I have a question about irony

It’s only five pages with a lot of white space – find the easter egg. :slightly_smiling_face: (@LM77 – I would be interested in your take on this.)

    The Lord’s Day of Rest

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Really great article on the study of the Christian Sabbath. Similar tones and words that a confessional conservative Wesleyan-Methodist like me hears a lot. The Christian Sabbath, the Lord’s Day, Sunday, is a day of rest and grace, a day to enjoy God’s presence and to reenergizes for the rest of the week in both worship and prayer. I myself am guilty of doing “extra-work” on the Lord’s Day and always try to do what is really needed to be done and take time to prayer and study. God bless.

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Thanks. It is not just an opinion piece… I think it is important.

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I agree, if the Sabbath was important to God in the OT, what makes it different now as a NT people of God?

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39 viewed the topic, but only 9, you being one of them, have looked at the essay. I guess the status quo may be too comfortable.

Here is the irony easter egg, not hard to find below the middle of p.3, for those of you who haven’t looked:

Hey, now all of 10 have at least opened the document. Woo hoo! :slightly_smiling_face:

Looks like pretty standard Seventh-day Adventism arguments. It’s a stretch to say that Paul was not addressing the weekly sabbath when he said this:

“One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.”

So, it’s perfectly fine to consider every day alike. In the context of Jew/Gentile mixed churches and the tension that caused in the early church there is no way that this is not what Paul is addressing.

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I addressed your points in the essay. Please check again.

I read the essay. That was my response to it.

The context of Romans is Jew/Gentiles as one people of God.

I’m a Gentile - I eat meat, don’t keep kosher laws, don’t circumcise my sons, and I don’t observe the Jewish Sabbath. I consider every day alike, and I am fully convinced in my own mind. :slight_smile:

Now, do I see the value in taking time to rest, re-create, and reflect on the things of God? You bet. Does that need to happen on a Saturday or a Sunday? Not for me. It can happen at any time that the Spirit prompts me.

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From the points in your response, it looks like you missed my arguments concerning them.

I read your arguments, but I don’t find them convincing. That’s ok - folks don’t always find me convincing either. :slight_smile:

… and am I correct that you’re a seventh-day Adventist of some stripe? I’m Anabaptist / Mennonite.

You are correct, I don’t find you convincing. I think you are missing seeing Father’s heart.

And you really did not read the essay well or you would not have suggested that I am an SDA. And it’s funny, I attend a Mennonite church. I call myself their token Presbyterian. :slightly_smiling_face:

The arguments you are advancing are the same ones adventists of various stripes advance, so it seemed logical that you held that view. But, I asked, because you never know…

I don’t see anything in that essay that hints at your church affiliation, but I might have missed something.

Your arguments are based - at least in the essay - on personal incredulity that Paul was talking about the weekly Sabbath. You don’t offer any evidence against this view, which is by far and away the mainstream view within Christianity. But, I’m fine to agree to disagree.

Kosher food laws were important. Circumcision was important. Sabbath was important. These three practices were the primary boundary markers for God’s people in the OT. All three of them were addressed in the NT when God’s Spirit was given to Jews and Gentiles alike (cf Romans, Galatians).

You missed several things.

You completely missed what I said about the first day of the week. It’s more than hinted at in just the title!

I mentioned the Westminster Confession in a footnote, and I cited John Frame (a renowned scholar).

The first Christians were Jews, and they knew the importance of the Sabbath to God and would not think it had evaporated (and do not neglect that Paul was a Jewish scholar). Do not neglect the argument about Father’s affinity for an arbitrary commandment. Be careful that an appeal to ‘whenever the Spirit prompts’ is not an excuse to not be careful to use your mind.

And you have to conclude that 1John 5:3 was intended to be ironic.

You need to make a distinction between the moral law and the rest – ceremonial law, dietary, sanitary and civil.

Does that mean that you think 1 Jn 5:3 indicates that every command in the OT is binding on NT believers? Even the ones like circumcision and food laws?

I see no such distinctions made in Paul’s works, or anywhere in the NT.

[withdrawn]

They are there implicitly.