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Monday, February 24, 2014

Since God rested on the seventh day, should not the Sabbath be Saturday?



Sabbath or a sabbath is generally a weekly day of rest or time of worship. It is observed differently in Abrahamic religions and informs a similar occasion in several other practices. Although many viewpoints and definitions have arisen over the millennia, most originate in the same textual tradition. The term has been used to describe a similar weekly observance in any of several other traditions; the new moon; any of seven annual festivals in Judaism and some Christian traditions; and a year of rest in religious or secular usage, originally every seventh year.

Biblical Sabbath is a weekly day of rest or time of worship. It is observed differently in Judaism and Christianity and informs a similar occasion in several other faiths. 

Sabbath in the Bible (as the verb shavath) is first mentioned in the Genesis creation narrative, where the seventh day is set aside as a day of rest and made holy by God.


Genesis 2 (KJV)
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Blame the Pharisees!!!!

Mark 7 (KJV)
6 He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7 Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
8 For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.
9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

Jesus called them out several times when they accused him of not following the law.  Am sure they made sure because of Christ's humbleness and rebuke they got together and changed the Sabbath to Sunday.  Why is this not corrected?  Man's tradition should never take precedence over God's word!  Churches that are of God need to repent!  The Sabbath is on the seventh day which is Saturday. ~ Karmen


The Catholic church (Pharisees) changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.  Another way to get back at Jesus.

Number four of the Ten Commandments: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy

Observation and remembrance of Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments (the fourth in the original Jewish, the Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestant traditions, the third in Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions). Most people who observe Biblical Sabbath regard it as having been instituted as a perpetual covenant for the people of Israel, a rule that also applies to proselytes, and a sign respecting two events: the day during which God rested after having completed Creation in six days, and God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt.

Originally, Sabbath-breakers were officially to be cut off from the assembly or potentially killed:


Exodus 31 (KJV)
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.


Observance in the Hebrew Bible was universally from sixth-day sundown to seventh-day sundown on a seven-day week:

Nehemiah 13 (KJV)
19 And it came to pass, that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the sabbath, I commanded that the gates should be shut, and charged that they should not be opened till after the sabbath: and some of my servants set I at the gates, that there should no burden be brought in on the sabbath day.





The sabbath was measured from the evening of one day to the evening of the next.

Leviticus 23 (KJV)
32 It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest, and ye shall afflict (burden) your souls: in the ninth day of the month at even, from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.



Exodus 20 (KJV)
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
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:
11 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 (honor as holy) it.



Exodus 31 (KJV)
13 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you.
17 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 23 (KJV)
12 Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed.


Deuteronomy 5 (KJV)
12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee.
13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:
14 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, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that 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.





The Anglicized term "Sabbath" is in Hebrew Shabbath meaning "day of rest". 

Sabbatai Zevi in 1665.
In over thirty languages other than English, the common name for Saturday is a cognate of "Sabbath".



Shmita
Sabbath Year or Shmita (Hebrew: שמטה‎, Shemittah, Strong's 8059, literally "release"), also called Sabbatical Year, is the seventh (שביעי, shebiy'iy, 7637) year of the seven-year agricultural cycle mandated by Torah for the Land of Israel, relatively little observed in Biblical tradition, but still observed in contemporary Judaism. During Shmita, the land is left to lie fallow and all agricultural activity—including plowing, planting, pruning and harvesting—is forbidden by Torah and Jewish law.

By tradition, other cultivation techniques (such as watering, fertilizing, weeding, spraying, trimming and mowing) may be performed as preventative measures only, not to improve the growth of trees or plants; additionally, whatever fruits grow of their own accord during that year are deemed hefker (ownerless), not for the landowner but for the poor, the stranger, and the beasts of the field; these fruits may be picked by anyone. A variety of laws also apply to the sale, consumption and disposal of Shmita produce. 

When the year ended, all debts, except those of foreigners, were to be remitted:

 Deuteronomy 15 (KJV)
1 At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release.
2 And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the Lord's release.
3 Of a foreigner thou mayest exact it again: but that which is thine with thy brother thine hand shall release;
4 Save when there shall be no poor among you; for the Lord shall greatly bless thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it:
5 Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all these commandments which I command thee this day.
6 For the Lord thy God blesseth thee, as he promised thee: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, but thou shalt not borrow; and thou shalt reign over many nations, but they shall not reign over thee.
7 If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother:
8 But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth.
9 Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee.
10 Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him: because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto.
11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.


In similar fashion, Torah requires a slave who had worked for six years to go free in the seventh year. Leviticus 25 (KJV) promises bountiful harvests to those who observe Shmita, and describes its observance as a test of religious faith.

Exodus 16;23-29
Immediately after the Exodus from Egypt, Sabbath is revealed as the day upon which manna and manna gathering is to cease weekly; the first of many Sabbath commands is given, in both positive and negative forms.

Observing the Sabbath-closing havdalah ritual in 14th-century Spain.
Seventh-day Sabbatarians rest on the seventh Hebrew day. Jewish Shabbat is observed from sundown on Friday until the appearance of three stars in the sky on Saturday night; it is also observed by a minority of Christians. Thirty-nine activities prohibited on Shabbat are listed in Tractate Shabbat (Talmud). 

Several Christian denominations (such as Seventh Day Baptist, Seventh-day Adventist, Sabbath Rest Advent Church, Church of God (Seventh Day), and other Churches of God) observe Sabbath similarly to or less rigorously than Judaism, but observance ends at Saturday sunset instead of Saturday nightfall. Like the Jews with Shabbat, they believe that keeping seventh-day Sabbath is a moral responsibility, equal to that of any of the Ten Commandments, that honors God as Creator and Deliverer. 

The Christian seventh-day interpretation usually states that Sabbath belongs inherently to all nations and remains part of the New Covenant after the crucifixion of Jesus.  Many seventh-day Sabbatarians also use "Lord's Day" to mean the seventh day, based on Scriptures in which God calls the day "my Sabbath" and "to the LORD"; some count Sunday separately as Lord's Day and many consider it appropriate for communal worship (but not for first-day rest, which would be considered breaking the Ten Commandments.




St. Ignatius (Another example of Man's tradition vs God's Word)

In this way, St. Ignatius saw believers "no longer observing the [Jewish] Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's Day", and amplified this point as follows: "Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness .... But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord's Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days."

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Dear Sir/Madam,

We have republished "The Seventh-day Sabbath Sought Out and Celebrated" By Thomas Tillam.

This book was first published in London in 1657, and we believe that this reprint will be of especial interest to Seventh-day Sabbath keeping organisations.

It has taken a team of workers a total of 3 years to complete the transcript.

This book is very useful to possess as a historical reference book for seventh day sabbath keeping in 17th Century England.

A promotional video is hosted here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TqIlzF3erw

The book title can be bought directly from us here:

http://www.wildernesspublications.org/contents/en-uk/p114.html

It costs £7.99 (excl. shipping).

A book preview can be seen here:

http://www.wildernesspublications.org/contents/en-uk/tillam.pdf

See also:

http://www.tillambook.info

For more information please contact us.

We would finally like to thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ for the completion of this project.

May the Lord richly bless you with the power of His love.

Yours sincerely

Voice in the Wilderness
London, England

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