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Review: The Sabbath Under Crossfire
by Richard C. Nickels
It's out, it's awesome, and you need it! Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi's
newest book, The Sabbath Under Crossfire: A Biblical
Analysis of Recent Sabbath/Sunday Developments, addresses
critical issues especially important to current and former Church of
God members. If there is any book that you read this year, don't put
if off, read this one.
In July, 1998, Pope John Paul II issued a lengthy Pastoral Letter,
Dies Domini, which appeals to Christians to
observe Sunday as the fulfillment of the Sabbath, and calls for civil
legislation to facilitate Sunday observance. In a break with
traditional Catholic teaching, which until now, has admitted that
Sunday-keeping came from Church tradition rather than Scriptural
mandate, the Pope attempts to provide Biblical support for
Sunday-keeping. The need to respond to the Pope's "new" theology was
one reason why Bacchiocchi decided to write his new book.
Earlier in 1998, former SDA Dale Ratzlaff, author of the book,
Sabbath in Crisis (1990), appeared on radio station
KJSL in St. Louis, Missouri. He savagely attacked the Sabbath. His
book had earlier been used by Joseph Tkach of the Worldwide Church of
God to overthrow the validity of Sabbath-keeping. My friend, Neil
Gardner of Florissant, Missouri, responded to the radio station with
letters answering Ratzlaff's points, asking for equal time to present
an affirmation for the seventh-day Sabbath. Gardner asked me to join
with him in defense of the Sabbath. It became apparent to me that a
stuttering bumpkin such as myself would be no match for the polished
rhetoric of Ratzlaff. I suggested that we try to get Dr. Bacchiocchi
to debate Ratzlaff, which he graciously agreed to do. The one-hour
debate was held on June 15, 1998, and continued for many weeks over
the Internet. Eventually, Ratzlaff backed off from further discussion.
Ratzlaff's anti-Sabbath attacks were a second motivation for
Bacchiocchi's new book.
Dr. Sam had promised his wife Anna that he would take a
year off from writing books to spend more time with her and attend to
household chores. Because of the urgency of the Pope's Letter and
Ratzlaff's frontal assault on the Sabbath, Dr. B. felt he had to break
his promise. I am sorry, Sam, for helping you to break your promise,
but I trust the result will benefit many, as indeed it has and will.
Incidentally, when I met her in 1995, in San Antonio, I asked Anna
Bacchiocchi if she has trouble getting in a word edgewise with her
constantly talking husband Sam. She assured me that in their private
lives, she does get to say her peace!
The Pope challenges Christians to respect Sunday, not
merely as a Church institution, but as a divine command, the "full
expression" of the Sabbath. This is in stark contrast to the so-called
"New Covenant," and related "Dispensational" teaching (adopted by
Ratzlaff and Tkach) which emphasizes the radical discontinuity between
Sabbath and Sunday. Dispensationalists hold that the Sabbath is a
Mosaic, Old Covenant, institution that terminated at the cross.
Bacchiocchi shows that Sunday is not the Sabbath, as the Pope now
maintains, because the two days differ in authority, meaning, and
experience. Sunday is so lacking in authority that it needs the Pope to
call for civil legislation to foster its observance. In most European
countries, Sunday Laws have been in effect for many years, yet Sunday
Church attendance is less than 10% of the Christian population. In
Italy, 95% of Catholics go to church only three times in their
lives, when they are "hatched, matched, and dispatched." Sunday laws
fail to encourage Sunday-keeping.
In Chapter 2 of his book, Sabbath Under
Crossfire, Bacchiocchi explores in depth the question: "Is the
Sabbath creational or ceremonial?" In spite of Genesis
2 and Mark 2:27-28, many professing
Christians, including Ratzlaff and Tkach, believe that the Sabbath is
not a creation ordinance given to mankind, but a Mosaic ordinance given
to the Israelites together with the Ten Commandments. Bacchiocchi
carefully reviews the Biblical evidence, and uses non-Sabbatarian
commentators in this (and other portions of his book), to lend
authoritative support that the Sabbath is a creation ordinance for all
mankind.
