Feast: Strategies for Interfacing with Babylon without Becoming Assimilated (Part Four)
Embracing the Weekly and Millennial Sabbath
#FT24-05
David F. Maas
Given 21-Oct-24; 60 minutes
description: Tragically, according to Lifeway Research, over 77% of the world's Christian professing churches have chosen the venerable day of the sun as their day of rest, obviously rejecting the day God hallowed from creation, while most of the professing Sabbatarians (5% of the total mix) have also discarded the annual Sabbaths and holy days identified in Leviticus 23 in what we have come to know as God's masterplan for the future of which most of the inhabitants of the world are in total ignorance. Consequently, we cannot ever expect that seventh day Sabbath keepers will be in the majority any time in our lifetime until the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when we, as His resurrected glorified saints, will begin to teach our clients in the Millennial Sabbath how to properly keep the weekly seventh day Sabbath and the annual Sabbaths outlining the master plan of Almighty God. When the Roman Catholic and her Protestant daughters rejected the seventh day Sabbath, the day on which Almighty God regularly instructs His chosen saints how to keep his holy law in spirit and truth, they began to lose insight on all the rest of God's laws. After the test commandment was denigrated and destroyed, predictably and automatically all the rest of the ten commandments have been systematically polluted and defiled as God gave them over to a reprobate mind for despising His laws (referring to Romans 1:28).
transcript:
Greetings brothers and sisters from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, a truly millennial venue adjacent to the marvelous Atlantic Seaboard. Symbolically, we are a little more than halfway through the millennial Sabbath, rehearsing the roles of stewards serving under Jesus Christ, preparing for the arrival of a magnificent, permanent, spiritual New Jerusalem and everlasting Kingdom of God.
My late mentor Bob Hoops used to remind the Rapid City, South Dakota congregation back in 1973 that the weekly Sabbath is a miniature (a preview) of the annual Feast of Tabernacles, while the Feast of Tabernacles is a miniature (a preview) of the millennial Sabbath bringing a delightful, refreshing, but invigorating 1,000 years of peace ending 6,000 years of botched up human rule, replaced by 1,000 years of competent rulership under the King of kings, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; the millennial Sabbath then serves as a miniature (a preview) of the spiritual Kingdom of God lasting for eternity when Christ will turn over the reins of power to God the Father (I Corinthians 15:24-28).
Exodus 31:16 Therefore the children of Israel [including the Israel of God, Galatians 6:16, Jacob’s spiritual family that includes us, brothers and sisters] shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.
As Richard differentiated cultural Christians from spiritual Christians, Paul likewise differentiated cultural Jews from spiritual Jews, another designation for people who follow the Way, for, as Jesus told the woman at the well, “salvation is of the Jews” (John 4: 22). Hold your finger here in Exodus, and we are going to turn over Romans 2:28-29.
Romans 2:28-29 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
The Amplified Bible adds a few more salient details: “For he is not a [real] Jew who is one outwardly, nor is [true] circumcision something external and physical. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and [true] circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by [the fulfillment of] the letter [of the Law]. His praise is not from men, but from God.”
Remember, as Jesus reminded His disciples then and now, that their righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees to enter the Kingdom of Heaven (referring to Matthew 5:20). The Amplified Bible renders this passage: “For I say to you that unless your righteousness (uprightness, moral essence) is more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Let us go back to where you bookmarked Exodus 31:16. The English Standard Version renders Exodus 31:16: “Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever.” Tragically, according to Lifeway Research, the vast majority (over 77% of the world’s Christian professing churches) have chosen the venerable day of the sun as their day of rest, obviously rejecting the day God hallowed from creation, while most of the professing Sabbatarians (5% of the total mix), have also discarded the annual Sabbaths and holy days identified in Leviticus 23, what we have come to know as God’s master plan for the future of which most of the inhabitants of the world are in total ignorance.
The Eastern Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholic Church, and its multiple Protestant daughters have all rejected the day God sanctified as the Sabbath and have embraced the venerable day of the sun, a day faithfully worshipped by all pagan cultures of the world, including Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome, venerating Ra, Isis, Osiris, Mithras, Hercules, Apollo, and Jupiter—all the heathen gods of the sun.
