Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #1

Man living in Garden of Eden in Days of God

At a certain time in history of the universe the Divine Creator made “from the dust of the ground” a human being. Just with dust man would be nothing so there had to be a spark or something special to bring the material to live. The “essence” of the being for man came  from God Who is the “Supreme Being” Itself.

Michelangelo’s painting of the sin of Adam and Eve (the Fall of Man) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Eternal Spirit Who Is Who He is the Being in Itself made man in His own image by His Voice and by “a spark”, or particle, scintillated from His Divine Nature, giving the being life, having intelligent faculty and existence independently of the substantial organism with which it is associated.

Man felt lonely and got a partner, a mannin or woman, called Eve. Together they could sojourn freely in the Garden of Eden. In essence they where good and had the free will to stay good, by keeping to the ordinances of their heavenly Father.

Seventh day Day of rest for God

The Merneptah stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of biblical archaeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as “Israel“, representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.

They too came to understand the days of God and how they should honour Him and respect His creation. For them the seventh day was also a day of rest where they could show how much they loved their Creator. We do not know whether the earth’s first population organised themselves by means of a seven day week. Whereas other periods of time or various calender units based on the time the earth takes to revolve once around the sun (the day, month and year) are based upon observable movements of stars and planets, the seven day week has no such basis-that can be found only in the explanation in Genesis. As the time passed days, month and years got names. A Rosh Chodashim (head of the months) came to exist next to a month of the salvation or Chodesh ha Yeshuah,  a month of redemption or Chodesh hageulah, a year of recompense and many others.

From beginning the stars, planets and man’s being may have been very complex and not understandable for man. Darkness and light made a difference for him giving him an idea of a time element. But the things man did not know seemed to worry them. Also the matter that That Holy Spirit they could not be seen made their mind weary. They started wondering how This Spirit could order days and demand them to take rest or have  period of inactivity, relaxation, or sleep, on a certain day and not to eat from a certain fruit-tree, calling it the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, which was going to bring life and death over man.

Organisation of days and food provision

In case man had decided to organise his living according to periods of seven days nowhere can we find proof that God said they would be punished for not resting on the seventh day. They had total freedom of choice about this. In fact, God gave no instructions about how the seventh day should be spent until after the nation of Israel had been brought out of Egypt (the Shemoth) and led miraculously through the Red Sea into the wilderness of Sinai. Being a large community, they needed a good and regular supply of food and water, but in desert conditions these were very scarce. The people soon complained, and wished they were back in Egypt. A further miracle brought them their food. Each morning around their camp

“there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like thing, fine as the hoarfrost on the ground” (Exodus 16:14).

The food was called “manna“, and could be collected for six days each week.

This was literally food which could be eaten. On the first five days each week any manna not eaten that day, but kept overnight “bred worms, and became foul”.
On the sixth day, if a double portion was collected, it would keep fresh for use on the seventh day when no manna was available. Moses asked them to eat that manna that day for that seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah God. Therefore they could not find any manna in the field. Take attention that Moshe or Moses says it was a ‘day of rest for Jehovah’ and not ‘day of rest for man’.
In this way the pattern of work and rest was enforced for the nation of Israel:

Exodus 16:25-26 NHEBJE  Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Jehovah. Today you shall not find it in the field.  (26)  Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none.”

Six days of gathering and one day of rest: God’s activity in Creation thus became the example for His nation. For the first time in the Bible, the word “Sabbath” is used. It means simply ‘to cease‘ ( to bring or come to an end), and is used to describe the day when the manna discontinued falling down from heaven and the Israelites rested from their labours, as God had from His.

Laws to control the activity of the nation

In those days of Moses and his people shortly after the manna was first provided, it also was the moment in time that God gave through Moses laws to control the activity of the nation. Today those written rules are mostly known as the Ten Commandments by which people where told to have only One True Eternal Spirit God of Whom no graven images where to be made. Of the people was also demanded in the fourth commandment to remember the Sabbath day and to keep it holy or sanctified, which means to have it been kept apart, not being it the same as other days. Also it was told they could work six days but the seventh day they should take a Sabbath to the Lord their God. In it they had not to do any work .

Exodus 20:8-12 NHEBJE  “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  (9)  You shall labor six days, and do all your work,  (10)  but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Jehovah your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;  (11)  for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Jehovah blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.  (12)  “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Jehovah your God gives you.

As for the manna, so for all of Israel’s activities the pattern would be six days of labour followed by one day of rest. We may not forget for man to be able to stay alive he had to work hard. Everything had to be done by hand. Labour was at first not a  physical toil done for wages, but was a necessary act for providing food. In the early days in the Garden of Eden there did not exist a difficult or arduous work or effort. they had not to strive or work hard for something, but when then opposed God, Adam and Eve had been disobedient to God‘s commandments, Jehovah sentenced them and their descendants to hard toil in order to produce their necessary food.

We also can find the Psalmist referring to such work which was done until the evening (Psalm 104:23). From the fall of man onwards the daily work he had to do became a constant reminder of his mortality; the certainty that he is “dust, and to dust (he) shall return” (Genesis 3:19).

Significance of introduction of Sabbath commands

God’s people experienced many wonders by God and by them they could survive. God freely provided their daily food, but they had to work to gather it, except on the seventh day. The difficulty of walking through the dessert and gathering food was to make them conscience of the punishments brought upon the world as a result of Adam‘s disobedience.

The day they had not to gather the food from heaven, they had to remember what they had received the previous days. That day of not to provide for their food they could contemplate and take more time to think about God. That day of rest, on the Sabbath, would give man time to meditate on God’s works and to let him identify himself with God, and with the completion of His creation, when He was able to review

“everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

Measures to bring man back to God

Though man could see all the wonders of God and they had received brains to create things themselves as well, they wanted more. God had given their mind to think and to make their own decisions. At one point in time they choose to go their own way, against the Will of God, and throughout history many times they went astray, but God always came back to them to help them out.

It was from that moment when Adam and Eve had revolted against their Maker that God had to take measures to bring them back to their senses and back to Almighty God, the Most High.

When Adam and Eve where expelled from the Garden of Eden and had created a family, their descendants also could not always follow the Way of God, wherefore the Elohim gave them more rules and regulations so that they could keep themselves on the safe path.

Man choose to create their own regulations and wanted to create their own calendars and wanted to say what to do what they ever wanted on whatever day. But for God not all actions of man were acceptable. He clearly told them what would be appropriate for man to do and what would be an abomination in the eyes of God.

Showing willingness to come to God

Throughout the ages lots went wrong and often God came back into the picture to guide His people back onto the right track. Already from the beginning of the fall of man God provided a solution for their sin, but first they also had to show they where willing to come to God again. Every individual has now the own choice to choose either to be for God or against Him, to follow His ordinances or to refuse the right to God to demand certain things from man.

In later writings we shall come to see how the promises of God for the solution against the fall of man became a reality which took away the many chains the people had gotten over them by the years.

In subsequent readings you shall, hopefully, come to see how a Nazarene man, called Jeshua, today better known as Jesus became the man who brought salvation and who is the embodiment of Israel. Those who follow that Nazarene man and call themselves Christian should know who that man is and what his teachings are, but also keep to his teachings, so that they can be part of the Body of Christ and be part of the (new or renewed) true and faithful Israel.

Finding difficulties to keep to God’s Laws

It took many centuries but God’s people Israel bounded to the Mosaic Laws often found it a burden, therefore the loving God foresaw also an abrogation of many laws. Jesus namely was to come to install the New Covenant between God and man, which would do away with, or annul, especially by authority given to Christ Jesus, several Judaic Laws.

