Sunday Worship?

So you seriously think that the apostolic churches were rebelling against God since they made it a practice to meet on the first day of the week, but there is no injunction for Christians to observe the Sabbath? In fact Paul is quite clear. They are merely "shadows". The 7th day Sabbath was given to Israel, not to the Church, and that too is crystal clear.

No. It is rebellion against God to refuse to obey what He has commanded. The Command to keep the 7th day holy is not the command to only worship God or meet on the 7th day, so there is nothing wrong with someone following a tradition of worshiping or meeting on any day of the week in addition to obeying God's command to keep the 7th day holy, but there is something wrong with them hypocritically setting aside God's command to keep the 7th day holy in order to establish their own traditions, which the Apostles did not do.

but there is no injunction for Christians to observe the Sabbath?

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The NT instructs us to refrain from sin, it defines sin as the transgression of God's law, and God's law includes the command to keep the Sabbath holy. Christ also spent his ministry teaching his followers to obey God's law by word and by example and being a Christian is about following what Christ taught.

Paul said that God's holy days are foreshadows of what is to come in order to emphasize the importance of continuing to keep them. He did not use the word "merely". In 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, Paul spoke in regard to how Passover foreshadows Jesus by drawing the connection of him being our Passover lamb, however, instead of concluding that we should no longer both with Passover, he concluded by saying that we should therefore continue to observe the feast. The only way that we should no longer observe Passover is if what is testifies about Jesus is no longer eternally true.

The Greek word "ekklesia" is translated as "church" and is used many times in the Septuagint to refer to Israel in the wilderness, so that is when the Church began, and the Sabbath was given to the Church. Moreover, God's law was given to Israel in order to equip them to be a light and a blessing to the nations by turning them from their wickedness and teaching them to obey it in accordance with the promise and with spreading the Gospel.

There is no such command made to Christians in the new covenant.

That's not true because the New Covenant involves God putting His law in our minds and writing it on our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33) and the Spirit leading us to obey it (Ezekiel 36:26-27), but it wouldn't matter even if it were true because what is holy to God should not be profaned by man, so we would still be obligated to keep the Sabbath holy even if God had never commanded anyone to do that.

In Matthew 4:15-23, Jesus began his ministry with the Gospel message to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand, which was a light to the Gentiles, and God's law was how his audience knew what sin is (Romans 3:20), so repenting from our disobedience to it is a central part of the Gospel message, which includes repenting from breaking the Sabbath. Jesus also set a sinless example of how to walk in obedience to God's law, including keeping the Sabbath holy, and we are told to follow his example (1 Peter 2:21-22) and that those who are Christ are obligated to walk in the same way he walked (1 John 2:6). So Christ spent his ministry teaching his followers to obey God's law by word and by example, including keeping the Sabbath holy, and being a Christian is about following what Christ taught.

In Colossians 2:16, they were keeping God's holy days in obedience to God's command in accordance with the example that Jesus set for us to follow, they were being judged by pagans for doing that, and Paul encouraged them not to let any man judge them for doing that. In Acts 15:21, the expectation was that Gentiles would continue to learn about how to obey Moses by hearing him taught every Sabbath in the synagogues, which means that they were already keeping the Sabbath in obedience to God's command in accordance with Christ's example. In 1 Peter 1:16, we are told to be holy for God is holy, which is a quote from Leviticus where God was giving instructions for how to do that, which includes keeping God's Sabbaths holy (Leviticus 19:2-3). Moreover, in 1 Peter 2:9-10, Gentiles are included as part of God's chosen people, a holy nation, a royal priesthood, and a treasure of God's own possession, which are terms used to describe Israel (Deuteronomy 7:6), so Gentiles also have the delight of getting to obey God's laws for how to fulfill those roles. It would be contradictory for a Gentile to want to live as part of a holy nation while not wanting to follow God's laws for how to live as part of a holy nation.

Only the fulfilled Sabbath is part of the new covenant. Everything you are teaching is from Judaism, and the old covenant that has been replaced. The old law is no more, superseded by the law of Christ which has no command regarding resting on a Saturday (and no traveling and fire etc)

The command was to Israel under the Old Covenant. Not to the Church under the New Covenant. So you are way off base.

