This question was user-submitted in response to the article: Do you go straight to Heaven when you die?

I know some of you are thinking about the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus and wondering how that relates to our previous article on what happens after death. Well lets read that parable and see what is going on… first of all, if your reading this article after clicking a link from a blog or from a search result off Google or Bing then please read the first article that spawned this article. It lays serious ground work for this article and it is all based on scripture. Want to know where your loved ones are? The Bible has encouragement and presents the only true picture:

Do you go straight to Heaven when you die?

We pick up the story in Luke 16:19-31

19) There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

20) And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

21) And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores

22) And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

23) And in hades he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom

24) And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame

25) But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented

26) And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence

27) Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:

28) For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment

29) Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them

30) And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent

31) And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead”

First of all we must establish whether this is literal or not… are all parables in the Bible to be taken literally? Well a parable is nothing more than an allegory used to present a point more clearly. When Christ said it is easier for a Camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God He was using an allegorical sense and did not intend it to be interpreted literally. If we take this saying literally we have some serious problems to deal with, first of all any rich men such as Abraham could not be saved because as far as I know no camel has yet been able to go through the eye of a needle. Yet many rich men throughout the Bible were Godly, such as Abraham and Job.

Also, there are parables in the Bible of forests talking to each other and even setting up rulers among them. Are we to take this literal and believe that trees talk? Absolutely not! Parables are meant to present a specific point and the symbols used in the parable are to not to be taken any further then they were meant… that is to serve their allegorical sense.  So if all through the Bible you have a stream of one thought and then a parable seems to indicate the complete opposite you go with what the whole Bible says because the Bible does not contradict itself, ever!

Having said all this, is their yet grounds to take any of the parable, or perhaps the whole parable in a literal sense?

The word “parable” comes from the Greek word parabole, which means “to place beside,” or “to draw up alongside.”
Jesus used parables to unfold great truths. He placed a simple story alongside a profound truth, and the profound was illumined by the simple. Some people question whether or not this really was a parable and to be honest there is really no reason to doubt that it is indeed a parable. Here is why, the formula used, “there was a certain man” is used repeatedly in the gospel of Luke in numerous parables. For instance in Luke 16:1

“And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods.”

Notice the same exact terminology Jesus uses in Luke 16:19… so the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus is not an actual event that took place in real life. This introduction is used all through Luke: 10:33; 12:16; 13:6; 14:16; 15:11; 16:1; 19:12; 20:9

Also noteworthy, is that at least a few times Jesus would take popular parables of His day and turn them upside down and point out an important truth. This parable of the rich man and Lazarus is one of those times. This story was actually a well known parable used by the Rabbis, however their version was that the poor man ended up in hell and the rich man ended up in Abraham’s bosom. Jesus just took their own story turned it upside down and gave it an unexpected twist. (Note: this is not speculation. This can be found in many historians records of Jewish history during this period)

The Recipients of the Parable
Among the numerous parables Jesus told which were primarily directed at the Pharisees were the parables of the lost sheep, that of the lost coin, the lost son, and then of the unjust steward. The story of the rich man and Lazarus is part of this group of parables directed at the Pharisees, while their were others there we find this was to whom Christ was specifically speaking.

We see in each of these parables that the lesson is the same, you can find that lesson in Luke 15:7:

“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”

In each of the above parables their is rejoicing in the recovery of that which was lost.  Jesus attempted to present the message in many different ways so that the Pharisees would realize their true condition and repent. Over 100 times in the gospels we find the term “the kingdom of God” or “the kingdom of heaven is likened unto”…

We will look at Josephus’s comments on this in a moment but first lets take one last look at who Christ was addressing this parable to and the consequences of that observation. We find this information in Luke 16:14

“And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.“

The next verse says, Jesus speaking, “and He said to them…”. So to whom was He speaking? To the Pharisees, then in the next few verses He gives this parable. This might not seem important but as we look at the beliefs of the Pharisees we will see how this all makes sense. Had Jesus been talking to another group of people the parable would not have made sense. Perhaps why some of us today have a hard time understanding it.

Before we go there notice the last part of Luke 16:14. The Pharisees derided Christ and rebuked Him for eating with and being around “sinners”. Keep this in mind as you read the parable and see the rich man eating from His table, yet not stooping one inch to give a morsel of food to the poor man.  Could there be a parallel? I think there is, I think Jesus was attempting to show the Pharisees that they may have been entrusted the “bread” of life but the poor man was doing what was right not them. What is clear is that the Pharisees believed that they were above other people, that they were more important and righteous… that these other people were sinners and dogs… and that is what they actually called them.
The Views of the Pharisees on the Afterlife
In the War of the Jews By Flavius Josephus he states:

“They [the Pharisees] say that all souls are incorruptible, but that the souls of good
men only are removed into other bodies, – but that the souls of bad men
are subject to eternal punishment. But the Sadducees… take away the belief
of the immortal duration of the soul, and the punishments and rewards in Hades.“

The Sadducees  did not believe in the immortality of the soul, they did not believe in the afterlife at all. The Pharisees however believed that all souls are incorruptible and therefore the immortality of the soul. Bear with me, this is a crucial point to understanding this parable.

The Bible corroborates this observation that Josephus is expressing in Acts 23:8

“For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.”

So we notice that Jesus is not only using a parable created by the Rabbis but He is also using their belief system to present a great truth.

We also find that even Jesus’ disciples had adopted this false view that their are ghosts or spirits of the dead hovering on the earth.  Notice Mark 6:49

But when they saw him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out:”

So even Christ’s disciples had assimilated this idea of a dis-incarnate soul… now lets look at Josephus’ explanation of Hades to get an idea of what the Pharisees believed about it.

The Pharisaic Idea of Hell
Josephus, who was himself a Pharisee, described the nature of Hades in his work Discourse to the Greeks Concerning Hades. There he described Hades as a subterraneous region consisting of two sections. The first section contained everlasting fire. The angels took the wicked to this region upon the moment of death. The second section of Hades consisted of a place which was called the Bosom of Abraham. Josephus affirms that there was a great gulf fixed between
the two sections so that the righteous could not pass to the fiery region nor the wicked to the Bosom of Abraham.
You might at first be inclined to believe that they got this idea from Jesus parable but this is not the case. Jewish writings show that the Pharisees held this view prior to Christ. Knowing this helps us realize that Jesus didn’t create a life-like story but distorted a popular parable to present a crucial truth to the Pharisees.

There is however no place in the Bible which even vaguely suggests such a scenario. In fact Christians today who believe in the immortality of the soul generally do not believe this is really how it is… they only use the parable to “prove” that dead souls live on after death.  Anyways, this whole picture of Hades was created by the rabbis. In the parable, however, Jesus took what the Pharisees believed and gave it a surprising twist!

New Testament View of Life After Death
Now that we have seen the Pharisaic view of life after death and hell and seen how the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus is very similar to that, lets take a look at the New Testament view of life after death. According to Jesus, where do people go when they die? Lets look at John 5:28,29

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”

Why would Jesus call them out of their graves if they are already in the bosom of Abraham or in the lake of fire? And BTW the Bible is clear in 1 Corinthians 15:51-55 that we are changed at the second coming and that this mortal MUST put on immortality to go to heaven. So we are not coming back with our souls at the second coming (those of us who die before that) to get our old bodies. This is non biblical. The Bible teaches that we are changed at Christ’s second coming.

Looking at other examples in the new testament, each one is clear concerning when the wicked are cast into the lake of fire, and that is at the end of the age, after Jesus comes. Take a look at Matthew 13:4-43 for example:

As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”

So when does this take place? “in the end of this world” and the wicked are then “cast into a furnace of fire” so does the Bible teach the view that the Pharisees held? No it does not, the Bible says that the wicked are cast into the lake of fire at the end of the world. The Pharisees believed that it happens at death. Verse #43 also says “THEN shall the righteous shine forth as the sun”. It does not say “now” they shine forth or “at death” they will shine as the sun… but it says at the end of the world they shall sine forth. So it cannot happen at the moment of death. This is important because if the Bible does not teach that hell burns today but that it will burn at the end of the world then this parable has to be taken as completely allegorical and not literal at all.

Another reference on the same point:

Matthew 21:31-34

When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:”

When does Christ come in all His glory? At our death? No, at His second coming… The Pharisees said that the separation of the righteous and wicked happens at death… what does Jesus say? He says very plainly that it happens at His second coming and that THEN the rewards are given. We can’t be punished in hell for years until Christ comes and then receive our reward can we? Or find ourself enjoying the bliss of heaven for ages and then all of the sudden Gabriel comes up and taps you on the shoulder and says “Ahem, Randy we got to judge you now and reward you according to your life”. Does that make sense? No, but it is exactly what many protestants believe.  The Bible teaches however that we are rewarded at the end of the world. Also look at verses 41 and 46:

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:”

Ohh, so at death Jesus says to the wicked “depart from me… into everlasting fire”, right? No thats not what the Bible says, the Bible says that it happens at Christ’s second coming. (Go back to Matthew 21:31-34)  Is it even remotely possible that the wicked who have already died are suffering in the lake of fire? Lets go to Revelation 21:8

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

So Revelation says, the wicked are going to burn in the lake of fire… but when does this happen? Ohh at their second death… do you need a first death to have a second death? Yes, so can the wicked be tormented today in the “lake of fire”? No because the Bible says that is the second death… also important to think about. Would it be just to have wicked people burning today? No it would not and here is why. Someone who died 5000 years ago who never gave their life to Christ and was not saved, but who never hurt anyone else, never murdered or anything, is it fair that they should sit burning in hell for thousands of years till Hitler is thrown in? How utterly unjust would that be?  Write me and ask me to do a series on hell fire, it is an amazing study!

Matthew 24:31

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.“

Again this takes place at the “great sound of a trumpet” which is at the second coming.  And to whom are we gathered? Into Abraham’s bosom? Absolutely not, we are “caught up together” to meet Christ in the air. Jesus also says “in my fathers house are many mansions… and I will… receive you unto myself” – so there is no such idea that we are gathered unto Abraham’s bosom. This is a Pharisaic idea derived from Greek mythology… btw the idea of the immortality of the soul also came from Greek mythology. The Bible say that “this corruptible must put on incorruption,” so the Bible doesn’t teach that view. But if we are going to take this parable literally we must accept all of its theology.

Also have you noticed throughout this parable that dead people are talking to other dead people? Something God strictly forbade throughout the Bible:

Leviticus 20:27

A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.”

Would God violate His strict instructions against speaking to the dead by allowing Abraham to do it? Absolutely not! God is the “same yesterday, today and forever” and does not change.

Souls, Bodies and Extra Limbs
An interesting part of this parable is the fact that those who are supposedly dead have all their body parts. Souls, or at least the idea people have of them, do not have body parts, yet Abraham, the rich man and Lazarus have their body parts.  Interesting stuff! But what does the Bible say happens to our bodies at death?

Genesis 3:19

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

So at death our body returns to dust and we rest until our maker and king calls us forth. But lets look at the version depicted in the parable:

Luke 16:23

And in hades he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”

Wait a second, when he died where did his eyes go? Eyes are part of the body… they went to the grave and returned to dust.  But here in the parable he has eyes… btw the parable does not say that he “immediately” went to hell, in fact the word is actually “hades” which means grave and has no relation to hell. That is assumed by most readers, that as soon as he died he immediately went to hell. Josephus believed it was immediately but when Christ told this parable He left that part out… He was attempting to use their own parable to present a truth. That truth was not that souls goto hell at death because as we will soon see Christ did not believe that.

Luke 16:24

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”

Ahh so Lazarus has fingers? Ohh and the rich man has a tongue? I thought that went to the grave at death.

What is the Biblical teaching of what is cast into hell? Is it the body or the soul only?

Matthew  5:29,30

And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.

And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.”

So how much of a wicked person goes to hell? The whole body! The Bible says -that the body is thrown into hell after Christ comes in His glory and that is the second death so this parable cannot be literal.

What is interesting is Robert Morey’s comments on this parable in his book “Death and the Afterlife”… Robert Morey firmly believes in an immortal soul so based on his views his comments on this parable are a bit surprising:

…It does not bother us in the least to say that Christ used a rabbinic story and dialogue in Luke 16:19-31 which was not “true” or “real” in the sense of being literal. It is obvious that Lazarus did not literally sit in Abraham’s literal bosom. The rich man did not have literal lips which literal water could quench.
What is important for us to grasp is that Christ used the mental images conjured up by this rabbinic parable to teach that, in the hereafter, the wicked experience torment and the righteous bliss. This is clear from the rabbinic sources from which he drew this parable.
Since the dialogue between the rich man and Abraham was a teaching tool used by the rabbis before Christ, it is obvious that Christ was not trying to teach that we will talk with the wicked in the hereafter. He was merely using the dialogue method to get across the concept that there is no escape from torment, no second chance, and we must believe the Scriptures in this life unto salvation.

Robert Morey who believes in the immortality of the soul, that the souls of the righteous go to heaven at death and that the souls of the wicked go to hell at death, even he is forced to acknowledge that this parable was neither intended to be literal nor can it be taken thus and that it never actually took place.  So the only story in the whole Bible that could be used to substantiate the souls of the dead suffering in hell at death cannot be used because it never took place (not to mention the theological problems it poses if taken literally)

Abraham’s Bosom…
If we can establish that this parable never took place,  and that it is not to be taken literally, and I believe we have done that, we have succeeded only slightly… for we still need to discover the purpose of the parable. What does it mean? Lets start with the bosom. What does that represent? We know now that Lazarus was not literally taken to the bosom of Abraham but it must have some meaning… if we hold a baby close to us we are holding it close to our bosom, right? What would that seem to symbolize? Both closeness and the fact that the baby is perhaps our own?

John 1:18

No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”

Is Jesus really in the bosom of God the father? No, so this expression must indicate closeness. Think about this for a minute… Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac, and he did as God told him. Isaac was his only son and he offered him up himself… this is a parallel to God the father and Jesus Christ so in the parable it is not a literal bosom of Abraham but symbolic of God the father… make sense? Nothing new really, commentators for ages have paralleled the Abraham-Isaac story to Jesus dieing on the cross.

The Rich Man
Who was the rich man representing in this parable? Well lets go to Luke 16:24 for the answer:

And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.”

The rich man cries to who? Now, who claimed Abraham as their father? The Jews, and more particularly the Pharisees who always boasted it as we will note.  Now earlier in this article, who did we find this parable was specifically addressed to? The Pharisees, right? But lets continue in John 16:25

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.”

Who would Abraham have called son? His descendants right? So who were his descendants? The Jews! Now this may seem trivial but bear with me… it all ties together.

John 16:27

Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house:”

John 16:28,29

For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.“

Again the rich man refers to Abraham by the name father.  So it should be clear now by these three verses (Luke 16:24-28) that the rich man in this parable actually represents the Jewish nation and more specifically the pharisees (as we recall this is to whom Jesus was talking when giving this parable). But the rich man desires Abraham to send Lazarus from the dead to his brothers to warn them. But Abraham says “they have Moses and the prophets”, now who had Moses and the prophets? Again, that would be the Jewish nation would it not? But more specifically, again the Pharisees prided themselves on this fact.

I also believe that these five brothers could represent the different denominations of the Jewish nation, which would be the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Essenes, Scribes. I can’t prove it but it makes sense just the same.  But however you slice it his brothers (that is the rich man’s brothers) are those who have Moses and the prophets.

John 16:30

And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.”

The rich man is asking Abraham to send Lazarus from the dead… so did the rich man believe in the immortality of the soul? Yes he did.

