How can we be exempt from keeping the Sabbath since it's part of the Moral Law?

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I know we keep Sunday as a holy day because that’s the day Jesus rose from the dead.

But if God was going to do away with the Sabbath, why would he include it in the ten commandments?

I know that keeping the Sabbath was ***also ***part of the ceremonial law, and that we as the Church have a new ceremonial law, with sacraments instead of sacrifices, and different dietary restrictions etc.

The fact that the old ceremonial law was done away with makes sense to me, and is supported by New Testament scriptures, but the moral law is binding for everyone and is eternal, so how can we be exempt from keeping the Sabbath?
 
By the power given by Jesus to bind on earth and in Heaven. The new covenant of the people of GOD is celebrated on Sunday.

Sunday IS the new Sabbath for us, as we are NOT jews. We are gentiles.

We are not followers of the judaizers we follow Peter and Paul and the other Apostles.
 
I could be wrong, but I don’t think that particular commandment was part of moral law. that was the first time God had given that rule, was all the rest, have come in the bible before moses.

I think that’s why the apostles could unbind it
 
angell1 said:
I could be wrong, but I don’t think that particular commandment was part of moral law. that was the first time God had given that rule, was all the rest, have come in the bible before moses.

I think that’s why the apostles could unbind it
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I’m not sure what you’re trying to say. Maybe you are right that it’s not part of the moral law, but I don’t understand why it would be in the ten commandments. How could ceremonial law be a part of the ten commandments? Also, God gave the Sabbath before the 10 commandments, God gave the Sabbath after creation when he rested.
 
constantconvert said:
I know we keep Sunday as a holy day because that’s the day Jesus rose from the dead.

But if God was going to do away with the Sabbath, why would he include it in the ten commandments?

I know that keeping the Sabbath was ***also ***part of the ceremonial law, and that we as the Church have a new ceremonial law, with sacraments instead of sacrifices, and different dietary restrictions etc.

The fact that the old ceremonial law was done away with makes sense to me, and is supported by New Testament scriptures, but the moral law is binding for everyone and is eternal, so how can we be exempt from keeping the Sabbath?
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In Judaism, the ceremonial law is intricately linked to the moral law. IOW, the Ten Commandments (Ten Statements or Ten Words are a better translation) are each explained more fully in the Five Books of the Torah (Law). The Statements themselves are quite general and don’t go into much detail, and even the Torah can be vague at times; hence, the Oral Law (Talmud) is needed to fill in the gaps with more precision. Remember the Sabbath Day, for example, but exactly how should that be done? Thus the moral obligation becomes in the Talmud a ceremonial description of both positive and negative commandments. It is this aspect of the Statement that Christians eschew, and, incidentally, Judaism does not require Christians or any other non-Jews to rest on the Sabbath since this is not part of the moral imperative of the Seven Laws of Noah.
 
Sunday IS the new Sabbath for us, as we are NOT jews. We are gentiles.
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First, the early Church was comprised almost entirely of Jews. Today, we have Jews that are Catholics, as in the case of the Hebrew Catholics. The Church welcomes all believers, Jew and Gentile alike, and does not discriminate based on ethnicity, race, color, etc.
We are not followers of the judaizers we follow Peter and Paul and the other Apostles.
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We follow the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Peter and Paul, while great saints, are not worshiped in the Catholic Church.
It is this aspect of the Statement that Christians eschew…
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Some Christians, but not all. There are some Christian communities that honor the traditional Sabbath, such as the Hebrew Catholics, Seventh-Day Adventists, members of the rapidly growing Hebrew Roots movement, etc. This is especially true now that knowledge of Judaism and the Torah is much more readily accessible than ever before in history.
 
