JOHN 10 : 2 But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the porter openeth ; and the sheep hear his voice ; and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. 4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him : for they know his voice.

A shepherd leads his sheep with his voice.

Just as a sheep follows the voice of the shepherd,

Similarly, people follow the voice of their Minister.

They do what he tells them to do.

What have the shepherds done to the sheep ?

JEREMIAH 50 : 6 My people hath been lost sheep : their shepherds have caused them to go astray,

they have turned them away on the mountains:

they have gone from mountain to hill,….

The “shepherds” or Ministers have :

Caused the people to “go astray” or to leave

the “right way” or the truth and to follow false teachings instead of the truth.

Caused the people to go from a “high place”

(mountain) to a “lower place”(hill).

The people have gone from following God’s Word

(high place) to following man’s word(lower place).

They do what their Minister says to do instead of what

God says to do.

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What have the “sheep” forgotten?

JEREMIAH 50

6 My people hath been lost sheep : their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains : they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace.

The “sheep” have forgotten their “restingplace”.

A “restingplace” is something that would provide Physical Rest for Physical sheep and something that would provide Spiritual Rest for Spiritual “sheep” or people.

Let’s see what the Bible says about Spiritual Rest.

HEBREWS 4 : 3 Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

4 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

5 And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest.

9 There remainth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Thus, the Bible says that the restingplace of God is His

7^th day Sabbath and He invites us to enter into His Rest

with Him. Clearly, the “restingplace” of the “sheep” or

God’s people is to be with Him in the Sabbath Rest.

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The Bible verse we have been studying said that the “sheep” or people had forgotten their “restingplace”.

In other words this Bible Parable is predicting that the

7^th day Sabbath Rest of God’s people would be

“forgotten” by them!!! Let’s see if this has happened.

The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20 : 3-17)

(1) 3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me 1 ü ALL MINISTERS ACCEPT

(2) 4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven 2 ü ALL MINISTERS ACCEPT

image, or any likeness of anything that is in

heaven above or that is in the earth beneath,

or that is in the water under the earth.

5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them or

serve them : for I the Lord thy God am a

jealous God…

(3) 7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy 3 ü ALL MINISTERS ACCEPT

God in vain for the Lord will not hold him

guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

(4) 8 Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy 4 MOST MINISTERS

9 Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work DO NOT ACCEPT THE

10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the 7^TH DAY SABBATH

Lord thy God : in it thou shalt not do any

work. Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter,

nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant,

nor thy cattle, that is within thy gates.

11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and

earth, the sea and all that in them is, and

rested the seventh day wherefore the Lord

blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

(5) 12 Honor thy father and thy mother : that thy 5 ü ALL MINISTERS ACCEPT

days may be long upon the land which the

Lord thy God giveth thee.

(6) 13 Thou shalt not kill 6 ü ALL MINISTERS ACCEPT

(7) 14 Thou shalt not commit adultery 7 ü ALL MINISTERS ACCEPT

(8) 15 Thou shalt not steal 8 ü ALL MINISTERS ACCEPT

(9) 16 Thou shalt not bear false witness 9 ü ALL MINISTERS ACCEPT

against thy neighbor

(10) 17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s 10 ü ALL MINISTERS ACCEPT

house, thou shalt not covet thy

neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant

nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor

his ass, nor anything that is thy

neighbor’s

Clearly the “shepherds” or Ministers have rejected the 7^th day Sabbath Rest and as a result the “sheep” or God’s people have forgotten their “restingplace”.

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We have seen that the Bible’s prediction has come true, now let’s see if we can discover what caused the “sheep” or God’s people to forget the 7^th day Sabbath Rest.

We know from our previous study that it was the “shepherds” that caused the “sheep” to go astray and therefore to forget their restingplace. So, we would expect that sometime in the past the “Church” made this change. Lets see if we are right.

THE AMERICAN CATHOLIC QUARTERLY REVIEW

Volume VIII

FROM JANUARY to OCTOBER, 1883

THE OBSERVANCE OF SUNDAY AND CIVIL LAWS

FOR ITS ENFORCEMENT. 139

“The Sunday, as a day of the week set apart for the obligatory public worship of Almighty God ; to be sanctified by a suspension of all servile labor, trade, and worldly avocations and by exercises of devotion, is purely a creation of the Catholic Church.

The day and the regulations have no logical basis except the authority of the Catholic Church.

In the primitive days of fervor and piety all days were so consecrated by exercises of devotion that no special command for the sanctification of the first day is traced.

This became gradually obligatory, although the command was not at first peremptory. The Council of Laodicea, in 364 A.D, defines : “That Christians must not Judaize and refrain from manual labor on Saturday, but work on that day ; and that, preferring the Lord’s day, they must then rest, if this can be done, as becomes Christians”.

The Church thus began by calling her children to sanctify the first day of the week, that on which God the Son rose from the dead, that, on which God the Father began the creation of the world, and God the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles. Constantine lent the power of the state to enforce the regulations of the Church, and the civil law began to enforce the spiritual decrees. He commanded the Lord’s day to be observed by all as a festival and day of rest.

Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the Church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought, logically, to keep Saturday as the Sabbath, with the Jews and Seventh-Day Baptists.”

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Thus, the Catholic Church is clearly responsible for accomplishing the change of the days of worship !

Men and women did not willingly change from the 7^thday to the 1^st day.

They were forced by civil laws of the government, enforcing the decrees of the Catholic Church, to make the change or suffer the penalty of the law !

According to the Catholic Church, “nothing in Scripture requires the change or justifies it”.

Most of the Protestant world has accepted the change of worship days from the 7^th to the 1^st day without having a Biblical basis for the change.

Now we are ready for a final Paraphrase of our Bible text.

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THE LOST SHEEP

THAT HAVE FORGOTTEN

THEIR RESTINGPLACE

JEREMIAH 50

PARAPHRASE :

My people are lost people (sheep) !

Their Pastors and Ministers (Shepherds) have caused them to leave the truth and accept their false teachings (go astray).

They have misled them (turned them away) in the churches.

They have convinced the people to accept their words (hill) instead of God’s Word (mountain).

They have told them to forget the 7^th day Sabbath (forgotten “restingplace”) of the LORD and to “remember” instead the 1^st day SUNDAY !

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