Our Creator knew man needs His rest…animals too.  De.5:14 “The 7^th day…that your ox and donkey and sojourner may rest.”  Work animals belonging to non-Jews need rest too…sabbath rest isn’t just for Jews!  There is SDA documentation about bees in South America which are inactive on the sabbath day…but their hive resumes normal activity on Sunday!  www.adventistonline.com/group/healthatthecellularlevel/forum/topics/sabbath-keeping-bees-in-brazil

The sabbath rest helps us be more aware of our dependence upon God for our spiritual and physical needs.  We can relax for a day and be refreshed, spiritually and physically.

From 1793-1805 AD, the First French Republic tried to replace the 7-day week with a secular week having rest every 10^th day.  The attempt was a total failure!  Then from 1929-1940, Stalin’s Communist Russia set up a rotating 5-day continuous work-week…80% of the people worked while 20% rested.  It too failed!  The work cycles in those undertakings violated the body clock God set within man.

Resting every 7 days is necessary for our innate body rhythm.  Jesus said in Mk.2:27, “The sabbath was made for man”.  Needless to say, Christ knew what He was doing when He made the 7^th day holy at Creation.  The ‘clock of seven’ within our body is ticking unyieldingly…we can’t escape it in this life.

God said in Is.55:3, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you”.  Isaiah was prophesying of the new covenant!  Is.56:1-7 “Thus says the Lord, ‘Blessed is the man…who keeps from profaning the sabbath. To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant…I will give them an everlasting name. Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord…to be His servants, who keep from profaning the sabbath.”  The eunuchs & foreigners (even past hostile nekár h5236) who keep from profaning the sabbath will be blessed of the Lord!  JFB Commentary Is.56:2 “A proof that the Sabbath, in the spirit of its obligation, was to be binding under the Gospel.”  Gill Exposition Is.56:4 “The covenant of grace, the everlasting covenant.”  Matthew Henry Commentary Is.56:6 “The Gentiles shall be one body with the Jews, that, as Christ says, Jn.10:16, there may be one fold and one Shepherd.”  Observing the Lord’s sabbath in the everlasting/new covenant!

Count Zínzendorf (1700-1760), leader of the Morávian church (Czechoslovakia/America), in 1738 wrote of himself. “I have during my lifetime not eaten of the foods which were formerly forbidden them; I have employed the Sabbath for rest many years already, and Sunday for the proclamation of the gospel – that I have done without design, in simplicity of heart.”  (Budingsche Sammlung, 1742, sec.8, p.224.)

A study book of the United Lutheran Church, The Sunday Problem (1923), p.36 “We have seen how gradually the impression of the Jewish sabbath faded from the mind of the Christian Church, and how completely the newer thought underlying the observance of the first day took possession of the church. We have seen that the Christians of the first three centuries never confused one with the other, but for a time celebrated both.” (see “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”.)

We may worship the Lord every day.  But only the 7th day is the holy time God ordained for man.  His divine rest every 7^th day foreshadows our rest with Him for all eternity!  Shabbát shalóm!

Sabbath 7th Day (2)

In “Sabbath 7^th Day (1)”, we examined the 7^th day sabbath, beginning at Creation.  This Part 2 is a continuation and supplement to Part 1.  Part 1 contains the primary verses; so it should be read first.  Also, steps in the change from Saturday to Sunday observance are outlined in “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”.  That topic includes early church background and meeting custom.  Regarding the change to Sunday, here’s a few statements by theologians from the Roman Catholic Church (RCC):

Irish RCC Father Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, 1851, p.174 “She [RCC] substituted the observance of Sunday the 1^st day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the 7^th day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”

Father Peter R. Kramer, Catholic Church Extension Society (1975), Chicago “Regarding the change…to the Christian Sunday, I wish to draw your attention to the facts: That Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. We Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith. Besides the Bible we have the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday. We frankly say, yes, the Church made this change, made this law, as she made many other laws; for instance, the Friday abstinence, the unmarried priesthood…and a thousand other laws. It is always somewhat laughable to see the Protestant churches, in pulpit and legislation, demand the observance of Sunday, of which there is nothing in their Bible.”  The RCC admits the RCC instituted the change.

Jesuit Father Martin J. Scott, Things Catholics Are Asked About, 1927, p.136 “Nowhere in the Bible is it stated that worship should be changed from Saturday to Sunday. The Church…instituted, by God’s authority, Sunday as the day of worship.”

