Understanding the Sabbath (Part 2)

To follow the critique thus far we suggest that the reader refer to “Understanding the Sabbath, Part 1", posted previously. In Part 2 we continue the analysis of Dr. MacArthur’s scripturally vacuous quarrel with the Bible. He imprudently overplays his hand of empty tricks.

He states, inter alia: “The next time [after Genesis 2] you even run into the word [Sabbath] is in Exodus 16.” Which he then quotes at length, trying to make a case for the “non-existence” of the Sabbath day during the 430 year period prior to the Exodus, that is, from Abraham through to the Exodus. [Exodus 12:40-41.]

MacArthur seems eager to promote some potential ding-dong theory that man can speak out of existence what God spoke into existence!

Because Exodus 16 is "the first written record of the Sabbath" does not infer that it was not known or observed prior to that time. The Sabbath was not a new revelation to the Israelites in the wilderness.

At this juncture [Exodus 16] four Sabbaths had already passed since leaving Egypt. They kept the Passover on the 14th day of the first month and an annual Sabbath on the 15th of the first month when they left Egypt, and kept yet another annual Sabbath on the 21st of the first month. [See Lev 23.]

They did not keep the first annual holy day by resting, but by marching out of Egypt. This Sabbath was a rejoicing victory celebration; they “went out with a high hand” [Ex 14:8]. They celebrated the Sabbath victory march by command of the Eternal -- the owner, maker and master of the Sabbath.

Similarly they marched around Jericho for seven days which of necessity included marching on the Sabbath day, as per the Eternal’s instructions. It too was a victory march; a day of great rejoicing! The Eternal is “Lord [master, owner, and maker] of the Sabbath” and hence in supreme sovereignty can instruct his people to observe the Sabbath according to His divine authoritative instructions.

Why was the Sabbath declared a holy day before the law [Torah, Ten Commandments] were given at Sinai, if there were no connection or knowledge of it before Ex 16? The knowledge of the Sabbath existed among men from creation [Genesis 2:1-3]. Moses knew about the Sabbath and that his forefathers walked within the Sabbath law [Torah]. The Eternal revealed that truth to him and he recorded it in Genesis 26:5.

“Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law [specifically the sabbath law], or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” [Exo 16:4.] [Emphases added throughout.]

When God gave the command about the food [manna] preparation there was no questioning about "my law" or what was "the sixth day" -- Moses and all Israel already knew about the seven day weekly cycle and the sabbath day before Sinai! Thus there is no indication that the law, including the sabbath, was a new revelation to Moses and the Israelites. This was already the fifth weekly Sabbath since they left Egypt [Ex 16:1-2]. Exodus 16:4-5 indicate that they were familiar with the Sabbath law and here they are given instructions for practical application regarding sabbath preparation.

Continuing with Exodus 16:22 we read: “And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread ... 23 And he said unto them, This is that which the Yehovah hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto Yehovah: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remains over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. 24 And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. 25 And Moses said, Eat that today; for today is a Sabbath unto Yehovah: today ye shall not find it in the field. 26 Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none. 27 And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. 28 And Yehovah said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments [mitzvah] and my laws [Torah]?”

The Eternal could hardly say this to the Israelites if they had no knowledge of the Law – including the Sabbath day! The Torah [the Law] already existed from Eden, and the Sabbath is part of the Torah. Writing the Law on two tables of stone at Sinai was a formalization of an enduring covenant Yehovah made with Israel as his elect people. The two tables served as a perpetual and permanent legal document, carved in stone!

Exodus 16:29 “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. 30 So the people rested on the seventh day.”

Therefor, when they got to Mount Sinai the law was not a surprise revelation to them. The Torah was formally delivered to them on stone tablets as the central element of the covenant and as a basis of their moral relationship with the Eternal, and each other. It was confirmed by blood to create a holy covenant.

