WHICH DAY IS 

THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH?

By Herbert W. Armstrong

Does it make any difference WHICH day we observe -- or whether we keep it? Does the Bible establish SUNDAY as the LORD'S DAY? Was the Sabbath given for the Jewish people only -- while Christians are commanded to keep SUNDAY as the LORD'S DAY?

Contents

Chapter 1. BUT DOES IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?

Chapter 2. WHO MADE AND ESTABLISHED THE SABBATH?

Chapter 3. GOD -- NOT MOSES -- GAVE THE LAW

Chapter 4. A SPECIAL ETERNAL COVENANT

Chapter 5. WHICH DAY FOR GENTILE CHRISTIANS?

Chapter 6. WHY ISRAEL AND JUDAH MADE SLAVES

Chapter 7. IS SUNDAY MENTIONED IN THE NEW TESTAMENT?

Chapter 8. THE AMAZING TRUTH ABOUT CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

Chapter One

CERTAINLY MOST professing Christians accept SUNDAY as the New Testament Lord's Day. Moslems observe Friday. Some religions observe no day.

But there are those who insist the seventh-day Sabbath is still binding. Failure to keep it, they claim, is SIN -- and the punishment is DEATH for eternity!

Now that is a pretty serious claim!

Few take it seriously -- but that does not disprove or dismiss the challenge. Have YOU ever seriously looked into this question?

If someone tells me my house is on fire, I'm not going to laugh at him and refuse to take it seriously. I'm going to examine, and BE SURE! If he's wrong, then at least I shall KNOW my house is safe. I learned years ago that it can be very dangerous to carelessly ASSUME, or just take for granted. It's much wiser and safer to get all the FACTS, and then decide.

And one's LIFE for eternity is much more precious than his house.

Few realize, today, but the Sabbath vs. Sunday controversy raged during the first three centuries of the Christian era. Violence and bloodshed mounted. Millions were tortured and put to death over this question.

WHO IS RIGHT?

And, after all, does it make any difference?

Changing Times

Years ago I had to face this question. My wife said she had found, in the Bible, that Christians are bound to keep the Sabbath -- Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. I was shocked, angered. To me this was rank fanaticism. I had arguments -- plenty of them!

"You can't tell me that all these churches could be wrong!" I said in confident indignation.

I was challenged to look into this question -- to GET ALL THE FACTS! I was angered into serious research. I could not ignore the question. I had this question to live with! It had invaded my home!

Immediately when this question is raised, numerous other questions flash to mind.

Don't we have to adjust our religion to the changing times? After all, wasn't the Bible completely written some 1900 years ago? We live in a different world today! That's one argument. Yet, are we free to reason out our own religion? Are we going to render the decisions on our own fates, in the final judgment? Perhaps we'd better get the TRUTH!

Some will ask, "How can this world, as it is now organized, keep the seventh-day Sabbath? The world is geared to SUNDAY."

Or, "Suppose you're traveling on an ocean liner. Would you expect them to stop the engines and cease steaming forward at sunset Friday?"

"What about public utilities in the big cities? Electricity, water, gas. Must the police departments shut down and let criminals have a holiday?"

"Suppose the nation is at war. Should our forces stop fighting at sunset on Friday? The enemy might not see it that way!"

"But hasn't TIME been lost? How can we know whether the Saturday of today is the same day of the week as it was at creation -- or in Moses' day? Hasn't the weekly cycle gotten mixed up since creation?" That question, too, will be answered with the PROOF in this booklet.

"Anyway," one may reason in conclusion, "what possible difference can it make WHICH day, or WHETHER we observe it?"

These questions -- and more -- must be answered! And will be, in this booklet.

First of all, in a world where established, organized Christianity observes Sunday, where perhaps most people do not seriously observe any day as really sacred, HOW CAN WE KNOW?

Is there any SUPREME AUTHORITY, with the power of life and death over our eternity, with POWER to declare, and ENFORCE the right answer?

By WHAT AUTHORITY do Christians observe Sunday; Moslems, Friday; Sabbatarians, Saturday; and others, no day?

Is there any authority for observing Friday, or Sunday, or Saturday? It certainly is apparent all do not recognize the same authority.

IF There Is NO GOD!

Let me say candidly right here, that if there is no God -- if I were to leave GOD out of the picture -- then I could not see how it could possibly make any difference!

There is no way I can imagine how a man could reason out in his own mind, apart from any Supreme AUTHORITY, WHY it could make any difference which day -- or whether we observe it.

But the Almighty Creator GOD does exist! His existence is easily proved. God is emphatically IN THE PICTURE, whether a man recognizes that fact or not! That Great God has set in living, inexorable motion invisible LAWS respecting this very question. That God and those laws EXIST -- they LIVE -- they are ACTIVE! And their existence, and their action, do not depend on one man -- or all mankind -- realizing their existence.

The Almighty GOD holds the keys of life and death! By Him your fate is being determined! For all ETERNITY! And that is the reason why it does make all the difference -- for your well-being now, and for your eternity!

So first of all, we must settle once and for all, WHAT, or WHO, is the SUPREME AUTHORITY before whom we shall stand in judgment. Does such authority explain WHY it makes a difference -- and what are the consequences for disobedience or neglect?

Did you realize that there is one religious body which lays claim to being the sole infallible authority? It claims the Bible "is not a sufficient guide to heaven." It claims, through its own church leaders, that it, by its own infallible authority, substituted Sunday for the Sabbath.

This religious body offers the very fact that all Sunday-keeping people -- which includes the Western world as a whole -- have bowed down to its dictum on Sunday observance as PROOF of its absolute authority.

Some time ago one ecclesiastical authority stated that you may search the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you cannot find one line or verse authorizing Sunday observance -- that the Bible enforces the keeping holy of the seventh-day Sabbath -- and that the sole authority for Sunday observance is based on edicts of men.

The claim is that a succession of human ecclesiastical leaders has replaced the authority of Jesus Christ. This may surprise many religious people.

It is claimed that Christ turned HEADSHIP of the Church over to Peter and his successors. In plain language, that Christ "bowed out," as it were -- that men rule in place of Christ, as HEAD of the Church.

But many churchgoing people do not accept this idea of infallibility.

WHAT, then, is the TRUTH?

Have you ever stopped to really PROVE whether GOD exists? Can you actually PROVE, by irrefutable and positive PROOF, that God is Creator -- that He Rules as the SUPREME AND INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY over all His creation -- over all the universe?

