The Sabbath day has come and gone. Today, in discussion with a gentleman in Charlotte, NC, I told him I'm not part of any religion or denomination. It is that he is and has been of the same truth I was stating, so the only surprise for him was that he was hearing someone else voice it. "What religion are you, Certo?" Or what denomination are you? It's a fair question considering the way things are. But while the question may be superficially fair, it is fundamentally wrong... at least with those of us who understand the truth. I am not a member of any denomination or religion; I am a citizen of a nation. YHWH/Yeshua is the reigning monarch and I am one of His servants (subjets). He is building a nation, not a religion, a nation that began with Abraham thousands of years ago. The gentleman in Charlotte displayed his passion for this fact. Somebody says, Well, that's biblical Judaism. You can call it that, I suppose. But again, it's really not about any religion; it is about a kingdom. The kingdom has a king, subjects and a constitution, compilation of laws designed to make all the subjects in the kingdom harmonize with the King and each other. It is intended to protect its citizens from danger, even spiritual danger. In fact, just like Elohim said, this "constitution," set of instructions, i.e. Torah is designed to produce favor and blessing. As citizens of the Kingdom of Elohim, we are subject to the laws of the kingdom (Romans 8:7) People say they're not "under" the Law, they're "under" grace (now). I don't know about them; I let them speak for themselves. But the Kingdom of Elohim is one comprised of citizens, even heirs, "joint-heirs with Messiah." No kingdom can stand without a constitution, a framework of instructions (laws) to cause the nation to operate as the monarch intends. And when the citizens live by the laws of the kingdom, the king rejoices and blesses his subjects. So it is with YHWH and His kingdom. That we worship our king/creator/redeemer makes it much like a religion, but what it is is a nation of people in love and awe of their King.
Citizens of the Kingdom of Elohim are not gentiles. People today and for many decades have believed they are Gentile Christians. Maybe they are. But any citizen of the Kingdom of Elohim is no longer of the nations, i.e. gentiles. The word gentile/gentiles is derived from the Hebrew word goy/goyim(plural) There is the Nation of Israel and there are the goyim, nations. Those who are citizens of Israel are not citizens of pagan kingdoms. When a person is converted, old things pass away and all things become new, he/she has changed citizenship from the kingdoms (and religions) of this world and become a citizen of the Nation of Israel under the reign of King YHWH/Yeshua with His Instructions, i.e. Torah. Yeshua did not come to abolish His kingdom, as badly as they had become. He came to show exactly how a subject of the Kingdom lives and this is what He taught as well as lived. Not once did He violate any of the laws of the Kingdom, the "paths of righteousness."
He stated, as reported my Matthew, that He did not come to destroy the Torah. In fact, according to John, his first words state plainly that Yeshua is the very Torah in flesh and this this is the Torah that is full of grace/favor and truth... both. To destroy a set of instructions is to improperly live and/or teach them. Oh, it doesn't have to mean that some paper, parchment or papyrus is torn and thrown into a fire. It means that when the Torah is misrepresented, taught and lived incorrectly, the effect is the instructions are destroyed. They have no value to such a person. He came to fulfill the instructions just as any of us would if an employer gave us a list of things to do and later asked if we fulfilled everything on the list. To fulfill the instructions/Torah is to teach and live it correctly, which in the case of YHWH's Torah is to maintain its continual authority. When a subject of the kingdom is obedient ("subject to" Rom. 8:7) the constitution of the kingdom, he may be considered under its authority, but he is NOT "under" it as Scripture presents it. To be under the Torah/Law is to be judged by it. When a speeder is stopped by a policeman, he comes under the law in that the law finds him guilty of not being subject to it. To be "under" grace/favor is to be judged by the same. Instead of the part of Torah that says in effect, "Do the crime; do the time," pardon is granted by the "good pleasure of His will," Eph 1.
Relationship with the Creator of the Universe, YHWH most High, King of the Universe, means being a good citizen of His kingdom, "subject to" His Constitution/Torah.
It's not a religion. It is citizenship in the Kingdom of YHWH/Yeshua, Elohim of all creation.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Certo - A Sabbath Keeper? Porque?
Wow, I didn't realize it had been so long since I started this blog and made the first post and last post.
This afternoon, I was thinking over some events and influences in my life. Of a certainty, I have been one blessed guy. I take nothing for granted and pay attention even to the timing of things. Of the many blessings I've had I should say that start with my parents. Dad was a Methodist from New York State and mom was an "old fashioned, Pentecostal holiness." At least these were their denominational backgrounds. On moving south, dad, a draftsman by trade was invited to a Baptist church by a co-worker. He then began to listen to that church's radio broadcasts. For the first time in his life he heard the Gospel as is presented in the evangelical world and embraced it. He remained a Baptist until his death at 95. Mom became very disenchanted with the Holiness people because she saw so much wrong with them yet they, in her words, had a pretense of extreme piety and if a girl or woman put on any makeup or cut her hair, she was going to hell. But somehow gossiping about those who do did not constitute anything egregious. Okay, egregious is my word. After a time she figured out that there are self-righteous judges everywhere, not just the corner in which she was raised. She met dad at a church social and he was doomed. They were both late bloomers so to speak, marrying in their thirties. Mom joined dad in a Southern Baptist Convention church and I was born some time later. The Scripture was read daily in our home and no matter what our denominational alliance, the power of the Scripture took effect.
I began piano lessons at age six and was playing at church by age 12 and at around 15 or 16 became the organist for the church on a Hammond B3, complete with the four-foot tall Leslie speaker. Dad was a lover of bass. He built a sound system in the living room with 12" woofers in the early 50s. That was before woofers were "cool" to borrow a cliche from Dolly Parton. It annoyed him that church organists where we went were piano players that couldn't seem to learn to use the bass petals. So, guess what? Certo learned to virtually dance on them, properly trained by an up-town organist for a big Methodist church with an awesome pipe organ. I remember sitting at that organ and playing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. Set the stops right and you cannot hear the low D, only feel it vibrate the walls. I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven. Okay, not really.
