|
|
A MAGAZINE OF PURE UNDERSTANDING Online Edition Volume 4 Number 2 March—April
2009 |
Personal—What
Difference Does It Make |
|
Literature Sections News This Week The New World Tomorrow This publication
is a FREE publication published by the Church of God (Sabbath Day). This
website is the official website of the Precious Truth magazine and is updated
weekly with events from around the world that deal with literal prophecy
which is happening daily. We continue to proclaim the same exact message as
was proclaimed by the late Herbert W. Armstrong who founded the Worldwide
Church of God. Since the WCG has gone astray, we have continued the same
teachings that Mr. Armstrong has taught. All are welcomed to learn more about
this end-time work which is to let all people know the Good News that Jesus
Christ is returning and that he is going to establish the new world tomorrow
and bring about real world peace. This
publication is Copyright © 2009 by the Church of God (Sabbath Day)—Salt Lake
City, Utah and the Precious Truth Ministries of Salt Lake City, Utah © 2009.
No unauthorized reproduction of this website in whole or in part is allowed. |
Personal from the Pastor General
What Difference Does It Make?
Michael W. Stevenson
Pastor General of the
Church of God (Sabbath Day)
TRULY
most professing Christians will naturally accept that Sunday is the New Testament
day to observe for the Lord’s Day. Muslims keep Friday. Others don’t even
bother to keep any day at all. Yet, there are those who insist that the true
Sabbath is sunset Friday to sunset Saturday and that it is still binding upon
man and failure to keep it is sin—with sin bringing about the punishment of
death for eternity!
Now
that is pretty serious to claim that!
There
are few who take it seriously at that—but that does not prove or disprove the
challenge. How about you, have you ever even really taken a hard long look at
the question about the Sabbath? Have you even challenged yourself to understand
the reality of the Sabbath?
Yet,
I have! I have taken a hard long look at it and I have found the answers to be
real. I have found that the Bible is indeed full of answers in regard to the
Sabbath and to what day is the real Sabbath. Yet, there are those who are
ignorant on this subject.
If
someone says that something is wrong and I don’t even take a chance to
investigate, the chance is that something could be wrong and they needed my
held, and yet I failed. If someone says to me that the Sabbath is on sunset
Friday to sunset Saturday and I don’t even bother to look for myself to see
when the real Sabbath is, then I am staking my whole eternity on the very
question.
Yes!
Your very eternity is at stake here and it is even more precious than saving a
house!
Few
even understand or realize that the very controversy surrounding the Sabbath vs.
Sunday has been going on for centuries and Christians even have lost their
lives over this very question.
Who
is right anyhow? Can we prove who is right? Do we even know the truth about
this subject? Yes, we can know and we can be sure that the answer is real and
is there for us!
So
then, does it make any real difference at all?
So
then what must we do to find out the truth?
We
need to check for ourselves and the place that we will be looking is within the
pages of our very own Bible because that is where the answers are that God has
given us for all the truth regarding these matters! After all, God wants us to
know the truth and he has given us the truth in his very own instruction Book
to mankind!
The Changing Times
I myself have had to face this very
question as to the Sabbath. My sister in fact had really got me going on this
subject, but also did the truth from some materials I had read. But it was
really my sister who got me to thinking long and hard on the very subject.
I
had thought for sure that I knew that Sunday was the true Christian Sabbath
because the church I had been with at the time had said so. They said that
their prophets even said that the Sabbath is on Sunday and that if I did not
pay attention to it, then I would not know the truth regarding it.
They
said that one had to follow their prophets and that their prophets would not
lead anyone astray. Yet, I did not know that I was really being led astray by
that very statement—that they did not really teach when the TRUE Sabbath was—but
that they had taught a form of godliness, yet denied the very Creator!
Yet,
I had insisted that “all the Sunday churches could not be wrong because there
are so many of them that keep Sunday as the Lord’s Day of worship.”
Yet,
deep down, my sister was really challenging me to investigate and to check on
this very subject myself. She was actually challenging me to find out the truth
and to make sure that I knew what the truth was before I kept on assuming that
I knew the answers to this!
Yet,
when I really got down to understanding the reality of the Sabbath, the truth
is this—I did not know the answers! It wasn’t until I began to really look into
the Bible that I began to find the answers.
Now
some people might simply suppose that you would not expect things to shut down
on the Sabbath. They might even suppose that with the Sabbath, you may even
think and expect that time was changed and that now the time for church is to
be on a Sunday. But, all these things are further from the truth. First off, we
do not expect things that are essential to simply shut down. But, what is
expected is that people do remember the Sabbath—keeping the Fourth Commandment.
