Should We Keep the Sabbath?

Creation Research Institute ^ | 2003 | James A. Borland

[imardmd1]

Jesus own words says He did NOT come to Abolish the Law. How much plainer does He have to make it?

Paul, writing according to The Holy Spirit made very plain what Jesus did. He did not come to abolish the Law without first completely satisfying God's requirement that a human fulfill the Law. At the point of Mt. %:17, He was still in the process of doing that. But the end of it was that He totally satisfied the First Covenant by fulfilling it in every respect down to the smallest yodh (iota in Greek, smallest Hebrew consonant) and chireq (keraia in Greek, dot/tittle in English, smallest Hebrew vowel point). Jesus took it away, nailing it to His Cross. By His substitutionary death, resurrection, ascension, and reconciliation He completely replaced it by establishing the Second Covenant, which is the New Testament in His Blood, the Covenant of Grace which is the forgiveness of sins by faith in His Shed Blood!

"Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb. 10:9-10 AV).

My FRiend, if you are clinging to the Law--any part of it--as your road to salvation, you will die in your sins and go to Hell, according to Scripture:

"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written,
Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 
But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for,
The just shall live by faith. 
And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them" (Gal. 3:10-12 AV).

I don't think you have read the text of the article here posted, which covers all your arguments, and dismisses them.

Up to the giving of the Mosaic Covenant, neither Gentiles nor Jews were subject to the Law and its penalties. It was not written down, ever, from Adam until Moses until God wrote it in stone on the Mount. There were no Sabbaths until the Law was given on Sinai.

Your translation of Mt. 5:17 ("them" is not in the Greek, "abolish" is not the same as "to destroy or dissolve") is imperfect; and your interpretation above ignores the context, and is deeply flawed by eisegesis, reading into it what is not meant.

[imardmd1]

Maybe God endorses a little doctrinal division.

Not according to His prescribed Will. But He does permit it, for a time, until John 17 comes into full effect.

[imardmd1]

It’s one of the Commandments. Period.

Period what?

[af_vet_1981]

1. Cephas means rock in Aramaic.
2. The Messiah gave the Apostle Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven and the power to bind and loose. It seems to me you acknowledge this.
3. In another place (two chapters further) the Messiah gave the power to bind and loose to all the Apostles in the context of the church.
4. The Scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses' seat until the Messiah gave this authority to His church. It follows that there are successors to the apostles since they appointed bishops, who appointed other bishops, until this day.
5. The Messiah did not leave a Bible when He ascended to heaven. He left the church he built on Peter, the other Apostles, the Prophets, with Himself as the chief cornerstone.
6. The Messiah promised the gates of hell would not prevail against His church.
7. The Messiah sent the Holy Spirit to His church.
8. The Messiah promised to be with His church unto the end of the world.
9. The one holy catholic and apostolic church decided the Gentiles did not need to keep all the Law of Moses to be saved.
10. The one holy catholic and apostolic church decided that Sunday would be the Christian day of worship instead of the Jewish Sabbath. The change occurred early (by end of First Century: see Didache, Letter of Barnabas, Ignatius of Antioch) and became predominant, eventually being ruled in the Council of Laodicea.

[imardmd1]

That rest has not yet come to pass, and will not until (1) spiritually, the lost and restless person is saved by complete, total trust in Jesus Christ as Lord, and (2) physically, the Second Coming of the Messiah to establish His Kingdom of Righteousness and Peace on the Earth.

From Marvin Vincent's "Word Studies":

Hebrews 4:9

There remaineth therefore a rest (ἄρα ἀπολείπεται σαββατισμὸς)
Remaineth, since in the days of neither Moses, Joshua, or David was the rest appropriated. He passes over the fact that the rest had not been entered into at any later period of Israel's history. Man's portion in the divine rest inaugurated at creation has never been really appropriated: but it still remaineth. This statement is justified by the new word for “rest” which enters at this point, σαββατισμὸς instead of κατάπαυσις, N.T.^o , ^olxx, ^oClass., signifies a keeping Sabbath. The Sabbath rest points back to God's original rest, and marks the ideal rest - the rest of perfect adjustment of all things to God, such as ensued upon the completion of his creative work, when he pronounced all things good. This falls in with the ground-thought of the Epistle, the restoration of all things to God's archetype. The sin and unbelief of Israel were incompatible with that rest. It must remain unappropriated until harmony with God is restored. The Sabbath-rest is the consummation of the new creation in Christ, through whose priestly mediation reconciliation with God will come to pass.

For the people of God (τῷ λαῷ τοῦ θεοῦ)
For the phrase see Rom_9:25; Rom_11:1; 1Pe_2:10. and comp. Israel of God, Gal_6:16. The true Israel, who inherit the promise by faith in Christ.

[Yosemitest]

Should We Keep the Sabbath ?

That's the most asinine question I've read in years.
Ant the warped logic the writer comes up with is also NUTS !
Only Satan himself could have come up with such CONFUSION, as the writer of this garbage wrote !
Jesus himself throughout most of the Old Testament destroyed cities and nations for NOT Keeping the Sabbath, and His Father's Commandments !
Jesus himself KEPT THE SABBATH !

But leave it to Satan's FALSE CHURCHES to TRY to CONFUSE the issue, and CHANGE TIMES AND LAWS !

[imardmd1]

Exactly what is meant by resting in Christ, with His Righteousness imputed to the true believer.

[imardmd1]

This is referring to the Sabbath rest instituted in Genesis 2:2 after Creation.

