The Fourth Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it Holy
The following New Testament references pertain to the Fourth Commandment regarding keeping the Sabbath:
Matthew 12:8, 12; 24:20; Mark 1:21; 2:27-28; 6:2; Luke 4:16, 31; 6:5; 23:56; Acts 13:14, 42, 44; 15:21; 16:13; 17:1-2; 18:4; Hebrews 4:4, 9-10 [Notice the marginal rendering at Hebrews 4:4, 9 in the King James Version or read a modern English translation, most of which make the reference to the Sabbath clear (See the Amplified, ASV, BBE, NASB, NIV, RSV and NRSV translations)].
I believe that though the fourth commandment regarding the Sabbath is mentioned in the NT in narrative context, it is never once cited as a commandment to be kept by those who believe in Christ.
The Sabbath Commandment was given exclusively to the Hebrews, the Jews, and never to the Gentiles, except those Gentiles who resided in Israel or lived among the Jews (Exodus 20:10, “thy stranger (foreigner) that is within thy gates”).
The portion of the Mosaic Law considered to be binding upon the Gentiles is stipulated in the New Testament in the apostolic decision recorded in Acts 15:28, 29,
Act 15:28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
Act 15:29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
The Sabbath observance is NOT included among “these necessary things” for the Gentiles, or the Church. Surely, to the Jewish mind, as opposed to the renewed mind of the Christian (Romans 12:1, 2), the Sabbath was a central issue, as was the immediate issue of Circumcision in context.
There is not one example of Christians meeting for specifically Christian worship on the Jewish Sabbath in the New Testament.
There is not one word urging us to keep the Sabbath in any of the apostolic writings in the New Testament.
The Law (all Law) as a principle was nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:14).
Col 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
See also Ephesians 2:15,
Eph 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
I have elsewhere read and heard some state that the Mosaic Law was fulfilled and abolished by the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, but NOT the Ten Commandment Law engraved in stone written by the finger of God.
It sounds like a possible distinction until you read further in the New Testament where Paul states at 2 Corinthians 3:7, 8,
2Co 3:7 But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:
2Co 3:8 How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?
The KJV is rather obscure for many modern readers; the English Standard Version for 2 Corinthians 3:7, 8 reads
2Co 3:6 who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
2Co 3:7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end,
2Co 3:8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?
Note Paul states:
(1) The letter kills.
The “letter” has reference to the Law as contained in the Hebrew Scriptures. It “kills” because no one can keep it perfectly (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Only our Lord Jesus Christ has perfectly kept the law. He came to fulfill the law, not destroy it (Matthew 5:17, 18). That does NOT mean the Law still stands.
The issue is that the Hebrew Scriptures state there are two roads to eternal life; one is to perfectly keep the commandments, Leviticus 18:5,
Lev 18:5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.
See also Ezekiel 20:11, 13. Luke 10:28. Ro 10:5. Galatians 3:12. As Jesus said once, “this do, and thou shalt live” (Luke 10:28). The other is justification by faith, following the example of Abraham in Genesis 15:6.
Gen 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
(2) The Spirit gives life.
The life spoken of is eternal life, and a regenerated life as a new creation in Christ, which is absolutely not available on the principle of works (you cannot work enough, or never know if you have; besides, Paul tells us we are not saved by our works, but by faith, faith which then produces works pleasing to God, Ephesians 2:8-10).
Paul teaches that if we walk in the Spirit, we shall fulfill the requirements of the Law by the Holy Spirit who lives in the saved believer and produces the fruit of the Spirit Paul details in Galatians 5:22, 23,
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Note carefully what Paul teaches in Galatians 5:18,
Gal 5:18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
(3) The Law that brings death specifically includes the Ten Commandment Law
That the Law brings death is stated in Romans 6:21 and Romans 7:5,
Rom 6:21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
Rom 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
2Co 3:7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone,
Clearly, it was the Ten Commandments that were carved in letters on stone.
And those Ten Commandments, for those who are depending on keeping them for eternal life, do not bring life, but death.
Some think that because the Sabbath existed before the giving of the Law in the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath Commandment is not included in that which Christ abolished on the Cross. It is true that the Sabbath was probably a pre-Mosaic institution, like the Tithe, but as it is still a matter of Law, it cannot lead to eternal Life. Dependence to any degree whatsoever upon any Law is contrary to Christ,
Gal 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Gal 5:7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
Gal 5:8 This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
Gal 5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
Thus Paul warns an error in what may seem to us a minor matter is deadly serious, spiritually.
Paul does not forbid observing the Sabbath, neither does he encourage it. Paul forbids anyone from criticizing another believer either for observing it, or for not observing it, or for criticizing which day, if any, one chooses as a or the day of worship. See Romans 14:5, 6 and Colossians 2:16,
Rom 14:4 Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.
Rom 14:5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Rom 14:6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it….
Col 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Col 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
Col 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Col 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
I guess that if someone insists on Sabbath Keeping, they better be keeping the New Moons too!
An interesting passage in Scripture which many very good scholars have mistakenly interpreted to refer to the Sabbath is Revelation 1:10,
Rev 1:10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
To suppose that the expression used here by John, “on the Lord’s day,” has any reference to the Sabbath is a violation of a simple, standard rule of interpretation. Only later was the expression “the Lord’s day” used of the Sabbath, not in New Testament times. Therefore, it is wrong to assert that this expression as used by John refers to either the original Jewish Sabbath or the somewhat later usage which applies it to the so-called “Christian Sabbath” or Sunday worship.
There is not one line in either the Hebrew or the Greek Scriptures, our Old Testament and New Testament, that indicates the Sabbath was ever changed to a different day. The Sabbath in Scripture as it relates to the fourth commandment always has reference to worship or rest on the Seventh Day, not the First Day. But as Christ rose from the dead in bodily resurrection (there is no other kind of resurrection!) on the First Day, many Christians observe the First Day as the day of worship, in accordance with New Testament Christian practice (Acts 20:7 and 1 Corinthians 16:2).
On a more technical note in reference to Revelation 1:10, some scholars have suggested that the expression “the Lord’s day” in Greek is a reference to the differently expressed “Day of the Lord” in Hebrew.
To me, this would seem to be the best explanation of Revelation 1:10, because it avoids importing a later meaning into the New Testament text. It also seems a better explanation because it fits the context of the book of Revelation, where most of the events depicted there will indeed take place in the future, during “the Day of the Lord.” John thus asserts that what he saw were events to take place in that dreadful time.
So, are we to ignore the Ten Commandments, or the Nine still left? Paul argues we keep the commandments by walking in the Spirit, and so we are not under the Law. The commandments still in full force today are the commands of Christ, which include “love one another,” and what John tells us additionally in 1 John 3:23, 24,
1Jn 3:23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
1Jn 3:24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.Rev 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
those who set up sabbath keeping today are trying to do what israel did in the old testament of trying to set a merit system with god. rom 10/3-4 for they being ignorant of the gods righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness,have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of god. in rom 1/17 he says the “just by faith”, rom 3/22 even the righteousness of god which is by faith of jesus christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference,ii co 5/21 for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,that we might made to righteousness of god in him, in gal 5/3-4 christ is become no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law:ye are fallen from grace, paul says in ph3/9 and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law,but that which is throught the faith of christ, rom 10/4 christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. in rom 3/28 therefore we conclude that a man is justiied by faith and not by the works of the law, rom 8/3 for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh god sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin the flesh. the one who says we must keep the sabbath to gain merit b4 god is to preach another gospel ga1/6 and fallen from grace gal 5/3-4 the hymn “at calvary” so beautifully says o the love that drew salvations plan o the grace that brought it down to man mercy there was great and grace was free there my burdened heart found liberty at calvary!!
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Thank you for the “ping back.”
Whether automated or not, it is most important that we do Real Bible Study to get at the truth God has placed in His written Word, the Bible.
I hope there will soon be some genuine readers who come here and actually read and study what I’ve written, and place some comments whether in agreement or not.
Ken – The Law – all law, the 10C and the ceremonial law can not save any one. People can keep the Sabbath and do it not to earn brownie points for salvation. Jesus showed us what true Sabbath keeping was about. He demolished the Jewish concepts of Sabbath keeping and was accused of being a Sabbath breaker.
Admin makes the statement that the Sabbath was given exclusively to the Hebrews. Yet acknowledges that is was instituted before Sinai. What did Israel do right after leaving Egypt? See Exodus 16 – they kept the Sabbath. And the Manna fell 6 days/week, but not on Sabbath. This was not the beginning of the Sabbath, it was a restoration of the Sabbath.
Acts 15:28-29 is not an all inclusive list of “rules” for the gentiles to keep. It is now ok to steal? Is it ok to lie? It is ok to covet? Your argument on this point of from a negative – what is not said.
Admin made the comment that “There is not one example of Christians meeting for specifically Christian worship on the Jewish Sabbath in the New Testament.”. Understand that many Christians were Jews. They did meet in the synagogues.
2 Corinthians 3 – The law kills – it had NO POWER to save. We are saved only by Jesus Christ. Jesus did not destroy the Law (Matthew 5:17-18), he came to fullfill the law, to explain it.
Genesis 15:6 – Believed God – had Faith in God, TRUSTED God. We are saved and have only ever been saved by trusting God.
The Law points out our flaws. It is the CT Scanner of the soul. CT Scanners only have the ability to diagnose. They do not have the power to cure. The cure comes when we trust the physician. Romans 7:12ff Paul says the Law is holy, just and good. And the Law does not kill! Sin kills! The law points out our sin, and it does not save.
Paul after his conversion was a changed man. No longer did he use force against those that he thought were law breakers. Force does not work, see Zechariah 4:5. I see that in Romans 14 and Colossians 2. Yet many are quick to accuse.
Revelation 1:10 – “Lord’s day”. You are correct that this was applied to Sabbath keeping hundreds of years after it was penned by John. But not 7th day Sabbath keeping, Sunday keeping. Sunday acquired the name “Lord’s day”. Never was Sunday ever prescribed to be the day of rest in the Bible. Jesus is the “Lord of the Sabbath”, Matthew 12:8 and Luke 6:5. In fact, Jesus “rested” in the tomb on Sabbath. He also rested on the Sabbath after the creation. Genesis 2:1-2 compare with John 19:30.
You made the comment that those who keep the seventh-day Sabbath should also keep the new moon. Why do you say this? The new moon was not part of the 10C. And, there were other Sabbaths other than the weekly Sabbath. These ceremonial Sabbaths all pointed to the work of redemption, they pointed to Christ. The seventh day Sabbath was instituted before the entrance of sin on this planet. It pointed to the Creator even before the entrance of sin. (Genesis 2:1-2)
1 John 3:24 and Revelation 22:14 you quoted, I’ll include Revelation 14:12. We are saved (healed) by Christ and Christ alone. Yet, there is a work for us to do. We much CHOOSE to follow God, Joshua 24:15. In this day, we have pressure on all sides to counter God. Evolution is a big thing creeping into the Christian church. The Sabbath shouts, that God is the creator. That God is the source of life. That God is the savior.
a.way thank your for your points you make. i am saying the law as a rule of life was done away at the cross, rom 10/3-4. paul says in rom 7/12 the law was holy,just,and good. it truly showed us the holiness of god. paul tells us the purpose of the law in rom 3/20 “for by the law is the knowledge of sin”. the sabbath was a part of the mosaic law that was done away with at the cross. james says in 2/10 for whosoever shall keep the whole law,and yet offend in one point is guilty of all. we now observe i co 16/2 the first day of the week we are under grace as rule of life as believers rom 6/14 living our lives before the lord out of gratitude i thess 5/18 rather than bondage ii cor 3/17 now where the spirit of the lord is,there is liberty. v18 but we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the lord, also jn 4/23-24 but the hour cometh,and now is, when the true whorshippers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth: for the father seeketh such to worship him,vs 24 god is a spirit,and they that worship him in spirit and in truth. amazing grace how sweet the sound that save a wrench like me!! sinner saved by grace!
Ken – you would not argue that we are are new free to steal, or murder, or covet. You would not argue that we are to take the Lord’s name in vain, or to make graven images. We are to Love the Lord with all our hearts, mind and strength and our neighbors as ourselves. To take your argument a little further, you are suggesting that we are now commanded to keep the 1st day of the week in place of the 7th day Sabbath? If the Sabbath is done away with, it is completely done away with. As Admin has said, there is no NT commandment to keep the 1st day. Those who keep the 7th day are not doing to win God’s favor. No. No. For God so loved the world that he gave His son, John 3:16. The 7th day is a sign of our trust and freedom we have in God.
Isaiah 58:13-14 AKJV If you turn away your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words: (v14) Then shall you delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
But as Paul said, let everyone be persuaded in their own mind. Romans 14:5. No force, no coercion, for those are not God’s methods.
Is the Sabbath a part of the Law?
The Bible says it is, or at least demonstrates by inclusion as one of the Ten Commandments that it is.
