7 Facts About the Seventh Day

Adapted from Why God Said Remember by Joe Crews.

Part of Satan’s strategy to destroy humanity’s trust in God has been to attack His claim as the Creator. Obviously, the theory of evolution is part of this deceptive and soul-destroying effort. With its amoral humanistic emphasis, Darwin’s doctrine has turned millions into religious skeptics and enshrouded in darkness their need for the Savior.

Yet while many Christians rightly denounce this unscientific belief, ironically, many are still falling into the devil’s trap of denying God’s sovereignty over the earth. That trap is the ages-long effort to twist and destroy the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath.

Through Satan’s false information and man’s trust in traditions over the sure word of Scripture, millions of Christians have been led to discount or even reject the importance of observing the Sabbath. “The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord: … in it thou shalt not do any work” (Exodus 20:10).  No one disagrees with the clear meaning of this text, yet millions are finding ways not to follow it.

Why? The general Bible ignorance of the church and the clever arguments of Satan have created a climate of prejudice against the holiness of the seventh day in favor of the observance of Sunday. So in the interest of promoting God’s law over the theories of men, let’s take a moment to rediscover some amazing facts about the seventh-day Sabbath.

Fact #1: The Seventh-day Sabbath Establishes God’s Sovereignty
Why does Satan hate the Sabbath so much? Because the Sabbath identifies the true God and His claim of ultimate sovereignty.

God certainly anticipated the controversy over the Genesis account of Creation. He knew that after the fall of man, there would be doubts about His claims of manufacturing all the staggering mass of matter by merely commanding it to exist.

To safeguard His sovereignty, He established a mark that denoted His absolute right to rule as Lord. He chose to memorialize His display of creative power by setting aside the seventh day of the Creation week as a holy day of rest and remembering.

God wrote these words: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work. … For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is: … wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it” (Exodus 20:8–11).

Once a week, as the earth rotates on its axis, the Sabbath reminder travels around the earth reaching every man, woman, and child with the message of an instant creation and the one who did the creating.

Why did God say remember? Because to forget the true Sabbath is to forget the true Creator.

Does it really matter that much? See “The One Unimportant Commandment?” below.

Fact #2: The Seventh-day Sabbath Was Made for Everyone
A multitude of Christians call God’s fourth commandment the “Jewish Sabbath.” But nowhere is this expression found in the Bible. The seventh day is called “the sabbath of the Lord,” and it is never called “the sabbath of the Jew” (Exodus 20:10).

Luke, a Gentile writer of the New Testament, often refers to things that were particularly Jewish. He writes of the “nation of the Jews,” “the people of the Jews,” “the land of the Jews,” and the “synagogue of the Jews” (Acts 10:22; 12:11; 10:39; 14:1). But he never refers to the “sabbath of the Jews,” although he mentions the Sabbath repeatedly.

Christ also taught that “the sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27). Adam and Eve were the only two people who existed when God actually established the Sabbath. There were no Jews in the world until 2,000 years later, so it was never meant just for the Jews. Jesus uses the term “man” in the generic sense, referring to all mankind. The same word is used in connection with the institution of marriage that was also introduced at creation. Certainly no Christian can believe that marriage was made only for the Jews.

Fact #3: It’s Not About Just Keeping Any Day
Every word of God’s Ten Commandments was written by His own hand in stone. Every word is serious and meaningful. No line in them is ambiguous or mysterious. Sinners and Christians, educated and uneducated, are not confused about the words “seventh day.” So why do they discount those words if every other word in the commandments is considered to be ironclad?

Satan wants the world to accept Sunday as the day he has chosen for worship, but any day will do for him so long as it means we’re breaking God’s command.

Genesis describes the origin of the Sabbath like this: “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made. … And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Genesis 2:1–3).

Which day did God bless and sanctify? The seventh day. How was it to be kept holy? By resting. Could any of the other six be kept holy? No. Why? Because God commanded not to rest those days but to work. Does God’s blessing make a difference? Of course. Parents pray for God to bless their children because they believe it makes a difference. The seventh day is different from all the other days because it has God’s blessing.

Has God ever given man the privilege of choosing his own day of rest? No. In fact, God confirms in the Bible that the Sabbath is a matter settled and sealed by His own divine power. Read Exodus 16. For 40 years, God worked three miracles every week to show Israel which day was holy: (1) No manna fell on the seventh day; (2) they could not keep manna overnight without spoilage; (3) but when they kept manna over the Sabbath, it remained sweet and fresh!

