Sunday, February 21, 2021

What is the Triple-headed Eagle??? The Meaning of Ezra's Three-headed Eagle Revealed!!!

 


A three-headed eagle is mentioned in the apocryphal Latin Ezra, featuring in a dream by the high priest Ezra  (aka Esdras).

SEE ALSO:

The interpretation of the three heads in Esdras' vision can be found in the following article, reprinted from:

Three Corporations run the world: City of London, Washington DC and Vatican City

World events most of which are ‘engineered’ leave a trail that leads to the architects. We next discover that there are 3 cities on earth that come under no national authority, they have separate laws, they pay no taxes, they have their own police force and even possess their own flag of ‘independence’. These 3 cities control the economy, military onslaughts and the spiritual beings of those in powers. The 3 cities are actually corporations and they are the City of London, District of Columbia and the Vatican. Together they control politicians, the courts, educational institutions, food supply, natural resources, foreign policies, economies, media, and the money flow of most nations as well as 80% of the world’s entire wealth. Their ultimate aim is to build a totalitarian rule on a global scale where people will be divided into rulers and the ruled after they have depopulated the world to numbers they wish to rule over. What we need to understand is that the world does not work according to what we have been led to believe. We are drowning in misinformation.

At the center of each city state are giant phallic shaped stone monuments called obelisks.

image

London obelisk (aka Cleopatra’s Needle): Located on the banks of the River Thames, this obelisk was transported to London and erected in 1878 under the reign of Queen Victoria. The obelisk originally stood in the Egyptian city of On, or Heliopolis (the City of the Sun). The Knights Templars’ land extended to this area of the Thames, where the Templars had their own docks. Either side of the obelisk is surrounded by a sphinx, more symbolism dating back to the ancient world.

In D.C. the obelisk is known as the Washington monument was dedicated to George Washington by the secretive brotherhood of Freemason Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia in 1848. They also contributed 22 masonic memorial stones. 250 masonic lodges financed the Washington monument obelisk including the knights templar masonic order.

Vatican obelisk: Located in St. Peter’s Square, was moved from Egypt to its current location, in 1586. The circle on the ground represents the female vagina, while the obelisk itself is the penis. This is commonly known as occult symbolism.

The Roman Empire prevails through the :

1.   CITY OF LONDON INC 

The City of London was formed when the Romans arrived in Great Britain 2000 years ago and started a trading post on the River Thames. Exactly 1000 years later William the Conqueror (King William III) gave sovereign status to the City of Londoners in 1694 allowing them to continue enjoying separate rights and privileges so long as they recognized him as King. The Kings that succeeded William however, decided to build a new capital city and named it Westminster. There have been numerous instances of the King and the City’s Mayor at loggerheads with each other.

What is peculiar is that laws passed by the British Parliament does not apply to the City of London. 

However the City of London is not an independent nation like the Vatican.

Today the City of London is a one-square mile city. The 2 Londons have separate city halls and elect separate mayors, who collect separate taxes to fund separate police who enforce separate laws. City of London has its own separate flag and crest while London city does not. The Mayor of the City of London has a fancy title ‘The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London’ and rides a golden carriage to Guildhall while the Mayor of London wears a suit and takes a bus. The Mayor of London has no power over the Right Honorable Lord Mayor of London (City of London). What’s unique is that the City of London is a Corporation and older than the United Kingdom but has a representative in the UK Parliament through a person known as the ‘Remembrancer’ who is present to protect the ‘City’s interests.

The City of London houses

  • Rothschild controlled ‘Bank of England’
  • Lloyds of London
  • The London Stock Exchange
  • All British Banks
  • The Branch offices of 384 Foreign Banks
  • 70 USA Banks
  • Fleet Streets Newspaper and Publishing Monopolies
  • Headquarters for Worldwide Freemasonry
  • Headquarters for the worldwide money cartel known as ‘THE CROWN’

The City of London is controlled by the Bank of England, a private corporation owned by the Rothschild family after Nathan Rothschild crashed the English stock market in 1812 and took control of the Bank of England.

The Queen refers to the City of London Corporation as the ‘Firm’  but it is known as The CROWN (not representing the Royalty of Britain). Buckingham Palace is in London but not in the City of London and the City is not part of England.

City of London directly and indirectly controls all mayors, councils, regional councils, multi-national and trans-national banks, corporations, judicial systems (through Old Bailey, Temple Bar and the Royal Courts of Justice in London), the IMF, World Bank, Vatican Bank (through N. M. Rothschild & Sons London Italian subsidiary Torlonia), European Central Bank, United States Federal Reserve (which is privately owned and secretly controlled by eight British-controlled shareholding banks), the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland (which is also British-controlled and oversees all of the Reserve Banks around the world including our own) and the European Union and the United Nations Organization.  The Crown controls the global financial system and runs the governments of all Commonwealth countries, and many non-Commonwealth ‘Western’ nations as well (like Greece). The Crown traces back to the Vatican, which is headed by the Pope (who owns American Express)  In essence the City of London Corporation would become the “One World Earth Corporation” and would privately own the world. 

2.   Washington DC (District of Colombia)

Washington DC is not part of the USA. District of Columbia is located on 10sq miles of land. DC has its own flag and own independent constitution. This constitution operates under a tyrannical Roman law known as Lex Fori. DC constitution has nothing to do with the American Constitution. The Act of 1871 passed by Congress created a separate corporation known as THE UNITED STATES & corporate government for the District of Columbia. Thus DC acts as a Corporation through the Act. The flag of Washington’s District of Columbia has 3 red stars (the 3 stars denoting DC, Vatican City and City of London).

A look at the various Treaties raises the question of whether US remains a British Crown colony. The basis of this goes back to the first Charter of Virginia in 1606 that granted Britain the right to colonize America and gave the British King/Queen to hold sovereign authority over colonized America and its citizens. Colonized America was created after stealing America from the Native Indians. If America was colonized with British subjects these people are subjects of the British Government.

To negate this was the Treaty of 1783 declaring independence from Great Britain. However, this Treaty identifies the King/Queen of England as the Prince of the United States. (please refer www.treatyofparis.com) Nevertheless, according to the Bouviers Law dictionary in ‘monarchicial governments’ a subject owes permanent allegiance to the monarch in which case the British subjects in colonized America owed permanent allegiance to the monarch.

The reverse is applicable under Constitutional law where allegiance is owed to the sovereign and to the laws of a sovereign government and natives are both subjects and citizens.

The issue is if a war was fought in 1781 and America became victor why would Britain need to sign a Treaty in 1783? When US has won a war, America should not require the British monarch to cede land and refer to himself as Prince of the Holy Roman Empire and of the United States? There is also the issue of the use of the term ‘Esquire’ given that it is a title of nobility again showing allegiance to the Queen/King and when Benjamin Franklin, John Jay Esquire and John Adams signing on behalf of the US use the name ‘Esquire’ it is raising the question of how valid the 1783 Treaty is. John Jay went on to sign the 1794 Treaty between England and US raising again why 13 years after the Paris Treaty the US needs to sign a Treaty with England if US was really ‘independent’.

What needs to be further investigated is why US still continues to pay tax to the City if it is a free nation?

The 1794 Treaty signed between England and the US was negotiated by John Jay Esquire who negotiated the 1783 Treaty. The question is why would US need to sign Treaty’s with England 13 years after the Paris Treaty of 1783 declaring US independent? Why would Article 6 and Article 12 continue to dictate terms to an ‘independent’ America?

