Program 58: Jews & the Sabbath

Jewish scholars know that Saturday is not the Biblical Sabbath. They admit it!

Welcome to WLC Radio, a subsidiary of World’s Last Chance Ministries, an online ministry dedicated to learning how to live in constant readiness for the Savior's return.

For two thousand years, believers of every generation have longed to be the last generation. Contrary to popular belief, though, Christ did not give believers “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, he repeatedly warned that his coming would take even the faithful by surprise. Yahushua urgently warned believers to be ready because, he said, “The Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” [Matthew 24:44]

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.

Part 1: (Miles & Dave)

Miles Robey: Hello! Greetings and welcome to WLC Radio. I’m your host, Miles Robey.

Dave Wright: And I’m Dave Wright. Thanks for joining us today!

Miles: Have you ever made an assumption, Dave?

Dave: Uh, well, I’m sure I have. You put me on the spot, though, and I can’t think of any occasion in particular.

Miles: Well, think about it, because I’ll be asking you again.

If you’ve joined us before, you know that on WLC we use the personal name of the heavenly Father, which is Yahuwah, or Yah. The Son’s name is Yahushua. You may also hear us use “Eloah” which is a Hebrew title for Yahuwah.

So. Dave. Have you thought of an assumption you’ve ever made?

Dave: Not in that amount of time, no. Well, wait. I do remember an assumption someone else made. I read it just the other day. It’s stayed with me because I found it so funny.

Miles: What was that?

Dave: In 1903, the president of the Michigan Savings Bank told Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., explaining, “The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty—a fad.”

Miles: Seriously? And now, they have plants in over 20 countries and produce more than 156 billion U.S. dollars in revenue every year.

Dave: I know! It’s crazy. I’ve wondered if the lawyer listened or invested anyway. There’s another assumption I’ve also found funny.

Apparently, back in 1921, a man by the name of David Sarnoff was encouraging his associates to invest in this new little invention called … radio!

Miles: And did they?

Dave: No! They refused, saying—and I quote: “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?”

Miles laughs: Weeell, I suppose when it’s phrased like that … But you can see how his associates were making an assumption, can’t you? Based on the information they had, they didn’t see radio going anywhere.

Dave: They didn’t understand how it could be profitable.

Miles: Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about assumptions lately. Recently, we had a program about the Biblical Sabbath – that it is not Saturday of the solar, Catholic calendar that has become the default calendar of the world. And that Sunday is not the actual day of the resurrection.

Dave: It’s what millions of Christians have assumed, though. The problem with assumptions based on ignorance or incorrect information, is that our actions are shaped by our beliefs. But if our beliefs are based on faulty assumptions, we’re going to get off. And that’s been the problem with the Gregorian calendar. It has a continuous weekly cycle, and because there was no disruption of the weekly cycle when the Julian calendar transitioned to the Gregorian, people just assume—particularly in the West—that the modern week has just always been. But it hasn’t.

Miles: I see a number of assumptions going on. People go to church on Sunday, because it’s the first day of the modern week. And, because we know Christ was resurrected on the first day of the week, we assume He was resurrected on Sunday.

The biggest assumption I see, though, is that Saturday just “has” to be the Biblical Sabbath for no other reason than that is when the Jews worship. Sure, it’s the seventh day of the Gregorian week, but most people assume it’s the Biblical Sabbath because that’s when Jews go to synagogue. It’s assumed that the Jews wouldn’t worship on any day but the true Sabbath, so … well, you can see how the assumptions grow from there.

Dave: They just start pilling on top of each other, and new assumptions sprout from there.

Miles: On our earlier program, you said that Jewish scholars know that Saturday is not, actually, the true, Biblical Sabbath. Could you address that today? What evidence do you have that Jews know Saturday is not actually the Sabbath.

Dave: I can’t speak for the average Jew. I know that within Christendom, it frequently occurs that the average churchgoer is ignorant of truths that challenge church dogma and which the church leaders will actually cover up. So, it’s possible this happens within Judaism as well.

However, yes. Jewish scholars know the truth.

Miles: So, what you’re saying is that regardless of what the average Jew believes or practices, Jewish scholars have never truly “lost” the Sabbath.

Dave: Correct. But they did deliberately and knowingly change the calendar by which the Sabbath was calculated. And it happened so long ago, frankly it’s perfectly possible that many Jews themselves are unaware of everything that was affected by this change of calendars.

Miles: I suppose that would be true of Saturday sabbatarians as well. Your average church member isn’t going to be aware that Saturday is anything other than the Biblical Sabbath.

Dave: Seventh-day Adventists are a good example of this. They’re one of the largest, if not the largest, Protestant, Saturday Sabbath observant denomination. They’ve understood that the Roman Catholics have claimed their sign of authority is changing the day of worship from the Sabbath to Sunday.

In fact, let me pull up a couple of quotes here …

Okay. Read this. It’s from it was published in an issue of Sydney, Australia’s Catholic Press, August of 1900.

Miles: All right, it says: “Sunday is a Catholic institution and its claim to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles…From beginning to end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.”

Dave: Now read the one after it.

Miles: This one is from a talk given by a Father Brady, as quoted in The News of Elizabeth, New Jersey. It says: “It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the

Catholic Church.”

Wow. That’s just laying it right out there, isn’t it? Sunday is not Biblical, but an “institution of the Roman Catholic Church.”

Dave: Catholics aren’t hiding anything. Why should they cover it up? To them, this is the “sign of their authority”!

Miles: Here’s another one. It’s from The Catholic Universe Bulletin, published August 14, 1942. It says: “The [Roman Catholic] Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by right of the divine, infallible authority given to her by her founder, Jesus Christ. The Protestant claiming the Bible to be the only guide of faith, has no warrant for observing Sunday.”

So, tell me this: do Catholic scholars know Saturday isn’t the Sabbath?

Dave: I think it depends on the person. Those who have studied the most do. One Catholic scholar who knows the truth is Patrick Madrid. He’s a well-known Catholic scholar and apologist, as well as an author and radio host.

On January 5, of 2006, he was hosting a call-in radio show called Open Line. This was on EWTN, Global Catholic Radio Network.

Anyway, apparently someone called in asking about this very thing. He’d been told by a Seventh-day Adventist that the Catholic church had changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday and wanted to hear what Madrid would say.

Miles: From Saturday to Sunday.

Dave: That’s what this person had been told, yes. But in listening to Madrid’s comments—and I have the audio on my computer—Madrid actually corrects that assumption, explaining that the change made by the Catholic Church was actually one of calendation.

This shows Madrid knows that Saturday is not the Bible Sabbath, which, of course, means that Sunday is not the day of the resurrection, either.

I’ve transcribed his comments because I think they’re very revealing. Would you read them for us please?

Miles: This is Patrick Madrid speaking.

Dave: Right. This was his answer.

Miles: Uh, okay. Quote:

Well, what we have to remember is, first of all what Jesus said: He said don't forget that man was not made for the Sabbath; the Sabbath was made for man. And, the Lord Himself, we're told, was the Lord of the Sabbath, so He had the authority, in areas as far as how we would observe that commandment.

What your brother-in-law may not understand is that the Catholic Church did not change that commandment. The Catholic Church observes the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath, but it does so on the Lord's Day, and the earliest Christians transferred their observance of that commandment from Saturday to Sunday.

First of all, because there was a distinct break between the Old Testament requirements: the rituals and Mosaic covenant demands dealing with the Sabbath worship and animal sacrifices, and that sort of thing. And they wanted to show that Christianity was distinct from Judaism. It came from Judaism, but it was distinct from it. Uh, celebrating the Lord's coming, I'm sorry, celebrating the Lord's resurrection and death on the day that He rose from the dead seemed to be the most appropriate.

The other thing that we should remember, too, is that our calendar that we follow, including Seventh-day Adventists, is not only a calendar that was devised by the Catholic Church, but also it is a calendar that's based upon the solar year, not the lunar year. And the Jewish calendar that was observed in the time of Christ … follows a lunar calendar, which is several days short of the solar calendar.

So the great irony is that even the Seventh-day Adventists themselves are not worshiping on exactly the same Sabbath day as the Jews of the time of Christ, because it's several days off now, having switched from following the lunar calendar.

Unquote. Wow! He admitted all of this?

Dave: Absolutely! See, the scholars know more than the average lay person. They know the truth, even if they cover it up when it contradicts their dogma.

