Should the Church change some theological teachings as to stay relevant according to the advancing of culture and science that we see in this generation?

Hello T. I was using the matter of the Ten Commandments to address the larger question, not just the Ten Commandments. And observing the Sabbath – by going to church in most cases – is what a lot of Christians do. Re-read the original question at the beginning of this particular thread. I doubt that the followers of “any” religion would jettison their core beliefs in order to appease the sensibilities of our age or culture—or any other time… It will always be true that text of the New Testament says, “Every knee will bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” And.two plus two will always equal four, no matter the culture of the times, and the circumference of the earth at the equator will always be the same (unless the earth goes on a diet and takes an aerobics class), the galaxies in the heavens and the laws of physics are what they are regardless of whether the president of the Unites States is Republican, Democrat, or Totally Confused… presumably philosophies and theologies are (like scientific data) generally held despite what others perceive to be “changing times” …and Jesus will always have said “no one comes to the Father but by me.”

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The Sabbath is traditionally on Saturday. Observing the Sabbath also came with certain restrictions, such as not exchanging money. I don’t know about you, but it was quite common for my family to go out to a restaurant after church on Sundays.

I was thinking more about how Christians interact with people from other religions. Do you take a hard line and tell them they are all going to hell, or do you take a different tack?

Creation was ‘no sweat’ to an omnipotent God, but Jesus had bloody sweat in Gethsemane. When God truly rested was on the first day of the week, so regardless of any historical reasons for Sunday becoming ‘The Lord’s Day of Rest’, there is still theological reason to celebrate it then. God being our rest is a big deal and the celebration of that weekly is something modern Christianity has lost, to its detriment and the detraction of God. Christians engaging in non-infrastructure jobs and casual commerce on Sunday is not a good thing.

hello again, T. I am probably somewhere between you and Dale on all this. The change of “sabbath days” began with the first Christians, and – considering how worldview-shaking the resurrection must have been – I can understand the change. And Sunday it is for me! But some megachurches these days --aside from SDA for whom it is tradition-- do offer Saturday-evening services because their members are way overscheduled with kids’ sports, homework, visiting Granny in the nursing home, home maintenance issues, etc to make Sunday morning do-able–I cannot say whether that is good or bad since I am Single Forever…but it is what it is. And the restaurant is good — just remember to tip 20% or so! I hear that church people are noted for tipping poorly on Sunday which is not good…

As for people with other religions. I respect them and am interested in their traditions…and if they ask, I tell them why I believe Jesus is God. I don’t tell them they are going to hell. That is not exactly a conversation-starter. But some of those people think the same of me. People of other faiths are just as committed to their thoughts and beliefs as I am to mine (and you to yours). Some of them tell me why I am wrong and it goes both ways. But you can be respectful.

Heb 4:9 There remains, then, a Sabbath — rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. 11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.

Every day is Sabbath for me. I have ceased from my own labors (of the flesh) and follow the Spirit of God, doing the work of the Father. I worship the Father each Sabbath day, I obey Him each day, I do His work in my daily labors and relationships with my neighbor. I have entered the Sabbath rest, Jesus is the Sabbath rest of the Father.

Every day is Sabbath. I get to rest from sin 24/7. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Thank God for the Sabbath rest. Thank God for Jesus.

As the Ten Commandments are ‘laws of love’ that we should be observing today, so the commandment to keep a special weekly day remains. I would not be surprised if it is celebrated in heaven, to celebrate Jesus, to celebrate him as our rest. I expect to be working in the ages to come.

@bluebird1, i agree with 99% of what you are saying.

I do think the views on the Sabbath and other religions has changed quite a bit over the years. 100 years ago it wasn’t uncommon at all for all businesses to be closed on Sundays (at least in the US).

I also wouldn’t be surprised if Christians from much earlier periods were openly hostile towards other religions and those who belonged to those other traditions. Interactions with Europeans and indigenous populations in the New World were not the best (to put it lightly), and it wasn’t uncommon for children from those indigenous populations to be “re-educated” into Christianity. Thankfully, views have changed.

Do you think 1 John 5:3 was intended to be ironic?

Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

 
Compare:

Thus says the LORD: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.
 
Jeremiah 17:21

The latter part of that referring to commerce, of course. “For the sake of your lives” is interesting.  

So if you keep Saturday Sabbath and I keep Sunday, are you going to judge me against what Paul commanded?
If your Sunday Sabbath are you going to judge those who keep Saturday Sabbath?
Are you going to judge me for keeping everyday as the Rest or Sabbath of God in Christ.
Which day do you not do commerce? Which day do you not cook. How far do you travel on your Sabbath. Do you watch carnal entertainment on your Sabbath (I hope not on any day)?
Again, no man can judge me on a Sabbath day or Feast Day.

