Announcer: This presentation is brought to you by the friends of the Amazing Facts ministry. Coming to you from New York City at the Historic Manhattan Center with your host, Doug Batchelor. Join this exciting journey of discovery as we learn the truth about Bible prophecy, explore the timeless wisdom of God's Word, and see how it relates to our lives today. Stay tuned, your "Amazing Facts" adventure begins now.
Doug Batchelor: Welcome back to the "Prophecy Odyssey." In our previous episode, we learned that God established the seventh day Sabbath for all people, as a sign of His power as our Creator and Redeemer. We also discovered that Jesus Himself kept the Sabbath. Today we're going to continue our eye opening study and learn that Sabbath keeping was also practiced by the apostles, and how God's end time people will still be keeping the seventh day holy. Now remember, if you'd like to deepen your Bible learning experience, then check out the Prophecy Odyssey Bible lessons and our free offer. I'll tell you more about those things later in the program. Now thank you for watching and God bless you as you continue your "Prophecy Odyssey" adventure.
Doug: What about the apostles? What was the practice of Paul and the apostles? So, we found the example of Jesus. What about His followers? What did they do? Look, for instance, in Acts chapter 17, verse 2: "Paul, as His custom was," this is His practice. "He went to them and for three Sabbaths he reasoned with them from the Scriptures." And someone's going to say. "Well, Paul just did that because he was trying to reach the Jews." Keep reading. "He [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, persuading both Jews and Greeks." And that means Jews and Gentiles. They use that word interchangeably there, and if you doubt that, then look at Acts chapter 13, verse 42. "And when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath." The whole city came together.
Let me give you another verse, in your Bible, if you look in Isaiah chapter 56, if you have your Bibles, you may want to turn there very quickly. Isaiah chapter 56, I want to read something to you, this is a prophecy and verse 6: "And for the sons of the foreigner," these are non-Jews. "Who joined themselves to the Lord to serve Him." That might be some of you. "To love the name of the Lord, to be His servants. Everyone who keeps the Sabbath from defiling it, who lays hold of my coven, even them I will bring to my holy mountain," and make them miserable in my house of prayer. No, is the Sabbath a burden or a blessing? Did God curse the day or bless the day? He says, "I will make them joyful in my house of prayer." Anyone want joy? To the sons of the stranger, He's saying anybody that wants to follow me, you keep My Sabbath, I'll make you joyful. They will come together in His house to worship Him. Jesus said, "My house should be called the house of prayer for all nations," amen. Not just for one group of people. The Jews were called to announce this truth to the world, not keep it to themselves.
Number seven, did Jesus intend for His people to be keeping the Sabbath day after He died for their sins? In Matthew 24 where Christ is talking about prophecies regarding His return. About a great time of trouble and persecution. He said, "Pray that your flight," He's not talking about on Delta or United. He's talking about fleeing for your life. Pray that your flight may not be in the winter because there would be no food in the fields if you have to flee for your life or on the Sabbath. Why would he tell His people to pray they would not have to flee for their lives on the Sabbath day.
I don't know if you heard on the news tonight just before I got here as I was shaving and getting dressed, we took in the news for a few minutes and Benjamin Netanyahu finished his address at the United Nations and even though Shabbat is beginning because it's a time of war, he did something he normally does not do, he traveled back home, isn't that interesting? They normally they don't do that, but you know, in times of war, the Israelites will defend themselves on the Sabbath. Jesus, you want to pray that you don't have to do it on the Sabbath and miss that blessing. When you're supposed to be resting, you're fretting. He knew God's people would be keeping it down near the end of time.
Question number eight, does the Bible teach that God's end time people would also be keeping the seventh day Sabbath holy? Look at the prophecy you find here in Revelation 12:17. The dragon, who's the dragon? We've learned he's the devil. "Was enraged with the woman." Now a woman is a symbol for a church. In Revelation you've got a good woman and a bad woman. Don't miss tomorrow morning, we're going to be talking about that. This is obviously a good woman because the devil doesn't like her. Does that make sense? The dragon is enraged with the woman, the bride of Christ, and he goes to make war with the rest of her offspring, offspring means her seed at the end of time. "Who do," what? Who talk about, who think about or who keep? "Who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus." Revelation chapter 14. "Fear God and give glory to Him."
