Monument in Time - Shawn Boontra

7/28/2019 Monument in Time - Shawn Boontra

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and Pacic Press Publishing Association

byShawn boonStra

Discovering the Joy of the Sabbath


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Editor: Cliord GoldsteinCover Design & Layout: Fred Knopper

Cover Photos: www.photos.comText Typeset: 11 pt. ITC New Baskerville

Copyright 2011 by It Is Written. All Rights Reserved.

Additional copies o this book and ahost o other spiritual resources are available

rom It Is Written. For more inormation calltoll ree 1-888-664-5573 or visitwww.itiswritten.com

Unless otherwise noted, all Bible texts are rom theNew King James Version, copyright 1979, 1980, 1982

by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.Or rom The New International Version, NIV

Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Printed in the United States o Americaby Pacic Press Publishing Association

Nampa, Idaho / Oshawa, Ontario, Canadawww.pacicpress.com

ISBN 9781937173029


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Contents

Fakes and Frauds ......................................................... 5

Cosmic Con Job........................................................... 6

In the Beginning ......................................................... 7

The Sabbath Commandment ..................................... 9

The Joy o the Sabbath ............................................. 12

Didnt Jesus Change the Sabbath? ........................... 15

What About Those Other First-Day Texts? .............. 20

Then Why Sunday? ................................................... 24

A Works Trip? ............................................................ 26

Does the Day Really Matter? ..................................... 28

A Pause or Peace ...................................................... 30


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Fakes and Frauds

Have you ever heard the name Frank Abagnale? Fordecades he was one o the worlds most notorious andsuccessul con men and orgers. His story was so amazing

that it was eventually made into the movie Catch Me I YouCan, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanksand Leonardo DiCaprio (DiCaprio played Abagnale;Hanks played the FBI agent who caught him).

During one o his many scams, Abagnale aked beinga doctor in a Georgia hospital or two yearsnot just adoctor, but the supervisor o a wing o doctors. No one

suspected him being anything other than the MD that theake certicate on the wall said he was.

He walked around with all the authority and powerthat comes with having a medical doctors license, eventhough most o the time he merely scribbled his nameon the patients charts. The only time he came close togetting caught was when an inant almost died o oxygendeprivation because Frank Conners, MD had no idea

what a blue baby was.Theres no question that the misuse o the symbols o

power and authority can have negative consequences. Andthis is especially true in the world o aith, which is rie

with countereits and rauds. Whats worse, its not just that

people are committing rauds, but they are also victims oit.

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A MONUMENT IN TIME

Cosmic Con Job

According to the Bible, things like raud, con jobs, andimposters didnt begin on Earth. The rst trickster wasntsome ancient merchant with his nger on the scales. It

wasnt even Jacob pretending to be his brother Esau inorder to steal the blessing rom his blind ather, Isaac.(Genesis 27:1-20) No, it goes much urther back, to Lucierhimsel in Heaven.

And what did he attempt to do?How you are allen rom heaven, O Lucier, son o the

morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakenedthe nations! For you have said in your heart: I will ascend intoheaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars o God; I will also siton the mount o the congregation on the arthest sides o the north;

I will ascend above the heights o the clouds, I will be like the MostHigh. (Isaiah 14:12-14)

Notice, Satan tried to be like God. He wanted theauthority and power and prerogatives o the Most High.

This same principle appears throughout the Bible.Look at this biblical depiction o another one o Satansdeceptions, this time through a surrogate.

Let no one deceive you by any means; or that Day will notcome unless the alling away comes rst, and the man o sin isrevealed, the son o perdition, who opposes and exalts himselabove all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sitsas God in the temple o God, showing himsel that he is God. (2Thessalonians 2:3-4)

Again, the attempt to be God. Theres a power hereseeking to place himsel in the position o the Lord Himsel,just as Satan had tried in Heaven. O course, neither Satannor the proxy depicted here in Thessalonians can actually


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DISCOVERING THE JOY OF THE SABBATH

take the place o God, just as Frank Abagnale, aka FrankConners, MD could not do the work o a real doctor. Thebest they can do, instead, is usurp the symbols, the signs,

and the outward trappings o those positions in order toool and con people.

And this leads into one o the greatest deceptionsand cons in the history o the worldone that millionso sincere and aithul Christians have allen or because,quite rankly, they dont know whats behind it.

It has to do with the Bibles rst, broadest and mostuniversal symbol o the authority and power o our Creator,the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Beginning

Notice the rst words o the Bible. They dont sayanything about the death o Jesus on the Cross. Theydont say anything about the Second Coming o Jesus inthe clouds o heaven. (Matthew 24:30) They dont sayanything about loving your neighbor as yoursel. (Mark12:31) They dont say anything about the resurrection o

Jesus rom the dead. They dont say anything about the

Lords Supper, or about the birth o Jesus in Bethlehem,or about the promise o eternal lie in a new heaven and anew earth. (Revelation 21:1) Theres nothing about any othem, though each is an important biblical teaching.