Notwithstanding the RCC change of the 7^th day to the 1^st day for worship, God made holy at Creation the 7^th day…before there was any Israel/Jews or RCC.  Ge.2:3 LXX “God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified [hagiázo Strongs g37, Greek verb] it.”  God sanctified/made holy the 7^th day.  cf. Mt.6:9 where Jesus prayed, “Our Father who is in heaven, holy [g37 hagiazo] be Your Name.”  God made the 7^th day holy, even as the Father’s great Name is holy!

In scripture, the 7^th day is the first thing God made holy!  The 7^th day (not the 1^st day) is holy time which God Himself ordained.  If there was no sabbath, there would exist no holiness of time in the world.

“Sabbath” is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.  Greek Bible scholar Spiros Zódiates, “Hagiazo means to separate or withdraw from fellowship with the world”.  As holy time, the sabbath isn’t just time spent in leisure pursuits or entertainment away from work.  The Lord said in Is.58:13, “Turn your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day. Call the sabbath a delight.”  The sabbath is God’s time.  Our life consists of only so much time, and resting on the 7^th day reflects our commitment & obedience to God, and where our heart is.  It’s a time for praise, prayer, Bible reading/study, meditation, church preaching/teaching, doing good and mercy to others.

The Lord said in Ex.20:8, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”.  Le.23:3 “On the 7^th day is a sabbath, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work. It is a sabbath of the Lord in all your dwellings.”  The sabbath is a holy assembly, it takes place during holy time.  JFB Commentary Le.23:3 “It was to be ‘a holy convocation’, observed by families ‘in their dwellings’; where practicable, by the people repairing to the door of the tabernacle; at later periods, by meeting in the schools of the prophets, and in synagogues.”  Pulpit Commentary Le.23:3 “Elsewhere it was observed only by the holy convocation and rest from all labor. It commenced at sunset on Friday evening, and continued till sunset on Saturday evening.”  Poole Commentary Le.23:3 “The sabbath was to be kept in all places, where they were, both in synagogues, which were erected for that end, and in their private houses.”

{Sidelight: The 7^th day sabbath (shabáwth h7676, Hebrew) differs from the pilgrim feasts of ancient Israel, which were to be kept solely near the tabernacle/temple.  The sabbath day is an appointed time (móed h4150).  But the sabbath isn’t a feast (chag h2282) in scripture.  God’s pilgrim feasts were shabathón (h7677), or sabbatoids, but weren’t sabbaths (h7676).  There’s a difference.  Benson Commentary Le.23:3 “In all your dwellings’. Other feasts were to be kept before the Lord in Jerusalem only, where all the males were to come for that end; but the sabbath was to be kept in all places, in synagogues, and in their private houses.”  Ellicott Commentary Le.23:4 “The feasts of the Lord’. Because the following are the festivals proper as distinguished from the Sabbath.”  Pilgrim feasts weren’t made holy time at Creation; they’re appointed later for the Holy Land.  see “Feasts of the Lord and the Jews”.}

The 7^th day sabbath, and the Decalogue/Ten Commandments for that matter, isn’t about ‘works’.  It takes no ‘work’ to refrain from murder, theft, adultery, making images of pagan gods!  No work is required to rest on the sabbath!  Attempting to blend the concepts of work and rest here is nonsense.

Evangelist Dwight L. Moody Weighed and Wanting, p.47 “The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word ‘remember’, showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away when they will admit the other nine are still binding?”  Re.11:19 the ark containing the Decalogue (Ex.25:21) is in heaven…the 7^th day sabbath is part of the Decalogue!  However, Jewish rabbinism added many burdensome rules to God’s sabbath guidelines.

Keep the sabbath rightly and a man will “take delight in the Lord” (Is.58:13-14).  Barnes Notes Is.58:14 “There is no intimation that the Sabbath was to be abolished.  We are to refrain from ordinary traveling and employments; we are not to engage in doing our own pleasure; we are to regard it with delight, and to esteem it a day worthy to be honored; and we are to show respect to it by not performing our own ordinary works, or pursuing pleasures, or engaging in the common topics of conversation. Under the gospel, assuredly, it is as proper to celebrate the Sabbath in this way, as it was in the times of Isaiah, and God doubtless intended it should be perpetually observed in this manner.”  JFB Commentary Is.58:14 “As we ‘delight’ in keeping God’s Sabbath, so God will give us ‘delight’ in Himself.”  Pulpit Commentary Is.58:14 “A right use of the sabbath will help to form in men habits of devotion, which will make religion a joy.”

