I appreciate your opinion, but I see no scripture that backs that the seventh day Sabbath is a false premise day of worship when the Lord states it verbatim.
And from one Sabbath to another, All flesh shall come to worship before Me,” says the Lord. Isaiah 66:23.
What would be more compelling instead of trying to discredit the day God tells us verbatim to keep holy, the only day God blessed and sanctified and is one of the commandments of God written by the finger of God Genesis 2:1-3, Exodus 20:8-11, Isaiah 58:13 is for one Sunday keeper to find one scripture in the entire bible that says Sunday is a day of worship, a holy day for God and for man, a day God blessed or sanctified. Never is any scripture produced to supports ones case, so instead they just attack the indisputable holy day of the Lord thy God. Exodus 20:10, Isiah 58:13, This would be a real concern if it were I, especially when Jesus warns us about obeying man-made traditions over commandments of God. Matthew 15:3-9 Sabbath-keeping is a commandment of God, there is no such commandment for Sunday keeping. I truly don't understand why this doesn't bother more people. God bless.
Note: I have coached college debate so found it interesting. In college debate we do have ethics and can not just violate rules of engagement willy nilly.
The debate gave Steve the opening 20 minute presentation. Pastor Doug gave the second 20-minute presentation, and each had a 10-minute rebuttal time. Significantly, the debate rules
included the fact that the participants could not present new information or continue to build their arguments after their 20-minute statements. Rebuttal times were specifically ONLY for addressing what the other said.
Steve was consistent and careful. He used his rebuttal time ONLY to address Doug’s arguments, not to make new ones--he followed the rules. At one point, he even commented that
while there were facts he wanted to present, he couldn’t do it because he couldn’t add to his own argument during his rebuttal time. Instead, he said, he might be able to say more during the Question and Answer time which followed the debate.
(Debate Ethics Violation) Pastor Doug, ignored the debate rules. He used his rebuttal time to continue to build new Sabbath arguments (which Steve never did—Steve followed the rules). In adding new arguments Doug used Power Point slides and Adventist art to emphasize his words. Doug used proof-texting (never an accepted hermaneutical device as it takes things out of context) and generalizations (a logical fallacy) to sweep people into his worldview without actually showing how he arrived at his conclusions.
Pastor Doug made two sweeping statements showing illegitimate use of Scripture. Steve countered Doug’s point that Romans 14 leaves the keeping of a day up to each individual worshiper, Doug said, “The word ‘Sabbath’ does not appear in the whole book of Romans.” Technically, that is true. In context of Romans Chapter 14 though Paul is clearly addressing the keeping of the seventh day when stating in Romans 14:5-6a, “One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord…”
For Doug to say that this passage does not include reference to Sabbath is disingenuous and ignores the clear context and misinterprets the text. This is an unethical use of proof texting out of context. In a real college debate Pastor Doug would have been “dropped” by the judge.
Another example: Doug makes a deceptive statement: “There in Genesis where God establishes the Sabbath day and He blesses the Sabbath day and He makes it holy.” As Doug (who is a smart guy) is well aware, the creation account never mentions Sabbath. Genesis 2:2–3 states, “By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”
Steve countered that God ceased from His work on the seventh day and blessed and sanctified it, but he explained that God never established the seventh day as Sabbath (in Genesis) nor did He give anyone any commands for keeping that day in the Genesis account.
Doug inserted the word “Sabbath” into his commentary about the seventh day and even stated that God “established” the Sabbath in Genesis. Doug knows that the Bible does not state that in Genesis....but he said it anyway. God ceased from His work, and significantly, that seventh day in Genesis had no “evening and morning” boundary as did the six days of creation. In other words, God’s finished work did not have a beginning and an ending marked by an evening and a morning. His finished work did not stop being finished after the seventh day was over. God did not resume His work on the first day of the week.
As is so common with my Adventist friends, Pastor Doug chose to ignore the context (he knows what the context says but plows on to make Genesis say what it does not state...very sad.) As a former debate coach it pains me to watch this kind of performance as it sets a bad precedent for others. I guess rules don't matter.
In these instances Doug does not address the words of the text and what they actually mean. Instead, he plunges ahead, making statements in line with EGW’s “the-4th-command-halo-vision” worldview and quotes proof texts mostly out of context as so many have done before.
Very Sad Day for Adventism...You all deserve better.