Tag Archives: Sabbath

Is “The Lord’s Day” a Proof of Sunday Observance?

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Revelation 1:10, The Lord’s Day. This verse is one of the cliche biblical passages that mainstream church scholars use to “prove” Sunday’s replacement of the Sabbath. The problem with this position is that there’s no clear scriptural proof that the apostles ever changed the Sabbath to Sunday. What’s more, to view this passage as referring to Sunday is to take a phrase the early church fathers used as a euphemism for Sunday when pushing for Sunday in place of Sabbath observance and to retroactively apply this meaning to John’s use of the phrase. Frankly, it is biased and dishonest scholarship to take the phrase “the Lord’s day” with its second century colloquial meaning and then to back-apply this meaning to John’s use of the phrase when there’s no reason to believe this was John’s intended meaning.

Alternatively, the phrase, “the Lord’s day, can be a reference to the biblical term “the day of the Lord’s wrath” when YHVH, in the end times, will judge the nations for their wickedness. This is a point that several biblical scholars have made (see From Sabbath to Sunday, by Samuele Bacchiochi, p. 111; E. W. Bullinger’s Companion Bible footnote on Rev 1:10; The Jewish New Testament Commentary on this verse, p. 791, by David Sterns).

There is actually more scriptural proof that the phrase “the day of the Lord” is a reference to the seventh day Sabbath than to the first the week. In Isaiah 58:13, the prophet YHVH refers to the Sabbath as “my holy day…the holy day of the Lord.” So conceivably, it could have been on the Sabbath day itself that John received his vision on the island of Patmos about that great and terrible day of YHVH’s wrath that is to come on the earth just prior to the Messiah’s second coming. 

 

The Sabbath: Physical and Spiritual Rest

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Hebrews 4:9–10, Rest. The Greek word sabbatismos means “a keeping of the Sabbath” and is derived from the Hebrew word sabbaton meaning “the seventh day or Sabbath.” It is  derived from the Hebrew word shabbat meaning “sabbath,” which originates from the root verb shabat meaning “to cease, desist, rest.”

Those who have entered into the Sabbath rest do so by following the example of YHVH the Creator who not only rested spiritually, but literally rested on the seventh day after the creation. He set this as an example for man to follow.

Some people see this verse in Hebrews only as a mandate to rest from their spiritual works by putting their faith in Yeshua. This is only partial rest. We must follow the example of YHVH who literally rested on the seventh day as well. Yeshua was YHVH the Creator (Heb 1:10; John 1:3, 10). He kept the Sabbath as YHVH the Creator, and as Yeshua the Messiah. (If Yeshua didn’t keep the Sabbath, then he was a sinner in that he violated the law, and is not our perfect, sin-free Savior! And if he kept the Sabbath, and he did, we are to imitate him as his obedient disciples and imitators by doing what he did. See 1 Cor 11:1.)

When we rest both physically and spiritually, we’re walking out a higher level of truth by walking out both the letter and the spirit of the law as Yeshua taught us to do in his Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:17–48), and as such, we’ve positioned ourselves before YHVH to receive more divine revelation from him. In other words, the more we obey him faithfully in love, the more truth he can entrust us with for safekeeping, for he knows we won’t take for granted or trample his precious truth nuggets. To those who are faithful in much, YHVH gives more. That’s how it works in his spiritual economy.

You see, the Jews keep the physical Sabbath, but have missed the revelation of spiritual rest in Yeshua, while the mainstream Christians have rejected the physical Sabbath rest but accepted the spiritual rest in the Messiah. Both sides have half the truth. Let’s put the two halves together and walk out the full truth!

Keeping the seventh day Sabbath with this fuller understanding is another way of connecting the gospel message to its Hebraic, pro-Torah roots.

 

The Fall Biblical Feasts Are Coming…Are You Ready to Celebrate Them?

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Deuteronomy 16:1ff, Keeping the biblical feasts. How important are YHVH’s feast days (annual set-apart times or moedim) to you? The Israelites and first-century Messianic believers planned their entire year’s schedule around them. That’s how important YHVH’s annual festivals were to them. Do we travel halfway across the country to take a vacation or to go to a conference, and yet do not set apart the time to obey YHVH’s voice by keeping his appointed times? Do we let our jobs, school or other secular activities dictate how and whether we keep the feasts or not? If so, what does this say about the status of our spiritual priorities? What does Elohim think about our excuses about why we can’t keep his feasts has he has commanded us to do? 

The feast days are the skeletal framework of YHVH’s entire plan of redemption (salvation) of Israel. One cannot in good conscience and be true to biblical truth and keep the weekly Sabbath without keeping YHVH’s annual Sabbaths. They stand or fall together. What plans are you making to keep the upcoming fall appointed times of YHVH: Yom Teruah (Day of Shouting/Trumpets), Yom Kippur (Day of Covering/Atonement), Hag HaSukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) and Shemini Atzeret (The Eighth Day)?

