The Sabbath - Come Let Us Reason Together
Jack Jackson - Minister Where You Are

In 2004 I heard a teaching about using the 10 Commandments as a tool to work with the Holy Spirit to win souls for Jesus Christ. Not only did this verse have scriptural support (Psalm 19:7, Gal 3:24), but as we learned, it worked on both those who were taught the 10 Commandments directly (Jews), as well as with Gentiles, which though they had not the law, they bore witness of the law written on their hearts, their conscience bearing witness (Romans 2:14-15). I didn't just accept the last part, but found that it was true as I witnessed to thousands, bring up the 10 Commandments and finding that even the unchurched bore witness of the 10 Commandments actually written on their hearts. They inherently knew coveting, lying, stealing, adultery, murder, dishonoring parents were wrong. These particular commandments (ones relating to loving our neighbors as ourselves) were always before them, interacting with people all around them, it was hard for them to not have these before their eyes; yet, did they immediately recognize their sins were not just against others, but God? And what about the commands relating to loving and obeying God (1-5), did they also bear witness of these written on their hearts?

It seems these are more deeply imbedded into the heart, ones that they did not like to immediately retain of God in their knowledge directly, but uncovered and reasonable when we reason with them (while witnessing and preaching the gospel). If they don't suppress the true in unrighteous, they admit that there is one God and that He is deserving of our worship (have no other God before Me); that it would be silly to have idols or graven images made by our hands, since He made us; that we should fear and love an almighty God and not misrepresent Him (blasphemy) or use His name improperly because it is Holy; and that we certainly should certainly set aside and mark the day of His choice once a week as a special day with Him (God chose the seventh day and called it the Sabbath, and Jesus said He was the Lord of that Sabbath Day).

So let's look at the matter of the seventh day Sabbath, which is most certainly a topic which shows just how confused the Christian world has come to become on this subject. Yes, come to become! My testimony is probably like nearly all who read this. Sunday has always been the day the Protestants and Catholics set aside for no work and which met for main services (understanding that many Catholics where I grew up in MD also had a Saturday night option). Whether Sunday or Saturday night, neither of these services fell in the seventh day weekly Sabbath day which was always observed in the Old Testament and New Testament as sun down Friday to sun down Saturday. Additionally, we had government enforced "Sunday laws" where many business had to be closed on Sunday, honoring "no work"; but did God ever declare and change His appointed day of Saturday to be changed to Sunday (the first day of the week). That is just how it was! That is how we all grew up! Only the Jewish folks and some Seven Day Adventists folks met on that "other day". There certainly were others I did not know about that had also remained committed to God's Sabbath, as I would later find out and which history records. As I continued to study the Bible and history, I pondered what day the early church marked (set aside as holy) to do no work and meet and worship (even teach Lev. 23:4); and, why, when, how and by what authority the seventh day Sabbath was changed?

First, we must put away our prejudices and man's traditions and just look at the Old and New Testaments record along with history, and examine which day the Jews met before Jesus came. That is the easy part, it was the same seventh day God commanded; after the 6 days of creation, God established, marked, and set aside (sanctified Himself) the seventh day known as the rest day or Sabbath. In fact it said He hallowed it, or demonstrated that He considered it or esteemed it as special to Him. No one who studies the scriptures would disagree that the Lord's Sabbath starts sun down Friday and continues through sun down Saturday. Remember that God did not consider a day from midnight to midnight, as was changed also from what He calls a "day" in the Bible ("and evening and the morning were the first day" Gen. 1:5). There is really no argument from anyone I talk too about what has been presented so far. In fact, if you were living among the Jews, as a Gentile, in the days of, or after Moses, and up to Christ, you also did not work on and kept the seventh day Sabbath holy, and attended congregation meetings with them. Many today make the argument the day is all about the soul, but if that were the case, why did also say the beasts of burden were not to work either? All in the camp came together to worship and hear God's word together. There was no other service among those people to even consider as an alternative but the "seventh day Sabbath service". More importantly, God established promises of tremendous blessing for those who remembered (#2142 in Strongs, zakar with the primary root to mark) His Sabbath (the seventh day of the week), to keep it Holy (specially set aside for no work and to think on His creation week), so even the Gentiles that did so received the blessing. So the Sabbath day was not just a "Jewish thing", it was an "honoring God thing".