Secondly,
Time never changed, (contact us for our free booklet about time or log onto our
website and read it there) for the Sabbath was never changed to Sunday—but it
was the Roman Catholics that changed it to Sunday, with NO authority to even do
so.
Yet,
one might still reason in his own heart “what real difference does it make at
all concerning what day, or whether even you keep it at all?” These questions
will be answered within the pages of this important booklet because you truly
need to have the answers in regards to the Sabbath and the precious truths
about the Sabbath.
First
off, how can we truly know, especially living in a society where organized
Christianity keeps Sunday and others do not even think that it is important to
even keep any day at all?
Is
there really any real supreme authority, with the very power of life and death
over our eternity with the very power to declare and to enforce the right
answer?
By
what real authority do the Christians keep their Sunday observances; Muslims
observing Friday and Sabbatarians observing Saturdays and yet others no real
day at all?
Is
there even any authority for observing any of these? It is certainly apparent
that all do not even recognize the same Supreme authority!
It There Really Is No God!
Let me say bluntly that if there is no
God—if God does not truly and honestly exist, if I were to leave him out of the
big picture—then I can understand how it could make no difference at all of
what we observe!
Yet,
the truth is this, there is no way that I can ever and truthfully comprehend
how a man could even think that there is no real God—so then if there is a God
who has created us and created all things within the universe, then it makes
sense that there is obviously a day in which we are commanded to keep. But, if
there is no God, no Supreme Authority—then there is no need to keep anything at
all!
But,
the truth of the matter is this—the Almighty really does exist! His existence
is proven. God is indeed in the overall picture of things—working in things and
showing to us that he is indeed real and is really there! That same being has
set in motion all the laws and commandments which govern us—which govern all
things—which in reality governs the entire universe!
The
Eternal holds all the keys to life and death! By him, your fate is determined!
For all eternity is your fate determined! By this is the reason why it does
indeed make a real difference—for your very own well-being now and for all your
eternity!
Thus,
the very first thing we are going to have to settle here is what or who is this
Supreme Authority before we stand in the very judgment that we face. Does such
authority even explain why it does make a difference—and what the real
consequences for disobedience or neglecting of the laws and commandments?
Did
you even understand that there is one religious body which fully lays claim to being
the sole infallible authority? It claims that the Bible “is not a sufficient
guide to heaven.” It then goes on to further claim that through its own leaders
that it, by its own infallible authority, substituted Sunday for the Sabbath.
This
very real religion offers the very fact that all Sunday-keeping people—which
includes the Western world—have bowed down to its very dictum on Sunday
observance as proof of its absolute authority.
The
truth is, this religious sect also claims that through it, and it alone, can
man come to know God—when in reality it flaunts its wealth, it flaunts its very
power over the world and it seeks to control all things within the world
through its power.
Yet,
many have stated that you may search the books published by that church, that
you might go and look in any encyclopedia, that you might search all you like
and not once will you find the truth about Sunday in anything. It further is
not a surprise to find that these leaders further go out on a limb and say that
that sect had no real authority to change the Sabbath to Sunday.
As
shocking as this may all seem—it is very true and it is proven through their
own statements!
These
very ecclesiastical leaders have since replaced Jesus Christ as the
authoritative head and have set themselves up in charge of things—over Christ!
The truth is this—they also claim that Christ turned the leadership over to
Peter and that Peter and his successors are the ones in charge now—not Christ!
But,
for many, this does not hold water.
What,
then, is the real truth of it all?
Have
you even stopped to really prove to yourself whether or not God does exist? Can
you actually even prove, through irrefutable and positive proof, that God is
Creator of all things—that he indeed rules as the very Supreme and Infallible
Authority over all creation—over all the universe?
Yes,
you really can prove that—unless you are unwilling to accept the truth! We then
are offering you proof in all that we proclaim within this Church that God does
indeed exist and that you can indeed know that he exists!
Can
you prove, also, that the Holy Bible is indeed the very authoritative Word of
God—his true and inspired message and instruction book given to all of
mankind—the sole infallible authority, by which mankind will be judged?
Yes,
indeed, we can prove it, also, unless you yourself refuse to accept that very
truth!
Jesus
Christ is indeed the founder of the true New Testament Church of God!
Just When Did Christ Build His Church On
Earth?