This three messages go to the world, if you read in Revelation 14. It tells us in verse 14, "I beheld, and I saw one like the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven." Who is that? Jesus is coming, before Jesus comes in verse 12, three prominent messages go to the world. It's pictured under these angels, these messages that are spreading. They're flying in heaven, meaning it's going around the world. And what do these messages say? "Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come." And do what? "Worship Him who made the heaven and the earth, and the sea and the springs of water." Do you know what, that is a quote from the fourth commandment. "For in six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth and the sea."
A message is going out in the world to return to the scriptures in the last days. Christ said, "Many sheep I have that are not of this fold. Them also I must call, they will hear My voice, there will be one fold and one shepherd." Sincere people that love Jesus and His Word out there are hearing the Holy Spirit even right now. Is Pastor Doug, it's hard to argue with this logic. "Heaven and earth will pass away, My Word will not pass away." God's law does not need changing, we need changing, amen. He wants us to return. Jesus said, "The man who hears My words and does them is like the wise man who builds on the rock." The Ten Commandments were written on the rock. And you know what? I'm not in trouble because when I stand before the Lord and the Lord says, "Doug, why did you teach people about the Sabbath day?" I'll say, "Well, for one thing, Lord, You kept it. For another thing You told me to. You said whoever teaches even one of the least of these commandments will be great in the kingdom of heaven. And You wrote it with Your finger and You spoke it with Your voice."
I didn't tell the studio I was going to do this, I often surprised them. Get an audience shot, you're going to be on camera, some of you. Now, the Bible says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, six days you should labor and do all of your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath." Seventh day of the week is what day? Saturday, Sunday, the Resurrection, first day of the week. Can you tell me where in the Bible there's a commandment to keep the first day holy? No, I'm pretty open here. I mean, we're putting you on camera if you got it, lift your hand, I'll call it out in front of everybody. There is no commandment. It's coming from traditions, all right. You can take them off the camera now cause I know they're getting real nervous. I'm looking at their faces, they're like, some people they were taking a nap a minute ago, someone just woke them right up and they just...
"Here is the patience of the saints; here are those that," do what? "Keep the commandments of God." Here, last chapter in the Bible. "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they might have a right to the tree of life and enter through the gates of the city." Do you think that God is saying, well, not all of them, He's giving us a ten percent discount. You can take one of the ten out. When God said Ten Commandments, He meant Ten Commandments, amen. New covenant is those Ten commandments in our heart. And you know what's really interesting? If you go back 100 years, just read your own Christian History. Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, Charismatic, they all believed in the Sabbath day. They just believed you kept it on another day. They were very careful, they did not go shopping, they had special Sunday clothes, there were things they could not do. How many of you know that? All you've got to do is read the writings. Read what Charles Spurgeon says about Sabbath keepings. Read what Moody says, great preacher. Read what Billy Graham used to say or Billy Sunday. What you're hearing from me is nothing new. It just has been forgotten by much of the church because we're preoccupied with doing our own ways and our own pleasure in the cares of life, isn't that the truth? And we're suffering the consequences with our stress from that.
Number 9, will all of the saved who are in heaven keep the Sabbath? All right, now we talked about, we know Moses, we know Adam in the Garden of Eden, kept the Sabbath. Some people say, Well, no, no, no, no, Pastor Doug, they did not keep the Sabbath until the Ten Commandments. Yes, God talked about it, but there's no example of anyone keeping the Sabbath before Exodus 20. Wrong. Look at Exodus 16, when God rained the manna down from heaven, you know what He said, you're going to get it six days a week, you get twice as much on Friday because I'm not going to give you any on the Sabbath because I don't want you out gathering. Cook twice as much Friday so you can rest on Sabbath. And when some of the people went out Sabbath looking for manna, God said to Moses, "How long will you cease to keep My commandments?"
