Dear Brother
Collins,
I really enjoyed your article in last week's ledger entitled "Are You a
Cow?" (article
can be seen at http://www.lgchurchofchrist.com/ARE%20YOU%20A%20COW.htm)
I wholeheartedly agree with you that we as
Christians should follow Jesus and His Word. I must commend you for taking a
stand for God's truth, even when it is often unpopular. I hope your church
appreciates this attribute in you. However, I must point out a glaring
discrepancy in your claim as a New Testament Christian. If we let the Bible
alone be our guide, and we follow in Jesus footsteps, and obey his commandments
because we love him (John 14:15), and do what the New Testament church did
(Luke 23:56, Acts 13:42,18:4), we would keep the
seventh-day Sabbath holy as the ten commandments instruct. The forsaking of the
Sabbath for Sunday is nothing other than a man-made tradition, that is not
sanctioned anywhere in the Scriptures and you will find no "Thus saith the Lord" anywhere in the Bible to warrant the
change. Was it not Jesus who spoke our world into being (John 1:1-4) and
sanctified the Sabbath after His work of creation? Was is
not Jesus who spoke it in the hearing of Moses and the Israelites, and wrote it
with His own finger on stone? Are the Father and the Son separate? Nay, they
are one (John 10:30). Then are the ten commandments
not His commandments? In your article you challenged your readers to see if
they were following the New Testament without adding to it or taking away from
it. I put forth the same challenge to you, Christian Brother. I challenge you
to do a comprehensive, honest, and prayerful study of your Bible to learn the
true importance of God's holy day, and why it is still valid to us as
Christians today. My husband and I would also be more than pleased to open the
Holy Scriptures with you about this or any other subject. We love nothing more
than studying God's Holy Word with others to find truth, comfort, hope, and
instruction. "If you doubt it, do a Bible study
about it!"
I agree with you that Christians of all denominations should go back to the
Bible teaching and not follow man-made herds. This is why I do what Jesus, His
disciples, and His apostles did, and what countless others through the
centuries have done: I keep the seventh-day Sabbath holy, the Lord's day. Won't you join me in this precious blessing, dear
brother?
Your sister in Christ,
Amy
Amy,
Thank you for your reply.
Looks like we have the same attitude about God, which is a good thing because
we both want to do what is right. I have done a lot of studying of the Sabbath
versus the first day of the week. From my studies the Sabbath was for the Jews,
but under the new covenant, the Lord’s Day is the first day of the week. I
would love to discuss this mater or any other topic further with you or your
husband. I also love to learn and grow. To help you see why I believe the
Sabbath day is not for us, I would like for you to read my two-part sermon on
this topic. Please keep in mind that when you read it that it will have few
typos in it because it is just a manuscript that I preach from. It will answer
the questions you have asked me and much more.
Part 1 http://www.lgchurchofchrist.com/EXAMINING%20SABBATARIANISM.htm
Part 2 http://www.lgchurchofchrist.com/EXAMINING%20SABBATARIANISM%20Part%202.htm
Again, thanks for contacting
me. I look forward to having further studies and discussions.
Cougan Collins
Brother Cougan,
I am refreshed by your willingness to look at the subject, and your commitment
to God. I read both parts of your sermon; I found many misconceptions regarding
Ellen White's writings and the role she played in the forming of the
Seventh-day Adventist church and its doctrines, but this is another discussion
entirely. I have several problems with your reasoning for the Sabbath being
void in our day. First, you mention that there are no references to people
after creation keeping the Sabbath until Moses' time. However, in Genesis 26:5,
the Lord says that Abraham kept His commandments and His laws and statutes. To
what commandments and laws and statutes was he referring to, since it was not
until over 400 years later that Moses received the ten
commandments and the ceremonial laws on
1Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come,
and my righteousness to be revealed.
2Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth
the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
3Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself
to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people:
neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
4For thus saith the LORD unto the
eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things
that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
5Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls
a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an
everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
6Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the
LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every
one that keepeth the sabbath
from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
7Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them
joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall
be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer
for all people.
8The Lord GOD, which gathereth the
outcasts of
Also Paul in Galatians 3:29 says, "And if ye be
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."
And also in Romans 2:28-29 Paul says that one is not a Jew who is one outwardly
(speaking of circumcision), but he is a Jew that is one inwardly. And when
Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man (notice he did NOT say it was made
for the Jews), he made no mention of doing a way with it. In fact in Matthew
5:17-19 He said, "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." He then goes on to mention a few of the ten
commandments and he taught he spirit of keeping them, that you won't even break
them in your heart, or in your mind as we would say today. Also the Old
Testament definition of the New Covenant that you even quoted in your sermon is
that God will write His law in our hearts. By writing His law in our hearts,
does that make it void? As Paul would say, God forbid.
God put the Sabbath commandment right in the heart of the ten commandments that
was written in stone with His own finger and placed on the inside of the Ark of
the Covenant. He did not put it with the ceremonial law, that was "the
handwriting of ordinances" (Colossians 2:14) that was "against
us", and was placed on the side of the
I look forward to your comments. May the Lord bless you and keep you, may he
make His face to shine upon you and give you peace.
In Christ,
Amy
Amy,
Thanks for writing me back
so quickly. I realize the two-part sermon I gave you dealt with more than just
the Sabbath, and it would be better for our time to focus on one thing at a
time. So, I will answer you questions you have posed. Your comments are
italicized.
Your first point:
First, you mention that there are no references to
people after creation keeping the Sabbath until Moses' time. However, in
Genesis 26:5, the Lord says that Abraham kept His commandments and His laws and
statutes. To what commandments and laws and statutes was he referring to, since
it was not until over 400 years later that Moses received the ten commandments and the ceremonial laws on
This is what Genesis 26:5
says:
Genesis 26:5 "because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My
charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws."
It doesn’t matter whether God’s
people were under Patriarchal period, Law of Moses or the New Testament period
there has always been commands, statues, etc to obey. All this verses teaches is that Abraham kept the commands, statues
etc. given to him by God. He obeyed being called out to a new place, he obeyed
circumcision, and he even obeyed God when told him sacrifice his son. However,
what you will not find is any commands, statues etc where he was taught to keep
the Sabbath. If one assumes that these commands, statues, etc = the law of Moses or any of the commands found there in, one
could also assume that Abraham also followed the commands under the N.T. as well.
As I pointed out in my sermon, I
do not believe that Abraham knew anything about keeping the Sabbath because:
Deuteronomy 5:2 "The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 "The LORD did not make
this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here
today, all of us who are alive. See also Neh. 9:13-14
Abraham was one of these fathers
that this covenant (law of Moses/ 10 commandments
including the Sabbath) was not made with. Even if you could show that Abraham
kept the Sabbath, which you cannot, not even that would prove that we are to
keep the Sabbath as Christians because we are under our own covenant with it
own set of commands, statues, etc. If we are to keep the Sabbath because
Abraham did, then we should also keep the law of circumcision (Gen. 17:10-14)
and offer up animal sacrifices (Gen. 22:13). I doubt that would agree that we
should do this, so why should we keep the Sabbath even if Abraham kept, which
there is no proof of?
Your second point:
You also say that several verses prove that the
Sabbath was for the Jews only. But Isaiah 56:1-8 says this:
1Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to
come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
2Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth
the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.
3Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself
to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people:
neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
4For thus saith the LORD unto the
eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things
that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
5Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls
a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an
everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
6Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the
LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every
one that keepeth the sabbath
from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
7Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them
joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall
be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer
for all people.
8The Lord GOD, which gathereth the
outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to
him, beside those that are gathered unto him.
