The Lord's Day
By Ron Smith
Hold The Traditions Which You Were Taught
“Therefore, brethren,
stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word
[oral] or our epistle [written]”
(2 Thess 2:15).
It seems that since the surge of Modernism in the late 20th
Century, many evangelicals no longer see the need for observing the Lord's Day
as our spiritual forefathers did. Is it time to quit calling Sunday the
Sabbath? Have we evolved to be more enlightened than they were, or is there
some other motive? Was their interpretation private, or is ours? Was their
interpretation faulty, or is ours? Are we the cloud of witnesses or are they?
Do we bear false witness when we say we believe in the Ten Commandments while
we really only believe in nine? Do we really need to abolish the custom of
having weekends off? Would it be good to open our businesses on Sundays and
force our employees to work so they cannot go to church? Where do we draw the
line between greed and obedience?
The pop interpretation nowdays
is that every man can rest whichever day he chooses, go fishing, and thus
fulfill the fourth commandment. The main two passages used to support this view
are Romans 14:4-6 and Col. 2:16,17. Let us look at them. We will show that the Matthew Henry
Commentary and others believe these two passages are not referring to the
seventh day, but rather to the new moon Sabbaths.
Romans 14:4-6
Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made
to stand, for God is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day above
another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own
mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not
observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the
Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not
eat, and gives God thanks.
Colossians 2:16-17
Therefore let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a
festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but
the substance is of Christ.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Now let us look at how our
fathers interpreted these verses. Below is a quote from Matthew Henry's
Commentary. He was a puritan who wrote around 1700. Matthew Henry shows that
the apostle was not referring to the Lord's Day, but to the traditional Jewish
Sabbaths that took place at new moons, on feast days, and on Saturday.
Those who thought themselves still under some kind of obligation
by the ceremonial law esteemed one day above another-kept up a respect to the
times of the Passover, Pentecost, new moons, and feast of Tabernacles; thought
those days better than other days, and solemnized them accordingly with
particular observances, binding themselves to some religious rest and exercise
on those days. Those who knew that all these things were abolished and done
away by Christ's coming esteemed every day alike. We must understand it with an
exception of the Lord's Day, which all Christians unanimously observed; but
they made no account, took no notice, of those antiquated festivals of the
Jews.”
Sunday as the Lord's Day is the fulfillment of the Sabbath shadow.
This is what Christians have always believed and practiced from the early days
of church history.
Dictionary Of The Apostolic
Church
In Ep. ad Magn., attributed
to Ignatius, we meet with an early admonition, emphasizing the distinction:
'Let us, therefore, no longer keep Sabbath after the Jewish manner...and
rejoice in days of idleness... But let every one of you keep Sabbath after a
spiritual manner, rejoicing in meditation on the law' (ch 9). In the nature of
things, the two days could not continue to be equally observed in the Christian
Church. The Sabbath must needs give place to the Lord's Day: the seventh day of
the week to the first. The legislation of Constantine (A.D. 321), which
recognized Sunday as a feast day, must have been no small factor in the case;
though, again, that would not have been enacted if the custom of keeping the Lord's
Day had not already been predominant among Christians… But there is a clear
distinction between the two; and for Christians the Lord's Day is paramount.
The Fourth Commandment was still held to be binding; only Sunday was tacitly
substituted for 'the seventh day.'...Great as the authority of the Sabbath is,
the authority of the Lord's Day for all who accept the resurrection of our Lord
is equally great or even greater.
Peloubet's Bible Dictionary
Christ's words do not remit
the duty of keeping the Sabbath, but only deliver it from the false methods of
keeping which prevented it from bestowing upon men the spiritual blessings it
was ordained to confer. The almost total silence of the epistles in relation to
keeping the Sabbath doubtless grew out of the fact that the early Christians
kept the Sabbath, and that this period was one of change from the seventh to
the first day of the week, and any definite rules would have been sure to be
misunderstood. For many years both the first and the seventh days of the week
were kept as Sabbaths; and gradually the first day of the week, the Lord's Day,
took the place among Christians of the seventh day, and they had the fullest
warrant for the change. The Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue is just as
binding now as it ever was, or as any other of the Ten Commandments. Those who
argue that God has abolished this Sabbath, but has written the Sabbath law in
our very natures, must have strange ideas of the wisdom of a God who abolishes
a command he has made it necessary to keep. Christians in keeping the Lord's Day
keep the Fourth Commandment, as really as do those who keep what is every
seventh day, only the counting starts from a different point. As to the method
of keeping the Sabbath no rules are laid down; but no one can go far astray who
holds to the principles laid down;-(1) Rest. Nothing is to be done in
daily business, and no recreation taken which destroys the rest of others or
takes from any the privileges of the Sabbath. (2) Spiritual nurture. One
day in seven is to be set apart for the culture of the spiritual nature. These
two principles of Sabbath-keeping will always go together. Only a religious
Sabbath, which belongs to God, can be retained among men as a day of rest. If
men can sport on the Sabbath, they will soon be made to work. Witness the large
number of people who must minister to the sport of others. Also the fact that
where the Sabbath is merely a day of pleasure the shops soon begin to stay
open.
