Bible Study The Real Sabbath Day

[Rick W]

The problems begin when it becomes legalistic or a requirement for salvation. After all, if we are talking about whether it's biblical or not, you have to admit, God never changed the day of rest and Holy convocation; man did. But we, as Christians, know we are free in Christ, who will become our everlasting rest, to worship any day of the week and to rest our weary bones, once a week.

I agree.

We may never know in our lifetime the answer to the question of "which day".
As long as we don't lose sight of who, what and why we get the message put forth of being in His rest.

then doesn't it become important as the rest?

The pharisees... did they not strive to follow the law to the letter? They were focused on the letter and not what was being said to their shame.

'taking a day off because God knew we'd need it'?

Relaxing from one's continuing labor is necessary from time to time yes but that's not the entire focus nor God's purpose for setting aside one day of the week. It's a day we stop to give thanks, to worship God to remain in Him during the rest of the week. It's a time for us to focus not on our labors but on Him. And that is the gist of "a day of rest".

 

[BobRyan]

Assuming Christ was God and that He knew which day was His Sabbath -- we at least have the confidence that we actually know the Roman and the Jewish calendars of 100 BC.

So we are only as correct on this "as He is" -- and in theory HE is God.

in Christ,

Bob

 

[BobRyan]

Whats stopping churches changing it to saturday?I know my local roman catholic church has saturday evening services as well as sundays,though i dont attend that church.

The Reason that the Catholic church has services on Saturday evening and Sunday is that the days of the week start at Sunset and end on the following sunset according to God's rule in scripture. So that means that "week-day-one" during the time of Christ starts at sunset on what we today call Saturday and goes to sunset on Sunday.

in Christ,

Bob

 

[Rick W]

Ok.
So we change the day to tuesday.

Tuesday is now the new traditional day of rest.
Well, wait a minute. How long would tuesday have to be the day to become "traditional"?
If we can get consensus on that then we can change the day to thursday just before tuesday reaches the status of being a tradition. That way we eliminate the threat of becoming traditional.
Or maybe we're not in danger of that since tradition comes only from one church.

2710 AD

/Hey dad. How come tuesday is the day of rest?

/Because it's always been that way. The members of an ancient christian forum ratified it long, long ago.

/Gee. That sounds so... traditional. :-?

 

[guibox]

Potluck,

I think the point that Bob is getting at is this:

There is no biblical foundation or merit in saying "It doesn't matter what day you observe the Sabbath. One day in seven is what matters."

This is a direct contradiction to the Bible.

There are two ways one should go:

1) Either the seventh day Sabbath is still valid for all Christians and must be observed as it is presented in Genesis, ratified in Exodus and practiced by God's people even in the apostles time

or

2) Believe that the Sabbath rest was fulfilled in Christ (as some interpret Hebrews 4:1-5) and there is no longer a Sabbath day

Both of these positions have some biblical merit and both can be defended scripturally.

What you CANNOT legally or scripturally say is:

1) The Sabbath commandment's solemnity was transferred to Sunday and now we keep the 'Lord's Day' (as was believed by Calvin)

or

2) It doesn't matter what day you keep as the Sabbath. One day out of seven is good enough

To say either of the two above is making tradition trump scripture and ignoring clear teaching simply to do what you want and justify having these traditions. It is dangerous to twist the bible and ignore clear teaching to make it say what you want, or worse, make it say something completely different and foreign to what the bible teaches.

We can 'pooh-pooh' it and say 'well, it doesn't matter'. Such thinking is dangerous as we set ourselves and our way of thinking above God's word.

 

[Rick W]

I've seen points made from both sides and everything in between. Yes, there is importance in understanding the Sabbath day, it's principles, it's relavence to God and man and of course the promise made that we may "enter into His rest".
But from all the debates in past years I've seen concerning the issue it appears to me to be an exercise of strong opinion leaning toward legalism. In many instances it's not hard to see it can and has created division among believers. All sides can find evidence in scripture to support their view. Thing is, the debate of when can become so avidly joined so as to overshadow the very reason of why in the first place.
Strong opinion isn't evidence. There is no day that is out of the realm of God's creation, He made every one of them.

Psalms 118:24 This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalms 118:25 Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
Psalms 118:26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
Psalms 118:27 God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.
Psalms 118:28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.
Psalms 118:29 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

if I choose to worship God in observance of His will, a day of rest apart from my labors during the other six, I just don't see that my praise to God, my worship, my reverance for the gift of that day with all the meaning included thereof and my gratitude in prayer of thankfulness would displease The Creator because I chose the wrong day to do so.

 

[Catholic Crusader]

....1. There is NO text in all of scripture saying "week-day-one is the Lord's Day".
2. There is no text that says "we observe each week-day-one in honor of our Lord's resurrection"...

So what? That's all based on "Sola Scriptura", the faulty idea that EVERYTHING must be laid out in the Scripture if it is to be believed. I don't ascribe to that premise, so the fact that it is not specifically identified in the Bible is irrelevant to me.

