You miss the underlying point for the commands regarding Sabbath …

Comment on Christians and the Sabbath by Sean Pitman.

You miss the underlying point for the commands regarding Sabbath observance. The “no work” command was given so that everyone, as far as possible, could have an entire day off to devote to God. That’s the main point here. Otherwise, people would feel obligated to continue their normal secular activities or fail to strive to give everyone else a day off to do the same. You fail to comprehend the spirit or original purpose of the Law… something that Jesus highlighted in His life.

Yet, you argue that it is impossible to break the law lawfully. That’s because you don’t seem to understand that the fundamental basis of all law, including the Ten Commandments, is the Royal Law of Love. If keeping one of the Ten Commandments would cause you to violate the Royal Law, then that lesser commandment can be lawfully broken. Beyond the fact that the priests regularly “broke” the Sabbath without guilt throughout Jewish history (Matthew 12:5), did you not read where Jesus Himself explained that it was also “lawful to do good on the Sabbath”? (Matthew 12:12) Jesus wasn’t just talking about Himself here. He was speaking for everyone. Why do you think the Jewish leaders kept silent when Jesus specifically asked them if it was lawful to heal or to kill on the Sabbath?

Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. (Mark 3:4).

Why did they “remain silent” here? Because, as you should know, it was part of the law that work could be done on the Sabbath day to save the life or prevent the suffering of man or even beast. Do you not recognize this? Do you really not understand this concept? and how it is consistent with the underlying Royal Law of Love? I think you just don’t want to understand it…

I’m sorry, but Jesus only “broke the Sabbath” in order to relieve suffering – right in line with the Royal Law and right in line with Jewish law as well. In other words, He broke the Sabbath “lawfully” and anyone else would have been lawfully able to do the very same thing. And, the Jews themselves could say nothing contrary to this. They remained silent because they knew that Jesus was right in line with their own law.

As far as the Apostles keeping the Sabbath after Jesus was gone, you cite a single Saturday night prayer meeting (held because Paul was leaving the next morning) as evidence that they didn’t continue to observe the Sabbath while you downplay the dozens and dozens of Sabbath worship services that are also mentioned and the fact that they all kept the Sabbath “according to the commandment” when Jesus died. And, you fail to recognize the continuance Sabbath observance by the early Christian Church for hundreds and hundreds of years. You also fail to recognize the qualifying statement of Paul regarding “shadows of things to come”. You quote Colossians 2:16 and argue that this particular passage is all that should be read, “period”. However, the passage doesn’t really end with Colossians 2:16. You fail to read and understand Colossians 2:17 where Paul specifically explains that he is talking here about the laws that were put in place to foreshadow the coming of Christ. There were ceremonial laws, animal sacrifices, and yearly sabbaths that pointed toward the life and death of Jesus. Obviously, these met their reality in Jesus Himself. However, the weekly Sabbath does not point forward, but backward. It is not a “shadow of things to come.” It is for this reason that it was written in stone and placed inside of the Ark of the Covenant with the rest of the eternal moral laws of the Decalogue. You don’t write a temporary “shadow” on stone. And, you don’t place a “shadow” with other eternal moral laws – moral laws that were and are and will forever be binding for all of mankind.

Again, Jesus specifically pointed out that He created the Sabbath for all of mankind / anthropos (Mark 2:27). The language of the 4th Commandment regarding the Sabbath points back to creation before the Fall of mankind. The language of Genesis also points out that God made the 7th-day holy right at the very beginning of Earth’s history before the Fall of mankind. And, the Jews recognized that the Sabbath existed before Moses came along. Philo specifically argues that the Sabbath was universal – for all of mankind. The Talmud also recognizes that the Sabbath existed before Moses and the Medrash (contrary to your claims) argues that the Sabbath existed at creation – that the Torah was used by God in the creation of our world. Even Martin Luther, a Sunday keeper, argued that the Sabbath was obviously created in Eden before the Fall and that after the Fall Adam and Eve taught their children to observe the Sabbath. You simply ignore all of this…

I also continue to be amazed at your confidence that those who do not honestly recognize Jesus as Lord and Savior “obviously will not be granted eternal life”. The Bible is very clear that even those who have never heard the name of Jesus can be saved if they lived honestly according to the best light that they had been given (Romans 2:14-15). But what is especially interesting here is that you are so certain that such people will be lost, despite their honest ignorance, yet, at the same time, you claim that humans have no part to play in their own salvation. How then can anyone be lost if no one has any part to play in their own salvation? Is this not an inconsistent position on your part? Is it not clear to you that we are able to reject the gifts that God wants to give to us? Are we able to actually reject the gift of salvation? The man drowning in the lake, in your illustration, is actually able to tell his rescuer to “get lost”… and the rescuer, God in this case, must honor the man’s wishes.

So, you see, our “part to play” in our own salvation is simply to accept the gift that God freely offers. That’s our part to play. Of course, by accepting God’s gift, our lives are changed and will no longer live the lives we used to live. If we actually love God and gratefully accept His gifts, we will “keep His commandments”. If we deliberately reject God’s commandments, and actively seek to undermine them, once we know the truth of them, we clearly have not accepted God’s gift of salvation nor do we really love God.

Yet, you argue, “Well, if people should be put to death for violating the Sabbath commandment, it follows that those who keep it shall LIVE. Right?” No, that’s not right. Keeping the Sabbath isn’t what makes a person live or be given salvation. Eternal life is an unmerited gift of God – a gift that we can either accept or reject. It is not earned by keeping the Sabbath. Keeping the commandments of God aren’t what saves a person. Keeping the commandments of God are the result of realizing that one has been given salvation by God and wishing to keep God’s commandments because we love Him – not in order to earn our own salvation.

As far as Ellen White “contradicting herself”, well, it only seems like that for someone who is quoting what she actually said and taught out of context. You confuse her statements against the concept of “once saved always saved” and deliberately ignore her teachings regarding the concept of “present assurance” of salvation. However, there really is no contradiction here if you take each statement in context.

As far as your “advice” that I follow the Bible and avoid the sophistries of certain theologians – I fully agree and recommend strongly that you take your own advice. Study these things very carefully and prayerfully for yourself and earnestly ask God to show you the right path. Then, if you honestly follow God’s leading according to the best light that you have been given to understand, even if you don’t get everything right, you will be saved.

Sean Pitman Also Commented

Christians and the Sabbath
Response to a comment of a friend of mine posted in another forum:

    “Before the way of FAITH IN CHRIST was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, UNTIL the way of faith was revealed. The law was our guardian UNTIL Christ came; it protected us UNTIL we could be made right with God through FAITH. And now that the way of FAITH has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian. For you are all children of God through FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS.” Gal3:23-26

Faith is certainly what saves. This has always been true since the very beginning. Even those righteous persons who lived before Jesus was born into this world as a human being, even Moses or David for instance, were not saved by the works of the Law, but by Faith. The purpose of the Law was never to save, but to convict the sinner of a need of a Savior – since all have sinned against the “Royal Law.” It is faith in the Savior that saves. The work of the Law, carefully considered, is to lead us to know that our only hope of salvation is faith in what Jesus, our Savior, did for us and is doing for us. Yet, this faith does not nullify the Law or make the Law pointless when it comes to its job to constantly remind us of our need of a Savior – a saving Power outside of ourselves. Rather, the Power realized through this faith actually enables us to keep the Spirit of the Law as it was originally intended to be kept – through selfless love for God and for our neighbors.

Paul, in his letter to the Romans, makes this point particularly clear:

Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. – Romans 3:31

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but it is the doers of the law who will be declared righteous. Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts… If a man who is not circumcised keeps the requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? – Romans 2:13-15, 26

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! – Romans 6:15

What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” … So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good… For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. – Romans 7:7, 11, 22-25

For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit… The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. – Romans 8:3-4, 7

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. – Romans 13:8-10


Christians and the Sabbath
The Mishnah Superior to the rest of the Talmud?
According to the authors of “Lying for God” (Kerry Wynne and Larry Dean), the Mishnah was considered superior to the rest of the Talmud:

Recall that the Pharisees rejected the Talmud as merely the production of Human opinion, although the stewards of the oral law had, in their minds, placed the Mishnah within the body of Jewish oral law call the Talmud.  When Jesus told His followers to obey the teachings of the Pharisees, by the process of elimination we have no other possibility left than that Jesus instructed His followers to obey the teachings of the Mishnah and to reject all ther parts of the oral law.

The Mishnah rejects the idea that the Torah existed before Moses. (Link)

This argument seems a bit strange for several reasons.  First off, the Mishnah was collected and committed to writing about 200 AD and forms the first part of the Talmud. Orthodox Judaism believes that Moses received the Torah (the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) from God and that he wrote down everything God spoke to him. However, they also believe that God gave Moses explanations and examples of how to interpret the Law that Moses did not write down. These unwritten explanations are known in Judaism as the Oral Torah. The Oral Torah was supposedly passed down from Moses to Joshua and then to the rabbis until the advent of Christianity when it was finally written down as the legal authority called Halakha (“the walk”). The two main sections of the Oral Torah are the Mishnah and the Gemara.

The Mishnah (משנה, “repetition”) essentially records the debates of the post-temple sages from AD 70—200 (called the Tannaim) and is considered the first major work of “Rabbinical Judaism.” It is composed of six orders (sedarim), arranged topically…

After the Mishnah was published, it was studied exhaustively by generations of rabbis in both Babylonia and Israel. From AD 200—500, additional commentaries on the Mishnah were compiled and put together as the Gemara. Actually, there are two different versions of the Gemara, one compiled by scholars in Israel (c. 400 AD) and the other by the scholars of Babylonia (c. 500 AD). Together, the Mishnah and the Gemara form the Talmud (Link).

