Another for Import cars: AutoHaus Arizona I've bought from them, too. I like them, too.
Here's one for tools and accessories: Griots Garage No, I never ordered from them. But I've heard good things.
Here's another with alot of cool stuff: Eastwood Same here, haven't ordered but heard good things.
Sign of God vs. Mark of the beast
Exodus 31:12 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 13 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, 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 the LORD that doth sanctify you. 14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. 16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. 17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.
God also revealed His annual Sabbaths in Leviticus 23
Mark 2:27 And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. The Sabbath was made for man, not "the jews".
Genesis 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
Exodus 16:26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, there will be none." 27 Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. 28 And the Lord said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? 29 See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." The Sabbath is a TEST commandment. It was revealed and enforced before the ten commandments were revealed at Sinai.
Exodus 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. REMEMBER the Sabbath, to KEEP it holy. The Sabbath has been in effect since Genesis 2:2 at the re-creation of the earth.
Long story short:
The tribe of Judah and many Levites and Simeonites continued to keep the Sabbaths. The other 10 tribes did not and became "lost", they forgot who they were and to this day are unaware. (The tribe of Joseph counts as two tribes, Ephraim and Mannassah. 13 total counted that way.) See "Europe and America in Prophecy" at GarnerTedArmstrong.ws. The link is on the main page.
Now, let's look into sunday keeping or the Lords day as it is often called. Christians keep Sunday, Jews keep the Sabbath...Why? To find out let's take a look at the Catholic Encyclopedia. What better souce than the original. (as apposed to the protestent churches, which came out of the catholic church and continue the practice)
Under Sunday it says:
Sunday (Day of the Sun), as the name of the first day of the week, is derived from Egyptian astrology. The seven planets, known to us as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon, each had an hour of the day assigned to them, and the planet which was regent during the first hour of any day of the week gave its name to that day (see CALENDAR). During the first and second century the week of seven days was introduced into Rome from Egypt, and the Roman names of the planets were given to each successive day. The Teutonic nations seem to have adopted the week as a division of time from the Romans, but they changed the Roman names into those of corresponding Teutonic deities. Hence the dies Solis became Sunday (German, Sonntag). Sunday was the first day of the week according to the Jewish method of reckoning, but for Christians it began to take the place of the Jewish Sabbath in Apostolic times as the day set apart for the public and solemn worship of God.
The practice of meeting together on the first day of the week for the celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice is indicated in Acts, xx 7; I Cor., xvi, 2; in Apoc., i, 10, it is called the Lord's day. Let's take a look, shall we?
Acts 20:7 Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.
God starts His days at sunset, so this would be Saturday evening after the Sabbath. So they had dinner and a bible study. That really isn't very unusual, he couldn't leave until the morning as we will see. It does not say it was a day of rest or that the Sabbath has been changed.
Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
Mal 3:6 For I am the Lord, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
Acts 20:11 Now when he had come up, had broken bread and eaten, and talked a long while, even till daybreak, he departed.
He was there until daybreak and then he departed. Where did he go?
Acts 20:13 Then we went ahead to the ship and sailed to Assos, there intending to take Paul on board; for so he had given orders, intending himself to go on foot.
So he had to wait till morning to take a ship to Assos. This is not something that would be done on a Sabbath or day of rest.
So, let's look at the next verse.
1 Corinthians16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also:
2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.
They were not putting money into a basket during services as the catholic encyclopedia seems to imply. They had to go into the fields and work to collect what they were going to "lay aside". He did not want them out in the fields when he came, he wanted to speak to them. So they were to work on the 1st day of the week, after the Sabbath and store up as he may prosper. As a reason to change the Sabbath day to the 1st day of the week, this scripture doesn't quite do it. Let's try the next one. There is only one left! And they say this is where it is called the Lord's Day.
Revelation 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, continue reading
11 saying, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last," and, "What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."
12 Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
13 and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
It is very obvious and much more so if you continue reading revelation that John is having a vision and he is "in spirit" witnessing what happens on the Lord's Day. The Lord's Day or the Day of the Lord is when the wrath of God is poured out just before the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ.
Amos 5:18 Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord! For what good is the day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness, and not light.