Further reading of US history would reveal what happened to America when it cancelled the Charter of the First National Bank in 1811 and immediately afterwards 4500 British troops arrived and burnt down the White House, both Houses of Congress, the War Office, the US State Department and Treasury and destroyed the ratification records (signed by 12 US states) of the US Constitution wherein the 13thAmendment was to stop anyone receiving a Title of nobility or honor from serving the US Government. The 1812 war lasted 3 years and the Bank Charter was re-established in 1816 after the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent in 1815. Note:  13th amendment which was ratified in 1810 no longer appears in current copies of the U.S. constitution.

In 1913 the Federal Reserve was passed by US Congress handing over America’s gold and silver reserves and total control of America’s economy to the Rothschild banksters. The Federal Reserve is a privately owned banking system that does not belong to America or Americans.

It is no better a time to question whether US is a country or a corporation and the US President and officials at the Congress are working for that Corporation and not for the American people. It appears that the US Corporation is owned by the same country that owns Canada, Australia and New Zealand whose leaders are all serving the Queen in her Crown Land and US too has been and remains a crown colony that belong to the Empire of the 3 City States – City of London, Vatican City and Washington DC. The US president is nothing more than a figurehead for the central bankers and the transnational corporations – both of which are controlled by High Ecclesiastic Freemasonry from the City of London the home of the global financial system.

3.   Vatican City

The Vatican City is not part of Italy or Rome. The Vatican is the last true remnant of the Roman Empire. The State of Israel is also said to be a Roman outpost. The Vatican’s wealth includes investments with the Rothschilds in Britain, France and US and with oil and weapons corporations as well. The Vatican’s billions are said to be in Rothschild controlled ‘Bank of England’ and US Federal Reserve Bank. The money possessed by the Vatican is more than banks, corporations or even some Governments and questions why the wealth is not used to elevate at least the Christian poor when it preaches about giving?

Vatican wealth has been accumulated over the centuries by taxing indulgences, some Popes have sold tickets to heaven. Today, they are harvesting souls in Asia as a 3rdmillennium goal.

Together the 3 Cities have under their wing various societies and groups placed globally with their own so that no one contests their global plan and those that do …well all the assassinations will explain what happens.

The Fabian Society is one such entity which written in 1887 is a mixture of fascism, Nazism, Marxism and communism. It is not hard to now imagine that all these ‘ideologies’ would have also been engineered by the same people. It should come as no surprise then to discover that the Fabian Society is accredited with creating Communist China, Fascism in Italy and Germany and Socialism globally as well. How far people have been fooled and also explains the role played by the Fabian Society in formulating policies for the decolonized British Empire. It would also mean that quite a number of British educated natives given the mantle of leading the newly independent nations would have also been members of the Fabian society. The communist takeover of Russia too is said to be the work of the British Fabian Society financed by the City of London banking families.

A closer look at entities like the Bank Of International Settlements (BIS), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Club Of Rome, The Committee Of 300, the Central ‘Intelligence’ Agency (CIA), the Council On Foreign Relations, The Tri-Lateral Commission, The Bilderberg Groups, the ‘Federal’ Reserve System, the Internal Revenue Service(s), Goldman Sachs, Israel and the Israeli lobby, the Vatican, the City of London, Brussels, the United Nations, the Israeli Mossad, and Associated Press (AP) will reveal that they are all part of the Fabian Society which also controls the European Union.

A noteworthy quote is that of Australian Senator Chris Schacht who said in 2001 “You probably were not aware that us Fabians have taken over the CIA, KGB, M15, ASIO  (Australian Security Intelligence Organization), IMF, the World Bank and many other organizations.”

From all this we should realize that NOTHING HAPPENS IN ISOLATION. Therefore, every event however small is engineered and orchestrated by a handful of people who control the world and what goes on in the world.

Together they have been responsible for

1.   Global Warming/Climate change – by creating an environmental catastrophe and winning the Nobel Prize, they have created a public awareness for a ‘global government’ that gives them the right to take action over national governments. Known as UN Agenda 21 a closer look at its clauses will reveal how people will need to get permission for everything they do – in other words it is being used to control people.

2.   Federal Banking system – The Fabian Society created the Federal Reserve Act in 1913 handing over the US economy to a cartel of international financiers.

3.   Big Pharma – is responsible for drugging the Third World

4.   System of local government – promoting devolution and new concept of regional councils in a bid to increase a revenue generating system. It is within an overall plan to abolish independent sovereign national governments. Britain is divided in 9 separate regions of the EU. The British will be shocked to discover that EU laws take precedence over British laws and if they have doubts they need to ask why the Queen and British PMs have signed Treaties handing over power.

5.  Abolition of property rights – in 1974 at the Habitat Conference private property was identified as a threat to peace and equality of the environment. Using ‘environmentalism’ as a ploy the quest was to take over earth’s resources and place it under a central authority (UN) and issue licenses for payment. Who owns the UN…the same banking families. In 1987 the World Wilderness Congress was held organized by the Rothschild’s World Conservation Bank which was set up the same year. The World Bank is likely to be replaced by the World Conservation Bank – the aim is to break down national banks and assets will also be diverted to the new bank which is why there is an aim to merge currencies into 2 or  3 major currency groups and replace them with a new electronic currency which is said to be called the ‘earth dollar’. New Zealand has apparently transferred over 34% of its land area into UN Heritage Areas and Conservation Parks and these will all be owned by the same banking families. In 1992 the UN Conference on Environment and Development in Brazil was chaired by Mikhail Gorbachev responsible for dividing the Soviet Union and Maurice Strong, the Rothschild London agent. The topic was Agenda 21 which gave man rights superior to animals, fish, plants, trees and forests.

6.  The Patriots Act, the Human Rights Bill, the European Union Constitution, the Security and Prosperity Partnership are all being manipulated to place power in the control of a few hands. Their plans are plotted annually through the Bilderberg Group and their agents run numerous think tanks that steer Government policy which are funded by the banksters who in real terms run the world. Thus the 13 banking families that run the world control the central banks of the world that print money, give loans on interest and explains how national debt never decreases. Economic crises, oil crisis (simply to increase prices), Arab Springs are all manufactured as are wars. There is a saying that all wars and bankers wars. The danger is when it comes to food as the control is being placed under Monsanto and GMOs. Monsanto is the same company that introduced Agent Orange therefore it is worthwhile reading UN’s Codex Alimentarius and the impeding dangers.



What is the "Eighth Day"??? 3 articles explain the origin of "The Lord's Day"



THE EIGHTH DAY by Joseph Gleason, reprinted from:


https://theorthodoxlife.wordpress.com/2017/05/17/the-eighth-day/

Gospel Reading: John 20:19-23


In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Our God is One. 

In the beginning, God took six days to create the heavens and the earth, and He rested on the seventh. In response, we eagerly ask, “What happens next? What happens on the 8th day?”

Alas, Adam’s sin introduced a dark twist into the story, and thousands of years would pass before we could see the glory of the 8th day. And all through the Old Testament, God gave us hints and examples, shadows and types providing a foretaste of what that blessed day would look like. Israel was constantly reminded of the 8th day.

