The following statement is from the website of Stephen Jones:

"The Saturday Sabbath, as I showed, was based upon Passover. The Sunday Sabbath was based upon the presentation of the Son to the Father, followed by Pentecost."

Is this belief supported by the Bible?


Here is the link:

http://www.gods-kingdom-ministries.net/daily-weblogs/2010/05-2010/changes-in-the-sabbath-law-part-4/


This is the continuation of a discussion from Elle's thread:
"A new Global Economic Restructure in 2012"

http://www.maritime-sda-online.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=138560&page=45

Before she sidetracks on talking about 8th day laws, or 9th day laws, or even 1st day laws, she first needs to address the statement she made:
That is, how was it changed?

Tx for starting this thread and providing a study link.

What Stephen says in that study, I mostly agree with it. There is only one statement that I have trouble with. I will talk about it if someone quotes it and this discussion progress there. I do recognize my understanding of the law is still very short.

There is more than the weekly Sabbath in scriptures by which we(SDAs) ignore all other Sabbaths(Feasts days Sabbaths, yearly Sabbaths, and the Jubilee year Sabbath) and say these doesn't apply to us anymore as these are nailed to the cross. So we SDAs also say things CHANGED at the cross and have nailed most Sabbaths laws and other laws to the cross.

Whereas, Stephen has not nailed any Sabbaths laws to the cross. Nor any other laws. All laws are still relevant -- and I have long believed this before I heard anything about Stephen.

The only thing that changed at the cross is our understanding of the law as Paul expressed it: "the law is spiritual" -- meaning that the Lord used physical examples (like the death of animals in sacrifices, rituals like circumcision, the 3 Harvest season, events that He orchestrated, etc...) and establish these as "types" to teach us spiritual dimension of what is to come. Basically the law is both spiritual and prophetic, but the Israelites, the Jews, the Judazers, and the Christian of today cannot see beyond the literal aspect of the law. This "not understanding the law" was always a problem, but an intended problem that the Lord put in His plan. We will come to the understanding of all truth one day, but 'till then we have this "not understanding each other" quite often.

Here is a link of a discussion here where we discuss the relevance of the Feasts and other Sabbaths. Are the Feast Days & Sabbaths still binding?
From page 8, we got off topic, so only the previous pages address the discussion at hand.

I was re-reading the discussion "Are the Feast Days & Sabbaths still binding?" It's pretty bad when you have a hard time to follow what you said yourself. I always had difficulty with expressing thoughts. So I appologize for my short coming and I appreciate all who bear with me while I learn to express myself better.

As I mentioned in the post above, this "not understanding the law" is a major problem -- in the past, and still remain today even in our Church. By testing Stephen Jones studies and reading his blog in the past 5 years(or so), I have seen that he understand the law more than anyone I've ever read. There were things that I have disagreed with him in the past and some statements of his I thought were "way out there"; however, the Lord later shown me these by confirming them.

Even before that, it is Myron Robertson at Adventist Online(AO) who had like 10 years ahead of me in studying the law and had discovered Stephen and introduced me to him. Not immediatly thought, but after many months of studying with Myron on AO and after seeing that lots of my past personal studies were confirmed by Myron's personal studies and seeing the strenght of his position that was backed with the law....only then I ventured to read Stephen's studies. So this was the path for me.

We SDAs are so sure we understand the Sabbath and how to keep it while focussing only on one aspect of the Sabbath (the weekly) and ignoring all others Sabbaths or any portion of scriptures that express things differently then our view. To me it is a call to look at scriptures another time while putting aside our pre-conceived narrow sighted ideas.

The article you have linked is compact with concepts derived from scriptures that elaborates on the Sabbath. There's just too many for me to address them all. We can start with any of those that you(prodigalone or anyone else interested in this discussion) like to bring forth.

Another option is to read one of Myron's comments with scriptures on AO about the meaning of the Sabbath. That portion captures well what I understand.

You could start at, There is some truth in this statement : "Jones teaches that the Sabbath was changed to Sunday as part of the New Covenant"

How was the Sabbath changed to Sunday?

I have read through some of the other discussions of feast days and Sabbaths, also some of Myron's post. There is much deep study there; however, I see nothing that changes the weekly Sabbath, either in timing or intent.

The Ten Commandments were given by the hand of God in a spectacular and public fashion. If they were to be changed, I would expect an equally loud and
public announcement. "The Law of the Lord is perfect", Psalm 19:7, how does one improve on perfection?

