While it doesn't happen so much around Rainbow or Hopetoun, those of us who have previously lived in the city, may have had the experience of having someone from another church knock on their door and try to convince them that they are worshipping on the wrong day of the week, on the Sunday rather than, as they assert, the Saturday.
Anyone who has had such a visitor will know exactly who I am referring to.
This often catches people out, as it can be quite difficult to provide the correct response in such a situation.
Today I am going to explore this and hopefully explain the reason why Christians no longer consider Saturday as an exclusive Sabbath.
To understand this, we need to begin by going back all the way to the account of creation in Genesis chapter 1.
As we go through the verses that explain the days of creation, we notice one commonality occurring with every creation day.
This is that each day is demarcated in time.
For example, for every day it is specified that there is a 'morning' and an 'evening.'
This is to leave no doubt in our minds, that each day was a twenty-four-hour period.
Genesis chapter one covers the first six days, after which we begin chapter two where God rested on the 7th day.
Now the observant reader should immediately notice that God's rest after creation
was not demarcated in time. It states that the rest was entered into, but there was no ending.
“How can this be,” you may ask?
The answer is that the rest time of God after creation was a foreshadowing of the eternal rest offered to those who accept Christ.
When the 4th commandment was given, “Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy …” the Middle Eastern world at the time was Jewish and not Christian.
Therefore, the commandment was given to the Jews, as a foreshadowing of the future time when Christ would offer eternal rest to all who believe in Him.
In chapter 4 of the book of Hebrews, the writer says, “Therefore, since the promise of
entering His rest still stands ... For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, … Now we who have believed (the good news) enter that rest, …”
For the Christian, the Sabbath, their eternal rest, begins the moment they believe and accept Christ as Lord and Saviour and continues for all eternity.
The apostle Paul seems to have understood this very clearly, when he said in Romans
chapter 14, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honour of the Lord ...”
In other words, he tells us that it is not the actual day that is important, it is the fact that it is dedicated to God.
We should never allow ourselves to be distracted from the good news of the Gospel by
peripheral issues.
Rather, as Paul said to the Colossians, “Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”