When we observe the heavy artillery that each side brings to bear to shore up its day
as God's sacred day, could it be that the molehill from which the Mountain is made is
something other than God's molehill? Neither one is God's mountain.
To understand the answer to this problem we first must understand exactly when, where
and why He first selected a sacred day for us to keep. In this regard it is
fundamental to realize that the Sabbath was this day -- the seventh-day Sabbath.
It is also essential to know that this was given initially at Sinai.
Neh. 9:9-14 -- You saw the suffering of our forefathers in
Egypt. You heard their cry at the Red Sea...
You made known to them your holy
Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses.
If He made known to them His holy Sabbath at that time, it wasn't known to them before
this time. God, in speaking through Ezekiel about the Israelites, states:
Ezek. 20:12 KJV -- Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths,
to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify
them.
If anyone should still have any doubt about what these two texts are telling us, I will
present one more which should convince all. This is Moses who is declaring the ten
commandments to the Israelites shortly before their entry into the Promised Land.
Deut. 5:2,3 -- The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.
It was not with our fathers
that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.
Moses then proceeds to recite to them the ten commandments. This can only mean
that this covenant was initiated at Sinai and it was issued only to the Israelites.
All of this covenant, including the Sabbath -- the rules and regulations and the
ceremonial sacred festivals, were God's symbols to be carried out by the Israelites.
It represented His plan of salvation which was to be carried out in reality, for all
humanity, at the coming of Christ.
Now, with that in mind, let us examine more carefully the fourth commandment which
deals with the Sabbath.
Ex. 20:8-11 -- Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six
days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord
your God.
On it you shall not do any
work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your
animals, nor the alien within your gates.
For in six days the Lord
made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the
seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
The thing that stands out in this command is the absolute insistence of no work to be
done on the Sabbath day. It was not a day of worship but a day for absolute absence
of work. As a symbol, this day pointed back to God's Rest which he entered into on
the seventh day of Creation's week.
Note that following each of the six days of creation that the day ends with this
statement: "And there was evening and there was morning -- the first
day." The same for the succeeding days of creation with each so designated as its
respective day until we come to the seventh day. The seventh day has no such ending
to bring this day to a close. Instead we have, this statement for the seventh day:
Gen. 2:2,3 -- By the seventh day God had finished the work
he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God
blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of
creating that he had done.
This recurring statement that ends each day is missing. The seventh day had no
ending to it. It and every succeeding day was to be God's rest day. Into this
rest He invited Adam and Eve to enter. The first full day of their life was God's
seventh day of creation. Each day thereafter constituted this day of God's
rest. There was no need of cycling the weekly days. Nothing was aging.
No one was growing older. No need for the clock of time to start ticking. Adam
and Eve were given only one simple command -- not to eat of the tree of knowledge
of good and evil. If they would obey this simple command they would continue in
God's Rest for eternity. This rest represented, not one day in seven but every day
in God's rest from a perfect creation that He had prepared for them.
During this undetermined period that Adam and Eve continued in this daily rest with God
they had no problem with loving God supremely and loving each other with the boundless
love that God had created them with.
Then one day they ate of the forbidden fruit -- a direct violation and sin
against the command of God. This sin separated them from God and they were driven
from the garden. The clock of time began ticking and they began aging, along with
everything else on the earth.
This also brought an end to God's rest that they had continued to enjoy since their
creation. This rest had not been in any way a physical rest but a rest in the
assurance that, if they avoided that one restriction, their continued living in God's
presence would continue for eternity.
Approximately 2500 years after Adam's sin, God revealed to Abraham's descendants, the
Israelites, God's plan of salvation to bring the inhabitants of the world back into God's
rest. All these sacred festivals, sacrifices, rules and regulations are a part of
this great plan. We will limit the discussion to the place of the Sabbath as a
symbol in this plan.
