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Tract 24a
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THE MEMORIAL OF CREATION--The Seventh-day Sabbath is the Bible Sabbath. It is the memorial of Creation (Ex 20:11; 31:17). In order to change it to some other day, it would be necessary to recreate the world. Every time we rest upon the Seventh day, we commemorate that amazing event, and honor Him by whose hand we were made--our Creator. Nowhere in the Bible did God ever tell us that Sunday was a memorial of anything.
THE ONLY WEEKLY REST DAY-- The first rest in the Bible occurred on the Seventh day of the week, because, at that time, God made it the Bible Sabbath (Gen 2:1-3). It is the only rest day God ever gave to man. The first work done in the Bible was done, by our Creator, on the first day of the week (Gen 1:3-5). The Bible never tells us the first day is to be a rest day or that it was ever set apart for this purpose.
BIRTHDAY OF THE WORLD--The first birthday in the Bible was that of the world, and, in commemoration of it, God gave us the Sabbath (Gen 2:1-3). No where in Scripture did God ever tell us the first day was in honor of anything.
THE ONLY DAY BLESSED--The Creator blessed the Seventh day (Gen 2:3). There is not one instance when He ever pronounced a blessing on the first day of the week.
MADE FOR MANKIND--The Seventh-day Sabbath was made for "man"-- that is, for mankind (Mk 2:27). It was not made merely for one race--the Jews. Sunday, the first day, was never set aside, in Scripture, as a special day for any race, nor for mankind as a whole.
GIVEN TO ADAM--The Bible Sabbath was given to Adam, as the head of the human race. Through him it was to be passed on to all nations that would afterward dwell on the earth. The Sabbath is not "Jewish" but is of universal obligation to the world. Sunday, the first day, was not given to Adam and Eve to be kept holy--nor did God later give it to anyone for that purpose.
GIVEN TO MANKIND 2,300 YEARS BEFORE THE FIRST JEW--The Seventh-day Sabbath was given as a sacred legacy to mankind 2,300 years before the first Jew (Abraham) existed. It is not a Jewish institution. The Bible never calls the Scriptural Sabbath "Jewish," but "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." It is to be kept holy unto the Lord, and should not be ridiculed or disregarded. The first day of the week was not given, by the God of heaven, as a sacred day to Adam, to the Jews, or to the Gentiles. In the Bible, it is always called just "the first day." There never was anything sacred about it.
THE ONLY SANCTIFIED DAY--After God blessed the Bible Sabbath, He sanctified it and set it apart for a holy use (Gen 2:1-3). The Seventh-day Sabbath is dedicated time that God gave to mankind to worship Him upon. It is the only day on which He worshiped. No where in Scripture did our Creator ever tell us that He had sanctified the first day of the week for any purpose other than that of a common working day.
THE ONLY HALLOWED DAY--The Seventh day is the only day which God blessed (Gen 2:3; Ex 20:11), sanctified (Gen 2:3), and hallowed (Ex 20:8, 11). He never hallowed, or made sacred, the first day of the week.
BEFORE MOUNT SINAI--Before the Ten Commandments were given on Mount Sinai, God gave manna to His people and, for forty years thereafter, several miracles occurred each week to point out the holiness of His Seventh-day Sabbath: (1) A regular portion of manna was given Sunday through Thursday. (2) Twice as much was given on Friday. (3) No manna was given on Sabbath (read Ex 16:21-26). God never worked any miracles to prove Sunday sacredness, for He had never assigned it any sacredness. The Bible Sabbath was part of God's law before it was written down at Mount Sinai (Ex 16:4, 27-29). The first day of the week has never been sacred at any time in history.
IN THE TEN COMMANDMENTS--The God of heaven specifically commanded us to keep the Seventh-day Sabbath holy unto Him in the Fourth Commandment (Ex 20:8-11). In the Ten Commandments, God specifically commanded us to work upon the first day of the week (Ex 20:8-11). Is it wrong to obey God?
WRITTEN ON ROCK--The requirement that we must keep the Seventh-day Sabbath was written on rock with God's own finger (Ex 31:18). It must be very important if God wrote it with His own finger. How many things in the Bible did God write with His own finger? And He wrote it on rock (Deut 5:22). No other natural substance is as enduring. How dare men say it has been done away with--when God Himself never said so! God never wrote first-day sacredness on rock--nor did His prophets ever write it on paper.