He called it a commandment even before He wrote the Ten Commandments. Don't fall for, I hear pastors say some stuff that is just foolishness. They say God didn't have the Ten Commandments before Exodus 20. When Joseph, who lived long before Moses, told Potiphar's wife, I am not going to commit adultery because how can I sin against God? Did Joseph know adultery was a sin? When God told Cain, that's going pretty far back, Cain and Abel. Sin lies at your door because you want to murder your brother. Was murder a sin back in the beginning?
The Sabbath goes all the way back to creation, friends, so don't fall for these things. I hear people say just ridiculous things trying to get rid of one of God's commandments, why? Will we keep it in heaven? Moses kept it, Jesus kept it, the apostles kept it, what about in heaven? Isaiah 66:22 and verse 23, "For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make will remain before Me,' says the Lord, 'So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it will come to pass that from one new moon to another." That means from month to month, "And from one Sabbath to another, all flesh." Does it say all Jews there? "All flesh will come and worship before Me."
Now here's a question. If they kept it back in the Old Testament and they kept it in the New Testament and we're going to keep it in heaven and who do you think the preacher's going to be in heaven? Will anybody sleep during the sermon? Then does it make sense maybe God's people should still be coming together to worship before the Lord on His holy day now? Bible Christians, yes. Can we be certain the present seventh day of the week, Saturday is the same Sabbath, same seventh day that Jesus kept. Now this always kind of cracks me up, because people never have a problem figuring out what the days are until they learn the Sabbath truth. People never had a problem knowing what day was Sunday until they learned the Sabbath truth. They say, "Well, we're not sure, maybe Sunday is the Sabbath day and it's the seventh day." Bible is very clear about that. Jesus rose the first day of the week. And it tells you that even right in the dictionary. And they said, “Well, haven't there been changes in the calendar?”
There have been changes in the calendar. We changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. No change to the calendar ever affects the weekly cycle. It is a mind myth because we see the days of the week on the calendar, we think one affects the other. It doesn't work that way. Your birthday falls on a different day of the week every year. They're two complete different separate distinct cycles of time. When they changed from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, and that was not a bad thing, they needed to make an adjustment for leap year because they kept getting off a quarter day every year and the seasons were out of sync.
So, what they did is they took Thursday, October 4, 1582, and they said tomorrow is going to be the 15 they added ten days. But it's going to be Friday. Thursday was followed by Friday, the way it always is. There has been no change in the calendar as far back as anyone can measure history that has in in any way affected the continuity of the weekly cycle. The greatest proof for that is you've got 16 million Jews around the world, and you might convince me that some of them got stranded on a deserted island and lost track of time. But for the whole nation to forget, and then you've got Muslims, Friday is their holy day, and there are 1.7 billion of them, they have not forgotten what the days of the week are. And then you've got Christians who every Easter celebrate the Resurrection and once a week they celebrate the Resurrection on the first day of the week, they have no problem knowing what day that was, Sunday.
We know what day the seventh day is. Let's look at what the Bible says. "That day was the preparation [Friday]" They call that the preparation day. "The Sabbath drew near." This is the Crucifixion of Christ. "They returned and prepared spices and fragrant oils." By the way, Luke 23:54, and they did what? "They rested on the Sabbath, these the apostles according to the Jewish law." No, according to the commandments. Do you know Luke was written by a Gentile. What a good time for him to say the old Jewish law. He says it's a self-evident commandment. Now on the what day? "First day they came to the tomb," and of course praised God Jesus rose.
Now, it's interesting, one of the reasons, and I remember, forgive me if I'm a little strong with this because when I first learned this, it shook me up. And I hope I'm presenting this with the right measure of grace, and I want to say right here, I know there going to be millions of Christians from all different backgrounds that will be in heaven that did not know this, are you listening? Isn't that right? Sin is knowing to do good and not doing it. Do you know there will be people in heaven that had too many wives? Will King David be in heaven? And Solomon? What about Jacob? They had four wives at one time. Sounds like a reality program. And he had a lot of trouble too if you ever read the story. They did not know the times of this ignorance. God says I, He winked at, but if Pastor Doug gets another wife will I go to heaven? Not if Karen's still alive, I won't no. And she will go to jail for murder. No, because sin is knowing to do good and not doing it, right?
