What About the Seventh Day Sabbath?

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The following is a pre-recorded program. So, what about the seventh-day Sabbath? How does it apply today?

Here again is Dr. Michael Brown. Over the years, we get asked repeatedly the same questions. And understandably, there are many different people that intersect with us and maybe for the first time are curious about something. So, they can't know that we've answered the question over and over again.

But what we do is we have more and more resources over the years. We can say, well, go here, we've answered that on this video or in this article, or if you want a whole book on it, here's a book that we've written on it. But over the years, there are a few questions that come up over and over and over again. One has to do with the Sabbath. And then other related issues, we won't hear quite as much, but questions about tithing, questions about dietary laws.

So, these would be things that are commands in the Old Testament, commands under the Sinai Covenant. And Christians wanted to know, how do they apply to us today? Another common one that comes up is the question of divorce and then divorce and remarriage.

Is it ever appropriate for a Christian under what circumstances? These are just some of the most common questions that have come up over the years. So, we've taught on this.

I've had folks calling the radio show. We've had further discussions. Certain things have been part of debates that we've done. But I felt it would be good to revisit this question and to lay out the issues and to give the argument for Seventh-day Sabbath observance for all believers, where people get this idea from, and then why I don't believe that Seventh-day Sabbath observance is mandatory for all Christians.

We'll explain that. But I'll also explain why I do not believe that scripturally God changed the Sabbath to Sunday. If I was going to make an argument for Sabbath-keeping, if I was going to make an argument for mandatory Sabbath-keeping, in other words, just like God says don't murder, that he says keep the Sabbath in the Ten Commandments, right? If I was going to make an argument for that in an ongoing way for all believers, and it was one day of the week, then I would say it's the Seventh-day Sabbath.

So, if I was going to make that argument, I would not argue for Sunday. But we're going to look at this together. We're going to examine the scriptural evidence.

Let's go back to the beginning. Genesis, chapter 2. Second chapter of Genesis says that the heaven and the earth were finished and all their array, and on the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing. Vayikal Elohim vayom hashviyi malachto asher asa. On the seventh day he finished the work that he had been doing. Vayishbot, right from the root Shabbat, Shabbat. So, here we get Shabbat from here, Sabbath.

Vayishbot vayom hashviyi malachto asher asa. And he ceased. So, Sabbath having to do with cessation of work. He ceased on the seventh day from all the work he had done. And then it says this, Vayivareich Elohim et yom hashviyi vayikadesh oto. So, God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because on it God ceased from all the work of creation that he had done.

Kivosh shavat mikol malachto asher bara Elohim la'asot. All right, so, an argument can be made from this, that at creation the seventh day was set apart as holy, and that God blessed it so that there is something special about the seventh day, that it commemorates God ceasing from his labors, resting from his labors. After finishing the six days of work of creation, he then himself ceased from work on the seventh day, blessed that day, set it apart as holy, and therefore it remains set apart, blessed, and holy.

That would be an argument. I'm making the argument now for seventh day Sabbath keeping. Now, even though God does not command it there, God does not tell Adam, you are to rest on the Sabbath, that doesn't come up. He's told to work the garden and he's never told about the Sabbath.

You could say that God did set it apart then. Okay, we next go to Exodus chapter 16. Exodus chapter 16, and here we have the account of the children of Israel. The children of Israel, they have come out of Egypt. They're now in the wilderness. This is the beginning of what's going to be 40 years of the wilderness, because they don't know that. But they come into the wilderness and they set out from Eilim. The whole Israelite community comes to the wilderness of Sin, and it goes on. They grumble against Moses and Aaron, because what are we going to eat, and so on. If only we had died by the hands of the Lord, you know, we were taken care of in Egypt.

So, how quickly did they forget that they were slaves there? All right, and God's going to give a solution. The Lord says to Moses, I'll rain down, break for you from the sky. The people go out and gather each day's portion. But on the sixth day, when they apportion what they brought in, it shall prove to be double the amount they gather each day. All right, so this is the manna, which is then poured out for them. So each day, they just have enough. They have to get it early in the morning. They just have enough, and this is God's way of providing for them in a faith way. So if we go down a little further in the chapter, we see that when they get to the seventh day, we'll scroll down a little further, when they get to the sixth day, they end up with twice what they had initially.

