“One God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all.” (Ephesians 4:6)  If there is one Father then the true church is essentially the same wherever it is located.  We do not need demographic studies or marketing analyses to tell us how to worship or what kind of church to build.  We need only to come to know our Father who is the same whether we are Filipino or American, urban or rural, boomer or millennial.

The 4th commandment is in a way unique among the 10. It is unique in at least this way, that there is nowhere near the level of controversy about the proper interpretation of any of the commandments as there is over this one.

The Sabbatarian argument is that though all of the calendar observances of the Jews are no longer binding on the Christian, that which is contained in the Ten Commandments itself continues to be binding. They argue that the Sabbath was ordained not at Sinai but in the Garden of Eden. It is a creation ordinance and is therefore binding in perpetuity. Jesus’ statements about the Sabbath were never intended to attack the continuing observance of the Sabbath but rather the illegitimate and extrabiblical interpretations and additions of the Pharisees. Paul’s statements regarding observance of days were not directed at the one-in-seven Sabbath itself but rather at the observance of the Jewish calendar of feast days. By the example of the Apostles, we see that the day of worship was changed in the New Testament to the first day instead of the seventh, in honor of the Lord’s resurrection (and therefore it is called the Lord’s Day), but otherwise the Christian day of worship is in all respects the Sabbath which the Lord commanded here. Further, all of the other Ten Commandments are essentially the same in their observance, both outward and inward, from the Old Testament to the New, and therefore the Fourth should be as well.

The counter-argument is this:
First, there is no record or evidence of the observance of the Sabbath before Exodus 16, when the Jews were in the desert. It appears very much that God instituted the Sabbath at that time, and then expanded on it at Sinai. Genesis 2:3 simply indicates that God did bless the seventh day and rested that day, but says nothing about when this was applied to people for their observance. Remember that Genesis was written by Moses after the actual institution of the Sabbath Day in Exodus 16. Likewise, the 4th Commandment simply says that the institution of the seventh day rest was done because of God’s rest on the seventh day. It doesn’t say when God instituted that 7th day rest.

Further, God states clearly that the Sabbath Day rest was a sign (Exodus 31:13). None of the other commandments are said to be signs. A sign is a tangible thing which points to some spiritual truth. The prohibition against murder or adultery or blasphemy are not signs of anything. They are reflections of God’s own moral nature. Nonetheless the Sabbath is said to be a sign to Israel from God. In particular, in Ezekiel 20 this point is made, as well as clearly distinguishing between God’s Sabbaths and His statutes and judgments, which refers to moral law. What is the Sabbath a sign of? That it is God that sanctifies us. The Sabbath principle is beautifully illustrated, that we can rest from our human attempts to make ourselves righteous or blessed, to trust in God and obey His word.

Jesus’ statements in the gospel regarding the Sabbath certainly are primarily aimed at exposing the false interpretations of the Pharisees. However, there is more to them than just that. See Matthew 12. There, after being accused of violating the Sabbath, Jesus refers to the occasion when David, on the run from Saul and starving, came into the tabernacle and was given the showbread to eat, which only priests were allowed to eat. He then quotes from the Psalmist, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” Both of these statements are intended to show that some things are ceremonial and some things are more important than ceremonies. But what relevance would that have to the context of Matthew 12, unless Jesus was making the point that Sabbath observance was a ceremonial matter, and not to be elevated above more fundamental moral concerns like mercy?

Paul’s statements are clear as well. In Romans 14, referring to disputes among brethren, he mentions “observance of days” generally. They are not to be matters of disputes between brethren. He does not limit his statements, merely referring to “days” in general and the religious observance of them. In Colossians 2:16, he says that the believer should not allow his liberty to be stolen and his reward cheated away from him, by being required to observe “festivals or new moons or sabbaths”. The word there for Sabbath is the same construction used everywhere in the New Testament for the one day in seven observance. In Galatians 4:10 his language is even stronger, saying that their observance of days make him fear for their salvation, since they make it a condition of true Christianity.

We have no early record of the Sabbath being observed by Christians. We know in fact that they were flexible about the days that they gathered together for worship, sometimes in the morning and sometimes at night, sometimes on the seventh day and sometimes on the first. This was necessary since they were often under persecution and also many of the early believers were slaves and lacked the freedom to worship whenever they desired. The Emperor Constantine in the 4th century declared the first day of the week a day of rest and this was the first uniform observance of a first-day worship.