I was taught from my birth about "Jesus" being the Son of Elohim, Elohim in flesh, the sinless propitiation for the sin of man and the power of mercy in those who turn to Him in repentance and faith. At the ripe old age of nine, while listening to preaching reverberating through the house from dad's sound system, I became convicted that I needed Yeshua's blood applied to my life. On making announcement of this to my parents, everything in the house stopped while we went into the living room where we all got on our knees and I confessed being a sinner in need of repentance and forgiveness. My faith was rewarded and a new life began in me that I could not attain by any means other than as a precioius gift from YHWH. This gift of forgiveness was to last for eternity. I have not made all the right choices in life, still living in this body of flesh delivered to me from Adam. But no matter what I did, I was as sure as King David that if I repented and asked forgiveness, the joy of my life in YHWH would be restored. He is without measure in mercy and care for those who seek Him. Nothing I would ever conceive to do could merit this great gift. Indeed I knew of a life that could only be granted by the great pleasure of Him Who sought for me and found me.
My senior year in high school I took a class in psychology. One week or part of the week we studied accident proned people. Then Sunday evening at Training Union (pre-worship service study period in Southern Baptist churches) we had a lesson in our "quarterlies" titled... "Accident Proned People." By this time I had gotten serious about Scripture study and had friends at school with who I was associated. We would have pre-school Scripture reading and prayer in one of the classrooms. So, this lesson on the psychology of accident proned people was the final straw for me and I wanted out. This didn't please dad, the man whose car I drove, food I ate and roof I lived under. But he didn't say much. Long story short, I migrated to Independent Baptist circles. The shades of Independent Baptists vary as much as the display window in sunglasses kiosk in the mall. Nonetheless, they were far more serious students of the Word and that was the attraction for me as well as going out "soul-winning." Southern Baptists went visiting for the church.
The desire to preach began early in my life and I'd preach to fictitious audiences in my childhood. About a year before the psychology lesson in Training Union, I was licensed by the church as a Baptist preacher. Wow, that seems so long ago.
Jumping over about two decades, it is that about the only people I could engage in scriptural discussions of any depth were pastors and sometimes they showed little interest. People would go to church, sing the hymns, and all that goes with it, but it seemed nobody studied the Word. I could not find five men anywhere, other than pastors, who could name five fundamentals of the faith and give Scripture to support them, let alone any major discussions. I found in the late 80s I would sometimes come out of church and look into the heavens and cry out, "Where are they?" Okay, not really out loud, but of a certainty in my mind.
I hired a Seventh-Day Adventist.
Now just the mention of that has caused many pastors I've known or known of to lie about me and accuse me of being one. This Adventist happened to have an incredible work ethic. I was invited to their home for their devotional times and was told of the special blessing that comes with the Sabbath. A true Baptist, complete with cynicism, I retorted in my mind things like Everybody with a deviant doctrine thinks their goose bumps constitute special blessings. I liked them well enough but just couldn't buy into their teachings. So, I set out to prove them wrong. The first thing I did was approach the pastor of the church I was attending and then the associate pastor. I got the standard Christ rose the first day of the week answer and It doesn't matter what day, and two or three other commonly heard reasons for Sunday replacement. I began to read all I could get my hands on. Sunday writers often relegated Sabbath keeping to Ellen G. White and Seventh Day Adventists (SDAs). They would call them "our SDA friends" and other accommodating terms and then blast them with the inability to understand a King James Bible. The pro-Sabbath writings I could find were largely SDA authored. Maybe that's why Baptist typically turn to the Adventists when "dealing with" the Sabbath issue. This or that writing would make some valid points, but it was all too clear to me that those writings were more than suitable to convince an Adventist, but not a hard-hitting Independent, Fundamental Baptist with an attitude. Back in the Scriptures I began to meticulously study every passage dealing with the Sabbath and the law as a whole. As I studied, I sat at the old portable, Royal typewriter, turning the ribbon over and over as I began a defense of the seventh-day Sabbath for the so-called "New Testament, grace-age, gentile Christian church." Some of the verses/passages used to support a day change were easily enough understood as not saying what Sunday people claimed. A few others took some time and study. My objective was not to defend the Sabbath as much as to understand its defense by those who kept it and then have the power to prove them wrong.
I believe it is dishonest to deny a doctrine without understanding it... at least controversial ones. Of course, some things are open and shut, no matter what my peers in Evangelicalism said with final authority in their voices. I didn't know it yet, but Scripture leaves no room for debate on the issue. I began to be accused of not being grounded in the Word. It was then I knew that the cage they were in was being shaken. As soon as men begin to attack the person instead of the doctrine, they prove beyond doubt they are powerless in their positions. No, it wasn't fun or even comfortable. I did not want to move, be called names: judaizer, grace-trampler, and all the other one-liners we hear from empty wells.
But the words of men did not mesh with the Scriptures. In time I had completed a manuscript for a book. This manuscript was reproduced many times via copy machines and bound in Ibeco combs. I passed it around among many pastor friends and others in evangelicalism. I had some fame, for lack of a better word, as a piano player. That and my love of preachers and missionaries provided many friends "in high places." I won't take the time here to recount some of the reactions, but suffice it to say, the overwhelming silence I heard was deafening. I had so well dealt with the various passages that none came back to me even though I sought after them to do so with promise of no arguing. I would state right up front: Prove me wrong. I do not want to move from where I am.
Even men who love me or at least held me in some esteem remained silent... to my face that is. I have a few cassette tape recordings of sermons preached behind my back that were touted to prove me or the SDAs or Ellen White wrong. Most preachers assaulted Ellen White as though she is synonymous with the Sabbath. They'd veer off into veganism, women in leadership, charges of cult and a host of other things but none of them, not one offered much from the Scriptures to support Sunday over the so-called "Jewish Sabbath."
