The Sabbath is God’s ordained rest for humanity, originating from creation, redemptively applied in Israel’s deliverance, and ultimately pointing towards eternal rest in Heaven. For Christians, the Sabbath continues to be critical for worship, and remains a practice God desires for communion with His people today. “There remaineth therefore a rest for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9).… Read More The Sabbath Here, and Hereafter
The sanctifying of the Sabbath consists in two things: First, in resting from all servile and common business pertaining to our natural life. Secondly, in consecrating that rest wholly to the service of God, and the use of those holy means which belong to our spiritual life. The servile and common works from which we are to cease are, generally, all civil works, from the least to the greatest (Ex. 31:12-15). The consecration of the Sabbath’s rest consists in performing three sorts of duties: before, at, and after the public exercises of the church.… Read More How To Keep The Lord’s Day Holy
John Brown of Haddington, A Compendious View of Natural and Revealed Religion, pp. 472-476. The fourth commandment prescribes the proper time of God’s worship. The precise quantity and part of time proper for the stated and social worship of God depending on his mere will, this command is introduced with a solemn charge to remember… Read More The Sabbath: A Creation Ordinance
John Calvin, Sermons on Deuteronomy, Second half of the 34th Sermon, pp. 228-230. 12 Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee. 13 Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: 14 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not… Read More The Lord’s Day is the Christian Sabbath | John Calvin
37 Q. May servile works be done on the Sabbath, though they hinder duties of piety? A. Yes. “But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless” (Mat. 12:7; c.f. Hos. 6:6). God doth not so strictly tie us, as fall what will,… Read More Works of Necessity on the Sabbath
While it is true that there is some diversity of opinion and practice on the Sabbath in the Continental Reformed tradition, ranging (in the Netherlands, for example) from the loose position of Cocceius, to the strict view of Voetius, Koelman and a’Brakel, the views of the Reformers regarding the Sabbath are much more Sabbatarian than… Read More The Myth of the “Continental View” of the Sabbath
The Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath by Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there… Read More The Perpetuity and Change of the Sabbath | Jonathan Edwards
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