The Elephants In The Room

There is a HUGE elephant in the room that Sunday-observers keep ignoring, and there is also another one, which Sabbath-keepers may be ignoring. Due to the blindness brought on by not seeing these two respective elephants, each group slams the other. One group calls the other legalistic, or even going so far as to label the group a cult. The other group calls the first group ‘False Christians.’ What if neither accusation is true?

Let’s Look At Some Spiritual Evidence

The 1^st Elephant: Sunday-keepers sincerely believe that the early Church switched over to worshipping on Sundays very shortly after the formation of the Church in Jerusalem, and that worshipping and keeping the Sabbath command, the 4^th Commandment, is no longer a requirement for believers. This is what most Sunday-observing Christians sincerely believe, and all Calvary Chapels believe and teach.  But if you do a careful study of early Church history, that started out in Jerusalem right after the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the Day of Pentecost, based on some pretty significant modern research done by historians, you will see that the early Christian Churches of God starting out in Jerusalem, and migrating on into Asia Minor, for their first 300 years these churches were Sabbath and Holy Day observing, basically keeping the Sabbath and Holy Days spelled out in Leviticus 23.  This is something the Messianic Jewish believers also firmly believe (and they know their history).  To read an article researched out, based on both the Word of God and these historians, see https://unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch1.htm.  Also another article that looks into this question is given at: https://unityinchrist.com/wwcofg/Has%20the%20Sabbath%20Been%20Abrogated.htm.  There is a huge dichotomy between the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God and the Sunday-observing Christian churches over this issue.

The 2^nd Elephant:  The Sabbath-keepers believe because the Sunday-keepers are not keeping the 4^th Commandment, that they are not true Christians, that they can’t possibly have the Holy Spirit indwelling them.  What if that is not true?  If you read my “About the Author” section, you’ll see that I had spent about 7.5 years attending a fledgling Calvary Chapel, which grew in size over that period of time, from 12 members initially, topping out at about 400.  I was attending that congregation due to the horrible breakup of the Worldwide Church of God, which threw me into the midst of this loving Sunday-keeping Calvary Chapel crowd whilst I was on spiritual survival mode. I was (and still am) a Sabbath-keeping Church of God believer who was conditioned to being fed the Word of God in a clear and concise manner, and the spiritual demise of my original Sabbath-keeping Church of God threw me into a literal spiritual tailspin, doctrines in this previous Sabbath-keeping Church of God were changing almost every other week, I was confused and disoriented spiritually, and I was starving for solid teaching. That’s when I started attending a small Bible study group of this fledgling Sunday-keeping Calvary Chapel, just for some spiritual nourishment, nothing more. Again, this loving Sunday-keeping Calvary Chapel took me in while I was getting my bearings and recovering from the spiritual disaster I had just come through. What I learned over the next 7 years shocked and amazed me. The Holy Spirit was plainly evident within their pastor and most of their members, enabling their obedience in keeping 9 out of the 10 Commandments, right to the spirit level, as specified in Matthew 5:21-48, which I was an eyewitness to.  That is exactly what I witnessed.  Whilst the New Testament is somewhat silent on making a direct command on Sabbath observance (there is tons of circumstantial evidence) it in no way has abrogated the Old Testament command for its observance, as seen in my Sabbath Abrogated article linked above.  But the Sabbath-keepers may be in error in saying that Sunday-keepers are not real Christians, and thus don’t have the Holy Spirit indwelling them. Here’s my premise, based on direct observation. If you can see the Holy Spirit operative in any Sunday-keeper and group, it is proof that they also are true believers.  In this link you will see evidence of a violent inmate of a Soviet gulag who became a very peaceful Sunday-observing Baptist upon conversion (see https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/my-experience-american-russian-prison).  If you see something like this happen, where this violent individual actually experiences a change in his very nature to that of reflecting God’s Holy Spirit of love and becoming devoutly peaceful, so much so that a Soviet guard was converted by witnessing this, and you as a Sabbath-keeper continue to deny it, you may be close to blaspheming God’s Holy Spirit, unintentionally of course.  Be extremely careful, for the spiritual ground you stand on may be very unstable.  Whilst the Sabbath command may not have been abrogated anywhere in the New Testament, from what I have observed over that 7.5 year period of time these Calvary Chapel folks quite plainly appear to be genuine Holy Spirit indwelt folk, genuine believers in Jesus Christ.  Part of the solution to this dichotomy may be explained in the very meaning of what the literal Sabbath is a shadow-picture of, which is explored in the following two links, one of which is an actual Calvary Chapel sermon given in that local Calvary Chapel I attended for 7.5 years.  To read that sermon, log onto:  https://www.unityinchrist.com/lamb/Mark2-3.html and scroll to the paragraph title “What About The Sabbath, The 4^th Commandment?  Mark 2:23-27; 3:1-5” and start reading.  Also see https://unityinchrist.com/hebrews/Hebrews4-1-16.htm

