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What Does the Bible Say About...the Sabbath in Rev 14:12?

I have just read your explanation re the Sabbath/Sunday worship etc. You state that as Christians we are not required to keep the Sabbath as commanded. In that light please explain Revelation 14:12. My understanding is this is a description of God's people at the end of the world.

Answer

In my article I never stated that "as Christians we are not required to keep the Sabbath as commanded." I state that non-Jewish Christians were never commanded to keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a command for the Jews, specifically. Never was it commanded before the exodus from Egypt. Nor was it among the Jewish requirements that the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, guided by the Holy Spirit, found it necessary to bind upon Gentile Christians.

You refer to Revelation 14:12. That passage does not say anything about keeping Sabbath. It does speak about keeping the "commands of God and the faith of Jesus." Since the Sabbath was never commanded to Gentile Christians, then it does not fall under this statement. This passage is praising those Christians who, in spite of persecution, obey the commands under which they live. For non-Jewish Christians that does not include the Sabbath.

My understanding of this passage, and in fact most of the entire book of Revelation, is that this is not a description of God's people at the end of the world, but a description of God's people, the church, in the world. More specifically, since the book was "soon to come to pass" (Rev 1:1) it describes the Roman persecution of the church. But the principal message, that Christians will overcome, applies now and until the world will end. To place most of Revelation in our future flies against almost every rule of interpretation of prophecy.

I thank you for reading the article, and especially for taking the time to question what I wrote. It shows that you are earnestly seeking the truth of scripture.