But some Israelites had the same idea as many Christians have today. They felt that any day in seven would be okay to keep holy: “It came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none.” What happened? “And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” (Exodus 16:27, 28).

God met them and accused them of breaking His law by going forth to work on the seventh day. Would God say the same thing to those who break the Sabbath today? Yes. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

But why the seventh day, exactly? See “Why the Seventh Day?” below.

Fact #4: We Know the True Seventh Day
Some reject the seventh-day Sabbath over the belief that we cannot know which day it falls on today, so picking any day should be okay. But this is fallacy. Here are four proofs that identify the true Sabbath.

1: According to Scripture, Christ died on Friday and rose on Sunday, the first day of the week. Practically all churches acknowledge this by observing Easter Sunday and Good Friday. “This man went unto Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. And he took it down, and wrapped it in linen, and laid it in a sepulchre that was hewn in stone, wherein never man before was laid. And that day was the preparation, and the sabbath drew on. The women also, which came with him from Galilee, followed after, and beheld the sepulchre, and how his body was laid. And they returned, and prepared spices and ointments; and rested the sabbath day according to the commandment” (Luke 23:52–56).

This is clear evidence that Jesus died the day before the Sabbath! The day of His death was a “preparation day” because it was the time to get ready for the Sabbath. Notice, then, that the women rested over the Sabbath “according to the commandment.” The commandment says, “The seventh day is the Sabbath,” so we know they were resting on Saturday. The very next verse says, “Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre, bringing the spices which they had prepared. … And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulchre” (Luke 24:1, 2).

2: The calendar has not been changed so as to confuse the days of the week. Just as we know that Jesus and His followers observed the same day as Moses, we can be positive that our seventh day is the same day Jesus observed. Pope Gregory XIII did make a calendar change in 1582, but it did not interfere with the weekly cycle. What did Gregory do to the calendar? He changed Friday, October 5, 1582, to be Friday, October 15, 1582. He did not affect the weekly cycle of days.

3: The Jews have observed the seventh day from the time of Abraham, and they still keep it today. An entire nation of people, all around the world, continue to observe a Sabbath they have known for more than 4,000 years.

4: Over 100 languages on earth use the word “Sabbath” for Saturday. For example, the Spanish word for Saturday is “Sabado,” meaning Sabbath. What does this prove? It proves that when those languages originated long ago, Saturday was recognized as the Sabbath day and was incorporated into the very name of the day.

Fact #5: The Sabbath Is Not a Memorial of Deliverance Out of Egypt
This is a belief taken and twisted out of the Old Testament: “The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:14, 15).

Some people suggest this means that God gave the Sabbath as a memorial of the Exodus from Egypt. But the Genesis story of the making of the Sabbath (Genesis 2:1–3) and the wording of the fourth commandment by God (Exodus 20:11) reveals the seventh-day Sabbath as a memorial of creation.

The key to understanding these two verses rests in the word “servant.” God said, “Remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt.” And in the sentence before, He reminds them “that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.” In other words, their experience in Egypt as servants would remind them to deal justly with their servants by giving them Sabbath rest.

It was not unusual for God to harken back to the Egyptian deliverance as an incentive to obey other commandments. In Deuteronomy 24:17, 18, the Bible says, “Thou shalt not pervert the judgment of the stranger, nor of the fatherless; nor take a widow’s raiment to pledge. … Thou wast a bondman in Egypt, and the Lord thy God redeemed thee thence: therefore I command thee to do this thing.”

Neither the command to be just nor to keep the Sabbath was given to memorialize the Exodus, but God told them that His goodness in bringing them out of captivity constituted a strong reason for them to deal kindly with their servants on the Sabbath and treating justly the strangers and widows.

In the same way, God spoke to them in Leviticus 11:45, “I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt … ye shall therefore be holy.” No one would insist that holiness did not exist before the Exodus or that it would be ever afterwards limited only to the Jews!

Fact #6: The Sabbath Is Not Meant to Memorialize the Resurrection
It is true that Jesus rose on a Sunday. It is one of the pivotal moments in the history of the world.

But nowhere does the Bible hint that we should keep Sunday holy. Many other wonderful events occurred on certain days of the week, but we have no command to keep them holy either.

There is, of course, a memorial of the resurrection commanded in the Bible, but it is not to determine a new day of worship. Paul wrote: “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Baptism is the memorial of Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. However, the Sabbath is a memorial of creation.

Still have a question about this? See “The Upper Room” below.

