"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34

In Matthew 10:34, when Jesus says, “Think not that I come to send peace on earth,” He means: “I did not come to bring political peace.” The Word of God brings division. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Christ is portrayed in Revelation as coming with a sword protruding from His mouth—a symbol of the Word of God. The Word of God can be divisive because people take different positions. But the salvation that Christ offers individually brings peace to those who receive His Word.

Genuine Christians—true Christians who lived godly lives through history— have been persecuted. Soft Christians, those who claim His name but don’t live according to His Word, through history have been the persecutors. The Crusades that were fought, the Inquisition, and a lot of things that have happened through history—were started and carried out by “Christians” who were not really converted. They usually end up giving the genuine Christians a bad reputation. That, in turn, leads to further persecution of real Christians who have the teachings of Christ in their lives. And so in that sense, Christianity does not bring peace environmentally. It brings peace internally.

"One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind." Romans 14:5

According to Romans 14:5, can I esteem any day of worship to be the Sabbath?

“One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind” (Romans 14:5). In this verse, Paul is not speaking about the Sabbath, but rather Jewish holy days or festivals.
Browse: Was the Sabbath nailed to the cross?
Browse: Is the Sabbath only for the Jews?

Ceremonial ordinances

The Jewish converts of the early church found it very difficult to leave the ceremonial ordinances of Old Testa­ment Israel out of their religious practices. They thought of Christianity as being Jewish. Jesus was a Jew. His disciples were Jews. The Scriptures were written in Hebrew. It was hard to separate the types and symbols which Christ fulfilled, from the real.

In Romans 14:5, Paul is pleading with the Jewish Christians to cease fighting about the observance of ceremonial days and feasts which ended at the cross. Then he counsels, "Let every man be­ fully persuaded in his own mind."

Persuaded by the Bible

By what standard shall we be persuaded in our own minds? "By the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever" (1 Peter 1:23). The word of God outlines His day of worship, the seventh day of the week.

"Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." I Corinthians 16:2

What is the meaning of 1 Corinthians 16:2? “On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.”

Collections on the first day

This is the only reference to the first day of the week, Sunday, in all of Paul's letters. Reliable Bible scholars generally agree that the original meaning of this statement calls for the Corinthian believers to bring their bookkeeping up to date on the first day of each week and then in their own homes to set aside gifts for charity (the poor in Jerusalem) so that when Paul came to gather the gifts there would be no last-minute disorganized fund-collecting.
Read: Was the Sabbath nailed to the cross?

Several translations read much as does Wey­mouth's translation of the New Testament: “On the first day of the week let each of you put by and keep any profit he may have made, so that there may be no collections made after I have come” (1 Corinthians 16:2).

No mention of Sunday worship

Paul wrote this letter about A.D. 59, yet this text at­tributes no sacredness to the first day, Sunday. The first-day is not called the Lord's day or the Sabbath. There was no law for observing the first day. Paul said nothing here about abstaining from work on Sunday, and He says nothing of the Lord's Supper. There was no mention of church, sacred service, custom, neither collection box nor plate.

The apostle Paul was collecting for the relief of the persecuted Christians at Jerusalem and his plea was that when church members reckoned up their week's profits on the first day (Sunday), they should systematically put aside such dona­tions as they desired to send to their afflicted brethren in Jerusalem.

Sunday, Wednesday or Saturday?

Honestly, would we use this text to support the keeping of Wednesday if it had read, "On the fourth day of the week"? Surely we would not. We must admit that the Bible never so much as hints at Sunday sacred­ness, nor does it command the observance of any day in commemoration of the resurrection of our Lord.

“See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” Exodus 16:29 

Many overlook the fact that this command applied only to gathering manna. “Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day” must be linked with God's words in verse 25:

“Today is a sabbath unto the Lord: today ye shall not find it in the field.” When some did go out to gather on the seventh day, God met them with a rebuke for breaking His law (verses 27, 28).

This text does not forbid all travel on the Sabbath, as some seek to establish. Bible examples demonstrate that proper travel was considered lawful on the day (2 Kings 4:23). Even Christ traveled to church on the Sabbath without breaking it (Luke 4:16).

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Exodus 20:4

After the first commandment designates the true God, the second teaches how He is to be worshipped. This commandment specifically forbids the veneration of objects representing God.

