A Biblical Analysis of Recent
Sabbath/Sunday
Developments
by
Samuele Bacchiocchi PhD
There has probably been not one person since the first apostles,
who has done more to investigate and promote the Sabbath/Sunday
issue, than Samuele Bacchiocchi. It is my great pleasure to
reproduce his entire book "The Sabbath Under Crossfire." Dr.Sam
(as he likes to be called) has 4 or 5 books on the Sabbath. You
can find him I'm sure through the Internet - Keith Hunt
INTRODUCTION
Each of the fourteen books I have authored has a story
behind it. In most cases, it was a crossfire of controversy that
erupted regarding a certain biblical doctrine that compelled me
to research and write a book on that topic. This book is no
exception.
I had no plan to write a book in 1998. In fact, when
Immortality or Resurrection? came off the press on December 1997,
I solemnly promised my wife that I would not start another book
in 1998. The reason is simple. Whenever I become involved in a
biblical research project, I spend my seven-months
leave-of-absence from teaching at Andrews University buried in my
basement office from 5:00 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.
Having neglected my wife and many odd jobs around the house
during much of 1997, I felt that in good conscience I could not
undertake another major research project in 1998. However, two
important events mentioned below caused me to change my plans.
Thank God for an understanding wife who has accepted such changes
without much complaining during our 37 years of married life. She
deserves much of the redit for whatever good has come from my
ministry of biblical research. Without her loving support none of
my books would have ever seen the light of day.
The Pope's Pastoral Letter. The first event that compelled
me to write this book is the promulgation of the Pastoral Letter
Dies Domini by Pope Paul John II on May 31, 1998. This document
has enormous historical significance because in it the Pope makes
a passionate plea for a revival of Sunday observance by appealing
to the moral imperative of the Sabbath Commandment and to the
need of civil legislation to facilitate the observance of Sunday
as a Holy Day.
The Pastoral Letter raises two important issues that
urgently need to be addressed. The first is the Pope's defense of
Sunday observance as the embodiment and "full expression" of the
Sabbath. This view, as shown in Chapter 1, not only lacks
biblical and historical support, but also represents a
significant departure from the traditional Catholic teaching.
Historically, the Catholic church has taught that Sunday
observance is an ecclesiastical institution different in meaning
and function from the Sabbath. John Paul departs from the
traditional Catholic distinction between Sabbath and Sunday in
order to make Sunday observance a moral imperative mandated by
the Decalogue itself.
The second issue is the Pope's summons to Christians "to
strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to
keep Sunday holy." 1 The justification for such a summons is the
Pope's assumption that Sunday-keeping is a moral imperative
"inscribed" in the Decalogue itself; 2 and consequently, it is
to be supported by civil legislation promulgated by the
international community of nations.
In view of the grave theological and legal implications of
the Pastoral Letter, I felt that a response was imperative. In
July 1998, I posted my initial analysis of "Dies Domini" in
various discussion groups on the Internet. The response surpassed
my fondest expectations. In a few weeks, over 5,000 people
subscribed to a "Sabbath Discussion" list where I examine
important Sabbath/Sunday developments. Several editors of
religious magazines who subscribe to the list requested
permission to publish my response to the Pastoral Letter.
Incidentally, anyone with Internet service interested in
subscribing to my new Endtime Issues list can do so simply by
emailing me a request at: samuele@andrews.edu or
sbacchiocchi@csi.com. If you choose to subscribe to the Endtime
Issues list you will receive free of charge every couple of weeks
an essay where I examine significant religious developments of
our time in the light of biblical teachings. You are free to
unsubscribe at any time.
The surprising interest shown by people of different
persuasions in various parts of the world for an in-depth
analysis of recent Sabbath/Sunday developments compelled me to
take up my pen again and write this book. Thank God for a wife
who does not remind me of broken promises.
This book has afforded me the opportunity to examine in
greater depth some of the recent Sabbath/Sunday developments that
I have discussed in a summary way in cyberspace. For example, my
initial eight page analysis of the Pastoral Letter first posted
in the Internet, has been expanded into a 40-page chapter
entitled "Pope John Paul II and the Sabbath." This is the first
and, possibly, the most important chapter of the book because it
examines the biblical, moral, historical, and legal arguments
used by Pope John Paul to emphasize the "grave obligation" of
Sunday observance. 3
Debate With Dale Ratzlaff.
The second event that influenced the writing of this book is
the debate on the Sabbath that took place Monday, June 15, 1998,
between Dale Ratzlaff and myself on KJSL, a Christian radio
station in St.Louis, Missouri. Ratzlaff had served as a
Seventh-day Adventist Bible teacher and pastor before leaving the
church because of doctrinal differences. Ratzlaff claims that
several months of Bible study convinced him that the Sabbath is
not a creational institution for mankind, but a Mosaic, Old
Covenant ordinance for the Jews.
According to Ratzlaff, "New Covenant" Christians do not need
to observe the Sabbath because Christ fulfilled its typological
function by becoming our salvation-rest. Consequently, "New
Covenant" Christians observe the Sabbath spiritually as a daily
experience of salvation-rest, not literally as the observance of
the seventh day unto the Lord.
A major problem with Ratzlaff's interpretation, as shown in
Chapter 4 of this book, is the failure to recognize that the
spiritual salvation - rest does not negate the physical Sabbath
rest. On the contrary, God invites us to cease from our physical
work on the Sabbath in order to enter His spiritual rest (Heb
4:10). Physical elements, such as the water in baptism, the bread
and wine in the Lord's Supper, and the physical rest on the
Sabbath, are designed to help us conceptualize and internalize
the spiritual realities they represent.
Ratzlaff published his views in a 345-page book entitled
"Sabbath in Crisis," where he articulates his "New Covenant"
theology. He is actively promoting his anti-sabbatarian views
through radio talk shows and advertisements in local papers where
he offers his book free. KJSL invited me to respond to his
anti-Sabbath arguments on their radio talk show on June 15, 1998.
As you can imagine, we had an animated discussion. Unfortunately,
the one-hour time limitation, cut even shorter by frequent radio
advertisements, prevented a thorough discussion of the major
issues. We agreed to continue the discussion in cyberspace. Over
a four-month period, I posted twenty-one essays where I deal
systematically with Ratzlaff's major objections against the
continuity and validity of the Sabbath for "New Covenant"
Christians. The demand for these essays has been incredible as
thousands of people from many parts of the world requested them
via email.
The enormous demand for my Sabbath essays may be due in part
to the considerable influence exerted by Ratzlaff's book,
especially among Sabbatarians. A study paper entitled "The
Sabbath" released by the Worldwide Church of God in 1995, lists
the Sabbath in Crisis as one of the three sources used to support
their so-called "New Covenant" theology. 4
"New Covenant" Theology.
It is hard to estimate the farreaching influence of the "New
Covenant" theology championed among Sabbatarians by people like
Ratzlaff. The Worldwide Church of God has experienced a massive
defection of over 70,000 members who have refused to accept the
doctrinal changes demanded by the "New Covenant" theology.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church also has been affected by the
"New Covenant" theology promoted especially by Sabbath in Crisis.
One example is the book "New Covenant Christians" by Clay Peck, a
former Adventist pastor who currently serves as senior pastor of
the Grace Place Congregation in Berthoud, Colorado. In the
"Introduction" to his book, Peck acknowledges his indebtedness to
Ratzlaff, saying: "While I have read and researched widely for
this study, I have been most challenged and instructed by a book
entitled Sabbath in Crisis by Dale Ratzlaff. I have leaned
heavily on his research, borrowing a number of concepts and
diagrams." 5
Similar "Grace-oriented," independent congregations have
been established in various parts of America by former
Seventh-day Adventist pastors who have embraced the "New
Covenant" theology. This development is unique to our times
because never before in the history of Christianity has the
Sabbath come under the crossfire by those who once had championed
its observance.
These developments made me forcefully aware of the need to
respond to the major attacks launched against the Sabbath not
only by the Pope and Sundaykeeping scholars, but also by former
Sabbatarians. Initially I tried to meet this challenge by posting
in cyberspace essays dealing with the anti-Sabbath arguments. I
soon realized that this effort was not enough.
The thousands of email requests from all over the world for
the Sabbath essays posted on the Internet alerted me to the need
to expand my research and publish it in book form. This book is
the result of this endeavor. During the last six months of 1998,
I have worked intensively on this project, hoping to produce a
compelling biblical analysis of recent Sabbath/Sunday
developments.
Objectives of This Book.
This book has two major objectives. The first is to provide
a comprehensive examination of the major arguments used to negate
the continuity, validity, and values of the Sabbath for today.
Each of the first six chapters addresses a major argument
commonly used against the Sabbath. The length of the chapters
(ranging from 40 to 55 pages) reflects my aim to be as exhaustive
as possible within the length limitation of each chapter.
Experience has taught me that simplistic answers do not satisfy
people with inquiring minds. Thus, I have endeavored to examine
each argument as thoroughly as possible. Christians who find
themselves caught in the crossfire of the Sabbath/Sunday
controversy should find these chapters a valuable resource to
deal with popular attacks launched against the Sabbath.
The second objective of this book is to help people discover
the Sabbath as a day of joyful celebration of God's creative and
redemptive love. A major contributing factor to the abandonment
of the Sabbath by an increasing number of Sabbatarians is most
likely their failure to experience the physical, mental, moral,
and spiritual benefits of the Sabbath.
Those who experience the Sabbath as an alienating imposition
and a day of gloomy frustration are apt to welcome a theology
that releases them from such an oppressing and depressing
experience. The solution to the problem, however, is found not in
fabricating a "New Covenant" theology that does away with the
Sabbath Commandment, but in discovering the Sabbath as a blessing
rather than a burden, as a day of joyful celebration rather than
a day of gloomy frustration.
This pastoral concern has motivated me to devote the final
chapter to the rediscovery of the Sabbath. The first part of
Chapter 7 briefly reports the rediscovery of the Sabbath by
scholars, religious organizations, and people of different
persuasions. This is the paradox of our times. While some
Christians are rejecting the Sabbath as an Old Covenant
institution nailed to the Cross, an increasing number of other
Christians are rediscovering the continuity and value of the
Sabbath for our tension-filled, restless lives.
The final section of Chapter 7 explores in a more personal
way how to make Sabbathkeeping a Christ-centered experience - an
experience of the awareness of the Savior's presence, peace, and
rest in our lives. At a time when many are seeking for inner rest
and release through pills, drugs, meditation groups, vacations,
and athletic clubs, the Sabbath invites us to find true inner
rest and peace not through pills or places, but in a right
relationship with a Person, the Person of our Savior, who says:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give
you rest" (Matt 11:28; NIV).
Method and Style.
This book is written from a biblical perspective. I accept
the Bible as normative for defining Christian beliefs and
practices. Because the words of the Bible contain a divine
message written by human authors who lived in specific historical
situations, every effort must be made to understand their meaning
in their historical context. My conviction is that an
understanding of both the historical and literary context of
relevant Biblical texts is indispensable in establishing both
their original meaning and their present relevance. This
conviction is reflected in the methodology I have followed in
examining those controversial biblical texts that relate to the
Law, in general, and the Sabbath, in particular.
Concerning the style of the book, I have attempted to write
in simple, nontechnical language. In some instances, where a
technical word is used, a definition is provided in parenthesis.
To facilitate the reading, each chapter is divided into major
parts and subdivided under appropriate headings. A brief summary
is given at the end of each chapter. Unless otherwise specified,
all Bible texts are quoted from the Revised Standard Version,
copyright 1946 and 1952. In a few instances, some key words of a
Bible text have been italicized for emphasis without footnoting
them, since the reader is aware that the English Bible does not
italicize words.
Acknowledgments.
It is most difficult for me to acknowledge my indebtedness
to the many persons who have contributed to the realization of
this book. Indirectly, I am indebted to the scholars who have e
written articles, pamphlets, books, and dissertations on
different aspects of the Sabbath/Sunday question. Their writings
have stimulated my thi nki ng and broadened my approach to this
subject.
Directly, I want to express my gratitude to Joyce Jones and
Deborah Everhart from Andrews University, as well as Jarrod and
Eva Williamson from La Sierra University. Each of them has made a
significant contribution by correcting and improving the style
of the manuscript. They have worked many hours, reworking
sentences so they sound more English and less Italian.
Words fail to express my gratitude to Gregory and Annita
Watkins for designing a most attractive cover for the book.
Gregory and Annita are a young couple serving at this time as
student missionaries in China. They signed up for the "Sabbath
Discussion" list and were so impressed by the essays they
received in China via email, that they offered to design the
cover for the book. When I accepted their offer I never
anticipated that they would design such a splendid cover. The
cover conveys the message of the book in a masterful way. The
crossfire has attacked the Sabbath, but it has burned only the
superficial veneer. The Sabbath as well as the other moral
principles of the Decalogue are inscribed in the two granite
tables that remain unscathed by the crossfire of human
controversy. What a creative way to portray this fundamental
biblical truth brought out by the book! Thank you, Gregory and
Annita for designing such an attractive and suggestive cover.
Last but not least, I do express my special thanks to my
wife who has been my constant source of encouragement and
inspiration during the past thirty-seven years of our married
life. She saw little of me while I was researching and writing
this book. Without her love, patience, and encouragement, it
would have been most difficult for me to complete this project in
such a relatively short period of time.
Author's Hope.
I have written these pages with the earnest desire to help
Christians of all persuasions to discover the Sabbath as God's
gift of freedom to mankind. Freedom from work in order to be free
before Him and hear His voice. Freedom from the world of things
in order to enter into the peace of God for which we were
created. Freedom to look at the world through the eyes of
eternity and recapture some measure of Edenic delight. Freedom to
taste and know that the Lord is good. Freedom to sing the
Psalmist's Sabbath song: "Thou, O Lord, has made me glad by thy
work; at the work of thy hands I sing for joy!" (Ps 92:4-5-A Song
for the Sabbath).
NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION
1. Dies Domini, paragraph 67.
2. Dies Domini, paragraph 47; emphasis supplied.
3. Dies Domini, paragraph 62.
4. The other two sources cited in the study paper on "The
Sabbath" released by the Worldwide Church of God in 1995, are the
special issue of Verdict (vol.4), entitled "Sabbatarianism
Reconsidered," published by Robert Brinsmead on June 4, 1981, and
the symposium "From Sabbath to the Lord's Day," edited by Donald
Carson and published by Zondervan in 1982.
5. Clay Peck, "New Covenant Christians" (Berthoud,CO,1998),p.2.
......................
To be continued
1. The SABBATH under Crossfire
Pope John Paul and the Sabbath
Chapter 1
POPE JOHN PAUL THE SECOND AND THE SABBATH
On May 31, 1998, Pope John Paul II promulgated a lengthy
Pastoral Letter, "Dies Domini" in which he makes a passionate
plea for a revival of Sunday observance. He appeals to the moral
imperative of the Sabbath commandment and to the need of civil
legislation to facilitate Sunday observance. This document has
enormous historical significance since it addresses the critical
problem of the prevailing Sunday profanation at "the threshold of
the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000." 1 This event has great
significance for the Catholic Church, as over thirty million
Catholics are expected to make their pilgrimage to Rome, seeking
forgiveness for their own sins and a reduction of the temporal
punishment for their loved ones in Purgatory.
The Pope is keenly aware that the crisis of Sunday
observance is a major obstacle to the spiritual renewal the Great
Jubilee is designed to bring about. He believes that the
prevailing profanation of Sunday reflects the spiritual crisis of
the Catholic Church and of Christianity, in general. The
"strikingly low" attendance to the Sunday Mass indicates, in the
Pope's view, that "faith is weak" and "diminishing." 2 He
believes that if this trend is not reversed it can threaten the
future of the Catholic Church as it stands at the threshold of
the third millennium. He states: "The Lord's Day has structured
the history of the Church through two thousand years: how could
we think that it will not continue to shape the future?" 3
While reading the Pastoral Letter, I was reminded of a
speech President Abraham Lincoln delivered on November 13, 1862.
There he emphasized the vital function of the Sabbath in the
survival of Christianity: "As we keep or break the Sabbath day,
we nobly save or meanly loose the last and the best hope by which
mankind arises." 4 Obviously, for Abraham Lincoln, the Sabbath
meant Sunday. This does not detract from the fact that one of
American's outstanding presidents recognized in the principle of
Sabbathkeeping the best hope to renew and elevate human beings.
The Pastoral Letter, like all papal documents, has been
skillfully crafted with an introduction; five chapters which
examine the importance of Sunday observance from theological,
historical, liturgical, and social perspectives; and a
conclusion. Pope John Paul and his advisers must be commended for
composing a well-balanced document that addresses major issues
relating to Sunday observance within the space limitation of
approximately thirty pages.
The introduction sets the stage for the Pope's pastoral
concerns by identifying some of the contributory factors to the
crisis of Sunday observance and the solution that must be sought.
A major factor is the change that has occurred "in socioeconomic
conditions [which] have often led to profound modifications of
social behavior and hence of the character of Sunday." 5 The
Pope notes with regret that Sunday has become merely "a part of a
weekend" when people are involved "in cultural, political or
sporting activities" that cause the loss of awareness of "keeping
the Lord's Day holy." 6
Given the present situation, John Paul strongly believes
that today it is "more necessary than ever to recover the deep
doctrinal foundations underlying the Church's precept, so that
the abiding value of Sunday in the Christian life will be clear
to all the faithful." 7
The Pastoral Letter reveals that the Pope firmly believes
that the solution to the crisis of Sunday observance entails both
doctrinal and legal aspects. Doctrinally, Christians need to
rediscover the "biblical" foundations of Sunday observance in
order to keep the day holy. Legally, Christians must "ensure that
civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy." 8
Objectives of This Chapter.
No attempt is made in this chapter to analyze all the
aspects of Sunday observance discussed in the Pastoral Letter. In
the light of the overall objective of this book to consider from
a biblical perspective the recent attacks against the Sabbath,
this chapter focuses especially on how Pope John Paul deals with
the Sabbath in his attempt to justify and promote Sunday
observance.
The chapter divides into three major parts in accordance
with the following three major issues addressed:
Pope John Paul II and the Sabbath
(1) The theological connection between Sabbath and Sunday (2) The
"biblical" support for Sunday observance
(3) The call for Sunday legislation
PART 1 THE THEOLOGICAL CONNECTION BETWEEN SABBATH AND SUNDAY
A surprising aspect of the Pastoral Letter is Pope John
Paul's defense of Sunday observance as the embodiment and "full
expression" of the Sabbath. In some ways this view represents a
significant departure from the traditional Catholic explanation
that Sunday observance is an ecclesiastical institution different
from the Sabbath. In the past, this explanation virtually has
been regarded as an established fact by Catholic theologians and
historians. Thomas of Aquinas, for instance, makes this
unambiguous statement: "In the New Law the observance of the
Lord's day took the place of the observance of the Sabbath not by
virtue of the precept [Sabbath commandment] but by the
institution of the Church and the custom of Christian people." 9
In his dissertation presented to the Catholic University of
America, Vincent J. Kelly similarly affirms: "Some theologians
have held that God likewise directly determined the Sunday as the
day of worship in the New Law, that He Himself has explicitly
substituted the Sunday for the Sabbath. But this theory is now
entirely abandoned. It is now commonly held that God simply gave
His Church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would
deem suitable as Holy Days. The Church chose Sunday, the first
day of the week, and in the course of time added other days, as
holy days." 10
Even the new "Catechism of the Catholic Church" (1994)
emphasizes the discontinuity between Sabbath and Sunday
observance: "Sunday is expressly distinguished from the Sabbath
which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its
ceremonial observance replaces that of the Sabbath." 11
John Paul departs from the traditional distinction the
Catholic Church has made between Sabbath and Sunday, presumably
because he wants to make Sunday observance a moral imperative
rooted in the Decalogue itself. By so doing, the Pope challenges
Christians to respect Sunday, not merely as an ecclesiastical
institution, but as a divine command. Furthermore, by rooting
Sundaykeeping in the Sabbath commandment, the Pope offers the
strongest moral reasons to urge Christians to "ensure that civil
legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy."
The Pope's vew of Sunday as the embodiment and "full
expression" of the Sabbath stands in stark contrast to the
so-called "New Covenant" and Dispensational authors who emphasize
the radical discontinuity between Sabbath and Sunday. The latter,
as we shall see in the following chapters, is also the position
of former sabbatarians who reduce the Sabbath to a Mosaic, Old
Covenant institution that terminated at the Cross. The Pope
rejects this position, defending instead the creational origin of
the Sabbath in which he finds the theological foundation of
Sunday observance. He writes: "In order to grasp fully the
meaning of Sunday, therefore, we must re-read the great story of
creation and deepen our understanding of the theology of the
'Sabbath.'" 12
Creative and Redemptive Meanings of the Sabbath.
The Pope's reflections on the theological meaning of the
Sabbath are most perceptive and should especially thrill
Sabbatarians. For example, speaking of God's rest on the seventh
day of creation, John Paul says: "The divine rest of the seventh
day does not allude to an inactive God, but emphasizes the
fullness of what has been accomplished. It speaks, as it were, of
God's lingering before the 'very good' work (Gen 1:31) which his
hand has wrought, in order to cast upon it a gaze full of joyous
delight. This is a 'contemplative' gaze which does not look to
new accomplishments but enjoys the beauty of what has already
been achieved." 13
This profound theological insight into the meaning of the
divine Shabbat as a rest of cessation in order to express the
satisfaction over a complete, perfect creation, and to fellowship
with His creation, is developed at some length in my book "Divine
Rest for Human Restlessness." There I wrote: "God's cessation on
the seventh day from doing expresses His desire for being with
His creation, for giving to His creatures not only things but
Himself." 14
John Paul speaks eloquently of the theological development
of the Sabbath from the rest of creation (Gen 2:1-3; Ex 20:8-11)
to the rest of redemption (Deut 5:12-15). He notes that in the
Old Testament the Sabbath commandment is linked "not only with
God's mysterious 'rest' after the days of creation (cf. Ex
20:8-11), but also with the salvation which he offers to Israel
in the liberation from the slavery of Egypt (cf. Deut.5:1215).
The God who rests on the seventh day, rejoicing in His creation,
is the same God who reveals his glory in liberating his children
from Pharaoh's oppression." 15
Being a memorial of creation and redemption, "the 'Sabbath'
has therefore been interpreted evocatively as a determining
element in the kind of 'sacred architecture' of time which marks
biblical revelation. It recalls that the universe and history
belong to God; and without constant awareness of that truth, man
cannot serve in the world as a co-worker of the Creator." 16
The Sabbath Defines Our Relationship with God.
Contrary to Dispensational and so-called "New Covenant"
writers who reduce the Sabbath to a Mosaic, ceremonial ordinance
given exclusively to Jews, John Paul rightly recognizes that "the
Sabbath precept ... is rooted in the depths of God's plan. This
is why, unlike many other precepts, it is set not within the
context of strictly cultic stipulations but within the Decalogue,
the `'en words' which represents the very pillars of the moral
life inscribed on the human heart. In setting this commandment
within the context of the basic structure of ethics, Israel and
then the Church declare that they consider it not just a matter
of community religious discipline but a defining and indelible
expression of our relationship with God, announced and expounded
by biblical revelation. This is the perspective within which
Christians need to rediscover this precept today." 17
What a profound statement worth pondering! Sabbathkeeping is
"not just a matter of community religious discipline but a
defining and indelible expression of our relationship with God."
To appreciate the truth of this statement, it is important
to remember that our life is a measure of time, and the way we
use our time is indicative of our priorities. Believers who give
priority to God in their thinking and living on the Sabbath show
in a tangible way that God really counts in their life. Thus,
Sabbathkeeping is indeed "a defining and indelible expression of
our relationship with God."
John Paul develops this point eloquently saying: "Man's
relationship with God demands times of explicit prayer, in which
the relationship becomes an intense dialogue, involving every
dimension of the person. 'The Lord's Day' is the day of this
relationship par excellence when men and women raise their song
to God and become the voice of all creation." 18
Sunday as the Fulfillment of the Sabbath.
In the light of these profound theological insights into the
Sabbath as being a kind of "sacred architecture" of time that
marks the unfolding of God's creative and redemptive activity,
and as the defining expression of our relationship with
God, one wonders how does the Pope succeed in developing a
theological justification for Sunday observance? He does this by
making Sunday the embodiment of the biblical Sabbath.
For example, John Paul without hesitation applies to Sunday
God's blessing and sanctification of the Sabbath at creation.
"Sunday is the day of rest because it is the day 'blessed' by God
and 'made holy' by him, set apart from the other days to be,
among them, 'the Lord's Day.'" 19
More importantly, the Pope makes Sunday the "full
expression" of the Sabbath by arguing that Sunday, as the Lord's
Day, fulfills the creative and redemptive functions of the
Sabbath. These two functions, the Pope claims, "reveal the
meaning of the 'Lord's Day' within a single theological vision
which fuses creation and salvation." 20
"On 'the Lord's Day," John Paul explains, "which the Old
Testament [Sabbath] links to the work of creation (cf. Gen 2:1-3;
Ex 20:8-11) and the Exodus (cf. Deut 5:12-15), the Christian is
called to proclaim the new creation and the new covenant brought
about in the Paschal Mystery of Christ. Far from being abolished,
the celebration of creation becomes more profound within a
Christocentric perspective .... The remembrance of the liberation
of the Exodus also assumes its full meaning by Christ in his
Death and Resurrection. More than a 'replacement' of the Sabbath,
therefore, Sunday is its fulfillment, and in a certain sense its
extension and full expression in the ordered unfolding of the
history of salvation, which reaches its culmination in Christ."
21
The Pope maintains that New Testament Christians "made the
first day after the Sabbath a festive day" because they
discovered that the creative and redemptive accomplishments
celebrated by the Sabbath, found their "fullest expression in
Christ's Death and Resurrection, though its definitive
fulfillment will not come until the Parousia, when Christ returns
in glory." 22
The Pope's attempt to make Sunday the "extension and full
expression" of the creative and redemptive meanings of the
Sabbath is very ingenious, but it lacks biblical and historical
support. There are no indications in the New Testament that
Christians ever interpreted Sunday to be the embodiment of the
creative and redemptive meanings of the Sabbath. From a biblical
and historical perspective, Sunday is not the Sabbath because the
two days differ in authority. The difference in authority lies in
the fact that while Sabbathkeeping rests upon an explicit
biblical command (Gen 2:2-3; Ex 20:8-11; Mark 2:27-28; Heb 4:9),
Sundaykeeping derives from an interplay of social, political,
pagan, and religious factors. I have examined these factors at
length in my dissertation "From Sabbath to Sunday," published by
the Pontifical Gregorian University, in Rome, Italy. The lack of
a biblical authority for Sundaykeeping may well be a major
contributing factor to the crisis of Sunday observance that John
Paul rightly laments.
The vast majority of Christians, especially in the Western
world, view their Sunday as a holiday to seek personal pleasure
and profit rather than a holy day to seek divine presence and
peace. I submit that a major contributing factor to the
secularization of Sunday is the prevailing perception that there
is no divine, biblical command to keep Sunday as a holy day.
The lack of a biblical conviction that Sunday should be observed
as the holy Sabbath day may well explain why most Christians see
nothing wrong in devoting their Sunday time to themselves rather
than to the Lord. If there was a strong theological conviction
that the principle of Sundaykeeping was divinely established at
creation and later "inscribed" in the Decalogue, as the Pope
attempts to prove, then Christians would feel compelled to act
accordingly.
Difference in Meaning.
John Paul recognizes the need to make Sundaykeeping a moral
imperative and he tries to accomplish this by rooting the day in
the Sabbath commandment itself. But this cannot be done because
Sunday is not the Sabbath. The two days have a different meaning
and function. While in Scripture the Sabbath memorializes God's
perfect creation, complete redemption, and final restoration,
Sunday is justified in the earliest Patristic literature as the
commemoration of the creation of light on the first day of the
week, the cosmic-eschatological symbol of the new eternal world
typified by the eighth day, and the memorial of Christ's Sunday
Resurrection. 23
None of the historical meanings attributed to Sunday require
per se the observance of the day by resting and worshipping the
Lord. For example, nowhere does Scripture suggest that the
creation of light on the first day ought to be celebrated through
a weekly Sunday rest and worship. Even the Resurrection event, as
we shall see, does not require per se a weekly or annual Sunday
celebration.
The attempt to transfer to Sunday the biblical authority and
meaning of the Sabbath is doomed to fail because it is impossible
to retain the same authority, meaning, and experience when the
date of a festival is changed. For example, if a person or an
organization should succeed in changing the date of the
Declaration of Independence from the 4th to the 5th of July, the
new date could hardly be viewed as the legitimate celebration of
Independence Day.
Similarly, if the festival of the Sabbath is changed from
the seventh to the first day, the latter can hardly memorialize
the divine acts of creation, redemption, and final restoration
which are linked to the typology of the Sabbath. To invest Sunday
with the theological meaning and function of the Sabbath means to
adulterate a divine institution by making a holy day out of what
God created to be a working day.
Difference in Experience.
Third, the difference between Sabbath and Sunday is one of
experience. While Sundaykeeping began and has remained largely
the hour of worship, Sabbathkeeping is presented in Scriptures as
twenty-four hours consecrated to God. In spite of the efforts
made by Constantine, church councils, and the Puritans to make
Sunday a total day of rest and worship, the historical reality is
that Sunday observance has been equated with church attendance.
John Paul acknowledges this historical reality in chapter 3 of
the Pastoral Letter entitled "The Day of the Church. The
Eucharistic Assembly: The Heart of Sunday." The thrust of the
chapter is that the heart of Sunday observance is the
participation in the Mass. He cites the new Catechism of the
Catholic Church, which says: "The Sunday celebration of the
Lord's Day and his Eucharist is at the heart of the Church's
life." 24
The end of Sunday church services represents for many
Christians also the termination of Sundaykeeping. After church,
they go in good conscience to the shopping mall, a ball game, a
dance hall, a theater, etc. It came as a surprise for me to
discover that even in the "Bible Belt" many shops open for
business as soon as the church services are over. The message is
clear. The rest of Sunday is business as usual.
The recognition of this historical reality has led
Christopher Kiesling, a distinguished Catholic Liturgists, to
argue for the abandonment of the notion of Sunday as a day of
rest and for the retention of Sunday as the hour of worship. 25
His reasoning is that since Sunday has never been a day of total
rest and worship, there is no hope to make it so today when most
people want holidays, not holy days.
Celebrating the Sabbath, however, means not merely attending
church services but consecrating its twenty-four hours to the
Lord. The Sabbath commandment does not say, "Remember the Sabbath
day to keep it holy by attending Sabbath school and church
services." What the commandment requires is to work six days and
rest on the seventh day unto the Lord (Ex 20:8-10). This means
that the essence of Sabbathkeeping is the consecration of time.
The act of resting unto the Lord makes all the Sabbath
activities, whether they be formal worship or informal fellowship
and recreation, an act of worship because all of them spring out
of a heart which has decided to honor God.
The act of resting on the Sabbath unto the Lord becomes the
means through which the believer enters into God's rest (Heb
4:10) by experiencing more fully and freely the awareness of
God's presence, peace, and rest. This unique experience of
Sabbathkeeping is foreign to Sundaykeeping because the essence of
the latter is not the consecration of time but rather church
attendance, generally followed by secular activities.
In the light of the foregoing considerations, we conclude
that the Pope's attempt to make Sunday the theological and
existential embodiment of the Sabbath is doomed to fail because
the two days differ radically in their authority, meaning, and
experience.
PART 2
THE "BIBLICAL" SUPPORT FOR SUNDAY OBSERVANCE
The second chapter of the Pastoral Letter entitled "Dies
Christi The Day of Christ" focuses on three major, biblical
events that allegedly justify Sunday observance: (1) The
Resurrection and appearances of Christ which took place on 'the
first day after the Sabbath' (Mark 16:2,9; Luke 24:1; John
20:1);26 (2) the religious gatherings that occurred on the first
day of the week (cf. 1 Cor 16:2; Acts 20:7-12); 27 and (3) the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit fifty days after the Resurrection
which occurred on a Sunday (Acts 2:2-3). 28 We examine these
arguments in their respective order.
(1) The Resurrection/Appearances of Christ
The Pope maintains that the earliest Christians "made the
first day after the Sabbath a festive day, for that was the day
on which the Lord rose from the dead." 29 He argues that though
Sunday is rooted in the creative and redemptive meaning of the
Sabbath, the day finds its full expression
............
To be continued
2. The SABBATH under Crossfire
The Pope's Sunday NT evidence?
by Samule Bacchiocchi PhD
PART 2 THE "BIBLICAL" SUPPORT FOR SUNDAY OBSERVANCE
The second chapter of the Pastoral Letter entitled "Dies
Christi The Day of Christ" focuses on three major, biblical
events that allegedly justify Sunday observance: (1) The
Resurrection and appearances of Christ which took place on 'the
first day after the Sabbath' (Mark 16:2,9; Luke 24:1; John 20:1);
26 (2) the religious gatherings that occurred on the first day
of the week (cf. 1 Cor 16:2; Acts 20:7-12); 27 and (3) the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit fifty days after the Resurrection
which occurred on a Sunday (Acts 2:2-3). 28 We examine these
arguments in their respective order.
(1) The Resurrection/Appearances of Christ
The Pope maintains that the earliest Christians "made the
first day after the Sabbath a festive day, for that was the day
on which the Lord rose from the dead." 29 He argues that though
Sunday is rooted in the creative and redemptive meaning of the
Sabbath, the day finds its full expression in the Resurrection of
Christ. "Although the Lord's Day is rooted in the very work of
creation and even more in the mystery of the Biblical [Sabbath]
'rest' of God, it is nonetheless to the Resurrection of Christ
that we must look in order to understand fully the Lord's Day."
30
Importance Attributed to Resurrection.
The Resurrection and Appearance of Christ on the first day
of the week constitute, in the Pope's view, the fundamental
biblical justification for the origin of Sunday worship. He
summarizes concisely the alleged Biblical evidences in the
following paragraph: "According to the common witness of the
Gospels, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead took
place on 'the first day after the Sabbath' (Mark 16:2,9; Luke
24:1; John 20:1). On the same day, the Risen Lord appeared to the
two disciples of Emmaus (cf. Luke 24:1335) and to the eleven
Apostles gathered together (cf. Luke 24:36; John 20:19). A week
later - as the Gospel of John recounts (cf. John 20:26) the
disciples were gathered together once again when Jesus appeared
to them and made Himself known to Thomas by showing him the signs
of His Passion. The day of Pentecost - the first day of the
eighth week after the Jewish Passover (cf. Acts 2:1), when the
promise made by Jesus to the Apostles after the Resurrection was
fulfilled by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit (cf. Luke 24:49;
Acts 1:4-5) - also fell on a Sunday. This was the day of the
first proclamation and the first baptisms: Peter announced to the
assembled crowd that Christ was risen and 'those who received his
word were baptized' (Acts 2:41). This was the epiphany of the
Church, revealed as the people into which are gathered in unity,
beyond all their differences, the scattered children of God." 31
Numerous Catholic and Protestant scholars concur with John
Paul in attributing to Christ's Resurrection and appearances on
the first day of the week the fundamental reason for the choice
of Sunday by the Apostolic church. In his doctoral dissertation
on the origin of Sunday, Corrado Mosna, a Jesuit student at the
Pontifical Gregorian University who worked under Vincenzo
Monachino, S.J.(the same professor who monitored my
dissertation), concludes: "Therefore we can conclude with
certainty that the event of the Resurrection has determined the
choice of Sunday as the day of worship of the first Christian
community " 32
The same view is expressed by Cardinal Jean Danielou: "The
Lord's Day is a purely Christian institution; its origin is to be
found solely on the fact of the Resurrection of Christ on the day
after the Sabbath." 33 In a similar vein, Paul Jewett, a
Protestant scholar, writes: "What, it might be asked,
specifically motivated the primitive Jewish church to settle upon
Sunday as a regular time of assembly? As we have observed before,
it must have had something to do with the Resurrection which,
according to the uniform witness of the Gospels, occurred on the
first day of the week." 34
(It is more than just interesting that inspite of Paul in Romans
14, that some throw at you today, to support Sunday observance,
this theology has to ignore the contradition it would then be
with Romans 14, when if Paul is talking about (which he is not)
ANY day to set aside as holy, Sunday cannot be used as THE
"specific" day above any other day of the week. Hence all who try
to establish Sunday holiness, either have to ignore Romans 14 or
have to admit Paul is NOT discussing days in the context of
"which is holy to the Lord" - Keith Hunt)
Evaluation of the Resurrection.
In spite of its popularity, the alleged role of the
Resurrection in the adoption of Sunday observance lacks biblical
support. A careful study of all the references to the Resur-
rection reveals the incomparable importance of the event, 35 but
it does not provide any indication regarding a special day to
commemorate it. In fact, as Harold Riesenfeld notes, "In the
accounts of the Resurrection in the Gospels, there are no sayings
which direct that the great event of Christ's Resurrection should
be commemorated on the particular day of the week on which it
occurred." 36
Moreover, as the same author observes, "The first day of the
week, in the writings of the New Testament, is never called 'Day
of the Resurrection'. This is a term which made its appearance
later." 37 Its usage first appears in the fourth century.
Therefore, "to say that Sunday was observed because Jesus rose on
that day," as S.V.McCasland cogently states, "is really a petitio
principii [begging the question], for such a celebration might
just as well be monthly or annually and still be an observance of
that particular day. 38
The New Testament attributes no liturgical significance to
the day of Christ's Resurrection simply because the Resurrection
was seen as an existential reality experienced by living
victoriously by the power of the Risen Savior, and not a
liturgical practice associated with Sunday worship. Had Jesus
wanted to memorialize the day of His Resurrection, He would have
capitalized on the day of His Resurrection to make such a day the
fitting memorial of that event. But none of the utterances of the
risen Savior reveal an intent to memorialize the day of His
Resurrection by making it the new Christian day of rest and
worship. Biblical institutions such as the Sabbath, Baptism, and
the Lord's Supper all trace their origin to a divine act that
established them. But there is no such divine act for the
institution of a weekly Sunday or an annual Easter Sunday
memorial of the Resurrection.
The silence of the New Testament on this matter is very
important since most of its books were written many years after
Christ's death and Resurrection. If by the latter half of the
first century Sunday had come to be viewed as the memorial of the
Resurrection which fulfilled the creation/redemption functions of
the Old Testament Sabbath, as the Pope claims, we would expect to
find in the New Testament some allusions to the religious meaning
and observance of the weekly Sunday and/or annual Easter-Sunday.
The total absence of any such allusions indicates that such
developments occurred in the post-apostolic period as a result of
an interplay of political, social, and religious factors. These I
have examined at length in my dissertation "From Sabbath to
Sunday."
(Absolutely true!! If the day of Christ's resurrection was to
replace the Old Covenant Sabbath, the 4th commandment of the
great Ten, then there can be no doubt that Jesus or the apostles
would have clearly stated that fact. There would have been a
Jerusalem conference as in Acts 15 for the circumcision debate,
to debate and to send forth instructions that the resurrection
day was now the holy Sabbath of the Lord. No such assersions can
be found anywhere in the New Testament - Keith Hunt)
No Easter-Sunday in the New Testament.
The Pope's claim that the celebration of Christ's
Resurrection on a weekly Sunday and annual Easter-Sunday "evolved
from the early years after the Lord's Resurrection" 39 cannot be
substantiated Biblically or historically. There is nearly
unanimous scholarly consensus that for at least a century after
Jesus' death, Passover was observed not on Easter-Sunday, as a
celebration of the Resurrection, but on the date of Nisan 14
(irrespective of the day of the week) as a celebration of the
sufferings, atoning sacrifice, and Resurrection of Christ.
The repudiation of the Jewish reckoning of Passover and the
adoption of Easter-Sunday instead is a post-apostolic development
which is attributed, as Joachim Jeremias puts it, "to the
inclination to break away from Judaism" 40 and to avoid, as J. B.
Lightfoot explains, "even the semblance of Judaism." 41
The introduction and promotion of Easter-Sunday by the
Church of Rome in the second century caused the well-known
Passover (Quartodeciman) controversy which eventually led Bishop
Victor of Rome to excommunicate the Asian Christians (c. A.D.
191) for refusing to adopt Easter-Sunday. 42 Indications such as
these suffice to show that Christ's Resurrection was not
celebrated on a weekly Sunday and annual Easter-Sunday from the
inception of Christianity. The social, political, and religious
factors that contributed to the change from Sabbath to Sunday and
Passover to Easter-Sunday are discussed at great length in my
dissertation.
(Once more this is clearly what "Church history" records and
teaches. It also records there was opposition to Sunday and
Easter-Sunday; for a few hundred years the Christian world was
divided over Sabbath/Sunday and Passover/Easter. As the church of
Rome grew and finally became the "state religion" under
Constantine about 313 A.D. there were much fewer Christians
observing the 7th day Sabbath and Passover, but there always
remained some who did, just as it is so today - Keith Hunt)
Evaluation of the Appearances.
John Paul attaches particular significance to the
appearances of the Risen Lord on the first day of the week to
"the two disciples of Emmaus (cf. Luke 24:13-35) and to the
eleven Apostles gathered together (cf. Luke 24:36-49; John
20:19)." 43 The fact that He also appeared to the disciples the
following Sunday ("eight days later" - John 20:26) to make
Himself known to Thomas, and that He fulfilled the promise of
outpouring the Holy Spirit on a Sunday (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5)
is seen as the beginning of a consistent pattern of Sunday
observance. 44
The appearances of Christ do not follow any consistent
pattern. The mention of Christ's appearance "eight days later"
(John 20:26), supposedly the Sunday following His Resurrection,
can hardly suggest a regular pattern of Sunday observance since
John himself explains its reason, namely, the absence of Thomas
at the previous appearance (John 20:24). Moreover, on this
occasion, John makes no reference to any cultic meal but simply
to Christ's tangible demonstration to Thomas of the reality of
his bodily Resurrection (John 20:26-29). The fact that "eight
days later" the disciples were again gathered together is not
surprising, since we are told that before Pentecost "they were
staying" (Acts 1:13) together in the upper room and there they
met daily for mutual edification (Acts 1:14; 2:1).
No consistent pattern can be derived from Christ's
appearances to justify the institution of a recurring eucharistic
celebration on Sunday. The Lord appeared to individuals and to
groups not only on Sunday but at different times, places, and
circumstances. He appeared, in fact, to single persons such as
Cephas and James (1 Cor. 15:5,7), to the twelve (vv.5,7), and to
a group of five hundred persons (v.6). The meetings occurred, for
instance, while the disciples were gathered within shut doors for
fear of the Jews (John 20:19,26), traveling on the Emmaus road
(Luke 24:13-35), or fishing on the lake of Galilee (John
21:1-14).
Only with two disciples at Emmaus, Christ "took the bread
and blessed; and broke it, and gave it to them" (Luke 24:30).
This last instance may sound like the celebration of the
Lord's Supper, but in reality it was an ordinary meal around an
ordinary table to which Jesus was invited. Christ accepted the
hospitality of the two disciples and sat "at the table with them"
(Luke 24:30). According to prevailing custom, the Lord "took the
bread and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them" (Luke
24:30). This act, as explained by J.Behm, was "simply a customary
and necessary part of the preparation for eating together." 45
The Witness of Matthew and Mark. Another notable point is that,
according to Matthew (28:10) and Mark (16:7), Christ's
appearances occurred not in Jerusalem (as mentioned by Luke and
John) but in Galilee. This suggests that, as S.V.McCasland
observes, "the appearance may have been as much as ten days
later, after the feast of the unleavened bread, as indicated by
the closing fragments of the Gospel of Peter. But if the
appearance at this late date was on Sunday it would be scarcely
possible to account for the observance of Sunday in such an
accidental way." 46
While it may be difficult to explain the discrepancies in
the Gospels' narratives, the fact remains that both Matthew and
Mark make no reference to any meal or meeting of Christ with his
disciples on Easter Sunday. This implies that no particular
importance was attributed to the meal Christ shared with his
disciples on the Sunday night of his Resurrection.
In the light of the foregoing considerations, we conclude
that Christ's appearances served to reassure the disheartened
disciples of the reality of Christ's Resurrection, but they could
hardly have set the pattern for a recurring weekly commemoration
of the Resurrection. They occurred at different times, places,
and circumstances; and in those instances where Christ ate, He
partook of ordinary food (like fish - John 21:13), not to
institute a eucharistic Sunday worship but to demonstrate the
reality of his bodily Resurrection.
(As a child reading my Bible from the age of 7, reading the
Gospels many numbers of time during my childhood and teens,
attending on a very regular basis "Sunday school" - I never came
close to associating the appearances of Christ after His
resurrection, to teach us the sanctification of Sunday. This is
how the mind of a child would read the Gospels and first chapter
of Acts, if fed no preconceived ideas of theology - Keith Hunt)
(2) The Day of the Sun and the Creation of Light
John Paul maintains that "the Old Testament vision of the
Sabbath" inspired the earliest Christians to link the
Resurrection with the first day of creation. He writes:
"Christian thought spontaneously linked the Resurrection,
which took place on 'the first day of the week,' with the
first day of that cosmic week (cf. Gen. 1:1-2:4) which
shapes the creation story of the Book of Genesis: the day of
the creation of light (cf. 1:3-5)." 47
The linkage between the Resurrection and the creation of
light was not as "spontaneously" inspired by "the Old Testament
vision of the Sabbath," as the Pope suggests. In my dissertation
"From Sabbath to Sunday," I submit compelling documents
indicating that such linkage was inspired by the necessity which
arose in the post-apostolic period to justify the abandonment of
the Sabbath and the adoption of the Day of the Sun.
Hadrianic Anti-Sabbath Legislation.
This development began during the reign of the Emperor
Hadrian (A.D.117-138) as a result of the repressive anti-Judaic
legislation. In A.D.135, Hadrian promulgated a legislation that
categorically prohibited the practice of Judaism, in general, and
of Sabbathkeeping, in particular. The aim of this legislation was
to liquidate Judaism as a religion at a time when the Jews where
experiencing resurgent Messianic expectations that exploded in
violent uprisings in various parts of the empire, especially
Palestine. 48
To avoid the repressive anti-Jewish and anti-Sabbath
legislation, most Christians adopted the Day of the Sun as their
new day of worship. This enabled them to show the Roman
authorities their differentiations from the Jews and their
identification and integration with the customs and cycles of the
Roman empire.
To develop a theological justification for worshipping on
the Day of the Sun, Christians appealed to God's creation of
light on the first day and to the Resurrection of Christ as the
Sun of Justice, since both events coincided with the Day of the
Sun. The latter was connected to the first day of the
creation-week, because the creation of light on the first day
provided what appeared to many a providential biblical
justification for observing the Day of the Sun, the generator of
light.
Sunday and the Creation of Light.
The earliest example of this linkage is found in Justin
Martyr's "Apology," addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius
(about A.D.150). Justin writes: "Sunday (dies solis) is the day
on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first
day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and
matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Savior on the same
day rose from the dead." 49 Christians, as Cardinal J.Danielou
points out, noticed early the coincidence between the creation of
light on the first day and the veneration of the Sun which took
place on the selfsame day. 50
Jerome (A.D.342-420) makes the connection very explicit when
he says: "If it is called the Day of the Sun by the pagans, we
most willingly acknowledge it as such, since it is on this day
that the light of the world appeared and on this day the Sun of
Justice has risen." 51
These considerations suggest that Christians did not
spontaneously come to view the day of Christ's Resurrection as
the fulfillment of the creative and redemptive accomplishments
celebrated by the seventh day Sabbath. The linkage to the
creation week was made primarily by virtue of the fact that the
creation of the light on the first day provided what to many
Christians appeared to be a "biblical" justification for
observing the Day of the Sun.
Evangelistic Considerations.
The christianization of the Day of the Sun was apparently
designed also to facilitate the acceptance of Christianity by
pagans who worshipped the Sun-god, especially on his day of the
Sun. For them to adopt the Day of the Sun as their Christian day
of worship was not a problem since that day already had special
religious significance in their pagan religion.
