By: General James Green
MANY OF YOU write us, sincerely wanting to know more about this issue of sabbath-keeping. On the other hand, we’ve been criticized for years now for not keeping the sabbath on Saturday or Sunday. For the record’s sake, my dear critics, we here meet 7 days a week, not just one of seven days. Being an Ekklesia in the truest sense, we have the opportunity to meet or make every day holy unto our God.
“The Bible leaves no doubt which day belongs to our Lord. All Scriptures that define the Lords’s special day assign the honor to Saturday, the seventh day of the week. Does this surprise you?” This quote comes from the 2006 book “The Ten Commandments twice Removed”, by Donny Shelton and Shelley Quinn. This is typical of Seventh-day Adventists—referring to the 4th Old Testament commandment of the Decalogue. But in our studies on this subject, we have dealt with the supposed “binding” Scriptures that “PROVE” we are to keep the Jewish sabbath, and if you’ve followed the facts, you know we have shown that we are not bound to the observance of any literal “sabbath”, no matter what day is “right” or wrong.
Old Testament Sabbath-keeping
THERE is no doubt that God gave Israel the 4th commandment (Exodus 20:8-11). The weekly sabbath, the 7th day of the week, was to be devoted to God (cf. Isaiah 58:13-14). But that sabbath law was not universal, nor moral: it was a ceremonial “sign” only for God’s covenant people (Israel) under the Old Covenant (Exodus 31:17).
In the age of New Testament grace, Paul, under the leading of the Spirit, in conjunction with the other Apostles, specifically rejected the legal necessity of keeping the sabbath, for it had been fulfilled in Christ; but he and other Christians soon began meeting to worship especially on the 1st day of the week, which is the Lord’s Day, the day of His resurrection.
As we have said, the weekly sabbath day was special to the ancient Jews. Keeping the sabbath day is clearly identified in Exodus 31:13-17 as a covenant sign specifically between God and the sons of Israel, not the pagan. The 4th commandment was never intended to be universal.
The Hebrew word “shabbat” (“sabbath”) basically means “rest”, in the sense of cessation of one’s work in order to pursue the things of God. The Jews had many “sabbath days” and other “sabbaths” (e.g., sabbath years) in addition to the weekly sabbath. In regard to such holy days in the New Testament, see Colossians 2:16-17, for example.
Continued Observance?
MAYBE for the Old Covenant Jews who still think they’re under the Old Covenant, but not for the born-again Christians. We find 9 Old Testament commandments (of the Ten Commandments) in the New Testament, expanded for the Christian faith; the sabbath commandment is missing (for we are clearly told that it was a mere shadow of things to come). It was the Jewish converts who tried to drag on the Old Covenant that attempted to push Old Testament sabbath-keeping onto or into the New Testament Church. These men were called “Judaizers”, i.e., those who were keen on insisting that the ceremonial laws of Moses be maintained.
Your typical Saturday sabbath-keeper argues that “You won’t find one single argument in the New Testament over the weekly seventh-day sabbath of God as the day of worship.” Of course the seventh-day folks say such silly things as this and miss the whole point. They tell us that even “Jesus never deleted a single commandment; only man has tried to do that.” WAIT A MINUTE! Jesus was born, raised up, ministered and died under the Old Testament dispensation, not the New. And we find a great change after the New replaced the Old.
These Sabbatarians are hypocrites. They make such statements, but do they really adhere to every single commandment that God ever gave, and do they honestly think that Jesus NEVER changed nor fulfilled ANY God-given commandments?
What about all the commandments God gave concerning animal sacrifices? Should we still offer animal sacrifices to God? What about temple worship? Do Sabbatarians adhere to all the laws pertaining to the sanctuary, the Levitical priesthood, and on and on and on…? Well?
Do Sabbatarians practice stoning adulterers and rebellious children, executing homosexuals and other law-breakers, as the Old Covenant commanded?
And what about the weekly sabbath? Do they completely abstain from all worldly merchandising and business every seventh day and literally do nothing for themselves but only the Lord’s pleasure? I highly doubt it. And do they offer the special animal sacrifices that pertained to every seventh day? No!
What happened, then, to all these LAWS that GOD INSTITUTED? Did Jesus “delete” them? I suppose He did!