In Chapter 3, Bacchiocchi looks at the "Old and New
Covenants," referring to Joseph Tkach's view of the distinction between
the two covenants as the model for his discussion. Dr. Sam shows that
salvation by grace through faith is the central theme of both the old
and new covenants. Saving faith is never alone, because it is always
accompanied by loving obedience, Galatians 5:6. The
Decalogue is not merely a list of ten laws, but primarily ten
principles of love. There is no dichotomy between law and love, because
one cannot exist without the other. Bacchiocchi shows that Paul's use
of sabbatismos in Hebrews 4:9, supports
literal Sabbath-keeping, answering Ratzlaff's five reasons against
literal Sabbath-keeping. Rather than the Levitical priesthood and
animal sacrifices which were "abolished" (Hebrews
10:9), "obsolete" and "ready to vanish away" (Hebrews
8:13), Paul explicitly teaches that "Sabbath-keeping has been
left behind for the people of God" (literal rendering of
Hebrews 4:9).
Lutherans, as well as Ratzlaff and Tkach, believe that
Christ fulfilled the Sabbath commandment by terminating its observance
altogether, and replacing it with an existential experience of
salvation-rest available to believers every day. For others, such as
Catholics and Calvinists, Christ fulfilled and terminated only the
ceremonial aspect of the Sabbath commandment, the observance of
the seventh day, but the moral aspect of the Sabbath
commandment, the principle of observing one day in seven was
not abrogated by Christ, but transferred to the observance of the first
day of the week, Sunday. In exploring the topic of "the Savior and the
Sabbath," Dr. B. demonstrates the fallacy of both of these views. The
healing miracles of Jesus on the Sabbath show the expansion, not the
termination, of the Sabbath, and reveal the redemptive nature
of true Sabbath-keeping. Just as God "is working until now"
(John 5:17, literal translation), we too must work to
extend the Sabbath rest and peace to others, John 9:4.
"This means that for believers today," Bacchiocchi states, "the Sabbath
is the day to celebrate not only God's creation by resting, but also
Christ's redemption by acting mercifully toward others," page 173.
Next, Bacchiocchi presents a thorough discussion of "Paul and the
Law," and "Paul and the Sabbath." How can one reconcile the seemingly
contradictory statements of the Apostle Paul about the Law? Five
major passages are examined, which frequently are quoted to support
the idea that the Law is done away with by Christ, and consequently is
no longer the norm of Christian conduct: Romans 6:14,
"not under the law"; II Corinthians 3:1-18, the
letter and the spirit; Galatians 3:15-25, faith and
law; Colossians 2:14, what was nailed to the cross?
and Romans 10:4, "Christ is the end of the law."
Bacchiocchi's conclusion is that when Paul speaks of the Law in the
context of salvation (justification, right standing before
God), he affirms that Law-keeping is of no avail (Romans
3:20). On the other hand, when Paul speaks of the Law in the
context of Christian conduct (sanctification, right living
before God), he upholds the value and validity of God's Law
(Romans 7:12, 13:8-10; I Corinthians 7:19). This is
the most valuable portion of Sabbath Under
Crossfire.
In my opinion, the teaching of the Worldwide Church of
God throughout its history has been rather weak regarding God's Law and
the New Covenant. This shortcoming opened the door for Dr. Ernest L.
Martin, former Chairman of the Department of Theology of Ambassador
College, to lead over 10,000 members out of the Church in 1974, most of
whom abandoned the Sabbath entirely. Martin paved the way for the
Systematic Theology Project in the late 1970s, which was the
theological underpinning for Joseph Tkach, Senior, and Junior. In a
letter dated April, 1995, Dr. Ernest Martin (rightfully in my opinion)
claims credit for many of the doctrines the Worldwide now says are "new
truths." Why, Martin claims, he has been proclaiming many of these "new
truths" for over twenty years! Martin's so-called "New Covenant" and
anti-Sabbath teachings are well in line with those of Ratzlaff and
Tkach. Many of the senior ministers today were taught by Martin when
they went to Ambassador. Is it any wonder why so many have rolled over
and played dead, when it comes to a Biblical understanding of God's Law
and the New Covenant? Tkach's current teachings are merely Martinism,
Act II.
In Sabbath Under Crossfire, Bacchiocchi states,
"Contrary to what many people believe, the Old Testament does not view
the Law as a means of gaining acceptance with God through obedience,
but as a way of responding to God's gracious redemption and of binding
Israel to God. . . . salvation has always been a divine gift of grace
and not a human achievement," pages 186-187. There is no such thing as
Old Testament legalism; this aberrant concept was developed between the
Testaments by the Pharisees. "Paul rejects the Pharisaic understanding
of the Law as a means of salvation and affirms the Old
Testament view of the Law as a revelation of God's will for human
conduct," p. 189. Ernest Martin, and some ex-WCG ministers today, make
Paul into a law-breaking antinomian. But the Truth is that our new life
in Christ enables us to keep the Law, not as an external code (in the
letter), but as a loving response to God (in the spirit).