Instead the Bible begins with the doctrine upon whichall those other teachings restand that is creation. In

the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.(Genesis 1:1)Creation is the opening act, the rst principle, and

the oundation upon which all else in Scripture ollows,


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A MONUMENT IN TIME

because all that ollows in Scripture becomes meaninglessi severed rom the Lord as Creator.

Ater all, what do the most basic Christians belies

salvation, the Cross, eternal liemean apart rom God asour Creator? What are we saved rom in a godless universe?From what are we saved i God doesnt exist? I atheisticevolution explains us, then what is the Cross other thananother murdered Jew, one o the hundreds o thousands

whom the Romans killed that way?How do we understand the all o humanity into sin

apart rom God as our Creator? What have we allen rom,and to what are we restored? Apart rom the biblicalaccount o origins, Christian beliesrom the Cross tothe Second Comingbecome nonsense.

Another crucial point is that Scripture intricately tiesJesus as Creator with Jesus as Redeemer. John opens his

gospel with words that unmistakably point to Christ, theRedeemer, as Christ the Creator:In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thingmade that was made. (John 1:1-3)

All things that were madethat is, all things that were

createdwere created by Jesus Christ.Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, makes a similar

point. Talking about Jesus as Redeemer, he says, For byHim were all things created, that are in heaven, and thatare in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were

created by Him, and or Him. (Colossians 1:16, 17)In Christian theology, Christs authority, Christs power,and Christs ecacy as the Redeemer arise only rom Hisrole as Creator. In every sense possible, a major pillar o New


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DISCOVERING THE JOY OF THE SABBATH

Testament theology rests on Jesus as Creator. Christianitywithout Christ as the Creator is Christianity without Himas Redeemer. And without Christ as Redeemer, we have

nothing. We might as well seek salvation in Harry Potter orJason Bourne as in Jesus Christ.

Hence, we can see the importance o creation in allChristian theology. That point is so crucial, so basic, thatGod has given us an in-your-ace reminder o it every week.Its called the Sabbath, and more than anything else, itpoints to our creation, because on this great truth, andthat alone, all these others truths exist.

In act, God has commanded that we take one-seventho our livesone-seventh!in order to especially rememberthat He is our Creatorsomething that He didnt do orany other Christian teaching simply because no otherChristian teaching has validity apart rom this one.

Thats how important this doctrine o creation is, andthe Sabbath remains its most perpetual, enduring andbasic symbol.

The Sabbath Commandment

Most people know the amazing story o the givingo the Ten Commandments to the newly reed Hebrewpeople. Among those commandments was the ourth, theSabbath commandment, and it reads:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thoulabour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath o

the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thyson, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, northy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: or in six daysthe Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,


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10 A MONUMENT IN TIME

and rested the seventh day: whereore the Lord blessed the Sabbathday, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11)

Clearly, that commandment goes directly back to the

creation o the world, o the heaven and earth, the sea,and all that in them is. The link is even more apparent

when you read the creation story itsel. In the Genesiscreation account, God created the earth and sky, and allthats in them, in six days. Ater the work o creation wascompleted, what happened next? Thus the heavens and the earth were nished, and all thehost o them. And on the seventh day God ended His work whichHe had made; and He rested on the seventh day rom all Hiswork which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, andsanctied it: because that in it He had rested rom all His workwhich God created and made. (Genesis 2:1-3)

Notice these two points: First, God blessed and

sanctied the seventh daybeorethe entrance o sin, beorethe all o Adam and Eve. The seventh day, a sacred andholy time, comes rom a perect world, one in which there

was no sin, no all, and hence no symbols o sin or the allor the redemption o humanity.

Second, the seventh day as a holy day predated theJewish nation by thousands o years. The seventh-day

Sabbath existed long beore the Jewish people did. Thatthe Jews took hold o the Sabbath day and have adheredto it is, o course, undeniable. But that no more makesthe seventh-day Sabbath exclusively Jewish than a amilydeciding to start celebrating Christmas means Christmasbecomes exclusively its own. As with the Sabbath, it was

there all along; the amily just took advantage o it, thatsall.Thus the Sabbath, both in Genesis and Exodus, not

only links the seventh day to God as Creator, but also


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DISCOVERING THE JOY OF THE SABBATH 11

stresses that He blessed the day and made it holy. Thecommandment in Exodus isnt teaching or the rst timeabout the sacredness o the seventh-day Sabbath as a

memorial o creation. Instead, the commandment is simplytelling the Jews to remember what was already known,that the seventh-day Sabbath was a sacred memorial ocreation, having been blessed and made holy at the endo the creation week. This point is revealed in Exodus 16,beore Sinai.

