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Christians are NOT to KEEP What Jesus ABOLISHED!
In other words, when a Gentile becomes a Christian, are they grafted into Spiritual Israel?
The Reason for this question is to learn whether or not Christians MUST keep the FIRST Covenant in the OLD Testament, as Sabbath-keeping Christians dogmatically demand.
What does Romans chapter 11 mean by the Gentiles being the WILD OLIVE branches GRAFTED INTO the NATURAL OLIVE tree that represents Israel?
Some Christians in the Hebrew Roots Movement use Romans 11:24 to try and prove that Christians are grafted into ISRAEL because the natural Olive tree is symbolic for the people of Israel. And, therefore. according to their interpretation of Romans 11:24, Christians must become like the Hebrew Jews and KEEP all of the Law of Moses which is their “ROOT”.
Thus, the name Hebrew ROOTS Movement which teaches Christians to be restored to the Hebraic ROOTS of keeping TORAH. They sincerely believe that Christians BECOME Israel and, therefore, to THEM since the children of Israel keep the Law of Moses, then that means Christians must also keep the Law of Moses except for the animal sacrifices and a few other things like stoning to death the Christians who break the FOURTH commandment.
Well, let us see if they have CORRECTLY INTERPRETED Romans 11:24 in the LIGHT of the WHOLE word of Almighty God. We will begin this study in God’s word by reading Romans 11:24.
Romans 11:24.
“For if YOU (Speaking of a sinning Gentile who is now saved) were cut OUT of the olive tree which is WILD by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a GOOD olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their OWN olive tree?”
Keep in mind that ALL the BRANCHES of the NATURAL Olive tree were CUT OFF because the natural olive tree had become a BAD Olive tree and no longer was accepted by God. The Old Covenant was ready to vanish away. The New Covenant had just been established in the shed blood of Jesus. This was the time of transitioning from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. God CONCLUDED all of Israel to be under sin. And thus, the ONLY way for any Jew to be saved is to be grated into the ROOT of the olive tree that every branch had been CUT OFF.
Also, keep in mind that NO Gentile is cut out of the wild olive tree to become grafted into the GOOD Olive tree UNTIL they BELIEVE in Jesus as the atonement for their sins. For you see, the Gentiles were always dead in their sins. The Gentiles never had a COVENANT relationship with God. Using the two olive trees is simply an illustration to explain how BOTH the Jews and the Gentiles are to become into a COVENANT relationship with God that is pleasing to God. They are BOTH cut out or cut off from their OLD relationship or non-relationship with God and then they are grafted INTO a new relationship with God which was prophesied to come before the foundation of the world. Then and ONLY then are they grafted into the GOOD olive tree that God has created by FAITH in the NEW COVENANT.
Again, NONE of ISRAEL is GRAFTED into the ROOT of GOOD Olive tree UNTIL THEY believe in Jesus Christ as their Messiah. Then and ONLY then are any Jews GRAFTED into the GOOD Olive tree. Think of the GOOD olive tree as a THIRD Olive tree of God's NEW CREATION who are created IN Jesus Christ which are his chosen people RECONCILED to himself. And by “CHOSEN” people I am speaking of BOTH the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians.
In other words, God is doing a NEW thing in the earth which is called the NEW COVENANT because Israel kept breaking the Old Covenant. So then, by God CONCLUDING all of mankind to be under sin and fallen short of his glory the natural Olive tree essentially became a BAD olive tree that is no longer accepted by God. And, therefore, all the children of Israel ALSO must be RECONCILED to God BY their FAITH in God’s NEW COVENANT.
Please allow me to explain this in another way. Why was Israel no longer accepted by God? Because her ROOT became filled with PRIDE and BOASTING as being the CHOSEN people of God. To say this yet another way, God cut OFF ALL her branches and placed a NEW ROOT in the old natural Olive tree to make it HIS new Olive tree, a GOOD Olive tree, wherein there is NO boasting.
Then God began GRAFTING IN some of the NATURAL olive branches into his NEW CREATION which is created IN Jesus Christ. And by doing this God is making their ROOT good and the tree good in order to bear good fruit. BUT after a time of preaching the gospel of God’s New Covenant, the gospel of Jesus Christ, no more natural branches wanted to be GRAFTED into this GOOD Olive tree, that God was creating. So God turned to the GENTILES in order to provoke the children of Israel to jealousy.
Now, any Jew can still be grafted into the GOOD Olive tree but time is running out. This present age is quickly coming to an end for both Jews and Gentiles to be grafted into God’s GOOD Olive tree. What I mean by this is that ONLY Christians will be given eternal life to rule and reign with Jesus over the mortals who repent during the wrath of God. Jesus is returning a SECOND time to deliver a REMNANT of Israel and a remnant of the Gentile nations that will call upon the name of the Lord to be saved alive AT the coming of Jesus. So trust me when I say that you will want to be found IN Jesus Christ as a new creature created in Jesus BEFORE Jesus comes again. For you see, only a small REMNANT of people will remain alive after the WRATH of God.
So then, this GOOD Olive tree with Yahweh’s GOOD ROOT, speaking of his Son Jesus Christ as being God’s good root, is NEITHER Israel nor the heathen Gentiles. But rather the GOOD Olive tree is Christianity being ROOTED and grounded in the TRUTH of the WHOLE word of Almighty God. The ROOT of a tree is its FOUNDATION and NATURAL Israel is NOT built on the FOUNDATION of Jesus Christ. Therefore, TRUE believers in Jesus, as the Christ, the Son of the living God, are NOT grafted into ISRAEL. But rather BOTH the Jews AND the Gentile who BELIEVE in Jesus are rather grafted into God's NEW creation that is created as NEW CREATURES, created IN Jesus Christ, the Holy ROOT of God’s GOOD Olive tree. Jesus is the FOUNDATION or the ROOT of God’s new creation.
Now I want you to prove what I just taught to you to yourself by reading the whole context of Romans 11:24.
Please read Romans 11:1-32.
“I say then, Has God cast away his people? (In other words, had God cast away the children of Israel by his CONCLUDING them ALL to be under sin so that he could establish his New Covenant?)God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2. God has not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot you not (Or do you not understand) what the scripture says in Isaiah? how he makes intercession to God against Israel, saying,
3. Lord, they have killed your prophets, and digged down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4. But what said the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
5. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. (This means that God has CONCLUDED ALL to be UNDER SIN. And God did this so that both Israel and the Gentiles who BELIEVE in Jesus may become HIS workmanship and not our OWN workmanship. For you see, there is always boasting and pride looking down on others being inferior when a person is made righteous by their OWN works. Please read Galatians 3:21-29. “Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
Gal 3:22 But the scripture has concluded ALL under sin, that the promise by FAITH of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
Gal 3:23 But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed.
Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
Gal 3:26 For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one IN Christ Jesus.
Gal 3:29 And if you be Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
In other words, if you are GRAFTED into the GOOD Olive tree that God is creating, then you are NO LONGER a JEW nor are you a Gentile. But rather you are now a NEW CREATION created IN Jesus Christ. In fact, you are no longer a male or female in the eyes of God. And thus, the custom of covering a woman’s head is NOT a commandment in the New Testament under the NEW Covenant. Please read the study “MUST A WOMAN’S HEAD BE COVERED?”)
6. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
7. What then? Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for; BUT the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded (This simply means that the Gospel was preached to the JEWS FIRST and all those who received the call to be grafted back into God's favor which is God's NEW CREATION created IN his Son Jesus Christ into the GOOD Olive tree obtained salvation under the NEW COVENANT and the REST of Israel was blinded in part.)
8. (According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
9. And David said, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them:
10. Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back always.
