Chapter 3
DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING THAT YOU READ
Those of us who have studied the Sabbath/Sunday issue, know the power of human tradition. Once we step outside the pages of the Bible, truth sprinkled with error can be found at every turn. Encyclopedias, dictionaries, Christian writings and church histories can provide us with important information, if we allow the word of Elohim to separate the truth from fiction.
On the one hand, we may find examples that will help us as we share the truth of the Sabbath (Saturday). One example is the "History of the Christian Religion and Church" written by the German Theologian Wilhelm August Johann Neander. He writes: "The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps, at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin."--Rose's translation from the first German edition, p. 186.
Over the years, many denominations which do not observe the Sabbath, plainly admit that they know on what day of the week the Biblical Sabbath falls:"...the whole Christian world, even of those sects who profess to take the Holy Scriptures as their sole rule of faith, since they observe as the day of rest not the seventh day of the week commanded by the Bible, but the first day, which we know is to be kept holy, only from the tradition and teaching of the Catholic Church." (Catechism Made Easy (No.2), Ninth Ed., Vol. I, pp. 341, 342--from 'Authoritative Quotations on The Sabbath and Sunday', p.10).
On the other hand, we will wade through numerous works that stray from the truth of Elohim's word, although they appear to be authoritative to those who have not searched the scriptures. A couple of examples are as follows:
". . . the New Testament never even implies that Christians are to worship on the Sabbath. Instead, it is clear that Sunday replaced the Sabbath as the Christians day of worship. . ." ("735 Baffling Bible Questions Answered", p. 63). "Sunday is not a sabbath, but (it is) the first day of the week, and belongs to the new age of grace which followed the death and resurrection of [Messiah]. Legalistic Sabbath keeping is to go back to the age previous to the rent vail (Mt 27:51)." ("The New Ungers Bible Hand Book", p. 83).
Just as we find truth and error sharing the same stage in our Sabbath/Sunday research, a similar pattern began to emerge as I began to study reference materials that focused in on a sunset to sunset Sabbath. I wanted to know if these heart pounding changes that were moving me away from this traditional belief were acknowledged by anyone else, other than myself and the gentleman who had originally challenged my thinking.
Time and again I ran across statements like the following from the "Encyclopedia of Jewish Religion". Found under the word "DAY" p.107: "The Hebrew word yom can refer BOTH to the PERIOD OF DAYLIGHT (AS OPPOSED TO NIGHT-TIME) AND to the entire span of 24 hours. The 24 hour day is reckoned from evening to evening."
Would Elohim agree with BOTH of the above definitions? Not based on my scripture studies, but I had been wrong before. So I kept on digging, not expecting to get any support.
Then it took place. I found an astonishing quote that spurred me on to more research: "The day was either the PERIOD OF SUNLIGHT, CONTRASTED WITH THE NIGHT (see John 11:9) or the whole period of twenty four hours, ALTHOUGH NOT DEFINED AS SUCH IN THE BIBLE." ("Oxford Companion to the Bible", p. 744).
I read it again and again. A 24 HOUR DAY IS NOT DEFINED IN THE BIBLE. This agreed with my study of the scriptures.
Compare the two definitions above. Notice how they both agree that a day was the PERIOD OF DAYLIGHT/SUNLIGHT AS OPPOSED TO NIGHT-TIME. Just as Elohim tells us in Genesis 1:5 when He calls the LIGHT DAY. The very next thing that Elohim says in Genesis 1:5 is, ". . . and the DARKNESS he called NIGHT. . ." Please notice that Elohim does not call the DARKNESS DAY as man does. He simply calls the DARKNESS NIGHT. One reason is because day and night in scripture are two completely different seasons. They are not the same:
Thus saith YHWH, "If you can break my covenant of the DAY, and my covenant of the NIGHT, and that there should not be DAY and NIGHT in their SEASON;" (Jeremiah 33:20). Genesis 8:22 shows us a number of words that are opposed to each other in meaning: "While the earth remaineth, SEEDTIME and HARVEST, and COLD and HEAT, and SUMMER and WINTER, and DAY and NIGHT shall not cease." DAY and NIGHT are listed along side the other seasons. Speaking of the word "DAY", "The Jewish Encyclopedia" calls it ". . . the SEASON of LIGHT . . ." (p. 475).
The two sources above differ when it comes to the second half of the definition, in that the "Encyclopedia of Jewish Religion" states that a day can be 24 hours in length, reckoned from EVENING TO EVENING. This is stated as a matter of fact with no further explanation. Many reference books will give the same definition with nothing to back it up. If scriptures are given, they will normally cite Genesis 1:5, ". . .And the evening and the morning were the first day. . ." (which we will cover), Leviticus 23:32, ". . . from even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath . . .", (which we will cover), or a text that tries to force the two seasons of day and night into one 24 hour day. We will see that these texts do not prove a 24 hour day any more than 1 Corinthians 16:2 proves a change from Sabbath to Sunday. On the other hand, the "Oxford Companion to the Bible" not only tells us that a 24 hour day is NOT defined in the Bible, it goes on to tell us how Yahushua defines a day by referring us to John 11:9.