to make a few remarks on the upholding of the Sabbath.
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" Exodus 20:8
(KJV)
"Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as Yahuwah
thy Eloah hath commanded thee." Deut
5:12 (KJV)
that holiness is required. If I am not holy, then I cannot keep the
sabbath day properly at all. If anyone makes the statement that
he/she can indeed keep the sabbath holy, then they have a complete
lack of understanding. To make this easy to understand, it means that
for that day not even one foul thought, and not even one foul deed
may be committed by me, not even by accident, all the sabbath days of
the rest of my life. Are we able to ? Not me, at least, I am not
able. All people can get the day right, and nothing more, but it
would be better if they gave it a miss (and then of course also err
in the requirement that we must keep it). Yahuwah knows that none of
us are able, and therefore He made a good plan to deliver us all from
the curse of the law that follows our inability to uphold it. But now
you will say to me that Yahuwah expects of you to try to uphold the
sabbath day anyway, and that He will forgive you if you are not able
to be perfectly holy on the day. And so by the same measure He will
then also forgive me if I have my church service on Sunday as I was
brought up to believe is correct but was then mistaken in believing
that it was correct. And if I do not listen to this website’s warning
that I must uphold the Sabbath Day for the reason of inability to
discern the "real truth" (if indeed it is real), then by
the same measure He will forgive me. Because I am absolutely
convinced that the day does not matter at all.
Answer: There are
several problems which your approach. First of all, you seem to
assume that the word "holiness" means "moral perfection". In
fact, "holiness" translates a Hebrew word that means "set apart
for a special purpose". Your understanding of the word holiness is
that it is the result of something that human beings do. In fact, it
is the result of something that Yahuwah does. When Yahuwah adopts a human
being as a child of His own and witnesses at at his baptism, that
person becomes holy and pleasing to Him, regardless of anything that
person does or accomplishes.
We would also
question your assumption that Yahuwah gave requirements He knew people
could not keep, and then formed the plan of saving them through the
sacrifice of His son. We do not find the Bible to teach that at all.
Rather, we find that Yahuwah made no unreasonable demands on humankind
when they were created, but through their own choice, rather than any
imperfection in either creation or divine law, Adam and Eve fell from
grace. We agree that fallen man is no longer able to live by the law
given to Adam and Eve. But the gift of grace in Yahushua is given in
view of the fall of man, not in view of a law that was too high for
Adam to keep in the first place.
It is completely
irrelevant whether or not you listen to this website’s warnings. It
is also completely irrelevant of what you are "absolutely
convinced." To you, the day does not matter at all. If that is so,
it should be no sacrifice to you to keep it according to the
commandment, just as you keep the commandments not to kill and not to
commit adultery. The fact is that Yahuwah has said that the day matters
to Him. That should be enough. All days are made by Yahuwah, and all days are
alike. All women are made by Yahuwah, and all women are alike. Just
because it doesn’t matter to you what woman you sleep with, doesn’t
give you the right to commit adultery. By the same token, just
because it doesn’t matter to you what day you work on, doesn’t give
you the right to break the Sabbath. You do not earn salvation by
keeping the Sabbath any more than you earn salvation by avoiding
adultery. One commandment is as good as another.
A careful reading
of lessons 9-13 in the Bible-study-lessons
in the eCourse section will be helpful.
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