# Calvin on Having to Keep the Sabbath



## Romans922 (Mar 19, 2010)

Talking with a friend. He was reading in the Institutes, Book 2.8.28-34, and he was asking why Calvin basically says that he thinks it is good to meet regularly but because the ceremonial law has been fulfilled in Christ we aren't forced into that by a command to, for example, meet on the Lord's Day. He uses Acts 2:42 as an example that it would be good to meet regularly. But by regularly it doesn't seem he means each Lord's Day.

Any clarification to this? I was also wondering if this section was written early in Calvin's life and if then his sermons in Deuteronomy shed greater light into his view towards the end of his life.


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## T.A.G. (Mar 19, 2010)

Yep, NCT guys love Calvin on the sabbath


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## ooguyx (Mar 19, 2010)

T.A.G. said:


> Yep, NCT guys love Calvin on the sabbath


What is NCT?


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## VictorBravo (Mar 19, 2010)

Some clarification might be found in Calvin's Catechism. Here is an excerpt on the 4th Commandment. You can note that Calvin states that the ceremonial aspect of the 4th Commandment is fulfilled and done away with, but that it still has uses for the church. The last question and answer of the excerpt clearly shows his view that God's people are to meet on the Lord's Day.



> 166. Let us come to the fourth commandment.
> Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Sis days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made haven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day, and hallowed it.
> 
> 167. Does He order us to labour six days a week that may rest on the seventh?
> ...



Here is a link to Calvin's Catechism put up by Matthew McMahon: http://www.apuritansmind.com/Creeds/CalvinsCatechismIntro.htm


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## Glenn Ferrell (Mar 19, 2010)

Many offer Calvin as their excuse for seeking their own pleasure on the Lord's Day. But, in his sermons on Deuternomy he gives a fuller explaination of his views:

Faith Presbyterian Church Reformed


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## NaphtaliPress (Mar 19, 2010)

Glenn linked (thanks Glenn) to an old version of the article below which is an updated format at that link.
Calvin in the Hands of the Philistines: Or Did Calvin Bowl on the Sabbath? | Naphtali Press


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## OPC'n (Mar 19, 2010)

Many ppl do use Calvin as an excuse not to observe the Sabbath. I did for awhile myself bc I only read comments he made about the Sabbath. That was until I read a book about his life. He observed the Sabbath more fully than anyone I know. He dedicated his whole life to preaching God's Word and he certainly dedicated the Sabbath to God.


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## Scott1 (Mar 19, 2010)

> Primus writes, "Calvin calls for a literal, physical cessation of daily labor on the Lord’s Day, not as an end in itself, but to provide time for worship of God. Recreational activity should also be suspended, for such activity interferes with worship as certainly as daily labor does. ‘If we spend the Lord’s day in making good cheer, and in playing and gaming, is that a good honouring of God? Nay, is it not a mockery, yea and a very unhallowing of his name?’"



Mr. Calvin apparently never quite got to the understanding of the Westminster Divines nor the London Baptist Confession.

He did appear to move toward a "good and necessary consequence" basis for ceasing both work and recreation one day a week. In practice, it would look very similar to the Westminster Standards or London Baptist Confession.

It's interesting, I once read Mr. Lorraine Boettner in a book introduction saying we are "Calvinist" but not "Calvinistic" due mainly to his reasoning regarding the fourth commandment.

And it is a reminder, that while Mr. Calvin was very, very good- the greatest theologian of all time, he was not perfect, did not refine every systematic doctrine, nor ought we expect that.


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## nnatew24 (Mar 22, 2010)

Here's an interesting quote from Calvin on this subject:



> “We must refrain from our own business which might hinder us from the mining of God’s works, and we must call upon His name and exercise our selves in His word. If we spend the Lord’s Day in making good cheer, and in playing and gaming, is that a good honoring of God? Nay, it is not a mockery, yea a very unhallowing of His name? Yes. But when the Shop-windows are shut in on the Lord’s Day, and men travel not as they do on other days, it is to the end [that] we should have the more leisure and liberty, to intend to the things that God commandeth… Yet notwithstanding it is so common a thing, as is pity to see (i.e. that people refuse to come to the sermon, conduct their own affairs, indulge in gluttony and withdraw into their homes away from the church on the Lord’s Day), and would God that [these] examples were more rare and further off to be found. But the world sees how all things are unhallowed, insomuch that most folk have no regard at all of the using of that Day, which was ordained to withdraw us from all earthly cares and affairs that we might give ourselves wholly unto God. But if the Lord’s Day be spent not only in games and pastimes fully contrary to God, so as men think they have not kept holy the Lord His Day, except God be offended divers ways; if the holy order which God ordained to bring us to Him be broken after that fashion, is it any wonder though men play the beasts all the week after?”
> 
> Sermon 34 on Deuteronomy, in The Sermons of John Calvin upon the Fifth Book of Moses Called Deuteronomy, translated by Arthur Golding, London, 1583, page 204. Also translated in John Calvin’s Sermons on the Ten Commandments, Benjamin W. Farley, 1980.



From my personal research of Calvin's Institutes, I've deduced that:

-Calvin recognizes that Christians in the New Covenant have a responsibility to obey the 4th commandment, and that it can be broken. II.8.28: "_The early fathers customarily called this commandment a foreshadowing because it contains the outward keeping of a day which, upon Christ's coming, was abolished; but they touch upon only half the matter. Hence, we must go deeper in our exposition, and ponder three conditions in which, it seems to me, *the keeping of this commandment* consists._"

-Calvin on what should guide our worship: "_Meetings of the church are enjoined upon us by God's word; and from our everyday experience we well know how we need them. But how can such meetings be held unless they have been established and have their stated days?_" And then he goes on to say "_if we are subject to the same necessity as that to alleviate which the Lord established the Sabbath for the Jews, let no one allege that this has nothing to do with us_". Here he states that the order of corporate worship has been established by the 4th commandment.

He goes from there to clearly affirm that we should "_obey the order we see laid upon us by God's will_", in that weekly worship is demanded by the 4th commandment.

-However, Calvin also, very confusingly, calls Sunday the Sabbath: "_in the churches founded by him_ [Paul]_, the Sabbath was retained for this purpose_ [Christian fellowship]. _For he prescribes *that day* to the Corinthians for gathering contributions; 1 Cor 16:2_.”

He then says: "_because it was expedient to overthrow superstition, the day sacred to the Jews was set aside; because it was necessary to maintain decorum, order, and peace in the church, another was appointed for that purpose._" That is, another Sabbath, was appointed, per 1 Cor 16. 

He also affirms, in II.8.34: "_the ancients did not substitute the Lord's Day (as we call it) for the Sabbath without careful discrimination. The purpose and fulfillment of that true rest, represented by the ancient Sabbath, lies in the Lord's resurrection._"

Hope that helps...


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