The Seal of God
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LESSON 8: THE SEAL OF GOD
It was a terrifying day that Ezikiel can never forget. Perhaps not very many servants of God had to go through what he went through: being held by the hair and pulled away by the Lord in the middle of His fierce anger, ([26] Ezekiel 8:3), made to witness all the wicked and treacherous acts that happened among God’s people, which forced the Lord to leave His temple. They blantantly worshiped the sun and Tam-mun, trampled on the Ten Commandments of God… they angered Him so much that “though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them.” [26] Ezekiel 8:18. And the worst thing is that all these abominable crimes against the Only True God was pioneered by the very elders of Israel – the leaders of the church. [26] Ezekiel 8:11.
Whatever must happen eventually happened. Realizing that these wicked and treacherous people will not repent and turn back to righteousness, the Lord cried out right next to the prophet’s ears: “Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand!” [26] Ezekiel 9:1. Seeing the six Angelic Executioners entering in, Ezekiel could but weep. The Lord called upon the leading angel: “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.” [26] Ezekiel 9:4.
And then He turned to the other five and spake: “Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary!” [26] Ezekiel 9:5-6.
The book of [27] Revelation had later on expanded this vision in [26] Ezekiel and confirmed to us: the day that the Lord put an end to this men-eating-men of a world, only those who are marked, or sealed by Him, would be spared and remain.
Please spend a few minutes reading through [27] Revelation 7:1-8 and [27] Revelation 14:1-5 before we dive further into this lesson.
1. Who shall be protected against the 7 last plagues, which are the 7 vials of the wrath of God in [27] Revelation 16?
[27] Revelation 7:3 “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand.”
Those who are “sealed” in the foreheads, who are 144.000 in number, will not be harmed by the wrath of God in the day of Judgement ([19] Psalm 91:7-11).
2. What is the first, most basic thing that was revealed to us about this Seal?
[27] Revelation 7:2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God.
[27] Revelation 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with Him an hundred forty and four thousand, having His name and His Father’s name written in their foreheads.
The most basic thing about this seal íis the identity of its owner: it belongs to a Being called “the Living God”, and it is the name of the Lamb and the name of the Father of the Lamb written in the forehead.
In the Bible, “forehead” or “between the eyes” is a symbol for the mind ([26] Ezekiel 3:7).
In other words, the Seal of the Living God first and foremost is knowing the Lamb and the Father of the Lamb, a knowledge understood correctly in the mind. It is this “knowing” that is the root of other outward signs that can be observed in the life, that we will find out in this lesson.
3. Who is “the Lamb”?
[04] John 1:29 The next day John seeth JESUS coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
Throughout the Bible, “Lamb” is a consistent symbol pointing towards JESUS Himself, who plays the role of the sacrifice bearing the sins of the world upon Himself, and thus won for Himself the right to nullify the death penalty of sins for anyone who would come to Him by a repenting, surrendering faith.
4. Then who is the Father of the Lamb?
[04] John 17:1, 3 Father… this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and JESUS Christ, whom thou hast sent.
[07] I Corinthians 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father.
[13] I Thessalonians 1:9-10 …how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for His Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even JESUS, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
[04] John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The Father of the Lamb is the ONLY TRUE GOD, the “living God” that has the seal on the forehead of the 144.000.
The Father and the Son are real Father and Son, in which the Father is The God of the universe, had literally begat His Son JESUS even before He gave that Son to the world, in the literal sense of the Greek word “monogenes”, translated as “only begotten” (mono = only, genes = generate/beget).
The act of making up another god by fusing the Father and JESUS with another third being who is NOT them to create a god 3 times bigger than the Father the Only True God – as a certain doctrine often taught across the churches – is extremely dangerous, because it doesn’t just blaspheme Him, but also corrupts the correct understanding of the identity of the Father and the Son, leading to a false worship and directly prevent us from receiving the Seal of the Living God described in [27] Revelation 7:2-3 above.
