MY SCRIPTURE STUDIES

My Scripture Studies
Seek God. Engage with His voice in the Bible and start in the beginning.

September 25, 2008

What's for Supper?

Lastest Update: November 26, 2019

It's time to take another journey of discovery to uncover what has gotten lost in transliteration, translation and tradition.

In my Scripture studies I've found if you love The Lord, you have a heart and yearning to follow The Lord God as He has instructed.

When our family began to really study and hear the Scriptures, we noticed something that simply never dawned on us before. Almighty God gives us instruction with Bible basics for "living" life God's way and living it abundantly. 

That image of God way includes blessings from what we eat because after all, physically we are what we eat.  

The transformation back to the image of God is what Paul wrote about when he penned this referencing the veil Moses wore only after he stood in the presence of The LORD. In the tent of meeting, in freedom from sin he never wore the veil:
But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 
Abba Father, our Creator God loves us, so as a loving father, The LORD wants to protect us. Not only that, Almighty God desires that His people prepare a place in which His Spirit may dwell (Isaiah 66:1-2). 

The Father wants to direct us toward a long healthy life and keep us from things that can harm our hearts our bodies and His image. His protection started in Eden, there in the garden, there were clean foods everywhere and then there was the one that was unclean. 

God gave Adam and Eve the freedom to eat from every fruit tree except one, He warned do not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, it causes death. The tree of good and evil was like a cancer without a cure.

Proverbs 14:12 tells us:
There is a way that appears to be right,
but in the end it leads to death.
Think about that!!

Almighty God tells us He never changes. The prophet Malachi and the priest Samuel declare:
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Malachi 3:6 
And also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent. 1 Samuel 15:29
The concept of change is for people. A Jew named Paul describes the reason:
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corinthians 1:9 
Paul also said this:
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 1Corinthians 3:16-18
We have to discern and understand we need to change our ways if we want to return to "the faith which was once delivered." That's what Jude 1:3 declares.

The Bible gives us Almighty God's constitution for life in His Kingdom image as it was intended from the beginning. Because of that, our Creator teaches us some simple Bible basics tied to His creation design in creation day five and six of birds, fish and animals. 

In the beginning, before sin corrupted Adam and Eve, the Genesis account tells us that they were allowed to eat from the garden that God had provided for them. They had plenty of food in the garden that God personally planted for them, but there was one exception.

The Father warned about one tree, the tree of good and evil. They were put on notice because the fruit of that one tree would kill them. Eating from it would mean that they would deliberately ignore God's authority and His instruction.

Beyond that, Genesis does not reveal much about good food. Yet the Exodus story does give us some simple life advice. Much like the tree of good and evil planted in the garden of Eden it's about food that is good for life and food that God says is ṭâmê טָמֵא.

The Hebrew word ṭâmê is translated into English as unclean. Bottomline, it is a pollutant.

Any pollutant can cause long or short-term damage by shortening our lifespan by interfering with and polluting human health by interfering with healthy bodily functions. For that reason, Abba Father tells us what food is a ṭâmê pollutant for us and the faithful scribe Moses wrote down every word of The Creator's instruction in Leviticus 11.

As it was in the beginning, Almighty God gave His teaching and instruction on the food He created for our bodies because He wants us to live a long and healthy life. Scripture gives the most important reason to follow in the way of life. Leviticus 11:43-44 sums it up. We are set apart aka holy by following The LORD's instruction and are polluted and defiled by disobeying Him.

Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, Almighty God declares that His thoughts and His ways are different from our ways. You can read that in Isaiah 55:8-9. 

Speaking through Moses, Almighty God declares that He is holy and wants us to be like Him. You can read that in Leviticus 20:7.  Living in His image is what is meant by living as His sons and daughters. You can read the explanation in John 1:12 and 2 Corinthians 6:17-18, as well as other scriptures. 

It all goes back to the beginning. Our Father made us to be in His image. In other words. He made us to be, He wants us to be like Him, set apart, holy and clean. The Hebrew word for clean or pure in body, mind, heart and soul is טהרה ṭâhôr. It's the opposite of טמא ṭāmē'.

Every loving father wants the best for his children, and our Creator God YHVH is The Father.

Abba God does not change!!

It's the original message of the deceiver to fall for the idea that God does. The deception starts out like this... did God really say? 

We put ourselves before God as fake gods when we choose to not accept the voice of the Spirit of God.  We pollute our souls. It's a joke to think that anything green is a good fruit or vegetable and it just as crazy to think or that any animal, fish or bird is good for food.

Some things are good ṭâhôr for our health and some are not because they are ṭâmê. Many plants are poisonous just as some animals are. Tâmê animal species are scavengers and carnivores like the tree of good and evil. There are many green plants that may look harmless, but some plants hold some of the most deadly poisons known to mankind.

Remember the Greek philosopher Socrates? 

He is credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. The first philosopher in the tradition of thought arose out of Athens in the 5th century BC. Plato was his most famous student and Plato taught Aristotle who then tutored Alexander the Great. Socrates was considered the wisest man in Athens, yet he died ingesting hemlock after he was tried for this crime: 

“Socrates is guilty, firstly, of denying the gods recognized by the state and introducing new divinities, and, secondly, of corrupting the young.”

The hemlock plant contains the highly poisonous alkaloid coniine which causes progressive paralysis of the central nervous system. It has no known antidote. Hemlock is also called the devil's porridge.

We all know plants like the beautiful floral hemlock are unfit to be called food because they contain poisons just as certain meats are unfit to be called food because they too can cause suffering and even death. 

That's the Leviticus 11 lesson.

Throughout the Bible's narrative for life in the Kingdom, God defines those things that are ṭâmê and unhealthy. In the Bible, by definition, food is always something good, healthy and beneficial. Food is not just anything you can fry in a pan or chow down on.

That is where our confusion on food starts... we are focused on ourselves, we think that Almighty God does not really mean what He says, we ask, did God really say? 

We "think" He told Moses not to allow people to come up to Mount Sinai were the words of a mean God that would kill anyone that touched the mountain. We forget the real reason He said that. Our Creator gave a simple warning like the one given to Adam and Eve. The warning was for protection and life. Almighty God knew that the sound would shake from His presence. He knew that rocks and boulders would fall off the mountain when He began to speak.

Like Adam and Eve, we discredit our Heavenly Father as the Almighty, all knowing Creator God and we tend to define just about anything that we can stick in our mouth with a lot of butter and BBQ sauce as food, but that's Greek thinking. 

Almighty God knows what He made and why.

When you read the Bible and see the words למאכל for food, we must know for food must meet God's definition for a healthy life. Food is good for the body but everything you can stick in your mouth is not food.

Some people just don't know. They are like me before I read and believed the Bible. They think that the Biblical food instruction of good and bad, healthy or not is irrelevant, old and done away with. 

The reason, we consume the sermons that are linked to replacement theology. We think that Yeshua-Jesus did away with an old law, but what law?

The only law the humble Messiah Yeshua did away with the oldest law. The law law of sin and death from the beginning that started with choosing to break away from God's instruction by eating what was prohibited by our Creator's love warning, not punishment.

Yeshua-Jesus provided "the way" to overcome the death from sin that results from thinking, did God really say? Yeshua took on the curse we bring on ourselves. Like Adam and Eve, we bring the curse of death on ourselves our sin. Yeshua paid the price and offers the promise of redemption through His own life in resurrection. God's loving gift is eternal life restitution because Yeshua paid the penalty declared in Eden. 

Believe it or not, Yeshua was resurrected by God's unchanging, eternal life giving power.

Jesus' death on the cross does not mean we should eat what our Creator God says is unclean, unhealthy and unfit for food. The reason: God does not change.

Eating what God calls an abomination only opens up the old door to physical sickness and death whether the effect is immediate or long term like it was for Adam and Eve. Disobedience to God's instruction also leads to spiritual death, that's the link to the food lesson, we are what we eat.

If you don't believe Almighty God about food, any registered dietician can tell you the harmful effects of the meats that God declares as unfit for food for the human body. In fact, every dietitian's speciality vocation is the treatment and prevention of disease that results in death. That's why they work in hospitals and health-care (life repair) facilities.

What we have forgotten is that Yeshua-Jesus upheld "the way" of Torah, that is why He's known by His followers to be sinless in the image of God. We are all given the responsibility and accountability to walk and eat like the Jew we call Jesus. That amazing truth is part of the lifestyle of the King of the Kingdom of God.

Before my wife and I understood that God's word does not change, as a family we simply did not comprehend this Bible basic. We lived in a corner of the twilight zone if you will, a false reality thinking, did God really say? 

We thought that if a meat "tasted" good it was A-OK even if it took a lot of lemon, butter or BBQ sauce to make the shrimp, lobster and pork ribs tasty. 

Yet, in reading and believing the Bible, we discovered that eating healthy, is good for life and that is a key to the beginning of understanding God's instruction for life in The Kingdom, walking in His image! 

Today, modern science proves Almighty God's teaching
about good food, good health and good life.

Don't take my word for it, do your own science based research and keep this in mind as your re-check your Bible: "healthy" = clean/good and "unhealthy" = unclean/bad and "polluted" in Biblical terms. 

It's that simple.

Think about this too: in the beginning, Adam and Eve fell into sin and were kicked out of the Garden of Eden because they did not heed God's one instruction and command concerning what they were not to eat. 

We liked to quote 1 Corinthians 3:16 but never tied it to Leviticus 11:44-45 the way Paul actually intended.

The result of Adam's and Eve belief in a serpent's lie was a deadly choice. 

It was suicide.

Doubting what God said changed the world and brought the disaster of death and destruction to their descendants. It Las brought thorns, weeds and poison to the full of life planet Adam and Eve were given the command to take care of as the garden of life.

Thanks God, from my Scripture studies, I'm learning to follow God's teaching and instruction. The blessing is life, the curse is death. The choice is ours.

Doing things God's way are what our Abba Father says are "Holy" makes us a 'set apart' people. 

The Hebrew word meaning "set apart" is the word "holy" and set apart is what God says we should be. Eating healthy sets us apart for life and I now know our Creator wants us to follow His Word, His Torah teaching and instruction for good reason! The instruction that our unchanging God has given as a gift of mercy is for our physical health and spiritual blessing, it is for life.

Numbers 23:19 teaches us that and Malachi 3:6 confirms it.

By reading and doing The Lord's teaching on food that Moses recorded twice in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14, we can see how simple His life diet instruction really is and why.

Our Creator's basic training on food is easy and light, its not a heavy burden. Don't eat scavengers or predators whether they fly, swim or walk, they are not food! That's the healthy message of the Bible and the the boot camp instruction from the maker of our bodies and souls. God knows what is good for us and He tells us because He loves us.

I mentioned that the Apostle Paul tells us something very important tied to the foundation of Leviticus:
Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 1Corinthians 6:19-20
For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves... For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” Leviticus 11:44-45
Please keep reading ...

We are to make a distinction between the unclean (ṭâmê) and the clean (tâhôwr) and between the living creature that may be eaten and the living creature that may not be eaten.

We are not to eat vultures or eagles or any sea or lake creatures without fins and scales. Why? They are the same, they are meat eaters, both scavengers and predators.

It's simple, birds fly and fish swim but our Creator made any water borne fish or swimmer without fins and scales as a scavenger or predator. Oh by the way, fish should be cooked too. Ask any doctor, uncooked fish can carry parasitic worms which can bury into your stomach when you eat raw fish or sushi if you want to fluff it up and call it that.

Eating sushi can cause an illness known as anisakiasis and in severe cases, the parasite worms can trigger respiratory failure and guess what, that will lead to death. The disease is caused by an abundance of a parasitic worm known as anisakis in raw fish. Did you know sushi chefs pick out what they find?

God's thousands year old dietary instructions are healthy food basics. The instruction is not heavy, its light - simply not a burden, do not eat fish without both scales and fins. That eliminates a number of lemon juice disguised buttered up, seasoned creatures including shellfish, shrimp, catfish, lobster, mussels, eel, shark, sturgeon and swordfish taste good, but they're not good for us.

We all need to know and believe that our Creator God gives us His teaching and instruction to protect us from harm. 

That goes includes the body, it includes the soul which is the body infused with the life Spirit of God whether we believe it or not.

As the master maker, our Creator Elohim knows everything about His design and purpose. This is something that has taken modern day marine biologists and scientists thousands of years to discover something very old. Fish with scales AND fins have been equipped since creation with a digestive system that prevents the absorption of waterborne poisons and toxins into their flesh from the waters they swim in and breathe each day.

Just like porky the pig, carnivorous fish have very short digestive tracts when compared to herbivorous fish. Both fins and scales are a part of the creation equation. Scavengers like catfish have fins, but do not have scales. Shark do not have scales and every child knows they are predators.

Scavengers are "bottom feeders" like vultures and pigs and they and have digestive systems designed to help clean and restore the environment by absorbing and holding toxins directly into their bodies. 

Clams, oysters, lobster, shrimp, crabs, mussels and squid do not have scales or fins and they are known by any seafood lover to be potentially toxic. They are designed by God to naturally absorb toxins from water and clean the lakes and seas. They have a good, divine purpose, but that does not mean they are good for you. In our oceans, streams, lakes and ponds the only good fish have both fins and scales are only they are called food in the Bible.

PFAS are a group title for thousands of different chemicals, some of are now banned but they are found in some streams, lakes and rivers. Guess what, catfish can be laden with them. 

Friday night fried catfish anyone? No thanks.

Lobster and crabs are crustaceans and they are a part of the arthropod family of water creatures, on land the arthropod family includes the creepy crawlers like caterpillars, cockroaches, and spiders.

Have you ever thought it would be good to try out your favorite hot sauce on boiled cockroach?

Unless you want to put your health at the risk of disease and toxic build-up, we are also instructed by God to not to eat certain birds like eagles (predators) and vultures (scavengers), or chew on animals with toes (aka claws). Clawed animals include armadillos, raccoons, squirrels, rabbits, bears, cats, dogs, mice and rats and so on.

Have you ever thought to try to our your BBQ sauce out on grilled armadillo?

Our Father in Heaven tells us we are not to eat animals that have split hooves that do not chew their cud.

These of course include oink, oink -- a pig. 

Pigs, hogs and swine of all kinds are the worst case scenario, they are both scavengers and predators. 

Pigs will basically eat anything including dead insects, worms, rotting carcasses, garbage and while in captivity, pigs will eat their own young when stressed. That's why God gave Moses the extra warning to write down for everyone about them: "Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch."

Pigs have a big health problem, one reason is they do not have sweat glands so they are not able to dispose of toxins through their skin. What they eat stays with them, now you know why The Father says don't even touch them.

