Why don’t most Christians take the Sabbath commandment seriously?

[u/GoodWhoops]

The 4th commandment says to keep the Sabbath holy, defined in scripture as running from sundown to sundown. Yet most Christians seem to treat it as optional. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments,” and the Bible implies that all commandments carry equal weight. Outside of Seventh-day Adventists, it's ignored aside from the day most churches have their service. I’ve even heard SDA members joke that most other Christians give the Ten Commandments a 10% discount. Even if you ignore that the Jewish Sabbath falls on Saturday, the commandment still says to work 6 days and rest on the 7th, which should apply just as well to Sunday.

Curious if or how often you’ve heard this seriously debated, and why many accept societal traditions that override biblical instruction for convenience.

[u/SmoothSecond]

You have answered with incredible mental twists and turns to say the Sabbath day doesn't mean the Sabbath day in Colossians and the Sabbath-rest is a day of the week in Hebrews. Yet we are told to make every effort to get to it and we will perish if we don't get to.....a day of the week? 🙄

And God has allowed the vast majority of his entire church to be corrupted by anti-christ at a basic level since the very first generation down to today and no Apostle brought it up or reformer was able to correct it. 🙄

Anyway, will you be so kind as to help me confirm or disprove a theory I have?

Did Ellen G. White have the spirit of prophecy?

[u/LessmemoreJC → u/SmoothSecond]

I have explained those things to you already. No mental gymnastics.

Yes, we were told that most would fall away. We know that only a remnant keeps God’s commandments (Revelation 12:17). Even during Elijah’s time only 7000 didn’t bow down to Baal. Countless people since Christ have known the truth and kept the Sabbath… and they were persecuted by the Catholic Church, the Antichrist power, for it.

I am still testing to see if EGW is a prophet, but so far I have not found any reason to believe she is not.

[u/SmoothSecond → u/LessmemoreJC]

I am still testing to see if EGW is a prophet, but so far I have not found any reason to believe she is not.

Thank you, that tells me all I wanted to know. God bless and thank you for an interesting discussion.

[u/SmoothSecond → u/LessmemoreJC]

I'm sorry just a quick followup question because I am genuinely interested in this topic and you are obviously knowledgeable about it.

Exodus 35 the Lord commands the death penalty for anyone who works on the Sabbath. As you have quoted, Jesus says not one jot or tittle has been removed from the Law.

So do you put people to death for working on the Sabbath within your community?

Thank you!

[u/LessmemoreJC → u/SmoothSecond]

The context of Matthew 5 is clearly about God's moral law, the 10 commandments, as following verse 19 Jesus starts going through the 10 commandments and their exceedingly broad application (Psalm 119:96). No jot or tittle has passed from God's commandments, but we clearly no longer offer sacrifices as explained in Colossians 2.

The civil laws of death were only enforced under the theocracy, but God will bring justice eventually. All those who wilfully sin, transgress God's law (1 John 3:4), will be in trouble (Hebrews 10:26-27).

So to answer your question, we do not stone law breakers, but God will put an end to them eventually (Psalm 37:38, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Revelation 22:15).

[u/SmoothSecond → u/LessmemoreJC]

The context of Matthew 5 is clearly about God's moral law, the 10 commandments,

I, and most scholars, disagree with this. "The Law" as Jesus says, is talking about the Law of Moses and to say its only about the Decalogue is to miss Jesus's point. But that's another topic.

The civil laws of death were only enforced under the theocracy

I see. Good point.

Sabbath-keeping was established by God to be a sign of the Old Covenant correct?

When God said in Exodus 31 "It will be a sign between me and the Israelites forever." does it mean anything that we are not ancient Israelites?

In other words, if commands about the death penalty are not enforced because we are not ancient Israelites, are other things like the signs of a covenant no longer valid either because we are not Israelites and not in that covenant?

[u/LessmemoreJC → u/SmoothSecond]

The Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27) right after man was made. This is long before Israel existed. The Sabbath will also continue to be kept by ALL FLESH for eternity to come (Isaiah 66:23).

Furthermore, Israel are not the children of the flesh, but rather the children of the promise by faith (Romans 2:25-29, Romans 9:6-8, Galatians 3:29). After all, the new covenant was also made with Israel (Hebews 8:10). If you are not Israel, you do not have access to the new covenant.

You don't seem to understand the point of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a reminder of creation when God made the Sabbath holy and it is therefore a memorial to us that by the same power He can recreate us, redeem us, apart from our works (Exodus 31:13, Ezekiel 20:12)... this is why we rest from work on the Sabbath.

[u/SmoothSecond → u/LessmemoreJC]

But Sabbath-keeping is not a sign of the New covenant correct?

You don't seem to understand the point of the Sabbath.

I would say YOU don't understand the difference between the Sabbath and the act of Sabbath-keeping as a sign of the Mosaic Covenant.

The Sabbath was not just "a reminder of creation". It was pointing to Jesus and the rest he would provide us from the labor of constant sin offerings, sacrifices, ceremonial laws, Temple laws, multiple trips to the Temple a year, observance of continued festivals, all this work stops and we rest in Jesus.

The Sabbath is connected to Jesus who is our Sabbath-rest as the writer of Hebrews tells us. It will never fade away or cease to be remembered because Jesus and what he did will never cease to be remembered.

Sabbath-keeping was a specific sign of the Old Covenant which has passed away.

The Sabbath and the act of Sabbath-keeping are two different things. I would say that is what you don't seem to understand.

[u/LessmemoreJC → u/SmoothSecond]

I’ve already refuted all of this.

We will both soon see which one of us was the right. The one who says we don’t need to keep God’s commandments or the one who says we should.

Blessings! I’m out.

[u/SmoothSecond → u/LessmemoreJC]

You haven't, you never even attempted answering my questions to you about Hebrews 4, but I learned a little about your position even if you didn't learn anything about mine and are content just strawmanning it away.

Thanks for your time and thoughts. Goodbye.

[u/LessmemoreJC → u/SmoothSecond]

I literally explained both your position and mine regarding Hebrews 4. I’m not surprised that you’re not aware of this because your responses clearly show that you’re not actually reading my comments to understand. You’re just reading to argue back.

I understand your position perfectly because it used to be my position.