The Sabbath Day, Should You Keep or not Keep?

[Raffi]

During the course of our discussion of Galatians it is clear that we interpret certain key passages in different ways. It reminds me of a discussion I stumbled into many years ago over the issue of Predestination VS Free Will. I took the position of Free Will and tried my best to defend that view with Scripture, and the other guy was a strong Calvinist, and disagreed with me at every point. We argued over disagreements of interpretation over the very same passages of Scripture. Verses where I saw a clear teaching of Free Will he clearly saw the converse.

For many years now, I have followed the path of belief that as part of the pure Apostolic Faith, we are to keep in faith ALL of His Holy Revelation. I didn't start out that way. I began as a Dispensationalist. Like a lot of young people in the 1980s, I was heavily influenced by personalities like Hal Lindsey. For all those years I believed in the doctrine of the abrogation of The Torah Law. So much of what you say in your argument, Mike, sounds like it came straight out of Dispensationalism. I know you say you are not a Dispensationalist, but it seems to me that the bread-and-butter of your arguments are the very same ones I remember hearing from them.

Later in my life, I went through a kind of transition where I began to study other theological models, such as Progressive Dispensationalism, and eventually Covenant Theology, which I became so taken with that I ended up leaving Dispensationalism altogether. But it was through Covenant Theology that I learned the counter-arguments against key Dispensational ideas. I learned about the Unified Covenant, the Covenant of Grace, the One Redemptive Model, and the idea of the Unified People of God. Concepts that made so much sense to me Scripturally, that even today many of these beliefs are still with me. But I don't hear you making any argument from a Covenant position, though that is what you claim is more your leaning (at least more than Dispensationalism). But Covenant Theology teaches a Unified Covenant of Grace within which the covenantal economies of Scripture are but PROGRESSIVE to one another, rather than presenting DIFFERENT ways of Salvation. I know of NO Covenant theologian that I studied who would say that Law was a means for Salvation at one time.

I am sure you would NOT identify yourself as a pure Covenantist in the classic sense. Obviously, neither am I. But I still agree with the arguments made by Covenantists that there is only ONE Covenant of Salvation in Redemptive History, and there is only ONE means for Salvation, namely by God's Grace through faith.

When you and I read The Scriptures, we arrive at different interpretations partly because of this theological understructure we operate out of. We look at the same Passages, but where I see continuity and progressive unfolding of a single grand Truth, you see dichotomies (Law vs Grace/Obedience vs Faith) and carefully separated distinctions (Promise/Law-Keeping/Faith). Perhaps there is no way around that. We may, like my old Predestinarian friend and I, just end up having to agree to disagree, as they say.

What I don't want to do is try to bend anyone's arm to see my point of view. Friendly discussion of differences, like what we are having, is fine. But I don't want any one to think that I am going to try to foist my beliefs about things like Sabbath on this forum. I am fine voicing my support of the Sabbath position, which not just myself but many Apostolic believers hold to. And I am glad to defend it Scripturally as best as I can, though as I've said, I am not worthy to do so.

So any way, with that I will continue to humbly offer how I interpret the Apostolic Writings that I read. And at some point, I hope to point out precisely why I specifically believe in The Sabbath as a legitimate Apostolic belief, and why recognizing that is key to taking a second look at the greater whole of God's Law as something that should ALSO be taken seriously by Apostolic believers as something with continuing validity.