Now we get to John 16:31

And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

Does Jesus believe in the immortality of the soul? No he does not, watch this carefully.. the rich man says, “send Lazarus from the dead” and Jesus says no I will send one who has risen from the dead*, so Jesus did not believe in the immortality of the soul. Someone is bound to say, “ohh but that is a technicality” – but no it isn’t. Verse 31 has a extra Greek word, anistēmi which is rose, that is not used in verse 30.

*Abraham is talking in the parable and denies the request… Jesus is talking THROUGH the parable and soon after the telling of this parable Jesus does raise a man named Lazarus from the dead.

So the rich man represents the Jewish nation but more accurately the Pharisees.

Lazarus
One of the arguments people will use to justify saying this is not just a parable but an actual story is that a proper name is given.  They say that parables never have proper names, for instance “a certain man” etc.  So the question is, why would you have a proper name if this is a parable? I believe that Jesus used an exact name to predict the raising of Lazarus which happened a very short time after this parable was told.  We will look at this in a moment.

Lets look at Matthew 15:26-27

But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs.
And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”

Do you remember in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus that the poor man Lazarus ate the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table and the dogs licked his sores? Now lets look at another passage of scripture which uses strikingly similar language. In Matthew 15:26-27 Jesus is talking to a Canaanite woman. Why Jesus used this language is because He was showing His disciples how they treated “gentiles”. It was common for Jews to call them dogs.

So when Jesus uses the same terminology in His parable He is trying to express a very important point, that the Canaanite woman represents Lazarus. Those gentiles, Samaritans, Canaanites, whatever they were called, they were desiring to be fed of even the crumbs from the Jews. Remember the story of the Samaritan woman, she gathered the whole town to hear Christ? (you can read the story in John 4) But did the Jews present the truths they had been entrusted with to these people? Absolutely not! That is why time and time again Christ employs parable after parable to show them they were wrong.  It was Jesus first mission to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” that they would then turn and take the message to the world. This was the whole reason for the nation of Israel’s existence. But they failed!

You find that throughout the gospels it was the gentiles who were most willing and earnest to hear the truth. They were also much more loving then many of the Jews. For instance the parable in Luke 10 of the man that was robbed and left by the road to die, who was the only one who would help the man?

Luke 10:33

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,”

Only a Samaritan would help the man. And Luke seems to be harping on this point, in fact his is the only gospel to record the rich man and Lazarus parable. Why? Because he knew what it meant. That is why he records these encounters of Jesus with Samaritans and Canaanites.

Luke 17:16

And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan”

In this story 10 lepers are healed by Christ but only one returns with gratitude. And that one was a Samaritan!

Now let me give you the account of the Rich Man and Lazarus parable as many Christians read it, by adding their own thoughts that are not found in the parable. Words in brackets are the way many people read the parable but are not found in the Biblical account.

And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and [his soul] was carried [immediately] by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

And in hades he lift up his eyes, being in [everlasting] torments [in the flames of hell], and seeth Abraham afar off, and [the soul of] Lazarus in his bosom.

And [his soul] cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on [my soul], and send [the soul of] Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for [my soul is] tormented in this [everlasting] flame.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now [his soul] is comforted, and [thy soul] is tormented.

None of those words immediately, soul, everlasting, hell are in this parable… true some translations render the word hades as hell in verse 23 but that is not what it means. The word only means grave.

But more importantly perhaps is the reason Jesus used the proper name for Lazarus.  Only a short time after telling this parable Jesus did raise a Lazarus from the dead. You can read the account in John 11. We will pick up the account in

John 11:43-44, 46-48

And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”

But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them the things which Jesus had done.
The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth many signs.
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.

In John 12:10 we find a startling fact that rings back to the Rich Man and Lazarus parable and forever sets straight the reason for it in the first place.

But the chief priests took counsel that they might put Lazarus also to death;

The Pharisees wanted to kill Lazarus… they wanted him to die again. Why? Well because he was preaching that Jesus raised him and many Jews were believing on him but the Pharisees hardened their hearts. They would not believe! So the parable rings true, “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the dead“

Christ gave them ample warning, He tried to get them to repent but they would not. This was the whole purpose of this entire parable to prove that He was the Messiah by predicting the raising of Lazarus and use it to bring them to repentance but they hardened their hearts. Therefore to say that it proves that souls go to heaven or hell at death is clearly taking it out of context and also going against scripture after scripture that teach the direct opposite.

Remember that the Biblical principle for understanding scripture is found in Isaiah 28:10 which says “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: ” Notice Isaiah repeats himself, what does this mean? He is essentially saying you cannot take one verse and base a theology on it. You must take all the scriptures on a subject. So the correct way to study the Bible is to base our doctrines on a “multitude of counsel”, not on one scripture alone or in this case one parable.  If you have already read my previous article on what happens after death then you have seen the Biblical evidence supports the view that the dead sleep until Christ comes, when they are raised, the righteous are given immortal bodies and the wicked destroyed. So when we come to this parable we need to find out how the Bible deals with it and not just assume it must be literal.  I hope that through this somewhat lengthy article I have proven that this is just a parable and what the real intent and message Jesus was attempting to portray.

Quick Overview
Not intended to replace the content of this article. I have tried to highlight parts of the article but if you don’t read the whole thing you will not have the proof only the conclusion.

#1. Literal or Symbolic? If as some would have us believe this parable must be taken literally then how do you deal with Jesus using various phrases (such as “the Bosom of Abraham”) and images such as a deep chasm separating this “underworld” which are only found outside the Bible? In fact these terms are only found in 1st Century Jewish mythology. You also have souls with fingers, tongues and eyes… insinuating they are not souls at all but whole bodies.

#2. Why Did Jesus Tell the Story? - While this is a parable the name Lazarus does hold significance.  According to Christian historians the telling of this parable would have taken place only a short time before a man named Lazarus was actually raised from the dead. If you read John 11:45-51 you find that the Pharisees would not believe on Christ even after the raising of Lazarus. Which points to Abraham in the parable saying “If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead” – and so THAT is the whole point of this entire parable. That “though” someone could come back from the dead (making the logical assumption that they don’t) it would not convince those hardened in rebellion. Because Jesus did raise someone from the dead and they still did not believe.

#3. Father God or Father Abraham? – In the parable you have Jesus examining the misguided reverence of the Jewish leaders for Abraham… Lazarus prays to Abraham even though the Bible is very clear that we pray only to God. In Revelation 19:10 John tries to worship an angel and is strictly forbidden… do you really think that God has a place deep inside the earth where he has a “purgatory” where dead wicked people pray to Abraham and dead living people remain in Abraham’s bosom? How many people can literally fit in Abraham’s bosom? The Bible teaches of a heaven where the righteous are caught up and at His second coming when the wicked will be destroyed in hell fire.  If we take this parable literally we must also realize that with it comes the realization that it drastically contradicts other Biblical teachings such as the state of the dead which leads me to point #4

#4. How can you know you know nothing? – The popular belief among Christians is that the dead go to heaven at death. In fact you will never hear any preacher at a funeral sending anyone to hell, not even the vilest of men. They are all sent straight to heaven… this however is not what the Bible teaches, in fact this belief stems from pagan mythology.

Ecclesiastes 9:5 says

“For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.”

If the dead “know not any thing” then they cannot communicate in the grave, therefore this parable must be symbolic and given as a message and therefore not intended to be taken literally.  For further proof that the dead are in their graves click here.

I have had numerous requests for this article so have spent considerable time writing it. It has taken me a while to get everything the way

You can email me at randy[at]ebibleanswers[dot]com with any questions you might have. God Bless!

This article may be freely copied in whole or part however we would appreciate a link back. We do ask that this article not be taken out of context, feel free to quote or copy it but leave everything in context please. We do appreciate anyway you can help by promoting our articles and our site. This site is dedicated to spreading the gospel of Christ and the truths of the Bible. Thank you!

As always I ask that you pray before you study, ask God to lead and guide you as you study this important topic. That His light will clearly show the truth… the Bible says His word is a light unto our path. And He has promised that the truth will set us free. So as we study this topic let us be open to the truth of God and what the scriptures say.

Alexander Bogomoletz, a Russian scientist, once said that a man should live to be at least 150 years of age. He actually prepared a serum that was designed to retard the aging process of the connective tissues of the body. Unfortunately, the learned doctor died at the age of 64, just 86 years short of the goal he had set for himself and for all mankind. And we still do not understand the mysteries of life and death.

What does the Bible actually teach about the human existence, are we immortal beings with a temporary stop after death? Do we even live on past our death, or do we sleep eternally never more to rise? Thankfully the Bible sheds light on the subject.

Hebrews 9:26-27 gives us a blessed  hope to look forward to…

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation”

Please read that verse carefully, you will note that it states that judgment comes after death… there are apparently two conclusions two this verse. First, when a person dies they go straight to heaven or some other place where they are judged and then they are sent to either heaven or hell after they have been processed for shipment. The second option is that there is one judgment when all the dead will be judged together… if this latter idea is indeed what the Bible teaches then it would stand to reason that the dead would remain in the ground right? But we know that the Bible interprets itself so lets keep studying…

When studying the scriptures we must build scripture upon scripture, precept upon precept. This is the surest way of knowing the truth and it is what the Bible teaches us to do. If we base our belief on a doctrine solely on one verse in the Bible there is a good chance we have taken it out of context, but if we study all the verses on a subject we find the truth. So lets see if the Bible has a consistent teaching on the judgment coming after death. Lets turn to 2 Corinthians 5:10

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad”

These verses are clear about one thing, sometime after death there is a judgment of mankind… but we still have not seen clear evidence of when this judgment will take place. If we ended our study at this point we could be quite confused, but thankfully the Bible is not illusive.

To find the answer to the question, when will the judgment take place, lets turn to 2 Thessalonians 1:3-10 – we will pick it up in verses 7-10

And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,

In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;

When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.

I think these verses make it clear that there is a judgment at Christ’s coming when the dead will be punished for their deeds and the righteous will be taken to heaven… but some could argue this is just for those who are alive at the time of Christ’s appearing and does not include the dead. This is a valid point… but if we turn to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 we find that it clears that question right up as well…

13) But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

14) For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

15) For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

16) For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

17) Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

18) Wherefore comfort one another with these words”

Are we all together on verse 13, that Jesus is referring to death when He uses the word sleep? I will get into that more later in the article when we get into Lazarus’s death.

For those of you who like the basic English, the Basic English Bible translates verse 15 by saying those who are alive will not precede those who are sleeping.

Lets analyze these verses… those of us who are privileged to live up till the very day of Christ’s appearing will not precede those who have fallen asleep prior to this time… what does this mean? That the dead have gone up first? Verse 16 tells us very clearly… it says “the dead in Christ shall rise first” – is that not clear? We will not go before those who have died, but not because they are in heaven already, because they will arise out of their graves before we are taken into the air.  So many pastors and teachers quote this verse out of context and miss the truth it so clearly teaches… if only they would read the whole chapter they would see the whole picture.
For reiteration of this fact lets turn to 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed“

I love the KJV and generally it is what I use but I like for this verse anyways how the God’s Word Translation says it:

It will happen in an instant, in a split second at the sound of the last trumpet. Indeed, that trumpet will sound, and then the dead will come back to life. They will be changed so that they can live forever”

Note: they will be changed SO THAT they can live forever… the Bible tells us in Romans 6:23 that the gift of God is eternal life… that is immortality. We are mortal beings and when we die that is the end… our only hope is the resurrection of the dead at the last trump. And I might add that is hope enough… but until we are changed we can not live forever, not until we are given immortal bodies can we reign in heaven. And we are told in these verses that will only happen when Christ comes.

I can’t find anyway to interpret these verses other then their literal sense, that the dead sleep until Christ comes, He resurrects them, changes them by giving them new immortal bodies and then takes us all to heaven. But for those of you who are still not sure, perhaps you have been taught all your life, that the dead go straight to heaven when they die. Wanting valid proof from the Bible is a good thing, so lets look at some other verses which reiterate some of these facts we are learning.

Acts 2:29

Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day”

Its almost as if Peter feels the need to reiterate the same thought, which can easily be reconciled by the studying the Pharisees who believed and taught that you went to heaven when you died.

Acts 2:34

For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand,”

John 5:28-29

“Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation”

Ecclesiastes 9:5

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten”

Two things to note, first the dead know nothing, if they are either in hell or heaven they would know it right? Secondly they have no reward, Christ is clear that when they are judged they get their reward, whether they are righteous or wicked… so  if they have not been rewarded or judged then they can’t be sent to either heaven or hell can they?

There are some Christians who trying to make the Biblical description work for what they believe say that when Christ comes in  that resurrection day, when the dead will be raised God brings the dead back from heaven and they return for their bodies… the fallacy of this statement can be clearly seen in 1st Corinthians 15:52 we quoted above, we are all going to be changed in the twinkling of an eye AT the second resurrection… does this mean that until Christ comes back the righteous dead who went to heaven have their old bodies? That is ridiculous… the fact is friends the Bible no where teaches that the dead do anything but sleep till the resurrection of Christ.

There are a few verses that Christians use to try and explain the inconsistency between what the Bible teaches and what man teaches… they quote verses such as Luke 23:43

And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise”

The problem is how most people quote it, they put the comma in the wrong place. You see,  when the Bible is teaching and reiterating a fact such as the dead know nothing, that they sleep until the resurrection, they have no reward till they are judged, and that they will be raised at the second coming, when we have all these reiterations and one lone verse appearing to discredit the rest it is usually our false perception of that verse. For instance the verse above, if we put the comma after the word ‘today’ then it clearly fits into the teaching of the other verses we provided. If we put it before today then it contradicts the rest of the Bible. In the Hebrew language there are no commas so when the translators made the translation they had the misunderstanding that the dead went to paradise after death(the righteous anyways) and so they misplaced the comma. The Bible has never contradicted itself however many it his attempts to interpret the Bible sometimes does. We need to be careful that we don’t base out theology on one verse if the rest of the Bible teaches something different.

But what about the spirit of the dead? Doesn’t the Bible say the spirit returns to God?
Yes it does… lets read hat verse now. Lets turn to Ecclesiastes 12:7

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it“

You need to pay close attention to this verse… the teaching among Christians generally is that there is a paradise and a hell where the righteous and wicked go, respectively after death. But this verse does not make any delineation between wicked or righteous, it says all who die, their spirits return to God. And in the previous verses we have looked at, we have learned that not everyone goes to heaven. So I guess to solve this we need to ask the question, what is this spirit?

The original Hebrew word for spirit in this verse is ruach pronounced pretty close to how it sounds… interestingly in the original Hebrew it means wind; by resemblance breath, figuratively life. In other words this spirit is actually the life of the individual, the breath of the human, when the spirit leaves them they die.  I also want you to notice the verse stating “return” twice, the dust which is our bodies returns to the earth and the spirit which is our life returns to God… none of us as of yet have been to heaven, so if this verse means the spirit goes to heaven we are returning to a place we have never been? This is in fact talking about our life that God has blessed each of us with and does not mean that we go to heaven.

If you goto James 2:26 it says “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also”
This word spirit is the Greek word pneuma but means the same thing as the word Ruach and that is breath or air. It is actually where we get the word Pneumatic or Pneumonia today.

But to wrap up this whole question of what the spirit is we need to go back to the beginning. Lets read Genesis 2:7 to get a better understanding of what this verse is talking about when it talks about the spirit or breath of a human.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”

Question! Before God breathing life into Adam, was Adam’s spirit floating around somewhere in some conscience or sub-conscience state? I would think most of us would say not, yet we believe somehow after death that our spirit floats around somewhere without our bodies…

This spirit which we now know is our breath which is in our nostrils COMBINED with the body… we all should be on the same page here. That is how we breath right? It doesn’t take a great deal of knowledge to understand that when we are not breathing we are dead. And since God has only lent us the breath we use it is only logical that when we die it returns to Him, the giver. Does that make sense?

