Kilk1

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Hello! I hear some argue that the Sabbath is an eternal law, not part of the law of Moses. Also, from what I can tell, the Bible always refers to the Sabbath as the seventh day (i.e., Saturday).

If the Sabbath is the seventh day and if we must keep the Sabbath even today, then we'd be required to cease from work on Saturdays. Are at least one of these two if's incorrect, or do we need to cease working on Saturdays?
 

Torah Keeper

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You are correct. The Sabbath was made holy by Yahweh on the seventh day of creation week. Whether or not you think Mosaic law was abolished, it misses the fact that the Sabbath was already a holy day for thousands of years before Moses, and is still a holy day today.
 
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If the Sabbath is the seventh day and if we must keep the Sabbath even today, then we'd be required to cease from work on Saturdays. Are at least one of these two if's incorrect, or do we need to cease working on Saturdays?
The Sabbath is not an eternal law for all people.

"Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. " - Colossians 2:16-17

That means we're free to not observe those days (and years - in the OT, there were Sabbath years which were just as important as Sabbath days).

Additionally, you'll find many admonishments in the Letters of the New Testament to love one another, practice humility, honor parents, avoid greed, avoid dishonesty, avoid sexual immorality (including orgies!), and there's even one to avoid brawls. Yet in none of these sets of admonishments is there one to keep Sabbath.
 
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topher694

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Hello! I hear some argue that the Sabbath is an eternal law, not part of the law of Moses. Also, from what I can tell, the Bible always refers to the Sabbath as the seventh day (i.e., Saturday).

If the Sabbath is the seventh day and if we must keep the Sabbath even today, then we'd be required to cease from work on Saturdays. Are at least one of these two if's incorrect, or do we need to cease working on Saturdays?
In your mind, what is the "spirit" behind the Sabbath law?
 
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timothyu

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Jesus said He is Lord of the Sabbath. Also after He said 'it is finished' when on the crossed wood, it again was time to rest, not only for Him but for mankind who could rest from the burden of the Kingdomless punishment we received when removed from the Garden. A new world/creation He called the Kingdom had come into being and we were given a new sabbath. In effect Jesus became the Sabbath, our rest, rather than just a day of the week in the old world. The old Sabbath was for the old creation, the new one for the new.
 
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SavedByGrace3

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If you believe we are supposed to observe the sabbath, then you must. If you do not, then it is not necessary. It is all according to your faith.
As believers, we are to keep everyday holy.
 
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Matthew 12:1 (World English Bible - Public Domain) At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

3 He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?4 He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?6 I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10 and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

11 He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

13 Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. 14 But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
 
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Soyeong

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Hello! I hear some argue that the Sabbath is an eternal law, not part of the law of Moses. Also, from what I can tell, the Bible always refers to the Sabbath as the seventh day (i.e., Saturday).

If the Sabbath is the seventh day and if we must keep the Sabbath even today, then we'd be required to cease from work on Saturdays. Are at least one of these two if's incorrect, or do we need to cease working on Saturdays?

Hello,

The reasons that God had for giving the laws that He has chosen to give teach us about His nature and, His nature is eternal, so all of His laws are inherently eternal (Psalms 119:160), and the only say that one of God's laws could be temporary is if what it teaches us about God's eternal nature is temporary. For instance, God's laws for how to do good works teach us about His goodness and so by obeying those laws, we are testifying about God's goodness, which is why our good works bring glory to God (Matthew 5:13-16). The goal of an ambassadors for Christ is to represent His nature so that through teaching the world the way to partake in His nature we can participate in the ministry of reconciling the world to God (2 Corinthians 5:16-21). So if the Sabbath teaches something about the nature of Christ insofar as being Lord of the Sabbath is part of his identity, then we should live in a way that testifies about his nature by keeping the Sabbath holy rather than a way that misrepresents his nature by refusing to keep the Sabbath holy.

Sin is what is against God's nature, sin is the transgression of God's law (1 John 3:4), God's law teaches about what is in accordance with God's nature, God's law instructs to keep the Sabbath holy (Exodus 20:8-11), and followers of Christ are obligated to refrain from doing what God has revealed to be sin, so followers of Christ are obligated to keep the Sabbath holy in accordance with the example of refraining from sin that Christ set for us to follow (1 Peter 2:21-22), which includes refraining from work.
 
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Soyeong

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The Sabbath is not an eternal law for all people.

"Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. " - Colossians 2:16-17

That means we're free to not observe those days (and years - in the OT, there were Sabbath years which were just as important as Sabbath days).

If we look at Colossians 2:16 by itself, then it is ambiguous in regard to two possible situations:

1.) The Colossians were not keeping God's feasts, they were being judged by Jews because they were not keeping them, and Paul was encouraging not to let any man judge them for not keeping them.

2.) The Colossians were keeping God's feasts, they were being judged by pagans because they were keeping them, and Paul was encouraging them not to let anyone judge them for keeping them.

If we look at the context of what Paul described of the views of the people who were judging them, then it becomes clear that the 2nd situation is the case in that they were being judged by pagans, such as saying in Colossians 2:20-23 that they were promoting human precepts and traditions, self-made religion, asceticism, and severity of the body. We must obey God rather than man, so we should be careful not to mistake what was only said against obeying the teaching of men as being against obeying the commands of God, especially when the point that Paul was making was that we should let anyone prevent us from obeying the commands of God.

Additionally, you'll find many admonishments in the Letters of the New Testament to love one another, practice humility, honor parents, avoid greed, avoid dishonesty, avoid sexual immorality (including orgies!), and there's even one to avoid brawls. Yet in none of these sets of admonishments is there one to keep Sabbath.

Jesus and his disciples were all Jews who had never known a time in their life when the Sabbath was not the focus on their week, so I don't see a good reason why we should expect Jesus to admonish them not to break the Sabbath. Neither Jesus nor his disciples were in disagreement with the Father about which laws we should follow, nor did they say anything about editing God's laws down to just what they repeated, and it would be absurd to hold the position that it is ok to violate everything commanded in the OT that wasn't specifically repeated in the NT. Jesus set a sinless example of how to walk in obedience to God's law, including keeping the Sabbath holy, so he would have still taught full obedience to it by example even if he had repeated nothing, and as his followers we are told to follow his example (1 Peter 2:21-22) and that those who are in Christ are obligated to walk in the same way he walked. Furthermore, Jesus did teach how to keep the Sabbath holy through his interactions with the Pharisees on the matter. In John 14:24, Jesus said that his teachings were not his own, but that of the Father, so he did not teach his own set of commands.
 
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Hello! I hear some argue that the Sabbath is an eternal law, not part of the law of Moses. Also, from what I can tell, the Bible always refers to the Sabbath as the seventh day (i.e., Saturday).

If the Sabbath is the seventh day and if we must keep the Sabbath even today, then we'd be required to cease from work on Saturdays. Are at least one of these two if's incorrect, or do we need to cease working on Saturdays?
Lord Jesus clarified this. The sabbath was made for the benefit of man, not God. Man was not made for the sabbath. It makes perfect sense to have a day off from normal work. For someone who works hard physically, it should be something restful. For someone glued to a computer screen all week, it should be something that involves physical activity. The actual day is not important.

One of reasons that Sunday became the day of worship was that the church used the synagogue. The Jews did not accept Christians into their meetings, so Sunday became common as the synagogue was free. This was formalised by Constantine.

My definition of work is when you are paid for what you do and you are required to show up by your employer. The Jews had much stricter definitions and still do. If it involved raising a sweat, it was out. Some even say that you cannot cut your fingernails on the sabbath. This is what sabbath observers are up against. Remember too that putting yourself under law takes you out of God's grace.
 
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Soyeong

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Jesus said He is Lord of the Sabbath. Also after He said 'it is finished' when on the crossed wood, it again was time to rest, not only for Him but for mankind who could rest from the burden of the Kingdomless punishment we received when removed from the Garden. A new world/creation He called the Kingdom had come into being and we were given a new sabbath. In effect Jesus became the Sabbath, our rest, rather than just a day of the week in the old world. The old Sabbath was for the old creation, the new one for the new.