It is noteworthy that the growing popularity of Sun worship
led to the advancement of the Day of the Sun from the position of
second day of the week (following Saturn-day), to that of first
and most important day of the week. The historical sources
available indicate that this development occurred in the early
part of the second century - that is, at the very time when
Christians adopted the Day of the Sun for their weekly worship.
52
John Paul acknowledges the evangelistic intent of the
adoption of the "day of the Sun." He writes: "Wise pastoral
intuition suggested to the Church the christianization of the
notion of Sunday as 'the day of the Sun,' which was the Roman
name for the day and which is retained in some modern languages.
This was in order to draw the faithful away from the seduction of
cults which worshipped the sun, and to direct the celebration of
the day to Christ, humanity's true 'sun.'" 53
Unfortunately, this strategy backfired because Christians
were often tempted to revert to the popular veneration of the Sun
and other planetary gods. For example, Philaster, Bishop of
Brescia (died ca. A.D.397) condemns as heresy the prevailing
belief that "the name of the days of the Sun, of the Moon ... had
been established by God at the creation of the world ... The
pagans, that is, the Greeks have set up such names and with the
names also the notion that mankind depends from the seven stars"
54
In a document attributed to Priscillian, a Spanish Bishop of
Avila (ca. A.D.340-385), anathema is pronounced against those
Christians who "in their sacred ceremonies, venerate and
acknowledge as gods the Sun, Moon ... and all the heavenly host,
which are detestable idols worthy of the Gehenna." 55
The adoption and christianization of the day of the sun,
instead of the biblical Sabbath, has not proven to be a "wise
pastoral intuition" since it has tempted Christians in the past
to revert to pagan worship, and it is tempting Christians today
to treat Sunday as a pagan holiday rather than as a Biblical Holy
Day.
Was Sunday Needed?
At this juncture I would like to pose respectfully to Pope
John Paul some important questions: If the Sabbath had been
divinely established to commemorate God's creative and re-
demptive accomplishments on behalf of His people, what right had
the Catholic Church to make Sunday the legitimate "fulfillment,"
"full expression," and "extension" of the Sabbath? Was the
theology and typology of the Sabbath no longer adequate after the
Cross to commemorate creation and redemption? Was not the Paschal
Mystery fulfilled through the death, burial, and Resurrection of
Christ which occurred respectively on Friday, Saturday, and
Sunday?
(Here Bacchiocchi is wrong! The death of Christ was a Wednesday
afternoon and he was put in the grave Wednesday evening. He arose
from the dead Saturday evening - three days and three nights
later just as he said He would - Mat.12:40 - Keith Hunt)
Why should Sunday be chosen to celebrate the atoning
sacrifice of Christ when His redemptive mission was completed on
a Friday afternoon when the Savior exclaimed "It is finished"
(John 19:30), and then He rested in the tomb according to the
Sabbath commandment? Does not this fact suggest that both God's
creation rest and Christ's redemption rest in the tomb occurred
on the Sabbath? How can Sunday be invested with the
eschatological meaning of the final restoration rest that awaits
the people of God when the New Testament attaches such a meaning
to the Sabbath? "A Sabbath rest [literally, a 'Sabbathkeeping']
has been left behind [apoleipetai] for the people of God" (Heb
4:9). Augustine himself recognizes the eschatological meaning of
the Sabbath when he eloquently says that on that final Sabbath
"we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise." 56
May I respectfully suggest that the Pope's attempt to invest
Sunday with the theological meaning and eschatological function
of the Sabbath by virtue of Christ's Resurrection on the first
day is well-meaning but misguided. It mistakenly makes Sunday the
biblical Sabbath, when in reality the two days differ radically
in their origin, meaning, authority, and experience.
(Jesus did rest in the grave on the Sabbath. He was resurrected
after sunset on what we would call Saturday evening. It was as
all early Christians knew, a first day resurrection. Christ in
typology was the first fruits from the dead, the first to be
raised from the dead to immortal glory. The cutting of the wave-
sheaf [Sadducee teaching] was correctly done by the Sadducees on
Saturday evening after sunset, and the counting to Pentecost
started from the first day of the week, for 49 days or seven
weekly Sabbaths, to the 50th day, or the morrow after the seventh
Sabbath, which would then always be on a Sunday. Jesus was the
first of the firstfruits, a first day resurrection. We Christians
are the firstfruits to God the Father, pictured by the Feast of
firstfruits Pentecost. All this typology is expounded upon in
various of my sturdies on this Website - Keith Hunt)
(3) The Religious Gatherings on the First Day of the Week
In his Pastoral Letter, Pope John Paul traces the origin of
Sunday worship back to the Apostolic church. He claims that from
Apostolic times the first day of the week shaped the religious
life of Christ's disciples. 57 To support this claim, the Pope
appeals to three commonly used texts: (1) 1 Corinthians 16:2, (2)
Acts 20:7-12, and (3) Revelation 1:10. Each of these passages are
examined at great length in my dissertation. 58 In this context
I limit myself to a few basic observations.
1 Corinthians 16:2: Christian Sunday Gatherings?
The firstday fund-rasing plan recommended by Paul in 1
Corinthians 16:1-3 is cited by John Paul as an indication that
"from Apostolic times, 'the first day after the Sabbath,' the
first day of the week, began to shape the rhythm of life
for Christ's disciples (cf. 1 Cor. 16:2)." 59 The Pope affirms
that "ever since Apostolic times, the Sunday gathering has in
fact been for Christians a moment of fraternal sharing with the
poor. 'On the first day of the week, each of you is to put aside
and save whatever extra you earn' (1 Cor. 16:2), says Saint Paul
in referring to the collection organized for the poor churches of
Judaea." 60
John Paul sees in the first-day fund-raising plan
recommended by Paul in this text a clear indication that the
Christian Church gathered for worship on that day. This view is
shared by numerous Catholic and Protestant scholars. 61 For
example, Corrado Mosna argues that since Paul designates the
"offering" in 2 Corinthians 9:12 as "service-leiturgia," the
collection [of 1 Corinthians 16:2] must have been linked with the
Sunday worship service of the Christian assembly." 62
The various attempts to extrapolate from Paul's fund-raising
plan a regular pattern of Sunday observance reveal inventiveness
and originality, but they rest on construed arguments and not on
the actual information the text provides.
Observe, first of all, that there is nothing in the text to
suggests public assemblies inasmuch as the setting aside of funds
was to be done "by himself--par'heauto." The phrase suggests that
the collection was to be done individually and in private.
If the Christian community was worshiping together on
Sunday, it appears paradoxical that Paul should recommend laying
aside at home one's gift. Why should Christians deposit their
offering at home on Sunday if on such a day they were gathering
for worship? Should not the money have been brought to the Sunday
service?
(It is a mighty big leap to read into this fund-raising as
teaching a "regular" Sunday worship practice, and especially any
teaching to show Sunday was now a "holy day" in-place-of the 4th
commandment Sabbath. People who jump to this conclusion are
indeed doing what many Bible sceptics have claimed: "You can make
the Bible say anything you want it to say" - Keith Hunt)
Purpose of the Fund-raising Plan.
The purpose of the first-day fund-raising plan is clearly
stated by the Apostle: "So that contributions need not be made
when I come" (1 Cor. 16:2). The plan then is proposed not to
enhance Sunday worship by the offering of gifts, but to ensure a
substantial and efficient collection upon his arrival. Four
characteristics can be identified in the plan. The offering was
to be laid aside periodically ("on the first day of every week" -
v.2), personally ("each of you" - v.2), privately ("by himself in
store" - v.2), and proportionately ("as he may prosper" - v.2).
To the same community on another occasion, Paul thought it
necessary to send brethren to "arrange in advance for the gift
... promised, so that it may be ready not as an exaction but as a
willing gift" (2 Cor. 9:5). The Apostle desired to avoid
embarrassing both to the givers and to the collectors when
finding that they "were not ready" (2 Cor. 9:4) for the
offering. To avoid such problems in this instance, he recommends
both a time - the first day of the week - and a place - one's
home.
Paul's mention of the first day could be motivated more by
practical than theological reasons. To wait until the end of the
week or of the month to set aside one's contributions or savings
is contrary to sound budgetary practices, since by then one finds
empty pockets and empty hands. On the other hand, if, on the
first day of the week before planning any expenditures, believers
set aside what they plan to give, the remaining funds will be so
distributed as to meet all the basic necessities. The text,
therefore, proposes a valuable weekly plan to ensure a
substantial and orderly contribution on behalf of the poor
brethren of Jerusalem - to extract more meaning from the text
would distort it.
(Would for sure destroy it, but would also be making the Bible
say anything you desire it to say, and that is one very good
reason you have all the "denominations" in Christendom that we
have - Keith Hunt)
Acts 20:7-11: First-Day Troas Meeting.
Fundamental importance is attributed to Acts 20:7-11
inasmuch as it contains the only explicit New Testament reference
to a Christian gathering conducted "on the first day of the week
... to break bread" (Acts 20:7). John Paul assumes that the
meeting was a customary Sunday assembly "upon which the faithful
of Troas were gathered 'for the breaking of the bread [that is,
the Eucharistic celebration]." 63
Numerous scholars share the Pope's view. F.F.Bruce, for
example, affirms that this statement "is the earliest unambiguous
evidence we have for the Christian practice of gathering together
for worship on that day." 64 Paul Jewett similarly declares that
"here is the earliest clear witness to Christian assembly for
purposes of worship on the first day of the week." 65 Statements
like these could be multiplied.
These categorical conclusions rest mostly on the assumption
that verse 7 represents "a fixed formula" which describes the
habitual time ("On the first day of the week") and the nature
("to break bread") of the primitive Christian worship. Since,
however, the meeting occurred in the evening and "the breaking of
the bread" took place after midnight (vv.7,11) and Paul left the
believers at dawn, we need to ask: Was the time and nature of the
Troas gathering ordinary or extraordinary, occasioned perhaps by
the departure of the Apostle?
Special Farewell Gathering.
The context clearly indicates that it was a special farewell
gathering occasioned by the departure of Paul, and not a regular
Sunday-worship custom. The meeting began on the evening of the
first day, which, according to Jewish reckoning, was our Saturday
night, and continued until early Sunday morning when Paul
departed.
Being a night meeting occasioned by the departure of the
Apostle at dawn, it is hardly reflective of regular
Sundaykeeping.
Paul would have observed with the believers only the night
of Sunday and traveled during the day time. This was not allowed
on the Sabbath and would not have set the best example of
Sundaykeeping either. The passage suggests, as noted by F.J.
Foakes-Jackson, that "Paul and his friends could not, as good
Jews, start on a journey on a Sabbath; they did so as soon after
it as was possible (verse 12) at dawn on the 'first day' the
Sabbath having ended at sunset." 66
The Breaking of the Bread.
The expression "to break bread--klasai arton" deserves
closer attention. What does it actually mean in the context of
the passage? Does it mean that 'the Christians came together for
a fellowship meal or to celebrate the Lord's Supper? It should be
noted that the breaking of bread was simply a customary and
necessary part of the preparation for eating together. The act of
breaking in pieces a loaf of bread by the host marked the opening
action of a meal. In most European cultures, the same function is
fulfilled by the host wishing "Buon appetito--Good Appetite" to
the guest. This ritual gives permission to all to begin eating.
In the post-apostolic literature, the expression "breaking
of bread" is used as a technical designation for the Lord's
Supper. But this is not the common meaning or usage in the New
Testament. In fact, the verb "to break--klao" followed by the
noun "bread--artos" occurs fifteen times in the New Testament.
Nine times it refers to Christ's act of breaking bread when
feeding the multitude, when partaking of the Last Supper, and
when eating with His disciples after His Resurrection (Matt
14:19; 15:36; 26:26; Mark 8:6; 9:19; 14:22; Luke 22:19; 24:30;
24:35); twice it describes Paul's commencing and partaking of a
meal (Acts 20:11; 27:35); twice it describes the actual breaking
of the bread of the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 10:16; 11:24); and
twice it is used as a general reference to the disciples' or
believers' "breaking bread" together (Acts 2:46; 20:7).
It should be noticed that in none of these instances is the
Lord's Supper explicitly or technically designated as "the
breaking of bread." An attempt could be made to see a reference
to the Lord's Supper in the two general references of Acts 2:46
and 20:7. As far as Acts 2:46 is concerned, the phrase "breaking
bread in their homes" obviously refers to the daily
table-fellowship of the earliest Christians, when, as the text
says, "day by day ... they partook of food with glad and generous
hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people" (Acts
2:46-47).
Such daily table-fellowship, though it may have included the
celebrations of the Lord's Supper, can hardly be construed as
exclusive liturgical celebrations of the Lord's Supper. The
equivalent statement found in Acts 20:7, "We were gathered
together to break bread," similarly needs mean no more than "We
were gathered to eat together." In fact, there is no mention of a
cup, nor of any prayers or reading of a Scripture. It is Paul
alone who broke bread and ate. No indication is given that he
ever blessed the bread or the wine or that he distributed it to
the believers.
Furthermore, the breaking of bread was followed by a meal
"having eaten--geusamenos" (v.11). The same verb is used by Luke
in three other instances with the explicit meaning of satisfying
hunger (Acts 10:10; 23:14; Luke 14:24). Undoubtedly, Paul was
hungry after his prolonged speech and needed some food before he
could continue his exhortation and start his journey. However, if
Paul partook of the Lord's Supper together with a regular meal,
he would have acted contrary to his recent instruction to the
Corinthians to whom he strongly recommended satisfying their
hunger by eating at home before gathering to celebrate the Lord's
Supper (1 Cor. 11:2,22,34).
The New Testament does not offer any indication regarding a
fixed day for the celebration of the Lord's Supper. While Paul
recommends to the Corinthian believers a specific day on which to
privately set aside their offerings, concerning the celebration
of the Lord's Supper he repeatedly says in the same epistle and
to the same people, "When you come together" (1 Cor. 11:18,20,
33,34), implying indeterminate times and days.
The simplest way to explain the passage is that Luke
mentions the day of the meeting not because it was Sunday, but
most likely because (1) Paul was "ready to depart" (Acts 20:7),
(2) the extraordinary miracle of Eutychus occurred that night,
and (3) the time reference provides an additional, significant,
chonological reference to describe the unfolding of Paul's
journey.
(Again, a mighty leap of imagination is needed to read into the
"break bread" passages, to infer a teaching of a regular Lord's
supper celebration on a now sanctified new Christian holy day,
that of Sunday sacredness. I had read those passages many times
as a boy and young man, and never once thought they taught
anything to do with any "sacred" day of any kind - Keith Hunt)
Revelation 1:10: "The Lord's Day."
The third crucial New Testament passage used by John Paul to
defend the apostolic origin of Sunday observance is found in the
book of Revelation. John, exiled on the "island of Patmos on
account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus" (Rev. 1
:9), writes: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day--en to
kuriake hemera" (Rev 1:10).
John Paul claims that this text "gives evidence of the
practice of calling the first day of the week 'the Lord's Day'
(Rev. 1:10). This would now be a characteristic distinguishing
Christians from the world around them ... And when Christians
spoke of the 'Lord's Day,' they did so giving to this term the
full sense of the Easter proclamation: 'Jesus Christ is Lord'
(Phil. 2:11; cf. Acts 2:36; 1 Cor. 12:3)." 67
The implication of the Pope's statement is that New
Testament Christians not only called Sunday "The Lord's Day" but
also expressed through such designation their faith in their
Risen Savior. Numerous scholars share the same view. For example,
Corrado Mosna emphatically writes: "By the phrase 'Lord's Day'
(Rev. 1:10), John wishes to indicate specifically the day in
which the community celebrates together the eucharistic liturgy."
68 he phrase "eucharistic liturgy" is used by Catholics to
describe the Lord's Supper celebration in honor of the Risen
Lord.
A detailed analysis of this text would take us beyond the
limited scope of this chapter. In my dissertation "From Sabbath
to Sunday" I devoted twenty pages (pp.111 to 131) to an
examination of this verse. For the purpose of this chapter, I
submit only two basic observations.
First, the equation of Sunday with the expression "Lord's
day" is not based on internal evidences of the book of Revelation
or of the rest of the New Testament, but on three second-century
patristic testimonies, namely, "Didache" 14:1, Ignatius' "Epistle
to the Magnesians" 9:1, and "The Gospel of Peter" 35; 50. Of the
three, however, only in the "Gospel of Peter," written toward the
end of the second century, is Sunday unmistakably designated by
the technical term "Lord's--kuriake." In two different verses it
reads: "Now in the night in which the Lord's day (He kuriake)
dawned ... there rang out a loud voice in heaven" (v.35); "Early
in the morning of the Lord's day (tes kuriakes) Mary Magdalene
... came to the sepulchre" (v.50,51).
It is noteworthy that while in the genuine Gospels Mary
Magdalene and the other women went to the sepulchre "early on the
first day of the week" (Mark 16:2; cf. Matt 28:1; Luke 24:1; John
20:1), in the apocryphal "Gospel of Peter" it says that they went
"early in the morning of the Lord's day." The use of the new
designation "Lord's Day" instead of "first day of the week"
clearly indicates that by the end of the second century
Christians referred to Sunday as "the Lord's Day."
The latter usage, however, cannot be legitimately read back
into Revelation 1:10. A major reason is that if Sunday had
already received the new appellation "Lord's day" by the end of
the first century, when both the Gospel of John and the book of
Revelation were written, we would expect this new name for Sunday
to be used consistently in both works, especially since they were
apparently produced by the same author at approximately the same
time and in the same geographical area.
If the new designation "Lord's day" already existed by the
end of the first century, and expressed the meaning and nature of
Christian Sunday worship, John would not have had reasons to use
the Jewish phrase "first day of the week" in his Gospel.
Therefore, the fact that the expression "Lord's day" occurs
in John's apocalyptic book but not in his Gospel where the first
day is explicitly mentioned in conjunction with the Resurrection
(John 20:1) and the appearances of Jesus (John 20:19,26) suggests
that the "Lord's day" of Revelation 1:10 can hardly refer to
Sunday.
No Easter Sunday.
A second important consideration that discredits the Pope's
claim that Sunday was called "Lord's Day" in the "sense of the
Easter proclamation" is the fact that the book of Revelation is
addressed to the seven churches of Asia Minor who did not observe
Easter-Sunday. Instead, they observed Passover by the biblical
date of Nisan 14. Polycrates, who claims to be following the
tradition of the Apostle John, convened a council of the church
leaders of Asia Minor (about A.D.191) to discuss the summon
received from Bishop Victor of Rome to adopt Easter-Sunday. The
unanimous decision of the Asian bishops was to reject
Easter-Sunday and to retain the Biblical dating of Passover. 69
In the light of these facts, it would be paradoxical if the
Apostle John, who kept Passover by the fixed date of Nisan 14 and
who wrote to Christians in Asia Minor who like him did not
observe Easter-Sunday, would have used the phrase "Lord's Day" to
express his Easter faith in the Risen Lord. Cardinal Jean
Danielou, a respected Catholic scholar, timidly acknowledges this
fact when he writes: "In the Apocalypse (1:10), when Easter takes
place on the 14 Nisan, the word [Lord's Day] does not perhaps
mean Sunday." 70
The only day that John knew as the "Lord's Day" by the end
of the first century when he wrote the book of Revelation is the
Sabbath. This is the only day of which Christ proclaims Himself
to be "Lord--kupios." "For the Son of man is lord of the Sabbath"
(Matt. 12:8).
The immediate context that precedes and follows Revelation
1:10 contains unmistakable references to the eschatological day
of the Lord. This suggests the possibility that the "Lord's Day"
on which John was transported in vision was a Sabbath day in
which he saw the great day of Christ's coming. What greater
vision could have given courage to the aged Apostle in exile for
his witness to Christ! Moreover, the Sabbath is closely linked
eschatologically to the Second Advent. The meeting of the
invisible Lord in time on the weekly Sabbath is a prelude to the
meeting of the visible Lord in space on the final day of His
coming.
(As Bacchiocchi elsewhere writes, the meaning of "the Lord's day"
in the book of Revelation, a prophetic book, is in tune with the
Old Testament prophets when they used the phrase "Lord's day" as
the prophetic time of the end of the age and the time when God
steps in to save the world from itself; the time of mighty
tribulation and miracles and prophetic events, that leads up to
the end of the age and the coming of Christ in visible power and
glory, to establish the Kingdom of God on the earth. Most of the
book of Revelation is the prophecy of the time of the wrath of
God's punishment and intervention on the nations of the earth.
John sees in vision this period of the end time, or the "day of
the Lord." The phrase as used by John has nothing to do with ANY
day of the week - Keith Hunt)
Summing up, the attempt of the Pastoral Letter to find
biblical support for Sunday worship in the New Testament
references to the Resurrection (Mark 16:2, 9; Luke 24:1; John
20:1) - the first-day farewell night meeting at Troas (Acts
20:7-11), the first-day private deposit plan mentioned by Paul in
1 Corinthians 16:1-3, and the reference to the "Lord's Day" in
Revelation 1:10 - is not new. The same arguments have been used
repeatedly in the past and found wanting.
An important fact, often ignored, is that if Paul or any
other apostle had attempted to promote the abandonment of the
Sabbath (a millenarian institution deeply rooted in the religious
consciousness of God's people), and the adoption instead of
Sunday observance, they would have stirred up considerable
opposition on the part of Jewish-Christians, as was the case with
reference to the circumcision.
The absence of any echo of Sabbath/Sunday controversy in the
New Testament is a most telling evidence that the introduction of
Sunday observance is a post-apostolic phenomenon. In my
dissertation "From Sabbath to Sunday," I endeavored to identify
the interplay of social, political, and religious factors that
contributed to this historical change. In the light of these
considerations, the attempt of Pope John Paul to give a biblical
sanction to Sunday worship by tracing its origins to the
Apostolic Church must be viewed as well-meaning but devoid of
biblical support.
(INDEED, ANY CHANGE FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY IN APOSTOLIC TIMES
WOULD HAVE CAUSED A JERUSALEM MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE, LIKE WE
FIND ON THE SUBJECT OF CIRCUMCISION IN ACTS 15. SUCH A CHANGE IN
SUCH A LONG AND IMPORTANT ESTABLISHMENT AND PRACTICE OF 7TH DAY
SABBATHKEEPING WOULD HAVE ROCKED THE NEW TESTAMENT WRITERS, TO
THE POINT WHERE THEY WOULD HAVE WRITTEN ABOUT IT IN NO UNCERTAIN
TERMS. NO SUCH WORD BEING THERE ABOUT SUCH A CHANGE CAN ONLY MEAN
ONE THING: THE 7TH DAY SABBATH WAS STILL THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT
AND THERE WAS NO CHANGING IN ITS WORDING; IT STILL REMAINED IN
FULL TACK - FULL DRESS - AND FULLY ESTABLISHED HAS IT HAD BEEN
FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GENESIS 1 AND 2 - Keith
Hunt)
PART 3 POPE JOHN PAUL'S CALL FOR SUNDAY LEGISLATION
In his Pastoral Letter Dies Domini, Pope John Paul devotes
one of the five chapters (chapter 4) to emphasize the obligation
of Sunday observance and the legislation needed to facilitate
compliance with such obligation. The Pope's call for civil
legislation to facilitate Sunday observance stems from three
major considerations which we need to briefly consider:
...................
To be continued
3. The SABBATH under Crossfire
The Pope's Position on Sunday-keeping
Continued from previous page
(1) The moral obligation of Sunday observance
(2) The ecclesiastical enforcement of Sunday observance
(3) The call for civil Sunday legislation
(1) The Moral Obligation of Sunday Observance
For the Pope, Sunday observance is not an option but a moral
obligation which is well-defined both in the Catholic Catechism
and the Catholic Canon Law. We have seen that John Paul roots
such an obligation in the Sabbath commandment itself, because he
believes that Sunday is "inscribed" in the Decalogue and is the
fulfillment and full expression of the Sabbath. This means that
Sunday must be observed according to the directives of the
Sabbath commandment.
John Paul writes: "It is the duty of Christians, therefore,
to remember that, although the practices of the Jewish Sabbath
are gone, surpassed as they are by the 'fulfillment' which Sunday
brings, the underlying reasons for keeping 'the Lord's Day' holy
- inscribed solemnly in the Ten Commandments - remain valid,
though they need to be reinterpreted in the light of the theology
and spirituality of Sunday." 71 The Pope continues quoting the
Deuteronomic version of the Sabbath commandment (Deut. 5:12-15).
