To go back to the Preaching Home Page Click Here.
With the general decrease in religious belief and as society becomes increasingly
secular, there is strong commercial pressure to treat every day of the week
equally; shops, bars, places of entertainment are open, and sporting and
other events are held now on any day from Sunday to Saturday. These moves
are welcomed by some people, who see them as the final sweeping away of
hide-bound traditions. But others see the trend as a great threat and an
indication of serious moral and religious decline. When there are such strongly
held and conflicting views on the subject, how can we determine what response
to make? Where can we turn for answers to the problems that are raised?
Surely this is a religious subject, and we need an authority to tell us
what the truth is. The only real and reliable authority is in the Bible
- the Word of God for Israel in pre-Christian times, and, with the New Testament,
for believers in God and Christ throughout the past 2,000 years. Does the
Bible have anything to say about a "Lord's day"? Has God commanded
it to be kept by abstaining from all forms of self-indulgence? Is the first,
or seventh a special day of the week? Do the Jewish Sabbath day laws have
any meaning for today's society? Should they be kept by followers of Christ?
This short booklet sets out to show what Bible teaching is on this subject,
and to discuss the issues that it raises.
Quite apart from religious belief, most people accept that the pat tern
of five or six days of work, followed by a shorter period of relaxation
or rest, is a healthy one. They would soon complain strongly if their employer
suddenly decided to require them to work with no weekly break at all! It
is not the pattern of work and rest that creates the difficulty. The question
focuses on what men and women can or should do on their day of rest,
and which day of the week that should be.
But it is worth noting at this stage that there is a divine basis for the
weekly working cycle. In its early chapters, the Bible records the creative
work of God, and that He "rested on the seventh day from all his work
which he had made". Significantly, the record continues, "God
blessed the seventh day and hallowed (or sanctified) it" (Genesis
2:2,3). Much of the argument about the significance of this special day
is based on what this verse means. Is it God's instruction to the first
man and woman, or just a comment on what happened? Was God declaring every
seventh day a "Holy" day, or only the one when He rested? Can
we on the one hand accept the work/rest cycle for our own
benefit, but reject the view that the rest day belongs primarily to God?
So far, all we have achieved is a list of questions, and this list could
be extended even further. Let us approach the subject in an ordered fashion.
As we started in Genesis we shall continue to look at the Old Testament
background to discover the origins of "the seventh day". This
will be followed by a consideration of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ;
by how men tried to put this into practice; and, finally, what message the
Bible has for people living today.
We do not know whether the earth's first population organized them selves
by means of a seven day week. Whereas other periods of time (the day, month
and year) are based upon observable movements of stars and planets, the
seven day week has no such basis-that can be found only in the explanation
in Genesis,
This introduces an interesting aspect to the subject. By living according
to a weekly cycle, man witnesses to the Genesis account of creation, irrespective
of whether he believes it.
Even if, in the times before Moses, 'people organized themselves around
weeks of seven days, God did not say they would be punished for not resting
on the seventh day. They had total freedom of choice about this. In fact,
God gave no instructions about how the seventh day should be spent until
after the nation of Israel had been brought out of Egypt and led miraculously
through the Red Sea into the wilderness of Sinai. Being a large community,
they needed a good and regular supply of food and water, but in desert conditions
these were very scarce. The people soon complained, and wished they were
back in Egypt. A further miracle brought them their food. Each morning around
their camp "there was on the face of the wilderness a fine, flake-like
thing, fine as the hoarfrost on the ground" (Exodus 16:14). The food
was called manna", and could be collected for six days each week.
On the first five days each week any manna not eaten that day, but kept
overnight "bred worms, and became foul". On the sixth day, if
a double portion was collected, it would keep fresh for use on the seventh
day when no manna was available. In this way the pattern of work and rest
was enforced for the nation of Israel:
"Today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the
field. Six days you shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is a
Sabbath, there will be none" (Exodus 16:25,26).
Six days of gathering and one day of rest: God's activity in Creation thus
became the example for His nation. For the first time in the Bible, the
word "Sabbath" is used. It means simply 'to cease', and is used
to describe the day when the Israelites rested from their labours, as God
had from His.
Shortly after the manna was first provided, God gave through Moses laws
to control the activity of the nation. The framework for these laws, known
as the Ten Commandments, was written by God on two tables of stone. The
fourth commandment was:
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour,
and do all your work: but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your
God: in it you shall not do any work... for in six days the Lord made heaven
and earth... and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and hallowed it" (Exodus 20:8-11).
As for the manna, so for all of Israel's activities the pattern would be
six days of labour followed by one day of rest. The use of the word 'labour'
is important as this was an aspect of man's life that did not exist in his
early days in the garden of Eden. Only after Adam and Eve had been disobedient
to God's commandments did He sentence them and their descendants to hard
toil in order to produce their necessary food. When the Psalmist refers
to this, he speaks of man, who "goes forth to his work and to his labour
until the evening" (104:23). Man's daily work, therefore, is a
constant reminder of his mortality; the certainty that he is "dust,
and to dust (he) shall return" (Genesis 3:19).
We can now see the significance of the introduction of the Sabbath commands
being associated with the provision of manna. The nation's experiences in
the wilderness where God freely provided their daily food were forcible
reminders of the punishments brought upon the world as a result of Adam's
disobedience. By resting on the sabbath, man would identify himself with
God, and with the completion of His creation, when He was able to review
"everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Genesis
1:31).
The Jewish day commenced at sunset, so the regulations governing the sabbath
operated from 6 p.m. on Friday to 6 p.m. on Saturday. This national law
was to be strictly enforced. The penalty for breaking it was severe: any
transgressor was to be put to death because they would have "profaned"
or defiled the sabbath (see Exodus 31:14). On one occasion, while the children
of Israel were still in the wilderness,
there was the case of a man found gathering sticks on a sabbath day, Presumably
he wanted them to make a fire for cooking. Although the sabbath law and
the punishment for breaking it had been given, the people were not certain
whether the man's activity had broken it, so they placed the problem before
the Lord. The answer was categoric: "The man shall be put to death"
(Numbers 15:32-36).
The punishment was very severe for what seems to us a minor offense. It
suggests that the man set out deliberately to flout God's law, but it also
confirms the importance of the sabbath day provision in God's purpose. God
is not revealed in the Bible as an uncaring despot, so the enforcement of
this law by a strong penalty suggests that there were significant benefits
to be obtained from keeping it.
When the details of the law were being repeated for the generation that
had been born in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, the following information
was added by way of explanation:
"Your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. You
shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord
your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm;
therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day"
(Deuteronomy 5:12-15).
There was thus a clear social benefit for everybody in the nation, but also
an important underlying reason for the law. By keeping the sabbath there
would be a weekly reminder of the nation's redemption from Egypt. They were
to be merciful to their servants, because God had showed great mercy to
them when He freed them from slavery to Pharaoh. To reinforce this point,
even animals were to benefit from the sabbath law! As well as allowing servants
to rest, the ox and ass could rest too (see verse 14). When the Apostle
Paul commented upon another aspect of the law where animals were mentioned,
he said: "is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely
for our sake?" (1 Corinthians 9:9). Whilst not denying that God is
interested in all His creatures, the main benefit of the sabbath was for
men and women, not animals. They were involved purely to emphasize the importance
of the command.
Servants would obviously be pleased with the law, but what about their masters?
Unscrupulous masters, like unscrupulous employers today, would surely try
to find a way round it. But there were great benefits for them too. God
told them that the sabbath was "a sign between me and them, that they
might know that I the Lord sanctify them" (Exodus 31:17; Ezekiel 20:12).
If they wished to continue to receive blessings from God when they were
in the land, as they had
received them in the wilderness, they needed to keep His sabbaths.
All of these provisions should have had one result; the formation of a people
who were God-centered, not self-centered. If they had been prepared to organize
themselves according to His laws, they would have been blessed above all
other nations and peoples. Instead of being a burden to be endured, the
provision of the sabbath could revolutionize their lives:
"if you turn back your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day, and call the sabbath a delight and the holy day of
the Lord honourable; if you honour it, not going your own ways, or seeking
your own pleasure, or talking idly; then you shall take delight in the
Lord, and I will make you ride upon the heights of the earth"
(Isaiah 58:13,14).
The great tragedy is that Israel, having been promised all these things
by God, were not prepared to live in accordance with His commands. Instead
of honouring the sabbath, they continually defiled it. They did not treat
it as "holy", but made it profane, As God's promises to them were
conditional on their obedience, eventually He had to bring the punishment
He had said would occur if they were disobedient:
"I swore ... that I would scatter them among the nations, and disperse
them through the countries, because they . . . had rejected my statutes
and profaned my sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their fathers' idols"
(Ezekiel 20:23,24).
Before seeing what the New Testament says about the sabbath, let us summarize
the Old Testament teaching:
Turning to the Gospel records in the New Testament, we soon learn how the
Jews applied the law of the sabbath 1,500 years after it was given. Recognizing
that God, because of their disobedience, had allowed His people to be taken
into captivity, and His land to be desecrated and overrun, those Jews who
returned from captivity at tempted to ensure that the same would not happen
to them.
The religious leaders at the time of Christ regulated the law ac cording
to a complicated set of rules built up over the years. This was not just
perversity on their part, ut grew out of a strong desire not to displease
God. Accepting that no work was possible on the sabbath, they attempted
to legislate about what could be done to prepare meals, to look after the
sick, or to care for animals. Unfortunately, despite these good original
motives, the joy there should have been in the sabbath could not exist alongside
the attitude forged by concentrating on relatively unimportant details.
Soon they could no longer see the wood for the trees! The purpose and benefit
of the sabbath was wholly lost in a myriad of petty rules and regulations.
Against this background, the Lord Jesus Christ commenced his minis try,
"preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God" (Mark 1:14). He soon
met problems with the legalistic attitude of the Jewish leaders. If he healed
on a sabbath day, they complained that he had defiled a "holy"
day. So antagonistic were they, that they sought ways and opportunity to
destroy him. This raises two important questions: Why did Jesus heal without
hesitation on the sabbath day, especially when he knew how the Jewish leaders
would be incensed? and, Why do the gospel records attach particular importance
to his sabbath day miracles?
Seven specific sabbath miracles are noted in the gospels and one of these
was preceded by an incident which placed Jesus' view of the sabbath in direct
opposition to that held by the Jewish leaders (Matthew 12:1-8). Some of
the Pharisees had complained about Jesus' disciples who were plucking and
eating grain as they walked through a cornfield on a sabbath day. The Jewish
law allowed passersby this privilege, but did not specify whether it was
prohibited on the sabbath (see Deuteronomy 23:25). However, the tradition
of the Jewish elders forbade it. They saw the action as no different from
reaping and winnowing: activities certainly forbidden on the sabbath.
In his reply to the Pharisees' charge, Jesus mentioned two incidents from
the Jewish Scriptures. He reminded them of the great king David who, when
he was in a desperate position ate of the showbread, food specifically devoted
to the priests' use (1 Samuel 21:1-6). Speaking of the priests, Jesus also
pointed out that they "broke the sabbath" every time it was their
turn to perform the temple services on the seventh day. Yet David was blameless
before God, and so were the priests. There were clearly some other considerations
that applied in these circumstances. If they could be understood, then we
may better appreciate Jesus' own attitude to the sabbath.
There are some important similarities between the two Old Testament precedents
Jesus quoted and his own position. David was being pursued by Saul, the
Jewish king, when he came to Ahimelech the priest at Nob, and asked for
food for himself and his "young men". Jesus was with his young
men - the disciples - and the Jewish leaders of his day were keen to pursue
him. If the Pharisees had pondered the comparison they would also have learned
that Jesus, like David, was "the Lord's anointed", and they, like
Saul, had had their day.
So also with the other incident. It was true that the priests did not profane
the sabbath if they were working in God's house. But Jesus had said to Mary
and Joseph when he was only twelve years old, after they had searched for
him for three days, "How is it that you sought me? Did you not know
that I must be in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49). Unlike anyone
else who has ever lived, Jesus lived his whole life in total harmony with
God's will. All others, however good they may be, have sinned. Even David,
a "man after God's own heart", sinned in the matter of Bathsheba.
But Jesus "committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips" (1
Peter 2:22).
