ENDTIME ISSUES NEWSLETTER NO. 157

“The Sabbath and Creation”

Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D.

Retired Prof. of Theology and Church History

Andrews University

Have you ever wondered why the Sabbath has been under the constant crossfire of controversy during the course of Christian history? Since the time of the Reformation over 3000 treatises have been written debating the Sabbath/Sunday question. At Amazon.com over 350 books are currently for sale dealing with the Sabbath/Sunday subject. In recent years over 30 doctoral dissertations have been produced and published in major universities, all of them attempting to legitimize Sunday as a biblical institution.

Few days ago I sent a 50 pages document to Dr. Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary–the most influential Baptist seminary in the USA. In a recent sermon President Mohler attempted to legitimize Sunday as the biblical DAY OF WORSHIP, by contrasting it with the Sabbath which he views as a Jewish DAY OF REST AND RESTRICTIONS. Evangelical promoters of THE COMMANDMENTS DAY went out of their way to show that the Sabbath as seventh-day is Jewish and was nailed to the Cross.

Why is the Sabbath under the constant crossfire of controversy? Why Catholic and Protestant leaders never seems to get tired to attack the Sabbath as a Jewish institution terminated at the Cross? Why is it that they do not seem to have a problem to accept as “Christians” the rest of the nine commandments? What makes the Sabbath so objectionable?

The Sabbath Challenges Us to Be God-Centered

Could it be that the major reason is more existential rather than theological? Could it be that most people find the Sabbath commandment objectionable because it summons us to consecrate the time of the seventh day to God? Most people today are very touchy about time. They want to use their time, especially the weekend, to seek for pleasure or profit, not necessarily for the presence and peace of God in their lives.

We live today in a self-centered society where people are more interested in what pleases them, than in what pleases God. The Sabbath challenges us to be God-centered not only on the seventh-day, but by reflex every day. This helps us understand why the Sabbath plays a vital prophetic role in the endtime showdown between true and false worship. You will find a lengthy discussion of the role of the Sabbath in the endtime showdown over worship in my newly released DVD album on THE MARK AND NUMBER OF THE BEAST. Viewing this two and a half hour video lecture will be an enlightening experience. You can order it online at the special introductory offer by clicking here: http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/BeastAD/

Sabbath School Quarterly: Beginnings and Belongings

The inspiration for this newsletter came from our current Sabbath School Quarterly entitled BEGINNINGS AND BELONGINGS. The third lesson for October 14-20, 2006, is entitled “The Early Earth,” and briefly mentions the Sabbath. As a service especially to our Sabbath School teachers, I thought I would share a few excerpts from what I have written on “The Sabbath and Creation,” especially since I address several of the topics presented in the lessons. We will continue the study of the Sabbath in the next newsletter, by examining the question of “The Sabbath and Salvation.”

Adventists have been accused of making the Sabbath their Savior. Part of the problem is that our Adventist publications have largely ignored the relationship between the Sabbath and the Savior. When the Review and Herald published in 1982 the scholarly symposium THE SABBATH IN SCRIPTURE AND HISTORY, none of the 22 Adventist contributors examined the redemptive function of the Sabbath in the OT and NT. Incidentally, this is the best Adventist publication on the Sabbath. My chapter deals with the change from Sabbath to Sunday in early Christianity.

In the next newsletter I will summarize my research on the Sabbath and the Savior. We will see how in OT times the themes of the Sabbath rest, liberation, and the sabbatical structure of time, served to nourish the hope and strengthen the faith in the Messiah to come. In the NT the Sabbath is closely linked to Christ’s redemptive ministry. Jesus inaugurated His ministry on a Sabbath in the synagogue of Nazareth, He intensifies His ministry on the Sabbath by offering physical and spiritual restoration to needy people, and He closed His ministry on a Friday afternoon, saying “It is finished,” and then resting on the Sabbath in the tomb.

The act of resting on the Sabbath is presented in Hebrews, not merely as physical relaxation, but primarily as a faith and love response to our Savior. Hebrews 4:10 exhorts us to stop our work on the Sabbath in order to enter into God’s rest, that is, in order to allow the Savior to work in us more fully and freely. I look forward to share with you in the next newsletter this much needed understanding of the Sabbath.

UPDATE ON CRACKING THE DA VINCI CODE

What a thrilling experience it was for me to watch the edited version of my video lecture CRACKING THE DA VINCI CODE. The taping was done two weeks ago in the media studio of Andrews University by Leonard Brown, Prof. of Filming at Andrews. For the past two weeks Leonard and his assistant have worked incessantly to superimpose my lecture on an impressive virtual studio with a wide screen surrounded by several TV monitors. It looks as if I delivered the lecture from a multi-million dollars Hollywood studio, when in reality the taping was done in the modest studio of Andrews University. It is incredible to see what digital technology can do today!

Prof. Brown spent countless hours dropping manually each of the 135 slides that I have used for the powerpoint presentation. The slides are sharp and clear in the impressive wide virtual screen. It was a most gratifying experience for me to watch the edited version of my lecture which looks far better than I could have ever imagined. The editing process is complete and the duplication has began. All the orders we have already received will be processed during the next few days.

To get a preview of the virtual studio setting of the lecture and of the clarity of the slides, you can view a three minutes trailer of the lecture by clicking here:

http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/DaVinci/trailer.html

Why I Examined The Da Vinci Code

You may be wondering, why would a Church Historian like me, invest five months of research and thousand of dollars to video-tape an analysis of the novel The Da Vinci Code (Henceforth DVC). The answer is simple. The DVC is much more than a best selling novel that has sold over 60.5 million copies as of May 2006. It is a social phenomenon that is shattering the faith of millions of Christians by blatantly attacking the fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith. In many ways this is a blasphemious and sacrelegious novel and movie that insults God, Christ, the Gospels, the Bible, and the fundamental Christian teachings. The popularity of the novel and its movie, speak volumes about the postmodern relativism and rejection of the Christian faith.

The problem with the DVC is that it is fiction presented as fact. On page 1, called the “FACT” page, Dan Brown, states: “All descriptions of art work, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate” (DVC 1). On several interviews, Dan Brown repeated the same claim. When asked by Matt Lauer in the Today Show how much of the book was based on actual events, Dan Brown replied, “Absolutely all of it.”

Surprisingly, the DVC has been favorably reviewed in several newspapers and journals. The New York Daily News says: “The research impeccable.” The Library Journal writes: “This masterpiece should be mandatory reading.” The Washington Post states: “Read the book and be enlightened.”

I read the book but I was not enlightened at all. On the contrary, I was shocked and greatly distressed by the sheer absurdity of the many false claims, which are totally devoid of any historical or biblical support. For example, the DVC claims that:

• Christ married Mary Magdalene and they had a daughter Sarah.

• Christ chose Mary Magdalene to lead His church, not the twelve apostles as the Gospels tell us.

• Constantine chose our 4 Gospels out of 80 existing ones, because these promote Christ’s divinity. He rejected the Gnostic Gospels because they stress the human traits of Christ.

• The early Christians worshipped the “sacred feminine” with ritual sex in order to experience the knowledge of God.

• The Catholic Church has conspired to suppress the secret of Christ’s marriage by using murderous organizations like Opus Dei.

As an Early Church historian, I can assure you that there is not a shred of historical evidence for any of these absurd claims. Yet million of gullible Christians are accepting as truth Dan Brown’s false claims about the origin of Christianity. The reason is that they are biblically and historically illiterate.

Polls taken in different countries clearly indicate that DVC has a devastating impact upon the fundamental Christian beliefs of millions of people. In England, for example, 60 per cent of the people who read the DVC believe that the book is telling the truth about the origin of Christianity. To ignore Dan Brown’s deceptive attempts to discredit the Christian faith, means to fail to help the million of confused Christians, who are unable to distinguish between the DVC’s facts and the fiction.

The Aim of the Lecture

The aim of the lecture is to expose, not the UNREAL Catholic conspiracy to cover up Christ’s marital status, but the REAL conspiracy of Dan Brown himself, that is, his deceptive methods to discredit Christianity, in order to promote his neo-pagan forms of worship.