11. I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their FALL salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. (This means that ALL the JEWS or ALL of Israel who REMAIN under the OLD COVENANT have NOT obtained the salvation of God under God’s NEW and BETTER Covenant that is NOT burdensome to bear. And because God CUT OFF ALL the old natural olive branches then that means that the children of Israel MUST be grafted INTO the NEW COVENANT in order to be accepted by God. And only a few old natural olive branches BELIEVED in God’s NEW COVENANT in order to be GRAFTED back into the good ROOT of the natural Olive at the first coming of Jesus during the early church before God turned to the Gentiles. This NEW CREATION of God has become HIS WORKMANSHIP to eliminate ALL boasting and pride. God turned to the Gentiles so he could PROVOKE the JEWS to jealousy, at the end of days, when the church is glorified and Israel is not given eternal life at the second coming of Jesus.)
12. Now if the FALL of THEM (Speaking of the Jews who rejected and who are still rejecting Jesus as their Messiah) be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness? (Speaking of the fullness of the Gentiles at the end of this age when the fullness of the Gentiles have come in the latter day harvest during the latter day rain of the Holy Spirit)
13. For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14. If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them. (Paul is saying that while Jesus appointed him to the Gentiles he still has a desire for the people of his own nationality to be saved)
15. For if the casting away of them (Speaking of the UNBELIEVING Jews that have been CUT OFF unless the BELIEVE in God’s New Covenant) be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? ( In other words, ALL of natural Israel is DEAD in their SINS. Also, Paul is speaking of the end of days when the Jews recognize Jesus whom their fathers pierced as their Messiah but it will be too late for them to receive eternal life at that point in time but God saves them from death to go into the Millennium in their MORTAL bodies.)
16. For IF the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: (In other words, IF the firstfruits remain IN Jesus Christ, to remain in HIS holiness, then the whole lump will be holy. The problem is that the firstfruits were NOT remaining IN Jesus Christ and SOME were going back to the LAW to establish their OWN holiness by keeping the Law of Moses) and IF the ROOT be holy, so are the branches. (Or so are the branches holy because of the Holy ROOT, Jesus Christ our RIGHTEOUSNESS. In a moment you will see TWO ROOTS. The root that God himself made HOLY and the root of PRIDE and boasting which God has cut out of his GOOD OLIVE TREE that he is GRAFTING in HIS chosen branches. Israel's ROOT is NOT Holy.)
17. And if some of the branches be broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them (Speaking of the Jews who were concluded under sin and cut off being grafted into the GOOD Olive tree with God’s Holy ROOT Jesus Christ.), and with them partake of the ROOT and fatness of the olive tree; (The whole symbolism of the olive tree is being a chosen PEOPLE of God. The Hebrew people were God’s FIRST chosen people. God has not rejected them BUT God has CHOSEN a NEW PEOPLE which is his NEW CREATION created IN his Son Jesus Christ as the ONLY means to be made Holy.)
18. Boast not against the branches. (Remember that the ONLY branches on the tree were GRAFTED back in after ALL the old branches had been cut OFF by God CONCLUDING ALL to be under SIN. In other words, we as Christians should NOT boast against the natural branches of Israel that God CUT OFF and are no longer a part of GOD’S GOOD Olive tree. So then, BEFORE God turned to the Gentiles, the only branches on his GOOD Olive tree were Jews who received and believed in the NEW COVENANT by believing that Jesus is their Messiah the Son of the living God. So, Paul is WARNING the Gentile Christians and the Jewish Christians to NOT be like the OLD branches and the OLD ROOT having PRIDE and BOASTING) But if YOU boast, you bearest NOT the ROOT, (Speaking of the new Holy ROOT, Jesus Christ) but the root you. (Speaking of the OLD root that was rooted out which is that ROOT of PRIDE and BOASTING which God hates. Another way to explain this is that we must always remember that the ROOT, speaking of Jesus, is the reason we are saved. And knowing this we have NO room to boast. For you see, boasting was of the OLD root of obeying all the law of Moses contained in ordinances. So rather than BOASTING)
19. You will say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. (In other words, do NOT look DOWN upon the JEWS as inferior to you now that you have become a NEW CREATION of God created IN Jesus Christ, but rather be THANKFUL that God chose to turn to the Gentiles. Likewise, the Jewish Christians are not to look down upon their own people as being inferior to them being deceived by unbelief.)
20. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand BY FAITH. Be NOT high minded, but fear: (In other words, do NOT boast that God has now chosen you to be his NEW Holy People, BY FAITH in his Son Jesus Christ, and has cut off all who do NOT believe in his Son Jesus as the atonement for their sins. For you see, IF you do BOAST, then you do not have the truth abiding in you and it is that OLD ROOT of PRIDE who is controlling you causing you to fall from your faith, as if, YOU saved yourself by your own works of righteousness.)
21. For if God spared NOT the natural branches, (Because of their PRIDE and BOASTING in their OWN works of righteousness) take heed lest he also spare not YOU. (When YOU boast in your OWN works of righteousness of trying to keep the Law of Moses saying things like ‘Why do not all Christians keep the Sabbath day as WE do?’)
22. Behold, therefore, the goodness and severity of God: on them which FELL, severity; (Speaking of God’s chosen people Israel who did NOT receive God’s NEW COVENANT as being those who FELL and have been CUT OFF until a Jew BELIEVES that Jesus is their Messiah) but toward you (Speaking of those of us who BELIEVE in Jesus as our Sabbath REST), goodness, IF you CONTINUE in HIS goodness: OTHERWISE you ALSO shall be cut off.
23. And they also, IF they abide NOT STILL in UNBELIEF, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. (Meaning that God cut them OUT of their OWN olive tree so that he could graft them into HIS GOOD Olive tree with is good ROOT, Jesus Christ)
24. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature (NOT knowing the TRUE God at all), and were grafted contrary to nature into a GOOD olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches (Who HAVE known the TRUE God), be GRAFTED into their own olive tree? (Which they were cut off from because they broke the Old Covenant. This GOOD Olive tree is NOT Israel under the OLD COVENANT but rather it is God’s GOOD Olive tree that is keeping his NEW COVENANT.)
25. For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. (Speaking of the end of this present age right before Jesus returns to deal with Israel a SECOND TIME in the world to come. In other words, there will be yet another church age DURING the Millennium in which a SECOND harvest will be gathered together at the END of the 1000 year reign of Jesus)
26. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: (Please understand that this does NOT mean that every single natural-born child of Israel will be saved. This simply means that there will be TWO HARVESTS. There will be one harvest BEFORE the Millennium and then a second harvest at the end of the Millennium. And ONLY those who BELIEVE will be saved)
27. For this is my covenant unto them, (Speaking of God’s NEW COVENANT given at BOTH the first coming of Jesus AND again a SECOND time at the second coming of Jesus) when I shall take away their sins.
28. As concerning the GOSPEL, they (Speaking of the JUDAIZING Jews) are ENEMIES for your sakes: BUT as touching the election (Speaking of those Jews who BELIEVE in the NEW COVENANT), they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. (Or the Jews who have received God’s NEW COVENANT, to CONTINUE in the Holy ROOT Jesus Christ keeping the NEW Covenant, are beloved of Almighty God the Father)
29. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (Meaning that there is no turning back to the old Gentile ways of paganism. And in the case of natural Israel there is no turning back to the OLD COVENANT)
30. For as you in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31. Even so have these also now not believed, (Speaking of natural Israel that has NOT believed in the New Covenant) that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. (In other words, just as God showed YOU mercy now you show the Jews mercy, giving them the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ)
32. For God has concluded them ALL in unbelief, that he might have MERCY upon all.”
All unbelief is SIN according to Revelation 21:7,8.
