The Vegan Lifestyle

Why is the keeping of the seventh-day sabbath very important to all? Why did God command the stoning to death those who would desecrate the seventh-day sabbath (Exodus 31:14, 15)?

“The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.” (Psalms 103:8). He does not punish without a cause. In fact, God has no pleasure in the death of him who dies (Ezekiel 18:32), even in the death of the wicked (Ezekiel 18:23).

What then is the reason why God commanded the stoning to death of the Israelite who desecrated His seventh-day sabbath (Numbers 15:32-36)? What is so very important in the seventh-day sabbath that demands the death of its desecrator?

The keeping of seventh-day sabbath holy is the fourth commandment given by God to all. In this commandment is forever embodied the Seal of God – the sign of His authority. Like most official seals of earthly rulers, the fourth commandment bears the name of the ruler, the LORD; His official position, Creator, and His dominion, the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all that in them is.

I will include here the full text of the fourth commandment for the benefit of those who have not read it completely because some Bible translators had it shortened to hide the truth about the seventh-day sabbath. This is how it is exactly written at Exodus chapter 20 in King James Version:

8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:  10 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: 11 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 (Exodus 20:8-11).

Let these words of the fourth commandment of God settle all doubts and questions about the seventh-day sabbath. If we still perversely cling to our bigoted ideas about sabbath keeping, let these words of the fourth commandment be a witness against us during the judgment day!

Most people, including Christians,  say that the keeping of  the sabbath is no longer binding. They try to condone their sin by saying that the sabbath was only given to the Jews.

Abraham, from whom the Jews descended, appeared only on this planet Earth two thousand years after the institution of the seventh-day sabbath at the end of Creation. The command to keep the sabbath holy is not exclusive to the Jews only, but for all. It enjoins “…the stranger that is within thy gates” to keep it holy. These strangers are not Jews as clearly shown in 1 Kings 8:41. We might persist in our belief that these strangers are Jews, but we cannot escape and get away from the words “…nor thy cattle…” If the cattle are to rest, shall not the strangers, and all men regardless of whether they are Jews or not keep the seventh-day sabbath also?

Indeed the command to keep the sabbath holy is for all men. Our Lord Jesus Christ said that “…the sabbath was made for man…” (Mark 2:27). The word “man” is here used to mean mankind as a whole; not for one race alone, but for all men.

What about Colossians 2:14? It says that the law was already blotted out and nailed to the cross at Calvary. So, there’s no more need to keep it.

Do we really honestly believe in our hearts that God blotted out His law? If it is true, then we are now free to kill, to commit adultery, to steal, and to covet. But it isn’t! We all know that to kill is a sin. If it is a sin, then there is a law. Because there can be no sin without a law to transgress. For sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4).

So that we may know what was blotted out and nailed on the cross of Christ at Calvary, let us read Colossians 2:14 again. “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…“

It does not say here that the law was blotted out, but the “…handwriting of ordinances that was against us…” It is not  speaking of the moral law or the Ten Commandments, but of the ordinances which were given to the Levite priests who ministered at the temple, and to the Jews who worshiped there.

This handwriting of ordinances is the Levitical law that regulated the priestly duties of the Levites concerning animal sacrifices and offerings at the earthly sanctuary. This is the law of priesthood that was changed (Hebrews 7:12) and disannuled (Hebrews 7:18) at the cross of Christ in Calvary.

How about Colossians 2:16, 17? Does it not say clearly that the sabbath days are only a shadow of things to come? Is this not a proof that sabbath keeping has already been abolished because of the redemptive work of Christ?

Let us  read Colossians 2:16, 17 carefully and understand its context. “16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holiday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.“

These verses are not against the keeping of the weekly sabbath.  In fact, it warns the Colossians not to allow false teachers (Colossians 2:18-23) to judge them in food, drinks, holidays, new moon, and sabbath days.

These sabbath days mentioned in Colossians 2:16 refer to the seven annual Levitical sabbaths of the Jewish festivals (Leviticus 23:4-37). These sabbaths fall on any ordinary days of the week, though sometimes they coincide with the weekly seventh-day sabbath wherein they are called as high sabbaths. These are the sabbath days that were abolished and nailed to the cross at Calvary.