In the LXX & New Testament (NT) Greek, the word for sabbath is sábbaton g4521.  It occurs 60 times in the NT.  There’s no NT example of any Christian working on the sabbath.  Although Israel & the Jews were to keep the sabbath, in scripture it’s never called the ‘Jewish sabbath’, the ‘sabbath of the Jews’, or the ‘sabbath of Israel’.  Rather, God says it’s His sabbath, e.g. Ex.31:13 & Ne.9:14.  It’s the “sabbath of the Lord” (Ex.20:10).  Mk.2:27-28 Christ the Lord said the sabbath was made for humanity (not just for the Jew or Israel).  God made His sabbath for man at Creation…the Jews didn’t, not the RCC, nor any man.  Physical circumcision was required for men to fully be of ancient Israel.  But it wasn’t required for the sabbath day!  This is unlike a pilgrim “feast of the Jews” (Jn.7:2); the feasts weren’t authorized for physically uncircumcised men (Ex.12:48).  The 7^th day sabbath is for everyone.

Ac.17:1-2 & 18:4, Paul went to synagogue on the sabbath.  Ac.16:12-15 in Phílippi, there were few Jews and no synagogue; yet Paul and Luke (possibly a gentile) still worshiped by the riverside with a few people on the sabbath!  Lk.4:16 Jesus attended synagogue on the sabbath.  Christ as the primordial Word of God (Jn.1:1-3, 14) had also ceased (shabáth h7673 verb) on the 7^th day of Creation (Ge.2:1-3).

The 7^th day sabbath is time dedicated to God, a temporary rest (anápausis g372, e.g. LXX Ex.31:15) from our work.  It’s from sunset Friday until sunset Saturday generally.  Days were reckoned beginning at sunset, when the fowls come home to roost, the first stars appear.  Le.23:32 “From evening until evening.”  Evening began the new date.  In the NT, Luke uses similar reckoning of the night preceding the day in Ac.27:27, 33, 39…where the 14^th night preceded the 14^th day.

Prior to when Christ gave Israel the Decalogue (Ex.20:1-17), He miraculously confirmed which day is the sabbath in Ex.16:4-5, 15-31.  Only on the 7^th day did He not provide them manna food to gather.  And only on the 6^th day did He provide them a double portion.  It wasn’t just any one day in seven!  And Ne.13:15-19 reaffirms that buying & selling food/merchandise, business, isn’t to be done on the sabbath rest.  Nehemiah ordered the city gates be shut as it grew dark to begin the sabbath.  Faith is needed to believe our needs will be provided as we cease from work on the 7^th day.  (I’m not 7^th Day Adventist.)

Jesus, Paul, and others in the NT kept the sabbath (e.g. Lk.23:54-56).  Since Creation, there’s no verse indicating Christ changed the 7^th day holy time.  Christ the Lord viewed willful sabbath-breaking as a very serious sin (Nu.15:29-36)!  Judaism devised many man-made directives for the sabbath day.  In the NT, neither Jesus nor Paul prescribed do’s and don’ts for the sabbath.  That’s caused some to not view the sabbath as holy time which comes & goes every week since Creation.  But the NT also didn’t address acts like beastiality, cannibalism, fathers marrying their own daughters.  Just because the NT is silent on those wrongs doesn’t mean they’re okay for Christians after the cross!  Christ forbad them in the Old Testament (OT).  It is written!  He.13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever.”

Yet there are a few NT passages referring to the first day of the “week” (mía ton sábbaton g4521) that some use in claiming the 7^th day sabbath is abolished.  (Although no man, not Paul or anyone, has the authority to change God’s holy time.  We’re mere mortals, unable to alter night and day.)

The Greek LXX term for “week” is hebdomás (g1439.1 Vanderpool).  ref LXX: Ex.34:22, Le.23:15-16, Nu.28:26, De.16:9, 10, 16, 2Ch.8:13, Da.9:24-27, 10:2-3.  The Greek hebdomas/week corresponds to the Hebrew shabuwá/week (h7620, occurring 20 times in the OT).  Yet no NT writer used the term hebdomas to indicate “week”!  In the 1^st century Roman Empire, the 8-day market week (among nones, ides, kálends) was still being used.  Concurrently, use of the heathen 7-day planetary week was starting to spread.  At the time, most converts were Jewish Christians and gentile Godfearers who’d learned about the true God in synagogues.  There they’d gained knowledge of the Decalogue and 7^th day sabbath (ref Ac.15:21).  Sabbath observance was known in all nations, as per Philo and Josephus (see Part 1).

