Originally Posted by HIFLYER2:
Originally Posted by Contendah:
All this about a chip being the Mark of the Beast is nonsense. As any committed Seventh-Day Adventist will tell you--and with a straight face--the Biblical "Mark of the Beast" is the failure to observe the Sabbath (seventh) day as the Divinely appointed day for the Christian worship assembly. Yes--they really DO believe that nonsense.
Cont
I grew up SDA and never heard that, yes some SDA like Church of Christ believe they are the only faith going to heaven but that belief is not main stream. Currently I am United Methodist but I do believe that Saturday was Divinely appointed no where in the Bible does it say to replace the Sabbath with Sunday. The early Roman Catholic Church changed the day in a Catacism? and developed the theology to support the change.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrB21mc2fmI
Exodus 20:8-11
King James Version (KJV)
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.
There are many Churches and Pastors, in various denominations, that use the Sabbath to bind Christians to observe a law that was never meant to apply unto them. Paul explained the relation of the law to freedom in Christ in Romans 8 yet there are many who would enslave believers still today. Like Paul, I am not saying that Christians are not to keep God's commandments and be beholden to that which God has defined as being conduct of a Christian or saying that the law(s) of God have no bearing in a New Testament Christian's live or that of the believer but regarding the Sabbath, specifically, when you use the quoted text in Exodus 20 then one should also include the further clarification in Exodus 31
Exodus 31:12-18 (New American Standard Bible (1995 Update))
12 The LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
13 "But as for you, speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.
14 ~'Therefore you are to observe the sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death; for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.
15 ~'For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death.
16 ~'So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.'
17 "It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed."
18 When He had finished speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, He gave Moses the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written by the finger of God.
Most New Testament Christians, non-jews, Gentiles, etc choose Sunday as their chosen day of worship solely because Christ came out of the grave/tomb on that day. If though (regardless) if one is a New Testament Jew or born again Jew, Completed Jew or however one terms it they are still beholden to worship and keeping the Sabbath holy as that still applies to the Israelite (Jewish) people. There are, though, many who would Spiritually enslave and bind New Testament (non-jewish) Christians into observing this agreement between God and Israel as if it was specifically written and spoken unto them, ignoring that which is plainly recorded and written in Exodus 31 which identifies it (The Sabbath) as being an everlasting covenant between Israel (Jews) and God.
EVEN WORSE are those who misuse Scripture and take Old Testament rules and requirements that apply to the Seventh Day and specifically for Israel (Jews and Jewish People) and then apply those, without warrant, reason, or cause, to New Testament Christians (non-Jews, Non-Israelites) on Sunday, the First Day of the Week. This can be one area that Romans 14 applies, to our Christian lives, but for those who truly understands and comprehends Scriptures, and that which God gave unto us, understands that there is no justification or right to apply the Sabbath (Laws for the Seventh day) as laws to Sunday (the First Day) and especially to those who the law(s) were never intended for. It is a burden on many and at times, worse, a source of personal Judgment against people whom choose to celebrate their Christian liberty and either work, as required by their employer, or cut their grass on Sunday or whatever choices they make. Those who judge them do so and reveal their own misunderstanding and immaturity in their Christian Spiritual lives. It is another case whereby people often follow the words and teachings of man more than those of Scripture.
As with all my post, however, that is my own opinion regarding the Scriptures quoted and used.