Introduction.
What gave me the headline was a question I got from a workmate once: The question was: What I’m wondering is why you think that it is so important what day to consecrate? I can perfectly well see and understand why anyone would want to keep the Sabbath on a Saturday, but I do not believe that it is essential for salvation … Do you really mean that?
As we all know, there are different ways to approach the day of rest. Some say that God’s Sabbath is no longer in effect because we live under the new covenant, and that all of God’s Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross with Jesus. Others claim that Jesus changed the Sabbath and moved it from the last day of the week, our Saturday, to the first day of the week, Sunday. Still others stubbornly claim that the Sabbath is a Jewish invention, and that they had no concept of the Sabbath until they had received God’s Ten Commandments when they were at Sinai. Then there are some who keep God’s Sabbath as it is prescribed in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.
This set in motion a thought process, and I had to go to the source to find the answer. The road to the answer can be both short and long. It is rarely the case that the shortest path is the best path to take, and the path that gives the correct answer. The long road is more complicated but will hopefully give us a more complete and accurate answer.
Those of you who have read what I have written about the Sabbath before will probably remember much of what is written here. This post is not exactly the same as what I have written before because new and different information has been added.
All Bible texts are from the King James Version 1911/1769 unless otherwise stated.
How long will you refuse to keep my commandments and laws?
Let us then look up the Bible and see what it says on the matter, and whether we can find any indications as to whether the Jews, or Israel, knew about the Sabbath before they came to Sinai.
On the way to Sinai, Israel complained about not having food. Then God gave them manna to eat. They had to gather this manna every morning, and what they gathered in the morning had to be eaten the same day, or it would go bad. On Friday, they received the following message: And he said unto them, This [is that] which the LORD hath said, Tomorrow [is] the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake [that] which ye will bake [today], and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning, (Exodus 16:23). Remember, this was just after they had crossed the Red Sea and were still on their way to Sinai. It would be a few more days before they got there.
Then we read in Exodus 16:24-26: And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, eat that today; for today [is] a sabbath unto the LORD: today ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, [which is] the sabbath, in it there shall be none.
Notice the wording: Six days ye shall gather it, and the reason they were not to gather manna all seven days of the week was because the seventh day was God’s Sabbath, set aside for holy use by God the Creator.
What does this remind us of? In Genesis 2:2-3 we find the conclusion of the creation week. God had spent six days creating everything that exists, and he rested on the seventh day. The Bible says: And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made, (Genesis 2:2-3).
Exodus 16:26 also points to the commandments given to Israel a few days later: In the fourth commandment we find this text: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it, (Exodus 20:8-11).
When they were to gather manna, Israel was told that six days you shall gather it, which means six days you shall labour, but on the seventh day there shall be no manna, which means it is the Sabbath.
Then we read in Exodus 16:27: And it came to pass, [that] there went out [some] of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. This disobedience causes God to ask Moses the following question: … how long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? (Exodus 16:28).
As we see, God is asking the question of how long Israel will refuse to keep God’s commandments and His statutes. Why does God ask this if Israel did not know about the Sabbath and that the Sabbath Day should be a day of rest? Or did Israel know what was expected of them before they crossed the Red Sea, even long before they left Egypt? Or did God not know what He was doing when He asked how long Israel would disobey? The answers to these questions are so obvious that I leave it to you to find the answers to them.
In the book of Exodus, we find the story of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. After only a few days in the wilderness, God gave them manna to eat. What we must especially note about this is that this event occurred before they had arrived at Sinai. There was one commandment, or prohibition, attached to the manna, namely that the people had been told not to gather manna on the Sabbath, which is Saturday, the seventh day of the week. Despite God’s prohibition, some people still went out to look for manna on the Sabbath. They found none. Therefore, God asked Moses the question we looked at above and which we find in Exodus 16:28: … how long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?
This question clearly shows that the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, was something God had commanded people to keep holy for a long, long time. Why else would God ask how long they would refuse to keep His commandments and laws? Breaking God’s law is defined as sin, and I would already remind you of Romans 6:23, which says that the wages of sin is death.
800 years later, God reminds the Jews of this event when He says this through the prophet Ezekiel:
But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness: they walked not in my statutes, and they despised my judgments, which [if] a man do, he shall even live in them; and my sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them in the wilderness, to consume them, (Ezekiel 20:13).
