Questions about the Sabbath?

FutureAndAHope

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Will we be judged as far as our eternal destiny if we don't observe the Sabbath? What day do we or are supposed to celebrate the Sabbath? How do we go on celebrating the Sabbath since it is in the Ten Commandments? Has it been done away with since we are in the New Testament? Jesus said that He is the Fulfillment of the Law, so what did He mean that we are supposed to follow the Sabbath as Christians?

The bible says that "the letter of the law kills but its spirit [meaning] gives life". That means, the reason for the law is to impart life, not to kill us.

God gave the law to guide us into the right way of living. The sabbath day was given to us so we could have rest, and also to seek God in our busy lives. The commandment is not to be feared, but rather celebrated.

We will not be sent to hell for not keeping the Sabbath, the Sabbath day was made for us. God gives good gifts to His children. We should for our own sanity keep a day of rest, but we don't need to do it out of fear, or worry.
 
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klutedavid

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Will we be judged as far as our eternal destiny if we don't observe the Sabbath? What day do we or are supposed to celebrate the Sabbath? How do we go on celebrating the Sabbath since it is in the Ten Commandments? Has it been done away with since we are in the New Testament? Jesus said that He is the Fulfillment of the Law, so what did He mean that we are supposed to follow the Sabbath as Christians?
If even one letter of the law was thrown in the bin, then the whole letter of the law follows.
 
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Danthemailman

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Sabbath keeping with all it's rules and regulations, was part of a covenant with Israel that is not binding on Christians under the New Covenant.

Colossians 2:16 - Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day 17 things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

Even when Sabbatarians set out to worship on the Sabbath, are they truly "keeping the Sabbath?" To "keep the Sabbath" as it was required in the Old Testament under the Old Covenant would involve compliance with specific regulations (Exodus 16:23; 35:3; Leviticus 23:32; Jeremiah 17:21) that were strictly enforced.

If Sabbath day observances are still required, so would the burnt offerings which went along with them (Leviticus 19:30; 23:2-3; Numbers 28:1-10; 29:39-40; I Chronicles. 23:30-31; II Chronicles 31:2-4; Isaiah 1:13). So no kindling a fire in any of your dwellings on the sabbath (Exodus 35:3). Every man must remain in his place on the sabbath (Exodus 16:29). No trading (Amos 8:5). No marketing (Nehemiah 10:31; 13:15,19).

These were commanded by God to Israel (Exodus 35:1).

If the seventh day Sabbath is still in affect, then why do not the Sabbatarians seek to obey ALL that the LORD commanded? How can a person keep a certain law when he keeps only part of it?

If the Sabbath day laws were still in effect today, then according to Exodus 31:12-18; 35:1-3; and Numbers 15:32-36, anyone who profaned the Sabbath was put to death and any person who does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from his people.

Who is going to enforce that? The Jewish synagogue? The Seventh day Adventist church? The Government? Since we do not live under a theocratic state as ancient Israel did under the Old Covenant, no Sabbatarian can live consistently under these Mosaic regulations.
 
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Danthemailman

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The Sabbath was not offered to all the nations. It was given only to the nation of Israel (Exodus 13:13-17). It's often claimed by certain Sabbatarians that “God instituted the Sabbath in Eden” because of the connection between the Sabbath and creation in Exodus 20:11. Although God's rest on the seventh day (Genesis 2:3) did foreshadow a future Sabbath law, there is no Biblical record of the Sabbath before the children of Israel left the land of Egypt. Nowhere in Scripture is there any hint that Sabbath keeping was practiced from Adam to Moses.

Look at Deuteronomy 5:1-15 which gives the commandments to Israel. 2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. 3 The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive.

Nehemiah 9:13 - “Then You came down on Mount Sinai, And spoke with them from heaven; You gave them just ordinances and true laws, Good statutes and commandments. 14 “So You made known to them Your holy sabbath, And laid down for them commandments, statutes and law, Through Your servant Moses.

The word "Sabbath" first appears in Exodus 16:23 - Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.

The Word of God makes it quite clear that Sabbath observance was a sign between God and Israel: “The Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting covenant. It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested” (Exodus 31:16-17).

In Deuteronomy 5, Moses restates the Ten Commandments to the next generation of Israelites. Here, after commanding Sabbath observance in verses 12–14, Moses gives the reason the Sabbath was given to the nation Israel: “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:15).
 
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Robin Mauro

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Futurecand a hope, My understanding of the letter of the law kills, is that we cannot keep every detail of the law, and when people try to they add things that are not there, like do not dance, or insisting all women have long hair (as do some churches I've visited), etc. That is why we fulfill the law by loving God and our neighbor, rather than trying to understand, obey, and enforce details, which are often disputable matters. And yes, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
The bible says that "the letter of the law kills but its spirit [meaning] gives life". That means, the reason for the law is to impart life, not to kill us.

God gave the law to guide us into the right way of living. The sabbath day was given to us so we could have rest, and also to seek God in our busy lives. The commandment is not to be feared, but rather celebrated.

