Lord of the Sabbath (No. 31b)

Introduction

There are two places in the gospels where Christ declares that he is Lord of the Sabbath.

The Antinomian worshippers of the Sun Cults hold that this allowed Christ to change the Sabbath to Sunday in Christianity and simply do away with the Sabbaths of the Bible and allow the days of worship of the Sun and Mystery cults to be inserted over the Sabbaths of the Bible. This absolute fabrication needs to be challenged.

Let us examine the logic of what Christ said and look at other texts in this regard. Here is what Christ said and the circumstances under which he said it:

Mark 2:23-28 [23] One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. [24] And the Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?" [25] And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: [26] how he entered the house of God, when Abi'athar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?" [27] And he said to them, "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath; [28] so the Son of man is lord even of the sabbath."

(RSV throughout)

Luke 6:1-5 [1] On a sabbath, while he was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked and ate some heads of grain, rubbing them in their hands. [2] But some of the Pharisees said, "Why are you doing what is not lawful to do on the sabbath?" [3] And Jesus answered, "Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: [4] how he entered the house of God, and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those with him?" [5] And he said to them, "The Son of man is lord of the sabbath."

The passages are essentially the same and the message is directed at the priesthood and the capacity for the Sabbath to be used by Christ for the purposes for which it was originally ordained.

It was Christ that declared himself to be the son of Man, and as such, he was Lord of the Sabbath. He then directly referred to David who ate the shewbread and then followed on to declare himself Lord of the Sabbath. This is no accidental throwaway line.

Zechariah 12:8 states that David and his household which are the elect will become elohim as the Angel of Yahovah at their head. He was thus declaring himself as the elohim of Israel and the head of the priesthood of Melchisedek of which he is declared to be High Priest (cf. Heb. chs 4-10).

This capacity to be High Priest of the order of Melchisedek allows all of those in the Body of Christ to be appointed as kings and priests with Christ in the order of Melchisedek.

The Order of Melchisedek is an order of priests and a High Priest must have other priests under him to be priests with him.

The Bible texts look forward to that day and explain the system under which the elect of God as the priests under Christ will perform and, indeed, how the High Priest of the order of Melchisedek will conduct himself and regulate his priests in that system of worship.

In that sense he is Lord of the Sabbath and will regulate his priests in the control of the Sabbaths as they are appointed in Scripture to be followed. Thus Christ’s control as Lord of the Sabbath is as he established the Sabbaths, New Moons and Feasts in the Scriptures, and Christ also said that Scripture cannot be broken. In this text of John 10:34-35 he also says: “it is written in your law (Psalms) ‘I said ye are gods (elohim), sons of the Most High, everyone of you’ and scripture cannot be broken. Why do you say I blaspheme when I say I am the son of God?”

Thus the elect will become elohim and a nation of kings and priests. All are appointed to serve under the Lord of the Sabbath and in so doing they will enforce the Sabbath.

They will also reestablish the system from Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14:1-21 [1] Behold, a day of the LORD is coming, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in the midst of you. [2] For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. [3] Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. [4] On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward. [5] And the valley of my mountains shall be stopped up, for the valley of the mountains shall touch the side of it; and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzzi'ah king of Judah. Then the LORD your God will come, and all the holy ones with him. [6] On that day there shall be neither cold nor frost. [7] And there shall be continuous day (it is known to the LORD), not day and not night, for at evening time there shall be light. [8] On that day living waters shall flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it shall continue in summer as in winter. [9] And the LORD will become king over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be one and his name one. [10] The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft upon its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Han'anel to the king's wine presses. [11] And it shall be inhabited, for there shall be no more curse; Jerusalem shall dwell in security. [12] And this shall be the plague with which the LORD will smite all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh shall rot while they are still on their feet, their eyes shall rot in their sockets, and their tongues shall rot in their mouths. [13] And on that day a great panic from the LORD shall fall on them, so that each will lay hold on the hand of his fellow, and the hand of the one will be raised against the hand of the other; [14] even Judah will fight against Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the nations round about shall be collected, gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. [15] And a plague like this plague shall fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the asses, and whatever beasts may be in those camps. [16] Then every one that survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of booths. [17] And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain upon them. [18] And if the family of Egypt do not go up and present themselves, then upon them shall come the plague with which the LORD afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the feast of booths. [19] This shall be the punishment to Egypt and the punishment to all the nations that do not go up to keep the feast of booths. [20] And on that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, "Holy to the LORD." And the pots in the house of the LORD shall be as the bowls before the altar; [21] and every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the flesh of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.

It is obvious from verses 16-19 that the Lord of the Sabbath will order the enforcement of the Sabbaths of God.

The punishments for failing to obey these orders will be by famine and by the plagues of Egypt so that if you think you will avoid famine by irrigation or storage you will be very disappointed. You will die by disease.

He will also order the enforcement of the New Moons with the Sabbaths as we see from Isaiah 66:23, and from verse 24 we see they are enforced by the death penalty.

Isaiah 66:23-24 [23] From new moon to new moon, and from sabbath to sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, says the LORD. [24] "And they shall go forth and look on the dead bodies of the men that have rebelled against me; for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh."

