Expert: Dr. Ronald E. Shultz - 9/28/2009

Question
I’m searching for a certain denomination and was hoping that by contacting you, you could help me in my search.  This denomination or church will need to have God’s law, the Ten Commandments, and the second coming of Jesus as the basis for their beliefs.

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t Jesus write the following Ten Commandments with His own finger and give them to Moses and the Children of Israel?

1)   Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  
2)   Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;  and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.  
3)   Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.  
4)   Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God:  in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.  
5)   Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.  
6)   Thou shalt not kill.  
7)   Thou shalt not commit adultery.  
8)   Thou shalt not steal.  
9)   Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.  
10)   Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's
Some people have mentioned to me that this is the Jewish Law and does not apply to Christians in general.  What do you think?  After creating the first man and woman, Adam and Eve kept the Sabbath holy with Jesus.  Adam and Eve were not Jewish.  Do you think that God was only applying these Ten Commandments to one certain group of people or to all people?

I have found in Genesis that when God created the earth, He created something on every day and then on the seventh day, He created the Sabbath.  Also found that Jesus worshiped on His Sabbath day. His disciples worshiped on the Sabbath day.  John 14:15 says “If you love me, keep my commandments”.  Revelation 14:12 says, “Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus”.  It seems to me that these two texts, which both are found in the New Testament, point back to the law, the Ten Commandments, which God gave to the Children of Israel at Mount Sinai.  God did not just give these Ten Commandments to the Jews, but to the whole world.

I understand that Jesus was raised from the grave on the first day of the week.  This event, in itself, is very important and has great meaning to the salvation of mankind, but nowhere in the Bible does it say that Jesus changed the Sabbath from the seventh day to the first day because of His resurrection.  Matthew 5:18  says “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled”.  

When God made the Sabbath on the seventh day, He blessed and hallowed it (to make holy).  As I see in the Scriptures, nowhere does God bless and hallow the first day of the week because of His resurrection.  As I can see, the disciples were meeting on the first day of the week sometimes just like we meet in church in the middle of the week for prayer meeting.

Man has no right to change God’s commandment’s to meet his/her needs or wants.  God is infinite and eternal. Man is sinful and mortal. It seems like the Sabbath has been changed by man and not by God.  Why should a God who “changes not” change His own commandments.  Is it better to obey God or to obey man?

Why do most denominations, Baptists included, worship on Sunday, the first day of the week, and not on Saturday, the seventh day of the week which God has pointed out as the Sabbath?

God wrote His commandment’s in stone so that man would know that they do not change just as God Himself does not change.

Why does it seem like that the only commandment that people don’t keep is the one that starts with the word “Remember”?  

I’ve seen other versions of the fourth commandment which only say, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy”.  Man changes it to fit his needs.  The full text is as above and was given by God Himself.  The text points out that the seventh day is the Sabbath.

A person told me once, who really knows what day is the seventh day.  God made the seven day week and I believe that He has kept a meticulous eye on the days of the week and that Saturday, the seventh day, is the Sabbath.

Do you worship on the Bible Sabbath?  If not, I would like to ask why not and do you think that the Ten Commandments, God’s Law, are still prevalent today.

I am again looking for a church that worships God and follows all Ten Commandments.  I would like to have your input in this matter.

Sincerely,

Craig E. Latham


Answer
I am sorry that I am behind a few days.  I was at a place where I had no Internet service.  I did not know that was going to be the case or I would have turned on my unavailable message here.

I understand that there is a group called Seventh Day Baptists, but I do not know where you might find one of their churches.

There are many facets of God's law that actually include over 600 commandments, not just the 10 you list.  No, I do not worship on Saturday but I do not condemn those who might though I would question their understanding of the New Testament.  

One need only casually read the Pauline Epistles to understand the Christians are not to be under the Law for salvation or else we would still be offering up animal sacrifices for the covering of our sins.  God's moral laws are still binding, but the ceremonial, dietary and sacrifical laws are no longer in effect since they all relate to the coming of the Messiah and He has come as the suffering servant and will soon come as King.  

When the Jews threw some hissy fits over Jesus' actions on the Sabbath, He had to correct their thinking.  God ordained Sabbath keeping for the sake of man, not ordained man for Sabbath keeping. (Mark 2:27)  The purpose of the Sabbath was that man might actually rest a day and worship God.  The Jews then and many who call themselves Christians over the centuries have taken the letter of the law and stretched it to mean many things that were not in the spirit or intent of the law.  

We can see from Acts 20:7 and 1 Cor 16:2 that the disciples started meeting on the first day of the week at some point for formal worship though they initially met daily for meals and prayers and even met in the temple daily.  (Acts 2)  Yet, at some point, they started meeting in homes and eventually, the building of churches as formal worship centers came into being.  I think we could easily surmise that at some point the Jews banned them from the temple since they were no longer Jews in their eyes and as Gentiles were added to the Church.  The Gentiles would have never been allowed in the temple.  So, the place and format of worship changed and so did the day.  It may have also become a point of clarification.  The early Church did not fast on the same days as the pagans so as not to be confused with the pagans.  The same may have part of the switch to Sunday to differentiate them from the Jews as well as celebrate the day the Lord arose.  The Lord's Supper is a witness to that resurrection so partaking of it on Sunday would only make the symbolism and the witness stronger. We will never know the complete reason until we get to glory and then we will not care.

