What's with the 10 Commandments?

[Nita]

That’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with that but “thou shalt keep holy the Lord’s Day” which is a man-made commandment, is joined to the other commandments and taught as if it were equally ordained by God. There’s something unscrupulous about that. It’s being passed off as the word of God but really it’s the word of man. Being straightforward about that would be more acceptable. Not being straightforward causes suspicion because now it looks as though one of the commandments were changed from “sabbath” to “Lord’s Day” …

In the New Covenant, Jesus established an authoritative office for His kingdom/Church here on earth to proclaim binding teachings and disciplines/regulations for His followers. (eg.: Mt. 16:18-19; Lk. 10:16 )
So you see, it is not unscrupulous - it is a legitimate exercise of the authority Jesus bestowed on the leaders of his Church (Catholics refer to this office as the “Magisterium” - it consists of the successors of Peter (Pope) and the other apostles (Bishops).
Neither are official teachings of His Church just the words of man, but rather they are words of man as inspired by the Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised to the apostles at the Last Supper, to guide them in teaching the truth. (cf John 16:13) God is eminently capable of ensuring that His Church does not mandate anything contrary to His truth and/or will.

I think we’re getting off topic for this thread. But if you’d care to open another thread on the topic, I’d be very interested and talking about it more.

 

[guanophore]

If everything is accomplished then why the commandments at all? If the Jewish sabbath is not necessary why replace it with Sunday and create a Christian sabbath?

The Sabbath of God cannot be “replaced” only observed (or not). It is not possible to remove something that God has created.

Christians believe that Jesus Himself is our Sabbath rest:

3 For we who have believed enter that rest Heb. 4:3.

We observe the Lord’s Day because that is the day He chose. He chose to rise from the dead early in the morning on the first day of the week. He appeared to His disciples on the first day of the week, and begat His Church by filling them with the Spirit at Pentecost.

 That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that but "thou shalt keep holy the Lord's Day" which is a man-made commandment, is joined to the other commandments and taught as if it were equally ordained by God.

It sounds like you are a Sabbatarian. You do not accept the NT teaching that Jesus Himself is our Sabbath rest, and you believe that Christians are to observe the OT Sabbath.

There’s something unscrupulous about that. It’s being passed off as the word of God but really it’s the word of man. Being straightforward about that would be more acceptable. Not being straightforward causes suspicion because now it looks as though one of the commandments were changed from “sabbath” to “Lord’s Day” and really the fourth commandment was changed.

I can understand how it would seem that way to you. But it is not possible for man to change a commandment of God. He has commanded that we enter His rest:

7 again he sets a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,
“Today, when you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not speak later of another day. 9 So then, there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God; 10 for whoever enters God’s rest also ceases from his labors as God did from his.(Heb. 4:7)

We do not earn heaven by following commandments, or any other kind of work. In this sense, we have “ceased from labors”.Once we enter the Sabbath Rest (Christ) by grace, through faith, we walk by faith.

The keeping of commandments occurs out of our loving obedience to Him. We are commanded to remain in His “rest” throughout our lives:

18 And to whom did he swear that they should never enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

We enter and remain in Christ our Sabbath rest by grace, through faith.

 

[michaelhager]

“You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbours.” Exodus 20:17

We get our ninth and 10th commandments from this verse.
It seems really difficult here to see two clear separate commandments being presented…

Anyone have any insight here?

Try Deuteronomy 5:21. That’s where this separation comes from.

Also, remember that for more than a thousand years there were no chapters or verses in the scriptures. Imagine writing a letter to someone and then numbering the paragraphs and sentences (Ok, I know lawyers do that) but Paul didn’t and the early writers of the Old Testament scriptures didn’t. So long before there were numbers in our text, the Church divided the commandments into ten because in Exodus 34:28 and also Deuteronomy 4:13 and 10:4, these precepts are alluded to literally as “the ten words.”

You have to get away from our modern “westernized” concepts of the scriptures to appreciate how the Church interpreted them.

Michael Hager