This installment is entirely written by Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi. It is called The Sabbath Under Crossfire and is an update report on the current Sabbath/Sunday controversy. Dr. Sam felt it was very important for people to understand that the renewed attempts of Dale Ratzlaff and a host of other authors to negate the continuity and value of the Sabbath for today, is nothing else than the continuation of the anti-Sabbath theology that originated in the second century and has been reproposed throughout the centuries.
By approaching the current controversy within a larger historical context, Dr. Sam feels that his readers can understand why some Christians, like Ratzlaff, follow the Lutheran/Catholic tradition that emphasizes the termination of the Sabbath at the Cross, while other Christians, like the 20 plus denominations represented by the Lord's Day Alliance, follow the Reformed tradition that stresses the continuity between the Sabbath and Sunday, viewing the latter as the Christian Sabbath.
|Links to significant points in this installment|
Current controversy of Sabbath vs. Sunday has been rekindled by three significant developments: 1) Numerous doctoral dissertations by Sunday keeping scholars who argue for the abrogation of the Sabbath in the New Testament and the apostolic origin of Sunday. 2) Abandonment of the Sabbath by former Sabbatarian organizations like the Worldwide Church of God. 3) The released Pastoral Letter Dies Domini from Pope John Paul II that calls for a revival of Sunday observance.
Origin of anti-Sabbath theology can be traced back to the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 135 A.D. Contempt for Sabbath.
New developments occurred after the Constantinian Sunday Law of A. D. 321. -- The Sabbath as the principle of one-day-in-seven was binding upon Christians, but the Sabbath as the specification of the seventh-day was abolished by Christ.
Martin Luther, John Calvin and other reformers propose distinctions between the moral (creational) and ceremonial (Mosaic) aspects of the Sabbath. Calvin tries to resolve tension between the Sunday-Sabbath as a perpetual creation ordinance and the Saturday-Sabbath as a temporary ceremonial.
Severed ties to Sabbath commandment reduce Sunday keepers to only an hour of worship. Reformed tradition views Sunday as the Christian Sabbath.
Significance of the Papal Pastoral Letter Dies Domini. Pope argues for theological connection between Sabbath and Sunday AND calls for Sunday Rest legislation to facilitate Sunday observance.
Master Index to major arguments in all installments.
The Sabbath under
Few Biblical doctrines has been under the constant crossfire of controversy during Christian history like that of the Sabbath. In his two volumes bibliographic survey of the Sabbath/Sunday literature produced between the Reformation and 1860, J. A. Hessey lists about one thousand treatises for that period. (1) Since last century an even greater number of studies dealing with the Sabbath/Sunday question have been published. Truly it can be said that the Sabbath has had no rest.
In recent times the controversy has been rekindled by at least three significant developments:
This article looks at these recent developments within the larger historical context of the origin and development of the anti-Sabbath theology. An understanding of how the abrogation view of the Sabbath began and developed through the centuries, is essential for comprehending why the Sabbath is still under crossfire today. We shall look briefly at the Sabbath from four significant perspectives:
The origin of the anti-Sabbath theology can be traced back to the time of the Roman Emperor Hadrian who promulgated in 135 A.D. a most repressive anti-Judaic legislation, prohibiting categorically the practice of Judaism in general and of Sabbathkeeping in particular. The aim of the Hadrianic legislation was to liquidate Judaism as a religion at a time when the Jews were experiencing resurgent Messianic expectations that exploded in violent uprising in various parts of the empire, especially Palestine. (2)
At that critical time a whole body of anti-semitic literature was produced by Roman authors attacking the Jews ethnically and religiously. (3) Christian authors joined the fray by producing a whole literature "Against the Jews-Adversos Judaeos" condemining the Jews as a people and Judaism as a religion. (4) For example, the author of The Epistle of Barnabas (generally dated between 130 and 138) defames the Jews as "wretched men" (16:1) who were abandoned by God because of the ancient idolatry (5:14). He empties their religious practices like Sabbathkeeping of any historical validity (15:1-8).
At about the same time Justin Martyr (about 150 A.D.) further develops the "Christian" theology of contempt for the Jews and their Sabbath by making the latter a temporary Mosaic ordinance imposed solely on the Jews as "a mark to single them out for punishment they so well deserve for their infedelities" (5) It is hard to believe that a church leader like Justin, who died as a martyr, would reduce the Sabbath to a sign of Jewish depravity. Justin argues that the New Covenant demands not "refraining from work on one day of the week" but "observing a perpetual Sabbath" by abstaining from sin. (6)
Justin's anti-Sabbath theology has been reproposed in different ways throughout the centuries. In our times Dispensationalists and New Covenant authors maintain essentially the same view that the Sabbath is a temporary Mosaic ordinance no longer binding upon New Covenant Christians who observe the day spiritually by accepting the rest of salvation, rather than physically by desisting from work on the seventh day.