We have seen in the fourth commandment, as given in Exodus, that the reason God was
commanding them to keep this commandment was because of God resting, following the
completion of His perfect work of creation. This shadow or symbol -- the
weekly Sabbath -- was presented to them and pointed back to creation in relation to
God's rest which Adam and Eve enjoyed during their personal relationship with God on a
daily basis. The symbol, the weekly Sabbath, could not be every day with absolutely
no work as this would preclude them from being self-supporting people. It is
difficult to over stress the importance that God impressed on the Israelites as to no work
being done on that day.
William Barclay, the well-known Bible scholar, made a comment in his chapter on the
fourth commandment in his book The Ten Commandments for Today, that I would like to
bring out. Barclay is a man that I hold in the highest esteem. I believe the
chapter on the fourth commandment would be beneficial reading for everyone and I believe
it is one of the very best that I have read on this subject. He does make one
statement, though, where I differ with him and I believe on this one point he misses what
God was trying to teach in His enforcing no work on the Sabbath.
As it stands in the ten commandments, the fourth commandment is primarily a
great piece of social
and humanitarian legislation. It is not primarily a religious legislation at
all.
(The Ten Commandments for
Today, p. 32)
If it was a great piece of social and humanitarian legislation primarily, then it is
extremely difficult to see how this punishment fits the crime for a minute infraction of
the commandment.
Num. 15:32-36 -- While the Israelites were in the
desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day...
Then the Lord said to Moses,
"The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp. So
the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded
Moses.
I believe this is to teach us something much more important than social legislation in
this strict guarding of the Sabbath rest. We will consider this later.
First, I would like to stress the other presentation of the ten commandments by Moses
to the Israelites, about 40 years after the one at Sinai. This is just prior to
their going into the land of Canaan. Notice this statement in the last part of the
fourth commandment.
Deut. 5:15 -- Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and
that the Lord your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched
arm. Therefore the Lord your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath Day.
This time their reason for keeping the Sabbath is because of God redeeming them from
slavery in Egypt. God has only one way to bring man back to God's rest and that way
is through Christ. If the Sabbath were a shadow or symbol of God's rest in Christ,
this would require the shedding of the blood of the paschal lamb which pointed to the
great sacrificial Lamb of God. Accordingly:
The Lamb was slain --
The Passover blood is sprinkled --
The Lord brings out His redeemed people --
(Israelites redeemed from slavery in Egypt)
The manna from heaven is given
(representing Christ and His gospel)
And then, and only then, is the Sabbath expressly instituted. In type this is
pointing to the Anti-type when Christ (the Lamb of God) is sacrificed for the payment for
our sins. And by His blood we are redeemed and set apart from our slavery to sin.
God's rest, after His perfect creation, He instituted on the seventh day. Into
this rest He invited His newly created children (Adam and Eve). This rest was to
last for eternity if they remained faithful to His one command. This rest was a type
of the rest that God would establish by Christ's finished work of redemption on the cross.
This statement at the end of the fourth commandment, in Exodus, was pointing back in
time to God's rest, in Eden, in a finished creation. The statement at the end of the
fourth commandment in Deuteronomy 5:15 is pointing forward to God's rest restored by
Christ's finished work of redemption at the cross. Just as God's initial rest in
Eden was offered to His newly created children, so, in His rest restored, only his newly
created children will be eligible to enter that rest. Only the born again Christian
will be invited into this rest.
2 Cor. 5:17-19 -- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he
is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
All this is from God, who
reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them.
It is at the cross where this type meets its fulfillment in the anti-type.
Matt. 11:28-30 -- Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I
am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is
easy and my burden is light.
This is Christ inviting all who believe in Him to enter into His rest restored.
They are asked to exchange the weekly Sabbath rest as demanded in the symbol, for God's
rest into which every born again Christian is invited.
In this work of creation in the beginning that God rested from; how much did Adam and
Eve do to deserve entering into that rest? Nothing, of course. It was only by the
bountiful grace of God that they were invited into His rest.