  • An Israelite entered into God’s Covenant by being circumcised on the 8th day.
  • The priestly ordination of Aaron and his sons was completed on the 8th day.
  • With livestock, your sacrifice of first fruits to God was to be on the 8th day. In general, any lamb, goat or bullock was not acceptable for offering until the 8th day of its life.
  • A healed leper was declared clean on the 8th day.
  • Ceremonial cleansing after an issue of blood reached completion on the 8th day.
  • Ceremonial cleansing of a defiled Nazarite reached completion on the 8th day.
  • The Feast of Tabernacles reached its climax on the 8th day.
  • King Hezekiah’s cleansing of the Temple was completed on the 8th day.
  • Ezekiel’s purification of the altar climaxed in God’s acceptance on the 8th day.
  • When the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, on the 8th day, the people blessed the king and went into their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had done for David His servant and for Israel His people.
  • We also remember that, in Noah’s Flood, eight souls were saved by water, and King David himself was the 8th son of Jesse.

REPORT THIS AD

What is the significance of the number eight? Why does the 8th day figure so prominently and frequently throughout the Old Testament?

Around the year 150 AD, there were still people alive in the Church who had lived during the same time as the Apostles. At this time, St. Justin the Martyr had a written dialogue with Trypho the Jew. In this dialogue, St Justin said,

“For righteous Noah, along with the other mortals at the deluge, i.e. with his own wife, his three sons and their wives, being eight in number, were a symbol of the eighth day, wherein Christ appeared when He rose from the dead forever the first in power.”[1]

In Noah’s Ark, why were eight people saved? According to St. Justin, the number eight was prophetic. It pointed forward to when Jesus Christ, the Son of God would rise from the dead on the 8th day.

About 100 years later, around the year 250 AD, St. Cyprian was in Carthage in a council of 66 bishops. They considered a question that had been posed by a man named Fidus in a letter. Fidus had suggested that infant baptism should be delayed until a child is eight days old, because in the Old Testament circumcision had always been delayed until the 8th day. This was the response given from this council of 66 Orthodox bishops:

For in respect of the observance of the eighth day in the Jewish circumcision of the flesh, a sacrament was given beforehand in shadow and in usage, but when Christ came, it was fulfilled in truth. For because the eighth day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, was to be that on which the Lord should rise again and should quicken us and give us circumcision of the spirit, the eighth day, that is the first day after the Sabbath, and the Lord’s day, went before in the figure; which figure ceased when by and by the truth came and spiritual circumcision was given to us. [2]

REPORT THIS AD

According to St. Cyprian and this council of 66 bishops, Old Testament circumcision was prophetic. It always took place on the 8th day pointing forward to when Jesus Christ, the Son of God would rise from the dead on the eighth day.

Long before we even reach the New Testament, we see the 8th day figure into numerous aspects of Israel’s history and Israel’s everyday life:

  • Whenever you read about Noah’s Ark, you would think about the number eight.
  • Whenever you circumcised your son
  • Whenever you offered God sacrifice of the first fruits from your livestock
  • And whenever you celebrated the annual Feast of Tabernacles you would think about the eighth day

The eighth day finally reveals its significance after the final week of the Old Covenant. From Palm Sunday to Good Friday, Jesus performs his final works for our salvation. On Friday He says, “It is finished,” and gives up His spirit. On Holy Saturday, His body rests in the tomb as He keeps the final Sabbath in the Old Covenant. Then, on the 8th day. . .

  • On the 8th day death is defeated.
  • On the 8th day, the gates of Hell are shattered.
  • On the 8th day, the graves release their captive.
  • On the 8th day, the Son of God rises from the dead holding the keys of death and hell in one hand and the broken teeth of the devil in the other.
  • On the 8th day, the old creation begins passing away, and the new creation begins breaking into our present world, for when the Apostles look upon the Risen Christ, they are looking at a human body which has already crossed over from death into life.
  • They are looking at a human body that will outlive this present universe. When this world burns, and we meet the end  of the world as we know it, our Risen Savior will still be there, alive and well on the other side.When the Apostles see the Risen Body of Christ, they are seeing their own future. For in the New heavens and the new earth, our bodies will be like His.

REPORT THIS AD

The 8th day, the day of the Resurrection, is such a significant cosmic event that Jesus immediately leads his disciples to commemorate that day. From that day forth, every Lord’s Day is a commemoration of the 8th day. Every Sunday is observed as sort of a “little Easter,” a weekly celebration of the Resurrection of the Son of God. In the Gospel of John, we see that Jesus immediately sets up a pattern for his disciples to follow.

The first Sunday, on the day of the Resurrection, the Apostles were gathered together in one place. Jesus came to meet with them. Jesus said, “Peace be unto you.” The Apostles were able to see the wounds in Jesus’s hands, feet, and side. The Apostles respond with gladness, and their unbelief is gone.

Jesus says, “Even as My Father has sent Me, so send I you.” He’s talking about evangelism. He’s talking about the Gospel being carried out into the rest of the world.

The next Sunday, the week after the Resurrection, you see the same thing. The Apostles are gathered together in one place. Jesus comes to meet with them. Jesus says, “Peace be unto you.” The Apostles, this time including Thomas, were able to see the wounds in Jesus’s hands, feet, and side. Thomas responds, “My Lord and my God!” and his unbelief is gone.

Jesus says, “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.” Once again, He’s talking about evangelism. He’s talking about those of us who would believe the words of the Apostles and would believe in the Resurrection of the Son of God and would join His family in the Church.

REPORT THIS AD

Early in the Fifth Century, Cyril of Alexandria summed it up well. He said:

With good reason then we are accustomed to have sacred meetings in churches on the eighth day. And, to adopt the language of allegory, as the idea necessarily demands, we indeed close the doors. But Christ still visits us and appears to us all, both invisibly as God and visibly in the Body. He allows us to touch His holy Flesh and gives it to us. For through the grace of God we are admitted to partake of the blessed Eucharist, receiving Christ into our hands, to the intent that we may firmly believe that he did in truth raise up the Temple of His Body . . . Participation of the Divine Mysteries, in addition to filling us with divine blessedness, is a true confession and memorial of Christ’s dying and rising again for us and for our sake. Let us, therefore, after touching Christ’s Body, avoid all unbelief in Him as utter ruin and rather be found well grounded in the full assurance of faith.[3]

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Our God is One. 


NOTES AND REFERENCES

[1] “Dialogue with Trypho.” In The Anti-Nicene Christian Library: Justin Martyr and Athenagoras, edited by Sir James Donaldson and Alexander Roberts, By St. Justin Martyr London: Hamilton and, 1870.


The Theological Significance of the Eighth Day 

Reprinted from: https://feedingonchrist.org/theological-significance-eighth-day/

In recent decades, the “eighth day” has been taken up by American pop-culture as something of a rhetorical literary device. When I was in high school there was a somewhat annoyingly catchy song about God making sweat tea on the eighth day. Then there was the Superbowl commercial about how God supposedly made farmers on the eighth day. While these attempts to employ the idea of the eighth day as an apparatus to show appreciation for the goodness of beloved objects, there is a divinely invested theological significance to the eighth day in Scripture–both with regard to the day on which the Israelite boys were to be circumcised (Genesis 17:12), as well as to the ceremonial Sabbaths in the Old Testament ceremonial law (e.g. the Feast of Tabernacles in Leviticus 23:36-39 and Numbers 29:35). The “eighth day” (in a seven-day week cycle) denotes new creation–one and eight representing creation and new creation.