It is very confusing. Because didn’t Jesus heal on the Sabbath? And didn’t he say the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath? All day in my mind and heart I pray and give thanks to the Father but I have things that I have to do… I hate it but I have to do stuff. I don’t think we are exempt, but what does it all mean?
 
petra22 said:
I hate it but I have to do stuff. I don’t think we are exempt, but what does it all mean?
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I think is the overall problem, in our modern world, we all are super busy all the time, our world ensures it ( I dont think that is coincidence either), but here we are, trying to find ways around something the bible tells us to follow, Ive seen this happen all too often regarding other topics as well, so the topic comes up, majority of people complain about having to abide by it, so others try to find ‘sneaky loopholes’ around it, or simply interpreting it another way, and/or find other verses that seem to contradict it, so we dont have to follow it anymore.
 
mikekle said:
I think is the overall problem, in our modern world, we all are super busy all the time, our world ensures it ( I dont think that is coincidence either), but here we are, trying to find ways around something the bible tells us to follow, Ive seen this happen all too often regarding other topics as well, so the topic comes up, majority of people complain about having to abide by it, so others try to find ‘sneaky loopholes’ around it, or simply interpreting it another way, and/or find other verses that seem to contradict it, so we dont have to follow it anymore.
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A faithful Catholic FULFILLS his/her Sabbath obligation by attending mass either on the vesper mass on Saturday evening OR the Sunday mass.

As I tried to explain on an earlier post, the Apostles settled this question back in the days of the Acts of the Apostles.
That is why WE, if we are gentiles (NOT Jews or descendent from Jews), are not required to keep the traditional “Sabbath” on Saturday.

If someone does (Say we MUST keep the Saturday Sabbath). Sorry to say this but that person IS a judaizer, one of the very first heresies combated by the 12 Apostles and St. Paul themselves.

A practicing Jew as we read in St. Paul’s letters CAN continue to keep the Saturday Sabbath HOWEVER if he/she IS a Christian he/she MUST also keep his/her “Breaking of Bread / MASS” on SUNDAY.
 
From the beginning Catholics met on the first day of the week and called it “the Lord’s Day” to honour the resurrection of Christ, as seen in Acts 20:7,21:4; 1Cor 16:2; Rev 1:10, which was an Apostolic custom which became an ecclesiastical law made by various Councils of the Church, duly extended to the universal Church.
 
8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; 11 for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11)

12 “‘Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant, or your maidservant, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

As you can see from the passages of Sacred Scripture, above, the Jews were commanded to keep the Sabbath for two reasons: to commemorate God’s rest on the seventh day of creation and to commemorate God liberating the Jews from their slavery to Egypt on a Saturday. As I see it, the first reason only establishes a work-rest pattern of six days of work followed by one day of rest without tying that day of rest to a particular day of the week. It is the second reason, which is of particular interest to Jews, that ties the day of rest to Saturday.

God liberating the Jews from their slavery to Egypt prefigured a far greater liberation to come, namely, God liberating mankind from their slavery to sin and death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which occurred on a Sunday. It makes sense that Christians would suppress the commemoration of the lesser Saturday liberation in favor of the greater Sunday liberation as their weekly day of rest.
 
Todd977 said:
8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your manservant, or your maidservant, or your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates; 11 for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11)

12 “‘Observe the sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. 13 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; 14 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, or your manservant, or your maidservant, or your ox, or your donkey, or any of your cattle, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your manservant and your maidservant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a servant in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out thence with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. (Deuteronomy 5:12-15)

As you can see from the passages of Sacred Scripture, above, the Jews were commanded to keep the Sabbath for two reasons: to commemorate God’s rest on the seventh day of creation and to commemorate God liberating the Jews from their slavery to Egypt on a Saturday. As I see it, the first reason only establishes a work-rest pattern of six days of work followed by one day of rest without tying that day of rest to a particular day of the week. It is the second reason, which is of particular interest to Jews, that ties the day of rest to Saturday.

God liberating the Jews from their slavery to Egypt prefigured a far greater liberation to come, namely, God liberating mankind from their slavery to sin and death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which occurred on a Sunday. It makes sense that Christians would suppress the commemoration of the lesser Saturday liberation in favor of the greater Sunday liberation as their weekly day of rest.
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Yes and no. The Sabbath is certainly linked to the liberation of the Jews from slavery; but the day of the week on which this liberation occurred need not literally be Saturday. Note that the liberation of the Jews from slavery is accompanied by their compassion for the servant, for the stranger among them, for the animals. The Sabbath is thus representative of the day of compassion, the day of love and joy, the day of rest and inner peace. And it is not limited to ancient historical times when the Jewish people were in fact liberated from their oppressors, but is meant to be a recurrent theme of liberation for every Jew as well as every person in the world today.
 
