Here in this part of West Africa I meet and speak with several Seventh Day Adventist. I interface with many more Seventh Day Adventist online. All claim to have and “know the truth.” Claim to “knowing the truth” is owned by every so-called Christian religious organization I know of, yet they all teach Christ differently from the other. Thus, they all claim to know the truth. Well, the more than 41000 contenting Christian denominations – who teach Christ differently – cannot all be teaching the truth.
Yet, a question was asked of me by a Seventh Day Adventist (who I am certain was trying to entrap me) about which day of the week I believe is the seventh (sabbath) day. My answer to him was, “None of them.”
He was taken aback by my response. He had a “deer in the headlights” expression on his face as I do not believe he was expecting such a response. He then assumed that since I did not recognize any particular day of the week as the seventh day that I was a man who had somehow lost his way.
I proceeded to ask him, “How do you know that Saturday is the seventh day?”
His response was, “Because the Bible says it is.”
I ask him to show me in the Bible where it is written that Saturday is the seventh day. He began by mentioning Genesis 2:2 which mentions that by the seventh day that God came to a completion of his work that he made. Then he mentioned Luke 23:52-53 which mentions the sabbath, the day after Jesus was impaled and entombed.
Then he quoted Luke 24:1-2 which mentions the “first day of the week” when the stone covering Jesus’ tomb was discovered rolled away. He showed me Luke 4:16 which mentions the “custom of the Sabbath day” he (Jesus) entered into the synagogue.
Lastly, he quoted Isaiah 66:22 which says:
As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure. 23 From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord.
I really did appreciate that the individual mentioning the scripural text he felt “proved” that Saturday is the seventh (sabbath) day. He believes that no one should do any literal work on a Saturday. I asked him what would he do if one of his children got hurt on a Saturday and need medical attention and he needed to drive that child to the hospital? Certainly, this is work. I also asked him, “If a hurricane, typhoon or large rain storm was approaching on a Saturday and he needed to prepare his house and property for the storm lest it be wiped out, what would he do? Certainly this is work?” He hemmed and hawed about the questions rather than answering straight forwardly. I got the impression that he would make an exception under those circumstances.
Recall the question I asked him was …
Show me in the Bible where it is written that Saturday is the seventh day.
The assumption made here is that a day-naming convention that did not exist back then is being used. Back in Genesis there was no such thing as Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday. This day naming convention did not exist in Jesus’ day either. So why are religious systems applying more modern-day naming conventions to what occured in ancient times and even back in Jesus’ day to our times today?
It is a slight-of-hand way to mislead the entire world with regard to the truth about what the seventh day or sabbath day really is. It is not a literal 24 hour day as I will prove in a moment. Neither is it confined or defined by a day-naming convention such as Saturday or Sunday.
Lord of the Sabbath
At Matthew Chapter twelve, Jesus and his disciples were walking through some grainfields on the sabbath (notice no where is Saturday or Sunday is mentioned). His disciples got hungry and began to eat heads of the grain to eat. The Pharisees observed them eating and accused the disciples of “breaking the sabbath” law. Jesus gave an example about David what David did on the sabbath when he got hungry and the eating of the loaves of presentation within the temple which were reserved only for the priest only. More importantly, Jesus mentioned to the Pharisees that something “greater than the temple” is now in place.
What Jesus said here is overlooked by many. Jesus also made the statement which shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that no literal day of the week is the sabbath today. Jesus said at Matthew 12:7-8:
If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.
What great sacrifice is it for one to not to work one day out of a seven-day week? Jesus quoted from Hosea 6:6 which mentions how God would rather that we be merciful than sacrificial. Jesus also shows that his disciples were innocent. Why? Because the “the sabbath” in which they were being accused of “working” or eating was not the true sabbath. Jesus mentions himself as “Lord of the Sabbath.” What does that mean?
If one day out of the week was a literal sabbath day and if Jesus’ statement is to be taken literally, then that would mean that Jesus is Lord of only one day of the week! He is not Lord over the other six days! Does that make sense? Of course not! It is obvious that Jesus meant something else by his statement that he is “Lord of the Sabbath.”
Back in Genesis during the “creative days or periods” God rested from his work of creating by the seventh day. We are not told that God completed or finished his work. We know that he finished his work on each of the six creative days because we are told after each day …
- And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a first day. (Gen 1:5)
- And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a second day. (Gen 1:8)
- And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a third day.(Gen 1:13)
- And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fourth day. (Gen 1:19)
- And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a fifth day. (Gen 1:23)
- And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a sixth day. (Gen 1:31)
This has not been said concerning the seventh day. In other words, we do not read anywhere in the Bible the statement: “And there came to be evening and there came to be morning, a seventh day.” Why?
