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Amazing Facts

Eighteen Reasons

Joe Crews

Eighteen Reasons, Pt. 1

The current popular swing to greater sexual freedom among young people has raised a storm of controversy.

Some great church groups agree with the youth that there are no absolute laws.

Some assert that the 10 Commandments no longer apply.

I'll be back in a moment to talk about the law that was abolished.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz and the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

You know, proponents of this growing secular humanist movement are attempting to change the social fabric of our times with their radical new labels for old sins.

The most amazing thing is that many theological leaders are beginning to approve this liberal permissiveness.

For a long time there has been a gradual slackening of support for the 10 Commandments even in religious circles.

This obsession for more freedom has led to a denial of any absolute standard of right or wrong.

To support the extreme liberalism of such a position, many are suggesting that the 10 Commandments were abolished at the time Jesus died on the cross.

Texts are being cited in support of this strange doctrinal departure from the faith.

Today we are going to examine some of those texts and show how unreasonable is this current interpretation.

Now, many people say, Well, the law of Moses was nailed to the cross and that included the 10 Commandments law, so we don't want anything else to do with it.

Well, now friends, it's true that some ordinances came to an end at the cross, but let's be careful to identify these ordinances correctly.

Were the 10 Commandments nailed there, and did they cease to operate at the time Jesus died?

Now, let's look at a text in Ephesians 2.15.

"...having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain 1 new man, so making peace." Now this does say that a law of commandments containing ordinances was nailed to the cross.

It apparently was abolished, it says here, through Christ.

Let's read on now in another text, Colossians 2, verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.

Now notice, friends, which law is being dealt with here.

It was apparently a law that was against us, contrary to the Christian path.

Paul goes on in the next 2 verses to explain which law he's talking about and which ordinances are met.

He says, Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.

He says the laws which he is talking about and the ordinances involved here are the ones having to do with meats and drinks and new moons and things which are a shadow of things to come.

Now, friends, there is absolutely nothing in the 10 Commandment law at all that's a shadow.

It's all plain, solid commandments intended for all the world.

In fact, it's the foundation of God's government.

Somebody says, well, what about the Sabbath days mentioned here?

Does that refer to the seven-day Sabbath?

Is it something that was to be nailed to the cross and done away with?

Listen, this reference to Sabbaths does not refer to the 10 Commandments at all or to the seventh-day Sabbath of the 10 Commandments.

You see, friends, there were certain yearly Sabbath days that had nothing at all to do with the moral law of the 10 Commandments.

These Sabbaths came once a year, and they came on certain set days that put them on a different day of the week every year.

Now let's read a description of them back in Leviticus 23, beginning with verse 24.

You will discover that there were 4 of these yearly Sabbaths or Jewish festivals spoken of here in this particular chapter, And all of them we are looking forward to are pointing forward to the great deliverance from sin that would come through Christ.

Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month and the first day of the month shall ye have a Sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets and holy convocation.

Now friends, this festival came on a certain set date every year, and it was called a yearly Sabbath.

It was a shadow, or type, of the coming of Christ as a Savior.

In verses 27, 32, and 34, other yearly Sabbaths are brought to view in which people were to rest also.

And then finally in verses 37 and 38, it sums them all up, these yearly festivals or ceremonial Sabbaths, in these words, "...these are the Feast of the Lord, which ye shall proclaim to be holy convocations, to offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, everything upon his day, beside the Sabbaths of the Lord." Now there it is, friends.

Notice how the yearly shadowy Sabbaths are clearly separated from and distinguished from the seventh-day Sabbath of the Lord.

They were included in the ceremonial law of Moses, but the Sabbath of the Lord was in the heart of the moral 10 Commandments law.

Now there is great confusion unless these 2 codes of law are recognized and kept separate.

Remember that man had the least to do with the 10 Commandments and with any other part of the Bible.

God spoke that law directly to the people and they heard it with their ears.

Deuteronomy 4.12, And the Lord spoke unto them out of the midst of the fire.

Ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude, only ye heard a voice.

And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even 10 commandments, and he wrote them upon 2 tables of stone." Now God spoke the law first, and then he wrote it with his own fingers on tables of stone.

Then Moses was commanded to put those tablets inside the Ark of the Testament.

Now let's think of the law of the ordinances for a moment.

They were rules which concerned the sacrificial offering, circumcision, and then those typical feasts pointing forward to Christ.

God did not speak these things directly to the people.

He gave them to Moses to deliver the people.

They were not written or graven on stones, but written in a book.

And the book was not placed inside the ark, but in the outside of it, in pockets.

Notice the text in Deuteronomy 31, 24, "...and it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, that Moses commanded the Levites, which bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee." And again, Psalm 111, 7, the law of God is eternal.

But these ordinances, friends, were blotted out and abolished.

They had nothing to do with the 10 Commandments.

They were dealing only with the typical ceremonial, shadowy ordinances.

