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| Religion Forum Index » Sabbath Forum » Sabbath Keeping |
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| Author |
Message |
| Gospel Man |
 Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:27 am |
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Guest
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We are told by those who insist that we must keep the Sabbath Day,
that we are in great error because we worship on the first day of the
week. We are informed that Sunday comes from the Pagan belief and
worship of the Sun god. We are told that Jesus and Paul kept the Sabbath
Day as an example for us to follow, and that the Roman Catholic Church
is responsible for the change in the day of worship. If we continue to
worship on Sunday, then we will receive the mark of the beast.
Let's briefly look at their arguments. First, nowhere does the Fourth
Commandment say that we are to "worship" on the Sabbath Day. It commands
that we rest on that day: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou,
nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor
thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days
the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and
rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and
hallowed it" (Exodus 20:8-11).
Sabbath-keepers worship on the Saturday. Do they know where the word
"Saturday" comes from? It's from the Latin word "Saturnus--Saturn + Old
English dćg day." Obviously Saturday is from the pagan day of worship
of the planet Saturn (astrology).
If a Christian's salvation depends upon his keeping a certain day,
surely God would have told us. The Scriptures tell us that at one point,
the Apostles especially gathered to discuss the attitude of the
Christian to the Law of Moses. Acts 15:10-11, 24-29 was God's
opportunity to make His will clear to His children. All He had to do to
save millions from damnation was say, "Remember to keep the Sabbath
holy," and millions of Christ-centered, God-loving, Bible-believing
Christians would have gladly kept it. The only commands they gave were
to refrain "from meat offered to idols, from blood, things strangled and
from fornication."
There isn't even one command in the New Testament for Christians to
keep the Sabbath holy. New Testament references to Sabbath-keeping
instruct us not to listen to those who tell us what day to keep (see
Colossians 2:16), and that man was not made for the Sabbath, but the
Sabbath for man (see Mark 2:27). The Sabbath was given as a sign to
Israel (see Exodus 31:13-17). Nowhere is it given as a sign of the
Church. Thousands of years after the Commandment was given we can still
see the sign that separates Israel from the world--they still keep the
Sabbath holy (Ezekiel 20:12-13).
The Apostles came together on the first day of the week. The breaking
of bread was on the first day of the week (see Acts 20:7). The
collection was taken on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2).
When do Sabbath-keepers "gather together?" On what day do they break
bread or take up the collection? It's not on the same day as the early
Church. They tell us that history informs us that the Roman Catholic
church changed their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. What has
that got to do with the disciples keeping the first day of the week?
That was the Roman Catholic church in the early centuries, not the
Church of the Book of Acts.
Romans 14:5-10 tells us that one man esteems one day of the week;
another esteems every day. Then Scripture tells us that every man should
be fully persuaded in his own mind. We are not to judge each other when
it comes to the issue of on what day we should worship.
Jesus did keep the Sabbath. He had to keep the whole Law be the Perfect
Sacrifice. The Bible makes it clear that the Law has been satisfied in
Christ. The reason Paul went into the Synagogue each Sabbath wasn't to
keep the Law. If it was, then it was contrary to everything he taught
about being saved by grace and grace alone (Galatians 3:11). It was so
that he could preach the Gospel to the Jews. This is clearly evident as
one reads the Book of Acts. Paul had an incredible evangelistic zeal for
Israel to be saved (Romans 9:1-2). To the Jew he became a Jew, that he
might gain the Jews ( see 1 Corinthians 9:20). That meant that he went
to where they gathered on the day they gathered.
D. L. Moody said, "The Law can only chase a man to Calvary, no
further." Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law. We are no longer
in bondage to it. If we try and keep one part of the Law (even out of
love for God) we are obligated to keep the whole Law (Galatians 3;10).
That means that we shouldn't separate it into the Moral, Ceremonial and
Civil Law and keep the parts we choose. If we keep part of the Law (even
out of love for God), then we are obligated to keep the whole 613
precepts.
If those who insist on keeping the Sabbath were as zealous about the
salvation of the lost as they are about other Christians keeping the
Sabbath, we would see revival.
Charles Spurgeon said, "I am no preacher of the old legal Sabbath. I
am a preacher of the Gospel. The Sabbath of the Jew is to him a task;
the Lord's Day of the Christian, the first day of the week, is to him a
joy, a day of rest, of peace, and of thanksgiving. And if you Christian
men can earnestly drive away all distractions, so that you can really
rest today, it will be good for your bodies, good for your souls, good
mentally, good spiritually, good temporally, and good eternally." |
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