Days and feasts
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Sunday-keeping |
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Mormons
teach that God has commanded His people to worship on Sunday, and to do no
work on this specific day of the week, thus those who do not keep Sunday
commit a sin. Joseph Smith had the following ‘revelation’ on August 7, 1831,
which was Sunday: ‘For verily this is a day appointed unto you to rest from
your labors, and to pay thy devotions unto the Most High; Nevertheless thy
vows shall be offered up in righteousness on all days and at all times; But
remember that on this, the Lord's day, thou shalt offer thine oblations and
thy sacraments unto the Most High, confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and
before the Lord. And on this day thou shalt do none other thing, only let thy
food be prepared with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect,
or, in other words, that thy joy may be full.’ (Doctrine and Covenants 59:10-13). According to Mormons,
therefore, God – through this ‘revelation’ given to Joseph Smith – has
replaced the Sabbath day with Sunday. |
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This
is the position held by Mormons – who are not Christians - on Sunday.
However, it must be said that there are many Christians who hold a very
similar position on Sunday, for they teach that under grace the Sabbath day
has been replaced by Sunday, therefore Sunday is the day of the Lord on which
Christians must gather together to worship and on which they are forbidden to
work. |
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Confutation |
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The
above mentioned ‘revelation’ is false, for it is inconsistent with the
Scripture. For the apostle Paul says to the Romans: “One person esteems one
day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully
convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day,
observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he
does not observe it” (Romans 14:5-6 – NKJV). As you can see, according to the
apostle Paul, whose writings are God-breathed, a Christian is free in the
Lord to esteem one day above another as well as to esteem every day alike. He
is not commanded to observe or to worship on a specific day of the week. So,
God could not reveal to Joseph Smith in 1831 – nor can He reveal nowadays to
anyone – that on Sunday every Christian must worship and abstain from all
kinds of work. In the light of the teaching of the Scripture, therefore, we
reject both the teaching of Mormons and the teaching of those Protestant
Churches according to which God has replaced the Sabbath day with Sunday. |
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We
do not criticize nor judge those brothers who esteem
Sunday above another day, and thus they do no work on Sunday and they gather
together to worship. If they are fully convinced of this, and they observe
Sunday to the Lord and not to themselves let them do what they do to the
glory of God. But let them not judge those brothers who esteem every day
alike. That means they must not affirm that those brothers who do not hallow
Sunday, as they do, do commit a sin. It is not the observance of a day which
makes us acceptable in the sight of God, for the |
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See
that you are not enslaved by any human law and you do not begin to keep
commandments of men; for while it is true that under grace we are not bound
to keep the Sabbath day (instead, Adventists teach the opposite thing
supporting their wrong teaching on the Sabbath through a ‘revelation’ given
to their prophetess), it is also true that we are not bound to keep Sunday in
place of the Sabbath day either. Should we keep Sunday in place of the
Sabbath, we should abstain from lighting a fire to cook our food, from making
our bed, from sweeping a room, from washing the dishes, and many other things
which are considered works (look for a Jewish book on the Sabbath day,
written by an orthodox Jew, in order to know which are the works a Jew must
not do on the Sabbath day) which are heavy burdens hard to bear (I would say,
impossible to bear). Therefore, if anyone comes to you and teaches or prophesies
that you must keep Sunday in place of the Sabbath day, I urge you to reject
his teaching or prophecy, for it contradicts sound doctrine. |