The Law brings death.
The Law cannot bring Life, for it has no inherent power to do so.
It is impossible for any man to perfectly keep, without violation, the Ten Commandment Law of God. Remember that James declared that to offend in one point is to make oneself guilty of all (James 2:10). The Bible declares “For there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not” (Ecclesiastes 7:20). Further, the Bible declares (at Proverbs 20:9), “Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?”
So, why place such emphasis, why the intense focus, upon the Fourth Commandment, the Law of the Sabbath?
Of the Ten Commandments, surely it is the Fourth Commandment that for Christians NO LONGER APPLIES.
In the New Testament it is NEVER ONCE recorded that Christians, even Jewish Christians, met for SPECIFICALLY CHRISTIAN WORSHIP on the Sabbath.
Of course, all of the first Christians were Jews. Many continued to worship as Jews in good standing in the Temple or at their local synagogue, but not in specifically Christian worship. Christians met on every day of the week in house-fellowships or home churches to break bread, fellowship, and teach the Word of God.
Paul and other Christians attended the Synagogue on the Sabbath on a regular basis not for Christian worship, BUT FOR CHRISTIAN WITNESS in obedience to the command of Christ to preach the Gospel to the JEW FIRST, in the order prescribed by the command of Christ recorded at Acts 1:8.
This attendance by Christians on the Sabbath Day at Jewish worship services for opportunities of Christian Witness furnishes no valid evidence that Christians ever observed the Sabbath in New Testament times for the express purpose of specifically Christian worship!
We know the Sabbath Commandment no longer applies because it was given exclusively for the Jews, never extended as an obligation to the Gentiles, except for the very limited set of Gentiles living in Israel among the Jews.
We know the Fourth Commandment no longer applies because NEVER ONCE in the New Testament is the Fourth Commandment made a matter of obligation to believers in Christ who are saved by faith in Him, members of the church, which is His body, a new group unrelated to the nation of the Jews, Israel.
Acts 15:28, 29 records the official decision by the early church under Divine Inspiration (“For so it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us”) just what aspects of Mosaic Law are obligatory to the Gentiles.
Two, perhaps three principles are enunciated. First, it involved an issue that the Apostles had given “no such commandment” (Acts 15:24), and some who “went out from us” who insisted upon requiring Circumcision were guilty of “subverting your souls.” But this was not the only issue, for these errorists not only taught it was needful to circumcise Gentile believers, but it is also stated they said it was needful “to keep the law of Moses” (Acts 15:5).
The second principle is addressed by Peter when he confessed “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Acts 15:10). This echoes what Jesus taught in Matthew 23:4, and even more it reflects what Paul wrote in Galatians 5:1-4.
The third principle underlying what was included to select the prohibitions that applied to the Gentiles, by implication, is what I call the “stumbling block principle,” elsewhere taught by both Jesus and most particularly by Paul. This doctrine may be traced in Scripture by means of the cross references starting at Romans 14:13 in either The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge or Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible. The matters included in the prohibitions were particularly offensive to Jewish sensibilities, or practices prevalent among the Gentiles. Thus forbidding fornication is certainly a prohibition already covered by the Ten Commandments, where by a common figure of speech frequently employed throughout the Bible, the command forbidding adultery forbids all other sexual sins.
This is not merely an argument from silence. One religious group in this country has made the memorable point that they speak where the Bible speaks, and are silent where the Bible is silent. The principle is clearly authorized by Scripture by the phrase “to whom we gave no such commandment” (Acts 15:24).
Surely the New Testament is silent on purpose on the issue of the Sabbath Commandment as a command, for it is not a commandment Christians are obligated to obey.
We know the Sabbath Commandment no longer applies, for if it did, Paul could not have written under the pen of Divine Inspiration in our Bible that the keeping of the Sabbath is a non-issue.
But Paul did admonish us that the Sabbath Command, as it pertains to favoring a specific day to observe it, is a matter for each individual to determine. Paul states some insist on a particular day, others esteem every day alike. See Romans 14:5, 6.
The point Paul makes in Romans 14:5 is NOT merely that this is a matter of “no force, no coercion.” The point Paul makes is that as a matter of the freedom we have in Christ, Sabbath Observance is a non-issue altogether.
Surely the other nine commandments, including thou shalt not steal, or murder, or covet, are matters which ARE specifically addressed in the New Testament as commands that are morally obligatory for believers in Christ. The Sabbath Commandment is NEVER so addressed to believers in the pages of the New Testament.
Isaiah 58:13-14 is a wonderful text regarding the Sabbath addressed to the Jews of Isaiah’s time. According to several passages in Jeremiah, had the Jews heeded this promise in Isaiah the whole matter of the destruction of Solomon’s Temple and deportation to Babylon and other nations would have been totally avoided. But these are matters of history that pertain exclusively to the Jews in Israel, not the New Testament Church.
Believers in Christ are not about observing the Sabbath, or keeping the Ten Commandments. Paul points out that true believers who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God walk in the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit in their lives, against such there is no law.
Those who focus upon Law, or Law keeping, or the Ten Commandment Law, are proceeding on the wrong footing.
Paul warns they are proceeding on principle that can only lead to spiritual death.
Surely no one who possesses spiritual life in Christ has any desire to move in that direction.
And just what exactly was, and what was not, “nailed to the cross,” as mentioned in Colossians 2:14?
This matter of the focus upon the Sabbath and the Fourth Commandment is directly related to one or more violations of the Rules of Interpretation careful Bible readers observe, rules I spelled out in some detail in two prior postings on this site.
This is a vast subject, much more so than almost any readers at this site would ever begin to imagine. I have studied it intensively and exhaustively in my preparation of the notes I placed on this subject in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. Right now I have a manuscript of over 1000 pages I am reviewing on this very subject, so my studies continue.
I therefore much appreciate A. Way’s significant contributions to this subject, and am delighted to see this ongoing discussion, and I would wish that still others vitally concerned would join in on it here.
I may at a later point place portions of this Reply as a new article for wider attention and more discussion.
Admin – you said:We know the Sabbath Commandment no longer applies because it was given exclusively for the Jews, never extended as an obligation to the Gentiles, except for the very limited set of Gentiles living in Israel among the Jews. The Sabbath is not the Jewish Sabbath, it is the Sabbath of the Lord. Deuteronomy 5:14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God. You acknowledged that the Sabbath predated Sinai. It predated the Jews. Being instituted at creation, it applied to everyone.
Another issue I have with your interpretation is that one keeps the Sabbath in order to be saved. There are certainly people who do keep the Sabbath for that reason. The Law never could save. We are saved by Jesus. Act 4:12.
Post Biblical notes: Christian services – if there were uniformity in though in the very beginning, they why is it we see Sabbath observance through the ages. Patrick (aka St. Patrick) was a Sabbatarian. Many places kept Sabbath through the centuries after Christ.
If Sabbath was an exclusive Jewish institution, why do you have “Sabbath” associated with the 7th-day in so many languages. One thought is that as the descendants of Noah spread out over the earth, they took the knowledge of Sabbath with them. Just a few, Hebrew – Shabbath or Sabbath. Ancient Syriac: Shabbatho. Hausa (central Africa), Aseebatu or The Sabbath. Kurdish (Kurdistan) Shamba or Sabbath. Turkish (Osmanlian; Turkey) Yomessabt or Day the Sabbath. Malayan (Sumatra) hari Sabtu or Day Sabbath. Malagassay (Madagascar) Alsabotsy or The Sabbath. Swahili (East Africa) Assabu or The Sabbath. Hungarian (Hungary) Szombat or Sabbath. Spanish (Spain) Sabado or Sabbath. Russian (Russia) Subbota or Sabbath. I could go on. But the point is, the 7 day week cycle is wide spread around the globe, and the word for the 7th day in well over 100 languages is “Sabbath”, or has a meaning of day of rest. That, is not an exclusive Jewish idea.
Dear A. Way,
You bring up interesting and informative points.
It is possible that the Sabbath is pre-Mosaic, like the tithe. It is clear that the tithe existed at the time of Abraham. But it is not so clear that the Sabbath was actually observed as a regular day of rest or rest and worship at that time. We only have early evidence that time was divided by what we call the week of seven days, not that believers from that time observed the Seventh Day as a day of rest.
That the Sabbath became associated with “rest” is clear from Genesis 2:2, 3. But I must study further before I can unequivocally state that Genesis 2:3 marks the establishing of the Sabbath as it is reflected at the time of Moses. The statement in Ge 2:3 may well be a comment of Moses that pertains not to the historic time which he records, but to its application in his own day. As I stated in my New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge note on Genesis 2:3, “Some would argue this account is given by “prolepsis,” and assert there is not even a single allusion to a sabbatical rest until the Mosaic law. However an allusion to the sabbath may be discerned at Genesis 4:3, margin and Genesis 29:27. Furthermore, the sabbath is mentioned in Exodus 16:26-30, prior to the giving of the law in Exodus 20.”
Careful reading and close study of the early chapters of Genesis will show any interested reader that there must have been an extensive divine revelation communicated to man long before the time of Moses.
One of the books in my collection here, Hebrew Ideals, reflects this.
I do not make the distinction between “Hebrew” and “Jew.” Surely the Abrahamic Covenant was given to a specific nation, the Hebrew nation, which clearly is the Jewish nation. Therefore, to assert a necessary distinction appears to me unwarranted by the Biblical evidence.
I have not stated that one keeps the Sabbath in order to be saved. I have been very careful not to suggest that you hold this view.
There may be some among the Seventh Day Adventist faith who subscribe to this error, but those I have personally met, and their authors I have read, do seem to understand that salvation is not based upon our works, but upon our faith in Christ. NEVERTHELESS they all, without exception, show a tendency toward legalism in the matter of Sabbath keeping. They incorrectly insist that worship must be on Saturday, the Sabbath, to be correct and in keeping with the Fourth Commandment.
I have proven by Scripture that for the Christian, the day and manner of worship is absolutely A NON-ISSUE. To make it an issue of any kind parallels the doctrinal error of the Galatian Heresy Paul wrote the book of Galatians to correct. In the Greek text of Galatians Paul asserts most forcefully that even the slightest tendency in this direction is heresy, makes the death of Christ of no effect, resulting in falling from grace, which is clearly loss of salvation.
Some (staunch adherents to the Seventh Day Adventist Faith) claim that the Sabbath Commandment has never been abrogated, it is still in force, and all Christians should therefore worship on the Saturday Sabbath. This is clearly an error, not in accordance with New Testament Biblical revelation.
Every church which holds to relatively exclusive “doctrinal distinctives” is in error on those distinctives when they go beyond the express declarations of Scripture.
Such distinctives violate the Rules of Biblical Interpretation because they result in a misplaced focus that distorts the communication of the truth of the Bible.
Our doctrinal emphasis, to be correct, must conform to the same focus, emphasis and balance of doctrinal truth that is given us in the Bible. We can see the error readily when it is engaged in by others, though it is nearly impossible to spot in ourselves unless we engage in serious cross reference Bible study.
When we study the Bible by means of extensive cross references, we will be caught up short when what we believe does not fit what Scripture teaches. This is the Law of Non-contradiction at work, and for the sensitive reader, it is most effective, such that the Bible is a self-teaching, self-correcting Book. It will both teach and correct us if we will read it with open mind and heart.
It is permissible to disagree on non-essentials of the faith. Such non-essentials may well include such things as differing views on the Lord’s Supper–though some views like the Roman Catholic view reflect the heresy of sacerdotalism and would in Bible terms mean loss of salvation for those who hold such views. The Lutheran view violates the principle I mentioned in my preceding reply regarding the stumbling block doctrine at Romans 14:13 and related passages, particularly the large number of cross references I gathered on this theme at 1 Corinthians 8:9.
The mode of ritual water baptism–whether sprinkling, pouring, or immersion, is a non-essential issue unless one is a Baptist. But since the Greek word for “baptism” is a non-modal word, the New Testament does not assert what the mode should be. Since there are absolutely no instances of the immersion of persons in water for any religious purpose whatsoever in Scripture, immersion as a mode is unsupported by any Biblical evidence, though it is certainly permissible as a choice.
So for differences in view in prophetic interpretation–most views are no doubt mistaken, but it is not a matter essential to salvation. After it has all come to pass we’ll know for sure who was right!
You mention that the word “Sabbath” is found across many languages. Since I have spent a lifetime studying linguistics (my major in graduate school), I enjoyed your comment immensely. I think it indeed points to an original revelation from God related to what I mentioned above, an original revelation communicated in the very early days of Genesis, whether to Adam and Eve or the Patriarchs of old.
In my studies of ancient mythology, I find that Noah and his Ark are found in many cultures. I do not think the Bible account is mythology at all, but an accurate record of what really happened.