Some time later, I wrote the second manuscript and published it in 1997. No reprints have been produced because my position has somewhat changed. No, more than ever I knew that even with an "Authorized KJ Bible" the question of the Sabbath for believers was not even debatable. Some things are; this isn't.
The Seventh Day Adventist doctrines were not a collection of beliefs I could not embrace. I read a lot of Ellen White and I don't mind telling the truth. Few writers can surpass her in presenting the sanctity of the Sabbath. Jewish writings and Messianic clones are more into traditions of men than the simplicity of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is all about Yeshua anyway. And Who is Yeshua? The salvation/restoration of YHWH, a work that began before the foundations of the earth and appeared to man as soon as he was found guilty of sin -- faith in something other than his Creator. More on that later. I could not go with Armstrong type groups because they were too far afield from what I understood to be truth. What about Seventh-day Baptists? Now there's hope. I secured SDB literature and found their defense of Sabbath to be good enough but other literature looked too much like Southern Baptist social clubs: lots to do with youth parties, social events and meager Scripture studies. Can't go there. Meanwhile, I came to reject the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine, the crown on the queen of Dispensationalism. My faith still solidly in place, no effort of mine can achieve eternal life, I was being called a heretic by this time, by the very people who held to the same faith plus nothing position I trumpeted. But Evangelicals are subject to hundreds of years of indoctrination that if one keeps the seventh day Sabbath, he is working for his Salvation, "on the wrong side of Calvary" and a host of other damning commentary.
They are good to say if someone doesn't show up at church (on Sunday), he gives evidence he's not converted. Yet they are firm that going to church does not save anyone. And in their stance against Sabbath keepers many argue it doesn't matter which day one chooses, referencing Paul. But somehow if the day happens to be the seventh day of the week, then it matters so much that it is impossible a man can worship on the Sabbath and not be trying to get saved. There is an uncanny blindness to the fact a man can set apart the seventh day and do this after he is converted and not be trying to attain any measure of grace by so doing. There is much, very much that can be said along these lines, but it is not my point here to make a defense more than simply telling my story.
During my life in the Baptist church, I was honored to meet some people who had prayer lives like those of biographies of the men of the past. I know there is a lot of debate over who's justified/justifiable and who isn't. But it is no more my job to declare tares from wheat than it was that of the disciples or anyone else living or dead. Only Messiah has that right and ability. Men are all faulty and the best of them are seeking truth. What the Spirit of YHWH reveals to any man is His doing and according to the willingness of any man to hear. I have known men who know more about what Sabbath means, never using the word, than many who claim to be Sabbath keepers. Sabbath is relationship. Sabbath is peace, peace with Elohim. Sabbath was made for man and on the seventh day of the week he is to rejoice in his relationship with his Creator. More on that later.
I knew one pastor who spent hours on his knees weeping for the souls of men in his community. I have had the honor of being with him in his basement study on our knees for two and three hours at a time. He would call out a name, another name, maybe up to four or five before giving way to weeping bitterly before YHWH. After a time, he would rub his eyes with his tear-soaked handkerchief and start all over again with a couple or so more names, begging for mercy and repentance for those people. One doesn't forget experiences like that. Was this man a seventh day Sabbath keeper? No. He pastored a Baptist church and probably never gave the Sabbath any real consideration his whole life. Do I have the knowledge and ability to explain that? No. I was introduced to an elderly Baptist pastor and his wife, country folk. They humbly sat as my friend recounted stories of the power of Elohim in and through their lives and these were stories of "biblical proportions." My friend asked the old man if he minded his wife showing me her knees. He agreed to the request and she pulled up her skirt enough for me to see knots on her knees that were over a quarter of an inch thick and appeared hard as rocks. I was then escorted to the bedroom where I saw the shine and stain worn away in four spots alongside their bed. The floor actually had four bowl shapes. No, they weren't deep, but just the worn away finish on the floor is astonishing, let alone any wear in the oak hardwood floor.
There were others. There is no question in my mind that they understood something about what Sabbath is even though they never considered the connection to the word. Those who agitate us Sabbath keepers are often heard to say they keep the Sabbath everyday. Well, on the surface that's utterly absurd for Sabbath keeping requires no servile work. So are they lying? Admittedly, most of them have been more argumentative than caring, but is there merit in this otherwise absurd claim? To be right with Elohim, forgiven of sin and walking with Him is to be in Sabbath.
It is effectively argued that violation of the Fourth Commandment is enough in itself to render all men sinners and not in a position to have this kind of relationship with YHWH through Messiah. There is Scripture to support that claim. I know there are some (please forgive this term) know-it-alls out there who are satisfied they have full understanding. That's okay. When the Spirit of Yeshua convicts them of the Fourth Commandment, they'll move on to the next plateau in their relationship with Elohim. Judgment day is coming and only each man and his Creator know if he has been honest with the Scriptures, YHWH, himself and others. When a man knows, when he has been pricked in his heart to investigate this matter, then the matter becomes serious. I know that I had a relationship with YHWH and it was this relationship that brought me to understand the value Elohim put on His sacred day. It is not "the Jewish Sabbath" as we hear over and again. YHWH calls it His day, His feast/moedim, set apart time (Isa 58:13,14; Leviticus 23).
