“For the Master of the Shabbat is the Son of man.” (Matthew 12:8)
What makes Shabbat so very special is that Y’hoshua Mashiyach is Master of Shabbat. Those who celebrate the Shabbat in Mashiyach recognize that Mashiyach is the eternal connection and the reason for Shabbat. Like anyone who hosts a celebration, they have purpose and reason for it that is conveyed to those who attend: and Shabbat, of course, is the weekly event of Mashiyach. Mashiyach was, is and forever will be the reason for Shabbat and this has been evident since Shabbat was given at the Creation of the World. Shabbat is the completion of the week where the spiritual man rests and rejuvenates his spirit, soul and body in Mashiyach.
Most folks understand that after six days of “work” that the Creator wasn’t “all tuckered out”, but He gave rest to those who would recognize His role in our lives. He rested from His works which means He delighted and was very satisfied with all that He created, therefore part of the “rest” we enter into is to enjoy the “fruits” of His and our own labours in Him. The greatest fruit of YHWH’s labour was to make man in His Image, so that man could build, invent, plan and fulfill his own dreams and enter into (join) that rest that YHWH Himself Created. When YHWH’s people enter into His Shabbat (rest) they are connecting with Mashiyach. However, what was intended as spiritual rest and unity with Mashiyach was soon reduced by many into a ritual effort of the flesh, an intellectual theological idea and a socio-political factor that took on humanist and Gnostic interpretations, making it a “burden” rather than a blessing.
Many Christians follow religious traditions that teach that “it doesn’t matter which day you keep as Shabbat” because they’ve never personally experienced true Shabbat rest. Going to church on Saturday verses Sunday isn’t automatically going to bring a person into Shabbat rest. It is Mashiyach who establishes Shabbat within the soul which is why it is foolhardy for religious men to conjure up with their own “Shabbat”…and posture Sunday as the Shabbat. Obviously if Christians would have realized that Mashiyach is the substance of the Seventh Day Shabbat, they would not have abandoned Shabbat. Most Christians believe that Mashiyach created all things (Ephesians 3:9, Colossians 1:16, Revelation 4:11) but for some reason many don’t make the connection that it was Mashiyach’s rest in Genesis: “And Elohim blessed the Seventh Day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which Elohim created and made” (Genesis 2:3).
How did Christianity switch from Shabbat to Sunday?
Christians take their authority for Sunday as “the Lord’s Day” from the post-apostolic Gentile founders of the Gentile church; “The celebration of the Lord’s Day in memory of the resurrection of Christ dates undoubtedly from the apostolic age. Nothing short of apostolic precedent can account for the universal religious observance in the churches of the second century. There is no dissenting voice. This custom is confirmed by the testimonies of the earliest post-apostolic writers, as Barnabas, Ignatius, and Justin Martyr.” (Philip Schaff, vol. 1, pg. 201-202). Did you catch the spin? Confirmed by the testimonies of the earliest post-apostolic writers who were none other than who?
Ignatius (AD 107) writes: “Be not deceived with strange doctrines, nor with old fables, which are unprofitable. For if we still live according to the Jewish law, we acknowledge that we have not received grace…If, therefore, those who were brought up in the ancient order of things have come to the possession of a new hope, no longer observing Sabbaths, but fashioning their lives after the Lord’s Day, on which also our life has sprung up again by Him and by His death (which some deny), through which mystery we received faith, and on account of which we suffer in order that we may be found disciples of Jesus Christ our only teacher, how shall we be able to live apart from him for whom even the prophets were looking as their teacher since they were his disciples in the spirit?... let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days of the week. It is absurd to speak of Jesus Christ with the tongue, and to cherish in the mind a Judaism which is now come to an end. For where there is Christianity there cannot be Judaism… These things I address to you, my beloved, not that I know any of you to be in such a state; but, as less than any of you, I desire to guard you beforehand, that ye fall not upon the hooks of vain doctrine, but that you may rather attain to a full assurance in Christ…” (Ignatius, Epistle to the Magnesians, Chapters 8-9). Ignatius very clearly contests the Seventh Day Shabbat; he sees those who observe Shabbat as putting “the hooks of vain doctrine,” whereas his Sunday doctrine is held supreme. The authority of changing the Seventh Day Shabbat to the Sun-day is clearly that of Ignatius!