I think a better word to use is “fulfill”. Jesus FULFILLED many Old Covenant laws that GOD THE FATHER HIMSELF HAD INSTITUTED. Even the Sabbatarians live according to this fact, though they make statements that contradict themselves.
Am I Against the Sabbath?
I have already stated that for years we have been meeting every day (and isn’t this what true Christianity is all about, meeting with the Lord and communing with Him?). Our Sabbath is abiding in Christ. How futile to meet just once a week—Saturday or Sunday—when our Sabbath is in Christ! Why not meet 7 days a week?
There is no doubt that Israel observed the weekly sabbath (and other sabbaths), which was a symbol of loyalty to their God and His Covenant with them. But we are beyond this now, and have come into the Substance of it.
Sabbath Made for Man
JESUS taught this and so did Paul. Paul did not consider it a Christian institution but merely part of the Old Testament Mosaic Law abolished in Christ (Romans 14:5, Colossians 2:16-17, et al.).
William Tyndale wrote in his day, “We be lords over the sabbath, and may yet change it into the Monday, or any other day, as we see need; or may make every 10th day holy day only, if we see a cause why. We may make two every week, if it were expedient, and one not enough to teach the people” (Answer to Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue, ch. xxv).
The Early Church
AS we have covered already in other writings, despite what the Saturday folks tell us, the early Church met every day, and especially on the 1st day of the week, not the 7th, for the 1st day is the Lord’s Day, and they met to commemorate Christ’s resurrection—not by way of bondage to a day, but in joy for what Christ had done. How very fitting! The Lord’s Day is not a Jewish sabbath nor a Christian sabbath, but a day that Christians have hallowed to lift the individual and the Community (Ekklesia) into the life of the risen Christ.
I find nothing wrong with devoting any day or days to God; but to push a Jewish holy day off onto us is UNACCEPTABLE. And please don’t give me the “BULL” that the Roman Catholic Church changed the sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Do better research PLEASE! We have already covered all this.
I feel that the modern Church has lost the true meaning of the Sabbath anyway. They don’t even abide in the Lord for one day in seven. If Christians really did keep Saturday or Sunday set apart for God, this would certainly benefit the Christian community and help in civilizing mankind in general—but Saturday or Sunday is NOT CHRIST’S LAW and it never will be!
Curtail Greed/Pleasure
LET’S face it folks, greed and pleasure have taken over both Saturdays and Sundays. We ought to give ourselves to God more fully. WHAT IS WRONG WITH 7 DAYS A WEEK? Too much for you church folks? We meet every morning for prayer and communion, and often for teachings; and yes, we meet regularly on Sundays, but we do not make it a LAW!—only a good practice.
America’s Past
I can remember growing up in both Kentucky and Arkansas where whole towns and nearby cities were virtually shut down on Sundays. In a religiously mixed society, the mixed community may enact a Sunday “shut down” law simply as a “holiday” to safeguard its people from pursuing greed or desire for worldly pleasure without a day to divide them from the next week of indulgence. In such a case, Christians may dedicate the “holiday” unto a holy day to raise themselves and the community to the life with Christ in God. Of course today there are many who still do go to church, but as a whole, Sunday has become a day of both business and extreme pleasure of every kind.
Historically, the Christian Church used Sunday, not Saturday, both as a humane time of physical rest and for spiritual exercises. Now, people don’t even genuinely worship God on Sunday, or even any other single day, let alone every day.
We should give some time for God’s purposes, but to say that the Bible “commands” Saturday or Sunday for Christians is not Scriptural. If we love our God and Savior, we are going to find “rest” in them. This is the true meaning of “Sabbath” anyway—“REST”. Are you resting in His will, His way?
We Christians need the inner life as well as the outer. Sadly today men go to church as a dull routine and religious custom rather than to honor our risen Lord and give Him praise. In truth, some of these churches we have today are nothing better than glorified babysitting houses and magnified whorehouses where worldly music is used, money schemes are hatched, and everything is orchestrated for a place where the family can have “FUN”! This hardly fits what either the Jewish Saturday sabbath was or what Sunday resurrection celebration stands for. For the most part, the whole Church system is out of order.
If we worship God any day of the week, we will be strengthened.
