Prior Book | Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Colossians 2:16 ¶ Therefore no one is to act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Colossians 2:16 ¶ Therefore let no one judge you in regard to food and drink or in regard to [the observance of] a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. |
Bible Question (short): 10 Commandments or 9? |
Question (full): "There is no evidence in the Bible of anyone keeping the Sabbath before the time of Moses, nor are there any commands in the Bible to keep the Sabbath before the giving of the law at Mt. Sinai." What about Exodus 16:5? This chapter occurred before the ten commandments were given. This is clearly not a ceremonial Sabbath, as the whole week is mentioned, and it appears that this was the regular instruction regarding manna. Therefore, God Himself was instituting a regular seventh day sabbath. "Nowhere in the Old Testament are the Gentile nations commanded to observe the Sabbath or condemned for failing to do so. That is certainly strange if Sabbath observance were meant to be an eternal moral principle." In the commandment, the "stranger within thy gates" is commanded to observe the sabbath. God never commanded Gentile nations to act like the Israelites, but if they wanted to join with them, then they had to comply. If Paul were referring to special ceremonial dates of rest in that passage, why would he have used the word "Sabbath?" He had already mentioned the ceremonial dates when he spoke of festivals and new moons." Actually, several convocations were called "sabbaths" denoting days of rest, so it would not be out of context to say that Paul might have been referring to the annual-type sabbaths. After all, when "law" is spoken of in the New Testament, it can mean the moral law, or the ceremonial law. Much of Paul's writings refer to ceremonial law, which prefigured Christ. I have difficulty getting it straight in my mind that only one of the commandments is now no longer in force. I know some christians believe that as long as you have said the words to accept salvation, you can then live an atrocious life, and still be saved. But Jesus Himself often said things like, "Go, and sin no more." Surely He wasn't asking people to do the impossible. So obedience is still an issue as a response to having been saved. Obedience to what? I can't get away from the ten commandments as being special. On someone else's post, they wrote that God Himself wrote the commandments with His own hand. I find that a compelling argument for the fact that these were separate from laws and rituals designed to prefigure Christ's sacrifice. When the curtain of the temple was torn in two, at the time Christ died, that didn't do away with temple worship. It simply meant that the reality had now occurred, and looking forward was no longer relevant. Nothing in the sabbath issue looks forward to Christ. Neither do any of the ten commandments, as far as I can see. Aren't these the law that God will write in our hearts? |