And what's this? Well, tomorrow is the Sabbath. They don't know anything about it. This is news to them. They've not heard of the Sabbath.

This has not been part of their law and custom. What's this? This is the Sabbath. You rest on this day. So on the sixth day, they gathered double the amount of food, two omelets for each. They came to tell Moses.

Moses says this is what the Lord meant. Tomorrow is a day of rest, a holy Sabbath of the Lord. So bake what you want, put it aside, and it'll be kept until morning.

They put it aside, and it didn't turn foul. There were no maggots in it, because each other day, if they kept it for the next day, it turned bad. God gave them enough for each day. Then it says, six days you shall gather it. On the seventh day, the Sabbath, HaShabbat, there will be none. Yet some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found nothing, and they get rebuked by the Lord. Okay, so before the Ten Commandments were given on Mount Sinai, God gave the seventh day Sabbath to Israel. Again, it does not indicate in the text that they were familiar with this. Quite the contrary, they were not. And obviously in Egypt, they didn't get a seventh day Sabbath rest.

So this was news. This was something new, which would indicate this was not the custom of the people of Israel, let alone the human race, to commemorate the seventh day which God had set apart at creation. Now we go to Exodus chapter 20. Exodus chapter 20, and God gives the Ten Commandments to Israel, which are then repeated in Deuteronomy, the fifth chapter. And we know that one of the Ten Commandments that God gives is to observe the seventh day Sabbath. So as we look down, God speaks these words, I'm the Lord your God, beret your out of Egypt, have no other gods before me, don't make a sculptured image, so the prohibition of idolatry, worshiping and serving other gods. And then we get to verse 7, don't swear falsely by the name of the Lord, verse 8, zachar yomashabbat l'kadsho. Remember the seventh day to keep it holy. Deuteronomy 5, it says to Shamor, to observe it, here's zachar, remember it. Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.

You shall not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male or female slave, or your cattle, or the stranger who is within your settlements. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them. And he rested on the seventh day, therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.

Alkein berach adonai yomashabbat vayikat shehu. In Deuteronomy 5, it doesn't point back to creation, but to the children of Israel being liberated from Egypt based on which they remember the Sabbath. They were slaves, but now they've been set free and they take the state of rest and to make it holy to the Lord. And then elsewhere you have reminders about keeping the Sabbath through the five books of Moses. You even have during the instructions of the building of the tabernacle that they were to keep the Sabbath. So the rabbis, later rabbis, deduced from that, well let's look at everything that was involved in building the tabernacle. And all of those things were prohibited to do on the Sabbath and they came out with 39 subdivisions of labor.

Again, this is the rabbis later reading this back in, traditional rabbis. 39 subdivisions of labor, hence the many, many, many laws in traditional Judaism about the Sabbath. But this is now given in the Ten Commandments. So set apart at creation, given to the children of Israel before Mount Sinai, now at Mount Sinai, one of the Ten Commandments. Now many Christians would say, well the Ten Commandments are always binding.

That's commonly thought, commonly believed, Ten Commandments are always binding. But then they would say, well then the Sabbath is Sunday. Nowhere though does the Bible switch the Sabbath to Sunday, and we'll look at that in a little while.

We won't look at some of these other passages, but for example Ezekiel the 20th chapter, God says that the Sabbath was a sign between him and Israel. So this was not commanded for all the nations. All the nations were commanded, for example, don't murder.

That was a universal moral command that God established after the flood in Genesis the ninth chapter. But nowhere in the Hebrew Bible is there a universal command for all nations to observe the Sabbath. Rather, this was viewed as something covenantal between God and the Jewish people. Now as history has unfolded, Muslims are known for a Friday Sabbath, Jews for the Saturday, the seventh day Sabbath, and Christians for an eighth day Sabbath, or a first day of the week Sabbath.

So one on Friday, one on Saturday, one on Sunday. But there's nowhere in the Hebrew Bible where God said, this is my command. Now in this age, we're not talking about the future millennial kingdom, in this age that all nations keep the seventh day Sabbath. Rather, this was covenantal between God and Israel.

Now we come back after the break. I want to look at some other prophetic passages that speak about an invitation to foreigners or the nations to keep the Sabbath, and then to look ahead to the millennial kingdom where there seems to be Sabbath observance. So the argument would be, this was given to Israel in the past, foreigners were invited to observe it, in the future it will be for the whole world, therefore it should apply for the here and now for all followers of Jesus who want to please God and keep his commandments steady.