While it is true that Sabbath breaking is sin just as much as taking the Name of YHWH in vain, who among us is without sin? We are in dire straits if we justify this position. "I'm just a sinner saved by grace" is not the goal; it is the beginning. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man and with the temptation is provided a way of escape." Every sin that is not of ignorance is by choice, i.e. rebellion. Which sin is more grievous: violating the Sabbath or worshiping idols? Neither. If a man break the Torah (Law) in one point, he is guilty of all. It is not our goal to find out how much of YHWH's requirements we can get out of but to see how many we can honor Him with obedience. Sabbath keepers are often accused of "picking and choosing" which commandments they want to observe while the accusers claim not to be subject to the Torah of Elohim at all but "under grace." From there is yet another return to rhetoric about how a man is justified. The fact is all men "pick and choose." Most actually have their picking and choosing done for them by their denominational leaders. More than that, many men add and add and add and add to the Word of Elohim. No, they don't pencil anything into the text claiming the Spirit penciled it. But the Scriptures alone are the policy maker for the beliefs and practices of men. When men lay down laws such as one ought to be in church every time the doors are open, or keep a military haircut, save their faces, and a host of other things, they are adding to the requirements set forth in the Word of Elohim. The command to be in church Sunday mornings is a tradition set forth by men. They even admit it, claiming the apostles established the change to the first day of the week, except for Roman Catholics who aver that Scripture indeed makes no such requirement, but the pope is the "vicar of Christ" and is/was empowered to ("think to") alter times and laws. Indeed the Roman Catholics are more honest on the subject than those who deny their practice began with ancient Rome and practices earlier than Constantine. The so-called "church fathers" are no authority over what is written or not written in the Word of Elohim. No man has such authority. Yeshua added the washing of feet to follow the Passover meal. But not even He so much as thought to alter anything in YHWH's Torah which, according to John is Who Yeshua was. He could not nor did He alter Himself, the Word in flesh.
Much, much more can and will be said as time permits. Let me close this post by saying that after twenty years of keeping the Sabbath according to the Commandment as defined in Isaiah 58:13, 14, I want never to know anything outside of this great, weekly explosion of joy, gratitude, study and prayer. Do I wait until the seventh day to experience any of this? Of course not; that would be absurd. No man can be sanctified unto YHWH only one day per week. He is either set apart to YHWH or he isn't. Sabbath is 24/7; it is peace with YHWH through His Son Yeshua. Those who have been redeemed by YHWH can know the joy of the Seventh day because they already know a sabbath relationship. Some men call Sabbath keeping "dangerous." It is unthinkable that a requirement of YHWH for the benefit of man, the day given to man, the day Yeshua claimed to be its Master is dangerous. The only danger in seventh-day Sabbath keeping is its threat to the status quo or that men will think in themselves that the act itself has the power to render them any measure of favor and/or justification for sin. The only sin that can be covered by Sabbath keeping is not keeping it. Okay, that was tongue-in-cheek. But it is as true as the only thing beyond the blood of Yeshua that can cover adultery is simply abstain from the act, the breaking of the command of YHWH for which Yeshua was "bruised" for our redemption.
Yes, Certo is a seventh day Sabbath keeper and will be as long as he has the freedom and soundness of mind to do so. And so will his bride, his gift from Elohim. Stay tuned for some explanation of the sheer beauty of Sabbath as well as discussion of texts used to object to it and the Torah of YHWH.
This afternoon, I was thinking over some events and influences in my life. Of a certainty, I have been one blessed guy. I take nothing for granted and pay attention even to the timing of things. Of the many blessings I've had I should say that start with my parents. Dad was a Methodist from New York State and mom was an "old fashioned, Pentecostal holiness." At least these were their denominational backgrounds. On moving south, dad, a draftsman by trade was invited to a Baptist church by a co-worker. He then began to listen to that church's radio broadcasts. For the first time in his life he heard the Gospel as is presented in the evangelical world and embraced it. He remained a Baptist until his death at 95. Mom became very disenchanted with the Holiness people because she saw so much wrong with them yet they, in her words, had a pretense of extreme piety and if a girl or woman put on any makeup or cut her hair, she was going to hell. But somehow gossiping about those who do did not constitute anything egregious. Okay, egregious is my word. After a time she figured out that there are self-righteous judges everywhere, not just the corner in which she was raised. She met dad at a church social and he was doomed. They were both late bloomers so to speak, marrying in their thirties. Mom joined dad in a Southern Baptist Convention church and I was born some time later. The Scripture was read daily in our home and no matter what our denominational alliance, the power of the Scripture took effect.
I began piano lessons at age six and was playing at church by age 12 and at around 15 or 16 became the organist for the church on a Hammond B3, complete with the four-foot tall Leslie speaker. Dad was a lover of bass. He built a sound system in the living room with 12" woofers in the early 50s. That was before woofers were "cool" to borrow a cliche from Dolly Parton. It annoyed him that church organists where we went were piano players that couldn't seem to learn to use the bass petals. So, guess what? Certo learned to virtually dance on them, properly trained by an up-town organist for a big Methodist church with an awesome pipe organ. I remember sitting at that organ and playing the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. Set the stops right and you cannot hear the low D, only feel it vibrate the walls. I thought I'd died and gone to Heaven. Okay, not really.
I was taught from my birth about "Jesus" being the Son of Elohim, Elohim in flesh, the sinless propitiation for the sin of man and the power of mercy in those who turn to Him in repentance and faith. At the ripe old age of nine, while listening to preaching reverberating through the house from dad's sound system, I became convicted that I needed Yeshua's blood applied to my life. On making announcement of this to my parents, everything in the house stopped while we went into the living room where we all got on our knees and I confessed being a sinner in need of repentance and forgiveness. My faith was rewarded and a new life began in me that I could not attain by any means other than as a precioius gift from YHWH. This gift of forgiveness was to last for eternity. I have not made all the right choices in life, still living in this body of flesh delivered to me from Adam. But no matter what I did, I was as sure as King David that if I repented and asked forgiveness, the joy of my life in YHWH would be restored. He is without measure in mercy and care for those who seek Him. Nothing I would ever conceive to do could merit this great gift. Indeed I knew of a life that could only be granted by the great pleasure of Him Who sought for me and found me.
