BOOK REVIEW
REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY (Is The Lords Day Still Relevant In The 21st Century?)
The book is authored by the Lewis branch off the Lord’s Day Observance Society. A different author has written each chapter. The book has seven chapters and consists of 105 pages.
Chapter one commences with the origin off the Sabbath which was given by God at the creation. All the arguments within the book are backed up by extensive reference to scripture. The chapter argues that the Sabbath was not just a Jewish day of rest but a day for the Jews to remember Gods redemptions of them.
Chapter two expounds the Sabbath day with reference to the moral law and the keeping of laws generally. Exposition is made as to the joy which can be had in keeping the Sabbath and the blessing of the Sabbath in both Old Testament and New Testament times. The chapter highlights the keeping of the Sabbath by Jesus and puts in context the various healings which took place by Jesus on the Sabbath day.
Chapter three is titled “The Sabbath day, a day of rest” a day cleared off our usual labour and work, quoting examples from the Old and New Testament. The transition and the reason for the moving of the seventh day to be the Sabbath day to the first day of the week which is now called the Lords Day is explained in this chapter.
Chapter Four examines the abiding liberty of the fourth commandment and the Sabbath as a day to believe. This is done by examining some of the teaching of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, showing the continuity and the observance of the commandment and focusing on the development of its observance after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead.
Chapter Five examines the six key texts that refer to the Lord’s Day in the New Testament, to prove that this day is a day for worship. The chapter draws evidence from church history, how the day has been set apart for Christian worship ever since Apostolic times. The chapter closes with practical considerations of what a day of worship would look like.
Chapter Six is structured around relevant aspects of the biblical Sabbath and Lords Day. It explores some issues which may not have an overtly obvious application to the heavenly rest of God’s Saints. The chapter begins by exploring the idea of a divinely ordained rest presented to us at various stages of inspired revelation. This demonstrates how God ran a linear redemptive thread through four major stages of this rest and providence and in history. It is this thread that has always provided Christian people with the hope of an everlasting rest with Jesus, who is Lord of the Sabbath. The four stages are: – (1) the genesis rest undertaken by God; (2) the Canaan rest of the children of Israel; (3) the believers rest in Jesus Christ, and (4) the everlasting rest of the Saints.
Chapter Seven is the conclusion. An extract from this conclusion will be used to summarise the content of the book. This book is invaluable and healthy to bolster the conviction of those who love our Lord and his day. It reassures brothers and sisters in Christ that they are not strange, not legalists or Pharisees or culture-bound traditionalists, but that the doctrine they love and strive to uphold is rooted and built squarely upon the foundation of the word of God, the holy scriptures of the old and new testaments. Sabbath observance is not an aberration but a central plank of mainstream Christian orthodoxy, reduced certainly in the level of its present observance, but only because the very orthodoxy of mainstream Christianity is itself so diminished at this present time. If believers can show to the world what this day means to them, then the world will sooner or later want to know why, and there on a plate is a gospel opportunity to be ready always to give an answer to everyman that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good conscience; that whereas they speak evil off you as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ (1 Peter 3: 15- 16).
Having read a number of books on the Lords Day this little book is by far the most comprehensive and useful to everyday application.