That would be the logic. So you see that those who talk about seventh day Sabbath, they're not just making something up out of thin air. Those who believe it's important. We're not just reading something into the text that's out there to say, Hey, look, this is part of the 10 commandments that was established in creation. This is what we should be keeping. So I understand the strength of the argument and where it is coming from.

And again, the argument for seventh day Sabbath is a lot stronger than the argument for Sunday Sabbath. We'll be right back. It's the line of fire with your host, Dr. Michael Brown. Get into the line of fire now by calling 866-34-TRUTH. Here again is Dr. Michael Brown.

All right, this is a special teaching video today. We're not taking calls. We're not commenting on breaking news. We're just looking in depth at the scripture and trying to take our time and go through this systematically and answer the question. What about the seventh day Sabbath today? How does God feel about his people and the Sabbath? What does he require? What does he desire? What is pleasing to him?

That should be our only question. Not what does my church teach? Not what do I like? Not what does my congregation teach? Question is what does God's word say? What pleases the Lord?

We are here to please him and not to our own thing. So we've seen thus far that God set apart the seventh day at creation and blessed it. Set it apart as holy and blessed it. We saw that before Mount Sinai, God gave the Sabbath to the children of Israel, but it seemed to be something new to them and unfamiliar. And there's nothing written in the patriarchal narratives in the book of Genesis that talks about them serving the Sabbath.

Offer sacrifices, their tithes that they give, in an honorary way or honorific way. But there's no reference to Sabbath-keeping. It's introduced in Exodus 16. It's reiterated in the Ten Commandments.

It's something very important and set apart at creation. Therefore, as God worked six days and rested on the seventh, so that's what the Israelites do, even their slaves do that. So it was for everyone that was part of the nation of Israel, even foreign slaves that were part of the nation of Israel, they would rest on that day.

And it was to be set apart as holy. And then we have many prophetic passages where God rebukes Israel for defiling a Sabbath. Even going into exile because of failing to keep the Sabbath, the weekly Sabbath. And then there are other Sabbaths, land Sabbaths and things like that, where the land was to rest every seven years.

God took this very, very seriously. Defiling a Sabbath was a reason for exile, a reason for judgment. What about foreign nations?

I said that this was not required universally of foreign nations. What about Isaiah chapter 56? Isaiah chapter 56, let's take a look. It says, Thus said the Lord, Observe what is right and do what is just.

Pursue my salvation shall come and my deliverance be revealed. Who's he talking to? His people, Israel. Then he says, Happy is the man who does this, the man who holds fast to it, who keeps the Sabbath and does not profanely profane it and stays his hand from doing any evil.

So again, you assume he's talking about his own people observing the Sabbath. But then let not the foreigner say, who has attached himself to the Lord, the Lord will keep me apart from his people. And let not the eunuch say, I am a withered tree. For thus said the Lord, As for the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who have chosen what I desire and hold fast to my covenant, I will give them in my house and within my walls a monument in name.

Better than sons and daughters, I will give them an everlasting name which shall not perish. As for the foreigners who attach themselves to the Lord, to minister to him and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, all who keep this Sabbath and do not profane it and who hold fast to my covenant, I will bring them to my sacred mountain and let them rejoice in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices shall be welcome on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. Thus declares the Lord who gathers the dispersed of Israel. I will gather still more to those already gathered.

Okay, so we'll stop there. That is saying that if you are a foreigner or eunuch incapable of having children and you feel cut off and you don't have a legacy, well, if you attach yourself to the people of Israel and if you attach yourself to his covenant, the Sinai Covenant, and observe the Sabbath, then you will be included in the blessing on Israel. So this is opening the door for foreigners to join themselves to Israel like Ruth did and others did through Jewish history. They were attracted to the God of Israel, they were attracted to the laws of the God of Israel, they took refuge under his wings and they became part of the nation and the Sabbath-keeping part was a major part of it because this was the thing that set them apart so specifically. Even the idea of a seven-day week, where did that come from? Monthly cycle, you get that with the cycle of the moon, right?

And then the rotation of the earth around the sun, you get the idea of a solar year and the lunar year. But where do you get the idea of a seven-day week? Where did that come from?