5. Then what is the Seal of God that seperates those who know Him and His Son from the rest of the world?
[26] Ezekiel 20:12 Moreover also I gave them My sabbaths, to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am YHWH that sanctify them.
[26] Ezekiel 20:20 hallow My sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between Me and you, that ye may know that I am YHWH your God.
[02] Xuất Hành 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 YHWH that doth sanctify you.
The sign of relationship between the Living God and His people, including us the spiritual Jews ([06] Romans 2:29), is the seventh-day Sabbath in the fourth commandment of the Ten Commandments. It is the only commandment that begins with “remember”, and also the only comandment that Satan has succeeded in deceiving almost the entire Christian community throughout the world to forget – including the so-knowledgable pastors, priests, and professors of theology from every denominations. This is the exact achievement that Satan pulled off with the Jews and their Pharisee leaders of old, to deceive them into rejecting the Son of God.
This fourth commandment markly differentiates the Only True God from all the other made-up gods that men just made up. In the very commandment itself, contains His name (YHWH), His offiice (Creator) and His territory (heaven, earth, sea and all that are in them). The Seal of God is the correct knowledge of the identity of the Only True God and His Son, which will in turn manifest itself out into keeping the fourth commandment regarding the Sabbath as an obvious part of the Ten Commandments of God. Just as we believers in JESUS Christ are still not allowed to freely break any of the other 9 commandments, to follow after other gods, worship idols, curse God’s name, dishonor our parents, murder, fornicate, steal, lie or covet, we are not allowed to break the fourth commandment and profane the Sabbath either. Granted. Not everyone who keeps the Sabbath knows the Father and the Son, but it is true that those who have the Seal will be keeping this fouth commandment.
6. Isn’t sunday the sabbath?!
[01] Genesis 2:2, 3 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. 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.
[03] Leviticus 23:32 From even unto even, shall ye celebrate your sabbath.
Sunday the first day of the week, so often mistakenly called the Lord’s day, is not the real Sabbath day of the Lord according to the Bible. Many people indeed are keeping it thinking that it is the seventh-day Sabbath because they have never had the light of truth regarding this matter, while their hearts are still sincere and loyal to the Lord, having the spirit to obey all ten of His commandments – vastly different from those who knowingly disobey and seek to abolish ALL of the Ten Commandments for the sake of one commandment that they willfully disregard.
In the first six days of the creation week, what the Lord did was creating spaces (heaven, earth, sea), and then fill up these spaces with His creations (the sun, the moon, the stars, birds, beasts, fishes…). But then, He did not create another space, but He created a PERIOD OF TIME, and filled it WITH HIMSELF.
This is an extremely cunning move from the Lord – creating a holy TIME instead of a holy SPACE: if He made, for example, a holy land, the wicked can easily prevent you from coming to that holy land by persecution and imprisonment; but if it is a holy DAY, there is no way to prevent it from coming to you weekly like clockwork. First day, second day, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day, and then the Holy Day would come upon you and there’s no stopping it! Then the cycle would repeat itself again. Unstoppable.
The Sabbath day is the weekly period of time from sundown friday to sundown saturday. This is according to the time reckoning since the creation week, even since the first day: a day would consist of two halves, the night half at first, and then the day half: “And the evening and the morning were the first day.” [01] Genesis 1:5. Meaning a day would begin at sundown and end at the next sundown (that would be just when the sun sunk down under the horizon).
There are some people who are proclaimed to be prophets, yet know not the Sabbath. There is even this Korean man, Ahn Sahng-hong, who is considered to be Christ by many people, and a Korean woman, Zhang Gil-jah, who is considered to be God the Mother also by many, yet they mistaken that the Sabbath begins in saturday morning instead of sundown friday, teaching their entire congregations to keep the Sabbath at the wrong time to still trangress the Ten Commandments of God. And that is not to mention how their blasphemous titles are blatant violations of the first, the second, and the third commandments.
