EXAMINING SABBATARIANISM Part 2

 

This morning we began looking at the denomination called the 7th day Adventist. We looked at the origin and how that the emphasis that every Christian today is suppose to keep the Sabbath holy. I showed from scripture how the Sabbath was for the Jew only and that is not command for us today to worship God on Saturday. Since this denomination holds this view of the Sabbath so highly we are going to press on tonight as we will examine more about the Sabbath day.

 

This morning I mentioned to you that this denomination teaches that the 10 commandments was the law of God or sometimes they call it his moral law and then they say that the other 600 + laws that Moses spoke after the 10 commandments are Moses law also called ceremonial laws and they teach that yes Moses law or the ceremonial laws were done away with at the cross but the 10 commandments were not. Is it true? Does the Bible teach that these are 2 separate laws and that only the ceremonial laws were done away with? Well, before we prove it from scripture I want to this question as no. The Bible does not differentiate between the 10 commandments and the other 600 + laws. Instead they are treated as one. Now let prove this from scripture.

 

First we will look at Heb. 8: 7-13 which contain a quote from Jeremiah 31:31-32.

 

Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.  8 Because finding fault with them, He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah --  9 "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the LORD.  10 "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  11 "None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.  12 "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."  13 In that He says, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

 

This section of scripture shows us that there was going to be change in covenants. The first covenant which was made with the children of Israel that came of Egypt is obviously the Mosaic covenant and that that covenant was made obsolete by the new covenant that Jesus brought forth by his death. But the question is was the 10 commandments included in the first covenant. The answer is found in,

 

1 Kings 8:9 Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt.  

 

The Sabbatarian’s will even agree that the tablets of stone mentioned here are referring to the 10 commandments but notice this verse makes it clear the 10 commandments were part of the covenant that God made with the children of Israel when they came out of the land of Egypt and since this covenant was done away with by Christ then so was the 10 commandments.

 

Hebrews 9:1 Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary.  2 For a tabernacle was prepared: the first part, in which was the lampstand, the table, and the showbread, which is called the sanctuary;  3 and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All,  4 which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;  

 

Please note that the writer is continuing on to show how things under the Old covenant were only temporary and shadow of the things to come. All these things mentioned in these verses would no longer be used and the Sabbatarian’s certainly do not set up a tabernacle as described here. But notice that in these things that are not in the new covenant included tablets of the covenant which is referring to the 10 commandments. So, the 10 commandants are part of the covenant and they were done away with at the cross.

 

In Rom 7 Paul talks about how a wife is freed from the law of her husband when he dies and the he goes on to say this,

 

Romans 7:4 Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another -- to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.  5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death.  6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.  7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, "You shall not covet."   

 

Paul, is letting us know that under the new covenant we have been delivered from law and it is no longer binding on us just like a women is no longer bound to her husband when he dies. Yet note very careful what Law Paul is referring to in verse 7. The law that we have been delivered from included the command you shall not covet which is part of the 10 commandments. As you can see these passages show clearly that there is not distinction between the 10 commandments and the 600 + ordinances that were given and they also show that the 10 commandments were done away with when the law changed from Moses Law to Christ Law.

 

Another important point to make is that 600 + laws are not really Moses law they are God’s law and this can be easily shown is several ways.

 

Luke 2:22 Now when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord  23 (as it is written in the law of the Lord, "Every male who opens the womb shall be called holy to the LORD"),  24 and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, "A pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons."

 

Notice Luke calls this the law of the Lord and yet we find this in Lev. 12:2-8 which part of that 600+ laws that Moses spoke. Also note,

 

Nehemiah 8:1 Now all the people gathered together as one man in the open square that was in front of the Water Gate; and they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded Israel.

 

Nehemiah 8:8  So they read distinctly from the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading.

 

So the book of Law the Moses wrote was simply what God had commanded and verse 8 also calls this the Law of God. You see this was not really the Law of Moses it was the law of God. We can see this again in,

 

Nehemiah 10:29 these joined with their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse and an oath to walk in God's Law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and His ordinances and His statutes:

 

Now lets move on N.T. passages.

 

Ephesians 2:12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.  14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation,  15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace,  16 and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

 

This is another passages that shows that something was taken away at the cross which of course is referring to the old covenant which contain the law of commandments. This word ordinance simple means doctrine or teaching and it think it would silly to try and say that the 10 commandments are not commandments of law or that are not a doctrine or teaching and so it should be easy for the honest person to see that the 10 commandments are included in this enmity that was taken away. When you consider that the covenant which included the Sabbath was only for the Jew you can see that this covenant had to be done away with to break the separation between the Jew and the Gentile which once again shows the 10 commandments were done away with at the cross. One last passage I want to look at on this topic is,

 

Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,  14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

 

This is another passage the Sabbatarian’s will agree that Jesus did nail Moses law to the cross but that it was only ceremonial laws that were done away with and the 10 commandments are alive and well. Now, I have already shown from scripture that this is no division between these things and when Jesus died on the cross he nailed both the 10 commandments and the other 600 + Laws to cross making them no longer binding on the Christians. This is further shown as continue on in this chapter,

 

Colossians 2:16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,  17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.  