There is something in the above verse many miss even though it is staring them right in the face… the verse says that God formed man out of the dust of the ground AND breathed into Adam’s nostrils and THEN “man became a living soul” – God did not add a living soul to Adam, the Bible doesn’t say “and then Adam had a living soul” – the Bible says that Adam BECAME a living soul. This is VERY significant because it is the unite, the body AND the breath that creates the soul. When we die the body is separated from the breath, neither one exists without the other… the body rots away and the breath returns to heaven from whence it came. I can’t overstress the importance of this fact, we are only living conscious beings when the body is united with the living breath of God… separated we are in a state called death where we know nothing.

Paul say in Romans that the gift of God is eternal life? That is the same thing as immortality, we are mortal beings, when we die our thoughts cease, our breath and life returns to God cause HE is the one who gave it, it does not mean there are thousands of floating spirits without bodies in heaven waiting for the resurrection when they can return to earth, grab their old bodies and then have them changed into new… truthfully does that make any sense? Not to me it doesn’t… I hope we are all on the same page on the spirit of a body now, I think that Genesis has made it quite clear that the spirit = body + breath = life.  So body – breath = death. If you want more verses supporting this just email me.

But I want to reiterate this fact one last time so there is no doubt in your mind… lets turn to Psalm 104:29

29) Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust

If you look at the original Hebrew the word breath in this text is the same exact word used in Ecclesiastes which was interpreted there as spirit. It is the word Ruach which again means breath… in the Bible they are interchangeable because the translators used both spirit and breath at different times but it was always the same Hebrew word. So the only reason there is controversy is because the original translators didn’t know how to translate the word in different situations.

Let me try and use an allegory I heard  another preacher use, lets assume there are nails and a board… we have two items. Now lets say we take a hammer and nail the nails into the boards creating a box… we now have 1 item. Now if we were to pull those nails out what will have happened to the box? It ceased to exist because like the living spirit it requires two things together to be… the box required the nails and boards together just like the living spirit requires the breath of God and the human body to become living.  I am sorry if I am reiterating this so much, I guess I am afraid your like me, you have been told something all your life or have believed something and it is hard to wrap your mind around something new… and when we get set in our ways sometimes we have to have someone hammer something home before we say “ahh I get it… that makes sense” – but if it is the truth we must accept it even if it goes against everything we believe or perhaps want to believe.

I will give you two more verses to look up for yourself for further study of this… Revelation 16:3 talks about the living soul dieing,  this makes it clear that the living soul is the unity of breath and body which is the mortal body… nothing more.

Ecclesiastes 3:19, 20 states that all have the same breath… animals and man alike. That man has no preeminence over beast when he dies… that is to say if man’s “spirit” floats around somewhere then the animals spirits must as well… what this verse is really saying is that once we die whether it is a man or beast we turn to dirt, our life leaves us and we cease to be a living soul until Christ returns… this is the only concept which is inline with the rest of the Bible and because of that we must accept it…

When are the just rewarded?

Okay so we don’t goto heaven/paradise or hell when we die… then when are we rewarded for our works?  Lets turn to Luke 14:14 and see what Jesus said:

And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed AT the resurrection of the just

As far as I am concerned one verse of Jesus stating that the just are rewarded at the resurrection of the earth is enough but the Bible has many such verses reiterating this fact such as Matthew 16:27. The great thing about the Bible is that when God presents a truth He has it reiterated across the Bible so that we can see it clearly. We don’t have to guess about anything.

Matthew 16:27

For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works

Revelation 22:12 carries this same thought:

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his works shall be”

Paul has perhaps a more enlightening writing on this… lets read it in 1st Corinthians 15:53

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality“

Isn’t this verse the verse right before it(1 Corinthians 15:52) that we looked at earlier? We CANNOT go to heaven until we are changed from corruptible, mortal beings to incorruptible immortal beings… when does this happen, at death? Fortunately this is covered in the previous verse… you will recognize it.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed“

Doesn’t everything fit together like a puzzle? Its interesting when Christians learn this truth, they are like “how could I of never seen that before?” – don’t feel bad, many of us have come to that position in our lives and it doesn’t matter. The Bible says God winks at ignorance, it is only when we know the truth and we don’t accept it that we are in trouble.
We do not become immortal at death, we become immortal beings at the second resurrection. Every single verse we have looked at reiterates this fact… the reward is given at the second coming, not at death.

But when are the wicked rewarded?

2nd Peter 2:9 sheds some light on this as well:

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

Ahh so the wicked are reserved or kept till the day of judgement… if you think about it this is only fair. We just learned that the righteous remain in their graves and are only rewarded when Christ comes… the dead will also remain in the grave until Christ’s coming. How do we know this for sure? Do you remember John 5:29 we quoted earlier? Here it is again:

Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation”

Do you see it now? The good are resurrected to life, they are given immortality, the wicked however are resurrected to condemnation. Neither group however has been out of the grave since they died… this point should be clear in your mind by now… okay think about this for a minute. The day of judgement is when Christ comes right? That is shown in the above verses, would it be fair for God to punish the wicked in hell or honor the righteous in heaven before their trial? It stands to reason that they would be judged before their reward is given… does it not?
Do you remember the story of Lazarus the friend of Jesus? And how Mary and Martha sent and asked that Jesus would come heal him? Okay, now we probably all know Lazarus died before Christ came, which we learn at the end of the story was Christ’s purpose all along.  You can read the story in John 11…  you will notice in this story Jesus refers to death as a sleep… we can see this term used in other parts of the new testament in reference to death such as Daniel 12:2 in reference to the resurrection. So there is no confusion on what state Lazarus was in, he was dead… to prove this Christ waited for 3 days to come and resurrect Lazarus, because according to the Jews up until 3 days after death there was still a chance that the person could return to life, in other words had Christ raised Lazarus from the dead prior to three days passing the people would have claimed he was never dead. But after the 3rd day they would be convinced there was no hope… Christ did not want anyone to say that Lazarus was not dead, He wanted all the glory for the resurrection of Lazarus.

What is significant, at least in my mind, is that in John 11:43 Christ says “Lazarus come forth” – He didn’t say “Lazarus come down” – wouldn’t it be awful if Lazarus had went to heaven, he is walking on the sea of glass and talking to Moses and just enjoying the majestic splendor of all heaven has to offer… and he hears this faint call from the  earth “Lazarus come down here” – no it can’t be, God can’t be calling me back to that dark dismal planet called earth where sin still exists.

Yes, I know I am being a little facetious but I am attempting to make a point here. We have books today which sell millions of copies, books which tell of the author’s claimed experiences after death.  Interesting to note, most of these books see the authors going to heaven, how many write about their experience in hell?

But anyways, my point is this, we see all these authors presenting their experience yet we find no mention in the Bible of Lazarus’s experience after death. Had Lazarus went to heaven, hell or some other place would he not have told his story? The Bible is silent on this point cause Lazarus was dead the whole time, he didn’t go anywhere, hence there is no reason for a story, for he had none.

This was a difficult subject to write an article on, first of all there is so much controversy on where the dead go after death. Then there is so many questions to answer and yet you want an article to be relatively short so as not to lose the attention of your reader. Thankfully you are still reading… I hope if nothing else this article has drawn you to study the Bible more clearly for yourself. If you are still unsure about this subject we encourage you to email us, we are ready and willing to sit down and study with you personally via email. We want the same thing you do, the Biblical truth on these subjects.

You can email me at randy[at]ebibleanswers[dot]com with any questions you might have. God Bless!

This article may be freely copied in whole or part however we would appreciate a link back. We do ask that this article not be taken out of context, feel free to quote or copy it but leave everything in context please. We do appreciate anyway you can help by promoting our articles and our site. This site is dedicated to spreading the gospel of Christ and the truth of the Bible. Thank you!

So lets get started… in this article we will be discussing what I believe to be a very important issue at the end of time.  Actually THE issue of the end times… and that is the test of worship. We will be going to the Bible and as always it will be our only rule of faith. God bless you as you study this subject with me. Questions and comments are welcome!

In previous articles we have established that contrary to popular belief the Sabbath has neither been abolished at the cross nor changed. That this is the work of Satan to destroy God’s law just as he tried to do in the garden of Eden, and just as he tried to do through the Papal church during the reformation period when the Catholic church kept the Bible hidden from the public and persecuted any who would read or teach its truths.  If you still have doubts about this and have read the previous articles feel free to email me at randy[at]ebibleanswers[dot]com with your questions or thoughts on the subject. I will study with you from the scriptures… but even history will prove this fact a hundred times over.

In the article Does the Sabbath Really Matter we discovered that the little horn of Revelation which thought to “change times and laws” and which oppressed the saints of the most high is the Papal Church of Rome, the Catholic church. This is supported by history which screams the testimony of the reformers who died for their faith under papal suppression when they would rather die then submit to papal dogmas and recant the truth. When it was illegal to read the Bible without being “educated” or without papal permission. We will discover in this article that this same power will oppress the saints one last time at the end and there will be a test which will separate the sheep from the goats, the saved from the lost, those with the seal of God from those who have the mark of the beast.

I want to take you back for a minute to the Garden of Eden… please bare with me as I try to explain to you why this is necessary. Lets turn to Genesis 2:15-17

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”

Hmm why would God plant a tree and then say “don’t eat of it”? He probably actually didn’t care which tree they didn’t eat from did He? – if we go back to verse 9 of chapter 2 we read:

And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil“

There was nothing inherently wrong with the fruit of this tree, in fact it probably looked very delicious and appealing to the sight as this verse states.  So was God just being obstinate? No God always has a good reason for everything He does… it was a test to see if they would trust what God told them or believe a lie.

Are you beginning to see the correlation here? Both the test of the tree in the garden and the Sabbath are both matters of worship, trust and loyalty. We do not know how long before this when Satan rebelled against God and lost his place among the heavenly beings however God allowed Satan to tempt Adam and Eve that He might prove their loyalty to Him. And had they not failed their test Satan would have been banished from the garden and never again allowed to tempt them. But as we all know Eve listened to the serpent, why? Because when Satan tempted her she did not flee from him but stood there desiring the fruit.  She had to trust God that what He said was true, even though Satan was twisting it to make it sound like it was okay to eat the fruit. Is it any different today? Satan twists the Bible to say that the Apostles kept Sunday instead of Saturday as the new Sabbath. Are we going to trust that when God said “remember to keep the Sabbath holy” that He meant it or are we going to make petty arguments which scripture does not support? Friends I am not going to downplay and make the truth fluffy… we need to realize that when God says something that is what we do, we are not safe in any other course. The Bible says that Satan is so beguiling that if it were possible the very elect would be lost. We need to be studying the bible for ourselves so we can discern Satan’s temptations.

The test in the Garden of Eden was a simple test of whether Adam and Eve would believe the words of God or would say “it doesn’t really matter… did God really say???” – also I should point out an interesting fact here. Eve was beguiled and she sinned out of lust and a desire for a fruit because she allowed herself to remain in a position where Satan could tempt her, instead of fleeing. Adam on the other hand was not deceived yet he sinned because of peer-pressure… because his wife had sinned he also sinned so that he wouldn’t lose her.  In the end there will be two groups of lost people, those who were deceived(not anymore excusable then Eve’s sin) and those who are not confused in the least but who will not practice it because their friends, family and relatives are not following the truth and because they rationalize it away. Friends lets pray we never allow peer-pressure to keep us from following the truth… its a matter of life and death. If you are convicted of the truth don’t let days go by, accept it and by God’s grace let it be seen in your life.

Back to my original point, as the test in the Garden of Even was a simple test of whether man would obey God’s command over what Satan said so will the Sabbath test be in the end, a test of whether we follow what the Bible says or what man has established.  Don’t ever listen to Satan’s lie that God understands or God doesn’t care which day you keep… God holds as much esteem for the day He hallowed as He did for the tree He selected… think about it for a minute. God did not say to Adam “My son, go eat from every tree of the garden and select one that you will dedicate to me” – No, God said of THIS tree thou shalt not eat and God said THIS day I have hallowed.  God will no more accept our own day of worship then He accepted Eve’s disobedience.  When God tests His people He sets the conditions and His people are to obey unconditionally, it is our loyalty to Him that is shown by our obedience.

Some of you are wondering why I used this as a backdrop for the Sabbath test, the answer is simple. I want to show that there is little difference between keeping the Sabbath and eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil… in fact only one thing makes either of these a sin… a direct command from God.And when God commands we have but one option, obey! Why is it that the simplest things are made so complex by men?

I would like to get started in the Sabbath test study by going back to Daniel 7:25

And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time”

As we learned earlier in our previous Sabbath studies the only law in the Bible which is both a law and a time is the Sabbath… and the Catholic church as we also have learned fits right into this scenario, they clearly admit they changed(thought to change… in God’s book no change was made) the day. We discovered that the Papal Church, that is the establishment will be the anti-christ of Revelation. Now I must put a disclaimer here, up until the time the Papal church enacts the Sunday law there will be true Christians in the Roman Catholic church, those who are living up to all light they have been shown and they will be saved. But once the Papacy forces a Sunday law God’s true people will come out of “Babylon” as they did centuries ago during the reformation. I am not in anyway being mean to Catholics, I am only preaching the Bible to you.

Now lets get into the meat of the subject… determining what the mark of the beast and the seal of God truly are.

There are some Christians who make a rash statement, they state “you do not want to have a mark on your forehead in the end” – this is actually inconsistent with Biblical teaching. The Bible says that EVERYONE in the end will have one of two marks… lets read it from Revelation 7:2-3

And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads“

And also Revelation 9:4

And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads“

Okay so ALL those who do not have the seal of God will receive the wrath of God, so this is a good mark that true Christians will have, not only that but we need to make sure we have this mark on our foreheads in the end because it seals us. Okay so I think we have established that the seal of God is a good thing, but what exactly is it… well what is a seal of a ruler? The seal of any ruler or king contains three items, the name, the ruler’s title or claim to authority, and thirdly, the region of his rule.

The Seal of God

And the purpose of a seal? Lets read Daniel 6:15-17

Then these men assembled unto the king, and said unto the king, Know, O king, that the law of the Medes and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which the king establisheth may be changed.

Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.

And a stone was brought, and laid upon the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel”

The seal of a king or ruler declares that his decree may not be changed, not by anyone even himself. This is proven in the above story of Daniel where even though Darius loved Daniel and desired to revoke the law he could not because of his seal.
So what is the seal of God, which is not only unchangeable but also a test for the Christians of the end times? Well it is the whole law in one essence… lets read

2nd Timothy 2:19:

Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”

Departing from iniquity is the same as keeping God’s law… for sin is the trasgression of the law. So the Lord has the seal and those who depart from iniquity will receive it.

Isaiah 8:16

Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples”

Revelation 14:12

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus”

Is it safe to say that in the end keeping God’s law will be a test of the true Christian? I think that is a given… don’t believe anyone who tells you the law was nailed to the cross(please read our previous Sabbath articles) – because Revelation and many other parts of the Bible when dealing with end times specifically state that God’s true people will be keeping His WHOLE law.

So the true Christian is sealed by God’s law, by the keeping of His holy law.  I think we can also safely establish that this seal is a symbolic seal and not a physical stamp across our foreheads.

Now I want to get back to what the actual seal of God is, it is not only His law but in a more clear representation it is His holy Sabbath. Let me show you how and why… lets turn to Ezekial 20:12

Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them”

Let me pause for a second in case anyone should argue that these “Sabbaths” are the ceremonial Sabbaths and not the holy Sabbath of the ten commandments. The same Hebrew word, shabbâth, is used in both Exodus 20:11 and then in Ezekial 20:12 – the use of the plural only signifies that Christ has given us a perpetual sign, a perpetual and reoccuring day of worship.

