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