It doesn't divide exactly in the months. Where does it come from? It comes from God. God gave the seven-day week and the seven-day Sabbath to Israel. So if you join together with Israel and you keep the Sabbath, then you are part of that national heritage and blessing. So this is all Old Testament and this is an invitation to other nations to join themselves to the God of Israel and the people of Israel. Does this apply today?

That's the question. In other words, is this the way someone attaches himself to the God of Israel today through Jesus with Sabbath observance on the seventh day? Or was that something under the Sinai covenant?

Certainly it was under the Sinai covenant. We'll see what the New Testament itself says about the seventh-day Sabbath. So then we go to Isaiah 66. Isaiah chapter 66 beginning in verse 22. For as the new heaven and new earth which I shall make shall endure by my will declares the Lord so shall your seed and your name endure. Speaking to the people of Israel and now speaking not so much of the new heavens and new earth in the eternal age but the millennial kingdom. And new moon after new moon and Sabbath after Sabbath all flesh shall come to worship me says the Lord.

So the whole world will come to worship the Lord every new moon, every Sabbath. They shall go out and gaze on the corpses of the men who rebelled against me. Their worms shall not die nor their fire be quenched. In other words, the corpses will keep burning and being devoured.

They should be a horror to all flesh. And then the Jewish tradition in the synagogue is to repeat the verse before it because it's such an intense ending to the book. A new moon after new moon and Sabbath after Sabbath all flesh shall come to worship me said the Lord. Now this is speaking of the future kingdom when if we take this literally the whole world will worship God Sabbath after Sabbath. The only problem for those who argue based on this that all Christians should observe the Sabbath today, the only problem is that it also speaks of new moon after new moon. If you're going to use this passage about the millennial kingdom and say that since in the millennial kingdom the whole world will come to worship the God of Israel on the seventh day Sabbath, then you're going to have to argue that you keep the new moons as well. If the whole world is going to do it then therefore we should do it today then the same with new moons. Those should be observed today just the same way. For a seventh-day Adventist and others who argue for a seventh-day Sabbath do you also argue for new moon? Well you say new moon isn't emphasized as much. Well be consistent.

Here it is. Also we won't go there but Zechariah the 14th chapter speaks of the millennial kingdom. The Messiah returns, destroys the wicked nations trying to attack and destroy Jerusalem and his people. Then the survivors of those nations come to worship God in Jerusalem and one of the things and one of the things they do is they worship on the Feast of Tabernacles. So if you're going to argue for millennial practice and say that we take that literally and literally in the millennial kingdom there will be worship the nations coming to worship God every Sabbath but they also come every new moon and they also come on the Feast of Tabernacles and presumably the other major feasts as well. So if you're going to argue that then you might as well argue for a messianic Jewish expression for the whole body. That all gentile Christians should follow the seventh-day Sabbath and new moon celebration and all the feasts. And then you could even argue that we should do our best to go to Jerusalem if the temple was saying we should go to Jerusalem. You see where this leads.