Now perhaps the greatest distinction could be made by asking a few questions.

The day before Jesus died, a man who was guilty of sin was under obligation to bring a sin offering as an expression of faith that God would accept him and forgive him.

It was a sin for that man to refuse to show his faith in this way.

But was it a sin for that man to refuse to bring an offering the day following Jesus' death?

You say no, because the blood of Jesus had been shed now, and no 1 needed to kill any sacrifice again because Christ had come.

Was it a sin to steal the day before Jesus died?

And it was a sin to steal the day after he died as well.

It was just as wrong to break any 1 of those 10 Commandments the next day as it was the day before he died.

Thus we have to admit that the 2 laws were different.

They were not on an equal basis after Jesus died.

The ceremonial law came to an end right there.

The sacrifices no longer continued beyond the cross.

Those things were contrary to the Christian because they were only pointing forward to Christ and when Christ came, type met anti-type, the shadow met the substance, and it was no longer necessary to bring sacrifices.

In fact, if they had brought sacrifices, they would have been denying that Jesus was the true Lamb.

So let's recognize then, friends, that we are dealing with 2 laws, 1 of a ceremonial, temporary nature that existed until the cross, and the other 1, the Ten-Commandment Law of God which is eternal and which continues and which applies to all men at all times and generations.

This is not, of course, some strange teaching by any means, because I have before me now the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England, and under the Articles of Religion I, I read these words, Although the law given from God by Moses as touching ceremonies and rites do not bind Christian men, yet notwithstanding, no Christian man whatsoever is free from the obedience of the commandments which are called moral.

Now here you see the 2 distinct codes of law, the ceremonies and the moral 10 Commandments.

This agrees perfectly with what John Wesley said about the 2 laws in his book, Sermons on Several Occasions, Volume 1.

He says this, quote, The ritual or ceremonial law delivered by Moses to the children of Israel containing all the injunctions and ordinances which related to the old sacrifices our Lord indeed come to destroy, to dissolve and utterly abolish.

But the moral law contained in the 10 Commandments and enforced by the prophets, Christ did not take away.

It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this.

And then the great reformer Martin Luther subscribed to that same doctrine.

In his shorter catechism, we read this question, Are we under obligation to keep the ceremonial law of the Jews?

The ordinances which it enjoined were only types and shadows of Christ and were fulfilled by his death.

This distinction between the Jew and Gentile was now removed.

Question, are we under obligation to keep the moral law?

Answer, yes, because it is founded on the nature of God and cannot be changed.

Eighteen Reasons, Pt. 2

Many businessmen feel that a change will soon be made in our calendar.

The item has already appeared on United Nations Committee agendas.

The suggested world calendar would hopelessly confuse our present weekly cycle.

I'll be back in a moment with the amazing facts about lost time.

Hello this is Joe Cruz in the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

You know, 1 of the most frequent questions raised about the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath concerns the authenticity of our present calendar.

It's believed by many that somehow, somewhere, time has probably been lost in the centuries since calendars were first invented.

This does raise an interesting issue, friends, and 1 that should be explored thoroughly.

If the days of the week have been confused and the weekly cycle changed, then it would be impossible to discover the true seventh-day Sabbath as the 1 specified by the 10 Commandments.

So in today's broadcast we'll just answer questions that have been raised by those who seek to discredit the observance of a certain day of the week for the Sabbath.

In particular, I'll consider actual objections that have been made to the keeping of Saturday, the seventh day of the week, on our present calendar.

There's more than just a passing interest in this, friends, since there is presently a world opinion move to seek a complete change in the calendar.

But does this move reflect upon the accuracy of our calendar?

Has time possibly been lost or confused in the recording of days, weeks, and years?

Let's briefly examine the origin of our Gregorian calendar.

You see, the calendar was first invented, at least the 1 upon which our present calendar has been based.

It was started by Julius Caesar before Christ was born even.

This calendar was made up of 365 1⁄4 days.

In other words, this was giving room for the leap year that comes every fourth year.

But now listen, actually, instead of being exactly 365 1⁄4 days in length, that year was approximately 11 minutes less than that.

In other words, it was 11 minutes less than 365 and a fourth days.

So in the course of a few centuries, the calendar was not in harmony with the solar system.

Now that may not seem like very much time, just 11 minutes in a year, but over a period of hundreds of years, it would accumulate in the calendar and in the numbering of the calendar, and throw it out of harmony with the stars and the heavenly bodies.

By 1582, the numbering of the calendar was out of harmony by 10 days with the heavenly bodies.

So Pope Gregory XIII adjusted this condition by calling October 5th the 15th.

Now let's try to imagine a calendar for a moment, and it's Thursday, October 4, 1582.

The next day, of course, should be Friday, October 5, but instead of making Friday the 5th, it was called the 15th instead, so 10 days were simply dropped out of the numbering of the calendar.

