What today's pastors are teaching.

1. People are being taught that the Sabbath was only given to the Jews and not to the Gentiles. This is not true. The Sabbath is for all people.

Many pastors have been taught to teach what their denomination believes. When they do this, they must overlook verses that speak against what they are teaching.

For example, some pastors say the Sabbath was only given to the Jews and never to the Gentiles. This is not true. Jesus Himself said the Sabbath was made for all mankind, which includes all people, not just Jewish people.

Mark 2:27 And Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for mankind, and not mankind for the Sabbath.

When the Sabbath was created as a blessed and holy day back in Genesis, there was no such thing as a Jew.

Genesis 2:1-3 So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. By the seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation.

Notice how the fourth commandment itself includes Gentiles. It even includes the working animals.

Exodus 20:8-11 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy: You are to labor six days and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work—you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the Gentile who is within your gates. For the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything in them in six days; then He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and declared it holy.

This tells us the Sabbath is not just a Jewish holiday day, it's a Holy Day that belongs to the LORD, but it was created for mankind.

Leviticus 23:3 You have six days in which to do your work, but remember that the seventh day, the Sabbath, is a day of rest. On that day do not work, but gather for worship. The Sabbath belongs to the LORD, no matter where you live.

So you see, God wanted the Gentiles to keep the Sabbath holy too.

Isaiah 56:6-8 As for the Gentiles, the outsiders who join the people of the Lord and serve him and love his name, who are his servants and don’t desecrate the Sabbath, and have accepted his covenant and promises, I will bring them also to my holy mountain of Jerusalem and make them full of joy within my House of Prayer. I will accept their sacrifices and offerings, for my Temple shall be called “A House of Prayer for All People”! For the Lord God who brings back the outcasts of Israel says: I will bring others, too, besides my people Israel.

When a pastor tells you that God never gave the Sabbath to the Gentiles, he's misleading you.

2. People are being told that the early church gathered on Sunday, not the Sabbath. This is false, the early church gathered every Sabbath.

Before you read these next verses, I want you to notice how the Gentiles begged Paul to come back again the next Sabbath to continue teaching them. Why not just come back the next day, which would have been Sunday? Why wait a whole week? If the Sabbath was changed to Sunday, this would have been the perfect time for Paul to say something, but he didn't. As a matter of fact, the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered on the Sabbath to hear the word of God. These were all Gentiles because when the Jews saw them, they got jealous. Keep in mind, this was years after Jesus' resurrection.

Acts 13:42-45 So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God. But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul.

Most people don't know that it was God's plan to provoke the Jews to jealousy when Gentiles got saved and started obeying God, especially in keeping the Sabbath.

Romans 11:11 I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke Israel to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.

Israel would never be provoked to jealousy by Gentiles gathering on Sunday.

Paul taught the Corinthian church every Sabbath, for a year and a half, before leaving for his next missionary journey.

Acts 18:1-4 After these things Paul departed from Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla (because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome); and he came to them. So, because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and worked; for by occupation they were tent makers. And Paul reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Gentiles.

How long did he stay teaching the Corinthian church every Sabbath? A year and a half.

Acts 18:11 And Paul continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

They gathered every Sabbath for a year and six months, that equals to 78 Sabbaths.

3. People are being taught that in Acts 15:20 the Sabbath was never given to new Gentile converts.

Acts 15:20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.

If we were to use Acts 15:20 to say that Gentiles don't have to honor the Sabbath because it's not mentioned here, you would also have to say that Gentiles can murder, steal, dishonor their parents and so on because these are not mentioned either.

When people are misleading you, they will use partial verses, or they will take verses out of context. Let's read the entire context of Acts 15:20 to get the thought process of what's really going on.