In his insightful and informative article “The Day of the Sun,” published in the Sabbath Truth blog, Joe Crews exclaims,
So from antiquity Sunday has been held as a day of worship. Paganism was firmly entrenched in worshipping the sun on Sunday when Christ came to earth. When the gospel from Judea came to our own ancestors in Europe, it found them paying homage to the sun on the first day of the week. As the Spirit of God, manifested in Christ, began to work on the hearts of men, many left the worship of Apollo the sun god and were drawn to the Israel of God. After Christ’s return to heaven, the great majority were still pagans, worshiping the sun on Sunday, while the genuinely converted followers of Jesus worshiped God on the true Sabbath, the seventh day, as God’s chosen saints [including those in this room] continue to do to this very day.
Christ perpetually referred to His followers as a tiny flock seeking the narrow path, as we read in Luke 12:32, “Do not fear little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Consider that throughout the pages of the Scriptures, moreover throughout the entirety of history, truth has seldom, perhaps never, been in the majority.
Our patriarch Noah was in the minority in his day, but he was, nevertheless, unequivocally right as he alone, of all the world’s population, found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Father Abraham was also clearly in the minority throughout his entire spiritual trek, but nevertheless became the close, intimate “friend of God.”
Israel, or the offspring of Jacob, was a tiny fledgling minority, but were designated as God’s chosen nation. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was one lone person against a whole nation, for “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11). Consequently, we cannot ever expect that seventh day Sabbath keepers will ever be in the majority any time in our lifetime until the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when we, as His resurrected glorified saints, will begin to teach our clients in the millennial Sabbath how to properly keep the weekly seventh day Sabbath and the annual Sabbaths outlining the master plan of Almighty God.
When we look at our neighbors sincerely and devotedly keeping the venerable day of the sun, we can only conclude that they have assimilated into the Babylonian culture, which will ultimately exterminate and destroy them unless Almighty God extends His John 6:44 calling which we have been given. We must guard this precious calling with every fiber of our being lest we too assimilate into Babylon.
Ezekiel 20:12 “Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them.”
The Amplified Bible adds the following salient details: “Also I gave them My Sabbaths to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know [without any doubt] that I am the LORD who sanctifies them [separates and sets them apart]” from the reprobate religion currently destroying the entire world, but especially on the governments of Jacob’s offspring—Britain, America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, brother Judah’s postage stamp domicile the state of Israel, and several nations of northwestern Europe—all particularly culpable and vulnerable because they were originally entrusted with instructing the world by their example how to live by God’s holy and spiritual law.
Amos 3:2 “You only have I known of all the families on the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.”
The Amplified Bible edition adds additional insight: “I have known [chosen, cared for, and loved] only you of all the families of the earth; therefore, I shall punish you for all your wickedness.” But sadly, the offspring of Jacob around the world have waxed far worse that any of the Gentiles showing contempt for God’s holy laws on the sanctity of life, the sanctification of marriage and the family, replacing these moral laws with homosexuality, sodomy, infanticide, and sexual mutilation of minors—a disgusting display of reprobate religion among peoples who should have known better.
I believe this vile display of immorality stems from a clear cause-and-effect relationship resulting from organizations and fellowships hypocritically bearing the name Christian, who nevertheless have rejected with scorn and impunity God’s Sabbath, leading to a predictable and irreversible erosion of all the rest of the nine commandments outlawing murder, adultery, fornication, stealing, and lying.
The Roman Catholic Church and her Protestant daughters rejected the seventh day Sabbath, the day on which Almighty God regularly instructs His chosen saints how to keep His holy law in spirit and truth. After the test commandment was denigrated and destroyed, predictably and automatically all the rest of the Ten Commandments have been systematically polluted and defiled as God gave them over to a reprobate mind for despising His holy and spiritual laws (referring, of course, to Romans 1:28).
Martin Luther called James an epistle of straw. Well, Dave Maas, after the manner or technique of Rumpelstiltskin, intends to spin this discarded straw into pure gold.
James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.
The Amplified Classic edition renders the passage: “For whoever keeps the Law [as a] whole but stumbles and offends in one [single instance] has become guilty of [breaking] all of it.”
Matthew 5:17-19 “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away [has that event happened yet?] one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of the commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Let us enlarge upon this in the Amplified Classic edition:
Matthew 5:17-19 (AMP) “Do not think I have come to do away with or undo the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to do away with or undo but to complete and fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until the sky and earth pass away and perish, not one little hook [identifying certain Hebrew letters] will pass from the law until all things [it foreshadows] are accomplished. Whoever then breaks or does away with or relaxes one of the least [important] of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least [important] in the kingdom of heaven, but he who practices them and teaches others to do so shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
What I personally find perplexing and highly ironic about this caution about breaking or doing away with the least of these commandments is that the Sabbath command is by far the longest of the Ten Commandments, which is protectively placed near the center of the Decalogue, which some refer to as the Keter Torah or the Crown of the Law. Yet the Sabbath command is the most vilified, most hated command on the face of the earth, with Protestant commentaries claiming that it is part of the harsh Jewish Old Testament law which was nailed to the cross, replaced by grace and no works lest we try to earn our salvation—a disgusting antinomian non sequitur red herring.
