Expert: Sal - 11/30/2008

Question
Dear Sal:
As Catholics how do we defend the Church against the Seventh-Day Adventists when they say we must keep the Sabbath? They say that the command for Sabbath keeping is to be kept forever and we don't kept it. We say that it was changed to Sunday due to the resurrection.
Thanks,
Mel

Answer
Dear Mel:

“God said that the Sabbath was a commandment to be kept forever.” This argument sounds logical. We must investigate it carefully from the Bible to see if it is so. Does the Bible support the idea that the Sabbath command is forever? “So shall the Israelites observe the Sabbath, keeping it throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. Between Me and the Israelites it is to be an everlasting sign” (Exodus 31:16-17). The Bible says clearly that the Sabbath command is to be kept forever. Does that end our study? The SDA church would like us to stop our investigation here, but that would be premature. We must do one more important thing before we decide to accept the SDA understanding of the Sabbath in the New Covenant. We need to determine if the Bible uses the terms “throughout your generations”, “perpetual”, and “everlasting” as the SDA does. Let’s look at some examples from the Bible of things that God said were to be observed forever. Circumcision “everlasting pact” (Genesis 17:13), Passover “perpetual institution” (Exodus 12:14), Feast of Unleavened Bread ”perpetual institution” (Exodus 12:17), Aaronite priesthood “perpetual law” (Exodus 29:9), offering to priests “perpetual ordinance” (Exodus 29:28; Leviticus 7:34-36), burnt offering “throughout your generations” (Exodus 29:42), burning of incense “perpetual” (Exodus 30:8), sin offering “throughout your generations” (Exodus 30:10), priestly washing “perpetual ordinance” (Exodus 30:21), anointing oil “throughout your generations” (Exodus 30:31), 7th day Sabbath “perpetual covenant” (Exodus 31:16-17), fire for burnt offering “throughout your generations” (Leviticus 6:6), grain offering “perpetual ordinance” (Leviticus 6:15)also called “perpetual statute” (Leviticus 23:14), Yom Kipper fasting “everlasting ordinance” (Leviticus 16:29), Pentecost “perpetual statute” (Leviticus 23:21), Day of Atonement “perpetual statute” (Leviticus 23:31), Feasts of Booths “perpetual statute” (Leviticus 23:41), sanctuary lights “perpetual statute” (Leviticus 24:3), Showbread “everlasting agreement” (Leviticus 24:8), secondary offerings “throughout your generations” (Numbers 15:21), Levitical service at the tabernacle “perpetual ordinance” (Numbers 18:23). So you see the argument that the 7th day Sabbath is valid for all times because it is called perpetual is fallacious. The Bible clearly shows that many things called “perpetual”, “throughout your generations”, and “everlasting” were so only for as long as the covenant to which they were attached lasted. The previous list was valid as long as the Mosaic or Old Covenant was in effect. Once it became obsolete with the coming of the New Covenant in Christ Jesus, the forever things in the list also became obsolete. Further note that the Sabbath was given only to Israel not the Church. “Between Me and the Israelites it is to be an everlasting sign.” So we clearly see that the Sabbath was never valid for the Church and was only valid for Israelites during the Old Covenant.

Thanks for the question.
Sal