The moral obligation to observe Sunday for the Pope is "inscribed
solemnly in the Ten Commandments" because, "more than a
'replacement' of the Sabbath, Sunday is its fulfillment, and in a
certain sense its extension and full expression in the ordered
unfolding of the history of salvation." 72 "From this
perspective," John Paul continues, "the biblical theology of the
'Sabbath' can be recovered in full, without compromising the
Christian character of Sunday." 73
Evaluation.
The Pope's attempt to ground the moral obligation of Sunday
observance in the Sabbath commandment is very ingenious, but, as
shown earlier, it lacks biblical and historical support. From a
biblical perspective, there are no indications in the New
Testament that Sunday was ever viewed as the "extension and full
expression" of the Sabbath. Similarly, from a historical
perspective, the Fathers emphasize the difference and not the
continuity between Sabbath and Sunday.
The three major theological meanings of Sunday which I found
in the writings of the Fathers are as follows: (1) the
commemoration of the anniversary of creation, especially the
creation of light on the first day which was suggested by its
analogy to the Day of the Sun; (2) the commemoration of Christ's
Resurrection which eventually emerged as the fundamental reason
for Sundaykeeping; and (3) the cosmic and eschatological
speculations about the significance of the eighth day. An
extensive discussion of these theological reasons is found in
chapter 9 of my dissertation "From Sabbath to Sunday"
Speculations about the eighth day abound in the Patristic
literature because they served to prove the superiority of Sunday
- as the eighth day, symbol of the eternal world - in contrast to
the Sabbath, as the seventh day, symbol of the terrestial
millennium. These speculations were repudiated in the fourth
century when the necessity to prove the superiority of Sunday
over the Sabbath subsided." 74
A careful study of early Christian literature suggests that
Sunday arose, not as "the extension" of the Sabbath, but as its
replacement. The necessity which arose to separate from the Jews
and their Sabbath influenced Gentile Christians to adopt the
venerable day of the Sun, since it provided an adequate time and
symbolism to commemorate significant divine events which occurred
on that day, such as the creation of light and the Resurrection
of the Sun of Justice.
The adoption of the Day of the Sun provoked a controversy
with those who maintained the continuity and inviolability of the
Sabbath. To silence such opposition, the symbolism of the first
and eighth day were introduced and widely used by the Fathers,
since they provided seemingly valuable apologetic arguments to
defend the superiority of Sunday. As the first day, Sunday could
allegedly claim superiority over the Sabbath, since it celebrated
the anniversary of both the first and the second creation which
was inaugurated by Christ's Resurrection. The seventh day, on the
other hand, could only claim to commemorate the completion of
creation. As the eighth day, Sunday could claim to be the alleged
continuation, and supplantation of the Sabbath, both temporally
and eschatologically. 75
The polemic nature of the theological arguments developed by
the Fathers to justify Sunday observance do not support the claim
of the Pastoral Letter that Sunday was seen by the primitive
Church as "the extension and full expression" of the Sabbath. The
historical reality is that the Fathers emphasized the distinction
between Sabbath and Sunday by making the Sabbath a Jewish
institution terminated by Christ.
In the light of these considerations, the Pope's attempt to
ground the moral obligation of Sunday observance on the Sabbath
commandment must be viewed as a well-meaning but misinformed
endeavor, because theologically, historically, and existentially,
Sunday has never been the Sabbath.
(2) The Ecclesiastical Enforcement of Sunday Observance
In his Pastoral Letter, Pope John Paul emphasizes not only
the moral obligation of Sunday observance, but also the
responsibility of the Catholic Church to ensure that her members
respect such an obligation. This concept is foreign to most
Protestants who view going to church on Sunday as a good
practice, but not as a church law. Protestant churches do not
condemn the failure to attend Sunday services as a serious sin.
By contrast, the Catholic Church views the deliberate failure to
attend Sunday Mass as a grave sin.
It is important to understand the Catholic view of the
obligatory nature of attending Sunday Mass in order to comprehend
why the Catholic Church enforces such practice within the church
by means of Canon Law, and why it also urges civil governments to
pass civil Sunday legislation that respects the duty of Catholics
to fulfill their worship obligations. The connection between the
two is discussed below.
Historically, enforcement of Sunday worship within the
Catholic Church began in the fourth century. The protection
provided by the Constantinian Sunday Law (A.D.321) tempted many
Christians to become negligent about attending Sunday Mass.
To remedy this problem, as John Paul explains, "The Church had to
make explicit the duty to attend Sunday Mass: more often than
not, this was done in the form of exhortation, but at times the
Church had to resort to specific canonical precepts. This was the
case in a number of local Councils from the fourth century
onwards (as at the Council of Elvira of 300, which speaks not of
an obligation but of penalties after three absences) and most
especially from the sixth century onwards (as at the Council of
Agde in 506). These decrees of local Councils led to a universal
practice, the obligatory character of which was taken as
something quite normal." 76
The obligation to attend Sunday Mass was eventually made
"into a universal law" in 1917. Such law was incorporated into
the Catholic "Canon Law," that is, the law that governs the
Catholic religious life. The Pope notes that "this legislation
has normally been understood as entailing a grave obligation:
this is the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and
it is easy to understand why if we keep in mind how vital Sunday
is for the Christian life." 77
Indeed, the Catechism of the Catholic Church is most
emphatic about the obligation to attend Sunday Mass, saying that
"the faithful are bound to participate in the Mass." 78 While
Protestant churches encourage their members to attend Sunday
services, the Catholic Church obliges their members to attend
Sunday Mass. The reason is that for Catholics "The Sunday
Eucharist is the foundation and confirmation of all Christian
practice. For this reason the faithful are obliged to participate
in the Eucharist on days of obligation .... Those who
deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin." 79
John Paul explains that "because the faithful are obliged to
attend Mass unless there is a grave impediment, Pastors have the
corresponding duty to offer to everyone the real possibility of
fulfilling the [Mass] precept." 80 To meet this need, Catholic
Church law has made provision for the celebration of several
Masses on Sunday as well as special Masses on Saturday evening
for those who cannot make it to church on Sunday. 81
Is the Lord's Supper a Sacrifice?
The fundamental problem with the obligatory nature of Sunday
Mass which the Pope reiterates in his Pastoral Letter is that it
stems not from the Sabbath Commandment nor from the New Testament
teaching regarding the Lord's Supper. It is rather from the
Catholic dogma of transubstantiation which views the Lord's
Supper as a reenactment of Christ's sacrifice.
Pope John Paul clearly states: "The Mass in fact truly makes
present the sacrifice of the Cross. Under the species of the
bread and wine ... Christ offers himself to the Father in the
same act of sacrifice by which He offered Himself on the Cross."
82 This dogmatic teaching is affirmed in the Catechism of the
Catholic Church: "The sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of
the Eucharist are one single sacrifice. The victim is one and the
same: the same now offers through the ministry of priests, who
then offered himself on the cross; only the manner of the
offering is different. In the divine sacrifice which is
celebrated in the Mass, the same Christ who offered himself once
in a bloody manner on the altar of the cross is contained and is
offered in an unbloody manner." 83
It is this view of the Mass as a re-enactment of Christ's
atoning sacrifice before God and on behalf of the faithful that
makes attendance to the Sunday Mass "a grave obligation." By
participating in the Mass, Catholics are promised the immediate
benefits of Christ's sacrifice which is re-enacted on their
behalf before their eyes. 84
Sacrifices and the Sabbath Commandment.
This sacrificial and sacramental view of the Lord's Supper
is foreign to the New Testament and to the intent of the Sabbath
commandment. In ancient Israel sacrificial offerings took place
at the Temple on the Sabbath (Num. 28:9-10), but Sabbath
observance did not entail participating in the sacrificial
rituals of the Tabernacle or of the Temple.
Pope John Paul and the Catholic dogma ignore that the
essence of the Sabbath commandment is not participating in a
sacrificial liturgy but is consecrating the Sabbath time to God.
The Sabbath commandment invites us to offer to God not
sacrifices, but our time, which for many is the most precious
commodity to sacrifice. By giving priority to God in our thinking
and living on the Sabbath, we show in a tangible way that God
really counts in our lives.
Jesus or His followers did not go to the Temple on the
Sabbath to watch the priestly sacrificial liturgy. Instead, they
went to the synagogue to participate in the study of Scripture,
to pray, and to sing praises to God.
By making the Eucharistic (Lord's Supper) celebration the
core of Sunday observance, the Catholic Church has facilitated
the secularization of Sunday. The reason is that many sincere
Catholics believe that once they have fulfilled "the Mass
precept," they are free to spend the rest of their Sunday time as
they wish. For the Pope to reverse this trend at this time is a
monumental task, especially since people today want holidays
rather than Holy Days.
The Nature and Time of the Lord's Supper.
The Catholic "sacrificial" view of the Lord's Supper as a
re-enactment of Christ's sacrifice is foreign to the teaching of
the New Testament. There is no need to repeat Christ's atoning
sacrifice because "he always lives to make intercession" for us
(Heb. 7:25). "Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with
hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God on our behalf (Heb. 9:24). Hebrews
continues noting that Christ does not need "to offer himself
repeatedly" (Heb. 9:25), as the Catholic Mass attempts to do,
because He has "offered [Himself] once to bear the sins of many"
(Heb. 9:28).
Paul understood the Lord's Supper to be a "proclamation,"
not a re-enactment of Christ's death. "For as often as you eat
this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until
he comes" (1 Cor. 11:26). The verb "proclaim--katangellein" is
used in the New Testament for heralding the Gospel (1 Cor. 9:14)
and for making known one's faith (Rom. 1:8). This suggests that
the celebration of the Lord's Supper is a proclamation of the
Gospel directed manward, not are-enactment of Christ's sacrifice
directed Godward, as taught by the Catholic church.
The Pope's contention that "the Eucharist is the heart of
Sunday" 85 cannot be supported by the witness of the New
Testament. Paul, who claims to transmit what he "received from
the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:23) regarding the Lord's Supper, nowhere
suggests that it should be celebrated on Sunday as the core of
the Sunday worship. The Apostle takes pains to instruct the
Corinthians concerning the manner of celebrating the Lord's
Supper, but on the question of the time of the assembly no less
than four times he repeats in the same chapter, "when you come
together--sunerkomenon" (1 Cor. 11:18,20,33,34), thus implying
indeterminate times and days.
If the Lord's Supper was indeed celebrated on Sunday, Paul
could hardly have failed to mention it at least once, since four
times he refers to the coming together for its celebration.
Furthermore, if Sunday was already regarded as the "Lord's day,"
Paul could have strengthened his plea for a more worshipful
attitude during the partaking of the Lord's Supper by reminding
the Corinthians of the sacred nature of the Lord's Day in which
they met. But, though Paul was familiar with the adjective
"Lord's--kuriakos" (since he uses it in v.20 to designate the
nature of the supper), he did not apply it to Sunday, which in
the same epistle he calls by the Jewish designation "first day of
the week" (1 Cor. 16:2).
The preceding observations have served to highlight three
major flaws in the arguments of the Pastoral Letter regarding the
enforcement of Sunday worship.
First, John Paul wants to ground Sunday observance in the
Sabbath commandment in spite of the fact that the essence of
Sabbathkeeping is not participation in sacrificial rituals but
the consecration of time to God.
Second, John Paul contends that the Eucharistic (Lord's
Supper) celebration is the heart of Sunday worship in spite of
the fact that the Lord's Supper was not associated with Sunday or
Sabbath worship in the Apostolic Church.
Third, John Paul maintains that the Lord's Supper is a
sacrifice in which Christ offers Himself anew to the Father on
behalf of the faithful in spite of the fact that the New
Testament describes it as a "proclamation," not a re-enactment of
Christ's death.
What this means is that the authority of the Catholic Church
to enforce the obligation to attend Sunday Mass derives not from
biblical precepts or examples but from ecclesiastical traditions.
The questionable and inconsistent nature of church traditions
hardly provides compelling moral reasons for persuading
Christians today to observe Sunday as the biblical Holy Sabbath
Day.
(3) The Call for Civil Sunday Legislation
In his Pastoral Letter, Pope John Paul call upon Christians
to "strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty
to keep Sunday holy." 86 Such a call stems from the belief that
participation in the Sunday Mass is not an option, but a grave
obligation that can only be freely fulfilled if the State
guarantees to all the right to rest on Sunday.
Importance of Civil Sunday Legislation.
John Paul rightly notes that prior to the Sunday Law
promulgated by Constantine in A.D.321, Sunday observance was not
protected by civil legislation. 87 This meant that "Christians
observed Sunday simply as a day of worship, without being able to
give it the specific meaning of Sabbath rest." 88 In many cases,
Christians would attend an early Sunday morning service and then
spend the rest of the day working at their various occupations.
The Constantinian Sunday Law changed the situation dramatically.
As the Pope points out, "Christians rejoiced to see thus removed
the obstacles which until then had sometimes made the observance
of the Lord's Day heroic." 89 What Constantine did in making
Sunday a legal holiday for the empire was not "a mere historical
circumstance with no special significance for the church," but a
providential intervention that made it possible for Christians to
observe Sunday "without hinderance." 9o
To highlight the importance of civil legislation that
guarantees Sunday rest, the Pope points to the fact that "even
after the fall of the Empire, the Councils did not cease to
insist upon arrangements [civil legislation] regarding Sunday
rest." 91 In the light of the fact that in the past most
countries have maintained Sunday laws to permit Christians to
observe Sunday, the Pope call for civil legislation that respects
the Christian "duty to keep Sunday holy." 92
To emphasize the need for civil legislation that guarantees
Sunday rest, the Pope points to the "Encyclical Rerum Novarum"
(1891) where Pope Leo XII speaks of "Sunday rest as a worker's
right which the State must guarantee." 93 The Pontiff notes that
Sunday legislation is especially needed today, in view of the
physical, social, and ecological problems created by
technological and industrial advancements. "Therefore," the
Pope concludes, "in the particular circumstances of our time,
Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation
respects their duty to keep Sunday holy." 94
The same view is explicitly expressed in the new Catechism
of the Catholic Church: "In spite of economic constraints, public
authorities should ensure citizens a time intended for rest and
divine worship ... In respecting religious liberty and the common
good of all, Christians should seek recognition of Sunday and the
Church's holy days as legal holidays."" 95 It is evident that
the Catholic Church is committed to ensure that civil legislation
protects their rights to observe Sunday and the holy days.
The Constitutionality of Sunday Laws.
The Pope is well aware that in many countries, like the
United States, there is a separation between Church and State.
This means that if Sunday Laws are perceived to be "advancing
religion," they would be declared to be unconstitutional under
the First Amendment. Thus, the Pope's strategy is to downplay the
religious aspect of Sunday Laws, highlighting instead the social,
cultural, and family values. For example, John Paul says:
"Through Sunday rest, daily concerns and tasks can find
their proper perspectives: the material things about which
we worry give way to spiritual values; in a moment of
encounter and less pressured exchange, we see the face of
the people with whom we live. Even the beauties of nature -
too often marred by the desire to exploit, which turns
against man himself - can be rediscovered and enjoyed to the
full." 96
By emphasizing the human and "secular" benefits and values
of Sunday Laws, John Paul knows that he can gain greater
international acceptance for such legislation. It is worth noting
in this regard the U.S. Supreme Court decision in McGowan v.
Maryland, 366 U.S. 420 (1961) that upheld Maryland's Sunday
Closing Laws as not violative of the Federal Constitution. The
reason the Court justified the state's interest in protecting a
common day of Sunday rest is that Sunday has become secularized
in the American society. The Court said: "We believe that the air
of the day is one of relaxation rather than religion." 97
The recognition of this reality leads Attorney Michael
Woodruff to write as follows in "Sunday"magazine of the Lord's
Day Alliance: "If we must justify the retention of the Lord's Day
as a secular day of rest, we must find compelling secular grounds
to make it so ... If Courts view Sunday laws as having the direct
effect of 'advancing religion,' then under current First
Amendment doctrine, such laws must be unconstitutional. However,
if the laws are generally applicable and have a religion-neutral
purpose, then the effect is likely to be seen incidental. To this
end, the distinction between religious practice and the form of
laws is important." 98
The Pope is well aware of the need to maintain this
distinction. Thus in his Pastoral Letter, he appeals to the
social and human values that Sunday Laws guarantee and promote.
He writes:
"In our historical context there remains the obligation [of
the state] to ensure that everyone can enjoy the freedom,
rest and relaxation which human dignity requires, together
with the associated religious, family, cultural and
interpersonal needs which are difficult to meet if there is
no guarantee of at least one day a week on which people can
both rest and celebrate." 99
The Influence of the Pastoral Letter.
At this juncture, we may ask: How much influence will the
Pastoral Letter exercise in the international community of
nations in promoting Sunday civil legislation? The answer to this
question largely depends upon the Pope's determination to pursue
the enforcement of Sunday observance inside and outside the
Catholic Church.
At this point, the indications are that John Paul is deeply
committed to bringing about a renewal and revival of Sunday
observance by ensuring that civil legislation facilitates the
obligation to keep Sunday holy. While in Rome last October
(1998), I contacted the "Sala Stampa - the Press Office" of the
Vatican to learn if the Pope has been pursuing further the call
of his Pastoral Letter for a revival of Sundaykeeping. The Office
informed me that there is no doubt that the Pope is serious about
it. One indication is that during the three months following the
release of the Pastoral Letter, in his Sunday address before
reciting the "Angelus," John Paul has consistently appealed to
the faithful "to rediscover the importance of Sunday." 100
The influence of the Holy See on the international community
must not be underestimated. It is reported that when confronted
by Pope Pious XII's opposition, Stalin smirked, "How many
divisions does the Pope have?" If Stalin were to come out of his
grave, he would be shocked to discover that the communist regime
that he established with so much bloodshed has collapsed due, in
no small degree, to the influence of the man who commands no
military divisions.
In evaluating John Paul's role in helping to bring about the
fall of totalitarian regimes, Gorbachev said in 1992: "Everything
that happened in Eastern Europe during these past few years would
have been impossible without the Pope, without the political role
he was able to play.
A major goal of John Paul's global vision is to protect and
defend the rights of the Catholic Church to carry out her mission
unhindered. In a speech entitled "The Vatican's Role in World
Affairs: The Diplomacy of Pope John Paul II," J. Michael Miller,
CSB, President of the University of St.Thomas and former employee
of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See (1992-1997), stated:
"The driving force behind John Paul's diplomatic initiatives is
the defense of human rights, especially religious freedom, which
allows the Church to carry out its mission in peace ... John Paul
does have what we might call an 'agenda' for world affairs which
he works systematically to promote through his preaching, his
speeches to political leaders, his major writings, his endless
globetrotting - which does not avoid trouble spots." 102
The influence of the Pope in the international arena is far
greater than many realize. It is important to clarify that it is
not the Vatican as a State that participates in international
affairs, but the Holy See. The latter is not a territorial State,
but a moral and juridical society, governed by the Pope, and
representative of the Catholic Church in the community of
nations. At present the Holy See maintains full diplomatic
relations with over 160 nations. It receives and sends
ambassadors all over the world.
It has signed formal agreements with sovereign nations. It
participates in dozens of international organizations concerned
with moral, social, humanitarian, and cultural affairs.
The goals of John Paul, as Michael Miller rightly points out,
"are, admittedly, a mixture of the religious and the more
narrowly political. John Paul, however, is not constrained by
American ideas of the separation of church and State, but pursues
what he regards as the common good of all humanity." 103
This mixture of religious and political goals can be
detected in reading the Pastoral Letter where John Paul calls for
Sunday rest as a religious and social necessity. For example, he
writes: "The link between the Lord's Day and the day of rest in
civil society has meaning and importance which go beyond the
distinctly Christian point of view." 104 By calling for a civil
Sunday legislation on the basis of the common good of all
humanity, John Paul can gain considerable support for his agenda
from the international community of nations.
Pluralistic Society.
In evaluating John Paul's call for a Sunday Rest
legislation, one must distinguish between his legitimate concern
for the social, cultural, ecological, and religious well-being of
our society, and the hardship such legislation causes to
minorities who for religious or personal reasons choose to rest
and worship on Saturday or on other days of the week.
To call upon Christians to "strive to ensure that civil
legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy" 105 means
to ignore that we live today in a pluralistic society where there
are, for example, Christians and Jews who observe the seventh-day
Sabbath as their Holy Day, and Moslims who may wish to observe
their Friday.
If Sundaykeepers expect the State to make Sunday a legal
holiday to facilitate their Sunday rest and worship, then
Sabbatarians have an equal right to expect the State to make
Saturday a legal holiday to protect their Sabbath rest and
worship. To be fair to the various religious and nonreligious
groups, the State would then have to pass legislation
guaranteeing special days of rest and worship to different groups
of people. The implementation of such a plan is inconceivable
because it would disrupt our socio-economic structure.
Sunday Laws Not Needed.
Sunday Laws, known as "Blue Laws," are still in the books of
some American States and represent an unpleasant legacy of an
intolerant past. Such laws have proven to be a failure,
especially because their hidden intent was religious, namely, to
foster Sunday observance. People resent any attempt by the State
to force religious practices upon them. This is a fundamental
principle of the First Amendment to the American Constitution,
that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion."
Sunday legislation is superfluous today because the
short-work week, with a long weekend of two or even three days,
already makes it possible for most people to observe their
Sabbath or Sunday. However, problems still do exist, especially
when an employer is unwilling to accommodate the religious
convictions of a worker. The solution to such problems is not to
be sought in Sunday or Saturday Laws, but in such legislation as
the pending "Religious Freedom in the Workplace Act." This bill
is designed to encourage employers to accommodate the religious
convictions of their workers when these do not cause undue
hardship to their company.
The Pope's call for Sunday Rest legislation ignores the fact
that Sunday Laws have not resolved the crisis of diminishing
church attendance. In most European countries, Sunday Laws have
been in effect for many years. On Sunday most of the business
establishments are shut down. Even most gasoline stations are
closed on Sunday - a fact that can be costly to uninformed
American tourists. But, have Sunday Laws facilitated church
attendance? Absolutely not! The truth of the matter is that
church attendance in Western Europe is considerably lower than
that in the United States, running at less than 10% of the
Christian population. In Italy, where I come from, it is
estimated that 95% of the Catholics go to church three times in
their lives, when they are "hatched, matched, and dispatched."
The moral and religious decline in our society is not due to
lack of legislation but to lack of moral convictions to compel
people to live according to the principles God has revealed. The
Church should not seek to solve the crisis of diminishing church
attendance by external legislation but by the internal moral and
spiritual renovation of its members. What many Christians need to
discover today is that Christianity is not a cultural heritage
that entails going to church from time to time but a commitment
to Christ. This commitment is expressed in a special way on the
Sabbath day when we stop our work in order to allow our Savior to
work more fully and freely in our lives.
Conclusion
Pope John Paul has legitimate reasons for making a
passionate plea for a revival of Sunday observance at a time when
church attendance is dwindling at an alarming rate. He
understands that if Christians ignore the Lord on the day they
call the "Lord's Day," ultimately they will ignore God every day
of their lives. This trend, if not reversed, can spell doom to
Christianity.
The solution to the crisis of declining church attendance
must be sought, however, not by calling upon the international
community of nations to make Sunday and the Catholic Holy Days
civil holidays, but by summoning Christians to live according to
the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.
The Fourth Commandment specifically calls upon believers to
"Remember" what many have forgotten, namely, that the seventh day
is holy unto the Lord our God (Ex. 20:8-11). John Paul rightly
acknowledges that "The Sabbath precept ... is rooted in the
depths of God's plan" 106 and is "a kind of 'sacred
architecture' of time which marks biblical revelation. 107 He
notes also that "When the divine commandment declares: 'Remember
the Sabbath day in order to keep it holy' (Ex. 20:8), the rest
decreed in order to honor the day dedicated to God is not all a
burden imposed upon man, but rather an aid to help him recognize
his life-giving and liberating dependence upon the Creator, and
at the same time his calling to cooperate in the Creator's work
and to receive his grace." 108
My appeal to Pope John Paul is to use the far-reaching
influence of his office to help Christians everywhere rediscover
the Sabbath, as he puts it, not as a burden, but as an "aid"
designed to help them recognize their "life-giving and liberating
dependence upon the[ir] Creator." 108 This vital function of the
Sabbath has long been forgotten by most Christians who have been
taught through the centuries that the Sabbath is Jewish,
fulfilled by Christ, and no longer binding upon Christians. This
heresy has deprived a countless number of Christians of the
physical, moral, and spiritual renewal provided by a proper
observance of the Sabbath.
