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emperor, not a churchman. Then ,
in the Synod of Laodicea, A.D.
365, there was decreed one of the
church's most famous canons:
"Christians must not judaize by
resting on the Sabbath, but must
work on that day, rather , honoring
the Lord's day. But if any shall be
found to be judaizing, Jet them be
anathema from Christ." This was
tantamount to a death sentence.
Space does not allow me, in this
prescnt writing, to give a thorough
and complete explanation of the
biblical teaching on the vital impor–
tance of keeping God's Sabbath.
Our free booklet
Which Day l s the
Christian Sabbath?
will present a
far more complete explanation.
Briefly, however, here are sorne
significant and high-point scriptur–
al teachings:
At the end of what is called "cre–
ation week," the following evcnt is
revealed: "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 al l his work
which God created and made"
(Gen. 2:2-3). God was not tired or
weary. But he set mankind an exam–
ple, and put his own presence in that
day. This he has never done in
regard to Sunday or any other day.
Adam rejected God's tree of
LJFE, God's law and God's rule over
him. There is no evidence that
Adam's family in general kept the
Sabbath holy for nearly the first
2,500 years. But when God called
the children of I srael out of
Egypt- a type of calling the
Church out of the world- God
revealed to the Israelites his Sab–
bath.
In Exodus 16, the children of
Israel complained they were about
to starve. God said he would send
food from heaven, in the form of
manna, to " prove them, whether
they will walk in my law, or no."
This concerned obediencc or SIN.
On the sixth day of the wcek God
sent a double portian of manna, but
God sent NONE on the seventh day.
And Mases said on the . sixth day,
"To morrow is the rest of the IIOLY
SABBATH unto the Lord." Then on
the Sabbath Moses instructed them:
" To day is a sabbath unto the Lord:
38
to day ye shall not find it [manna] in
the field. Six days ye shall gather it;
but on the seventh day, which
is
the
sabbath, in it there shall be none"
(verses 23-26).
On the seventh day sorne went
out to try to gather manna. And
God said, "How long refuse ye to
keep my commandments and my
laws?"
Thus it was that God by a mira–
ele from heaven showed his people
which was the true Sabbath day.
And history as well as Jewish tradi–
tion show íhat the days of the week
have never been mixed up from
that day tiiJ NOW.
In Exodus 31:12-18 we read God
made the Sabbath an eterna! covE–
NANT between him and his people.
lt
was an identifying SIGN by which
God would know they were his
people, because in keeping the Sab–
bath they obeycd him in a manner
no others did.
lt
identified them as
his people. For no other people but
the people of God had ever kept
God's Sabbath.
It
identified God,
for creation is the proof of God.
J
n
six days he created life on earth,
and on the seventh day he rested
and made that day HOLv TIME–
holy to Goo!
In the 56th chapter of Isaiah is a
prophecy for our present time,
respecting the Sabbath: "Aiso the
sons of the stranger [gentiles], that
join themselves to the Lord , to
serve him, and to love the name of
the Lord , to be his scrvants, every
one that keepeth thc sabbath from
polluting it, and taketh hold of my
covenant; even them will
J
bring to
my holy mountain, and make them
joyful in my house of prayer" (lsa.
56:6-7).
In Mark 2:28 Jesus declared,
"Therefore the Son of man is Lord
aJso of the sabbath." So the Sab–
bath is truly THE LORo's DAY-not
Sunday.
The Sabbath, as stated above, is
the one test commandment- the
one even professi ng so-call ed
Christians refuse to obey. In I John
2:4 we read: " He that saith, 1 know
him, and keepeth not his command–
ments, is a liar, and the truth is not
in him."
Sin is the transgression of God's
LAW (1 John 3:4).
The original Church of God,
under the apostles, kept the Sab-
bath. The apostle Paul preached to
gentiles on the Sabbath days for a
year and six months, after he had
turned to the gentiles in Corinth
(Acts 18:4-11 ).
As the Sabbath is the identifying
sigo of the people of God (Jew, gen–
tile or any race), so Sunday is the
mark that identifies the AUTHORITY
of false Christianity- "BABYLON
THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HAR–
LOTS"- because Sunday carries no
other authority. The substitution of
the pagan Sunday to counterfeit
God's Sabbath is a primary strata–
gem of Satan in deceiving al l
nations, and counterfeiting God's
TRUTH as well as God's Church.
Onc of the excuses used by "tra–
ditional Christianity" for Sunday
observance is the false belief that
J esus' resurrection from the dead
occurred on Sunday. But in actual
fact thc resurrection did not occur
on a Sunday morning but late on a
Sabbath afternoon. For proof that
this tradition is false, read our free
booklet
The Resurrection Was Not
on Sunday.
Then read this truth in
your own Bible.
Jesus said: " Howbeit in vain do
they wors hip me, teaching for doc–
trines the commandments of men.
For laying aside the commandment
of God, ye hold the tradition of
men. . . . Full well ye reject the
commandment of God, that ye may
keep your own tradition" (Mark
7:7-9).
This is one of the keys that
unlock the door to the identity of
the one true original Church of
God, establ ished by Jesus Christ,
as it has continued to withs tand the
onslaughts of Satan through the
years and centuries. But it is not
the only identifying sign.
The True Name
J esus prayed for his Church:
" ... Holy Father, keep through
thine own name
those whom thou
hast given me, that they may be
ONE, as wc are. While I was with
them in the worlcl, 1 kept them
in
thy name.
...
And now come 1 to
thee.... 1 have given them thy
word; and the world hath hated
them, because
they are not OF the
world,
even as 1 am not OF the
world. 1 pray not that thou should–
est take them out of the world, but
that thou shouldest keep them from
The
PLAIN TRUTH