BLUE VIEWPOINT
Most who believe in God believe that the Bible tells the truth.
Whether that truth is about morals, culture, or how we are to live our lives, most Christian people believe that what the Bible says is what we should follow. So why don't we?
Seriously. The Bible is very clear on most subjects, but there are a few to which very few pay attention. This page is dedicated to identifying some of those subjects.
Holy day set aside by God
When God blesses something, should we honor that something, whatever it is? No, I'm serious, really. The reason I ask is that most pastors and churches do not honor what God has made holy. But, they do honor what God has not made holy as though it was holy. Man made it "holy" in the fourth century. On March 7, 321, Roman Emperor Constantine issued a civil decree making Sunday a day of rest.
This was not an accident caused by their not knowing what the Bible says, but something to which they will admit that they have chosen to ignore, claiming that it was never demanded of the Gentiles. Worse, they reject God's designation of Holy Days without any justification beyond their own desires.
"We must obey God!, Well, except for..."
In a book by John MacArthur, I found this passage about how we should view the word of God:
When God established the nation Israel, He built into the Israelite's daily living the principle of separation from the world. Their religious observances throughout the year served as safeguards to prevent them, as a unique people (Deut. 14:2
2for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the Lord has chosen you to be his treasured possession.
), from intermingling with pagans.
Likewise, God calls all His people to be separate from the world (1 Pet. 2:9
9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
). Whenever we are tempted to compromise, we need only remind ourselves that God never compromises His absolute truths and principles for expediency. He always lives according to His Word. Psalm 138:2
2I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. (KJV)
says, "Thou hast magnified Thy word according to all Thy name." God is committed to His Word, and as His children, we are to be also.
- excerpt from The Power of Integrity, by John MacArthur, page ix
Good words, but...
Well! Sounds like Mr. MacArthur is 100% behind the word of God and being committed to what it says. No equivocation, no wiggle room. Right? Well, notice the fact that the book of 1 Peter was written to the Jews, and John MacArthur applies it to us Gentiles in the second paragraph in the box above. I agree with him. Also, notice the last words in the first paragraph. It sounds like MacArthur believes that the Israelites are not to mix with the pagans (many Gentiles are still part of the pagans). But if you remember the lesson that Peter learned in Acts 10, how can that be? But, other than that, MacArthur appears to follow God closely.
Uh, well...? Maybe not...
He follows Peter's urgings to the Israelites, but he does not keep the seventh-day Sabbath as God commanded the Jews to do in Exodus, also written to the Jews. Then, in another of his books, The Quest for Character, he says this:
That means there ultimately can be no real peace for those who despise holiness. " 'There is no peace' says my God, 'for the wicked' " (Isaiah 57:21). Naturally, then, anyone who genuinely loves holiness will spurn the false, worldly "peace" of blithe tolerance for all evil things.
-excerpt from The Quest For Character, by John MacArthur, page 40
Wow, he's pretty Godly...
Absolutely. Rock solid. Right? Well, look through the Bible and find any passage where God made Sunday holy. Go ahead, I'll wait here. Not there? MacArthur uses a book written to the Jews to justify our acting in the way that God wants His people to act, but his church congregation keeps Sunday. Now, do the same search for when He made any day holy. (Hint, Genesis 2:3
3Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
). And finally, the definition of "despise" from the Oxford Languages dictionary I found on Google says this:
de-spise
'di-spiz'
verb: despise; 3rd person present: despises; past tense: despised; past participle: despised; gerund or present participle: despising
feel contempt or a deep repugnance for
.
"he despised himself for being selfish"
Now, if you were going to choose to not "despise" something God made holy, and decide to give reverence to something He made holy, would you honor God's holy Sabbath day or Sunday?
Oops...
