1. “Pray that your flight may not be...on a Sabbath, for at that time there will be great tribulation” (Matt. 24:20-21).
According to the context of these verses, this word was not spoken to the believers but to the Jews. When the Lord spoke this word, He was speaking to the Jews who had a dual status: on the one hand, they were the Lord’s disciples, and on the other hand, they were Jews. When the Lord spoke this word to them, He was speaking to them as Jews. According to verses 15 and 16, the Lord’s word refers to matters concerning the Jews during the great tribulation, that is, during the last three and a half years of this age (Dan. 7:25). A great tribulation will come upon them, and they will have to flee. But if they have to flee on the Sabbath, they will have difficulty. Therefore, the Lord told them to pray that their flight would not be on the Sabbath. The Lord’s word here refers to the Jews in the coming great tribulation and cannot be used as a proof that today’s believers must keep the Sabbath.
1. “They shall sanctify My Sabbaths”; “And the people of the land shall worship...before Jehovah on the Sabbaths” (Ezek. 44:24; 46:3, see also vv. 1, 4, 12).
The prophecies in Ezekiel from chapter 40 to the end all refer to matters in the coming millennial kingdom involving the restoration of the Israelites in the Messianic kingdom. Therefore, these words show that with the restoration of the Israelites, the people on earth during the millennial kingdom will keep the Sabbath. This is not at all related to believers in the New Testament age.
1. “The new heavens / And new earth... / And from Sabbath to Sabbath / All flesh will come / To bow down before Me” (Isa. 66:22-23).
When the new heavens and new earth are brought in, the people on the new earth, who are referred to as flesh, will keep the Sabbath. In the age of the new heavens and new earth, they will still be in the flesh. They will be restored, but since they will not be regenerated, they will be people of the old creation, and they will keep the Sabbath of the old creation. They will not be like the regenerated ones in the new creation, who have transfigured bodies. The people on the earth during the millennial kingdom and the people on the earth during the new heavens and new earth will all be related to the old creation. They will be restored to their status in God’s original creation, but they will not be regenerated. Consequently, they will receive only earthly blessings and keep the earthly Sabbath. In contrast, the regenerated believers, who are members of the new man, will receive heavenly blessings that are not related to the earth, and they will not need to keep the earthly Sabbath day. Instead, they will have a different day—the Lord’s Day in resurrection.
1. “The Sabbath...a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ” (Col. 2:16-17).
The Old Testament Sabbath is a shadow, but the body is of Christ. This means that the Old Testament Sabbath is a type of Christ as man’s rest. In the New Testament Christ came to be God’s rest to man. When a man receives Christ, he has rest; if a man does not receive Christ, he has no rest. If someone wants to obtain rest, he must receive Christ, because Christ is the rest that God gives to man. When we live in Christ, we have rest; apart from Christ we have no rest. Today believers must pay attention to the matter of receiving and enjoying Christ, not to the matter of keeping the Sabbath.
2. “Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).
Christ is the rest that God gives to man, so He calls people to Himself to obtain His rest. Since He is the God-given rest, whoever comes to Him and receives Him, regardless of the burden, will obtain rest. This rest is Christ Himself, and it cannot be separated from Christ’s person.
1. “So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God” (Heb. 4:9, see also vv. 1-8, 10-11).
The Old Testament rest is not only a type but also a symbol. It typifies Christ as man’s rest, and it symbolizes the rest in the kingdom of the heavens in the millennial kingdom. Hebrews 4:9 says that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. The rest that remains for the people of God is the rest in the kingdom of the heavens in the millennial kingdom (see the section “Entering the Kingdom of the Heavens Being to Enter into Rest in the Coming Age,” ch. 48, pp. 872-873). During the millennial kingdom, the entire kingdom of the heavens will be a rest. Everything in the kingdom of the heavens will be joyous, and those in the kingdom of the heavens will be satisfied. In the kingdom of the heavens there will be a glorious freedom that is the exact opposite of our groaning and travailing today (Rom. 8:21-23). The overcoming believers who live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens today will enjoy this rest together with Christ.
According to the Bible, God intends that the Sabbath day would be kept by three groups of people: (1) the Old Testament Israelites, (2) people in the earthly part of the millennial kingdom, and (3) people on earth during the new heavens and new earth. Keeping the Sabbath is not required of New Testament believers. During the New Testament age today, God does not want His believers to pay attention to earthly blessings, so He does not want them to keep an earthly Sabbath. The Israelites of the Old Testament, the people in the earthly part of the coming millennial kingdom, and the people on earth during the new heavens and new earth are earthly people. The blessings they receive from God are earthly; therefore, God wants them to signify this through their keeping of the Sabbath. Keeping the Sabbath is not related to believers, His heavenly people, because it is not related to the heavenly blessings they receive from God (Eph. 1:3).
In the beginning God promised Abraham that he would have two groups of descendants. One group, as numerous as the stars in the heavens, would be heavenly; the other group, as numerous as the sand on the earth, would be earthly. The heavenly group of descendants is composed of believers who are regenerated by God; the earthly group of descendants is composed of Israelites from the past and the future. Since Abraham’s earthly descendants enjoy earthly blessings, God wants them to keep an earthly day, the Sabbath, to signify these earthly blessings. Since Abraham’s heavenly descendants enjoy heavenly blessings, God does not want us to keep an earthly day, the Sabbath, which signifies earthly blessings; rather, He wants us to keep another day, the Lord’s Day, to signify our heavenly blessings. Thus, we should not be confused about this; we should not take a day that God wants His earthly people to keep and ask His heavenly people to keep it. God deals differently with people in every age, and the ordinances that God wants people in each age to keep are also different. There are many ordinances in the Bible that God wants His earthly people to keep, but this does not mean that He wants His heavenly people to keep them as well. The Sabbath day is such an ordinance. In the Bible there are many ordinances, and we should not apply them loosely because we fail to discern the age or the people to whom they were given. If we apply them carelessly, we will commit a grave error. This is the error that the Seventh-day Adventists have made concerning the keeping of the Sabbath. They have taken a day that God wants His earthly people to keep and have given it to His heavenly people to keep as well. They require more than God requires. God wants His earthly people to keep the Sabbath from the creation into the new heavens and new earth, but He does not want His heavenly people, whom He saved from the earth, to keep the Sabbath. With the exception of His heavenly people in the age of grace, in the heavenly part of the kingdom of the heavens, and in eternity, all the people on earth in the age under the law, in the millennial kingdom, and in the new heavens and new earth, are required to keep the Sabbath. We cannot find a single verse in the Bible that requires God’s heavenly people to keep the Sabbath; on the contrary, the Bible shows that the Sabbath has passed away with respect to us.