Perspiration is one way that toxins are removed from the body. Since a pig does not sweat, the toxins they eat remain in the pig's flesh and toxins don't cook out. Toxins are one reason you will see pigs with open sores on their bodies. Pigs also harbor and retain parasites and diseases as well as large concentrations of parasitic worms within their digestive tract.

Easter ham anyone?

Like all scavengers, pigs have a simple and short stomach and digestive system unlike the more complex, ruminant stomachs found in split hoofed, cud chewing animals.

Our Creator not only designed, He defined four legged animals by two key characteristics of how they walk and eat. Just as our Creator spoke these animals into existence, He also spoke to Moses and He distinguished the “clean” four footed animals that walk planet earth with two distinct physical characteristics of locomotion and digestion aka walking and eating. 

Hoofs and cuds – it’s as simple as hooves and cuds. Our Creator's diet plan is really simple.

I think this is humor of our Creator... after all part of our walk with Him is how we eat.

God wants us to eat the way He instructs us to, not the way we want to. 

Adam and Eve proved that!

The Newer Testament doesn't change or do away with Almighty God's teaching and instruction. Peter's rooftop vision wasn't about food, Acts 10 is about prejudice against people. Don't extract what you want out of context, step back and read it all.

We are not to eat undercooked meat (blood), ask any doctor - undercooked red meat can cause cancer, period. End of story! Our Creator instructs us as our loving, protecting Father. 

When our Creator tells us to not eat certain insects like spiders, flies, worms, scorpions, and other similar "creeping" insects that serve as the scavengers and predators of the bug world. These creepy crawlers are not at all like the grasshopper, cricket or locust which are actually the herbivores of the insect world.

Just consider them the cattle and sheep of the insect world.

It is easy for everyone to agree that "road-kill" is not a delicacy, and that the idea of eating a rat, bat or cat is repulsive.

Today, modern medicine has been able to uncover God's wisdom within His instruction: that consuming scavengers and predators, or under-cooked meat can infect people with exotic contaminants and highly infectious pathogens, carcinogens, bacteria, viruses, toxins and parasites that cause food-borne illness, organ cancers and heart disease. From our middle school biology classes we all know that illness and disease weakens our nervous and immune systems and over time will most certainly shorten our lifespan. While some of us may love eating catfish, lobster, shrimp, sushi or rarely cooked meats we are not to do it because these foods present health risks.

Our family used to indulge in shrimp, catfish, baby back ribs and snack on ham sandwiches before we realized God does not change His mind, His word stands forever.
"God's Word is absolute, He keeps His Word through eternity. For I [am] the LORD, I change not..." Malachi 3:6
We now understand plainly that God gives us His His diet instructions because He loves us. He wants to give us life that is precious, long and fulfilling, not the opportunity to become sick and diseased. His concern over the food we eat is really simple, He made the "clean" creatures for us to eat and the "unclean" to serve as nature's own disposal and garbage service.

Fatty foods are bad for you, just ask any dietitian and they will tell you to stay away lobster, shrimp and crab.

Check this out and you will see the common denominator in the prominent bacteria that are responsible for food-borne illnesses and His dietary instruction?

These include:
Campylobacter jejuni - found in intestines of animals, shellfish and birds.
Clostridium botulinum - found in intestinal tracts of animals and fish.
Clostridium perfringens - found in intestinal tracts of animals.
Escherichia coli O157:H7 - found in the intestinal tracts of some mammals, one of several strains of E. coli found in rare meat.
Listeria monocytogenes - found in the intestinal tracts of animals.
Salmonella - found in the intestines of animals and seafood.
Streptococcus A - found in lobster.
There are over 1,600 stains of Salmonella, people must burn their bacon for a very good reason!

While many may like the taste of lobster, crab or clams; medical science has found toxins and often elements like mercury in these shellfish that over time build-up in the human body. These possible exposures to these unknown dangers were advised against by The Creator and they are now proven now in our lifetime by medical science. Many say that pork, the swine that is raised for the sole purpose of going to a slaughterhouse, is 'OK' for food. But God, who created that animal to scavenge, says in His wisdom that pork, the other white meat, is not good for food.

Animals that are designed by God to be scavengers or predators are not designed to be food for us. One fact given by medical science today is that pork is closer to human flesh than any other animal. Why?

The pig's digestive time frame is very short at only four hours. This allows all impurities that the pig consumes to pass directly into the fatty tissues and meat of the animal. So, with that said, why in the world would we want to eat them?

The trichinae worm of the swine is microscopically small, and once ingested can lodge itself in our intestines, muscles, spinal cord or the brain. This results in the disease trichinosis. Worldwide, an estimated 10,000 cases of trichinellosis occur every year. Several different species of Trichinella can cause human disease; the most common species is Trichinella spiralis, which has a global distribution and is the species most commonly found in pigs. According to the CDC "Pigs, feral hogs, cougars and black bears can all harbor Trichinella infection."

Pigs and swine are so poisonous that you can hardly kill them with strychnine or other poisons.

In the U.S., the USDA and the Center for Food Security and Public Health is worried about the influenza virus in pigs. I wonder why?

We have all heard the old saying, "you are that which you eat". Then why should we eat anything that God instructs against? This is really simple, don't eat pig!

So What is it About Peter's Vision???

Like me, many Christians have been taught to interpret the apostle Peter's vision as described in Acts 10 to justify eating just about anything including Easter ham.

If you are like me, the simple fact may be that you may have not read all of the message given in the book of Acts.

Many sermons have excerpted verse bytes from the teaching. So, perhaps we have been innocent to a degree, because the Bible was chopped and cut up into numbered verses and chapters around the year 1200 AD. It was god idea so people could find chapter and verse but the downside is people began to read and study God's word in small bits and pieces. This is dangerous, and when this is done mistaken assumptions can be made.

For example, by doing this, many have added or taken away from Scripture and misunderstood Peter's vision as doing away with God's healthy diet plan, but if you read and study all of Acts 10, you too will see it is not about doing away with anything other than prejudice against other people.

The reason God gave the vision to Peter was because he was still stuck in some Jewish customs that did not come from the Bible that led Jewish people to believe that even touching food that non-Jews prepared was a sin. The fact is that tradition is no where to be found in the Bible.

The book of Acts is a small book with a big message and it's not about food.

It is not to read in slices, but rather whole portions. Peter's dream was a vision from God to "show" Peter that he was not to continue holding on to an old oral law tradition of prejudice and discrimination against non-Jews that chose to follow the Messiah of the God of Israel. A big part of that discrimination was from the fact that pagan idol worshipping Gentiles did not observe God's instruction on food. One reason, they did not read the Bible or have any relationship with The Lord.

Because of rabbinic tradition, Peter still harbored a religious opinion all non Jews were defiled as person. He didn't realize they were former Gentiles.

He ignored the teaching of Master Yeshua:  “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

Read Acts 10, all of it. God was using this vision to teach Peter the spirit of the Torah is focused on how we treat people and Acts 10 is all about the words of Moses and Zechariah:
"Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt." Exodus 23:9

"One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you." Exodus 12:49

"And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee." Zechariah 2:11
Peter's assignment was to enter the home of a wonderful man named Cornelius to bring his family and friends the good news of the Kingdom of God. God wanted to use Cornelius as a big witness for truth and Peter got the assignment from Heaven. Cornelius was a Roman Centurion but He loved and God loved him as much as he loved Peter and he wanted Peter to know that.

Cornelius was blessed and chosen to become a non-Jewish believer. That may have never happened if Peter retained his prejudice. The big lesson of Acts 10 is this: Jewish disciples were not to think of non-Jewish believers as "unclean" period!

God has no prejudice. He loves everyone! The vision's message was simple and not about food because all people are created in the image of God.

We are not to consider others made in God's image as unclean or unfit for relationship with each other or the God of Israel.

Peter already knew that Yeshua did not come to establish a new religion or to do away with God's teaching and instruction. Messiah came to fulfill the word of God... to fill it up with meaning.

The disciples were all Jewish, they never went through a conversion per se, they "received and accepted" Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah, one with the Father YHVH and they witnessed Him in resurrection, but Peter was a leader and he needed some heart circumcision. 

His discrimination defiled him just as Jesus said, "the things that come out of a person are what defile him."

The men of Judah had an assignment, to be the light to all the world, not a shadow in it.

Peter was adamant in his perception of the Kingship duty of Messiah, yet he did not understand he too needed to be clean. When Yeshua told him that He would give up His life for the world, Peter rebuked Yeshua in front of the other disciples immediately after Peter declared that He was the Messiah of God:
"Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Messiah." Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him." Mark 8:27-32 NIV
Peter argued because he did not yet understand that Yeshua would give His life and die as the humble Messiah ben Joseph and later return in glory as Messiah ben David for all mankind.

It was the mission of the disciples to go to all people. Yeshua came to bring salvation the the Jew first as shown in Romans 1:16, and the Jewish mission to be a light to all the world and all nations is the same assignment that includes you and me:
"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." Matthew 24:14 NIV
It's the same instruction given to the disciples:
"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 16:15 NIV
Peter was a Jewish disciple with a heart stuck in oral tradition that added to the good news of the Torah. He mistakenly believed that others were unworthy of a relationship with Jewish people that walked in the Torah principles of Messiah.

That is why God had to show Peter a radical vision that's still misunderstood. God had to erase Peter's "reverse" anti-semitism that was embedded in his old oral law opinion, because it was not rooted in the Torah that teaches mankind is made in the image of God.

God’s loving offer to follow Him is open to all people as a matter of choice, not DNA.

There's nothing in the Torah that declares for one that wants to follow God remains impure or unclean.

Cornelius was Roman, he was also a Centurion, but his heart was pure to follow God.

In the Exodus account, everyone that chose to follow The Father's shechinah glory out of Egypt in the wilderness became a part of the family, the children of the God of Israel. The crowd included the adopted descendants of Joseph's boys, born on earth by an Egyptian mother. don't forget, her father was a pagan priest of the idol, the fake god On, one of many. 

The crowd likely included Egyptians that went with them and all the other strangers from the nations that chose to follow and walk away from the plagues brought on Egypt's fake gods.

Simon Peter was shown something critical in the Acts 10 vision and it was not about food. He was shown that the God of Israel wants to save the world, like the mixed multitude exodus crowd, the Father does not reject people from the nations, the Gentiles, men do.

Peter, the Jew from the family house of Judah had to be shown that he too must accept those that turn from pagan ways as God believers and sojourn , adopted in the family of the Kingdom of God.

The purpose, the lesson of the vision is declared in Acts 10 toward the end of the chapter, but many do not read on to the summary. We simply have to keep reading to see the big God picture given to Peter so I've included some clarity for those that think the more of the story is about a meal: 
"He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our [oral] law] for a Jew to associate with or visit a Gentile. But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean." Acts 10:28
As Peter the Jewish disciple explained to Cornelius the former Gentile, calling another person that chooses to love God is like an evil report: 
"I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears Him and does what is right." Acts 10:34-35 NIV
The Greek word the NIV translates here as "favoritism" is transliterated as prosōpolēmptēs, it means discrimination much like United States Title VII discrimination, the American law that emulates the Torah teaching of right and wrong right here in the good 'ol USA.

Simon Peter is declaring the revelation in his heart that God does not discriminate, God does not play favorites, but He accepts people from every nation who follow Him and choose to do what is right in God's image

Those are Peter's words not mine. 

This is repeated in the "one new man" message Paul learned just like Peter did. 

Paul called discrimination the enmity of the oral law with its manmade religious regulations that add and take away from the written Torah of God. Paul delivered the Acts 10 lesson to the Ephesians. The italics are mine for context:
For we are God's handiwork created in Messiah Yeshua to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do
Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called "uncircumcised" by those who call themselves "the circumcision" (which is done in the body by human hands) -- remember that at that time (uncircumcised in the heart) you were separate from Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. 
But now in Messiah Yeshua you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. 
For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the (oral) law with its commands and regulations. 
His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two (spirit and flesh), thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 
For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Messiah Yeshua himself as the chief cornerstone. 
In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Ephesians 2:10-22 NIV
Acts 10 is rarely taught
beyond a verse snippet.

Perhaps that is because the typical seminary student was taught an oral law to take away from the living Torah saying it was done away with at the cross. 

Yet, the Scripture Simon Peter came to understand says this about God's constitution for Kingdom life:
"Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God." Deuteronomy 12:28 NIV

"See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it." Deuteronomy 12:32 NIV
That is why Peter said he was shown that every nation who follows Him and does what is right. Peter's vision is teaching anyone with prejudice that the lovingkindness taught in the Torah is not done away with, love your neighbor as yourself. 

Peter sees Cornelius as God does. simple put that God accepts all people, native born and sojourner who fear him and do what is right.

Peter then explains further, not to define a new religion diet plan, but the opposite as he points back to Mount Sinai and the message God gave to both the people of Israel and the sojourners grafted in with them through the written words Moses:
"You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Messiah Yeshua, who is Lord of all." Acts 10:36

"God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 
He commanded us to preach to (all) the people and to testify that He is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Acts 10:40-43
Hold on to your religious hat, because the Book of Acts including chapter 10 never teaches anyone to do away with the Torah to define a religion, and it never teaches anyone not to do and follow God's principles for living by His holiness code of life in God's image. 

Peter's vision simple teaches a "Golden Rule" of Torah that Yeshua taught in Matthew 7:12:

"Therefore, however you want people to treat you, 
so treat them, 
for this is the Torah and the Prophets."

As shown in another commentary Messiah's Bible, Yeshua taught this about that:
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: 
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:36-40 NIV
By the vision and the encounter with Cornelius, Peter had finally learned the greatest commands. 

The disciples without a doubt, continued to eat good food ['oklah], they continued in Sabbath rest without a Roman calendar time shift and they continued to celebrate the appointed times, the festivals of The LORD. 

After all, it was Yeshua that shouted this out for everyone to hear at the closing Sukkot (Tabernacles) water pouring ceremony that He is the water of life.

The disciples fulfilled the words given to Isaiah:
"You who bring good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, “Here is your God!”" Isaiah 40:9
It was the pagan Gentiles that did not believe God. That is our basic pagan problem, we ignore the first commandment.

Pagans choose their own religion and worship false idols with the choice of perversion and sexual sin so it was the assignment given to Paul to teach them otherwise in the Torah ways of God. Acts 17:16 tells us when Paul went to Athens: "his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry."

The Gentiles like Epenetus are the ones that needed to graft in to Messiah and receive the word of God from the Torah, to do it and repent, to leave idolatry and sin... accept the way of Messiah.

For thousands of years, the Ten Commandments have been known by Jewish people as the "Ten Words." They are the words of Almighty God that were heard by everyone at the foot of Mount Sinai. 