But the weekly seventh-day sabbath is different from and not included in the annual sabbaths of Jewish festivals (Leviticus 23:38). It is not a shadow of Christ’s redemptive work at the cross of Calvary. Why? Because the Plan of Redemption was made in the Council of Heaven only after the fall of Adam and Eve which happened long after the seventh-day sabbath was instituted by God after Creation.

The purpose of Christ’s incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection was to redeem man from sin. There was no need of redemption right after Creation because Adam and Eve were still perfect in their sinless nature by then. Therefore the seventh-day sabbath, which was instituted by God right after Creation (Genesis 2:1-3), cannot be a shadow of Christ’s redemptive work at the cross of Calvary.

Some people argue that there is no more need to keep the seventh-day sabbath because the Lord Jesus Christ said that there are now only two great commandments: to love the LORD thy God, and to love thy neighbors as thyself (Matthew 22:36-40).

Actually,  these verses do not say that only two commandments are now binding. The Lord summarizes the moral law into two great commandments. These two commandments are not new and different from the ten commandments. The first great commandment to love the LORD our God is the summary of the first 4 commandments which is our duty towards God, and the second great commandment is the summary of the second 6 commandments which is our duty towards our neighbor. Nowhere does it say here that there are now only two commandments left for us to keep. Otherwise, the moral law won’t be called the Ten Commandments anymore.

Why should the Lord Jesus, when he prophesied about the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of  the Temple in 70 A.D. by the Roman soldiers under Titus, warned the Jews to take care that their flight may not be on the sabbath if he intended to abolish the sabbath at the cross of Calvary (Matthew 24:20)?

This is the proof that the sabbath was not abolished and nailed to the cross at Calvary. For why should the Lord Himself warn the Jews not to desecrate the holy sabbath even during a very perilous time which would happen 40 years after His resurrection?

The seventh-day sabbath was not nailed to the cross of Christ at Calvary. It is still binding today as it was during the time of the apostles and the early Christians (Acts 13:14, 27, 42,44, 16:13). The Apostle Paul kept the sabbath faithfully as his manner was (Acts 17:2, 18:4) until his death in 64 or 65 A.D.

And why should God pleads with us today, after so long a time, to hear his voice (Hebrews 4:7), and enjoins us to strive diligently with zeal to enter his sabbath rest (Hebrews 4:11), if the sabbath is no longer binding? That we may know the perpetuity of the keeping of the seventh-day sabbath, let us read Isaiah chapter 66 verses 22 and 23. 22 “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. 23 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”.

So, what is the real reason why God commanded to stone to death the desecrators of the sabbath? Is the desecration of the sabbath a grievous offense to warrant the death of its transgressor? Why can’t I keep the sabbath on another day such as Thursday, Friday or Sunday? Does it really matter to God that I keep the sabbath on the seventh day or Saturday?

The real reason of divine retribution is God’s love and mercy. When Adam and Eve fell into sin, God drove them out from the garden of Eden, and the Cherubims and a flaming sword guarded the tree of life so that man may not eat of its fruit and become an immortal sinner with all the sufferings and afflictions of the curse of sin (Genesis 3:22-24).

“…The LORD God is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth…” (Exodus 34:6), but He “...will by no means clear the guilty...” (Exodus 34:7). Every sin has its consequence, and the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

A law that acquits a criminal is a wicked law. But the law of God is holy and just (Romans 7:12). The law of the LORD is perfect (Psalms 19:7). There is no wickedness in it to acquit or condone a criminal. And because of this, a just punishment is meted for every transgression of the law, thus the command to stone to death the desecrators of the sabbath, though God is not willing that anybody should perish (2 Peter 3:9).

The commandments of God are righteousness (Psalms 119:172). The law is the righteousness of God (Isaiah 51:6,7) – the very transcript of His character.  Forever, the word of the LORD is settled in heaven (Psalms 119:89). Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled (Matthew 5:17,18).

Indeed the law of God is immutable. In his mercy and love for man, and to show his justice to all, God paid very dearly to redeem man from sin: the shedding of the blood and offering of his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross of Calvary! God could have easily forgotten or set aside the requirements of His law, but God is not wicked to bend the law in order to acquit the guilty. So, in his mercy and justice, he freely offered his Son as a ransom for all.