Fact #7: The Sabbath Will Be Celebrated for Eternity
The Sabbath is an arbitrary arrangement of God that serves a powerful purpose. It is His claim — His seal — over the world and all human life. It is also a sign of the redemption He offers to every single one of us.

Surely this is why God will preserve Sabbathkeeping throughout eternity. That’s right! “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 66:22, 23).

The Sabbath is so precious to God that He will have His people observe it throughout all time in the beautiful new earth to come. If it is so precious to Him, should it not be precious to us? If we are going to keep it through all eternity, why not keep it now as our pledge of obedience to Him?

Trust and Obey: There Is No Other Way
It is easy to understand why the devil has waged a continuing, desperate battle against the seventh-day Sabbath. He has worked through the pride of tradition, misinformation, and religious bigotry to destroy the sanctity of God’s special sign of authority — the Sabbath.

But with these Sabbath facts in hand, may God grant every Christian the courage to honor the Sabbath commandment as His special test of our love and loyalty.

It might be a duty to keep the seventh-day holy. But it should not be a burden. In an age of false gods and spirituality, of atheistic evolution, and the stubborn traditions of men, the world needs the Sabbath more than ever. It is more than just a test of our loyalty to the Creator. It is more than just a sign of our sanctification through His power. It is His promise of a lasting, eternal gift of restoration.

