Why we are not supposed to keep the Sabbath

Bro.T said:

But this was prophesy written in Isaiah 49: 6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

Now when they had passed through Am-phip’-o-lis and Ap-ol-lo’-ni-a, they came to Thes-sa-lo-ni’-ca, where was a synagogue of the Jews: (v.2) And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures," Now Paul evidently was around Thes-sa-lo-ni'-ca for a few weeks and as his manner was he went into the synagogue three sabbath days. Do you understand what the word manner means? Its definition is; a characteristic or customary mode of acting: custom: fashion. It was the law. (Acts 17:1-2) (v.2)

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Where else and when else would Paul be likely to find a large gathering of pious Jews in order to be able to reach as many of his fellow Jews with the Gospel as possible?

Bro.T said:

Paul went into the synagogue every sabbath, not every Sunday people, this is the apostle Paul, and it said that Paul reasoned with them out of the scriptures.

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He would have been wasting his time if he went to the synagogue on Sunday as the first day of the week was a work day and hardly anyone would have been there.

Bro.T said:

I wonder why Paul didn't enlighten them with some 1 Corinthians, or maybe hit them with some Galatians, or endow them with a little 2 Thessalonians, because these books were not around when Paul was preaching the gospel. He reasoned with them out of the scriptures, which are from Genesis to Malachi.

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The letters you refer to above were written to people who were already Christians. When Paul preached to the Jews, he was reasoning with the Scriptures they were already familiar with.
It isn't hard to understand. Paul first witnessed to the pious Jews and Gentile converts who already had an understanding of God through the Old Covenant. He went to where large numbers of them would be coming together so that he could reach as many as possible, which was in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Any other day and place would have meant reaching far, far fewer people.

prodromos said:

Where else and when else would Paul be likely to find a large gathering of pious Jews in order to be able to reach as many of his fellow Jews with the Gospel as possible?

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The apostles were taught to observe everything He commanded. The apostles observed every Sabbath because its a commandment of God. Exo20:8-11 Isa58:13 Lev23:3 Many Jews rejected Jesus why they went to the Gentiles and never once changed the day, because they never rebelled against God's commandments.

prodromos said:

He would have been wasting his time if he went to the synagogue on Sunday as the first day of the week was a work day and hardly anyone would have been there.

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That's where this whole argument falls apart- if the apostles transferred the sanctity from Sabbath to the first day, which they did not have the power to do, but they would have at least taught one person to do so. But instead they remained faithful to God and never tried to change a jot or tittle of the law of God going against the will of Jesus who is God. Mat5:18-19

Acts 13:42 So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.

If Sunday is the "Lords Day" as so many people claim came from the apostles- they never taught one person this. Nor did they themself honor it. They kept every Sabbath because that's the day that came with the power of God's Blessing and Sanctification. So instead of them correcting one person in all of Scripture as they could have here, they faithfully kept every Sabbath with both God fearing Jews and Gentiles just as Jesus Himself indicated Isa56:6-7

44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.


45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us:

‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

49 And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.

When were they gathering to hear the word of God both Jews and Gentiles just as Jesus said Isa56:6-7 Lev23:3 Exo20:8-11

44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
Acts 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.

Why was this? Because it is according to Christ- what He did Luke4:16 because its a commandment of God, not a recommendation

Why the Sabbath was being kept in every city, for many many generations, on every Sabbath Acts 15:21 because everything should be according to Christ and not according to man. Mat15:3-14 Mark7:7-13 Col2:8

Once God Blesses, its forever 1 Chron17:27 and man cannot take away God's Blessing Num23:20 God blessed the Sabbath day Exo20:11 and blesses the man who keeps it Isa56:2. We can't take away God's blessing, we can only forfeit our own, which I would not advise


Psa 37:22 For those blessed by Him shall inherit the earth,
But those cursed by Him shall be cut off.

Bro.T said:

I wonder why Paul didn't enlighten them with some 1 Corinthians, or maybe hit them with some Galatians, or endow them with a little 2 Thessalonians, because these books were not around when Paul was preaching the gospel. He reasoned with them out of the scriptures, which are from Genesis to Malachi.

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It is true that when Paul references the term "scripture" in his letters it means (in context) those writings already in the hands of his readers and accepted as scripture. So also in the case of Luke 17:11 where Luke says the people "studied the scriptures daily to SEE IF those things taught by the Apostle Paul, WERE SO"

ARBITER01 said:

People can't claim to follow Jesus when they do everything they can to ignore scripture and follow moses. You get nothing in the end.