In his disputation with Faustus, Augustine explained the change of signs from circumcision to baptism, and the change of the Sabbath day from the seventh to the eight, by suggesting that the “eighth day” in the Old Testament carried with it the idea of new creation and resurrection. He wrote:

[Christ] suffered voluntarily, and so could choose His own time for suffering and for resurrection, He brought it about that His body rested from all its works on Sabbath in the tomb, and that His resurrection on the third day, which we call the Lord’s day, the day after the Sabbath, and therefore the eighth, proved the circumcision of the eighth day to be also prophetical of Him.  For what does circumcision mean, but the eradication of the mortality which comes from our carnal generation?  So the apostle says:  “Putting off from Himself His flesh, He made a show of principalities and powers, triumphing over them in Himself.” The flesh here said to be put off is that mortality of flesh on account of which the body is properly called flesh.  The flesh is the mortality, for in the immortality of the resurrection there will be no flesh; as it is written, “Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God.1

Notwithstanding his overly cautious caveat, John Calvin also indicated that he was attracted to this redemptive-historical idea regarding the “eighth day” for circumcision in the Old Covenant in his comments on Genesis 17:12:

Augustine also thinks that it had reference to the resurrection of Christ; whereby external circumcision was abolished and the truth of the figure was set forth. It is probable and consonant with reason, that the number seven designated the course of the present life. Therefore the eighth day might seem to be fixed upon by the Lord, to prefigure the beginning of a new life. But because such a reason is never given in Scripture, I dare affirm nothing. Wherefore, let it suffice to maintain what is certain and solid; namely, that God, in this symbol, has so represented the destruction of the old man, as yet to show that he restores men to life.2

This also fits in well with the idea of the eighth day Sabbaths at the appointed feasts and festivals in the ceremonial law. On a seven day week, the first and the eighth are essentially the same day, with this one difference–the eighth day represents the re-creation or new creation. If you were an Old Covenant Israelite, reading the divine prescriptions concerning the observance of the Old Covenant ceremonies, you would be compelled to ask the question, “Why, if the Sabbath Day, from creation to the giving of the Law on Sinai, was the seventh day of the week, is there explicit reference to eighth day Sabbaths attached to the festivals?” For instance, in Leviticus 23:36-39–at the institution of the Feast of Tabernacles, the LORD commanded Israel:

For seven days you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall have a holy convocation, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It is a sacred assembly, and you shall do no customary work on it…on the first day there shall be a sabbath-rest, and on the eighth day a sabbath-rest.

Note especially how the Lord prescribed a first and eighth day Sabbath during the Feast of Tabernacles. This alone ties together the point about them having identity in their theological significance. 

Then in Numbers 29:35 we read again read of the Feast of Tabernacles: “On the eighth day you shall have a sacred assembly. You shall do no customary work.” The Feast of Tabernacles was a reminder to the Israelites of God coming and dwelling with them in the wilderness. Israel lived in tents. In His redeeming mercy, God graciously came and dwelt with His people. In order to do so, He became like His people. The Israelites lived in tents, so God lived in a Tent. This was all a prefiguration of the incarnation. The Apostle John tells us, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (John 1:14). The purpose of the incarnation was to restore the lost presence of God to His chosen people. In order for this to occur, the incarnation was necessary; but–and this should be carefully noted–reconciliation was only possible through the sin-removing, substitutionary death of Jesus. In order for God to dwell with His people their sins need to be atoned for and His wrath needs to be satisfied. This is what Christ accomplished in His death. The incarnation (tabernacling) made this possible. Interestingly, as Augustine noted, Jesus finished this necessary work and then rested in the tomb on the Old Covenant Sabbath. Then, on the first day of the week (i.e. the eighth day), He rose and His presence was forever guaranteed to believers. The restored presence of God is seen in the manifestation of the two angels, sitting one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus lay, just as the two Cherubim sat over the Ark of the Covenant where the presence of God appeared when the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on the mercy seat. In the resurrection of Jesus on the first day (i.e. the eighth day), the glory of God’s presence is made manifest to His people. Jesus brings about the new creation through His incarnation, death and resurrection and so fulfills the Feast of Tabernacles. 

The Sabbath day prefigured the need for eternal and new creation rest. Picking up on the time element of the Sabbath, Iain D. Campbell, in his very helpful work, On the First Day of the Week, made the following observation on the significance of the eighth day in the prophecy of Ezekiel’s eschatology Temple:

Things will be different in the future, but the Sabbath principle will remain. The blessings of communion with God, of which the Sabbath speaks so eloquently, will be enjoyed in new measure by the people of God. Iain Duguid brings out the importance of this, when he comments on the ‘lack of timelessness’ so often found in eschatological visions in the Bible. He goes on to say that ‘in Ezekiel’s reordering of the festival calendar, time itself is brought under the discipline of the new age’, and he goes on to apply this to Christian worship today. And although he does not explicitly speak of the Sabbath factor in Christian worship, that is surely one of the main lines along which Ezekiel’s vision takes us: to the realization that just as Jesus is our sacrifice and Prince, and just as we are a spiritual temple in him, so he has given us a new sacred ‘time’, a new Sabbath, a Sabbath of the eighth day (cf. 43:27), our Lord’s Day Sabbath.3

While these truths certainly have implication for the theological shift from the bloody sign of circumcision to the unbloody sign of baptism, and from the seventh day to the first day (eighth day) for the Sabbath, they teach us much about the fulfillment of all things in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. The storyline of the Scriptures is the story of the new creation through the death and resurrection of Christ. By His death on the cross, Jesus brought about the new creation. Peter T. O’Brien makes the following helpful observation about the meaning of the phrase “the circumcision of Christ” in Colossians 2:11 when he suggests, “It is better to regard the statement as denoting the circumcision that Christ underwent, that is, His crucifixion, of which His literal circumcision was at best a token by way of anticipation (cf. Bruce, 234).4 His death was a bloody circumcision that brought about the circumcision (made without hands) in the hearts of His people. When he was cut off in bloody judgment under the wrath of God, He was providing all that was necessary for the cutting away of the guilt, corruption and power of our sin. By His resurrection, Jesus ushered in the new creation, by both raising His people up to newness of life now as well as by securing our bodily resurrection and the New Heavens and New Earth wherein righteousness will dwell at the consummation. The “eighth day” is pregnant with ceremonial significance in redemptive history. As with all the types and shadows ordained by God, it was invested with theological significance to serve the redemptive historical purposes of God.

1. St. Augustine Reply to Faustus the Manichaean 16.29

2. An excerpt from Calvin’s comments on Genesis 17:12 in his Commentary on Genesis

3. Campbell, I. D. (2005). On the First Day of the Week: God, the Christian and the Sabbath (p. 95). Leominster, UK: Day One Publications.