Thus, the truth of the Sabbath can be used to expose all of these false prophets before the very people who are being deceived by them. My personal advice to the brethren when facing these groups, is don’t even waste time listening to their various teachings often used as diversions – like this “god the mother” cult would love to preach about keeping the Passover – but just use the truth of the Sabbath to strike directly at their root: the very imposturous persons of their leaders, and the entire tree of their false doctrines – in which there are many truths mingled in to serve the purpose of deceiving – shall fall.
7. Did JESUS ever trangress His Father’s commandment regarding the Sabbath?
[04] John 15:10 I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.
[03] Luke 4:16 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
Keeping the Sabbath holy is even a custom of JESUS – a habit of His life. The religious leaders would like to accuse JESUS of breaking the Sabbath, but in fact, He only breaks the traditions of men that these people heaped upon the Sabbath. On this holy day, the holy and urgent works of love like saving souls, saving lives, healing or alleviating the sufferings of others, are still very much permitted like every other day. Only secular works, like laboring simply to make a living, studying, buying and selling, exercising, doing houseworks, laudrying or cooking, traveling long and weary distances unnecessarily… basically things that could totally be done outside the Sabbath, are forbidden.
Which is why in the Bible the sixth day of the week is called the preparation day ([03] Luke 23:54), when Sabbath keepers can prepare clothes, food, etc… beforehand for the Sabbath, so that on the Sabbath, we can simply heat up the already-cooked food if needed and enjoy, and not be distracted with the weariness of cooking, to direct our minds to the worship of the Lord, and perhaps have a light walk in nature, beholding the works of His hands and commemorate Him, having maximum rest, body and spirit, in Him, during this weekly sacred time.
You can install a Sabbath alarm app, like “The Sabbath App“, to know exactly at what time on every friday would the sun set and the Sabbath would begin where you live, and last until what time the next day.
8 What was the custom of the apostle Paul regarding the Sabbath?
[05] Acts 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
[05] Acts 17:2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
The apostle Paul obviously was a Sabbath keeper. And the time in these passages obviously was AFTER JESUS was crucified, rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven.
9. Did the apostles find even the gentiles believers meeting in holy convocations on the seventh-day Sabbath also?
[05] Acts 13:42 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.
[05] Acts 16:13, 14 And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither. And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.
Obviously the disciples mentioned in these passages were gentiles, and they did held their holy convocations on the Sabbath day of the Lord’s appointment, no different from the Jewish disciples. There’s obviously no problem with this day whatsoever to have to change it to another day.
10. Did JESUS expect His people to continue to keep the Sabbath after He had died for their sins?
[01] Matthew 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day.
JESUS was prophesying about the fall of Jerusalem, the event that He well knew would happen in 70 AD (almost 40 years later). And He still told the discples to pray that they would not have to run from the invading army on the Sabbath. JESUS obviously still expect His people to keep the Sabbath even after He had died on the cross, rose again, and ascended to Heaven.
11. According to the Bible, will the true people of God at the end of the world be keeping the Sabbath?
[27] Revelation 12:17 And the dragon (Satan) was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of JESUS.
[27] Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of JESUS.
The above passages obviously were talking about the end-time saints of God, and it is stated very clearly that they would keep all of His commandments of God – including, of course, the fourth commandment regarding the Sabbath.
12. Will the saved continue to keep the Sabbath after JESUS shall return and take them to be with Him, until forever and ever?
[23] Isaiah 66:22, 23 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith YHWH, so shall your seed and your name remain… from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith YHWH.
The Bible told us that all the saved of all times will keep the Sabbath of the Lord until eternity, which is perfectly understandable, since it was established by Him even before sin entered the world, holy and good ([01] Genesis 2:2, 3). There is no reason whatsoever to abolish it after He restore all things in the earth made new.
13. How can we know that the ancient Biblical Sabbath ís sundown friday to sundown saturday in modern time reckoning?
[03] Luke 23:54-56 And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. And the women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment.
[03] Luke 24:1-3 Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre. And they entered in, and found not the body of the Lord JESUS.
