Question: You claim that Gentiles should not keep Jewish religious feasts because they have no ...

Question: You claim that Gentiles should not keep Jewish religious feasts because they have no meaning for anyone but Jews. Doesn’t God call the festivals His festivals in Leviticus 23? The first feast of the Lord described in Leviticus 23 is the weekly Sabbath day. This is not listed as a Jewish custom, but one given by God to Israel and in turn to any Gentile who wanted to join himself to the Lord God of Israel....Should we not be keeping it today? After all, He gave nine other commands in the same breath and we all agree (except for Catholics [who ignore the prohibition against making images]) that they are binding upon us....Is it not inconsistent to teach that the Sabbath is Jewish, yet the other nine commandments are not...that the Sabbath command is altered, but the other nine are not...? Why is it that the church in nearly all its major denominations follows the Church of Rome in this custom of renouncing Sabbath worship and replacing it with Sunday observance?

Response: We have dealt with this before, but it keeps coming up. That God’s covenant was with Israel and not with Gentiles is declared repeatedly: “He [God] sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any [other] nation...” (Ps:147:19-20 [19] He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. [20] He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the LORD.
See All...); “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law...” (Rom:2:14For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
See All...); “...my kinsmen according to the flesh:...Israelites; to whom pertaineth the...covenants, and the giving of the law” (Rom:9:3-4 [3] For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: [4] Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
See All...); “...ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh...aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise...” (Eph:2:11-12 [11] Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; [12] That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
See All...), etc., etc.

Yes, Gentiles have “the law written in their hearts” (Rom:2:15Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
See All...). That this is only what God had written in every conscience since the beginning, and not the covenants given to Israel at Mt. Sinai, is proved by the fact that human conscience is limited to the moral laws. No one has it written in his conscience to keep the sabbath, much less the numerous other ceremonial instructions of God’s covenant with Israel. Their absence from the conscience of mankind is further evidence that the covenants for Israel, including the sabbath, were not given to Gentiles.

Yes, in Old Testament times Gentiles could join Israel by acknowledging the Lord God of Israel and coming under the old covenant He had made with her, which included the obligation to keep the Law. But neither Israel nor anyone else could keep the Law. That is why God promised to make a new covenant (or testament) with Israel (Jer:31:31Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
See All...), bringing salvation to all mankind (Is 52:10), a covenant written “not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Cor:3:3Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.
See All...).

Christ is the “mediator of the new testament [covenant]” (Heb:9:15And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
See All...), which is made possible through His death in payment of sin. Under the old covenant, animal sacrifices were offered “which can never take away sins” (Heb:10:11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
See All...). They were symbolic of Christ, the Lamb of God, whose sacrifice on the cross would put an end to sin and the Old Testament sacrifices: “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;...For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified...there is no more offering for sin” (Heb:10:12-18 [12] But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; [13] From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. [14] For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. [15] Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, [16] This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; [17] And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. [18] Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
See All...). If you are going to keep the sabbath, then you must offer the prescribed animal sacrifices as well. In fact, those have been done away in Christ, who was the fulfillment of it all.

Under the new covenant, Gentiles do not join the nation of Israel, but both Jews and Gentiles become new creations in Christ and are joined into a new entity, the church. Before the Cross, one was either a Jew or a Gentile. Now there are three classes: Jews, Gentiles and the church (1 Cor:10:32Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
See All...). Paul reminds the Ephesians, “For he [Christ] is our peace, who hath made both [Jew and Gentile] one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us...even the law of commandments...for to make in himself of twain [Jew and Gentile] one new man [a Christian]...” (Eph:2:14-15 [14] For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; [15] Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
See All...).

We have not “renounc[ed] sabbath worship and replac[ed] it with Sunday observance.” Saturday is still the sabbath, but it pertains to the old covenant and the old creation. That was the day God rested from His work of creating the universe. That old universe connected with the old covenant (testament) is doomed to be destroyed because of sin: “the heavens shall pass away with a great noise...all these things shall be dissolved...[but] we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Pt 3:10- 13).

The new universe will be inhabited only by those who have been made new creations in Christ (2 Cor:5:17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
See All...). There will be no more sabbath because there will be “no night there” (Rv 21:25) and thus neither passing of time nor counting of days as in the old creation. The lost, however, who are still under the curse of the law, having rejected Christ’s payment for their sins, shall be “tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rv 20:10).

Sunday is the day Jesus Christ rose from the grave, “the firstborn from the dead” (Col:1:18And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
See All...). Those who have been born again and are thus new creatures in Christ meet on that day in His name. We are no longer under the old law “of ordinances that was against us,...[which Christ] took out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Col:2:14Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
See All...); “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made [us] free from the law of sin and death” (Rom:8:2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
See All...). Christians are held to a much higher standard than Israel had under the old covenant. The law of commandments required human effort and could never be kept; our new standard is the very life of Christ himself. And the only way that can be achieved is not through any human effort but in the power of the Holy Spirit and the risen Lord living His life in us.