Seven vital components of true worship (part 2)

Having covered the two prerequisites for true worship which are, to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, let us now look at the other five components of true worship which describes the prescribed manner or the protocol for true worship. 

3.      Sing to the LORD, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.

 When one considers the fact that everything one has and everything one is has been gifted to him/her expressing love and gratitude is a debt that we all owe to Him who gave us all things. We should therefore, learn a vital lesson from the apostle Paul who wrote; “Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other. For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:6-7).

We have been further reminded saying; “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore He says:" When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men" (Ephesians 4:7).

Now the way one expresses his/her gratitude to God for what He has done is through praise and worship as alluded to by the Psalmist David who wrote; “Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples! Sing to Him, sing psalms to Him; Talk of all His wondrous works! Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the LORD!” (1 Chronicles 16:8-9; Psalms 105:1-3).

David further states; “Oh, sing to the LORD a new song! Sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, bless His name; proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens: Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary” (Psalms 96:1-6).

Although one may not know in full details what he/she is required to do, but one should at least have the basic knowledge and understanding of why they are doing whatever it is that they are doing. This is termed knowing the rationale, objective or significance of what it is one is doing, one should avoid doing things simply because of customs and traditions, it is important to know the significance of what one is doing and if possible the origin, especially when it comes to worship since there is one who is vying to be worshiped in the place of God.

So the importance for singing when appearing before the Almighty is to express our gratitude and thanksgiving to Him for His majestic powers, as it is written; “But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. To You, O my Strength, I will sing praises; For God is my defense, My God of mercy” (Psalms 59:16-17).

And despite of His awesome power He is also very merciful and so we express our gratitude and thanksgiving to Him for His tender mercies and faithfulness as we have received the consolation saying; “I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever; With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations” (Psalms 89: 1).

And of course not forgetting His righteousness as demonstrated by David saying; “Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth shall show forth Your praise” (Psalms 51:14-15).

And so, as one can clearly see, singing praises to God especially when having a holy convocation is an offering of praise that should be offered to the Lord as long as we live, as we have been admonished saying; "I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.” “Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD!” Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Psalms 104: 33; 150:6; Hebrews 13:15).

The apostle James in the New Testament encourages us by saying; “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms.” And so, the main reason for living is to worship the Lord; because this is the way by which one expresses his/her gratitude and thanksgiving to God and the means by which the Lord is glorified.

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 To be continued, stay tuned

With brotherly love

Lucius Joseph

Pre-requisite for true worship

1.      Worship the Lord in Spirit

Jesus stated categorically, “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:23-24).

To worship the Father in spirit denotes that the motive, the rationale, the objective for worship must originate from the intent of the heart out of love, out of passion and not out of compulsion, coercion or legalism, just like the analogy Jesus Christ gave concerning committing murder and adultery when He said; “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” And, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:21, 22, 27, 28).

Therefore, worshiping the Lord in spirit is to be fully convinced in one’s mind the rationale for the occasion and out of one’s own passion and volition gives to the Lord the honor and the glory due to His name, but it does not invalidate the practical and literal aspect of worship that of presenting oneself before the Lord at the appointed times.

For the word of the Lord states categorically; “‘the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts. And. “These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times. Therefore, when it comes to worship God in spirit it does not forsake the assembling of ourselves together in holy convocation.

2.      Worship the Lord in truth

 Worship the Lord in truth denotes exactly what it says; truth is ascribed to five things viz.

b.      God’s law

For we have been duly admonished saying; “Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness,

And Your law is truth.” The entirety of Your word is truth, And every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever” (Psalms 119:142,160).

c.       Jesus Christ

Jesus said clearly, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

d.      Holy Spirit

With regards to the Holy Spirit the Lord says; “If you love Me, keep My commandments. and I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:15-17).

e.       God’s word

As alluded to by Jesus Christ in His prayer to the Father who prayed and said; “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth” (John 17:17-19).

f.       The Gospel

As confirmed by the apostle Paul in his defense of the gospel who wrote; “to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour that the truth of the gospel might continue with you. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter before them all, "If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?” (Galatians 2:5, 14).