My senior year in high school I took a class in psychology. One week or part of the week we studied accident proned people. Then Sunday evening at Training Union (pre-worship service study period in Southern Baptist churches) we had a lesson in our "quarterlies" titled... "Accident Proned People." By this time I had gotten serious about Scripture study and had friends at school with who I was associated. We would have pre-school Scripture reading and prayer in one of the classrooms. So, this lesson on the psychology of accident proned people was the final straw for me and I wanted out. This didn't please dad, the man whose car I drove, food I ate and roof I lived under. But he didn't say much. Long story short, I migrated to Independent Baptist circles. The shades of Independent Baptists vary as much as the display window in sunglasses kiosk in the mall. Nonetheless, they were far more serious students of the Word and that was the attraction for me as well as going out "soul-winning." Southern Baptists went visiting for the church.
The desire to preach began early in my life and I'd preach to fictitious audiences in my childhood. About a year before the psychology lesson in Training Union, I was licensed by the church as a Baptist preacher. Wow, that seems so long ago.
Jumping over about two decades, it is that about the only people I could engage in scriptural discussions of any depth were pastors and sometimes they showed little interest. People would go to church, sing the hymns, and all that goes with it, but it seemed nobody studied the Word. I could not find five men anywhere, other than pastors, who could name five fundamentals of the faith and give Scripture to support them, let alone any major discussions. I found in the late 80s I would sometimes come out of church and look into the heavens and cry out, "Where are they?" Okay, not really out loud, but of a certainty in my mind.
I hired a Seventh-Day Adventist.
Now just the mention of that has caused many pastors I've known or known of to lie about me and accuse me of being one. This Adventist happened to have an incredible work ethic. I was invited to their home for their devotional times and was told of the special blessing that comes with the Sabbath. A true Baptist, complete with cynicism, I retorted in my mind things like Everybody with a deviant doctrine thinks their goose bumps constitute special blessings. I liked them well enough but just couldn't buy into their teachings. So, I set out to prove them wrong. The first thing I did was approach the pastor of the church I was attending and then the associate pastor. I got the standard Christ rose the first day of the week answer and It doesn't matter what day, and two or three other commonly heard reasons for Sunday replacement. I began to read all I could get my hands on. Sunday writers often relegated Sabbath keeping to Ellen G. White and Seventh Day Adventists (SDAs). They would call them "our SDA friends" and other accommodating terms and then blast them with the inability to understand a King James Bible. The pro-Sabbath writings I could find were largely SDA authored. Maybe that's why Baptist typically turn to the Adventists when "dealing with" the Sabbath issue. This or that writing would make some valid points, but it was all too clear to me that those writings were more than suitable to convince an Adventist, but not a hard-hitting Independent, Fundamental Baptist with an attitude. Back in the Scriptures I began to meticulously study every passage dealing with the Sabbath and the law as a whole. As I studied, I sat at the old portable, Royal typewriter, turning the ribbon over and over as I began a defense of the seventh-day Sabbath for the so-called "New Testament, grace-age, gentile Christian church." Some of the verses/passages used to support a day change were easily enough understood as not saying what Sunday people claimed. A few others took some time and study. My objective was not to defend the Sabbath as much as to understand its defense by those who kept it and then have the power to prove them wrong.
I believe it is dishonest to deny a doctrine without understanding it... at least controversial ones. Of course, some things are open and shut, no matter what my peers in Evangelicalism said with final authority in their voices. I didn't know it yet, but Scripture leaves no room for debate on the issue. I began to be accused of not being grounded in the Word. It was then I knew that the cage they were in was being shaken. As soon as men begin to attack the person instead of the doctrine, they prove beyond doubt they are powerless in their positions. No, it wasn't fun or even comfortable. I did not want to move, be called names: judaizer, grace-trampler, and all the other one-liners we hear from empty wells.
But the words of men did not mesh with the Scriptures. In time I had completed a manuscript for a book. This manuscript was reproduced many times via copy machines and bound in Ibeco combs. I passed it around among many pastor friends and others in evangelicalism. I had some fame, for lack of a better word, as a piano player. That and my love of preachers and missionaries provided many friends "in high places." I won't take the time here to recount some of the reactions, but suffice it to say, the overwhelming silence I heard was deafening. I had so well dealt with the various passages that none came back to me even though I sought after them to do so with promise of no arguing. I would state right up front: Prove me wrong. I do not want to move from where I am.
Even men who love me or at least held me in some esteem remained silent... to my face that is. I have a few cassette tape recordings of sermons preached behind my back that were touted to prove me or the SDAs or Ellen White wrong. Most preachers assaulted Ellen White as though she is synonymous with the Sabbath. They'd veer off into veganism, women in leadership, charges of cult and a host of other things but none of them, not one offered much from the Scriptures to support Sunday over the so-called "Jewish Sabbath."
Some time later, I wrote the second manuscript and published it in 1997. No reprints have been produced because my position has somewhat changed. No, more than ever I knew that even with an "Authorized KJ Bible" the question of the Sabbath for believers was not even debatable. Some things are; this isn't.
The Seventh Day Adventist doctrines were not a collection of beliefs I could not embrace. I read a lot of Ellen White and I don't mind telling the truth. Few writers can surpass her in presenting the sanctity of the Sabbath. Jewish writings and Messianic clones are more into traditions of men than the simplicity of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is all about Yeshua anyway. And Who is Yeshua? The salvation/restoration of YHWH, a work that began before the foundations of the earth and appeared to man as soon as he was found guilty of sin -- faith in something other than his Creator. More on that later. I could not go with Armstrong type groups because they were too far afield from what I understood to be truth. What about Seventh-day Baptists? Now there's hope. I secured SDB literature and found their defense of Sabbath to be good enough but other literature looked too much like Southern Baptist social clubs: lots to do with youth parties, social events and meager Scripture studies. Can't go there. Meanwhile, I came to reject the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine, the crown on the queen of Dispensationalism. My faith still solidly in place, no effort of mine can achieve eternal life, I was being called a heretic by this time, by the very people who held to the same faith plus nothing position I trumpeted. But Evangelicals are subject to hundreds of years of indoctrination that if one keeps the seventh day Sabbath, he is working for his Salvation, "on the wrong side of Calvary" and a host of other damning commentary.
