Was The Seventh Day
Sabbath observed before Mt. Sinai?
(Pt. 2)
During the time when
the Ark of the Covenant was on Earth,
the Ten Commandments written on stone
remained hidden from view. Whenever
the tabernacle was moved, the Ark of
the Covenant (the golden box
containing the Ten Commandments) was
covered with thick cloth (the temple
veil – Numbers 4:5) and was kept
more than a half mile away from the
Israelites! (Joshua 3:4) For
centuries, Israel’s high priests
could not look at the Ten
Commandments even though they entered
the Most Holy Place once a year, on
the Day of Atonement and stood before
the Ark of the Covenant. I
believe the Ark of the Covenant was
taken to Heaven more than 2,000 years
ago. Consequently, no one on Earth
will ever see the Ten Commandments
(the two tablets of stone) again! A
day is soon coming when the Ark of
the Covenant will be shown to the
whole world (Revelation 11:19) and
although the Ark will be seen in the
sky, the Ten Commandments will not!
God shows the Ark of
the Covenant, but not the Ten
Commandments, to the world at the
seventh trumpet. When it sounds,
Earth’s inhabitants will already
be in two distinct groups. One group
will have rejected the gospel of
Christ and have received the mark of
the beast’s tattoo,
“666.” The other group will
have accepted the gospel of Christ
and have had their faith in Christ
tested. The second group will have
demonstrated their faith during
extreme persecution. As a result,
Jesus will remove their carnal
natures and they will receive the
seal of God. This group will rejoice
when they see the Ark of the
Covenant. There is no need for
them to see inside the Ark because
the promise (the covenant) has
already been fulfilled! The Ten
Commandments have been written in
their hearts and minds. Just like
Adam and Eve before sin began, the
saints will have sinless natures!
Meanwhile, the wicked will see the
glorious Ark of the Covenant in the
sky with anxious foreboding. The
contents of that box seals their
doom. The two tablets, written with
God’s own finger, defines love
for God and man, the very laws which
they have despised and rejected. God
shows the wicked the Ark of the
Covenant, clarifying for them the
reason for their punishment and
judgment. God will force everyone
having the mark of the beast tattoo
to experience His wrath and drink
from the seven bowls (the seven last
plagues).
Nine Commandments
Are Not Enough
Most Christians
acknowledge that the Ten Commandments
are important and should be obeyed.
However, when pressed about the
demands of the fourth commandment
(the holiness of the seventh day),
the carnal nature pushes back,
insisting that the fourth commandment
was abolished at the cross and is no
longer important.
Most Christians will
agree that worshiping an idol is
offensive to the Creator (per the
second commandment), but do not
believe that working on the seventh
day (per fourth commandment) is
offensive. Most Christians agree that
committing adultery is morally wrong
(per the seventh commandment), but
maintain that resting on the seventh
day (per the fourth commandment) is
legalistic. Most Christians will
agree that stealing is a sin (per the
eighth commandment), but they ignore
Saturday as a holy day (per the
fourth commandment). Why do most
Christians “cherry pick”
the Ten Commandments?
Shouldn’t nine commandments be
enough? For more than forty years I
have been fascinated with the various
arguments used by Christians to
eliminate the demands of the fourth
commandment. I will list five basic
arguments I hear most often.
1.
The Catholic
position: The Church received
authority from Christ to transfer the
sacredness of the seventh day to the
first day of the week. This transfer
was completed by Pope Sylvester I
during the fourth century A.D.*
2.
The Sabbath is a Jewish ritual and it
is not imposed on mankind before God
gave the Ten Commandments.
3.
The Ten Commandments are part of the
covenant God made with the Jews. This
covenant was nailed (abolished) at
the cross.
4.
Nine of the Ten Commandments are
repeated by New Testament writers.
The silence regarding the Sabbath
proves it was abolished at the cross.
5.
If a person insists on keeping the
Ten Commandments, he is a legalist.
Christians are not under any
obligation to obey the Ten
Commandments; instead, believers in
Christ are now under the dispensation
of grace. Keep in mind, however that
these same people believe that
obeying nine commandments does not
constitute legalism.
Noah’s Flood
Noah was a preacher of
righteousness. (2Peter 2:5) For 120
years, Noah faithfully warned the
people of God’s coming wrath.
