The last three lessons proved the Sabbath should be kept. If you “have ears to hear”, you should
already be keeping it now. If not… what are you waiting for? Why be a Christian, if you won’t
follow Christ’s clear example every week?
So I consider it proven, with every significant argument ever used to discredit the Sabbath answered,
calmly and clearly, from the Bible. But now we’re going to ask a new question: “who changed the
Sabbath?” We won’t be using the Bible as much in this lesson because this didn’t happen in the Bible!
It happened after the Bible was written!
We will use historical quotes from researchers and witnesses on the subject; let me emphasize that I do
not consider these proof of what we SHOULD do. The Bible already showed you that in the last
lesson! We will never have to leave the Bible to understand the Bible! True doctrine does not need
ANY help from “experts”!
But to understand false doctrines, especially ones developed in the last 2,000 years, we must sometimes
journey beyond the Bible. The Sabbath was changed, because almost all Christians today believe in
Sunday. If it wasn’t done by the Bible, or by the apostles, then who? When? Why?
One of the weaker arguments against the Sabbath is “if the Sabbath was still binding, why didn’t Paul
make it CLEAR that it was still binding?” This is called an argument from silence – arguing that since
nothing was said to confirm the Sabbath, it was automatically abolished.
But remember, Christianity is a Hebrew religion. It is the religion of Abraham, and that has never
changed. Most of the first converts to Jesus had been raised in Judaism, and they learned what Moses
and the prophets taught every week, in every city! (Acts 15:21).
So the Apostles didn’t need to focus on the lists of laws in the Old Testament; everyone they were
talking to knew the laws by heart! They mentioned them from time to time, they clearly kept them all,
but they weren’t reciting them because their audience already knew them!
The job of the apostles was not to replace the Old Testament – their job was to show what had
changed in the NC! Not to show the ENTIRE NC religion – then they could have simply deleted
the OT – but only to show the DIFFERENCES! And since the Sabbath was not different in the NC,
it didn’t get talked about much!
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TheSimpleAnswers.com
The Simple Answers… To Life’s Most Important Questions.
Bible Study Course Lesson 3 – 6
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A BETTER ARGUMENT FROM SILENCE
As I said, arguing from silence is usually a bad idea. The only exception is when you can be CERTAIN
that something WOULD have been said – and yet it wasn’t. Think about this: circumcision only affects
half the population, and only once in a lifetime. And yet by teaching it had been changed, Paul stirred
up such a hornets’ nest it seems half the New Testament is spent defending his position.
There was so much strife in the church over this one subject that a special conference was called to
decide it (Acts 15), and even though the elders came to an agreement, many people in the church
continued to teach circumcision anyway!
And can you honestly believe if they made such a big deal about circumcision, which wasn’t a part of
the Ten Commandments and affected only half the people only once in a lifetime… that there is not a
SINGLE WORD mentioning a disagreement over the observance of the Sabbath??
The Sabbath affects EVERYONE, EVERY WEEK, for their ENTIRE LIVES! It means money made or
lost, crops planted or harvests missed; it was at the very heart of the Ten Commandments! And these
Jewish Christians who made such a fuss over circumcision NEVER EVEN MENTIONED IT TO
PAUL?
That is impossible to believe. This is an argument from silence that has merit. Because if there was
silence on this in the NT – a silence punctuated only by repeated examples of New Testament Gentile
Christians observing the Sabbath – then the silence existed because, on this one subject at least,
there was harmony in the church!
Which proves they ALL gave due reverence to the command of God to “remember the Sabbath day,
and keep it holy”. So why doesn’t modern Christianity do the same?
CHRISTIANS AFTER THE NT
“The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and
sermons. And it is not to be doubted but that they derived this practice from the apostles themselves, as
appears by several scriptures to the purpose.” (T.H. Morer [A church of England clergyman])
“The gentile Christians observed also the Sabbath.” (Gieseler’s Church History)
All Paul and the other Apostles had to do was teach Jewish converts the differences between what they
were already doing, and what Jesus expected of His new church. So they stopped circumcision and the
rituals of Moses – because those were replaced by circumcision of the heart and various other internal
things.
