In Exo. 31:16, God explicitly states that the Sabbath command was an entirely separate covenant from the Sinai Covenant. So even if God's other commandments were abolished(and they weren't), the Sabbath still remains as an eternal obligation.
Thank you for sharing, however, there are some contentions here. I apply your verse towards that Old Covenant.
Exodus 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations,
for a perpetual covenant.
Hebrew 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
It is His righteousness apart from the law, and that includes the sabbath day commandment, is why believers are guiltless for profaning the sabbath because they are saved since they had come to & believed in Jesus Christ. That is why there is no more need for the Jews to keep the sabbath day to obtain salvation for now as believers in Jesus Christ, they are saved. Even though His word regarding the sabbath day is still present for why believers are profaning it, but because Christ is in them is why they ae guiltless by His righteousness apart from the law.
In Isa. 66:23, the prophet wrote that the whole world will keep the Sabbath when Jesus returns. Just because the animal sacrifices and other rituals that were customarily performed on the day aren't necessary, it doesn't mean the Sabbath command itself has changed. When He said His people are to forever devote the Sabbath to rest, worshiping Him, and assembling with other followers in Exo: 31:16, that's exactly what He meant.
I read that reference below as all coming to Him to worship Him every day of the week, and not just on the sabbath, because it started out from one new moon to another and from one sabbath to another.
Isaiah 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. 23 And it shall come to pass,
that from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. 24 And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
So they are not really keeping the sabbath day like the Jews in the O.T. It was just written that they would be coming to Him to worship Him everyday of the week. If you consider the whole world doing that, it would take every day of the week for everybody to have that opportunity. Not that they be coming every day of the week, but the world will be coming every day of the week to come to Him to worship Him.
It goes without saying that a Christian should live holy lives every day of the week, but there is nothing in the NT that says God consecrated all 7 days as holy.
That is how I see Isaiah 66:23 to be applied as.
You are hilariously wrong when you say the Sabbath isn't central to the gospel. As Paul taught in Heb. 4, the OT Israelites were given the gospel when they received the knowledge of God's Sabbath. The Sabbath has everything to do with the gospel because it is not only a reminder that the entire world will be at peace under God's government, but it is also a reminder that the entire world will know and worship the true God.
So are you saying you still have to keep the sabbath to be saved?
Or are you saying you keep the sabbath to stay saved?
Or are you saying because you are keeping the sabbath, it means you are saved?
I believe this verse identifies us as the children of God rather than keeping the sabbath.
Galatians 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith...........26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
John had written the commandments for us to keep to be seen as abiding in Him.
1 John 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
23 And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. 24 And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
No emphasis on keeping the sabbath for abiding in Him there.
The fact that Paul goes on to connect the deaths of the Israelites who were condemned to death outside of the Promised Land for their inability to believe God and act on what He said(Num. 13-14)with Christians who will fail to make it into God's Kingdom and be condemned to eternal death for the same reason makes it even more obvious that the idea that the Sabbath has nothing to do with the biblical gospel is 100% false. The Sabbath points back to the true God and forward to the time where the whole world will know Him.
Luk. 23:56 shows Christ's female followers keeping the Sabbath days after Jesus died, and Acts shows God's Church keeping the Sabbath decades after Jesus' ascension. Logic dictates that if Christ's followers were keeping it that long after His death and ascension, then it clearly means true Christians today would be doing the same thing.
Paul taught in Rom. 7:14 that the commandments are spiritual, so it's foolish(not to mention dishonest) to argue that keeping a spiritual and eternal commandment is the same as performing a carnal ordinance that was only meant to be temporary. God is spirit, therefore it stands to reason that the 4 commandments that show how He is to be worshiped would not have changed or been abolished. Would you argue that His commandments against idolatry, blasphemy, and misusing His name are as useful as performing animal sacrifices?
Neither one of those passages teach what you want to think they do, especially since Rom. 3:31 that 1 Cor. 7:19 show Paul upheld the eternal and ironclad authority of all 10 of God's commandments.
The fact that Paul clearly said the Sabbaths "are" symbolic of things to come and not "was" implies a present obligation, as any good English teacher would tell you. If anything, Col. 2:16-17 proves God's Church continued to keep it. Protestants and Catholics seem to lack basic reading comprehension skills because nothing in the entire NT says the Sabbath was only a past obligation. The Sabbath existed before the Sinai Covenant was ratified, God made it an entirely separate covenant, and the Sabbath covenant was made after the Sinai Covenant was ratified, therefore the Sabbath was not abolished with Jesus' death.
I thank you again for sharing, but again, something is not aligning here in scripture for how you apply Paul as menaing.
Why was Paul giving the order to all the churches in Galatia and at Corinth about how to do the collection for the saints in the ministry on the first day of the week? It was to be done after the bounty was collected at church service where they would put aside a portion from the bounty collected for supporting the saints in the mission field so there would be no special collection for them or Paul when they would come.
1 Corinthians 16:1Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. 2 Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.