Who Changed The Sabbath?
Who changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday?
When I was in third grade we began to learn about calendars. We started off with the days of the week. I had a terrible time with this. It was not that I had any trouble remembering the name of each day or the general order of the days. My problem was that I wanted to start the week on Monday and end it on Sunday.
When I was in third grade we began to learn about calendars. We started off with the days of the week. I had a terrible time with this. It was not that I had any trouble remembering the name of each day or the general order of the days. My problem was that I wanted to start the week on Monday and end it on Sunday.
My grandparents tried to help. They took me to the
calendar and showed me that Sunday was the first day of the week, not the
seventh. I told them that their calendar must have been made wrong.
They asked me why I thought that.
I told them we had learned the Ten Commandments in Sunday
school class and it said that everyone was to rest on the seventh day.
Well, we did not rest on Saturday but everyone rested on Sunday. In fact,
it was the law of the land in Arkansas in 1972 and no businesses were allowed
to be opened. On the farm we stopped all of our work, except for
doing what was absolutely necessary to take care of the animals, on
Sunday. If we cut hay down on Saturday and the weather forecast called
for it to rain the following Monday through Friday, we still would not put up
our hay on Sunday. Sometimes everyone would take a nap after lunch.
Sunday was truly a day of rest.
I had also learned that the Father of Truth (YHVH
aka God aka THE LORD) had said that people were supposed to gather together to
worship Him on the seventh day. We and everyone else that I knew gathered to
worship together in church on Sunday.
They had told us that people were supposed to treat the
seventh day of the week differently than the first six days of the week.
Mom made us dress up and put on a tie when we went to church on Sunday.
There was nothing but people preaching and teaching about the Man of Truth
(Yeshua HaMashiach aka Jesus Christ) on
television every Sunday. The radio stations only played Gospel music and
the like on Sundays. People would go to visit each other to eat and
discuss the Bible on Sunday. If anyone was sick in the community, then
people would go to visit them on Sunday and inquire if the sick needed help
with anything. In short, people spent Sunday worshiping the Father of
Truth, taking care of each other and resting. Sunday was truly set aside
as different than the other six days of the week.
So it seemed obvious to my nine year old mind that if
everyone treated Sunday the way that the Father of Truth had said to treat the
seventh day then Sunday must have been the seventh day. I had no idea why
my teacher, my grandparents and the calendar kept insisting that it was the
first day of the week.
So my grandparents told me that the Sabbath had been changed
from Saturday to Sunday. I asked them: who changed the Sabbath?
My Grandmother had an eighth grade education (normal for
1923 when she finished school) but loved to listen to people on the radio and
television talk about the Book of Truth (the Bible). She said that the
Father of Truth or the Man of Truth or the Apostles of Truth or someone else
changed it in the Renewed Covenant (B'rit Chadashah aka The New Testament)
somewhere.
Now my grandpa had read the Book of Truth for at least an
hour every day for the past sixty years so I figured he could show me when the Sabbath had
been changed. He was not sure either about who changed the Sabbath.
So since they had told me that the Sabbath had been
changed from Saturday to Sunday I was able to finally get the days of the week
in the right order although it still seemed strange that the Sabbath was now on
the first day of the week instead of the seventh day of the week.
Afterwards when I would go to visit my dad for the summer in
Saint Louis I would hear Jewish people in the media there refer to Sunday as
the "Christian Sabbath" because Christians treated Sunday the same way
they treated Saturday. The Catholics and others there would refer to
Saturday as the "Jewish Sabbath" in these dialogs. So it seemed that someone
at sometime in the distant past had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday
for the Christians but not for the Jews. Still no one answered my
question: who changed the Sabbath?
Then I took French class in ninth grade and joined the
French club. That was when I learned that on the French calendar Monday was the
first day of the week and Sunday was the last day. It was called
"dimanche" which even translated literally as "The Lord's
Day" and was used interchangeably in French with "sabbat" which
literally translates to "Sabbath". So the French also
recognized Sunday as the seventh day because everyone treated it as the
Sabbath. I still did not know the answer to my question: who
changed the Sabbath?
Then after I came into the House of Truth through total
surrender to the Man of Truth I started listening to preachers on the radio and
watching them on the television. Some of them said that the Jew formerly
known as Saul (The Apostle Paul) had some sort of "Pauline Revelation" that the Father of
Truth had changed the Sabbath for Christians. I paid close attention to
what they said. They said that Paul the Jew (Shaul aka Saul aka The Apostle Paul) preached to
Jews in Galatia on the Sabbath, Saturday, and when the Jews rejected the
message, then he preached to the Gentiles on the next day, Sunday. They
said that he sent instructions telling the Gentiles in Corinth to take up offerings on the first
day of the week, Sunday, instead of the last day of the week, Saturday.
They said that the Man of Truth confirmed that His Father had changed the
Sabbath to Sunday when he chose that day to appear to John the Jew (Yochanan ben Zebedee) on the isle of Patmos.
I also heard preachers say the same sort of things from the pulpits at meetings.
I heard this over and over again during a period of more than twenty
years. I looked into the Book of Truth to examine the passages they
quoted. It seemed that the Father of Truth was the answer to my question
of who changed the Sabbath.
I eventually became convinced of my need to give one
day a week to the Father of Truth and that He had changed the Sabbath. I was so convince that I
refused to work on Sunday. When my employer threatened to fire me if I
did not, I responded that they would leave me with no choice but to sue
them. I gave them several cases (for example, Reed vs the FAA) that already been decided by the Supreme
Court of the U.S. where the court had ruled that employers could not make
anyone work on a day of the week when the employee had notified them of their
deep held religious conviction to not work on that day as guaranteed by the
First Amendment. Their legal department looked into it and they decided
that I could keep my job without working on Sundays.
Then in 2008 I was laid off. This was not delayed
retaliation. My employer even offered me another position in another city and to relocate me at their expense
but I was unable to make the move. While I was unemployed I came to realize that I was very sick by this point and that I
needed time to go to doctors and recover. During my recovering I became
bored and started working on a timeline of every event that occurred between the
first chapter of Acts to the third chapter of Revelation.
