Arlene Foster did not break the commandment on the Sabbath day

Whilst in the City Hospital in Belfast for a post-transplant procedure on my new kidney I was listening to a local radio talk show where people phone in with comments.
By The Newsroom
Published 26th Jun 2018, 21:06 BST
Updated 16th Jul 2018, 16:47 BST
DUP Leader Arlene Foster at the Ulster final between Fermanagh and Donegal in Clones, Co Monaghan, Ireland on Sunday. She was criticised for attending an event on the Sabbath. Photo: Niall Carson/PA WireDUP Leader Arlene Foster at the Ulster final between Fermanagh and Donegal in Clones, Co Monaghan, Ireland on Sunday. She was criticised for attending an event on the Sabbath. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire
DUP Leader Arlene Foster at the Ulster final between Fermanagh and Donegal in Clones, Co Monaghan, Ireland on Sunday. She was criticised for attending an event on the Sabbath. Photo: Niall Carson/PA Wire

One lady rang to say that Arlene Foster had broken God’s commandments concerning keeping the Sabbath day as she had attended a GAA event on a Sunday, even though many Christians claim not to be under Old Testament Law. (The Sabbath Commandment is in the Old Testament in the Ten Commandments, and many view this one to be obsolete, or only for Jews, or in this lady’s case somehow transferred to Sunday.)

This is a widely accepted view within Christendom, yet few investigate enough to find out how these changes came about and if they are based on the Bible or what God actually commanded.

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The Fourth Commandment clearly points out that the Sabbath is on the seventh day of the week, or Saturday although unfortunately named after Saturn, but there is no such commandment from God or Jesus concerning the first day of the (working) week, known outside of the Bible as ‘Sun’-day in honour of pagan sun worship, becoming a new Sabbath day.

Roman Emperor Constantine brought this into law in 321AD and it is still on our statute books today, but it is not obeying God’s Law as there is only one day described as the Sabbath in Scripture and it is not Sunday.

Faithful Celtic Christians like Patrick and Columba, the Apostles of both Ireland and Scotland, kept the seventh day Sabbath as well as remembering the Lord’s death at Passover on 14th Nisan as Yeshua (Jesus) instructed rather than venerate the Resurrection on ‘Easter’ named after a pagan goddess and then also another 51 times a year on ‘Sun’-day.

Yeshua asked us to remember His unique atoning sacrificial death which brought salvation and fulfilled the symbolism of the Passover Lamb, not the Easter egg fertility symbols from paganism, or His Resurrection.

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Furthermore an increasing amount of Messianic Jews who have embraced Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah point to the Resurrection taking place at the end of the Saturday Sabbath, just before the onset of Sunday, as the first visitors arriving at the tomb before dawn on Sunday morning did not witness Him rising as He had already risen, making Him truly Lord of the Sabbath, as He described Himself to be, but never Lord of ‘Sun’-day.

This is based on the 72 hour calculation of the prophesied three days and three nights Yeshua would be in the tomb, which the 36 hours between Good Friday and Easter Sunday do not fulfil. (Friday is never mentioned in the Gospel accounts as the Passover included an annual Sabbath or rest day as well as the regular weekly Sabbath which caused many scholars to assume this Sabbath was after a Friday, but an annual Sabbath or High Holy Day can fall on any day of the week.)

Thus Yeshua was crucified on Wednesday and 72 hours later rising just before Sunday, but on the Sabbath. If this is the case, then all the churches are resting/worshipping on the wrong day and with no Scriptural authority.

Maybe St Patrick was right after all by refusing to accept the new Roman ‘Easter’ and ‘Sun’-day, so Arlene was not breaking God’s commands after all, but clearly millions do every week by observing ‘Sun’-day in its place.

Colin Nevin, Bangor

Related topics:Arlene FosterJesusJewsBelfast