But Madrid is not being a hypocrite here. He’s being honest. He believes that the act of changing worship to Sunday is the Catholic Church’s sign of authority. Why shouldn’t he admit it?

Miles: Yeah, I guess that’s true. So when did it happen?

Dave: As early as the second century, you find some Christians honoring Sunday. We don’t have time to get into all the quotes because I want to focus on the writings of the Jews themselves, but they’re there. Maybe we can cover that in a future program.

However, it was at the Council of Nicea in the fourth century that the pagan Julian calendar was formally instituted as the calendar to use for religious observances.

The Council of Nicea is significant in the history of Judaism as well because it was after this that intense persecution fell on all who wanted to cling to Biblical time-keeping.

Heinrich Graetz was a German Jew. He was one of the first historians to write a comprehensive history of the Jews.

Miles: I’ve heard of it! It’s many volumes in length.

Dave: Some of his theories about Torah tradition were off, but he clearly understood the significance of what happened at the Council of Nicea. I’d like you to read this quote taken from Vol. 2 of his History of the Jews, it’s taken from page 563.

Miles: “At the Council of [Nicea] the last thread was snapped which connected Christianity with its parent stock. The festival of Easter had up till now been celebrated for the most part at the same time as the Jewish Passover, and indeed upon the days calculated and fixed by the Synhedrion in Judea for its celebration; but in future its observance was to be rendered altogether independent of the Jewish calendar.”

Dave: Constantine the Great, the emperor who’d assembled the council to further his personal political agenda, decreed the course the Christians were to take. He wanted them to fully separate themselves from their spiritual heritage grounded in Judaism. He was the one who declared that no future religious observances were to be calculated by the Jewish calendar.

Graetz, on that same page, quoted Constantine’s reasoning. Read what it says.

Miles: “For it is unbecoming beyond measure that on this the holiest of festivals [Easter] we should follow the customs of the Jews. Henceforward let us have nothing in common with this odious people; our Savior has shown us another path. It would indeed be absurd if the Jews were able to boast that we are not in a position to celebrate the Passover without the aid of their rules ([or calendar] calculations).” Unquote.

Constantine said this?

Dave: Pretty bad, huh? His declaration had really far-reaching, and honestly catastrophic effects on the ancient method of time-keeping.

Constantius, Constantine’s son, went still further. Constantine had outlawed the use of the Jewish calendar for Christian observances. Constantius forbade the use of it by the Jews, too.

Here. Read this quote. It’s from the Jewish Encyclopedia, an article on the calendar.

Miles: “Under the reign of Constantius the persecutions of the Jews reached such a height that . . . the computation of the calendar [was] forbidden under pain of severe punishment.”

Dave: We can’t overlook the significance of this act. Under intense persecution, the Jews themselves modified their calculation of time.

Miles: How? And who?

Dave: Patriarch Hillel II was the last president of the Sanhedrin. He did make public the rules of calendation the Sanhedrin had used for calculating the luni-solar calendar. This ultimately led to the acceptance of Saturday as the Sabbath.

Here, read Graetz’s explanation of what happened.

Miles:

The miserable condition of Judea was the occasion of an act of self-renunciation on the part of the Patriarch Hillel, which has not yet been thoroughly appreciated. The custom had prevailed up till now of keeping secret the computation of the new moon and the leap year, and of making known the times of the festivals to the communities in the neighboring lands by announcing them by messengers.

During the persecutions under Constantius this method had proved itself to be impracticable and useless. Whenever the Synhedrion was prevented from fixing the date of the leap year, the Jewish communities in distant countries were left in utter doubt concerning the most important religious decisions. In order to put a stop to all difficulty and uncertainty, Hillel II introduced a final and fixed calendar . . . With his own hand the Patriarch destroyed the last bond which united the communities dispersed throughout the Roman and Persian empires with the Patriarchate.

Dave: Notice: it was the Jewish Patriarch himself that “introduced a final and fixed calendar” which “destroyed” the last link uniting the dispersed Jewish communities.

Miles: I’d think the fact that this change occurred over 1,600 years ago explains why people assume that Saturday is the true Sabbath simply because the Jews worship on it.

