A Talk on Christ's Birth and Death: Examining the Church's celebration of Christmas and Easter,
and the Church's worship on Sunday, the First Day of the Week - Part 2
By Rev. Paul Booth
and the Church's worship on Sunday, the First Day of the Week - Part 2
By Rev. Paul Booth
Sunday Worship
The first day of the week - Sunday - is celebrated by Christians, but why? Christians are, like the Church of the Israelites, to live according to the Ten Commandments and one of the commandments is to work for six days and to rest on the seventh or on the Sabbath. Of course, we know that the Lord Himself worked on the Sabbath. We also know that He turned the Sabbath day into a day of instruction and, so, that custom still is followed in the Christian Church in their celebration on the first day of the week or Sunday. We must remember that it was the first day of the week that the Lord was resurrected, thus we, today, are to come to worship the Lord in His glorification. As pertaining to the Ten Commandments, of course, they were given before the Lord came on earth, before His Human was attacked, and before He had defeated the evils of hell. The idea that man is to work for six days is meant one's spiritual struggle against the hell's temptations, for man is without the Lord and is to live 'as if' from one's own self and, so, must 'as it were' to work towards his life, no longer from the Lord or Jehovah (though he is to know that the Lord works within him and overcomes the evils.). So, by 'the sweat of his brow (or face)', which means man, now, has an aversion for celestial life. Then, out of his effort to live according to the commandments, as if, of his self, he is to rest, which signifies he is to worship and to look forward to peace and Heavenly life with the Lord in Heaven. We see that when the Lord did come, He gave His Church a New Commandment to love one another.
Now, it is in the Lord's resurrection that His Work on earth was finished. No longer do those in the Church need to labor and to combat evils; the Lord has come as promised and has defeated hell's hold on mankind. No longer does the man of the Church look forward to Jehovah's coming redemption; He has come and not only brought mankind redemption, but has established the Christian Church, the Israelitish Church having rejected the Lord. It is only proper for the Christian Church now is to worship on the first day of the week when He arose glorified instead of on the seventh day where it is looked forward to His coming redemption and salvation.
However, there is also the spiritual side of the Christian's day of worship of His resurrection or Easter. The Word uses representatives to signify and, so, to teach genuine truth that spiritually guides us. So let us investigate a few of these words in order that we learn spiritually about the Celebration of the Lord's death and resurrection. Let us first take the word seven. As we have shown it means Sabbath, a day of rest, and because God rested after His work of creation, it has come to mean a holy day. But, in addition, it is a day of remembrance of the work that was to be accomplished - man's redemption and salvation - when the Lord comes on earth, that is, when He comes into the natural state where man is no longer in direct or immediate communication and conjunction with the Lord, but is in a life of sin. A study of the worship of the Israelitish Church shows their worship revolved around the number seven, i.e., the seventh day, seven days which is called a week, seventh month, etc., and they are all intervals of times until the coming in the Messiah. Thus, where the number seven occurs it is esteemed holy and sacred. In addition, the time of man's regeneration is distinguished into six prior days to the seventh or until man became celestial as those of the Most Ancient Church had that are called in Genesis 'Adam'.
However, we noted that the Lord has completed that period and He, as the Messiah, came, so that state ended at the Lord's glorification and, so, His work of redemption was finished when He arose or was resurrected into a new day or state. Thus, He became the Divine Human. So, let us, now, look at the number one or the first day of the week of a new week that has begun, the old having ended - the old Church ended and a new Church began. The first thing to see is that the number 'one' is predicated concerning good and perfect, for as we understand God is one, He is good, and perfect. Now, note that the Lord rose up His natural human having glorified it and He became one with the Divine; He became the Divine Human, and, now, from Him proceeds the Holy Spirit, which now leads man into a new spiritual state, that is, into being born again spiritually. It is obvious that the old state of having to wait for the Lord's redemption has ended and a new state has begun. Man does not need to begin again going through evil's temptations, unless, of course, he has not accepted the Lord's redemption and, then, he would have remained in his sin. Now, think not that the Christian Church is still under the same old worship system and needs to observe the same customs of seven days, seven weeks, and etcetera. In other words, the Christian Church does not see the first day as the beginning of another week of seven more days and of having to suffer until the Lord comes. The first day is now seen as the Christian Church's continuation in a new state, having completed the old.
The Christian is still to follow the Ten Commandments as were the Jews, for the Christian, like the Jew, still lives in the natural world and is tempted by evil, but he, now, has the Lord within him as the Holy Spirit in truth, and when he acts accordingly he is conjoined with the Lord's good, and thus, then the Lord dwells within man in a new will and understanding. So, let us examine the spiritual significance of the number ten. We can understand that ten has reference to many things - to completeness, to many, much, or full, and when we add the fact that it is used in the Word, we come to its connection with truth, thus, by ten commandments, is meant all truths that are commanded that we are to follow. Therefore, as long as one does not accept the Lord's redemption, he of necessity must try to live according to the commandments naturally or to their literal sense, which is, as if, the Lord has not come in power to redeem and save him. In other words, such a person is still waiting for his redemption and he does not see the Lord as the God of Heaven and earth, but as another God and is still waiting for His return to this world in order to set up His kingdom here on earth.