I learned where the cities in the Renewed Covenant were
located, what roads connected cities and how long it took to walk from each
city to the next city. Sometimes it would take the entire six days from
one Sunday to the next to make the trip mentioned as starting a week later in
another city. I noticed in several places that Paul the Jew would state
that he was in a particular city on a feast day on the Biblical Calendar like
Pentecost. I mastered the Biblical calendar and used data from NASA to
determine the date and day of the week of each feast for a given
year. I went along plotting his progress using Sunday as the day that he
preached on. This left the other six days for travel which worked out consistently until I hit an unresolvable
conflict.
Paul the Jew had to leave one city after preaching on
Sunday and be in another city by the start of the next feast day. He only
had four days to make the journey and there was no way that he could have
walked it in less than five days. I considered if he could have had a
horse but he had a number of people with him and they would have to all had horses. The text seemed to indicate
that they were walking. I checked the passage over several times in case
I had somehow misunderstood something. I checked my maps and other
resources to ensure that it absolutely could not be walked in four days instead
of five. I knew that the Renewed Covenant could not be wrong but a
translation could so I read the underlying Greek document. That changed
nothing. There was just no getting around the fact that if he preached when
the Children of Truth (those that obey the Father of Truth because they love
Him) met on Sunday then he could not have possibly be at the next city by the
feast day in the passage. I finally called out to the Man of Truth in
frustration and asked him where I had made a mistake in the timeline.
He answered me immediately and said that the reason I
could not make it work was because Paul the Jew preached on Saturdays instead of
Sundays. I was in total shock. My entire world felt like it was
being turned upside down. I brought up my three passages from the Renewed
Covenant which I had been sure had confirmed that the Father of Truth had
changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. The Spirit of Truth (Ruach
HaQodesh aka The Holy Spirit aka The Holy Ghost) then walked me through each
one these passages to show that they did not say that the Sabbath had been changed to
Sunday.
This walk through began with examining the Sabbath itself. I learned all about the Sabbath, including the term did not just refer to the regular weekly Sabbath but also to any of the days included in the Feasts of The Father Of Truth where people were to congregate together instead of doing their normal work. In fact the word Sabbath means "Ceasing" - not "Seventh". So our practice of observing One Day A Week for these purposes really did come from the Book of Truth. However, we were doing these things on the first day of the week (Sunday) instead of the seventh day (Saturday).
So the walk through continued by examining what day of the week the Book of Truth said was the regular weekly Sabbath. I was lead to begin in the beginning (Genesis) and go forward from there. (Things often make more sense when you begin at the beginning instead of beginning in the middle.)
The Father of Truth set aside the seventh day as a day of rest as soon as there were days to count and someone to count them (Genesis 2:1-3). He restored the seventh day as a day of rest when He gave the Law of Truth (Torah aka The Law) (Exodus 16:28-30). The commandment to observe the seventh day (Saturday) as the Sabbath was so important that it was included in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:9-11). Neither man nor beast was to work on the seventh day (Exodus 23:12). The Father of Truth said that the covenant of resting on the seventh day as the Sabbath would never end (Exodus 31:13-16). So the Father of Truth had set the seventh day (Saturday) apart as a Sabbath forever.
Even after Israel had returned from exile for breaking the Law of Truth the Sabbath was still to be observed on seventh day as defined in the Law of Truth (Nehemiah 13:17-19). The Father of Truth did change the Sabbath in the entire Original Covenant (Tanach aka The Old Testament) before the Man of Truth came to the Earth.
So perhaps He had done so somewhere in the Renewed Covenant (B'rit Chadashah aka The New Testament) after the Man of Truth came to the Earth. So I continued by examining the life of the Man of Truth to see if he had received some sort of instructions to change the Sabbath from the seventh day (Saturday) to the first day (Sunday).
It was brought to my attention that the Man of Truth did not come to teach anyone to do anything contrary to the Law of Truth (Matthew 5:17-19). He also ceased from his regular work to congregate with others in the synagogue to meet with the Father of Truth on the Sabbath (Saturday) that His Father had established in the Law of Truth (Luke 4:16). The Man of Truth clearly understood that the Sabbath was the seventh day (Saturday) and he did not change it when he was on this Earth.
This walk through began with examining the Sabbath itself. I learned all about the Sabbath, including the term did not just refer to the regular weekly Sabbath but also to any of the days included in the Feasts of The Father Of Truth where people were to congregate together instead of doing their normal work. In fact the word Sabbath means "Ceasing" - not "Seventh". So our practice of observing One Day A Week for these purposes really did come from the Book of Truth. However, we were doing these things on the first day of the week (Sunday) instead of the seventh day (Saturday).
So the walk through continued by examining what day of the week the Book of Truth said was the regular weekly Sabbath. I was lead to begin in the beginning (Genesis) and go forward from there. (Things often make more sense when you begin at the beginning instead of beginning in the middle.)
The Father of Truth set aside the seventh day as a day of rest as soon as there were days to count and someone to count them (Genesis 2:1-3). He restored the seventh day as a day of rest when He gave the Law of Truth (Torah aka The Law) (Exodus 16:28-30). The commandment to observe the seventh day (Saturday) as the Sabbath was so important that it was included in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:9-11). Neither man nor beast was to work on the seventh day (Exodus 23:12). The Father of Truth said that the covenant of resting on the seventh day as the Sabbath would never end (Exodus 31:13-16). So the Father of Truth had set the seventh day (Saturday) apart as a Sabbath forever.
Even after Israel had returned from exile for breaking the Law of Truth the Sabbath was still to be observed on seventh day as defined in the Law of Truth (Nehemiah 13:17-19). The Father of Truth did change the Sabbath in the entire Original Covenant (Tanach aka The Old Testament) before the Man of Truth came to the Earth.
So perhaps He had done so somewhere in the Renewed Covenant (B'rit Chadashah aka The New Testament) after the Man of Truth came to the Earth. So I continued by examining the life of the Man of Truth to see if he had received some sort of instructions to change the Sabbath from the seventh day (Saturday) to the first day (Sunday).
