Sabbath days and the 7th Day Sabbath
---------------------------
By Stephen Billiter
By Stephen Billiter
There are many misunderstandings and misinterpretations upon these Bible verses in Col.2:14-17, that tell us exactly what was nailed to the cross of our LORD Jesus Christ at Calvary’s hill 2000 years ago. However, a great many other Christians in the world today do understand the Word of God and are able to rightly divide God’s Word, and can answer this all important question as to which sabbath days were done away with and which was not. It is not the purpose of this writer to create an exhaustive work upon the nearly endless details of the feast day celebrations and the Old Testament God-ordained, anti-typical, animal sacrifices that all represented the great type; the Son of God; Jesus Christ. However, we will show that God’s 7th Day Sabbath; the 4th Commandment was not nailed to the cross and is effective forever.
Following are the Scripture verses that we wish to examine and focus upon; moreover, we will use the Bible principle of “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little”( Isa 28:10), letting the Bible be its own interpreter:
“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; and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ” (Colossians 2:14-17, AKJV Bible).
After the sacrifice of Jesus, the Christian Jews; many of whom tried to hang on to the ceremonial system were often at odds with the apostle Paul as they regularly wrongly judged one another for not keeping this ritual or that feast day. We must remember that in the beginning stages of the Christian church, there was a transition time from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant as we can clearly read about in the book of Acts as well as all of Paul’s epistles. In the book of Galatians, we find Paul severely rebuking the Jewish Galatians for insisting the sacrificial and feast day sabbaths must be kept;
Gal 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Gal 1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
Gal 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Gal 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
Gal 3:11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the just shall live by faith.
Gal 4:10,11: “You observe days, and months, and times, and years I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed on you labor in vain”
In the Galatian churches open, exposed false doctrine was displacing the truth of the gospel. Christ, the true foundation, was virtually abandoned for the obsolete ceremonies of Judaism. Paul saw that if these churches were to be rescued from the dangerous influences which threatened them, the most stringent methods must be taken; and the strongest admonitions given to bring them to a sense of their true state.
We see that these ordinances that were hand written means in the Greek; cheirographon, a legal document written by hand and ordinances of course meaning a type of law. The blotting out of such a document was only carried out after the debt had been paid. We see here a parallel verse concerning Christ and the law of ordinances, “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances……” (Ephesians: 2:15).
This law of ordinances cannot refer in any manner to the Ten Commandments which were written by God’s own finger on two tablets of sapphire gemstone; (Eze. 10:1; Exo. 24:10) the very same gemstone taken from heaven itself and is what God’s throne is made of; which further indicates its nature as being eternal and everlasting, and its Ten Moral Laws cannot be abrogated in any manner. We shall examine the Ten Commandments and the 4th Commandment in particular in some depth a bit later. However; first we will study the law of ordinances that was done away with by Christ’s sacrifice. Notice these verses in Deuteronomy:
Deuteronomy: 31:24 “And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished,
Deut. 31:25: That Moses commanded the Levites, which bore the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,
Deut. 31:26 :“Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against you.”
We see here that Moses wrote these sacrificial and ceremonial laws by his own hand and that these laws were put into the side of the ark. The phrase “book of the law of Moses” occurs 4 times in the Old Testament (OT) at Joshua 8:31; 23:6, 2nd Kings 14:6, and Nehemiah 8:1.
Additionally; the word ordinances occurs 19 times in the OT although a few do refer to the laws governing the moon and stars. Also notice the similar terminology “against us” in Duet. 31:26 and Col. 2:14).
“Of these there were three feasts: the Passover, the Pentecost, and the feast of tabernacles; each new moon, that is, the first day of each month throughout the year; then there were seven annual sabbaths, namely, 1. The first day of unleavened bread. 2. The seventh day of that feast. 3. The day of Pentecost. 4. The first day of the seventh month. 5. The tenth day of that month. 6. The fifteenth day of that month. 7. The twenty-second day of the same. In addition to all these, every seventh year was to be the sabbath of the land, and every fiftieth year the year of jubilee” {Andrews, JN. 82.2}.
For more in-depth information upon these sabbaths please click here; LINK to Chapter 7
These sabbaths were temporary the anti-type of the type; the LORD Jesus Christ having fulfilled all 7 of these sabbaths on the cross. For example, “the Passover takes its name from the fact that the angel of the Lord passed over the houses of the Hebrews on that eventful night when the firstborn in every Egyptian family was slain. This feast was ordained in commemoration of the deliverance of that people from Egyptian bondage. It began with the slaying of the paschal lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month, and extended through a period of seven days, in which nothing but unleavened bread was to be eaten. Its great antitype was reached when Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us” (Ex.12; Andrews, JN). “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1Cor. 5:7, 8).
These 7 sabbaths that Paul mentions in Colossians 2:14-17; are not to be confused with the 7th day Sabbath (Saturday) that is one of the Ten Commandments and is an eternal, integral part of God’s law, that through the ceaseless ages of time will be gladly observed by the saved in the new earth. At the end of creation week just after the creation of man; God blessed and sanctified the 7th day long before sin entered the world and created a need for the sacrificial and feast day system which began with Cain and Abels’ sacrifices. “And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the Seventh Day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Gen 2:2, 3).
The 7th Day Sabbath is certainly not a “Jewish Sabbath” as some suppose since we see here that God created and blessed the 7th Day in the last day of creation week long before Abraham. Let’s contrast what God says about the feast day sabbaths and the 7th Day Sabbath. “Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination to Me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies I cannot; away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates: they are a trouble to me; I am weary to bear them”( Isa 1:13,14). Now let us see what God says about the 7th Day Sabbath from the heart of the immutable Ten Commandments and Isaiah 58;
Exo 20:8 Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.(notice God says, “remember” which means existence well before Mt. Sinai).