Dave: I’m sure it does. Time has a way of obscuring facts. Jewish scholars, however, remain well aware that this was a complete change of calendar. On Torah.org, there is an article entitled “The Jewish Calendar: Changing the Calendar.” It says, quote:

“Declaring the new month by observation of the new moon, and the new year by the arrival of spring, can only be done by the Sanhedrin. In the time of Hillel II, . . . the Romans prohibited this practice. Hillel II was therefore forced to institute his fixed calendar, thus in effect giving the Sanhedrin's advance approval to the calendars of all future years.”

Miles: Huh! They really do know the truth, don’t they?

Dave: They do!

Miles: All right. We’re going to take a quick break. When we come back, I’d like to hear some more quotes from the Jews themselves showing their knowledge of this.

* * *

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* * *Part 2: (Miles & Dave)

Dave: It cannot be emphasized enough: Jewish scholars are fully aware that the calendar they now use is different than the one established by Yahuwah. Not only is Saturday not the Sabbath of the Bible but they know it is not.

Furthermore, Jewish scholars know it was specifically a calendar change that changed the Sabbath.

Miles: Could you share with us some statements from Jewish scholars about that?

Dave: Sure! Dr. Louis Finkelstein was a well-known, well-respected Jewish scholar. He was on the faculty at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America where he was an instructor in the Talmud, as well as a professor of theology. He later became provost, president, chancellor, and chancellor emeritus. He authored or edited over 100 books in his lifetime.

Miles: Clearly, the guy knew his stuff.

Dave: He really did. In a letter dated February 20, 1939, Finkelstein admitted, “The Jewish calendar was fixed in the fourth century.”

Graetz also linked the change of calendar to the fourth century, explaining, quote: “Even the computation of the calendar and trade in articles of religious use were forbidden” in the fourth century.

Miles: I know a lot of people just assume that because our modern week has seven days, it must come from the seven-day Hebrew week.

Dave: Impossible. The biggest difference between our modern calendar and the Biblical calendar is found in the weekly cycle. The modern calendar has a continuous weekly cycle. The biblical calendar restarted each new moon.

Each month started with the new moon. That was the first of each month. The second of each month, was always the first day of the week. Always.

The weekly cycle itself restarted with each new moon. Therefore, the seventh-day Sabbath was not part of a continuous weekly cycle as is the modern Saturday. The Jews know this!

Here – read this quote. It’s taken from an early edition of the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia from an article entitled “Holidays.”

Miles: It says, quote: “The New Moon is still, and the Sabbath originally was, dependent upon the lunar cycle . . . Originally, the New Moon was celebrated in the same way as the Sabbath; gradually it became less important while the Sabbath became more and more a day of religion and humanity, of religious meditation and instruction, of peace and delight of the soul.”

That just lays it right out there! “The Sabbath originally was dependent upon the lunar cycle.” Wow.

Dave: The Jews still use a luni-solar method of time measurement for their annual feasts, but their weekly Sabbaths no longer have any connection to the moon.

Miles: That would explain why Passover changes dates from year to year.

Dave: Exactly.

Miles: Well, couldn’t the yearly festivals be linked to the moon, but the weekly Sabbath be separate?

Dave: That’s what Saturday-sabbatarian Protestants have assumed, but Jewish scholars claim otherwise. They are clear that the weekly Sabbath originally was linked to the moon. Keep reading from that Universal Jewish Encyclopedia quote. What does it say next?

Miles: “With the development of the importance of the Sabbath as a day of consecration and the emphasis laid upon the significant number seven, the week became more and more divorced from its lunar connection . . . .”⁹

Dave: There you go. Jewish scholars speculate on differing times when the Sabbath shifted away from the lunar link to a continuous weekly cycle. It is possible that the change occurred when Hillel II “fixed” the calendar.

Miles: Why do you say that?

Dave: When he “fixed” the calendar, he had to introduce “rules of postponement.” Rules of postponement aren’t necessary when you’re calculating your yearly feasts and your weekly Sabbath celebrations on a luni-solar calendar. They’re only necessary when the annual festivals are calculated by a luni-solar calendar, while the seventh-day Sabbath is calculated by a different, solar calendar.

Miles: Okay, now I’ve got a question for you: if the Sabbath were off at the time of Christ, wouldn’t He have corrected it?