Now, as to just which day of worship, Saturday or Sunday, was practiced in the New Testament Church and by subsequent early Christians, by the express testimony of the earliest Christian writing outside the New Testament that we have, it is firmly asserted that Christian worship on Sunday, not the Sabbath, was the practice back to the time of Christ’s Apostles or Disciples themselves. The comment was written at a time when those who knew the original apostles were still a living memory.
St. Patrick was not Roman Catholic in his belief or original association, but apparently a genuine Bible-believing Christian. Should it be that he chose to worship on the Sabbath I find that to be no problem.
In the light of what Paul asserts in Romans 14:5, 6 it is not wrong to observe the Seventh Day Sabbath. Neither is it wrong to observe the First Day of the Week or Sunday for Christian worship reflecting the day Christ rose from the dead.
Paul declared this to be a non-issue, about which every person has the right to decide for themselves which day, if any, is chosen for worship. Paul makes reference to those who esteem every day alike. I think that is the best choice, and no doubt represents Paul’s own position. Surely, in context, he suggests those who are involved in such issues are the weaker brethren in the faith, according to the first verses of Romans 14.
Now back to my question: what do you believe was and was not “nailed to the cross” as discussed by Paul in Colossians 2:14?
Admin – you said: “I have proven by Scripture that for the Christian, the day and manner of worship is absolutely A NON-ISSUE. ”
Hm – Not what my catholic friends say. Not what most of my protestant friends say. Not what my Mormon cousins would say. Not what my Seventh-day Baptist cousins would say. Nor the Seventh-day Adventists or the Church of God, and for that one, I would need to clarify, the Church of God, seventh day, as there was a schism in that church when H. W. Armstrong died. Many “Christians” insist on a particular day of worship. As for the Bible, there is only one day, and that was the Sabbath. There is no imperative for Sunday. Most Christians I know do many things for “legal” reasons, not just the Sabbath keepers. And really, many do not know why they believe what they claim to believe because they do not read the Bible for themselves. And that is why I found your site, “Real Bible Study” interesting.
Oh, the Chinese have a flood story. The one who saved the people in the flood was Nuwa. And the old Chinese symbol for boat, is a the combination of vessel, eight, and mouths, or vessel with eight mouths. The symbol for a man is the combination of the symbols for dust, alive, walking.
i have a friend who worships with other believers on saturday evening his church offers several different times for worship services. he doesnt particpate in these services because he is keeping the sabbath, he desires to worship the lord in spirit and truth and because he is blessed in the beloved eph 1/3-6. the lord looks on the heart i sam 16/7! in heb 10/19 having therefore,brethren,boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of jesus, vs20 by a new and living way, which he hath conscecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; vs21 and having an high priest over the house of god: vs 22 let us draw near with a true hear in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. someone has well said “the lord desires the worship of our hearts before the labor of our hands” jn 4/23-24 “for the father seeketh such to worship him”. worship is a way of life not just a particular day of the week!
Dear A. Way,
Of course we can’t go by what any church says, or what our friends say, but must carefully determine what the Bible says!
Thank you so much for your content-packed responses. I enjoy them.
I hope you will attempt to answer my question, What do you believe was and was not “nailed to the cross” in Colossians 2:14?
This is a most important question, so I look forward to your answer.
Thank you, Ken, for your excellent, Scriptural participation in this discussion!
In considering Colossians 2:14 – first I think we will agree that Christ was nailed to the cross. What prefigured the coming Messiah? The service of sacrifice and offerings pointed to the coming Messiah. With the sacrifice of Jesus, their meaning had ended. The veil was torn, and God had been revealed, Matthew 27:51. The lamb of God was the perfect and complete offering.
But – Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yes, we establish the law. 1 John 2:4 He that said, I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. John 14:15 If you love me, keep my commandments.
Read Nehemiah 9:6-15. And particularly note this in verses 13 and 14: Nehemiah 9:13-14 You came down also on mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: 14 And made known to them your holy sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses your servant:
The 10C are “true laws”, “good statutes and commandments”. And God “made known to them” His holy Sabbath. It does not say he instituted the Sabbath, but made it known to them, implying it predated Sinai.
Colossians 2:14 is in the context of Colossians 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Note – this is talking about philosophy, traditions of men, not Christ. The Sabbath of the OT hardly rests on “hollow deceptive philosophy” (NIV) or “human tradition”.
In Colossians, note that Paul holds that Christ it not only the Savior, but the Creator, and he holds all things together, Colossians 1:15-17. Christ IS the God of Israel. But it IS the Savior also. Colossians 1:18.
Christ also exposed the principalities and powers. Believers have been rescued “from the power of darkness” (Colossians 1:13), under whose sway they were “estranged and hostile in mind”, (Colossians 1:21). He recalls their submission to “the elemental spirits of the universe” (Colossians 2:8, 20), “the rulers and authorities” (Colossians 2:15), “the ruler of the powers of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). This is Satan. Christ, “made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them” (Colossians 2:15 see NKJV)
Christ is the creator. Christ is the savior. The symbol of the creator is the Sabbath. Gen 2:1-2. When Christ finished His work of redemption, which included the exposure of the evil forces, he rested in the tomb on the Sabbath day. Does the Savior have a symbol different than the Creator?
Again, we are not saved by keeping a day. We are saved by Christ. But again, Isaiah 58 comes to mind.
Dear A. Way,
Thank you for a prompt and detailed response to my question.
At the moment I am assembling more cross references for Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible.
I plan, Lord willing and enabling, to return to the issues you have brought forward to discuss them further.
Thank you for your gracious, patient, and continuing input.
Admin – Psalms 119, the longest book in the Bible. Not far from Psalms 117, the shortest. Psalms 119 – they word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. Is that always true? Does his Word stand forever?
Deuteronomy 4:2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish ought from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Admin – you made the claim that the Law of Moses was, particularly the 10 Commandments were for the Jews only. I say 10C, because you said that the Sabbath was only for the Jews. Yes, there is evidence that the Sabbath was kept before there were Jews. And we see evidence in the world languages that give hints to this. But I want to address particularly the law given to the Jews. The Jews were God’s people. What were the Jews supposed to do? Who were they to represent? A hint at this is found in Deuteronomy chapter 4.
Deuteronomy 4:5-8 See, just as the LORD my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. (v6) You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” (v7) For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? (v8) And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
The Sabbath is central in this. For what does the Sabbath mean? I have already written about how the Sabbath is a sign of freedom. But there is so much more. The Sabbath was a great equalizer. No body was to work, you, nor your son or daughter, nor servants or slaves, nor strangers, nor even the animals. All were to have rest. This speaks to social justice. And the satellites to the Sabbath, the rest for the land every seventh year. And the equalizer of all social justice the Jubilee year, where land reverted back to the original owners, and debts wiped out. Think of how that would apply today! Mega-companies would have to give back the land. Even the slacker would be made whole and given a new start. This brings in the idea of ecology and social justice for all.
The nations were to observe Israel and they would marvel at their laws. If Israel had fulfilled their purpose, what would the world have been like? God’s rule would have spread. Instead, Israel failed. And as a direct result of not observing the Sabbath for the land, Jerusalem was captured, the temple destroyed, and the people went into captivity for 70 years. One year for each missed Sabbath year for the land. What does this say about ecology?
Exodus 23:10-11 And six years you shall sow your land, and shall gather in the fruits thereof: (11) But the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie still; that the poor of your people may eat: and what they leave the beasts of the field shall eat. In like manner you shall deal with your vineyard, and with your olive grove.
Leviticus 26:28-35 (28) Then I will walk contrary to you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. (29) And you shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall you eat. (30) And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcasses on the carcasses of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. (31) And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the smell of your sweet odors. (32) And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. (33) And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste. (34) Then shall the land enjoy her sabbaths, as long as it lies desolate, and you be in your enemies’ land; even then shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths. (35) As long as it lies desolate it shall rest; because it did not rest in your sabbaths, when you dwelled on it.
Leviticus 26:43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lies desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes.
2 Chronicles 36:16-21 (16) But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy. (17) Therefore he brought on them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. (18) And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. (19) And they burnt the house of God, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. (20) And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: (21) To fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfill three score and ten years.
Of course Israel did not fulfill the roll given to them. The Sabbath was tramples. See Amos. Nehemiah, and Isaiah.
The Sabbath was made for Man. Mark 2:27. There is much wrapped up in the symbolism of the Sabbath. The Sabbath tells us much about the kind of person God is. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. keeping the Sabbath in and of itself does not save. We are saved by God. The Sabbath was made for us to help us to know God and understand his ways. His social and ecological justice. We must know God. John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. You have said that the Sabbath was done away with. But what was the purpose of the Sabbath? And has that purpose diminished at all? I see in the Sabbath, God is Love. 1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. (8) He that loves not knows not God; for God is love.
The Sabbath is a symbol that God is love.
psm 119 is an amazing chapter in the word of god many of my favorite vs are in this psm and almost every verse is a prayer or a praise of the word of god! vs 176 has always been a blessing and challenge when one reads this psm i think the man who the lord used to write this psm was a man of god and yet he prays this prayer in the last vs i have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy servant; for i do not forget thy commandments. what a prayer! he recognized his inner weakness of the old sin nature is ever with us rom 7/18 for i know that in me[that is,my flesh,]dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me;how to perform that which i would not,that i do. prov 4/23 has a good word for us”keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. we will never reach a point in our spiritual growth where we dont need to depend on the lord for his strengthing and power eph 3/16 that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man;vs 17 that christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye,being rooted and grounded in love,vs 20-21 now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,according to the power that workedth in us,vs 21 unto him be glory in the chuch by christ jesus throught out all ages, world w/o end amen. this is a daily battle we are called to warfare with world,flesh,devily the great news of the gospel the lord has already defeated them at the cross and we can walk in his victory!
I am still in the midst of my work on Psalm 119. I think I have reached verse 68 of my current “step” in a procedure that requires many steps.
I was away from home most of the day yesterday, so I took along my “nook,” where I have downloaded PDF resources to study when I can’t be at my computer.
Because of the very fine, challenging comments above from A. Way, I decided to do further study on the Sabbath issue.
I have learned from further study that there is absolutely not a line of Biblical evidence to support a pre-Mosaic institution of Sabbath worship on a continuing and recurring basis.
The Sabbath is never once mentioned by that term anywhere in the book of Genesis.
The text of Genesis 2:3 does not institute any ordinance for worship. And unlike the other days of the Creation account, the day God rested does not close.
The Sabbath was only instituted for the Hebrew nation after they left Egypt, after the Exodus.
It was instituted in conjunction with the gathering of daily Manna. On the sixth day the Hebrews were directed to gather twice as much as none would be furnished on the Seventh Day.
Recall that Manna gathered any other days of the week could not be stored for use the next day, for it would spoil. But the Manna gathered the Sixth day could be saved for use the Seventh Day without spoilage or putrification. The Manna kept in the Ark as an abiding testimony in Israel was kept permanently without spoilage over many generations until the Ark itself was destroyed. There is no doubt some good typological significance in all this.
Some of the people went out on that Seventh Day looking for Manna, and found none, and greatly displeased the Lord.
But note what the commandment entailed: they were to remain quietly at home and remain in their house, doing no work. The meals for the Sabbath Day, or the Seventh Day, were to have been made ready on the Sixth Day.
Until that moment in Scripture history there was never an example, command, or instance of the Jews, or Hebrews (or anyone else) regularly stopping all work for rest on the Seventh Day.
In Egypt, the Jews worked continuously, and were not given a day of rest, weekly or otherwise.
This fact undoubtedly underlies the disobedience of some of the Jews who, without thinking it a consequential matter, went out like normal on the Seventh Day or newly instituted Sabbath for that is the way they had always lived and worked.
God placed the ordinance of the Sabbath in the Law as the Fourth Commandment to insure the Jews would always remember to hold that day sacred and inviolable, except for permitted works of necessity and mercy, as our Savior emphasized by His own example. Jesus cited both the Law and the history (of David and his men) recorded as examples justifying His stance that it was perfectly legal to heal on the Sabbath or provide for other absolute necessities.
That word “remember” in the Sabbath Commandment, “Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy,” does not indicate that the Sabbath had long been a practice in former times but since forgotten and was then being renewed. Rather, the command prospectively requires Jews in time future to the giving of the Command in the Table of the Law to remember it as a special sign given only to them to keep that Day as a Day of Rest.
God compared the Rest of the Sabbath to His Rest in Creation, but this must not be understood to suppose that in the historical time of Genesis that the Patriarchs were aware at all of any such connection, of which the Genesis Record is absolutely silent.
Furthermore, once the Sabbath was instituted, the Bible in the Old Testament is filled with references to the fact that the Jews were constantly being reproved for violating it.
There are no references to Sabbath violations in the Patriarchal history as given in Genesis!
This would confirm that the Sabbath was not a matter of Divinely instituted observance in those days.
The fact that the Fourth Commandment is a “sign” also has great significance, for just as Jesus fulfilled the type of the Manna, so He fulfilled the type of the Sabbath Rest, offering us eternal Rest in Him if we will come to Him in faith (Matthew 11:29, 30. Hebrews 4:9).
