Ben007Masada
THE BLESSING GOES FOR J. OR G.?
The other day I was asked by a Seventh-Day Adventist church member about how the Jews look at Christians who observe the Sabbath just like Jews do. I answered and said, no different from any other Christian, considered that the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy has no force upon the Gentiles. That it is a commandment required of the Jews only, to obey. (Ezek. 20:12,20)
BTW, Paul, the founder of Christianity has made it very clear that for Christians, all days are alike. That it does not matter what day one keeps to the Lord, as long as one does it to honor the Lord. But as a requirement, no one is expected to keep a specific day, or even no day at all. (Rom. 14:5,6) Paul was right indeed.
His second question was if there is a special blessing for choosing to observe the Sabbath. As I realized he was bargaining for an acknowledgement to his spiritual pretense of consanguinity with the Jewish People without conversion, I offered him the following riddle to solve.
A father had two sons: J. and G. Back from the fields, after a hard and hot day, the father was tired and thirsty. He sat down and commanded J. to bring him a glass of water before he blessed him. J. asked for just a minute or two to finish his little game. G. heard his father and, perceiving that J. had not moved, he went for the water and brought it to his father. When J. was ready and went for the water his father said, "Too late son, I am no longer thirsty."
J. stands for Jews and G. stands for Gentiles. The allegory is based on Genesis 22:18 which says of Abraham: "And
in your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall find blessing - and all this, because you have obeyed My command."
Now, the question is: Who will get the blessing, J. or G.? None. Neither J. for having not obeyed, nor G. for not having been commanded. It means that credit is conferred upon whom a command to obey is required. That's a principle of Halachah - Jewish Law. Then, I said to the SDA member: If you wanna keep the Sabbath holy, be my guest, but it means nothing either to us or to Paul for that matter. (Rom. 14:5,6)
Ben
The other day I was asked by a Seventh-Day Adventist church member about how the Jews look at Christians who observe the Sabbath just like Jews do. I answered and said, no different from any other Christian, considered that the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy has no force upon the Gentiles. That it is a commandment required of the Jews only, to obey. (Ezek. 20:12,20)
BTW, Paul, the founder of Christianity has made it very clear that for Christians, all days are alike. That it does not matter what day one keeps to the Lord, as long as one does it to honor the Lord. But as a requirement, no one is expected to keep a specific day, or even no day at all. (Rom. 14:5,6) Paul was right indeed.
His second question was if there is a special blessing for choosing to observe the Sabbath. As I realized he was bargaining for an acknowledgement to his spiritual pretense of consanguinity with the Jewish People without conversion, I offered him the following riddle to solve.
A father had two sons: J. and G. Back from the fields, after a hard and hot day, the father was tired and thirsty. He sat down and commanded J. to bring him a glass of water before he blessed him. J. asked for just a minute or two to finish his little game. G. heard his father and, perceiving that J. had not moved, he went for the water and brought it to his father. When J. was ready and went for the water his father said, "Too late son, I am no longer thirsty."
J. stands for Jews and G. stands for Gentiles. The allegory is based on Genesis 22:18 which says of Abraham: "And
in your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall find blessing - and all this, because you have obeyed My command."
Now, the question is: Who will get the blessing, J. or G.? None. Neither J. for having not obeyed, nor G. for not having been commanded. It means that credit is conferred upon whom a command to obey is required. That's a principle of Halachah - Jewish Law. Then, I said to the SDA member: If you wanna keep the Sabbath holy, be my guest, but it means nothing either to us or to Paul for that matter. (Rom. 14:5,6)
Ben