JesusSaidFollowMe Blog

How would you like to read 3, free chapters from my new book:

“ALL Old Testament Laws Cancelled”
24 Reasons Why All Old Testament Laws Are Cancelled
And All New Testament Laws Are for Our Obedience

(BTW, I’ve edited and expanded this book from the previous e-book by adding 7 new charts and 8349 more words. Now, it’s far clearer than before.)

Here is the book’s Table of Contents:

And, here are the 3, free chapters…

Preface and Introduction (with 1 chart and 3 diagrams)

But the Ten Commandments Are the Moral Law of God

But Christ Did Not Come to Abolish the Law

Please don’t order the book yet, since we are waiting for the printer’s approval. When the book is ready for shipping next week, I’ll announce it here…

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See you next week…

One of the hottest arguments against New Covenant Theology (NCT) in blogs/forums goes something like this:

“Since the New Testament doesn’t explicitly state that beastiality and incest are sins, therefore New Covenant Theology can’t be true.” (Just try to follow the “logic” behind that one!)

(Covenant Theologians might hurl that kind of argument against the New Covenant Theology in “22 Reasons Why All Old Testament Commands Are Cancelled and We Must Obey All New Testament Commands.”)

However, the same type of argument could easily be made against the Old Testament. Where does the Old Testament explicitly state that the following are sins:

1. Abortion?
2. Po-rn?
3. Pedophilia?
4. Being a pimp?
5. Oral s-e-x before marriage?
6. Buying an idol?
7. Trying to buy the power of the Holy Spirit? (Acts 8:20)
8. Lovers of themselves? (2 Tim. 3:2)
9. Lovers of money? (2 Tim. 3:2)
10. Etc.

(If you want to reply with the above words, please use the hyphens to avoid the spam filter.)

And, if you put your mind to it, I’m sure you could think of many more examples of so-called “moral sins” that aren’t stated explicitly in the Old Testament.

The problem with the above objection is that it’s dependent on 2 unexamined assumptions:

1. The Old Covenant contains an explicit and exhaustive revelation of “moral law” (I prefer the phrase “law of conscience.”)

2. The New Testament must contain an explicit and exhaustive revelation of “moral law” for New Covenant Theology to be true.

However, I don’t believe that either the Old Testament or New Testament explicitly reveal ALL the laws of conscience. (If they did, the Bible would have to be a lot longer!) We know some things are wrong because “we know that we know” (conscience.)

Although the objections about beastiality and incest are irrelevant to NCT because of the 2 assumptions above, let’s discuss them anyway…

All Christians agree that humans have consciences convicting them of certain “sins.” But, God never defines those sins for us in Scripture. However, He does tell us in certain sin lists the standards by which He will judge men for heaven or hell.

I believe that the sin lists for all humans (including Gentiles) are the most likely definition of the “law of conscience” (Rom. 1:18-32; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:8, 22:15.) Notice that Lev. 18:23 (beastiality) and Lev. 18:9 (incest) are part of a list of the sins of the Gentiles (18:3, 24-30.)

Even though the whole law of Moses (including Lev. 18) was cancelled as Old Covenant (but not Old Testament,) the same sins in Lev. 18 may also be recorded in Gentiles’ consciences. So, if a heathen living in a rainforest commits incest, he violates the law of conscience, not Lev. 18:9.

Again, questions about beastiality, incest, etc. are peripheral to NCT because of the 2 assumptions above. Such questions major on the minors. They’re really rabbit trails diverting from the main issues:

1. Are Jer. 31:31-33; Matt. 5:17-18; Rom. 3:31; 2 Tim. 3:16-17 really proof texts for Covenant Theology against New Covenant Theology? (Or, are some of them actually proof texts for New Covenant Theology against Covenant Theology?)

2. Does the Bible teach one Covenant of Grace, or 2 major covenants (structured by one purpose of grace?)

3. How can the law of Moses be divided into 3 parts when it’s one indivisible whole (Gal. 3:10, 5:3; Jas.2:10?)

4. How can the whole Decalogue still be binding when God calls it “the covenant” (which was cancelled?)

5. How can the Sabbath be changed to the first day of the week when the first day is called “one/first from the Sabbath?” (Gk.)

Here’s a simple test to identify anyone’s law hermeneutic in less than 30 seconds. If a Christian child dishonors his parents, which command did he violate?

1. Both Ex. 20:12 and Eph. 6:1 (Covenant Theology)
2. Neither Ex. 20:12 or Eph. 6:1 (Antinomianism)
3. Only Eph. 6:1, not Ex. 20:12 (New Covenant Theology)

That test will clearly and instantly define anyone’s nomology.

Many Covenant Theologians, Seventh Day Adventists, and others are reading the Bible study “22 Reasons Why All Old Testament Commands Are Canceled and We Must Obey All New Testament Commands.” If you have a question about it, please post it publicly here on this blog (rather than privately by email.)

P.S. Here are the next 6 blog posts coming soon…

1. “12 Questions to Ask When Searching for a Church”

2. “How Much of the Bible Should We Preach, Part or All of it?”