In Henry Ryecraft’s “Private Papers” (London: Constable and Co., 1903, pp.85-87), he wrote the following:
“There was a time it delighted me to flash my satire on English Sunday; I could see nothing but antiquated foolishness and modern hypocrisy in this weekly pause from labor and from bustle. Now I prize it as an inestimable boon, and dread every encroachment upon its restful stillness … The idea is surely as good a one as has ever come to heavy-laden mortals; let one whole day in every week be removed from the common life of the world … Sunday has always brought large good to the generality, and to a chosen number has been the very life of the soul … If its ancient use perish from among us … so much the worse for our country.”
Well, dear Henry, so much HAS PERISHED, both from England and from America. People don’t even set aside one day in seven for God anymore.
Dr. R. K. Tardo, Th. B, M. Min., D. Min., contends that the Sabbatarians’ sabbath-keeping—and I say especially of groups like the Seventh-day Adventists—denies the all-sufficiency of Christ. I agree! How do we know this? Colossians 2:10 declares, “…and ye are COMPLETE in Him (Jesus Christ)” (Colossians 2:10), while Sabbatarians make it out like we are not “complete” unless we come back under the yoke of an Old Testament ceremony, as though the ceremony itself were offering us “completeness”.
New Testament obedience to God’s Law in Christ is meant to be rendered in love of Christ, not as a means to “completeness”. You see, the Apostle Paul was warning the Church of His day against false teachers—so must we. (Read Colossians 2:8.)
Things have not changed since Paul’s day. Religions like Seventh-day Adventism have tried to bring Old Covenant Jewish practices into New Covenant assemblies.
Paul denounced the Jewish sabbath as a continuing sign as well as circumcision (Colossians 2:11), and showed it to be fulfilled along with the laws regarding clean/unclean meats (vv. 16-17). Verse 17 plainly tells us that those things were “…a shadow of things to come, but the substance IS of Christ.”
You see, most of the Law of Moses was but a shadow pointing to Christ—our true “rest”, our “meat and drink”. It is sheer foolishness to return to the shadow and neglect the substance . . . yet millions do this.
Our full substance is found in the risen Lord, not in rites, observances, or traditions, even if these things originally came from God long ago. If we are complete in Jesus Christ the Lord, why do we seek Old Covenant practices?
I have Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest’s (N.T.) Word Studies. Volume 1, p. 204, says this about Colossians 2:10: “‘Are Complete’ … is a participle in the perfect tense. Literally it is, ‘And you are in Him, having been filled full, with the present result that you are in a state of fullness’.”
Note: While we are full/complete in Christ (which means we cannot ADD to Him!), we certainly need to grow up in Him (Ephesians 4:9-16). We as Christians are to grow up, unto a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The word “perfect” (teleios, Gk.) can also be translated “perfectly mature” or “whole”, i.e., “attaining the end for which we have been created”. The Greek word telos meant “end, conclusion” or “termination”. The derived adjective “teleios” connotes a maturity which reflects that ultimate goal for which we have been created by God. Amen!
Addition or Nutrition
WIERSBE states in The Bible Exposition Commentary, Volume 1, p. 126, “When a person is born again (Jn. 3:3) into the family of God, he is born complete in Christ. His spiritual growth is not by addition, but by nutrition. He grows from the inside out. Nothing need to be added to Christ because He already is the very fullness of God. As the believer draws on Christ’s fullness, he is ‘filled’ unto ‘all the fullness of God’ (Eph. 3:19).”
What am I saying? Let me repeat myself: I’m saying that if we are complete in Jesus Christ, then sabbath observance cannot add to or improve our position. Sabbath-keeping cannot even add to our obedience, for it was never a New Covenant command.
Does this mean we don’t need to go to church on Saturday or Sunday? It does not matter WHAT DAY we worship our God so long as we honor Him, seek Him, pray to Him and LIVE THE LIFE DAILY. Friends, churches are full of empty believers who do none of the above. They think their salvation is in attending church on a Saturday or Sunday. How stupid!
Set Apart
OF course there is nothing wrong with attending meetings with true believers on Saturday or Sunday. It is where we keep our hearts and heads that really counts.
