The Christian Sabbath

The Christian Sabbath is life in Jesus Christ, in which every believer finds true rest. The weekly seventh-day Sabbath commanded by Israel in the Ten Commandments was a shadow pointing to the true reality of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as a sign of the true reality. (Hebrews 4,3.8-10; Matthew 11,28-30; 2. Moses 20,8: 11; Colossians 2,16-17)

Celebrate salvation in Christ

Worship is our response to the gracious acts that God has done for us. For the people of Israel, the Exodus, the experience of moving out of Egypt, was at the center of worship - what God had done for them. For Christians, the gospel is the focus of worship - which God has done for all believers. In Christian worship we celebrate and share in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation and redemption of all human beings.

The form of worship given to Israel was specifically for them. God had given the Israelites an adoration pattern through Moses that enabled the people of Israel to celebrate and thank God for all that God had done for them when he led them out of Egypt and brought them to the Promised Land.

Christian worship does not require regulations based on Israel's Old Testament experiences of God, but rather is responsive to the gospel. Similarly, we can say that the "new wine" of the gospel must be poured into "new bottles" (Matthew 9,17). The "old skin" of the old covenant was not fitted to receive the new wine of the gospel (Hebrews 1 Cor2,18-24).

New forms

The Israelite service was destined for Israel. He lasted until the coming of Christ. Since then, God's people have expressed their worship in a new form, responding to the new content - the transcendent New that God has done in Jesus Christ. Christian worship is focused on the repetition and participation in the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The most important components are:

• Celebration of the Lord's Supper, also called Eucharist (or Thanksgiving) and Communion, as we were commanded by Christ.
• Scripture: We review and look at the accounts of God's love and His promises, especially the promise of the Redeemer Jesus Christ, which feeds us on the Word of God.
• Prayers and songs: In faith we make our prayers to God, humbly repent of our sins and honor and praise Him in joyful, thankful worship.

Targeted to content

The Christian worship is primarily focused on content and meaning and not on formal or temporal criteria. Therefore, Christian worship is not bound to a specific day of the week or season. The Christians are not required to have a specific day or season. But Christians can choose special seasons to celebrate important stages in the life and work of Jesus.

Likewise, Christians “reserve” one day a week for their common worship: They gather together as the body of Christ to glorify God. Most Christians choose Sunday for their worship, others Saturday, and still a few gather at other times—Wednesday evening, for example.

Typical of Seventh-day Adventist teaching is the view that Christians commit a sin by choosing Sunday as a regular gathering day for their worship. But there is no support for that in the Bible.

Important events took place on Sunday It may surprise many Seventh-day Adventists, but the Gospels expressly report important events that took place on Sunday. We will go into more detail on this: Christians are not required to attend their service on Sunday, but there is no reason not to choose Sunday for the worship meeting.

The Gospel of John reports that the disciples of Jesus met on the first Sunday after Jesus was crucified and that Jesus appeared to them (John 20,1: 2). All four Gospels consistently report that Jesus' resurrection from the dead was discovered early on Sunday morning8,1; Mark 16,2; Luke 24,1; John 20,1).

All four evangelists considered it important to mention that these events took place at a certain time, namely on Sunday. They could have foregone such a detail, but they did not. The Gospels indicate that Jesus revealed Himself as the Risen Messiah on Sunday - first in the morning, then at noon, and last in the evening. The evangelists, in view of these Sunday apparitions of the risen Jesus, were by no means troubled or frightened; they wanted to make it clear that all this took place on the said [first] weekday.

The way to Emmaus

Anyone who still doubts on which day the resurrection took place should read the unmistakable account of the two “Emmaus disciples” in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus had prophesied that He would rise from the dead "on the third day" (Luke 9,22; 18,33; 24,7).

Luke records clearly that that Sunday—the day the women discovered Jesus' empty tomb—was actually "the third day." He expressly points out that the women established the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday morning (Luke 24,1-6), that the disciples “on the same day” (Luke 24,13) went to Emmaus and that it was "the third day" (Luke 2 Cor4,21) was the day Jesus said he would rise from the dead (Luke 24,7).

Let us recall some important facts that the evangelists tell us about the first Sunday after the crucifixion of Jesus:

• Jesus was raised from the dead (Luke 24,1-8th. 13. 21).
• Jesus was recognized when he "broke the bread" (Luke 2 Cor4,30-31. 34-35).
• The disciples met and Jesus came up to them (Luke 24,15. 36; John 20,1. 19). John reports that the disciples also came together on the second Sunday after the crucifixion and that Jesus again "walked among them" (John 20,26).

In the early church

As Luke records in Acts 20,7, Paul preached to the congregation at Troas gathered on Sunday to "break the bread." In the 1. Corinthians 16,2 Paul demanded the church in Corinth as well as the churches in Galatia (16,1) to make a donation every Sunday for the hungry community in Jerusalem.

