This is a question that the very asking of, shows confusion about the Bible teachings on the subject. To understand the answer to it you must understand that there was a time we know as the Jewish age and was the time of observance of the law by the Jewish people. You need to understand that the new dispensation began with the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and is the age we live in now. The gospel age began functioning on the first Pentecost after His resurrection. We are all familiar with the commission to the apostles to "GO INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE".(Mark 16:15) We are less familiar with Luke's reporting of it. In Luke 24:47 it states that Jesus told them that "repentance and remission of sins should be preached in my name beginning from Jerusalem". Luke further elaborates upon the scene where we read the following in Acts 1:8, "you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." It is noteworthy that in this commission they were to teach the gospel, not the law of Moses. There is no New Testament scripture that shows the men Jesus sent forth ever teaching anyone that they were to observe that law, nor observe the Sabbath Day. Just the opposite is true; as we find the apostle in later times saying, "you are not under law but under grace" (Rom. 6:14) and again, "if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose". (Gal. 2:21) Then as if to hammer home the full import of the contrast between the age of the law and the age of grace and faith, we hear him say the following; "NOW BEFORE FAITH CAME, WE WERE CONFINED UNDER THE LAW, KEPT UNDER RESTRAINT UNTIL FAITH SHOULD BE REVEALED. SO THAT THE LAW WAS OUR CUSTODIAN UNTIL CHRIST CAME, THAT WE MIGHT BE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH. NOW THAT FAITH HAS COME, WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER A CUSTODIAN." (Gal. 3:23-25) It would in fact be beneficial to give some good hard study to this entire third chapter to help clarify the contrast between the law and the dispensation of faith. In the early days of Christianity the disciples did, all being Jews, continue to practice many of the Jewish rites and try to not only observe the law but to bind the keeping of it upon the first non-Jewish believers. They said, "IT IS NECESSARY TO CIRCUMCISE THEM, AND TO CHARGE THEM TO KEEP THE LAW OF MOSES." The apostle Peter, who sometimes, it seems, was on both sides of this issue, put an end to the matter with these words, "WHY DO YOU MAKE TRIAL OF GOD BY PUTTING A YOKE UPON THE NECK OF THE DISCIPLES WHICH NEITHER OUR FATHERS NOR WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BEAR." (Acts 15) The yoke of the law is no longer on anyone and that would include the whole law! The conclusion then, is that the Sabbath (the seventh day-Saturday) being a part of the observance of the law, is not obligatory upon those who live in the dispensation of faith. Someone says, but didn't God change the Sabbath from the seventh day (Saturday) to the first day (Sunday)? My answer to that would be that if he did He kept it a well kept secret. The only place I know to look at how God deals with man is the Holy Book. I know of no place in that book that ever says that Sunday is now the Sabbath. It is clear from the New Testament that Christians "CAME TOGETHER ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK". (Acts 20:7) & (I Cor. 16:1,2) This was the day that the Master rose from the dead. They did not observe it as a "holy day" but as a time to remember Him. We are not required to keep any day as a "holy day". In serving Jesus there are: NO HOLY DAYS, NO HOLY PLACES, NO HOLY
THINGS
The only possible way to try and justify sabbath keeping is through a mixing of
the Law into the New Testament teachings of the inspired men of God. Instead of
new wine in old skins, it is taking old wine, that is now vinegar, and trying to
making it palatable by putting it into new skins.
Thank you for your interest, Gerald
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