| Author | Message | ||
| Carracio Registered user Username: Carracio Post Number: 57 Registered: 3-2014 |
Greetings from The Netherlands! A while ago I posted something on a Christian Youth page on Facebook about the Sabbath and Hebrews 3 & 4. I got very positive reactions. Because of that I decided to show it to my wife. I didnt want to bring up the Sabbath because of the sensitivity of the subject (my in-laws are fanatic SDA's). So she read it and decided to share it with my in-laws. I also posted it on my personal Facebook page. To our suprise my brother-in-law liked my post and posted that he liked it. That was really a big surprise, we are very happy to see that he is open-minded about the subject. My parents-in-law responded with all kinds of SDA crap. I wasn't really concerned about their reaction, cause it is very easy to refute them. There was just one text I was curious about: Isaiah 66: 22-23. For them this texts tells us that we will celebrate the Sabbath on the new heaven and earth. What would your response be? Can you give me some context on this one? Another thing is Matthew 12: 1-8 12 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” 3 But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he was hungry, he and those who were with him: 4 how he entered the house of God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those who were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are blameless? 6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’[a] you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even[b] of the Sabbath.” What I'm getting from this is that David and the priests were breaking the Sabbath law, but they were innocent. Jesus says about this, that he is greater than the Temple. For me this looks like that in the old situation the priests broke the Sabbath IN the temple, and they were blameless. Now we are IN Christ (who is greater than the Temple), so what does this say about the Sabbath? It's no longer valid! But is this true? How hould I interpret this? Hope you understand my post.. I'm Dutch :p | ||
| Taluur Registered user Username: Taluur Post Number: 112 Registered: 8-2012 |
Hello Carracio, One way to understand Isaiah 66:22-23 is that from month to month (new moons) and Sabbath to Sabbath (week to week) all humanity will come to worship the Lord. If the text was intended to mean that the Sabbath day will be observed at that time and therefore it must be observed today, then to be consistent the new moons must be observed as well. Along with that the Levitical sacrificial system should be followed (66:21). It certainly appears SDAs wrench this passage out of context to promote obligatory Sabbath day observance. In the new heavens and earth the light of the sun and moon are not needed (Revelation 21:22-27; 22:3-5). The light emanating from the Lord is all that is needed. We perpetually rest in Him, not a day. As for Matthew 12:1-8, I think you raise a valid point. Jesus is greater than the Sabbath and Lord over it. He is not obligated to it, and neither are those of us in the New Covenant. I hope this sheds some light. :-) | ||
| Terryohare Registered user Username: Terryohare Post Number: 24 Registered: 2-2012  |
The weekly Sabbath and the recurring New Moon are inseparably linked together in this passage to describe the perpetual holy worship of the Lord during timeless eternity. It cannot be describing a heavenly worship that is limited to weekly and monthly rituals reminiscent of the foreshadowing figures of the old covenant (Rev 21:23). The symbolic use of the New Moon and the Sabbath speak of the salvation and restoration of the cosmos, themes that will inhabit the praises of God’s people throughout eternity. What these two ceremonial laws typify will be the eternal topic of God’s people: a complete redemption that brought us to a new creation and the increasing glory of God’s kingdom. This verse no more supports observation of the Sabbath for the Christian than it does the New Moon. As Heather McKay notes, “Scholars who claim the dominance of the Sabbath worship seem oblivious to the equality of the New Moon and Sabbath in this text.” The equality of the Sabbath and New Moon are in their ceremonial status, and therefore, in their typological prefigurement of Christ’s redemption. The text clearly depicts the Sabbath as a type of eternal rest and the New Moon as a type of the re-creation. This is the experience of Christians now, for Christ came in the “fullness” of time (Gal 4:4). The former glass of time was emptied with the advent of Christ, and a new epoch began with the Lord’s Day in which we celebrate the super-abundance of the new birth and the resurrection. Jesus Christ is the Sabbath fulfilled. We no longer taste of eternity in the Sabbath, but drink profusely of that promise through Jesus Christ Himself (1 John 5:12), who is the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega, the Faithful and True. He is the full expression of the Godhead in bodily form and gloriously resides in heaven awaiting His cherished bride. [From Sabbath Complete, p. 64-65] For a discussion of Matt 12:1-8, see Sabbath Complete, p. 174-182. |