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"ignore scripture and follow Moses" is a self conflicted term

Christ makes this statement in Mark 7:7-13 "Moses said, Word of God, Commandment of God" are all used interchangeably by Christ in Mark 7.

I think it is wise to listen to Christ.
read the Bible

Jesus lists two commandments when he says "the commandment of God".

'Honor your father and your mother;’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death'.

If either one is no longer practiced today, then we know that "the commandment of God" does not mean for all times.

Leaf473 said:

Jesus lists two commandments when he says "the commandment of God".

'Honor your father and your mother;’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death'.

If either one is no longer practiced today, then we know that "the commandment of God" does not mean for all times.

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He lists honor your father and mother as the commandment of God the 'and' means there was something in addition to the commandment.

Mat 15:6 then he need not honor his father [a]or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.

The judgement for not doing this is death, Exodus 21:17 the curses that were written in the law of Moses besides the ark Deut31:24-26 Honor thy Father and Mother is the commandment of God written by God Himself Exo20:1-17 Deut4:13 inside the ark Exo25:21that no more were added Deut5:22

SabbathBlessings said:

He lists honor your father and mother as the commandment of God the 'and' means there was something in addition to the commandment.

Mat 15:6 then he need not honor his father [a]or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition.

The judgement for not doing this is death, Exodus 21:17 the curses that were written in the law of Moses besides the ark Deut31:24-26 Honor thy Father and Mother is the commandment of God written by God Himself Exo20:1-17 Deut4:13 inside the ark Exo25:21that no more were added Deut5:22

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It can be read that way.

To me it looks like he lumps them together
He went on to say, “You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’

Leviticus is the commandments that God gave to the children of Israel at Sinai.

Leaf473 said:

It can be read that way.

To me it looks like he lumps them together
He went on to say, “You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’

Leviticus is the commandments that God gave to the children of Israel at Sinai.

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'And' is not lumping together it means in addition - plus once Scripture interpets something, it doesn't change later.

SabbathBlessings said:

'And' is not lumping together it means in addition - plus once Scripture interpets something, it doesn't change later.

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Sure, we can read it as one commandment, and then an additional commandment.

The Book of Leviticus says it is commandments from God. I can agree that that doesn't change, if that's what you're saying.

Leaf473 said:

Sure, we can read it as one commandment, and then an additional commandment.

The Book of Leviticus says it is commandments from God. I can agree that that doesn't change, if that's what you're saying.

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All the law is from God, God gave Moses to write a law that was placed besides the ark, Deut31:24-26 God Himself wrote only the Ten Commandments Deut4:13 that no more were added to this law Deu5:22 is God's commandments Exo20:6 the Testimony of God Exo31:18 not Moses, the works of God Exo32:16 not Moses. They are inside the ark of His covenant Exo25:16 and in heaven Rev11:19 where His word is settled Psa119:89

We have been through this a few times so I am not going to continue, it will sort out in God's time. Be well.

SabbathBlessings said:

All the law is from God, God gave Moses to write a law that was placed besides the ark, Deut31:24-26 God Himself wrote only the Ten Commandments Deut4:13 that no more were added to this law Deu5:22 is God's commandments Exo20:6 the Testimony of God Exo31:18 not Moses, the works of God Exo32:16 not Moses. They are inside the ark of His covenant Exo25:16 and in heaven Rev11:19 where His word is settled Psa119:89

We have been through this a few times so I am not going to continue, it will sort out in God's time. Be well.

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May you be well as well

It looks very sorted out to me

Jesus just says the command (or commandment) of God.

I believe that the entire law is fulfilled when we love our neighbor as ourselves.

By this we know that we will want to take care of our elderly parents if they need help †

SabbathBlessings said:

The apostles were taught to observe everything He commanded. The apostles observed every Sabbath because its a commandment of God. Exo20:8-11 Isa58:13 Lev23:3 Many Jews rejected Jesus why they went to the Gentiles and never once changed the day, because they never rebelled against God's commandments.


That's where this whole argument falls apart- if the apostles transferred the sanctity from Sabbath to the first day, which they did not have the power to do, but they would have at least taught one person to do so. But instead they remained faithful to God and never tried to change a jot or tittle of the law of God going against the will of Jesus who is God. Mat5:18-19

Acts 13:42 So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.

