Sabbath Keeping, Saturday or Sunday?

 

All Scriptures are copied from biblehub.com, Berean Standard Bible.

I have a friend who is stuck on the Sabbath question. She’s not content with the Apostle Paul’s admonition in Colossians 2:16, 17:

Therefore let no one judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a feast, a New Moon, or a Sabbath. These are but a shadow of the things to come, but the body that casts it belongs to Christ.

After all, as she points out, the Ten Commandments were inscribed on tablets by the finger of God, but it was a committee of bishops, presbyters, and Apostles who changed the day of worship to Sunday. My Seventh Day Adventist neighbor would totally agree with that. The reason for the change was that by mid-first century, the fur was flying in the Jerusalem megachurch between those who wanted to keep all of the Jewish laws and those like Paul who felt that Christ came to fulfill, complete, satisfy (telios) the era of the law and release the emerging church into the era of His grace. Jews blaming Christians for blasphemy and Christians blaming Jews for killing the Messiah kept civil society and civil leaders in turmoil.

 The Council of Jerusalem  48-50AD  Galatians 2 and Acts 15

I’m no fan of Paul. Before the Almighty struck him to the ground and blinded him while he was on his way to Damascus to persecute more Christians, he was a hard-nose, take-no-prisoners law keeper. But Paul claimed to have gotten the message of the Gospel he preached not from the other Apostles, but from God Himself. It was not an overnight U-turn. He was in the wilderness many years. I can imagine him haranguing God with questions. Well, what about this? What did you mean by that? Why did that happen?

After Paul’s first missionary journey, he and his companions were rejoicing with the church in Antioch when brethren from the Jerusalem church, where James the brother of Jesus was one of the leaders, arrived to inform them that they need to continue keeping the Mosaic law. They had to circumcise their males and avoid certain food to be saved. Paul, Barnabas, and Titus argued vehemently against such a practice. The church prayed over them and sent them to Jerusalem to debate the issue with the heavyweights…James, John, and Simon (a.k.a. Peter, Cephas), and other conservative Jewish leaders. Paul’s company won the debate, and the matter ended amicably with a letter from the Jerusalem elders to the Antioch church declaring that keeping the old law is no longer necessary. They added a few restrictions.

Apparently, the circumcision party in Jerusalem kept the issue alive. Peter came to Antioch while Paul was still there and ceased eating with the Gentiles in the church because he feared the law-keeping cabal of leaders. Paul had it out with Peter in front of the elders shortly before his second missionary journey. I have to say, I admire the brilliance of Paul to understand so clearly the can of worms created by mixing the grace and forgiveness of Jesus Christ with the many rules and restrictions of the Levitical law. If the law is still effective, why did Christ die on the cross? His debating skills must have been formidable. In his letters, Paul added a nail or two to the coffin, Gal. 2:19-21:

“For through the law I died to the law so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not set aside the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, Christ died for nothing.”

Yes, a committee of men debated and decided that Sunday would be the day of worship to honor the day that Christ resurrected, the first day of the week. So let’s look at the two versions of the Ten Commandments in the Torah. First, Exodus 20:8-11:

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant or livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.”

Here's what we glean from this version of the fourth commandment: a)  The day itself is holy, sanctified. It’s God’s day. Don’t mess with it. b)  The day is intrinsically tied to the literal interpretation of Genesis 1, the six-day creation. If you’re an evangelical or Seventh Day Adventist, no problem. They believe that anyway. But if you’re a geologist, paleontologist, anthropologist, biologist, lab technician, or scientist of any ilk, that might be a problem. c)  The day is so holy that strangers of a different religious persuasion must bear the weight of this commandment. d)  The day is so holy that a man picking up sticks on the Sabbath was hauled before Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The command of God was death by stoning. Not only was the man executed, the whole community had to take part in it. (Num. 15:32-36) But there’s another version of the Sabbath commandment, Deut. 5:12-15:

12  Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you.

13  Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

14  but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work—neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or donkey or any of your livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates so that your manservant and maidservant may rest as you do.

15 Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. That is why the LORD your God has commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. a)   In this version, the Sabbath is sanctified by us, by our keeping it. We make the day holy. b)  Verses 13 and 14 are almost word for word copied from the Exodus version with one change. The day is in honor of the LORD, but it’s not tied to Genesis 1. The reason for the Sabbath is to force a workaholic nation to take a day out of their busyness to rest and worship. c)  Verse 15 doubles down on the reason for the Sabbath rest by reminding the people about their days of labor and exploitation in Egypt.

So one version seems to exalt the day itself, as if man was made for the Sabbath. The other emphasizes that the Sabbath was made for man. But wait, does it have to be either/or? Couldn’t both be equally true? Would Jesus honor one Scripture over another? Well, let’s see. Let’s look at the food laws in Lev. 11, the whole chapter. But I’ll just reproduce a couple of verses here:

26  Every animal with hooves not completely divided or that does not chew the cud is unclean for you. Whoever touches any of them will be unclean.

27  All the four-footed animals that walk on their paws are unclean for you; whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until evening, and anyone who picks up a carcass must wash his clothes, and he will be unclean until evening. They are unclean for you.

Now let’s look at Mark 7:6-7 and 14-23:

6  Jesus answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.

7  They worship Me in vain: they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”

14  Once again Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “All of you, listen to Me and understand:

15  Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile him.”

17  After Jesus had left the crowd and gone into the house, His disciples inquired about the parable.

18  “Are you still so dull?” He asked. “Do you not understand? Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him, because it does not enter his heart, but it goes into the stomach and then is eliminated. (Thus all foods are clean.)

If you’ve never noticed this contradiction, it will come as a shock and may make you angry. How could Jesus seem to dismiss something from the holy inerrant Torah? Well, how about this? Matt. 5:33-39:

33 "Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’

34  But I tell you not to swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;

35  or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

36  Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.

37  Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.

38  You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.’ (Lev. 24:17-23)

39  But I tell you not to resist an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also;…"

Think about the statement, “You have heard that it was said to the people of long ago, or to the ancients.” When Jesus is quoting revelatory passages, He says, “It is written.” But here in the Sermon on the Mount, He says, “You’ve heard this, but I’m telling you something way better. And I’m the Boss now, so listen to me.”

By the way, the tradition of an eye for an eye came from the law code of Hammurabi, an ancient Mesopotamian king who may have been contemporaneous with Abraham. Many of the Mosaic laws are echoes of former foreign law codes. God allowed it because he was meeting people where they were at culturally. Society changes slowly, like turning a great ship with a canoe paddle.

It takes years to really gain a healthy understanding of the Bible. Shallow swipes at it teach nothing and can lead to some serious error. Reading the text can answer many questions about Christianity.

Saturday or Sunday? For me, Sunday. For my dear SDA friend, Saturday. You choose for yourself, but take Paul’s advice. Don’t be judgmental if you disagree with someone on the day. Jesus Christ gave the keys of the kingdom to the Church. Men who walked and talked with Jesus debated and settled this in the first century. And remember that the Lord also said this in Matt. 16:17-19:

"Jesus replied, 'Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

The early church bound Sunday as our day of worship and that settles it for me.