Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Sabbath Keeping

Sabbath keeping appeals only to a small group of men and women who think they can go beyond the blood of Jesus and make themselves more holy or more righteous by observing the 7th day as a religious practice.

But, do any of them really keep and observe the Sabbath law?

EXO 16:23 And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.

EXO 16:29 See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.

EXO 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
EXO 20:10 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 thy stranger that is within thy gates:

EXO 31:14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

EXO 31:15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

EXO 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
EXO 35:3 Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day.
LEV 16:31 It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.
NUM 15:32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.
NUM 15:35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.

First, the Sabbath was given to Israel and not to any Gentile people. Nothing that is underlined above was binding upon Gentiles. If a Gentile within the land of Israel did not keep the Sabbath he could not be cut off from Israel because he was never a part of Israel. He could not be stoned to death because this death penalty was only to be applied to Israelites. The ones to put to death a Sabbath breaker was the Israelites. No Gentile had a right or authority to take part in or put to death an Israelite who had broken the Sabbath.

Second, there was to be no cooking of any kind on the sabbath. All of the food eaten on the Sabbath had to be prepared on the 6th day. Jews who try to abide this law will not even tear a paper towel from the roll on the Sabbath. Now why was the man out collecting sticks? There is little doubt they were to be used to kindle a fire. And there is little doubt the fire was for cooking as at this time it was not cold or winter time. Who was to put this man to death? It was the members of the congregation, that is the assembly of Israelites. The law of the Sabbath did not excuse anyone from throwing stones to kill this man. Everyone had to throw a stone. This was part of the Sabbath law. For anyone not to cast a stone and they were an Israelite of the collective congregation, was to break the Sabbath law.

Third, observing the Sabbath according to the Sabbath law, means the whole law of the Sabbath must be observed. Who among all of the so-called Sabbath-keepers observes the WHOLE SABBATH LAW? I have not found one person in over 40 years. And I have met scads and scads of Sabbath law-keeper pretenders. And the majority of them were Gentiles. They were never a part of the congregation of Israel. They imposed the Sabbath law on themselves without Scriptural authority. And they impose the Sabbath law on others as a means to say they cannot be saved unless they keep the 7th day as they do. But these do not keep the Sabbath law and so: are they saved by what they are pretending to observe?

Sabbath keeping by Gentiles is not required in the Old Testament and not in the New Testament. In Acts 15:20, when the Apostles and Elders considered the applicability of the sabbath law upon Gentiles, they did not include it. They knew that according to the laws of Moses, Gentiles were exempted. So why now force upon the Gentiles a law God never gave for Gentiles?

I have met many of these Sabbath keepers who as soon as they begin this pretend observance, the males will seek to be circumcised. The reason they do this, is because the Sabbath law was given to Israel and to a people where all the males were circumcised. And it was the circumcised males who as head of the house and home observed the Sabbath. So these Gentile men had themselves circumcised so their keeping the Sabbath would more authentic. And to them, or according to them, the Sabbath day is not holy if the men observing it are unholy because they had not been circumcised. Now, there are many pretending Sabbath keepers who the males are not circumcised. So the Sabbath keepers are themselves arguing and fighting between them as to who is holy and who is not holy and keeping the Sabbath.

Paul tells us this in Galatians 5:3 that a man who is circumcised is debtor to do the whole law. Now he is not saying that circumcision makes law-keeping valid. What he is saying is: that if a person is circumcised according to the law, that this circumcision is an act to observe all the law. And if he keeps not all the law, then his circumcision is nothing but a hoax. It is ritual without accepting the purpose of the act.

There are many Apostolic Oneness Pentecostals who have gone off into Sabbath keeping. Once they do this, they then try to enforce other law observing practices upon themselves, their families, their churches, and those whom they make converts. They start holding dietary laws. They start observing the old feast days. And they even go so far as to try and speak Hebrew so they appear as Jews. But I have tried them and found them to be liars. They have no Apostolic authority for Sabbath keeping, dietary laws, or feast days. In fact, because they use the law as a means of justification, sanctification, or salvation: they have tried to add to the finished work of Christ on the Cross. They do not believe in salvation by Christ alone, by grace alone, and by faith alone. They do not believe salvation comes totally by the New Covenant in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. They believe part of salvation still comes from the Old Testament law.

Are New Testament believers lawless? Are they free to sin and commit sin? Are there any laws in the New Testament which a Believer should apply to his/her life?

