No. Man follows God’s time, which he gave us as a weekly cycle.
To keep a different day holy, rather than the one God made holy, is to impose upon the Creator our will. This is unacceptable to God. Even if its the tradition of a 2000 year old church to meet on the First day to break bread, worship, etc.
You may live a holy life, you may worship God every second of your life, you may go to mass every and any day, but only one day has God set aside, and ‘blessed’, ‘rested in’, made ‘holy’, and that is the Seventh Day Sabbath. Which he tells us in his Law, “Remember it to keep it”
Why do people have a problem with God telling them to take a break from the week and relax and be refreshed in his presence? I don’t know. God gives us a holiday and we say no to him.
Jesus said that man was not made for the Sabbath, but that the Sabbath was made for man. God is giving you a holiday, take it!
Tell me exactly how you tell which Island in the south pacific is really experiencing “Saturday” when one a few miles west is experiencing “Sunday” depending where you are… at the very same moment in time… Biblically.
Tell me exactly what authority the Kiribati legislature had to move the International Dateline from one side of the island to the other, thereby “changing” the sabbath (which Adventists in Kiribati follow!) — biblically. NOTE - this change most certainly did cause a disruption in the 7 day cycle for some people! Not just a change of dates.
Tell me exactly what authority the British commonwealth had in the first place to create the international dateline and move that arbitrary slice of time called “saturday” around? – biblically
Tell me exactly how you find “sabbath” on the international space station, biblically.
Then, maybe we can talk.
The logical problem is this. Adventists teach that during the end times, the sabbath will become a matter of salvation. (some teach that it already is, but I’m trying to be charitable). Adventists cannot agree on exactly “how” to keep the sabbath. Some go out to eat, some won’t. Some warm food up… some don’t. Some will cook simple foods, some will only re heat. Some will go to the grocery store for necessities, some won’t.
All they can agree on is that whatever you do to keep “sabbath” holy, is that mostly, it involves going to church and even more importantly, that it has to happen on Saturday. Sunday will not do. To keep Sunday is to disobey God. “knowingly” keeping Sunday instead of Saturday if you have been given the “light” on the sabbath, will cost you your salvation.
Problem is, Saturday is an arbitrary, human designation.
Adventists will argue the Jews have never lost sabbath… that is not quite correct. For most of the planet west of Jerusalem, that our “saturday” is congruent with the NT sabbath is fairly certain. East of Jerusalem to the international dateline, that is more tricky. In the polar regions where you may go days without a sunset… trickier still. And we now have the technology to live in space, where there is no sunrise/sunset at all. Even the Jewish scholars disagree on exactly how to keep the biblical sabbath on the International space station, in the arctic where there is no sunrise/sundown some times during the year. There are rabbis that argue, that because of the international dateline ( a totally man made, imaginary line), Jews living EAST of Jerusalem and WEST of the dateline should not keep sabbath before it begins in Jerusalem, even if that means they keep sabbath on the day recognized by civil government as Sunday. Adventists follow the dateline, not the beginning of the sabbath in Jerusalem (which is biblical? who has the authority to say?)
The 10 commandments are binding as an expression of Natural, moral law. The old covenant and its shadows have been fulfilled. There is nothing natural about keeping “saturday” over any other day of the week. It doesn’t exist in nature. There is a moral precept in having time set aside for regular rest. (If you actually read the commandment, worship and assembly are
not in there)
There is nothing morally superior about Saturday over Sunday for rest.
Adventists will argue that there is nothing natural about a 7 day week, and therefore, it only exists because of the sabbath, a
Proof. Again… that is not correct. That is putting the cart before the horse. The natural origin of the week is apparent to anyone who has watched a mother cut up fruit or a sandwich for her child. You cut it in half… if the pieces aren’t quite small enough, you cut it in half again. The lunar cycle is 28 days… a little too much for humans to order their lives around… half of that is 14… still a bit too much… half again is 7. And there is the week, a perfectly natural, logical division of the lunar month. What mother wastes time cutting an apple into fifths?
Within the cycle though, no day stands out as having any quality different from another.
Even in the commandment, the word seventh is not the name of a particular day, but an ordinal number… as in the third planet, the fourth apple, or the seventh day. If you mix up a plate of apples and recount them, a different one might be the “seventh” one each time you order them.
The church recognizes this moral precept of setting aside regular time for rest, and also the NT precept of not neglecting to assemble ourselves together… and applies these to the first day of the week… Sunday. The day of the resurrection. The first day, which is also the Eighth… which cannot be found in the natural weekly cycle. It stands outside time. God’s rest stands outside time… Eternity. The Jewish people looked at sabbath and remembered creation .(Exodus 20:8). Christians look at Sunday and remember the NEW creation. (2 Cor 5:17) The Jewish people looked at sabbath and remembered their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. (Deut. 5:15) Christians look at Sunday and remember their deliverance from slavery to the law. (Romans 8:2) The Jewish people looked at sabbath and carefully guarded its edges, looking forward to entering into God’s eternal rest. Christians experience Sunday as a joyful feast, a weekly Easter, a celebration of their rest in Christ, who is the fulfillment of the old covenant sabbath, and in whom Christians find their sabbath, their rest. (Hebrews 4:10)
One of the old covenant shadows, was the offering of the first fruits. Jesus is referred to in the New Testament, as the first fruits of those who are raised from the dead. On what day was the offering of the first fruits made? (Leviticus 23:39) The Eighth day!
Jesus is our sabbath rest.
Sunday is the feast of the Church, a celebration of what Jesus has done for us. Sunday is
not the sabbath on another day.
There is no explicit biblical command for Christians to worship on Sunday, this is not a matter of old covenant law. It fulfills the moral precept of regular rest and worship, “keeping” the commandment, as Christians should keep the commandments. As moral law. In spirit and truth, not in letter and shadows.
Adventists love to trot out statements that the Church “changed” the sabbath to Sunday. You can find them. They summarize the externals (The day of the week has changed) without delving into the deeper meanings. The Church, did indeed change the day of worship. A Catholic understands “Church” to mean the one Church, which has existed from the day of Pentecost. Not something that came along after the apostles. This is indeed “the Church” and the Church did change the day of assembly. Not as an act of rebellion against God, but recognizing the need for Christians to express their new reality and what Jesus has done for us. This was done in the freedom that Jesus paid for with his life, by the apostolic authority which Jesus gave his fledgling church, to teach in His name.
MarysRoses
