FAQ: The Sabbath Law?

I noticed that you used the Sabbath as a law to check off in the "How Good Are You?" tract. Do you believe that nonbelievers have a moral obligation before God to make one day out of seven a holy day? Or, do you believe that non-Christians will be judged partially based on their keeping of the Sabbath?  - Eric

Great question Eric. We would interpret that law in light of the fact that Jesus is our Sabbath rest (see Hebrews). So breaking the Sabbath today is ultimately not believing in Jesus. At our church we're not Sabbatarians, meaning we don't think any day is holier than another now (Saturday or Sunday). That said, most unbelievers in our area (especially nominal Catholics) would simply see that law and quickly say they've broken it since they never go to church (or synagogue for Jews). 

I don't usually get into too deep of a theological conversation around it, because they get the gist of the entire sweep of the law.  Usually I just say something like, "I spent most of my life never honoring God any days out of the week, let alone 1 in 7. How about you?" That's probably the easier way to hit it without getting into the whole Saturday/Sunday debate or trying to explain how the New Covenant reinterprets the Old. WAY over peoples head! You'll lose them.

Some have asked whether we would consider pulling that command, but we don't feel comfortable messing with the 10 Commandments.  There's clearly some modern application for non-Christians since Romans 3 makes it clear that the law was given that "the whole world" be held accountable to God (not just Israel).  Though some interpret "the law" to refer more broadly to the revealed moral commands of God (versus ceremonial). That said, when Paul mentions "the law" in Romans he usually quotes off a few of the 10 commandments to illustrate his point. So its tricky to figure out or dissect the law into clear-cut categories.

If you don't feel comfortable asking it, you can just skip over the Sabbath in your presentation and instead use a sampling of the 10 that are super-clear: like lying, stealing, blasphemy, adultery, etc. That works pretty good as well, and speeds up your conversation around the bad news. Hope that helps in your evangelism. Keep at it! God will always give you the words to say. - Stefan