Yes, you can prove that -- unless you are unwilling to accept TRUTH! We offer you that proof in the free booklet Does GOD Exist?

Can you PROVE, also, that THE HOLY BIBLE is the very authoritative WORD OF GOD -- His inspired Message and instruction Book to mankind -- the SOLE INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY, by which humanity shall be JUDGED?

Yes, you can prove that, also, unless you refuse to accept TRUTH!

Jesus Christ is the FOUNDER of the True New Testament Church of God.

WHEN Did Christ Build the Church?

But when did Christ actually found, or start God's Church -- while still a mortal human, or after His resurrection and ascension to heaven?

He merely taught HIS MESSAGE -- His GOSPEL -- to His disciples during His mortal human lifetime! But THE CHURCH OF GOD was founded -- was started -- on the day of Pentecost, 31 A.D., AFTER Christ had been resurrected, glorified, and ascended to the throne of God in heaven.

Now WHEN is Christ supposed to have "bowed out," as Head of the Church, turning headship of the Church over to men? Not after the CHURCH was founded and in being -- but before there was any Church to turn over!

Why then do church leaders reject the authority of the Scriptures -- yet attempt to ESTABLISH their authority on the authority they reject and deny -- by quoting Matthew 16:18?

Jesus had just asked His disciples whom they believed He, the Son of MAN, really was. And Peter had answered that He was the Christ -- or prophesied Messiah -- the Son of the Living GOD. Jesus had answered that no man had revealed it to him, but it had been revealed by His FATHER in heaven.

Then Jesus added: "And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter" (Greek inspired original word, Petros, meaning a stone), "and upon this rock" (Greek inspired original word, petra, meaning a ledge or shelf of rock or a crag) "I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18).

Now, since it is claimed that the ROCK on which the Church was founded refers to Peter -- and not Christ -- notice the true meaning, as originally written by Matthew. Matthew wrote in the Greek language. There was no English language then. The English versions of today are translations from the original Greek language.

Peter was also called Cephas (Greek Kephas, from the Aramaic Kepha). In John 1:40-42, is related how Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, found Peter, and brought him to Jesus. "And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone" (verse 42). The English word "stone" is translated from the Greek word petros, meaning a single stone or loose stone. Also the Greek word Kephas means such a stone, referring definitely to a human MAN.

But when Jesus said "upon this ROCK I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18), the Greek word, as written originally by Matthew, was not either Kephas or petros, but petra, which means a large massive ROCK.

"... And That Rock Was CHRIST"

Notice a few other passages where this same Greek word petra is used. In Matthew 7:24, Jesus spoke of the man who built his house on a ROCK. The Greek word is petra. Could a man build a house, so firmly it could not be blown away, on a pebble or stone? Of course not! In the next verse, Jesus said the house fell not, even though the rain came in torrents, the floods came, the winds beat upon the house in fury, BECAUSE that house was founded on a ROCK. Thus the word petra denotes bigness and solidity and strength! It is defined also as a mass of rock.

In Matthew 27:60, it is stated that the tomb in which Jesus was buried, after the crucifixion, was hewn out in the ROCK -- in the petra! This is a mass of rock, not a single stone. It was big enough to have a family tomb hewn out of it. I have seen that rock. I have walked inside that tomb! It is a very LARGE ROCK, not a tiny stone!

The Greek petra cannot mean the human Peter, but the glorified CHRIST! Speaking of the Israelites under Moses, in the wilderness, Paul writes: "... for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was CHRIST (I Cor. 10:4).

According to the Liddell-Scott Greek-English Lexicon, "There is no example, in good authors, of [petra] in the sense of [petros]." On the contrary, petros is "distinguished from" petra. In plain language, then, that petra was CHRIST -- but the smaller stone, petros, or Kephas, was Simon Peter.

That settles the question, once and for all!

CHRIST Is Head of Church!

Was Peter the head of the Church? WHAT DID PETER himself say? Peter, speaking of Christ and the Church, wrote as follows: "Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion [the Church] a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a ROCK of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed" (I Peter 2:6-8).

In the above passage Peter is speaking TO the Church. He quoted from Isaiah 28:16: "Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a SURE FOUNDATION"! This pictures CHRIST as that FOUNDATION of the Church, on which it is built. God's Church was built on the ROCK (its foundation), CHRIST -- not on the stone, Peter.

In the passage in I Peter 2, the word "stone," in each case, is translated from the Greek word lithos -- NOT petros. Lithos is defined as a stone, a millstone, a stumbling stone. The same word is used for the stones of which the Temple was built -- and also the stone that was rolled up to the door of Christ's sepulcher, higher than a man's head. The word ROCK, however, in verse 8, is translated from the Greek petra, meaning a massive stone. It pictures Christ -- not Peter -- as the HEAD of the Church.

The CHURCH is described in Ephesians 2:20 as being "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets [including Old Testament prophets], Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Here Christ is plainly said to be the CHIEF, or HEAD.

The REAL FOUNDATION of the Church is CHRIST. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 3:11).

Many teach that Christ left -- went "way off," forsook the Church -- turned its leadership over to Peter and his successors. But Jesus Himself said: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5). He is shown in Revelation 1:13, 18 to be the Living Head, spiritually in the midst of the Church.

Who does the Word of God say is the Living HEAD of the CHURCH -- Peter, an ecclesiastical leader, or CHRIST? READ IT! CHRIST is the HEAD OF THE CHURCH! (Eph. 5:23.) Read it also in Ephesians 4:15; 1:22; Colossians 1:18; 2:19.

Jesus Christ ROSE from the dead! Jesus Christ LIVES TODAY! WHY then is Christ pictured either as a helpless babe in His mother's arms, glorifying the mother even ahead of Christ -- or else hanging dead on a cross? JESUS CHRIST IS ALIVE TODAY! For more than 1900 years, He has been the Living HEAD and High Priest of the True Church, which HE built.

The AUTHORITY Is Christ!

So the True New Testament Church of God was founded by JESUS CHRIST -- not the Apostle Peter. It was the resurrected, Living Christ, AFTER HIS ascension to God's throne in Heaven, who actually founded the Church. It was on the day of Pentecost, 31 A.D. On that day, Christ, as He had promised (John 16:7), sent the Holy Spirit to enter into His disciples, thus baptizing -- or plunging them into, THE CHURCH.

