Christ is the truth they say - and the truth will set you free. Yet more often than not, in my days as a Christian, conversation would turn to a 'rule-based' topic such as this. I knew Christians who thought it wrong to lift a finger or turn a thought to anything that might be remotely described as 'work' on a Sunday; and others for whom it was one more day, except that on this day one 'went to Church' in order to clap and stamp and cry and wail in tongues. And having done that, they seemed to feel, they had discharged the obligations of their faith and were free to live for the rest of the week with no more than a passing nod to their religion.

If you're all so damn free in Christ why do you spend your time debating the endless legalities of the OT - which were prescribed to the ancient Israelites as dietary & hygenic provisions suitable to desert circumstances.

Rules are for 'law-breakers' are they? And are you not a 'law-breaker' KFC (or have you forgotten whichever passage it is that states that we all have sinned and fallen short?)

And as to how you keep the Sabbath holy... Do good to others and praise God, since it's justice and mercy that's required of the believer, not sacrifice. Or is that too simple and too lacking in 'legalism' for you all to deal with?

Christ is the truth and the truth will set you free.

Yes indeed. And you're all of you outstanding witnesses to the miraculous power of faith in your dead carpenter - since you are able to make towering mountains of anile argument appear from the slightest molehill of a cause.

Hello Sodaiho. I agree that we should honor God through our bodies and add that we should also honor God in all our thoughts, words and actions. We are made in the Image and Likeness of God and as such are a "total package" therefore, all of our parts must honor, contemplate and worship God that is our mind, body, heart, soul and strength.

Laws don't float around without a lawgiver. If nature has laws, they have been imposed by a lawgiver. All legislation supposes a legislator, ie the Ten Commandments are God's legislation. God has definite rights which no man is justified in ignoring.

Moreover, God definitely commands you to adore and serve Him. It is not enough to admit off hand that "there is God" or speak of God as though you believe He exists and then ignore His definite claims.

Like it or not, believe or not, we are all children before God and every knee will bow to Jesus. No one is above this or a privileged class...there are no exemptions before an Eternal and Omnipotent God.

We should keep holy the Sabbath and the Lord's day becasue it is the only fitting attitude of a creature and a sinner before ALmighty God. The Third Commandment is GOd telling us He does not wish our attention to be given wholly to other creatures or to ourselves while the Creator is ignored. With this Command we must acknowledge and love Him with all our being. We cannot dispense oursleves from this anymore than we can dispense children from their privilege and duty of honoring and respecting their parents.

Keeping the Sabbath holy essentially means that on this particular day, we must love God and that our love for God must overflow all the other days of the week upon other children of God.

God Himself is the One who authorized and specified this particular day and what it is to mean to us. Surely the One who is to be worshipped has the right to specify how and when He shall be worshipped. It is not the Third Suggestion.

Sincere love of God spells freedom, freedom from vice, from all injustice and want of charity which is love. There is no absolute freedom. We must want to be free from vice and subject to virtue....or free from virtue and subject to vice.

Conscious reverence for the authority of God certainly guides the conduct of doing right or doing good. To do right for right's sake pushes us back to doing right (obeying the Commandments) for the sake of the Supreme AUthor of as right. No one can do right for right's sake if he ignores God, for without God he cannot prove that what he thinks IS right or has any binding force at all.

I have no problem with any part of this commandment except the last part i.e "and rested the seventh day". it really raises many questions. was He tired? what happens after the seventh day? He works again? all week or rests again in the seventh day of the next week like people supposed to do?

I honestly believe that this last part was injected somehow by someone. a God who needs rest is a weak being, God is not that at all. He is the ALL-Mighty. yes, we are weak and need rest not Him. True God does not make statements that implies weaknesses, illogic or confusion.

I hope you will understand when I say the way of the world sometimes traps Christians and when that happens we must do the best that we can with those situations and try our best to reconcile our lives to God and not to man.


When my daughter was old enough to get summer jobs, I told her that she could not work on Sundays. So, she learned to fill in job applications stating her no Sunday work requirement. One restaurant hired her on this basis but tried to change that inferring that she would have to work on Sundays or lose her job. So I spoke to the manager and reminded her of the basis of employment, and that was the end of it. It wasn't long afterward that one employer told me that he hired my daughter because she had put that on her application. He figured that if she was willing to be up front, then she would be an honest person and that was one of the character traits he was most looking for.

