Posted on 04/19/2002 6:00:46 AM PDT by DouglasKC
Thanks for your input.
In Colossians, Paul wasn't referring to doing away with the 7th day sabbath...he was adressing criticism for HOW they were observing them, much the same was as Jesus was criticized by the Pharisees for HOW he kept the sabbath. Here is an excerpt from an article titled Did the Apostle Paul Abolish the Sabbath?:
Colossians 2:16, 17: The main thrust of this passage is "let no man judge you." It doesn't say whether the Colossians were keeping the Sabbath festivals or not. For that matter, it also doesn't say whether they were eating and drinking.
The word translated "regarding" is not a preposition. Had the author, Paul, intended the meaning "regarding," he could have used the pronoun peri ("concerning") as in 1 Corinthians 8:1. Instead, he used the noun meros (from merizo, meaning "to cut"), which means "portion or part." So the meaning here is a part or portion or aspect of the observance of the Sabbath, new moon or festival. The problem in Colossae was likely gnosticism. The gnostics did not object to observing Holy Days, only the aspect of feasting (eating and drinking) to celebrate the days.
Notice also that the passage says these days are (not were) a shadow of things to come. Based on the tenses of the verbs, the verse cannot mean that Christ's coming does away with the biblical Holy Days, because He had already come when Paul wrote that the days (still) are a shadow of things coming.
Ironically, this verse, which is often used to argue against the Sabbath and Holy Days, is actually a positive statement in favor of Sabbath and Holy Day observance.
Paul is not saying, as many believe, that once Jesus Christ, the "reality" or "body," came, observance of the Sabbath and biblical Holy Days is no longer necessary. In verse 17, the word is is not in the text. Translators added it in an attempt to clarify the meaning. But the contrast between shadow and body doesn't fit the main context of the passage, which is judging. The body-shadow dichotomy does occur in extrabiblical sources. However, nowhere in the New Testament does the Greek word soma ("body") mean anything other than a literal body or the "body of Christ," the Church, as used in verse 19.
Here is a paraphrased meaning of the passage: Don't let any man judge you for eating and drinking or for any portion of a festival, new moon or Sabbath (which are a shadow of future events in God's plan). Rather, let the Body of Christ be your judge.
Couldn't agree with you more!
"Reason" will NOT work. :D
The old law was instituted to set Israel apart from the rest of the world, but it also demonstrated how depraved mankind really is. It was impossible for Israel to keep God's commands and live up to the letter of the law, just as it is impossible for people today. Jesus pointed this out in Matthew 5. He also demonstrated that he was the fulfillment of the law. He summed up the law when he said, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."
Who decided it was heretical to keep the same day as Jesus did?
The sabbath pre-existed the Mosiac law:
Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
The word translated "rested" is:
shabath shaw-bath'
a primitive root; to repose, i.e. desist from exertion; used in many implied relations (causative, figurative or specific):--(cause to, let, make to) cease, celebrate, cause (make) to fail, keep (sabbath), suffer to be lacking, leave, put away (down), (make to) rest, rid, still, take away.
Sacrifices have been done away with because as the new testament makes clear that Jesus was the atoning sacrifice for all mankind.
The old law was instituted to set Israel apart from the rest of the world, but it also demonstrated how depraved mankind really is. It was impossible for Israel to keep God's commands and live up to the letter of the law, just as it is impossible for people today. Jesus pointed this out in Matthew 5. He also demonstrated that he was the fulfillment of the law.
The law (the ten commandments) are what is written in our hearts under the new covenent:
Jer 31:33 but this shall be the covenant that I will cut with the house of Israel: After those days, says Jehovah, I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
2Corinthians 3:3 it having been made plain that you are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, not having been written with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but in fleshly tablets of the heart.
He summed up the law when he said, "You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."
The first 4 commandments ARE the outward manfestation of love between God and man. The last 6 commandments are the outward manfestation of love between man and fellow man:
Rom 13:9 For: "Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not lust;" and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Thanks for the tip. I'll leave him to his law. I'll follow Christ.
The "law" is Christs law:
Christ said:
Mar 2:27 And He said to them, The sabbath came into being for man's sake, and not man for the sabbath's sake.
Mar 2:28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the sabbath.
Did Christ say the sabbath was CREATED for Jews, or Israelites? He said it was created for man, mankind. And of course it was, since it was established at the creation of the world...and that he is LORD of the sabbath. To me, following Christ means doing what he did and believed.
But I understand that you wish to follow your tradition in somethings... :-)
I'm not quite sure what you mean? Are you a sabbath keeper?
You did not offer reason.
What should someone make of the fact that Christ kept the sabbath and that Paul said:
1Co 11:1 Be imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ.
1Co 11:2 But I praise you, brothers, that you remember me in all things, and you keep the doctrines as I delivered them to you.
If Christ kept the seventh day sabbath, which he undoubtedly did, and Paul imitated him, then it only makes sense that we keep the seventh day sabbath also.
Do you actually have a position on this? Anything at all to backup what day you keep besides tradition?
Thank you for responding...I understand your view. I keep it on the seventh day not to please anybody, but only to please God:
Genesis 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He had rested from all His work which God created to make.
It's the only day of the week he blessed and santified.
Do you, or do you not hold to the doctrines taught by the heretic, Herbert W. Armstrong, or any of the spinoffs from his organization?
Many of Paul's epistles answer these primary questions, because Paul had to defend "his Gospel" against the Judiazers who followed him around and tried to bring the Gentile converts back under the Law.
To yank any Scripture out of context to justify a particular position does Scripture a great disservice (and I'm not saying that you are doing that...)
During Paul's time, the Gentiles used Sunday as their day of worship. They got this from Emperor's day. When ever an Emperor ascended to his throne, that day would be Emperor's day. Jesus ascended to His throne on Sunday when He rose from the day. Therefore the Gentile believers used Sunday as the Lord's day. But, in reality, the Gentiles got together (as did Jewish believers) everyday...
If Christ kept the seventh day sabbath, which he undoubtedly did, and Paul imitated him, then it only makes sense that we keep the seventh day sabbath also. If it makes sense to you, then do it. Paul doesn't seem to have a problem with Sunday... if he did, then he probably would have stated it more emphatically... instead, he said let no man judge you.
Those are heretical teachings. A false God and a false gospel. It's immaterial which "Sabbath" their false Christ keeps.
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