In this salvation that God offers following the finished work of redemption by Christ
on the cross, how much are we expected to contribute? The same as Adam and Eve were
expected to contribute toward creation. It is only by the boundless grace of God
that we receive this most precious of all gifts.
Any work that we might do to enhance our claim to receive this gift is an insult to
God. We only have to focus our thoughts on the man in Numbers 15 who broke this rest
by a minor act of his own, worthy though it may have been, to realize how seriously God
views any works, regardless of how worthy, to merit any part of this salvation.
The rest, like the rest that Adam and Eve were invited into following their creation,
is a continual spiritual rest. Their rest in the assurance that this salvation has
been received as a result of Christ's finished work of redemption at the cross.
This passage from Matthew is from Jesus, preaching His everlasting gospel to the
unbelieving Jews. How sad that they refused this rest which He offered to all who
would believe in Him as their Savior.
Heb. 4:1-11 -- Therefore, since the promise of
entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen
short of it.
For we also have had the
gospel preached to us, just as they did; (speaking of the Jews hearing the gospel from
Jesus) but the message they heard was of no value to them because those who heard did not
combine it with faith (They refused to accept Christ as the Messiah). Now we who
have believed enter into that rest.
Now it is clear that God's
rest is available to all who believe in Christ and submit their lives to Him.
Col. 2:13-17 -- When you were dead in your sins and in the
uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us
all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was
against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross...
Therefore, do not let any one
judge you by what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon
celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the
reality, however, is found in Christ.
This passage should make it perfectly clear that all the symbols or shadows of things
to come as represented in the written code (Sinaitic Covenant) came to an end at the
cross. It was at the cross where the shadow met the reality found in Christ.
Heb. 4:3-7 -- And yet his work has been finished since the
creation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these
words:
And on the seventh day God
rested from all his work. And again in the passage above he says, "They shall
never enter my rest."
It still remains that some
will enter that rest, and those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go
in, because of their disobedience. Therefore God again set a certain day
calling it Today...
There remains, then, a
Sabbath rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his
own work, just as God did from his.
Isn't this perfectly clear that the rest that Christ was inviting those unbelieving
Jews to enter could not be the weekly Sabbath rest; that, they entered into religiously
and faithfully. It was to the restored spiritual rest that all true believers are
invited to enter. Not on a one day in seven type of rest but "Today and every
day as long as it is called today."
I believe this should be evidence enough to Scripturally prove that the seventh day
Sabbath met its fulfillment at the cross and that holiness associated with that day was
all transferred to the holy One it pointed forward to, Jesus Christ. It is also
clear that the sacredness of that day was not transferred to any other day.
I will now change my emphasis to the other mountain -- the Christian's Sunday.
You can search the Bible with a microscope and you will not find any place where
God has transferred the sacredness from the Sabbath or any other place over to Sunday.
There is much more evidence that reveals that the Sabbath day as God's holy day of
rest ended at the cross. I believe that is sufficient for all to see.
The absence of any statement by God authorizing Sunday as a sacred day is just as
clear.
There is evidence, however, that the Christian believers began meeting for preaching
and fellowshipping on Sunday instead of the Sabbath during the Apostolic era.
l would like to focus our attention to Paul's visit to Troas to meet with the believers
there. I have heard this visit discussed in countless evangelistic meetings but
always by those who were building the mountain for the present day sacredness of the
weekly Sabbath. After carefully studying this meeting from a completely open mind, I
would like to share with you what I see from this account in Scripture.
2 Cor. 2:12 -- Now when I went to Troas to preach the
gospel of Christ, I found that the Lord had opened a door for me.
The point of this text I want to point out is that Paul going to Troas to preach the
gospel of Christ to them.
Acts 20:6-11 -- But we sailed from Philippi after the
Feast of Unleavened Bread, and five days later joined the others at Troas, where we stayed
seven days.
Apparently Paul arrived at Troas on Monday because we know that he left seven days
later which would have to be on the following Sunday.
Vs. 7 -- On the first day of the week we came together to
break bread. Paul spoke to the people and because he intended to leave the next day,
kept on talking until midnight.