Then the Lord said to Moses, How long will you reuse tokeep my commands and my instructions? Bear in mind that theLord has given you the Sabbath; that is why on the sixth day Hegives you bread or two days. Everyone is to stay where he is on theseventh day; no one is to go out. So the people rested on the seventhday. (Exodus 16:28-30)

All this occurred about three or our weekspriorto the

giving o the law at Sinai, proo positive that the Sabbathwasnt rst introduced there.Thus, what we see in the Bible is that the rst thing

that God created holy, the rst thing that God sanctied,or declared holy, was not a hill, a shrine, or a placebut ablock o time, the seventh day.

Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctied it, because

in it He rested rom all His work which God had created andmade. (Genesis 2:3)

Look at how much sense that makes. Ater all, i Godhad made one specic place holya hill, a spring, a citynot all people would have easy access to it. They would haveto travel to worship there. But time comes to us, instead o

us going to it.Once a week, at a thousand miles per hourtheapproximate speed at which the Earth rotates on its axisthe Sabbath circles the globe. Arriving on one sundown,


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leaving on the next, the seventh day washes over the planeteach week. We never have to seek it. The day always ndsus! Meanwhile, look at history. Holy cities can be burned.

Holy people can be killed. Holy shrines can be looted. Buttime is beyond all that. You can smash all the clocks in the

world, but time marches on, out o our reach even thoughwe are immersed in it.

Thereore, by making a special time holy, God hasmade the Sabbath invincible, placing it in an element thattranscends any devices o mankind. Armies can sack cities,rulers can ban pilgrimages, but no one can keep away theseventh day. We can no more stop the Sabbath than we canthe phases o the moon.

The Sabbath has been called a monument in timeand a palace in time. Only those who keep it can knowor themselves what a blessing it is to spend time in such a

wonderul place as a palace.

The Joy of the Sabbath

One o the greatest ironies o lie in the 21st century isthis: Everything we have seems to go aster and aster: ast

computers, ast cars, ast airplanes, ast cell phones...aster,aster, aster. With the mere fick o cell phone or click o amouse, we can do what once took weeks, months, or evenlonger.

Twenty ve years ago, scientists were amazed thata massive mainrame computer could process a billion

pieces o inormation a second (a gigahertz), about 2.5times slower than the speed o the average laptop today.In a ew years, a ew billion computations a second wontbe ast enough to run most programs. Some computers


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are now computing in terafops (a trillion calculations persecond). Eventually, CPU speeds measured in gigahertz

will be as antiquated and outdated as 5.25-inch fat foppy

drives are now.And though were moving at speeds our ancestors would

have deemed miraculous, even supernatural, most peoplecomplain about the same thingtheres not enough timein the day or week.

Were harried, burned-out and deep-ried in timebecause no matter what we do and how ast we do it, andno matter where we go or how ast we get there, theres stillmore to do, more places to go and not enough minutesin which to do it. I days were 40 hours it wouldnt matter,

would it? Wed still eel as i we need more, right? Timeis a tyrant that demands all we have, and we never haveenough.

And yet, heres an amazing git: Thousands o yearsago, the Lord gave humanity a commandment createdto protect us rom this tyrant. The Lord carved out aninviolable and indestructible reuge rom this insatiablesilent rush o time that casts us all along in its unrelentingfow.

O course, were talking about the Sabbath com-

mandment, the one that started in Eden. Think about it:I God deemed that humans, in a perect sinless world,needed a Sabbath restwhat about all o us immersed ina allen world where greed, avarice and the desire to getahead all but dominates just about everything?

So oten in the hustle and bustle o lie, in the rush to

make money, to advance careers and to get aheadwhogets let behind but spouses, children and loved ones? Godis telling us, No, I dont want that to happen, and henceI have carved out this reuge or you, this monument in


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time, where the boss, the bills and the things that dominateyou the rest o the week are not allowed in.

Imagine a wealthy and successul businessman

approaching the nal days o his lie. As he looks back overthe many decades, he says to himsel, I I had to do it allover, I wish I would have spent more time at work and lesstime with my wie and kids.

Not likely, is it? Who, toward the end o their lie,wishes they had spent less time, not more, with their amilyand loved ones? How many wish they had spent less timechasing money and more time with their amily? TheSabbath gives us a block o time, every weekand withoutexceptionthat can be dedicated in a special way to theones we love and care about the most.