Therefore, any teaching, customs or practices that are not in compliance with the law, the teachings of Christ, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God’s word and the gospel should not be associated with the life of a believer because, everything that are associated with truth remains the same yesterday, today and forever, For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations. (John 17:17; Hebrews 13:7; Psalms 100:5).

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 Having covered the two prerequisites for true worship which are, to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, let us now look at the other five components of true worship which describes the prescribed manner or the protocol for true worship.

To be continued, stay tuned

With brotherly love

Lucius Joseph

 

Third main reason why true worship is so vitally important

 

1.      Because of man’s limitations and dependencies

  One thing we should try never to forget is that the main reason why man has been given life is to worship God.  First and foremost it is in Christ we all live and move and have our existence. Man has absolutely nothing that he/she can call his own as we have been duly admonished saying; “For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7)

Whatever gifts, talents or abilities we have, they are all given to us by God for to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift for it is by grace we have been saved through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. And so, in the finale analysis all we owe is a debt of love, gratitude and appreciation for what the Lord has done for us and this is manifested and demonstrated in our praise and worship to Him but it must be done in accordance to His ordained plan since there is another being vying for this honor and glory.

We must all come to the realization that man is not an independent creature; one is either a slave of God or righteousness, or a slave of sin or disobedience which originated from the devil. For we have been duly admonished saying; “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness” (Romans 6:15-19).

As this passage of scripture clearly points out our freedom from not being under law does not invalidate obedience to the law, for the scriptures again states; “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31).

And so, although we are not under the penalty of the law which according to the word, is death and death comes as the result of transgressing the law, nevertheless, the law is what teaches us how to live and having been set free from being a slave to sin, we now have become a slave of obedience to righteousness. We are not independent creatures; we are either a slave of disobedience or a slave of obedience.

Again the apostle Paul made this very clear by stating; “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet…Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good” (Romans 7:7, 12).

We should also note carefully what the apostle Paul said to Timothy, he said; “But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust” (1 Timothy 1:8-11).

So why is the law not made for a righteous person? Simply because the righteous person is already living within the confines of the law and therefore, the law has no jurisdiction over them just like a driver who is in compliance with all the traffic regulations, the traffic officer has no power over him as compared to the driver who is not in compliance to all the traffic regulations.

If there is one thing we who profess to be believers should always bear in mind is the admonition which states; “,Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's” (1Corinthians 6:19-20).

Since we are not our own and we are ether a slave of righteousness or a slave of sin and principally, having the adversary vying to be worship just as the Lord is worshiped it is incumbent upon us to serve our master in the way He has ordained and not in accordance to the customs and traditions of men because this will be vain and false worship.

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To be continued, stay tuned

With brotherly love

Lucius Joseph

Second important reason for true worship

 

1.      Because of the adversary

The second reason why true worship is undoubtedly very important and should under no circumstances be overlooked it is because there is an adversary who opposes everything that gives honor and glory to God and he is hard at work trying to redirect all manner of worship to himself, a quest which he has even before the re-creation of this world when he was in Eden the garden of God, when he said in his heart; “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High' (Isaiah 14:13-14).

Even after forfeiting his fame and beauty he never relinquished his quest to be worshiped just as the Almighty is worshiped as we have been duly instructed saying; “You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.” By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones.

“Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings that they might gaze at you." You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading; therefore I brought fire from your midst; it devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you, you have become a horror, and shall be no more forever." (Ezekiel 28:15-19).

 Despite of Satan’s degradation, he has not relinquished his quest to be worshiped just as the Lord is worshiped and therefore, one ought to be very attentive as to what one does in relation to worship because, there is true and false worship, it is therefore imperative that we be sober, be vigilant; because our adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, we are to resist him, steadfast in the faith, any form of worship that has not been ordained by the Lord is vain and useless.

For thus says the Lord; “When you come to appear before Me, Who has required this from your hand, to trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; Incense is an abomination to Me. The New Moons, the Sabbaths, and the calling of assemblies --I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; Even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood." Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil” (Isaiah1:12-16).

The truth of the matter is, God has ordained specific times when people are to appear before Him and worship for this is what the Lord spoke to Moses saying: “The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.” And, 'These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times” Leviticus 23:2,4).

