Christian Sabbath?
The Confession teaches that among the three branches of the
Law, namely the moral law, the ceremonial laws, and the judiciary laws, both
the ceremonial and judiciary have abrogated and expired; only the moral remains
and is binding on all men until the end of the world[i]. Christians inevitably have to keep the Sabbath
which is the 4th command of the moral law. However, this Sabbath is a Jewish custom and
originally it has to be observed on the 6th day. If we are to keep
this Sabbath as it is in the original setting we would appear to be like a
follower of Judaism or a Seventh Day Adventist. It is not good. So the
Confession provides us a clever solution and says that God “hath particularly
appointed one day in seven for a Sabbath to be kept holy unto Him, which from
the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ was the last day of
the week and from the resurrection of Christ was changed into the first day of
the week”[ii]. You see, the problem is solved and we can now
keep the Sabbath and yet no need to worry about being mistaken as a follower of
Judaism or Seventh Day Adventist. But the questions are, firstly, where the
scriptures instruct the Christian believers to keep the Sabbath? We know
clearly that the Lord had instructed the believers about believers’ baptism and
about the Lord’s Supper. Secondly, which part of the Bible teaches us to
observe “one day in seven for a Sabbath”? Thirdly, which part of the Bible
teaches us to change the Sabbath from the 7th day to the 1th
day? Well, the confession has provided various prove texts and so we have to
study them carefully to find out the answer.
One day in seven for a Christian Sabbath?
This
is the first text provided by the Confession. Moses recorded the
creation story that, “And
on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on
the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh
day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God
had created and made” (Gen.2.2-3). Moses’ record shows in no uncertain term that
when God ended His work was on the seventh day according to the Jewish calendar.
Then
Moses also recorded this, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and
do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD your
God. In it you shall do no work: you, or
your son, or your daughter, or your male servant, or your female servant, or
your cattle, or your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the
heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the
seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it”
(Ex.20.8-11). It was the first time the seventh day was named the Sabbath day
and this seventh day was the same as the Genesis record.
Finally,
we have this quote, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind
me a loud voice, as of a trumpet.” (Rev.1.10) Why this text? Presumably the Confession
views this Lord’s Day as the 1st day of the week and regards it as
the replacement of the seventh day Sabbath. But this interpretation has no
support from the context. In the first place, we cannot be sure which day was
the Lord’s Day. This is the only place in the entire Bible has this reference. We
cannot build a convincing theory base on this verse alone.
All the prove texts provided by the Confession neither speak
of a “one day in seven” theory nor supply any evidence to support it. So we
have to conclude that a Sabbath is a Sabbath and it would never fall on any
other day except on the seventh day.
Christian Sabbath
changed to the 1st day of the week?
The Confession quoted this incident, “Now on the first
day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early, while it was still
dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb” (Jn.20.1).This is
a record of a woman disciple who was sad and eager to attend to the dead of
body of Jesus after a day of rest. She neither remembered anything about Jesus
would be resurrected on the third day after He was crucified, nor was she aware
of the theological significance of the 1st day to the believers
today. The context does not suggest John’s intention was to convey such a
change when he recorded the incident.
The second text indicates, “When the Day of Pentecost had
fully come, they were all with one accord in one place” (Ac.2.1). The
Confession presumes the Pentecost was celebrated on the 1st day of
the week that is on the Sunday. But festival has no fixed date and the people
had to count to determine the day for the celebration. There were two versions
of the counting to determine the day for the festival[iii]. The
Sadducees celebrated the festival on the 1st day of the week
according to the “official counting”, but the festival fell on various day of
the week according to counting of the Pharisees[iv]. The disciples were in Jerusalem to celebrate
their first Pentecost as Christians after the resurrection of Jesus. They were
there just like any other Jews except that they were told to wait in Jerusalem.
They were not aware of what was going to happen to them on that day, let alone
the idea of changing the Sabbath to the 1st day of the week.
The third text says that, “Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples
came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them
and continued his message until midnight” (Ac.20.7). This is a record of Paul’s
mission itinerary. Two things we can learn from this text. First is that, on
the 1st day of the week the disciples came together to break bread
and it was probably during the dinner or supper hour. Second, Paul spoke to
them and continued his message until midnight. It was just a record of an
incident and anything more than this information would be mere speculation.
The
fourth text say that, “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have
given orders to the churches of Galatia, so you must do also: On the first day of the week let each one of
you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no
collections when I come” (1 cor.16.1-2). This was Paul’s instruction on the
collection for the saints. This was done on the 1st day of the week.
We are not informed the reason why it should be done on the 1st day.
