Heating On The Sabbath

Although it has nothing to do with Saturday or Sunday being the day required by God, the Sabbath obligation is obviously still part of ongoing Biblical demands for all people.  Yahweh's core moral nature does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17) and, unlike how there cannot be an obligation to sacrifice animals at the Temple irregardless of Christ's death if there is no Temple around, there is nothing about the Sabbath that logically necessitates that it would be a moral obligation bound by time or geography.  Sabbath violation is one of the more casual capital sins modern Christians commit (Exodus 35:2).  As if it being mentioned in the New Testament or not has any relevance to its validity, it gets ignored because of pathetic objections like this.

Many of the first verses that address the Sabbath nevertheless do not specify what is and is not the condemned type of work to be reserved for the other six days of the week.  Unless the Sabbath was intended to literally exterminate all people, something that obviously contradicts the plain teachings of the Bible since Yahweh's followers are offered prolonged earthly lives for obedience (Deuteronomy 30), the likes of breathing and drinking and eating are all permitted, so it is not as if any mental or physical activity that involves effort is the prohibited work.  The priests were commanded to sacrifice animals on the Sabbath (Numbers 28:9-10) and Jesus healed on the Sabbath, pointing to the aforementioned weekly sacrifices as outright Biblical examples of exceptions (Matthew 12:5).

To starve or be deprived of vital nutrients on the Sabbath would not be the goal of this rest, for Jesus says that the Sabbath is for humans benefit rather than people being made for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27).  With all of this being the case, when Exodus 35:3 says to not light a fire inside dwelling places on the Sabbath, it would have to not be a universal prohibition on cooking or heating unless it was to contradict other very clear Biblical doctrines.  God is not saying to let babies or the elderly or sick die from extreme cold in the winter, nor is he saying to voluntarily resign oneself to death if one was to have a medical need to consume food that must be freshly cooked on a daily basis.  Again, the Sabbath is for the freedom and benefit of humanity as Jesus described.

This is not because it is logically necessary for any moral obligation that turns out to exist to be about human wellbeing.  If reality was such that it was evil to not slaughter every living thing one comes across or ever try to reduce ones mental or physical pain, one would still be obligated to avoid evil, but these are simply not the actual obligations of Christianity.  Biblical morality is about justice and human wellbeing.  In either case, modern interior heating does not require a human to be constantly maintaining a flame by using sticks.  This is neither necessary for cooking nor for climate control within housing.  As such, no one would be sinning by the Torah's standards for enjoying a heated home on Sabbath days.

Even in life or death situations, such as isolation in an icy wilderness, since the Sabbath is there to aid human flourishing rather than constrict it, it would be permissible to manually generate heat by a fire on the Sabbath if one was stranded apart from technology, shelter, or other people.  Jesus healed on the Sabbath because doing his Father's work is not the same as engaging in unnecessary physical labor (Matthew 12:11-12, Mark 3:3-4), especially for monetary gain, on the day of rest.  He specifically mentions in such passages how saving life on the Sabbath is lawful to Yahweh.  Setting aside a potentially revolving day of rest for every six days of labor is not the same as damning oneself or one's family to misery.  This would indeed be the opposite of the Christian doctrine.