You did not give an
explanation with this, but I am assuming you trying to show how Gentiles kept
the Sabbath, but the problem is that these verses do not teach that the Sabbath
was binding for all Gentiles, but for those who choose to keep it, those that
became proselytes. Notice in verse 6, these strangers had to join themselves to
the Lord, serve Him, love Him, and be His servant. Part of joining the Lord,
they had to be circumcised:
Ezekiel
44:9 'Thus says the Lord GOD:
"No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart or uncircumcised in flesh, shall
enter My sanctuary, including any foreigner who is among the children of
Once they submitted to this,
they in a sense made themselves into a Jew. In order for you to show that the
Sabbath was for more than just the Jews and for those few Gentiles that chose
to be circumcised to join themselves with the Lord, you need to show me a verse
that says that God’s Sabbath was commanded for all Gentiles to keep.
Think about this, if the
Sabbath was to be followed by everyone, then why are Gentiles called strangers?
If the covenant containing the Sabbath was for everyone then why did Paul say:
Ephesians
2:12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth
of
In Deuteronomy 5:1-5, Moses addressed
Your third point, which is lumped
together with your second point is:
Also Paul in Galatians 3:29 says,
"And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the promise." And also in Romans 2:28-29 Paul says that one is not a Jew
who is one outwardly (speaking of circumcision), but he is a Jew that is one
inwardly. And when Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man (notice he did
NOT say it was made for the Jews), he made no mention of doing a way with it.
I agree with you that all
Christians whether they are a Jew or a Gentile are one in Christ Jesus (Gal.
3:27ff). We are the new spiritual
Just because Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27) does
not prove that the Sabbath was for everyone. I have already shown from
Scripture that it was limited to the Jews (yes, and those gentiles who joined
themselves to the Lord through circumcision). When Jesus used the generic term
man, which means men and women, He was simply pointing it to the Jews. He
didn’t have to specifically say Jews because it was understood since He was
speaking to Jews. We know from Scripture, when the Sabbath was made for man
because the first time it was given for man to follow was at
In fact in Matthew 5:17-19 He said, "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." He then goes on to mention a few
of the ten commandments and he taught he spirit of keeping them, that you won't
even break them in your heart, or in your mind as we would say today. Also the
Old Testament definition of the New Covenant that you even quoted in your
sermon is that God will write His law in our hearts. By writing His law in our
hearts, does that make it void? As Paul would say, God
forbid. God put the Sabbath commandment right in the heart of the ten
commandments that was written in stone with His own finger and placed on the
inside of the Ark of the Covenant. He did not put it with the ceremonial law,
that was "the handwriting of ordinances" (Colossians 2:14) that was
"against us", and was placed on the side of the
In Matthew 5:17-19 Jesus tells us that He did not
come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.
With this in mind, we can understand that in verse 18 the law will not
pass away until Jesus fulfills it. Jesus
wanted to make sure His disciples understood this, so after He was raised from
dead, He said the following:
"These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that
all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me" (Lk.
24:44).
The
point Jesus is trying to get across to His disciples
is this: Remember when I said the law
would not pass away till all was fulfilled (Mt. 5:17-18)? That has now happened! This same thought is also found in Acts
13:27-29, which harmonizes perfectly with the numerous Scriptures that state
that the Old Covenant was replaced with the New Covenant at the death of Jesus
(Heb. 9:15; Heb. 8:6-7; Gal. 3:23-25).
The handwriting of requirements of the law were nailed to the cross (Col.
2:14) and put to death in His flesh (Eph. 2:14-16). Paul tells us that Christians were no longer
under the law (Rom. 6:15; Rom. 7:1-6; 8:1-4).
Those Christians who believed in Jesus and were led by the spirit were
no longer under the law (Rom. 10:4; Gal. 5:18).
Finally, Paul proclaimed that if Christians tried to go back to the law
for justification, they would fall from grace (Gal. 5:4). Although the law was still being practiced by
some of the Jews, its authority ended at the cross and the New Covenant took
its place.
Along with this, please
re-read the first 4 pages of part 2 of my sermon I gave you because it clearly
shows from Scripture that you cannot separate the ceremonial laws from the 10
commandments. They both belong to the same covenant that was put to death
through Jesus.
I know you agree that we are
under a new covenant and you believe that Jesus took away the ceremonial law
but not the 10 commandments. How can you separate the two from the old
covenant? The 10 commandments were part of the old covenant (1 Kgs. 8:9) along with the ordinances (Heb. 9:1-4). They were
both done away with when the old covenant was done away with at the cross.
In 2 Corinthians 3:7-11, Paul refers to
that which was written and engraven in stones at the
time the face of Moses shone. This refers to Sinai and the giving of the ten commandments. These commandments were placed upon
“tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Ex. 31:18). “The writing was
the writing of God, graven upon the tables” (Ex. 32:16). This, Paul says, was
done away.
Paul says: “For if that which was done
away was glorious, much more that which
remains is glorious” (2 Cor. 3:11). This ends
the Sabbath, written and engraven in stones,
unless you can show where the Sabbath is
re-established in the New Testament.
You seem to
think that if I dismiss the 10 commandments then I can commit murder, theft and
so on. When I say dismiss, I mean that we are not under the 10 commandments
today. However, 9 of the 10 commanded (excluding the Sabbath) have been
reinstated under the new covenant. So, I am not bound to not murder because it
was one of the 10 commandments, I am bound not to murder because it is a sin
under the new covenant (Gal. 5:21). Just show me the command in the New
Testament where we are to keep the Sabbath after the cross.
Well, that is
enough for now. Thank you for the questions. I am enjoying looking at the topic
once again. I hope it causes you to dig deeper as well.
In Christian
love,
Cougan Collins
Amy’s
reply.
Brother Cougan,
I am greatly enjoying this discourse; it has challenged me to examine my belief
in the Sabbath more closely and to more fully understand it in myself. Let me
deal first with your claim that the Sabbath was not reinstituted in the NT. I
must disagree, because after Jesus death on the cross, His disciples kept it
(Luke 23:56). Obviously, Jesus had not told them that after His death the
Sabbath would be ended. Not only that, Jesus kept it in His death. Not only did
he rest from His work of creation on the Sabbath, he rested from His work of
redemption as well. Read the story of the lawyer that asked Him what the
greatest commandments was, and His response:
Matthew 22:35 Then one of them, [which was] a lawyer, asked
[him a question], tempting him, and saying,
22:36 Master, which [is] the great commandment in the
law?
22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
22:38 This is the first and
great commandment.
22:39 And the second [is] like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself.
22:40 On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Also, in 2 John 4-6, John says that loving one another is contained in keeping
the commandments which we have received from the beginning: I rejoiced greatly
that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a
commandment from the Father. And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though
I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning,
that we love one another. And this is love, that we
walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That,
as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. And in Romans 3:31
Paul writes, Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we
establish the law.
Also in Matthew 5, you said He meant that the law stood until He fulfilled it
and died on the cross, but that is not what it says. "For 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." Matt 5:18. As far as I know, the heavens are still up there,
and there is still earth under my feet, so I must assume that the law which he
expounds in the following sentences, the ten commandments,
remain unchanged and valid. Also in Revelation 12:17, the people of God at the
end of time are portrayed this way: 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. And again in Rev 14:12: Here is
the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God,
and the faith of Jesus. Also, those who keep His commandments are given
the right to eat from the tree of life: 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. Revelation 22:14. In Isaiah
66:23, speaking of the New Heavens and the New Earth, says: 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, saith the LORD. From this verse it appears
that the Sabbath will be kept in heaven and on the New Earth, so why would God want
us to take a break as it were from keeping it now? And the new moon spoken of
here perfectly corresponds with the verse in Rev 22:2 that says, In the midst
of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of
life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and
yielded her fruit every month.
Regarding no separation of the law of Moses and the ten commandments, I have
already shown that there was a distinction made by God in the OT, as the ten
commandments were placed in the Ark, and the book with the ceremonial laws were
put on the side. The book of the law was written by Moses as a witness against
the children of
Regarding not leaving the dwelling on Sabbath, I believe that in the context of
the gathering of manna, God was telling them not to leave there dwellings to
gather manna on the Sabbath day. In Lev. 23:3 it says: Six days shall work be
done: but the seventh day is the sabbath
of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is
the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. A convocation according to the 1812 Noah Websters
Dictionary means this: The act of calling or assembling by summons. Also, Jesus
went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day to preach, and there must have been
people gathered there to hear the Word of God read, and indeed the Scriptures
support that.