We know that Paul came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ to them. Isn't it
strange that nothing at all is spoken about any meeting that was held on the proceeding
day -- the seventh day Sabbath. No mention of coming together in a
preaching meeting except "on the first day of the week we came together to break
bread." I reject what I have always heard, that this was only a Saturday night
potluck dinner and Paul talked about his trip. If the principle reason for coming
was a potluck type of meal, this would have been featured early in the meeting --
not until after midnight. I believe this was the opportunity that Paul had been
looking forward to in order to present the gospel to them.
Vss. 8-11 -- There were many lamps in the upstairs room
where we were meeting.
Seated in a window was a
young man named Euticus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on.
When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked
up dead.
Paul went down, threw
himself on the young man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed,"
he said, "He's alive!"
Then he went upstairs again
and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left.
This was no travelogue put on by Paul, but most certainly the door that had opened for
him to preach the gospel of Christ to those at Troas. It was a marathon preaching
service because it apparently was the usual time they all came together to worship.
Much has been made by the opposition, (that this meeting represented a preaching
service) by the fact that at daylight that Sunday morning, Paul started off on a long
journey by foot to reach his destination. It is important to remember that it was
usual for the Christians to hold their meetings during the dark part of the day --
probably so it wouldn't interfere with work that they may need to do during the day.
Note:
Pliny, governor of Bithynia, Asia Minor, wrote in A.D.107 to Trajan concerning the
Christians:
They were wont to meet together, on a stated day before it was light, and sing
among themselves alternately a hymn to Christ as God.
When these things were
performed, it was their custom to separate and then come together again to a meal which
they ate in common without any disorder.
Sounds very much like Paul's meeting with the Christians at Troas, doesn't it?
Work was not forbidden on Sunday as it was not considered a holy day. -- that
all came in hundreds of years later when overzealous defenders of this mountain tried to
make it the Christian Sabbath -- a day the early Christian church never even
considered.
Paul was preaching that the Sinaitic covenant had been abrogated and all these symbols
had met their fulfillment in Christ. To prevent their beliefs from being confused
with Judaism they chose a different day for their day of worship.
1 Cor. 16:1,2 -- Now about the collection for God's
people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do.
On the first day of every
week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving
it up so that when I come no collections will have to be made.
When you critically look at this statement it makes no sense at all for their setting
Sunday aside to collect their funds at home to have them ready when Paul would come to
pick them up. That's the story that was ingrained in me and which I had always
believed; but it makes no sense. The whole idea of setting this money aside was to
prevent having to take up the time that Paul would be with them, for this purpose.
This was to be collected by the church; otherwise, if all these members brought their
accumulated collections from their homes then this would have to be taken up in a
collection when Paul met with them. This would have sabotaged what Paul was trying
to get them to do.
Paul was meeting much resistance, especially with recent Jewish believers in accepting
that the Sabbath was no longer a sacred day.
Rom. 14:5 -- One man considers one day more sacred than
another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced
in his own mind.
He is speaking here about those who are stressing the binding claim of the Sabbath as
still God's holy day. Paul's response is that it is not important (he considered
every day alike). It was important for each one to be fully convinced in his own
mind so that they might not sin against their conscience.
This also is positive proof that God had not given Paul any mandate for the sacredness
of any other day to take the place of the sacred- ness previously associated with the
Sabbath.
Since the Apostles had no mandate from God for another day to take the place of the
Sabbath, there was a period of several years when both days were honored, but always with
a distinction between the days and each honored in a different way. Sunday, the
first day of the week, was never called the Sabbath or associated with the rest that it
required. Sunday was the day that the church settled on as a logical day for them to
come together for religious purposes. Notice some excerpts from early Christian
writers about this transition. By the time John wrote his last book in the New
Testament this change to Sunday, being the day the Christians chose to meet for religious
purposes, was overwhelming.
