The Bible Teaches We Don't Have to Keep the Weekly Sabbath

Con thinks that if he can name a prominent enough scholar who agrees with him that his point is proved, yet, I can name scholars to. Many of the most eminent, devout and learned men of the church have held that the decalogue was abolished. Among these were the apostolical fathers, Luther, Calvin, Milton, Baxter, Bunyan, Doddridge, Whately, Grotius, Locke, Sherlock, Watts, Hessey, Judson, George Dana Boardman, and a host of such men. Justin Martyr, A. D. 140, says: "The law promulgated on Horeb is now old and belongs to yourselves (Jews) alone: but this is for all universally. Now law placed against law has abrogated that which is before it." Dialogue with Trypho, Chap. 11. He was much closer to the apostles and would have known better than scholars today what they taught! Tertullian, A. D. 200, says: "The abolition of the ancient law we fully admit." Against Marcian, Book 5. Chap. 2. The Christian church historically held my interpretation. Luther says: "The ten commandments do not apply to us Gentiles and Christians, but only to the Jews. If a preacher wishes to force you back to Moses, ask him whether you were brought by Moses out of Egypt. If he says no, then say: 'How, then, does Moses concern me, since he speaks (in the ten words) to the people that have been brought out of Egypt.' In the New Testament Moses comes to an end and his laws lose their force." See Kitto's Cyclopedia, Article Law. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, says: "In its individual, or what is usually called its 'moral' aspect, the Law bore equally the stamp of transitoriness. It seems clear enough that its formal, coercive authority as a whole, ended with the close of the Jewish dispensation." Art. Law. Kitto's Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, says: "They [Christ and the apostles] even clearly indicate that the moral law is by no means excepted when they speak of the abolition of the law in general." Art. Law. The popular commentary of Jamison, Faussett and Brown, says: "The law (including especially the moral law wherein lay the chief difficulty in obeying) is abrogated to the believer as far as it was a compulsory, accusing code." On Col. 2:16. The Encyclopedia Britannica says: "The ten commandments do not apply to us Gentiles and Christians, but only to the Jews." On the Ten Commandments. Says Dr. Dobbs, Baptist: "Nor is this 'new and dangerous teaching.' It was the doctrine of the Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century. Calvin argues in this strain in his Institutes. The eminent Baptist scholar and commentator, John Gill, says, writing on Ex. 20:1,2: 'Verse 2 shows that this body of laws was delivered out to the people of Israel, and primarily belongs to them; for of no other people can the above things be said.' On Matt. 5:17, and 2 Cor. 3:7-11, Gill is emphatic in similar reaching. Read this, on the latter passage: 'The law is that which is done away; not merely the ceremonial law, or the judicial law; but the whole ministry of Moses; and particularly the law of the decalogue.' I close by citing an incident related by Mrs. Emily C. Judson, in the Life of Adoniram Judson, by his son, Dr. Edward Judson. Mrs. Judson says that her husband once reproved her for introducing some lessons from the Old Testament into her Bible classes, 'comparing it to groping among shadows when she might just as well have the noonday sun.' Mrs. Judson in relating this incident, says: 'My impression, drawn from many a long talk, is that he considered the Old Testament as the Scriptures given to the Jews especially, and to them only. He did not like the distinction commonly drawn between the moral and the ceremonial law, and sometimes spoke with an earnestness amounting to severity, of the constant use made of the ten commandments by Christians. He thought the Old Testament very important as explanatory and corroborative of the New -- as a portion of the inspiration which came from God, etc., but binding on Christians only so far as repeated in the New Testament. He used to speak of the Mosaic law as fulfilled in Christ, and so having no further power whatever; and to say that we have no right to pick out this as moral, and therefore obligatory, and the other as ceremonial and no longer demanding obedience. Practically, we had nothing to do with the Old Testament law."' Life of Judson, pages 411,412. Rev. George Dana Boardman, D. D., the eminent Baptist divine, in his recent book on "The Ten Commandments," says: "Although the decalogue, in its spirit, is for all lands and ages, yet, in its letter, it was evidently for the Jews. The very preamble proves the assertion: 'God spake all these words, saying: I am Jehovah, thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.' Then follow the ten commandments, based on the unique fact that Jehovah was the covenant God of Israel." Pages 127-130. John Milton says: "With regard to the doctrine of those who consider the decalogue as a code of universal morality, I am at a loss to understand how such an opinion should ever have prevailed; these commandments being evidently nothing more than a summary of the whole Mosaic law as the fourth is of the whole ceremonial law; which therefore can contain nothing applicable to the gospel worship." Treatise on Christian Doctrine, Vol. 1, Book 2, Chap. 7. Jesus said to keep the law of Moses, because at that time it was in force, so Matthew would teach that this law should be kept at that time; but since the rest of the Bible shows that the law did come to an end, the overall teaching of the Bible is that the law of Moses was only temporary! Jesus accepts the writings of the Old Testament as Scripture, and I showed from this same Scripture where it was prophesied that the law would end. Whom should I believe, Jesus, of his own Scriptures? Jesus himself showed the law of Moses was coming to an end by enacting a new law in contradiction to Moses. The dietary laws of Leviticus 11 said that some foods were unclean and could make us unclean if we eat them, yet, Jesus taught that NOTHING we eat can make us unclean, and he DECLARED ALL FOODS CLEAN. (Mark 7:15-19) Also, Jesus broke the Sabbath. (John 5:18) "he attacks the documentary hypothesis, you know what is considered the starting point of any serious bible study by every top college," Wellhausen said that one author consistently used the personal name of God, Jehovah, and is thus called J. Another, dubbed E, called God "Elohim." Another, P, supposedly wrote the priestly code in Leviticus, and yet another, called D, wrote Deuteronomy. This also argues that stylistic differences in the Pentateuch are evidence of multiple authors. However, K. A. Kitchen notes in his book Ancient Orient and Old Testament: "Stylistic differences are meaningless, and reflect the differences in detailed subject-matter." Similar style variations can also be found "in ancient texts whose literary unity is beyond all doubt." The argument that the use of different names and titles for God is evidence of multiple authorship is particularly weak. In just one small portion of the book of Genesis, God is called "the Most High God," "Producer of heaven and earth," "Sovereign Lord Jehovah," "God of sight," "God Almighty," "God," "the true God," and "the Judge of all the earth." (Genesis 14:18, 19; 15:2; 16:13; 17:1, 3, 18; 18:25) Did different authors write each of these Bible texts? Or what about Genesis 28:13, where the terms "Elohim" (God) and "Jehovah" are used together? Did two authors collaborate to write that one verse? The weakness of this line of reasoning becomes particularly evident when applied to a contemporary piece of writing. In one recent book about World War II, the chancellor of Germany is termed "Fï¿½hrer," "Adolf Hitler," and simply "Hitler" in the course of just a few pages. Would anyone dare claim that this is evidence of three different authors? Thank you Con for a lively debate.