The desecration of the seventh-day sabbath is a grievous offense against God. It is the very reason why God permitted the total dispersion of the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel during their Assyrian captivity, and the captivity of the Jews of the southern kingdom of Judah for 70 years in Babylon (Nehemiah 12:17, 18).

Why can’t I keep any day of the week for sabbath? Why do Muslims keep it on Friday, and the Roman Catholics on Sunday? Does it really matter to God that I keep the sabbath on the seventh day?

The sabbath day of rest is God’s appointment with us on the seventh day (Exodus 20:10). We did not make this appointment ourselves, so that we can easily cancel it when we have pressing matters to attend to, or change it if we do not like it, or forget it when we have hectic schedules to spare a time. We will surely totally miss it if we don’t keep it on the seventh day as God appointed it. And we forfeit the manifold blessings that God showers upon those who  faithfully keep it.

The Muslims worship Allah on Friday, but in the Qur’an they are strictly commanded to faithfully keep the sabbath holy or suffer the curses of desecrating it by being turned into apes or swine (Q2:65, 66, Q4:47, 48, 154, Q7:163, Q16:124). The Roman Catholics and most of the Protestants are keeping the sabbath on Sunday. This keeping of the sabbath on Sunday is not biblical. There is not a single verse in the whole Bible authorizing Sunday as the sabbath day. Sunday worship has no sanctity in it whatsoever. It is Satan’s invention to bring millions upon millions of souls to hell.

Sunday worship is of pagan origin. During the days of the Roman Empire, the pagans worshiped the sun on Sunday. One of them, Emperor Constantine was a worshiper of Sol Invictus, the venerable sun god. He was a valiant soldier who attributed his final victories to a mid-day vision of a cross, a Chi-Rho symbol made of the Greek capital letters chi and rho for Christus or Christ with the inscriptions “In this sign, you will conquer“. Constantine restored the religious tolerance which was totally banned during the Great Persecution years in the reign of Diocletian by issuing the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D.

Contanstine liberated Rome from Maxentius and his armies, and he became a friend and supporter of the bishop of Rome. He was converted (?) to Christianity in 313 A.D., and many of his pagan followers went to church on Saturday, though all of them, including the emperor himself, still worshiped the sun on Sunday. So, during those days, the people worshiped on Saturdays and Sundays.

The Jews has always been a problem to the Roman Empire because of rebellions and other persistent nasty problems in Palestine during those days. The rebellions of the Jews against Rome in 70 A.D. and in 135 A.D. have greatly ignited the animosity of the Romans against the Jews. The Romans and the people in the empire hated the Jews as rebels and criminals.

There was also a conflict between the Jews and the early Christians during those days. The Jews insisted that the new converts to Christianity follow strictly the Jewish traditions such as circumcision and other rituals. Because of these, the Romans and most people of the empire, including the early Christians hated the Jews, and started separating themselves from them and from anything that has something to do with the Jews.

The early Christians were faithful keepers of the seventh-day sabbath. According to a 5th century historian, Socrates Scholasticus, almost all churches throughout the world celebrated the sacred mysteries on the sabbath every week during those days, except in Alexandria and Rome where the Christians ceased to do this because of ancient traditions. The Romans and the early Christians, in order to avoid the stigma of the Jews, started to worship on Sunday instead on Saturday to avoid “Judaizing”.

This was favorable for the emperor and his pagan followers. So, on March 7, 321 A.D., Constantine decreed that Sunday, the first day of the week be observed as a civic day of rest from ordinary work and business. But the ecclesiastical law obliging the faithful to attend Mass and to abstain from servile work on Sunday was officially decreed in 336 A.D. at the Council of Laodicea. The Roman Catholic Church, by Canon 29 of this synod, officially outlawed the keeping of the seventh-day sabbath and finally transferred its solemnity from Saturday to Sunday by decreeing that “Christians should not  ’judaize‘ by resting on the sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day…”

Sunday is not the Lord’s Day as claimed

in Canon 29 of the Council of Laodicea. The LORD has always chosen the seventh day as “…the sabbath of the LORD thy God…” (Exodus 20:10), and He is the Lord of the sabbath (Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:28). The Lord’s day that is spoken of in Revelation 1:10 is the seventh-day sabbath of the LORD as He has always rightly claimed it. There is not a single Bible verse to support the claim of the Roman Catholic Church that Sunday is the Lord’s day.