Exo 20:9 Six days shall you labor, and do all your work:
Exo 20:10 But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your God: in it you shall not do any work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger that is within your gates:
Exo 20:11 For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Isa 58:13 If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shall honor him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words:
Isa 58:14: Then shall you delight yourself in the LORD; and I will cause you to ride on the high places of the earth, and feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
You may ask, “What difference does the day make as long as I rest one in seven?” “What’s wrong with Sunday?” God has given us the Sabbath as one day in seven to come apart from the cares of the world and be renewed in His Word, worship Him in His sanctuary and fellowship with God’s people. Sunday can never be the Sabbath because God did not bless the first day of the week; He blessed and sanctified only the 7th Day, Saturday. But you ask, “how do I really know which day is the 7th day?” The facts are that astronomers can measure the earth’s rotation with the precise movement of the stars and ascertain that no time has ever been lost since creation; notice here;
“Having been time computer operator at Greenwich [England Observatory] for many years, I can testify that all our days are in God’s absolute control—relentlessly measured by the daily rotation of the earth on its axis. This daily period of rotation does not vary one-thousandth part of a second in thousands of years. Also, the year is a very definite number of days. Consequently, it can be said that not a day has been lost since Creation, and all the calendar changes notwithstanding, there has been no break in the weekly cycle” (Frank Jeffries, Statement; Dr. Jeffries was Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Research Director of the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, England;
"The human race never lost the septenary [seven day] sequence of week days and that the Sabbath of these latter times comes down to us from Adam, though the ages, without a single lapse." Dr. Totten, professor of astronomy at Yale University; (http://www.seventh-day.org/ weeklycycle.htm). Absolutely no question here as we see that no time—not even a second has ever been lost from the weekly cycle. We merely need to look on any calendar to see what day the 7th day is.
Recall in Deut. 31:26; that the handwritten laws that Moses wrote was put in the side of the ark. However, the Ten Commandments containing the 7th Day Sabbath written by God’s on finger on tablets of stone indicating its permanence were put in the ark;
Exo. 31:18 And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
Deut. 10:2 And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which you brake, and you shall put them in the ark (second table after Moses broke the first one).
We clearly see that a significant difference is made between the great moral Law of God and the temporary sabbaths which were all fulfilled by Christ’s death on the cross upon Calvary’s Hill 2000 years ago. Essentially, Paul answers the question of why these sabbaths are no longer in force in vs. 17 of Colossians 2; “Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” Because Jesus fulfilled the laws of ordinances upon His sacrifice made for the entire world, Paul also said under inspiration,” “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”(Col.2:14).
Furthermore, we find in Daniels prophecy of the 70 weeks that Messiah the Prince; “after three score and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself…..” (Dan 9:26).
Dan. 9:27: And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
The sacrifice and oblation ceased when Christ died on the cross in AD 31,and it is further confirmed by the veil in the temple; “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent” (Mat 27:50, 51). The veil separating the holy place from the Most Holy was ripped from top to bottom signifying from heaven to earth; meaning the covenant was ratified by His death, and the old Jewish system of types and shadows was fully swept away; so says the Father in heaven.
We find in the 4th commandment the seal of God’s law which comprises who God is, His authority, and his territory; just as we find on the seals of nations to include the United States. If we go to the White House in Washington DC; we shall find the great seal of the United States of America that contains the current president; who he is; his authority as president and his territory is the United States. Consider; “For in six days the LORD (who) made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,(His authority as Creator and His territory) and rested the seventh day: why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it”( Exo. 20:11).
The true sign and seal of loyalty to God, our Creator is the 7th Day Sabbath, “And hallow my Sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God” ( Eze. 20:20). Because Satan hates God’s law; he has attacked the only commandment that he knew that he would have some success with, and so after the 4th century, the Roman power began to slowly think to “change” the Sabbath from the 7th Day Saturday; to the 1st day Sunday (see on Daniel 7:25). Nowhere in the New Testament is any Scripture that authorizes this supposed change either because of Christ’s resurrection on the 1st day of the week; or for any other reason. Satan knew that if men began to forget the true Sabbath that they would also forget God who re-creates them in Jesus Christ, and they would be in total violation of the law of God which is sin. “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10). “Whoever commits sin transgresses also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1st John 3:4). And Jesus said, “If you love Me keep My Commandments” (John 14:15) and that means all Ten Commandments and not nine.
It would be totally absurd to think that God would give the Ten Commandments to mankind and then somehow secretly make void one of them without telling us in His Word. Certainly not! Moreover, God is not a man that He should lie or hide the truth because He is perfectly holy and filled with goodness and truth; forgiving sin and saving the lost who come to Jesus in faith. He says, “Mal 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.” And, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). Moreover, when one does a search on “Sabbath” in the New Testament it is found that all of the disciples and Jesus worshiped in church on the 7th Day Sabbath; Saturday. It’s as easy as just observing the Jews today as they still keep the 7th day Sabbath, as should Christians who love and obey Jesus.
And lastly, we find that this same 7th Day Sabbath will be kept throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity by the saved in Jesus Christ; “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” said the LORD, “so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, says the LORD” (Isa 66:22,23).
So will you also decide to keep the 7th Day Bible Sabbath that reconciles with Scripture?
Reference
Andrews, John Nevins;” History of the Sabbath and the First Day of the Week”; Chapter 7 pp. 83-91, (1873) “The Feasts, New Moons, and sabbaths of the Hebrews.” Steam Press of the SDA Publishing Association, Battle Creek, Mich.