Page 9 - lesson5.vp

Lesson 5 Hope of Israel Ministries BIBLE Correspondence Course 9

And, set apart from these six days, of the seven-day week, A WEEK BOUND UP
YEHOVAH God gave His Holy Sabbath -- the WITH THE LUNAR PHASES” (Rest Days, p.
SEVENTH day -- which is both NUMBERED 224).
and NAMED (Genesis 2:2; Exodus 16:26). The seventh day of each Babylonian (or
Thus YEHOVAH EMPHASIZES the extreme YEHOVAH’s) week was CALLED A
importance of the SABBATH DAY to man! “SABATTUN” -- the Babylonian form of the
YEHOVAH God Almighty originally Hebrew word for “Sabbath.” This is confirmed
set apart ONE SEVENTH of MAN’S TIME to by Webster who says that “if for practical
especially remind mankind of the true, eternal, purposes the fourteenth day might be a
Almighty God. An EXACT time -- the shabattum, it is not difficult to assume that this
SEVENTH day of the lunar week -- and an was also the case with the days (seventh,
EXACT NAME -- the SABBATH! twenty-first, and twenty-eighth), which marked
Then how did “this present evil world” other characteristic stages of the LUNATION”
come to drop the lunar calendar and RENAME (p. 241).
all seven days of the week -- with NO Thus the Sabbaths of YEHOVAH GOD
MENTION OF YEHOVAH’s HOLY -- times when men might ENJOY SPIRITUAL
SABBATH DAY? PURSUITS -- were soon called periods of “ill
Clearly it was NOT by YEHOVAH’s omens” or “evil days” (Rest Days, p. 232).
authority! He NEVER changed HIS week with Here we see that Satan was beginning to
its seventh-day Sabbath. give YEHOVAH’s Holy Sabbath Day a bad
This NEW week with its FIRST day -- reputation!
called SUNDAY -- originated from elsewhere. It On these “evil days” the pagans had to
was FROM SATAN HIMSELF with the intent afflict themselves -- they had to do penance.
to confuse and trick man to suffer the penalty of They could not eat flesh cooked upon coals, nor
ETERNAL DEATH brought about by SIN! change garments, nor could the physician lay
Let’s understand how Satan gradually hands upon the patient. At night, the king was to
brought his COUNTERFEIT WEEK into being, bring his gifts before the images (of pagan gods)
with his SUNday taking the place of YE- and offer sacrifice to them (Rest Days, p. 232).
HOVAH God’s commanded Sabbath Day! Satan had ALREADY CORRUPTED
The ancient heathen countries of the manner of keeping the true Sabbath at this
Babylonia and Assyria knew of YEHOVAH’s early date!
lunar seven-day week with its SEVENTH-DAY 1. How did the pagans, under Satan’s
SABBATH. But Babylon was where Satan influence, formulate the planetary or
started his perversion of YEHOVAH’s week! astrological week which the world still retains
In ancient Babylon YEHOVAH’s true today -- the week which Satan uses to HIDE
Sabbath day fell on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th YEHOVAH God’s true lunar week from man,
days of the LUNAR MONTH; but gradually and in which he puts his SUNday to HIDE
these days were set apart, by the Babylonians, as YEHOVAH’s Sabbath Day?
“evil days.” Writes Hutton Webster -- COMMENT: Here is THE ANSWER:
“With regard to the reasons which “The planetary week presents itself as a curious
dictated the choice of the seventh, fourteenth, amalgum (or mixture) of ideas derived from
twenty-first, and twenty-eighth days....It has different sources. Babylonia, the motherland of
been held...that the “evil days” were selected as divination, provided the doctrine of the
corresponding to the MOON’S successive influence of the stars (“stars” are symbolic of
changes; hence that the seventh day marks the angels (Revelation 1:20). Stars worshipped in
close of the EARLIEST [YEHOVAH’S] FORM paganism are FALLEN ANGELS -- Satan’s

How Did Sunday Observance Begin?