The Dangers of a Diluted Gospel

October 18, 2010
By Pastor Doug BatchelorAn Amazing Fact: In 2005, cancer patient Georgia Hayes won a $2.2 billion court settlement against her pharmacist, who had diluted her chemotherapy drugs with water. In the process, she had lost her best chance for recovery. While $2.2 billion is a lot of money, it’s little comfort when you don’t have long to live. Dilute: to make thinner, to lessen strength, to adulterate, to reduce value or efficiency, to make fainter, or to water down What could be more deadly than diluted cancer medication? Maybe placebo pills for a cardiac patient. Or diluted insulin for a diabetic. Actually, the most deadly medicine is a watered-down gospel—because the tragic results are eternal. Jesus says there will be two groups of people in the end times. One group He calls few, the other He calls many. “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? … and done many wonders?’ ... And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ ” (Matthew 7:22, 23). Evidently, the majority of Christ’s professed followers are self-deceived. They know His name. Their religious activities seem to have the marks of genuine ministry, but Jesus, with a broken heart, will declare to them, “I don’t know you.” Why? Because they live a compromised life full of sin. This is a popular characteristic of people in the last days. They are “lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, … haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:2–4). Of course, when Paul describes the last-day conditions above, he’s describing what has always been typical in the world. But here he’s saying that it will infiltrate the church. All these lawless behaviors so prevalent in the world are going to be common in the church. Christians will have all the “form of godliness” but lack the power (2 Timothy 3:5). They have a medicine bottle and a label, but they’re taking diluted drugs that can never heal them. Sin Isn’t Just a Case of the Sniffles Perhaps you know somebody with hay fever. Maybe even you. There are some over-the-counter pills you can take to fight the symptoms. Sometimes, depending on the pollen, you can take half a pill and be okay. Sometimes, though, you have to take the entire pill. If you don’t take the right dose, you might leave the house thinking all’s well, but then later it hits you: Your eyes start itching and your nose starts running. You’re miserable. You just can’t wait until winter arrives. Getting the right medicine in the right dose makes a world of difference. So it is with the gospel. If we don’t get the full strength, we could be deceived into thinking we’re really healed when we’re actually getting worse. Likewise, the devil is mass-distributing a watered-down version among God’s people. He’s content to let you go to some churches because the medicine there is often so diluted it won’t make any transforming difference in your life. “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3, 4). In this verse, Paul describes a problem in the pulpit and in the pew. You have preachers who are not sharing a straight message, and you have people who don’t want a straight message. The people don’t want to take anything that’s hard to swallow. They generally want what’s easy and sweet to the senses. They want someone who will give them a prescription for candy-flavored, chewable medicine. “Savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also, from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves” (Acts 20:29). The gospel gets watered down because preachers want to be popular and some, for pride or money, want to draw away disciples after themselves for power and influence. (See Ezekiel 13:10.) Untempered Mortar Instead of warning the lost to turn from their sins, false teachers tell people to be at peace in their sins because God is too full of grace to expect them to change. They give diluted medicine, which gives people a false sense of security. The Scriptures refer to false teachers as those who build a wall and “plaster it with untempered mortar” (Ezekiel 13:15). In Bible times, lazy builders would stack bricks with no mortar and then put a plaster veneer over the bricks to hide it. Without the mortar, there’s no stability. (Today we use concrete to hold the bricks together.) The wall might have looked solid from the outside, but a donkey could have kicked it over because it had no real strength. More than 500,000 were killed or injured in the 2010 Haitian earthquake. One of the principal causes of these casualties was untempered mortar. Greedy contractors skimped on the percentage of concrete they mixed into the mortar and expensive iron rebar, which reinforces the concrete. It made for pathetically weak walls, and as soon as the massive earthquake struck, the fragile buildings crumbled. There are walls for Christians too. The Ten Commandments are a wall, built to protect your freedom and happiness. When someone gets an STD because of promiscuous living, he reads the seventh commandment and understands that wall was put there to protect his happiness, not to prevent happiness. The wall of obedience protects our lives, freedom, and contentment. But if the mortar gets diluted, whether from the pulpit or the pew, then, when the storm comes, like a house built on sand the wall implodes. Diluting the Prosperity Naturally, I always want a big crowd in church. That’s understandable, right? But this desire carries risk. In order to draw people to church, I’ll always be tempted to make my sermons as attractive as possible. Marketers try to convince you that if you use their product, you will live longer, look better, have more money, and be more popular. Does the Bible tell us that’s how we’re to market Christianity? Does Jesus promise health and wealth and popularity? Is “prosperity preaching” right? There’s a lot of good in the good news. There are many blessings, but Jesus also says, “Take up [your] cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). Deny yourself daily—we don’t hear that very often. Jesus said the real key to happiness is to put God and others first. Today, however, it’s all about putting “me” first. A lot of people hear this diluted version of the gospel and believe it’s good medicine. But good medicine is really just the beginning. Jesus said we are to be doers of the Word. A Christian isn’t defined by church attendance. A Christian is defined by a transformed heart that influences his actions. Jesus asked, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). We can’t call ourselves Christians if we don’t do what He says. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Part of the gospel we’re not hearing today is that He wants us to be a people who obey Him. Giving the industrial-strength prescription of gospel truth will heal the symptoms of sin. We are not saved by obedience, of course. That is legalism. But obedience is not legalism if it’s a response to God’s love, a response to having already been saved. “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). One way the gospel gets diluted is when people are encouraged to have enough faith to believe that God will forgive them, but not enough to believe that He will keep them from sin. It’s a gospel that says God accepts you as you are and doesn’t care if you change. The Bible says the gospel is not just about justification, but also about sanctification. You can come to Jesus just as you are. That’s good news. But He loves you too much to leave you that way. That’s good news too! You can be changed to be like Jesus. He can transform you so you become a new creature. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). That’s great news! Show, Don’t Tell “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, [from falling,] And to present you faultless Before ... His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 1:24). I want to have a life where I don’t stumble all the time. How about you? But Christians hear so little of that, and the results are obvious. People have to explain they’re believers because they don’t consistently live it. Instead, we ought to be lights on a hill so people say, “Wow. Her life is distinctly different.” “He’s not just like everybody else.” “What’s different about you?” And we answer, “I believe in Jesus. He saved me. He changed my life.” Prior to the Dark Ages, the church thrived even though the Christian religion was forbidden. They were being thrown into lion dens and being burned at the stake. They couldn’t practice it in the open, so they dug catacombs under Rome for the first 200 years of Christian history. You can still visit these Roman mines. Some Christians etched on the walls, “Vita, vita, vita,” which means, “Life, life, life. I have life.” They were suffering and dying in these dark mines—and yet they were joyful. Then something happened in Rome. Constantine wanted to build his empire because of the civil war between him and Maximus. He claimed to have had a vision and was now supposed to fight under the sign of the cross. They didn’t know anything about Christianity, but his soldiers painted Christian symbols on their shields. They were all pagans, but they marched into the Tiber River for battle and called it a baptism, figuring they were Christians when they came out the other side. It became the in-thing to be a Christian, but they hadn’t been taught the whole truth. When the emperor made Christianity acceptable, pagans came pouring into the church. The leaders didn’t handle it well. They didn’t want to lose the new converts, so they began to dilute the message, just a little. The pagans would have to make a lot of lifestyle changes, and if they didn’t like it, they might go back to persecuting Christians. One such problem was idols. One historian wrote, “There were more idols in Rome than Romans.” These new Christians wanted to do what was right and asked the priests what they should do with their statues. Some of the priests said, “Throw them out!” But many of the pagans balked. So some of the other pastors suggested, “Ease them into it. Tell them to give Christian names to their idols and we’ll take care of it later.” So they named their idols Peter, James, John, and Mary. Many pagan practices crept into the church so that in one generation Christianity became the commingling of paganism and Scripture. They diluted the gospel for the sake of having quantity instead of quality—and it ushered in the 1,260-year Dark Ages. How to Grow the Church It’s a constant temptation churches face when measuring success. They ask, “Is it growing?” Very rarely do we measure the success of a church by how godly the people are. Instead, we measure success by numbers, and that can be a mistake. We’re tempted to make it easier to be a member. It becomes a mindset to just get them in the door and worry about the rest later. So we dilute the message little by little to make the medicine easier to swallow. Even today, I hear pastors saying, “Don’t insist they quit smoking or drinking before they join the church. Make it easy for them to come to Christ and baptize them. The Lord will deal with these things in His own time.” Then they come in and years later they’re still chained to these destructive habits. Baptism represents a new beginning, a liberation, a changed life. It doesn’t mean you’re instantly perfect. It does mean addictions to sin should be repudiated and left behind. One of my favorite Christian authors said it this way: “Men and women have many habits that are antagonistic to the principles of the Bible. The victims of strong drink and tobacco are corrupting body, soul and spirit. Such ones should not be received into the church until they give evidence that they are truly converted, that they feel the need of the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. The truth of God will purify the true believer. He who is thoroughly converted will abandon every defiling habit and appetite. By total abstinence he will overcome the desires for health-destroying indulgences” (Bible Training School, July 1, 1902). As we learned earlier, the Dark Ages were a result of bringing people into the church before they really understood, before they had surrendered their hearts. The church becomes diluted, enfeebled, weakened. The power of being a follower of Jesus loses its strength, and pretty soon we’re coming together, going through a ritual once a week, and living like the world. Instead of winning souls to Christ and living godly lives, we’re doing exactly what the devil wants in weakening the power and the efficacy of the gospel. “Gospel Lite” The mega evangelical churches have something they call “gospel lite.” They want visitors to be comfortable, so they make the worship experience as easy as possible. They offer coffee and donuts before and after service. They encourage relaxed dress, even just T-shirts and shorts. They have theater-like seating so you don’t have to squish together in a pew with strangers. If you offer enough enticing perks, you can get anybody to visit for an hour. Then once you get them in, you can’t preach the hard things or rebuke their pet sins because they might not come back. Feed them on clichés about the power of positive thinking. Entertain them with animated music, laser lights, and dramatic presentations. Then you think it must be the truth because after all you have 10,000 people coming to church. But how many have repented of their sins and really know Jesus? So how are you going to know that you’re not getting a diluted gospel from your pastor? You must study the Bible with guidance from the Holy Spirit. You need to search it out for yourself. There are a lot of preachers out there who are wolves in sheep’s clothing. They measure success by numbers, so they preach a diluted gospel. Pastor John MacArthur says, “Watered down, diluted theology will fail to produce deep reverence, deep worship, deep repentance, deep humility, deep understanding of God’s nature, His work, His ministry, His laws, His standards, His principles. It fails to make people of God, people that are God-centered.” He’s right. An undiluted gospel is going to involve real repentance for sin, a sorrow for sin, and a turning away from it. Repentance means “remorse, regret, contrition for past sin. To change for the better as a result of remorse or contrition for one’s sins.” The first thing John the Baptist said when he started preaching about the kingdom of God was, “Repent.” The first thing Jesus said was, “Repent,” and if He tells us to repent, it means we can and we should. Jesus said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matthew 9:13). The first church leaders said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). First comes the baptism of repentance, then comes the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The full-strength gospel medicine precedes reception and filling of the Holy Spirit. Along with repentance must be restitution and reform. “If the wicked restores the pledge, gives back what he has stolen, and walks in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live; he shall not die” (Ezekiel 33:15). In 1858 revivalist Jeremiah Meneely brought his preaching to Belfast, Ireland. He talked about repentance, reform, and committing yourself to the Lord. The men there worked in a shipyard and were so convicted of their sins, they repented and began to return the tools they had pilfered during the previous years. The response was so complete the shipyard had to build extra sheds to take in all of the returned tools! Eventually, the management asked that there be no further returns of stolen property! You know the Holy Spirit is working in a community when people start living like real Christians and make tangible changes in their lives. This is the fruit of the real gospel. What Gospel Do You Desire? Is it your desire to be filled with the Spirit and to have an undiluted message in your life and in your church? Let us encourage one another to be real Bible Christians by studying for ourselves to know what constitutes having a relationship with the Lord and being saved. I have a friend who is still crippled today from a small plane crash. While flying with friends in a South American country, they trusted a stranger to fill up the tanks in their aircraft. It turns out that gas was badly contaminated with water. Unfortunately, they did not discover the polluted fuel until they were 600 feet off the ground. The engine coughed, lost power, and they crash landed in the jungle. Friend, do you know that you’re getting the pure, high-octane, unadulterated, industrial-strength fuel of God’s truth? Many will be deceived by bright lights and promises of wealth, but a few will study for themselves in the Word and be changed. Which one are you?

