You know, it never ceases to amaze me how so many fundamental Christians will with vehement vitriolic disdain criticize the small segment of Christians who observe the Sabbath and the Feast Days. Over and over the Sabbath critics talk down Sabbath keeping as a needless observance, worship, and dare I even say a heresy. The prescription offered by the critics is that “every day of a Christian’s life is a Day of Rest…” because of the infinite spiritual and eternal benefits to be gained simply by saying the Lord’s Prayer. We believe that God (Yahweh) is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow (reference Hebrews 13:8). Genesis 2 records that God (Yahweh) ceased His creative work on the 7th Day (or Sabbath) and He blessed and sanctified it. If God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, it would be foolish to conclude that He would change or nullify His original edict without a statement to that effect. Jesus (Yehoshua/Yeshua) never once diminished the significance of the 7th day. During the Apostolic period, the 1st century Church is recorded to have observed the Sabbath and the Feast Days throughout that period, even beyond the destruction of the 2nd Temple. Paul during his evangelistic work always observed the Sabbath and the Feast Days and did the bulk of his evangelizing on the 7th day. It wasn’t until the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, seeking to unite the Christian faith with pagan religions and practices and bring peace throughout his realm, that the Sabbath was officially banned and replaced with Sunday worship. From worship on the 7th day or Sabbath as directed by God the Father to mandatory worship on the day of the Sun, Christianity took a turn that has forever snubbed the Eternal and His mandate for the human race. Many today do not realize that Sunday worship and observance is a Catholic mandate that superseded the Word of God or the Bible and that the protestant church, when she separated, elected to retain this practice.
Today, many fundamental Christians hold fast to this pagan perspective–that the weekly rest (once deemed solely to be the Sabbath) is NOW a spiritual mindset and belief; that obedience to a creed supersedes the Eternal’s edict to all of mankind; that God has given license to man to disobey his Bible because of the work of Christ. Let me tell you: when my boss at work puts a policy out for the staff to follow, she expects that policy to be followed. It isn’t until she rescinds or amends that policy that the staff can go contrary to the original policy. One quick way for me to get into hot water at work is for me to condone the ignoring of a policy. Why do we always feel that Christ’s work on the cross gives Christians license to do whatever they want. Oh I get it: there’s freedom in Christ. Yes, of course. One could certainly read into freedom in Christ as giving followers license to do whatever he or she wants—within reason of course. But one could also read having freedom in Christ as one having freedom from the penalty of sin (e.g., disobeying the observance of the Sabbath) when we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior. I’ll leave these two perspectives for you to choose which perspective is the correct one to have. The Book of Revelation speaks about Jesus returning for those who keep the Commandments of God.
Listen, if you want to see your Christian life get supercharged, start keeping the Sabbath—cease all work and devote a 24 hour period to prayer, study, and meditation—find likeminded Christians to share the day with—get close to your family. I guarantee you will grow beyond anything that you’ve ever experienced. It will be awkward at first, but in time you will yearn for it each week, and when the Sabbath finally arrives at sundown on Friday evening, you will suddenly realize a joy that is difficult to explain. Obeying God’s Word—there’s nothing like it!
Be well. And remember, not everything is as you may perceive it to be because the enemy deceives the WHOLE WORLD.
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