The existence of the term “week” and the counting of time by weeks in segments of seven days does not argue for the existence of the practice of keeping the Sabbath Rest, or for a weekly time of worship every seven days. No particular day is set aside in the Genesis record for a stated recurring day of worship. See the use of the term “seven” in Genesis 7:10, where for the New Treasury and my ongoing project to expand the cross references for use in software or electronic format, I need to add the additional cross references to Genesis 8:10, 12 and Genesis 50:10.
That is far as I got in my studies while waiting in my cold and darkening car yesterday while my wife and her mother waited in line for the free food distribution Grandma is entitled to.
But I trust that all who may chance to read here will note a very important principle of Bible study, Real Bible Study, at work here: I have had to modify, even correct, a position I held before on the basis of new evidence found by careful study in the Bible itself.
If we approach any doctrinal or otherwise Biblical Issue with the attitude that “I must be right, therefore, regardless of additional evidence proffered, I cannot change my view,” the Bible is a closed book to us.
When you do Real Bible Study, always be prepared to learn something new! Sometimes, learning something new involves correcting a previous understanding we thought was right, but proved not to be so.
That happened to me yesterday. Has this been happening to you? Has it ever happened to you?
If it hasn’t, you’ve not been doing Real Bible Study!
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.
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
The day was blessed and sanctified. In the commandments, what is commanded – to keep it holy and not work. It was a day dedicated to the LORD. It became a perversion. Jesus showed us true Sabbath keeping and it was against the commandments of men. (Col 2:8). Isaiah 58:13-14 If you turn away your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD [the LORD’s day], honorable; and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words: (v14) Then shall you delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
Did Abraham keep the Sabbath? We don’t have it in the Bible. But he did pay tithe? Why? And as I pointed out before, in over 100 languages of the earth, the 7th day is called Sabbath. This echos to the post flood, pre-Israel Biblical story of the tower of Babel when the world’s languages were formed and men spread out over the earth.
In the Isaiah prophesy of the earth made new, there is presented that the Sabbath will be celebrated. Isaiah 66:22-23 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, said the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. (v23) And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, said the LORD.
And read Deuteronomy 4-8. What commandments is being talked about in these chapters?
Deuteronomy 4:2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish ought from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Deuteronomy 4:13 And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them on two tables of stone.
Deuteronomy 4:40 You shall keep therefore his statutes, and his commandments, which I command you this day, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days on the earth, which the LORD your God gives you, for ever.
Deuteronomy 5:10 And showing mercy to thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Deuteronomy 5:29 O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!
Deuteronomy 5:31 But as for you, stand you here by me, and I will speak to you all the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to possess it.
Deuteronomy 6:1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go to possess it:
Deuteronomy 6:2 That you might fear the LORD your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged.
Deuteronomy 6:17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you.
Deuteronomy 6:25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us.
Deuteronomy 7:9 Know therefore that the LORD your God, he is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;
Deuteronomy 7:11 You shall therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command you this day, to do them.
Deuteronomy 8:1 All the commandments which I command you this day shall you observe to do, that you may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to your fathers.
Deuteronomy 8:2 And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God led you these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you, and to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or no.
Deuteronomy 8:6 Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him.
Deuteronomy 8:11 Beware that you forget not the LORD your God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command you this day:
Take the last one, “Beware that you forget not the LORD your God.” The Sabbath is a reminder of who God is. Maybe that is its biggest roll, to remind us of God. Reread Deuteronomy chapters 4 to 8. What is God requiring the people to do?
The Sabbath was corrupted through the years. Jesus, the LORD of the Sabbath, showed us true Sabbath worship. Many of his healing miracles were performed on the Sabbath. Echoes of Colossians are in Mark. Mark 7:7-9 However, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. (v8) For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things you do. (v9) And he said to them, Full well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your own tradition. So a Question – is the Sabbath a commandment of men or of God?
Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Revelation 14:12 Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
Revelation 22:14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.
Compare the following verses?
Deuteronomy 4:2 You shall not add to the word which I command you, neither shall you diminish ought from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Revelation 22:18-19 For I testify to every man that hears the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add to these things, God shall add to him the plagues that are written in this book: (v19) And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Of all the 10 commandments, which one has been taken away or changed? Only the 4th, 3rd of you are Catholic, the Sabbath commandment.
Romans 14:5 Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
I thought I’d do a little word study on Genesis 2:3.
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Sanctify – what does this mean? It is Strong number,
Oops – it the wrong button…
Gen 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Sanctify – what does this mean? It is Strong number, H6942. It is interesting that the word “holy” in Exodus 20:8, is the same Hebrew word!
Exo 20:8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Holy is this verse is H6942.
Gesenius in the Hebrew Lexicon defines this word as this: “To pronounce holy, to sanctify; to institute any holy thing, to appoint.”
And they appointed Kedesh in Galilee in mount Naphtali, and Shechem in mount Ephraim, and Kirjatharba, which is Hebron, in the mountain of Judah.
In this verse, “appointed” is H6924, same word used in Genesis 2:3 and Exodus 20:8. This appointment, or sanctification, of the cities of refuge was a public announcement to Israel that these cities were set apart for that purpose.
Joel 1:14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
Sanctify – same word, H6942. Here it is used for the appointment of a public fast, and for the gathering of a solemn assembly. Same word here: Joel 2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: . 2 Kings 10:20 And Jehu said, Proclaim a solemn assembly for Baal. And they proclaimed it. (proclaim – sanctify – margin).
Exodus 19:23 And Moses said unto the LORD, The people cannot come up to mount Sinai: for thou chargedst us, saying, Set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it.
This verse was a command to the people not to touch even the border of the mountain, for God was about to descend upon it. Thus to sanctify, to set apart for a holy use, this was Mount Sinai. So, to sanctify the rest-day of the LORD, was to tell Adam, that he should treat the day as holy to the LORD. The 4th commandment looks back at creation, for it was the day the LORD rested. “God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it”, that is, set it apart to a holy use. That fact that the word Sabbath is not used in Genesis, does not mean it was not instituted at creation. Sabbath means rest. Compare Genesis 2:3 with Exodus 20:11.
Genesis 2:3 And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Exodus 20:11 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.
Sanctified and hallowed – same word H6942. Same basic wording between the two statements.
Exodus 16:23 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:
Moses is simply stating here a fact. And this before Sinai! The seventh day was made holy at creation, it had not changed, and Moses was just stating this fact.
How about the charge that the Sabbath was only for Israel. I’ll take the testimony of Jesus. Mark 2:27 And he said to them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
Here, there is no adjective before “man”. We can take man in the broadest sense, and that is all. How about some scripture to support this? Sure!
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Job 14:12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
1 Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man:
Man in these verses is not Israel, but all men. The Sabbath was given to Adam, the head of the whole human race. Was the seventh day sanctified when the manna fell, at Sinai, or at creation? The record shows that the holy Sabbath was already in existence when the manna fell.
Hebrews 3:4 For every house is built by some man; but he that built all things is God.
The Sabbath points straight at the creator. Creation is evidence of his eternal power and Godhead – it distinguishes him from false gods.
Jeremiah 10:10-12 But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation. (v11) Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. (v12) He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Psalms 33:9 For he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
Hebrews 11:3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
If man (generic term = all men) had kept the Sabbath, to keep it holy, do you think we would have atheism today? Keeping the Sabbath points to the creator of all things.
Josephus, the historian writing 2000 years ago wrote: “Moses says that in just six days the world and all that is therein was made. And that the seventh day was a rest and a release from the labor of such operations; WHENCE it is that we celebrate a rest from our labor on that day, and call it the Sabbath, which word denotes rest in the Hebrew tongue.” Antiquities of the Jews, book 1, chap. 1, sec. 1.
Philo, and contemporary of Josephus writes: “But after the whole world had been completed according to the perfect nature of the number six, the Father hallowed the day following, the seventh, praising it, and calling it holy. For the day is the festival, not of one city or one country, but of all the earth; a day which alone it is right to call the day of festival for all people, and the birth-day of the world.” Works, vol. 1, The Creation of the World, sec. 30.
Was the Sabbath only a shadow of man’s redemption? That is not what Genesis 2:3 says. In fact, the Sabbath was instituted before man’s fall! Thus the Sabbath points to God and his power. So, was the Sabbath one of the “carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of reformation” (Hebrews 9:10) echoing back to your question on Colossians 2:14
Hebrews 9:10 AKJV Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
Colossians 2:14 AKJV Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
How about the silence in Genesis on the Sabbath? Remember that the book of Genesis was not a rule book given to the patriarchs to walk by. It was written 2500 years after creation. The patriarchs were dead! That certain precepts are not found in Gensis is no evidence that they were not obligatory upon the patriarchs. There is no command to love God with all your heart, and thy neighbor as yourself. No prohibition of idolatry, blasphemy, disobedience to parents, adultery, theft, false witness, or covetousness. Were the patriarchs under no such laws? The book of Genesis was written long after the events described had occurred, it was not necessary that the book contain the moral code. Then Moses reaches his own time, the book of Exodus, that the whole moral law is recorded.
Genesis does not talk about the resurrection of the body. Does that mean there is no resurrection? Genesis does not talk about the judgment day. Does that mean there is no judgment?
Admin – is you are still reading 🙂 you noted that the Patriarchs reckoned time by weeks and by seven of days. ( see, Genesis 29:27,28; 8:10,12; 7:4, 10; 50:10, Exodus 7:25; Job 2:13; ) The week had its origin at creation. That the Patriarchs should keep the week and forget the Sabbath by which the week is marked, is not a probable conclusion.
Adam lived 930 years and preserved a knowledge of God on the earth. Adam was alive until Lamech, the father of Noah was 56 years old. Shem, Noah’s son lived until Abraham was 150 years old. (If I have the math right 🙂 ). Abraham, the father of the faithful.
Genesis 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Dear A. Way,
I am indeed still reading, and I always appreciate your detailed input!
You wrote in your comment above, “That fact that the word Sabbath is not used in Genesis, does not mean it was not instituted at creation.”
That could possibly be the case IF it were not the case that the Bible elsewhere clearly states when the Sabbath was instituted, and under what circumstances.
Since the Bible most clearly records in detail for us the setting of the original institution (nothing in the account suggests it is a re-institution!) of the Sabbath Ordinance, there is no need to invent a prior record of an earlier institution when all evidence for such is totally lacking.
I gave the details in a comment above. The Sabbath was instituted for the Hebrew nation, the Jewish people, AFTER their miraculous Exodus from Egypt.
They did not celebrate or keep the Sabbath while they were in Egypt. Neither are they at all criticized for not having done so.
They could not have kept the Sabbath before the miraculous provision of Manna detailed in Exodus 16, because that is the record in Scripture of when the Sabbath was instituted.
There is no hint anywhere in Scripture that the Sabbath as a weekly day of rest, or day of rest and worship, a day when no work was to be performed, ever existed before the miraculous provision of Manna, when they were instructed to gather enough on the sixth day to tide them over on the seventh day until the provision was again given on the eighth day or the first day of the following week.
The statement in Genesis 2:3 in its immediate context does not at all suggest that the Seventh Day was to be kept regularly as a day of rest and worship.
It is indeed interesting to trace the very words of Scripture as you have done very nicely. Word study is indeed important, and a profitable and necessary method of Bible study, when used correctly!
There are several hazards to avoid when engaging in word studies. One hazard is failing to account for the grammatical relationships the word is associated with in its varied contexts. I don’t find this an issue when studying about the Sabbath Ordinance, but it becomes the central issue when studying the doctrine of the Atonement.
Another hazard pertains to the matter of definitions. It is possible to fasten upon a lexical definition and then “run with it” in a manner that ignores the actual usage of the word in its many contexts. This is a most prominent error of many writers on the subject of the mode of baptism. It took James W. Dale five long volumes (bound in four) to explore all the usages and ramifications of just one Greek word, ‘baptizo,’ to determine its proper lexical use. Contrary to the prevalent error of immersionists, the Greek word does not mean what so many modern lexicons suggest. Lexicons in this case are “slanted” to appeal to Baptists and baptistic churches who would not stand for a lexicon to tell the truth when it does not support their notions.
There is another problem that must be carefully avoided, though, commonly called the “Word Study Fallacy.” Among several problems, perhaps the chief problem is that studying individual words must always be done carefully in the light of the immediate context of each occurrence of the word.
This is where you may have failed in your analysis. Though the same word used in Genesis 2:3 clearly appears in many places later in the Hebrew Scriptures, even in the account of the institution of the Sabbath Ordinance itself, this does not provide valid evidence for asserting the presence of what is not there–a command or example of keeping the command for Sabbath observance, to keep it Holy, as a matter of weekly observance that includes the suspension of all labor on that day, prior to the account of the Exodus from Egypt.
