It seems even some animals keep the sabbath:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49T5unQEIbY

What if your culture developed a yearly feast in which every man was expected to sleep with his neighbour's wife? Would you go along with that and allow another man to ravish your wife, and that you would ravish someone else's wife?

What if your culture developed an irrational belief that sacrificing 10 virgins would appease the nearby volcano and bring peace and quiet back to the land? Would you hand over your daughter for the good of the community, to be murdered sacrificially?

Or... should we avoid going by man's faulty notions and instead stick with the Word of God, who gave us the 10 commandments where we are told such things as "You shall not commit adultery" and "You shall not murder"?

My neighbour is not in authority over me. God is. And God took the trouble to personally write the 10 commandments himself on tablets of stone. (Exo 31:18, Deu 9:10) These two things indicate both the supreme importance and the everlastingness of the 10 commandments. These are the same 10 commandments which include "Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour, but on the seventh you shall rest..."

Seems to me that sabbath keeping is not some trivial disputable matter, but just as serious as the question of whether murder is wrong.

Where would you get this from? This is certainly not biblical because in the bible God tells us to call him our Father in heaven. IIRC not even Jesus ever told his disciples to think of him as their brother, but such other things as Lord, Saviour, Teacher, Friend. Jesus is also known as our "kinsman-redeemer" but this does not mean he is brother to everyone, but it emphasises that he took on the form of a human, born from a woman even, so that he could be the redeemer of all mankind.

"God" is not a name though. It is a description, a job title if you like.
The bible talks about other "gods" who are likewise described as "god" as in this example: "and these he took back to the temple of his god."
This shows that the word "god" is not a name but a description of something.

The Christian and Jewish God's name is Yhwh (Yahweh or Jehovah), although he describes himself with other names/titles too, such as
I AM
El Shaddai (Lord God Almighty)
El Elyon (The Most High God)
Adonai (Lord, Master)
Jehovah Nissi (The Lord My Banner)
Jehovah-Raah (The Lord My Shepherd)
Jehovah Rapha (The Lord That Heals)
Jehovah Shammah (The Lord Is There)
Jehovah Tsidkenu (The Lord Our Righteousness)
Jehovah Mekoddishkem (The Lord Who Sanctifies You)
El Olam (The Everlasting God)
Elohim (God)
Qanna (Jealous)
Jehovah Jireh (The Lord Will Provide)
Jehovah Shalom (The Lord Is Peace)
Jehovah Sabaoth (The Lord of Hosts)

I think yours is the most sensible and comprehensive answer.
The clincher of course is that God is not a material being but a spiritual being, and so biological reproduction (and with it, gender) don't apply to God.

It may be possible to determine if God is more masculine or feminine in his/her mental make up, but since he/she is the source of both Adam's and Eve's distinct ways of thinking and feeling, and they were both made in God's image, God must have both masculine and feminine traits to his/her personality.
(Ok, I'm going to stop using his/her in relation to God, because that just feels weird. But then, even contemplating the gender of God seems to me like a weird thing to do.)

The reason they challenged Jesus about Sabbath keeping was not because they disputed which day of the week the Sabbath fell on, but because they disputed what constituted "work" that could not be done on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees made an art out of twisting the Word of God to suit themselves. For instance, they said that on the sabbath you couldn't wipe your sandals against the wall of your house to scrape the mud off because that would be stucco-ing the wall of your house, which was work, which was forbidden on the Sabbath.
As you know, they also reprimanded Jesus for healing people on the Sabbath, thus missing the point that the Sabbath was to be lived for God, and doing good on the Sabbath was perfectly acceptable.


Good, you seem to be agreeing with me here. Nowhere in scripture are we told that Sunday is to be our Sabbath day. It is always the 7th day. And that 7th day has to be reckoned according to the signs in the sky given for this purpose (Gen 1:14), NOT according to the pronouncements of some politicians or union delegates or what have you.

My logic wasn't false. Yours here is, because again you're hung up on the weekdays having names NOW. It wasn't always so. Originally the days were numbered 1 through 7, so that the 7th day was always the 7th day in each weekly cycle, regardless of what names were given to the days, and regardless of when employers decide their employees should start working.

Perhaps my comment about the purpose of the heavenly bodies to reckon the days will clear things up for you.

Therein lies the problem. The culture has no right to overturn the Word of God, and yet they attempt to do so by reassigning different numbers to the days to circumvent God's law and keep the 1st day as their rest day.

Maybe I didn't make the point clearly enough in my previous post to you, but what I was getting at is that the culture has re-numbered the days of the week, with the effect that now they can claim that they're keeping the 7th day sabbath (on Sunday) because the re-numbering has made Sunday the 7th day. BUt this only by man's fallible reckoning. In the cycle of 7 day weeks from the foundation of the world, Sunday still falls on the first day of each cycle.

God created the sun, moon, and stars to give light on the earth and to serve as signs to marks seasons and days and years. (See Gen 1:14) So we have to reckon time by the movement of the heavenly bodies in relation to our vantage point on Earth. Each sunset and sunrise marks a day, and each group of seven of those (starting from Genesis' day 1) marks a week, with the days numbered according to their position from the beginning of that week.

It is unscriptural to arbitrarily assign different numbers to the days of the week. They must be reckoned according to the signs in the sky (sun, moon, stars) that God created for that purpose.

