Holy Days
An Appreciative Critique of the “Christ Church and Trinity Reformed Church Joint Statement on Holy Days”
In the Confederation of Reformed Evangelical Churches there is both liberty and warrant to be traditionalist or more innovative (within confessional lines) or some combination thereof. This is expressed in a number of different ways including liturgical thinking and practices.
On the one hand, there is a wonderful tendency among us to look back historically to what the Spirit has done through the centuries in the Church to form the Bride of Christ liturgically. Consequently, there are some among us that are desirous of learning more about and applying in our churches many Ancient, Medieval and even Magisterial Reformational liturgical practices that most Evangelicals have long forgotten or rejected.
On anther hand, there are some more adventurous among us that want to move beyond the older, historic liturgical forms and practices and begin to consider how they can be transformed along Protestant lines and concerns.
In the best spirit of the CREC’s desire to remain both historically grounded and biblically based in all things, two of our beloved sister churches have released a “Joint statement on holy days, approved by the sessions of Christ Church and Trinity Reformed Church in Moscow” Idaho.” It can be found on Doug Wilson’s blog, Blog and Mablog.
I am largely in agreement with this helpful statement, but I would like to interact with some elements of the statement as a means of discussing some of my own thoughts about the Christian concept of time. I will post my thoughts, so much as they are, in multiple postings.
In the first paragraph we read the following:
“We believe that the people of God have been freed from all bondage to observing days, weeks, months, seasons or years (Gal. 4:9-11, Col. 2:16). Those Old Testament laws were shadows of Christ who has come (Col. 2:17). And when Christ died we died with Him, and when He was raised and ascended into heaven, we were raised and seated with Him in the heavenly places (Col. 3:1, Eph. 2). This means that together with Christ, the saints are the rulers of time and space. We have all been established in Him as lords of the Sabbath, to rule time according to the wisdom of the Spirit (Rom. 8:14, Gal. 4:6-7). We are not under days, but now the days are under us. And therefore we confess that all celebration of days is voluntary, freely offered, and no one may judge or be judged on this basis (Rom. 14:5-6, Col. 2:16).”
What does it mean to say that, “We have all been established in Him as lords of the Sabbath, to rule time according to the wisdom of the Spirit (Rom. 8:14, Gal. 4:6-7)?” What do the texts cited have to do with the assertion that we (those who are united to Christ) are lords of the Sabbath?
1) Presumably, the phrase “lords of the Sabbath” is an allusion to the Gospel texts where the Lord Jesus said that He Himself is the “Lord of the Sabbath.” (Matt. 12:8; Mk. 2:28; Lk. 6:5).
a. In none of these Gospel passages did Jesus make His assertion to the Pharisees as a way of distinguishing Himself and the New Covenant people of God from Old Covenant Sabbath keeping. He was not saying that the Old Testament Sabbath laws requiring special observance of days, weeks, months, seasons or years were a form of bondage that He came to release them from. He was not, in these passages, making any negative statement about the Sabbath keeping.
b. Rather, Jesus confronted the Pharisaical misunderstanding and misapplication of the Sabbath law that resulted in them placing heavy burdens on the people of God (Matt. 23:4; Lk. 11:46). Jesus, by declaring that He is Lord/Master over the Sabbath, was asserting that He had come to deliver His people from an unbiblical and unlawful misapplication of the Sabbath law and give us true biblical Sabbath rest (11:28-30).
c. It may be true to say that because we are untied to Christ we are also rulers with Him over time and space. However, it is not true to say that mankind before Christ was not a ruler of time and space. This was fundamentally man’s vocation on the earth is since creation (Gen. 1:28-30; Ps. 8). Man has always been tasked with ruling over time and space; however, it was not until the Second Adam came and became enthroned as the victorious ruler of time and space that mankind can hope to rule it effectively for God. We are now rulers with the assurance that our works and management over time and space are being effectively use by Jesus to bring the defeat of all of His enemies.
2) It is interesting that the joint statement says that we are “lords of the Sabbath” in the sense that we are to rule time “according to the wisdom of the Spirit.” Presumably, “according to the wisdom of the Spirit” is contrasted to the Old Testament Sabbath laws regarding time, which we have been freed from.
a. The phrase “according to the wisdom of the Spirit” in the joint statement is followed by two scripture references; Romans 8:14, Galatians 4:6-7. Try as I may, even with a sympathetic reading, I fail to understand how these texts relate to the proposition that we are to rule time according to the Spirit. Neither of these texts addresses ruling, wisdom or time. They merely assert that we are, by the Spirit, sons and heirs of God.
b. What troubles me about this is that there appears to be a contrast in the statement between the Old Testament Sabbath law and the Spirit, or wisdom of the Spirit. Law is associated with bondage to days in the statement, which is contrasted with wisdom, the Spirit and New Covenant liberty in which all celebration of days is entirely voluntary and not a matter of biblical requirement or conscience. This is merely, in my estimation, a misunderstanding of what Paul is arguing against in Rom. 14:5-6, Col. 2:16 (which I address briefly below).
c. The conclusion of the first paragraph, says:
“We are not under days, but now the days are under us. And therefore we confess that all celebration of days is voluntary, freely offered, and no one may judge or be judged on this basis (Rom. 14:5-6, Col. 2:16).”