You see where this leads and then I could start pushing well what about this law what about that law who changed that. So this is one of my strongest arguments based on scripture against the seventh-day Adventist position or those who say that there's a mandatory seventh-day Sabbath observance for all Christians. The big problem is that passages you use open up the door for saying well what about other laws what about other commands. The answer would be well in the New Testament we're called to keep the commandments of the Lord and that means the 10 commandments. But if you read through John's gospel, read through every time that the word entolae in Greek occurs which means commandment would be the equivalent of the Hebrew mitzvah, go through it and look and you'll see that it never refers to the 10 commandments in John's gospel but rather to the commands of Jesus when he says love one another and follow my example and things like that. And if you're going to say we have to keep the commandments, well if you say that to a Jew that means 613 commandments. So we're keeping all those you can't just single out the 10 commandments when it says those who keep the commandments of the Lord. What about if you're reading through first John the commandment is is to love the way you've been loved right and you know that's the emphasis there. So the problem becomes to isolate the Sabbath as important as it is in God's sight for Old Testament Israel as much as he judged them for failure to keep it as much as you can make an argument for future observance in the millennial kingdom you also have to argue for future observance of new moons and of feasts and holy days and if you can argue that then everything changes and then the question is okay what has changed from Sinai covenant to new covenant how much is the same how much has changed where do we find that out well we find that out in the writings of the new testament we find that out in the teachings of Jesus we find that out in in the letters of Paul we find that out from the examples and teaching in the book of acts so as much as you can emphasize the importance of the Sabbath in the Hebrew Bible and there are other verses I could use I get to the end of Isaiah 58 other passages we could look at the conclusion is the same you cannot simply isolate the Sabbath and say this is now binding for all people even though it was part of the 10 commandments when you get to the new testament you do not have the same emphasis of all 10 commandments and you do have fulfillment through Yeshua you have fulfillment through Jesus things that he brings to the fullness from the law and the prophets so we come back we're going to ask the question well does the new testament change the Sabbath to Sunday and then see what the new testament does say so again there is freedom here as you'll see there is diversity of expression we should not get legalistic and attack one another over this we should act with humility before God and one another but ask God Lord what pleases you that's the question it's the line of fire with your host Dr. Michael Brown your voice of moral cultural and spiritual revolution here again is Dr. Michael Brown why do Christians almost universally around the world worship on Sunday why not Friday like the Muslims why not Saturday like the Jews why do Christians worship on Sunday why is Sunday considered the Sabbath many Christians why if you go back in past literature was Sunday called the Sabbath did the new testament change the seventh day sabbath to the eighth day many would say yes absolutely does the bible say that the scriptures teach that well we know that Jesus rises from the dead on the first day of the week it is a time of new beginning it is a time obviously of resurrection life it is the first fruits of what is to come but nowhere is there a hint nowhere is there a mention of this becoming the Sabbath in the new testament not once nowhere does the new testament say that Sunday is the Sabbath you might say oh Dr. Brown you're wrong there first corinthians chapter 16 makes it clear that Sunday was the new Sabbath well let's take a look first corinthians chapter 16 now concerning the collection for the kadoshi and the saints as i directed messiah's communities in galatia you do likewise on the first day of the week let each of you set something aside saving up whatever is gained so no collections take place when i come then whenever i arrive i'll send whomever you approve with letters of instruction to carry your gift to Jerusalem if it's advisable for me to go also they'll go with me oh let's just leave that there that's it that's it that's every that's everything that that passage says it doesn't say they gathered on the first day of the week doesn't say this was the Sabbath rather first day of the week so it's first fruits right first day of the week set money aside this was going to be for the collection this way when i come you don't have to take a special collection because you've all been putting money aside to help the believers in in Jerusalem that the poor saints in Jerusalem that's it doesn't doesn't say they gathered then let alone saying it's the Sabbath zero this is a text that's used to prove that Sunday became the Sabbath first day of the week absolutely not nothing there okay people say oh no no no no there's much more there's much more there's much more revelation the first chapter indicates that Sunday was called the Lord's day let's take a look at revelation chapter one and we'll scroll down to verse eight says there on the alpha and the omega says other than i alohim who is and who was and who is to calm the almighty i john your brother and fellow partaker with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patient endurance that are in yeshua was on the island called patmos because of the word of god and the testament of yeshua i was in the ruach i was in the spirit on the day of the Lord or on the Lord's day that's it i was in the spirit on the Lord's day well you see the Lord's day that's Sunday that's what they called it so we know that that was Sunday that's what you call circular reasoning my friend that all it says is the Lord's day that could have meant seventh day Sabbath their arguments scholars argue for that others say no the Lord's they just meant a day of the Lord this was a day when he visited so it was a day of the Lord it was a time of divine visitation that's what it means and others say