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I'm suddenly all over the place again but--especially because I recently sought to look things up NOW, of all times...

but I read it's still important to keep the sabbath day holy and churches nowadays give praise to God on sundays when it's obvious pagans used to give worship to the sun god on those days. So if this is a man-changed date and not what God wants doesn't it mean we have to keep the sixth day of the week holy even though obviously keeping the sabbath alone doesn't grant sufficient salvation, as I'm reading up--but God still said to keep the commandment. This brings me to realize then the church I'm attending, offer their prime worship on sunday solely as others do. It's so striking to me how saturday, the day of the holy sabbath to be kept, in modern times is the day where you rest and play, and how sunday, the pagan day of sun worship, in now modern times has the illusion where everyone needs to give praise to God on this day. Everything's backwards. It's like a parade of real irony that managed to slip by my head until now. I should've known the 'sun' in SUN-day stood for sun god!

Now that I know saturday is the sabbath instead of sunday I don't feel like it's right to offer my time to Jesus on sunday because that's what I did all this time without knowing. Wouldn't it be vain in his eyes since that's only paganism and their worship of the sun god on that specific day? And here I had no clue until I started to open the doors of scattered findings on the internet to my appall.

I know I haven't gone to read the word as much as I need to confirm details like this if they're presented there in the first place, but pastors in churches who know the word more than anyone, aren't they responsible therefore not have people coming to worship on sundays? Or do they not know like everyone else. (It seems that way) Sunday should be the rested day set for spending time with family or recharging (or any other day BUT saturday; those other days we need to work so that leaves sunday a convenient day for the day of rest) and Saturday should be the day of worship set aside for God.

Read that churches have changed to worship on Saturday, but the church I attend hasn't....Do I stop going to this church? Because like I said, it doesn't seem right. It's hard to see then walk right in this age with all the errors blinding the truth and what I'm supposed to do on account of my faith. So if brothers and sisters have the knowledge please pass it to me and I'll do the right thing of what I believe to be a proper choice if what I'm thinking to be the proper action to take is the right action to take. I'm still confused and I still have so much to study again from scratch. Much thanks and God Bless!

I looked back to my post and I'm so off the tracks all my ignorance just blatantly showed through and came out everywhere. I'm saved thanks to the reliable information you gave. If I had simply read the Word I wouldn't have had room to think up such ideas by myself. The Sabbath is the day to rest and not worship; and resting on this Sabbath day doesn't mean worship as I claimed. The churches that have changed their services to Saturday, are they wrong for setting it on the Sabbath; Otherwise based on Paul's epistles and the confusion surrounding it about people changing the dates from negating each other proves why everything's different and people are still changing them(?). Going to worship on Sunday was, and is to gather for the service of His memorial for the day of YHWH's resurrection. (Since this is the day of His resurrection it's apparent people should gather in church to service this day with all their heart--my ultimate bad associating sunday with only pagan worship but I just didn't read nor rely on the Word)

Edit: Because it's changed as the seventh day when it's the first day of the week Sabbath is Saturday and it's known to us as a day of rest on our calendars. But is congregation allowed to worship on Sabbath?

And do Christians need to celebrate the Feasts instead of Easter and Christmas? I couldn't clarify since I've never held the tradition and wondering if I need to keep up with it at all. I know I'm not going to celebrate X-mas/Easter/etc. anyway at all anymore but does a Christian have to celebrate dates of the Feasts for YHWH's blessings?

I'll go to your link thanks!

I'm really so amazed again by all the information! Makes me rejoice inside. Finally I can understand the part on Sabbath. Now that I think about it, rings so true you can't keep certain aspects holy to begin with without the temple.....I seriously need to keep myself from stepping in all the way and going under before automatically embracing the truth behind every concept for real.
Me neither. I don't want to have anything to do with Christmas ever again, that Santa idolatry = the literal Satan. emotion_bandaid Was never really hyped about that stuff in the first place even before I wasn't in the definite know about it, and never got into the flow of celebrating it with my family whose attitudes are just as indifferent as mine is when it comes to being hyped on holidays. It's all onslaught of inception in the devil's established deception House. Putting this spell to be cast on souls with his mockery is just hilarious to him.

Once again, bless you and thanks a ton my Sister in Christ! You're right, it's the girl avatar, and I'm your sister in Christ deeply engaged in the Spirit of the Lord in you! emotion_bigheart

After I finish looking at the thread, I know I'll get the chaos out and find comfort on knowing the knowledge I absorbed gave me peace. I want to give thanks, sister, from the bottom of my heart! ~* emotion_hug heart

No I understand, thanks so much. Bless! (You can't condemn one or another for these written laws and any more than should they be used to condemn yourself for not abiding to it now in this time or age because no one is held to them anymore on account of this, and your response has really helped me see again: Jesus' demonstration of the first stone unable to be cast at someone else other than themselves because of inherent sin in everyone--it's one's own sins that are everyone else's sins as well. Because of what He was drawing out, there, it's the same basis for His example being laid down to be set in place with the Sabbath Laws. That there's no more conviction to be brought in except for being aware of this new possible law He made through the Body of His. So as being said, I understand how Old Covenant is no more, and the New Covenant can be proclaimed in its place and override it in all its history since it's given to newly push that loving encouragement from Him to each of us to come to honor and praise Him every and any time of the day wherever we're willing in our hearts and not of any such of the needless which is being tied down by His worded pronouncement of the law.)

