Jesus said the sabbath was made for men and showed he didn’t follow it by working on it.
Sabbath is actually our Saturday but due ot modern work and life many have ot work and shop and play.
The sabbath is supposed to be a day of rest.
People argue and argue about whether or not the sabbath has to be on Saturday, the “last day of the week.” I could make a calendar that has Saturday as the first day of the week. If it out-sells other calendars, Saturday becomes the first day of the week.
I think people miss the point - we need a day of rest each week. For me it usually would be Sunday, but if I have to work on Sunday, then it can be Monday. Or it could be half of Monday and half of Tuesday. And so on.
The seventh day of the week is the seventh day of the week. It doesn’t matter what you call it. You could call it Jupiter and it would still be the seventh day of the week.
And which day of the week is the last day of the week?
The seventh day of the week is the last day of the week.
And which day is that?
I answered that. I don’t know what you want me to say.
You seem to be saying the calendar makers get to decide which day is the last day of the week. I don’t remember the Lord ever giving them the authority to do that.
BobEstey,
re: “You seem to be saying the calendar makers get to decide which day is the last day of the week.”
I don’t understand. The seventh day of a seven day week is the last day of the week. What do the calendar makers have to do with it?
re: " I don’t remember the Lord ever giving them the authority to do that."
Have the authority to do what?
I don’t remember the Lord ever saying that Saturday is the last day of the week.
BobEstey,
re: “I don’t remember the Lord ever saying that Saturday is the last day of the week.”
And I don’t remember saying that He did.
After much personal study, it appears to me that the moon does have a very significant factor in determining which days God intended for us to keep His Sabbaths, including the weekly Sabbath. Due to the changes in the calendar, I think the closest we can come, reliably, is to observe the 7th day of the modern calendar week - Saturday.
I believe all of the 10 Commandments should still be kept as much as we possibly can. In about 15 years of Bible study, I have yet to find any convincing evidence in Scripture that indicates that we are to forego any of them, and I also find much evidence that Christ intended us to keep them - especially since we see in Scripture His disciples keeping them after His death on the Cross.
Read Genesis 17: 9-14, then with that context read through Romans and Galatians several times each. In Romans Paul builds a case that we are saved through faith and not through works of the Law, repeatedly saying that we are not under law (in a roundabout way in the text leading up to 6:15, but directly in chapters 7-8:
Romans 7:4 NET
[4] So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God.
In Galatia there were people who saw how absolute the Abrahamic covenant of circumcision was and thought gentile converts should therefore be circumcised.
Galatians 3:23-25 NET
[23] Now before faith came we were held in custody under the law, being kept as prisoners until the coming faith would be revealed. [24] Thus the law had become our guardian until Christ, so that we could be declared righteous by faith. [25] But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
In Galatians 5:2-3 Paul says that if you have yourself circumcised (in order to obey the Law) then you have to obey the entire Law (which is impossible):
Galatians 5:3-4 NET
[3] And I testify again to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.
[4] You who are trying to be declared righteous by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace!
James also says something similar:
James 2:10 NET
[10] For the one who obeys the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
Note that Paul didn’t say that what he said applied specifically to the law of circumcision - he talked about us having died to the entire law!
Again, I strongly recommend seeing how absolute Genesis 17:9-14 is, then skimming through the entire book of Romans several times to follow Paul’s entire argument and logic, then do the same with Galatians.
Specifically with regard to keeping the Sabbath (which historically is from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday - ask anyone who is Jewish!): Christians have celebrated the Lord’s Day almost from the beginning, celebrating the resurrection, but the general principle is that we’re made to require a day of rest each week. I was a missionary in a Muslim country and it weekend was Thursday and Friday, so we had church and rested on Friday, and it was perfectly fine.
You don’t think it makes sense that we obey the 10 Commandments out of our love for God, Neal?
What about John 14:15 and 15:14?
Jesus’ Commandments are the Father’s Commandments, the Decalogue. He created them.
Do you believe that those who choose to obey the Stone Commandments will be sent to hell by God?
So there is no need for the Holy Spirit? All we need are a set of external rules? That did the OT Jews a lot of good, didn’t it?
The needless slaughter of innocent animals (created by God) is a good way to sin against God.
That was before Calvary. They are internal rules now as He has written them on our hearts and placed His Spirit in us to assist in the keeping of them.
" I will put My Law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people."
Jer. 31:33
“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”
Ezek. 36:26-27
That is EXACTLY why we don’t need external laws. The OT law is external; the NT law is internal (written on our hearts). We are governed by the Holy Spirit, so the OT law is obsolete.
Notice the FUTURE tense of Ezekiel!
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What Law was God speaking of putting in our hearts in Ezekiel?
Were the 10 Commandments placed outside the Ark of the Covenant or inside?
So @Stand do you follow the letter of the Law regarding the Sabbath? That is, do you do nothing that might possibly be considered work from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday, as is the practice of Orthodox Jews to this day?
Whether you do or not, you can’t keep the entire Law and trying to do so won’t make you right (or more right) with God.
As you rightly pointed out, God puts his law into our hearts - but it’s not like the externally imposed law of the Old Covenant, it’s through His Spirit guiding us. Look at Romans 14 - decisions about days, foods, and most other things in life need to follow the general principles of godliness and right thoughts and conduct as God’s children, but how we decide depends on our conscience (guided by the Spirit), as well as our life circumstances. Scripture is very clear that the Law was only a guardian for us until we were adopted as God’s children (Galatians 4).
However, being dead to the Law needs the counterbalance of Romans 6:1-2 ff (and many other passages that say similar things):
[1] What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? [2] Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Again, I can’t emphasize enough - read Romans straight through, beginning to end, about three times, and then do the same with Galatians. This greatly clarified my understanding of the relationship between the Law and the Gospel, and I’m sure it will help you understand God’s grace and our relationship to the Law as His children as well.