Is the Lord's Day Saturday according to Acts of John (Apocryphal)?

[pasifika]

Yes, and it goes on to say why they did not enter this rest. Hebrews 4:6, Ezekiel 20:13

Okay, since you said that the statement where God said "They shall Never enter My Rest" is reference to the Gospel Rest or the "Rest in Christ"

So, If we don't enter into God's Rest through the Rest in Christ or the Gospel then what's the point of the Gospel to us?

Why do we have to believe in the Gospel if we don't received God's Rest from it?

Why did Christ died and instruct the Apostles to preach the Gospel if Christ cannot give us God's Rest?

Hebrews 4:3...we who have "believed" enter that Rest...

In the verse above, who do we have to "believe" in order to enter into God's Rest? Isn't it the Gospel? Hebrews 4:2

 

[SabbathBlessings]

Okay, since you said that the statement where God said "They shall Never enter My Rest" is reference to the Gospel Rest or the "Rest in Christ"

So, If we don't enter into God's Rest through the Rest in Christ or the Gospel then what's the point of the Gospel to us?

Why do we have to believe in the Gospel if we don't received God's Rest from it?

Why did Christ died and instruct the Apostles to preach the Gospel if Christ cannot give us God's Rest?

Hebrews 4:3...we who have "believed" enter that Rest...

In the verse above, who do we have to "believe" to enter into God's Rest?

@pasifika

I apologize up front this will be long, but there is a lot of important information packed into Hebrews 4.

To really understand Hebrews 4 we need to start from the beginning so these two scriptures will be used for our reference:

Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. 2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

Exodus 20:8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

The Sabbath started at Creation. "Remember" God wants us to Remember our Creator of all things, the One who created the heavens, the earth, the sea and all that is in them. On the seventh day, after working six days, God rested on the seventh day from His work, and then blessed and sanctified the seventh day. God does not need rest; this was an example for man and God verbatim told us to do the same thing- work six days rest on the seventh day from our work and keep the Sabbath holy. Exodus 20:8-11

Every commandment has a literal meaning and a spiritual meaning. The literal meaning of the Sabbath commandment is to do no work on the seventh day Sabbath from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. The spiritual aspect to God's Sabbath day is to bring us into a spiritual rest in Christ. The Sabbath is more than just not working, it is holy communion time with our Savior worshipping Him who made the heavens and the earth, our Creator on the day that He blessed and sanctified. We should not speak our words or do our ways; the day belongs to God Isaiah 58:13 and in return He blesses us Isaiah 58:14

With that in mind, lets go through Hebrews 4

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. Jesus promises to give us His spiritual rest and we should fear that we might come short of His rest.

2 For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. It's the same gospel being preached from the beginning, not a new gospel, but the word did not profit them (the Israelites) because they did not have faith when they heard it.


3 For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said:
“So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest,’ ”
although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

Those who do not believe (His word) do not enter into rest. Note unbelief and disobedience are used interchangeably in Hebrews 4:6. The spiritual rest was available from the foundation of the world- Genesis 2:1-3


4 For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works”; (direct reference to Genesis 2:1-3) 5 and again in this place: “They shall not enter My rest.”

6 Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, Those who did not enter into this rest disobeyed and what they disobeyed was the Sabbath Ezekiel 20:13

7 again He designates a certain day, saying in David, “Today,” after such a long time, as it has been said:

“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.”

This is a direct quote from David and here is what this reference is quoting.

Psalms 95

A Call to Worship and Obedience
95 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the Lord is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
5 The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land. (Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 20:8-11, Revelation 14:7)

6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; (Sabbath worship Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 20:8-11, Isaiah 66:23, Revelation 14:7)
Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.
7 For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.

Today, if you will hear His voice:
8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested Me;
They tried Me, though they saw My work.
10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,
And they do not know My ways.’ (Ezekiel 20:13, Isaiah 58:13)
11 So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”

This is a call to obedience and worship. "Today" if you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts. Don't wait for "another day" to obey God. He is calling you "today"

8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. Joshua was leading the Israelites into the promise land, but they disobeyed so did not receive the rest in Christ and then we have the next verse . . .

9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.
Rest here is sabbatismos which literally means keeping of the Sabbath. So this verse says there remains a keeping of the Sabbath for the people of God.

σαββατισμὸς (sabbatismos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 4520: A keeping of the Sabbath, a Sabbath rest.

10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.

