Hi Mike,

I’ve been blessed by keeping Saturday a day of rest and not running here or there or asking others to do so, and it has nothing to do with gaining eternal life, but it certainly has increased my peace and joy here and now. I thought I’d share why and how I came to the conclusion that observing the weekly Sabbath is supported by scripture. Thanks for your site and any comments in advance.
We read that in Exo 16:29  See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
There is the physical aspect, that is we are not to go out of our place on the Sabbath which taken literally and extreme could mean, we could not move at all on the Sabbath, which would be legalistic nonsense. However the Spiritual means when we are in Christ we are at rest from our works of earning Salvation, and in the very real sense, Christ is the Sabbath in a way it could be said — Christ was not made for Man, Man was made for Christ! Now given all this for one to disregard the weekly Sabbath and treat it as any other day of physical or mental work, and not set it apart in however God would have one interpret stay in your place as observance, to me would be the same as choosing to break any of the 10 commandments physically and yet attempt to tell others we are followers and Servants of Jesus. We just would not be taken seriously! Giving Jesus all the Glory Thank you for your time, and may God continue to bless your site!

D____

Hi D____,
Thank you for taking the time to write.

If you are given a blessing by keeping one day for God out of seven days, then I rejoice with you that you are living in the faith God has given you. I too, was “blessed by keeping Saturday a day of rest” for over ten years, when that was the faith God had granted me.
You mention Isaiah saying “the sabbath… my holy day,” and you refer to John in Revelation one saying “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s Day”, and you conclude that since the Lord calls the Sabbath His holy day, that John must have been in the spirit on the weekly Sabbath. So let’s look at where such a literal approach to this subject leads us. Here is some more of that same chapter in Isaiah.

Isa 58:13  If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Isa 58:14  Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Considering how the same apostle referred to all of the Old Testament holy days as “a feast of the Jews” in his gospel, and considering the fact that it is in that gospel that we are specifically told that “He [ Christ] had broken the sabbath”, it hardly seems likely that the apostle John was referring to the weekly sabbath when he said, “I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day.”

Joh 5:1  After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Joh 6:4  And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.
Joh 7:2  Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.

It is true that God instituted the sabbath at creation, just as he instituted the giving of offerings of which He told Cain that Cain had not “done well” in following the instructions he had been given.

Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Yes, Cain had disobeyed his instructions and “did not do well”. So there is no doubt that God gave instructions concerning the giving of offerings to Adam and Eve and their children, Cain and Abel. But you seem to have forgotten this verse of scripture:

Rom 5:13  (For until the law [ of Moses] sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
Rom 5:14  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

And when the law of Moses codified in writings the history of Israel and the stipulations of the law, what did it all really mean? Here is what it really meant, and here is why all these things happened to them:

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

What in particular did the weekly sabbath foreshadow?

Heb 4:1  Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.
Heb 4:2  For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
Heb 4:3  For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.
Heb 4:4  For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.
Heb 4:5  And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.
Heb 4:6  Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:
Heb 4:7  Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Heb 4:8  For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.
Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God [ did] from his.
Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

“We which have believed do enter in”, and as believers we too, “have broken the sabbath and claim that God is our Father”. According to the holy spirit, Christ “had broken the sabbath… picked corn on the sabbath… said he was greater than the sabbath, told a man to pick up his bed on the sabbath and said My Father works on the sabbath, and I work on it, too.”

Joh 5:16  And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

Had Christ really said God was His Father? Of course He did, and He had also “broken the sabbath” just to let us know that the law of Moses was “a yoke that neither we nor our fathers could bear” and that it was never meant to be any more than “a shadow of good things to come”.

Act 15:9  And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Act 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Act 15:11  But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.
1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

The Greek word translated ‘ensamples’ is tupos, and it means ‘types’ or shadows, and this is what the law was always intended to be:

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

Let’s look again at where God calls the sabbath His holy day in Isa 58.

Isa 58:13  If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Isa 58:14  Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

So if you keep the weekly sabbath you are indebted to keep the whole law…

Gal 5:3  For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Jas 2:10  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.

… and in doing that you are testifying against yourself that you “do your own ways, find your own pleasure, and speak your own words” six out of seven days of the week, whereas those who enter into the true Sabbath, as they enter into the true Passover, are not keeping six days for their own works, but are giving themselves to Christ and have ceased from their own works twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. They are not keeping the Passover any longer with literal bread and a literal lamb,. which equates to no more than “old leaven, malice and wickedness… but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and Truth.”

1Co 5:8  Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

Here is the Truth that cost Christ His life:

Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

As I have repeatedly demonstrated, Christ went to great lengths to demonstrate that the outward keeping of days, months, times and years would, in time, give an apostle fear that his labors were in vain, and this is a direct reference to Jewish days, moons, times and years.
John did not say, ‘I was in the spirit on the Lord’s holy day,’ but “the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice…”.

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,
Rev 1:11  Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send [ it] unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

The weekly sabbath is not introduced with a trumpet but “the great and terrible day of the Lord,” our day of judgment which we are now in, is accompanied by a trumpet.

Joe 2:1  Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;
Isa 58:1  Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
Isa 2:12  For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

I have written a very in- depth paper on this subject of the law. Please read The Law of Moses Versus The Law of The Spirit in the Essential Reading section of iswasandwillbe. com. It is in the upper left corner of the home page.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike