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SEVENTH DAY SABBATH AND THE NEW COVENANT
I was a Saturday Sabbath and festival keeper for ten years while attending a church called Worldwide Church of God.
Worldwide Church of God was formed by Herbert Armstrong. His doctrine was affected by Seventh Day Adventism indirectly through the influence of his wife and her friend, who had Seventh Day Adventist connections.
I am no longer a Saturday Sabbathkeeper. I came to an understanding that Christians are under the New Covenant, and not the Old Covenant, about ten years later when Worldwide Church of God began a review of its own doctrines and discovered they were wrong on many of them, including Sabbath and festival observance.
I would like to mention that the remarks below are not meant to address individuals who worship on the seventh day as a matter of preference rather than obligation. There are individuals who observe the seventh day as a matter of preference, but do not think that others should be worshipping on the seventh day. Romans 14 allows for preferences like this as part of the liberality that we have in Christ.
I am convinced, though, that many Sabbathkeepers fall into the category of believing that Sabbathkeeping is a requirement or condition for salvation, and that other Christians should be observing the Saturday Sabbath.
Two things come to mind in regards to my Sabbathkeeping.
One, I was a self-righteous Pharisee as a Sabbathkeeper. In accordance with church teaching, I believed that other Christians were still in their sins and unsaved. WCG taught that it had a special, exclusive relationship with God (“the elect”), and that they had been enlightened by “the Truth”. The Sabbath was the sign that they were true believers of God, and by implication other Christians were not. As such, they had nothing to offer me in terms of spiritual truth, and I avoided listening to anything they had to say. They were deceived by Satan, as Satan “deceives the whole world” (Rev 12:9).
I don’t know if I ever thought once that I might still be deceived by doctrinal error during my Sabbathkeeping years, but I was. Part of the deception was that the teachings of Sabbathkeepers tend to promote this exclusivist or elitist attitude.
Sabbathkeeping also appeals to the common default position of human beings. We want to think that we are earning or meriting our salvation. Christianity is totally different in that it operates on the principle of becoming righteous through faith. Read Romans 4 in this regard. We must accept the free gift of salvation like humble beggars with nothing to offer God. We realize our deep spiritual need and inadequacy and come to God for grace, which is unmerited favor
Sabbathkeepers create this patchwork garment of various laws and regulations to cover their spiritual nakedness. My garment was composed of Sabbath and festival keeping, clean and unclean meats observance, and triple tithing. Instead of being clothed in the righteousness of Christ, I covered my spiritual nakedness with this false garment of righteousness.
Sabbathkeepers are relying on a phony gospel for their salvation. If their trust is in their works rather than Jesus Christ, they may not even possess salvation. Others, like me as a Sabbathkeeper, are real Christians but are doctrinally confused and spiritually unproductive due to this deception.
Two, the focus of the Church, and me, was NOT on Jesus Christ. The message was primarily one about keeping the Sabbath and the other elements of the law that they deemed to be necessary (festival days of Leviticus 23, clean and unclean meat laws, and triple tithing). The message of the New Testament, though, is about placing one’s faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, and entering his spiritual rest from our works. That certainly is not the focus of the message of many Sabbathkeeping organizations.
I am going to present a simple Scriptural proof that Sabbathkeeping is not required for New Covenant Christians. This Scriptural proof should be enough to convince less heavily indoctrinated people that the Sabbath doesn’t apply to New Covenant Christians
The major points are:
1. The Ten Commandments are a summary of the Old Covenant.
2. The Old Covenant was an agreement between God and Israel, not God and Christians.
3. The Sabbath was a sign of the Old Covenant.
4. The Old Covenant is no longer in effect for anyone.
5. The Sabbath, as part of the Old Covenant, is not in effect for ANYONE.
6. Jesus is our Sabbath or spiritual rest, and we enter into that spiritual rest by placing our faith in Him.
7. Christians are under the New Covenant, which has much higher demands and different commandments
Sabbathkeepers will bring up many objections and use various arguments to try to prove that the Sabbath is required for New Covenant Christians.
The major points to understand are the above points, though…the Old Covenant, including the Ten Commandments, is not the agreement that God has with Christians. As a whole, the Old Covenant is no longer in effect. Nine of the commandments reflect moral absolutes, and are restated in the apostolic writings. The Sabbath is different in that it was a sign of the Old Covenant and is not a moral absolute.
Why do I take the time and effort to address the Sabbathkeeping issue? Some Sabbathkeepers undoubtedly would accuse me of having evil motives. The real problem with Sabbathkeeping is that it obscures from the true gospel, which is about need to place our faith in Jesus Christ alone and his sacrifice for salvation. Entering the spiritual rest is life-changing. I am hoping that some Sabbatarians will enter into that spiritual rest and become productive Christians, instead of promoting a false teaching that is actually counter-gospel. Jesus Christ and the salvation that is available through placing our faith in him is the true rest of God from our works (Hebrews 4:9-10).
Suppose you read this document and you are convinced by it, but still aren’t sure. Ask God to reveal to you what is correct. Ultimately it is God who leads us, if we know Him.
Here are the points:
The Ten Commandments are a summary of the Old Covenant
Exodus 34:28 “So he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the word of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 31:18 “And he gave to Moses when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.
Deut 4:13 “And he declared to you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, that is, the Ten Commandments, and he wrote them on two tablets of stone”.
Deut 9:9 “When I went up the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the Lord made with you.”
Deut 9:11 “And at the end of forty days and forty nights the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.”
The Ten Commandments are obviously clearly identified with the Old Covenant. They are a distillation of the entire covenant. If you read the rest of the laws of the Old Covenant you will notice that many of them are just breakdowns of how to keep the Ten Commandments.
The Seventh-Day Adventists, amongst others, try to separate the Ten Commandments from the Old Covenant. The implication is that the Ten Commandments, including the Sabbath, are still binding, while the rest of the Old Covenant is not. This is a false view. The law is unified and this division is not biblical.
The Old Covenant was an agreement between God and Israel, not God and Christians
Exodus 24:6-8 And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half of the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.
The parties to the Old Covenant are God and Israel, not God and Christians.
The Sabbath was a sign of the Old Covenant
Ex 31:12-17 And the Lord said to Moses, “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.”
Notice that the Sabbath was a sign of the covenant agreement between God and ancient Israel.
The Old Covenant is no longer in effect for ANYONE
Heb 8:13-9:4 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table, and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.
Gal 3:17 This is what I mean: the law, which came 430 years afterwards, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void.
Gal 3:19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.
Gal 3:24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith
Gal 3:25 But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a guardian
2 Cor 3:4-18 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even much more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
Scripture clearly teaches that the Old Covenant is done away with. This Old Covenant includes the Ten Commandments. I Corinthians 3 calls the Old Covenant the “ministry of death”. Notice that this ministry of death was carved in letters on stone, and is clearly identified with the Ten Commandments in 2 Cor 3:7. The Ten Commandments and the rest of the Torah are not separate; the Ten Commandments are a summary of the Old Covenant. Much of the Old Covenant simply applies those laws practically.
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