Many people have read
a number of our articles on the web
and are confused by some of the
conclusions. In your article, What
Changed at the Cross, you claim
the laws of Moses were nailed to the
cross, but you maintain there remains
a difference between clean and
unclean foods. This seems
contradictory. If the laws of Moses
were abolished at the cross, then the
difference between clean and unclean
foods has to disappear. The apostle
Paul agrees: “For everything
God created is good, and nothing is
to be rejected if it is received with
thanksgiving because it is
consecrated by the Word of God and
prayer.” (1 Timothy
4:4,5)
Second, in your
article, What happened to the
Lord’s Day?, you claim that
Saturday, the seventh day of the
week, is God’s holy day, but
Paul says it doesn’t matter
which day of the week we keep holy. “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. He who regards one day as
special, does so to the Lord. He who
eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he
gives thanks to God; and he who
abstains, does so to the Lord and
give thanks to God.” (Romans
14: 5,6)
I will explain these
conflicts. There are many of you who
want to know more of God’s truth
and are searching for answers. I will
offer two short responses to your
questions and then I will provide
substantial responses for deeper
study.
Clean and
Unclean Animals
God made a sharp
distinction between clean and unclean
animals one thousand years before
Moses received the law. At the time
of Noah’s flood, God sent into
the ark seven pairs of clean animals
and one pair of unclean animals.
(Genesis 7:2) The greater question
that needs to be addressed is: Why
did God make some animals clean and
others unclean? Unclean animals were
created to be scavengers. They eat
the refuse of Earth and God declared
them unfit for human consumption.
When God delivered Israel out of
Egypt, He wanted His people to be a
healthy nation. Therefore, God gave
them dietary restrictions that were
based on His design and creation, and
forbade the eating of unclean
animals. (Leviticus 11) Even though
the laws of Moses were discontinued
at the cross (Colossians 2:14;
Hebrews 7:12), unclean animals are
still scavengers and remain unfit for
human consumption. The consumption of
unclean food is not an unpardonable
sin, but it is foolish to rebel
against God’s wisdom. God wants
His children to enjoy good health and
long life. Since diets affects our
well being, God has generously
revealed what is good to eat and what
is not. Paul refers to the body as
God’s temple; therefore, we
should be thoughtful about our diet!
(1 Corinthians 3: 16,17) A
longer response to this matter will
be presented later, but for now,
consider Paul’s words to the
church at Corinth [insertion mine]:
“’Therefore
[children of God] come out
from them [the heathen] and be
separate [from the pagans], says
the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and
I will receive you. I will be a
Father to you, and you will be my
sons and daughters, says the Lord
Almighty.’ Since we have these
promises, dear friends, let us purify
ourselves from everything that
contaminates body and spirit,
perfecting holiness out of reverence
for God.” (2 Corinthians 3:
16,17)
The Seventh
Day Sabbath
You also asked if the
observance of the seventh day Sabbath
is necessary since the laws of Moses
were nailed to the cross. I know that
many people use Paul’s comment
in Colossians 2: 14-16, Ephesians
2:15 and Romans 14 to nullify the
fourth commandment which commands us
to keep the seventh day holy, but I
think this is a distortion of
Scripture.
There is nothing
Jewish or Levitical about the seventh
day Sabbath. God’s seventh day
Sabbath predates Abraham (the first
Jew) by 2,000 years! The seventh day
was declared holy at Creation. “Thus
the heavens and the earth were
completed in all their vast array. By
the seventh day God had finished the
work he had been doing; so on the
seventh day he rested from all his
work. And God blessed the seventh day
and made it holy, because on it he
rested from all the work of creating
that he had done.” (Genesis
2:1-3) The first full day of life for
Adam and Eve was God’s seventh
day Sabbath. You might be surprised
to know that Adam and Eve understood
the holiness of the seventh day and
they faithfully observed it while
they were in the Garden of Eden. We
know this because the Bible describes
the first sin of Adam and Eve. This
sin was not the desecration of the
seventh day. (Genesis 3) We can also
conclude that Adam and Eve passed
this knowledge to their offspring.
This is demonstrated by the fact that
some 2,500 years after Creation, God
tested the nation of Israel to see if
they would keep His seventh day holy before
He gave them the Ten
Commandments. God would not test
Israel’s willingness to observe
His Sabbath if they did not know
about it. (See Exodus 16.)
A few weeks after the
Exodus, God Himself descended from
Heaven and personally spoke the Ten
Commandments from Mt. Sinai. At that
time, He declared the seventh day had
been made holy during Creation
week-as a memorial to His Creative
works. (Exodus 20: 8-11) The first
word of the fourth commandment is
“remember.” Since the
seventh day is a memorial to
God’s Creation week, why should
this memorial be discontinued at the
cross?
