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The Rest of the Story: The Story of Rest Why did God command the Sabbath to be observed? And why is it almost universally misunderstood? Read on to get a biblical view of this subject. by Larry Walker American radio personality Paul Harvey is famous for his opening line: "You know what the news is. Now stay tuned for the rest of the story." Now we will find out the rest of the story of the story of rest. We will take a chronological journey through the history of the promise of rest presented in the Bible. The story begins...

How did Sunday Keeping Begin? How did the change from Saturday to Sunday come about in early Christianity? Did Jesus change the day of worship to Sunday or did the apostles or someone else? Author's BackgroundDr. Samuele Bacchiocchi grew up as a Seventh-day Adventist in Rome, Italy, a stone-throw from the Vatican wall in the days when considerable hostility existed against religious minorities. He vividly remembers the ridicule and rejection he experienced, especially for honoring the Savior on the Sabbath. For example, his classmates called him "Il Giudeo-the Jew," or "L'eretico-the heretic" because he would not attend school on Saturday...

Henry Asher, an observant Jewish bus driver from Los Angeles, sued his employers after he was fired for refusing to work on Shabbat. Shortly after Asher was hired, he was scheduled to work on Shabbat and a Jewish holiday. He asked that his shifts be rescheduled. When his request was denied, Asher missed two days of work without authorization, which led to his dismissal, Channel 7 reported. Asher sued on grounds of religious discrimination. He was awarded $20,000 in damages, and Los Angeles County agreed to respect the right of drivers of all religions to reschedule shifts that fall on...

WHITE HOUSE, Tenn. -- Play ball! As long as it's not Sunday morning. Alderman Darrel Leftwich is proposing that the city establish new Sunday hours for White House Municipal Park so sporting events could only be held in the afternoon. "I am concerned that we are not sending the right message to the community by having tournaments and league play during worship hours," Leftwich said. Leftwich said that he drove by the park Sunday morning on his way to services at Temple Baptist Church and saw that it was full of people at a soccer tournament. "God our Father intended...

Why Sunday? Sunday originally was celebrated by the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans as "the day of the sun." Christians transformed the day of the sun into a weekly celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. Pope John Paul II reminds us of this when he says, "It is Easter which returns week by week." One New Testament account tells us that the Christians met to break bread "on the first day of the week" (Acts 20:7), which they called the "Lord's Day." For a time, it appears that Christians who were of Jewish origin marked both the...

Phoenix Bishop says "No Sunday Shopping" - A Wedge Issue in the Culture Wars PHOENIX, July 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic bishop of Phoenix, Arizona, quoted in the Arizona Republic, told a congregation attending the most recent priestly ordinations that the world has suffered with the loss of the religious observance of Sunday as a day of rest. The article, which appeared in the July 17th Sunday edition, posed the question, "Whatever happened to Sunday?" It reflects the observation of many Christians that the day which used to be reserved to religious and family togetherness, has turned into "an...

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Pennsylvanians legally would be able to buy a case of beer on Sunday in their own state under legislation approved by the Senate on Monday and sent to the desk of Gov. Ed Rendell. The bill would change current law, which limits purchases to two six-packs from a restaurant or tavern. Instead, the state's 1,300 beer distributors would have the option of paying $100 for an annual license and opening between noon and 5 p.m. on Sundays to sell cases. Rendell's spokeswoman said he is expected to sign the bill. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Sean Logan, D-Allegheny,...

The Fourth Commandment: Key to a Relationshup With Our Creator "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the...

LONDON - For more than a century, teams of donkeys have carried tourists down the beach at Blackpool, one of Britain’s top tourist destinations. But only now are they to get a compulsory lunch break. As part of a wide-ranging "employment rights" charter for donkeys, Blackpool council inspectors are to carry out spot-checks on the beach to ensure the animals get a statutory hour off to munch their hay. The 200 animals working at the coastal resort in northwest England ferry tourists along the beach throughout the summer. Under the new rules, donkeys must only work from 10:00 am to...

For the past few decades the persecution of Christianity around the world and in most notably in the United States of America occurs on daily basis. Christians protest over abortion, euthanasia, parental rights, removing the Ten Commandments and other Christian symbols from public view. It is not difficult to see why this is happening if we open our eyes and seek the truth. Christians have allowed themselves to be persecuted because our actions bear little resemblance to what we are supposed to believe. We scream and decry about the Ten Commandments being removed as we have allowed them, with all...

