Does Hebrews 4 support 7th Day Adventism?

[JAL]

This thread is not a debate on whether Sabbath-observation is mandatory. It's a debate on whether Heb 4 lends any substantive support to mandatory Sabbath-observation. It my view, it does not.
"There remains, then, a Sabbath rest for the people of God" (Heb 4). Time and again Adventists cite Heb 4 as though it "obviously supports adventism". This conclusion astonishes me. What am I missing here?
Let me explain why I feel that Heb 4 is NOT talking about "resting on Saturdays." The epistle to the Hebrews opens up with a "great salvation" and proceeds to list the magnificent elements of our salvation, the elements which make it such as "great salvation." For example we have a great high priest as our mediator.
(1) If entrance into the Rest of God is principally a matter of "resting on Saturdays", why is that a magnificent element of our salvation? Even unbelelievers can rest on Saturdays!
(2) The epistle says that Joshua was unable to give men this Rest. This means he wasn't able to give them Saturdays off? Excuse me?
(3) Speaking of God's judgment upon Israel, Hebrews quotes God, "I swore an oath in my anger, they shall never enter my rest." They shall never get Saturdays off?
(4) Jesus said, "Come unto me all ye weary and burdened, and I shall give ye rest." He shall give us Saturdays off?
(5) The reason there is war and violence in the world is that the hearts of men are not at peace/rest. James said that the battles of men originate in the passions that battle on the inside. When we are discontent (not at rest), we tend to use violence to get the things that we hope will content us. Now the question is - if the gospel is to offer hope of some degree of peace in the world, do we need this Rest of God only on Saturdays? Will not this leave us in a state of war for the remaining six days?

 

[BigNorsk]

Hebrews 4 is actually a complete repudiation of the Seventh Day Adventist position. It tells us that the seventh day isn't the Christian Sabbath and indeed that the promised land isn't the Sabbath either (Where the Nation of Israel was to live in houses they had not built and eat crops they had not planted) Neither of those Sabbaths had been able to bring the people rest, indeed God had sworn that they would never bring rest.

But now, the Christian Sabbath, resting in God's grace and no longer being under laws has come. Everyone should be sure to enter that grace and receive the true Sabbath. Once that has happened, it is always the Sabbath for a Christian because we rest from our labors that we did under the Law.

Now there is one thing that I think contributed to the misunderstanding, that's the mistranslation in Chapter 4 of the KJV.
Heb 4:8 kjv
(8) For if Jesus [10] had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
The thing is that Jesus and Joshua are actually the same in Greek. So even though the KJV has "Joshua" in the footnote, it confused people into thinking that Jesus didn't bring the people rest, where instead the passage is referencing the entrance into the promised land by Israel.

Verse 8 really becomes nonsensical with Jesus because the whole theme of the Chapter is that unlike in previous times, Jesus did bring rest.

So the Sabbath is not one day but all the time, and it is not a land but all places for Christians.

Marv

 

[plmarquette]

it is a short homily on "His Peace ... as in Luke 9.1 and 10.9 " , Jesus the Lord of the Sabbath , to rest from the works of the Law ( our efforts ) , but to accept the works he is doing and the fathers words , and enter into the peace of the New Covenant of Grace ...

 

[Adventist Dissident]

AS seventh-day adventist i would have to disagree. hebrews is to a jewish audience in the late 60's just prior to the fall of jereusalem and the destruction of the temple. The writer of Hebrews is making comparisons between the jewish economy and Jesus. He is seeking trun there attention from the temporal to the eternal. The disciples knew that jeresulem was going to be destroyed and were laboring to get their jewish brethern out of the mind set of setting up the kingdom of god on earth. This is the setting for the book of hebrews

 

[Cribstyl]

AS seventh-day adventist i would have to disagree. hebrews is to a jewish audience in the late 60's just prior to the fall of jereusalem and the destruction of the temple. The writer of Hebrews is making comparisons between the jewish economy and Jesus. He is seeking trun there attention from the temporal to the eternal. The disciples knew that jeresulem was going to be destroyed and were laboring to get their jewish brethern out of the mind set of setting up the kingdom of god on earth. This is the setting for the book of hebrews

This does not explain Heb 4 or anything written within the book of Hebrews

 

[intricatic]

Um.... I had always considered Heb. 4 to be talking about, and point towards Heaven - the true promised land. Not a day of the week, or some such thing as that.

1 Oh come, let us sing to the LORD!
Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;
Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is the great God,
And the great King above all gods.
4 In His hand are the deep places of the earth;
The heights of the hills are His also.
5 The sea is His, for He made it;
And His hands formed the dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
Let us kneel before the LORD our Maker.
7 For He is our God,
And we are the people of His pasture,
And the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you will hear His voice:
8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,
As in the day of trial in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers tested Me;
They tried Me, though they saw My work.
10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts,
And they do not know My ways.’
11 So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ”
(Psalm 95)

Heb. 4 is talking about the true image of the shadows in Mosaic Law, it's pointing ahead to something that typifies the Sabbath, not the Sabbath itself.