Why of course. Even Acts 15:20 was an Apostolic law.
What about the law of faith (Romans 3:27)?
What about the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2)?
What about the perfect law of liberty (James 1:25; 2:12)?
What about keeping the commandments of Jesus (John 14:15)?
What about Revelation 22:14, "his commandments" referring to the commandments of Jesus?

We who follow Christ and his Apostles know the commandments of Christ. We know the perfect law of liberty in the Gospel of grace. We know the law of faith. We know the law of Christ. We submit to these laws of the New Testament.

In fact, we submit to the point of an annual celebration of this faith by drinking the Passover Cup which is a token of our obedience and adherence to the Gospel of grace, the New Covenant in his blood. When we drink from this Cup, there is no Old Testament law-keeping intended or implied. This is an act totally dedicated to the finished work of Calvary without the deeds of the law. We know and confess by taking this Cup and eating the Unleavened Bread, that our salvation is by Christ alone.

No one keeps the Sabbath law, NO ONE!

Bishop Reckart
A Man God Loves

6 comments:

  1. Amen Bishop! Truth is best handled by men who love it. Well-written article, Bishop.

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  2. Sabbath keeping is a belief that keeping the law of Moses over the law of Christ makes one holy. Those who say we must keep the sabbath are numbered among enemies of the Cross, in that their righteousness is dependent upon the keeping of Mosaic law, and not the law of Christ, in which Christ alone is our sabbath, our rest.

    Well written Bishop. I agree that many who keep sabbath worship do so in a salvation manner. Some I know do not. And then there are some who worship on Saturday because of a want to do so, and it has nothing to do with sabbath keeping. These are among those I can fellowship with. But, the sabbath keepers who eventually try to be pseudo-Noahide law worshipers have no part in the Kingdom.

    Again, well written.

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  3. I do not buy the part they observe saturday with no sabbath keeping in mind.

    I have met many sabbath keepers who claim they do it because they want to voluntarily and not because they are keeping the sabbath law. These claim their Saturday church has nothing to do with keeping the sabbath. However, upon questioning they are careful schemers. For istance: I asked one such pastor why he does not have any church service on sunday, and he went on a ten minute tirade against the Catholic church changing the sabbath to sunday, and sunday being a pagan day of sun worship. I caught him! I then asked him if he really believed Jesus was the sabbath and we rest in him and a 24 hour day does not matter any more? His response was Jesus kept the sabbath. I caught him! I asked him why the Apostles met for Church on the first day of the week (sunday), if it was an evil day? His response was: well, they had to have kept the sabbath before this. I caught him!

    In all my 40 years in this arena of Apostolic doctrine, I have not met a saturday church that did not have law-keeping doctrines. I think all of them also had dietary laws from the laws of Moses.

    My point is that Gentiles were NOT given the law. Gentiles had no part in the Tabernacle. No part in the animal sacrifices. No part in the atonement sacrifices. No part in the priesthood. No part in the official worship. And no part in the circimcision by which the law was enjoined upon the Israelite people. There was a wall between Jew and Gentile. Gentiles were without the covenat. They were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. They were strangers in the sense of outside of the Abrahamic family. Sabbath keeping, even if done voluntarily does not make or bring a person into the covenant of the law.

    Those Gentiles of the Apostolic Oneness doctrine, are made one with the Jews, not by law keeping: but by the atonement of Christ. It is only in Christ alone there is one new man. If Gentiles and Jews were by the law joined into one man, one people: then the first new man, the first new joined people could not have come forth in Christ alone.

    All these law-keepers with their talits, their tzits, and their kippahs, their use of the hex (star of David): are not deceiving me. I know when a person is a real Christian in Christ alone for salvation. They will not worship and place saturday above all other days of the week. They will see the Apostolic worship on the first day of the week. And for Pentecostals in particular, the day of Pentecost fell on the first day of the week, SUNDAY. This was the day the Church was born and founded. We have no sin because we hold Christian Church on Sundays. And we are not sun-god worshippers or following Rome.

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  4. Here is an excerpt from a bible study I prepared. It is in two parts. I think it will added support to your post.

