It is written in the Holy Bible, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” and the Law commands us to keep the Sabbath holy. Why then do we not keep it?
The Law commanded in the Old Testament keeping the Sabbath, but it also commanded to offer animal sacrifices for every sin and trespass (Lev 4), do this Adventist priest and his followers offer animal sacrifices in obedience to the Law?
Does he offer these sacrifices in the Temple in Jerusalem? Or he breaks the Law in this point. Does he keep the fasting of the fourth month, the fifth month, the seventh month and the tenth month as the Bible says in (Zech 8:19)? Does he celebrate the festival of booths, the festival of trumpets, the festival of the weeks and the festival of the unleavened bread as the Law commands in (Lev 23)? Why does not he say about these festivals “not one letter, not one stroke of a letter will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” (Matt 5:18)?
Does he and his family celebrate the Passover every year and bring a lamb and keep it from the tenth to the fourteenth day, then they eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs with their loins girded, sandals on their feet, staff in their hand and eat it hurriedly then for seven days they eat unleavened bread and remove leaven from their houses according to the Law (Ex 12:6-9). Is this Adventist priest descending from Aaron as the Law requires?
Does he keep the commandments of the Law as stipulated in the Old Testament? Does he observe all rules of uncleanliness and purification and abstain from foods prohibited by the Law? Or is it only the Sabbath that concerns him whereas “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” (Jas 2:10).
Would that this Adventist brother come out of the letter to the spirit and oversteps the symbol to the thing symbolised; for some commandments are given to us in the Old Testament in order that we understand it in a new spiritual way in the New Testament. Would that he listens to the words of the apostle, ” if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations; “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle ” (Col 2:20, 21).
Such commandments are only “a shadow of what is to come” including also the commandment of the Sabbath. So, the apostle says,”So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths “. (Col 2:16).
So, the commandment of the Sabbath – in its literal meaning – ended and let no one condemn you for it as the apostle said about the Sabbath and other regulations which are, “a shadow of things to come,.” (Col 2:17).
And so long as the Holy Bible considered the Sabbath one of the regulations which are a shadow of what is to come, which means that it was a mere symbol and changed by the appearance of the thing symbolised ie. Sunday, thus we are not requested to keep it literally according to this express commandment of the New Testament.
However, God’s words do not pass away; the Sabbath, in its spiritual meaning, is still kept. What then is its spiritual meaning?
The word “Sabbath” means rest and the commandment of keeping this weekly rest for the Lord is still existing; for we take rest in the real Lord’s Day which is Sunday, on which the Lord took rest actually. What does this mean? How did the Lord take rest on Sunday?
The Lord took rest after offering His blood on Friday for our salvation by paying the debt of sin in full on the cross. He released all the world from the debt of sin, but death remained.
The Lord had to release us from death as well so as it does not continue as a ghost terrifying us and He released us from it on Sunday by His resurrection and victory over death. Thus Sunday became the real rest of the Lord on which He released us from death and from the wages of death.
…We [should] take the spirit [and] not the letter of the Law.
It is written, the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor 3:6)
The spirit of the Law is the rest on the Lord’s day and the great day of the Lord was Sunday on which He got rid of death which was the most dangerous enemy of man.
For more detail, see my book “The Ten Commandments – Part 1 – Fourth Commandment”.
