i've been looking all over for a valid reason for Sunday worship, but frankly, i'm not sure there is one. i challenge, is there someone who can stand up for Sunday worship?
i've been looking all over for a valid reason for Sunday worship, but frankly, i'm not sure there is one. i challenge, is there someone who can stand up for Sunday worship?
come on, anyone? Is there a good enough reason?
Is this a trick question? Only that Paul met with others on the "jewish sabbath"[along with other "jewish customs" he followed]. Otherwise, sunday or any other day "ain't" in my Bible.Originally Posted by realtime_faith
i've been looking all over for a valid reason for Sunday worship, but frankly, i'm not sure there is one. i challenge, is there someone who can stand up for Sunday worship?
come on, anyone? Is there a good enough reason?
I don't follow the "jewish sabbath/customs". The only reason most get together on a sunday [other than it just being a "traditonal day"] is that is when most people are off work or have more time, otherwise, any day of the week or month is ok the way I view the Bible.
On another note, [this also is not in my Bible]I would rather celebrate the "man made tradition of Christmas" in the spring or fall when the weather isn't so bad, but it wouldn't matter to me whether it was celebrated at all.I celebrate "Christ In Me".
Mark 7:8 "For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men -- the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do."
Last edited by InChristAlways; 10-26-2005 at 08:18 PM.
"There are Signs of a new upsurge of interest in the Study of Scriptures: a New Readiness to Test Traditions, Search the Scriptures and Rightly Divide the Word "I am the WAY the TRUTH the LIFE and the RESURRECTION and no man can come to the FATHER but by ME"
There is no such thing as a 'Christian Sabbath' in reference to a day of worship. Christ is our sabbath. Sunday meeting is a tradition (not a bad one in itself), but when made into a manditory obligation with restrictions to what the Christian can and can't do; it becomes a false teaching of Law keeping.
realtime_faith, you being a Seventh Day Adventist, what is your understanding of the 'Sabbath'? Can you defend a Sabbath even existing in the New Covenant, if so, what day should it be?
Last edited by Mickey; 10-27-2005 at 03:46 PM.
Well mister smarty pants , yes there is a reason why people attend church on Sunday and even write about it.
Remembering the Lord's Day
by David J. Engelsma
Contents:
Preface
- Preface
- Introduction
- A Special Day
- Confessional Proof
- Biblical Proof
- How We Remember the Lord's Day
- Devotion of the Entire Day to the Lord
- What Am I To Do?
Great issues are at stake in the Sabbath-question. And, alas, it is a question today, not merely in a society that, having once showed some influence upon it from Christianity by "closing up shop" on Sunday, now works and plays on the Lord's Day as on any other day, but also among Reformed Christians. It is serious enough that the Sabbath is desecrated in practice--the poor attendance at the second worship service (where a second service is still held) and the extent to which professing Christians "skip church" altogether are witness enough to this widespread Sabbath-desecration. More serious still is the growing "solution" to the problem that consists of denying that there is any Sabbath Day at all! This denial of a special day of rest is an attack upon the Law (in the Fourth Commandment); a misconception of the work of Christ (Christ abolishes the Law); an undermining of public worship and the ministry of the Word; a weakening of family worship, instruction, and fellowship; and a threat to the true rest of the saints, to say nothing of infidelity to their own creeds on the part of Reformed and Presbyterians (Lord's Day 38 of the Heidelberg Catechism for the Reformed and Chapter 21 of the Westminster Confession for Presbyterians).
Although the apostasy from the truth of the Sabbath receives little attention, we consider it to be one of the most serious departures in our day; and we consider our call to return to the old paths of our fathers, or to continue in those ways, as the case may be, to be urgent.
This is the second edition of this pamphlet, originally published several years ago. Except for minor corrections of the text and the upgrading of the appearance of the pamphlet, the pamphlet is the same.
The Evangelism Committee
Protestant Reformed Church
16511 South Park Avenue
South Holland, Illinois 60473
Phone: (708) 596-1314 Introduction
The Dutch have called Sunday, "God's dike." In the Netherlands, the dike keeps back the threatening seas and, thus, preserves the Hollanders from watery destruction. So the Lord's Day holds back the raging waves of materialism, earthlimindedness, and pleasure-madness that threaten to engulf the Church and the Christian.
There are leaks in the dike. There are leaks in the dike among Reformed Christians, where once the Lord's Day was honored and the Sabbath remembered. It is necessary that we stop up these leaks; we certainly must not allow these leaks to be enlarged, much less co-operate in tearing the dike down.
The matter of remembering the Lord's Day is one of urgency, as the figure of a dike and the angry waves indicates. First, remembering the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments, indeed, a commandment that belongs to the first table of the law; not a minor matter, therefore.
Secondly, the day in question is the "Lord's Day" according to Rev. 1:10, i.e., the day that belongs to the risen, glorious Lord Jesus Christ. In remembering, or forgetting, it, we have to do with Jesus Christ Himself.
Thirdly, our remembering the Lord's Day results, by the Lord's grace, in the greatest benefit for us: rest - the pricelessly precious benefit of rest. The Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27). The good of man that God had in mind is rest. Is there anything that we need more? Everywhere, there is unrest. There is unrest in the church; there is unrest in the family; there is unrest in the soul of the believer. Apart from every other consideration, it is sheer folly to forfeit rest by forgetting, and even abandoning, the Lord's Day.
The importance of the Church's remembering the Lord's Day was clearly seen, and stated, by one of the fiercest enemies that the Christian religion ever had, the Frenchman, Voltaire: "If you want to kill Christianity," he said, "you must abolish Sunday" - advice that the French Revolution carried out. A Special Day
There is one, simple truth that is fundamental to Sabbath-observance - the very foundation of the dike that is the Lord's Day. If this truth is confessed by the Church and if it lives in the hearts of the people of God, all will be well as regards remembering the Lord's Day. But if this truth is questioned or denied, we have not merely punched a hole in the dike, but we have demolished the dike. The basic question is this: Does Jehovah God, in the Fourth Commandment of His Law, still today set apart one day of the week as a special day; and does He still today, in the Fourth Commandment, require His people to remember this day by ceasing from their ordinary work and play, in order to devote themselves to the worship of, fellowship with, and special service of the Father of Jesus Christ?
