Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.
Exodus 31:13 (KJV)
Sabbaths – I’d like to draw attention to something here. Who is the authority regarding Scripture? God or the church? Once we understand who the authority is, then our conformity to that authority should follow.
I recently read a quote by a Charles Spurgeon claiming
We gather together on the first rather than the seventh day of the week because redemption is even a greater work than creation and more worthy of commemoration and because the rest which followed creation is far outdone by the rest which ensues upon the completion of redemption.
Honestly this surprised me. I like much of what Mr. Spurgeon has written, but this one… whoah. Since when have we placed ourselves as the Scriptural authority? In so doing, we’re now able to conform Scripture to fit our lives instead of changing our lives to fit Scripture. This is all because we recognize redemption as being greater than creation, and we recognize it as “more worthy of commemoration”. Wow… just wow. So the argument from Mr. Spurgeon is that Yeshua’s work allows us to manipulate Scripture to conform it to our personal lives and gain. Doesn’t that just sound a bit odd?
The quote continues on that our Lord lifted the Sabbath from the seventh day to now be on the first. Well, sorry, but that’s nowhere in the Bible. In fact, it’s quite the opposite as in Matthew 5:17-18 where Yeshua himself declared that no law shall be changed. Upon a more thorough study of history, we read that it wasn’t the Lord that did this, but rather the Roman Catholic Church. I’m sorry, but no matter who we are, we’re just men and we have no authority to change Scripture to fit our paradigm.
As the verse from Exodus above clearly states, the sabbaths are God’s. Sure they were created for man (because we need rest), but they still are YHVH’s days. If you notice, it is the only day named by God Himself – He gives no other weekday a name. They are the sign between Him and us. So here we come, thinking we’re all smart and spiritual, and take God’s day which Spurgeon agrees is Saturday, and change it. Because, hey, this way we’re commemorating something more worthy.
If you have a desire to gather together and worship on the first day of the week (Sunday) then go for it. But this doesn’t change that the Sabbath is Saturday. And if you feel the need to declare by man’s authority that the Sabbath has changed so that you can feel better about what you’re doing… stop. You don’t have that authority. If you feel convicted that you might be doing something wrong… then change your life, not the Word of God.
Most people who oppose the law of God at least declare some value in the 10 commandments. But then these same people don’t even regard them sacred enough to keep all 10. We keep cutting away at the Word of God not even realizing we’re cutting away at Yeshua in the process.
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