Christian Liberty and the Lord's Day/Sabbath Situation (Part Nine)

Series Part One     Series Part Two       Series Part Three       Series Part Four
     
Series Part Five     Series Part Six         Series part Seven       Series Part Eight

One issue that has continually reappeared throughout church history is the Sabbath/Lord's day issue.  Before closing with some descriptive/prescriptive principle/commands/patterns drawn from Rom 14 and 1 Cor 8-10 I would like to review some issue discussed in this series.

First, when did the Sabbath begin?  Is it a creation ordinance such as marriage?  Was it a latter motivation for one of  ten commandments?  If only one of the ten does it still have force today, some say yes and some say no?  

Second, how was the Sabbath practiced within the nation of Israel in the Old Testament and in the gospels?  It obviously was important and even selected and practice after returning from a 70 year captivity.  It is obvious that Jesus still observed the sabbath day (though not according to the man made additions of the Pharisees).

Third, the book of Acts records for us the disciples worshipping in the synagogue on the sabbath and meeting in churches on the first day of the week.  It was on the first day of the week when the historical event of Christ's bodily resurrection occurred.

Lastily, Paul's epistles to several local NT churches addressed this issue, both directly and in principle.  

So if many evangelical Christians today make not connection between the Sabbath and the Lord's day in 2016, how and when should we worship?  Some have taken great liberties while others have not.  Historically some people have fled homes and came to new countries for religious freedom.  I would also had from a historical stand point several church confession have highlighted this idea of personal liberty, especially in relation to application of the OT ceremonial law, and the uses and abuses of liberty (see London Baptist Confession, Chapter 21, "Of Christian Liberty and Liberty of Conscience"). 

I would like to suggest some principles (out of an actual belief in sola scriptura) on how we can live our Lord's day in a way pleasing to the Lord.  I will extract these principles from the above mentioned texts Rom 14 and 1 Cor 8-10.  By way of introduction, anyone familiar with these texts knows they can pack a punch to liberty, conscience, stumbling blocks, and actually practicing love for a brother.  Typically ad hominem rhetoric can emerge here in heavy dose: worldly, licentious, liberty, legalist, and antinomianism (whatever these terms mean).

By way of distinction, I would like to suggest Rom 14 addresses conscience/practice issues based on actual OT precedent or command among believers (I see no reference in the text to unbelievers).  On the other hand, 1 Cor 8-10 is addressing a believers partaking in a "neutral" activity made sinful based on its association to a place or ritual.  This context in contrast to Rom 14 contains scenarios pertaining to both believer's practice with believers and with unbelievers.  It is this latter category that feeds the music and culture and "neutral" issue.  If people can be convinced that culture and/or music is morally neutral then they can fight to apply these three chapters (don't need to make this one up, read the literature on this one). 

First some principles from Romans 14.  Paul addresses two kinds of believers: weak and strong.  Some would suggest we don't want to be either but a third type who is neither weak nor strong.  I do not expect anyone to agree with these, but these are only suggestions hopefully obvious from the text;

1)  Whether Jew or Gentile, some genuine Christian people, believe there are principles and or commands given in the Old Testament which their consciences are bound to keep (both days of observance and/or food and drink categories).  They may be tempted to or actually do look with judgment upon others.  

2)  On the other hand, whether Jew or Gentile, some genuine Christian people, do not believe there are principles and or commands given touching on days of worship (Sabbath in specific--for Israel only) and food/drink consumption (usually but not always fleshed out in alcoholic consumption).

From here I would like to make some applications that I have preached on multiple times extracted from Rom 14:13-23.  For sake of this thread I am rewording the statements to be applicable to the Lord's day/sabbath issue.  Consider with each point the consideration: Is my liberty or view here more important than love for a brother?
1) Do not knowingly cause another Christian to stumble through you liberties practiced on the Lord's Day?  (v.13)
2) Do not knowingly cause another Christian grief through your liberties practiced on the Lord's day? (v.14-15)
3) Do not knowingly destroy another Christian through your liberties practiced on the Lord's day? (v. 15)
4) Do not knowingly ruin your own testimony, witness, credibility, or ability to minister to others through your liberties practiced on the Lord's day (v. 16-19)
5) Do not knowingly tear down another Christian through you liberties practiced on the Lord's day (v. 20-21).
6) Do not condemn yourself by practicing your liberty on the Lord's day (v.22-23).

On to 1 Corinthians 8-10.  This section begins in the same fashion as 1 Cor 16 with "Now as touching" (same underlying Greek text).  The focus here directly referenced by many Bible chapter headings is "Food offered to idols."  So right off the bat the topic is the consumption of food but not just any food but food (meat in this case) associated with idol temple worship "things offered to idols" (v. 1).  Here again I would like to extract some principles from this three chapter context of 1 Cor 8-10.
1) Will this activity of mine on the Lord's day edify or tear down my fellow believer (1 Cor 10:23-30)?
2) Will this activity of mine on the Lord's day cause a "weaker brother" to stumble and/or to violate his conscience (1 Cor 8:9-13)?
3) What activity or liberty of mine will most contribute to the cause of the gospel (1 Cor 9:1-27; 10:32-33)?
4) Can I participate on the Lord's day in this liberty of mine to the glory of God (a good old camp verse I quoted many times before a meal at the WILDS) (1 Cor 10:31)?

This does not exhaust the issues involved but is simply an example of principles for living and worshiping on the Lord's Day.
I don't expect this to convince anyone but perhaps it will be a help to some struggling with this issue.

Thoughts and comments encouraged.

Lord's Day Worship: Remembrance of Christ's Bodily Resurrection from the Dead (Series part Six)

Series Part One     Series Part Two       Series Part Three       Series Part Four

New Testament Lord's Day Worship

The first reason Christians worship on the Lord's day is a remembrance of Christ's bodily resurrection from the dead.

The first of four main passages addressing why Protestant Christians worship on Sunday and not Saturday is out of remembrance for this specific historical event.  This event is record in all four of the gospels (though there is quite a variance of views on when Jesus actually died during the passion week, ranging from Wed. thru Fri.).

Please note the text references:

"In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,..." (Mt 28:1)

"And very early in the morning the first day of the week" (Mk 16:2)
"Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared to Mary..." (Mk 16:9)

"Now upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning" (Lk 24:1)

"The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early," (Jn 20:1)**

**(Technically the Greek gloss for the word the English word "day" does not appear.  However, every translation I can find supplies this idea which the context surely commends.  This will be key in the book of Acts where the disciples worship on the "sabbath" in the synagogue and then gather for worship on a different calendar day, "the Lord's Day).

 These women went to tomb, found the stone rolled away and Christ was not there.  He had bodily risen from the dead.

I am referencing this text first to establish a textual basis for worship on what we call the Lord's Day (Rev 1).  We gather corporately for worship based on a biblical text.  Please note there is no command in any of these four texts to worship on this particular day.

Strict Sabbath-keeping denominations still gather for corporate worship on the Sabbath (our calendar day of Saturday, "the seventh day").  Quickly to be fair, they do so out of what they believe is obedience to the Decalogue, believed not to be abrogated in any way, a lack of command to worship otherwise, this is when Christ went to the synagogue, and a multitude form of genetic fallacies.

By way of reminder, a "genetic fallacy" put simply is to say an argument is wrong based on the source of the argument not necessary the argument itself.  Import Roman Catholicism or Seventh-Day Adventists.  If Rome or the SDA said something erroneous elsewhere then it must be wrong here too (sorry just don't have time to deal with every issue, well at least not in this series, maybe elsewhere).

As a Protestant Christian (a Baptist in particular), I worship on the Lord's day corporately.  I do not do it solely based on this historical narrative event.  This event provides the the memorial or remembrance focus for this particular day of the week (similar to the Lord's Table, 1 Cor 11).  There are other reasons too.  When the multitude reasons are combined the weight surely points to the fact that in the NT believers worshiped on the Lord's Day (as distinct from the calendar Lord's day) and this is both instructive descriptively (this is what they were doing) and prescriptively (commands and principles that don't contradict what they were doing) for Christians today in 2016.  It is these other reasons found in the NT which we will address in future articles.

May this article help those struggling with this issue.

Comments and suggestions encouraged.

Christ's Bodily Resurrection: Prescriptive or Descriptive reason for Christian Worship? (Part Five)

Series Part One     Series Part Two       Series Part Three       Series Part Four

Three primary issues are yet to be addressed in this series concerning the Sabbath/Lord's Day issue (well at least till I'm done writing about it).  Each of these following issues has a direct correlation to the prescriptive/descriptive discussion.

First, I will address the five main texts related to the Lord's day (the resurrection texts in the gospels, Acts 20:7, 1 Cor 16:1, Rev 1:10, Heb 4).  I will try to add in the associated issues with each of these

Second, I will address the passages related to Christian liberty and the law (Rom 14, 1 Cor 8-10, and several other epistle references to the sabbath).

Lastly, I will make some concluding comments on morning and evening worship.  This issue in particular weighs in heavy on the descriptive nature of OT observance.  This is a sad trend in the almost pandemic disappearance of evening worship services within evangelical churches.

Let's be honest here if one has to have a prescriptive command for Sunday morning and evening then at least be consistent: throw out Wednesday night prayer meetings, Sunday evening, and even Sunday School (sorry no direct commands for any of these).  Then again if descriptive patterns, practices, and principles do matter, then the discussion is more complex than simply quoting a verse.