but if you get later in church history it was it became Sunday you know the the Lord's day the day of his resurrection yeah later became used as that but who says it was used like that now it's it's an argument from silence you know when i was a new believer the local rabbi and i spent a lot of time together and he told me a joke a jewish joke one day because in jewish tradition it's mandatory for man to cover his head during waking hours he covers as soon as he gets up covers his head he takes a shower he takes his yarmulke off head covering otherwise covers his head and it's just it's like an all the time thing and the idea of yarmulke falling off you immediately you know you put your hand over your head to cover it and then put it back on it's an important thing but traditional rabbis will acknowledge that this was not a command from scripture it was not even a command in talmudic times rather it is a tradition that developed over a period of time and and now is what it is it has been for centuries so the question is how do you then read it back into the bible because we always want to find things in the bible so the the joke is this how do we know that isaac wore yarmulke kippah in modern hebrew how do we know that isaac wore yarmulke it says well he went out to the field to meditate you mean he would meditate without wearing a yarmulke so that's the joke it's just complete circular reasoning so it's circular reasoning to say that the lord's day there is sunday we have no contemporary evidence that was used in that way and again could have meant the seventh day sabbath or it could have just meant a day of divine visitation a day of the lord when he came to visit and gave this momentous revelation the book of revelation so that doesn't prove it no no proof there you say wait wait wait let's go to ax chapter 20 ax chapter 20 and i'm gonna grab this reference with you as we go and the argument is no we see that there were gatherings sabbath gatherings and and here's the proof ax chapter 20 verse 7 on the first day of the week we came together to break bed bread paul was talking with him intending to leave the next day so he prolonged his speech till midnight there are many lamps in the upper chamber you know what happens he keeps speaking one guy falls asleep the window sill falls out looks like he's dead paul puts his arm around and life's within him okay so does that prove they met on sunday well if so it was in the evening and the question is is this a jewish reckoning or a roman reckoning if it's a jewish reckoning then the first day of the week means saturday night saturday night because paul's speaking till midnight right that would make sense if it was roman reckoning then it would be sunday night either way it doesn't point to a sunday morning gathering now we do know okay we're done with acts 20 we do know that probably by the end of the first century there's evidence of christians gathering early sunday morning or later sunday night in other words before work or after work on sunday to celebrate the resurrection of jesus and this is how over a period of time this develops over a period of time the idea develops that this is now a special day for christian worship and then ultimately as christianity comes into ascendancy and laws can be made and and culture change based on that through constantine it's only then in the fourth century that that this the eighth day the first day of the week sunday is declared the new sabbath but it wasn't before that there's not church literature you don't read that the you know justin martyr or some of the earliest church leaders that they referred to sunday as the sabbath that doesn't come in a fixed way in a formal way until the fourth century and again this was a day of work and if they lived in the roman world there may have been like a 10-day work cycle and things like that so they would gather early in the day later in the day to celebrate the resurrection but there's nothing that says that it was the sabbath so where does it leave us well let's go to acts chapter 15 acts chapter 15 and what happens there so many gentiles have been coming to faith that there's now a major gathering in jerusalem paul comes with other apostles peter is there and jacob james lead elder in the community in jerusalem he's there and they discuss well what do we do with these gentile believers so the the question is asked there there are pharisees among them so pharisees who are now followers of jesus and they said you have to obey the law of moses the men have to be circumcised everyone has to obey the law of moses in order to be saved and look at this acts chapter 15 in fact uh it's beautiful to see this let's scroll down a little bit in the chapter uh these are the last recorded words of peter much after much after much debate well just go back up just i got this on my screen in front of me here we go there we go verse seven after much debate peter stood up and said to them brothers you know that in the early days god chose for among you that by my mouth the gentiles should hear the message of the good news and believe and god knows the heart testified to them by giving them the holy spirit just as he also did for us he made no distinction between us and them purifying their hearts through faith why then you put god to the test by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear but instead we believe that we are saved through the grace of the lord jesus in the same way as they are these are the last recorded words of peter in acts we believe that we are saved through the grace of the lord yeshua in the same way as they are so as we scroll down further in the chapter we see that major discussion ensues paul barnabas share the miracles that have been wrought and then uh jacob james gets up he speaks they quote back from amos the ninth chapter about uh the gentiles seeking the god of israel and how god will do these things let's go down to verse 18 jacob james says this therefore i judge not to trouble those from among the gentiles who are turning to god but to write to them to abstain for the contamination of idols and from sexual immorality and from what is strangled and from blood for moses from ancient generations has had in every city those who proclaim him since he's read in all the synagogues every shabbat meaning that many of the gentiles who are turning to the lord have heard a lot of this already so these basics they'll be familiar with