Amen! SDA garbage indeed!
The question in the OP is part of building a straw man. The New Testament makes that a moot point because Christians are not under the law and there is no command in the New Testament for Christians to keep the Sabbath day holy nor is there anything said about Christians being condemned for failing to do so.
Romans 14:5 -
One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.
Galatians 4:9-11 - But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God,
how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
Colossians 2:14 - Blotting out the
handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.
Ephesians 2:15 - Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the
law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.
Colossians 2:16-17 - Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a
Sabbath day--things which are a
mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.
2 Corinthians 3:6 - who also made us sufficient as ministers of the
new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 7 But if the
ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the
ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory.
Well of course SDA's will argue that Paul was merely talking about "these" days and sabbaths and not "that" day or the weekly sabbath and "these" ordinances and law of commandments, but not "those" ordinances and law of commandments in a desperate effort to get around the truth. SDA's are absolutely obsessed with the Sabbath day and have turned it into an idol! So obsessed that they even teach the ludicrous doctrine that near the end of time the "mark of the best" of Revelation 14 will be placed upon those who worship on Sunday instead of Saturday. -
Bible Truth Versus Adventist Truth - Mark of the Beast
SDA legalism culminates in salvation by "grace plus law, faith plus works" which is more than a subtle mixture of law and grace that is a perversion of the gospel (Galatians 1:6-9; 2 Corinthians 4:3,4) and they have the audacity to condemn believers who do not subscribe to their perverted gospel by accusing them of willfully sinning and numbering them with the "many" in Matthew 7:22-23, which I find so ironic.
I find it interesting that SDA's detest Sunday and call it a Catholic tradition, yet in the Old Testament, we find these passages of scripture. In Leviticus 23:11, we read - And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on
the day after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. (The day after the Sabbath is Sunday).
Read on in Leviticus 23:15 -You shall also count for yourselves from
the day after the sabbath, from the day when you brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the
DAY AFTER THE SEVENTH SABBATH; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord.'" This is the
Feast of Pentecost. It was one of the compulsory feasts of Israel.
Note on the day of Pentecost, a
Sunday God's people were commanded to worship. God says,
"On this same day you shall make a proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious work. It is to be perpetual statue in all your dwelling places throughout your generations." (Leviticus 23:21).
This is not only applying to "ceremonial" days. Leviticus 23:1-4 starts out talking about the weekly Sabbath. It's called an appointed time and a
holy convocation, along with all the other feast days of Israel. No distinction is made by God between these holy days and the weekly Sabbath. He includes them all as being holy. This would mean that
under the old covenant the First Fruits Sunday and the Pentecost Sunday were holy just as Saturday.
The old covenant was made with Israel, and NOT with the Gentiles. Look at Exodus 31:13-17 - "But as for you, speak to the
sons of Israel, saying, 'You shall surely
observe My sabbaths; for this is a
sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.. So the
sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual
covenant. It is a
sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever..
When will SDA's learn that Sabbath keeping with all it's rules and regulations, was
part of a covenant with Israel (Exodus 16:23, 29; 31:12-18; 35:1-3; Leviticus 19:30; 23:2-3, 32; Numbers 15:32-36; 28:1-10; 29:39-40; I Chronicles. 23:30-31; II Chronicles 31:2-4; Isaiah 1:13; Amos 8:5; Nehemiah 10:31) that is
not binding on Christians under the new covenant.
Since the entire old covenant has been made obsolete, does this leave us with no moral direction? Absolutely not. God made obsolete the old covenant to "put legally into place" the new covenant (2 Corinthians 3:6-9; Hebrews 8:13). The life of discipleship flows out of the new command, to love one another as He loved us (John 13:34), which Paul refers to as the "law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). Love fulfills the law (Romans 13:8-10). Out of this single command comes other commands, including references for the moral aspect of 9 of the 10 commandments which are reiterated under the new covenant, yet the
command to keep the Sabbath day is not binding on Christians under the new covenant.
1. You shall have no other gods before Me. - Acts 14:15
2. You shall make no idols. - 1 John 5:21
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. - 1 Timothy 6:1; James 2:7; James 5:12
4. Keep the Sabbath day holy. -
Not binding on the Church - Colossians 2:16-17
5. Honor your father and your mother. - Ephesians 6:1-2
6. You shall not murder. - Romans 13:9-10; 1 John 3:15
7. You shall not commit adultery. - Romans 13:9-10; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
8. You shall not steal. - Romans 13:9-10; Ephesians 4:28
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. - Romans 13:9-10; Colossians 13:9-10
10. You shall not covet. - Romans 13:9-10; Ephesians 5:3
So contrary to the claims of SDA's, the New Testament nowhere commands Christians to observe the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a
sign between God and the Israelites under the old covenant. “The
Israelites are to observe the Sabbath, celebrating it for the generations to come as a lasting
covenant. It will be a
sign between me and the Israelites forever, for in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, and on the seventh day he abstained from work and rested” (Exodus 31:16-17).
In Deuteronomy 5, Moses restates the 10 commandments to the next generation of Israelites. Here, after commanding Sabbath observance in verses 12–14, Moses gives the reason the Sabbath was given to the nation Israel:
“Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day” (Deuteronomy 5:15)
Nehemiah 9:13 - Then You came down on Mount Sinai, And spoke with them from heaven; You gave them just ordinances and true laws, Good statutes and commandments. 14
So You made known to them Your holy sabbath, And laid down for them commandments, statutes and law, Through Your servant Moses.
In Acts 20:7, we read - Now on the
first day of the week, (Sunday) when the
disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.
The Jerusalem Council did not impose Sabbath keeping on the Gentile believers in Acts 15. Paul warned the Gentiles about many different sins in his epistles, but never about breaking the Sabbath.
Sunday has not replaced Saturday as the Sabbath day, but is a time when believers gather to commemorate Christ's resurrection, which occurred on the
first day of the week. (Matthew 28:1; John 20:1) Every day to the believer is one of Sabbath rest, since we are resting in the salvation of the Lord in contrast to keeping the weekly sabbath under the law (Hebrews 4:9-11).
No matter how much scripture twisting, trickery, deceit, rhetoric and SDA propaganda that SDA's throw at us, we are not fooled by their deception!
