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Colossians 2:16-17, 20-21 says,

16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations—21 “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,”

The New King James Version. (1982). (Col 2:20–21). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

That entire portion of the end of Colossians 2 talks about the danger of legalism and seems to discourage keeping things such as the Sabbath (at least keeping them legalistically). How do Seventh-Day Adventists and other denominations that keep the Sabbath interpret this passage?

Great Question, It seems on the surface level that this is obviously talking against keeping the Sabbath holy.

However, there are some key aspects of this verse that need to be considered. The list of things not to be judged are.

• food and drink


• Festivals


• new moon


• sabbaths

These are referred to as a shadow of things that were to come. There are several interesting things to note.

1. Sabbath is plural.


2. there is this idea of a new moon (where has that come from


3. Why is food and drink added to the discussion of these other things that look like events?

Plural Sabbaths? When you hear people referring to the weekly Sabbath, it is usually singular. consider Matthew 12:8 when Jesus says he is Lord of the Sabbath. that is our first hint that this is not as it seems on the surface, and meant something different to how we read it in English.

However, there are these annual Sabbaths that are often grouped together. also referred to as High Sabbaths (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Sabbaths).
* Passover
* Feast of weeks
* Feast of Trumpets
* Feast of Tabernacles

you can see that sabbaths, festivals are starting to group together. But new moons and food and drink? Look at numbers 28:11. we see that there is now the concept of sacrifice each month, and a month is represented by a new moon.

lastly is the food and drink, which are a type of offering offered in Israel. What that means is each of the things listed in Colossian's links to a sacrifice. This is not unique in scripture look at Ezekiel 45:17 where it almost quotes verbatim this list in Colossians.

The conclusion, The sacrifices and feasts all point to Christ and we no longer need to keep them as he has fulfilled there purpose.

The weekly Sabbaths are different. They refer to God as a creator and redeemer, which is still a valid reason to worship God on a Sabbath.

Here is a formal article on the same issue. https://www.adventist.org/en/spirituality/sabbath/article/go/-/the-sabbath-in-colossians-2/

Is not Christ our Sabbath that all the Old Testament law, shadows pointed to?

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 

Heb 8:5  Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. 

Heb 9:11  But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 

Col 2:17  Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. 

Heb 4:9  There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 
Heb 4:10  For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. 
Heb 4:11  Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. 

Legalism is when someone keeps the law thinking that it would save them. This is not why an adventist keeps the Sabbath.

Adventists, like most Christians believe, we are under the new covenant of grace, the old covenant of obeying by our own powers is done away. However, the content of the moral law is still the same as always. By faith through grace God leads us to want to live according to the ten commandment. It is the reason why Christians do not want to murder or commit adultery. The fourth commandment (Exodus 20:8-11) specifically says to remember the Sabbath day because God blessed the Sabbath day at creation. Therefore, we do it as an allegiance of love for God.

Exodus 20:11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

The reason why Colossians is not about the seventh day sabbath is because this passage is about the ceremonial laws and Jewish civil laws that were nailed to the cross and done away with. (Col 2:14).

The key here is that it describes these customs as:

Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Colossians 2:17

In other words, these ordinances were ceremonial laws designed to point to Jesus. They were symbolic of Jesus' ministry and were fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross. The holy days and the sabbaths within the holy days are not the seventh day Sabbath, instead they are rest days found during holy days like the passover. These no longer need to be kept.

However, the seventh day Sabbath is entirely different. These were never a shadow of things to come, but a memorial of creation itself.

Think about it, the seventh day Sabbath would exist even if men never sinned! God blessed it at creation, Exo 20:11. Therefore it was not fulfilled at the cross. Ergo, we should be keeping it by faith.

In answer to the claim that at the death of Christ the precepts of the Decalogue had been abolished with the ceremonial law, Wesley said: “The moral law, contained in the Ten Commandments and enforced by the prophets, He did not take away. It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this. This is a law which never can be broken, which ‘stands fast as the faithful witness in heaven.’ ... This was from the beginning of the world, being ‘written not on tables of stone,’ but on the hearts of all the children of men, when they came out of the hands of the Creator. And however the letters once wrote by the finger of God are now in a great measure defaced by sin, yet can they not wholly be blotted out, while we have any consciousness of good and evil. Every part of this law must remain in force upon all mankind, and in all ages; as not depending either on time or place, or any other circumstances liable to change, but on the nature of God, and the nature of man, and their unchangeable relation to each other. (The Great Controversy, Ellen White, pg 262)

For more information, read about sabbath and Colossians on https://amazingdiscoveries.org/S-deception-Sabbath_Colossians_ceremonial-law