How interesting, too, that the seventh-day Sabbath isthe only institution, along with marriage, that comes rom

a pre-all world. Both existed prior to sin, both come tous rom an unallen world, and both are inherently aboutrelationships.

No marriage worth the name marriage can existwithout time spent with each other, because only throughtime spent together can a relationship deepen and grow.Though marriage needs more than the Sabbath, the day

does provide an opportunity or special time together. Itstime thati protected rom the weekly distractions o the

worldcan greatly strengthen the marriage bonds. Andin a day and age when marriages are alling apart, how

wonderul to have this block o time wrapped in such aspecial package!

By partitioning or us a special portion o time eachweek, the Sabbath aords us an opportunity to use this timeor what well never regret, such as building relationships

with those we love and care about.


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Again, olks might regret time wasted on an endlessnumber o things, but whos going to regret time spent onorging bonds with amily and riends? The Sabbath gives

us that chance by carving out one-seventh o our lives thatcan be used just or that, again allowing nothing worldlyto intrude.

Heres how one writer expressed his experience withthe Sabbath and amily:

I love to walk with my boy through the wooded trails where welive. We can take our time and enjoy what we see because theresno rush to meet business appointments or to turn on my word

processor. Nothing secular is allowed to intrude. My two-year-oldson loves to run and yell and laugh and collect sticks and rocksand allen apples. The richest, happiest, most precious momentso my existence have been on Sabbath aternoons, where I have the

reedom to rolic leisurely with my son. Few sounds touch my heart

more than his uninhibited shrieks and laughter as he romps reelike a little lamb. Sabbath gives us a sacred break, valued beyondmoney. (Cliord Goldstein, Pause or Peace, p. 35)

No question, the Sabbath provides us with a wonderulexperience each week to rest in Him, and in that rest wecan enjoy in a special way the blessings He has given us. Itsa wonderul experience, and only those who enter into it,

into this monument in time can ully appreciate what ajoy it really is.

Didnt Jesus Change the Sabbath?

O course, the words written above naturally releasea host o questions, such as: Didnt Jesus change theseventh-day Sabbath to Sunday? Isnt Sunday the day wenow keep in honor o the resurrection o Jesus? Why do


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most Christians keep Sunday instead o the seventh day?Isnt the keeping o the seventh day an attempt to work

your way into Heaven? And, besides, does it really matter

which day we keep?Those are air enough questions, and well look at each

one. First, we so oten hear that Jesus Himsel changed,or nullied, the seventh-day Sabbath by His actions and

words. This is a common argument, and one that manywell-meaning people have used and still use today. But is itcorrect?

Lets look at some o those Sabbath incidents withJesus. As we do, the questions we need to ask ourselves are,Is Jesus teaching that the Sabbath is to be done away withor changed to another day? Or is Jesus teaching the peoplehow to keep the Sabbath properly?

These are two radically dierent positions, and the

answer would bring us to radically dierent conclusions inregard to the importance o the Sabbath. The rst wouldmean that the seventh-day Sabbath is, indeed, abolishedreplaced with another day. The latter would mean that

Jesus is teaching us how to best keep itpowerul proo oits continued validity!

In the book o Matthew, chapter 12, we see two incidents

in which Jesus and the religious leaders clashed over theSabbath. Again, as we read, we need to ask this question:Is His purpose to invalidate the seventh-day Sabbath, or toreinorce it by showing us how it is to be kept? At that time Jesus went through the grainelds on the Sabbath.His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads o grain

and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawul on the Sabbath.He answered, Havent you read what David did when he andhis companions were hungry? He entered the house o God, and


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he and his companions ate the consecrated breadwhich was notlawul or them to do, but only or the priests. Or havent you readin the law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate

the Sabbath and yet are innocent? I tell you that something greaterthan the temple is here. I you had known what these words mean,I desire mercy, not sacrice, you would not have condemned theinnocent. For the Son o Man is Lord o the Sabbath. (Matthew12:1-8)

A number o points stand out. First, though theyaccused Jesus o doing what was unlawul on the Sabbath(picking grain), one can read the Old Testament rombeginning to end and nd nothing prohibiting what theydid. The issue wasnt whether the disciples broke a biblicalcommand, which they didnt, but whether they broke someman-made regulation, which they did.

Second, the issue or Jesus was mercy and compassion;

people were hungry and needed some ood. Thats the realissue here, not some strict man-made rule that, i ollowed,would have let his disciples hungry (you just didnt run intothe nearest 7-11 back then when your stomach growled).

Third, i Jesus had intended to use this incident toabolish, weaken, or change the Sabbath, then why didntHe say something about that? What a perect opportunity

to have said, The Sabbath is Old Covenant; we areentering a New Covenant, thereore, we dont need tokeep it anymore or something similar?