“He that overcomes shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall
be my son.
8. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
And the TRUTH of the whole matter of WHY there is even a Hebrew Roots Movement at all is because of the spirit of FEAR and UNBELIEF to REST fully in God’s NEW COVENANT. The Jews who became Christians in the early church were subverted by the Jews and they began to DOUBT that they were saved. They began FEARING that they must keep all the Law of Moses to be saved.
Now, those in the Hebrew Roots Movement will CLAIM that they are NOT keeping the Law of Moses to be SAVED. They will argue that they are only keeping the Law of Moses to be better pleasing to God.
And to that arguement, I say, HOGWASH! Just ask them that if they break any one of the MORAL commandments of God such and stealing, adultery, or murder if that would be a SIN. Ask them if they MUST OBEY all the MORAL commandments of God in order to NOT sin and obtain eternal life in the world to come. Ask them if they do sin by disobeying any moral commandment if they must ask for forgiveness and repent of their sinning in order to be forgiven. In other words, every true believer in Jesus MUST overcome sin by obeying all the MORAL commandments in order to receive eternal life in the world to come. And if we SIN by breaking any MORAL commandment we MUST confess and repent of those sins in order to receive eternal life in the world to come.
So to say this another way, we OBEY all the MORAL commandments of God because God REQUIRES us to do so lest we SIN. And the wages of SIN is DEATH. And thus our keeping of the MORAL commandments of God is NOT an OPTION. We do not obey the moral commandment of God just to better please God. We keep the moral commandments of God in order to overcome and be granted the right to eat o the tree of eternal life in the world to come. And anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear know full well that all the seventh day of the week Sabbath keeping Christians keep the weekly Sabbath and the Law of Moses to RECEIVE eternal life in the world to come. They live in FEAR that if they do NOT keep the Law of Moses then they will NOT receive eternal life in the world to come. But yet they LOVE making the LIE that they are not keeping the Law of Moses to be saved.
Please read Revelation 22:14,15.
“Blessed [are] they that do his commandments, (Speaking of Christians who are obeying the commandments of Jesus under the NEW COVENANT written in the New Testament, the MORAL commandments of God repeated throughout the New Testament) that they (Speaking of only the faithful obedient Christians to the NEW COVENANT) may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
15. For without [are] dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.”
Now, those in the Hebrew Roots Movement will LIE to their unsuspecting converts by telling them that they do NOT keep the Law of Moses to be saved. But after they are converted or Judaized by the Hebrew Roots Movement then they are dogmatically told that if they do NOT keep all the Law of Moses then they will NOT be granted the right to receive ETERNAL LIFE in the world to come. And they LOVE making this lie over and over to SUBVERT Christians to keep the Law of Moses. So be forewarned the no liar will inherit eternal life. The COMMANDMENTS hear in Revelation 22:14 are speaking of the commandments in the NEW COVENANT written in the New Testament. For you see, the great apostle PETER and the whole early church gave NO such commandment to keep the Law of Moses.
Please read Acts 15:5, 24
“ But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses….
...24. Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, [You must] be circumcised, AND keep the law: to whom we gave no [such] commandment:”
It is that SAME FEAR that motivated the first Hebrew roots movement pioneer, FEARING that he or she was NOT keeping the FOURTH commandment that he or she was SINNING being ignorant of the TRUTH that under the NEW COVENANT Jesus was his or her Sabbath REST. And from that ONE thought, planted in the first Hebrew roots movement pioneer, he or she spread that seed of DOUBT and FEAR to begin to leaven the whole lump to keep ALL the Law of Moses.
The TRUTH of the whole matter is that the New Testament church did NOT teach believers in Jesus Christ to keep ANY DAY of the week above any other day of the week.
Please read all of Romans chapter 14 but I will only quote Romans 14:4-6.
“Who are you that judge another man's servant? to his own master he stands or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
5. One man esteems ONE day ABOVE another: another esteems EVERY day ALIKE. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
6. He that regards the day (Or he that esteems ONE day of the week above every other day of the week), regards it unto the Lord; and he that regards not the day (and he who does NOT esteem ANY day above any other day), to the Lord he does not regard it. He that eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he that eats not, to the Lord he eats not, and gives God thanks.”
Now, IF SO BE that Paul was teaching in Romans chapter 11 that to be grafted in the natural olive tree means that we as Christians are to keep the OLD Covenant that was given ONLY to the Children of ISRAEL during the Old Testament times then Gods; word in contradicting itself. You can NOT have it BOTH ways. Paul can NOT be saying that being grafted into Israel means that we must live like a Jew and obey the old covenant Law of Moses and then say that we are NOT to esteem any day above any other day. Paul would be contradicting himself.
For you see, Israel does indeed esteem the SEVENTH DAY above every other day of the week. And thus, IF SO BE that we WRONGLY INTERPRET Paul’s word of being grafted into the Olive tree to mean that we MUST esteem the weekly Sabbath day above the other days of the week as the Jews do, then Paul is contradiction his own words in Romans chapter 14. And we know that God’s word does not contradict itself. And, therefore, either the Hebrew Roots INTERPRETATION of being grafted into the olive tree is in error, or the mainstream church interpretation of Romans chapter 14 is in error.
In Romans chapter 14, Paul is ALLOWING those who are WEAK in their FAITH in the NEW COVENANT to keep the Seventh day Sabbath. But they are NOT to JUDGE us, who are STRONG in our faith in the NEW COVENANT that Jesus is our TRUE Sabbath REST, that are NOT keeping ANY day of the week in order to be more pleasing to God. In other words, Paul is saying that we are to work out our own salvation between us and God with fear and trembling. If you look at the end of Paul’s ministry you can see that he grew tired of or frustrated with the contending with the Judaizing Jews and the Judaizing Jewish Christians who were subverting other Christians to keep the Law of Moses.
Can you not see my dear brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ that it was the UNBELIEVING JEWS who were stirring up all the trouble in the church by subverting the faith of the Jewish Christians to keep all the Law of Moses who then subverted the Gentile Christians to be circumcised and keep the Law of Moses? At first, the unbelieving Jews TROUBLED the new Gentile believers that the MUST be circumcised AND keep the Law of Moses to be saved.
Please read Acts 14:1-4.
“And it came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews, and so spake, that a great multitude BOTH of the Jews and also of the Greeks BELIEVED.
2. BUT the UNBELIEVING Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.
3. Long time therefore abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands.
4. But the multitude of the city was divided: and part held with the Jews, and part with the apostles.”
Now I do not know about YOU but as for me and my house, we are going to serve the Lord in the NEWNESS of the SPIRIT by siding with the APOSTLES of Jesus Christ. I will never side with the JEWS who keep the old covenant law in the oldness of the letter of the law.
In other words, when Paul said in Colossians 2:5-17, that the Sabbath days were SHADOWS pointing to the TRUE, then I am going to believe the Apostles of Jesus Christ over the JUDAIZING Hebrew Roots Movement.
REMEMBER that those who do NOT CONTINUE in TRUTH of the faith shall be CUT OFF. They are FALLEN for GRACE. Their faith in Jesus is in VAIN. Their faith is WEAK in the NEW COVENANT to be enough to save them if they continue to fear that they must keep the Law of Moses.
Romans 11:22.
“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, IF you CONTINUE in HIS goodness: OTHERWISE you ALSO shall be cut off.”
