Going Behind Borders Ministry
Why does the Sabbath Matter
Sabbath Observance Honors the Creator
The observance of the seventh day is a repudiation of evolution. It would be absurd for a man who does not believe in the atonement to observe the Lord's Supper. It would be just as absurd for a man to observe the Sabbath who denies that God created the world. The observance of the Sabbath sets forth the observer's belief that God did create the world according to the claims stated in the Sabbath commandment. The importance of the observance of the Sabbath is more clearly and forcibly understood as we continue to search the Scriptures and find that the fact of God's ability to create, as opposed to the inability of other gods to create, is the distinguishing attribute of the true God. In the following scriptures the true God is contrasted with the false gods by virtue of the fact that He has creative power and the others do not:
"For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord made the heavens" (Psalm 96:5). "but the Lord is the true God. ... Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish. ...He hath made the earth by his power" (Jeremiah 10:10, 12). It will be noted that in the introduction of the true God, as contrasted with other gods, the prophet says, "He hath made the earth." In speaking of the false gods, he says that "have not made the heavens and the earth."
The power to create is what marks the true God from the other gods. When Jonah was introducing the God he worshiped, he said to those on the ship who worshiped other gods: "I am a Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land" (Jonah 1:9). All through the Old Testament the true God is thus distinguished. It is the same in the New Testament. In Acts 4:24 the disciples prayed, "Lord, thou art God, which has made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is." These words are from the Sabbath commandment, which says, "the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is."
The disciples were praying to the Lord whose creative power is acknowledged in the observance of the memorial of creation. He is the true God. In making known to the people of Lystra the true God, Paul said, "We preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein" (Acts 14:15). Here again we find the disciples quoting from the Sabbath commandment. While Paul waited at Athens, "his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry." In introducing the people to the true God, he said, "For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth" (Acts 17:16, 23, 24).
In declaring the true God to those philosophers, Paul introduced Him as the One "that made the world," and then said, "He is Lord." The judgment-hour message that is being proclaimed to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people today calls upon them to "worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water" (Revelation 14:7). This array of scriptural references should convince anyone that the great truth which God intended should be perpetuated by the observance of the Sabbath and that the one and only true God is the Creator. By our observance of the Sabbath we show that we repudiate evolution and accept the Genesis account of creation, acknowledging God as the Creator. As long as it is in man's duty to recognize God as the Creator, the Sabbath will endure. In Psalm 111:4 we are told that God "made his wonderful works to be remembered."
The reason is that His works remind us of creation, and creation reminds us of the Creator, and the Creator is the only true God. Since He "hath made his wonderful works to be remembered, “ it would be only natural that, at the close of the week in which these wonderful works were done, He should institute a memorial by which we would be reminded from week to week of them. Thus we would never forget who the true God is, and drift into idolatry, or deny Him as the Creator by accepting the theory of evolution. So at the close of creation week, on the seventh day, the Creator rested from all His works; and at the same time He "blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (Genesis 2:1-3). That the seventh day was sanctified as a memorial is proved by the fact that the first word in the Sabbath commandment is "remember." Remember what? "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."
What for? "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth." The Sabbath is a memorial of His wonderful works which He "hath made ... to be remembered." The theory of evolution denies the great truth for which the observance of the seventh day stands. In this generation, when this theory is so widespread, how divinely planned it is that the Sabbath truth should be especially emphasized that all may see its meaning and begin observing it! In the face of these facts, how can it be intelligently and scripturally claimed that this creation memorial is Jewish in origin or application? Actually the Creator rested on the seventh day more than two thousand years before there were any Jews. Was it a matter of indifference with God as to whether or not man from Adam to Moses recognized Him as the creator? Then was his recognition to cease at the cross? The claim is that everything about the law system of the Old Testament came to an end at the cross, and yet dispensationalists claim that "almost every intrinsic value contained in the law system is carried forward and incorporated into the present grace system." Since all the fundamentalist adherents of this school are so against the observance of the creation Sabbath, they must feel that its existence had no particular importance and, therefore, was not brought forward.
In fact they condemn the observance of the Sabbath day just as vehemently as they would the practice of lying or immortality. They hold that it had not essential value whatever. Opposers of the seventh-day Sabbath claim that although God made the Sabbath for man, it had no real value to him, physically or spiritually. They claim that man could have gotten along without it just as well; and since that was the case, it came to an end at the cross. It seems strange indeed that God would say so much in favor of the observance of the Sabbath, even to meting out the death sentence to those who presumptuously violated it, if it had not intrinsic value whatever. It is not pleasant to show up such absurd inconsistencies, but at times it is necessary to show how very groundless are the claims of those who despise the Creator's rest day.
The Sabbath command speaks of rest but not worship.Is it necessary for one to go to church on that day?
It’s true that when God first instituted the Sabbath in Eden, He made no mention of going
to church on that day; He just set it aside for a holy purpose, which He would expand upon
at a later time. (See Genesis 2:1–3.) And in Exodus, He did indeed give us more details
about the specifics of that holy day in the Ten Commandments. Still, the Ten
give no instruction that we are to gather together for worship on that day. It just gives
guidelines on what it means to keep it holy. (See Exodus 20:8–11.) But as we continue
to move forward in Scripture, we come across an interesting verse in Leviticus: “Six days
shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye
shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings” (Leviticus 23:3).
The word “convocation” is from the Hebrew word miqrâ' (מקרא), which means a public meeting, assembly, or gathering. Here God is giving even more details about the Sabbath: In this case, it’s also to be a time for holy assemblies (i.e., worship services). Moreover, in Isaiah, we read, “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” (Isaiah 66:23). This is speaking of worship in eternity, but God specifically mentions the Sabbath and coming together for worship in this passage. The main reason, though, that we associate the Sabbath with assembling for worship is the example of Jesus.
Here are some scripture references that highlight this: “They went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught” (Mark 1:21). “And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?” (Mark 6:2). “He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read” (Luke 4:16). “It came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered” (Luke 6:6). Over and over again, we see Jesus in the synagogue on the Sabbath. We’re even told that it was His custom to be there on that day.
The disciples also followed in the example of Jesus, as we can see clearly in the book of Acts: “When they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down” (Acts 13:14). “When the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath” (Acts 13:42). “He reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks” (Acts 18:4). It’s well-known that when the Jews went into the synagogue, it was for the purpose of worship. These scriptures are referring to those church services, where people gathered together on the Sabbath day.
Now let’s look at this issue from a common-sense point of view. God says that we are to keep the Sabbath holy. That means no work, i.e., ceasing from secular labor, according to Exodus 20:8–11. That leaves us with a free day! What better way to spend the Sabbath than to gather together with like-minded believers and worship God together? Worship itself is an act of love in its true sense. What a privilege to worship our Lord, on His holy day, surrounded by His people—that’s a triple blessing for us! Also, no man is an island. We gather strength from one another. That’s why God told us the following in Hebrews 10:24, 25:
“Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.” If you’re looking for that “gotcha” verse that says specifically, in so many words, “Go to church on Sabbath or else,”—well, you won’t find it. However, God has given us the example of His Son, and many verses besides, to lead us to a clear conclusion in this matter.
Seven Facts About The Seventh Day
Adapted from Why God Said Remember by Joe Crews. Part of Satan’s strategy to destroy humanity’s trust in God has been to attack His claim as the Creator. Obviously, the theory of evolution is part of this deceptive and soul-destroying effort. With its amoral humanistic emphasis, Darwin’s doctrine has turned millions into religious skeptics and enshrouded in darkness their need for the Savior. Yet while many Christians rightly denounce this unscientific belief, ironically, many are still falling into the devil’s trap of denying God’s sovereignty over the earth. That trap is the ages-long effort to twist and destroy the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. Through Satan’s false information and man’s trust in traditions over the sure word of Scripture, millions of Christians have been led to discount or even reject the importance of observing the Sabbath. “The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord: … in it thou shalt not do any work” (Exodus 20:10). No one disagrees with the clear meaning of this text, yet millions are finding ways not to follow it. Why? The general Bible ignorance of the church and the clever arguments of Satan have created a climate of prejudice against the holiness of the seventh day in favor of the observance of Sunday. So in the interest of promoting God’s law over the theories of men, let’s take a moment to rediscover some amazing facts about the seventh-day Sabbath.
Fact #1: The Seventh-day Sabbath Establishes God’s Sovereignty Why does Satan hate the Sabbath so much? Because the Sabbath identifies the true God and His claim of ultimate sovereignty. God certainly anticipated the controversy over the Genesis account of Creation. He knew that after the fall of man, there would be doubts about His claims of manufacturing all the staggering mass of matter by merely commanding it to exist.
To safeguard His sovereignty, He established a mark that denoted His absolute right to rule as Lord. He chose to memorialize His display of creative power by setting aside the seventh day of the Creation week as a holy day of rest and remembering. God wrote these words: “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. … For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is: … wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8–11).
Once a week, as the earth rotates on its axis through space, the Sabbath reminder travels around the earth reaching every man, woman, and child with the message of an instant creation and the one who did the creating. Why did God say remember? Because to forget the true Sabbath is to forget the true Creator. Does it really matter that much? See “The One Unimportant Commandment?” below.
