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Seventh-Day
Sabbath Comments:
1999
Below are assorted e-mails I have received in 1999 commenting on my Scripture Study "The Seventh-Day Sabbath " found in my Scripture Workbook. The e-mailers' comments are in black and enclosed in "greater than" and "lesser than" signs. My comments are in red.
>I was searching the 'Net for Sabbath info [and] found your site. Sir your arguments are weak at best.<
I assume you're referring to my "Scripture Study" on the Sabbath. My Scripture studies by design are "simple." They are just meant to introduce people to various doctrinal questions. My articles provide more in-depth treatments. Although, I don't have an article specifically on the subject of the Sabbath at this time, there are a couple of "follow-up" pages linked to the bottom of the study which provide further details on my position.
> Check Desmond Ford's site for Q&A's. It just might show you something. There's another site. <
I'll check it out when I get the time.
>I was surprise to see how you came to understanding that first century Christians were something other than Jews.<
There were no non-Jewish, first century-Christians? Then why all the fuss about circumcision? It occurred because of non-Jews (who would not have been circumcised) becoming Christians.
> I hope and pray that you can see your way through the smoke of the pope.<
The pope did not "invent" Sunday worship if that is what you are trying to imply. As quotes from second-century Christian writings indicate (as found on one of the above mentioned follow-up pages), Sunday worship was the norm for Christians in the second century.
Meanwhile, IMO, the papacy is an invented institution that was not around until at least the fourth century. So, unless you believe Peter was the first pope, as Catholics claim (in which case why are you not Catholic?) then the idea of the pope inventing Sunday worship is logically impossible.
> God Bless and may he have mercy on us all.
P.S. It was the only commandment not carried over to the NT? Why? Rev 14:12 "Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." I really don't understand how you get around that texts.
Russ
2/12/1999<
Which "commandments of God" is text referring to? It does not say "The Ten Commandments" just commandments. Sabbath worship is not specifically mentioned here, not any place else in the NT.
So the only way to read Sabbath worship into the verse is to take it as referring to all of the OT commandments, which are not limited to the Ten Commandments. Those are the preamble to the Law. The entire Law contains about 700 commandments. You cannot logically separated the first ten from the other 690. So you'd better brush up on your OT law.
Unless, of course, you have some way of deciding which OT commands still apply and which do not. I explain my basis for doing so on one of the, again, above mentioned follow-up pages to the Sabbath study.
I hope that all helps to explain my position some.
>Again you want to place all of the commandments in one big bag and chose the ones that work. Christ nail the sacrificial law to the cross. All of the law written by Moses has been done away with. But only the Ten Commandments specifically was written by the "finger of God" in stone forever.<
Two quick points: First, "ALL Scripture is God-breathed and is useful." The Ten Commandments are not somehow "more inspired" than the rest of the laws in the OT. Second, the relationship between the OT and the NT, and which laws are still binding and which are not, is more complicated than: just the "big ten "still apply and the rest are history.
See the following page on my site where I discuss my ideas in this matter: The Sabbath and Decision Making.
> You may not understand then God does not change.<
You have just expressed your opinion that all the laws except ten were done away with from the OT. So this obvious statement, by your own omission, does not apply to the continuing force of OT laws.
> My God rest[ed] on the Sabbath and as his believer I rest. I've have brushed up on OT brother, and you should never change God['s] position.<
Ditto above.
> If you get a chance you should go over to this web page. It's a Seventh day Adventist site which would blow your cork right off. But they do have some interesting first century info.
God Bless.
Russ
2/14/1999<
Well, I've read enough stuff disagreeing with my positions on this and a wide variety of other subjects that I doubt seriously anything I read at this point will "blow my cork off" (whatever that means). But I will check the site out when I get a chance, maybe even add it and the other URL you sent me to my Opposing Viewpoints" links page.
For additional follow-ups to the Scripture Study "The Seventh-Day Sabbath " found in my Scripture Workbook, see: Seventh-Day Sabbath Comments: 1997-98 and The Sabbath and Decision Making.
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