Thread: Six Views of the Sabbath

Two: An Inconsistent Sabbatarian

An Inconsistent Sabbatarian totally agrees with the consistent sabbatarian up to the point of seventh versus one in seven part. At this point he changes the "unchanging" moral law in two ways. He first changes the day from the seventh to first, and then also changes the God given reason(s) for remembering the day. We now keep the Christian Sabbath (A term and concept totally unknown in Scriptures) holy to remember the resurrection of Christ. The view has no clear and compelling New Testament evidence for either of these changes. However, to his credit, the inconsistent sabbatarian does honestly try to be consistent with the specific rules that God gave to Israel concerning Sabbath behavior. The Puritans nearly all held this view.

The rest is here. Any thoughts? I've become interested in the Reformed view of the Sabbath after listening to a tape on the Ten Commandments by Dr. Laura and then seeing "Amazing Facts" [SDA program] last night.

Thanks,

jason
PS: No, I'm not becoming SDA!

Hello Jason,

The Old Testament Sabbath was to be a day of holy convocation (Ex 12:16) where the Jews would gather together to worship God. In the New Testament we do not see the Christian’s gathering on Saturday, but on the First day of the Week (e.g. Sunday).

There are two ways to receive a command from God. The first is by a direct command of God and the second is by approved example. After the Sunday morning resurrection, the apostles, had a New Testament convocation on SUNDAY. When Jesus met with them (John 20:19) He did NOT say; come back on Saturday and we will do this right. Nope! Instead we read in John 20:26 that THEY ASSEMBLED AGAIN on the First Day of the Week – and AGAIN Jesus bless the occasion by appearing to them.

For me this is all too clear. Just as the Old Testament Sabbath commemorated the first creation (Exodus 20:11), so to the first day Sabbath commemorates the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17 cf. Heb. 8:13). Clearly through scripture (and scripture alone) we see a God approved example of which day the Sabbath is to be observed in the New Testament.

Brian