Those who would embrace the faith of Abraham could make their choice for God sealed, not by worldly proofs, but by spiritual proofs. They would not have to have a real body circumcision but should be circumcised by putting on Christ in baptism, thus partaking imputatively of the literal circumcision of which Christ was subject under the law, becoming the children of Abraham, and heirs of the promises made to him.

Saul of Tarsus was called by Christ and became an apostle who taught the gospel of Christ and founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe in the first-century world of the common era.

The Jew Saul of Tarsus took some time to come to understand God’s new ordinances but by the new light having come he made a testimony that we can face a world where there is neither Jew (believing descendant from Abraham’s tribe) nor Greek, Roman, or Goyim (gentile; a non-Jewish person or an unbeliever), but that all have the free choice to go their way. There would neither be a servant nor freeman, neither male nor female, or no distinction in the eyes of God, all being made equal and all having to make their own choice. And those baptised into Christ should all be one in Christ Jesus, liberated by him.

Galatians 3:27-29 NHEBJE  (27)  For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  (28)  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.  (29)  If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.

Children of promise made free

United in Christ Christians should not be barren any more having broken forth knowing they are brethren and sisters and as Isaac was, being children of promise.  Though still being born according to the flesh the mind we received can be used to come to knowledge and with the right insight making us to make the right choices. Those who choose to follow Christ Jesus are children of the free: by the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.

Galatians 4:27-31 NHEBJE  (27)  For it is written, “Rejoice, you barren who do not bear. Break forth and shout, you that do not travail. For more are the children of the desolate than of her who has a husband.”  (28)  Now you, brothers, as Isaac was, are children of promise.  (29)  But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.  (30)  However what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the handmaid and her son, for the son of the handmaid will not inherit with the son of the free woman.”  (31)  So then, brothers, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the free woman.

Those liberated by Christ should not take up the old burdens but should face the Saviour Jesus who is the new Genesis (New World), by who’s life we can see the embodiment of the new Exodus.

We should come to see that Jesus is fulfilling Israel’s history and  bringing it to a climax.

 

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Preceding articles:

Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and curse

Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

Creation of the earth and man #4 Of the Sabbath day #2 Days 1,7,8 and 50

Creation of the earth and man #5 Of the Sabbath day #3 Ceasing from the works of the flesh

Creation of the earth and man #6 Of the Sabbath day #4 Mosaic codes, Sabbaths and Sunday

Creation of the earth and man #7 Of the Sabbath day #5 Respecting the day on which Christ Jesus rose from the dead

Creation of the earth and man #8 Of the Sabbath day #6 If it be necessary to keep Sunday

Were Gentiles excluded from entering the synagogue?

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Additional reading

1. “Before” and “after” the Big Bang
2. Science, belief, denial and visibility 1
3. God giving signs and producing wonders
4. What is life?
5. Dying or not
6. Possibility to live
7. Blindness in the Christian world
8. A learning process for each of us
9. Creator and Blogger God 3 Lesson and solution
10. People Seeking for God 7 The Lord and lords
11. A prophet to restore
12. Story of Jesus’ birth begins long before the New Testament
13. With child and righteousness greater than the law
14. Entrance of a king to question our position #2 Who do we want to see and to be
15. Marriage of Jesus 8 Wife of Yahweh
16. Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant
17. Hosea Say What?
18. Born to Shine not to fear!
19. Commemorating the escape from slavery
20. Days of Nisan, Pesach, Pasach, Pascha and Easter
21. Do we need to keep the Sabbath
22. Vayikra after its opening word וַיִּקְרָא, which means and He called
23. In case you find contradiction between Old and New Testament
24. Together tasting a great promise
25. Deliverance and establishment of a theocracy
26. Glory of God appearing in our character – The Face of Moses and Law on Tablets of stone
27. Atonement And Fellowship 6/8
28. The Law of Christ: Law of Love

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Further related reading:

• Goy: standard Hebrew biblical term for a “nation“, including that of Israel =  Israelites and Gentile or non-Jewish nations
• Goy to the World
  Magazine article from: Moment …nations shall be of thee.” The Hebrew word God uses for “nations” is goyim. Yes, you ‘”tad right: God refers to the nation of Israel as goyim. The meaning of goyim, like the people it originally described, has come tar since those clays..
• Goy/Goi/Goyim/Goyym/Gentile/Gens/Gentilis: nation or people, commonly applied to non-Jews or stranger, whether merely a visitor (“ger”) or a resident (“ger toshab”), or proselyte
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  “Gentile” corresponds to the late Hebrew “goi,” a synonym for “nokri,” signifying “stranger,” “non-Jew.” In the Hebrew of the Bible “goi” and its plural “goyyim” originally meant “nation,” and were applied both to Israelites and to non-Israelites (Gen. xii. 2, xvii. 20; Ex. xiii. 3, xxxii. 10; Deut. iv. 7; viii. 9, 14; Num. xiv. 12; Isa. i. 4, lx. 22; Jer. vii. 28). “Goi” and “goyyim,” however, are employed in many passages to designate nations that are politically distinct from Israel (Deut. xv. 6; xxviii. 12, 36; Josh. xxiii. 4). From this use is derived the meaning “stranger” (Deut. xxix. 24; comp. II Chron. vi. 32 =”‘amme ha-‘areẓ”). As the non-Israelite and the nokri were “heathens,” “goi” came to denote a “heathen,” like the later “‘akkum,” which, in strict construction, is not applicable to Christians or Mohammedans (see below). In its most comprehensive sense “goi” corresponds to the other late term, “ummot ha-‘olam” (the peoples of the world). {Jewish encyclopedia article 6841 – goy}
• The Hi-Tech Shabbos Goy
  Magazine article from: Moment …centuries, the controversy took new form, when Jews hired “Shabbos goys” to perform tasks that were forbidden on Shabbat. While some…their heads in disapproval, others were too busy scouting out goys-for-hire for themselves. They also updated the halakhic..
• Non-Jewish Immigrants Forcing Israel to Choose between Being a “Jewish” State…
  Magazine article from: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs …tubes, you’re going to have five million goyim sitting in Eretz Yisrael. There’s no…about because these Jews will have a lot of goyim in their families — and boy, are we talking about a lot of goyim — and they’ll all end up in Israel..
• Israeli Religious Intolerance and Rejection of the Peace Process Alienating…
  Magazine article from: Washington Report on Middle East Affairs …considered Jewish by halakah and cannot be married at all.GOYIM AND SHIKSASZe’ev Chafets, associate editor of The Jerusalem…consider `Kike’ and `Hymie’ fighting words, talk about `goyim’ and `shiksas’ with blithe indifference. They assume that..

• Switch Off
  Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

• Did Jesus teach the Law of the Old Testament to the Jews?

• A Case For Sabbath Observance

• Keeping the Old Testament Law

• Spiritual Sunday 1: The Infinite Grandness and Goodness of God

• Sabbath Day

• Sabbath (Dis)Comforts

• Thoughts on Keeping the Sabbath

• Is It Wrong To Work On Sabbath Day?