So now we come to the question—just when
did Christ start the Church of God on the earth? Was it while he was a mortal
or was it after he had ascended into heaven?
He
had merely taught us his message—the Gospel—the GOOD NEWS which is what the
very disciples also preached—the good news—a message that some day, the kingdom
of God will be built upon the earth! The truth is this—the Church of God was
founded on the day of Pentecost in A.D. 31, after Christ himself had been
resurrected, glorified, and was ascended to heaven to sit on the throne next to
God!
Now,
when did Christ ever “bow out” of leading his Church and turn the leadership of
it over to man? Not after the Church had been founded and came into being—but
before there was any Church to even turn over! Most churches claim that Christ
turned the Church over to Peter before there was a Church of God created on the
earth!
Why
then is it that church leaders reject the authority of the Scriptures—yet they
attempt to establish their authority on the authority that they reject and deny
by quoting Matthew 16:18?
Jesus
had asked his own disciples whom they had believed he, the Son of man really
was. Peter then answered and said that he was the Christ—or the Messiah—the Son
of the living God. Jesus then told him that no man had revealed this to him,
but that it had been given to him by the Father in heaven.
Then
Jesus further said that “…I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter” (Greek
inspired original word, Petros, meaning a stone), “and upon this rock” (Greek
inspired original word, petra, meaning a ledge or shelf of rock or a crag) “I
will build my church…”—Matthew 16:18
Now,
since it is claimed that the rock on which the Church was founded is referring
to Peter—and not Jesus Christ—notice then the true meaning, as originally
written by Matthew. Matthew wrote in the Greek. There was no English language
at that time. The English versions of today are translations from the original
Greek and thus, when we read today’s English versions, we are reading just
that—translations!
Peter
was also called Cephas (Greek Kephas, from the Aramaic Kepha). In John 1:40-42,
we read that Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, found Peter and had brought him to
Jesus.. “And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona:
thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone”—v.42. The
English word stone is a translation from the Greek petros which means a single
stone or a loose stone. Also the Greek Kephas means such a stone, referring to
a human man.
But,
when Jesus had spoken “upon this rock I will build my church” (Matthew
“…And That Rock Was Christ”
Now I want you to notice some other
passages where this same Greek word
Now,
let us notice in Matthew 27:60 that it says to us that the tomb in which Jesus
was laid to rest, after the crucifixion was hewn out in the rock—in the petra!
This is a large mass of rock, not a single stone. It was a big rock that was
large enough to have a family tomb made into it. I have also personally viewed
the tomb that is said to be the very tomb Jesus was in and let me say that it
was a large rock—a mountain you could say—for yes, it was a big rock!
Now
the Greek
Thus,
we see that Christ Jesus is the very ROCK that the Church was being founded
upon—JESUS is whom the
Christ Is the Literal Head of the Church!
So then, was Peter ever the head of the
Church? What did Peter himself say? Peter, speaking of Christ and the Church,
had written the following: “Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture,
Behold, I lay in Sion [the Church] a chief corner
stone [Jesus Christ], elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall
not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto
them which be disobedient, the stone [Jesus]
which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner [the
Church], And a stone [the Church] of
stumbling, and a ROCK [Jesus] of offense, even to them which stumble at the
word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed”—1 Peter 2:6-8
Thus, those who are faithful to God’s Church that Jesus is the head of, they
will see that Jesus is the precious, and that Jesus is the one chosen to be the
head of it, but them that are disobedient to the Church and to Jesus, they will
stumble or fall from it, even those who have been a part of the Church of God
will stumble and fall from it. We seen this very thing happen when the
Worldwide Church of God under the Tkach’s changed everything that the late
Herbert W. Armstrong had founded in God’s
Peter
was quoting from Isaiah 28:16 when Isaiah had said that “Therefore thus saith
the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a
precious corner stone, a sure foundation”! This shows us that Jesus Christ is
the foundation of the
In
the passage in 1 Peter, the word stone is from the Greek lithos—not petros.
Lithos is defined as a stone, a millstone, a stumbling stone. The same which is
used for the stones of which the temple was built—and also the stone that had
been rolled up to seal the tomb of Jesus, higher than a man’s head. The word
ROCK, however in v.8 is translated from the Greek
The
Church is found in Ephesians
The
real foundation of the Church is Jesus Christ! “For other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ”—1 Cor. 3:11.
Many
will teach that Christ had left—went away and forsook the Church by turning his
leadership over to Peter and to other men—but we see plainly that it is not so!