Most churches meet on Sunday and totally ignore the Sabbath. While there is nothing wrong with meeting on Sunday, or Tuesday, or Wednesday, there is a day that God set aside as holy. However, most people who "go to church" on Sunday consider that their "holy day", and do not honor any other day. In fact, they despise even the mention of the word Sabbath when it is in reference to "Saturday", the seventh day of the week. God never blessed Sunday. He never made it holy. So, how did it get to be "holy"? Only by human actions to override something that God set up. That, friends, is called idolatry.
"God, our way is better!"
I found a quote from Tolstoy that says something that most pastors actively do but will staunchly deny that they do it:
"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives."
--Tolstoy
Taking something not taught by the Bible, making it a "Christian" fundamental ritual, using it to discard a truly holy God-given foundation commandment, and then passing along this man-made tradition as though it was holy is a statement saying, "God, we know better than you!"
"I got the power...!"
If you have ever seen the movie Bruce Almighty with Jim Carrey, you can see what trouble can ensue when men who think they have the power of God take actions that accomplish what they want rather than follow the will of God. That is what we see happening in the churches of today. The result is the blending of paganism and Christianity, despising that which God made holy, and using tradition over the commands of God. Ever hear Anyone suggest anything like that before? (Mark 7:9
9And he continued, "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!"
)
Men determined that Sunday should be "holy". Whether Christians claim that they are celebrating the Resurrection, or just following the anti-Semitic church fathers, or obeying Constantine's decree in 321 A.D., the current practice is directly opposing the clearly stated will of God for men. While there are many Feast days that God told us to use for holy convocations, they fall on different days of the week each year - some even on Sunday. However, most (a vast majority) of Christians despise the idea of keeping any of the days made holy by the God they claim to "Love". They claim that those special days of God are not for the Gentile Christians.
Birth of the Christian Church
Pentecost (you remember Pentecost, the birth of the Christian faith) was set up by God to fall on the first day of the week, once a year, every year. Yet, many Sunday churches don't even recognize it when it comes, and it is supposed to be the birthday of the "church". That makes "Sunday" holy at least once a year, but not every week. There only one single day of the week that He blessed and made holy, and it is the same day every week. What day was that?
The Sabbath. Not "my sabbath" or "your sabbath", but the Sabbath, God's Sabbath. Some call it the Jewish Sabbath, but that is because Jews used to be careful about following God's laws. Why do very few, including fewer and fewer Jews, keep it? (see Jews and the Sabbath for more on this) One of the most common answers is that modern life is getting so complicated that it is just too difficult to do what God commanded. As a result, they interpret Scripture (well, part of Scripture, what we call the New Testament) to mean that God's rules are no longer rules for us because it is just too hard in today's society, contradicting Ecclesiastes 12:13
13Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.
. While I can see where this is a vague and confusing verse (snicker), most people today, including pastors and scholars, believe the opposite. Believing a lie does not make it true (2 Thessalonians 2:10-11
10and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. 11For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.
).
When did He make the Sabbath holy?
Before there were any Israelites, almost before there were any people at all (only Adam and Eve had been created), God set aside the seventh day, sanctified it, and made it holy (Genesis 2:3
Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
). This is a Biblical Truth.
How long does a Biblical Truth last?
According to most Biblical "scholars", this Biblical Truth lasted for about 4000 years. Then something happened to make it appear that this is no longer a Biblical Truth for the general Christian population. Many of these scholars claim that when Jesus came the first time, He automatically stopped all the laws and changed the Truth of God. You know, those laws and Truth that Jesus (Himself God, as stated in John 1:1
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
) made for all mankind (Ecclesiastes 12:13
13Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.
). But suddenly their importance has disappeared, without a Word, in such a way that no one really knows when (or if) it really happened. But, somehow, without any support, your pastor can assure you that those stuffy old strict laws don't apply to you, so you can ignore them.
Try doing that in real life
Oh, did you know that you can drive down Main street at 80 mph without penalty. You haven't heard that, yet? Don't worry, just take my word for it.
"But, wait..."
Would you do that without checking with the local authority first? Go ahead, find a verse in the Bible where God says not to keep His Sabbath. Oh, your pastor can interpret some verse in such a way to make it sound like it is no longer important to obey God's command, but neither God nor Jesus, the original Authors of the day, ever made it less important. And, a proper interpretation of what the verses are actually saying can make it fit with the rest of the word of God. But, few people want to even try to follow the style of the Bereans
11Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
. These pastors have been teaching their traditions so long that they feel there is no reason to check them out. Remember what Tolstoy said above?
"I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives."
--Tolstoy
So, when did God change it?
Supposedly, we only know this because some of our "scholars" have determined a special way to interpret some of Jesus', Paul's, and Peter's statements that the simple, lowly layman just wouldn't understand. Suddenly, according to them, this holy day was determined to no longer be a holy day, though neither the Father, the Son, or an angel came to tell anyone. A thorough search of the Bible will not reveal any actions by God that made the Truth a non-Truth or any of the laws no longer apply to everyone.
Some say that the books of Galatians and Hebrews prove that this change did happen, but others interpret the same words to prove that it didn't happen. Is it a matter of faith, or a matter of grasping at what we need to be true? Again, believing in a lie, no matter how zealously, does not make it true. We need to be sure before we believe something that Satan wants us to believe. And whatever conclusion we see cannot conflict with other statements in the same Bible.
In the book of Acts, well after the death of Christ, Gentiles went to the synagogues on the Sabbath to learn of God (Acts 17:17
17So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there.
, and Acts 18:4
4Every Sabbath he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.
), and Paul tried to tell them about Jesus. This was after Peter learned that the Jews were not to shun the Gentiles as they had been doing.
No Sunday rest day then...
Let's see. Paul was in the synagogue on the Sabbath with the rest of the Jews, and with the Gentiles (God-fearing Greeks). Some say that this was only because that's where his target audience was. If that is so, why were they all there in the synagogue if Sunday was supposedly the new worship day? And, this supposed change had happened despite a lack of any notification to do so from the Blesser of the Sabbath day?
The Truth is, they all were honoring the day that God had made holy at creation and reminded the Israelites about in the desert at Mt. Sinai. Even the Gentiles got the message. They had been doing it for centuries, and were still doing it. Nothing had changed then and nothing God said is different now. When God says something, it stays valid until He changes it.
Still no Sunday rest day
If the Gentiles in Paul's day, after the death of Jesus, were going to God's house on God's day, why don't they do it today? Well, the answer to that is as simple as people not wanting to seek out the Truth and follow it, especially if it is connected, in any way, to the Jews. It's not that they ignore the truth, but that they are not informed of the relevance of that Truth by their pastors, and they will be subject to some sort of persecution by the Sunday crowd (2 Timothy 3:12-13
12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
) if they decide to keep God's real day instead of the "venerable day of the Sun" kept by the Romans (see Early Christians and Sunday). Trust me, I know from experience. Don't think so? How do you feel about the Seventh-Day Adventists or the Greek Orthodox, or even the Seventh-Day Baptists? Have you ever wondered why they do that?
There are two ways to be informed - learn for yourself or have someone tell you. People who call themselves Christians, even pastors, today have fallen into a rut set by dissenters almost 2000 years ago. They will not read the Bible for what it says, and accept that as Truth. Today's pastors have to twist the words to match their tradition, and then persuade their congregations that God's actual words no longer matter. If the Bible tells the Truth, and people are persuaded to do something else, then they are following a lie (2 Timothy 4:2-4
2Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
). You can close your ears, eyes and mind to this Truth, but the deception is happening today in YOUR CHURCH! And, no, this is not paranoia. Read the Bible and look around.
Another Truth ignored by Christians?
This one will be hard for today's deluded Christians. No, don't look away. I mean you. There are statements given in Deuternonomy 12:2-4, 31-32
2Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their gods. 3Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places.