 

The immediate question becomes, How can Paul say that you can not be judged for these different things that were under the Old law including the Sabbath if the Sabbath was still binding on the Christian today? You cannot and that is my final point which shows that Christians are not under the Sabbath today and we are not required to worship on Saturday.

 

Now one of the questions the Sabbatarian’s raise is where do you get your authority to worship God on Sunday. Even though there is nothing in the N.T. to show Christians worshipping on the Sabbath they will claim that early Christians worshiped on Saturday until the Catholic church changed the worship of God to Sunday. So, how do we answer such a question? Well, we can answer from the Bible and from external sources as well.

 

First we need to consider that when we given the new covenant we were given a new name which is Christian according to Acts 11:26. We given a new religion that embraces both Jew and Gentile according to Gal. 1:13-23 and Gal. 3:27ff. We given a new law Rom. 8:2 a new Mediator 1 Tim. 2:5 and a new priest Heb. 7:28. So it should be surprising that we were also given a new day on which to worship God. This day is referred to as the Lord’s day in Rev. 1:10.

 

How do we determine that the Lord’s day is the first day of the week? Well, we can do this by showing the significance of the first day of the week.

 

Jesus was raised on the first day of the week.

 

Mark 16:1 Now when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint Him.  2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. See also Matt. 28:1; Luke 24:1

 

Of course we know that Jesus wasn’t there because he had raised from the dead. After Jesus was raised from the dead he appeared to his disciples on the first day of the week on 2 different occasion in John 20:19 and verse 26. We also learn that the church was born on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 which always falls on the 1st day of the week.

 

Acts 20:6 But we sailed away from Philippi after the Days of Unleavened Bread, and in five days joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.  7 Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.

 

Here we can see that Paul and his companions waited all week just so they could together on the first day of the week to partake of the Lord’s Supper. Had any other day been ok they could came together to worship and partake of the Lord’s Supper on Mon, Tue, or even Saturday but they did not because the 1st day of the week is when the early Christian came together to worship God and to partake of the Lords Supper.

 

1 Corinthians 16:1 Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.  2 On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

 

Here we see that Paul is teaching the church the each person is to give of their means so that it can be stored up on the first day of ever week. This was a command for all churches because everywhere Paul went he taught the same thing and that is exactly what we do when we come together to worship God on Sunday we give of our means. So this is the example that we are given. The N.T. Christians worshiped on the first day of the week because Christ was raised on that day, the church began on that day, we are partake of the Lords Supper on that day and we are give of our means on that day. No matter how hard you look will not find a passage that says that the Christians took the Lord’s Supper on the Sabbath or gave of their means on the Sabbath. So without a doubt Sunday is the day Christians are do these things on.

 

We can also see this from all the early writers. I wish I had the time to list them all but I will just give several examples that show from these early writing that Christians did not keep the Sabbath but they did worship God on Sunday. When read these accounts please keep in mind that the phrase the Lord’s day to the best of my knowledge has never been used in reverence to the Sabbath but has always been used to refer to Sunday.

  • The Didache (c. A.D. 120) declares that “every Lord’s day” the Christians gather themselves together and “break bread” (ANF.VII.381).
  • The Epistle of Barnabas (c. A.D. 120), in discussing such things as incense, new moons, and sabbaths, says that the Lord “abolished these things” in deference to “the new law of our Lord Jesus Christ” (ANF.I.138). Later, it is affirmed: “Wherefore, also, we keep the eighth day with joyfulness, the day also on which Jesus rose again from the dead” (I.147).
  • Justin Martyr (A.D. 140) declared that “on the day called Sunday” the primitive Christians met for worship. He further stated that this was the day on which Christ was raised from the dead (I.186).
  • Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 194) spoke of the one who “keeps the Lord’s day” as “glorifying the Lord’s resurrection in himself” (ANF.II.545).
  • Tertullian (A.D. 200) argued that the “old law” had been consummated; thus the “observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary” (ANF.III.155). Elsewhere he says that “Sabbaths are strange” to Christians, and that they share together “the Lord’s day” (70).
  • Eusebius (A.D. 324), known as the “father of church history,” stated that sabbath-observance does not “belong to Christians.” On the other hand, he asserted that Christians “celebrate the Lord’s days . . . in commemoration of his resurrection” (26,113).
  • Noted historian Philip Schaff concludes: “The universal and uncontradicted Sunday observance in the second century can only be explained by the fact that it had its roots in the apostolic practice” (478-479).