The only way Antinomians can avoid these clear texts is to denigrate the OT Scriptures and claim that Christ, by saying he was Lord of the Sabbath, was saying that he had the authority to do away with it and appoint the days of the Mystery and Sun Cults. The problem is that God spoke through His servants the prophets and said the Sabbaths will be enforced with the death penalty. Every human that does not repent will be struck down in the enforcement of these laws and will die.

Satan is the god of this world (2Cor. 4:4) and as such he has the power to enforce his religious system until the coming of the Messiah again. The Antinomians are part of a false religious system of the satanic Sun and Mystery cults of the Triune god. They have tried to stamp out the laws of God and His system of worship over the last six thousand years without success, and for the last two thousand years masquerading as Christians. They cannot win and their time is short.

God also prophesies, through the prophet Ezekiel, of the Restoration. The prophecy is of the just system of weights and measures, and the establishment of the Sabbaths, New Moons and Feasts under the prince. It is the responsibility of the prince to supply and enforce the Sabbaths and the ritual meals on each of them in both restorations. It is in the restoration of the Promised Land, both before and in the millennial restoration.

This system in its entirety will be enforced by Christ when he gets here and the elect will be required to carry the enforcement out.

Ezekiel 45:1-25 [1] "When you allot the land as a possession, you shall set apart for the LORD a portion of the land as a holy district, twenty-five thousand cubits long and twenty thousand cubits broad; it shall be holy throughout its whole extent. [2] Of this a square plot of five hundred by five hundred cubits shall be for the sanctuary, with fifty cubits for an open space around it. [3] And in the holy district you shall measure off a section twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand broad, in which shall be the sanctuary, the most holy place. [4] It shall be the holy portion of the land; it shall be for the priests, who minister in the sanctuary and approach the LORD to minister to him; and it shall be a place for their houses and a holy place for the sanctuary. [5] Another section, twenty-five thousand cubits long and ten thousand cubits broad, shall be for the Levites who minister at the temple, as their possession for cities to live in. [6] "Alongside the portion set apart as the holy district you shall assign for the possession of the city an area five thousand cubits broad, and twenty-five thousand cubits long; it shall belong to the whole house of Israel. [7] "And to the prince shall belong the land on both sides of the holy district and the property of the city, alongside the holy district and the property of the city, on the west and on the east, corresponding in length to one of the tribal portions, and extending from the western to the eastern boundary of the land. [8] It is to be his property in Israel. And my princes shall no more oppress my people; but they shall let the house of Israel have the land according to their tribes. [9] "Thus says the Lord GOD: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness; cease your evictions of my people, says the Lord GOD. [10] "You shall have just balances, a just ephah, and a just bath. [11] The ephah and the bath shall be of the same measure, the bath containing one tenth of a homer, and the ephah one tenth of a homer; the homer shall be the standard measure. [12] The shekel shall be twenty gerahs; five shekels shall be five shekels, and ten shekels shall be ten shekels, and your mina shall be fifty shekels. [13] "This is the offering which you shall make: one sixth of an ephah from each homer of wheat, and one sixth of an ephah from each homer of barley, [14] and as the fixed portion of oil, one tenth of a bath from each cor (the cor, like the homer, contains ten baths); [15] and one sheep from every flock of two hundred, from the families of Israel. This is the offering for cereal offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement for them, says the Lord GOD. [16] All the people of the land shall give this offering to the prince in Israel. [17] It shall be the prince's duty to furnish the burnt offerings, cereal offerings, and drink offerings, at the feasts, the new moons, and the sabbaths, all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel: he shall provide the sin offerings, cereal offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel. [18] "Thus says the Lord GOD: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a young bull without blemish, and cleanse the sanctuary. [19] The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and the posts of the gate of the inner court. [20] You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for any one who has sinned through error or ignorance; so you shall make atonement for the temple. [21] "In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall celebrate the feast of the passover, and for seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. [22] On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a young bull for a sin offering.[23] And on the seven days of the festival he shall provide as a burnt offering to the LORD seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish, on each of the seven days; and a he-goat daily for a sin offering. [24] And he shall provide as a cereal offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil to each ephah. [25] In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month and for the seven days of the feast, he shall make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, and cereal offerings, and for the oil.

There is nothing ambiguous about the Scriptures in the execution of this system. To suggest, as the Antinomians do, that Christ could give the law to Moses at Sinai and enforce it with the death penalty, which he conferred on the Sanhedrin, and then abolish it is absurd. He had Moses appoint the 70 (+2) under his original jurisdiction. He sent the nation into captivity on several occasions because they broke the laws regarding the Jubilees and the Sabbaths.

Then, when Christ became a human, he kept the Sabbaths, New Moons and Feasts meticulously and he had the apostles and their disciples do so also. The churches of God kept the Sabbaths, New Moons and Feasts on pain of death for two millennia.

So also has Judah, although they have corrupted it with traditions for which Christ condemned them.

The elect have proved their faith unto death for two millennia, and those that have died will be resurrected and they will enforce the Bible system with a rod of iron for one thousand one hundred years on all humans alive, and then for the last 100 years, which is the Second Resurrection, it will be over all those who have ever lived.