4. Peter T. O’Brien Word Biblical Commentary: Colossians, Philemon (Word, Inc., 1982) vol. 44 p. 117

19 RESPONSES

  1. Lee Shelton

    I remember reading sometime ago that water makes it’s first appearance in the embryo on the eighth day. The author went on to say that this is the water mentioned in John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God…” He then drew the conclusion that the eight day was when God implanted the soul in the embryo. Any thoughts or comments? This seems to stay with the theological importance of the eighth day and new creation. Just wondering

  2. Pingback : Links I like

  3. Pingback : Ordination | daily meditation

  4. Pingback : The Eighth Day: Bloody Memories and Hopeful Futures – Peculiar Faith

  5. Nic,

    Very interesting stuff. Barnabas also understood the eighth day eschatologically. In the Epistle of Barnabas (c. AD 70-79), the fifteenth chapter is about the sabbath, and the eschatological understanding of the sabbath is quite striking.. Barnabas quotes Isa. 1:14 (“Your new moons and your feasts have become a burden to me”), and then explains the meaning:

    “You see what his meaning is; it is not your present sabbaths that are acceptable, but that (sabbath) which I have made; when I have put to rest all things I will make the beginning of the eighth day, which is the beginning of another world. Therefore also we keep the eighth day for rejoicing, on which Jesus also rose from the dead, and, after being manifested, ascended into the heavens.”

    ὁρᾶτε πῶς λέγει· Οὐ τὰ νῦν σάββατα [ἐμοὶ] δεκτά, ἀλλὰ ὃ πεποίηκα· ἐν ᾧ καταπαύσας τὰ πάντα ἀρχὴν ἡμέρας ὀγδόης ποιήσω, ὅ ἐστιν ἄλλου κόσμου ἀρχήν. διὸ καὶ ἄγομεν τὴν ἡμέραν τὴν ὀγδόην εἰς εὐφροσύνην, ἐν ᾗ καὶ ὁ Ἰησοῦς ἀνέστη ἐκ νεκρῶν καὶ φανερωθεὶς ἀνέβη εἰς οὐρανούς.

    Peace,

    T. David

    1. Thanks for this, David! I am surprised how little has been written on this subject. It seems as if it is worthy of much more focused writing. I suppose that this neglect is partly due to the reticence that many Reformed have to typology on account of dispensational abuses and to numeric significance due to the abuses in numerology.

  6. Great article! I’ve come across it some time after it was written, of course. One thing I noticed is you mentioned “bloody” circumcision replaced with “unbloody” baptism. Like you, I come from a Reformed tradition practicing infant baptism but it is helpful to remember Jesus referred to his own death as a “baptism” and our baptism, too, is a rehearsal and unification in his death and resurrection… So still kind of bloody! Anyway, thanks for a great article!

  7. Matt Siple

    David is the 8th son. There also seems to be a connection with 50 (7×7 + 1). Both Jubilee (new freedom) and Pentecost (firstfruits/resurrection/Spirit poured out) take place on a 50th day. If seven represents completion or perfection, then eight seems to represent “new and better.”

  8. Eric

    The seed of Abraham came through the deadness of the womb. The new birth. The supernatural birth of which Jesus referred to wth Nicodemus. Circumcision on the 8th Day pointed to the resurrection of Christ with whom we are resurrected- the fulfillment of the preamble to the Abrahamic covenant “I am your inheritance and reward” after the conquest of the 5 Kings. Interestingly enough we miss the signposts God has put in creation. It all refers to the new birth. A lunar calendar has 28-29 days. The 8 th day was sometimes a two day feast to conclude the Shavuot – and other festivals- when the Diaspora was included – inclusion of the Gentiles into the seed. New moon on the “8th day”. Same as the womb of a woman. Menstruation occurs every 28-29 days. The shedding of blood must occur for new human life pointing to the new life we have being born into the Seed. Thus the womb is holy as are the children of believers. Circumcision was the seal of faith for the resurrection (new birth) into the Seed to come. Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit is the seal of our new inheritance (new birth). Circumcision was fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ on the 8th day. Baptism cannot replace circumcision because now the birth into the Seed (new birth and kingdom of God) happens upon repentance of sin- the very thing John the Baptist heralded. We are the body of Christ – part of the Seed, partakes of the Divine nature (Peter) regaining what was lost at the Fall. Israel the perfect historical object lesson of God dwelling with His elect One of whom we are part.

  9. bobby gilbert

    where should we look for the 8th day? first of all, we cannot step into it. not yet. 1 now, when jesus rises, his feet step into the 8th day.
    2 what john writes in the beginning of his gospel becomes more true. he was in the beginning. 8th and 1st become the same. simply, eternity. numbers cannot define eternity.
    3 pentecost is also the 8th day. now, i am jumping ahead. to fully understand pentecost or shavuot, one has to understand that it is more than 50 in count. it is a hundred. not because of numbers, because of time. if one takes pentecost and understood the 7 and 7 to be fourteen, one needs to look at it as a day. See day were and is considere a time in 12 hours. the extra hour is saying . . . someone eternal is doing something. in reality, the hour does not exist. we count out when looking at maybe days to count pentecost, 50 days out to get pentecost. the question should it be from sunday or monday. Should it be when the curtain tore? The curtain tore should take one backwards to 3 men in the spirit at the transfiguration. 3 men in the spirit – the curtain tears – 120 people in the spirit. there are other ways of seeing this time line. It is not in days. this means what I am saying, an hour is equal to a time. in the case of pentecost, an hour is equal to a day. It is less about numbers and more about time. we use numbers to tell time. there is really no perfect 7.
    I could go on more and more. I am basically talking about weeks and that there are specific weeks like genesis and like the passion week. there are 15 in all. when one understands the weeks, one understand better why the 1st day is the same as the 8th day. or the 8th day is the same as the 50th day in in pentecost. It is about the eternal showing us step by step the way to Christ and eternal life. in short here is god’s weeks.
    genesis . . . god is almighty. It will end with a 8th day or a 50th day. the eternal god has never left eternity to accomplish the week. so by logical argument, the 1st day is the same as the 8th day. we have not arrived into the 8th day. this week will end last.
    ark of the covenant . . . god is holy
    temple . . . god is worshipped in spirit and truth
    Immanuel . . . god is with us
    Passion . . . god can be touched.
    pentecost . . . god is in us
    2nd pentecost . . . enter the kingdom of god.

    All of these time periods if you believe they are historical are also weeks. these are the weeks god completes to bring for reconciliation, redemption and revelation. as you can see, all are complete except for the genesis week and the 2nd pentecost. all of these weeks are examples of the 1st day and the 8th day are the same. The 8th day is the same as the 50th day. The 1st day is the same as the 100th day. It is not about numbers. These numbers help to understand time. time is running out. When there is no time, there will be no numbers. There will be only eternity to spend with Christ. To spend with Christ is what all weeks are about. The story is about Jesus. He is the first to step into the 8th day or the 1st day . . . . or eternity. He was always there like John says, in the beginning. He ends the story with him being there two. Step into the 8th day. Follow Jesus.
  10. Discussion of the Eighth Day on Wikipedia (below), excerpted from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord%27s_Day


  11. The Lord's Day in Christianity is generally Sunday, the principal day of communal worship. It is observed by most Christians as the weekly memorial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is said in the canonical Gospels to have been witnessed alive from the dead early on the first day of the week. The phrase appears in Rev. 1:10.