We wonder whether the Pharisees understood the real impact of these two
examples Jesus had quoted. It was an outright claim to his close relationship
with God, and his part in God's plan of redemption as the future King who
will rule over an earth at peace. His short summary of
the sabbath provision is important:
"He said to them, 'The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the
sabbath: so the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath' " (Mark 2:27,28).
Jesus declared what we discovered from looking at the Old Testament: God
provided the sabbath to confer benefits on anyone who was op pressed - it
was "made for man". How could the Pharisees have witnessed
the great works Jesus did, healing the sick and bringing relief to the poor
and hungry, and not appreciate that the real essence of the sabbath could
be seen in his devotion to His Father's will, and in his concern for his
fellow men?
"Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest" (Matthew 11:29).
Truly he was "Lord of the sabbath"!
Just as God had brought the nation of Israel out of Egypt and released them
from slavery, the Bible describes how Jesus, by de stroying in himself the
power of sinful desires, has opened up a way for men and women to have their
own sins forgiven, and ultimately to be released from the grip of mortality.
Many aspects of the Law given through Moses looked forward to this work
of Christ: the tabernacle, the sacrifices, and the priests, for example.
But so did the sabbath. It should have taught the Jewish nation of God's
concern for His people, and of the blessings He wished to shower upon them.
The apostle Paul described it like this: "The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ . . . but after that faith is come we are
no longer under a schoolmaster" (Galatians 3:24,25).
The Law taught a lesson about God's purpose through Christ. If the lesson
has been understood and adopted, the work of the Law is complete. The sabbath
was a weekly reminder of the release from Egypt. Followers of Christ are
now commanded to remember the release he has achieved on their behalf. Shortly
before his crucifixion, Jesus ate a meal with his disciples and imparted
a fuller meaning to the bread and wine they shared. The bread, he said,
was representative of his body, wholly given to God to bring salvation
to his friends; the wine was, like his blood, shed for them for the forgive
ness of sins. "This do", he told them, "in remembrance of
me". Commenting on this, the Apostle Paul explained that, "as
often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's
death until he comes" (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:26).
No wonder Paul was so upset that some of those he had taught the good news
about Christ were insisting that the sabbath (and all the other parts of
the Jewish religious calendar) had to be observed: "Now that you have
come to know God ... how can you turn back again? ... You observe days,
and months, and seasons, and years! I am afraid I have laboured over you
in vain" (Galatians 4:9,10). Not that following these aspects of the
Law was wrong, but insisting that all Christian believers should do so ignored
what Jesus himself had taught. In an important and crucial passage, Paul
explained that what had earlier been imposed nationally on the Jews, since
Christ had come was a matter for the individual conscience:
"One man esteems one day as better than another, while another man
esteems all days alike. Let every one be fully convinced in his own mind.
He who observes the day, observes it in honour of the Lord ... None of us
lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself ... whether we live, or
whether we die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and lived
again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living" (Romans
14:5-9).
After Jesus' death, resurrection and ascension, the early believers soon
got into a pattern of worship. As the hope of life and immortality was
made sure by his resurrection, they remembered his sacrifice on the first
day of the week, the day he came out of the tomb. We read for example
of an occasion when Paul was visiting Troas, "and upon the first day
of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread,
Paul preached unto them" (Acts 20:7; see also 1 Corinthians 16:2).
The information is introduced so naturally into the account that it must
have been the practice adopted generally by the various groups of believers
in different places.
The implication is that the sabbath was studiously avoided as the day when
the memorial of Jesus' sacrifice was held, and they chose instead the day
when he rose from the dead. The sabbath had commemorated God's rest after
creation. The first day of the week was a reminder of when God had said:
"Let there be light", and of when "the Light of the world"
came from the tomb. Death was conquered, and Jesus was the Lord of life.
Though worship on the first day of the week had become part of the pattern
of the early Christian congregations, the restrictions of the sabbath had
not simply been transferred from Saturday to Sunday. There are no instructions
in the New Testament commanding believers to rest from their daily work.
The individual has to order his own life as he sees fit: "Therefore
let no one pass judgment on you . . . with regard to a festival or a new
moon or a sabbath. These are only a shadow of what is to come; but the substance
belongs to Christ"
(Colossians 2:16,17).
