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Many
sects teach that a Christian is bound to keep the Sabbath Day. Among them are
the Seventh-Day
Adventist
Church
and the Church founded by Herbert Armstrong.
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Adventists
say: ‘We believe that the Sabbath was instituted in Eden before sin entered, that
it was honored of God, set apart by divine appointment, and given to mankind
as the perpetual memorial of a finished creation. It was based upon the fact
that God Himself had rested from His work of creation, had blessed His Sabbath,
or rest day, and had sanctified it, or set it apart for man (Gen. 2:1-3; Mark
2:27). We believe, further, that it was none other than the Son of God
Himself, the second person of the eternal Godhead, who was the Creator of
Genesis 1:13, and who therefore appointed the original Sabbath (John 1:3; 1
Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16, 17; Heb. 11:1, 2). While the Sabbath is enshrined in the
very heart of the commandments of God, it must be remembered that Jesus said,
"The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath" (Mark 2:28). In
other words, He is its author and its maker. He is its protector. The Sabbath
is the "sabbath of the Lord [Jehovah] thy God" (Ex. 20:10). Hence
Christ is its Lord; the Sabbath belongs to Him. It is His day; it is the
Lord's day. Inasmuch as we, His blood-bought children, belong to Him and live
in Him, and He lives in us (Gal. 2:20),
how natural that Sabbath observance, among other expressions of love and
loyalty to Him, should be revealed in our lives …..We believe that the
restoration of the Sabbath is indicated in the Bible prophecy of Revelation
14:9-12. Sincerely believing this, we regard the observance of the Sabbath as
a test of our loyalty to Christ as Creator and Redeemer.’ (Seventh-day Adventists Answer Questions On
Doctrine, Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D.C. 1957,
pages 149-150, 153)
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The
followers of Herbert W. Armstrong affirm: ‘God has a Master Plan by which He
is fulfilling His awesome purpose for mankind. And His Son, Jesus Christ,
plays the central role in God's little-known plan for man. God's plan is
revealed by seven annual festivals. These annual observances give a
step-by-step outline of how God is working out His Master Plan for man. Each
vividly pictures a great event in God's plan. It was not until after the
Israelites were delivered from Egypt that God
revealed the rest of His annual festivals. As God made the weekly Sabbath for
man when man was made, so He gave His people seven annual festivals, with
their annual Holy Days (Sabbaths), when He established the Church (or
congregation of Israel) in the wilderness. But Israel, under
the covenant made at Sinai, had no promise of receiving the Holy Spirit, and
therefore could not understand the spiritual meaning of these annual
observances. Regardless of carnal Israel's lack of
understanding, God's annual Holy Days were ordained to be kept FOREVER!
Christ kept them. The New Testament Church, founded by Jesus in A.D. 31, kept
them. And God's Church keeps them today! Just as the weekly Sabbath is a
"sign" between God and His people, so are the annual Holy Days (Ex.
31:13). They are the "feasts of the LORD"-- "my feasts,"
said God (Lev. 23:2, 4). These feasts are, as the God of the Old Testament
said in Leviticus 23:37-38, to be kept as holy convocations "beside the
[weekly] sabbaths of the LORD''! And as we learned in Lesson 17, God's
festivals, which are a part of God's Law, were not done away with when the
Sinaitic Covenant ceased to be in force at Christ's death. The whole story of
God's marvelous plan is to be reenacted year after year by God's
Spirit-begotten children--spiritual Israel
today--through the keeping of God's Holy Days. The observance of these days
reminds them of His great Master Plan and their part in it.’ (Why Christians Should Keep GOD'S HOLY DAYS,
The Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course, Lesson 23, 1985). As you
can see, according to the followers of Herbert Armstrong, every Christian
must keep not only the Sabbath day but also the Jewish feasts.
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Confutation
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We
as Christians are not bound to keep the Sabbath day, for the weekly Jewish
day of rest – that is, the Sabbath day - is a shadow of the rest of God which
God has made known in the fullness of the time by His Son.
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That
the Sabbath day is a shadow and thus we are not obliged to keep it is evident
from the following words Paul wrote to the Colossians: “Therefore do not let
anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious
festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the
things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ”
(Colossians 2:16-17
- NIV). I want you to notice that these words are preceded by these other
words of Paul: “He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code,
with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us, he
took it away, nailing it to the cross ….“ (Colossians 2:13-14 – NIV). So the
adverb ‘therefore’ which is in verse 16 indicates that since Christ on the
cross has taken away the law of commandments contained in ordinances, which
was contrary to us, which has the shadows (New Moons, feasts, sabbaths,
regulations concerning foods) and not the realities themselves, now we must
not keep the new moon celebrations or the sabbaths or precepts concerning
foods, for we died with Christ to the basic elements of the world so that we
might walk in newness of life and not in the oldness of the letter. However,
if we keep these shadows we will be regarded as people who want to build
again those things which Christ has destroyed by His death, and who want to
attain perfection by the precepts of the law, which can’t justify those who
keep them, “for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified”
(Galatians 2:16 – NKJV). And that is something which we must avoid.
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As
I said before, the Sabbath day is a shadow of the rest of God for the people
of God. So let me say something else about this. The law of Moses has “a
shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things”
(Hebrews 10:1 – NKJV), therefore the Sabbath day – on which the Israelites
had to rest - was not the true rest of God for His people but only a shadow
of it. The Scripture confirms this when it says: “There remains, then, a
Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also
rests from his own work, just as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:9-10 – NIV).
When do all those who belong to the people of God enter that rest? When they
die in the Lord; that is attested by John in the book of Revelation when he
says: “Then I heard a voice from heaven say, ‘Write: Blessed are the dead who
die in the Lord from now on.’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from
their labor, for their deeds will follow them” (Revelation 14:13 – NIV).
In the light of what John wrote, therefore, we can say that when believers
die they will rest consciously from their labor. I say ‘consciously’ for when
a believer dies he does not enter a state of unconsciousness or a state of
non-existence, for he goes to be with the Lord in heaven where he is able to
see, to hear, to talk and to remember.
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So
anyone who abstains from every work on the seventh day of the week rests only
for a short period of time for when the Sabbath is over he must begin to work
again and he needs to rest again the following Sabbath; while anyone who
enters God’s rest (that is, the true rest) rests from his work and labour of
love (which he has shown toward the name of God) forever.
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The
Scripture says: “For we who have believed do enter that rest … Let us
therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest
anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:3, 11 -
NKJV). As you can see, the Scripture makes it clear the following things:
first of all only those who have believed enter God’s rest, secondly we who
are on the earth have not yet entered that rest and we must be diligent to
enter it lest anyone fall according to the example of disobedience of the
Israelites, who “did not enter because of disobedience” (Hebrews 4:6 – NKJV –
As God said: “They shall not enter My rest” Hebrews 4:3). So, beloved, “since
a promise remains of entering His rest” (Hebrews 4:1 – NKJV), that is, the
Sabbath-rest, let us continue to believe in the Word of God planted in us
till the end so that we might enter the blessed rest of God.
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