• A Date With God

• Rosh Hashanah A Day of Rest, Not the New Year

• Small Town Boy

• Children of the Free

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Related articles

• Blame Eve and the Serpents
• In Judaism, to be good or sinful is a matter of free will
• ‘Ex Machina’ film alludes to the story of Adam and Eve in the Bible, says priest
• Everything is a Miracle – reblogged – Part 2
• Inside Baseball: The DoD EHR
• Vayikra after its opening word וַיִּקְרָא, which means and He called
• Pastor Wrinkles: Unintended Consequences Pt. 1

Creation of the earth and man #7 Of the Sabbath day #5 Respecting the day on which Christ Jesus rose from the dead

Two homemade whole-wheat challahs covered by traditional embroidered Shabbat challah cover

Constantine, though not a Christian himself, paid homage to the truth so far as to compel the world to respect the day on which Christ Jesus rose from the dead. Hence, in 328, he ordained that the day should be kept religiously, which a Judaizing clergy construed into sabbatical observance according to the Mosaic law concerning the seventh day. This is the origin of that sabbatarianism which so ludicrously, yet mischievously, illustrates the Blue Laws of Connecticut,* the zeal of the Agnews and Plumptres of the House of Commons, and the rhapsodies of the pietists of the passing day. These well-meaning persons, whose zeal outruns their knowledge, seem not to be aware that Christ and his apostles did not promulge a civil and ecclesiastical code for the nations, when they preached the gospel of the kingdom. Their object was not to give them laws and constitutions; but to separate a peculiar people from the nations who should afterwards rule them justly and in fear of the Lord, when the dispensation of the fullness of times should be introduced.

Acts 15:14 The Scriptures 1998+  (14)  “Shimʽon has declared how Elohim first visited the gentiles to take out of them a people for His Name.

1 Corinthians 6:2 The Scriptures 1998+  (2)  Do you not know that the set-apart ones shall judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?

2 Samuel 23:3-4 The Scriptures 1998+  (3)  “The Elohim of Yisra’ĕl said, The Rock of Yisra’ĕl spoke to me, ‘One who rules over man righteously,  (4)  “Who rules in the fear of Elohim, Is like the light of the morning when the sun rises, A morning without clouds, Tender grass from the earth From sunshine, from rain.’

Titus 2:11 The Scriptures 1998+  (11)  For the saving Gift of Elohim has appeared to all men,

To be able to do this, these peculiars were required to be “holy, unblameable, and unreprovable before God”.

Colossians 1:22-24 The Scriptures 1998+  (22)  in the body of His flesh through death, to present you set-apart, and blameless, and unreprovable before Him,  (23)  if indeed you continue in the belief, founded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the expectation of the Good News which you heard, which was proclaimed to every creature under the heaven, of which I, Sha’ul, became a servant, (24) who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in Messiah’s afflictions, for the sake of His Body, which is the assembly,

1 Thessalonians 2:19 The Scriptures 1998+  (19)  For what is our expectation, or joy, or crown of boasting? Is it not even you, before our Master יהושע  {Jeshua} Messiah at His coming?

1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 The Scriptures 1998+  (11)  And our Elohim and Father Himself, and our Master יהושע  {Jeshua} Messiah, direct our way to you!  (12)  And the Master make you increase and overflow in love to each other and to all, as we also do to you,  (13)  to establish your hearts blameless in set-apartness before our Elohim and Father at the coming of our Master יהושע  {Jeshua} Messiah with all His set-apart ones!

To this end instructions were delivered to them, that under the divine tuition

“they might be renewed in the spirit of their mind; and put on the new man which after God’s image is created in righteousness and true holiness ”.

As for “those without” “who receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, God sent them a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie”, as a punishment.

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 The Scriptures 1998+  (10)  and with all deceit of unrighteousness in those perishing, because they did not receive the love of the truth, in order for them to be saved.  (11)  And for this reason Elohim sends them a working of delusion, for them to believe the falsehood,1 Footnote: 1Eze. 20:25, John 9:39, John 12:40, Acts 7:42, Rom. 1:24-28.  (12)  in order that all should be judged who did not believe the truth, but have delighted in the unrighteousness.

Ezekiel 20:25 The Scriptures 1998+  (25)  “And I also gave them up to laws that were not good, and right-rulings by which they would not live1. Footnote: 1Ps. 81:12, Isa. 30:28, Acts 7:42, Rom. 1:24-28, 2 Thess. 2:11.

John 9:39 The Scriptures 1998+  (39)  And יהושע  {Jeshua} said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those not seeing might see, and those seeing might become blind.”

John 12:40 The Scriptures 1998+  (40)  “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they should not see with their eyes and understand with their heart, and turn, and I should heal them.”1 Footnote: 1See Mt. 13:15.

Romans 1:24-28 The Scriptures 1998+  (24)  Therefore Elohim gave them up to uncleanness in the lust of their hearts, to disrespect their bodies among themselves,  (25)  who changed the truth of Elohim into the falsehood, and worshipped and served what was created rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amĕn.  (26)  Because of this Elohim gave them over to degrading passions. For even their women exchanged natural relations for what is against nature,  (27)  and likewise, the men also, having left natural relations with woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing indecency, and receiving back the reward which was due for their straying.  (28)  And even as they did not think it worth- while to possess the knowledge of Elohim, Elohim gave them over to a worthless mind, to do what is improper,

They are left to govern themselves by their own laws until the time arrives for Christ to take away their dominion and assume the sovereignty over them conjointly with “the people of the saints”. If they please to impose upon themselves yokes of bondage, binding themselves to keep the first day of the week according to the Mosaic law of the seventh day, they are left at liberty to do so. But for this act of “voluntary humility” they are entitled to no recompense from God, seeing that He has not required it of them. The reward due for observing a Judaized Lord’s day voluntarily inflicted upon themselves; or, the pains and penalties to which they may be entitled for its “profanation”, are such, and such only, as result from the will and pleasure of the unenlightened lawgivers of the nations. It is a wise regulation to decree a cessation from labour and toil for man and beast during one day in seven; but it betrays egregious misunderstanding of the scriptures and singular superstition to proclaim perdition to men’s souls in flaming brimstone, if they do not keep it according to the Mosaic law of the seventh day.

– Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., p. 23). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

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Notes

Numbering of days:

• According the country one is living and which sort of calendar one is using the first day of the week may be different, being either the Sunday, Monday or Saturday, being named after the classical planets in Hellenistic astrology, a system introduced in the Roman Empire during Late Antiquity and for the worshipping of those gods, sun (Sunday: Old English Sunnandæg), moon (Monday: Old English Mōnandæg), thunder (Thor Thursday: Old English Þūnresdæg), etc..

• Saturday: the only day of the week to retain its Roman origin in English, named after the Roman god Saturn associated with the Titan Cronus, father of Zeus and many Olympians. Its original Anglo-Saxon rendering was Sæturnesdæg (pronounced [ˈsæturnezdæj]). In Latin it was dies Saturni, “Day of Saturn.” The Scandinavian Lørdag/Lördag deviates significantly as it has no reference to either the Norse or the Roman pantheon; it derives from old Norse laugardagr, literally “washing-day.” The German Sonnabend and the Low German words Sünnavend mean “Sunday Eve”, the German word Samstag derives from the name for Shabbat.

• The Romance languages preserved the Latin names, except for the names of Sunday, which was replaced by [dies] dominicus, domenica, i.e. “Day of the Lord” and of Saturday, which was named for the Sabbath.
• The Germanic peoples adapted the system introduced by the Romans but glossed their indigenous gods over the Roman deities (with the exception of Saturday) in a process known as interpretatio germanica.

Sabbatarianism:

1. Constantine decreed limits of Sunday work (321). Sabbatarianism was uniquely enforced by 17th-cent. English and Scottish presbyterians, especially in the Interregnum.
2. Strict observance of the sabbath (Hebrew shabath—to rest) as a rest-day in accordance with the fourth commandment ‘Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy’. Christians transferred commemoration from the traditional seventh day to Sunday to honour Christ’s resurrection—by worship rather than absence of work.
3. Movement within Protestantism whose proponents advocate that certain observances, specifically enumerated in a code of behaviour or law, are required for Christians to properly observe the Sabbath or Sabbath principles. Its historical origins lie in Puritan Sabbatarianism, which delineated precepts for keeping Sunday holy in observance of Sabbath commandment principles.
4. Today we do find Christian protestant groups who hold Sabbath observance on the Sunday and do find no work may be done on that day.
5. In Christendom there are also groups like the Seventh-day Baptists who leave most other Sabbath considerations of observance to individual conscience.
6. The Seventh-day Adventist Church considers that Christians must follow the Mosaic Law in rigorous Sabbath observances based on the Hebrew Sabbath, Friday sunset through Saturday sunset.