The Church of God is not a building or cathedral. The word "church" comes from the Greek ekklesia, which means congregation of people. The Church of GOD consists of PEOPLE -- the begotten children of GOD. It consists of -- and only of -- those who have been begotten of God by having received His HOLY SPIRIT.

"By ONE SPIRIT are we all baptized into one body" -- the Body of Christ the True Church of God (I Cor. 12:13). The word "baptized" means plunged into -- inducted into. The receiving of God's Spirit begets one with GOD-life -- makes him partaker of "the DIVINE NATURE" (II Peter 1:4). Such are begotten children of God -- and such compose the Church of God. When actually born, immortal, by resurrection or instantaneous change to immortality at Christ's coming, this CHURCH of God will become the KINGDOM of God!

So it was JESUS CHRIST, who went to heaven, and sent God's Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, who FOUNDED the Church. The same resurrected, Living Jesus Christ, has been the HEAD of the True Church -- for more than 1900 years!

So we have found the one and ONLY infallible AUTHORITY to settle this Sabbath question, once and for all!

That SUPREME AUTHORITY is Jesus Christ, and His written Word, THE BIBLE.

EVEN SO -- What's the Difference?

But even if Jesus Christ is the Living Head of the True Church -- even if HE is the Supreme Authority to settle this question, one may still ask, "How does that concern ME? And even if it involves the SIN question, does it still make any difference?"

Most people today leave GOD out of the picture. People today take sin lightly. And as I said before, if GOD is not in the picture, then you cannot possibly see any reason why it makes any difference which day, or whether you observe it.

But GOD IS IN THE PICTURE!

True, God doesn't seem real to most people. But YOU are a creation of God! God Almighty put humanity on earth for a PURPOSE! His laws and His decrees determine your happiness, well-being and success here and now -- and your fate for eternity! When you appear at the final Judgment -- YOU won't be the Judge.

The Eternal GOD created the entire universe -- He set in motion, and sustains, and controls, every power and force and energy. He Rules His creation. And the LAWS He set in living motion determine your well-being or lack of it. Oh, yes, HE is in the picture!

And, is the SIN question involved? WHO determines what is sin -- and just what difference does it make?

Most people do not know what sin is. Some say dancing is a sin -- others say it is not. Some say smoking is a sin -- others say it is not. Different people -- different churches -- have different IDEAS.

But that could be very costly ignorance! The first thing you need to get settled in your mind is this: THE LIVING GOD OF ALL POWER DOES NOT ALLOW US TO DECIDE WHAT IS SIN. HE DETERMINES WHAT IS SIN, AND COMPELS YOU TO DECIDE WHETHER TO SIN! And the PENALTY of sin is DEATH FOR ETERNITY! That penalty is real! It is a terrifying, frightful fate!

SIN is doing what GOD SAYS is harmful and injurious to you -- and/or others! Sin is doing what deprives you of God's blessings -- peace, happiness, security, abundant and joyful living, as a condition to God's supreme gift of ETERNAL LIFE!

Yes, the Living Jesus Christ -- and the Holy Bible -- constitute the sole Supreme AUTHORITY to settle this question once and for all! The question of WHICH DAY is directly concerned with your connection with GOD! And that is directly connected with your welfare here and now, and your ETERNITY. It makes a tremendous difference to GOD!

Jesus Christ is the Living personal Word of God. And the Holy Bible is the written Word of God, by which CHRIST speaks to you! Christ is the active HEAD of the only True Church. We have found the Supreme AUTHORITY!

So now let us see what CHRIST, through the BIBLE, says about which is the day to keep in this NEW Testament era -- and whether it makes any difference.

Chapter Two

WHO MADE AND ESTABLISHED THE SABBATH?

JESUS CHRIST had considerable to say and to teach about the Sabbath, and its observance.

In Mark's Gospel we read of the beginning of His ministry, and the GOSPEL He taught. Repeatedly He said this GOSPEL came direct from God the Father -- GOD'S Message to mankind.

Mark 1:1: "The beginning of the GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST." The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a gospel from MEN about the PERSON of Christ. The GOSPEL OF CHRIST is Christ's Gospel -- the Gospel Christ preached -- the Gospel GOD SENT by Jesus for mankind!

Gospel of Kingdom

Jesus came into Galilee, after John the Baptist was thrown into prison, preaching the GOOD NEWS OF THE KINGDOM (government) OF GOD, calling on men to repent, and to believe. Yes, but to believe what? Believe this very GOSPEL which Jesus brought from God, so Jesus Himself said! (Mark 1:15.)

He called His disciples, and immediately "they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the SABBATH DAY he entered into the synagogue" (verse 21). It was Jesus' CUSTOM to attend the synagogue services on the Sabbath (Luke 4:16).

That same synagogue where Jesus attended at Capernaum lies in ruins today. I have visited it -- walked around among the fallen stones and columns and Jewish carvings.

Also the synagogue at Nazareth, mentioned in Luke 4:16, and the site on which Jesus undoubtedly had attended every Sabbath as He grew up from babyhood, remains apparently identifiable today. Most of the present structure had been restored in the second century. It has been excavated, with a stairway leading down into it. I have visited this synagogue. It brought vividly to mind the close resemblance, in size, to some of the little churches in which I preached in the early years of my ministry. It was very small -- probably seating not more than 50 people. It was built entirely of stone. I thought, as I stood and walked around in that little room, of how even Jesus, by whom God created the earth, started out His earthly ministry in a very small, humble place. I can't describe my feelings at that moment -- but I assure you it was a tremendous experience!

Jesus preached in the synagogues in towns throughout Galilee (Mark 1:38-39). A little later Jesus and His disciples went through the cornfields on the Sabbath day (Mark 2:23). The Pharisees accused Jesus' disciples of breaking the Sabbath by plucking ears of corn to eat.

Jesus, teaching as part of HIS GOSPEL how to observe the Sabbath said: "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27-28).

It Was MADE!

I want you to read that pivotal text again!

Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made." It is one of those things that was made. It had to have a MAKER. Who, then, made the Sabbath?

God is the Creator. But it is written in Ephesians 3:9, "... God, who created all things by Jesus Christ."

John's Gospel begins: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God ... ALL THINGS were made by HIM; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men .... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him ..." (John 1:1, 3-4, 14-15).