They are good to say if someone doesn't show up at church (on Sunday), he gives evidence he's not converted. Yet they are firm that going to church does not save anyone. And in their stance against Sabbath keepers many argue it doesn't matter which day one chooses, referencing Paul. But somehow if the day happens to be the seventh day of the week, then it matters so much that it is impossible a man can worship on the Sabbath and not be trying to get saved. There is an uncanny blindness to the fact a man can set apart the seventh day and do this after he is converted and not be trying to attain any measure of grace by so doing. There is much, very much that can be said along these lines, but it is not my point here to make a defense more than simply telling my story.
During my life in the Baptist church, I was honored to meet some people who had prayer lives like those of biographies of the men of the past. I know there is a lot of debate over who's justified/justifiable and who isn't. But it is no more my job to declare tares from wheat than it was that of the disciples or anyone else living or dead. Only Messiah has that right and ability. Men are all faulty and the best of them are seeking truth. What the Spirit of YHWH reveals to any man is His doing and according to the willingness of any man to hear. I have known men who know more about what Sabbath means, never using the word, than many who claim to be Sabbath keepers. Sabbath is relationship. Sabbath is peace, peace with Elohim. Sabbath was made for man and on the seventh day of the week he is to rejoice in his relationship with his Creator. More on that later.
I knew one pastor who spent hours on his knees weeping for the souls of men in his community. I have had the honor of being with him in his basement study on our knees for two and three hours at a time. He would call out a name, another name, maybe up to four or five before giving way to weeping bitterly before YHWH. After a time, he would rub his eyes with his tear-soaked handkerchief and start all over again with a couple or so more names, begging for mercy and repentance for those people. One doesn't forget experiences like that. Was this man a seventh day Sabbath keeper? No. He pastored a Baptist church and probably never gave the Sabbath any real consideration his whole life. Do I have the knowledge and ability to explain that? No. I was introduced to an elderly Baptist pastor and his wife, country folk. They humbly sat as my friend recounted stories of the power of Elohim in and through their lives and these were stories of "biblical proportions." My friend asked the old man if he minded his wife showing me her knees. He agreed to the request and she pulled up her skirt enough for me to see knots on her knees that were over a quarter of an inch thick and appeared hard as rocks. I was then escorted to the bedroom where I saw the shine and stain worn away in four spots alongside their bed. The floor actually had four bowl shapes. No, they weren't deep, but just the worn away finish on the floor is astonishing, let alone any wear in the oak hardwood floor.
There were others. There is no question in my mind that they understood something about what Sabbath is even though they never considered the connection to the word. Those who agitate us Sabbath keepers are often heard to say they keep the Sabbath everyday. Well, on the surface that's utterly absurd for Sabbath keeping requires no servile work. So are they lying? Admittedly, most of them have been more argumentative than caring, but is there merit in this otherwise absurd claim? To be right with Elohim, forgiven of sin and walking with Him is to be in Sabbath.
It is effectively argued that violation of the Fourth Commandment is enough in itself to render all men sinners and not in a position to have this kind of relationship with YHWH through Messiah. There is Scripture to support that claim. I know there are some (please forgive this term) know-it-alls out there who are satisfied they have full understanding. That's okay. When the Spirit of Yeshua convicts them of the Fourth Commandment, they'll move on to the next plateau in their relationship with Elohim. Judgment day is coming and only each man and his Creator know if he has been honest with the Scriptures, YHWH, himself and others. When a man knows, when he has been pricked in his heart to investigate this matter, then the matter becomes serious. I know that I had a relationship with YHWH and it was this relationship that brought me to understand the value Elohim put on His sacred day. It is not "the Jewish Sabbath" as we hear over and again. YHWH calls it His day, His feast/moedim, set apart time (Isa 58:13,14; Leviticus 23).
While it is true that Sabbath breaking is sin just as much as taking the Name of YHWH in vain, who among us is without sin? We are in dire straits if we justify this position. "I'm just a sinner saved by grace" is not the goal; it is the beginning. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man and with the temptation is provided a way of escape." Every sin that is not of ignorance is by choice, i.e. rebellion. Which sin is more grievous: violating the Sabbath or worshiping idols? Neither. If a man break the Torah (Law) in one point, he is guilty of all. It is not our goal to find out how much of YHWH's requirements we can get out of but to see how many we can honor Him with obedience. Sabbath keepers are often accused of "picking and choosing" which commandments they want to observe while the accusers claim not to be subject to the Torah of Elohim at all but "under grace." From there is yet another return to rhetoric about how a man is justified. The fact is all men "pick and choose." Most actually have their picking and choosing done for them by their denominational leaders. More than that, many men add and add and add and add to the Word of Elohim. No, they don't pencil anything into the text claiming the Spirit penciled it. But the Scriptures alone are the policy maker for the beliefs and practices of men. When men lay down laws such as one ought to be in church every time the doors are open, or keep a military haircut, save their faces, and a host of other things, they are adding to the requirements set forth in the Word of Elohim. The command to be in church Sunday mornings is a tradition set forth by men. They even admit it, claiming the apostles established the change to the first day of the week, except for Roman Catholics who aver that Scripture indeed makes no such requirement, but the pope is the "vicar of Christ" and is/was empowered to ("think to") alter times and laws. Indeed the Roman Catholics are more honest on the subject than those who deny their practice began with ancient Rome and practices earlier than Constantine. The so-called "church fathers" are no authority over what is written or not written in the Word of Elohim. No man has such authority. Yeshua added the washing of feet to follow the Passover meal. But not even He so much as thought to alter anything in YHWH's Torah which, according to John is Who Yeshua was. He could not nor did He alter Himself, the Word in flesh.
