Afterlife

Over the course of my military career, I’ve been around A LOT of health/fitness-conscious people. Many of them have become true believers in things like cross-fit, yoga, and other forms of exercise and it becomes a way of life for them. Similarly, I’ve seen all the passing diet and nutrition trends that seem to come on strong, make a big splash, then fade off into the twilight as quickly as they arrived. My observation is that younger people generally want to look good by putting in the work (sweat equity), while older people generally want to look good by changing what they eat. Either way, the goal is to look good and embody the epitome of health.

Now, there is nothing wrong with wanting to stay healthy. There is nothing wrong with wanting to eat healthily. I mean, we only have this one body and we have to make it last as long as we can, I suppose. We should all strive to “do better” regarding our own personal health. No, what I’m referring to here are the people that obsess about their appearance. They obsess about wrinkles, body-fat percentage, balding, gray hair, or dress sizes.

The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

In the passage above, Moses makes the declarative statement that the age of a man’s life would be between 70 and 80 years. Interestingly, Moses (who himself lived to be 120 years old) wrote this o/a the 15th century B.C. Life spans since then have varied greatly with parts of the ancient world and the middle ages only seeing life spans reaching into the 30s and 40s. However, it is curious to note that we are now back at a time when this 70 to 80 years of life, seems to be the norm, not the exception. But let us make the case for 80 years as a standard. Heck, we could even make the case for 100 years or 1,000 years of age. What do any of these lifespans mean in comparison to eternity?

3. (usually plural) any of the aspects of life and thought that are considered to be timeless, esp. timeless and true

4. (Theology) theol the condition of timeless existence, believed by some to characterize the afterlife

Even the Antediluvian patriarch Methuselah, who lived to the great age of 969 years old, has now been dead for over 4,000 years. We could fit 12 of our 80-year lifespans into his 969 years, and even he would say his life went by in a flash. Not only that, but he has now been in the eternal realm (at least by our measure of time) four times longer than he lived. Thus, Methuselah will spend all of eternity in the glorious presence of God.

Paradoxically, we live in a world absolutely fixated on the here and now, and this has blinded many to the real nature of reality. True reality, is not what we can touch or see, but the world we can’t see. The writer of Hebrews noted that the Law, the Temple, and everything else, are but shadows of the real things already in heaven. The real reality is the eternal realm. It is the timeless state of being that exists outside of our universal fish tank.

Author’s Note: I often use our fish tank to demonstrate to my children just as we exist outside of the fish tank in our home, God exists outside of our universe, and yet, we are not far away. We can add or take water out. We can add food or move the fish to clean the tank. We can add in décor or take everything out. Furthermore, we can look in and see Goldie’s entire existence all at the same time.

God exists outside of our fish tank so to speak, and He can tweak or change things according to His purposes. However, even though God the Father exists in the realm eternal, He still has nearby and has full reach and depth into our existence through His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, he can look and see everything, all at the same time and He has determined the length, breadth, width, height, and duration of our existence. Here are some Bible verses affirming the sovereignty of God’s universal rule:

Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’ Isaiah 46:10

And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise And knowledge to those who have understanding Daniel 2:21

And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; Acts 17:26-27

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.” Revelation 1:8

But for some reason, we live in a topsy-turvy, upside-down, bizarro-world. You’d think, given the demonstrated certainty of death and the brief nature of our present existence, we would be hyper-focused on the world to come and not on the chaotic, ever-changing world we see crumbling before our very eyes.

And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:17

Life here on earth without God, is at best, elusive. We come into this world helpless, wholly dependent upon others, but naively thinking, this is the way it will always be. However, we grow, learn, and realize that we will not always have someone to hold our hand. We are expected to become increasingly independent and capable of doing things on our own.

As children, we let our imaginations run wild, thinking magic, fairies, and monsters exist, only to find out those things are real, but not at all as we imagined them to be. We are then thrust into a public education system that begins by ignoring the reality of God, and pummeling our senses with the government-approved propaganda stating we are nothing more than evolved, cosmic accidents with no rhyme or reason for existing.