By all truths is signified not only all natural truths, but both celestial and spiritual truths as well. Any Christian can read that by being born again as Jesus has said, means a spiritual regeneration, for the Lord has said there is a natural birth and a spiritual birth and goes on explaining about understanding spiritual things or truths. Thus, man's regeneration is a spiritual regeneration. Therefore, to the spiritual man or the spiritual angel, numbers in the Word mean spiritually something other than its natural sense, such as seven literal days or ten literal commandments, but Holy and sacred states and complete and perfect truths and goods, and thus are they doctrine and life to and with man.
End.
Now, it is in the Lord's resurrection that His Work on earth was finished. No longer do those in the Church need to labor and to combat evils; the Lord has come as promised and has defeated hell's hold on mankind. No longer does the man of the Church look forward to Jehovah's coming redemption; He has come and not only brought mankind redemption, but has established the Christian Church, the Israelitish Church having rejected the Lord. It is only proper for the Christian Church now is to worship on the first day of the week when He arose glorified instead of on the seventh day where it is looked forward to His coming redemption and salvation.
However, there is also the spiritual side of the Christian's day of worship of His resurrection or Easter. The Word uses representatives to signify and, so, to teach genuine truth that spiritually guides us. So let us investigate a few of these words in order that we learn spiritually about the Celebration of the Lord's death and resurrection. Let us first take the word seven. As we have shown it means Sabbath, a day of rest, and because God rested after His work of creation, it has come to mean a holy day. But, in addition, it is a day of remembrance of the work that was to be accomplished - man's redemption and salvation - when the Lord comes on earth, that is, when He comes into the natural state where man is no longer in direct or immediate communication and conjunction with the Lord, but is in a life of sin. A study of the worship of the Israelitish Church shows their worship revolved around the number seven, i.e., the seventh day, seven days which is called a week, seventh month, etc., and they are all intervals of times until the coming in the Messiah. Thus, where the number seven occurs it is esteemed holy and sacred. In addition, the time of man's regeneration is distinguished into six prior days to the seventh or until man became celestial as those of the Most Ancient Church had that are called in Genesis 'Adam'.
However, we noted that the Lord has completed that period and He, as the Messiah, came, so that state ended at the Lord's glorification and, so, His work of redemption was finished when He arose or was resurrected into a new day or state. Thus, He became the Divine Human. So, let us, now, look at the number one or the first day of the week of a new week that has begun, the old having ended - the old Church ended and a new Church began. The first thing to see is that the number 'one' is predicated concerning good and perfect, for as we understand God is one, He is good, and perfect. Now, note that the Lord rose up His natural human having glorified it and He became one with the Divine; He became the Divine Human, and, now, from Him proceeds the Holy Spirit, which now leads man into a new spiritual state, that is, into being born again spiritually. It is obvious that the old state of having to wait for the Lord's redemption has ended and a new state has begun. Man does not need to begin again going through evil's temptations, unless, of course, he has not accepted the Lord's redemption and, then, he would have remained in his sin. Now, think not that the Christian Church is still under the same old worship system and needs to observe the same customs of seven days, seven weeks, and etcetera. In other words, the Christian Church does not see the first day as the beginning of another week of seven more days and of having to suffer until the Lord comes. The first day is now seen as the Christian Church's continuation in a new state, having completed the old.
The Christian is still to follow the Ten Commandments as were the Jews, for the Christian, like the Jew, still lives in the natural world and is tempted by evil, but he, now, has the Lord within him as the Holy Spirit in truth, and when he acts accordingly he is conjoined with the Lord's good, and thus, then the Lord dwells within man in a new will and understanding. So, let us examine the spiritual significance of the number ten. We can understand that ten has reference to many things - to completeness, to many, much, or full, and when we add the fact that it is used in the Word, we come to its connection with truth, thus, by ten commandments, is meant all truths that are commanded that we are to follow. Therefore, as long as one does not accept the Lord's redemption, he of necessity must try to live according to the commandments naturally or to their literal sense, which is, as if, the Lord has not come in power to redeem and save him. In other words, such a person is still waiting for his redemption and he does not see the Lord as the God of Heaven and earth, but as another God and is still waiting for His return to this world in order to set up His kingdom here on earth.
By all truths is signified not only all natural truths, but both celestial and spiritual truths as well. Any Christian can read that by being born again as Jesus has said, means a spiritual regeneration, for the Lord has said there is a natural birth and a spiritual birth and goes on explaining about understanding spiritual things or truths. Thus, man's regeneration is a spiritual regeneration. Therefore, to the spiritual man or the spiritual angel, numbers in the Word mean spiritually something other than its natural sense, such as seven literal days or ten literal commandments, but Holy and sacred states and complete and perfect truths and goods, and thus are they doctrine and life to and with man.
End.
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