The answer to this question is an emphatic, unequivocal "Yes." God still sets aside one day in seven as a special day for us and requires us to observe this day in a special way. In this sense, the day is holy, i.e., it is set apart from the other days by God for the special service of Himself. In this sense, we hallow the day, or keep it holy, i.e., we use it in the special way God wants us to use it, thus consecrating it to God.
God sets the day apart and requires us to remember it in the Fourth Commandment. Remembering the Lord's Day is not a matter of Christian liberty, i.e., something neither commanded nor forbidden by God. Rather, it is law, the law of God, just as are the matters of having no other gods, honoring our parents, and not stealing. It is the commandment of the Redeemer to His saved people. It is a commandment that at once teaches us to know our sinful nature more and more, so that we fly to Christ for righteousness, and directs us in the way of pleasing our Deliverer and of living a happy life. It is a commandment that the thankful believer gladly obeys, as a child willingly obeys the father whom he loves.
This is fundamental! Deny this, and you pull the dike down; for if the dike of the Lord's Day is not grounded in the good, solid, divine will of God, it cannot possibly withstand the pressures of worldliness and earthlimindedness exerted against it.
Another view, steadily gaining ground in Reformed churches, is that the Fourth Commandment was wholly ceremonial - "Jewish" - and was, therefore, so fulfilled by Christ that it no longer holds for the New Testament saint. The observance of the first day of the week is merely a custom of the New Testament Church (albeit a good custom, it is usually admitted), based upon a decision of the Church herself. Use of the first day of the week for public worship is not due to any binding law of God, but to the free choice of the Church; she could have chosen some other day of the week. The keeping of the first day is strictly a matter of Christian liberty. Confessional Proof
What proof is there, for the Reformed saint, that remembering the Lord's Day is the will of God?
First, there is the decision of an important church assembly, the Synod of Dordt. Unfortunately, it is not well known that among the other actions of this great synod was the adoption of a doctrinal statement on the Sabbath. In his Tractaat van den Sabbath (Treatise on the Sabbath), Abraham Kuyper informs us that the formulation and adoption of this statement took place in about three hours on May 17, 1619. Dordt's position on the Sabbath was expressed in six points:1. In the Fourth Commandment of God's Law there is a ceremonial and a moral element.2. The rest on the seventh day after the creation, and the strict observance of the day with which the Jewish people were charged particularly, was ceremonial.3. That a definite and appointed day has been set aside to the service of God, and that for this purpose as much rest is required as is necessary for the service of God and for hallowed contemplation; this element is moral.4. The Sabbath of the Jew having been set aside, Christians are in duty bound to hallow the Day of the Lord solemnly.5. This day has always been kept in the early Church since the time of the Apostles.6. This day must be so consecrated unto the service of God that upon it men rest from all servile labors, except those required by charity and present necessities, and likewise from all such recreations as prevent the service of God.Secondly, there is the teaching of the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 38, Q. 103: "What doth God require in the Fourth Commandment? First, that the ministry of the gospel and the schools be maintained; and that I, especially on the Sabbath, that is, on the day of rest, diligently frequent the Church of God, to hear His Word, to use the sacraments, publicly to call upon the Lord, and contribute to the relief of the poor, as becomes a Christian. Secondly, that all the days of my life I cease from my evil works, and yield myself to the Lord, to work by His Holy Spirit in me: and thus begin in this life the eternal Sabbath."
The Catechism has a unique, beautiful slant on the Fourth Commandment. It deliberately safeguards the Reformed believer against the error of a legalistic observance of the Sabbath. Legalism identifies obedience to the Fourth Commandment with mere external behavior, especially the behavior of doing nothing on the Sabbath. It stresses the scrupulous keeping of petty, man-made regulations, especially negative regulations. The Pharisees of Christ's day, for example, forbade the picking of grain while traveling on the Sabbath, even though it was for the satisfying of hunger (cf. Mark 2:23-28). Others thought it unlawful to eat an egg that the hen had laid on the Sabbath. The purpose of legalism, in this observance of the Sabbath, is to earn righteousness. This was the error into which the Jews of Jesus' day had fallen and against which our Lord contended. This was the error that was prevalent in the Roman Church at the time of the Reformation and against which the Reformers, Luther and Calvin, reacted strongly in some of their writing on a proper keeping of the Sabbath.
We must appreciate and maintain the viewpoint of the Catechism. But we misunderstand and misrepresent the Catechism if we explain it to mean that in the Reformed tradition the day is disregarded; all mention of observing a day must be banned; and, therefore, our practice of Sunday-keeping is merely the liberty of the New Testament Church.
On the contrary, this creed teaches that there is a day of the week set apart from the other days; there is a special day. According to the Catechism, there is a "day of rest," a "Sabbath," distinguished from "all the days of my life." The reference, of course, is to Sunday. On this day, special behavior is required of the child of God, namely, that he rests, which behavior consists primarily of diligently frequenting the Church of God. It is God Who sets this day apart, and He does so in the Fourth Commandment - it is the Fourth Commandment, after all, which the Catechism is here explaining.
We may sum up the teaching of the Heidelberg Catechism thus: the Fourth Commandment still holds in the New Testament; it still sets one day apart as a day in which believers are to rest in their God, under the Word of the gospel. Because of this act of God, all days are not the same for Christians, even though we cease from our evil works all the days of our life. Because of this act of God, the Christian remembers and hallows a day. Our Lord's Day Sunday - corresponds to the seventh day of the Old Testament; indeed, it is the New Testament Sabbath Day. Biblical Proof
This teaching of the creed is Biblical. For it is the doctrine of the Fourth Commandment itself. The Fourth Commandment is part of the moral law of God, and the moral law of God is perpetually valid. No more is this commandment done away with than is the commandment against taking God's name in vain. Like the other nine, it was engraved in granite by the finger of God. If it were the case that the Fourth Commandment was entirely ceremonial, we would now have only nine commandments, not ten, and should speak of the "Ennealogue," not of the Decalogue. The Fourth Commandment, perpetually valid, requires that we remember a day to keep it holy and, in connection with this, that we cease from our work.