It was brought to my attention that the Man of Truth did not come to teach anyone to do anything contrary to the Law of Truth (Matthew 5:17-19). He also ceased from his regular work to congregate with others in the synagogue to meet with the Father of Truth on the Sabbath (Saturday) that His Father had established in the Law of Truth (Luke 4:16). The Man of Truth clearly understood that the Sabbath was the seventh day (Saturday) and he did not change it when he was on this Earth.
Still all of the passages that I had understood to mean that the Sabbath had been changed from Saturday to Sunday were written after the Man of Truth had risen from the dead and the Gentiles had came to faith. It seemed that the Apostles of Truth must have been given the instructions to change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, at least for the Children of Truth that were taken out of the Gentiles, after the Gentiles came to faith. So now that the groundwork had all been laid I was walked through these three passages that seemed to support this idea.
The first two passages came from the writings of Paul the Jew. After all, I have been told that Paul the Jew had some sort of special "Pauline Revelation" that was hard for the other writers to understand which included changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
The first passage that I was walked through was about when
Paul the Jew as in Iconium and the Gentiles asked to speak to him after he had
spoken to the Jews. They had not asked to speak to him on the next day as
I had heard over and over again but on the Sabbath (Acts
13:42-44). I did not need to read it in Greek as it was right there
in plain English. Still just to be thorough I read it in Greek to be sure
that it had not been translated incorrectly on purpose as had other passages like
the One
Disturbing Sentence. I had read the Renewed Covenant many times in
numerous translations and I had read the word "day" where it said
"Sabbath" because I had kept hearing it wrong over and over from
religious professionals. This had created a stronghold in my mind that
had to be destroyed by the Spirit of Truth (2
Corinthians 10:4-6).
In fact, the Gentiles were at the synagogue when he spoke to them (Acts 13:42) Even when Paul the Jew was in Corinth he still continued to meet with both the Jews and the Gentiles at the synagogue on the Sabbath (Acts 18:1-4). Neither he nor the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in this passage.
In fact, the Gentiles were at the synagogue when he spoke to them (Acts 13:42) Even when Paul the Jew was in Corinth he still continued to meet with both the Jews and the Gentiles at the synagogue on the Sabbath (Acts 18:1-4). Neither he nor the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in this passage.
The second passage was about when Paul the Jew told the congregation in Corinth to lay aside an special offering on the first day of the week that he would collect when he arrived (1 Corinthians 16:2). The first thing to notice is that he did not explicitly tell them to congregate together when they laid this offering aside but for each one to lay it aside for themselves. However, some would argue that it is implied that they would be congregating together for this purpose.
So the Spirit of Truth had me examine this passage in Greek to get clarity. When I looked at the passage in Greek one phrase instantly stood out as being not quite correctly translated. This Greek phrase, “mian sabbaton” translated as "first day of the week" is literally “first Sabbath”. So what is a first Sabbath?
Some weeks have a special sabbath that is one of the Feasts of the Father of Truth that make up the acts of The Greatest Play Ever. So some of those weeks have at least one and sometimes two more special Sabbaths occurring in the week before the regular weekly Sabbath that ends the week. Three of those special Sabbaths are when people were to bring gifts to the Father of Truth in Jerusalem. Since two of these special Sabbaths were on the first day of the week (Sunday) and the third one usually did not occur on the regular weekly Sabbath (Saturday) they were the first Sabbath of that week. So each of these special Sabbaths were called "a first Sabbath". So why did Paul the Jew have the Corinthian Children of Truth collecting offerings on the first Sabbaths?
In the Law of Truth people were commanded to bring in the tithes of the appropriate crop during these three first Sabbaths since each one of these first Sabbaths was a special Sabbath for bringing in the first fruits of a particular harvest to Jerusalem. If they could not make it to Jerusalem on a first Sabbath because they were too far away, then they were to sell that part of the harvest and keep the money until they could make it to Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 14:24-26). Often, when a community was far from Jerusalem, like Corinth, the entire community could not go to Jerusalem at one time. So on each of the first Sabbaths each member would set aside their offering that had been turned into money and it would be gathered together for the entire community. Then when some part of the community made a trip to Jerusalem for one of the first Sabbaths (First Fruits, Pentecost, Feast of Tabernacles) they would take the accumulated first fruit offerings of the entire community with them and give it for the entire community at the Temple. One of the purposes of these offerings was to take care of the poor in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 14:29). So Paul the Jew was having them lay aside and gather this offering on the first Sabbaths so he could take it with him to Jerusalem to give relief the Children of Truth there who had been impoverished there for telling others the Good News. So why was “mian sabbaton” translated as "first day of the week" instead of "first Sabbath"?
This same phrase, and the equivalent phrase, “mias sabbaton”, is used to denote that Jesus rose from the dead on the first sabbath, First Fruits, in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark which always falls on the first day of the week (Sunday). The translators of English Bibles undoubtedly used the same translation of the phrase “mian sabbaton” as “the first day of the week” in this passage as they had in the resurrection passages out of convenience. So while “the first day of the week” accurately describes the timing of the resurrection it does not precisely convey the full meaning of the first Sabbath. First Fruits, when the first fruit of barley, the first crop of the year, was gathered as an offering, is the first Sabbath of the week it occurs on. This is because that week at least one and normally two more Sabbaths occurred. This is because the last day of the Feast of Unleavened bread was also a special Sabbath, which followed First Fruits (Sunday) later in the same week most years, and then the week would end with the regular Sabbath (Saturday). This is more thoroughly explained in The Raising Of The First Fruits.
Pentecost, another special Sabbath when the first fruit of the wheat was collected as an offering, also always fell on the first day of the week (Sunday) making it the first Sabbath of the week it fell on which again have a second Sabbath when it ended with the regular weekly Sabbath at the end of week (Saturday). This is explained further in Waving The Unleavened Bread.
In most years the end of the Feast of Tabernacles, another special Sabbath when the end of the first fruits of the crops were offered, was also the first Sabbath of the week it fell on. This is explained more in The End of All Trouble. Since the translators did not understand what a first Sabbath was it easy to see why they translated "mian sabbaton" as "first day of the week" instead of "first Sabbath". So could have Paul the Jew meant "first day of the week" instead of "first Sabbath"?
