“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
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The Lies Preachers Tell (Part 1)
I have a radio app on my iPhone. When I’m driving, I use it to listen to channels that I enjoy. It sure beats scanning for channels in the middle of nowhere and hoping that I can find something to while away the time.
FaithTalk Atlanta 970 is one channel that I like. Its programming in the mornings and evenings consists of 30-minute segments where notable preachers deliver sermons. All of them have established audiences around the world, and they have large followings in the cities where they live.
In this SnyderTalk editorial, I am going to be very critical of one of the preachers on FaithTalk Atlanta. His name is David Jeremiah, and his radio show is Turning Point. Jeremiah is the senior pastor at Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California near San Diego. It’s a “conservative” mega church that’s affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. Jeremiah attracts more than 10,000 people to his Sunday morning services, and he has a road show that he takes to various places where he talks to crowds in the tens of thousands of people at a time.
I’m not picking on Jeremiah. The fact that I listen to him regularly on FaithTalk Atlanta is the only reason I chose him as my subject. Many of the things he says are spot on, and some of his stories and explanations are engaging and entertaining. Even so, some of the things he says are flagrantly wrong. In particular, I want to focus on Jeremiah’s belief that the Sabbath is Sunday. In a recent radio show, he admitted that in the early days of “the church”, the Sabbath was on Saturday, but that it was changed to Sunday. He said it very casually, and he offered no explanation about why the Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday.
That was a serious mistake and a disservice to his audience.
“Sabbath” (“Shabbat” in Hebrew) means rest, not Saturday as Jeremiah said on his radio show. Yahweh ordained the Sabbath as a weekly day of rest on the last day of the week. It’s 4th of the list of the Ten Commandments:
“Remember the Sabbath Day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath of Yahweh your Elohim. In it, you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days Yahweh made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, Yahweh blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” (Exodus 20: 8-11)
Based on what Yahweh said about the Sabbath and its location in the Scriptures, for David Jeremiah to have brushed aside so casually the fact that he and other preachers like him have abandoned the Sabbath altogether seems bizarre. He was so nonchalant about it that I am forced to conclude it is a nonissue for him, a trivial matter that doesn’t deserve attention or explanation. That shows a serious lack of thought on Jeremiah’s part. Yahweh gave him a brain. He should use it.
Keep in mind that the Sabbath is 4th of the list of the Ten Commandments. Obviously, it matters a lot to Yahweh, or He wouldn’t have included it on that list. In the Bible, honoring the Sabbath comes before the command to honor your father and mother. It also comes before the commands not commit murder and adultery, so it must be important to Yahweh.
Yahweh’s Law hasn’t changed one iota. In the New Testament, the Messiah said,
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5: 17-19)
David Jeremiah has a Masters in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, so he must be an intelligent man. Dallas Theological Seminary is a highly respected, “conservative” seminary. It professes to teach “the word of God” without reservation or apology. I assume Jeremiah learned the rationale for changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday there.
Truth is there is no justification for abandoning Saturday Sabbath and substituting Sunday Sabbath in its place. As I said, the command to honor the Sabbath on the last day of the week came from Yahweh Himself, and it’s 4th of the list of the Ten Commandments. In other words, it’s a really big deal. Also, keep in mind that the Messiah said clearly that the Law (including the Book of Exodus) is still in effect and that it will remain in effect “until heaven and earth pass away”. Therefore, there can be no justification for abandoning Saturday Sabbath.
The Messiah also said,
“Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5: 19)
David Jeremiah and other preachers like him have rejected the 4th Commandment, and they teach others to do the same. Yahweh said the Sabbath is the last day of the week; the Messiah (who is Yahweh) confirmed it; David Jeremiah rejected it; and he teaches others to do the same. Will he and other preachers like him be called “least in the kingdom of heaven”? I’m not their judge. Yahweh is. What did Yahweh say?
For proof that the Messiah is Yahweh, see His Name is Yahweh.
The Roman Emperor Constantine originated Sunday Sabbath. He did it so that it would coincide with the weekly day of rest for his god, Sol Invictus the Sun god. That’s why they call it Sun Day.
Contrary to the popular myth, Constantine was not a believer in Yahweh. He took control of “the church” in the 300s AD and created the Roman Catholic Church for political reasons. See The Trilogy. He ruled the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church with a rod of iron. In his day, church and state were the same thing. Sunday Sabbath is one of the many atrocities that Constantine imposed on believers. Those who defied Constantine’s edicts paid with their lives. That’s why Sunday Sabbath became a “Christian tradition”. It was a matter of survival.
Roman Catholic Church leaders needed to find some justification for such an important change in the writings that came to be know as “the New Testament”, so they zeroed in on this verse to explain why they did it:
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul began talking to them, intending to leave the next day, and he prolonged his message until midnight. (Acts 20: 7)
That verse doesn’t abrogate Saturday Sabbath. It simply says that Paul met with a group of believers on Sunday before he set off on a journey, but that’s the best verse in New Testament to support rejection of the 4th commandment. In other words, it is no support at all.
Next, Catholic Church leaders, Constantine’s operatives, focused in on something that Paul wrote in a letter to the Romans. Keep in mind that it was just a letter, a good one, but a letter nonetheless:
One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the LORD, and he who eats, does so for the LORD, for he gives thanks to Elohim; and he who eats not, for the LORD he does not eat, and gives thanks to Elohim. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the LORD, or if we die, we die for the LORD; therefore, whether we live or die, we are the LORD’s. For to this end the Messiah died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. (Romans 14: 5-9)
Roman Catholic Church leaders would have us believe that Paul was saying the day we choose to honor as the Sabbath doesn’t matter. As long as we believe that what we are doing is right, we are fine. No harm will come to us.
That makes absolutely no sense. In fact, it’s absurd.
Yahweh originated the Sabbath. He included it as 4th of His list of the Ten Commandments. The Messiah who is Yahweh confirmed it in no uncertain terms. He even warned us not to annual the Scriptures in any way whatsoever, but that’s exactly what Roman Catholic Church leaders did. An obscure statement in a letter from Paul can’t negate an edict from Yahweh. To believe otherwise is foolish and dangerous.
The Catholic Church tradition that Sunday is the Sabbath is so well-entrenched in Protestant Church doctrine today that anyone who questions it is looked upon as though he is a heretic. Church leaders came up with a name for people who dare to adhere to Yahweh’s commands. They call us “Judaizers”. To them, we are people who insist on following Yahweh’s Laws in the Torah. They say that’s a bad thing. In lieu of a compelling argument to support their belief, they simply try to pigeonhole and marginalize people who reject their doctrine. That works with the uninformed masses, but it doesn’t work with Yahweh. He knows the difference between right and wrong. Obviously, most preachers, Catholics and Protestants, don’t.
Their logic is pathetically weak, but they believe in Church tradition (Catholic and Protestant) right or wrong so strongly that they try to demonize anyone who rejects the lies they have bought into and share with their congregations as the truth from Yahweh. That’s stupid, and it is a sin.
Again, I’m not picking on David Jeremiah. I chose him because I listen to him on the radio. Most preachers in America today believe the same lie, and they share it with their congregations. To them, Sunday Sabbath is an article of faith, but in reality, it’s a sacrilege.
Preachers in America are a serious problem. I’ll have more to say about them in the days ahead. It’s no wonder people in America are abandoning the church.
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“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