If Sunday is the "Lords Day" as so many people claim came from the apostles- they never taught one person this. Nor did they themself honor it. They kept every Sabbath because that's the day that came with the power of God's Blessing and Sanctification. So instead of them correcting one person in all of Scripture as they could have here, they faithfully kept every Sabbath with both God fearing Jews and Gentiles just as Jesus Himself indicated Isa56:6-7

44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.


45 But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy; and contradicting and blaspheming, they opposed the things spoken by Paul. 46 Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold and said, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken to you first; but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. 47 For so the Lord has commanded us:

‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles,
That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ”
48 Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

49 And the word of the Lord was being spread throughout all the region.

When were they gathering to hear the word of God both Jews and Gentiles just as Jesus said Isa56:6-7 Lev23:3 Exo20:8-11

44 On the next Sabbath almost the whole city came together to hear the word of God.
Acts 18:4 And he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.

Why was this? Because it is according to Christ- what He did Luke4:16 because its a commandment of God, not a recommendation

Why the Sabbath was being kept in every city, for many many generations, on every Sabbath Acts 15:21 because everything should be according to Christ and not according to man. Mat15:3-14 Mark7:7-13 Col2:8

Once God Blesses, its forever 1 Chron17:27 and man cannot take away God's Blessing Num23:20 God blessed the Sabbath day Exo20:11 and blesses the man who keeps it Isa56:2. We can't take away God's blessing, we can only forfeit our own, which I would not advise


Psa 37:22 For those blessed by Him shall inherit the earth,
But those cursed by Him shall be cut off.

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You didn't actually respond to anything in my post.

prodromos said:

You didn't actually respond to anything in my post.

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You were asking questions that weren't represented in Scripture and I provided the Scriptures which represented the events you were indicating and what they were doing, why they were doing it and who was all involved.

Hentenza said:

So Paul had to write and read his own inspired epistles to be able to preach the Christian gospel and teach what he wrote in them?

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Paul reasoned with them out of the scriptures, which are from Genesis to Malachi.

prodromos said:

Where else and when else would Paul be likely to find a large gathering of pious Jews in order to be able to reach as many of his fellow Jews with the Gospel as possible?

He would have been wasting his time if he went to the synagogue on Sunday as the first day of the week was a work day and hardly anyone would have been there.

The letters you refer to above were written to people who were already Christians. When Paul preached to the Jews, he was reasoning with the Scriptures they were already familiar with.
It isn't hard to understand. Paul first witnessed to the pious Jews and Gentile converts who already had an understanding of God through the Old Covenant. He went to where large numbers of them would be coming together so that he could reach as many as possible, which was in the synagogue on the Sabbath. Any other day and place would have meant reaching far, far fewer people.

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It's always good to copy and paste Bible verses and Scriptures, to add to that much dialogue. You are missing understanding the whole point of what I said, because there was no church day Sunday existed at that time. Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Bro.T said:

Paul reasoned with them out of the scriptures, which are from Genesis to Malachi.

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Not quite. Paul was an apostle who was a witness to Christ. He preached the gospel of good news and used the OT as contrast. By the time that Paul was killed in the mid sixties many of the books of the NT had already been written and were circulating the churches. These books were inspired scripture including Paul’s epistles.

All of Paul’s epistles were written from 48ad to the early 60’s meaning that his epistles were all written within 30 years of Jesus death.

All of the gospels were written prior to the destruction of the temple in 70ad since there is no mention of the temple’s demise in any of them. Eusebius described the gospel of Matthew being written prior to Matthew leaving Israel to preach in other lands which was 12 years or so after the resurrection. This would put the date of writing in the mid 40’s to mid 50’s. Paul would have read it.

Mark was written about the same time as Matthew between 45 to 55ad. Paul would have read this one also. Luke was written in the latter 50’s and John was written after Paul’s death.

So over 16 books of the NT had been written while Paul was still alive and preaching. Paul’s preaching of the gospel of Christ is evidence that he preached what he wrote from a NT perspective using the OT to contrast and clarify particularly when preaching to the Jews.

SabbathBlessings said:

You were asking questions that weren't represented in Scripture and I provided the Scriptures which represented the events you were indicating and what they were doing, why they were doing it and who was all involved.

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Whatever floats your boat.

Hentenza said:

Not quite. Paul was an apostle who was a witness to Christ. He preached the gospel of good news and used the OT as contrast. By the time that Paul was killed in the mid sixties many of the books of the NT had already been written and were circulating the churches. These books were inspired scripture including Paul’s epistles.

