Jan 28, 2020
By Pastor Rick Crouch
One of the reasons that I majored in journalism in college is because I wanted to get as
far away from calculus as I could. Math is not my friend, and so by majoring in journalism, I was able to take easier classes like Logic to satisfy the math requirements.
Whether we realize it or not, most of us use logic every day—especially the conditional if … then statement, where if the first part of the statement is true, then the second part is also true. If I am thirsty, then I should get something to drink. If I am hungry, then I should get something to eat. We believe something to be true, and then we act based on that belief.
Scripture contains many if … then statements. It’s important for us to connect both parts of the statements as we come across them because, although God’s love is not conditional, many of His blessings are. It’s also important for us to be aware of if … then logic because
if we believe that Scripture is true, then action is required based on that belief.
The introduction to the Seventh Day Baptist Statement of Belief begins, “Seventh Day
Baptists consider liberty of thought under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to be essential to Christian belief and practice. Therefore we encourage the unhindered study and open discussion of Scripture.” Later in the document specific beliefs about the Holy Spirit and Scripture are laid out.
About the Holy Spirit it says in part, “We believe the Holy Spirit inspired the Scriptures, convicts of sin and instructs in righteousness.” And about Scripture it says in part, “We believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and is our final authority in matters of faith and practice.”
It is through these lenses that our beliefs about the Sabbath are formulated. If Scripture is true, then what it says about the Sabbath is true. If the Holy Spirit convicts of sin and instructs in righteousness, then the Holy Spirit will guide us in our attempts to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work” (NKJV).
This is one of the passages upon which our beliefs are based. At the time Paul wrote this, “all Scripture” consisted of what we now call the Old Testament. This doesn’t mean that the New Testament isn’t Scripture, it just means that the Old Testament has not been done away with and cannot be disregarded. It also means that God’s instructions for His people consist of more than just what is found in the New Testament.
That is why when talking about the Sabbath, our Statement of Belief makes reference to it being “instituted at creation, affirmed in the Ten Commandments and reaffirmed in the teaching and example of Jesus and the apostles.” Our belief is based on the entirety of Scripture. If this is true, then how we observe the Sabbath should also be based on the entirety of Scripture.
In regards to observance, our Statement of Belief says, “We believe that in obedience to God and in loving response to His grace in Christ, the Sabbath should be faithfully observed as a day of rest, worship, and celebration.”
This is a nice, general statement that leaves room for a wide variety of interpretations. I appreciate the sentiment expressed in what I quoted earlier regarding “liberty of thought under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” but I am concerned that too many people cling to “liberty of thought” and leave out “under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.” If the Holy Spirit is guiding you, then you will not be led to do things that are contrary to Scripture.
As someone who was born into a Seventh Day Baptist family, my personal observance of the Sabbath was
initially based on what was modeled for me in my home and in my church. Although I was verbally taught that the Sabbath is a 24-hour period from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday in which no work should be done, what I was taught by example is that the Sabbath is only however long it takes to have church and Sabbath school. Work and everything else are okay as long as you make it to those two things.
After I was married and started having a family of my own, I began to take my faith more seriously, and I began the “unhindered study of Scripture” that is encouraged in the introduction to our Statement of Belief. It was in this study that I discovered passages like Nehemiah 13:15-22 in which Nehemiah makes a big deal about how we should not work or buy and sell on the Sabbath, and I started to examine my life in the light of Scripture.
For example, whenever there wasn’t a fellowship meal, my family always went out to eat after church. Now I began to wonder why it was okay to go out to eat on the Sabbath—and I asked myself, “Why is it okay for me to pay someone to do a job that I’m not willing to do myself on the Sabbath? Did Jesus die so that I could conduct business on the Sabbath?” Both Scripture and the Holy Spirit told me, “No, Jesus died to give you freedom from sin, not freedom to sin.”
So Grace and I started pruning back what we did on the Sabbath. We clipped off restaurants and Friday night movies without much struggle, but then came a difficult one for me. I used to be a big college football fan and the majority of the games are on Sabbath—so I tried to cover my ears when the Holy Spirit began to speak to me through my wife and tell me that I could not serve God and football at the same time.
But the Holy Spirit kept pricking my conscience and asking me if I was remembering the Sabbath to keep it holy by rushing home from church so that I could watch men throw a ball around and pummel each other? He asked me if my thoughts of violence and ill-will toward the opposing team and their fans were restful and worshipful.
And then I discovered Isaiah 58:13-14 which says, “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words, Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you
to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken” (NKJV).
If … then.
If I want to honor God and the Sabbath and delight myself in Him, then I need to stop trying to satisfy my flesh with selfish pleasures on the day that He set apart to spend in fellowship with me.
If Seventh Day Baptists believe that Scripture is true, and that the Holy Spirit guides us in our understanding of Scripture and empowers us to follow its instructions, then we should take seriously God’s command to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. In so doing, we will rest, worship, and be blessed.