Fact #2: The Seventh-day Sabbath Was Made for Everyone A multitude of Christians call God’s fourth commandment the “Jewish Sabbath.” But nowhere is this expression found in the Bible. The seventh day is called “the sabbath of the Lord,” and it is never called “the sabbath of the Jew” (Exodus 20:10). Luke, a Gentile writer of the New Testament, often refers to things that were particularly Jewish.
He writes of the “nation of the Jews,” “the people of the Jews,” “the land of the Jews,” and the “synagogue of the Jews” (Acts 10:22; 12:11; 10:39; 14:1). But he never refers to the “sabbath of the Jews,” although he mentions the Sabbath repeatedly. Christ also taught that “the sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27). Adam and Eve were the only two people who existed when God actually established the Sabbath.
There were no Jews in the world until 2,000 years later, so it was never meant just for the Jews. Jesus uses the term “man” in the generic sense, referring to all mankind. The same word is used in connection with the institution of marriage that was also introduced at creation. Certainly no Christian can believe that marriage was made only for the Jews.
Fact #3: It’s Not About Just Keeping Any Day Every word of God’s Ten Commandments was written by His own hand in stone. Every word is serious and meaningful. No line in them is ambiguous or mysterious. Sinners and Christians, educated and uneducated, are not confused about the words “seventh day.” So why do they discount those words if every other word in the commandments is considered to be ironclad? Satan wants the world to accept Sunday as the day he has chosen for worship, but any day will do for him so long as it means we’re breaking God’s command. Genesis describes the origin of the Sabbath like this: “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 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 2:1–3).
Which day did God bless and sanctify? The seventh day. How was it to be kept holy? By resting. Could any of the other six be kept holy? No. Why? Because God commanded not to rest those days but to work. Does God’s blessing make a difference? Of course. Parents pray for God to bless their children because they believe it makes a difference. The seventh day is different from all the other days because it has God’s blessing. Has God ever given man the privilege of choosing his own day of rest? No. In fact, God confirms in the Bible that the Sabbath is a matter settled and sealed by His own divine power. Read Exodus 16. For 40 years, God worked three miracles every week to show Israel which day was holy:
(1) No manna fell on the seventh day; (2) they could not keep manna overnight without spoilage; (3) but when they kept manna over the Sabbath, it remained sweet and fresh! But some Israelites had the same idea as many Christians have today. They felt that any day in seven would be okay to keep holy: “It came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.” What happened? “And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” (Exodus 16:27, 28).
God met them and accused them of breaking His law by going forth to work on the seventh day. Would God say the same thing to those who break the Sabbath today? Yes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). But why the seventh day, exactly? See “Why the Seventh Day?” below.
Fact #4: We Know the True Seventh Day Some reject the seventh-day Sabbath over the belief that we cannot know which day it falls on today, so picking any day should be okay. But this is fallacy. Here are four proofs that identify the true Sabbath. 1: According to Scripture, Christ died on Friday and rose on Sunday, the first day of the week. Practically all churches acknowledge this by observing Easter Sunday and Good Friday.
“This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. The women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:52–56).
This is clear evidence that Jesus died the day before the Sabbath! The day of His death was a “preparation day” because it was the time to get ready for the Sabbath. Notice, then, that the women rested over the Sabbath “according to the commandment.” The commandment says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath,” so we know they were resting on Saturday. The very next verse says, “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared. … And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre” (Luke 24:1, 2). 2: The calendar has not been changed so as to confuse the days of the week.
Just as we know that Jesus and His followers observed the same day as Moses, we can be positive that our seventh day is the same day Jesus observed. Pope Gregory XIII did make a calendar change in 1582, but it did not interfere with the weekly cycle. What did Gregory do to the calendar? He changed Friday, October 5, 1582, to be Friday, October 15, 1582. He did not affect the weekly cycle of days.
3: The Jews have observed the seventh day from the time of Abraham, and they still keep it today. An entire nation of people, all around the world, continue to observe a Sabbath they have known for more than 4,000 years. 4: Over 100 languages on earth use the word “Sabbath” for Saturday. For example, the Spanish word for Saturday is “Sabado,” meaning Sabbath. What does this prove? It proves that when those languages originated long ago, Saturday was recognized as the Sabbath day and was incorporated into the very name of the day.
Fact #5: The Sabbath Is Not a Memorial of Deliverance Out of Egypt This is a belief taken and twisted out of the Old Testament: “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, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:14, 15). Some people suggest this means that God gave the Sabbath as a memorial of the Exodus from Egypt. But the Genesis story of the making of the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1–3) and the wording of the fourth commandment by God (Exodus 20:11) reveals the seventh-day Sabbath as a memorial of creation.
