Perspectives on the Sabbath presents in point-counterpoint form the four most common views of the Sabbath commandment that have arisen throughout church history, representing the major positions held among Christians today. Skip MacCarty (Andrews University) defends the Seventh-day view which argues the fourth commandment is a moral law of God requiring us to keep the seventh day (Saturday) holy. It must therefore remain the day of rest and worship for Christians.
Jospeh A Pipa (Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary) backs the Christian Sabbath view which reasons that ever since the resurrection of Christ, the one day in seven to be kept holy is the first day of the week.
Craig L. Blomberg (Denver Seminary) supports the Fulfillment view which says that since Christ has brought the true Sabbath rest into the present, the Sabbath commands of the Old Testament are no longer binding on believers.
Charles P. Arand (Concordia Seminary) upholds the Lutheran view that the Sabbath commandment was given to Jews alone and does not concern Christians. Rest and worship are still required but not tied to a particular day.
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Yes, you can access Perspectives on the Sabbath by Christopher John Donato in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Theology & Religion & Biblical Studies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
I grew up in a seventh-day Sabbath-keeping home. My only childhood memories specifically associated with a day of the week are Sabbath memories—attending Sabbath school with my friends, worshipping in church with my family, participating in church outings and ministries, taking nature walks, bike-riding with my best friend to see horses in town—the kinds of memories that established traditions that have carried into adulthood. Today, more than 15 million people worldwide in my denomination alone share similar Sabbath experiences. The Sabbath has helped God seem more real to us and nurtured our relationship with Him. The present discussion transcends a mere intellectual dialogue for us; it is a dialogue of the heart.
I appreciate the opportunity afforded me to join this valuable Sabbath conversation with Christian colleagues. Since I am more pastor than professor, this brief pastoral note: Though some of this dialogue may seem technical for some lay readers, involving original biblical languages and so on, I pray and believe that God will send His Spirit as He promised to guide all who seek to know and do His will (Luke 11:11–13; John 7:17; 16:13; Phil 3:15–16).
This chapter does not take the position that all Christians who presently worship on a different day do not love Jesus or have the assurance of salvation. Nonetheless, it argues that seventh-day Sabbath observance is God’s will for all Christians and points to the blessing they will gain when they do.
This presentation accepts the whole Bible as the authoritative Word of God and the basis of all Christian doctrine and follows this sequence: (1) the OT and NT witness for the universality and permanence of the seventh-day Sabbath; (2) objections to this universality and permanence; (3) the Sabbath in early church history; (4) the Sabbath in the old and new covenants; (5) the meaning and proper observance of the Sabbath; and (6) a brief summary and concluding statement.
Seventh-Day Sabbath—A Universal and Permanent Gift
The Old Testament Witness
A survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press asked respondents their convictions regarding the propriety of displaying the Ten Commandments in a government building. The survey found that “Americans overwhelmingly support displaying the Ten Commandments on public property, with more than seven-in-ten saying they believe such displays are proper.”1 Irrespective of one’s conviction regarding the display of the Decalogue in public facilities, most agree that the Ten Commandments hold a revered place in American consciousness.
In the heart of the Ten Commandments is the focus of this book, the seventh-day Sabbath:
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 male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. 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. (Exod 20:8–11)2
This fourth (third for Catholics and Lutherans) of the Ten Commandments (lit., “Ten Words”; Hb., ‘aseret haddebarim) or Decalogue has been well known and debated for millennia. Was it intended for Israel during the Old Testament period alone, or does it have a universal and permanent application? Did it begin with the Ten Commandments at Sinai or perhaps just prior to that when God gave desert-dwelling Israel manna to eat (Exod 16:13–30), or did it have an even more ancient origin?
The commandment itself points to the answers. Note its universal application to servants, animals, and “the alien within your gates,” and its universal reference to the Lord who made “the heavens . . . earth . . . sea . . . and all that is in them.” Buber states, “In the Sabbath Moses recognizes not merely a human law but a universal law.”3
The Sabbath Established at Creation
When God gave the Sabbath commandment, He linked its origin to the creation week when He “rested on the seventh day,” and then “blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”4 Note the Bible’s description of the seventh day of creation week: “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” (Gen 2:2–3).