The New Testament Scripture does not abolish the Fourth Commandment. Jesus did not abolish this commandment; nor did He have a lax view of Sabbath-keeping, in comparison with the Pharisees. This is the notion that is sometimes found in the Church, so that those who are careless about remembering the Lord's Day are regarded as good Christians, whereas those who are careful about observing the Sabbath are suspected of Pharisaism. It is true that the Pharisees charged our Lord with laxity regarding the Sabbath. They accused Him of breaking the Sabbath (John 5:18). They said, "he keepeth not the Sabbath Day" (John 9:16). But this charge was false.
What was Jesus' teaching? What was the teaching of His behavior, first of all? Where did the Sabbath Day find Him, and what did it find Him doing? Was he in the field harvesting the crops? Was He taking scenic tours of the Mediterranean? Was He in the stadium watching the Nazareth Bobcats play the Capernaum Bears at some game of ball? Not at all, but He was always in the synagogue preaching the Word; and He was always doing good to distressed saints, healing them and destroying the power of the Devil.
What was the teaching of Jesus' word concerning the Sabbath? Did He ever admit that the Pharisee's charge was true? Did He ever say, "I am come, and, therefore, the Sabbath is no more"? Not at all, but He taught that remembering the Sabbath does not consist of idleness; it rather consists of working. He taught that this work must be the worship of God and the help of the needy brother. He taught that the Sabbath was made for man, for man's great good. And He taught that He is the Lord of the Sabbath. Note well, Jesus does not call Himself, "Destroyer of the Sabbath," but "Lord of the Sabbath."
As the Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus fulfills the Sabbath, creating the perfect rest by His atoning death and resurrection. That the Sabbath is now fulfilled Jesus shows by changing the Sabbath Day from the seventh day of the week to the first day of the week. Not the Church, but the Lord Jesus set the first day of the week apart as the day of rest for the New Testament people of God. The Church has no authority to change the Sabbath Day or to require believers to observe the first day of the week. The Church does not make laws; she only proclaims the will of her sovereign Lord, as that will is revealed in Holy Scripture. The Lord of the Sabbath Himself ordained the first day of the week as the day of rest for the Church come of age. He did this by rising from the dead on the first day (Luke 24:1); by meeting with His disciples on the first day, prior to the Ascension (John 20:19; John 20:26); by coming back to the Church in the Holy Spirit on the first day (Pentecost was a Sunday); and by directing the apostles and the Apostolic Church to gather for worship on the first day (Acts 20:7; I Cor. 16:1,2).
Therefore, the Spirit of Jesus Christ calls the first day of the week, "the Lord's Day," in Revelation 1:10: "I (John) was in the Spirit on the Lord's day..." This one, brief text is a mighty, a conclusive, Word of God for the whole Sabbath-question. All by itself, it utterly refutes the position of Seventh Day Adventism regarding the day of rest and worship for the New Testament Church. What is of greater importance to us is that it clearly teaches that one day of the week, the day on which Jesus arose in glory, is a special day and must be specially observed by those who love the risen Lord. Even though it is certainly true that all the days of the week belong to Christ; nevertheless, it is also certainly true that one of them is "the Lord's day" in a unique sense.
The Church after the apostles saw this from the very beginning. Ignatius, the most ancient church father wrote: "Let every one that loveth Christ keep holy the first day of the week, the Lord's Day." How We Remember the Lord's Day
Description of the day of rest as the Lord's Day indicates how we are to remember the day. We remember it by devoting it to the Lord Jesus. We remember it by worshipping, knowing, fellowshiping with, and enjoying the crucified and risen Christ. We remember it as John did: by being in the Spirit; hearing Jesus' great Voice (the preaching of the gospel); and seeing Him (by faith) walking amidst the candlesticks (in the Church).
Specifically, we are to observe the Sabbath Day by diligently attending the worship services of Jesus' Church. This, according to the Heidelberg Catechism, is the first requirement of the Fourth Commandment. Remembering the Lord's Day is diligently attending church; willful absence from church, or attendance without diligence, is the grossest violation of the Fourth Commandment. The Catechism is Biblical, here. On the first day of the week, the apostolic church gathered for worship: to hear the Word; to break bread; to pray; and to lay aside their gifts for the poor.
It should be evident that diligent church-attendance very really is obedience to the Fourth Commandment of the Law of God. As part of the first table of the Law, the Fourth Commandment demands love for God by His redeemed people diligent church-attendance is worship, the praise of God in Jesus Christ by a thankful people. The Fourth Commandment calls the saints to rest - at church we rest by enjoying God's wonderful work in Christ by means of the Word and the Sacraments. The Fourth Commandment ends in Christ Jesus - in attending the church of God we seek fellowship with Christ (Who is present by His Spirit and Word), and we strive to honor Him.
Attending church is a genuine remembering of the Lord's Day, if it is diligent. First, it must be an act of faith; no unbeliever can possibly remember the Lord's Day, regardless of whether he comes to church. Secondly, it must be faithful; believers are to gather every Sunday, as often as services are held. Thirdly, it must be whole-hearted; our attendance is to be eager, joyful, lively. Good church-attendance is to be characterized by the attitude expressed in the Psalter, based on Psalm 122:With joy I heard my friends exclaim,Come let us in God's temple meet;Within thy gates, O Zion blest,Shall ever stand our willing feet.This aspect of obedience to the Fourth Commandment is threatened today. There are leaks in the dike. There are those who attend only infrequently, missing entire Sundays or consistently missing one of the services every Sunday ("oncers"). There is the growing practice of missing the worship services, now and then, because they interfere with our pleasures, e.g., our vacation-plans. The Lord's Day is completely forgotten. It is used for traveling or for sightseeing, just as though it did not belong to the risen Christ, but to ourselves. The strange notion is found in the Church that the Fourth Commandment may be broken occasionally. Men suppose that, if they remember the Lord's Day 51 weeks of the year, they are warranted in forgetting it one week. What would these same people say if others would adopt this thinking in regard to the commandment against stealing, or the commandment against murder?
