Nick’s blog against Sabbath keeping can be found here. Nick’s comments will be in bold and italic font.
Keeping the Sabbath was a commandment given only to Israel, not to mankind in general…the first time men are instructed to “Keep the Sabbath” (i.e. rest on the 7th day of the week) is in Exodus 16:23-30…There is no mention of men keeping or being commanded to keep the Sabbath anytime from Eden to Egypt…of all the types of sins the recorded throughout Genesis, no mention of keeping or breaking the Sabbath is mentioned”
>>>1. The Sabbath is a creation ordinance which pre-dated the Commonwealth of Israel (Gen 2:3; Which implies it is natural law and will never be abrogated in the dispensation of men Mat 22:30 i.e. monogamous heterosexual marriage [Gen 2:24, Mat 19:4-5], the headship of the man over the woman [1 Cor 11:3], man’s dominion over all creation [Gen 1:26,28] and labor [Gen 2:15]) and is the assumed premise of Moses when he says in the giving of the law and the Sabbath command at Mt. Sinai “For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy (Exo 20:11). How can Nick side step this phrase in Gen 2:3 “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” ?
2. The first recorded prohibition to commit murder is Exo. 20. The first recorded prohibition to commit idolatry is Exo. 20. The first recorded prohibition to commit adultery is Exo. 20. The first recorded prohibition to commit homosexuality is Lev. 18. Yet Abel’s murder is condemned as if men knew it was wrong to murder. Jacob abhorred idolatry in Gen 35:1-4. Joseph refused to commit adultery as if he knew it was sin. Sodom and Gomorrah were judged for homosexuality. Therefore, it is irrelevant that the first RECORDED command to obey one of the ten commandments is in Exo 16.
3. Exo. 21:28 says, “If an ox gore a man or a woman, that they die: then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox [shall be] quit.”
Yet we find no examples of men stoning an ox to death in our canon. Therefore, it is irrelevant that we find no examples of men being commanded to keep a Sabbath from Egypt to Eden or being punished for not keeping it. God obviously gave man his law before he made it formal under Moses. God sanctified the Sabbath in Gen. 2 which is the exact basis that Moses provided for keeping it in Exo. 20! Just imagine a Jew in the 4th Century B.C., whose OX just gored his neighbor to death, making a defense of himself saying “Oh, but there is no mention of an OX goring a man and being stoned to death in the Bible from Moses’ days until now”!
“Nehemiah 9: 13 “You came down on Mount Sinai; you spoke to them from heaven. You gave them regulations and laws that are just and right, and decrees and commands that are good. 14 You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses.
Clearly, the Sabbath as a legal commandment was revealed only at the time of Moses, to the Israelites, as a sign between them and God.”
>>>Yet Nick must have verses 13 and 14 to only mean the Sabbath when we see that these verses included many laws that Moses gave. If Nick want to use this verse he needs to say that all the Mosaic instruction on Sinai was new. Yet I have already proven that this was not the case. What then is Nehemiah up to? Just read the context from verse 9. These people had been in bondage in the pagan land of Egypt that did not observe God’s law, had been there for centuries and they needed a refresher and a new word from God.
“(2) The Ten Commandments are not the greatest commandments. Those who insist on making the Ten Commandments an eternal standard of morality become guilty of cutting and pasting their doctrine from the Bible. Jesus teaches us that there are two great commandments: loving God with all our heart and loving our neighbor as yourself (Mt 22:34-40). Yet these two greatest commandments are taken not from the Ten Commandments, but rather two separate passages from the Torah (Deut 6:5; Lev 19:8). It would be quite ironic to say the Ten Commandments remain eternal while the greatest commandments can be either ignored or appended at will to the Ten Commandments. In reality, Christian tradition has shown the two greatest commandments are the only supreme commandments, and summarize the entire Mosaic Law and Prophets. The Ten Commandments are thus only a very handy guideline summary for the two greatest commandments.”
>>>This is just stupid. The man even admits that the two great commands are just summaries of the Ten Commandments. It is proved these statements are summaries of the separate tables in that they are joined together in Mat 22:37-39 and the second statement is specifically said to be a summary of the second table in Romans 13:
“Rom 13:8 Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.
Rom 13:9 For this, “YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, YOU SHALL NOT MURDER, YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, YOU SHALL NOT COVET,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.”