Blue Laws of Connecticut:

• * By these a woman was forbidden to kiss her child on the sabbath!
• harsh, puritanical laws that regulate public morality.
• Gov. Theophilus Eaton with the assistance of the Rev. John Cotton in 1655 regulated activities on Sunday for the Colony of New Haven, now part of Connecticut. After the laws were approved, they were printed in London, England, in 1656 and distributed to households in New Haven.
• Reverend Samuel Peters, an Anglican forced to leave America during the Revolution. He made up examples of “Blue Laws” in a booklet in order to make America appear backwards and fanatical. List of examples of such laws were published in a book in 1782 titled A General History of Connecticut.
• Repeal Day, as Gov. Dannel Malloy signed a bill Monday to end our state’s archaic Blue Laws.

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Preceding articles:

Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

Creation of the earth and man #4 Of the Sabbath day #2 Days 1,7,8 and 50

Creation of the earth and man #5 Of the Sabbath day #3 Ceasing from the works of the flesh

Creation of the earth and man #6 Of the Sabbath day #4 Mosaic codes, Sabbaths and Sunday

Were Gentiles excluded from entering the synagogue?

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Related articles:

1. Holy Sabbath
2. Do we need to keep the Sabbath
3. Are Christians required to keep the seventh day Sabbath?
4. The Sabbath: Is it a special day for Christians?
5. Sunday and the Sabbath (Pdf doc)
6. Blindness in the Christian world
7. Self inflicted misery #5 A prophet without a hedge around him
8. We’re allowed to willfully break the Law of Moses
9. Seven full weeks or seven completed Sabbaths and ascension of Jesus
10. A new exodus and offering of a Lamb
11. Death of Christ on the day of preparation
12. After the Sabbath after Passover, the resurrection of Jesus Christ
13. Was Jesus Religious
14. Communion and day of worship
15. Days of Nisan, Pesach, Pasach, Pascha and Easter
16. Shabbat Pesach service reading 1/2

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Further related articles:

• The Pietist Impulse in Christianity
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• The Pietist Critique of Inerrancy? J. A. Bengel’s Gnomon as a Test Case
  The Pietists are one particular group who continue to be put forward as evidence for the novelty of the doctrine of inerrancy. Although they were not mentioned in the studies of Sandeen and Rogers and McKim, and hence did not need detailed examination in the responses of Woodbridge and others, it is frequently claimed that the Pietists (and their doctrine of Scripture) have been neglected and even suppressed by those who maintain that Scripture is inerrant. The Pietists are said to have held to a more “dynamic” and less “mechanical” view of Scripture-even deliberately rejecting an inerrant view of Scripture.
• David Joris, Pietist Saint: The Appeal to Joris in the Writings of Christian Hoburg, Gottfried Arnold and Johann Wilhelm Petersen
  Abstract: A growing field of scholarship has been probing the connections between late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century German Pietism and the sixteenth-century Reformation radicals. David Joris (1501-1556), a prolific sixteenth-century Anabaptist figure and reputed “arch-heretic,” was highly esteemed by German Pietist leaders, including Christian Hoburg, Gottfried Arnold and Johann Wilhelm Petersen. In his influential Unparteiische Kitchen- und Ketzer-Historie (1700) Arnold made Joris the centerpiece of his story, and he observed that many in the Low Country still valued Joris’s writings. He and others found in Joris and his writings a significant reference point and inspiration in their effort to promote a Lutheran form of spiritualist religion.
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Creation of the earth and man #5 Of the Sabbath day #3 Ceasing from the works of the flesh

Samaritans atop Mount Gerizim in 2006. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The law of Moses was delivered to the Israelites and not to the Gentiles, who were therefore “without the law”. “What things soever the law saith, it says it to them who are under the law”; consequently the nations were not amenable to it; and though they obtained not the blessings of Mount Gerizim (unless they became faithful Jews by adoption), neither were they obnoxious to the curses of Mount Ebal.

Deu 27:9-26 The Scriptures 1998+  (9)  And Mosheh and the priests, the Lĕwites, spoke to all Yisra’ĕl, saying, “Be silent and hear, O Yisra’ĕl: This day you have become the people of יהוה  {Jehovah} your Elohim,  (10)  and you shall obey the voice of יהוה  {Jehovah} your Elohim, and do His commands and His laws which I command you today.”  (11)  And Mosheh commanded the people on that day, saying,  (12)  “These are to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have passed over the Yardĕn: Shimʽon, and Lĕwi, and Yehuḏah, and Yissasḵar, and Yosĕph, and Binyamin.  (13)  “And these are to stand on Mount  Ěyḇal to curse: Re’uḇĕn, Gaḏ, and Ashĕr, and Zeḇulun, Dan, and Naphtali.  (14)  “And the Lĕwites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Yisra’ĕl:  (15)  ‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved or moulded image, an abomination to יהוה  {Jehovah}, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amĕn!’  (16)  ‘Cursed is he who makes light of his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’  (17)  ‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbour’s boundary.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’  (18)  ‘Cursed is he who misleads the blind in the way.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’  (19)  ‘Cursed is he who twists the right-ruling of the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’  (20)  ‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s bed.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’  (21)  ‘Cursed is he who lies with any beast.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’  (22)  ‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’  (23)  ‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’  (24)  ‘Cursed is he who smites his neighbour secretly.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’  (25)  ‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to slay an innocent being.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’  (26)  ‘Cursed is he who does not establish the Words of this Torah.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amĕn!’

The faithless Jews and Gentiles are equally aliens from the precepts of Christ and his apostles. What these prescribe is enjoined upon the disciples of Jesus. They only are “under law to Christ”.

“What have I”

says Paul,

“to do to judge them that are without? God judgeth them.” (1 Corinthians 5:12, 13.)

He has caused the gospel of the kingdom to be preached to sinners “for the obedience of faith”. When they are judged, it will be for “not obeying the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ”, (Thessalonians 1:7–10.) and not because they do not “go to church”, or do not keep a sabbath instituted by a semi-pagan emperor of the fourth century.

2Th 1:7-10 The Scriptures 1998+  (7)  and to give you who are afflicted rest with us when the Master יהושע  {Jehsua} is revealed from heaven with His mighty messengers,  (8)  in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know Elohim, and on those who do not obey the Good News of our Master יהושע  {Jehsua} Messiah,  (9)  who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Master and from the esteem of His strength,  (10)  when He comes to be esteemed in His set-apart ones and to be admired among all those who believe in that Day, because our witness to you was believed.

The sabbath God requires sinful men to observe is to cease from the works of the flesh, as completely as He rested from the work of creation on the seventh day, that they may enter into the millennial rest that remaineth for the people of God.

Heb 4:9-11 The Scriptures 1998+  (9)  So there remains a Sabbath-keeping for the people of Elohim.  (10)  For the one, having entered into His rest, has himself also rested from his works, as Elohim rested from His own.  (11)  Let us therefore do our utmost to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.1 Footnote: 1See 3:18.

Men frequently err in their speculations from inattention to the marked distinction which subsists in the scriptures between those classes of mankind termed “saints” and “sinners”. They confound what is said to, or concerning, the one, with what is said in relation to the other. Relatively to the institutions of God they are as near or afar off as are “citizens” and “foreigners” to the laws and constitution of the United States.