The Didache, the teaching of the Twelve Apostles, the first service book of the church,
approximately 100 AD, states:
On the Lord's day come together, break bread and hold Eucharist. The
Didache (14)
Ignatius, about A.D.110 states:
They who walked in ancient custom have come to a new hope "no longer living
for the Sabbath but for the Lord's day" (To the Magnesians 9:1)
Justin Martyr (A.D. 170) -- writes:
On the day called the day of the sun all who live in the cities or in the
country gather together to one place." (First Apology 67)
In his discussion with Trypho the Jew, he says:
We do not live after the law, we are not circumcised in the flesh, we do not
keep the Sabbath. (Dialogue With Trypho 10);
and he says to the Jew:
Because you are idle for one day, you think you are pious. (Dialogue With
Trypho 12).
Augustine (A .D. 420) -- insists on the festal character of the Lord's Day, for
on it Jesus rose from the dead.
Origin (A.D. 240) -- apologizes for the special observance of any day at all.
The Sunday is observed as a concession to the weaker brothers because they are
either unable or unwilling to keep every day in this way, and so require some visible
reminders to prevent spiritual things from passing altogether out of their minds.
(Against Celsus 8,22,23)
Martin Luther held much to the same. In the Larger Catechism he insists that
serving men and maids must have a day of rest and refreshment, a day when they can gather
to hear God's word, and to praise and pray. But in principle it is of no importance
what day it is. It is not necessarily a fixed day as it was for the Jews, for in
itself one day is no better than another.
Barclay sums up how and when the Lord's Day became the Sabbath to the Christian Church.
And now we come to the influence of two famous men, influence which altered the
whole emphasis and influence which lasts to this day.
Alcuin (A.D. 735-804) was
the first to identify the Sabbath and the Lord's Day. All the work on the Lord's Day
became a breach of the fourth commandment. This was a complete reversal of the
position of the early church. The early church had again and again distinguished
between the Sabbath and the Lord's Day, and now Alcuin -- and it is perhaps not too
much to say fatally -- identified them.
The matter was taken beyond
recovery when Thomas Aquinas (AD 1225-74) did exactly and explicitly the same.
"The Sabbath is changed into the Lord's Day." (Summa 2.1, question 103, Article
3).
It was not long before the
church was drawing up as detailed Lord's Day prohibitions as ever the Pharisees did.
The Sabbath came to be more and more glorified. (The Ten Commandments for Today,
pg. 39)
From the preceding we can see that the development of Sunday into a sacred and holy day
came about on the basis of church tradition and not from the early Christian Church.
However, I believe we have evidence the early Christian believers came together on the
first day of the week for preaching services and fellowship. This was not by any
statement from God, but a day the early church arrived at by mutual consent.
Evidence of this we have already presented.
We must remember that God did select another day to take the place of the one He had
previously selected:
Heb. 4:6,7 -- It still remains that some will enter that rest, and
those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in, because of their
disobedience.
Therefore, God again set a
certain day, calling it Today...
There remains then, a
Sabbath-rest for the people of God: for anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his
own work, just as God did from his.
Is this not clear that the Lord did select a certain day to take the place of the
seventh day Sabbath -- the symbolic day He gave to the Israelites? That day
was not a reaffirmation of the seventh day Sabbath or the first day of the week. The
day selected could only be Today and every day as long as it is called Today. This
is the only day that could be selected if it were God's rest day as the same rest that He
had given to Adam and Eve following creation.
I firmly believe that the selection of Sunday as the Christian's choice for a day for
them to congregate for religious purposes is with God's approval. I believe that any
other day they might have selected would have met the same approval. I also believe
it is much more important to enter God's rest today and every day. This is to rest
in the assurance that our salvation has been given to us by Christ's completed work for
our redemption on the cross and any work on our part to enhance that salvation is an
abomination to God.
I can only reaffirm that either side that musters all their weapons to bolster Saturday
or Sunday as a sacred day is indeed building a bigger and bigger mountain out of a most
modest molehill.