Can the Sabbath be, and is the Sabbath indeed, observed?

[Gerhard Ebersoehn]

Can the Sabbath be, and is the Sabbath indeed, observed?

Christian discussion forums like BaptistBoard are the clear proof that this question tops the list, any list, of doctrinal and ethical issues in contemporary Christian and Biblical discourse.

It is a subject for re-investigation and new exploration in the light of many recent developments in Christian scholarship, specifically ecclesiology and Biblical Inspiration, that no longer may be ignored or passed off as a joke and example in hypocrisy.

I would start with asking, Is Jesus Christ the "One (who) is the only Lawgiver"? Or does the Old Testament have other gods or a godfather who had no Son? Or does God speak from two mouths in opposition with one another?

And I would end with asking, Was Jesus Christ the Saviour from the beginning? Because, if, as the Bible says, satan "was a murderer FROM THE BEGINNING", could man, from the beginning, a) have redeemed himself through good works, or, b) could blood sacrifices atone for man's sin and reconcile him with the One Lawgiver?

And I would conclude, It is not a matter of accepting or rejecting the Old Testament in Christian Faith; it is accepting or rejecting JESUS CHRIST in Old Testament Faith.

Which I will not have, so help me God. And if it is JESUS CHRIST in Old Testament Faith, Old Testament Faith is nothing but the Christian Faith and the Christian Faith is nothing but Old Testament Faith REALISED.

'Realised', means, the ESSENCE PROVEN TRUE. In fact, the Essence, "The Substance which is CHRIST ... THEN THEREFORE OF SABBATHS' FEAST OF CHRIST." Colossians 2.

 

[BobRyan]

Can the Sabbath be, and is the Sabbath indeed, observed?

Christian discussion forums like BaptistBoard are the clear proof that this question tops the list, any list, of doctrinal and ethical issues in contemporary Christian and Biblical discourse.

It is a subject for re-investigation and new exploration in the light of many recent developments in Christian scholarship, specifically ecclesiology and Biblical Inspiration, that no longer may be ignored or passed off as a joke and example in hypocrisy.

I would start with asking, Is Jesus Christ the "One (who) is the only Lawgiver"? Or does the Old Testament have other gods or a godfather who had no Son? Or does God speak from two mouths in opposition with one another?

And I would end with asking, Was Jesus Christ the Saviour from the beginning? Because, if, as the Bible says, satan "was a murderer FROM THE BEGINNING", could man, from the beginning, a) have redeemed himself through good works, or, b) could blood sacrifices atone for man's sin and reconcile him with the One Lawgiver?

And I would conclude, It is not a matter of accepting or rejecting the Old Testament in Christian Faith; it is accepting or rejecting JESUS CHRIST in Old Testament Faith.

Which I will not have, so help me God. And if it is JESUS CHRIST in Old Testament Faith, Old Testament Faith is nothing but the Christian Faith and the Christian Faith is nothing but Old Testament Faith REALISED.

'Realised', means, the ESSENCE PROVEN TRUE. In fact, the Essence, "The Substance which is CHRIST ... THEN THEREFORE OF SABBATHS' FEAST OF CHRIST." Colossians 2.

Hebrews 11 - the saints of the OT - still upheld before NT readers as saints.

Speaking of OT saints
1 Cor 10:1-4 'they all drank from the same Spiritual Rock and that Rock was Christ"

Heb 11 - MOSES counted the "sufferings of Christ" as of more value than all the wealth of Egypt.
26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

The Gospel was preached to Abraham - Gal 3:7

Heb 4:1 "WE have had the Gospel preached to us just as they ALSO"

Christ is the SAME "yesterday today and forever" Hebrews 13.

Hebrews 8:6-10 CHRIST gave the LAW at Sinai

As for keeping the Commandments - Romans 8:4-9 the lost are at war with God - they do not submit to His Law - neither indeed can they. And this is contrasted to the case of the saints in those same verses.