Paul is saying that God concluded ALL of ISRAEL to be in unbelief to be cut off from the Olive tree which is symbolic to be in a covenant relationship with God. Paul is saying that BY FAITH in the NEW COVENANT any Jew and any Gentile can be GRAFTED into a covenant relationship by their FAITH IN Jesus. Paul is saying that towards those of us who BELIEVE is the GOODNESS of God IF we CONTINUE unto the end in God’s goodness of his NEW COVENANT. OTHERWISE, we also who began in FAITH will be cut off if we try and keep both the old and the new covenants.
Galatians 2:5.
“To whom we gave place by subjection, NO, not for an hour; (In other words, NO!, not even for a moment did we give place to believe those Judaizing Jews and Judaizing Christians to keep the Law of Moses) that the TRUTH of the gospel might CONTINUE with you.”
Galatians 2:14.
“But when I saw that they walked NOT uprightly according to the TRUTH of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, live after the manner of Gentiles, and NOT as do the Jews, why compel you the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?”
Ephesians 1:13.
“In whom you also trusted, after that you heard the word of TRUTH, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that you believed, you were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,”
Colossians 1:5.
“For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the word of the TRUTH of the gospel;”
2 Corinthians 11:12.
“But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; (Meaning that if Paul could somehow shield believers from those who desire to lord over the flock. In other words, Paul was saying that if he could keep believers from hearing false teaching he would) that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.”
Read 2 Corinthians chapter 11, to see for yourself if Paul, who was a Hebrew of Hebrew and an Israelite, obeyed the OLD COVENANT or if he warned Christians about keeping the Old Covenant?
Galatians 5:12.
“I would they were even cut off which trouble you.”
Please read Galatians chapter 5 and see WHO was troubling the church. In fact, read ALL of the book of Galatians to know and understand once and for all time that it was the JUDAIZING JEWS who were subverting true-born again Christians to be brought under the BONGAGE of keeping TORAH and that they are the ENEMY of the church, as we read in Romans 11:28.
And this is exactly what Satan is doing again through his followers in the Hebrew Roots Movement.
Please read Galatians 5:6-14.
“For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but FAITH which works by love.
7. You did run well; who did HINDER you that you should NOT obey the TRUTH?
8. This PERSUASION (Or JUDAIZING Hebrew Roots Movement) comes NOT OF him that calls you.
9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. (Leaven equals or symbolizes FALSE teaching and it only takes a little false teaching to begin making the whole lump false and cut off unless they repent and come back to the TRUE Gospel of Jesus Christ)
10. I have confidence in you through the Lord, that you will be none otherwise minded: but he that trouble you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.
11. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offense of the cross ceased.
12. I would they were even cut off which trouble you. (Or I would that I could keep them which trouble you away from you so that they cannot preach to you their false gospel)
13. For, brethren, you have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. (But do not boast of your freedom IN Jesus Christ or you are no better than them who BOAST in keeping the law under the old covenant written in the Old Testament)
14. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; You shall LOVE your neighbor as yourself.”
In this SAME letter to the church at Galatia, Paul writes that he is AFRAID of them because they are desiring to be brought UNDER the LAW of Moses.
Please read Galatians 4:3-11.
“Even so WE, when WE were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: (Paul is INCLUDING himself in the pronoun WE here calling the BONDAGE of the elements of the world the LAW of Moses)
4. BUT when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the LAW,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6. And because YOU are sons, (YOU have been REDEEMED from being UNDER the LAW that was BONDAGE under the elements and rudiments of the world, speaking of the ceremonial services to God using material things such as the Temple in Jerusalem) God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7. Wherefore YOU are NO MORE a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (You are NO MORE a servant of the Law of Moses even though you have never been under the law)
8. Howbeit then, when you knew NOT God, you did service unto them which by nature are no gods. (However, BEFORE you were saved you were still UNDER BONDAGE of sin by serving false idol gods which is just another type of weak and beggarly elements of the world, as in, a worldly ceremonial service to a deity a false god or the only true God, For you see, BOTH paganism AND the Law of Moses have worldly ceremonial services to their respective god and true God. BOTH Paganism AND the Law of Moses have days that they esteem above other days. And, therefore, it is a matter of INTERPRETATION to dogmatically demand that Paul is speaking ONLY about the elements of Paganism. The CONTEXT, on the other hand, has much to say about the LAW of Moses. So my interpretation is based upon the CONTEXT of all of Paul’s teaching along with the teachings of Peter and the other apostle who gave NO such commandment to keep the LAW of Moses.)
9. But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn you AGAIN to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire AGAIN to be in bondage?
10. You observe days, and months, and times, and years.
11. I am AFRAID of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.”
Now one can argue till Jesus comes about whether these Gentile Christians RETURNED to their ceremonial service to idols OR if they turned AGAIN to a NEW to them weak and beggarly elements of keeping the Sabbath DAYS under the LAW of Moses.
For ME, with the ENTIRE CONTEXT of this entire letter to the Galatians, I must conclude that they came out of the bondage of serving idols to be set FREE IN Jesus Christ for a while only to be SEDUCED by Judaizing Christians and the Jews to be drawn back into ANOTHER bondage of keeping the Sabbath DAYS, the WEEKLY Sabbath DAYS, the monthly new moon festivals and the YEARLY feasts.
But no matter WHAT you decide that the beggarly elements were, the FACT remains that Paul was AFRAID for them for OBSERVING DAYS above other days. And keeping ANY day of the week as an OBLIGATION or a REQUIRED SERVICE TO God is NOT taught anywhere in the New Testament under the NEW COVENANT.
However, on the other hand, there are MANY places in the New Testament teaching us and even WARNING Christians to NOT let anyone judge us for NOT keeping the Sabbaths days.
So then, in conclusion, when either a Jew or a Gentile becomes a Christian they become a NEW CREATURE created IN Jesus Christ and they are NO LONGER a JEW or a Gentile but now we have become ONE new man in Jesus Christ.
Please read Ephesians 2:10-14.
“For we are HIS workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, (And NOT unto the keeping of TORAH but rather unto good DEEDS to others walking in LOVE and thereby fulfilling all the MORAL laws) which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
11. Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12. That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of PROMISE, (Speaking of the covenant of Abraham and the NEW COVENANT) having no hope, and without God in the world:
13. But now IN Christ Jesus (And not in ISRAEL under the OLD Covenant but rather IN Jesus Christ under the NEW COVENANT written in the New Testament) you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. (We are NOT drawn closer to God by keeping the CEREMONIAL laws, commandments, and ordinances written in the Old Testament under the OLD Covenant. In fact BY trying to keep the OLD Covenant you are proving that you do NOT TRUST in God’s NEW COVENANT. Those deceived by the Hebrew Roots Movement are NOT truly RESTING in Jesus and the promises in the New Testament to CEASE from their OWN good works of righteousness)
14. For HE is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us; (that pride and arrogance of being high minded thinking that they are better than the others)
15. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one NEW man, so making peace;
16. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:”
Jesus slew the LAW of commandments contained in ordinances. The handwriting of ordinances were the INSTRUCTIONS on HOW TO keep the commandments.
So then, the HOW TO keep the law of circumcision under the Old Covenant written in the Old Testament was the cutting of the FLESH made with human hands.
But NOW the HOW TO keep the law of circumcision has CHANGED under the NEW COVENANT to be made WITHOUT hands of the FLESH whereby Jesus has become our circumcision and the OLD way to keep that law of circumcision was NAILED to the cross and taken out of the way.
And the same is true of the feast of Passover and all the feast days which were a SHADOW pointing to Jesus.
And the SAME is true of the WEEKLY Sabbath which was given ONLY to the CHILDREN of Israel for THEM to keep throughout THEIR generations as a SIGN to THEM to REMEMBER WHO is their DELIVERER out of the BONDAGE of Egypt. So, that they would see the SIGN of their MESSIAH, Jesus, who delivered them out of the BONDAGE of SIN. Please read the study “THE SABBATH REST WAS A SIGN!”