We cannot take this piece information to suggest a change of day for the
Sabbath has taken place.
The
fifth text is taken from Revelation 1.10 and we have analyzed it earlier. The
final text is from Colossians 2.16-17 “So let no one judge you in food
or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are
a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ”. The
Confession had established that the original Sabbath was abolished[v]
to argue for a Christian Sabbath. This is a very bold statement but without any
basis. This statement is ironical and self contradictory. The Confession has
earlier established that the Lord Jesus did not abolish the moral law with the
Sabbath as its 4th commandment[vi].
But now the Confession seems to say the opposite by claiming that the original
Sabbath has been abolished. We cannot treat the scripture in this manner. The
context of Colossians chapter 2 does not allow us to that[vii].
We cannot sentence the original Sabbath to death by declaring its abolishment
simply because we want to promote another day as Christian Sabbath.
All
the prove texts provided here are a group of weak texts. They are records of
events and incidents except the Colossians text. There is not a single direct
instruction on the “Christian Sabbath”. It is rather artificial and arbitrary
to push forward a theory of a Christian Sabbath without clear biblical
evidences being provided.
Is
there no direct instruction to observe the Sabbath?
The
call to keep the Sabbath can be found throughout the Old Testament in a loud
and clear manner. The Sabbath was fixed on the seventh day. Keeping the Sabbath
on the seventh day was a fixture in the Jewish culture. What about the
Christians? Is there not a call for the Christians to keep the Sabbath from the
New Testament, so that we do not need to go round twisting the teaching of the
New Testament to work out such a call?
The
Confession believes that there is direct instruction on the Sabbath for the
Christians. It teaches that, “The Sabbath is then kept holy unto the Lord, when
men, after a due preparing of their hearts and ordering their common affairs
aforehand, do not only observe a holy rest all day, from their own works, words
and thoughts, about their worldly employment and recreations, but also taken up
the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship and in the
duties of necessity and mercy.”[viii] It provides various Old and New Testaments
passages as the prove texts. Among these texts only the texts from Matthew and
its parallel in Mark appears to be related to the topic of “Christian Sabbath”
and we shall examine it.
The
Confession believes Jesus’ teaching on the Sabbath actually supports its
proposition. It quotes, “At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on
the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain
and to eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not
lawful to do on the Sabbath!” But He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when
he was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of
God and ate the showbread which was not lawful for him to eat, nor for those
who were with him, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the
law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath, and are
blameless? Yet I say to you that in this place there is one greater than the temple. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not
sacrifice”, you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is Lord
even of the Sabbath. Now
when He had departed from there, He went into their synagogue. And behold, there was a man
who had a withered hand. And they asked Him, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on
the Sabbath?”—that they might accuse Him. Then He said to them, “What
man is there among you who have one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the
Sabbath, will not lay hold of it and lift it out? Of how much more value then is
a man than a sheep? Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then He said to the man,
“Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and it was restored as
whole as the other.” (Mt.12.1-13; see also Mk.2.23-28).
Very
obviously the principle of “the duties of necessity and mercy” is drawn from
the record of the healing carried out by Jesus on the Sabbath and His comment
on the saving of a sheep from the pit on the Sabbath. The Confession concludes
that only such duties of necessity and mercy are permitted on the Christian
Sabbath. This is a noble idea and no one would challenge its nobility. But on
the grounds of exegesis and hermeneutic we would challenge its finding. This
Christian duty of necessity and mercy is more of a premature application
without careful study of the text. When this application becomes a fixed
reformed idea and we will miss out what the Lord actually had spoken to the
Jews.
The
Lord definitely did not ask His followers to apply this duty of necessity and mercy
on the Christian Sabbath. The Lord was not teaching about what is permitted on the
Christian Sabbath. The Lord was talking about Himself being the Lord over the
one and only Sabbath while rebuking the Pharisees about the highhanded manner
in which they handled the people. He rebuked the Pharisees when He was
challenged on the question of what was not lawful to do on the Sabbath. First
of all, He rebuked them for failing to understand what God had said, “I desire
mercy and not sacrifice”. He was unhappy with them for being merciless by using
their narrow minded concept of the Sabbath to condemn the guiltless. Secondly,
He rebuked them by quoting the examples of David and the priest in the temple, that
the Sabbath was designed for man and not man for the Sabbath. This idea was an
unheard of to the Jews. Finally, He rebuked them for failing to recognize Him
as the Lord of the Sabbath. He told them that in this place there was one who was
greater than the temple. He was the designer of the Sabbath and He held the key
of interpretation. This was blasphemous to the Jewish ears. So this text is all
about Christ Jesus being the Lord of the Sabbath and not about teaching the
believers how to conduct themselves during the Sabbath, let alone changing the
Jewish Sabbath into a Christian Sabbath. Our Lord hinted that the Pharisees’
view of the Sabbath focused wrongly on the day and the violations. Yet the
Confession seems to follow the foot step of the Pharisees in interpreting the
Sabbath.
