Where are we told to keep the Sabbath in the New Testament?

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Pergamum

Ordinary Guy (TM)
Where are we told to keep the Sabbath day in the New Testament?

If someone tells me that they reject the Sabbath, and won't go to the OT for proof, where do I point them in the NT?
 
You hit on it in your other thread, but I would argue that:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-19 ESV)

makes it pretty clear.
 
Where are we told to keep the Sabbath day in the New Testament?

If someone tells me that they reject the Sabbath, and won't go to the OT for proof, where do I point them in the NT?

Another method is simply countering the implicit Dispensationalist hermeneutics. Presume continuity unless the NT otherwise says. Of course, too much thinking along those lines will make you a paedobaptist.
 
You could point out that when Jesus was accused (frequently) of breaking the Sabbath, he never defended himself by arguing that the Sabbath no longer applied, instead he argued that he was God and that the Sabbath was made for man.
 
I would go to Revelation 1:10, where John says, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." That phrase "The Lord's Day" in the original is kuriake hemera, that word kuriake specifically meaning "belonging to the Lord." We see in Scripture that Christ rose on the eighth day, appeared to His disciples on the eighth day, the Corinthians gathered offerings on the first day of the week, and Pentecost came on the eighth day, but also the testimony of the early church from its earliest point is that the Lord's Day is the first day of the week. If someone says that it's referring to John being transported in time by vision to the day of judgment, it does not work because Christ is addressing specific local congregations right after this verse. And besides after Christ's address, there is a second transportation in Revelation 4:2 where John is brought to see the visions pertaining specifically to events that were then future.

You could also go to 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 where Paul instructed the people at Corinth to take up collections on the first day of the week. "As I instructed the churches at Galatia, so also are you to do." This text is good because it not only shows the universality of the people of God gathering on the first day of the week (Sunday), but it also shows that there is a command particular to that one day; which implies that if the church did not regularly gather on that day, they could not keep Paul's command here. You can kill another bird with the same stone by emphasizing the command was also given to the Galatians, because debaters often try to go to Galatians 4:10, "You observe days and months and seasons and years," to say that there is no continuance of holy days. But oddly enough, Paul commands both the Corinthians and the Galatians to gather offerings on one specific day.

You might find Jonathan Edwards profitable on the matter.

The Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath
 
"The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath." Mark 2:27 As Jesus notes here, the Sabbath was a command for men, not just the Jews.
 
Hebrews 3 and 4.

See this thread:
http://www.puritanboard.com/f45/eternal-sabbath-rest-already-but-not-yet-77148/

and this
http://www.puritanboard.com/f45/another-day-77247/

Why did God appoint another day called "Today", a seventh day Sabbath, through David in Psalm 95? Because although the people had entered the Land under Joshua, and had been given rest from their enemies under David, they still had not entered God's rest, the rest that He entered on the seventh day.

Ergo, in the New Testament, why does there remain the keeping of a Sabbath to the New Testament people of God? Because although the New Testament people of God rest in Christ by faith every day of the week, they have not yet entered God's rest which Christ already enjoys.

Christ rested from His works on the first day of the week by entering God's rest, just as God rested from His works of creation on the seventh day of the week.

See also the chapter on this passage in this book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Call-Sabbat...5886/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1359318108&sr=8-2
 
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Where are we told to keep the Sabbath day in the New Testament?

Hebrews 4:9

9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.

rest, σαββατισμός: sabbatismós (G4520)

One tendency against this verse is an over-realized sabbath fulfillment in Christ during this present age, but Christ does not become our sabbath rest completely until we get to heaven (an already & not yet kind of thing).

I would also go to James 2:10-11,

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

To this I would add that the same one who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."

I would point out how James puts all of the Ten Commandments on the very same footing. All the commands are founded upon God's character. While the civil and ceremonial laws can be abrogated as it is fulfilled in Christ and thereby abrogated, the moral law can never be abrogated because God's moral character can never be abrogated. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore, the Ten Words are forever binding.
 
Where are we told to keep the Sabbath day in the New Testament?
...
I would also go to James 2:10-11,

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

To this I would add that the same one who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."

I would point out how James puts all of the Ten Commandments on the very same footing. All the commands are founded upon God's character. While the civil and ceremonial laws can be abrogated as it is fulfilled in Christ and thereby abrogated, the moral law can never be abrogated because God's moral character can never be abrogated. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore, the Ten Words are forever binding.

Consider this stolen! I hadn't thought of this usage. May that God might use this vessel and the instrumentality of this reasoning to tear down strongholds!
 
I think there are going to be a lot of people who thought they were "just following what the Bible clearly stated" who will, one Day, be shocked at at all the good and necessary consequences which they completely ignored in favor of a facile "proof texting only" standard for Biblical hermeneutics.


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Where are we told to keep the Sabbath day in the New Testament?

Hebrews 4:9

9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God.

rest, σαββατισμός: sabbatismós (G4520)

One tendency against this verse is an over-realized sabbath fulfillment in Christ during this present age, but Christ does not become our sabbath rest completely until we get to heaven (an already & not yet kind of thing).

I would also go to James 2:10-11,

10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

To this I would add that the same one who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."

I would point out how James puts all of the Ten Commandments on the very same footing. All the commands are founded upon God's character. While the civil and ceremonial laws can be abrogated as it is fulfilled in Christ and thereby abrogated, the moral law can never be abrogated because God's moral character can never be abrogated. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Therefore, the Ten Words are forever binding.


here is another article on Heb4:9
Sabbath Rest by Sinclair Ferguson | Reformed Theology Articles at Ligonier.org
 
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