Chapter 4

Reassessing My Life and Ministers that convinced me to change.

Reassessing myself, I know I have sinned, and I am a sinner. I know I am born of flesh. I have sinned and come short of the Kingdom of GOD. My best is as filthy rags. I am in search of a better me and a better relationship with Jesus Christ. I just do not want to keep playing church. My desire is to read MORE of the word of GOD thoroughly. I want to understand and get corroborating evidence from the Bible on many subjects within the Bible.

It is fine to read other books and literature; however, I think you must be careful. If the content is more of man (another sinner), for money, greed, opinions, and/or popularity, with only one bible reference per sermon, be aware. Be very aware. I think if you take a little truth and mix it with a lot of other stuff, it is not truly the whole Truth anymore. I do not think you can read one bible verse and stop. Revealing text could be following the text you stopped at or corroborating evidence somewhere else within the Bible if you keep reading and searching. There is text and also the importance of context.

You may ask yourself “why did this guy get rebaptized?” It was simple for me, John 3: 3-8 basically tell us that you must be born again of water and spirit. My first baptism was of water with no relationship with God. I did it because I was asked by Pastor Lee and wanted to be obedient to my grandmother. I felt that ignoring God’s laws and commands from 1975 when I went to college living on my own, through 2015 when I was reassessing my life, that was long enough.

I needed a spiritual makeover. So that is why I got rebaptized in 2016. So, for a year, from 2015-2016, I tried my best to justify why I should keep going to church on Sundays and eating unclean foods. So, I prayed and invested time studying, trying to find a loophole about the validity of the Sabbath and eating unclean foods.

But I could not justify eating unclean foods or continuing to go to church on Sunday, according to the Bible. So, I was convinced and convicted to do what I thought was right because of Mama Cu’'s teachings. I could not find one loophole because God is so specific in what He says and in what He does.

Let's look at something quickly. The Bible speaks about "Abomination" in many things. Do a word search within the Bible online and see for yourself. Google says, "Abomination." It is mainly used to denote idolatry, and in many other cases, it refers to inherently evil things such as illicit sex, lying, murder, deceit, etc., and unclean foods. It also denotes a stench or disgust.

I haven't found anywhere in the Bible that Jesus goes back on his word and says, "Any particular Abomination in the Old or New Testament is Okay with me. Just do whatever you want".

Deuteronomy 14:3 KJV Thou shalt not eat any abominable thing. It goes on to describe Clean and Unclean foods. Leviticus 11 also describes what you should and should not eat.

I believe in this day and time; we are just as important to God now as His children were in the Old and New Testaments. Even Peter, in the New Testament, told the Lord that he never ate any common or unclean thing. (Read Acts chapter 10, the entire chapter, to get text and context).

I wanted to clear up the unclean food statement above. For those of you that say everything God made is good, you are correct. But God had a purpose in mind for everything He made. God distinguished clean and unclean foods for Noah before going onto the ARK. (Read Genesis 7:1-10)

Back to the Sabbath

I used the Bible and these Bible-based sources to help explain the Sabbath in ways that my grandmother was not able to do. These pastors are consistent with Bible-based references. They used multiple bible verses to substantiate their teachings that give corroborating evidence.

However, many days, I realized how smart and forward-thinking my grandmother was then and now. She has been an inspiration in my life and to many others. You know the old saying "my mother prayed for me," well it was my grandmother that prayed for me. Did I mention Mama Cus was a midwife and delivered over 1,000 babies throughout her career without any fatalities?

"The truth is never sent to hurt, but to enlighten." Dr. CD Brooks For every Truth that God has, the devil has a counterfeit.

Dr. Carlton P. Byrd

Let us study together

GOD'S HOLY DAY, Let's start at the beginning by going back to Genesis.

Biblical definitions for days are described as the "evening and morning." (There were no clocks or watches at the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden.) Dr. CD Brook, Breath of Life.

For a more precise understanding, Dr. Carlton P. Byrd has explained the week of creation very well. Dr. Carlton P. Byrd explanations describe the week of creation from the Book of Genesis where there is no misunderstanding of how and when God created this earth. This makes so much sense to me. See if it clears up the creation week and the very 1st Sabbath after creation for you?

Who said that 12:01 a.m. starts the next day??? God does not reconcile the day with hours or minutes. There were no watches or clocks when God created this world. Dr. CD Brooks

Question: How many days are there in a week?

There are 7 days in a week: Let's break down the week of creation.

Genesis 1:1-5 In the beginning, GOD created the heaven and the earth. 2. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of GOD moved upon the face of the waters. 3. And GOD said, let there be light: and there was light. 4. And GOD saw the light that it was good: and GOD divided the light from the darkness. 5. And GOD called the light day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

So, let us recap. When my grandparents shut down everything on Friday evening at sunset going into the Sabbath, I wasn't given these Bible verses to know why. From evening to evening - sunset to sunset is a day, according to the Bible. Going to church for 2 or 3 hours, then doing whatever else you want to do is not keeping that day, or any other day, Holy. GOD only asks us for one day, not just a few hours. Right???

We followed Mama Cus's rules when I was growing up. Now, with TV broadcasts and the internet, more in-depth sermons can go deeper in study and explanations.

This is where most Christians cherry-pick the Bible for their own theology. They like Isaiah 53:5 He was bruised for our iniquities... by His stripes we are healed.

But the same prophet Isaiah writes in Isaiah 58: 13-14 (five chapters later), If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my Holy Day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.