IS the Sabbath to be forgotten in the New Testament? "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy..." is the fourth commandment and the one which most people have forgotten! This is the command that many people falsely claim was forgotten and left out of the New Testament.
Is it reasonable that God would have left out any of the Ten Commandments in the New Testament when David said these commandments "stand fast for ever and ever"? (Psalm 111:7-8)
The fourth commandment is shown plainly to be in the New Testament. Have you ever read this inspired scripture? " It is therefore the duty of the people of God to keep the Sabbath" (Hebrews 4:9, New Testament from Aramaic, Lamsa).
You probably have not known about this important scripture before, because the King James translation of the Bible, along with certain others, has sought to hide the real meaning of this verse. The original Greek writings and some marginal renderings make it very clear.
Notice it in the King James translation: "There remaineth therefore yet a rest to the people of God." This chapter tells of the millennial rest to come for God's people who are faithful and inherit the promises of God. A "rest" is mentioned several times prior to verse nine.
The Greek word for "rest" in the first part of this chapter is 'katapausin'; however, in verse nine the word "rest" comes from an entirely different Greek word, 'sabbatismos'. This word literally means, as most margins show, "keeping of a sabbath."
The Sabbath rest each week is a memorial of creation and a picture of the soon-coming millennial "rest." Correctly rendered, this verse reads: "There remaineth therefore the keeping of the Sabbath to the people of God."
Notice these points about this verse. This keeping of the Sabbath remains. It is not forgotten, or done away, or nailed to the cross. The rest of the world has forgotten that it still remains. If it still remains, then it is still holy to God. We ought therefore to remember it and keep it holy as God has always commanded.
This day pictures the rest that God had on creation week and therefore honors the fact that He is Creator. It also foreshadows the fact that He is soon going to bring a millennium of peace, the seventh thousand-year period, to this world.
The command to keep the Sabbath today is also proved by several other scriptures. Paul instructed us to follow him as he followed Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Peter also told us that we ought to walk as Christ walked (1 Peter 2:21). The apostle John said the same thing in 1 John 2:6.
Christ always kept the Sabbath! It was His custom (Luke 4:16), and He was continually showing His disciples and the religionists of that time the proper way to keep it. He showed this by the perfect example He set.
The disciples were to follow His example and teach others the same things. His parting instruction was:
"Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:19-20 KJV).
This makes it plain that His commands, including the Sabbath, are to be observed today!
Paul followed Christ in always keeping the Sabbath (Acts 17:2) and taught the Gentiles as well as the Jews on the Sabbath (Acts 13:42, 44 and 18:4). There are several other scriptures in the New Testament, particularly in the book of Acts, which show plainly that the Church, as it started out, kept and upheld the Sabbath many times (Ref: Acts 13:14, Acts 13:42, Acts 13:44; Acts 16:13; Acts 17:2; Acts 18:4, Acts 21; Acts 20:6, Acts 20:16; Acts 27:9).
Sunday on the other hand was always a workday. Jesus said that He was 'Lord of the Sabbath', not Lord of Sunday (Luke 6:5).
Sunday is not the Lord's day, and it never has been, contrary to the common beliefs of many today.
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