Today, most of the professed church finds itself setting aside and worshipping on Sunday, and like the answer to the question at the family gathering "Why do we always have ham on Easter?" (openning up a whole other set of questions for another time), we usually hear "Well, we have always had ham on Easter!". Now that might end the questions and answers on the question of ham around the family table, but we know that if we go back far enough, we will find "we" somewhere in the past started having ham, and now after several generations it has just become a "family tradition". Didn't Jesus speak very harshly against traditions of men, especially when the take the place of His commandments?

Mt 15:1 Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
2 Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
4 For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
5 But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;
6 And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.
7 Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8 This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (bold added for emphasis)

Is that clear cut or what? It is clear enough that they were not allowed to manipulate the way they kept the commandment, or as Jesus so plainly taught, they then did it in vain. The blessing for honoring their parents was lost, because they had decided to do it their way, and teach others to do it that way. Did Jesus care whether they changed His commandment with a tradition of men? You bet! Do you suppose Jesus cares whether leaders, some where in the past decided to manipulate the way they kept "His Sabbath day" to instead just keep the "day chosen by men"? My wife and I are amazed we have never seen this before as we talk about this and write to you all. Remember who said "I will…" 5 times in Isaiah 4:12-14. Read those passages and see if "O Lucifer" might be the one behind changing things to the way he wants them to be, not God. See that he is not just doing things his way, but wants all men to be in his congregation. Look we all know and agree that in the end times Satan will be trying to deceive us (the very elect), but I can't believe how blind I was to be looking for a sudden change, rather than a slow and gradual one, like the manner that a tradition a of men would be expected to come in?

Isa 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. (emphasis added)

If we had been alive at the time right after Jesus' death burial and resurrection from the dead, and become believers, what day would we have been directed to come and hear scriptures taught weekly? One need only go to the Gospels and Book of Acts and find over and over again that they (Jews and Greeks) all met on the Sabbath day, without a single mention anywhere in the New Testament that they changed the day to Sunday in order to honor the supposed day which Jesus rose from the dead (Mark 1:21, 6:2; Luke 4:16, 6:6; Acts 13:42-44, 17:2. Paul (like Jesus before him), as was his custom, met weekly on the Sabbath, and didn't change that after his conversion, or any of the Apostles, so where and what day would a new believer have had to come gather to "not forsake the assembly of the Brethren"? Obviously, the seventh day Sabbath which distinguished, or set apart God's people from pagan worship on the "Sun" day. There was no other service for the believer on that weekly observance, so those who marked the day (Remembered it) set aside Sabbath. Now consider the context of the time, when Paul wrote his Epistles and counseled about not letting anyone judge you about days; might he have been speaking to Gentiles (Colosians 2 and Romans 14) under persectution for leaving now remembering and honoring God by keeping "that Jewish day", when so many were worship pagan God's on the day of the "Sun"? Do we read those passages from our point of reference today, while we are keeping Sunday, and justify our Sunday traditions because of these scriptures? Consider that if God sees a day as sundown to sundown, even those "keeping midnight Saturday to midnight Sunday" would not be keeping a whole one of God's's defined days, but parts of two of His days. When we instead place ourselves in the time they were written and see that Paul was teaching on the seventh day Sabbath to these people while he was with them, and maybe just maybe, we can see he might have been addressing a persecuted church of new believers, meeting on Saturday Sabbath and hearing an earful for it? In those passages he does not say anything about esteeming one day or another day, compared to esteeming all the days the same, as though he was saying it didn't matter whether you chose to keep Saturday vs. Sunday holy; or chose instead to keep all days holy. He said esteem "the day" vs. "all days" the same. Which day do we think was "the day" if not the seventh day Sabbath? We must be careful not to read more into it, from our perspective today, but in the time and conditions in which he spoke it.

