Tuesday, August 21, 2018

The Sabbath Is Not A Moral Law

To be clear, the law consisted of 613 commands including the Ten Commandments. The law is not divided into categories in Scripture. The division of the law into moral, ceremonial, civil laws, etc. is the work of man. Therefore, when the law was nailed to the cross as taught in Scripture, that means 613 commands were nailed to the cross. Since SDAs use these categories, which makes it convenient for them to say some were nailed to the cross and others weren't, I will use these 'categories" in my explanation in order to compare apples with apples.

SDAs believe that the Sabbath is a moral law because it is listed among the Ten Commandments. They believe the Ten to be God's eternal moral law. I submit that this is not the case. To fit into their peculiar theology, SDAs refuse to acknowledge the plain teaching of Scripture that 1) the Sabbath is ceremonial in nature, 2) it was given to Israel only and 3) the Sabbath was a shadow and was fulfilled in Jesus, its reality.

Moral laws are principles that deal with right and wrong conduct.  Moral laws are instinctively known by every person and they don't have to be taught. A sense of guilt is experienced when a moral law is broken. Moral laws are in effect every minute of every day. These characteristics can be applied to nine of the Ten Commandments. However, the Sabbath of the fourth commandment does not meet this criteria.

A person has to be told about or taught the Sabbath. No guilt is felt when people are ignorant of the seventh-day Sabbath. Most people who were taught the Sabbath were surprised when they first heard about it. The Sabbath is not in effect every minute of every day. The Sabbath is observed for a specific period of time: from sunset Friday until sunset Saturday. The Israelites were able to begin and end the Sabbath together because they lived by the same God-given calendar based on the New Moon. That does not apply today. The "sacred" hours of the Sabbath are different worldwide depending on where one lives. If the hours are sacred, how can they begin and end differently? Did not God in His wisdom know about the International Date Line? Yes, He did! If the whole world were obligated to keep the Sabbath, how would it function? All businesses except for maybe hospitals would have to shut down. This is just another logical reason why it was given to a specific group of people.

There were restrictions when it was given to Israel. For instance, no food was be be gathered nor cooked. The people were to rest and stay in their tents. No work was permitted. There was not even a command to worship. The people were to remember and reflect on how God, their Creator and Deliverer had rescued them with His strong right arm from Egyptian bondage.

For its ceremonial observance (other than the ritual to observe it every seventh day and rest) the priests had to use special ingredients to bake the shewbread, which was prepared and replaced every weekly Sabbath.  The special recipe could not be duplicated by anyone. In Leviticus 23, the weekly Sabbath is listed among the other feasts and holy convocations.  Each of these Sabbaths had special significance and they were all memorials in some way to God for delivering them from bondage, for His continued bountiful blessings and/or for foreshadowing His coming as their Sabbath rest. In addition, all of them were holy days.

God never tires of us living righteous lives with the help of His indwelling Spirit, but at one point He told Israel that He hated their Sabbath keeping. It was an abomination to Him. When has He ever tired of and hated us for living "moral" lives? Would not His declaration of hatred for their Sabbath keeping also acknowledge that it is not a moral law?

In closing, all 613 laws (which include the Ten Commandments) are ONE indivisible unit. No prerequisites are needed in order to keep moral laws. MAN GAVE categories to the law not God. SDAs SAY the so-called ceremonial laws were nailed to the cross. They have extracted the Ten Commandments from the Torah (613 commands) and teach that 603 were nailed to the cross instead. The 603 so-called ceremonial laws that were nailed to the cross explain in detail how the Ten are to be kept. If the instructions are nailed to the cross why hold on to the Ten unless you are going to write your own instructions which is what the SDA church has effectively done.

The Bible Says Jesus is our Sabbath rest Today and every day. Celebrate Him!!