With lightning flashes, shaking and the roar of thunder the first commandment starts like this:
"You shall have no other gods before Me. 
You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth." Exodus 20:3-4
Repentance is symbolized in washing, water cleans and it's a process. This fact appears in the Mt. Sinai account as shown in Exodus 19:10-11
"And the LORD said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the LORD will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people."
Peter taught his lesson from the vision to his kinsmen, the "circumcised" Torah observant Jewish believers that went with him and entered Cornelius' home in opposition to their oral tradition to discriminate against others:
"Then Peter began to speak:

"I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. ... "Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have."

So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Yeshua Hamashiach. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days...

The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God." Acts 10:28, Acts 10:34-35, Acts 47-48, Acts 11:1 
What we do and how is important to Almighty God. 
What we eat is important too, because in the end... 
God is all about abundant life.

Our Creator made us to live for Him in His image, His way is the way. To do that The Father wants us to be healthy too - so He gave us His teaching and instruction about that to protect us. That's what loving Father's do. They don't want us to each garbage, but good things. 

When any living creature on earth, whether on land or at sea dies, they will soon have a visit by God's clean up crew. 

Everyone knows that when any animal dies, it is consumed first by vultures, buzzards, sometime wild boars, and then maggots and worms. Right?

So look it up for yourself, pigs are "omnivores", which means that they consume both plants and animals... and dead animals in fact. Why? They are scavengers, made by God to keep earth clean!

Other omnivores include: rodents, mice, rats, squirrels, chipmunks, opossums, raccoons and the wily, sly fox. 

Oh yeah... barbecue rodent kabobs, sounds yummy! No?

When a sea creature dies, it's consumed by shrimp, crab, lobster, clams, barnacles and other consumers of rotting, dead flesh. These "sea maggots" eat the dead that once lived. In lakes and streams we have other wonderful scavengers to protect the living from the pollution of death. The include catfish and crayfish. 

Cajun crayfish boil anyone?

Most people know that the clean up crew are known as crustaceans. But many people do not know that the scientific study of crustaceans is known as carcinology. 

Just the sound of the word "carcinology" is too close to the word "carcinogen" for me!

According to Dr. Tessler, a well known doctor who wrote this in the book The Genesis Diet

"Pigs are known to carry up to two hundred diseases and eighteen different parasites and worms, including the deadly worm called trichinella spiralis. This worm is commonly called trichinosis and there is no known cure for these spiral worms. The trichinae worms are so small and transparent that only trained inspectors using high-powered microscopes can detect their existence. Trichinosis can cripple or even kill anyone that eats as little as a forkful of contaminated food! Trichinosis can mimic other diseases such as arthritis, rheumatism, or typhoid fever.

Pigs have more incidences of arthritis than any other known animal in the world. Arthritis can make its way into your body from a virus or a parasite that is transmitted by pigs to humans as a direct result of eating the flesh and blood of the hog. Perhaps many other diseases are misdiagnosed and their root cause is roundworm, gullet worms, hookworms, thorn-headed worms, trichina worms, stomach worms, nodular worms, tapeworms, as well as many other parasites found in the flesh of the unclean swine. A person may be committing slow suicide when they eat bacon, ham, sausage, or pork chops."


The American Cancer Society considers pig and pork products like bacon, salami and pork hot dogs to be the number one cancer-producing agent in the world today other than smoking. 

Why? Basic animal biology tells us the pig's body tries to fight the trichinosis worm by forming tumors around them. That''s why people hot fry bacon, no slow roasting in the oven.

Incredibly, a whole industry has been marketed around eating Biblically unauthorized, "unclean" food for breakfast.

Eating from a healthy, Biblically image of God based diet (physical and spiritual) can keep unhealthy things from our body and soul, bringing life and vitality back, clearing the mind, memory, muscles, bones and organs and protecting us of life-threatening diseases (Deuteronomy 28). To do this, we need to keep our hearts and minds healthy too because we become what we eat.

Fried tumor anyone?

The amazing thing is that in modern Israel, laws governing the pork industry date back 50 years. That's when the Knesset passed a law banning the production of pork. 

The Israeli law permits raising hogs only in majority Christian Arab regions in the North as a concession to Israel’s "Christian" minority that miss-reads Acts 10. As a result, today's Christian towns have become hog heaven in Israel.

Think about that.

Sadly, Israel who is to be the light of the world has dropped the ball in their own ballpark, missed the mark, taken way from the Torah of God.

Now, go back to Paul's words in 1Corinthians 6:19 and think about the spiritual reality that our body is the Temple, the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. We are made to be in God's image. Would the God of your Bible ever allow a bacon wrapped shrimp sacrifice? No, it would defile the altar and render it useless in worship and offering to the Creator of life on this planet.

Think about that!

In the same way, would Father God want you to eat the worms and maggots embedded in the tumor of a pig? No way!

God's definition of "meat" in the Bible is the meat that is good for you. 

That is what clean means in Scripture... good. 

Almighty God is the God of life and that is why He says - NO to animals that are unclean! These are not intended as meat for God's people. They do not meet His definition of good.

You are what you eat. 

Would God want you to eat shrimp that consume rotting flesh for a living or have an unclean spirit in you? Nope! 

Believe it or not, shrimp, crab, lobster, shark and other sea scavengers are the maggots of the sea and catfish, crayfish and snails are the bottom feeders of our fresh water lakes and streams. They are no delicacy, it's no wonder they smell so bad before they are dipped in butter, lemon and seasoning as a disguise to the truth.

The names of "unclean" fish can be confusing, other than catfish and bass here are some names of the most common bottom feeders, the flatfish from the turbid waters at the bottom of the sea that God does not want you to chew: halibut, turbot, flounder, plaice, sole, sand dab, eel, cod, haddock, bass, grouper, carp, hagfish, bream and snapper. There are some 400 species of flatfish, they are called demersal fish by biologists. Demersal fish are bottom feeders and really nasty.

Get this: hagfish coat themselves with the remains of any dead fish they find creating a noxious slime making them inedible to other fish species.

Clean fish are generally pelagic fish, most of them swim in schools. Pelagic fish get their name from the area that they inhabit called the pelagic zone. They live in groups and feed away from the bottom in open water but so do unclean fish like sharks. There's always a tare among the wheat.

We all know that fish oil is what is good for us. Most demersal fish fillets contain almost no fish oil content, but pelagic fish have up to 30 percent of their body weight in fish oil. The word demersal is derived from the Latin word demergere, it means "to sink." Oil is lighter than water.

But don't worry God makes it easy.

He is the architect of creation and His explanation is really simple. God tells us fish need both fins and scales to qualify as food. Bottom fish don't have scales because they are part of God's marine waste disposal system. Have you ever touched a catfish? They feel like slime for a reason.

Why would you ever add the content of a vacuum cleaner bag to your soup or feed catfish and shrimp to your cat? No, it would make them sick. So, why eat a fish designed to clean up the lake or sea? Perhaps now, you understand why some creatures are an abomination to life... they are not bad, they have a purpose not related to food, it just that they just have a nasty job, and thankfully so.

Predatory animals in each link in the food chain can have between two and seven times the mercury of their prey in the previous food chain link. Mercury levels in these top predators can be more than a million-fold higher than in the little creatures at the bottom of the same food chain.

Now you know what I know, let's get back to see just how the apostle Peter described his vision...
Acts 10:34-44 Then Peter opened [his] mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which [God] sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, [I say], ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, [even] to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God [to be] the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word.
So, it wasn't just about food, was it? It was abut people!!
Leviticus 11:1-23 And The Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying to them, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, These are the animals which you shall eat among all the animals that are on the earth. Whatever has a divided hoof, which is clovenfooted, and also chews the cud, among the animals, that you shall eat. Nevertheless these you shall not eat of those that chew the cud, or of those that have a divided hoof, such as the camel, because it chews the cud, but does not have a divided hoof So, it is unclean unto you. And the rabbit, because it chews the cud, but does not have a divided hoof, it is unclean to you. And the hare (kangaroo), because it chews the cud, but does not have a divided hoof, it is unclean to you. And the swine [hogs, pig and pork], though it has a divided hoof, and be cloven footed, yet it does not chew the cud; it is unclean to you. Of their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcass you shall not touch; they are unclean to you. These you shall eat of all that are in the waters, whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, those you shall eat. And all that do not have fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination to you. They shall be even an abomination to you. You shall not eat of their flesh, but you shall have their carcasses in abomination. Whatever has no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination to you. And these are those which you shall have in abomination among the fowls (birds), they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the osprey, and the vulture, and the kite after his kind; every raven after his kind, and the owl, and the night hawk, and the cuckoo, and the hawk after his kind, and the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl, and the swan, and the pelican, and the gier eagle, and the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat. All insects that creep, going upon all fours, shall be an abomination unto you. Yet these you may eat of every flying insect that goes upon all fours, which have legs above their feet, to leap with on the earth, these of them ye may eat: the locust after his kind, and the bald locust after his kind, and the beetle after his kind, and the grasshopper after his kind. But all other flying insects, which have four feet, shall be an abomination to you.
It's time to make a difference give up the inherited lie... no more ham or other road kill.
Jeremiah 16:19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and [things] wherein [there is] no profit.

Leviticus 20:25-26 You shall therefore make a difference between clean animals and unclean, and between unclean fowls and clean: and you shall not make your souls abominable by animal, or by fowl, or by any manner of living thing that moves on the ground, which I have separated from you as unclean. And you shall be holy unto me. for I, The Lord, am holy, and have separated you from other people, that you should be mine.
Even the popular cable TV gets it. 

An unclean menu as defined by God = deadly parasites... period. Check our this special from Robert Lamb's How Stuff Works. Then watch these Animal Planet Monster Inside Me videos on the subject. (Update September 7, 2009.)

So in Acts 10, we read that Peter saw a vision on the rooftop where he was told to arise and eat unclean animals. Peter knew His Maker's dietary instruction from Scripture hadn't been abolished, so at first he was likely confused about the vision and its meaning but he came to realize he was to not judge another man as unclean.

As you study the Scriptures, you too can understand that the Bible uses unclean animals as ensigns which are symbolic of idol worshiping "nations" aka "Gentiles" while the Word uses clean animals as the ensign or symbol of God worshiping "believers." 

Every heard of the "beast?" 

That system is called a beast for a reason, it's defiled.

Peter witnessed the salvation of Cornelius and he realized how God wanted him to interpret the vision. 

The vision had nothing to do with whether or not he could eat unclean food. God the Father was showing him that the people of the nations, the Gentiles, who Peter considered to be like unclean animals, were no longer to be viewed as unclean. Look again for yourself, the Biblical interpretation of Peter's vision is described in Acts 10:28-29; Acts 11:1-18; and Acts 15:6-9.

Like Peter's vision, God's teaching about "clean" and "unclean" are among the most misunderstood instructions found in the Bible. Since Moses, food has been just one mark of identity separating God’s people from the world. Others include the Sabbath and the appointed days of The Lord. All of these have been a source of controversy, confusion and anti-Semitism.

God once told Noah "of every moving animal which is life to you becomes food as the herbs I give." That is from Young's literal translation and the focus is life... this word is "chay" and spelled with the letters Chet and Yod.

Genesis teaches us that God gave some life instruction. No one wrote it down until Moses. We see that with Abraham who obeyed God's voice, kept his charges, commandments and statutes. God taught the difference between clean and unclean animals... Noah took 7 clean and 2 unclean onboard. How would he have known to do that? God told him the difference.

Another key to good food is the Hebrew word the KJV Bible called meat. It is not quite a T-bone. The word is "oklah." It is food. It is seldom seen in the Torah. The first appearance is in Genesis 1:29-30, the fruit and herbs, then the manna of Exodus 16.

Bottom line, good food, "oklah" from God must be clean, that means it is good and not mixed. That is tahowr. That was the problem with the mixed tree of good and evil. The good tree of life only had life chay... Chet Yod.

When God said the word "life" Noah knew what God meant.

Today, we know why, because the flesh of all unclean animals are mixed as they all absorb and hold toxins, acids, viruses, bacteria, mercury and other heavy metals from what the fish, birds and animals eat.

The first sin involved food, so it is important to consider why don't we just eat "every" plant, fruit and animal on the planet. After all, God called all creation good and Genesis 9 says 'every' thing right?
Genesis 9:3 "Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant.
Let’s go back to the beginning for a minute and dig in.
Genesis 1:29-30 Then God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
There's that "every" word again, and how about this?
Genesis 2:15-16 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying: ‘Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.
Yet, we have to keep reading about the tree of good and evil... We can't just stop here at one numbered verse and assume "everything" can be eaten as food. After all, the original Bible never came with chapters, verses or paragraph breaks!
'but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.’
So, it’s not everything after all.

Let's go back again and see how God might speak of certain animals we can eat. We speak English and think in Greek. God speaks and thinks in Hebrew. So how does God define animals as food? We know from Sinai It is tied to the descriptions of types of herbivores, but what about Genesis? Is it the green herbs and seeds?
Genesis 1:29-30 And God said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed—to you it shall be for food; and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food.’ And it was so.
Noah knew about the meat herb connection because God told him: "of every moving animal which is life to you becomes food as the herbs I give." Noah learned from God that herbivores can be eaten, because they are ‘food’ by God's spoken word. Herbivores are herbivores, they eat herbs.

So, we can see that in Genesis 9, Noah already knew something. After all, he brought seven pairs of clean and two pair of unclean. How did he know the difference? Moses was not around.

We can know this: Noah did not sacrifice unclean when he built the altar to celebrate the end of the flood under the rainbow with God. And if we consider it, God might have been actually inviting Noah, just like the priests of Aaron to share in the meal on an altar.

Can we imagine the scene with a little humor?

Wow that’s a nice aroma God! OK Noah, I know you are famished, now that you are out of the boat you can eat these clean animals, after all they eat herbs. You can fire up your grill from now on for animals that eat herbs like you do because you are what you eat...

It’s cool to know the animals that eat plants are called herbivores and many of them are called domestics. The World English dictionary tells us that domestic means: "1. of or involving the home or family' 2. enjoying or accustomed to home or family life; 3. (of an animal) bred or kept by man as a pet or for purposes such as the supply of food."

After all, by their very definition, domestic food animals are under the "dominion of man (Genesis 1:26).

Here's an epiphany, you can walk right up to them, herd them, flock them, you know... keep dominion over them.

Funny thing, the herbivores that walk the earth are domesticated plant and seed eaters. They do not kill to eat like predators or eat the dead (carrion). Might we possibly consider God gave the same teaching to Noah that He gave to Adam and later Abraham that Moses wrote down during the 40 days at the top of the mountain of Sinai?

At the end of the day, God created herbivores as cud-chewers and God calls clean. The Bible shows us that predatory, carnivorous animals are not food for logical and simple reasons. Science and medicine now agrees with God's Word.

People like to argue over this, especially those that want their bacon wrapped shrimp, but the truth is God created clean animals to provide food for His set-apart people so that they might live.

God created animals unsuitable to be called food to do the clean-up and sanitation work around the planet.

When Messiah Yeshua returns to this earth there is going to be a "restitution of all things" just as Acts 3:20–21 tells us. This includes not only proper worship, the Sabbath and the Feasts but God's Kosher diet found in the Bible. The good news is we don't have to wait for The Day of The Lord to walk like Jesus.

Simply put, the teaching of the Bible is that God says... hold the bacon, there's danger on the half shell and don't eat the clean-up crew!

Epilogue: I mentioned the beast. Have you ever noticed that the ensigns and symbols of most nations of people around the globe are the same "unclean" animals noted in Scripture? An emblem is a unique symbol that identifies a common group of people. Emblems are important to people because they represent us.

Peter never says that it's okay to eat pork n beans... in fact, he was dealing with the nature of man.

Why then do nations insist on choosing unclean emblems?

Just look at the emblems of the nations:
* Australia -kangaroo
* Austria - black eagle
* Belgium - lion
* Canada - beaver
* Chile - condor
* China - giant panda
* Czech Republic - lion
* Denmark - lion
* Egypt - Saladin's eagle
* England - lion
* Finland - lion
* Germany - black eagle
* Iceland - falcon
* India - peacock & bengal
* Indonesia - Komodo dragon
* Laos - elephant
* Malaysia - tiger
* Mexico - golden eagle
* Netherlands - lion
* New Zealand - kiwi
* Poland - white eagle
* Romania - eagle
* Russia - bear & golden eagle
* Scotland - red lion
* Serbia - white eagle
* Singapore - lion
* Soviet Union - bear
* Sweden - lion
* Thailand - elephant
* United Kingdom - lion
* United States - bald eagle
Are you surprised? 

These ensigns are seen on the coins and flags of all nations except one I know of.

You've probably guessed it by now, there is no "unclean" animal used as an ensign of Israel! Just the star of David. 

Praise God Peter figured out his dream and I give thanks to the interpretation of his vision and you should too!

So why do so many "believers" so many "followers" ignore these everlasting instructions from our Creator? If we ignore His instruction, whose path are we "following" anyway?

Think about it, would God ever allow baby back pork ribs on His altar at The Temple?

Think again about what Paul told the Corinthians...
Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 
If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise. 1Corinthians 3:16-18
Why would anyone ever want to defile God's temple. Why eat scavengers and predators when God instructs us to not eat these "unclean" foods? If this is new news to you,  it was for me too but I opened my eyes and believed God when I let go of my Greco-Roman mindset, crossed over and embraced the "real" Messiah Yeshua. I realized Jesus is the Passover Lamb for a reason, not NOT an Easter ham!

One last word, consider this...

The Greek word “kai” καί is translated as: “and” in Revelation 14:2... But did they (the translators) perhaps just miss something in the meaning of this word? It also means “indeed”...

“Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, {indeed} the faith of Yeshua.”

Indeed we are to walk like Yeshua walked. There are things He did not eat. They are the same ones noted in the Scriptures He read and taught!

To learn more about God's food plan I can recommend these resources:
* The Genesis Diet
* Holy Cow! Does God Care About What We Eat?
* What the Bible Says About Healthy Living
* The Maker's Diet
If you only have time for one reference check out Hope Egan's * Holy Cow! Does God Care About What We Eat?

God does care. He is all about life and living it abundantly in health. Because of that, He cares about what we eat and He NEVER changes his mind... He is life.

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What's For Supper Updates 
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Update November 26, 2019: Kosher is cool... just ask the World Health Organization.

From Newsweek: WALMART PORK PRODUCTS CONTAINING SUPERBUGS RESISTANT TO CRITICALLY IMPORTANT ANTIBIOTICS DISCOVERED



"Worryingly, the report found that 27 percent of the resistant bacteria in the Walmart samples would be unaffected by antibiotics categorized as "Highest Priority Critically Important Antimicrobials" (HPCIAs) by the World Health Organization (WHO). HPCIAs are antibiotics used when there are few or no alternatives to treat people with serious bacterial infections.

According to the report, antibiotic-resistant bacteria—commonly referred to as "superbugs"—pose a threat to "all human life." Meanwhile, the WHO recently described antimicrobial resistance as an "increasingly serious threat to global public health that requires action across all government sectors and society."

Update October 3, 2016: Pork in Asda and Sainsbury’s ‘is infected with deadly superbug MRSA’

"The Bureau of Investigative Journalism tested 97 British pork products – and found they carried the potentially deadly bacteria.

MRSA CC398 is less deadly than the strain found in hospitals – but can cause persistent infections and has already implicated in six deaths in Denmark.

People could catch the bug from infected meat if it is not properly cooked, the Guardian said.

In Denmark, the bacteria infects two-thirds of pig farms and is thought to have infected 12,000 people – and current regulations leave an ‘open door’ for infected pigs to arrive here."

Update May 27, 2016: It looks like the prophecy of Ezekiel 33 has come to the headlines of the Washington Post and at least one scientist is afraid the abyss lies before us —

“Now as for you, son of man, say to the house of Israel: You have said this, ‘Our transgressions and our sins are heavy on us, and we are wasting away because of them! How then can we survive?' Ezekiel 33:10

Leviticus 11 was never done away with. It gives simple solutions.
“And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you. You shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.” Leviticus 11:7-8 ESV
WSJ: The superbug that doctors have been dreading just reached the U.S.
For the first time, researchers have found a person in the United States carrying bacteria resistant to antibiotics of last resort, an alarming development that the top U.S. public health official says could mean “the end of the road” for antibiotics.

Separately, researchers at the Agriculture Department and the Department of Health and Human Services reported that testing of hundreds of livestock and retail meats turned up the same colistin-resistant bacteria in a sample from a pig intestine in the United States. USDA said it is working to identify the farm the pig came from.

"It's hard to imagine worse for public health in the United States," Lance Price, director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center and a George Washington University professor, said Thursday in a statement about the case. "We may soon be facing a world where CRE infections are untreatable."

Scientists rang the alarm bells about the gene in November, but not enough attention was paid. "Now we find that this gene has made its way into pigs and people, and people in the U.S.," Price said. "If our leaders were waiting to act until they could see the cliff's edge -- I hope this opens their eyes to the abyss that lies before us."
According to Nutritionfacts.org...

"Smithfield, the largest pork producer in the world, launched “Deli for the Cure,” which donates money to cancer research for every pound sold of the type of meat that, according to the World Cancer Research Fund’s cancer report, causes the most cancer."

Cured meats such as bacon and ham are loaded with carcinogenic nitrosamine producing nitrites and should be avoided. The level of nitrosamines in bacon is so high that they have even been found in the smell of frying bacon. Pan fried pork chops likewise contain carcinogens.

Pork consumption has also been linked to liver failure, due to hepatitis E (which is now known to be zoonotic). Pigs appear to be reservoirs of the virus. Pork tapeworms can take up residence the human brain, and in fact are the most common cause of adult onset epilepsy. They can be contracted through pork consumption or eating food handled by a person who eats pork. Pork is a source of saturated fat as well as cholesterol. Saturated fat has been linked to lower rates of breast cancer survival.

Psychology Today... Is Pork Still Dangerous? Did Leviticus Get it Right?
"Pork consumption has a strong epidemiological association with cirrhosis of the liver. Startlingly, pork may be even more strongly associated with alcoholic cirrhosis than alcohol itself!

The evidence was summarized by Francis Bridges in a recent (2009) paper, building on earlier work by Nanji and French. A relation between pork consumption and cirrhosis of the liver is apparent across countries and has been consistently maintained for at least 40 years."

"We would expect that if pork can cause liver cirrhosis it will also promote liver cancer, since injured and inflamed tissues are more likely to become cancerous.

Indeed, there is an association between pork consumption and the primary liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma."

"There are remarkably strong correlations between pork consumption and liver disease, liver cancer, and multiple sclerosis.

What can be behind those relationships? The relatively high omega-6 fat content of pork may be a contributing factor, but it can't be the whole story. It seems there is something else in pork that makes pork consumption risky."
Update November 14, 2013: Even the FDA now recognizes God's wisdom in the Torah on food safety as the U.S. government agency released its amendments to the FDA food code the 2013 Food Code.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Code allows restaurants to serve undercooked foods only at a customer’s request. It requires the customer to be informed about the risks associated with consuming undercooked food. This warning is a posted sign in fast-food or self-service eatery or as a posting at the bottom of a restaurant menu.

The consumer warning states, "Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish, or eggs may increase your risk of foodborne illness." Customers need to be aware of the risks involved in consuming raw or undercooked foods. All animal products contain some level of bacteria. Whether that bacteria is the type to cause illness or not could mean the difference between a safe meal and a dangerous one.

From Dr. Ted Broer...


What does this all mean? 

It's time for you to repent and return to God's voice, return to hear and do His word and walk in the faith of His Kingdom path so that you can ready your lamp for your coming assignment. 

It means we need to know "Who is the One Called Jesus.

Consider a prayer: Please, God guide me by your Spirit as to what I should hear and do.

It's time to repent and return to God's voice, return to hear and do His words and walk in the faith of His Kingdom path so that you can ready your lamp for your assignment. 

Stretch out your hand, and take from the tree of life, and live forever.

Open a Bible, read it, listen to God's voice and do Yeshua's teaching about the forever jots and tittles. 

You can learn how the things which are written in the Torah, the Prophets, and the Psalms are concerning Messiah and you can teach others to live life like Jesus, it's love in God's way:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." John 3:16-17
Today is the time, open your eyes if you're dead in your own valley of dry bones.

Look up and you'll recognize Messiah from Abraham's promise passed on to Isaac and Jacob as written by Moses in the Torah. You can see Him too in the Prophets and the Writings.

Repent and walk your Emmaus Road with Messiah. Study the Scriptures He taught every Sabbath that are filled with doing life God's way in the Kingdom, and tell others about Him. Be a gatekeeper until the house is complete.

Shalom and eat healthy, not one jot or tittle has passed, heaven and earth remain.

September 10, 2008

When Did "For Ever" Change?


Imitate Yeshua's faith walk is the big lesson here. Don't be misled by strange teachings forget them.

It's time to take another journey of discovery to uncover what has gotten lost in transliteration, translation and tradition from Sabbath to Sunday.

In my Scripture studies that really started in earnest seven years ago, I discovered that God's voice in Exodus 20:8 instructs us to "remember" the Sabbath and keep it set apart (holy) from other days:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."

That got me thinking. 

Almighty God knew many of us would forget the Sabbath!! 

When I started reading the Bible from the beginning, I re-read Exodus 20 over and over and I looked up the Hebrew word for Sabbath שּׁבּת and discovered it's Shabbat.

The Almighty said to remember it, so I turned the pages over to Hebrews 4:9-10 that declares the Sabbath rest remains. 

Hum... that's right in the middle of the Newer Testament. 

Then, I turned back to Isaiah 56:6-7:
Also the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
To minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD,
To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath
And holds fast My covenant;
Even those I will bring to My holy mountain
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
That's when I realized... the Shabbat is not just Jewish as I had thought, but thank God Jesus the Jew kept it as well as the rest of God's calendar.

Had He forgotten the Sabbath, we would have never heard about His Sabbath teachings in those synagogues. 

If he used the Pope's sundial Sunday, He would have forgotten all about Leviticus 23, even missed Passover thinking it was Easter and tied to the vernal equinox instead of the 14th of Abib (now called Nisan). 

Jesus would have missed resurrection First Fruits too and where would we be?

HalleluYah praise God !! His calendar remains and the Sabbath rest also remains for everyone since creation week because Almighty God does not change. 

In other words, there's no Sunday time travel. 

Shabbat was never done away with, there's no time travel in the Newer Testament and for ever has not been forgotten or done away with. That's what the book of Hebrews says: 
"So there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His." Hebrews 4:9-10
Wait a minute, I had always thought there was a church time change to Sunday. Why was I reading about the Sabbath marked out on God's appointment calendar in the Newer Testament? 

For years, I thought there was a Sunday shift. I also thought the Old Testament was old and done away with (aka changed). I was innocent in a way and fell for a tradition until I read the Bible.

Thanks to help from God's Spirit, I realized that the for ever Sabbath did not shift gears in New Testament time travel or fast forward regardless of Constantine's church councils or any Caesar or Pope's calendar whether his name was Julius or Gregory. 

That doesn't mean Sunday's not a good day to worship The LORD, everyday is a good day, it's just not the for ever day to remember. 

I no longer believed the theory I'd heard a few times that a young man fell out of a window and inserted a leap day in God's day of rest. I'll offer a bit more on that window a bit later if you want to read on.

The Sunday sermons I'd heard went something like this... until the cross, Jesus Christ and the disciples honored and kept The LORD's seventh day Sabbath that had been honored since creation. But, after the resurrection, the disciples lost track of time and forgot the for ever seventh day, the rest day Sabbath, after all it was old and done away with at the cross. 

I had to ask when did for ever change? 

With very little research, I found that the early Roman church made a Sol Invictus mandate and fast forwarded God's day of rest to Sunday to recruit some pagan masses into the fold.

By doing so they replaced The LORD's for ever holy day of rest. 

At age 45, in about 30 minutes of research, I found church time travel started with a Roman Emperor by the name of Constantine. I'd heard about him, but never though much about him.

Back in the day, he suggested a counsel be put together to set out some new Roman rules on the empire's new religion. 

Constantine's councils basically re-aligned The LORD's day of rest to make it acceptable for sun-god worshipers that detested the Jewish people throughout the dark shadow of the Roman Empire. 

Bottomline, Constantine wanted to keep the old Babylonian-Persian sun-god system intact. That way people would come to Sunday church ordained by the Emperor. 

In doing so, the councils made a religious gear shift easier to deal with.. for the pagans. 

A few new church elders simply adopted the old traditions and ignored the book of Hebrews: 

"There remains a Sabbath rest." 

I knew I had to dig in deeper because I had a few questions.

Did the guy that wrote the book of Hebrews not know the sermon I'd heard that the writings of Moses were done and dusted on the cross? 

Did he forget that Sabbath time travel would help usher the Roman Empire into a new religion? 

Then I realized the guy that wrote the book of Hebrews would have likely gotten into a heated debate with one of the early church fathers by the name of Ignatius. 

Ignatius was a new bishop and unfortunately an ignorant anti-Semite. He wrote this:

“Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness..."

Hum... Ignatius ignored Genesis. 
He tossed out the fourth commandment.
Forgot Jesus was Jewish.
Skipped past the book of Hebrews.
Igantius forgot for ever. 

Then I wondered, who put Ignatius in charge? 

I thought, maybe the word ignoramus comes from not so good 'ol Ignatius.