If first day of the week had been literally meant by Paul the Jew, then he could have written it that way in Koine Greek which had a concise word for day, “emera”, with a phrase like “protos emera tou sabbaton”. He could have also used the phrase “mia tou sabbaton” that used in the Gospels of Luke and John to identify the first day of the week.
So Paul the Jew was commanding that the churches make their gatherings on these special Sabbaths that occurred on the Feasts of the Father of Truth year after year until he could take their accumulated offerings with him to Jerusalem to help the Children of Truth who had been impoverished there. He was not telling them to collect their normal tithes and offerings on Sunday every week. Neither he nor the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in this passage.
There were two other passages that were not covered in this walk through that sometimes cause people to think that Paul the Jew had believers congregate on the first day of the week (Sunday) for religious services.
The first passage says that the believers were congregated to eat bread together and listen to Paul the Jew on the first day of the week before midnight (Acts 20:7). They conclude that this was Sunday night because they are thinking that the day of week changes at midnight in accordance with Roman standards instead of changing at evening (sunset to nightfall) in accordance with Biblical standards laid out in the Law of Truth (Leviticus 23:32). The first day, which began at sunset Saturday, was defined by the Law of Truth - just like the Feast of Unleavened Bread that the Apostles of Truth had just celebrated with the congregation at Philippi (Acts 20:6). In fact, Paul the Jew ended his preaching at daybreak the next morning (Sunday) before religious services would have started (Acts 20:8-11). It is certain that the Biblical Calendar was being used in this passage because Paul the Jew desired to be in Jerusalem by Pentecost so he could deliver the gifts that the churches had been collecting on the first Sabbaths for many years (Acts 20:16). Paul the Jew had only used the occasion of everyone eating together after the Sabbath, when fresh food could be cooked, to preach to the Children of Truth at Troas because he was likely to never see them again just like the elders in Ephesus (Acts 20:25). Neither he nor the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in this passage.
The other passage says that believers can choose to regard one day above another or not depending upon how strong their faith is (Romans 14:5). So some people have concluded that they can change the Sabbath to Sunday or not even observe it at all if their faith is strong. However, in the context of the passage the day in question is not the Sabbath but it is a day associated with eating (Romans 14:4-6). In fact, the entire chapter is about eating - not when to keep the Sabbath (Romans 14). Paul the Jew is addressing concerns that the Gentiles in Rome who came out of idolatry had about eating just like he did with the Children of Truth in Corinth (1 Corinthians 8:4). This is yet another case of coming to the wrong conclusion because the verse is Taken Out Of Context. Neither he nor the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in this passage.
So there are no passages written by Paul the Jew as part of some sort of "Pauline Revelation" that the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. In fact, just like the Man of Truth, Paul the Jew was in the habit of ceasing from his regular work and congregating to worship the Father of Truth on the Sabbath (Acts 17:2). Paul the Jew never taught anyone to do anything contrary to the Law of Truth - like changing the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week (Saturday) to the first day of the week (Sunday) (Acts 21:20-24). Paul the Jew clearly understood that the Sabbath was the seventh day (Saturday) and he did not teach that the Father of Truth had changed it.
The last passage covered in this walk through was the one where the Man of Truth appeared to John the Jew on "the Lord's Day" while he was in exile on the isle of Patmos (Revelation 1:9-11). The first thing to note is that this passage says absolutely nothing about people congregating together on "the Lord's Day". It only says that John the Jew was "in the Spirit" on "the Lord's Day" when the Man of Truth appeared to him (Revelation 1:10-11). Does in being "in the Spirit" mean that it had to be the same time when the Children of Truth congregated together for religious services?
This is similar to when Ezekiel, the Prophet of Truth, was "in the Spirit" when he was given the vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-3). There is no mention of the day that vision was given indicating that this vision could have occur on any day of the week or year. It is certain that this vision was not given when he was congregated together with the Children of Truth for religious services. In like manner, any time the Children of Truth speak in an unknown tongue they are speaking "in the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 14:2). They are to keep the whole armor of the Father of Truth on and pray "in the Spirit" at all times - not just when they congregate together (Ephesians 6:11-18). So being "in the Spirit" does not mean that it had to be at the time when the Children of Truth congregated together for religious services and does not prove that the Children of Truth congregated together on "the Lord's Day".
Then there is the other issue of "the Lord's Day" itself. I had always been told that "the Lord's Day" was Sunday. Sunday was even called "the Lord's Day" as well as Greek calendars. So it seemed like "the Lord's Day" meant Sunday but I was lead to investigate this further. I investigated and found out that Greek calendars did not refer to Sunday as "The Lord's Day" until 150 AD which was 55 years after John the Jew had his vision on the isle of Patmos. In fact, no one even suggested that Sunday be called "the Lord's Day" until Ignatius proposed the name change in 108 AD because the Man of Truth had risen from the dead on a Sunday. (The Feast of Firstfruits when he rose from the dead always falls on a Sunday.) This was still thirteen years too late. So if Sunday is not "the Lord's Day" then what is?
Some people have proposed that it was a day for burning incense and otherwise worshiping the current Caesar - Domitian at the time. However, a Caesar could only be declared a god by the Roman Senate after he died and Domitian was very keen on preserving Roman religion and traditions. (This is why John the Jew was exiled in the first place.) Even when a Caesar was declared to be a god there was no set recurring day on the Roman Calendar called "the Lord's Day" for worshiping him. A day for a one time holiday was declared by the Senate shortly after the Caesar died if they deemed it appropriate. The last time one of these holidays that could be called "The Lord's Day" had been declared was shortly after Titus had died in 81 AD some 14 years before John the Jew was visited by the Man of Truth (95 AD). Domitian died a year later (96 AD) and Patmos ceased to be used as an isle of exile at that time. So "the Lord's Day" could not have referred to one of these holidays for worshiping Caesar.
