THE SABBATH....Understanding important truths from the Bible….

Exodus 20:8-11  NKJV

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. ⁹ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. ¹¹ 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.

The origin of the thoughts for today are continuing discussion in our home.  There are certain facts about the Lord’s Day as it is observed by Christians and considerable opinion.  As in all instances our opinions should be informed by fact, but often they are not.  Often our opinions are no more than that.  And as such they have no real authority.

I intend to state what I know to be facts and if I misstate or miss any, it is due to my limited knowledge.  It is not intentional.  For as a Southern protestant there has for me been so much tradition, confusion, and superstition about the Lord’s Day it is difficult to be consistent in any Biblical understanding.

The facts as I understand them are:

1.  From the giving of the Ten Commandments Israel was distinguished by the Sabbath.  The 4^th commandment is directed particularly toward the Seventh Day Rest, but it included the requirement to observe all the Sabbaths that were in the Mosaic Institution.
2. The Lord’s Day has been understood historically by Christians to represent Christ’s resurrection (no Easter), and to have superseded the Seventh Day Sabbath.  It came to be designated as the “Christian Sabbath.”
3. There is disagreement in the Reformed Confessional Christian community about what the Sabbath is to be in the New Testament.

This difference is seen clearly in the difference between the statements in the Heidelberg Catechism written in 1563 and the Westminster Confession completed in 1646.  Though these confessions are radically different about the Sabbath- the Westminster Confession in what it does say and the Heidelberg Confession in what it doesn’t say--those using them do not doubt the confessional orthodoxy of those who use the other.

4.  The Westminster Confession with the catechisms is the only major Reformed Confession expressing the extended Christian Sabbath view.  This view is by and large a Biblical casuistry produced by British Puritanism.

I must, at this point, make a two-fold confession.  As a Reformed Presbyterian minister my confession has always been the Westminster Confession of Faith with the catechisms.  I do not desire to recant or change that in any way.

Secondly, I have been, since being introduced to them, an admirer, a reader of, and a student of English Puritans.  Some of the greatest theological works and practical Christian books were written by Puritans.

5.  Having to acknowledge the confessional differences and the difference among Christians from Lutherans to Charismatics, I have come to the following opinion—please note, opinion.

A.     There is a 4^th commandment.  At the least this is a demand for us to recognize God’s right to our time and the necessity of time to worship Him.

B.     There are some who have confessional requirements.  Some of the requirements are more strict, some less.  But confessional integrity requires that I recognize the words of my Confession.  If I ignore these you have a right to doubt my integrity.  Some such as I have taken an exception to the Confessional view of the Sabbath.  My Presbytery has allowed this.

C.     In matters such as these where the Scriptures are not clear we must allow difference.

As my brother coming from a Reformed Church into a Presbyterian Church would have to recognize the change in his confession, so one going into a church with the Heidelberg Catechism  would see it giving us the very least we can say about the Lord’s Day.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q. 103  What does God require in the fourth commandment?

A.  First, that the ministry of the gospel and Christian education be maintained, and that I diligently attend church, especially on the Lord’s day, to hear the Word of God, to participate in the holy Sacraments, to call publicly upon the Lord, and to give Christian service to those in need.  Second, that I cease from my evil works all the days of my life, allow the Lord to work in me through his Spirit, and thus begin in this life the eternal Sabbath. 

But always remember the Heidelberg Catechism begins with Question 1.

What is your only comfort, in life and in death?

A.    That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation.  Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

AMEN!