Rythym & Rhyme

“The Evidence of Time” www.firstharvestchurch.org You are invited to be a guest at our weekly “Celebration of Sabbath Service” We honor the Sabbath each Saturday at 2:00. People travel from great distances to be part of these services filled with the glory of God, and to experi- ence the sweet glory rain that falls upon His bride in these meetings during this holy time. On the first Sabbath of the month we have a fellowship lunch that you are welcome to enjoy with all of the saints. We currently meet in the facilities of Miracle Tabernacle Church 235 Old Spanish Trail, Waveland, Ms “The Evidence of Time” www.firstharvestchurch.org The Unchanging god “Jesus is my Sabbath” “Every day is a Sabbath for me” “I find my rest in the Holy Spirit” All of the above are common and sincere objections that we most often hear from our fellow Christians when they learn that we, as a Spirit-Filled congregation, preach on the necessity of honoring and remembering the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy, sacred and set apart. In this small booklet I will not deal with these common objections, as they have been dealt with in another writing by this ministry, entitled; “The Seventh Day” We will, however, in this brief writing meticulously deal with one of the lesser-heard but sincerely cited arguments against the keeping of the Sabbath day; this is a very vital question that must be answered in order for the keeping of a certain day to be deemed credible. Rhythms & Rhyme Dr. J.S.Vaughn The question we will attempt to answer in this writing per- tains to the supposed fallacies in the “keeping of time.” “How can we know that Saturday is actually the 7th day since the calendars have all been tampered with throughout time?” Of all the objections to Sabbath-Keeping, this is the one that demands a deeper study into the historical records of the keep- ing of time. The major objections can all be answered and prov- en false by scripture alone. However, this question that we are now presented with must be answered by Holy Writ, history, social studies and science. All must be in complete harmony. Our creator is known by His never-changing discipline. Rhythm and Rhyme are attributes of His collective trade- marks. Order and perfection are the very identifying charac- ter traits of Israel’s God. There is simply no shadow of turn- ing in our almighty Ya h w e h. This is one of the primordial attributes of the Eternal One that chiefly separates Him from humans and temporal elements that are controlled by time. Contrariwise, we as humans have a continuously changing na- ture. Mankind cannot be depended upon to remain the same. Our emotions, our mentalities and our ways are constantly developing and changing in the process of learning. However, Yahweh is never learning anything. He is never progressing in knowledge as He already IS everything the He shall ever be. This can be proven by the never-changing words of Ya h w e h as spoken through the prophet Isaiah; “The Evidence of Time” www.firstharvestchurch.org Isaiah 41:21 - Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and shew us what shall happen: let them shew the former things, what they be, that we may con- sider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. Shew the things that are to come here- after, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together Here, Ya h w e h is mocking those who think that they can compare their wisdom with His. However, He gives us a very important key in this set of verses about His very character. Notice that He is speaking here about predicting the fu- ture. In His tenable argument against men of false wisdom He tells them that if they wish to truly know the future, then they must study the past. Why? Because, with Ya h w e h “the more things change, the more they stay the same” In other words, to get a grasp of how God will do something in the future, simply look back at His patterns - His rhythms and rhymes in His past workings - and you will see exactly how He will work in the future. He is resolute, never-changing! If He hated sin in the past, He will hate it in the future. If He de- stroyed the earth before because of sin, then you can adequately know what He will do with sin in the future; cleanse the earth. If He always loved fallen men then He will always love fallen man. You never have to worry about one shadow of change in our God. This is the very reason why the Holy Bible never has to be updated to be relevant for every generation. Rhythms & Rhyme Dr. J.S.Vaughn Think about it! How can a book written thousands of years ago possibly have any relevance in our lives to- day? Quite simply, because men never change and Ya h w e h never changes. What man has always been, man will always be. Rebellion against Ya h w e h has been the eter- nal story of man and it continues to be. Therefore, all of the writings of Holy Scripture are valid in every generation. With this understanding in mind let us seek to answer those sin- cere Christians who often tell us, “You are correct that Sunday is not the seventh day if we go by the modern calendar, but how do we know that the calendar is still correct concerning the seventh day.” “The Evidence of Time” www.firstharvestchurch.org Can