Saving The Sabbath

The Sabbath as something beautiful! A *gift* God set aside at creation, and then reminded us how to enjoy it when Jesus came and dwelt among us!

I've held every view (rest/law keeping, etc) of the Sabbath for as long as I can remember. I've only recently come to see it as you presented it in this article. Thank you for this article. It's a fresh and much needed perspective. I hope more people get an opportunity to read it.

Ariannah

[ # ]

I have to admit that while I enjoyed this article and it really fed me to read it, I still stumble at a couple of points. I was raised to observe the sabbath day on Sunday all of my life. I never questioned it. Because it is important to my wife, and I found her arguments compelling, not to mention my desire to be in tune with her spiritually, I keep the seventh day now, along with our whole family. Indeed, we currently go to a church where the first day is kept, not the seventh. Nevertheless, as a family, we still keep the seventh. And truly, I do enjoy the blessing of keeping it, even though it might not be terribly convenient to do so, with respect to our church's scheduel.

But it seems that though intellectually I acknowledge that the seventh day is the correct day, I don't have the firmness of conviction about it that my wife does. I struggle now not because I doubt that the seventh day is the right day, but because I don't know what to do with the rest of my family, friends, and local church members.

Do these people really spurn God's gift and "go out and buy another ring"? Or do they simply lack a personal revelation of the importance of keeping the particular day of the sabbath?

Let me give a counter-analogy to the "rejected ring". It is not uncommon in our family to celebrate a birthday on a day that is not the actual birthday of the family member. We do it on the day that works well for all of us. Also, since one of our children lives with her mother, my first wife, and we only get her when she comes for a visit, special celebrations for holidays like Easter and Christmas can be shifted to other days -- again, it is whatever works best for the whole family that matters. I get the sense that Sunday sabbath keepers are a bit like that. Supposing a handful of members of a particular church body feel compelled by the argument that the sabbath truly ought to be kept on the seventh day, as it is written in Scripture. But for the sake of working it out with their family, their local church body, they continue to keep it on the first day. Does God not bless them for remembering the sabbath, even though it is kept on the first day, not the seventh?

I am at the point now where I can only say "I believe it is possible that there is a greater blessing for those who keep the sabbath on the seventh day, and not the first, but still cannot say for certain I believe that this is so." I still need to examine the evidence. And most importantly, I need to arrive at some conclusion that is congruent with everything else I believe to be true about who God is.

[ Parent | # ]