"The Sabbath, is of utmost importance!!"

An interesting blog post - Sabbath Musings part 1 - discusses the Sabbath, and mentions my blog and website.  I mentioned it here.

One of the comments there is worth highlighting.  It's a wonderful example of how the Sabbath gets read into the New Testament Christian life without biblical support.


Stark admission.  But that's where it ends.

She and the blog post she comments on refer to my series of articles on the verses in the New Testament (mostly outside the Gospels, and Adventist proof texts from the Gospels and Old Testament) ... that series can be found here.

And I noted in a recent post that not even do the Gospels command Sabbath observance.


Huh?  Probably?  I'd love to see the biblical evidence.


If the Sabbath is so important, why leave it out?  Not even a mention.


He wrote about important things.  Was the Sabbath not important?  Yet the commentor says "The Sabbath, is of utmost importance!!"


Here we get to the interesting bits.

As I said in a post the other day, if we are to follow Jesus in everything he did under the Old Covenant, we need to do the following, because Jesus did them:

Keep the Passover (lamb and all) - Luke 2:41-42, Luke 22:8, Matt 26:17-19
Keep the Feast of Tabernacles - John 7
Keep Hannukah - John 10:22
Be circumcised - Luke 2:21
Sacrifice birds - Matt 8:4 - here Jesus commanded a man to go and offer the sacrifice that Moses commanded - see Leviticus 14, where God tells Moses how do offer such a sacrifice.

Clearly Jesus lived under the Old Covenant, and NOT everything he did is applicable to us.

In my recent post, I listed all the times the Sabbath is mentioned in the four Gospels, to see if any command Sabbath keeping for Christians.  The instances where the New Testament mentions it outside of the Gospels are discussed here.


I've dealt with this in my discussion of Luke 4

Luke wrote to Gentiles.  Why explain it as a custom if it was a command his audience had to obey?

Much like John wrote in John 6:4 "And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh."

Why explain it as a feast of the Jews - why explain it at all - if it was being kept by Christians?


And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;  [19]  Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats?  [20]  And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.  [15]  But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.

See this article on Truth or Fables for a detailed discussion.


See "The Key to Understanding 1844" and "1844 made simple" for refutation of that.

Also articles on Truth or Fables, Truth or Fables, and the Ellen White Research Project.


What???  We can rescue sheep on the Sabbath, we can heal on the Sabbath, but we can't save our lives on the Sabbath by fleeing?  What sort of legalist does the poster think Jesus was?  See my discussion of this passage.


My articles on Romans 14:5-6, Galatians 4:10-12, and Colossians 2:16.

In light of the absence of ANY biblical command to keep the Sabbath, I follow Paul's advice:

Rom 14:6 - He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

Another comment says:


Matt 19:4  And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
Matt 19:5  And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
Matt 19:6  Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Mat 19:9  And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

Obviously this is clear.  One man, one woman.  Two become one.  And if you marry a second, it's adultery.  It only makes sense that a second wife WITH a first is adultery, if a second wife after divorce is adultery.

Polygamy doesn't need explicit condemnation if it's clear that a second wife is adultery.

So the polygamy argument doesn't compare to the Sabbath argument.


Likewise, historical evidence (usually grossly misinterpreted, but that's another issue) for Sabbath keeping is therefore a weak argument for keeping it.  What does the Bible say the early Christians did?  It mentions nothing about the Sabbath being kept by them.