May I, with respect, add something more. I am a realist and a cynic, like the Ice Cream Man, and I feel that the Sabbath should remain sacrosanct to those who wish to adhere to the Sunday pause. However, I am a little reluctant to go along, in 2007, with those who quote the Bible bit by bit and use those outdated texts to justify any form of lifestyle. It smacks of a religious cultism not unlike that practised by the Amish or other groups living in the past. I respect the Amish for what they are but not for how they live.

It seems to me that every group not prepared to meet life head on is a group out of touch. So be it. Think as you like. You have your view and we have ours.

Delete me if you wish.

"God rested"? Yes, for sure that's what the Bible says, no matter the translation! So we know that's what God meant as He is the Author and Creator so He was the only One there to know what He did and that "He rested" is how He reports it.

It comes down to how do we intepret that particular verse. The Catholic Church interprets it this way and see if it makes sense to you. Man requires rest after he has worked hard becasue he is tired...and God who made man knows this. Can God be tired? No, God, could create thousands of worlds without being tired. He's actually never tired. The words, "He rested" mean that after the sith day, after the creation of man, God created no new kind of being. He rested from this particular work, i.e. from creating.

Genesis tells us that God created the whole world, visible and invisible, material and spiritual, out of nothing by His Almighty will. His almighty power is manifested to us in creation. By His word, that is by His will, He called into existence the earth, moon, and the whole, to us, unmeasurable universe, with its millions and millions of heavenly bodies. "God spoke and they were made; He commanded and they were created." Psalm 32:9.

God 'rested on the seventh day" because His good work of creating the universe was finished and complete (but God never "rests" from the work of conservation and of natural and supernatural providence. ONe might say that He works unceasingly tending to the world and for the good of His creatures, for only He who called the world into existence can sustain and govern it. If Almighty God were to withdraw His hand from the world, at that moment, it would collapse and fall into ruin. Every day, every hour, every moment of life is a gift of Almighty God.

Check out Genesis and notice the order of Creation. With the creation of man, God's plan of creation was completed, and the great work of His creative love was crowned for man is the highest and most perfect of visible creatures. Then God rested and appointed the seventh day for man's rest in Him. On the Sabbath, man was to contemplate the wonders of Creation and to praise and thank God. The seventh day is also called "the Lord's Day" which is set apart for service and worship of God. On this day, as God Himself did, we are to put aside all worldly business and think about our eternal souls and their welfare for in God alone can they find peace and rest.

The Commandment to keep holy the Sabbath is the oldest commandment that there is for ever since the world has stood as it is, the commandment has stood with it. The very fact that the sacred writer represents God as working a week,makes Him our pattern and example, and implies a commandment for us to do the same.The Law was given by God at the creation of the world, and hence, it is that among all, believers and non-believers, we find one day of rest observed in the week.

It is a great impiety to desecrate God's day whether one calls it the Sabbath, the Lord's Day or just plain Sunday.

While I agree with you Lula in trying to keep a day for your whole family to worship God (I did the same) we have to be careful of setting up legalism that Christ himself did not impose. There is nothing in the NT on keeping the Sabbath. The Sabbath was given to the Jews and is part of the OT Law.



No, it means he was finished. What's interesting about this is right after he said this Adam and Eve sinned and put God back to work again.

There's another scripture that says God's eyes go to and fro over all the earth and in Isaiah he says this:

"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest until the righteousness therof go forth as brighness and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burns."

The only time we see God resting other than after creation is after redemption. In Zeph 3:17 it speaks of future and says:

"The Lord your God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice overe you with joy, he will rest in his love, he will joy over you with singing."

So as we see Adam in the Garden of rest, we know that God will once again rest when he is finished with us and we are in eternal rest.

Mankind,by virtue that he is made in the image and likeness of God, is meant to be holy as God is holy. You are correct in saying that we try to be holy by ceasing to do evil, doing good and bringing about good for all beings. Yet, this is only part of it. The rest is acknowledging, loving, serving and worshipping the Very Author of good, of right, of holy.




Man stands high above the rest of nature and has dominion over it. All of the universe of nature is good, but not holy. The trees aren't holy; dogs aren't holy; the universe isn't holy.