Dave: Absolutely! Which tells us that the calendar being used by the Israelites in the first century was still the luni-solar calendar. You see, at that time, the high priest was in charge of the calendar. He was the one to declare when a new moon started.

What is significant is that the high priest always came from the Sadducee class, not the Pharisee.

Miles: What did the Sadducees believe? I know Yahushua rejected the Pharisees’ “oral law” as nothing more than man-made tradition. What was unique about the Sadducees?

Dave: The Sadducees beliefs weren’t entirely without error, but they also rejected the Pharisees’ “traditions of the elders.” The Sadducees maintained the Torah, the books of Moses, were the sole source of divine authority.

Miles: So that would make the Sadducees beliefs actually closer to the truth.

Dave: Right. And they were the ones in charge of the calendar! At least, they were up until the destruction of Jerusalem, after which they pretty much died out.

Read this quote from Vol. 9 of the The Jewish Encyclopedia, that explains what happened to the Sadducees. It’s found on page 666.

Miles chuckles: Page “666”? That’s funny. Okay. Quote:

With the destruction of the Temple (70 A.D.) the Sadducees disappeared altogether, leaving the regulation of all Jewish affairs in the hands of the Pharisees. Henceforth, Jewish life was regulated by the Pharisees; the whole history of Judaism was reconstructed from the Pharisaic point of view, and a new aspect was given to the Sanhedrin of the past. A new chain of tradition supplanted the older priestly tradition … Pharisaism shaped the character of Judaism and the life and thought of the Jew for all the future.

Dave: This is the same Pharisaism of which Yahushua spoke in Matthew 23:15 when He said: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.”

Miles: And they were the ones left in control!

Dave: And … they are the ones whose traditions influence Saturday-sabbatarians to this day!

The oral traditions of the Pharisees, recorded in the Talmud and denounced by Christ, became Rabbinic Judaism.

Miles: So you’re claiming the calendar used by Jews today has been corrupted by man-made traditions of the Pharisees.

Dave: I don’t need to claim it; the Jews claim it! Louis Finkelstein who we talked about earlier?

Miles: Yeah?

Dave: He wrote, quote:

Pharasaism became Talmudism … [But] the spirit of the ancient Pharisee survives unaltered. When the Jew … studies the Talmud, he is actually repeating the arguments used in the Palestinian academies. . . . The spirit of the [Pharisees'] doctrine has remained quick and vital. . . . From Palestine to Babylonia; from Babylonia to North Africa, Italy, Spain, France and Germany; from these to Poland, Russia, and Eastern Europe generally, ancient Pharasaism has wandered.

Miles: Sounds like he’s boasting.

Dave: Sure! He was a Talmudic rabbi.

Talmudic tradition teaches that if you loose track of when the Sabbath occurs, all you have to do is worship on every seventh day. This is the rationale used to justify keeping Saturday as the seventh-day Sabbath. They’ve deliberately “lost track” of when it comes calculated off the new moon.

Miles: Where does it say you can do that?

Dave: Chapter 7 of Tractate Shabbat states, quote: “One who has been travelling in a desert and does not know what day is Sabbath, must count six days from the day (on which he realizes) that he has missed the Sabbath, and observe the seventh.” Unquote.

You can read it for yourself on JewishVirtualLibrary.org!

Miles: Amazing. And these are nothing but the traditions of the Pharisees that Yahushua was always denouncing!

Dave: Exactly. That’s what the Talmud is. In 1949, Finkelstein published a work entitled: The Jews – Their History, Culture, and Religion. On page 1332 of volume 4, he wrote, quote:

The Talmud derives its authority from the position held by the ancient academies (i.e. Pharisee). The teachers of those academies, both of Babylonia and of Palestine, were considered the rightful successors of the older Sanhedrin. . . . At the present time, the Jewish people have no living central authority comparable in status to the ancient Sanhedrins or the later academies. Therefore, any decision regarding the Jewish religion must be based on the Talmud as the final resume of the teaching of those [Pharisee] authorities when they existed.^”

Miles: That’s an incredible statement. Finkelstein is basically saying that the Talmud is from the traditions of the Pharisees. The same Pharisees Yahushua said were like whited sepulchers.

I’ve got it here: Matthew 23:27: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.”

