Hello Trevor -
A brief restatement for context -
Originally Posted by
TrevorL
What I was suggesting or perhaps interested in is that I believe that this section of Hebrews is teaching the true meaning of the Sabbath by comparison to the shadow under the Law. Part of this is that the Sabbath pointed forward to the 1000 years of rest in the future kingdom:
Hebrews 4:1 (KJV): Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Hebrews 4:6 (KJV): Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Hebrews 4:8-9 (KJV): 8 For if Jesus (Joshua) had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remaineth therefore a rest (mg keeping of a Sabbath) to the people of God.
The animal sacrifice based annual Sabbaths pointed forward to the death of Christ "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed" 1Cor 5.
And when the event took place - then as Hebrews 10 states - those sacrifices ended.
In Ps 95:7 "TODAY if you harden not your heart" is the only thing Paul appeals to in Heb 4 - and Paul argues it is the same appeal to "Sabbath rest" as was made long before the cross - in Ps 95:7.
IF the claim is that not until the millennium will that Sabbath shadow be fulfilled - then we are under it - until the Millennium.
But in Is 66:23 find that even in the NEW earth "
From Sabbath to Sabbath" God says "
All mankind shall come before ME to Worship". So no speculation there - the Sabbath remains long after the millennium. And exegesis on that text demands that we use Jeremiah's context for "From Sabbath to Sabbath" as a the same time-based weekly cycle as was in the Ten Commandments of his day.
Also the true spiritual lesson of ceasing from manual labour one day per week was to teach the lesson of ceasing from our own works at all times:
Hebrews 4:10 (KJV): For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Paul's argument in Heb 4 is from Ps 95 and NOT to some event since that time. He argues we are still under that condition however you wish to view it. That is a problem for the argument that the Ps 95:7 teaching nullifies the Ten Commandment Sabbath - because it is clear that even for David himself writing the Ps 95:7 statement - it did not void the 4th commandment.
According to the Baptist Confession, R.C Sproul, D.L. Moody et al. the Ten Commandments were in place from Eden until today and even for the saints they apply. They are not making that claim because they are Seventh-day Adventists. I think we all agree on that part.
In Rev 14:12 the saints "
keep the Commandments of God".
Paul speaks of the failure of the generation that came out under Moses, and states that they failed to enter the land, and thus obtain the rest promised in the land.
Indeed. All those 40 and upward died and those under 40 lived and entered Canaan.
Then Paul goes on to mention the OT saved saints of Heb 11 from all ages.
His "one Gospel" model of Gal 1:6-11 is working and the "Gospel was preached to us just as it was to them also" stands up.
He also speaks of the generation that entered the land under Joshua, and even this generation failed to obtain the true rest. Note this generation would have kept the weekly Sabbaths
I agree. Moses, David, Abraham, Samuel, all of them would have kept the Ten Commandments including the Sabbath (as even the Baptist Confession of Faith appears to say about Adam).
Sabbath keeping would have continued all through Psalms 95:7 which is the reference Paul is speaking of.
, but Paul states that the Joshua generation did not obtain the desired rest. So Paul is speaking of the ultimate rest, that is the 1000 years rest that the faithful will obtain when Jesus returns.
I agree that there was a "rest" that was specific to Canaan and there is rest specific to the 2nd coming and Millennium. If the Sabbath is pointing forward - and yet to be fulfilled in antitype - then it is still in force as a type.
However Isaiah 66:23 makes it clear that long after the millennium - in the Rev 21 "New earth" From Sabbath to Sabbath "shall all mankind come before Me to worship".
Every way you look at this - the Baptist Confession of faith of 1689 is correct - the Ten Commandments including the Sabbath are kept from Adam to today and onward.
Paul is not speaking of the weekly Sabbath when he quotes Psalm 95:7, but the future rest in the land promised to Abraham and his seed during the 1000 years.
Kind regards
Trevor
That is entirely possible. My argument is that Paul only speaks of the promise of Ps 95:7 and not another day or another event. So lets look at this as the millennium being referenced by David in Ps 95:7. Even so it was not abolishing the TEN Commandments or the 4th commandment in the day this promise was given. Nor does Paul mention a "change" since Ps 95:7.
He simply argues that this same context, same promise, same idea remains just as it was in Ps 95:7 when all agree it was not abolishing the 4th commandment.
In that sense then the weekly Sabbath is a weekly reminder of that promise of a future millennial rest. A bit of "heaven on earth" each week.
in Christ,
Bob
