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No command to keep the Sabbath in the NT...

ricker

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I attended an Adventist church service today, BTW.

Actually I understand what you and the Bible are saying, I think, and I agree with most of your conclusions. I would like make it clear Hebrews 4 is using God's rest after finishing creation, a completed work, as the "picture of how the work in Christ is finished", not the commandment given to Israel which comes around every week.

I would also like to add verses written to Israel under the old covenant do not necessarily apply to us. Do you keep all the statutes and judgements and sabbaths (note plural) given to Israel? This would encompass far more than the ten commandments.

May I be so bold as to say this does seem different from the assertions in your OP. I agree that Hebrews 4 does not negate the keeping of the seventh day sabbath for believers. It also does not command it, as your OP said it did.

I stand by my "research" in Strong's in which I find no basis for your statement:
So as you can see, there is a very clear command to remember to keep the seventh day holy, just as the fourth commandment says.
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In my and many others opinion, including (I've heard) official SDA ones, a case can be made for Sabbath observance for Christians, but not in Hebrews 4.

BTW, did you answer my question about the "other day" God spoke of?
God bless! Ricker
 
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Jim Larmore

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I hope you enjoyed your visit and your Sabbath worship brother.

What I wanted to comment on was your take on Hebrews 4 and the seventh day Sabbath. Let's look a little deeper shall we? First off I concede that "the rest" spoken of here includes God's rest from works. This set of texts primary theme is about not working for salvation, to rest from works in that regard, there's no doubting that. However, to ignore the 7th day Sabbath overtones here would be to not fully interpret and apply all of what Hebrews four is telling us.

Let's look at some facts:

1. By the mere mentioning of the 7th day in Hebrews 4:4 ,which tells us that after creation God rested from His works on this day, establishes this day as still binding for the new covenant Christian. This is true because the writer of Hebrews said nothing in the narrative here or anywhere else that says it's negated or no longer in effect.

2. The original language used in this narrative specifically labels the day God rested as "The Sabbath". Not just a 'sabbath' but The 7th day Sabbath . In this chapter the rest of God is likened to be like the 7th day Sabbath where we are to rest from our physical works from making a living every day. The comparison of resting from our works for salvation and the Sabbath rest is striking ( verse 10 ) and shows that the new covenant Christian that the Sabbath is still in effect.

3. The context in Hebrews 3 speaks of the "provocation" where some of the Children of Israel didn't keep the Sabbath as commanded in the manna gathering, and also didn't have faith enough to enter the promise land by accepting the bad report from the spies etc. Again, here this narrative still establishes the 7th day Sabbath as still binding by mentioning this in a new covenant book like Hebrews and applying it to the post cross Christian. In other words don't provoke God by disobeying His command to keep the 7th day Holy.

4. Lastly, in verse 7 and 8 we read where God limited the 7th day as significant and did not give us any other day to keep as a Holy day.

What I have listed above may be debateable but think about what I have listed here and ponder their truths. This may not be the best place in the Bible to support new covenant Sabbath observance but it certainly isn't a bad one, not by a long shot. Open and searching minds will agree I think.

God Bless
Jim Larmore
 
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ricker

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I don't neccessarily disagree with all your points, I just feel I need to point out if there are what I feel may be inconsistencies with what you say and what the Bible says.
God bless! Ricker
 
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Jim Larmore

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I don't neccessarily disagree with all your points, I just feel I need to point out if there are what I feel may be inconsistencies with what you say and what the Bible says.
God bless! Ricker

I want to respond to each of your points so let's begin.

I hear this arguement about God not resuming the Sabbath after creation but think about what you are saying and consider these things for a minute. God also never resumed directly creating anything after the 7th day either but does that fact negate His acts on the first 6 days or make them insigificant? What about the rest of the Bible where we see evidence that all of the writers observing the Sabbath? Biblical examples, like Ex 20:8-11 where we are told to keep the 7th day as a memorial of this creation week is significant I think. Additionally, what about Gen 2:1-3 where we find God blessing the 7th day and "Sanctifying it. To sanctify something by defintion means to set it aside for Holy use. Lastly, what about the 7 day weekly cycle? If God hadn't intended for us to repeat the 7 day cycle and observe the 7th day why do we still have it to this day instead of an ongoing progression of sequential days progressing into the future for infinity? The fact we still have a 7 day cycle is significant I think.

Concerning what is said in verse 4 let's look at that.
4. "For He spake in a certain place of "the seventh day on this wise" and God did rest the seventh day from all His works."

