Jesus is coming. . .soon! Are you ready?

Jesus is coming. . .soon! Are you ready?

Daniel Chapter 7 “I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots . . .” little horn

Daniel Chapter 7 “. . . and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.” Daniel 7:1 – 8

Daniel Chapter 7

Key Elements Would “think to change” God’s law and “times”

Changing God’s Law Ques.—Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? Ans.— We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday. Peter GeiermanThe Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine (1910)

Bible “Evidence”? “But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.” Galatians 4:9-11

Bible “Evidence”? “The result of this admiration for the heavens was a disposition to deify not only all the heavenly bodies, but also the elements—fire, air, water, earth—as well as the phenomena of time —seasons, months, weeks, days, hours.” Dr. Shirley Jackson CaseEvolution of Early Christianity, p. 244 (1914)

Bible “Evidence”? “Let no man thereforejudgeyou in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come.” Colossians 2:16, 17

Bible “Evidence”? “He [Paul] said not, ‘Do not then observe them,’ [special days and the seventh-day Sabbath] but, ‘Let no man judge you’” or condemn you, because you do observe them. John ChrysostomChurch Father (c. 347–407)

Bible “Evidence”? “Let no man make decrees for you to follow concerning meat and drink, etc. It was a warning to the Colossians about false teachers who were making decrees for men to follow which were leading them away from Christ.” W.E. StrawOrigin of Sunday Observance, p. 22 (1939)

Bible “Evidence”? “Let no man thereforejudgeyou in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come.” Colossians 2:16, 17

Bible “Evidence”? “Clearly this was a warning against a philosophy that tended to lead away from Christ. Those who were doing that in the first centurywere Gnostics who held to the ritual of the Jews, but . . .”

Bible “Evidence”? “. . .denied the divinity of Christ, yet claimed to be Christians. . . . These men were relying on ritual rather than upon Christ.” W.E. StrawOrigin of Sunday Observance, p. 21, 22 (1939)

Bible “Evidence”? “But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.” Acts 15:5

Bible “Evidence”? “Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: but that we write unto them . . .”

Bible “Evidence”? “. . . that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.” Acts 15:19, 20

Bible “Evidence”? “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” Acts 15:10

Is Sabbath “Ceremonial”? What makes a law “ceremonial”?

Is Sabbath “Ceremonial”? Ceremonial laws had to do with the “conception of sin as uncleanness, rendering the sinner therefore unfit for the presence of God.”

Is Sabbath “Ceremonial”? They were laws intended to “lead to a true conception of repentance, as including both the seeking of atonement through sacrifice and restitution for a wrong that was committed.” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Is Sabbath “Ceremonial”? “The change from the seventh to the first day was authorized [in the thirteenth century] by making the Sabbath a Jewish ceremony and the fourth commandment a ceremonial law. This, however, raised the problem of a ceremonial law in the midst of the moral law.” Daniel Augsburger“The Sabbath and Lord’s Day During the Middle Ages”

Is Sabbath “Ceremonial”? “Sabbath, it was asserted, should lead the Christian to think of Christ’s rest in the tomb, or the moral duty to desist from sin, and of the future blessedness in heaven. The bond with Creation had been totally lost.” Daniel Augsburger“The Sabbath and Lord’s Day During the Middle Ages”

Is Sabbath “Ceremonial”? What makes a law “moral”?

Is Sabbath “Ceremonial”? Moral law reveals the will of God as the rule for the disposition and conduct of all responsible beings toward Him and toward each other. Moral law is therefore a rule of living, conformable to righteousness. Webster’s Dictionary (1913 edition)

Is Sabbath “Ceremonial”? Murder — Cain killed Abel and was condemned for it Adultery — Lamech had two wives Idolatry — Terah had idols (Joshua 24:2)

Is Sabbath “Ceremonial”? “Because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”Genesis 26:5

Ceremonialism • Pharisees • Gnostics • Antinomians

Gnostic Roots “Simon Magus” and Elymas “Bar-Jesus” “Many of the Magians, were the scientists of their day, the heirs of the science of Babylon and the lore of Persia, and not merely pretendersor conjurers.” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Gnostic Roots “The system of Simon Magus is strongly impregnated with elements borrowed from the pantheism of the East. It appears to us probable that the heretics of Colosse and of Ephesus brought together in hybrid union Jewish and pagan ideas.” E. De PressenseEarly Years of Christianity, Apostolic Age, pp. 328, 329 (1886)

Gnostic Roots “The facts of history show widespread tendencies at work, during and even before the Apostolic age, which amply account for the rise of Gnosticism. These are found e.g. in the Alexandrian philosophy, and in the tenets of the false teachers at Colosse and in other places. . . .”

Gnostic Roots “These philosophical and theosophical ideas commingled with the influences of Zoroastrianism from Persia, and of Buddhism from India, and these tendencies and influences, taken in conjunction, were the sources of the various heresies known by thename of Gnosticism.” International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Gnostic Roots “Alexandria [was] one of the greatest university cities in the world at the beginning of the Christian Era. Here nearly every religion had its school of learning, and here the teachers and the students of these different faiths . . .”

Gnostic Roots “. . .mingled and discussed their philosophies and religious ideas. As a result, they fused their beliefs into a conglomerate mass of opinions that later spread throughout the Christian church.” W.E. StrawOrigin of Sunday Observance, p. 39 (1939)

Gnostic Roots “In general it may be said that Gnosticism led the way in the amalgamation of Christian and pagan thought and life that was to transform the religion of Christ and His apostles into the Christianity of the third and following centuries.” Albert Henry NewmanA Manual of Church History, vol. I, p. 194 (1906)

Gnostic Roots “Gnosticism evidently had a great influence upon the church members at Alexandria, for whenever we hear from any of them during the first two centuries, it is from men who strongly manifest the sentiments of the Gnostics.” W.E. StrawOrigin of Sunday Observance, p. 47 (1939)

Gnostic Roots Clement of Alexandria “set entirely upon one side the Fathers of the New Testament, and launched upon the church the Neoplatonic doctrine . . . [that] Christian theology is the true Gnosis; the perfect Christian is the true Gnostic.” Charles BiggThe Origins of Christianity, p. 411 (1909)

Gnostic Roots “Barnabas, Justin Martyr, and Clement are three great men of the church who were tinged with Gnosticism. They are also the three who give us our first information regarding Sunday observance.” W.E. StrawOrigin of Sunday Observance, p. 55 (1939)

Two Systems “During the first two centuries there developed two separate and distinct types of Christian worship. The one in Syria and Asia Minor held to the old orthodox ways of life, and adhered to the Sabbath and primitive Christianity. . .”

Two Systems “. . .The other from Alexandria and Egypt allowed many Gnostic 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. StrawOrigin of Sunday Observance, p. 75 (1939)

Is Sunday Sacred?

Serious Questions • What makes a 24 hour period of time sacred? • How can time be holy? • Can man by his own volition transfer this holiness to another day? • Can a man create sacredness in time?

Changing God’s Law Ques.—Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept? Ans.—Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her,–she could not have substituted . . .

Changing God’s Law . . . the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority. Stephen KeenanA Doctrinal Catechism (1851)

Changing God’s Law “Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act . . . and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical authority in religious things.” H.F. Thomas; Chancellor of Cardinal Gibbons

Changing God’s Law “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.” Deuteronomy 12:32

Whom Will We Obey? The final battle will be over allegiance to God, and following His will revealed in the Bible, or following the traditions of men.

Jesus is coming. . .soon! Are you ready?