Wherever there is great truth, Satan is hard at work to bring in error and confusion to corrupt that truth. The seventh-day Sabbath observing Churches of God possess an abundance of truth that is almost unprecedented in other denominations. Their love for their Maker can be seen in their desire to honor Him by obedience to His law. They understand the perpetuity of the fourth commandment and rightly shun Christmas for it’s pagan origins.
However, certain long-held beliefs based on assumption and tradition have intermingled error with the truths held by these sincere-hearted children of Yah. Following is a list of errors held by some or all of the Sabbath observant Churches of God.
- Some Churches of God, while worshipping on a Saturday-Sabbath nevertheless reject the annual feasts of Yahuwah, believing that they were done-away with at the cross. This is an extension of the age-old deception that Yah’s law was somehow done-away with at the cross. As the seventh-day Sabbath is still binding so, too, are the annual feasts of Yahuwah. Scripture itself refers to both the weekly Sabbaths and the annual feasts as “holy convocations” stating, “This shall be a Law forever in your generations and in all your dwellings.” (Leviticus 23:14, Geneva Bible)
- A few Sabbath-observant COG are Trinitarian, a belief stemming from paganism. Scripture, however, declares: “Hear, O Israel: Yahuwah our Elohim is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4) The Bible makes plain that Yahushua, while born of a virgin, is a human being - not a diety.
- The biggest inconsistency in COG doctrines is the practice of using two different calendars for calculating Yahuwah’s holy convocations. COG denominations that observe the annual feasts acknowledge the Hebrews used a lunar-based calendar and they calculate the annuals feasts and New Moons using the luni-solar calendar. However, the weekly convocation of the seventh-day Sabbath is observed on Saturday.
This practice is based on an assumption. It is assumed that because time itself is continuous, the weekly cycle must also be continuous. However, a careful study of the truths of history reveal the following facts:
- Worship on Saturn’s day is denounced in Scripture as gross apostasy.
- The Gregorian calendar is a papal innovation of a pagan calendar.
- Saturday did not exist in the early Julian calendar of Yahushua’s day, therefore, neither the Saviour nor His disciples worshipped on it. As He was our example in all things, we are to keep the Sabbath as He did.
- Consistency demands that the same calendar used for calculating the annual sabbaths be used for calculating the weekly Sabbath. (See "Lunar Sabbath.")
- The COG observes the Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, a practice tracing back to the Biblical instructions on when to observe Day of Atonement. These explicit directions, however, apply only to Day of Atonement, not the seventh-day Sabbath which, according to Scripture, begins at dawn.
Yahuwah invites the sincere Truth-Seekers of the various Churches of God to follow Him into all truth, laying aside those beliefs founded upon tradition and assumption.