(Genesis 6:3; Hebrews 11:7) Did Jesus
commit murder when He destroyed the
world in Noah’s day or was there
a judicial basis for His action which
was based on righteousness, justice,
and mercy? According to the
Bible, Jesus deliberately drowned
tens of thousands of men, woman, and
children. How do we justify this
horrific action by a God of love? God
has not changed since Noah’s
flood! Remember, “I the Lord
do not change…” (Malachi
3:6)
Prior to the flood
there was stealing, murder, lying,
idolatry, improper use of God’s
name, and disregard for God’s
holy Sabbath. While the first six
chapters of Genesis are silent about
specific sins, the antediluvians did
offend God and cause Him to drown
them. Remember this initial
point in part one of this article was
that Jesus never changes, so
therefore we can ferret out the
answer. God never changes so He
destroyed the antediluvians for the
same reason that Sodom and Gomorrah,
Israel, and Jerusalem were destroyed.
Finally, God will burn the wicked up
in the lake of fire at the end of the
1,000 years for the same reason He
destroyed the antediluvians.
Remember, the Lord does not change: “The
Earth id defiled by its people; they
have disobeyed the laws, violated the
statutes and broken the everlasting
covenant. Therefore a curse consumes
the earth; its people must bear their
guilt. Therefore Earth’s
inhabitants are burned up, and very
few are left.” (Isaiah 24:
5, 6)
The Full Cup Principle
can be seen throughout the Bible.
God’s cup of wrath is filled
when a group of people reach a place
where extended mercy does not have a
redeeming effect. At that point,
God’s wrath is aroused and He
sends destruction. God destroyed the
world in Noah’s day, and later
destroyed nations and cities because
they became defiant and degenerate.
When a group of people knowingly and
willfully reject God’s laws,
lawlessness springs up like weeds
after a Spring rain. Consider
Jesus’ words to Ezekiel:
“Her [Israel’s]
priest do violence to my law and
profane my holy things; they do not
distinguish between the holy and the
common: they teach that there si no
difference between the unclean and
the clean; and they shut their eyes
to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so
that I am profaned among
them…Doom has come upon you-you
who dwell in the land. The time has
come, the day is near; there is
panic, not joy, upon the mountains. I
am about to pour out my wrath on you
and spend my anger against you; I
will judge you according to your
conduct and repay you for all your
detestable practices. I will not look
on you with pity or spare you; I will
repay you in accordance with your
conduct and the detestable practices
among you. Then you will know that it
is I the Lord who strikes the
blow.” (Ezekiel 7: 7-9; 22:
26, insertion mine)
God removed Adam and
Eve from Eden, destroyed the world in
Noah’s day, removed Israel from
their homeland and exiled them in
Babylon, destroyed His people and the
city of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, and
will destroy the wicked at the end of
the 1,000 years for the same
reason-lawlessness. Remember, faith
in God does not eliminate His law. “Do
we, then, nullify the law by this
faith [in Christ]? Not at all!
Rather, we uphold the law.” (Romans
3:31, insertion mine)
Is There Grace When
There Is No Law?
We can assume that the
Ten Commandments existed in
Noah’s day because the Bible
says, “But Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis
6:8) Where there is no law, there is
no condemnation and need for grace.
If a judge grants you grace and you
are released from paying the penalty
for speeding, this does not mean the
speed limit no longer exists.
The suggestion that
the Sabbath was unknown prior to the
flood or Mt. Sinai is born out of the
carnal rebellion, an attempt to cover
up a glorious truth. Foolish
arguments about law, grace, and faith
have been imposed on God’s Word
causing a great cloud of darkness and
confusion about the truth of
God’s Sabbath, which ironically,
was made for man! The Sabbath is a
gift from our Creator and the carnal
nature hates it. This is why Jesus
gave Sabbath observance the force of
law at Mt. Sinai. He knew that
man’s rebellion and
Lucifer’s sophistry would soon
combine causing the world to deny its
accountability to its Creator.
Too many Christians
today have convinced themselves that
God’s grace has somehow
eliminated His law. They stumble
within this circular reasoning and
conclude that everyone is free from
the one command that requires rest
from our works “just as God
rested from His. Yet, they overlook
one very profound truth, that there
is no need for grace if there is no
law.