“(3) Sabbatarianism is a form of Judaizing. One of the biggest heresies in the Apostolic age was that of Jewish Christians pressuring Gentile Christians to get circumcised and thus live by the Mosaic Law (Acts 15:5).”
>>>That was not the issue of Acts 15:5. Paul makes very clear in 1 Cor 7:19 Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.
The issue was not the substance of the act but the purpose of it. That is, these people in Acts 15 believed that Circumcision was a condition of justification.
“This was especially ‘visible’ in the avoiding of certain foods and keeping of certain holidays. Yet the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15 demonstrates that keeping the Mosaic Law is not required for Gentile Christians, only Faith in Jesus.”
>>> Only Faith in Jesus? Is Nick becoming a Protestant? I admit this is a difficult issue. However, I believe John Gill answered this in full. The issue is that blood was forbidden ceremonially and even in the context of natural law before the law of Moses until the death of Christ whose death fulfilled all ceremonial types. It was forbidden again in Acts 15 to appease the conscience of the Jews who did not understand how Christ abolished all aspects of the ceremonial law. After this age the laws against blood consumption are now abrogated. John Gill comments on Acts 15:20,
“and from blood: which is not to be understood of the blood of men and shedding of that, which is of a moral nature; but of the blood of beasts, and of eating of that. There were several laws about eating of blood, and which are different, and ought to be carefully distinguished. The first is in Ge 9:4 “but flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood there of, shall you not eat”; which forbids the eating of flesh with the blood; but not the eating of flesh separately, nor the eating of blood separately, provided they were properly prepared and dressed, but the eating of them together without any preparation. As this was the first hint to man that we know of, that he might eat flesh, it was proper that the manner in which he should eat it, should be suggested to him; that he should not take the creature alive and eat it, or tear off any of its members and eat it whilst alive, or eat raw flesh; but should prepare it by roasting or boiling, or some way, in which it might become proper food: and it is the constant sense of the Jewish synagogue {c}, that this law is to be understood of the member of a living creature, torn from it, and eaten whilst alive; six commands, the Jews say, were given to the first man Adam, the first five forbid idolatry, blasphemy, shedding of blood, uncleanness, and theft, or robbery, and the sixth required judgment against offenders; to these were added, for the sons of Noah, a seventh, which forbid the eating of the member of a living creature, as it is said, Ge 9:4 {d}. So that this law has nothing to do with eating of blood, simply considered, and no more forbids eating of it separately, than it does eating of flesh separately: in like manner is the law in De 12:23 to be understood, and is so interpreted by the Jewish writers {e}: another law is in Le 19:26 “ye shall not eat anything with the blood”; which according to our version, seems to be the same law with the former, but is not; for it is not said here, as before, b, “in”, or “with”, but le, “upon”, “over”, or “by” the blood. This is differently understood: some think the sense is, that no one should eat of the sacrifices, before the sprinkling of the blood upon the altar {f}; or until it stands or is congealed in the basons {g}; others, that it is a caution to judges, that they do not eat until they have finished judgment; for whoever judges or passes sentence after he has eat and drank, is as if he was guilty of blood {h}: another observes {i}, that next to this clause, it is said, “neither shall ye use enchantment”; meaning that they should not use enchantment by eating, in the way that murderers do, who eat bread over the slain, that the avengers of the slain may not take vengeance on them; this author smells something superstitious or diabolical in this matter; and indeed this is the case; the truth of the matter is, it refers to a practice among the Heathens, who fancied that blood was the food of the demons, to whom they sacrificed; and therefore when they sacrificed to them, they took the blood of the beast and put it into a vessel, and sat down by it, and round about it, and ate the flesh; imagining that whilst they ate the flesh, the demons eat the blood, and by this means friendship and familiarity were contracted between them; so that they hoped to receive some advantage from them, and be informed of things to come {k}. Hence, this law is placed with others against enchantments and observing times, to which may be added, Eze 33:25 “ye eat with the blood”, or “over it”, or “by” it; “and lift up your eyes to your idols”: which is to be understood in the same light, and with these compare 1Sa 14:32. But besides these, there was a third law, which is frequently repeated, Le 3:17 which absolutely forbids the eating of blood, as well as fat; the Jews except the blood of fishes, and locusts, and