| (Copyright 10-06-2024) by Jeffrey Caldwell (Arkansas) |
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| For months now I have been writing to thousands of the leaders and churches of Christendom, of all denominations, everyone I could get an email address for, now in many states from Maine to Georgia, which I’m working on now, having written to about 30 denominations so far in Georgia. I’m writing to them about the HOLINESS of the seventh-day Sabbath. And in other places as well, many Facebook groups with a potential audience of tens of thousands, I’ve posed this question to those who profess Christ as LORD: What does CHRIST say about the HOLINESS of the Sabbath today? To the question, the answer is the same Elijah got to his question to the House of Israel: ‘the people answered not a word’. From early on there is a very small percentage of leaders who write making arguments that keeping the Sabbath is not “binding” on Christians. That was actually quite helpful, ‘iron sharpening iron’ since answering them clarified even more for me the truth about the Sabbath. I’ve come to see that the Sabbath itself is an essential founding holy institution of the Kingdom of God, such as family and marriage, initiated by God on Day Six. Before I started on my letters to the states I posed the question to every mega-church in the United States. None of them answered a word. I haven’t counted, but working on this for months, I suppose I have sent it to tens of thousands of Christian leaders and congregations. A small percentage of congregations I could not reach with email, but they maintain Facebook discussion groups (usually small congregations); I posted the letter on several which accepted it and it even got a few likes and loves here or there. This is the current and best form of my letter, which I wish to share with your readers; the subject line is “Holiness”: Holiness Greetings to all who profess our Savior as LORD! The first believers follow the Way (Acts 9:2), your most holy faith … once delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:20,3). The Way: “Follow none but the LORD your God, and revere none but Him; observe His commandments alone, and heed only His orders; worship none but Him, and hold fast to Him” (Deuteronomy 13:5, Tanakh). Our Savior alone is Teacher, King, and Judge! Our Savior is the Holy One and we are called to be His holy ones. Peter says, as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16 quotes Leviticus 19:2). God disciplines us “so that we can share in His holiness … because no one will see the Lord without it” (Hebrews 12:10,14). Hazardous to holiness are merely mortal religious authorities –wolves or misguided (Matthew 7:21-23, 23:8-10). Our Savior is given all power and authority to put down all dominion, authority and power opposed to the will of God our Father (1 Corinthians 15:24). Let us pray that HE will do that in Christendom, now! What does CHRIST say about the HOLINESS of the Sabbath today? An unanswered question in Christendom –but should we not know? Originally, the Sabbath is sanctified on the seventh day of Creation, the first full day of human life, before covenants or sin. None of the LORD’s holy days (Leviticus 23:2) survived the apostolic era in common practice or reverence. For almost all believers Sunday replaces the biblical Sabbath as the weekly day of worship, with the holiness of the LORD’s holy days irrelevant and observing biblical Sabbaths obsolete. But biblically, Sunday is never sanctified, nor proclaimed an official day of worship. The seventh day at Creation follows Day Six when God created people, male and female, family (Luke 3:38), and marriage. Human life, sexuality, family, and marriage, all sacred, initiated by acts of God on Day Six, in hope of godly offspring (Malachi 2:15). God rested on the seventh day, blessing and sanctifying it for people. All are essential founding holy institutions of the Kingdom of God! God’s first instruction for BEING holy: “Ye shall fear every man his mother, and his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:3). The holy institutions of Day Six and the Sabbaths together nurture holiness. The Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27) by an act of God. “I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.” (Ecclesiastes 3:14 NIV). “God’s cessation from DOING expresses His desire for BEING with His creation, for giving to His creatures not only THINGS but HIMSELF” –Sabbath theologian Samuele Bacchiocchi. There is no separation between God and people on the Edenic Sabbath and our Savior is the only father Adam and Eve will ever know! HIS EXAMPLE is a model for fatherhood! Peter, knowing he is about to die, urges us to pay closest attention to the inspired words of the reliable fathers of the one true faith, the biblical apostles and prophets (2 Peter 1:12-21)! THEIRS is a legacy of inspired writings. Let us strive to know THEM as religious authorities! They know our Savior as no others and HE sent THEM to convey the holy faith “once for all time entrusted to His holy people” (Jude 1:20, 3 NLT)! A heaven-sent faith to defend and contend for and suffer for as need be. According to the Holy One, what makes Sunday superior to the Sabbath for GOD’s purposes? KNOW THE LORD! Holiness is a priority for Him, if not “others”! ——————————————————————————————————————– See Jeffry Caldwell’s other articles at: Caldwell, Jeffrey – Church of God, Bismarck (church-of-god-bismarck.org) ——————————————————————————————————————– |
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