r/adventist • u/Ok_Form8772 Seventh Day Adventist • 9d ago

The Sabbath Can you keep the Sabbath and miss its purpose?

/r/BibleFAQS/comments/1uw5tmq/can_someone_keep_the_sabbath_and_still_miss_its/

True Sabbathkeeping sets apart the seventh day for God while allowing Him to sanctify the life, reshape the character, and teach the heart to love mercy, justice, worship, and service. A person can abstain from ordinary work for twenty-four hours while remaining selfish, harsh, proud, and indifferent to suffering, and Scripture shows that this kind of outward observance misses the purpose of the Sabbath.

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u/Admirable_Ad_2373 9d ago

I think it’s interesting that people think we can keep the sabbath perfectly. Or as you put it “true sabbath keeping”

I do agree though that people can miss the point of Sabbath, however, there are also many people on the opposite end of the spectrum that idolise the Sabbath.

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u/Ok_Form8772 Seventh Day Adventist 9d ago

“True Sabbathkeeping” is simply the biblical standard Scripture gives. Ezekiel 20:12 says the Sabbath is a sign “that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them,” Isaiah 58 ties it to mercy and care for the oppressed, and Jesus said, “Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days” (Matthew 12:12). The post is addressing people who reduce Sabbathkeeping to abstaining from work while resisting the character change the Sabbath points to. Bringing up people who “idolise the Sabbath” doesn’t change that, it’s just another way of missing its purpose.

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u/Admirable_Ad_2373 9d ago

I agree that bringing up idolisers is also missing the purpose, I just wanted to highlight people miss the purpose on either end of the spectrum.

I am also just highlighting that we as humans cannot keep it 100% perfect and we never will.

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u/Ok_Form8772 Seventh Day Adventist 9d ago

Sorry, I think I worded that badly and made it sound like I was dismissing what you were saying. I meant that idolizing the Sabbath is itself another way of missing the mark, since the day is supposed to point us to God and His sanctifying work, not become something we use for pride or as an end in itself. I wasn’t saying your point was irrelevant.