In the final analysis, jobs, schooling, friends and the praises and acceptance of men will all pass away, but our relationship with Elohim will determine our eternal destiny. Isn’t it time that we got serious about putting him first in our lives?

On this blog site, I have posted numerous teaching articles on both the seventh day Sabbath and on the biblical feasts. These are readily accessible by going to the main page of this blog and typing in search terms in the site’s search engine at the top right hand side of the page.

Also, on this ministry’s YouTube channel, you can find dozens of videos on the Sabbath and biblical feasts at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5EzE5DQnrHfWWbczzkRo6IOnglxhbRfM.

On this ministry’s website, you can find numerous teaching articles on the Sabbath and biblical feasts at https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/teaching.html#feast.

When are we to celebrate the biblical feasts? You can find out this info from our free downloadable online biblical calendar at https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/calendars.html.

If you want to understand the biblical calendar from the Bible itself, go to https://www.hoshanarabbah.org/teaching.html#feast.

 

Shabbat—A Day to Seek Elohim

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Numbers 28:9, On the Sabbath day. Every Sabbath YHVH required double sacrifices to be offered. This being a foundational principle, shouldn’t we spend more time seeking him on Shabbat? What types of activities should fill our Sabbath time that are of a devotional, worshipful nature?

Shouldn’t all of our Sabbath-day activities somehow point to YHVH, and in some way strengthen our walk with and ties to our Creator, and our ties to others who are of the household of faith?

Let’s not forget an important truth: Keeping Torah is not about bondage (to a legalistic set of dos and don’ts); it’s a vehicle to promote bonding (building loving relationship between man and his Creator, between man and his fellow man).

 

Shabbat Shalom from the West Coast of the USA

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Shalom aleichem from the faithful remnant warrior bride of the regathered sheep of Israel on the West Coast of the United States of America to all of our brethren scattered around the world as they love Yeshua the Messiah by keeping his commandments including observing the seventh day Sabbath.

I took these photos this erev Shabbat as the sun was going down. I could almost envision the clouds splitting at that very moment and Yeshua the Messiah returning as I viewed this stunning sunset. 

Please enjoy these pictures as my love gift to you and give glory, praise, honor and worship to YHVH Elohim, the Most High El Elyon and the Supreme and Majestic Creator of everything. Amein.

Natan Lawrence

 

The Other Side of the Sabbath Law—Thou Shalt Work Six Days!

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Exodus 16:4–30, The Sabbath. This chapter chronicles YHVH’s efforts to literally force an irreverent, unruly and disobedient nation to keep the seventh day Sabbath. He did so in a most poignant way—through food and hunger. It’s as if he were instructing the stiff-necked and rebellious Israelites that if they refused to follow his Sabbath instructions, they would literally go hungry. “If you don’t obey me, you don’t eat.” This shows the gravity the Creator places on the Sabbath command. Yet despite these clear instructions, most in the Babylonian church today, like the rebellious children of Israel of old, refuse to obey YHVH’s clear instructions regarding the Sabbath. Instead, they prefer to believe the doctrines of men proffered to them by their spiritual leaders that purport to invalidate the Sabbath command. Paul’s sage observation in Romans 8:7 describes the situation perfectly: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against Elohim: for it is not subject to the [Torah] law of Elohim, neither indeed can be.” In our day, the same question can still be asked of followers of Yeshua that YHVH asked of the Israelites at that time, “How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?” (Exod 16:28).

Not only this, but by forcing the Israelites to gather manna each day, he was teaching them to work six  days for their daily bread. Though the bread came from heaven—YHVH’s was its source—he still required the people to work each day by going out and gathering it. There is no free lunch even where YHVH is concerned. The nation of Israel wasn’t a welfare state empowering lazy freeloaders! If a man doesn’t work, he doesn’t eat.

The Sabbath command in Exodus 20 not only prescribes resting on the Sabbath, but this presupposes that one has followed the preceding command to work the previous six days. Humans are naturally inclined to laziness. If one doesn’t have to work, they won’t. YHVH works maintaining and sustaining the universe. YHVH who created humans in his image expects us to follow his example of working and then resting.

Moreover, this chapter is almost entirely dedicated to instructions pertaining to preparing for the Sabbath. This shows the priority that YHVH places on Sabbath observance for his people. Also note that these instructions are given many weeks before the official giving of the Torah (or law of Moses) at Mount Sinai. This is but one of the many examples of YHVH revealing key aspects of his Torah-law before he gave it the Israelites in one legal codified corpus at Mount Sinai.

 

Did Yeshua Break the Torah-Law?

