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Jtree
Posted on Tuesday, November 27, 2001 - 3:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The only mention of the Lord's Day in the New Testament is by John the apostle in Rev 1:10:

"I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day."

The beloved Apostle John did not specify which day of the week is the Lord's Day. Its identity was evidently well-known to his readers.

Strict Sabbatarians (Our Friends, The Seventh-Day Adventists), who believe the Old Covenant commandment hallowing Saturday as the weekly Sabbath (Exod 20:8-12) is yet in effect, insist Saturday is the Lord's Day. They also teach that faithful Christians taught the same until Constantine, emperor of Rome, sanctioned Sunday as a holy day early in the fifth century.

They are wrong.

In the preceding Posting, we observed:

1. The Lord's Day is Sunday, the first day of the week. This was confirmed without dissent in the writings of contemporaries of the apostles and other early church fathers, including Barnabas (thought by many to be a companion of Paul the apostle), Ignatius (died 98 or 117), Justin Martyr (circa 100-165), and Chrysostom (345[?]-407). These authorities prove Strict Sabbatarians are wrong when they say the early church observed Saturday as the Lord's Day until Constantine, emperor of Rome, sanctioned Sunday as a holy day early in the fifth century.

2. The Lord's Day is the day established by God for commemorating His resurrection and exaltation of Jesus Christ. It fulfills the prophecy of Psalm 118:22-24 (Matt 21:42; Acts 4:10; 1 Peter 2:7): "The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day which the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

We now continue.

3. The Lord's Day is the day on which Christian churches assemble for worship. We do so according to the example of the apostles cited in the New Testament. "Now on the first day of the week [Sunday], ... the disciples came together" (Acts 20:7).

We assemble on the Lord's Day, Sunday, the first day of the week, in order to observe those acts peculiar to Christian worship. We "break bread" in the observance of the Lord's Supper and listen to the preaching of God's Word (Acts 20:7), and express our joy for what God has done for us through Jesus Christ (Psalm 118:24), and collect our offerings for the Lord's work (1 Cor 16:2), and so forth.

We assemble on the Lord's Day, Sunday, the first day of the week, in the same attitude of John the apostle when he said "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day" (Rev 1:10). To be "in the Spirit" is to worship under the influence of the Holy Spirit, being filled and led and taught by Him, and enabled by Him to worship and adore Jesus Christ. And to be "in the Spirit" is to worship in a state of elevated spiritual devotion and religious enjoyment.

4. The Lord's Day is not a Christian Sabbath. Semi-Sabbatarians agree with Strict Sabbatarians regarding the present-day obligation to obey the Old Covenant commandment hallowing a weekly Sabbath (Exod 20:8-12). But Semi-Sabbatarians differ in teaching that the weekly Sabbath has been moved from Saturday to Sunday, thereby establishing Sunday as the Christian Sabbath.


They have no scintilla of Scriptural evidence. Nowhere does the Bible intimate such a changing of days, nor that Sunday is a Sabbath, nor that the apostles observed it as such.

Indeed, the New Testament emphatically teaches otherwise. Sabbath days belonged to Old Covenant times. That covenant has been abrogated and superseded by the New Covenant (Heb 8:6-13). Consequently, the Sabbaths of the Old Covenant are to be ignored in these New Covenant times (Col 2:16). And God approves the Christian who "esteems every day alike" (Rom 14:5).

Rather, the Christian Sabbath is that rest which is found by faith in Jesus Christ (Heb 3:7-4:11). It is not a rest from physical labors for one day. It is rather a perpetual rest from spiritual labors (Matt 11:28).

Have you entered into it?


Joshua of the Rock!
Richardhardison
Posted on Saturday, December 01, 2001 - 7:08 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

There is no doubt that God's rest is found in Christ. However, if you want to continue to follow the line of reasoning you have exhibited, people like Bacchiocchi will take you apart on this issue.

You will have to show a few things that you haven't as yet. These include, 1. God abrogated the law, and as a consequence that 2. the law is not a demonstration of God's nature and character, and therefore 3. the law is not a guide for holy living as it has been viewed throughout Christian history, and indeed by the Apostolic writers. Pink (a Calvinist), Wesley, and Bacchiocchi agree on this. you are actually standing against some of the most outstanding theologians on the matter, not to mention Paul.

Richard L. Hardison
Colleentinker
Posted on Sunday, December 02, 2001 - 6:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The understanding of Jesus being the fulfillment of the law only comes when the veil of the Old Covenant comes off. (See 2 Corinthians 3:7-18) Mere manipulation of words and texts does not reveal the truth about Jesus. The Bible was inspired by the Holy Spirit, and without His presence, we cannot perceive the truth in it. In a different post, Richard Hardison, you argued that Galatians could not be used as a guide to understanding the place of the law. Particular circumstances, you suggested, contributed to Paul's writing that epistle, and we could not read it as a statement for us today that the law was no longer our guide.