Considering the
following comparisons: Obeying
the law of the land does not make an
illegal immigrant a citizen and
neither does obeying the law of God
make a sinner a citizen of the New
Jerusalem. Those who seek to obtain a
citizenry in God’s kingdom
through obedience are under the curse
of sin and their hope will be dashed
to pieces. On the other hand, those
who understand the covenant and want
the laws of God written in their
minds and hearts can see how law,
grace, faith, and works harmoniously
align to glorify God in every aspect
of their lives. “When we walk
with the Lord, in the light of His
Word,” as the old gospel song
reminds us, it is only a matter of
time in this degenerate world until
our faith in Him is tested. The
biblical definition of faith means:
Obeying God without regard for the
consequences. (See Daniel 3.) Those
who walk by faith know, “The
law of the Lord is perfect, reviving
the soul…The precepts of the
Lord are right, giving joy to the
heart.” (Psalm 19: 7,8)
There is enough
evidence in the Bible to demonstrate
that God’s Sabbath rest has been
known and observed since Creation
Week. He is a God of love and He has
never imposed a harmful or inferior
law on mankind. Those who plan to
enter God’s “eternal
rest” are wonderfully blessed
once they discover and embrace the
joy that comes with observing
God’s seventh day rest with Him.
Jesus made it for us – He meant
it to be a gift accompanied with a
tremendous blessing!
Larry Wilson
*Note on the
Catholic position (insertions in
bracket are my comments) :
Rabanus Maurus (776-856), abbot of
Fulda and later archbishop of Mainz,
Germany wrote: “Pope Sylvester
(his papacy: 314-335) instructed the
clergy to keep the ferlae [a
weekday, other than Saturday, on
which no feast occurs]. And, indeed,
from the old custom he called the
first day [of the week] the
‘Lord’s [day],’ on
which the light was made in the
beginning and also the resurrection
of Christ is celebrated.”Rabanus
does not mean to imply that Sylvester
was the first man who referred to the
days of the week as ferlae or
who first started the observance of
Sunday among Christians. He means
that, according to the testimony of
Roman Catholic writers, Sylvester
confirmed those practices and made
them official insofar as his church
was concerned. Hence Rabanus
says elsewhere in his writings:
“Pope Sylvester first among the
Romans ordered that the names of the
days [of the week], which they
previously called after the name of
their gods, that is, [the day] of the
Sun, [the day] of the Moon, [the day]
of Mars, [the day] of Mercury, [the
day] of Jupiter, [the day] of Venus,
[the day] of Saturn, they should call
feriae thereafter, that is the
first feria, the second feria,
the third feria, the
fourth feria, the fifth feria,
the sixth feria, because
that in the beginning of Genesis it
is written that God said concerning
each day: on the first, ‘Let
there be light;’ on the
second, ‘Let there be a
firmament;” on the third,
‘Let the earth bring forth
verdure;’ etc. But he
[Sylvester] ordered [them] to call
the Sabbath by the ancient term of
the law, [to call] the first feria
the ‘Lord’s day,’
because on it the Lord rose [from the
dead]. Moreover, the same pope
decreed that the rest of the Sabbath
should be transferred rather to the
Lord ’s day [Sunday], in order
that on that day we should rest from
worldly works for the praise of
God.”Note particularly, he says
that ‘the same pope [Sylvester
I] decreed that the rest of the
Sabbath should be transferred rather
to the Lord’s day
[Sunday].’ According to
this statement, he was the first
bishop to introduce the idea that the
divinely appointed rest of the
Sabbath day should be transferred to
the first day of the week. This
is significant, especially
considering that it was during
Sylvester’s pontificate that the
emperor of Rome [Constantine] issued
the first civil laws compelling men
to rest from secular labor on Sunday
and that Eusebius, bishop of
Caesarea, the first theologian on
record to present arguments,
allegedly from the Scriptures, that
Christ did transfer the rest of the
Sabbath day to Sunday.
1 Rabanus Maurus, Liber
de Computo (a Book
Concerning Computation), Chapter.
XXVII (“Concerning
Festivals”), translated from the
Latin text by Robert L. Odom, cf
Migne’s Patrogia Latina, Vol.
CVII, col. 682.
2 Rabanus Maurus, De
Clericorum Institutione (Concerning
the Instruction of the Clergyman),
Book II, Chap. XL.VI, translated from
Latin by Robert L. Odom, cf
Migne’s Patrologia Latina, Vol.
CVII. Col.361.
3 The wording in the
Latin text reads: “Statuit autem
idem papa ut otium Sabbati magis in
diem Dominicam tranferretur, u tea
die a terrenis operibus ad laudandum
Deum vacaremus.”
Web Source: http://biblelight.net/sylvester-I.htm