Clearly, then, the Mishnah was not in written existence until after the time of Jesus. The claim, then, that Jesus recognized the Mishnah as authoritative, but not the rest of the Talmud, isn’t entirely accurate.  Beyond this, Jesus rejected many of the traditions of the Pharisees in His own day as being inconsistent with the Law of Love and the original intent of God for His own Laws. This is the reason that Jesus was in constant conflict with the Pharisees and their burdensome laws.

The fact of the matter is that the Gemaric part of the Talmud does, in fact, recognize the existence of the Torah, including the Sabbath, before the time of Moses. And, there is no reason to selectively reject certain views proposed by the Talmud. Beyond this, the Mishnah itself also directly claims that Abraham, despite having lived many generations before Moses, had already been a follower of the laws that were eventually delivered on Sinai – in their entirety:

We find that Father Avraham observed the Torah [hatorah] in its entirety before it was given, as it is said: “Since Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my observances, commandments, statutes and my teachings [toratai]. (Gen. 26:5).

M Qiddushin (Kiddushin) 4:14 (Link – starting at 9:00 of 9:25)

This, of course, directly undermines the above-cited claim that, “The Mishnah rejects the idea that the Torah existed before Moses.”  Rather, the Mishnah specifically argues that Abraham observed the entire Torah before it was given to Moses – including the Sabbath.


Christians and the Sabbath
@Kerry Wynne:

You also argue that:

“ANOTHER PROBLEM FOR DR. PITMAN IS THAT THE NAZARENES WERE KNOWN TO HAVE KEPT THE SABBATH ACCORDING TO THE LUNAR CALENDAR. THEIR SABBATHS WERE VARIABLE/ADJUSTABLE.

And, what evidence do you give for this claim? – in your latest LFG book? As far as I can tell, it is based largely on John Keyser’s book, “From Sabbath to Saturday” where a statement from Clement of Alexandria is referenced as follows:

“Neither worship as the Jews; for they, thinking that they only know God, do not know Him, adoring as they do angels and archangels, the month and the moon. And if the moon be not visible, they do not hold the Sabbath, which is called the first; nor do they hold the new moon, nor the feast of unleavened bread, nor the feast, nor the great day.” (Stromata, Chap. 5)

In your latest edition of LFG, you interpret this statement as follows:

This clearly indicates that at this time the weekly Sabbath was still dictated by the moon’s course.

Well, not quite. Certainly, this passage does not trump the numerous statements from many authors concerning the regular weekly cycle of 7 fixed days followed by the early Christians (including the Nazarenes) – along with a fixed Sabbath day every 7th day. Therefore, what Clement is most likely talking about here is one of the annual sabbaths – like the “Feast of Trumpets” (which happens to fall on “the first” day of the month of Tishrei).

Again, the evidence against the whole “Lunar Sabbath” concept for the Jews and early Christians is so strong that your continued promotion of it further undermines your overall credibility.


Recent Comments by Sean Pitman

After the Flood
Thank you Ariel. Hope you are doing well these days. Miss seeing you down at Loma Linda. Hope you had a Great Thanksgiving!


The Flood
Thank you Colin. Just trying to save lives any way I can. Not everything that the government does or leaders do is “evil” BTW…


The Flood
Only someone who knows the future can make such decisions without being a monster…


Pacific Union College Encouraging Homosexual Marriage?
Where did I “gloss over it”?


Review of “The Naked Emperor” by Pastor Conrad Vine
I fail to see where you have convincingly supported your claim that the GC leadership contributed to the harm of anyone’s personal religious liberties? – given that the GC leadership does not and could not override personal religious liberties in this country, nor substantively change the outcome of those who lost their jobs over various vaccine mandates. That’s just not how it works here in this country. Religious liberties are personally derived. Again, they simply are not based on a corporate or church position, but rely solely upon individual convictions – regardless of what the church may or may not say or do.

Yet, you say, “Who cares if it is written into law”? You should care. Everyone should care. It’s a very important law in this country. The idea that the organized church could have changed vaccine mandates simply isn’t true – particularly given the nature of certain types of jobs dealing with the most vulnerable in society (such as health care workers for example).

Beyond this, the GC Leadership did, in fact, write in support of personal religious convictions on this topic – and there are GC lawyers who have and continue to write personal letters in support of personal religious convictions (even if these personal convictions are at odds with the position of the church on a given topic). Just because the GC leadership also supports the advances of modern medicine doesn’t mean that the GC leadership cannot support individual convictions at the same time. Both are possible. This is not an inconsistency.