This New Testament teaching can be briefly summarized as follows:
1 . The Jews had forgotten the real purpose of the sabbath, it was lost
in a welter of petty rules and regulations which they had devised.
2. Jesus, in his teaching and by his miracles, declared the real
purpose of the sabbath. It should show that God's purpose involves freeing
men and women from slavery to sin and death so that they can serve Him.
There was no better day for him to do God's work than on the sabbath.
3. The sabbath was a weekly reminder of these things, but Jesus lived this
way every day, throughout his life.
4. After Jesus' ascension, his disciples met on the first day of the week
to remember his sacrifice, but did not make it a matter of command: it was
for their individual conscience.
Religious Jews today who do not recognize the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
still keep the sabbath traditionally on the seventh day. They sincerely
believe that the Law is still awaiting its fulfillment.
Some Christians think that by worshipping on a Sunday they are keeping some
sort of New Testament sabbath. We have seen that there is no support for
this view in the Scriptures. But this does not mean there is anything wrong
in worshipping on a Sunday, or in refraining from the mundane tasks that
fill other days of the week. Where Sunday is not a normal working day, it
is surely sensible to arrange meetings for worship on that day. Yet it must
always be remembered that God does not command it. While Christian believers
should meet regularly to remember Christ's sacrifice, there are no commands
about exactly when they should do so. The important statement about
this is that "as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup,
you proclaim the Lord's death". It is more crucial to remember regularly
what Christ achieved, than to make an issue about what day the memorial
should be kept.
Members of this church claim that Christians should keep the seventh day sabbath. They are right in saying that the sabbath was instituted on the
seventh day, and not the first; but their insistence that true believers
in Christ should still keep it ignores the New Testament evidence.
If the apostles, who wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, specifically
stated that keeping the sabbath was turning back "to the weak and beggarly
elements" from which Christ's sacrifice had freed them (Galatians 4:9),
how can true Christians insist upon it? Adventists claim that the sabbath
was instituted and kept in Eden, though, as we have seen, there is no Biblical
evidence of a sabbath command before the Law of Moses was given.
The New Testament teaching about the Law of Moses no longer being operative
for Christian believers is so clear that it may be wondered how the members
of that church can maintain their position. They do so by claiming that
the Law must be viewed in two parts: a 'moral' law (the Ten Commandments),
and a 'ceremonial' law (all the other commandments). They see the 'moral'
law as God's eternal commands, and thus still in force for believers today.
They accept that the 'ceremonial' law came to an end when the Lord Jesus
was crucified. But the Bible never refers to the Law in this way; the phrases
'moral law' and 'ceremonial law' do not occur in Scripture, and nor do the
ideas the phrases are meant to express.
In fact, there is a specific comment in the New Testament showing that the
Ten Commandments were not to be regarded as eternal principles. The Apostle
Paul wrote to Christian believers in Corinth telling them that "the
written code (the Law of Moses) kills, but the Spirit gives
life". He described the Ten Commandments as "the dispensation of death, carved in letters on stone" (2 Corinthians 3:6,7).
The high standards of the Law convicted every man a sinner, and the righteous
punishment for sin is death. The essence of the teaching of Christ is the
hope of forgiveness of sins because of his sinless life and selfless sacrifice.
We do not like to take issue with people who are honestly attempting to
interpret what the Bible teaches, but we believe that Seventh Day Adventists
are seriously misguided on this particular aspect. Their beliefs possibly
grew up as a reaction to a very common misconception regarding Bible teaching
about the sabbath. This misconception arose within a few hundred years following
the death of Christ, and soon became a fixed tradition.
The spread of Christianity in those early times was rapid and far -reaching.
It has been likened to a spreading flame, setting alight all in its path.
The effect upon the Roman Empire, which controlled a large area of the inhabited
world in those days, was very great. Some emperors, seeing the threat it
posed, attempted to stamp it out by persecution. But, like pruning a tree,
this only made the movement stronger and more determined. In the fourth
century A.D. the emperor
Constantine saw the political advantages of having the Christian subjects
in his empire working with him rather than against him. So he merged some
of the aspects of the old pagan religions with features of Christianity.