Growing older, we learn to lower our expectations in people and situations, and we end up settling for the reality that if we are really lucky, we can find purpose and meaning in our life. We hold on to that until we realize that even purpose alone cannot satisfy the deep longings created by the complexity of the human soul. This sentiment was perhaps best expressed by the aged and gritty Rolling Stone philosopher who declared, I can’t get no satisfaction!

The life we currently live is as God declares, but a vapor; it is here today and gone tomorrow. Therefore, it is perplexing, to say the least, how much time people spend on their physical bodies now, which is in the very process of dying, and how little time people spend thinking about where they will go once their earthly existence comes to an end. The fact that we spend infinitely more time on the other side of that deathly vale than on this side of it, is the great lie people have bought into. The reality that people are so invested in their physical health that they will go to great lengths to extend their lives either medically or surgically, proves they don’t have a zeal for life, but rather, a tremendous fear of death.

The fear of death has been terrifying the unsaved for millennia. People of all cultures and ethnicities have gone on to create all sorts of elaborate rituals and schemes to obfuscate the reality of death or redefine the afterlife. The Vikings had Valhalla, to which they could only enter if they died heroically in battle. The Hindus taught reincarnation, in that death was not the end, only an endless cycle of death and rebirth. The Muslims believe in paradise and their arbitrary 72 virgins. Roman Catholicism teaches salvation through purgatory. Atheists believe in annihilationism. The Bible, however, declares that upon our last breath, and our last heartbeat, we enter into the realm eternal.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. Hebrews 9:27-28

Seeing as how death has been sort of a permanent mainstay in human history, it would seem to lend credence to the second half of the passage. We live. We die. We are judged by God. For the unbeliever, there is no recycling, no raucous, beer-laden Valhalla, no virgin-filled paradise, and no self-flagellating purgatory. It’s one and done, and then eternal separation from their Creator. For the believer, we are judged at the Bema Judgment, and then we spend the rest of eternity with our Creator.

While many of us feel as though we have done dreadfully little on account of the Gospel which saved us (in comparison to what we receive in return), we continue to work, to witness, and to be the kind of people Christ called us to be. We do this even if we do not see the fruits of our labor or the worldly rewards in this life. To this point, the writer of Hebrews, detailing the life of the faithful patriarchs, concluded that-

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 12:13-16

Admittedly, the Christian life here is hard. I would venture to say that being a Christian in the 21st century is even harder, and why, so many are turning from the faith. G.K. Chesterton once said, the Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried. Jesus promised us that in this life, we will have tribulation. He promised us that if we love Him more than the world, the world will hate us. In his epistles, the Apostle Paul taught us this world is not only, not our home, but is in fact, a battlefield. A battlefield in which we contend not with flesh and blood enemies, but dark, malevolent, and vicious spirits bent on only on our destruction.

While we take no personal trophies on our own accord, or in our own strength, we rest in the triumph Christ already wrought upon the cross some two thousand years ago. And though it seems like we are insignificant and unwanted in this world (we are), it is only a façade put on by our mortal enemy, Satan, who is still furious that in crucifying the Son of God, he sealed his own fate.

It is at that moment of death, in which, Satan has long delighted in taking those who have not yet claimed the free gift of salvation from Christ that separates our faith from any other. Paul writes that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). Instead of meeting sneering demons, who gleefully drag those poor souls into hell below, we know that at our own moment of death, we will be greeted by God’s holy angels, ready to escort us to our heavenly abode (Luke 16:22).

While in our flesh, we might delight in the much-deserved death of the wicked, God does not. He is longsuffering that all might come to salvation, and thus, has delayed Christ’s long-overdue victory lap all these centuries so that one more lost sheep might be brought back into the fold. Thus we contend with this fallen world, and are persecuted, discredited, censored, silenced, belittled, abused, and murdered as those who Christ describes in His parable of the Wedding Feast (Matt. 22).

