Has God broken the Sabbath?

joey jojo

In the early 80's, I remember a district convention drama that featured the story of the guy that was stoned to death for gathering sticks on the sabbath. I thought it was kind of harsh because it wasn't like the guy was doing any real work like building anything, or plowing a field.

If we accept that God is perfect, then surely he would set the example of keeping the sabbath in a perfect way. The word Sabbath means inactivity as far as I can tell and this leads me to ask a question about things God has done during his rest day that seem like work to me.

How do we explain away God making it rain? Apparently, God had to make it rain to cause the world to flood because the mechanism wasn't there.

What about the sun standing still? I'm no scientist but I would think that the only way to make that happen would be to cause the Sun to suddenly revolve the Earth. If God simply stopped the earth from spinning, everything on the earth would be flung eastwards at 1600 km/ hr.

Manna that fell from the sky. This must qualify as an act of creation? Food falling from the sky was something that had never happened before and hasn't happened since. It was a new creation.

God made clothes for Adam and Eve.

He parted the Red Sea.

He raised his son from the dead.

I could go on but hopefully you can see where Im coming from.

All of these things seem like the opposite of inactivity to me.

smiddy3

GOD : Do what I say , because YOU have no right to question what I do. I am GOD.

I think that about sums it up . You could also substitute GOD with the GB .

Edit to add, didn`t Jesus find reasons to break the sabbath with no repercussions ?

Diogenesister

There’s so many utterly nonsensical things such as this in the Bible if you add even the smallest bit of logic, although it’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone mention god breaking the Sabbath, good one!!

Poor “sticks man”, I always understood that no.1 he wasn’t even Israelite and 2) I thought the point of the law was that it was impossible to keep it all anyway....ie it’s there to show the concept of imperfection, according to dubs.

Still Totally ADD

It makes as much sense as the movie Star Trek 5 when Kirk questioned god by saying "What does god need with a starship?" In other words it#s all made up. Still Totally ADD

Still Totally ADD

It makes as much sense as the movie Star Trek 5 when Kirk questioned god by saying "What does god need with a starship?" In other words it#s all made up. Still Totally ADD

Crazyguy2

Crazy thing about the sabbath is that it was originally from a Sumerian story about the gods taking a day of rest for killing off mankind at the flood. So mankind today thinks god set up a day of rest for humans but that’s not what is was about at all. Gods kill humans and get to rest a day. And they call me crazy.

TD

Edit to add, didn`t Jesus find reasons to break the sabbath with no repercussions?

No.

(Perhaps this is just a waste of breath.)

The idea of Jesus breaking the Sabbath is not compatible with either Christianity or Judaism.

In Christian/Pauline theology, the Law set an unobtainable standard that no human could meet. (See for example Romans 8:2) Jesus, released mankind from that burden by keeping the Law (Including the Sabbath) perfectly.

The Ransom doctrine is therefore wrecked by the idea of Jesus breaking the Law and the JW's have taught this for longer than either of us has been alive.

In Judaism, the Law functions as a unified body, which means there are checks and balances on most of its requirements, including the Sabbath. A Jewish midwife, for example, does not break the Sabbath because her occupation by its very nature is exempted.

The circumstances of the situation therefore render the Sabbath either Hutra (abrogated) or Dechuya (suspended) Healing falls into the former category.

Diogenesister

Christian/Pauline theology, the Law set an unobtainable standard that no human could meet. (See for example Romans 8:2) Jesus, released mankind from that burden by keeping the Law (Including the Sabbath) perfectly.

But this is why I mentioned in another recent thread, if it was so unobtainable (as JWs also teach), why did the Israelites execute a man ( a non Jew, at that) for collecting firewood on the sabbath?

If the fire preserves life, wouldn’t that come under exempted, in an emergency?

joey jojo

From what I have read about the way Jews follow the Sabbath, it is expressly forbidden to sew, skin an animal or cut patterns, yet God apparently did just that for Adam and Eve.

The scripture in Genesis states God made the garments, not anyone else.

I have also heard a lot said from JW land and other Christian commentators, about how God must have changed something in the chemistry of animals because before sin entered the world they were all vegetarians.

Once you factor in all the miracles attributed to God, as well as all the other stuff, it seems like a lot of work for a day of inactivity.

I wonder how many followers of the old testament have been, or still are being persecuted for not following the Sabbath to the letter?

TD

Diogenesister:

Chrsitianity and Judiasm both have their explanations for that event, which people can accept or reject. Personally, I don't think we can jump back and forth between the semi-mythical characters of the Bronze Age and the semi-historical characters of the Iron Age like that.

If we assume, for the sake of discussion that the event was real, it's still a contrast on par with comparing Christianity of the Dark Ages with Christianity of today. Common sense refinements to Sabbath law of the sort that Jesus argues about came much later.

Joey jojo

JW's and kindred groups assert that God rested from his "creative works," which is a Sabbath of a different sort. Maybe a better argument would be that suddenly introducing a whole bunch of new languages (i.e. The Tower of Babel story) was an act of creation?

Has God broken the Sabbath?

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