Is the Sabbath Commanded in the New Testament? Part 1 It is often asked, “If the Sabbath is so important, why isn’t it commanded in the New Testament?” YHWH explicitly and repeatedly commanded his people to keep the Sabbath in the Old Testament. There’s no question that he wanted his people to keep the Sabbath at that time. But if it isn’t explicitly repeated in the New Testament, does that mean it is no longer relevant to Believers? Some have said yes. For instance, according to Christian pastor and theologian, John MacArthur: There is never a command in the New Testament to keep the Sabbath. All Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament—some numerous times—except the fourth command. It is never repeated in the New Testament, not one single time. It was, in the midst of the moral law, a sign and a symbol to lead the people to rest and repentance. But when you come to the New Testament, there’s never a repeat of that command. The rest that the New Testament is concerned about is the rest that comes to the soul from hearing and believing the good news preached. That’s the rest the New Testament offers. - John MacArthur, “Understanding the Sabbath,” Grace to You. So, according to MacArthur, the commandment to keep the Sabbath is not repeated in the New Testament, and this is an indication that it no longer applies to us. The New Testament is not concerned with literal Sabbath rest, MacArthur says. In the New Testament, we are only to focus on embracing the spiritual rest that we now have in Christ. What should we make of this objection to keeping the Sabbath? Does MacArthur have a point? First, let’s grant the assumption that the New Testament does not repeat the command to keep the Sabbath. Would that mean it is irrelevant? Not at all. A commandment does not have to be explicitly repeated in the New Testament to still apply to us. For instance, the Torah’s commandments against practicing necromancy, bestiality, and cross-dressing are nowhere explicitly repeated in the New Testament, but Believers generally agree that we should keep those commandments. Furthermore, why is it necessary for YHWH to repeat himself? YHWH prohibits cross-dressing only once in all Scripture, while he repeated the Sabbath commandment numerous times. But does that mean that YHWH didn’t care about his people cross-dressing at later times when other commandments were being repeated? Of course not. It would be silly for someone in Jeremiah’s time to argue, “Well, YHWH repeated his command to keep the Sabbath Jeremiah 17:24, so he must still want me to do that, but he has said nothing about cross-dressing since Moses, so I guess that doesn’t matter to him anymore.” Just because YHWH doesn’t repeat a command, that doesn’t mean that he cares any less about it. This argument that MacArthur and others use to dismiss the Sabbath is the same flawed logic that progressive “Believers” use to say that the law against homosexual practice is done away with. Progressive “Believers” argue that since Messiah never explicitly repeated the law against homosexual practices, that means it is no longer important. For instance, progressive “minister,” Elder Don Eastman, writes the following: By faith we live in Messiah, not in Leviticus. To be sure, ethical concerns apply to all cultures and peoples in every age. Such concerns were ultimately reflected by Messiah, who said nothing about homosexuality, but a great deal about love, justice, mercy and faith. - Elder Don Eastman, “Homosexuality: Not a Sin, not a Sickness Part II - What The Bible Does and Does Not Say…” The Religious Institute, www.religiousinstitute.org. However, as Believers generally acknowledge, this argument from silence proves nothing. Messiah was a Torah observant Jew who taught other Jews during his earthly ministry. Jews already knew that homosexual practice was a sin. Thus, the fact that Messiah did not explicitly repeat the Torah’s command against homosexual practice should not be surprising. Similarly, we could say the same thing with respect to the Sabbath. There was no need for Messiah to explicitly repeat the Sabbath commandment. Jews already knew that they should keep the Sabbath, even though there were disagreements about how it should be kept. We will come back to that in a moment. But let’s return to the argument that the New Testament does not repeat the Sabbath command. We’ve already seen that the New Testament’s silence on the Sabbath does not mean that the Sabbath should not be kept. But there is one more point we need to make: the New Testament is not silent about the Sabbath! While Messiah did not explicitly repeat the commandment to keep the Sabbath, he did reinforce it. Look at what Messiah says in Matthew 5:17-20: Matthew 5:17-20 So, Messiah affirmed the ongoing validity of the Law and the Prophets—that is, the Hebrew Scriptures, or what is often called the Old Testament. “Fulfill” in this context means to “bring to full expression = show it forth in its true meaning” (BDAG, πληρόω, 736). In other words, Messiah came to teach and demonstrate how to live out the Hebrew