Much, much more can and will be said as time permits. Let me close this post by saying that after twenty years of keeping the Sabbath according to the Commandment as defined in Isaiah 58:13, 14, I want never to know anything outside of this great, weekly explosion of joy, gratitude, study and prayer. Do I wait until the seventh day to experience any of this? Of course not; that would be absurd. No man can be sanctified unto YHWH only one day per week. He is either set apart to YHWH or he isn't. Sabbath is 24/7; it is peace with YHWH through His Son Yeshua. Those who have been redeemed by YHWH can know the joy of the Seventh day because they already know a sabbath relationship. Some men call Sabbath keeping "dangerous." It is unthinkable that a requirement of YHWH for the benefit of man, the day given to man, the day Yeshua claimed to be its Master is dangerous. The only danger in seventh-day Sabbath keeping is its threat to the status quo or that men will think in themselves that the act itself has the power to render them any measure of favor and/or justification for sin. The only sin that can be covered by Sabbath keeping is not keeping it. Okay, that was tongue-in-cheek. But it is as true as the only thing beyond the blood of Yeshua that can cover adultery is simply abstain from the act, the breaking of the command of YHWH for which Yeshua was "bruised" for our redemption.
Yes, Certo is a seventh day Sabbath keeper and will be as long as he has the freedom and soundness of mind to do so. And so will his bride, his gift from Elohim. Stay tuned for some explanation of the sheer beauty of Sabbath as well as discussion of texts used to object to it and the Torah of YHWH.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
2010-05-25, Tuesday
Here's to my first blog. Over the years I have posted an incredible number of web pages and additions to forums of various natures. http://www.iBreathMusic.com/ is a good place for musicians to discuss an array of technical problems with either hardware, software or music theory. There have been a couple forums, now in the cyber graveyard, that I've given many hours to. But this is my first blog, per se. Fact is, many web pages in which ideas are conveyed aren't much different that a blog, I suppose. Any enough of that.
I am trying to learn Microsoft's Expression Web design software. Everybody says get Dreamweaver or one of the freebies associated with this or that host. I'm not building a corporate site, doing buisness and communicating with clients. Expression Web ought to be just fine... when I get it learned. There's divs, layers, nested layers and a host of ways to create styles. It's a major learning curve from the old Microsoft FrontPage, basic html sites. I used to really like making frame sites, but for whatever reason, most people had a mental block about them. Well, that's all history. I put up sites with FrontPage using "shared borders." But for some reason unknown to me, everytime I created a new page, the site would mess up from the server.
The big deal with divs, containers, layers, etc. is in part due to the growing array of platforms used by surfers. Not only is there the gap between pc and Mac, there's a host of operating systems, monitor configurations, video cards with different attributes, some set by the user, browsers, some old versions still in use. Throw all these variables in the canister, shake 'em up and you begin to understand how far a designer has to go if he is intent on satisfying his desire for as many people as possible to see a site as intended. A site can look great in IE and in Firefox, some element may be on top of another. Well, that's one of my current concerns. I need to know how to overcome these issues.
Photography is a lot of fun. These days it seems everyone, of course that's a stretch, has a camera and is taking pictures even if with nothing else but a cell phone. Today's cameras have good lenses, the No. 1 requirement, at least in traditional thinking. They have electronic sensors instead of film and auto ... everything. Images come out stunningly crisp. With a plethora of pretty flowers using the macro setting, or butterflies, landscapes, etc., all looking super sharp and wowing friends, the term "photographer" has lost a lot of definition. Add to that, people can afford to buy a good cameray body or two, some good lenses and maybe even other professional accessories. They shoot a cousin's wedding and a niece's birthday party and they're ready to hang a shingle, advertise online and label themselves prefessional. Well, that's a realative term in that if it is what they're dong for a profession, then...
These photographers who have the time and money to get up and running learn all kind of neat things to do with their lighting; but more than that, they're wizards with PhotoShop... or even PhotoShop lite, called "Elements." And hey! Who doesn't? What annoys me the most is the lack of compositional skill so many display. Many such people post their work online and people, knowing a big word or two, start complimenting the composition, not having a clue what they're saying, other than a word that makes them sound smart.
Wow! What a way to start a blog... throwing darts. So, let's be fair and throw a few back this way. I've not had the expendible cash to go "big time" like so many are doing these days. I'm not able to travel to exotic places and get images that most of us on short leashes can only dream about. We may produce images that compositionally "rock." But if they're not of a mother eagle feeding chicks in a nest on a ledge in the Grand Tetons, they don't stand a chance in the average photo site competitions. A kid with big eyes and ice cream all over his face, looking up at the camera wins more points than a work of art. People like the subject and know little to nothing of composition. A few years ago, Yahoo/Reuters posted small images with captions, typically used as filler in newspapers and other periodicals. They allowed viewer ratings. Some well trained artist with a camera may have a picture that gets nearly no attention while a cheezy shot of some sexy celeb gets more votes than Al Gore and "W" put together. All that to say, I don't expect to ever be a renouned photographer, even locally. I do the best I can and like most everybody else, when I'm dead and gone, so will be my photographs, lol.
Probably the most popular subjects are children with pets running a close second. From there it spreads out to family, college parties, silly self-"portraits" with a friend or two included. That's the way it's been for decades. And vacation pictures. I think people are pretty well getting away from the "Here we are at..." shots to prove they actually were at this or that place. It's not that they took a picture there, they needed to be in the picture for their proof. There's still a lot of that, but not at the same glaring ratio it used to be.
Dad never learned the rules of art, but he was a master at exposing slide film, which is a serious discipline on its own. And the day came when he got an 8mm movie camera that had to be wound up every little bit. No batteries to buy. Mother wasn't happy if us kids weren't smack dab in front of the attraction. And whenever friends or relatives were misfortuned enough to be caught with dad casting slide images or "home" movies on the screen, there was a never ending repetition of "Here we are at...," narrated by mother.
