A SAINT IN SIN CITY

SAUL SALLIE

CHAPTER 4

FOR THE WORD OF GOD IS LIVING AND POWERFUL AND SHARPER THAN ANY TWO EDGED SWORD PIERCING EVEN TO THE DIVISION OF SOUL AND SPIRIT (Hebrews 4:12)

I wouldn’t call it a fight, but the first disagreement Marcella and I had was over one of the ten commandments of God. Although I did end up going away mad, we reconciled the next day. When I first began my stay with Uncle Seven, I quickly learned that my extended family’s main day of worship was Saturday. I didn’t think much of it until the nature of my relationship with Marcella turned romantic. Up to that point, I was fellowshipping with other Christian teammates, led by the team chaplain.

There was no yelling, or anything mean or unkind said between Marcella and me, even though it seemed like it at the time. Inside I was upset, even very angry. There were a multiple of factors involved. Primarily that our beliefs weren’t in harmony. Secondarily, pride, because her reasoning was, well, more reasonable than mine. Third was that I felt like her beliefs, their beliefs, were straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel. (See Mathew 23:24) I also suspected that they were a cult. Lastly, was tradition. I had been a strong believer in loyalty and tradition. I still do in its proper place.

But when tradition came up during our discourse, and she quoted Mark 7:7, I felt like she was getting too personal. It was also my first real lesson on how truth cuts to the core. I had thought myself a righteous dude. But on future examination, I had a form of Godliness, but was denying the power.

It all happened on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, right after I went to church with my extended family for the first time at Cotton Creek Cove Fellowship. After a potluck lunch, Marcella and I strolled down to Cotton  Creek, after which the church was named. I was troubled in spirit as I sorted out the new perspectives I was shown in the Bible. Things I had read before, but did not see.

The stream of water rippling over rocks, and the canopy of trees was beyond description. It was incredibly beautiful and peaceful. It felt wrong to feel so agitated there, but I did. I was ready to lay into Marcella about her church denying grace, being legalists, and putting their parishioners under the old covenant.

I had taken a deep breath, and then both a sigh and a fake chuckle. “You know, you have a friendly church and all, but it seems you all fail to understand grace.”

“We do?” she asked mildly. Her wide expressive eyes helped to relax me in my task of setting her straight. “How?”

“Your pastor is putting you under the law,” I told her.

“How’s that?”

“Well, the very first thing, the service started by putting the fourth commandment up on the screen, and you all read it.”

“Yeah, what’s wrong with that?”

“Well, nothing, but, I mean, you guys take it too seriously. I mean, what if, say, all doctors and nurses refused to work on the Sabbath?”

She giggled, and it was both cute and annoying. “There are exceptions for situations such as that. But as far as regular labor, or shopping…”

“The New Testament clearly tells us we are saved by grace through faith,” I interrupted.

“It sure does,” she agreed with an enthusiastic smile, disarming me even more, right before stabbing me with truth. She pulled out a small New Testament that she always seemed to carry. It wasn’t much bigger than a deck of cards. She opened it, found a passage of scripture, and handed it to me. “Read Romans 3:31.”

“Do we then make void the law through faith?” I read aloud. “’Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.’ Okay, alright, now you read chapter four, and verse four.”

“Now to him who works,” she read. “The wages are not counted as grace but as debt.”

“Well?” I asked after she read it.

“Well what? I agree with the text. Are you insinuating that I don’t love God?”

“No, of course not.”

She frowned, puzzled. “Then why did you show me that passage of scripture?”

I scratched my head, a bit puzzled myself. “I guess to show you that were not saved by works.”

“Of course we’re not. I obey God because I’m saved, not to be saved,” she explained. “Jesus said that if we love Him, keep His commandments (John 14:15). Are you familiar with the Bible verse that says, having a form of Godliness, but denying the power thereof?” (2 Timothy 3:5)

“Yes.”

“The passage you just shared reminds me of that, because what it is actually implying, is works without love. You see, you could say, a form  of Godliness that denies the love thereof.”

“Okay, good point,” I admitted before getting to the heart of the matter. “But why be a stickler about the seventh day Sabbath, when the vast majority of Christendom keeps Sunday?”

“When has the majority ever been right in spiritual matters?” she asked sadly. “Were they right in Noah’s day? Were they right when Daniel’s three friends refused to bow down? Were they right during the dark ages? Most importantly, were they right when our precious Savior, Jesus Christ, was crucified?”

“Okay, fair point. But why Saturday instead of Sunday?”

