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Bible-Ten Commandments
"GOD'S
LAW IMMUTABLE" 2
"THE BREACH IN THE LAW"
"And
they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt
raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The
repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away
thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call
the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour
him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking
thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will
cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the
heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." Isaiah
58:12-14
MORE BIBLE FACTS: THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
It is commonly agreed that God gave us the seventh-day
Sabbath, at Creation, and commanded us to keep it throughout the Bible. But it
is charged that God let fallible men change it to Sunday several centuries
after the Bible was finished.
The truth is that men made that change without Gods
permission. We should still keep the Bible Sabbath today, not Sunday.
1. The Sabbath was given to all mankind at the Creation
of this world.
The seventh-day Sabbath was given to mankind on the
seventh day of Creation Week.
Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished, and all the host of them. 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.
God dedicated and set aside the Sabbath as a rest
day2,000 years before the first Jew. Abraham is considered by all to
have been the first Jew. He lived about 2000 B.C. Biblical records indicate
that the Creation of this world took place about 4000 B.C. So the Bible
Sabbath is not Jewish! It is for mankind; it is for all the world.
Mark 2:27 The Sabbath was made for man.
2. The Sabbath is a memorial of Creation and our
salvation.
First, it is a memorial of Creation.
Exodus 31:17It is a sign between Me and the
children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth,
and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed.
As a memorial of the Creation of this world, the Sabbath
cannot pass away without first having this world pass away and creating a new
one! Our planet could not have a new or different Sabbath day, without
having it first hurled into oblivion and then a new planet created from
nothing. But no such event has occurred.
Second, the Sabbath is a symbol of our salvation.
When we keep it, we tell all the world that we belong to God and that we serve
and obey Him. The seventh-day Sabbath is a sign of our conversion,
sanctification, and salvation:
Exodus 31:13 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.
Ezekiel 20:12 Moreover also I gave them My
Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the
Lord that sanctify them.
Ezekiel 20:20 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.
But what about Christ's resurrection? Nowhere in
Scripture were we told to keep any day in honor of Christ's resurrection.
To do so is unscriptural. On the contrary, to set aside the Creation and
sanctification Sabbath of the Bible for another day of the week and excuse it
by saying that we do so in honor of Christ's resurrection is indeed to do a
very daring thing. Who dare presume to set aside the Memorial of Creation and
salvation for any reason! To knowingly do so flies in the face of repeated,
direct, Biblical commands by the God of heaven. To do so denies that He is our
Creator and Redeemer.
If we abandon the Bible Sabbath and keep another day holy,
in the Judgment what excuse can we offer? There is no Bible reason for keeping
the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh day.
3. Christ's disciples faithfully kept the Bible Sabbath,
not Sunday.
The disciples had been with Jesus for three and a half years
and had listened closely to His teachings. What they did at the time of His
death on Calvary shows what He taught them. The sacred importance of the
seventh-day Sabbath was of such concern to them that they would not even
prepare the body of Jesus properly for burial on Friday, lest they transgress
the Fourth Commandment.
Mark 15:42, 47-16:1-3 And now when the even
was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath
. . Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where He was laid.
And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and
Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might
come and anoint Him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week,
they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among
themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?
For more on this, read Luke 23:53-24:2.
4. According to the New Testament, the Apostles of Jesus
always kept the Bible Sabbath.
Read Acts 13:14; Acts 13:42; Acts 16:13; Acts 17:1-2.
Paul supported himself by tentmaking; and then, on the
Sabbath, he would preach the gospel.
Acts 18:3-4, 11 Because he was of the same
craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation, they were
tentmakers . . And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded
the Jews and the Greeks . . He continued there a year and six months, teaching
the Word of God among them.
Paul's manner was the same as Christ's custom: to keep
the Bible Sabbath (Acts 17:1-2; Luke 4:16).