But the things which did not change, such as the Sabbath, they kept as the Bible taught them to do. And
they did this for a long time – several early, first-hand sources give their witness that the early Gentile
Christians kept the Sabbath:
“Christ did not at all rescind the Sabbath.” (Tertullian, 2nd century)
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“Thou shalt observe the Sabbath, on account of Him who ceased from His work of creation, but
ceased not from His work of providence.” (Constitutions of the Holy Apostles, around the 3rd century)
Christianity was a relatively tiny voice in the tremendous Roman Empire, all of which was pagan; and
the most important religion in the Roman Empire – in most of the world, actually – was sun worship.
And sun worship services were held on SUN-day.
“The first day of each week, Sunday, was consecrated by Mithra (pagan god of the sun) since times
remote, as several authors affirm. Because the sun was god, the Lord par excellence, Sunday came to
be called the Lord’s day, AS LATER WAS DONE BY CHRISTIANITY.” (Agostinho Paiva, O
Mitraisimo, p. 3)
Notice LONG BEFORE Christ, pagans were calling Sunday “the Lord’s Day”, because it was the day
bearing the name of their greatest Lord, the Sun! The day of the Sun was the most important day, since
the Sun was the most powerful god, the source of light, warmth, growth, and seen as the embodiment
of divinity, so his day came first in the week.
As pagans began to come into the Christian church, they clung tenaciously to the ways they’d always
held before – and gradually Sunday began to supplant the Sabbath as the preferred day of worship. The
primary force behind this movement began in Alexandria, Egypt.
ALEXANDRIA
Alexandria had replaced Athens as the academic and philosophical center of the world; the city was full
of all cultures, and its primary business was the training of eloquent teachers and thinkers who “spent
their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21).
So when Christianity came along, it was like giving a child a new toy – suddenly here was an entirely
new philosophy to discuss, debate, and incorporate with what they already believed! They kept the
aspects of Christianity they liked – forgiveness, the resurrection of the Son of God, and so on – but
immediately began to allegorize and spiritualize away every actual command in the Bible, using the
most fantastic reasoning imaginable, thus creating a NEW version of Christianity – the things the
apostles taught BLENDED WITH the beliefs of Plato and other philosophers.
“We are the religious heirs to the builders and founders of the Egyptian temples. Many of the theories
of Egyptian religion, modified and transformed no doubt, have penetrated into the theology of
Christian Europe, and form, as it were, part of the woof [fabric] in the web of modern religious
thought. [modern] Christian theology was LARGELY ORGANIZED and nurtured IN THE
SCHOOLS OF ALEXANDRIA.” (Professor A.H. Sayce, “Religions of the Ancient Egyptians and
Babylonians”)
The one thing most ancient religions agreed on was that the Sun was the greatest god, and he should be
worshiped on the first day of the week – Sunday. And so gradually, because Alexandria had money,
respect, and eloquence they grew in power; and because they were willing to accept ANYONE into the
church, whether they repented of paganism and sun-worship or not – they rapidly grew in numbers and
popularity. And so their version of Christianity quickly outpaced the true Christianity!
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Who wouldn’t want a religion that lets you do anything, and promised you everything in exchange? A
religion that lets you keep all your pagan beliefs and incorporates them into its own fabric? So naturally
this version of Christianity was popular, and spread rapidly, carrying with it the pagan doctrine of Sunday
worship!
Meanwhile, the true Christians – the minority, as always (Matthew 7:13, Luke 12:32) – kept the
seventh-day Sabbath:
“The ancient Christians were very careful in the observance of Saturday, or the seventh day… it is
plain that all the oriental Churches [meaning modern Turkey and Palestine as opposed to Rome and
Alexandria], and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a festival… Athanasius
likewise tells us that they held religious assemblies on the Sabbath, not because they were infected
with Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, Ephiphanius says the same.”
(“Antiquities of the Christian Church”)
Initially only the Sabbath was observed in the church; then as these philosophers infiltrated the church,
knowing they couldn’t destroy the Sabbath outright, they sought a compromise; they began to
encourage the keeping of both days – with the Sabbath as a rest, and Sunday as a day of celebration. As
always, some went along, some didn’t.
“During the first two centuries there developed two separate and distinct types of Christian worship.
The one in Syria and Asia Minor [Turkey] held to the old orthodox ways of life, and adhered to the
Sabbath and primitive Christianity as handed down by the apostles. The other from Alexandria and
Egypt allowed many Gnostic [pagan mysteries] and foreign sentiments to enter, and with them Sunday
worship and other foreign practices unknown in the apostolic church and opposed by the early
apostles.” (W.E. Straw, “Origin of Sunday Observance”)
The dispute raged for centuries. In general the churches in Asia, where the apostles and the people they
trained did the most work, held fast to the teaching of the apostles. The headquarters of this region was
in Antioch, in modern Turkey; but in places like Rome and Alexandria, pagan centers of so-called
“higher learning”, the philosophers held sway.
“The school of Antioch led a revolt against the Alexandrian exegesis [interpretation] of Holy
Scripture, and founded a more critical method.” (Hastings Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, article
“Alexandrian Theology”).
By “a more critical method” it means they actually READ the Bible literally and believed what it said –
like you’ve been doing – while the Alexandrians would dismiss anything they didn’t like, such as the
Sabbath, as a “beautiful allegory”, and strove to make the Bible fit their cherished beliefs from
philosophers like Plato, and tried to harmonize the words of God with Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and
Babylonian religions.
“The church of the second century rang with alarm, and the consequence was that all the Christian
writers of that period, except Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria, shrank with horror from the
very name of philosophy.” (Charles Bigg, “The Origins of Christianity”)
It was in the eastern Roman Empire where these true, apostolic doctrines were preserved longest.
Naturally, in the centers of paganism like Alexandria and Rome, the doctrines were corrupted first.
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Paul, it is supposed, did away with the Sabbath; but it is in the place where Paul did his entire life’s
work, the place where the other apostles spent the MOST TIME, in modern Turkey and Greece, we
find the STRONGEST tradition of Sabbath-keeping!
“It is certain that the ancient Sabbath did remain and was observed… by the Christians of the East
Church [then centered in Antioch], above three hundred years after our Saviour’s death.” (“A
Learned Treatise of the Sabbath”)
THE FOURTH CENTURY AND CONSTANTINE
Even though the Alexandrian-trained ministers were totally dominating Christianity by the fourth
century, there were STILL so many Sabbath-keepers, so many STILL holding on to the “more critical
interpretation” of the Bible, that the paganized Christians found it necessary to pass a LAW making
Sabbath-keeping illegal!
“Christians MUST NOT judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but MUST work on that day, rather
honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be
judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.” (Constantine, Council of Laodicea, AD 365).
Being pronounced “anathema from Christ” in those days meant being handed over to the state’s police
to be tortured until repentance or death – whichever comes first, and sometimes both. Why would this
be such a major problem that Constantine had to pass a LAW against obeying the Sabbath over THREE
HUNDRED YEARS after Christ’s death? It could only be because a great number of Christians
were STILL keeping the Biblical Sabbath!
“The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the Jews [which, you read in a previous lesson, is
NOT the Sabbath of the Jews, but the SABBATH OF GOD]; … therefore the Christians, for a long time
together, did keep their conventions upon the Sabbath, in which some portions of the law were read:
and this continued till the time of the Laodicean council [AD 365].” (“Whole Works of Jeremey
Taylor”)
But surely if the apostles, who BUILT the New Testament church, had abolished the Sabbath, the
CHURCHES they nurtured would ALL KNOW the Sabbath was no longer binding! And yet it is in the
places they worked the hardest and longest – the regions around Antioch – that we find the LONGEST
LASTING tradition of keeping the seventh-day-Sabbath! And it is from the then-world-capital of
paganism – Alexandria – that we find Sunday observance first being promoted!
THE DAY OF WHICH LORD
You have seen the first day of the week, Sunday, was called the day of the Lord – meaning the day of
THEIR lord, the Sun-god – hundreds of years before Christ. But how did this get into Christianity?
“Sylvester, Bishop of Rome (314 to 337 AD), officially changed the title of the first day of the week,
calling it ‘the Lord’s Day’. This decision to call the first day the ‘Lord’s Day’ was not based on
scripture.” (M. Ludovicum, “Historia Ecclesiastica”)
Constantine was a sun-worshiper before his conversion to Christianity, and many historians believe he
accepted Christianity for political, not personal, reasons. In the time of Constantine, the battle between
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Sabbath and Sunday keepers was dividing the Empire and causing all sorts of trouble. So they passed a
law “deciding” Sunday was the proper day. But look at the terminology they used!