Instead, what He actually said was, For the Son o Manis Lord o the Sabbath. Those would be very strange words

were seeking, in any way, to abolish, lessen, or change the

Sabbath to another day. I anything, those words strengthenthe validity o the seventh-day Sabbath.Right ater that incident, Matthew tells o a miraculous

Sabbath healing by Jesus:


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Going on rom that place, he went into their synagogue, anda man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking or a reason tobring charges against Jesus, they asked him, Is it lawul to heal

on the Sabbath? He said to them, I any o you has a sheep andit alls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold o it andlit it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep!Thereore it is lawul to do good on the Sabbath. Then he said tothe man, Stretch out your hand. So he stretched it out and it wascompletely restored, just as sound as the other. (Matthew 12:9-13)

Notice the words o Jesus: Is it lawul to heal on theSabbath? Jesus then talks about what one would do on theSabbath i one o their animals ell into a ditch.

The issue, again, is compassion and kindnessevento animalson the Sabbath. And i so with animals, thenhow much more with human beings? What is the issue:

Changing the Sabbath, or keeping it properly? The answeris obvious.Jesus perorms a miracle, and instead o ocusing on

the miracle, the religious leaders ocus on the act that itwas done on the Sabbathan attitude that reveals theirtwisted and distorted understanding o the Sabbath. Andit was this that Jesus came to change: The wrong attitudes

about the Sabbath and about how to keep it. It was not tochange the day o the Sabbath itsel.

Ater all, i Jesus were seeking to change the Sabbath toanother day, or abolish it, these incidents would have givenHim the perect opportunity. Instead, in both cases, as inall the Sabbath conficts between Jesus and the religious

leaders, the issue was never over whetherthe Sabbath shouldbe kept, but over how. Why would Jesus show people howto properly keep a day that was about to be abolished orchanged?


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In his amous talk to the disciples about the destructiono Jerusalemwhich would occur about 40 years ater HisdeathJesus said the ollowing:

But pray ye that your fight be not in the winter, neither onthe Sabbath day. (Matthew 24:20)

Had Jesus intended or the Sabbath day to be abolished,why would He have warned His ollowers about feeing onthat day i it were no longer sacred?

Notice, too, the ollowing words o Luke. Talking aboutsome emale ollowers o Jesus and what they did ater Hisdeath, Luke wrote:

And the women also, which came with Him rom Galilee,ollowed ater, and beheld the sepulchre, and how His body waslaid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; andrested the Sabbath day according to the commandment. Now uponthe rst day o the week, very early in the morning, they came unto

the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, andcertain others with them. (Luke 23:55 - 24:1)

Two crucial points stand out as worthy o notice. First,the women who ollowed Jesus rested the Sabbath dayaccording to the commandment. Which commandment?The ourth, o course, the seventh-day Sabbath. I duringHis earthly ministry, Jesus had abolished it, or transerred

it to the rst day, these women obviously knew nothingabout it.

Second, notice how the rst day o the week is indeedmentioned in these texts, but in direct contrast with theSabbath. On the rst day o the week the women cameto the tomb in order to bring more spices. Nothing was

said about the rst day o the week taking the place o theseventh as a holy day. Nothing.It was simply mentioned in order to show the

time rame o the events surrounding the death and


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resurrection o Jesus. Nothing in these texts, or any otherones (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16; John 20:1) dealing withthe events surrounding His death and resurrection imply

that the rst day had, in any way, replaced the seventh-daySabbath.

What About Those Other First-Day Texts?

This mention o the rst day in the gospels is exemplaryo the other ew reerences to the rst day in the NewTestament in thatnothing is said about the rst day being areplacement or the seventh day.

Many look to John 20:19 as an early example o theseventh day being replaced by the rst. The verse ocuseson the ollowers o Jesus, still in disarray over His death,

and still uncertain about His resurrection. Then, thesame day at evening, being the rst day o the week, whenthe doors were shut where the disciples were assembled,or ear o the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, andsaid to them, Peace be with you.

Was this a worship service held in honor o Jesusresurrection on the rst day o the week, as some argue?

No, the text says nothing about that. They were there, notto celebrate the resurrection, but because they were earulo the leaders who had hounded Jesus and His disciplesrom the start.

In John 20:20, Jesus showed them His hands and Hisside, indicating that, until He appeared in their midst,

they were still somewhat uncertain that He had beenresurrected. Thus, why would they be celebrating theresurrection when, until He appeared to them, they still

werent sure it had happened?


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In act, the only text in the New Testament that talksabout any kind o worship service on the rst day o the

week is Act 20:7. Now on the rst day o the week, when

the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, readyto depart the next day, spoke to them and continued hismessage until midnight.