TONIGHT: Tuesday, March 22, 2004 10:00 p.m. Central Time (Milwaukee area)TITLE: "INSIDE THE LIVING CHURCH OF GOD" Inside the Living Church of God Tonight at live at 10:00,what really goes on inside The Living Church of God? A warning from former members, new tonight live at 10:00 on TODAY'S TMJ4.WTMJ TV investigative news reporter has done some in-depth investigation of the sect (mainline Christian denominations refer to it as a 'cult') which was the site, in a Brookfield, Wisconsin hotel, of a mass shooting by Living Church of God church member Terry Ratzmann earlier this month.Bump for those in...

Terry Ratzmann was laid to rest quietly Friday, at a private service emphasizing forgiveness and attended by a few dozen fellow church members, including some survivors of his shooting rampage. About half of the 75 people who attended were from the local Living Church of God congregation that Ratzmann sprayed with bullets just six days earlier before taking his own life. The rest in attendance Friday were Ratzmann family members, including his mother and two sisters, said Thomas Geiger, a member and spokesman for the local congregation. ... Despite the havoc the 44-year-old Ratzmann wreaked on his congregation, Geiger said,...

Investigators probing the massacre of seven people during a church service outside Milwaukee focused on the gunman's apparent anger with the church and brought in experts to break into his encrypted computer files, authorities said Tuesday. "All we know is he was very upset with the church, either with church generally or a portion of the church or a sermon," said Waukesha (Wis.) County District Atty. Paul Bucher. "We've ruled out everything else." Terry Ratzmann, 44, of New Berlin, Wis., shot and killed himself after the weekend rampage at a Living Church of God service at the Sheraton Milwaukee Brookfield...

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqis are complaining about their first weekend break, and some high schoolers even went to class Saturday to protest a decision introducing a second weekly day off that coincides with the Jewish Sabbath. It's not that the Iraqis do not want time off -- they just want the extra day moved to Thursday. ''We don't want Saturday! It's a Jewish holiday!'' students chanted as they marched in protest last week to the governor's office in Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. A high schooler pulled out a hand grenade and started waving it, and police fired into...

Hundreds of Iraqis have marched against plans to make Saturday a day of rest, calling the proposals a "Zionist plot". Students in Baquba opposed the scheme, backed by outgoing Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, because they identify Saturday with the Jewish Sabbath. Much of the world, including several Arab nations, observes a secular day of rest on Saturday. Iraqis rest only on Friday, a Muslim holy day. Protesters said the weekend should be extended to include Thursday. Muslim rejection "We organised this demonstration in protest at considering Saturday a holiday," said high school student Mohammed Abbas, 17. "We prefer it to...

What Did Paul Really Say in Colossians 2:16? http://www.gnmagazine.org/bsc/12/paulreallysay.htm The apostle Paul wrote to the Colossian Christians, a gentile congregation: "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come ..." (Colossians 2:16-17, King James Version).This passage, probably more than any other in the Bible, is interpreted by those who reject God's festivals as confirmation that the biblical feast days are unnecessary observances. Regrettably, such reasoning is based on poor scholarship and misleading translations from...

The First Holy Thing Is the FIRST thing mentioned in the Bible as being "Holy," meaning set apart or sanctified by God, a person, or an altar, or a temple, or a group of people, or what? Question: In the Holy Bible, what is the very first holy “thing” mentioned?Wrong Answers: Holy ground; holy altar; holy vessel; holy water; holy oil; holy people; holy temple; holy mountain; holy apple.Answer : A day.In the history of the world the first thing labeled “holy” is a day. Not any day, but one specific day in seven—the seventh. Isn’t it surprising that a...

Keeping the Sabbath Keeping Your Job Do those who want to rest and worship God on His weekly Holy day have to work on that day? "I’d like to keep the Sabbath, but I can’t — I have to work on Saturdays."Wrong. You may think so, but you are mistaken. No one who believes in keeping the Sabbath has to work on Saturdays, at least not in America. No one is pointing a gun at the heads of American Christians and Jews and forcing them to work on Saturdays. Americans who work on the Sabbath do so by their...

When Do I Get a Break? Are you working more and relaxing less? Doing more but never getting everything done? Running here and there but only running yourself down? Maybe it's time you took a break! by Les McCullough In today's world of rush here, hurry there, a haggard lament often arises with a weary sigh: "When do I get a break? I never have any time for myself. I'm up before dawn getting ready for work, commute an hour or more, work at least eight hours, commute home arriving after dark—and I'm beat." Family responsibilities add to the load....

Jesus' Teaching on God's Law "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill" (Matthew 5:17).Perhaps the most widespread controversies about the teachings of Jesus concern His attitude toward the laws of God recorded in the Old Testament.The approach of most churches and denominations regarding Jesus is that He brought a new teaching differing considerably from the instructions of the Old Testament. The common view is that the teachings of Christ in the New Testament annulled and replaced the teachings of the Old Testament. But do they?...