I’m Writing this on Sunday Am I Breaking the
Sabbath?
"Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it
holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and
do all your work. Deuteronomy 5:12-13
Some
conversation came up about how we should behave on Sunday. Is it
all right to go out to eat in a restaurant or shop at the mall? Should anyone
even be working in a restaurant or a mall on Sunday? If we engage in Sunday
activities outside worship will we be so much like everyone else we will be a
stumbling block between the unsaved coming to Christ?
Here are my
personal views about this question. This is my opinion. We must each reach our
own.
The Ten
Commandants definitely say to observe the Sabbath and keep it Holy. The
Commandment goes on to say we must not do any work on that day and no one we
are associated with should work on that day. The Laws of Moses go even further
in explaining the restrictions of the Sabbath and the religious leaders of
those times added further rules.
The penalty
for breaking the Sabbath was pretty emphatic -- death. (Take a look at Numbers
15:32-36. That guy was just gathering some firewood to keep warm or perhaps
cook a meal on the Sabbath and what happened? Look it up.)
I will be
leaving for Sunday School and Church shortly. I will get home around 11:30 AM,
just about lunchtime. I didn't prepare a sandwich yesterday, so can I make
myself one for lunch? Not under the Law, if I am observing today as the
Sabbath. I am forebade from preparing any meals on the Sabbath.
I am a
Philadelphia Eagles fan. They are on Sunday Night Football. I will be getting
home from this evening's Bible Study at church just in time to watch the game.
Am I breaking the Sabbath by doing so?
Well,
perhaps not. Technically a day, in the pattern of Creation, is an evening and a
morning, a day. The Sabbath begins at sundown and runs until the next sundown,
so tonight's game is being played on Monday - technically - according to
Biblical rules.
Do I break
it when I watch them play in the afternoon between church services?
Again,
technically no, because the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, again set
in the pattern of Creation. Sunday is the first day of the week, the day God
began his Creating. Friday sundown until Saturday sundown is the Sabbath. I
went to the store yesterday. My wife and I were out to dinner last evening
(well that was after sundown, so we may be safe there). We did work about the
house. My son was at work. My daughters were both working yesterday and will
today. (They both work at Animal Shelters and sheltered animals need care seven
days a week, not just six. Jesus said: "You hypocrites! Doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his
ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Luke 13:15
"If any of you
has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of
it and lift it out? How
much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on
the Sabbath." Matthew 10:11-12.
So it is
probably fine they are taking care of animals in need.)
But what
about the rest of we Christians who ate out, did shopping, took a ride, took a
walk, raked leaves, cleaned the house, had the car serviced, went to work, got
a haircut, cooked a meal, etc. yesterday and/or today?
Shall we
pick up some stones and begin throwing them at each other?
And again,
at which time do we break the Sabbath? Sundown Friday to sundown Saturday?
Sundown Saturday to sundown Sunday? All day Saturday? All day Sunday? Is Sunday
really the New Testament Sabbath at all?
Here is the
Fourth Commandment as stated in Deuteronomy 5:12-15:
Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as
the LORD your God has commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your
work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall
not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or
maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien
within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do.
Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you
out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD
your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.
Is Sunday the New Sabbath?
So then, just as you
received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in
him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with
thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and
deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles
of this world rather than on Christ. Colossians 2:6-8
I do not
believe Sunday is the Christian Sabbath or a new Sabbath. This is strictly my
opinion. It is not come to lightly. You need to form your own opinion through
your own prayer and study. Anyway, here is my understanding.
The Jews
lived under the Law until the coming of Christ. After Christ came the Church,
the Body of Christ made up by His believers. The Body of Christ is under Grace.
God will deal with the Church for a period of time, but He is not finished
dealing with the Jews. God has in a sense set the Jews aside for the moment,
but He has made promises to them yet unfulfilled. Eventually, God will remove
his Church and again deal with the Jews. But it will not be under the Law, but
under Grace.
The Jews
today cannot practice all the demands of the Law (nor can the Church). God
removed from them the ability to perform the sacrifices required for their
atonement and worship when the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD. This God warned
he would do and He did. When Christ came, he stated the Old Testament was about
Him and he said He had come to fulfill the Law, not to destroy it. Certainly,
much of the Law remains to guide us: have no other gods, honor our father and
mother, do not murder or steal and so forth. But many things in the Law, once
fulfilled in Christ, became unnecessary.
When the
sheet of creatures was lowered to Peter in a vision and Peter was told to take
and eat, it was a sign to the Apostles it was all right to preach the Gospel to
gentiles. It was also permission from that point for people to eat foods
formally banned under the Law.