3. Book Review of “God’s Big Picture” by Vaughn Roberts

4. “3 Advantages to Preaching From Long Passages Instead of Short Passages”

5. Book Review of “The Reformers and Their Stepchildren” by Leonard Verduin

P.S. See more Bible studies, blogs, and books at JesusSaidFollowMe.org

“I was in the Spirit in the Lord’s day” (Revelation 1:10)

Have you ever heard Sunday called “the Lord’s Day?” Reformed, Covenant Theology believes that the Lord’s Day = Sunday = the Sabbath.

Here is their Lord’s Day/Sabbath view defined by the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689…

“…He hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto Him; which from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, (in Scripture [W.C.F. only]) is called the Lord’s Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.” (W.C.F. 21:7; 1689 L.B.C.F 22:7)

Let’s examine Revelation 1:10 more closely to see if it’s really true that the Lord’s Day = the Sabbath…

In Revelation, John’s 3 Other Uses of “In the Spirit”
Refer to a Future, Eschatological Time, Not the 1st Century

“…I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the Spirit…” (Revelation 4:1-2; Rev. ch. 4-22: the first century - the end of time)

“Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute….And he carried me awayin the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.” (Revelation 17:3; the future, final judgment of Babylon at the end of time)

“Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,” (Revelation 21:9-10; the future, descent of the New Jerusalem to the new earth at the end of time)

Since in Revelation, John’s 3 other uses of “in the Spirit” refer to a prophetic revelation about a future, eschatological time, it’s likely that Revelation 1:10 also refers to a future, eschatological time, not the day John wrote on in the first century.

6 Things Revelation 1:10 Does Not Say

Many years ago while listening to an audiotape about the Sabbath, the teacher observed that Revelation 1:10 says nothing about the Sabbath. All of a sudden, a lightbulb turned-on in my head, and I felt like I fell out of my theological chair!

You see, for the first 10 years of my Christian life, whenever anyone said, “Lord’s Day,” my mind thought “Sabbath.” Why? Because men had told me that the the Lord’s Day = the Sabbath. But, when I took a fresh look at Revelation 1:10, I realized that it says nothing about the Sabbath. As a matter of fact, here are 6 things that Revelation 1:10 does not say…

1. The Sabbath

2. Seventh day of the week

3. First day of the week

4. Rest

5. Work

6. Worship

These 6 ideas have been assumed, and read into (eisegesis) the passage, instead of read out of (exegesis) the passage. But notice, Revelation 1:10 is a description, not a prescription. In other words, it’s a fact, not a command. It’s an indicative, not an imperative. John was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, period. It doesn’t command…

“Keep the Lord’s Day”

“You shall not work on the Lord’s Day”

“Rest on the Lord’s Day”

“Worship on the Lord’s Day”

All of these duties have been read into Revelation 1:10 by Sabbatarians.

How Often Is the Lord’s Day?

How often is the the Lord’s Day? Or, what is the frequency of the Lord’s Day? Sabbatarians assume the Lord’s Day is weekly. But, the verse says nothing about it’s frequency. Maybe the Lord’s Day is…

1. Daily like “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today?’”

2. Weekly like the Sabbath?

3. Monthly like the New Moon Festival?

4. Annually like the Day of Atonement?

5. Every 50 years like the Day of Jubilee?

6. Once like the Day of the Lord?

Remember, we saw that Revelation 1:10 says nothing about…

“One day in seven”

“Every week”

“The seventh day of the week”

“The first day of the week”

Clearly, no one can know from Revelation 1:10 how often the Lord’s Day occurs. To claim that the Lord’s Day is weekly is merely an assumption.

The Book of Revelation Climaxes in the Day of the Lord

The timing of Revelation’s prophecies (ch. 4-22) stretches from the first century to the end of time. However, they climax at the end of time in the day of the Lord…

“…the great day of God the Almighty. Behold, I am coming like a thief…” (Revelation 16:14-15)

“for the great day of their wrath has come…” (Revelation 6:17)

“…the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night…then sudden destruction will come upon them…” (1 Thessalonians 5:2)

“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved…” (2 Peter 3:10)

“The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.” (Revelation 6:14)

“…From His presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.” (Revelation 20:11)

“…for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away…” (Revelation 21:1)

“….we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed…that the day of the Lord has come…For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction…” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3; cf. Rev. ch. 13)

No Biblical Evidence for Lord’s Day = Sunday = Sabbath

There is no Biblical evidence that the Lord’s Day is the Sabbath or Sunday. I repeat, there is zero evidence in the Bible that the Lord’s Day is Sunday or the Sabbath. Sabbath-keeping has been read into Revelation 1:10. We should not call Sunday “the Lord’s Day.”

(There is some historical evidence that the Lord’s Day may be Sunday. But, that early evidence is based on questionable sources and questionable interpretations. The later evidence is more credible.)

Some Biblical Evidence for Lord’s Day = Day of the Lord

Since “in the Spirit” in Revelation refers to a future, eschatological time, and Revelation climaxes in the Day of the Lord, there is some Biblical evidence that the Lord’s Day may be the Day of the Lord. Let us eagerly anticipate that day by living holy, godly, and pure lives, that we may be unashamed at His coming. (2 Peter 3:11-14; 1 John 2:28-3:3)