Does God have a ‘sign’ or ‘mark’ of Importance?
We have read in previous articles that the Roman Catholic Church has a mark of which it is very proud and boasts that this mark demonstrates the power it has on the earth and even in heaven. We read, for example, in the RC Church’s documents, The Catholic Record, Sept. 1, 1923, the following quote: “Sunday is our mark of authority… The church is above the Bible and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.”[1]
Many organizations have seals or signs depicting their jurisdiction and the name of the leader or the Chief Executive Officer. Whenever we read the official documents of the United States of America we often see the presidential seal and that document shows very clearly the signature of the President, his title and the extent of his jurisdiction.
What about God, does He have a seal that shows His importance? Here is what Moses writes in Exodus 31:13: “Verily — my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and — you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that sanctifies you. And in Ex. 31:17 the passage goes on to say: “It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.” So God’s sign is His Sabbath which he gave to them as a day of rest and worship. Was the Sabbath then only for the Jews? When was the Sabbath made? For the genesis of the Sabbath, we must read Genesis 2:1-3. These verses say:
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
This passage tells us that the Sabbath had its origin in creation week; after God finished His work of creating the earth and all life in it in six days, he next made another day, the seventh day, and turned it into a holy day, he blessed and sanctified it. According to the online dictionary, to sanctify something is to set it aside as sacred and consecrated.[2] That means it is set aside only for holy use, a day for worship and praise towards God, the Creator. We will explore this a little more later in this article. So how many Jews were around when the Sabbath was made? Not one. Admittedly the Jews have become well associated with Sabbath-keeping, or put another way, Sabbath-keeping has been long associated with the Jewish nation for millennia but does that make the Sabbath Jewish?
Scholars may assume that “the notion of the Sabbath as a holy day of rest, linking God to his people and recurring every seventh day, was unique to ancient Israel,”[3] however, that concept borders on a non-biblical worldview and as such it is just the ‘opinion’ of some scholars. What these scholars fail to admit, is that those who hold such a worldview can give no good reason why the week has only seven days, and why in over one hundred languages that day is called ‘sabbat’ or one of the derivatives. There has to be a reason for this situation. Astronomically we can account for the Lunar cycle, so also, the solar cycle with its seasons can be accounted for astronomically, but there is no astronomical reason that we know of, as of now, why our week should have seven days. As the Encyclopaedia Britannica wrote, I believe in its 10th edition, the most plausible reason for the seven day week is the biblical one, that God ended his creation in six days then created the Sabbath, a day that shows his creatorship, his jurisdiction, and his name.
Rev. William Mead Jones, D.D. did some research showing the ‘unchanged order of the days and the true position of the Sabbath as proved by the combined testimony of Ancient and Modern languages. Dr Jones looked at 160 languages, both Ancient and Modern.[4] This very interesting document highlights the position on the seventh day of the week in earth’s history. As we study Dr Mead Jones’s research side by side with the biblical account of the week of seven days we find that the most plausible account of the existence of a seven day week, with the seventh day being designated ‘sabbath’ is that of the linguistic, historical, biblical account. Of course, in this account, we must include why the Sabbath was so designated if we wish to give a complete understanding of the purpose of the Sabbath.
The Hebrew term ‘sabbath’ according to the Hebrew dictionary means ‘cease,’ ‘still,’ ‘rest’[5] and this is the general etymology of the word as found in most of the languages where the term sabbath or its derivatives is used. Another element brought out in the Hebrew dictionary, seen in the biblical pronouncements on the day is that the sabbath was a special day; it was blessed and sanctified. No other day in the week had this distinction. When God first gave or installed the Sabbath here is what is said in Genesis 2:3: “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. Genesis 2:3.” The Sabbath, therefore, had a distinction that no other day had. And what was the distinction of this seventh day? The Sabbath was set aside for holy use, it was a ‘sanctuary’ in time, the seventh division of the week. It was a time when the first couple, Adam and Eve our primordial ancestors or parents met and worshipped God, their Creator and God. And this is why in many ancient cultures the seventh day was often connected with festivities containing spiritual overtones. The origin of the Sabbath as found in K. Kohler’s The Sabbath and Festivals in Pre-Exilic and Exilic Times is well worth the reading for more information on this topic.[6]
In previous articles, we have looked at the distinctive role ‘marks’ play in the Bible. We have looked at the mark of Cain in Gen. 4:15; we looked at the mark that Ezekiel was told to put upon those that worshipped God found in Eze. 9:4; we also look at the ‘mark of the beast’ spoken of in the Revelation, Rev. 13:17; 14:11; 15:2; 16:2; 19:20; 20:4. In this article, we are looking at God’s mark and the distinctive role that this sign or mark will play in the closing scenes of earth’s history. So far we have found that God has a distinctive ‘mark’ whereby those that are loyal to Him can be distinguished. God’s mark or sign we found to be the seventh day of creation, known as the Sabbath of the Lord. The observance of Sabbath worship (Saturday) then demonstrates one’s belief that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, meaning that the evolutionary worldview is quite unacceptable to the biblical Christian.
