Disclaimer: This is some good ol' fashioned Adventist apologetics. I know a lot of people may not agree with this. So I encourage the rebuttals and dialogue in the comments, prayerfully and respectfully. :)
One of the 28 fundamental beliefs of the SDA Church is...Belief number 20. We observe the Seventh day Sabbath of scripture.
Right smack dab in Exodus 20:8-11 we get the longest commandment of God's moral 10 laws. The first four deals with our relationship with God, the last 6 for our relationships with our fellow man.
Written by His own hand. And it starts with the word 'Remember'....It's almost like God knew most people would forget it lol
And as you can imagine, that's a hot topic for critics of the Adventist church and something my church has been defending since...Oh I dunno, 1863 or something lol
There's lot of verses I can point to about why the Seventh day (commonly called Saturday) is the biblical Sabbath of the bible, but I wanted to focus on one. You see, something Christians can agree upon is that Christ is King.
Everyone that follows Christ as Lord and Saviour will agree on that at least. Well there are some that don't claim His divinity but alas....Let's at least find some common ground there.
And Christ did not sin. Ever. Tempted like we are, in all points, but never fell to sin. So I don't think people are lining up to call Him a false prophet anytime soon.....
Or are they?
You see, we run into a little snag with this claim in Matthew 24.
Let's explore this verse for a minute to get context. Matthew 24 is a prophetic chapter of the book. Jesus is letting His followers know, what will happen in the future. And no matter what denomination you may hold to, every one can agree, Matthew 24 is talking about the future.
Whether it's 70 AD, the End of Time, both....Whatever, you may believe. He tells His followers to pray that their flight be not in the winter neither on THE sabbath day.
Why would He do that?
Jesus obviously knows that He will be dead and resurrected when they are told to pray. Doesn't He do away with the Law / Sabbath after His death and resurrection? And if the Sabbath wasn't still an issue....Why would it matter?
If Jesus was letting people know, the Sabbath is still binding (just like the other 9 commandments that Christians usually agree on) that would make Him a false prophet for talking about the future and warning His people about fleeing on the Sabbath.
I think when you break this verse down it cements that THE sabbath (not a sabbath and there's a difference) is very much still law. If we love Him, we keep His commandments after all ;)
But here's the bigger test for me....I'm a Christian. Jesus is my example. And I am supposed to live exactly as He did in my life. And sure, that's a lot easier said than done and thank God for my Saviour.
Here's the kicker...Jesus not only kept the Sabbath in His earthly life. He even 'rested' on the Sabbath in death.
Don't agree with this?
Let's talk. Let's discuss. Let's do a bible study about it :)