Seriously, perhaps like Ignatius, for years I'd skimmed past parts of the very Bible Jesus read. Then I read it and found it declares what our Creator God, The LORD of Hosts has to say, but like an ignoramus, I ignorantly ignored Leviticus and these words from the mouth of my Creator: 
"Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'” Exodus 31:16-17
I wondered what would Jesus say about me and then I read this:
But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Matthew 4:4 
Hum, every word. So, when did "For Ever" change?

It didn't. 

The Sabbath is the weekly appointment, the set apart memorial of God's creation and authority over it and those in it, and thank God The LORD declares the end from the beginning. 

The Sabbath points toward redemption in the Messianic Age to come.

I still had more questions. 

Why was a God's vacation day forgotten?

I questioned my tradition. I even questioned my belief. Why isn't The LORD's for ever memorial day kept for ever by everyone?

Then, I realized that some of us who say we "believe in God" and say we are the children of God and follow Jesus, don't believe the voice of God or do what Jesus did because we don't live by every word that come form the mouth of God.

Many like me, in Ignatius ignorance ignore the voice of Father God our Creator as we put our hands over our eyes and ears and forgot the for ever words of the Bible. 

I went into a form of spiritual shock. 

Without knowing it, I had sidestepped my Creator and skipped cluelessly past Him and what Jesus said.

It was time to do what Jesus always said to do: REPENT!

It was time for me and my family to turn back and return to Abba Father's "forever" memorial day of rest embedded in time since creation. 

For many like me, church time travel has been a tradition for about 1,700 years, but this commentary about my own journey is NOT about Sunday sermon bashing.

It's about repentance and seeking the light of truth, plain and simple. 

I confess I forgot the Sabbath and I did not know why I'd ignored God's voice. 

When I repented, I opened the Bible and realized that I was ignorant because I'd been skimming with verse snippets for years. I soon realized I was blinded by tradition.

I continued to dig deeper and then I discovered the "Sabbaton" window in the book of Acts. 

As promised, there's more on that in a minute...

If we want to believe the Bible -- its time to start from the beginning.

As I said, I was shocked, shaken and disappointed I'd forgotten The Lord's Sabbath remains!

I felt as if the guys that had listened to all those pulpits were fraudsters. But then I realized, hey they were just like me, we just got lost in time. 

So, I locked my heart, mind and soul into The LORD's voice given to Malachi 3:6. 

The prophet wrote this for a good God reason:

“I The LORD do not change.” 

I was heartbroken when I realized that some early church fathers had turned the wrong way preaching anti-semitic replacement theologies that God changed His mind and that Jesus wasn't really Jewish after all because he debated some add on religious traditions about the Sabbath's big purpose. 

That kind of Greco Roman thinking is still echoing in some church bells. It started when the Roman and Greek elders claimed the "church" replaced the Jewish people and made up their own religious rules against them.

Their Greek thinking adopted a new paradigm... God under the church.

The Sunday time travel theory has a big problem that you may have not thought of, it plays on the presumption that Almighty God does not keep His word and that He changes His mind. 

The truth is the God of Israel has never changed His mind nor turned His back on the Sabbath or the Jewish people. For that matter, He never forgot the Sabbath day to remember that Jewish people have honored for thousands of years. 

One big problem with Greek thinking is this: if God gave up on His so-called Old Testament and changed His mind, He forgot for ever! 

It seems that few people outside the synagogue believe Malachi, yet the truth remains, God does not change. The Sabbath remains, it's not done away with and it's not replaced. There's nothing wrong with Sunday, after all it's the first day The LORD made, but it's not the Shabbat rest of The LORD.

Soon, it dawned on me that the old Sunday sermons seldom reference Romans 11, Constantine's councils or pagan sun-god history. So, I'll offer a bit more on that if you read on.

Instead of Constantine and his councils, the echos of some Sunday shift preaching points to an upper room storyline in Acts 20 and a time travel window, so it's time to dig into that word Sabbaton so we can really know what time it is. 

The Jewish men were gathered in that room for a reason when that young man fell asleep sitting on the ledge of the third story window. Many sermons remember bits and pieces of the upper room story and the fact that the young man slammed into the ground below, but few ever mention his name. 

More too on that in a minute...

After all, many sermons dig into the Greek words and their meanings gleaned in seminary, but anyone can open a King James Bible and see that it has some italics publishers plug into their translation versions. 

Check this one from the King James version of the story, the insert is the word day:
"And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together." Acts 20:7-8 KJV
So what's up with the "dayitalics insert

What's really going on in this time setting and why does the record make a point about breaking bread? 

It's time to dig into some Greek words of the two verses and while we're at it consider that bread. 

The place to look into is the evidence of some Acts 20 Greek manuscripts. 

Why go to all that trouble? 

Because translators are human and like most people, they can be influenced by doctrine, opinion and religious tradition. 

The King James crew had their own western views and customs embedded in their italics from Sunday sermons. After all, the Church of England had renounced papal authority in 1534, yet some Catholic doctrines were kept in Protestant traditions. 

This about this: the doctrines of men is the reason you can drive down any road in America and find a Sunday sermon service calendar marked with all kinds of church logos and labels for hundreds if not thousands of denominations based on differing religious doctrines. 

It's much the same in any Bible bookstore. Why so many translations??

Just walk through the aisles and you will find dozens of different Bible translations for sale. Most have commentaries and opinions in the margins from the publisher's team of "experts" with their own interpretations, not just translation.

Often the question at the counter is like the one I used to ask: which translation is the best?  

I asked that question back in in 2001, and thank The LORD the wise young lady at the counter was not the usual minimum wage clerk. 

She brilliantly pointed me in the right direction!

That's the day I learned the Bible that Jesus read and taught was Hebrew. I debated for about 20 seconds telling her that the word Pentateuch was Greek, so I thought the Bible was Greek. She said no the Torah is Hebrew just like the rest of the Bible.

I was shocked.

Here's a shocker... if you think a dozen or so translations is a big number to choose from in a bookstore, think about this:

There are more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts in existence and none of them have that italicized word "day" in Acts 20:7. 

No, not one!!

Just read the preface of most bookstore Bibles, usually the publisher declares that the words in italics are added in so that the reader can understand. In other words, the italics are not translation, they're an opinion. Another fact is the Greek manuscripts are hand made copies of copies of copies from the originals that have been lost in time. 

Many were assembled into the Codex Vaticanus and the 1550 Stephanus New Testament. These happen to be the "Minority" Texts favored by the Roman Catholic Church. 

Then there's the Codex Sinaiticus which so far is the oldest known surviving copy of the manuscripts of the "Newer" Testament, but it's not an original either, it's a copy of a copy.

Acts 20:7 Codex Sinaiticus
No one it seems has the originals. 

Like I said they are lost in time, but the Codex Sinaiticus is the oldest copy of a copy. It was handwritten some 1600 years ago. That's some 300-350 years after the originals were written. 

The Sinaiticus Codex predates all Bible manuscripts by some 500 years that is until Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, but no scroll in the Qumran caves contains a single Newer Testament manuscript, just the scrolls of the Bible Jesus read.  

[Update July 2009: the Codex Sinaiticus project] is now online]. 

By the way, the King James Bible is the English translation used on the Codex Sinaiticus website so don't "assume" a literal word for word translation.

Hold on to your Sunday pew folks.

The Koine Greek text of the Acts 20:7 opening statement found in all MAJOR Greek texts including the oldest, the Codex Sinaiticus reads like this:

εν δὲ τῇ μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων

If you are like me and don't read Koine Greek, a true translation will help: 

σαββάτων is 'sabbaton' -- it's Greek for the English word Sabbath which is the Shabbat. 

Sabbaton does not mean first day or Sunday, it means Sabbath. The Greek word italicized in the KJV as “day” is never found in any known Greek manuscript. None. Zero. Whether in Greek, English or Hebrew, the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. 

Bible translators use the word Sabbath about 60 times for the Greek sabbaton in the New Testament, so why on earth did the "authorized" Church of England's King James choose to insert the "first day of the week" in Acts 20?

The reason is simple: new tradition crept into the printing press, the Greek text actually says:

On the first Sabbath...

Holy smoke... the Greek manuscripts of Acts 20:7 got it right but the king's translator's added in a church tradition from the days of Constantine. Here's the Greek: 

“...on the first Sabbath when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.”
"εν δε τη μια των σαββατων συνηγμενων των μαθητων του κλασαι αρτον ο παυλος διελεγετο αυτοις μελλων εξιεναι τη επαυριον παρετεινεν τε τον λογον μεχρι μεσονυκτιου"
You can use any Greek dictionary or just about any online translator to see the Sabbaton fact for yourself. It is the Sabbath fact as plain as the seventh day!!

Sabbaton is the Hebrew word Shabbat שּׁבּת.

Next question, what's up with the bread in the story? 

Well, for thousands of years, faithful Jewish people including those disciples welcomed and closed each Shabbat with a challah bread blessing to our Creator. 

The breaking of the bread (HaMotzi) opening prayer blessing goes like this:

"Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, haMotzi lechem min haaretz."
"Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who brings forth bread from the earth."

This blessing points to the miracle of manna given for 40 years during the Exodus journey from Egypt to The Promised Land and thanks our Creator for the bread. There's another seventh day blessing embedded in the ages old bread blessing. 

It points to Messiah. 

It points to Yeshua, the bread of life that was brought forth to sustain life. Yeshua is different than all other people before and after the first trip. One reason: Yeshua kept the Torah of God (teaching and instruction) in the image of God as God intended from the beginning (Genesis 1:26). 

Why God's image? He never wavered or missed the mark of God's voice. 

The transformation back to the image of God is what Paul wrote about when he penned this referencing the veil Moses worn only after Moses stood in the literal presence of The LORD. 

In the tent of meeting, in freedom from sin Moses never wore the veil:
But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 
In God's image way, Yeshua's voice was God's voice including the great purpose of Shabbat. 

Is God's voice our voice or do we rely on a translator's doctrine?

Acts 20 describes that Paul intended to leave Troas only after that Sabbath day. Paul was heading out of town on Sunday, the first day of the week for his journey to Assos. 

After all, Paul was Jewish and like all believers in Almighty God at that time before Constantine showed up, Paul kept the Lord's Shabbat as a day of rest and refreshing.

Since Constantine's councils, there's been a falling away...

Yet, the Sabbath remains so its time to remember it. 

It remain holy, set apart. Paul knew nothing about a Sunday time shift, he understood remember and knew it meant for ever. 

Every day is a day to worship The LORD, but Sabbaton, the Sabbath Shabbat is not a good day for work, as seen in Acts Paul didn't see it as a good day to begin a long, laborious journey like the difficult and tiring 125 mile road trip to Assos from Jerusalem.

So, what is ti about young Eutychus and that third story window?

The young man's name has significant meaning in the upper room story. He's called Eutychus, that means "fortunate" and he was fortunate. By a miracle of faith, Paul resuscitated the fortunate young man. 

Seriously, think about it, no day is a good day to leave an injured boy broken down on the ground. After all, the ultimate purpose of Shabbat is to rest, heal our bodies and refresh our souls. 

Yeshua of Nazareth healed the sick and injured on the Sabbath because our Creator God is all about life

A few Pharisees argued with Yeshua constantly about that because of their "oral traditions." Their Shabbat rules added to the Torah and they missed the Torah behind the Shabbat point: 

Healing is NOT work, it's not labor, and their religious rulebook was not written by Moses. 

That was Yeshua's big message. 

In the end, Shabbat points to the day of redemption, the Olam ha-Bah, the 7th day of rest in the world to come that will be led by Messiah King so remember it! 

For now, in Almighty God's design including the human body, Sabbath rest is the remembrance refresher each week and as we pray, break bread and study God's word we get to rejoice and worship, remembering Almighty God's goodness and provision of eternal life to come. 

On each Shabbat, we get to participate in God's plan to refresh our souls in the end.

Not only that, if we take off our Greco Roman sunglasses for a minute and re-read Acts 15:21, we can see that it also proves that the new Gentile believers in the God of Israel and Messiah were to remember  the Sabbaton. It's not just a Jewish thing,  the disciples all expected the grated in Gentiles to attend a gathering each Sabbath to hear, learn and study the Scriptures written by Moses and the Prophets!

Think about this too, the so-called New Testament didn't exist when Acts 20 was written. 

The accounts written in the book of Acts are an after the fact historic account, written many years after the events described that made their way into the book we call the New Testament, but it's not new. 

The four gospel accounts about Yeshua and the Acts of the apostles (aka the sent out ones) was compiled years down the road. The Codex Sinaiticus is the first known copy that was compiled some 500 years after Eutychus fell out that window.

You can see the proof of the disciple's expectation for everyone to attend the weekly synagogue Shabbat reading. The fact is in plain sight in Acts 15:19-21. 

The hidden storyline of Acts 15 you may have not seen before is that the Jewish disciples knew that the Gentiles coming into Biblical faith could share in its Shabbat inheritance. It's a flashback, Madras moment to Leviticus. It's not new. 

The faithful men in that Midrash moment knew the covenant message: turn away (repent) from "idolatry" and its unholy abominations and detestable sin. They knew because they all believed what is written in Leviticus 17-10-16 and Leviticus 18.

Yes, you read that right, Acts 15 is a real world, real life Midrash moment with a decision based 100% on God's voice in Leviticus and Moses wrote every word he heard. 

They believed Moses because they believed God and they were witnesses to the fact that Yeshua lived, breathed, taught and explained what Moses wrote and that Yeshua never added to or took away from the written word of God. 

For those that have assumed from an old pulpit sermon or two that Acts 15 does away with Leviticus, think again. Peter declared it remains!!

Take a moment to read 1 Peter 2. 

The disciples wanted the Gentiles to clean up a few pagan problems first before synagogue attendance to hear and study the Bible if they wanted to learn to walk in the ways of Rabbi Jesus the Jew, the Torah keeping teacher from Nazareth.
"For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.”
Sabbath was the custom of Jesus. Do you have the heart to follow Him and do what He did? 

No need to take my word for it, read Luke 4:16, Luke 6:1-11 or these 56 verses in the Newer Testament that wraps it all up with this book of Hebrews conclusion so many miss and take note:
"So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, or whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Hebrews 4:9-12
Still in doubt, let's keep it simple, ask yourself three questions about Constantine's change:
1) Do you believe that the Bible is God's living voice and that the original is inspired by our Creator?

2) Do you believe that all of Almighty God's covenant words, including the Ten Commandments still apply to you, or are you unwittingly exempting yourself from the forever covenant for mankind, remembering just nine of them?

3) Do you believe that the Almighty God of the universe is all knowing, or do I think that our Creator does not know that for ever means for ever?
From my Scripture studies, I can offer a few observations:
1) The "original" Scriptures are the authoritative, inspired Word of God. They are eternal, living and always apply to my life and yours if you seek to follow in the footsteps of Messiah into the Kingdom of God. The very Scriptures read every Sabbath for millenia are Messiah's Bible.