    First day of the Week:

    I can see in the first book of the Bible and on the first day, God began his creation of this world. This first day meant a lot to the Hebrew and Jews. It was the day Jesus Messieh steps out of eternity past into time. It was the day when Jesus began the creation of this world, hence, in beginning God (Jesus) creates the heaven (Gen1:1). It was a reverenced day among the holy because it was when time began with creation of the world. We see the first day also in the Pentecost Feast, which commemorates the giving of law. Leviticus 23 outlines the Feasts of the Lord Jesus and one of which is Pentecost. Pentecost meant 50th. The Jews believed that 50 days after Passover, God gave them the Old Law, and Pentecost is the 50th day after 7 complete Sabbaths starting on the first Sabbath after Passover (Lev 23:15). So Pentecost ALWAYS falls on the first day of the week, regardless of which day in the week was the Passover.

    We also learned from the Apostles that Jesus was resurrected the first day of the week, which they all refer to as the Lord’s Day. Since, the Holy Ghost came on the Day of Pentecost we now know that the church started on the first day of the week. The first message preached in the church was on the first day of the week. As a result we have no qualms gathering on the first day of the week for praise, worship, and fellowship since it was on this day of the week that Jesus rose from the dead (Lord’s Day), the day the Holy Ghost was poured out, the day the first Apostolic message preached, the day the Queen – Church was born, the day in which New Covenant was consummated by Jesus coming to live in the heart of his people.

    To Adam and his generation, the first day was the beginning of creation; to the Israelites at Sinai, they concurred with Adam, but also saw the first day as the day their marriage contract (Old Law) to Jesus was ratified and sealed (consummated); to the apostles, they concurred with Adam and old Israel, but also saw it as the day Jesus was resurrected and the day the Holy Ghost came to bring a new creation into existence. Since we are apart of the Apostolic Church of Jesus Messieh, we are concurring with Apostles, who concurred with Old Israel and Adam. If we are looking spiritually we would see that what is being celebrated is the creative power of God; creation of this world; creation of the old marriage (which we no longer celebrate, because it was only a type, but we have the new marriage by the New Covenant); and creation of the new marriage-new because of Jesus establishing the New Covenant. All this and more is celebrated on the first day of the week.

    Now the Apostle observed Pentecost, but not with the Old Testament understanding, but as the day the church was born and ratification and consummation of the New Covenant. It is a day when all apostolic ministers check themselves to ensure that their doctrine and teaching mirrors that of the apostles in the Book of Acts.

    Continues......

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  5. 7th day of the Week and Sabbath Keepers:

    I see the 7th day. God rested. Did Adam and his generation rest every Sabbath day? I do not know, but this one thing I do know, that based on the scripture they WERE NOT given Sabbath rest as is contained in Exodus and Deuteronomy. In fact according to the Genesis account, Eve was not even around when God rested on day seven. So what if they even did rest every Sabbath day? Though this would be pure speculation, it still would not be proof they had the Sabbath laws, with its death penalty, Sabbath offering, regulations etc. as contained in Deuteronomy. Adam and Eve and all their generation leading up to Exodus 16 did not have Sabbath laws with regulations as contained in the book of Exodus through to Deuteronomy. In fact, it was only introduced in Exodus 16, but was not made official until Exodus 20.

    However, God rested on the 7th day. From what did He rest? The scriptures reports that from Day 1 – 6 Jesus was creating, so day 7 He rested from His created work because creation was complete. The text did not say He went back to work, neither did it say He rested because he was tired being physically exhausted from a weeks work. Sabbath keepers erroneous assumed that Adam and Eve and all their generation kept the 7th day Sabbath based upon the fact that God rested on the 7th day. Building a doctrine upon an assumption is like building a house upon the sand. Great will be the fall of it (Matt 7:24-29). Now, please follow carefully: The bible did not say how many hours per day God worked in the first 6 days of the creation week; however He worked for 6 days. If one should assumes that Jesus worked 24 hours a day for 6 days. And if so, should we then demand all Sabbath keepers to work 24 hours per day for 6 days (144 hours) to be eligible for rest based upon Genesis 2? Or better yet, say Jesus worked for 12 hours in a day for six days. This would require all Sabbath keepers to work at least 72 hours a week in order to be eligible for a rest day. What would those labor unions have to say about this? Let Sabbath keepers speak.

    Now, God using the creation week gave the Israelites (not Adam – Israel, but Israel’s descendants) 7th day Sabbath as a memorial of deliverance from a tyrant slave master, Pharaoh. To the Israelites, the Sabbath then typifies Jesus’ physical deliverance from physical menial tasks imposed upon them by an unjust and unconscionable tyrant. The devil can easily be seen in Pharaoh, so to a pure Jew, the 7th day Sabbath would also prefigures God’s spiritual deliverance from spiritual menial tasks (sins) imposed upon them by the adversary, the devil (Romans 6 & 7). They could see the 7th day Sabbath as God’s grace of physical deliverance for a people who were in physically bonds/slavery/captivity. Likewise, it would have given them hope that one day Messieh would come and give the grace of spiritual deliverance. A pure Jew with understanding will realized God was never concerned with physical deliverance, but the spiritual. Thus the physical would serve only as an allegory or a figure of the spiritual to come. The SPIRITUAL always Follows the NATURAL. These Jews would then understand that one needs deliverance to rest and physical deliverance can only give physical rest; so one would need spiritual deliverance, that is, soul-rest, which we now know as holiness. The Jews who are spiritual will look pass the 7th day physical Sabbath-Rest to the Soul-Sabbath that we have now because of and in Jesus Messieh (Matt. 11:26-28). This is what the 7th day Sabbath prefigures, Rest in Jesus (Soul deliverance), which we now enjoy in the church and if we hold fast we will enjoy this same Soul-Rest in the millennial Kingdom, reigning as kings and priests with Jesus. Yes, Jesus has become our Sabbath.

    Continues....

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  6. They would also see the power of Jesus in all that He did to Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s army. This was the hope among the Jew on their 7th day Sabbath memorial:

    • Reflection of God power and might to save.
    • They/their parents were in bondage and Jesus delivered them by his power
    • Shiloh-Messieh will come one day to deliver them from spiritual oppression, thereby, giving them Soul-Rest.

    This hope was supposed to excite them. Especially the one concerning Soul-Rest. They should keep this hope constant. Never to be lost or re-interpreted, but the focus should be on Shiloh bringing spiritual restoration. Spiritual restoration is God’s predestinated plan, which should excite us in worship.

    However, we were not in physical bondage in Egypt and even if we were in bondage in Egypt today or in bondage in some other country in world, it would not matter. We now have the “IMAGE-ANTI-TYPE”, that is, Soul-Rest. We now have Jesus Messieh. Since, 30A.D. we have Soul-Rest in Jesus Messieh; therefore, we have been delivered from spiritual bondage. The devil was our master and the Apostle Paul captured this beautifully in Romans 6-7. He had dominion over us, when we were outside of Jesus. The devil was our king, so he reigned over us until Jesus came into our life and by his blood saved us; thereby giving us a lively hope, of which we are not ashamed. This is the hope among New Testament Jews on Sabbath days:

    • Reflection of God power and might to save not just from physical, but spiritual oppression.
    • They/their parents were in bondage of sin and Jesus delivered them by his power
    • Shiloh-Messieh will come 2nd time to deliver us from Antichrist oppression, thereby, giving us eternal-Rest in the Millennial.

    All of this is commemorated in our New Sabbath in Jesus. The New Sabbath has nothing to do with day/s of the week; it is in Jesus Christ alone. He is our Sabbath. We are a practicing the New Sabbath by living holy lives everyday by the power of the Holy Ghost we received evidenced by us speaking in other tongues.

    There is a key distinction that needs to be made between the Old and New Sabbath. The Old Sabbath was physical in that the rest was from physical exertion. This is juxtapose with the scriptural fact that a day was selected, the 7th day. The word “Sabbath” from the Hebrew word “Shabbat” is “Rest, which means to cease from”. So the 7th day Sabbath was when the Jews were to cease from their physical labor, that is, they should do no work. It is impractical for this ceasing from physical work/labor to last for the whole week since one must work to eat (Gen 3:16); hence, just the 7th day was chosen. The New Sabbath focuses on spiritual resting, that is, ceasing from our labors of sin. Sin is defined as works of the flesh (nature/carnal man) in the scriptures (Gal 5:19). It can be easily received that the New Sabbath CANNOT be relegated to a day/s in the week or certain time blocks in a day/s in the week, because this would render the individual unholy outside of those set periods. I am not attacking Sabbath keepers, neither am I insinuating that Sabbath keepers live holy on certain day/s of the week. What I am trying to transfer is that the ceasing from sin (Soul-Rest) should be everyday if you want to enjoy the New Sabbath of Jesus. So the New Sabbath is spiritual, therefore, it requires resting everyday, which Paul said is dying daily (1Cor 15:34); whereas the old is physical and it requires physical rest on the 7th day.

    Note: I do not observe the physical Sabbath days for no reason whatsoever. The Covenant of the Law including physical Sabbath keeping is finished, done away with. I am New Covenant believer and a part of the body of the Jesus Messieh, the church of God.

    Jesus Son

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