Paul never taught that the moral law was, or could be,
set aside. It will ever govern the conduct of mankind:
Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law
through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
Romans 6:1-2 What shall we say then? Shall we
continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are
dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law
sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known
lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
Paul clearly saw that the problem was that we needed to
obey the law; there was nothing wrong with the requirements of the law itself.
Romans 7:12 Wherefore the law is holy, and
the commandment holy, and just, and good.
1 Corinthians 7:19 Circumcision is nothing,
and uncircumcision is nothing, but [that which is important is] the keeping of
the commandments of God.
The moral standard that governs mankind was not relaxed
or destroyed by the death of Christ; for, indeed, it is through the merits of
Christ's sacrifice that we can be empowered to keep that law.
Matthew 1:21 Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins.
Jesus saves us from our sins, not in our sins. And since
sin is the breaking of the Ten Commandments, it is obvious that He saves us by
enabling us, strengthening us, to keep that law.
1 John 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin
transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.
The other Apostles saw this same great truth, that the
moral standard that governs mankind was not relaxed or destroyed by the death
of Christ:
James 1:22-25; 2:10-12, 17-18 But be ye doers
of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a
hearer of the Word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his
natural face in a glass. For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and
straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and
continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work,
this man shall be blessed in his deed . . For whosoever shall keep the whole
law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do
not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery,
yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and
so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty . . 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.
1 John 5:2-3 By this we know that we love the
children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments. For this is the
love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not
grievous.
5. God predicted, in Scripture, that men would later try
to change the Law of God especially the time law.
The Bible Sabbath is very important for it is the very
center of our worship of God! If men were later to try to change it to another
day, we should surely expect a Bible prophecy saying that it would happen.
Daniel 7:25 And he [the little horn power]
shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints
of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given
into His hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
The church of the Dark Ages was to rule the world for
1260 years; and, during this time, it would try to tear out Gods holy Time
Law and put a counterfeit in its place. Oh, what blasphemy men can dream
up, when they are tempted by Satan to gain religious control of their fellow
men!
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 For that day [the
second coming of Christ] shall not come, except there come a falling away
first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped.
God said:
Ezekiel 20:20 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.
After the New Testament was finished and the Apostles had
died, men tried to transfer the sacredness from the seventh to the first day
of the week. They tried to change the time law.
Roman Catholic: It is well to remind the
Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible
does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an
institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day
observe a commandment of the Catholic Church. Priest Brady, in an address
at Elizabeth, N.J., March 17, 1903; reported in the Elizabeth, N.J., News of
March 18, 1903.
You may search 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. James Cardinal Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers, chapter
8.
If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should
worship God on the Sabbath day. In keeping the Sunday they are following a law
of the Catholic Church. Albert Smith, Chancellor of the Archdiocese of
Baltimore, replying for the cardinal, in a letter of February 10, 1920.
We hold upon this earth the place of God Almighty. Pope
Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter, June 20, 1894; The Great Encyclical Letters of
Leo XIII, p. 304.
Prove to me from the Bible alone that I am bound to
keep Sunday holy. There is no such law in the Bible. It is a law of the holy
Catholic Church alone. The Bible says Remember the Sabbath day to keep it
holy. The Catholic Church says, No. By my divine power I abolish the Sabbath
day and command you to keep holy the first day of the week. And lo! The entire
civilized world bows down in reverent obedience to the command of the Holy
Catholic Church. Priest Thomas Enright, CSSR, President of Redemptorist
College, Kansas City, MO, in a lecture at Hartford, Kansas Weekly Call,
February 22, 1884, and the American Sentinel, a New York Roman Catholic
journal, in June 1893, p. 173.
Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change
was her act . . AND THE ACT IS A MARK of her ecclesiastical power. From
the office of Cardinal Gibbons, through Chancellor H. F. Thomas, November 11,
1895.
How important it is that we obey the commandments of God
rather than the commandments of men.
Romans 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye
yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey?
Matthew 4:10 It is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.
Matthew 15:9 But in vain they do worship Me,
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
1 Kings 18:21
How long halt ye between
two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him.
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