Everything falls together perfectly in your explanation. I'm relieved in hearing I can be guided by the Spirit, the Word, and prayer in just these three great miraculous things. In fact deep down I already felt it and now, that this was simply what it is that was with the Sabbath also! Much love in the Lord, Sister, and thanks for bearing!

I think I know what you're saying! idea

Those common misinterpretations occur when details are glossed over in the text. But when you slow down and notice a few details, that interpretation is impossible to hold. For instance, under the new covenant—after Jesus died, resurrected and ascended—we find Paul keeping Old Testament laws literally, not just spiritually. The logic you used would require that Paul be obligated to keep the whole law to get saved/justified, but that's not true. Note: the book of Acts describes believers under the New Covenant. And here we find:

1) that Paul is keeping Sabbaths in the synagogue:

• Acts 17:2 (NIV)
  
  2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
  

2) that Paul is circumcising Timothy:

• Acts 16:1-3 (NIV)
  
  16 Paul came to Derbe and then to Lystra, where a disciple named Timothy lived, whose mother was Jewish and a believer but whose father was a Greek. 2 The believers at Lystra and Iconium spoke well of him. 3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
  

& 3) that Paul is scheduling animal sacrifices (after Jesus' once and for all sacrifice) to prove he's still living obedient to the law—under the New Covenant. The unbelieving part of the Jews had started a false rumor: that Paul was teaching not to live in obedience to the law (a rumor he attempted to put to death):

• Acts 21:19-26 (NIV)
  
  19 Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
  
  20 When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. 21 They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. 22 What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, 23 so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. 24 Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. 25 As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”
  
  26 The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them.
  

note: the reason they were shaving their heads is because of the Nazirite Vow; upon the completion of that vow, animals get sacrificed. If you want more detail on the Nazirite Vow and its requirements, you can read Numbers 6

They're keeping the law by the literal, not just the spiritual, under the New Covenant. And despite that, neither Paul nor Timothy are obligated to keep the whole law to be justified.

Same for the dietary laws. If they're null and void, there should be no prohibitions against eating blood and strangled meats found in the New Testament. And yet those same laws in Leviticus, literal applications, are the starter commands given to the Gentiles (why I say "starter commands": they're weren't just expected to keep four commands for life; they would learn the rest eventually because the Law of Moses was read every Sabbath in the synagogues; ergo, they would be keeping Sabbath the same way as Jesus and Paul).

New Testament


• Acts 15:19-21 (NIV)
  
  19 “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. 20 Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. 21 For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.”

Old Testament


• Leviticus 17:12 (NIV)
  
  12 Therefore I say to the Israelites, “None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner residing among you eat blood.”
  
  
• Leviticus 17:15 (NIV)
  
  15 “‘Anyone, whether native-born or foreigner, who eats anything found dead or torn by wild animals must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be ceremonially unclean till evening; then they will be clean.
  

Verse 21 (in Acts 15) is highly ignored.


About Stoning to Death

The reason we can't stone people to death is twofold;

1) because the whole nation hasn't agreed to come into covenant with YHWH and there is no Sanhedrin. That's necessary to carry out God's form of capital punishment. Worldly governments have their own take on how to eliminate criminals for committing capital crimes (and their own ideas of what is considered a capital crime; obviously God's standards are different and morally superior).

But also,

2) our goal is to reconcile people to God. We can't reconcile people if they're dead. Ergo we choose mercy. The most we do is separate from people if they choose to stay unrepentant; but Jesus will cast them into fire upon his return.

• 1 Corinthians 5:12-13 (NIV)
  
  12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”[a]
  
  Footnotes:
  
  a. 1 Corinthians 5:13 Deut. 13:5; 17:7; 19:19; 21:21; 22:21,24; 24:7
  
  
• 2 Thessalonians 1:6-9 (NIV)
  
  6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might
  
  

The reason Jesus didn't stone the adulteress to death is because:

1) he would have actually violated the law, and acted unjustly, had he stoned the woman. The law requires that you bring both the adulterer and the adulteress to be stoned. The Pharisees only brought the adulteress.

• Leviticus 20:10 (NIV)
  
  10 “‘If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.
  

2) Jesus chose mercy, instead of condemnation, because he came to reconcile people to the Father during his first coming, not condemn them to death. But they are required to turn away from sinning (which is the transgression of the law).

• John 8:10-11 (NIV)
  
  10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
  
  11 “No one, sir,” she said.
  