You can also see the message of Ezekiel 20:12 reiterated in Ezekiel 20:20

And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God

Exodus 31:13

Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you”

Exodus 31:16-17

Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed”

So the Sabbath which is in the middle of God’s law is His seal or sign… lets goto Exodus 20:11 to see this more vividly.

For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it”

We have the whole seal of God in this passage… did you see it? Lets recap, what does a seal include? A seal of a ruler has three items, the name, his office or title and his territory. For instance Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America.

In this verse we find them all…

His name: The Lord
Office or Title: Creator
Territory:  Heaven and Earth and all that is in them

Interestingly back during the time of the Israelites it was common for a document to be sealed by a King or ruler in the very middle of the document. As you can see in the following image of an ancient tablet:

ancient Hittite tablet sealed by King in center

You might also note that the Bible states that the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the other test we mentioned, was also in the midst of the garden.  If you look at God’s law you will also notice the Sabbath is in the midst of the law. Is this all coincidental? No I don’t think so, if we look for it God has given us ample proof of His seal.

God knew all along how Satan would attack His holy law, especially His Sabbath which is a sign between Him and His people and the day HE established for His people to worship Him… He knew all this and that is why God said “remember” to keep it Holy… that is why He sealed it in His holy law so that anyone who cared to look could see that like other rulers yet with a much higher authority He has established a law which cannot be changed by anyone, a law that was sealed by the Holy one. And yet we dare to substitute His holy day and claim that He doesn’t mind, who do we think we are? We would not have dared to do that to any other King or ruler?

There will come a time when a Sunday law is declared(this will be shown later in the article) and those who who keep the Sabbath will have the seal of God on their foreheads and will be saved. But you ask, doesn’t Paul say that works cannot save us? Yes he does indeed, but he also says “shall we then continue in sin? God forbid…” – works do not save us, they will not save us in the end, they only show the state of the heart and are an act of obedience towards God. Works are only the outward showing of our connection and relationship with Christ. Works do not save us but lack of them, failure to follow God’s law condemns us…

I found this quote on another blog and I found it very interesting…its source is: The Pontifical Biblical Commission, May 24, 2001,THE JEWISH PEOPLE AND THEIR SACRED SCRIPTURES IN THE CHRISTIAN BIBLE, 2. The Human Person: Greatness and Wretchedness, a) In the Old Testament, #27.

Human existence is endowed with a certain rhythm. As well as the rhythm of day and night, lunar months and solar years (Gn 1:14-18), God establishes a weekly rhythm with rest on the seventh day, the basis of the sabbath (Gn 2:1-3). When they keep the sabbath observance (Ex 20:8-11), the masters of the earth render homage to their Creator.”

Is that amazing or not? The Catholic church, the very church that declared Sunday sacredness turns around and declares the true Sabbath. So even Catholicism admits that you are worshiping God and rendering homage and recognition of His seal by keeping the Sabbath, this raises a interesting question.  Who are you rendering homage to if you are not keeping the Sabbath of God? The Mark of the Beast…

There is something interesting about the Seal of God compared to the Mark of the Beast… we have discovered that the seal of God is in the forehead, however we will soon discover that the Mark of the Beast can be in the hand OR the forehead… why is this?

Revelation 13:16

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:”

What does this mean? It means that God’s true followers will keep His law and it will be part of who they are, it will not be an empty action as many Christian’s today… it will not just be works but it will be an act of pure love and honor for their Creator. They will keep His law because He died for them and commanded it…

Those who follow the beast do not have to believe Sunday is the truth and will not have to keep it out of conviction(if you can call it that). There will be many who will realize Sunday is the wrong day and will see clearly that the Sabbath of the Lord must be kept but they will observe the papal institution to save their lives just as many during the reformation sacrificed principle for their lives. Those represented in this verse as having the mark on the hand will act the part but will not actually believe it. They will have the outward appearance of keeping the Papal institutions but they do not believe it, they are only doing it to save their lives. When the Sunday law is enacted and they make the ultimate decision there will be no room for ignorance, they will have been given ample light,yet they will refuse it because of fear of death.

But remember God’s true church has only one seal and it is only on the forehead…if it is not a real love for Christ that causes you to keep the Sabbath you will become a Sunday-keeper when the Sunday law is passed. Because it is only out of love for our Creator and the Lord of the Sabbath that we would keep His day of worship. Don’t wait till that fateful day, establish your faith now by keeping God’s law… then when you are persecuted you will have such a relationship with Christ that you will be able to live without fear.

We established that the seal of God is His Sabbath, you are probably by now assuming the Mark of the Beast is the false or counterfeit Sabbath: Sunday. You would be right but sense we first went to the Bible, God’s book, for confirmation of His holy day lets goto the Catholic church for confirmation of their day. Here is what they say about the matter…

From the Catechism:

“Q. Which is the Sabbath day?
“A. Saturday is the Sabbath day.
“Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?
“A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”

And also:

“Q. Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept?
“A. Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her–she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.”

And lastly:

“Protestants … accept Sunday rather than Saturday as the day for public worship after the Catholic Church made the change… But the Protestant mind does not seem to realize that … in observing Sunday, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the Church, the pope.” Our Sunday Visitor, February 5th, 1950.

What a rebuke to protestants… who came out of the reformation, churches formed because of papal dogmas and yet years later they are still observing the single-most important work of the papacy, the change of the Sabbath.

I think this safely establishes the point… the Papal church even admits that their authority and mark is the fact that they changed God’s holy day of worship… and what a rebuke they give to protestantism.  But will we heed it or will we ignore yet another conviction?

So what does the Papal power do to those who dare to keep God’s Sabbath during these times?

Revelation 13:16-17

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:

And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”

This point here also makes another fact clear, nobody currently has the mark of the beast for when it is received anyone who does not have the mark of the beast will be unable to buy or sell… this is not an issue in the world today as of yet. There is also another good point here… there is no middle ground in the end, you will either be keeping God’s true Sabbath or Satan’s counterfeit, you will not be able to continue as an atheist or dissolve form keeping any day holy. Satan will as an ultimate thrust try to deceive the whole word with his counterfeit day of worship and he will not be satisfied with just the breaking of the Sabbath, he will see to it that they also keep Sunday. But perhaps on a happier note, at this time because there will be no middle ground every single person in the universe will have a chance to know the truth. In this terrible time God is going to give everyone a last chance to realize His love by instituting the law.

I want us now to go through some verses in Revelation describing the Mark of the Beast.

Revelation 14:9-12

And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus”

Revelation 16:2

And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image“

Revelation 19:20

And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone”

Revelation 20:4

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years”

What do all these verse have in common? They all speak of worshiping the beast… here on earth you are rewarded for a time for worshiping the beast but ultimately those who worship the beast receive the plagues of God and then the second death. Anyone who says keeping the Sabbath is not a matter of worship does not read Revelation cause these verses have been very clear that this is a matter of worship… every verse listed above notes that.

I want you to notice carefully Revelation 14:12 which is listed above. The New American Standard version may have put it in better modern language…

Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus”

I don’t understand how you could get much clearer than that, being part of God’s people is synonymous with keeping His commandments. I can’t overstress the importance here, we MUST be keeping God’s WHOLE law. It is a very important matter.

We have already established from the Bible that the mark of the beast is the Papacy or Roman Catholic church(please see the Sabbath Truth series for further clarification). But there is something very interesting I did not mention previously, if you take the title of the pope “VICARIUS FILII DEI” and add up the roman numerals it equals 666.  Also the Pope in his very name admits he is the Anti-Christ.  Anti and Vicar have very similar meanings, that is to substitute or be in the place of. So the Anti-Christ and the Vicar of Christ or virtually the same thing… Many people have a false idea of what the Anti-Christ is. They think it is some hideous creature which will openly oppose Christ and all Christians, that is not so, he will instead take the place of God on earth and pretend to be acting in God’s will or stead. Has the Pope not done this? If the protestant world accepts the idea that the Anti-Christ is a hideous creature they will be deceived because they will not be expecting it…  I cannot over emphasize your need to be studying the Bible, don’t depend on your pastor or church for the truth, depend on God’s word alone. Do as the reformers did, search the scriptures and know for yourself what they say, so that day will not come upon you unawares.

Has this message been clear? Is God convicting your heart, do you feel convicted to keep His holy Sabbath in light of what the Bible teaches? You should, because if we don’t keep it now why would we keep it then? No matter where you stand in this article, whether your convicted or you don’t believe it, I would love to talk with you personally. If you would like to study it out personaly with me I would be more than happy to do that. You can email me at randy[at]ebibleanswers[dot]com

I have been requested to write this article in continuation of the Sabbath series. I hope it has been a blessing to you and that it will drive you to study the Bible for yourself.

First we must establish what life is… where does life come from and when does it become… well a life? Is life just the reproduction of a race or does it have more meaning than that? Lets look up Genesis 2:7

And it reads:

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul”

It is the Lord who formed man and created him. For the animals and every other living thing God just said the word and it happened, but God physically formed man and shaped him from the ground. There is definitely something more personal here, God is forming him from dust… He could have just as easily said “let there be man” and it would have happened. So what does this have to do with abortion? I think before you ask the question whether abortion is okay or not you must establish the sanctity of life and whether or not the unborn child is a life. Lets look at a few more bible texts.

Psalm 139:13-14

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be

Wow, God is not removed from this at all. Adam was not the last creation to be formed by His hand… the Bible says that each little baby before it is conceived is “knit together” and actually formed by God Himself. God has a purpose and plan for each of these babies… babies whose lives have been ended because of a parents decision for whatever reason.

Let me ask you a question, does any of us have the ability to create life? Of course not, that is the prerogative of God only… so how do we feel we have the right to take a life we cannot create… a life formed by the hand of God, a life who came into being because of the almighty.

I think too many people have a warped idea of life, this misguided and distorted view which is derived from the hollywood lies that are broadcast to us daily is what society wants to accept. That life is expendable… that if you make a “mistake” and become pregnant or have second thoughts about going through the pregnancy that it is okay for you to abort… its who YOU are, do what feels good to YOU… forget about the baby. What a degraded society we live in, a society where we abhor the senseless murder by heathen terrorist groups yet we take our unborn babies lives as if it was common place and as if God sees it in a much favourable light than He looks upon the senseless abuse of children by terrorists and during wars such as Vietnam. We do we think we are kidding? Defintiely not God…

Back to the bible… what is a life?

Isaiah 44:2 also reiterates this point:

Thus saith the LORD that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob, my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen”

Jeremiah 1:4-5

The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations”

We are told by the world that it is not a sin to kill and even churches are telling us that the life of the unborn baby is okay to kill… yet the bible is clear, God formed the baby before it was born, before you commit that abortion think about this, you are killing a life formed by the hand of God, a life God has already planned out… a life God looked at and said “son… daughter… I have great plans for you, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. My plans for your life is endless!” – and we take that life and we say “unborn son… daughter… you do not fit into my plans, I want to live it up and your life interferes with that. I don’t need you…”

No we don’t say it verbally but our actions say it… feminists claim it is the “right” of the mother. Is it really? It is the right of the mother to take the rights of a defenseless innocent unborn life? How disgusting…

Yet we have the audacity to take that life from that little child and look into the face of God and say “it is my right”. We claim that it is the right of the mother to have an abortion yet we overlook the life of the unborn, what rights does he or she have? Does the Bible have anything to say about the rights of the unborn? In fact it does…

Psalms 82:32 says:

Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked”

And Proverbs 24:11-12 says:

Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?”

I was talking to a fellow Christian about abortion recently and what she said shocked and stunned me… she said something to the effect “we can’t stop abortion” and I replied “we can try” – the bible says that people will claim to be unaffiliated, to have nothing to do with it, but the Bible says God sees the hidden things of the heart. Don’t kid yourself, you may not be committing an abortion but if you go along with one without lovingly protesting it and explaining why it is wrong you are just as guilty as the one kills the baby. If you do not stand up to society against this horrible injustice we will be counted as those who in this verse said “we knew nothing”

But you say, the bible does not specifically say that abortion is a sin? I feel it is quite clear in establishing that an unborn baby is indeed a life like any other and deserves the right to life… however here is even more proof from Exodus 21:22:

If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine.

And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life,

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,”

In other words if the woman has a premature birth yet the child does not die then there is no death penalty however if the woman or child does die then the Bible says God will require life for life. Don’t think God overlooks the killing of babies under the banner of abortion and freedom… I believe God has a even more tender place in His heart for aborted babies then any other form of murder… for they were innocent and yet brutally killed.

But what about all those doctors who do abortions, what about those who condone, allow and even commit the very act itself?

Deuteronomy 27:25 says:

Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen.”

Do not doctors take reward or payment to commit abortions? Don’t think for a minute that God will not require their blood for the blood of the thousands they have miserably and cruelly murdered. The Bible is clear friends, God holds life in very his esteem and the Bible does not call the unborn child anything other than a living being formed by the hand of God. Your probably not a doctor so let me get even closer to home here, there are abortion-clinics offering gift certificates, if you think for one moment that God will wink at this cruel and immoral abuse of a gift your sadly mistaken. God must look down at this and weep in utter anguish… He the master of the universe formed this child with His very own hands and that mother has the audacity to take the life of the unborn baby?

Friends, don’t let anyone tell you that life is unimportant, don’t be beguiled into believing the unborn child is not life, science proves it is indeed a living organism. Statistics show that when mothers are able to see their child inside their wombs the numbers of those mothers afterwards having an abortion is dramatically decreased. Why?  Cause we have been had, we have been lied to and whats worse we have believed it. We have been told that it is not a living life and that it is a painless operation and that the unborn fetus(or whatever they want to call it) feels nothing and knows nothing… don’t believe it.

If you are considering having an abortion or know of a friend who is considering an operation I urge you to NOT make that decision. I don’t care what your reason is, it is not good enough… some mothers claim that they need to have an abortion to save their own lives and this maybe true, if they do not have the abortion the mother might die and there are even times when the baby is just about guaranteed to die as well… we have earlier learned that God alone can give life and dare we take it upon ourselves to decide the fate of a unborn child by pronouncing his or her death a necessity for the life of the mother? How dare we even consider it? Let God’s hand take control and His will be done, can He not save both the mother and the child?

If your still considering an abortion after this article I urge you to get on your knees and pray to the Lord, ask Him for the strength to carry the baby, give birth and raise that baby for Christ. Here are some sites you may find helpful:

If your considering an abortion… 

Abortion: how it works – if you think abortion is humane read this.

Have you already committed an abortion?

There are some of you who have already made this step and your regretting it and wondering if God can even forgive you at this point. Thankfully the Bible has comfort those who have done terrible things and are sorry for them…  Matthew 12:31 says:

Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men”

And 1st John 1:9 says:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”

These verses tell us that if we confess any sin even that of abortion and murder God will forgive us.  But let us not presume upon His mercy, if you have not committed an abortion do not do it. The pain and anguish you will feel afterwards in life will not be worth it.

I hope this article has dissuaded you from committing an abortion… if not I pray that God will give you no rest till you make the right decision.   And please do not ask God to show you His will, do not tempt the Lord. God will not answer such prayers when you have been clearly shown His will.  I know it can be hard, maybe your boyfriend is pressuring you to abort but think about it… if he is willing to dump his own flesh and blood baby what is stopping him from dumping you? Keep the baby and God will be there with you to raise the child… He will work everything you, just trust your Savior.

If you would like to discuss this or any other Biblical issue I am more than happy to study it out with you. We want to find the Bible truth, whatever it is. Feel free to email me at randy[at]ebibleanswers[dot]com

God Bless you as you follow His will for your life and that of your babies. You take care of what God has given you and you will be in peace!