Is not Sunday the real seventh day? Was not the sequence of the week days altered during the change of calendar from Julian to the Gregorian?

Sunday is not the seventh day of the week. From the very first day when the Julian calendar started to be used in 45 B.C., the seventh day of the week has always been Saturday. There is no record in all history that shows that Sunday has once been the seventh-day of the week, nor hint that the sequence of the week days had been altered during the change from Julian to Gregorian calendar.

The change from Julian to the Gregorian calendar did not alter the sequence of the week days. The Julian calendar which was issued by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. was 11 minutes and 10 seconds too long. This extra time accumulated through the years until in the 16th century, it became 10 days longer than the solar year.

This Julian calendar was invented more than 40 years before Christ came to earth in flesh. It was the calendar used during the time of our Lord Jesus when He was teaching in the synagogue on the sabbath days as His custom was (Luke 4:16). Nowhere in the Bible can we read that our Lord Jesus Christ ever questioned the correct position of Saturday as the seventh day of the week.

The Julian calendar continued to be in use until the later part of the 16th century, when it posed a problem for the Roman Catholic Church. The vernal equinox came on March 11, 1582, 10 days earlier than it did at the time of the Council of Nice in 325 A.D. The Roman Catholic Church always reckon the observance of Easter relative to the appearance of the vernal equinox which always come in March 21, thus the big problem. So, on March 1, 1582, Pope Gregory XIII published his bull Inter gravissimas annulling 10 days from the Julian calendar to correct this error.

One of the leading members of the calendar reform commission of 1575, Christopher Clavius, the German mathematician and astronomer, worked out a solution by making some slight modifications to the original calculation made by the Italian astronomer, Aloysius Lilius. On October 5, 1582 (Friday), by the authority of the pope, the above commission corrected the error of the Julian calendar by removing 10 days from it. October 5, 1582 became October 15, 1582 in the Gregorian calendar. The date was changed from October 5 to October 15, but the day, Friday was not changed.

Why is the keeping of the seventh-day sabbath very important to all? What is in the sabbath that God should repeatedly enjoin all people to keep it holy throughout all generations? (Exodus 31:16). Will it benefit man if he keeps the sabbath faithfully?

The law of God is the will of God, and the will of God is for our own good. The omnipotent God has no need of anything in order to be more holy, more kind, more just, and be more good to his creatures. The law of God is all for our well being alone.

“And God spake all these words, saying, … Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image...” (Exodus 20:1, 3, 4). He did not command but spoke the words to empower us not to have other gods, and not to make any graven image. The word of God is alive and powerful (Hebrews 4:12). “And God said, Let there be light: and there was light (Genesis 1:3). That is how powerful the word of God is! God spoke and the light appeared instantaneously!

Truly the commandments of God are not burdensome, if only we can believe and have faith in it. God will empower us, through the Holy Spirit, to obey his commands. There are a lot of benefits that we can gain in faithfully obeying the commandments of God. The fifth commandment has a promise of blessing: “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” (Exodus 20:12)

All commandments of God are good for all of us. The fourth commandment, the keeping of the seventh-day sabbath has many health benefits for all of us both physically, mentally, and spiritually. The promised blessings of keeping the sabbath are many. God blessed the man “… that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it…” (Isaiah 56:2), and promised to bring to his kingdom the eunuchs, the sons of strangers, and “...every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it...” (Isaiah 56:3-7).

Another promised blessing of keeping the sabbath holy is to “…delight in the LORD...” (Isaiah 58:13,14). Many professed Christians do not like to read and search the Word of God, and have no quality worship time nor a regular personal communion with God through prayer because they do not delight in the LORD and in all spiritual things about Him.

Th LORD will sanctify us or separate us as holy when we faithfully keep the sabbath day holy (Exodus 31:13, Ezekiel 20:12). Keeping faithfully the sabbath day will separate us from the world and from the alluring things therein that may easily dazzle us and snare us into the quicksand of sin.  It will protect us from worldly compromises and secular materialism which may heavily pull us down and hinder our translation to heaven when the LORD comes.