we be sure? If somehow we could cross the hills of Judea and find the man, Christ Jesus, Yahshua, and it just happened to be Sat- urday on our calendar in the land of Israel today, would we find Him keeping that exact same day as His Sabbath Day? Would we find Him in the synagogue as “His cus- tom was” 1 on the exact same Saturday as we find ourselves? What about Moses and the children of Israel in the pages of Sabbath past? If we could travel back in time to their Sabbath services, would their seventh day be the same as ours today? The answer is an astounding YES! This is very important. The seven day week, as well as the Biblical Sab- bath, had a common origin in history. Both origi- nated at the creation of our age. Scientists, histori- ans, and astronomers affirm that the seven-day weekly cycle has continued uninterrupted even to our own day. Have you ever stopped and considered where we inherited our seven-day week from? Why doesn’t a week have ten days or why don’t we switch the weeks up and have different numbers of days in each week? From which authority do we inherit this seven- day week? Where does this rhythm derive from? Is there any na- tion or human culture or indigenous people group in the history of our species or planet to which we can attribute it’s creation? 1 Luke 4:16 Rhythms & Rhyme Dr. J.S.Vaughn Why is this seven days of time so entrenched in the biological make-up of all creation? This beautiful dynamic of the seven-day week is a lot like the age old institution of marriage: it simply seems to “always have been.” Perhaps the reason for this is because both the seven-day week and the institution of marriage were both created at the same time; at the creation of our age. As soon as The Eternal One created Adam, He created marriage, the very next day both Adam and His Bride joined with Ya h w e h in honoring the seventh day, the Sabbath Day. Since this mo- ment there was a pattern set into the DNA and culture of life that has been as age-enduring as the earth itself. The week of seven days culminates with a glorious ending called The Sabbath Day. This is the only day that was ever named by Ya h w e h, It is the only day that He ever claimed to be Lord of. When He cre- ated earth, man and marriage He created the seven-day week and ultimately The Sabbath Day. It is interesting to note that no other day of the week was specifically named by Ya h w e h because He only names or claims what is His. The Sabbath belongs to Him and His people; it is their sign of covenant. The other days of the week were named by the pa- gans after the various planets and heavenly bodies such as Sun-Day and Moon-Day (Monday) and so forth. “The Evidence of Time” www.firstharvestchurch.org The Language Test Both ancient and modern languages support the regular, weekly cycle. And, in at least 108 of them, the name for the sev- enth day of the week is not Saturday, or Saturn Day, but Sabbath! Just a few examples include: Ancient Syriac: shabatho, Babylonian: sabatu, Arabic: assabt, Etheopic: sanbat, Armenian: shapat, P olynesian: hari sabtu, S wahili: assabt, Latin: Sabbatum, Italian: Sabbato, Spanish: Sabado, Russian: Subbota, Polish: Sobota, Assyrian: Sabata, Tigre: Sanbat, Kurdish: Shamba, Georgian: Shabati, Morduin: Subbota, Portuguese: Sabbado, New Slovenian: Sobota, Prussian: Sabatico. Rhythms & Rhyme Dr. J.S.Vaughn So you see, the languages of the world also re- mind us of God’s Holy Sabbath day. Most lan- guages of the world still call Saturday the Sabbath. All of these names mean “Sabbath” or “rest day” in their various languages. Except for those languages that have adopted the pagan names for the days of the week, the seventh day is still called the Sabbath, as the Lord named it at the time of the creation of the world. The question must be answered by the sincere thinker: Who cre- ated this name “Sabbath,” that it completely fills the vernacu- lar of nearly every tongue and dialect? Even more, who created this idea of a Sabbath day in all these cultures of the world? Unlike the other rhythms of time, (i.e. such as years and months which are determined by natural occurrences such as sun patterns and the moon cycles) the seven-day week has absolutely no natural preponderance. We have the yearly cycle because of the sun patterns and we have the monthly cycle because of the moon. But nothing in nature indicates a seven-day weekly cycle. There is absolutely no reason for this pattern of seven in nature; it simply IS and it IS all by itself. Think about this sincerely: If the theory of evolution were correct, every nationality would, by the law of averages, have come up with a different weekly cycle; some five days, some ten days, etc. But we all have the same seven-day weekly cycle because God established it at the Creation and it has contin- ued to the present day. This rhythm of time is intricately in- laid into the proverbial mind-set of all humanity; but again the question begs an answer: “from whence did it come?” Yo u must answer this question honestly and resolutely. “The Evidence of Time” www.firstharvestchurch.org Historical evidence? History is a worthy witness of scriptural truth. We can use his- tory to prove the veracity of the Word of God. One must always remember that the