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i don't mean homework. I mean studying out of genuine curiosity.
I really want to study world history right now, incorporating biblical stories and seeing how those fit together. Is it ok to research on the Sabbath?

Yes you can, we are no longer under the law of the sabbath, we can keep it but we are not obligated to as far as I understand.

http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/90-225/the-lords-daydoes-it-matter

http://www.gty.org/resources/sermons/90-380/why-sunday-is-the-lords-day

Their stance contradicts the prophets:

Isaiah 56:6-8 (NIV)

6 And foreigners who bind themselves to the Lord
   to minister to him,
   to love the name of the Lord,
   and to be his servants,
   all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
   and who hold fast to my covenant—

7 these I will bring to my holy mountain
   and give them joy in my house of prayer.
   Their burnt offerings and sacrifices
   will be accepted on my altar;
   for my house will be called
   a house of prayer for all nations.”

8 The Sovereign Lord declares—
   he who gathers the exiles of Israel:
   “I will gather still others to them
   besides those already gathered.”


Isaiah 66:17 (NIV)

17 “Those who consecrate and purify themselves to go into the gardens,
following one who is among those who eat the flesh of pigs, rats and other
unclean things—they will meet their end together with the one they follow,”
declares the Lord.


Isaiah 66:22-24
New International Version (NIV)

22 “As the new heavens and the new earth that I make will endure before me,”
declares the Lord, “so will your name and descendants endure. 23 From one
New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come
and bow down before me,” says the Lord. 24 “And they will go out and look on
the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them
will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be
loathsome to all mankind.”

Unlike what the website claims ("He took us out from under the bondage of the law"), God's law is not what had us under bondage. The sin in our flesh had us in bondage (Romans 7:20-25). Concerning the law itself, Paul said it was good (1 Timothy 1:8; Romans 7:12), not a bondage we should be liberated from, but something that he was now a slave to in his mind despite the flesh wanting to sin (Romans 7:25). Jesus taught us to keep the law of Moses (Matthew 23:1-3). What was burdensome were the Rabbinic traditions (which he addresses in verse 4 of Matthew 23). That should be no surprise upon reading the verses which speak of the New Covenant and what He promises to do with the laws of the former covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-33; Hebrews 8:10), something the Holy Spirit helps us to do (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

I would recommend opening up the prophecies I quoted above (Isaiah 56, 66, Zechariah 14) and reading them in full. Not just Zechariah 14 but 13 as well. Zechariah 13 has been fulfilled (correction: 11 and 12 have been), but the chapter which follows has not yet been fulfilled and in fact reads like a chapter from the Book of Revelation, which is a vision Jesus gave to John about the future. The references to Jesus will be very clear in Zechariah 13-14. Notice that in Zechariah 14, it says the feast of tabernacles is being observed when he's reigning on the earth, and whoever doesn't gets sent plague.

So the following statements, which that website made, are wrong:





As I showed from Isaiah, observances of the Sabbath and new moons will be observed and pork eaters get punished. And, as seen in Zechariah 14, Jesus will send plague to whoever doesn't make the pilgrimage to keep his yearly Feast of Tabernacles (an old testament feast). Right now there is no temple, or Levitical Priesthood, so even if you wanted to, you can't keep certain feasts, but Ezekiel 44 mentions the priesthood getting re-established. That's why we shouldn't let anyone judge us on that matter today. In the future, it will not be like this. But things like the Sabbath we can do today. And going off of Isaiah, foreigners (us) who keep the Sabbath and don't desecrate it are invited into his house of prayer (and yes, that's the verse Jesus quoted from in Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, and Luke 19:46).

Aside from Jesus rising on Sunday, I would add as well that they couldn't collect money on the Sabbath, that's why they did it on the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2). No one is claiming people shouldn't meet up on Sundays / first day of the week (or at least, no one in this thread). People can call the first day of the week the Lord's Day; however, it's unstable to bring the Sabbath into that discussion, juxtaposing it as if to say, "that was an Old Covenant observance that has absolutely nothing to do with the goings-on of the New Covenant". Such a statement is false seeing as Old Covenant Feasts are being observed during the millenium*—which hasn't come yet.

edited*