Someone left a comment on a YouTube post I made for this article, and I want to share it with you. I think it will be helpful concerning how to actually observe Sabbath:
Question from @AStillSmallVoice1912:
This was a great article. I would like you to add commentary regarding Mark 2:27-28, as well as what you do on the Sabbath day - not the specific foods you eat, but actually what you do.
Jews believe they can only travel a certain distance, yet Jesus was “passing through the grain fields” indicating He went beyond their accustomed boundaries.
So what does a Sabbath rest look like as a Christian in 2026?
My Response:
Great question and thoughts. I keep things very simple. I don't start acting Jewish and go light candles and recite a bunch of liturgical prayers, like a lot of Hebrew Roots types like to do. However, Sabbath is more than just a "day off", which oftentimes is used for shopping, chores, and catching up on missed tasks. That's not Sabbath at all. Sabbath incorporates rest and worship together. But there is great liberality and flexibility with what that looks like for everyone individually. It could be a long walk in nature that helps you get closer to God (hence Jesus in the grain fields). For guys like me with heavy labor in my normal work schedule, it's taking time to turn off all tech and do very little. I just take care of my flocks and spend most of the time reading things that bless my walk with God. Prayer is important too of course. For families, teaching the kids things about God is going to be important, so that would include prayer routines and Friday-night meal routines that usher in the Sabbath more intentionally. Hope that helps!
Brother Ojeda, I genuinely appreciated much of this article—particularly your defense of the continuing validity of God’s law, your recognition that Christ did not abolish the Sabbath, and your warning that genuine revival is often accompanied by counterfeit movements. However, I believe there are two places where the article falls into the very kind of overgeneralization you are warning your readers against.
First, regarding Seventh-day Adventists, you write that Sabbath-observing groups “truly believe that they are winning God’s approval and blessings through their religious performance,” and later explicitly say, “Again, this includes your Seventh Day Adventists.” Yet only a few paragraphs later you warn against people who discover errors in mainstream Christianity and then become “very suspicious about everyone’s motives.”
That seems inconsistent. To say that some Adventists have fallen into legalism would be entirely fair; every Christian body has members who misunderstand righteousness by faith. But to characterize Seventh-day Adventists generally as keeping the commandments in order to earn God’s favor assigns an inward motive to an entire people. Historic Adventist theology does not teach that obedience earns salvation. It teaches salvation through Christ alone and obedience as the fruit of a living faith—the very distinction you yourself make when you correctly say that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, not from obedience to the law.
In other words, when you keep Torah because Christ has saved you, you rightly call that the fruit of grace. But when Seventh-day Adventists keep the commandments, you appear to interpret essentially the same outward obedience as an effort to gain God’s approval. I believe the same caution you urge upon suspicious Torah believers should be applied here: we should be very careful about assigning motives to other Christians rather than examining what they actually teach.
Second, I would respectfully question your statement that Old Testament saints such as Noah, Daniel, and Job had only a partial revelation of God’s grace, while believers after Acts 2 possess the full revelation, and particularly your conclusion that “we are even greater than John the Baptist because we have the full revelation of Christ that he never had.”
There certainly is progressive revelation in Scripture. Abraham, Daniel, and John did not live to witness Calvary, the resurrection, ascension, or Pentecost as accomplished historical events. We possess historical light that they did not possess.
But progressive revelation should not be confused with progressive salvation.
Paul says of Abraham:
“Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” — Romans 4:3
He goes even further:
“The scripture… preached before the gospel unto Abraham.” — Galatians 3:8
Jesus Himself said:
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” — John 8:56
And Daniel certainly understood that righteousness was not obtained by religious performance:
“We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.” — Daniel 9:18
Hebrews describes the Old Testament faithful as having seen the promises “afar off” and embraced them by faith (Hebrews 11:13). They looked forward to Christ; we look backward upon His completed earthly work. But it is the same Christ, the same grace, the same gospel, and the same righteousness by faith.
Likewise, I do not believe Matthew 11:11 means that every post-Pentecost Christian is personally or spiritually “greater” than John the Baptist. John stood at the threshold of a new era of salvation history. He announced Christ and identified Him as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”** (John 1:29), but he died before witnessing Calvary, the resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost. The believer living afterward therefore occupies a position of greater historical privilege and revealed light—not necessarily greater faith, character, righteousness, or knowledge of grace than John himself possessed.
The saints before the cross were not saved through an inferior form of grace. They were saved through the same Christ whose sacrifice they anticipated by faith and whose accomplished sacrifice we now proclaim.
I offer these observations because I actually agree with much of the burden of your article. The recovery of the Sabbath must never become legalism, spiritual pride, conspiracy obsession, or mere lifestyle modification. But neither should our concern about those dangers cause us to characterize entire communities by motives they themselves deny or to diminish the very real experience of righteousness by faith possessed by the saints who lived before Calvary.
Your own warning is worth applying consistently: discovering that another Christian tradition has been wrong about something should make us more careful, not less careful, about judging what other believers actually believe and why they obey God.