So the NT writers identified a day of the week by its proximity to the 7^th day sabbath…ton sabbaton.  Even though “sabbath” doesn’t specifically mean “week” in either the Greek LXX or OT Hebrew!  Thus the NT writers avoided parlance of the 8-day market week and the 7-day planetary god week.  The 7^th day sabbath provided a holy day NT reference point amid the coexistent 7-day and 8-day weeks.  (Use of the 8-day market/núndinal week gradually faded.  The 7-day week was made official in 321 AD.)

It is meaningful, the NT writers used the term sabbath (sabbaton g4521) to denote “week”.  A Pharisee declared in Lk.18:12, “I fast twice in the week [sabbaton]”.  To mean, I fast twice on the sabbath, wouldn’t make sense.  The 1^st day of the week (Sunday) was called the 1^st (day) of/to the sabbath.  The practice of observing the 7^th day sabbath is apparent…and there’s no reference to heathen planetary gods!

We see a glimpse of this mode of expression using sabbaton g4521 in the LXX: Ps.23:1 “A psalm of David on the 1^st of/to the sabbath [sabbaton].”  Ps.47:1 “A psalm of praise for the sons of Core on the 2^nd of/to the sabbath.”  Ps.93:1 “A psalm of David to/of the 4^th of the sabbath.  Ps.92:1 “For the day before the sabbath.” (prosábbaton g4315, cf. Mk.15:42)  Israelites, unlike Rome, had known the 7-day week from much older times (so had Babylonians).  Their days of the week were called: 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th or preparation, 7^th or sabbath.  Each week, Israelites looked forward to the 7^th day sabbath.  Following are sources which attest to this Jewish & NT writers’ manner of denoting days in a week:

Johann Jahn Biblical Antiquities, p.51 “The Jews, in designating the successive days of the week, were accustomed to say, The first day of the Sabbath (that is, of the week), the second day of the Sabbath; that is, Sunday, Monday, etc.”  From soc.culture.jewish FAQ Observance “Judaism doesn’t make much distinction between the days of the week, except for Shabbát. In fact, the days of the week are called Yom Ríshon, Yom Shéni…(i.e., 1^st day, 2^nd day,….), and then Shabbat. The philosophical oddity is that not only is day 7 called ‘Shabbat’, but each day is ‘of the Shabbat’. In other words, ‘the first day’ (Sunday) is liturgically called ‘yom ríshon beshabbát’ when introducing the day’s psalm.”

R.C.H. Lenski The Interpretation of St. Matthew’s Gospel, p.1148 “The Jews had no names for the weekdays. They ‘designated them with reference to their Sabbath’. Thus, mia ton sabbaton means ‘the first (day) with reference to the Sabbath’, or ‘the first day of the week.”  John Lightfoot A Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Hebraica “The Jews reckon the days of the week thus; One day (or the first day) of the sabbath: two (or the second day) of the sabbath.”

The Didaché (‘Teaching’) dates ca 100 AD.  Didache 8:1 “Let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the 2^nd and 5^th day of the week.”  The Greek Didache says disbelieving Jews fasted on the “deuterá” (2^nd) and the “pémpte” (5^th) day of the “sabbaton” (week).  The 7^th day sabbath was still evident!

The KJV expression “first (day) of the week” occurs 8 times: Mt.28:1, Mk.16:2, 9, Lk.24:1, Jn.20:1, 19, Ac.20:7, 1Co.16:2.  The term used there by Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Paul…is sabbaton/sabbath.  It is significant they used sabbaton (and not hebdomas) for “week”!  God-fearing gentiles knew the sabbath.  Ac.13:42-44 the whole city of Pisídian Antioch in Galatia (!) came to hear Paul on the sabbath.

Ac.20:6-11 Christians at Troás met to break bread with Paul on the night of the 1^st (day) of the week (mia ton sabbaton g4521) until daybreak, before Paul left town.  Many think it was a Saturday night meeting to begin the 1^st day; that Luke reckoned time starting with evening, as he did in Ac.27:27, 33 and Lk.23:54-56.  Ellicott Commentary Ac.20:7 “The Jewish mode of reckoning would still be kept…Saturday evening.”  It is said the early Christians’ meetings were Saturday night following the Jews’ synagogue service, at the end of the sabbath.  Thus Jewish Christians became distinct from disbelieving Jews.