Then Ezekiel repeats God’s requirement to keep the Sabbath holy, and what punishment will await them if they do not keep the Sabbath: And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I [am] the LORD your God. Notwithstanding the children rebelled against me: they walked not in my statutes, neither kept my judgments to do them, which [if] a man do, he shall even live in them; they polluted my sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the wilderness, (Ezekiel 20:20-21).
It wasn’t just the fourth commandment that Israel broke, they broke every conceivable commandment and laws that God had given them. They had also been given those 40 years to conclude that they were dependent on the Lord so that they could surrender their lives 100% to Him. They didn’t, but they rebelled against God. They also managed to get Moses to sin against God, when because of their constant complaints, he struck the rock so that water gushed out. In other words, the Jewish people didn’t learn a single thing in the desert. And like Israel, most of us today have learned nothing from history at all.
Adam and Eve broke God’s commandments.
God gave Adam and Eve free will, and they were allowed to eat from every tree in the garden except one. In other words, they could do whatever they wanted as long as they kept God’s commandments. As a whole, man has not changed at all in the years since Adam and Eve rebelled against God. Yes, they rebelled, as man still does today. Even though God had imposed the death penalty for breaking the commandment, God’s law was still broken.
The people of Israel show us that they had not learned anything from Adam and Eve. The story of Israel´s desert wandering is a clear parallel to the fall of man, and the echoes from the fall still resounds today from the garden of Eden and the day when Adam and Eve fell into sin. When God had created man, he put them to dress and keep the garden. They had free hands to do what they wanted to do, but God put one condition for their freedom and to try their loyalty.
They were given a prohibition, and of course they could choose between being loyal to God and keeping God’s commandments or being disloyal and breaking God’s commandments. The result was that they chose to break God’s commandments, and they were driven out of the Garden of Eden, and they died – spiritually at first and eventually also physically. In Genesis 2,15-17 we find this text: And the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”.
The reason for this commandment is for sure that God would try man if he, with his free will of heart, wanted to follow God´s will when the free will of men was put to the test so that they had to make a choose. The choice came in the form of the serpent that tempted the woman, and Eve and Adam fell in sin: Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? (Genesis 3:1).
Eva tried certainly as good as she could to resist, and she even told that they were allowed to eat of every tree in the garden except this one tree in the midst of the garden, and that they would die if they ate of the tree: And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die! (Genesis 3:4)
Even though God said that man would die, the woman was tempted, she took the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and also gave to Adam, who also ate. Thus they died, first in a spiritual sense, and they were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. Why did God impose such a severe punishment for violating the commandment not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Is it because God is a brutal and barbaric God who uses force and coercion to force his creatures into obedience and submission? This is not how I have come to know my God, quite the opposite.
My God is a God that allows me, like He allowed Adam and Eve, to choose what I want to do.
My God gave me, like what he gave Adam and Eve, and Israel in the wilderness, a set of rules of conduct, the ten commandments that he asks me to observe as he told them in previous times to keep the commandments they received.
Of course, I stumble and fall into what the commandments command me to do and what the commandments forbid me to do but I don’t do it anymore intentionally or deliberately. That’s how God met Adam and Eve and the people of Israel, they got a set of commandments to keep, and that’s how he meets all people in the world through all ages.
John says in 1 John 5:3: For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
In 1 Kings 9:6 it says: [But] if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments [and] my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them … …
… … and in Leviticus 26:34 Moses wrote that if God’s people apostatized, they would be sent into captivity, and then the following would happen: Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye [be] in your enemies’ land; [even] then shall the land rest and enjoy her sabbaths.
After the people of Israel had taken possession of the promised land, it was not long before the apostasy began, and soon they broke almost every law and commandment God had given them. The Lord raised up judges and prophets, but the decline only continued. They eventually asked for a king over them like the neighboring nations had, and thus theocracy ceased, and monarchy was also introduced in Israel.
About 800 years after Israel took possession of the promised land, Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed Jerusalem and took the people into exile to Babylon. There is a reason why God allowed this to happen to his people. Jeremiah was the last of the prophets to warn the king and the people of the pending judgment, in the form of Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest. He stated, among other things, this:
The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen [that] which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot, (Jeremiah 3:6)
Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; [and] I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I [am] merciful, saith the LORD, [and] I will not keep [anger] for ever, (Jeremiah 3:12).
Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion, (Jeremiah 3:14).
If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove, (Jeremiah 4:1).
Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now everyone from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good, (Jeremiah 18:11).
What happened to Israel? Did they repent? No, not even when Nebuchadnezzar soldiers stood outside the gates of Jerusalem, they didn´t repent, and in that way rendering their own judgment. Nebuchadnezzar conquered the land and destroyed Jerusalem and led the people in captivity to Babylon. The reason why this happened was that they had not kept God’s commandments and laws. It is apparent from Jeremiah 3,6 that it is said that she, Israel, played the harlot, which is the same as adultery, and as in biblical sense is to worship false gods.
In this way, the people of Israel broke both the first and the second commandment in God’s law because they worshiped other gods, and they had made statues such as the bull at Sinai and many other statues of the false gods and worshiped them. The first and the second commandment are like this:
1) Thou shalt have no other gods before me, (Exodus 20:3).
2) Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of anything] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments, (Exodus 20:4-6).
They also broke the law regarding the Sabbath year, or the sabbath of the land, which says that the field must lie fallow every seventh year, and the Jubilee year which says that every fiftieth year is a Jubilee where slaves were to be set free, and properties given back. (See Leviticus 25,1-17.)
The consequences of these transgressions were catastrophic. Despite God’s promise of mercy if we keep His commandments, Israel fell. The same consequence applies to those who break one or more of the other eight commandments. There is a punishment, which we have seen repeatedly throughout history.
In Noah’s day, the wickedness of mankind was so great that God destroyed all mankind except for 8 people, Noah and his family. (Genesis 6:5-8).
Sodom, Gomorrah and their sister cities were destroyed by God (Genesis 19:12-29) because, among other things, they did not keep the seventh commandment: Thou shalt not commit adultery, (Exodus 20:14). Here the commandment was violated to such an extent that today we use a word that covers the sexual perversions that unfolded in these cities, sodomy, and one that describes the person who does this, sodomite.
No matter what regulations, laws or commandments in question, there is always a punishment for those who knowingly ignore the word of God. The Bible is also full of examples that God is not late to fulfil his word to punish the sinner, yet God is longsuffering with the sinner and gives him many opportunities to repent. When the Jews went into the desert, they were given 40 years to repent.
When Nebuchadnezzar stood outside Jerusalem, God allowed Jeremiah to prophesy and proclaim until the walls were demolished, and they had a few years to repent. Time after time throughout the history of Israel, the prophets of God have prophesied about the coming judgment and dismay if they did not repent from their wicked ways and invoked God. But on the other hand, God also keeps words when he says he will bless us if we keep His statutes, laws and commandments. In Nehemiah 1,9 we read: But [if] ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, [yet] will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
God’s statutes, laws and commandments are full of his wisdom, and Solomon appreciated this wisdom higher than anything else, which is also expressed in the Proverbs: Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father’s son, tender and only [beloved] in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live, (Proverbs 4:1-4).
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. This is what John writes in his first letter, chapter 5 verse 3. In other words, God does not love unreservedly if one does not keep all the commandments. Many argue that the «the great commandment of love» in Matthew 22:36-40, which Jesus gave us, nullify the law and the prophets, but it is not so. Jesus did indeed give us this commandment, but he added that this is the foundation of the law, on which the whole Bible and gospel are based, and to which my salvation relies. The great commandment of love is like this: Master, which [is] the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second [is] like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets”.
The first part of the double commandment of love is the vertical axis, describing the relationship we should have with God, and is the sum of the first four commandments of God’s Ten Commandments. The second part is the horizontal axis, describing the relationship we should have with our neighbour, and is the sum of the last six commandments of God’s Ten Commandments.
If we break one of the bids, then we break by definition the entire law. Thus, it does not matter if we only break a commandment, we make ourselves as guilty of judgment and punishment for this one offense as if we should have broken all the commandments of God, James 2:10: For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one [point], he is guilty of all. If we break the law without repentance of our sins and asking for forgiveness but living in such a way that we do not live according to the great commandment, then a future judgment is awaiting. What the judgment means to us tells Paul in Romans 6:23: … the wages of sin [is] death … In other words, it is the same judgment that awaits us today as awaited the first two sinners when they fell into sin.
But you say, the law cannot save me, and you maybe even refer to Galatians 3:11 where it says: But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, [it is] evident: for, the just shall live by faith.
