Reddit mentions of Sabbathum Veteris et Novi Testamenti: or, The True Doctrine of the Sabbath

> First, I'm interested in how Israel is connected in Reformed Theology. I live in an area where Christian Zionism is the air you breathe and every single policy has to benefit Israel or else God will be against us. I doubt this for many reasons. How do we talk to folks like this? How do we work to change this kind of attitude? What do the Scriptures really say about Israel?

The Puritan Richard Sibbes writes, "The faithful Jews rejoiced to think of the calling of the Gentiles; and why should not we joy to think of the calling of the Jews?"

The Reformed, while far from Zionist or dispensationalist, do hope for the conversion of the Jews before the end of the world. Francis Turretin mentions this in the third volume of his Institutes (the 18th Topic, Question 9), for instance, and the Westminster Larger Catechism teaches that such a hope is implicit in the Lord's Prayer:

> Q. 191. What do we pray for in the second petition?

> A. In the second petition, (which is, Thy kingdom come,) acknowledging ourselves and all mankind to be by nature under the dominion of sin and Satan, we pray, that the kingdom of sin and Satan may be destroyed, the gospel propagated throughout the world, the Jews called, the fullness of the Gentiles brought in...

That said, the current geopolitical nation of Israel is against Christ. Although I have not read it, The Israel of God by O. Palmer Robertson has been recommended to me.

> Secondly, I'm really wondering about the apostles. Not just their history, but the theology behind them. What did it take to be an apostle?

The apostles were sent out (as in the verb ἀποστέλλω) by Christ as the great Apostle (John 20:21, Hebrews 3:1). Mark 3:14-19, 6:30; John 20:21-23; and 1 Corinthians 15:5-8 show the apostleship of the twelve disciples.

> If Peter was greater, then why does it appear that James had more authority in Acts 15 or we have more of Paul's letters?

He who would become great in the kingdom of God is to become a servant, ministering to others (Matthew 20:26-28). The apostles all shared equal authority, as they were all sent out by Christ with the same commission.

Although the first to confess Christ, Peter did not lord his apostolic authority over others. Diotephes loved to have preeminence, while Peter counted himself as a fellow-presbyter (συμπρεσβύτερος) among colleagues in the ministry, not even the first among equals (3 John 1:9, 1 Peter 5:1). On the contrary, the apostle exhorted his presbyterian associates to be ministers of God, not masters exercising tyranny over the Church (1 Peter 5:1-4).

> Was Paul counted as one of the 12? If so, who did he replace? If 12 wasn't too significant to the overall picture, then why start with 12 and add more later?

The number twelve is significant, since the twelve apostles are the faithful witnesses to the twelve tribes of Israel (Luke 22:29-30, Acts 1:8, James 1:1, Revelation 21:14).

Paul, however, was an apostle to the Gentiles, not to the twelve tribes of Israel (Romans 1:5; Galatians 1:16, 2:8). This may also explain why we have the most letters from him.

> Was an apostle always someone who had divine authourity? Then shouldn't we have their writings? Why does Paul say one of the ways you can know he's an apostle is by his suffering? And how would the Jews at that time have seen the role of apostle? Was it analogous to any priestly or prophetic duty?

An apostle had priority over a prophet (1 Corinthians 12:28). For a general overview, you may want to read the entry on Apostle in John Brown of Haddington's A Dictionary of the Holy Bible.

> I'm wondering if there are any other works on the Sabbath history? How did the first 8 centuries of the church handle this question?

I would very much recommend The Sabbath Viewed in the Light of Reason, Revelation, and History by James Gilfillan. At the beginning of the book the author sketches the "Sabbatic controversies and literature prior to the Reformation," and proceeds to summarize the first six centuries of the Christian era:

> Among the Fathers and early Christian writers, no fewer than thirty-one out of forty-seven have adverted, with less or more brevity, to the Sabbatic institution. Both as combatants against Pagan and Jewish errors, and as witnesses, whose testimony, justly held worthy of attention and respect, is to be adduced in another part of this volume, they claim in this place a brief notice:—

> First Century.—Within the period comprised in New Testament history, only two instances occur in which uninspired writers refer to a stated time for religious worship. In a.d. 68-70, Clemens Romanus wrote his celebrated Epistle from the Church of Rome, of which he was bishop or presbyter, to that of Corinth, in which he refers to the seasons of worship as by Christ instituted and commanded to be observed. ...