Forgive me if these thoughts seem rather scattered and not flowing. I am trying
to answer all your points at once and jumping back and forth between them. I
believe there is too much for me to put in one email. Perhaps we should study
this in person. My husband and I are free most evenings, and of course Sabbath
afternoons.
Once again,
thanks for your quick reply. Right now, the best way for me communicate with
you is through email because I have a lot going on right now. Email allows me
to respond as I find some free time. First I am going to answer what you have
presented to me, but then I want to present you with some arguments, which I
have already given you, that I would like you to deal with because so far you
have not answered them.
Let us begin
with your first thought:
I am greatly
enjoying this discourse; it has challenged me to examine my belief in the
Sabbath more closely and to more fully understand it in myself. Let me deal
first with your claim that the Sabbath was not reinstituted in the NT. I must
disagree, because after Jesus death on the cross, His disciples kept it (Luke
23:56). Obviously, Jesus had not told them that after His death the Sabbath
would be ended. Not only that, Jesus kept it in His death. Not only did he rest
from His work of creation on the Sabbath, he rested from His work of redemption
as well. Read the story of the lawyer that asked Him what the greatest
commandments was, and His response:
Matthew 22:35 Then one of them, [which was] a lawyer, asked
[him a question], tempting him, and saying,
22:36 Master, which [is] the great commandment in the
law?
22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
22:38 This is the first and
great commandment.
22:39 And the second [is] like
unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour
as thyself.
22:40 On these two
commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
It is true that
they observed the Sabbath in Luke 23:56 and it was after the cross, but this
does not prove that Christians kept the Sabbath. All it shows is that Jesus’
disciples were doing what they had been doing all a long. Even Jesus kept the
Sabbath while He was living because He was living under the old covenant.
Technically, the obligation to keep the 10 commandments and
those 600 plus other laws were done away with at the cross (Col. 2:14).
The old covenant was done away with at Jesus death.
Hebrews
9:16 For where there is a
testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17 For a
testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all
while the testator lives.
However,
the new commandments of the new covenant had to be probated. Until that happed
there would be those that were continuing to observe the Sabbath and the other
laws of the old covenant. It shouldn’t surprise us at all to see His disciples
observing the Sabbath while Jesus was in the grave. They had no reason not to.
There were a lot of things they did not understand about Jesus and His new
covenant. For example, they thought His kingdom would be a physical one, but
they learn that is was a spiritual one. Even though Jesus had taught them
several times about His death, burial, and resurrection, they did not get it.
John
20:9 For as yet they did not know the Scripture, that He must rise again from the
dead.
Them
observing the Sabbath while He was still in the grave does not show the Sabbath
to be re-established as something we are to observe today. I am not for sure
what you are trying to prove from Mt. 22:35-40 because Jesus was simply
answering a question about the old covenant not the new. My question still
remains, where is your proof of N.T. Christians
observing the Sabbath or being commanded to observe the Sabbath?
Your
next section reads:
Also in
Matthew 5, you said He meant that the law stood until He fulfilled it and died
on the cross, but that is not what it says. "For 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." Matt 5:18. As far as I know, the heavens are still up there,
and there is still earth under my feet, so I must assume that the law which he
expounds in the following sentences, the ten commandments,
remain unchanged and valid. Also in Revelation 12:17, the people of God at the
end of time are portrayed this way: 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. And again in Rev 14:12: Here is
the patience of the saints: here [are] they that keep the commandments of God,
and the faith of Jesus. Also, those who keep His commandments are given
the right to eat from the tree of life: 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. Revelation 22:14. In Isaiah
66:23, speaking of the New Heavens and the New Earth, says: 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, saith the LORD. From this verse it appears
that the Sabbath will be kept in heaven and on the New Earth, so why would God
want us to take a break as it were from keeping it now? And the new moon spoken
of here perfectly corresponds with the verse in Rev 22:2 that says, In the
midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree
of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits,
and yielded her fruit every month.
Let me show you why your
logic is flawed.
You seem to
think the law Jesus is speaking of is the 10 commandments. You base the
conclusion on the fact that Jesus mentions some of the 10 commandments
following verse 17. Using your own logic, I can show, that the law He mentioned
not passing way until it was fulfilled included the 10 commandments and the
other laws that Moses commanded because right in the middle of Jesus listing
some of the 10 commandments, He also list some of the other laws. For example:
Matthew
5:31 " Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his
wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.'
Matthew
5:38 " You
have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
Using
your logic, if the 10 commandments are still binding then so are the ceremonial
laws. If not why not?
Jesus did not say that the law
would be here until heaven and earth passed away, He said it would pass away
when it was fulfilled. Using this idea of heaven and earth passing away was
used to show the importance and strength of the law. Luke put it this way:
Luke 16:17 "And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.
As I pointed out in my last reply, Jesus did fulfill
it:
"These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that
all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me" (Lk.
24:44).
Even
you agree that when Jesus fulfilled those things written about Him that He did
away with ceremonial laws, but you want to divide the 10 commandments from
this. Yet, both the 10 commandments and the ceremonial laws are part of that
same old covenant, which was done away with.
Deuteronomy
4:13 "So He declared to you His covenant which He
commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two
tablets of stone.
Notice, the 10 commandments
were part of the covenant that was given to them. There was only one covenant
not two. As far I can tell there is no way to divorce the 10 commandments from
the covenant that was rendered obsolete (Heb. 8:13).
None of the verses you
mention from the book of Revelation name the commandments being kept as being
the 10 commandments. That is you assumption, but you cannot prove that.
Instead, it makes sense that the commandments they are talking about are the
commandments found in the N.T. and not the O.T. because we are to keep the commandments of the N.T. not the O.T.
Let’s say your right about
Isa. 66:23 that it shows that the Sabbath and observing the new moon will be in
heaven (of course I do not believe this is what is being taught here). You
asked why God would have us rest from the Sabbath. I guess the answer would be
for the same reason He had us rest from the observing the new moon:
Colossians
2:16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or
regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which
are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Even if
I agreed with you that Isaiah was talking about us observing the Sabbath and
new moon in heaven, I can still show you the verse above that during our time
here on earth during the Christian age that the Sabbath along with observing
the new moon has been done away with.
Next
you say:
Regarding no
separation of the law of Moses and the ten commandments, I have already shown
that there was a distinction made by God in the OT, as the ten commandments
were placed in the Ark, and the book with the ceremonial laws were put on the
side. The book of the law was written by Moses as a witness against the
children of
Yes, one can
show that the old covenant had the 10 commandments and the 600 + other laws.
That is about as much of distinction as can be made because the 10 commandments
and the 600 + laws are all linked to the one covenant. In fact, they are sometimes
referred to in the same way. For example the book of Moses is also called the
law of God.
Nehemiah
8:1 Now all the people gathered together as one man in
the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra
the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had
commanded Israel.
Nehemiah
8:2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law
Nehemiah
8:3 … the ears of all
the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.
Nehemiah
8:8 So they read distinctly from the book, in the
Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand
the reading.
The Law
of Moses and the Law of God are used synonymously. We can also clearly see
those 600 + laws are also called the Law of the Lord in:
2
Chronicles 31:3 The king also appointed a
portion of his possessions for the burnt offerings: for the morning and
evening burnt offerings, the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths and the New Moons
and the set feasts, as it is written in the Law of the LORD.
Other passages
as well show that the law of the Lord is much bigger than just the 10
commandments (2 Chron. 35:26; Lk. 2:23-24, 39).
