So I'm looking in to reading more and more on the Sabbath since it isn't something I've been too preoccupied with in the past. I finished Pipa's and Chantry's books and will eventually wade into the older and harder stuff. Some of the other stuff I came across was from folks like Marva Dawn, expressed concern over being "legalistic" about keeping the Sabbath on Sunday instead of any other day that fits the individual household. It made me not want to read much more, but I did get to thinking, Why is it that Sunday is the day and not any other day? Whats so special about this day that Christ chose to rise on it, and what's the biggest problem with celebrating the Sabbath on another day? Just curious to hear your thoughts on this, and maybe get a better understanding of this day. Thanks!
Sabbatarian legalism?
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Interesting question, as they are 7th day Baptists even.
Later works may be more sophisticated in some respects but the arguments have not really changed that much since the first large work on the subject, Nicholas Bownd's True Doctrine of the Sabbath 1595/1606 (link here to RHB; it is a steal for $14). Here are some of the subtopics to the question you asked and two pages of text. For other works see Travis' page here.
Romans922
Puritan Board Professor
Whatever Chris suggests read it, but as a practical positive Sabbath keeping 4th commandment keeping article. I wrote this in 2010 - https://www.theaquilareport.com/delight-in-the-lords-day/
Also, I'd encourage you to check out my sermons on the 4th commandment from when I went through Exodus:
The Rest Of The Sabbath
What The Sabbath Does
Sabbath: A Day for Mercy
Sabbath Ways, Works, And Words
Sabbath: From the Beginning
How Jesus Kept The Sabbath
The First Day Sabbath
How The Church Keeps Sabbath
Also, I'd encourage you to check out my sermons on the 4th commandment from when I went through Exodus:
The Rest Of The Sabbath
What The Sabbath Does
Sabbath: A Day for Mercy
Sabbath Ways, Works, And Words
Sabbath: From the Beginning
How Jesus Kept The Sabbath
The First Day Sabbath
How The Church Keeps Sabbath
I, too, have been considering this topic a lot as of late, especially since attending an OPC congregation. I recently purchased all of Dabney's works in Logos, mainly for his Systematic Theology and his Discussions. However, he wrote a little piece called The Christian Sabbath: It's Nature, Design, and Proper Observance—only 93 short pages. Has anyone read this, and is it worth it? (I realize this is a stupid question since everything I have ever read of Dabney is pure gold. I am mainly asking if it is a recommended piece among all the ones published regarding Sabbath observance.)
I'll throw in the Jonathan Edwards treatment. It is thorough.
http://www.biblebb.com/files/edwards/sabbath.htm
http://www.biblebb.com/files/edwards/sabbath.htm
Modern ones probably won't, but that's because most modern systematics texts do not come from the confessional Reformed tradition. Frame addresses it. I am not sure if Berkhof addresses it (probably not). If you go back to older systematics, like Dabney's, you will find some good treatment there. "Father Brakel" certainly addresses it.
Yeah I have Berkhof, Hodge, Horton, Calvin, and Frame. Calvin is the only one I found who gave it any treatment. I didn't see where Frame did? He mentions it here and there but nowhere does he give it any real discussion, only in passing in other discussions on creation or the law. Unless I'm missing something?
Missed this the first time. The way to think of it is, the day is special because Christ rose on it and because of that as noted in Bownd there could be no other sufficient cause for mere men to change the day.
I think I must be thinking, then, of his Doctrine of the Christian Life, in which I believe he gives an extended treatment of Sabbath observance. Sorry about that!
bookslover
Puritan Board Doctor
The first part of what the poster said is interesting - why did Christ choose to rise on Sunday? He could have chosen Monday (or any other day of the week), and that would then have been the special day.
Ryan&Amber2013
Puritan Board Senior
I think the first day of the week has to do with ushering in the new creation.
C. M. Sheffield
Puritan Board Graduate
I would highly recommend the late Dr. Robert Marin's comprehensive treatment on the subject, The Christian Sabbath: Its Redemptive-Historical Foundation, Present Obligation, and Practical Observance.
Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
I read it recently on archive.org. The short answer is yes, it is worth it. Here is an extract from it: https://reformedcovenanter.wordpres...-the-sabbath-was-not-merely-a-ceremonial-law/
It could be due to thesimple fact that many of the modern ST were not written by Reformed persons, and that they would view the question of the Sabbath in a different fashion.
Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
I have added that one to my Amazon wish-list, thank you. I was previously unaware of its existence.
RobertPGH1981
Puritan Board Sophomore
There is a counterpoints book on the views of the sabbath. You could also read counterpoints on Law vs Gospel which will highlight the main differences between various interpretations of Law, which is rooted in how one interprets the sabbath. This entire difference in interpretation is rooted in ones hermenuetic (Covenant Theology, NCT, Dispensational ect.), and their views of continuity between NT and OT.
Grant
Puritan Board Graduate
https://www.gty.org/library/questions/QA135/are-the-sabbath-laws-binding-on-christians-today
Thoughts on this, are they taking Calvin out of Context?
Did Calvin believe we should rest from all worldly labors on the Lord's Day?
Thoughts on this, are they taking Calvin out of Context?
Did Calvin believe we should rest from all worldly labors on the Lord's Day?
Yes. Too simplistic. Calvin was a both a practical Sabbatarian in agreeing with strictness of observance as the later puritans (see works by John H. Primus who was not sympathetic and not Presbyterian, and this bit on the Calvin Bowling myth, Calvin in the Hands of the Philistines: Or Did Calvin Bowl on the Sabbath?) and a nascent Sabbatarian on the two core principals, for which see the article that appeared (twice!; it re-ran in the v12 "Sabbath" issue) in The Confessional Presbyterian journal, John Calvin, the Nascent Sabbatarian: A Reconsideration of Calvin’s View of Two Key Sabbath-Issues, by Stewart E. Lauer.
