Twenty-five Sabbath Questions Answered

The following is a condensed version of an article by Robert D. Brinsmead titled: "Twenty-Five Sabbath Questions Answered." Each point could be elaborated on, and many footnotes are left out.. Any typos are mine.

For those who say, "Why do you get hung up on such trivial topics" -- that is indeed the whole point of this article. Genuine Christianity is NOT hung-up on trivial details such as sabbath-keeping, as some on this forum have been claiming. I´m trying to refute those who misrepresent Christianity. Christianity deals with love and grace -- not hellfire, damnation, self-righteousness, and legalistic do-and-don´ts. It´s about an inner metamorphasis and enlightenment and union with God which yields spiritual love -- not pharisaical nit-picking about days and meats and temples, etc.

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1.) Nowhere does the New Testament even imply that the sabbath is the sign that distinguishes God´s people. The Holy Spirit is the the seal or sign of the new covenant. Circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic covenant; the sabbath was the sign of the Mosaic covenant.

2.) The New Testament nowhere commands Christians to observe either the seventh or the first day of the week as a Christian sabbath.

3.) There is no biblical record of any command to keep the sabbath until the time of Moses. Neither is there any biblical record of people keeping the sabbath until it was given to Israel.

4.) Genesis 2:2-3 simply says that God rested ("ceased") on the "seventh day" after His work of creation had ended. Unlike the preceding six days, the seventh day was not bounded by evening and morning -- it was ongoing and open-ended. Furthermore, Genesis mentions no creation ordinance commanding man to rest. Neither does it record any instance of man keeping a weekly sabbath before the Exodus.

5.) The creation ordinances of marriage and dominion over the earth were repeated to Noah after the flood. It is significant that Noah was given no command to keep the sabbath -- further evidence that it was not a creation ordinance. From ancient times the Jews called the commandments given to Noah the "Noachian commandments." They considered these commandments binding on all men. Usually listed as seven, the sabbath commandment was never included among them.

6.) When God made a promissory covenant with Abraham, God gave him the sign of circumcision. Deut. 4:13 and 5:2-3 state that the Ten Commandments covenant (with its sabbath sign) was not given to the fathers of the Hebrew nation. This covenant came 430 years after God first announced His covenant with Abraham (Gal. 3:17).

7.) The sabbath was given to Israel (Neh. 9:13-14). Although it was patterned after the creation model, this 24-hour rest was obviously not identical to God´s permanent rest which followed a finished creation (Gen. 2:2-3; Heb. 4:3,4,10). The sabbath was the sign of the Mosaic, Sinaitic, or old covenant (Exodus 31:16-17; Ezek. 20:12). Most scholars now agree there is no evidence of a sabbath institution outside Israel.

8.) The Old Testament nowhere indicates that Gentile nations should keep the sabbath. Although the sins of Gentile cities and nations are often specified by the prophets, only Israel was ever chided for breaking the sabbath. Paul appears to follow this Old Testament tradition in Romans chapter 1. Although he lists about twenty-two Gentile sins, he does not mention sabbath-breaking.

9.) Orthodox Judaism, both before and after Christ, taught that Gentiles should keep the sabbath only if they were Jewish proselytes.

10.) As a Jew, Jesus lived under the institutions of the old covenant. He was circumcised and generally kept the sabbath, Passover, and other old-covenant festivals. Nothing in the entire Law could cease to be binding until Jesus fulfilled it all by His death on the cross (Mat. 5:17-19; John 19:30; Rom. 3:21-25). On the eve of His death Jesus instituted the new covenant and sealed it by His sacrificial death. It took the new-covenant community some time under the leading of the Holy Spirit, however, before it could grasp the full implications of life under a new covenant (see John 16:12-15).

