In Search of Sabbath
This entry spawned from a quick read I had last night from a book entitled: "The Ten Commandments Twice Removed". My wife received it from someone yesterday and handed it off to me shortly after I walked in the door. I accepted it, read it, and had a little study digging up all kinds of past feelings and thought on the subject of the Sabbath and Sundays.
There are 52 references to the word "Sabbath" in the New Testament. That is one for every week in a year (just my own thought about the number results in the search). According to the book, "The day of the Lord" was changed by the Roman Catholic church, and when Protestants left they carried Sunday as the day of worship. I have long struggled with this, and it condescends everything about the seventh day as being a day of rest since the Creator indicated it as such following the sixth day and declared it sanctified and holy. According to scripture, the sabbath is supposed to begin at sunset on Friday, and end at sunset on Saturday (one day, according to the definition by our Creator in Genesis). It is also the only commandment that we are asked to "remember", yet we "religiously" forget it every single week that we worship on Sunday. Why is that?
Why do Protestants worship on Sunday when it clearly indicates throughout the Holy Bible, that the sabbath is on Saturday? Why do we disregard the fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8) despite the elaboration of four verses to stress the importance for us to remember it? We don't disregard the other nine (I don't hear about Christians promoting and disregarding the other commandments). Is it because the fourth commandment is a "do" commandment instead of a "don't" commandment?
I know that the Pharisees ruined the sabbath with more law than one could stand regarding what you could and couldn't do on that day of recognizing the Lord. For them it was about tradition and "the law" and being righteous, rather than being humble, obedient, and thankful to our Lord on the day that He set aside for us to rest and worship Him.
What happened?
The authors seem to be "inspired" by what it says in the scripture. With religious tradition and background aside, the Bible does not stress a change of the day, nor that we disregard the sabbath or deviate from the day that God endorsed from the beginning. Why are we so arrogant, disobedient, and consistent to endorse a practice of not observing the sabbath?
posted by introriff @ 5/05/2006
3 comments
3 Comments:
Does any of this matter when we live in such a broken world?
You can't fix a wrecked car with a can of spray paint. You can make it look a little bit better, but it still looks like a wreck (with a new paint job).
Why do you think the world is so broken? What can we do to really fix it?
I suggest you go beyond this book in your desire to understand the seventh day sabbath and whether it applies to the one who is in Christ and joined with God under the new covenent. Start with Ex 31:16-17. Who is commanded to keep it? Are you an Israelite or a born-again believer in Jesus Christ or neither? The Sabbath day was instituted as a sign between those rescued out of Egypt and the one who rescued them. It forshadows the real Exodus and final rest He would bring about through Christ.
If you are a believer in Christ, your covenent sign is baptism and keeping the Lord's supper, not the sabbath. You are exhorted to meet regularly with other believers, but never commanded to keep a holy day. Read Romans 14:5-6 in the full context of chapter 14. If the 4th commandment of the old covenent applies to new covenent believers, then in light of these verses, God would be the author of confusion (and He says he is not). Read also Col 2:16-17. These verses stand in direct contradiction to the notion that the 4th commandment is still binding under the new covenent.
The TCTR book is a Seventh Day Adventist propoganda piece pure and simple. Notice the deception used to draw in the mainstream, conservative Christian. On the surface it appears to address the timely topic of Judeo-Christian symbols being removed from the halls of American government. It very quickly leads off into Sabbath keeping.
SDA is a cult with many teachings which conflict with the scripture, number one being that sabbath keeping is a sign of salvation - if you don't keep it, you are not really saved. This is contrary to the whole teaching of the bible regarding salvation in Christ which is by grace through faith and not by works (Eph 2:8-9).
There is a wealth of information to settle this question on the following website.
www.exadventist.com
I recommend listening to the audio files regarding sabbath keeping.
I pray that you find the truth.
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