Because we are still in that seventh-day creative period. It is in this period that Christ is Lord of the Sabbath or Seventh day. It is not a literal day that he is Lord over the rest of the days until the end of worlds on the earth before God’s Kingdom comes down. That means each and every day is a sabbath.
There is much more that needs to be explained and understood about why Christ is Lord of the Sabbath.
If God is resting or stopped creating BUT his work is unfinished, who will complete his work? His Son, the one who is Lord of the Sabbath. Jesus on many occasions had stated that it is not his own will (work), but the will of his Father in heaven that he came to accomplish. Jesus said at John 6:38:
For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me.
To show that The Son of God has been appointed to finish and complete the work of the seventh creative day, Jesus said at John 4:34:
My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
What work would that be? The unfinished work God rested from completing by the seventh day.
The literal seventh days we confine ourselves to today – Saturday or Sunday – begin and end each week many times over throughout the months and years. There is a greater seventh day or sabbath that is yet unfinished. The Son of God will complete the work of finishing it. That is why The Son of God is Lord of the Sabbath and that is why Jesus said that his disciples did nothing wrong because there is no literal day set aside as the seventh day.
When one becomes a disciple of Christ (not a disciple of religious organizations), they join him in completing his Father’s and our Father’s work (or will) in this seventh and final creative day period. Each day is holy. Why?
Each day of the week – no matter what ones wants to call them – are holy. Why? Because it is not our own work that we do when we join with Christ, but God’s work. It is a holy work we do. What is that work?
What Is The Work Disciples of Christ Join Him In?
Doing God’s will? At Matthew 6:9-10 Jesus taught his disciples …
This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Thus, this is the work we join Christ in doing when we become his disciples. What is that work today?
That we are imperfect humans with limited abilities, Christ did not give us work that would be too much for us to accomplish. The commission (actually a command) Christ gave us is given at Matthew 28:19-20. There he tells us:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
It is to make disciples (to him) from people out of all of the nations. We do this by first becoming disciples to Christ ourselves and receiving Holy Spirit through him. It is the Holy Spirit that makes it possible for us to learn from God through His Son. This is how we are taught today! Not through a book called the Bible or through religious organizations, but from God through His Son. So Christ still teaches at present!
We pray to the Father for his wisdom, his knowledge and his understanding. We keep asking.
God will know that we are serious and sincere about our request to him and that we really want to join his Son in completing his work. It is not easy to explain, but when God pours out his Holy Spirit upon us through his son, it is an incredibly quiet and peaceful experience. No fanfare. But you will know things. You will see things in a mental sense many will not be able to comprehend. Many may view you as an odd-ball, something I consider a blessing. You will be completely sane and not off the deep end. You will possess something that shines more brilliantly than a precious stone. This is the proberbial light Christ spoke of that we let shine before men.
This baptism in Holy Spirit (not by water as that is not Christs baptism, but John the Baptizer who is dead) is what confirms us a disciple of Christ. It is then that we can teach others what Christ taught us. It has not been and it has NEVER been a matter of joining a church and reading or studying the Bible. It is much greater than that! It is an acquisition of Holy Spirit from the Father through his son. We must ask for it and be serious about it.
I remember many many years ago I had developed a dissatisfaction with religion of all sorts but I knew that there was a Creator. I simply asked him to direct me and show me the truth. I know something is not right and I want to know. I never gave up in asking. My prayers we answered through his Son. I must caution those who ask for the truth: You may not like what you receive. It will not “taste good” and you may vomit it out of your system and reject it. But it will be the truth. The truth will not initially taste good in this world. It will not taste good until you have come to realize that it is the truth and all else in this world are lies and deception.
You want to know the truth? Don’t ask me! Don’t ask any human or human agency! Ask God, your Creator. Do your asking (in prayer) not a group! Pray to the Father of us all in private, away from the eye and earshot of others. Never give up with wanting to know.
Since The Son of God is the truth, he is the only authorized channel that God uses to dispense what we ask through. It will not be through a book or through any religious organization or system. You must show God that you are putting your trust only in him through his son.
When you deviate and begin to turn to other sources or ways – such as a book and religious organizations – your request of God are in vain because you are essentially telling him that you trust religious organizations and their images and icons such as a book.
Jesus said to the devil – who loves to see the world a “religiously-dependent” place – at Matthew 4:4:
Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Think about what Jesus said here: Our complete reliance is to be in EVERY WORD that comes out of God’s mouth – not the Bible. God never sent a Bible and never said it is The Word of God! It is men who sold the “bill of goods” that the Bible is the Word of God. Only Christ is The Word of God and no other.
And, since we are to live on every word that comes out of God’s mouth, then that means that we listen to everything that The Son of God Says as he ALONE is God’s Word.
No other person or entity can be such.