But we as Christians who KNOW that all the ceremonial ordinances, including the weekly Sabbath, were SHADOWS pointing to the TRUE, then we do not keep the SHADOWS but WE keep the TRUE by RESTING IN Jesus Christ as the atonement for our sins. We obey the laws that Jesus gave to us under the NEW COVENANT written in the New Testament.
Thanks for reading and may God bless you richly as you continue to read ALL the studies that I gave links to throughout this study concerning this subject on Sabbath TRUTH. I will post them again below along with all the studies that I have on this subject. Also, below are some quotes from early church writers that prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that the early church did not keep the seventh day of the week as the Jews.
Your brother in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Brother Mark.
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Some Christians CLAIM that the early church kept the Sabbath as the Jews, but I assure you that the early first-century church was accustomed to gathering together BEFORE the light of daybreak on the FIRST day of the week that THEY called the Lord's day.
Please read all the studies linked within this study and all the studies linked below. This study was just the TIP of the iceberg of exposing the ERRORS of interpretation made by the Saturday seventh day of the week Sabbath-keeping churches, and the Sunday first day of the week Sabbath-keeping Christians. All of the studies listed below can be sent to a brother or sister caught up in the Hebrew Roots Movement or a Sabbath-keeping church by sending them this one link “>>>WHAT IS THE TRUE SABBATH?<<<”
Or you can pick and choose any of the links below to send to them or read for yourself. Be sure to read the HISTORICAL evidence if you have not already done so. I post the SAME historical evidence at the end of almost every study on this subject of the Sabbath day. But if you want to read it again you may see something that did not stand out before.
“YES CHRISTIANS MUST KEEP THE SABBATH!”
“JESUS IS LORD OF THE SABBATH!”
“MATTHEW 5:17-19 SABBATH TRUTH!”
“MATTHEW 24:20 FUTURE SABBATH KEEPING!”
“SABBATH TRUTH REMEMBER THE SABBATH!”
“REALLY ONLY NINE OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS?”
“MUST CHRISTIANS KEEP THE 4th COMMANDMENT?”
“SABBATH KEEPING VERSUS SUNDAY WORSHIP?”
“60 ARGUMENTS FOR THE SABBATH!”
“THE SABBATH, SUNDAY, OR NEITHER DAY?”
“HAS GOD'S LAW BEEN ABOLISHED? (Matthew 5:17-19)”
“WAS JESUS RESURRECTED ON SUNDAY?”
“JESUS WORDS ONLY! SABBATH TRUTH!”
“IS PAUL A TRUE APOSTLE OF JESUS?”
“IS THE APOSTLE PAUL A FALSE TEACHER?”
“DO PAUL'S TEACHINGS CONTRADICT JESUS?”
“MUST CHRISTIANS KEEP THE DIETARY LAWS?”
“ACTS 10 PETER'S VISION OF CLEANSED MEATS?”
“IS THE HEBREWS ROOT MOVEMENT BIBLICAL?”
“119 MINISTRIES ERRORS PART 1”
“119 MINISTRIES ERRORS PART 2”
“ARE BLACK AFRICANS THE TRUE HEBREWS?”
“WHAT IS THE ONE TRUE CHURCH?”
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Again, some Christians make the CLAIM that the early church kept the Sabbath as the Jews, but I assure you that the early first-century church was accustomed to gathering together BEFORE the light of daybreak on the FIRST day of the week that THEY called the Lord's Day.
Here is a NON BIAS historical account found in a letter from Pliny the Younger to Trojan concerning the Christians.
Pliny was a Roman who persecuted and killed Christians, so again this is a historical NON BIAS account of WHEN Christians gathered together.
Here is what Pliny says in his letter to Trojan. The EMPHASIS and comments in parenthesis are my own:
“That they were WONT (Or as they were ACCUSTOMED and USED to do, or in the HABIT of doing), on a STATED day (Or on a CERTAIN preset day), to meet together BEFORE IT WAS LIGHT, and to sing a hymn to Christ, as to a god, alternately; and to oblige themselves by a sacrament [or oath], not to do anything that was ill: but that they would commit no theft, or pilfering, or adultery; that they would not break their promises, or deny what was deposited with them, when it was required back again; after which it was their CUSTOM to depart, AND to meet AGAIN at a common but innocent meal,(So after they had worship service early morning beginning before day light, they would depart and they come back together later that same day to share a common simple meal together and most likely break bread together as other early church writers give more detail) which they had left off upon that edict which I published at your command, and wherein I had forbidden any such conventicles (Or religious meetings).”
Below are some quotes of early church writers that clearly teach us that the early church did NOT keep the Sabbath day, as in, on SATURDAY, the 7th day of the week, but rather the early church throughout history from it's beginning worshiped God on SUNDAY the FIRST day of the week, which is sometimes referred to as the EIGHTH day of the week or the day AFTER the Sabbath day, or the LORD'S DAY. (The emphasis is mine in these quotes given below):
The year AD or date is given first and then the source is given at the end followed by the quote from that historical source. The Apostle John was still alive until 100 AD.
#1. 90 AD DIDACHE:
"Christian Assembly on the Lord's Day:
1. But every Lord's day do ye gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.
2. But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you, until they be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be profaned.
3. For this is that which was spoken by the Lord: In every place and time offer to me a pure sacrifice; for I am a great King, saith the Lord, and my name is wonderful among the nations." (Didache: The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, Chapter XIV)
#2. 100 AD BARNABAS:
"We keep the eighth day [Sunday] with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead" (The Epistle of Barnabas, 100 AD 15:6-8).
#3. 100 AD BARNABAS:
Moreover, God says to the Jews, 'Your new moons and Sabbaths I cannot endure.' You see how he says, 'The present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but the Sabbath which I have made in which, when I have rested [heaven: Heb 4] from all things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another world.' Wherefore we Christians keep the eighth day for joy, on which also Jesus arose from the dead and when he appeared ascended into heaven. (15:8f, The Epistle of Barnabas, 100 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, pg. 147)
#4. 110 AD Pliny:
They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath not to (do) any wicked deeds, never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of good food—but food of an ordinary and innocent kind. (About three years after the death of Ignatius in 250, an important official communication was sent from one Pliny to Trojan the Roman emperor. Pliny, the Roman governor of Bithynia, wrote of the Christians who had been congregating there probably from at least A.D. 62 onwards. In this remark, it is explicitly stated that these early Christians observed the substance of most of the Ten Commandments, and it is implied that they observed all ten as far as they were able to do so. As far as they were able, for as most of the early Christians were of slave stock or from other lower classes'-, and those who had heathen masters or employers—the vast majority—would be forced to work on THEIR day of rest, which was unfortunately an official working day throughout the empires' until Constantine's "Sabbath" Edict in 321 A.D. gave them some measure of public protection. Hence one reads that after meeting "on a certain FIXED day before it was light", the first century Bithynian Christians had "to separate"—many of them having to labor for their masters and/or employers from dawn to dusk—"and then reassemble to partake of . . . food". The "certain fixed day" [stato die"'] on which the Christians met, is regarded by Seventh-day Adventists as Saturday'-. Certainly, the expression would seem to indicate a regular day of meeting, probably each week. But Sunday is FAR more likely to have been the "certain fixed day" than Saturday. For if Pliny had been referring to the old Saturday Sabbath, as a Roman he would doubtless have referred to the "later" meeting first and only then to the morning meeting on the day after the "certain fixed day", seeing that the old Saturday Sabbath was demarcated from the evening of one day to the evening of the following day. But Pliny makes no such reference. Instead, he mentions that the pre-dawn meeting took place first—and only afterward, the later meeting; and that both meetings took place on the SAME "certain fixed day". This rather points to the Roman (and—more importantly!—New Testament) midnight to midnight demarcation of modern Sunday-keepers than to the evening to evening demarcation of the Jews and the Seventh-day Adventists.) (The Covenantal Sabbath, Francis Nigel Lee, Pg 242)
Also, I myself will further add to the comment of the writer above that mere common sense plainly teaches us that Pliny was clearly speaking of SUNDAY because the LAW that Constantine passed was not to mandate work on SUNDAY, so that these Christians could worship God on SUNDAY. So the CLAIM by the Seventh Day Advent church that the fixed day of worship for Christians was a Saturday is FALSE. Otherwise, Constantine would have made it a law that employers allow Christians off for work on a Saturday rather than on a Sunday.