The greatest blessing that God gives to the faithful keepers of the seventh-day sabbath is eternal life – a life of eternal bliss in the kingdom of God. When we faithfully keep the seventh-day sabbath, we shall truly know the LORD (Ezekiel 20:20), and knowing the LORD is eternal life (John 17:3).

The above blessings promised by God to the faithful keepers of the sabbath day are for the benefit of the mind and spirit. There are physical blessings also that can be gained from the faithful keeping of the seventh-day sabbath. Besides the physical rest and the peace of mind that we get when we keep the seventh-day sabbath, there are still other health benefits that are mostly unknown to man.

Chronobiologists have discovered a pervasive mysterious seven-day cycle or rhythm that permeates the whole universe. This mysterious seven-day cycle that is inherent in animals and plants is entirely independent from the environmental cycles of the sun, moon and stars. It is not governed by the phases of the moon, nor by the rotation of the Earth around its axis or its revolution around the sun, nor by any planetary or stellar influence upon it.

This biological clock that is ticking in every cell of our body is the only major rhythm of human activity that is completely beyond the influence of external nature, and it rests on mathematical regularity alone. Scientists believe that this seven-day cycle arose and started ticking in all living things millions of years before the calendar week was invented. This inner time structure was the basis that determined our hour, day, week, month, and year. And the seven-day week is totally synchronized with this seven-day cycle. Scientists cannot explain why. Surely God made this seven-day cycle and turned it on at the very start of Creation.

What an omniscient God! He created a biological clock of seven-day cycle or rhythm that is beyond the manipulation of man. God knows very well that man will try to change the time and the sequence of the week days in order to make Sunday as the seventh day. That is why God repeatedly commanded all to “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy…” (Exodus 20:8). God knows that people will forget His seventh-day sabbath, and worship Satan on Sunday.

People may forget and keep the sabbath on another day because of Satan’s deception, or intentionally keep it on Sunday or on other days of the week, but they cannot destroy this seven-day cycle that permanently marks the real position of the weekly seventh-day sabbath. They won’t succeed because the seventh day is intricately woven in this seven-day cycle that cannot be manipulated nor tinkered with. The seventh-day sabbath is not founded on man’s religion or culture nor on human history but on the indestructible seven-day cycle which God sets in motion at the beginning of time. The seventh day will always be Saturday, and the observance of the seventh-day sabbath will forever be on this day.

Now, why should God command to stone to death the desecrators of the seventh-day sabbath? Because desecrating the sabbath is the same as killing ourself. Non-observance and desecration of the seventh-day sabbath will not only cause the second death of our soul in the lake of fire, but will also bring a real physical death when we abuse our body by tampering the harmonious seven-day rhythm within our body.

This seven-day cycle governs all biological functions in our body. It is pervasively embedded in every cell of our body.  This seven-day cycle or rhythm has been found in the fluctuations of heart beat, blood pressure, body temperature, acid content in blood, red blood cells, urine chemistry and volume, female breast temperature, the ratio of two important neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and epinephrine, and the rise and fall of stress-coping hormone, cortisol. I believe that this seven-day cycle also governs the defense and healing mechanism of our body, the immune system.

It will be for our good if we keep the seventh-day sabbath holy. When we are not synchronized with the seven-day cycle or rhythm, by not resting on the seventh day, our body will become weak and sickly. It is very important that we stop all our secular labors and rest on the seventh day so that we will be refreshed and rejuvenated to be able to do our work during the other days of the week.

We are the holy temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in us. God will destroy us when we defile His temple (1 Corinthians 3:16) by abusing it when we do not give it the needful physical, mental and spiritual rest on the seventh day.

Our soul is very precious to the LORD. The wealth of the whole world cannot buy it (Mark 8:36). Let us swallow our pride and discard the dogmas which will destroy our soul in hell. These traditions which our forefathers have handed down to us have no biblical foundation but have their origin from pagan rituals. Let us “… Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Revelation 14:7).

Let us strive diligently with zeal to enter this rest on the seventh day (Hebrews 4:11), and earnestly remember the seventh-day sabbath to keep it holy (Exodus 20:8), that we may have the best of health to serve God and our fellowmen.