To enter into the Spiritual rest you must also cease from your work (Exodus 20:8-11) just as God did from His (Genesis 2:1-3)


To receive the spiritual rest in Christ you must keep the Sabbath commandment, this is the door to enter into the spiritual rest in Christ. We work six days and the seventh day Christ wants to give us spiritual rest by having communion with him for a full 24 hours not speaking our words but speaking the words of Christ, not doing our ways but the ways of Christ. In return when we keep the Sabbath God blesses and sanctifies us. Ezekiel 20:12

I know when I work throughout the week, the worries of the world wears me down. Yes, I worship God every day of the week, I read my bible and pray daily, but worshipping our Creator on the day He blessed, sanctified and told us to keep holy resting in His Word for a full 24 hours there is nothing like this spiritual charge that allows me to get though the week and is why I look forward to the Sabbath every week. The Sabbath is meant to bring us blessings and it truly does. We are called to worship God in truth and spirit, His seventh day Sabbath is God's truth for us, He wrote it with His own finger, spoke it with His own voice, and He wants to give us spiritual rest when we obey. The Sabbath rest celebrates the fact that God ended or finished His work of Creation (Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 8:11) or redemption (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)


God bless!

 

[pasifika]

I'll try to explain later verse by verse, I am out of time for now. I will update this post later.

Thank you SB, appreciate your time. Until next time..

 

[ozso]

I will leave that between you and God.

If you're going to evade the main part and point of a post, then why respond to it at all?

 

[Leaf473]

Brother, they never lost God's rest while in the Promised Land, but their human tradition of assuming the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week everywhere does not allow them to enter God's rest outside of the Promised Land. The problem with Joshua's view of the Sabbath is that it is not the seventh day of the week everywhere as Judaism assumed since Joshua when the Sabbath is only the seventh day of the week where God was at creation and the Sabbath is separate from the week. God separated the Sabbath from the week when He made His "rest" "holy" in the time zone where He rested on the seventh day of creation. The message of Hebrews 3 and 4 is that God wants us all to enter the Sabbath together when God rested on the seventh day of creation.

For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. (Hebrews 4:10 NLT)​

This is different from our current tradition where it is Sabbath for some and not for others all over the world because, since Joshua, Judaism wrongly linked the Sabbath to the week when the Sabbath is independent of the week.

Now if Joshua had succeeded in giving them this rest, God would not have spoken about another day of rest still to come. (Hebrews 4:8 NLT)​

United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge

I see. Thanks for clarifying!

Wait, I thought of another question:
In your view, have there always been people in the promised land that kept the Sabbath?

 

[guevaraj]

Wait, I thought of another question:
In your view, have there always been people in the promised land that kept the Sabbath?

Brother, the only passage I can think of that is relevant to the question is Melchizedek at Salem. There is no mention of the Sabbath, but Abraham gave him a "tenth" of all that he had captured in battle.

This Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem and also a priest of God Most High. When Abraham was returning home after winning a great battle against the kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him. Then Abraham took a tenth of all he had captured in battle and gave it to Melchizedek. The name Melchizedek means “king of justice,” and king of Salem means “king of peace.” There is no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors—no beginning or end to his life. He remains a priest forever, resembling the Son of God. (Hebrews 7:1-3 NLT)​

United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge

 

[Leaf473]

Brother, the only passage I can think of that is relevant to the question is Melchizedek at Salem. There is no mention of the Sabbath, but Abraham gave him a "tenth" of all that he had captured in battle.

This Melchizedek was king of the city of Salem and also a priest of God Most High. When Abraham was returning home after winning a great battle against the kings, Melchizedek met him and blessed him. Then Abraham took a tenth of all he had captured in battle and gave it to Melchizedek. The name Melchizedek means “king of justice,” and king of Salem means “king of peace.” There is no record of his father or mother or any of his ancestors—no beginning or end to his life. He remains a priest forever, resembling the Son of God. (Hebrews 7:1-3 NLT)​

United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge

I mean since the time of Joshua. Since that time, have there always been people keeping the true starting-time Sabbath?

#############

I thought of another question (and please let me know if this is too many questions or if you want to move to a different thread).

Is Eden the same latitude as Jerusalem? Because the time of sunrise and sunset changes with the latitude and time of the year.

 

[guevaraj]

I mean since the time of Joshua. Since that time, have there always been people keeping the true starting-time Sabbath?

Brother, the word of God was preserved, confirmed recently with the Dead Sea Scrolls. As long as we have the word of God, we can always restore the practice as it is written.

I thought of another question (and please let me know if this is too many questions or if you want to move to a different thread). Is Eden the same latitude as Jerusalem? Because the time of sunrise and sunset changes with the latitude and time of the year.

We do the best we can to obey God's instructions written in His word, that is all that is required of us.

But, my child, let me give you some further advice: Be careful, for writing books is endless, and much study wears you out. That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad. (Ecclesiastes 12:12-14 NLT)​

United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge

 

[Leaf473]

Brother, the word of God was preserved, confirmed recently with the Dead Sea Scrolls. As long as we have the word of God, we can always restore the practice as it is written.

We do the best we can to obey God's instructions written in His word, that is all that is required of us.

