AboutWayne Tucker Expertise I will attempt an answer to any question you care to ask about the United Methodist Church, or any other matter of faith.
Experience I am an ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church. I have been a pastor since January, 1988. I am a member of the Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. M.Div. Christian Theological Seminary, 1991
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 Craig,
If you are open to the answer I am OK with this. If you just want to argue, you can go elsewhere. I have better things to do.
There is absolutely no indication in the Scriptures that Jesus wrote the commandments with his own fingers and gave them to Moses. God as Son is not a doctrine found in the Hebrew Scriptures. You are correct that the commandments were given to the nation and people of Israel. The translation you have given is apparently the KJV, and is not terribly accurate. The Hebrew, for instance, reads "You will not murder."
Jesus indeed worshiped on the Sabbath, but he also said that the sabbath was made for man; not man for the sabbath. The life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus is a watershed event in human and divine history. Paul teaches us that the entire law of sin and death - your precious Ten Commandment among them - are nailed to the cross of Christ, and are of no further effect. The old covenant is gone. We can learn from it, to be sure. But it no longer holds us in its grip.
The Church worships on Sunday because that was the pattern established by Jesus' disciples in the weeks following the coming of the Holy Spirit. No one ever tried to say that Sunday is the sabbath. It is not. Sunday is the first day of the week, the day upon which Christ arose. Since the Church is not the nation or people of Israel, but IS the resurrection people, an entirely new nation, a priesthood of believers, we worship on Sunday. We are no longer accountable to the old covenant, but to the law of Christ. That law is to love one another as Jesus loved us.
We didn't change God's commands. God himself, speaking through the prophets, tells us that there will be a new covenant, one not written on stone, but on hearts. We believe that Jesus ushered in that new covenant, sealed it with his blood, and ratified it with the Holy Spirit.
Let me say further that if we COULD follow all of God's commandments, we could live according to their righteousness, but we can't. Even when the commandments were in full effect, before Jesus, there was a sacrificial system to cover the times when we sinned. But all it did was cover up the sin. The sin was never removed. The death of Christ removed the sin. I would want no part of any church that demanded I follow a hopeless law that only leads to sin and death. I will follow Christ who is love and life. You suit yourself.
Like I said, if you really want these answers, then here they are. If all you want is an argument look elsewhere, please!
