Posted on 03/03/2024 3:31:37 PM PST by OneVike
Throughout His ministry, Jesus never once broke the fourth commandment which required that all Jews observe the Sabbath. He was after all Jew. However, He did give us a clue that a change to the Sabbath was coming. To make my point, you must first understand that the original manuscripts of the Scriptures were not divided into verses and chapters.
The Old Testament manuscripts were written by scribes for the religious leaders to study. The New Testament manuscripts were letters originally written to be dispersed amongst the believers to read. They were like the letters you receive today. Just a document written in sentences and paragraphs with no verse or chapter numbers.
So you really had to know the transcripts well in order find any information you needed. Finally in the mid 16th century a Frenchman named, Robert Estienne (better known as Robertus Stephanus), would divide the Scriptures into chapters and verses. So today we can find passages by memorizing chapters and verses.
Now I must say, that while I do believe every Word of the Bible is the inspired Word of God, I do not believe that Stephanus's choices of where he decided to split some sentences up into different verses or chapters were inspired. I say so, because there are many instances in the Scriptures where a reader can be distracted or even misled as to what the passage is conveying.
Case in point is chapters 11 and 12 of Matthew's Gospel. I personally believe that he made a mistake by ending Matthew chapter 11 at verse 30. It's my belief that chapter 11 should have had 8 more verses for a total of 38. Thus it would end after the following statement by Jesus,
“For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
(Matthew 12:8)
The following information is quite valuable in the apologetical debate on why so many are mistaken in their belief that Christians should observe Saturday as the Sabbath. Continuing on Jesus' statement in Matthew 12:8, I take you back to the end of Matthew chapter 11. Jesus had just finished telling the crowd that no one born of a woman is greater than John the Baptist, when He started telling everyone to come to Him for rest.
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
(Matthew 11:28-30)
By speaking about the concept of rest, the audience He is speaking to would automatically think of the Sabbath rest which God gave them. They were first told about this gift when Moses presented the Ten Commandments God handed to Him for the people to follow. As Moses read the tablets, he said,
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."
(Exodus 20:8-11)
By the time Jesus started His ministry, the Israelites had been observing the Sabbath for almost 1480 years. They understood that it was a day of rest, even for the animals. A day they were to be free from the labors of life that kept them from communing with God. So, when Jesus starts talking about rest at the end of chapter 11, he continues his thought process on through to verse 8 of chapter 12. So when He calls them to come to Him for rest, and then claims He is the Lord of the Sabbath, it goes without saying that this is all one thought process and thus chapter 11 should have ended at verse 38, with chapter 12 actually beginning at verse 9 where Matthew wrote,
Now when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue.
(Matthew 12:9)
The next 20 verses do continue the matter of a rest, but not until Jesus moved to another site. Thus it then makes sense to split the chapter after Jesus made His statement about Him being the Lord of the Sabbath, and after he had arrived at a different location.
This is important, because when Jesus died on the cross, He fulfilled all the requirements of the Law, including the one that calls for us to obey the Sabbath, since as He stated, He is our Sabbath. Just as we are not bound by going through a High Priest by offering a sacrifice, we too do not need to follow the Jewish Law. We can reach God through Christ, on any day at anytime we so desire. Without going through the commandments of the law which Christ abolished.
After 1480 years, the Jews showed they could not follow the Law, and with Christ fulfilling it and the ceremonial ones, we are free from it. So with Jesus, being the Lord of the Sabbath, we are free to chose any day, and anytime to gather for communion and celebration of Him with no more legalistic requirements to follow the old obsolete law.
Any Christian following any portion of the Law, is doing what Paul preached against when he chastised the Judaizers who tried to put the Christians back into bondage to the Law. This is one of the things he wrote to the Colossians about when he said,
Let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths
(Colossians 2:16)
Paul also wrote that, if you observe any part of the Old Law, then you must follow it all. Does anyone truly want to be bound by the full weight of a law that God's own people could never follow? The answer is a resounding NO. Praise God, because we are free to worship HIM anywhere, on any day, at anytime by going through the One who fulfilled and abolished the law. Thus setting us free from a Law we could never dream of keeping.
The flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
(Galatians 5:17:18)
Thus if you are not under the law, you are not under any obligations to any of the ceremonial requirements either. Nor are you bound by the Jewish Sabbath as I pointed out above from Paul's letter to the Colossians. Anyone who feels obligated to an abolished symbolism of the Old Law is keeping themselves from truly enjoying all the freedom God offers us through His Son's death and Resurrection.
I now offer two more pieces of evidence. One comes from the mouth of our LORD Jesus Himself, when the rich young ruler asked, "what must i do to have eternal life?" Jesus replied to him;
You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
(Matthew 19:18-19)
The second one comes from Paul's letter to the Jewish Christians in Rome, we learn, not from what he wrote, but rather what he did not write when he listed the commandments we should obey. Mind you, Paul was once a Pharisee of Pharisees, a man who persecuted Jewish converts to Christianity for violating the commandments. So, let us look at what Paul left out when he wrote about the commandments we are to obey in his letter to the Romans.
Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," "YOU SHALL NOT MURDER," "YOU SHALL NOT STEAL," "YOU SHALL NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS," "YOU SHALL NOT COVET," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.
(Romans 13:8-11)
It should be enough to read what Jesus said on this matter, but we also see Paul then teach that which our LORD HIMSELF said. So I ask you, what is NOT included in this list of commandments from Jesus and then Paul about which commandments we should obey to have eternal life? It is the Sabbath. If Paul himself is not obeying the Sabbath, than why would any born again Christian want to follow a regulation from a law that is obsolete? Obsolete, because Jesus fulfilled the letter of the law and became our Sabbath rest.
So many fail to understand that as a Jew, Jesus had to fulfill both the legal laws and ceremonial laws in order to abolish them, because all the high priests and all the blood they spilled never satisfied the law completely so it was never fulfilled. Yet the nano second he died, the curtain separating the inner and outer room was torn by GOD from top to bottom. Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the Law. Thus the new dispensation began that set us free from the law written on stone and the ceremonial regulations. Today we are justified, "Just As If We Have Not Sinned." We are cleansed by HIS blood and freed by the atoning work on the Cross.
Thank GOD we are free, free at last. Free from observing anything the old law said we had to do. Thus our Sabbath in now in Jesus, Who allows us to come straight through HIM as our mediator to GOD. Jesus is our traveling Tabernacle who resides in us, and thus our Sabbath it eternal. Eternal in that everyday is a Sabbath for us, and at any moment we can worship HIM, because we now worship HIM in Spirit and in Truth.
Yet there is more, because when we read what the author of Hebrews wrote, which most scholars agree was an epistle specifically written to the Jewish believers who were still struggling with the confines of the Mosaic law.
In that He say, "A NEW COVENANT, He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
(Hebrews 8:13)
There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.
(Hebrews 4:9-11)
Finally, I share with you what was in the letter from the first council ever held by the elders of the church when the question arose about whether or not Gentile believers should be circumcised. In the letter they pointed out what they should follow, and keeping the Sabbath was NOT among the things they were instructed to follow. Anyone who claims the Sabbath must be kept by Christians, I would suggest you take it up with Peter and James who oversaw the council meeting on what rules the Gentile believers should follow.
Then it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren. They wrote this letter by them: The apostles, the elders, and the brethren, To the brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: Greetings. Since we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, "You must be circumcised and keep the law"—to whom we gave no such commandment— it seemed good to us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.
(Acts 15:27-29)
Praise God we are free from the bondage of a system that not only whitewashed our sin until a new animal was slain for it's blood to be spilled and sprinkled upon the mercy seat inside the inner room behind a curtain, but also held us hostage to worshipping together only on the sabbath. Once that curtain in the inner room was torn from top to bottom by GOD HIMSELF, we were set free to now enter into the presence of our LORD through our LORD, and commune with our LORD at any time on any day. Thank you JESUS!