"But the Lord's Day gets in the way of my pleasures," says the man determined to enjoy his weekend vacation. Yes, the Law of God has a way of doing this. Throughout the Old Testament, the Sabbath-Commandment "interfered" with Israel's pleasures; and for this reason they broke it (cf. Isaiah 58:13and Amos 8:5). May we bend and twist the Law to suit our pleasures? Or are we to plan our lives according to the law and to find our pleasure in doing what it says?
Our would-be vacationer persists, "But I work hard during the year, and I need some rest." To be sure, we need rest; and this needed rest is the rest of the Lord's house and the Lord's Word.
Another threat to diligent church attendance is formalism in worship. The minister preaches dutifully, droning on; and the people listen dutifully, wondering all the while, when will he ever be done. How do we come to church? The early Christians greeted each other with the words, "The Lord is risen!" We might say, "Lousy weather, isn't it?"
Not the least of the dangers is this, that, at the church we attend, the Word of God is not preached. Attending some church ("the church of your choice") is not necessarily obedience to the Fourth Commandment; attending some church very faithfully is not necessarily obedience to the Fourth Commandment. For one concerned to remember the Lord's Day, the all-important question is: "What church do you diligently attend?" Is it a church that honors Jesus by proclaiming Him as the Lord, the eternal Son of God in the flesh, the only and sovereign Savior from sin?" "Is it a church that gives the rest of God by preaching justification by faith alone and salvation by grace alone?" "Is it a church consecrated to the glory of God in teaching all of God's commandments, and upholding them by the exercise of discipline?" Devotion of the Entire Day to the Lord
For the sake of this diligent church-attendance, we are to put aside the ordinary work of the other six days of the week, as well as our play. This is the Fourth Commandment: "thou shalt not do any work" (Ex. 20:10). Already in the Old Testament the purpose of ceasing from work was clearly pointed out: "that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou" (Deut. 5:14). There is no value in not working in itself; but not working is necessary for resting the rest of the Sabbath. When the Israelite worked on the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32 ff.), the sin was not that he picked up some sticks, but that he despised the spiritual rest of God, i.e., Christ and His salvation. He revealed himself to be a worldly man. This deserved, and still does deserve, the death penalty.
It is the same today. Working on the Lord's Day is destructive of diligent church-attendance. It is true that there are works of necessity that may be done. Jesus taught that one may pull an ass out of the ditch. But, as someone has said, if I have an ass that falls into the ditch every Sunday, I will either fill up the ditch or sell the ass.
The home-work of our children is included in this prohibition. Just as our ordinary work is farming or factory-work or some business or house-work, the ordinary work of the school-children is home-work; and God requires this work to be set aside in the interest of other, better things.
If obedience to this prohibition of work means financial loss and economic hardship, we should be perfectly willing to suffer such loss and hardship. Jesus Christ is not much of a Lord if His Day, and the worship He claims on His Day, are forgotten on account of bread.
Similarly, spending Sunday afternoon watching the football Bears or the baseball Cubs, apart from all other considerations, is destructive of the public worship of God that is required by the Fourth Commandment. Pleasure is the great threat in our society. The world corrupts the Lord's Day, so that there is more deviltry on Sunday than on all the other days of the week combined. This too is an old story. In his glorious call to proper Sabbath-observance in Isaiah 58:13, 14, the prophet begins by warning Israel against "doing thy pleasure on my (Jehovah's) holy day." If we are going to use the Lord's Day for our play, we could better work--it is the lesser of the two evils. Augustine said long ago, concerning remembering the Lord's Day, "It is better to plow than to dance."
Ordinary work and play are forbidden because they are destructive of the diligent church-attendance required by the Fourth Commandment. What one does during the rest of the Day stands intimately related to the public worship of the Lord's Day. To throw oneself into his everyday work an hour or two after the morning worship service is to cut off the lingering effect of the house of God and to drown the hope of the world to come in the cares of this life. The man who spends all of Sunday afternoon wrapped up in the ball game cannot bring the evening sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to the house of the Lord. Very likely, he will not attend the second service. The appalling drop in the attendance at the second service is largely due to the use of Sunday for the people's personal pleasure - golf, picnics, visiting, watching television, or relaxing at home with a novel. If he does hurry from the end of the ball game to church, he does not come with a heart filled with the wonderful works of God in Jesus and with affections set on the things above, where Christ Jesus sits on the right hand of God. What Am I To Do?
The entire day is to be given over to worship; the whole day is to be devoted to the Lord Christ. This is the answer to the familiar question, "What are we to do on Sunday?"
God intends that we be active; work is required. Doing nothing is not obedience to the Fourth Commandment, e.g., "sacking out" all day. Jesus showed this in John 5. He healed the lame man on the Sabbath and, when the Pharisees objected, said, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work" (v.17). The notion that one kept the Sabbath by doing nothing was part of the legalism of the Pharisees.
The work to be done, however, is spiritual exercises -private, personal worship of God. There is public worship, but there is also private worship. We should pray. We should read, not the Sunday newspaper, but Holy Scripture, as well as books and magazines that explain Scripture. Just as our day witnesses a sad lack in private prayer - communion with God, so also is there a serious falling off of good, solid, theological reading and study on the part of all Christians. Earthlimindedness comes in now on the floodtide. The Lord's Day is God's dike! The Synod of Dordt spoke of "hallowed contemplation" - even the words are strange to us today. We are so busy; our minds are so full of this world; we are so averse to an hour of quiet and solitude. Sunday is a day for thinking holy thoughts - thoughts of my sin; thoughts of my redemption; thoughts of my privileged position and calling; thoughts of the beauty of the Church; thoughts of Christ; thoughts of the glory of God.