some of these key dietary laws and refraining from sexual sin something that specifically means incest there which may have been more permissible in the gentile world they're saying no no taboo taboo and then you say well what about everything else well that's where we have the new testament letters that's where the new testament letters tell us what is required of gentile believers that's where other commands are given that's where family order is laid down relationships between husbands and wives and parents and children that's where roles of men and women are laid out equality in the messiah but distinct roles for men and emphases for men and roles and emphases for women that's where further holiness teaching comes and nowhere are gentile christians ordered command it exhort it to keep the seventh day sabbath nor do you find a hint of that in the early disciples of the apostles in the writings that they preserved they're not speaking of that either in fact it was the jewish followers of the messiah who continued to live as jews as paul and peter did continue to live as jews continue to observe the seventh day sabbath that they more and more as the church became more and more gentile as the congregation the messianic congregation grew and became more and more gentile they were in more and more of a minority because all the new gentiles coming to faith were not keeping the seventh day sabbath because that was not part of what they were taught to do you say yeah but matthew 5 jesus said he didn't come to abolish the law of the prophets but to fulfill correct but the seventh day sabbath was never a command for the whole world and yeshua emphasized in his teaching that the place to find sabbath rest was ultimately in him and that that's where it started that's where we rest from our labors spiritually that's where we come into the fullness of grace that's where our lives become sanctified as holy so the question is what then does the new testament explicitly state about the sabbath when it comes to gentiles you see when you dig in the scripture certain things are clear we believe them based on that and other things have been read in other traditions read in other teachings read in i love the sabbath i think sabbath observance is wonderful my only question is what the scripture says it's the line of fire with your host dr michael brown your voice of moral cultural and spiritual revolution here again is dr michael brown welcome friends to the line of fire broadcast this is a special teaching day we do this from time to time where i don't take any calls where we don't respond to social media questions of any kind and where we don't even comment on breaking news around us i'm getting in depth on the sabbath today it's it's one of the questions we've been asked about most frequently over the years i have other teachings i've done on the sabbath we've had callers call in about the sabbath unfortunately some will get very aggressive this becomes their thing they'll even damn others to hell if they do not observe a seventh day sabbath and then they'll start to dominate our social media feeds they'll post post after post after post after post arguing we don't allow anyone to take over our feeds it's our page to serve you not to be taken over by others so here and there we've actually had to block people because they've made this their thing and and they post day and night post after post after post on youtube on facebook so we don't allow anyone doesn't matter what your argument is what your point is we don't allow others to take over our platform for their use however because the questions keep coming up over the years i thought let's do a brand new teaching get in depth go through the scriptures we've seen through the hebrew bible how important the seventh day sabbath was for israel we also saw that god did not command it for the nations as a whole however foreigners that joined themselves to israel and kept the sabbath would then share in israel's inheritance and blessing but notice this and colossians the second chapter as paul is writing to the believers there and and he says and this is in light of them being freed from their sins and the debt of their sins through the cross therefore do not let anyone pass judgment on you remember they're gentile believers and colossi do not let anyone pass judgment on you in matters of food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or shabbat or sabbath so notice he doesn't just single out sabbath he's talking about dietary laws he's talking about new moons he's talking about feasts and holy days if you're going to argue that this is a an argument in favor of sabbath observance then it's also an argument in favor of festivals new moons and dietary laws no he's saying don't let anyone pressure don't let them pass judgment on you based on whether or not you keep a seventh day sabbath whether or not you keep the dietary laws or the biblical calendar what does he say these are a foreshadowing of things to come but the reality is messiah or the reality is found in messiah these are foreshadowing they were pointing to a greater reality that is to come and that greater reality is found in messiah he takes down the wall that divides jew and gentile so the dietary laws are not binding on the whole body the things that were being pointed to with the festivals the holy days and the sabbath find their fulfillment in him now in rome there was an interesting situation this was a congregation of believers founded by jewish followers of jesus they were the majority they were the the fathers of the congregation you could say gentile believers began to come in but they really kind of had a minority status they were new they were not jewish they didn't have that same connection they were smaller in number and then emperor claudius has a ban all jews must leave rome that included jewish followers of jesus they were jews no one thought of them as members of a different religion called christiana they were jews they were expelled and then they come back roughly a decade later at this point the congregation is all gentile because all the jews are gone right the congregation is all gentile now the jews have come back they are now in the minority status and their customs are the outsider customs and the gentiles they're the dominant majority that's why paul warns in romans 11 against gentile pride don't think when you're looking at the overall picture well god cut