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I recently had to write a paper on whether or not Sabbath observance is binding for new covenant believers today. I want to share two quotes with you that I found to be useful in forming my persuasion:
The first is by Andrew Shead from an article on “Sabbath” in the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology:
We have said nothing about the Christian Sunday since we are convinced that there is no theological connection between Sabbath and Sunday, despite occasional attempts to prove the contrary (e.g. R. T. Beckwith and W. Stott, This Is the Day). There are hints in the NT that the first day of the week was set aside for evening worship, including the Lord’s Supper (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 16:2); Revelation 1:10 refers to “the Lord’s Day”. There is, however, absolutely no indication either that the “first day” replaced the “Sabbath day” in practice (the first Jewish [750] Christians continued to attend the synagogue on the Sabbath), or that there was a transfer of Sabbath theology to Sunday worship. The Sabbath was a day of rest rather than a day of worship, and Sunday became a day of worship but was not initially a day of rest. Regularity, for which the seven-day week provided a ready-made framework, distinguishes (Sunday) worship (e.g. Heb. 10:25); completion, which was (and is) a final goal, distinguishes the Seventh Day. The Sabbath day, then, was a sign of this eschatological rest, whereas Sunday is not presented in the NT as a sign of anything, despite its connection to the resurrection. It is simply a well-chosen day upon which to gather to encourage one another in daily, unceasing striving to enter the Sabbath rest (Heb. 4:11). The only gathering which can truly be described as sabbatical is the gathering of the bond-servants who will reign with the Lamb for ever in the new creation (Rev. 22:3–6). (pgs. 749-750)
The second is from A.T. Lincoln, who wrote a chapter in From Sabbath to Lord’s Day called “From Sabbath to Lord’s Day: a Biblical and Theological Perspective”:
God’s concern for the whole person and for all His creatures being able to have regular rest from their work surely instructs us that although the literal Sabbath day of rest has been abrogated and has not been transferred to Sunday, we should share this concern for regular periods of rest both for ourselves and for others in our society. From this perspective this essay is not advocating that Christians should not rest on Sunday. Rather its position suggests that they should take regular rest, that this rest can be any day or extended part of a day, including Sunday, but that there is no biblical or compelling theological reason why it has to be Sunday. (pg. 404)
Crystal and I found out this past week that a young man we had grown up with in church had committed suicide. One of the persistent perplexities I have when I hear of a professing believer who ends his or her life is whether or not it is possible for someone who is truly born again to commit suicide.
To get some help, I listened to a funeral message John Piper preached over a year ago for a young man at Bethlehem who committed suicide. He addresses this issue in the following excerpt from the online manuscript:
The stake is this: True Christians can commit suicide. Or to put it another way: There is nothing unique or peculiar about the final act of life that makes it determinative in validating or nullifying our salvation. Or let me say it another way: The final season of faith with all its battles and failures is not the only season of faith that will bear witness in the Last Day that we were born again.
For example, suppose tonight, in my physical weariness, the remaining corruption in my born-again, Christian heart were to get the upper hand, and pride and self-pity and anger were to lash out verbally at my wife. And then suppose that in a great self-justifying huff, I stormed out of the door, got in the car, bolted carelessly through the stop sign on 18th Avenue and was broadsided by a truck and killed in an instant? Would I go to heaven?
Unless I have been a hypocrite through all these last fifty-five years of my Christian life, the answer is yes. For these reasons: 1) Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for my sins and bore the wrath of God in my place so that all my sins might be forgiven. 2) Jesus Christ lived a perfect life of obedience so that by his obedience many sinners could be counted righteous, including me. 3) This sacrifice and this righteousness become mine by faith alone when I trust Jesus as the Lord and Savior and Treasure of my life. 4) This trust is embattled till the day I die, with seasons of strength and seasons of weakness, seasons of darkness and seasons of light. 5) If the last season is so dark that I die by my own sin, that season is not the only season that God takes into account when he presents the evidence that my faith was real.
Tyler Kenney, a good friend of mine, has started a collaborative blog with Phil Head (another good friend) and me at fighterverses.com. The purpose of the blog is to offer at least three weekly meditations on each week’s Fighter Verse (the name for Bethlehem Baptist Church’s church-wide Bible memory program) to serve as an encouragement to help people meditate on the Word of God as they commit it to heart. Feel free to stop on by if you’re in the digital neighborhood. We’ll put some tea on.
When I was younger I wished that I could have a superpower that guaranteed I would make every single basket I shot. Oh, how the crowds would swoon. That’s when I wanted to be in the NBA. Now, I think I would settle for being able to fly.