Permissible, requisite work on the Lord's Day includes "works of charity," i.e., good works of love for our neighbor, especially our fellow saints. The Heidelberg Catechism mentions contributing to the relief of the poor, or almsgiving, as an important aspect of church-attendance. There are other ways to help the needy. Jesus healed them. We can call on old folks languishing at home or in institutions. We can visit, or have over, the lonely saints. We can comfort the distressed. The Church is full of needy, if we only open our eyes.
On Sunday evenings, delightful Christian fellowship can be enjoyed - and practiced, as a duty. Then, we do not discuss our daily jobs, all the restaurants we have gone to, the pennant race, or the many faults of the other members of the congregation; but we speak together about the Lord Christ. Isaiah 58 expressly warns us against "speaking thine own words."
On the Lord's Day, there should be family worship. There is public worship. There is private worship. There is also family worship. The Fourth Commandment is a family commandment. It is addressed by God to the head of the home, the husband and father: "in it (the Sabbath Day) thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter..." The father is responsible for the obedience of his house. He is to rest, with the family. Historically, the Lord's Day has been a bulwark for the family among Reformed and Presbyterian people.
Let there be family worship, especially in view of the threats to family life today. The family should discuss the sermon. (This is not the same as tearing the sermon to pieces or criticizing the preacher.) The family should read and study the Bible together. Parents should teach the children their catechism. How I love to hear a child say at the catechism class, "My Dad (or Mother) told me the story." The family should sing together.
There is so much to do on Sunday that the day is too short. "How long is the Lord's Day?" some have asked. Give the Lord a full day; it is the Lord's Day, not the Lord's hour. Really, this is an ominous question. It sounds suspiciously like the question of the Jews in Amos 8:5: "When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat?" Nobody talks like this about his vacation. "Oh, when will it be over?" Such questions about the Lord's Day indicate a leak in the dike in my own soul - worldliness is pouring in. The man who tastes something of the rest of Christ talks differently: "Oh, when will the eternal Sabbath Day dawn?"
Still, our obedience to the Fourth Commandment is, at best, imperfect. We do not have perfect faith in Christ our Rest; we do not come to church with that zeal for God's glory and with that thankfulness for His work in Jesus that we ought to have; we often hear the Word coldly - yes, and we preachers often preach it so; our use of the Sacraments and our prayers are often habitual; our thoughts are profane; our conversations are worldly; when all is said and done, on a Sunday evening, the most that can be said of our Sabbath observance is that we did nothing. The Fourth Commandment teaches us our misery, so that we fly to Christ for righteousness.
But the Lord Who justifies also sanctifies, so that we do have a beginning of obedience to the Fourth Commandment. This beginning, although small, is a victorious beginning. We do rest in Christ by faith on the Lord's Day. This then becomes the power by which we live and work the other six days of the week, ceasing from our evil works and yielding ourselves to the Lord to work by His Spirit in us. Thus, we begin in this life the eternal Sabbath.
Ours is a joyful Sabbath keeping. The Lord's Day is not a dreary day. It is not true of us what Thomas Babington Macaulay acidly (and unjustly) said of the Puritans and their Sabbath observance: "The Puritans opposed bear-baiting on Sunday, not because it gave pain to the bears, but because it gave pleasure to the people."
Rather, our experience is that expressed by the hymn:"Day of all the week the best,Emblem of eternal rest."Our experience is that promised by the prophet long ago, in Isaiah 58:13, 14:If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
Greetings and salutations, el rana
21There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.
Proverbs chapter 19
The New Covenant
Essay 04
Jesus Christ: The New Sabbath
"Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord." - Heb. 8:9 KJVIn the introductory study, we examined that only one of God's covenants was an 'agreement' between two parties--after the manner of ancient treaties. The above words can be spoken only of the covenant made at Sinai. All of the other covenants of God are wholly promissory. In reference to these covenants, the words 'they continued not in My covenant' are an impossibility. God alone fulfills the conditions of the promissory covenants. See Galatians 3:15-29.
In contemplating the facts about covenant, we see that it is impossible for God to do certain things. He cannot lie, he cannot fail, he cannot deny himself, he cannot sin. This illustrates the utter futility of the modern 'evangelical' theology of paradox, which proposes that almost any proposition is true to some extent. The Bible proposes that certain ideas are true and opposite ideas are false. Any apparent
'paradoxes' in the scriptures are to be resolved with much study, prayer, and reliance upon the Holy Spirit.
The theme of Hebrews 8:6-13 is the contrast between the Sinai covenant and the covenant promised in Jeremiah 31. In order to focus on what the New Covenant is, it is fruitful to examine all of the things that it is not: "not according to the covenant." All of the established denominations try and impose one or more of these false requirements from the Old Covenant on New Covenant believers. Don't go for it!
The New Covenant is not sabbatarian. Since there are so many laws attached to the covenant with Israel, it is easy to overlook the fact that it did not merely require the Sabbath to be kept: it was the Sabbath! (Ex. 31:16, 34:28; Deut. 4:13, Isa. 56:4-6). The covenant was in fact the decalogue, however, not all of the 10 commandments were of equal essence or meaning. The nine moral commands (applicable in any generation) were a hedge around the 'seal' of the Sabbath. That is why the words 'covenant' and 'Sabbath' are used interchangeably--in the same way that 'covenant' and '10 commandments' are so used.
When the New Testament says that the law-covenant is ended (2 Cor. 3, Gal. 3 & 4, Eph. 2:14-16, Col. 2:13-17, Heb. 10:1), it is saying that the Sabbath is ended! Many persons will argue that in doing away with the Sabbath, we are abolishing the other commandments. But it must be emphasized that the nine were simply a 'hedge' around the seal of the covenant--the fourth commandment. Disassociated from the law-covenant, the nine are still are applicable to us as laws to be written in the heart. There are no doubt some exceptions in letter--such as the apparent forbiddance of pictures.
In spite of this clear teaching of God's word, the centuries of Christendom are filled with continued attempts to impose first-day or seventh-day sabbatarianism upon believers. The whole Reformed movement has been devoted to a confessional and legalistic emphasis on Sunday as the Sabbath. We can't afford to compromise the implications of the gospel by allowing ANY form of sabbatarianism to be imposed upon us. Let us not raise again the 'wall of hostility' that separated the Jews from the nations.