Seventh-day Sabbath observance has also been shown to run afoul of those leaders and churches that enforce or promote Sunday observance, which has been shown in a previous article to be the mark of the Roman Catholic organization and has nothing to do with biblical worship or with Christianity. Now, what about the reference to the ‘Lord’s Day’ found in Revelation 1:10 which Catholics and other Sunday keepers point out to be referring to the Sunday? The text reads: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.” The answer is simple. Like Luther, we believe in Sola Scriptura. This means that only the scriptures must be our guide in matters of faith and religious beliefs. So, to answer the above question we simply ask, which day is the Lord’s day in scripture?
Here is what we find: 1) When in Luke 6:1-5 the Pharisees questioned Jesus about His disciples picking wheat on the Sabbath, rubbing it in their hands and then eating it, thus breaking the Sabbath, Jesus answered and said, have you not read how David and his men when fleeing the wrath of King Saul, came with a hunger to the temple and asked bread, and were given the Shewbread which only the priests could eat? Then Jesus added: “the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.” So, Jesus is the Lord who made the sabbath and knows how it should be observed properly. 2) In Ezekiel God recounted to the prophet how the people of Israel polluted His Sabbaths. God said, moreover, I gave them my sabbaths to be a sign that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. These two verses among several others tell us that the only day recorded in the Bible that belongs to God is the Sabbath, the seventh day. It is, as a matter of fact, the same day that modern Jews in Israel still observe having returned to Israel from Egypt since the 13th century BC.
In conclusion, we ask again, does God have a mark or a sign? The Bible says, yes. And what is that sign or mark? Again, the Bible says it is the seventh-day Sabbath. And when was it made? It was made on creation week after God stopped creating. What is the purpose of the sabbath day? It was to worship God as creator and to thank Him for being God and Sovereign in all the Universe. Will the Sabbath come to an end when Jesus returns to earth for His people? Speaking of the new heavens and the new earth that God will make for His people, all the saved ones, God says in Isa. 66:22, 23: For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, says the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. 23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.
Yes, friends, as long as this earth exists, God’s sign of creation, the sabbath, will always remain. The invitation to accept the Sabbath is for everyone. The only condition of living on the new earth is that we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, repent of our sins to Him and walk obediently with Him every day until He returns for us. I would like to close with this question, in these final times of earth’s history, will there be a problem with Sunday observance, the mark of the Catholic church, and the Sabbath, the day that God has made for praise and worship? Does it matter which day one keeps holy? This will be the topic for next month. Please walk closely with your God each day. Blessings.
[1] The Catholic Record, Sept. 1, 1923
[2] Dictionary.com/sanctify.
[3] Britannica, Judaism, by Moshe Greenberg.
[4] Rev. William Mead Jones, D.D., Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886 by Rev. W. M. Jones, D.D., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D.C., US. Formatted and produced by Todd Ellison, www.homeschoolhowtos.com, revised 2006.
[5] Langenscheidt Pocket Hebrew dictionary, p. 341; William Gesenius, tr. by Edward Robinson, D.D., D. Litt., Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, C. A. Briggs, p. 991.
[6] K. Kohler, The Sabbath and Festivals in Pre-exilic and Exilic Times, Journal of the American Oriental Society, (Pub. American Oriental Society, 1917), Vol. 37 (1917), pp. 209-223. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/592922.
If you have any comments or questions please contact Pr. Ron Henderson at ronhende@outlook.com.
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