Is Saturday Sabbath an Obligation?
Firstly, after the resurrection of Jesus Christ nowhere in the NT is the early church recorded as affirming the Saturday Sabbath. Quite contrary the early followers of Christ are recorded as gathering on the first day of the week "Sunday."
Secondly, only 9 of the "10 Commandments" are repeated in Scripture after Christ's finished work on cross in Whom we have the ultimate rest, restoration and liberation from sin! Can you take a guess which one is not repeated? Jesus Christ did not do away with the 4th Commandment, rather He is the fulfillment and One we have eternal rest in!
You better memorize those two Scriptures! You will be confronted with this in street evangelism, you will call upon these Scriptures, and you will be happy that you learned them!
Susan, I believed as you do for quite some time until I dug a little deeper. To your first point, Y'shua kept the Sabbath as well, all of the NT apostles and disciples kept the Sabbath. In the decision of Acts 15, you will notice at the end of it, they say that the new converts will be taught the rest of Torah in the synagogues (on Sabbath). YHWH doesn't need to confirm His law anymore than that. We model what was modeled for us.
ReplyDeleteYour second point seems sound except that the Sabbath is an eternal SIGN of one who belongs to YHWH. The Sabbath will continue to be observed in the everlasting kingdom. "I am YHWH, I change not".
The third point you make is where most of us get the argument you wrote about. However, since we know they kept the Sabbath, you have to look at what is said from THAT perspective. In other words, "because you are keeping the sabbath and observing all the Torah, don't let anyone judge you........" Basically, we've been taught a lie. We have accused Paul of teaching us that the Torah does not matter. Do a little research. They accused Paul of the same thing. Find his answer. You will see that not only was he FALSELY ACCUSED, he maintained that he, himself kept the eternal law and he taught everyone to do the same. If you are a child of the King, you are Israel, no longer gentile, grafted in to the cultivated olive tree. There is no other tree, only one. Only Israel given the new covenant. Only Israel enters into New Jerusalem. Ruth did not remain a gentile. She became Israel.
Hi MLN,
DeleteYou are like all of us are, entitled to an opinion... and I don't say that sarcastically, we all do have one ;)
I see the Lord as giving us understanding about Himself through the limitations of time and space that we are limited to. He is not limited by time or space. One day is like any other to Him because He is eternal and in no way bound. The Saturday Sabbath was to teach us about His involvement in creation, He did it in 6 days and then "rested" (completed it so there was no more doing in regards to creating) on the 7th.
We likewise, when we rest in Jesus, have done with our works of trying (because with us there is no actual creating as the Lord did) to create ourselves, our rest is now in Christ having done it for us on the cross, and He will raise us up, not we ourselves.
I agree in part with what you say about us being part of Israel. We are grafted in. We are not bound to keep the feasts and sabbaths, they were a sign of the things to come.
Thank you for your visit and comments. You certainly can worship the Lord as your conscience tells you to. He is forgiving and knows our strengths as well as our weaknesses, and loves that we try to please Him. :) God bless you and your family in Jesus and all He has done for you.
Well my brother, are you a pre-millenialist? Do you believe in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Revelation? Do you understand that Israel has Two Sticks/Kingdoms, called Ephraim/Judah? That this is who the "Elect-Israel are? The 12 Tribes? If you are a premillenialist, your answer to this question is inconsistent with your eshcatology! You will be really suprised in the Millenium of Yeshua, Bro. Ephraim (or whatever Tribe you are)!
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