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Were gentiles ever commanded to observe the Sabbath ?


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 I don't see any Scriptural command for any non-Israelis to observe the Saturday Sabbath, except that the gates of Jerusalem were locked to itinerant merchants on Sabbaths to prevent their doing business with Israelis on Sabbaths.

  I believe it's as Passover-God said that any non-Israeli observing passover must follow all the rules He gave to Israel concerning it.

 

 But I believe the following Scripture applies to these, & other Israeli observances-Col.2:16 ""Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.""

 

  

  However, I was wrong to criticize the SDAs for Sabbath observance, as they're following their conscience. (Even though it's shaped by Ellen White. They have plenty more false doctrines, beliefs, & policies to rightly criticize them about !)

Edited by robycop3
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On 9/20/2020 at 6:07 AM, robycop3 said:

 However, I was wrong to criticize the SDAs for Sabbath observance, as they're following their conscience. (Even though it's shaped by Ellen White. They have plenty more false doctrines, beliefs, & policies to rightly criticize them about !)

I agree that it is an issue of liberty to observe or not, but when a group observes because they are following the false doctrines of a false prophet, and therefore observe because they believe they MUST, and that those who do NOT are lost and of the Devil, that is worthy of judgment. They fall under the condemnation that Paul threatened the Galatian believers with, when he said they were placing themselves back under bondage to a law that Christ had ended, and were seeking to complete their salvation, started by faith, by works of the law.

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Exodus 31:16-17 (KJV)
16  Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
17  It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever:
for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

The sabbath was created for the nation of Israel only.  The non-jews who believe we are commanded to keep the sabbath believe so because they believe the church has replaced Israel and all the laws, ordinances and commandments given to Israel now fall upon the church since they believe God has rejected Israel.

As a side note.  The sabbath day is NOT based upon the Roman Julian calendar. It was based on the lunar cycle starting with the full moon.  It has nothing to do with Saturday, but the sabbath could land on any day of the Julian calendar week based on the moons 28 day cycle, not a calendar with 28, 29, 30 or 31 days.  Even those today that claim the church is commanded to observe the sabbath, observe it incorrectly.

Mark 2:27-28 (KJV)
27  And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:
28  Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

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On 9/27/2020 at 4:35 PM, 2bLikeJesus said:

As a side note.  The sabbath day is NOT based upon the Roman Julian calendar. It was based on the lunar cycle starting with the full moon.  It has nothing to do with Saturday, but the sabbath could land on any day of the Julian calendar week based on the moons 28 day cycle, not a calendar with 28, 29, 30 or 31 days.  Even those today that claim the church is commanded to observe the sabbath, observe it incorrectly.

On the seventh day God rested. 

The Sabbath was not one of the things laid on Gentile believers at the Jerusalem council, led by James.

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On 9/24/2020 at 11:02 AM, Bouncing Bill said:

Were Christians ever told not to observe the Sabbath? 

Sabbath is part of the Mosaic law, which Paul said is bondage. That to observe days and months and times and years, made Paul worried that he had spent all his time on them in vain. Careful observance of Sabbaths, of New moons, of feasts and festivals, particularly those associated with Judaism and the law, meant they were trusting in those things, rather than the simplicity of faith in the grace of Jesus Christ for salvation.

So in a sense, yes we were told not to.

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But, did Paul or Jesus ever say not to observe the sabbath? 

Jesus went to the synagogue seemingly every week. As it says in the gospel:

King James Bible, Luke 4:16
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

So, Jesus did not break the Sabbath, and to my knowledge did not tell us to do so.

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8 hours ago, Bouncing Bill said:

But, did Paul or Jesus ever say not to observe the sabbath? 

Jesus went to the synagogue seemingly every week. As it says in the gospel:

King James Bible, Luke 4:16
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

So, Jesus did not break the Sabbath, and to my knowledge did not tell us to do so.

Whatever you do, while you attempt to live like a Jew under the law, don't do any labor from Friday 6pm to Saturday 6pm or it's the death penalty for you (Numbers 15:32-35).