1Co.16:1-3 circa 55 AD Paul told the Corinthians to lay up funds which he would collect for the needy saints on the 1^st (day) of the week/sabbaton.  Jewish Christians wouldn’t have done financial exchanges on the sabbath day.  Pulpit Commentary 1Co.16:2 “This verse can hardly be said to imply any religious observance of the Sunday.”  Meyer’s NT Commentary “It does not follow from this passage in itself that the Sunday was already observed at that time by assemblies for the worship of God.”  Not yet.

Methodist theologian Harris F. Rall Christian Advocate, 1942, p.26 “Take the matter of Sunday. There are indications in the NT how the church came to keep the first day of the week as its day of worship, but there is no passage telling Christians to keep that day, or transfer the Jewish Sabbath to that day.”

However, in the decades to follow, Sunday would become the church‘s common meeting day.  (see “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome” for the transition from the 7^th day to the 1^st day.)  But meeting days don’t alter God’s holy sabbath time!

This series is continued and concluded in “Sabbath 7^th Day (3)”.

Sabbath 7th Day (1)

There’s been much controversy in the church about whether or not Christians should observe the 7^th day sábbath of scripture, or the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) & Protestant tradition of Sunday, or no specific day.  RCC Archbishop James Gibbons wrote in The Faith of Our Fathers, 1876, p.89, “You may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.”  A surprising admission!?  Let’s see what the scriptures say about the 7^th day.

The 7^th day sabbath has its beginnings at Creation.  The Holy Spirit and Christ, the Spirit and the Word, are the Creators (being the divine agents of Father God).  ref Job.33:4, Ps.104:30, 33:6, Jn.1:3, Col.1:16.  They are God, the God-kind, the “Us” of Ge.1:26. “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”  God declared as “good” each of the first six days of Creation: Ge.1:4, 8 (LXX), 10, 12, 18, 21, 25.  Then Ge.1:31, “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”  Creation ends.

When Creation was finished, Christ ceased (shabáth Strongs h7673, verb).  Ge.2:1-4 “By the 7^th day God finished His work which He had done, and He ceased on the 7^th day. Then God blessed the 7^th day and sanctified it, because in it He ceased from all His work which He had created and made.”  Although the first six days were all good, only the 7^th Day did Christ bless and sanctify or make holy!  This is the great prototype of the weekly 7^th day sabbath; a temporary cessation/rest dedicated to God.

The 7^th day sabbath is a sign which identifies God as the Creator of everything.  No other day of the week so reflects God as Creator.  By ceasing or resting on the 7^th day, the sabbathkeeper witnesses that his God is the Creator God.  We may choose to rest or worship God on other days too.  But as Lord of the 7^th day sabbath, at creation Christ ordained the 7^th day as holy or sanctified/set apart, and no other day of the week.  And throughout the Bible, Christ nowhere rescinded His 7^th day as holy time!

“Sabbath” is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.  JFB Commentary Ge.2:3 “The institution of the Sabbath is as old as creation.”  Benson Commentary Ge.2:3 “God blessed the seventh day’. He conferred on it peculiar honor, and annexed to it special privileges above those granted to any other day; ‘and sanctified it’. That is, separated it from common use, and dedicated it to his own sacred service, that it should be accounted holy, and spent in his worship, and in other religious and holy duties. It appears evidently by this, that the observation of the sabbath was not first enjoined when the law [Mosaic] was given, but it was an ordinance of God from the creation of the world.”  The 7^th day sabbath long antedated Moses/Israel and giving the Decalogue.

An eternal law of God existed in the heavens.  In 2Pe.2:4, Peter wrote of the “angels who sinned”.  (cf. Jb.4:18)  Where no law is, there is no transgression or sin (Ro.4:15).  So a law existed which angels violated.  1Eno.99:2 spoke of those who transgress the “eternal law”.  (Jude 1:14 refers to 1Enoch.)  1Eno.106:13-14 “Some angels sin and transgress the law.”  Law & order exists in the heavenly realm.

The Book of Jubilees is dated 150 BC.  Jub.2:30 “We [the angels of the presence and sanctification] kept Sabbath in the heavens before it was made known to any flesh to keep Sabbath on earth.”  That indicates the sabbath day was observed in the heavenlies prior to Eden?  Pulpit Commentary Ge.2:3 “We conclude that a 7^th day sabbath must have been prescribed to man in Eden. Here was the 7^th day sanctified, or instituted in the interests of holiness, proclaimed to be a holy day.”