Examining Gen 2:2–3, Cassuto concludes:
The verb
[“finished,” “ceased”] also contains an allusion to the name
(“the Sabbath day”). This name [Sabbath day] does not occur here, and is subsequently mentioned in other books of the Pentateuch only in connection with the commandment to keep the Sabbath, which was given to Israel. Here the hallowed day is called only the seventh day. . . . The Torah laid here the foundation for the precept of the Sabbath; this day was already sanctified by God at the beginning of the world’s history, and its greatness is not dependent on any other factor. . . . Scripture wishes to emphasize that the sanctity of the Sabbath is older than Israel, and rests upon all mankind.5
While Genesis 2:2–3 lacks an explicit Sabbath command, no command forbidding murder is recorded until Noah’s day (Gen 9:9–6), and none of the other Ten Commandments is recorded until they were issued at Sinai. Yet Cain was held accountable for the murder of Abel, and Joseph knew that adultery was “sin against God” (Gen 4:6–11; 39:9). God may have included what later became the Ten Commandments when He said, “Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions” (Gen 26:5). Instructively, the early chapters of the Bible do not explicitly state that God loves people, is merciful or compassionate, or will forgive sins; that was all revealed in the covenant He made and the Law He gave at Sinai (Exod 20:6; 34:6–7). Those characteristics, as well as the continued observance of the Sabbath by God’s people, were all assumed in those early chapters of the Bible that cover at least 2,500 years of human history.
Furthermore, the way the Sabbath is mentioned in the manna story (Exod 16) several months before the Ten Commandments were given at Sinai (Exod 20) has led some commentators to conclude that “the existence of the sabbath is assumed by the writer.”6
God’s rest on the seventh day served “as an example to humanity upon whom devolves the duty of imitating the ways of God”7—six days, work; the seventh, rest. In Jesus’ parable of the servant forgiven by his master of a huge debt he could not pay, the servant was held accountable for not following his master’s example and forgiving his own debtors, though he had received no direct command to do so (Matt 18:23–34). Similarly, it was expected that the ways of God in ceasing from His creative work on the seventh day would be emulated by His creation—“like father, like son,” as the saying goes. Indeed, humanity’s creation in the image of God meant in part that they were enabled to interact with God in loving fellowship and would be eager for the opportunity. The Sabbath rest provided special, dedicated time for that fellowship. Theologically speaking, God’s rest on the seventh day “means His ceasing the work of creation in order to be free for the fellowship with man, the object of his love, for the rejoicing and celebration of His completed work together with his son on earth, the imago Dei, ‘His festive partner.’”8
God “blessed the seventh day and made it holy,” setting it apart for special use by humankind, investing it with His own special presence.9 This combination of the two verbs, “blessed” (Hb., barak) and “made holy” (Hb., qadash), is unique in the OT. According to J. G. Murphy:
The solemn act of blessing and hallowing is the institution of a perpetual order of seventh-day rest: in the same manner as the blessing of the animals [Gen 1:22] denoted a perpetuity of self–multiplication, and the blessing of man [Gen 1:28] indicated further a perpetuity of dominion over the earth and its products. This present record is a sufficient proof that the original institution [of the seventh-day rest] was never forgotten by man.10
The creation record highlights the uniqueness of the seventh day in at least three ways: (1) The seventh day is the very first thing the Bible records being “made holy,” sanctified by God. “By sanctifying the seventh day God instituted a polarity between the everyday and the solemn, between days of work and days of rest, which was to be determinative for human existence.”11 (2) In Gen 1:1–2:3, the first six days of creation are each mentioned once, while the seventh day is mentioned three times: “By the seventh day God had finished the work,” “on the seventh day he rested,” “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.” The repetition emphasizes the importance of the day in the divine economy. (3) Genesis 2:1–3 avoids the phrase “there was evening, and there was morning,” which was used in conjunction with the other six days of creation to conclude the activities of the day and as a transition to the creating activities of the following day. The seventh day breaks that pattern. “The divine resting concludes creation—sabbath belongs to the created order; it cannot be legislated or abrogated by human beings.”12 God sovereignly chose and sanctified the seventh day as a treasured gift and blessing He bequeathed to humankind—a sign of His covenantal protection and love.
The Role, Universality, and Permanence of the Sabbath After Adam’s Fall
After the entrance of sin, God described the spiritual warfare that would ensue between Satan and humankind and revealed the grace provision embedded in His everlasting covenant of love, which promised redemption through the seed of the woman (Gen 3:15; cf. 2 Tim 1:9; 1 Pet 1:18–20). This universal, permanent gospel promise applied to all of Adam’s descendants, for all have rebelled against God, His law, and His covenant: “The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant” (Isa 24:5). With humankind ...