 

[Gerhard Ebersoehn]

I mean has anyone ever faithfully observed the Sabbath. I believe many did and many still do.

I do not mean has the Sabbath ever been observed perfectly or faultlessly or untainted by believers' sin and sinfulness.

Though they never 'kept the Sabbath' without fault or sin, the Israelites sometimes must have observed the Sabbath to some degree to the LORD'S acceptance, because nothing in the Bible tells that they were notable transgressors; and the Israelites sometimes forgot the Sabbath to the LORD'S disapproval, because their transgression is notably stated in the Bible. Though they never 'kept the Sabbath' without fault or sin, whether mentioned or not mentioned, the people of God LIKE NATURAL MAN and the rest of the world, notably are nothing than, "transgressors of the Law" so that they like the rest of the world ALWAYS, "FOR SO LONG AS MAN MIGHT LIVE", are under the Law as well as under the CONDEMNATION of the Law because man NEVER, has been and NEVER, will be true keepers of the Law.

Jesus spoke of "True Believers"; He NEVER spoke or would speak of 'True Keepers of the Law' because there NEVER has been and NEVER would be true keepers of the Law EXCEPT "the Son of Man ... the Son of God, He, JESUS, who "gave them Rest", and ONLY, He.

Therefore:

As for keeping the Commandments - Romans 8:4-9 the lost are at war with God - they do not submit to His Law - neither indeed can they. And this is contrasted to the case of the saints in those same verses.

ALL of mankind and everyone saved or not saved, REMAIN <<at war with God>> as they BY NATURE, whether saved or non-saved, BY NATURE remain at war with the Law of God, even though God IN HIS LOVE reduced that Law of Himself into Inscription into stone and even the heart of this single homogenous, identical race of the sons of man, their common progenitor.

So by rule of this common sinners' ancestry is man's MUTUAL disposition towards God and his Law-word, that it is evident in exactly statements like here above, expressed, for have you not noticed this statement itself, in essence contradicts and transgresses the Law? It shows the writer ---not BobRyan but MAN himself or generally--- JUDGING others as though he himself stands apart from those he JUDGES and condemns while he himself stands like them and with them, under the same judgment and condemnation of the same Law he is accusing them that they are at war with God, but he himself, all too holily, not.

Point is, ALL are sinners before GOD when HE, the Law Himself, is "GOD-IN-CHRIST". And ALL think themselves excluded from sinners when they regard the Letters of death engraved in stone as were it, God, and not merely an instrument like a thermometer to show man the coldness of his heart, or a Geiger counter, to show him the totality of his toxic and evil-active tendency in character, personality... being... in totality!

 

[Gerhard Ebersoehn]

God's giving Israel his Law engraved in stone is spectacularly evident Word-of-Promise of God's faithfulness in Jesus Christ, that "the Word" which "in the beginning was, and in the beginning was God, and in the beginning was with God", one day would become and be, "GOD-WITH-US ... Jesus, Saviour of his People"... whom "God according to his Promise hath RAISED unto Israel SAVIOUR JESUS"---"THIS JESUS WHOM YE CRUCIFIED..." whom "the God of Peace (hath) BROUGHT AGAIN from the dead: our LORD JESUS that Great Shepherd of the sheep."

Who needs a vanished Law on stone BY ITSELF, FOR ITSELF, APART from and IN PLACE OF ITS GIVER for guidance or for inspiration or for contemplation, when he has the GIVER IN PERSON OF THE WORD OF GOD, JESUS, THE RAISED FROM THE DEAD, CHRIST OF GOD, to guide him and inspire him contemplating and pondering ON HIM?!

The New Testament has its own Psalm 23 in many places, like in Hebrews 13:20, for example. The Old Testament Law therefore, is of worth still ONLY as long as and as far as it serves God's Promised Anointed, Saviour of his People. OTHERWISE the Law has become an IDOL and its service, IDOLATRY, with the Sabbath, its prime exemplar.