“On the VENERABLE DAY OF THE SUN [Sunday] let the magistrates and people residing in cities
rest, and let all workshops be closed…” (Codex Justinianus, AD 321)
They chose to exalt “the venerable day of the Sun”, calling it “the Lord’s day”, because it WAS their
Lord’s day – the day of sun-worshipers everywhere! By doing this, they managed to keep the pagans
happy by worshiping on the day of their Lord, the sun… and at the same time, to pacify most of the
apostate Christians by calling this day “Christian”.
“The [Catholic] Church made a sacred day of Sunday LARGELY BECAUSE it was the weekly
festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy [at Rome] to take over the pagan festivals
endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance.” (Arthur Weigall, “The
Paganism in Our Christianity”, p. 145)
It was only those who held to the TRUTH of the Bible – the TRUE Christians, who followed “the Lord
of the Sabbath” – who rejected Sunday worship, and many paid the ultimate price, dying in horrific
fashion at the hands of these paganized Christians. I asked the question up front, and now it is time to
answer it: WHO changed the Sabbath to Sunday?
“All things whatsoever that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these WE HAVE TRANSFERRED TO
THE LORD’S DAY.” (Eusebius [Constantine’s Historian, fourth century])
There you have your answer! THAT is who transferred the Sabbath to Sunday! God never did it; we
have seen the apostolic church never did it! The true church for three hundred years after Christ did not
do it! It was done by the fledgling Catholic Church in the days of Constantine – a fact they freely
admit – in fact, they BOAST of it!
“It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible
does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman
Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church.”
(Priest Brady, in an address reported in “The News”, Elizabeth, NJ, 3/18/1903)
Where did they get the authority to TRANSFER the duties of the Sabbath to Sunday? Did God give
that authority to a heathen Roman emperor, or an apostate church corrupted with pagan Greek
doctrines? And what were their motives – a love of truth… or greed?
“…and it may fairly be presumed that, in order to conciliate the heathen, and to swell the number of
the nominal adherents of Christianity, the same festival was adopted by the Roman Church, giving it
only the name of Christ. This tendency on the part of Christians to meet Paganism half-way was very
early developed.” (Alexander Hislop, “The Two Babylons”)
Does God meet paganism half-way? Does God say “Ok Satan, we can do things HALF my way, and
HALF your way”?? No! God says “for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? Or
what fellowship hath light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14, Rotherham)
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God said “Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away
from it.” (Deuteronomy 12:32, NKJV) – and by moving Sabbath to Sunday, they both ADDED to,
and TOOK AWAY from, God’s commandment! Fulfilling God’s prophecy given by Daniel so long ago:
Daniel 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the
most High, and think to change times and laws …
You will recall from earlier lessons that this was talking about the pope – we weren’t ready to talk
about the Sabbath then, but after proving his identity in other ways, here we find the FULL meaning of
this verse – for it was the POPE who changed the 4th commandment, and changed the TIMES it was
kept!
Do YOU acknowledge the authority of the false prophet of the beast to do that? To rewrite God’s laws
in direct contradiction to the Bible and the practices of the early church?? I most certainly do not!
“Indeed we shall find, that when Christianity became the established religion of the Roman Empire,
and took the place of paganism, it assumed, IN A GREAT DEGREE, the forms and rites of
paganism, and participated IN NO SMALL MEASURE of its spirit also. Christianity as it existed in
the dark ages, might be termed, without much impropriety of language, BAPTIZED PAGANISM.”
(“Sketches of Church History”, Presbyterian Board of Publications, 1840)
And IN SPITE of these facts, KNOWING it meant death to continue keeping the Sabbath, so many
continued to do so that history is full of the records of Sabbath keepers being persecuted by the young
Catholic Church!
“The people of Constantinople [Istanbul, Turkey], and almost everywhere, assemble together on the
Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome, or at
Alexandria.” (Sozemen, early fifth century)
Notice by this time many have compromised and are keeping BOTH days, but that still shows a strong
tradition of Sabbath keeping in that area, 400 years after Christ and His apostles supposedly “abolished
it”! And it is only in Rome and Alexandria, the centers of paganism, it had been completely
eliminated – but even so, Sabbath-keeping just wouldn’t die, even there – God wouldn’t let it! Nearly
two hundred years later, again we find anti-Sabbath legislation in Rome!
An important reference work, “Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers”, says that Pope Gregory I (590-604)
condemned “Roman citizens [who] forbid any work being done on the Sabbath day.” It also says
“moreover this same Pope Gregory had issued an official pronouncement against a section of the city
of Rome itself because the Christian believers there rested and worshiped on the Sabbath.”
These incidents of Sabbath keepers in defiance of laws, governments, and even the death penalty has
continued down to our day; there have ALWAYS been Sabbath keepers observing the commands of
God. Because God promised that, while His church would always be small and weak, it could never be
wiped out (Matthew 16:18).
There are many books written on that subject, some the size of pamphlets and others the size of
toasters, so I won’t belabor the point any more here; any decent history of Sunday or Sabbath
observance will show you the facts.
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Note that I do not offer any of this as proof, or as a reason that you SHOULD keep the Sabbath. The
previous lessons already did that. The Bible alone is the only guide you need to follow God, and
these historical works do not provide proof of what you should or should not do.
But what they DO show you is why you keep Sunday; who changed the title of the first day of the
week to “the Lord’s Day” – and when and why – and whom you are really worshiping and honoring
each time you assemble on the “venerable day of the sun”, instead of on the Sabbath of God!
HAS TIME BEEN LOST?
Many wonder about this; for some, it’s an honest question; for most, they’re just hoping for a loophole
to get out of obeying the clear command of God. An excuse to use when God comes to them
demanding why they aren’t keeping His Sabbath, so they can say “but God, I just didn’t know WHICH
day You meant!”
But that excuse won’t hold water, because we can be SURE we know exactly which day is the Sabbath!
Many different sources – astronomers, scientists, historians and linguists all agree when they tell us:
“The continuity of the week… has crossed the centuries, and all known calendars, still intact.” (Prof.
D. Eginitis, Observatory of Athens)
“One essential point is that of the continuity of the week… a continuity which has existed for so many
centuries.” (Two leading French astronomers of the 1920’s)
“It is to be noted that in the Christian period, the order of the days in the week has never been
interrupted.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, p. 740, “Chronology”)
We know for a fact that Jesus kept the Sabbath perfectly, on the right day; so time was not lost between
creation and then. So it is only the last 1,900 years we have to worry about, and all historians agree it
has never changed. But ask yourself what would have to happen in order to “lose time”. Sure, you
might fall asleep and sleep through a day and wake up thinking it was Monday when in fact it was
Tuesday; but did the other BILLION people on Earth all fall asleep at the same time and lose a day
too?
To cause the ENTIRE WORLD to lose a day is unthinkable; can you imagine anything that could have
caused it? Maybe one town here or there might conceivably lose a day – but ALL of them at once? In
all countries in the world? Impossible! We have better records of the last 2,000 years than of any period
in history, and they ALL agree the weekly cycle has never changed!
But there is an even stronger proof – one you can see and touch, so to speak! Practically every
language STILL calls the seventh day “Sabbath”! And in the rare exception where the word sabbath is
not immediately recognizable, the word translates in their language to “rest”, or “end of the week”!
There are huge charts on this available all over the internet, but here is a good sample:
In Spanish, it is Sabado; in Italian Sabbato; in Hungarian Szombat; in Rumanian Sambata; in Polish
Sobota; in Russian Subbota; in Arabic, Assabt; in Ancient Babylonian Sa-Ba-Tu. All these are easily
recognizable as “Sabbath”, and all have an identical meaning – “day of rest”.
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These are only a few samples of a list that has literally hundreds of entries; so when the Bible speaks of
the seventh day being the Sabbath, to know WHICH day that is, we need only ask anyone who speaks
Spanish which day is the SABADO!
Online Etymology Dictionary says of the word “Sabbath”, that it comes from the “Old English sabat
‘Saturday,’ observed by the Jews as a day of rest, from Latin sabbatum, from Greek sabbaton, from
Hebrew shabbath, properly “day of rest,” from shabath “he rested.”…
So why have you heard Sunday called the Sabbath? When did this change occur? The quote
continues…
“…From the seventh day of the week, it [the name “sabbath”] began to be applied [in the] early 15th
century to the first day (Sunday), a change completed during the Reformation. The ORIGINAL
meaning is preserved in Spanish Sabado, Italian Sabbato, and other languages’ names for ‘Saturday’”.
Notice the word “sabbath” was NEVER applied to the first day of the week, Sunday, until the
FIFTEENTH century! That’s over FIFTEEN HUNDRED years after Jesus died! So surely there can be
no doubt then, when God spoke of the Sabbath, WE KNOW which day the “Sabbath” is, because
nearly every language STILL CALLS the seventh day the Sabbath!