Does this teach, as many claim, that the seventh-daySabbath had been replaced by the rst day o the week asthe new day o worship?

One argument is that the breaking o bread reerredto in the text is the Lords Supper; hence, this was a worshipservice on the rst day o the week; hence, the seventh-daySabbath was abolished and replaced with Sunday. Not soast, though.

O the 15 times the phrase to break bread is usedin the New Testament (in various verbal orms), only

twice does it reer to the Lords Supper. The majority oreerences deal merely with eating.Acts 2:46, or instance, talks about the ollowers o

Christ continuing daily with one accord in the temple, andbreaking breadrom house to house, they ate their oodwithgladness and simplicity o heart (emphasis supplied).

Breaking bread here, as in most instances in the New

Testament, doesnt mean the Lords Supper; it simply reersto the eating o meals. Also, Acts 20 suggests that Paul isbreaking bread alone: When he had come up, had brokenbread and eaten...he departed. (Acts 20:11) The verbs arein the singular, so Paul is obviously not participating in aCommunion service, and nothing in the whole section says

a word about wine.Doesnt the text still indicate a Sunday worship service?I Luke used the Jewish ways o reckoning days, which isrom sundown to sundown, which he probably did, then


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the assembly talked about in the text really happenedSaturday night, ater the sun had set (Paul talked even tilldaybreak).

I Paul began preaching a Sunday morning sermon, itwould have been a very long day, because he went on untilmidnight. Most likely, they held this all-nighter because he

was to depart in the morning.Finally, as with all the reerences to the rst day o the

week, nothing here indicates that it was a sacred time togather in order to honor the resurrection o Jesus. Andeven more so, nothing indicates that it was a replacementor the seventh-day Sabbath.

Throughout the rest o the New Testament, the rstday appears in only one other text, when Paul wrote to theCorinthians about a relie oering or the poor in Judea.It reads:

On the rst day o every week, each one o you should set asidea sum o money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so thatwhen I come no collections will have to be made. (1 Corinthians16:2)

Again, as with every other reerence to the rst day,nothing is implied about it being a sacred day to honorthe resurrection o Jesus, or that it is a replacement or

the Sabbath. Nothing is said about worship. Scholars andhistorians arent sure why Paul mentioned that day inparticular to collect the oering or the poor, but the textitsel oers no evidence, whatsoever, o Sunday now beingthe day that supersedes the Sabbath.

Finally, what about John, in the book o Revelation,

when he writes that: I was in the spirit on the Lords Day?(Revelation 1:10) Doesnt that prove Sunday worship inthe early church?


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First, not all scholars agree on what that phrase evenmeans. Second, as we have seen, no New Testamentreerence ever gives Sunday a sacred character, or depicts

it as a new covenant replacement or Sabbath. Third, justbecause or years Sunday has been called the Lords Dayby Christians doesnt make it the Lords Day any more thanthe belie that the Earth was the center o the universemade it the center o the universe.

Its hardly honest or air to read back into a textsomething that the Bible itsel never calls it. The bestevidence we have rom the Bible on the meaning o theLords Day is, in act, that it is reerring to the seventh-day Sabbath. Why? Because the Sabbath commandmentin Exodus says that the seventh day is the Sabbath o theLord thy God (Exodus 20:10), or the Lords Day. The Lordcalls the seventh-day Sabbath, My holy day (Isaiah 58:13),

or the Lords Day.And nally, in three gospels, Jesus, the Lord, calledHimsel Lord even o the Sabbath. (Matthew 12:8; Mark2:28; Luke 6:5) It is His, the Lord Jesus day. Or simply theLords Daya phrase never used in the Bible in reerenceto the rst day o the week.

In a book called The Lords Day, written by a man who

dedicated his lie to promoting Sunday worship, the authorsaid fat out:

We must admit that we can point to no direct commandthat we cease observing the seventh day and begin using the rstday. (James Wesberry, The Lords Day, Broadman Press, 1986,

p. 100).


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Then Why Sunday?

The natural question is, I there is no biblical evidenceor Sunday, then why do most denominations worship onthat day instead o the seventh day?

The answer lies buried in antiquity. Historical evidencedoes show a move away rom the seventh day to the rstday in the early centuries o the Christian church. Volumes

have been written on the topic, with dierent positionstaken.The best scholarship, at this point, seems to be the

ollowing: The early Christian church was a sect o Judaism,or at least deemed that way by the Romans. The ounder,

Jesus, was a Jew. The earliest ollowers were all Jews. It usedthe Jewish Bible. It originated in the land o the Jews. It

ollowed many Jewish practices, including the seventh-daySabbath.