Early Jewish Christians had real problems with discontinuing the many practices of the the Law, which were no longer required since Christ's sacrifice and resurrection.  We see this from the beginning in Acts and throughout the Pauline epistles.  Even Peter had to say that some of the things Paul taught were hard to understand but he acknowledged them as true doctrine.

Indeed, things got very heated between the Jewish and Gentile Christians. Paul dealt with the issues of days and foods/meats in Romans 14 and 15. Other places, he argued about circumcision and the other issues of the Law versus what Christ meant in the life of the Believers.

Col 2:16-17

16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:
17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. KJV

No judgmen on holy days or sabbaths.  All part of the Old Testament.

Gal 3:10-12
10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
12 And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
KJV
 
If you are going to make Saturday mandatory for a Christian then all the law must be kept, not just a part of it.  In Galatians he is arguing against the ones who came from Jerusalem and tried to make the Gentile believers conform to the Law.  

Acts 15:28-29

28 For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
29 That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well. KJV

This was the decision from the Jerusalem council who met to determine what to do about Paul's teachings and the Gentiles.  No mention of the Sabbath here.  And all it says is that if you will do well if you avoid these things. There is no salvation issues about them, but only that you will do well.  Indeed, separating from idol worship is good.  Animals not properly slaughtered and ingesting animal blood are health risks and fornication is a moral, eternal law.  Paul also clarified that if you buy the meat in the market, don't worry about where it comes from and if you are at a banquet and someone tells you the main course came from an idol's temple don't eat for the other guy's conscience sake, not that it is a sin to you.

If you want to worship on Saturday or Sunday, fine.  If you have to work those days and all you have off are Wednesday and Thursday then make one of those days your rest and worship day.  There were other Sabbath days besides the seventh day.  They were holydays or as we say holidays with their respective restrictions and commands.  Christ set us free from all of that for all the law was fulfilled in Him. We need to follow the moral laws as they are not removed.  Other laws are removed and some clarified.  Tithing was before the law so it exists in the Church as a proper way of fulfilling the needs of the Body.  Indeed, tithing took care of personnel and offerings took care of property if you look at the passages dealing with both.  We have combined the two but we should make those distinctions clear.

Most groups over the centuries have made doctrinal errors by not distinguishing between OT and NT or separating the Church from Israel thereby creating a fog and muck in the way the Church functions and how Christians are to live.  So if you find a group who are saying they believe in Christ and yet require anything from the Law or some homegrown doctrine plus Christ for salvation then you have not found a true NT Church and often they will be a cult or in some respect apostate or heading down that road.  It is Jesus plus nothing for salvation and while the Holy Spirit will not lead a Christian to do anything contrary to the spirit of the Law, keeping the letter of the Law is not the path to sanctification. It is legalism and not biblical.

Those who argue with Pauline doctrine forget that Jesus called him and spent three years in the wilderness teaching Paul one on one.  He called Paul to the Gentiles so if Jesus meant for Saturday to be written in stone then Paul would have hammered that home. He did not do so and in essence argued against that interpretation/doctrine. (Acts 9;Gal 1)  Not only was he used to pen most of the NT, but he had to rebuke Peter for his hypocrisy and basically straighten out the Jewish/Gentile merge into the Church as well as argue against Judaism and all sorts of pagan ideaologies. In all of that calling and use of Paul, I think God would have made it perfectly clear if Saturday was still mandatory as the day or rest and worship.

I agree that man has no right to adapt or change the Word to anyone's purposes. Neither can he condemn a person for something God has clearly sanctioned in His Word in that each believer is to have a sabbath (day of rest or worship) but he has the liberty in Christ to choose that day or to seek to make every day as much as a Sabbath as he can since we are to worship God with all our heart, mind and soul or 24/7 as Jesus did and does.  We are at rest in Christ 24/7 so if we are seeking His face we are keeping the Sabbath as it was meant to be for man no matter what day of the week we choose.  That is as close to returning to Eden and walking daily with God as we can get in this life.  

You can't keep 600 plus Laws and you can't keep the 10 in perfection either since we just can't even do the first one and to break one is to break them all.  Only in our being in Christ do we keep the Law in perfection for He did thus keep the Law.  We only keep the Law in any way shape or form in practice as we die to ourself and allow Him to live His life through us.

Rom 10:3-4

3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. KJV

If He is the end of the Law then we keep the Law by submitting to Him as the Lord of the Sabbath. In the eyes of the Jews, He often broke the letter of the Sabbath, but never the spirit of it.  

Heb 4:10-11

10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. KJV

He is our Sabbath!  Rejoice in that and worship what day you will or better yet all you can.

May the Lord bless you as you seek His will in His Word!