John Calvin was opposed to any religious observance of days. He supported a one-day-in-seven day of rest, for good order and so that servants and others who lacked freedom would be guaranteed the opportunity to go to church. He also recognized the principle that people needed to rest from their labors, and unless that rest was forced, many would not have the opportunity to take it. But he rejected the idea that any day should be viewed as religiously different than any other day, calling it “crass and carnal sabbatarian superstition.” (See Institutes, Book 2, Chapter 8, sec. 28-34)

Do we believe then that the 4th commandment has been abrogated? Not at all. The continuing truth of the 4th Commandment is that the Christian is to trust God for his salvation, resting from his works, and being careful to take time out of our schedules to gather together with the saints for worship and study, and to make time for private worship as well. But it is my position that the 4th Commandment’s requirement of a religious observance of a 24-hour period of rest was ceremonial and symbolic in nature, and has been abrogated in the New Covenant.The 4th commandment is explicitly part of the 10 Commandments, the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel on Sinai. That covenant was a covenant of works, a republication of the covenant God made with Adam. It was given as part of God’s plan of redemption, but in a negative way- it functioned to show them the impossibility of ever finding God’s blessings through their own efforts. It was given to make sin exceedingly sinful. The Covenant at Sinai was also given in its particular form to the nation of Israel in order to “shut them up”, to keep them under guard and separate from the other nations until Christ came. These unique functions of the Sinaitic Covenant all expired when Christ came. God’s moral principles never expire. But the signs and shadows that point to Christ do expire when Christ came, and the Sabbath observance is just such a shadow. It is part of what Paul calls the “bondwoman” in Galatians 4, before telling us to cast out the bondwoman and her son. Christ is our eternal Sabbath. He has achieved all of God’s blessings for us and guaranteed them for us forever. Those blessings can no more be earned by Sabbath keeping than they can by any other ceremonial observance. The New Testament believer therefore begins to enter into the eternal Sabbath now, resting in Christ not one day in seven, but every day of the week.

(Book excerpt)

The difference between law and gospel is not the difference between works and faith.  Works and faith are present in both law and gospel; the difference is the order.

Adam was created into a blessed state.  He was in fellowship with God and had all of creation under him.  He was never in a state of neutrality with God.  God never called on him to earn favor with God; he had it already. What he was called to do was to obey God’s word in order to maintain that blessed state.  This is the covenant of creation, or the covenant of works- not that Adam was called to earn something with God from a state of neutrality, but to maintain that blessed state into which he was created by his own efforts.  In order to do that, he had to believe what God said.  It was when Adam and Eve called into question the truthfulness of God’s word, when they even entertained the possibility that the devil raised, “Hath God really said?” that the fall happened.  So faith and works were both necessary under the covenant of creation; Adam had to believe God’s word and then work in order to maintain the blessings God had given him.  This Adam failed to do, of course, rebelling against God’s word and plunging himself into ruin.

Israel had the same covenant made with them at Sinai.  God had shown them great grace, had saved them from Egypt, made them a nation and blessed them with His laws and testimonies.  Now He called them to believe His word and obey His laws in order to maintain that blessed state, represented by the promised land.  The law says, “He that does them shall live in them.”  The difference with Israel was their state; now that the race was plunged into sin, it was impossible that they should succeed.  While Adam had the ability to obey God, Israel did not.  The purpose of God’s covenant with Israel was therefore different.  It was to make “sin exceedingly sinful”, in other words, to show them their hopelessness and their need for a savior.  It also had the purpose of separating them from other nations and keeping them together as the special people of God, so that the witness of God’s dealings with His people would be preserved until that savior came.

In other words, the law in Israel had the purpose of pointing them to another promise, the promise God made to Adam and Eve after the fall, and repeated to Abraham- the promise of a godly seed that would undo the damage that Satan had done, symbolically crushing the serpent’s head.  This was the covenant of grace. The promise of the covenant of grace was that God would bestow the blessed state on His people and that it would not be dependent on their actions to maintain that state; rather, Christ would maintain that state for them.  Faith is the link that God works in us to lay hold of that blessed state earned for us by Christ, and good works are the working out of that blessed state in our lives, the beginning of the delivery of all of God’s benefits to us.  The righteousness of the law is that “He that does them shall live in them”, but the righteousness of the gospel is, “the just shall live by faith.”