Justin Martyr
Justin Martyr (150 AD) tells
us that Sunday was the day that Christians had set apart instead of Saturday,
because it was the resurrection day. How can we do this if we have to work?
Ignatius
Ignatius, who was a young
man while the apostles were alive, said, "Those who lived according to the
old order of things have come to a new hope, no longer keeping the Sabbath, but
the Lord's Day, in which our life is blessed by him and by his death."
It is clear that the early
Christians from the time of the apostles understood the Lord's Day to be the fulfillment
of the Old Testament Sabbath Shadow. It was a day set apart from all others for
man and for the Lord.
Since this custom has
changed since in modern times along with all the other novelties, isn't that a
little suspicious? In my father's day (1914 - 1935) the Christians rested from sundown
Saturday until sundown Sunday. The custom was common to all denominations
(except Adventists). Are smarter and wiser
than our Puritan fathers?
Remember the movie Chariots
Of Fire? It is a true story of a Church of Scotland covenanter who was expected
to win first place in the 100 at the Olympic games. When he found out that he
would have to run on Sunday, he told the leaders, including the king, that he
could not do it. They were quite disappointed and tried to get him to violate
his conscience. As it turned out, he ran the 400 on another day, and won. This
he did in spite of the fact that he had never trained for that distance!
Where do we draw the line?
The prophets Nehemiah and Jeremiah rebuked the people for carrying burdens on
the Sabbath. “In those days I saw in Judah some people treading wine presses on
the Sabbath, and bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes,
figs, and all kinds of burdens, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath
day. And I warned them about the day on which they were selling provisions” (Neh
13:15).
Jeremiah 17:21 says, “Thus
says the LORD: ‘Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day,
nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; nor carry a burden out of your
houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I
commanded your fathers.”
Moderns would say the
demands of Jeremiah and Nehemiah were legalistic. The Pharisees were so legalistic
that they even went so far as to make it unlawful to carry their blankets.
Jesus clearly did not agree with such legalism. Albert Barnes says, "This
method he took to show them what the law of God really permitted on that day,
and that works of necessity and mercy were lawful."
In John 5:8 Jesus said,
"Rise, take up your bed and walk. And immediately the man was made well,
took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore
said to him who was cured, ‘It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to
carry your bed.’ He answered them, ‘He who made me well said to me, 'Take up
your bed and walk.' "
Where do we draw the line?
Where do we draw the line?
We draw it where our spiritual fathers drew it. We abstain from gainful
employment. We work and plan six days. We do not go to the extreme of
legalism. Jesus made it clear that it is lawful to pull your ox out of the
ditch on the Sabbath. There are some jobs that are necessary on Sunday, such as
hospitals. It is not necessary to keep stores and restaurants open on Sunday.
I foresee a day when the
knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. In that
day Christians will not work on Sunday except in those cases where it is
necessary such as hospitals, etc. Televised sports will be after 6 PM. Stores and
restaurants will follow the example of Chic Filet.
Should we go to restaurants
and watch football on Sundays? I leave that for others to decide. Personally, I
do not see that as a violation. Those who require their employees to work on
Sundays are definitely violating the Sabbath. Some say, “Well, if I eat out or
watch sports on Sunday I am causing others to work. Therefore I totally dismiss
the idea of keeping the Sabbath.”
Is that logical?
I was fired from a job for
refusing to work Sundays. After working there for two years, they decided to
open on Sundays. I told them that I could not. They said, "Then we will
have to fire you." After thinking it over, I almost gave in to fear. But,
as scared as I was, I decided to obey my conscience and trust God to supply my
needs. They fired me. In one month I was hired by the biggest advertiser in the
world, and the company with the best benefits of any large company in the
world. During that month, I did not lose a dime in income. I did some handyman
jobs. If we have the moral courage to trust God, we may suffer, but God will
bless us and supply all our needs according to His riches in glory by Christ
Jesus!
The Law Of Creation
For those who believe the
Fourth Commandment has been abrogated I ask, “Has the Law of Creation been
abrogated, also?” In the Law of Creation the Sabbath is made for man and man
was not made for the Sabbath (as the Pharisees with their legalist rules
thought). One time a Sabbath
keeping team participated in a canoe race that lasted for several weeks. The
first Sunday they rested while the other teams got a day ahead. I do not have
to tell you which team won. Because the other teams did not take advantage of the
rest God had provided for them, they wore themselves out while the Sabbath
keepers renewed their strength. Let us work like God did for six days and rest
on the seventh. It is wise to cooperate with the laws of nature (the law of
creation). Let us obey God and renew the Covenant weekly by “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves
together, as is the manner of some”
(Heb 9:27).
The word Sabbath is the
Hebrew word seven. Seven in Hebrew also means oath. An oath is a covenant (See
Gen 21:31-32). The Sabbath is the sign of the covenant. We gather every Sunday to
renew the oath and covenant.
Can you imagine a world with
no Sundays off? This is glorious
and orderly tradition that came from Judeo Christian tradition.
Hold The Traditions Which You Were Taught
“Therefore, brethren,
stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word
[oral] or our epistle [written]”
(2 Thess 2:15).
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