I recently heard the term "Great Commandment Christianity." It doesn't take much to figure out what the term implies; simply that for these Christians, the only "law" is that mentioned by Jesus in Mark 12:30-31.
Yet these same Christians appear to also observe the Ten Commandments. Let's review those here from Exodus 20:
"I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them; nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers unto the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
And showing mercy to thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor 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, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in it, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.
Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."
As you read these commandments, you can see what Jesus is describing with the "first great commandment" and "the second" in Mark 12. The first four commandments, if obeyed, prove that one loves the Lord with all one's heart, soul, mind and strength; while the last six commandments prove that one loves his neighbor as well.
And I have not found a Christian yet, who if asked if he observes the 5th and 6th commandments, for example, would say "No...I am no longer under the law, so I don't observe those commands." Of course all Christians follow those commands!
BUT....
You will notice the fourth commandment says not only to "honor" the Sabbath day, but to "keep it holy", because God has made it to be holy; and also to do NO work in it. And it calls the "seventh" day holy, not the first day. (Yes, I am still on this Sabbath question, because no one has answered it for me other than what I am finding in scripture.)
SO...
How do we Christians, even "Great Commandment Christians," determine that it is ok to honor and keep holy the first day, when it states clearly here in the ten commandments that it is the seventh day, AND how do we get around the fact that NO WORK is to be done on that day if we are obedient to God, and yet most of us work at something...housework, yard work, grocery shopping, office work? Where is the loophole that allows us to do whatever we please on the Sabbath, on whichever day you are currently calling the Sabbath even if it is not scriptural? Yet, we are obedient to the 5th and 6th commandments without question, or I would hope that we are!
My point here is that we are picking and choosing what we want to observe, rather than being obedient to God. If we are NOT to keep the law, then why are we still keeping some parts of it? Do you see how this doesn't even compute? It is not even logical to do some parts of the law but not all. (And I am not at all suggesting we begin offering sacrifices....at least ot sacrifices of animal flesh!) But I am trying to make a point here, that I hope you are getting.
Let me leave you with these quotes from Roman Catholic authoritative sources [i.e., Past Archibishop of Baltimore - James Cardinal Gibbons (1834-1921); the 1846 edition of "A Doctrinal Catechism"; "The Catholic Press," 1900; "The Catholic Record," 1923; "The Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine" 1957; Catholic Church Extension Society, Peter R. Kraemer, Chicago, Illinois 1975;] as referenced in Todd D. Bennett's book titled "The Sabbath":
"The Catholic Church...by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday...you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify."
"...of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act...and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power."
"Sunday is our mark of authority."
"...the Church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact."
"Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles."
"Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which the 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."
"It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church."
And one last quote:
"Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man...we Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith...besides the Bible, we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life, has the right to change ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday."
So, once more...whose commandments are we following?
Our own....or those of the Roman Catholic Church....or the LORD's?
Yet these same Christians appear to also observe the Ten Commandments. Let's review those here from Exodus 20:
"I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them; nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers unto the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
And showing mercy to thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor 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, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy gates:
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in it, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.
Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's."
As you read these commandments, you can see what Jesus is describing with the "first great commandment" and "the second" in Mark 12. The first four commandments, if obeyed, prove that one loves the Lord with all one's heart, soul, mind and strength; while the last six commandments prove that one loves his neighbor as well.
And I have not found a Christian yet, who if asked if he observes the 5th and 6th commandments, for example, would say "No...I am no longer under the law, so I don't observe those commands." Of course all Christians follow those commands!
BUT....
You will notice the fourth commandment says not only to "honor" the Sabbath day, but to "keep it holy", because God has made it to be holy; and also to do NO work in it. And it calls the "seventh" day holy, not the first day. (Yes, I am still on this Sabbath question, because no one has answered it for me other than what I am finding in scripture.)
SO...
How do we Christians, even "Great Commandment Christians," determine that it is ok to honor and keep holy the first day, when it states clearly here in the ten commandments that it is the seventh day, AND how do we get around the fact that NO WORK is to be done on that day if we are obedient to God, and yet most of us work at something...housework, yard work, grocery shopping, office work? Where is the loophole that allows us to do whatever we please on the Sabbath, on whichever day you are currently calling the Sabbath even if it is not scriptural? Yet, we are obedient to the 5th and 6th commandments without question, or I would hope that we are!
