The Sabbath, the Law, and the New Covenant

By Kevin L. Cunningham

Religion is a hard topic to discuss, especially with family members who do not have the same religious beliefs. This book began as a paper given to family members and friends in an attempt to show them what the scriptures teach about the Sabbath. Though a number of Sabbath-keeping church members and leaders refused to discuss the paper, other ministers and church friends thought it should be published. Years of studying and writing have culminated into The Sabbath, the Law, and the New Covenant. This book takes the central theme of the Bible, Gods redemptive plan for mankind, and walks the reader through the scriptures. It begins with the plans inception and then explains how the plan was introduced to man, how it began to unfold, and finally how the plan was fulfilled. This book highlights many of the scriptures that teach about the Sabbath, the Old Testament Laws, including the Ten Commandments, and the New Testament covenant of Jesus Christ, while comparing some widely held beliefs with the word of God. For all who truly love the word of God and worship on the seventh-day Sabbath, this book is a must-read. Those who wish to learn about the subject matter will also find the information insightful, coming from one who formerly worshiped on the seventh-day Sabbath.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Mar 26, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481703895

Kevin L. Cunningham

Kevin L. Cunningham was raised keeping the seventh-day Sabbath. His great grandfather started the family down the path of Sabbath keeping by not only introducing them to a Sabbath-keeping church but also by becoming one of its more prominent ministers. Following that same path, Kevin’s grandfather also became a minister in the Sabbath-keeping church. Kevin spent each Sabbath day learning from his grandfather’s preaching and his mother’s teaching in Sabbath school. It was when he went away to school in Lawrence, Kansas that seeds of doubt were planted. An acquaintance at the time who was door knocking in the school’s dormitory sat down and showed him a few scriptures that appeared to contradict the very teaching he received from his Sabbath-keeping church. Rejecting those scriptures with the determination that they were “taken out of context,” he continued to believe in keeping the Sabbath. The message those scriptures seemed to have presented continued to fester but did not take root until shortly after he graduated from the University of Kansas with a degree in Electrical Engineering. At that time, during a bible study where he was attempting to teach a friend about the Sabbath, the very scriptures he had rejected years ago once again were shown to him. This study ended a few weeks later with him being baptized into the church of Christ, no longer keeping the seventh-day Sabbath as he was raised. He and his wife Karla have three children living and worshiping in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area of Texas. In November of 2012, he began serving as one of the elders at the Simmons Street church of Christ in Denton, Texas. www.sschurchofchrist.us [e-mail] Visit “The Sabbath, the Law, and the New Covenant” on Facebook.

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© 2013 by Kevin L. Cunningham. All rights reserved.

Cover by Danny Clark and Mariah Clark

Artwork by Danny Clark

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

All scripture references are from the King James Version unless it is otherwise noted.

Published by AuthorHouse 03/15/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-0391-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-0390-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-0389-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012924396

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Section 1 A Study of the Covenants

I Introduction

II God’s Eternal Plan

III Creation and Man’s Fall

IV God’s Promise to Abraham

V The Sabbath is Given

VI The Old Covenant

VII The New Covenant

VIII Grace and the Law?

IX Free Reign of Sin Without the Law?

X Conclusion

Section 2 Addressing Counter Arguments

I Hebrews 4:8

II The Sabbath of the New Testament

III The Apostles and the Sabbath

IV Constantine and Worship on Sunday

Section 3 Worship on Sunday

I The Apostles and the First Day of the Week

II The Day of Pentecost

III Significance of the First Day of the Week

Section 4 Conclusion

Works Cited

About the Author

Dedicated to my mother and all of my Sabbath-keeping relatives and friends.

Acknowledgements

Keith James for all of his encouragement

R.L. Clark for challenging me to go beyond my comfort zone

Robert Clemons and Shelton Gibbs III, my gospel ministers during the early years of my Christian growth

Belinda Williams for sharing the gospel

Kayla Cunningham and Lynene Miles, my editors

Ben and Robin Myers for all of your love and support through the years

Section 1

A Study of the Covenants

I

Introduction

I was raised in a Sabbath-keeping family. Therefore, I grew up going to church on Saturdays. I was raised this way because of the Ten Commandments, particularly because of the fourth commandment, which states:

Exodus 20:8: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.{9} Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: {10} But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: {11} For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Because the Bible defines a day beginning in the evening as opposed to midnight as we practice today, our Sabbath actually began at sundown on Friday.

Gen 1:5: And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Therefore, when the sun set on Friday, the Sabbath began. It lasted until sunset on Saturday. Growing up, during those twenty four hours between sunset Friday and sunset Saturday, I didn’t play, watch TV, listen to the radio, go to the stores, cut the grass, or even cook. I did nothing that was considered entertainment or work. The day was holy to me. It was the Sabbath, and it was the day on which I went to church or attended worship services. This was according to Leviticus 23:3, which directs the day to be for a holy convocation, or a holy assembly.

Lev23:3: Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is the sabbath of rest, an holy convocation; ye shall do no work therein: it is the sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.

