Category: Sabbath
Did Cain and Abel had the knowledge of Ten commandments?
Cain and Abel had the knowledge of Ten commandments.
The key text to conclude this would be “Gen 4: 7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.”
Romans 3:20 for by the law is the knowledge of sin. (margin)
Bible tells us that by law is the knowledge of sin. Cain cannot be accused of doing sin if he has no knowledge of what is sin.
Also see Rom 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
Also Cain and Abel had the knowledge of ceremonial system which points to Christ who would die as the penalty for their sin(breaking law). Abel acknowledged this and gave a animal sacrifice.
Young’s Literal Translation
And it cometh to pass at the end of days that Cain bringeth from the fruit of the ground a present to Jehovah; Gen 4:3.
At the end of days. Cain and Abel came to worship on the end of days i.e., 7th day. Cain and Abel also kept Sabbath
Also note:
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Gen 26: 5 Until Sinai there was knowledge of commandments,laws and ceremonies. Even the patriarchs paid tithe.
Seventh Day Sabbath and Counterfeit Papal Sunday worship in early Christianity.
For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this. The Egyptians in the neighborhood of Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Thebais, hold their religious assemblies on the sabbath, but do not participate of the mysteries in the manner usual among Christians in general: for after having eaten and satisfied themselves with food of all kinds, in the evening making their offerings they partake of the mysteries.—The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus, bk. 5, ch. 22.
. . . it so happened that all the senators came to the church to visit him on the sabbath day . . . .—Ibid., bk. 7, ch. 48.
The people of Constantinople, 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. There are several cities and villages in Egypt where, contrary to the usage established elsewhere, the people meet together on Sabbath evenings, and, although they have dined previously, partake of the mysteries.—The Ecclesiastical History of Sozomen, bk. 7, ch. 19.
Genesis 1-2-3 and Seventh Day Adventism
The first three chapters are sufficient to teach most Bible doctrines.
1. Marriage – is between one man and one woman
Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Also read: https://thegladtidings.wordpress.com/2012/08/25/does-god-approve-pre-marital-sex/
2. Hell – If you break commandment of God you will die (note God didnt say that the day you eat the fruit you will be put into hell and burn forever)
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Also refer: https://thegladtidings.wordpress.com/category/doctrines/hell-fire/
3. State of dead – when God breathed air into mans nostrils He became a living soul (living being). Note God didnt insert a soul into a body but breathed air.
Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
“Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit[breath], they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.” (Psalm 104:29-30).
Also refer https://thegladtidings.wordpress.com/category/doctrines/understanding-death/
4. Sabbath – God rested on the seventhday and He blessed that day and made it holy.
Gen 2:2-3 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Also refer https://thegladtidings.wordpress.com/category/doctrines/sabbath/
5. Commandments – God commanded man not to eat the fruit. If you obey Gods commandment you live otherwise you die.
Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Also refer: https://thegladtidings.wordpress.com/category/doctrines/law/
6. Vegetarian diet- God gave plants as food for man.
Gen 1:29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to youit shall be for meat.
Isa 65:25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the LORD.
https://thegladtidings.wordpress.com/category/ellen-white/vegetarian-diet/
7. Country living – God placed man in a beautiful garden.
https://thegladtidings.wordpress.com/category/ellen-white/country-living/
Gen 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the manwhom he had formed.
8. Sanctuary – God taught that Christ will die for mans sin by killing the lamb after man’s sin
Gen 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
9. Righteousnes by Faith- Man tried to clothe himself with fig leaves but God clothed man with an animals skin i.e., He taught that man cannot the nakedness of his sin by his own works but only with the righteousness of Jesus.
Gen 3:7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Gen 3:21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.
10. Sunday Law
God told Man that there will be enmity between the church and the serpent and serprent will try to destroy the seed of the woman (church)
Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Rev 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
11. Trinity
Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Forgotten truths from Genesis 2 account of Sabbath.
“Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” says God blessed the 7th day and sanctified it (set is apart for holy purpose) after he had rested from all his work. We can say that He sanctified the day and blessed it on the 1st day of 2nd week.
If the 7th day is not going to be a day of worship and a holy day then there is no real meaning of sanctifying and blessing it after He had rested on that day.
Sabbath was made for mankind Mark 2:27 as a sign of creation. That is why we have 130plus cultures where the 7th day is called as Sabbath.
Also there are cultures where they have kept Sabbath historically without any relationship to Bible. For example Nepal’s national holiday is saturday. In India there is a scheduled tribe which has no connection to the outside world and they keep every 7thday as holy day.
According to reliable estimates, Africa has the world’s largest concentration of Sabbath-keepers, some 20 million people, of which only about three million are Seventh Day Adventists. The Sabbath is natural to Africans. The Sabbath is thriving in Africa because the Sabbath roots of Africa run deep, both in Scripture, and historical practice.
W. W. Oliphant, an African church leader in the early years of the twentieth century says that the “Sabbath in Ethiopia [has] been kept from the days of Nimrod, about 2140 B.C. (read Gen. 10:8, 10), that is 700 years before the birth of Moses. . . . Africans or Ethiopians had been Sabbath observers from the days of Nimrod” (Quoted in Bradford C.E. Sabbath Roots, The African Connection. L. Brown and Sons, Barre (VT), 1999, p. 26).