When you read the context, you will find that Paul was addressing an issue with the new Gentiles turning to God. An unbelieving Gentile coming out of paganism would have so much to learn about their new way of life in God so rather than over burdening them with too much information all at once just tell them these few things, probably because they were some of the main social issues in their time. This wasn't an end-all list of what these new converts would need to know about their new way of life, but that wouldn't be a problem. Why? Because the law of Moses is being taught every Sabbath. These new Gentile converts would get to learn everything they would need to know as they attended Sabbath gathering because the law of Moses is taught in the synagogues every Sabbath. Now read Acts 15:20 in context with this information in mind.

Acts 15:19-21 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead, we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

These new Gentiles, who were being converted to God, was probably taking place during Sabbath fellowship because they were excited to learn about their new way of life. They even begged Paul to teach them again the next Sabbath. They were so happy that they even went out and invited other Gentiles to join them for Sabbath fellowship. We know this because on the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered for Sabbath fellowship to learn the word of God.

Acts 13:42-44 So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.

Remember, a new Gentile turning to God will become part of God's chosen people, Israel. They will learn the way of life that God taught Isreal but they will learn it through the teachings of Christ, who was also a faithful Jew.

Revelation 12:17 This dragon was very angry with the woman. He went off to fight with the rest of her children. They are the ones who obey the Torah of God and are faithful to the teachings of Jesus.

1 John 2:6 Whoever says that he lives in God must walk as Jesus walked.

A Jew is not converted to the Gentile lifestyle, a Gentile is convert to the Jewish way of life taught by Christ.

Ephesians 2:11-13 Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Remember, when the Gentile, who is an outsider, becomes part of God's chosen people, keeping the Sabbath holy will be part of their worship.

4. People are learning that the early church gathered on Sunday because Jesus rose from the dead on Sunday. Because of this, they say Sunday is now the Lord's day. This too is false.

You can search the whole Bible and you won't find one verse that teaches that Sunday is now the Lord's day because of Jesus' resurrection. As a matter of fact, Jesus didn't even rise from the dead on Sunday. To learn the truth about Jesus' resurrection week, watch the short video on this website called, "Three days and three nights".

Pastors will also point to a couple of verses that use the words, first day of the week, to prove the early church gathered on Sunday, the first day, instead of, Saturday, the seventh day. We have already seen that this is not true.

Let's look at these, first day of the week, verses.

1 Corinthians 16:2 is one of the verses that pastors use to say the early church gathered on the first day because they took up a church offering on the first day.

1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.

When you read the context of the verse you will find that Paul was passing through their area on his way to bring supplies to the suffering churches in Jerusalem. He was telling them that he would be in their area on the first Sabbath on that particular month. Why the first Sabbath? Because in those days they would use the Sabbath to determine which week they were in on any particular month because each month had four Sabbaths. Paul was telling them that he would be in their area on the first Sabbath, not the first day of the week. Notice how they would use the Sabbath to determine which week they were in.

Luke 6:1 Now it happened on the second Sabbath after the first that He went through the grain fields. and His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate them, rubbing them in their hands.

On the second Sabbath after the first means it was the second week on that particular month. Now let's go back to 1 Corinthians 16:2 to see it in its original language.

The four words, "day of the week" are actually one word in the Greek, and it's the Strong's number G4521, and it means, Sabbaton, which is the seventh day Sabbath.

"Strong's Concordance"

day of the week : G4521 = σάββατον sabbaton

1. the seventh day of each week which was a sacred festival on which the Israelites were required to abstain from all work.

2. the institution of the sabbath, the law for keeping holy every seventh day of the week,

3. a single sabbath, sabbath day, week.

The verse should actually read like this:

1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first Sabbath let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.

Why the first Sabbath? Because that's when Paul was planning on being in their area as he was passing through.

You can see that the Sabbath was never changed from Saturday to Sunday by Jesus or His Apostles. We also see that early church gathered every Sabbath. As a matter of fact, the Sabbath will continue to be honored even after God creates the new heaven and the new earth.

Isaiah 66:22-23 “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,” declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure. From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and worship before me,” says the Lord.

Let us return to the foundations of the faith, which was taught by Jesus and His Apostles.

Email: MessiahofIsrael@aol.com

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