So I was directed to look in the Book of Truth itself for the answer. The term "Lord's Day" only appears once in the Book of Truth as well as the Greek phrase that it is translated from. However, the term "the Day of the Lord" is found numerous times so it seemed like a good candidate on the surface. Closer examination showed that this could not have been what was meant by "the Lord's Day" because it refers to the day in the future that the Man of Truth will come back to destroy every enemy of His Father (Joel 2:10-12). This is the day in the future when he will come to rule the Earth (Revelation 19:13-15). This is the day in the future when everyone on Earth will come into Total Surrender. So what day is "the Lord's Day"?
The Father of Truth said that Israel was to keep His Sabbath on the seventh day every week to show that the Children of Truth belonged to Him just like His Sabbath (Exodus 31:13-17). He said that the Sabbaths, the regular weekly Sabbath as well as the special Sabbaths that were part of His Feasts, belonged to Him just like the Tabernacle belonged to Him (Leviticus 26:2). Even though every Sabbath belongs to Him there is only one day that He ever directly called His Day - the regular weekly Sabbath (Isaiah 58:13). Since the Sabbath is His Day and He is the Lord then it would be right to call it "the Lord's Day". Neither John the Jew nor the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in this passage.
So no where in the Book of Truth did anyone ever change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. So who changed the Sabbath?
The answer to that question comes from history.
Irenaeus reported that the Romans had been observing Sunday instead of Saturday as the Sabbath since the time when Xystus was the Bishop of Rome (115 AD) which was some twenty years after John the Jew had his vision and certainly after he had died. He claimed that this change had been made by Peter the Jew (Shimon Kephas aka Simon aka Simeon aka Cephas) and Paul the Jew. However it has already been shown that Paul the Jew made no such change. For this reason treating Sunday as the Sabbath was actually a practice confined to Rome initially.
Even Ignatius, who was first to propose changing the name of Sunday to "the Lord's Day", stated that the Sabbath was still being observed almost universally on Saturday by the Children of Truth more than forty years after John the Jew had his vision on Patmos. According to him, only the churches in Rome and Alexandria (Egypt) met on the first day of the week instead of the seventh day at that time. All other churches, including those as far away as China, India, and east central Africa met on the seventh day.
The reason for this difference was that the people of Rome had a tradition of treating Sunday like the Sabbath in many ways by this time. Augustus had been persuaded to change the Roman week from eight days to seven days when he made his calendar reforms under the influence of Jewish men like Herod the Great. The Romans had named the days of the week for the sun, moon and wandering stars (planets) that they could see in order of brightest to dimmest because they worshiped them. Since the Sun was the brightest it got the first day (Sun Day), the Moon got then next day (Moon Day) and so on until Saturn got the last day (Saturn Day). They especially venerated the Sun because they believe that it was by far the strongest god being able to force all others from the sky for at least half of every day so they held Sun Day in higher esteem than the other days.
They did this because they worshiped these heavenly bodies in their religion (Jeremiah 8:2). They imported this religion from Babylon like all nations which had rejected worshiping the Father of Truth (Romans 1:28).
They had also observed from the many Jews that lived in Rome the long term advantages of resting one day a week, even though they initially thought that doing so was lazy. So when their association with the Jews influenced them to also have a day of rest and worship they selected Sun Day as that day. So treating Sunday as the Sabbath was a result of mixing the influence of the Jews with the influence of Babylonian Sun god worship that had formed the basis of Roman religion.
So many of the Children of Truth in Rome felt compelled to keep two Sabbaths - the one taught by the Apostles of Truth and the one that had became a well entrenched tradition in Rome. Needless to say, they found this inconvenient. Especially since the Jews had fell into great disfavor in Rome due to the many rebellions in Judaea and other places. This caused the Children of Truth to suffer additional persecution because the Romans could not distinguish between them and the Jews due to their common practices like keeping the Sabbath. So they wanted to move the Sabbath from the seventh day (Saturday) associated with the Jews to the first day (Sunday) associated with Rome.
This had absolutely nothing to do with Paul the Jew, Peter the Jew or John the Jew changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. In fact, Polycarp, a disciple of John the Jew, went to Rome in 154 AD to discuss the differences between the practices of the Roman church and the practice of all the churches of Asia (modern west central Turkey) of not only keeping the regular weekly Sabbath but also all of the Feasts of the Father of Truth including Passover (Pesach). The churches of Asia refused to change any of these practices because they had learned to observe them from John the Jew. It is plain that John the Jew did not in any shape, form, or fashion mean "Sunday" when he had said "the Lord's Day".
However, there was another reason besides wanting to not be associated with the Jews and wanting to maintain the traditions of Rome for changing the Sabbath. Many of the so-called Church Fathers also wanted to marry the teachings of the Apostles of Truth with the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle and other Greek philosophers that the Romans so admired. In fact, Justin Martyr went so far as to say that these philosophers were even Christians - unknown to themselves. This lead him and others to conclude that there was no need to observe any day as the Sabbath so Sunday was fine if it was more convenient. So part of the impetus of the fathers of the False Church of Rome to move the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday was the philosophies of the very same Greek philosophers that Paul the Jew said the Children of Truth were to avoid (Colossians 2:8)!
So when Constantine made Sunday a universal day for rest and worship across the Roman Empire in 321 AD he was only formally putting into law what most people were already practicing. The change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday as completed by the Council of Laodicea in 364 AD where observing the Sabbath on Saturday was made a crime in the Roman Empire and Sunday was commanded to be observed instead. (Laodicea is the church rebuked by the Man of Truth for being lukewarm (Revelation 3:14-16). It was completely wiped off the face of the Earth after this council.) So it was the Romans that changed the Sabbath from Saturday from Sunday.
Even then it was only inside the Roman Empire while all of the Children of Truth outside of the Roman Empire continued to observe the seventh day (Saturday) as the Sabbath. Even from that time to modern times, groups like the Taiping in China, the Nasrani in India, the Lemba in Zimbabwe, the Sabbotniks in Russia and every other group of the Children of Truth who maintained the practices of their ancestors from the time of the Apostles of Truth (before 100 AD) still observe the Sabbath on the seventh day as the Father of Truth commanded. According to the fifth century church historian Sozomen even inside the Roman Empire almost all of the Children of Truth continued to observe the Sabbath on the seventh day as well but also observed Sunday as commanded by the law of the Roman Empire until the western part of the divided Roman Empire came to an end. So it is not even true that the Sabbath was changed universally from Saturday to Sunday among the Children of Truth. So who really changed the Sabbath?