Word of Ya h w e h will never be in competition with, or in contradiction to, history nor science; They both agree to, and eventually catch up to, the truth of God’s Holy Word. So, what does history tell us about this seven-day week ,which culminates at The Sabbath? A search into the cultures of yes- terday and far beyond, as far away as China and the deserts of Africa, reveal to us a consistent pattern of seven days. All cultures agree to this arrangement in their historical records. While this is compelling historical evidence indeed, I would like to present to you the greatest of all historical evidence. What if I could show you from the pages of history a nation that has never ceased to exist? What if that nation or race of people had kept detailed records of all their ancestors for thousands upon thousands of years? What if I could show you such a peo- ple, and in their writings I could show you concrete proof that the seventh day of the week was Saturday? Would you believe me? Ah, of course you say you would, but truthfully most will not. Why? Because that nation, culture and race of people are indeed alive today, and their records and historical documents prove to us concretely that Saturday is the seventh day, and yet none of the Christian world believes them, save a remnant few. That nation which has preserved the Sabbath truth is the nation of Rhythms & Rhyme Dr. J.S.Vaughn Israel ,and most especially, the tribe of Judah or the Jewish people. Ya h w e h has given us a LIVING HISTORY to testify to the world the truth of the seventh-day Sabbath . . . He has given us the Jews! Every other Near East ethnic group has disappeared - the Hittites, Canaanites, Amorites, Amalekites, Perizzites, Je- busites, Sumarians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Moabites, Philis- tines - but the Jews remain, and with them, the seventh- day Sabbath. They have faithfully kept it since the time of Moses, 3500 years ago, and have continued to keep track of the Sabbath each week. Any Jew will tell you that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and it falls on the Saturday of each week. It would be absolutely impossible to mix up a whole nationality overnight and have them all wake up unified and worshiping on another day, thinking it was the Sabbath. Moreover, since Jesus has commanded us to worship on that day to show alle- giance to Him, don’t you think He would preserve its identity? Notice that Paul names the Jews as the curators of God’s history museum, curators of the truths of time . Rom 3:1-2 - What advantage then hath the Jew? . . . Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God Thus the very reason that the world hates them: they hold before us the constant reminder of Sabbath. God has pre- served them for this very reason: they have been entrusted with sacred truth even while blinded to salvation’s truth. “The Evidence of Time” www.firstharvestchurch.org Let’s talk Calendars The craft of time-keeping is as old as time itself, and has been meticulously preserved. Time is not hard to keep if one simply knows how to watch the heavenly bodies. They keep time all by themselves, while we simply watch them do so and count. So, has the calendar been changed or tampered with? The an- swer is YES! Of course the calendar has been changed, several times. However, not without reason or rhyme. No one woke up one day and said, “Hey, let’s play with the calendar.” The whole of humanity has a very special penchant for time and the keep- ing thereof, and we don’t take kindly to it changing. If you don’t believe me, simply watch Americans when we lose daylight savings time. Everyone becomes quite uncomfortable with the changing of time. So, this is not something that anyone in his- tory looked forward to dealing with, and never arbitrarily so! Let me be abundantly clear! Yes, calendars have changed but the seven-day weekly cycle has NEVER changed. When Ya h s h u a (Jesus) the Messiah walked the earth, all of mankind was under the auspices of the Julian calendar. This particular calendar ruled society for fifteen centuries of time. However, it was known to have an error in its calculations of time. Its years were a quarter-hour too long each year. Rhythms & Rhyme Dr. J.S.Vaughn The results of this error went unchecked; and therefore, after fifteen centuries, those fifteen minutes or quarter- hours began adding up, and the sum total of those over- ages each year caused the Julian calendar to be ten days off. A solution had to be found to accommodate for this breach of time. In the year 1582, the pope of Rome, Pope Gregory, 2 was made fully aware of these astronomical findings and sought immediately to rectify the situation. So, after much counsel, a decision was made to add those 10 days back to the calendar that they had lost by inaccurate keeping of time. In the month of October, on the fourth day these ten days were added back. October 4th fell on a Thursday in 1582, and the next day would be none other than Friday, of course. At this point you must follow closely! It would seem that if they were going to add 10 days on Thursday, October 4th, in 1582 then the next day would become (if you count forward 10 days) known as Sunday, October 14th ,1582. However, if this had happened, there would be a colossal loss of the Sabbath Day be- cause now we would never know which day was the true 7th day. However, Ya h w e h , in His divine providence protect- ed TIME for His people. How so? When this change was made to the calendar, they did not change the seven day weekly cycle. They simply added 10 days to the number of the day, not the name of the day. So, therefore, Thursday, Oct 4th was simply followed by Friday, October 14th..... The Calendar changed but the next day was still Friday! 