1) If the origins of the Sabbath predate Exodus 16, please provide scriptural evidence of a Sabbath edict given humanity from Adam forward till Exodus 16?

2) Please provide scriptural evidence for anyone observing a Sabbath edict from Adam to Exodus 16? If the Sabbath was a day of observance subsequent Adam, why was Yahweh required to methodically spell-out the process of observing the Sabbath day to Moses; that is, if prior precedent existed?

3) Please provide scriptural evidence for a Sabbath edict given any Gentile from Adam forward lest same sought inclusion into Israel’s society under Law?

4) Please provide scriptural evidence where a redeemed Jew, Israelite, Gentile, is commanded to observe a Sabbath edict in the New Covenant?

The Sabbath, Constantine, the Holy Spirit…

Constantine had nothing to do with Sunday worship, worship that was initiated by the Holy Spirit in the first-century AD based upon precedent. Constantine was a 4th-Century Roman Emperor who sought religion as a method to control the masses through conformity and observance. Constantine, seeking to make Christianity attractive to the masses, initiated the Edict of Milan (312-313AD) and merged Roman/Babylonian Paganism with elements of non-Christian apocryphal doctrine and elements of Christian doctrine to form the World’s second largest religious cult, second only to the cult of Islam.

The Sabbath edict,

The Sabbath as an edict was never given anyone, from Adam forward, until Exodus 16 and that edict given solely to the Hebrew Tribes and sojourners with them; ultimately, as a sign between Yahweh and Israel’s children (Ezekiel 20:12). When Moses received the Sabbath edict from Yahweh in Exodus 16, our Lord was required to provide Moses with exacting details as to how the Sabbath Day would be observed, why?….BECAUSE no prior precedent existed.

There is ZERO Scriptural evidence for a Sabbath observance until Exodus 16 and Messiah Jesus never commanded Sabbath observance for the New Covenant Church nor did the Jerusalem Council who decided protocol for Gentile Christians in Acts 15; interestingly, Messiah did infuse the nine-moral laws of the Decalogue into His ministry and added mens rea (the thought life – Matthew 5:21-45) to enhance culpability but Messiah never infused the Sabbath, a civil-ceremonial law given solely to those under the Law Covenant.

The Holy Spirit and the First-Day,

The Sabbath edict applies ONLY to those under the Law Covenant. In the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit sanctified (set apart) the First Day (Sunday) as the Day of Pentecost…the Day the Spirit chose to initiate the New Covenant Church as documented in the Acts of the Apostles. The Holy Spirit chose the First-Day to resurrect our Lord from the dead. Elohim separated light from darkness on the First-Day and in Genesis 1:2 we see the Holy Spirit as the logistical overseer of the creation narrative.

Paul and the Sabbath…

Paul, our Lord’s chosen Apostle to the Jew and the Gentile, met with Jews, Israelite’s, on the Sabbath in Synagogue where they congregated under Law in order to proselytize them in the Gospel but when Paul met with the New Covenant Church, they gathered on the First-Day to break bread, to reason the Scriptures, to collect tithes.

Sunday v. Saturday,

The reason Sunday is set-aside for Church services today is because the Holy Spirit ordained it and separated it from the failed Old Covenant and its darkness (Hebrews 8:7). The New Covenant is NEW as it divides the light from darkness via our Savior, Jesus Christ. The New Covenant is new wine in new wine skins yet far too many who will read this insist that a dead covenant (Hebrews 8; 2 Corinthians 3) be resurrected and those who adhere to same die in Hell, why?

Reasoning for peace…

Why can’t people simply allow the Holy Spirit to rule and reign in their lives and honor the Father through faith in the Son, Jesus Christ, and walk in peace knowing that the Father simply wants intimacy with His created beings? The Father wants peace and love and joy to reign in our heart in covenant relationship with Him and He’s NOT interested in days, food, ceremonies, fabrics, temples, but the Father wants OUR HEART seeking obedience to His Spirit who indwells us and walks us in the daily process of sanctification. Jesus is our Sabbath’s rest when we trust in Him as our Lord (Hebrews 4).

Concerning Islam, Allah, Muhammad,

Islam, the Quran, are the products of Islam’s Allah who is Satan masquerading as an angel of light via the Arabic moon god (2 Corinthians 11:14). Islam was born of adultery between Abraham and Hagar producing the “wild donkey” of a man named Ishmael who is the father of the Ishmaelites who are the progenitors of Muhammad, a 7th-Century demon-possessed nomadic thief, murderer, pedophile, who stole doctrine from the Torah and Christian theology to create the Quran and the World’s largest death cult. The Allah of Islam is Satan, the enemy of Elohim.

