Sabbatarian Churches of God: What Are the Doctrinal Distinctives of a Sabbatarian Church of God?

 

This is an article which has been written to help define what the basic Sabbatarian Church of God is.  I was born-again and drawn to Jesus in one, and attended that same Sabbatarian Church of God for over 27 years.  So I know a little bit about them.  First I am going to explain a couple Messianic Jewish terms that defines these groups and how they differ from the rest of Gentile Christianity.  All the Sabbatarian Church of God denominations fit into the first of these two categories, while one did come into the second category, but did not remain a non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Church of God for more than five to six years, before becoming a Sunday observing church.  So here goes with those two Messianic terms or categories:

 

Definitions

 

Torah-observant:  Torah-observant believers in Jesus believe the Ten Commandment Law of God including seventh day Sabbath, Holy Days of Leviticus 23 and dietary laws of Leviticus 11 are in full force for the believer.  They often look at other (Sunday observing) believers as “false Christians” from strictly a doctrinal belief point of view, and not out of any hatred or dislike for Sunday observers.  As such their doctrinal beliefs have separated them out from active joint participation within the rest of the body of Christ.  They still perform an active and important role in witnessing to the carnal world, as the Lord directs them.  Romans 14 warns, “who art thou that judgest another man’s servant?  To his own master he standeth or falleth.  Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand” (vs. 4).  That “man” in “man’s servant” is Jesus Christ, in context with Paul’s epistle here.  Having spent 27 years in one of these Sabbatarian Churches of God, and having fellowshipped with several others from time to time, I have witnessed the indwelling Holy Spirit in many if not most of their membership. 

         

Non-Torah observant:  Non-Torah observant believers in Jesus or Yeshua believe the New Testament “Law of Christ” (9 of the 10 Commandments) to be in full force for the believer.  They believe “Days of Worship” have been made an optional choice under the legislation found in the New Testament (cf. Romans 14 and Acts 15).  That means “days of worship” are an optional choice, left up to the believer and the denomination he or she attends.  If one does not agree with the choice of his or her denomination, the individual is free to go to the one that matches his or her choice in days of worship.  Gentile Christian believers for almost 1700 years have chosen Sunday/Christmas/Easter as their primary days of worship.  Messianic Jewish believers who are non-Torah observant choose the Sabbath and Holy Days to worship on, and most also observe the dietary laws of Leviticus 11, mostly out of ethnic cultural choice.  But rest assured, their Messianic Jewish observance almost matches the observance of the Torah observant Sabbatarian Churches of God, those days being previously ingrained in their cultural upbringing for millennia.  Romans 14:1-23 defines these freedoms of choice over days of worship, while the actual legislation of them is recorded in Acts 15. 

          I prefer these Messianic terms over others, as they are totally non-derogatory and lack the slanderous connotation of other terms that define these two groups of believers. 

 

Part I, Torah-observant Sabbatarian Churches of God

 

As you will notice, it is the “Days of Worship” which define the Sabbatarian Churches of God.  In their obedience to the biblical Christian standards Christ gave to the Church, they are in more or less harmony with the rest of Gentile Christianity.  It is in days of worship where they differ.  Their church life revolves around the Sabbath and Holy Days, especially in what these days symbolically represent in Scripture.  We will see that what they believe in this area almost totally matches what the Messianic Jewish believers believe.  And God has just restored the Jewish branch of the body of Christ within 37 short years, so taking a closer look at our Sabbatarian Church of God brothers wouldn’t be a bad idea.  First they base their belief in the Old Testament Law of God still being in full force by a simple interpretation of Matthew 5:17-19, which states, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.  For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled…”  Now here is an important point in their theology.  Have heaven and earth passed?  No they haven’t.  Even though others argue that Christ fulfilled them, it can be pointed out that he expects us to follow his example, which was one of obedience to God’s law.  Also, in Scripture we can see when heaven and earth do pass away, and that is in Revelation 20:14-15 and Revelation 21:1 “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.”  Also see 2 Peter 3:10-13 where Peter graphically describes this event.  So “till heaven and earth pass” puts a time element for the law of God remaining intact, a time element which is often ignored by Gentile Christians who try to use only part of this verse to prove their point.  Continuing in verse 19 of Matthew 5, “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men to do so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”  Then Jesus goes on in Matthew 5 to define the spirit of the 10 Commandment Law of God.  So this passage is the bedrock of the Sabbatarian Churches of God’s belief in the Old Testament 10 Commandment Law of God being for Christians.  As I stated before, the major difference is in the days of worship they observe.  But it is important to also see what they see in these days.  So let’s take a look.