I believe
this is also the case with the Fourth Commandment.
"Observe the
Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. Six
days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to
the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son
or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or
any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant
and maidservant may rest, as you do. Remember
that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of
there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God
has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day. Deuteronomy 5:12-15.
This Commandment
was given with an explanation for its practice, a remembrance "that you were
slaves in Egypt and that the Lord your God brought you out..." Who is the
'you'? I am not of Jewish decent. I descended from Japheth, not from Shem.
I believe Jesus
gave us a new Commandment of observation in place of this one as Christians. "Take this bread, which is my body...take this wine
which is my blood shed for you...do this in remembrance of Me".
But this command
is not tied to a certain day. Many churches practice Communion on the first
Sunday of the month. Some churches do this every Sunday. The Catholic Church
performs Holy Communion daily, some times more than once a day. But
Communion doesn't have to be performed in a church or by a minister or priest.
Anywhere a few of us gather, we can perform Communion amongst ourselves.
Keep in mind, there
were other rules around Sabbaths and there were Sabbaths beyond the seventh
day. There was even a Sabbath year.
" 'Count off seven Sabbaths of years—seven
times seven years—so that the seven Sabbaths of years amount to a period of
forty-nine years. Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of
the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your
land. Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the
land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each one of you is
to return to his family property and each to his own clan. The fiftieth
year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of
itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be
holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.
" 'In this
Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to his own property.
" 'If you
sell land to one of your countrymen or buy any from him, do not take advantage
of each other. You are to
buy from your countryman on the basis of the number of years since the Jubilee.
And he is to sell to you on the basis of the number of years left for
harvesting crops. When the years are many, you are to increase the price, and
when the years are few, you are to decrease the price, because what he is
really selling you is the number of crops. Do not take advantage of each other,
but fear your God. I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 25:8-17
If we are
to argue the Sabbath Day applies to us, then shouldn't the Sabbath and Jubilee
Years apply as well? But we don't even give them a thought. (I believe the
Sabbath Year is a portend of a future event, but I'm not going there right
now.)
Just as God
predicted He would send the Messiah and that He would tear down the Temple, he
predicted the Jews would lose their land and be scattered throughout the world
until one day He would bring them back and restore them. He also predicted He
would take away their sacrifices, Sabbaths and feasts.
I will stop all her
celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed feasts. I will ruin her
vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers;
I will
make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them. I will punish her
for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and
jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot," declares the LORD.
"Therefore I am
now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to
her. There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley
of Achor a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth,
as
in the day she came up out of Egypt. "In that day," declares the
LORD,
"you will call me 'my husband';
you will no longer call me 'my
master. 'I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will
their names be invoked. In that day I will make a covenant for them with
the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move
along the ground.
Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so
that all may lie down in safety. I will betroth you to me forever;
I will
betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion. I
will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD. In
that day I will respond," declares the LORD—
"I will respond to the
skies, and they will respond to the earth; and the earth will respond to
the grain, the new wine and oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel. I will
plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called 'Not
my loved one. ' I will say to those called 'Not my people, ' 'You are my
people';
and they will say, 'You are my God.' " Hosea 2:2-23
God has promised to take away
their Sabbaths, I don't think he has promised to bring that practice back. I
think the need to remember they were slaves in Egypt will be replaced by the
celebration of His freeing them, as us, from the slavery of sin.
But even so, what about we
Christians? Are we bound by the regulations of the Sabbath? I believe Paul has
made it clear we are not in Colossians 2:9-23:
For in
Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been
given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. In
him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful
nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the
circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised
with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
When you
were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful
nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having
canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that
stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having
disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them by the cross.
Therefore
do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a
religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a
shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in
Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of
angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about
what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He
has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held
together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Since
you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you
still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not
taste! Do not touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use, because
they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an
appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and
their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining
sensual indulgence.
Now, as to
the question of our shopping or going to a restaurant or working on a Sunday being
a stumbling block to others; I think if we behave in a righteous, but humble
manner, treating others as we would be treated, letting people know of our
faith and the Gospel, there is less risk of being a stumbling block to the
unbeliever than if we practice overzealous piety.
There is
nothing wrong, in my view, if someone wishes to dedicate the whole of Sunday to
worship of the Lord, as long as they keep it between the Lord and themselves.
There is a risk we may become in this like the Pharisees who prayed loudly in
public to be seen by men or those who put on ashes and a sad face to show
everyone they were fasting. This could become a greater stumbling block than our
obeying our employer (as we are commanded to do) and working on Sunday if
ordered, or joining with friends for lunch after church, or enjoining a sports
event, as long as we don't put God secondary in our lives.