That "Word" was CHRIST. Christ was with God the Father from eternity. Christ was God! ALL THINGS WERE MADE BY HIM -- Jesus Christ! The Sabbath is one of those things that was MADE. So it was Jesus Christ who MADE the Sabbath. God made it through Jesus Christ or by Him!

Notice further: "For by him [Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible ... And he is THE HEAD OF THE BODY, THE CHURCH (Col. 1:16, 18).

Very few realize it today -- but the Sabbath was MADE BY JESUS CHRIST! No wonder, then, He said plainly that He is LORD also of the Sabbath! (Mark 2:28.)

When, and for Whom?

Notice Mark 2:27 again! It was not only one of those things that was made -- it not only had a Maker -- but it was made for someone. Now today the prevalent idea seems to be that it was made "for the Jew." But what did Christ Himself say? He said it was made "for man"!

If it was made for mankind, we should suppose it was made when man was made. But we must not "suppose." We must have BIBLE AUTHORITY!

Let's turn back to the description of the time when MAN was made.

"And God said, Let us [more than one -- the Father and Christ] make man in our image, after our likeness ... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them" (Gen. 1:26-27).

Now when was this? Verse 31 says it was the sixth day of creation week. Further, man was the very last thing or being created on that day. Man came into being, then, probably in the late afternoon of the sixth day.

Now continue: "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. 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" (Gen. 2:2-3).

NOTICE NOW! When "God said, Let us make man," who did the speaking? The original Hebrew word here translated "God" is Elohim. This Hebrew word for God is a uni-plural word (collective noun) meaning more than one Person, yet one GOD. God is a Kingdom -- a FAMILY. There is the Father. Jesus is the SON. Christ is also the WORD -- that is, the Spokesman. He speaks only as the Father directs. God created all things by Jesus Christ! Therefore, it was Jesus who SPOKE! It was Jesus who said: "Let us make man." It was Jesus who did the WORK of creation, as directed by the Father!

NOTICE AGAIN! Did Jesus complete His CREATING on the sixth day? Does it say that on the seventh day he ceased to CREATE? Not at all! Notice more carefully. "On the seventh day God ended" -- WHAT? Not creating! He ended "his WORK which he had made."

There were a full SEVEN DAYS of creation! Not six -- SEVEN! On the seventh day He MADE THE SABBATH! But the Sabbath was made, not by WORK, but by REST. What He ended on the seventh day was the WORK of creation -- that which was created by work! On the seventh day He rested! He created the Sabbath by resting.

Was God Tired?

Now why did Jesus Christ, who had done the WORK of creation, rest? Was He "all tired out"? Was He so fatigued He was forced to stop and rest? Positively not, for God "fainteth not, neither is weary"! (Isa. 40:28.)

Yet, this was a real rest, because in Exodus 31:17 it is written: "... in six days the LORD [Christ] made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed." Since He was "refreshed" by this rest, it was a real rest. Yet He was not tired or weary!

WHY did He rest? To put His DIVINE PRESENCE IN THAT DAY! He MADE the Sabbath on that day by resting, whereas He had made all other things by working!

NOTICE FURTHER! Also He blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it"! What does "sanctified" mean? Look in your dictionary. It means "set apart, for HOLY use or purpose." He set apart this day from other days -- set it apart for HOLY use -- for a day of physical rest, in which His people may assemble and worship God!

Also He "HALLOWED the seventh day of every week (Ex. 20:11). He made it HOLY. It is, as we shall see in the Scriptures later, HOLY to GOD. Now the Sabbath is a day. It is the particular seventh day of the week (Matt. 28:1). Therefore what God did -- and God did it by CHRIST -- was to make future TIME holy!

Now ask yourself, and answer: Does any man have authority to make future time HOLY? No man is holy of himself. No man has power to make anything holy. GOD ALONE IS HOLY -- or whatever God has made holy! No group or organization of men has authority to make future time HOLY!

The Sabbath is a space of TIME. God set it as that space of time from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. Whenever that time comes to us, we are in holy time! It is GOD's time, not ours! God MADE it HOLY -- and in the Ten Commandments, as we shall see in detail a little later, He commanded us to keep it holy! Many do not realize today that it is a SIN to profane that which is HOLY to God!

"Take Your Foot Off"

But does it make any difference whether we keep this very day God blessed and made holy? Must the Christian respect what God makes HOLY?

God gives us a very plain explanation in an experience of Moses.

Moses, raised from a baby as a prince by Pharaoh's daughter, had killed an Egyptian guard, and fled to the land of Midian, near Mt. Sinai. There he had married a daughter of Jethro the priest. Moses, leading a flock of sheep, came to Mt. Horeb (Sinai). There he saw a large bush burning. But Moses noticed that the bush was not consumed. It kept on burning, yet the bush itself was not burnt.

The Eternal (Christ) called to Moses out of the midst of the burning bush.

"Moses! Moses!" called God, "... put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is HOLY GROUND" (Ex. 3:2-5).

Now suppose Moses had been like most people today. He probably would have argued:

"Well, Lord, I don't see where it makes any difference WHERE I take off my shoes. I don't want to take them off here, on this ground. I'll wait and take my shoes off a mile down the way."

Had Moses rebelled and said that, he would have never been used to lead God's people out of Egyptian slavery.

The ground a mile away was not HOLY. Why did it make any difference whether Moses took off his shoes -- or where? Here is why! THE GROUND WHERE HE THEN STOOD WAS HOLY. He was required, by God, to treat HOLY ground with a respect he did not treat other ground.

And why? Well, what made that particular bit of ground holy? GOD'S VERY PRESENCE WAS IN THAT GROUND! God is HOLY! God's presence in that bush made the ground around it HOLY!

In the very same manner, GOD'S PRESENCE is in His Sabbath. He rested on that first Sabbath to put His presence in that day! This made it HOLY TIME! Four thousand years later, when this same "Logos" or "WORD" was made flesh -- when He came as Jesus Christ in the human flesh -- HE WAS STILL PUTTING HIS PRESENCE IN THAT SAME WEEKLY RECURRING SABBATH -- HE WENT INTO THE SYNAGOGUES AS HIS CUSTOM WAS!

