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Giving Up the Sabbath
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. – Exodus 20:8
D.L. Moody:
“I honestly believe that this commandment is just as binding today as it ever was. I have talked with men who have said that it has been abrogated, but they have never been able to point to any place in the Bible where God repealed it. When Christ was on earth, He did nothing to set it aside; He freed it from the traces under which the scribes and Pharisees had put it, and gave it its true place. ‘The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.’ It is just as practicable and as necessary for men today as it ever was-in fact, more than ever, because we live in such an intense age.
The Sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. The fourth commandment begins with the word remember, showing that the Sabbath already existed when God wrote this law on the tables of stone at Sinai. How can men claim that this one commandment has been done away with when they will admit that the other nine are still binding?
I believe that the Sabbath question today is a vital one for the whole country. It is the burning question of the present time. If you give up the Sabbath the church goes; if you give up the church the home goes; and if the home goes the nation goes. That is the direction in which we are traveling.
The church of God is losing its power on account of so many people giving up the Sabbath, and using it to promote selfishness.
Show me a nation that has given up the Sabbath, and I will show you a nation that has got the seed of decay.
– Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)
5 Pt. Salt 
D.L. Moody was also wrong about many other issues. There is not a lick of evidence that the Sabbath was ever universally binding. It was the sign and sesl of the Mosaic Covenant that passed away with that covenant.
Very edifying and much needed post. It astonishes me how many “Conservative Reformed” Christians argue in favor of doing away with this commandment. Thank you for this edifying quote.
The question for me has not been so much one of “is the sabbath abrogated?’ but rather is it fulfilled in our rest in Christ? The next question is, how does a sabbath seen as a creation ordinance function in modern society? The third question I have is, who decides the particulars of modern sabbath observance? It is not enough to proclaim the sabbath is part of the “ten commandments” and expect that to settle the issue. If in this era we have sabbath responsiblity, what exactly is it? It seems to me either you embrace OT Sabbath commands or you make up your own in in this post old covenant time, because the NT simply does not address the issue in terms of continuing and particular observance. If something in the OT law, or even in a creation notion of sabbath extends till this day, will someone explain to me with exact terms what our duty entials in regard to it?
I would point you to historic reformed church teaching. Check out the Belgic confession of faith article 25. Then articles 27 thru 29. Consistent, historic church doctrine. Then check out Heidelberg catechism question and answer 103.
It is the church that is the pillar and buttress of the truth (1Tim 3:15) check out the churches that have historically preached the gospel as taught in Scripture and bow your personal interpretation to the teaching of the church as it has come together to address these questions. The answers are there, they just need to be rediscovered.
Tim: I have no problem with catechisms, but I think we have to keep in mind that in the end catechisms are merely the judgements of groups about what Scripture teaches. They are not infallible, nor are they necessarily the final word. So to assert “historic church doctrine” on the basis of a catechism is not the conclusion of the matter, and I feel no need to “bow” my “personal interpretation” to anything save that which I am convinced is Scriptural. Besides, I am Baptist, not Reformed, and I think in a number of areas Reformed catechisms which do a good job with many issues, nevertheless promote doctrinal errors in some instances, and not truth.
Amen! and amen again…
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