We see clearly that Jesus himself said “I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee”—Heb. 13:5. He is shown in Revelation 1:13, 18 to be the living Head,
spiritually in the midst of the
So
then, who does the Word of God declare to be the head of the Church—was it
Peter who is some ecclesiastical leader, or was it Jesus Christ? READ IT for
yourself! Christ himself is the HEAD of the Church (Ephesians
Jesus
Christ has risen from the dead and he lives today! Why then should Jesus leave
the Church to any human to be the leader? He has instead left it to himself and
to no man—not even to myself! Thus, that is why I am only the Pastor General of
the Church—I am the Pastor General because I answer to Jesus Christ concerning
every doctrine and every belief taught in this Church! That is why I make the
final decisions on everything!
The Authority Is Jesus Christ!
So then, the true New Testament Church of
God is founded by Jesus Christ and not the Apostle Peter! It is the resurrected
Christ who has founded it. It was after his ascension into heaven that the
Church was founded when the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Church on
the day of Pentecost in A.D. 31 and on that day, Christ as he had promised
(John 16:7), sent the Holy Spirit to live in his disciples and thus, he
baptized them—plunging them into his Church!
The
“By
one Spirit we all baptized into one body”—the body of Christ or the true
So
then, it is Jesus Christ who has went on to heaven, and sent God’s Holy Spirit
on the Day of Pentecost, who really founded the Church. The same resurrected,
living Christ that is now the head of the Church for 2,000 years!
So
then, we have found the one and only INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY to which we now can
settle the Sabbath issue once and for all! We have found that it is Jesus
Christ who is that authority and that no man can have that authority to even do
anything such as changing the Sabbath!
That
Supreme Authority is Jesus Christ and his written Word is the Bible!
But, what’s The Difference Anyhow?
But, even if Jesus Christ is the head of
the Church—even if he is the AUTHORITY to settle this question once and for
all, one still might ask “How does that concern me? And even if it involves sin
in the question, does it still make any real difference at all?”
Most
people today leave God out of the overall picture. People today take sin
lightly and do not realize what the wages of sin are! And as the late Mr.
Armstrong always had said, if God is not in the picture, then you cannot
possibly see any reason why it makes any difference which day, or whether you
observe it.
But,
God really is in the picture!
True,
God does not seem real to most people at all. But yet, YOU are a creation of God
who is the CREATOR! God himself has put mankind on earth for a PURPOSE! His
laws and his very commandments determine your happiness, well-being and your
success here and now—and your fate for eternity! When you thus appear at the
final judgment—you will not be the judge, but God Almighty—the ETERNAL WILL BE
THE JUDGE!
The
Eternal whom CREATED the universe—he set into motion, and sustains, and
controls, every power and force and energy. He rules his very creation. His
laws that he set into motion determine your well-being or the lack of it! SO
thus, HE IS IN THE BIG PICTURE!
And,
is the sin question involved? Who determines what sin really is—and just what
difference does that even make at all?
Most
people will not know what sin really is. Some say that dancing is a sin—others
say it is not. Some say that smoking is a sin—yet others say that it is not.
Different people—different churches—have different ideas! They do not fully
understand nor do they fully comprehend what sin is and they cannot fully explain
to you what sin really is and what constitutes sin!
But,
that could be very costly and could be great ignorance! The first thing that
you need to understand is that the living God of all power does not allow us to
decide what sin is! He rather has determined what sin is and he thus compels us
to decide whether to sin! The penalty of sin is death for all eternity! That
penalty is real and it is a terrifying and frightful state that faces all
mankind!
Thus
sin is doing what God says is harmful and injurious to you—and/or to others!
Sin is doing that which deprives you of God’s blessings of peace, happiness,
security, abundant and joyful living, as a condition to God’s own supreme gift
of ETERNAL LIFE!
Yes,
the living Christ—and the Holy Bible—constitutes the sole AUTHORITY as to
settle this very question once and for all! This question of which day is
directly concerned with your connection with God! Thus, it is directly
connected with your very welfare here and now, and your eternity! It makes a
tremendous difference to God!
Jesus
Christ is the very living personal Word of God. The Holy Bible is the written
Word of God, by which Christ speaks to you and to I! Christ is the Head of the
So
now, let us then see what Christ, through the very Bible says about what day is
the real Sabbath of the New Testament—and whether or not it really does make a
true difference at all! For this is the purpose of this booklet!
God bless you and His Church,
Sincerely,
Michael W. Stevenson,
Pastor General