The Scriptures tell us that things of old were recorded for us today that we would not do as those did and fall as they fell. 1 Cor.10:1-15 and Romans 15:4

The news is filled with murder, adultery, stealing and all things that are contrary to the way of life portrayed in the Scriptures. The way in the Scriptures is of love, joy, peace through the Spirit of Our Father.

Salvation or deliverance comes through believing and knowing the truth as taught in the Scripture. When we realize that we have been sinning,1 John 3:4, and repent of those sins, and then turn to the ONE who is able to forgive those sins and blot them out, then we are not under the penalty of sin/death which breaking the law requires. If we belong to the Messiah and have the Spirit of our Father and His Son dwelling with us, we can have confidence that we are His child, and heirs along with Messiah. Gal. 3:29

We are told if we have confidence that we are His and our conscious is clear, that we can know He hears us when we pray to Him and we know we have the petitions we ask, if we ask it in His Sons Name, and if it is asked according to His will.

The Scripture from Genesis to Revelations tell of the promise of Messiah and His life. It tells that He brought a message of salvation to mankind. It tells us how He taught the ones He called that message. It tells how He lived a sinless life and was willing to end His life on the stake, being our Passover Lamb. He was called the "Lamb" of YAHH(God). Rev. 4:5-6 The Scripture tells us how those He called took that message to the known world. We know from the Scripture and history that all but John died at the hand of others. Why? Because of the message they taught and the NAME of the ONE who sent them into the world as messagers.

From history we find that after the death of John, not much is heard from the ones that were taught and followed the teaching of Messiah. It could very well be called an "age of shadows". It is as though a curtain was hung that would not allow the "light" to pass. After about two hundred years the "church" that emerged was much different than the one in the days of those that were taught by Messiah.

The Scripture tells us 1 John 5:19 that the whole world is ruled by the adversary Satan, and that he has many deceiving teachers. In John 15: Messiah says that those who follow Him will not take part in the inherently evil that is in this world.

Even with all our learning, and all our "churches" the fact remains we are in a world that is not of our Fathers desire, nor does it follow after His truth. Despite all our learning, all our knowledge, this world is groping around in "spiritual darkness" and "inherited religious superstition".

The seventh day was created just as the other things of the creation were done. Most of the creation was spoken into being. Genesis 1: Man and woman were the formed, made, as were the animals, the other were spoken into existence. Genesis 2: 2-3 tells us of the creation of the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. "The seventh day Elohim (God) had finished the work He had been doing,so on the seventh day He rested from His work. And Elohim (God) blessed the seventh day and made it holy (holy-from the Hebrew "Qados" primary meaning "dedicated"), because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done". The fourth commandment says "remember" the Sabbath day, it tells us when it was done, and adds how we are to remember it, by not doing our own things on that day.

Mark 2:27-28 "The Sabbath was made (created) for man, not man for the Sabbath, and the Son of Man is the Master of the Sabbath". He was the ONE that was the Creator of all. Colossians 1:16 so as the Creator He would be also the Master (Adonay the Supreme Authority).

1 John 3:4 "Everyone who sins breaks the law, for sin is lawlessness".
John 14:15 "If you love Me keep My Commandments".
You can search the Scripture from now on and never find a place where we as the Fathers children are supposed to come before Him and rest on any day other than the seventh day. You will not find a text that says the "first day" was ever made as a day of rest.

When we think about the days as they are talked of in the Scripture, we must remember that they started and ended at the setting of the sun. The Scripture says in Genesis 1 that it was evening and then came morning. So when we read about the first day of the week it begins at the going down of the sun or at the evening and end of the seventh day.

The days were numbered and had no name, except for the seventh which was also called the Sabbath.

The term "first day of the week" is used eight times in the New Testament.

The first usage in in Matthew 28:1 The Gospel of Matthew was written about twenty years after the resurrection of Messiah, the seventh day was still regarded as the Sabbath. The event here is not a religious service. A better translation would be "now late on the Sabbath as it was getting dark toward the first day of the week".