Jesus Christ is still the SAME, today, as He was yesterday, and shall be forever (Heb. 13:8). Do you believe that? Is your Bible an AUTHORITY? Do you accept it as AUTHORITY? Unless Jesus Christ, in Spirit, is today living in your flesh -- actually living your life for you -- you are none of His -- you are not a Christian (Rom. 8:9). And if He is, HE HAS NOT CHANGED -- He is still putting His presence in His SABBATH!

Moses was commanded, by the Eternal, to take his shoes off that HOLY GROUND. Disobedience would have been SIN, with the penalty eternal DEATH.

Mankind is commanded, by the same Eternal, to take his foot off from trampling over and profaning God's HOLY DAY! God requires His children to treat that HOLY time with a respect not required in other time.

Notice a PROPHECY -- for our time now:

"If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my HOLY DAY; and call the Sabbath a delight [not a yoke of bondage], the HOLY OF THE ETERNAL, honorable; and shalt honor HIM, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Eternal hath spoken it"! (Isa. 58:13-14.)

There is a plain "THUS SAITH THE LORD!"

We honor God by keeping holy those things that He has made holy! We dishonor Him when we speak our own words, saying, "Well, I think the ideas and ways of MEN -- of all of this world's CHURCHES -- must be right. I'd rather do as they do, and honor them, and be well thought of by them."

God commands: "Take your foot off My HOLY TIME! Quit trampling all over that which is HOLY and SACRED TO ME! Quit profaning MY HOLY THINGS -- whether it be MY name, My tithe of your income, or MY holy day."

The SIN is in profaning that which God made HOLY!

God has never made any other weekly day HOLY! Man has no authority to make a day HOLY. You cannot KEEP a day HOLY, unless God has first made it holy, any more than you can keep cold water hot -- unless it has first been made hot! God made this space of time HOLY -- He commands you to keep it that way!

Abraham Kept It

This world, and all its civilization -- including its religions -- consists of a system of beliefs and customs that have been derived from "the way that seems right to man." God says that way incurs the penalty of eternal DEATH. That way -- the way that seems RIGHT -- is the way of SIN.

If the world's religions really accepted the BIBLE as their authority, they would all believe exactly the same thing -- all would follow GOD'S WAYS, and the customs HE has ordained. Many who profess Christianity also profess to follow the Bible -- and the Bible only. Yet they believe the very opposite of the plain teachings of Scripture and of Christ. They follow customs of pagan origin condemned by God in the Bible! Truly this world is deceived!

Men evolve many arguments to evade the commandments of God -- because the carnal mind is hostile to God, and is not subject to His LAW! (Rom. 8:7.) When men reject the commandments of God, that they may hold to their traditions (see Mark 7:6-9) they must devise arguments to justify their rebellion. One of the arguments is that God's Commandments did not exist until the children of Israel reached Mt. Sinai.

But Abraham kept God's commandments 430 years before his descendants reached Sinai.

READ IT IN YOUR OWN BIBLE! "Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, MY COMMANDMENTS, MY STATUTES, AND MY LAWS" (Gen. 26:5). GOD is speaking. He is explaining why He made the great promises to Abraham.

So ABRAHAM KEPT GOD'S SABBATH!

We read in the New Testament that to break any one of the commandments is SIN (James 2:10-11).

Some try to argue that "perhaps time became lost. Perhaps they lost count of which day was the same seventh day of every week that God rested on."

Was TIME Lost?

Adam was created and living when sunset came that sixth day of creation week -- when God rested from His work. Adam knew which was the seventh day. Jesus called Abel "righteous" (Matt. 23:35), so Abel kept the Sabbath. Enoch "walked with God," so Enoch kept the Sabbath -- and he was "translated" less than a hundred years before Noah. They knew which day was the same seventh day all through this time. Adam lived 243 years with Methuselah, and until Lamech was 56 years of age. These men knew which day was the seventh. Methuselah lived 600 years with Noah, and Lamech lived with Noah 595 years.

Noah certainly learned from them, and others, which was the same seventh day. And Noah kept it, because Noah was a preacher of RIGHTEOUSNESS (II Peter 2:5) -- and "all thy commandments are righteousness" (Psalm 119: 172).

Shem was also righteous, and he lived until Abraham was 150 years old. Noah died only about 2 years before Abraham was born.

No, time was not lost down to the time of Abraham. For seven complete and irrefutable proofs that it has not been lost down to our day, now, write for our free booklet, Has Time Been Lost?

But, after the death of Jacob, and of Joseph, the children of Israel (Jacob) became slaves in Egypt. "Therefore," it is written, "they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens.... And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage ..." (Ex. 1:11, 13-14).

The Egyptians observed no Sabbath. They lashed the Israelites in their slave-labor, on the Sabbaths the same as other days. So these Israelites, for some 150 to 175 years -- several generations -- were not permitted to keep the Sabbath. They had no priesthood. There was no Sabbath nor religious service. Probably there was no religious teaching -- certainly none was allowed on an organized scale.

And there was no BIBLE -- no written record of God's instruction, or of GOD'S LAW! The Bible says "The Word of the Eternal endureth forever." IF any inspired Word of God had been written prior to Moses, it would be in evidence today. The first Scriptures were written by MOSES, after the Israelites were delivered out of Egyptian slavery.

The generation of Israelites which Moses led out of Egypt had had no religious instruction or training. Probably they knew little about the Sabbath. Time could have been lost -- to them. But, if so, GOD REVEALED IT BY AMAZING MIRACLES!

NOW NOTICE! These Israelites, some three or four million in total number (600,000 men above age 20), came to the wilderness of Sin two months after leaving Egypt, and some two weeks BEFORE arriving at Mt. Sinai. Remember, this is weeks before God gave them the Ten Commandments. These people were griping and grumbling because of scarcity of food in the desert.

Miraculously Revealed

And here God revealed to them, by MIRACLES, which day was the Sabbath, and whether it makes any difference whether it is kept.

"Then said the Eternal unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day," -- WHY? -- "that I may prove them, WHETHER THEY WILL WALK IN MY LAW, OR NO."

Read that again! This was more than two weeks before they received the Ten Commandments -- before the Old Covenant had so much as been proposed -- before the Law of Moses. But GOD'S LAW was in force and effect. God was going to prove them, whether they would obey one of its points.

"And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily" (Ex. 16:4-5).