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Most are eventually forced to admit there is no scriptural justification for observing Sunday. Further,
they are shocked to learn they observe it only because of the Catholic Church. Yet tradition is so strong
they STILL resist changing and observing the only day God recognizes as a day of worship!
And so they say “well, why does it really matter? After all, God didn’t command me NOT to keep
Sunday!” So in the next lesson, I’m going to give you an IRONCLAD reason, from the Bible, why you
MUST IMMEDIATELY stop keeping Sunday and start observing the seventh-day Sabbath!
But before I do that, I want to warn you. Because the more you understand before you obey God, the
less value it has to Him. Read John 20:24-29. It’s a good thing to believe when you see conclusive,
overwhelming, definitive proof. Jesus said so.
But He also said it’s a far better thing to believe just because something makes sense. Thomas had been
with Jesus for four years; he had heard Jesus say He would be killed and resurrected dozens of times.
But he REFUSED to believe it without absolute, irrefutable proof. Why? Because he lacked faith.
I don’t mean blind faith, or even faith in God’s power; I mean faith in God’s word. Jesus said He would
be resurrected. It shouldn’t be that hard to believe that He actually WAS! And because it took SO much
proof, Thomas wasn’t Jesus’ favorite disciple. He was not “blessed” as those who hadn’t seen, yet
believed – the other ten disciples, and the women.
If you haven’t kept the Sabbath yet, why not? Will Jesus have to appear before you, so you can thrust
your hand in His side before you believe? If so – well, it’s better than nothing. But it’s nowhere near as
good as someone who read in their Bible “remember the Sabbath day, and keep it holy” and then just
did it! A person who does that, God notices!
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Maybe he didn’t know how to do it; maybe he couldn’t find anyone else to do it with (Jeremiah
15:17). Maybe he did it all wrong. But he did SOMETHING, because obeying God was
IMPORTANT to him! Trusting God to reveal more to him as he obeyed what he already knew!
Someone who read those words of God, and said “I don’t care what people say, what they think, or
what I’ve always done. If the Bible says this that’s all that matters and that’s what I’m going to do!” –
that’s impressive to God. A person who does that is a better, more faithful person than someone who
must be argued, begged, bribed, and threatened into obedience. Which one are you?
If reading the Bible’s plain commands aren’t good enough for you, God will smack you over the head
with that same Bible to get you to listen – sooner or later, if not in this life then in the next. Which you
would prefer? 1 Corinthians 4:21.
But He’d rather just whisper it in your ear and have you jump to obey. Aren’t you the same way? Don’t
you love a child, or a horse, or an employee, that you need only to say “do this” and he does it? Do you
want to have to drag your horse the direction you want him to go? Should you have to use spurs and a
whip to motivate him? Or would you rather lightly touch his neck, and have him walk down a new
path?
Which horse would you love the most – and reward the most? Which child would you favor, the one
who is obedient when you tell him to clean his room, or the one that only does it after you punish him?
Which employee would you promote – the one who does your will without you asking, or the one who
obeys you after you threaten to fire him?
If it took you this long to obey, then even reading these words before you make your choice will cost
you some “blessedness”. You can’t undo that – you can just learn from this, and the next time God asks
something from you, you’ll do it faster, with less argument. The best time to start obeying God was
20 years ago. But the second best time is today.
If you wait until after the next lesson, when absolutely conclusive proof is presented, it will cost you a
lot more of that blessedness, if you finally give in. It’s good to believe, when you have thrust fingers
into the nail-holes in His hands… but should you really HAVE to have that level of proof to obey God?
It would have spoken better things of your faith, it would have been a far better sign of your
willingness to obey the word of God, if you obeyed after reading Lesson 3–6. Still better, if you kept it
after 3–7, or even 3–8. If you start now… well, ok.
If you wait until after the next lesson, or even stall for a few months after that… well, that’s better than
nothing. But you will have missed out on a chance to impress God. But there will be other
opportunities, don’t worry. God will see you keeping the Sabbath, one day. He has sworn it
(Philippians 2:10, Isaiah 66:23).
But the more God must argue with you, the more He has to back you into a corner where you have no
choice but to do it His way, the less He can trust you. Because the more proof you require to do what
you already know is the right thing… the more selfish and stubborn, and therefore potentially evil,
you show God you are.
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