Question:  Dear Greg,

            I have read many of your answers on the Sabbath and the Old Testament Law. While I agree that keeping the Sabbath does not make you any more saved than if you didn’t, I have lately come to see the Sabbath and Holy Days as a beautiful reminder of God’s plan for us and why Christ had to die for us.  I get the impression that you think observing these days are completely useless, but I happen to disagree.  There are many instances in the New Testament where the apostles refer to fellowshipping on the Sabbath (for both Jews and Gentiles) and keeping the holy days with a renewed outlook for the edification of believers.  Also, the apostle Paul said that we should observe events, laws, etc. according to our conscience and not let our views become a stumbling block for others who are weak in the faith (those who believe that they still have to keep the law).

            Do you advocate abandoning the holy days and Sabbath as a time for fellowship simply because they are not necessary for salvation?

            God bless,

            Caroline

Answer:  Dear Caroline,

            There are many ways to be reminded of God’s plan for us and why Christ died for us.  Sunsets, mountain scenes, the waves breaking at the seashore and the stars at night are among the natural ones.  These are available to us without any written or oral tradition.  They are called natural revelation—part of God’s creation, seen and experienced by all humans.

            In God’s special revelation to us, the Bible gives us specific direction and special insight.  For example, we come to know of God’s will for his people under the old covenant (the Jewish people).  We see that the Bible is divided into two covenants or testaments, one called “old” and one called “new”.  By reading the Bible we come to know of God’s incarnation in the flesh, in the person of Jesus, to introduce the new covenant, so that, among other things, his covenant might be available to all nations and peoples and tongues.  The new covenant is a matter of grace, not race—as is the old.

            Paul responds to your question.  You state, “I get the impression that you think that these days (that is, the Jewish Sabbath and holy days) are completely useless, but I happen to disagree…”  Paul writes the book of Galatians to address those who believed that Christians had to be both Christians and Jews—that is, the old covenant needed to be observed by those who accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior.

            To this audience and with this background Paul says that the old covenant helps us to see the need for Christ.  However, he also says that the law can become a curse in that it can keep us away from the centrality, sufficiency and significance of the cross of Christ.  He then asks if we have come to grace and truth by Christ and are saved by grace, then why would we return to days, months and seasons?  He then gives an allegory of the two covenants, using Sarah and Hagar and concludes that Christians are children of the free woman and that we should “get rid of the slave woman…” See Galatians 3, 4 and 5.

            My answers in this forum are based upon the Bible.  As the early church started, the Apostles fellowshipped on the seventh day in the synagogue because it was where the God-fearing Jews assembled.  At the beginning of the church all the members were Jewish Christians, so of course they assembled on Saturday.  Any other time or day would have been unheard of for them.  Jesus, of course, was a Jew—and he kept Sabbath, kept kosher, went to temple and synagogue, and kept the holy days (not only those specified under the old covenant, but the feast of lights as well--see the Gospel of John).  However, what Jesus did was before the cross.  Christians do not do everything exactly as Jesus did it-—nor does he require it.  He made that abundantly clear in his conversations with the Pharisees, including his teachings in what are called the Sabbath controversies in the four Gospels, even though he continued to obey the old covenant perfectly so that we would not have to.  He fulfilled it, perfectly.  Christians today are not required to follow Jesus’ example by keeping kosher, Sabbath, wearing a robe and sandals, going to the synagogue, etc.  If we were to presume that we needed to obey the old covenant it would give rise to a question about whether we understood the cross of Christ and the “new” covenant and whether we, intentionally or not, were devaluing what Jesus actually did for us.  The writer of the book of Hebrews addresses this question over and over again.

            The history of Christianity, as well as the force and intent of the New Testament, is that the Christian church soon divided itself from the Jewish believers who thought and taught that one must become a Jew in order to be a Christian.

            Yes, Paul said that we should not be a stumbling block for those who believe that they need to keep the law still, but did he mean and anticipate that this belief would last 2000 years?  He said that we should greet each other with a holy kiss.  He said that women should not worship with their hair uncovered.  He said that he spoke in tongues more than anyone did.  He shaved his head and followed other purification rites to avoid offending the Jews in Jerusalem.  He picked up a snake, it fastened itself on his hand and he shook it off without any ill effects.  He anointed a sweatband he wore as he made and repaired tents and those sweatbands were sent to those who were sick.  Are we as Christians (almost 2000 years later) going to assume that God was inspiring all of these actions and behaviors so that we would continue in all of these activities as either:

1.      what we have to do

2.      what we should do once we come to have “the truth”

3.      what we can do, even if it is being “weak in the faith”?

            Paul also had strong words for those who would imply that the Jewish law needed to be observed, either overtly or covertly—Romans, Colossians and Galatians all speak to what God inspired him to say in this regard.

            Finally you ask if I advocate “abandoning” Jewish holy days and Sabbath “simply because” they are not necessary for salvation.  These days were abandoned in the first few generations of the Christian church.  If we believe that Jesus is and was the head of his body on earth, then we will have to accept the record of what he has done for 2000 years.  Jesus directed his church to abandon the Jewish days.  Who am I (or anyone else for that matter) to counsel a return to such a practice?  Historic and orthodox Christianity has focused its worship at times and ways that are centered on our Lord and Savior, not upon the covenant he made with the Hebrews—a covenant that has been obsolete for almost 2000 years.  Will we abandon Christianity?  If so, on whose authority and for what?

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht