What Happened to Sunday?

 

   Is it just me, or have we begun to re-think the Christian position on the Lord's Day?  Are there not Ten Commandments?  The fourth command, it seems, is no longer valid.  But, you protest, we are not under law but under grace. Then does that mean none of the other nine are valid either? We can now dishonor our parents, kill, steal, lie, and be immoral etc.  Of course no one believes that. 

My question is, were our parents and grandparents wrong? They believed it was the Lord's Day.  This has been the position of the church for almost 2,000 years.  I remember Lynchburg when Blue Laws were in effect and all stores were closed except the Drug stores.  I am a Baptist, but it was a general view of all churches.  The shorter catechism states that the fourth command is a part of the moral law and is therefore, to be observed in all ages.  The Lord said, "If you love me keep my commandments."  We keep God's commandments not out of fear, but out of love.  The shorter catechism goes on to describe how we are to keep the Lord's Day:

   Q.60. "How is the Sabbath to be sanctified?"

   A. "The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God's worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy."

   The Baptist confession of faith, called "The London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689", says the same thing.  Were they deceived?  It is either that, or we have drifted away from the historical faith once held by the church of every branch.  Is it any wonder that the church, who no longer holds to the faith of the Bible, has lost its position and power to influence the morals of a nation?  Is it not hypocrisy to pray for revival and to openly break God's laws?  If we as a church disregard one command why not all?  It is time to turn back to the faith that made a people great.

   A test of love is obedience.  What God commands, He will enable us to do, by His power.

   During the French Revolution, it was said that the way to destroy Christianity, was to destroy the Sabbath.  They, for a time, created a ten day week for that very purpose.  The way to destroy the church in America is to draw our attention away to other things.  It is still God's day, but we are about to lose it to the self-seeking, self-serving, and those bent on having their own way.  May God grant us repentance one more time!

 

Pastor Don Rice