2) The Ten Commandments, not just nine establish the refreshing outline for "the rest" of God's instruction and teaching for all that choose to believe and follow Him. They were written in stone and apply to you and me. We are not to add to or take away from His voice to change it. So why do we compromise on the day of rest.

3) The LORD God is perfect, unchanging and His voice of truth is eternal. When He says "for ever" He means it. Unlike man, God does not change - so the concept of change is that you and I need to repent and return to "the faith which was once delivered" because truth does not change even for the lost sheep.
The facts are in the Hebrew Bible Jesus taught each Sabbath. It tells us about change:
Proverbs 24:21 My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: [and] meddle not with them that are given to change.

Malachi 3:6 For I [am] the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Leviticus 26:2 You must keep My Sabbaths and revere My sanctuary; I am Y-H-V-H.
When most Christians think of faithful Jewish people, they likely think of the weekly Sabbath and Feast Day Sabbaths they have remembered since Sinai. The Newer Testament tells us this about the Jewish disciples that witnessed the acts and heard the words of Jesus the Jew:
Hebrews 13:7-9 Remember those who led you, who spoke the word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings...
Like I said, imitate Yeshua's faith walk is the big lesson here. Don't be misled by strange teachings forget them.

This core truth is plain and simple, we should uphold and return to their faith of the disciples rooted firmly in God's unchanging Word - not get carried away with strange teachings like replacement theology, misguided translations or new doctrines with Sabbath time travel opinions from Rome.

Jerusalem is our home, it's the apple of God's eye. 

Despite the instruction to imitate the faith of the disciples, the fact is many like me have stumbled teaching that the Sabbath underwent a Gentile time shift away from God's forever instruction to remember even after the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus Christ).

The no voice in the Bible that says forget. It's never found in any Hebrew Bible or the Newer Testament Greek manuscripts that say... On the first Sabbath.

Since creation, the heart of the meaning and purpose of the Sabbath is rest and restoration. God dis need a break, but He set apart the Sabbath for everyone that wants to live in His image. In my Scripture studies, I've learned Shabbat's goal of sanctification, rest and redemption. The Shabbat is God's perpetual sign of for the children of God that believe Him.

I also learned there are a few big reasons given in the Scripture for Shabbat as the seventh day, not the first work day of the week.

One is found in Exodus 20:11. Here we see God once again declares that He finished creation in six days and then rested on the seventh day and made it set apart... holy:
"For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Exodus 20:11
What's the lesson? 

In the Bible, God teaches people to be like Him, after all, in the beginning He made us in His image! Almighty God instructs us to rest just like He did after His six days of creative work. You can read that in Genesis 2:1-3:
"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Genesis 2:1-3
Why did God rest? 

He accomplished His creation, but He also knew we would drop the ball on the big ball, we would fall from His image, forget and make our own way on His planet of life so The LORD showed up at Sinai. 
Almighty God knew from the beginning we would need His words to be restored to His image in the end. 

That's the end game seventh day blessing to come and it's embedded in the Sabbath!

God's people, all of them, Jew or non-Jew must recognize our Creator set a limit to our earthly work and that ties to the restoration of creation as He intended it. There is a need to rest, to allow our body, mind, our soul to get a taste of Heaven on earth. That's God's way for Shabbat. 

There will be a day of refreshing led by Messiah. Just as Adam dropped the ball, Messiah Yeshua carries it. That's the message at the end of the book of Revelation.

There's another reason the Shabbat was given and Moses points it out... Remember that you were slaves in Egypt (the burden) and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded us to observe the Sabbath day (Deuteronomy 5:15). 

The Shabbat is a gift from our Creator God, it gives us the day to reflect on God's mighty hand accomplishments like creation, the Exodus from Egypt's ways of slavery and anything we cannot do on our own. 

That great escape from slavery points us all to Messiah's rest before He overcame the death burden of sin for all mankind in resurrection. You can choose to believe that miracle of life.

Still another reason can be seen in "the sign" of Shabbat declared by God to Moses on the Mount Sinai. 

That "sign" is found in the Torah scroll portion called Ki Tisa which means: "When You Take." That Torah portion is seen when the scroll is unrolled to Exodus 30:11-34:35. It teaches us about another great gift of Shabbat: 

"So that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you."

The Sabbath include the God gift of sanctification.

Those are the last known words spoken by Almighty God before Moses came down the mountain of fire with the first set of precious stone tablets representing the child of God family sanctification sign of the Sabbath:
"The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, ‘You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. 
Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you." 
"For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD…"
Bottomline, the Sabbath is a Holy (set apart) appointment of The LORD.

It's His. 

If we'll just study the Scriptures, we can learn the Heavenly perspectives for the Shabbat include: creation, redemption and sanctification in rest oand rejoicing in the mighty salvation and deliverance from the slavery of sin by right arm of Almighty God.

I encourage you to search the Scriptures, be a Berean!!

God's unchanging written word is the light for our walk, the bread of truth, the water of life and Yeshua kept all of it, not religious tradition, doctrine or misinterpretation. 

Always, always test everything you hear from others and ask Almighty God to show you how to walk in His ancient unchanging path which are the footsteps of Messiah Yeshua an observant Jew who correctly interpreted the Torah as a Rabbi with His true message of repentance through fidelity to the Torah of God and His good news about redemption and the coming Kingdom of God.

For ever is the same yesterday, today, and forever. 

If you ask of The Father in prayer, He will to show you. Yeshua promised the Spirit of God will teach you His ways. Th LORD is the Almighty God of forgiveness and restoration and that includes His forever Sabbath as a sign. 

The Sabbath is God's day to sanctify you.

Open your Bible 
Rest in God's Sabbath.

When you do you may find what "appears to be" a conflict in Scripture translations, so you need to return to the original like the Acts 20 example above, but don't let that discourage you!! 

If you will study God's word and pray for the Spirit of God to guide your journey, you will be encouraged and discover the unchanging sanctification truth, but you have to open your Bible and close the door on the traditions of men, because you need to listen to God's voice and do what you can do about it.

You can believe that Jesus aka Yeshua is the anointed one, the Messiah that was perfect in Torah obedience, explanation and teaching. You can know that is why He's "Lord of the Sabbath" (Matthew 12:1-8, Mark 2:23-28 and Luke 6:1-5). After all, Yeshua always kept the Sabbath as God intended and did not break the for ever instruction from The Father.

There's no need to take my word here about God's Sabbath or the words of anyone else for that matter. Find the truth for yourself and ask not only what would Jesus do, but what did Jesus do?

The Bible shows us God's Kingdom way. It's Messiah's lifestyle in the image of God. Study Scripture for yourself, it's your connection to God's voice and the constitution of His Heaven on Earth plan, the Kingdom to come.

Dig in, study and you will find there's no Sunday time travel. 

Lies started with the serpent, he went after Eve with some poison in his mouth because he thought if he could kill her, human life on earth would end, but he was sorely mistaken. Do you remember the lie in Genesis 3? 

It's about the ongoing deception that God does not mean what He says. God's words were twisted in the deception that Eve would not die. The serpent called Elohim God a liar and God's word about that remains a warning:
"Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ 
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”"
For me, one key to understanding the Sabbath that God made for mankind is to understand that our Father God and Creator made us to be in His image and so He gives us all His teaching and instruction for living His way because He loves us and we "get to" follow His teaching if we love Him.

The Father gave us the Sabbath because He loves us.
We get to return the love!

In everyday life and even in death and resurrection, Yeshua showed us the importance of Sabbath rest. He rested in the grave on the Sabbath day when His atonement work as the suffering Messiah was complete to cover mankind's sin with His life blood poured out for all. 

In the end, the millennium (1000 year) 7th day is all about Sabbath. It's the grand finale. 

Think about it - is it really so hard to rest in God's teaching and instruction on His Sabbath? It's not a heavy burden at all. God declared the Sabbath day holy שַׁבָּת because He set it apart with a purpose to remind people every week that He is our source of resurrection life eternal, our source of restoration and The Lord will ultimately restore us from the curse of sin for eternity. 

We aren't saved from sin just yet, in our weakness we all still sin, but the Sabbath Day promise is holy, it's set apart forever and has not changed (see Exodus 20:8). It was given to the former slaves of Egypt, both of Jacob and the sojourners that left with them. It gave them a day of rest they had not experienced in Egypt's slavery. 

Right now Shabbat is a time slice of Heaven and a break from the sweat and dirt work declared in Genesis 3:17:
"And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread,
till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;
for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
That dust is not the end, there's a resurrection. That is why Yeshua said:
“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Mark 2:27
The Sabbath is a promise from beginning to end, it is not like other days of the week that are numbered in Scripture, the Sabbath is the one day that was "named" by our Creator and He set the day apart as a Heavenly sign.

Time to re-read Genesis 1. 

There you will find the original "Sun" day. Yes, Sunday is the first day of God's "work." It's the day "God said, “Let there be light” and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness."

If you look, you will also see the second day. That's when God separated the waters and on the third day plant life was given to the planet. On the fourth day, God divided the day from night and set the solar system and His master time clock with signs in Heaven to declare His seasons (His moed) Feast Days. On the fifth day God gave fish and birds life too. On the sixth day, that's the day He gave life to animals and on that sixth day, our Creator formed mankind from the dust of the Earth and breathed life into Adam.

Almighty God will do that again in resurrection. He will bring His children out of the dust of the earth (the grave) and breathe eternal life back into those in His covenant that are written in the book of life.

The weekdays on our calendars still correspond to the Genesis creation account despite the name disguises from Greek and Roman mythology, and take note, the days of God all begin at sunset not midnight. They are:
1. Yom Rishon – יום ראשון meaning "first day" [Sunday].
2. Yom Sheni – יום שני meaning "second day" [Monday].
3. Yom Shlishi – יום שלישי meaning "third day" [Tuesday].
4. Yom Reviʻi – יום רביעי meaning "fourth day" [Wednesday].
5. Yom Chamishi – יום חמישי "fifth day" [Thursday].
6. Yom Shishi – יום ששי meaning "sixth day" [Friday].
7. Yom Shabbat – יום שבת "rest" [Saturday aka the Sabbath].
Each day points toward the 6,000 year Biblical blueprint for the age of strife with the dirt and toward another Sabbath rest promise that is embedded in the Feasts of The Lord's Sabbaths. Paul wrote about that, like shadows they point to the day we call the millennium rest:
"Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Messiah." Colossians 2:16-17
Yeshua gave three of His disciples a glimpse, a picture of the resurrection glory of the coming seventh millennium and life glory in resurrection. That time is about a restoration, a transfiguration. The account below is from the Hebrew Names Translation:
"After six days, Yeshua took with him Rock, Ya`akov, and Yochanan his brother, and brought them up into a high mountain by themselves. He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as the light. Behold, Moshe and Eliyah appeared to them talking with him. Rock answered, and said to Yeshua, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you want, let's make three tents here: one for you, one for Moshe, and one for Eliyah." While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him." When the talmidim heard it, they fell on their faces, and were very afraid. Yeshua came and touched them and said, "Get up, and don't be afraid."  Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, except Yeshua alone." Matthew 17:1-8 HNV
It's the original message of the demon "deceiver" to fall (pun intended) for the idea that God does not mean what He says or that He changes His mind. You don't have to listen to that message any longer.

You can choose to believe Almighty God.

The Torah gives the world the story of the six days of creation and the seventh day Sabbath rest in the book of Genesis as a shadow picture of things to come in glory. Genesis is about God's 7,000-year plan of restoration for His relationship with mankind like the Garden of Eden before our fall into deception. 

As shown by the prayer of Moses in Psalm 90:4 and confirmed by Peter (see 2 Peter 3:8-9) each prophetic day described in the in creation account represents 1,000 years since Eden. 

The seventh day of creation (the Sabbath rest) is a prophetic shadow picture of the glory of the 1,000 year Messianic day of restoration. So don't be concerned if others miss-judge you about keeping the Sabbath day that was created for eternal life. If you believe a Sunday Sabbath deception, you may never understand God's eternal unending purpose for His Sabbath. 

It's about rest because its about restoration of life in the image of God just as He intended from the beginning.

Should you worry about the Sunday deception? Jesus said:
Matthew 5:18 "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law (Torah), until all (of Torah) be fulfilled (filled with meaning)."
I know that I am still alive and breathing. I know that heaven and earth are still here too. 

How about you?

If you're reading this now, then you are alive and God's forever instruction still applies to you too because not one letter of God's word has passed away and there's much more to be fulfilled!

Think about those jots and tittles of the Torah for a moment.

They are only seen in the Hebrew script and never in English. It's not that translations are bad, but we must understand that the Bible Yeshua-Jesus read and taught each Sabbath was the Hebrew Bible, the Tanak. I like to think of it as the Messiah's Bible and remember a lot can be lost in translation.

At the sermon on The Mount, Yeshua aka Jesus the Jew is teaching that we must not ignore the Hebrew Scriptures. He said, they are not done away with. Instead, we need to repent and go back, return to them. When we do this, we get to realize there's much more to the sign of the Sabbath that we ever thought about on any work-day Sunday.

The Sabbath, like all of the appointments of The Lord, also have Heaven sent power to restore the relationship of Christian and Jew, a mixed multitude.

That's a big part of the hidden Lord of the Sabbath sanctification story behind the misunderstood letters of the Pharisee Paul. 

If you've read his letter to the Romans you can't miss it, he wrote of how God will reconcile Jew and Gentile in one body through Messiah, thereby killing the hostility, the dividing wall between them so that we are no longer strangers but fellow citizens of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with the cornerstone of Messiah in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a living holy house in the Lord.

Let's summarize what we can learn from the same unchanging Scriptures that Jesus taught:
  • The Sabbath is the seventh day and a day of rest for a reason.
  • God sanctified the Sabbath and made it holy for a good reason.
  • The Sabbath is an eternal covenant between God and all of his people.
  • The Sabbath is a Feast day, a celebration of The Lord.
  • Yeshua is Lord of the Sabbath, because it points to Him.
  • Both Jews and non-Jews are to keep the Sabbath.
  • The Jewish Messiah is our Sabbath rest.
  • The Sabbath is a shadow picture of the years of the Messianic Age to come.
  • That Sabbath will start with the coming Day of Messiah.
  • The Day of The Lord is the Messianic Age, the millennium of rest to restore the world.
Have you read the Ten Commandments recently?

If not, you should do that now. They are the summary outline, a table of contents if you will for the Torah teaching of God. They show us how to walk in His image and represent the eternal Sabbath. Believe it or not, the Sabbath is the longest commandment on God's list. Before ever declaring the Ten Commandments in thunder and fire on the mountaintop, God explained this about His teaching and instruction to the mixed multitude as they left Egypt. 