Epistle of Barnabas (AD 74-132): “Moreover God says to the Jews, “Your new moons and Sabbaths cannot endure.” You see how he says, “The present Sabbaths are not acceptable to me, but the Sabbath which I have made in which, when I have rested from all things, I will make the beginning of the eighth day which is the beginning of another world.” Wherefore we Christians keep the eighth day for joy, on which also Jesus arose from the dead and when he appeared ascended into heaven.” (The Letter of Barnabas, 15:6-8). Notice how this “Barnabas” suggests that his own words are straight from God? This “Barnabas” of course, is NOT the same person as Bar-Naba (Paul’s travelling companion). This is Barnabas of Alexandria (a Gentile Christian) who claimed to have “perfect knowledge” of Christianity. Origen refers to this letter as “a Catholic epistle”. Hilgenfeld, who devoted much attention to the epistle of Barnabas writes, “it is written at the close of the first century by a Gentile Christian of the school of Alexandria
Even to this day many Christian theologians are not aware that the Epistle of Barnabas was a forgery! It was written by someone who viewed Torah observance as purely Jewish material observance of ceremonial ordinances, of which the literal fulfillment was not sufficient, and the work of the Devil, and, according to him, Jews never received the divine Covenant because they never understood its nature (ch. Vii, 3, 11, ix, 7; x, 10; xiv). This “Barnabas” of Alexandria teaches that it was never intended that the precepts of the Law should be observed in their literal sense, that Jews never had a covenant with YHWH, that circumcision was the work of the Devil, etc. in his opinion, Jews did not know how to rise to the spiritual and typical meaning which YHWH intended when giving them the Torah.
However, the real Barnabas, who was Paul’s travelling companion, was a Levite and a zealous Torah Observant follower of Mashiyach Y’hoshua. The difference between the real Barnabas and the impostor from Alexandria Rome
Council of Laodicea (AD 360): “Christians should not Judaize and should not be idle on the Sabbath, but should work on that day; they should, however, particularly reverence the Lord’s day and, if possible, not work on it, because they were Christians” (Council of Laodicea, canon 29). In 325 AD Constantine declared Sunday as the official day of Christian worship throughout the Roman Empire . From this point onward, if you were a Jewish follower of Mashiyach and you were caught keeping the Shabbat, your life and any Hebrew writings about Y’hoshua would have been in great danger.
Pope Gregory I (AD 597): “But after that the grace of almighty God, our Lord Jesus Christ, has appeared, the commandments of the Law which were spoken figuratively cannot be kept according to the letter. For if anyone says that this about the Sabbath is to be kept, he must needs say that carnal sacrifices are to be offered.” (Gal 5:2) (Letters 13:1). Even in those days there was a remnant of Christians who were observing the Seventh Day Shabbat. But most Christians come under the Catholic authority with this same pathetic line of reasoning, that if one were to observe Shabbat they should also do animal sacrifice. Herein is the evidence of who, how, when and why the Seventh Day Shabbat was perverted by Gentile Christianity. The original followers of Y’hoshua knew nothing of this perversion; it was done solely by Gentile minded men, none of which had ever met or learned from Y’hoshua’s disciples or the original Shlichim.
“Hence, the first day was already in the apostolic age honourably designated as ‘the Lord’s Day.’ …it appears, therefore, from the New Testament itself, that Sunday was observed as a day of worship, and in special commemoration of the Resurrection, whereby the work of redemption was finished. The universal and uncontradicted Sunday observance in the second century can only be explained by the fact that it has its roots in apostolic practice.” (Philip Schaff, vol. 1, pg. 478-479). Sunday observance is clearly a Second Century invention. The Gentile Christian “apostles” who invented and endorsed Sunday as the counterfeit Shabbat have been clearly named; their own pens witness of their willful violations against the Word of YHWH. They wrote with a deep anti-Semitic bias which also fuelled the cultural acceptance of the Sunday rising Christ. Here Philip Schaff shows a profound disregard for all Torah observant followers of Y’hoshua by suggesting a “universal and uncontradicted Sunday observance” when in fact, throughout church history, Gentile Church
Mashiyach is Master of Shabbat
Mashiyach is Master of Shabbat and all who enter into his rest on the Seventh Day Shabbat are sanctifying the Word of YHWH according to Mashiyach. Even Jews who don’t regard Y’hoshua as Mashiyach but who are observing Shabbat are doing so because of the Word of YHWH, which is of course Mashiyach
All Netzarim followers of Mashiyach Y’hoshua encourage everyone of all religious backgrounds and ethnicities to seek the Ancient Paths of Mashiyach and enter into the rest of Mashiyach each Shabbat. Shabbat is a time to deny yourself the daily mundane material tasks and let your spirit become elevated in Mashiyach. Psalm 92 is the Shabbat Psalm which concludes, “To show that YHWH is upright: He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.” Apostle Paul taught: “Let no (pagan) therefore judge you about food and drink, or about the distinctions of festivals and new moons and Shabbats which were shadows of the things then future; but the body of Mashiyach” (Colossians 2:16-17). Mashiyach gave these festivals, new moons and Shabbats to the body of Mashiyach and therefore, we are entrusted to guard these precious Moadim (Appointments) as unto him. Don’t ever let worldly people or certain groups judge you for your obedience to the Truth!