The second usage is in regard to the same event, Mark 16:1-2. Mark was a young lad at the time of the death of Messiah, Mark 14:51-52. "And when the Sabbath was past" ---- the women went to the tomb----- "early the first day of the week" No religious service.

The third usage is in Mark 16:9 "having risen early the first day of the week" early the first day could have been after dark at the end of the Sabbath. No religious service

The fourth usage Luke 24:1 " now upon the first day of the week early in the morning, they came to the sepulchre, bring the spices which they had prepared" No religious service, they were going to be working.

We also need to remember that Luke was a Gentile and it is not recorded when he became one of the followers of Yahshua. He could have been present during the years of Yahshua's teaching or he could have been called much latter. The first reference of him is with Paul and this was twenty or more years after the return of Yahshua to His place with His Father.

The fifth usage, John 20:1 "And early on the first day of the week" the women can early to the tomb, "while it was still dark". No religious service.

The sixth usage, John 20:19 this find the disciples gather together "for fear of the Jews". They still did not know Yahshua/Jesus had arose form the tomb. This was not a religious service, and there is nothing to indicate a change from the seventh day to the first day for worship.

The seventh usage, Acts 20:6-14 Here Paul was at Troas, he was to depart the next morning. They met and had a meal, (ate supper) Paul then spoke to those present and spoke until mid-night. At that time a youth fell out of a window, Paul went down and fell on him and prayed for him and he did not die. Then Paul went in they ate again and Paul continued to teach them until daylight, sun up on the first day of the week. He then left, walking about sixteen or seventeen miles to the coast to the boat that carried him away. A religious service, all night after the Sabbath had ended, then left at sun up to teach at yet another place.

The eighth usage, 1 Corinthians 16:1-4 This event relates to a collection of goods taken up for the saints suffering from a drought in Jerusalem. This was not a religious service.

None of these texts indicate a change from the seventh day to the first day, In fact we read repeatedly of those teaching the message of salvation doing so on the Sabbath as was their custom, to both Jews and to the nations.

The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and terrible "day of the Lord". Acts 2:20

For you yourselves know very well that the "day of the Lord" come as a thief in the night. 1 Thess. 5:2

Do not be quickly shaken in mind nor excited either by spirit or by word or by letter purporting to be from us, to the effect that the "day of the Lord" has come. 2 Thess. 2:2

You are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the "day of the Lord". 1 Cor. 5:3

But the "day of the Lord" will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth and also the works that are there in shall be burned up. 2 Peter 3:10 & 12

I was in the spirit on the "Lord's day". Rev. 1:10

Some want to apply this verse and term to the first day and call it the "christian day of worship.

But this can not be! These two terms have the same meaning, and refer to the return of Yahshua to rule and reign for a thousand years. All Bible helps that I have say that both terms are referring to the same time.

He has fixed a day on which He shall judge the world in righteousness by One whom He appointed, and of this He has given assurance to all men by raising Him from the dead. Acts 17:31

After this I looked and lo in heaven an open door, and the first voice which I heard speaking to me like a trumpet, "Come up here and I will show you what must take place after this" Rev. 4:1-2

John was allowed to live a long life and die a natural death the only one of the twelve to do so. He had a mission to complete in his old age. That mission was to record the words of warning we have today in the book of Revelation. This is one of two places in the Scripture where we are warned to not add to nor take from what is written.

It was well into the second century before there was a falling away from the Sabbath. And it was not until the third century that worship on the first day became the main day of worship in the Roman Empire, the Roman day.

Matthew 24:20 "Pray that your flight is not in the winter nor on the Sabbath day".

Isaiah 66:22-23 "For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make stand before Me, declares Elohim (God) so shall your seed and your name stand. And it shall be that from new moon to new moon and from Sabbath to Sabbath all flesh shall come to worship before Me, declares Elohim(God)

Phillip Carrington, Episcopal Bishop The Scripture say on the seventh day you shall rest. That is what we call saturday. Not anywhere is it laid down that worship should be done on sunday.

Isaac Williams, Anglican Where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the "first day". We are commanded to keep the seventh; but not anywhere are we commanded to keep the "first day". The reason we keep the "first day" instead of the seventh is for the same reason we observe many other things, not because of the Bible, but because of the traditions of the church.