It is absolutely correct that one is not saved by the law, but there is no contradiction in this. For those who do not keep the law and do what it imposes on us, do not love God. For as Jesus Himself says in John 14:21: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. The sum of this verse tells us that if we keep the law and the commandments, we love Christ, and if we love Christ, God will love us.
John says in his 2nd letter 1:6 the following: And this is love that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. Does it really have any consequences to do what the law requires of us? What, then, is the consequence of loving God and keeping his commandments? Paul has answered this in Romans 2:13: For not the hearers of the law [are] just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
Keep my commandments.
We find the law in the Old Testament, and this law tells us what we must do. If I choose to break the first commandment to make me my own private god, then I will not be considered just in the eyes of God. Nor will I be considered just if I do not keep God’s fourth commandment but choose to keep Sunday holy instead of Saturday. According to Jacob, I might as well kill, steal, commit adultery, covet, etc. like breaking the Sabbath command. If I keep Sunday holy, I will not be counted righteous by God even if I keep the other nine commandments to the letter. It does me no good to keep nine of the ten commandments, no matter which commandment I do not keep. However, if I keep the Sabbath commandment, in addition to all the other commandments, and do as it say in Exodus 20:8-11, and keep the seventh day of the week, Saturday, as my Sabbath day, then God will count me righteous:
The fourth commandment of God is as follows: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
But it is not enough to just keep the commandments, we must also earn our salvation. Then, some may object and say that we do not need to do works to achieve salvation. Well, we can look at what Jacob 2:15-26 says about this: If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be [ye] warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what [doth it] profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise, also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent [them] out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
We can also look at what Jesus said to the rich young man in Luke 18:18-23. He was told by Jesus to do good works. Verses 21 and 22 tell us this: And he said, all these have I kept from my youth up. Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
The works in question here are keeping God’s law and doing God’s will by giving people in need what they need for their livelihood. This is the fulfilment of the commandment of love, and then we keep the law. And, as it is said in the Bible, faith without works is a dead faith, but if we live out our faith, by showing Jesus’ love and keeping the double commandment of love, then we have a living faith, and at the same time we keep all of God’s commandments. That is what is needed to win the right to eternal life. Yes, it is only faith, and faith in Christ alone that can save me, but if I do not keep the double commandment of love on which the whole law and the prophets rest, then I break the law and I will not be counted righteous.
Can one who has not been saved by the grace of Christ love God? Can one who does not live after the commandments and the law love God? The Bible itself says no to these questions, because the Bible says that those who love God are those who keep His commandments. Again, and again, God repeats his words, as well as hammering them in our hearts and in our minds, saying, Keep My Commandments. May it be a coincidence that God repeats and repeats and repeats Keep My Commandments, or is it so that God simply know what is best for us here too?
But which commandments does God want us to keep? God himself says keep my commandments, and then it is clear that we should not relate to commandments that have been changed or given to us by men. The papacy has made its own version of God’s Ten Commandments, where the second commandment has been removed, the fourth has been broken, and the tenth has been divided into two. These commandments are not God’s Ten Commandments.
In addition, we find in Judaism over 600 different laws, commandments and rules that are intended to help regulate what is legal and what is illegal to do on the Sabbath. For example, an Orthodox Jew cannot light a candle on the Sabbath because this is defined as work in these 600 laws. They cannot carry a stone that weighs more than a certain weight, but they are allowed to carry a child no matter how much it weighs. They can therefore circumvent the law by carrying the child holding this stone. We do not need to keep these Jewish additional laws and the like, because these are not God’s commandments, something Jesus showed us clearly several times in his confrontations with the Pharisees.
We also do not need to deal with all the oddities that have come from Rome over the years, and I am thinking primarily of the changed commandments (the Pope’s Ten Commandments) for which the DKK itself has taken responsibility.
But an equally important question is this: How can we love God?
We can of course find the answer to this question in the Bible; we can show that we love God by keeping his commandments, all his commandments, and is the same as fulfilling the double commandment of love. Let us draw a comparison between God’s Ten Commandments and the double commandment of love. The double commandment of love reads as follows: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Looking at the first four commandments, these four commandments apply to our relationship with God. Thus, if we love God, we keep these four commandments as they stand, and without reservation, without change and without adaptations. The six other commandments apply to our relationship with our next and we cannot keep the last six commandments if we break one of the first four commandments because I cannot love my brother if I do not love God, as little as I can love God if I do not love my neighbour as myself. I cannot love one without loving the other one. That is an impossibility.