I believe that if Moses had the “hard evidence” from documents of history God provided him, or direct divine revelation by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration to record the historic institution of the Sabbath Commandment in the time of the Patriarchs, he would surely have recorded it for us.
The case as it stands, however, is that there is no such evidence given in Scripture, so the assertion can not be properly affirmed.
This is especially the case when we have the explicit revelation of when the Sabbath was instituted, and the precise circumstances at the giving of the Manna and the requirement to gather twice as much on the sixth day so no work would be done on the Seventh Day. In that context the institution is clearly something new, not a re-establishment of what was observed in former times.
Prior observance of the Sabbath Ordinance is never affirmed in Scripture as having ever occurred before the Exodus from Egypt. This is Biblical FACT directly asserted in the account of the institution of the Sabbath in Exodus 16, affirmed by all the subsequent references to the Sabbath in the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Tithe is altogether different for the Tithe is expressly mentioned as having been observed at least once in the account we have of Abraham.
As much narrative material as we have about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not to mention the life of Joseph, not once is the matter of the Sabbath Ordinance ever mentioned. The most likely explanation is that it is not mentioned at all because no such institution was known to them.
In terms of what can be known of ancient history from records that have survived to our time, it can be positively stated that Sabbath Observance, involving a regular stated day of rest, or rest and worship, only existed among nations which were influenced by the presence of Jews. No other nation had any knowledge of the Sabbath Ordinance except that knowledge derived directly by observation of the practice of Jews living among them. Of logical necessity, this knowledge would only exist after the Exodus from Egypt.
Admin, I sense that you have not followed my argument on the book of Genesis. You also did not argue on Jesus’ comment. Here it is in several translations.
Mark 2:27 AKJV And he said to them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
Mark 2:27 GNB And Jesus concluded, “The Sabbath was made for the good of human beings; they were not made for the Sabbath.
Mark 2:27 NRSV Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath;
Mark 2:27 NIV Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Does this verse say that the Sabbath was made for Israel? No. The Sabbath was made for mankind, humankind, man. This of course includes Israel, but this statement is not an exclusive statement for just Israel. And human language confirms this.
I realize you have made up your mind. I know you believe that the Sabbath was not kept before leaving Egypt. I know the Sabbath is not mentioned by name after the 7th day was sanctified. I know this. I have given you numerous Bible verses. You reject my use of the term word study, which is a real puzzle to me because cross-references are linking verses with the same word thought. Abraham clearly had been given commandments and laws. I think we can determine them. Here are two verses have linked thoughts and for which my TSK does not have a cross-reference, clearly showing some of the limitations of using just a cross-reference in doing real Bible study. I use a Bible search tool to search multiple Bible translations at once. Putting in “my commandments” “my laws”, I come up with only two verses that have these two word strings in a verse, Genesis 26:5 and Exodus 16:28. I throw in verse 27 because it helps complete the thought. Context is very important in real Bible study.
Here are my conclusions from these two verses. The seventh day was an integral part of the commandments of the Lord to Moses. This is without question. We know that the seventh day was sanctified at Creation. Abraham obeyed the voice of God, and kept his commandments and laws. To me, this is evidence of Abraham keeping the Sabbath.
Genesis 26:5 AKJV Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
Exodus 16:27-28 AKJV And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. (28) And the LORD said to Moses, How long refuse you to keep my commandments and my laws?
Dear A. Way,
You state that you realize that I have made up my mind.
You must agree, just by reading my own comments on this “thread,” that I have changed my mind on the basis of most careful and extensive study, study I am currently conducting as a result of your very fine, insightful challenges.
So, you are having an impact, and this is what I very much appreciate about your excellent contributions in this study.
I sincerely trust, however, that the impact of Real Bible Study goes both ways. Just as I have been prompted to more carefully study some finer points in Bible doctrine as a result of your kind comments, I trust you are likewise carefully reading and digesting what I have been writing here in response to you.
I am pleased to learn from your latest post that you have and use the TSK.
The reason I am working on developing the cross references further is for exactly the problem you state: it currently lacks reference to many valid connections which ought to be there.
I had already made a “mental note” based on what you had previously commented to go back to Genesis 26:5 to do more study to provide more complete references to this very striking and most important verse.
I, too, have Bible study software on my computer. I use the e-Sword program, which is available for free download from http://www.e-sword.net, a program which is very helpful to me in my studies.
I also have a rather full version of the Logos e-Bible software either installed or ready to install on this computer. I used that software to create Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible.
I use the KJV+ version in the e-Sword program which presents the “Strong Numbers” for every word. Then I do a search on that Strong Number, and all the instances of that Hebrew or Greek word are displayed.
As the references now given for Genesis 26:5 currently stand in either the original Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, or my expansion of that work in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, or my consolidation of that work in Nelson’s Cross Reference Guide to the Bible, the only keyword I furnished for the verse is “obeyed,” to which I have furnished 14 cross references and some most significant emphasis markings to show where more related cross references are found, to the original Treasury of Scripture Knowledge which had no keyword and 13 references given for this verse. I intend to furnish additional keywords and more references to the existing keyword for this verse.
I am still working on Psalm 119, and have now reached verse 114 in my current step of the process I am using.
Mark 2:27 is a long ways ahead of the place where I am doing my current research, but the Lord willing, and enabling, I will give it most careful extended consideration when I reach that point, motivated by your reference to it.
So once again, thank you for your input. You may be sure I read, re-read, and study carefully all you present!
I trust you do the same in return with what I have written.
I look forward to more of your input.
Remember my premise about what Real Bible Study is: we must be willing to change our mind when presented with new evidence we had not considered or known about before, every time we study the Bible, whenever it happens that what we newly learn serves to correct the opinion we held before.
admin – I now know for sure, I’m out of my league with respect to Bible study experience, this was just confirmatory, I already knew it. Since finding your site, I have spent a lot of time in the Word. I use e-Sword also! It is an excellent program.
Yes – I’m open to evidence, and that evidence must be internally consistent and fit the Bible as whole. The following is my current understanding of the Sabbath in the books of Moses.
1) It originated in paradise, in Eden, when man was upright. Was the Sabbath a test of obedience? NO. There was only one test of obedience in the Garden, and that was the tree. On this point, many I think today view the Sabbath as an arbitrary test of obedience.
2) The Hebrews were set apart from all mankind as keepers of the Oracles of God. (Romans 3:2) All of mankind were idolaters. Many of the Hebrews were Idolaters, but a knowledge of God was preserved among them. (1 Kings 19:18)
3) The Sabbath, and the whole of the moral law, written on the tablets of stone were committed to the Hebrews as a sacred trust.
4) The Law was not Jewish law, but God’s Law. It was placed beneath the mercy-seat in the Ark of God’s testament.
5) Some laws pertaining to keeping the Sabbath were designed for the Jews, such a not building a fire when they were in the desert. This was not a perpetual law, but one designed for the circumstances and was thus particularly Jewish (Exodus 35:3). It is not part of the 10C.
6) The wording of Exodus 16 to me indicates that the Sabbath predated the wilderness of Sin. In deed, it appears the Moses and Aaron were attempting Sabbath reform even earlier. Exodus 5:5 And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and you make them rest from their burdens. Even so, the Hebrews did greatly pollute the Sabbath in the wilderness, Ezekiel 20:13, and it part of the reason they spent 40 years wandering.
7) The law (10C) is perpetual. (Matthew 5:17; Deuteronomy 4:2; Exodus 31:16; Isaiah 66:23 ).
8) The 10C as given in Exodus is the original form. The second giving of the law in Deuteronomy 5 points to the original, but is not the original. It is Moses speaking soon before his death, and as such is not directly quoting, but admonishing the people to keep the Law. Deuteronomy 5:12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD your God has commanded you. The key wording “your God has commanded you”.
I’ve been doing reading in the book Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived in perilous times. The Kingdom of Judah was on the verge of being taken captive. Israel had disappeared. In Jeremiah 1:5, it reads, “I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” This work in Hebrew (H1471) it taking about the heathen, the Gentiles. Jeremiah was God’s messenger to not only Judah, but the Gentile nations as well. And was included in his message? Read Jeremiah 17.
Jeremiah 17:22 AKJV Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do you any work, but hallow you the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
Jeremiah 17:24 AKJV And it shall come to pass, if you diligently listen to me, said the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;
Jeremiah 17:27 AKJV But if you will not listen to me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
Is the Sabbath exclusively a Jewish institution? The evidence is that the Sabbath was known before it was given on Sinai, (Exodus 5:5; Exodus 16; Genesis 29:27-28 (definition of a week) ) Jeremiah is not only giving the word of the Lord to Judah, but to all nations.
I read the following quotations this last week, I wonder what y’all think?
Sunday is a mark of our authority.—Catholic Records; London Ontario, Sept. 1, 1928
Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles…From the beginning to the end of Scripture there is not a single passage that warrants the transfer of the weekly public worship from the last day of the week to the first.—Catholic Press; Sydney, Australia, August 1900
Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the [Roman Catholic] church has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought logically to keep Saturday as the Sabbath.—John Gilmary Shea; American Catholic Quarterly Review, Jan. 1883
It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church.—Priest Brady; Elizabeth, New Jersey; News; March 18, 1903
I have a bunch more, but I think you get the picture.
Note to admin: I will email you the document where I found these quotes which has many more which might interest you.
Dear A. Way,
I am looking forward to receiving the document from which you obtained your quotations given in your comment above.
I, too, find the Jeremiah 17 passage most interesting.
It clearly stipulates that no commercial activity of any kind is allowed the Jews on the Sabbath, represented by the expression “and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day;” (Jeremiah 17:27). The “gates of Jerusalem” or the gates of any city in Israel were the business district where commerce was conducted.
But notice, if the Sabbath was intended for the Gentiles outside of Israel (which it is not, and never was, nor in this age will it ever be), the Sabbath must be observed exactly as commanded.
The Sabbath Commandment included the prohibition of any work. All in Israel who observed the Fourth Commandment observed it in their home privately by observing total rest.
The Sabbath as instituted by Moses in the Law was not a day of public worship at all.
In the Hebrew Scriptures there does not seem to be any suggestion of group worship in a congregational form like we may associate with the Sabbath or Sunday today.
In Israel, worship did not occur on a weekly basis, except as conducted by the priests and Levites at the Temple in Jerusalem, worship which appears to have been representative for the whole nation. Jewish men were required to come to Jerusalem three times a year, as I recall, for special designated times of worship. At large in Israel worship on the Sabbath Day did not take place except by families in their own homes, far as I read.
Violation of the Sabbath regulations merited the death penalty in Israel, though the record does not tell us how often that penalty was actually exacted in practice, showing that even in Israel proper the Sabbath was not being properly enforced in accordance with God’s Law revealed to Moses.
Those who would saddle Bible believing Christians with some form of Sabbath worship today, based upon a particular day of the week to be set aside for worship, have most conveniently for themselves abridged the Sabbath Commandment to fit their own convenience today, taking only so much as is palatable to them. Would-be Sabbath Keepers today are by the standards given in the Law of Moses for the Fourth Commandment actually Sabbath Breakers.
But the Institution of the Sabbath is meant to be a picture for us, what is in Bible study often called a “type,” depicting the offices and work of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ, who completely fulfilled it, such that it is no longer an obligation or binding upon Christian believers, any more than Circumcision (which is a Pre-Mosaic Institution) is religiously binding upon Christian believers today.
As for the Bible supporting Christians observing Sunday as a day for specifically Christian worship, surely you are most aware that the disciples met together in the upper room, the doors being locked, for fear of the Jews, on that momentous occasion when our Lord Jesus Christ entered the room, though the doors remained locked.
Paul urged the Corinthians believers to set aside upon the FIRST day of the week on a regular basis their contribution being gathered to support the poor saints in Jerusalem in that difficult time.
I said before, and assert again, there is not one example of Christians meeting for specifically Christian worship on the Jewish Seventh Day Sabbath, not one.
Jewish Christians did at first attend Jewish services on the Sabbath where they were there for Christian witness in accordance with the command of Christ to first preach the Gospel to the Jews (Acts 1:8). Apparently, however, this stage of Christian ministry was soon expanded to regions beyond Jerusalem, unto the uttermost part of the earth. Recall that Saul, later renamed Paul, persecuted Christians by authority, such that Jewish Christians would no longer find it possible to bring the message of Christ to the Jewish nation in the Synagogues, for the message was officially rejected and condemned by its official leaders resulting in the death of Stephen. At that point in early Christian history it is certain that Christians no longer, even for witness, met with Jews in Sabbath worship.
The actual pattern observed among the earliest Christian converts as recorded in the book of Acts is that they met on a daily basis, and from house to house. I think that Hebrews 3:12, 13 may allude to this practice when it commands us to “exhort one another daily.”
Thus, when Paul asserts that some esteem every day alike, he lends further testimony that worship, ministry, and fellowship among Christian believers took place on a daily basis, with no focus upon an institutional ritual form that was uniformly observed on the Seventh Day Jewish Sabbath.