This PROVES beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Christians were ALREADY worshiping God on SUNDAY, the FIRST DAY of the week from the very beginning of the church on the day of Pentecost. The truth of the matter is that Constantine only made it easier for Christians to worship God on Sunday without being persecuted by their employers or owners by passing the EDICT making it a LAW to force heathen employers to let their employees have at least some time off from work so that they could worship God on SUNDAY.
Every Sabbath keeper will AGREE that Constantine's “SABBATH” is referring to SUNDAY as the day of the week and NOT as Saturday being the REST for Christians. Again, all that Constantine did was to pass a law making it EASIER for Christians to worship on the DAY that they had ALREADY been worshiping on since the very beginning, at the DAY of PENTECOST, which is on SUNDAY the FIRST day of the week that Christian called the LORD'S day, the day our Lord rose from the grave.
Open your EYES dear child of God and read what these early church writings are teaching us about the EARLIEST believers as to which day the early church worshiped God. SUNDAY has ALWAYS been the Sabbath or the day of REST of the early church and the church throughout its entire history.
#5. 150 AD EPISTLE OF THE APOSTLES:
-I [Christ] have come into being on the eighth day which is the day of the Lord. (18)
#6. 150 AD JUSTIN.
"He then speaks of those Gentiles, namely us, who in every place offer sacrifices to Him, i.e., the bread of the Eucharist, and also the cup of the Eucharist, affirming both that we glorify His name, and that you profane [it]. The command of circumcision, again, bidding [them] always circumcise the children on the eighth day, was a type of the true circumcision, by which we are circumcised from deceit and iniquity through Him who rose from the dead on the first day AFTER the Sabbath, [namely through] our Lord Jesus Christ. For the first day after the Sabbath, remaining the first of all the days, is called, however, the eighth, according to the number of all the days of the cycle, and [yet] remains the first." (Justin, Dialogue 41:4)
#7. 150 AD JUSTIN:
...those who have persecuted and do persecute Christ, if they do not repent, shall not inherit anything on the holy mountain. But the Gentiles, who have believed on Him, and have repented of the sins which they have committed, they shall receive the inheritance along with the patriarchs and the prophets, and the just men who are descended from Jacob, even although they neither keep the Sabbath, nor are circumcised, nor observe the feasts. Assuredly they shall receive the holy inheritance of God. (Dialogue With Trypho the Jew, 150-165 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, page 207)
#8. 150 AD JUSTIN:
But if we do not admit this, we shall be liable to fall into foolish opinion, as if it were not the same God who existed in the times of Enoch and all the rest, who neither were circumcised after the flesh, nor observed Sabbaths, nor any other rites, seeing that Moses enjoined such observances... For if there was no need of circumcision before Abraham, or of the observance of Sabbaths, of feasts and sacrifices, before Moses; no more need is there of them now, after that, according to the will of God, Jesus Christ the Son of God has been born without sin, of a virgin sprung from the stock of Abraham. (Dialogue With Trypho the Jew, 150-165 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, page 206)
#9. 150 AD JUSTIN:
Moreover, all those righteous men already mentioned [after mentioning Adam. Abel, Enoch, Lot, Noah, Melchizedek, and Abraham], though they kept no Sabbaths, were pleasing to God; and after them Abraham with all his descendants until Moses... And you [fleshly Jews] were commanded to keep Sabbaths, that you might retain the memorial of God. For His word makes this announcement, saying, "That you may know that I am God who redeemed you." (Dialogue With Trypho the Jew, 150-165 AD, Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, page 204)
#10. 150 AD JUSTIN.
There is no other thing for which you blame us, my friends, is there than this? That we do not live according to the Law, nor, are we circumcised in the flesh as your forefathers, nor do we observe the Sabbath as you do. (Dialogue with Trypho 10:1. In verse 3 the Jew Trypho acknowledges that Christians 'do not keep the Sabbath.')
#11. 155 AD Justin Martyr:
"[W]e too would observe the fleshly circumcision, and the Sabbaths, and in short all the feasts, if we did not know for what REASON they were enjoined [on] you--namely, on account of your transgressions and the hardness of your heart. . . . [H]ow is it, Trypho, that we would not observe those rites which do not harm us--I speak of fleshly circumcision AND Sabbaths AND feasts? . . . God enjoined you [Jews] to keep the Sabbath and impose on you other precepts for a sign, as I have already said, on account of your unrighteousness and that of your fathers" (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew 18, 21).
#12. 180 AD ACTS OF PETER:
Paul had often contended with the Jewish teachers and had confuted them (Or refuted them completely), saying 'it is Christ on whom your fathers laid hands. He abolished their Sabbath and fasts and festivals and circumcision.' (1: I)-2
#13. 180 AD GOSPEL OF PETER:
Early in the morning when (the Sabbath dawned, a multitude from Jerusalem and the surrounding country came to see the scaled sepulcher. In the night in which the Lord's day dawned, while the soldiers in pairs for each watch were keeping guard, a great voice came from heaven. [There follows an account of the resurrection. Early in the morning of the Lord's day Mary Magdalene, a disciple of the Lord .... came to the sepulcher. (9:34f.; 12:50f.)
#14. 190 AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA:
(in commenting on each of the Ten Commandments and their Christian meaning:) The seventh day is proclaimed a day of rest, PREPARING by abstention from evil FOR the Primal day, our TRUE rest. (Ibid. VII. xvi. 138.1)
I will add that the meaning of the word “Primal” means an “ARCHETYPAL” which means an original TYPE pointing to the TRUE. So this early church writer is saying what Paul teaches us in scripture that the things in the OLD Testament are TYPES and SHADOWS or the TRUE which was to come. Jesus became our SABBATH, and we have entered into our REST being in Jesus Christ. The SABBATH was an ARCHETYPAL pointing toward our TRUE REST which was to come being FULFILLED in the ATONEMENT of Jesus.
#15. 190 AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA:
He does the commandment according to the Gospel and keeps the Lord's day, whenever he puts away an evil mind . . . glorifying the Lord's resurrection in himself. (Ibid. Vii.xii.76.4)
#16. 190 AD CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA:
Plato prophetically speaks of the Lord's day in the tenth book of the Republic, in these words: 'And when seven days have passed to each of them in the meadow, on the eighth they must go on." (Miscellanies V.xiv.106.2)
#17. 200 AD BARDESANES:
Wherever we are, we are all called after the one name of Christ Christians. On one day, the first of the week, we assemble ourselves together (On Fate)
#18. 200 AD TERTULLIAN:
"We solemnize the day AFTER Saturday in contradistinction to those who call this day their Sabbath" (Tertullian's Apology, Ch 16)
In other words, Tertullian is saying that we Christians DISTINGUISH us from the JEWS who hold Saturday as THEIR Sabbath by solemnizing or referencing the day AFTER Saturday as our day of worship and rest.