IT IS HIS COVENANT--The Ark, in the most holy place within the sanctuary, was a chest which contained the Ten Commandments, That is why it was called the "Ark of the Covenant" (Ex 40; Deut 10:1-5). God called this moral law His "Covenant" with His people (Deut 5:2-21). A covenant is an agreement. God agrees to save us if we will ask for forgiveness of sin and, by His enabling grace, keep His law. Both parties to the covenant agree to do something; that is what a covenant is. God never made any covenant with us in regard to the first day of the week.
THE BASIS OF THE NEW COVENANT--The "old covenant" experience is the attempt of the people to keep God's requirements in their own strength. In the old covenant, the fault was with the people (Heb 8:8). The "new covenant" is based on better promises. It is based on God's promise to enable us to do as He asks (Heb 8). In the strength of Christ we can obey Him. He died to save us from our sins, not in our sins (Matt 1:21).
TO BE WRITTEN ON OUR HEARTS--God offers to write His law on our hearts, by the enabling power of His Spirit (Heb 8:10). If we are willing to submit to His rules, we shall, in His strength, be empowered to obey everything He asks of us. We shall no longer break His law, but keep it. It will be heart work (Jer 31:31-34). God has never promised to write Sunday keeping on our hearts, nor approve of our keeping of that day.
THE SIGN OF THE TRUE GOD--Our Creator Himself says the Bible Sabbath is the sign of the true God, by which we are to identify Him--apart from all false gods (Ezek 20:20). It is the Creator who made the world. Only the Creator is to be our God. We are to worship Him alone. We are to have no other gods. But we are to worship Him in the way He specifies. He has commanded us to stop our regular work and worship Him on the Seventh day. The first day is the sign of allegiance to ancient pagan sun worship. Many Catholic and Protestant leaders tell us so, and historical records prove it. Only a foolish man would knowingly reject the law of God for the commandments of men (Matt 15:9; Mk 7:7).
SABBATH BREAKING DESTROYED JERUSALEM--God promised that Jerusalem should stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath (Jer 17:24-25). He sent them into captivity to ancient Babylon for breaking it (2 Chr 36:21; Neh 13:18; Jer 52). And for the same reason, He destroyed Jerusalem (Jer 17:27).
A BLESSING ON ALL WHO KEEP IT--God has not only blessed the Sabbath (Gen 2:1-3), but He also blesses those who keep it. This is a promise (Isa 56:2; 58:11-14). And this special blessing is also promised to Gentiles who keep it (Isa 56:6-7). God has not promised any blessing to those who decide to keep the first day of the week holy. Instead, He has promised a curse on those who choose the sayings of men in place of the commandments of God (Jer 17:5 and entire chapter; Matt 15:9).
REQUIRED TO HONOR IT--God requires that we keep His Sabbath and that we call it honorable (Isa 58:12-13). Do not ridicule that holy day; it is not "the Jewish Sabbath." nor is it "a yoke of bondage." There is no commandment of any kind in the Bible to give honor to Sunday.
THE GOD OF THE SABBATH CHANGES NOT--Jesus Christ has not changed (Heb 13:8). neither has His Father (Mal 3:6), and neither has His law (Ps 111:7-8; Matt 5:17; Rom 3:31). God made the world in six days and then rested on the Seventh-day Sabbath. Jesus faithfully kept that Sabbath while on earth. Shall we not be safe in following the example of both the Father and the Son? Nowhere in the Bible do we find one command from God or Christ to keep Sunday holy.
JESUS KEPT THE BIBLE SABBATH--When the Son of God came to earth, He faithfully kept the Seventh-day Sabbath all His life (Lk 4:16; Jn 15:10) as an example for us to follow--for Scripture says His earthly life is an example for us to copy (1 Pet 2:21; 1 Jn 2:6). Not once did Jesus keep Sunday holy.