To give concrete expression to their contempt for the Sabbath, Christians were urged to spend the day fasting rather than feasting. Such a practice seems to have been first introduced by the Gnostic Marcion (about 150 A.D.), well-known for his anti-Judaic and anti-Sabbath teachings. (7) Sabbath fasting was promoted by papal decretals in order to show, as Pope Sylvester (A. D. 314-335) puts it, separation from and "contempt for the Jews-exacratione Judaeorum." (8) The practice was enforced by the Church of Rome for centuries as indicated by the attempt of Pope Leo IX to impose Sabbath fasting on the Eastern Greek churches. Their refusal to accept Sabbath fasting contributed to the historical break of A. D. 1054 between the Roman (Latin) church and the Eastern (Greek) church. (9)
The Sabbath in the Middle Ages
A new development occurred following the Constantinian Sunday Law of A. D. 321. The absence of any command of Christ or the Apostles to observe Sunday made it necessary for church leaders to defend its observance by appealing to the Fourth Commandment. This was done by arbitrarily and artificially differentiating between the moral and the ceremonial aspects of the Sabbath commandment. The moral aspect was understood to be the creation ordinance to observe one-day-in-seven while the ceremonial was interpreted to be the Mosaic specification of the seventh-day. Thus, the Sabbath as the principle of one-day-in-seven was binding upon Christians, but the Sabbath as the specification of the seventh-day was abolished by Christ because allegedly it was designed to aid the Jews in commemorating creation and in experiencing spiritual rest.
To contend that the specification of the seventh day is a ceremonial element of the Sabbath, because it was designed to aid the Jews in commemorating creation and in experiencing spiritual rest, means to be blind to the fact that Christians need such an aid just as much as the Jews; it means to leave Christians confused as to the reasons for devoting one day to the worship of God.
This artificial distinction, articulated especially by Thomas Aquinas (about 1225-1274 A.D.), became the standard rationale for defending the Church's right to introduce and regulate the observance of Sunday and holy days. This resulted in an elaborate legalistic system of Sunday keeping akin to that of the rabbinical Sabbath. (10)
The sixteenth-century reformers reproposed with new qualifications the distinctions between the moral (creational) and ceremonial (Mosaic) aspects of the Sabbath. Their position was influenced especially by their understanding of the relationship between the Old and the New Testaments.
Martin Luther upheld a radical distinction between the Old and New Covenants. Like Marcion and Justin, he attacked the Sabbath as a Mosaic institution "specifically given to the Jewish people." (11) In the Large Catechism (1529 A.D.) Luther explains that the Sabbath:
"is altogether an external matter, like other ordinances of the Old Testament, which were attached to particular customs, persons, and places, and now have been made free through Christ." (12)
The Lutheran radical distinction between the Old and New Covenants, or the Law and the Gospel, has been adopted and developed by many modern antinomian denominations, including the Worldwide Church of God and other former Sabbatarian groups. These churches generally claim that the Sabbath is a Mosaic institution which Christ fulfilled and abolished. Consequently New Covenant Chrsitians are free from the observance of any day.
John Calvin rejected Luther's antithesis between Law and Gospel. In his effort to maintain the basic unity of the Old and New Testaments, Calvin Christianized the Law, spiritualizing, at least in part, the Sabbath commandment. He accepted the Sabbath as a creation ordinance for mankind while at the same time maintaining that with "the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, the ceremonial part of the commandment was abolished"? (13) Calvin's view has been adopted by churches in the Reformed tradition, such as the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, and Baptists.
The difference between the Sabbath as a creational ordinance for mankind and as a ceremonial (Mosaic) law abolished by Christ is not easy to detect, especially for someone not trained to distinguish theological nuances. Calvin describes the Mosaic (Jewish) Sabbath as being "typical" (symbolic), that is, a type of the "spiritual rest, the truth of which was manifested in Christ." (14) The Christian Sabbath [Sunday] on the other hand is "without figure," that is, a pragmatic institution, designed to provide time for rest, meditation, and church services. (15)
Calvin's attempt to resolve the tension between the Sunday-Sabbath as a perpetual creation ordinance and the Saturday-Sabbath as a temporary ceremonial law can hardly be considered successful. Do not both fulfill the same pragmatic functions? Moreover, by teaching that for Christians the Sunday-Sabbath represents "self-renunciation" and the "true rest" of the Gospel, (16) did not Calvin also attribute to the day a "typological-symbolic" significance, much like the type he assigned to the Jewish Saturday-Sabbath?