The fact is, no one here is trying to say that God abrogated the law. The law still exists--it has, however, been fulfilled and surpassed by Jesus, God Himself. Everyone has always been saved by faith. (See Hebrews 11 for specific surprising examples!) Those in the Old Covenant who lived with the law as a constant reminder of their inability to be perfect had to be saved by faith in a coming Messiah. We, who live with a risen Jesus literally present in us in the person of the Holy Spirit, live by faith in the completed work of Jesus who has lived, died, and risen again within the bounds of time.

The truth is that we all stand before God, accountable to him for our willingness to know and accept truth or not. What theologians say and which ones say it is not important if we are not willing to stand before God and relinquish our knowledge and understanding and be open to the teachings of the Bible alone with the help of the Holy Spirit. We have only one source of truth and doctrine, and that is the Scriptures. Finding truth is not about finding an intellectual rationale to support what we think the Bible says. Many of us spent many years trying to accomplish just such a rationale. In the end, it left us empty and brittle. If the Bible seemed to say something contradictory to our careful analysis, we had to explain what the Bible REALLY meant and fit that passage into our mental framework.

The Bible must be able to stand alone. Theology and theologians are important, and we do well to read and understand many of them. But if we cannot support and defend our beliefs from the Bible alone, we have dubious beliefs.

Jesus is the center of reality. If we do not know him, if we have not experienced the new birth and the miracle of the Holy Spirit directing our lives, our knowledge is of no use. Without Jesus at the center, we gain our identity from our beliefs. With Jesus, we gain our identity only in him.

Praise God that we have been given the right "to become the children of Godóchildren born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." (John 1:12-13)

Rest in Christ, identity in Christ, is a reality that is spiritual, not natural. It is not in contradiction to the Old Covenantóit is a FULFILLMENT of the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant including the law was good, but it was only a guide to Jesus. Jesus is the fulfillment of every single law, ceremony, and symbol of the Old Covenant. In Jesus we have a new life and a new reality! In Jesus we are his brothers and God's children, and our lives are guided directly by Him and not an external law. In Jesus the Bible comes alive! In Jesus our souls become connected to God. In Jesus we enter eternity, and we will never die!

Praise God for his unimaginable gift!
Colleen
Doug222
Posted on Monday, December 03, 2001 - 3:20 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Amen Colleen!! Well said.

In His Grace

Doug
In_his_service
Posted on Monday, December 03, 2001 - 6:32 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

AMEN Colleen. For too many years we were taught, the Bible says this BUT this is what the "Testamonies" (or elder so and so, or sister so and so) says. It was a constant game of quoting scripture through a filter that made it say what we THOUGHT it should say. Thank God, we can read it in context......complete, and rely on the Spirit to tell us what it really says, without benefit of the "learned" men.
Sabra
Posted on Monday, December 03, 2001 - 4:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

AND A THIRD AMEN TO COLLEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love to read your posts, you have a wonderful talent for explaning and interpreting the scriptures.

:)
Jtree
Posted on Monday, December 03, 2001 - 6:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ Jesus has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Galatians 5:1

THE LAW says, "This do, and thou shalt live."
THE GOSPEL says, "Live and thou shalt do.

THE LAW says, "Pay me that thou owest."
THE GOSPEL says, "I frankly forgive thee all."

THE LAW says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart."
THE GOSPEL says, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."

THE LAW says, "Cursed is every one who continues not in all things written in the book of the law to do them."
THE GOSPEL says, "Blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered."

THE LAW says, "The wages of sin is death."
THE GOSPEL says, "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

THE LAW says, "If..."
THE GOSPEL says, "Therefore..."

THE LAW makes blessing the result of obedience. THE GOSPEL makes obedience the result of blessings.

THE LAW restrains the old man.
THE GOSPEL gives liberty in the new man.

THE LAW says "DO."
THE GOSPEL says, "DONE!"

THE LAW demands holiness.
THE GOSPEL gives holiness.

THE LAW commands the service of an unwilling bondsman.
THE GOSPEL wins the loving service of a son and a freeman.


Josua of the Rock!
Fdauns
Posted on Friday, December 07, 2001 - 8:14 am:   Edit PostDelete PostPrint Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I have to agree with the sentiments above in general and particularly when in_his_service says, "For too many years we were taught, the Bible says this BUT ..."

Paul, in Galatians, or anywhere else is not, contrary to what I was raised to believe, confusing or complex. He is really rather straightforward. Its only when we read Paul and insist that what he says couldn't possibly be what he meant because that contradicts what we already claim to be truth that Paul begins to be confusing.

When you just sit down and read the scripture, as opposed to reading books that tell you what the scripture is supposed to say, its like a light going on. I've found that when you read the epistles, don't read them a chapter or a passage at a time, read the epistle as it was meant, as a letter. Read it in its entirety, just like you would a letter from anyone else. Its then that you really get to an understanding of the matter.

There is more than a little irony in protestants arguing that the common layman cannot simply read and understand the Bible but instead must defer to the clergy and appointed scholars for understanding of all the complexities that must be understood before the meaning of a text becomes clear. This was exactly the point of Rome and exactly what the Protestants claimed was not true.

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