I must agree with kland: "How was the Sabbath changed to Sunday?"

Elle wrote;

"There is more than the weekly Sabbath in scriptures by which we(SDAs) ignore all other Sabbaths(Feasts days Sabbaths, yearly Sabbaths, and the Jubilee year Sabbath) and say these doesn't apply to us anymore as these are nailed to the cross. So we SDAs also say things CHANGED at the cross and have nailed most Sabbaths laws and other laws to the cross.

Whereas, Stephen has not nailed any Sabbaths laws to the cross. Nor any other laws. All laws are still relevant -- and I have long believed this before I heard anything about Stephen. " (bold emphasis mine)

My question is; How are they relevant?

I believe the feast days are still enforce, just not on the planet earth! We are now living in the Anti-typical feast days that God keeps! Those typical feast days were to teach us what God would do for us in the future.

Such as the Day of Atonement! We are now living during the genuine Day of Atonement. The Anti-typical Day of Atonement. God is performing His duties in the atonement for our sins! And only God can do that.

For us to keep those feast days and sacrifices now would make an absolute mockery of the work of God in Heaven. We would be showing total contempt for the atonement process.

We can't do anything to atone for even one of our sins! And we shouldn't try either.

Ellen White wrote something similar regarding Passover:

This ordinance does not speak so largely to man's intellectual capacity as to his heart. His moral and spiritual nature needs it. If his disciples had not needed this, it would not have been left for them as Christ's last established ordinance in connection with, and including, the last supper. It was Christ's desire to leave to his disciples an ordinance that would do for them the very thing they needed,--that would serve to disentangle them from the rites and ceremonies which they had hitherto engaged in as essential, and which the reception of the gospel made no longer of any force. To continue these rites would be an insult to Jehovah. Eating of the body, and drinking of the blood, of Christ, not merely at the sacramental service, but daily partaking of the bread of life to satisfy the soul's hunger, would be in receiving his word and doing his will. {RH, June 14, 1898 par. 16}

Reading through the link in the OP, it seems the author believes the Sabbath law is continually being changed????

There really is no "definite" Sabbath day according to what he seems to be saying. It all rotates on a gnostic evolution of increasing spirituality. Some of the statements sound a lot like those made when Sunday replaced Saturday in early Christianity. Like his reference to -- a Sabbath change being built on the 1st and 8th day of a feast.
That lays the very foundation that can easily lead people into accepting "Sunday" as the Sabbath.

Now I believe the Sabbath is far more than an outward cessation of labour, it definitely has spiritual meaning. And true -- it points to the heavenly rest of the redeemed.

But the spiritual does NOT replace the literal of God's definite Sabbath day. To change that day for whatever reason, be it spiritual "advancement" or eighth day philosophies or whatever, is a human attempt at CHANGING the law of God.

The feasts did present an outline of Christ's work of redemption and deserve serious study, but the weekly Sabbath DAY is not based on those feasts. The weekly Sabbath is/was a continuous cycle of seven days from Creation - verified at Sinai, and confirmed by Christ Himself.

Good question.

Strangely interesting as it appears that some people who base their idea of the Sabbath on a feast, thinking the 7th day is based on Passover, which usually leads them to observe lunar Sabbaths, claiming Sabbaths fall on the 8th, 15th, 22nd, and 29th days of the lunar cycle, -- a cycle which rearranges the seven day cycle every month, placing the Sabbath on a different modern day calendar every month, YET, when it comes to SUNDAY, and the "eighth day, first day" philosophies, they have no problem keeping Sunday as it comes on our modern calendar on consistent basis????

Probably that is possible ONLY when everything is "spiritualized" and there is nothing really definite about God's law????

All seems to be philosophies to undermine people's convictions concerning the Sabbath, preparing them to be swept away in the final crises.

The change of Sabbath to Sunday was done from the understanding of a definite seven week cycle.
The Jewish people were keeping Saturday, it was a distinctive mark of being Jewish, while certain Gentiles, not wanting to be identified with the Jews, started keeping Sunday which they called both the "eighth" or "first" day to distinguish them from the Jews.

None of this weekly Sabbath keeping was based on the feasts. If it was the Gentiles would have been keeping the 9th, 16th, 23rd, and 30th day of each lunar month, not Sunday.