  “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
  
  
• 1 John 3:4 (NIV)
  
  4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
  

Those are just some of the many details that Christians are not paying attention to, either because commentary they've heard in the past has blinded them to these passages, so when they actually get around to reading the bible for themselves, they don't see it; or they haven't read it for themselves ever. I addressed all this (& more) in the: [Details in Paul's Epistles that Get Ignored] thread. Though mainly dealing with Paul, it naturally branches out to the passages that people commonly refer to (Mark 7, Acts 10, 1 Timothy 4, etc...), words they gloss over, and passages that they unstably twist, in order to say we can live lawless lives.

So, no, keeping the commands literally, as much as the circumstances allow, does not obligate you to keep the whole law. If you're doing it for justification's sake sure, but that's not what Paul and Timothy are doing. And what's leading to this false interpretation is how people take verse 3 alone and disregard the immediate details in the surrounding verses of Galatians 5:

• Galatians 5:3-4 (NIV)
  
  3 Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.
  

Considering Paul, who wrote the letter to the Galatians, is the one who circumcised Timothy, they're not keeping the law to be justified—nor did he just alienate Timothy from Christ nor obligate Timothy to keep the whole law by circumcising him. Paul and Timothy just keep the law as saved sinners because they're no longer hostile towards it.

• Romans 8:7-9 (NIV)
  
  7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
  
  9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
  
  
  
• Ezekiel 36:25-27 (NIV)
  
  25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
  

I'm so engrossed and in such awe of your lessons; I'm brought to the truth even more each time and that fills me with total relief in the Lord. Almost like a paradise I can grab onto in the words being said. The truth is shining. I have to pray it in my heart (also out loud on my knees) to Him for more so that my faith can keep growing!

I didn't misunderstand you; but yes, I disagreed. The case that I am making: Jesus expects us to keep the Sabbath, the way the Father actually commanded, not the way in which people end up distorting / adding on / taking away from the command or giving spiritual-sounding justifications for why not to keep the command as it is written.

• Matthew 5:17-19 (NIV)
  
  17 “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. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
  
  
• Matthew 15:1-9 (NIV)
  
  15 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
  
  3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’[a] and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’[b] 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. 7 You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:
  
  8 “‘These people honor me with their lips,
  but their hearts are far from me.
  9 They worship me in vain;
  their teachings are merely human rules.’[c]”
  
  Footnotes:
  
  a. Matthew 15:4 Exodus 20:12; Deut. 5:16
  b. Matthew 15:4 Exodus 21:17; Lev. 20:9
  c. Matthew 15:9 Isaiah 29:13
  

They gave a very pious-sounding, God-centered excuse for why they didn't keep the command the way it is written. That was not acceptable to Jesus. As saved sinners, we're no longer suppose to twist / falsely interpret the commands to avoid keeping them as they literally read.

Jesus commanded to put what's read from Moses' seat into practice even when the Pharisees failed to. So, even when the Pharisees (the spiritual authority in charge of teaching the law to us) don't put the Law of Moses (what they read from Moses' seat) into practice, Jesus expects us to.

• Matthew 23:1-3 (NIV)
  
  23 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

Contrary to popular belief, the Pharisees that Jesus confronted had no genuine desire to please God, act obediently to what's found in the Law of Moses / act in obedience to God's commands when doing so would threaten their self-imposed traditions and traditional interpretations of certain commands. They valued tradition more than God's truth. And when Jesus called them out on it, their hatred for God and his commands was made clear. They didn't really believe nor trust what was written in the Law of Moses. Ergo, they rejected the Messiah, who did everything according to scripture, unlike them who were in hostility towards God's law.

• John 5:46 (NIV)
  
  46 If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.
  
  

(so, based on the passages in Matthew, not only did the Pharisees not keep the Law as it is written, but here in John's gospel, they also couldn't detect the Law's prophetic implications about the Messiah because they ignored the Law and didn't believe in the Law of Moses, not really, as demonstrated by how they wouldn't keep it and disagreed with it).

The passages commonly used to suggest that Paul taught us,"never to judge a believer for the days they want to keep" are passages that get grossly distorted and butchered—which I addressed thoroughly in the: [Details in Paul's Epistles that Get Ignored] thread. I encourage you to read it because when believers ignore (or worse, refuse to acknowledge) those details, it causes unnecessary division in the body, not just between fellow Christians, but between Jews and Gentiles in the body too. I know there is a healthy time for division to occur, such as...

• 1 Corinthians 11:18-19 (NIV)
  
  18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. 19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.
  
  

...but unity in the faith is the goal.

• Ephesians 4:11-14N (NIV)
  
  11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
  
  14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.
  

That unification can only be achieved by getting an accurate picture of everything Jesus taught, without nullifying a single detail. So, in short, yes: Jesus wants us keeping the Sabbath, not setting aside the commandments of God. The only exception given for breaking the Sabbath is a life and death emergency or if you'll be healing someone. For things like circumcision, if you were demonstrating to the Jews that it wasn't circumcision that justified you, that was also an exception from keeping it. Specific circumstances take discernment to decide what would be the godly thing to do, but those are exceptions / special circumstances, not the norm. In general, we're suppose to live by the law and uphold it, like Paul and Jesus did, because that is what Jesus died to liberate us from: not just from the guilt of our sin, but from the nature that is hostile to God's commands.