The only Sabbath in the grace-covenant is Jesus and his everlasting rest! (Col. 2:17, Heb.4:9,10)
Robert R. Higby
Here is something else to think about...
The Law is written on the believer’s heart. So how is it or in what way is the Sabbath written on the believer’s heart? Does God give the desire to obey a religious ritual of 'keeping' a certain day or does he reveal to us the true meaning of the picture the Sabbath represented; Christ?
"the believer", in this Body age, is no keeper of a "Sunday Sabbath", nor a keeper of a Saturday Sabbath. Christ is his Sabbath. Saturday Sabbath keeping as an ordinance was by the Christ nailed to the tree and taken away with respect to the Body of the Christ. Sunday Sabbath keeping, moreover, is a man made tradition, not found even in the Mosaic Law. He who is alive to rituals and ceremonies and ordinances is dead in sin, dead to God.
Harald
Whatever day you observe, you observe to the Lord. Plain and and simple.
"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."
Here is something else to think about...
The Law is written on the believer’s heart. So how is it or in what way is the Sabbath written on the believer’s heart? Does God give the desire to obey a religious ritual of 'keeping' a certain day or does he reveal to us the true meaning of the picture the Sabbath represented; Christ? 2 Hours Ago 03:50 PMHi Harald. I of course agree. Didn't appear that God or Jesus "rested" on the sabbath much. Might be one reason most jews/messianics view Paul as "anti-Moses", but Paul was also a full "jew", as was Jesus.
John 5:16 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, "My Father has been working until now, and I have been working."
Acts 17:17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the [Gentile] worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there.
From a "messianic" christian:
scooter quote:The Sabbath has, and always will be in effect. It is one of the ten commandments and it has never been set aside, or removed by G-D. Only man has done this, a huge mistake and no where in the Bible does it say a person can ignore it. Its strictly a christian concept, and one that is grevious error
Torah has 6 laws for keeping Torah. Rabbinical Judaism keeps the oral law that includes an addtional 1500 Sabbath laws.They vary from starting the Sabbath one hour before sun-set to how far one can travel on a Sabbath journey.
Last edited by InChristAlways; 10-27-2005 at 06:33 PM.
"There are Signs of a new upsurge of interest in the Study of Scriptures: a New Readiness to Test Traditions, Search the Scriptures and Rightly Divide the Word "I am the WAY the TRUTH the LIFE and the RESURRECTION and no man can come to the FATHER but by ME"
Whatever day you observe, you observe to the Lord. Plain and and simple. [Scott]
Well, Scott. At least you are not in line with Paul here. You seem to refer to Romans 14:6. Paul speaks about regarding "THE day", note the article in the Greek as well as, rightly so, in most versions. This can mean none other than Saturday, Saturday as the Jewish Sabbath. If there is to be observance of any specific day then it can only be Saturday. This was "the day" which was to be observed (by Jews). Paul does here not speak of observing/regarding some "whatever day" of one's own choosing. And the Jews who were to observe "the day" were not free to oberve "whatever day". They were to observe Saturday as Sabbath, and this was to be done according to OT Law, Mosaic Law. Accordingly, if anyone presumes, in this Body age, to religiously/spiritually observe "whatever day" he is going beyond Scriptural commands and Pauline teaching, inventing his own observation of a self-chosen day-to-be-observed. This is nothing but "will worship". So, one who would "observe" Sunday as Sabbath finds no Scripture command to do so, nor any Scripture instructions as to how such a Sunday Sabbath exactly is to be acceptably observed. My last sentence applies to the other week days as well.
So, if anyone professing Christ as his Lord and Saviour in this age (during which the Pauline household instructions for Christ's Body are in force) is observing/regarding one specific day of the week in a religious or spiritual sense he is (according to Lord Christ Jesus, via Paul's Spirit-inspired mind and pen) desiring to render slave-service to "the utterly weak and beggarly elements". Gal. 4:9-10.
Harald
So, let me see if I have this right...
Paul wasn't addressing Saints in Christ, in his letter to the Romans? Because that's my understanding for the basis of his intent; to instruct new converts.
"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."
So, let me see if I have this right...
Paul wasn't addressing Saints in Christ, in his letter to the Romans? Because that's my understanding for the basis of his intent; to instruct new converts. {Scott}
Paul was addressing saints in Christ, obvious from the intro in Romans ch. 1. But the only logical solution is that he in Rom. 14:6 referred to two different groups of saints in Christ. Namely Jewish believers, ones who in Acts are said to be zealous of the Law. And Gentile believers. Who were not adviced nor exhorted (nor commanded for that matter) to zeal for the Law. The one type of saint in Christ was still at this time of Paul's writing Romans, about 56-59 AD, allowed to be zealous of the Law, including 7th day (our Saturday) Sabbath observance in accordance with Mosaic Law. This was the Jews, "the circumcision" (cp. Eph. 2:11) (Peter, James, John et.al. ). The other type of saint in Christ was not to observe any day. This latter was the Gentile saint. Later on (about 62AD) Paul got to write Col. and Eph. and therein he is clear that for "the Body of the Christ" (wherein there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile) all "ordinances" had been nailed to Christ's stake. Galatians was written prior to Eph and Col, about the time of Romans, see above. And already in Gal. Paul is reprimanding the Galatians for observing days and months and seasons and years. Obviously the days and months etc. of the Jewish calendar, imposed upon these Galatian Gentile saints in Christ by the Judaizers.
Harald
Let's look at the train of Paul's thought;
(Rom 13:1-14:13)Let every soul be subject to the higher authorities. For there is no authority but of God; the authorities that exist are ordained by God. So that the one resisting the authority resists the ordinance of God; and the ones who resist will receive judgment to themselves. For the rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the bad. And do you desire to be not afraid of the authority? Do the good, and you shall have praise from it.
For it is a servant of God to you for good. For if you practice evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword in vain; for it is a servant of God, a revenger for wrath on him who does evil.