QOD,

Thank you for your reply, though I am a bit distressed that you so easily dismiss my faith and practice as false. I have come to accept this, however, from Christians. It is in their nature, I suppose.

Where is God not? Show me the place where God is not and I will show you True Emptiness. This True Emptiness is the very foundation of all things. Just as it is impossible to say what Enlightenment is, so too it is impossible to say what God is. The moment we do, we slander Him. The great Jewish scholar Moses Maimonides said we could only define God by what he was not. The Buddha was wise enough to see deeply into the nature of the universe and discovered, as we all can, that this foundation is empty of any permanence. Everything, including God, is change. Its all process, constantly unfolding. Your view is so narrow that the light barely enters. This is the problem with text based religion. Yet the light is there. I trust it; I trust the universe. I trust you will open your heart and your mind one day.

Be well.

I created this article out of my Bible study in order that I might receive feedback from others. I do not see this as a "'rule-based' topic," but rather a discussion of a conviction that has been put upon my heart by the Holy Spirit.



I will in no way refute your claim. I see it often, but again, this is not the intent of this discussion. Christians are not perfect. No one is perfect. We all have a different idea about what it means to be a Christian and to be Christ-like. But this is not the intent of this article. I am looking for discussions based around living a holy life, specifically on the Sabbath, and other Christians' understanding of this, NOT about the hypocrisies of Christians in general. I stated that "I feel the need to refrain." I did not say, "all should refrain because this is what is in my heart."

I explicitly wrote about the Sabbath day, traditionally Sunday for Christians. I know that holiness is not a one day event, but I'm specifically looking for feedback about the Sabbath. Once again I'm not judging what others do, but reflecting on my own conviction. I'll not judge my friends for going to work, or lunch or a movie on Sundays, but I will respectfully decline the invitation. And if they ask, I'll tell them what is in my heart. Maybe my actions will have an impact on them, maybe they won't. It's not for me to tell them what to do or to judge them, but in that same light I'm free to have my own beliefs and convictions and to act on them in a way that does not impose their will on me. I'm not talking about outlawing anything on Sundays. I'm talking about my Sabbath, and the ways in which for me it is to be held holy. Yes, I've asked for other's feedback, but I'll take it in light of what has been revealed to me to be right for me. Being concerned about being a stumbling block has more to do with me than it does with them - addressing my beliefs and how I can faithfully live those in my life.



I fail to see how keeping the Sabbath holy has anything to do with "dietary & hygenic (sic) provisions suitable to desert circumstances." Yes, the Ten Commandments are part of the OT, yes, they were given to Moses while in the desert, but how would not living in a desert climate make them any less applicable?

And if you're saying that the OT is useless today, I don't agree with you. If history is so unimportant why do we have historical scholars who spend so much time on the subject. Why do we bother to teach children history? It's because history hold many truths that are applicable today and in the future.



So what do you mean by justice and mercy as regard to the holiness of the Sabbath? If I say that I want to know more about why you wrote this and what you mean by ‘justice and mercy’ am I falling into ‘legalism?’ Or am I trying to learn what you really meant by what you wrote? (Which is indeed the truth and spirit of this entire article) Can you see my point? It’s not about legalism it’s about understanding.

For me not going out to dinner or to a movie would not be a sacrifice but rather a fulfillment of my own conviction. I’m not talking about flogging myself or anyone else. I’m talking about following my own heart and doing what I believe God has shown to me to be right for me.



And you're an outstanding witness for what? In my opinion, your even bothering to reply to this article, and in such a condescending manner, says alot about your character too. But I'll not condemn the entire race because of you, as you do all Christains because we're not perfect.

Go find your own molehill to run your ice cream truck around and leave us alone to have a worthwhile discussion.

By the way, any above questions are rhetorical. Please don't reply and please stay away from my articles. Thank you.

Hello EIC,

While I am not a Christian, I am free in the Dharma. This discussion is not a debate, per se, but a question (as I see it) about how to keep something holy. In this case it is the sabbath day, whichever one we are honoring. Rules and rituals, in my mind, are ways in which we build a fence around us in order to grow. Rituals, like workouts in training, help us develop discipline and focus. We learn that we can do something, we learn that doing and being can become the very same thing. When I light a stick of incense and bow, I am practicing humility and generosity. Now, I might not feel that way at the time, but with practice, just stepping up to the alter establishes a space wherein this practice can and does occur.