If you think that part of Christ's identity is being Lord of the Sabbath, and that as followers of Christ, we should live in a way that testifies about who he is rather than a way that denies who he is, then you should think that we should keep the Sabbath holy. In Titus 2:14, it describes what Jesus finished on the cross by saying that he gave himself to redeem us from lawlessness and to purify for himself a people of his own possession who are zealous for doing good works, so become zealous for doing good works in obedience to God's law (Acts 21:20), while someone returning to the lawlessness that Jesus gave himself from would be spurning what he accomplished through the cross.

In Matthew 11:28-30 and Jeremiah 6:16-19, God's law is described as the good way where we will find rest for our souls. In Ezekiel 20:13, the did not enter into God's rest because they rebelled against God and it specifically mentions that they profaned God's Sabbaths, and again in Hebrews 3-4, they did not enter God's rest because they rebelled against God. In Hebrews 4:9, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, and in 4:11, we should strive to enter into that rest so that no one may fall away by the same sort of disobedience, so using entering into God's rest to justify the same sort of disobedience is exactly the opposite of what was being said. Nowhere does the Bible state that Jesus is our Sabbath rather than the 7th day. Being a new creation has nothing to do with rebelling against God's commands.
 
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Soyeong

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If you believe we are supposed to observe the sabbath, then you must. If you do not, then it is not necessary. It is all according to your faith.
As believers, we are to keep everyday holy.

Obedience to God is not an optional matter of opinion, but rather what God has revealed to be sin is sin regardless of whether or not someone believes that it is sin. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus said that faith is one of the weightier matters of the law, so keeping the Sabbath holy is in accordance with faith in him while not keeping the Sabbath is contrary to faith in him. Nowhere does the Bible state that as believers that we are to keep every day holy. A day that is holy is set apart and in order for there to be a day that is set apart, there needs to be another day that it is set apart from, so to treat every day the same is to treat none of them as holy. Furthermore, if we did on every day what God wants us to do on the Sabbath, then we would do no work, but God also wants us to work.
 
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Kilk1

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I do. If you believe that He and His commands are the same yesterday, today, and for eternity, it's just wise.
I believe that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). However, if all commands are eternal, are we to stone those who break the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14)? It seems not all commands last forever.
 
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Kilk1

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In your mind, what is the "spirit" behind the Sabbath law?
It seems to be a shadow of a different rest, one that remains for the people of God, though I'm open to alternative explanations. I'm getting this from Hebrews 4:1-11. Does it contrast the old Sabbath with a new Sabbath rest that remains for God's people?
 
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If you think that part of Christ's identity is being Lord of the Sabbath, and that as followers of Christ, we should live in a way that testifies about who he is rather than a way that denies who he is, then you should think that we should keep the Sabbath holy.
But as I said, the old Sabbath was for this world/creation. Jesus represented the next, hence a new sabbath for a new creation. And I don't mean Sunday. Days are only representative of the old creation.
 
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Soyeong

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But as I said, the old Sabbath was for this world/creation. Jesus represented the next, hence a new sabbath for a new creation. And I don't mean Sunday. Days are only representative of the old creation.

You are free to say that even though that's not what the Bible says.
 
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Soyeong

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I believe that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). However, if all commands are eternal, are we to stone those who break the Sabbath (Exodus 31:14)? It seems not all commands last forever.

If God's nature is eternal, then so are His instructions for how to express His nature. For example, if the way to express God's holiness were to change under the New Covenant, then God's holiness would not be eternal and unchanging. The Sabbath still carries the same penalty for breaking, but Jesus has paid that penalty for us in our place, and it would be unlawful to enforce a penalty that has already been paid. Still the fact that God considers breaking the Sabbath to be worthy of the death penalty and the fact that Jesus gave himself to pay that penalty should make us want to go and sin no more by living in obedience to God's eternal law.
 
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Soyeong

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Yet as the Bible shows, we have ended up with a new creation and this one has become moot.

In Ephesians 2:10 we have been made new creations in Christ to do good works, not in order to reject God's instructions for how to do good works.
 
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