Therefore you must be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For because of this you also pay taxes. For they are God's servants, always giving attention to this very thing. Therefore give to all their dues; to the one due tax, the tax; tribute to whom tribute is due, fear to whom fear is due, and honor to whom honor is due.
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves another has fulfilled the Law. For: "Do not commit adultery; do not murder; do not steal; do not bear false witness; do not lust;" and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love works no ill to its neighbor, therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law.
This also, knowing the time, that it is already time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand; therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.
Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in carousings and drinking; not in co-habitation and lustful acts; not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not take thought beforehand for the lusts of the flesh. And receive him who is weak in the faith, but not to judgments of your thoughts.
For indeed one believes to eat all things; but being weak, another eats vegetables. Do not let him who eats despise him who does not eat; and do not let him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him. Who are you that judges another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. But he will stand, for God is able to make him stand.
One indeed esteems a day above another day; and another esteems every day alike. Let each one be fully assured in his own mind.
He who regards the day regards it to the Lord; and he not regarding the day, does not regard it to the Lord. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, does not eat to the Lord, and gives God thanks.
For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
For both if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord.
Therefore both if we live, and if we die, we are the Lord's. For this Christ both died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.
But why do you judge your brother? Or also why do you despise your brother? For all shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God." So then each one of us will give account concerning himself to God. Then let us not judge one another any more, but rather judge this, not to put a stumbling-block or an offense toward his brother.
"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."
It always saddens me to see so many Children of God desirous of abolishing the Sabbath.
I will try to post several thoughts on the Christian Sabbath for those who will listen because it is one of the sweetest gifts from our God and one of the most powerful encouragements from our Savior!
Did you not know!! - have you not read ??
God created a day of rest! - Quite apart from the Sinaiatic covenant. To argue for it's absolution is tantamount to arguing a lack of monogamous marriage relations in the New Covenant -- totally non sequitor!! Since God established a day of rest by the great impact of creation mandate, only God himself can change or abolish this day and all creation is bound to it's force.
Now, we believe that God has changed this day! It is important to note in the Old Testament the significance of the Sabbath was able to be reassigned according to the great working of God - but in each case the overwhelming message of the Sabbath was God's redeeming care for His people. So God creates man and out of His redemptive love creates for him (man) a Sabbath rest - even in sinless perfection where work is not toil, God beneficently commands rest. (Of course God decreed the Fall of man before the creation of the Sabbath - but it is crucial to note that God established the pattern of holy rest before the fall NOT after! The Sabbath is not reactionary or responsive of sin) Then when God extends His redemptive love to His children by taking them out of the land of bondage (Egypt) and bringing them to a land of rest - He reiterates and enforces His Sabbath precisely because of his redemptive love and the worthiness of His name being worshiped. Consider this quote from Thomas Watson:
So what shall we say then - God who exalted in the display of His Redemptive acts through the veneration of the Sabbath day has now ceased this blessed occasion when His Son rightly and powerfully obtained the name that is above every name? NO, may it never be!! But you will say that God has made all days a Sabbath, Christs work being complete we now celebrate the eternal rest that was hidden from the OT Christians in type and shadow. An argument that has an appearance of wisdom - but lack's power and biblical warrant. It denies the construct of the week as a created tutor propelling us toward Christ! The seventh day creation week built in the great anticipation of rest in the finished work God in a redemption that would crush the head of the serpent ! It was to pave the way to the first or eighth day new creation week where we are propelled toward our heavenly rest - not by the anticipation of what we will obtain but the knowledge of what we HAVE been given in Christ - who when He had made atonement for our sins sat down at the right hand of God and entered into His rest!
The Sabbath is the lord of day's - the king of the week. If all are lords, all kings - then there are no lords and no kings!
I will end this rant for now - but I have much to say about this market day of the soul! (though many have said more and phrased better than I about this subject)
Andrew T. Adcock
Last edited by samohtwerdna; 10-28-2005 at 09:20 AM.
"We see that our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ[Acts 4:12]. We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else." - John Calvin
Although I find it meritorious and wholesome to have a special day of worship,where we all can worship in group, called "The day of Rest" (which if you go to one of the congregations I attend, is NO REST at all; you actually get out of there sweating your eye brow out), I have to say one thing about the Sabbath with no prejudice for those who defend it as THE one and ONLY day:
I cannot keep the Sabbath; The Sabbath keepeth me!
Paul tells us not to be judged and not to judge by the observance of "special days". I know of "churches" that excommunicate members for having a Sunday job! It is even worse when the "church" does not offer any alternative, charitable or otherwise, if anyone goes hungry for refusing a job offer that includes the Sunday as a regular working day. That is meanness and the worse of the "spirit of vain religion" that rules in churchianity today.
I believe that this is what most of us is against. I don't think that what these churches do is "keeping the Christian Sabbath"; what they do is purely SABBATHARIANISM, which is not commendable.
This is the only difference I established between those who sincerely want to wholeheartedly dedicate one special day to our Lord and the ones who practice SABBATHARIANISN, whether they are of Calvinistic persuasion, the cult of the 7th Day Adventist (all branches thereof) and other denomination who maintain a SABBATHARIAN stance.
Those who maintain a sincere desire to obey God's command to keep a day of rest are commendable, and should not condemn those who are THE REST who for one reason or another, including but not limited to the impositions of our culture, have to pick another day to REST due to the necessity to feed one's family instead of acting like an infidel who is a "christian" who refuses to provide for his own under the guise of "obeying" God's command to observe the Sabbath.
Milt
Grace Ambassador
A pitiful servant of God; a pitbull guardian of the message of Grace
My pledge to other members:
A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. Prov 15:1
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver - Prov. 25:11
I have two days of rest! Sat. & Sun.
Ditch the Garbage! - Too many people are proud of their humility - I, on the other hand, am not humble - and am proud of it!
"Luther's New Testament was so much multiplied and spread by printers that even tailors and shoemakers, yea, even women and ignorant persons who had accepted this new Lutheran gospel, and could read a little German, studied it with the greatest avidity as the fountain of all truth. Some committed it to memory, and carried it about in their bosom. In a few months such people deemed themselves so learned that they were not ashamed to dispute about faith and the gospel not only with Catholic laymen, but even with priests and monks and doctors of divinity." - A complaint by German humanist Johann Cochlaeus.