The unresolved contradiction between the moral and ceremonial aspects of the Fourth Commandment has given rise to two main opposing views over the relationship between Sunday and the Sabbath commandment. On the one hand, the Catholic and Lutheran traditions emphasize the alleged ceremonial aspect of the Fourth Commandment which was supposedly abolished by Christ. Consequently, they largely divorce Sunday keeping from the Sabbath commandment, treating Sunday as an ecclesiastical institution ordained primarily to enable the laity to attend weekly the church service.
On the other hand, the churches of the Reformed tradition give prominence to the moral aspect of the Sabbath commandment, viewing the observance of a day of rest and worship as a creation ordinance for mankind. Consequently, they promote Sunday keeping as the legitimate substitution and continuation of the Old Testament Sabbath.
These two views are reflected in recent publications. The Lutheran abrogation view of the Sabbath is espoused in the symposium edited by Donald Carson, From Sabbath to Lord's Day (1982) and in Willy Rordorf, Sunday: The History of the Day of Rest and Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the Christian Church (1968). Both of these studies defend the thesis that seventh-day Sabbathkeeping is not a creation ordinance binding upon Christians, but a Mosaic institution annulled by Christ. Consequently Sunday is not the Christian Sabbath, but a Christian creation, introduced to commemorate Christ's resurrection through the Lord's Supper celebration.
By severing all ties with the Sabbath commandment, the Catholic/Lutheran tradition reduces Sunday to an hour of worship which an increasing number of Catholic and Protestant churches are anticipating to Saturday night. This trend could prove to be the deathblow to Sunday observance (17) since in time even the hour of worship could readily be squeezed out of the hectic schedule of modern life.
Recently the abrogation view of the Sabbath has been adopted with some modifications by the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), whose leaders early in 1995 declared the Sabbath to be a Mosaic, Old Covenant institution that terminated at the Cross. The same view is presented in a rather simplistic way in the book The Sabbath in Crisis, authored by Dale Ratzlaff, a former Seventh-day Adventist pastor. Both the WCG and Ratzlaff believe that the New Covenant does not mandate the observance of any day, because the Sabbath has been fulfilled in Christ who offers us daily His salvation rest.
The Reformed tradition which views Sunday as the Christian Sabbath is reflected in the study by Roger T. Beckwith and William Stott, This is the Day: The Biblical Doctrine of the Christian Sunday (1978). The authors argue that the Apostles used the Sabbath to frame Sunday as their new day of rest and worship: (18)
"in the light of the New Testament as a whole, the Lord's Day can be clearly seen to be a Christian Sabbath-a New Testament fulfillment to which the Old Testament Sabbath points forward." (19)
Consequently they conclude that the practical implication of their conclusions is that Sunday should be observed, not merely as an hour of worship, but as "a whole day, set apart to be a holy festival . . . for worship, rest and works of mercy." (20) The Lord's Day Alliance actively promotes this view through its official magazine, Sunday, and its various agencies.
The preceding survey of the Sabbath/Sunday controversy, offers us a historical perspective for analyzing Pope John Paul II's Pastoral Letter Dies Domini. (21) This document has enormous historical significance since it addresses the crisis of Sunday observance at "the threshold of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000" (#3). The "strikingly low" attendance to the Sunday liturgy reflects in the Pope's view the fact that "faith is weak" and "diminishing" (# 5). If this trend is not reversed it can threaten the future of the Catholic Church as it stand at the threshold of the third millennium (#30).
The need for brevity causes me to focus only on two significant aspects of this document, namely:
(1) The Theological Connection between Sabbath and Sunday
A surprising aspect of the Pastoral Letter is way the Pope develops the theological foundation of Sunday observance by appealing to the continuity Sabbath commandment, rather than to the traditional distinction between the moral and ceremonial aspects of the commandment. The Pope correctly notes the theological development of the Sabbath from the rest of creation (Gen 2:1-3; Ex 20:8-11) to the rest of redemption (Deut 5:12-15). He goes as far as describing the Sabbath as a " kind of 'sacred architecture' of time which marks biblical revelation. It recalls that the universe and history belong to God; and without constant awareness of that truth, man cannot serve in the world as a co-worker of the Creator" (#15).