4You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.
and
31You must not worship the Lord your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
32 See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it., Deuteronomy 18:9
9When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.
, and Jeremiah 10:2
2 This is what the LORD says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them.
that warn people away from worshiping God in the detestable ways that were used by the pagans (the nations). Sure, you can say this is Old Testament and was given only to the Israelites. But, that means that you don't mind doing things that God detests. It gets even worse when you mix these detestable things into your worship of Him. That's the very thing He does not want His people to do.
To what does this refer? Take a look at Deuteronomy 12:3
3Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places. (emphasis added)
. Though most people don't realize this, they have a day that they claim is Christian but is pagan, is never called a holy day in the Bible, we are never told to celebrate, but they name it after a pagan fertility goddess and use all the fertility symbols of the pagan rituals. And, they celebrate it every year. Easter.
"What? That's silly..."
Yeah, I know, the whole world celebrates it. So? That alone should show you that it is not Christian. Most of the world hates Christianity - but they keep Easter. The other example is really going to turn your head. The only other major "Christian" holiday is also a pagan holiday adopted into Christianity. It is never celebrated in the Bible, never mentioned as a holy day, has a huge list of pagan symbols that are not Biblical, is celebrated on the day of the birth of the son of a Sun god, and is also celebrated around the world by people who do not believe in God. Guessed it yet? Christmas.
What's our point?
If you were a drug addict and made the decision to get free of whatever drugs have you hooked, what is the first thing you would do? Well, recognizing the problem is the first hurdle. Once you do that, then you can take step 2. GET RID OF THE DRUGS! This will remove temptation and let you concentrate on the most important thing - getting your life back on track. Ignoring the Truths of the Bible is the same as being hooked on drugs. You are getting a daily infusion of false information (called lies) in your life that is putting you on the wrong path. You must GET RID OF THOSE LIES!
Dump the lies and seek Truth, but only if you want eternal life
To replace that infusion with the right information (called Truth), you must go to the source of Truth that everyone recognizes. However, you must read it with fresh eyes and listen to your informers with fresh ears. We are not trying to tell you what to believe. We just want you to know where some of the obvious issues are and have you see the Truth as it is written.
Be careful where you seek
Your pastor is not your friend unless he is guiding you into the Truth. If your routine includes mixing paganism with your worship of the Lord, you are not living Biblical Truth. If your weekly routine does not include honoring God's Holy Day, then you are not honoring Him by following His commandments. Notice I did not say the Israelite or Jewish Holy Day - it is God's Holy Day as He initiated it for all mankind (Ecclesiastes 12:13
13Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.
) before there were any Jews.
He created it, blessed it, and made it a commandment to keep it
Why would He ever change it? Oh, that's right, He didn't. Man did that. Since Jesus created everything that was created (John 1:1-3
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning. 3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
), and He Who created the heavens and the earth rested on the seventh day, blessed it, and made it holy, why would Jesus discard it later? If He said something was detestable in Deuteronomy, why would He supposedly make it OK later for Gentiles, but not for His chosen people? That doesn't make sense. The typical church membership is being fed a steady diet of lies mixed in with the truth. This is usually more truth mixed in than lies, but that just makes the lies seem more palatable. But, a lie is against the teachings of God.
An institution of lies
If your pastor is not leading you down a path to Truth, you should find a new pastor. If he is following a standard "church" line of faith and teachings, you should find a new denomination. But be advised, most of them are following the same path that he is, and some of them are even aware of that fact, but find it too hard to change now (remember Tolstoy's comment above).
Get back on the right path
If you don't follow the Truth, you are not following the real God or Jesus. The Truth is out there, but not many seek it and even less find it (Matthew 7:13-14
13Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
, Matthew 7:21
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."
). Are you a seeker of the kingdom of heaven or are you satisfied with just following the crowd on the wide path?
Disagree? Find an error? Contact us at glenjjr@gmail.com and give us your view.
