Has it ever occurred to you that if you are a mainline Christian that you are going to Church and observing a day of rest on the wrong day? The Seventh Day is Saturday, not Sunday! Now before you think I am going Adventist on you and tune me out, this blog is about exploring what the New testament/ New Covenant Christian's view on "Days" should be. This could get controversial so when I'm done be a Berean. Study it for yourself and keep the good and throw out the bad.(if there is any and I hope there isn't) Let's look at what Paul said about the Sabbath and what Jesus said, and then what Genesis says and try to make some conclusions.
What did Paul say about the Sabbath. First of all, he never commands anyone to obey it. The 4th Commandment is the only one of the 10 that isn't re-commanded in the New Testament. In Acts 15 the Jerusalem counsel was convened to address the issue of the Gentiles being grafted in and since their lifestyle and customs were completely different than the Jews the two groups were butting heads. In order to get along, the counsel came up with certain essentials for the Gentiles and the glaring omission was the Sabbath was not on the list. Not only that but in Galatians Paul reprimands the new believers for going back to being in bondage to the old covenant laws particularly the Sabbath (Gal. 4:10). Why? Because Paul saw the Sabbath as a ceremonial law fulfilled in Christ. Just like the lamb sacrifices pointed to the Lamb of God coming and replacing once and for all the killing of animals that could never take away sin, so the Sabbath points to a rest from our work that was fulfilled by Christ's work on our behalf. I don't believe Paul wrote Hebrews but if he did, the author spells this out in Hebrews 4 where he states Moses couldn't give the Israelites rest because of their unbelief. Joshua took them into the promised land, yet David in Psalm 95 refers to a rest that they didn't obtain. This rest is given to us who can now by faith, rest from our efforts and striving and trust in Christ's completed work on the cross. (Eph. 2:8,9) This is why Paul says in Col. 2:16-17 , Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. " The Sabbath day was a shadow that was cast by the reality - Christ. Just like clean and unclean foods were done away with in the New Covenant (Acts 10:15, Mark 7:19) so was the Sabbath. Paul even includes the Sabbath in his passage on debatable non-essentials in Romans 14. Along with food offered to idols was listed the Sabbath in verse 5. It had become a non essential and like alcohol, trick or treating, public schooling, birth control methods, etc, it has now become a topic that Christians feel passionately about and actually divide us, but aren't clearly spelled out in scripture and aren't essentials.
Just as an example of the difference in denominational views on the Sabbath, I've been in 3 denominations in the last 30 years and here are their views;
Christian and Missionary Alliance - As far as I can tell, they don't say
Presbyterian (PCA) -
As it is of the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men in all ages, he 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, which in Scripture is called the Lord's Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world as the Christian Sabbath.
This Sabbath is to be kept holy unto the Lord when men, after a due preparing of their hearts, and ordering of their common affairs beforehand, do not only observe an holy rest all the day from their own works, words, and thoughts about their worldly employments and recreations; but also are taken up the whole time in the public and private exercises of his worship, and in the duties of necessity and mercy.
Baptists -
"The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Activities on the Lord's Day should be commensurate with the Christian's conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ."
You can see, one denomination doesn't take a stand, the Presbyterians basically say that the Sabbath is still in effect (even preparation day) but has been moved to Sunday, and the Baptists say take one day a week - Sunday - to focus on Christ . Recently listening to a series on the 10 Commandments by Andy Stanley, he would go along with the Baptists but go even further and say it doesn't matter which day of the week, just pick the one that works for you.
After that brief rabbit trail, we look at what Jesus said about the Sabbath. Jesus certainly went to the synagogue on the Sabbath but it was the things He did on the Sabbath that really enraged the Pharisees. We see this first in Matthew 12 when his disciples picked grain as they walked through a field and were accused of harvesting. Jesus answered them with a very interesting comparison on how David and his men ate showbread when they were hungry and how the priests serve in the temple on the day of rest and it is OK. What is showbread? What is the temple? Who were priests? These were all fixtures of the Old Covenant - the ceremonial law destined to become obsolete when Christ fulfilled it. Isn't it interesting that Jesus compares the Sabbath to this? Then He says that He is Lord of the Sabbath and the Sabbath was made for man, not vice versa. Could you see Jesus doing this with a different commandment? "I am the Lord of Murder." "I am the Lord of Adultery". Wow, I feel blasphemous even typing that! Jesus would never say, "If a woman is unable to conceive because her husband is sterile, she is free to commit adultery because marriage was made for man, not man for marriage, or the laws of adultery were made to protect man not oppress him" This is foolishness. You see that Jesus saw this one commandment as completely different than the other nine.
Does all this mean that no day is different than any other day? You would almost think so except for one thing. Way back in the beginning, in Genesis 2:2 says "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." Here we see, long before Abraham and the Old Covenant with Moses, God has given a principle to everyone that has been created which pretty much doesn't leave any of us out. We get some insight into what we were supposed to do by looking at the Hebrew word for rest. What this word really suggests is God looked at His creation and He stopped because it was complete. He was utterly satisfied by it. I like to picture it like the TV show The Happy Days where Fonzie would look at himself in the mirror with a comb in hand and say "Heeeyyyy" as he put away the comb when he saw perfection. Talk about blasphemy, comparing Fonz to God! But I hope it makes the point.
How does that help us understand what to do on that special day. The Jews were to take one day a week and honor God for His perfection and His creation. In fact, I would guess this is how the other nations knew them. They would probably say, "These are the people that worship the God they think made the whole Earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th and that's why they take a day off - to honor Him" (Ex. 31:12-17 mixed with Acts 17:24-26) However mankind sinned and the world was no longer perfect. Thus, God's resting was over and He went to work creating a plan of getting rid of sin and restoring perfection. This work was completed when Jesus rose from the dead and from that time on we see the believers worshipping on a new day, "The Lord's Day"(Rev.1:10) which was the first day of the week (Acts 20:7, John 20:19, 1Cor.16:2) honoring the God who rose from the dead that day (John 20:1) and could look on His work and say, "Heeeyyy" "It is finished". "It is complete"
So, bottom line, what are we to do? I believe that since from creation there has been a special day to focus on, we should now worship and honor the One who created us, died for us, rose from the dead, perfected us, and restored us to a relationship with Him. We should also set our mind on the future time when this world which is moaning and groaning due to the curse of sin will also be restored at the second coming of Christ. How that manifests itself in you and your family is not to be legislated. We are slaves to the law that brings freedom. So go into Sunday with an attitude that this day is all about making Him special - I guess sort of like how we celebrate someone's birthday or Mother's Day. It isn't that they aren't special and loved every day, but this day, once a week,He is front and center and we should do nothing to distract us from that and do everything to aid in that.
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