The law served as the foundation of the worship relationship of God's people with Him. Worship is a spiritual and thus a moral action. God included the Sabbath in the law as part of a spiritually based, moral worship towards Him.

Israel already had knowledge of the “commandments and [the] laws” of the Almighty prior to Mt Sinai. At Sinai they formally, by covenant, agreed to observe and keep sacred His laws. They agreed--covenanted with the Eternal--that they would worship him His Way. His Way included the observance of the sacred sabbath which made them holy--set them APART FROM THE SUNDAY KEEPING pagan, devil worshipping nations around them! The Sabbath formed part of the eternal moral worship of obedience to the Eternal.

The eternality of the Sabbath Days -- weekly and annual [though MacArthur does not address the latter] -- are well attested to throughout the scriptures. The weekly Sabbath at Exodus 31:13, 16 and 17; Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread, at Exodus 12:14,17 and 42; Pentecost, Atonement and Tabernacles at Leviticus 23:21, 31 and 41.

How eternal is eternal? The answer is as dynamic as it may be surprising to some debaters, arguers, and stubbornly defiant died-in-the-wool antinomianists. In Exodus 3:14-15 the Eternal said unto Moses, "I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations."

The Hebrew expressions indicating the eternality of the Creator -- for ever [olam olam] and unto all generations [dor dor] -- are precisely the same when indicating the eternality of the Sabbaths. Therefore the Sabbaths, being described in precisely the same terminology as the eternal existence of the Creator God Himself, must have the same eternality as He does. Sabbath-eternity, or continuance, is thus precisely as long as God-eternity; or, since the Sabbath was made for man, until there are no more humans in the universe.

Because men and organizations believe they have the power and authority to "do away with" the Eternal Sabbaths of the Eternal, they presumptuously assume they have the authority to do away with the Eternal Name of the Creator! This they did -- removing, inter alia, the over 6000 references to His holy name in the Old Testament thereby presenting Churchianity with an unidentifiable, no-name-brand "Lord", or Ba'al.

This very act of treason against the Eternal -- trying to conceal His true eternal identity -- has been predicted by the prophet Jeremiah. What the historic prophets of Ba'al ["LORD"] taught at that time is precisely what the modern Ba'alist prophets teach. No one with a rationally functional mind can escape the clear parallel.

The Eternal declares, "I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;  Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor... "

Yes, they love to tell their dreams and vision on religious TV networks and each story starts with, "the Lord has shown/told me..." And the gullible gobble and gorge themselves on the smartly packaged poison presented as "God's revelation". And, "as their fathers", this generation, too, "have forgotten my name" i.e., YEHOVAH, the Eternal, replacing it with "the LORD" [Ba'al]. [Jeremiah 23:25-27.]

The Creator of the UNIVERSE has a specific NAME which he revealed to Moses. His name is ETERNAL, just as are his LAWS and His holy Sabbaths. What He has enwrapped in eternity no man or church can unwrap and cast on the trash-heaps of ecclesiastical disputation. The traditional, historically conceited, insufferably imperious, ego-inflated, high-minded and superciliously "humble" Churchian cabal will have to explain to Him why they thought He was not worthy of His own personal Eternal Name! And, why they presumed to call Him something other than what He truly is! As His Name, so His moral laws--eternally binding, never changing [Heb 13:8, Mal 3:6].

The Sabbath had an historic reason and underpinning. The knowledge of the Law and the Sabbath did not spring into existence in the wilderness “out of the blue”. Moses did not invent it, nor plagiarized it from Hammurabi. It was passed on from generation to generation among the righteous from Noah, Shem, Abraham, and offspring.

This truth is embedded in Yehovah’s statement in Genesis 18:19: “For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Eternal, to do justice and judgment; that the Eternal may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.”

If the Eternal declared that Abraham’s offspring [Israel] will “keep” [Heb.: shamar, preserve and protect] “the way of the Eternal” [his knowledge and His laws] then it is futile, if not a contemptable demonic attempt, to argue that Israel did not know the Sabbath law before the Exodus!