 

The Holy Days of Leviticus

 

To learn the biblical historic and prophetic significance of God’s Holy Days, believed by both the Sabbatarian Churches of God and all Messianic Jewish believers in Yeshua, log onto the following link and read the whole file:  http://www.unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/Holydayshadows.htm .  The Holy Days and what they represent, when properly understood, appear to have far more significance in explaining the whole of God’s redemptive plan of salvation for mankind than the Gentile Christian days.  Few understand this important point, because few look beyond the actual days and into what they represent.  So be very sure to log onto that link above and read that file before continuing.  There is tremendous meaning in the historic and prophetic symbolism of the Holy Days of Leviticus 23 which most Sunday observing Christianity is almost totally ignorant of.

The Sabbath:  A careful reading of Leviticus 23 will show the seventh day Sabbath is also listed as a Holy Day (Leviticus 23:1-3).  Hebrews shows the actual physical Sabbath represents the spiritual rest we have in Christ by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within believers.  This rest is experienced in reality 24/7.  But just because we are living the reality does not make it wrong to observe the shadow of that reality.  Read Hebrews 4:1-11.  Verse 10 is a direct reference to God taking rest in Genesis right after the creation, which created the Sabbath by the very fact that God rested.  The Jews, Messianic believers and Sabbatarian Churches of God feel this is significant in that the Sabbath wasn’t created at the time of Moses, but predates the Law being given to Moses right back in Genesis at the creation of man.  Each group, Sunday and Sabbath observing see the argument for their practice within this chapter.  But the proofs lie elsewhere and are not the subject of this article.  It is just important to see the significance of what they see in the Sabbath.  Another symbolic meaning which some say can be seen in the Bible is that mankind has been allocated 6,000 years for his governments, and that after the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ, God rules over mankind for one thousand years of peaceful existence—and that the Sabbath typifies or symbolizes the last 1,000 years of God’s redemptive plan for mankind in Revelation 20, 1 Corinthians 15 and Ezekiel 37:1-14.  This is a viable argument which does have Scriptural backing, even though Jesus’ exact return has gone beyond the actual 6,000 year allotment of time (but didn’t Jesus say people would be saying “He delayeth his coming”?).  Irenaeus, a disciple of Polycarp recorded in his works that this was a held doctrine of the early apostolic Church.  He lived around 178AD.

 

Typical sermons given by a viable Sabbatarian Church of God during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

 

First, most Sabbatarian Churches of God keep an ancient Christian Passover that Polycarp and Policrates (disciples of John) kept in Asia Minor (100’s AD through 250AD).

Passover service: This following link goes to an article showing how this Christian Passover service is currently being observed (and is the way we believe John, Polycarp and Policrates observed it).  Log onto: http://www.cbcg.org/passover_ceremony1.htm and http://www.cbcg.org/passover_ceremony2.htm .  I have an article on this website which shows the last six days in the life of Jesus Christ before and going through his crucifixion at this link.  It was taken from the Sabbatarian Church of God I spent 27 years in, and many of you have been logging onto it and reading it every year in the spring.  It’s at: http://www.unityinchrist.com/lamb/lastsix.htm . 

 

Typical sermon for the First and Last Days of Unleavened Bread

 

Log onto the link below and see the significance of how these churches use these days of worship to teach powerful biblically redemptive themes about Christian growth and sanctification, using each Holy Day to teach both New and Old Testament lessons of redemption in Christ (and our part in the process).  See http://www.unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/Leaven.htm.  The Christian Biblical Church of God is a Torah-observant Sabbatarian Church of God, as all Sabbatarian Churches of God are.  I used them here, because they are the most grace oriented of all the Sabbatarian Churches of God, with members who are for the most part filled with the indwelling Holy Spirit.  If you desire to know more about this group of Sabbatarian Churches of God, be sure to look them up and read further at http://www.cbcg.org and http://www.biblicaltruthministries.org .  I use these folks as an example, not because they are the best organized or biggest and shiniest of the Sabbatarian Churches of God, but in my personal estimation, they are the most grace-oriented and spiritual of the groups, and as such deserve mention.  The best mention I could give them is to use them as a central example of a Sabbatarian Church of God.  Another fairly large Torah observant Sabbatarian Church of God is the United Church of God, which is a modern-day version of the Torah observant Churches of God as they marched through church history.  Their link is at:  http://www.ucg.org.  [The United Church of God’s Good News Magazine, although its slant on obedience to God’s Laws is Torah-observant, is an excellent source for articles dealing with prophecy, current events and the prophetic meaning of God’s Holy Days.  Back issues can be found at http://www.gnmagazine.org.  Their series on Biblical archeology and the Bible is amazing, and well worth the read.]  

          Some might be led to think the Torah observant variety of Sabbatarian Churches of God are sort of dying out after the massive split in the Worldwide Church of God during the 1990s.  Not so.  There are now over 374 separate “denominations” of Torah observant Sabbatarian Churches of God in existence right now.

          Also, many of you may be wondering at this point, especially since most Messianic Jewish believers are non-Torah observant, are there any non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Churches of God?  To answer that, read through the next part of this article.

 

Part II: Non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Churches of God

 

It is historically believed by recent church historians that most of the early Judeo-Christian churches were non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Churches of God (after 50AD) in Asia Minor during the first 300 years of the Christian church’s history.  Proof of this is contained at the following link and won’t be covered in this “Part II”.  (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/index3.htm for more about early non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Judeo-Christians.)  As you will read, for 1700 years a non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Church of God hasn’t existed, except for a very brief period, from 1995 to about 2001.  (There is one minor exception to this rule, which was the Sabbatarian Churches of God first in England, and then in Rhode Island during the 17th century.  But even they leaned toward being Torah-observant for their own members.  To read about how the Sabbatarian Churches of God came to America, log onto http://www.unityinchrist.com/history/historycog1.htm.)  Want to learn more?  Read on.

 

Why Did We Leave Worldwide?

 

When the Worldwide Church of God came into the New Testament understanding of Romans 14 under Joseph Tkach Sr.---i.e that choice over Days of Worship are an optional choice for believers---at that point the Worldwide Church of God had just become what the Messianic Jewish believers call a “non-Torah observant” Sabbatarian Church of God, the very first of its kind in 1700 years.  Most Messianic believers are non-Torah observant, while up to this point in time (1995) all the Sabbatarian Churches of God were Torah-observant.  That meant that any Christian church or Christian individual that observed Sunday/Christmas/Easter instead of the Sabbath and Holy Days of Leviticus 23 were regarded by them as “false Christians.”  But for a very short span of time the Worldwide Church of God was a “non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Church of God”, which meant that even though they chose to observe the Sabbath and Holy Days of Leviticus 23 voluntarily---they recognized the Sunday/Christmas/Easter observing Christian churches as brothers in Christ, and also as genuine parts of the body of Christ. 

          Very sadly, Joe Tkach Sr. died of cancer in 1995, and just as sadly, under the leadership of his son Joe Tkach Jr., the Worldwide Church of God changed from being a “non-Torah observant” Sabbatarian Church of God---the only one of its kind since 325AD---to a Sunday/Christmas/Easter observing Christian denomination.  Result:  Now those who are non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Church of God believers are scattered all across the Christian landscape.  Some of these believers dwell amongst the more spiritually alive and on-fire Sunday observing churches and denominations, while others have quietly gone back to fellowship and attend some of the Torah-observant Sabbatarian Church of God denominations, while still others like myself quietly fellowship amongst the two groups, observing the Holy Days with the Sabbatarian Churches of God and off and on again going to their Sabbath services along with doing the same for the Sunday services.  I myself am such a believer. In a very real sense we’re believers without a church.  We find we have to be careful to not talk amongst our “Torah-observant” Sabbatarian brethren about our understandings of the freedoms we have, as explained in Romans 14, and we’re often looked upon by our Sunday observing brethren as being “Jewish”, “archaic”, or as being “a touch legalistic” for preferring the Sabbath and Holy Days of Leviticus 23 over Sunday/Christmas/Easter. 

          Why did we leave?  The best way to explain this is to refer you to some quotes of Rodney Stark, a sociologist who wrote a stunning book titled The Rise of Christianity.  I made editorial remarks between quotes I took from his book.  The first two pages apply very succinctly to this issue of why we non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Church of God believers left the Worldwide Church of God, and it has nothing to do with the fact that they are now a legitimate Holy Spirit filled Sunday observing Christian church.  What forced us out?  Why were the changes from non-Torah observant Sabbatarian to Sunday/Christmas/Easter too much for us? Maybe not many of you who went through this looked at it this way, but this is the real underlying reason we fled.  I’ll reproduce those two pages right here. 

 

Quotes taken from Rodney Stark’s “The Rise of Christianity”, chapter 3, The Mission to the Jews: Why It Probably Succeeded

 

These are direct quotes from Rodney Stark’s book “The Rise of Christianity”, chapter 3.  Rodney Stark is a sociologist, not a historian, but he brings a fresh perspective to church history and how the early Church grew, from a sociologist’s perspective.  He uses historic evidence very carefully to back up his prognosis of early church growth patterns and that the early church was indeed heavily Jewish both ethnically and in worship practices.

 

“Granted, the received wisdom recognizes that Jews made up the bulk of very early converts, as phrases such as “Jewish Christianity” and “the Christian Synagogue” acknowledge.  But it is generally assumed that this pattern ended abruptly in the wake of the revolt of 66-74, although some writers will accept a substantial role for Jewish conversion into the second century, regarding the Bar- Kokhba revolt as the “final straw” in Jewish-Christian sympathies. 

          Perhaps only a sociologist would be foolish enough to suggest that, contrary to the received wisdom, Jewish Christianity played a central role until much later in the rise of Christianity—that not only was it the Jews of the diaspora who provided the initial basis for church growth during the first and early second centuries, but that the Jews continued as a significant source of Christian converts until at least as late as the fourth century and that Jewish Christianity was still significant in the fifth century.” [“The Rise of Christianity”, p.49, par. 2-3, Rodney Stark] 

 

Next is a quote where Rodney gives a little social science which put the historic evidence in a new light.  The bottom line of the social science here is “birds of a feather flock together.” 

 

“The second proposition is that People are more willing to adopt a new religion to the extent that it retains cultural continuity with conventional religion(s) with which they already are familiar…As Noch so aptly put it: “The receptivity of most people for that which is wholly new (if anything is) is small…” [ibid. p. 55, par 2&3]

 

And who did the apostle Paul evangelize to, Gentiles?  Or was it to the Jews of the Diaspora, and the God-fearers within the same synagogues?  If so, what religious customs of worship would have provided this continuity?  It wouldn’t be the Gentilized Christianity of today we’re so familiar with.  The continuity would have been found in early Nazarene Jewish Christianity.  Stark further postulates:

 

“The principle of cultural continuity captures the human tendency to maximize—to get the most for the least cost.  In the case of adopting a new religious outlook, cost can be measured in terms of how much of what one already knows and more or less accepts one must discard in order to make the shift.  To the extent that potential converts can retain much of their original cultural heritage and merely add to it, cost is minimized (Stark and Bainbridge 1987)” [ibid. p.55, par. 4]

 

And here is an interesting modern proof of this principle.  The Worldwide Church of God, prior to coming into a better understanding of the New Testament freedoms which allow for freedom of choice in “days of worship” (cf. Romans 14), were a Sabbath/Holy Day observing Sabbatarian Church of God.  They were a true reflection of the early Judeo-Christian Churches of God in their worship practices.  Their members were spiritually brought up in these “Jewish” days of worship, including Levitical dietary practices.  A few years after they accepted this New Testament understanding of freedom in the area of days of worship, they started gradually changing, congregation by congregation, over to Sunday/Christmas/Easter observance for their days of worship.  From the period between 1995 and 2005 they lost a very large number of their members, merely because the cost of accepting this new religion which went against their spiritual cultural background was far to great.  Where that church had an estimated 150,000 members, it now numbers in the mere few thousands, whereas the two major splinter churches which broke off from them are healthy.  I am not trying to slam any of these churches, just making a sociological observation that fits this “social law” Rodney Stark brings out here.  The apostle Paul said the same thing when he said “Were you born Circumcised (i.e. a Jew)?  Remain Circumcised (i.e a Jew).  Were you born uncircumcised (i.e a Gentile)?  Remain uncircumcised (i.e. a Gentile).”  Paul in no way meant that one should not accept Yeshua, Jesus, only that if your background was Jewish, be a part of Jewish-Christianity, not Gentile—don’t go against your cultural-spiritual upbringing.  Messianic Judeo-Christianity did not go against Jewish cultural upbringing, it only enhanced it.  If Paul’s major evangelism was within the Jewish synagogues of the Diaspora, then the Judeo-Christian churches he was founding observed Hebrew Old Testament Holy Days and Sabbath as days of worship.  Where his converts were strictly Gentile (as a few were), he encouraged them to chose days of worship conducive to their cultural upbringing, as Romans 14 indicates….”  Click on this link to read the whole article: http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/print/QuotesFromRodneyStarkpprt.htm.  The mistake has been made.  The article at that link defined it pretty well.  Too late for those involved to correct it. 

          How many of us are there?  I don’t honestly know how many of us were slowly forced out of the Worldwide Church of God when they started quietly shifting from Sabbath to Sunday/Christmas/Easter observance, but my guess is that it was multiple tens of thousands of us (45,000?).  Now we’re scattered all over the spiritual landscape, all over the body of Christ.  When I came into the New Testament understanding of Romans 14, that choice of Days of Worship (and also dietary laws) was totally optional for the believer (during the Church Age, Acts 2 to 2nd Coming), I also came to recognize the rest of the body of Christ, the Sunday/Christmas/Easter observing part as being legitimately Christian as well.  I developed a keen interest in learning about them and their history, and also learning which groups were genuinely spiritually alive, and which groups appeared to be spiritually dead or dying.  I also found a few Christian denominations to be genuinely false Christians, even though they may have genuine believers in their midst. 

          When I first started this website 12 years ago, the Lord inspired me to reach out and try to nourish all believers within the body of Christ, regardless of which denomination they came from.  But my heart went out to and continues to go out to those scattered non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Church of God believers, wherever they might be, with whomever they might be fellowshipping with.  I feel their spiritual loneliness because I am one of them.  This concludes the description about Sabbatarian Churches of God, both Torah-observant and non-Torah observant types.  What follows is a call to action.  A sad condition exists within the body of Christ right now, one that calls for action.  But first a believer has to understand what is going on, and what the Lord has been up to for the past 37 years.

 

Questions we should be asking ourselves

 

Was there a purpose, did Jesus have a special purpose for preserving the Torah-observant Sabbatarian Churches of God for 1700 years, since 300AD?  Is there a purpose for having non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Churches of God today?  Did God have a purpose in very painfully bringing the Worldwide Church of God under Joe Tkach Sr. to come to recognize the Biblical truth that choice of Days of Worship are optional for the believer---thus making the Worldwide Church of God a non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Church of God, which it remained for five to six years???  Was there a Godly purpose to giving this church such a ground-shaking revelation and proper understanding of Romans 14 and Acts 15?  Here’s a vital hint to the answer of that question.  Let’s look at another incredible miracle the Lord performed recently.  Within the past 37 years, from 1970 to now, 2007, God has supernaturally and miraculously revived the Jewish branch of the body of Christ.  [see http://www.unityinchrist.com/messianicmovement/messianicmovement.htm.]  Within that short span of time, it has been estimated that God has called 500,000 Jews into belief in Jesus Christ as their Messiah.  But the Gentile and Jewish branches of the body of Christ don’t really get along that well.  Being recent newcomers to the body of Christ, the Jewish branch is often ignored, scorned or treated with indifference.  The Jewish believers have their own deep-seated reasons for not even liking the name “Christian”.  Most Gentile Christians don’t even properly recognize that God has revived the Jewish branch of he body of Christ!  What an insult to God.  There are a very few Messianic Jewish and Gentile Christian ministries out there who are trying to promote a form of unity and proper cooperation between the two branches of the body of Christ, for we are all one in Christ.  But as Paul advised early believers (and he was addressing believers in Jesus) ‘Born circumcised (i.e. a Jew), remain circumcised (i.e. a Jew).  Born uncircumcised, don’t seek to become circumcised (i.e. remain a Gentile believer).’  He was saying this about their practices of worship and cultural upbringing that didn’t go against the Word of God.  So Paul wanted and preached for the two branches of the body of Christ to remain separate and distinct in worship practices, such as days of worship, yet teaching that through the indwelling Holy Spirit, they are indeed one.  But wouldn’t you think it would be the ultimate insult to God for him to have called half a million Jews to believe in Jesus as their Savior and then have the Gentile Christians ignore and make light of this major revival?  And yet that is exactly what happened.  This revival was accomplished by God’s indwelling Holy Spirit and not really any act of man.  Most the leaders in this Messianic revival state that as a fact.  In what you have just read here is a prime reason non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Churches of God should exist.

 

If you want to do something about it….if your desire is to attend a non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Church of God, here’s an idea:  If you are one of these displaced non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Church of God believers, or merely an interested Evangelical Christian that desires to help bridge this gap and help bring unity to the whole body of Christ, read on.  What follows is a description of what a non-Torah observant Sabbatarian Church of God biblically should be like, and some timely suggestions about how to go about starting this rolling.  This isn’t for everyone.  It requires gutsy believers in Jesus who are up to a challenge, understanding what God has recently done, and wanting to help unify the body as a whole.  

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