In other words, if I choose to keep the first day of the week holy as my Sabbath, then I might as well, as mentioned before, be guilty of breaking the other nine commandments as well, for God Himself instituted the Sabbath on the last day of the week and He asks me to keep this day holy as the Sabbath. Another important point is how important God thinks the Sabbath is. I don’t think anyone would disagree that the Sabbath of the Old Testament is the seventh day of the week, Saturday. I cannot believe that there is another day the writers of the New Testament mean when they write about the Sabbath. But let us, for the sake of order, look at what the Bible says about this day, the Sabbath – the seventh day of the week – Saturday. The Sabbath was instituted at creation when the Lord blessed and sanctified the seventh day. No other day has been blessed and sanctified by the Lord.
God mentions the Sabbath in following ways:
Holy sabbath, (Exodus 16:23).
Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I [am] the LORD, (Leviticus 19:30).
And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made, (Genesis 2:3).
For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it, (Exodus 20:11).
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, verily my sabbaths ye shall keep for it [is] a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that [ye] may know that I [am] the LORD that doth sanctify you, (Exodus 31:13).
Jeg gav dem også Mine sabbater. De skulle være et tegn mellom dem og Meg, så de skulle kjenne at Jeg er Herren som helliger dem, (Ezekiel 20:12).
It is always implicit in the verses that we should keep this special day holy, which God already blessed and sanctified during creation week because God himself rested on this day. However, we must be careful not to become formalists and law-abiding people so that we keep the seventh-day Sabbath holy for the wrong reason. We must keep the Sabbath holy because we want to obey God’s commandments and law, not out of compulsion. No one has to believe that we will be saved if we keep God’s Sabbath, but we should keep God’s Sabbath holy because we are saved. And not least to meet God on the day He blessed and sanctified, because He wants to meet us on this day.
We are still allowed to eat of every tree in the garden, just not of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil … but to be saved, I cannot do anything else than believe that Jesus Christ died for me on cross. In order to remain saved, or to hold on to salvation, it is no longer enough to just believe.
Then I have to change my life and adjust to what God says to do in everything.
I cannot choose which commandments I will keep and what commandments I will not keep, for God gives us a choice; For or against – light or dark – white or black, not both. For either, I choose to keep the commandments of God, and then all the commandments of God, as they came from God’s hand, or I will not.
I cannot choose to keep nine of the Ten Commandments, and I cannot decide whether I should just keep a part of a commandment. I cannot listen to people no matter how well they mean by what they say, no matter who they are. Whether it’s my wife, my pastor, the pope or you who say something to me, it’s my duty to check what the Bible says. In order to see if an assertion is in line with what the Bible says, I have to read the Bible without being biased, and without mean anything about something before studying it carefully and looking for what the word, the verse and / or the section really means. If we do this, we will not find a single place that indicates that the Sabbath has been changed. But if we read the Bible in light of Catholic and Protestant teachings, you will find guidelines for how to experience the text and, not least, how to interpret the text.
Making choices like the majority of Christians do, that’s what I call buffet theology. God gives us a choice, He lets us decide which way we want to go, and it’s either for God or against God – either we choose light, or we choose darkness – either we choose white, or we choose black. We can’t choose both, and there’s no third option. Either I choose to keep God’s ten commandments, and then all ten commandments of God as they came from God’s hand, or I don’t. I can’t choose to keep nine out of ten commandments, and I can’t choose to keep a commandment only partially. Then it becomes the aforementioned buffet theology, Bible shopping or glory theology, which is the same as liberalism.
I should listen to people who have the same faith as me, and who tell me or explain this or that, but no matter how well they mean what they say, I can’t accept this without further ado. No matter who they are, whether it is my wife, my pastor or you who tells me something, it is my duty to myself to check this from the Bible. To see if a claim is in line with what the Bible says, one has to read the Bible without being prejudiced, or having an opinion about something before one has studied it carefully and has looked for what is actually in the word, verse and / or passage we are studying. If we do this, we will not find a single place that indicates that the Sabbath has been changed. If we read the Bible in light of Catholic and Protestant teachings, then guidelines are laid for how we should experience and interpret the relevant texts.