As God’s called-out ones, we need to be aware that only Almighty God has the prerogative of hallowing or sanctifying, something individual human beings such as Emperor Constantine or human institutions such as the Roman Catholic Church are never permitted to do and never will be permitted to do.
The first mention of the Sabbath had nothing to do with any Jewish or Mosaic law but had its origin at the glorious week of Creation, well before the fall of man or well before the very first Jew was ever born—a universal law designed for all of mankind rather than any tribal or ethnic custom or observance.
Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it and He rested from all His work which God created and made.
The Amplified Classic edition adds some additional details: “So the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts (inhabitants). And by the seventh day God completed His work which He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it [as His own, that is, set apart as holy from other days], because in it, He rested from all His work which He had created and done.” Thousands of years later this Sabbath command was reiterated at Mount Sinai. Let us see this in Exodus 20.
Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.”
Let us shine the Lockman Foundation searchlight, namely the Amplified Bible edition, on this same passage,
Exodus 20:8-11 (AMP) Remember the Sabbath (seventh) day to keep it holy (set apart, dedicated to God). Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a Sabbath [a day of rest dedicated] to the LORD your God: on that day you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, or your male servant, or your livestock or the temporary resident (foreigner) who stays within your city gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and everything that is in them, and He rested (ceased) on the seventh day. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy and made it holy [that is, set it apart for His purposes].
We notice that Moses uses both cardinal numbers (quantifying or counting) such as six days, two eggs over easy, or two slices of sour dough toast smeared with butter, but also for ordering or placing in a sequence such as the third planet from the sun, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, or the seventh day, permanently etched on many of the world’s calendars—such as Sa’bado in Spanish, Sabato in Italian and Greek or Subota in Russian and Serbian, Sobota in Polish and Czech, Sombot in Hungarian or Sumbata in Romanian-all synonymous with the Sabbath or the seventh day of the week.
Clifford Goldstein, in his July 15, 2024 article, “Why So Many Christians Reject the Sabbath,” subtitled “Oblivious to the Obvious,” stated, “Thousands of years later after the Creation week, Scripture reiterates, Remember, remember, remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, six days [cardinal numbers] you shall labor and do all your work. . . , for in six days [cardinal numbers again] the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day [ordinal number denoting a position in a progression or sequence.] Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8-11).
The imperative, the command to remember, refers to what they already knew: the sacredness of the seventh day, sanctified and made holy millennia earlier (Genesis 2:1-3) and now reiterated in the fourth commandment (not some brand-new ordinance concocted by Moses out of whole cloth applicable only to the Jews but instead a universal command to all of mankind, designed to be kept forever by all of God’s created beings).
Now turn to Exodus 16:4-5, an incident which occurred well before the children of Israel received the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. We see that God gave the Sabbath to test our ancestors as He continues to test us as the Galatians 6:16 Israel of God to determine whether they would walk in His righteous, spiritual, and holy law.
Exodus 16:4-5 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law [which obviously includes the fourth commandment] or not. And it shall be on the sixth day [another ordinal number denoting a fixed point in a sequence] that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.”
Clifford Goldstein, in his article, claims that the children of Israel already had prior knowledge of God’s holy and spiritual law before Mount Sinai, and “whatever that law included, it certainly included the seventh-day Sabbath, because that was the immediate test recorded in Exodus 16:4-6.” In verse 29, we read,
Exodus 16:29 “See! For the LORD has given you the Sabbath, therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”
The weekly Sabbath has been perpetually the test commandment for the both the physical and spiritual children of Jacob, namely the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16), an entity which includes all of us, those of us here at this Feast, rehearsing the details of the wonderful World Tomorrow—the glorious renewal of the Edenic paradise at the end of this age.
Throughout the preceding centuries and up to this very day, many have been called, but relatively few have been chosen (Matthew 22:14). The overwhelming majority of so-called professing Christians have rejected God’s Sabbath day because they have allowed themselves to become assimilated into the pagan religious practices of the Babylonish system, rejecting God’s master plan revealed throughout His weekly and annual Sabbaths, including the Feast of Tabernacles, which we are now at the half point. We, as God’s chosen saints, must assiduously cling to and keep as our Lord and Savior has taught us to do as a perpetual sign between us, guarding our spiritual identity.