Although God is longsuffering, His patience is not limitless. At some point (and we think soon), we will arrive at that fullness of times, when the full number of Gentiles are brought into the body of Christ (Rom. 11:25). It is at this point that even we, a generation of believers, will not taste even the bittersweet agony of death, but will instantly, put on immortality, and fly away to meet our loved ones and our Lord in the air (1 Thess. 4:13-18, 1 Cor. 15:51-56).

Lastly, while we don’t fully understand everything going on in the backdrop of our lives, we can trust in our God to be faithful (2 Tim. 2:13). He is faithful because it is His nature to be, and He has promised us that we can trust in His plan of redemption. Therefore, death is not the end for us, but the very beginning, of an infinite, and glorious future (Eph. 2:4-7).

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Cor. 4:16-18

"Matthew 5: 17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. 19Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 24:20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:"

If this meant literally observing all the laws of Moses, versus fulfilling their intent as per Rm. 8:4 (while the specific day of Matthew 24:20 applies to Israel where and when the AOD appears), then as said, Paul etc. and the NT church would be invalidated, and the gymnastics you must engage in attempting to justify not literally keeping observing the laws yourself and trying to negate the texts that refute you are an argument against the cultic devotion of your sect.

To be consistent, those who teach we must keep the 7^th day Sabbath also must literally require keeping another pre-Mosaic everlasting covenant, that of circumcision, (Gn. 17:13) of which Scripture expressly states, “neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” (Gal. 6:15) And if they will invoke the law of Moses as their authority to keep ceremonial law, then they have a practical dilemma as well, as God has taken away the means by which they can observe them all the other for ever type statues²(without the Temple there can be no Levitical priesthood, or “patented” incense, etc.). Rather, the Lord has commanded us to be obey Him under the New covenant, which we are to able minsters of, “not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” (Col. 3:6)

EVERLASTING, FOREVER, PERPETUAL COMMANDS
Below is a list of everlasting, forever, perpetual (synonymous terms) covenants (binding agreements) or perpetual, forever type statutes and ordinances (laws). Note: While it is possible that “for ever” (#5769; also often translated as “everlasting” or “perpetual”) can mean less than eternal (Dt. 15:17) , that is rarely the case, but as in “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever:”or “The righteousness of Thy testimonies is everlasting: give me understanding, and I shall live” (Ps. 119:144 – a good prayer), it usually denotes eternity!
1	Gn. 9:16; Rainbow in clouds a sign of everlasting covenant
2	Gn. 17:2-13; Circumcision an everlasting covenant.
3	.Ex.31:14-17; 7th day Sabbath a sign for a perpetual covenant throughout all Israel's generations.
4	Lv.24:5-8; Offering of shewbread-everlasting covenant-perpetual statute.
5	Num.18:19; Heave offering: a statute forever-covenant of salt forever.
6	.Num.25:12,13; Righteous Phineas given a covenant of peace..a covenant of everlasting priesthood.
7	Ex.12:14,24; Passover an ordinance forever.7
8	Ex.12:17; Feast of unleavened bread an ordinance forever.
9	Ex.27:20,21; Lv.24:3; light burning in Tabernacle: a statute forever.
10	Ex. 28:43; Nakedness of priests to be covered by a statute forever.
11	Ex.29:9; 40:15; Holy garments for the Aaronic Priesthood for a perpetual statute.
12	Ex.29:28; Lv.10:15; Num.18:8,11,18; Heave offering eaten by a statute forever
13	Ex.29:42; Animal sacrifices to be offered continually throughout all Israel's generations
14	Ex.30:8; Incense to be burned in Tab. perpetually throughout all generations.
15	Ex.30:10: Atonement on altar throughout all your generations.
16	Ex.30:21: Ceremonial washing by a statute forever.
17	Ex.30:31: Anointing with Holy Oil unto YHWH for sons of Aaron throughout all their generations.
18	Lv.3:17: Eating of fat + blood prohibited a perpetual statute.
19	Lv.6:13: Fire ever to be burning on the altar, to never go out.
20	Lv.6:18-20: Law of the meat offering: a statute forever.
21	Lv.6:22: Meat offering of priests: a statute forever.
22	Lv,7:34-36: Peace offerings a statute forever.
23	Lv.10:9: Drinking of wine, strong drink forbidden to priests going into Tab.: statute forever.
24	Lv.16:29-34: Day of atonement a everlasting statute, a statute forever.
25	Lv.17:7: Bringing in of sacrifices into Tab., not worshipping devils, a statute forever.
26	Lv23:14: Offering of first fruits unto YHWH a statute forever.
27	Lv.23:21: Feast of Pentecost: a statute forever.
28	Lv.23:41: Feast of Tabernacles: a statute forever.
29	Lv.25:34: Law of land reserved for Levites: a perpetual possession.
30	Num.10:8: Feast of Trumpets: an ordinance forever.
31	Num.10:15: One law for both Israelites and for the stranger in the land: an ordinance 4ever.
32	Num.18:23; Dt.18:5: Service of the Tab. reserved for Levites by a statute forever.
33	Num19:10: Law of washing garments after slaying red heifer: a statute forever.
34	Num.19:21:Water of separation a perpetual statute.
35	Dt.7:9 YHWH keeps covenant+mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments, as revealed in His rightly divided Word.

, under the New Covenant instituted in Christ's precious sinless shed blood, (Lk. 22:20; cf. Heb. 9:16) the Lord Jesus, having come in the flesh and risen to Heaven, we are to "walk by faith, and not by sight" (1Cor. 5:7), and sight is what the ceremonial elements provided. And thus it is distinctly stated that the prophesied New Covenant was "Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord." (Hebrews 8:9) The prophesied destruction of the previous temple being allowed to take place by the LORD in approx. 70 AD., that event terminated the sacerdotal priesthood, with it's Levitical genealogical records etc., thereby making it literally impossible to keep the whole Law as it was literally intended. This destruction puts an exclamation point as it were after such passages in Hebrews as, “In that he saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.” “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: " (Heb. 8:13; 9:11, 12; 10:4,5).

As the Temple was destroyed and replaced by the “holy temple in the Lord” of believers, so also the Old Covenant was replaced with the New. Therefore in no place is the N.T. church called to perpetuate the Old Testament shadows among the hundreds of commands given to the church of new creations, but rather we are expressly warned about those who would constrain us to keep such ordinances that Christ fulfilled. (2Cor. 3, Col. 2:14-17; Galatians 3-6; Phil. 3:1-3; etc.) This deletion of such ordinances includes the special observance of the 7th day Sabbath²as nowhere is the NT church commanded to keep this, though the other 9 of the 10 commandments are reiterated under the New Covenant. (1Cor. 8:5,6; Rv. 22:9: 1Jn. 5:21; 1Cor. 6:9; 10:7,14; Eph. 5:5: 1Tim. 6:1: Eph. 6:2-3: Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:19-21; James 2:10-12: Rom. 13:9; 1 Cor. 6:9; 10:8; Eph. 5:5; Gal. 5:19-21; James 3:10-12: Rom. 13:9; Eph. 4:28: Rom. 13:9; Col. 3:9; Eph. 4:25: Rom. 7:7; 13:9; Eph. 5:3, 5. More, by the grace of God.. ----------------------

THE NINE "MORAL" COMMANDS OF THE 10 COMMANDMENTS ARE REITERATED in the New Testament:

1). To worship the Lord God only (1st commandment): no less than 50 times
2). Idolatry (2nd commandment): condemned 12 times
3). Profanity (3rd commandment): condemned 4 times
4). Honoring parents (5th commandment) is taught 6 times
5). Murder (6th commandment) condemned 6 times
6). Adultery (7th commandment) condemned 12 times
7). Theft (8th commandment) condemned 4 times
8). False Witness (9th commandment) condemned 4 times
9). Covetousness (10th commandment) condemned 9 times
* see references here *
Why is it that the duty to keep the Seventh day as Sabbath is not mentioned ONCE in the New Testament?

WHEN THE NEW TESTAMENT LISTS SINS, SABBATH BREAKING IS CONSPICUOUSLY ABSENT:

In Mark 7:21-22 13 sins are listed. Jesus did not mention breaking the Sabbath.
In Romans 1:29-32 20 sins are listed and not one of them is Sabbath breaking.
In Galatians 5:19-21 a list of 15 sins are given,
In 2 Timothy 3:1-4 there's a list of 18 sins, but not once is Sabbath breaking mentioned!

WHY IS IT THAT NOWHERE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT IS IT TAUGHT THAT THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT MUST BE OBSERVED?

-Why is it that nowhere in the New Testament is failure to keep the Sabbath day condemned as sin?
-Why is the fourth commandment itself not repeated even ONCE in the New Testament?
-If the Sabbath keeping is so important for a disciple of Christ, why was it not mentioned in His sermon on the Mount or in ANY of His teachings?
-Why didn't Jesus command Sabbath keeping?
-Why didn't any of the Apostles command Sabbath keeping?
-Why didn't the Jerusalem counsel command Sabbath keeping or condemn Sabbath breaking? (Acts 15)
Some answer that the Jews already knew about the Sabbath so it was taken for granted that they would continue to keep it, but then why were the other nine commandments reiterated? Would they not be taken for granted as well? It would also seem that with so many Gentiles coming into the Church, that if keeping the Sabbath was so important there would be instruction in the New Testament Epistles somewhere concerning it. There are instructions for them concerning morality, ethics, worship, Church order and family lifestyle. Why would something as important as Sabbath keeping be ignored? Circumcision, which predates the Law and the Sabbath commandment was an issue in the New Testament Church and is addressed repeatedly in the New Testament Epistles and by the Jerusalem Counsel.

Sabbath keepers argue that it is the example of Jesus that gives us the reason for keeping the Sabbath. "He kept the Sabbath, so I must keep the Sabbath. Jesus is my example," they say. Well this kind of reasoning is flawed because it only chooses Jesus' Sabbath keeping and rejects the rest of His Jewish lifestyle. Jesus also kept Kosher laws. He kept the Passover, Sukkot, Hanukkah, and worshipped in the temple.

More.

"with meeting on the 1st day being the only specific day exampled. As told you before. Not even the Catholic Church believes you (other churches also cited)."

Even the Catholic Church? That they claim some unique veracity testifies against what she claims!

"Episcopal...Anglican..Presbyterians"

Like mother, like son. Delusion. And so now, with your list, we to follow men over the NT church.

"Methodist “Sabbath in the Hebrew language signifies rest, and is the seventh day of the week… and it must be confessed that there is no law in the New Testament concerning the first day.” Charles Buck, A Theological Dictionary, “Sabbath.”"

True, same with keeping the 7th, which Matthew 5:17-20 does not require, and if it did then Paul and the NT church - which consumed unclean foods and did not circumcised (also and everlasting covenant) all nor keep all the other everlasting/perpetual statues, was invalid.

"Baptist" “There is nothing in Scripture that requires us to keep Sunday rather than Saturday as a holy day.” Harold Lindsell (editor), Christianity Today, Nov. 5, 1976."

True, except by example.

"Of course I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history "

Except it did.

" "On the day called Sunday there is a gathering together in the same place of all who live in a given city or rural district. The memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits. Then when the reader ceases, the president in a discourse admonishes and urges the imitation of these good things. Next we all rise together and send up prayers." — Justin Marty, c. 100 – c. 165 First Apology, 67"

7 post-resurrection appearances of Christ show that Jesus purposefully chose the first day of the week to meet with His disciples to encourage and exhort them. The evidence shows that five of these appearances occurred on a Sunday, the first day of the week. We do not have a record of what the actual day on which the other appearances (John 21 and Acts 1:6-10) occurred to His disciples. What we can say with accuracy is this, after Jesus' resurrection whenever He met with His disciples and the day is identified, it is NOT the Sabbath, it is the first day of the week!

