The Bible Does Not Teach Christians Must Keep the Seventh-day Weekly Sabbath

My opponent must be a Seventh-day Adventist. Please do not accept this debate if you are not a Seventh-day Adventist. My opponent must not argue in any way which is contrary to the official teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Here is my opening argument: Colossians 2:16-17 says the Sabbath was a shadow that pointed to Christ, and since he fulfilled the meaning of this shadow it is no longer necessary to keep it. "So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival (heortes) or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ." (Colossians 2:16-17 New King James Version) "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival (heortes), a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ." (Colossians 2:16-17 New International Version) ""Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. * * * Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ." (Colossians 2:14, 16-17 King James Version) The Greek word translated "holy day" at Colossians 2:15 in the King James Version is "heortes," which means "festival, feast" or "feast day." (W.E. Vine"s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words) This is the word used in the Bible for annual feasts such as the Passover (Luke 2:41; 22:1) and the feast of tabernacles (John 7:2). All annual Sabbaths were part and parcel of the annual feasts, and could not exist apart from them. For example, the feast (heortes) of unleavened bread included the Sabbaths which fell on the first and seventh days of this weeklong festival. (Leviticus 23:6-8) Heortes is the Greek term in the Greek Septuagint of the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament embracing all such annual Sabbaths. The "feasts [heortes] of the Lord" (Leviticus 23:4) include the Passover (Leviticus 23:5), the feast of unleavened bread (Leviticus 23:6-8), Pentecost (Leviticus 23:15-16, 21), the memorial of trumpets (Leviticus 23:24-25), the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 23:27-32), the feast of tabernacles (Leviticus 23:34-44), and so on. Thus, when Paul mentioned the annual "holydays" or "festivals" (heortes), and the monthly "new moons" at Colossians 2:16, he already included all yearly and monthly Sabbaths. There was nothing left for Paul to mean by "the Sabbath days" except the weekly Sabbath, because all the other Sabbaths were already mentioned as heortes (yearly sabbaths) and new moons (monthly Sabbaths). The implication is that the Sabbath being described in Colossians 2:16 is the weekly Sabbath. When Paul here says "Sabbath days," if he meant annual Sabbaths he was needlessly repeating himself. In that case he would be saying, "Let no one judge you regarding"an annual Sabbath, a new moon, or an annual Sabbath," a statement neither logical nor likely! At Colossians 2:16 the expression "the Sabbath days" has the word "days" in italics because it was not there in the original Greek, but was added or supplied by the translator. Without the added word, the original King James reading would be, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of THE Sabbath." This reading removes any doubt that Paul meant the seventh day, and is supported by the fact the very same word Paul used for the Sabbath at Colossians 2:16 is translated "THE Sabbath" at Matthew 28:1; John 5:9, 10, 16 and other places. The expression "Sabbath days" at Colossians 2:16 is used 8 other times in the King James Version an in all eight it means the weekly Sabbath. (Matthew 12:5, 10, 12; Mark 3:4; Luke 4:31; 6:2, 9; Acts 17:2) In fact, the term "Sabbath days" is never used for any other day except the seventh day! In every case, not almost every case, but every case without exception, "Sabbath says" means the weekly Sabbath. Sabbaton, the Greek word for Sabbath at Colossians 2:16, is translated "Sabbath" 60 times in the New Testament. The first 59 times it means the weekly Sabbath. (Matthew 12:1-2, 5, 8, 10-12; 24:20; 28:1; Mark 1:21; 2:23, 24, 27-28; 3:2, 4; 6:2; 15:42; 16:1; Luke 4:16, 31; 6:1-2, 5-7, 9; 13:10, 14-16; 14:1, 3, 5; 23:54, 56; John 5:9-10, 16, 18; 7:22-23; 9:14, 16; 19:31; Acts 1:12; 13:14, 27, 42, 44: 15:21; 16:13; Acts 17:2; 18:4) How strange that for Sabbath-keepers the word "Sabbath (sabbaton)" means the Sabbath 59 times but the 60th time it don"t! Such an interpretation goes contrary to the consistent linguistic use of the word in the Gospels as a reference to the weekly Sabbath, but