The God Culture Philippines Biblical History Library

THE GOD CULTURE PHILIPPINES BLOG | APRIL 9, 2025

The Sabbath: A Defining Line Between the Ekklesia and Those Who Crept In Unawares

The Sabbath: A Defining Line Between the Ekklesia and Those Who Crept In Unawares

From Genesis to Revelation, the seventh-day Sabbath is a thread woven throughout Scripture, established in Creation, codified in the Law, honored by the prophets, kept by Messiah, and upheld by His true followers. It was never rescinded, replaced, or redefined in Scripture. Rather, its observance is a sign—a covenant between Yahuah and His people forever (Exodus 31:16-17).

This is not merely a doctrinal position—it’s a defining line.

When Jude speaks of those who “crept in unawares” (Jude 1:4), he is referring to individuals who entered the assembly to subvert truth, turning grace into lawlessness and denying the Master by their actions. What better evidence of such creeping than the systematic removal of the Sabbath, Feasts, and Torah-observant foundations from what would later become mainstream religious tradition? The Apostles, especially in Hebrews 4, definitively express a devotion to the Saturday Sabbath tied to Creation, Moses, David, and Messiah in practice. The early true ekklesias continued to keep the same. They were infiltrated, and that is the issue forgotten by much of the modern church, who place Pharisees on a platform—when Yahusha used them as the very definition of one who is not saved. Imagine being a benchmark for that?

Perhaps we should reference the Didache, which some in the Catholic Church claim to date as early as 50 AD. Regardless of the exact date, this was an early document that was never entered into the record—even the Catholic one—as Scripture, because it is not. That document changes Bible practice in several ways and is a glaring spotlight on how those who "crept in unawares" operated. This is why we see Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, and the direct, true disciples of the Apostles continuing to keep the Feasts and the Saturday Sabbath.

The evidence is overwhelming: the Biblical ekklesia—the called-out assembly—kept the Sabbath. So did the prophets, the Messiah, the Apostles, and the early believers. What changed? Not Scripture. Not the command. Not the example.

What changed was the influence of those who had no authority to change it. And that is the distinction between the true ekklesia and the counterfeit.

The Sabbath is not about legalism—it is about identity. It reveals who truly follows the Word and who has followed man-made traditions.

And in the end, that distinction will matter more than most understand today.