creeping things, and the blood of men, and the blood that is in eggs, and that which is squeezed out of flesh, or drops from it, which a man may eat and not be guilty of the breach of this law {l} the reason of this law was, because the blood, which is the life, was given in sacrifice for the life of men, to be an atonement for them; wherefore, to keep up a just reverence of the sacrifice, and to direct to the blood of the great sacrifice of the Messiah, blood was forbidden to be eaten, till that sacrifice was offered up; and then that blood itself was to be spiritually eaten by faith: and now if eating of blood in general was morally evil in itself, it would be a monstrous shocking thing in the Christian religion, that the blood of Christ is to be drank; though it be to be understood in a spiritual sense: the law against eating blood was very strictly enjoined the Jews, and severely punished; whoever ate of blood, but the quantity of an olive, if he ate it wilfully, was guilty of cutting off; if ignorantly, he was to bring a sin offering {m}: James knew that the breach of this law would give great offence to the Jews, and therefore for the peace of the church he moves that the Gentiles might be wrote to, to abstain from blood; and which was agreed to and done: and this was attended to with much strictness by the primitive Christians, who seemed to have observed this advice in the form of a law, and thought it criminal to eat blood; but in process of time it was neglected; and in Austin’s time abstinence from blood was derided, as a ridiculous notion; and it is at least now high time that this, and everything else of a ceremonial kind, was dropped by Christians; though where the peace of the brethren is in danger, this, and everything of an indifferent nature should be abstained from: Beza’s ancient copy adds, “and whatsoever they would not have done to themselves, do not unto others”; and so two of Stephens’s: the Ethiopic version is, “whatsoever they hate should be done to themselves, let them not do to their brethren”.
However, we have the command concerning things contaminated by idols which clarifies that keeping the Moral aspects of the Mosaic Law IS required.
From Exo 34:15, Lev 17:1-7, Lev 7:28-36, 1 Cor 10:19-21, 25-28, and Rev 2:14, 20 it is morally sinful for anyone to eat meat knowingly sacrificed to an idol in both the Old and the New Covenant. The distinction Paul gives concerns one’s liberty when eating with other Gentiles and the meat may or may not have been sacrificed to an idol (You do not know and Paul forbids you to ask). Paul wants to avoid offenses as much as possible but if it is made known to you that it was sacrificed to an idol you are morally obliged to abstain.
“In fact, there are two passages where Paul clearly refutes the idea that the Sabbath is still binding. The Epistle to the Galatians was focused upon refuting Judaizing, since many Gentile Christians had fallen prey to the heresy. In Galatians 4:10 Paul rebukes them by saying, “You observe days and months and seasons and years.” It is plain that Paul is not speaking of pagan holidays, so these “days” can only be referring to the weekly Sabbath days, along with the monthly, seasonal, and yearly Jewish holidays.”
Some Sabbatarians object saying the “days” here are the yearly feast days, but Paul has already covered this in the “seasons and years” category. Notice that Paul is talking from smaller time frames “days” to larger ones “years”.
>>>Gen 1: 14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Gal 4:10 is clearly operating off of this passage. We have this exact thing appealed to in 1 Chron 23:31 in connection with the CEREMONIAL SABBATHS AND THE SACRIFICIAL SYSTEM:
“And to offer all burnt sacrifices unto the LORD in the sabbaths, in ***the new moons*****, and on the set feasts, by number, according to the order commanded unto them, continually before the LORD:”
In Lev. 23, the ceremonial Sabbaths are described differently than the weekly Sabbath. The ceremonial Sabbaths are observed for more than one day. An example of which is that the feast of unleavened bread was for seven days. Thus the plural use of the word. Nick’s next passage is Col. 2:16-17 which is also clearly operating off of the CEREMONIAL SABBATHS in 1 Chron 23:31.
“ Secondly, as noted in the prior text, the length of time Paul cites is that of year-month-week, and since year is covered in “religious festival,” that means “Sabbath day” must correspond to the week.”
>>>The word “week” does not appear in either the Gal. 4 nor the Col. 2 text.
“Just as powerful is Leviticus 23, which is speaking of the Jewish calendar feasts, and includes explicitly the Seventh Day Sabbath as one of the feasts (Lev 23:1-3), meaning it isn’t it’s own ‘moral command’ independent of feast days”
>>>How does he make this connection? The mention of the weekly Sabbath is necessary because these multiple-day feasts would overlap the weekly Sabbath. Instruction was necessary on how that was to be handled. Secondly, work was forbidden on the weekly Sabbath, but not absolutely with the other feasts. Thirdly, the weekly Sabbath is said to pertain to “all your dwellings”. There was clearly a distinction.