Grant
Puritan Board Graduate
Chris,
Thanks for sharing. The article in the Journal is especially helpful.
What would you say was abrogated with the 4th commandment? Just the day change or do you see other things (open to anyone to answer)?
You're a fast reader. The position of the puritans (the authors of the confessional view) stated this in different ways and on the surface could be seen as disagreeing in more than some incidentals (such as the execution of the man picking up sticks on the Sabbath). Bownd maintained the fourth commandment “containeth in it nothing ceremonial, nothing typical, nothing to be abrogated." Some of ceremonial strictness added under the Mosaic economy is abrogated, which is essentially what some other puritans mean in still maintaining a ceremonial aspect of the fourth commandment done away with. So you will still see puritans and later Sabbatarian theologians talking about a partly ceremonial aspect of the command. This as far as I see is the same as Bownd who prefers to maintain the thesis above while putting the partly ceremonial aspect under the idea of added ceremonial aids (which is also true of the second commandment and others as Bownd notes). This is from my intro analysis to Bownd's work:
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It is also the case that Greenham and Bownd held similar views on a primary ‘innovation’ Primus assigns to Bownd, regarding the ceremonial aspect of the fourth commandment. Much is made of Bownd’s affirming that there is nothing ceremonial or typical in the ten commandments. As previously noted, in this he really is not innovating as he draws upon a statement of Heinrich Wolf’s in doing so, who maintained the Sabbath “is not to be reckoned among the figures and ceremonies of the Jews, both because it was ordained in paradise before the fall of man for the worship of God, and also it is commanded in the Decalogue, which contains in it nothing ceremonial, nothing typical, nothing to be abrogated.”74 Yet there were ceremonial or figurative aids added to the moral law under the old economy, such as the deliverance from Egypt added as another reason to rest under the fourth commandment as given in Deuteronomy 5. Greenham explained his distinction in moral and civil law in relation to this: “That I call morall, which doth informe mens manners either concerning their religion to God, or their duties unto man: that I meane figurative, which is added for a time in some respect to some persons for an help to that which is morall….”75
Bownd affirms this same figurative help or ceremonial addendum to the moral law:
You can currently get Bownd for $14, a steal for a 600p quality sewn hard bound in a pretty fine dust jacket from RHB.Bownd affirms this same figurative help or ceremonial addendum to the moral law:
So that the Jews having this reason to move them to this rest, besides the above mentioned, were more severely tied unto it than any other people; but yet so, that it was required at the hands of men, long before this cause was annexed unto it. And therefore though that is removed and taken away, yea and the people to whom it only appertained; yet notwithstanding the Sabbath and day of rest is not gone with them, but is still in its first virtue and ancient strength, which upon good grounds it had in the beginning. The which thing, that it might not seem strange unto us, we may consider the like almost in every moral precept; which though every one of them was from the beginning, yet as they were given to the people of the Jews, had certain things added unto them, as accessory helps to keep them in the better obedience of them; which now being taken away again, the first commandments themselves have lost nothing of their former authority, but do bind as much as ever they did.76
From p. CVI, Sabbathum Veteris et Novi Testamenti: or, The True Doctrine of the Sabbath (Naphtali Press and Reformation Heritage Books, 2016).
From p. CVI, Sabbathum Veteris et Novi Testamenti: or, The True Doctrine of the Sabbath (Naphtali Press and Reformation Heritage Books, 2016).
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Grant
Puritan Board Graduate
To clarify, I have been skimming.
To conclude, I should have added, the puritans maintained that outside of these ceremonial adjuncts, we are bound as strictly as were the Jews in observing the fourth commandment.
T. E. Rickard
Puritan Board Freshman
The first comment I would make is that 'legalistic' can be used in a misunderstood manner. God's Word is not legalistic, but adding to it is the issue. The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson is great on this topic.
We see the principle of Sabbath as One in Seven; after the resurrection (Matt 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19) this changed from the seventh to the first. This is true Biblically, Acts 20:7, 1 Cor 16:1-2. Even this was called the 'Lord's Day', (Cf. Rev 1:10), referring to a common day which Christians understood. This is also true throughout Church History, although history and tradition are not authoritative, they do show how the church has understood the Bible over time. I am not aware of any who do not celebrate the Sabbath on a Sunday, besides more modern day examples; eg Seventh Day Adventists.
I would be interested to see the argument for it not being the first day of the week. Even with good and necessary consequence, it would point me to celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday. This is also interesting if the Sabbath is set apart for public and private worship, would the whole church need to agree on what day the Sabbath would be on? Also, some people might not understand the Positive nature of the Sabbath including works of mercy and necessity.
We see the principle of Sabbath as One in Seven; after the resurrection (Matt 28:1; Mark 16:2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1, 19) this changed from the seventh to the first. This is true Biblically, Acts 20:7, 1 Cor 16:1-2. Even this was called the 'Lord's Day', (Cf. Rev 1:10), referring to a common day which Christians understood. This is also true throughout Church History, although history and tradition are not authoritative, they do show how the church has understood the Bible over time. I am not aware of any who do not celebrate the Sabbath on a Sunday, besides more modern day examples; eg Seventh Day Adventists.
I would be interested to see the argument for it not being the first day of the week. Even with good and necessary consequence, it would point me to celebrate the Sabbath on Sunday. This is also interesting if the Sabbath is set apart for public and private worship, would the whole church need to agree on what day the Sabbath would be on? Also, some people might not understand the Positive nature of the Sabbath including works of mercy and necessity.
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