The idea that the Father of Truth changed the Sabbath through the Man of Truth or the Apostles of Truth in the Renewed Covenant (B'rit Chadashah aka The New Testament) is an outright lie perpetrated by Ministers of Lies inside the Roman Empire. It was then spread from there unwittingly by people who simply did not know the truth. Like all lies, the Father of Lies (HaShatan aka Satan aka The Devil) was behind this lie (John 8:44). So it was the Father of Lies who really changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
Of course it does not matter what day of the week you observe the Sabbath if you are not one of the Children of Truth. I did not come into the House of Truth by observing the Sabbath on either Saturday or Sunday (Galatians 2:16). It was only after I came into the House of Truth that the Spirit of Truth was able to guide me into the truth about who changed the Sabbath (John 16:13).
It is no different for you. Your journey to finding out the truth about all things begins when you come into the House of Truth by putting the Man of Truth in charge of every area of your life because you believe that His Father raised him from the dead (Romans 10:8-10).
Come into the House of Truth.
So the Spirit of Truth had me examine this passage in Greek to get clarity. When I looked at the passage in Greek one phrase instantly stood out as being not quite correctly translated. This Greek phrase, “mian sabbaton” translated as "first day of the week" is literally “first Sabbath”. So what is a first Sabbath?
Some weeks have a special sabbath that is one of the Feasts of the Father of Truth that make up the acts of The Greatest Play Ever. So some of those weeks have at least one and sometimes two more special Sabbaths occurring in the week before the regular weekly Sabbath that ends the week. Three of those special Sabbaths are when people were to bring gifts to the Father of Truth in Jerusalem. Since two of these special Sabbaths were on the first day of the week (Sunday) and the third one usually did not occur on the regular weekly Sabbath (Saturday) they were the first Sabbath of that week. So each of these special Sabbaths were called "a first Sabbath". So why did Paul the Jew have the Corinthian Children of Truth collecting offerings on the first Sabbaths?
In the Law of Truth people were commanded to bring in the tithes of the appropriate crop during these three first Sabbaths since each one of these first Sabbaths was a special Sabbath for bringing in the first fruits of a particular harvest to Jerusalem. If they could not make it to Jerusalem on a first Sabbath because they were too far away, then they were to sell that part of the harvest and keep the money until they could make it to Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 14:24-26). Often, when a community was far from Jerusalem, like Corinth, the entire community could not go to Jerusalem at one time. So on each of the first Sabbaths each member would set aside their offering that had been turned into money and it would be gathered together for the entire community. Then when some part of the community made a trip to Jerusalem for one of the first Sabbaths (First Fruits, Pentecost, Feast of Tabernacles) they would take the accumulated first fruit offerings of the entire community with them and give it for the entire community at the Temple. One of the purposes of these offerings was to take care of the poor in Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 14:29). So Paul the Jew was having them lay aside and gather this offering on the first Sabbaths so he could take it with him to Jerusalem to give relief the Children of Truth there who had been impoverished there for telling others the Good News. So why was “mian sabbaton” translated as "first day of the week" instead of "first Sabbath"?
This same phrase, and the equivalent phrase, “mias sabbaton”, is used to denote that Jesus rose from the dead on the first sabbath, First Fruits, in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark which always falls on the first day of the week (Sunday). The translators of English Bibles undoubtedly used the same translation of the phrase “mian sabbaton” as “the first day of the week” in this passage as they had in the resurrection passages out of convenience. So while “the first day of the week” accurately describes the timing of the resurrection it does not precisely convey the full meaning of the first Sabbath. First Fruits, when the first fruit of barley, the first crop of the year, was gathered as an offering, is the first Sabbath of the week it occurs on. This is because that week at least one and normally two more Sabbaths occurred. This is because the last day of the Feast of Unleavened bread was also a special Sabbath, which followed First Fruits (Sunday) later in the same week most years, and then the week would end with the regular Sabbath (Saturday). This is more thoroughly explained in The Raising Of The First Fruits.
Pentecost, another special Sabbath when the first fruit of the wheat was collected as an offering, also always fell on the first day of the week (Sunday) making it the first Sabbath of the week it fell on which again have a second Sabbath when it ended with the regular weekly Sabbath at the end of week (Saturday). This is explained further in Waving The Unleavened Bread.
In most years the end of the Feast of Tabernacles, another special Sabbath when the end of the first fruits of the crops were offered, was also the first Sabbath of the week it fell on. This is explained more in The End of All Trouble. Since the translators did not understand what a first Sabbath was it easy to see why they translated "mian sabbaton" as "first day of the week" instead of "first Sabbath". So could have Paul the Jew meant "first day of the week" instead of "first Sabbath"?
If first day of the week had been literally meant by Paul the Jew, then he could have written it that way in Koine Greek which had a concise word for day, “emera”, with a phrase like “protos emera tou sabbaton”. He could have also used the phrase “mia tou sabbaton” that used in the Gospels of Luke and John to identify the first day of the week.
So Paul the Jew was commanding that the churches make their gatherings on these special Sabbaths that occurred on the Feasts of the Father of Truth year after year until he could take their accumulated offerings with him to Jerusalem to help the Children of Truth who had been impoverished there. He was not telling them to collect their normal tithes and offerings on Sunday every week. Neither he nor the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in this passage.
There were two other passages that were not covered in this walk through that sometimes cause people to think that Paul the Jew had believers congregate on the first day of the week (Sunday) for religious services.
