Full Text for Propositions on the Sabbath-Sunday Question (Text)

ion Inquiry MAIER, W. A .: Archeology - the N emesis . . KBETZMANN, P. E.: Znr Ge chichte der 1 teinischen Bibel KRETZMANN, P . E. ' W here and What Is Heaven? KRETZMANN, P. E.: Propositions on the Sabbath-Sunday Question LAETSCH, THEO.: Malicious Desertion KBETZMANN P E. : Die Hallpttchr:ften Luthers in chro- nologischer Reihenfolge Dispositionen u eber die altkirchliche Epistelreihe Miscellan eu Theological Observer. - Xirchlich-Zettgeschichtliches . Book Review. - Ltteratur Page 16 1 171 176 18 4 189 195 197 205 206 212 218 233 Ein r'recliger mw 01 t alleln 10 ,vIM!, .lise) da er die Schafe unterwel;tO, wl~ de reebte Chrl ten !IOlIen seln, ondem .ucb daneben den Woellen ICeMen. du .Ie die Schafe nlcht angreifen und mit faIRCher Lehre ,'erfuebren uud Imum ein· fuebrrn. - LH hr,. r ,t keln Ding, d' die J.eutl' mehr bel der Klrcbe behaelt deon die flUte l'redigt. - dpolo, ie, Art. ~ If the trumpet g1VI' an un~'ertahl loOund, who sbalI prepare bllll8elf to the battle? 1 Cor 4 , 8. Published for t he Ev. Luth. Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other 4tates CONCORDIA PUBLISHDlG HOUSE, St. Lo Mo. [ l I Propositions on the Sabbath-Sunday Question. 195 Propositions on the Sabbath-Sunday Question. 1. The observance of one particular day, the seventh day of the week, is not a part of the Natural Law written in the hearts of men at the beginning and later codified in the Moral Law. We have no evidence of a command of God in the time of the Patriarchs, before and after the Flood, by which the Sabbath may be said to have been instituted. NOTE. - Gen. 2, 2. 3 simply speaks of God's sanctifying the seventh day, to which statement, however, no command is attached with reference to its observance by man. Luther indeed surmises (III,950) that the believers, who had the true service of God, came together on that day to call upon God, but he offers no proof. Heb. 4, 4 ff. connects the Genesis passage with the promise of the final rest reserved for all faithful be- lievers. - While rest-days are observed in the primitive religions, they are not, as a rule, periodic in character, nor are they necessarily consecrated to a deity and employed for religious services. Even in the Babylonian system of time the rest-day on the seventh, fourteenth, twenty-first, and twenty-eighth day of the month was connected with the period of lunation, since the moon was regarded as resting at the height of her brilli.fl.llcy. (Cp. Hastings, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, sub voce "Sabbath.") 2. The Jews were given the specific command to keep the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath, as a day of cessation from labor and of a holy assembly with sacrificial offerings. Its observance was in- cluded in both the Oivil and the Oeremonial Law. NOTE. - That the keeping of the seventh day as a day of rest and worship was not a self-evident matter appears from the specific command of God in the wilderness in Ex. 16,23 ff. Cpo chap. 20, 8 ff.; 31,15 ff. To the children of Israel the Sabbath-day was a day of cessation from labor, Ex. 16,29; 20, 10; 35,3; Num. 15, 32-36; Amos 8, 5. 6, and of a holy assembly with special offerings, Num. 28, 9 f.; Lev. 24, 8; Is. 58, 13 f. 3. The Old Testament Sabbath has been abrogated in the New Testament and hence also the Jewish provisions regarding compulsory rest on that day as by divine command. NOTE. - This appears clearly from the principle which Jesus enun- ciated, namely, that the Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath-day, Matt. 12, 8, as well as from the fact of His ignoring the traditional observance of the Sabbath in performing miracles of kindness on that day, Matt. 12,5ff.; Mark 3, 4; 2.27; Luke 13, 14ff.; 14,5; John 7, 23; 9,14, and in setting forth the spirit of the Moral Law pertaining to the worship of God, John 4, 24, apart from all external ceremonies connected with place and time. - The specific principle of the New Testament is stated in Col. 2,16, where Sabbaths are expressly mentioned, and in Gal. 4,9-11. 4. The first day of the week, or Sunday, was chosen as the day of worship by the Ohurch of the New Testament, partly on the basis of the apostolic example, partly in perpetual commemoration of the day of Ohrist's resurrection. NOTE. - The first direct reference to Sunday as a day of worship is in 1 Cor. 16, 2: "Upon the first day of the week" (ltaTa fhlav aajJjJ6:rotJ). 196 Propositions on the Sabbath-Sunday Question. Just about a year later we find that Paul conducted a service in Troas "upon the first day of the week," Acts 20, 7 (Ill' -rfi ruff TWV aapp';'uAJv). And that this first day of the week soon received recognition as a day set apart from others seems to be evident from Rev. 1, 10, where John speaks of "the Lord's Day" (Ev 7:fi xv!}taxfi ?Ifd!}'!). - In the subapostolic and postapostolic age we have the witness of the Dida,ohe: "On the Lord's Day (>tan, >tVf!ta>t?]v) of the Lord come together" (chap. XIV). This is sup- ported by the Apostolio Oonstitutions, where we are told: "On the day of the resurrection of the Lord, which we call the day of the Lord, you are to corne together without delay" (Book VII, chap. 30). The Epistle of Barnabas has the statement: "Wherefore we also celebrate with gladness the eighth day, in which Jesus also rose from the dead" (chap. 15). In the First Apology of Justin Martyr we read: "On the day which is named after the sun a gathering of all those who live in the city and in the country takes place" (chap. 67). For further witnesses see Augusti, Hand- buoh der christlichen Archaeologie, I, 513 if. 5. It is not in accordance with Scriptures to attach the cere- monial ordinances of the Old Testament to the New Testament Sunday. NCTE.-- It is essGntial that we stand fast in ths libe::-ty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage, Gal. 5, 1. The esteeming or regarding of days, .Kom. 14,5. 6, is a matter which is left to the wisdom of the Christians, and the special Sabbath laws of the Old Testament have nothing to do with the Christian Sunday. Augsburg Confession, Art. XXVIII: "For those who judge that by the authority of the Church the observance of the Lord's Day instead of the Sabbath-day was ordained as a thing necessary do greatly err. Scripture has abrogated the Sabbath-day; for it teaches that, since the Gospel has been revealed, all the ceremonies of Moses can be omitted." (Trigl., 90 f. Cpo Large Catechism, p.602, § 79 if. Cpo Luther, III, 1084 if.) 6. We observe or celebrate Sunday in Christian liberty "that on such day of rest (since we can get no other opportunity) freedom and time be taken to attend divine service, so that we come together to hear and treat of God's Word and then to praise God, to sing and pray." (Large Catechism, Trigl., p. 605, § 84.) 7. Christian liberty may never become license; hence he who without adequate reason and sufficient excuse refuses to attend Sun- day or festival services, disrupts the orderly procedure of the congre- gation, forsakes the assembly of the Christians, and is apt to come under the condemnation of the Lord. NOTE. - There is always danger that some people will use their liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, 1 Pet. 3, 16, and for that reason instruction in the true meaning of Christian liberty must constantly be given. It is the Lord who wants all things in the congregation to be done decently and in order, I Cor. 14,40, who condemns the forsaking of the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, Heb. 10,25, and who solemnly states: "He that is of God heareth God's words; ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God," John 8, 47. P. E. KRETZMANN.