First and foremost, you have to establish whether a person is willing to follow the dictates of the Bible and the example of Christ and the New Testament Church or the traditions of men, which are based on paganism and human tradition and not on the Bible.
The following approach could be pursued in a series of questions, as outlined below:
1) How does a person prove, show, manifest and demonstrate that he or she is willing to embrace God’s love?
1 John 5:2-3 says: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”
The Bible is clear that one demonstrates love for God—that one is willing to embrace the love OF God–by keeping His commandments. There is nothing ambiguous about this statement. The conclusion is: If someone does not keep the commandments in spite of what he or she may say, then the person does not truly love God.
2) How many of the commandments should one keep?
The obvious answer is, all of them. So now, why does someone keep Sunday rather than the commanded Sabbath of the Bible?
The Sabbath is part of creation, in that it was instituted when God created man and when He rested on that day. It is the longest commandment in words of all the ten, and it starts with the admonition to REMEMBER the Sabbath and KEEP it holy, not to substitute it for another day, be it Sunday, Friday or any day, and not to forget that it is a commandment.
When God wants to emphasize something, it is repeated in the Bible. The Ten Commandments are listed twice, both in Exodus and Deuteronomy, showing the importance and durability of them. Christ said the Sabbath was made for man. He never made that statement about Sunday. Mark 2:27 states: “And He said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.’”
Christ emphasized that He is Lord of the Sabbath. Mark 2:28 continues: “‘Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.'”
He is Lord of it because as the God of the Old Testament, He established it and dictated the manner in which it should be kept, which oftentimes was opposed to all the rules which were subsequently added by the Pharisees, Sadducees and the scribes. Many of these rules, as well as additional ones, are also endorsed by modern Judaism, making the Sabbath a burden and a yoke, rather than a joyful occasion.
No claim can be made that Jesus is the Lord of Sunday. It is evident that Christ kept the Sabbath according to His custom. A custom is something one does on a regular and consistent basis. It is not a sporadic event. Luke 4:16 states: “So 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 to read.”
We also know that Paul–the apostle to the Gentiles–kept the Sabbath and taught the Gentiles to do likewise. We read in Act 13:14: “But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down.”
Acts 17:2 adds: “Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures.”
We also read that he told the Corinthians (converted Gentiles) in 1 Corinthians 11:1: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.” As Christ kept the Sabbath according to His custom, so did Paul.
3) Since the Bible expressly tells us to keep the Sabbath which Christ and the apostle Paul kept, where did the Sunday tradition come from?
Historically, it was the Catholic Church which changed the day in the 4rd century from Sabbath to Sunday.
In the book, “90 Common Questions about Catholic Faith” by John O’Brian, it states on page 63:
“… the Bible does not contain all the teachings of the Christian religion (our comment: a false statement) nor does it formulate all the duties of its members (our comment: another false assertion). Take for instance the matter of Sunday observance, attendance of divine service, and abstention from unnecessary servile work on that day. This is a matter upon which our Protestant neighbours have for many years laid great emphasis; yet nowhere in the Bible is the Sunday designated (our comment: “Sunday” is not even mentioned) as the Lord’s day; the day mentioned is the Sabbath, the last day of the week. The early Church, conscious of her authority to teach in the name of Christ, deliberately changed the day to Sunday: she did this to honour the day on which Christ rose from the dead, (our comment: which He did not) and to signify that we are no longer under the Old Law of the Jews but under the new Law of Christ” (our comment: another wrong concept, as worded).
Sunday was the Gentile day of worshipping pagan gods—sun gods. The Catholic Church adopted Sunday worship to induce pagans entering their fold. They were also motivated by strong anti-Semitic feelings which explain their hostility towards the “Jewish” Sabbath.
However, no man and no human organization or institution has the authority to change God’s Law, which would be paramount to claiming that one had the authority to say adultery and murder are no longer a sin, which would be absurd. No one has the authority to change the Ten Commandments, which were written by God in stone to demonstrate their permanency. One may decide not to obey the commandments, but one cannot change or alter them.
4) One has to make a choice. Does someone want to follow the traditions of men and of the Catholic Church or the clear injunctions of the Bible?
The traditions of men, which are contrary to God’s commands, are inspired by the god of this world, Satan, who deceives the whole world. Revelation 12:9 states: “So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”
2 Corinthians 4:3-4 adds: “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
The commandment to keep the Sabbath comes from God. The tradition to keep Sunday comes from the god of this world who worked through the Catholic Church to “change” the Sabbath to Sunday, which it had no divine authority to do.
To summarize, the only way laid out in the Bible to demonstrate our love for God and God’s love in us is to keep all of His Ten Commandments, not only a few of them.
Listed in the Ten Commandments is the command to keep the Sabbath, not Sunday nor any other day. The Sabbath was instituted at the creation of man, and it is the longest commandment in words. The Ten Commandments are listed twice to emphasize their importance, and they were written in stone to show their permanency and durability.
No man, church or group of men have the authority to change God’s commandments. To make such a claim is absurd and would mean that one could change or annul any one of the commandments. Most Christians would reject the idea that they could now commit adultery or murder an innocent person (even though they might justify killing in war or aborting babies). However, the vast majority of Christians believes and accepts the wrong idea that one could justifiably annul the Sabbath and replace it with Sunday.
It boils down to this: Will you keep the commanded day which God has instituted, blessed and sanctified, and which the Bible commands us to remember and to keep holy, or will you observe the day dedicated to the worship of pagan sun gods and adopted and instituted by the Catholic Church under the influence of the god of this world, which it had no authority to do? In other words, which will you follow–God’s commandments or human traditions?
Lead Writer: Rene Messier (Canada)