After the Flood, in Ge.8:8-12 Noah sent out a dove from the ark at 7-day intervals.  Barnes Notes Ge.8:10 “This points to the sacredness associated with the number arising from the hallowed character of the 7th day.”  Matthew Henry Commentary Ge.8:12 “Having kept the sabbath with his little church, he expected special blessings from Heaven.”  JFB Commentary “Seven days – a strong presumptive proof that Noah observed the Sabbath during his residence in the ark.”  Pulpit Commentary “The frequent repetition of the number seven clearly points to the hebdómadal division of the week, and the institution of Sabbatic rest.”  Ge.8:9 initially the dove Noah sent out could find no place of rest, so she returned to the ark for rest.  Noah didn’t send out the dove arbitrarily; he inquired of the Holy Spirit.  (Noah wasn’t Jewish.  Ge.7:1-2 God also gave the gentile Noah knowledge of clean & unclean animals, long before Moses.)

The Hebrew term for “seven” (sheba/shibah h7651) occurs 370 times in the Old Testament (OT).  It is “as the sacred full one; seven times”.  Seven signifies completeness or divine perfection.  For example: the seven days of Creation; the 7^th day sabbath; Re.1:4 the sevenfold Spirit (or seven spirits) at God’s throne; Zec.4:1-2 the golden lampstand has seven lamps & seven pipes; Job.42:8 friends of the patriarch Job were to offer seven bulls & seven rams to the Lord; etc.  Seven is God’s number, so to speak.

God said in Ge.26:5, “Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, My laws”. (cf. De.11:1)  The patriarch Abraham, a gentile/non-Jew, obeyed God’s (eternal) law centuries before there was a codified Mosaic law!  (see the topic “Abraham Obeyed Which Commandments?”.)  Henry Commentary Ge.2:1 “Sabbaths are as ancient as the world; and I see no reason to doubt that the Sabbath…was religiously observed by the people of God throughout the patriarchal age.”  Chief Rabbi of the British Empire, Joseph H. Hertz, Authorized Daily Prayer Book, p.579 “Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. The Patriarchs are often represented as having observed the Sabbath.”  Abraham was very obedient.  The Lord even visited him in Ge.18!  Ge.18:17 Christ didn’t hide what He was doing from Abraham.  It’s unlikely that Christ left Abraham in ignorance of His holy time that had come and gone every 7^th day since Creation!  Ellicott Commentary Ex.16:23: “Much can be said in favor of the primeval institution of the Sabbath, and of its having been known to the family of Abraham.”

God promised Abraham, Ge.22:16. “By Myself I have sworn,’ declares the Lord. ‘Indeed I will greatly bless you and multiply your seed.”  The term for “sworn/oath” is shabá h7650, occurring 180 times in the OT.  It means “to swear, to seven oneself or bind oneself by seven things.”  It’s the root of the term for seven h7651.  When God (or anyone) made a solemn oath, He ‘sevened Himself’.  (He.6:13 “When God made His promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself.”)  Is.45:23 “I have sworn [h7650] by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth. That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear [h7650] allegiance.”  The Lord and all humanity ‘seven themselves or bind themselves by seven things’.  It’s total.  Another example is Ps.89:49. “Thy lovingkindness O Lord, which You did swear [h7650] to David in Thy faithfulness.”  We can see the concept of seven and to seven oneself by an oath goes beyond which day we should attend church.

Christ the Lord is the God/Rock of ancient Israel (cf. De.32:4, 18 & 1Co.10:4; Is.6:1-5 & Jn.12:41-44).  Unlike the earlier patriarchs, the Israelites became slaves in Egypt (e.g. Ex.6:5-7, De.5:15); not resting on the 7^th day.  According to the supposed Book of Jasher (ref Josh.10:13, 2Sm.1:18), the Pharaoh of Moses’ youth did decree sabbath rest for the Israelites.  Jash.70:47 “Thus says the king, ‘For six days you shall do all your work and labor, but on the 7^th day you shall rest…as the king and Moses the son of Bathia have commanded.”  But the Pharaoh/king of 60 years later said to Moses regarding the Israelites, Ex.5:5, 9 “You would have them cease [shabath h7673] from their labors….Let the labor be heavier”.  So any sabbath rest allowed the Israelites was rescinded, no longer observed there by that generation.