But, my child, let me give you some further advice: Be careful, for writing books is endless, and much study wears you out. That’s the whole story. Here now is my final conclusion: Fear God and obey his commands, for this is everyone’s duty. God will judge us for everything we do, including every secret thing, whether good or bad. (Ecclesiastes 12:12-14 NLT)​

United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge

I see.

But am I understanding you correctly that the Sabbath begins 2 hours after sunset in Jerusalem?

 

[guevaraj]

I see. But am I understanding you correctly that the Sabbath begins 2 hours after sunset in Jerusalem?

Brother, as written in the word of God, the Sabbath starts at sunset in Jerusalem. The Jews begin the Sabbath about 40 minutes before sunset with the lighting of candles and end the Sabbath about 42 minutes after sunset to make sure to keep the Sabbath holy.

• Friday, February 11, 2022, light candles at 4:42 PM
• Friday, February 11, 2022, sunset at 5:21 PM
• Saturday, February 12, 2022, sunset at 5:22 PM
• Saturday, February 12, 2022, the Sabbath ends at 6:00 PM

United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge

 

[Leaf473]

Brother, as written in the word of God, the Sabbath starts at sunset in Jerusalem. The Jews begin the Sabbath about 40 minutes before sunset with the lighting of candles and end the Sabbath about 42 minutes after sunset to make sure to keep the Sabbath holy.

• Friday, February 11, 2022, light candles at 4:42 PM
• Friday, February 11, 2022, sunset at 5:21 PM
• Saturday, February 12, 2022, sunset at 5:22 PM
• Saturday, February 12, 2022, the Sabbath ends at 6:00 PM

United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge

Well, I'm confused about what you're saying again.

How can the Sabbath start at sunrise in Eden and also at sunset in Jerusalem if they are only 10 hours apart?

 

[ozso]

Sabbath threads are very educational when it comes to the art of avoiding giving direct answers to direct questions.

 

[SabbathBlessings]

If you're going to evade the main part and point of a post, then why respond to it at all?

I thought your main point was trying to make the Ten Commandments that God wrote as being insignificant. That’s why I said I would leave that between you and God.

But to answer your other question… Christ writing as a man incarnate on earth is not the same as Christ writing to man with all His power and Glory.

 

[Bob S]

But to answer your other question… Christ writing as a man incarnate on earth is not the same as Christ writing to man with all His power and Glory.

Do you really believe that nonsense.

 

[ozso]

I thought your main point was trying to make the Ten Commandments that God wrote as being insignificant. That’s why I said I would leave that between you and God.

No not insignificant. But not the only significant work of God. Nor the most significant.

But to answer your other question… Christ writing as a man incarnate on earth is not the same as Christ writing to man with all His power and Glory.

By that reasoning that would apply to everything else Christ God incarnate said and did.

 

[ozso]

Sometimes I get the feeling that some folks brake the 2nd commandment when it comes to tablets of stone.

 

[SabbathBlessings]

No not insignificant. But not the only significant work of God. Nor the most significant.

Seems like you spend more time trying to discredit the Ten Commandments, so now saying you think they are significant is pretty surprising from all of your other posts to be honest.

By that reasoning that would apply to everything else Christ God incarnate said and did.

Not at all and you are reading in more than I stated. Jesus is our example to follow, which includes Sabbath keeping Luke 4:16, John 15:10. Jesus did not use all of His power or Glory when He was incarnate because He wanted to show us that man can overcome sin and we should follow in His steps.

 

[SabbathBlessings]

Sometimes I get the feeling that some folks brake the 2nd commandment when it comes to tablets of stone.

Good thing we aren't judged by your feelings, but we have a real Savior who knows our every thought and actions inside out, which no one will be able to deceive and what is in darkness will all come to light on judgement day. God bless and take care.

 

[Bob S]

Good thing we aren't judged by your feelings, but we have a real Savior who knows our every thought and actions inside out, which no one will be able to deceive and what is in darkness will all come to light on judgement day.

It is a good thing that we will not be judged by what you believe and write.

 

[SabbathBlessings]

It is a good thing that we will not be judged by what you believe and write.

I believe these scriptures, written though the Holy Spirit. We are free to believe whatever we want, and Jesus will sort everything out once He comes back. My hope and prayer is that we will all be in heaven. It is not God's will that anyone is not saved, but he allows each of us to make our own choices.

James 2:10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

Exodus 20
20 And God spoke all these words, saying:
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Exodus 34:28 So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

John 14:15 15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 2:3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. 7 Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning. 8 Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. 9 He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. 10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him. 11 But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

1 John 3:4 4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

Romans 7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”

James 1:22 22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Hebrews 10: For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. 28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Matthew 19:17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.”

Matthew 5:19 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Ecclesiastes 12:13Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.

2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

Revelation 22:14 Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. 15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.