Is it important to keep the Sabbath?

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Hobie

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We see in the end of the scriptures in Revelation, God's final warning message to the world, it has a call to worship the Creator
Revelation 14:7
7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

The call to worship here in Revelation 14:7 brings us back to the Fourth Commandment and Creation in which God blessed and set aside the seventh day, as holy and sanctified.

Genesis 2:1-3
1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Throughout the scriptures we can see an emphasis on the recognition of the Creator and He is worthy to be worshipped.
Revelation 4:11
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Nehemiah 9:6
Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

And we see the contrast given to those who worship another...
Revelation 14:9-11
9 And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
10 The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
11 And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
 

Pyreaux

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The Seventh day, was when Adam was to do the works of God while God rested, so, a day to be remembered as the day God rested (Gen 2:2-3), there was no explicit command that it was a day for men to rest or worship until Moses comes with a new Law, which was a new Mosaic Covenant at Hareb. A covenant that was not made with the Patriarchs, they were spoken of as duties to remember the deeds of Moses, they were instructed to "keep the Sabbath day", as a reminder that they were once slaves in Egypt (Dt 5:2-3, 12, 15) to become a law against exploitation, to let animals and slave rest, because Israel used to be enslaved (Ex 23:12).

The commands in the Law of Moses were a unique law to Israelites, as a punishment for their forefather's sin with the golden calf, which other people are not under (Gal 3:8, 13, 19, 24-25). The Jews teach the Sabbath was not commanded to be practiced before Sinai, and that it should not be practiced by other people unless you becoming an Israelite national specifically, "The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers" (Deut 5:3). The Jews teach other people were to obey the Seven Noahide Commandments which includes the Gentile working days "shall not cease" (Gen 8:22) and if a Gentile observes the Sabbath, they are breaking the commandments, worthy of a death sentence (Talmud, Sanhedren 58b; Exodus Rabbah 25:11; Deuteronomy Rabbah 1:21).

Due to Israel's Apostasy, by corrupting the "Sabbaths" so much that God could not "away with [endure]" them (Isa 1:13-14) It was prophesied that God will cause Israel's "Sabbaths", "new moons" and "feast days" "to cease" (Hosea 2:11). So, God sent Israel to Babylon, where they'd have no sabbaths or feasts for 75 years.

The scriptures kept in the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran tells us that the Babylonian Jews who returned were apostates, altering scripture and going astray with feasts and sabbaths (1 Enoch 89:73; 93:8; Jubilees 1:14; Damascus Rule, CD III:13-14). As proof, they point out that the Jews that returned from Babylon came back with the Babylonian Calendar, a Lunar 354-day year Calendar, instead of a Solar 365-day year Calendar like in Enoch and Jubilees, therefore all of their Feast Days are all on the wrong days (4Q 320-30). Today's Orthodox Jewish Calendar was not established until the 4th Century A.D. with no proof their Sabbaths are even on the correct days. The Jews had extra Sabbaths, some back to back.

There is a bit of evidence Jesus' cousin John and brothers James and Jude were Essene Jews. Even Jesus seems to imply the Jewish Sabbath was not the true Sabbath. While constantly breaking the Sabbath by working, once his only defense was God was not resting, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" (John 5:17). Jesus makes no indication that the disciples should rest on the Sabbath, and but had them all openly disobey the Law to not prep nor cook on the Sabbath (Exo 16:23; 34:21; 35:3; Num 15:32-36), it was not an "extra" law, and he broke it and taught others to do likewise.

Another instance, he excused himself saying King David broke the Law of Moses when he ate the Shewbread (1 Sa 21:3-6), for the Davidic King. "the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath" (Mark 12:8; Luke 6:1-5). Originally there were 2 great sacrifice days, Unleavened Bread (altered to Passover) and the Days of Atonement, during the spring and autumn equinoxes. Passover changed from a nomadic feast from Egypt (Ex 12:1-10) to a pilgrimage feast by King Josiah (2 Kg 23:22) a month earlier than King Hezekiah (2 Chr 30). Holy Days may have been decided by the king (1 Kg 12:32-33). The Law comes forth from the Davidic King.

Jesus, a Davidic King, started his ministry by issuing a new set of laws that supersede all of Moses' laws. The Sermon on the Mount is what James and Paul called "Law" of Christ. Like Moses, Jesus come out of Egypt, worked signs and wonders, and meet with Israel on a mountaintop where He amplifies his new law that was not a simple repeat of Moses’ law, but Jesus emphatically says the opposite and expands upon it. “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law” (Matthew 7:28-29). There is noticeably no encouragement to obey the Sabbath.

There were also some doctrines he did not even impart to the Apostles while he was with them. At the time, the gospel was only sent to the House of Israel, not other people (Mat 10:6; 15:24). Twenty years after Christ's ascension, Peter received the 'Vision of the Unclean Animals', it was interpreted to mean, to Peter's surprise, that God was not a respecter of persons, and that Cornelius, an uncircumcised Gentile, without following a single kosher law or without observing a single Sabbath, was somehow worthy of a Christian baptism. Peter received a new gospel delivered by an angel. Gentiles can join the church without becoming Jewish first (Acts 10:11-15). The Gentile Christians were not observing the Sabbath at all.

There is more to tell of Paul's struggles with Judaizer Christians, about the Messianic Jewish loose conspiracy theory involving Emperor Constantine, the precedence for observing ordinances on the first day.
 

Jack

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No Sabbath commands in the New Covenant! ZERO!

Colossians 2:16
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,

Amen Jesus, I won't!
 
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