THE SABBATH DURING JESUS' FINAL WEEK--As with every other week that preceded it, Jesus worked through the final work week of His life before His crucifixion. After His death on Friday, "the preparation day" (which was the day God's people prepared for the Sabbath (Lk 23:54; Matt 27:62), Jesus rested in the tomb during the hours of the Sabbath, and on the first day of the week He began another work week--by rising from the tomb (Matt 28:1; Mk 16:9; Lk 24:1; Jn 20:1) and traveling all the way to heaven and back again that day. Repeatedly, He said, "Mine hour is not yet come." Every act of His life was guided by the Father. We can clearly see this during His Last Week--working up to Friday afternoon, resting on the Bible Sabbath, and then resuming His work again on Sunday. But no such example, or pattern, of Sunday sacredness was ever given us by our Lord.
THE LORD'S DAY--The Seventh day is the Lord's Day, according to the Bible. We are told about the "Lord's day" in Revelation 1:10, but we are not there told what day it is. Elsewhere in the Bible we are given that information: Very frequently the Seventh-day Sabbath is called the day of the Lord (Ex 20:10; Lev 23:3; Deut 5:4-12, etc.), the day unto the Lord (Ex 16:23, 25; 31:15; 35:2, etc.), and His own day (Isa 58:13). In addition, while on earth, Jesus told us the day He was Lord of--the Bible Sabbath (Mk 2:28). No where in Scripture is the first day ever called the "Lord's day" or any similar designation. Be honest with yourself: Do you feel safer going by what God says to do in the Bible, or by what people around you tell you to do?
THE LORD OF THE SABBATH-- Jesus called Himself the "Lord of the Sabbath" (Matt 12:8) because it was His work to love and protect it. Should you not love and cherish it also? Never did Jesus call Himself the lord of the first day.
JESUS TAUGHT HOW TO KEEP IT--Far from abolishing the Sabbath, Jesus carefully taught men how to observe it (Matt 12:1-13). In addition, He repeatedly vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for man's good (Mk 2:23-28). But He never had anything to say about the first day of the week. He said nothing about keeping it holy.
THE FORGOTTEN PRAYER--Just a few days before His death, Christ gave His disciples a prayer--which most of His followers today have forgotten. He told them to pray that they might always keep the Bible Sabbath holy. Just before Calvary, He instructed His disciples that the Sabbath should be carefully observed after His death at the time of the predicted destruction of Jerusalem--thirty-nine years later, and even to the end of the world (Matt 24:2-3, 20). Matthew 24:20 is important, because it is a direct command, by Jesus for us, to keep the Sabbath in the years after Calvary. Christ was totally silent in regard to any sanctity of Sunday after His death.
THE SABBATH AND THE RESURRECTION--The Sabbath is a memorial of Creation (Ex 20:11; 31:17). The Lord's Supper is a symbol by which we remember Christ's death (1 Cor 11:26). Three times Jesus commanded us to keep it (Jn 13:3-17). Baptism is a symbol of Christ's resurrection and the new birth (Rom 6:1-12). Sunday, the first day of the week, was never given us as a memorial of anything. Christians will say they keep it "in honor" of the resurrection of Christ,--but the truth is Christ never told them to do so, and they only do so because everyone else does. It is a known fact that the crucifixion is more important in the salvation of man than is the resurrection, and yet if you found me regularly keeping Friday holy, you would consider me odd--for you would recognize I am just following my own ideas, without any Scriptural command to do so. God spoke of the Seventh day as your, as well as my Sabbath. He commanded us to keep it. Let us follow what He said, in the Bible, rather than what custom and men tell us. We were never told, in the Bible, to honor Sunday in memorial of anything.
CHRIST'S FOLLOWERS--His followers carefully kept the Sabbath because of the Bible commandment after He died (Lk 23:53-56). They loved Him and this was the day He had always taught them to keep. It is quite obvious that He kept the Sabbath and taught them to do the same. We are never once told that they kept the first day sacred--because of a Bible commandment, or for any other reason.
STILL THE SABBATH AFTERWARD--Thirty years after Christ's resurrection, the Holy Spirit specifically calls it "the Sabbath day" (Acts 13:14). A similar example would be that of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, who called it the "Sabbath day" in A.D. 45 (Acts 13:27). The Gentile converts called it the Sabbath (Acts 13:42). Paul never recommended Sunday to the Gentile believers. There is no record, in Scripture, that the Gentile believers ever kept Sunday holy. At no time did men under the moving of the Spirit of God tell us that Sunday was to be regarded as anything other than a common day.
