Newbold College

Department of Theological Studies

AN APOLOGETIC FOR THE

 SABBATH DOCTRINE

Apologetic

Presented in the

Fulfilment of the Requirements

 of the Course BDPS 210 Pastoral Ministry

By

 Allan Falk

 December 2005

ASSIGNMENT

An apologetic for a distinctive Adventist doctrine.

INTRODUCTION

The Sabbath being crucial enough for the Seventh-day Adventists to enter it into their name, I will write this apologetic addressing some objections raised against our doctrine on the Sabbath.

        Due to the limited space in this paper, I will only address three common objections. Because of the general agreement that the Old Testament Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, this apologetic will focus on two questions raised from texts in the New Testament, plus one question raised by common sense.   

THE SABBATH DOCTRINE

To specify what this apologetic is dealing with, I will quote part of our fundamental belief concerned with the Sabbath. [1]

       “The beneficent Creator, after the six days of Creation rested on the seventh day

        and instituted the Sabbath for all people as a memorial of creation. The fourth

        commandment of God’s unchangeable law requires the observance of this

        seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship, and ministry in harmony with

        the teaching and practice of Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath.”

COLOSSIANS 2, 13-17

Objection:

Reading Colossians 2, 6-23 many Christians claim that God no longer demand Sabbath keeping, because Christ nailed certain Old Testament demands to the cross,[2] and with it the Sabbath. Therefore no Christian should let any one judge him because of which festivals or Sabbaths he or she honour.[3]

Apologetic:

My first comment would be. The Sabbath was given to us by creation.[4] Jesus kept the Sabbath.[5] Paul kept the Sabbath,[6] and the Sabbath will be kept in heaven.[7]

        Secondly looking at the text, three tings should be noticed: 1) Paul was warning new believers.[8] 2) The new believers were gentiles.[9] 3) The issue warned about were a shadow pointing forward towards Christ.[10] Putting these facts together, gives us a picture of the situation. Paul is warning new believers about Jewish rituals, such as observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbaths (week) from the Old Testament which was pointing forward to Christ, and therefore had no meaning after the cross. The question is, are the Greek word sabba,twn correctly translated? In Acts 20, 7 the same word is used with the meaning week. The problem is that both translations are correct according to the dictionary, which means that the context will have to guide us. In the context we have already seen that Paul is talking about something pointing forward to Christ. In Leviticus chapter 23 Moses explains the difference between the weekly Sabbath instituted to remembrance of Creation, and the festivals instituted as a shadow to point forward to Christ’s crucifixion. Considering the context of Colossians 2 and the two possibilities of translation, it is clear that this verse can not support a change in the Sabbath keeping.

ACTS 20, 7

Objection:

This narrative about the Holy communion in Troas is often used to establish that the first apostolic church was worshiping regularly on Sunday.

Apologetic:

Looking at the context, it is noticed that Paul is on a journey, and he is only in Troas for seven days. Establishing the practice of the first church based on an event where Paul is actually having a farewell meeting might be difficult, it could have been on any day of the week. After these introductory comments let us look at the text.

        Most translations reads approximately like this: Acts 20, 7 On the first day of the week,…[11] But a translation from the Greek could also read like this: And on one of the Sabbaths having been assembled,…[12] The reason for this difference in translation is that the Greek word sabba,twn can mean both Sabbath and week.[13] Having the general practice of Paul in mind, it is most probable that they were assembled on Sabbath, and that they continued until midnight because Paul should continue his travel on Sunday. However in this apologetic we will also look at the more common translation, because it is the one the objections are based on.

        One thing is common for any translation; they were assembled in the evening. Now the question is which evening? According to the old Hebrew system the first day of the week started by sunset after the Sabbath, and after the Roman system it started at midnight. So it is clear that it could have been either the evening before or after the first day of the week. Considering that Luke used the Hebrew system while writing his Gospel, which can bee seen in Luke chapter 23, there is reason to believe that he also used it while writing Acts of the Apostles, and therefore they were meeting in the evening after the Sabbath. If this is the case, then Paul used the entire Sunday to travel, which is not making it a day of rest. 