11.) Regarding the developing first-century church, there are several points:
a.) The first Christian community arose in Jerusalem and was composed of Aramaic-speaking Jews. They continued their Jewish way of life --i.e., they worshiped at the temple, circumcised their children, and kept the Jewish festivals (including the weekly sabbath). Although their adherence to the Law commended them to the fellow Jews (Acts 2:46-47) it made any Gentile mission impossible.
b.) The Hellenist Jewish Christians, however, were not as conservative. Following the example of the martyr Stephen, they ventured to take the gospel beyond Jewry -- to the Samaritans, the Ethiopian eunuch, and finally to the Gentiles. Peter did as well (Acts 10 and 11:2-3). A flourishing community of Gentile believers was soon established at Antioch (Acts 11). These Gentile Christians lived without reference to the Jewish Law. Believers were first called Christians in Antioch (Acts 11:26) because the Torah-free existence identified their religion as something separate from Judaism.

c.) After the Gentile mission had flourished at Antioch for about ten years, some of the Jewish Christians from the mother church at Jerusalem became apprehensive about the Torah-free Gentile mission. They began to urge that Gentile Christians should become Jewish proselytes -- meaning they should be circumcised and thereby undertake to keep the Torah (Acts 15:1,5). It was well understood that circumcision was a sign of submission to the entire Law. This was a great step backwards and contrary to the leading of the Holy Spirit for the previous ten years. The issue was decided at the Jerusalem conference about A.D.49 (see Acts 15). The apostles recognized the Holy Spirit´s fait accompli. Hence it was not necessary for Gentiles to be circumcised or to keep the Torah Law (characterized by sabbaths, meats, etc.)

d.) It was Paul who gave theological justification for this. In Galations he showed that the age of Moses and Torah Law had been superceded by the age of Christ and the Spirit. The Law had acted as a custodian and a guardian until the coming of Christ (Gal. 3:19,24,25; 4:1-4). God´s people were no longer under the supervision of the Law, but rather the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2).

In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul showed that the Ten Commandment covenant had been superceded by the far more glorious ministration of the Spirit under the New Covenant.

In Ephesians 2:14-15, Paul said that the Torah Law with its commandments and regulations acted as a dividing wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. But Christ had abolished this barrier by His death on the cross.

In 1 Cor. 9:20-23, Paul declared that he did not live under the Torah Law (except in a voluntary way), yet he was still subject to God´s law in the sense that he lived under the law of Christ.

e.) The three requirements which particularly characterized a Jew living under the Torah were circumcision, the food laws, and the sabbath. In the Pauline letters there is evidence that Paul was in conflict with Jewish Christians who were urging Gentiles to practice these requirements. Paul was vehemently opposed to those who wanted to impose these regulations on the Gentiles.

In Colossians 2:16-17, he declared: "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

To the Gentile Christians he wrote: "You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you" (Galations 4:10-11).

To the churches in Rome, which were composed of both Jews and Gentiles, Paul wrote: "One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord" (Romans 14:5-6).

Except for a few Sabbatarians, scholars today are agreed that these three scriptures address the matter of Sabbath-keeping. This was also the unanimous position taken by the early church fathers and the Reformers.

f.) Paul never wrote to the Gentile churches about sabbath-keeping except in a negative way. Paul´s silence on the matter of urging the young churches to keep the sabbath cannot be regarded as an indication that he or his converts took the obligation for granted. The new Gentile communities had no background in sabbath-keeping. How astonishing it would be for Paul to write so many letters with so much practical instruction on living the Christian life and not mention sabbath-keeping if it were an obligation for Gentile Christians! How strange that all these new converts were warned against committing all kinds of sins but sabbath-breaking is never mentioned!

g.) In an age when the Roman world had no weekly rest day, there is no historical evidence that Christians suffered hardship or persecution because of the sabbath. Many Christians were slaves who had to work every day of the week.

12.) According to the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, God´s people in the age of the new covenant would be identified by loyalty to Christ (Acts 11:26; Rom. 10:9), possession of the Spirit (Acts 19:2; Eph. 1:13; 4:30; 5:18) and love for one another (John 13:34).

13.) The New Testament is not concerned with holy days any more than it is concerned with holy places (see John 4:19-24) or "clean" food (Mark 7:19; Rom. 14:1-5,14,20; I Cor. 8:8; 10:23-27; Col. 2:16-17; 1 Tim. 4:3-5). To emphasize these questions is to distort the spirituality and ethical concerns of the New Testament (see Matt. 25:31-46; Gal. 5:6).

14.) Under the old covenant God sanctified a particular nation for service, a particular place for worship, particular food as clean and particular days for rest. Under the new covenant there is a universalizing of the particular. No longer are people from one nation designated as holy (Acts 10:28,34); no longer is one geographical site set aside for the worship of God (John 4:19-24); no longer is there a distinction between religiously clean and unclean food; and no longer is there a distinction of days (John 5:16-17; Rom. 14:5; Col. 2:16-17). The idea of designating one day as holy is just as irrelevant in the age of Spirit and designating on place as holy. The old covenant was physical, national, and temporal. The new is spiritual, universal, and eternal.

