PART 2:THE PAGAN NAMES AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE SABBATH? TTwo thousand years after Jesus walked the Earth, Christians are at war with each other concerning – as strange as it may sound – a day of the week mentioned in the Ten Commandments. The issue boils down to: “When is God’s Sabbath?” In other words, what is His holy day of rest? Most Christians today think it’s Sunday, when the majority of churches hold services. But others confidently say it’s Saturday, calling Sunday worship “the most flagrant error of mainstream Christianity,” believing Sunday-keepers are victims of clever deception. Some high-profile evangelical pastors such as California’s Greg Laurie say it’s simply “wrong to set Saturday apart as a special day for worship.” Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell Conversely, the 1981 film “Chariots of Fire” was based on the true story of Eric Liddell, a Scottish sprinter and Christian missionary who disqualified himself from his best event at the 1924 Olympics because the race was on Sunday – the Sabbath in his view.Hmmm! THE DIVIDE: Christians seem irreparably split, as this issue goes back to the beginning of time itself. In the beginning … There are seven days in a week, but historians have no consensus about the cycle’s origin, since it has no basis in astronomy. The Bible, though, indicates God created the Earth and its life forms in six days, and then rested on the seventh. “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.” (Genesis 2:2-3) Biblically speaking, the first six days of the week had no special name. They were simply identified by ordinal numbers, such as the first, second and third day. But the seventh day was given a unique name. In Hebrew, it’s “shabbat,” meaning “rest.” In English, the word is “Sabbath,” and it’s detailed in the Fourth Commandment. “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, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day.” (Exodus 20:8-11) In many languages, the word used for the seventh day of the week – what we call Saturday – is actually the same word used for “Sabbath.” In Greek, it is sabbaton; Italian, sabato; Spanish, sábado; Russian, subbota; Polish, sobota; and Hungarian, szómbat. Even the French “samedi” is from the Latin “Sambata dies,” for “day of the Sabbath.” Names of days in today’s English come from ancient paganism, where they were originally associated with celestial objects and heathen gods. ..continued..
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 14:55:53 +0000