The only problem was, the Romans hated the Jews,who were constantly revolting against their rule. Over theyears, as more and more Gentiles began joining the churchranks, the church wanted to disassociate itsel as much as

possible rom the unpopular Jews. The one practice that,more than any other, distinguished the Jews as Jews wasyesthe seventh-day Sabbath.

Because many o the pagans who were becomingChristians kept Sunday (the day o the Sun), over time,Sunday started to slowly replace the seventh day until theseventh-day Sabbath was all but lost to history, at least in

the Christian church.By the time Roman Catholicism became the ocial

religion o the empire, Sundayinstead o the biblical


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Sabbathwas rmly embedded in its tradition. Theollowing quotes, just a ew o many, are all taken romRoman Catholic publications, and help explain the

background o the change o the seventh-day Sabbath tothe rst day o the week:

Now in the matter o the Sabbath observance the Protestantrule o Faith is utterly unable to explain the substitution o theChristian Sunday or the Jewish Saturday. It has been changed.The Bible still teaches that the Sabbath or Saturday should be keptholy. There is no authority in the New Testament or the substitutiono Sunday or Saturday. Surely it is an important matter. It standsthere in the Bible as one o the Ten Commandments o God. Thereis no authority in the Bible or abrogating this Commandment, or

or transerring its observance to another day o the week.For Catholics it is not the slightest diculty. All power is

given Me in heaven and on earth; as the Father sent Me so I

also send you, said our Divine Lord in giving His tremendouscommission to His Apostles. He that heareth you heareth Me. Wehave in the authoritative voice o the Church the voice o ChristHimsel. The Church is above the Bible; and this transerence oSabbath observance rom Saturday to Sunday is proo positiveo that act. Deny the authority o the Church and you have noadequate or reasonable justication or the substitution o Sunday

or Saturday... (The Catholic Record, Sept. 1, 1923) Q. Have you any other way o proving that the [RomanCatholic] Church has power to institute estivals o precept?

A. Had she not such power, she could not have done that inwhich all modern religionists agree with her;she could not havesubstituted the observance o Sunday the rst day o the week, or

the observance o Saturday the seventh day, a change or whichthere is no Scriptural authority. (Stephan Keenan, A DoctrinalCatechism, 3rd American ed., rev.; New York: T.W. Strong, late

Edward Dunigan & Bro., 1876, p. 174.) Quoted in Seventh-


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day Adventist Bible Students Source Book (Review and HeraldPublishing Company, Hagerstown, MD, 1962, p. 886.)

Though today, in the climate o a better relationship

between Catholics and Protestants, Romes tone aboutthe Sabbath has changed, even i the point remains valid:The Bible does not teach anything about the seventh-daySabbath, a commandment o God, abrogated or transerredto the rst day. Sunday, oten reerred to as the ChristianSabbath, is in act neither Christian nor the Sabbath.

A Works Trip?

But isnt keeping the seventh-day Sabbath legalistic, aworks tripthe practice o people who dont understandthat we are saved by the righteousness o Jesus or us, a

righteousness credited to us by aith and apart rom theworks o the law?Didnt Paul write: Where, then, is boasting? It is

excluded. Because o what law? The law that requiresworks? No, because o the law that requires aith. For wemaintain that a person is justied by aith apart rom the

works o the law? (Romans 3:27-28)

It is common to hear that argument, that those whokeep the seventh-day Sabbath are legalists, trying to worktheir way to Heaven. The irony o that charge, however, islaughable. Think about it: How is it that the one commandmentdevoted to rest, the one commandment that specically expressesrest, the one commandment that gives us a special opportunity

to rest, has been turned into the universal symbol o salvation byworks?How much sense does that make? In act, ar rom

being a symbol o works, the Sabbath is the Bibles most


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undamental symbol o the rest that Gods people havealways had in Himrom the pre-all world o Adam andEves Eden, to the New Covenant rest that Gods ollowers

have in Christs work o redemption or them.There remaineth thereore a rest to the people o

God (Hebrews 4:9). The Sabbath has always been a real-time maniestation o the rest that Christ oers to all (seeMatthew 11:28).

Ater all, anyone can say that they are resting in Christ,and anyone can say that they are saved by grace. But thekeeping o the seventh-day Sabbath is a visible expressiono that resta living parable o what it means to be coveredby His grace. Weekly rest rom secular, worldly works standsas a symbol o the rest in the completed work o Jesus orHis people.

For he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased rom

his own works, as God did rom His. (Hebrews 4:10)Obedience to this commandment is a way o saying:

Hey, were so sure o our salvation in Jesus, were so rmand secure in what Christ has done or us, that we canina special wayrest rom any o our works because we know

what Christ has accomplished or humanity through Hisdeath and resurrection.