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On 9/29/2020 at 11:03 AM, Bouncing Bill said:

But, did Paul or Jesus ever say not to observe the sabbath? 

Jesus went to the synagogue seemingly every week. As it says in the gospel:

King James Bible, Luke 4:16
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

So, Jesus did not break the Sabbath, and to my knowledge did not tell us to do so.

Jesus came as a Jew to Israel, so of course he kept the Sabbath, as well as the others of the Mosaic laws, of which Sabbath was just one of many.

However, he also fulfilled, or brought to an end, the law, including the Sabbath. He didn't come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. When a prophecy is fulfilled, we don't continue to seek it's fulfillment time and again-so when the law was fulfilled, we don't seek to keep alive that to which we have been made dead. 

Jesus is the END of the law for righteousness, to them that believe. So, when Jesus said he came to fulfill the law, and on the cross, he declared, "It is finished", that, taken in conjunction with Paul declaring that the ordinances (laws) were nailed to the cross, we can know that it is over and done with, and does not apply to use.

 

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21 hours ago, Bouncing Bill said:

Law or  not, I see no reason not to keep the Sabbath and, indeed, every day holy. 

That is kind of a wimpy response to the topic. Seriously. No disrespect, mind you, but to keep the Sabbath as holy has an entirely different meaning than keeping every day holy. Holy means "set apart, sanctified'. If you keep every day holy, what is it holy from? What is it sanctified from? The Sabbath was holy, in that is was different or holy from all other six days, in every aspect of how a person lived.  We can certainly dedicate each day to God, and so should we, but that is different than keeping every day holy-if all days are holy, then none are, because how can they be holy from each other, in the way the Sabbath was?

Yes, one day everything and every day will be holy unto the Lord, I am just curious how making everyday holy like the Sabbath is to be done.

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Sunday was nor ever shall be the Sabbath. The Sabbath ran from Friday 6pm to Saturday 6pm. I don't know of anything Christian except maybe some "Messianic Jews" who observed that time period. There's no excuse these days for a Christian to be brought under the bondage of the Sabbath, and it was bondage, with all the light given on the subject. We are no longer living in medieval Europe.

If someone wants to set aside Sunday, or even Saturday, as a day of special emphasis unto the Lord, OK, but it is not to be taught as Christian doctrine but only as personal conviction.

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15 hours ago, Ukulelemike said:

That is kind of a wimpy response to the topic. Seriously. No disrespect, mind you, but to keep the Sabbath as holy has an entirely different meaning than keeping every day holy. Holy means "set apart, sanctified'. If you keep every day holy, what is it holy from? What is it sanctified from? The Sabbath was holy, in that is was different or holy from all other six days, in every aspect of how a person lived.  We can certainly dedicate each day to God, and so should we, but that is different than keeping every day holy-if all days are holy, then none are, because how can they be holy from each other, in the way the Sabbath was?

Yes, one day everything and every day will be holy unto the Lord, I am just curious how making everyday holy like the Sabbath is to be done.

I  consider every day holy as life is holy. I thank God every day for another day. I am not a one-day a week Christian.

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On 10/9/2020 at 5:17 AM, Bouncing Bill said:

I  consider every day holy as life is holy. I thank God every day for another day. I am not a one-day a week Christian.

That sounds very good and all, but that isn't the same thing as the observance of the Sabbath as a holy day. God sanctified the seventh day; HE set it as different from other days, though that would not have any effect on mankind until Exodus 16-what you are doing, in saying you consider every day as holy, tells me you don't understand either what God did, or what the word 'holy' means. 

Now, if you tell me that you consider every day as a day set apart for God, I agree with that; but in the context of the Sabbath, the seventh day, it isn't the same thing. For the Jews it was clearly set apart as a day that they did no servile work, no labor, stayed home and worshiped God as a family. If you wish to make every day as the Sabbath, when will you work? You can't have seven Sabbaths, as it were, else you are not seeing to your duty to labor on the other days.

So bottom line, you still are skirting the actual question of the OP.

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