1). To Mary, On the morning of the resurrection - Matthew 28:8-10; Mark 16:9; John 20:11-18
2). To two disciples going to Emmaus - Luke 24:13-33; Mark 16:12-13
3). To Simon (Peter) - Luke 24:31-35.
4). To the eleven disciples on the evening of Resurrection Sunday - Mark 16:14-18; Luke 24:36-44; John 20:19-23
5). To the Eleven disciples "Eight days later" - John 20:26-29
)..Pentecost [1;2]
1). Jesus startled them by appearing to them on the first day (John 20:19).[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 midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. (John 20:19)]
2). Jesus received worship from Thomas (John 20:27-28).
3). Sunday evening Jesus took bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to His disciples evidently like He had in instituting the communion meal (Luke 22:19) and their "eyes were opened and they recognized Him" (Luke 24:31).
4). Sunday evening Jesus blessed His disciples twice saying "Peace be with you" (John 20:20; 26).
5). That same Sunday evening Jesus "...breathed on them and said, 'receive the Holy Spirit'" John 20:22.
6). On Sunday evening Jesus gave His disciples the ecclesiastical authority to proclaim forgiveness to those who believe in Him through the Gospel (John 20:23).Source.
Much more.
" Of course I quite well know that Sunday did come into use in early Christian history . . . ” (Dr. Edward Hiscox, before a New York ministers’ conference, Nov. 13, 1893, as reported in the New York Examiner, Nov. 16, 1893)."
Another ignoramus.
"(Alexander Campbell, The Christian Baptist, Feb. 2, 1824, vol. 1. no. 7, p. 164.)"
Another aberrant divisive preacher (baptismal regeneration).
"and on, and on, and on......."
Indeed - you have established no credence while the NT under the new covenant is against you, as well as your cult.

"I didn’t see any discussion on Matthew 24:20 (maybe I just missed it...could you point it out?). WHY?"

I stated "the specific day of Matthew 24:20 applies to Israel where and when the AOD appears. Meaning that while the end of days is a world-wide event, the context is that of seeing visible manifestation:

And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple. And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? (Matthew 24:2,3)

"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: (Matthew 24:15-16) For wheresoever the carcase is [be], there will the eagles be gathered together. (Matthew 24:28)

Thus the mention of the Sabbath goes with the visible destruction of the visible temple, and the AOD sitting therein, and the fleeing from visible Judaea flee into the visible mountains, these all being localized manifestation in answer to the apostles in Jerusalem question "when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matthew 24:3) And the reason for praying that this flight "be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day" is in consideration of how much harder this would be in that location, not in Arizona.

To use the mention of the Sabbath as teaching that the church is to observe this day is also teach that its worships in the temple in Judaea and is to flee to the mountains, rather than this describing localized manifestation of the end and what the specific reaction should be in that location to the apostles whom the Lord is addressing, not to those in Kansas, but who can see the world-wide aspects signifying the coming of the "End" but have no temple, Judea, or mountains.

In conclusion, stop trying to read into Scripture what is not manifest in the only wholly inspired substantive authoritative record of what the NT church believed, which is Scripture, in particular Acts through Revelation, which best shows how the NT church understood the gospels: In which there is no reiteration of the 4th commandment, nor example of an established NT church observing it, while the Holy Spirit reveals in what way the "new covenant" is "Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt." (Jeremiah 31:31-32)

That such literal observance of laws as regarded meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days, (Colossians 2:16) "days, and months, and times, and years" (Galatians 4:10) "meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation," (Hebrews 9:10) foreshadowed Christ. "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 in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:3-4) Christ.

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