the Sabbath as a creation ordinance

[rmwilliamsll]

looking for some reformed help on today's research project. here is what i have so far.



I've tried on several occasions to engage people in online discussions on the issues surrounding Gen 1 and the Sabbath.
The major time i was so disappointed that i left TWeb for about 4 months to concentrate on books and to see if there was any internal reasons to return there to debate.
Well, i went back, i have a polemical mind and enjoy debates and arguing, so i missed it.
here is the thread: http://www.christianforums.com/showpost.php?p=18055589&postcount=181


Gen 1 is framed in the metaphor of a work week. Creation is simply presented as God's first work week, followed by the 7th day Sabbath. My issue with YECists is that this is the take home message, not the age of the earth or the order of what got done when. But the Sabbath, with man's creation as ruler of the earth and its' 3 kingdoms a close second in importance. Yet when i mentioned this, YECists did not even know the word Sabbatarian, thinking at first that it must refer to a 7th day-Saturday worship like the SDA. Even after explaining it there was universal agreement that Gen 1 did not teach a Sabbatarianism.

I've looked at the issue from a few different angles. Is the Sabbath a Creation ordinance? Now i think not, the fact that it is not mentioned again until Moses and the Law leads me to believe that it is specific to either Israel or the believing community. But something i've thought about more over the last few weeks is from the position of Moses, how is he framing the debate of Gen 1-5? If the Babylonians had a 7 day week, something that i am not convinced of, but might be a possibility. If the Hebrews took the 7th day Sabbath from either a document(or oral tradition) pre existing the Torah, the big point of Gen 1 would be to justify their current work week/Sabbath setup as coming from God. Either to distinguish it from the neighbors or to justify accepting such an important issue from the surrounding culture. I'm not sure which: distinguish/separate or justify. But either case looks like to anchor the practice back to the beginning is a good idea that will blow the competition away.

So if Gen 1, is like Kline says, the Preamble to the Treaty of the Great King, why didn't God give Adam and Eve the Sabbath requirements? Not even Abram has such a commandment. Not until Moses. How come? Why is the justification of God rests, therefore you will rest not given to the earlier chapters of Gen?

take the time to do a little research
the most conservative place for the issue will be at puritan board

R. L. Dabney, The Christian Sabbath
http://www.reformed.org/ethics/sabbath/sabbath_Dabney.html

It may be argued that the Sabbath is of moral and perpetual authority from these facts: There is a reason in the nature of things, making such an institution essential to man's religious welfare and duty; and this necessity is substantially the same in all ages and nations. That it is man's duty to worship God none with whom we now deal will dispute. Nor will it be denied that this worship should be in part social, because man is a being of social affections and subject to social obligations, and because one of the great ends of worship is the display of the divine glory before our fellow-creatures. Social worship cannot be conducted without the appointment of a stated day; and who can authoritatively appoint that day except the God who is the object of the worship? For the cultivation of our individual devotion and piety a periodical season is absolutely necessary to creatures of habit and finite capacities like us. What is not regularly done will soon be omitted, for we are dependent on habit; and of this, periodical recurrence is the very foundation. We are by nature carnal and sensuous beings; we are prone to walk by sense instead of faith. The things which are seen, but temporal, are ever obscuring the things which are unseen, but eternal. If such creatures were left to themselves to appropriate to spiritual interests only such irregular seasons as they should select of their own motion, it is very plain that the final issue would be the total neglect and omission of the interests of eternity. This conclusion is fully confirmed by experience, for among nominal Christians, where the Sabbath is entirely neglected, the result is always a practical godlessness among the people; and it is believed that even among Mohammedans and pagans the employment of some stated holy days has been found essential to the existence of those religions. The tribes which have no holy day, the obligation of whose observance is believed by them to be from their gods, are those which, like the Bushmen of South Africa and the Australian blacks, are almost as devoid of religious ideas and as degraded as the apes of their native wilds. It seems absolutely necessary that man's unstable religious sentiments be fixed for him by having them attached by divine authority to a sacred day and an appointed worship.

from: http://www.puritanboard.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=16523#pid229453

In Defense of the Sabbath as Moral Law.doc at: http://www.puritanboard.com/forum/viewthread.php?action=attachment&tid=16523&pid=229802
http://www.puritanboard.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=16578#pid230051
which refers to: http://www.soundofgrace.com/tablets/tos.html tablets of stone

recommendations:
http://www.welcome.to/FNLee
thread at: http://www.puritanboard.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=16989&page=1#pid234644

Firstly, the argument from the silence of Scripture, advanced by Oehler42. Here it is argued that there is "no trace" of a pre-Mosaic sabbath (and therefore of the week) in the further portion of Genesis, apart from Gen. 2. But this amazing statement "is simply not in accordance with fact", as Lilley43 has pointed out. For the fact of the matter is that there are even in Genesis very definite traces of a post-Edenic pre-Mosaic sabbath. As Jamieson remarks44: "The 1st recorded act of worship . . . is considered by many as done on some anniversary Sabbath [see on (Genesis) Ch. 4:3 — cf. the patriarchal book of Job 1:6; 2:1, where in both places, the Hebrew text has the definite article, the day], and the custom of reckoning by sevens, which appears so frequently in the narrative of the flood (7:2-4, 10; 8:10-12); of the nuptial festivities of Jacob (29:27); and of his mourning ceremonial (50:10); — all of them being probably terminated by the arrival of the Sabbath; the commendation bestowed upon Abraham for keeping the Divine commandments and statutes (26:5), which, according to Selden, the Jewish writers are unanimously of the opinion included the Sabbath. These, and various other incidents of a similar kind, are, in so rapid and concise a history, pregnant with meaning, and seem very plainly to show that the patriarchs hallowed the Sabbath as a day of religious observance"

the reason for the study is that i've been looking at natural theology and reformed epistemology for a couple of weeks and want to see what they have to say when applied to an issue i left dangling a few months back. i guess i want to see if the new tools in the mental toolbox help with this complex issue.

thanks for any help you can offer.