I will show you that God was speaking to them on a Sabbath. It is evident that the Eternal (who, in human flesh later became CHRIST) first preached to man on the first Sabbath. Adam was created on the sixth day of creation week. Evidently he was created in the late afternoon, since the creation of man was the last act of creation on that day. When the sun had set, immediately after Adam's creation, God preached to him, offering him the GIFT of eternal life (through the tree of life), and warning that the wages of sin is DEATH (Gen. 2:15-17).

And here God is again preaching to Israel, through Moses, on the Sabbath.

Read the next verses in Exodus 16. Verse 9, Moses and Aaron gathered the people. Verse 10, they all saw the glory of the Eternal. Verses 11-13, between the two evenings -- at dusk -- immediately after sunset on that Sabbath, God sent the quails for food, and next morning the manna was on the ground.

Now notice the next miracle. Verse 20: some tried to save a supply of manna over until next morning, contrary to God's command. "It bred worms, and stank."

Now verse 22: On the sixth day they gathered a double portion of manna. Verse 23: Moses explained that "Tomorrow is the rest of the HOLY sabbath unto the Eternal." And on this sixth day, they were commanded to lay up the Sabbath supply of food, which they did. And, verse 24, it did not breed worms nor decay, as on the preceding five days! Here was another MIRACLE from God, showing them which is the right seventh day!

When the next morning came -- the Sabbath, Moses said (verses 25-26) "Today is a sabbath unto the Eternal: today ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none."

But, DID IT MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?

Was it not all right to go ahead and work on the seventh day, and then rest on the first day of the week? Just like most professing Christians today, some of these Israelites thought that would be better.

NOTICE WHAT HAPPENED! The next verse -- verse 27: "... there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none"! These people thought it made no difference which day, or whether they kept it. BUT IT MADE A DIFFERENCE TO GOD! On the six weekdays GOD had HIMSELF gone to the WORK of raining down manna. But GOD HIMSELF DID NONE OF THIS WORK ON HIS SABBATH -- HOLY TO HIM! On this seventh day GOD HIMSELF rested from sending them manna!

Does It Make Any Difference?

Notice verses 28-29: "And the Eternal said unto Moses, HOW LONG REFUSE YE TO KEEP MY COMMANDMENTS AND MY LAWS? See, for that the Eternal hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place [to gather -- to work] on the seventh day"!

And after that blazing rebuke from God, the people rested on the seventh day! It certainly does make a difference to GOD! And God is the SAME today as he was yesterday, and will be forever (Heb. 13:8).

Notice, now again, these miracles by which God revealed to them which day is HIS day -- His Sabbath. Manna fell for six days -- but none on the seventh day. God Himself worked by sending it the six weekdays, but He rested on the seventh day. On the first five days of the week, the manna would decay and breed worms if any was saved over, but on the eve of the Sabbath, the night after the sixth day, it did not decay but remained fresh in perfect state of preservation -- and they had no refrigerators! On the sixth day God gave them twice as much. On the seventh day He gave them NONE.

After all those generations of slavery in Egypt, some might argue that the Israelites lost track of TIME.

But God revealed by these many miracles WHICH day is His Sabbath. God gave them blazing rebuke for not keeping His SABBATH. He revealed that the keeping holy of the Sabbath was HIS LAW, many days prior to the proposing of the Old Covenant, or the giving of the Ten Commandments in the form God spoke them at Sinai.

Thus did God reveal which day is HIS SABBATH, and also that it DOES MAKE LIFE-AND-DEATH DIFFERENCE -- for to break God's Holy Sabbath is SIN, and the penalty is eternal DEATH!

Notice, too -- verse 29: "The ETERNAL hath given you the Sabbath." Nowhere in all God's Word can you find any statement that "The ETERNAL hath given you SUNDAY." Who, then, did give the professing Christian world its SUNDAY? You can easily find the answer in HISTORY -- carnal MAN gave professing "Christianity" its Sunday -- pagans cut off from God -- men in rebellion against God! It came out of paganism! And the world follows the custom!

What is the SOURCE of your religion? Is it MAN -- and majority public opinion and custom of MAN -- or is GOD ALMIGHTY the source of what you believe and DO? Which? Is your AUTHORITY preponderant HUMAN acceptance, or is GOD your authority, and GOD'S WORD, the Holy Bible? WHICH?

Your ETERNITY hangs on your answer to that question!

Moses NOT Giver of Ten Commandments

Millions of people have been taught that MOSES gave the children of Israel the Ten Commandments.

One Sunday morning in 1933, I walked into a church in southern Oregon. It was the Sunday school hour. I sat down, a stranger, in the men's Bible class. A lesson quarterly was handed me. The lesson for the day was about "Moses giving the Jews the Ten Commandments." Scanning it quickly I noticed it contained only statements of the sectarian author, or authors, of this denominational quarterly. No Bible proofs!

But immediately a startling and most peculiar thing happened. The teacher of the class stuttered around a minute or so, but was utterly unable to get started teaching his lesson. Then, suddenly turning to me, he blurted out: "Mister, I don't know who you are, but for some reason I just can't teach this class this morning -- and I know you can. Would you take my place and teach us?"

It was like a sudden bolt out of the blue. WHY was he suddenly unable to teach a class he had been teaching regularly? WHAT made him turn to me? WHY did he seem sure I could teach them, when he had never seen me before, and we had not even been introduced? I did not know -- unless it was because I was the only man in the class who had brought a Bible.

"Well," I responded, "that's a rather sudden and peculiar request to make of a perfect stranger who has never been here before. I have taken a quick glance over this quarterly. I will have to say to you that I would be unable to teach you from it, because what it says is not true. But if you men want me to teach you, from the BIBLE, the truth about who did give the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel, I could do that -- but it's only fair to warn you in advance that your quarterly is totally unscriptural and in error."

All the men in the class wanted me to go ahead and teach them.

Chapter Three

GOD -- NOT MOSES -- GAVE THE LAW

THIS, THEN, is what I taught that class: In the third month (of the new Sacred Calendar God had given the Israelites in Egypt), the vast multitude of Israelites came to Mt. Sinai.

Remember they were at least three to four million strong. There were 600,000 grown men of age 20 and above -- not counting women and children.

The Vast Assemblage

This tremendous assemblage of millions of Israelites pitched tents, forming a gigantic encampment -- a huge tent-CITY (Ex. 19:2). This, of course, consumed some little time -- though they were highly organized.

