Expert: Rev. Stuart Woodward - 5/18/2008

Question
My husband is a seventh day adventist and I am a baptist, my question is that i believe that the day of the lord is on sunday the holy day and he believes its saturday. how do i explain to him that its on sunday. ALSO he believes that christians  should not eat shrimp, pork ,etc from the old testament. he seems fixed on the teachings of the old testament. I believe that rule of clean and unclean food is over turned by christ. he keeps the rules of the jews and iam trying to explain that a new way of life was born by jesus's coming.

Answer
Hello Lidiya,
Thank you for your question. You ask me how to explain these things to your husband. That is not an easy matter as it is likely your husband has had many years of teaching to support his view. It depends on whether or not he is willing to allow scripture to be the final authority or whether or not he believes that Seventh Day Adventists have 'extra revelation'.
To be honest I don't think the Lord cares too much which day we use for worship as long as we worship. Sunday became the normal day for Christian worship because it was resurrection day and nearly all early Christians were Jews who continued to worship as Jews on the Sabbath (the Saturday).
Nowhere in the bible is Sunday ever referred to as the Sabbath. Christians have often chosen to call it this in order to 'keep the commandment'. However in the New Covenant of Grace once in Christ we are judged through grace not law. The 10 commandments reveal the heart of and desires of God. Thus for Christians we should seek to observe the principle of Sabbath within the cycle of work, as the 10 commandments have timeless relevance.
Regarding what food we eat the scripture is clear that we are not bound by Old Testament food laws. Peter's vision in Acts 10 suggests this but more importantly Acts 15 sees a Church Council dealing with the question of what should be required of the Gentiles. Acts 15:29 boils it down to abstaining from meat offered to idols, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.
Everything about Paul's teaching in his letters stresses our freedom from such things as food laws. In 1 Cor 8 he even suggests that eating meat offered to idols is a matter of personal conscience.
If a Christian chooses to abstain from some foods for health reasons or out of a special devotion to God that is fine but to do so to 'keep God's law' is not right. We are free in all such matters as, I believe, we are in the matter of which day we choose to worship though we need to observe the principle of Sabbath rest (for our own good) and it is sensible to worship at the same time as other Christians which makes Sunday the most likely choice.
I hope these comments are of some help to you but if your husband is not willing to be persuaded is is best not to push matters to much and simply show Christian example by loving him.
Stuart Woodward