Great Britain made this adjustment in 1752, and it was necessary to retrench 11 days at that time, making September the 3rd, September 14th.

Now under the present plan, we retrench a day once every 129 years.

But now, friends, notice that the weekly cycle is not affected by the change that was made.

It was only in the numbering of the calendar.

Friday still followed Thursday, Saturday still followed Friday, and the weekly cycle remained historically as it always was.

There's never been a change, in fact, to affect the order of the days of the week or the weekly cycle itself.

Well, somebody says, time has been lost surely in these countless generations.

How do we know that the real seventh-day Sabbath of today on our calendar is the very same 1, for example, that Jesus kept, and the very same 1 that was sanctified at the time of creation?

No, no, friends, time has not been lost and we can be sure of the right Sabbath of the day.

Now, follow closely and let's prove this point.

The Bible says that in the beginning God made everything in 6 days and rested the seventh day.

God made the weekly cycle, and woe to the person who tampers with anything God made!

After 2000 years roll by, we come to the time when God is leading His people from Egypt to the Promised Land.

During their sojourn in the wilderness for 40 years, God poured out manna, or bread, from heaven every day of the week except the Sabbath.

Now surely God knew which day was the Sabbath then, and it was the very point that He tested the people on.

There's no chance of a day or any time being lost down that far because God Himself was handling the situation.

Then at Mount Sinai, God wrote the 10 Commandments on tables of stone for the children of Israel and He said, remember the Sabbath day, the seventh day is the Sabbath, For in 6 days the Lord made heaven the earth, and wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and holiday." All right, another 2, 000 years roll by, and the Son of God is born into this world.

Now friends, surely He would know which day is the true Sabbath, and whether any days had been lost or added.

And in Luke 4, 16 we read that he kept the Sabbath as his custom was.

So friends, no time has been lost thus far.

Even Joshua, commanding the sons to stand still, could not confuse the Son of God as to which day the true Sabbath was.

Anyway, God blessed the seventh day and not just the seventh part of time.

Some people say, well, He just blessed 1 day in 7.

If we keep that, it's quite sufficient and acceptable.

But no, that's not the way the Bible reads, friends, and dare we change or modify any part of God's Holy Scripture.

The calendar that's used today is the same as the 1 that was used in Christ's day, except that 1 slight change we mentioned a moment ago which did not affect the weekly cycle at all.

And what is more, how could the whole world lose or gain a day when it's impossible for even 1 family to get confused without their neighbor soon setting them straight.

The Jewish race is the most powerful evidence that the Sabbath has never been lost.

They've been observing every seventh day from the time of Abraham.

How could a whole nation lose track of counting time?

It would be impossible unless the whole nation just slept over an extra 24 hours and then nobody ever put them straight about it afterward.

Now just in case you still have a question, Let me read you some statements from the great astronomers of the world.

First of all, from Edward Larkin, who is the director of the Mount Low Observatory, and here's what he said in answer to a letter.

Astronomers dare not depend upon any human device nor human chronologies, save as they are attested by the movements of the time pieces in the sky.

Our days, weeks, and years only exist as unit measurements in computing the unerring revolutions of the heavenly orbs.

Lost or changed time would be instantly detected by the modern astronomer." So you see, friends, no time could ever be lost.

If it were, these men would know about it, they would tell us.

But on the contrary, they tell us it has never been lost.

Here's a statement from the New Astronomy, a book by Dr.

He says, the uniformity of the Earth's rotation has been critically investigated by Newcomb and no change in the length of the day as great as 1 one-thousandth of a second in 1000 years could escape detection.

For more than 3, 000 years, science has gone backward and with profound research reveals the fact that in that vast period the length of the day has not changed by the hundredth part of a single second of time.

Well, that's pretty conclusive too, friends, isn't it?

Campbell, director of Lick Observatory in Mount Havilland, California.

The week of 7 days has been in use ever since the days of the mosaic dispensation, and we have no reason for supposing that any irregularities have existed in the succession of the weeks and their present days from that time to the present.

Well, I think that's quite sufficient to show that there can be no astronomical loss of time, none whatsoever.

All right, we'll move on to another objection that's sometimes raised.

Somebody says the law was fulfilled by Christ and we don't have to keep it anymore.

Oh, how many people have been deceived by this argument.

They think Christ kept the law and that ended it for them.

They don't have to worry about it at all.

And many a sincere person has accepted that kind of reasoning.

What kind of person would want to do away with a law that's holy, spiritual, perfect, righteous, truthful, and unchangeable?

All these words are used in the Bible to describe the 10 Commandments.

And who would want to live in a country where there is no law?

In Matthew 5, 17, Jesus said, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.

I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Some folks think that means to bring it to an end.

But notice Matthew 3, 15, And Jesus answering said unto him, suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.

Now there is the same word even in the original, the word fulfill.

What does it mean, fulfill all righteousness?

Well that means to obey or fill it up with obedience, That's what it means.

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