In my research of various churches, the bible, and so on, a Sabbatarian friend of mine gave me this book on the Seventh Day Sabbath which gives a rather forceful argument from the bible on why we were to keep it:
Amongst others. It seems rather solid to me and all this but, I would still like to get an opposing view on the issue before I just flippantly commit to some dogma. Would you please tell me, or redirect me to a book, the Catholic position on the issue in a comprehensive manner?
Or rather, a NEW Sabbath has been inaugurated. The reason there are two sabbaths and not just one is probably because salvation history will have TWO sabbaths, and not just one, that is, first an IMPERFECT Sabbath (the OLD one) followed by the true Sabbath (the New One).
Put simply, the imagery of the days of creation, according to several ECFs, is a foreshadowing of the RE-creation of the world, that is, the Redemption of Man. Hence, salvation history is a succession of “ages” or “days”, the first part of which is the prevalence of “sin”(darkness, “evening came”) followed by Redemption (light, “morning followed”). Then, the imagery implies that, from the Fall of Man to the end of the world and New Creation will be exactly “eight ages” inclusive.
And this agrees with most Catholic data when we assume the general scenario of the approved mystics.
Five ages delineate the Old Law:
I. The Fall/ the Flood
II. Babel/Language Confounding and calling of Abraham
III. Egypt’s Enslavement / Exodus and Kingdom of Isreal
IV. Intermediate Jewish Falling Away / Exile and Restoration
V. Second Falling away and OT Antichrist Antiochus / First Coming of Christ
In the sixth day, God “creates” man in His own image, in the sixth age, God RE-creates man in His image by bringing the Gentiles into the light of Christ:
VI. Pagan Rome persecutes / Catholic Christendom
The seventh day is the Old, imperfect Sabbath:
VII. Minor Apostasy (1500 - today) / Glorious Restoration of Catholicism and age of peace (according to mystics)
Hence, in the seventh day there is truly “rest” for God’s People, for God will show humanity the consequences of its apostasy through the Minor Chastisement, reuniting Christians and gloriously restoring the faith throughout the world.
Finally, there is the eighth day:
VIII. the Great Apostasy and NT Antichrist / the Second Coming of Christ and New Creation
Note, when humantiy falls away the second time from Catholicism, they no longer have the excuse they have now because of Christian division. They are unforgivable and irredeemable. and so the world must end with the Second Coming, which brings the utlimate Sabbath, the eternal New Creation.
Note also the parallel of the days of the weeks: day “eight” is also day “one”, just as the eighth note in a scale in music brings one back to the first note, only one “octave” higher. Similarly, there are parallels between day one and day eight. In day one, the Fall holds reign over humanity (in Noah’s day, most of mankind is wicked), unchecked by any Redemption. So God DESTROYS the world and BEGINS the Redemption of humanity. In the eighth day, the Fall once again reigns in humanity (the Gentiles have permanently and irrevocably rejected the Gospel), and again God destroys the world. But so then in the first day God BEGAN the redemption of humanity by using WATER to destroy but also cleanse/redeem the world, so in the eighth day, God ENDS the Redemption by destroying the world by FIRE, condemning it because it is irredeemable and unforgivable. And in both cases, a NEW World begins, the first, a world that is starting to be redeemed. in the eighth, a world that has already been redeemed is passing into the ULTIMATE New World, the everlasting Resurrection and New Creation.
Similarly with the Beast: see Revelation 17: “Five have fallen” (the Old Law). “One is” (Pagan Rome, the sixth), “the other has not yet come” (the seventh , the minor apostasy), “and the beast which was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into perdition” (the fallen nature of man is consummate with all the stages of the beast, and the beast “was” (the fall reigned in the first head, unchecked by Redemption), and the beast “is again” in the eighth (the fall reigns again at the end of the world, but this time irredeemable)).
I know this i alot but it’ll give them something to think about.
