Bible Q&A
If God created the Ten Commandments and said he is the same yesterday, today and forever, then I have a hard time seeing he would change the day of the Sabbath.
God did not change the day of the Sabbath. It always was and always will be the seventh day, our Saturday. But he has changed the law in that he has annulled it. So keeping the Sabbath is no longer a commandment for anyone.Heb 7:11-19
"If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?
For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken pertains to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning priesthood.
And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there arises another priest, Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifies, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God."We don't draw nigh to God through the Law. The Law was against us and contrary to us. Christ took it out of the way nailing it to his cross. (See Col. 2:14) The Law was disannulled because it was weak. (See Rom. 8:1-4) It was weak because it worked through the flesh to try to make a man holy. We now serve God in the spirit, not through the flesh. We can now fulfill the holiness required by the Law, if instead of trying to keep it through the flesh, we instead walk in the spirit and keep it naturally by love.
Gal. 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Being led of the Spirit is what James calls our Law of Liberty.
Jam. 2:12 "So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by a law of liberty."
In the context, James is using the Ten Commandments as an example of consistency. If a Jew broke one of the commandments, then he was guilty of all of them. It's the same now with our Law of Liberty in the Spirit. You can't be spiritual and at the same time have respect of persons.
Verse 9 gives us the context and states the problem.
James 2:9 "But if ye have respect to persons, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors."
Verse 10 gives us the principle.
James 2:10 "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all."
Verse 11 gives us the example.
James 2:11 "For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if you commit no adultery, yet if you kill, you become a transgressor of the law."
Finally, verse 12 gives us the application to the Christian.
James 2:12 "So speak, and so do, as they that shall be judged by a law of liberty."Now look at Romans 7:
Rom. 7:6-7 "But now we are delivered from the law, being dead to that wherein we were held; so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet."
The Law that we are delivered from, the Law that we are dead to, is the Law that said, "You shall not covet". That was the Ten Commandment Law. We don't serve God that way anymore. We serve in newness of spirit. The letter kills, but the spirit gives life. (See 2Cor.3:6)
One of the hardest things is for someone who has been taught that he is under the Old Testament Law, to realize that he is not under any legal system at all anymore.
The Old Testament is for our example.1Cor. 10:6 "Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. "
1Cor. 10:11 "Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of ages are come."The New Testament Law is written in our hearts, in the spirit.
Heb.8:7-13 "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.
8:8 For finding fault with them, he says, Behold, the days come, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
8:9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, says the Lord.
8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
8:13 In that he says, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decays and is waxing old is ready to vanish away."The only reason that the old is "OLD" is because he has given us a "NEW" one. Which one should you be following?
The Sabbath given to the Jews to observe is on Saturday and has always been Saturday. That's not something over which we disagree. The main point the Seventh Day Adventist church is misunderstanding is that Christians are not to observe the Ten Commandment Law in service to God. God's children are not under that Law anymore. We have fulfilled it in Christ.
Consider these passages:
Deut 4:13 Covenant - 10 commandment law Deut. 5:1-3 "hear, 0 Israel" -- "Jehovah made not this covenant with our fathers but with us (Israel) even us who are all of us here alive this day" vs. 7-21, 10 commandments listed v. 15 purpose of Sabbath - significant only to Israel. Malachi 4:4 "which I gave unto him in Horeb for all Israel" (not for other nations) Isa. 63:19 19 those not called by God's name were not under this rule. Psa. 147:19 He gave His statutes and laws to Israel v. 20 He hath not so dealt with any other nation. Sum up: The 10 Commandment law was given just to the Jews, not to us.
I don't keep Saturday holy because the command wasn't given to me nor to my ancestors. I have never been under the Law of Moses and will never be under it as long as I am in Christ.Gal. 5:3 "For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
5:5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which works by love.
5:7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
5:8 This persuasion cometh not of him that calls you."These Gentiles were trying to be justified and to be pleasing to God by being circumcised. Jesus didn't call me to obey the commandments of Moses' Law. That is bondage. Christ has called me to liberty under a Law of Liberty in the spirit.
Gal. 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Everywhere that a man can turn to in the scriptures, practically on every page, the testimony of God's word is that we are not under the Old Testament Law any longer and are not bound by the Ten Commandments, which we were never under anyway, being Gentiles.
The Seventh Day Adventist church is in total disarray and confusion when it comes to rightly dividing God's word.
Col. 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;
2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
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:
2:17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body [substance] is of Christ".The Old Testament along with it's Sabbath was the Shadow. The REAL thing is in Christ in the New Testament.
If I were standing in the sun and casting a shadow on the ground, that shadow would resemble me, but it wouldn't BE me.
If the New Testament was casting a shadow, that shadow would resemble the real thing but it would not BE the real thing. It would be the Old Testament.
See Col. 2:17; Heb. 10:1
Hope this helps.
Larry White
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