Israel and Judah Failed the Test
Back to 1The Bible’s Greatest Prophecies Unlocked!
Israel would not keep God’s Sabbath for any length of time. From time to time, they would temporarily observe it, but they always fell back into the practices of the nations around them. The following summarizes how God says Sabbath-breaking brought His wrath on disobedient Israel:
“In the day when I chose Israel…saying, I am the Lord your God…I gave them My sabbaths, to be assign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. But…Israel rebelled against Me…My Sabbaths they greatly polluted: then I said, I would pour out My fury [God’s wrath] upon them in the wilderness, to consume them…Nevertheless Mine eye spared them from destroying…But I said unto their children…hallow My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you…Notwithstanding the children rebelled against Me…they polluted My sabbaths: then I said, I would pour out My fury [His wrath] upon them, to accomplish My anger [His wrath]” (Ezek. 20:5, 12-13, 17-21).
Because of their repeated disobedience and rebellion against His government, God eventually did send Israel into captivity (by Assyria) and the Jews into captivity (by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon).
And lest any say, “Well, the Sabbath was only made for the Jews and Israel,” Christ answers, “The Sabbath was made for man … therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28).
Yes, Christ is Lord of the Sabbath, not the Lord of Sunday! The Sabbath was not made for the Jews or Israel only, it was made for MAN. It was made for all humanity—but humanity has rejected it!
Where Did “Sunday Keeping” Come From?
Since God commanded that the Sabbath be kept forever, how did Sunday keeping originate? It certainly did not come from God or His Church.
Remember, Sunday is commonly referred to as “the Lord’s Day.” While the true Lord’s Day of the Bible is actually the Day of the Lord—the Day of His Wrath (Joel 2:1-11; Rev. 1:10; 15:1, 7), the term “the Lord’s Day” has come to be synonymous with Sunday.
But why?
The reason is simple. Many have assumed to be true the unscriptural tradition that Jesus was resurrected from the tomb on Sunday. If Sunday can be established as the day that Jesus was resurrected, it can be a means of artificially validating and “authorizing” the keeping of Sunday by the churches of the world—in place of God’s true Sabbath. Then, the pagan Easter festival and celebration, with its Sunday sunrise services, also becomes much easier to establish.
Many pagan festivals, including Christmas (the Saturnalia), Easter (the festival of Ishtar) and worship on the day of the Sun, were observed throughout the Roman Empire long before Christ. The apostate church (the “woman”) simply adopted them into practice, and enforced them on all citizens in the empire through the civil government. Actually, the first one to enforce Sunday worship was not a pope or a church, but was Constantine, the emperor.
Here is what happened. At the Council of Laodicea, in AD 363, the following decree was passed: “Christians must not Judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, resting rather on Sunday. But, if any be found to be Judaizing, let them be declared anathema from Christ.”
Understand what this decree meant. When one was branded “anathema” (accursed or heretic) by the church, he was arrested by the state, tortured and, unless he recanted, this continued until death. This was enforced so strictly that people were required to rest on Sunday, and work on Saturday, in order to engage in business or hold a job. This enforcement governed their “buying and selling.”
Now briefly back to the beast and “little horn” of Daniel 7:25 sheds important light on what happened in the Roman Empire. Daniel wrote, “And he [the little horn] shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High”—now get this next point and do not misunderstand—“and think to change times and laws.”
This is a remarkable statement about how the false “woman” church sought to alter God’s law as it had to do with time. The single most obvious way has been to change the time of God’s Sabbath to the pagan sun’s day (the day long set apart by men for worship of the sun), thus altering the fourth great law of God! (More and more people today speak of Sunday as their “sabbath.”)
HOW PLAIN has been the work of this church in its efforts to “wear out the saints”!—and to speak against “the Most High”!
Is it any wonder that God will pour out His wrath without mercy on any who would dare to do these things to His Word and to His people?
God has never authorized His Church or mankind to keep the pagan Sun’s day. Nor did He ever command or allow His people to keep numerous other pagan festivals and days of worship—He has always explicitly commanded against them!
When people celebrate Sunday as the “Lord’s Day,” they unwittingly celebrate the very wrath that God will pour on them for keeping this pagan custom in place of His Sabbath! Astonishing, but true.
Exodus 20:8-11 showed that Sabbath-keeping is the Fourth Commandment! The Sabbath has always been the seventh day of the week, and God never authorized Sunday, the first day of the week. God hallowed the Sabbath at Creation. Jesus kept it (Luke 4:16). So did Paul (Acts 13:42, 44;17:2; 18:4). And so did the New Testament Church.
God has always said, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Ex. 20:8). He has never said, “Remember Sunday to keep it holy—and just call it the Lord’s day!”
Most do not realize how open are the admissions of how Sunday observance came to be. Here is a short, very simple statement from (Archbishop) James Cardinal Gibbons speaking in 1893 in The Catholic Mirror: “The Catholic Church...by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.” Here is one more candid admission from a signed letter by the same Cardinal: “Is Saturday the seventh day according to the Bible and the Ten Commandments? I answer yes. Is Sunday the first day of the week and did the Church change the seventh day—Saturday—for Sunday, the first day? I answer yes. Did Christ change the day? I answer no!”
Keeping the Sabbath as God’s command for true Christians is a big subject requiring its own large volume to explain. (My book Saturday or Sunday – Which Is the Sabbath? brings extensive and absolute proof of which day is the Christian Sabbath. It includes many more equally frank admissions by Protestant and Catholic leaders about the only day God ever sanctified in His Word. You may also read my booklet God’s Holy Days or Pagan Holidays? to learn more about God’s seven annual Sabbaths and how the false church has substituted these days with abominable, pagan, counterfeit “Christianized” festivals.)