Dave: Sincere Christians today are often drawn to the “white-washed” beauty of Judaism. They want to do what is right, so they assume that they can get light from the Jews. But they can’t!

Miles: No. The Jews rejected Yahuwah back when they demanded Samuel anoint a king over them. Then, with the martyrdom of Stephen, they ceased to be Yah’s special people. You’re not going to get any new light from them.

Dave: The argument that believers should worship on Saturday because the Jews do is based on the assumption that the Jews would never worship on anything but the true Sabbath. But clearly, they did indeed change the Sabbath when they changed the calendar by which the Sabbath was calculated.

Miles: I think it’s important to remember in all of this that the Sabbath is not a man-made institution. It was established by Yah!

Dave: And as such, no earthly authority, be it pope, pastor, or rabbi, has the right to establish a different day of worship or a different method of calculating when it occurs. Yah said the Sabbath was to be a perpetual sign between Himself and those loyal to Him.

Would you read it? It’s in Exodus 31, verses 13 to 14.

Miles: “Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am Yahuwah that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you.”

Dave: If you want to honor your Creator and Redeemer, you’ll obey Him and worship Him on His Sabbath. You’re not going to look to the traditions of the Pharisees, or use the calendar of the Catholics. Instead, you’ll worship Him on His holy Sabbath, calculated by the luni-solar calendar He established at Creation.

Miles: Incredible! We have been so blind. So trusting that the Jews knew what they were doing. And all the time the Jews that the Saturday sabbatarians have been panting after were nothing but the Pharisees!

Don’t go away folks. When we return, we’ll be answering your questions sent in to our Daily Mailbag. Stay tuned.

* * *

Mid-point call letters

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WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.

* * *Daily Mailbag (Miles & Dave)

Miles: Time for our daily mailbag. We’ve got a question from Yusar Gondo in Jakarta, Indonesia. He writes: “I have a problem that I have been praying about for some time without any answers. Why does Yahuwah not seem to be answering my prayer?”

Dave: Hm. That’s a great question. It’s one I think all of us can relate to, at some point or another.

Miles: I know I can!

Dave: Let’s start by reading from Matthew 7 to see what the Saviour had to say about prayer.

Miles: Which verses?

Dave: Uh … start at 7 and read through verse 11.

Miles: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”

Dave: I want to start with this verse because, clearly, Yahuwah is willing to answer our prayers. Yahushua always encouraged the disciples to pray. So, if your prayers do not seem to be answered, don’t give up! Keep praying.

Miles: All right. But why does it sometimes feel like our prayers, well … kind of ricochet off the ceiling and bounce back down to us?

Dave: There are several reasons why it either feels like our prayers aren’t being answered or, indeed are not being answered. The first is that we do not always pray according to Yah’s will.

Turn over to 1 John, chapter 5.

See, we don’t have the Father’s foresight! We don’t have His wisdom. Sometimes we ask for things that He knows are not in our best interests. When we ask for things that He knows would harm us, spiritually or in any other way, it is because He loves us that the prayer goes unanswered.

OK. Got it?

Miles: Yep. 1 John 5.

Dave: All right, read verses 14 and 15.

Miles: “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”

That’s a beautiful promise.

Dave: It is, but the caveat is that we must ask according to His will.

Now, turn back a couple of chapters to 1 John, chapter 3. Another reason our prayers go unanswered is there may be sin in our lives. It’s amazing how many Christians see Yah as some big genie in the sky. If we have known sin in our lives—I’m not talking about sin we’re repenting from and seeking Yah’s help to overcome. I’m talking about something we know is wrong but we do anyway. That will impact our prayer life.

Read verses 21 and 22 of 1 John 3.

Miles: “Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward Yah. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.”

Dave: We cannot engage in willful sin, and expect to receive answers from Yah. And I’m not saying Yusar is doing this, but it’s amazing how many Christians do! Galatians 6, verse 7 says: “Yah is not mocked; for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.”

David, too, knew that his prayers wouldn’t be answered if he were clinging to known sin. Read Psalm 66 verse 18 to see what David had to say.

Miles: “If I regard iniquity in my heart, Yahuwah will not hear.”

Hm. That’s pretty clear!

