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The Old Covenant has
been canceled! All its types and shadows
have been made plain in Christ Jesus. All
the sacrifices, Holy Days, Feasts, New Moon
celebrations, and Dietary restrictions have
been fulfilled and brought to an end by the
New Covenant, including the weekly
Seventh-day Sabbath.
Much of the
Mosaic Law (the Law of God) are ceremonial
laws to make a distinction between Israel
and the nations that surrounded them.
Colossians 2:14-17 says those things were
"shadows" of what was to come. The much
superior New Covenant includes all races and
nations of people.
The issues of food
and drink and Sabbath observances that many
Adventists and their friends get so
concerned about are irrelevant now, and
Christians need not ever worry about them
again. They belong to the Old Covenant,
which we are not under.
Colossians 2:14-17 by canceling the record of debt that
stood against us with its legal demands.
This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
He disarmed the rulers and authorities and
put them to open shame, by triumphing over
them in him. Therefore let no one pass
judgment on you in questions of food and
drink, or with regard to a festival or a new
moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the
things to come, but the substance belongs to
Christ.
Of verse 17, the NIV Study
Bible says this; “shadow... reality. The
ceremonial laws of the OT are here referred
to as shadows (Hebrews 8:5; 10:1) because
they symbolically depicted the coming of
Christ; so any insistence on the observance
of such ceremonies is a failure to recognize
that their fulfillment has already taken
place. This element of the Colossian heresy
was combined with a rigid asceticism, as
Colossians 2:20-21 reveal.”
The
Colossian heresy was a mixture of legalistic
Jewish ceremonial laws of the Old Testament
and an early form of Gnosticism. In the Book
of Galatians, Paul had to deal directly with
the Judaizers and legalists.
Galatians 1:6-9 I am astonished that you are
so quickly deserting him who called you in
the grace of Christ and are turning to a
different gospel— not that there is another
one, but there are some who trouble you and
want to distort the gospel of Christ. But
even if we or an angel from heaven should
preach to you a gospel contrary to the one
we preached to you, let him be accursed. As
we have said before, so now I say again: If
anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary
to the one you received, let him be
accursed.
Galatians 4:10-11 You
observe days and months and seasons and
years! I am afraid I may have labored over
you in vain.
Galatians 4:21 Tell me,
you who desire to be under the law, do you
not listen to the law?
If You
Teach Others To Keep The Old Covenant Laws -
You Are Teaching A False Gospel.
Galatians 5:1-4 For freedom Christ has
set us free; stand firm therefore, and do
not submit again to a yoke of slavery (See:
Acts 15:10). Look: I, Paul, say to you that
if you accept circumcision, Christ will be
of no advantage to you. I testify again to
every man who accepts circumcision that he
is obligated to keep the whole law. You are
severed from Christ, you who would be
justified by the law; you have fallen away
from grace.
Christ Has Set Us
Free From The Law To Be Justified By Grace!
Some say that the Books of Colossians
and Galatians are talking about what they
call ceremonial Sabbaths and not the weekly,
Seventh-day Sabbath of the Ten Commandments.
As already shown, the Old Testament makes no
distinction between the Law of Moses and the
Law of God. The Law of Moses is the whole
legal code for the Mosaic Covenant (1 Kings 2:3; 2 Kings 23:25; Ezra 3:2). It is called
"the Law" (Heb. Torah, Deuteronomy 1:5;
Deuteronomy 4:8; Deuteronomy 4:44;
Deuteronomy 17:18; Deuteronomy 17:19;
Deuteronomy 27:3; Deuteronomy 27:8). It is
called the "book of the law of Moses" (2 Kings 14:6; Isaiah 8:20), and the "book of
the law of God" (Joshua 24:26). It was the
legally-binding Constitution for the
theocratic, nation of Israel.
The New
Testament Books of Colossians and Galatians
are talking about the entire Yearly Cycle of
Worship Contained in the Law of Moses (i.e.
God) which Includes the weekly Seventh-day
Sabbath.
Some Important
Points to Consider:
1.
