The Saturday People and the Sunday People

[notreligus]

Rom 1:1  Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
Rom 1:2  which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures,
Rom 1:3  concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh
Rom 1:4  and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
Rom 1:5  through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations,
Rom 1:6  including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
Rom 1:7  To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 1:8  First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world.
Rom 1:9  For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you
Rom 1:10  always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you.
Rom 1:11  For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—
Rom 1:12  that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine.
Rom 1:13  I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I have often intended to come to you (but thus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some harvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.
Rom 1:14  I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.
Rom 1:15  So I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
Rom 1:16  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Eph 2:1  And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
Eph 2:2  in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
Eph 2:3  among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Eph 2:4  But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,
Eph 2:5  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Eph 2:6  and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
Eph 2:7  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:8  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Eph 2:9  not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Eph 2:11  Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called "the uncircumcision" by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—
Eph 2:12  remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14  For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility
Eph 2:15  by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
Eph 2:16  and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Eph 2:17  And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
Eph 2:18  For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Eph 2:19  So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
Eph 2:20  built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,
Eph 2:21  in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
Eph 2:22  In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Why do some insist that Paul contradicted himself and say that there are the "Saturday people" and the "Sunday people" and the Sunday people, who simply believe the Scriptures just as Paul taught, are anti-Jew, anti-Israel, anti-Semite?   

We are to assemble, to congregate, together, as one people, the Body of Christ.   

[Nevertheless]

Why do you keep harping on this? Are there no other divisions in the body that bother you?

[MeMyself]

I guess this is a real sticking point with some people...on both sides of the issue.

As for me, I can't understand what the problem is.  There is freedom and we should show grace over this matter...

[chosenone]

I guess this is a real sticking point with some people...on both sides of the issue.

As for me, I can't understand what the problem is.  There is freedom and we should show grace over this matter...

Yes, Paul is clear we can choose to make one day more special,  or have all days the same. As long as no one tries to tell me that I MUST do what they do or else, when its not what God says, I am fine with whatever they choose to do. My beliefs and views on this subject have changed a lot over the years I have been a believer, and as long  as we are each at peace over what we do, then thats fine.

[DaveW]

That phrase is used by radical Islam and has nothing to do with Paul or divisions in the overall body of believers. 

It means they [radical jihadis] will kill/drive out the Jews first (the Saturday people) and then kill or drive out the Christians (the Sunday people).   First in the Middle East, then Europe, then the rest of the world.

This phrase was put on the house of a christian family in Mosul:


Red State news article on it:

http://www.redstate.com/diary/GaryWiram/2014/07/23/first-saturday-people-sunday-people/

Recently, in a Fox News Special Report All-Star panel discussion I heard a panelist use the phrase "First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People". That discussion focused on the persecution Christians are experiencing in a part of Iraq now under the control of the jihadist group knows as ISIL (The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – a/k/a ISIS). Specifically, ISIL has given Christians (who have been living in that area for 2,000 years, pre-dating Muslims by 600 years) an ultimatum to convert to Islam or get out and/or be fined and/or face death. Since I wasn't familiar with the Saturday people/Sunday people phrase, I researched it and I was embarrassed to learn that it's been in use for quite awhile. In fact, it's found in the title of a best-selling book, by Lela Gilbert, published in 2012. The following excerpt from Ms. Gilbert's Weekly Standard blog helped me begin to understand this phrase and its background:

"'First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People.' Such graffiti can sometimes be found in Muslim neighborhoods in the Middle East. The 'Saturday People' are, of course, Jews, today nearly gone from Muslim lands. Now the 'Sunday people'—Christians— are in the crosshairs, and they, too, are fleeing at an alarming rate. Both religions are unwelcome in many Muslim-majority lands for reasons of Islamist ideology—the declaration of jihad, or holy war, against infidels."

SOUNDING THE ALARM

As I reflected on this, in conjunction with what I'd heard in that panel discussion about ISIL's persecution of Iraqi Christians, my embarrassment was quickly replaced by alarm. It's an alarm that I believe should be shared by all Christians and in fact, all non-Muslims around the world. In order to gain a better grasp of this, let me begin with a thumbnail sketch of ISIL.

An article entitled Background Briefing: What is ISIL?, appearing in the PBS Newshour's blog, The Rundown, offers this summary:

"The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is a predominantly Sunni jihadist group, [that] seeks to sow civil unrest in Iraq and the Levant (region spanning from southern Turkey to Egypt and including Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan) with the aim of establishing a caliphate — a single, transnational Islamic state based on sharia. The group emerged in the ashes of the U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein as al-Qaida in Iraq (AQI), and the insurgency that followed provided it with fertile ground to wage a guerrilla war against coalition forces and their domestic allies."

That seems ominous enough all on its own but it was what I heard in the panel discussion, about the status of their current "jihad, or holy war, against infidels", that really set off my internal alarm. To me, the most meaningful summary of this was provided by Dr. Charles Krauthammer, as one of the Special Report All-Star panelists. In part, he said,

"This is a tragedy happening all across the Middle East. Christians have been under pressure in Lebanon, their population is way down. In Egypt, the Copts have been attacked for years now. This is now the worst instance of this. But, this reveals the essence of jihadism. Isolationists in the U.S. ... would say, 'Well 9/11 was a result of what we did to offend, to oppress ... Muslims around the world. At least in part, it was a retaliation.' Now you look at what ISIS is doing. What was the crime of the Christians against ISIS? None. This is the purest ethnic cleansing. This is the pure essence of the intolerance and the barbarism of this kind of Islamic radicalism. We know ... a month before 9/11, the Taliban went into the desert and destroyed 1400 year old magnificent statues of the Buddha. Were the Buddhists oppressing the Muslims in Afghanistan? No. This is the hatred of 'the other'. This is total exclusivity. This is stuff that Europe hasn't seen in 400 years. This is the medieval killing of one sect by another sect and it is the essence of Islamic jihadism. You see it here in the purest way. You see it with Hamas. It wants to wipe out the Jews. You see it in Egypt with the Copts. You see it with Boko Haram in the attack on the churches in Nigeria. It's all over. This is not about what the West has done. This is not about Imperialism. This is not a payback. This is the expression of jihadism and we see it tonight in the most horrible form."

OUR NEEDED AWAKENING

Although I was aware of the individual situations Krauthammer mentioned – i.e. the persecution of Lebanese Christians, the persecution of Egyptian Coptic Christians, the Buddhist statue destruction, the endless attacks of Israel by Hamas and the persecution of Nigerian Christians – it was the picture that emerged with his fitting these puzzle pieces together that was so alarming to me. Hopefully, there are many others who, like me, are now more alert to this urgent situation. Unfortunately, in that same Special Report segment, another panelist named Ron Fournier made comments indicating another form of failure to face up to this crisis. In my case, the failure was just not paying close enough attention. That's a big enough problem. However, Fournier's comments exposed an even greater problem ... denial ... when he said,

"America can't do everything to save every Christian. This is a horrible thing that's happening (but) the United States only has so much power."