WHICH DAY IS THE SEVENTH?

Objection:

Some say that it is not possible to identify the exact Sabbath day since the creation took place so long ago, and therefore it can not be very important which day we keep.

Apologetic:

It is not necessary to go back to creation to find the right Sabbath, God himself identified the Sabbath in the desert, when he gave the Israelites manna to eat.[14] Ever since that time the Jewish people have kept the Sabbath so it is actually clear.

        Then some might say that the calendar has been changed. Yes that is correct, but even the change from Julian to Gregorian calendar did not change the flow of days. It just made Friday the 5th of October 1582 to the 15th of October.[15]

        Again some might say that different calendars have been used at the same time. That is also correct. For a period of time some countries still used Julian calendar, while others had changed to Gregorian. England actually changed more than one hundred and fifty years after Rome.[16]But the week days were always the same in Rome and everywhere else.

 CONCLUSION

There are many more texts in the New Testament which should be analysed, before a complete conclusion can be made. Whoever it is widely accepted that the Old Testament authorizes Sabbath keeping. So when the two critical texts from the New Testament which we have looked at, can not strongly support Sunday keeping, and the worry about the calendar seems not to be necessary, it is reasonable to conclude that the Sabbath is still binding. It is a good principle to follow what is clear, and not led unclear texts confuse.[17]

BIBLIOGRAPHY  

Bacchiocchi, Samuel, The Sabbath in the New Testament answers to questions,

        (MI: Biblical perspectives, 1985).

Batchelor Doug, From Sunday to Sabbath: Why I Switched,

        in Signs of the Times August 2004 pp. 16-17. 

Christian Apologetic & Research Ministry, Should we keep the Sabbath or not?,

        (http://www.carm.org/diff/Exod20_8.htm).

Finley, Mark, Studying Together, (CA: Hart Research Center, 1995).

Haynes, Carlyle B., The Attempt to Change God’s Holy Day… FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY,

        (MD: Review and Herald, 1928).

Seventh-day Adventists Believe… 27, (DC: Ministerial Association General Conference of

        Seventh-day Adventists, 1988).

Walter Martin, The Sabbath the Lord’s Day and the Mark of the Beast,

        (http://millennium.fortunecity.com/lincoln/666/puzzle/page4.html).

[1]Seventh-day Adventists Believe… 27, (DC: Ministerial Association General Conference of

        Seventh-day Adventists, 1988) p. 248.

[2] Col. 2, 14 erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

[3] Col. 2, 16 Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or sabbaths.

[4] Gen. 2, 1-3.

[5] Luk 4, 16.

[6] Acts 13, 42-44.

[7] Isa. 66, 22.23.

[8] Col. 2, 8 See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

[9] Col. 2, 11 In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ;

[10] Col. 2, 17 These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.

[11] Acts 20, 7 On the first day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he continued speaking until midnight.

[12] Acts 20, 7 En de. th/| mia/| tw/n sabba,twn sunhgme,nwn h`mw/n kla,sai a;rton( o` Pau/loj diele,geto auvtoi/j me,llwn evxie,nai th/| evpau,rion( pare,teine,n te to.n lo,gon me,cri mesonukti,ouÅ

[13] Bacchiocchi, Samuel, The Sabbath in the New Testament answers to questions,

        (MI: Biblical perspectives, 1985) p. 116.

[14] Exodus 16

[15] Haynes, Carlyle B., The Attempt to Change God’s Holy Day… FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY,

        (MD: Review and Herald, 1928) p. 69.

[16] Haynes, Carlyle B., The Attempt to Change God’s Holy Day… FROM SABBATH TO SUNDAY,  p. 70.

[17] Finley, Mark, Studying Together, (CA: Hart Research Center, 1995) p. 30.

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