Finally you
write:
Regarding not
leaving the dwelling on Sabbath, I believe that in the context of the gathering
of manna, God was telling them not to leave there dwellings to gather manna on
the Sabbath day. In Lev. 23:3 it says: Six days shall work be done: but the
seventh day is the sabbath
of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is
the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings. A convocation according to the 1812 Noah Websters
Dictionary means this: The act of calling or assembling by summons. Also, Jesus
went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day to preach, and there must have been
people gathered there to hear the Word of God read, and indeed the Scriptures
support that.
I am not for
sure what point you are trying to make here. Perhaps you can clarify.
Now that I have
answered all your questions please answer the following arguments. I will keep
them as concise as possible. First, let me ask you some questions.
When is the
first time we read about the Sabbath being commanded for people to keep?
Where is the
verse that shows or states that those before the time of Moses kept the
Sabbath?
Where is the
verse that shows that the N.T. Christians are to keep
the Sabbath or where is the verse that shows them gathering together as the
church on the Sabbath?
The Sabbath was
limited to the children of Israel of Moses time. The purpose of the Sabbath was
not just a time of rest, but a time of remembrance of how God delivered them
from Egyptian bondage.
Deuteronomy
5:15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of
Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by
an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the
Sabbath day.
How could the Sabbath apply to those before this time (Deut.
5:3) or to us today since the Sabbath was for remembering how they were brought
of
The Sabbath has
an expiration date and it is limited to the children of
Exodus
31:13 "Speak also to the children of
In
other words, the Sabbath was to be observed by the Children of Israel. It was
to continue to be observed by them as long the covenant was in place. This same
idea is also spoken of about the Feast of the Unleavened Bread (Exod. 12:17),
burnt offering (Exod. 29:42), burning of incense (Exod. 30:8), sin offering of
atonement (Exod. 30:10), no eating of fat or blood (Lev. 3:17). There are many
more I could list, but I think you get the point. You agree that these things I
just mentioned ceased when Jesus died on the cross (Col. 2:14) so why can you
not see that the Sabbath ceased as well?
Do you
agree that we were given a new covenant under Christ and that the old covenant
was made obsolete?
I hope
that you do because Scriptures teach this:
Hebrews
8:13 In that He says, "A new covenant," He
has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is
ready to vanish away.
Hebrews
9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the
first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the
eternal inheritance.
What happens
when a covenant is changed? Are we under the authority of both or just the new
one? Hopefully will agree just the new one. Since the
10 commandments were part of the old covenant (Deut. 4:13), how can you say
that we are under the authority of the 10 commandments. How can you separate
them from the old covenant?
I know I am
giving you a lot of information, but I hope you answer my questions about these
things especial the following.
Romans
7:1 Or do you not know,
brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion
over a man as long as he lives? 2
For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as
long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her
husband. 3 So then if,
while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an
adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is
no adulteress, though she has married another man. 4
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through
the body of Christ, that you may be married to another -- to Him who was raised
from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. 5 For when
we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at
work in our members to bear fruit to death.
6 But now we have been delivered
from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in
the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. 7 What shall we say then? Is
the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin
except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the
law had said, "You shall not covet."
There
are many great lessons we could glean from this, but the basic message is that
through Christ we have been delivered from the law. The law is no longer part
of us and we are not in subjection to it because we died to it. The law that we
died to included the 10 commandments as given by Moses because Paul
specifically states that law we died to includes covetousness.
How can
you say that we are under the law of the 10 commandments when Paul says we are
not?
This is
reemphasized in:
2
Corinthians 3:6 who also made us sufficient as
ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the
letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7 ¶ But if the ministry of death, written and engraved
on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look
steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory
was passing away, 8 how
will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if
the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness
exceeds much more in glory. 10
For even what was made glorious had no glory in this
respect, because of the glory that excels.
11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what
remains is much more glorious.
What was written
and engraved on stones? Was it not the 10 commandments?
Paul refers to that which was written
and engraven in stones at the time the face of Moses
shone. This refers to Sinai and the giving of the ten
commandments. These commandments were placed upon “tables of stone,
written with the finger of God” (Ex. 31:18). “The writing was the writing of
God, graven upon the tables” (Ex. 32:16). This, Paul says, was done away. We
hear him say: “For if that which was done away was glorious, much more
that which remaineth is glorious” (2 Cor. 3:11). This
ends the Sabbath, written and engraven in stones.
Well, I hope I have not overwhelmed you
with too much information, but I believe everything I have written you is
important. I hope you will prayerfully consider it. I know I have. I am
enjoying the discussion and look forward to future discussion.
In His name,
Cougan Collins
I know I have already given
you a lot of questions to answer, but I thought of few more that I hope you
will answer as you have time.
Brother Cougan,
I'm sorry it took me so long to respond compared with the others. We were on
vacation last week and had more free time. Now we are home and I am back to
being a mostly full-time mom, and we do not have the
internet at our home for various reasons. I check my email everyday usually,
except on weekends. I will answer the last two you sent because they are more
easily answered; I will print out the rest and take them home and my husband
and I will sit down with our concordances and our Bibles and write out a more
organized answer. I am also quite aware that I have not answered all of your
arguments. I assure you I have not forgotten.
Regarding question one: Since we are not under the old covenant of immediate
death as a consequence of transgression, nor are we part of a theocracy as were
the Israelites, the consequences for someone not keeping the Sabbath is not
ours to decide; God alone is judge. Here are the basic rules of keeping the
Sabbath according to scripture as Seventh-day Adventists generally subscribe
to: Do no secular work or conduct worldly business - this is from the Sabbath
command itself. Do not buy or sell - Nehemiah 13:15-18. Do good works -
"It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath day" Matt. 12:12
"13If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call
the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own
ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14Then shalt thou delight thyself in
the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and
feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath
spoken it" (Remember we are Abraham's seed if we be in Christ Jesus, and
heirs according to the promise. Amen!) So do not your own pleasure or speak
your own words, and call the Sabbath a delight. Isaiah 58:13-14
Go to a place of worship and gather with the saints: Acts 17:2, 13:14,42,44, 16:13, 18:4, Hebrews 10:25.
As for the second question, yes we do keep the Sabbath from even to even as the
Scriptures entail.
I will answer one more question, though not totally. You cannot understand how
I cannot see that the 10 commandments were done away with as part of the old
covenant. But I cannot understand how you cannot see that the 10 commandments
are separate from the book of the law because they were inside the ark, and the
book of the law was outside the ark. Also which law do you think is written in
our hearts as part of the new covenant?
Jeremiah 31:33
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with
the house of
Hebrews 8:10 also Hebrews
10:16
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those
days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into
their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them
a God, and they shall be to me a people:
I will get back to you regarding the rest as soon as possible, probably
tomorrow. God bless you.
Amy,
Take as much time as you
need. Based on what you wrote me back, it just doesn’t make sense that you will
use Nehemiah’s account for what you will do on the Sabbath. You drive a wedge
between the 10 commandment and the ceremonial laws. You say that the ceremonial
laws were nailed to the cross, but the 10 commandments were not. If the
ceremonial laws were nailed to the cross, then how can you use what Nehemiah
wrote about the Sabbath? If what he wrote gives you authorization for not
buying and selling then everything he wrote about should be binding such as:
Nehemiah 10:31 if the
peoples of the land brought wares or any grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we
would not buy it from them on the Sabbath, or on a holy day; and we
would forego the seventh year's produce and the exacting of every
debt. 32 ¶ Also we made ordinances for ourselves, to
exact from ourselves yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house
of our God: 33 for the showbread, for the regular grain
offering, for the regular burnt offering of the Sabbaths, the New Moons,
and the set feasts; for the holy things, for the sin offerings to make
atonement for Israel, and all the work of the house of our God. 34
We cast lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for bringing the
wood offering into the house of our God, according to our fathers' houses, at
the appointed times year by year, to burn on the altar of the LORD our God as it
is written in the Law. 35 And we made ordinances to
bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the
house of the LORD; 36 to bring the firstborn of our sons and
our cattle, as it is written in the Law, and the firstborn of our herds
and our flocks, to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the
house of our God; 37 to bring the firstfruits
of our dough, our offerings, the fruit from all kinds of trees, the new
wine and oil, to the priests, to the storerooms of the house of our God; and to
bring the tithes of our land to the Levites, for the Levites should receive the
tithes in all our farming communities. 38 And the priest, the
descendant of Aaron, shall be with the Levites when the Levites receive tithes;
and the Levites shall bring up a tenth of the tithes to the house of our God,
to the rooms of the storehouse. 39 For the children of Israel
and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the grain, of the new wine
and the oil, to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are, where
the priests who minister and the gatekeepers and the singers are; and
we will not neglect the house of our God.