Is it necessary that a Christian pray for forgiveness of sin?

Christian response,

We, as Christians, should acknowledge our sin, even those sins we are not cognitively aware of, NOT that we do so concerning our salvation as that is secure by covenant promise (Ephesians 1:13-14; John 10:28-30) but the Christian apologizes to our Heavenly Father for our shortcomings in order that intimacy with our Heavenly Father remains pure, uninterrupted, unaltered or undiminished by our misbehavior; this, not unlike we would apologize to a parent or dear friend that we’ve inadvertently wronged or insulted in some way.

There is no greater joy in this World and in the World to come than intimacy with our Creator through the indwelling Holy Spirit and being grieved by our sin as a Christian is a fruit or sign of the Spirit working through the conscience providing a sign of authentication, validity, that our faith is genuine and our covenant relationship secured in the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that you will know them by their works, their behavior, the way they conduct themselves (Matthew 7).

1 John 1:9 is provided for the redeemed in Christ and we seek forgiveness, we apologize, for our own good, for our own peace knowing that when we love someone we seek to honor them and not insult them, we seek intimacy and goodness; this truism is no different than our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Truth be told, if the Father was to respond to our prayers of apology as His children, He would most likely ask “What sin?” as the Father has, by covenant promise, agreed to remember our sin and iniquities no more, forever (Hebrews 8:12); with that said, it is wise to preface our prayers to the Father with an apology for our short comings in the flesh and thank Him regularly for His mercy and love.

What is the Law of God?

Our Creator’s Law has been extant from the creation of the angels as an arbiter of free will; that same law judged Satan for covetousness and initiated his extrication from the Kingdom; that same law was infused into the human genome on Day-6 of the creation narrative as mankind is created in the spiritual image of Elohim possessing certain communicable attributes of Elohim for His eschatological purposes; that same law judged the Adamic and Noahic generations of defilement where all but eight perished in water subsequent adjudication; that same law is the foundation for nine of the ten Sinai Commandments; that same law is used by the indwelling Holy Spirit in the New Covenant via the new creation in Christ to walk the redeemed in sanctification via the conscience as the Spirit prepares the redeemed for service in the New Jerusalem; that same law will be extant in the New Jerusalem as free will remains extant by necessity.

The Sinai Commandments,

The Law Covenant, the Sinai Commandments, could not exist without the under girding of the moral law of conscience and at no time has law been a pathway to covenant relationship with the Father as the law mandates perfection and human kind is a sinner by nature (Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:20; Romans 8:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-9).

The Law and Righteousness,

Only Jesus kept the law in mandated perfection (James 2:10; Galatians 3:10) and only Jesus offers you the benefits of His righteousness (a right standing with the Father) by faith in Him as your Lord…a righteousness Jesus earned for you at Golgotha and a righteousness imputed into the life of the one who believes in Jesus as Lord by faith (2 Corinthians 5:21; John 3).

The Sinai Commandments and the Commandments of Messiah Jesus…

The Sinai Commandments were not new or novel as they are based upon the “moral law of conscience” (Romans 2:14-15) extant from the creation of the angels as an arbiter of free will, that same law having been infused into the human genome on Day-6 of creation as mankind is created in the spiritual image of Elohim possessing certain divine communicable attributes of Elohim for His eschatological purposes in Time and Eternity.

The Sinai Commandments (9 of 10) were not new but simply a reiteration of the moral law of conscience with the addition of some specificity aimed at the needs of the Hebrew Tribes sanctified (set apart) by Yahweh for His eschatological purposes as these Tribes were inundated by paganism serving pagan gods relentlessly seeking Israel’s compromise; therefore, the Commandments emphasize Elohim’s concerns and His instructions for the Hebrew Tribes as they were to be holy as He is Holy (Leviticus 19 & 20).

The Sinai Commandments targeted Israel’s children specifically and are a worthy expression of Yahweh’s will for those redeemed by faith in Jesus living in the Covenant of Grace. Jesus infused 9 of the 10 Commandments into His earthly ministry and added mens rea (the thought life, Matthew 5:21-27) to enhance culpability and to demonstrate man’s inability to attain righteousness through law observance.

The impotency of law…

Jesus initiated the New Covenant of Grace in His own blood (Matthew 26:28) and the subsequent ministry of His chosen apostle, the Apostle Paul, emphasizes the impotency of law to redeem; the impotency of law to save from the second death in Hell; the necessity of grace through faith to establish covenant relationship with the Father via imputed righteousness and the receiving of the indwelling Holy Spirit who enlivens the moral law of conscience written upon the heart and arbitrates that law via the human conscience within the redeemed via the daily process of sanctification (Galatians 5:16).