The first passage says that the believers were congregated to eat bread together and listen to Paul the Jew on the first day of the week before midnight (Acts 20:7). They conclude that this was Sunday night because they are thinking that the day of week changes at midnight in accordance with Roman standards instead of changing at evening (sunset to nightfall) in accordance with Biblical standards laid out in the Law of Truth (Leviticus 23:32). The first day, which began at sunset Saturday, was defined by the Law of Truth - just like the Feast of Unleavened Bread that the Apostles of Truth had just celebrated with the congregation at Philippi (Acts 20:6). In fact, Paul the Jew ended his preaching at daybreak the next morning (Sunday) before religious services would have started (Acts 20:8-11). It is certain that the Biblical Calendar was being used in this passage because Paul the Jew desired to be in Jerusalem by Pentecost so he could deliver the gifts that the churches had been collecting on the first Sabbaths for many years (Acts 20:16). Paul the Jew had only used the occasion of everyone eating together after the Sabbath, when fresh food could be cooked, to preach to the Children of Truth at Troas because he was likely to never see them again just like the elders in Ephesus (Acts 20:25). Neither he nor the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in this passage.
The other passage says that believers can choose to regard one day above another or not depending upon how strong their faith is (Romans 14:5). So some people have concluded that they can change the Sabbath to Sunday or not even observe it at all if their faith is strong. However, in the context of the passage the day in question is not the Sabbath but it is a day associated with eating (Romans 14:4-6). In fact, the entire chapter is about eating - not when to keep the Sabbath (Romans 14). Paul the Jew is addressing concerns that the Gentiles in Rome who came out of idolatry had about eating just like he did with the Children of Truth in Corinth (1 Corinthians 8:4). This is yet another case of coming to the wrong conclusion because the verse is Taken Out Of Context. Neither he nor the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in this passage.
So there are no passages written by Paul the Jew as part of some sort of "Pauline Revelation" that the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. In fact, just like the Man of Truth, Paul the Jew was in the habit of ceasing from his regular work and congregating to worship the Father of Truth on the Sabbath (Acts 17:2). Paul the Jew never taught anyone to do anything contrary to the Law of Truth - like changing the Sabbath from the seventh day of the week (Saturday) to the first day of the week (Sunday) (Acts 21:20-24). Paul the Jew clearly understood that the Sabbath was the seventh day (Saturday) and he did not teach that the Father of Truth had changed it.
The last passage covered in this walk through was the one where the Man of Truth appeared to John the Jew on "the Lord's Day" while he was in exile on the isle of Patmos (Revelation 1:9-11). The first thing to note is that this passage says absolutely nothing about people congregating together on "the Lord's Day". It only says that John the Jew was "in the Spirit" on "the Lord's Day" when the Man of Truth appeared to him (Revelation 1:10-11). Does in being "in the Spirit" mean that it had to be the same time when the Children of Truth congregated together for religious services?
This is similar to when Ezekiel, the Prophet of Truth, was "in the Spirit" when he was given the vision of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-3). There is no mention of the day that vision was given indicating that this vision could have occur on any day of the week or year. It is certain that this vision was not given when he was congregated together with the Children of Truth for religious services. In like manner, any time the Children of Truth speak in an unknown tongue they are speaking "in the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 14:2). They are to keep the whole armor of the Father of Truth on and pray "in the Spirit" at all times - not just when they congregate together (Ephesians 6:11-18). So being "in the Spirit" does not mean that it had to be at the time when the Children of Truth congregated together for religious services and does not prove that the Children of Truth congregated together on "the Lord's Day".
Then there is the other issue of "the Lord's Day" itself. I had always been told that "the Lord's Day" was Sunday. Sunday was even called "the Lord's Day" as well as Greek calendars. So it seemed like "the Lord's Day" meant Sunday but I was lead to investigate this further. I investigated and found out that Greek calendars did not refer to Sunday as "The Lord's Day" until 150 AD which was 55 years after John the Jew had his vision on the isle of Patmos. In fact, no one even suggested that Sunday be called "the Lord's Day" until Ignatius proposed the name change in 108 AD because the Man of Truth had risen from the dead on a Sunday. (The Feast of Firstfruits when he rose from the dead always falls on a Sunday.) This was still thirteen years too late. So if Sunday is not "the Lord's Day" then what is?
Some people have proposed that it was a day for burning incense and otherwise worshiping the current Caesar - Domitian at the time. However, a Caesar could only be declared a god by the Roman Senate after he died and Domitian was very keen on preserving Roman religion and traditions. (This is why John the Jew was exiled in the first place.) Even when a Caesar was declared to be a god there was no set recurring day on the Roman Calendar called "the Lord's Day" for worshiping him. A day for a one time holiday was declared by the Senate shortly after the Caesar died if they deemed it appropriate. The last time one of these holidays that could be called "The Lord's Day" had been declared was shortly after Titus had died in 81 AD some 14 years before John the Jew was visited by the Man of Truth (95 AD). Domitian died a year later (96 AD) and Patmos ceased to be used as an isle of exile at that time. So "the Lord's Day" could not have referred to one of these holidays for worshiping Caesar.
So I was directed to look in the Book of Truth itself for the answer. The term "Lord's Day" only appears once in the Book of Truth as well as the Greek phrase that it is translated from. However, the term "the Day of the Lord" is found numerous times so it seemed like a good candidate on the surface. Closer examination showed that this could not have been what was meant by "the Lord's Day" because it refers to the day in the future that the Man of Truth will come back to destroy every enemy of His Father (Joel 2:10-12). This is the day in the future when he will come to rule the Earth (Revelation 19:13-15). This is the day in the future when everyone on Earth will come into Total Surrender. So what day is "the Lord's Day"?
The Father of Truth said that Israel was to keep His Sabbath on the seventh day every week to show that the Children of Truth belonged to Him just like His Sabbath (Exodus 31:13-17). He said that the Sabbaths, the regular weekly Sabbath as well as the special Sabbaths that were part of His Feasts, belonged to Him just like the Tabernacle belonged to Him (Leviticus 26:2). Even though every Sabbath belongs to Him there is only one day that He ever directly called His Day - the regular weekly Sabbath (Isaiah 58:13). Since the Sabbath is His Day and He is the Lord then it would be right to call it "the Lord's Day". Neither John the Jew nor the Father of Truth had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday in this passage.
So no where in the Book of Truth did anyone ever change the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. So who changed the Sabbath?
The answer to that question comes from history.
