Expert: Brenda Martin - 12/3/2007

Question
QUESTION: In your study of the bible, does the bible teach, in new testament times, that we are to keep the seventh day Sabbath. Which day is the right day to keep today, according to the bible?

ANSWER: Notice what the apostle Paul was inspired by God to write: “Now we have been discharged from the Law.” Was it only the laws other than the Ten Commandments that the Jews were discharged from? No, for Paul goes on to say: “Really I would not have come to know sin if it had not been for the Law; and, for example, I would not have known covetousness if the Law had not said: ‘You must not covet.’” (Romans 7:6, 7; Exodus 20:17) Since “You must not covet” is the last one of the Ten Commandments, it follows that the Israelites were discharged from the Ten Commandments.

Does this mean that the law to keep a weekly Sabbath, which is the fourth of the Ten Commandments, was also removed? Yes, it does. What the Bible says at Galatians 4:8-11 and Colossians 2:16, 17 shows that Christians are not under God’s law given to the Israelites, with its requirement to keep the weekly Sabbath and to observe other special days in the year. That keeping a weekly Sabbath is not a Christian requirement can also be seen from Romans 14:5.

all the best
Brenda

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: If what you say is true, how do you get around Matt 5:17-20, Heb 4:5-12, Mark 2:27-28. Which day did Jesus Christ keep? Which day did the apostles keep. Which day did Paul keep? Can you explain!

ANSWER: MATT 5:17-20

Jesus Christ, who was born into the nation of Israel, told his disciples: “Do not think I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I came, not to destroy, but to fulfill.”

To Hebrew Christians the apostle Paul wrote: “The Law has a shadow of the good things to come, but not the very substance of the things.” (Hebrews 10:1) If you had been a Hebrew convert to Christianity, how would you have understood these comments? Some members of the early Christian congregation believed that all the hundreds of laws that God gave through Moses, including the Ten Commandments, still applied. But was that the right viewpoint?

Consider these words of Paul to Jews who had become Christians in the province of Galatia: “We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners from the nations, knowing as we do that a man is declared righteous, not due to works of law, but only through faith toward Christ Jesus, even we have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be declared righteous due to faith toward Christ, and not due to works of law, because due to works of law no flesh will be declared righteous.” (Galatians 2:15, 16)

Indeed, a righteous standing with God did not depend on perfect obedience to the Mosaic Law, for in the imperfect human state, that was impossible. Paul added: “All those who depend upon works of law are under a curse; for it is written: ‘Cursed is every one that does not continue in all the things written in the scroll of the Law in order to do them.’ . . . Christ by purchase released us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse instead of us.”—Galatians 3:10-13.

If Jesus’ Jewish followers were no longer under the curse of the Law, were any Christians obligated to observe all the commandments given to Israel? To the Colossians, Paul wrote: “[God] kindly forgave us all our trespasses and blotted out the handwritten document against us, which consisted of decrees and which was in opposition to us; and He has taken it out of the way by nailing it to [Christ’s] torture stake.” (Colossians 2:13, 14)

Doubtless, many early Christians needed to adjust their thinking and recognize that they had been “discharged from the Law.” (Romans 7:6) By exercising faith in Jesus’ sacrificial death, which brought an end to the Law and paved the way for the inauguration of the foretold “new covenant,” they had the prospect of gaining a righteous standing with Jehovah.—Jeremiah 31:31-34; Romans 10:4.

At no time on earth did Jesus disregard the Law.  However after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the obligation for Jews to observe the Mosaic law came to an end. (Col. 2:13, 14)

"HEB 4:5-12--“There remains a Sabbath resting for the people of God”

Yes; there is “a Sabbath resting” that Christians share in every day

From Paul’s statement in Hebrews, we note that he pointed out that “there remains a sabbath resting for the people of God,” and he urged his fellow Christians to do their utmost “to enter into that rest.” This shows that when Paul wrote those words, “the seventh day” (7th creative day) of God’s rest, which had started some 4,000 years earlier, was still in progress. It will not end until God’s purpose regarding mankind and the earth is completely fulfilled at the end of the Thousand Year Reign of Jesus Christ, who is the “Lord of the sabbath.”—Matthew 12:8; Revelation 20:1-6; 21:1-4.

We are living in God’s rest day, remember he created in 6 days (not literal 24hr days) & rested on the 7th we are still in that 7th day, it’s this day that Paul is referring to.

MARK 2:27-28

This is a completley different Sabbath day again; there is a thousand-year “Sabbath” rest that lies ahead for mankind

Jesus knew that Jehovah had instituted the Sabbath as a sign between God and Israel and that it was meant to bring them relief from their labours. Jesus also was aware that his own death would provide the basis for setting aside the Mosaic Law as having found its fulfillment in him. He appreciated that the Law, with its Sabbath requirement, provided “a shadow of the good things to come.” (Heb. 10:1; Col. 2:16, 17) In connection with those “good things” there is a “Sabbath” of which he is to be Lord.

As Lord of lords, Christ will rule all the earth for a thousand years. (Rev. 19:16; 20:6; Ps. 2:6-8) While on earth, Jesus mercifully performed some of his most amazing works of healing on the Sabbath, thus demonstrating the kind of relief that he will bring to people out of all nations during his Millennial Reign. (Luke 13:10-13; John 5:5-9; 9:1-14) Those who appreciate the real meaning of the Sabbath will have opportunity also to benefit from that “Sabbath” rest.

WHICH DAY DID JESUS CHRIST KEEP?

Being a Jew Jesus would have kept the Jewish Sabbath which was from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday.

WHICH DAY DID THE APOSTLES KEEP

Until the law arrangement was nailed to the torture stake Jesus and his apostles kept all of its provisions, as they were born under the law. So they all kept the Jewish Sabbath.

However there is no evidence in the Scriptures that Christians were commanded to observe a Sabbath or that it was kept during the lifetime of the apostles AFTER Pentecost, This is made evident by Paul’s statement at Colossians 2:16, 17: “Let no man judge you in eating and drinking or in respect of a festival or of an observance of the new moon or of a sabbath; for those things are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Christ.”

WHICH DAY DID PAUL KEEP?

He didn’t keep any day--Paul made the following expression concerning those scrupulously observing “days and months and seasons and years”: “I fear for you, that somehow I have toiled to no purpose respecting you.”—Ga 4:10, 11.

After Jesus’ death, his apostles at no time commanded Sabbath observance. The Sabbath was not included as a Christian requirement at Acts 15:28, 29, or later. Nor did they institute a new Sabbath, a “day of the Lord.”

All the best
Brenda


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Your answer is tipical Protestant.
I do not follow Protestant doctrine, I follow Christ and what He taught. He said "I change not"(Mal.3:6).
Take a look at http://www.cbcg.org/franklin/romes_challenge.pdf.
Protestants are still following their mother, the Catholic Church!


Answer
I am NOT a Protestant, "I follow Christ & what he taught" also, & anyway protestants dont folow the catholic church your getting mixed up there.

My answer was entirely based in scripture, so it is not me you are disagreeing with, it is God's word.

Brenda
JEHOVAH'S WITNESS