Obedience in Christianity…

The Christian does not walk consciously seeking obedience to letters, laws, rules, regulations, but the Christian walks daily in obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16) who enlivens the moral law of conscience written upon the heart at conception in the womb and uses the eternal benefits of the “new creation” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) to methodically teach and guide the redeemed in the Father’s will via the conscience via sanctification – a daily process of teaching-instruction-tutorship in the Father’s will via a conscience made ever so sensitive by one’s enduring love for the Father, Son and Spirit (1 John 2:27).

Letters kill the soul due to the condemnation of the sin-nature but the indwelling Spirit gives life by covenant promise (2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 8:12; Romans 8:11-13).

“The one who sins is the one who will die.” Ezekiel 18:20 (NIV) WHY?

Death entered the human race via federal headship as our father, Adam, chose to compromise with evil in direct rebellion to Elohim’s warning that to do so would result in death of mind, body, soul. On the day that Adam sinned against the sovereignty of Elohim, both Adam and his wife died spiritually (physiological death followed); in other words, a spiritual chasm manifest between man and Elohim where formerly man existed in perfect intimacy, unity, with His Creator.

As a result of Adam’s rebellion, the human genome, which was created flawless and eternal, suffered corruption and now suffers genomic degradation, decay and ultimately death. The human genome, as a result of Adam’s rejection of Elohim’s sovereignty, became subject to the 2nd-Law of Thermodynamics and the resultant is death of the body; this, actually being a form of mercy by Elohim as unconscionable horror would have manifest in a body of sinful flesh subject to decay that never dies.

Fortunately, our omniscient and omnipotent Creator foreknew mankind’s propensity toward narcissism and ordained the Gospel of Jesus Christ “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-10) as a battle strategy “to destroy the works of the Devil” (1 John 3:8b), works of evil which would manifest through humanity via sin e.g. mankind’s rejection of Elohim’s sovereignty, authority, dominion; for all intents and purposes, the coup d’état initiated by Satan in the Kingdom was transferred to the Realm of Time, placed upon this Earth created for that very purpose as the Earth is the temporary repository, the battle ground, where Elohim is dealing with sin via self-less love displayed by Jesus at Golgotha while restoring and preparing His Kingdom for the New Jerusalem where paradise lost will be paradise restored.

When did Elohim actually provide humanity with His perfect, Holy and Righteous Law, at creation or Sinai?

Christian response,

The Eternal Law,

That Holy and Righteous Law was infused within humanity on the 6th-Day and has been relevant from the creation of the angels as an arbiter of free will and will continue to be relevant in the Kingdom where free will remains extant by necessity. Elohim infused the moral law of conscience (Romans 2:14-15) into the human genome on Day-6 as humanity is created in Elohim’s spiritual image having received certain communicable attributes of Elohim specifically for His eschatological purposes in Time and Eternity (Genesis 1:26-28).

That same moral law of conscience was used to judge Satan of covetousness which resulted in his extrication from the Kingdom (Luke 10:18; John 8:44; Ezekiel 28:11+); that same moral law of conscience was used to judge the Adamic and Noahic generations of defilement worthy of death by water where all perished save eight (Romans 1:18-32). That same law acts as a bulwark against societal self-destruction/implosion in unrestrained narcissism. That same moral law of conscience provided a foundation for the Code of Hammurabi and the Sinai Commandments. That same moral-natural law under girded the Commandments of Jesus during His ministry. That same law will be used by Jesus for adjudication at the Judgment of the Condemned manifesting subsequent His Millennial Reign (Revelation 20:11-15) and that same law will be relevant in the Eternal Kingdom where free will remains extant by necessity concerning love and relationship with our Creator.

The Law Covenant,

The law given Israel at Sinai is nothing new or novel but is based upon the moral law of conscience with some specificity for the Hebrew Tribes as they were sanctified (set apart) for Yahweh’s eschatological purposes while inundated and surrounded by pagan tribes serving pagan gods; therefore, Yahweh provided laws that addressed His concerns for the Hebrew Tribes as His messengers and object lesson to the World and the Heavenly angels but the Sinai Commandments are not the genesis of God’s law as they are simply the product of the moral law of conscience with specificity provided Israel’s children for a specific eschatological purpose; namely, the introduction of Messiah into the World “to destroy the works of the Devil” (1 John 3:8b) i.e. the entirety of purpose concerning the creation of Time, the Heavens and the Earth and our complex genome.

Superiority of Eternal Law, 

The Law Covenant was relevant to only a minuscule fragment of societal totality concerning the Realm of Time but the moral law of conscience has been relevant from the creation of the angels and will be relevant into Eternity; therefore, the perfect and Holy and Righteous Law of God concerning humanity does not find its genesis at Sinai but in Eternity and concerning humanity, specifically on Day-6 of the Creation Narrative.

Conclusion,  

I’m not under the Law Covenant, never was, never will be (Romans 6:14). I am not Jacob’s child but a child of Abraham, a Gentile, by faith and I am under grace by faith in my Messiah and I walk by the Law of the Spirit written upon my heart (the moral law of conscience) arbitrated by the Spirit via the conscience of the “new man” via sanctification (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:16), not letters etched in stone or scratched upon parchment that only condemn and kill void atonement (Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:10; 2 Corinthians 3:6).

It is written,

4 Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

7 Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, 8 will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? 9 For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. 10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.  2 Corinthians 3:4-11 (ESV)

Concerning Sabbatarianism, a metastatic malignancy in the Body of Christ espoused by the SDA, other cults, sects, Hebrew Roots fanaticism…

Not once is a Sabbath given as an edict of observance until Exodus 16 and then exclusively to the Hebrew Tribes and sojourners with Israel under the Law Covenant and even then Yahweh was mandated to provide Moses with exacting instructions as to how the new Sabbath edict would be observed because NO PRIOR PRECEDENT existed.

The Genesis Sabbath concerning the 7th-Day is an indicator of Elohim’s completion of the Creation narrative. Adam was never commanded to observe the Day nor is there any evidence of anyone observing a Sabbath edict until subsequent Exodus 16 and that edict given specifically to the Hebrew Tribes. 

NOT once is a Sabbath edict given any Gentile, from Adam forward, lest they sought inclusion into Israel’s society under Law.  

Not once did Messiah give a Gentile or the New Testament Church a Sabbath edict nor did the Jerusalem Council command Law Covenant observance or the Sabbath ceremonial law for the Church and the Gentile parishioners nor is a redeemed Jew or Israelite required to keep a Sabbath ceremonial observance in the New Covenant.  

The Jewish Sabbath Edict, the 4th-Commandment, is a Jewish Law edict – a civil/ceremonial law (not a moral law) and has absolutely NOTHING to do with the New Covenant, grace, faith, covenant relationship with the Father by faith in the Son and the receiving of the Holy Spirit as Guarantor of covenant relationship or sanctification following redemption by faith in Messiah Jesus.  

The Seventh Day Adventist “Church” is a legalistic cult subtly espousing a works doctrine. No Christian is commanded to keep a day or legalistic diet or tradition or festival as these things were a shadow, they foreshadowed the Messiah who was to come but in Jesus these things have been settled, they have accomplished their purposes and Jesus is my rest and my peace in the New Covenant.  

As a Christian, you’re free to keep a day or any festival or ceremony or any diet you choose to honor my Lord but you do NOT possess the authority to tell others what they must eat, drink, wear, or what day they must worship as this is legalism, it’s sin and you’re culpable before God (Colossians 2:16; Romans 14; Hebrews 4).

How does one walk in obedience to the Father’s will as a Christian? 

Christian response,  

You don’t require a man, a pastor, a church, a theologian, to teach you what is expected of you as a Christian but your Teacher, as you fervently study the Scriptures, is the indwelling Holy Spirit (1 John 2:27) and all you must do is seek Him and listen to Him and trust in Him as He will faithfully guide you in the Father’s will through the conscience apart from the futility of law-keeping and subservience to letters that do not engender conformity to the Father’s will (2 Corinthians 3:6). 

The Holy Spirit is the LIGHT of Jesus; it is the Holy Spirit who introduces Himself in Genesis 1:2 as the logistical overseer of creation; it is the Spirit who implanted Jesus in the womb of Mary (Luke 1:35); it is the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11-13); it is the Spirit who empowered Jesus during His ministry for 3.5-years upon this Earth and it is the Spirit who will empower you to live a Godly and obedient life within the Realm of Time if you surrender completely to Him and walk in His Light (Zechariah 4:6; Galatians 5:16); finally, it is the Holy Spirit who is the Guarantor and the Seal of Covenant Relationship with the Father for everyone who believes that Jesus is Messiah who died for them (Ephesians 1:13-14; John 3). 

The commandments of Jesus provided during His ministry are taught by the Spirit as well (John 14:26) as the words of Jesus are the Father’s will for your life; therefore, walk in the Holy Spirit and you will not conform to the lust of the World (Galatians 5:16).