Dave: Another thing that may be going on is that Yahuwah may indeed answer our prayers exactly as we’ve asked, but the timing of the answer may be different than we expect. He might even deliberately delay to answer because He knows we need to learn patience and perseverance in prayer. In this, as in every other area, we can trust that He’s working everything out for the best possible outcome.

Miles: It really does get down to trust, doesn’t it? As a young child doesn’t always understand why Mummy or Daddy say no to something, we aren’t going to always understand why our Heavenly Father says no, but we can trust that He’s got our best interests at heart.

Dave: Exactly. And don’t forget that Yahuwah may have already answered our prayer, but in a way we weren’t expecting or don’t recognize. That happens, too. Yah sees the big picture that we, from our limited perspective, can’t see. Earlier you read where Yahushua said that if a son asks his father for bread, will he give the boy a stone?

Well, asking for and expecting to receive something we assume would bless us, only for it to be a curse, would be giving a stone instead of a piece of bread. We need to trust that the Father knows best.

Miles: You know, in a sense, we can actually take encouragement from the fact that Yah doesn’t always answer our prayers exactly as we wish, when we want. It really does show that He’s in control. He’s not some big genie in the sky. He is sovereign and does have the power to override our expectations if He knows what we want would harm us.

Dave: That’s a good way of looking at it.

Okay, two more points: first, we need to remember to always pray in Yahushua’s name. This is important. Read John 14, 13 to 14, would you please?

Miles: It says, quote: “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.”

Dave: A lot of people think they’re praying in Yahushua’s name when all they do is tack on a mindlessly rote, “In Jesus’ name, amen!” to the end of their prayers. This is an incredibly shallow way to interpret praying in Yahushua’s name.

Miles: Well, it’s even an affront to Yah’s holiness, wouldn’t you say? How can we think that simply adding “In Yahushua’s name” to the end of our prayer will work as some magical incantation that forces Yah to give us what we want? I mean, that’s insulting not only to His holiness, but His might, power, and even His love. As you said before, He’s not going to give us what He knows will actually harm us.

Dave: To truly pray in Yahushua’s name means that we are praying for His will to be done, and for Him to receive the glory. We can’t live as we want then think we’ll get answers to our prayers just by tacking on three little words. That’s witchcraft, not a genuine prayer life!

The last point we should keep in mind is that, even godly people in the Bible did not always get their prayers answered when and how they wanted. You’ve got Abraham, still childless after many decades of married life.

Miles: You’ve got Yahushua in Gethsemane, asking that the cup pass from Him.

Dave: If it were His Father’s will. That’s so important to always add in there: “Not my will, but thine be done.”

I’m thinking in particular of Paul, though. We don’t know what was troubling him, but something was. He repeatedly prayed but received an answer of “No!”

Let’s read about it: 2 Corinthians 12, verses 8 to 10.

Miles: “Concerning this thing I pleaded with Yahuwah three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Dave: What a beautiful statement of faith! And that should be our attitude as well. Whether we see our prayers being answered in the way we expect or not, we can take comfort in the fact that Yah is in control.

I want to close on a promise, so would you turn over to Romans 8 and read verses 26 to 28 for us? This is really beautiful because it tells us that Yah is so eager to bless us and answer our prayers, His own spirit works with us in helping us to pray effectively.

You have it? Go ahead.

Miles: “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of Yah. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love Yah, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”

Dave: Ask, and keep asking; knock, and keep knocking. Pray always that His will be done. Yahuwah wants to answer your prayers, so keep trusting in Him even when it appears as though your prayers aren’t being heard.

Miles: I wish we had time for one more, but we’re out of time. Keep sending us your questions and comments. We really enjoy receiving them. Go to WorldsLastChance.com and click on Contact Us. Every message is read and we’ll do our best to answer.

* * *Daily Promise

Hello! This is Elise O’Brien with your Daily Promise from Yah’s Word.

Frances Ridley Havergal was a British religious poet and hymn writer. One of her best-known hymns begins with the words:

Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days;
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

This beautiful hymn of full consecration ends with the words:

Take my love; my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure-store.
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee.

This humble, committed follower of Yah died of peritonitis when she was only 43. Over sixty years before antibiotics became widely available, it was a painful way to die. But Frances’s faith in her loving Heavenly Father never wavered.