Christ freed them and showed them clearly which day was the 7^th, His sabbath.  In Ex.16 the Israelites are no longer slaves, and Christ provides them manna in the wilderness based on His 7^th day cessation.  Ex.16:22-30 “This is what the Lord meant, tomorrow is a holy sabbath [shabáwth h7676] to the Lord.”  The Hebrew noun shabáwth appears over 100 times in the OT; Ex.16:23 is the first time.  It’s from the root verb shabáth h7673 to cease, seen in Ge.2:2 at Creation.  “That’s what the Lord meant” back in Ge.2:2 (which Moses also wrote), though as slaves the Israelites were denied (sabbath) rest.  Ex.16:4, 28 the 7^th day sabbath had been a law of God!  God gave them daily manna Sunday–Thursday and a double portion on Friday, so they wouldn’t need to gather any manna on the 7^th day Saturday.  Ex.16:30 so the people ceased [h7673] gathering food on the 7^th day.  This went on week after week for 40 years.  A total of 12,000 miracle feedings proved to them conclusively which day was the 7^th!  And it wasn’t any one day out of seven!  Christ was specific.

Adam Clarke Commentary Ex.16:23 “There is nothing either in the text or context that seems to intimate that the Sabbath was now first given to the Israelites.”  Ellicott Commentary “During the Egyptian oppression the continued observance would have been impossible.”  Catholic Encyclopedia XIII “The Sabbath is first met within connexion [sic] with the fall of the manna; but it there appears to be an institution already well-known to the Israelites.”  Benson Commentary “Here is a plain intimation of the observing a 7^th day sabbath, not only before the giving of the law upon mount Sinai, but before the bringing of Israel out of Egypt, and therefore from the beginning.”  Significantly, Ex.16 predates the giving of the Law.

Christ gave to Israel the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments so-called.  Ex.20:8-11 “Remember the sabbath [h7676] day to keep it holy. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them, and rested [h5117 núwach] on the 7^th day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.”  The 7^th day is God’s holy time, unlike any other day ordained by men.  Poole Commentary Ge.2:3 “If we compare this place with Ex.20:8-11 we shall find that Moses there speaks of God’s blessing and sanctifying of the sabbath, not as an action then first done, but as that which God had done formerly at the creation of the world.”  The sabbath wasn’t created in 1500 BC at Mt. Sinai; ancient Israel was to “remember” it.  The 7^th day sabbath was codified in the law of Ex.20:8-11, but had existed previously, as commentaries indicate.  Poole Commentary Ex.20:8 “The word ‘remember’ here is very emphatical; it reminds us of a formal delivery of the substance of this command, Ge.2:3.”  The 7^th day sabbath is a creation ordinance.  The 7^th day was the first thing God made holy!  (I’m not 7^th Day Adventist.)

The 7^th day sabbath is Saturday, both traditionally and presently.  Over 100 languages use a form of the word sabbath for Saturday!  e.g: in Arabic Saturday is Shabet, in Bulgarian Sabota, Croatian Subota, Czech Sobota, Indonesian Sabtu, Italian Sabato, Polish Sobota, Portuguese Sabado, Romanian Sambata, Russian Subbota, Serbian Subota, Spanish Sabado (literally, “the sabbath”), Greek Savvato.  And the modern Greek word for Friday is Paraskevi, meaning literally “to prepare”.  The Bible preparation day preceded the sabbath rest (Ex.16:23).  cf. Mk.15:42 “It was the preparation day, that is, the day before the sabbath.”  In the Bible koiné Greek, the term for “preparation” was paraskeué g3904…which is their word for Friday in today’s Greek!  Circa 200 AD the Roman historian “Dio Cassio speaks of the Jews having dedicated to their God the day called the day of Saturn”, heathen reckoning.  So it is clear…when Jesus walked the earth the sabbath day was Saturday!  (see the topic “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”, for man’s steps in the transition from Saturday to the traditional Sunday.)

Jesus never sinned.  Therefore, He kept the 7^th day sabbath (cf. Lk.4:16).  Christ said in Ex.31:16-17, “Celebrate the sabbath as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, on the 7^th day He ceased [h7673] and was refreshed.”  Christ was refreshed.  For man, the 7^th day is a time of refreshing from the physical/mental demands and concerns of the workweek…perpetually week after week.  The 7^th day is sanctified time devoted to God.

Christ’s new covenant is with Israel.  Je.31:31 “Behold’, says the Lord, ‘I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and Judah.”  Gentiles may share in it, according to Paul (Ro.11:13-19).

Josephus Against Apion 2:40 “There is not any city of the Grecians, nor any of the barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, where our custom of resting on the 7^th day has not come!”  Philo On The Creation (89) “The 7^th…that day is a festival of all the earth; a day which alone it is the right to call the day of festival for all people, and the birthday of the world.”  The 7^th day rest time is universal from Ge.2:3!  Theóphilus bishop of Antioch, 175 AD To Autólycus 2:12 “The 7^th day, which all men acknowledge.”

Jesus said in Mk.2:27-28, “The sabbath [sábbaton g4521, Greek] was made for man, and not man for the sabbath”.  Man was made on the 6^th day, prior to the sabbath being instituted for man on the 7^th.  Christ Himself as God & Creator made the sabbath day (and He was refreshed), and thereby He is Lord of it.  v.28 “Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the sabbath.”  The Son of Man also has dominion over what pertains to man.  Jesus said the sabbath was made for man/ánthropos/humanity.  (Though Christ was refreshed, God doesn’t grow weary, Is.40:28.)  Jesus didn’t say the sabbath was made just for Israel or the Jews!  Jonathan Edwards Sermon XIII “It is unreasonable to suppose that He hallowed it only with respect to the Jews, a nation which rose up above 2,000 years after [creation].”  After Adam the human was created on the 6^th day, he rested (with Christ) on the 7^th.  It wouldn’t make sense to think that Christ made the 7^th day sabbath for man, but then delayed thousands of years before He gave/revealed it to man!  Family New Testament Notes Mk.2:27 “As the Sabbath was made for the whole human race, they have a right to its rest & privileges.”  The sabbath day is a universal blessing.

By the 1^st century, the Jews had devised a traditional code which had 39 categories (plus itemization) of prohibitions for the sabbath day; as if man was made for the sabbath!  These were a man-made burden.  But Jesus said the sabbath was made for man, not vice versa!  Matthew Henry Commentary Mk.2:28 “The sabbath is a sacred and Divine institution; a privilege and benefit, not a task and drudgery.”

Again, the sabbath is a holy day/period of cessation from certain activities.  It’s not a ‘work’.  Le.23:3 it’s a holy assembly.  It’s not for legal striving or burdensome do’s & don’ts.  However, a level of faith is necessary to believe and know that Christ will provide our daily bread/manna/needs on the 7^th day, while we rest from work.

After Israel didn’t gather any manna on the 7th day for 40 years, the younger generation knew without a doubt which day of the week is God’s sabbath!  So in De.5 when the Decalogue was repeated, there’s no admonition to “remember” it (unlike Ex.20:8 earlier).  De.5:12-15 “Keep the sabbath day. Six days shall you labor. But the 7^th day is the sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall not do any work, you or your son or daughter or your male or female servant or your ox or donkey or your sojourner; so that your male and female servant may rest as well as you.”  They’re to recollect they’d been slaves.

De.5:12-15 is quite revealing.  Mankind is expected to work, caring for his own and for the earth (Ge.2:15).  Also this passage shows that the sabbath is a moral command, not just ceremonial!  Male & female servants, our employees, temporary sojourners…they need rest too.  There’s an equality in sabbath rest.  Allowing others to rest relates to loving our neighbor as yourself.  Work animals need rest.  It’s not just oxen & donkeys belonging to Jews that need rest!  All peoples’ work animals need rest…all-inclusive.  And work animals don’t just ‘rest in Christ’ either.  The sabbath is an enduring moral principle, to allow those under our charge to have rest.  Christ the Creator knew His creatures require rest.  It’s a physical need.

The Decalogue of Ex.20 & De.5 contains ten points of obedience; the 7^th day sabbath is one.  Others are: the command to honor our father & mother, and prohibitions against idolatry, murder, theft, etc.  Christ’s 7th day cessation is seen at Creation, before other points.  It’s strange to hear people claim the sabbath day ended at Jesus’ cross, but the other points are still in effect.  No one says the cross freed us to dishonor our parents, or commit murder or theft, for example.  Yet the church says we’re ‘free’ to work on the 7^th day.  Why this inconsistency?  Who gave man the prerogative to change God’s holy time (as if that’s even possible)…was it Paul, Christian gentiles, the RCC, some other man?

Again, see the topic “Sabbath Day Became Sunday in Rome”.  I’ll close with The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, v.1, Sermon 25. “The moral law contained in the ten commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He [Christ] did not take away. It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken. Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages.”  The 7^th day sabbath is part of it.

We’ll explore the sabbath issue further in “Sabbath 7^th Day (2)”.