The Ten Commandments
were widely known by the people who
lived before the flood because
God’s law was passed down from
generation to generation by oral
tradition. Think about this: When God
delivered the Ten Commandments at Mt.
Sinai, murder did not suddenly become
wrong, adultery did not suddenly
become wrong, taking God’s name
in vain did not suddenly become
wrong, and the holiness of the
seventh day did not suddenly begin!
How do we know this? In Noah’s
day, before the flood, mankind lived
in defiant rebellion of God’s
commandments. Look at this text: “The
Lord saw how great man’s wickedness
on the earth had become, and that
every inclination of the thoughts of
his heart was only evil all the time.
The Lord was grieved that he had made
man on the earth, and his heart was
filled with pain.” (Genesis
6: 5,6, emphasis mine) The
point is that the antediluvians were
destroyed because of wickedness. The
biblical definition of wickedness is
defiant rebellion. Paul says, “…
And where there is no law, there is
no transgression.” (Romans
4:15) God destroyed the antediluvians
because they rejected His authority.
As a God of love, He had no other
choice but to destroy the people who
were destroying succeeding
generations.
The Ten Commandments
define sin. They are God’s
declaration of right and wrong to
man. Contrary to many claims, the Ten
Commandments were not discontinued at
the cross and the apostles never
suggested this was the case. (Romans
3: 31; 7:7; James 2: 10,11)
Paul’s comments in Romans 14,
about one man regarding a particular
day as a holy day while another man
regarding that same day as a common
day, have nothing to do with
God’s seventh day Sabbath.
Romans 14 concerns the observance of
six annual Jewish feast days that
were also called Sabbaths even though
they fell on various days of the
week. (Leviticus 16:31)
Paul’s comments
in Romans 14 were limited to a
specific controversy. Jewish and
Gentile converts in Rome were arguing
over the consumption of clean meat
that had been presented before idols.
This act, Jewish believers argued,
polluted clean meat-making it
unclean. Some of the Jewish believers
wanted to observe Jewish feast days
and Gentile believers argued this was
not necessary since the Law of Moses
had been discontinued. Paul’s
position on both of these
“disputable” matters is
clear: If a Jewish convert wants to
observe a feast day because he thinks
it is holy, then give that believer
the freedom to do so. There is no
harm done. Likewise, if a Gentile
believer wants to eat clan meat that
has been offered to an idol, then
give him the freedom to do so. An
idol is nothing, so no harm is done.
However, Paul makes it clear that
believers cannot use their freedom
from the laws of Moses to offend the
sensitivities of new converts who are
weak and immature in their faith!
I know that my
explanation of Romans 14 will not be
acceptable to many people. So, let us
take Paul’s words in Romans 14:
5,6 at face value by asking a
question. “If the holiness of
Saturday, the seventh day of the
week, was terminated at the cross,
where does God Himself say this is
so? Please bear with me for a moment
regarding this question. This world
was created by speech. The creator
spoke and it appeared. “And
God said, ‘Let there be
light,’ and there was
light…. ‘For he spoke, and
it came to be; he commanded, and it
stood firm.’” (Genesis
1:3; Psalm 33:9) How can mere mortals
undo these commands? The Ten
Commandments were so important to God
that our Creator did not permit Moses
to speak them to Israel. God Himself
descended from Heaven to declare His
Ten Commandments and there is no
evidence in the Bible that He has
declared them null and void.
If Romans 14 gives
human beings the right to arbitrarily
determine which day of the week is
holy, this would make every day of
the week holy. Some people would
choose Sunday to be holy, some would
choose Monday, some would choose
Friday, etc. Was the world created
in six days by men? Do men have the
authority to convert one of
God’s work days into a holy day?
Isn’t man made of dust? How can
he presume to redefine God’s
memorial to the incredible and
unparalleled event called the
Creation of Earth? Many
Christians fail to understand why God
created the seventh day and this
allows them to casually dismiss or
diminish the importance of it.
When Jesus was on
Earth, the Pharisees falsely accused
Him of violating the Sabbath
commandment. Jesus never sinned
(Hebrews 4:15), so Jesus did not
break the Sabbath. Instead, He broke
the Pharisees’ rigid and
distorted views. Jesus responded tot
heir accusations saying, “The
Sabbath was made for man and not man
for the Sabbath.” (Mark
2:27) The seventh day was established
at Creation for our benefit because
God wants human beings to rest from
their work on the seventh day just as
He rested from His work. God has
given mankind a day of rest so that
we can thoughtfully consider the
creative works of our Creator. If
mankind did this, the truth and glory
of God would fill the whole Earth
today!