Our tension-filled and restless society needs to rediscover
the Sabbath as that "sacred architecture of time," which can give
structure and stability to our lives and relationship with God.
At a time when many are seeking for inner peace and rest through
magic pills or fabulous places, the Sabbath invites us to find
such inner rest and renewal, not through pills or places, but
through the Person of our Saviour who says: "Come unto me, and I
will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28). It invites us to stop our work
on the Sabbath in order to allow our Savior to work more freely
and fully in our lives and thus experience the awareness of His
presence, peace, and rest.
.....................
To be continued
4. The Sabbath under Crossfire
Sabbath - Creational or Ceremonial? Part One
by Samuele Bacchiocchi PhD
CHAPTER TWO
THE SABBATH CREATIONAL OR CEREMONIAL?
The function of a tool or machine is largely determined by
its original design. An automobile designed for carrying
passengers is soon demolished if used to transport building
materials. What is true for man made tools or machines is also
true for divine institutions. Their functions are determined by
God's original design in instituting them.
To understand the meaning and function of the Lord's Supper,
for example, we go back to the Last Supper and study how Jesus
instituted this ordinance and what function He intended it to
fulfill for the Christian Church. What is true for the Lord's
Supper is also true for the Sabbath. To understand its meaning
and function for the human family, we need to study how and why
God instituted it at the completion of His creation.
Surprisingly, the matter-of-fact creation origin of the
Sabbath, which is repeated several times in the Pentateuch (Gen
2:1-2; Ex 20:11; Ex 31:17) and is acknowledged in the New
Testament (Mark 2:27; Heb 4:4), has often been rejected in Jewish
and Christian history. In recent years, the creation origin of
the Sabbath has been challenged by both critical minded scholars
and conservative Christians.
Critical scholars have conjectured that the Sabbath derives
from factors such as the veneration of the planet Saturn, the
four phases of the moon, the need for a market day to buy or sell
produce, the seven-day periods of ancient Mesopotamia, and the
symbolic importance attached to the number seven by many ancient
Near Eastern people.1
Conservative Christians have attacked the Sabbath by denying
its creation-origin and reducing it to a Mosaic institution given
exclusively to the Jews. Christ allegedly fulfilled the Sabbath
by replacing the literal observance of the day with the offer of
His rest of salvation. By rejecting the creation origin of the
Sabbath these Christians attach a negative, "Jewish" stigma to
seventh-day Sabbathkeeping, identifying it with the Jewish
dispensation allegedly based on salvation through legal
obedience.
Sundaykeeping, on the other hand, has been associated with
the Christian dispensation based on salvation by grace through
faith. Thus, Sabbathkeeping historically has been perceived as a
trademark of Judaism. Within Christianity itself, those
Christians who have retained seventh-day Sabbathkeeping have been
stigmatized as Judaizers, holding onto an outdated Jewish
superstition.
Among the conservative Christians who recently have rejected
the creational and universal function of the Sabbath are several
former sabbatarians churches, local congregations, and pastors.
Their basic argument is that the Sabbath is an Old Covenant
ordinance which was abolished by Christ and, consequently, is no
longer binding upon so-called "New Covenant" Christians.
The leaders of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), who
championed Sabbathkeeping until 1994, have adopted the view that
the Sabbath is not a "creation" ordinance given to mankind, but a
Mosaic institution given to the Israelites together with the Ten
Commandments. They maintain that "two stumbling blocks confuse
Sabbatarians. First is the idea that the Sabbath is a 'creation
ordinance' commanded ever since creation. To understand the
fallacy in this concept, we must note the facts: Although Genesis
says the seventh day was declared holy at creation, there is no
biblical evidence it was a commanded rest until the time of
Moses.... The second stumbling block that confuses Sabbatarians
is the idea that the Sabbath is required because it is part of
the Ten Commandments. Many Christians think of the Ten
Commandments as a permanent law code for all humans for all time.
Nevertheless, the Ten Commandments were given to Israel as the
centerpiece of the Old Covenant, not to the whole world (Ex 20:2;
Lev 27:34)." 2
The same view is passionately defended by Dale Ratzlaff, a
former Seventh-day Adventist Bible teacher and pastor who has
written an influential book "Sabbath in Crisis" (345 pages). This
book is often quoted by the WCG and other Sabbatarians who have
been influenced by its arguments to reject the continuity and
validity of the Sabbath for today. Ratzlaff argues that the
Sabbath is not a creational/moral institution for humans, but a
ceremonial/Old Covenant ordinance given to the Jews. Allegedly,
Christians no longer need to observe the Sabbath because Christ
fulfilled its typological function by becoming our Sabbath rest.
3
Why has the creation origin of the Sabbath come under the
constant crossfire of controversy? The reason is plain. What
Christians believe about the origin of the Sabbath determines
what they believe about its validity and value for today. Those
who believe that the Sabbath was established by God at creation
for the benefit of human beings accept its observance as a
creation ordinance binding upon all, Jews and Christians. On the
other hand, those who hold that the Sabbath originated at the
time of Moses, or after the settlement in Canaan because of
socioeconomic or astrological-astronomic considerations, regard
the Sabbath as a Jewish institution not applicable to Christians.
In view of these implications, it is important to briefly
examine how the question of the origin of the Sabbath has been
debated in Jewish and Christian history.
Objectives of This Chapter.
This chapter has three basic objectives.
The first is to survey the controversy over the origin of
the Sabbath both in Jewish and Christian history. This survey is
designed to provide a historical perspective which is much needed
to understand the recent attacks against the creation origin of
the Sabbath.
The second objective is to examine the specific arguments
recently advanced against the creation origin by former
Sabbatarians. In most cases, their arguments are old, having
already been used in the past by those who have attempted to
negate the continuity and validity of the Sabbath. Yet these
arguments deserve a close examination because they are used today
to mislead many sincere people.
The third objective is to reflect on the human implications
of the creation origin of the Sabbath. Specifically, we consider
the significance of God's act of resting, blessing, and
sanctifying the seventh day for the human family. We shall note
that creation week is in a special sense a human week because all
that God did on that week was designed to have a lasting result
for the human family.
The ultimate objective of this chapter is not to expose the
fallacies of the various arguments raised against the creation
origin and universal function of the Sabbath, but to encourage a
fresh appreciation for the Biblical account of the Sabbath origin
and meaning for today.
PART I
THE CREATION-SABBATH IN JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN HISTORY
The Creation-Sabbath in the Old Testament.
The biblical view of the origin of the Sabbath is
unequivocal: the Sabbath, as the seventh day, originated at the
completion of the creation week as a result of three divine acts:
God "rested," "blessed," and "hallowed" the seventh day (Gen
2:23). Twice Genesis 2:2-3 states that God "rested" on the
seventh day from all His work. The Hebrew verb "sabat,"
translated "rested," denotes cessation, not relaxation. The
latter idea is expressed by the Hebrew verb "nuah," used in
Exodus 20:11, where the divine rest fulfills an anthropological
function as a model for human rest. However, in Genesis 2:2-3 the
divine rest has a cosmological function. It serves to explain
that God, as Karl Barth puts it, "was content to be the Creator
of this particular creation ... He had no occasion to proceed to
further creations. He needed no further creations." 4 To
acknowledge this fact, God stopped.
Genesis 2:3 affirms that the Creator "blessed" (barak) the
seventh day just as He had blessed animals and Adam and Eve on
the previous day (Gen 1:22,28). Divine blessings in Scripture
are not merely "good wishes" - they are assurance of
fruitfulness, prosperity, and a happy and abundant life (Ps
133:3). In terms of the seventh day, it means that God promised
to make the Sabbath a beneficial and vitalizing power through
which human life is enriched and renewed. 5 In Exodus 20:11, the
blessing of the creation seventh day is explicitly linked with
the weekly Sabbath.
Genesis 2:3 also affirms that the Creator "hallowed" (RV,
RSV) the seventh day, "made it holy" (NEB, NAB), or "sanctified
it" (NASB). Both here and in the Sabbath commandment (Ex 20:11),
the Hebrew text uses the verb "qiddes" (piel), from the root
"qds," holy. In Hebrew, the basic meaning of "holy" or "holiness"
is "separation" for holy use. In terms of the Sabbath, its
holiness consists in God's separation of this day from the six
working days. The holiness of the Sabbath stems not from man's
keeping it, but from God's choice of the seventh day to be a
channel through which human beings can experience more freely and
fully the awareness of His sanctifying presence in their lives.
The Importance of the Creation-Sabbath.
The great importance of the creation-Sabbath in the Old
Testament is indicated by the fact that it provides the
theological motivation for the commandment to observe the seventh
day (Ex 20:11) and the theological justification for serving as a
covenant sign between God and Israel (Ex 31:17).
The theological reason given for the command to observe the
seventh day Sabbath "to the Lord your God" (Ex 20:10) is "for in
six days the Lord made heaven and 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 20:11). The tie between the
creation-Sabbath and the Sabbath commandment is so close that the
former provides the basis for the latter. To keep the Sabbath
holy means (1) to follow the divine example given at creation,
(2) to acknowledge God as Creator, and (3) to participate in
God's rest and blessings for mankind.
The creation-Sabbath serves also as "a sign" ('oth) of the
covenant relationship between God and His people: "It is a sign
for ever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the
Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and
was refreshed" (Ex 31:17). The very nature of a sign is to point
to something beyond itself, to mediate an understanding of a
certain reality and/or to motivate a corresponding behavior. 6
As a covenant sign rooted in creation, the Sabbath mediates
an understanding of redemptive history (i.e., covenant history)
by pointing retrospectively and prospectively. Retrospectively,
the Sabbath invites the believer to look back and memorialize God
as the creator of an original, perfect creation (Gen 2:2-3; Ex
20:8,11; 31:17). Prospectively, the Sabbath encourages the
believer to look forward and trust God's promise to fulfill His
"everlasting covenant" (Ex 31:16; Heb 4:9) to restore this
world to its original perfection. Thus, the Sabbath stands as a
sign of an "everlasting covenant" between creation (Gen 2:2-3; Ex
20:11; 31:17) and redemption (Deut 5:15; Is 56:1-4). It directs
us to the past perfect creation and it points constantly to the
future, ultimate restoration.
The Creation-Sabbath in the New Testament.
The New Testament takes for granted the creation origin of
the Sabbath. A clear example is found in Mark 2:27 where Christ
refutes the charge of Sabbath-breaking levelled against the
disciples by referring to the original purpose of the Sabbath:
"The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." Christ's
choice of words is significant. The verb "made - 'ginomai'"
alludes to the original "making" of the Sabbath and the word "man
- anthropos" suggests its human function. Thus to establish the
human and universal value of the Sabbath, Christ reverts to its
very origin right after the creation of man. Why? Because for the
Lord, the law of the beginning stands supreme.
The importance of God's original design is emphasized in
another instance in reporting the corruption of the institution
of marriage, which occurred under the Mosaic code. Christ
reverted to its Edenic origin, saying: "From the beginning it was
not so" (Matt 19:8). Christ then traces both marriage and the
Sabbath to their creation origin in order to clarify their
fundamental value and function for humanity.
Some authors interpret this famous pronouncement of Christ
as meaning the "well-being of man is superior to the Sabbath
rest" and since the Sabbath "no longer spelt blessings but
hardship, it had failed in its divine purpose, and as a
consequence rebellion against it or disregard of it was no sin."
7
The least to be said of this interpretation is that it
attributes to God human short-sightedness for having given a law
that could not accomplish its intended purpose and which
consequently He was forced to abolish. By this reasoning, the
validity of any God-given law is not determined by its intended
purpose, but rather by the way human beings use or abuse it. Such
a conclusion would make human beings, rather than God, the
ultimate arbitrators who determines the validity of any
commandment.
Furthermore, to interpret this saying as meaning that the
"well-being of man is superior to the Sabbath rest" would imply
that the Sabbath rest had been imposed arbitrarily upon humans to
restrict their welfare. But this interpretation runs contrary to
the very words of Christ. "The Sabbath," He said, "was made on
account of (dia) man and not man on account of the Sabbath." This
means that the Sabbath came into being (egeneto) after the
creation of man, not to make him a slave of rules and
regulations, but to ensure his physical and spiritual well-being.
The welfare of man is not restricted, but guaranteed, by the
proper observance of the Sabbath. By this memorable affirmation,
then, Christ does not abrogate the Sabbath commandment but
establishes its permanent validity by appealing to its original
creation when God determined its intended function for the
well-being of humanity.
The Creation-Sabbath in Hebrews.
Another explicit reference to the creation-Sabbath is found
in the book of Hebrews. In the fourth chapter, the author
establishes the universal and spiritual nature of the Sabbath
rest by welding together two Old Testament texts, namely Genesis
2:2 and Psalm 95:11. Through the former, he traces the origin of
the Sabbath rest back to creation when "God rested on the seventh
day from all his works" (Heb 4:3; cf. Gen 2:2-3). By the latter
(Ps 95:11), he explains that the scope of this divine rest
includes the blessings of salvation to be found by entering
personally into God's rest (Heb 4:3,5,10). Our immediate concern
is not to understand the meaning of the rest mentioned in the
passage, 8 but rather to note that the author traces its origin
back to the time of creation when "God rested on the seventh day
from all His works" (Heb 4:4).
The context clearly indicates that the author is thinking of
the "works" of creation since he explains that God's "works were
finished from the foundations of the world" (Heb 4:3). The
probative value of this statement is heightened by the fact that
the author is not arguing for the creation origin of the Sabbath;
rather, he takes it for granted in explaining God's ultimate
purpose for His people. Thus, in Hebrews 4, the creation origin
of the Sabbath is not only asserted but is also presented as the
basis for understanding God's ultimate purpose for His people.
The Creation-Sabbath in Jewish History.
Outside the biblical sources which should settle the matter,
one finds widespread recognition of the creation origin of the
Sabbath in both Jewish and Christian history. The Jews developed
two differing views regarding the origin of the Sabbath. Broadly
speaking, the two views can be distinguished linguistically and
geographically.
Palestinian (Hebrew) Judaism reduced the Sabbath to an
exclusive Jewish ordinance linked to the origin of Israel as a
nation at the time of Moses. As stated in the Book of Jubilees,
"He [God] allowed no other people or peoples to keep the Sabbath
on this day, except Israel only; to it alone he granted to eat
and drink and keep the Sabbath on it" (2:31). 9 If the
patriarchs are sometimes mentioned as keeping the Sabbath, this
is regarded as an exception "before it [the Sabbath] was given"
to Israel. 10
This view represents not an original tradition but a
secondary development which was encouraged by the necessity to
preserve a Jewish identity in the face of Hellenistic pressures
(especially at the time of Antiochus Epiphanes - 175 B.C.) to
abandon the Jewish religion. This is indicated by the fact that
even in Palestinian literature there are references to the
creation origin of the Sabbath. For example, while, on one hand,
the Book of Jubilees (about 140-100 B.C.) says that God allowed
"Israel only" to keep the Sabbath (Jub 2:31), on the other hand,
it holds that God "kept Sabbath on the seventh day and hallowed
it for all ages, and appointed it as a sign for all His works"
(Jub 2:1).
In Hellenistic (Greek) Jewish literature the Sabbath is
unmistakably viewed as a creation ordinance for all mankind.
Philo, for example, not only traces the origin of the Sabbath to
creation but also delights to call it "the birthday of the
world." 11 Referring to the creation story, Philo explains: "We
are told that the world was made in six days and that on the
seventh God ceased from his works and began to contemplate what
had been so well created, and therefore he bade those who should
live as citizens under this world-order to follow God in this as
in other matters." 12 Because the Sabbath exists from creation,
Philo emphasizes that it is "the festival not of a single city or
country but of the universe, and it alone strictly deserves to be
called public, as belonging to all people." 13
The Creation-Sabbath in the Early Church.
The recognition of the creation origin of the Sabbath is
found in several documents of the early Church. For example, in
the "Syriac Didascalia" (about A.D.250), Sunday is erroneously
presented as "greater" than the Sabbath because it preceded the
latter in the creation week. As the first day of creation, Sunday
represents "the beginning of the world." 14
In the treatise "On the Sabbath and Circumcision," found
among the works of Athanasius (about 296-373), the superiority of
Sunday over the Sabbath is argued on the basis of creation versus
re-creation: "The Sabbath was the end of the first creation, the
Lord's day was the beginning of the second in which He renewed
and restored the old." 15 The fact that both Sabbath and Sunday
keepers would defend the legitimacy and superiority of their
respective days by appealing to their roles with reference to
creation shows how important the creation-Sabbath was in their
view.
In the so-called "Constitutions of the Holy Apostles" (about
380), Christians are admonished to "keep the Sabbath and the
Lord's day festival; because the former is the memorial of the
creation, and the latter of the resurrection." 16 Several other
references to the creation Sabbath are found in the same
document. For example, a prayer commemorating Christ's
incarnation begins with the words, "O Lord Almighty, Thou hast
created the world by Christ and hast appointed the Sabbath in
memory thereof, because that on that day Thou hast made us rest
from our works for the meditation upon Thy laws." 17
The theme of the creation Sabbath, as noted by Jean
Danielou, is also "at the center of Augustinian thought." 18 For
Augustine (354-430), the culmination of the creation week in the
Sabbath rest provides the basis to develop two significant
concepts. The first is the notion of the progress of world
history toward a final Sabbath rest and peace with God.
In other words, the realization of the eternal rest
represents for Augustine the fulfillment of "the Sabbath that the
Lord approved at the beginning of creation, where it says, 'God
rested on the seventh day from all his works.'" 19
The second Augustinian interpretation of the creation
Sabbath may be defined as the mystical progress of the human soul
from restlessness into rest in God. A fitting example is found in
one of the most sublime chapters of his "Confessions," where
Augustine prays: "O Lord God, Thou who hast given us all, grant
us Thy peace, the peace of rest, the peace of the Sabbath, the
peace without an 'evening.' 20 For this very beautiful order of
things will pass away when they have accomplished their appointed
purpose. They all were made with a 'morning' and an 'evening.'
But the seventh day is without an 'evening' and it has no
setting, because Thou hast sanctified it so that it may last
eternally. Thy resting on the seventh day after the completion of
Thy works, foretells us through the voice of Thy Book, that we
also after completing our works through Thy generosity, in the
Sabbath of eternal life shall rest in Thee." 21 This mystical
and eschatological interpretation of the creation Sabbath shows
the profound appreciation Augustine had for its significance, in
spite of the fact that he failed to accept the literal observance
of the Fourth Commandment. 22
The Creation-Sabbath in the Middle Ages.
The Augustinian spiritual interpretation of the creation
Sabbath continued to some extent during the Middle Ages. 23 But
a new development occurred following the "Constantinian Sunday
La" of 321. In order to give theological sanction to the imperial
legislation demanding rest from work on Sunday, church leaders
often appealed to the Sabbath commandment, interpreting it as a
creation ordinance applicable to Sunday observance. Chrysostom
(about 347-407) anticipates this development in his exposition of
Genesis 2:2, "God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it." He
asks, "What do the words 'He hallowed it' actually mean? ...
[God] is teaching us that among the days of the week one must be
singled out and wholly devoted to the service of spiritual
things." 24
The reduction of the creation Sabbath from the specific
observance of the seventh day to the principle of resting one day
in seven in order to worship God made it possible to apply the
Sabbath commandment to the observance of Sunday. Peter Comestor,
for example (died about 1179), defends this application, arguing
on the basis of Genesis 2:2 that "the Sabbath has been always
observed by some nations even before the Law." 25 This
recognition of the Sabbath as a creation and thus universal
ordinance was motivated, however, not by the desire to
promote the observance of the seventh day but by the necessity to
sanction and regulate Sunday keeping.
In late medieval theology, the literal application of the
Sabbath commandment to Sundaykeeping was justified on the basis
of a new interpretation which consisted in distinguishing between
a moral and a ceremonial aspect within the Fourth Commandment.
Thomas Aquinas (about 1225-1274) offers the most articulated
exposition of this artificial distinction in his "Summa
Theologica." He argues that "the precept of the Sabbath
observance is moral ... in so far as it commands man to give some
time to the things of God ... but it is a ceremonial precept ...
as to the fixing of the time." 26
Distinction Between Moral and Ceremonial?
How can the Fourth Commandment be ceremonial for specifying
the seventh day but moral for enjoining humans to set apart a day
of rest for worship? Basically because for Aquinas the moral
aspect of the Sabbath is grounded on Natural Law - that is to
say, the principle of a regularly stated time for worship and
rest is in accordance with natural reason. 27 The ceremonial
aspect of the Sabbath, on the other hand, is determined by the
symbolism of the seventh-day commemoration of "Creation" and
prefiguration of the "repose of the mind in God, either in the
present life, by grace, or, in the future life, by glory." 28
One may ask, How can the Sabbath be ceremonial (transitory)
for symbolizing God's perfect creation and the rest to be found
in Him both in the present and future life? Is it not this
reassurance that provides the basis for setting aside any time to
worship God? To reject as ceremonial the original message of the
seventh-day Sabbath, namely that God is the perfect Creator who
offers rest, peace, and fellowship to His creatures, means to
destroy also the very moral basis for devoting any time to the
worshipping of God.
Apparently Aquinas himself recognized the inadequacy of his
reasoning since he makes a distinction between the Sabbath and
other symbolic Old Testament festivals such as Passover, "a sign
of the future Passion of Christ." The latter, Aquinas explains,
were "temporal and transitory ... consequently, the Sabbath
alone, and none of the other solemnities and sacrifices, is
mentioned in the precepts of the Decalogue." 29
Aquinas' uncertainty as to the ceremonial aspect of the
Sabbath is also reflected in his comment that Christ annulled not
the precept of the Sabbath, but "the superstitious interpretation
of the Pharisees, who thought that man ought to abstain from
doing even works of kindness on the Sabbath; which was contrary
to the intention of the Law." 30 Aquinas' uncertainty, however,
was largely forgotten and his moral/ceremonial distinction of the
Sabbath became the standard rationale for defending the Church's
right to introduce and regulate the observance of Sunday and holy
days. This resulted in an elaborate legalistic system of Sunday
keeping akin to that of the rabbinical Sabbath. 31
Lutheranism.
The sixteenth-century reformers reproposed with new
qualifications Aquinas' distinctions between the moral
(creational) and ceremonial (Mosaic) aspects of the Sabbath.
Their position was influenced by their understanding of the
relationship between the Old and New Testaments as well as by
their reaction against the legalistic and superstitious
observance of Sunday and a host of holy days as well.
Luther and some radicals, in their concern to combat
legalistic Sabbatarianism promoted not only by the Catholic
Church but also by leftwing reformers such as Andreas Karlstadt,
32 attacked the Sabbath as a Mosaic institution "specifically
given to the Jewish people." 33 Sunday was retained by Luther,
not as the Christian Sabbath, but as a convenient day "ordained
by the Church for the sake of the imperfect laity and the working
class," 34 who need "at least one day in the week to rest ...
and attend divine service." 35 This position was largely
determined by a radical distinction between the Old and New
Testaments.
In the "Large Catechism" (1529), Luther explains that the
Sabbath "is altogether an external matter, like other ordinances
of the Old Testament, which were attached to particular customs,
persons, and places, and now have been made free through
Christ." 36 This view is stated even more emphatically in
Article 28 of the "Augsburg Confession" (1530): "Scripture has
abrogated the Sabbath-day; for it teaches that, since the Gospel
has been revealed, all the ceremonies of Moses can be omitted."
37
Luther's radical distinction between the Old and New
Testaments and between Law and Gospel was adopted and developed
to extremes by radicals such as Anabaptists, leftist Puritans,
Quakers, Mennonites, Hutterites, and modern antinomian
denominations .38
These have generally claimed that the Sabbath is not a
creation ordinance but a Mosaic institution which Christ
fulfilled and abolished. Consequently, "New Covenant" Christians
are free from the observance of any special day.