Isaiah 34:1 Come near, you nations, to hear; And heed, you people! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, The world and all things that come forth from it.2 For the indignation of the Lord is against all nations, And His fury against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to the slaughter. 3 Also their slain shall be thrown out; Their stench shall rise from their corpses, And the mountains shall be melted with their blood. 4 All the host of heaven shall be dissolved, And the heavens shall be rolled up like a scroll; All their host shall fall down As the leaf falls from the vine, And as fruit falling from a fig tree. 5 "For My sword shall be bathed in heaven; Indeed it shall come down on Edom, And on the people of My curse, for judgment. 6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, It is made overflowing with fatness, With the blood of lambs and goats, With the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom. 7 The wild oxen shall come down with them, And the young bulls with the mighty bulls; Their land shall be soaked with blood, And their dust saturated with fatness." 8 For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, The year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
Zephaniah 1:14 The great day of the Lord is near; It is near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord is bitter; There the mighty men shall cry out. 15 That day is a day of wrath, A day of trouble and distress, A day of devastation and desolation, A day of darkness and gloominess, A day of clouds and thick darkness, 16 A day of trumpet and alarm Against the fortified cities And against the high towers. 17 "I will bring distress upon men, And they shall walk like blind men, Because they have sinned against the Lord; Their blood shall be poured out like dust, And their flesh like refuse." 18 Neither their silver nor their gold Shall be able to deliver them In the day of the Lord's wrath; But the whole land shall be devoured By the fire of His jealousy, For He will make speedy riddance Of all those who dwell in the land.
Zephaniah 2:1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather together, O undesirable nation, 2 Before the decree is issued, Or the day passes like chaff, Before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you, Before the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you! 3 Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, Who have upheld His justice. Seek righteousness, seek humility. It may be that you will be hidden In the day of the Lord's anger.
1 Thessalonians 5:2 For you yourselves know very well that the Day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.
That was a very weak attempt by the catholic church at "changing the times". Actually, they continue in the encyclopedia:
and yet we find St. Cæsarius of Arles in the sixth century teaching that the holy Doctors of the Church had decreed that the whole glory of the Jewish Sabbath had been transferred to the Sunday, and that Christians must keep the Sunday holy in the same way as the Jews had been commanded to keep holy the Sabbath Day.
So they admit it was they who changed the day.
Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology says of the Day of the Lord:
Expression, often in the context of future events, which refers to the time when God will intervene decisively for judgment and/or salvation. Variously formulated as the "day of the Lord" (Amos 5:18), the "day of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Col 1:8; cf. 2 Col 1:14), the "day of God" (2 Peter 3:12; Rev 16:14), or "the last day(s), " the expression highlights the unmistakable appearance of God. God will make visible his rule of righteousness by calling for an accounting by the nations as well as individuals, dispensing punishment for some and ushering in salvation for others.
In the Old Testament the expression "day of the Lord" occurs eighteen times in prophetic literature, most often in the books of Joel and Zephaniah. It is not found in Daniel. A similar expression that stands close to it is "on that day, " which occurs 208 times in the Old Testament; half the occurrences are in the prophets. In the New Testament, equivalent expressions, such as "day of Jesus Christ, " are found in 1 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 1:14; Philippians 1:6, 10; and 2 Peter 3:10, 12. "Day of the Lord" appears in 2 Thessalonians 2:2.
I think that is enough to convince any person who is honest with themselves that niether Jesus, God the Father or the Bible changed the day to Sunday. References to keeping the Sabbath are way too numerous to list (about 113 times). That definitely outweighs the vain attempt by the catholic church to change the day to sunday.
Now on to the mark of the beast. To keep this from getting too long I will quote some of Garner Ted Armstrong's book entitled "The Mark of the Beast - What is It?"
Speaking of Revelation 13, which you should read, he says:
This great political, military and ecclesiastical power will have a SIGN; an identifying label, a MARK, which it will seek to impose on all who will submit to its will. It will not be a "secret" sign, or mark, but an obvious, outward, easily recognized sign, which the whole system wears just like a LABEL! The "little horn" of Daniel 7:8, which "has a mouth speaking great things," and which will "think to change TIMES and LAWS" is a symbol of the spokesmen of this evil mystery religion, who, down through the centuries, have done just that! They have CHANGED God's laws; abolished His divinely-appointed Sabbaths and annual holy days.
This great false church has adopted the labels associated with SUN worship; has CHANGED God's weekly Sabbaths for SUNDAY, the day of the sun, and foisted upon millions of unsuspecting believers the PAGAN holidays of Ishtar (Easter) and the "Saturnalia" (Christmas). For centuries, countless THOUSANDS were brutally martyred; tortured, burnt alive, killed in the most horrifying ways, for REFUSING to accept the Mark of the Beast, and clinging, instead, to God's holy Sabbath, and His annual holy days.
The "Mark" of the Beast is merely its symbol, its identifying sign, or its label. It is a counterfeit for the "mark," or the identifying SIGN between God and His people.
As we have seen, Almighty God established a SIGN, an identifying symbol, for His chosen people!