Admin – surely you are aware that there is much evidence that the disciples meeting on Sabbath in the Book of Acts.
Acts 13:14 AKJV But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and sat down.
Acts 13:42-46 AKJV And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles sought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath. (43) Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. (44) And the next sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. (45) But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spoke against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. (46) Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, see, we turn to the Gentiles.
Why did not Paul and Barnabas meet with the Gentiles on Sunday instead of Sabbath in Sunday was the proper day?
And in Jesus’ own words:
Matthew 24:3 AKJV And as he sat on the mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world?
Matthew 24:14 AKJV And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations; and then shall the end come.
Matthew 24:19-21 AKJV And woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! (20) But pray you that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: (21) For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Perhaps I should post this Matthew quotation in your other active thread about the thief on the cross and about the tribulation…
admin – you mentioned the story of the disciples meeting behind locked doors. It is told in John 20 and Luke 24 and Mark 16.
John 20:18-19 AKJV Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the LORD, and that he had spoken these things to her. (v19) Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the middle, and said to them, Peace be to you.
The doors were shut why? Because they were afraid. They assembled in fear, not for worship, nor to celebrate the resurrection. In fact, they did not believe he was resurrected when told!! Luke 24:11 AKJV And their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not.
Sunday is not the symbol of the resurrection. What is? See 1 Peter 3:21
———————
How about Acts and the first day of the week? One commentary says there are as many as 84 Sabbath gatherings recorded in the book of Acts. Only one gathering mentions the first day of the week and it does not support Sunday sacredness.
Acts 20:7 AKJV And on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.
Read this in the NEB,
Acts 20:7 NEB When the disciples came together to break bread, on the Saturday night in order to assemble for the breaking of bread, Paul, who was to leave the next day, addressed them, and went on speaking until midnight.
This is interesting. An evening meeting on the first day of the week. The Sabbath had ended at sunset. (Evening and Morning the first day – Gen 1:5) The first day of the week by Bible reckoning starts at sunset. the NEB puts this in modern idiom calling it Saturday night. Paul continued his speech until midnight on Saturday evening. Evidently, Paul had visited all day Sabbath with them, and was persuaded to stay on that night and speak further. Acts 20:11 AKJV When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.
Paul did not stay on the Sunday, which would have been natural to do with this was the new Sabbath. Paul instead left on a long journey by foot, something that would never have been sanctioned on the Sabbath day.
Also, the fact that the disciples met and broke bread on Sunday does not support Sunday worship as the disciples met every day of the week.
Jerry,
A thought came to me last night…
Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall join to his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
I think you would agree, this is the origin of marriage. It is not called marriage, but there is the term wife.
Question: was marriage instituted by God? Was marriage only given to the Jews? Was marriage given to all humanity? When the command says, “thou shalt not commit adultery.” Was this for just the Jews? Is it OK to commit adultery if you are a non-Jew?
You need to of course be convinced in your own mind, but in Genesis 2:2-3, same chapter, God sanctified the seventh-day and set it apart. This is the origin of the Sabbath. It was given in the beginning, and given to all humanity. Sabbath appears in over 100 languages of the world. The Jews knew the Sabbath. They were the keepers of the oracles of God (Romans 3:2). They were to take the good news of God to the world. As a nation, they failed. Yet a few did come of from the Jews and God used them.
One thing is clear. Sunday is not the Sabbath. It can’t be. It never will be, at least by the command of God. Some will think to change times and laws (Daniel 7:25), but this is contrary to the word of God. Matthew 5:18.
Dear A. Way,
It is a delight to welcome your comment as the first comment of this new year!
The answer to your assertions are found in my comments above for December 11, and also December 12, 2010 on this discussion thread.
I stated,
No one has the authority to institute what God has not chosen to institute!
The Sabbath is NEVER MENTIONED, NOT EVEN ONCE in the Hebrew text of the book of Genesis!
The Sabbath was first instituted after the Exodus from Egypt upon the miraculous giving of the Manna, when the newly freed Israelites were directed to gather twice as much the day before the Seventh Day, when no Manna would be provided, to tide them over until the Eighth Day, or First Day of the following week.
What I have stated is absolutely true to the written record God Himself has provided in His Inspired Word.
Careful Scriptural observation of the institution of the Sabbath as revealed and recorded in the Bible would let us know:
(1) The Sabbath has only been given to the Jews, and was only observed by the Jews and what few Gentiles lived among them in their land.
(2) The Sabbath Commandment or Sabbath Law was accompanied by permanent accompanying provisions which, if disobeyed, merited the death penalty.
Recall the only specific legal case recorded in the book of Numbers where a man was sentenced to death for picking up sticks on the newly instituted Sabbath Day.
(3) The Sabbath in Scripture was not a day of group or congregational worship such as Christians may experience today: the Jews were instructed to remain at home on the Sabbath for strict rest.
(4) The Sabbath requirement of “bear no burden on the Sabbath” continues for the Jew who would wish to obey and actually observe the Sabbath as instituted by Moses and commanded in Scripture. Jeremiah 17 presents a scathing warning to the Jews for disobeying every and all provisions of the Sabbath Laws. Their continued disobedience brought about the terrible destruction of the Temple and deportation of the Nation.
But a careful study of all of Scripture will prove, when one includes the New Testament revelation by our Lord Jesus Christ, that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Sabbath, once for all, making the Sabbath complete, such that the Sabbath and its accompanying restrictions no longer apply to those who believe in Him.
(5) Since absolutely no one that I am aware of, unless it may be the very strictest and most meticulous of the Orthodox Jews in Israel, observes the Sabbath as it was originally appointed by God’s direct command to be observed today, everyone who attempts to observe the Sabbath today according to their own convenience rather than in full accord with the stipulations of Scripture are constituted Sabbath Breakers according to the Word of God.
For whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in even one point, is guilty of all!
No wonder the Apostles under Divine Direction and by Divine Inspiration concluded, as recorded in Acts 15,
It is most dishonoring to the completed work of Christ to suggest that His Work did not fulfill, and therefore totally annul, the institution of the Sabbath.
It is perfectly fine to worship God on any day one pleases, including every day, as Paul asserted. But it is contrary to Scripture in the extreme to insist that for Christians the Jewish Seventh Day Sabbath is the most correct day to worship. Paul’s comments in Romans 14:1-6 ought to totally disabuse any careful reader of the Bible, as I am sure you are, of any such notion.
Jerry,
Did you ignore my question on marriage?
You are correct, that the Sabbath is not mentioned in the book of Genesis. Let me ask you a question – when was the book of Genesis written? What was it written in relation to all the other books of the Pentateuch? Might they have been written in fairly close proximity to each other? That is when Genesis was written, it was not a lot of time different from when Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers were written? The discussion on the Sabbath in the other books was in light of the origin of the Sabbath spoken of in Genesis.
We are rehashing old ground. Genesis 16 does not institute the Sabbath, it assumes that Sabbath is already known. Exodus 5:5 implies rest and it is entirely possible that Aaron and Moses where trying to re-institute the Sabbath in Egypt, but could not because of the oppression of Pharaoh.
As for calling the Sabbath a heavy yoke, I offer Isaiah 58:13. The Sabbath is not a burden. If it is, then perhaps one does not understand it right.
As for marriage, I see where you can not say that Sabbath was instituted in Genesis, and that it was not for all mankind. (Even though Jesus Himself said that Sabbath was made for “man” – not specifically Jew). Marriage is in the same chapter. Marriage was made for all mankind, not just the Jews. Do you agree? If Marriage, then the Sabbath too, thus you can’t have the Sabbath starting in Genesis.
In the TSK, on Genesis 4:3, I find a note that suggests that this event perhaps was taking place on the Sabbath. There is mention in Genesis of the week. What defines the week but the Sabbath?
Happy New Year!
“The Sabbath is NEVER MENTIONED, NOT EVEN ONCE in the Hebrew text of the book of Genesis!”
Genesis 2:2-3 KJV 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. (v3) And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
rest – Hebrew Strong word H7673 – Shabath. Used twice in these verses. rest=Sabbath. It is not in the English, it is in the Hebrew. The seventh-day was sanctified. What does that mean to you Jerry, I’m curious?
1/1/11 Happy New Year!
Dear A. Way,
The Hebrew word you mention is actually a similar but yet distinctly different word in the Hebrew. I seem to recall that the difference is as if Sabbath were spelled with one “b” as opposed to being spelled with two “b’s,” so the words are not the same.
Genesis does speak of the seventh day, but never the Sabbath, though as you mention, I placed a note at Genesis 4:3 in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge showing that the “end of days” alluded to there might be a reference to the Sabbath, but it could equally be understood either as a reference to the last of seven days, for it does not stipulate in context that the start of the seven days corresponded to the first day of the week, or it could refer to the end of a year. Neither case is given in Scripture with enough evidence in context to properly assert that this involved an actual Sabbath Day.
Marriage most certainly was established by divine authority as an institution in Genesis 2, and we have the very words of our Lord Jesus Christ to confirm exactly this. But neither Jesus nor any other Biblical writer appeals to Genesis 2 to assert the institution or inauguration of the Sabbath. Probably the reference Moses makes to Genesis 2:3 is to reference it as a Type, but I am still studying the matter.
I have now worked out the cross references for Genesis 26:5 which in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge take up about three lines of text. In my file for Genesis 26 the references and notes for verse 5 now occupy a page and a half.
To keep this comment from being too long, I’ll have to comment on the various authorities you cited in another reply.
The very commandment in Exodus points to Genesis as its origin, and names the create as its originator.
Exodus 20:8-11 AKJV Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (v9) Six days shall you labor, and do all your work: (v10) But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates: (v11) For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: why the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Did God rest the seventh-day? Yes. What does it commenorate? “For in six days the LORD” created. Again, Exodus 16 assumes the Sabbath is in existence, the very wording gives that view. Exodus 5 points to rest. As you say, there is hint in Genesis 4:3 and other places in Genesis talking of the week. The week = seven days.
I read the following just today for the first time, written in 1901 by a fella named E. J. Waggoner.
Dear A. Way,
Just a brief comment upon the many most interesting quotations from authorities of their day regarding these matters about the Sabbath which you furnished in a comment above on December 27, 2010.
Sometimes, but of course not always, stacking a list of “authorities” to support a point of view represents the logical fallacy of “Appeal to Authority.”
This can be a logical fallacy when the authorities cannot be shown, one by one, to have carefully considered the issue to base their position upon a chain of evidence that leads to their conclusion.
I saw this fallacy years ago when I attended a two-week debate between a Church of Christ pastor in Gainesville, Florida and a Baptist leader who headed a Baptist Bible college in Florida.
The Church of Christ pastor posted a large banner listing fifty scholars who supported his interpretation of Acts 2:38.
If I were debating him, my first challenge would be to have him show the evidence that demonstrates these scholars were addressing the issue that he was using their testimony to support. I don’t think the dear pastor could have furnished even one.
Even if one were able to post fifty scholars who take a particular interpretation as being correct, just one scholar who has done his homework much more thoroughly can totally put the fifty scholars to shame and show them to be in error. Truth is not determined by a majority vote!
As for Acts 2:38, I posted evidence in The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge that absolutely refutes the Church of Christ position, and the mistaken positions of many others. One party on the Internet attempted to refute my note at Acts 2:38. I hope I can find that again–I may have saved it somewhere on this computer should it no longer be accessible on the Internet. Author James W. Dale is likely unanswerable when it comes to interpreting that text.
So for the issue of the Sabbath. Did the Roman Catholic Church authorize by its “authority” this change sometime during church history? Even the Roman Catholic Church cannot produce evidence to support this claim.
They are very good and sometimes clever apologists for their viewpoint, but they can’t win a debate on the subject if they were to be pitted against a well-informed opponent!
So for the subject of Bible prophecy. My good friend, Pastor Norman Douty, wrote a remarkable volume on Has Christ’s Return Two Stages? He argued it does not, and furnished a lengthy list of respected Bible scholars who have changed their viewpoint on this matter. Just the other day I heard a local Church of Christ pastor, pastor of Calvary Christian Church of Royal Oak, say during his radio program that George Muller did not believe in the Pre-tribulation Rapture of the Church. Pastor Mark Byers plans to give a week of messages, if I heard him right, on the issue against the Pre-tribulation Rapture position. I wish I had time to hear all his messages, but I don’t. In any case, I’ve probably heard about all the arguments there are on both sides of the issue, and I have determined after most careful study that Pastor Douty and George Muller and S. P. Tregelles and many others are mistaken. I made this determination after having spent more time studying their position from their literature than I have spent studying scholars who take the position I favor.
In college debates, and even high school debates, I have challenged the opposing team by citing their own vaunted authorities against the position they quoted them to support! That tactic, when I was able to use it, generally cost them the debate.
I did not simply stick to the debate outlines and briefs found in the debate handbooks for the year that most teams depended upon for their research. I went to the library and researched the writings of the authorities the debate handbooks only cited briefly to “prove” a point.