We will not be sent to hell for not keeping the Sabbath, the Sabbath day was made for us. God gives good gifts to His children. We should for our own sanity keep a day of rest, but we don't need to do it out of fear, or worry.
 
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FutureAndAHope

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Futurecand a hope, My understanding of the letter of the law kills, is that we cannot keep every detail of the law, and when people try to they add things that are not there, like do not dance, or insisting all women have long hair (as do some churches I've visited), etc. That is why we fulfill the law by loving God and our neighbor, rather than trying to understand, obey, and enforce details, which are often disputable matters. And yes, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

True. The verse has that meaning.
 
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Soyeong

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Will we be judged as far as our eternal destiny if we don't observe the Sabbath?

In Romans 1:5, we have received grace in order to bring about the obedience that faith requires, so we are not saved by our obedience, but rather the same grace and faith by which we are saved also requires our obedience. It's not my call whether breaking the Sabbath will bar someone from heaven, but rebellion against God is never a good thing.

What day do we or are supposed to celebrate the Sabbath?

The Sabbath is the 7th day, commonly referred to as Saturday, though it technically begins on Friday at sundown.

How do we go on celebrating the Sabbath since it is in the Ten Commandments?

Keeping the Sabbath is really easy and we must resist attempts to make it complicated. There are 24 chapters worth of instructions in the Mishnah for just how to keep the Sabbath, which rigorously define what it means to work everywhere from how much someone can lift to how far someone can walk before it counts as work, whereupon they then put a fence around that to scale it back in order to prevent anyone from accidentally doing something that could count as work. While it is certainly important to understand how to correctly keep the Sabbath and they certainly had good intentions, there is a danger in that they then ended up taking what was supposed to be a day rest focused on God's love for us and perverting it into a legalistic chore focused on the minutia. If someone were to spend the Sabbath worried about whether they were resting correctly, then they would be missing the whole point and would not be resting correctly.

So keeping the Sabbath is simple and we all have a basic understanding of what is work and what is not. The point of refraining from work is so that we can make time dedicate to delighting in God's love for us as a community of believers. Part of that delight comes from the preparation of getting tasks done ahead of time on the day before so that they don't serve as interruptions.

Has it been done away with since we are in the New Testament?

None of God's eternal laws have been and will ever be done away with. In 1 Peter 1:13-16, we are told to have a holy conduct for God is holy, which is a quote from Leviticus where God was giving instructions for how to have a holy conduct, which straightforwardly includes keeping God's Sabbaths holy (Leviticus 19:2-3). Eternal instructions for how to act in accordance with God's holiness can't be done away with without first doing away with God's eternal holiness.

Jesus said that He is the Fulfillment of the Law,

"To fulfill the Law" means "to cause God's will (as made known in the Law) to be obeyed as it should be" (NAS Greek Lexicon pleroo 2c3). After Jesus said he came to fulfill the Law in Matthew 5, this is precisely what he then proceeded to do six times throughout the rest of the chapter by teaching how to correctly understand and obey it. In Galatians 5:14, loving your neighbor fulfills the entire law, so it refers to obeying the Law as it should be obeyed, and refers to something countless people have done, not to something unique to Christ. Likewise, Galatians 6:2 says that bearing one another's burdens fulfills the Law of Christ, so you should interpret it in the same way as fulfilling the Law and the Prophets, namely obeying it as it should be, not as doing away with it. In Romans 15:18-19, it says that Paul fulfilled the Gospel, which again referred to causing Gentiles to become fully obedient to it in word and in deed, not to doing away with it.

so what did He mean that we are supposed to follow the Sabbath as Christians?

A Christian is by definition someone who follows Christ, so when Christ set an example for us to follow of how to keep the Sabbath, then we should follow his example.
 
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klutedavid

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Futurecand a hope, My understanding of the letter of the law kills, is that we cannot keep every detail of the law, and when people try to they add things that are not there, like do not dance, or insisting all women have long hair (as do some churches I've visited), etc. That is why we fulfill the law by loving God and our neighbor, rather than trying to understand, obey, and enforce details, which are often disputable matters. And yes, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
The canon of the council of Laodicea banned dancing by Christians at weddings.

Canon LIII.
Christians, when they attend weddings, must not join in wanton dances, but modestly dine or breakfast, as is becoming to Christians.

Canon XV.
No others shall sing in the Church, save only the canonical singers, who go up into the ambo and sing from a book.

No dancing and no singing is to be conducted by Christians, in church or even outside church. This was the opinion of the bishops from thirty regions across Christendom in AD 361.
 
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Robin Mauro

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The canon of the council of Laodicea banned dancing by Christians at weddings.

Canon LIII.
Christians, when they attend weddings, must not join in wanton dances, but modestly dine or breakfast, as is becoming to Christians.

Canon XV.
No others shall sing in the Church, save only the canonical singers, who go up into the ambo and sing from a book.

No dancing and no singing is to be conducted by Christians, in church or even outside church. This was the opinion of the bishops from thirty regions across Christendom in AD 361.
2 Samue l6:14 "...David was dancing before the lord with all his might."
You just made my point.
 
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