The Sabbath 
- Part One

by Lloyd Elias Scalyer

Editor’s Note: In March 2003, we began a series on the Levitical feasts. Thus far, we have looked at eight of the nine prescribed feasts: Passover, The Feast of Unleavened Bread, The Feast of Firstfruits, The Feast of Weeks, The Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement, The Feast of Tabernacles, and Shemini Atzeret. This final article examines the Sabbath. As we stated in the note that accompanied the first article, the author’s intention, and ours, is that a better understanding of these feasts will increase our appreciation of God’s glorious provision of salvation through his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Additionally, we pray that it will please God to equip us to use the Old Testament Scriptures to display Messiah to those of natural Israel that he is pleased to bring into our lives.

Disagreements over the observance or the non-observance of the Sabbath have become an issue in the church and have caused many schisms, church splits and name-calling in the body of Messiah, for what seems like an eternity. The heart of this conflict lies in differing understandings of the nature, function, and duration of the Sabbath.

Some hold that the Sabbath is still in effect and we should celebrate it on Saturday. Some believe that since the New Covenant Scriptures do not repeat a command for its observance, the practice of keeping the Sabbath on Saturday is invalid. They maintain that Sunday has become the Christian Sabbath. Still others say the Sabbath, as we know it in the Old Covenant Scriptures, is no longer in effect and that believers should celebrate on Sunday (the original day of the Feast of First Fruits), since that is the day the Lord rose to be with his Father in Heaven. Another group looks for fulfillment of the Sabbath in the Lord Jesus the Messiah, who is Lord of the Sabbath. They believe that in Christ, there is a New Creation, where the day of worship is neither spelled out nor accentuated.  (continue reading)