2 http://www.history.com/news/6-things-you-may-not-know- about-the-gregorian-calendar “The Evidence of Time” www.firstharvestchurch.org Not one iota of an interruption happened when we changed from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Cal- endar, which we are still under till this day. This con- cretely proves to us that we are keeping the exact sev- enth day that Ya h s h u a kept under the Julian calendar. What about Leap years? As I was growing up, “Leap Years” never made any sense to me. I didn’t understand why they had to mess with time by adding a day to our calendar every four years. However, the reason this counting of time exists as it does is so that we do not have to make the mistake our ancestors made, and wind up with ten days too many as was the case in Pope Gregory’s day. Each year there is additional time that must be accounted for, and under our calendar we solve this problem by adding one day every four years; this keeps our calendar in sync with the heavenly bodies. Now, think about this closely. Every leap year when they add a day to our calendar, does this affect our weekly cycle? Abso- lutely not! If the last day of February is Wednesday, the 28th, then I can assure you when they add the 29th to that leap year, the next day will still be Thursday. The only thing that changes that year is the number of the day, not the name of the day. No matter how much anyone messes with the calen- dar, only the numbers change, not the seven-day weekly cycle. History has exact calendar records going back to Julius Cae- sar, (several decades before Christ) and the weekly cycle has always remained intact. We have exactly the same weekly Rhythms & Rhyme Dr. J.S.Vaughn cycle today as was used in the days of Yahshua, and He said that the day then called “the Sabbath” by the Jews, (the seventh day of the week), was His day; the true Lord’s Day. Yes, the amount of days in a month has changed; the amount of days in a year has changed; the amount of weeks in a month has changed; the amount of weeks in a year has changed, the amount of months in a year has changed; But the amount of days in a week has never changed since man was first created on earth. Christ risked his life and mission to rescue the Sabbath from the legalistic perversions of the Pharisees, and to show what was in harmony with the original law (Matthew 12:1- 13, Mark 1:21-34; 2:23-28; 3:1-5; 6:1-6, Luke 4:16-18,31-41; 6:1-10; 13:10-17; 14:1-6, John 5:5-18; 9:13-16). He spoke no word implying the abolition of the Sabbath day. Why should He so carefully define, defend, and clear from su- perstitious accretions the Sabbath if it was to be abrogated? No one repairs a house as a precursor to burning it down, or re-etches the letters of a monument prior to its destruction. Now, if the Sabbath day was to cease, following Jesus’ death, this exhortation would be totally uncalled for. But such is not the case, because the Sabbath day will continue to be a day of rest, worship, and rejuvenation for God’s people (Isaiah 66:22-23). The Sabbath was intended by God to be a day of freedom, a day of delight, and the highlight of the week (Isaiah 58:13-14). Calendars have changed, but the Sabbath has always been and will always be, the seventh day of the week. Now, all you have to do to arrive at this truth is give your child a cal- endar and a pencil and tell them to count to seven, start- ing with the first day of the week, and your child will make you a Sabbath believer, because they will arrive at Saturday. “The Evidence of Time” www.firstharvestchurch.org Has this teaching ministered to you? Did something stir in your spirit upon reading these words? There is much more that Yahweh has revealed to us. We would love to share freely what we have learned. If you live along the Mississippi Gulf Coast you may join us each Saturday at 2:00 Central for our weekly Sabbath services that we call “The Gathering” We meet at 235 Old Spanish Trail Waveland, Ms 39576 You may call 903-355-8601 for more information Or you may order our teaching materials on our website at no cost www.firstharvestchurch.org We are members of Covenant Apostolic Churches International A Christian Church, with strong appreciation for our Hebrew and Pentecostal roots Founded by; Shane & Karen Vaughn, 2014 This treasure of truth is presented to the general public free of charge and paid for by the generous contributions of the members of First Harvest and the students of Biblical Foundations Institute Ministry Founders; Shane & Karen Vaughn P.O. Box 3927, Bay St. Louis, Ms 39521 Currently Weekly Services are held Saturday @ 2:00 Central 235 Old Spanish Trail, Waveland, Ms in the facilities of Miracle Tabernacle Church Call to verify service times 903-355-8601