We can know for sure that the “seventh day” mentioned in the Bible is sundown friday to sundown saturday, and not sunday, by the passages in the 4 Gospel accounts talking about the death, the burial and the ressurection of JESUS Christ, like the one in [03] Luke 23:54 – 24:3 above. The passage tells us that He died on the Preparation day of the Jews, which is sundown thursday to sundown friday modern time, and because the Sabbath was approaching, the disciples had to obey the commandment to retire to rest and ceased even the care-taking of their Lord’s body! After the sabbath ended, when they returned on the first day of the week, He had ressurected. This ressurection day is the day that even until now, many Christian communities still celebrate as Easter SUNDAY. The Sabbath therefore, is the day right after the preparation day and before sunday. Both testify that it can only be saturday, or to be more precise, it is the period of time since the disciples had to abandon the care-taking of the Lord’s body to go back to rest – sundown friday – until sundown saturday the next day.
Some denominations, like the “god the mother” group, would latch on the disciples coming to the Lord’s tomb on the morning of the first day of the week – and not right on saturday night – to insist that the Sabbath must have begin on sunrise saturday and end at sunrise sunday. They delibrately ignore the obvious fact plainly presented in these passages: how the disciples had to abandon the care-taking of their beloved Lord’s body and return home since SUNDOWN FRIDAY to keep the sabbath, showing very clearly that it must have began since sundown friday. If the sabbath starts at sunrise saturday, the disciples could have totally continue to embalm the Lord through the night until the work is done.
As for why the disciples did not come to visit the Lord’s tomb since satuday night, right after the sabbath ended, the reason is very simple: they were busy being crushed so utterly by sadness and hopelessness tafter witnessing their Christ died on the cross. They were so cushed that even on sunday morning, only a few female disciples managed to recover enough to get up and go to His tomb; the rest of the male disciples closest to JESUS were still so paralyzed to even go with them. One of the male disciples – Thomas – even after hearing the testimonies of his brethren, would still need the Lord to appear personally to his face and call upon him to touch the nail marks on His hands and the wound on His side, to be able to recover ([04] John 20:27-29).
14. Didn’t the calendar already changed?
It did. On October 1582. But the change in the calendar did not affect the weekly cycle a single bit. Ten days after October 4th 1582 were removed from the calendar, and the day that was supposed to be friday October 5th 1582 became friday October 15th 1582 (still friday). This chart will help you visualize better:
OCTOBER 1582
| Sun. | Mon. | Tue. | Wed. | Thu. | Fri. | Sat. |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 15 | 16 | |
| 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 |
| 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 |
| 31 |
It can be clearly seen that the continuous cycle of weekdays did not change. Whatever weekday a day was, it still is until today, including the seventh-day Sabbath.
15. Is it ok to keep sunday the first day of the week instead of the seventh-day sabbath? Isn’t the spirit of the law what matter, and not the letter of the law?
[01] Matthew 5:27, 28 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
In the sermon on the mount, Lord JESUS had shown us that the letter of the law (do not commit adultery) and the spirit of the law (every thought of lust and licentiousness indulged is already the sin of adultery in the heart) do not contradict each others, but one is rather the upgrade of the other. The letter of the law is like kinder garden, the spirit of the law is like college. One cannot say “I’m a college graduate” when that person fail to answer correctly the simple kinder garden math quiz of 1+1. Likewise, one can neither say “I had no lust in my heart when I fornicated with my neighbour’s wife” nor “I did not mean any harm towards my neighbour when I murdered him”. If he was deliberately breaking the fundamental letter of the law, how can he claim to be observing the spirit of the law?
Thus anyone who had received the knowledge of the seventh-day sabbath, but still insist on keeping holy any other day of the week in its stead, cannot be accounted as keeping the fourth commandment of God according to the spirit of the law.
16. What about [12] Colossians 2:16: “Let no man judge you of the sabbath days”?
Anyone who has studied the Old Testament law would know that besides the weekly Sabbath, the Jews also have seven YEARLY sabbaths, stated in the law of Moses ([03] Leviticus 23). According to the Jewish calendar, they are:
– The 1st day of the week of unleaven bread (15th day of the 1st month – verse 6, 7).
