Did Paul keep the Sabbath?
Question:
Hello,
I read through your article about the Sabbath and how we don't have to keep it today. There are many scriptures I could cite to the contrary, but will only cite these few. In Matthew 24:20, "breaking into what He was teaching about the time of the end just as the tribulation would be starting, Jesus had said ''when you see the abomination of desolation set up'', (for the people in that area to get out fast!) And then He said, "But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day." Now it seems to me God in the flesh, Jesus the Christ, the creator of the Sabbath, and our Creator thought His Sabbath would still be kept at the end time just before His return. And to show this is not speaking of 70 AD as some would have us believe, (And even if it were 70AD it would be 70 years later would it not?) He said, "For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. (There can only be one such time.) And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: [Alive] but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened" (Matthew 24:21-22). He also said He would return during this time. Has He returned? So, unless Jesus didn't know what He was talking about, and was mixed up or confused about which day would be the Sabbath later on, (and I'm sure you don't believe that), then it can only be concluded that the Sabbath still stands as God's sanctified rest day, at least in Christ's mind, and that's what really counts!
One more thing: Paul said, "Be ye followers of me, even as I also [am] of Christ" (I Corinthians 11:1). If Paul kept another day other than the Sabbath, (which he did not, Acts 17:2) he was not following Christ, now was he? Christ kept the seventh-day Sabbath. So I would ask you, what have you got against God's Holy Sabbath Day? Why do you hate the Sabbath?
Answer:
"So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ" (Colossians 2:16-17).
Matthew 24:20 is about the destruction of Jerusalem, not the second coming. One cannot flee from Judgment Day. What day of the week it is or what season it happens to be won't matter. See:
The Fall of Jerusalem
The Second Coming of the Lord
It is true that Jesus worshiped on the Sabbath. He lived as a Jew under the Mosaical Law. That law did not come to an end until his death. "having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross" (Colossians 2:14).
Acts 17:2 only shows that Paul entered the synagogues on the Sabbath day to reason with the Jews -- the day the Jews gathered for their worship. It says nothing about when Paul and the Christians worshiped. Acts 20:7 and I Corinthians 16:1-2 show that Christians gathered on the first day of the week.
Yes, the Sabbath day is mentioned in the New Testament. Things did happen on that day of the week, but a mention of a particular day of the week does not prove that Christians worshiped on that day.
