Well that is not true but you have free will and can any POV you wish.
Brother, happy Sabbath! The
scholarly paper by Amanda McGuire in 2008 is wrong in its conclusion: both true together was never considered! Her paper is online at the following link: “digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3017&context=auss”. Prejudices when reading the Bible prevent the reader from seeing a greater truth! When both truths have evidence, Amanda’s paper rejects one truth for the other, saying that one truth has “weak” support, when overlooked it is that both are true because both have support. Her paper assumed that both together cannot be true when the Bible shows that both are true. The greater truth includes both examples of when the Sabbath begins. Summarized are the two truths below:
- The Sabbath in Eden begins at sunrise and ends at sunrise.
- The Sabbath in Israel begins at sundown and ends at sundown.
To choose one truth and discard the other is to take your favorite parts and discard what does not fit, when the full truth is only found when you have used the entire word of God and not just a part. What Amanda did not consider is that there is evidence from both truths and that the greater truth must fit all the evidence. I include below the part of her conclusion that I object to.
Clearly,
the evidence shows that the morning theory is weak if it uses Gen 1:5 as its foundation. The rest of the biblical data is inconclusive as to when the Jewish day begins, though
the texts that we have examined either support the evening theory or only weakly support the morning theory. (
J. Amanda McGuire, page 214)
Our faith is trust in what God says! The author helped by gathering all the evidence for both truths, but because she assumes that only one truth is correct and the other is incorrect, she weakens our confidence in God’s word. She used the word “weakly” to decrease the value of the support for one truth, acknowledging that there is support, but setting aside what she considers weak support for the other truth. The whole truth is found when you accept both truths together. In the following passage warned are we that people will tend to ignore the truth in favor of what they “desire”, this is how traditions remain even after God's word clearly corrects them.
In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5 NIV)
When you understand that a day of the week defined by God is from morning to morning in the Bible, you learn that Jesus rose a Saturday night, before Sunday began in the morning. This removes the reason to keep the human Sunday tradition to celebrate the resurrection because Jesus rose on Saturday and not on Sunday.
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” (John 20:1-2 NIV)
Judaism didn't have to reason because God gave them specific instructions to keep the Sabbath in Israel. For those who think that the beginning of the first day is more important than its end, God corrects that thought by emphasizing the end of the Sabbath and not the beginning when He begins the Sabbath the day before. God began the Sabbath of the tenth day in the ninth day: from the evening of the previous day until the evening of the Sabbath day. When you understand that the Sabbath ends as it begins, with two evenings, God's decision to begin the tenth-day-Sabbath on the ninth day puts the emphasis on the end of the first day and not the beginning of the first day.
The Lord said to Moses, “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord. Do not do any work on that day, because it is the Day of Atonement, when atonement is made for you before the Lord your God. Those who do not deny themselves on that day must be cut off from their people. I will destroy from among their people anyone who does any work on that day. You shall do no work at all. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live. It is a day of sabbath rest for you, and you must deny yourselves. From the evening of the ninth day of the month until the following evening you are to observe your sabbath.” (Leviticus 23:26-32 NIV)
The first day ends in a morning, telling us that it begins in a morning when you understand that a 24-hour Sabbath ends as it begins. Why didn't God make things easier for us by writing a first day from morning to morning instead of from first light until morning? God is right in what He writes! The word morning is not used at the beginning of the first day because it happened faster than the meaning of the word morning. The first change from darkness to light was faster than the word morning, but all other days after are from morning to morning.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was MORNING—the first day. (Genesis 1:3-5 NIV)
From evening to morning, it's only half a day. The night-half that ends each day with God not having anything to report because He only creates each day of creation week during the earlier light-half from morning to evening. Each day ends with a night in which God rests from having created earlier for that day during the light-half. The evening comes in the middle of the first day and not at the beginning. The first day is from first light to light again in the morning. The reason this is not accepted is because supposed it is that a Sabbath in Israel is a day of the week as it was in Eden. The Sabbath in Israel is not a day of the week and actually falls between two days of the week in Israel. Everyone can publicly join the conversation on the forum link: “christianforums.com/threads/8210692”. Actively study the Bible letting it teach you without letting prejudices blind you, there is nothing more important than knowing the word of God written by His prophets to prepare those who will see the soon return of Jesus. Links to my book available on all major platforms are at:
www.guevaraj.com.
United in our hope for the soon return of Jesus, Jorge
