bsurd Claims At Variance with Scripture!

Sabbatarians claim the universality of Sabbath keeping. They say it was given for all men of all ages and are quick to point out that God sanctified the seventh day after the creation (Gen. 2:1-3). However, there is no argument that God rested and sanctified the seventh day after the creation. Rather, we contend that God did not command the seventh day to be holy until years later. We simply ask Seventh-day Adventists to please show us where someone other than a Jew was commanded in the Bible to keep the Sabbath Day holy? Notice what the Scripture says regarding the subjects of Sabbath keeping.

      Moses should be well qualified to tell us who did and who didn’t keep the Sabbath. He calls the “Ten Commandments” the Lord’s Covenant. “So He declared to you His covenant which He commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and He wrote them on two tablets of stone” (Deut. 4:13). Yet, Moses unmistakably states, “The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb. The Lord did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, those who are here today, all of us who are alive” (Deut. 5:2, 3; emp. mine). So the Ten Commandment covenant was not given before Moses. Now either a modern day denomination (which originated in the midst of mistaken prophesy is correct; see last article) or Moses is.  Both cannot be right.

      We also submit to the reader the testimony of Nehemiah, one of the great restorers in the Old Testament. He wrote, “You [Jehovah] came down also on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them just ordinances and true laws. . .You made known to them Your holy Sabbath . . .” (Neh. 9:13, 14). If Jehovah “made known to them,” then they didn’t previously know. Therefore, prior to Moses, men didn’t know anything about the Sabbath.

      We can also present one of the great prophets, Ezekiel. He wrote down the word of the Lord saying, “Therefore I made them go out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them My statutes and showed them My judgments, ‘which if a man does, he shall live by them.’ Moreover I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me . . .” (Ezek. 20:10-12). How can the Sabbath be for all nations of all times if it was a sign between God and one nation—Israel (see also Exod. 31:16, 17)? 

      The New Testament is equally clear. Paul certainly knew how to make a distinction between the covenant at Sinai and that of Abraham which was 430 years earlier (Gal. 3:16-19; 21-31). In fact, Paul taught being married to Christ means that we are dead to the Law (Rom. 7:4-6). He identifies the law as the Ten Commandments in verse 7. He also plainly recorded that the ministry “written and engraved on stones” was a “ministry of death,” “of condemnation” and was “passing away” (2 Cor. 3:7-16). His inspired pen stroked that such was nailed to the cross (Col. 2:14). It is clear that the Bible teaches that the Sabbath belonged to only one nation and for only 1500 years. It was not kept or known before Moses, nor was it practiced by Jesus’ authority after His ascension to heaven.