off the natural branches that didn't believe and he grafted us in so we are the new israel no no no you gentiles are to provoke israel to jealousy but what does he write in romans 14 this is now coming down to practical everyday life in the in the congregation you live side by side you live in community together what about dietary laws what about customs you have what about holy days how do how do you function now except the one who is weak in faith but not for the purpose of disputes of disputes about opinions one person has faith to eat anything but the weak eats only vegetables now this is not necessarily a jewish dietary law because jews did not just eat vegetables but whatever the reasoning is one thinks they can only eat vegetables and he says this don't let the one who eats disparage the one who does not eat and don't let the one who does not eat judge the one who eats for god has accepted him who are you the judge and other servants before his own master he stands or falls yes he shall stand for the lord is able to make him stand now look at this one person esteems one day over another while another judges every day alike let each be fully convinced in his own mind the one who observes that day does so to the lord the one who eats eats to the lord for he gives thanks to god and the one who abstains abstains to the lord and he gives thanks to god for none of us lives for himself and dies for himself for if we live we live for the lord and if we die we die for the lord so whether we live or die we belong to the lord for this reason messiah died and lived again so that he might be lord of both the dead and the living but you why do you judge your brother or you too why do you look down on your brother if we will all stand before the judgment seat of god so there you have an example which would certainly apply to the sabbath as well some say no that was just other festivals and holies but where does it say he's giving you a principle one person sets one day aside to the lord the other says well no every day is set aside equally to lord don't judge each other and the likely scenario the jewish believers are continuing to set apart the seventh day sabbath and the gentiles are not and he's saying don't judge whether you can have different practices there can be unity with diversity that's that's the practical application to this day is there a command to keep the sunday sabbath no nowhere in the bible is that the case does the bible ever change sunday to the sabbath no is it forbidden for christians to worship god on sunday and set that apart as a special day no it's not forbidden it's not forbidden it's it is a matter of conscience and liberty and freedom you say well does that mean different communities could have different practices yes about days of the week yes they could now one more passage to look at and again simple point if the seventh day sabbath was so important binding for gentile christians as well why is it never taught as such in the new testament why is it not given by way of command ever in the letters why is that they're ever an issue of their failing to keep the sabbath whereas they're chastised about other areas of failure why is it that the early church writings give no such indication rather as we see as the centuries goes on go on as i said the jewish believers in jesus were known for celebrating the seventh day sabbath and keeping the biblical calendar whereas the gentile christians were not and and this raised questions it should have been hey we have different backgrounds we have different customs we have different traditions and and we have a different connection to the god of israel but we're all one in him and and remember the fact that our identity is found in the messiah not in keeping a day our identity is found in the messiah so we have in mark and luke their references to the the parable about the the new wine skins for new wine and things like that and then they're they're followed by accounts in the synagogue where there's dispute about healing on the sabbath or gathering grain on the sabbath i want you to look with me in matthew the end of the 11th chapter something very interesting here matthew puts this in a different order so matthew chapter 11 beginning in verse 28 he has something different leading up to these sabbath accounts so it says this in verse 28 come to me all you who are weary and burdened and i will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for i am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light now when you go to chapter 12 and has disputes about the sabbath about healing on the sabbath and gathering grain casually on the sabbath right not for work purposes but just for for snacking right look your disciples are doing what's not permitted on shabbat and he said haven't you read what david did so he jesus pushes back against some of the developing jewish traditions of the day but notice what it's what what it follows it follows him saying at the end of the 11th chapter come to me and i'll give you rest all right so let's let's step back from this in my own life unless i'm traveling and speaking on saturday for me it's it's time to slow down friday night and saturday day not in a legalistic way but in a day of of concentrating on getting more rest not pushing the same way seeking to spend more quality time with the lord so i am not arguing against someone setting apart the seventh day as holy and there's much to learn from jewish life even though many of the traditions we feel are restrictive or adding to the bible there's something about the life cycle which is healthy and beautiful and the importance of sabbath rest it is simply not a new testament command for christians to observe the seventh day sabbath you cannot read it in it is not there nor is it a new testament command to set aside sunday as the sabbath there is diversity allowed and diversity given in first corinthian seven paul tells those who are circumcised when they're saved don't become uncircumcised those who are uncircumcised when they're saved don't become circumcised there's liberty in messiah and the commandments that he calls us to keep the commandments that are reiterated in the new testament let us honor the lord follow the convictions he lays in our own hearts without judging and condemning one another that my friend is what i understand the scriptures to say about the seventh-day sabbath another program powered by the truth network