Frankly, I would prefer a world of unbelievers who practiced good than a world of believers stuck in their belief. Belief is only as valuable as the will to enact the belief and this will comes from practice not the mind. Legalism is a Christian attack on Judaism. The commandments are guides and we should practice according to them if we are Jewish. As a Zen Buddhist, my precepts are fluid, based in deep love and compassion for all things. I cannot speak for Christians.

Be well.

Catholic teaching on the reasons for, the meaning of and instruction given by the Third Commandment of God is not legalism in any sense of the word.

The Commandment rightly and in due order from the Second and the First, indeed prescribes the external worship which we owe to God as was done in Apostolic times ever since the Church was established at Pentecost. Observing the Third Commandment of God can't be limited to a personal belief in Jesus as one's personal Savior and be done with. The Third Commandment is much more than that and must be obeyed in the fullest because God is its Author.

For Jesus is God and God is the Author and Giver of the Ten Commandments and the One who inscribed them on our heart teaching us to distinguish good from evil, vice from virtue, and justice from injustice. The force and import of this law written on our heart is written in Scripture.

Yes, we both know that the Old Covenant was fulfilled, or perfected in the New and everlasting Covenant yet, having said that doesn't mean that the precepts of the Ten Commandments are no longer obligatory. When God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses He did not so much establish a new code as He rendered a more luminous light on that which was already there in the hearts of men. Sure, we aren’t bound to obey the Commandments because they were delivered by Moses, but because they are implanted in the hearts of all, and have been explained and confirmed by Christ our Lord.

The reflection that God is the Author of the Law should tell us about His Wisdom and justice, nor can we escape His Infinite power and might. By His prophets, He commands the Commandments to be observed, He proclaims that He is the Lord God, and the Decalogue itself opens I am the Lord thy God and elsewhere we read, “If I am a master, where is my fear?” Mal.1:6.

The Third Commandment (at least to Catholics) is about God’s design to make it clear to us His Holy Will on which depends our eternal salvation. Besides animating the faithful to the observance of His Commandment to rest, it calls forth their gratitude and worship. Scripture, in more passages than one, recalls this great blessing and admonishes the people to recognize their own dignity and the bounty of the Lord God. Deut. 4:6, “This is your wisdom and understanding in the sight of nations, that hearing all these precepts they may say: Behold a wise and understanding people, a great nation. And again, in Psalms, “He hath not done in like manner to every nation, and his judgment he hath not made manifest to them.”

The Saints, the Church Fathers and Catholics receive the Commandments and proclaim them with great solemnity.

From the words of St.Augustine, “How, I ask, is it said to be impossible for man to love---to love, I say, a beneficent Creator, a most loving Father, and also, in the persons of his brethren, to love his own flesh? Yet, he who loveth has fulfillith the law. Rom. 8:8. With reason St.Augustine prayed, “Give what thou commandest, and command what thou pleasest.” As, then God is ever ready to help us, especially since the death of Christ the Lord, by which the prince of this world was cast out, there is no reason why anyone should be disheartened by the difficulty of the undertaking of keeping His Commandments. To him who loves, nothing is difficult. Yes, obedience to the Decalogue is necessary for salvation.

What are the words of St.Paul to the Corinthians? "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the Commandments of God." 1Cor.7:19. Again, inculcating the same doctrine, he says, “A new creature in Christ, alone avails." By a new creature in Christ, he means him who observes the Commandments of God; for he who observes the Commandments of God loves God as our Lord Himself testifies in St. John, “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” St.John 14:20-22.

I agree that at the death of Christ, when the Temple veil was split from top to bottom, the observance of the Sabbath was abrogated as well as the other Hebrew rites and ceremonies. These disappeared at the coming of Light and Truth which is Jesus Christ.

The Jewish Sabbath was changed to Sunday by the Apostles. They consecrated the first day of the week to the divine worship and called it ‘the Lord’s Day”. St.John in the Apocalypse 1:10 mentions the Lord’s Day and the Apostle commands collections to be made “on the first day of the week”. The practice of the Christian assembly (the early Mass) dates from the beginnings of Apostolic times. Acts. 2:42-46; 1Cor.11:17. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds the faithful “not to neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but to encourage one another.” Heb. 10:25. There are many, many writings of the Church Fathers that tell how Tradition preserves the memory of an ever timely exhortation : Come to the Church early, approach the Lord and confess your sins, repent in prayer....be present at the sacred and divine liturgy, conclude its prayer and do not leave before the dismissal.....We have often said: this day is given to you for rest and prayer. This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.”