Aliens, Angels, or Adopted? Who Are the Sons of God?

 

By Pastor Doug Batchelor
October 30, 1938. It was Halloween night, and much of America had tuned their radios to the Columbia Broadcasting System, which had just finished reporting on the weather and began playing music. Within moments, the broadcast was interrupted by a news flash about strange explosions on Mars. The announcer reassured the audience that as more information became available, more announcements would be made. Then the music continued.
As the night progressed, the music was interrupted frequently, now with terrifying reports of an invasion. Aliens from Mars had landed in New Jersey and in cities around the world. The Earth was under attack. Panic filled the streets as many people fled their homes.
But it was all fiction.
A young Orson Wells had adapted the H.G. Wells’ book War of the Worlds for broadcast and modified the script to present the story as though it was happening in real time. Many listeners took the fictional radio play to be real.
Those who panicked were operating with incomplete information. They had failed to hear the station announce at the beginning and the end of the broadcast that it was all mere drama. Coming in at the middle, hearing only part of the story, they had no context and ran off thinking the sky was falling.
Similarly, a passage in Genesis when read out of context has caused many to believe that Earth has been invaded by aliens from outer space. Let’s take a look at that challenging verse:

And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose (Genesis 6:1, 2).

Some believe that the term “sons of God” refers to extraterrestrial invaders. They believe that these beings are fallen angels or aliens from space who took human females as wives and produced offspring. They rationalize this belief by saying that the progeny produced by these unions were “giants” (v. 4). They believe these unholy unions were ultimately responsible for the increased wickedness of man.
On the surface, this seems to be a reasonable explanation of Scripture. But as we shall see, without understanding the context that surrounds this passage, you can actually be confused into believing that certain fictions are real. Fortunately, we can clear up any confusion on the sons of God quite easily by gathering more information from the Bible.

Angels Are Spirits
The King James Bible uses the term “sons of God” 11 times in two primary ways. However, it never uses the term to refer to an angelic being.
“He who makes his angels spirits …” (Psalms 104:4). Angels are spirits; they are not flesh. They are all around us now, but we cannot see them. They generally remain in their spiritual form and have no physical integration in our world—they don’t go to school, get jobs, or raise families. They are here to “minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Hebrews 1:14).
Even if they wanted to marry and have babies, they couldn’t; they don’t have human DNA. It would be easier for a jellyfish to marry a mountain goat than for angels to marry people. Thus, it doesn’t make practical sense to believe that our passage in Genesis refers to the marriage of angels, fallen or holy, to humans.
Angels are not born; they are created. If God wanted more angels, He wouldn’t need to marry them off to humans or other angels to reproduce. He could create them from scratch. Speaking of Lucifer, God said, “The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes Was prepared for you on the day you were created (Ezekiel 28:13 NKJV, emphasis added).
Moreover, Jesus tells us plainly that angels do not marry. Marriage is a uniquely human institution, reserved for mankind. “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). Mark and Luke suggest the same thing: “Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God” (Luke 20:36; some translations render it “sons of God”). Notice here that Jesus makes a distinction between angels and sons of God. They are classified separately, which means they are not the same thing.
So if the sons of God are not angels, what are they?

Cosmic Life?
While the sons of God were not space invaders, the Bible does appear to teach that there is other life in the cosmos. It is clear in Scripture that Jesus made other planets: God “has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds” (Hebrews 1:2 NKJV).
In the parable of the lost sheep, the Earth represents the one lost sheep, a wandering world that went astray, the one Christ came to save. It’s easy to imagine that God, in His infinite existence, created other worlds with other physical beings. Of course, we know He had seraphim and cherubim and other angels prior to our world, so at a minimum we know there are at least those extraterrestrial creatures. “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth” (Colossians 1:16 NKJV). “And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth ... I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!’ ” (Revelation 5:13 NKJV).
However, most of these other created beings do not visit this world. The Earth is infected with a deadly contagious disease called sin, and we are likely quarantined. The only ones allowed to go into a quarantined hospital ward are the hospital staff; in this case, God’s angels. They are ministering spirits.