In his sermon on the “Fourth Commandment, Part One,” John Ritenbaugh writes,
An interesting and significant term is used in Exodus 31:13,17: The Sabbath is a sign, not a mark. Bible usage shows that a sign is something voluntarily accepted , whereas a mark is placed on a person against his will. The Sabbath is a special sign of a special covenant between God and His people.
Even those who have not been called or have not accepted the full counsel of God have nevertheless been blessed by Sabbath keeping. Of all of Jacob’s physical children, only the offspring of Judah have retained their national identity and have also appropriated the family name Israel. The rest of Jacob’s children (save for the called-out Israel of God, Galatians 6:16, which includes all of us brothers and sisters) have entirely lost their identity. Hebrew essayist Ahad Ha Am, writing more than 100 years ago, stated: “More than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews.”
Lorie Johnson, in her article “Secrets to Longevity Revealed in Denomination’s Lifestyle,” reports,
It’s no surprise Seventh Day Adventists live an average of 10 years longer than most Americans. Every week, beginning with sundown on Friday, they rest for an entire day. This allows them to recuperate from the week and recharge for the one ahead. They also use it to spend time with friends, family, and God.
In her February 15, 2018 Time Magazine article, “Five Places Where People Live the Longest and Healthiest Lives” (the so-called Blue Zones where the most centenarians live—including Sardinia, Italy; Okinawa, Japan; Nicoya, Costa Rica; and Icaria, Greece), Jamie Ducharme identifies Loma Linda, California as the only Blue Zone in the United States as it is a haven for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a Protestant denomination. A shared set of principles, emphasis on community and adherence to the Sabbath, a day of rest, reflection, and recharging, help Loma Linda Adventists to live longer than their fellow Americans.
In his insightful and informative article, “The Day of the Sun” appearing on the Sabbath Truth blog, Joe Crews proclaims that
Calendar experts can’t explain division into seven-day cycles, [stating that], one of the strangest omissions in our modern life revolved around the calendar which hangs on the wall at your house and mine. Astronomy can supply most of the answers relating to the measurement of time, even when it touches the earliest years of human history. But even the calendar experts can give us no scientific reason for the division of time into seven-day weekly cycles. Neither the stars, planets nor the sun seem to provide any logical clues as to this arrangement of time. The days and months are based on predictable laws of planetary movements, but why does our calendar today count days off in units of seven?
The stark no-nonsense answer is that Almighty God is the sole Author of the calendar week of seven days. The Scriptures state emphatically that Almighty God created the world in seven sequential days and established a divine command for all time to come—that humankind should reckon time by weeks.
Let us review Exodus 20:8-11, again focusing on the principle of the fourth commandment, the longest commandment—the test commandment of both ancient Israel and the Israel of God. I will read this to you from the Amplified Classic edition:
Exodus 20:8-11 (AMP) [Earnestly] remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (withdrawn from common employment and dedicated to God). Six days you shall labor and do your work, But the seventh say is a Sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your domestic animals, or the sojourner within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. That is why the Lord [not the Emperor Constantine], blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it [ set apart for His purposes].
Joe Crews admonishes all Sabbath keepers to notice that God himself is the sole Author of the calendar week of even days. It has passed down to us from time immemorial and was included in the most ancient forms of calendars, regardless of race or language. Consequently, there can be little question that we are dealing with an arrangement which the Creator established in the very beginning of human history, and the most amazing thing is that no time has been lost since the great God gave His command about keeping the seventh day Sabbath in honor of creation.
Incidentally, you might want to avail yourself of the PDF booklet, “Has Time Been Lost?” by Herbert W. Armstrong, available on the Herbert W. Armstrong virtual library on the Internet (as well as www.cgg.org), discussing this topic in detail. We can be thankful that miraculously the same seven-day weekly cycle has been preserved through the ages so that all of humanity can enjoy the spiritual blessing infused into the seventh day at the beginning of Creation, a blessing which includes liberation from the bondage of sin, joy, and a profound peace that passes all understanding.
