No, you are not in trouble with God. The proof is as simple as the fact that you are worried about being so. You clearly want to please God and you confess confusion on this Sabbath issue. No loving and merciful God would condemn you for that. He will not condemn us for not doing anything we are unclear on or for doing anything we are deceived about (as long as we sincerely are seeking to serve and please him, of course). I’m sure that’s what you intend to do judging by your fear, so you cannot be judged on a debatable command in a hard to understand book that the Bible is. The Bible shows that when God wants someone to do something it is clear and if it is not they are allowed to ask for confirmation or clarification and he’s happy to give that. If they don’t have that, they are not required to do anything on penalty of anything. The Bible is seldom clear, and must be translated and interpreted to transmit the meaning from its original language, culture and historical context. It is not enough to obligate us to sabbath even after we read it.

As for the sabbath command, as I teach in my book, that’s part of the Torah which the Old Covenant required Ancient Israel alone to keep. It’s a mistake to take that from its original audience and obligate people today with it. It’s taking the command out of its context. When he told that audience he wanted them to do it, he did not give the society a book which they could easily ignore as Christians do (only 5% read the Bible). Instead he put certifiable representatives of his in place to teach and lead them in his ways along with a penalty for disobedience which both He and his prophets duly executed.

If you still have doubts that the sabbath might be required on you, read what the apostles ruled on another Torah issue in Acts 15: http://www.wcg.org/lit/bible/acts/decree1.htm

You have done a wonderful job. It is a blessing to have learned so much today reading through some of your articles.

I hope the following scriptures and comments may also be helpful, and have been shared with kindness and respect.

It appears YHWH Elohim desired to include all of us in His Wisdom and Teachings that He revealed in His Torah (i.e., Torah=God’s Teaching and Instructions, not “law”).

The NT teaches us Y’shua HaMoshiach/Jesus Christ is the Torah-giver. These are His commandments that over and over He said if you love me, keep them.

We become His manifest sons by manifesting His image. His image is revealed in His Torah.

By obeying Him to keep His commandments we show Him we do believe Him and every word He said, we show Him we truly love Him; and we avoid calling Him a liar.

And, He said His teachings are not a heavy burden or grievous.

Mat 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Mat 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Note: “Yoke” is a Hebrew idiom for His Torah. The Yoke that was impossible was that of the Rabbis or Sadducees who added or took away from God’s word as forbidden in Deut 4:2, Deut 12:32, Prov 30:5-6, Rev 22:18.

1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

I was surprised to learn in studying His word that His teachings and instructions are all-inclusive, for everyone (whosoever)…Not just for Israelites.

Here are two areas where He made this clear in His Teachings and Instructions.

Deu 29:14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;

Deu 29:15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:

(This means ALL of us)

Exo 12:49 One law (i.e., Torah) shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you.

Once we’re in Messiah Y’shua we’re no longer under the condemnation of the Torah. However, we are to walk as Y’shua walked. And we know He kept His Torah or He could not have been the Messiah.

Please notice 1 John 2:6 after the intro:

1Jn 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

1Jn 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

1Jn 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

1Jn 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

I hope none of us want to come before Him as liars as mentioned above in 1Jn2:4. Because we know He has warned us in many places of the destiny of liars, such as in Rev 21:8:

Rev 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.)

If we are in Messiah, we are to not sin. Where does the bible define sin?

1Jn 3:4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law (i.e., Torah/God’s Teachings and Instructions).

Of Messiah, King David was inspired to reveal…

Psa 40:7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,

Psa 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law (i.e., Torah) is within my heart.

(I.e., Y’shua kept His own Torah. And of course, couldn’t be our Messiah unless He kept it perfectly.)

Psa 40:9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.

Psa 40:10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.

Without any unkindness toward Nehemia Gordon. He is a very kind and humble Israelite who, although extremely knowledgeable in scripture and in numerous Ancient languages, and is like David having a heart after God, Nehemia has personally and clearly stated in writing in books he has written that you can research for yourself at his site, as well as in comments on the Internet that he does NOT accept Y’shua HaMoshiach/Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Without Messiah/Christ, who must also be spiritually discerned, at this time Nehemia is still slightly blinded and needs our earnest prayers.

1Co 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

1Co 2:14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

I appreciate much I have learned from Nehemia. And, appreciate it was the Masoretic Karaite scribes who, over the centuries, provided an incredible scribal protection system for the scriptures in the TaNaK (i.e., Old Testament) as used in the KJV bible, et al.

As you teach and admonish throughout all your writings, we need to “literally” understand and obey scriptures. Messiah taught us both in Deut 8:3; and again in Matt 4:4

Deu 8:3 And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live.

Mat 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

What is the New Covenant?

Hebrews 8:8 reconfirms what the New Covenant is as defined and revealed in Jeremiah 31:31-33. Hebrew 8:8 also states the New Covenant is ONLY for Israel and Judah; and that it is specifically God’s Torah written on our hearts and minds by God.

Therefore, for us to be able to appropriate all that Messiah did for us, we must be “grafted” (or KJV “graffed”) into Israel, the scriptures reveals is the Olive Tree. As gentiles, before being grafted in, we are called the “wild branches.

Then once grafted into the Olive Tree/Israel, we are no longer viewed by God as gentiles. We have been adopted fully by God, just as Jacob/Israel fully adopted Ephraim and Menashe, the sons of Joseph, with full rights into the commonwealth of Israel.

If we are adopted in and grafted in, and now fully Israel and heirs to the promises, then, we need to receive the gift of the LORD/YHWH/God writing His Torah on our hearts. Not reject it and say it’s been done away with; and inadvertently calling Him a liar.

Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

Jer 31:33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Jer 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

We see in Heb 8:12-13 an understanding that as the Torah is written on our mind and hearts by the Spirit of God, the old written Torah will pass away, as it has been replaced. We will be blessed to have the living water alive within us.

Also, be sure to extensively research the “Marcion Heresy” to understand the damage done to the writings of Paul in the NT when the heretic Marcion decided on what would be in the NT and is responsible for first ordering the NT biblical canon.

I think you will find Marcion wanted the writings of Paul to be preeminent above the other NT content; and that Marcion was very anti-Jewish. And we know God has warned us in His word in the Abrahamic Covenant:

Gen 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

And if we are in Messiah, and the seed of Abraham by faith by grace, we are grafted into Abraham, Isaac and Israel. We certainly don’t want to be cursing ourselves.

Additionally, the NT had NO formal and orderly scribal protection system to guard and protect the NT from changes.

In contrast, the Tanach (i.e., Old Testament) was guarded by a very orderly and intensive scribal protection system (thanks to many Masoretic Karaites) over the centuries as revealed by the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Additionally, God never breaks covenants. He is not a covenant breaker. We break them.

Praise be to YHWH Elohim (God) that He provided a remedy for this through Messiah Y’shua.

Think it through…Do you still see rainbows after a rain shower? That is evidence that the Noahic covenant is still in force. God is faithful.

Do we still have a King on the throne in Heaven forever? Then we see the Davidic covenant is still in force. God is faithful.

And this goes for all God’s covenants. God builds them one on top of another. They bless us concurrently.

Although there’s so much more to share, the Spirit of YHWH Elohim says this is good for now.

Thank you for your love of Messiah, your diligence in all your research, your generousity in sharing all you have, and for your awesome hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Very appreciative of all you researched and shared.

I am old enough to know that when they (the commandments) were taken out of our schools and government (a mural of moses crossing the reed Sea was on the walls of both houses of congress and the Supreme Court)how rapidly American culture disintegrated.

Thanks Tim

In everything you do give honour and praise to God in heaven.

Let no one pass judgement on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath… These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgences of the flesh. Colossians 2:16,23.

Know this, that on the day when Jesus returns to earth to establish the Kingdom of God and many are knocking for the door to open, Jesus will be asking the really big questions. How did you treat your neighbour? When he/she was hungry and cold ….did you give them food and clothes…a drink of cold water if they were thirsty?

The many ‘great’ works you did in his name like casting out demons, abstaining from forbidden food and keeping sabbaths and new moons will count for nothing as Jesus will be looking for the fruit that you have produced….the fruits of the spirit.

Look beyond the elemental spirits of the universe, human precepts and doctrines… instead seek after compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

I think we can all agree that the time is getting short. Let us tend our garden, water our trees and plants, allow them to be pruned now and again and even a little fertilizer to be added along the way, so that we will have good fruit to produce on the day.

Keep up the good work Tim.

So Dennis, are you saying that we no longer need to follow the Ten Commandments, and that all we need to do is believe in Him and we will be saved? That just sounds too easy. What about repentance? If there are no commandments to be broken, then there cannot be be sin, so there would be no need for repentance.

Romans 6:14-15 says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” If the man on the cross next to Christ had survived and lived, would it have been okay for him to continue to sin, as long as he had faith and believed in God? According the the scripture above, no! Romans 3:31 says “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” Paul asks if the law is nullified for us just because we have had faith in Christ’s saving grace. His answer is that the law is established and reinforced in the life of a grace saved Christian.

If we truly have faith and believe in God, we would naturally want to follow God’s commandments, including keeping His Sabbath day holy. Most do not seem to understand that God’s grace is His unmerited, undeserved favour that is preceded by the act of genuine repentance when we do sin. If there was no law, there would actually be no need for God’s grace.

When Jesus fulfilled the law, he did not abolish it. Matthew 5:17-18 says, “17Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. 18For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

As far as I’m concerned, heaven and earth have not passed since we are all still here, and until then, not a single thing from God’s Law (NOT including the temporary ceremonial laws) shall be changed or removed.

To say that the mark of the beast is Sunday worship means that God knew the Catholic Church would arise and mislead many and that the sabbath was the key to the kingdon. Simply not true.

Read John 3:16 about 1000 times…so that everyone BELIEVING IN HIM, may have hope.

My recent understanding of this is that the fourth commandment was NOT a part of the ceremonial laws that was nailed to the cross. The Sabbaths that were part of the ceremonial laws that were done away with are separate from God’s Sabbath. The ceremonial sabbaths, such as Passover and Yom Kippur were finished at the cross, but God’s Sabbath existed at the very beginning of creation, even before there was sin. God’s Sabbath is a part of The Law – The Ten Commandments.

When Jesus simplified the commandments, he said “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang All the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22: 37-40 note that these two commandments of love sum up “all the law.” All Ten Commandments hang on these two principles of love just as they did in the Old Testament. Notice Jesus did not say “On these two commandments hang all the law EXCEPT the 4th commandment.”

Matthew 5:18 says “For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” This includes the 4th commandment.

Isaiah 66:22-23 also corroborates this stating, “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the LORD.”

And don’t forget – Exodus 31:16-17 “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a PERPETUAL covenant. 17 It is a SIGN between me and the children of Israel FOR EVER: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.”

Forever is forever. Today, we ARE Israel.

And, if the Sabbath was no big deal today, why does Matthew 24:20 say “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:” If we no longer needed to keep the Sabbath, why would Jesus warn us to pray that our flight would not occur on the Sabbath day?

BTW, I am not an SDA.