This is just a small section
of what Nehemiah talks about, but if you are going to regulate the Sabbath
beyond what is mentioned in the 10 commandments based on what Nehemiah or even
Isaiah wrote about, then you need to accept everything they write about it
along with the ordinances they kept. Otherwise, you are being inconsistent.
While Jesus was on the
earth, He was living under the law of Moses. The
Pharisees and Scribes had turned the Sabbath into more than it was supposed to
be, and Jesus set the record straight by saying that you could do good on the Sabbath. As far a Paul going to the various
synagogues on the Sabbath, he was simply going where the Jews were still
observing the Sabbath, and he used this as opportunity to teach them about
Christ, but what you will not find is where the church assembled for worship on
the Sabbath. Instead, it was on the first day of the week Acts 20:7. History
teaches this as well as I pointed out in the 2-part sermon I gave you.
The law that was written in
our hearts is not referring to the 10 commandments (2 cor. 3:1-11), but to the
law of Christ (Gal. 6:2). Notice, it was going to be a new covenant something
different than the old one (which included the 10 commandments). The new
covenant is built on the commands and the authority of Jesus, which are found
in the N.T. not the Old.
We can explore the
difference between the 10 commandments and the other laws in more depth when
you get a chance to respond in more depth to what I presented about this issue
in my last email. I look forward to gaining a deeper understanding of your
belief on the Sabbath and am anxious to see how you will respond to what I have
presented you. Even if we do not come to an agreement about the Sabbath, I hope
you find this study as uplifting and as interesting as I do.
Thanks so much for your
time,
Cougan Collins
I haven’t heard from you in awhile. I
hope all is well.
Cougan Collins
Amy
Dear Brother,
I am sorry it
has taken so long to get back to you. Life is busy and wrought with care, but
we did not forget about you at any time, and we used the time to carefully
think of our response. I hope you are blessed, as I am going to be quite
straightforward. I pray the Holy Spirit be with you and guide you as you read.
I ask you pray the same.
You say
that Col. 2:14 supports the notion that the 10 commandments and the ceremonial
law were both done away with at the cross. This is not what the verse says,
however. It says that the "handwriting of ordinances, which was against us" was blotted out.
This is clearly referring to the Law of Moses, which was written in Moses own
handwriting (not God's, as is the case with the 10 commandments (Exodus 31:18)
and was placed in the side of the ark of the covenant
"as a witness against"
the children of
Why would God
think the 10 commandments so important they could not be trusted
to human hands to write, so He writes them with His own finger, only later
to "reinstate" all but one, and the only one He did not
"reinstate" is the only one that begins with the word
"remember"? This makes no sense whatsoever! The Sabbath commandment
says: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy". You cannot
"keep" something holy that is not already holy; the Sabbath day was
holy BEFORE God gave it as a commandment; it was holy before the
Israelites kept it. It was made holy by God at creation, and it never ceased to
be holy. Whether Abraham kept it or anyone else prior to the Israelites kept it
is of no consequence. Abraham committed adultery, and he lied; who knows what
else he did that is not recorded? I am not going to base which commandments I
am going to keep on any fallen man, no matter how favored of God they may have
been. The only safe thing is to obey the Word.
The Hebrew
word used in the Sabbath commandment for "holy" is qudas, which has meanings of consecrated, dedicated,
hallowed, purified, and sanctified. It is dedicated for a special purpose, that
is to spend a special time with His people that is
different from the time we should spend with Him throughout the week. It is one
day, free from earthly distractions and cares, for focusing our attention on
our relationship with our Creator and Redeemer, and our relationship with the
body of Christ, His church. Keeping the letter of the Sabbath won't save
anyone, and it never did. The Israelites were saved by grace, by the blood
of the Lamb, just as we are today. The lambs they sacrificed were a symbol, a
shadow of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the
world. When Jesus made that ultimate sacrifice, the symbol was longer needed.
The purpose of the Sabbath, a day "made for man" to spend time
with God and to remind us that He is our Creator and our
Redeemer, remained valid even after the cross.
At what other
time in history would be more important to have a whole day set aside to
recognize the Creator than in this day and age, when evolution is the accepted
Deity of nature and promoted from every side, even by some Christians and some
whole churches? It is interesting that the final warning message in Revelation
14 calling the inhabitants of the earth back to the worship of the true God
contains an almost verbatim quote from the Sabbath commandment: "And I saw
another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to
preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and
tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to
him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea,
and the fountains of waters." The Sabbath is a memorial of creation,
and be keeping it, we show that we believe in the
literal, Biblical six-day creation.
The Sabbath
was not specifically "reinstated" in the NT because everyone
knew you were supposed to keep it; it was assumed. It was the sign that you
worshiped Jehovah God and not some other pagan deity, notably the sun god
whose worshipers were characterized by their devout keeping of Sunday. The
early Christian church certainly would not have defiled God's holy day only to
worship on the day dedicated to the sun god! And indeed, early church
history supports this; there are many books about early church
history that can substantiate this fact. Even after the Sabbath was
given up by most of Christianity, the Waldenses, and Albigenses, and other isolated groups continued
to keep holy the Lord's day.
My point of
quoting Matthew 22:35 was to bring out the point that Jesus was saying that the
two great commandments are, basically, "love God" and "love your
neighbor", and on these two hang all the law and the prophets. The first
part of His response is a direct quote from Deut 6:5-6: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall
be in thine heart". Here, even
in Deuteronomy, is introduced the New Covenant, which is defined as God writing
His law on the tables of the heart. The tables of stone were the ministry of
death because by breaking them we have sinned, whereby causing the death of
Christ. And if we refuse to believe in salvation by His death, it will require
our death. The new covenant was sealed by Jesus' death on the cross, but as we
see by this text, it was already available to anyone who loved the Lord with
all their might, and heart and soul, and God would write His law on their
heart. They would keep His law, not because they had to, but because they
wanted to. Not for salvation, but for love. If we love our neighbor, we won't
steal from them, murder them, commit adultery with them, covet their
property, lie to them or about them, or dishonor our parents. If we love God,
we will not have any other gods, we will not make graven images and worship
them, we will not take His name in vain, and... we
will keep His holy Sabbath day and spend that day with Him and forsake earthly
labor and distractions. Not for salvation, but because we love Him. You can
keep the Sabbath perfectly every day of your live and still be lost because you
kept the LETTER and not the SPIRIT. But to keep the spirit, you must keep the
letter also. You cannot keep the spirit of the adultery commandment by not
lusting after a woman, but disregard the letter by committing adultery in
action. You can lust after a woman, but not commit the act of adultery, but the
act of adultery is a direct result of the breaking the spirit of the law, which
originates in the heart. Thus the new covenant is the law of God written in our
hearts.
The first time
the Sabbath is specifically mentioned as being required for people to keep is
in Exodus 16, before even the other 10 commandments were even given, or any
other of the statues contained in the book of Moses. This is the story of the
manna. Ex 16:4-5 "Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread
from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate
every day, that I may prove them,
whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come
to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare [that] which they bring in;
and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily." Notice God does
not give a reason for this, nor does he tell Moses that this is the
Sabbath.