As she lay dying, she asked a friend who was standing by her bed to read from the forty-second chapter of Isaiah. The friend began reading: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth …”

Frances was comforted as she listened to this beautiful passage. Then her friend read verse six, which states: “I Yahuwah have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee ….”

Frances faith grasped the promise. Stopping her friend from reading any further, and in a weak voice, barely above a whisper, she said: “Called. Held by His hand. Kept. I can go home on that!”

And with those words of faith, she fell asleep in Yahushua, to wait for the resurrection morning.

None of us have ever had to experience death. Now, we may have come close, either in our own experience or through the death of someone dear to us. But in that hour of extremity, the promises of Yah are all you have left!

If you have made it a habit to learn and trust the promises of Yah now, it won’t matter what the future holds. You’ll be safe in the Father’s loving care.

Proverbs chapter three, verses twenty-five and twenty-six state: “Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For Yahuwah shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.”

All of Yahuwah’s biddings are enablings. So, when He says “Be not afraid” He is, with those very words, enabling you to be fearless.

We’ve been given great and precious promises. Go, and start claiming!

* * *Part 3: (Miles & Dave)

Miles: I have to say, Dave, the information you’ve shared with us today is quite staggering. I grew up on the Bible stories! I held this certain, well, disdain to be honest, for the Pharisees. I mean, they just epitomize hypocrisy and a “holier-than-thou” attitude, you know?

Dave: I do know! I was the same way. Didn’t know much about the Sadducees, but what I knew of the Pharisees was that they were the ones who were constantly persecuting the Saviour and their self-righteousness was a symbol of everything I knew I didn’t want to be.

Miles: What a shock, in the words of Rabbi Finkelstein himself, to discover that the “spirit of the Pharisees” survives to this day and it is to them that so many sincere sabbatarians are turning in the hopes of finding new light!

Dave: This is a very important topic.

I don’t care if it’s going to the mosque on “Friday” for prayers, or Saturday, or Sunday. They’re all false worship days. And as sincere as the believers may be—and many of them are—it dishonors Yahuwah to try to worship Him on a counterfeit day of worship.

Miles: That’s very true.

Dave: It’s centered around who has our loyalty. How can any of us expect to enjoy pure holiness if we can’t even honor a simple request like remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy?

Miles: The verbal gymnastics to try and explain away that obligation are amazing, aren’t they?

Dave: Satan has really triumphed in this matter. I’d like you to read Revelation 18, verses 2 to 5. Would you read it from the Geneva Bible? This was the translation preferred by the Protestant reformers.

Miles: “And he cried out mightily with a loud voice, saying, It is fallen, it is fallen, Babylon that great city, and is become the habitation of devils … For all nations have drunken of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her …”

“And I heard another voice from heaven say, Go out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues:

For her sins are come up into heaven, and Yah hath remembered her iniquities.”

Dave: Every church has some truth. Unfortunately, every church has clung to papal errors and traditions. This is why Yahuwah is calling on every single believer today, to “follow the Lamb withsoever he goeth” and where the Lamb is leading, is straight out of Babylon.

Miles: If this is the first time you’ve heard about the lunar Sabbath, we realize this is a lot to lay on you. We don’t expect you to take our word for it, but we do ask you: Please. Please study this out for yourself.

We’ve talked about the Biblical Sabbath on a previous show—if you missed it, you can listen to it on our website. We also have lots of articles and videos, both on our website and on YouTube, where you can learn more about this subject.

We’re not asking you to take our word for it. But we are asking you to study for yourself.

Join us again tomorrow, and until then, remember: Yahuwah loves you . . . and He is safe to trust!

* * *

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This program and past episodes of WLC Radio are available for downloading on our website. They're great for sharing with friends and for use in Bible studies! They're also an excellent resource for those worshipping Yahuwah alone at home. To listen to previously aired programs, visit our website at WorldsLastChance.com. Click on the WLC Radio icon displayed on our homepage.

In his teachings and parables, the Savior gave no “signs of the times” to watch for. Instead, the thrust of his message was constant … vigilance. Join us again tomorrow for another truth-filled message as we explore various topics focused on the Savior's return and how to live in constant readiness to welcome him warmly when he comes.

WLC Radio: Teaching minds and preparing hearts for Christ's sudden return.