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According to most of our English Bibles, Yeshua broke the Torah-law of Moses. For example, we read in John’s Gospel,

Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. (John 5:18, NKJV)

When the Bible says that Yeshua”broke” the law, one needs to do one’s homework and look up the word “broke” in the Greek. It is the word luo and its primary definition is “to loosen” and NOT “to violate, destroy or annul.” The Bible calls violation of the laws of Elohim a sin (e.g. 1 John 3:4). By saying that Yeshua broke the Torah, one is making Yeshua into a violator of the Torah (i.e. a sinner), and this is blasphemy. In so doing, one is using one’s faulty understanding of the Scriptures and of the original biblical languages to then justify one’s own breaking of the Torah-law. This too is sin.

It is shameful that the English translators of the Bible have used the wrong English words and have made Yeshua into a sinner in their faulty translations. Their misguided translating activities finds its roots in the anti-semitic theologies going back to the post-apostolic early church fathers, and it caters to the innate hatred for YHVH’s law that resides in the unregenerate nature of all humans as per Rom 8:7 and Jer 17:9. Those who agree with these ungodly and unbiblical doctrines of men have sadly bought into this lie because they haven’t done their homework and studied what the Bible really says in the original languages behind the English translations. This is to their shame, and, in reality, they have bought into doctrines of devils by falling prey to the devil-serpent’s lie at the tree of knowledge in the garden when he conned man into questioning and then into violating the commands of Elohim. Men continue to do the same thing down to our time.

In their haste to show that Elohim’s Torah-laws are no longer binding upon Christians today, some Christins will also point to other statements that Yeshua made in order to supposedly prove his disregard for the Torah-law. For example, these people will often cite Matthew chapter four:

At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Matt 12:1–8, NKJV)

A cursory, naive  or misinformed reading of this passage might lead one to the conclusion that Yeshua was sanctioning the violations of the laws of Elohim given to man through Moses. If this were true, then Yeshua’s statements in Matt 5:17–19 contradict his statements in Matt 12 making him into a liar. If so, he is a sinner. Elohim forbid…may this never be so! In Matt 5 Yeshua said,

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, 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 these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5:17–19)

Matthew 12:1–8 in no way indicates that Yeshua is sanctioning the violation of the Torah-law. A study of all of Yeshua’s words regarding the Torah in the Gospels will show that in every way he obeyed the Torah and upheld its validity for all people for all time. The same is true of the apostolic writers. I have written dozens of articles and made numerous videos exploring this topic and proving this point for those who are honest truth-seekers and care to become educated on this subject instead of following the traditions and doctrines of men by which the word of Elohim has been made of none effect.

In reality, Yeshua’s statements in Matthew 12 show us two things. In the case of David eating the showbread, in order to save one’s life, it is permissible to loosen the laws of Elohim in exceptional circumstances. This is analogous to the ox-in-the-ditch provision in the Torah that allows a person to work on the Sabbath by extricating an ox that has fallen into a ditch on that day and can’t get out. This is no different from now calling a tow truck on the Sabbath to tow your car after you have wrecked it or gotten stuck en route to church services.

Similarly, the biblical Sabbath laws prohibit working on the Sabbath; the Sabbath is a day of rest from one’s secular activities. However, when the Levitical priests were doing their priestly duties on the Sabbath (i.e. butchering animals and tending to the tabernacle service), YHVH didn’t consider this to be work, since they were ministering to him as he commanded. This was not secular work. This was YHVH’s work—the ministry. Unlike secular work, their work was bringing people closer to Elohim because it focused on him. This can’t said of our secular work, which we do for the primary purpose of earning a living.

Make no mistake, doing YHVH’s ministry is hard work! Praying for people, studying the Bible, writing, answering questions, ministering to people is physically, emotionally and mentally demanding and enervating! This is like the pastor who ministers to his congregation on the Sabbath. It is tiring work! For years, I pastored a local congregation. Many times, I’d much rather have stayed home and rested on the Shabbat, instead of spending eight to ten hours at the church building preaching, teaching, counseling, answering questions, ministering to people, setting up and tearing down. I was usually more tired after Shabbat services had ended then I was after working a hard day in my tree service cutting down, climbing  and pruning trees!

For those who insist that Yeshua violated Elohim’s Torah-laws, thus making him into a sinner, I have one thing to say to you: This blog will neither countenance anti-Christ nor anti-Torah statements, much less satanically inspired blasphemy against Elohim, the Messiah. The rules of my blog that are listed on the main page clearly state this.  Those who fail to follow these rules will be banned from my blog. My blog, my rules!

Finally, one thing is certain. We are in a battle for the hearts and minds of men. It’s a struggle between the lies of the Evil One who comes as an angel of light against the immutable and divinely revealed truth of Elohim. This battle is hard fought and hard won. Those of us in the trenches know it all too well!