Take Hebrews 10:10: “By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (NKJV). Again Greek scholar Wuest comments: “The Greek word ‘to sanctify’, (hagiazo), means ‘to set apart for God’. Here the work of sanctification refers to the placing of the believing sinner into the status of a saved person [in Christ], with all the accompanying blessings and enablements which that act includes. The words ‘we are sanctified’ are in the Greek text a perfect participle and a finite verb, showing in the strongest way the permanent and continuous state of salvation [in Christ] into which the believer is brought and in which he lives [in Christ]” (Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, Volume 2, p. 175).
Wuest therefore translates the verse in his Expanded Translation “By means of which we will stand permanently sanctified [in Christ] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (The Bible Exposition Commentary, Vol. 2, p. 126).
My dear readers, we who are born-again, have been chosen and set apart (from the world) for every day. Yet the Church in this hour is so full of the world that their meetings, their Lord’s Day observance, and their sabbath-keeping (besides the fact that it is wrong) has become a mockery!
If we look at Hebrews 10:14, which is the key to this whole issue, the word “perfected” (teleioo) means “to bring to a state of completion”.
So, everything essential to the salvation of the sinner is included in the gift of salvation thru the atoning death of Jesus the Lord. But take heed, ONE CAN LOSE HIS OR HER SALVATION. A repentant sinner can forsake the right WAY and go back into bondage in the WRONG WAY!! Our “permanent and continuous state of salvation” is sure in Christ SO LONG AS WE REMAIN IN CHRIST.
Keeping the Jewish sabbath is sheer foolishness—we cannot further perfect that which is already perfected. Our work of righteousness is the outcome of our inner relationship with Christ. We cannot improve upon our redemption, it is already complete; now we must seek to live the Christian life as the Bible points out to us. Going to church on a Saturday or even Sunday will not add to the perfect WAY or make us more holy. The Seventh-day Adventists and many “Messianic Jewish” people pride themselves on Saturday worship as making them far above other Christians. PRIDE is an abomination.
Jesus Said…
JESUS stated in John 8:31-32, “if you CONTINUE in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed.” He did not say “if ye continue to got to church…” We are the Church!
True, there were Christian converts who came out of Judaism who still practiced the Old Covenant sabbath. It was natural for them. It was these whom the Apostles sought to instruct in the right New Covenant way. Many converted Jews, however (including the Apostles)—thank God!—got taught the truth about the fulfillment of the sabbath, and about Sunday (Lord’s Day) observance of Christ’s resurrection. Keeping the Jewish sabbath did not add to anyone’s spirituality one iota. But some made sabbath-keeping a condition for salvation, as do some today. I have been told by certain Seventh-day Adventists that I was going to Hell for not keeping the Saturday sabbath. How utterly stupid!
Keeping the sabbath is NOT a mark of a mature (sanctified) Christian, as Sabbatarians would want us to believe.
Just read, watch and listen to the Sabbatarian arsenal of books, tracts, TV shows, videos, DVD’s, cassettes/CDs, and radio shows, how they promote such falsity. You would think the Jewish sabbath is our Savior, not Jesus Christ the Lord.
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WE HOPE the articles we have been publishing and are publishing on the sabbath, are helping all the souls who may be struggling with this issue or who have already accepted the lies which are so prevalent in these dark times. We pray that the truth brings clarity to any and all who are confused.
The main reason for our study on the sabbathis that thru the years, many people from all around the world have asked our opinion on the issue. Not only do sincere Christians ask whether the weekly sabbath commandment is binding or incumbent upon the New Testament believers, but they also ask which day they should observe it. Saturday? Sunday? Any day? They want to know if sabbath observance was just a part of the Old Testament Law which was fulfilled in Christ. Some ask if the Roman Catholic Church really changed the weekly sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. Well, it took me years to finally sit down and write out these lessons (along with Master Sgt. Amos River), and God has helped us.
I was reading a Christian newsletter that had the type of quote we would hear in Messianic Jewish circles. The quote came from a reader of the newsletter, who stated, “The Lord Jesus and His followers were and remained observant Jews…Paul is not telling Jews to disobey the Torah but is making it easier for Gentiles to come into the Messianic Movement.” The author of the newsletter responded, saying that Jesus and His disciples were observant of the Old Covenant before the Cross, but not afterwards. This is an important, Scripturally sound point to make. It is connected to this whole issue concerning the weekly sabbath.