THE SABBATH AT THE JERUSALEM COUNCIL--In the great Christian council of c. A.D. 49, in the presence of the apostles and thousands of disciples, James calls it the "Sabbath day" (Acts 15:21). At this very important council, Sunday should have been mentioned, if it had been decided upon as the new day for worship. But this did not happen.
MANY SABBATH MEETINGS AFTER CALVARY--It was customary to hold prayer meetings on the Sabbath (Acts 16:13). Paul read the Scriptures in public meetings on the Sabbath (Acts 17:2-3). It was Paul's custom to preach upon the Sabbath day (Acts 17:2-3). The book of Acts mentions stop-over meetings that Paul held on several different days of the week as He was traveling through an area. In contrast, within the book of Acts alone is given the record of his having held eighty-four meetings upon the Sabbath (Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4, 11). In all the Bible, we have a record of only one religious meeting held on Sunday, and that was a night meeting (Acts 20:5-12). There is no intimation that another such Sunday religious meeting was ever held before or after it. Nothing was said about Sunday sacredness at that meeting. A meeting does not make a day sacred--Paul held a lengthy gathering just a few days later (Acts 20:17-38). And "breaking bread" does not make a day sacred. This was their term for eating a meal. Jesus did it on Thursday night (Lk 22) and His disciples later did it every day of the week (Acts 2:42-46). The gathering of the disciples, in the upper room on the Sunday of Christ's resurrection, was not for a religious meeting--but "for fear of the Jews" (Jn 20:19). They were not gathered in honor of the resurrection of Christ, for they did not yet believe in it (Mk 6:11:12-17).
SUNDAY IN THE BIBLE--The first day of the week is only mentioned in the Bible nine times (Gen 1:5; Matt 28:1; Mk 16:2, 9; Lk 24:1; Jn 20:1, 19; Acts 20:7; 1 Cor 16:2). The first reference merely tells what was created on the first day of the week. Most of the others tell about the events of the resurrection morning. Acts 20:7 mentions one of Paul's many stop-overs in his travels, and 1 Corinthians 16:2 is the only mention in Paul's writings of the first day of the week. In it, he asks Christians to do their bookkeeping on the first day, so there would be "no meetings" when he passed through the area and collected the saved-up money for the poor.
NO DISPUTES OVER THE SABBATH DAY--There never was any dispute or question between the Christians and the Jews who opposed them over the Sabbath day. This is additional proof that the Christians still observed the same day that the Jews did. In addition, in the Bible there was no argument between them over Sunday sacredness either, for neither of them believed in it. At the time of Christ (the first century of our era), only the pagans were keeping Sunday sacred. They had been doing this for at least a hundred years. In later centuries, half-converted pagans, from Mithraism, began bringing the pagan sun-worship day into the Christian church.
PAUL FAITHFULLY KEPT THE SABBATH--We have already mentioned his having held eighty-four meetings on the Sabbath (Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4, 11). In all their accusations against Paul, the Jews never charged him with disregarding the Sabbath. They would have done so, if he had not faithfully kept it. In contrast, regarding Sunday, Paul taught the Christian believers that they should do their secular business at home on that day (1 Cor 16:2). Why would he do this if the first day were to be sacredly observed? This is the only time in all his writings that Paul ever mentions the first day of the week.
FIFTY-NINE TIMES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT--The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament fifty-nine times,--and always with respect, bearing the same title it had in the Old Testament: "the Sabbath day." Sunday is mentioned in the New Testament only eight times, and in not one instance does it bear the title of sanctity, or is it spoken of as a sacred day.
WORKING ON THE SABBATH--God said in the Ten Commandments that we are to work on the other days (Ex 20:9), but that we are to rest on the Seventh-day Sabbath (Ex 20:8-11). God has never given any man permission to work on the Bible Sabbath. Reader, by what authority--God's or man's--do you use the Seventh day for common labor? In not one instance did New Testament Christians--either before or after the resurrection--ever do ordinary work on the Seventh day. Why should modern Christians do differently than Bible Christians? The Apostles never rested on the first day and they never said it was sacred.
JESUS AND HIS FATHER'S LAW-- The Seventh-day Sabbath was written by His own finger upon stone at Sinai (Ex 31:18; Deut 5:22). When Jesus began His work, He expressly declared that He had not come to destroy the law. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets" (Matt 5:17). Never at anytime did He speak about establishing the sanctity of the first day of the week. There is no record that God has ever removed His blessing or sanctification from the Seventh day. There is no record that He spoke about sanctification in relationship to Sunday.