#19. 200 AD TERTULLIAN:
It follows, accordingly, that, in so far as the abolition of carnal circumcision and of the old law is demonstrated as having been consummated at its specific times, so also the observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary. (An Answer to the Jews 4:1, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3, page 155)
#20. 200 AD TERTULLIAN:
Let him who contends that the Sabbath is still to be observed a balm of salvation, and circumcision on the eighth day because of the threat of death, teach us that in earliest times righteous men kept Sabbath or practiced circumcision, and so were made friends of God. .. ...Therefore, since God originated Adam uncircumcised, and inobservant of the Sabbath, consequently his offspring also, Abel, offering Him sacrifices, uncircumcised and inobservant of the Sabbath, was by Him commended... Noah also, uncircumcised - yes, and inobservant of the Sabbath - God freed from the deluge. For Enoch, too, most righteous man, uncircumcised and inobservant of the Sabbath, He translated from this world... Melchizedek also, "the priest of most high God," uncircumcised and inobservant of the Sabbath, was chosen to the priesthood of God. (An Answer to the Jews 2:10; 4:1, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3, page 153)
#21. 200 AD TERTULLIAN:
Others . . . suppose that the sun is the god of the Christians because it is well-known that we regard Sunday as a day of joy. (To the Nations 1: 133)
Keep in mind that this was well BEFORE Constantine SUPPOSEDLY CHANGED the day of rest and worship to Sunday as the Seventh Day Adventist church CLAIMS. But in TRUTH, Christians had ALREADY been worshiping God on Sunday, the FIRST day of the week that they also called the Lord’s Day, the day that our Lord and Savior Jesus rose from the dead.
So, as early as Tertullian in 200 AD there were groups of JEWS and Christian JEWS who ASSUMED or who SUPPOSED, or who FALSELY ACCUSED Christians of worshiping God on SUNDAY that they were worshiping a sun god and not the true God.
#22. 200 AD TERTULLIAN:
To us Sabbaths are foreign. (On Idolatry, 14:6)4
#23. 220 AD ORIGEN:
"On Sunday none of the actions of the world should be done. If then, you abstain from all the works of this world and keep yourselves free for spiritual things, go to church, listen to the readings and divine homilies, meditate on heavenly things. (Homil. 23 in Numeros 4, PG 12:749)
#24. 220 AD Origen:
"Hence it is not possible that the [day of] rest after the Sabbath should have come into existence from the seventh [day] of our God. On the contrary, it is our Savior who, after the pattern of his own rest, caused us to be made in the likeness of his death, and hence also of his resurrection" (Commentary on John 2:28).
#25. 225 AD The Didascalia:
"The apostles further appointed: On the first day of the week let there be service, and the reading of the Holy Scriptures, and the oblation, because on the first day of the week our Lord rose from the place of the dead, and on the first day of the week he arose upon the world, and on the first day of the week he ascended up to heaven, and on the first day of the week he will appear at last with the angels of heaven" (Didascalia 2).
And I add further that the church BEGAN on the day of Pentecost, on a SUNDAY, the FIRST day of the week. The early church evidence and the word of TRUTH, the Holy Bible, make it quite clear that the early church worshiped God on SUNDAY the FIRST day of the week, called the LORD'S day and that they did NOT KEEP the Sabbath day as the JEWS.
#26. 250 AD CYPRIAN:
The eight day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, and the Lord's Day." (Epistle 58, Sec 4)
#27. 250 AD IGNATIUS:
"If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death-whom some deny, by which mystery we have obtained faith, and therefore endure, that we may be found the disciples of Jesus Christ, our only Master-how shall we be able to live apart from Him, whose disciples the prophets themselves in the Spirit did wait for Him as their Teacher? And therefore He whom they rightly waited for, being come, raised them from the dead. If, then, those who were conversant with the ancient Scriptures came to newness of hope, expecting the coming of Christ, as the Lord teaches us when He says, "If ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for he wrote of Me; " and again, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad; for before Abraham was, I am; " how shall we be able to live without Him? The prophets were His servants, and foresaw Him by the Spirit, and waited for Him as their Teacher, and expected Him as their Lord and Saviour, saying, "He will come and save us." Let us therefore NO longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness; for "he that does not work, let him not eat." For say the [holy] oracles, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread." But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, NOT in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days [of the week]. Looking forward to this, the prophet declared, "To the end, for the eighth day," on which our life both sprang up again, and the victory over death was obtained in Christ, whom the children of perdition, the enemies of the Saviour, deny, "whose god is their belly, who mind earthly things," who are "lovers of pleasure, and not lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." These make merchandise of Christ, corrupting His word, and giving up Jesus to sale: they are corrupters of women, and covetous of other men's possessions, swallowing up wealth insatiably; from whom may ye be delivered by the mercy of God through our Lord Jesus Christ! (Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians, Chapter IX)
#28. 250 AD IGNATIUS:
"On the day of the preparation, then, at the third hour, He received the sentence from Pilate, the Father permitting that to happen; at the sixth hour He was crucified; at the ninth hour He gave up the ghost; and before sunset He was buried. During the Sabbath He continued under the earth in the tomb in which Joseph of Arimathaea had laid Him. At the dawning of the Lord's day He arose from the dead, according to what was spoken by Himself, "As Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man also be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. "The day of the preparation, then, comprises the passion; the Sabbath embraces the burial; the Lord's Day contains the resurrection." (The Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians, chapter 9)
#29. 250 AD IGNATIUS:
If anyone fasts on the Lord's Day or on the Sabbath, except on the paschal Sabbath only, he is a murderer of Christ. (The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philippians, chapter 8)
#30. 250 AD IGNATIUS:
"This [custom], of not bending the knee upon Sunday, is a symbol of the resurrection, through which we have been set free, by the grace of Christ, from sins, and from death, which has been put to death under Him. Now this custom took its rise from apostolic times, as the blessed Irenaeus, the martyr and bishop of Lyons, declares in his treatise On Easter, in which he makes mention of Pentecost also; upon which [feast] we do not bend the knee, because it is of equal significance with the Lord's day, for the reason already alleged concerning it." (Ignatius, Fragments)
#31. 300 AD Victorinus:
"The sixth day [Friday] is called parasceve, that is to say, the preparation of the kingdom. . . . On this day also, on account of the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ, we make either a station to God or a fast. On the seventh day, he rested from all his works, and blessed it, and sanctified it. On the former day, we are accustomed to fast rigorously, that on the Lord's day we may go forth to our bread with giving of thanks. And let the parasceve become a rigorous fast, lest we should APPEAR to observe ANY Sabbath with the Jews . . . which Sabbath he [Christ] in his body ABOLISHED" (The Creation of the World).
#32. 300 AD EUSEBIUS:
"They did not, therefore, regard circumcision, NOR observe the Sabbath NEITHER do we; ... because such things as these do NOT belong to Christians" (Ecc. Hist., Book 1, Ch. 4)
#33. 300 AD EUSEBIUS:
[The Ebionites] were accustomed to observe the Sabbath and other Jewish customs but on the Lord's days to celebrate the same practices as we in remembrance of the resurrection of the Savior. (Church History Ill.xxvii.5)
I will also add that the Ebionites were Christians who were seduced by the Jews to keep the Jewish customs. In other words, the Ebionites were Judaized Christians. The Ebionites also taught the need to be circumcised in the flesh in order to be saved. Some today would not even consider Ebionites as being true Christians since they went back to trusting the Law of Moses to be saved.