——>We are not free from the Ten Commandments, any of them.
Absolutely correct. And, as Christians, we are under an even higher duty to keep them, out of love for what Christ did for us on the cross.
The World disagrees. Or as the serpent might say “Did God really say to keep all ten of the Commandments?”
You must really detest Paul, because he broke almost all the rules you claim he should have kept.
I love Paul and have no idea what you are babbling about.
——>If so what other of the Ten Commandments are now irrelevant.
Those Christians who believe in once saved, always saved/once judged, always judged claim that they are under no obligation to keep any of God’s commandments. Nothing they could ever do after that microsecond of grace will keep them out of heaven. In fact, one of the posters on FR flat out told me that God’s law is for the UNSAVED, not the saved. They say that there is absolutely no penalty for sinning after grace. You are locked in no matter what.
——>It is referring to the many different special Sabbth days the Jews had. Each one was on the Sabbath but at a special time on the calendar.
Yes, these Sabbaths:
The Shadow Sabbaths of Colossians 2:17
https://www.biblelightinfo.com/shadow.htm
And instituted by the same God.
Where does He say that He means it more if it's one of the Ten Commandments than if it were the rest of the Law?
And besides, aside from the Passage in Colossians 2 about Law keeping, there's the passage in Romans 14. Not to mention the Acts 15 passage where the holy Spirit in His instructions for the church says nothing about Law keeping of any kind.
Also, why do all the Sabbath keepers on FR continue to post on Saturdays?
How do you know for sure after so many thousands of years, that the day that is observed as the Sabbath at this point in time is the same day as the Seventh day of Creation when God rested?
Not true.
In the OT the priests had to minister before the altar with sacrifices and perform circumcisions on the 8 th day and were held blameless.
Quote
However, the sabbath I speak of is that new should observe Saturday as the Jews do.
...
Where is Saturday in scripture?
Judaism needs Daniel’s 4th Beast to tell them when to Rest.
They don’t have the Passover Lamb, so they don’t have the Father..
The Lamb is the Lord of the Sabbath.
He was circumcised on the 1st Sabbath of the month.
He rested in the tomb on the 2nd Sabbath of the month.
He stood and told all to come to Him if any thirst on the 3rd Sabbath of the month.
His Holy Spirit came down and fell on about 3,000 on the 4th Sabbath of the month.
Israel has forgotten His Sabbath.
Israel has counterfeited His Sabbath.
Remember the Sabbath Day is a very difficult task while Satan deceives the whole world.
But Grace is Amazing..
Where does He say that He means it more if it's one of the Ten Commandments than if it were the rest of the Law?
. The Ten Commandments are separate from all other laws from God. They were instituted at Creation. The ceremonial laws and handwashing and other ordinances were to keep the Jews separate from the other nations and to impress them with purity. The sacrificial system was to show how sin was to be eliminated. They all had a reason for existence but when Jesus came and gave his sacrifice, there were abolished.
"Also, why do all the Sabbath keepers on FR continue to post on Saturdays?" Why did Paul preach and reason with Jews and Greeks on the Sabbath. Your question makes no sense.
The literacy rate in the early Empire was something like 10%. The Hoi polloi weren't reading anything.
You can't be serious. The Sabbath was established at Creation and the lives of Adam, Methuseleh, Shem and Abraham overlapped hundreds of years. The Hebrews knew when the Sabbath was after they left Egypt and before the Mt. Sinai event. All of the prophets knew when it was. Jesus never corrected the day of the week. God commanded worship is due Him on the Sabbath but left us no way to know what day that really is? That sounds like desperation on your part.
——>SDA is wrong in teaching that.
They don’t teach that. So, you and BB are wrong. What they do teach is saved by grace, THEN, judged by the law, exactly what the bible teaches.
As far as the Levitical dietary laws of clean and unclean, God (Christ) calls eating unclean meat an abomination. He says to obey the dietary law that we may be holy, because He is holy. Peter references that very thing in 1 Peter 1:16Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. You got a reference bible? Look it up. What Christian in their right mind would put something into their bodies that God (Christ) called an abomination?