 

[cygnusx1]

A W Pink was a real keen Sabbath observer and defender , his view is a strong one , not easily refuted , he maintains it is a creation ordinance the same as the Tythe!

I part company with A W Pink on this issue , because I have a different understanding of the Law as a "rule of life" for the Christian (of which the Sabbath observance is written out clearly for Israel) ....... and Pink was dead against anyone who said they were free of the Law and it's claims ... he spoke in the most severe way against all dispensationalists because he had found that he had been led astray by their teaching as a young theologian.

IF YOU WANT PINK'S VIEW HERE IT IS :

http://members.aol.com/gregscv/sabbath.htm

 

[Cajun Huguenot]

I love Dabney and have many volumes of his writings. I have struggled with this issue, but after a long struggle and after reading Dabney, Calvin and others I have come down on Calvin's side on this issue. He was in strong opposition to what later became the Puritan (and Dabnes's) view of the Sabbath.

Calvin, in his Institutes, is very interesting on this subject.

Coram Deo,
Kenith

 

[McWilliams]

You'll never find a better clarification of the 'sabbath' than the four sermons just completed by our pastor, now on sermonaudio.com at Richard Caldwell. I really gained much understanding thru this study!

 

[rmwilliamsll]

You'll never find a better clarification of the 'sabbath' than the four sermons just completed by our pastor, now on sermonaudio.com at Richard Caldwell. I really gained much understanding thru this study!

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?currSection=sermonsspeaker&sermonID=2190613331
it was actually listening to this sermon that prompted this posting, by way of my blog entry for that day. small world. (i think i saw you post the sermon links somewhere, i didn't capture the via vector so i don't remember where)

 

[McWilliams]

http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?currSection=sermonsspeaker&sermonID=2190613331
it was actually listening to this sermon that prompted this posting, by way of my blog entry for that day. small world. (i think i saw you post the sermon links somewhere, i didn't capture the via vector so i don't remember where)

Yes, thats true! He started this study some weeks back and just completed it this past Sunday night! He is just one of the very best I've heard and am so thankful he is my pastor! I thank the Lord for taking me there!

 

[theFijian]

(oops, wrong thread!)

 

[rmwilliamsll]

one of the interesting things (at least to me) is that the number 7 is fundamentally arbitary, unlike month, days or years.

certainly you can try to find things that teach 7, or talk about the 7 visible moving in the sky items, but when it comes down to it, the number 7 is not part of natural theology. neither to number the days of the week, or anything else.

the obvious numbers of days in a week are either 5 or 10, for the same reason we almost universal count in base 10 (base 12 and base 60 are both interesting and stem from the same mesopotamian culture as does the 7 day week. )

looking at mayan, incan, chinese cultures as far as possible doesn't show a 7 day week but just lunar months.

so the question still remains, can we locate anything in the physical universe that would lead to a 7 day week with a day of rest at the end?

curious issue.

 

[Irishcat922]

One of the best arguments for the Sabbath being a creation ordinance is Edwards "Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath" I know you can find it on the Puritan Board.

 

[rmwilliamsll]

One of the best arguments for the Sabbath being a creation ordinance is Edwards "Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath" I know you can find it on the Puritan Board.

thanks, it's at:
http://www.the-highway.com/Edwards_sabbath1.html
among other places.

I. Prop. It is sufficiently clear, that it is the mind of God, that one day of the week should be devoted to rest, and to religious exercises, throughout all ages and nations; and not only among the ancient Israelites, till Christ came, but even in these gospel times, and among all nations professing Christianity.
...
3. It is unreasonable to suppose any other, than that God's working six days, and resting the seventh, and blessing and hallowing it, was to be of general use in determining this matter, and that it was written, that the practice of mankind in general might some way or other be regulated by it. What could be the meaning of God's resting the seventh day, and hallowing and blessing it, which he did, before the giving of the fourth commandment, unless he hallowed and blessed it with respect to mankind? For he did not bless and sanctify it with respect to himself, or that he within himself might observe it: as that is most absurd. And it is unreasonable to suppose that he hallowed it only with respect to the Jews, a particular nation, which rose up above two thousand years after.
...
4. The mind of God in this matter as clearly revealed in the fourth commandment. The will of God is there revealed, not only that the Israelitish nation, but that all nations, should keep every seventh day holy; or, which is the same thing, one day after every sixth. This command, as well as the rest, is doubtless everlasting and of perpetual obligation, at least, as to the substance of it, as is intimated by its being engraven on the tables of stone. Nor is it to be thought that Christ ever abolished any command of the ten; but that there is the complete number ten yet, and will be to the end of the world.

i don't see any persuasive arguments that the Sabbath is given to all nations, nor that 7 days is binding on the nations. as always, J.Edwards is beautiful writing but it is mostly begging the question logic. with a lot of personal incredulity. nothing i can grab onto and run with.