And with the demonstration that the old law has been consummated, Tertulian also says that observance of the Sabbath “is demonstrated to be temporary” and so what Christians observe is not a weekly Sabbath, which is a Sabbath temporal, but a Sabbath eternal. Calling the weekly Sabbath human rather than divine, carnal rather than spiritual, merely a prefiguring, a foreshadowing, a type which points forward to the future or what is to come.
Thus, for this defender of the faith, Justin Martyr, weekly Sabbath observance of the Old Covenant is nothing but a type of the true rest found in no other but Christ, who is the new law, eternal and final. And under this promised new and trustworthy covenant, Christians are not idle weekly but perpetually keeping the true sabbaths of God for repenting of their sins.
For Ignatius, the believers follow the principle of Christianity because they are under the Law of Christ, they are observing the Lord’s day because the Sabbath has been discontinued. But the observance of the Lord’s day is not a continuation of the Sabbath which he finds to be part of an unprofitable, and ancient order of things.
Sabbath observance, as a shadow of Christ, already lived its usefulness. God provided something better. The people of God are no longer called to find rest on certain days but on a specific person. The people of God do not enjoy their rest only on a weekly basis anymore, but do so perpetually in their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Why then would anyone, in his right mind, give even just a foothold to anything that would enslave believers who are already set free, liberated by no other than Christ?
Unless the Sunday Sabbatharians no longer consider Sabbath days sacred, Sabbath definitely fits the category of “sacred days” and “special days”.
May dalawang klase ng Sabatista ngayon. Yung naniniwala na dapat ipangilin ang ika-7th day of the week samantalang yung isa naman ay dapat raw ipangilin na yung Sunday dahil raw ito ang araw ng resurrection ni Lord. Pero alin ba sa dalawang ito ang dapat paniwalaan ng mga Kristiyano? Sa Romans 14:1 tinuring ni Pablo ang usaping ito bilang isa […]
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