7th Day....of which calendar?

Man--listening to a favorite archive of mine, it seemed that the flavor of the show was the seventh day Sabbath. One guy mentioned that whenever someone keeps the Sabbath, people automatically think that person is a Seventh Day Adventist. I didn't know until tonight that there were Seventh Day Baptists. Not having heard of it, I decided to browse through the Internet for a few minutes and see what I could find.


Pretty much the usual church stuff. The name was instituted as a means to let the general public know what this particular group of people were doing for God. Granted, "keeping the sabbath' isn't a prerequisite for salvation, but by golly, it was important to them that the world know that THEY were "keeping the sabbath". I find it odd that the church's name placed emphasis on what THEY were doing, instead of what God has done and is doing. I wonder if we could name a denomination after some of the other commandments. What about a "The First Non-Adultry Church of Pittsburg" Maybe we could have a "The First Non-Thieving Church of Downtown" Kinda silly, isn't it? But some hold it very important that I know that they keep the sabbath. I wonder why they're not equally concerned that I know they don't steal? Or Kill? Or wear clothing made of mixed fabrics?

Oh well. The history was pretty much the same. A handful of people didn't agree with the majority of the church, so they split and went and formed their own. Later on, as the "Sabbath" Church grew in number--some of THOSE members had quarrels with one another, and THAT church split and made a new one, and so on, and so on, and so on...Just like any other church.

The ministers on the broadcast kept reiterating time after time, the Sabbath was no longer a day on the Calendar (Which Calendar did God sanction the Sabbath on? The Jewish Calendar or the Gregorian Calendar?!?!) but rather, our rest was in THE Sabbath, which was Jesus Christ Himself. What a joy to rest in our works just as He's rested in His! No longer do I have to strive to make sure I keep all the black marks erased from my name (as if!) but now, I get to rest in Jesus, knowing that God has made everything alright through His son, Jesus Christ. Paul talks in Colossians not to let anyone judge us in regard to food or drink; festival or new moon, or a Sabbath Day. These were a shadow of the things to come. The substance is Jesus. Did you catch that? Jesus is the substance, not food, drink, celebrations or days on a calendar, but Jesus. When our focus is on anything else, and I do mean anything--no matter how 'wholesome' the anything else may seem, our focus is on the wrong place.

Oh! Another interesting thing was brought up, that I had never seen before, until one of the guys brought it up (several times at the time of this post) Notice the language in Genesis when it speaks of the creation process:
vs 5--...Evening came and then morning: the first day
vs 8---..Evening came and then morning: the second day
vs 13---.Evening came and then morning: the third day
vs 19--..Evening came and then morning: the fourth day.
vs 23--..Evening came and then morning: the fifth day.
vs 31--..Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.
Can you find the verse that says.. "Evening came and morning: the seventh day"? No. It's not there. The best that we can get is, "He rested from His work of creation" As He rested in His work on the 7th day--nothing left to create, so we are invited to receive that Rest as well.

"Come unto me, all ye who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"

What about it? Are you heavy laden? Are you tired of hearing every wind of doctrine, whether it be from me, or a favorite preacher/sunday/sabbath school teacher? Are you finding that none of it makes 100% sense? Everybody seems to have their own twist on things? Where will you go for truth? Don't come to us--Go to Jesus. He's got what you need.