by Stephen Spykerman
If you are a practicing Christian there comes a time when you are faced with the same choice Adam and Eve had to face in the Garden of Eden. The choice is as old as mankind. What is it to be? Will you choose the Tree of Life or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? We all know they made the wrong choice with terrible consequences for mankind ever since that time.
With the whole world seemingly on a fast train to perdition, where they are calling evil good and good evil, it is now time to examine ourselves and decide what to do. The question is; ‘Are you going to follow the traditions of men or are you going to obey the commandments of God?’ On the one hand you have the established church saying that the Law (or the Torah) has been done away with yet the New Testament clearly and categorically states the opposite.
Are you going by the traditions of your church or are you going by the inspired and irrefutable word of God? We have here two opposing positions and they cannot both be right.
What comes to mind is a Scripture from the Book of Kings, where Elijah posed the following question:
“How long will you falter between two opinions?” (1Kings 18:21)
The choice then was to either follow God or to follow the false prophets of Baal. Much of Christianity faces exactly the same choice today! It is a choice every bit as stark for you: your choice is to either follow God or to continue to follow the false teachings of the traditions of man and Church.
It was the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine who introduced many of the pagan customs by the edict of Rome. Even to this day these traditions of man form the foundations of traditional Christianity. Constantine outlawed God’s Law, the Torah, by imposing Sunday worship throughout the Roman Empire. The Emperor decreed that on March 7, 321 A.D. “DIES SOLIS,” a day dedicated to the worship of the Sun – as the dedicated day of rest. He subsequently went on to outlaw the celebration of Passover at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. and substituted it with the pagan feast of Easter. This Roman Anti-Christ had the gall to change times and seasons including the Fourth of the Ten Commandments. He thus overruled our Savior and Redeemer Yeshua the Messiah of Israel, who referred to Himself as:
“LORD of the Sabbath.” – And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”Mark 2:27-28
The Scriptures of the New Testament are multiple examples that clearly demonstrate that Yeshua and His disciples observed the seventh day Sabbath, which His Father had blessed and sanctified and made holy by resting on it on the seventh day of Creation! (Genesis 2:2). Furthermore, Moses impressed the importance and absolute requirement for believers and followers of the Way to observe this commanded day of rest.
“Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: ‘Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it is a SIGN between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.” Exodus 31:13
It is a SIGN between Me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed. Exodus 31:17
A SIGN is something that identifies you! THIS MEANS THAT BY KEEPING THE SEVENTH DAY SABBATH HOLY, YOU ARE IDENTIFIED AS SOMEONE WHO BELONGS TO THE ONE AND ONLY TRUE GOD OF ISRAEL, AS THE SABBATH UNIQUELY POINTS TO HIM AS THE CREATOR OF MANKIND. Conversely, if you do not observe the SIGN of the Sabbath you are none of His!
God created the Sabbath by setting an eternal example for us by resting Himself on the seventh day of creation, and He created it for the special benefit of mankind. It was designed to do us good and to be a blessing for us.
Jesus Christ/Yeshua our Messiah IS the LORD over the Sabbath. He and His disciples and the early apostolic church observed for centuries, until some upstart pagan Roman Anti-Christ Emperor dared to cancel Yahweh’s Holy Law.
The choice for you is every bit as stark as it was for those believers in Elijah’s day! Your choice is to either follow God’s command, or follow some edict of some pagan Roman Emperor, which your church has accepted and taught for these past 1,600 years! Your choice is by holding on to the unscriptural traditions of your church, or repent. Which way are you going to go?
John the Baptist went around preaching: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Mat.3:2)
To repent literally means to turn around and go the other way into the opposite direction. The Hebrew word for repentance is full of meaning and it is pronounced
‘Shoov’. The ancient meaning of the word is ‘destroy the house’. Real repentance occurs when we destroy the house. To repent means to destroy every last vestige of your old ungodly lifestyle. Real repentance is an all or nothing thing and it works because it is a complete break with the former self. To destroy the house, is to choose which kingdom and which covenant you will follow and to totally commit yourself to that covenant. Yeshua Himself made a most piercing comment about this matter of choice:
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love
the other; or he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” (Luke 16:13)
Before I close, I would just like to quote you the most important words anyone could possibly ever hear. Yes, before we part company, just look at these awesome words from the mouth of your loving Creator:
“See I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply: and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-16)
Your loving Father in heaven then goes on to speak the words that come right out of the core of His loving heart:
“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that as I have set before you life and death, blessings and cursing; THEREFORE CHOOSE LIFE, THAT BOTH YOU AND YOUR DESCENDANTS MAY LIVE.” (Deuteronomy 30:19)
Prayer Targets
Pray into Exodus 31:13, 17 ~ Pray that more and more mainstream Christians in your area of the world would have their eyes opened to the glorious truth that to be in covenant with the God of Israel, we are to wear HIS wedding ring by keeping the Sabbath!
Pray into Mark 2:27-28 ~ Pray that more mainstream Christians in your area will have their eyes opened to see that if we are to follow Yeshua, we will walk as HE walked. HE kept the Sabbath and He is the LORD of the Sabbath!
Pray into Deuteronomy 30:19 ~ Pray that more mainstream Christians in your region of the world would CHOOSE LIFE, CHOOSE to Follow the Torah of Yeshua, and KEEP the Sabbath! Pray that this article would help them to make that decision!