Crews, in his informative article,
The Day of the Sun,” states, “Today there is no serious question from either clergy or layman as to which day the seventh day really is. Astronomers assure us that the seventh day today is the same seventh day which Jesus kept when He was here over 1,900 years ago, when He proclaimed Himself the LORD of the Sabbath, taking His rightful place as the One who gave this law of the, instructing His disciples, then and now, how to keep it in the spirit—thereby magnifying the Law exponentially, assuring us that the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Why then do the majority of professing Christians break the commandment of God by refusing to keep the Sabbath He ordained, blessed, and sanctified? The seventh day, or Saturday, has been turned into a day of labor and commerce by the governments ruled by the children of Jacob, in direct violation of the law written by the very finger of God on Mount Sinai.
Crews, in frustration exclaims,
Surely every believer knows that the Creator rested on the seventh day and hallowed it as the Sabbath. And all know that the fourth commandment enjoins the observance of the seventh day Sabbath. All genuine followers of Christ know that He never kept any day than the Sabbath day.
If we search the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, we find no record of any change from the seventh day to the first day, reflecting the Creator’s assurance in (Malachi 3:6), “I am the LORD, I change not.” Or as our Lord and Savior declares “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one jot or tittle of the law to fail” (Luke 16:17). Look around you, brothers and sisters. I guess we could conclude that since heaven and earth are still standing, the fourth and longest precept of that law must still be obligatory.
How did we get into the bizarre situation in which the majority of Christian professing churches have out-paganed the pagan culture, in which the wishes of Merry Semiramis and Happy Nimrod resound throughout their holidays?
In the article, “Why do Christians Worship on Sunday not Saturday?” published in Bibleinfo.com, we learn that the apostolic church kept the seventh day Sabbath for the first 300 years. The author of this article, having apparently a positive opinion of Sunday keeping, suggests that the early believers, because they were branded as criminals, allegedly found it convenient to let the Roman authorities think of them as Jews, and especially tried to hide behind the Jews regarding the Sabbath day, allegedly helping these early believers to gain legitimacy with the Roman government.
But when the Jews rebelled against Rome in 70 AD, according to this author, “Some Christians in the early century tried to distance themselves from Judaism by observing Sunday.” I sincerely doubt that those receiving the genuine John 6:44 calling from the Father would ever compromise on God’s holy and spiritual law. But the apostle Paul discusses a massive great apostasy in his warning of the mystery of lawlessness (a hatred for God’s commandments), the man of sin, and a great falling away in II Thessalonians 2. Let us turn there please.
II Thessalonians 2:1-4 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter [or email or social media], as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
II Thessalonians 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
Paul, of course refers to the prophecy of Daniel 7:25 which warns of a man of sin who will wear out the saints, seeking to change times and the law. Let us look at that.
Daniel 7:25 He shall speak pompous words against the Most High, shall persecute the saints of the Most High, and shall intend to change times and law. Then the saints shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time.
Early in the fourth century, as recorded in Gibbon’s, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 20, the highly ambitious Romans adopt Christianity as a matter of political advantage. Constantine may have been to prototype of what Richard described in his opening message as a “Cultural Christian.”
The general, to be sure, cared no more for Jesus Christ and His teachings than Genghis Kahn or Attila the Hun, observed that since considerably more than half the people worship on Sunday, namely the pagans, he concocted an idea for fusing or merging the two factions by convincing the professed Christians that they could increase their power and membership by adopting Sunday instead of the seventh day Sabbath. Consequently, on March 7, 321 AD he issued a civil decree making Sunday a day of rest from labor, stating that all judges and city people and the craftsmen shall rest on the venerable day of the sun. This edict of Constantine was consequently the first law, human or divine, establishing Sunday as the day of sacred rest.
Following the leadership of Emperor Constantine, the Roman papacy at the Council of Laodicea in 364 AD passed a law condemning the Judaizing practice of resting on Saturday, transferring it to Sunday, stating “Christians shall not Judaize and be idle on Saturday but shall work on that day; but the Lord’s day they shall especially honour, and, as being Christians, shall if possible, do no work on that day. If, however, they are found Judaizing, they shall be shut out from Christ.” Eusebius, a noted Roman Catholic bishop, stated, “All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s day.” Consequently, we understand that a human hand rather than a divine highjacked the correct day of the Sabbath, and finally the Council of Laodicea crushed the God-ordained Sabbath, or at least they thought they had.
