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The Sabbath

Well, I asked a question about the Sabbath or Lord's Day a couple/few weeks ago. Richard Barcellos at MCTS is now doing a series of posts about the Sabbath. I am hoping that it will answer some of the many questions I have about this doctrine.

Help with the Sabbath (or the Lord's Day)

I am confused about this Christian Sabbath thing. My thing is this (a few things): I think that it is pretty clear that the Ten Commandments are binding for Christians because of the way that the new testament uses them and assumes that they are binding on Christians. However, it seems that there is little or no evidence that the Lord's day is to be practiced as a sabbath. Yet, Christians are the new and true Israel and it is true that the New Testament requires that Christians meet on the first day of the week for corporate worship. Further, the law of God (which I believe is the ten commandments) is written on our hearts. I believe this because of Jeremiah 31:31-34 and passages like 2 Corinthians 3 (where the contrast is between the law being written on tablets of stone and on tablets of human hearts). The only thing that was written on tablets of stone by God was the ten commandments, not any other laws. The other laws under the Mosaic administration were written down by Moses. Further, Paul talks about the doers of the law being justified in Romans 2. The law, I believe, is talking about the ten commandments (Romans 2:21-23). Therefore, it must be biding on the Christian as a rule of life (the historic third use of the law as set out by Calvin). What confuses me most about this issue is that Mohler, Luther, Calvin, and Gill (just to name a few) don't believe in a Christian Sabbath. Rather, they believe in the observance of the Lord's day with the emphasis on the positive importance of the corporate gather together in worship, fellowship, and praying with God's people. The emphasis is not on resting. Therefore, they would not call it a Christian Sabbath. What makes this more confusing is that Mohler says it is emphatically not a Christian Sabbath and then he quotes the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM), which says this:
The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private, and by refraining from worldly amusements, and resting from secular employments, work of necessity and mercy only being excepted.

Mohler actually quoted this and still says that it is not a Christian Sabbath! I am confused. I'm even more confused because the BFM came from New Hampshire Confession which came from the 1689, which are both Sabbatarian. The New Hampshire Confession basically says the same thing, except the title is "The Christian Sabbath" instead of "The Lord's Day". It is almost like they want it to be called the Lord's Day but observed as a Sabbath...

Further, I have come to embrace the regulative principle of the Church, which is the opposite of the Anglican normative principle. The Anglicans say that, with regards to worship, anything that is commanded and anything that is not expressly forbidden is okay for the church to do in the activities of worship. The puritan regulative principle says that, for corporate worship, the tasks of the church, and the government of the church, only that which is either commanded or that which has Biblical precedence is true worship. Because it is God's house (or temple) He has the right to say what is and is not acceptable (1 Timothy 3:15). It is not the same as how I would do family worship or how I make many of the personal decisions I make. In our every day life we take the principles that we learn in God's word and apply them in the ways that we think best. Every situation is not addressed in scripture, but we can take the principles in God's word and apply them to those situations. Not so in the way that God's church is run because it is his place of special presence (Matthew 18:20). Much like God set out the specification of His temple in the OT, He has the right to determine how church is to be done. You get the point.

What does this have to do with the Sabbath? Well, if God is going to specify the way that worship is to be done, then would he not specify the day of worship?

Another thing I am wrestling with on this is the fact that the Bible does not trace the origins of the Sabbath back to the Mosaic Covenant but back to creation. Exodus 20 8 "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 "Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 "For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy. Men like John Owen and Vos have argued that the Sabbath was a creation ordinance and, therefore, does not go away with the comng of the new covenant. According to them it is binding on all generations because it is part of the law written on the hearts (conscience) of all men from birth as Romans 1 and 2 set out.

Any help here? I am confused and need the help of my theologically-minded brothers.

Historic Premil

My friend, Greg Stancil, is posting some blogs about historic premil and how it compares to other eschatological systems here.

Sam Waldron Continues His Response

Here, here and here, Waldron continues his response to MacArthur.

Sam Waldron Responds to MacArthur

Here is a link to the first of several posts in response to John MacArthur's opening address at the 2007 Shepherd's Conference.

The New Covenant and Boasting in the Cross - 2

And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood. (Luke 22:20)

What is the New Covenant?

“The phrase “New Covenant” is used explicitly seven times in the New Testament. There are at least five more times in which clear allusions to it occur. This, however, does not adequately reveal the all-importance of the New Covenant in the Bible. The last 27 books of our Bibles are called the New Testament. This phrase is an alternate translation of the New Covenant. In one sense, the New Testament is the New Covenant. That is to say, the Scriptures of the New Testament are the scriptures of the New Covenant, just as the scriptures of the Old Testament are the scriptures of the Old Covenant. This in no way takes the Old Testament out of the hands of Christians. Just as the Old Testament has to do with the establishment and implications of the Old Covenant, so the New Testament has to do with the establishment and implications of the New Covenant.”

Here we see that Christ is linking His death with the New Covenant as He is instituting one of the two sacraments of the church - the Lord’s supper. I said all that to say this. The New Covenant is very important for Christians to understand and appreciate. The whole New Testament , in a sense, has to do with the New Covenant. The most important event in the history of the world, Christ’s shedding of His blood on the cross is linked to the New Covenant. This is very important to grasp. So let’s get into it. What is the New Covenant?

-The New Covenant is the fulfillment of promises made in the Old Testament – Jeremiah 31:31-34; 32:40; Ezekiel 36:26-27; Isaiah 54:10; 55:3; 59:21; 61:8; Hosea 2:18-23; Malachi 3:1-4

-It is contrasted with the Old Covenant – Jeremiah 31:32; Exodus 19:1-8; Exodus 24:6-8

The Old Covenant here, then, is the Mosaic Covenant with all the institutions of worship annexed to it (Hebrews 9:1-3). This covenant is going to be different than the Mosaic Covenant.

We will talk more about the specific provisions of the new covenant next time as well as how the New and Old Covenants are different. This week I want to move on to Christ’s next phrase in Luke 22:20, “in my blood.” This is the new covenant in my blood. What does He mean here?

The New Covenant and Boasting in the Cross

And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood. (Luke 22:20)

How much do you value the blood of Christ? Do you ever just stop in the middle of your day and say, “Thank you Lord, for the blood of Christ”? I don’t typically do that. It is my conviction that one of the reasons why I don’t is because I don’t understand the value of the cross of Christ and how much his shed blood truly accomplished for me. One of the things I don’t think many Christians understand is how the blood of Christ and the new covenant relate. This passage connects these two things - the blood of Christ and the new covenant. What I would like to do in the next few posts is just expound upon Christ’s phrase here in the latter part of this verse, “the new covenant in My blood”. This verse that we read over so often and so quickly is full of meaning and implications for the Christian life. I would like concentrate on what those meanings and implications are for our lives. I think this will help us appreciate the blood of Christ more fully. It is important to appreciate the blood of Christ because that is what makes us more Christlike and less worldly. “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Galatians 6:14)