Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnOwen007  But it is not in this way [no day is special] that the Church observes the Lord's day, or the first day of the week. The observance of the first day of the week on the part of Christians differs in two respects from the observance of the Jewish sabbath. 1. It was not lawful for the Jews, on account of the express command of God, to alter or change the sabbath of the seventh day, as being a part of the ceremonial worship. But the Christian church, in the exercise of her own liberty, sets apart [notice the present tense] the first, or any other day to the ministry, without connecting with it any opinion of necessity of worship. [...] |
Marty, as you suggested previously, we may need to agree to disagree in the way we interpret Ursinus. I think the broader context of how the reformers approached the subject explains what Ursinus is aiming at. He starts from the position that the Sabbath is morally binding, and seeks to show wherein the Christian Sabbath differs from the Jewish. From that position his statements seem transparent to me, that the Christian church, unlike the Jewish church, does not regard one specific day as possessing inherent holiness over any other day. He clearly states that this respect to one specific day is what belonged to the ceremonial law. The Puritans also regarded the specific day as something which was positive, not moral. It might be argued that the Puritans laid greater emphasis than Ursinus on the fact that the positive institution of the first day was normative, and that would be in keeping with the different points they were seeking to establish; but it cannot be doubted that Ursinus saw the first day of the week as being appointed by the apostolic church, and that it appointed the first day because it was the day on which Christ rose from the dead.
The above quotation does not appear to me to suggest that the church today might change the day on which she keeps holy to God one day in seven. It seems merely to indicate that the church has freedom to minister not only one day of the week, but on every day of the week. Again, this would be in keeping with the reformed contention that the Christian church is not bound to observe the ceremonial aspects of the Sabbath commandment. Many blessings!