Having said that, passages of Scripture such as Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2, Colossians 2:16-17, and Revelation 1:10 indicate that, even during New Testament times, the Sabbath is no longer binding and that Christians are to worship on the Lord’s day, Sunday, instead.

The early Church Fathers compared the observance of the Sabbath to the observance of the rite of circumcision, and from that they demonstrated that if the apostles abolished circumcision (Gal. 5:1-6), so also the observance of the Sabbath must have been abolished. The first Christians understood this principle and gathered for worship on Sunday.

 

[BobRyan]

As we view the position of "The Word of God" as we find it in scripture and the Law of God as we see it in the Ten Commadments.

That perspective brings to the subject of the 4th commandment - Sabbath memorial a certain level of God's Authority - to the extent that "The WORD (God the Son) became flesh and dwelt among us" and the WORD is in fact the author of scripture.

By contrast we have the authority of man that would look at the context above and say...

....1. There is NO text in all of scripture saying "week-day-one is the Lord's Day".
2. There is no text that says "we observe each week-day-one in honor of our Lord's resurrection"...

So what? That's all based on "Sola Scriptura",

Well said.

This perfectly illustrates the contrast in the two positions.

the faulty idea that EVERYTHING must be laid out in the Scripture if it is to be believed. I don't ascribe to that premise, so the fact that it is not specifically identified in the Bible is irrelevant to me.

Having said that, passages of Scripture such as Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2, Colossians 2:16-17, and Revelation 1:10 indicate that, even during New Testament times, the Sabbath is no longer binding

There is nothing in Acts 20:7 that says "the 4th commandment is no longer binding" or even "The Sabbath is no longer binding".

There is nothing in 1Cor 16:2 that mentions "the Sabbath is no longer binding" in any way shape or form.

In Col 2 the focus is on the Lev 23 Sabbaths that are centered in animal sacrifices pointing forward to the time of Christ. There is no focus at all in that chapter on the memorial WEEKLY sabbath pointing BACk to Christ's act in Creating all live in 7 literal days in Gen 1-2:3.

BTW I find it more than a little curious that your avitar appears to support the Roman Catholic tradition and yet your position on the Sabbath commandment goes against Dies Domini

and that Christians are to worship on the Lord’s day, Sunday, instead.

Except as you admitted there is no such thing as "Christians must worship on week-day-one" in scripture.

There is no such thing as "Week-day-one is the Lord's Day" in scripture. (Again as you have already admitted).

in Christ,

Bob

 

[BobRyan]

I've seen points made from both sides and everything in between. Yes, there is importance in understanding the Sabbath day, it's principles, it's relavence to God and man and of course the promise made that we may "enter into His rest".
But from all the debates in past years I've seen concerning the issue it appears to me to be an exercise of strong opinion leaning toward legalism. In many instances it's not hard to see it can and has created division among believers. All sides can find evidence in scripture to support their view. Thing is, the debate of when can become so avidly joined so as to overshadow the very reason of why in the first place.

Certainly the non-Christian Jews 2000 years ago would accuse Christian Jews like Paul of being divisive as would the RCC accuse Luther during the period of the reformation.

But the real question is not "does Christ's Word bring a sword as He said in Matt 10" for certainly in some cases it does and we can all agree on that -- the real question is "what does the Bible say" when it comes to the Ten Commandments when it comes to the Sabbath commandment?

1Cor 7:19 "But what matters is keeping the commandments of God"

Are we as Christians going to stand on an "informed platform" of doctrine "sola scriptura" or do we simply allow ourselves to be tossed about by every wind of tradition.

Strong opinion isn't evidence.

Something we can all agree with.

There is no day that is out of the realm of God's creation, He made every one of them.

That is true. But there is only one day "according to scripture" that was sanctified and blessed by God according to His Word as we read it in Gen 2:3 and Exodus 20:8-11.

Psalms 118:24 This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalms 118:25 Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity.
Psalms 118:26 Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD.
Psalms 118:27 God is the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar.
Psalms 118:28 Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.
Psalms 118:29 O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

That is a good example of a Sabbath-keeping Bible author who realized the importance of both keeping the Sabbath as God gave it - and of always giving thanks to God and praising Him.

God's Word says --

Ex 20
8 ""Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 "" Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
10 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you.
11 "" For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

That is "what God chose" -- if we care to give that some weight -- then at least we know the facts from scripture

if I choose to worship God in observance of His will, a day of rest apart from my labors during the other six, I just don't see that my praise to God, my worship, my reverance for the gift of that day with all the meaning included thereof and my gratitude in prayer of thankfulness would displease The Creator because I chose the wrong day to do so.

Certainly every day is a good day to praise God today just as it was in the OT. But only ONE day is set apart as a memorial for Christ's Creative work in making all life on this planet - in making mankind. IF we choose to honor His Word in that area also (as part of our praise) then there is only one way to do it.

His Way.

in Christ,

Bob