Do Christians have to keep the Sabbath?

Answer 1

One View:

Jehovah's Witnesses as Christians do NOT observe a weekly sabbath; just as we don't observe the festivals given to the Israelites; and we don't observe the animal sacrifices; and we don't require circumcision for religous reasons.

Jehovah God did not give the sabbath requirements to Adam & Eve. It was also not given to Noah, after the new start after the Flood.

The sabbath observance and the other requirements were first given to God's ancient people, the Israelites. It was also not given to the Gentile nations. Jehovah did not deal with the Gentiles.

It's true that Jesus and his family would have observed the weekly Sabbath; because Jesus was 'born into' the Jewish nation, which was bound by the Law.

But with Jesus death, was started a new form of worship, namely Christianity. The Gentiles were brought into the new congregation of God. By then, it was not obligatory for males to be circumcised; neither did they observe the 'new moon'; neither did they sacrifice animals anymore. All those things received a symbolic meaning in the Christian system. Likewise the 'sabbath' observance received a symbolic meaning, which many don't know about; they still observe the sabbath in a literal way; although some aspects of the Sabbath laws they ignore during their actual sabbath day activities.

Another Answer:

If by 'Christian' you mean a 'disciple' of Christ, then yes, the Sabbath Law of God has never been changed and Jesus, the Apostles, and all newly converted disciples throughout the Roman Empire, observed it then just as true Christians should and are observing it today and everyday since Pentecost in 31 AD.

There are about 50 mentions of the Sabbath in the Four Gospels - more than in the first Five Books of the Bible - so there is sufficient examples to help determine if this 4th Command of God should continue for His Church.

By the time Jesus began His ministry, the Sabbath had drastically changed from its original intent. Jesus, as Lord of the Sabbath, showed the religious leaders how onerous they have made this 'letter of the Law' forgetting its 'spiritual' intent. Zondervan's Pictorial Bible Dictionary describes how extreme these measures had become by Christ's day. Religious code regarding the Sabbath listed "39 principal classes of prohibited actions: sowing, plowing, reaping, gathering into sheaves, threshing, winnowing, cleansing, grinding, sifting, kneading, baking, etc. Each of these chief enactments was further discussed and elaborated, so that actually there were several hundred things a conscientious, law-abiding Jew could not do on the Sabbath. The minutia of the letter of the Law without the spiritual component.

It would be unthinkable for Jesus Christ to disobey any of God's Command's having been found acceptable to the Father as mankind's 'wave sheaf' offering - our Passover Lamb with blemish or spot. He always did whatever He saw the Father do therefore He was perfect as the Father is (John 5:19). Recall the words of Jesus here:

Matthew 5:17New American Standard Bible (NASB)

17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

The Greek word for fulfill is 'pleroo' meaning to 'render full' or to complete the Law making it full and perfect for all. It surely does not mean Jesus did all the 'lifting' for mankind and we can disregard the Law of God. Rather, a Christian should behave and practice exactly as our perfect example Christ did and still does:

1 John 2:6New King James Version (NKJV)

6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.