    According to some sources, Christians held corporate worship on Sunday in the 1st century.[1] An early example of Christians meeting together on a Sunday for the purpose of "breaking bread" and preaching is cited in the New Testament book of Acts (Acts 20:7). 2nd-century writers such as Justin Martyr attest to the widespread practice of Sunday worship (First Apologychapter 67), and by 361 AD it had become a mandated weekly occurrence. During the Middle Ages, Sunday worship became associated with Sabbatarian (rest) practices. Some Protestants today (particularly those theologically descended from the Puritans) regard Sunday as Christian Sabbath, a practice known as first-day Sabbatarianism. (Some Christian groups hold that the term "Lord's Day" can only properly refer to seventh-day Sabbath or Saturday.)

    Sunday was also known in patristic writings as the eighth day.

    Biblical use[edit]

    The phrase the "Lord's Day" appears only once in the Bible in Revelation 1:10 which was written near the end of the first century. It is the English translation of the Koine Greek Kyriake hemera. The adjective kyriake ("Lord's") often elided its noun, as in the neuter kyriakon for "Lord's [assembly]", the predecessor of the word "church"; the noun was to be supplied by context.

    In Rev. 1:10, the apostle John, used Kyriake hemera (Κυριακῇ ἡμέρᾳ, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day") in a way apparently familiar to his readers. Observers of first-day worship hold that this means he was worshiping on Sunday, resurrection day. Seventh-day Sabbatarians hold that since Jesus said he was "Lord of the Sabbath"[2] and that Isaiah called the Sabbath the "Lord's Holy Day"[3] then the Lord's Day is the Seventh-day Sabbath (i.e. Saturday). Both parties accordingly use this verse to lay claim to the name "Lord's Day" for their day of worship.

    The New Testament also uses the phrase te ... mia ton sabbaton (τῇ ... μιᾷ τῶν σαββάτων, "the first day of the week") both for the early morning (Mary Magdalene John 20:1) and evening (the disciples in John 20:19) of Resurrection Sunday, as well as for the breaking of bread at Troas (Acts 20:7) and the day for the collection at Corinth (1 Co 16:2).[4]

    Textual tradition[edit]

    Ambiguous references[edit]

    The term "Lord's" appears in The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles or Didache, a document dated between 70 and 120Didache 14:1a is translated by Roberts as, "But every Lord's day gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving";[5] another translation begins, "On the Lord's own day". The first clause in Greek, "κατά κυριακήν δέ κυρίου", literally means "On the Lord's of the Lord",[6] a unique and unexplained double possessive, and translators supply the elided noun, e.g., "day" (ἡμέρα hemera), "commandment" (from the immediately prior verse 13:7), or "doctrine".[7][8] This is one of two early extrabiblical Christian uses of "κυριακήν" where it does not clearly refer to Sunday because textual readings have given rise to questions of proper translation. Breaking bread (daily or weekly) may refer to Christian fellowshipagape feasts, or Eucharist (cf. Acts 2:4220:7). Didache 14 was apparently understood by the writers of the Didascalia and Apostolic Constitutions as a reference to Sunday worship.

    Around 110 AD, St. Ignatius of Antioch used "Lord's" in a passage of his letter to the Magnesians. Ambiguity arises due to textual variants. The only extant Greek manuscript of the letter, the Codex Mediceo-Laurentianus, reads, "If, then, those who had walked in ancient practices attained unto newness of hope, no longer observing Sabbath, but living according to the Lord's life ..." (kata kyriaken zoen zontes). A medieval Latin translation indicates an alternate textual reading of kata kyriaken zontes, informing Roberts's translation, "no longer observing the Sabbath, but living in the observance of the Lord's [Day]".[9]

    The expanded Pseudo-Ignatian version of Magnesians, from the middle of the third century, rewrites this passage to make "Lord's Day" a clear reference to Sunday, as Resurrection Day. Pseudo-Ignatius adds a repudiation of legalistic Sabbath as a Judaizing error: "Let us therefore no longer keep the Sabbath after the Jewish manner, and rejoice in days of idleness .... But let every one of you keep the Sabbath after a spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law, not in relaxation of the body, admiring the workmanship of God, and not eating things prepared the day before, nor using lukewarm drinks, and walking within a prescribed space, nor finding delight in dancing and plaudits which have no sense in them. And after the observance of the Sabbath, let every friend of Christ keep the Lord’s Day as a festival, the resurrection-day, the queen and chief of all the days."[10] Other early church fathers similarly saw weekly observance of seventh-day Sabbath sometimes followed the next day by Lord's Day assembly.[11][12]

    Undisputed references[edit]

    The first undisputed reference to Lord's Day is in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter (verse 34,35 and 50[13]), probably written about the middle of the 2nd century or perhaps the first half of that century. The Gospel of Peter 35 and 50 use kyriake as the name for the first day of the week, the day of Jesus' resurrection. That the author referred to Lord's Day in an apocryphal gospel purportedly written by St. Peter indicates that the term kyriake was very widespread and had been in use for some time.

    Around 170 AD, Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, wrote to the Roman Church, "Today we have kept the Lord's holy day (kyriake hagia hemera), on which we have read your letter." In the latter half of the 2nd century, the apocryphal Acts of Peter identify Dies Domini (Latin for "Lord's Day") as "the next day after the Sabbath," i.e., Sunday. From the same period of time, the Acts of Paul present St. Paul praying "on the Sabbath as the Lord's Day (kyriake) drew near." However, the Lord's day is identified with the Sabbath in the Acts of John as "on the seventh day, it being the Lord's day, he said to them: now it is time for me also to partake of food."[14]

    Early church[edit]

    The Cenacle on Mount Zion, claimed to be the location of the Last Supper and PentecostBargil Pixner[15] claims the original Church of the Apostles is located under the current structure.

    In the first centuries, Sunday, being made a festival in honor of Christ's resurrection, received attention as a day of religious services and recreation, but seventh-day Sabbath rest (based on the Jewish Shabbat, because the earliest Christians were all Jews) was still observed by "almost all churches".[11][12] Often first-day worship (Sunday morning or Saturday night) was practiced alongside observance of seventh-day Sabbath rest[16] and was a widespread Christian tradition by the 2nd century, attested in patristic writings of the 2nd century;[17][18] over time, Sunday thus came to be known as Lord's Day. These early Christians believed that the resurrection and ascension of Christ signals the renewal of creation, making the day on which God accomplished it a day analogous to the first day of creation when God made the light. Some of these writers referred to Sunday as the "eighth day".

    The 1st-century[19] or 2nd-century[7] Epistle of Barnabas or Pseudo-Barnabas on Is. 1:13 stated "Sabbaths of the present age" were abolished in favor of one millennial seventh-day Sabbath that ushers in the "eighth day" and commencement of a new world. Accordingly, the eighth-day assembly (Saturday night or Sunday morning) marks both the resurrection and the new creation. Thus first-day observance was a common regional practice at that time.[20]

    By the mid-2nd century, Justin Martyr wrote in his apologies about the cessation of Sabbath observance and the celebration of the first (or eighth) day of the week (not as a day of rest, but as a day for gathering to worship): "We all gather on the day of the sun" (τῇ τοῦ ῾Ηλίου λεγομένη ἡμέρᾳ, recalling both the creation of light and the resurrection).[21] He argued that Sabbath was not kept before Moses, and was only instituted as a sign to Israel and a temporary measure because of Israel's sinfulness,[22] no longer needed after Christ came without sin.[23] Curiously he also draws a parallel between the Israelite practice of circumcision on the eighth day, and the resurrection of Jesus on the "eighth day".[24]

    But the Gentiles, who have believed on Him, and have repented of the sins which they have committed, they shall receive the inheritance along with the patriarchs and the prophets, and the just men who are descended from Jacob, even although they neither keep the Sabbath, nor are circumcised, nor observe the feasts.[25]

    And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead.[21]

    Tertullian (early 3rd century), writing against Christians who participated in pagan festivals (Saturnalia and New-year), defended the Christian festivity of Lord's Day amidst the accusation of sun-worship, acknowledging that "to [us] Sabbaths are strange" and unobserved.[26][27]

    Cyprian, a 3rd-century church father, linked the "eighth day" with the term "Lord's Day" in a letter concerning baptism.

