Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!samsung!news.cs.indiana.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: hudson@athena.cs.uga.edu (Paul Hudson Jr) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: the Sabbath -> Paul, Jim, Tom and Selbyn Message-ID: Date: 19 May 91 03:03:12 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Georgia, Athens Lines: 38 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In your last message, you wrote that in Collosions 2:16-17, Paul was saying that by saying that no man should judge us in our eating meat, or drinking, or in respect of a holy day, or the new moon, or of the sabbath days, Paul was actually saying that these things were binding on us! Frankly I am appalled. I am glad that you recognize that the word sabbath refers to every sabbath including the one that occurs most often (which is indeed the most obvious meaning of the word.) Look at this verse. paul is not instructing us to keep the cerimonial injunctions of the Torah. Look at the first part of the verse. If he was commaning us to keep these ordinances, he would not have said that it was okay for us to eat any kind of meat. Gentiles ate pork. Of course, there were some who did not eat meat at all. But if this is refering only to the law, then it is logical to assume that Paul is saying it is okay to eat pork. If this is the case, then Paul is not instructing us to keep parts of the law, but to choose whether or not we want to. "or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon," Do we (Gentile Christians specifically now) have to keep all the Jewish holy days and new moons now? Certainly not. Why don't we all go out and make sure every man is circumcised if we are going to say that all these holidays are binding on Gentiles. The council at Jerusalem decided not to put on the Gentiles a yoke that they could not even bear. And also notice that he Sabbath was not in the instructions to the Gentiles. Either Paul is telling us to keep all these things, or he is telling us we can and do not have to. Now let us look at the Sabbath. the Sabbath is included in this list. If what you said was true, then Paul wants us all to keep Yom Kipper, the New Moons, etc, and the Sabbath. that is not what Paul was saying. Paul fought the Judaisers because they wanted to turn the TGentiles into Jewish prostelytes. I don't think that Paul would write to the Gentiles that they had to keep these laws. Nor do I think that Christians should turn Jews into Gentiles. Go ahead and keep the New Moon. It is only a shadow. But there is nothing wrong with shadows. What do you think about Romans 14. Look at verses 5 and 6 specifically. I esteem every day alike in my own mind. It is good for you to be persuaded in your own mind. I do not base my beliefs on the subject on tradition. I base it on Scripture. Link Hudson