> Barnabas, another fellow-labourer of Paul, whose Catholic Epistle (a.d. 71 or 72) has for its object to show that the Mosaic dispensation was divinely superseded by the Christian, expressly mentions the universal celebration by the Church of the eighth day as a holy day, in place of the former seventh day. This epistle, written, as Lardner has unanswerably shown, a year or two after the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, is quoted as the work of Barnabas by Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, and was, like the preceding, read in some of the early churches along with the Scriptures.

> Second Century.—In the early part of this century, in 107, or more probably, as some suppose, in 116, Ignatius, a disciple of the apostle John, and afterwards bishop of Antioch, suffered martyrdom, being, by order of the Emperor Trajan, conveyed to Rome, and exposed to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre. On his way to Rome he wrote letters to various churches... In the letter to the Church of Magnesia, there occurs a passage which has been frequently adduced in proof that the Lord's Day was recognised and observed in his time.

> In his first Apology, addressed, in 138 or 139, to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, Justin [Martyr]...records the manner in which the Christians, in the early part of the second century, observed their weekly holy day; and, in his Dialogue with Trypho...vindicates them for not keeping the Jewish Sabbath. He was born in Palestine, about the year 100...and suffered martyrdom about 165.

> We are indebted to Eusebius for notices of three writers who flourished in 170. Melito, bishop of Sardis, was the author of several works, no longer extant, with the exception of a few fragments preserved by the historian, one of which is peculiarly valuable, as containing a list of the canonical books of the Old Testament. Among his works, which had come to the hands of Eusebius, was one περί κυριακῆς—on the Lord's Day, this title alone now surviving of what appears to have been the first distinct treatise on the institution. ...

Etc. This is only a prelude, however, to a study of the entire history of the Sabbath from a Reformed perspective.

If you want to read a history of Puritan Sabbatarianism, there is [The Market Day of the Soul](https://www.amazon.com/Market-Day-Soul-James-Dennison/dp/1573580627/).

> How do our cultural trends affect how we worship on the Lord's Day. How does Sabbatarianism deal with the Sabbath usually starting on the sundown of the "day" before?

If you can read it, William Gouge explains this in The Sabbath's Sanctification.

> Question 48. When begins the Lord's Day?

> Ans. In the morning. Act. 20.7.

> When Paul came to the Church at Troas, he had a mind to spend a Lord's day with them, though he was in great haste to depart so soon as he could. He came therefore to their assembly at the time that they came together according to their custom: but he kept them till the end of the day: (for he would not travel on the Lord's day) and having dismissed the assembly, he departed. Now it is said that he continued his speech till midnight (Acts 20.7), even till break of day (verse 11), and then departed: which departure of his is said to be on the morrow. By this punctual expression of the time, it appears that the first day of the week, the Lord's day, ended at midnight, and that then the morrow began. Now to make a natural day, which consisteth of twenty four hours, it must begin and end at the same time: for the end of one day is the beginning of another. There is not a minute betwixt them. As therefore the Lord's day ended at midnight, so it must begin at midnight, when we count the morning to begin. Which is yet more evident by this phrase (Mat. 28.1) In the end of the Sabbath (namely of the week before, which was the former Sabbath) as it began to dawn (namely on the next day, which was the Lord's day). Or (as Joh. 20.1) when it was yet dark there came divers to anoint the body of Jesus, but they found him not in the grave: he was risen before: so as Christ rose before the sun.

There is more.

> How practically should we handle this day?

A good place to start is chapter 21 of the Westminster Confession of Faith as well as the related catechism questions (Questions 57 to 62 of the Shorter and Questions 115 to 121 of the Larger). Fisher's Catechism of the Smaller Catechism elaborates in more detail. For even more detail, you can read [The True Doctrine of the Sabbath*](https://www.amazon.com/Sabbathum-Veteris-Novi-Testamenti-Doctrine/dp/160178399X/) by Nicholas Bownd.