    'For in respect of the observance of the eighth day of the Jewish circumcision of the flesh, a sacrament was given beforehand in shadow and in usage; but when Christ came, it was fulfilled in truth. For because the eighth day, that is, the first day after the Sabbath, was to be that on which the Lord should rise again, and should quicken us, and give us circumcision of the spirit, the eighth day, that is the first day after the Sabbath, and the Lord's Day, went before in the figure; which figure ceased when by and by the truth came and spiritual circumcision was given to us

    — Cyprian, Letter LVIII[28]

    Origins of Sunday worship[edit]

    Though Christians widely observed Sunday as a day of worship by the 2nd century, the origin of Sunday worship remains a debated point: scholars promote at least three positions:

    • Bauckham has argued that Sunday worship must have originated in Palestine in the mid-1st century, in the period of the Acts of the Apostles, no later than the Gentile mission; he regards the practice as universal by the early 2nd century with no hint of controversy (unlike. for example, the related Quartodeciman controversy).[16] In the 2nd century the church of Rome lacked jurisdictional authority to impose a novel universal change of Sabbath rest from the seventh day to the first, or to obtain universal Sunday worship had it been introduced after the Christian church had spread throughout the known world.[17] Bauckham states that there is no record of any early Christian group which did not observe Sunday, with the exception of a single extreme group of Ebionites mentioned by Eusebius of Caesarea; and that there is no evidence that Sunday was observed as substitute Sabbath worship in the early centuries.[16]
    • Some Protestant scholars have argued that Christian Sunday worship traces back even further, to the resurrection appearances of Jesus recorded in the Gospel narratives where Jesus would appear to his disciples on the first day of the week.[29][30]
    • Seventh-day Adventist scholar Samuele Bacchiocchi has argued that Sunday worship unconnected to the Sabbath was introduced[by whom?] in Rome in the 3rd century, and was later enforced[by whom?] throughout the Christian church as a substitution for Sabbath worship.[31][32]

    There is evidence of early Christians simultaneously observing both seventh-day Sabbath rest and Sunday worship,[16] and Socrates Scholasticus states that 4th-century Rome had ceased to worship on the Sabbath, while Alexandria held its love feasts or Eucharists on the first day, substituting it for the Sabbath as kept in other churches.

    Edict of Constantine[edit]

    On 3 March 321, Constantine I decreed that Sunday (dies Solis) will be observed as the Roman day of rest [CJ3.12.2]:

    On the venerable day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed. In the country however persons engaged in agriculture may freely and lawfully continue their pursuits because it often happens that another day is not suitable for grain-sowing or vine planting; lest by neglecting the proper moment for such operations the bounty of heaven should be lost.[33]

    Constantine's decree was most likely modeled on pagan sun worship, though it is probable that he also intended to benefit the church, which already met for worship on Sunday.[16]

    In the 4th century, Socrates Scholasticus stated that the Christians of Alexandria and Rome partook of the "mysteries" (the love feast or Eucharist) on the first day of the week (Saturday evening), though they also held worship meetings on Sabbath like almost all other churches.[11] By the 5th century, Sozomen stated that most churches, such as at Constantinople, met both on Sabbath and first day (Saturday evening), but that Rome and Alexandria met only on the first day (Saturday evening) and no longer on Sabbath.[12]

    Middle Ages[edit]

    Augustine of Hippo followed the early patristic writers in spiritualizing the meaning of the Sabbath commandment, referring it to eschatological rest rather than observance of a literal day. However, the practice of Sunday rest increased in prominence throughout the early Middle Ages. Thomas Aquinas taught that the decalogue is an expression of natural law which binds all men, and therefore the Sabbath commandment is a moral requirement along with the other nine. Thus Sunday rest and Sabbath became increasingly associated.[34]

    Following Aquinas' decree, Christian Europeans could now spend less time denouncing the Judaistic method of observing the Sabbath, instead establishing rules for what one "should" and "should not" do on the Sabbath. For example, while the Medieval Church forbade most forms of work on the Sabbath, it allowed "necessary works", and priests would allow their peasants to perform the needed agricultural work in the field.[35]

    Modern church[edit]

    Protestantism[edit]

    The Heidelberg Catechism of the Reformed Churches founded by John Calvin, teaches that the moral law as contained in the Ten Commandments is binding for Christians and that it instructs Christians how to live in service to God in gratitude for His grace shown in redeeming mankind.[36] The doctrine of the Christian Reformed Church in North America thus stipulates "that Sunday must be so consecrated to worship that on that day we rest from all work except that which charity and necessity require and that we refrain from recreation that interferes with worship."[37]

    Likewise, Martin Luther, in his work against the Antinomians who he saw as heretical, Luther rejected the idea of the abolition of the Ten Commandments.[38] They also viewed Sunday rest as a civic institution, which provided an occasion for bodily rest and public worship.[39]

    Sunday Sabbatarianism became prevalent amongst both the continental and English Protestants over the following century. A new rigorism was brought into the observance of Lord's Day among the 17th-century Puritans of England and Scotland, in reaction to the laxity with which Sunday observance was customarily kept. Sabbath ordinances were appealed to, with the idea that only the word of God can bind men's consciences in whether or how they will take a break from work, or to impose an obligation to meet at a particular time. Their influential reasoning spread to other denominations also, and it is primarily through their influence that "Sabbath" has become the colloquial equivalent of "Lord's Day" or "Sunday". The most mature expression of this influence survives in the Reformed Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), Chapter 21, "Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day". Section 7-8 reads:

    7. As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord’s day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.

    8. This Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe a holy rest, all the day, from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations, but also are taken up, the whole time, in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.

    The General Rules of the Methodist Church requires "attending upon all the ordinances of God" including "the public worship of God".[40] The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, stated "This 'handwriting of ordinances' our Lord did blot out, take away, and nail to His cross (Col. 2:14). But the moral law contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He did not take away .... The moral law stands on an entirely different foundation from the ceremonial or ritual law .... Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind and in all ages."[41] This is reflected in the doctrine of Methodist denominations, such as the Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Connection, which in its 2014 Discipline teaches that the Lord's Day "be observed by cessation from all unnecessary labor, and that the day be devoted to divine worship and rest."[42] In explicating the Fourth Commandment, a prominent Methodist catechism states:[43]

    To keep holy means that no unnecessary work or travel be done on this day. It is a day of rest and worship, a day of Bible reading and prayer. We must not buy, sell, or bargain on Sunday, which is the Lord's day.[43]

    Though Sabbatarian practice declined in the 18th century, the evangelical awakening in the 19th century led to a greater concern for strict Sunday observance. The founding of the Lord's Day Observance Society in 1831 was influenced by the teaching of Daniel Wilson.[39]

    Jehovah's Witnesses[edit]

    Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the Lord's Day is not a single day consisting of 24 hours, but a period of time that started in 1914 (the start of the First World War) that will include Christ's thousand-year reign on earth.

