THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

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

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• "Blessed are those who do His commandments [here on earth], that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city" [the New Jerusalem in heaven]    Revelation 22:14

• Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." John 14:15.

• "Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man." Eccl. 12:13.

• "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled." Matthew 5:18.

• "Faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead." James 2:17.

• "Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law." Romans 3:31.

• "He that says, ‘I know Him,’ and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." 1 John 2:4.

• "The works of His hands are verity and justice; all His precepts are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness." Psalms 111:7,8.

• "For whoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all." James 2:10.

• "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." I John 3:4.

• "By this we know we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments." 1 John 5:2.

• "If you will enter into life, keep the commandments." Matt. 19:17.

• "My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of my lips." Psalms 89:34.

"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 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 manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. 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." Exodus 20:8-11.

Notice how God rested, blessed and sanctified one day: "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. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made." Genesis 2:2,3

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Do not think that I come to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven." Matt. 5:16-19.

"Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets." Matt. 22:37-40.

By loving Jesus with all our heart we can obey the first table of the law which deals with obeying God; then we can keep the second table of the law, which deals with loving our fellow man.

• "So 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 to read." Luke 4:16.    Jesus kept the seventh-day Sabbath 1700 times.

• "And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath." Matt. 24:20. The destruction of Jerusalem spoken of here, took place 39 years after His death.

• Jesus, while in the tomb, "Rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Luke 23:56.

• "Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures." Acts 17:2.

• "So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath. On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God." Acts 13:42,44. Long after Christ’s resurrection, His apostles were meeting on the seventh-day Sabbath.

"Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him…." Romans 6:3-6

"'For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before Me.' says the Lord, 'So shall your descendants and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one New Moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh shall come to worship before Me,' says the Lord." Isaiah 66:22,23

"The Son of man is also Lord of the Sabbath." Mark 2:28. "...The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God...." Exodus 20:8-11. "For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." Matthew 12:8. The Lord calls it "my holy day." Isaiah 58:13.  Thus "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day...." Revelation 1:10, must refer only to the seventh-day Sabbath.

"Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross....So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ." Colossians 2:14,16,17. The "handwriting" pertains to Moses writing the ceremonial law, such as the Day of Atonement sabbath, Passover, etc. It was "against us" is explained in Deut. 31:26 where the "Book of the law" written by Moses is "against you." The ceremonial law written on animal skin was "nailed to the cross" or ended at that time, but not the Ten Commandments, they were written by our Creator on stone for eternity. "The shadow of things to come" means it is temporary and points forward to Christ’s sacrifice when it would end.  We no longer observe the Day of Atonement or Passover sabbaths because the sacrificial system ended at the cross.  In Matt. 24 Jesus spoke of the Ten Commandment Sabbath in His prophecy of the destruction of Israel which took place 40 years after His death.  So the true Ten Commandment Sabbath was verified by Jesus to still be in effect long after His death. 

Some say we are under the New Covenant and therefore we have no responsibility towards obeying the Ten Commandments

(1) The old covenant was ratified by the blood of animals (Exodus 24:5-8 and Hebrews 9:19,20) and based upon the promises of the people that they would keep God's law. (2) The new covenant is based upon God's promise to write His law in our hearts, which was ratified with the blood of Christ. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My law into their minds, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." Hebrews 8:10. See also Jeremiah 31:33,34. The central figure of the entire tabernacle service was the golden Ark of the Covenant over which the glory of God dwelt, and inside contained the Ten Commandments. Jesus is our high priest in heaven, ministering over the original Ark of the Covenant, with the Ten Commandments inside.

