QUESTIONS - How Do You Defend The Sabbath In Light Of Romans 14_5？
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Summary
In this episode, Pastor Joel Webin and Nathan talk about Sabbath, festivals, and the moon. They discuss the relationship between the old covenant and the new covenant, and why the sabbath is not part of it.
Transcript
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Big news. Really big news. Our next Right Response Conference is in the works. We've got a number of
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things already lined up and organized. This is what we've got so far. The whole conference,
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three days long on post-millennialism and theonomy. And the speakers, Dr. James White,
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Dr. Joseph Boot, Gary DeMar, and of course, yours truly, Pastor Joel Webin. We've got a great lineup.
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If you want to find out dates and location and registration and anything else, go and
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visit our website, rightresponseconference.com, rightresponseconference.com.
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All right, Romans chapter 14, verse 5 says, one person esteems one day is better than
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Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.
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The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.
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The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God.
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While the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord, in honor of the Lord and gives
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For none of us lives to himself and none of us dies to himself.
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Okay, that's a great one, but let's actually add to it, right?
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If we want to play the devil's advocate here, which the devil, that's one of his primary
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businesses is twisting the scripture. So if we want to twist this one, let's go ahead and twist
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an even better one. All right. So this is Colossians, I believe chapter two. Uh, Nathan,
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maybe you could, uh, do a quick web search for, um, uh, Sabbaths and new moons Colossians. If you
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type that into a search bar should pop up, but I believe it's Colossians chapter two,
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what was it chapter 12 verse 5 14 5 so romans 14 5 is is one of the premier verses and then the
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other one that's even you know seemingly stronger against the sabbath that non-sabbatarian guys will
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use is colossians 2 16 therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink
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or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath these are a shadow of things to come
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but the substance belongs to Christ. Okay. It goes on and says, so then let no one
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disqualify you. Say you're in sin. You're not, you're not qualified. You're not being
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holy. Let no one disqualify you insisting on asceticism and worship of angels going on in
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detail about visions puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind. Okay. So Colossians two
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takes the same principle, right? So it's the same principle, same concept of Romans 14, 5,
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but then just gives more specific, particular examples. And the examples in Colossians 2 of
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the same principle stated in Romans 15, 14, 5, is the example cited in Colossians 2 of that
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principle is, let no one pass judgment on you with questions of food, drink, or in regard to
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a festival, or a new moon, or a Sabbath. And I would say that all five of these things, food,
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drink, festival, new moon, or Sabbath, all five of these things belong to the ceremonial law of God,
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which is fulfilled by Christ, but also abrogated by Christ. He makes us clean. He is our high
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priest. He's the lamb of God, the sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world. These are
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aspects, belonging, rituals, artifacts, elements of the old covenant that was particular to Israel
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in that particular time. And you might say, but it says Sabbath, Joel, and you said that that's not
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just with Moses and Mount Sinai. Yeah, you're right. That's a creation ordinance that is not
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removed, but renewed from the last day to the first for us still to this day under the new
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covenant, the Sabbath. So how do you resolve that tension? The Sabbath mentioned in Colossians
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chapter two, verse 16 is not the weekly Sabbath. Solid throughout church history. If we look at
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the consensus of church history, not just your liberal progressive non-sabbatarian exegetes that
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came about in the last 20 years. But if we look at 2,000 years of biblical commentary and theologians
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on this particular text, looking at Romans 14, 5 and Colossians chapter 2, verse 16, the Sabbath
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in its context is being placed right next to food, drink, festivals, and new moons. The Sabbath
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mentioned there is a Sabbath that is unique to Israel's calendar of worship, its annual calendar
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of worship that followed moon cycles, that followed certain seasons and harvests, right? You had seven
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major feasts in Israel, festivals, right? The feast of booths, right? The day of atonement,
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Passover, these kinds of things. And the Sabbath mentioned here is actually, it is like a new moon
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Sabbath. It's a monthly Sabbath, not the weekly Sabbath, but a monthly, or in some cases, maybe a
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bi-monthly Sabbath, bi being every two months, that was unique to Israel's annual calendar of
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worship following harvests and seasons and lunar cycles. And it was unique to Israel.
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So the short answer is this. It's confusing. It is confusing. It's difficult. So it's a good
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question to you. But the Sabbath mentioned in Colossians 2.16 is not the Sabbath mentioned
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in Genesis. The one in seventh day is not the weekly Sabbath, which belongs to all people in
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all times set, established as a creation ordinance by God who rested on the seventh day and renewed
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by the son of God from the seventh to the first day by virtue of his resurrection. It's not that
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weekly Sabbath, which is a creation ordinance in the beginning and then renewed as a part of
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christian worship by the head of the church jesus christ himself that's a weekly sabbath that's
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perpetual all times to the end of the world says the westminster in 1689 confession to the end of
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the world to be observed by all peoples not just christian people but all people the weekly sabbath
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belonging to christian worship that transcends simply the old covenant and the nation state of
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israel yet there is another sabbath the weekly sabbath is not the only sabbath that israel
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observed. There were also monthly Sabbaths and multiple festivals and feasts and new moon
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Sabbaths that all belonged to Israel that would fall underneath not the moral law of God,
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the fourth commandment, remember the Sabbath and keep it holy in the Decalogue, Exodus 20,
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but rather is a part of the ceremonial law of God. And it therefore is categorized in the same
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grouping as the Ark of the Covenant or the mercy seat or the cherubim or the basin, the bowl of
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incense or the tabernacle or animal sacrifices or hand washings or a woman and needing to go
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outside of the camp for seven days or not eating shellfish and not eating pork. That's the monthly
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Sabbath. The lunar cycle, annual worship calendar unique to Israel Sabbath belongs in that category,
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ceremonial, not moral. That's the weekly Sabbath. It's two different kinds of Sabbaths. So now back
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to Romans 14, five, one man considers one day, what it's really getting as holy, but it simply
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means particular, that one day is different, set apart, special. One guy says, hey, not all days
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are the same. This day is special. It's not talking about the guy who considers the first
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day of the week, the weekly Sabbath special. Everyone should consider that special because
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God said it's special and it's still special. That's not what Romans 14, five is talking about.
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It's talking about birthdays. It's talking about, you won't like this one, but Christmas,
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Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Christopher Columbus Day. It's talking about
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New Year's Day. That's what it's talking about. And in regard to that, that's precisely what I
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would use. That's the text, Romans 14, 5. I would never use that text to try to dismiss
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the weekly Sabbath. I would use that text to say, hey, I understand that Christmas has pagan
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roots, Celtic roots, but if somebody is honoring Christ and that's the way that they're observing
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Christmas, I'm not going to cast judgment on them. It's okay to celebrate Christmas.
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And likewise, if somebody says, yeah, but there's just too much pagan and commercialize
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this and that, and we really hold strongly that there's only one holiday, holy day for
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Christians, and that's the Sabbath, guess what?
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I'm going to be like, wow, man, can't argue with that.
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But real quick, before you go, do us a small favor,
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that you can help us get this biblically faithful content