Nevertheless, that is how I was using the term "Sabbath," as one of the 613 requirements of the Law of Moses.
That only reflects your seemingly antinomianist and antisemitic view without proper understanding.
I don't use the word "Sabbath" as a Labor issue, though it may have inspired it. For me, it was one of the 613 requirements of the Law of Moses. It is not, for me, "taking Leave" in a job.
You may argue the benefits of taking Leave during your employmet in a particular job. I agree--it is beneficial, and it may even be inspired by Sabbath Law for some. But for me, "Leave" is not "Sabbath observance."
You know, you're stuck with your rose tinted lens of "613 requirement", it's like your Maslow's hammer, and everything to you is like a nail, whether they're really a nail or not. Sabbath is the most detailed commandment among all ten, the first half is all about a rest from labor, not only you take a rest, your family, employees and strangers take a rest as well; translation in modern context, you don't get to kick your own workload to your workers or outsource it to independent contractors, you get the job done within the six days of labor. How is this not a labor issue?
And if you go back to the early chapter of Ex. 16, this work-rest pattern was already in practice for the Israelites, for six days they went out to gather manna in the wilderness, and on the seventh day there was none, and it lasted for 40 years, they had to literally "work for food" on every weekday, and they couldn't even hoard a large pile of manna since it spoiled overnight! The 4th commandment just codified it and explicitly explained the reason behind it - to commemorate the seventh day of creation when God rested.
Sabbath is never just one of "613 requirement" as you (mis)characterize it, believe it or not, it foreshadows the millennial kingdom, the 1000 reign of Christ, which would be the ultimate Sabbath rest for all mankind, but I guess that's far beyond your comprehension.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. (Ex. 20:8-11)
Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My laws? See! For the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day. (Ex. 16:27-30)
Undoubtedly there is some science to how much rest a person needs, and how much of a regular cycle it ideally is. But we have no Christian law determining what we must do to please God other than the need to be reasonably good to our bodies, which carry the presence and witness of the Lord.
I've told you this is not meant to be a "law" in the sense of civil law drafted by lobbyists, passed by congress, approved by the senate and signed by the president. It's an instruction that guides you to live in a natural and orderly way as God intended. Nobody's gonna excomminicate you or arrest you for violating this law, Paul said it already, "everything's lawful, but not everything's beneficial."
I've not been arguing against meeting together with other like-minded Christians. It is a place where we can give and get input from others, which we need for balance and socializing. I was arguing what Sabbath as a law meant to be, and what would be required if we try to live out a modern-day equivalent.
I agree that meeting together can be viewed as a modern day equivalent of a Sabbath "convocation." My point is that it is not actual "Sabbath observance" if we want to express it as accomodating a literal adherance to the Law of Moses. A NT gathering is not a Sabbath convocation. And we are not under OT Law.
You seem to want to find an OT precedent in order to justify that what we do in the NT is in accord with OT practices. I can't find anything wrong with that. All I'm saying is that nothing we do in the NT era is in any way "observing Sabbath Law" as I define it.
I don't understant why you're making such a big deal out of this and why you keep framing simple weekly rest and church attendance as "observing Sabbath Law" in such a resentful, grumpy way. It seems to me that you're like the self-righteous Harodians who had already been using denarius with Caesar's image and questioning Jesus whether it was lawful to pay taxes with this denarius. Isn't Jesus the Lord of Sabbath? Why does this have to be controversial?
You know, I've never seen anybody showing such level of outrage towards any real challenging issues like LGBTQ, fake climate change agenda, censorship against Christian teachings or the "prosperity gospel" trend everywhere, I don't see any thread actually addressing any of those; what should be controversial, nobody cares; what shouldn't be controversial such as Sabbath you make such long passionate argument and drag it on and on for twelve freaking pages, you spend all your mental capacity on these kinds of trivial theological differences and squabbling against your fellow brothers and sisters, that is such a disappointment. Where's the wisdom of discernment?