Does somebody came to note that when the Sun stopped during a whole day when Joshua commanded it, the day according to sunrise and sun down stayed the same but chronologically was the next day of the week? That is, if the battle was a Monday, when Joshua went to sleep was Monday but chronologically was Tuesday. It is interesting then that Sabbath celebrated on calendar Saturday are chronologically being celebrated on Sunday with reference to when the law was given to Moses ) who came before Joshua. In summary, by calendar the Sabbath are celebrated on Saturday but chronologically they should be celebrated on Sunday to keep the same chronology with reference to Moses.
Matt, Thank you for the teaching. I would caution you about one thing. You used the words of “being lied to” several times. Perhaps this is uncharitable on your part. Just because someone teaches something that is different than the way you see it, does not make them a liar. They just understand precepts differently. We must give them the benefit of the doubt, unless it is clear that it comes from evil. Consider this carefully to fulfill the law of love.
Abraham, I'd be interested in your thoughts about why the Holy Spirit seems to show so many of us that we should be keeping the Sabbath before He shows us anything else about the Torah. And also your thoughts about why the Enemy is so against people returning to keeping it.
I left the Christian church -- Presbyterianism -- when I was 19, attended infrequently (sometimes American Baptist, sometimes Presbyterian) but mostly didn't attend for the next 30 years or so, and so I was never aware of specific church doctrine or teaching about the Torah being done away with. It was a non-issue I never gave any thought to. We worshipped on Sunday; Jews worship on Saturday.
It was only after I got push-back from my Christian therapist -- she read the whole chapter of Colossians 2 to me! -- and the preacher of the small Baptist church I was attending with my neighbors admitted Christians cherry pick the Old Testament, that I started looking into why Christians don't keep the Sabbath and how it had been changed. And learned about early church history, Constantine's laws and early church councils, Marcionism, Dispensationalism, Babylonian gods and pagan practices/holidays, etc , etc.
It seemed undeniable to me -- and the language in Exodus 20 is very clear -- the importance of the Sabbath to the Father. So I had barely returned to attending church before I walked away again! This is probably a lot of unnecessary background, but I guess I'm saying that I didn't have church baggage against the Sabbath to unpack.
Someone left a comment on a YouTube post I made for this article, and I want to share it with you. I think it will be helpful concerning how to actually observe Sabbath:
Question from @AStillSmallVoice1912:
This was a great article. I would like you to add commentary regarding Mark 2:27-28, as well as what you do on the Sabbath day - not the specific foods you eat, but actually what you do.
Jews believe they can only travel a certain distance, yet Jesus was “passing through the grain fields” indicating He went beyond their accustomed boundaries.
So what does a Sabbath rest look like as a Christian in 2026?
My Response:
Great question and thoughts. I keep things very simple. I don't start acting Jewish and go light candles and recite a bunch of liturgical prayers, like a lot of Hebrew Roots types like to do. However, Sabbath is more than just a "day off", which oftentimes is used for shopping, chores, and catching up on missed tasks. That's not Sabbath at all. Sabbath incorporates rest and worship together. But there is great liberality and flexibility with what that looks like for everyone individually. It could be a long walk in nature that helps you get closer to God (hence Jesus in the grain fields). For guys like me with heavy labor in my normal work schedule, it's taking time to turn off all tech and do very little. I just take care of my flocks and spend most of the time reading things that bless my walk with God. Prayer is important too of course. For families, teaching the kids things about God is going to be important, so that would include prayer routines and Friday-night meal routines that usher in the Sabbath more intentionally. Hope that helps!
thank you so much my friend. matt in NZ
Thank you brother Abraham. God bless youbless you 🙏🏼✝️❤️🕊️🔥✝️🩸🙏🏼🙏🏼❤️
God bless you also Patricia, I'm glad you enjoyed this one!
Brother Ojeda, I genuinely appreciated much of this article—particularly your defense of the continuing validity of God’s law, your recognition that Christ did not abolish the Sabbath, and your warning that genuine revival is often accompanied by counterfeit movements. However, I believe there are two places where the article falls into the very kind of overgeneralization you are warning your readers against.
First, regarding Seventh-day Adventists, you write that Sabbath-observing groups “truly believe that they are winning God’s approval and blessings through their religious performance,” and later explicitly say, “Again, this includes your Seventh Day Adventists.” Yet only a few paragraphs later you warn against people who discover errors in mainstream Christianity and then become “very suspicious about everyone’s motives.”
That seems inconsistent. To say that some Adventists have fallen into legalism would be entirely fair; every Christian body has members who misunderstand righteousness by faith. But to characterize Seventh-day Adventists generally as keeping the commandments in order to earn God’s favor assigns an inward motive to an entire people. Historic Adventist theology does not teach that obedience earns salvation. It teaches salvation through Christ alone and obedience as the fruit of a living faith—the very distinction you yourself make when you correctly say that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, not from obedience to the law.