Paul does not say that the church must meet on Sunday. But his request suggests that Sunday gatherings were not uncommon. He gives the reason for the weekly donation "so that the collection doesn't just happen when I come" (1. Corinthians 16,2). If the parishioners had not made their donation at a meeting each week, but had put the money aside at home, a collection would still have been required when the apostle Paul arrived.

These passages read so naturally that we realize that it was not at all uncommon for Christians to meet on Sunday, nor was it uncommon for them to "break bread" (an expression Paul used with the sacrament) at their Sunday meetings connects; see 1. Corinthians 10,16-17).

Thus, we see that the inspired New Testament evangelists deliberately want us to know that Jesus rose on Sunday. They also had no qualms if at least some of the faithful gathered on Sunday to break bread. The Christians have not been explicitly told to come together for a Sunday worship service, but as these examples show, there is no reason to be scrupulous about this.

Possible pitfalls

As stated above, there are even good reasons for Christians to come together on Sunday as the Body of Christ to celebrate their fellowship with God. Therefore, do Christians have to choose Sunday as the day of assembly? No. The Christian faith is not based on certain days, but on the belief in God and his son Jesus Christ.

It would be wrong to just replace one group of prescribed holidays with another. The Christian faith and worship are not about prescribed days, but about recognizing and loving God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

When deciding which day to gather with other believers for worship, we should make our decision with proper reasoning. Jesus' command “Take, eat; This is my body” and “Drink from it all” are not tied to a specific day. Nevertheless, since the beginnings of the early Church, it has been a tradition for Gentile Christians to gather in the fellowship of Christ on Sunday because Sunday was the day on which Jesus revealed Himself as risen from the dead.

The Sabbath commandment and with it the entire Mosaic law ended with Jesus' death and resurrection. To cling to it or to try to reapply it in the form of a Sunday Sabbath means weakening God's revelation about Jesus Christ, which is the fulfillment of all his promises.

The idea that God requires Christians to observe the Sabbath, or oblige them to obey the law of Moses, means that we Christians do not fully experience the joy that God wants us to convey in Christ. God wants us to trust in His redemptive work and to find in Him alone our rest and comfort. Our salvation and our lives are at His mercy.

Confusion

We occasionally receive a letter in which the writer expresses his or her dissatisfaction that we are challenging the view that the weekly Sabbath is God's holy day for Christians. They declare that they will obey "God more than men" no matter what anyone tells them.

The effort to do what one considers God's will must be acknowledged; What is more misleading is what God really needs from us. The strong conviction of the Sabbatarians that obedience to God signifies the sanctification of the weekly Sabbath makes it clear what confusion and error the Sabbatharians have done among thoughtless Christians.

First, the Sabbath doctrine proclaims an unbiblical understanding of what it means to obey God, and second, it elevates this understanding of obedience to the criteria for determining the validity of Christian faithfulness. The result is that a confrontational way of thinking - "us against the others" - has developed, an understanding of God that causes divisions in the body of Christ because one thinks one has to obey a commandment that according to New Testament teaching is invalid.

Faithful observance of the weekly Sabbath is not a question of obedience to God, because God does not require Christians to keep the weekly Sabbath. God tells us to love him, and our love for God is not determined by observing the weekly Sabbath. It is determined by our faith in Jesus Christ and our love for our fellow human beings (1. John 3,21-24; 4,19-21). There is, the Bible says, a new covenant and a new law (Hebrews 7,12; 8,13; 9,15).

It is wrong for Christian teachers to use the weekly Sabbath as a yardstick for the validity of Christian faith. The doctrine that the Sabbath commandment is binding upon Christians burdens the Christian conscience with destructive lawfulness, darkens the truth and power of the gospel, and causes divisions in the body of Christ.

Divine calm

The Bible says God expects people to believe and love the gospel (John 6,40; 1. John 3,21-24; 4,21; 5,2). The greatest joy that people can experience is that they know and love their Lord (John 17,3), and that love is not defined or promoted by observing a specific day of the week.

The Christian life is a life of security in the joy of the Redeemer, of divine rest, a life in which every part of life is dedicated to God and every activity is an act of devotion. Establishing Sabbath observance as a defining element of "true" Christianity causes one to miss much of the joy and power of the truth that Christ has come and that God in Him is one with all who believe the good news new covenant (Matthew 26,28; Hebrew
9,15), raised up (Romans 1,16; 1. John 5,1).

The weekly Sabbath was a shadow - a hint - of reality to come (Colossians 2,16-17). Maintaining this hint as forever necessary means denying the truth that this reality is already present and available. One deprives oneself of the ability to experience undivided joy about what is really important.

It's just like following his engagement ad and enjoying it after the wedding has long since taken place. Rather, it is high time to turn the priority attention to the partner and let the betrothal as a pleasant memory in the background.