The key to understanding these two verses rests in the word “servant.” God said, “Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt.” And in the sentence before, He reminds them “that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.” In other words, their experience in Egypt as servants would remind them to deal justly with their servants by giving them Sabbath rest. It was not unusual for God to harken back to the Egyptian deliverance as an incentive to obey other commandments. In Deuteronomy 24:17, 18, the Bible says, “Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge. … Thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence:
therefore I command thee to do this thing.” Neither the command to be just nor to keep the Sabbath was given to memorialize the Exodus, but God told them that His goodness in bringing them out of captivity constituted a strong reason for them to deal kindly with their servants on the Sabbath and treating justly the strangers and widows. In the same way, God spoke to them in Leviticus 11:45, “I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt … ye shall therefore be holy.” No one would insist that holiness did not exist before the Exodus or that it would be ever afterwards limited only to the Jews!
Fact #6: The Sabbath Is Not Meant to Memorialize the Resurrection It is true that Jesus rose on a Sunday. It is one of the pivotal moments in the history of the world. But nowhere does the Bible hint that we should keep Sunday holy. Many other wonderful events occurred on certain days of the week, but we have no command to keep them holy either. There is, of course, a memorial of the resurrection commanded in the Bible, but it is not to determine a new day of worship.
Paul wrote: “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).Baptism is the memorial of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. However, the Sabbath is a memorial of creation. Still have a question about this? See “The Upper Room” below.
Fact #7: The Sabbath Will Be Celebrated for Eternity The Sabbath is an arbitrary arrangement of God that serves a powerful purpose. It is His claim — His seal — over the world and all human life. It is also a sign of the redemption He offers to every single one of us. Surely this is why God will preserve Sabbathkeeping throughout eternity. That’s right! “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” (Isaiah 66:22, 23).
The Sabbath is so precious to God that He will have His people observe it throughout all time in the beautiful new earth to come. If it is so precious to Him, should it not be precious to us? If we are going to keep it through all eternity, why not keep it now as our pledge of obedience to Him? Trust and Obey: There Is No Other Way It is easy to understand why the devil has waged a continuing, desperate battle against the seventh-day Sabbath. He has worked through the pride of tradition, misinformation, and religious bigotry to destroy the sanctity of God’s special sign of authority — the Sabbath. But with these Sabbath facts in hand, may God grant every Christian the courage to honor the Sabbath commandment as His special test of our love and loyalty. It might be a duty to keep the seventh-day holy.
But it should not be a burden. In an age of false gods and spirituality, of atheistic evolution, and the stubborn traditions of men, the world needs the Sabbath more than ever. It is more than just a test of our loyalty to the Creator. It is more than just a sign of our sanctification through His power. It is His promise of a lasting, eternal gift of restoration. More Interesting Facts! The One Unimportant Commandment? God made it very clear that, regardless of feelings, those who abuse the Sabbath are guilty of breaking His law.
James explains that it is a sin to break even one of the Ten Commandments: “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” (James 2:10, 11). Most of the commandments begin with the same words: ‘‘Thou shalt not.’’ But the fourth commandment is introduced with the word “Remember.” Why? Because God was commanding them to call something to memory that already existed but had been forgotten. Why the Seventh Day? Why did God bless the seventh day as a day of worship? Because He had just created the world in six days.
It was a memorial to the birth of the world, a reason to remember that mighty act. So could the Sabbath memorial be changed? No. Because it points backward to an accomplished fact. For instance, July 4 is Independence Day in the United States. Can it be changed? No. Because the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4, 1776. Your birthday cannot be changed either. It is a memorial of your birth, which happened on a set day. History would have to run through again to change your birthday, to change Independence Day, or to change the Sabbath day.
We can call another day Independence Day, and we can call another day the Sabbath, but that does not make it so. The Upper Room Those who believe that Sunday worship honors the resurrection of Jesus often cite the upper room meeting of the disciples on the same day that He rose from the grave. They argue that this gathering was meant to celebrate His resurrection. But the Bible record of the event reveals another set of circumstances. Mark writes that even though the disciples were confronted with the eyewitness story of Mary, they “believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country.
And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen” (Mark 16:11–14). Obviously, none of those upper room disciples believed that He was raised from the dead, so they could not have been joyously celebrating the resurrection. John explains their reason for being together with these words: “The doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews” (John 20:19).
Gbbministry is divided into a number departments which are responsible for various tasks/ functions. These departments are: Outreach and Prayer Ministry, Media and Welfare. These departments are broken down into smaller units so it can better carry out its functions locally, regionally and internationally.
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