As a former Sabbathkeeper, I listen to some debates or discussions about the topic of "boundary marker" commandments from the Mosaic Covenant.
"Boundary marker" commandments are those commandments that were meant to keep ancient Israel distinct from the Gentile nations. They are not objective moral commandments. I would include the Sabbath, festivals, clean/unclean meat laws, physical circumcision, and dress prohibitions within those commandments. There was also an aspect that they were shadows or types of spiritual realities. For instance, the Sabbath was a type of the spiritual rest that Christians have through placing their faith in Jesus Christ...a rest from dead works and trying to justify yourself before God on the basis of them (Matthew 11:28-30, Colossians 2:16-17, Hebrews 4:9-10).
I have no issue with those who want to observe Sabbath, though, if they have no issue with those Christians who have church meetings on Sunday in honor of the resurrection. Paul is plain that this sort of tolerance should be part of the church in Romans 14. It's rebels which claim Sunday observers are under the mark of the Beast or are being disobedient to God that ruffle my feathers. And, early Christianity ws unfair to ethnic Jews in the past, who wanted to maintain cultural elements of their heritage while continuing to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ. I've been studying this in a book called Introduction to Messianic Judaism.
Dr. Michael Brown, who is a Messianic Jew himself, answered questions from callers on the topic of the Sabbath in a recent broadcast. His position, like that of many Messianic Jews, is that he observes these boundary marker commandments (he may not use that term by the way..it's my term adopted from other scholoars), but does not claim that others, Gentile or Jew, need to observe them. A lot of the answers he gives in this audio are the same as the explanations I would give as an ex-Sabbathkeeper and I will be listening to more of his audios on these topics.
I realize he's not well liked amongst some in the Hebrew Roots Movement because he dispels some of their bad notions, including claiming that the Hebrew pictographic alphabet provides extra insight into Scripture. The HRM assertions are similar to the Bible code stuff, where the adherents claim that secret messages are encoded in Scripture, and that if you only had the key (in their case, the Hebrew pictographic alphabet), you would understand them. Dr. Michael Brown possesses a PhD in Semitic Languages (Hebrew) from a decent university, so his word trumps theirs, in my opinion, plus I am not much for claiming that God intentionally tries to hide meaning from Christians. I think the text speaks plainly for itself.
He's also dispelled the notion of some Hebrew Roots Movement people , which claim the New Testament or parts of it were written originally in Hebrew. He notes that there is NO manuscript evidence to support this claim. Even if there was manuscript evidence, it would be meaningless because the New Testament writings were translated into MANY languages. That's part of the beauty of the Greek language. It was the universal trade language at the time, and someone in just about every nation understood it. So, they could take the writings and translate them into their own language for the benefit of all. This enabled the writings to be disseminated over a wide area quickly.
I'm also not real fond of the assertions of some within this group that we, as Western thinking Christians, are inferior because we don't understand the Hebrew mindset. About every seminary trains students in some level of original language, AND about the underlying culture and customs of the writers, so the claims of the Hebrew Roots Movement on this issue are overstated, and reflect a strong false pride...reminds me of the Armstrongites I hung out with as a young Christian.
Anyways, I love Dr. Brown's soundness on this topic. He brings a voice of sanity into the Messianic Jew camp. My understanding is that Jews for Jesus as a whole are balanced when it comes to these issues.
Here's the link to the audio:
The Sabbath Debate Continues : Line of Fire
I enjoyed listening to it, and if you are interested in the topic, you might enjoy it as well.
The previous day's broadcast is related and you might want to listen to it first, although it is more specifically about SDAs:
What Do Seventh Day Adventists Believe? : Line of Fire
I do not agree with Dr. Michael Brown on his charismatic positions, but he is very good on topics like Messianic Judaism, Sabbath, festivals, clean and unclean meat laws and the Torah. His theology is quite a bit different than mine on other topics such as the Brownsville revival, but I respect him as a brother in Christ and agree with his teachings on the topic of the boundary marker commandments.