Ex 16:22-30
"And it came to pass, [that] on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for
one [man]: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And
he said unto them, This [is that] which the LORD hath
said, To morrow [is] the rest of the holy sabbath
unto the LORD: bake [that] which ye will bake [to day], and seethe that ye will
seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you
to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as
Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And
Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day
[is] a sabbath unto the LORD:..." How
did Moses know that the seventh day was the Sabbath of the Lord, when we have
no record of god telling him this? "...to day ye shall not find it
in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, [which
is] the sabbath, in it there
shall be none. And it came to pass, [that] there went out [some] of the
people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And
the LORD said unto Moses, How long
refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See,
for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath,
therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of
two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on
the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh
day."
Here we see
that the Sabbath was given as a test of
obedience, to "prove them, whether they will keep my law
or no." Some failed, some did not. It is a test of obedience in our day
was well. Will we obey God and keep His day holy, and call it a delight, honourable, resting from our labors, not thinking our own
thoughts, even if it is difficult and we loose our job or our friends or our
family or our life, simply because this is His command? Does God not mean what
he says? Is he not specific in the way he wishes to be worshiped? It is not
arbitrary; it is a question of authority. Who has authority in your life? The world? You? Or God, the
Creator, the Redeemer, the most High? I have never given up anything for the
Sabbath, nor seen anyone else do so, that it was not returned to them two fold
or more, be it jobs or family or friends, or whatever else. Just as
we give the tithe because it is His, set aside for a holy use, we keep the
Sabbath, because the time is His, set aside for a holy use. Just as it is
robbery to keep the tithe from God, it is robbery and taking His name it vain
to claim to be Christians, but to profane and defile and trample underfoot His
holy day.
This is the
conclusion of the matter. This is an outpouring from my very heart and soul. I
pray the Holy Spirit will bless it for your good. The Lord be with you and
cause His face to shine upon you and give you peace.
In Christ,
Amy
Dear Brother,
I just wanted
to add a few other things I though of.
When speaking
of the destruction of
Also, here are
some references for Early Christian writings that show the early church kept
the Sabbath.
"There is not any city of the Grecians, nor
any of the Barbarians, nor any nation whatsoever, whither our custom of resting
on the seventh day hath not come!" M'Clatchie,
"Notes and Queries on
"The primitive Christians had a great veneration for the
Sabbath, and spent the day in devotion and sermons. And it is not to be doubted
but they derived this practice from the Apostles themselves, as appears by
several scriptures to the purpose." "Dialogues on the Lord's
Day," p. 189.
"The primitive Christians did keep the Sabbath of the
Jews;...therefore the Christians, for a long time together, did keep their
conventions upon the Sabbath, in which some portions of the law were read: and
this continued till the time of the Laodicean
council." "The Whole Works" of Jeremy Taylor, Vol. IX,p. 416 (R. Heber's Edition, Vol
XII, p. 416)
"From the apostles' time until the council of
"Except ye make the sabbath
a real sabbath (sabbatize
the Sabbath," Greek), ye shall not see the Father." "The oxyrhynchus Papyri," pt,1,
p.3, Logion 2, verso 4-11 (London Offices of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 1898)
"Thou shalt observe the Sabbath,
on account of Him who ceased from His work of creation, but ceased not from His
work of providence: it is a rest for meditation of the law, not for idleness of
the hands." "The Anti-Nicene Fathers," Vol
7,p. 413. From "Constitutions of the Holy
Apostles," a document of the 3rd and 4th Centuries
"It was the practice generally of the
"The ancient Christians were very careful in the observance
of Saturday, or the seventh day...It is plain that all the Oriental churches,
and the greatest part of the world, observed the Sabbath as a
festival...Athanasius likewise tells us that they held religious assembles on
the Sabbath, not because they were infected with Judaism, but to worship Jesus,
the Lord of the Sabbath, Epiphanius says the
same." "Antiquities of the Christian Church," Vol.II Book XX, chap. 3, sec.1, 66. 1137,1138
"They despise our sun-god. Did not Zorcaster,
the sainted founder of our divine beliefs, institute Sunday one thousand years
ago in honour of the sun and supplant the Sabbath of
the Old Testament. Yet these Christians have divine services on Saturday."
O'Leary, "The Syriac Church
and Fathers," pp.83, 84.
I hope this helps. God bless.
Amy,
It is good to hear back from
you. I had re-read through our entire discussion to refresh my memory, and I
noticed that you have avoided well over 10 arguments I have made showing that
the Sabbath is not binding on the Christian today. Much of what you have
responded back with is just more of the same things you have already been
saying.
Why are you are not dealing
with the many arguments I have presented that clearly show that the 10
commandments were indeed part of the old covenant that was done away with?
I going to take the time
list many of the questions and arguments you have not chosen to deal with. I
will try to abbreviate them as much as I can.
1. Think about this, if the
Sabbath was to be followed by everyone, then why are Gentiles called strangers?
If the covenant containing the Sabbath was for everyone then why did Paul say:
Ephesians
2:12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth
of
In Deuteronomy 5:1-5, Moses addressed
2. I asked you to re-read the first 4
pages of the second part of my sermon, which shows why you cannot separate the
10 commandments and 600 + laws from each other because they belong to the same
covenant that was made old by the new one the Jesus put into place by His
death. While I gave several arguments about this, you did not deal with any of
them that I am aware of.
I know you agree that we are
under a new covenant and you believe that Jesus took away the ceremonial law
but not the 10 commandments. How can you separate the two from the old
covenant? The 10 commandments were part of the old covenant (1 Kgs. 8:9) along with the ordinances (Heb. 9:1-4). They were
both done away with when the old covenant was done away with at the cross.
In 2 Corinthians 3:7-11, Paul refers to
that which was written and engraven in stones at the
time the face of Moses shone. This refers to Sinai and the giving of the ten commandments. These commandments were placed upon
“tables of stone, written with the finger of God” (Ex. 31:18). “The writing was
the writing of God, graven upon the tables” (Ex. 32:16). This, Paul says, was
done away.
Paul says: “For if that which was done
away was glorious, much more that which
remains is glorious” (2 Cor. 3:11). This ends
the Sabbath, written and engraven in stones,
unless you can show where the Sabbath is
re-established in the New Testament.
3. My question still remains, where
is your proof of N.T. Christians observing the
Sabbath or being commanded to observe the Sabbath?
4. You
tried to use Matthew 5 as a proof text the Sabbath was still binding because
Jesus mentions some of the 10 commandments. I then showed how He also mentioned
some of the ceremonial laws as well, which by your logic would mean both would
still be binding. Again, you did not respond to that.
5. You made no
comment in regards to what I said about Isa. 66:23:
Let’s say your right about
Isa. 66:23 that it shows that the Sabbath and observing the new moon will be in
heaven (of course I do not believe this is what is being taught here). You
asked why God would have us rest from the Sabbath. I guess the answer would be
for the same reason He had us rest from the observing the new moon:
Colossians
2:16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or
regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which
are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
Even if
I agreed with you that Isaiah was talking about us observing the Sabbath and
new moon in heaven, I can still show you the verse above that during our time
here on earth during the Christian age that the Sabbath along with observing
the new moon has been done away with.
6.
Again, I dealt with you wanting to make a distinction between the 10
commandments and the ceremonial laws. While one can distinguish between the
two, one cannot divorce them from the old covenant. I also point out once again
how the 10 commandments and ceremonial laws are sometimes referred to in the same way. For example the
book of Moses is also called the law of God.
Nehemiah
8:1 Now all the people gathered together as one man in
the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra
the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had
commanded Israel.
Nehemiah
8:2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law
Nehemiah
8:3 … the ears of all
the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.
Nehemiah
8:8 So they read distinctly from the book, in the
Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand
the reading.
The Law
of Moses and the Law of God are used synonymously. We can also clearly see
those 600 + laws are also called the Law of the Lord in:
2
Chronicles 31:3 The king also appointed a
portion of his possessions for the burnt offerings: for the morning and
evening burnt offerings, the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths and the New Moons
and the set feasts, as it is written in the Law of the LORD.