Personally,
my opinion again, I think Sunday, as our day of group worship is tradition, not
Scripture. It has some basis in the Sabbath and in early Christian practice,
and we certainly should see to it there is a day of rest for one and all, but I
don't think we are under the yoke of some Law.
Divorce and
remarriage are topics of debate among some Christians. Is divorce ever
acceptable? Is it okay to remarry, especially for the innocent party of a
divorce? Does it count if the marriage was to a nonbeliever? Should a minister
perform the marriage of a divorced person? Should a divorced person ever be
ordained as a minister? Would your church allow a divorced person to preach?
Lots of
questions, none of which I am going to address here.
But here is
a question to think about. Would God be allowed to preach in your church?
Well, of
course, what a stupid question.
Would he
though? After all, God is divorced. And not only did God divorce, he is
remarrying.
How could
that be? Isn't divorce considered a sin, isn't it forbidden, how could God sin
against God?
God can't
sin against Himself and divorce isn't totally forbidden. This is what Jesus
said about divorce in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:31-32): "It has been said, 'Anyone who divorces his wife must give her
a certificate of divorce. But I tell you that anyone who divorces his
wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress,
and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery."
So, Jesus
tells us divorce is acceptable if the spouse has been sexually unfaithful
("save for the
matter of whoredom" in the
literal translation).
But whom did God
divorce? And who says He did?
God says:
Jeremiah 3:6-10: During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD
said to me, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up
on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery
there. I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but
she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. I gave faithless
Israel her certificate of divorce and
sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful
sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery.
Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the
land and committed adultery with stone and wood. In spite of all this,
her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only
in pretense," declares the LORD.
God looked upon
Israel as his Bride, but she was unfaithful and committed adulteries. God
justifiably divorced Israel.
Now he has a new
Bride and new marriage in the Body of Believers.
But wait, even if
the divorce was justified, could God be breaking the vows of marriage? Isn't
there something about "until death do ye part" in there? Israel
hasn't died. It's right there on the map and in the news a lot.
And God didn't
die.
Ah, yes, He did,
for you and for me, on a cross at Calvary.
But He overcame
death and He awaits his Bride in Heaven. And it is all according to Hoyle. I
pray you are among the body of believers and will join in the marriage supper
of the Lamb as the Bride.
(The illustration
of "The Bride of Christ" appeared on several websites, but I could
not find it attributed to any artist.)
What Do We Know; When Did We Know It?
During a group
discussion I, as a Christian, disagreed with something said. The person began
apologizing. I told them that weren’t necessary. He said he didn't know a lot about Christianity. I
said I wasn't being judgmental, I just didn't agree with him.
This led to
a brief discussion of Christianity and the Bible. It was said more than once,
"I didn't know that", although everyone in the group had been raised
in a "Christian" home. Still, with some exceptions, the group has
been very critical of religion in general and Christianity especially.
Another
person said he knew little about what was in the Bible, but how could it
be accurate when it was basically hearsay; after all, most of what it
tells about happened before man knew how to write.
I didn't
know when man first learned to write, I said, but Moses grew up in ancient Egypt
and they probably knew how to write, but I wasn't positive. But you know what I
do when something comes into my life I don't know? I look it up.
The Egyptians had papyrus and ink and started the
first libraries about 2500 BC. If you have a need for libraries, you probably
have been writing books for a while.
Hammurabi
wrote his first legal codes (on the left) for Babylon around 1750 BC.
So when was
the Bible written?
There are
66 books in the Protestant Bible (The Catholic Bible includes 16 additional
called the Apocrypha). The books were written by different people over several
hundreds of years. The last book, Revelation (or The Apocalypse of
St. John the Apostle in the Catholic Bible) was written by John
in 95 AD. [It is singular, Revelation, not Revelations as commonly
called.] Obviously
mankind knew how to write by 95 AD, but what about the earliest books of the
Bible, those in the Old Testament?
Remember,
the books of the Bible are not arranged chronologically. Many scholars believe
the oldest book of the Bible is Job. No one is exactly sure who wrote
this book, some believe Job did, some believe Moses did and some believe it was
Solomon or Elihu. Likewise, no one is absolutely certain when Job lived, but
most place him in the time of the Patriarchs, between 2000 BC and 1800 BC. This
would be 500 or so years after Egypt was constructing libraries, so mankind
knew how to read and write.