Contrary to Dispensationalists who negate the continuity and value of the Sabbath in the Christian dispensation, the Pope argues that the creative and redemptive meaning and function of the Sabbath were not abolished at the Cross, but were assumed by Sunday, which embodies and preserves its theology and practice. The Pope states:
"Far from being abolished, the celebration of creation becomes more profound within a Christocentric perspective . . . The remembrance of the liberation of the Exodus also assumes its full meaning by Christ in his Death and Resurrection. More than a 'replacement' of the Sabbath, therefore, Sunday is its fulfilment, and in a certain sense its extension and full expression in the ordered unfolding of the history of salvation, which reaches its culmination in Christ" (# 59).
The Pope maintains that New Testament Christians "made the first day after the Sabbath a festive day" because they discovered that the creative and redemptive accomplishments celebrated by the Sabbath, found their "fullest expression in Christ's Death and Resurrection, though its definitive fulfillment will not come until the Parousia, when Christ returns in glory" (#18).
Dr. Bacchiocchi's Evaluation of Pope's Letter
The Pope's attempt to make Sunday the legitimate fulfilment and "full expression" of the creative and redemptive meanings of the Sabbath, is very ingenious, but unfortunately lacks Biblical and historical support. From a Biblical perspective, there are noindications that New Testament Christians ever interpreted the day of Christ's Resurrection as representing the fulfilment and "full expression" of the Sabbath. In fact, the New Testament attributes no liturgical significance to the day of Christ's Resurrection, simply because the Resurrection was seen as an existential reality experienced by living victoriously by the power of the Risen Savior, and not a liturgical practice, associated with Sunday worship.
Had Jesus wanted to memorialize the day of His resurrection, He would have capitalized on the day of His resurrection to make such a day the fitting memorial of that event. But, none of the utterances of the risen Savior reveal an intent to memorialize the day of His Resurrection by making it the new Christian day of rest and worship. Biblical institutions such as the Sabbath, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, all trace their origin to a divine act that established them. But there is no such divine act to sanction a weekly Sunday or annual Easter Sunday memorial of the Resurrection.
From a historical perspective, the Pope's claim that the celebration of Christ's Resurrection on a weekly Sunday and annual Easter-Sunday "evolved from the early years after the Lord's Resurrection"(#19) is discredited by compelling historical facts. For example, for at least a century after Christ's death Passover was still observed by the date of Nisan 14 (irrespective of the day of the week), and not on Easter-Sunday.
The introduction of Easter-Sunday instead is a post-apostolic development which is attributed, as Joachim Jeremias puts it, "to the inclination to break away from Judaism" (22) and to avoid, as J. B. Lightfoot explains, "even the semblance of Judaism." (23)
The promotion of Easter-Sunday by the Church of Rome in the second century caused the well-known Passover (Quartodeciman) controversy which eventually led Bishop Victor to excommunicate the Asian Christians (about 191 A.D.) for refusing to adopt Easter-Sunday. Indications such as these suffice to show that Christ's Resurrection was not celebrated on a weekly Sunday and annual Easter-Sunday from the inception of Christianity. The social, political, and religious factors that contributed to the change from Sabbath to Sunday and Passover to Easter-Sunday, are examined at length in my dissertation From Sabbath to Sunday.
In the light of these reflections we conclude that the Pope's attempt to invest Sunday with the theological meaning and eschatological function of the Sabbath, is well-meaning but without Biblical or historical support. Moreover, such an attempt breaks the continuity and cosmic scope of the Sabbath which embraces and unites creation, redemption and final restoration; the past, the present and the future; man, nature and God; this world and the world to come.
(2) The Legislation Needed to Facilitate Sunday Observance
In his Pastoral Letter Dies Domini, Pope John Paul II devotes one of the five chapters (chapter 4) to emphasize both the moral obligation of Sunday observance and the legislation needed to facilitate the compliance with such obligation.
The Pope finds "the underlying reasons for keeping 'the Lord's Day' holy inscribed solemnly in the Ten Commandments" (# 62). He appeals to the Sabbath commandment, rather than to Conciliar decisions, to justify the moral obligation of Sunday observance. Why? Undoubtedly because he recognizes that the Fourth Commandment provides the strongest moral conviction that Christians need for sanctifying the Lord's Day.
The problem in grounding the moral obligation of Sunday observance in the Sabbath commandment lies in the simple fact that Sunday is not the Sabbath. The two days differ not only in their names or numbers, but also in their origin, meaning, and experience.
In terms of origin, the Sabbath is a creational institution while Sunday is a post-apostolic, ecclesiastical creation. In terms of theological meaning, the Sabbath in the Scripture encompasses creation, redemption, and final restoration. By contrast, the theological meaning of Sunday, according to the Fathers, includes such disparate meanings as the commemoration of the anniversary of creation, the creation of light on the first day, the celebration of Christ's Resurrection, and a wide range of speculations regarding the cosmic and eschatological superiority of the eighth day with respect to the seventh day. (24) None of these meanings call for the observance of Sunday as a Holy Day.