Other passages
as well show that the law of the Lord is much bigger than just the 10
commandments (2 Chron. 35:26; Lk. 2:23-24, 39).
7. The Sabbath
was limited to the children of Israel of Moses time. The purpose of the Sabbath
was not just a time of rest, but a time of remembrance of how God delivered
them from Egyptian bondage.
Deuteronomy
5:15 And remember that you were a slave in the land of
Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out from there by a mighty hand and by
an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to keep the
Sabbath day.
How could the Sabbath apply to those before this time (Deut.
5:3) or to us today since the Sabbath was for remembering how they were brought
of
The Sabbath has
an expiration date and it is limited to the children of
Exodus
31:13 "Speak also to the children of
In
other words, the Sabbath was to be observed by the Children of Israel. It was
to continue to be observed by them as long the covenant was in place. This same
idea is also spoken of about the Feast of the Unleavened Bread (Exod. 12:17),
burnt offering (Exod. 29:42), burning of incense (Exod. 30:8), sin offering of
atonement (Exod. 30:10), no eating of fat or blood (Lev. 3:17). There are many
more I could list, but I think you get the point. You agree that these things I
just mentioned ceased when Jesus died on the cross (Col. 2:14) so why can you
not see that the Sabbath ceased as well?
8. Do you agree that we were given
a new covenant under Christ and that the old covenant was made obsolete?
I hope
that you do because Scriptures teach this:
Hebrews
8:13 In that He says, "A new covenant," He
has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is
ready to vanish away.
Hebrews
9:15 And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new
covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the
first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the
eternal inheritance.
What happens
when a covenant is changed? Are we under the authority of both or just the new
one? Hopefully will agree just the new one. Since the
10 commandments were part of the old covenant (Deut. 4:13), how can you say
that we are under the authority of the 10 commandments. How can you separate
them from the old covenant?
9. Read Romans
7:1-7
There
are many great lessons we could glean from this, but the basic message is that
through Christ we have been delivered from the law. The law is no longer part
of us and we are not in subjection to it because we died to it. The law that we
died to included the 10 commandments as given by Moses because Paul
specifically states that law we died to includes covetousness.
How can
you say that we are under the law of the 10 commandments when Paul says we are
not?
This is
reemphasized in 2 Cor. 3:6-11 (please read).
What was written
and engraved on stones? Was it not the 10 commandments?
Paul refers to that which was written
and engraven in stones at the time the face of Moses
shone. This refers to Sinai and the giving of the ten
commandments. These commandments were placed upon “tables of stone,
written with the finger of God” (Ex. 31:18). “The writing was the writing of
God, graven upon the tables” (Ex. 32:16). This, Paul says, was done away. We
hear him say: “For if that which was done away was glorious, much more
that which remaineth is glorious” (2 Cor. 3:11). This
ends the Sabbath, written and engraven in stones.
10. If the ceremonial laws were nailed to the cross,
then how can you use what Nehemiah wrote about the Sabbath as guide to what you
do on the Sabbath? If what he wrote gives you authorization for not buying and
selling then everything he wrote about should be binding. If
not why not?
11. Finally, you had nothing
to say about this:
While Jesus was on the
earth, He was living under the law of Moses. The
Pharisees and Scribes had turned the Sabbath into more than it was supposed to
be, and Jesus set the record straight by saying that you could do good on the Sabbath. As far a Paul going to the various
synagogues on the Sabbath, he was simply going where the Jews were still
observing the Sabbath, and he used this as opportunity to teach them about
Christ, but what you will not find is where the church assembled for worship on
the Sabbath. Instead, it was on the first day of the week Acts 20:7. History
teaches this as well as I pointed out in the 2-part sermon I gave you.
The law that was written in
our hearts is not referring to the 10 commandments (2 cor. 3:1-11), but to the
law of Christ (Gal. 6:2). Notice, it was going to be a new covenant something
different than the old one (which included the 10 commandments). The new covenant
is built on the commands and the authority of Jesus, which are found in the N.T. not the Old.
I did not list
everything you have not answered, but this enough to show how you keep avoiding
the arguments I have been presenting. I believe the reason you have ignored
them is because they clearly show that the Sabbath is not binding for the
Christian today and that is was limited to the Jews during the time Moses’ law
was binding. I am still hoping you will actually deal with my arguments and the
Scriptures I used because I think it will force you to admit that the Sabbath
is no longer binding on us today. Or maybe you will surprise me and show me how
I misinterpreted the Scriptures such as the one found in Romans 7.
Though I
believe my 11 unanswered points answer what you have responded with, I want to briefly
answer reply to your response.
You said:
You say that
Col. 2:14 supports the notion that the 10 commandments and the ceremonial law
were both done away with at the cross. This is not what the verse says,
however. It says that the "handwriting of ordinances, which was against us" was blotted out.
This is clearly referring to the Law of Moses, which was written in Moses own
handwriting (not God's, as is the case with the 10 commandments (Exodus 31:18)
and was placed in the side of the ark of the covenant
"as a witness against"
the children of
As the letter of Colossians
continues it points out that observing Sabbaths was also done away with vs. 16.
Then you keep showing how the 10 commandments were inside the ark and the ordinances
in the side. What difference does that make? Again, while you can distinguish
between the 10 commandments and the ordinances, they BOTH belonged to the same
covenant what was done away with.
You said:
Why would God
think the 10 commandments so important they could not be trusted
to human hands to write, so He writes them with His own finger, only later
to "reinstate" all but one, and the only one He did not "reinstate"
is the only one that begins with the word "remember"? This makes no
sense whatsoever! The Sabbath commandment says: "Remember the Sabbath day,
to keep it holy". You cannot "keep" something holy that is not
already holy; the Sabbath day was holy BEFORE God gave it as a commandment;
it was holy before the Israelites kept it. It was made holy by God at
creation, and it never ceased to be holy. Whether Abraham kept it or anyone
else prior to the Israelites kept it is of no consequence. Abraham committed adultery,
and he lied; who knows what else he did that is not recorded? I am not going to
base which commandments I am going to keep on any fallen man, no matter how
favored of God they may have been. The only safe thing is to obey the Word.
The Hebrew word
used in the Sabbath commandment for "holy" is qudas,
which has meanings of consecrated, dedicated, hallowed, purified, and
sanctified. It is dedicated for a special purpose, that is to spend a special
time with His people that is different from the time
we should spend with Him throughout the week. It is one day, free from earthly
distractions and cares, for focusing our attention on our relationship with our
Creator and Redeemer, and our relationship with the body of Christ, His church.
Keeping the letter of the Sabbath won't save anyone, and it never did. The
Israelites were saved by grace, by the blood of the Lamb, just as we are
today. The lambs they sacrificed were a symbol, a shadow of the sacrifice of
the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. When Jesus made that
ultimate sacrifice, the symbol was longer needed. The purpose of the Sabbath, a
day "made for man" to spend time with God and to remind us that
He is our Creator and our Redeemer, remained valid even after the cross.
You have made a lot of
assumptions and want answers to questions the Bible does not specifically
provide. Where does the Bible say that God did not trust man to write the 10
commandments? We are not told why God wrote the 10 commandments Himself anymore
than we are told why God did things certain ways throughout the Bible, we are
only told that He did them. While we can assume why, we can on assume.
Just because you have a hard
time understanding why God would not reinstitute the Sabbath under the new
covenant is of no consequence. However, I have shown you why it was not
reinstituted because it was specifically for the Jews. The same reason burnt
offerings, animal sacrifices, etc were left behind in the old covenant is the
same reason the Sabbath was because they were not to be part of the new
covenant. The only purpose of the Sabbath was not to remind the Jews of the
creation and how God rested on that day, it was used to remind the Jews of how
God delivered them from Egyptian bondage.
