The Fourth Commandment

Bob,

You are not dealing with these things objectively. For example, Deuteronomy chapter five interprets what is written on stone to have forward glance to redemption as typified by the exodus from Egypt, which is introduced immediately after the seventh day Sabbath command in Leviticus 23 or in the Passover feast. Therefore written in stone or not it is written in God's Word and expressed to them when it was written in stone. Be fair here!

Leviticus 23 begins with the seventh day Sabbath but the sabbaths of the feasts occur on the 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd and 50th days and their references are far more mentioned and emphasized than the seventh day sabbath. Furthermore, here is absolute proof they are first day Sabbaths, the 50th day Sabbath occurred after seven regular weekly sabbaths demonstrating it can be nothing other than a first day of the week Sabbath. This in turn infers that the other Sabbath days (1st, 8th, 15th and 22nd) are also first day of the week Sabbaths. The year of Jubillee which is the greatest Sabbath year is followed by seven seventh year sabbaths corresponding to the seven seventh day week Sabbaths that precede the 50th day Sabbath (Pentecost). In each case the GREATER SABBATH is the 50th which cannot be denied are the first day of the week Sabbaths. I could stop right here and this is sufficient evidence for a new first day of the week Sabbath to memoralize a greater work than creation that points forward to a new Creation symbolized by the year of Jubilee or eternal EIGHTH day Sabbath.

Therefore, for you to say there is no mention of "first day of the week" Sabbaths is purely argumentative without any objectivity for the facts of the text.

I have already answered your Isaiah 66 asumption and demonstrated there is plenty of evidence prior to the writing of Isaiah 66 for a new and another Sabbath application.

Finally, in regard to your salvation apostasy theory, John 6:37,39 denies your contention altogether. NONE given by the Father to the Son fail to come to the Son and NONE given by the Father are lost. Your theory demands the very opposite which demonstrates your interpretations of Galatians 5:4; Romans 11, etc are flawed or Christ has lied.

 

Adam is not even considered by God in the giving of the ten commandments at Mount Sinai. Adam is not the audiance God is addressing. In Deuteronomy 5 creation is not the reason for observing the Sabbath but redemption from Egypt is the stated reason:


12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee.
13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work:
14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.
15 And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

Your trying to define God's reasons for giving the fourth commandment to be confined to Adam when the text has no reference, no mention and no application to Adam. When you have to protect and defend an interpetation that requires you to ignore the audiance the fourth command is given to and ignore and supersede the stated reasons God for gives that audiance for observing the fourth command you know it is because your interpretation is false and misleading.

 

My friend, you are simply refusing to face reality. The 50th day follows regular seven seventh day sabbaths beginning with the regular seventh day Sabbath after passover. Thus by necessity must occur on the FIRST DAY of the week, always without exception regardless of the calendar. Second, the 50th day was a Sabbath thus a FIRST DAY Sabbath and it was the GREATER SABBATH at the end of this seven regular sabbath day cycle. The same must hold true for the year of Jubilee. There is no honest way to escape these facts.

 

Your explanation of John 6:40 REPUDIATES Christ previous statement in John 6:39:

"OF ALL that the Father giveth me I shall LOSE NOTHING but should raise it up in the last day"

Thus your interpretation of Christ in John 6:40 is wrong or Christ is a liar or else "LOSE NOTHING" means nothing.

 

My friend, I do not deny your application at all but I do deny it is the complete application of the Sabbath for several obvious reasons.

1. Hebrews 4:1-3 states those who observed a weekly sabbath had the same gospel preached to them and they would enter into the same spiritual rest by faith and yet that did not do away with the weekly observance of a sabbath.

2. Hebrews 4:4-8 argues that there is something more than entrance into the gospel rest in hebrews 4:1-2 that fulfills the Sabbath day observance. The writer lists a series of denials of fulfilment (Joshua, David).

3. hebrews 4:9-10 reaffirms the observance of a weekly Sabbath based upon the redemptive work of Christ that is compared to the work of Creation in verse 4 and argues that a weekly Sabbath was set apart to commemorate his finished work just as a weekly Sabbath was set apart to commemorate God's finished work of creation. The contextual antecedent for "he" is our Great High Priest in verse 14.

4. Hebrews 4:11-14 point yet forward to the fulfillment of the Sabbath day rest to something the present writer and readers had yet to enter. Something in addition to entrance into the promised land by Joshua. Something in addition to entrance into a Kingdom rule under David. Something yet ahead that will be obtained by the work of our Great High Preist (vv. 11, 14).

5. This is what the year of Jubillee and the first day Sabbaths in Leviticus 23 point forward to because of the redemptive work of Christ, which we have not yet entered.

The sabbath of observance of the first day of the week or "The Lord's Day" commemorates that hope based upon the finished work of redemption by Christ on the first day of the week and pointing to the completion of that work in a new heaven and new earth. Until that new heaven and earth arrive there "remaineth a Sabbath day observance for the people of God."

 

You are refusing to face the facts. Pentecost ALWAYS occurs the day after the seventh regular Sabbath and that day would ALWAYS be the first day of the week. Penteocost is a Sabbath Day.

Jubilee ALWAYS occurs the year after the seventh regular Sabbath year and that would ALWAYS be the first year of a new week of years. Jubilee is a Sabbath Year.

In Mark 16:1 the regular Sabbath day is past while in Mark 16:2 refers to the first day of the week as "mia sabbatwn" which is the normal language for the "first day of the week" however, in Mark 16:9 the language is changed to "protos sabbatou" which literally means the "first Sabbath in a new series." The term "protos" is used in the New Testament as the first in a new series of things. The term "sabbatou" is the consistent term used for the Sabbath day (see Mark 16:1). Thus the resurrection day is termed the "first Sabbath in a new series of sabbaths."

