One idea commonly promoted in the mainstream church is that the Sabbath should be observed by Jews but Gentile believers don’t have to.
What saddens me is that there are many messianic synagogues that also promote this belief. It is like God created two sets of rules.
Track A for the Jew and Track B for the Gentile.
I know a Messianic Rabbi married to a Gentile (Japanese) woman who holds to this belief.
They have two daughters.
What I find interesting is that when they go out to eat, the Rabbi and his two daughters will refrain from eating pork and shellfish but it’s okay for his gentile wife to eat all manner of unclean food.
Talk about schizophrenia!
I believe teaching that the Sabbath is ONLY for the Jewish believer is perverse, sinister and and creates a theological divide between the Jewish and Gentile believer.
This is an issue that the Apostle Paul spent a lifetime trying to break down.
How can it be sinful for a Jewish believer to desecrate the Sabbath but not for a Gentile believer?
This is nothing less than the creation of two totally different flocks!
I’m sorry, but theologically, this is absurd and practically speaking, ridiculous.
It goes against the unity that Jesus and the Apostles sought for all believers.
“Also I have other sheep which are not from this pen;
I need to bring them, and they will hear my voice;
and there will be one flock, one shepherd.“
John 10:16
This teaching also seems to overlook another fundamental Scriptural truth.
The Gentile believer is grafted into the commonwealth of Israel.
So even if it is true that only Israel is obligated to keep the Sabbath, this doesn’t give the Gentile church an out because the Scriptures make it crystal clear that through their faith in Jesus, the church has been grafted into Israel and are now also in a spiritual sense (not ethnic) Sons of Abraham and are subject to all the principles of Israel’s covenants.
“For in union with the Messiah, you are all children of God through this trusting faithfulness; because as many of you as were immersed into the Messiah have clothed yourselves with the Messiah, in whom there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor freeman, neither male nor female; for in union with the Messiah Yeshua, you are all one. Also, if you belong to the Messiah, YOU are seed of Abraham and heirs according to the promise”.-Galatians 3:26-29
Or
“Therefore, remember your former state: you Gentiles by birth…called the uncircumcised by those who, merely because of an operation on their flesh, are called the Circumcised….at that time you HAD no Messiah. You were estranged from the national life of Israel. You were foreigners to the covenants embodying God’s promise. You were in this world without hope and without God. But now, you who were once far off have been brought near through the shedding of the Messiah’s blood”.-Ephesians 2:11-13
Are you a Gentile believer?
Then understand that there is no escaping the fact that you have been made seed of Abraham by joining Israel’s covenants through your faith in Jesus.
Let me say that again.
You have been brought into the covenants that God made with Israel.
Does that make you a physical Jew?
Of course not!
I’m not preaching some retarded and evil replacement theology.
All I’m saying is that through your faith in Christ you are grafted into the covenants of Israel.
So the Sabbath applies to the Gentile believer as well because he or she is now a part of what Paul calls “Spiritual Israel”.
This is so true and well written. Thank you so much.
Romans 14:5 read that.
I fully agree with every word you wrote. I pray the denomination church can see that teaching. I was there at one time.
I’m glad you found this edifying Sylvia. Be blessed!
Jacob was a ‘gentile.’ Gen 25:23. The Hebrew word rendered ‘gentile’ is ‘goyim.’
‘Two goyim were in Rebeka’s womb. One was not a Jew and the other a gentile. The twins
had the same parents and ancestry, as did all Noah’s sons. We all came from Adam and there was
never any ethnic ‘Jew.’ One became a ‘Jew’ by conversion, circumcision and obedience to the laws of Moses. The KJV rendered the same word ‘goyim’ in several ways: ‘nations, gentiles, people, others.’ It should always be ‘nations.’ Two ‘nations’ were in Rebeka’s womb. Abraham was to become the father of many ‘goyim/nations.’
The KJV was rendered according to established doctrines in the 16th century.
Seek the truth and the truth will set you free.
Why do you make such an issue of it? Seeing that the Gentiles were not even given the Law. Why try to compel them through condemnation to keep Jewish Law. PS 147:19-20 He shows His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He has not dealt so with any other nation: and as for His judgments, they have not known them. Praise you the LORD.”
The Gentiles can choose to have a Sabbath or not and on any day of the week in keeping with what Jesus said that Sabbath was given to serve mans need of rest not the man to serve the Sabbath. And in. accordance with ROM 2:14 — “these {Gentiles], having not the Law [no Sabbath], are a Law unto themselves:” They were however given moral laws in heart common to all mankind and approximating the commandments but not exactly. as to what the Jews were given. The Apostles in Acts 15:24 made it clear that the Gentiles need not keep the Law And Paul also made it clear in GAL 2:14 “But when I [Paul] saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If you, being a Jew, live after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compel the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?” Let us not, therefore, condemn one another.
Hi Gary, I don’t believe God has 2 menus, one for the gentile believer and one for the Jewish believer. All who are grafted into Israel are to be under ONE Law. To add to that, I find it amusing that many Christian churches post the 10 Commandments up in their congregation but do not hold to Sabbath command. Shalom.
Gary,
Ethnically and physically I am a gentile, but spiritually I hope to be Spiritual Israel.
Why / how? Because God says that those who put their faith and trust in Yashua the Messiah will be graft into the olive tree of Israel and become Spiritual Israel.
This is the point that I think you are missing, as I did my whole life.
Once grafted in, we are now under the same covenants as physical Israel.
