Our Readers' Opinions
April 23, 2010

Truth about Sabbath and Sunday

23.APR.10

Editor: Christians formulate a flawed doctrine as a result of not keeping Yahweh’s annual Feast Days as mentioned in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28 and 29.This has led to the misinterpretation of Yahweh’s Sabbaths. The belief of a Good Friday impalement of the Messiah is creating the problems of Sunday and Sabbath worship in nominal Christianity.{{more}}

John 17:17 states: “Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth.” Yahshua the Messiah told us in Matthew 12: 40: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” There is no way that anyone can harmonize a 72 hours, 3 days and 3 nights in the tomb with the faulty doctrine Christianity teaches – that the Messiah was only in the tomb approximately 36 hours. A day is evening and morning – Genesis 1: 5, 8, 13, 19, 23 and 31).

The passages of scriptures that refer to the resurrection of the Messiah all showed that he was raised before Sunday – the first day of the week. Matthew 28:1, 2 – “late on the Sabbath day, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week… an angel of Yahweh descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone…” Mark 16 : 1- 6 “ And when the Sabbath was past… very early on the first day of the week they came to the tomb near sun rising…he has been raised, he is not here,…”Luke 24: 1, 2 – But on the first day of the week, at early dawn they came to the tomb… And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb…” John 20: 1 “Now on the first day of the week comes Miriam Magdalene early while it was yet dark, to the tomb, and sees the stone taken away from the tomb.”

To get three days and three nights the Messiah had to die on Wednesday. Matthew 27: 46 – 50 told us “And about the ninth hour Yahshua cried with a loud voice, saying Eli, Eli, lama Sabachthani…and yielded up his spirit.”

The preparation day mentioned in Matthew 27: 62, Mark 15:42, Luke 23:54 and John 19:31 was before the first Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This is stated in Exodus 12: 15, Leviticus 23: 5-7, Numbers 28: 16 – 18 and Deuteronomy 16: 1 – 8. John 20: 19 called this Sabbath a “High Day Sabbath.” This is not the weekly 7th day Sabbath.

The day after the first weekly Sabbath, during the Feast of Unleavened Bread, is the Wave Sheaf Offering (Leviticus 23:11). Yahshua has become our wave sheaf, and appeared to the disciples on the evening of the first day of the week, when they gathered together for the Wave Sheaf service, Acts 20:6 – 12. Fifty days from this day is the Feast of Pentecost, this is also on the first day of the week Acts2:1

The argument that the Feast Days are ceremonial and should not be observed is erroneous. One must remember that animal sacrifices were offered daily, including special sacrifices on the Sabbaths. (Numbers 28 and 29) The death of the Messiah ends the killing of animals but the days remain. The apostles kept the Feast Days after the death of the Messiah. Acts 2:1, Acts 13:14 and 44, Acts 12: 1 – 3, Acts 20: 6 – 12, I Corinthians 5: 6 – 8, etc.

Colossian 2 was written after the death of the Messiah. Therefore, verses 16 and 17 could not have been saying that the Feast Days and the Sabbath were nailed to the torture stake.

The Wave Sheaf Offering and Pentecost are on the first day of the week. This does not make all Sundays holy. Remember the Messiah did not rise on a Sunday; it was on the Sabbath.

Sheldon Govia
Assemblies of Yahweh
Cedars