And did I ever pull of some winners in days gone by. One day I determined to be creative, got right down on the sand, close to a leaning Pepsi can. The can positioned on the left vertical of the frame and the beach curving gently toward the right side of the frame in the far distance. Proabably a mile or so from me was some condo construction and the huge beam of a crane was so positioned in my photo that it gave the appearance of a soda straw standing in the can. Okay, not quite, but once I asked a real photographer to evaluate a couple pix, the first thing he saw was the boom of the crane. Until then, I was quite proud of that picture, lol.
Mistakes have been plentiful, but they've also been educational.
It's bed time. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something more interesting to ramble about and maybe an image or two.
Here's to my first blog. Over the years I have posted an incredible number of web pages and additions to forums of various natures. http://www.iBreathMusic.com/ is a good place for musicians to discuss an array of technical problems with either hardware, software or music theory. There have been a couple forums, now in the cyber graveyard, that I've given many hours to. But this is my first blog, per se. Fact is, many web pages in which ideas are conveyed aren't much different that a blog, I suppose. Any enough of that.
I am trying to learn Microsoft's Expression Web design software. Everybody says get Dreamweaver or one of the freebies associated with this or that host. I'm not building a corporate site, doing buisness and communicating with clients. Expression Web ought to be just fine... when I get it learned. There's divs, layers, nested layers and a host of ways to create styles. It's a major learning curve from the old Microsoft FrontPage, basic html sites. I used to really like making frame sites, but for whatever reason, most people had a mental block about them. Well, that's all history. I put up sites with FrontPage using "shared borders." But for some reason unknown to me, everytime I created a new page, the site would mess up from the server.
The big deal with divs, containers, layers, etc. is in part due to the growing array of platforms used by surfers. Not only is there the gap between pc and Mac, there's a host of operating systems, monitor configurations, video cards with different attributes, some set by the user, browsers, some old versions still in use. Throw all these variables in the canister, shake 'em up and you begin to understand how far a designer has to go if he is intent on satisfying his desire for as many people as possible to see a site as intended. A site can look great in IE and in Firefox, some element may be on top of another. Well, that's one of my current concerns. I need to know how to overcome these issues.
Photography is a lot of fun. These days it seems everyone, of course that's a stretch, has a camera and is taking pictures even if with nothing else but a cell phone. Today's cameras have good lenses, the No. 1 requirement, at least in traditional thinking. They have electronic sensors instead of film and auto ... everything. Images come out stunningly crisp. With a plethora of pretty flowers using the macro setting, or butterflies, landscapes, etc., all looking super sharp and wowing friends, the term "photographer" has lost a lot of definition. Add to that, people can afford to buy a good cameray body or two, some good lenses and maybe even other professional accessories. They shoot a cousin's wedding and a niece's birthday party and they're ready to hang a shingle, advertise online and label themselves prefessional. Well, that's a realative term in that if it is what they're dong for a profession, then...
These photographers who have the time and money to get up and running learn all kind of neat things to do with their lighting; but more than that, they're wizards with PhotoShop... or even PhotoShop lite, called "Elements." And hey! Who doesn't? What annoys me the most is the lack of compositional skill so many display. Many such people post their work online and people, knowing a big word or two, start complimenting the composition, not having a clue what they're saying, other than a word that makes them sound smart.
Wow! What a way to start a blog... throwing darts. So, let's be fair and throw a few back this way. I've not had the expendible cash to go "big time" like so many are doing these days. I'm not able to travel to exotic places and get images that most of us on short leashes can only dream about. We may produce images that compositionally "rock." But if they're not of a mother eagle feeding chicks in a nest on a ledge in the Grand Tetons, they don't stand a chance in the average photo site competitions. A kid with big eyes and ice cream all over his face, looking up at the camera wins more points than a work of art. People like the subject and know little to nothing of composition. A few years ago, Yahoo/Reuters posted small images with captions, typically used as filler in newspapers and other periodicals. They allowed viewer ratings. Some well trained artist with a camera may have a picture that gets nearly no attention while a cheezy shot of some sexy celeb gets more votes than Al Gore and "W" put together. All that to say, I don't expect to ever be a renouned photographer, even locally. I do the best I can and like most everybody else, when I'm dead and gone, so will be my photographs, lol.
Probably the most popular subjects are children with pets running a close second. From there it spreads out to family, college parties, silly self-"portraits" with a friend or two included. That's the way it's been for decades. And vacation pictures. I think people are pretty well getting away from the "Here we are at..." shots to prove they actually were at this or that place. It's not that they took a picture there, they needed to be in the picture for their proof. There's still a lot of that, but not at the same glaring ratio it used to be.
Dad never learned the rules of art, but he was a master at exposing slide film, which is a serious discipline on its own. And the day came when he got an 8mm movie camera that had to be wound up every little bit. No batteries to buy. Mother wasn't happy if us kids weren't smack dab in front of the attraction. And whenever friends or relatives were misfortuned enough to be caught with dad casting slide images or "home" movies on the screen, there was a never ending repetition of "Here we are at...," narrated by mother.
And did I ever pull of some winners in days gone by. One day I determined to be creative, got right down on the sand, close to a leaning Pepsi can. The can positioned on the left vertical of the frame and the beach curving gently toward the right side of the frame in the far distance. Proabably a mile or so from me was some condo construction and the huge beam of a crane was so positioned in my photo that it gave the appearance of a soda straw standing in the can. Okay, not quite, but once I asked a real photographer to evaluate a couple pix, the first thing he saw was the boom of the crane. Until then, I was quite proud of that picture, lol.
Mistakes have been plentiful, but they've also been educational.
It's bed time. Maybe tomorrow I'll have something more interesting to ramble about and maybe an image or two.
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