First off, I am not a jew, and am not bound by the ten commendments nor the Mosaic law no more than Abraham was.
I follow the teachings of Jesus, and in His teaching I learn I am free from sin in HIM. I do observe the moral teachings Jesus gives us all. Try as you may, you cannot find any passages of the epistles that tell me to follow the Mosaic Law. Period!
Mind you, while He lived and taught, Jesus had to observe all the laws Ann ceremonies so that He could be the perfect sacrifice and thus abolish the Law forever.
As for the idea the Sabbath came from GOD in the beginning, Well, nowhere in the explicit commands of Genesis 1–2 is it stated that humans must honor the Sabbath. Moreover, not only is a command to rest missing, there’s also no mention of a Sabbath. Nor after Noah left the Ark God never stated anything about the Sabbath, It is first mentioned in Exodus for the Israelites to follow.
Instead, the focus is entirely on God for resting, not his creation doing so. Until the Law He gave to Moses. Again, I am not an Israelite, and thus not a Jew. One can find neither an institution of, nor preparation for, the Sabbath. This means any grounding for an obligatory rest must be read back into the text. If you want a command for Sabbath rest, you will have to stick around until God’s people are en route to the Promised Land, where they will be governed by a theocracy.
The case for a creation ordinance gains strength in noncanonical Jewish texts, but not in ways that affirm Sabbath keeping as binding on all people. Excluding Philo, who sought to universalize Jewish teaching, the remaining texts restrict the Sabbath ordinance to Jews.
Jubilees 2:19–21, 31 can state, “the Creator of all things…did not sanctify all peoples and nations to keep sabbath thereon, but Israel alone.” Similarly, in rabbinic literature, it is stated that the seventh day of creation was God’s Sabbath but not humanity’s.
It is said of Jews in Shabb. 16:6–8 that “if a gentile comes to put out the fire, they must not say to him ‘put it out’ or ‘do not put it out,’ since they are not answerable for his keeping the sabbath.” This is because, the Sabbath is a perpetual covenant between GOD and the children of Israel, but not between GOD and the nations of the world.
The Noahic commandments, which governed the behavior of Gentile God fearers, also point to a restricted application of the Sabbath ordinance, for they say nothing about keeping the Sabbath. Only a full-fledged proselyte was expected to join the Jews in observing the Sabbath
I do not become a Jew, I am a gentile believer in Christ. Thus a follower of Christ, not Moses and the Law God handed down for the Israelites to follow.
The example I offered in Acts 15, where the apostolic decrees from Sabbath-keeping Jewish-Christians to Gentile believers, and as I stated, it excluded any mention of Sabbath observance.
Bipolar, Ezekiel 46:1 shoots the 7 same days since Creation theory to bits..
His months have a day, at the head of each month, that isn’t His 6 work days or His 7th Day Sabbath..
Israel doesn’t follow it today.
To their blindness..
In what version of the Bible??????
The written in stone by the finger of God Ten Commandments were given to Moses on Mt. Sinai, which was well after the creation account.
Sounds like you can’t actually answer the question.
This was under Gods orders. Of course they were blameless. There is a BIG difference in that and the preacher(or priest) that declares to the congregation "We are going to discontinue Sunday worship from now on and follow Gods Commandments. See you next Saturday." Now truthfully, how would the denomination react to that? The denomination would kick them to the curb and the church would think he's nuts and have nothing more to do with him.
Yes, God did.
Mar 2:27 And He said to them, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.
The word translated "man" here is the greek word:
G444
ἄνθρωπος
anthrōpos
Thayer Definition:
1) a human being, whether male or female
In other words mankind. Jesus, God in the flesh, said the Sabbath was made for mankind. 1a) generically, to include all human individuals. So it was created for mankind way back in Genesis:
Gen 2:2 And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.
Gen 2:3 Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
No amount of rationalization or justification or hatred of God can change the words that God himself caused to be written down and understood.
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