It would seem that by obeying the commandmentsagainst stealing, or covetousness, or idolatry, or murder,olks could be accused o legalismsalvation by worksi,indeed, anyone can be justly accused o legalism by obeyingGods law.

When was the last time you heard o someone keeping

the commandment against adultery or stealing beingaccused o working their way into Heaven? Yet people areaccused all the time o trying to work their way to Heavenbecause they restrest!on the seventh-day Sabbath!


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Does the Day Really Matter?

OK, maybe the seventh-day Sabbath is the biblicalSabbath and there is no evidence or keeping Sunday......but does it really matter?

Think back to Frank Abagnales bogus MD. It was ausurpation o authority and power that was not really histo begin with. Did it matter? Absolutely.

What about in the grand scheme o thingsthe biggesto all, in actthat o creation and o God as Creator (andlets ace it, you cant get much bigger than that!)

I, as weve seen, the seventh-day Sabbath is a sign oGods authority, power and oce, then any attemptedusurpation o that sign strikes at the very heart o Gods

authority, power and oce. To take the specic signo Gods role as Creator, a sign He instituted Himsel atcreation, and to replace it with something else, representsa fagrant attack against His authority.

It strikes at the most basic level possible, that o Creator,the position upon which all else He has done depends.The only step urther back is to God Himsel and, as we

saw, Satan wanted to usurp that role right rom the start. How you are allen rom heaven, O Lucier, son o themorning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakenedthe nations! For you have said in your heart: I will ascend intoheaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars o God; I will also siton the mount o the congregation on the arthest sides o the north;

I will ascend above the heights o the clouds, I will be like the MostHigh. (Isaiah 14:12-14)O course, unable to do that, he usurped the most

basic sign o Gods power and authoritythe seventh-day


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Sabbathand replaced it with a day that has no biblicalsanction at all.

Thus, looking at it that wayyes, the day does matter.

According to the book o Revelation, God is calling peopleto worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea,and the ountains o waters. (Revelation 14:7)

That is, to worship Him as Creator (notice, too,how closely linked the language is to that o the ourthcommandment, in Exodus 20: For in six days the Lordmade the heavens and the earth, the sea...)

Right along with that call to worship, the Lord asCreator is the warning against those who worship the beastand his image.

I any man worship the beast and his image, and receive hismark in his orehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink o thewine o the wrath o God... (Revelation 14:9, 10)

In the nal days, there will be a blatant division o allhumanity: Those who worship God, the Creator, and thosewho worship the beast and his image (and thus get theinamous mark o the beast).

The key element in this division is worship. Either weworship God as our Creator, or we worship the beast andhis image.

And, in the midst o this warning about the beast andthe mark o the beast, Revelation describes Gods aithulpeople:

Here is the patience o the saints: here are they that keepthe commandments o God, and the aith o Jesus. (Revelation14:12)

They keep the commandments o God and, o all thecommandments, only one, the Sabbath, shows why weshould worship Godand thats because He made theheavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them.


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O course, no one is asserting that the good peoplewho keep Sunday are seeking to usurp Gods authority. Onthe contrarymost know nothing about what was behind

the change to Sunday and would be horried to know thetruth. Nor are people who worship on Sunday, as opposedto the seventh-day Sabbath, under any kind o divinecondemnation.

The act remains, however, that the seventh-day Sabbathis the sign o Gods power and authority, a sign that goesback to the creation itsel, and thus the change to Sundayremains the most blatant usurpation o that authority. Ithats not important, what is?

A Pause for Peace

Nevertheless, putting aside or now all the deeptheological questions about power and usurpation andauthority, we come back to the experience o the Sabbath,this monument in time, this pause or peace.

Who doesnt need a monument in time? Who doesntneed a pause or peace? Gods Sabbath oers us all that,every week, without exception. It gives us the opportunity

to step back, unwind, relax, enjoy our amily and riends,recalibrate, reassess, and reocus on what matters in lie.

What other commandment gives us a weekly respiterom the crushing worldly weights o our existence? Whatother commandment opens or us the opportunity, or aull day, to delight in our Lord with no secular interruptions

allowed?What other commandment gives us the reedom to say,I am Gods, rst by creation, then by redemption, and or


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an entire day I can especially rejoice in my creation and myredemption?

What other commandment allows us to sing with the

psalmist:This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad

in it. (Psalm 118:24)Only those who have experienced the Sabbath or

themselves can know the joy that comes with it.Why not enter into this sacred time each week?

Experience or yoursel the joy that God oers us in thisancient expression o the rest that we have in Christ, ourLord o the Sabbath!


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Monument in Time - Shawn Boontra

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