“Sunday keeping became prominent when Constantine made Christianity a legal religion in the fourth century. But Saturday is actually the Biblical Sabbath, established at creation, and written in stone by God’s own finger at Mount Sinai.”

“But Marcella,” I said with a humorless chuckle. “We keep Sunday in honor of the resurrection.”

“We do?” she frowned, and then handed me her little Bible. “Can you show me in the Bible?”

“Not off hand,” I replied lamely, as she thumbed through the onion skin pages to the book of Acts. She showed me several passages where the apostles still kept the Sabbath, obviously after Jesus was resurrected. I wasn’t angry just yet, but very frustrated, and demanded. “What difference does a day make? We should pray and worship God daily.”

“Yes we should, and I do. But there is a specific day God commanded us to remember if we love Him. There is one day, one period during the weekly cycle, that He blessed and made holy. And that’s from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.”

“See, that’s another thing,” I tried. “The world, not just Christendom, recognizes midnight to midnight as the daily cycle.”

“That’s insignificant,” she shrugged. “There are plenty of passages about not being conformed to what the world does. Just look at 1 John 2:15-17 for one example.”

“But Marcella, look at all the Godly men that kept Sunday. Reformers like Martin Luther, Tyndale, Wycliffe, and modern preachers like Billy Graham. Are you gonna tell me they are lost?”

“Of course not, Saul. Obviously I don’t know their hearts or how much light they have had. But I do know the light I’ve had, as well as a little understanding of history along with prophecy.”

“Oh, I suppose you have the gift of prophecy,” I said sarcastically, and instantly regretted it. Yet she seemed slightly amused, rather than offended.

“I don’t, but multiple Bible authors did,” she replied. “And with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and prayer, we can understand the prophetic books.”

“Oh, so you’re gonna tell me you understand Daniel and Revelation?”

“As well as someone with my experience can,” she shrugged. “So yes, I feel I have a pretty good grasp of them.”

I snorted and shook my head. “I’ve been taught that they were futuristic books that can’t be understood yet.”

“I’m sorry to say, you were misguided,” she replied mildly. Okay, now I was now becoming quite angry. “Most of what is taught in Daniel and Revelation is now history. Only the last few chapters of Revelation are yet to be fulfilled.”

“How do you get history out of all that symbolism?”

“It’s there, you just have to put the puzzle together with, like I said, prayer and the Holy Spirit.”

“I wasn’t misguided, nobody really knows. How can they? The closest thing to figuring it out is the ‘Left Behind series.’

She smiled sadly, hung her head briefly. “I’m afraid the ‘Left Behind’ series is misguided. There is no secret rapture. I know the word rapture isn’t even in the King James concordance. The Bible says Jesus comes back with a shout, a great noise, and every eye will see him. Not a select few, or even half, or whatever they claim.” (See 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 and Matthew 24:30, 31)

“You just made my point, no one can understand it?”

“Then why does Revelation 1:3 say blessed are they that read the words of this prophecy?”

I didn’t know. I didn’t even know how discombobulated I was getting, but I felt the need to get off discussing prophecy. “Look we’re getting off topic. Now I know you haven’t met my family, but my mother, and my mother’s family, are some of the most Godly people you could ever meet, and they kept the Sabbath. They didn’t work or shop on Sunday.”

“Sabbath is not Sunday,” she replied. “Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. Other languages confirm this, as well as definitions. Look it up. Sunday is the first day of the week.”

“Don’t nitpick on terminology. Tradition is clear that Sunday is God’s day of rest.”

She aimed a sweet smile at me. In the moment, I felt it was a condescending smile. But her mild manner of speaking should have told me otherwise. “Jesus Himself said, ‘In vain they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’ (Mark 7:7)

I fought to control my raging hostility, and my voice probably sounded sinister as I forced myself to calmly say. “Oh, I see, my family and me worship God in vain. That’s not judgmental.”

“No, it’s not meant to be,” Marcella said with wide, startled eyes, as she reached out and gently touched my arm. “I believe God only holds us accountable for the light we have, know, and understand.”

“Well, you haven’t shown me any light,” I said testily. “Because you’re enshrouded in darkness… I’m outta here.”

As I began to briskly walk away from her, I expected, even hoped she would call out. But she didn’t. As I had spoken, I felt justified by my mean spirited words. But ten seconds later as I stole a quick glance back. Her sad countenance as she watched me go already began to break my heart. But more importantly, her words during our conversation began to open my eyes to real truth. It would lead me into a closer walk with the One called, the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Jesus!