Has anyone heard this one?

[Jacqueline]

I was talking with my aunt who is a Christian yesterday. She said her church teaches that when the anti-christ comes people will be forced to go to church on sundays. She said that Christians are suppose to go to church on saturdays not sundays. Now I've heard alot of things about the end times, but never ever have I heard that people will be forced to actually go to church on sundays. Why would that be? People who goes to church goes to worship God it doesn't matter if you go on saturday or sunday. I don't know may be her church is forgetting that it isn't the day or the building. It's the children of God. We're His church. What do you think?

God Bless You

Jacqueline

[Ovedya]

Sounds to me like your aunt attends a Sabbatarian denomination.

You are right, though. The Bible does not mandate a certain day for worship. However, the Bible does show a clear pattern that the early church met on the first day of the week, which is Sunday.

[Trinity]

Hrrmm... that is trrange... i believe the same thing Is that wrong?

hahahaha Just kidding... that sounds weird... That is not biblical

[ellie]

Seventh day Adventists believe that the Roman Church (Roman Catholic that is) and the Pope are the beast and antichrist. They believe that all true believers will be sealed with God's seal (which they believe to be the seventh day sabbath, Saturday) and that the Catholic church will force them to worship on Sunday instead of Saturday. I know some Adventists and though these people truly seem to love and serve Jesus, their doctrines are false. Enough said. God bless, ellie

[Guest OnlyJC4Me]

I've heard of the Saturday worship day as well in relation to the Seventh Day Adventists. The idea that the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope are the beast and the anti-Christ isn't limited to that denomination though. There are many people from several different denominations that hold to that. I've read the arguments on either side of that and both are very compelling, but neither seem accurate in whole. To label all SDA's and only them as believing that isn't exactly fair. (I'm neither Catholic nor SDA, btw )

In all my study of eschatology I haven't found specifically where the Bible even hints at something as specific as the anti-Christ forcing everyone to worship on Sunday. That seems kind of far-fetched without some significant biblical evidence to back it up. And as for the "true believers" that will be sealed, from everything I can find relating to that, it's referring to the 144,000 jews who are to be sealed during the Great Tribulation (12,000 each from the twelve tribes). Even that can be easily argued as speculation on my part since I'm not the One who wrote that prophecy.

My pastor once told me something concerning prophecy that really made sense. It's purpose isn't for us to know the exact days, times, or events that are to take place. While it is there to give us a good idea of what to expect prior to Christ returning, prophecy's true purpose is to give us hope and to increase our faith in the Bible as being the inspired Word of God. For example, from the perspective of the people who were living through the Old Testament times, they read the prophecies and trusted God would follow through on His promises. Then as those prophecies were fulfilled, it gave unequaled hope and inspiration that the God they were following was truly the God He claimed Himself to be. And as more and more prophecies were fulfilled, their hope and faith would increase.

In our current time, all of the prophecies have been fulfilled except the very last ones. We have more proven examples of God being Who He claims He is than anyone in history. We should have more hope and faith in Him than anyone before us was capable of because of that.

I think it's fun to try and put the big picture together because the more I study into His Word, the more I see His face so-to-speak. And to truly do an in-depth study into prophecies means you have to study from the beginning of book 1 to the end of book 66. Even Ruth, the love story, is more than meets the eye. Ruth is a pattern of the story of Redemption. Another example is in Genesis 5. The names listed in the geneology from Adam to Noah, if you read deeply into their original Hebrew meaning, tells in a sentence the plan of Salvation. And if you follow it even further from Adam to Jesus, it's like a love letter to us all. All of this is prophetic in a sense and even better it shows the fingerprint of our loving God and Creator.

All that to say, while I too love to read into the prophetic of our Bible, I wouldn't take any one person's interpretation to heart (including mine). After Christ returns we will all be able to look back on history and see clearly every place we were right and every place we were wrong in our interpretations. Not one jot nor tittle will be done away with, and I really look forward to the day where I can sit down with Jesus, Moses, Noah, and dozens of others and have them clear everything up for me. In the meantime though.... *digs deeper into the Word*

[Guest Thomas I believe]

I was talking with my aunt who is a Christian yesterday. She said her church teaches that when the anti-christ comes people will be forced to go to church on sundays. She said that Christians are suppose to go to church on saturdays not sundays. Now I've heard alot of things about the end times, but never ever have I heard that people will be forced to actually go to church on sundays. Why would that be? People who goes to church goes to worship God it doesn't matter if you go on saturday or sunday. I don't know may be her church is forgetting that it isn't the day or the building. It's the children of God. We're His church. What do you think?

[Trinity]

Good post thomas

[ellie]

I've heard of the Saturday worship day as well in relation to the Seventh Day Adventists.  The idea that the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope are the beast and the anti-Christ isn't limited to that denomination though.  There are many people from several different denominations that hold to that.  I've read the arguments on either side of that and both are very compelling, but neither seem accurate in whole.  To label all SDA's and only them as believing that isn't exactly fair.  (I'm neither Catholic nor SDA, btw  )

In all my study of eschatology I haven't found specifically where the Bible even hints at something as specific as the anti-Christ forcing everyone to worship on Sunday.  That seems kind of far-fetched without some significant biblical evidence to back it up.  And as for the "true believers" that will be sealed, from everything I can find relating to that, it's referring to the 144,000 jews who are to be sealed during the Great Tribulation (12,000 each from the twelve tribes).  Even that can be easily argued as speculation on my part since I'm not the One who wrote that prophecy.

My pastor once told me something concerning prophecy that really made sense.  It's purpose isn't for us to know the exact days, times, or events that are to take place.  While it is there to give us a good idea of what to expect prior to Christ returning, prophecy's true purpose is to give us hope and to increase our faith in the Bible as being the inspired Word of God.  For example, from the perspective of the people who were living through the Old Testament times, they read the prophecies and trusted God would follow through on His promises.  Then as those prophecies were fulfilled, it gave unequaled hope and inspiration that the God they were following was truly the God He claimed Himself to be.  And as more and more prophecies were fulfilled, their hope and faith would increase. 

In our current time, all of the prophecies have been fulfilled except the very last ones.  We have more proven examples of God being Who He claims He is than anyone in history.  We should have more hope and faith in Him than anyone before us was capable of because of that.

I think it's fun to try and put the big picture together because the more I study into His Word, the more I see His face so-to-speak.  And to truly do an in-depth study into prophecies means you have to study from the beginning of book 1 to the end of book 66.  Even Ruth, the love story, is more than meets the eye.  Ruth is a pattern of the story of Redemption.  Another example is in Genesis 5.  The names listed in the geneology from Adam to Noah, if you read deeply into their original Hebrew meaning, tells in a sentence the plan of Salvation.  And if you follow it even further from Adam to Jesus, it's like a love letter to us all.  All of this is prophetic in a sense and even better it shows the fingerprint of our loving God and Creator.

All that to say, while I too love to read into the prophetic of our Bible, I wouldn't take any one person's interpretation to heart (including mine).  After Christ returns we will all be able to look back on history and see clearly every place we were right and every place we were wrong in our interpretations.  Not one jot nor tittle will be done away with, and I really look forward to the day where I can sit down with Jesus, Moses, Noah, and dozens of others and have them clear everything up for me.  In the meantime though.... *digs deeper into the Word*

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I didn't mean to label all SDA's only having that belief, just in my experience these are Seventh day adventist that I knew that believed that one day Sunday laws would be instituted that would force them to worship on Sunday instead of the Sabbath, and they view any one who would do so as accepting the mark of the beast. Blessings, ellie