15.) Christ and His apostles imposed no regulations on the church which would create unnecessary hardships or erect unnecessary barriers for people in any place or time. The New Testament commandments are not addressed to a single nation living in Palestine. They are adapted to the needs of people living in a wide diversity of nations and cultures. Those who experience hardship because of sabbath regulations are doubtlessly sincere in their desire to serve God, but they are ill-informed and bear burdens that God has not laid on the church.

16.) The Gentile Christians were free to choose their time of common assembly. They were not bound by Old Testament commandments in this matter ...

17.) Just as spiritual circumcision replaced the physical, and spiritual sacrifices were offered in place of animals, it was taught that Christians enter the better rest of Heb. 4:3, 9-11 and therefore keep the perpetual Christian sabbath.

18.) It was only after the concept of a perpetual rest began fading from the church that the idea of a Sunday sabbath was gradually introduced by the Roman Church, beginning in the fourth century. Making Sunday into a Christian Sabbath was a kind of Christian Judaism.

19.) In summary, the primitive Jewish Christians at Jerusalem continued to keep the sabbath (on this point all notable Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish historians are now agreed); the Gentile Christians did not.

20.) When the Jerusalem council (Acts 15) acknowledged that Gentile Christians were free from the Law, the same freedom was implicitly given to Jewish Christians. The subsequent history of Jewish Christianity is a vital key in the task of discerning the face of the early church ... some Jewish Christians continued to keep the Law, including the sabbath, as necessary for themselves but not necessary for Gentile Christians. These were called the Nazarenes ... there were also Jewish Christians who not only kept the Law and the sabbath themselves, but insisted that all Christians must do the same. These were known as Ebionites. Their hero was James, their enemy, Paul. They were ascetic (vegetarians, teetotallers) and apocalyptic, and they denied the divinity of Christ. They combined Gnostic ideas with their Judaistic tendencies ...

21.) The history of Jewish Christianity demonstrates the futility of a synthesis between Judaism (adherence to the Torah law) and Christianity. In the end Jewish Christians were more Jewish than Christian -- in fact, not Christian at all ... its faith did not develop as Christianity developed. It clung to an expression of Christian faith which was acceptable at the beginning of Christianity in a context of Judaism ... it was a form of stunted, underdeveloped Christianity ... it began to regard strict observance of the law as more important than the spontaneity of love ... it persisted in clinging to a limited view of Jesus and His role ... the Jewish Christianity represents in the end a reactionary attempt to restict the Christian estimate of Jesus within the limitations and confines of Jewish thought and practice ... Hebrew Christianity detached from its native soil had only two alternatives -- back to the Synagogue, which entailed denial of Jesus the Messiah, or fellowship with the Gentile church, which meant denial of the Jewish national heritage.

22.) Paul was denigrated by Jewish Christians because he was held responsible for freeing the Christian movement from the Torah Law. The study of Jewish Christianity starkly reveals that while heretical Jewish Christianity remained Sabbatarian, the Gentile church was decidedly non-Sabbatarian. The notion that early Gentile Christianity was ever Sabbatarian is inexcusable in light of the historical evidence available today.

23.) In view of the biblical data and the evidence of early church history, we can make the following summary of Sabbatarianism:
a.)Those who have traditionally advocated Sunday Sabbatarianism or Sunday sacredness have been wrong on two counts:
1.) They have been wrong in claiming that the first Christian community or its apostles in Jerusalem abandoned the ancient Sabbath in favor of a Sunday sabbath. No creditable scholar will accept that thesis today.

2.) They have been wrong in claiming that the Bible designates Sunday as a Christian
holy day or sabbath. This is contrary to the principle enumerated in Romans 14:5,
Colossians 2:16 and Hebrews 4:3, 9-11, and it also contradicts the historical evidence.

Both forms of Sabbatarianism erred in presuming that the primitive Christians had a uniform pattern of worship. We now know that there was great diversity between Jewish and Gentile Christianity. Christians were forbodden to judge and condemn on another in respect to their diversity in forms of worship. It was sufficient that they be united in their faith in Christ, their Redeemer and Lord. The gospel was the only genuine testing and uniting truth in apostolic Christianity.