I would love to spend time commenting on the beliefs and practices throughout church history.  However, each period in church history had their own issues and confrontations.  Let's be honest for every possible protestant position you can extract someone in church history who agrees with you.  This is all too common today to take the words of a person, creed, confession, and/or denomination and try to make there position on the issue what is correct for today.  On the other hand, exegesis and theology are not practiced in a vacuum.  We are not left today to reinvent every doctrine under the sun as if church history never addressed these issues.  Unfortunately, this idea of questioning and making changes is a current trend in evangelical circles.

We will address these issues in a later thread.

Till then keeping worshiping the Lord corporately and individually on the Lord's day.

Hope this helps some.
Comments encouraged.

The Lord's Day or Sabbath: Prescriptive, Descriptive, or Just a Matter of Christian Liberty? Part One

The Lord's Day or Sabbath: Prescriptive, Descriptive, or Just a Matter of Christian Liberty?

I have gathered some thoughts here after reading many books on this topic.  Sadly, a growing many in Evangelical Christianity treat this day like any other day of the week.  Consider your church attendance, which service is the most attended?  Least attended?  Is there a dramatic drop off on Wednesday night (assuming there is still a prayer meeting/Bible study still held)?  Ever wondered why?  Perhaps your the victim or proponent of the latest post-modern fad: small groups.  We will address this topic in another article.  But for now just consider it in relation to the Lord's day.

Just by way of reminder, prescriptive texts are more command based in nature.  Descriptive texts showed what was going on in that point in history.  Christian Liberty and conscience is greatly affected by these two categories.

As we begin consider the view of our past.  Chapter 21, para. 7 of the Westminster Confession of Faith: Of Religious Worship, and the Sabbath Day,

"As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in His Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment, binding all men, in all ages, He hath particularly appointed one day in seven, for a Sabbath, to be kept holy unto Him: which, from the beginning of the world to the resurrection of Christ, was the last day of the week; and, from the resurrection of Christ, was changed into the first day of the week, which, in Scripture, is called the Lord's Day, and is to be continued to the end of the world, as the Christian Sabbath."

Lets not forget, this one of the main driving forces causing the Pilgrims to flee all they knew and come to the new world.  Packed on the Mayflower sailing across the ocean, for one of many reasons: the liberty and license of practice displayed on the Lord's day (and that was nearly 400 years ago).  I'm sure they would role over in shame for what goes on in many evangelical churches in the name of worship on the Lord's day.

This is how good and godly men thought of this day.  How do we think of it today in 2016?  What do we offer up in the name of worship on this day?  I would simply like to overview the scriptural data on the subject, because quite frankly most people have not be taught concerning this subject.  On the other hand, many others know its content but are governed by another principle known simply as Christian Liberty (which is appropriate in Biblical proportion but unfortunately today is simply another category under the title of grace).

So with that aside, let's consider some basics of the Biblical data.  This is the first area of debate: the origin of the Sabbath.  And yes this has been disagreed upon throughout church history (the puritans and reformers didn't even agree on this one).

Is it based on the original creation?  "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made" (Genesis 2:2-3).  Is this the foundational text needed to establish that sabbath existed before the giving of the Mosaic law (which could then be dismissed as only a civil or ceremonial law)?  To be fair with those who see no connection, there is no command in this verse to observe the sabbath.

Consider two different study Bible comments here, first the ESV Study Bible (Zondervan), "These words provide the basis for the obligation that God placed on the Israelites to rest from their normal labor on the Sabbath day."  Notice how the notes don't make any application directly from this text, not even a principle for humanity, but tie it to Israel and the Mosaic law.  On a similar note the KJV Study Bible (Zondervan), "The first record of obligatory sabbath observance is of Israel on her way from Egypt to Sinai (Ex 16, and according to Neh 9:13-14 the sabbath was not an official covenant obligation until the giving of the law at mount Sinai."

Notice the opposite from the notes from the Reformation Heritage Study Bible, "The principle of setting apart one day in seven for rest and devotion to God is a creation ordinance" and then again later "the establishment of the Sabbath at creation shows that its moral obligation was not limited to the law of Moses, but abides as long as creation."

Note the key difference: when does the obligation begin for humans.  Does it begin in the creation account (Gen 2) or in the giving of the law (Ex 20)?  I would suggest based on Ex 16:22-30, the principle for a day of rest has started before the giving of the Mosaic Law.

I would suggest this fundamental disagreement finds itself later played out in applications toward the Lord's day, especially worship services and liberty of conscience.  There are many texts and topics to discuss in relation to this issue.

We will pick up this topic next in relation to the giving of the Decalogue (the ten commandments).  Especially the fourth commandment, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exo 20: 8).

Comments and discussion encouraged.