“What the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law.”

This is a principle laid down by Paul concerning the law of Moses, which is equally true of the codes of all nations. “Citizens” are the saints, or separated ones, of the particular code by which they are insulated from all other people; while “foreigners” or “aliens” from their commonwealth are sinners in relation to it; for they live in other countries in total disregard of its institutions, and doing contrary to its laws, and yet are blameless: so that if they were to visit the country of that commonwealth, they would not be punished for their former course, because they were not under law to it. Let them, however, while sojourning there continue their native customs, and they would become guilty and worthy of the punishment made and provided for such offenders.

It is a fact, that “God blessed and sanctified” or set apart, “the seventh day”; and doubtless, Adam and his wife rested, or intermitted, their horticultural tendance upon that day. Yea, we may go further and say, that it is extremely probable that “the sons of God” before the flood, worshipped God according to “His way” upon that day; but in all the history of that long period, which intervened from the sanctification of the seventh day to the raining down bread from heaven for the Israelites in the wilderness, (Exodus 16) there is not the least hint of any punishment for breaking the Sabbath day. Guiltiness before God cannot therefore be argued against the Gentiles so as to entitle them to death or reprobation, predicated on the threatenings of the patriarchal code. Whatever the appointment might be, it was no doubt significative of the blessings to be obtained through observing it; not alone, but in connexion with the other matters which made up “the way of God”.

– Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 20–21). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

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Preceding articles:

Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

Creation of the earth and man #4 Of the Sabbath day #2 Days 1,7,8 and 50

Were Gentiles excluded from entering the synagogue?

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Additional reading:

1. Genuine message of salvation
2. When believing in God’s existence and His son, possessing a divine legislation
3. On the Edge of Believing
4. Imitate prophets and Paul
5. Looking for a shepherd for the sheep and goats
6. Sabbath according to the scriptures

+++

Further related writings:

• The folly of trying to work my way into salvation – Galatians 3:1-14
• “Don’t get it twisted” / Today’s Sabbath message
• Did Jesus teach the Law of the Old Testament to the Jews?
• A Case For Sabbath Observance
• Keeping the Old Testament Law
• A Date With God
• Today’s Sabbath Day Message – “Do you hear what I am saying people?”
• Sabbath Services
• Reimagining Sabbath
• Sabbath Day
• Sabbath (Dis)Comforts
• Thoughts on Keeping the Sabbath
• Is It Wrong To Work On Sabbath Day?
• You Are Judged According to Your Beliefs

+++

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Were Gentiles excluded from entering the synagogue?

Sardis synagogue courtyard. Remains of the Sardis Synagogue at the archaeological site of Sardis, near present-day Sart in the Manisa province of Turkey. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

During the time of the second temple (c. 516 BCE to 70 CE) Gentiles were excluded from entering the Temple past the outer court (which was known as the Court of the Gentiles). But there are numerous cases in Scripture of Gentiles attending synagogues around the Roman world. Of course, there could well have been some synagogues that did not allow Gentiles, but Scripture, as far as I can see, doesn’t mention any.

Here are some passages from Acts showing that gentiles did attend the synagogue:

Acts 13:14-50

(14) but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. (15) After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.”

(16) So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. …

(26) “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. …

(38) Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, (39) and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. …

(43) And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. (44) The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. (45) But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. (46) And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. (47) For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

(48) And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. (49) And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. (50) But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.

Acts 14:1-2

Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. (2) But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

Acts 17:1-4

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. (2) And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, (3) explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” (4) And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

Acts 18:4

And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and tried to persuade Jews and Greeks.

– Sheryl Downs

Creation of the earth and man #4 Of the Sabbath day #2 Days 1,7,8 and 50

Continuation of Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

The ordinances of the law of Moses are styled by Paul “the rudiments”, or “elements of the world”, which, in Galatians, he also terms “weak and beggarly elements, whereunto they desired again to be in bondage”. They evinced this desire by “observing days, and months, and times, and years”;(Galatians 4:3, 5, 9, 10) not being satisfied with the things of Christ, but seeking to combine the Mosaic institutions with the gospel.

Gal 4:3-5 The Scriptures 1998+  (3)  So we also, when we were children, were under the elementary matters of the world, being enslaved.  (4)  But when the completion of the time came, Elohim sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under Torah,  (5)  to redeem those who were under Torah, in order to receive the adoption as sons.

Gal 4:9-10 The Scriptures 1998+  (9)  But now after you have known Elohim, or rather are known by Elohim, how do you turn again to the weak and poor elementary matters,1 to which you wish to be enslaved again? Footnote: 1See v.3, Col. 2:8 & 20.  (10)  You observe days and months and seasons and years.

This was Judaizing, and the first step to that awful apostasy by which the world has been cursed for so many ages. When the Mosaic constitution, as “the representation of the knowledge and the truth”, had “waxed old” by the manifestation of the substance to a sufficient extent to nullify it, it “vanished away” by being “cast down to the ground” by the Roman power, and with it the law of the seventh day.

The Disciples Eat Wheat on the Sabbath (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Even before its abolition, Paul expressed his fear of the Galatians, “lest he should have bestowed labour upon them in vain”, seeing that they were becoming zealous of the ordinances of the law. They seemed not to understand that the Mosaic economy was only a temporary constitution of things, “added because of transgressions, till the seed should come”; that when he came, “he redeemed them from the curse of the law, being made a curse for them”; and that therefore they had nothing to fear, nor to hope for from keeping, or transgressing its methods. They had got it into their heads that “except they were circumcised and kept the law of Moses”, as well as believed and obeyed the gospel of the kingdom, they could not be saved.

Mat 12:5 The Scriptures 1998+  (5)  “Or did you not read in the Torah that on the Sabbath the priests in the Set-apart Place profane the Sabbath, and are blameless?

Therefore they “desired to be under the law”, and began to busy themselves about “keeping the sabbath”, and doing other works which Moses had enjoined upon Israel. Paul was very much distressed at this, and describes himself as “travailing in birth again until Christ be formed in them”. They had been delivered from “the yoke of bondage”, by putting on Christ; but by seeking to renew their connexion with Moses’ law, they were selling their birth-right for a mess of pottage.

“I say unto you”,

saith Paul,

“that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace”.

A partial observance of the law can do no one any good. If he kept the sabbath in the most approved manner, but neglected the sacrifices, or ate swine’s flesh, he was as accursed as a thief or a robber; for to one under the law it saith,

“Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which axe written in the book of the law to do them”;

hence even the sinless Jesus was cursed by it, because he was crucified; for it is written,

“Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”

Gal 3:4 The Scriptures 1998+  (4)  Have you suffered so much in vain – if indeed in vain?
Gal 5:4 The Scriptures 1998+  (4)  You who are declared right by Torah have severed yourselves from Messiah, you have fallen from favour.

What hope then is there for Jew or Gentile of escaping the curse of the law, seeing that from the very nature of things connected with the present state of Jerusalem it is impossible to observe it, save in the few particulars of “meat and drink, or in respect of the sabbath” partially, etc. The observance of the seventh day was regulated by the Mosaic law, and the penalties due to its “desecration”, or “profanation”, are pronounced by it alone; but it is dear that the law being taken out of the way, or abolished, by Jesus, who nailed it to his cross, there remain no more retributions for the non-observance of its appointments; and therefore there is no transgression in working or pleasure-taking, or in speaking one’s own words on the seventh day.

On the first day of the creation-week God said,

“Let there be light, and there was light”;

so on the first day of the week “The True Light” came forth from the darkness of the tomb “like dew from the womb of the morning”. It is a day to be much remembered by his people, because it assures them of their justification “in him”, of their own resurrection to life, and of the certainty of his ruling or “judging the world in righteousness” as Jehovah’s king, when they shall also reign with him as kings and priests to God.