Princes of Planets
Thousands of years ago, an intriguing meeting took place in heaven. “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them” (Job 1:6).
In attendance at this meeting are sons of God, as well as Satan himself. Satan says that he has come from the Earth. The sons of God were there representing their un-fallen worlds in God’s universe. Satan was there to represent the Earth.
Why would Satan be representing our world? Originally, Adam had dominion over the Earth. He was created by God to subdue and manage it. God said to Adam and Eve, “Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth on the earth” (Genesis 1:28).
While Adam was in obedience to God, he enjoyed dominion over the world. But once Adam sinned and obeyed Satan, that dominion was forfeited to the enemy. “To whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness” (Romans 6:16 NKJV).
Even Jesus referred to Satan as “the prince of this world” (John 12:31).
In the Gospel of Luke, the genealogy of Jesus is traced all the way back to Adam. Notice what Luke says about this lineage: “the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God” (Luke 3:38, emphasis added).
The difference between Seth and Adam is the bellybutton. Adam was created by the hand of God; Seth was born of Eve. Adam was the son of God, created to have dominion over the Earth. Thus one definition for sons of God is those beings God Himself created to have dominion over the worlds He made. These beings were not born but were created directly by God.
Job 38:7 tells us that when our world was created, “the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy.” The “morning stars” are angels, whereas “the sons of God” are the leaders of other worlds. (See Revelation 1:20.)
With that cleared up, let’s talk about the second way the term “sons of God” is used.

Heirs of Righteousness
The other meaning of sons of God refers to human beings who have been recreated by God’s Spirit. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). Matthew 5:9 adds, “Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God” (NKJV).
Here Jesus is obviously referring to human beings, but not just any human beings; these are peacemakers, the righteous children of God. In no way should this be construed to refer to angels or aliens.
“But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12). Notice that there were those who were not sons of God, but that through receiving Him became sons of God.
It should be mentioned that “sons of God” doesn’t mean just males. Many Bible translations render the phrase “children of God.” Galatians 3:26 says, “For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” It is by faith that a man or woman becomes a “child of God.” (See also Isaiah 56:5; Philippians 2:15.)
The inescapable conclusion from these verses and others is that the sons of God in Genesis 6 refers to the righteous children of God.

Daughters of Men
The term “daughters of men,” therefore, refers to the unrighteous children of men, those human beings who do not call on the name of the Lord. In the context of our Bible passage, “daughters of men” refers to the offspring of Cain and his wife.
Originally, Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain murdered Abel, so God gave Adam and Eve another son, Seth. He began to have children of his own, and they “began to call on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:25, 26). And from what we’ve seen in the Bible, those who call on the name of the Lord are called the sons of God.
Now Cain had been banished from God’s presence. He settled “in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden. And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived and bare Enoch: and he builded a city, and called the name of the city, after the name of his son, Enoch” (Genesis 4:16–18).
Here, before the Flood, we have the descendants of Cain living in cities and the descendants of Seth living in the country. As long as they remained separate, the sons of God remained pure in their religious beliefs and practices.
However, eventually they began to intermingle. Maybe the sons of God needed supplies that could be easily obtained in the cities where the daughters of men resided. The sons of God and daughters of men became familiar with each other, even friendly. Whatever the case, soon the descendants of Seth, or sons of God, began to marry the daughters of men, or the descendants of Cain.

Mixed Marriages
It’s even quite possible the sons of God went into this situation with good intentions. Maybe they believed they could convert these daughters of Cain, introducing them to the Lord their God. However, the counsel of God is clear:

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God (2 Corinthians 6:14–18).