One last point. The
Bible teaches the Ten Commandments
are just as obligatory today as they
were at Creation. (I will demonstrate
this point in my longer response.)
God winks at the ignorance of
billions of people who currently do
not understand their obligation to
obey the fourth commandment. (Acts
17:30) However, a time is coming when
God will notify the whole world that
everyone is required to worship Him
on His seventh day Sabbath. During
the Great Tribulation, God’s
144,000 servants will proclaim that
everyone is commanded to worship the
Creator on “His” holy day.
(Revelation 14: 6,7) Of course, many
people will rebel against God’s
demands just like they did in
Noah’s day and they will be very
shocked when God confronts their
rebellion. Revelation 11:19 points
forward to a day near the end of the
Great Tribulation when the Ten
Commandments will be completely
visible in the sky. God will show the
wicked the very law they rejected and
the law by which they will be judged.
For now, you have my short responses
to your questions and I hope you will
continue reading and investigating
these interesting matters in greater
detail.
Early
Christian Conflicts
Many Christians
unknowingly manipulate and distort
the Scriptures, particularly the
writings of Paul. Textual distortion
occurs when a person lifts a text out
of its context and applies it to an
issue that has nothing to do with the
original context or setting of that
text. When people offer Scriptural
support for conclusions that stand in
opposition to the body of Scripture,
distortion occurs. The Bible is not
internally conflicted. Textual
distortion has been a problem ever
since Moses wrote the book of
Genesis. Jews and Christians alike
have been guilty of distorting
Scripture. The apostle Peter noticed
how Paul’s writings were often
distorted. He wrote, “Bear in
mind that our Lord’s patience
means salvation, just as our dear
brother Paul also wrote you with the
wisdom that God gave him. He writes
the same way in all his letters,
speaking in them of these matters.
His letters contain some things that
are hard to understand, which
ignorant and unstable people distort,
as they do the other Scriptures, to
their own destruction.” (2
Peter 3: 15,16) If Peter’s words
were true during the first century
A.D. when specific controversies in
the early church were ongoing, how
much easier is it to distort
Paul’s writings today now that
we are removed from both the setting
and circumstances of Paul’s day
by two thousand years?
Bible history
indicates the Christian Church began
within Judaism in A.D. 30. For many
years, there was very little
difference between Jews and early
Christians. In fact, Romans
considered Christians to be a sect of
Judaism – just as the Pharisees
were a sect of Judaism. The
extraction of Christianity from
Judaism was painful, slow, full of
intense feelings, and grievous
conflict. Jewish leaders hated the
Christian movement because they saw
Christianity undermining their
religious control and considered it
an apostate offshoot. The Romans
hated Christians because they thought
they were Jews. To make matters
worse, early Jewish converts found it
difficult to worship with Gentile
converts because of their
‘disgusting” ways, and
Gentile converts had a difficult time
being around Jewish believers because
Jewish believers insisted on
maintaining their Jewish traditions.
If it had not been for the powerful
manifestations of the Holy Spirit and
the dedication of the apostles, the
early Christian Church would have
died in the graveyard of controversy
by the end of the first century A.D.
Everyone reading the
New Testament needs to understand
that Jewish converts came into the
early church with strong Jewish
paradigms. They were ninety-five
percent Jewish in their thinking and
ninety-nine percent Jewish in their
behavior. The same was true for
Gentiles. The theological
ramifications of the ministry and
death of Jesus took several decades
to understand. Old habits and
cherished beliefs die-hard and it
took a few generations before
Christians and Gentiles became a
unique and cohesive body of
believers. To keep the Christian
church from imploding after His
ascension, Jesus gave the apostles
many revelations that spurred them to
develop Christianity. To make matters
worse (or so it may have seemed at
the time), Jesus appointed Paul to be
an apostle to the Gentiles. The
addition of Gentiles into the
Jewish/Christian conflict that
already existed added another level
of confusion for early Jewish
converts. All of these conflicts were
timely and important because God
wanted church leaders (which were
former Jews) to carefully research
and clarify Christian doctrine.
A survey of
Paul’s fourteen books in the New
Testament reveals an interesting
fact. The first century Christian
church faced many well-defined
problems because any assembly of
Jewish and Gentile converts always
produced the same
controversies. These controversies
included topics involving the Law of
Moses, the pollution of food which
has been offered to idols, the
drinking of animal blood, the subject
of circumcision, fornication, the
observance of feast days and other
religious customs.
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