Sabbatarians.
Radical reformers promoted two opposing views regarding the
Sabbath. One group, mentioned earlier, pressed to its logical
conclusion the extreme Lutheran distinction between the Old and
New Testaments, rejecting the observance of the Sabbath or of any
day, as part of the Mosaic dispensation which Christ had
fulfilled and replaced with the dispensation of grace.
Another group, however, pursued the logical implications of
the Calvinistic unity between the two Testaments, accepting and
promoting the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath as a creation
ordinance meant for all time and people. We shall call the latter
"Sabbatarians," a name frequently given to them by their
opponents. 39
Recent studies have shown that Sabbatarians constituted a
respectable group at the time of the Reformation, especially in
such places as Moravia, Bohemia, Austria, and Silesia. 40 In
fact, in some Catholic catalogues of sects, they are listed
immediately after the Lutherans and Calvinists. 41 Erasmus
(1466-1536) mentions the existence of Sabbatarians in Bohemia:
"Now I hear that among the Bohemians a new kind of Jews are
springing up, whom they call Sabbatarii, who serve the Sabbath
with great superstition." 42 Similarly, Luther reports on the
existence of Sabbatarian groups in Moravia and Austria. 43 In
fact, in 1538 Luther wrote a "Letter Against the Sabbatarians"
(Briefwider die Sabbathers), arguing from the Bible against their
observance of the seventh-day Sabbath. 44
Oswald Glait, a former Catholic priest who first became a
Lutheran and then an Anabaptist minister, began in 1527 or 1528
successfully to propagate his Sabbatarian views among Anabaptists
in Moravia, Silesia, and Bohemia. 45 He was supported by the
learned Andreas Fisher, also a former priest and Anabaptist. 46
Glait wrote a "Booklet on the Sabbath" (Buchlenn vom Sabbath -
about 1530) which is not extant. From a refutation of Glait's
book by Caspar Schewenckfeld, 47 we learn that Glait maintained
the unity of the Old and New Testaments, accepting the validity
and relevance of the Decalogue for the Christian dispensation.
Glait rejected the contention of his critics that the Sabbath
commandment is a ceremonial law like circumcision. Instead, he
held that the "Sabbath is commanded and kept from the beginning
of creation." 48 God enjoined "Adam in paradise to celebrate the
Sabbath." 49 Therefore "the Sabbath ... is an eternal sign of
hope and a memorial of creation.... an eternal covenant to be
kept as long as the world stands." 50 On account of this
teaching, Glait faced expulsions, persecutions, and, finally,
death by drowning in the Danube (1546). 51
The death of Glait, perhaps the most prominent leader of
Sabbatarian Anabaptists, did not stop the propagation of the
Sabbath doctrine. This is indicated by the existence of
seventh-day Sabbathkeepers at the time of the Reformation in
several European countries such as Poland, Holland, Germany,
France, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, Finland, and Sweden. 52 In the
seventeenth century, the presence of Sabbatarians became
particularly felt in England. This is indicated by the fact that,
as noted by R.J.Bauckham, "An impressive succession of Puritan
and Anglican spokesmen addressed themselves to combating the
seventh-day error: Lancelot Andrews, Bishop Francis White,
Richard Baxter, John Bunyan, Edward Stillingfleet, John Owen,
Nathanael Homes, John Wallis. Their efforts are a tacit admission
of the attraction that the doctrine exercised in the seventeenth
century, and seventh-day observers (who then usually also
advocated Sunday work) were harshly treated by Puritan and
Anglican authorities alike." 53
The Seventh Day Baptists became the leading Sabbatarian
church in England. 54 Their first church in America was founded
at Newport, Rhode Island, in December 1671. 55 Seventh-day
Adventists gratefully acknowledge their indebtedness to Seventh
Day Baptists for bringing to them the knowledge of the Sabbath in
1845. 56
Later on, the Sabbath was accepted as a creation ordinance
by the Church of God Seventh Day, the Worldwide Church of God,
and a score of smaller denominations, 57 some of whom have
recently rejected the Sabbath.
Reformed Tradition.
Churches in the Reformed tradition, such as English
Puritans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists,
and Baptists, adopted what might be called a "compromise
position," on one hand, acknowledging the Sabbath as a creation
ordinance while, on the other hand, defending Sunday as a
legitimate substitution of the Sabbath accomplished by the
Church.
They generally distinguished between the temporal and the
spiritual observance of Sunday. Calvin can rightly be regarded as
the pioneer and promoter of this view which exerted far-reaching
influence, especially in Anglo-American Puritan Sabbatarianism.
The basis of Calvin's teaching regarding the Sabbath is to be
found in his rejection of Luther's antithesis between Law and
Gospel. In his effort to maintain the basic unity of the Old and
New Testaments, Calvin christianized the Law, spiritualizing, at
least in part, the Sabbath commandment. 58
Calvin tried to reconcile his acceptance of the Sabbath as a
creation ordinance for humanity with his view that "on the advent
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the ceremonial part of the commandment
was abolished" by reproposing a new version of Aquinas'
distinction between the moral and ceremonial aspects of the
Sabbath. He argues that at creation the Sabbath was given as a
perpetual ordinance but "afterwards in the law a new precept
concerning the Sabbath was given, which should be peculiar to the
Jews, and but for a season." 59
What is the difference between the "Jewish" (ceremonial)
seventh-day Sabbath and the "Christian" (moral) first-day
Sabbath? The difference is not easy to detect, especially for
someone not trained to distinguish theological nuances. Calvin
describes the Jewish Sabbath as being "typical" (symbolic), that
is, "a legal ceremony shadowing forth a spiritual rest, the truth
of which was manifested in Christ." 60 The Christian Sabbath
[Sunday], on the other hand, is "without figure." 61 By this he
apparently means that it is more a pragmatic institution designed
to accomplish three basic objectives: first, to allow God to work
in us; second, to provide time for meditation and church
services; and third, to protect dependent workers. 62
An Unresolved Contradiction.
Calvin's attempt to resolve the tension between the
Sunday-Sabbath as a perpetual creation ordinance and the
Saturday-Sabbath as a temporary ceremonial law, cannot be consid-
ered successful. Do not both fulfill the same pragmatic
functions? Moreover, by teaching that for Christians
the Sunday-Sabbath represents "selfrenunciation" and the "true
rest" of the Gospel, 63 did not Calvin also attribute to the day
a "theological-symbolic" significance, much like the type he
assigned to the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath?
This unresolved tension can be followed in the teaching of
Calvin's successors and has been the cause of endless
controversies. For example, Zacharias Ursinus, compiler of that
important Reformed confession known as "Heidelberg Catechism"
(1563), teaches that "the Sabbath of the seventh day was
appointed of God from the very beginning of the world, to declare
that men, after His example, should rest from their labours," and
"although the ceremonial Sabbath has been abolished in the New
Testament, yet the moral still continues and pertains to us as
well as to others." 64 This position was later defended
tenaciously in the monumental work, "The Doctrine of the
Sabbath", written in 1595 by the famous English Puritan Nicolas
Bownde, 65 as well as in other confessional documents such as
the Synod of Dort" of 1619 66 and the "Westminster
Confession of Faith" of 1647. 67
These and similar documents fail to offer a rational
explanation for the artificial and arbitrary distinction between
the so-called moral/ creational (one-day-in-seven) aspect of the
Sunday-Sabbath and the ceremonial/Mosaic (specification of the
seventh day) aspect of the Saturday-Sabbath, supposedly annulled
by Christ.
There is no trace of such an artificial distinction in
Scripture.
If such a distinction existed in the Old Testament, we would
expect the alleged moral aspect of the Sabbath commandment - that
is, the principle of one-day-in-seven-to be applied to such
people as the priests (who had to work on the Sabbath) by
granting them a day off at another time during the week. The
absence of such a provision constitutes a most direct challenge
to those who uphold the one-day-in-seven principle.
Donald Carson acknowledges: "If the Old Testament principle
were really 'one-day-in-seven for worship and rest' instead of
'the seventh day for worship and rest,' we might have expected
Old Testament legislation to prescribe some other day off for the
priests. The lack of such confirms the importance in Old
Testament thought of the seventh day, as opposed to the
one-in-seven principle so greatly relied upon by those who wish
to see in Sunday the precise New Testament equivalent of the Old
Testament Sabbath." 68
To contend that the specification of the seventh day is a
Mosaic-ceremonial element of the Sabbath because it was designed
to aid the Jews in commemorating creation and in experiencing
spiritual rest is to be blind to the fact that Christians need
such an aid just as much as the Jews. It also means leaving
Christians confused as to the reasons for devoting one day to the
worship of God. R.J.Bauckham acknowledges the existence of such
a confusion when he notes that most "Protestants in the
mid-sixteenth century had as imprecise ideas about the basis of
Sunday observance as most Christians at most times have had." 69
Two Conflicting Positions.
The unresolved contradiction between the creational/moral
and Mosaic/ceremonial aspects of the Fourth Commandment has
aroused recurrent controversies over the relationship between
Sunday and the Sabbath commandment. Truly the Sabbath has had no
rest. The creational/moral versus the Mosaic/ceremonial
distinctions regarding the Sabbath have led to two main opposing
views of Sunday. In the Netherlands, for example, the two views
were hotly debated during more than a decade after the Synod of
Dort (1619).
On one side, Dutch theologians such as Willem Teellinck,
William Ames, and Antonius Walaeus wrote major treatises
defending the creation origin of the Sabbath and thus the
legitimate application of the Fourth Commandment to the
observance of Sunday. 70 On the other side, a leading professor,
Franciscus Gomarus, produced a major response entitled "Enquiry
into the Meaning and Origin of the Sabbath and Consideration of
the Institution of the Lord's Day" (1628), in which he argues for
a Mosaic origin of the Sabbath and, consequently, for an
independent ecclesiastical origin of Sunday. 71
The debate over these two conflicting positions has flared
up time and again in different countries, and no reconciliation
appears yet to be in sight. 72 A fitting example is provided by
some of the recent publications. On one side is the symposium
edited by Donald Carson, "From Sabbath to Lord's Day" (1982) and
by Willy Rordorf, "Sunday: The History of the Day of Rest and
Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the Christian Church"
(1968). Both studies espouse the thesis that seventh-day
Sabbathkeeping is not a creation ordinance binding upon
Christians but a Mosaic institution annulled by Christ. 73
Consequently, Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath, but an
exclusive Christian creation introduced to commemorate Christ's
resurrection through the Lord's Supper celebration .74
By severing all ties with the Sabbath commandment, Rordorf
follows the Lutheran tradition in reducing Sunday to an hour of
worship which could be scheduled in accordance with the demand of
modern life.
The practical implications of this position are obvious. If
fully carried out, it could prove to be "the death certificate of
Sunday," 75 since in time, even the hour of worship could
readily be squeezed out of the hectic schedule of modern life.
On the other side is the study of Roger T. Beckwith and
William Stott, "This Is the Day: The Biblical Doctrine of the
Christian Sunday" (1978), which follows the Reformed tradition by
defending the Sabbath as a creation ordinance accepted and
clarified by Christ. The Apostles allegedly used the Sabbath to
frame Sunday as their new day of rest and worship. 76
Consequently, they conclude that "in the light of the New
Testament as a whole, the Lord's Day can be clearly seen to be a
Christian Sabbath - a New Testament fulfillment to which the Old
Testament Sabbath points forward." 77 The practical implication
of their conclusions is that Sunday should be observed, not
merely as an hour of worship, but as "a whole day, set apart to
be a holy festival ... for worship, rest and works of mercy." 78
......................
To be continued
Note:
Interesting the debate over which day is the Christian Sabbath.
For those trying to make it Sunday, they have to explain Romans
14 and Colossians 2:16 as not "doing away with" and not just
picking any day you like, even moving it around to your fancy.
Then for those like the Jehova Witnesses, who claim the NT does
away with ANY day as the Sabbath for Christians, they still have
to somehow take the fourth commandment out of the great Ten
Commandments, answer where in the NT did the apostles have a
Jerusalem conference to abolish the fourth of the Ten
Commandments, but still keep the other nine. Obviously as
Bacchiocchi has shown BOTH SIDES do have their "scholastic
studies" so-called, to uphold their point of view on this
prickely theology issue.
But for the mind of a child, fed with no ideas from adults, it is
all pretty simple theology to figure. See my article on this
Website called "The Sabbath commandment through the eyes of a
child."
Keith Hunt
5. The Sabbath under Crossfire
The Sabbath NOT from the Beginning?
by Samuele Bacchiocchi PhD
The Sabbath: Creational or Ceremonial?
PART 2 OBJECTIONS TO THE CREATION SABBATH
The preceding survey of the controversy over the creation
versus Mosaic origin of the Sabbath has set the stage for
examining the main objections against the creation origin of the
Sabbath, advanced especially by former Sabbatarians. Their
objections reflect the radical Lutheran distinction between the
Old and New Covenants. On the basis of this distinction, as we
have already seen, the Sabbath is not viewed as a creation
ordinance for humanity but as a Mosaic institution for the Jews
which Christ fulfilled and abolished. Consequently, so-called
"New Covenant" Christians are free from the observance of any
special day.
The four major objections used to negate the creation origin
of the Sabbath are the following:
1) No command to keep the Sabbath is given in Genesis.
2) No example of Sabbathkeeping is recorded in Genesis.
3) No mention is made of the word "Sabbath" in Genesis.
4) No formula of "and there was evening and morning" is used for
the seventh day.
(1) No Command to Keep the Sabbath Is Given in Genesis
Absence of a Command.
The first argument used to negate the creation origin of the
Sabbath is the absence of an explicit command to observe the
seventh day in Genesis 2:2-3. The Worldwide Church of God
formulates this argument by means of six rhetorical statements:
"There are several things that Genesis does not tell us:
1) It does not say that humans rested.
2) It does not say that humans were told to follow God's example.
3) It does not say that humans were told to rest.
4) It does not say that God taught Adam and Eve on the Sabbath.
5) It does not say that God created the Sabbath.
6) It does not say that humans kept the Sabbath. 79
Dale Ratzlaff uses the same argument, saying, "There is no
command for mankind to rest in the Genesis account." 80 "Nothing
is expressly mentioned regarding man in the seventh-day-creation
rest." 81 For him, this fact indicates that the Sabbath is not a
creation ordinance binding upon humanity, but a temporary
institution introduced by Moses for Israel alone.
Reasons for "No Command."
There are several possible reasons for the absence of an
explicit command to keep the Sabbath in Genesis 2:2-3. First of
all, we must remember that Genesis is not a book of commands but
of origins. None of the Ten Commandments are ever mentioned in
Genesis, yet we know that their principles were known because we
are told, for example, "Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my
charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws" (Gen 26:5). It
is evident Abraham knew God's commandments and laws, though no
reference is made to them in the book of Genesis. The reason is
that Genesis is a book of beginnings; it tells us how we get from
the creation of this planet to the creation of God's people in
the book of Exodus.
Another possible reason for the absence of a command to keep
the Sabbath in Genesis is the cosmological function of the
seventh day in the creation story. The divine act of resting on
the seventh day is designed to tell us how God felt about His
creation. It was "very good," and to dramatize this fact, twice
we are told that "He rested" (Gen 2:2-3) - that is, "He stopped."
No finishing touches were to improve His perfect creation.
In the Near Eastern creation myths, the divine rest
(technically called otiositas), which usually implies the
establishment of a secure world order, generally is achieved
either by eliminating noisy, disturbing gods or by creating human
beings. For example, in the Babylonian creation epic Enuma Elish,
the god Marduk says, "Verily, savage-man I will create. He shall
be charged with the service of the gods, that they might be at
ease ! 83 In the creation Sabbath, however, the divine rest is
secured not by subordinating or destroying competitors, nor by
exploiting the labor of mankind, but by the completion of a
perfect creation. God rested on the seventh day, not to conclude
His work of creation, but rather because His work was "finished
... done" (Gen 2:2-3). As stated by Niels-Erik Andreasen, "It is
not the rest (cessation from work) which concludes creation, but
it is the concluded creation which occasions both rest and the
Sabbath."
The Function of God's Rest.
Any responsible artisan works on a product until it is
brought it up to the ideal; then the work stops. In an infinitely
higher sense, God, having completed the creation of this world
with all its creatures, desisted from creating on the seventh
day. This is essentially the meaning of the Hebrew verb sabat
which is twice translated "rested." Its more accurate rendering
is "to stop, to desist, to cease from doing."
To express the idea of rest from physical exhaustion, the
Hebrew employs a different verb, namely nuah, which is also
generally translated in English "to rest." The latter, in fact,
occurs in Exodus 20:11 where God's pattern of work-rest in
creation is given as the basis for the commandment to work six
days and to rest on the seventh. In Genesis 2, however, the verb
sabat is used because the function of God's rest is different. It
fulfills a cosmological rather than an anthropological function.
It explains to us not why people should rest but rather how God
felt about His creation: He regarded it as complete and perfect;
and to acknowledge it, He stopped.
This function of God's rest has been recognized by numerous
scholars. Karl Barth, for example, remarks: "We read in Genesis
2:2 that on the seventh day God, the Creator, completed His work
by 'resting.' This simply means that He did not go on with the
work of creation as such. He set both Himself and His creation a
limit. He was content to be the Creator of this particular
creation - to glory, as the Creator, in this particular work. He
had no occasion to proceed to further creations. He needed no
further creations. And He had found what he created very good
(Gen. 1:31)." 85 "When creation ended with man, having found its
climax and meaning in the actualization of man, God rested on the
seventh day from all the work that He had done. It was to this
that He looked in the recognition that everything was very good
and therefore did not need to be extended or supplemented. 86
Dietrich Bonhoeffer similarly explains that "in the Bible
'rest' really means more than 'having a rest.' It means rest
after the work is accomplished, it means completion, it means the
perfection and peace in which the world rests." 87 We might say
that by confronting His creation with His cessation-rest, God
proclaimed the Good News that there was no need to put additional
finishing touches on what He had created, since He regarded all
of it "very good" (Gen.1:31). God's cessation from doing
expresses His desire for being with His creation, for giving to
His creatures not only "things" but "Himself."
An Example Rather Than a Command.
The fact that the Sabbath is established in the creation
story by a divine example rather than by a divine commandment
could also reflect what God intended the Sabbath to be in a
sinless world - namely, not an alienating imposition but a free
response to a gracious Creator. By freely choosing to make
themselves available for their Creator on the Sabbath, human
beings were to experience physical, mental, and spiritual renewal
and enrichment. Since these needs have not been eliminated but
heightened by the Fall, the moral, universal, and perpetual
functions of the Sabbath precept were repeated later in the form
of a commandment.
What is it that makes any divine precept moral and
universal? Do we not regard a law moral when it reflects God's
nature? Could God have given any stronger revelation of the moral
nature of the Sabbath than by making it a rule of His divine
conduct? Is a principle established by divine example less
binding than one enunciated by a divine command? Do not actions
speak louder than words?
The argument that the Sabbath originated at Sinai makes
Moses guilty of distorting truth or, at least, the victim of
gross misunderstanding. He would have traced the Sabbath back to
creation in the Sabbath commandment, when in reality it was his
own new creation. Such a charge, if true, would cast serious
doubts on the integrity and/or reliability of anything else Moses
or anyone else wrote in the Bible.
(2) No Example of Sabbathkeeping Is Recorded in Genesis
The oldest and perhaps the strongest argument against the
creation origin of the Sabbath is the absence of an explicit
reference to Sabbathkeeping after Genesis 2 for the whole
patriarchal period up to Exodus 16. For example, in his doctoral
dissertation on "Sabbatic Theology," Roger Congdon writes: "There
is absolutely no mention of the Sabbath before the Lord said to
Moses, 'Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you ... On the
sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice
as much as they gather daily' (Ex 16:4-5). These words indicate
that the event was bound to the Decalogue of Sinai.... The first
mention of the Sabbath in the Bible and the first chronological
use of the word in all history is in Exodus 16:23." 88 In a
similar vein the Worldwide Church of God affirms that Genesis
"does not say that humans kept the Sabbath." 89
Not Observed?
The absence of explicit references to Sabbathkeeping between
Genesis 2 and Exodus 16 does not necessarily mean that the
principle of Sabbathkeeping was unknown. The apparent silence
could mean that between Adam and Moses, the Sabbath, though
known, was not observed. The non-observance of the feast of the
Booths between Joshua and Nehemiah, a period of almost a thousand
years, would provide a parallel situation (Neh 8:17).
Taken for Granted.
A more plausible explanation is that the custom of
Sabbathkeeping is not mentioned simply because it is taken for
granted. A number of reasons support this explanation.
First, we have a similar example of silence regarding the
Sabbath between the books of Deuteronomy and 2 Kings. Such
silence can hardly be interpreted as non-observance of the
Sabbath since, when the first incidental reference occurs in 2
Kings 4:23, it describes the custom of visiting a prophet on the
Sabbath.
Second, Genesis does not contain laws like Exodus but is
rather, a brief sketch of origins. Since no mention is made of
any other commandment, silence regarding the Sabbath is not
exceptional.
Third, throughout the book of Genesis and the early chapters
of Exodus one finds circumstantial evidences for the use of the
seven-day week which would imply the existence of the Sabbath as
well. The period of seven days is mentioned four times in the
account of the Flood (Gen 7:4,10; 8:10,12).
Apparently, the "week" also is used in a technical way to
describe the duration of the nuptial festivities of Jacob (Gen
29:27) as well as the duration of mourning at his death (Gen
50:10). A similar period was observed by the friends of Job to
express their condolences to the patriarch (Job 2:13). Probably
all the mentioned ceremonials were terminated by the arrival of
the Sabbath.
Lastly, the Sabbath is presented in Exodus 16 and 20 as an
already existing institution. The instructions for gathering a
double portion of manna on the sixth day presuppose a knowledge
of the significance of the Sabbath: "On the sixth day, when they
prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they
gather daily" (Ex 16:5). The omission of any explanation for
gathering a double portion on the sixth day would be inexplicable
if the Israelites had no previous knowledge of the Sabbath.
Similarly, in Exodus 20, the Sabbath is presupposed as something
already familiar. The commandment does not say "Know the Sabbath
day" but "Remember the Sabbath day" (Ex 20:8), thus implying that
it was already known. Furthermore, the commandment, by presenting
the Sabbath as rooted in creation (Ex 20:11), hardly allows a
late Exodus introduction of the festival.
To speculate on how the patriarchs kept the Sabbath would be
a fruitless endeavor since it would rest more on imagination than
on available information. Considering, however, that the essence
of Sabbathkeeping is not a place to go to fulfill rituals, but a
set time to be with God, ourselves, and others, it is entirely
possible that the patriarchs spent the Sabbath holy hours within
their households, engaged in some of the acts of worship
described in Genesis such as prayer (Gen 12:8; 26:25), sacrifice
(Gen 12:8; 13:18; 26:25; 33:20), and teaching (Gen 18:19).
(3) No Mention Is Made of the Word "Sabbath" in Genesis
The absence of the term "Sabbath" in Genesis 2:2-3 is seen
by some as an indication that the Sabbath as an institution did
not originate at creation but later at the time of Moses. For
example, Robert Morey emphatically states: "But isn't the Sabbath
creation ordinance found in Genesis 2:1-3? No, the word 'Sabbath'
does not appear in the text." 90 Harold Dressler makes a similar
statement: "Genesis 2 does not mention the word 'Sabbath.' It
speaks about the 'seventh day.' Unless the reader equates
'seventh day' and 'Sabbath,' there is no reference to the Sabbath
here." 91 In a similar vein; Dale Ratzlaff writes: "There is no
mention of the word 'Sabbath' in the Genesis account; nothing is
said about man resting; in fact, man is not even mentioned in
connection with this seventh-day-creation rest." 92
Verbal Form.
It is true that the name "Sabbath" does not occur in the
passage, but the cognate verbal form shabat (to cease, to stop,
to rest) is used and the latter, as noted by Ugo Cassuto,
"contains an allusion to the name 'the Sabbath day.'" 93
Moreover, as Cassuto sagaciously remarks, the use of the
name seventh day rather than Sabbath may well reflect the
writer's concern to underline the perpetual order of the day,
independent and free from any association with astrological
"sabbaths" of the heathen nations.