But don't miss this, friends. If Jesus ever taught the disciples, the Sabbath didn't really matter or I've come to do away with the Sabbath, then why was it that when He was crucified, and they took His body off the cross, and it was Friday afternoon and the sun is going down and they're going, "We don't have time before the Sabbath to finish embalming His body. Jesus would not want us to do that. Let's put the body in the tomb, we'll put the stone in place, we'll come back Sunday, we'll finish." How important was this act of love to the apostles, and yet they would not even finish embalming His body on the Sabbath day.
And are you aware that Jesus even kept the Sabbath in His death? On Friday afternoon, He said, "It is finished," and then He went to sleep, and He rested in the tomb on the Sabbath, and He rose Sunday morning to continue His work as our High Priest in heaven, where He is now. God has not changed, it still matters. And the Lord wants this truth to go to His people, and if you don't believe Pastor Doug, believe "Webster's Dictionary." Saturday, noun, the seventh day of the week. It'll say Sunday, noun, the first day of the week. And if you look at a normal calendar, you'll see that.
Number 11, does God allow anyone to change His holy day? The Bible says Proverbs 30:5 to 6, "Every word of God is pure. Do not add to His words lest He rebuke you, and you be found a liar." Do you know that the prophet Ezekiel said, "In the last days, the priests have hidden their eyes from My Sabbath." As still true today in some circles. Number 12, when does the Sabbath begin? And when does it end? The Bible says, "From evening unto evening you will celebrate your Sabbath." And again you look at Mark chapter 1, verse 32, "And at evening when the sun had set." The people wanted to bring their sick to Jesus to heal. He would have healed them on the Sabbath, He had no problem with that. It's okay, you know, did doctors stop healing people on the Sabbath? Of course not.
There are certain required necessary jobs that must be done on the Sabbath day where you're relieving human suffering, right? I've driven down the road on the Sabbath day and I've seen someone that their battery died, and I'll stop and jump their car. The Bible calls it the ox in the ditch, right? And so, there's some things that are obviously necessary but our regular work, did you ever see Jesus in the carpenter shop on the Sabbath day? No, He taught, He preached, He healed on the Sabbath day, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it begins sundown. The idea of the days beginning and ending at midnight that's Roman timing and Bible times, you know, didn't even have these devices to keep time like that. The days begin and end with sundown. Someone's going to write in a question, how do they keep the Sabbath on the space shuttle? Write it down, come tomorrow and I'll answer.
Number 13, What day is the Lord's Day of Revelation 1? Now some people say, "Well, Pastor Doug. You guys keep the Sabbath day. But we keep the Lord's day, and they say that's the Resurrection day." Does the Bible say that? No, when John writes in Revelation chapter 1 in verse 7, he says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." What's he talking about? John was a prisoner there by the Romans, they had mines on the Isle of Patmos where they would force the prisoners to work, but John said, I'm not working on the Sabbath. And he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. And God came to him, the vision of Revelation may have come to John on the Sabbath day.
Let's find out what does the Bible say the Lord's Day is. Exodus 20:10, "But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the," Jews? "The Lord," look again in Isaiah 58:13. "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath," you know, when you disrespect something, you wipe your feet on it. Says if you turn away your foot, it means you're going your own direction with your foot. You're not doing God's will, you're walking your own walk. "If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on My holy day," Sabbath is not a day for worldly entertainment and shopping and--it's a holy day, it's a time for fellowship, it's a time for witnessing, it's a time for study, time for rest.
Again, "Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the," what? The Sabbath, so what day does the Bible say is the Lord's Day? Sabbath day. You know, one reason Pastor Doug became convinced is when I first learned these things, you think I would know better because my mother is Jewish, my grandparents are Jewish. And as I'm reading the Bible and I'm accepting Jesus and I'm going to church on Sunday, I'm going, something's not matching here, so I go to the pastor I'd say, "Pastor, why do we go to church on Sunday?" One of them would say, "Well Doug, Jesus rose on the first day of the week, and it is the new Sabbath for Christians." I said that's beautiful. I said, "Now where's the scripture for that?" He said, "Well, we don't have a scripture, but we've got a long-standing tradition." And then I read where Jesus said, "You have a fine way of setting aside the commandments of God to observe your tradition."