Though Israel did not necessarily obey the laws as the Eternal expected of them, it was not unknown to them; they preserved the knowledge generationally as common knowledge -- it was “received wisdom” – which was confirmed and expanded by the Eternal via Moses at Mount Sinai.

We continue with MacArthur’s sermon--totally mis-titled "Understanding the Sabbath"!--from 21 minutes, 44 seconds where he declares: “The Sabbath was a reminder of creation. The Sabbath was to remind the people of Israel that they had forfeited paradise...” [REALLY? HOW COULD THEY FORFEIT PARADISE IF THEY WERE NEVER IN PARADISE? THEY WERE IN SLAVERY IN EGYPT UNDER SATANIC OPPRESSION!]

MacArthur continues: “The law said to them, ‘Obey this law' [which included the Sabbath law, the fourth command] 'and you will be blessed.’ God said that repeatedly, ‘Obey this law and you will be blessed,’ to show them that righteous behavior would restore a taste of Eden's paradise.”

How absolutely self-contradictory! By MacArthur’s own admission Sabbath obedience [OBEYING THE LAW] is “righteous [or moral] behavior!” And, MacArthur thereby also imply that obedience to this law, which included the sabbath day observance, will "restore a taste of Eden's paradise!" MacArthur is seemingly unaware that he has by that statement totally upended his whole ANTINOMIANISTIC theological foundation, i.e. the law is "done away" and hence irrelevant to salvation!

“Righteous behavior”, confirms MacArthur, [reaffirming that Sabbath observance is righteous!] "would also point to a future; a future kingdom when paradise would be regained. So the Sabbath, every Sabbath that went by when they rested, they were reminded of a perfect creation, a paradise of God dominated by righteousness, which had been forfeited by sin and could only be regained again by righteousness.” [So the Sabbath, admits MacArthur, is part of a PERFECT CREATION! Obviously with perfect LAWS, too, like the Sabbath!]

“Every seventh day…”, continues MacArthur, introducing a major heresy! It was not every seventh day as, inter alia, every Sunday, or every Tuesday, etc.! How subtle to state that "paradise was lost" because they did not observe “every seventh day”. No! MacArthur is subtly introducing his listeners to the false teaching of the Westminster Confession, which states that God "appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath". This is totally deceptive concept. God "appointed the seventh day for a Sabbath". By this vraisemblance and deceptive misapplication of scripture, those confabulating learned scholars invented a fraudulent scriptural concoction by which they changed the Sabbath observance from the God-appointed seventh day to a misnamed "sabbath", the so-called "Lord's Day" on the first day of the week, Sunday. [Westminster Confession, XXI, VII.]

It is a total impossibility to observe the God-ordained Sabbath on the first day of the week! God's Sabbath can only be observed on the seventh day of the week. [Even the Roman Catholic Sect is smart enough to understand that!] Observing any other day of the week as a "sabbath" is mocking the Creator of the Sabbath! For, God did not rest on Sunday, or Monday, or Tuesday, etc. He rested on the seventh day of the week. He made that SPECIFIC DAY HOLY, NO OTHER DAY OF THE WEEK! Churches and Conclaves, Popes and Prelates cannot change Sabbath holiness to Sunday "holiness" . Only God can make things holy, not man. The very idea is spiritually delusional--yea, blasphemous!

Contumacious clergy will soon give account for their stubborn insubordination to the Laws of the Eternal God.