Some pagan festivals were renamed to make them acceptable to both Christians
and non-Christians. Recognizing that Christians met to remember their Lord
on the first day of the week, Constantine issued an edict to the effect
that: "All judges, city people and craftsmen shall rest on the venerable
day of the Sun". He therefore cleverly merged the old Sun-worship with
the "new" religion of Christianity.
It was like the Law of Moses reimposed in a pseudo-Christian way. All the
restrictions the Law had applied to the seventh day, by Constantine's edict
now transferred to the first day. He removed the freedom introduced through
Christ, and made observance a matter of law rather than free will. Just
as the Jews had built up their traditions about how the sabbath should be
kept, over a period of time misguided Christians began to view the first
day of the week in strict Sabbatarian terms. We have only to read some Victorian
novels to understand how dull and depressing, how much calculated to remove
any joy in worship, these traditions became.
What can we learn from the subject, so that we can put into practice today
only those things that are pleasing to God? There are some lines in George
Herbert's famous hymn, "King of Glory, King of Peace", that can
help us:
"Seven whole days, not one in seven,
I will praise thee . . .
Fen eternity's too short to extol thee."
Our time belongs, not to us, but to God. If we wish truly to please Him,
we shall not grudgingly give Him just one day a week, and keep all the rest
to spend only as we see fit. We shall try to keep His commands as guides
for every aspect of our lives, and thus honour and glorify Him. There is
no doubt that there are great blessings to be obtained from a regular weekly
release from ordinary, but necessary work. If these blessings are properly
used, what better than to devote them to worship and remembrance, as a response
to a gracious provision, not because some "law" makes demands
on mankind. This is how Paul spoke about the subject a little later in his
letter to the Galatians:
"Stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery
... for you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom
as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants one of another"
(Galatians 5:1,13).
There is one final aspect. When writing to Jews who had left the Law of
Moses behind and become brethren in Christ, the Apostle wrote about the
sabbath provision in a fascinating way that draws together all the different
things we have discovered in our brief survey of Bible teaching (see Hebrews
3:7 - 4:10). Meditating upon a verse from Psalm 95, where God declared that
those who turned away from Him would never enter into His rest, the Apostle
deduced that there was an implicit promise for some to enter it. Who would
they be? It could not be the Israelites who, through disobedience, lost
the promised blessings. So it must refer to others, who are still waiting
for the rest to begin: "There remains a sabbath rest for the people
of God; for whoever enters God's rest also ceases from his labours as God
did from his" (4:9,10).
The real rest of God is therefore yet to come. It will be a time when His
will is done perfectly "on earth, as it is in heaven", as Jesus
taught us to pray. Elsewhere, the Bible calls this rest the Kingdom of God.
Every day of the week there is an opportunity to show by our lives that
we believe in the promise of its establishment.
The King will soon return to call dead and living saints to his Father's
eternal rest. Will you be one who has waited for him?
MICHAEL ASHTON
Scripture quotations are taken generally from the
Revised Standard Version
The word Christadelphian is a greek word, and translated, it means the
brethren of Christ (Heb. 2:11), We are a body of people associated together
by a belief in the things concerning the Kingdom of God and the name of
Jesus Christ (Acts 8:12); and by immersion into Christ (Gal. 3:27) for the
remission of sins (Acts 2:38) and a part in his resurrection (Rom. 6:5).
We do not profess to have received any new revelation, but hold that the
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are able to make wise unto Salvation
(2 Tim. 3:15,17). Believing in the Divine Authorship of the Bible, we think
it only reasonable to eschew any interpretation thereof which fails to harmonize
all the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures; and finding that the creeds
of the various sects around are, in a great variety of ways, opposed to
the direct teaching of the Bible, we feel compelled to stand apart, making
appeal in all such matters to the statements of Scripture, and testing all
creeds thereby.
We believe in the personal, visible return of Christ to the earth, to set
up his power and reign thereon, and we seek to share this knowledge with
others. We offer our services in expounding the message of the Bible without
cost of any kind.
Thank you for visiting and reading literature from www.learnbible.net.
If you would like to get together with someone in your area for bible study, please let us know...