BLJ: We are going to spend a few days looking at D.S. Corlette's book "The Christian Sabbath.“ The Sabbath is a very important subject in the Scriptures, but we hear so little about it that I felt the need to post concerning the subject.
THE MEANING OF SABBATH
What is the true Sabbath? Due to the agitation of Sabbatarians and the confusion among Christians resulting from their teachings more inquiries are made concerning the Sabbath question than perhaps any other modern fallacy. Conscientious Christians desire to obey God and keep His commandments regardless of the personal cost to them. Since Sabbatarians make the observing of Sunday as a day of worship a sign of apostasy and the mark of the beast, confusion prevails among those who have been touched by these teachings. The questions summarized are: Is the seventh day of the Fourth Commandment the same as the seventh day of the week of our Gregorian calendar? Are Christians bound to keep the seventh day of the week, our present Saturday, as the Sabbath? In this booklet we will present as clearly as possible answers to these questions, also we will give reasons for Christians observing what is commonly called the first day of the week, or Sunday, as a day of worship.
Different meanings are given to the word "sabbath" in Scripture. Its primary meaning everywhere is "cessation," "to cease to do," or "rest"; also it may mean a division of days. In Scripture the Sabbath is closely connected with the word "seven" or "seventh": the seventh day (Exodus 20:10), or weekly Sabbath, a day of rest; the Sabbatical year, "the seventh year shall be a sabbath" (Lev. 25:4); also "the space of seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years . . . And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year" (Lev. 25:8-11). Special feast days not occurring on or near the weekly Sabbath were called Sabbath days, such as the Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:27-32). Primarily the word "sabbath" stresses what the day, year, or period was meant to be, namely a day or period of rest, a sacred time, and not necessarily the particular number of a day in the week.
Early in the history of the world the seventh day (it is noteworthy that the word Sabbath does not appear in this connection) is sanctified by God and called a holy or sacred day: "God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because in it he had rested from all his works which God created and made" (Gen. 2:3). In this statement a universal principle is stated, namely, the necessity of a seventh day of rest after a period of six days' of labor and the day is made sacred by God's blessing upon it. This principle is inherent in the nature of man and the universe, hence we have emphasized in Scripture, the day of rest for man and beast on each seventh day after six days of labor, a year of rest for the land after six years of productivity, and the suggestion of a final millennium of Sabbath rest for the whole universe, when everything within the universe is brought into harmony with God and His will.
The Decalogue reiterates this fundamental principle by the statement of the Fourth Commandment: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God" (Exodus 20:8-11). The principle of the commandment is based upon the Sabbath of creation, "For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, . . . and rested on the seventh: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it." Note particularly in this connection that the Sabbath is not stated as being a memorial of a finished creation, it is the reiteration of a fundamental principle revealed at creation; a sacred day of rest following six days of labor.
The Ten Commandments are ten moral principles. They reveal the true fundamentals of social or human life, stressing man's obligation to God and to his fellow beings. These Commandments are true, fundamentally so, and would be true were they not revealed; but being true, God in His infinite goodness has revealed them to us. These moral principles necessarily are binding upon all men without regard to their moral or spiritual state. The Sabbath, a sacred day of rest after six days of labor is as much a moral principle as any of the other Commandments. "The sabbath is made for man," said Jesus. Its requirement is based upon a distinct human need. The rest of the seventh day restores the depleted supply of physical energy consumed during the six working days, the worship on this sacred day gives mental stimulation and spiritual blessing, and man is further rewarded through his recognition of God as a Divine Ruler and by obedience to God's law.
Does this Sabbath principle, the seventh day, mean a specific day in the week of seven days, or does it mean the seventh day after six days of labor? In other words, did God bless a specific day of the week, for example a seventh day, called Saturday, and make it a holy day, or did He bless the seventh day, any day of the week, after six days of labor? "The essence of Sabbath law" says Benjamin Field, in his "Handbook of Christian Theology," "is that one day in seven, the seventh day after six days of labor should be appropriated to sacred uses. Accordingly we find that, in the original institution (Gen. 2:3) it is stated in general terms that God blessed and sanctified the seventh day, which must, undoubtedly, imply the sanctity of every seventh day, at whatever given time the cycle may commence. In the Decalogue it is also mentioned in the same indefinite manner with respect to time. Nothing more being expressedly required than to observe a day of sacred rest after six days of toil. The seventh day is to be kept holy, but not a word is said as to what epoch the commencement of the series is to be referred. It is the seventh day in reference to the six before mentioned."
The earliest references to the Sabbath in Scripture establish it as a fundamental principle, an inherent part of the moral law. For man's benefit and to honor God the principle of a sacred day of rest following six days of labor is given. Nothing more than this is stated or implied and no one has a right to go beyond that which is written.
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