Make no mistake, the Messianic Movement is trying hard to get the New Testament Church to go back and embrace Judaism with its rites, rituals, laws, and so on. In fact, many converted Jews will say that we converted Gentiles are less Christian than they are and that Torah observance is necessary to fully please God. Read some of their articles for yourself!
The Levitical sacrifices for sin WERE ALL FULFILLED in Christ’s sacrifice. Indeed, make no mistake, dear New Testament Christian, the entire legal system or “law of commandments contained in ordinances” WAS ABOLISHED at the Cross (read Ephesians 2:14-22). Why else was the vail of the Temple rent in twain from the top all the way to the bottom? Read Matthew 27:51, Mark 15:38, and Luke 23:45.
Jesus Christ fulfilled all-in-all. He WAS and IS the “one sacrifice” that could and did take away sin; therefore, by His own blood, He did away with ALL the Levitical sacrifices. The shadow passed away, the substance arrived! Amen. However, the way things are going in the Messianic Movement, it would not surprise me if they started up the animal sacrifices once again—in order to be Jews of Jews (cf. Hebrews 9:23-10:23).
The Apostle Paul warns us in I Timothy 1:6-11 that true New Testament doctrine is needed because some “having strayed, have turned aside…desiring to be teachers of the law” (vv. 6-7). Too many introduce law as necessary to salvation and thus pervert grace. Too many claim we must keep the Old Covenant sabbath commandment, implying that we are not real Christains until we adopt Jewish observances. Some use the “end time” approach, saying, “Sunday worship is the mark of the beast and the seal of Romanism.” How stupid indeed when we see the clear light! For sure, this whole issue of sabbath-keeping is causing plenty of unnecessary confusion. Christains ought to prayerfully study this topic and come into the mind of the Spirit.
Sabbatarians go to great extremes to prove their doctrines. One man, Frank Walker, wrote that “The Resurrection did not take place on the first day of the week…Christ’s resurrection was on the sabbath day and not on Sunday.” This statement has no backing in Scripture and is contrary to the writings of early Church Fathers. Mark 16:9 clearly states, “Now when He rose early on the first day of the week…” If you can, read this verse in the following versions for support: AMP, TLB, RSV, NIV, Beck, and NASV (and others).
How does Mr. Walker come to such an erroneous conclusion? He claims that since the early-morning visitors came to Christ’s tomb and found it empty, then Christ must have risen the day before. Not so! First of all, Scripture tells us otherwise. Second of all, common sense tells us that Christ could have risen some time shortly before the visitors arrived—on the first day of the week. THINK, Mr. Walker, THINK! (But please let the Spirit lead you instead of your own misguided intellect!)
The Bible unequivocally states that Christ rose EARLY on Sunday morning. Mr. Walker’s use of twisted reasoning is just one example how these wily Sabbatarians will go to extremes to promote their false teachings. Twisting the truth is inexcusable for those in teaching positions, especially when it comes to IGNORING Biblical facts to fit some “pet doctrine.”
To some people, Edersheim’s writings on the life of Christ have been considered to be among the most important records of Christianity. In Edersheim’s comments on the Lord’s resurrection passages (Mark 16:9, Luke 24:1, Matthew 28:1), he said, “It was the first day of the week (Sunday)—according to Jewish reckoning the third day from His death…[when] the holy mourners who, in the gray of that Sunday morning, went to the Tomb” (Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Michigan: Eerdman’s, 1973, part 2, book III, pp. 630-631).
Mark 16:1 plainly states that “the Sabbath (Saturday) was PAST.” The Sabbath was PAST! THE LORD ROSE FROM THE TOMB AFTER THE JEWISH SABBATH HAD ENDED. It was on the first day of the week that Christ rose again. And in our study on the weekly sabbath, we reveal the undeniable truth that the early Christains worshiped on Sunday, the first day of the week, in acknowledgment of our Lord’s resurrection. But Sunday was not a new sabbath, and their worship was not according to the Old Covenant Law.
Why fight against the truth? NO amount of DENIAL can change the TRUTH. Don’t accept cunningly devised lies but search the Scriptures and let the Holy Spirit teach you before you fall back into a yoke of bondage.