– The 7th day of the week of unleaven bread (21th day of the 1st month – verse 8).
– The Pentacost (the 50th day since the offering of the first fruit – verse 15, 16, 21).
– The feast of Trumpets (1st day of the 7th month – verse 24, 25).
– The day of Attonement (10th day of the 7th month – verse 27, 28).
– The 1st day of the Feast of Tabernacles (15th day of the 7th month – verse 34, 35).
– The 8th day of the Feast of Tabernacles (22nd day of the 7th month – verse 36).
So, we need to calm down, read the whole passage and compare it with other passages of the Bible, to determine which sabbath days were Paul rejecting here in [12] Colossian 2:16: the Sabbath of the Ten Commandments, or the yearly sabbath days of the ceremonial law of Moses.
Lo and behold, right up on verse 14, we are supplied with the reason for “let no man judge you of the sabbath days”, is because JESUS has:
[12] Colossian 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
Question: what then is the HANDWRITING of ordinances that was AGAINST the Israelites and CONTRARY to them? It can’t be the Ten Commandments for a very obvious reason: they were carved on rocks by the finger of the Lord, not handwritten. Only the book of the law written by Moses, placed by the Ark of the Covenant to be a witness against the Israelites ([05] Deuteronomy 31:26), could be what Paul was talking about here.
The Mosaic laws Paul was talking about here are the ordinances of circumcision, sacrificial rites, yearly feasts… all the things that were ordained to point towards Christ. For example: the law forbidding the breaking of any bones of the Passover Lamb ([02] Exodus 12:46). This law, fairly speaking, does not bring any direct benefit to those who had to obey it, but it is tremendously useful to help the world recognize that JESUS Christ is that Passover Lamb: He died on the cross, none of His bones were broken!
In Christ, all of these ordinances – which really are prophecies pointing towards Him, only that they were built up even to the level of religious culture – have been fulfilled, and are no longer binding. That’s why on verse 17 right after that Paul called them “shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ”. Paul was only trying to convey a very simple truth: NO ONE is saved unless by faith in the sacrifice of Lord JESUS. We the New Testament believers are saved by looking back at the cross, and the Old Testament believers living before JESUS came were saved by looking forward to the cross in their future, and they did so by keeping these ordinances that point towards Christ.
[12] Colossians 2:16 is probably one of the verses of the Bible that are most misunderstood by modern Christians. In [22] II Peter 3:16, the apostle Peter talked about the epistles of Paul thus: “in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” What he meant, very clearly, was that since Paul usually had to deal with those who cling so firmly to the ceremonial laws, the majority of whom are Jewish theology professors, his reasoning would sometimes be highly academic and hard to be understood. Many who are not Jews, who understand pretty much nothing about the Mosaic ceremonial laws, when they saw verses like [12] Colossians 2:14 would leap up to rejoice: “Yay! The law is abolished! We can just profess to believe in JESUS and then can freely break the Ten commandments and sin to our hearts’ content!” And then they would follow after their own lust to their eternal damnation.
Then what about the weekly Sabbath of the Ten Commandments? Let us see what the apostle Paul himself wrote:
[19] Hebrews 4:4, 9, 10 And God did rest the seventh day from all his works… There remaineth therefore a sabbath to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Together with myriads of verses plainly declared the responsibility of Christians in keeping the Ten Commandments, presented throughout this lesson.
17. In the night He was betrayed to His death for us, the Lord has said: “If you love me, keep my commandments.” His will in regard to us keeping the Ten Commandments, including the fourth about the Sabbath, is as clear as it can ever be. The core question remained for each individual, therefore is no longer what the Lord’s will is, but this:
“Do you love me?”
If your answer is “yes”, and you have determined to obey the commandments of God, to rest from work on His holy day, BELIEVE that the Lord’s blessings shall CERTAINLY be richly poured over you according to your obedient heart, and that by His providential care He shall grant you a work that is according to His will, where you can keep His commandments and gather means to prepare the necessary facilities needed to face the upcoming “Mark of the Beast” which we will look into in the next lesson.