Perpetual Order.
It is a known fact that the term shabbatu, which is
strikingly similar to the Hebrew word for Sabbath (shabbat),
occurs in the documents of ancient Mesopotamia. The term
apparently designated the fifteenth day of the month, that is,
the day of the full moon. By designating the day by number rather
than by name, Genesis seems to emphasize that God's Sabbath day
is not like that of heathen nations, connected with the phases of
the moon. Rather, it shall be the seventh day in perpetual order,
independent from any association with the cycles of heavenly
bodies.
By pointing to a perpetual order, the seventh day
strengthens the cosmological message of the creation story -
precisely that God is both Creator and constant controller of
this cosmos. In Exodus, however, where the seventh day is given
in the context of the Genesis, not of this cosmos, but of the
nation of Israel, the day is explicitly designated "sabbath,"
apparently to express its new historical and soteriological
function.
(4) No Formula of "and there was evening and morning" Is Used for
the Seventh day
The omission in the creation account of the formula "and
there was evening and morning" in connection with the seventh day
indicates to some that the Sabbath is not a literal 24-hour day
like the preceding six days, but a symbolic time representing
eternal rest. For example, Dale Ratzlaff writes: "The Genesis
account does not mention an end to God's seventh-day rest. Rather
it is presented as an ongoing state by the omission of the
formula 'and there was evening and morning, a seventh day.'" 95
He interprets the absence of this formula as indicating that
"the conditions and characteristics of that first seventh day
were designed by God to continue and would have continued had it
not been for the sin of Adam and Eve." 96
Eternal Rest.
Both Rabbis and Christian writers have interpreted the
absence of any reference to "the evening and morning" in
connection with the seventh day of creation as representing the
future, eternal rest of the redeemed. Augustine offers a most
fitting example of this interpretation in the last page of his
"Confessions," where he offers this exquisite prayer: "O Lord
God, grant Thy peace unto us ... the peace of rest, the peace of
the Sabbath which has no evening. For all this most beautiful
order of things, 'very good' ... is to pass away, for in them
there was morning and evening. But the seventh day is without any
evening, nor hath it any setting, because Thou hast sanctified it
to an everlasting continuance; ... that we also after our works
... may repose in Thee also in the Sabbath of eternal life." 97
This spiritual, eschatological interpretation of the
creation Sabbath has some merits because, as shown in chapter 4,
the vision of the peace, rest, and prosperity of the first
Sabbath inspired the prophetic vision of the peace, delight, and
prosperity of the world-to-come. This interpretation is also
found in Hebrews 4 where believers are urged to strive to enter
into the Sabbath rest that remains for the people of God (Heb
4:9,11).
Literal Day
The symbolic interpretation of creation's seventh day which
has no evening does not negate its literal 24-hour duration for
at least four reasons:
First, the seventh day is enumerated like the preceding six days.
Note that in the Bible whenever "day-yom" is accompanied by a
number it always means a day of 24 hours.
Second, the Decalogue itself clearly states that God, having
worked six days, rested on the seventh day of creation week (Ex
20:11). If the first six days were ordinary earthly days, we must
understand the seventh in the same way.
Third, every passage which mentions creation's seventh day as the
basis of the earthly Sabbath regards it as an ordinary day (Ex
20:11; 31:17; cf. Mark 2:27; Heb 4:4).
Last, the commandment to keep the Sabbath as a memorial day of
the creation-Sabbath (Ex 20:11) implies a literal original
24-hour Sabbath. God could hardly command His creatures to work
six days and rest on the seventh after His own example if the
seventh day were not a literal day. The omission of the formula
"and there was evening and morning, a seventh day" may be due to
the fact that the seventh day is not followed by other creation
days. The formula serves to separate each of the first days of
creation from the following ones. The seventh day, being the last
day of creation, did not need to be separated because there was
no "eighth day" to follow. By marking the termination of the
creation week, the seventh day did not need to be defined in
terms of its termination because there were no further creation
days.
Another suggestion discussed in chapter 4 is the possibility
that the Sabbath was blessed with extraordinary light. For
example, referring to the Messianic age, Zechariah remarks that
"there shall be continuous day ... not day and not night, for at
evening time there shall be light" (Zech 14:7). Here we have a
probable allusion to the seventh day of creation which in Genesis
has no mention of "evening and morning." Such a detail was
interpreted by the rabbis as signifying that the Sabbath was
especially blessed by supernatural, continuous light. To this we
return in chapter 4.
PART 3
THE CREATION WEEK IS A HUMAN WEEK
A fundamental problem with the preceding objections against
the creation origin of the Sabbath is their failure to realize
that the creation week is a human week, established by God for
regulating our human life.
.......................
To be continued
NOTE:
With the above arguments by those who would say there was no
"Sabbath day" command or observance until Moses' day, fall into
the ditch of theological gooby-goo by not reading the entire
Bible. God does not have to say truths over and over or as and
where we may want to find them. The Lord deliberately puts truth
here and there so people will be deceived and fall backwards and
be snared in their own trap of imaginations of falsehoods. This
is not the age where God is trying to save all mankind, most at
this time are blinded and cannot see the light of day. I have
proved this fact and this plan of the Eternal in many other
studies on this Website.
NOW, you need to note and mark a few clear and easy to read
verses in the New Testament, that plainly show that SIN DID EXIST
FROM ADAM TO MOSES, and what God interprets IS sin!!
ROMANS 5:12-14
"Wherefore, as by one man SIN entered into the world, and death
by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that ALL have
SINNED. For until the law (codefied and given by Moses in a
specific form) SIN WAS IN THE WORLD; but sin is not imputed when
their is NO LAW. Nevertheless DEATH reigned from Adam to Moses
..."
1 JOHN 3:4
"Whosoever commits SIN transgresseth also the LAW: for SIN IS the
transgression of the LAW."
ROMANS 7:7
"What shall I say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I had not
known SIN, but by the LAW: for I had not known lust, except the
LAW had siad, 'Thou shalt not covet.'"
JAMES 2:10-11
"For whosoever shall keep the whole LAW, and yet offend in ONE
POINT, he is guilty of all. For he that said, 'Do not commit
adultery' said also, 'Do not kill.' now if you commit no
adultery, yet if you kill, you have become a transgressor of the
law."
By putting some easy to read verses together in the New Testament
we should be able to see WHAT law is being spoken about - the TEN
COMMANDMENT LAW! And breaking that law is SIN! And furthermore
SIN existed from Adam to Moses. And in one way or another ALL
have sinned. Death reigned from Adam to Moses because all have
sinned, and sin is the breaking of any one of the Ten
commandments of God. Sin is not imputed, is not counted, is not
placed upon your bill, where there is no law. But sin has been
placed upon all who have ever lived, including those from Adam to
Moses, because there was a law which defined sin, and there still
is that law which defines sin. That law contains points, which
include "you shall not commit adultery" and "you shall not kill"
and "you shall not covet." Any first grade child reading Exodus
20 and Deuteronomy 5 and the above given Scriptures can easily
see SIN and hence the Ten commandment LAW was from the beginning,
from the time of Adam and Eve.
IT WAS SIN FROM ADAM TO MOSES TO BREAK ANY ONE OF THE LAWS OF THE
TEN COMMANDMENTS!!
ALL OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WERE IN FORCE FROM ADAM TO MOSES!!
YOU NEED TO STUDY MY STUDY CALLED "THE TEN COMMANDMENTS BEFORE
MOSES" on this Website.
By reading the Bible with eyes, mind, and heart, fully open to
all of its truth and teachings, by NOT reading the Bible with
tunnel vision, we can clearly see that the SABBATH command, the
4th commandment of the great Ten commandments, was in full effect
from Adam to Moses!
Keith Hunt
6. The Sabbath under Crossfire
Final arguments on Ceremonial only
by Samuele Bacchiocchi PhD
Continued from previous page:
God did not need six days to create our solar system. He
could have spoken it into existence in a second, since His
creation was accomplished by the spoken word (Ps 33:6). But He
chose to establish a human week of seven days and to use it
Himself in order to give a divine perspective to our six days of
work and to our seventh day of rest.
This means that as we work during the six days and rest on
the seventh day, we are doing in a small scale what God has done
on a much larger scale. God's willingness to enter into the
limitations of human time at creation in order to enable us to
identify with Him is a marvellous revelation of His willingness
to enter into human flesh at the incarnation in order to become
Emmanuel, God with us.
On each of the first six days of creation God did something
that had lasting results for the human family. We would expect
the same to be true for the seventh day. Roy Gane notes: "God set
up cyclical time even before man was created (Gen 1:3-5,14-18).
According to Genesis 1:14, God made heavenly luminaries, chiefly
the sun and the moon (Gen 1:16), to mark earthly time as 'signs,'
'seasons.' i. e., appointed times, days, and years. So when
Genesis 2:3 says that God blessed and hallowed the seventh day,
this blessing and consecration could be on-going in a cyclical
sense, applying to each subsequent seventh day. In fact, the
seventh-day Sabbath provides a plausible explanation for the
origin of the week, which is not defined by the movement of
heavenly bodies." 98
Creation Sabbath and Weekly Sabbath
The emphatic threefold repetition of "the seventh day" with
its four divine acts ("finished," "rested," "blessed," and
"hallowed" - Gen 2:2-3) at the conclusion of creation indicates
that just as man is the crown of creation, so the seventh day,
the Sabbath, is the final goal of creation. Thus, the creation
Sabbath tells us not only how God felt about His creation, but
also what He planned for His creatures. G.H.Watermann makes this
point saying: "It seems clear, therefore, that the divine origin
and institution of the Sabbath took place at the beginning of
human history. At that time God not only provided a divine
example for keeping the seventh day as a day of rest, but also
blessed and set apart the seventh day for the benefit of man." 99
As God created the world in six days and rested on the
seventh day at the completion of His creation, so human beings
are to accomplish their work and purpose in this creation during
the six working days of the week and to follow the example of the
Creator by resting on the seventh day. Sabbathkeepers can find
satisfaction and fulfillment in their work and rest, because the
Sabbath reassures them that they are doing on a small scale what
God has done and is doing on an infinitely larger scale.
Earlier we noted that God "rested" on the seventh day to
express His satisfaction over his complete and perfect creation.
This idea is conveyed by the verb shabat used in Genesis 2:2-3
which means to "cease or stop working." We must not ignore,
however, that in Exodus 31:17 the creation rest of God is
interpreted as a model for human rest. Israel is called to keep
the Sabbath because "in six days the Lord made the heaven and the
earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed" (Ex
31:17). The Hebrew verb used here is "nephesh," which describes
God as being "refreshed" as a result of His rest on the seventh
day of creation.
It is evident God did not need to rest from fatigue because
"He does not faint or grow weary" (Is 40:28), yet the Bible
speaks of God in human terms (anthropomorphically) as being
"refreshed" on the Sabbath in order to set the pattern for the
human Sabbath rest. This is not the only example in the Bible
where God does something to set an example for His creatures to
follow.
Jesus asked John the Baptist to baptize him, not because He
needed to be cleansed from sin (Rom 6:1-5), but to set an example
for His followers (Matt 3:13-14). Both baptism and the Lord's
Supper trace their origin to a divine act and example that
established them. In the same way Scripture traces the origin of
the Sabbath to God's act of resting, blessing, and sanctifying
the seventh day. This is the fundamental problem with Sunday
observance. No divine act established the day as a memorial of
the resurrection. None of the words uttered by Christ on the day
of His resurrection suggest that He intended to make the day a
memorial of His resurrection.
The Blessing of the Seventh Day
The blessing and hallowing of the seventh day at creation
further reveals that God intended the Sabbath to have on-going
benefits for the human family. It would make no sense for God to
bless and sanctify a unit of holy time for Himself. The blessings
of God are outgoing, benefiting His creatures. They represent not
wishful thinking but assurance of fruitfulness, prosperity, and
abundant life. For example, God blessed the first couple saying,
"Be fruitful and multiply" (Gen 1:28; cf. 9:1; 49:22-26).
Similarly, we read in the Aaronic benediction: "The Lord
bless you and keep you" (Num 6:24). The blessing of God results,
then, in the preservation and assurance of abundant life. This
meaning is expressed explicitly by the Psalmist when he writes:
"The Lord has commanded the blessing, life for evermore" (Ps
133:3).
Applied to the Sabbath, this means that God made this day a
channel through which human life can receive His beneficial and
vitalizing power.
It must be said that the meaning of both the blessing and
sanctification of the Sabbath is not spelled out in Genesis 2:3.
This is puzzling because in most instances God's benediction is
accompanied by an explanation of its content. For example, "God
blessed them [animals], saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply and
fill the water in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the
earth'" (Gen 1:22). Similarly, God said to Abraham regarding his
wife, Sarah, "I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of
nations; kings of peoples shall come from her" (Gen 17:16; cf.
9:1;17:20). Yet with regard to the blessing of the Sabbath,
nothing is said as to what such a blessing entails.
The mystery of the blessedness and sanctity of the Sabbath
begins to be unveiled in Exodus with the establishment of Israel
as God's covenant people. The day becomes now linked not only to
a finished creation but to the new nation which God has
miraculously brought into existence: "See! The Lord has given you
the Sabbath" (Ex 16:29). From being cosmological, a symbol of a
perfect world, the Sabbath has now become a soteriological-
historical symbol of God's redemptive plan for His people. Thus
the Sabbath becomes now more intimately connected with the ups
and downs of the life of God's people.
The manna story offers a starting point to understand the
nature of the original blessing of the Sabbath. Notice first
certain parallelisms between the creation and the manna
narrative. Both are divine acts accomplished according to the
seven-day structure. Both testify to the perfection of God's
activities: the daily creation was "good" and the daily portion
of the manna was satisfying (Ex 16:18). In both instances, the
creative activity ceases on the Sabbath: creation is "finished"
(Gen 2:2) and the manna ceased to fall (Ex 16:25). In both cases
God's blessings are bestowed upon the Sabbath - by proclamation
at creation (Gen 2:3) and by preservation in the manna (Ex
16:24).
In the context of the aridity of the desert and of the
murmuring of the people caused by their inability to secure food,
the miracle of the preservation of the manna throughout Sabbath
stands as a most con spicuous revelation of the nature of the
Sabbath blessings, namely, God's reassuring gift of physical
nourishment and life. In order to receive the blessings of the
Sabbath, believers need to consecrate the day to God by altering
their behavior, as in the manna experience. As John Skinner puts
it: "The Sabbath is a constant source of well-being to the man
who recognizes its true nature and purpose." 100
The Sanctification of the Sabbath
Genesis 2:3 also affirms that the Creator "hallowed" (RV,
RSV) the seventh day, "made it holy" (NEB, NAB), "declared it
holy" (NKJV), or "sanctified" (NASB). Both here and in the
Sabbath commandment we are told that God made the Sabbath holy.
How did God make the seventh day holy? Since the day is not
a material substance but a unit of time, it cannot be made holy
by applying a holy substance such as annointing oil (Lev
8:10-12). The meaning of the holiness of the Sabbath must be
found in its relation to the people who are affected by its
observance.
Dale Ratzlaff argues that God did not sanctify the seventh
day as such for human beings to observe, but the "conditions of
that day were sanctified and blessed." 101 By "the conditions,"
Ratzlaff means the condition that existed on "the first day after
creation was completed." 102 In other words, the sanctification
of the seventh day refers primarily to the "conditions" of
"fellowship and communion" that existed on creation's seventh day
rather than to God setting aside the seventh day for humanity to
experience in a special way His sanctifying presence.
The problem with this interpretation is that nowhere does
the Bible suggest that the sanctification of the seventh day at
creation refers to the sanctification of the conditions that
existed "the first day after creation was completed." God did not
sanctify "conditions" but the seventh day itself.
The Meaning of Sanctification
The basic meaning of the Hebrew idea of "holy--gadesh" is
"set apart," "separated." Applied to the Sabbath, the divine
sanctification of the day consists in God's setting apart the
seventh day from the rest of the six days. It must be emphasized
that God did the setting apart, not man. The holiness of the
Sabbath stems not from those who keep it, but from the act of
God. Believers experience the holiness of the Sabbath by altering
their behavior on that day. They stop their work to allow God to
enrich their lives with His sanctifying presence.
John Skinner perceptively points out that the Sabbath "is
not an institution which exists or ceases with its observance by
man; the divine rest is a fact as much as the divine working, and
so the sanctity of the day is a fact whether man secures the
benefit or not." 103
The verbal form (Piel) of the Hebrew verb "to sanctify -
yegaddesh," as H.C.Leupold explains, "has both a causative and a
declarative sense. This means that God declared the seventh day
holy and caused it to be a means of holiness for humanity." 104
It is noteworthy that the word "holy" is used for the first time
in the Bible with reference not to an object such as an altar, a
tabernacle, or a person, but with regard to time, the seventh day
(Gen 2:3).
The meaning of the sanctification of the Sabbath becomes
clearer with the unfolding of the history of salvation. In
Exodus, for example, the holiness of the Sabbath is elucidated by
means of its explicit association with the manifestation of God's
glorious presence. From Mount Sinai, which was made holy by the
glorious presence of God, the Sabbath is explicitly proclaimed to
be God's holy day: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy"
(Ex 20:8). The commandment, it should be noted, not only opens
with the invitation to remember and keep holy the Sabbath (cf.
Deut 5:15), but also closes by reiterating that its holiness is
grounded in God's sanctification of the day at creation (Ex
20:11). In Hebrew, the identical verb is used in both instances.
An Experience of God's Presence
The experience of God's glorious presence on Mount Sinai
served to educate the Israelites to acknowledge the holiness of
God manifested in time (the Sabbath) and later in a place of
worship (the Tabernacle). The motif of God's glory is found in
all of these (Sinai, Sabbath, and Tabernacle) and ties them
together. The Israelites were instructed to prepare themselves
for the encounter with God's holy presence (Ex 19:10,11), when
the Lord would "come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all
the people" (Ex 19:11). The preparation included personal
cleansing (Ex 19:10, 14) and the setting of a boundary around the
mountain (Ex 19:12, 23) which was to be invested with God's
glory.
The nexus with the holiness of the Sabbath can hardly be
missed. Indeed, personal preparation and the setting of a
boundary between common and holy time are the basic ingredients
necessary for the sanctification of the Sabbath. Can one enter
into the experience of God's holy presence on the Sabbath without
making necessary preparation? Or is it possible to honor God's
presence on His holy seventh day without setting a boundary in
time that fences off personal profits and pleasures?
The meaning of the holiness of God is further clarified at
Sinai by the invitation God extended to Moses "on the seventh
day" to enter into the cloud and thus experience the intimacy of
His presence. "Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud
covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount
Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days; and on the seventh day
he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the
appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on
the top of the mountain in the sight of the people. And Moses
entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain" (Ex 24:15-18).
God's invitation to Moses to enter on the seventh day into His
glorious presence unveils the cryptic meaning of God's
sanctification of the Sabbath at creation. The holiness of the
Sabbath is now explained to be not a magic quality infused by God
into this day, but rather His mysterious and majestic presence
manifested on and through the Sabbath in the lives of His people.
This meaning of the holiness of the Sabbath is brought out more
forcefully a few chapters later when, at the end of the
revelation of the tabernacle, God says to the people of Israel,
"You shall keep my sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and
you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the
Lord, sanctify you" (Ex 31:13). The sanctity of the Sabbath is
now clearly equated with the sanctifying presence of God with His
people. The mystery of the sanctification of the creation-Sabbath
is now unveiled. It consists precisely of God's commitment to
manifest His presence in the lives of His people.
For six days God filled this planet with good things and
living beings, but on the seventh He filled it with His presence.
As the symbol and assurance of God's sanctifying presence in this
world and in human lives, the Sabbath represents a most sublime
and permanent expression of God's loving care.
The Permanence of the Sabbath
In the creation account, we learn that God set up the ideal
order of relationship that should govern human life. He
instituted the Sabbath, marriage, and work-three institutions
which embody principles which were later formulated in the Ten
Commandments.
When Adam and Even disobeyed God by eating of the forbidden
fruit (Gen 3:6), their marriage and work suffered as a result of
the curse of sin. But the Sabbath did not. "The Sabbath is not
affected by any curse resulting from the Fall. Unlike the other
two Creation institutions, the Sabbath remains a little piece of
Paradise. As such, its value is enhanced by the deterioration
around it. Now that work is exhausting, ceasing from labor on the
Sabbath provides needed rest. More importantly, now that human
beings are cut off from direct access to God, they need a
reminder of His lordship [and fellowship] even more than they did
before the Fall. 105
The Fall did not eliminate the order that God established at
creation to govern human life and relationship. Marriage and
labor have remained, though they became more difficult. In the
same way, the Sabbath has remained, though its observance is
often made more difficult by working schedules that infringe on
the Sabbath and by many personal tasks that clamor for use of the
Sabbath time.
In the light of the foregoing considerations, we conclude
that God, by resting, blessing, and sanctifying the seventh day,
created a day that would delineate the on-going weekly cycle for
human beings, and invites them to fellowship with Him in a
special way on the Sabbath day. God created the natural world by
speaking, then man by moulding him out of dust and vivifying him
with His life-giving Spirit, and the Sabbath by "sabbatizing"
Himself.
By instituting the Sabbath at creation along with the basic
components of human life such as marriage and labor, long before
Israel existed, God made the day a permanent institution for the
human family (Mark 2:27). The fact that later the Sabbath became
one of the Ten Commandments does not negate its universality, but
rather supports it, since the other nine commandments are
universal principles binding upon the whole human family, not
Israel alone.
Conclusion
Three main conclusions emerge from our study of the biblical
and historical witness to the origin of the Sabbath.
First, there is in Scripture an unmistakable consensus
supporting the creation origin of the Sabbath.
Second, a major and the oldest Jewish tradition traces the
origin of the Sabbath back to the culmination of creation.
Third, we find in the history of Christianity considerable
support for the Edenic origin of the Sabbath, not only among
seventh-day Sabbathkeepers but also among many Sundaykeepers. The
latter have defended the Sabbath as a creation ordinance in order
to justify Sunday as the Christian Sabbath.
The challenge to the creation origin of the Sabbath has come
chiefly from those who have adopted Luther's radical distinction
between the Old and New Testaments and between Law and Gospel.
Some former Sabbatarians have adopted this distinction, thus
arguing that the Sabbath is not a creation ordinance but a Mosaic
institution which Christ fulfilled and abolished. Consequently,
believers in the Christian dispensation are free from the
observance of any special day.
Our examination of the objections to the creation origin of
the Sabbath has shown the arguments to be based on gratuitous
assumptions. The consistent and unanimous testimony of Scripture
is that Sabbath is rooted in the creation event and marks the
inauguration of human history. This means that Sabbathkeeping is
not a temporary Jewish ceremonial law, but a creation ordinance
for the benefit of humanity. It also means, as so well stated by
Elizabeth E. Platt, that "we have our roots in the Sabbath; we
belong in it from Genesis on into Eternity in God's plan." 106
.................
To be continued
NOTES TO CHAPTER 2
1. For an analysis of the various theories regarding the origin
of the Sabbath, see, Samuele Bacchiocchi, Divine Rest for Human
Restlessness (Rome, 1980), pp. 1-32.
2. "The Sabbath in Acts and the Epistles," A Bible Study posted
by the Worldwide Church of God in their web page (www.wcg.org,
September 1998), p.4.
3. Dale Ratzlaff, Sabbath in Crisis. Transfer/Modification?
Reformation/Continuation? Fulfillment/Transformation? (Applegate,
California, 1990).
4. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh, 1956), vol.3, part
two, p.62.
5. See, S.R.Driver, The Book of Genesis (London, 1943), p.18; J.
Skinner, Genesis (Edinburgh, 1930), p.38; A. Simpson, "The Book
of Genesis," The Interpreter's Bible, vol.1, p.490.
6. F.J.Helfneyer, "'oth," Theological Dictionary of the Old
Testament (Grand Rapids, 1982), vol.1, p.171.
7. Willy Rordorf, Sunday: The History of the Day of Rest and
Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the Christian Church
(Philadelphia, 1968), p.63.
8. For my analysis of the meaning of the rest in Hebrews, see
Divine Rest for Human Restlessness (Rome, 1980), pp.137-140. See
also chapter 3 of this book entitled "The Sabbath and the
Covenants."