We
generally think of the oldest books of the Bible to be the early histories, the
first part of the Jewish Tanakh, the five books attributed to Moses. Moses
was born in 1526 BC. At least a thousand years after writing was commonplace in
Egypt.
But could Job and Moses write? Just because
writing was around didn't mean everyone could do it. Maybe the common man couldn't
read in those days. Maybe only people who were Egyptian or Babylonian or
Assyrian knew anything about writing. After all, Chinese literature was
just beginning in 1400 BC. Of course, literature implies more than mere
writing. If literature is being done, then there was certainly
writing before it, lists and legal documents, that sort of thing at least.
But China
was far away and Job and Moses were not Chinese or Egyptian for that matter.
However,
they were not the common man either. Job, like Abraham (born 2166), was a rich
and powerful man. Both of them would have dealt with varied people in life and
this would include Egyptians. They probably knew how to write and keep records.
They did live when mankind knew how to write.
And Moses
had been raised and lived as an Egyptian Prince until the age of 40. He would
have been a well-educated man who knew how to read and write. He was also
aware of the treatment of the Hebrew slaves when he discovered he was also a
Hebrew. And what did I say I do when something comes into my life I
didn't know? I look it up. I will speculate that Moses began to look up some
history on the Hebrews. I would also speculate there were written records of
the Patriarchs somewhere. After all, Abraham's great grandson, Joseph, had once
been a high official in Egypt and Joseph must have known how to read and write.
Joseph may have kept notes.
But it
doesn't matter where Moses got all his information. Most of what he wrote about
happened during his lifetime. The fact remains that the Bible did come about
when mankind knew how to write. As far as what it contains back before writing
was invented, I would say the first 11 chapters of Genesis is it. This is only
a small percentage of the Bible, about .9%. The other 99.1% happened during the
period of writing.
After
Chapter 11 of Genesis we begin with the history of Abraham, who was born a few
hundred years after mankind began writing. The events occurring before 2500 BC,
just before we begin the descriptions of Abraham, were the Flood and the
Creation.
I have no
problem with the truth of these early events, because I believe in God and that
he preserves His Word. After all, if God could reveal to Daniel and John events
that will happen in the future, it should have been a piece of cake to show
Moses the past.
But even on
a secular basis I would think the beliefs of this people would have come down
to the Biblical writers pretty much in tact. Why? Because if we had no
means of recording things, other than passing it word of mouth from one
generation to another, we would be very, very careful in doing so. We would
tell our story to the next generation over and over; constantly checking they
had it memorized it exactly. It wouldn't be a careless presentation like the
game of "Whispering down the lane". We can see this even later when
writing was known. The scribes were very careful in copying older manuscripts
exactly, catching every jot and tittle. The existing fragments of the oldest
Bible books agree. Certainly there was some transcribing error, but there was
very little, because these things were too important. We can find some minor
discrepancies, usually in measures of something, where it was easy to mistake a
quantity, but not in important issues of substance.
But what do we know; when did we know it? I have
given dates for certain occurrences in this post from sources I trust. There
are other sources, which may give different dates. There is little we can
find where all agree. This is why I say everything anyone believes is based on
faith.
My wife is
one-quarter Native American. Her paternal grandmother was a full-blooded Native
American. Let me ask a question. When and how did the first Native Americans
get here?
One source
says Native Americans immigrated to North America from North Asia in 2000 BC.
Another source says they came between 15,000 and 30,000 BCE. *** Another source
is more precise. It says the Native Americans came in 14,300 and something BCE.
Other sources make their own guesses. Some Native American Tribes claim
they didn't come from anywhere, they were always here. They would be the only Native
Americans then. Those we insist on calling Native Americans are really Asian
Americans who have been around here a long time.
And how did
they get here, assuming those true Native Americans are wrong about always
being here. What I was taught in school was Asians crossed the land
bridge between North Asia and Alaska. But others say they crossed an ice
bridge in generally the same region. Others say they island hopped across the
Pacific, going from island to island and finally to America. Others believe
they sailed here on rafts. Some even say they were put here by space ships.
My point
is, nobody knows. Pick your time and your method and put your faith in it being
correct. All is in the end faith. I have faith that the Bible is the Word of
God.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for
teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the
man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
*** (Note how subtly our world has moved to
remove the word Christ from everything. It is no longer BC, before Christ. It
is now BCE, before the current era. Boy, before the current era, that certainly
pinpoints the time for you, doesn't it? Just what event determines the current
era? Is it 1500 AD? When I had History in college that was the demarcation for
"modern civilization"? Or is BCE still tagged to the birth of Christ?
I really don't know. I guess I'll have to look it up.)
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