The great Sabbath debate:

Mr. Dean Flanders a prominent Christian author and bible teacher says that these 6 scripture passages prove that Christians are neither advised nor commanded to observe any particular day of the week as a "Sabbath".

Mr. Flanders is also willing to debate this topic with all comers. Please see rules of debate.

The protagonist Mr. Flanders 6 passages:

1. Luke 16:16
16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.

2. Galatians 4:9-11
9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

3. Romans 14:4-6
4 Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. 5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

4. Colossians 2:16-17
16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: 17 Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

5. Hebrews 7:12
12 For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.

6. John 5:16-19
16 And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day. 17 But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

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The antagonist deciple #2 -- A well known Sabbath teacher who will be found arguing his point on the various Web sponsored news groups says that these 6 scripture quotations prove that Christians are obliged to observe a Jewish Saturday Sabbath. Comments in opposition to this view supplied by the protagonist Mr. Dean Flanders.

1. EXO 20:8-11 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 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, manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: 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.

COMMENTS:
But since there is no record of any Sabbath regulations being commanded or observed from Adam to Moses, it is necessary to presume that this must not have been a perpetual ordinance for the human race. Surely, if the prohibition against "work" on the 7th day of the week had any eternal moral equivalence to "Thou shalt not steal", or "make no idols", there would be some reference to it in the 2500 years between Adam and Moses. Conflicts over theft, adultery, murder and idolotry abound before Moses: but no conflicts over any 7th Day Sabbath. One who wishes to assert that Sabbath observance is a perpetual law for the human race must then give account for why the pre-Mosaic saints neither commanded or observed any 7th day Sabbath, and for why God never spoke to them (and us) about it.

2. 1JOHN 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

COMMENTS:
But since the "he" in this verse is Jesus Christ, it is the commandments of Jesus Christ that we are here told to keep: not the Law of Moses. Jesus Christ makes a list of things that defile a man in Mark 7:21-23; and these harmonize with compliance to nine of the original Ten Commandments; but nowhere does Jesus tell any of His own disciples that they must or should observe the Jewish Sabbath.

3. HEB 4:4-9 For he spake in a certain place of the seventh [day] on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works. And in this [place] again, If they shall enter into my rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

COMMENTS:
There is nothing in Hebrews chapters 3 & 4 which affirms, commands, or recommends Christians to the observance of the 4th Commandment. That the Jewish Sabbath is not the subject of these passages is made even more obvious if you continue for just 2 more verses.

10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

The "rest" described here is a STATE OF BEING, and not just for one day of the week. Just as Jesus "fulilled" (Grk. completed; filled out) the commandment about adultery by saying that anyone who looks to lust has committed adultery, the sabbath-rest of faithful Christians is that state in which they NO LONGER "Labour for the meat which perishes" (John 6:27) ON ANY DAY OF THE WEEK. It is therefore necessary to conclude that those who assert that we must rest on the 7th day, are making the 7th day an exception to the routine of their lives, and they are therefore labouring for the meat which perishes 6 days of the week (that is, serving mammon); in clear contradiction to the command of Jesus Christ. The fact that so few professing Christians have had the faith or the courage to achieve the "rest" (Matt.11:28-29) that Christ and Christianity offer us, does not "make the promise of none effect" for those who trust and obey.

4. EXO 31:13 Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it [is] a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that [ye] may know that I [am] the LORD that doth sanctify you.

COMMENTS:
The command here is to the Jews and their proselytes only. There is no such command issued to Christians. On the contrary, when some tried to introduce Jewish observances into The Church, the apostles convened a counel, and unanimously produced this: Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye mut be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment...............For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. (Acts 15:24-29)

What is conspicuous to me here, is that while they thought it necessary to reinstate the prohibition against eating things strangled and from eating blood, both of which strike us as relatively peripheral issues, they made no mention of Sabbath observance. Since the main charge made against Jesus by His enemies was that He was breaking the Sabbath, this would have been one of the main slanders leveled against the New Church: but yet, none of the apostles ever tells anyone to "Remember the Sabbath". The disciples could "do well" without observing the Sabbath.

5. ROM 9:6-8 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they [are] not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

COMMENTS:
God made no arrangements with Abraham concerning any Sabbath observance. God never even mentions any "Sabbath" to Abraham.

6. MAR 2:27,28 The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

COMMENTS:
The crux of the matter is here: the Sabbath was instituted to prevent one Jew from working another to death, not to perpetuate special religious devotions on one day above the rest. We do retain the right to "take a day off" according to Paul, as quoted above, but not to make Jewish Sabbath observance into a law for The Church. Make no doubt of it: Jesus ignored the Sabbath law when He and His disciples went through the field and picked corn to eat. This is the same thing as "harvesting", and the fact that seconds, rather then hours or days elapsed between the picking and the eating does not make this any less a violation of the Mosaic Law. The Sabbath Law is stll in continuance for those who claim to be Jews under the Old Covenant, but has nothing to do with Christians. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made wih their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.......... (Jer.31:31-32).

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RULES OF DEBATE:

Dear debater in opposition,
The editors of The Midnight Herald have assured Mr. Flanders that if he can find someone to debate him on the below described challenge, that they would publish the outcome in the fall edition.

The rules of the contest:

Mr. Flanders will produce 6 passages of scripture, no more than 6 verses long, that he say's prove that Christians are in no way advised or commanded to observe any Sabbath Day.

You the antagonist are to produce 6 passages of scripture, no more than 6 verses long, which you say prove that we are either advised or commanded to observe a Sabbath Day.

I the protagonist will answer to yours, and you the antagonist will answer to mine. We are not allowed to quote from or even refer to any of our own 6 passages in our answers. References to Synoptic passages are allowed.

You the antagonist will explain why the protagonist scriptures do not prove that we are under neither need nor obligation to observe a Sabbath Day; and I the protagonist will explain why your scriptures do not prove that we should observe a Sabbath Day FOR ANY REASON WHATSOEVER.

The antagonist task is to undo the protagonist evidence, and the protagonist task is to undo the antagonist evidence.

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In other words, I am not to try and prove my argument, but only to undo yours; you are not to try and prove your argument, but only to undo mine.

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    We are to let our respective scripture quotations make the case for our argument, without any embellishments or explanations.

    If your scripture passages won't say what you want them to say without explanations and embellishments, then they aren't saying what you want them to say in the first place.

    If our respective answers are too long, they may have to be edited; so keep it short and to the point. (maybe, 400 words per Bible quotation, that's 2400 words total)

    I will send you my 6 scripture passages, and you send me yours. We do not exchange notes on the matter, nor do we read each others arguments until we see them published in The Midnight Herald. The editors of The Midnight Herald will hold our respective answers, not telling either of us, until they are published.

    The first Sabbath advocate that takes Mr. Flanders  up on this offer, will get to present his or her case before 87 nations and in all 50 U.S. States. This publication is mostly read by NON-Sabbath observers, so this will be YOUR chance to show the superiority of your evidence to a multitude of people who do not yet agree with you. If Mr. Flanders dose not get any takers, then he will announce to the whole world that none of you Sabbath Teachers can stand the light of day, and you will ALL "lose" by default. So, all you Sabbath Teachers, let's see if you can make your Bible say what you want it to say!

"Let not him that girdeth on, boast as he that girdeth off"