So, on these subjects we discuss here at Real Bible Study, you may be very sure I have read both or several sides thoroughly, and I continue to do so.
It keeps me learning something new almost every day.
Appeal to authority – the subject of these quotes, is Sunday the Christian Sabbath. Catholics say yes. Most protestants say Sunday is the appropriate day of worship. I think you are saying there is no longer any Sabbath. The Bible is the authority I base my beliefs on. I see no authority in the Bible for keeping Sunday. None. I also see no repeal of the 7th day. The ceremonial laws are done, but not the moral law of 10 commandments.
I do not think you have addressed my comments on Acts 20:7 which is only one event of the apostles meetings on the 1st day of the week, and I showed that this can be viewed as not a Christian institution, and in fact there are many more examples of meetings occurring on the 7th day. You may have, but this thread is getting rather long to follow.
What would you say if a group wanted to legislate worship for all people on a particular day? Would this be the right thing to do?
My comments venture onto a touchy subject, it still is revelant to this conversation since the topic is Old Covenant law. I pray my comments do not offend because no real Christian should be offended by the Truth of God’s Word. First, let me clarify, I’m Not Against Tithing As A Principle. Logic would dictate that Church buildings require upkeep and Church employees are worthy of fair wages. Those that belong to a local Gymn pay for their membership without expecting it for free. How much more should we care for our Father’s business?
Do not respond that I need to try paying tithes, I paid ( on occasion) tithes before they were even due. I paid tithes down to the penny, even after experiencing the lost of a job, even while receiving meager unemployment benefits!! My heart was still troubled, something did not feel right, esp. the way tithing was being taught. One day I worked up enough nerve to ask the question no one in my circle dared to openly ask: “where was all of the prosperity I had been promised by tithing?” The Tithe Teacher and my Church Leader then added more requirements, such as: Was I tithing in faith? Was I tithing on my gross wages, not the net? Did I remember to give an offering along with my Tithes? After answering yes to all of these questions they simply said be patient and wait, my harvest on the way but I had more money problems than when I was not tithing. My kids got sicker, my car broke down more often, I wondered why? Where was the promised rebuke of the devour? At that time I had not come into the full understanding of Grace & surely never understood Galatians 5:4. I was determined that I had to pay and keep on paying that ten percent, or get cursed according to the Old Testament in Malachi 3.
I heard a Pastor of a Church boldly call members of his Church “God robbers & theives, even said the clothes on their backs were stolen from the Lord’s money and that they would be cursed with sickness & proverty unless they stopped robbing God and pay up!
I witnessed Tithing-lines where Tithers held up their tithe envelops as their Pastor pronounced a blessing over them, while those who perhaps were too poor to pay tithes sat in their sits & given no blessing. How many sat there feeling shame, guilt, condemnation or fear?
One friend stop going to her Church when they started posting the Tithe Payers names and how much they gave in the Lobby for all the see. Nothing about all of this felt right to me. Having come out of an abusive family background, the shame, guilt and attempt to measure up felt sadly familiar….then one day my eyes fell on a passage I’d over looked and only glanced at a few time. It was like I was reading it for the first time, it’s in Galatians, 3:13. For the first time and from that day forth my relationship with the Lord and understanding of Grace was never the same. “Christ has REDEEMED us from the curse of the law,” it goes on to say,Christ became a curse for us on the Cross so that the blessing of Abraham is given to the Gentiles by faith in Christ.
Most all TV Prosperity Teachers are teaching that the seed is money and that you must sow into their Ministry to reap a money harvest. Could it be that Prosperity Teaching is infecting the body of Christ in a negative way, because it shames and blames the poor and those who get sick through no fault of their own? Jesus clearly said that the Blind man & his parents did NOT Sin, in the Gospel of John the 9th chapter.
This is a great Ministry to support and get behind. I’m glad I stumbled onto this site
Thank you for this subject on law-keeping.
Church Rituals, Family Tradition, Pastors and Church Denonmination should never ever, supersede the Word of God and our New Covenant Promises. God did not demand that Abraham, Issac or Jacob keep the tithe law. God purposed to bless and favor Jacob in the womb before he was even born (read Romans).
Also, since circumcision WAS commanded by God before the Old Covenant Mosiac Law, why aen’t tithe teachers consistent enough to demand all male babies must be circumcised, instead of focusing only Abraham’s tithing? By the way, it was only mentioned that Abraham gave a voluntary tenth one time.
Here are some additional Pro-Grace bible Verses from the New Testament on law-keeping vs Grace:
Acts 15:10 ” Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?”
Acts 15:24 “Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions”, (on keeping the laws of Moses/ circumcisions)
2nd Corinthians 9:7 “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Galatians 2:16 ” yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified”
Galatians 2:21 “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
Galatians 3:1 “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.Galatians 3:2 “This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?
Galatians 3:3 “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”
Galatians 3:5 “Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
Galatians 3:10 “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.
Galatians 3:11 “Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”
Galatians 3:12 “However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM.”
Galatians 3:13 “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us– for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE “–
Galatians 3:14 “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith”
Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Galatians 5:2 “Behold I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you.
Galatians 5:3 “And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law”.
Note: This is a very important verse!!!
Galatians 5:4 “You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace”.
Ephesians 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”
Colossians 2 :14 “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Colossians 2:15 “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed
over them through Him.
Hebrews 8:6 ” But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.
Hebrews 8:7 “For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second”.
Hebrews 8:13 “In that he said, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish away”.(King James Version)
American Standard Hebrews 8:13″When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear”.
In Mattheew 23:23 Jesus placed mercy over tithing but confirmed that the Pharisees should tithe, however, this was before Jesus died on the Cross to fulfull the law for his redeemed. Jesus lived under the Law as a Jew. but he fulfilled the law as our Savior . Glorify Him for His Payment, not your own Tithe Payment!
To weigh in on the Sabbath, it began Friday night till Sat. night and all activity ceased!
This would also be an Old Covenant law. Here is what the New Testament has to say about Sabbath keeping.
Colossians 2:16 “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath
verse 17-These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
Dear Jesus Lover,
Your discussion of tithing hits home.
Jesus said we are to give “of such things as ye have” (Luke 11:41), where the margin of the King James Version significantly reads, “or, as ye are able.”
Even though tithing is a pre-Mosaic institution, and while Jesus lived under and perfectly kept the Law He approved it (Matthew 23:23, “these things ought ye to have done”), the Tithe is absolutely no longer a requirement under Grace.
Since I have studied out this subject exhaustively from the Bible, I now know to literally run away from any church or ministry that teaches otherwise.
The Lord, through very difficult experiences, has surely deepened your understanding of His Word.
I have been blessed indeed to read your post!
Thank you and thanks to this site for allowing this discussion.
Now with our new understanding of what all Grace entails we can really say Amazing Grace with gratitude and understanding!
John 1:16 “For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace”
John 1:17 “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ”
Enough said!
JL (Jesus Lover) and Jerry – I would run from a church the demanded that I pay tithe also, and one that would shame me into paying it. And as some do, demand to see my tax returns to be sure that I’m not cheating. God does not work that way. Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit. (see Zech 4:6). I’d run from such a church and not look back! This meshes exactly with the question I asked right before JL’s post on the Sabbath.
The wealth and prosperity gospel – if you base your belief and trust in God only if he rewards you in this life, then you are setup to loose all your faith. Just look at the history of the apostles! Did they receive wealth, health and fame in this life? NO. They were persecuted and killed. Jesus told the story of the widow and her mites (Luke 21:2; Mark 12:42). This woman gave more that all the others. She gave everything to God. We are not told that she then obtained secular wealth and happiness. Job was an upright man, and suffered greatly.
Also, when someone says, “I’ve studied it all out, I know what is the truth, you must believe like me”, then I also become concerned. We must test all things. If they speak not to the law and to the prophets, then there is no light in them. Isaiah 8:20
JL, you said, that on the Sabbath, “all activity ceased!”. The Jews had encumbered the Sabbath with many rules and regulations. Jesus showed what real Sabbath keeping was about, and he was accused of being a Sabbath-breaker. Many of His healing acts that are recorded took place on the Sabbath. (See Colossians 2:8, 14)
Ephesians 2:14-15 AKJV For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition between us; (v15) Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances… What ordinances are there in the moral law of the 10 Commandments? The ceremonial law had many ordinances. All the different offerings, the feasts and annual ceremonials Sabbaths, the sacrifices, the various vessels such as the lavers of washings, the lamp stand, the temple itself, with its compartments and the middle curtain of separation blocking the Most Holy Place. When He died, the curtain in the temple was ripped from top to bottom, and the Most Holy Place was now open and visible to all. All the temple services and ordinances pointed to the plan of salvation and the work and coming of Christ and it is worth studying what all the components of the services meant. When Christ died on the cross, this whole system was done away with. The object to which it pointed had been accomplished. The whole ceremonial law was done away with.
So, now that the law is done away with, can we sin? God forbid!!! Romans 6:1-2 AKJV What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? (v2) God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Question – what is sin? 1 John 3:4 AKJV Whoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. What law??? The law has been done away with. Or has it? Which law was done away?
Can we now commit adultery? Lie? Steal? Can we now worship other gods? Build graven images to out gods? GOD FORBID! If we love the Lord our God with all our heart, we will not go after other gods. If we love our neighbor, we will not take his wife, steal his house or car, lie about him, or even want to! When we are renewed in Christ, His law is written on our heart and in our minds, which is what God has wanted all along! Deuteronomy 6:6 AKJV And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart: If you read Deuteronomy 6 in context, it is in the context of the 10 commandments. See Deuteronomy 5. In fact, see Deuteronomy 4-8.
Now here is the rub: in the middle of the 10C is the Sabbath commandment. The other 9, would either you Jerry or JL claim that we should not keep those, or should I say, will not keep those? Then what of the 4th? If I say, no, you MUST keep the 4th, then I would be like those that JL rebelled against in shaming him into tithe paying. The Sabbath will not save you. Paul was a good commandment keeper. He kept them all, including the 4th commandment. But when he came to the 10th commandment, he died. He was trying to keep the law out of a sense of obligation merely. If you keep the law only because you are required to do so, then you will rebel. JL has shown how this works perfectly. True law keeping is a complete transformation.
Jesus summed up the law, quoting the OT as love or God and love of man. Leviticus 19:18 AKJV You shall not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. Deuteronomy 6:5 AKJV And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. These are the 2 great commandments.
Question – CAN YOU COMMAND LOVE? NO.
Can one then command the Sabbath? NO. If you keep the Sabbath only because you are required to do so, then you will indeed rebel against this commandment and will never find it a delight.
Let me analyze Isaiah 58:13:
Isaiah 58:13 AKJV If you turn away your foot from the sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:
Turn away your foot. The work of restoration is to begin with a revival of true Sabbath observance, the essence of which is communion with God and remembrance of His creative power, on the day that He made holy. The fate of Israel as a nation was determined by its attitude toward God’s holy day (see Jeremiah 17:24-27). The Sabbath was never intended to be an end in itself, but rather a means by which man might become acquainted with the character and purposes of his Creator (see Exodus 20:8).
Your pleasure. The essence of sin is selfishness-doing what one pleases, irrespective of God or man. The Sabbath day presents man with an opportunity to subdue selfishness and cultivate the habit of doing things that are pleasing to God (1 John 3:22) and that contribute to the well-being of others. Rightly understood and observed, the Sabbath is the key to man’s happiness both here and in the hereafter. True Sabbath observance will lead to the work of reformation pictured in Isaiah 58:5-12. Those who do not enter into the spirit of the Sabbath as God ordained it, little realize what they are missing. The Sabbath is one of the greatest blessings bestowed upon men by a loving Creator.
A delight. The mere form of Sabbath observance is of little value. Those who think of the Sabbath as a burden have not discovered its true meaning and value.
The holy of the LORD. See Genesis 2:1-3.
Honor him. Here is the acid test of what is right and proper on the Sabbath-does it honor God? Any activity entered into with the objective of learning more of the character, works, ways, and will of the Creator, or that is made a channel whereby His love may reach the hearts and lives of our fellow men, is indeed an honor to God.
Many of Christ’s healing acts were performed on the Sabbath. Was this Sabbath breaking? To the Jews, yes. To God? NO. Christ showed what true Sabbath keeping was about. And it can not be commanded. None of the commandments can really be commanded.
Or so it seems to me.
I was studying in the Book of Revelation this weekend and was thinking of your (Jerry) comments on Revelation 1:10. You conclusions where:
The whole story of Redemption is acted out in the Jewish economy. The whole Tabernacle service, the annual feasts, the sacrificial system, etc. Example, the sacrificed lamb is a type of Christ, who was to be the Lamb of God (John 1:29), the lamb sacrificed from the foundation of the world. So, where in this acted out play redemption would “The Day of our Lord” fit? It has to be in the time of the end, the day of Atonement, where the High Priest entered the Most Holy Place, and that only one a year.