For this same reason, we can also see that Joshua's long day did not shift the sabbath over to another day, because that longer day was still reckoned as one day by the setting and the rising of the sun. We get confused about this because these days we reckon the passage of time by looking at our watch or at our phone screen. On Joshua's long day, if we had a watch, it would have told us that another day had passed, because it measures time arbitrarily according to its own internal clock, without reference to an external source like the sun. But, while Joshua's long day may have been many hours longer to enable him to complete his battle, it was nonetheless still a single day according to the signs in the sky (the sun) God had given for the purpose of reckoning the passage of days.

The 4th commandment regarding the Sabbath is not just for Jews either, as people sometimes claim:
* The Sabbath was sanctified (set apart) and made holy on the first occurrence of the 7th day when God finished his creative work. (Gen 2:3)
* The Israelites were told to keep the Sabbath even before the law was given on mount Sinai. (See Exo 16:23 for an example)
* The 10 commandments, of which the Sabbath is mentioned in the 4th commandment (Exo 20:8-11), are obviously meant for all mankind, to regulate their relationship with God the Creator and with their fellow man. If it weren't so, we'd have to conclude that murder and theft and adultery is not sinful for non-jewish people.
* The Sabbath was kept by Jesus himself. (Luke 4:16)
* The Sabbath will be kept even after Judgment day and after God has destroyed this Earth by fire and created a new Earth. (Isaiah 66:22-23)

The bible doesn't agree with your sentiment though. It relates the story of a man who was found gathering firewood on the Sabbath day. (Numbers 15:32) He too probably thought it was ok if he rested on another day to compensate. But this man was stoned for breaking the Sabbath day commandment.

Another example is the manna from heaven. That appeared on the ground in the morning for the first 6 days of the week, but never on the 7th day. God didn't want people to work on that 7th day gathering food, so he caused enough manna to appear on the 6th day and the people were commanded to gather twice as much on that day. The manna miraculously also didn't spoil if it was kept over for the sabbath day, unlike on the other days where it would spoil if any of it was kept overnight.
If God wanted us to keep our "own" 7th day, picking whatever day suited us best, he would surely have granted manna to the Israelites 7 days a week, and allowed them to gather on any 6 out of the 7 days. But he didn't. The whole Israelite community was to rest on the same 7th day.

Man cannot arbitrarily assign numbers to the days of the week and thus make Sunday the 7th day. That would be circumventing the Word of God.

Initially, the days of the week did not have names. They were just numbered: the first day, the second day, the third day, etc. (Even Genesis 1 has this.)
Later, people came up with the idea of naming the days of the week, usually named after the gods in their pantheon. To honour the sun-god they worshiped, they named the first day of the week Sunday. The sabbath has always been the 7th day, regardless of what other name that day goes by, but even now in many languages the name of the 7th day is some variant of sabbath.

So, initially the days were numbered:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Then they were given names: (using the english names here)
Sunday (1)
Monday (2)
Tuesday (3)
Wednesday (4)
Thursday (5)
Friday (6)
Saturday (7)

And now, according to your theory MsHarmony, people have moved the beginning of the work week to Monday, thus making that the first day, meaning that Sunday is now the 7th day, and that therefore the sabbath now falls on Sunday:

1. Monday (2)
2. Tuesday (3)
3. Wednesday (4)
4. Thursday (5)
5. Friday (6)
6. Saturday (7)
7. Sunday (1)

But man's shenanigans with calendars can never make void the law of God. We can re-define the days of the week as much as we like, but the sabbath day is still the 7th day of each cycle of 7 days unbroken from the foundation of the world.
There have been times in the past when changes have been made to the calendar. One instance, for example, required an adjustment of about 10 days to the date. Now I can't recall the exact details, but when the adjustment was made the date went (for example) from Monday October 10 to Tuesday October 20. This was to correct some error in the date but notice how they cycle of weekly days was not affected by the change. The weekly cycle has always continued as it has from the first day of creation.

Surely you knew what she meant?

I think it is valid to consider the Three Angels' message as more significant and worthy of conversation. After all, when you read their message in the book of Revelation, there is a sense of urgency about them, and that is not surprising because Revelation is about the last days and the Judgment.

And when Jesus was asked about the signs that would herald his imminent arrival, he described a world surprisingly similar to what we see today. (wars, rumours of wars, famines, floods, earthquakes in diverse places, etc.)

I think a sober assessment of the world today would suggest that we are indeed living near the end of time. I'm convinced it's close enough that I won't get to retirement age before Jesus returns.

So it is a significant message, because there are just a few years left in which to warn people of the coming judgment and tribulation. And many of the people that need to be warned are in the wrong church! I'm not sure if mentioning it by name would violate the forum rules, but one of biggest churches in the world is described in scripture with numerous identifying characteristics. It is the harlot woman riding a beast, as mentioned in Revelation. (in prophecy, a woman symbolises a church, and a beast symbolises a nation or kingdom or empire) Search youtube for "11th hour evidence" and watch the entire series, or episode 13 in particular, to learn more about who the beasts in Revelation are. They both match up to two present-day nations who will be major players on the world's stage soon.

As for no one talking about the 3 Angels' message, I'm not sure how true that is. In my nation (New Zealand) we have 3 religious tv channels on free-to-air tv, and two of them (FirstLight and Hope) are run by 7th Day Adventists and regularly proclaim the 3 Angels' messages. Heck, they're part of a tv network called 3ABN which stands for 3 Angels Broadcasting Network.

Hey there fellow kiwis from Noo Zeelund, start banging away on those keyboards and share your experiences with the group.
Where did you go for the summer holidays? What did you get up to? Did you enjoy yourself? Any cool/funky/weird/awesome stuff happen? Go on, dish the goss...