OUR REDEEMER IS OUR CREATOR--Jesus, the One who redeemed us, is the One who created us (Isa 43:1; Jn 1:1-3, 14; Col 1:16-18; Eph 2:10; Heb 1:2). He is the One who gave us the Sabbath in the beginning (Gen 2:1-3). He was the first One to use the first day as a working day (Gen 1:3-5).
OUR REDEEMER IS OUR LAW GIVER--Jesus existed before Abraham (Jn 8:58), even from old and from everlasting (Micah 5:2). He who was with the children of Israel all through their wilderness experience (1 Cor 10:1-12) was the One who, as our Creator, spoke the law on Mount Sinai (Ex 20), and who wrote it and the Sabbath on rock that we might observe it (Ex 31:18 and Deut 5:22). On earth, Jesus severely condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites, for pretending to love God, while at the same time making void (setting aside) one of the Ten Commandments by their traditions (Matt 23, etc.). It was Jesus who commanded that we work on the first day of the week (Ex 20:8-11). And it is Jesus who would today tell men that they should keep His commandments instead of setting them aside for tradition (Matt 15:9; Mk 7:7).
NEVER ABOLISHED--There is no record that God has ever removed His blessing or sanctification from the Sabbath day. There is no record that He spoke about sanctification in relationship to Sunday. Not a word is said anywhere in the Old or New Testament about the Sabbath being abolished, done away with, or changed. There is no text anywhere, in Scripture, that tells us the sacredness, given to the Seventh-day of the week, has been transferred to Sunday, the first day. Large sums of money have been offered for one text which says that, but the money has never been claimed. There is no such text. It does not exist. Long centuries ago, the first day was made into a counterfeit Sabbath by men, who at that time, wanted to control the religious worship of the people. Men today are ignorantly keeping that day in honor of ancient pagan sun-worship practices.
THE ATTEMPTED CHANGE PREDICTED-The great apostasy and the effort to change the law of God--and the Bible Sabbath--was predicted in the Bible (Dan 7:25). Daniel prophesied that men would seek to change it (Daniel 7:8, 20-21, 25). This is a very important prophecy, and links closely with the parallel prophecies of Paul and John. We were warned about this evil power which would rise in the Dark Ages. It is the Little Horn power of Daniel 7:25; the Man of Sin of 2 Thessalonians 2:3-13; the Antichrist of 1 John 2:22; 4:3; 2 John 7; and Mystery, Babylon the Great of Revelation 13 through 17. Men and women today must return to the plain words of Scripture and refuse to bow to this pagan error of Sunday sacredness We must return to the keeping of the Ten Commandments, just as God gave them (Ex 20:1-17). Jesus died on Calvary to forgive our sins, and enable us, by grace, to obey the Bible. Those who, in our day, knowingly reject God's only true Sabbath day for a man-made one, are actually submitting to the authority of that power, predicted in Scripture (Dan 7:25), that would seek to change it. They obey man instead of God (Acts 5:29).
"Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles . . . From beginning to end of scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first"--Catholic Press, Sydney, Australia, August 1900.
THE PREDICTED RESTORATION--Thousands of years ago, the God of heaven not only predicted that an apostate power would attempt to remove the "time laws" from the commandments (Dan 7:25), but He also predicted the restoration of the true Sabbath. Isaiah prophesied that, after the holy Sabbath had been trodden down for "many generations," it would be restored again (Isa 58:12-13). John the Revelator predicted that it would be kept by the remnant in the last days (Rev 12:17; 14:12).
THE SABBATH IN THE NEW EARTH--Those who enter through the gates into the New Jerusalem will be those who, in this life, have--by faith in Christ's enabling strength--obeyed the commandments (Rev 14:12). The holy Sabbath, which our Creator gave to all mankind, at the end of the six-day Creation Week (Gen 2:1-3), is not only to be honored and kept in this life by those who acknowledge God as their Creator. But it is to be hallowed and observed in the New Earth (Isa 66:22-23). The precious Sabbath, which we have come to love so much on earth, will be with us throughout all eternity to come! Oh, Lord Jesus, come quickly! We long for Thy Second Coming to take Thy people to Thyself.
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