So we must avoid the mistaken false dichotomy that the difference between the law and the gospel is the difference between works and faith.  Works and faith are present in both.  Law and gospel are two different covenants, two different ways that the end state is achieved.  Under the law, the blessings God gives us are maintained by our own efforts, and ever since the fall all such efforts are doomed.  But Christ fulfilled the law perfectly and earned all those blessings for Himself forever, and under the gospel, the covenant of grace, infallibly delivers those benefits, faith in God’s word and a life of righteous good works, to all those chosen by the Father.

I have a box of old floppy disks that I keep in my office because Allison (age 16 months) loves to play with them.  She comes in and takes them all out and spreads them around the room.  They are brightly colored plastic and just the right size for her.  I haven’t used floppy disks in years, so I don’t mind if she destroys them, which she does.  Once she takes them all out of the box, she doesn’t like to play with them anymore, so she leaves, and I put them all back in the box so she can play with them again.

The kids do the same thing with their playroom- they wreck it.  They spread their toys all over the floor, and then they don’t like to play in their playroom any more, so they go make messes somewhere else.  But once we started training them to clean their playroom (an ongoing process), they get more enjoyment out of it.  We used to clean it for them.  But then they never learn.  They will not clean their room as long as we are cleaning it for them.  Even if we don’t clean it, they still don’t clean it themselves.  They just stop using it and go junk up some other room in the house.

Kids will not do the hard thing until you force them to.  Famous financial analyst John Mauldin, who has six kids, says the same thing about teenagers- they do not make hard choices until they have to.  The longer parents clean their kids’ messes up for them, the longer kids will defer growing up.  They will still be children when they’re 25.  The problem is, that the older kids get, the bigger their messes are.  A teenager can make a much bigger mess of their lives than a 16-month-old can.  So what normally happens is that parents clean up their kids’ messes as long as they’re able, and then the kids have to deal with it themselves, when the messes are truly large.  We’re trying to teach our kids to deal with their messes earlier before they get unmanageable.  There are also important political implications of this truth- because now the government cleans up people’s messes, allowing them to defer maturity even longer.

But as I was talking to my wife about this, she observed that this should change the way we view hard times in our own lives.  Maybe a hardship that comes on us suddenly should be viewed as God telling us that we are going to have to stop playing and clean up our room.  My children always view it as a disaster when we order them to clean up their room NOW or ELSE, but once they get to it, they usually actually start enjoying it, and they definitely enjoy the results- a playroom that is much more fun and enjoyable to be in.

Sometimes hard times come on us without any relationship to mistakes we’ve made.  Sometimes God just brings tests into His people’s lives to build their trust.  But sometimes sinful habits cause consequences in our lives and God forces change.  Sometimes our response to that is to try to avoid change as long as possible. But we ought to learn to view it as a great mercy and an opportunity for growth, to finally get our room cleaned up so we can start enjoying it the way it’s supposed to be.

Even though change seems painful, most of the block is just mental.  So many people talk of overcoming sinful habits and afterwards say, “I’m so much happier now!  Why didn’t I do that years before?”  The drunk doesn’t know how to live without the bottle, but once he dries up he doesn’t know how he lived with it.  It is a great and merciful God that brings hard times into our lives to force us to confront sin and deal with it.  We ought not resent God for taking away such things, but to thank Him for preventing us from destroying ourselves.

The EU was about one thing from the beginning, and one thing only- the desire to overcome the curse of God and achieve peace for themselves, without submitting to the rule of Christ.

It is difficult for Americans to appreciate how deeply scarring the two world wars were for Europe.  Much of their land was bombed, their families and homes killed, monstrous atrocities committed on all sides, their economies wrecked.  They desired at all costs to avoid this fate ever again.  After the war, they set about the project of European Union.  This project was never workable, and was widely criticized on exactly the grounds that we now see it failing.  In this article by Danien Hannan, all the faults of the European Union are laid out well, as well as the fact that all of this was predicted by many from the beginning.

But I think Hannan gets something not quite right.  He says,

Why? What were they thinking? If you listen carefully to
what Euro-integrationists were saying when the single currency was launched,
you hear a subtext. It’s not so much that they liked the euro, it’s that they
disliked the people who opposed it.

He says that the European Union is not truly an economic or political project, but a tribal one.  Here he starts to get close to the real issue.  But in his article, he quotes Angela Merkel saying something that shows us the real issue at heart.

Nobody should take for granted another 50 years of peace and
prosperity in Europe, and that’s why I say, if the euro
fails, Europe fails. We have a historical obligation: to
protect by all means Europe’s unification process begun
by our forefathers after centuries of hatred and bloodshed.