The identifying SIGN God placed upon His people Israel was that of His weekly and annual Sabbaths! A complete list of all of God's Sabbaths, both weekly and annual, is found in Leviticus 23.
Remember, the Sabbath was made when man was made, at creation!
Remember, God established His Sabbath day as the great IDENTIFYING SIGN, like a stamp, symbol, label, or MARK between Himself and His people! But wait! He said SABBATHS, PLURAL! Naturally He would have! For God also gave His people Israel a series of seven annual Sabbaths, holy days, which progressively, as the seasonal changes unfolded, opened up and revealed God's marvelous plan for humankind, the very plan of salvation!
Now, let's understand! The Mark of the Beast is not something which can be surreptitiously placed upon you.
Are YOU one who is conscious of the daily struggle against the Mark of the Beast; against his image; against his name, and the number of his name? If you are a Sabbath-keeping wage-earner, striving to feed and clothe a family in a SUNDAY-OBSERVING world, you are VERY aware of such a struggle!
Countless thousands have had to forsake jobs which required them to work on the Sabbath, which is the BUSIEST SHOPPING DAY OF THE WEEK! In a Sunday-observing world, it is sometimes virtually impossible to "buy or sell," or to maintain a job or a business if you decide to OBEY GOD and keep His Sabbaths! Countless numbers of school children, whose parents ask that they be excused from school to observe God's holy days, have been shamed, humiliated; have had their grades lowered; have been penalized for unexcused absences.
Thousands have approached their employers, asking if they would be able to work on Sundays, or on holidays, but have their Sabbaths off from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, and have been refused! It is THEN that one knows what it means to RESIST THE MARK OF THE BEAST! His stamp; his identifying label of the day of the SUN is everywhere in western professing Christian societies.
one thing is sure: The "woman" which mounts and rides the Beast is none other than the Roman Catholic Church! She is the great "Lady of the Kingdoms" (read Isaiah 47), "...the mother of harlots [her protesting daughters which came out of her] and abominations of the earth" (Revelation 17:5).
Her signs are those of the cross, Sunday, Easter, Christmas, and Halloween! She has thought "to change times and laws" (Daniel 7:25), and will eventually put to death the saints of God for refusing to receive and accept her mark, to worship the Beast and the image of the Beast (the papacy), to receive the number of the name of the Beast! She has protesting daughters, who, though rejecting her leadership, cling to many of her most important dogmas and doctrines. They include the millions who recite the "apostles creed" (absolutely unbiblical!), recite and sing the "doxology," believe in the immortality of the soul and the Trinity, and who worship on the day of the sun and on the days of ancient pagans, such as the "Saturnalia" (Christmas), and the festival devoted to "Ishtar" (Easter).
God warns, "COME OUT OF HER, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities" (Revelation 18:4,5).
My apologies to Mr. Armstrong for quoting so much, but his book is so detailed and thorough. There is so much more in the book. My meager attempt will be lost on all but myself anyway. But writing this helps me to study and remember. Anyone who understands this lesson owes it to themselves to go to his website: Garner Ted Armstrong
BTW, the Catholic Encyclopedia says of the Sabbath:
The Sabbath is first met with in connection with the fall of the manna (Ex., xvi, 22 sqq.), but it there appears as an institution already known to the Israelites.
That isn't true at all, what about Genesis 2:2? And I don't see where it appears the Israelites at that time already knew, God was teaching them because they had been without knowledge of the one true God while in Egypt.
And:
The Sabbath thereby also became a sign, and its observance an acknowledgment of the pact: "See that thou keep my sabbath; because it is a sign between me and you in your generations; that you may know that I am the Lord, who sanctify you" (Ex., xxxi, 13).
And:
Christ, while observing the Sabbath, set himself in word and act against this absurd rigorism which made man a slave of the day. He reproved the scribes and Pharisees for putting an intolerable burden on men's shoulders (Matt., xxiii, 4), and proclaimed the principle that "the sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath" (Mark, ii, 27).
Yes, "the intolerable burden" of this "adsurd rigorism" was attacked by Jesus. But the "adsurd rigorism" was part of the jewish religion and was not what Jesus, who made the Sabbath ( Hebrews1:2 In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things and through whom He made the universe.), had intended. Many religious leaders today do the same thing. You have to where certain clothing, hats, haircuts, skirt lengths, burkas, beards, no beards, no buttons, only black, no electricity, no cars, kosher foods (not the same as clean/unclean). Kosher foods go beyond what is necessary just as jewish sabbath rules go beyond what is necessary. Name a religion and you will find someone making rules far beyond the bounds of reason. Any religion. But don't throw out the baby with the bath water. And the Sabbath was made for man, but that doesn't mean it changed to sunday!
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