8/9/2019 Should Christians Observe the Seventh Day Sabbath

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+0%'+, +0(3God did not call any other nation to observe the Sabbath, although he didopen the door for Gentiles to ;oin themselves to $is covenant with srael insaiah s

covenant, but the specific covenantal, seventhday Sabbath sign wasgiven e/clusively to the people of srael3&-(In the New Testament, Gentile believers are never called or required toobserve the seventh-day Sabbath, and they become full-citiens alongwith Israel without having to observe the full requirements of the !aw3t is true that many of the first Gentile believers were actually 1Godfearers4who heard the message of the Gospel in synagogues &see Acts '-%+7'8%=, '8(, and they would have been familiar with the seventhdaySabbath3 n fact, they would have heard @aul preaching on the Sabbath3)onetheless, the verdict of Acts '< was clear% Gentile believers were not

re"uired to observe all the *orah laws3&=(There is no biblical support for the view that after the resurrection of"esus, the Sabbath was changed to Sunday3 *here is some evidence thatas early as the late first or early second century, believers gathered beforeor after work on Sundays to celebrate the Lord>s resurrection, but this wasnot related to the concept of the Sabbath, and strong arguments can bemade against the Sabbath being changed to Sunday within the )ew*estament itself3 t was not until the fourth century that the church formallydeclared that the Sabbath had been moved to Sunday, with the "uestionbegging to be asked, 15y what authority did you do this?4

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labors and focus on $im3 !n a certain level, through the work of the6essiah, we have entered into a perpetual rest from our own labors &see6atthew ''%+B-0 omans =%=