That doesn’t mean that you will be forced to obey God’s laws, but it means you should. Paul takes about those that are Ture or Spiritual Israel and those who are not. Consider how some natural branches where cut off the olive tree so that the wild gentiles could be grafted in.
Who do want to be?
Do you want to be grafted in?
Do you want to please your FATHER?
Or do you want to be the disobedient son and recieve the consequnces.
Read the Torah and note how gentiles were adopted into and accepted by God and Israel. They did so by becoming obeidiant to God’s commands.
This post most certainly is not about condemning one another, it’s all about showing people how to please The Father.
Unfortunetly, our western society knows nothing about honoring parents and thus no idea what it means to honor our Heavenly Father. (our parent).
What sin did Adam and Eve commit?
They dishonoured their Father. They took his word lightly and did not think it important. Don’t be like Adam and take God’s word lightly.
Obediance to our earthly parents bring reward.
Diobediance brings punishment.
Do you wish to be rewarded for your obediance or punished for disobedience?
The reward for obediance to the Father and His Torah is Abundant Life here on this earth.
The reward for Faith in Yashua is eternal everlasting life.
Two different realms two different rewards.
If you wish to benefits in both realms, then trust in Messiah and be obeidiant to The Father.
To fully understand this article, one must have a minimal understanding of the history of Israel. The people, not the spot on the map. Everyone knows Abraham had Isaac had Jacob. Jacob was blessed with a name change to Israel. Jacob/Israel had 12 sons aka the 12 tribes of Israel. (The 4th born was named Judah. The people that can trace their lineage back to Judah are Jews. Jewish is not a race or a religion, it is a lineage.) Easy stuff to follow so far.
The Nation of Israel were bad boys and girls and got into trouble with Father a couple times and were eventually booted out of the land. 2 of the 12 tribes, Judah and Benjamin, were captured and led off to the south. They are called the House of Judah. The 10 remaining tribes, called the house of Israel, were captured and led off to/assimilated into the nations in the north and never returned. Matt 15:24 Yeshua says “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”
The house of Judah, collectively called Jews, are the only visible remnant of Israel on the planet at the moment. Keep in mind, the Bible is written to and for Israel. Moses led them, Yeshua was sent to them and the new Jerusalem in Revelation is being built for them and has their names above the 12 gates. There is no gentile gate, no man made religion gate, just the gates for the tribes of Israel.(If you’re not Israel, do you get in? If you believe so, what is that belief based on?)
Israel grew to be a great multitude while in Egypt. When Moses led them out there were some Egyptians that left with Israel, a mixed multitude. From that point on they were known as Israel, not Israel and some Egyptians. The Egyptians were “grafted in”, if you will, because of the choices they made and the actions they took.
Ruth, was no longer a Moabite when she told Naomi, I go where you go, your people are my people, your Elohim is my Elohim. Ruth made a citizenship change to an Israelite. Ruth is the great grandmother of King David, in the lineage of Messiah.
When you decide to believe in and follow (be in like manner as) Messiah, you make a citizenship change from gentile to Israel. The term “gentile believer” is an oxymoron. Why do I say that? What is the biblical definition of a gentile? Eph Ch 2:1-12. Does that sound like a follower of/believer in Messiah? No. A gentile is without Messiah according to Paul.
Israel is His chosen people:
Deut 14:2 “for you are a set-apart people to יהוה your Elohim, and יהוה has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a treasured possession above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”
Jer 31:35-36 “Thus said יהוה, who gives the sun for a light by day, and the laws of the moon and the stars for a light by night, who stirs up the sea, and its waves roar – יהוה of hosts is His Name “If these laws vanish from before Me,” declares יהוה, “then the seed of Yisra’ĕl shall also cease from being a nation before Me forever.”
There is one law/instruction for Israel and any looking to join Israel:
Lev 24:22 “You are to have one right-ruling, for the stranger and for the native, for I am יהוה your Elohim.”
Lev 15:15-16 ‘One law is for you of the assembly and for the stranger who sojourns with you – a law forever throughout your generations. As you are, so is the stranger before יהוה.‘One Torah and one right-ruling is for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.’
These “strangers” are gentiles looking to be a part of Israel (Acts 15). There is ONE Torah for them both, NO separation at all. The Torah and obedience to it is what separates Israel from the other nations. Faith obedience/belief obedience as Paul puts it in Rom 1:5. Obedience to your belief…
2 James 2:17-18 “So also belief, if it does not have works, is in itself dead. But someone might say, “You have belief, and I have works.” Show me your belief without your works, and I shall show you my belief by my works.”
What you do matters. Are you going to show the Creator that you do what YOU want, what you/your pastor thinks is correct, or what He has instructed us to do? Are you self sovereign, or is He your sovereign? The Kingdom of Heaven has laws, rules, regulations, instructions, a King and that king isn’t you or me. That Kingdom isn’t going to be “double minded” with one set of laws rules, etc. for one people and a different set for another. The Egyptians that came out with Israel had to follow the same rules as Israel.
You are spot on! Excellent. But I wish you had used examples from the Torah and not from Paul. All we need to know about God is in the Torah, Prophets and Psalms, the written testimonies of Yahshua and the Book of Revelation.
I am a Christian and I have recently started observing the Sabbath, why you may ask? Well through prayer I was able to discern between “Commandment and Law”. Moses handed down the law to the Hebrews but G-d gave us the commandments. It’s only been three weeks but I see the blessings come my way.
Amen John! Be blessed.