“If all of the Old Testament is a shadow of things to come, fulfilled in Christ, as 2:17 says, then it would be absurd for something as central as the Sabbath to have no fulfillment in Christ.”
>>>All of the OT is not a shadow of Christ. The ceremonial law was the shadow. The moral law is natural and perpetual. Thus Anthony Burgess’ Vindiciae Legis: or, A Vindication of the Moral Law and the Covenants, from the Errors of Papists, Arminians, Socinians, and more especially, Antinomians (1647) says in distinguishing the moral over the ceremonial laws,
“But herein the moral Law is preeminent: 1. In that it is a foundation of the other laws; and they are reduceable to it. 2. This was to abide always, not the other. 3. This was immediately written by God, and commanded to be kept in the Ark, which the other were not.” (pg. 151)
“(4) The Ten Commandments are the heart of Mosaic Law and abolished as a legal code; they now only serve as guidelines.”
>>>Blasphemy! Mat 5: 17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
“So when Jesus ended and fulfilled the Mosaic Law the Ten Commandments most certainly were abolished along with it!”
>>Blasphemy! Mat 5: 17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
“Anything else is a form of Judaizing and denial that Jesus came! And yet Sabbatarians like the Seventh Day Adventists follow the Mosaic law on many points, including Sabbath day regulations and dietary laws. After the Mosaic Law was abolished, Christians only kept the Ten Commandments format to use as guidelines for general morals (e.g. don’t kill, steal, lie), but not as a legal code with detailed regulations and legal penalties.”
>>> So why then did the early Christians in the vast majority perform worship and the sacraments on the Sabbath for centuries after the Apostles?
“For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and atRome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this.”
“The people of Constantinople, and almost everywhere, assemble together on the Sabbath, as well as on the first day of the week, which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alexandria. There are several cities and villages in Egypt where, contrary to the usage established elsewhere, the people meet together on Sabbath evenings, and, although they have dined previously, partake of themysteries. The same prayers and psalms are not recited nor the same lections read on the same occasions in all churches.”
“ A crucial passage to be aware of in this regard is 2 Corinthians 3, which says the Ten Commandments are the “ministry of death” (2 Cor 3:7)!”
>>>Only as it functions in the Covenant of Works. Nick misses verse 3 which states, “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” This is in direct fulfillment of Jer 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
The law, as it functions to the elect in the Covenant of Grace is a promise of the New Covenant, not something abrogated as a minister of death.
“Now Paul is not saying the Ten Commandments are evil, but rather that they being the heart of the Mosaic Law represent a dead-end path to salvation.”
>>>But wait Nick! I am not stating the law is a path to salvation. I am saying that it is the rule of sanctification. Having been saved/justified, man now has the ability to keep the law. Nick’s view is the exact mistake of the Galatians when Paul said, “Gal 5:4 You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.” I am not seeking to be justified y the law. I am seeking to be sanctified by the law not justified by the law.
“(5) The New Testament never commands Sabbath Keeping for Christians. The only time Sabbath keeping is mentioned in the New Testament is in reference to either the Jews keeping the Sabbath or for the Apostles going to preach in the synagogue on the Sabbath (since that’s when the Jews assembled). Of all the teachings and commands given, never does Jesus nor the Apostles mention the need to keep the Sabbath. This is quite astonishing if, as Sabbatarians believe, Sabbath breaking was to become one of the most brazen and nearly universal attacks on God’s moral teaching. This is why the Seventh Day Adventists must go to embarrassing extremes to try and find any shred of proof from Scripture, settling on the idea that the “Mark of the Beast” must be Sunday worship (despite the fact no such connection can be made).”
>>>The New Testament never speaks to the issue of bestiality. Does that mean that Nick thinks this practice is now morally acceptable?
“(6) Sunday is not the Sabbath.”
>>>Agreed
“(7) The mention of Sabbath and Marriage in the Garden of Eden each have a fulfillment.”
>>>But Nick, normal physical marriage has not been abrogated has it?
A Helpful Reminder From The History of Virginia In The Hopes Of Avoiding A Coming Race War
The following is quoted out of Luther’s Works, Volume 39, That a Christian Assembly or Congregation has the Right and Power to Judge all Teaching and to Call, Appoint, and Dismiss Teachers, Established and Proven by Scripture.
Michael Pfleger
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Anglo Judaizer 