95 THESES REGARDING THE TRUE DAY OF WORSHIP THE SEVENTH-DAY SABBATH

The original Biblical day of worship needs to be restored. It is the fourth commandment of the Decalogue found in Exodus 20:8-11. Which day is the true Sabbath? Many keep the first day of the week, or Sunday. What Bible authority have they for this? Here are the facts about both days, as plainly stated in the Word of God. 1. After working the first six days of the week in creating this earth, our Sovereign Creator rested on the Seventh day! (Genesis 2:1.3.)

2. God created all things through Jesus

Christ (Eph. 3:9). Thus, Jesus rested on the 7th-day Sabbath, too.

3. God’s rest day is the Seventh day. The word Sabbath means “rest.” Every Seventh day of the week (known today as Saturday) is God’s rest, or Sabbath, day. (Exodus 20:8-11.) Therefore you cannot change God’s rest day to a day on which He did not rest. Hence the Seventh day is still God’s Sabbath day. 4. After He rested from His work on the seventh day, the Creator blessed and sanctified (set apart for holy use) the Seventh day. (Genesis 2:3; Exodus 20:11.)

5. He made the Seventh-day Sabbath in Eden before the fall. Hence it is perfect.— not a type—not a “shadow of things to come.” (Gen. 2:1-3; Col. 2:17.) 6. It is a memorial of creation. Every time we rest upon the Seventh day, as God did at creation, we commemorate that grand event. (Ex. 20:11; 31:17; Heb. 4:10; Rev. 14:7.) 7. The Sabbath was a gift to Adam, the father of the human race, given to him by JESUS, the SECOND ADAM, who kept the Sabbath as our Example—an Example to be followed by all nations and peoples. Thus, the Sab

bath is a double gift to us. (Mark 2:27; Genesis 2:1-3; 1 Cor. 15:45; Luke 4:16; 1 Peter 2:21; Acts 17:26,27; Rev. 14:6,7.)

8. It is not a Jewish institution, for it was made over 2,000 years before the first Jew lived. The Bible never calls it the Jewish Sabbath, but always “the

Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Is it yours? (Exodus 20:10; Isa. 58:13; Rev. 1:10.)

9. Evident reference is made to the Sabbath and the seven-day week all through the Old and New Testaments. (Genesis 2:1-3; 8:10,12; 29:27-28; Luke 23:56; 24:1; Heb. 4:4,10; Rev. 14:7; etc.)

10. Moses taught the Israelites who had been slaves for decades that they must keep the Sabbath if they were to be delivered from Egyptian bondage. (Exodus 5:4,5.)

11. The Sabbath was a part of God's law before Sinai. As the manna fell from heaven for 40 years of wilderness wandering, a wonderful miracle

happened every Sabbath. (See Exodus 16:4, 27-29.)

12. God placed the Sabbath in the heart of His moral law. (Exodus 20:1-17.) Why did He place it there if it was not like the other nine precepts, which all admit to be immutable?

13. Just think, God is commanding us NOT to work, but TO REST, to get to know Him on the day He blessed and made holy.

14. Breaking the Sabbath is a moral sin. (1John 3:4.) Jesus came to save us from our sins. (Matthew 1:21.) Sabbath breaking is still a sin. (Lev.

4:1,2; 1 John 3:4; Exodus 34:21; Romans 3:31; 6:23; 8:3,4; Rev. 22:14.) 15. The 4th commandment is the only commandment that identifies who God is! “But the Seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God

(God’s name): …For in six days the LORD made (God’s title—Creator), heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is (God’s territory of rule), and rested the Seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11.) In the Sabbath commandment is the name, title, and territory of God—the Seal of living God! Will you receive the Seal of God in your forehead?

16. The Seventh-day Sabbath was commanded by the voice of the living God. (Deuteronomy 4:12,13.) This is not true for any other day.

17. God engraved it in the enduring stone, indicating its imperishable nature. (Deuteronomy 5:22.)

18. God wrote the Ten Commandments, including the fourth, with His own finger—a symbol of the Holy Spirit! (Exodus 31:18; Matthew 12:28; and Luke 11:20.) 19. Now the Holy Spirit wants to write God’s Law, including the Sabbath, on the fleshy tables of our NEW HEART and MIND according to the NEW COVENANT Promise! (Ezekiel 36:26,27; 2 Corinthians 3:3; Hebrews 10:15,16.)

20. It was sacredly preserved in the ark in the holy of holies. (Deuteronomy 10:1-5; Rev. 11:19.)

21. The Seventh-day Sabbath is a flag of God’s power both to create and

re-create His people. (Exodus 20:8-11; Deuteronomy 5:15; Psalm 33:6,9; 2 Corinthians 5:17.)

22. It is the sign of the true God, by which we are to know Him from false gods. (Ezekiel 20:20.)

23. It is the SIGN that GOD IS SANCTIFYING US AS HIS PEO

PLE! (Exodus 31:16,17; Ezekiel 20:12.)

24. In Jeremiah 17, God promised that Jerusalem should stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath. The blessings of Sabbath-keeping goes with TRUSTING IN THE LORD found in the same chapter!

25. God sent His people into Babylonian captivity and destroyed Jerusalem for breaking the Sabbath. (Nehemiah 13:17, 18; Jeremiah 17:27.)

26. God has pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles, and upon all people who will keep the Sabbath! This prophecy refers wholly to the Christian dispensation. (Isaiah 56:2, 6, 7.) 27. The holy Sabbath has been trodden down for “many generations,” but Isaiah predicted that it is to be restored in the last days by people whom he called the “REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH.” - (Isaiah 58:12-13.) This tract is a fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy! Will you help to repair the "breach" in God's law and be a part of the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy as well? 28. The Lord requires us to call the Sabbath “the holy of the Lord honourable” and “honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words.” (Isaiah 58:13.)

29. All the holy prophets kept the Seventh-day Sabbath.

30. When Jesus, the Son of God came, He kept the Seventh-day Sabbath all His life. (Luke 4:16; John 1:1-3; 15:10.) Thus He followed His Father's

and His own example at creation. Shall we not be safe in following the example of both the Father and the Son?

31. The Seventh-day Sabbath is the Lord's Day. (See Revelation 1:10;

Mark 2:28; Isaiah 58:13; Exodus 20:10.) JESUS WAS IN THE SPIRIT

ON THE LORD’S DAY! Luke 4:16-18.

32. Jesus was Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), that is, to love and protect it, as the husband is the lord of the wife, to love and cherish her (1 Peter 3:6.)

33. Jesus vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for man's good. (Mark 2:23-28.)

34. So far from abolishing the Sabbath, Jesus carefully taught His disciples to do well upon the Sabbath, preaching, healing, and all that is “lawful.” (Mt. 5:17,18; 12:1-13.)

35. He instructed His apostles that the Sabbath should be prayerfully regarded when Jerusalem would be destroyed in 70 AD—40 years after His

resurrection. (Mt 24:20.)

36. The pious followers of Christ who had been with Jesus carefully kept the Seventh-day Sabbath “according to the commandment” after His crucifixion. (Luke 23:56.)

37. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, called it the “Sabbath day” in 57 AD. (Acts 13:27.) Paul knew.

38. The Gentile converts asked Paul to preach the Word to them on the Sabbath. (Acts 13:42.) And Paul did, not on the first day, the day of the sun god, but on the Seventh-day Sabbath.

39. Luke, the inspired Gentile Christian historian, writing as late as AD 62, calls it the “Sabbath day.” (Acts 13:42,44; Luke 23:56.)

40. In the great Christian council, AD 51, in the presence of the apostles and thousands of disciples, James calls it the “Sabbath day.” (Acts 15:21.)

41. It was customary to hold prayer meetings upon the Seventh-day Sabbath. (Acts 16:13.)

42. Paul read the Scriptures in public meetings on the Sabbath. It was his custom to preach upon that day. (Acts 17:2-3.)

43. The Book of Acts alone gives a record of his holding eighty-four

meetings upon the Sabbath day! (See Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:4, 11.) 44. There was never any dispute between the Christians and the Jews about the Sabbath day. This is proof that the Christians (believing Jews) still observed the same day that the unbelieving Jews did.

45. In all their accusations against Paul, the unbelieving Jews never charged him with disregarding the Sabbath day. Why did they not, if he did not keep it? In fact, Paul said it was ESTABLISHED! (Romans 3:31.)

46. Paul himself expressly declared that he had kept the moral law. “Neither against the law of the Jews, neither against the temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any thing at all.” Acts 25:8. How could this be true if he had not kept the Sabbath? (Acts 24:16.)

47. The Seventh-day Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament fiftynine times, and always with respect, bearing the same title it had in the Old Testament, “the Sabbath day.”

48. Not a word is said anywhere in the New Testament about the Seventhday Sabbath's being abolished, done away, changed, or anything of the kind. Rather, it was just the opposite. (Romans 3:31; Hebrews 4:4, 10; 1 John 5:3; Rev. 14:7, 12.) It was the seven ceremonial sabbaths in the ceremonial law of the sanctuary service that were abolished at the cross when Jesus the Lamb of God was crucified. These sabbaths could occur on any day of the week and were not part of the Moral Law. (Colossians 2:14-17.)

49. God has never given permission to any man to work upon the Sabbath. Reader, by what authority do you use the Seventh day for common labor? (1 John 3:4.)

50. No Christian of the New Testament, either before or after the resurrection, ever did ordinary work upon the Seventh day. Find one case of that kind, and we will yield the question. Why should modern Christians do differently from Bible Christians?

To be continued tomorrow

Eternal Gospel Church, PO Box 15138 WPB Fl. 33416. Ph (561) 688-2150