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ask, "What do you make or sell?" he will tell you that they
make signs for business firms, institutions, or professional
individuals to hang in front of their places of business. The
sign
identi.fies
whose establishment, institution or office is
inside.
lt ldentlfies
A sign is a badge, symbol, or token of identity. You see the
sign, "A. B. Brown, Furniture and Furnishings." The sign
identifies the
owner.
It tells you what kind of business he
owns. Webster's dictionary defines a sign thus: "A publicly
displayed notice on a building, office, etc. to advertise the
business there transacted, or the name of the person or firm
conducting it. Something indicating theexistenceofa thing;
a token." And, of course, there are the special technical
meanings in mathematics, medicine, astronomy.
The word which Moses wrote in the Hebrew language
which is translated "sign" is
'owth,
and lhe Hebrew–
English dictionary defines it as "signa!, as a flag, beacon,
monument, evidence, elc.- mark, miracle, sigo, token." A
flag identifies a nation. A beacon is a signa! to announce
the existcnce of something warned about. A token is a
visible sigo; something that serves asan identifying signa!
to make something known, as a white flag is a token of
surrender .
God commanded His people to keep His Sabbath as a
sign.
lt is a sign between God's people and God: " ... a
sign between me and you," the commandment says.
It
is a
badge or token of JOENTJTY.
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t advertises, or announces, or
proclaims certain identifying knowledge. But WHAT
KNOWLEDGE? God answers: " ... that ye may
know
that
1
am the Lord tha t doth sanctify you."
Who ls God?
Note those words carefully! It is the
sign
that JDENTJFJES
to them who is their God! l t is the sign by which we may
know
tha t He is the Lord!
lt
identifies God!
But doesn't everybody know who God is? Absolutely
not! This whole world is deceived- so says your Bible.
This world has a god- a false god-Satan the devil! He
pretends to be "an angel of light"
(11
Cor.
11 :
14). He has
bis re1igious organizations- his churches. Not all are
Buddhist, Shintoist, Taoist, Confucianist. Many have ap–
propriated the very name "Christian," but their ministers,
says your Bib1e, actually are Satan's ministers: " And no
marvel ; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of
light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be
transformed as the ministers of righteousness"
(11
Cor.
l
1:14-15).
But do they actually call themselves the ministers of
CHRIST? Read the verse just before the two just quoted–
verse 13: "·For such are false apostles, deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ." Yes,
Satan is the great counterfeiter . He palrns himself off as
Goo. He is called, in your Bible, the
god of this world
( 11
Cor. 4:4). He palms off his ministers as the ministers of
The
PLAIN TRUTH May 1979
CHRJST-and they accuse the
true
ministers of Christ of
being "false apostles" to divert suspicion from them–
selves!
Does this world's "Christianity"
rea/ly
know the TRUE
Goo?
lt
is
deceived
into believing it does , and a deceived
world may be sincere in that fa lse belief. One's
god
is the
one, or the thing, whom be serves and obe)'s. But the true
Goo is the One whom we
should obey.
This world is not taught to OBEY Goo! lts false "Chris–
tianity" teaches that God's law is "done away." It actually
puts human conscience, actuated by Satan's false teach–
ing, in place ofGod's law!
It
does not teach, as did Christ,
that we must actually
live
by every word of Goo-all of
the BJBLE!
It
OBEYS Satan by
sinning!
Satan, therefore, is
this world's god!
The Purpose of the Sabbath
God gave man His Sabbath for tbe purpose of keeping
mankind in the true know1edge and true worship of the
true Goo. But
how
does the Sabbath identify God- how
does it point to the
true
God, rather than the fa lse? Does
not Sunday do just as well? Posi tively not!
Notice verse 17 of this special Sabba th covenant: "It is
a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for
in six days lhe LORD made heaven and earth, and on the
seventh day he rested, and was refreshed" (Ex. 31: 17).
l t was on
the seventh
day of that creation week that He
rested from the work of creation. Not Sunday, the first
day of the week. Only
the seventh
day of the week points
back lO CREATION.
How does
that
identify who Goo is?
l f you believe anyone else or anything else is God,
1
will
prove
that my God is the true God, because whatever else
you may think is god was madc or created by the true
God. He who created and made
every thing else
is
GREATER than whatever He made-superior to anything
else that could be called god.
CREATJON is the
proof
of God--of His existence. l t–
the act of
creating-identi.fies
Him!
So God took the most enduring, lasting, imperishable
thing man can know- a recurring space of time-the
only
day that is a memorial of the act of creating. He took the
only day
which points, constantly, every
seventh
day of
the week, to God's resting on the seventh day of creation
week from CREATJNG; which points to the existence of the
Almighty, All -Powerful, All-Ruling God- the Creator!
And God sct that particula r day apart from others as
His day- God made that particular day sacred and holy
to HtM-designating it as the
very
day on which HE
commands His people lo assemble for WORSHtP- the day
man is commanded to REST from his own work and phys–
ical pleasure- and to be refreshed by assembling with
othcr obedient worshipers in spiritual fellowship!
No other day is a memorial and reminder of CREATION.
True, Satan has deceived a deluded world into supposing
Christ's resurrection occurred on Sunday morning at sun-
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