Reading Revelation 1:10 in context, this can not possible be the Day of Atonement. It can’t be! How do I know? Keep reading in Revelation 1 and the answer is clear. Read Revelation 1:11, 12, 13… What do we find? Not what we would expect if this was the last day. John saw, 7 golden candlesticks (v12) and in the middle of the 7 golden candlesticks one like the Son of man (Christ) walking among them. Where in the Jewish economy do you find 7 golden candlesticks? Not in the Most Holy Place. They are in the Holy Place.
Hebrews 9 lays this out in the ordinances of the first covenant. One has to read all of Hebrews 9. And of course 8 and 10, and the OT. In Hebrews 9:2, it talks about the Holy place with the 7 candlesticks and table of shewbread, which is described in Leviticus 24:5-9.
Now Christ was the perfect sacrifice, and He was only needed to be sacrificed once. When he officiated in the Holy Place, He took his own blood, not of animals. In fact animal blood could never take aways sins, Hebrews 10:4. The whole Tabernacle service was a shadow of the “good things to come”, Hebrews 10:1. Christ at His death (sacrifice) when he entered into heaven, did not enter a tabernacle made by men, but into the heavenly sanctuary (Hebrews 9:24). At his death, He did not enter the Most Holy Place. He entered the Holy place. Hebrews 9:12 in the King James Version says “holy place”, “ta hagia”. If this were the Most Holy Place, the Greek would have been “hagia hagion” as in Hebrews 9:3. Young’s Literal Translation has “holy places”. KJV, “holy place”. NRSV, RSV, and RV have “Holy Place”. ESV, “holy places”. Darby, has “holy of Holies” which shows that the “holy of” was added and not in the original. NASB has “holy place”. NKJV, GNT and NLT have “Most Holy Place” and this I see as a mis-translation. But I digress. It does not change Revelation 1:10 at all. For what does John see in Revelation 1? The Holy Place, not the Most Holy Place.
So John “on the Lord’s Day” can not be interpreted to mean the on the day of final judgment. So what does this phrase mean, “Lord’s Day”? Yes, in later years it was interpreted to mean the Sabbath. But not the 7th-day Sabbath, but Sunday. As Jerry pointed out in the opening post, there is no Biblical support for a change of the Sabbath from the 7th-day to Sunday. A contemorary of John would not have thought of “the Lord’s Day” as being Sunday. So what is this if not the end of the world, which in the context of Revelation 1 it can not be? It has to be the 7th-day Sabbath. In the context of the verse, Revelation 1:10, it is the time when John say the vision, rather than the subject of the vision. So from scripture, the Sabbath is called “my holy day”, (Isaiah 58:13). Jesus was Lord of the Sabbath, (Mark 2:28). It was a memorial of creation, (Exodus 20:11).
Final observations. With the death of Christ, the whole tabernacle service on earth was ended, nail to the cross. It was over. The real sacrifice had been made. The law written by Moses, (read Deuteronomy 31:24-26) was over. There is a law that was not written down by Moses, but by God, and that law was the 10 commandments. The whole tabernacle service is educational as to the goals of salvation. The Ark of the Convenant had both laws, the book of the law as place at the side of the Ark, Deuteronomy 31:26, and the tables of stone were place inside the Ark. Being on tables of stone, this indicates that they are to permanent. And the positioning of the book of the law and the tables of stone have significance also. The tables of stone written by God were inside the Ark. The book of the law written down by Moses was beside the Ark. This indicates that the law written on stone was to be inside of use, written on our hearts and minds (Jeremiah 31:31-33). The law written down by Moses was done away with by Christ’ perfect sacrifice.
So what of the command of Jesus that Love is the law (Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27). Jesus waw quoting Deutermonomy 6 and Leviticus 19:18. Looking at Deutermony 6, Deuteronomy 6:4-6 AKJV Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: (v5) And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. (v6) And these words, which I command you this day, shall be in your heart. But Deuteronomy describes how to do this! Deuteronomy 6:17, 25 AKJV You shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. (v25) And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us. Deuteronomy 6 is talking of the 10 commandments, not the ceremonial law. It was this law the God wants to write on our hearts and minds. John 14:15; 15:10 AKJV If you love me, keep my commandments. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. And in the context of Revelation, Revelation 12:17; 14:12 AKJV And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. (v14:12) Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.
One does not keep the 7th-day Sabbath in order to obtain salvation. One should keep it only because they love GOD.
Hello Jerry. Today is “St. Patrick” day. So who was “St. Patrick”. Patrick was a Sabbath keeper.
Happy “St. Patrick’s” day…
Dear A. Way,
My elderly friend, Uncle Frank, who passed away at the age of 86 years back in 1975, willed his library to me. I only took a small portion of his books, for I felt at the time that his books would greatly bless many others who would want them too.
One booklet I did keep was titled something like “The Real St. Patrick.”
Patrick was most certainly not a Roman Catholic but a genuine Christian who did a marvelous work of evangelism in his day.
I do not recall that Uncle Frank’s booklet made any reference to Patrick worshiping on the Jewish Seventh Day Sabbath rather than Sunday, but it could be so.
It makes no difference what day Patrick chose to worship, as is most clear from Romans 14:5, 6. Consider also Colossians 2:16.
Others have noted that Paul in his 14 letters directly mentions the Sabbath only ONE time, and that was to virtually condemn it: Colossians 2:16.
Remember those 25 Rules of Interpretation I shared in two posts somewhere back in the archives here?
One of those rules, a most important one, is that we must in our teaching, in our belief, maintain the same balance of emphasis in doctrinal matters that the Bible itself does.
Not to maintain this balance leads to very grave error.
For New Testament Christians, doctrinal balance must match what is stressed in the New Testament.
This ought to be a wake-up call for anyone who is following a system of belief that does not carefully adhere to this important rule of Real Bible Study, and a virtual red flag warning and cue to anyone caught up in a system of belief that insists on violating it!
Surely anyone doing Real Bible Study alone and independently on Robinson Crusoe’s Desert Island would catch such a discrepancy of imbalance in emphasis almost immediately upon careful actual study of the Bible itself, especially the New Testament.
Jerry – the more I read and study Colossians 2:16, the more I know it has to do with Colossians 2:8.
Some early Christians did not want to be thought of a Judaizers and so disassociated themselved from Sabbath. Judaizer was a derogatory term. I see you used the “Jewish Sabbath” above. It is not the Jewish Sabbath of course, but it was God’s Holy Day (Isaiah 58:13).
The main point of the Sabbath is that is shouts, God is the Creator. Nothing to be ashamed about. Patrick did his real bible study, apart from Rome. And his conclusion was that the 7th-day was the Sabbath.
I’m just curious, do you thing that Christians should and/or must worship on the first day? Or is it just a nice thing to do? What are your thoughts on that?
Dear A. Way,
I do not believe that Christians must worship on either the first or seventh day of the week. Many who are fortunate enough to have jobs in this down economy are in retail positions that require them to work both days of every weekend. My oldest son has been in this situation for several years. Working hours extend to 8:00 pm, so taking travel time into account, it is impossible for such persons to even attend a mid-week service.
Because churches utterly violate Romans 15:7, it has become impossible for me to worship anywhere local to me either. My wife plays our grand piano, the good old-fashioned hymns of the faith, daily, right here in our home. I read and study the Bible daily. I have fellowship to a limited degree online. But I do not attend church.
Churches are not structured for Christian fellowship. People almost literally run out of church as soon as the service is over. They do not stay around after church to talk to one another. The few that do take their time to leave don’t talk to newcomers. Even the pastor may be in a hurry to leave because he does not wish to miss a sports program on television. I’ve been to churches where pastors actually discourage small group or home Bible studies. The pastor told me that promotes schism. Another pastor told me, “All this church needs is another Bible study,” in a very disdainful tone of voice.
There is no Christian fellowship while seated in a church pew all facing the front of the church. The only person you see is the pastor. As for the rest of the people, you only see the back of their heads.
The main point of the Sabbath is not that it shouts that God is Creator. I don’t dispute that God is the Creator. But that has nothing to do with the Sabbath. I do not believe in the theory of evolution at all. But I do not believe in the so-called “young earth” theory either because the facts of astronomy (how long it takes for light to get from the farthest known point in the universe to here) and the facts of geology (how long it takes molten rock to cool, for example, to form earth’s crust) militate against any such viewpoint.
I’m glad you see that some Christians disassociated themselves from the Jewish Sabbath so as not to be thought of as Judaizers. That is correct. I suspect this may have sprung from the death of Stephen, after which Christians surely found it more difficult to attend synagogue or temple worship, such conditions worsening under the persecution mounted by Saul against the infant church.
The somewhat incidental evidence provided in the New Testament shows that Christians met for Christian worship daily, but most particularly they celebrated the day of Christ’s resurrection. After the resurrection of Christ, He met the disciples assembled together on successive instances of the First Day of the week. The Holy Spirit of Promise came upon the disciples assembled on Pentecost on the First Day of the week, generally considered the birth of the New Testament Church. Later, Paul met with the disciples assembled on the First Day of the week in Acts 20:7, and remember that Luke, a Gentile, spoke of time according to the Roman not Jewish method, so this was Sunday night, not Saturday. Paul commanded Christians at Corinth to set aside on the First Day of the week on a regular basis as the Lord had prospered them their gift to be offered when Paul came for the poor saints in Jerusalem. That way no special effort to gather such a collection would be necessary when Paul arrived.
Notice 1 Corinthians 11:18, “For first of all, when ye come together in the church….” Paul makes reference to their assembling not “in the synagogue,” but in the church. In 1 Corinthians 16:19 we read “The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with the church that is in their house.” Such “house churches” are spoken of elsewhere in the New Testament (Acts 2:42, 46. 20:7, 11. Romans 16:5, 15. 2 Corinthians 11:28. Colossians 4:15. Philemon 2. 2 John 10). It is clear that Christians regularly met on the First Day of the week, Roman time, for the breaking of bread, fellowship, and mutual sharing of spiritual gifts, instruction in the Apostle’s doctrine, in a manner that included carefully judging or examining the validity of instruction that was imparted (1 Corinthians 14:29. See Acts 17:11 and Galatians 1:8).
There are NO instances of Christians meeting for specifically Christian worship on the Jewish Sabbath in the New Testament record. Jewish Christians who were still in good standing in their Jewish faith continued to attend the Temple and also the synagogue services, but in Acts we observe such synagogue attendance was for witness and outreach to the Jews, not for Christian worship.
I have read on the Internet the claim of modern Judaizers (as from the Hebrew Roots Movement, and also Seventh-day Adventists) of claims to as many as 84 instances or references to the Sabbath recorded in the book of Acts, I presume. The claim is false. I posted on the religion forum at TimeBomb where this was being asserted all the references in full text format to the Sabbath in context from the book of Acts and expounded each one at length to show not one example could be found which invalidated my claim that Christians never once met on the Sabbath for specifically Christian worship.
I have proven to you before that this is not an argument from silence, for the alleged silence is specifically mandated in the book of Acts at the Jerusalem Conference by the Apostles themselves when they stated “to whom we gave no such commandment” (Acts 15:24). Note carefully that this passage specifically states:
As for the connection between Colossians 2:8 and Colossians 2:16, the literary structure certainly bears witness to an intended connection, but not the connection you assert:
Colossians 2:8-23. Doctrinal Correction. (Extended Alternation)
A. 2:8. Caution. Let no man deceive you.
B. 2:9, 10. Christ the Head, and the body complete in Him.
C. 2:11-15. Ordinances therefore done away in Christ.
A. 2:16-18. Caution. Let no man judge you.
B. 2:19. Christ the Head, and the body nourished by Him.
C. 2:20-23. Ordinances therefore done away in Christ.
The Jewish Sabbath, God’s Sabbath only in the limited sense that God gave it as an ordinance to be kept exclusively to the Jews, is “done away in Christ.” Those who wish may keep it, but it is no longer obligatory for those who believe in Christ, period.
Such an emphasis on the part of any individual believer, or a denomination, is a violation of the Word of God, and the principles of interpretation, one principle of which requires that we maintain the balance of Scripture itself in our understanding of God’s principles and requirements.
It is fortunate that we don’t have God interfering with our lives, wanting us to put time away for him. That would really mess things up. Sorry for the sarcasm. Matthew 6:33 comes to mind, along with Isaiah 58:13-14. Certainly God does not require us today to trust His as He required of us in the past.
Hebrews 10:25. I suspect that most people attend church because they somehow think that will get them into heaven, but they do not have real love for God. That does not mean we should abandon the church, does it?
One thing about the Sabbath commandment was that the people were to not seek worldly endeavors. If people really followed it, what do you think that would do to Christian fellowship after services? People would not be running out to seek their own pleasures, and would call the assembling together for God a delight. You bring an interesting observation to the way Christians keep their holy day…