Ancient Wisdom Today » Worship

Some Final Thoughts on the Sabbath

Maer — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:29:39 +0000

There are many contributions on the discussion of the Sabbath in this book. The biblical data is considered when looking at Jesus’ attitude towards the Sabbath in the four Gospels, Luke and Acts, the Pauline epistles and Hebrews. What we can safely say from these discussions is that there was not a transfer from the Sabbath to Sunday. As a matter of fact, there is doubt as to when Sunday as a day of worship actually began and, whenever it was, it was not a substitute for the Sabbath. Richard Bauckham walks us through the history of the Lord’s day, including the book of Revelation, from the post-apostolic period to the Reformation which comprises a big chunk of the book. A. T. Lincoln then tries to synthesize the results from the previous articles.

The Sabbath in the Old Testament

Maer — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:28:23 +0000

Harold H. P Dressler begins his discussion on the Sabbath by looking at the different theories about its origin. One of those theories is the Babylonian Origin which states that the Israelites learned about the concept of a seven-day week from the Canaanites who, in turn, learned it from the Babylonians. Other theories are the Lunar, Kenite, Socioeconomic and Calendar Origin. However, Dressler does not see why the Sabbath could not have originated with the Israelites specially since there is not a lot of evidence to refute it. Even the etymology of the word shabbat is not helpful since some scholars don’t see any interdependence of this word and the verb shabat (to cease, stop). Dressler summarizes: “since all available sources have failed to produce conclusive evidence for an alternative origin of the Sabbath, we suggest that the Sabbath originated with Israel and that with the Sabbath came the seven-day week” (24).

From Sabbath to Lord’s Day

Maer — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:01:31 +0000

I was not planning to write about the Sabbath as my next topic in hermeneutics, but I happened to come across a book in the library called “From Sabbath to Lord’s Day,” edited by D. A. Carson. Although I thought a book like this would be stimulating in many ways, my experience has been that, by the end of a book about the Sabbath, I am still left with this annoying feeling that I should have understood the big picture, but the questions are still there. But, after reading the short introduction by Carson, I thought “I gotta read this book!”

In the introduction, Carson listed some of the arguments and conclusions with which he and the writers disagreed:

“First, we are not persuaded that the New Testament unambiguously develops a “transfer theology,” according to which the Sabbath moves from the seventh day to the first day of the week. We are not persuaded that Sabbath keeping is presented in the Old Testament as the norm from the time of the creation onward. Nor are we persuade that the New Testament develops patterns of continuity and discontinuity on the basis of moral/civil/ceremonial distinctions. However useful and accurate such categories may be, it is anachronistic to think that any New Testament writer adopted them as the basis for his distinctions between the Old Testament and the gospel of Christ. We are also not persuaded that that Sunday observance arose only in the second century A. D. We think, however, that although Sunday worship arose in the New Testament times, it was not perceived as a Christian Sabbath. We disagree profoundly with historical reconstructions of the patristic period that read out from isolated and ambiguous expressions massive theological schemes that in reality developed only much later” (16).

Convenantal Worship

Maer — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:19:00 +0000

Gore Jr., R. J. Convenantal Worship: Reconsidering the Puritan Regulative Principle. New Jersey: P & R Publishing, 2002.

Every once in a while I try to read a book that will help me think about hermeneutical issues. The Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW) is one of those issues. While I believe that worship must be according to Scripture, all kinds of hermeneutical questions start popping into my head when I read what confessions like the Westminster Standards have to say about the regulation of worship, and how they use the bible to back it up. In his foreword to this book, John Frame, after pointing out a few areas where he differs from the author, says: “we both want to say that Scripture must direct our worship, but that Scripture must be read according to sound hermeneutics.” I couldn’t agree more.