Rom 4:22-25 The Scriptures 1998+  (22)  Therefore also “it was reckoned to him for righteousness.”  (23)  And not because of him alone was it written that it was reckoned to him,  (24)  but also because of us, to whom it shall be reckoned, to us who believe in Him who raised up יהושע  {Jeshua} our Master from the dead,  (25)  who was delivered up because of our trespasses, and was raised for us to be declared right.

Rom 8:11 The Scriptures 1998+  (11)  And if the Spirit of Him who raised יהושע  {Jeshua} from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Messiah from the dead shall also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit dwelling in you.

1Co 15:14 The Scriptures 1998+  (14)  And if Messiah has not been raised, then our proclaiming is empty, and your belief also empty,

1Co 15:20 The Scriptures 1998+  (20)  But now Messiah has been raised from the dead, and has become the first-fruit of those having fallen asleep.

Act 17:31 The Scriptures 1998+  (31)  because He has set a day on which He is going to judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed,1 having given proof of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” Footnote: 1See 10:42.

Rev 5:9-10 The Scriptures 1998+  (9)  And they sang a renewed song, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals, because You were slain, and have redeemed us to Elohim by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,  (10)  and made us sovereigns and priests to our Elohim, and we shall reign upon the earth.”1 Footnote: 1Dan. 7:18-27.

This day is also notable on account of the special interviews which occurred between Jesus and his disciples after his resurrection.

Joh 20:19 The Scriptures 1998+  (19)  When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week,and when the doors were shut where the taught ones met, for fear of the Yehuḏim, יהושע {Jehsua} came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace to you.”

Joh 20:26 The Scriptures 1998+  (26)  And after eight days His taught ones were again inside, and T’oma with them. יהושע {Jehsua} came, the doors having been shut, and He stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”

He ascended to heaven on this day, even the forty-third from his crucifixion; and seven days after, that is the fiftieth, being “the day of Pentecost”, the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the apostles, and the gospel of the kingdom preached for the first time in his name.
Power being in the hands of their enemies, the Christians of the Hebrew nation still continued to observe the seventh day according to the custom. Hence we find the apostles frequenting the synagogues on the sabbath days and reasoning with the people out of the scriptures.

Act 17:2 The Scriptures 1998+  (2)  And according to his practice, Sha’ul went in unto them, and for three Sabbaths was reasoning with them from the Scriptures,

Act 17:17 The Scriptures 1998+  (17)  Therefore, indeed, he was reasoning in the congregation with the Yehuḏim and with the gentile worshippers, and in the market-place daily with those who met there.

Act 18:4 The Scriptures 1998+  (4)  And he was reasoning in the congregation every Sabbath, and won over both Yehuḏim and Greeks.

Act 19:8 The Scriptures 1998+  (8)  And having gone into the congregation he spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading concerning the reign of Elohim.

 To have done otherwise would have been to create an unnecessary prejudice, and to let slip one of the best opportunities of introducing the gospel to the attention of the Jewish public. They did not forsake the synagogues until they were expelled. While they frequented these, however, on the seventh day, they assembled themselves together with the disciples whose assemblies constituted the churches of the saints and of God. They ordained elders over these societies, and “taught them to observe all things whatsoever Jesus had commanded them”.

Mat 28:20 The Scriptures 1998+  (20)  teaching them to guard all that I have commanded you. And see, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Amĕn.

Act 2:42 The Scriptures 1998+  (42)  And they were continuing steadfastly in the teaching of the emissaries, and in the fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.

Act 14:21-23 The Scriptures 1998+  (21)  And having brought the Good News to that city, and having made many taught ones, they returned to Lustra, and Ikonion, and Antioch,  (22)  strengthening the beings of the taught ones, encouraging them to continue in the belief, and that through many pressures we have to enter the reign of Elohim.  (23)  And having appointed elders in every assembly, having prayed with fasting, they committed them to the Master in whom they had believed.

In his letter to the Hebrew Christians, Paul exhorts them “not to forsake the assembling of themselves together”

Heb 10:19-25 The Scriptures 1998+  (19)  So, brothers, having boldness to enter into the Set-apart Place by the blood of יהושע {Jeshua},  (20)  by a new and living way which He instituted for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,  (21)  and having a High Priest over the House of Elohim,  (22)  let us draw near with a true heart in completeness of belief, having our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience and our bodies washed with clean water.  (23)  Let us hold fast the confession of our expectation without yielding, for He who promised is trustworthy.  (24)  And let us be concerned for one another in order to stir up love and good works,1 Footnote: 1Mt. 16:27.  (25)  not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging, and so much more as you see the Day coming near.

Such an exhortation as this implies a stated time and place of assembly. On what day, then, did the churches of the saints meet to exhort one another so as to provoke to love and to good works ? Certainly not on the seventh day, for then the apostles were in the synagogues. What day then more appropriate than the first day of the week ? Now it cannot be affirmed that the saints were commanded to meet on this day, because there is no testimony to that effect in the New Testament. But it is beyond dispute that they did assemble themselves together on the first day of the week, and the most reasonable inference is that they did so in obedience to the instruction of the apostles, from whose teaching they derived all their faith and practice, which constituted them the disciples of Jesus.

To keep the first day of the week to the Lord is possible only for the saints. There is no law, except the emperor Constantine’s, that commands sinners to keep holy the first, or eighth, day, or Sunday, as the Gentiles term it. For a sinner to keep this day unto the Lord he must become one of the Lord’s people. He must believe the gospel of the kingdom and name of Christ, and become obedient to it, before any religious service he can offer will be accepted. He must come under law to Christ by putting on Christ before he can keep the Lord’s day. Having become a Christian, if he would keep the day to the Lord, he must assemble with a congregation of New Testament saints, and assist in edifying and provoking them to love and good works, in showing forth the death of Jesus, in giving thanks to the Father, in celebrating the resurrection of Christ, and in praising and blessing God. Under the gospel, or “law of liberty”, he is subjected to no “yoke of bondage” concerning a sabbath day. It is his delight when an opportunity presents, to celebrate in this way the day of the resurrection. He requires no penal statutes to compel him to a formal and disagreeable self-denial, or “duty”; for it is his meat and drink to do the will of his Father who is in heaven.

Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 17–20). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

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Preceding article:

Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

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Additional reading:

1. People Seeking for God 3 Laws and directions
2. First Century of Christianity
3. Hellenistic influences
4. The early days of Christianity – Position and power
5. Built on or Belonging to Jewish tradition #4 Mozaic and Noachide laws
6. Sabbath according to the scriptures
7. Al-Fatiha [The Opening] Süra 1: 4-7 Merciful Lord of the Creation to show us the right path
8. Marriage of Jesus 7 Impaled
9. Raising digression
10. Object of first woe
11. Seven Bible Feasts of JHWH
12. Seven full weeks or seven completed Sabbaths and ascension of Jesus
13. Hebraic Roots Bible Book of The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 1
14. Speaking in tongues
15. Tongues a sign of authenticity or divine backing
16. Meaning of “speaking in tongues”
17. Remember the day
18. Finding and Understanding Words and Meanings
19. Reasons to come together
20. Congregate, to gather, to meet
21. An ecclesia in your neighbourhood
22. Do we need to keep the Sabbath
23. Communion and day of worship

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Further reading of interest:

• Time – Philippians 3:13-14
• Discovering Grace – Prayer
• Amazing Grace
• Preparation for Worship for Sunday, August 16, 2015
• The Ordinance of Humility?
• The Liberty of Christ – Colossians 2:11-23 (audio)
• Case for Credobaptism: 10 Reasons Why I Reject Infant Baptism
• Baptism and communion
• 40 Questions About Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
• July Prayer 2015
• Psalm 119 — Real wisdom for real life
• Covenants Connects Us to Heaven
• How sweet are thy words unto my taste! The Torah Challenge.
• As Jesus Is – So Are We – in This World – Jesus – Firstborn of Many Brethren –
• The folly of trying to work my way into salvation – Galatians 3:1-14

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Related articles

• What must we believe?
• FT News: Changes to Devotionals
• What Must We Believe?
• Ask the Rabbi: ‘See the Torah as a guidebook’
• Re’eh: Blessings and Curses
• Does John 4:22 say that salvation is just for Jews?Qk
• When Moses Gave a Speech
• Were Gentiles excluded from entering the synagogue?
• The chosen ones to fear or not to fear
• A Passover for unity in God’s community

Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

Of the Sabbath day

On the seventh day, which was neither longer nor shorter than the days which preceded it, “God ended his work which he had made”; and because of this notable event, “he blessed and sanctified it”.