this is the only way they can save the Sabbath from Paul"s list. Obviously, Sabbath means the same thing in Colossians 2:16 as it means in the other 59 places were the word occurs. In fact, the New Testament never uses sabbaton for any yearly or monthly holydays! All Gospel writers used sabbaton EXCLUSIVELY for the weekly Sabbath! Textually and contextually Paul is talking about 3 categories of Sabbaths: Heortes/feasts (yearly Sabbaths), new moons (monthly Sabbaths), and Sabbath days (weekly Sabbaths). This sequential grouping is consistently found in the Scriptures where the holy days are listed categorically. Paul follows the Scriptural listing that gives an orderly reference to the holy days in logical and progressive sequence, as well as an exhaustive enumeration of sacred times. This is validated in the following summary of the scriptures: 1 Chronicles 23:31; 2 Chronicles 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; Nehemiah 10:33; Ezekiel 45:17 and Hosea 2:11 Take these examples from the list: 2 Chron. 31:3: "The morning and evening burnt offerings [daily], and the burnt offerings for the Sabbaths [weekly], and for the new moons [monthly], and for the set feasts [yearly], as it is written in the law of the Lord." The same list again, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly offerings, just in the order they would naturally come, and just as given "in the law of the Lord." (Numbers 28 and 29) But if the Sabbaths are not the weekly Sabbaths, then the Lord names the daily, monthly and yearly offerings, but skips the weekly offerings. Every thinking man knows that such an interpretation is false. But it is the only way the Sabbath can be saved from Paul's list at Colossians 2:16, for that is the same as all these: "in meat or in drink [daily meat and drink offering, Numbers 28:3-8], a festival [yearly] or a new moon [monthly], or Sabbaths [weekly]." As the object in these passages is to mention the service of God which must be performed on each of the holy days, it would be absurd to suppose that all the other sacred days in the whole year would be carefully mentioned time and again, while no reference whatever it made to the weekly Sabbaths, the most important and the most numerous of all the sacred days. 2 Chron. 2:4: "Behold, I build an house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual shew bread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening [daily], on the sabbaths [weekly], and on the new moons, [monthly], and on the solemn feasts [yearly] of the Lord." Precisely the same list again, and in the same order, hence the weekly Sabbaths are the ones named. Besides, it would be absurd to suppose that Solomon would name all the other and minor holy days, but say nothing about the chiefest of all days, the weekly Sabbaths. Any thinking person knows such an interpretation is false. My second argument is that the Ten Commandment Covenant was abolished. Note the evidence that the Ten Commandments themselves are the covenant which God made with Israel when he took them out of Egypt: "He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets." (Deu 4;13, NIV) "Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights without eating bread or drinking water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant"the Ten Commandments." (Exod 34:27-28) Note these two passages directly refer to the Ten Commandments as the covenant God made with Israel. "There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt." (1 Kings 8:9) "I have provided a place there for the ark, in which is the covenant of the Lord that he made with our ancestors when he brought them out of Egypt." (1 Kings 8:21) There was nothing in the ark but the Ten Commandments written on two tables of stone, yet in that ark was the covenant, so the covenant has to be the Ten Commandments. "For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear." (Heb 8:7, 13) Here we see that first covenant which God made with Israel is obsolete, outdated, and will soon disappear. That ends the old covenant with its Sabbath law. In Gal 4:21-30 that old covenant is represented by a slave girl, Hagar, and it says we must get rid of the slave girl. Strong language for removing the law covenant given to Israel. Romans 14:5 says "One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind." We could not be free to consider every day alike if one of them was more sacred than the others, showing the Sabbath day isn't any more sacred than other days.