Appendix
The “lunar sabbath” heresy
Some people would advance the ridiculous doctrine teaching that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is not based on the seven-day cycle of the week, but it would always fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th of every lunar month (?!) The strongest evidence that these promoters of the lunar sabbath doctrine bring forth are the passages in [02] Exodus, which they claim the Sabbath fell on the 15th of 3 consecutive months, the 1st month, the 2nd month, and the third month according to the Jewish calendar – a calendar based on the cycle of the moon.
It is true that if the Sabbath is based on the seven-day cycle of the week, there is no way the 15th of 3 consecutive months would all fell on the Sabbath. If such a thing really did happen, that would be a really strong evidence for the Sabbath being based on the lunar monthly cycle instead of the seven-day weekly cycle. However, if there is just one 15th day, or none of the 15th days of these 3 months, that can be proven to be a sabbath of the fourth commandment, the entire “lunar sabbath” theory will come crashing down the trash can.
Let us proceed to examine their reasoning in all 3 passages of [02] Exodus, and see whether any of the 15th of these three months can be proven to be the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.
1) The 15th of the 1st month – [02] Exodus 12.
According to [02] Exodus 12, the 14th of that 1st month is the Passover (verse 6 and 11). In the afternoon of the 14th is when the Passover was to be killed (verse 6), the blood is painted on the door of the house (verse 7), the Passover will be roasted with fire and eaten that night, after sundown of the 14th, in the evening of the 15th (verse 8). The 15th of the 1st month was when God would lead the Israelites out of Egypt (verse 17, see also [04] Numbers 33:3). To start a long and weary journey is something clearly prohibited on the Sabbath. This fact alone, that the Lord had led them on their journey out of Egypt into the desert, should have been sufficient to prove that the 15th was NOT a Sabbath of the Ten Commandments.
Despite that, the advocates of the lunar sabbath doctrine would still insist that the 15th of this first month is a Sabbath of the fourth commandment, with this quote:
[03] Leviticus 23:6-7 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread unto the Lord: seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day ye shall have a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
However, this verse is totally NOT about the weekly Sabbath of the Ten Commandments, but about a YEARLY sabbath, already explained in question 16 of the above lesson.
Lo and behold, right down on verse 8, we find that after the 15th – the first day of the week of unleavened bread – was appointed to be a yearly sabbath, the 21st – the seventh day of the week of unleavened bread – was also appointed to be a yearly sabbath, despite the fact that it is only 6 days apart, not 7, from the 15th!
[03] Leviticus 23:8 But ye shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord seven days: in the seventh day is a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.
This very passage, which the advocates of the “lunar sabbath” doctrine used to prove that the Sabbath is the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th of each lunar month, disprove thoroughly their argument, pointing out that the 21st of the first month was a “sabbath” of the same equal nature with the 15th.
To sum it up, in the 1st month:
– The 15th was a traveling day and could not possibly be the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.
– That in turn disproves the 8th, 22nd, and 29th from being the Sabbath.
– The 15th of the first month was established as 1 of the 7 YEARLY sabbath days, not the weekly Sabbath of the Ten Commandments.
– The 21st of the 1st month, not the 22nd, which is only 6 days instead of 7 days apart from the 15, was established as an equal “sabbath” to the 15th.
2) The 15th of the 2nd month – [02] Exodus 16.
[02] Exodus 16:1-5 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of YHWH in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. Then said YHWH unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.
The advocates of the lunar sabbath reason thus: on the 15th the Israelites entered the wilderness of Sin, they murmured against Moses and Aaron, and the Lord rained manna down upon them since the morning right after that, the morning of the 16th, for 6 days, and on the seventh day, which will be the 22nd, the Bible said that it was a Sabbath. So it can be identified that in the second month, the 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th were sabbath days.
