The Denominations Speak: The Sabbath

herald

Electoral Member
Jul 16, 2006
259
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A sign of The Antichrist is "...he thinks to change times and laws." Dan 7:25. He, only, "thinks to change," because, no man/institution can overrule our Creator and change His law. The, only, time in His Covenant is the Sabbath.

Catholic
: "Question.- Have you any other way of proving that the church has the power to institute festivals of precept?"

"Answer. - Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her, - she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority." - Rev. Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism, p. 174.

Presbyterian: "The Christian Sabbath (Sunday) is not in the Scripture, and was not by the primitive church called the Sabbath." - Dwight's theology, vol.4, p. 401.

Congregational: "There is no command in the Bible requiring us to observe the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath." - Fowler, Mode and Subjects of Baptism.

Lutheran: "The observance of the Lord's day (Sunday) is founded not on any command of God, but on the authority of the church." - "Augsburg Confession of Faith," quoted in Cox's Sabbath Manual, p. 287.

Episcopalian: "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday." - Neander, The History of the Christian Religion and Church, p. 186.

Methodist: "It is true there is no command for infant baptism...Nor is there any for keeping holy the first day of the week." - Rev. Amos Binney, Theological Compend, pp. 180,182, 1902 ed.

Baptist: Dr. Edward T. Hiscox, author of The Baptist Manual before a New York Ministers' Conference, held, Nov 13, 1893 said, "There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday. It will be said, and with some show of triumph, that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh to the first day of the week, with all it's duties, privileges and sanctions. Earnestly desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask, Where can the record of such a transaction be found? Not in the New Testament, absolutely not. There is no Scriptural evidence of the change of the Sabbath institution from the seventh to the first day of the week.

"Of course," he continues, "I quite well know, that, Sunday did come into use in early Christian history as a religious day, as we learn from the Christian fathers and other sources. But what a pity, that it comes with the mark of Paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, when adopted and sanctioned by the papal apostasy, and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to Protestantism!"

Our Creator instituted the Sabbath at Creation as a part of the Creation Covenant with Adam, and so with all of mankind. Jesus referred to Himself as "The Lord of the Sabbath." Mt 12:8; Mk 2:28; Lu 6:5. Sunday was called, "The Lord's Day," in sun worship, common in The Roman Empire.

To say, that, the Sabbath is obsolete, is to reject the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, who prophesied, that, the Sabbath would be kept during The Great Tribulation: "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day: for then shall be Great Tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be." Mt 24:20,21. And we are not there, yet.

When Jesus gave us the "Two Greatest Commandments," He was quoting the law. Deut 6:5; Lev 19:18. These two are a summation of The Ten:

If you love the Lord, supremely, you will not worship or bow down to other gods, take His name in vain, or, profane His holy day.

If you love your neighbor as yourself, you will honor your parents, do no murder, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness or covet.

"By this we know that we love the children of God ( Greatest Commandment #2), when we love God (#1) and keep His commandments. For this is love that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous." 1 John 5:2,3.

Not for those who are under The New Covenant, who have His Covenant engraved upon their hearts and minds. Jer 31:31-34; Heb 8:10;10:12-17. Born again believers are called, "The seed of Abraham." Ga 3:16,29. "For he is not a Jew, who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." Rom 2:28,29.

"As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions (of the law: 1 John 3:4) from us...To such as keep His Covenant and to those that remember His commandments to do them." Ps 103.

Covenants have conditions.

Jesus said, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." John 14:15.

His church keeps His commandments: "And the Dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev 12:17.

His saints keep His commandments: "Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev 14:12.

At the very end of the Book of all Books, the Apostle John wrote, "Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have RIGHT to the tree of life, AND MAY ENTER IN through the gates into the city." Rev 22:14.

There are Ten Commandments in His Covenant - not nine. They are commandments and not requests.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Ex 20:8.