There was a question which started to really bother my conscience as I began this study and prompted this writing. Does God actually care which day I mark specially mark for Him? to hallow above others and therefore do no work? I use the work "mark" because as I stated earlier that in Strong's #2142 "Remember" the Sabbath day, to keep it holy…. Had the root "to mark it". When we get a new calendar, my wife goes to work "marking" it all up with special dates to remember, or set aside so we don't schedule other events on those days. Thank God for wives! But, God said to remember or mark the seventh day ("But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God" "wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day: and hallowed it" portions of Exodus 20:10-11). Does it say that any ole' day is fine with God? No! Doesn't He specifically commanded those whom profess Him as "The Lord thy God" to mark the seventh day, the one He established, not another day of our choosing. Those who believed were to take their calendars out and "mark" off all weekly Sabbath days as "The Lord's established day for rest". That day was most certainly special to God. Isn't He, as our Father and Master, worthy and deserving of our love and honor (Malachi 1:6). Yes, as Christians, we are to be holy and He is Holy on all days, but we are commanded to work or not deserve to eat, so we can't apply that to the special Sabbath, where we are commanded to rest of work. But isn't that rest for our soul found in Jesus? Yes, that rest is, but there are several types of rest, this one is for the body, otherwise why worry that beasts of burden rest? I don't know about you, but the thought I can says "no thanks, I am resting today" when asked to work is a huge blessing. I find as I get older (44 now) a day of rest a week is not a restriction (burden of the Lord) but a huge blessing which is no longer grievous. Jesus said this day was blessed, or a blessing for us. The Sabbath was made for man, not man made for the Sabbath is what Jesus said. The curse placed on us all from the disobedience of Adam of Eve was that work (tending the garden was easy before weeds!), and we were to have to work with sweat from our brow, ye he Lord blessed His followers with a one day a week rest (that is a 1/7th reduction of the curse isn't it?). It certainly is also test of whether we have faith that in not working, we won't get behind on our labors and be left short of provisions. Do you trust Him enough to rest? That all being said, what day did Jesus teach every week, as part of his custom? You guessed it, He honored the will of His Father in heaven by marking that day and keeping it holy. Why wouldn't He, it commemorated His creation week, the most amazing display of power we have ever seen. He was also the Lord of the Sabbath, wasn't He?

When "the Church" began did they have many denominations in each city to choose from? No. There was one church of believers in the God of Israel, the one true God, our God today, in each town, and if you were a believer, you didn't forsake the assembly of the Brethren together (Hebrews 10:23). Jesus warned in Matt. 24 and hoped their flight would not be on the Sabbath, so obviously He believed His followers would be still worshipping on the Sabbath. So you went to the only actual church in town which met on which day? The seventh day Sabbath, as God had commanded. The entire Old and New Testament supports that day as the day they did not work and was the meeting day, and never gives permission to subvert that day or switch the Sabbath to Sunday. When you are driving on a trip, you typically don't realize you are off-course (lost) until you are way far into getting that way. Have you ever been driving to a destination only to see a road sign that you know is for a city in the complete opposite direction you intended to be going and said "How in the world did I get this far off course?" You begin to retrace your steps (turns) and then see, wow! I made a left hear when I should have made the right. I believe we as "The Church" finds itself in a position today not unlike the one in the story. We know that most who call themselves believers worship and set aside Sunday as a day not to work, but based on the fact the early church met on Saturday and did not work that day (as God commands), begs the question "Where in the past did we turn left and find ourselves on Sunday?" "Who decided to make the left turn?" "On what authority was this done?" Would Jesus consider this a tradition of men as He did the concern He addressed in Matt. 15:1-7?" Do will still get the blessing on Sunday?" "Is this where we want to really be?" "Does the Lord now hallow Sunday instead of the Sabbath ? "Does the Bible say anything about future worship when we come back together with Jesus?"

The last of these might actually be the best to answer, because I feel it may shine light to better consider the others. Prophesy, is God's way of telling us the future before it happens. There are many disagreements about prophesy even among Christians, but no believer would say that God doesn't see the future and therefore can tell us ahead of time what will happen. In Isaiah 66:22-23, God's Holy word tells us of the future we can expect in heaven.