This reasoning at first sounds reasonable, however it misses a spot that makes the entire thing collapse: the Bible did not tell us that the Israelites murmured against Moses and Aaron on the same day 15th that they entered the wilderness of Sin! It simply revealed that they murmured after entering the wilderness, but on what day, on the same day 15th or some days later, it doesn’t say. Read verse 1 and 2 again.
[02] Exodus 16:1-2 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
In fact, the Bible even revealed: the 15th of the second month was again a day that the Israelites were traveling (came unto the wilderness of Sin) instead of resting, hence it is impossible for it to be the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.
To sum it up, in the 2nd month:
– The 15th was another traveling day and could not possibly be the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.
– That in turn disproves the 8th, 22nd, and 29th from being the Sabbath.
– There is no evidence whatsoever proving that the murmuring of the people happened on the 15th.
– There is no evidence whatsoever proving that the manna started to fall on the 16th, or that the 16th is the first day, to then conclude that the Sabbath on which the manna ceased to fall was the 22nd.
3) The 15th of the 3rd month – [02] Exodus 19.
[02] Exodus 19:1-2 In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. For they were departed from Rephidim, and were come to the desert of Sinai, and had pitched in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount.
The advocates of the lunar sabbath believe that the term “the same day” refers to the 15th, because on the same 15th day, on the first month they went out from Egypt, one the second month they came unto the wilderness of Sin. Let us be generous and accept this reasoning. But then based on what can this 15th of the 3rd month be proven to be a sabbath?!
In fact, once again right on the verse, we are informed that it is yet another traveling day that the Israelites were ordered to travel instead of rest (come to the desert of Sinai), and thus it cannot possibly be a sabbath of the fourth commandment.
To sum it up, in the 3rd month:
– The 15th was yet another traveling day, and could not possibly be the Sabbath of the fourth commandments.
– That in turn disproves the 8th, 22nd, and 29th from being the Sabbath.
How ironic, that these very “strongest evidences” of the “lunar sabbath” doctrine, would provide us with 12 counter-evidences to disprove the theory: the 8th, 15th, 22nd, 29th of ALL THREE CONSECUTIVE MONTHS, the 1st, the 2nd, and the 3rd, did NOT fall on the Sabbath!
4) That is not to mention:
– The term “7 weeks” according to the standard calendar would be 49 days. But according to this “lunar sabbath” calendar, 7 weeks would always be 51-52 days (because the time from the 29th of a month to the 8th of the next month would always exceed 7 days). However, we already have [03] Leviticus 23:15-16 and [27] Daniel 9 both confirmed that “7 weeks” are just 49 days. This brutally disproves and exposes this “lunar sabbath” doctrine to be a heresy, and not even a very smart one.
– In order to establish this “lunar sabbath” doctrine, one would need to draw from the Bible at least one same day of two consecutive months to both fall on the Sabbath. And this is simply impossible, because throughout the entire Bible, there is only ONE event when a Sabbath could be precisely pinpoint to be at what day of the month: the sacrifice of JESUS Christ for the redemption of man, mentioned in question 13 of this lesson.
– The final battle between “the Seal of God” and “the Mark of the Beast” has to be about something plain enough so that simple people could easily see clearly and make the choice for their souls. But this “lunar sabbath” doctrine is so incredibly complicated in both its calculation and its reasoning, that it could not be established by any plain “thus saith the Lord” in the Bible. This alone should be sufficient to alarm us that there’s something fishy about this theory.
In fact, this “lunar sabbath” doctrine is no more than a heresy aim at deceiving those who are already keeping the seventh-day Sabbath to forsake this holy day, and it is even a heresy that is built upon a reasoning foundation that is rather… weak, but at the same time extremely complicated, to prevent those who have simple minds from hunting down the issue to its base and discover its heretical nature, thus causing fear, confusion and damages to their faith.
This ministry is honored to expose it clearly here.
In the next lesson, we shall see what exactly is the Mark of the Beast, which goes directly against the Seal of God. Click “next” to continue your pursuit of the Truth and sieze for yourself this most important knowledge.
