Interesting read, but I believe the author's pretense is mostly false, though there were some good points for consideration that I'll take time to sort out. I don't want to make my response overly longwinded.
If you don't mind me asking, where do you attend church?
I'll preface this by saying that just because something was in the Old Covenant and the Old Covenant was canceled, it doesn't mean bits and pieces of the Old cannot be found in the New Covenant.
References for the moral aspect of 9 of the 10 commandments are reiterated under the new covenant, yet the command to keep the Sabbath day is not binding on Christians under the new covenant.
1. You shall have no other gods before Me. - Acts 14:15
2. You shall make no idols. - 1 John 5:21
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. - 1 Timothy 6:1; James 2:7
4. Keep the Sabbath day holy. - Not binding on the Church - Colossians 2:16-17
5. Honor your father and your mother. - Ephesians 6:1-2
6. You shall not murder. - Romans 13:9-10; 1 John 3:15
7. You shall not commit adultery. - Romans 13:9-10; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10
8. You shall not steal. - Romans 13:9-10; Ephesians 4:28
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. - Romans 13:9-10; Colossians 3:9-10
10. You shall not covet. - Romans 13:9-10; Ephesians 5:3
For example, in Luke 23:55,56 disciples of Jesus are still observing the Sabbath after Jesus' death. Apparently, Jesus never forbade Sabbath keeping or made it a point to tell them they don't need to keep it. Luke wrote this approximately 30 years or so after the death and resurrection of Jesus, still referring to the Sabbath as a commandment after the New Covenant had already been in effect by the blood of Christ.
Luke 23
55The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it.
56 Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But
they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.
Yes, I have heard this argument before from SDA's. I'm sure these Israelites did rest on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment. You can't expect the transition from law to grace for the Israelites to happen overnight. So they rested on the Sabbath here in obedience to the commandment, but what does that really prove?
The disciples did not yet understood Jesus' death: Matthew 16:21-22
They did not yet understood His crucifixion: Luke 18:31-34
They did not yet understood He would be raised from the dead: John 20:9
They did not yet understood the second coming: John 13:36-37
They did not know He was going to heaven: John 14:2-5
It took time for the transition from law to grace to happen for the Israelites.
"
Just prior to this statement, Paul declares that God has “canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2.14)"
The NKJV and KJV words it like the above, but most versions/translations word Colossians 2:14 something like our debt/charges have been taken away, not that the code itself is removed:
NIV
14having
canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
Colossians 2:14 -
Blotting 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.
Ephesians 2:15 - 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.
The "handwriting of ordinances" in these verses can only be a description of the tables of the testimony (Exod. 31:18; 34:27-29), or the Ten Commandments. They are called tables of
testimony because, as the terms of the Old Covenant, the Ten Commandments written on the tables, they testify against sin and rebellion. That testimony must be righteously silenced before anyone can approach God. The so-called ceremonial law could not be called "the
handwriting of ordinances that was
against us." Removal of 'the ceremonial law' is not the ground of forgiveness and acceptance with God. This passage's context is salvation through the atonement of Christ. It is not discussing freedom from the 'ceremonial laws.' If this passage is reduced to refer to merely ceremonial laws, then our blessed Lord shed his blood just so his people could eat bacon with eggs and be free from all the Jewish ceremonial feasts. That would be a distorted view of both the atonement and the great gospel liberty that it purchased.
http://www.sabbatismos.com/the-sabbath/sign-of-the-mosaic-covenant/#sthash.9IohOff7.hXq74MWF.dpbs
"However, Taylor points out the incredulous nature of Bacchiocchi’s explanation: “These religious holidays, including the Sabbath, were symbols pointing forward to Jesus. They were typological prefigurations of Jesus. How could the perversion of a symbol be a shadow or prefiguration of Christ?” Galatians 2 says to basically avoid human teachings/traditions/commands. The Sabbath isn't a human teaching because it's from God.
Perversion of a symbol?
"A further indication that the fourth commandment is not a binding moral institution lies in the fact that Sabbath-breaking is never mentioned as a sin in the New Testament, nor is it listed as a moral responsibility."
I'm yet to find sabbath-breaking as a sin for the body of Christ in the New Testament. Maybe you can point that verse out to me.
Hebrews 4 refers to the Sabbath as a calendar day, literally the time and space between dawn and dark.
Hebrews 4
8For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another
day. 9There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.
11Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of
disobedience.
In regards to Hebrews 4:9, 'Sabbatismos' is
only used once in the Bible and is properly translated "sabbath rest," yet in context in Hebrews 4, we can see the author of Hebrews is attaching to the sabbath a new and
expanded meaning beyond that of sabbaton, which is otherwise used to denote the weekly sabbath day under the law.
*Had the writer of Hebrews wanted to indicate the 7th day sabbath, he would have used sabbaton, the standard word for sabbath, but he didn't. The whole context is about rest, so sabbatismos must be understood as "sabbath rest" in an expanded meaning beyond that of sabbaton, as WE Vine's correctly points out.
Sabbath rest (4520) (sabbatismos from sabbatízo = keep the Sabbath) literally means a keeping of a sabbath or a keeping of days of rest.
It is used in this passage not in the literal sense (meaning to keep a specific day, the "Sabbath" day) but to describe a period of rest for God’s people which is modeled after and is a fulfillment of the traditional Sabbath.
SABBATISMOS a Sabbath-keeping, is used in Heb 4:9, R.V., "a Sabbath rest," A.V. marg., "a keeping of a Sabbath" (akin to sabbatizoµ, to keep the Sabbath, used, e.g., in Ex. 16:30, not in the N.T.);
here the Sabbath-keeping is the perpetual Sabbath rest to be enjoyed uninterruptedly by believers in their fellowship with the Father and the Son, in contrast to the weekly Sabbath under the Law.
Do you consider sabbath keeping for Christians a deal breaker in regards to receiving eternal life? Seventh Day Adventists teach the ludicrous doctrine that near the end of time the "mark of the best" of Revelation 14 will be placed upon those who worship on Sunday instead of Saturday. For an SDA to give up weekly sabbath keeping is essentially giving up salvation.
Mark of the Beast