Remember, important words preceded Mount Sinai. They were spoken before the manna or the Pillar of Fire appeared, before the Red Sea crossing, before water poured from the rock:
“"There shall be one law (Torah) for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.” Exodus 12:49
Bottomline, the Torah is for everyone.

The word "Sabbath" appears in some 137 verses in the King James Bible and 61 of them are in the so-called Old Testament, believe it or not 76 more are found in the Apostolic writings we call the New Testament. Check out the Bible facts for yourself.

So we must ask, should a blank page really divide the Old and New?

Nope. One reason we can know that is because God tells us that He established the Sabbath as a perpetual "sign." That child of God sign is so we can know that God is always in charge and that He wants to sanctify all of us in relationship to Him - in the end as it was in the beginning.

That sanctification sign will set you apart from the confusion and chaos of the dust, sweat and aching muscles and sadness in this fallen world, so that you get to enter into relationship set apart in God's rest.

Almighty God is as serious about this as He is about the resurrection to come, so He repeats His instruction. Look again at Exodus 20:8:
"Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."
Holy means set apart, the Sabbath sets you apart as a beacon of light to show others you follow God like a sojourner with Him and notice what God says to do... "remember." 

Can you just imagine for a moment - that our Heavenly Father knew some of us would "forget" His sanctified seventh day and instruction to rest and that we would need to remember it?

I once forgot, but perhaps like you, I had not believed God's word when I read it. Again, I'm not church bashing, but I sat on a pew and listened without my own leaven fact check. I'm not preacher bashing either. 

The issue at hand is that any innocent excuse is gone, it's time to believe a Sabbath rest remains.

It's time to follow the signposts of the Sabbaths of The LORD in our Exodus from sin. It's time to heard God's voice and know why God said remember, because He knew some of us would forget:
"Speak also to the children of Israel, saying: `Surely My Sabbaths you shall keep, for it [is] a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that [you] may know that I [am] The Lord who sanctifies you." Exodus 31:13

"...Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days." Matthew 12:12

"And he said unto them, the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" Mark 2:27

"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." Luke 4:16

"And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes." John 9:14
It's time to remember the clay...

Read John 1.  Jesus used clay for a reason. Man was formed man from clay and God wants to open our eyes to remember His appointed Sabbath day. The Father made it for you and I as a time to rest in Him and a time to do what Jesus did every week and turn our attention to The Father and study the word of God just like Jesus.

The Sabbath is a sign that our God sanctifies you and sets you apart. If you are searching to understand the Biblical background of your faith instead of new doctrine and tradition, open your eyes and ears to God's voice! 

If you are like me and ask how did we forget, some history is worth repeating. 

One of the first men to write and teach against the Sabbath ordained by God from the beginning was the son of a Roman Centurion. His name was Tertullian.

Can you believe that? The Roman Centurions not only killed Jesus they killed the Sabbath.

Tertullian was one of the so-called early church fathers along with Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Origen and others in the Greco-Roman world influenced by the idol worship of Sol Invictus. They called for a change in the times and seasons. Their goal was ultimately declared by the Emperor's Councils of Nicaea (325AD) and Laodicea (364AD). 

Those church councils infused the day of Sol Invictus into their church. That's one reason the world's calendars from a Pope or two are so random and chaotic.

The truth is God's calendar is tied to His creation and His plan to redeem the world from sin and restore it. God's calendar is organized as each month each starts with God's handiwork above. Our Creator uses a new moon to show us He's in charge and He is the God of order. In God time, each day begins with something we can all see not a manmade clock at midnight but a beautiful sunset.

After creation, God set apart the 7th day of the week for rest. In doing so He is pointing us to the Messianic Age to come. It will be the time to relearn the Bible and God's ways, a time to restore the world as it was in the beginning. That's exactly what Revelation 21 and Revelation 22 reveal: "There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond-servants will serve Him."

Despite the voice of our Creator that declares His Sabbath covenant in Exodus 31:12-17 and His teaching to keep it as a forever sign in Exodus 31:16-18, Tertullian wrote this: "We solemnize the day after Saturday in contradistinction to those who call this day their Sabbath" (Tertullian's Apology).

The Centurion also wrote that for ever changed: "It follows, accordingly, that, in so far as the abolition of carnal circumcision and of the old law is demonstrated as having been consummated at its specific times, so also the observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary." (Answer to the Jews 4:1, Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. 3).

So, are we to follow Biblical truth or a Tertullian tradition that flies in the face of God's voice? 

Let's take another look at the Creator's instruction in Exodus 31:16-18:
"Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, [for] A PERPETUAL COVENANT. It [is] a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God."
When Did "For Ever" Change?

With God... it never does. The Sabbath is a perpetual covenant sign and it's the longest instruction given by God in the Ten Commandments for a God reason, it's a part of the bigger picture regarding  redemption and restoration in the age to come.

Our work schedules should not override God’s order of the universe or His appointments in the big plan of Almighty God. The fact is, the first day of the week, Sunday is a work day on God's calendar.

Look at the Biblical evidence for yourself:
"Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none.” Exodus 16:26

"Six days you shall labor, and do all your work" Exodus 20:9

"For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy." Exodus 20:11

“Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed." Exodus 23:12

"Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death." Exodus 31:15

"It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.'” Exodus 31:17

“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest." Exodus 34:21

“Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the LORD in all your dwelling places." Leviticus 23:3

"Six days you shall labor and do all your work" Deuteronomy 5:13

“Thus says the Lord GOD: The gate of the inner court that faces east shall be shut on the six working days, but on the Sabbath day it shall be opened, and on the day of the new moon it shall be opened." Ezekiel 46:1
The words from Ezekiel are a prophecy of the coming of Messiah the "one lifted up" that will enter by the vestibule of the golden gate of the Temple Mount when all nations will bow down at the entrance of that gate before The Lord of the Sabbath.

You see, when we "get to" honor and remember God's Sabbath rest as a day to stay away from our labors, we are not to just resting from our jobs and work chores that serve our earthly needs, we are acknowledging that Shabbat represents God's coming day of provision.

The Sabbath is eternal because Almighty El Shaddai declared it for ever. Simply said, He is Sovereign of the Universe.

Each week Shabbat provides a picture representing 'the day' that many know as the 1,000 years of the millennium.... "for a day is as a thousand years" (see Psalms 90:4 and 2Peter 3:8). The seventh day is to be set apart (holy) because represents it is "the day" that Messiah will return as King to restore Heaven on Earth.

That's the message of The Lord's Prayer (read Matthew 6:9–13 and Luke 11:1–4 for yourself).

Isaiah has a lot to say about this too. The amazing thing about the prophet Isaiah is that The Lord God told the prophet that prayer is linked to the Sabbath even for those that consider themselves foreigners or Gentiles:
“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD,
to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”
The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,
“I will gather yet others to him
besides those already gathered.” Isaiah 56:6-8
The House of Prayer is for everyone and it is eternally linked to the Sabbath.

You read here that the Sabbath rest and the millennium is all about restoration, that not my idea, it is described by Isaiah:
"For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, [that] from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD." Isaiah 66:22-23
But don't freak out, God knew many would "innocently" forget by the inheritance of Tertullian lies about His instruction, but now that you know the truth... it is time to correct our hearts and our calendar to align with God's. Read Jeremiah 16:19:
"O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and [things] wherein [there is] no profit. 
Where is the evidence?"
Jeremiah asks... where is the evidence? Let's look:

God's word, His Torah requires two or three witnesses. What are they?
"For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one." 1John 5:7
If, like many, you think the words "it is finished" mean that the Torah has been done away with and hung on the cross, consider this:
"But if he will not hear [thee, then] take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." Matthew 18:16
It is plainly written that Messiah Jesus (Yeshua) and the disciples kept the Sabbath. Let's look again at these words:
Mark 1:21-22 And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.
Mark 2:27-28 And he said unto them, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.
Mark 6:1-2 And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And when the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing [him] were astonished, saying, From whence hath this [man] these things? and what wisdom [is] this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?
Luke 4:16-19 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. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Luke 4:31-32 And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power. 
Luke 6:5-6 And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. And it came to pass also on another Sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.
Luke 13:10-13 And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up [herself]. And when Jesus saw her, he called [her to him], and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid [his] hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ (Yeshua The Anointed One) the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
Who is the One called Jesus? He is the one that shows us his deep remembrance of The Sabbath as He describes the events of the future end of the age of sin:
Matthew 24:20-22 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
Many say the Apostle Paul rejected his Jewish heritage, started a new religion and ignored the Sabbath, but as we have already seen from the Greek text, Paul kept the Sabbath. Just read this from the book of Acts:
Acts 13:13-49 Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John departing from them, returned to Jerusalem. But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath, and sat down. 
And after the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, Men, brethren, if ye have any word of exhortation for the people, speak. 
Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with [his] hand, said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience. The God of this people Israel chose our fathers, and exalted the people when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, and with a high arm he brought them out of it. And about the time of forty years he suffered their manners in the wilderness.

And when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to them by lot. And after that he gave [to them] judges, about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. And afterward they desired a king: and God gave to them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up to them David to be their king: to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the [son] of Jesse, a man after my own heart, who shall fulfill all my will.

Of this man's offspring hath God, according to [his] promise, raised up to Israel a Savior, Jesus (Yeshua): John having first preached, before his coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? I am not [he]. But behold, there cometh one after me, whose shoes of [his] feet I am not worthy to loose. 
Men, brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, and whoever among you feareth God, to you is the word of this salvation sent. For they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew him not, nor yet the words of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, they have fulfilled [them] in condemning [him]. And though they found no cause of death [in him], yet they desired Pilate that he should be put to death. And when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning him, they took [him] down from the tree, and laid [him] in a sepulcher. But God raised him from the dead: And he was seen many days by them who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses to the people. 
And we declare to you the glad tidings, that the promise which was made to the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same to us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus (Yeshua) again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And as concerning that he raised him from the dead, [now] no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Wherefore he saith also in another [psalm], Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption. For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption: But he whom God raised again, saw no corruption. 
Be it known to you therefore, men, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye will in no wise believe, though a man declare it to you. And when the Jews had gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath
Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas; who speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. 
And the next Sabbath came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God.

Acts 15:21 For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day. Acts 17:2-4 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening and alleging, that Messiah must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus (Yeshua), whom I preach unto you, is The Messiah. And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few. 
Acts 18:1-4 After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth; And found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, lately come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla; (because that Claudius had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome:) and came unto them. And because he was of the same craft, he abode with them, and wrought: for by their occupation they were tent makers. And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.
How about you, are you now willing to look at the truth from God's point of view or continue in the lies of some forefathers?


The question now is once you discover the truth for yourself, what will you do with the traditions of men?

If we keep the Sabbath, we obey our living eternal God and follow His sign of obedience as we demonstrate our respect and love for The Father.

If we don't keep the Sabbath, we are obeying the edicts of Tertullian and a Roman Emperor by the name of Constantine, the words of mortal men, dead in the grave. As to Emperor Constantine of the Roman Empire, you can easily do your own research, but basically here is what happened:

The following is an excerpt from The Ausburg Confession of Faith, Article 28, written by Philip Melanchthon, approved by Martin Luther, which was submitted to His Imperial Majesty Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg in the Year 1530:
"They refer to the Sabbath-day as having been changed into the Lord's Day, contrary to the Decalog, as it seems. Neither is there any example whereof they make more than concerning the changing of the Sabbath-day. Great, say they, is the power of the Church, since it has dispensed with one of the Ten Commandments!"
Why should you have a problem with some of man's "traditions"?

Simple, they perhaps unwittingly, change God's for ever "instruction" although the Ten Commandments are written in stone by the finger of God Himself.

Here is the tradition of men straight from The Catholic Encyclopedia: on the council of Trent that claim the church overrides God's word:
"The Ten Commandments are precepts bearing on the fundamental obligations of morality and the revealed expression of the Creator's will in relation to man's whole duty to God and to his fellow-creatures. They are found twice recorded in the Pentateuch, in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, but are given in an abridged form in the catechisms. Written by the finger of God on two tables of stone, this Divine code was received from the Almighty by Moses amid the thunders of Mount Sinai, and by him made the ground-work of the Mosaic Law. Christ resumed these Commandments in the double precept of charity--love of God and of the neighbour; He proclaimed them as binding under the New Law in Matthew 19 and in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5). He also simplified or interpreted them, e.g. by declaring unnecessary oaths equally unlawful with false, by condemning hatred and calumny as well as murder, by enjoining even love of enemies, and by condemning indulgence of evil desires as fraught with the same malice as adultery (Matthew 5).

The 'church' on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord's Day. The Council of Trent (Sess. VI, can. xix) condemns those who deny that the Ten Commandments are binding on Christians."

"Sunday (Day of the Sun), as the name of the first day of the week, is derived from Egyptian astrology. The visible seven planets which can be seen by the naked eye, known to us as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon, each had an hour of the day assigned to them, and the planet which was regent during the first hour of any day of the week gave its name to that day (see CALENDAR). During the first and second century the week of seven days was introduced into Rome from Egypt, and the Roman names of the planets were given to each successive day." "These and similar indications show that during the first three centuries practice and tradition had consecrated the Sunday to the public worship of God.
The Council of Elvira (300) also decreed: "If anyone in the city neglects to come to church for three Sundays, let him be excommunicated for a short time so that he may be corrected" (xxi)."

"...we find St. Caesarius of Arles in the sixth century teaching that the holy Doctors of the Church had decreed that the whole glory of the Jewish Sabbath had been transferred to the Sunday, and that Christians must keep the Sunday holy in the same way as the Jews had been commanded to keep holy the Sabbath Day. He especially insisted on the people hearing the whole of the Mass and not leaving the church after the Epistle and the Gospel had been read. He taught them that they should come to Vespers and spend the rest of the day in pious reading and prayer."


"The obligation of rest from work on Sunday remained somewhat indefinite for several centuries. A Council of Laodicea, held toward the end of the fourth century, was content to prescribe that on the Lord's Day the faithful were to abstain from work as far as possible. At the beginning of the sixth century St. Caesarius, as we have seen, and others showed an inclination to apply the law of the Jewish Sabbath to the observance of the Christian Sunday. The Council held at Orleans in 538 reprobated this tendency as Jewish and non-Christian. From the eight century the law began to be formulated as it exists at the present day, and the local councils forbade servile work, public buying and selling, pleading in the law courts, and the public and solemn taking of oaths. There is a large body of civil legislation on the Sunday rest side by side with the ecclesiastical. It begins with an Edict of Constantine, the first Christian emperor, who forbade judges to sit and townspeople to work on Sunday. He made an exception in favour of agriculture."