Not only did I learn about the Sabbath in the church in which I was raised, I also learned that the Bible is the inspired word of God that provides us with the direction for our lives. Consequently, I developed a love for the Lord and a desire to learn and obey the will of God. This same love and desire is what challenged me to study diligently when I was confronted with scriptures that appeared to contradict what I had previously learned in my Sabbath-keeping church. This book is my attempt to convey what the Bible teaches concerning the Sabbath and God’s will for Christians today.

I must inject at this point that I have the utmost respect for the faith of Sabbath keepers. I once heard a preacher say that faith is what makes a person do what does not seem right or popular to most people. Many times a person of faith must go against the grain to please God. Sabbath keepers living in our society today do just that for 24 hours every week beginning at sundown Friday. Whether it is turning off the TV, not cooking, or not going to work or to the malls, Sabbath keepers show their faith differently than the rest of us. In fact, Sabbath keepers not only make those sacrifices, but in general, they also make the same sacrifices other Christians make. I therefore applaud Sabbath keepers for their faith in God and their willingness to demonstrate this faith. It is also this same faith to which I appeal now. When the word of God is presented, I pray that faith in God and His word will prevail over anything else one may believe and hold dear.

In addition to being raised in a Sabbath-keeping church, I have had studies with others through the years who keep the Sabbath, and I have heard a number of reasons why there is a belief that Christians are required to keep the seventh-day Sabbath. Those reasons are as follows:

1. God rested on the seventh day, blessed it, and sanctified it. Therefore, the seventh-day Sabbath has been kept holy since creation, by early men of God like Adam, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham.

2. The Ten Commandments came from God, but the other laws and ordinances were Moses’ laws.

3. The Ten Commandments are separate from all of the other laws and ordinances that Moses gave to the children of Israel at Mt. Sinai.

4. The Ten Commandments, including the fourth commandment which dictates Sabbath rest, are for all mankind, not just the children of Israel.

5. The Ten Commandments were permanent and are still in force today for Christians.

6. If Christians today are not bound by the Ten Commandments and worship on the Sabbath, then that constitutes a change, and God changes not.

7. Since Jesus kept the Sabbath, then Christians today should also keep the Sabbath.

8. If the Ten Commandments are not for Christians today, then we can kill, steal, and do anything we want because we have no laws.

9. According to Hebrews 4:8, if we are to worship on a day other than the Sabbath, wouldn’t Jesus have mentioned it?

10. After Christ ascended into heaven, the apostles continued to worship on the Sabbath, which is proof that the Sabbath and the Ten Commandments are still to be observed.

11. Constantine, a Roman emperor during the 4th century, changed the Sabbath to Sunday.

This study will address each of these premises in light of the scriptures and will show what God’s plan for all of mankind is. Let us begin to study God’s word at the beginning and build as we go along. It is often difficult to come to an agreement when discussing religious topics because we discuss our differences in the midst of confusion instead of starting at the beginning to see where the differences begin. That being said, we will start from the beginning.

II

God’s Eternal Plan

The bible is the story of God’s plan of redemption for mankind. This plan was formulated before creation:

Eph 1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: {4}According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:{5}Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, {6}To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. {7}In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

I Peter 1:18: Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; {19} But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:{20} Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, {21} Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

Ephesians1:3-7 states that before creation, before the foundation of the world, it was decided that the way to stand before God, holy and blameless as his adopted children, would be in Christ Jesus. In him we have redemption and the forgiveness of our sins through his blood. I Peter 1:20 says that it was foreordained before the foundation of the world that the blood of Christ would redeem us. This was God’s plan for mankind. This plan was not devised as an afterthought because the course of events on earth didn’t unfold the way God originally planned. This plan was not devised as a response to the sinfulness of mankind after Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden. This was the original plan, formulated well in advance of man’s presence on the earth. This is important to understand because no matter how and when God chose to arrive at the point of the plan’s completion, the plan did not change and was fulfilled.

Questions

1. Did God have a plan for mankind before he created the world?

2. What was this plan?

3. Who was meant to be the recipients of this plan?

Summary

God had a plan for all of mankind, and it was formulated before creation. The fulfillment of that plan is Jesus Christ. This is very important to understand. Sending Jesus Christ to bless all nations, to redeem and forgive our sins, was always God’s plan for mankind.

Timeline

To help present some of the information in this study, I have created a Bible timeline showing when events relevant to this study occurred in relationship to each other. Dates derived from the Bible are used to further show these relationships. However, the exact dates aren’t as important to the study as the general time periods. Much debate could ensue from trying to show exact dates, and that is a study in and of itself. The timeline paints a picture of the subject being addressed at a particular point in this book in light of what was previously discussed in an effort to help show how the Bible progresses, how it is divided, and why it is divided that way.

With that in mind, the section of the bible known as the Old Testament begins with creation as illustrated with the picture of Earth. But we are told in Ephesians 1:4 that God formulated His plan for mankind before creation. This is shown to the left of the Earth, indicating that it occurred prior to creation.

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