Prior to reading this section of Sabbath Under
Crossfire, I did not have a well-grounded understanding of the
place of Law in Christian life. The plain, easy-to- understand
terminology of Bacchiocchi, and his Biblical exegesis, is
extraordinary. If you know someone who has left the Church, maybe many
years ago, and has given up the Sabbath and most all the other
distinctive teachings we hold dear, perhaps they would consider
re-examining the issue of the Sabbath, God's Law, and Pauline theology.
Sabbath Under Crossfire could be the best book on this subject
ever written, and would make an ideal gift to help someone regain their
spiritual footing. Don't forget yourself. Maybe you, like me, did not
really dig into the teaching of Law by Paul like Bacchiocchi does in
his excellent book.
Finally, in Chapter 7, Sam Bacchiocchi shows that many
Sunday-keepers are re-examining and rediscovering the validity of the
Sabbath. The Sabbath is not an hour in worship services, but
twenty-four hours of holy time spent with God, a divine vacation from
the turmoil and stress of daily life. While some Sunday-keepers are
more zealously keeping Sunday, the fact remains that Sunday is not the
Sabbath. You cannot keep cold water hot! As Ratzlaff and the Worldwide
Church of God are abandoning the Sabbath, the exciting news is that
other Christians are rediscovering the seventh day Sabbath,
observing the literal day, and learning more of its spiritual
meaning.
Bishop Steven Sanchez and the Wesley Synod of sixty-eight
Methodist congregations in North America have recently become
Sabbath-keepers, claiming that John Wesley originally kept the Sabbath
and dietary laws. They observe the Sabbath from Friday sunset till
sunset Saturday, have Saturday Church services, and abstain from work
on the Sabbath. What great news!
Most Messianic Jews, who accepted the Messiah through
Protestant efforts and were thus originally Sunday-keepers, have now
become seventh-day Sabbatarians. Sabbatarian Mennonites such as Daniel
Leichty, are renewing the Anabaptist heritage of Andreas Fischer and
Oswald Glait by returning to the Sabbath. The True Jesus Church,
founded in 1917 in China (which may have descended from earlier
Nineteenth Century Chinese Sabbatarians) today has a million members in
China and 79,000 in the free world. Their basic tenet states, "The
Sabbath day, the seventh day of the week (Saturday), is a holy day,
blessed and sanctified by God. It is to be observed under the Lord's
grace for the commemoration of God's creation and redemption, and with
the hope of eternal rest."
What is it going to be for you? Are you going to
throw away the Sabbath like Martin, Ratzlaff, and Tkach? Are you going
to observe the Sabbath in a legalistic, hard-hearted way, thinking that
by so doing, you gain favor with God and earn salvation,
turning the Sabbath into a burden for your children so that they will
reject it when they become adults? Or instead, will you, even as a
Sabbath-keeper perhaps for many years, rediscover the joy of the
Sabbath, "a gift waiting to be unwrapped"? Will you allow God to enrich
your life with a larger measure of His divine presence, peace, and rest
that the Sabbath affords? And, most importantly, as Bacchiocchi
concludes, will you DO SOMETHING to spread the Sabbath delight to
others? Will you share your faith with others? Dr. Sam implores us
to rid ourselves of spiritual lethargy: "Many more can receive the gift
of the Sabbath if those of us who experience weekly the blessings of
this divine gift will share with others the benefits this day brings to
our lives," page 283.
Dr. Sam, now that you have helped me and others to become
more thoroughly grounded in New Covenant Law, take some time off with
Anna and get those household chores done!
Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi's book, Sabbath Under
Crossfire, retails for $15 per copy, as do his other books. His
other two classic Sabbath books are: From Sabbath to Sunday
and Divine Rest for Human Restlessness. It is a pity that
perhaps Bacchiocchi's BEST book, Divine Rest for Human
Restlessness, has received so little publicity. A theological
study of the philosophy and meaning of the Sabbath, Divine
Rest helps us understand the spiritual meaning of the Sabbath, and
how to keep it holy and wholly. You may order any one of these three
excellent Sabbath books for $15 postpaid from The Bible
Sabbath Association, 802 N.W. 21st Ave. Battleground, WA 98604,
or Giving & Sharing, PO Box 100, Neck City, MO
64849.
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