From this we learn that even then, the Lord’s Day was kept holy in the Church. Creation is ordered to the Sabbath ,the day to be kept holy to the praise and worship of God. Just as the seventh day of the Sabbath completes the first Creation, so the “eighth day” Sunday, the day of the week on which Jesus rose from the dead, is celebrated as the “holy day” by Christians-----the day on which the “new creation” began. Thus the Christian observance of Sunday fulfills the Third Commandment to remember and keep holy the Sabbath day.

I'm sorry that I confused you. This is indeed about both faith and behavior. This faith I'm referring to is the Christain faith. And the bahavior follows from that faith. We are agreed about hypocracy.



I'm assuming you mean KFC here? As I haven't replied to you until now. In everything I've read so far, I feel the same - that you are easily dismissing the Christian faith. Seems not just a Christian nature to me. (And as you say, I'm not looking to argue)

for example:







You also wrote:


But then you wrote:


So which do you really believe?

This is a rather strange statement. I don't quite know what to make of it and when said in another way, it seems you are saying that where God is not is the very foundation of all things...and put this way seems totally erroneous.




The Catholic Chruch teaches that God is the Supreme Being who alone exists of Himself and is Infinite in all perfections. God had no beginning, He always was, He is and He will always be. God is everywhere. God knows and sees all things. God has no body; He is a spirit and incorruptible. There is only one true God. We must know to love God by begging Him to teach us to love Him.

God has revealed much to us through Holy Scripture.
His existence, "The fool hath said in his heart: "There is no GOd". Psalm 13:1. "For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; his eternal power also, and divinity; so htat they are inexcusable." Rom. 1:20.

His name: At the burning bush, God told Moses He was to be the deliverer of the Israelites. When Moses asked what His name was, God answered, "I AM Who Am." He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: He Who IS hath sent me to you." Ex. 3:13-14. By this God reveals His essence is subsistent being itself, that He is not dependent on any being for His existence, but subsists in His own right. Everything else has but a borrowed being; that is, all else is dependent upon Him for its existence.

His nature: God is a pure spirit, incorruptible. There is no composition of any description of GOd.

He is unchangeable: "For I am the Lord and I change not." Mal. 3:6.

He is eternal: He had no beginning and will never cease to be. "Before mountains were made, or the earth, and the world was formed; from eternity and to eternity thou art God." Ps.89:2. "Before Abraham was made, I AM. St.John 8:58.

He is everywhere; He knows and sees all things: "Neither is there any creature invisible in his sight: but all things are naked and open in his eyes.." Heb. 4:13."For in Him we live, and move, and are." Acts. 17:28; Psalm 138 is a good meditation on the omnipresence of God.

He possesses each and every perfection in an infinite, unlimited degree: "They shall speak of the magnificance of the glory of thy holiness." PS. 144:5. "Neither is he served with men's hands, as though he needed anything; seeing it is he who giveth to all life, and breath and all things. Acts. 17:25

He is one: Not only is He one in that He is absolutely indivisible, but also He is one in that there can be no other like Himself, no other God. "The Lord our God is one Lord." Deut. 6:4. I alone AM, and there is no other GOd besides Me." Deut. 32:39.

He is Holy: For the angels cry out ceaselessly in His honor, "Holy, Holy, Holy" Is. 6:3.

He is love and Our Father:
St. John defines Him as love, "God is charity". "Charity" is divine love. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us to pray to God as "Our Father" and continually refers to Him by this title.

He is just and merciful: Thou art just O Lord, and thy judgment is right. Ps. 118:137. The Lord is sweet to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works." Ps. 144:9.

He is all powerful: "For thy things are in Thy power and there is none that can resist Thy will." Esther 13:9.

He cares for all things,even the smallestby His providence:
"He made the little and the great, and He hath equally care for all." Wisdom 6:8.

He wants all men to be saved. "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth?" 1Tim. 2:4.

St.Thomas Aquinas said, "The study of God is the only study which can be called wisdom in the fullest sense of the word."