At creation, of course.
The works of God are all good, so when God created man on the 6th day, man was at rest with God.
God rested on the 7th day, but this was His rest, as man was already at rest with God.
Yes, we needed rest, because when we sinned, we entered a state of UNREST with God. Hence the institution of a day of rest for the Jews, after He rescued them from bondage in Egypt.
Let's look at this again:
Genesis 2:2-3 "And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made."
GOD rested 3rdAngel. MAN was ALREADY at rest in God. There's no need for man to take another rest when man is already at rest.
Your doctrine would make more sense if man was in a state of UNREST at the time of our creation. That is, it would make more sense if man had been created sinful, and needed a vehicle to enter God's rest.
Essentially you argue:
- Man was at unrest when created and needed a vehicle (Sabbath) to obtain rest
- Man was in rest at creation, but God decided man needed a rest from the rest He was already providing.
Either notion is unsupported and illogical.
There is simply NOTHING in the Genesis account that supports your contention that God made the Sabbath a day of rest for ALL MANKIND on the 7th day of the creation week. That is not SCRIPTURE talking, that is your DOCTRINE talking.
Please explain why you believe man needed a rest from the rest we already had since the beginning of our creation. I see no reason, biblically or logically, why man would need a special day of rest from God's rest.
We did not need to be brought into a state of rest until AFTER, and not BEFORE the fall. We fell from grace and this put us at a state of unrest with God. This did not occur at the point of our creation, but would occur later in the garden.
The Sabbath given to the Jews was an acknowledgement that they were in a state of unrest and foreshadows a return to mankind's complete rest in God. They left Egypt to return to God. God rested on the 7th day for our benefit, not for His 3rdAngel.
Jesus stated quite clearly:
Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Can you explain why Jesus is offering HIS rest if the Sabbath was plainly available to "All mankind"?
Also, can you explain why he's offering rest for our souls, if the Sabbath, and only the Sabbath, is our day of rest?
You are a trinitarian are you not? So you understand that when we enter Jesus' rest we are at rest with God, and not only on
special days of the week but even if it is the 7th day, because Christ is Lord, even of the Sabbath. The offer Jesus makes is to ALL MANKIND. It's an offer to enter the same rest we had before the fall.
For the Christian, this requires a STRONG faith in the life and ministry of Christ and a lot LESS faith in our own works. It is a lot easier to rely on our own works than express faith in Christ. I understand some Christians prefer to place some of their faith in Special Days rather than going "all in" on Christ, but the unique thing about our faith is that both will stand because Christ says he will make them stand:
14 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. (Romans)
So whether we eat vegetables or not, whether we have special days or not, our Lord promises he can make us stand, so we are not swayed by assertions that we will fall. It is to each master that we stand or fall, and for the Christian, our master is Christ, not "sin" or "lawlessness" as you claim. Clearly, if we are to stand before the law, then the last verse would have read: "
To their own master, the commandments, laws and ordinances servants stand or fall.
Yet, Christ does not tell us we will stand before laws and ordinances, we will stand or fall before him.
Your theory alleges that if we violate the Jewish Sabbath, Christ cannot make us stand. It's a theory that requires a doctrine that simply has no basis in scripture.