Irenaeus reported that the Romans had been observing Sunday instead of Saturday as the Sabbath since the time when Xystus was the Bishop of Rome (115 AD) which was some twenty years after John the Jew had his vision and certainly after he had died. He claimed that this change had been made by Peter the Jew (Shimon Kephas aka Simon aka Simeon aka Cephas) and Paul the Jew. However it has already been shown that Paul the Jew made no such change. For this reason treating Sunday as the Sabbath was actually a practice confined to Rome initially.
Even Ignatius, who was first to propose changing the name of Sunday to "the Lord's Day", stated that the Sabbath was still being observed almost universally on Saturday by the Children of Truth more than forty years after John the Jew had his vision on Patmos. According to him, only the churches in Rome and Alexandria (Egypt) met on the first day of the week instead of the seventh day at that time. All other churches, including those as far away as China, India, and east central Africa met on the seventh day.
The reason for this difference was that the people of Rome had a tradition of treating Sunday like the Sabbath in many ways by this time. Augustus had been persuaded to change the Roman week from eight days to seven days when he made his calendar reforms under the influence of Jewish men like Herod the Great. The Romans had named the days of the week for the sun, moon and wandering stars (planets) that they could see in order of brightest to dimmest because they worshiped them. Since the Sun was the brightest it got the first day (Sun Day), the Moon got then next day (Moon Day) and so on until Saturn got the last day (Saturn Day). They especially venerated the Sun because they believe that it was by far the strongest god being able to force all others from the sky for at least half of every day so they held Sun Day in higher esteem than the other days.
They did this because they worshiped these heavenly bodies in their religion (Jeremiah 8:2). They imported this religion from Babylon like all nations which had rejected worshiping the Father of Truth (Romans 1:28).
They had also observed from the many Jews that lived in Rome the long term advantages of resting one day a week, even though they initially thought that doing so was lazy. So when their association with the Jews influenced them to also have a day of rest and worship they selected Sun Day as that day. So treating Sunday as the Sabbath was a result of mixing the influence of the Jews with the influence of Babylonian Sun god worship that had formed the basis of Roman religion.
So many of the Children of Truth in Rome felt compelled to keep two Sabbaths - the one taught by the Apostles of Truth and the one that had became a well entrenched tradition in Rome. Needless to say, they found this inconvenient. Especially since the Jews had fell into great disfavor in Rome due to the many rebellions in Judaea and other places. This caused the Children of Truth to suffer additional persecution because the Romans could not distinguish between them and the Jews due to their common practices like keeping the Sabbath. So they wanted to move the Sabbath from the seventh day (Saturday) associated with the Jews to the first day (Sunday) associated with Rome.
This had absolutely nothing to do with Paul the Jew, Peter the Jew or John the Jew changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. In fact, Polycarp, a disciple of John the Jew, went to Rome in 154 AD to discuss the differences between the practices of the Roman church and the practice of all the churches of Asia (modern west central Turkey) of not only keeping the regular weekly Sabbath but also all of the Feasts of the Father of Truth including Passover (Pesach). The churches of Asia refused to change any of these practices because they had learned to observe them from John the Jew. It is plain that John the Jew did not in any shape, form, or fashion mean "Sunday" when he had said "the Lord's Day".
However, there was another reason besides wanting to not be associated with the Jews and wanting to maintain the traditions of Rome for changing the Sabbath. Many of the so-called Church Fathers also wanted to marry the teachings of the Apostles of Truth with the philosophies of Plato, Aristotle and other Greek philosophers that the Romans so admired. In fact, Justin Martyr went so far as to say that these philosophers were even Christians - unknown to themselves. This lead him and others to conclude that there was no need to observe any day as the Sabbath so Sunday was fine if it was more convenient. So part of the impetus of the fathers of the False Church of Rome to move the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday was the philosophies of the very same Greek philosophers that Paul the Jew said the Children of Truth were to avoid (Colossians 2:8)!
So when Constantine made Sunday a universal day for rest and worship across the Roman Empire in 321 AD he was only formally putting into law what most people were already practicing. The change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday as completed by the Council of Laodicea in 364 AD where observing the Sabbath on Saturday was made a crime in the Roman Empire and Sunday was commanded to be observed instead. (Laodicea is the church rebuked by the Man of Truth for being lukewarm (Revelation 3:14-16). It was completely wiped off the face of the Earth after this council.) So it was the Romans that changed the Sabbath from Saturday from Sunday.
Even then it was only inside the Roman Empire while all of the Children of Truth outside of the Roman Empire continued to observe the seventh day (Saturday) as the Sabbath. Even from that time to modern times, groups like the Taiping in China, the Nasrani in India, the Lemba in Zimbabwe, the Sabbotniks in Russia and every other group of the Children of Truth who maintained the practices of their ancestors from the time of the Apostles of Truth (before 100 AD) still observe the Sabbath on the seventh day as the Father of Truth commanded. According to the fifth century church historian Sozomen even inside the Roman Empire almost all of the Children of Truth continued to observe the Sabbath on the seventh day as well but also observed Sunday as commanded by the law of the Roman Empire until the western part of the divided Roman Empire came to an end. So it is not even true that the Sabbath was changed universally from Saturday to Sunday among the Children of Truth. So who really changed the Sabbath?
The idea that the Father of Truth changed the Sabbath through the Man of Truth or the Apostles of Truth in the Renewed Covenant (B'rit Chadashah aka The New Testament) is an outright lie perpetrated by Ministers of Lies inside the Roman Empire. It was then spread from there unwittingly by people who simply did not know the truth. Like all lies, the Father of Lies (HaShatan aka Satan aka The Devil) was behind this lie (John 8:44). So it was the Father of Lies who really changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.
Of course it does not matter what day of the week you observe the Sabbath if you are not one of the Children of Truth. I did not come into the House of Truth by observing the Sabbath on either Saturday or Sunday (Galatians 2:16). It was only after I came into the House of Truth that the Spirit of Truth was able to guide me into the truth about who changed the Sabbath (John 16:13).
It is no different for you. Your journey to finding out the truth about all things begins when you come into the House of Truth by putting the Man of Truth in charge of every area of your life because you believe that His Father raised him from the dead (Romans 10:8-10).
Come into the House of Truth.
posted by The House Of Truth @ August 02, 2014
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