How to Rise Above Abuse (Counseling Through the Bible Series) (23 page)

Saturday Is the Only Valid Day of Worship

F
IRST
A
RGUMENT
:
One of the Ten Commandments is, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy” (Exodus 20:8). To be obedient to God, all worship services must take place on Saturday or else they are not valid. Because God rested on the seventh day following His creation of the universe, we are supposed to rest on the Sabbath day. Genesis 2:2 says, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.”

A
NSWER
:
To understand and apply this fourth commandment correctly, we must first understand the background of the Sabbath:

— The word
Sabbath
does not mean “Saturday.”

— The English word
Sabbath
comes from the Hebrew root
shabbat
, which means “to cease.” When referring to the day of rest, the form of the word is intensive, signifying a
complete cessation of activity—a complete rest
from work.
³³

— In God’s eyes, believers must cease from working to try to gain His acceptance. According to the New Testament, the Sabbath of the Old Testament was merely a foreshadowing of the fact that Christ is to be our “rest.” Colossians 2:16-17 says, “Do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”

— Authentic Christians enter into a never-ending “Sabbath rest” in which they stop trying to attain righteousness and receive Christ’s righteousness as their own. They enjoy a never-ending relationship with the Lord and receive His never-ending acceptance: “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9).

— We are to stop seeking to please God in our own strength and rest in our secure relationship with Jesus—rest in our never-ending relationship with Christ our Lord: “Anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:10).

When you choose to rely on Christ as your Lord and Savior, no amount of work makes you acceptable to God. Only Christ’s finished work on the cross makes you acceptable.

S
ECOND
A
RGUMENT
:
Because Jesus kept the Saturday Sabbath, we too should keep the Saturday Sabbath.

A
NSWER
:
The reason Jesus kept all the Jewish laws, including the Saturday Sabbath, was that He was born in a Jewish family “under law” (Galatians 4:4). But our relationship to the law changed after Christ’s death on the cross. The Bible says, “Christ is the end of the law” (Romans 10:4), meaning He had fulfilled the law for us so we would no longer be under the law.

T
HIRD
A
RGUMENT
:
The Bible states that Christian leaders like Paul and Barnabas worshipped on Saturday.

A
NSWER
:
Paul and Barnabas did go to the Saturday services in the local synagogues, but their sole purpose was to proclaim the good news of the gospel. They proclaimed that the promised Messiah had come. For example:

— In a synagogue in Antioch, Paul said, “I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses” (Acts 13:38-39).

— At the next synagogue the response was huge: “At Iconium Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue. There they spoke so effectively that a great number of Jews and Gentiles believed” (Acts 14:1).

— When Paul and Silas “had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures” (Acts 17:1-2).

Remember, in Romans 1:16 Paul clearly stated that the gospel was to be presented “first for the Jew.” The most logical place to find the Jewish people was the Jewish synagogue on the Saturday Sabbath.

F
OURTH
A
RGUMENT
:
For almost 300 years, the early Christian church worshipped on Saturday. Many historical writings have concluded that the Roman emperor Constantine, in the year AD 325, changed the Sabbath to Sunday.

A
NSWER
:
Such “historical writings” are based on fiction rather than fact, as seen in the documented writings of the early church fathers. While Constantine did make a proclamation that Sunday was to be the legal day of rest, he didn’t change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Christians had already worshipped on Sunday
centuries
before Constantine made his declaration. Constantine merely
legalized
what they were doing. Here is proof:

— Around AD 110, Ignatius wrote, “…no longer observing Sabbaths but fashioning their lives after the Lord’s Day [Sunday] on which our life also rose through Him.”
³⁴

— Around AD 95, the
Didache
(considered the earliest written teachings of the church apart from the Bible) stated, “And on the Lord’s own day [Sunday] gather yourselves together and break bread and give thanks…”
³⁵

— Around AD 150, Justin Martyr said, “But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly…Jesus Christ our Savior on the same day rose from the dead.”
³⁶

Yet even more important is the fact two different New Testament books written by two different authors referred to the Sunday worship services:

— Luke, the author of Acts and the Gospel of Luke, wrote, “On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight” (Acts 20:7).

— Paul instructed believers to give their offerings at the Sunday church services: “Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2).

F
IFTH
A
RGUMENT
:
Those who do not practice a Saturday Sabbath will be cut
off from all true believers and will be doomed. Exodus 31:14 says, “Observe the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Anyone who desecrates it must be put to death; whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from his people.”