We
should look at the letter to the Hebrews 3-4, though it is not one of the
references provided by the Confession. It is strange that the Confession did
not include these two chapters in its study as it clearly talks about the
Sabbath.
1.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, “Today, if you will
hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion…. So I swore in
my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest (katapausin mou)” (Heb.3.11).
2.
And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His
rest, but to those who did not obey?” (3.18).
3.
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest,
let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it” (4.1)
4.
For indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to
them….For we who have believed do enter the rest, as He has said, “So I
swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest”, although the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain
place of the seventh day in this way, “And God rested on the seventh day
from all His works, and again I this place, “They shall not enter my rest”
(4.2-5).
5.
There remains therefore a rest (sabbatismos i.e.
Sabbath) for the people of God. For he has entered His rest has himself
also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us therefore be diligent to
enter the rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of
disobedience (4.9-11).
First
of all, the author of the letter highlighted two things, the one is “Today” as
the opportune time for His people to respond to His calling and the other is
the “rest” God offered to His people.
This letter to the Hebrews was probably appealing to the Jews, who were still
holding on to the old institution of worship but yet to enter the rest that,
they should not harden their hearts and slip into disbelief. They should
instead exhort one another daily while it is called “Today”. The letter reminded them that a rest was still
available to the people of God and they should not miss the opportunity.
Secondly,
the author employed two different words “katapausin” and “sabbatismos” togehter
to refer to the salvation-rest. By doing
so, the author provides the 4th commandment a new interpretation. The
Jews would always see in the 4th commandment their duties on the
seventh day and nothing more. The Confession sees the same but only on the
first day. But the author of Hebrews sees in the same commandment the gospel
message of Christ Jesus. The call to keep the Sabbath is the call to enter into
God’s rest and it means the salvation of God. This gospel-rest no longer
emphasizes on how to avoid violating the complete rest command on the seventh day.
The focus is now on the salvation-rest. Those who enter this rest will cease
from his works or labors for salvation. Those who have entered the rest by
their belief have fulfilled the demand of the 4th commandment once
and for all. They have entered the Sabbath and the Sabbath is about them, and
they are the sabbatical people.
Conclusion:
1.
We conclude from the above study that the Confession as a
piece of systematic doctrine is weak on exegesis with regard to the study of
the Sabbath. It should not have divided the Law of Moses into moral law,
ceremonial laws and judicial laws, and then declared the abrogation and expiry
of the ceremonial and judicial laws. It should not have insisted on the
perpetuity of the moral law and got itself trapped by the demand of the 4th
commandment.
2.
The doctrine of a Christian Sabbath either base on the
principle of “one day in seven” or “a change from the 7th day to the
1st day of the week” is unfounded. There is no biblical evidence to
support this proposition. It is fine that we set aside one day for public
worship, but for the sake of the gospel, do not call it the Christian Sabbath. We
cannot go back to observing a Christian Sabbath with all its duties, after
having entered our salvation-rest. Just as we cannot return to keeping the
Passover meal after having celebrated the Lord’ Supper. Similarly we cannot
revert back to circumcision after having been received Christ Jesus as our
Lord. All these were customs of Moses and they contradict the gospel of our
Lord.
3.
It should not have left out chapters 2 & 3 of the
letter to the Hebrews. Actually, any study on the Sabbath would be incomplete
without the inclusion of these two chapters. Only if it had done a careful
study on these texts it would have found the answer to the demand of the 4th
commandment.
4.
It should approach the Sabbath from the gospel point of
view. The “rest” and the Sabbath is a gospel message. The Sabbath is about us
the Christians and not about the duties on a selected day. We are far more important
in God’s eyes than the day and its duties. We are a sabbatical people because
of this salvation-rest. We are not limited to observe our “rest” on one selected
day. We celebrate our “rest” every day and for the rest of our lives.
[i] The
Confession, chapter 19, articles 1-5
[ii] ibid,
chapter 22, article 7
[iii]
Lev.23.9-25
[iv] The
New Bible Dictionary, “Feast of Pentecost”, p.964
[v] Ibid,
article 7
[vi]
Ibid, chapter 19, article 5
[vii] See
my exegesis on the Colossians chapter 2 in another article “Christian laws?”
[viii]
Ibid, article 8
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