Jesus did not come to start his own religion following a different God, but rather he came as the Jewish Messiah of Judaism in fulfillment of Jewish prophecy, he practiced Judaism by living in sinless obedience to the Torah, he spent his ministry fulfilling the Torah by teaching how to correctly obey it by word and by example (including keeping the Sabbath holy), and he did not establish the New Covenant for the purpose of undermining anything that he spent his ministry teaching, but rather the New Covenant still involves following the Torah (Jeremiah 31:33). In Acts 21:20, they were rejoicing that tens of thousands of Jews were coming to faith who were all zealous for the Torah, which is in accordance with believing in what Jesus accomplished through the cross (Titus 2:14), so Jews coming to faith were not ceasing to practice Judaism. This means that there was a period of time between the resurrection of Jesus and the inclusion of Gentiles in Acts 10 that is estimated to be about 7-15 years during which all Christians were Torah observant Jews. So Christianity at its origin was the form of Judaism that recognized Jesus as its prophesied Messiah. It does not make sense to think that the Law of Christ is something other than or contrary to what Christ taught.

The New Covenant still involves following the Torah (Jeremiah 31:33, Ezekiel 36:26-27).

Utter rubbish. You are very seriously confused.

Do you deny the truth of those verses? You call me confused, but I’m not the one speaking against obeying what God has commanded His people to do.

Shadow or not, God never instructed that the Sabbath was to be changed or done away with. It's putting the Sabbath in it's proper context compared to the fullfillment of all things, but it's never to be done away with. That's why Jesus said to obey and teach the commandments (including Sabbath).

And the beat goes on; and on, and on, and on.

Perhaps it would be helpful if you explained what you mean by this. There are plenty of laws that are not possible to follow specifically with sacrifices.

Mixed garment clothing also comes to mind but this one is "possible" it's just crazy difficult solo. Unless of course you make your own clothes. Do you want to go down the list of 613? laws and say which ones are to be followed and which aren't?

You haven't posted enough for me to gauge whether you mean this or not so I'm not meaning offense here

Remembering the Sabbath and keeping it Holy is a personal decision, I don't have any issue with that..even if it's done "religiously" (unintentionally) if you stay in prayer about it, I think the Holy Spirit will open your understanding to what it means for each of us personally. It could be that the temptation to fall into a religious spirit is very real for a person and it's probably best that they don't "keep the Sabbath" and consider each day "holy alike"



There is nothing wrong with understanding the "heart" of the law (why it was given and how it points to Jesus) or whether some practices promote holiness in your life.

even phylacteries sound like an excellent practice (binding certain scriptures as a frontlet between your eyes). I've seen people hang scripture in their house or paint it on their walls. It does something for sure. When I'm in a black mood, seeing a scripture verse on a plaque does "something" positive. Practically I think this "echoes" the purpose of biding scripture.

I didn't choose it but currently above the mantel where I live is the Micah 6:8 passage about walking "...humbly with thy God"

Which was a verse that occasionally came to me when asking for direction and the frustration at that being the only answer (before the plaque)...and yet submitting ourselves IS direction especially when we find ourselves exalting/questioning God. There is a proper method to seeking his will and it's not questioning God (Romans 9:20)...doesn't end well and won't get you what you really want/need.

Even when the law was first given to Moses, many of them could not be obeyed, and not even Jesus obeyed the laws in regard to having a period or to giving birth. For example, the Israelites were given number of the laws had the condition “when you enter the land…” while they were still wandering the wilderness for 40 years, so there is nothing wrong with not following laws that can’t currently be followed. Likewise, a large portion of the 613 laws was given to govern the conduct of the Levites, which the other Israelites were not permitted to follow. In 2 Chronicles 30:15-20, Hezekiah prayed that God would pardon all who seek Him with their heart even though they were not acting in accordance with the sanctuary’s rules of cleanness. When the exiled in Babylon, the condition for them to return to the land was to first return to obedience to the Mosaic Law, which contained laws that require having access to the temple that had just been destroyed, so God honored their obedience to the laws that they were able to obey. This was taught to early Christian:

Didache 6:2 For if you are able to bear all the yoke of the Lord, you will be perfect; but if you are not able, what you are able that do.