Todd977 said:

As you can see from the passages of Sacred Scripture, above, the Jews were commanded to keep the Sabbath for two reasons: to commemorate God’s rest on the seventh day of creation and to commemorate God liberating the Jews from their slavery to Egypt on a Saturday. As I see it, the first reason only **establishes a work-rest pattern of six days of work followed by one day of rest **without tying that day of rest to a particular day of the week. It is the second reason, which is of particular interest to Jews, that ties the day of rest to Saturday.

God liberating the Jews from their slavery to Egypt prefigured a far greater liberation to come, namely, God liberating mankind from their slavery to sin and death through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which occurred on a Sunday. It makes sense that Christians would suppress the commemoration of the lesser Saturday liberation in favor of the greater Sunday liberation as their weekly day of rest.
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Re bold underlined sentence: Thank you. That seems key to understanding how the term “Sabbath” should be understood in the 3rd Commandment.
The “Sabbath” was in existence from the beginning of Creation, and it’s observance as a hallowed day of rest occurred even before the Ten Commandments were given. (cf. Ex 16 second month after leaving Egypt - pick up manna only 6 days out of 7) The Commandments were not given until the third month after leaving Egypt (cf. Ex. 19-20).

It’s interesting that in both the Old and New Covenants, this hallowed 7th day gets connected to a weekly commemoration of the central liberating event of that particular Covenant. Each Covenant has a yearly feast of its event (Passover/Easter), but it’s as tho once a year wasn’t enough to ingrain in minds and hearts the memory and thanksgiving for the benefits received from God’s liberating gift. And so, in the Old Covenant, the remembrance of the Passover was to be part of the 7th day of rest; in the New Covenant the remembrance of Our Lord’s death and resurrection is to be connected to the 7th day of rest.​
 
constantconvert said:
I know we keep Sunday as a holy day because that’s the day Jesus rose from the dead.

But if God was going to do away with the Sabbath, why would he include it in the ten commandments?

I know that keeping the Sabbath was ***also ***part of the ceremonial law, and that we as the Church have a new ceremonial law, with sacraments instead of sacrifices, and different dietary restrictions etc.

The fact that the old ceremonial law was done away with makes sense to me, and is supported by New Testament scriptures, but the moral law is binding for everyone and is eternal, so how can we be exempt from keeping the Sabbath?
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Jesus didn’t keep it here…so I don’t think it was moral law.

Mark 2
23 And it happened that He was passing through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. 24 The Pharisees were saying to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And He *said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry; 26 how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

It seems like Scripture is progressive revelation, and some things that were “required” at one time, perhaps to make a point, become overshadowed by another point.

Good question though.

-BHM
 
‘Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work’

Note that it does not say Saturday. Just that the sequence goes 6 days of work, then the seventh day is the sabbath.

So who is to say that the seventh day is not Sunday? Same sequence. We just have the day of rest offset by one day relative to the Jewish calendar, but still abiding by the seven day sequence.

Can you trace your calendar back to be sure that Saturday lands on the 7th day sequence starting with ancient Jews?

Pope Benedict says that the bible tells us that the Sabbath is the reason for Creation. Isn’t that beautiful? I tell that to my kids every Sunday - our Sabbath and day of rest, abiding by the 6 days of work and 1 day to enjoy the fruits of that labor.

Jesus told us that “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
 
Therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the sabbath. 17But Jesus answered them: My Father worketh until now; and I work.

Do you think Jesus was trying to say the Pharisees were getting the commandment about working on the Sabbath a little out of context? God never stopped working or the world and creation would cease to exist. But on their trip through the wilderness the Jews needed to rest and think about God for a while, a dedicated rest… in honor and thanksgiving to God. A cease to work from material gain, not a cease to work for good, as in the cases of healing on the sabbath or getting your ox out of a ditch…

So, on the Sabbath I do go to Mass and enjoy every second of praising the Lord for all His good works. And for the rest of the day, even though my family wants to do “stuff”, in my mind and heart and words and works I’m praising and thanking God, my Father.
Is this the same as Keep Holy the Lord’s Day?
 
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