A day is blessed, because of what is or will be imparted to those who are commanded to observe it. The sanctification of the day implies the setting of it apart that it might be kept in some way different from other days. The manner of its original observance may be inferred from the law concerning it when it was enjoined upon the Israelites. To them it was said,

“Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy”.

If it be asked, how was it to be kept holy? the answer is,

“in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor any one or thing belonging to thee”;

and the reason for this total abstinence from work is referred to the Lord’s own example in that “he rested the seventh day”. The nature of its observance in the ages and generations, and the recompense thereof, is well expressed in the words of Isaiah:

— “If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” {Isaiah 58:13, 14.}

“Der Samstug (Sabbath)”, Frederich Campe, 1800: German Jews, wearing baretta hats, gather outside a synagogue on Sabbath. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In this passage, the conditions are stated upon which faithful Israelites might inherit the blessing typified by the rest of the seventh day. They were joyfully to devote themselves to the way of the Lord. They were not simply to abstain from work, yawning and grumbling over the tediousness of the day, and wishing it were gone, that they might return to their ordinary course of life; but they were to esteem it as a delightful, holy, and honourable day. Their pleasure was to consist in doing what the Lord required, and in talking of “the exceeding great and precious promises” He had made. To do this was “not speaking their own words”, but the Lord’s words. Such an observance as this, however, of the sabbath day, implies a faithful mind and a gracious disposition as the result of knowing the truth.

Neither antediluvian nor postdiluvian could “call the sabbath a delight” who was either ignorant or faithless of the import of the promise,

“thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord, and ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed with the heritage of Jacob”.

Representation of Sabbat gatherings from the chronicles of Johann Jakob Wick. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A man who simply looked at the seventh day as a sabbath in which he was interdicted from pleasures, and conversation agreeable to him, and from the money-making pursuits in which he delighted, would regard the day more as a weekly punishment, than as joyous and honourable. Though he might mechanically abstain from work, he did not keep it so as to be entitled to the blessing which belonged to the observance of the day of the Lord. It was irksome to him, because, being faithless, he perceived no reward in keeping it; and

“without faith it is impossible to please God”.

The reward to antediluvian and postdiluvian patriarchs and Israelites, for a faithful observance, or commemoration of Jehovah’s rest from His creation-work, was

“delight in the Lord, riding upon the high places of the earth, and feeding with the heritage of Jacob”.

This was neither more nor less than a promise of inheriting the Kingdom of God, which is a summary of “the things hoped for and the things unseen”, or the subject matter of the faith that pleases God. When that kingdom is established, all who are accounted worthy of it will “delight or joy in the Lord”; and occupy “the high places of the earth”, ruling over the nations as His associate kings and priests; and share in the “new heavens and earth,” in which dwells righteousness, when Jerusalem shall be made a rejoicing, and her people Israel a joy. The knowledge and belief of these things was the powerful and transforming motive which caused Abel, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, etc. to “call the sabbath a delight, holy of the Lord, and honourable”; and to observe it as the sons of Belial cannot possibly do. But while this was the motive, even faith, which actuated the sons of God in their keeping holy the seventh day, Jehovah did not permit the faithless to transgress or desecrate it with impunity. We know not what penalty, if any, was attached to its violation before the flood; but its desecration under the Mosaic constitution was attended with signal and summary vengeance, as will appear from the following testimonies:—

1. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. 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. Six days may work be done, but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.” { Exodus 31:12–17.}
2. “Remember (O Israel), that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm; therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.” {Deut. 5:15.}
3. “Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day mere shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of rest to the Lord: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the sabbath day.” { Exodus 35:2, 3.}
4. “And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall surely be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the Lord commanded Moses.” { Numb. 15:32–36.}
5. “Thus saith the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem: neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.… And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, to do no work therein: then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and upon horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meat-offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the temple of the Lord. But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then I will kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” {Jer. 17:21–27.}
6. “Abide ye every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.” {Exodus 16:29, 30.}

From these testimonies it is clear that it was unlawful for servants in the families of Israel to light fires, cook dinners, harness horses, drive out families to the synagogues, or priests to the temple to officiate in the service of the Lord. The visiting of families on the sabbath day, the taking of excursions for health or for preaching, and conversing about worldly, or family, or any kind of secular affairs, was also illegal, and punishable with death. The law, it will be observed also, had regard to the seventh, and to no other day of the week. It was lawful to do all these things on the first or eighth day (some particular ones, however, excepted), but not on the seventh. On this day, however, it was “lawful to do good”; but then, this good was not arbitrary. Neither the priests nor the people were the judges of the good or evil, but the law only which defined it.

“On the sabbath days the priests in the temple profaned the sabbath, and were blameless”; {Matt. 12:5.}

for the law enjoined them to offer “two lambs of the first year, without spot, as the burnt-offering of every sabbath”. { Num. 28:9–10.} This was a profanation of the seventh-day law, which prohibited “any work” from being done; and had not God commanded it, they would have been “guilty of death”. It was upon this ground that Jesus was “guiltless”; for he did the work of God on that day in healing the sick as the Father had commanded him.

“The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: therefore”,

said Jesus,

“the Son of Man is Lord also of the sabbath Day ”. {Mark 2:27.}

It was a wise and beneficent institution. It prevented the Israelites from wearing out themselves and their dependents by incessant toil; and revived in them a weekly remembrance of the law and promises of God. It was, however, only “a Shadow of things to come”, the substance of which is found in the things which pertain to the Anointed One of God.  (Col. 2:14, 16–17)

14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Let No One Disqualify You
16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. {The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2001). (Kol 2:14–19). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.}

It was a part of “the rudiments of the world” inscribed on

“the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us”,

and which the Lord Jesus “took out of the way, nailing it to his cross”. When he lay entombed he rested from his labours, abiding in his place all the seventh day. Having ended his work, he arose on the eighth day, “and was refreshed”. The shadowy sabbath disappeared before the brightness of the rising of the sun of righteousness; who, having become the accursed of the law. delivered his brethren from its sentence upon all.

– Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 13–17). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

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Preceding: Creation of the earth and man #2 Evil Angels and moments of creation

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Additional reading:

1. Truth, doubt or blindness
2. Observance of a day to Remember
3. Anointing of Christ as Prophetic Rehearsal of the Burial rites
4. Jesus begotten Son of God #3 Messiah or Anointed one
5. Written to recognise the Promised One
6. The Right One to follow and to worship
7. Sabbath according to the scriptures

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Related articles

• Parshat Va’etchanan: The oneness of Israel and God’s love
• The Children Of Israel Will Be In The Lands Of Their Captivity Until Messiah Comes (UPDATE)
• Go Forward
• Devarim
• Sedra of the Week: Devarim
• Why are there so many Jewish lawyers? (Devarim, Covenant & Conversation 5775 on Ethics)
• When Moses Gave a Speech
• A Post-Resurrection Teaching
• Moses and the Power of Prayer
• This Hebrew Professor Claims The Bible’s Moses Was On DMT

Creation of the earth and man #1 Planet for living beings in a pre-Adamic world

Creation of the earth and man

The earth before the creation of Adam the habitation of the angels who kept not their first estate — A geological error corrected — The Sabbath day and the Lord’s day— The formation of man and woman — The “great mystery” of her formation out of man explained — Eden — The Garden of Eden — The original and future paradises considered — Man’s primitive dominion confined to the inferior creatures and his own immediate family — Of the two trees of the garden — And man in his original estate.

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The general account of the work of the six days is contained in the first chapter of Genesis; while in the second is presented among other things, a more particular narrative of the work of the sixth day in the formation of the first human pair.

Let the reader peruse the history of the creation as a revelation to himself as an inhabitant of the earth. It informs him of the order in which the things narrated would have developed themselves to his view, had he been placed on some projecting rock, the spectator of the events detailed. He must remember this. The Mosaic account is not a revelation to the inhabitants of other orbs remote from the earth of the formation of the boundless universe; but to man, as a constituent of the terrestrial system. This will explain why light is said to have been created four days before the sun, moon, and stars. To an observer on the earth this was the order of their appearance; and in relation to him a primary creation, though absolutely pre-existent for millions of ages before the Adamic era.

The duration of the earth’s revolutions round the sun previous to the work of the first day is not revealed: but the evidences produced by the strata of our globe show that the period was long continued. There are indeed hints, casually dropped in the scriptures, which would seem to indicate that our planet was inhabited by a race of beings anterior to the formation of man.

The Creation, beginning of the antediluvian (i.e., pre-Flood) world. (Artist’s rendition by James Tissot)

Lot and his daughters flee from Sodom, his wife turned to salt behind them, and the burning cities, Albrecht Dürer

The apostle Peter, speaking of the “false teachers” that would arise among Christians “by reason of whom the way of truth would be evil spoken of” illustrates the certainty of their “damnation” by citing three cases in point; namely, that of certain angels; that of the antediluvian world; and that of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now the earth, we know, was the place of judgment to the contemporaries of Noah and Lot, and seeing that these three are warnings to inhabitants of earth, it is probable that they are all related to things pertaining to our globe in the order of their enumeration — first, judgment upon its pre-Adamic inhabitants; secondly, upon the antediluvian world, which succeeded them; and thirdly, upon Sodom after the flood.

Peter says that “the Angels”, or pre-Adamic inhabitants of the Earth, “sinned”; and Jude, in speaking of the same subject, reveals to us the nature of their transgression. He says, verse 6,

“the angels maintained not their original state, but forsook their own habitation”.

From which it would appear that they had the ability to leave their dwelling if they pleased; secondly, that they were sometimes employed as messengers to other parts of the universe; this their name (ἄγγελος, angelos, one sent) implies; thirdly, that they were forbidden to leave their habitation without special command to do so; and fourthly, that they violated this injunction and left it. Having transgressed the divine law, God would not forgive them; “but casting them down”, or driving them back, “he committed them to everlasting chains of intense darkness to be reserved for judgment”. Hence, it is clear, when they were driven back to their habitation, some further catastrophe befell them by which their committal to darkness was effected. This probably consisted in the total wreck of their abode, and their entire submergence, with all the mammoths of their estate, under the waters of an overwhelming flood. Reduced to this extremity, the earth became “without form and empty; and darkness overspread the deep waters”. Its mountains, hills, valleys, plains, seas, rivers, and fountains of waters, which gave diversity of “form” to the surface of our globe, all disappeared; and it became “void”, or empty, no living creatures, angels, quadrupeds, birds, or fishes, being found any more upon it.
Fragments, however, of the wreck of this pre-Adamic world have been brought to light by geological research, to the records of which we refer the reader, for a detailed account of its discoveries, with this remark, that its organic remains, coal fields, and strata, belong to the ages before the formation of man, rather than to the era of the creation, or the Noachic flood. This view of the matter will remove a host of difficulties, which have hitherto disturbed the harmony between the conclusions of geologists and the Mosaic account of the physical constitution of our globe.

Geologists have endeavoured to extend the six days into six thousand years. But this, with the scriptural data we have adduced, is quite unnecessary. Instead of six thousand, they can avail themselves of sixty thousand; for the scriptures reveal no length of time during which the terrene angels dwelt upon our globe. The six days of Genesis were unquestionably six diurnal revolutions of the earth upon its axis. This is clear from the tenor of the sabbath law.

“Six days shalt thou labour (O Israel) and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

Would it be any fit reason that, because the Lord worked six periods of a thousand or more years each, and had ceased about two thousand until the giving of the law, therefore the Israelites were to work six periods of twelve hours, and do no work on a seventh period or day of like duration? Would any Israelite or Gentile, unspoiled by vain philosophy, come to the conclusion of the geologists by reading the sabbath law? We believe not. Six days of ordinary length were ample time for Omnipotence, with all the power of the universe at command, to re-form the earth, and to place the few animals upon it necessary for the beginning of a new order of things upon the globe.

– Thomas, D. J. (1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 10–12). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

Globe (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Preceding articles:

The very very beginning 2 The Word and words

Genesis 1:26 God said “Let us make”

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 4

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Additional reading:

1. A look at evolution from a Christadelphian perspective
2. Between Alpha and Omega – The plan of creation
3. Creator and Blogger God 1 Emptiness and mouvement
4. Different principle about the origin and beginning of everything
5. Science and the Bible—Do They Really Contradict Each Other?
6. Blackness, nothingness, something, void
7. Accommodation of the Void
8. “Before” and “after” the Big Bang
9. Nothingness
10. Other stories about the beginning of times
11. Creation purpose and warranty
12. Is it “Wrong” to Believe that the Earth is a Sphere?
13. A dialogue about the earth moving and spinning around the sun
14. Angels
15. Heavenly creatures do they exist
16. Where does Satan lives?
17. Satan the evil within
18. Al-Fatiha [The Opening] Süra 1: 4-7 Merciful Lord of the Creation to show us the right path
19. Around pre-existence of Christ
20. Marriage of Jesus 10 Old and New Covenant

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Further reading:

• The antediluvian (alternatively pre-diluvian or pre-Flood) period—meaning “before the deluge”
• Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
• the Primeval deluge
• At last — an authentic photo of a giant skeleton discovered by archaeologists?
• Have Archaeologists Found Skeletons of Biblical Giants in Greece? (via A. Roy King)
• Ovid’s Account of the Deluge From Indo-European Mythology
• Did the Flood Waters Come From Above or Below?
• Creation Myths!
• The Garden of Eden
• Creation Myths: Similarities across Time and Culture

• Peccatum

• Sun Moon Earth
• Behold: The Māori solar system!
• Māori Creation Myth
• A Boshongo Creation Myth
• Back To The Beginning Again
• Genesis 1.1-2.4: Creation in Seven Days
• The line of Cain (Gen.4:17-26 ) and the line of Seth to Noah (Gen.5:1-32)
• Genesis 2.4-25: The First Human, First Man, and First Woman
• I’m not an asshole, just a cynic

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• What’s so special about this picture of Earth?
• This is what we look like from a million miles away
• DSCOVR’s EPIC camera returns its first image of entire sunlit side of Earth
• Pastor Tells God to Punish America Just as he did Sodom and Gomorrah
• The Great Outcry Against America; It’s Sin So Grievous