SABBATH IN THE BIBLE PART 2

The Sabbath: Think about it...

By a strange twist of illogic, those who oppose Sabbath observance often make accusations of legalism. Yet they themselves affirm all of the other moral principles of the law as binding on all and expect others to avoid adultery, murder, theft and the like. Why legalism is attached to one moral practice and not to another cannot be explained rationally. It is based on a mere prejudice, or on the misunderstanding that everything related to the Sabbath is ceremonial and a shadow of things to come, just because some things are. For them the Sabbath must include animal sacrifices, food and drink offerings, death sentence, and the renewing of shewbread, or then nothing at all. Such people do not even recognize the moral and social aspects of the Sabbath presented in the Decalogue, nor the Sabbath as a vehicle of divine mercy as presented in the Gospels. Actually, they are the legalists in regard to the Sabbath.

Sabbath observance does not weaken the importance of Paul's discourse on the law to the Galatians any more than avoidance of adultery and murder do. The same view on the Law and faith can be maintained by the Sabbath observer as by the monogamist and non-violent. The Sabbath as seen in the Bible fosters the concept and experience of salvation by faith through grace.

There are four major arguments against Sabbath observance proposed by Christians on the basis of the Sabbath. 1) There are direct commands for all of the other commandments of the Decalogue in the New Testament, but not for the Sabbath; 2) Jesus broke the Sabbath and thus showed it to be abrogated; 3) The Sabbath consists entirely of ceremonial obligations which are shadows of things to come and "nailed to the cross"; 4) The text of the New Testament does not show the early church to have kept Sabbath. These as well as the four major arguments based on the Old Testament have all been adequately responded to here in some detail.

In sum, a Bible harmony of the passages in reference to the Sabbath is neither difficult nor in conflict with the Gospel. Rather, it contributes to the better understanding and implementation of the Gospel itself. It intimately integrates recognition of divine sovereignty, it illuminates Jesus as Creator and Provider, it limits the power of the powerful and alone among moral commandments transforms human society to one of justice and order from being under the law of the jungle. The Sabbath becomes the vehicle for the penetration of the Gospel of life and mercy into the world. Its neglect is one of the major factors for the limited influence of the Gospel of Christ in the world today.