Isa 66:22 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.
23 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. (emphasis added)

The Hebrew calendarr doesn't use our Pope Gregory months, but it's months are from one new moon to another. Obviously this is God's calendar, the one He will have forever with us, and definitely with Sabbath being sundown to sundown, as God recognizes days. These passage really caused me to think, and should cause us to examine the issue of Sabbath and see if Sunday (midnight to midnight) worship and rest is actually a "traditions of men" changed by the Catholic Church, without His authority, as they also did the 10 Commandments. The changed times, dates and laws, which is clearly why the early church saw the Papal system as the "antichrist". A switching to Sunday worship and other paganized holidays were not intended by God for His Church at all. Now we know Isa. 66 is a future event because certainly we have not seen Him create the new heavens and new earth, as of yet, but know it is coming in the future. Likewise, verse 23 says that in that future, which will last forever, "all" flesh, not one particular group, will be meeting before Jesus from one Sabbath to another (weekly). Wow! Imagine getting to have Jesus as the Pastor every week, speaking with authority so we don't even have to worry about being Bereans.

Even though the majority today that claim Jesus as Lord and Savior worship on Sunday, clearly Jesus is not planning to change prophesy, just to accomandate our "traditions of men" is He? Does this cause you to ponder this more seriously, as I have? I am really not interested in my supposed "liberties" as much as I desire to love and honor The Lord my God. How about you? If the church in the past never had made a left turn somewhere, would we even be discussing this? No! We would all still be meeting with the Brethren on the day the first Brethren met, the seventh day Sabbath, established by God, not men. Could it be that those who left that pattern originally where the ones the written of Hebrews was talking about when He accused some of forsaking the assembly of the Brethren. Think about it, if believers in all the Cities were meeting on the Sabbath, the first to start Sunday worship day had themselves departed from assembling with the Brethren, otherwise, they couldn't have left Sabbath worship in the first place. My Mom didn't realize it but as we talked about this issue she said, if I changed back to Saturday, I would have to stay home, because no one in my area meets on Saturday. The opposite should have been true way back when, but somehow a left turn was made.

Have you ever watched a man get around the fact he got lost? They will actually start saying things like "I meant to take this route because the car needed to run on a long trip", or "I was just seeing if you all were paying attention". The hardest thing to do is humble ourselves and realize somewhere along the way we made a wrong turn, leading all those in the car to get lost together. It is not just the driven, but the passengers which are lost too. If they all start to blame and judge, all they will is fight about it. The quicker the error is noticed, admitted, and corrected, the quicker all get back on course. Could it be time, as time grows short, and the time of the Lord's return grows nearer and nearer, that we carefully look at the traditions that are in the Church, like Sunday worship, and ask did we make a wrong turn? Does this glorify God? Will Jesus have to make a correction when He fulfills future prophesy and calls "all" (that means we believers) to worship Him then on the Sabbath and in His feasts, not the ones we have blended into to His. If we are honest, and hear our conscience which bears witness with God, we will see holding onto our traditions we have come to love are actually selfishness. Selfishness is not God honoring, but sinful. If we see from scripture, where we are headed, and what Jesus has planned (Sabbath worship) and know that that is where it all started before and right after He came as God with us; how can we not notice we are off course? How can we not admit there was a wrong turn some where in the past (maybe at the same time the pagan practices and people were all made Christians, just because they were citizens of Rome)? How can we waste time fighting and justifying our liberties when we can see in scripture how it will end? If God's word in Isaiah 66:22-23 is true, which no believer should question, why not start getting ready for what is coming?

When a bride accepts the proposal from the groom, she is not to set out to change his ways, but instead submit to his ways. Is Jesus our Bridegroom? Is He coming back for us to set things on this earth right? Yes! Is He planning a remodeling? Yes! Is He bothering to ask how we want it to look? No! It will be more glorious than anything we could imagine anyway. So why did we wait until our Bridegroom left us to prepare a place (new Jerusalem) to change from the ways He says He will have in affect when He comes back and forever? This is not a question of legalism, but love and obedience as a Bride waiting earlerly to welcome her Bridegroom, and submit ourselves in love to His ways, not ours. As for me (Jack Jackson) and my house, we will get back on tract for the One we love and wait for, not worrying what men will say, not letting anyone judge us by days, the Lord has that authority, only He established the day. What will He have you to do?