So, I went to another pastor and I said, "Pastor, why do we go to church on Sunday?" He said, "Well Doug, we're no longer under the law now we're under grace. We don't need to keep the Jewish Sabbath." I said, "Yeah, but why Sunday?" He said, "Well, because they took a collection on Sunday and you read that in 1 Corinthians chapter 16," I said, "Well, they took a collection several days of the week. Did that make it?" "Well, but they also had a Communion service, they broke bread." I said, "Is there a command?" I said, "I got a command for the seventh day." And I read where it says they broke bread from house to house daily.
What day of the week did Jesus die? Friday, is it a new Sabbath? No, when was the Lord's Supper? Thursday night? Is that a new Sabbath? Was there something wrong with the seventh day where God had to change it, He made a mistake? Then I went to another pastor, they all had different answers, they all disagreed with each other. I went to another pastor. I said, "Why do we go to church on the first day and not the seventh?" Ah, "Pastor Doug, you read in the book of Joshua, Joshua prayed, sun stood still. Saturday turned into Sunday." I said, "Well, that's creative, but why did they still keep it for the seventh day for another 1,000 years?"
I asked 11 pastors and I got 12 different answers. I said something's wrong, they don't even agree with each other. There's information you can look at a website, you might make a note of this, sabbathtruth.com. It's the number one website on this subject, sabbathtruth.com. Don't go to Black Sabbath, that's something else. sabbathtruth.com. You will see a list of Christian theologians that freely admit there is no scripture in the Bible that orders us to keep the first day as a Sabbath, that it is purely tradition.
Number 14, what precious blessing comes through keeping the Sabbath commandment? Is God wanting us to be cursed or is He wanting us to be blessed? Answer, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you," what? I'll give you rest. You can read again where Jesus says, "Come unto Me, all you who are weary, you labor, you're heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Hebrews chapter 4, it says, "For we who believed do enter that rest." When God saved the children of Israel for their slavery and their bondage and their labor in Egypt, He says, "I'm bringing you to a land of milk and honey, and you will enter My rest."
Heaven is compared to God's rest. Jesus entering Christ is compared to rest. Someone's going to say, "Well, Pastor Doug we don't need to keep the letter of the law anymore, we just keep the spirit of the law." Have you heard that one? All right, the letter of the law says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," right? Ten Commandments. Spirit of the law says, do not think it in your mind. If I say, well, I'm not going to think it in my mind, but I'm literally going to commit adultery, is that okay? Or does God want us to keep the letter and the spirit? The letter of the law says don't murder. The spirit of the law says, do not be angry with your brother without a cause or you're guilty of murder. If I say, "Oh Lord, I'm going to murder this person, but I won't think it in my heart, I'll keep the spirit but not the letter." Or does God want us to keep the spirit and the letter?
Doug: Friends, I hope you've been blessed by today's presentation, but the most important thing is not the information and the details, it's the relationship. Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus? You're watching because He's planned that, and He wants to come into your heart and change your life. He wants to forgive you of all of your sins. He died for your sins, but you need to ask Him. He won't force His way in. You can ask Him now. He loves you, He'll accept you, do it right now.
Doug: Hi friends, I trust you’re being blessed by what you're watching. If you want to be doubly blessed, then you're going to want to get the "Prophecy Odyssey" study guides that go along with these presentations. There's 15 study guides. They're beautifully illustrated, and they will greatly enhance your Bible comprehension. So, if you'd like to get them, simply follow the instructions that you see on the screen, you will be glad you did.
Doug: The book of Revelation describes a final war over worship. So perhaps it really does matter how and when we worship God. To learn more about this, you're going to want to get a copy of "The Lost Day of History." This Amazing Facts study guide reveals the hidden truth about the war over worship in the last days. To get your copy, simply follow the instructions on your screen, and we're going to send it to you absolutely free.
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