Expert: Marco - 10/2/2009

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
Dear Craig,

I never answer multiple questions.
So I will answer only your first question.
If you will be interested in continuing our conversation, you can ask again another question, and after my answer, another question again and so on.
Anyway, please limit yourself to one question at a time.

Your first question is:

"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 firmly believe that the Ten comandments are for everybody.
Anyway, I think that these comandments must be correctly interpreted.
I firmly believe that the Bible is not to be interpreted litterally; when we read the Bible we must try to understand the spiritual and moral teachings contained in the Bible.
In fact, the Ten Commandments were written initially for a rather primitive people, and therefore the Lord used a certain kind of language, a language adapt to that kind of people.
We must then try to distuinguish the true meaning of those commandments from the language used.
I believe that the forth commandment "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" simply means that man has to keep holy one day every seven days.
The fact that we keep holy the seventh or the first day of the week is totally irrilevant.
This day was the sabbath before Christ's resurrection, but Christ's resurrection symbolizes the new creation. For Christians sunday has then become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord's Day.
In Christ's Passover, Sunday fulfills the spiritual truth of the Jewish sabbath and announces man's eternal rest in God.
I think that it is perfectly loical to keep holy sunday instead of saturday.

Your brother in Christ,

Marco