Are Christians Sabbatarians?

"If you want to kill Christianity, you must abolish Sunday."  --Voltaire   
"The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath" (Mark 2:27, HCSB).  

There are Christian Sabbatarians--that's not an oxymoron!  Once, I was almost fooled by the Seventh-day Adventists as a teen but studied Luther to be set free from their legalism.  Now I consider myself free from any form of legalistic interpretation.  Point in fact: No place in the New Testament are we admonished to keep the Sabbath--search for yourself!  It is the only one of the Ten Commandments not reinstated in the New Testament.  Do not live in the Old Testament!  To some believers, Paul says, every day is holy and for the others, we are not to judge them.

It is wrong to assume that Christians changed the Sabbath to Sunday, for they observed it early on by tradition and custom, and eventually dropped the practice.  The Lord's Day was strictly in tribute to the Resurrection.  Note that John said in the Book of Revelation:  "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day."  There is ample evidence of Christians meeting on the Lord's day early on; they even observed the Sabbath in addition at first--old traditions die hard!

Though I agree with the moral equivalent of having a day set aside for rest as observing the Sabbath, these are not the same.  There is simple morality, and then there is spirituality and religion or Sabbath observance.  Sabbath observance by no means is to be a litmus test of spiritual orthodoxy.  We have no right to judge our brother in regards to a Sabbath (cf. Col. 2:16i).  But experiments with this day have proven unsuccessful:  The USSR tried to alter the seven-day week for eleven years and it ended in failure.  We are just hard-wired for this cycle of work and rest and need to lay aside a day for R & R spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, as well as physically.

Jesus did say that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath (c. Mark 2:27) and that means not to let someone tell us what our day of rest should be used for.  The principle is so important to God that if we don't take due rest, He will give it to us anyway.  In principle, there is no hard-and-fast rule for what a Sabbath should require, or prohibits.  If you want to get technical, you shouldn't even go out to eat or buy fuel on the Sabbath because that requires others to work on your behalf.  The Spirit of the law prohibited the doing of business on this day of so-called rest--the Pharisees had redefined it with thirty-nine additional definitions of "work activities."

God promised that He would give us a permanent (spiritual) rest--we will work in heaven physically.  Israel kept the outward sign of the Sabbath but failed to enter into His rest, as noted in Hebrews 4:3, HCSB, as "... 'So I swore in My anger, they will never enter into My rest.'"  The important thing is that we rest for our labors as we rest in the Lord's and become empowered by the Spirit so as not to be working in the flesh or our own strength.

God condemns any work done in the energy of the flesh, no matter how good we deem it.  God said to Israel (if they would keep the covenant):  "My presence will go with you and I will give you rest."  Christians enter into this rest from their labors upon salvation and living by the power of the Spirit, not in the energy of the flesh.

The Sabbath command was a sign for Israel in Nehemiah 9:14, HCSB:  "You revealed Your holy Sabbath to them, and gave them commands, statutes, and instruction through Your servant Moses." God blessed the Sabbath and made it a special day for us too!  Note that it was given as a sign of His covenant forever.  Exodus 31: 13 says, "'Tell the Israelites:  You must observe My Sabbaths for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations so that you will know that I am Yahweh who sets you apart." Also, note Ezek. 20:12, 20, HCSB:  "I also gave them My Sabbaths to serve as a sign between Me and them so they will know that I am Yahweh who sets them apart as holy."  "Keep My Sabbaths holy, and they will be a sign between Me and you, so you may know that I am Yahweh your God."

What I am trying to point out, is that although there are applications to the general principle of  rest required for us and the way we are designed for it; however, its main intention was to be a sign for Israel to be a special nation, and it was so serious that there was a death penalty of stoning for violating the Sabbath.  As believers, we are not under the law (cf. Rom. 6:14) but under grace and are liberated from all demands of ceremonial custom and tradition and observe the Lord's day by the assembling together of ourselves (cf. Heb. 10:25).

We have liberty as Christian to hallow the Sabbath as stated in Romans 14:5-6, HCSB:  "One person considers one day to be above another day.  Someone else considers every day to be the same.  each one must be fully convinced in his own mind.  Whoever observes the day, observes it for the honor of the Lord...."   Above all, according to Col. 2:16, HCSB:  "...[D]on't let anyone judge ... in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day. "

In other words, don't get legalistic about it and the faith you have, is to be kept to yourself (cf. Rom. 14:22), not to be used to spiritually bully others believers into your convictions, if you are free in the Lord, don't flaunt it, and if you are bound in the Lord, don't condemn.   There are always exceptions to the rule:  Necessity knows no law, as David exhibited by taking the shewbread in the temple to violate temple rules, and priests were allowed to "work" on the Sabbath.  Jesus asked the ultimate question:  Can we not do good  [works] on the Sabbath?  Christians are to be known by their love, not known by their Sabbaths like Jews:  Viva la difference!  

NB:  In 1929 the USSR exchanged the traditional seven-day week with a five-day one.  This experiment with a Sabbath lasted only eleven years before returning to normalcy!  In 1795, during the French Revolution, a new calendar was decreed with three ten-day weeks per month, eliminating Sundays and holidays, but after ten years it was terminated.  God's way is the best way!   Old traditions die hard!     Soli Deo Gloria!