#34. 300 AD Eusebius of Caesarea:
"They [the pre- Mosaic saints of the Old Testament] did not care about circumcision of the body, neither do we [Christians]. They did not care about observing Sabbaths, nor do we. They did not avoid certain kinds of food, neither did they regard the other distinctions which Moses first delivered to their posterity to be observed as symbols; nor do Christians of the present day do such things" (Church History 1:4:8).
#35. 300 AD Eusebius of Caesarea:
"The day of his [Christ's] light . . . was the day of his resurrection from the dead, which they say, as being the one and only truly holy day and the Lord's day, is better than any number of days as we ordinarily understand them, and better than the days set apart by the Mosaic Law for feasts, new moons, and Sabbaths, which the Apostle [Paul] teaches are the shadow of days and not days in reality" (Proof of the Gospel 4:16:186).
#36. 345 AD Athanasius:
"The Sabbath was the end of the first creation, the Lord's day was the beginning of the second, in which he renewed and restored the old in the same way as he prescribed that they should formerly observe the Sabbath as a memorial of the end of the first things, so we honor the Lord's day as being the memorial of the new creation" (On Sabbath and Circumcision 3).
#37. 350 AD APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS:
Be not careless of yourselves, neither deprive your Saviour of His own members, neither divide His body nor disperse His members, neither prefer the occasions of this life to the word of God; but assemble yourselves together every day, morning and evening, singing psalms and praying in the Lord's house: in the morning saying the sixty-second Psalm, and in the evening the hundred and fortieth, but principally on the Sabbath-day. And on the day of our Lord's resurrection, which is the Lord's day, meet more diligently, sending praise to God that made the universe by Jesus, and sent Him to us, and condescended to let Him suffer, and raised Him from the dead. Otherwise what apology will he make to God who does not assemble on that day to hear the saving word concerning the resurrection, on which we pray thrice standing in memory of Him who arose in three days, in which is performed the reading of the prophets, the preaching of the Gospel, the oblation of the sacrifice, the gift of the holy food? (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, book 2)
#38. 350 AD APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTIONS:
"How We Ought to Assemble Together and to Celebrate the Festival Day of Our Saviour's Resurrection. On the day of the resurrection of the Lord, that is, the Lord's day, assemble yourselves together, without fail, giving thanks to God, and praising Him for those mercies God has bestowed upon you through Christ and has delivered you from ignorance, error, and bondage, that your sacrifice may be unspotted, and acceptable to God,..." (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, book 7)
#39. 350 AD Cyril of Jerusalem:
"Fall NOT AWAY either into the sect of the Samaritans or into Judaism, for Jesus Christ has henceforth ransomed you. Stand aloof from ALL observance of Sabbaths and from calling any indifferent meats common or unclean" (Catechetical Lectures 4:37).
#40. 360 AD Council of Laodicea:
"Christians should NOT Judaize and should NOT be idle on the Sabbath, but should work on that day; they should, however, particularly reverence the Lord's day and, if possible, not work on it, because they were Christians" (canon 29).
#41. 387 AD John Chrysostom:
"You have put on Christ, you have become a member of the Lord and been enrolled in the heavenly city, and you still grovel in the Law [of Moses]? How is it possible for you to obtain the kingdom? Listen to Paul's words, that the observance of the Law overthrows the gospel, and learn, if you will, how this comes to pass, and tremble, and shun this pitfall. Why do you keep the Sabbath and fast with the Jews?" (Homilies on Galatians 2:17).
#42. 412 AD Augustine:
"Well, now, I should like to be told what there is in these Ten Commandments, except the observance of the Sabbath, which ought NOT to be kept by a Christian . . . Which of these commandments would anyone say that the Christian ought not to keep? It is possible to contend that it is not the Law which was written on those two tables that the apostle [Paul] describes as 'the letter that kills' [2 Cor. 3:6], but the law of circumcision and the other sacred rites which are now abolished" (The Spirit and the Letter 24).
#43. 597 AD Gregory I:
"But after that, the grace of Almighty God, our Lord Jesus Christ, has appeared, the commandments of the Law which were spoken figuratively cannot be kept according to the letter. For if anyone says that this about the Sabbath is to be kept, he must need to say that carnal sacrifices are to be offered. He must say too that the commandment about the circumcision of the body is still to be retained. But let him hear the apostle Paul saying in opposition to him: 'If you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing' (Gal. 5:2)" (Letters 13:1).
Thanks for reading and may God bless you richly as you continue to read ALL the studies I gave links to at the beginning of this study concerning this subject on Sabbath TRUTH. I will post them again below. Also below are some quotes from early church writers that prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that the early church did not keep the seventh day of the week as the Jews.
This study was just the TIP of the iceberg of exposing the ERRORS of interpretation made by the Saturday seventh day of the week Sabbath-keeping churches, and the Sunday first day of the week Sabbath-keeping Christians.
All of the studies listed below can be sent to a brother or sister caught up in the Hebrew Roots Movement or a Sabbath-keeping church by sending them this one link **Dd-0. What Is the TRUE SABBATH?**
Also read Dd-20. Did the EARLY Church KEEP the WEEKLY Sabbath DAY?
Thanks for reading, and may God bless you richly as you continue to seek the TRUTH of the WHOLE word of Almighty God.
And to me, the truth concerning who Jesus TRULY is, according to the Bible ITSELF, is the Biblical Unitarian view of Jesus.
Once Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even atheists understand the REASON that Yahweh CREATED the Son of MAN, Jesus, was to have DOMINION over the work of Yahweh’s hands.
And after you understand that the REASON that Yahweh did that is to STILL His ENEMIES, Satan and the fallen angels.
Then you can understand that God made His human Son to become “a” Lord, “a” King, and “a” God, under and subject to his God and Father in order to JUDGE Satan and the fallen angels.
For a deeper understanding of this WAR that Lucifer and one third of the angels waged against the throne of Almighty God, please read the studies under the subject category called ** Q-0 Why Are We Here? Is God at WAR? **.
More studies are coming in this SHORTER Biblical Unitarian view of who Jesus is according to the WHOLE word of God.
If you have a PARTICULAR verse of Scripture that you would like to know the sound Biblical Unitarian meaning, then please email me at MarkatAMatterOfTruth@Gmail.com and let me know.
For further and more in-depth studies on this subject of Jesus being created to STILL the enemies of Yahweh, please read the studies called D-25. A NEW LOOK at JOHN 1:1-In the BEGINNING, and D-28. The PRE-ADAMIC LUCIFERIAN FLOOD!
At the top of my homepage, there are subjects or categories which contain compiled lists of ** ALL Studies ** I have written on that particular subject. So, if a link within a study is broken, then click on ** ALL Studies ** to find the suggested study.
Or you can scroll down to the MORE dropdown menu list to find those studies as well.
Thanks again for reading, and may God bless you richly as you continue to seek the TRUTH of the WHOLE word of Almighty God.
And to me, the truth concerning who Jesus TRULY is, according to the Bible ITSELF, is the Biblical Unitarian view of Jesus.
And again, for ALL of the studies on the Biblical Unitarian view of Jesus, please click on the subject heading ** D-0 The BIBLICAL UNITARIAN VIEW of Jesus! **
And for the SUBJECT on the true foundation of the church, please click on the subject heading ** C-0 The TRUE FOUNDATION of the Church! **
This way you can just send ONE link to those who you want to share the TRUE sound Biblical FOUNDATIONAL teachings of the church that Jesus and his Apostles taught in the first century church.
Your brother in our Lord Jesus Christ,
Brother Mark.
My heartfelt prayer is that all Christians RETURN to the TRUE FOUNDATION of the church that is taught by the very Apostles of Jesus in the first century.
So let us all come into the UNITY of the faith and return to what Jesus and his Apostles taught us in SIMPLICITY in the New Testament.
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