But first...lets go to Genesis 2...the word "shabbat" doe not occur there...the Lord "shaw-vath" that is He ceased and desisted from His work of Creation on this day.
This passage says NOTHING about man or about anything people should do.
No, but we are later told that that is the reason we should rest on the 7th day.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and 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. (Ex. 20::8-11 ESV)
Secondly, Jethro has been kind enough to provide us with half of what we need to gain insight into the point I will make in my conclusions...Yes Exodus 16:29 tells us, "...let every man remain in his place; let no man go out from his place on the 7th day." (pre-JPS Masoretic literal)
Now also read Leviticus 23:3 where regarding the 7th day Sabbath it says "Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work on it: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings."
So in the first passage it says let no man go out of HIS PLACE on the 7th day...and in Leviticus it says it is to be the Sabbath "IN ALL YOUR DWELLINGS"
the his in 16:29 qualifies the place of the man who is observing correctly....in HIS place...notice it does not say to leave your place and go gather together in some other place for corporate worship...
Doesn't it? The very verse you quote tells us to have corporate worship on the Sabbath. What do you think a "holy convocation" is?
And in Leviticus 23 we read IN (inside of, within) ALL (plural, the many places) YOUR (personal, describing where these places are) DWELLINGS (again a plural referring to their homes or tents if they are travelling).
Are you sure that meant they weren't to go outside their homes? Could it just be a way of saying "wherever you are"? If they're not allowed to go outside their homes, how are they supposed to have a holy convocation?
So nowhere in the Torah does God command His people to go to some place together to corporately worship Him...and nobody, not Moses or Aaron or any Israelite EVER do this until after the Babylonian Captivity where the custom was created and then practiced after until it became the manner of the Jewish (only part of the Israelites) people as a cultural tradition. That's point 1!
See above. Point 1 doesn't work because of only reading half the verse.
Number 2 is that when we read Deuteronomy 5:2,3 we find that the 10 Commandments were a covenant agreement with Israel given at Horeb (Sinai in Arabia). the passage says "The Lord our God made a covenant with US in Horeb. The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day."
I think you might want to look at the context. In Deuteronomy, all of the people who were over 20 at Mt. Sinai had died in the wilderness. God most certainly
had made the covenant with their fathers. So what does this mean? Moses was emphasizing to them that the covenant wasn't
only with their fathers, but with them also.
Point 2 fails because of ignoring context.
Now I expect..."Well Jesus and the Apostles did it so should we...". But it must be known and admitted that before the Babylonian Captivity this was never the practice according to God's commandments
See Lev. 23:3. And if you don't know what a holy convocation is, then I suggest you either use a more modern translation or learn Elizabethan English properly.
so we find it saying Jesus attended the synagogue on the Sabbath "as was His custom" and after his manner (cultural tradition) Paul also did this...
The synagogues may have been cultural, but the holy convocation that was (and still is) held in them wasn't.
Now they also "as was their custom" celebrated the feast of dedication (again not Torah) and in accordance with Torah as Rabbis Jesus and Paul wore the Tzit Tzit...so if the reasoning that because it was their tradition is why we also should then we must at once begin celebrating Chanukah and preparing our Pastors to where the proper robes...this is an absurd argument...
Chanukah isn't commanded in the Bible, but tzitzit are. You seem to be confusing culture with Biblical commandments.
Finally I find most 7th day Adventists tie Genesis 2 to Exodus 12 which is an error for two reasons...one as I already pointed out is that Gen 2 merely reflects the ceasing from action on God's part...a particular action (for He never slumbers or sleeps and requires no rest)...nothing here about what man should do or does...the second error is in the assumption of days...the calendar from Genesis ceases in Exodus 12 and YHVH Himself commands Moses that the day He spoke to him was a new 1st of all days in a new 1st of all months...never before utilized or else the word "new" makes God a liar (God forbid)
When God tells Moses (and we do not know on what weekday He spoke to him) "And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you", God changes the times. The first day of this NEW month (Nisan) was the new first day they were to begin counting 7 days...so the 7th day Sabbath given at Horeb has nothing to do with (zero, zilch) the shaw-vath of Genesis 2...
First of all, where do you see the word "new" in that chapter? Secondly, it doesn't say the days of the week changed, nor that the calendar had never been used before. It just says that the month of the aviv barley should be the first month.
I will leave you with this for starters..all that I said is verifiable, word based, and true...
See above.
I would like to ask any who disagrees, to please produce Torah which commands people to gather together in one place for corporate worship on the 7th day...I say since there is none we are not bound to do so...but if it is your custom that is fine (it is not mine)
I already did above, but here it is again.
Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work. It is a Sabbath to the Lord in all your dwelling places. (Lev. 23:3 ESV)
And for those who can't be bothered to look up what "convocation" means...
Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord wherever you live. (Lev. 23:3 HCSB)
The TOG