A
NSWER
:
This entire passage (Exodus 31:12-17) reveals that the Sabbath was given exclusively to the children of Israel to set them apart from all other people. It reveals the absolute reality that the “work of salvation” was done by Jesus
alone
and the fate of those who seek to gain salvation by their own works is eternal death and separation from God. If being doomed to hell is the horrific fate of those who do not observe a Saturday Sabbath, consider:

— Of the Ten Commandments, this fourth commandment was the only one
not repeated
in the New Testament.

— Neither Jesus nor any of the New Testament writers mentioned it.

— The apostle Paul left the sacred day of worship up to each person simply as a matter of preference or conscience. Then he admonished us to stop judging others over this issue: “One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5).

One major tenet of the “Prosperity Gospel” asserts that physical suffering will always be alleviated when you place the proper amount of faith in God’s healing power. We are told that all we need to do is
name
the needed healing and, in faith,
claim
the healing in the name of Jesus, and we will be healed (hence the term name-it-and-claim-it theology).

This assumption is based on the fact that Jesus healed
all
the sick who came to Him when He was on earth. “When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to
fulfill
what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: ‘He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases’ ” (Matthew 8:16-17, emphasis added).

However, does the fact Jesus healed people during His time on earth mean that all people today are to seek healing from Him as well? Some religious
leaders use Matthew 8:16-17 to teach that all of our illnesses can be healed by Jesus Christ—if only we would have enough faith. But Matthew 8:16-17 refers directly to a prophecy found in Isaiah 53:4-5:

“Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.”

Knowing the meaning of the word “fulfill” in Matthew 8:17 is key to resolving the misunderstandings about this passage.

Let’s say, for example, that you’ve bought a house and signed a contract for a 20-year mortgage. Once you make your last payment, the contract is
fulfilled:

— If the mortgage company calls and tells you to continue making the monthly mortgage payment, would you comply? Of course not! You have already fulfilled your obligation to the contract.

— In the same way, Isaiah’s prophecy was “fulfilled” in Matthew 8:17. Just as it would be incorrect for a mortgage company to expect you to keep making house payments after you had fulfilled the contract—after the debt had been paid in full—it would be incorrect to assume that Jesus would always heal every infirmity after He confirmed His identity as the Messiah.

— The prophecy that the Messiah would heal all the sick had been fulfilled in the person of Jesus and proved to the people that He was indeed the promised Messiah. This truth is validated by the fact that after Jesus fulfilled the prophecy and was crucified, buried, resurrected, and had ascended to heaven, He did not heal the apostle Paul, even after the apostle had made multiple requests for healing. When Paul asked God three times to deliver him from a “thorn in the flesh,” God refused and said,
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).

Remember that Paul was used mightily of God and is considered the world’s greatest Christian missionary. When Paul wasn’t healed, it wasn’t because he lacked enough faith. Nor was it because God lacked the power to heal Paul. Rather, God had a purpose in allowing Paul to experience this malady, just as God had a purpose in allowing Jesus to heal all who came to Him when He was living on earth.

— Note that Timothy also did not receive a miraculous healing. In regard to Timothy’s illnesses, Paul told Timothy to “stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses” (1 Timothy 5:23). If the cure for all physical problems is prayer for healing, why would Paul recommend a medicinal cure? (Wine has certain medicinal properties.) Was it because Timothy did not have enough faith? If so, why didn’t Paul raise that issue? The reason Paul recommended that Timothy take wine was because he knew God doesn’t heal every sickness and ailment that comes along.
Not all prayer will be answered in accordance with our requests
, even when we have the most sincere heart and the deepest faith.

— Jesus, God the Son, prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me” (Luke 22:42). Yet He still experienced the torture and torment of the cross.

— Jesus’ prayer reveals the correct attitude toward requests for healing. He said, “Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36). If God chooses not to heal us, we must trust that He has a reason for not doing so. We are to trust His plan for our life.

Ask and You Will Receive

Q
UESTION
:
“The Bible says, ‘Ask and you will receive’ (John 16:24). I was told all I had to do was
name
and
claim
what I wanted…in Jesus’ name. If I would sincerely
believe
, I could expect to
receive
—which clearly hasn’t happened! I’m angry with God. Why hasn’t He answered my prayers?”

A
NSWER
:
Your anger at God is based on an
unrealistic expectation
. While you were completely sincere in making your request, those who taught you the expectation that God will honor any request brought before Him are wrong. Their name-it-and-claim-it theology is not biblical:

•
When you look at the whole counsel of God—when you read all the Scriptures on this subject in their accurate context—you will see that the believe-and-receive doctrine doesn’t measure up as biblically accurate.