My Bible Must Be Missing a Few Pages

As many of you know, I truly love reading YHWH's (G-d) Word. But, for some reason, it draws criticism.

For instance, recently I read how

• Those who love the Savior keep the Torah. (Jn 14:15,21)
• YHVH’s Torah is pure. (Ps 19:8)
• YHVH’s Torah is spiritual. (Rom 7:14)
• YHVH’s Torah is holy. (Rom 7:12)
• YHVH’s Torah is just. (Rom 7:12)
• YHVH’s Torah is perfect. (Ps 19:7 and Rom 12:2)
• YHVH’s Torah is immutable. (Dt 4:2)
  

Well, you get the picture. By the time I go through all those wonderful verses I can't help but get excited.

So I put together a letter, or I get on a Christian forum to share this great joy with those I feel will be as blessed as I am.

But something strange happens.

The response I get comes back all wrong. It's like the Twilight Zone where I opened somebody else's mail and none of the words make any sense.

"You're trying to take us back into bondage under the Law."

"Paul had tough words to say about your kind trying to rob us of our freedom."

"You're a legalist and a Judaizer."

So here I sit trying to make sense of all this.

These are Gentiles I wrote to. None of them were Jewish, Which means that even if I agreed that the "Law" was a bondage, none of them even had a clue about Biblical Laws or obeying the Scripture before they got saved.

I mean, picture this...the town druggie spending his day bemoaning the fact that some "Judaizer" was keeping him in bondage to G-d's Law. C'mon.

What's more, it's especially confusing to me when that same Scripture tells me YHVH’s Torah is freedom, and a delight, not bondage. (Ps 119:44-45,47)

Well, something is wrong. The righteous should mourn when the Torah is not kept. (Ps 119:136), but what I experience is just the opposite. The "orthodox" Christian community seems to come out in attack mode when the Torah is kept.

Not to be one who can't admit when he's wrong, I decided to get to the bottom of all this and look up "Legalism" and "Judaizer" in my Strong's Bible Concordance and New Ungers Bible Dictionary. I thought maybe that would give me a few clues to where I've gone wrong.

Whoa, I didn't know what other big surprise lay in store.

I can't find any form of the words "Legalism" or "Judaizer" in any source. And yet, I know it must be there since I've heard these terms bantered around for years.

Anyway, I've come to the conclusion my Bible translation must be defective or missing a few pages. I'm pretty sure I've narrowed down the reason. It's because I don't have one of the original infallible King Jimmy versions.

Yea, that must be it.

And doggone it, I had one a long time ago. My grandmother gave it to me when I was about nine years old. It sure was nice looking, all covered with a big mosaic picture of Jesus. Too bad I don't know where it went.

Because my GrandMa gave me that Bible, I tried for years to read it, but places like the part about suffering the little children left me bewildered. Guess that's why the first time I read a Good News for Modern Man I ended up getting saved.

You know, come to think of it, I didn't realize at the time that it was the Law I was being saved from - like those people who write me say. Somehow I thought Jesus died so I could be forgiven my sins and start living a righteous life.

Hmmm, but to live a righteous life I can't disobey G-d, so...I have to do what He says. But if I do what He says then I'm a Judaizer. And Judaizers are bad. Why, judging from what I've heard, alcoholics, prostitutes, and thieves are more welcome in church than a Judaizer.

Oh well, I should contact one of those King Jimmy only people to get this figured out. I bet they're experts on Legalism and Judaizers.

I Have a Question About the Sabbath

I have a question to ask that may land me in hot water.

Well, actually, I have lots of questions to ask, but I'm going to risk it with only one for now. And when I say risk it, I am well aware of the story of Aristotle.

For those of you who may not remember Aristotle and his dilemma let me recap. He was a wise guy (I mean that he possessed wisdom, although his neighbors may have labeled him just as this sounds). And with that wisdom he began to question many of the traditions and habits of his fellow citizens.

This made the people mad.

They didn't like so many questions, especially if those questions caused some people to...uh, also ask questions.

The questions Aristotle asked touched upon many of the basic assumptions about their core values as a society. No one wanted to even consider that their way of life, its structure, or its leaders were not sacrosanct and above reproach.

In some sense it would be like someone today questioning the Scriptural validity of Christmas or Easter. Imagine that!

In the end, poor Aristotle had to be quietened. He was an irritation to the ruling powers so they had him killed.

Now you see why asking questions can put you in a precarious position. In this case I'm the one who's risking being flamed, blocked, virus attacked, or deleted from the entire internet world - or worse, labeled a heretic. But I must ask it nonetheless.

If you will, allow me a few more moments to build up to the question.

Many of you know the Scriptures plainly states

"...six days you shall work and on the seventh day you shall rest."

You may also know I have waited for a decade for anyone to show me even one verse where that was changed by YHWH (G-d) to the first day - and I'm still waiting.

Anyway, whether the Sabbath is on the seventh day or the first day is not the issue this time, so put that out of your mind.

It's a little more fundamental - if that's possible.

I want everyone reading this to assume for the moment that the Pope really has the authority to change the Sabbath to the first day of the week - Sunday. That means, I want to bypass the discussion of when the Sabbath occurs.

So I'm willing to frame this as though the Sabbath really is on Sunday.

To get to my question, let's look first at what YHWH (G-d) says in the Scripture regarding the qualities of the Sabbath.

Genesis 2:2
And on the seventh day G-d ended His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
Genesis 2:3
And G-d blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He had rested from all His work which G-d created to make.

OK, the points to notice here are:

• It was the seventh day (but ignore this for the moment)
  
• YHWH rested and did no work
• YHWH blessed it and sanctified the day
  

We should also note that YHWH considers the Sabbath important enough to put it smack dab in the midst of the big Ten Commandments (you can find that in Exodus 20).

Not long after the Ten Commandments He speaks about the Sabbath again,

Exodus 31:16
Therefore the sons of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant.
Exodus 31:17
It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever.

The things we should notice here are that:

• This is a command to the sons of Israel
• It is an everlasting covenant
• It is a sign between believers and YHWH forever.
  

Before I go on, I'm sure someone reading this has said, "Ah, see that was for the Israelites. We're the church."

Yet believers -whether Gentile or not- are of the seed of Abraham (a descendant) thereby an Israelite in Christ

Gal 3:29 And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

So the Scripture applies to us today. After all, unless you have different sense of time than I do, forever hasn't passed yet.

One final item I want to point out before I ask the question. After the end-time judgment has come upon this earth and a new heaven and a new earth is established, we read in Isaiah 66:23 that the Sabbath shall still be kept.

Isa 66:23 And it will be, from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before Me, says Jehovah.

Quickly now, let me recap what YHWH has said about the Sabbath...

1. It is a day of rest
2. It is a day we should not work
3. It is a blessed and holy day (very special)
4. It is a covenant that lasts forever
5. It is a sign between the Almighty and true believers
6. It will still be observed in the coming Kingdom
   

Despite the above, my recurring observation over my 39 plus years as a believer has been that the Modern Church does not observe the Sabbath whether the seventh day or the first day. I have queried many pastors about the Sabbath observance and received no firm guidance.

Today, I know I can go to almost any merchant and find professing believers working on the day they claim to be the Sabbath. Churches themselves are not exempt, as I know from first hand experience they buy and sell on their Sabbath - often times within their own buildings.

OK, then may I ask the churches and professing believers at large this question...

Is there any day in the entire year you consider important enough - or that you consider YHWH put enough emphasis upon - to actually cease from work and set that day aside as holy?

In other words, what will it take to get you to keep the Sabbath?