The word seventh day is "hebomos" from "hepta", the word for rest is "katapono" or cease, desist, rest. Here we don't see the word "Sabbatimos" but it is implied especially when you look at verse 9 as a context for verse 4 where the original language plainly gives us the word "sabbatismos" saying there remains a Sabbath days rest for the people of God. Also, this ties directly into Gen 2:1-3 where we see God resting from His work on the 7th day and sanctifying it. If the writer of Hebrews wanted to tell us that the Sabbath was no longer in effect this would have been a great time to do so. What we find is the opposite in that the writer clearly says the Sabbath remains for the new covenant Christian.

As far as the context in Hebrews 3 and the "rebellion", it includes the time when the spies came back and gave a bad report about the promise land but also the rebellion of the COI included not following God's commandment to not gather manna on the Sabbath day in Ex 16. All of this had to do with them choosing to go against God's commandments and they hardened their hearts. Does it specifically say it was the Sabbath they were hardening their hearts over? No but since the Sabbath is mentioned in chapter 4 we can conclude that it could be referring to that.

Verses 7 and 8 are contextually speaking of the "Sabbatismos" spoken of in verse 9 because they mentioned limiting a day. What other "day" is set aside for rest other than the Sabbath?

God Bless
Jim Larmore
 
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ricker

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What do you mean by "mentioned limiting a day"?

9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest (Sabbatismos, a derivative of Sabbaton with the meaning "rest")for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

Again, link to this to see what Sabbatismos means in the Greek.
http://strongsnumbers.com/greek/4520.htm

We can say the Sabbath is still binding because it is in the ten commandments, or because Jesus kept it, or because Isaiah says it will be kept in heaven, or because there is a seven day week, or whatever, but Hebrews never uses the word "sabbaton". It only speaks of the completed work of God on the seventh day, and the one time rest in the land of Cannan that He didn't let the COI enter into, and the completed, not weekly rest we have from our works.


If you would please answer this if you would. What does Hebrews mean when it says this:

6It still remains that some will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their disobedience. 7Therefore God again set a certain day, calling it Today, when a long time later he spoke through David, as was said before:
"Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts." 8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.

What does this mean to you? I'm honestly unclear about "another day". Thanks, Ricker
 
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Jim Larmore

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I think when you look at the over-all message of Heb 4, even given what you are saying, you can't escape the fact that it mentions and supports the 7th day Sabbath along with the rest from works for salvation. I mean it specifically identifies the 7th day in verse 4 as a day of rest, this directly ties into Gen 2:1-2 and Ex 20:8-11. . Then it specifically identifies the rest in verse 9 as the "Sabbatismos" rest of the people of God. This is a derivative of Sabbaton the word directly used for Sabbath but can you say that this derived use here is not also including the 7th day Sabbath at all? I can't, not when the definition of "Sabbatismos" includes a heavenly rest.


True, but what day did God sanctify when He completed His work?


It's a two fold thing Ricker. Look at the whole thing and think about what the narrative is saying. It's all about the rest of God. Application #1, The rest God entered into at the end of creation from His work ushered into our world the Holy Sabbath day forever at His command. This established the 7 day weekly cycle and provided a respite for God's people from a continual toiling and works. The Sabbath rest and the rest from works for salvation are parallel and the 7th day Sabbath is symbolic of the rest from works for salvation. This is one reason why we see Christ and His gospel in the Sabbath.

Application #2 the day set aside called today to enter into rest from works for salvation is part of the gospel preached to all mankind in the time this epistle was written. They didn't enter into it in the rebellion because they didn't have faith in what God told them. This was used as being symbolic of the same thing that may happen in our day. The writer specifically pleads with us to not harden our hearts as they did back then. Each time we celebrate the 7th day Sabbath we enter God's rest not only from our weekly work but from our works for salvation. Therefore, when it speaks of another day again it is two fold. One there is no other day given to us to accept God and His rest but today. Second, there is no other day set aside for Holy use but the 7th day Sabbath. One is symbolic of the other. Amazing how God's word is so deep isn't it?

God Bless
Jim Larmore
 
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ricker

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I still don't understand. How does:

"8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day."
mean that:
"One there is no other day given to us to accept God and His rest but today. Second, there is no other day set aside for Holy use but the 7th day Sabbath"
I just don't see the correlation. "God would not have spoken later about another day" means "there is no other day"? Maybe the word of God is too deep for me.
Thanks again, Ricker
 
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