Some of the Mosaic laws were only given to govern the conduct of the King, the High Priest, priests, judges, men, women, children, widows, those who are married, those who have servants, those who have animals, those who have crops, those who have tzaraat, those who are living in the land, and those who are strangers living among them, while others were given to everyone. So while there are illegitimate reasons for not following a particular law (James 2:1-11), there can also be legitimate reasons.


There is a sense that it is a personal decision to choose whether to refrain from committing murder, idolatry, adultery, theft, breaking the Sabbath, rape, kidnapping, and so forth for God’s other commands, but that doesn’t change that we are ultimately obligated to obey God and that it is a sin to disobey Him. Jesus set a perfect example for us to follow of how to practice Judaism by walking in sinless obedience to the Mosaic Law, so he had much more of a religious spirit than even the Pharisees did. A day that is holy is a day that is set apart and in order for a day to be set apart there needs to be another day that it is set apart from, so to treat each day holy alike is an oxymoron and to treat each day the same is to treat none of them as holy.

The heart of God’s law is to teach us how to know, love, worship, believe in, and testify about Him and Jesus through practicing His character traits, which is eternal life (John 17:3) and Gods had straightforwardly made His will known through what He had commanded in His law (Psalms 40:8).

I'm drawing this from Romans 14:5

Hopefully that changes what you say because I don't see how murder, idolatry, adultery, theft, rape are even remotely relevant because these are quite obvious to most people (believers and non-believers alike).



There's more of course to support this but that struck me as a bit off. I do appreciate you laying out what can and cannot be followed as I haven't ever thought about the exclusions in such a way as you mentioned.

They obviously don't apply but simple things like having a fire on the Sabbath "could".

I also fully disagree with the following statement

Jesus having a more religious spirit than even the Pharisees? I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that you don't understand what I mean by a "religious" spirit. The example of that is the Pharisees whom Jesus in no way "affirmed"

Unless you want to take one single sentence in Matthew out of context.

The topic of Romans 14 is in regard to how to handle disputable matters of opinion in which God had given no command, not in regard to whether followers of God should follow God’s commands, so nothing in the chapter should be interpreted as speaking against obeying God.. For example, in Romans 14:1-3, they were judging and resenting each other based on whether they chose to eat only vegetables even though God gave no command to do that. In Romans 14:5-6, Paul spoke about eating or refraining from eating unto the Lord, so he was speaking about those who esteem certain days for fasting as a disputable matter of opinion. For example, God did not command anyone to fast twice a week, but that had become a common practice in 1st century where they were judging and resenting each other (Luke 18:12). The reason why we are to keep the Sabbath holy is not because man esteemed it as a matter of opinion, but because God rested on it, blessed it, made it holy, and commanded His people to keep it holy. Where God gives a command human opinion must yield, so Paul was not suggesting that we are free to break the Sabbath or disobey any of God’s other commands just as long as we are convinced in our own minds that it is ok to rebel against God, but rather that was only said in regard to things that are disputable matters of opinion. The Sabbath isn’t even mentioned in Romans 14 precisely because it has nothing to do with the topic Paul was discussing. We should be careful not to mistake things that were only said against man’s opinions as being against God’s commands.

I don’t see a good reason to make an exception for things like lighting a fire on the Sabbath.


I was aware that there is a negative connotation with having “a religious spirit”, I just don’t think that there should be one. While Pharisees were criticized for their pride and hypocrisy, at no point were they criticized for being religious or for being obsessed with obeying the Mosaic Law. In Matthew 23:23, Jesus said that tithing was something that they ought to be doing while not neglecting weightier matters of the Mosaic Law of justice, mercy, and faith, so he affirmed their obedience and called them to have a higher level of obedience in a manner that is in accordance with its weightier matters.

He called them to it because they were Jews and under the old covenant.

In John 12:46-50, it does not give us any room to disregard anything that Jesus taught during ministry. We can look at what Jesus taught and decide whether or not to follow him, but we can’t follow him by refusing to follow what he taught, and following what Jesus taught is not just for Jews, but for Gentiles too. Jew are not the only ones who should practice weightier matters of the Mosaic Law like justice, mercy, and faithfulness, but rather Jews have the role of being a light to the nations.

Why would anyone want to live under a failed covenant? You can't attain righteousness by the law. Accept grace and receive the Spirit of God. Then, as you walk in the Spirit, you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.