Is Tebow a Sabbath-breaker?

I got into an impromptu debate over this issue at Justin Taylor’s blog. I may update this post if that exchange continues, but this lays down some markers:

steve hays December 14, 2011 at 3:47 pm

Kyle

“Friends, breaking the Sabbath is included in the same set of moral and unchangeable laws as not committing adultery. *If* God is helping Tebow (and more than in the general “he upholds all things by the power of his Word) it’s not for Tebow’s benefit.”

I’ve seen Tebow criticized on those grounds before. And that raises a valid issue. However:

i) Based on Rom 14:5, Gal 4:10, & Col 2:16, there are eminent Bible scholars who don’t think keeping the sabbath is a new covenant ordinance.

ii) And even if (arguendo) we regard the sabbath as part of God’s unchangeable law, it doesn’t follow that God’s law requires Christians to make Sunday on the Gregorian calendar their sabbath. That’s just a modern calendrical convention, not a Biblical mandate.

iii) Furthermore, there are also scholars who distinguish a day of worship from a day of rest.

steve hays December 14, 2011 at 5:09 pm

Kyle

“Thanks for your comments. For every scholar that writes against the perpetuity of the Sabbath I can up the ante…and if I were a betting man I’d sooner put my money on those who have gone before us then most contemporaries. You say Schreiner I’ll say Calvin; you say Carson, I’ll say Owen, etc, etc. And I can go beyond that, I’ll add any of the Reformers, Puritans, and any who have stood within the pales of Confessional Reformed or Baptist orthodoxy. So those ‘scholars’ (often influenced by Dispensational or New Covenant theologies) can say what they will, but any attempt to rid the Sabbath command from the binding moral law is nothing but wresting the Scriptures and robbing Christ of his Lordship as he is the Lord of the Sabbath.”

i) It’s not a question of how many scholars you and I can line up on either side of the issue, but the quality of their respective arguments.

ii) Tradition has no independent authority, over and above Scripture.

iii) In addition, you dodged points #2-3 of my comment.

“I feel the same way about this as you probably would if someone tried to biblically justify adultery. Chances are you wouldn’t give them much of a hearing because Scripture is painstakingly clear on the sinfulness of such an action.”

You're asserting an analogy minus a supporting argument. So it begs the question.

steve hays December 14, 2011 at 7:00 pm

Kyle

“As to the original (ii), the Sabbath commandment is grounded in the seven day week. The Sabbath command requires one day in seven to be kept as Sabbath. As this is a creation ordinance and obviously preceded the Mosaic economy (c.f. Genesis 2:3; Exodus 16) it’s not a matter of old vs. new covenant. By positive command that was the last day of the week under the OT. Since the resurrection of Christ that form was changed (not the substance of one in seven) to the first day of the week in accord with the pattern set by our Lord and the Apostles. Having the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath is not, in fact, a ‘modern calendrical convention.’”

These are not equally strong arguments:

i) You can make a fairly strong argument that the Sabbath is a creation ordinance. (Mind you, that has to be counterbalanced against other Biblical evidence.)

ii) Even that wouldn’t make it a moral absolute (“moral and unchangeable law”). As Christ points out, the Sabbath is a means to an end, not an end in itself. As such, its value is relative, not absolute.

iii) The argument for a shift from Saturday to Sunday is much weaker. There is no dominical or apostolic command to worship and/or rest on Sunday. At most we have some suggestive indications regarding apostolic practice. But apostolic practice isn’t ipso facto equivalent to apostolic precept. Paul’s vow (Acts 18:18) isn’t mandatory for Christians.

iv) The Gospels don’t show Jesus celebrating the Sabbath on the first Easter.

v) And even if he did, dominical practice isn’t ipso facto normative. Jesus did many things that aren’t normative for Christians.

vi) You’re also equivocating. Let’s assume the first day of the week c. 30 AD was the Christian Sabbath. That hardly means the NT is preauthorizing the Gregorian calendar. If, instead of the Gregorian calendar, a Renaissance pope made the Mayan calendar the official calendar of Western Europe, would Tebow be breaking God’s “unchanging moral law” by failing to set aside the Mayan Sunday as his Christian Sabbath?

vii) You’re equivocating in another respect as well. 1st and 7th involve a sequence. It’s not the day in isolation, but the sequence, that’s the fundamental unit. You can have the same sequence on a different day.

steve hays December 14, 2011 at 7:00 pm

Kyle

“As to the original (ii), the Sabbath commandment is grounded in the seven day week. The Sabbath command requires one day in seven to be kept as Sabbath. As this is a creation ordinance and obviously preceded the Mosaic economy (c.f. Genesis 2:3; Exodus 16) it’s not a matter of old vs. new covenant. By positive command that was the last day of the week under the OT. Since the resurrection of Christ that form was changed (not the substance of one in seven) to the first day of the week in accord with the pattern set by our Lord and the Apostles. Having the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath is not, in fact, a ‘modern calendrical convention.’”

That’s fatally equivocal. Let’s grant (arguendo) that reserving the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath is a creation ordinance. That would be the enduring principle.

However, the Gregorian calendar is a modern calendrical convention. How we reckon the first day of the week is not a creation ordinance. What counts as “Sunday” is an artifact of whatever calendar we happen to be using. That’s the frame of reference. The underlying principle is Scriptural, but the specific application is cultural.

Scripture doesn’t assign “Sunday” as the Christian Sabbath. The first day of the week is relative to a sequence of days, and that’s relative to the operative calendar. Our calendar is a social convention.