“Thou shalt not bow down theyseif to them, nor serve them. “Exodus 20:5. Please take note that it is the veneration or worship of the graven form which constitutes sin. This text does not forbid religious illustration, photography, or the fine arts. God Himself gave command for carved angels in the most holy place (Exodus 25:18), embroidered angels in the tabernacle hangings (1 Kings 6:29) and cast bronze oxen in the courtyard (1 Kings 7:25).

The Lord also instructed Moses to fashion a brazen serpent in the wilderness (Numbers 21:8, 9). There was nothing wrong with it as an illustrative device pointing the people to faith in their healing God. Yet the same bronze serpent was ordered destroyed when it became an object of worship and veneration by the backslidden nation (2 Kings 18:4). This proves that a carved form is not sin in itself. It only becomes evil when used as an object of adoration.

“And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.” Exodus 34:28

The grammatical structure of this verse makes it seem that Moses might have written the Ten Commandments on the second set of stone tablets. “And he was there with the Lord ... and he wrote upon the tables.” The important thing to note here is that the second “he” does not refer to Moses, but to the Lord. In verse 1, God said plainly to Moses, “Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.”

In Deuteronomy 10:1-4, the record is even more specific. The Lord said, “I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables ... And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments.”

Moses did not do any writing on tables of stone. He wrote the ordinances and ceremonial law in a book, but that was entirely different from the moral law in the stone tablets.

Even though the Ten Commandment law is called a “covenant,” it was not the old covenant which vanished away at the death of Jesus. (For further explanation of the Ten Commandments as a covenant, see my comments on Deuteronomy 4:13 and Hebrews 8:7, 8.)

“It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.” Leviticus 3:17

On the basis of this text, some have taken a position against blood transfusions. But the position is entirely untenable in the light of these considerations:

1. The prohibition applied only to animal blood and fowls (Leviticus 7:25-27). It does not apply to humans because we don't eat humans.

2. God gave proper instruction for slaughtering an animal or fowl so as not to eat any blood (Leviticus 17: 13, 14).

3. God's prohibition against eating blood also applies to Christians (Acts 15:20).

4. That which is eaten goes through the digestion into the stomach (Matthew 15:17). Blood transfusions go directly to the veins and thence to the cells.

5. If we love our neighbor as ourselves, can we watch him die for lack of life-giving blood (Matthew 22:39)?

6. Jesus came to save men's lives (Luke 9:56); why shouldn't we?

7. Since the life is in the blood (Deuteronomy 12:23), Christ condoned the giving of blood to save a life (John 15:13).

“And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. ... And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp.” Numbers 15:32, 35

Some have made a big point that Sabbathbreakers were stoned to death in the Old Testament, therefore the Sabbath must not be in force today since stoning is not in force. But take note that not only Sabbathbreakers were stoned to death, but adulterers as well (Leviticus 20:10). Those also who broke the second commandment were put to death (Leviticus 24:16). Surely no one feels that adultery and blasphemy are any less wrong today just because God prescribed death for such sins in the Old Testament.

The fact is that under the theocracy of Israel, God ruled the people directly. He commanded punishment immediately for certain flagrant acts of disobedience. Today the same sins are equally abhorrent to God, but punishment is delayed until the day of judgment.

“And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.” Deuteronomy 4:13

The dispensationalist doctrine makes the Ten Commandment law the old covenant that was abolished. Even though the Ten Commandments were indeed a commanded covenant, they did not constitute the old covenant which vanished away (Hebrews 8:13). Here are the reasons:

I. The old covenant was faulty, had poor promises, and vanished away (Hebrews 8:7, 8, 13). None of those points apply to the perfect law of God (Psalm 19:7).

2. The old covenant was made “concerning all these words” of the written law (Exodus 24:7, 8). It was not the law itself.

3. Referring to the Ten Commandments, God said to Moses, “After the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.” Exodus 34:27, 28. It was not the law itself but over the keeping of the law—”the tenor of the words”—that the old covenant was made.

4. Moses referred to the golden calf as “your sin, the calf which ye had made.” Deuteronomy 9:21. (Please note: The calf was not the sin, but the sin took place concerning the calf.) In the same way, the old covenant was not the law, but it was concerning the law. Thus it is called the covenant.

5. Romans 9:4 proves that the old and new covenants were different from the law itself. “Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law.” Here the law is mentioned, as well as the covenants (plural). This would include both old and new covenants, plus the “giving of the law,” which is the Ten Commandment law.

6. To prove positively that the law is not the old covenant, let's try to make the words interchangeable in Romans 3:3 1: “Do we then make void the [old covenant] law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the [old covenant] law.” Clearly the old covenant and the law are not the same.