These are very strong statements: “not under days” and “all celebration of days is voluntary.” However, in the second paragraph the joint statement also asserts that the Lord’s Day (Sunday) is “the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, our weekly Easter, and the only feast day which must be honored and kept.” Which is it? 1) We are not under days and all celebration of days is voluntary, OR 2) the Lord’s Day, the Old Testament Sabbath transfigured, must be celebrated, honored and kept?
d. What does the joint statement mean by, “We are not under days?” In what way were the Old Covenant saints under days? And alternately, what does “the days are under us” mean? Do the writers of the joint statement mean that God in the Old Testament determined what days the saints worshipped and celebrated, but now we get to determine what days we worship and celebrate without reference to the Bible or God’s will for us? Doubtful. Especially since we rule time according to the wisdom of the Spirit, whatever that means.
I applaud Christ Church and Trinity Church for attempting to provide a biblical rationale for, 1) the liberty we have in Christ, and the propriety of celebrating various days throughout the years as Christian holidays, and 2) to guard against allowing such celebrations to improperly bind the consciences of Christians, or a become a means of promoting unbiblical pride, prejudice and superstition. My concern is the arguments that have been used are not as helpful as they could be.
My view of the Sabbath – Lord’s Day issue pastoral-position-paper-sabbath-keeping:
The Bible (Old and New Testaments) is God’s progressive revelation of Himself and His relation to His creation. He created time and space and gave it to man to rule. God set in motion the cycles of seasons, days and years in creation. Adam, by his sin, failed as God’s appointed ruler. Importantly, the created order continued with the same cycles of seasons, days and years in creation. The creation pattern was more clearly explained by God progressively in terms of Sabbath, and other feasts, fasts, and laws. The Sabbath laws (i.e. periods of time set aside from regular time for rest, celebration, feasting and liberation) were given by our gracious Lord of Time, and were holy, just and good. They were liturgical patterns that reflected and were connected to the creation patterns. They were given to man. Man was not made for them. They helped covenant men to learn to regularly worship God, to submit himself to God, and to rule for God in time. Time is a creation of God that man was created live in terms of.
Over time, God’s people perverted God’s good law regulating time so that instead of being a blessing to men, the Sabbath laws became an occasion for spiritual pride and oppression. The Sabbath, for the Pharisees and other Jews, had become a means of demonstrating that they (and they alone) were the recipients of God’s favor. Men became servants of the Sabbath – rather than the Sabbath being a creation of God for man’s wellbeing. Jesus made it clear that they had perverted the true meaning of Sabbath and human lordship over time, making the movement of the days, seasons and times a burden and badge of Israelite exclusivity.
With the finished work of Christ, the whole complex system of Sabbath laws governing days, months, seasons and years was transformed. Much of the Sabbatical system was tied to land of Israel and a centralized worship system. Now, in Christ, the world is the Promised Land for the Church. Worship is no longer associated with the Jewish Tempe in Jerusalem, but is located within the Church wherever she is found. Thus, the Sabbatical ordering of time needed to be transformed and applied in the new context.
From the earliest days of the Church, the first day of the week has become the memorial of the resurrection of Christ, and the Christian Sabbath, the sign of the New Creation, and the full redemption of the sons of God. The first day of the week became known among the churches as “the Lord’s Day.” Hebrews 3:6-4:13 teaches that there remains a sabatizmos, literally, a “Sabbath-keeping” for the people of God because we have not fully and finally entered into God’s eternal rest (cf. 4:9). Hebrews 10:24-25 commands us, New Covenant believers, not to forsake the assembling (literally: “super-synagogue”) of ourselves together, which has reference to the time of Sabbatical weekly worship. Failure to do so indicates a person’s status as a covenant breaker through willful sin (10:26). Thus, Sabbath-breaking (in both covenants) is to be understood as rebellion and unbelief in the promises of God.
The early church struggled over the question of how the Sabbath was to be kept in the New Covenant. Some of these struggles are given to us in Romans 14, Galatians 4, and Colossians 2. Nowhere in the New Testament or in early church history is there any record of disputation over the question of Christians worshipping on the first day of the week (the day we now call Sunday). It was indisputably a special day. Therefore, whatever days are being referred to in Romans 14, Galatians 4, and Colossians 2, they do not refer to the Lord’s Day.
The Word ‘Sabbath’ is nowhere used in the New Testament of the Christian Lord’s Day. That word was used exclusively to denote the holy days of the Old Covenant. The point is that during the time before the destruction of Jerusalem, many Christians observed both the seventh day (Saturday) Jewish Sabbath and Sunday Lord’s Day worship. Christians were obligated to observe the Lord’s Day celebrations (Heb. 4 & 10), but were free to decide whether or not to observe the Jewish practice of the Saturday worship. Paul commands that no judgments be made against the latter practice.
Thus, we do have a holy day that is indisputably an obligation for all Christians, in all ages and in all places. It is Sunday, the Lord’s Day! All other days are conditioned by this great holy day. We are free to observe other days as we choose and free to refuse to observe other days. We are free to create other days of Christian celebration and yet we are not required to participate in any days of celebration besides the weekly, Sunday, celebration of the Christian Lord’s Day. It is our high holy day!
Conclusion (of this overly long post):
In light of the above, I agree (with the joint statement) that, in Jesus, we are indeed lords of the Sabbath. We are truly rulers of time, as our ancestors before us were lords of time. The Old Covenant saints were trained to think and act in accordance to the patterns of time established in creation and the law. Because of the resurrection of our Lord, we are assured that we are part of His victorious kingdom that will culminate, on the Last day, with His second coming.
The Lord’s Day confirms to us each week that we are the New Covenant people of God who are continually transformed into new creatures in Christ through His Word, the Sacraments and the life of the Church. As such, we move out of special time on the Lord’s Day with Christ and into the rest of time and history to manifest the Holy City of God on earth.