But, to return to MacArthur's reasoning. Paradise was "lost" not because the Israelites failed to observe "every seventh day" but because the failed to observe every Sabbath day. They did not observe every seventh day, as say, every Sunday, or every Monday, etc. The Sabbath day God appointed to be observed. The Sabbath is a day with MEANING AND PURPOSE, WITH DESIGNED FUNCTIONALITY -- which HAPPENS TO FALL ON THE SEVENTH DAY. It was designed as a day of WORSHIPING AND HONORING THE ETERNAL CREATOR. [If THE LEARNED DOCTOR OF DIVINITY had recalled Milton's epic POEM from which he drew that phrase -- and he revisited the drama as recorded in Genesis 3 -- he would have recalled that "paradise lost" occurred in the garden east of Eden and that the Israelites' disobedience of the Sabbath had nothing to do with "Paradise Lost" -- neither will their (or anybody else's) Sabbath obedience have anything to do with "Paradise Restored"! Since Paradise was a Messianic Creation it will be a Messianic Restoration!]

MacArthur further opines that it “was a reminder that they were living in a fallen world. Every seventh day [No, Dr MacArthur! Every Sabbath!] was a reminder that they had lost paradise." [No! Paradise was already lost by Adam in Eden, not by Israelits in the desert...] "And the only way to regain a taste of paradise was obedience to God, righteousness.”

Once again MacArthur admits that righteousness includes obedience to the Sabbath -- despite attempting to deny its applicability, today. [MacArthur also seems to have lost his religious moorings by implying that the paradisiacal restoration may be "regain[ed]" by obedience when, ironiocally, he is a promoter par excellence of "salvation [PARADISE REGAINED] by grace, ALONE!"]

We must never lose sight of the fact that “every seventh day”, like every Sunday, is not the same as every Sabbath day! It’s deception out of the liberal abyss from the nethermost regions of the demonic government – the rulers of darkness – which spoiled the many historic Councils of the anti-Sabbatarian antinomianists.

The learned Doctor proceeds at 25:19: “So we understand that this [the Sabbath] was unique for the people of Israel.”

MacArthur, and whoever else with him, understand amiss. MacArthur understands contrary to Christ. Christ declared that the Sabbath was made for all mankind, not “unique [exclusively] for the people of Israel”!

God’s laws apply equally to all men. Israel was selected as God’s model nation to be a light unto the other nations; to be an exemplary righteous nation to draw others to the way of God. The Queen of Sheba, awestruck in breathless wonderment, marveled at the “fame of Solomon concerning the name [nature, authority, greatness and honor] of Yehovah” [1Ki 10:1]. This despite Israel having failed miserably in its God-appointed calling and becoming more depraved than many Baal-worshipping gentile nations!

MacArthur introduces another specious and unscriptural argument to bolster his already fraudulent and distorted contention that the Sabbath was abrogated. At 25:57-26:54 he argues, without any proof, using the “ipse dixit” fallacy ["It is so because I say so!"] that just as God “obliterated the sacrificial system, He obliterated the Sabbath system.”

The Sabbath is not a “system”. It is a specific DAY which the Creator set apart, declaring it holy unto Himself and to man [Lev. 23:1-3; Ex 31:14-15; Ex 35:2; Is 58:13].

MacArthur offers another bogus argument to “obliterate the Sabbath”. He says, Christ being “Lord of the Sabbath...can do anything He wants with the Sabbath...He can abrogate it. He can nullify it.” Yes, Dr MacArthur, HE CAN BUT HE DIDN’T! And neither did the apostles!

In the next Blog we will consider further absurdities uttered by Dr. MacArthur which are representative of the popular scriptural perversions posited by Protestant, Pentecostal and Reformed clergy to ostensibly “obliterate” the Sabbath. We will also demonstrate by hermeneutic exposition how the Reformed and Protestant clergy contextually distort, maliciously misrepresent and manipulate scriptures about the Sabbath “to their own destruction!”

Peter writes about such ministers who are unlearned in the scriptures [the scriptures being the Old Testament, as the New Testament had not yet been compiled] and as a result twisted the epistles of the apostle Paul wherein he speaks "of...some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures [the Old Testament], unto their own destruction” [2 Peter 3:16 ].

We trust we'll meet you in Part 3...