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I could use a few months off myself.
"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."
Ok, to get the discussion moving a bit, lets assume that there is 'a day' that is 'different' from the other 6 days of the week.
Are there things that should and should not be done on this day?
On the first day of the week after He was crucified, the Seed of David according to the flesh rose from the dead for the justification of us wicked who believe and by His Spirit thus declared Himself also to be the eternal Son of God. Look and see what great blessing God has poured out on His church with and through His word in giving and making the Lord's Day on Sunday:
"The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XXI
Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day
I. The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and doth good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might.[1] But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.[2]
1. Rom. 1:20; Psa. 19:1-4a; 50:6; 86:8-10; 89:5-7; 95:1-6; 97:6; 104:1-35; 145:9-12; Acts 14:17; Deut. 6:4-5
2. Deut. 4:15-20; 12:32; Matt. 4:9-10; 15:9; Acts 17:23-25; Exod. 20:4-6, John 4:23-24; Col. 2:18-23
II. Religious worship is to be given to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and to him alone; [3] not to angels, saints, or any other creature:[4] and, since the fall, not without a Mediator; nor in the mediation of any other but of Christ alone.[5]
3. John 5:23; Matt. 28:19; II Cor. 13:14; Eph. 3:14; Rev. 5:11-14; Acts 10:25-26
4. Col. 2:18; Rev. 19:10; Rom. 1:25
5. John 14:6; I Tim. 2:5; Eph. 2:18; Col. 3:17
III. Prayer, with thanksgiving, being one special part of religious worship,[6] is by God required of all men:[7] and, that it may be accepted, it is to be made in the name of the Son,[8] by the help of his Spirit,[9] according to his will,[10] with understanding, reverence, humility, fervency, faith, love, and perseverance;[11] and, if vocal, in a known tongue.[12]
6. Phil. 4:6; I Tim. 2:1; Col. 4:2
7. Psa. 65:2; 67:3; 96:7-8; 148:11-13; Isa. 55:6-7
8. John 14:13-14; I Peter 2:5
9. Rom. 8:26; Eph. 6:18
10. I John 5:14
11. Psa. 47:7; Eccl. 5:1-2; Heb. 12:28; Gen. 18:27; James 1:6-7; 5:16; Mark 11:24; Matt. 6:12, 14-15; Col. 4:2; Eph. 6:18
12. I Cor. 14:14
IV. Prayer is to be made for things lawful;[13] and for all sorts of men living, or that shall live hereafter:[14] but not for the dead,[15] nor for those of whom it may be known that they have sinned the sin unto death.[16]
13. I John 5:14, 16; John 15:7
14. I Tim. 2:1-2; John 17:20; II Sam. 7:29; II Chr. 6:14-42
15. Luke 16:25-26; Isa. 57:1-2; Psa. 73:24; II Cor. 5:8, 10; Phil 1:21-24; Rev. 14:13
16. I John 5:16
V. The reading of the Scriptures with godly fear,[17] the sound preaching [18] and conscionable hearing of the Word, in obedience unto God, with understanding, faith, and reverence,[19] singing of psalms with grace in the heart;[20] as also, the due administration and worthy receiving of the sacraments instituted by Christ, are all parts of the ordinary religious worship of God:[21] beside religious oaths,[22] vows,[23] solemn fastings,[24] and thanksgivings upon special occasions,[25] which are, in their several times and seasons, to be used in an holy and religious manner.[26]
17. Luke 4:16-17; Acts 15:21; Col. 4:16; I Thess. 5:27; Rev. 1:3
18. II Tim. 4:2; Acts 5:42
19. James 1:22; Acts 10:33; Matt. 13:19; Heb. 4:2; Isa. 66:2
20. Col. 3:16; Eph. 5:19; James 5:13; I Cor. 14:15
21. Matt. 28:19; I Cor. 11:23-29; Acts 2:42
22. Deut. 6:13; Neh. 10:29; II Cor. 1:23
23. Psa. 116:14; Isa. 19:21; Eccl. 5:4-5
24. Joel 2:12; Est. 4:16; Matt. 9:15; Acts 14:23
25. Exod. 15:1-21; Psa. 107:1-43; Neh. 12:27-43; Est. 9:20-22
26. Heb. 12:28.
VI. Neither prayer, nor any other part of religious worship, is now, under the gospel, either tied unto, or made more acceptable by any place in which it is performed, or towards which it is directed:[27] but God is to be worshiped everywhere,[28] in spirit and truth;[29] as, in private families [30] daily,[31] and in secret, each one by himself;[32] so, more solemnly in the public assemblies, which are not carelessly or willfully to be neglected, or forsaken, when God, by his Word or providence, calleth thereunto.[33]
27. John 4:21
28. Mal. 1:11; I Tim. 2:8
29. John 4:23-24
30. Jer. 10:25; Deut. 6:6-7; Job 1:5; II Sam. 6:18, 20
31. Matt. 6:11; see Job 1:5
32. Matt. 6:6; 16-18; Neh. 1:4-11; Dan. 9:3-4a
33. Isa. 56:6-7; Heb. 10:25; Psa. 84:1-12; 100:4; 122:1, Luke 4:16; Acts 2:42; 13:42, 44
VII. As it is 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:[34] which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week,[35] and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord's day,[36] and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath.[37]
34. Exod. 20:8-11; Isa. 56:2- 7
35. Gen. 2:2-3; I Cor. 16:1-2; Acts 20:7
36. Rev. 1:10
37. Matt. 5:17-18; Mark 2:27-28; Rom. 13:8-10; James 2:8-12
VIII. This Sabbath is then 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,[38] 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.[39]
38. Exod. 16:23, 25-26, 29-30; 20:8; 31:15-17; Isa. 58:13-14; Neh. 13:15-22
39. Isa. 58:13-14; Luke 4:16; Matt. 12:1-13; Mark 3:1-5
-CPRWC
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