All of Paul’s epistles were written from 48ad to the early 60’s meaning that his epistles were all written within 30 years of Jesus death.

All of the gospels were written prior to the destruction of the temple in 70ad since there is no mention of the temple’s demise in any of them. Eusebius described the gospel of Matthew being written prior to Matthew leaving Israel to preach in other lands which was 12 years or so after the resurrection. This would put the date of writing in the mid 40’s to mid 50’s. Paul would have read it.

Mark was written about the same time as Matthew between 45 to 55ad. Paul would have read this one also. Luke was written in the latter 50’s and John was written after Paul’s death.

So over 16 books of the NT had been written while Paul was still alive and preaching. Paul’s preaching of the gospel of Christ is evidence that he preached what he wrote from a NT perspective using the OT to contrast and clarify particularly when preaching to the Jews.

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I need to see proof of those statements please.

Bro.T said:

I need to see proof of those statements please.

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For Paul’s books this is a good resource.


Or



For the Gospels this is a good resource. This resource also speaks of the book of Acts, which I did not mention in my earlier post, dating to 62ad which places Luke earlier than that since Luke wrote Acts after his gospel.

Bro.T said:

But this was prophesy written in Isaiah 49: 6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

Now when they had passed through Am-phip’-o-lis and Ap-ol-lo’-ni-a, they came to Thes-sa-lo-ni’-ca, where was a synagogue of the Jews: (v.2) And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures," Now Paul evidently was around Thes-sa-lo-ni'-ca for a few weeks and as his manner was he went into the synagogue three sabbath days. Do you understand what the word manner means? Its definition is; a characteristic or customary mode of acting: custom: fashion. It was the law. (Acts 17:1-2) (v.2)

Paul went into the synagogue every sabbath, not every Sunday people, this is the apostle Paul, and it said that Paul reasoned with them out of the scriptures.

I wonder why Paul didn't enlighten them with some 1 Corinthians, or maybe hit them with some Galatians, or endow them with a little 2 Thessalonians, because these books were not around when Paul was preaching the gospel. He reasoned with them out of the scriptures, which are from Genesis to Malachi.

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Paul was a Jew and kept the Jewish law; however, he did not preach the same upon Gentiles. He went to a synagogue every Sabbath as this was his custom, and because he was Paul, he ended by defending the new covenant. Acts 17:2 shows explicitly this model acting out "As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue..."

There was a developing missional method with Paul as the gospel entered more non-jewish communities. Early on, Paul's go-to method was entering synagogues and defending the faith there. This was Paul's comfort that was natural to him, but it was not a prescribed method of the gospel. As non-jewish communities developed, gatherings migrated to Sunday as the Jewish sabbath had no identity for non-Jewish communities, whereas Sunday had greater identity with Christ and his resurrection. Sunday gathering vs Sabbath are both not prescribed methods, and are contextual in nature. Paul does not change the sabbath to Sunday, the church makes the choice when to gather and Paul simply uses what's there to present the gospel.

Paul using the Sabbath to preach the gospel was not persciptive and was his own early approach. He later writes in his epistles and he does not bolster sabbath commandments; he doesn't even address keeping it, but rather writes the opposite. Often, Acts identifies 3 groups of people: Jews, God-fearing Gentiles and Gentiles/Greeks. Jews are ethnic Jews who kept the law, whereas God-fearing were non-ethnic Jews who kept the Jewish law and the gospel reached through Jewish communities. Gentiles/Greek (isolated) were not motivated by Jewish law or already had Jewish identity of some sort. The gospel, instead, was introduced to them through other contextual means.

For example, Acts 17:16-34, Paul takes a shift from preaching through Jewish communities and goes outside the synagogue using a secular platform on Mars Hill. The Mars Hill sermon is unique, in it Paul uses very contextual language, not even using Jesus's name but references the unknown and idenifies God "who made the world and everything in" (v24) that "has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”" (v31) Paul also does not quote from scripture at all; instead, he uses secular poets to make his points. This is a very different shift from his typical synagogue model. Greeks were not interested in a sect of Judaism, so would quickly pick up Jewish language and write it off. This is why Paul does not quote Jewish scripture or use the name "Yeshua," which would have been a very Jewish-sounding. Paul shows the gospel can be fluid and is not restricted to a sabbath-synagogue model and Acts 17 as a whole shows how dynamic the gospel can be, certianly not restricted to the synagogue style custom.