Question:  Do you really think that God, for one moment made a mistake when He wrote the Ten Commandments?  Did He actually think that man would not need a Sabbath, one He said to “remember”, one Jesus kept, one Paul kept, and one all the other apostles kept, and just keep any old day man wanted to?  The only day in the whole Bible that God blessed, sanctified and made holy.  That day has never been changed by God, or His Son.  The holy roman church changed it to suit themselves.  THAT is recorded history.

            Harold

Answer:  Dear Harold,

            I do not think for one second that God makes mistakes.  Nor do I think that he believes that man needs the seventh day, or first day Sabbath for salvation.  Man needs a Savior, not a day.

            Jesus came to be our rest, our Sabbath, our Savior.  He is Lord of the Sabbath.  The fourth commandment finds fulfillment in Christ – that is, the fourth commandment is now, for Christians, a command to remember Christ our Savior, who is our rest, who is holy.  We worship him.  We “keep” him.

            Of course Jesus, Paul, and all the Jewish apostles kept the Sabbath – and the early New Testament church did as well.  But recorded history shows that Christians soon began to worship on the day of Jesus’ resurrection, in honor of the risen Lord.

            Jesus and his Jewish disciples were circumcised, they “kept kosher” eating habits, they worshipped at the temple in Jerusalem, and they went to synagogue.  Christians do not do those things because the cross changed all of that – Christians are Christian, under the new covenant – not Jewish, under the old covenant.

            Christianity was not hatched out of nowhere - it grew out of and was a product of Judaism – and the law that God gave the people of God under the old covenant.  But in Christ we are not only a national people of God – we are a community of believers who are one – one in Christ, regardless of race, culture or gender.  We are no longer obligated to old covenant Judaism – but instead we find meaning and direction in the cross and the empty tomb.

            You are quite correct – the seventh day Sabbath was never changed by God from Saturday to Sunday.  If one decides that one must keep the Sabbath in order to be saved, then that day must be Saturday, not Sunday – and that person must also keep ALL of the law – ALL of it.  And that person must keep the law perfectly – all of it, in order to earn salvation.  That would include all Hebrew days as ordered under the old covenant, all laws and ordinances, etc.  That person cannot pick and choose from the old covenant – as all Sabbatarians who claim to be Christian do.  Either keep all of it – as necessary for salvation – or none of it.

            God, in the person of Jesus, made any and all days irrelevant.  Calendars do not dictate Christian worship of God.  We are told that clearly – throughout the New Testament - in Hebrews, Galatians, Colossians, Romans.  There is no place in the New Testament, in all of the “sin” and “virtue” lists, that include “Sabbath breaking” or “Sabbath keeping” as part of the fruit that God produces in the life of those who live transformed lives in Christ.

            Sabbatarianism is opposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ, because Sabbatarianism – whether it insists upon a Saturday or Sunday Sabbath, whether it also insists on other days of the Hebrew calendar or not, says that such law keeping is necessary for salvation.  The gospel of Jesus Christ says that salvation is a gift of God, not earned by any merit of our own, and that no day is any better than another.  Romans 14 clearly teaches us that.  We are saved by grace – not by grace plus the old covenant – but by grace.  We are saved by grace in order that we might be God’s workmanship – and that workmanship is “in Christ” – not in Moses.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht