ChristianDebates

Sabbath

I do not believe the church is under obligation to observe Saturday above any other day, and here are some of the reasons why:

1. The sabbath is not moral law. Your neighbor does not care what day you worship nor if you worship at all, as long as you don't bother him. The moral law is known in your heart, without your being told. You would never have heard of a sabbath or known of it if some person did not tell you. It is not intrinsic - it is learned. Thus it is not moral but ceremonial, and ceremonies do not approve us before God. No one alive knew of it until God revealed it to Moses.

2. The sabbath was made for man's benefit, specifically for Israel and those who dwelt in Israel and were subject to Israel's law. Being a very small land, it could be observed there by everyone at the same time, for they are in one time zone. It is not possible to observe sabbath throughout the whole world at the same time, for it is not sunset to sunset at the same moment on the same day throughout the world.

Sabbath means "rest". I DO rest every seven days, but it is not Saturday, so I believe I am obeying God, and the principle is man needs rest. That's why a sabbath (rest) was made for his benefit.

3. The seventh-day rest typifies salvation by law, for the law stated that a man must work six days and rest on the seventh. That meant he got his reward (rest) AFTER he worked for it for six days.

4. The sabbath was never given to the church. It is not listed in the New Testament as are the nine moral laws. Romans and Colossians both specifically tell us the church is not under any commandment to observe the sabbath, even though the man giving us that revelation was himself a Jew and himself observed sabbath throughout his life. He would of course do so, because he was a lifelong Jew from the nation of Israel, but he was very clear there is no obligation to observe it whatsoever.

5. We celebrate the first day because Christ arose from death to a new life on the FIRST day, and we do the same; that is, we receive our new life without works.

Christ "rested" in the tomb on the seventh day and arose from the dead on the 1st (which is also the 8th day, and 8 signifies a new beginning in Scripture - every appearance of Christ after His resurrection was always on the 8th day, which is the first day, which is Sunday). Christ thus received His reward of rest after His six days of labor, in accordance with law, and then arose to new life on the 1st day of the week.

The Christian thus receives his own reward of rest and new life on the FIRST DAY of the week, BEFORE he has done any labor of works. Therefore, first day observance typifies salvation without works; salvation by grace, by the free gift of God, earned by Christ and Christ alone, and seventh-day observance typifies salvation by the works of the law. Christians work AFTER salvation, not before.

6. No Christian who professes to observe sabbath does so according to Scripture. They make up all kinds of excuses why they can do it any old way they like it, but God says you cannot even strike a match on the sabbath nor pick up a stick and the penalty was death. If you want to observe a sabbath day, you must ask an Orthodox Jew the right way to do it, and stick to it slavishly, which means you will freeze to death if you live in a northern climate, for you cannot light a fire on sabbath.

7. The sabbath signifies the Millennial Reign of Christ. We are not in the Millennial Reign yet. The Millennium will be the seventh period of 1000 years, and will be a day of rest to the entire world. We aren't there yet, and Christians have missed the prophetic significance of the sabbath. As Christians, we rest in Christ and in the finished work of Christ. He is our perfect sabbath for we have rested from any attempt at works-based salvation, and we look forward with anticipation to His Thousand-Year-Reign.

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