Change of the Sabbath
The
Sabbath is a blessed day when we are made holy. The souls who become holy
through the Sabbath come to yearn for God all the more and proceed further
towards heaven. So, in order to hinder God's children from attaining salvation,
Satan put Sunday, the day to worship the sun god, right beside the Sabbath day.
The truth of the Sabbath began to be obscured from the 2nd century after the
Apostolic Age, and in 321 A.D. it was officially abolished as the Roman emperor
declared Sunday as a day of rest. Thus, the law of worship on Sunday started in
Rome, and it has continued until this day. Satan hinders the truth, which God
has given human beings for their salvation, using all kinds of lies and
lawlessness.
Da.
7:24~25 『"
‘The ten horns are ten kings who will come from this kingdom. After them
another king will arise, different from the earlier ones; he will subdue three
kings. He will speak against the Most High and
oppress his saints and try to change the set times and the laws. The
saints will be handed over to him for a time, times and half a time.' "』
The
distorted truth comes from Satan the devil who opposes God. The truth of the
Sabbath was distorted and changed by Satan who tried to change the set times
and the laws, and it disappeared from the world for over a thousand years. As a
result, God's law has been changed and lawlessness is now prevailing throughout
the world.
However, Heavenly Father and Mother have restored the truth of
the Sabbath again to clothe us, Their children, with holiness. It is because we
can enter the kingdom of God only when we are clothed with holiness. Even now
Satan is hindering and slandering the true Church that keeps the Sabbath, by
every means possible. His ultimate goal is to make one more soul fall down, but
it is God's will to save all souls, without losing even a single soul.
Gal.
1:6~10 『I am
astonished that you are so
quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning
to a different gospel-which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people
are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an angel from heaven
should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be
eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what
you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the
approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying
to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.』
The Bible says that if anyone preaches a different gospel, he
will be cursed, and it also tells us to do what pleases God rather than men. Satan always says cunning and
sweet words, but whatever is not a teaching of Christ cannot lead us to
salvation. So we must not follow the teachings of Satan who tries to change
God's set times and laws.
The laws we can live by and
the laws we cannot live by
Satan
tries to abolish the Sabbath by changing the set times and the laws and
spreading a different gospel. However, the Bible shows God's firm will for the
Sabbath.
Eze.
20:10~12 『"Therefore
I led them out of Egypt and brought them into the desert. I gave them my decrees and made known to them my laws,
for the man who obeys them will live by them. Also I gave them my Sabbaths as a sign between us, so they would
know that I the LORD made them holy."』
God gave His people the Sabbath as a law which man could live by
if he obeyed it, and as a sign between Him and His people, so they would know
that He made them holy.
On the Sabbath, God pours out spiritual blessings
from heaven upon His children, and cleanses them from all the impurities of
this world. That's why God tells us to keep the Sabbath. God has prepared a way of life before us-the Sabbath-to
make us holy, to bless us and to lead us to eternal peace and rest.
Then,
what happens to those who do not keep the Sabbath?
Eze.
22:26 『"Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy
things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they
teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so
that I am profaned among them."』
Who
are the people violating God's law? They are those who worship on Sunday, not
on the Sabbath. Today many people are doing unholy things to profane God
instead of giving glory to God, not distinguishing between the holy and the
common. Being bound to the chain of lawlessness,
they fail to come to the blessings of the Sabbath, so they can see nothing-neither
God the Father, nor God the Mother, nor the kingdom of heaven, nor salvation,
nor eternal life.
Since
Satan knew this all too well, he changed the set times and the laws. Then he
tried to rationalize Sunday observance, saying that the Sabbath in the Old
Testament was Saturday but it was changed to Sunday because Jesus was
resurrected on Sunday and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost also
occurred on Sunday. However, the Day of Resurrection and the Pentecost, which
are the annual feasts, and the weekly Sabbath have their own distinctive
meaning and blessings, so they must be observed separately from one another.
Any law that has been changed from God's is not the truth of God, no matter how
plausible Satan's excuse for it is.
Let's
see what path God let the people, who neglected the Sabbath and profaned Him,
follow.
Eze.
20:20~25 『"
‘Keep my Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us. Then you will know
that I am the LORD your God. ‘But the children rebelled against me: They did
not follow my decrees, they were not careful to keep my laws-although the man
who obeys them will live by them-and they desecrated my Sabbaths. . . . because
they had not obeyed my laws but had rejected my
decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes lusted after their fathers'
idols. I also gave them over to statutes
that were not good and laws they could not live by . . .' "』
God gave the people, who turned away from the Sabbath and did
not keep it, over to laws they could not live by. That is why there are numerous people
today like the sand of the sea who keep Sunday while claiming to believe in
God.
In
the book of Ezekiel, let's take a look at another prophecy about those who do
not keep the Sabbath.
Eze.
8:16-18『He then
brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the
entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about
twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple
of the LORD and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun
in the east. He said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Is it
a trivial matter for the house of Judah to do the detestable things they are
doing here? . . . Therefore I will deal with them
in anger; I will not look on them with pity or spare them. Although they shout
in my ears, I will not listen to them."』
Here
we can see the scene where some people were bowing down to the sun with their
backs toward the temple of God. What is this
prophecy about? Sunday and Christmas are the days to celebrate the sun god,
which come from sun worship. Today there are numerous churches on the
earth which have the doctrines of the sun god worship. However, the day to worship God is the Sabbath.
God has appointed the Sabbath to be a day when His people are
clothed with holiness. The Sabbath is also a day when we receive blessings from
heaven. So, let
us not neglect the Sabbath but keep it, longing for the spiritual blessings
Father and Mother give us on the Sabbath, so we can receive all the blessings
by asking for them to our hearts' contents.
Feel the blessings of the
Sabbath and give thanks to God
Do
you know that we are in a car running at 100,000 km (60,000 miles) per hour
every day? Normally cars drive along the highway at 100 km (60 miles) per hour,
and the average speed of a plane is 800-1,000 km (500-600 miles) per hour.
However, we are living on the earth which moves around the sun at a speed of
100,000 km (60,000 miles) per hour. The earth moves at such a high speed, but
nevertheless we cannot feel the tremendous speed at all, and do not regard it
as a miracle.
God
shows us such a miracle every day. It is the same with the blessings God gives
us every Sabbath day. God bestows boundless
blessings on us as He has promised us, but we cannot feel the blessings fully.
Let's
think about manna which God rained down upon the Israelites every day in the
desert. At first it tasted like wafers made with honey, but as they ate it for
40 years, it became miserable food for them. The Sabbath must not be like that.
We should always give thanks to God for making us
holy and giving us spiritual blessings from heaven and eternal rest through the
Sabbath, instead of taking the grace of God for granted and accepting it
absent-mindedly.
Now
let us examine ourselves: As we are in a car traveling at 100,000 kilometers
(60,000 miles) per hour, do we feel the speed while living on the earth? Or
does it feel like we are in a car traveling slowly at less than 1 km per hour?
When we sense this blessing, we will eagerly wait
for the precious blessings God bestows on us every Sabbath day with excitement
and anticipation, and if we have such faith, we will surely receive so much
blessing.
For God the Father, God the Mother, and Their children, the
Sabbath is a blessed and joyful day and it is also a holy day when the members
of the heavenly family gather together. The providence of Heavenly Father and
Mother is being fulfilled through the Sabbath even at this moment. Every
Sabbath day, Elohim cleanse us from our sins and iniquities and raise us up to
become Their worthy children, so that we can enter the kingdom of heaven
without fail.
Giving thanks to Heavenly Father and Mother for giving us the
precious Sabbath, let us all participate in the heavenly salvation by always
obeying the will of God, cherishing in our hearts the happiness and joy of
living in the blessings of the Sabbath. In addition, let us invite many people
around us, who do not yet know the importance of the Sabbath or the will of
God, to come to keep the Sabbath, which Elohim have personally established and
written, so that they can also receive salvation and enter eternal rest in
heaven God has prepared for us.