Colossians 2:16 contains the Old Testament
pattern of referring to Jewish Holy Days in
a yearly, monthly, weekly sequence as in 1 Chronicles 23:31; 2 Chronicles 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; Nehemiah 10:33; Ezekiel 45:17; Hosea 2:11; Galatians 4:10. (See below)
2. The plural "sabbaton"
in Colossians 2:16 refers to the weekly
Sabbath day, just as the plural "sabbaton"
refers to the weekly Sabbath day in Matthew 28:1, Luke 4:16, Acts 16:13, Exodus 20:8
(Septuagint) Leviticus 23:37-38
(Septuagint).
3. In Colossians 2:16,
the lack of the definite article before the
word "Sabbath" in the Greek can refer to the
weekly Sabbath, just as the weekly Sabbath
lacks the definite article in Matthew 28:1;
John 5:9, 10, 16. [1]
4. The New
Testament the Greek word "sabbaton" is
translated to mean "Sabbath" 59 times.
Seventh-day Adventists believe that it means
the Seventh-day "Sabbath" in 58 of those
instances. The only time they change its
meaning is in Colossians 2:16-17.
Notice how the same Construct is
used in other verses for the Old Covenant
Yearly cycle of worship:
1 Chronicles 23:31 and whenever burnt
offerings were offered to the LORD on
Sabbaths, new moons, and feast days,
according to the number required of them,
regularly before the LORD.
2 Chronicles 31:3 The contribution of the king
from his own possessions was for the burnt
offerings: the burnt offerings of morning
and evening, and the burnt offerings for the
Sabbaths, the new moons, and the appointed
feasts, as it is written in the Law of the
LORD.
Ezekiel 45:17 It shall be the
prince’s duty to furnish the burnt
offerings, grain offerings, and drink
offerings, at the feasts, the new moons, and
the Sabbaths, all the appointed feasts of
the house of Israel: he shall provide the
sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt
offerings, and peace offerings, to make
atonement on behalf of the house of Israel.
Nehemiah 10:33 for the showbread, the
regular grain offering, the regular burnt
offering, the Sabbaths, the new moons, the
appointed feasts, the holy things, and the
sin offerings to make atonement for Israel,
and for all the work of the house of our
God.
Hosea 2:11-12 And I will put an
end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new
moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed
feasts. And I will lay waste her vines and
her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are
my wages, which my lovers have given me.’ I
will make them a forest, and the beasts of
the field shall devour them.
Galatians 4:10-11 You observe days and
months and seasons and years! I am afraid I
may have labored over you in vain.
As you can see. The Old Covenant tells us of
a system of “days, months, seasons and
years”. This represents the entire cycle of
Jewish Holy days throughout each year. It
was a yearly cycle that pointed to the work
of the messiah and would only stop once the
true messiah came.
Sabbatarians,
like the Seventh-day Adventists say it
doesn’t include the weekly Sabbath but this
is false. It is the ongoing cycle from days
to months, feast to feast on through to the
Day of Atonement when the cycle starts all
over again.
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The Yearly, monthly, weekly, pattern in Colossians proves it was the weekly
Sabbath
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Yearly
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Monthly
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Weekly
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1 Chronicles 23:31
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feast days
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new moons
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Sabbath
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2 Chronicles 2:4
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appointed feasts
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new moons
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Sabbath
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2 Chronicles 8:13
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annual feasts
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new moons
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Sabbath
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2 Chronicles 31:3
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appointed feasts
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new moon
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Sabbath
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Nehemiah 10:33
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appointed feasts
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new moon
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Sabbath
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Isaiah 1:13-14
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appointed feasts
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new moons
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Sabbath
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Ezekiel 45:17
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appointed feasts
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new moons
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Sabbath
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Ezekiel 46:1-11
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appointed festivals
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new moons
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Sabbath
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Hosea 2:11
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appointed feasts
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new moons
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Sabbath
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Galatians 4:10-11
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seasons and years
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months
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days
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Colossians 2:16-17
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festivals
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new moon
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Sabbath
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(English Standard Version) |
References:
1. See:
https://www.bible.ca/7-sabbath-questions.htm
See also:
Colossians 2:16-17 and the Seventh-Day
Adventist Church
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