In Hebrews 4:9 we are told there remains a Sabbath day keeping for the people of God based upon the fact that "he" ceased from his works as God ceased from the works of creation. We are told in verse 4 how God ceased from the works of creation by setting apart the creation Sabbath. No other individual or his work can be compared to God and the work of creation other than the work of our High preist (v. 14) and He set apart a Sabbath day to commemorate the greater finished work of redemption which was finished on the first day of the week precisely between 3 a.m. to 6 a.m or the fourth watch ("proee").

Psalm 118:20-24 is found in the context of the Messiah and his death and resurrection as our Savioir. The Jews rejected the Messiah by putting him to death (v. 22) but God made him the head of the corner by resurrecting him from the dead (vv. 22-23) and this text is applied to the resurrection of Christ in Acts 4:10-11. Psalm 118:23 declares that the resurrection of Christ "This is the Lord's doing" and it is a "marvelous" thing. This resurrection by God is further described as follows:

This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

The Hebrew term translated "made" can be translated "made to be observed" and that is the meaning here because the text goes on to describe how that day is to be observed - "we will rejoice and be glad in IT." Why should we "rejoice" because God raised Christ up from the grave? Why should we be "glad in IT" because our redemption is secured by his victory over death, hell and the grave and that is why God made this day to be observed because in it all history changed and victory over death and hell was obtained.

You cannot deny that Psalm 118:20-24 applies to the resurrection day of Chrsist because Peter applies it directly to his resurrection in Acts 4:10-11. Moreover, Jesus repeatedly applies this same text to himself throughout the gospels predicting his death by the Jews (Mt. 21:42; Mk. 12:11; Lk. 20:17). Peter again applies it directly to Christ (I Pet. 2:4-8). Psalms 118:23-24 is God's direct response to the rejection of Christ by killing him. Hence, the only possible "day" made by God to be observed by rejoicing in response to the Jewish rejection and killling of Jesus is His resurrection day and the New Testament precisely pin points the resurrection to have occurred at the fourth watch between 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday morning and uses the technical word for the fourth watch in describing the time of his resurrection (Mk. 16:9 "proee").

The Fourth Commandment is commanded for redemptive reasons (Deut. 5) and the Sabbatical law found in the fourth commandment is applied to other days than the seventh day sabbath and in particular to days that occur upon the first day of the week in regard to the feasts that typify the redemptive work of Christ.

 

My friend, you live in a fairy tale world. You cannot possibly deny that Pentecost occurs the day after the 7th regular sabbath?

And he shall wave the sheaf before the LORD, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
12 And ye shall offer that day when ye wave the sheaf an he lamb without blemish of the first year for a burnt offering unto the LORD.
13 And the meat offering thereof shall be two tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil, an offering made by fire unto the LORD for a sweet savour: and the drink offering thereof shall be of wine, the fourth part of an hin.
14 And ye shall eat neither bread, nor parched corn, nor green ears, until the selfsame day that ye have brought an offering unto your God: it shall be a statute for ever throughout your generations in all your dwellings.
15 ¶ And ye shall count unto you from the morrow after the sabbath, from the day that ye brought the sheaf of the wave offering; seven sabbaths shall be complete:
16 Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD

Counting of fity days does not begin with Nissan 14 but from the The sheave offering which is offered the day after the Sabbath - v. 11. They count from that Sabbath (v. 15) seven Sabbath "weeks" and Pentocost occurs on the day after the the seventh sabbath - that will always put it on the first day of the Week. Even the Jews recognized this.

"protos" does not mean "a whole new series" but it does mean the "first" in a whole new series.

Peter applies Psalm 118:23-24 directly to the resurrection of jesus Christ in Acts 4:10-11. Love it or hate it, that cannot be denied as "the day" God made to be observed by rejoicing and gladness in regard to what God did in contrast to what the jews did. The jews killed him and God raised him.

Finally, you refuse to acknowledge that the Sabbath law is applied WIDER than to merely creation (Deut. 5). No one denies the creation application in Exodus by God but you deny the redemption application in Deuteronmy 5 because it proves there is a WIDER application than what SDA/Jews want to restrict it to.

The bottom line is that the fourth commandment can be properly applied to the seventh day of the week but CANNOT be completely restricted to the seventh day of the week as God applies the Sabbath laws to other days and years, thus opening the way to apply it to another day that commemorates a GREATER work than that in creation and to a GREATER creation to come.

 

Yeah! What is very interesting is that in Mark 13:35 Jesus describes the four watches of the night.

Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning:

6 pm. to 9 pm = at even
9 pm. to 12 pm = at midnight
12 am to 3 am - cockcrowing
3 am. to 6 am - in the morning (Greek "proee"

The Greek term "proee" was understood as a technical term by Jesus and used so in this very passage for the fourth watch of the night that occurred between 3 a.m to 6 a.m. Jesus had come walking upon the water at the fourth watch (Mt. 14:25).

This is the word that the gospel writers use to define the time of his resurrection in Mark 16:9 before the sun had risen.

 

I personally, don't see how it can be avoided that what the text is referring to is seven regular sabbaths regardless when you begin counting and the day after the seventh sabbath is Pentecost. This beginning point is actually determined by the wave offering as the first-fruits of harvest and so there had to be some room for first-fruits to be gathered and offered after the first sabbath. The gathering of the first-fruits may vary from year to year but it is offered the day after the first sabbath after Passover.

 

Mt 26:45 Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

He interprets this hour to be the hour of his betrayal into the hands of sinners - the hour of his death. The institution of the Lord's supper already was past.

The "mass" is something Christ would never institute as it is a complete repudiation of "the hour" Christ defines as pertaining to the cross. The mass is ungodly and heathen.