This kind of Sabbath has never happened again since Sin entered the world, and with it, death (of the body, not the everlasting soul).

BTW, what did God do on the eighth, ninth, tenth, . . ., hundredth, etc. day? Start creating again? Or was it finished on the sixth? Where is the order to stop work on the 14th? I don't see it.

If Adam, his wife, and his children were now subject to being workaholics:

Genesis 3:17-19 AV: 

"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife,

and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it:
cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life; 
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground;
for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

I would have thought that if these Gentiles were to have a day off once in a while, it would have been mentioned here, right away, since God is issuing a new work schedule, eh? Adam, of course, is now a child of Satan, as a sinner no longer the child of God, Hmm?

Does Satan give days off working for him?

I'd think this thing through, if I were you, Bob.

[imardmd1]

God calls it sin. Sin being the transgression of His Law.

Only to those who are under the Law. Under Grace, with the righteousness of Christ being imputed to the believer in Him, God says judicially, "Not Guilty!"

Take it or leave it, you can't have both.

[imardmd1]

But Jesus never overturned the observance of the Sabbath.

Oh?

"And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him,
because he had done these things on the sabbath day. 
But Jesus answered them,
My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God" (Jn. 5:16-18 AV).

What do you make of that, FRiend? 

[imardmd1]

Don't be a donkey on this. Read the header of this article. It was written by James A Borland, in 2003.

Walter Martin, the founder of CRI, died in 1989. We all know this, but I have Dr. Walter Martin's book on cults, which SDA are, and it says the same thing. Please do not bring up the Handegraaff thing to discredit the author of this fine article.

This is about Keeping the Sabbath, not about Eastern Orthodoxy, so please do not try to hijack the discussion for your own purposes.

[imardmd1]

This is twice now. You may stop this, since it was the article on Sabbath that I chose to post, not on Handegraaff.

[imardmd1]

The first day of the week is the day that first century followers of Jesus chose to commemorate His death, resurrection, and ascendance on the day the Holy Spirit formed His Church, the Temple of the Holy Spirit.

The Hebrew Sabbath has not changed. The Hebrew does not have the liberty to change it. But to observe the Sabbath means to stay home and forsake any work not necessary. It does NOT mean to get all dolled up and "go to church."

The implementation of the commandment was:

"See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day" (Ex. 16:29 AV). There it is, observe/keep the Sabbath, or not? Under Moses, the penalty was death. Before Moses, there is no indication in Scripture that anyone kept or was commanded to keep the Sabbath. None. Any thing otherwise is simply opinion. But the Bible does say:

"For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law,
these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;..." (Rom 2:14-15 AV).

Did the Gentiles from Adam on observe the seventh day? There is simply no evidence, no information, and you cannot form a doctrine on lack of information.

[the_daug]

Help me out here; where does God’s sabbath become the Jewish Sabbath? Peter can not make God a liar. The only apostolic succession is Matthias in Acts to replace Judas. Then Jesus chooses Saul a persecutor of the church to be apostle (sent one) to the gentiles. The sect of Christendom that claims authority to change the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first use the tradition of Sunday to support their claim. Any protestant who say the law was nailed to the cross and maintains Sunday as their requirement for Sabbaths support the claim unwittingly.

[brucedickinson]

I’m just going by what the Bible says

[brucedickinson]

here is a fairly good article on the subject of the 3rd and 4th Temples:

http://www.templemount.org/TM34.html

[trebb]

And< 8Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 10and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

11But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

Jesus did a miracle by healing the cripple and what the religious (old school) folks saw was the guy doing a small bit of work on the Sabbath.

[Ezekiel]

Hmmm, oddly I never thought of it like that, from the interaction of the words and names inherent in the imagery.

I can be slow, so thanks!

[af_vet_1981]

Help me out here; where does God’s sabbath become the Jewish Sabbath

It was a commandment to the children of Israel. The Jews kept the Sabbath and the Sabbath kept the Jews. The one holy catholic and apostolic Church began to use the First/Eight day as the Christian day of worship as early as the First Century and that tradition was passed on and persisted with the exception of a very few restorationist movements.

With respect to the Jews, the story begins with manna, as it were.

And Moses spake unto Aaron, Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, Come near before the LORD: for he hath heard your murmurings. And it came to pass, as Aaron spake unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and, behold, the glory of the LORD appeared in the cloud. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God. And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the LORD hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the LORD hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the LORD hath said, To morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the LORD: bake that which ye will bake to day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day is a sabbath unto the LORD: to day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the LORD said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey

...

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it

...

Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God

Exodus, Catholic chapter sixteen, Protestant verses nine to thirty one

Exodus, Catholic chapter twenty, Protestant verses eight to eleven

Exodus, Catholic chapter thirty one, Protestant verses thirteen to eighteen

as authorized, but not authored, by King James

[af_vet_1981]

Please do not bring up the Handegraaff thing to discredit the author of this fine article.

Whether the article is fine or not is for each reader to decide for himself. The website from which an article is posted provides a backdrop, as it were.

This is about Keeping the Sabbath, not about Eastern Orthodoxy

If that were true, a large host, rather than a small modern restorations movement, of Christians would be observing the Jewish Sabbath (Saturday) instead of the Christian day (Sunday). That is not happening as nearly all Christians follow the tradition of the First/Eighth Day of the Week Observance, Sunday while the Jews continue to keep the Sabbath, the Seventh Day.