I am going to, after I finish this article begin a series on Revelation, the mark of the beast, the seal of God, the three angels messages and how they all fit together and what they all mean. This isn’t popular stuff but it is the truth and if you allow me the opportunity I would like to show you this from the Bible. If you don’t understand something feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. So with that lets begin.

First of all if you have not already I recommend you read my previous two articles on the Sabbath, they lay the ground work and prove from the Bible that the sabbath was not abolished at the cross and identifies what exactly was abolished. You don’t want to miss these two articles:

The Sabbath, Saturday or Sunday? – Part #1
Let no man therefore judge you in your sabbath day – Part #2
Does the Sabbath really matter? – Part #3

I welcome your comments on these articles, please study them out and as Paul says “prove them” according to the Bible whether they be true or not. If Paul’s congregation was told to do it then we really should be doing so with any preacher/teacher or missionary of Christ.

I also ask that you bear with me in this article, I am not babbling on about my believes, I am showing you what the bible says. “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” I am telling you this truth not because I want to convert you but because from my study of the Bible I can come to no other conclusion than that the sabbath will be the deciding issue in the end times. And I feel very strongly that if we do not understand this we will not be ready for the great crisis and end time events. Let me prove this to you…

It really intrigues me how sunday-keepers will make claims to the nullification of the sabbath using verses such as 2 Corinthians 3:7-11 – and while I don’t condemn them for it I must show you why it is not logical nor biblical…

7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:

8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

9 For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

10 For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

11 For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious

Sunday-keepers who quote these verse rightly assume that it is speaking of the ten commandment law. Note the verses say “engraven in stones”, the ten commandment was written by the finger of God on tables of stone. The mosaic law however was written by Moses in a book. So there is no way to make any other insinuations, this is indeed speaking of the ten commandment law.
The question is however, do Christians really believe the law has been done away with? Most don’t, most only use these verses to say that the sabbath was abolished yet the above verses do not specify that it was the sabbath ONLY… it is speaking of the whole law. So in reality if this verse is really saying that the law has been done away with then okay the whole law is now abolished, it is okay to lie, steal, kill, commit adultery etc etc for these like the sabbath are part of the ten commandment law and if one must go all go

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
James 2:10

Paul in Romans 3:31 is speaking of this very issue of the law being against us, and this condemnation being taken away in Christ. But interestingly he is very clear that the law must STILL be obeyed…

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.

The new covenant is not a new law, it is the law written in our hearts. Instead of continually sacrificing lambs for our sins, a sacrifice which could never make us whole or righteous in God’s eyes, we, now after the cross are no longer under the condemnation of a law which commands our death… Christ took that condemnation but we must STILL keep the law and we must ACCEPT His sacrifice. When we disobey the law we take that condemnation back upon ourselves.

Is the sabbath part of the law? YES indeed, contrary to popular belief the sabbath is not an institution for the Israelites only, as we have learned in our previous article. The sabbath was “created for man”, for our enjoyment, for our rest and for communion with God almighty. Last time I checked the Jewish nation was not the only people called “man”, in fact this was spoken by God thousands of years before a Jew existed.

Lets go back to the original question though… was the law done away with at the cross? No! And again most Christians now days believe the law is still valid, 90% of it that is. Lets prove it from the bible though…

Matthew 5:17-19 says:

DO NOT THINK THAT I CAME TO DESTROY THE LAW or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore BREAKS ONE OF the least of THESE commandments, and teaches men so, shall be CALLED LEAST IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Question! If the law was to be abolished in Christ would this be a valid statement? If the law after Christ’s death was to be abolished then Christ would have destroyed the law. Think about it, Christ came for what purpose? To ultimately die for our sins and transgressions, that was His purpose in coming to earth. If in this sacrifice Christ had obliterated the ten commandment law then why does Matthew make it so plain, “Do NOT think that I came to destroy the law”

Christ did not come to undo or destroy the ten commandment law or stand against the prophets who had for so long preached its observance… Christ had come to fulfill the law. What does this mean?

For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23

The law says “sin is the transgression of the law” and somebody must pay for that debt…

Lets say you get stopped by a policeman for speeding, despite pleading for forgiveness the officer says “I must uphold the law, you broke the law, somebody has to pay” – So he writes you out a ticket but instead of giving it to you he takes it and tells you are free to go. The policeman did not obliterate the law, he fulfilled the judgment that the law pronounced, the law says if you speed somebody has to pay for it. The law said somebody had to pay for it, the policeman took your punishment that you might not be condemned.

QUESTION! If this policeman has paid the price for your ticket, he has taken your punishment upon himself, does this give you a license to speed? In the words of Paul, “God forbid”.

I understand the above illustration is a bit flawed in comparison to Christ’s ultimate sacrifice but it gives you some insight into what the initial verse is saying. Before the cross the ten commandment law was a condemnation unto us for they pointed out our guilt, the mirror showed us our sin but provided no means of escape. It said “your a sinner” but it didn’t provide a means of cleansing. Hence it was referred to as the “ministration of condemnation” - until Christ came we bore our sins ourselves, our sins condemned us to death. But when Christ came he took that “ministration of condemnation” on himself and took our death for himself. This does not mean that we can continue in breaking God’s law…

Romans 6:1-2

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

The Bible is clear, there is no mistaking this. We are saved by grace through faith, that not of ourselves BUT if we do not the will of God and keep not his commandments as the Bible says we are liars and the truth is not in us.

Many well-meaning Christians use this verse to say the law is abolished… but we clearly saw above that Christ did not come to destroy the law and that we that are saved through grace should not continue in sin. Why am I stressing this point when this discussion was supposed to be about the importance of the sabbath? Because if the law was abolished at the cross then we do not need to keep the sabbath any longer and hence it has no importance to our generation. However if the law was not abolished at the cross but only fulfilled in Christ’s death than the law is still binding… for Paul says “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”

So what was done away in Christ’s death? This verse is clear that something was fulfilled in the Cross and hence abolished… what is it?
Verse 7 says:

But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:

Note the the “ministration of death” was “glorious”. Now we move down to verse 11:

For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious

The ten commandment law wasn’t done away with, the “ministration of death” was… no more lambs needed slaying for the transgression of the law for Christ was THE Lamb who was sacrificed for our transgressions and by whose stripes we are healed. The condemnation has been taken away and abolished in our faith and acceptance of Christ’s sacrifice and death. This verse is saying that if we abide in Christ that our condemnation has been taken away…

Is that clear? The verse does not say “But if the law, written and engraven in stones…” for this verse is not speaking of the law, hence Paul says “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones…”
There is a big difference here, the former announces the disintegration of the law while the latter is an announcement of our guilt in transgression of the law is taken away in Christ… but again we hear Paul echo “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” – The apostles and writers after Christ’s death are clear that the law is still binding.

Peter in 2 Peter 3:15,16 gives us a warning about this very issue, that some should twist Paul’s words to their own destruction:

And account that the long suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;

As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Note Peter is clear the problem is not in Paul, Paul did not write ignorantly for Peter says “the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you” but even at these stages in the early Christian church there were those who were twisting Paul’s writings to “their own destruction”

If Paul’s writings are so hard to understand maybe we should just skip that book in our Bible reading, wouldn’t that solve the problem? No, the bible says:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

We are to study it out, if one part of the Bible is clear such as Paul’s answer to his own question of “shall we continue to break the law”, and his answer “God forbid” than to interpret other parts as contradictory is twisting Paul’s words “to our own destruction”

Lastly before going on into our actual discussion of the importance of the sabbath… if the Sabbath only has been fulfilled in the cross, please show me how. There is no verse in the Bible which supports this idea. But lets look at the logic of this thought for a moment… did people before the cross need rest? Do we still need rest? Countless studies have been done and it is a proven fact(God said it first) that we need rest, one day a week. A study was done in France were employees were worked 7 days a week without proper rest and they found that they were much less productive than those who got rest.

So if we still need our rest today why would God have done away with the Sabbath? It is illogical… God would disband His HOLY Sabbath day which He created for us in the place of a man-made day converted from pagan worship of the sun. This doesn’t make sense, if we don’t need to keep the Sabbath than we certainly don’t need to keep a pagan day as the Sabbath.

The fact is God never disbanded His holy sabbath, He never changed the solemnity to sunday and He never withdrew His command to “remember the sabbath day to keep it holy” – man did, as we discovered in our earlier study the Roman Catholic church changed the day to Sunday NOT God.

But does the Sabbath really matter? I mean, hey I got to support my family and if I don’t work on the Sabbath I may lose my job. Is that a good enough excuse? Doesn’t God understand in a situation such as this?
Or maybe I love my current church, they are wonderful Christian people. God will understand won’t He?

Did He understand when Eve partook of a fruit she was strictly commanded against? The Lord said

Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

BUT of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

QUESTION! Who picked the test? Did God say, “Adam I want you to taste of each of these fruits, then I want you to decide which one you are going to consecrate to me and of that fruit you may not eat”
Is that what God said? No, God said “of every tree you may freely eat… but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, though shalt NOT eat”

Was the command clear? Did they know what tree God was talking about? They most certainly did. God was testing them, He said you may eat and partake of everything BUT this one tree. Could Adam say “well you know God, I really would love to give you that tree but this one over here looks better, see this is the one that you stood under the other day and I wish to give it to you” – Could Adam make that change? NO, God made the test and it was not to be changed. Adam had no part in it, he was only to obey. How can we as mortal, sinful beings dare, even dare to consecrate and keep a day that was not commanded by God. How can we dare to say “God will understand” when He has so clearly said “remember the sabbath day”

You see in the end times there will be a test similiar to that of Eden. But will we heed or like Eve will we decide to partake of the forbidden and trodden on the word of God?

Another verse which proves that God intends for us to keep the Sabbath today is Matthew 24:20

Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath day

Now if God doesn’t care what day we keep why would He say that? This verse is actually really ridiculous if it doesn’t matter what day we keep… this verse is clear that the Sabbath is so important we should pray we don’t even have to flee on it. Some will say that this is speaking of Jerusalem and hence only for the Jews and not intended to be interpreted as speaking of the end times… we have proven in our previous article that this is not true, that the Sabbath was made for man not Jews. It is true that this verse is speaking of Jerusalem however if you read Matthew 24 you see that the disciples are asking Christ about the destruction of Jerusalem and the end times… they group these events together because the disciples at this time believed that the end of Jerusalem WOULD BE the end of the world… they thought the two would be the same event. So you see Christ is answering both questions in one, we find that the destruction of Jerusalem will parallel that of end times events.
You see Christ is answering both questions here and they apply to both Jerusalem and the end times. But lets assume for a moment that this verse is speaking only of Jerusalem’s fall. Okay, remember this is 40 years after Christ’s death… so if the Sabbath was abolished at the cross then why is Christ giving a warning that God’s remnant in Jerusalem should pray that they need not flee on the Sabbath? Obviously it wouldn’t be that important at this point… or was it?

1 John 2:3,4 says that we do not know Christ if we do not keep His commandments:

And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

This is a remarkable statement to me… what did Christ do in His example, in His life on earth? He ALWAYS kept the Sabbath… He never even gave a hint that it was abolished or changed. Yes the pharisees accused Him of breaking it, they also accused Him of blasphemy. Yet Christ did neither, He always kept the law.

So basically John is saying if you know Christ you will keep the commandments, you will know that is what Christ wants us to do. But if you don’t know Christ you will not keep His commandments… this verse gives us so much to glean from and is so clear. However I do want you to keep in mind that I am not condemning those who ignorantly break the Sabbath… the bible says:

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:

But should we allow others to stay in ignorance? Paul says no.

Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren Romans 1:13

Paul says, “I would not have you ignorant” or in other words “I want you to know the truth”

The Bible says God’s remnant or true church, those who will be saved in the latter days will keep his commandments:

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Revelation 14:12:

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

Another interpretation of this verse is, “here are the saints who have endured” – Those who continually read and study their bibles and are so close to Christ that they are not fooled by Satan’s counterfeit day of worship. The bible says in the end days that His people will keep His commandments… it sounds to me as though keeping God’s commandments is still very important.

An obvious question would be, if this is so. If God’s law was never abolished, if the Sabbath is still very important and will be the test in the end, if all this is so then why are the majority of Christians keeping Sunday? Again you need to go back and read my previous article which gives a little detail into the changing of the Sabbath to Sunday by the Roman Catholic church… the devil didn’t see to it that a law was passed condemning the worship on the Sabbath…(not right away) had he done so the true Christians would have stood and rather died than disobey God… Satan knew this so he had to beguile them like he did Eve… instead he made a counterfeit. He allowed Christians to observe the Sabbath(for a time) with Sunday so it seemed okay… but soon they began to forget about the TRUE Sabbath and they began observing Sunday only, for Sunday had become a day of fun. Over the years Christians began to keep Sundays solely till our current day when most Christians do not even know this history.

When God brought a flood upon the earth only eight persons entered the ark… why? Because the rest did not believe, they did not think it mattered. It was inconvenient, who wants to be inconvenienced? Are these not the same arguments used against keeping the Sabbath? The test in the end times will be trust, believe in God and His word. Are we going to trust what God said in His word or are we going to follow tradition and convenience?

Don’t be fooled, in the end the papacy will unite with America to cause a national Sunday law to be passed. Keeping the Sabbath will NOT be convenient. I don’t have time to go through a full Revelation seminar here but let me provide you with some texts. Lets turn to Daniel 7 – yes I said Revelation, the fact is Daniel and Revelation parallel and give the same prophecy.

7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.

8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

Now lets turn to Daniel 2. We will notice the same prophecy portrayed as a metal image.

31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

42 And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

Okay now lets look at some patterns here… in Daniel 2:40 we have a kingdom which is strong as iron and which “breaketh in pieces and subdueth all” – In Daniel 7:7 we have a “dreadful and terrible” beast which has iron teeth and “devoured and brake in pieces” all those kingdoms before it. Do you see a pattern here? If we cross-reference both these chapters we find each beast is parallel to each metal on the image.

This is pretty much undisputed as the great Roman empire, interestingly denoted as the Iron nation, Rome was known for their Iron swords. An iron sword could cut in half a bronze sword.

After this iron kingdom arises one partly of iron and partly of clay. Any of you who were awake in history class know that the great Roman empire was divided into ten parts. It is pretty much a universal agreement that through the dividing of Rome ten separate kingdoms arose. In no particular order here they are: Huns, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Heruli, Anglo-saxons, and Lombards.

After the division of Rome these kingdoms would be ‘partly broken’ and ‘partly strong’ – i.e., it retains, even in its broken state, enough of its iron strength to resist all attempts to mold its parts together. The bible says ‘this shall not be,’. History replies, ‘This has not been’ – Napoleon tried it, Charles the V, Louis XIV and even Hitler tried but none have succeeded in conquering the world again because the word of God said it would not happen. And when God says something nothing will change His word.

I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

Okay a little horn or another power arises at first little but afterwards plucks out three other powers by the roots which means they were destroyed. This little horn as we shall soon notice is the Papacy or Roman Catholic church. The three horns plucked up by the roots are the Heruli, the Ostrogoths and the Vandals. The reason for their plucking was their opposition to the teachings and claims of the papacy. Sometimes referred to as the Arians. History documents the fact that the papal church uprooted these three powers because they did not follow the teachings of the Catholic church. While the Arians did hold to beliefs that we do not find biblical we do belief that all men should belief as they are inclined and should not be persecuted for their beliefs. I bring this up only to prove that the papal church is the little horn.