In Ethiopia in the fourth century, Frumentius reported:
“And we assemble on Saturday,” he continues ; “not that we are infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath” (Davis, Tamar. A General History of the Sabbatarian Churches. 1851; Reprinted 1995 by Commonwealth Publishing, Salt Lake City, pp. 41-42).
Notice some of the statements by Ethiopian Emperor Galawdewos (A.D. 1540-1559):
We do celebrate the Sabbath, because God, after He had finished the Creation of the World, rested thereon…and that especially, since Christ came not to dissolve the law but to fulfill it. It is therefore not in the imitation of the Jews, but in obedience to Christ, and His holy apostles, that we observe that day (Quoted in Bradford C.E. Sabbath Roots, The African Connection. L. Brown and Sons, Barre (VT), 1999, p. 26).
When God gave the 4th commandment He points to the creation account as a reason for keeping the 7th day Holy.
For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. Exo 20:11.
Can you see something interesting.. man takes rest after working in the day. Work comes first and a rest follows. Similarly we work throughout the week and rest in the end. I want you to seriously think this. If there was no sabbath until Sinai (as people teach) then man would have worked throughout the week without rest.
It is great thing for God to have created Sabbath isn’t it. So man can work and take rest also.
The great Planner planned it in that way. If God has not created sabbath there would have been no harmony on which day man would have gathered to worship. Each would have preferred a day for worshiping God. I am not talking about the personal devotion with God but the gathering of people to worship.
Luke recognized the 7th day as sabbath day because though he is gentile he always refer to it as sabbath day rather than calling it as Saturday (in his language). [it is ironical to see a non observer of sabbath for example a Baptist to refer Saturday as sabbath. He would refer it as Saturday. Only a sabbath keeper would prefer to refer it as sabbath instead of Saturday]
John says that he was in spirit on the Lord’s day. The only day Bible ever recognizes as Lord’s day is Sabbath.
Sabbath will be the sign of creation and a day of rest even in the new heaven and new earth. Isa 66:22,23
Sabbath in the new covenant.
Those who advocate any day worship or Sunday worship should consider these facts. ( I am not against worshiping God on non sabbath days but I want to affirm that besides worshiping God on all the days we need to rest on His Holy day).
The primary argument for not keeping sabbath is “we are under new covenant”.
The new covenant was ratified by the blood of Jesus at His death.
For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Matthew 26:28
Bible tells us that the disciples of Jesus kept Sabbath after after they entered into the new covenant.
And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment. Luke 23: 54-56.
Also Sunday, the day of resurrection, cannot be the day of worship for the new covenant. We know that after a covenant is ratified we cannot add anything to the new covenant. Since the new covenant was ratified 2 days prior to the day of resurrection Sunday cannot be added to the new covenant as the day of worship.
Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Gal 3:15
Another evidence that Sabbath was still part of new covenant.
And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath. And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Acts 13:42,44. The day Paul chose to gather ‘gentiles’ to share the gospel was on Sabbath. If Paul didn’t observe sabbath he could have asked them to come the next day or any other day in the week. He would have preferred not to ‘judaize’ the gentiles by gathering them on sabbath to share the gospel.
We should also note that Luke recognized the 7th day as sabbath day though he is gentile he always refer to it as sabbath day rather than calling it as Saturday (in his language).[ If Luke was not observing Sabbath then it would be ironical to see a non observer of sabbath for example a Baptist to refer Saturday as sabbath. He would refer it as Saturday. Only a sabbath keeper would prefer to refer it as sabbath instead of Saturday]
John says that he was in spirit on the Lord’s day. The only day Bible ever recognizes as Lord’s day is Sabbath.
Sabbath will be the sign of creation and a day of rest even in the new heaven and new earth. Isa 66:22,23
We don’t keep sabbath to earn salvation but as obedience. Obedience is not legalism. Jesus says if you love me keep my commandments.
Sabbath before Old covenant (before Sinai)
We find that Abraham and Jacob paid tithe. But nowhere it is found in Bible that God commanded man to give tithe before Sinai. So we can only conclude that there was a knowledge of tithe but an explicit commandment to give tithe was not recorded. Similarly the events related to Sabbath and commandments for keeping sabbath are not recorded but we can conclude its existence and commandment to keep it prior to Sinai through these events and verses.
Gen 2 tells us that God blessed and sanctified (set is apart for holy purpose) because in that day He rested. He rested then He blessed that day and sanctified it. What is the purpose of God blessing and sanctifying a day which is already past? It is only because God wanted that day to be observed as Sabbath by humans. When God gave the 4th commandment He gives the creation as the reason for keeping Sabbath. He tells Israelites that God blessed that day and sanctified it. So they need to keep the Sabbath Holy.
And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. Gen 16:23
A very very key verse in understanding the sabbath existed even before Sinai. The Old covenant was declared and ratified in Sinai but Israelites were keeping sabbath even before the covenant was ratified. It only shows that Sabbath was not a new thing which was introduced in the old covenant but something which was existing and kept but forgotten.
Another key evidence is 130 plus cultures have named the 7th day as sabbath. It again shows Sabbath is something which was existing and kept but forgotten.
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. Gen 16:5