You said:
At what other
time in history would be more important to have a whole day set aside to
recognize the Creator than in this day and age, when evolution is the accepted
Deity of nature and promoted from every side, even by some Christians and some
whole churches? It is interesting that the final warning message in Revelation
14 calling the inhabitants of the earth back to the worship of the true God
contains an almost verbatim quote from the Sabbath commandment: "And I saw
another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to
preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and
tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to
him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea,
and the fountains of waters." The Sabbath is a memorial of creation,
and be keeping it, we show that we believe in the
literal, Biblical six-day creation.
How about when Jesus was
raised from the dead on the first day of the week when the church came together
to partake of the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7). This is what the Bible teaches, so
why not use that day. However, I believe we should use every day to remember
our Lord and His love for us, but the first day of the week is the special day
that we are to assemble as the church and partake of the Lord’s Supper. Where
does the Bible teach that keeping the Sabbath shows that we believe in the
literal six days of creation? We do not have to observe the Sabbath to show
that. We can simply believe what the Bible teaches on it and as we live our
lives in accordance with the N.T., we show that we
believe it.
You said:
The Sabbath
was not specifically "reinstated" in the NT because everyone
knew you were supposed to keep it; it was assumed. It was the sign that you
worshiped Jehovah God and not some other pagan deity, notably the sun god
whose worshipers were characterized by their devout keeping of Sunday. The
early Christian church certainly would not have defiled God's holy day only to
worship on the day dedicated to the sun god! And indeed, early church
history supports this; there are many books about early church
history that can substantiate this fact. Even after the Sabbath was
given up by most of Christianity, the Waldenses, and Albigenses, and other isolated groups continued
to keep holy the Lord's day.
I have already shown you
from history that the early Christians worshipped on Sunday, but more
importantly than uninspired writers of history, I showed you that the church assembled
on the first day of the week to worship (Acts 20:7).
You said:
My point of
quoting Matthew 22:35 was to bring out the point that Jesus was saying that the
two great commandments are, basically, "love God" and "love your
neighbor", and on these two hang all the law and the prophets. The first
part of His response is a direct quote from Deut 6:5-6: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall
be in thine heart". Here, even
in Deuteronomy, is introduced the New Covenant, which is defined as God writing
His law on the tables of the heart. The tables of stone were the ministry of
death because by breaking them we have sinned, whereby causing the death of
Christ. And if we refuse to believe in salvation by His death, it will require
our death. The new covenant was sealed by Jesus' death on the cross, but as we
see by this text, it was already available to anyone who loved the Lord with all
their might, and heart and soul, and God would write His law on their heart.
They would keep His law, not because they had to, but because they wanted to.
Not for salvation, but for love. If we love our neighbor, we won't steal from
them, murder them, commit adultery with them, covet their property, lie to
them or about them, or dishonor our parents. If we love God, we will not have
any other gods, we will not make graven images and worship them, we will not
take His name in vain, and... we will keep His holy
Sabbath day and spend that day with Him and forsake earthly labor and
distractions. Not for salvation, but because we love Him. You can keep the
Sabbath perfectly every day of your live and still be lost because you kept the
LETTER and not the SPIRIT. But to keep the spirit, you must keep the letter
also. You cannot keep the spirit of the adultery commandment by not lusting
after a woman, but disregard the letter by committing adultery in action. You
can lust after a woman, but not commit the act of adultery, but the act of
adultery is a direct result of the breaking the spirit of the law, which
originates in the heart. Thus the new covenant is the law of God written in our
hearts.
I really do not see anything
is this part of your response that helps your cause or that I have not already
dealt with.
You said:
The first time
the Sabbath is specifically mentioned as being required for people to keep is
in Exodus 16, before even the other 10 commandments were even given, or any
other of the statues contained in the book of Moses. This is the story of the
manna. Ex 16:4-5 "Then said the LORD unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread
from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate
every day, that I may prove them,
whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come
to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare [that] which they bring in;
and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily." Notice God does
not give a reason for this, nor does he tell Moses that this is the Sabbath.
Ex 16:22-30
"And it came to pass, [that] on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for
one [man]: and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And
he said unto them, This [is that] which the LORD hath
said, To morrow [is] the rest of the holy sabbath
unto the LORD: bake [that] which ye will bake [to day], and seethe that ye will
seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you
to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as
Moses bade: and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And
Moses said, Eat that to day; for to day
[is] a sabbath unto the LORD:..." How
did Moses know that the seventh day was the Sabbath of the Lord, when we have
no record of god telling him this? "...to day ye shall not find it
in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, [which
is] the sabbath, in it there
shall be none. And it came to pass, [that] there went out [some] of the
people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And
the LORD said unto Moses, How long
refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See,
for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath,
therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of
two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on
the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh
day."
Here we see
that the Sabbath was given as a test of
obedience, to "prove them, whether they will keep my law
or no." Some failed, some did not. It is a test of obedience in our day
was well. Will we obey God and keep His day holy, and call it a delight, honourable, resting from our labors, not thinking our own
thoughts, even if it is difficult and we loose our job or our friends or our
family or our life, simply because this is His command? Does God not mean what
he says? Is he not specific in the way he wishes to be worshiped? It is not
arbitrary; it is a question of authority. Who has authority in your life? The world? You? Or God, the
Creator, the Redeemer, the most High? I have never given up anything for the
Sabbath, nor seen anyone else do so, that it was not returned to them two fold
or more, be it jobs or family or friends, or whatever else. Just as
we give the tithe because it is His, set aside for a holy use, we keep the
Sabbath, because the time is His, set aside for a holy use. Just as it is
robbery to keep the tithe from God, it is robbery and taking His name it vain
to claim to be Christians, but to profane and defile and trample underfoot His
holy day.
This is the
conclusion of the matter. This is an outpouring from my very heart and soul. I
pray the Holy Spirit will bless it for your good. The Lord be with you and
cause His face to shine upon you and give you peace.
I believe we should uphold
God’s Word no matter what the cost. It is true that God had commanded His
people to rest on the Sabbath and not go collect the manna before the Sabbath
was written on the tablets, but it was commandment that was to be followed as a
test and was just a preview of what was going to be part of the 10
commandments. If anything, it proves that His people knew nothing of the
Sabbath as being a day of rest because it had to be commanded. As I pointed out
earlier in our discussion, the Sabbath, which is part of the 10 commandments
and part of the old covenant (which was made obsolete [Heb. 8:13]) was not made
with their forefathers (Deut. 5:2). When you considered that NOT ONE example or
command can be found of those BEFORE Moses’ time keeping it, we can know that
it was unique to the children of Israel especial when you consider its purpose
was to remember God delivering them from Egyptian bondage (Deut. 5:15).
I am glad that you believe
we should uphold God’s truth because I believe that if you will wrestle with
the unanswered arguments I gave you, that your eyes will be opened to the truth
that the Sabbath is no longer binding on the Christian today.
I also noticed you mention
tithing. Where do you get your authority for tithing under the new covenant? If
we are to tithe then how can reconcile that with the following verse:
2
Corinthians 9:6 But
this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who
sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
7 So let each one give as he purposes in his
heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
How can
we give what we purpose in our heart yet at the same time give a set 10%?
You
said:
When speaking
of the destruction of
This is
easy. Jesus knew that the Jews would still be observing the Sabbath and the
city would close it gates on that day. If the Christians were in the city on
the Sabbath when Roman army came in, they would be trapped in the city.
As far
as the rest of your quotes I am not going to take them time to look into them
at this time because I am more concerned at what the Bible teaches on the
matter than uninspired men. Yes, I know I showed you references to the early
writers speaking of which day Christians worshiped on, but I only did so to
show that they did worship on the first day of the week, but I will never use
early writers to prove Scripture, I will only use them to show that they observed
what was taught. Regardless of what uninspired men wrote, the N.T. says the church meet on the first day of week to
partake of the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7).
Unless
you decide to deal with the arguments I been waiting on you to deal with, I
have nothing more to add about the Sabbath. My hope is that you will deal with
them, but if not, I would like to move on to the topic of what it takes to
become a Christian. Specifically, I want to deal with whether water baptism is
necessary for salvation. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Cougan
Collins