The Truth Of God Is Like A Giant Jigsaw Puzzle

The truth of God is like a giant jigsaw puzzle, where the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God hold some essential pieces of Biblical understanding, and where the Sunday-keeping Christians hold some of the essential pieces of Biblical understanding. And the whole Biblical truth of God can only be fully understood when the pieces from both sides of the Body of Christ are put together in an honest way. Until the pride each side holds towards its own understanding is eliminated, there will be no perfect understanding of the truth of God. The Sabbath-keeping Churches of God tend to have a superior understanding of the complete overall Plan of Salvation, from beginning to end, encompassing the prophetic meaning attached to God’s Holy Days of Leviticus 23, and the proper understanding of the two major resurrections. Whereas the Sunday-keepers tend to have a superior understanding of the grace of God and the white-hot core of having a Holy Spirit driven relationship with the Father and Jesus Christ, coupled to the importance of our blood-bought salvation through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

What Was The Foundation Of The Early New Testament Church?

What was it based upon? It was based on God’s calling which brought the New Covenant into active force in a new-believer. By its basic terms the New Covenant was first explained by God through his Prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31:31-34, which states very simply that God would write his Laws into the hearts and minds of his people, the House of Israel and the House of Judah (at the 2^nd coming of the Messiah). The apostle Paul went on to show this very same New Covenant is enabled into a new-believer’s life as they receive God’s Holy Spirit, as he stated in Hebrews 8:6-13, “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless, then should not place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that with decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” (Paul wrote this in the mid 60s AD, and in 70AD the Temple was destroyed by the Romans, and the Jew’s ability to keep the sacrificial terms of the Old Covenant vanished with the destruction of that Temple.)

Does Jesus Show Us When The New Covenant Became Operative For Believers?

Jesus stated in the night on which he was betrayed, Passover night, Luke 22:20, “Likewise also the cup after supper, saying This cup is the new testament [Greek “covenant,” Strongs # 1242] in my blood, which is shed for you.” Jesus was, that very evening instituting the symbols of that New Covenant. This shows that those whom God calls and places his Holy Spirit in are brought into God’s New Covenant, which starts and continues to actively write into the hearts and minds of believers God’s Laws. How does God do this? The Holy Spirit gives believers in Jesus an active love for God and the things of God, including the Laws of God. At the time of Acts 2 when the early Church of God was founded, the only copy of God’s Law that existed at that time was the Ten Commandment Law of God found in Exodus through Deuteronomy. So as a church they were observing the Ten Commandments, and God’s prescribed days of worship, the 7^th day Sabbath and Holy Days of Leviticus 23, that was the set of Laws God was “writing into their hearts and minds.” Having God’s New Covenant operative in a new-believer and Christians in general removes the worldly animosity toward God and actively places a genuine love for God and the things of God into their minds, actively enabling their obedience to God’s Laws by placing an active love for them into the hearts and minds of those believers. Romans 8:1-9, 14-17 “There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his…For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” It was not a legalistic obedience, but a love-driven, love-inspired obedience actively placed into the hearts and minds of believers, those God was calling into his early Church. King David exemplified the spirit and heart of the New Covenant in Psalm 119, the longest Psalm in the Bible, which basically stated ‘O how love I thy law, it is ever with me, it gives me more understanding than the ancients of old.’ So the early Christian Church was a 10 Commandment, Sabbath/Holy Day observing church that was driven by the love of God. Those laws of God were being actively written into their hearts and minds, it was a willing obedience, not a legalistic one like the Scribes and Pharisees were enforcing on the Jewish populace with threats of death for disobedience. I remember back to the early days of my calling, that I had a strong desire to obey God’s Ten Commandments and attend for worship services on God’s Sabbath and Holy Days. It wasn’t a legalistic desire, but a strong desire of my heart and mind. That folks, is a New Covenant desire, not of the letter, but of the heart, inspired by God’s Holy Spirit. I can even remember where I was walking when some of these desires started coming into my mind and heart, during the early part of my calling.

Does early Church history back up what I’ve stated here? See https://unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch1.htm

In my About the Author section (a short ten pages) coupled to the links within it, you will come to understand how I have come to the conclusions that I have come to, see https://unityinchrist.com/author.htm