The ultimate aim is to seek to understand how the neo-pagan false worship promoted by the DVC, fulfills the prophetic scenario of the endtime showdown between true and false worship, as predicted by Jesus, Paul, and expanded in Revelation.

The numerous books that I have read on the DVC and the 20 plus powerpoint presentations that I have reviewed, largely ignore the prophetic significance of the neo-pagan false worship promoted by Dan Brown. This is true even of the several Adventist articles and powerpoint presentations. These authors limit themselves to refute Dan Brown’s false allegations regarding the nature of Christ, His marriage to Mary Magdalene, the origin of the Gospels, and the conspiracy of the Catholic Church to cover up the secret of Christ’s matital status. But they make no attempt to understand where is Dan Brown leading people? What is his secret agenda? What are his strategies to lead many people away from the true worship of God into his neo-pagan forms of worship? It is to these questions that I devote the major part of my lecture.

Dan Brown Uses Two Strategies to Promote His Neo-pagan Worship

Simply stated, I found that Dan Brown uses two major strategies to promote his neo-pagan worship. On the one hand, he attacks all the fundamental beliefs of Christianity mentioned earlier, and on the other hand, he promotes his neo-pagan forms of worship by teachings such heresies as these:

1) We need to liberate ourselves from the monotheistic worship of one God– the male God of the Bible.

2) We are free to worship several Gods and Goddesses on any day, because the Sabbath is Jewish and Sunday is pagan.

3) We need to liberate ourselves from the worship of Jesus as the Son of God, because He was a mere mortal man, who was declared divine by Constantine in AD 325 at the Council of Nicaea.

4) We need to liberate ourselves from the ignorant belief that the Bible is inspired and authoritative, because “The Bible is the product of man … not of God … and it has evolved through countless translations, additions and revisions” (DVC 312).

5) Ritual sex “is not a perversion. It is a deeply sacrosanct ceremony” practiced by pious Jews and the early Christians (DVC 309).

6) We can become “spiritually complete” and achieve knowledge of God through ritual sex (DVC 308).

7) We must worship the “Sacred Feminine” because Goddesses have unusual powers to give wisdom and saving knowledge.

Prophetic Significance of The Da Vinci Code

Dan Brown’s neo-pagan false worship is popular because it appeals to our secular, postmodern, humanistic, new age culture which rejects moral absolutes–such as the Ten Commandments, creation, no sex outside marriage–accepting instead moral relativism. Truth, as Dan Brown puts it, is “whatever you believe it to be.”

Surprisingly, some Adventists appreciate the DVC because of its blatant attacks against the Catholic Church. What these fellow believers ignore, is not only the falsity of the DVC’s allegations, but also the possibility that one day another “Dan Brown” could write a novel full of false allegations to defame our Adventist church as a cult that has suppressed the errors taught by such pioneers as Ellen White and Uriah Smith. It is well to remember that we should treat others as we want to be treated ourselves.

Surprisingly, the prophetic significance of Dan Brown’s neo-pagan false worship, is largely ignored in the Adventist critical reviews and powerpoint presentations that I have read and seen. But as Adventists who claim to have a prophetic understanding of the endtime showdown over worship, we can hardly ignore the prophetic significance of The Da Vinci Code. Our past tendency to place all our eggs in the basket of the papacy, may blind us to the fact that Satan is using a variety of agencies to lead the world into idolatrous forms of worship.

The false worship being promoted by the DVC represents in my view a significant manifestation of the prophetic endtime battle between true and false worship. God’s final appeal in Revelation is to come out of the false worship promoted by spiritual Babylon, that is, by a variety of satanic agencies: “Come out of her my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues” (Rev 18:4).

Revelation portrays Satan like a monster with many tentacles, using different strategies (beasts) to win the battle over worship. The DVC is one of the significant strategies. Our calling is to proclaim to the world God’s final warning message: “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the funtain of the water” (Rev 14:7).

Viewing the DVD recording of CRACKING THE DA VINCI CODE, will be for an inspiring and enlightening experience. It will help you understand some of the subtle deceptions of our time. The DVD album offers you an ideal tool for witnessing to your neighbors and friends who have read the DVC. It will help you and your friends to see the prophetic significance of the neo-pagan false worship promoted by Dan Brown, the New Age movement, and our post-modernistic culture.

