In a facebook group I belong to, a missionary asked a question as to how to deal with a Seventh Day Adventist who argues, following Ellen G. White, that worshipping on Sunday is “the mark of the beast” and that, even in the New Covenant, the Saturday Sabbath is to be observed dogmatically. I will share my response in case it is of some use to readers of this blog:
The Saturday Sabbath was a "shadow" of the Christ event and New Covenant, as were the sacrificial systems and new moons, etc. As we read in Col 2:16-17:
Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.
It does not matter which day of the week one worships (Sunday is normative in LDS practice, but in some countries, it differs [Friday in Muslim countries; Saturday in Israel]) and the NT authors were not as dogmatic as Ellen G. White et al are on this issue.
Here are a few things from a Christadelphian work I have that addressed this issue:
4. If the sabbath law were eternal, why did an alleged "ceremonial law"—circumcision, take precedence over sabbath observance—a moral law? The law required that eight days after a child was born it must be circumcized (Lev. 12:3), but sometimes the day of circumcision would fall on a sabbath. A conflict of laws resulted—one demanding that circumcision should take place, and the other, that no work should be done. (See Jn. 7:22,23). Circumcision took precedence because unless one was circumcized, the law could not be kept. Likewise, on the "sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless." (Matt. 12:5). Instead of the Sabbath being a day of rest to the Lord, their work was doubled. (Num. 28:9-10). All believers are a "royal priesthood" (1 Pet. 2:9) and as such, are exempt from one day sabbath keeping.
5. Part of the sabbath law was the penalty for its disobedience: "whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death." (Exod. 31:15). If the law commanding observance has not changed why has the penalty for its disobedience been changed by the S.D.A.'s?
. . .
9. Judaising heretics who said that it was needful to keep the law of Moses (Acts 15:1,24) subverted the Truth and received strong indictments from the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Galatian ecclesia. But no mention is made by the Apostle of a binding sabbath law to be observed by Gentile converts. Similarly, it is significant that the council at Jerusalem (Acts 15) was convened to consider Jewish claims regarding the law of Moses, but no mention was made of sabbath keeping. If the sabbath were eternal and immutable one would have expected that at this conference such would have been stated. Rather, Paul's letters leave sabbath observance to the individual choice of believers. (Rom. 14:5,6; Col. 2:14-17).. (Ron Abel, Wrested Scriptures: A Christadelphian Handbook of Suggested Explanations to Difficult Passages [Pasadena, Calif.: Geddes Press], 40, 41)