God does not want His children marrying the unconverted or the unbelieving, even if they have a pretty face, the nicest disposition, or a passionate belief in another religion. It makes no difference; God says that relationship will have problems.
So the result of these intermarriages was not only giants, but sorrow. Instead of the sons of God influencing the daughters of men, the daughters of men influenced the sons of God.
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly (Deuteronomy 7:3, 4; emphasis added).
The Bible is filled with stories about the sons of God mingling with the daughters of men and the disasters that follow as a result. Samson, chosen by God, was derailed by the Philistine women. His parents pled with him to avoid marrying a pagan bride, but he insisted on having what he wanted (Judges 14:3).
Solomon no doubt believed that he could marry the daughters from pagan nations and convert them. However, those pagan daughters drew away Solomon’s heart. This is why God is so adamant about His children not marrying unbelievers. It is almost always the case that the believer is gradually transformed by the unbeliever, not the other way around.
Jesus likewise has a warning for us in these end-times:

But as the days of [Noah] were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that [Noah] entered into the ark (Matthew 24:37, 38).

Jesus here is likely referring to the mixed marriages of Genesis 6 that brought on the universal wickedness leading to the Flood.
As in Noah’s day, before the Flood, things that led to the destruction of the world with a deluge by water are going to happen again. They are a preview of what’s going to happen before the destruction of the world by a flood of fire when Jesus returns. History is going to repeat itself, but we don’t have to be among the repeat offenders.

Adoption Choices
Not everyone who thinks they are a son or daughter of God really is. The Pharisees boasted to Jesus that they were the children of Abraham. Jesus corrected them. “If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham” (John 8:39). This is a simple principle to test our heritage. Which “father” do we follow in our actions? Jesus told the religious leaders, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44).
When we are born again and adopted into the family of God, we will want to imitate our heavenly Father. “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6 NKJV).
If you are not a son or daughter of God now, the wonderful news is that you can choose a new family.
By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward (Hebrews 11:24–26 NKJV).
When called by God, Moses traded in his Egyptian adoption for a heavenly one. Through Jesus, you can too.
When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ (Galatians 4:4–7 NKJV).
Right now you can choose to be a child of the King, an heir of eternal life, and become a son or daughter of God in whom He is well pleased! Just ask Him.

Wages

When Christ called His disciples to follow Him, He offered them no flattering prospects in this life. He gave them no promise of gain or worldly honor, nor did they make any stipulation as to what they should receive. To Matthew as he sat at the receipt of custom, the Saviour said, “Follow Me. And he left all, rose up, and followed Him.” Luke 5:27, 28. Matthew did not, before rendering service, wait to demand a certain salary equal to the amount received in his former occupation. Without question or hesitation he followed Jesus. It was enough for him that he was to be with the Saviour, that he might hear His words and unite with Him in His work.

So it was with the disciples previously called. When Jesus bade Peter and his companions follow Him, immediately they left their boats and nets. Some of these disciples had friends dependent on them for support; but when they received the Saviour’s invitation they did not hesitate and inquire, “How shall I live and sustain my family?” They were obedient to the call; and when afterward Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything?” they could answer, “Nothing.” Luke 22:35.

Today the Saviour calls us, as He called Matthew and John and Peter, to His work. If our hearts are touched by His love, the question of compensation will not be uppermost in our minds. We shall rejoice to be co-workers with Christ, and we shall not fear to trust His care. If we make God our strength we shall have clear perceptions of duty, unselfish aspirations; our life will be actuated by a noble purpose which will raise us above sordid motives.

 Help In Daily Living (Ellen G. White)

Genesis 5: Prophecy of Jesus sacrifice

Often we dismiss the genealogy chapters of the Bible.  We dismiss them as "boring reading", and skip to the next chapter.   Take this to heart the next time you fall on a list of genealogical chapters; they're not there just to be there.  Everything in the Bible is placed there for a reason.  They're there in order for the bible to provide courage, to be painfully honest, and to explain itself.  In the case of genesis 5, the lineage for the sons of God, was placed there to provide hope and to prophesy about the coming messiah. It prophesied about the one who'd come to save us all, and whom all of scripture speak of.

Genesis 5 From Adam to Noah (The sons of God)

1. Adam              ↔ Man
2. Seth                ↔  Placed or appointed
3. Enosh              ↔ Wretched man or fallen man
4. Kenan             ↔  Lamenting
5. Mahalalel        ↔ The Blessed God
6. Jared               ↔ Shell descend or come down
7. Enoch             ↔ Teaching, dedicated, disciplined, obedient, unto death
8. Methuselah     ↔ This death shell bring
9.Lamech           ↔ Power
10. Noah            ↔ Rest and comfort

In other words, Genesis 5 prophecies about the coming savior:

Man, placed or appointed, wretched fallen man lamenting.  The blessed God shell descend or come down, teaching, dedicated, disciplined, obedient, unto death.  His death shell bring power, rest and comfort.