    Roman Catholicism[edit]

    The Second Vatican Council, in the Apostolic Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, asserted that "the Lord's day is the original feast day" and the "foundation and kernel of the whole liturgical year."[44] The apostolic letter of Pope John Paul II entitled Dies Domini charged Catholics to remember the importance of keeping Sunday holy and not to confuse the holiness of the Lord's Day celebration with the common notion of the weekend as a time of simple rest and relaxation.[45]

    Eastern Christianity[edit]

    The Eastern Orthodox Church distinguishes between "Sabbath" (Saturday) and "Lord's Day" (Sunday), and both continue to play a special role for the faithful. Many parishes and monasteries will serve the Divine Liturgy on both Saturday morning and Sunday morning. The church never allows strict fasting on any Saturday (except Holy Saturday) or Sunday, and the fasting rules on those Saturdays and Sundays which fall during one of the fasting seasons (such as Great LentApostles' Fast, etc.) are always relaxed to some degree. During Great Lent, when the celebration of the Liturgy is forbidden on weekdays, there is always Liturgy on Saturday as well as Sunday. The church also has a special cycle of Bible readings (Epistle and Gospel) for Saturdays and Sundays which is different from the cycle of readings allotted to weekdays. However, Lord's Day, being a celebration of the Resurrection, is clearly given more emphasis. For instance, in the Russian Orthodox Church Sunday is always observed with an All-Night Vigil on Saturday night, and in all of the Orthodox Churches it is amplified with special hymns which are chanted only on Sunday. If a feast day falls on a Sunday it is always combined with the hymns for Sunday (unless it is a Great Feast of the Lord). Saturday is celebrated as a sort of leave-taking for the previous Sunday, on which several of the hymns from the previous Sunday are repeated.

    In part, the reason Orthodox Christians continue to celebrate Saturday as Sabbath is because of its role in the history of salvation: it was on a Saturday that Jesus "rested" in the tomb after his work on the cross. For this reason also, Saturday is a day for general commemoration of the departed, and special requiem hymns are often chanted on this day.

    The Ethiopian Orthodox church (part of the Oriental Orthodox communion, having about 40 million members) observes both Saturday and Sunday as holy, but places extra emphasis on Sunday.

  12. --END EXCERPT--


  13. SEE ALSO: Today is the 8th Day Assembly - Shemini Atzeret! (Yesterday was Hoshana Rabbah / Anniversary of Jesus' Baptism) 

  14. https://bethanymagdalene.blogspot.com/2015/11/today-is-8th-day-assembly-shemini.html

    According to Wikipedia the number 8 in the Bible represents:

     A "new life," "resurrection,"[14] or a new beginning.

    Examples include:
    • Eight people on Noah's Ark (see Gen 7:7 and 2 Peter 2:5)
    • Circumcision on eighth day (Gen 17:12)
    • Jesus was crucified on the sixth day, rested in the tomb on the seventh, and rose from the dead on the eighth day.
    • Eighth day marks a new day or a new beginning (cf. 2 Enoch 33.1; Sib. Or. 1.280-81).[15]
    • In Rev. 17:11, the beast from the sea “...even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” The eighth is a counterfeit messiah that parodies the true ‘eighth,’ which is Christ.[16]


    The number eight in the Bible signifies Resurrection and Regeneration. It is the number of a new beginning. Eight is 7 plus 1 and since it comes just after seven, which itself signifies an end to something, so eight is also associated with the beginning of a new era or that of a new order. In the bible one can find many examples which bring forth and which associate the number eight with a new beginning.

    One such example is of Noah. When the whole earth was covered in floods, it was Noah the eighth person who stepped out and took the responsibility of starting a new era of life, to commence new order of things. The resurrection of Christ is also one fine example of this. The resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate new beginning. It is said in The Bible that Jesus rose on the first day of the next week from the day he was crucified. Thus again it was Eighth day which was chosen by God. The eighth day marked the beginning of new life form. Thus we can see that the number eight in the Bible signifies resurrection and new beginning. Not only this, there have been eight different resurrections in the Bible. Out of which three can be seen in the Old Testament, Three can be seen in the Gospels and the remaining two can be read in the Acts 9 and 40. There were eight miracles of Elijah as told in the bible. And God made eight covenants with Abraham.

    According to the Bible, Eight has a special meaning for God, as He chose the eighth day to mark the beginning of the new week. Everything that has a new beginning in the Bible has the number eight associated with it. Eight is the personal number of Jesus. When we add together the letter values of the name Jesus in the Greek we get 888. Jesus was called The Christ, the numeric value of this title is 1480 (185 x 8). He was Saviour which has the value 1408 (2 x 8 x 88). Jesus is also Lord which again, is a multiple of eight being 800 (100 x 8). Messiah has the numeric value 656 (82 x8). Jesus also called himself the Son of man. The term occurs 88 times and is valued at 2960 (370 x 8). Jesus said "I am the truth": the numeric value of "the truth" is 64 (8 x 8). The last book in the Bible is the Revelation of Jesus Christ which has exactly 888 Greek words. All the Dominical names of Jesus Christ are marked by eight as a multiple if the laws of Gematria are applied to them. It can be seen as follows: Christ, 1480 (8x185), Lord, 800 (8x100), Our Lord, 1768 (8x221), Saviour, 1408 (82x 32), Emmanuel, 25600, (83x50), Messiah, 656 (8x82), Son, 880 (8x110).

    The number 8 has been traditionally been associated with the entrance into the Covenant of God by the historic Christian Church, which has followed the bible blindly. This kind of understanding can come from God Himself who had commanded Circumcision - the Sign of the Covenant - to be performed on the Eighth Day. Thus once again, the number eight has exemplified the beginning of a new era in the bible. Following are the Lord’s covenants with Abraham: (were eight in number; seven before Isaac was offered up, and the eighth when he had been received "in a figure" from the dead).

    Gen 12:1-3, sovereignty.

    Gen 12:7, the seed.

    Gen 13:14-17, Divine assurance, rising and walking on resurrection ground.

    Gen 15:13-21, the limits of the land; the 400 years; the 4th generation.

    Gen 17:1-22, invincible grace.

    Gen 18:9-15, human failure and imperfection.

    Gen 21:12, Spiritual blessing headed up in the seed.

    Gen 22:15-18, resurrection blessing.

    In the Bible there is a mention of a feast. The Feast of Tabenacles. This feast is said to have lasted for eight days. The number eight associated with this feast can show us that this feast was to celebrate a new beginning. The number 888 is the ultimate symbol of the lord himself as mentioned in the Bible. The resurrection of Jesus Christ on the eighth day along with the mention of eight people who were saved in the Noah’s Ark are a sign of the concept of revivification, restoration and a revival of a new era and order that is associated with the number eight. Apart from this, eight is used in the bible in other places also which don’t really have a link with a new beginning like the eight songs in the Old Testament, the Eight Miracles Of Elisha and the Seth lines of names, the sum of which is 3168, which again is a multiple of eight.

     SEE: https://www.astrovera.com/bible-religion/189-bible-number-8.html#:~:text=The%20number%20eight%20in%20the,that%20of%20a%20new%20order.

Blog Archive