Kuyperian Sabbatarianism

A man is walking home on Friday night near midnight. He lives on the fourth floor of a large apartment complex. As he arrives at his apartment complex, he realizes that it’s midnight; it’s the Sabbath. He needs to get in an elevator to take him to the fourth floor, but he pauses and realizes he can’t use the elevator because it would require him to push the #4 button, which is considered work. And this simple work would violate the Sabbath. This man is a practicing Jew and using the elevator broke one of the 39 Shabbat Laws.

When we think about the Sabbath, it’s possible that these kinds of laws come to mind. In fact, conversations about the fourth commandment are rare in evangelical environments. Any talk about the Sabbath is quickly greeted with the retort that we don’t live in the Old Testament. The more astute will mention that in Mark 2 Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for adding hundreds of regulations to the Sabbath that “robbed the day of its joy.”^a Or some will reply with Jesus’ statement that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mark 2:27). But what precisely did Jesus mean with that statement? It seems clear that he did not mean that we can do whatever we want on the Sabbath, or that the Sabbath is somehow abrogated (see Matt. 5:17), but it does mean that the Sabbath is a gift and blessing to man.

Therefore, making a list of dos and don’ts would be unwise, because the Sabbath is to be commemorated as a blessing and without burdensome hindrances. That much is clear. Jesus comes into the scene and dusts off the fourth commandment to “its original beauty and luster.”^b.

Sabbath Controversy

There is no more controversial topic than the application of the Fourth Commandment in the life of the Church. More pages have been written discussing this commandment than probably all the other commandments combined (perhaps with the exception of the second). The reason it’s so controversial is that the Bible does talk about the Sabbath and it speaks of it in positive ways in the Old Covenant. It’s a day of refreshment in Exodus 23; it’s to be treated as a day of delight in Isaiah 58; and there is even a song dedicated to the Sabbath, called “A Song for the Sabbath Day,” which is Psalm 92.

The reality is that everything modern Christians have thought about the Sabbath is probably wrong in the Old Testament. The Jews didn’t look at the Sabbath and say, “Oh no, here it comes again; the day of boredom and silence.” No, in fact, our forefathers treasured the Sabbath which is why our God declares it a Holy Day.

The Sabbath debate boils down to whether the Sabbath was a creational ordinance–instituted in creation, therefore perpetual–or whether the Sabbath was instituted after Israel’s exodus from Egypt, therefore temporary. Another consequential question is whether there is a biblical warrant for the transformation of the Sabbath into Sunday in the New Creation. If there is such a merit, do we keep the restrictions of the Jewish Sabbath in the Old Testament or are there adjustments to be made? Again, millions of words have been written attempting to answer these questions.

It should come as no surprise that Reformed people disagree with one another. It should interest us as Kuyperians that our forefather, Abraham Kuyper, viewed the Sabbath as the day in which we “spread our wings of faith.”^c Kuyper’s argument is that the bonds of daily work can choke and oppress us, and the Sabbath is when “those unfettered from their bonds rejoice.” Kuyper’s argument is that the Sabbath becomes Sunday in the New Covenant and that it ought to be a day of resurrection where the “Savior loosened the shackles of death and hell.” Far from any bondage to a set of rules and behaviors, Kuyper viewed Sunday with exuberance and freedom.

Sabbath Continuity

We do all virtually agree that the Old Testament does not take a back seat to the discussion. To understand the Sabbath, we don’t cut the Old Testament and focus only on the New Testament, we use the Old Testament to tell us the story of the Sabbath from Genesis to Jesus and to the end of history.

So how do we as a Church keep the Sabbath Holy? Not all will agree, but there seem to be at least three basic principles wherein we ought to find some commonality:

First, the Sabbath is a delight. We should not advocate for the New Covenant nine commandments as some are advocating ^d. Rather, it seems clear that the Lord’s Day, which is also called The First Day of the Week, functions in some continuity with the Old Testament Sabbath. There are some nuances to consider, but we believe in the Ten Commandments.

Second, the Sabbath was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Calvin articulates this throughout his writings on the fourth commandment. Jesus Christ provides rest for his people when they gather. The early church celebrated the first day of the week as a Sabbath application. The Sabbath for the Jews was a day of commemorating their freedom in Yahweh God, the Lord’s Day for the Christian Church is also a day to celebrate our freedom from sin in the resurrection of Jesus. So, the heart of keeping the fourth commandment is celebrating with God’s people in worship on Sundays the day Jesus rose from the dead and conquered our enemy, the Devil. Forsaking the assembly is disobeying the Fourth Commandment.

Finally, Jesus himself said that many things were permitted on the Sabbath; works of necessity and mercy. The Sabbath, therefore, is made for man. It ought to bolster communion and charity among brothers and sisters.

There is much to add to this discussion and I’d encourage Douma’s work on the Ten Commandments and John Frame’s labors on the Ten Commandments. What I have tried to articulate is a Reformed catholic view which every good Kuyperian should embrace.

1. Douma 113  (back)
2. Ibid. 114  (back)
3. Taken from the new translation by James A. De Jong of Abraham Kuyper’s Honey from the Rock (Lexham Press, 2018), pp.30-32.   (back)
4. New Covenant theologians argue that God rescinded the fourth commandments and all attachments to it  (back)