In Christ the shadow has passed, "It is finished". The reality in Jesus has come and the very nature and righteousness of God abides in my reborn spirit. The Father still worked on the Sabbath and so I will continue to do the works of the Father every day, that is my rest. If my neighbors only heat source was a wood stove and they ran out of wood, should I carry sticks to them or say, go in peace and be warm?. If they ran out of gas and needed help should I not travel to them, buy them gas and take it to them, or should I say, “I can’t help because it is the Sabbath”. If my neighbor (who may be 30 miles away) runs out of food, can I not travel that distance and take them food and prepare it for them, or do I say, “I can’t help, it’s the Lord’s Sabbath”? What if my neighbors roof falls in on the Sabbath because of a storm, would it be wrong for me to get my tools and go buy lumber to help them?
The rest of God was made for man, so yes, I do rest on Sunday. I go to church, come home and prepare food and eat it. Then I take a nap till the evening service. I do have to travel about 30 miles to get to church though. We may stop after church to get a bite to eat, though I don’t usually have to grab some grain from a field and use my hands to get the chaff off of it. I have traveled on Sunday to visit someone in a care facility, I may even have to stop for gas, but I am just following my Father’s example, doing His work that He leads me to do.

“Don’t let any man judge you on a Sabbath day.”

Rom 7:4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

You failed to answer my question and you are extrapolating far beyond anything I suggested. Oh, and mercy trumps law.

Loved reading your testemony Mark. I loved your music as a teenagaer, but reading of your love for God and how real God is to you, is way more thrilling.
Don’t let this science stuff throw you off track.
May God bless you on your journey with Jesus who spoke all into existance.

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Well, I would not say much has changed. I did not say that I agree with “those other tradiitions”— which is somewhat the theme of this blog. And let’s not be so judgmental about “much earlier periods.” We may be stereotyping our ancestors a bit much. I suspect that religion in the Middle Ages (for which I do not think church attendance as a whole was terribly high, not more than now) --but religion in that era was probably like politics is in our era. We have had an explosion of evil and totally anarchic behavior throughout the Western and European world the past year —all in the name of politics or of getting or not getting a particular vaccine or perceived injustices that were used to justify destroying lives and businesses and the “defunding” of entire governmental agencies so that some could run amuk and kill and destroy at will. We are civilized? Original sin is not so original – which is why we need a Savior —and the rationale behind that (in other words the theology that bolstered and explained the reasons behind that need) are in the Old Testament as much as in the New. Violence and intolerance? We do it now in the name of politics and of science. But it is all the same.

Hi Geneo! Welcome. Quite a few very interesting discussions go on here. Enjoy!

Would God call all members of the “Church” or all who attend “Church” Christians?

Amazing. God is REAL. I met Him a few years back and He showed me things never discussed before. He showed me what the Ark of the Covenant was/is. First draft of book is with Publisher right now and hopefully be out before end of the year. You met God just as I did on my journey. Stay Blessed. Great Story.

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Changes are coming. Not because of need or necessity but of truth. Too many questions left unanswered and knowledge has reached the point where science provided answers but the Church led by those with little understanding of science successfully made enemies out of science because they did not have the gift. God was a Scientist, not a Preacher. All of creation can only be understood by applying science. Eve did not go after knowledge for nothing as Eve understood as a helper that for man to fully comprehend the awesomeness of God, her seeds were going to need knowledge. Those days are here. I found the Ark of the Covenant and much more. Darwin was not that far from the truth about the relationship between man and chimp neither. He was very close. Science will now explain God much more in detail and will help remove a lot of confusion about Biblical creation. There will be stubborn leaders resisting but if it God’s will, then yes, the Church will have to adjust the teachings. The best thing is that science will support these adjustments. The book will be out by the end of the year and will post to you all when it does come out. Stay Blesse

Pale – what book will be out? Are you doing a promo for your book here?

The concept of “God in three persons” ( Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in place centuries before the birth of Christ? How do you figure that?

Robin said ‘some now say elements of it were in place’. We might ask for some more development, though. I think we can see some things retrospectively, but ‘in place’ I don’t know.

There are Jewish scholars of our era (and probably Gentile ones too) who assert that the groundwork for seeing a complexity in the nature of God — not to mention the incarnation — had already been laid out (1 Enoch, the Son of Man in Daniel etc), by the time of Jesus. The word trinity — trinitas — was first used in (off the top of my head) about the second century A.D./C.E.