So there you have both the internal an external evidence of why we worship on Sunday and it also shows that the Catholic church did not change the day of worship to Sunday because the 1st century Christians were already worshiping on that day.

As you can see the majority of lesson this morning and evening has focused on the topic of the Sabbath and there is even more that could be said but the scriptures I have given you should be enough to show you that the Sabbatarian’s view on the Sabbath day does agree with what the Bible says. In remainder of this lesson I want to point out some more of their teachings that they have in common with other denomination. Obviously I don’t have time left to give a through lesson on each of these things so I will just mention most of their beliefs and then show a scripture or 2 of what the Bible says about it.

They put restriction on what you can eat and they teach that you cannot eat pork which is dietary law from Lev. 11:7 which by their own teaching was nailed to the cross.

Matthew 15:11 "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man."

 

As we looked at this morning in 1 Tim 4:1-5 we are told how some will try to put restriction on marriage and what you can eat but that is not the way of God because every creature is good if it is received with thanksgiving. In Col 2:16 we are told not to judge someone because of meat. In Acts 10 Peter was given a vision of all kinds of forbidden meat and was told eat but he would not then Peter is told,

 

Acts 10:15 And a voice spoke to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you must not call common."

 

Rom. 14 also makes it clear that all foods can be eaten so it wrong to restrict people from eating pork or anything else.

 

They teach man is wholly mortal with no entity capable of surviving death.

 

The Bible teaches:

Man is made up of body, soul, and spirit

 

Matthew 10:28  "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:23  Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

The scriptures also tell us that our spirit comes from God and at death it return to God (Eccl.12:7; Zech. 12:1; Heb. 12:9).

The account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16 refutes their doctrine of "soul sleeping." Because the rich man was fully aware of his surrounding and was experience discomfort while the Lazarus was enjoying the comfort of Abraham bosom.

 

They deny that Hell exist they simply think that the devil and those that are sinners will simply cease to exist.

 

The Bible says:

Mark 9:43 "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched --  44 "where 'Their worm does not die, And the fire is not quenched.'

 

In Mat 25 Jesus is talking about the judgment day and how the sinners will be separated from the saints and he say this in the very last verse.

 

Matthew 25:46 "And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." 

 

This means that hell will last just as long as heaven does which is forever.          

 

Revelation 14:11 "And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name."

 

So hell does exist and will continue to exist throughout eternity.

 

They teach the foot washing is an ordained practice that is to be done in the church. But out of the 2 times foot washing is mentioned in the N.T. is always done on an individual basis and is never used or commanded in the worship service.

 

They teach that you are suppose to Tithe which once again they get from the very law they said was done away with at the cross. The N.T. doest teach us to tithe instead it tells us this.

 

1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, 

 

2 Corinthians 9:7  So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.

 

As you can see it is up to us how much we give and is not regulated by tithing as it was in the OT.

 

They use musical instruments even though there is no authorization for them under the new covenant. Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16 authorize us to sing only and history tells us that the instruments were first introduced in the 6 century but did not become popular until the 1800’s. So, they should not be used in our worship.

 

They do believe the one must be baptized to join the church but that baptism is just a confession that you have been saved. Yet the Bible tells us in many places that baptism is the point of salvation when your sins are removed in Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16 and 1 Peter 3:21.

 

They usually have one elder per congregation and a board of deacons and all their individual congregations are regulated by what their church manual says which is constantly being updated. There headquarter are located in Silver Springs, Maryland.  The Bible teaches us that all congregation are autonomous and that the head of the church is Christ  Eph. 5:23. Every time you see a congregation mentioned within scriptures there is always plurality of elders and never just one. Our church manual should be the Bible and not a collection of believes and bylaws created by man.

 

Finally they have been teaching for 150 years that Jesus is about to come and they hold a similar view to those who teach the rapture theory. Yet Jesus said,

 

Mark 13:32 " But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

 

If Jesus himself doesn’t know when he is coming back what makes us think that we can know? Instead over and over again we are simply told to be ready to meet our Lord when he comes back.

 

Well that brings us to the end of our lesson. As you can tell I only had enough time left to squeeze in some of their other beliefs but hopefully this lesson has helped you to understand this denomination better so that you can know how to study with them. I also hope that if you know some people who attend this denomination that you will get a copy of this sermon and give it to them and hopefully they will open their Bible’s and take an honest look at what I have presented in this lesson are realize that their denomination in built upon false prophets and that many of their teachings goes against what the Bible clearly teaches.