Now let's look at the Council of Laodicea - CANON XXIX (29) from the Council of Laodicea in the year 364: "CHRISTIANS must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ."

Did The Lord know this would happen?

The Council of Laodicea has a discipline coming if they do not repent: "Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent." Revelation 3:19

Other "Canons" from Laodicea include these words:

"CANON XLIV. Women may not go to the altar. CANON LIX. No psalms composed by private individuals nor any uncanonical books may be read in the church, but only the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testaments. CANON LX. THESE are all the books of Old Testament appointed to be read: 1, Genesis of the world; 2, The Exodus from Egypt; 3, Leviticus; 4, Numbers; 5, Deuteronomy; 6, Joshua, the son of Nun; 7, Judges, Ruth; 8, Esther; 9, Of the Kings, First and Second; 10, Of the Kings, Third and Fourth; 11, Chronicles, First and Second; 12, Esdras, First and Second; 13, The Book of Psalms; 14, The Proverbs of Solomon; 15, Ecclesiastes; 16, The Song of Songs;17, Job; 18, The Twelve Prophets; 19, Isaiah; 20, Jeremiah, and Baruch, the Lamentations, and the Epistle; 21, Ezekiel; 22, Daniel. And these are the books of the New Testament: Four Gospels, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; The Acts of the Apostles; Seven Catholic Epistles, to wit, one of James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude; Fourteen Epistles of Paul, one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, one to the Ephesians, one to the Philippians, one to the Colossians, two to the Thessalonians, one to the Hebrews, two to Timothy, one to Titus, and one to Philemon."

Just think about this for a minute...

Women may NOT go to the altar? Key books of the Bible were banned by the Council of Laodicea: Source: The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden. Published by World Bible Publishers, Inc 1926.

Do you see it? The edicts, precepts and the doctrines of men change. With "man" little is constant but change, we all tend to think change is good but that too is a deception when it comes to God's teaching and instruction. GOD DOES NOT CHANGE.

The followers of Yeshua honored the Sabbath of rest before they approached the empty tomb:
Matthew 28:1 “In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first [day] of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.”
The plain and simple fact is that the Bible states the seventh day is the Sabbath Day of The Lord.

That is the day we now call Saturday on our modern weekly calendar. So, consider carefully and closely the words and the actions of Messiah Yeshua:
And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the Sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes. Mark 2:28 
Therefore the Son of Man is Lord also of the Sabbath. 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. Luke 4:30-31 
But he passing through the midst of them went his way, And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days. Mark 1:21-22 
And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. And it came to pass also on another Sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the Sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him. But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy [it]? And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other. Luke 6:5-10
In the Torah, the teaching and instruction of Almighty God, human life is the grand scheme.

Yeshua taught this by healing broken and crippled people ravaged by birth defects or disease even on the Sabbath.

In our modern society where human life is taken easily even before birth, this reflects just how far humanity has strayed from its life purpose, especially the Sabbath.

The Bible never says that after the resurrection of Jesus we are to now ignore the rest of Scripture and change the Sabbath Day to Sunday in tradition to commemorate an empty tomb. You will never find it. I know, you may have heard that, but you will never ever find that message in God's word.

Look for yourself, that is another tradition of man which tries to void the eternal Word of God!

A key proponents of this "church" tradition was a guy by the name of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Aquinas was held to be the model teacher for those studying for the priesthood and its required celibacy. Think about that one for a second. If we followed that order, there would be no marriage, so there would be no children. Mankind would die off in about 70 years, so much for the tradition of Aquinas. God's second commandment given in Genesis 2:24 would be broken.

The theological work for which Aquinas is perhaps best-known is called the Summa Theologica and the Summa Contra Gentiles. He is considered by most Catholics to be the "church's" greatest philosopher.

In the Summa Theologica he states: "It would seem that blessing and sanctifying are not due to the seventh day. For it is usual to call a time blessed or holy for that some good thing has happened in it, or some evil been avoided. But whether God works or ceases from work nothing accrues to Him or is lost to Him. Therefore no special blessing or sanctifying are due to the seventh day."

So much for philosophy. From what I just read, Aquinas opposes God's word, but in the end, you must judge and decide for yourself what is right and good.

You may have heard it said that God changed His mind and did away with His Sabbath because Jesus arose from the tomb on Sunday morning. If so, let's look at the record.

The book of Matthew is quite clear. Mary Magdalene and "the other" Mary went to the sepulcher at the end of the Sabbath day and as two witnesses, they saw the angel of The Lord arrive with an earthquake that caused the guards to pass out, then he rolled back the stone to prove that it was already empty as it began to dawn toward Sunday. The angel even told them that he had left and gone on before them into Galilee. Now let's look at the words of Matthew:
Matthew 28:1-7 In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first [day] of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulcher. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of The Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead [men]. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.
What does the Master of the Universe have to say about people that follow men like Aquinas?
Matthew 15:9 But in vain they do worship me, teaching [for] doctrines the commandments of men.
Now you should do the research on your own and test what you have read here. Until you do your own study of God's unchanging word you may not be convinced about the for ever sign.

If you have read to this point, I believe your call is to pursue the Sabbath of The Lord. It has nothing to do with earning salvation, but everything to do with loving obedience to the voice of our Creator if you want to serve Him and be like His Messiah.

The choice is your. Choose to walk in your own tradition and rely on man's traditions or be set apart, sanctified to walk in God's ways, His ancient path. If you do choose the right path, you will notice that the Bible not only speaks of the Sabbath as a memorial of His creation week, but it also shows us a shadow picture of the future as it was in Eden and you will begin to understand the words in Isaiah 46:8-10 and remeber the Sabbath:
“Remember this and stand firm,
recall it to mind, you transgressors,
remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose...
So, in addition to doing your own homework on the ancient Roman pagan day of sun worship, the day named Sun-day, you must research the facts of the Bible. Learning the truth about  sun worship is hard reading, but you may need to know about the ancient Mithraist day of Saturnalia and the pagan fertility festival of Eostre adopted by the Romans from Babylon and later by the "church" fathers at the first Council of Nicaea in 325AD led by Constantine if you still have doubts.

Shockingly, if you search, even a little, you will find the truth with your own eyes, that the "traditional" day you may have revered, has its origin in a lie with the time zone of pagan sun-worship, the traditions of men that oppose God and Scripture.

Believe me, I know - it is shocking to discover these traditions are the traditions of men, not God but you can take heart in these words:
Matthew 15:3 But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

Colossians 2:16-17 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath [days]: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [is] of Christ.
Like I used to, some Christians may ask: Didn’t Paul render the Sabbaths and God's holy days obsolete? Doesn’t Colossians 2:17 say that these things were 'mere' shadows?

Well... not quite. Look for yourself, the NASB does say "mere" shadows; however, the word mere is not found in any Greek text. That is why it appears in italics in the NASB, this indicates that the word mere was added in by the translator's tradition from Constantine.

"things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ."

Colossians 2:17 does not teach that the Sabbaths and holy Feast Days “were” a shadow. It says they “are” a shadow of what is to come.

Why is this important? It is important because it shows us that Paul properly regarded the Sabbath and the Feasts of The Lord as a shadow of the reality of Messiah, and not as a lost shadow of the past which had been made obsolete by the shadow of the cross.

The shadow of the Messiah is still with us. When we honor the Sabbath and The Feasts of The Lord if we are standing in the shadow of the Messiah.

Does that really matter?

Absolutely!!

Update: September 20, 2018: He is coming quickly (Revelation 22:12), even Pope Frances now agrees...


*******

The very command we are given to follow is a 'sign' spoken from the voice of God, not man. So as I have said, listen to Him not me. Just look in Exodus 20:1 and Leviticus 23:1 to see this for yourself. Despite what you may have heard or read from others, Scripture never gives any indication of changing any of God's appointed days.

When we look at the New Testament, and see that the disciples of Christ's time observed the Sabbath, and it just so happens that Messiah Yeshua called did too and praise God the Jewish people have preserved and honored His Sabbath and understand its ultimate reality.

I recently read a short article about the celebration of the Sabbath in Jewish tradition. The author described how the day of rest often concludes in the home with:
"Tales of Elijah the Prophet and songs that revolve around Elijah, King David and the King Moshiach, our righteous redeemer yet to come. You see, Shabbat is more than a day of rest ; it is a foretaste of the messianic era. As the day departs, we hope and yearn for the real thing – Elijah’s announcement of the arrival of Moshiach, the righteous scion of the House of David."
Open your mind to the light and water of God's truth about the Sabbath and heal your heart.

It's life giving when you understand when examining the life of The Messiah - our Savior, is Lord of the Sabbath. When you do it becomes quite evident that Jesus (Yeshua) kept the seventh-day Sabbath that He established as the Creator. He is the Lord and Master, He is the supreme authority of the Sabbath day and He NEVER gives any instruction to change it. After His death and resurrection, His followers also kept it holy as a set apart day. Through His example and theirs, we know that all people that want to show the sign of His authority will keep God's ordained seventh-day Sabbath!

The Messiah Jesus, teaching as a part of His gospel message teaches us how to observe the Sabbath, He says:
"The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath" Mark 2:27-28
If this verse ever seemed confusing to you in the past, let's clear it up with a question: What does He mean when He asserts that the Sabbath was made? Answer: It was part of God's original creation. Therefore, The Sabbath had to have a Maker, a Creator.

OK... next question: Who then, made the Sabbath? Answer: The Creator. But wait a minute, Paul proclaims in Ephesians 3:9 that "God . . . created all things through Jesus Christ." What was he talking about?

Let's look at the words of the gospel writer called John that were noted earlier. He begins:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men... And "the Word" became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." See John 1:1, 3-4 & 3:14.
The "Word" is Yeshua, it means salvation. He is "Salvation" who became a human being and lived among men.
Isaiah 43:11 I, [even] I, [am] the LORD; and beside me [there is] no savior.
He is God the Father from eternity. All things were made through Him! The Sabbath is one of those things that He made. God declared it at creation! Notice Colossians 1:16-18:
"For by Him [Christ] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible... And He is the head of the body..."
If you have overlooked this in the past, don't feel bad, just repent and return to God because now you know the truth: Yeshua made the Sabbath! It is no wonder then when He says plainly that, as its Creator, He is The Lord and Master of His Sabbath Day!

Pay close attention to the words of Scripture:
"And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done."
God ended His work, the creation week was over! Creation Week was a full seven days of creation.

What did God do on the seventh day? He ended His work! So should we - - if we want to be like Him.

He established the Sabbath, not by work, but by ceasing from it. God has no need to re-order the days of His creation, nor do we. When He finished His work He then blessed and set apart the seventh day as a day of rest. It's that simple. So we must consider that Adam and Eve spent their first day "resting" in fellowship with the Creator.

God requires His children to treat the day with a respect not required of other time. Let's read what He told the prophet Isaiah:
"If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day 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. The mouth of the Lord has spoken." Isaiah 58:13-14
We honor God by keeping holy those things that He has made as set apart, as "holy" and only God can declare and make things holy.

Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha Mashiach is the same today as He was yesterday, and shall be forever (Hebrews 13:8). He has not changed in the least. 
"Blessed [is] the man [that] doeth this, and the son of man [that] layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger [nekar=alien], that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people." Isaiah 56:2-3
I know there are many excellent books if you want to insist on reading about the Sabbath outside of God's word, you might want to try this one: The Sabbath - Scriptural Truth Concerning the Sabbath and Christian Sunday Observance.

But if you'd like to learn more on the Sabbath right now and how it ties into you life you should just set apart an hour or two aside right now and open your Bible to read and pray about keeping and honoring this perpetual sign of God's people that keep His word.

In closing, as you look in the Bible, take a look at the Greek word “kai” καί which is translated as “and” in Revelation 14:2... But did they (the translators) perhaps miss something in the meaning of this word? It also means “indeed”...
“Here is the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God, [indeed] the faith of Yeshua.”
Indeed, we are to walk like Yeshua walked, keep the commandments of God, the faith of Messiah.

So as the Bible shows us, it turns out Sunday is not the Sabbath day of The Lord. God does not change His mind.

God's teaching is simple. We are to rest from occupational vocations on the Sabbath just as Jesus (Yeshua) did. God wants us to stop "tilling the soil" and "tending to business" for just one day each week so that we can immerse ourselves in worship of the Holy One. In this way, we can spend that time studying and teaching the word of God just as Messiah did. We just need to listen to God and out the words of men and their traditions in the proper place just as Paul taught in the misunderstood admonition of Colossians 2:16-17. If you job requires Sabbath work, Messiah shows us that healing or saving others is not work but if your job is not in this area look to God and ask Him in prayer for your employer to change your schedule.

God ordained the weekly Sabbath by His own declaration just as He created the world as a gift of life to mankind, animals and the land. Yeshua says of the Sabbath, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27) and He declared this about the Sabbath not because He changed it, but because He kept it and we have three witnesses:
For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day. Matthew 12:8

Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Mark 2:28

And he said unto them, That the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath. Luke 6:5
The Sabbath is one of the appointment blessings God made for mankind to enjoy. Shabbat started on the seventh day of creation and it remains today for us to rest with Him.

If we think about it, the Sabbath of rest is an integral part of His unchanging laws of physics from creation. After all, whether he meant to reference the 7th day or not, consider what physicist Frank J. Tipler PhD writes:

"in general relativity, time is not relative: a unique rest frame exists."

What does this all mean?

Consider a prayer: Please God, teach me, guide me as to what I should do.

Help me repent and return to your Sabbath. Help me return to hear and do Your word and walk in the faith of Your Kingdom path. I want to be ready with your lamp for my coming assignment with Your new covenant promise written on my heart. 

Almighty God is a sovereign God. He is a loving God and He has provided a way to offer you His salvation though the One whose name means salvation: Yeshua. You can receive His gift of life. Consider carefully what your life consists of, look at it and pray to God and repent of any sin, pray and ask His forgiveness and accept His gift of love through Messiah Yeshua. Do it now! The Teacher is calling for you.

If Jesus called and asked you to arrange one opportunity to worship with Him, what day would He ask you to set apart for Him?

Revelation gives a big hint as it tells the last message and testimony of our Savior that includes the promise of the new Heaven and New Earth where He will teach us from His throne. Isaiah first writes to us about this and he says something important:
And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all mankind shall come to worship before me, saith the LORD. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. Isaiah 66:22-23
He chose the Sabbath day to teach.
And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught. Mark 1:21

And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Mark 6:2

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. Luke 4:16

And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. Luke 4:31
The apostles followed the Sabbath for ever established at creation.
And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Acts 14:44

And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks. Acts 18:4

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Exodus 20:8

See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. Exodus 16:29

A Psalm for the sabbath day. It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High Psalm 92:1
May God Bless as you consider what would Yeshua ask you to do?

Shalom.