Place and time are no longer the focus of the worship service for the people of God. True worship, said Jesus, is in spirit and in truth (John 4,21-26). The heart belongs to the spirit. Jesus is the truth.

When Jesus was asked, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" He replied, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent" (John 6,28-29). That is why Christian worship is primarily about Jesus Christ - about his identity as the eternal Son of God and about his work as Lord, Savior and Teacher.

God more pleasing?

Those who believe that observance of the Sabbath commandment is the criterion that determines our redemption or condemnation at the Last Judgment misunderstand both sin and the grace of God. If Sabbath saints are the only people to be saved, then the Sabbath is the measure by which it is judged, not the Son of God, who died and rose from the dead for our salvation.

Sabbatarians think that God is more pleased with the one who sanctifies the Sabbath than with the one who does not sanctify him. But this argument does not come from the Bible. The Bible teaches that the Sabbath commandment as well as the entire law of Moses in Jesus Christ has been lifted and elevated to a higher level.

Therefore, keeping the Sabbath is not a "greater good pleasure" to God. The Sabbath was not given to Christians. The destructive element in Sabbatarian theology is its insistence that Sabbatarians are the only true and believing Christians, which means that the blood of Jesus is not sufficient for man's salvation unless Sabbath observance is added.

The Bible contradicts such an erroneous doctrine in many significant passages of the text: We are redeemed by the grace of God, solely through faith in the blood of Christ and without works of any kind (Ephesians 2,8-10; Romans 3,21-22; 4,4-8; 2. Timothy 1,9; titus 3,4-8th). These clear statements that Christ alone, and not the law, is decisive for our salvation are clearly at odds with the Sabbath doctrine that people who do not keep the Sabbath cannot experience salvation.

God Wanted?

The average Sabbatarian is of the opinion that he is more godly than someone who does not keep the Sabbath. Let's look at the following statements from earlier WKG publications:

"Yet only those who continue to obey God's command to keep the Sabbath will ultimately enter into the glorious 'rest' of the kingdom of God and receive the gift of eternal spiritual life" (Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course, Lesson 27 of 58, 1964, 1967) .

"Whoever does not keep the Sabbath will not bear the 'mark' of the divine Sabbath by which God's people are marked, and consequently will NOT be BORN OF GOD when Christ comes again!" (ibid., 12).

As these quotes indicate, Sabbathing was not only considered as God-given, but also believed that no one would be saved without the sanctification of the Sabbath.

The following quote from Seventh-day Adventist literature:
“In the context of this eschatological discussion, the Sunday service ultimately becomes a distinguishing feature, in this case the sign of the beast. Satan has made Sunday a sign of his power, while the Sabbath will be the great test of loyalty to God. This controversy will divide Christendom into two camps and determine the conflicted end times for God's people" (Don Neufeld, Seventh Day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2. Revision, Volume 3). The quote illustrates the Seventh-day Adventist belief that keeping the Sabbath is the criterion for deciding who really believes in God and who doesn't, a concept that stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, a concept that promotes an attitude of spiritual superiority.

Summary

Sabbatarian theology is at odds with the grace of God in Jesus Christ and the clear message of the Bible. The Law of Moses, including the Sabbath commandment, was for the people of Israel and not for the Christian church. Although Christians should feel free to worship God every day of the week, we must not make the mistake of believing that there is any biblical reason to prefer Saturday as a gathering day to any other day.

We can summarize all this as follows:

• It is contrary to the biblical teaching that the Sabbath on the seventh day is binding on Christians.
• It is contrary to the biblical teaching to say that God has greater pleasure in people who sanctify the Sabbath than in those who do not, be it Seventh-day or Sunday-Sabbath.
• It is contrary to the biblical teaching to assert that a given day, as a day of assembly, is more sacred to the church or more godly than another.
• There is a central gospel event that happened on a Sunday, and that is the basis for the Christian tradition of gathering for worship on that day.
• The resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came as one of us to redeem us, is the foundation of our faith. Therefore, Sunday worship is a reflection of our faith in the gospel. However, communal worship on Sunday is not required, nor does worship on Sunday make Christians more holy or more loved by God than the congregation on any other day of the week.
• The doctrine that the Sabbath is binding on Christians therefore causes spiritual harm because such teachings are contrary to Scripture and endanger the unity and love in the body of Christ.
• It is spiritually harmful to believe and teach that Christians should gather on either Saturday or Sunday, because such a doctrine establishes the day of worship as a legal hurdle that must be skipped to be redeemed.

One last thought

As followers of Jesus, we should learn not to condemn each other in the decisions we make in harmony with our conscience before God. And we have to be honest with ourselves about the reasons behind our decisions. The Lord Jesus Christ has brought believers into his divine peace, in peace with him in the full grace of God. May all of us, as Jesus commanded, grow in love for one another.

Mike Feazell

The Christian Sabbath