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January - February 2002 The Sabbath Sentinel

The Seventh-day Sabbath
Is the Tree of life,
and Sunday
Is the Forbidden Fruit

by Isaac Kofi Eshun

In Christendom today there are a lot of controversies over which day is the Lord's day, that is, the day our Lord and Savior must be worshiped for salvation. But, it is hidden from many salvation seekers that the all-wise God at creation gave man a particular day on which He should be worshiped as a memorial of His creation. As a result of this, God Himself plainly said in Isaiah 58:13 that the seventh-day Sabbath is His own day; thus, the phrases "My Holy Day" and "The Holy Day of the Lord" were used in that context.

Why the seventh-day became the day of God can be seen from Genesis 2:3: "Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."

This text shows that before God gave man the authority to worship Him on the seventh-day of the week, He Himself rested on that day as an example to all mankind.

This is why on Mount Sinai He commanded the Israelites to "Remember The Sabbath Day, to keep it holy," implying that man must remember the day on which God rested and keep it holy as a day of worship (Exodus 20:8).

Also, God, emphasizing the particular day He intended to be observed, explained further that,"Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God" (Exodus 20:9-10).

This makes it plain that God is very circumspect of the seventh-day on which He should be worshipped. Since God is circumspect of a particular day of worship, and thus consecrated the seventh-day of the week for His worship, it is worth noting that whoever worships Him on that day has found the the tree of life.

As such, anything contrary to that effect is also in line with the eating of the forbidden fruit which leads to death (Genesis 2:17).

This is because God did not intend man to eat the forbidden fruit, just as He did not intend man to worship Him on any other day apart from the seventh-day of the week.

Another reason why the seventh-day Sabbath is referred to as the tree of life is that it is a part of God's Ten Commandments (Proverbs 3:1-2-18). The Sabbath law which is the fourth part of the Decalogue (Exodus 20).

Therefore, if the whole moral law, or the Decalogue, is referred to as the tree of life, then what about the Sabbath law? Really, it is also the tree of life.

It should be remembered that in the Garden of Eden, God planted both the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:8-9), yet Satan did not allow Adam and Eve to eat the tree of life in order to live forever, but he deceived them into eating the forbidden fruit to inherit death. In the same way these two days, that is, the seventh-day and the first day, are part of the seven days of the week, yet the only one which has eternal life and blessings has been stolen from man.

Satan has deceived man to keep the day which was not blessed and would lead man to death.

This means Satan has appeared in Christendom today to deceive masses from keeping the seventh-day Sabbath holy in order to lose its blessings, just as he deceived Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil (2 Cor. 11:3). It is worth noting that when the forbidden fruit was eaten, all other transgressions were enjoined. In this sinful world too, the climax of unwarranted transgressions is due to the introduction of the observance of the Sun's day as the Lord's day (Rev. 1:10).

This is because ever since the change of the seventh-day Sabbath by Emperor Constantine in 321 A.D. during then the Roman Empire, many transgressions and unbiblical doctrines such as Christmas, Lent, Easter, Infant baptism, wrong observance of the Lord's supper, eating of unclean meats, and many others have crept into Christianity to defile many salvation-seekers.

This also proves why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is symbolic of the Sunday observance in Christianity. This is because every bad tree can not bear good fruit just as every good tree cannot bear bad fruit. Hence, Sunday worship symbolized by the forbidden tree bears the evil fruit of transgressions and all unbiblical doctrines.

The seventh-day Sabbath is that good tree symbolized by the tree of life which bears good fruits worthy of blessings and life eternal (Matthew 7:17-18).

As it is said that God blessed the seventh-day of the week,so shall anyone who keeps it holy be blessed. Hence, the report in Isaiah 56:2 that whoever keeps the Sabbath holy and refrains from polluting it will be blessed. But, it is rather unfortunate that Sunday, the first day of the week, is now being used as a substitute to the seventh-day to worship God worldwide. Many people are not aware of the fact that the first day was not sanctified or set apart for God's worship, but rather the seventh-day, that is Saturday.

They are also ignorant of the fact that whatever or whoever is blessed of God is blessed forever (1 Chronicles 17:27), and, as such, the seventh-day, blessed from the beginning, is blessed for God's worship and its attendant blessings.

This is why St. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews treated salvation issues with much emphasis on the seventh-day Sabbath rest by saying that it was established or instituted at creation as a prelude to eternal life. That is, everything concerning man's happiness and salvation was finished from the foundation of this world (Hebrews 4:3). Hence, the psalmist's question: "If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" (Psalm 11:3). So, St. Paul, knowing this very well, further argues that the Sabbath rest remains, therefore, for the people of God.

Also, the apostle said all those who want to keep the Sabbath must imitate the true example of how God kept the Sabbath from the beginning so that no mistake whatsoever would be committed--due to the fact that such a mistake is a transgression and, therefore, a snare which can endanger one's life to hell fire (Prov. 29:6 and Heb. 4:9-11).

In conclusion, may I say that the seventh-day Sabbath truly refreshes one from his days of hard labor, and so shall it refresh the saints from their tiredness in this suffering world (Exodus 23:12). This means the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath is, without dispute, a gateway to eternal life. Even according to the prophet Isaiah, God has promised that anyone who keeps the Sabbath holy shall be taken to the holy mountain of God (Isaiah 56:6-7). And, it is worthy of note here that this holy mountain of God is nowhere but the new dwelling place for the righteous men and the saints in light. (Isaiah 65:17-25).

Thus, the Sabbath shall again be kept in the new heaven and the new earth forever by those who shall be justified by God (Isaiah 66:22-23).

Also, those who transgress against God's commandments involving the seventh-day Sabbath shall continue to suffer affliction in the next world just as those who have forsaken the weekly Sabbath rest have no rest at all in their lives and therefore suffer Satan's afflictions of death (Isaiah 66:24). For when Adam and Eve forsook the tree of life and partook of the forbidden fruit, they did not enjoy a better life but were made subject to death.

So shall all men who follow Adam's transgression and partake the forbidden fruit, symbolized in Sunday observance, be found wanting in the lake of fire.

Beloved, do the best you can to follow after the righteousness of the tree of life, symbolized in Sabbath rest, and gain everlasting life.

Isaac Kofi Eshun
7th Day Pentecostal Assemblies
Tokorad, Ghana
West Africa

TSS

January - February 2002 The Sabbath Sentinel