E. T. Hixcox, Baptist There was and is a command to keep the Sabbath Day, but that day is not sunday. It has been said that the Sabbath was transferred from the seventh day to the first day of the week, with all its duties and privileges. Desiring information on this subject, which I have studied for many years, I ask where can a record of such a change be found? Not in the New Testament, NO, absoulutely not!! I wish to say that this Sabbath question is most preplexing. The only reason that it is not a more disturbing element is "christian" thought and discussion, is because the "christian" world has settled down content on the conviction that a transfer did take place at the beginning of "christian" history. Of course I know quite well that sunday did come into use early in history as a religious day. What a pity it comes branded with the mark of paganism, and christened with the name of the sun god, then adopted by the papal apostasy and bequeathed as a sacred legacy to protestanism.

Dwight L. Moody, Evangelist I honestly believe that the commandment, the fourth, is just as binding today as ever. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abolished, but they have never been able to point to a place in the Bible where it has been repealed. Messiah did not set it aside. He did free it from the traditions of the scribes and pharisees. The Sabbath was binding at Eden, and it has been in force ever since. The fourth command begins with the word "remember" showing the Sabbath already existed when Elohim (God) wrote His law on the tables of stone. How can man claim that this one command is done away and admit the other nine are still binding.

Thomas Enright, Catholic Priest Quote from the American Sentinel, a New York Roman Catholic Journal. "By the Roman churches own admission, she by her authority changed the day of "her" worship from the seventh day to the first day of the week, the day of the sun.(many of her religious practices revolve around sun worship) You can not prove from the Bible alone that we are bound to keep "sunday" holy. There is no such command in the Bible. It is a law of the Catholic Church alone. The Bible says "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy". The Catholic Church says no, by her divine power she abolishes the Sabbath and commands you to keep the first day "sunday" the day of the "sun". What happens? The whole world bows in obedience to the command of the "Church."

Amos Binney, Methodist It is true that is no command to infant baptism, nor is there any for keeping the first day of the week. Many believe Messiah changed the Sabbath. He came for no such purpose. Those that believe this base it on supposition.

John Laux, Catholic Priest If the Scriptures alone are consulted we still would have to keep the seventh day Sabbath.

John Shea, Catholic Historian All of us believe things in regard to religion that are not found in the Bible. For example no where in the Bible do we find that Messiah nor those He taught changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first. Today most "christians" keep sunday because it has been revealed to us by the Catholic Church outside the Bible. We Catholic's then have the same authority for keeping sunday instead of saturday as we have for many other articles of our creed, the authority of the church. There is no authority for it in the Bible. The only authority for it is traditions. Catholics follow believing that the "church" to be the divinely appointed guardian and interpreter. For ages christian nations have enforced her ordinances by their laws, (blue laws) for the sanctification of sunday, by doing this acknowledge the authority of the Catholic Church. Sunday as a day of worship is a creation of the Catholic Church.

This all started back with Constantine Emperor of Rome. In the third century he issued an edict for all the Roman empire, which at that time was all the known world. This edict stated that the "first day of the week", the "venerable day of the sun" was to be set aside as a day of worship for all the Roman Empire. Any caught worshipping on the seventh day would be killed unless they were willing to change. "Foxes Book on Myrters" states that as many as fifty million Sabbath Keepers died at the hand of the Roman church from the time of the edict to the end of what was called the "dark ages". At one time a whole town was probably burned to death. As they were keeping the Sabbath they went into their building where they went to worship, at this time the Roman soldiers surrounded the building and would not let anyone out, set the building on fire, burning all inside to death.

Our Creators had a purpose from the beginning, that was to have a large family, that purpose has been the same from the beginning and will be fulfilled. It is up to each of us to be apart of this we must answer the call that has gone out. The Scriptures give us the words of life, but to have life we must obey its teachings. All of them, not just some. We must obey all the word and we can do this if we will let our selves be guided by the Spirit from above, the Spirit of Truth.

In the Masters Service
©All rights reserved Jack Bierman 6/7/1999
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