In other words, when you keep Torah because Christ has saved you, you rightly call that the fruit of grace. But when Seventh-day Adventists keep the commandments, you appear to interpret essentially the same outward obedience as an effort to gain God’s approval. I believe the same caution you urge upon suspicious Torah believers should be applied here: we should be very careful about assigning motives to other Christians rather than examining what they actually teach.
Second, I would respectfully question your statement that Old Testament saints such as Noah, Daniel, and Job had only a partial revelation of God’s grace, while believers after Acts 2 possess the full revelation, and particularly your conclusion that “we are even greater than John the Baptist because we have the full revelation of Christ that he never had.”
There certainly is progressive revelation in Scripture. Abraham, Daniel, and John did not live to witness Calvary, the resurrection, ascension, or Pentecost as accomplished historical events. We possess historical light that they did not possess.
But progressive revelation should not be confused with progressive salvation.
Paul says of Abraham:
“Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” — Romans 4:3
He goes even further:
“The scripture… preached before the gospel unto Abraham.” — Galatians 3:8
Jesus Himself said:
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” — John 8:56
And Daniel certainly understood that righteousness was not obtained by religious performance:
“We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.” — Daniel 9:18
Hebrews describes the Old Testament faithful as having seen the promises “afar off” and embraced them by faith (Hebrews 11:13). They looked forward to Christ; we look backward upon His completed earthly work. But it is the same Christ, the same grace, the same gospel, and the same righteousness by faith.
Likewise, I do not believe Matthew 11:11 means that every post-Pentecost Christian is personally or spiritually “greater” than John the Baptist. John stood at the threshold of a new era of salvation history. He announced Christ and identified Him as “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world”** (John 1:29), but he died before witnessing Calvary, the resurrection, ascension, and Pentecost. The believer living afterward therefore occupies a position of greater historical privilege and revealed light—not necessarily greater faith, character, righteousness, or knowledge of grace than John himself possessed.
So I would make the distinction this way:
Progressive revelation—yes. Progressive salvation—no.
The saints before the cross were not saved through an inferior form of grace. They were saved through the same Christ whose sacrifice they anticipated by faith and whose accomplished sacrifice we now proclaim.
I offer these observations because I actually agree with much of the burden of your article. The recovery of the Sabbath must never become legalism, spiritual pride, conspiracy obsession, or mere lifestyle modification. But neither should our concern about those dangers cause us to characterize entire communities by motives they themselves deny or to diminish the very real experience of righteousness by faith possessed by the saints who lived before Calvary.
Your own warning is worth applying consistently: discovering that another Christian tradition has been wrong about something should make us more careful, not less careful, about judging what other believers actually believe and why they obey God.
Does somebody came to note that when the Sun stopped during a whole day when Joshua commanded it, the day according to sunrise and sun down stayed the same but chronologically was the next day of the week? That is, if the battle was a Monday, when Joshua went to sleep was Monday but chronologically was Tuesday. It is interesting then that Sabbath celebrated on calendar Saturday are chronologically being celebrated on Sunday with reference to when the law was given to Moses ) who came before Joshua. In summary, by calendar the Sabbath are celebrated on Saturday but chronologically they should be celebrated on Sunday to keep the same chronology with reference to Moses.
Fascinating concept:)
Matt, Thank you for the teaching. I would caution you about one thing. You used the words of “being lied to” several times. Perhaps this is uncharitable on your part. Just because someone teaches something that is different than the way you see it, does not make them a liar. They just understand precepts differently. We must give them the benefit of the doubt, unless it is clear that it comes from evil. Consider this carefully to fulfill the law of love.
Abraham, I'd be interested in your thoughts about why the Holy Spirit seems to show so many of us that we should be keeping the Sabbath before He shows us anything else about the Torah. And also your thoughts about why the Enemy is so against people returning to keeping it.
I left the Christian church -- Presbyterianism -- when I was 19, attended infrequently (sometimes American Baptist, sometimes Presbyterian) but mostly didn't attend for the next 30 years or so, and so I was never aware of specific church doctrine or teaching about the Torah being done away with. It was a non-issue I never gave any thought to. We worshipped on Sunday; Jews worship on Saturday.
It was only after I got push-back from my Christian therapist -- she read the whole chapter of Colossians 2 to me! -- and the preacher of the small Baptist church I was attending with my neighbors admitted Christians cherry pick the Old Testament, that I started looking into why Christians don't keep the Sabbath and how it had been changed. And learned about early church history, Constantine's laws and early church councils, Marcionism, Dispensationalism, Babylonian gods and pagan practices/holidays, etc , etc.
It seemed undeniable to me -- and the language in Exodus 20 is very clear -- the importance of the Sabbath to the Father. So I had barely returned to attending church before I walked away again! This is probably a lot of unnecessary background, but I guess I'm saying that I didn't have church baggage against the Sabbath to unpack.
You mean mass, church?
Sabbath is Saturday.
I don’t observe anything on Saturn’s day.
But I’ll be worshiping on Sunday.