The Sabbath commandment contains the seal of God

A seal contains a name, title and territory, such as Ronald Reagan, President of the United States. God’s seal from the fourth commandment has His name "Lord," His title is Creator since he created His territory "heaven and earth." In Romans 4:11, it tells us that a seal is a sign. Ezekiel 20:12,20 says the Sabbath is a sign or a seal between God and man. Revelation 7:2,3 speaks of the seal of the living God and those who, at the end of time, are sealed in their foreheads. Revelation 14:6-12 gives us warnings from three angels for the last people on earth: Verse 6 speaks of a "judgment," which entails the Law of God, and calls us to worship the Creator, as it does in the fourth commandment; Verse 8 "Babylon" or fallen churches which contain error, have rejected some of the Law of God; Verse 9 Those who worship the beast through partial obedience to God, receive a mark, as opposed to the seal of God.

These five texts mention the women coming to the sepulcher early on resurrection morning, and that Jesus rose from the dead: Matt. 28:1; Mark 16:1,2; Mark 16:9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1; but no mention of a Sabbath change.

"Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her. Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, 'Peace be with you.’" John 20:18,19. The disciples met out of fear of persecution, not to worship. No change of the Sabbath is mentioned.

"Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight." Acts 20:7,8. The New English Bible indicates a Saturday night meeting. A Sabbath meeting went into Saturday night which is the beginning of the first day of the week. The breaking of bread, or eating, could take place any day (see Acts 2:46).

"Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come." I Cor. 16:1,2. The original Vulgate refers to a gift for the poor at one’s "own house," not at a church.  This was not a church gathering, but a directive to church members on the first work day of the week to set aside a donation. 

• The Jews have kept the seventh-day Sabbath on Saturday for 4,000 years.

• From the book Your Amazing Calendar it states, "The week of seven days has been in use ever since the days of Moses, and we have no reason for supposing that any irregularities have existed in the succession of the weeks and their days from that time to the present."

• In over 100 languages from around the world, the name for the seventh day which we call Saturday, means Sabbath or rest.

• Jesus was killed on Good Friday, rested over the Sabbath in the tomb on the seventh day of the week, or Saturday, and arose from the grave on the first day of the week and went back to work. Luke 24:1, Mark 16:9

The Convert's Catechism of Catholic Doctrine states: "Q. Which is the Sabbath day? A. Saturday is the Sabbath day. Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic church transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday." "Sunday is our mark of authority. The church is above the Bible, and this transference of sabbath observance is proof of that fact." The Catholic Record, London Ontario, Sept. 1, 1923.

"If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your own pleasure on My Holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord; and I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Isaiah 58:13,14

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

"And the dragon [Satan] was wroth [angry] with the woman [God's church], and went to make war with the remnant [final part] of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." Rev. 12:17

"Moreover I also gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and me, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. Hallow My Sabbaths, and they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God." Ezekiel 20:12,20. Read Exodus 31:12-17.

Friend, won't you choose to follow the Bible Sabbath which begins at sundown Friday and ends at sundown Saturday?  This is God's only Holy day of rest.  It is a time to commune with God, separate ourselves from our worldly work, focus instead on His creation and many wonders, turn off the TV, avoid the stores, spend time with family, and study His word. 

Standing for the truth at the end of time will involve persecution as "the whole world wondered after the beast" Rev. 13:3.   The vast, vast majority will not be saved and will focus their attention on those not obeying the civil government's call for a national Sunday law.  Those who are obeying ALL the Ten Commandments will be out of step with civil governments.  It will not be possible to stand on your own without the Holy Spirit within you providing the strength necessary to obey.  We can choose the popular path, or a peculiar one which leads to eternal life.  It's our choice.  One which every person on earth will soon make during the period of the Mark of the Beast and Time of Trouble.  There will be no secret rapture.   We will all go through this time of turmoil, increased natural disasters, increased terrorism, faltering economy, and a call from the citizens of the USA for a national day of rest, Sunday, to bring the country back to God.  The penalty for violating this law will gradually increase.  Satan will personate Christ and confuse the world.  He will say the Ten Commandments have changed, and Sunday is the true sabbath.  But we know that the Ten Commandments will never change.