In terms of experience, the essence of Sabbath keeping is the consecration of time to the Lord by giving priority to Him in one's thinking and living during the 24 hours of the Sabbath. By contrast, the essence of Sunday keeping is attending the church service. Sunday originated as an early hour of worship (Justin, Apology 67) which was followed by regular secular activities and in spite of the efforts later made by Constantine (321 A.D. Sunday Law), church councils, and Puritans, to make Sunday into a Holy Day, Sunday has largely remained the Hour of Worship and nottheDayof Rest and Worship. The recognition of this historical reality has made it possible in recent times to anticipate the Sunday worship obligation to Saturday evening, a practice that is becoming increasingly popular not only among Catholics but even among Protestants.
To facilitate compliance with the moral obligation to observe Sunday, the Pope calls upon Christians "to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy" (#67). The Pope builds his case for the need of a Sunday Rest legislation by appealing to two historical precedents:
The Pope concludes that Sunday legislation is especially needed today in view of the physical, social, and ecological problems created by our technological and industrial advancements:
"Therefore, in the particular circumstances of our time, Christians will naturally strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy" (#67).
Dr. Bacchiocchi's Evaluation of Pope's call for Sunday Rest
In evaluating Pope John Paul II's call for a Sunday Rest legislation, it is important to distinguish between his legitimate concern for the social, cultural, ecological, and religious wellbeing of our society, and the hardship such legislation causes to minorities who for religious or personal reasons choose to rest and worship on Saturday or on other days of the week.
To call upon Christians to "strive to ensure that civil legislation respects their duty to keep Sunday holy" (# 67), means to ignore that we live today in a pluralistic society where there are, for example, Jews and some Christians who to keep their seventh day Sabbath Holy, and Moslems who may wish to observe their Friday.
If Sunday keepers expect the State to make their Sunday the legislated day of rest, then, Sabbath keepers too have an equal right to expect the State to make their Saturday the legislated day of rest. To be fair to the various religious and non-religious groups, the State would then have to pass legislation guaranteeing special days of rest for different people. Such a legislation is inconceivable because it would disrupt our socio-economic structure.
The Pope's call for Sunday Rest legislation ignores two important facts. First, historically Sunday Laws have not fostered church attendance. In Western Europe Sunday Laws have been in effect for many years now, yet church attendance is considerably lower than in the USA, running at less than 10% of the Christian population. In Italy, where I come from, it is estimated that 95% of the Catholics go to church three times in their lives, when they are hatched, matched, and dispatched.
Second, Sunday legislation is superfluous today because the short-working week, which a long weekend of two or even three days, already makes it possible for most people to observe their Sabbath or Sunday. Problems do still exists, especially when an employer is unwilling to accommodate the religious convictions of a worker. The solution to such problems is to be sought not through a Sunday or Saturday Law, but rather in such legislation as the pending Religious Freedom in the Workplace Act, which is designed to encourage employers to accommodate the religious convictions of their workers, when these do not cause undue hardship to their company.
The solution to the crisis of declining church attendance must be sought, not by calling upon the State to legislate on the day of rest and worship, but by calling upon Christian to live according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments. The Fourth Commandment specifically calls upon Christians today to "Remember" what many have forgotten, namely, that the seventh day is holy unto the Lord our God (Ex 20:8-11).
An important factor which has caused many Christians to forget the observance of the Sabbath is the anti-Sabbath theology which, as we have seen, through the centuries has taught Christians to view the Sabbath as a Jewish, Old Covenant institution that terminated at the Cross. By destroying the moral foundation for the observance of God's Holy Day, the anti-Sabbath theology has deprived Christians of the moral conviction needed for remembering the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
The Sabbath has been under constant crossfire. What has suffered from the crossfire, however, is not the Sabbath day but mankind for whom the day was made. Being deprived of the physical, mental, and spiritual renewal the Sabbath is designed to provide, many people are seeking today for inner peace and rest through pills, drugs, alcohol, health clubs, meditation goup, and vacation in fantasy islands. The Sabbath invites us to find inner peace and rest, not through pills or places, but through the Person of our Saviour who says: "Come unto me, and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28). By inviting us to stop our daily work, the Sabbath enables us to experience more fully and freely the presence, peace, and rest of Christ in our lives (Heb 4:10).
[Installment #10] | [Installment #12]
This article taken from the Bible Study Web Site at http://www.biblestudy.org/