My point here is that we are picking and choosing what we want to observe, rather than being obedient to God. If we are NOT to keep the law, then why are we still keeping some parts of it? Do you see how this doesn't even compute? It is not even logical to do some parts of the law but not all. (And I am not at all suggesting we begin offering sacrifices....at least ot sacrifices of animal flesh!) But I am trying to make a point here, that I hope you are getting.
Let me leave you with these quotes from Roman Catholic authoritative sources [i.e., Past Archibishop of Baltimore - James Cardinal Gibbons (1834-1921); the 1846 edition of "A Doctrinal Catechism"; "The Catholic Press," 1900; "The Catholic Record," 1923; "The Converts Catechism of Catholic Doctrine" 1957; Catholic Church Extension Society, Peter R. Kraemer, Chicago, Illinois 1975;] as referenced in Todd D. Bennett's book titled "The Sabbath":
"The Catholic Church...by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday...you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify."
"...of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act...and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power."
"Sunday is our mark of authority."
"...the Church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact."
"Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles."
"Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which the 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."
"It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church."
And one last quote:
"Protestants, who accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and religion, should by all means go back to the observance of the Sabbath. The fact that they do not, but on the contrary observe Sunday, stultifies them in the eyes of every thinking man...we Catholics do not accept the Bible as the only rule of faith...besides the Bible, we have the living Church, the authority of the Church, as a rule to guide us. We say, this Church, instituted by Christ to teach and guide man through life, has the right to change ceremonial laws of the Old Testament and hence, we accept her change of the Sabbath to Sunday."
So, once more...whose commandments are we following?
Our own....or those of the Roman Catholic Church....or the LORD's?
4 comments:
I have done a little (emphasis a little) research on the web and came up with a reference associated with the Church Council of Laodicea circa 364 AD, where it ordered that religious observances were to be conducted on Sunday, not Saturday. Sunday became the new Sabbath. They ruled: "Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday, but shall work on that day." The web posting continued that Francis Xavier, a Roman Catholic missionary, in being concerned about Sabbath worship in Goa, India in 1560 AD; called for the Inquisition to set up an office there to stamp out what he called "Jewish wickedness".
It appears there are several religions, other than Judaism, who acknowledge Saturday as the Sabbath: Church of God, Seventh Day Adventists and several other religions I have not heard of.
I am dumbfounded that I have not connected the dislike, in some cases hatred, that occurred during the time the Catholic Church decided to change when we were to “keep the Sabbath.” I guess it is logically that the other protestant faiths that come from the split with the Catholic Church continued to observe the Sabbath on Sunday instead of Saturday due to continuity or habit. You would think that while they were changing other areas they disagreed with in creating their “new religions” that one area would be to go back to God’s word - - keep the “seventh day holy.” This will have to be a question I must pose to my pastor.
This is causing much reflection on my part. GW
The fact is that it would be so much easier to just keep doing what we have always been doing. I have observed two Sabbaths now, along with two Sundays as usual. I am keeping Sunday church service observance because my church is my family, and I don't want to be parted from my family. But I must admit that keeping Sabbaths all alone, and I do mean all alone, is extremely difficult. Yet, I don't know what else I can do for now. My pastor once said that if he ever determined that the Sabbath was the proper day to observe, he would change to it; but think of what that would do to the church itself! It is not an easy change to make; but then nothing that we do God's way is easy, really. He promises us peace and joy, but not ease and convenience. I hope you will share your pastor's comments or thoughts.
Here is one other thought: if the Sabbath was going to no longer be of importance after the death and resurrection of Jesus, then why would Jesus warn his disciples that when the day comes shortly after the abomination of desolation, that they need to take flight, that they should pray that it doesn't happen on a sabbath? Matthew 24:20
Why would that be important? It is commonly believed that the abomination of desolation (at least one instance of it) happened in 70AD around the time of the destruction of the temple.
Did Jesus expect His disciples to still be observing the Sabbath by 70 AD and beyond? I think the answer is yes. Sadly so for those of us all these hundreds of years later who have not followed in the footsteps of the disciples of Jesus concerning the Sabbath.
Post a Comment