As clearly seen the Lord has ordained specific times for humanity to come and appear before him to worship, anything contrary to that is a lie and all lies originates from the devil as we have been admonished saying; “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it” (John 8:44).

 Satan’s quest to be worshiped is not something that one should take lightly, this is the root cause of the massive divisions that exist in community of believers imagine Satan a creature whom the Lord created taking his very creator up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'you shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve” (Matthew 4:8-10).

Consider this for a moment, if Satan had the audacity to ask the Lord who created him to fall down and worship him how much you think he desires feeble mortal man to worship him? Have you tried typing the name Satan with a small “s” the computer will quickly correct it to a capital “S” or indicate that the spelling is wrong; so much is the quest for Satan to be worshiped just as the Lord is worshiped, hence the reason why we are to be very mindful of what, when and how we worship and so I repeat, any holy convocation that is not in accordance to the times the Lord says; “these are My feasts holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times” is unfortunately not being directed to the Father, but to Satan the devil

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To be continued

with brotherly love

Lucius Joseph

Three important reasons for true worship

 

I perceived that when comes to worship, everyone has an opinion, everyone has a song, everyone has an interpretation, and everyone has an understanding. Thanks be to the word of consolation where Jesus Christ says; “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them."

Despite the fact that the Lord warned His people saying; “When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.'

You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way; for every abomination to the Lord which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods. Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.” They still delight in worshiping God in ways He has not ordained, and neglecting to do things which He requires (Deuteronomy 12: 29-32).

As human beings the most important responsibility we all have is that of worship and it is not any type of worship but true worship and this goes to everything that has breath. Now, there are three important reasons why true worship is so vitally important especially to those of us who profess to be believers in Jesus Christ.

 

1.      Because of His Majesty

 

Because of the Lord’s dignity and power He deserves our worship as we have been admonished saying; “For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the LORD made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before Him; Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary” (Psalms 96: 4-6).

It is again clearly stated that, “Among the gods there is none like You, O Lord; nor are there any works like Your works. All nations whom You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name. For You are great, and do wondrous things; You alone are God” (Psalms 86:8-10).

Therefore, in order to avoid worshiping God in vain or worshiping a false god it is imperative that we obey His instructions regarding worship which is stated as follows; “The feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts.” And again the Lord says; “These are the feasts of the LORD, holy convocations which you shall proclaim at their appointed times” (Leviticus 23:1, 4).

So then, there are definite days which the Lord has appointed for His people to come and appear before Him to worship Him and since there is an adversary whose quest and desire is to be worshiped just as the Lord is worshiped, one has to be mindful of the fact that, if the day or the occasion we come together to worship is not the day or occasion ordained by the Lord we are advertently or inadvertently worshiping a false god.

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To be continued

With brotherly love

Lucius Joseph

When is the beginning of a new day (part four)

 

Let us now look at a few examples from the New Testament to prove whether or not a new day begins either at sunset or at midnight, but before delving into the New Testament let us look at one more example in the Old Testament.

 4. The Manna

 The Lord instructed Moses saying; "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily" (Exodus 16:4-5).

For forty years we are told that the children of Israel gathered this manna on a daily basis, and the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan,”  (Exodus 16:35).

Please note carefully that the collection of the manna was on a daily basis and the duration was only for one day as they were instructed by Moses saying; "Let no one leave any of it till morning." Notwithstanding they did not heed Moses. But some of them left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. So they gathered it every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted” (Exodus 16:19-21).

So then, the duration of the manna was for one day, but at what time the day started! Was it from sunset! Was it from midnight! Or was it from morning? It was from morning, for this is what is written; “And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the LORD your God.' "So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground” (Exodus 16:11-14).

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5.      The crucifixion

.Let us take for example the time Jesus Christ died on the cross. It is clearly stated that; “Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit” (Matthew 27:45-46, 50).

I then beg to ask the question, what time of the day is the sixth to the ninth hour of the day? Is it not from twelve to three O’clock in the afternoon? So how can day begin at either sunset or midnight? Since there are 24 hours in a day and the ninth hour of the day is at 3.00pm, when does a day begin? Is it not at 6 am?

6.      The tomb visit

It is clearly stated that, the ladies who followed Jesus Christ and saw how His body was laid, came to the tomb to anoint Him. For thus it is written; “Now after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb.” And, “Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb (Matthew 28:1, John 20:1).

If while it was still dark and it was dawning towards the first day of the week that the women went to the tomb, what does that signifies! It simply means that, it was not yet the first day of the week, it was dawning towards it. So I beg to ask the question again, how can a new day begin at sunset or midnight?

7.      Pentecost

If on the day of Pentecost the people were accusing the disciples of being drunk men, “But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day” (Acts 2:14-15).

So when is the third hour of the day! Is it not nine O´clock in the morning?  And what does the scripture says of those who get drunk? It says “For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night” (1 Thessalonians 5:7).

So here we have seven  biblical examples that a day does not begin either at sunset or at midnight, we have the creation, the Passover, the manna, the Day of Atonement, the time of Christ/s death, the visit to the tomb and the Feast of Pentecost all proved without any shadow of doubt that a new day begins at sunrise.

These times of ignorance God has overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because both light and darkness represent two diametric kingdoms known as the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, therefore this particular situation is not as trivial as most of us believe, but the big question is, who do you believe?

The only thing I will say is that , if we have the anointing from the holy One we should be able to differentiate the truth from the error because, the anointing which we have received from Him abides in us, and we do not need that anyone teach us; but as the same anointing teaches us concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught us, we will abide in Him" (1John 2:20,27). 

Now for further proof as to what is right or wrong we have been duly admonished saying; "For since the creation of the world His (God's) invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse" (Romans 1:20).

So let us allow the natural phenomenon  and the anointing of the Hoy One to teach us and stop allowing ourselves to be deceived by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting especially by those who have changed times and laws. The choice however is ours to make.

With brotherly love

Lucius Joseph

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When does a new day begin (part three)

 

Now, let us look at some other biblical examples to prove without any shadow of doubt that a new day does not begin either at sunset or at midnight.

2.      The Passover

The instructions that the Lord gave to Moses regarding the Passover was as follows; “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight” (Exodus 12:5-6).

Please note carefully that at twilight when the Passover sheep or goat was killed it was the twilight of the fourteenth day, meaning that, the day light period which preceded the twilight was already the fourteenth day of the month and not the beginning of the fourteenth day. So the Passover lamb was killed at twilight, at the going down of the sun on the fourteenth day of the first month. The Israelites were also instructed saying; “You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire” (Exodus 12:10).

Signifying that the whole night was still part and parcel of the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month of the year, because the Lord further instructed them saying; 'For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD” (Exodus 12:12).

The people were further instructed saying; “And none of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning.” And it came to pass at midnight that the LORD struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of livestock.” (Exodus 12:22, 29).

I therefore beg to ask the question, since all these things happened on the selfsame day, how can a new day begin either at sunset or at midnight?

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3.      The Day of Atonement

The Day of Atonement is another undeniable proof that a new day does not begin either at sunset or at midnight, because this is what the Lord instructed Moses saying; “Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. And you shall do no work on that same day, for it is the Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the LORD your God.”

“For any person who is not afflicted in soul on that same day shall be cut off from his people. And any person who does any work on that same day, that person I will destroy from among his people. You shall do no manner of work; it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath" (Leviticus 23:27-32).

 Please note carefully that, the Day of Atonement is on the tenth day of the seventh month, but one is instructed to begin afflicting their souls (fast); “on the ninth day of the month at evening and from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath.  I therefore beg to ask the question if a new day begins at sunset or at midnight, why the evening before the Day of Atonement which is on the tenth day of the seventh month be considered the evening of the ninth day and not the beginning of the tenth day?

I would like to point out also the phraseology “from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your Sabbath” is applicable only to the Day of Atonement and should not be associated with the other Sabbath days because no such requirements are related to the other Sabbath days. The rationale for beginning the celebration of the Day of Atonement from the evening of the ninth day when the Day of Atonement itself is on the tenth day, it is to avoid the consumption of food and water on the Day of Atonement and so, one has to begin afflicting the soul from the evening before.

To be continued, stay tuned

With brotherly love

Lucius Joseph