When the churches of the world rejected the weekly seventh day Sabbath, they deprived themselves from the knowledge of God’s master plan for mankind, they deprived themselves from the knowledge of the annual Sabbaths outlining the plan of God for all of mankind, they deprived themselves knowledge of the land Sabbaths occurring every seven years and the Jubilee year occurring every 50 years (a multiple of seven land Sabbath years), in which the Israelites would observe a Jubilee Year, the land would rest, debts would be forgiven, and slaves would be freed. The previous owner would receive his land back, thereby keeping it in the family.
When the churches of the world rejected God’s ordained seventh day Sabbath, they lost sight of God’s signature, the repeatable pattern of the recurring number seven, which can be seen in astronomy, geology, physics, genetics, and all other sciences, which are merely alternate expositions of the mind of God eternally present before the foundation of the world.
God's perennial leitmotif, the recurring seven, analogized by the ascending seven note musical scale, is embedded throughout Scripture, beginning with the seven days of Creation (with a 24/7 cycle beginning in Genesis 1;14) and the weekly Sabbath, the appointed times outlined in Leviticus 23, including the Passover, Days of Unleavened Bread, the counting for Pentecost, the Feast of Trumpets, Atonement, the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Eighth Day which highlights a new level of responsibility for God’s resurrected and glorified saints, as well as the embedded patterns of seven revealed in the gematria of the Hebrew and Greek texts.
The Bible itself has a seven-part division with 22 books (using the Jewish numbering) in the Old Testament, containing the law, prophets, and writings, and 27 books in the New Testament, containing the Gospels, history, letters, and prophecy, adding up to 49, or 7 times 7. If we number the five books of the Psalms individually, we have 70 rather than 66 books. God's called-out ones, by keeping the seventh say Sabbath, have been metaphorically plucking a harp of seven strings on a weekly basis since their calling, every year rehearsing God's appointed holy says, spiraling and ascending continually to a higher level of understanding. The new song sung by the 144,000 will likely be based on existing spiritual motifs and scales practiced throughout the sanctification process, motifs to which the rest of the world is oblivious.
We are going to look at a number of related scriptures, from which I plan to string together or weave a theme, leading to the specific purpose or thesis. I will be using the Lockman Foundation’s Amplified Bible for all the scriptures cited. The first scripture is Psalm 49:4, a rather cryptic verse which we will see to be highly significant later in this message:
Psalm 49:4 (AMP) I will incline my ear and consent to a proverb; on the lyre I will unfold my riddle.
A lyre, incidentally, is a small harp originating in the 7th century BC, having seven strings. This psalm was embossed upon a book Fred Coulter sent me titled, The Music of the Appointed Times by Dwight Blevins, a physicist, mathematician, musician, harp maker, and Bible scholar. Initially, I found this book extremely daunting, loaded to the gills with mathematical or statistical calculations, esoteric scientific terms, and technical language. I left the book on my coffee table for several weeks until after downloading Physics for Dummies to help me comprehend.
Proverbs 8:23-30 (AMP) From everlasting I was established and ordained, from the beginning, before the earth existed, [I, godly wisdom, existed]. When there were no ocean depths I was born, when there were no fountains and springs overflowing with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was born; while He had not yet made the earth and the fields, or the first of the dust of the earth. When He established the heavens, I [Wisdom] was there; when He drew a circle upon the face of the deep, when He made firm the skies above, when the fountains and springs of the deep became fixed and strong, when He set for the sea its boundary so that the waters would not transgress [the boundaries set by] His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth—then I was beside Him, as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight; rejoicing before Him always.
What we learn from this colorful poetic language is that before any orbs started to spin in the heavens, the laws of physics, acoustics, music, arithmetic, mathematics, including the seven ascending tones of the diatonic scale (personified as wisdom), already existed in the mind of God.
Dwight Blevins suggests that
We can agree that while heaven (astronomy) and earth may pass away, but the mathematics of time, which also forms music and her rhythms, remains. This is because music and her patterns of rhythm are embodied within the emotion and make up God’s inner being. These attributes of His Spirit, which include music, pre-existed all manifestations of the physical creation.
Yes, we can agree with the Deists that God is a mechanic, but He is also an engineer, a mathematician, a physicist, a zoologist, a chemist, a botanist, a farmer, a gardener, a lover, and a musician.
Romans 1:20-21 (AMP) For ever since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through His workmanship [all His creation, the wonderful things that He has made], so that they [who fail to believe and trust in Him] are without excuse and without defense. For even though they knew God [as the Creator], they did not honor Him as God or give thanks [for His wondrous creation]. On the contrary, they became worthless in their thinking [godless, with pointless reasonings, and silly speculations], and their foolish heart was darkened.
DFM/jjm/drm