Read the text the way it is and see if you find a commandment from the Lord that says he has changed the Sabbath day from Saturday to Sunday, because God doesn’t do anything without first tell His servants. Through the prophet Amos, God said the following: Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets, (Amos 3:7). This is very clear text, but Christians in general will not take this verse into account, but they stubbornly continue on the path they are on, regardless of whether it leads to destruction.
In this case where we are talking about the Sabbath and a possible change, what does Amos 3:7 mean? If God had changed the Sabbath, He would have given clear notice of this in the past before the change had occurred. God has not given such notice, neither in the Old Testament nor in the New Testament.
Then ask yourself: What is the meaning of this verse or this text. If you encounter a word which has several interpretations, then you must look in the Bible to see what it says about this word there. Look in the Old Testament by similar expressions and insert it into the historical contexts in which it was written, maybe you get another experience of the text. Just look to the orthodox Jews. They still keep the seventh day as the Sabbath like they have been doing since Abraham, Isaac and Jacob’s time when they became a separate people. But the Sabbath as an institution and a holy day, dates back to creation when God blessed and sanctified this special day, the seventh day of the week – the Saturday – which stands as a memorial to God as the Creator. This day is also the mark of God, the seal on his covenant with mankind, an everlasting covenant, an unchangeable covenant, as God himself is unchangeable.
It is striking that the only commandment that begins with Remember! is the only commandment that almost all Christians will forget. In Exodus 20:8-11 it says: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it..
The end of the book of Isaiah is entirely devoted to the end times, and the time after Jesus’ return, and the prophet tells us that we shall keep God’s Sabbath also in eternity. Isaiah writes this: For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, [that] from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD, (Jeremiah 66:22-23).
Why will ye be as stubborn, as the Lord said of Israel just before they were to take possession of Canaan? Why will ye not realize that God’s rest day, which is the seventh day of the week, is enshrined in the Ten Commandments of God? Why is it so difficult to keep all the Ten Commandments of God? Can ye not turn unto God, and come out of Babylon, as the fallen churches are called by God in the end times? Are ye afraid of what your family, friends, workmates, and neighbours will say? Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do anything unto you. Well, they may turn against you, even the closest of friends, but what ye will receive in return from God will outweigh all the inconveniences and problems ye will encounter, and the account of following God’s will, will be positive.
As I said, we all have a choice to make, and it is an either or choice. So the question is which choice you have made in your life. Below you will find what the Lord will do with 1) those who do not choose the Lord, and 2) those who choose to follow God the Creator and keep all His commandments and live as He wants us to live.
To those who belong to group 1) the following is said. Through the prophet Isaiah, God chastises Israel in Isaiah’s time, but this is also written down to show us that we are no better than ancient Israel. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, [even] a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise [men] shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent [men] shall be hid, (Isaiah 29:13-14).
Unfortunately, there are many who call themselves Christians who fall into this category, they have a high confession, but follow the human commandments, that is, pagan and philosophical traditions.
This is quoted by Jesus in Matthew 15:7-9 when He rebukes the scribes and Pharisees, (see verse 1). As already said, this also applies to us. Jesus says to them: [Ye] hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with [their] lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching [for] doctrines the commandments of men.
This is the case in most church denominations in our time. They teach human commandments as if they were doctrines. Do you keep all of God’s ten commandments, or do you teach human commandments? Is there only high confession in your church, or have you learned to know Jesus? What about God’s Ten Commandments? Do you keep all of God’s Ten Commandments as they are written in Exodus 20:3-17?
In 1 John 2:4 we read the following: He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. What does the Bible say about liars? Let us look at what Revelation 22:14-15 says about this: Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
To those who belong to group 2) the Lord says the following, and this should be encouraging to you who sincerely seek the Lord. In Proverbs 8:17 God says through the wise King Solomon: I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.
In John 14:21 Jesus says to His disciples: He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
Everything written in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, which is of a doctrinal nature, is as valid today as when it was written. As God Himself is unchangeable, His word and His law and His commandments are unchangeable. Or as it says in Hebrews 13:8: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, and forever.
My answer to the question Does it really matter? must be as follows:
I do not keep Saturday holy as God’s Sabbath because I believe it will save me, but I keep this day holy because I want to do so with all my heart because I want to honor my God, Creator and Savior, and because my God has already saved me.