They are terrified of war.  Rightly so- war is terrifying.  And so they continue down this path despite the fact that reality has vetoed their dreams.  Or even more specifically, God has.  He who sits in the heavens shall laugh (Psalm 2) as they attempt to seize the benefits of the kingdom of God by force.

They want peace, but the reason they will not have peace is that they are at war with the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.  As long as that war continues, they can never have peace.  They are like the false prophets of Isaiah’s day crying out, “Peace, Peace” when there is no peace.

Without the Christian perspective this can never be understood.  The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are the agents of God’s will, destroying all those who rebel against the rule of King Jesus .  One of those horsemen is famine, which we are experiencing just a little bit of in the western world right now, as our foolish dreams are destroying our prosperity.  Another one of those horsemen is war, and that crimson rider will no doubt be making his appearance soon.  Angela Merkel knows it instinctively, and is terrified, which is why she still desperately pursues her dream.  This is why those pushing European Union will continue to do so even as it becomes more and more obvious that it is hopeless.  This is why the socialists in our own country will continue to push their dream here.  This is why those pushing the increase of the power of the state will never stop, no matter how badly they fail, no matter how thoroughly their lies are exposed.  They will never stop, because the only option is to face the judgment of God, and this they cannot do.

We cannot enjoy the benefits of the kingdom of God, one of which is peace, unless we submit to the ruler of that kingdom. God will destroy any attempt to avoid His judgment and reject the rightful rule of Jesus Christ, His Son, to whom He has given the kingdom.  Just as He did at the tower of Babel.

From Genesis 11:

 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
 6 And the LORD said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

They desired to make a name for themselves, to make themselves great.  I once heard a liberal atheist say that of all the crimes committed by God in the Bible, this one in Genesis 11 was the greatest. I now understand what he meant.  From his perspective, Genesis 11 shows God’s intention of preventing man from ever avoiding the effects of His curse, no matter how hard they try.  Man can never unite, can never work together, can never cooperate in their schemes.  War and division will always plague them, because God decreed it.  They cry peace, peace, but there is no peace.

The thing that is destroying the European Union is division.  The Greeks are not the Germans and never will be.  Their different cultures, different histories, and ancient divisions cannot be overcome by acts of parliaments, by bureaucrats in Brussels.

Socialists point to the relatively successful welfare states in places like Japan and Sweden as the model.  Those welfare states work, to the degree that they do, because those populations have high work ethics and a high degree of cultural homogeneity. (America paying for their military defense is a big help too.)  But what both of those cultures are now discovering is that a welfare state, over time, destroys the very characteristics that make it work.  It destroys the work ethic and the cultural homogeneity.

Because again, God’s rule cannot be vetoed.  Peace, prosperity, success and safety come only one way- by submission to the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  It will come no other way.

But the children of the Beast, the unbelievers of this world, will continue their war, no matter what plagues God visits on them.  They worship the Beast, the power of the State, who is the servant of that old dragon, Satan, and are under the power of the false prophet, the lying philosophies and religions of the world, that convinces men that somehow this time it will be different.  It won’t be different.  The Tower of Babel is falling again- as it did for the Soviets in 1990, and for the Nazis in 1945, and for the Kaiser and the shoguns and Napoleon and Genghis Khan and Caesar and Nebuchadnezzar and all that went before.  Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords and will smash the nations of the world with a rod of iron.

Psalm 2, again:

 10 Now therefore, be wise, O kings; Be instructed, you judges of the earth.
 11 Serve the LORD with fear, And rejoice with trembling.
 12 Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, And you perish in the way, When His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.

Blessed are all those who trust in Him.  And for that, today, I am very thankful.

The believer in God’s sovereignty is often called a fatalist or a determinist.  Sometimes Christians, stung by this criticism, react by somehow reducing God’s control over all things, through language like “God allows bad things to happen” or similar ideas.  But the real difference between fatalism and Biblical sovereignty is merely this- fatalism teaches that all things happen for impersonal and abstract reasons, and we are simply caught in the machine.  One should not resist one’s fate because there is no point.  The Biblical understanding of God’s sovereignty, however, teaches that all things happen for the good of God’s elect people.  One should not resist the will of God because there is no point, but also because the will of God is for my good, for my salvation.  Fatalism is impersonal, but God’s sovereign rule is very personal and benevolent.  This is a world of difference.