| (Copyright 10-16-2023) by Jeffrey Caldwell (Arkansas) |
|---|
| A current article in World Net Daily http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=57978 notes: Greg Laurie, a WND columnist and senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif., one of the eight largest Protestant churches in America, maintains it’s wrong for Christians to observe Saturday, claiming Jesus and the apostles never taught anyone to keep the Sabbath. He says it’s the only one of the Ten Commandments not specifically repeated in the New Testament. “Of all the New Testament lists of sins, ‘breaking the Sabbath’ is never mentioned,” Laurie said. “That is because it was given to the Jews, not the non-Jews.” Back in Florida, Sunday-keeper Roger Felipe thinks God is not overly concerned with the Sabbath issue. “Paul is very clear that we Christians don’t use [one particular day] as a determining factor if someone is right with God,” Felipe said. Protestants seem to be in habit of telling each other “The Sabbath was given to the Jews” — not remembering, it seems, that it was established at Creation and given to Adam — and from him God created every nation of man (Acts 17:26). The commandment given at Sinai was to “remember” the seventh day which was established as blessed and holy at Creation (Exodus 20:8-11). Even there at Sinai the commandment was given not to the Jews only, but also to all the other tribes of Israel, who considered themselves quite distinct from the Jews (1 Kings 12:16-17) and to people of other nations which joined themselves to Israel in following the LORD. The faithful spy for Judah, “Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite” (Numbers 32:12) is an outstanding example of a faithful non-Israelite among them. That the Sabbath “was given to the Jews, not the non-Jews” are words of men and a teaching of men, not the word of the LORD, nor His teaching. The Scriptures record that Judah was not born until about 2,000 years after God blessed the seventh day and made it holy at Creation (Genesis 2:3) and that all mankind will be observing the Sabbath in the new earth yet to come that is the home of righteousness (Isaiah 66:22-23) — which two salient facts I noted in a comment I left at Harvest Christian Fellowship’s web site. I wrote to Pastor Laurie [Pastor Greg Laurie, Harvest Christian Fellowship, P.O. Box 4000, Riverside, CA 92514-4000] in a card: Pastor, Surely, I suppose, you hold with our Teacher, who says with and from Scripture ‘Man is … to live … on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt. 4:4). From what I read in World Net Daily it seems that you believe, as most Protestants seem to, that Paul is referring to the Sabbath in Romans 14:5-6. Please consider, brother, that over and over in this passage (vs. 2,3,6,15,17,20,21,23) what Paul is talking about is eating or not eating, what we are eating and how that eating or not relates to our relationship to each other or the Lord. In those days some were very much in the habit of days of fasting (Lk. 18:12,5:33) as a regular and continual — by choice, not God’s command — aspect of their worship. And perhaps inclined to consider themselves more righteous than those who did not go along with their choices. It is such days of fasting I suppose Paul is referring to — as for God’s commands, surely his position is: “It is the LORD your God you must follow and Him you must fear; you must keep His commandments and obey Him, serve Him and hold fast to Him” (Dt. 13:4). The LORD made the seventh day blessed and holy at Creation (Genesis 2:3) and it will be observed by those who serve Him in the new earth, the home of righteousness He will yet create (Isaiah 66:22-23). Peter says “be holy in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15) quoting Leviticus (1 Peter 1:16). The holiness code enjoins us to keep God’s sabbaths (Lv. 19:3b,23:3,26:2). May the grace and peace our our Lord Jesus the Christ be with you! Jeffrey Caldwell Editor’s Note: We do not listen to video links or read print material that is linked to items we print, so we may or may not agree with those links. We only look at print material that is sent to us for print. Laura Lee |
Views: 8