Then (verse 3), Moses went up the mountain to meet God. And there the ETERNAL gave him a proposition to lay before those millions of people. This proposition -- or agreement -- was that which we call the "Old Covenant" -- the covenant agreement for making of these people a NATION -- God's own nation on earth.

The proposition provided that GOD was to be their sole King and Ruler. Their government was to be a theocracy. God was the Law-Maker, not a congress, or parliament. God would appoint leading men to execute His orders. Moses returned to the vast tent-city.

Thereupon, "Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words" (verse 7). The people unanimously accepted God's proposition. You see, in this proposition, the people were so intent on receiving what God PROMISED in this contract -- "ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me ABOVE ALL PEOPLE" -- that is, the greatest, most prosperous, most powerful nation on earth -- that they did not consider too seriously the condition: "IF ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant."

And what was to come from the very VOICE OF GOD for them to obey? A great law that already existed even as the laws of gravity and inertia -- the laws of physics and chemistry -- already existed. Only this was a SPIRITUAL law! God's voice was to reveal that living, inexorable law in specific words, as a definite code.

A Harsh Law?

WHY this law? It's high time we of today realized the true answer. God Almighty not only is Creator and Ruler over His endless and vast creation of the entire universe. He is a God of LOVE.

In LOVE God created man in His own image. God LOVES human beings. God wanted the humans He was to create to be happy -- to have peace, and to enjoy life in security and interesting, vigorous, abundant living. In order to make such a happy state possible, God set in living motion the spiritual laws which form THE VERY WAY to every physical, mental and spiritual well-being -- to AVOID sorrow, suffering, anguish, insecurity, boredom, emptiness, frustration, violence and death. These spiritual LAWS provide THE WAY to happy, invigorating, vital, interesting and joyful LIVING.

God IS love -- and God knows that LOVE is heart-warming and good. So He fashioned and set in living motion a LAW OF LOVE -- a law fulfilled, obeyed, performed by LOVE.

What a wonderful, glorious GIFT to mankind! You'd think humanity would rejoice and give God ceaseless thanks and praise in deep GRATITUDE! But humanity doesn't! Good and glorious as this law is, human nature is hostile to it! It was then. It is today. Human nature is the inward pull of vanity, selfishness, greed. Selfishly, it wants to take everything God's WAY of life would bring -- but, rebelliously, it resents traveling that road to obtain these lavish blessings.

LOVE is an outgoing concern. It is the WAY of giving, serving, sharing. Human nature wants to take.

All good things, blessing, benefits, come from GOD. He is the SOURCE of everything good humanity craves. In God's proposition to be their King and Ruler -- to make them the world's most prosperous, most blessed and powerful nation -- they were to have the supreme blessing of having the guidance, protection, help, of the All-Wise, All-Loving, All-Powerful GOD!

Of course this vast congregation of people looked only to the end-PROMISE -- to what they would GET -- and glibly agreed to the terms of God's proposition before they heard them.

Then (verse 8), Moses climbed the mountain again to report to God.

The POWER and the GLORY!

God instructed Moses: "Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow ... And be ready against the third day: for the third day the ETERNAL will come down in the sight of all the people upon mount Sinai." On that great day, in the morning, there was a tremendous display of thunder and lightning up on the mountain.

Can you picture it? I think I can -- at least partially. Years ago -- in early winter, 1934 -- I was driving around the Mt. Hood Loop in Oregon. Reaching the east of Mt. Hood, there was a spur road leading to the very base, and part way up the mountain. As I reached this spot, a frightening storm developed around the snow-capped peak just above me. A dark, foreboding cloud -- the darkest I had ever seen -- hovered over the top of the mountain. Lightning flashed, so bright I had to hide my eyes. Thunderclaps resounded louder, sharper, than any I had ever heard in Iowa or Nebraska. I drove back down, away from that storm, as fast as safety would allow. It was the most frightening, terrifying sight I had ever witnessed. It seemed to display the MAGNITUDE of the very FURY of Almighty GOD!

I thought, then, of only one thing -- this very experience when GOD thundered down from Mt. Sinai HIS GREAT SPIRITUAL LAW! Only I realized that what I saw and heard must have been tame by comparison. Yet it caused me to realize what an imagination -- defying experience occurred in the sight of all Israel!

Imagine that vast SEA of people -- millions of them -- stretching as far as eye could see! Then terrifying flashes of blinding lightning, and crashes of thunder that would almost break eardrums! And the GREAT GOD HIMSELF in the midst of this eye-blinding, ear-splitting display, preparing to THUNDER His GREAT LAW in the hearing of that vast assemblage!

No wonder the people were frightened and asked Moses to stand between them and God!

Amid this tremendous manifestation of GOD'S POWER AND GLORY, Moses "brought forth the people ... to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the ETERNAL descended upon it in fire ... and the whole mount quaked greatly" (verses 17-18).

WHAT A SETTING for the receiving of GOD'S LAW!

This was no ordinary occasion! God wanted the paramount IMPORTANCE of THIS LAW -- God's perfect WAY OF LIFE -- impressed on His people!

Think of it! A whole NATION of MILLIONS gathered together in one vast, tremendous, history-making assemblage! And the very GOD HIMSELF speaking through FIRE, and flashing lightning, and deafening peals of THUNDER, and a great supernatural VOICE that needed no microphones or loudspeakers or public-address systems to be heard by MILLIONS.

That was not a throng of 100,000 people, such as we see each year here in Pasadena at the Rose Bowl football game. This football crowd seems like something TREMENDOUS to us today. But it is a puny, tiny grease spot compared to GOD'S audience. His audience was not 100,000, not 500,000, not one million -- but three or four MILLIONS of people, in one imagination -- defying crowd!

It was not Moses' voice which delivered God's LAW. It was THE VOICE OF GOD! The whole nation of people heard the VOICE OF GOD!

"And God spake all these words, saying, I AM the ETERNAL thy God ..." and then the voice of GOD spoke to that mass of people THE WORDS OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS!

The Voice of GOD -- Not Moses!

How significant! On that very first day of Pentecost (called Festival of Firstfruits, or Festival of Weeks in the Old Testament), amid this tremendous and awesome manifestation by the very forces of nature, God gave HIS LAW -- His WAY OF LIFE -- to the only ones on earth who were HIS PEOPLE. This came at the founding, and setting up, of God's NATION on earth.

Then, many centuries later, on the day of Pentecost, 31 A.D., with a tremendous and awesome manifestation, God gave HIS HOLY SPIRIT to His people -- the LOVE OF GOD to fulfill that law. And that came at the founding, and setting up, of GOD'S CHURCH on earth!

WHO gave the people the Ten Commandments?

Notice it carefully! The people did not receive the Ten Commandments from Moses, as most people seem to believe today. Moses was hearing the very first delivery of the Commandments, in this form, ALONG WITH THAT WHOLE NATION of MILLIONS of people! It was not Moses who gave this law to the people -- but "GOD spake all these words."

Next, notice Deuteronomy 5:4-22. This is later. Moses is talking to the people of Israel. And to the people Moses says: "The ETERNAL talked with YOU face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire ... saying, ..." -- then follow the words of the Ten Commandments (verses 6-21).

READ THOSE PASSAGES AGAIN! Why have you been taught that MOSES "gave the law"? WHY has this law been called the "Law of Moses"?

The Ten Commandments did not come from Moses but from GOD! The Ten Commandments were not given to the people by Moses, but by GOD to all the nation, assembled. Moses says: "The ETERNAL talked with YOU face to face" -- with the vast assembly of the whole PEOPLE!

Moses explains (verse 5), that because the people were frightened, in order to reassure them, he stood in front of them -- but HE WAS WITH THEM, AS MERELY ONE OF THAT VAST ASSEMBLY.

But God spoke to ALL THE PEOPLE ASSEMBLED, not only to Moses!

Notice further -- after completing, in verse 21, the rewriting of the words of the Ten Commandments which GOD spoke, Moses continues, verse 22, to say to the people of Israel: "These words the LORD spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me."

Read that again carefully! That is not what you probably have been told. Read it in your own Bible!

These words of the Ten Commandments the LORD spoke. To whom? "Unto ALL YOUR ASSEMBLY. The people did NOT receive the Ten Commandments from Moses, but direct from the very voice of GOD, which they all heard!

"And He added no more." That was a COMPLETE LAW! It is a SPIRITUAL LAW. It is COMPLETE. He added no more -- to THAT LAW! Any other laws are different, separate laws -- NO PART OF THAT SPIRITUAL LAW! It is complete in itself!

And if you think this law was for "Jews only," you couldn't be more wrong! Have you not read, in Acts 7:38, that those Israelites "received the lively oracles to give unto US" -- for US who, under the NEW Testament, are Christians?

All other nations had turned from God and HIS WAYS. Now God was choosing a downtrodden SLAVE people as His nation -- the ONLY people on earth who had not cut themselves completely off from God.

This was the BASIS upon which the Old Covenant was made -- but what is the basis of the NEW Covenant? Read it, in Hebrews 8:10: "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a GOD, and they shall be to me a people."

It will be made eminently plain, in this booklet, that this was 1) no temporary law to end at the cross; and 2) no special law for one nation only, and forbidden to other nations. God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34).

The Sabbath Command

Observe more closely, now, the Sabbath command.

"REMEMBER the sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Ex. 20:8). God said REMEMBER this day! So men have insisted on forgetting -- or trying to change it to a different day!

Christ said, in the sermon on the mount: "THINK NOT that I am come to destroy the law," so professing Christians think He did come to destroy it!

Christ said, in the same sermon on the mount: "Swear not," so professing Christians universally hold up their right hands and swear.

Christ said: "LOVE your enemies," so professing Christians -- pretending to follow Him, HATE their enemies and go to war to kill them.

Christ said: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect," so, professing Christians say, "It's impossible to keep God's Law, let alone to be perfect. Christ kept it in our stead, and then abolished it."

Christ commands "DO!" -- and His professed followers DON'T!

Christ commands "DON'T! and His professed followers DO!

Christ commanded: "REMEMBER the Sabbath day! So pretending followers FORGET it!

But notice the rest of that same sentence -- "to KEEP it HOLY." The word "keep" means to preserve in the same condition. You can't KEEP ice water hot -- you can only keep HOT water hot. You can't keep an unholy day holy. The only weekly day God ever made holy is His Sabbath. It is utterly impossible to keep Sunday or Friday HOLY -- because God never made them holy, and man has no power to make anything holy. These are not arguments -- they are FACTS that will judge you in God's JUDGMENT!

Now notice verses 9 and 10 (Ex. 20): "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work ...."

Not just any seventh day! Not "one day in seven" -- Christ said "the seventh day!" In Matthew 28:1 -- after the crucifixion and resurrection -- after whatever was "nailed to the cross" had been nailed -- you will find it is the seventh day of the week -- the day before the first day of the week!

Notice further! Christ did not say, "the sabbath of the JEWISH PEOPLE. He said, distinctly, the sabbath of THE LORD THY GOD!" If it is the LORD'S Sabbath -- the Sabbath OF THE LORD -- then the Sabbath is, truly, "the LORD'S DAY."

Right here, let's put an end to the rebellious ARGUMENTS about Sunday being the "Lord's Day." I will make to any reader this challenge: Produce any passage in the Bible identifying Sunday -- or the first day of the week -- as "the Lord's Day," and I will proclaim the truth of that passage to the millions of people who hear The WORLD TOMORROW program on the air in every inhabited continent on earth, and publish it prominently in The PLAIN TRUTH, which now has a reading audience of about seven million people around the world.

God has placed before me one of the most vast audiences in the world today. If you believe Sunday is "the Lord's Day" and can prove it by the Scripture, here is your opportunity to get it before many millions of people! But before anyone sends in Revelation 1:10, let me call to your attention the fact that 1) This verse is not referring to any day of the week, but to the general period of prophecy mentioned in more than 30 prophecies, as "the day of the Lord." In this present time we are in the day of man. The "day of the Lord" is the era of time when God is going to intervene directly and supernaturally in world affairs, and begin the take-over of the governments of all nations. And, 2) This verse and its context make no reference to any day of the week, nor do they in any manner mention Sunday or "the first day of the week." There is absolutely nothing in this verse or context associating it with a weekly day of worship, or changing the day to Sunday. Those who have associated it with Sunday have done so without Scriptural authority, and have thus deceived millions of people.

The "Lord's Day" is the day the LORD is lord of -- the day that is HIS day -- and in Mark 2:28 Jesus Christ said He is Lord of the Sabbath -- not of Sunday.

In this present verse -- Exodus 20:10 -- He said to all the people assembled, "But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God." Not the Sa