9. See also Jub. 2:20-22. Such an exclusive interpretation of the
Sabbath led some Rabbis to teach that non-Jews were actually
forbidden to observe the Sabbath. For example, Simeon B. Lagish
said: "A Gentile who keeps the Sabbath deserves death" (Sanhedrin
586). Earlier, "R Jose B. Hanina said: A non-Jew who observes the
Sabbath whilst he is uncircumcised incurs a liability for the
punishment of death. Why? Because non-Jews were not commanded
concerning it" (Deuteronomy Rabbah 1:21).
10. Genesis Rabbah 11:7; 64:4; 79:6.
11. Philo, De Opificio Mundi 89. De Vita Mosis 1, 207; De
Specialibus Legibus 2,59.
12. Philo, De Decaloge 97.
13. Philo, De Opificio Mundi 89.
14. Didascalia Apostolorum. The Syriac Version Translated and
Accompanied by the Verona Latin Fragments, ed. R. Hugh Connolly
(Oxford, 1929), p.233.
15. Athanasius, De sabbatis et circumcisione 4, PG 28, 138 B.C.
For additional examples and discussion, see Samuele Bacchiocchi,
From Sabbath to Sunday (Rome, 1977), pp.273-278.
16. Constitutions of the Holy Apostles VII, 23, Ante-Nicene
Fathers VII, 469.
17. Ibid., VII, 36, p.474; cf. II, 36.
18. Jean Danielou, T the Bible and Liturgy (South Bend, IN,
1966),p. 276.
19. Augustine, The City of God, XXII, 30, trans. Henry Bettenson,
(Oxford, 1972), p.1090.
20. The fact that in the creation story there is no mention of
"evening . . . morning" for the seventh day is interpreted by
Augustine as signifying the eternal nature of the Sabbath rest
both in the mystical and in the eschatological sense.
21. Augustine, Confessions X1II, 35-36. Cf. Sermon 38, PL 270,
1242; De Genesis ad litteram 4, 13, PL 34, 305. The "already" and
the "not yet" dimensions of the Sabbath rest are concisely
presented by Augustine in his Commentary on Psalm 91,2: "One
whose conscience is good, is tranquil, and this peace is the
Sabbath of the heart. For indeed it is directed toward the hope
of Him Who promises, and although one suffers at the present
time, he looks forward toward the hope of him Who is to come, and
then all the clouds of sorrow will be dispersed. This present
joy, in the peace of our hope, is our Sabbath" (PL 27, 1172).
22. In his Epistula 55 ad Ianuarium 22, Augustine explains:
"Therefore of the Ten Commandments the only one we are to observe
spiritually is that of the Sabbath, because we recognize it to be
symbolic and not to be celebrated through physical inactivity"
(CSEL 34, 194). One wonders, How is it possible to retain the
Sabbath as the symbol of mystical and eschatological rest in God,
while denying the basis of such a symbol, namely, its literal
Sabbath-rest experience? For a discussion of this contradiction,
see below.
23. Eugippius (about 455-535), for example, quotes verbatim from
Augustine, Adversus Faustum 16,29 (Thesaurus 66, PL 62, 685). Cf.
Bede (about 673-375), In Genesim 2, 3, CCL 118A, 35; Rabanus
Maurus (about 784-856), Commentaria in Genesim 1,9, PL 107, 465;
Peter Lombard (about 1100-1160), Sententiarum libri quatuor 3,
37, 2, PL 192, 831.
24. Chrysostom, Homilia 10, 7 In Genesim, PG 53, 89. Ephraem
Syrus (about 306-373) appeals to the Sabbath "law" to urge that
"rest be granted to servants and animals" (S. Ephraem Syri hymni
et sermones, ed. T. J. Lamy, I, 1882, p.542). For a brief survey
of the application of the Sabbath law to Sunday observance, see
L. McReavy, "'Servile Work': The Evolution of the Present Sunday
Law," Clergy Review 9 (1935): 273276.
25. Peter Comestor, Historia scholastica: Tiber Genesis 10, PL
198, 1065. On the development of the principle of "one day in
seven," see discussion in Wilhelm Thomas, "Sabbatarianism,"
Encyclopedia of the Lutheran Church, 1965, III, p.2090.
26. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part I-II, Q. 100, 3, (New
York, 1947), p.1039.
27. Aquinas subdivided the Mosaic law into moral, ceremonial, and
judicial precepts. The moral precepts of the decalogue are viewed
as precepts also of the Natural Law; that is to say, they are
precepts binding upon all people because they are discoverable by
all through human reason without the aid of special revelation.
Cf. Aquinas (note 26), Part I-II, Q. 100, 1 and Q. 100, 3, pp.
1037, 1039.
28. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Part I-II, Q. 100, 5, p.
1042.
29. See note 28. Note also that Aquinas attributes a similar
symbolic function to Sunday: "As to the Sabbath, which was a sign
recalling the first creation, its place is taken by the Lord's
Day, which recalls the beginning of the new creature in the
Resurrection of Christ" (note 26, Part I-II, .Q. 103, 3, p.
1085).
30. Thomas Aquinas (note 26), Part I-II, Q. 107, 3, p.1111.
31. See L. L. McReavy, "'Servile Work': The Evolution of the
Present Sunday Law," Clergy Review 9 (1935), pp.279f. A brief
survey of the development of Sunday laws and casuistry is
provided by Paul K. Jewett, The Lord's Day (Grand Rapids, MI,
1972), pp. 128-169. A good example of the adoption of Aquinas'
moral-ceremonial distinction can be found in the Catechism of the
Council of Trent.
32. Karlstadt's conception of the Sabbath rest contains a strange
combination of mystical and legalistic elements. Basically he
viewed the day as a time to abstain from work in order to be
contrite over one's sins. For a clear analysis of his views, see
Gordon Rupp, Patterns of Reformation, 1969, pp.123-130; idem,
"Andrew Karlstadt and Reformation Puritanism," Journal of
Theological Studies 10 (1959), pp.308-326; cf. Daniel Augsburger,
"Calvin and the Mosaic Law," Doctoral dissertation, Strasbourg
University (1976), pp.248-249; J.N.Andrews and L.R.Conradi,
History of the Sabbath and First Day of the Week (Washington, DC,
1912), pp.652-655.
33. Luther, Against the Heavenly Prophets, Luther's Works (St.
Louis, 1958), vol.40, p.93. A valuable study of Luther's views
regarding the Sabbath is to be found in Richard Muller,
Adventisten-Sabbat-Reformation, Studia Theologica Lundensia
(Lund, 1979), pp.32-60.
34. Luther, Treatise on Good Works (1520), Selected Writings of
Martin Luther (Philadelphia, 1957), p.174.
35. Concordia or Book of Concord, The Symbols of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church (St. Louis, 1957), p.1974.
36. Ibid.
37. Augsburg Confession (note 35), p.25; cf. Philip Schaff, The
Creeds of Christendom (New York, 1919), vol.3, p.69.
38. Winton V. Solberg, Redeem the Time (Cambridge, 1977), pp.
15-19; A.G.Dickens, The English Reformation (London, 1964), p.
34; George H. Williams, The Radical Reformation (Leiden, 1962),
pp.38-58, 81-84.
39. See below, note 41.
40. A valuable survey of the ideas and influences of these
Sabbatarians is provided by G. F. Hasel, "Sabbatarian
Anabaptists," Andrews University Seminary Studies 5 (1967), pp.
101-121; 6 (1968):19 28. On the existence of Sabbathkeepers in
various countries, see Andrews and Conradi (note 32), pp.
633-716. Cf. Richard Muller (note 33), pp.110129.
41. In a list of eleven sects by Stredovsky of Bohemia,
"Sabbatarians" are listed in the third place after Lutherans and
Calvinists. The list is reprinted by Josef Beck, ed., Die
Geschichts-Biicher der Widertaufer in Osterreich-Ungarn ("Fontes
Rerum Austriacarum," Wien, 1883), 43:74. For an analysis of this
and three other lists, see Hasel (note 40), pp.101-106, who
concludes: "These early enumerations seem to indicate that
Sabbatarian Anabaptists were considered to be an important and
strong group" (p.106). Cf. Henry A. DeWind, "A Sixteenth Century
Description of Religious Sects in Austerlitz, Moravia," Mennonite
Quarterly Review (1955): 51; George H. Williams (note 38), p.
676, 726, 732, 848, 408-410, 229, 257, 512.
42. Desiderius Erasmus, "Amabili Ecclesiae Concordia," Opera
Omnia V: 505-506; translation by Hasel (note 40), p.107.
43. Luther reports: "In our time there is a foolish group of
people who call themselves Sabbatarians [Sabbather] and say one
should keep the Sabbath according to Jewish manner and custom"
(D.Martin Luthers Werke, Weimer ed. 42:520). In his Lectures on
Genesis (4:46), Luther furnishes similar information: "I hear
that even now in Austria and Moravia certain Judaizers urge both
the Sabbath and circumcision; if they should boldly go on, not
being admonished by the work of God, they certainly might do much
harm" (cited in Andrews and Conradi, History of the Sabbath and
First Day of the Week [Washington, DC, 1912], p.640).
44. J.G.Walch, ed., Dr.Martin Luther sammtliche Schriften
(Berlin, 1910), vol. 20, p.1828ff. Cf. D. Zscharnack,
"Sabbatharier," Die Religion in Geschichte and Gegenwart (1931),
vol.5, p.8.
45. On Oswald Glait, see the study of Richard Muller (note 33),
pp.117-125. Cf. Hasel (note 40), pp.107-121.
46. On Andreas Fisher, see the treatment by Richard Muller (note
33), pp.125-130; Petr Ratkos, "Die Anfange des Wiedertaufertums
in der Slowakei," Aus 500 Jahren deutsch-tschechoslowakischer
Geschichte, Karl Obermann, ed. (1958), pp.41-59. See also the
recent study by Daniel Liechty, Andreas Fischer and the
Sabbatarian Anabaptists (Herald Press, Scottdale, PA, 1988).
47. Caspar Schewenckfeld's refutation of Glait's book is found in
S.D.Hartranft and E.E.Johnson, eds., Corpus Schwenckfeldianorum
(1907), vol.4, pp.451ff.
48. Ibid., p.458. The translation is by Hasel (note 40), p.119.
49. Ibid., p.491.
50. Ibid., p.457-458.
51. An Anabaptist (Hutterian) Chronicle provides this moving
account of Glait's final days: "In 1545 Brother Oswald Glait lay
in prison in Vienna for the sake of his faith.... Two brethren
also came to him, Antoni Keim and Hans Standach, who comforted
him. To them he commended his wife and child in Jamnitz. After he
had been in prison a year and six weeks, they took him out of the
city at midnight, that the people might not see or hear him, and
drowned him in the Danube" (A.J.F.Zieglschmid, ed., Die alteste
Chronik der Hutterischen Bruder [1943], pp.259, 260, 266, trans.
by Hasel [note 40], pp.114-115).
52. A brief historical survey of seventh-day Sabbathkeepers from
the fifteenth to the seventeenth century is found in Andrews and
Conradi (note 32), pp.632-759. A more comprehensive and critical
study of Sabbathkeeping through the ages is the symposium Kenneth
A. Strand, ed., The Sabbath in Scriptures and History
(Washington, DC, 1982). About 20 scholars have contributed
chapters to this study.
53. R.J.Bauckham, "Sabbath and Sunday in the Protestant
Tradition," From Sabbath to Lord's Day: A Biblical, Historical
and Theological Investigation, ed. D.A.Carson (Grand Rapids,
1982), p.333. In 1618, for example, John Traske began preaching
that Christians are bound by the Fourth Commandment to keep
Saturday scrupulously. Under pressure, however, he later recanted
in A Treatise of Liberty from Judaism (1620). Theophilus
Brabourne, also an Anglican minister, published in 1628 A
Discourse upon the Sabbath Day where he defended the observance
of Saturday instead of Sunday. The High Commission induced him to
renounce his views and to conform to the established church. Cf.
Robert Cox, The Literature of the Sabbath Question (London,
1865), vol. 1, pp.157-158.
54. Cf. W.Y.Whitley, A History of British Baptists (London,
1932), pp.83-86; A. C. Underwood. A History of the English
Baptists (London, 1947), chaps.2-5.
55. Seventh Day Baptist General Conference, Seventh Day Baptists
in Europe andAmerica (Plainfield, NJ, 1910), vol.I, pp.
127,133,153. Cf. Winton U. Solberg (note 38), p.278.
56. Raymond F. Cottrell notes: "The extent to which pioneer
Seventh-day Adventists were indebted to Seventh Day Baptists for
their understanding of the Sabbath is reflected in the fact that
throughout the first volume [of Advent Review and Sabbath Herald]
over half of the material was reprinted from Seventh Day Baptist
publications" ("Seventh Day Baptists and Adventists: A Common
Heritage, Spectrum 9 [1977], p.4).
57. The Church of God Seventh Day traces their origin back to the
Millerite movement. Mr.Gilbert Cranmer, a follower of Miller's
views, who for a time associated himself with the Seventh-day
Adventists, in 1860 was elected as the first president of a group
known first as Church of Christ and later Church of God Seventh
Day. Their 1977 report gives an estimated membership of 25,000
persons ("Synopsis of the History of the Church of God Seventh
Day," compiled in manuscript form by their headquarters in
Denver, Colorado). The 1996 Directory of Sabbath-Observing
Groups, published by The Bible Sabbath Association, lists over
300 different denominations or independent groups observing the
seventh-day Sabbath.
58. A comprehensive study of Calvin's understanding of the Fourth
Commandment is provided by Daniel Augsburger (note 32), pp.248,
284.
59. John Calvin, Commentaries on the First Book of Moses Called
Genesis, trans. John King (Grand Rapids, 1948), p.106.
60. Ibid.
61. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans.
Henry Beveridge (Grand Rapids, 1972), vol.1, p.343.
62. Ibid. Calvin summarizes the distinction between the
ceremonial and moral aspects of the Sabbath, saying: "The whole
may be thus summed up: As the truth was delivered typically to
the Jews, so it is imparted to us without figure; first, that
during our whole lives we may aim at a constant rest from our own
works, in order that the Lord may work in us by his Spirit;
secondly, that every individual, as he has opportunity, may
diligently exercise himself in private, in pious meditation on
the works of God, and at the same time, that all may observe the
legitimate order appointed by the church, for the hearing of the
word, the administration of the sacraments, and public prayer;
and, thirdly, that we may avoid oppressing those who are subject
to us" (ibid.).
63. John Calvin, Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses
Arranged in the Form of a Harmony, trans. Charles William Bingham
(Grand Rapids, 1950), pp.435-436.
64. Zacharias Ursinus, The Summe of Christian Religion (Oxford,
1587), p.955.
65. On the enormous influence of Nicolas Bownde's book, The
Doctrine of the Sabbath, see Winton U. Solberg (note 38), pp.
55-58. The book was enlarged and revised in 1606. Bownde insists
that the Sabbath originated in Eden and consequently the Fourth
Commandment is a moral precept binding on both Jews and
Christians. The latter are urged to observe Sunday as carefully
as the Jews did their Sabbath.
66. In the 163rd session of the Synod of Dort (1619), a
commission of Dutch theologians approved a six-point document
where the traditional ceremonial/moral distinctions are made. The
first four points read as follows:
"1. In the Fourth Commandment of the Law of God, there is
something ceremonial and something moral.
2. The resting upon the seventh day after the creation, and the
strict observance of it, which was particularly imposed upon the
Jewish people, was the ceremonial part of that law.
3. But the moral part is, that a certain day be fixed and
appropriated to the service of God, and as much rest as is
necessary to that service and the holy meditation upon Him.
4. The Jewish Sabbath being abolished, Christians are obliged
solemnly to keep holy the Lord's Day" (Gerard Brandt, The History
of the Reformation and Other Ecclesiastical Transactions in and
about the Low Countries [London, 1722], vol.3, 320; cf. pp.
28-29, 289-290).
67. The Westminster Confession, chapter 21, article 7, reads: "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" (Philip Schaff, The Creeds of the
Christendom [London, 1919], vol.3, 648-649).
68. Donald A. Carson, ed., From Sabbath to Lord's Day: A
Biblical, Historical, and Theological Investigation (Grand
Rapids, MI, 1982), pp.66-67.
69. R.J.Bauckham, "Sabbath and Sunday in the Protestant
Tradition," in From Sabbath to Lord's Day (note 53), p.322.
70. Willem Teellinck, De Rusttijdt: Ofte Tractaet van
d'onderhoudinge des Christenlijken Rust Dachs [The Rest Time: Or
a Treatise on the Observance of the Christian Sabbath]
(Rotterdam, 1622). William Ames, Medulla Theologica (Amsterdam,
1623), trans. John D. Eusden, The Marrow of Theology (Grand
Rapids, 1968), pp.287-300, provides a theoretical basis for
Sunday observance.
71. An earlier treatise against Sabbatarianism was produced by
Jacobus Burs, Threnos, or Lamentation Showing the Causes of the
Pitiful Condition of the Country and the Desecration of the
Sabbath (Tholen, 1627). Andreas Rivetus refuted Gomarus'
contention that the Sabbath was a Mosaic ceremony abrogated by
Christ in his Praelectiones [Lectures] (1632). Gomarus replies
with a voluminous Defensio Investigationis Originis Sabbati [A
Defense of the Investigation into the Origin of the Sabbath]
(Gronigen, 1632). To this Rivetus countered with Dissertatio de
Origine Sabbaahi [Dissertation on the Origin of the Sabbath]
(Leyden, 1633).
72. The controversy flared up again in Holland in the 1650s.
Gisbertus Voetius and Johannes Cocceius were the two opposing
leaders in the new round. For a brief account, see Winton U.
Solberg (note 38), p.200. Solberg provides an excellent survey of
the controversy over the Sabbath in seventeenth-century England
(pp.27-85) and especially in the early American colonies (pp.
85-282).
73. Willy Rordorf's book (note 7) was first published in 1962 in
German. Since then it has been translated into French, English
and Spanish. Its influence is evidenced by the many and different
responses it has generated.
74. Rordorf's denial of any connection between Sunday and the
Fourth Commandment can be traced historically in the writings of
numerous anti-Sabbatarian theologians, such as Luther (notes 34,
35); William Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue
(1531), ed. Henry Walter (Cambridge, 1850), pp.97-98; the
formulary of faith of the Church of England known as The
Institution of A Christian Man (1537); Francis White, A Treatise
of the Sabbath-Day: Concerning a Defence of the Orthodox Doctrine
of the Church of England against Sabbatarian Novelty (London,
1636); James A. Hessey, Sunday: Its Origin, History, and Present
Obligation (London, 1866); Wilhelm Thomas, Der Sonntag im friihen
Mittelalter (Gottingen, 1929); C.S.Mosna, Storia della Domenica
dalle Origini fino agli Inizi del V. Secolo (Rome 1969); D.A.
Carson, ed. (note 68).
75. This concern is expressed, for example, by P.Falsioni, in
Rivista Pastorale Liturgica (1967): 311, 229, 97, 98; (1966):
549-551. Similarly, Roger T.Beckwith and William Stott point out:
"Whether the Christian Sunday could have survived to the present
day if this sort of attitude [Rordorf's view] had prevailed among
Christians in the past is extremely doubtful, and whether it will
survive for future generations if this sort of attitude now
becomes prevalent is equally uncertain" (This is the Day: The
Biblical Doctrine of the Christian Sunday [London, 1978], p.ix).
76. Beckwith points out, for example, that "if Jesus regarded the
Sabbath as purely ceremonial and purely temporary, it is
remarkable that he gives so much attention to it in his teaching,
and also that in all he teaches about it he never mentions its
temporary character. This is even more remarkable when one
remembers that he emphasizes the temporary character of other
parts of the Old Testament ceremonial - the laws of purity in
Mark 7:14-23 and Luke 11:39-41, and the temple (with its
sacrifices) in Mark 13:2 and John 4:21. By contrast, we have
already seen, he seems in Mark 2:27 to speak of the Sabbath as
one of the unchanging ordinances for all mankind" (note 75, p.
26; cf. pp.2-12).
77. Beckwith (note 75), pp.45-46. Beckwith and Stott's view of
the Sabbath as an unchanging creation ordinance upon which the
observance of Sunday rests can be traced historically in the
writings of theologians such as Aquinas (partly-note 28); Calvin
(partly-notes 5962); Richard Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical
Polity (Cambridge, MA, 1957), vol.5, p.70,3; Nicholas Bownde
(note 65); William Teellinck, William Ames and Antonius Walaeus
(note 70); formularies of faith such as the Westminster
Confession (note 67) and the Synod of Dort (note 66); E.W.
Hengstenberg, Uber den Tag des Herrn (1852); recently by J.
Francke, Van Sabbat naar Zondag (Amsterdam, 1973); Karl Barth,
Church Dogmatics (Edinburgh, 1956), vol. 3, pp.47-72; Paul K.
Jewett (partly), The Lord's Day: A Theological Guide to the Day
of Worship (Grand Rapids, 1971); Francis Nigel Lee, The
Covenantal Sabbath (London, 1966). Lee's study, though sponsored
by the British Lord's Day Observance Society, can hardly be taken
seriously on account of its eccentric nature. He speculates, for
example, on "The Sabbath and the time of the Fall" (pp.79-81).
78. Beckwith and Stott (note 75), pp.141,143.
79. "What Do the Scriptures Say About the Sabbath? Part 1: The
Books of Moses," Bible Study prepared by the Worldwide Church of
God and posted in their Web page - www.wcg.org, September 1998),
p.1.
80. Dale Ratzlaff (note 3), p. 25. 81. Ibid. p.26.
82. R.Pettazzoni, "Myths of Beginning and Creation-Myths," in
Essays on the History of Religion, trans. H.T.Rose (New York,
1954), pp.24-36. A brief but informative treatment is found in
Niels-Erik A. Andreasen, The Old Testament Sabbath, SBL
Dissertation Series 7 (Missoula, MT, 1972, pp. 174-182. For
examples of texts, see Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts,
1950 (UT krt A 206-211), pp.5,61,69,140.
83. Pritchard (note 82), p.68.
84. Andreasen (note 82), p.189.
85. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, ET (Edinburgh, 1956), vol.3,
part 2, p.51.
86. Ibid., part 1, p.213.
87. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall. A Theological
Interpretation of Genesis 1-3 (New York, 1964), p.40.
88. Roger D. Congdon, "Sabbatic Theology," Th. D. dissertation,
Dallas Theological Seminary (Dallas, 1949), p.122.
89. "What Do the Scriptures Say About the Sabbath? Part 1: The
Books of Moses," (note 79), p.1.
90. Robert A. Morey, "Is Sunday the Christian Sabbath?" Baptist
Reformation Review 8 (1979), p.6.
91. Harold H. P. Dressler, "The Sabbath in the Old Testament," in
From Sabbath to Sunday, A Biblical, Historical, and Theological
Investigation, ed. Donald A. Carson (Grand Rapids, 1982), p.28.
92. Dale Ratzlaff (note 3), p.21.
93. Ugo Cassuto, A Commentary on the Book of Genesis (New York,
1961), p.63.
94. Ibid., p.68.
95. Dale Ratzlaff (note 3), p. 24. 96. Ibid., p.22.
97. Augustine, Confessions 13, 24, 25, Nicene and Post-Nicene
Fathers of the Christian Church (Grand Rapids, 1979), vol.1, p.
207.
98. Roy Gane, "Sabbath and the New Covenant," Paper presented at
a consultation with the Worldwide Church of God (1997), pp.5-6.
99. G.H.Waterman, "Sabbath," The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia
of the Bible (Grand Rapids, 1975), vol 5. p.183.
100. John Skinner, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on
Genesis, The International Critical Commentary (Edinburgh, 1930),
p.38.
101. Dale Ratzlaff (note 3), p.24.
102. Ibid.
103. John Skinner (note 100), p.35.
104. H.C.Leupold, Exposition of Genesis (New York, 1950), p.103.
105. Roy Gane (note 98), p.6.
106. Elizabeth E. Platt, "The Lord Rested, The Lord Blessed the
Sabbath Day," Sunday 66 (1979), p.4.
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