A BELIEVER IN YESHUA
DO WE NEED ALL TEN
COMMANDMENTS?
Do We Need ALL TEN Commandments? (Weighed & Wanting, page 47)
"Many of the Ten Commandments are practical and relevant today." This was the considered opinion of the Archbishop of Canterbury in a sermon on the 9th April 1997!
The obvious question to ask is, "How many commandments are left?" Has God changed his mind? Many see the Ten Commandments as only a guide to individual and social morality. The truth is God has never repealed these foundations of his righteous requirements. In fact he went so far as to say: "Make no addition to the commands which I give you, and take nothing from them, but keep the commands of YHWH your God which I give you." (Deuteronomy 4:2)
Unfortunately the majority of Churches do not believe in ten commandments! Let's look more closely at these righteous requirements of God:
How many commandments do you believe in? Ten? Nine? Eight? Or less? The truth is, unless you actually obey them, you cannot say that you believe in them. God's Word (the Bible) says: "The man who says, 'I know God', and does not keep his commands, is false, and there is nothing true in him." (1 John 2:4)
The most obvious commandment that most believers no longer obey is the fourth; i.e. to remember the Sabbath. When asked about this many will say that the Sabbath was given to Israel but Sunday is for the Church. However Yeshua (the Jewish way of saying Jesus) said, "The Sabbath was made for man", not just the Jews. (Mark 2:27) It must also be remembered that the Sabbath was made and known about long before Israel even existed.
A Pastor or minister might suggest that to celebrate Sabbath is to fall into the trap of legalism. The same of course would have to be said of Sunday. They would also have to agree that paying tithes and fasting were legalism!
You may think that it is good to celebrate the day that Yeshua rose from the dead - i.e. Sunday. The Bible however makes it abundantly clear that Yeshua rose on Saturday evening, if not the Sabbath itself!
But didn't the early disciples meet often on the first day of the
week? The truth is that the original language of the New Testament,
Greek, nowhere says first day of the week! No! The Greek quite definitely says, "first of the Sabbaths". Most translators have failed to understand what "first of the Sabbaths" means. This phrase is the name given to one particular Sabbath in the Jewish year - the first one after Pesach (or Passover). Nowhere else in Greek literature does "first of the Sabbaths" mean "first day of the week"! What we do know is that early believers, both Jew and Gentile, did meet together on Sabbath.
God's Word does say we should "let no man be your judge in any question of ... Sabbaths" (Colossians 2:17) This is an important principle for Yeshua himself said, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged." (Matthew 7:1) However every believer would want to do their best to please God. And every genuine congregation would want to be true to the Bible.
If Sunday worship does not come from the Bible, where does it come from? Unfortunately not long after the Apostles died anti-Semitic people were using Sabbath worship as an excuse to persecute Jewish people! But it was not until Emperor Constantine's Sunday Law in 321 CE that a large part of the Church started to worship regularly on the first day of the week instead of the last.
Yes! Sunday worship was one of the heresies that the Rome imposed on the Church. The great Reformation of Luther was supposed to throw off the heresies of Rome. Yet still Rome can rightly claim that every time a Protestant worships on Sunday they are acknowledging the authority of the Pope!
It is interesting to note that many great evangelical leaders have understood this truth. For example the great evangelist, D.L.Moody, wrote:
"The Sabbath was binding in Eden, it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word 'remember', showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote the law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?"
Or request our free booklet, "Is Sabbath for Jews Only?"
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