Disclaimer: This is some good ol' fashioned Adventist apologetics. I know a lot of people may not agree with this. So I encourage the rebuttals and dialogue in the comments, prayerfully and respectfully. :)
One of the 28 fundamental beliefs of the SDA Church is...Belief number 20. We observe the Seventh day Sabbath of scripture.
Right smack dab in Exodus 20:8-11 we get the longest commandment of God's moral 10 laws. The first four deals with our relationship with God, the last 6 for our relationships with our fellow man.
Written by His own hand. And it starts with the word 'Remember'....It's almost like God knew most people would forget it lol
And as you can imagine, that's a hot topic for critics of the Adventist church and something my church has been defending since...Oh I dunno, 1863 or something lol
There's lot of verses I can point to about why the Seventh day (commonly called Saturday) is the biblical Sabbath of the bible, but I wanted to focus on one. You see, something Christians can agree upon is that Christ is King.
Everyone that follows Christ as Lord and Saviour will agree on that at least. Well there are some that don't claim His divinity but alas....Let's at least find some common ground there.
And Christ did not sin. Ever. Tempted like we are, in all points, but never fell to sin. So I don't think people are lining up to call Him a false prophet anytime soon.....
Or are they?
You see, we run into a little snag with this claim in Matthew 24.
Let's explore this verse for a minute to get context. Matthew 24 is a prophetic chapter of the book. Jesus is letting His followers know, what will happen in the future. And no matter what denomination you may hold to, every one can agree, Matthew 24 is talking about the future.
Whether it's 70 AD, the End of Time, both....Whatever, you may believe. He tells His followers to pray that their flight be not in the winter neither on THE sabbath day.
Why would He do that?
Jesus obviously knows that He will be dead and resurrected when they are told to pray. Doesn't He do away with the Law / Sabbath after His death and resurrection? And if the Sabbath wasn't still an issue....Why would it matter?
If Jesus was letting people know, the Sabbath is still binding (just like the other 9 commandments that Christians usually agree on) that would make Him a false prophet for talking about the future and warning His people about fleeing on the Sabbath.
I think when you break this verse down it cements that THE sabbath (not a sabbath and there's a difference) is very much still law. If we love Him, we keep His commandments after all ;)
But here's the bigger test for me....I'm a Christian. Jesus is my example. And I am supposed to live exactly as He did in my life. And sure, that's a lot easier said than done and thank God for my Saviour.
Here's the kicker...Jesus not only kept the Sabbath in His earthly life. He even 'rested' on the Sabbath in death.
Don't agree with this?
Let's talk. Let's discuss. Let's do a bible study about it :)
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Saturdays now are based on the Gregorian calendar which went into effect in October 1582 AD. So how does that effect the Sabbath?
An entire people (the Jewish nation) has kept Sabbath since the beginning of time. When the calendar changed, the just skipped dates, not days of the week. It went something like August 10th to the 13th but it was still Monday, Tuesday etc...
I mean, it's written, I don't see why disagreeing with the fact that it's written helps anyone. But, I do have to ask.
Why?
Could it be any other day? Is it arbitrary? if it isn't, and it truly is very important as to be on Moises' tables, then Why does everyone ignore it (almost of course) with no consequence?
Love to hear from you man! It's been a minute :)
Why is a great question! For me, it's because I love my Lord and Saviour. And He says in John 14:15, if you love me, keep my commandments. So it's obedience out of love.
As for people ignoring it, that's a whole other conversation lol Sunday instituted by the pagan Romans to get away from the Jews. Huge history on it, it's pretty telling.
But that being said, there's a blessing attached to it. Sabbath from everything of the world. Complete rest, no stress :)
I had a coworker who would get saturdays off due to his faith... I remember thinking (what an awesome trick!) lol
But, on a serious note. I did learn recently about the Pagan adaptation, but as you said, of all the thousands of denominations of Christianity, they only agree on one thing; Christ. The rest is all over the place, almost.
Good to see you are still around brother, this place always needs kind people like yourself.
Cheers
Yeah man, still here. Not as much as I used to be, but still hopeful that one day this stuff will moon LOL
When I was younger my parents would not shop or go out to eat on sunday. It was only rarely when we were on vacation that we might do that. I remember when I started working retail and my dad was so mad that I had to work on Sundays.
Yeah man, blue laws are still on the books in some states. I don't think they are enforced but I remember things shutting down on Sundays up here too.
All the commandments bless and protect believers. We receive blessings and protection and Yehovah receives our love and worship. Win win
Amen and amen!
I don’t really know much about the Sabbath day but I know Sunday is just like the designed day for resting and being off from work
Who decided that though?
Hehe
That’s how I met it since I’ve been in the world
Look into the history of why Christians 'rest' on Sunday. It'll blow your mind.
Sunday is just like the general resting and Sabbath day here
Even myself, I lock up my shop on Sundays and don’t work at all
Wonder why they chose Sunday to rest?
I never did
Mark 2:23-27
Jesus says in the end “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
Jesus often ran afoul of Sabbath traditions, such as when He healed the sick or His disciples picked heads of grain. On the one hand, Jesus was a little loose with observance of the Sabbath. Yet he does insist on observance of the Sabbath, as you have pointed out.
And with this I think we can see that it comes down to what he was pointing out to the Pharisees, which is that they observed the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law.
Looking at Exodus 20:8-11, it is explicit that Sabbath is a day of rest after having worked six days. No more than that.
Therefore, observing Sabbath on Saturday or Sunday is one of those situations of observing the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law. Jesus was all about the spirit of the law such that it should be compassionate and honors God. During His lifetime, Jesus remained Jewish and observed the traditions. But He also was more liberal in interpreting the traditions so that they fulfilled the intent rather than serve as ammunition for the Karens of those days, the Pharisees.
We can't read too much beyond the purpose of the Sabbath than Genesis 2:2-3 and Exodus 20:8-11. Anything that was added later is set straight by Jesus in Mark 2. One ought to take the word of Jesus that Sabbath is a required holy day to chill. The overriding requirements, in my opinion, are that we rest every seven days and honor God for his creation. Sabbath is a gift from God, not a job from God. And if Jesus is cool with small, compassionate variances on the observance of Sabbath here and there, then we can be sure it's OK with God.
Whether it's Saturday or Sunday, you're still resting every seventh day and honoring God for his creation.
That made no sense to me if we are observing the letter of the law vs the spirit of the law...
That argument always seemed off to me, just because we have no problem with the letter of each of there other 9 ten commandments. Just the 'spirit' of the fourth?
Doing good on the Sabbath was never the issue. The Pharisees made it a burden. It's not and was never intended to be such.
That's not what scripture says though, we are changing the bible if we say 'it doesnt matter which day'. The commandment is to observe the seventh day. Not the first. Scripture is very clear which is the Sabbath.
in effect shabbat is also a command of the love law of God,everyone can achive it . #adventisthive #conquishive
That's my thinking as well. I don't keep sabbath to be saved. I keep it out of love and because I am saved.
Saturday is always a holy day for me 🍺😉
ha ha ha ha I see it!