And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

This same little horn power that we have discovered is the papal church which shall speak great words against the most High or blaspheme God. The papal church like no other church has taken on names and positions that belong only to God. The Pope has denoted himself as God on earth which is blasphemy. The Catholic priests claim the ability to forgive sins, something that belongs only to God. When Christ on earth forgave sins he was accused of blasphemy by the religious rulers of his day. Sinners cannot forgive sins, the only one who can forgive sins is Christ who was perfect.

The papal church has and will again persecute God’s saints and whats more, will think to change times and laws. Notice the bible says “think” and also note “times and laws”. There is only one law in the ten commandments which is both a time and a law and it is one of the laws which the Papal church has declared they have changed, it is the Sabbath. The Papal church freely admits this and claims the power to do it.

The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, 3rd ed., p. 50:

“Question: Which is the Sabbath day?

“Answer: Saturday is the Sabbath day.

“Question: Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday?

“Answer: We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea [c. 363] transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.”

So we have established that the bible prophesied that the papal church would arise, that it would pluck up three powers, it would think to change times and laws and would take the position that belongs only to Christ(would blaspheme the most high)… all of which has been fulfilled.

In part 2 we will be discussing how Daniel and Revelation parallel, how that this little horn power which is the Papal church will enforce a Sunday law and cause all to worship on Sunday.

In the end days as disasters increase and our planet is hurled into cosmic confusion the world will turn on those who keep God’s law and will blame them for the disasters. Before this happens the papal church will use the power of the United States to pass a law which will command all to worship on Sunday, failure to do so will result in imprisonment and even death. But through this time God will protect His people who follow Him without flinching.

I want you to think about something…. in the beginning, God sanctified two institutions, that of marriage between a man and a woman and the Sabbath. Both of these HOLY institutions are being disregarded and torn apart today… it is now acceptable for a man and woman to live together before marriage, it is also becoming a “norm” for same-sex marriage. These are the sins that God destroyed Sodom for… nearly all Christians now days keep Sunday instead of the Sabbath. Could it be that Satan has so ingeniously attacked these two sacred institutions that he has been able to beguile the world into disregarding them? The Bible says “if it were possible the very elect would be deceived” – we are not to follow the popular route “for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat”

Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Unfortunately few keep God’s Sabbath, God never changed it and even though it is part of God’s eternal law so few Christians feel they need to observe it. Could it be that in the end it will not be the majority who make it into the kingdom? That is a solemn thought but the Bible says it… “few there be that find it” – we need to be studying like never before and we need to accept the truth as we find it. For many of us this it is not easy, however I don’t recall Christ’s life being easy either…

• If the Sabbath is not an issue and God does not care whether you keep the Sabbath or Sunday, He has alot of apologizing to do. Adam and Eve were banished from the garden over a matter of worship, God said this tree is mine, it is set apart, do not defile it by partaking of it.

• When Cain killed Abel, it was over a matter of worship, and that because God only accepted the sacrifice of Abel who performed it the way God had commanded.

• Nadab and Abihu were killed because they were not worshiping God according to his commandments. They were disregarding that which was holy… how is this any different from disregarding the holy day of the Lord?

And then there is the farce that in dieing Christ abolished the Sabbath, but because we have already addressed this in a previous article we will not go into that again. But lets look at some REAL facts about Christ, His disciples and the Sabbath.
Sixty Bible Facts Concerning the Seventh Day
1. After working the first six days of the week in creating this earth, the great God rested on the seventh
day. Genesis 2:1-3.
2. This stamped that day as God’s rest day, or Sabbath day, as Sabbath day means rest day. To illustrate:
When a person is born on a certain day, that day thus becomes his birthday. So when God rested upon the
seventh day, that day became His rest, or Sabbath day.
3. Therefore the seventh day must always be God’s Sabbath day. Can you change your birthday from the
day on which you were born, to one on which you were not born? No. Neither can you 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. The Creator blessed the seventh day. Genesis 2:3.
5. He sanctified the seventh day. Exodus 20:11.
6. He made it the Sabbath day in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 2:1-3.
7. It was made before the fall; hence it is not a type; for types were not introduced till after the fall.
8. Jesus says it was made for man (Mark 2:27); that is, for the race, as the word man is here unlimited;
hence, for the Gentile as well as for the Jews.
9. It is a memorial of creation. Exodus 20:11; 31:17. Every time we rest upon the seventh day, as God did
at creation, we commemorate that grand event.
10. It was given to Adam, the head of the human race. Mark 2:27; Genesis 2:1-3.
11. Hence through him, as our representative, to all nations. Acts 17:26.
12. It is not a Jewish institution; for it was made 2,300 years before ever there ‘ was a Jew.
13. The Bible never calls it the Jewish Sabbath; but always, ‘the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.’ Men should
be cautious how they stigmatize God’s holy rest day.
14. Evident reference is made to the Sabbath all through the patriarchal age. Genesis 2:1-3; 8:10,12; 29:27,
28, etc.
15. It was a part of God’s law before Sinai. Exodus 16:4, 27-29.
16. Then God placed it in the heart of His moral law. Exodus 20:117. Why did He place it there if it was
not like the other nine precepts, which all admit to be immutable?
17. The seventh day Sabbath was commanded by the voice of the living God. Deuteronomy 4:12, 13.
18. Then He wrote the commandment with His own finger. Exodus 31:18.
19. He engraved it in the enduring stone, indicating its imperishable nature. Deuteronomy 5:22.
20. It was sacredly preserved in the ark in the holy of holies. Deuteronomy 10:1-5.
21. God forbade work upon the, Sabbath, even in the most hurrying times. Exodus 34:21.
22. God destroyed the Israelites in the wilderness because they profaned the Sabbath. Ezekiel 20:12, 13.
23. It is the sign of the true God, by which we are to know Him from false gods. Ezekiel 20:20.
24. God promised that Jerusalem should stand forever if the Jews would keep the Sabbath.
Jeremiah 17:24,25.
25. He sent them into Babylonian captivity for breaking it. Nehemiah 13:18.
26. He destroyed Jerusalem for its violation. Jeremiah 17:27.
27. God has pronounced a special blessing on all the Gentiles who will keep it. Isaiah 56:6, 7.
28. This is in the prophecy which refers wholly to the Christian dispensation. See Isaiah 56.
29. God has promised to bless any man who will keep the Sabbath. Isaiah 56:2.
30. The Lord requires us to call it ‘honorable.’ Isaiah 58:13. Beware, you who take delight in calling it the ‘old Jewish Sabbath,’ ‘a yoke of bondage,’ etc.
31. After the holy Sabbath has been trodden down ‘many generations,’ it is to be restored in the last days.
Isaiah 58:12, 13.
32. All the holy prophets kept the seventh day.
33. When the Son of God came, He kept the seventh day all His life. Luke 4:16; John 15:10. Thus He
followed His Father’s example at creation. Shall we not be safe in following the example of both the Father
and the Son?
34. The seventh day is the Lord’s day. See Revelation 1:10; Mark 2:28; Isaiah 58:13; Exodus 20:10. [NOTE: This verse in Revelation 1:10 is likely not speaking of the Sabbath for the coming of the Lord is also called "the day of the Lord" so it is very likely John was in the spirit at the coming of the Lord. or in other words he was in vision at the coming of the Lord. This is my personal belief
BTW no where in the bible is Sunday referred to as the "Lord's day" or anything close]
35. 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.
36. He vindicated the Sabbath as a merciful institution designed for man’s good. Mark 2:23-28.
37. Instead of abolishing the Sabbath, He carefully taught how it should be observed. Matthew 12:1-13.
38. He taught His disciples that they should do nothing upon the Sabbath day but what was ‘lawful.’
Matthew 12:12.
39. He instructed His apostles that the Sabbath should be prayerfully regarded 40 years after His
resurrection. Matthew 24:20.
40. The pious women who had been with Jesus carefully kept the seventh day after His death. Luke 23:56.
41. Thirty years after Christ’s resurrection, the Holy Spirit expressly calls it ‘the Sabbath day.’ Acts 13:14.
42. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, called it ‘the Sabbath day’ in A. D. 45. Acts 13:27. Did not Paul
know? Or shall we believe modern teachers, who affirm that it ceased to be the Sabbath at the resurrection
of Christ?
43. Luke, the inspired Christian historian, writing as ate as A. D. 62, calls it ‘the Sabbath day.’ Acts 13:44.
44. The Gentile converts called it the Sabbath. Acts 13:42.
45. In the great Christian council, A. D. 52, in the presence of the apostles and thousands of disciples,
James calls it the “Sabbath day.” Acts 15:21.
46. It was customary to hold prayer meetings upon that day. Acts 16:13.
47. Paul read the Scriptures in public meetings on the Sabbath. Acts 17:2, 3.
48. It was his custom to preach upon the Sabbath. Acts 17:2.
49. The book of Acts alone gives a record of his holding eighty-four meetings upon that day.
See Acts 13:14, 44; 16:13; 17:2; 18:1, 11.
50. There was never any dispute between the Christians and the Jews about the Sabbath day. This is proof
Why I Love And Keep God’s Holy Day that the Christians still observed the same day that the Jews did.
51. In all their accusations against Paul, they never charged him with disregarding the Sabbath day. Why
did they not, if he did not keep it?
52. But Paul himself expressly declared that he had kept the 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?
53. The Sabbath is mentioned in the New Testament 59 times, and always with respect, bearing the same
title it had in the Old Testament, ‘the Sabbath day.’
54. Not a word is said anywhere in the New Testament about the Sabbath’s being abolished, done way,
changed, or anything of the kind.
55. God has never given permission to any man to work upon it. Reader, by what authority do you use the
seventh day for common labor?
56. 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?
57. There is no record that God has ever removed His blessing or sanctification from the seventh day.
58. As the Sabbath was kept in Eden before the fall, so it will be observed eternally in the new earth after
the restitution. Isaiah 66:22, 23.
59. The seventh day Sabbath was an important part of the law of God, as it came from His own mouth, and
was written by His own finger upon stone at Sinai. See Exodus 20. When Jesus began His work, He
expressly declared that He had not come to destroy the law. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law,’
or the prophets.” Matthew 5:17.
60. Jesus severely condemned the Pharisees as hypocrites for pretending to love God, while at the same
time they made void one of the Ten Commandments by their tradition. The keeping of Sunday is only a
tradition of men.

Based on all the biblical evidence that the Sabbath is important how can we keep any other day? How can I claim to be Christ’s if I disregard the day he hallowed?

If you would like to discuss this or any other Biblical issue I am more than happy to study it out with you. We want to find the Bible truth, whatever it is. Feel free to email me at randy[at]ebibleanswers[dot]com

Again we will be discussing in our next article how the Sabbath IS the end time test, what the mark of the beast is and how we can be sure not to have it. This is one article you don’t want to miss!

If you want to see what the bible says about this please join me in this discussion. Your comments are welcomed!

It is surprising to me how many people will base their religious beliefs, and disregard for biblical truths on their interpretation of one verse. The rest of the bible is very clear on the same point, but this one lonely verse appears to be saying something different. So they accept what they believe or what they want to believe over what they know the rest of the bible says… the obvious question is “does the bible contradict itself?”

In 2 timothy 3:16 the bible says:

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness

The bible does not contradict itself so you must be very careful about basing your theology on one verse. Unfortunately not only do many people do this but many churches and many denominations base their theology on one or two verses and teach men to do so. Is this the case with the sabbath?

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about… in our previous article we touched on the idea that the law was done away with at the cross, and we will be discussing that a bit more in-depth in this article.

Many people use this idea to say that we no longer need to keep the sabbath but this idea is based on a few verses which have been taken out of context. Let me use the bible to show you this, afterwards you make your decision.

Colossians 2:14 says:

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

Christians take this verse and apply it to the ten commandment law, they use it to say that the law of God was nailed to the cross and we are no longer obligated to keep the sabbath… the rest of the ten commandment law is assumed by these same Christians(atleast most of them) to still be binding, but the sabbath according to them is done away with. That is called selective reading, if this verse is indeed saying that the ten commandment law was done away with than it is now okay to murder, steal, commit adultery or lie. For if the sabbath is no longer binding because of this verse then neither are the rest of the commandments… how far do you take it?

This verse however is in fact not referring to the ten commandment law… where else in the bible do you see the ten commandment law so referenced, as “the handwriting of ordinances”? But before we go into investigating the two laws and which was done away with, I want to take a look at a popular argument against keeping the sabbath.

Let no man judge you therefore…
Colossians 2:16 says

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days

Notice these keywords are all lumped together as if they fit together… “in meat, or in drink” fits into the sacrificial system and if you read the books of Moses you will see this phrase repeated many times in reference to the sacrifices of “meat and drink” – Some Christians will claim that this verse however is saying that it doesn’t really matter what day you keep, don’t judge others based on their “sabbaths”. Some will take it even further and say it doesn’t matter what you eat or drink anymore. Okay, it does say sabbath so one could get that idea, but the fact that the verse also says “new moon” and “sabbath days” plural, should lead you to a wholly different conclusion, such as that the author is referring again to the sacrificial system where holy days, and yearly sabbaths were kept by the Jews. This fits perfectly into the context while the seventh day sabbath doesn’t fit at all into this verse for the seventh day sabbath is in no way associated with the new moon and in no way associated with the other aspects of what is being described.

There are two kinds of sabbaths in the bible. The seventh-day Sabbath written by God in the ten commandments and the yearly sabbaths which were kept by the Jews. These verses are speaking of the ceremonial feasts of the Lord, not the seventh day sabbath. The feasts of the Lord were a shadow of Christ’s coming… that is why they were done away with or a better interpretation “fulfilled at the cross”. Sunday-keepers claim these verses speak of the seventh day sabbath… this doesn’t fit in with the sacrificial symbolism and the mosaic law. The sabbath was part of the ten commandment law not the mosaic law, the mosaic law was done away with NOT the ten commandment law. Christians mix the two and that is how they get themselves in trouble.

The seventh day sabbath could not be a “shadow of things to come” as the sabbath was instituted before sin and there could NOT be shadows before sin existed. It doesn’t even make sense, what would the sabbath be a shadow of? And why would people before Christ’s time need rest but those of us after not need rest? Or is it, we just get to pick our own day now? None of this makes sense and whats more it isn’t biblical.

Deuteronomy 4:13, 14 says:

And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it

Notice carefully that Moses is making a complete separation between the ten commandment law which “He commanded you”, and the statutes which “he commanded me” to give the people. This is VERY important, any yet so many miss it. Many churches and denominations are making a grave error by co-mingling the two, they do so to place the holy seventh day sabbath in with the “ordinances” which were done away with. Any child can see by this verse that the two are distinctly set apart. The ten commandments were written by God, by His own finger in stone which shows perfection, completeness and the eternal nature of the law. The statutes on the other hand were written by a man(moses) and were not eternally binding.  Does that not all make sense?

2 Kings 21:8 speaks of the law written by moses as a law as well but still shows the distinction between the two

Neither will I make the feet of Israel move any more out of the land which I gave their fathers; only if they will observe to do according to all that I have commanded them and according to all the law that my servant Moses commanded them

Notice again the bible shows the distinction between “I have commanded them” and “Moses commanded them”. The bible reiterates this fact over and over, the two laws were separate and distinct. Look carefully at this verse, it says “Moses commanded them” even though it was God who inspired Moses and told Him what to write, why did God say it was Moses? God was showing distinction between the laws of Israel which were to be kept up till Christ’s death and the law of God which was eternal. Maybe God, all-knowing could for-see this day coming when Christians would claim God’s law was done away with, that is why He made it so clear.

Daniel 9:11 again reiterates this. I keep going over this because so many Christians claim that the laws are the same, they are the same or someone combined and this is a grave error, obviously God inspired the writers of the Bible to make distinctions when speaking of the two laws to shows us something… hello?

Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him

Again we see “thy law” and the “law of Moses” the servant of God. It is pretty clear isn’t it? The two are separate and distinct and to put the two together and claim the ten commandment law is nailed to the cross is a grave error perpetuated by the father of lies.

Nobody can deny the distinctions made here in the Bible by divine inspiration and then the distinction made when each of the laws were given… the ten commandments were written by the finger of God on stone. The mosaic law was however given very differently. It was given through Moses:

And Moses wrote this law … And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee

Moses wrote the Mosaic law and notice that he commanded the Levites to place it in the pocket, on the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord. It was not to be placed inside the ark for it was NOT to be equated with the ten commandments, it was not the same law.

Exodus 25:16 says

And thou shalt put into the ark the testimony which I shall give thee

Notice here the testimony or tables of testimony were placed in the ark. So lets take a look at the distinctions between the two laws for a moment:

Different authors, were written on different material, were placed in different locations and had totally different content.

And yet so many are claiming they are one in the same, obviously somebody isn’t reading their bible, atleast not the old testament. In fact there are churches which only give out the new testament, this is so sad as precious truths such as what I am showing you today are lost. The old testament and new testament fit together hand-in-glove, if you leave out the old testament as many churches seem to do you can get many false ideas about which law was done away with… it is crucial we study the WHOLE BIBLE!

Which was against us…
When the writers of the bible speak of the law which was done away with there is a phrase which is almost always seen “which was against us” – now if anybody really thought about this, is the sabbath really against us? It is telling us to rest, now unless your a really lazy fellow who rests all week long you probably won’t argue with an “order” to rest. It is really quite silly to suggest that these verses are speaking of the sabbath when they use a phrase such as “which was against us” -

Lets take a look at the ceremonial ordinances in the mosaic law.

Deuteronomy 31:26 says

Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee.

We see two things, again we see that the mosaic law is placed in the side of the ark and NOT in the ark itself where the ten commandment law was placed. This is significant, if the two laws were related or combined or otherwise to share similiar fates then they would have been placed together. The mosaic law was placed outside however to show it was not an eternal law.

Secondly we see the mosaic law is a “witness against thee”. Wow isn’t that very similiar language to Colossians 2:14 which says “which was contrary to us”? The mosaic law brought with it curses and judgments against those who would disregard it, yet this is not seen in the ten commandments. This is why the ceremonial or mosaic law was considered to be “against them”

How could the ten commandment law be seen as “against them” or “contrary” to them? Notice what Paul says in Romans 7:7

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

We could interpret thus “What shall we shay then? Is the law against us?? God forbid…” – Paul is saying, the ten commandment law is good, how else would I know what sin is? Also note he quotes the ten commandment law “Thou shalt not covet” in response to lust. It is quite clear he is referring to the ten commandment law here.

Paul goes on in verse 12 to say:

Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.

and then in verse 14

For we know that the law is spiritual:

Notice Paul says “the law IS holy” and not “was”. Don’t you think if the ten commandment law was abolished at the cross that it is very strange Paul would be speaking so highly of it? I mean, he is speaking as though the law is still binding. So at this point, Paul while writing to the Roman church speaks of the law as being very much intact and binding.

On the other hand Paul when speaking of the mosaic law says “WAS against us” – It is clear he is speaking of two different laws, the mosaic law WAS against us and WAS abolished at the cross while the ten commandment law IS holy, IS just and IS spiritual.

When writing to the Ephesians Paul speaks of the 5th commandment as still being in effect and very much still a commandment…

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth

Again Paul says “IS the first commandment…” and not “WAS”.

The church in Paul’s day had alot of contention over some of the ceremonial laws such as circumcision. We will start in Acts 15:5

But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.

Now we have already established the “law of Moses” is the ceremonial law, the law which was placed in the pocket of the ark. This is confirmed in this same verse by the fact that Paul speaks of a part of the mosaic law, circumcision, which the ten commandments does not speak of. In Corinthians 7:19 we have Paul’s answer to this uprising:

Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God

Paul doesn’t say “…and keeping the commandments of God is nothing” – Paul is again making a distinction here, the commandments of God are still binding, BUT the ceremonial laws and ordinance of circumcision are no longer required.

There are numerous verses in the Bible which reiterate this fact over and over. The Mosaic law and sacrificial system, that which was done away or nailed to the cross, was instituted after sin came into this world while the ten commandment law is eternal and was not as some suggest created at creation. It was in effect before creation and sin…

We continually see the bible reference the mosaic law as “carnal” while the ten commandment law is referenced as “holy” and “spiritual”. Hebrews 7 speaks of this carnal law:

Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life

Obviously a law cannot be “carnal” and “holy” at the same time. This carnal commandment is dealing with the human priesthood found in the mosaic law. When Christ, He was the holy sacrifice and as such the “carnal commandment” or human priesthood and ceremonial laws were done away with. It was no longer needed, it had been fulfilled in Jesus at the cross.

I want you to also take a look at Ezekiel for further confirmation that the sabbath is in no way affiliated with these mosaic laws which were done away with

Because they … had polluted my sabbaths, and their eyes were after their fathers’ idols. Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live
Ezekiel 20:24, 25

Look carefully at how Ezekiel words it. He first speaks of two of the ten commandments, the Sabbath and Idolatry, these are both part of the holy ten commandment law. He then goes on and says “I gave them also” and “that were not good”

Again, as with the other writers in the bible we see Ezekiel making a distinction between the Sabbath and Idolatry, two of the ten commandments and the mosaic law which is “not good” He says “I gave them also statutes…”. He would not have said ‘also’ had they been the same law. Remember back in Romans 7:12-14 Paul said the ten commandments are “holy” and “spiritual”… in accordance with the other texts already shown in this article we see that the mosaic law is again “not good” and “against us” because of its curses and judgments against Israel’s continued disobedience.

The mosaic law is never equated with the ten commandment law. They are always distinctly identified. Even though the ten commandment law was not written on tablets of stone until Sinai we know that the early patriarchs followed them so it was not just for Israel.

In Genesis 4:7 God says to Cain after he murdered Abel

sin lieth at the door

The bible gives us the definition of sin:

Sin is the transgression of the law

This tells us that there can be no sin unless there is a law, the ten commandment law was before man, and if it were done away with at the cross then there would be no sin… Paul asks “how would I know sin else the law showed me?” – So think about it, how can God accuse Cain of sin unless Cain knew of the ten commandment law which said “thou shalt not kill”? Obviously he knew of the ten commandment law at this time and Cain was not a Jew

So to say that the ten commandment law was done away with at the cross is not biblical.

I want to go back to Colossians 2:14,16 to get the whole picture here… and the bible says:

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

When you see the word therefore it means “based on what has just been said we must come to this conclusion” – So it should read “based on the fact that the ordinances have been blotted out let no man judge you in…”

Again we see this verse is portraying the law which was nailed to the cross as “contrary to us” and “against us”, as we have seen already the only law which fits this bill is the Mosaic law, the ten commandment law is never described in this way and is not against us.

Doesn’t this all make sense? I mean to say we don’t have to keep the ten commandment law anymore just doesn’t make any sense, we all know we need a moral code to live by and if we don’ have the ten commandments we won’t know what sin is, and if we don’t know what is sin, then anything is okay… do you see how satan is working to break down God’s holy law?
The bible is however clear that we are still to keep the ten commandments. Read Matthew 5:17-19

Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

1 John 2:1 says:

And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His Commandments

The bible is clear, very clear that the ten commandment law is binding, we are to follow it, 100% of it.

But let met go back once more to Colossians 2:14,16

Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

I want us to take a very close look at these verses and look at them with an open mind, so that God may show us the truth.

Again we notice the verse is NOT distinctly separated, remember we established that the Bible ALWAYS when discussing the Mosaic law and Ten Commandment law at the same time will distinctly separate them… no distinctions are made here, so it is clear that the mosaic law is under discussion here and not the 4th commandment at all… how do we know? Well does the ten commandment law speak of “meat”, or “drink”? No but the mosaic law deals with everything mentioned here, in fact if we cross reference with Leviticus and other books speaking of the ceremonial sacrifices and feast days we see the EXACT same language…

The ceremonial law required animal sacrifices(meat). This “handwriting of ordinances” was a continual witness “against” Israel because its very existence testified that Israel had broken the Ten Commandments. Because of this the needed to offer lambs as sacrifice for their sins. When Jesus died, this entire system of ceremonial sacrifices was “blotted out.”

I want to take a look at Leviticus23:27,28 in discussion of the ceremonial feasts:

These are the feasts of the LORD, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, every thing upon his day:

Beside the sabbaths of the LORD, and beside your gifts, and beside all your vows, and beside all your freewill offerings, which ye give unto the LORD.

Notice we see all the parts of Colossians 2:16 – We have “in meat”, “in drink” and we have “sabbath days” and we KNOW that Leviticus is talking about the Mosaic law here, if you have any doubts read the chapter. It speaks of all the feasts, and ceremonies of Israel… it is clear now that Colossians is speaking of the ceremonial feasts and sacrifices and not the Sabbath of the ten commandments.

Is there anyway this verse in Colossians 2:16 is speaking of the seventhy day sabbath in reference to “sabbath days”? I believe the Bible explains that there is not. And i’ll explain why… they are clearly defined as “shadows of things to come.” – Keep in mind the Seventh-day Sabbath was instituted before sin came into this world, THERE COULD NEVER BE TYPES OR SHADOWS BEFORE SIN EXISTED for the shadows were introduced because of sin and pointed forward to the time of deliverance from sin when Christ would die. For example in the sacrificial system the lambs being slain represented THE LAMB which was coming to take away our sins, they were a type or symbol of Christ’s death.

There is no way the seventh-day sabbath fits into this, it could not be a shadow of anything to come… so what “sabbaths” are these verses speaking of? There were yearly sabbaths which had absolutely no correlation to the Seventh-day Sabbath of the decalogue. And they were most certainly a part of the “ordinances” and system which was done away with at the cross.

To prove this lets go back to Leviticus, in 23:24 we find the following:

Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, shall ye have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation

In verses 27 and 32 we read again:

Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement … It shall be unto you a sabbath of rest

These sabbaths fell on a different day of the month every year and were not to be confused with the seventh-day sabbath, we see this in verses 37 and 38:

These are the feasts of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, a burnt offering, and a meat offering, a sacrifice, and drink offerings, everything upon his day: BESIDE THE SABBATHS OF THE LORD

In light of this we can now understand more clearly what Paul was talking about when he was speaking of meat and drink and sabbath days which are shadows of things to come. For each of these yearly feast days, there were prescribed offerings, which were shadows pointing clearly to the future sacrifice of Christ. The Bible again as before distinctly separates these from the ten commandment sabbath law by saying “beside the sabbaths of the Lord.” or the seventh day sabbath.

At the death of Christ the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, this exposed the most holy place of the sanctuary, where there was sprinkled the blood of the sins of the people. But it was needed no more, no more lambs needed to die, the true Lamb of God had come to which all those other sacrifices had been pointing. And to continue to sacrifice animals would be a denial of Christ’s coming and His death, as our Lamb for our sins. It would be denying the fulfillment of all the shadows and types which pointed to Christ. Henceforth it would be “against us” or “contrary to us” to continue to keep the Mosaic law. The tearing of the veil from top to bottom was a symbol of the obliteration of the mosaic law. Isn’t that pretty clear?

We have already established that after the cross, Paul when writing of the ten commandment law he says it “IS holy”. Obviously, the blotting out of ordinances, types and shadows did not affect the great moral code of the Ten Commandments in the slightest degree—they all applied after the cross as much as before Christ died. Christ did not come to glorify sin by obliterating His holy law so we can continue in sin… God forbid, instead He came to “magnify” the law not destroy it. I keep going over and over this because so many people claim that somehow the Sabbath has been done away with at the cross, so I have attempted to clearly present the truth of the Word. Please, “search the scriptures” and find the truth for yourself.

There are still Christians today who will insist that the yearly Sabbaths should be observed along with the weekly Sabbath.  This is an attack by Satan on God’s holy law for if we still need to keep the yearly sabbaths than what was done away with? – please note I am not condemning anyone who believes this way, I am showing you why I think it can be a hindrance -  What Sabbaths where blotted out at the cross? And what was the “holyday” mentioned by Paul as being abolished along with those “sabbath days which were shadows of things to come” The Greek word for “holyday” is heorte, which is also used to designate one of the yearly festivals of the Jews:

After this there was a feast (heorte) of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem”
John 5:1.

This is unquestionably one of the holy days that Paul spoke of as being abolished at the cross. In contrast, the weekly Sabbath is never referred to as a “feast”, or the greek word (heorte) for feast used in conjunction with it. Neither is it ever connected to the Jews by such terms as “sabbath of the Jews.” It is only designated as the “sabbath of the Lord.” and if we claim to serve the Lord then we should want to worship on His day, right? Its not about keeping the Sabbath because its a law but because of why God made the Sabbath.

What we have concluded here is confirmed by many many Bible commentators (including Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes) who agree that Paul is not talking about the Ten Commandments being abolished at the cross. Dwight L. Moody, Dr. C. I. Schofield and Billy Graham also strongly affirm that the law abolished at the cross was the ceremonial law. Anyone who studies this out has to come to this conclusion for it is all there, the Bible is very clear about it. If your wondering “why didn’t I see this sooner”, please keep in mind that God doesn’t always dump all the truth on us at once, many times He unfolds His plans step by step.

We will keep sabbath in heaven…

And it shall come to pass, [that] from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD

One of the strongest arguments for the Sabbath is the fact that we will be keeping it in heaven… think about it, if we will be keeping the Sabbath in heaven why would it not be important down here? Keep in mind that the Sabbath is called a “day of rest”, we won’t need rest in heaven. So it must be that the Sabbath is much more important than just a day to cease rest. And don’t you think that if we will be keeping the Sabbath in heaven that it must still be very much part of God’s holy law? Another striking blow against the idea that the sabbath was done away with at the cross is Christ’s admonish to those in the end time (paralleled in the prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem) in Matthew 24:

But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day:

If the sabbath is not important why did Christ advise His disciples to pray that their flight would not be on the Sabbath?  This was years after the death of Christ, didn’t His followers know at that time that the Sabbath was abolished? Not only did they not know it but apparently Christ didn’t either. The fact is all through the Bible the ten commandment law AS WELL AS the sabbath are presented as holy and unchanging. Satan hates the ten commandments and hates God’s sabbath and He attempts by getting Christians to disobey his law and Sabbath show that Christians cannot truly keep His law… God is unfair… that is what it all boils down to.
The bible says in Revelation 11:19:

And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

I wonder if God has the simplified version, the copy with the 4th missing. I don’t mean to be sarcastic or rude here but here is my point and conclusion; perhaps you have followed this article thus far and you are like “yeah okay, it seems to line up but what is the point? Why is it important which day we keep?” - and it is a good question. We have covered alot of ground here and I don’t mean to boar you but I wish to explain the single most important reason why the Sabbath is important.

God has the testament or ten commandment law in his ark in heaven… this ought to tell you something about the eternal nature of the law. But think about this awful scenario—IF THE LAW THAT WAS IN THE ARK WAS ABROGATED AT THE CROSS, CHRIST IS MEDIATING FOR THE TRANSGRESSION OF AN OBSOLETE LAW! Keep in mind John is beholding this in vision, many years after the cross. Obviously is the ten commandment law had been done away with then it would not have been seen in John’s vision. If the law was done away then what would Christ be judging them based on? He could not judge them if the law was obliterated so the ten commandment law must be very much still intact.

James 2:10 says the WHOLE LAW MUST BE OBEYED!

For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.

No Christian has ever found fault with nine of the commandments. Why would they want to get rid of the fourth commandment? Obviously because they are breaking it and do not want to believe that they stand condemned by it. So they must believe that the whole law was done away with and somehow afterwards reinstated as 9… that is an invention of the devil himself and has absolutely no biblical backing. How can anybody take away the fourth commandment from the Ten Commandments and still call it a “whole law”.

There is no room for removing one or part of the commandments, the Bible is clear, we must obey the WHOLE law, for if we offend in one point we have broken it all… could it be that if we knowingly disobey the sabbath we are transgressing God’s whole law?

Incidentally for those still clinging to the idea that the Sabbath was for the old testament and was not in effect in the new testament, the Sabbath is mentioned more times in the new testament than ANY of the other nine.

Could there be a reason to believe that the Sabbath contains a testing quality that cannot be found in any of the other nine commandments? Could it be that the Sabbath is the big test in the end times whether we will follow Christ or the mark of the beast? Think about it, the sabbath is really the only commandment which there is no stigma attached to breaking it. For instance if you kill somebody your going to go to jail. There are state and universal laws which condemn a man for stealing, killing etc. But there are no laws which tell you to keep the sabbath, in fact the majority of people keep Sunday over the Sabbath. Therefore, it would constitute a special test of genuine love for Christ for you to keep the sabbath.

Lets take a quick look at Revelation 14:12:

Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

In the end times, the test will be those who keep the commandments of God, the WHOLE ten. This will be the big test, will we follow what God says or when the Sunday law comes will we keep Sunday because it is easier?

Proof that the sabbath remains in effect

As a little background, we need to examine the thrust of the whole book of Hebrews. Paul in writing this letter is showing the number of elements of the old covenant have been taken away. We can almost feel the anguish of the Hebrew believers as Paul explains to them how the sacrificial system has been taken away, having been fulfilled in Christ. The Levitical priesthood has been removed, being replaced by Christ our High Priest. Were they waiting fearfully to hear him take away the Sabbath also? If so, they must have been tremendously relieved when he wrote these words, “There remaineth therefore a ‘keeping of the sabbath’ to the people of God” Hebrews 4:9. I am using the marginal reading of the King James Version because that is the exact, literal meaning of the original statement.

The context of Hebrews three and four does not indicate that Paul was trying to convince the Hebrew Christians which day to keep holy. They already knew that. His great burden was for them to enter into a spiritual relationship with Christ—to have an experience of rest from the works of sin. He proved that the children of Israel did not find that true rest because of their lack of faith and disobedience in the wilderness.

Think about it, Sabbath-keeping really parallels the salvation experience. What makes something holy? In Isaiah 58:13 we find God calls the Sabbath “my holy day” and “a delight.” It is indeed the presence of god in something which makes it holy. We see this in the burning bush incident with Moses, God’s presence in the bush made it holy, God’s presence is in the Sabbath just as He is also manifested in the life of a genuine Christian.

It is no coincidence that the same Hebrew word, CHASID, is used in Isaiah 58:13 to describe the Sabbath “my HOLY day” as well as in Leviticus 19:2 to describe God’s people “ye shall be HOLY.” God dwells in the Sabbath as well as in His people, hence both are called “holy.” God gave us the Sabbath, from the beginning, as a sign of sanctification.

Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them
Ezekiel 20:12

And I am sure someone will raise their hand and say “but the sabbath is only a sign of holiness for the jews” – Thats not what the Bible says:

if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise
Galations 3:29

All born-again Christians are part of spiritual Israel and the Sabbath is for them as well as it was for the Jews of old.

This is reaffirmed in the new testament again by Paul in his statement in Hebrews 4:9,10.

the keeping of the sabbath remains for God’s people

He also commands us to rest from our works “as God did from His”

If you still aren’t satisfied that Paul is talking about the Sabbath and still feel that it is only for the Jews maybe a confirmation from a sunday-keeper would help you

Jamieson, Fausset and Brown in their commentary on the bible make this comment on Hebrews 4:9, “This verse indirectly establishes the obligation of the Sabbath still” (page 449). It is very interesting that these Sunday-keeping theological scholars, with the highest of linguistic credentials present this same truth.

Its there friends, we have established that the Ten Commandment law and the Mosaic law are very different and not to be interpreted or equated as one. We have discovered that the mosaic law was temporary and was THE LAW THAT WAS NAILED TO THE CROSS. We found that the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom to symbolize the end of the sacrificial system and the mosaic and ceremonial laws.
We found that moral ten commandment law, encased in the ark of the testimony, like the rest of the wilderness sanctuary,s a copy of the true pattern in heaven. We also affirm that it was not only repeated and reinforced in the New Testament but identified in John’s vision as beneath the mercy seat in the heavenly sanctuary, from which Christ ministers His own blood for our transgressions. From that foundational position, it continues to be the basis for Christ’s intercessory ministry for us in the throne room of heaven. Therefore, it is established as the most unmovable and unchangeable of all God’s decrees.

Conclusion of the whole matter…

When Solomon finishes Ecclesiastes he ends with this:

“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil”

Now I didn’t quote this verse to say “See, it says ‘keep His commandments’”, the reason I quoted it is because the conclusion is we must “fear God”, not in the common English sense of the word but in the original sense where it means to reverence and stand in awe of. Why is the Sabbath important? Why does it matter what day we keep? The truth is the day doesn’t matter, what does matter is that Christ hallowed it. The seventhy-day is only important because God said, “I will set this day apart for me to commune with my people” and that is why He hallowed it. He made the day holy because He wanted a special time set aside each week for us to come and worship Him.
In this context it is truly a matter of worship, the Sabbath is all about worship.  Christ came to this earth and died for you and me because He loved us that much, it is that same love that sought to create a day sanctified for the sole purpose of His people coming to Him each week. It should not be a requirement but rather a joy, we should have such love for Him for what He did that we will not be able to wait for Sabbath to come. THAT is what Sabbath was meant to be and I hope that that is what Sabbath can come to mean in your life as well as my own.

In the garden of Eden two institutions were created holy, that of the Sabbath and marriage. Today both of those are being attacked at the very core, the very ideals and holiness of marriage is being attack and blatantly disregarded in the name of “equality”, sinful unions between same-sex couples is becoming more and more prevalent and that under the name of “marriage”. Likewise Sunday is proclaimed as the “Lord’s day” when the Bible clearly calls the Seventh-day that. The fact is friends, Satan hates our Lord and He seeks to attack Him but destroying the two most important institutions God created… btw God created these two institutions because He loved us and desires our happiness.  What do you say? Should we not respect God enough to keep the day He created and hallowed? Should we respect it any less than marriage? Believe me God doesn’t…

So the conclusion is this, if my Jesus went to Calvary for me because of the love He had for me then the Sabbath must be very important to Him because it is a time when He can come together with His people, the people He died for.  I thank God for that… and for that reason the Sabbath is a sincere blessing to me.

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I apologize for the long article, I also apologize if I have seemed harsh in this article. It is hard for me to express on page what would be easily expressed in words, where sincerity and love can be seen in a face it is hard to be discerned in a printed page. So I apologize if anything I have said has come across harsh or anything other than Christ would condone. I write this article not to just  prove that the Sabbath is binding but show why it is, if you understand that I have no doubts that you will WANT to keep it like I do. Because I firmly believe you are as sincere as I am and that you want to follow God wherever He leads.

May God Bless you as you study His word, please write me at randy[at]ebibleanswers[dot]com

“The Sabbath was done away with at the cross, we are now under grace and do not need to keep the sabbath.”

“I keep the Lord’s day”

“The Sabbath was for the Jews”

“I keep Sunday in honor of Christ’s resurrection”

Some very interesting arguments… in this article we will study the Bible and find out what it truly says about the Sabbath and whether or not the Sabbath(Saturday) is still a binding law or if it has indeed done away with.

Well what better place to start then the beginning? Lets turn to Genesis 2:2-3

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.

3.)

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all His work which God created and made.

God has just finished creating the world, He now sanctifies and makes the Seventh day holy and rests on the seventh day.
We find that this is the only day of the week God pays special attention to, no other day/s are hallowed(made holy).

Exodus 20:11

8.)

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Notice God doesn’t say “and make it holy” – God has already made it holy, God is indeed the only one who can make a day holy, or anything else for that matter. God is telling us to recognize His authority in making the seventh day holy… could it be that by disregarding this, by keeping sunday we are disregarding God’s holy authority, His power and His word?

How does the bible say to keep the sabbath holy?

9-10.)

Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

It is quite clear according to the Bible that the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week.

But wasn’t the day changed somewhere in history? Didn’t Christ nail the law, the sabbath to the cross when He died?

The fact is the sabbath was changed. In 321 A.D. Constantine proclaimed the first national sunday law. Constantine was no dummy, he did this for a reason. He intended to unite Christianity and paganism. At this time there were many pagans worshiping the sun and even so-called Christians who claimed they were honoring the day Christ arose from the dead. So Constantine concluded that if he should succeed in uniting paganism and Christianity into one group he would strengthen his empire.

Despite all this many Christians still kept saturday and sunday. One historian wrote

The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria.”

Aside from Rome and Alexandria the keeping of the sabbath during the 5th century was still universally prevalent. But in time sunday-keeping became more prominent. And now today the majority of Christians world-wide keep sunday.

This is how sin and compromise find their way into the church… the devil works smoothly and almost imperceptibly. Ellen White says

Little by little, at first in stealth and silence, and then more openly as it increased in strength and gained control of the minds of men, ‘the mystery of iniquity’ carried forward its deceptive and blasphemous work. Almost imperceptibly the customs of heathenism found their way into the Christian church. The spirit of compromise and conformity was restrained for a time by the fierce persecutions which the church endured under paganism. But as persecution ceased, and Christianity entered the courts and palaces of kings, she laid aside the humble simplicity of Christ and His apostles for the pomp and pride of pagan priests and rulers; and in place of the requirements of God, she substituted human theories and traditions. The nominal conversion of Constantine, in the early part of the fourth century, caused great rejoicing; and the world, cloaked with a form of righteousness, walked into the church. Now the work of corruption rapidly progressed. Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the conqueror. Her spirit controlled the church. Her doctrines, ceremonies, and superstitions were incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed followers of Christ.”

The devil was able to, through the papal system instigate a false day of worship, a substitute to the holy day created and sanctified by God. But he did not at once attempt to rid the world of sabbath keepers, had he done so many would have, I believe, stood up for what the truth. Instead however satan seduced them into keeping both saturday and sunday holy and as time went by he was able to smoothly and almost imperceptibly remove the keeping of the sabbath from almost all of the Christian world. God didn’t change the day. The Lord says in Malachi 3:6:

I am the LORD, I change not

The Lord doesn’t change… he says “I am the same yesterday, today and forever”

If we go back to Daniel 7:25 we see a prophecy of the Papal declaration of Sunday worship.

And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

The sabbath is both a time and a law, in fact it is the only commandment which is both a time and law. Notice the prophecy says “he will think”, it does not say “he will”. Daniel is clear the Papal power had no authority to institute sunday worship and it was not by God’s direction.

But we are no longer under the law, but under grace
Interestingly the only part of the law anyone is worried about doing away with is the 4th commandment. Nobody believes the whole ten commandments were done away with, think about it, most of us still believe that it is still wrong to murder, commit adultery, steal etc etc. However many use this verse to claim that we no longer have to keep the law, or more clearly, the sabbath.
Tell me, exactly why would one commandment out of the ten, written by God’s own hand be done away with? We have already established that God does not change. Also the fact that God wrote the law in stone shows perfection or eternal unchangingness. Tell me, why is it that the one and only commandment which begins with the word “remember” would be done away with?

But you know what the really sad part is? The next verse clearly puts this argument to rest, it does away with the idea that we no longer need to keep the law.

Romans 6:15

What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.

And also Romans 6:1-2

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?

We are only “not under the law” when we are in Christ, and when we are in Christ we will keep His commandments, ALL His commandments, not the ten commandments with the ten percent discount.

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.

Christ says to keep the commandments even as He did… how did Christ keep them, or maybe a better question is how many of them did He keep? ALL! Christ kept the sabbath and if he is commanding us to keep the commandments as He did then that includes the Sabbath.

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

Christ showed us by example, in His life how we are to live. Part of that example was to keep the sabbath, now if it was good enough for our Lord Jesus Christ, then how can we do otherwise? “Is the servant greater than his master?”

Also going back to the law being done away with. The bible says in 1 John 3:4

Sin is the transgression of the law

“Being under grace” is not a license to sin, but pardon for our guilt and punishment. But we cannot receive it while in sin, Christ came to “save us from our sins” not in them – it is clear in this context that none of the law is less binding now then it was in Christ’s day.

“I keep Sunday in honor of our Lord’s resurrection”
And I can keep Friday in honor of His death. But if the bible says otherwise than I am sinning for:

Sin is the transgression of the law

It really doesn’t matter how good my intentions are, if God says to keep the sabbath and I am keeping Friday, I am wrong and as long as I knowingly disobey I am living in sin. So with that is there any biblical support of keeping sunday in honor of Christ’s resurrection? Anti-sabbatarians will tell you there are… lets see what the bible says.

Sunday-keepers may tell you “we keep sunday to commemorate Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection” – Is there biblical support to commemorating Christ’s death, burial and resurrection? Yes there is.

Romans 6:4 says:

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Baptism is a commemoration of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection, there is however no biblical support of sunday-keeping as such a commemoration. If you ask a sunday-keeper to produce a text in the bible which supports this “honoring of Christ’s resurrection” by keeping sunday, they will not be able to give you one, because there is none. There is not one verse which even remotely suggests such an idea… they will however present you with the verse which says:

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

Okay so this is the famous day, the disciples are gathered on sunday in honor of Christ’s resurrection… that isn’t what the bible says. The bible says a few verses back in John 20:9

For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

The disciples didn’t know he was going to rise from the dead so there is no way they were celebrating his resurrection, as up until the latter end of this verse when Christ appears in the room they do not even know He is going to rise from the dead. So there goes that theory… in fact the disciples where gathered more in hiding than anything else. They were definitely not celebrating anything…

Also in Luke 24:36-37

And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.
But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.

All three of the gospels are clear that the disciples were not expecting Christ’s resurrection, so much so that they feared it was a ghost and not really Him. Based on such there is again no way they were gathered in the upper room to celebrate the first sunday service in honor of a resurrection they at this point did not even know would happen.

It amazes me that scholars and preachers will even suggest such an idea, if they read the chapter in context they would see what is going on and there would be no way they could believe such an idea, however if they do know this truth and they are hiding it from their congregation or peers that is a grave error.

It is said Billy Graham acknowledged the truth of the sabbath but sadly added

If I were to teach this truth, I would lose most of my listeners

That is sad, we will sacrifice the truth because we will lose listeners? What good are those listeners if they are only listening because they like what they hear? God’s bible is 100% truth, we don’t pick and choose what we like and remove what we don’t like. We teach the whole bible and if that offends somebody than that is between them and God because it is God’s book. The bible says in Matthew 5:19:

Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

It is sad that men feel they can warp the bible, leave passages out or add to the biblical teachings to suit their hearers. God cannot bless a person who does this and He certainly cannot save a man who teaches “his own version” of the bible.

For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:

The truths I have shown you in this article are not my own, they are straight from the bible, you can lookup the texts yourself and study it out. The truth is not popular, in fact it can hurt, it can be inconvenient and may as in John’s case get you into a life and death situation:

John 8:40

But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.

In the next part I will dispute, using the bible, other popular sunday arguments. If this article was a blessing to you please post your comments or send us a message. We strive to provide the undiluted truths of the bible, whether they are popular or not.

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