To make it possible for many to benefic from this timely visual lecture, we are offering the DVD album on CRACKING THE DA VINCI CODE until OCTOBER 31, 2006 at the following introductory prices:

ONE DVD ALBUM for $35.00 instead of regular price of $100.00.

TWO DVD ALBUMS for $50.00 instead of $200.00.

SEVEN DVD ALBUMS for $100.00 instead of $700.00.

The quoted prices include the AIRMAIL to any overseas destination. You can order the DVD albums on CRACKING THE DA VINCI CODE  in four different ways:

(1) Online: By clicking here:

http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/DaVinci/

(2)  Phone:  By calling us at (269) 471-2915 to give us your credit card number and postal address.

(3)  Email: By emailing your order to this address: <sbacchiocchi@biblicalperspectives.com>. Be sure to provide your  postal address, credit card number, and expiration date.     

(4) Regular Mail: By mailing your check to BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVES, 4990 Appian Way, Berrien Springs, Michigan 4990, USA. We guarantee to process your order immediately.

FORTHCOMING VISIT TO SYDNEY AND BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA

Our Australian subscribers living in Sydney or Brisbane, will be pleased to learn about my forthcoming visit to their cities. The details of my itinerary are as follows:

November 17-18: PARRAMATTA SDA CHURCH, SYDNEY

Location: 77-81 Hammers Road, Old Toongabbie, Sydney NSW 2146

For information feel free to contact Pastor Rein Muhlberg at (02) 9620 5382 or (02) 9896 3158. I look forward to a great rally. Pastor Muhlberg is a fine pastor who invited me many years ago in Auckland, NZ.

November 20: Monday 9:00 a. m. – SYDNEY WORKERS’ MEETING

Location: Greater Sydney Conference, 4 Cambridge Street, Epping, NSW 2121, Sydney. For information call the Ministerial Secretary, Pastor Garth Bainbridge at (02) 9868 6522. The meeting is primarily for our GSC workers, but Pastor Bainbridge may be willing to grant you admission, if you first make public confession of all your past sins (Please laugh!).

The plan is for me to present two lectures. The first is entitled “From Sabbath to Sunday: How It Came About.” In this powerpoint presentation I will share the highlights of my research on the change of the Sabbath, done in Rome at the Pontifical Gregorian University. The second lecture is entitled “The Mark and Number of the Beast.” This powerpoint study examines the various past and present interpretations of the mark and number of the Beast. It is designed to help our pastors and members understand why our Adventist church has moved from the numeric to the symbolic interpretation of 666.

November 24-26: BRISBANE: SABBATH CONFERENCE

Location: Brisbane Adventist College, 303A Broadwater Road, Mansfield, QLD 4122. The Sabbath Conference is co-sponsored by the South Queensland Conference and several sabbatarian churches in the Bribane area. For information feel free to contact Pastor Mark Pierce at 0417625884.

November 27: Monday 9:00 a. m. – BRISBANE WORKERS’ MEETING

Location: 19 Eagle Terrace, Brisbane, QLD 4000. For information call the Conference office at (7) 3218-777. If you are not a pastor, ask the Conference office for permission to attend. There should be no problem.

FREE CD/DVD ALBUM OF PROF. GRAEME BRADFORD

Several pastors have reported to me that after showing to their congregation Prof. Bradford’s live DVD lecture on Ellen White, most members were very eager to purchase a copy of the book MORE THAN A PROPHET at the special offer of $5.00 per copy, instead of the regular price of $25.00.

To make it possible for every Adventist family to benefit from Prof. Bradford’s timely book MORE THAN A PROPHET, I decided to offer until October 31, 2006, one FREE CD/DVD album of Prof. Bradford, with any order of 2 or more copies of the book MORE THAN A PROPHET. The regular price of the CD/DVD album is $100.00, but you will receive this album free with your order of 2 or more copies of the book. The reason for this offer is the conviction that when your church members and friends view Prof. Bradford’s DVD lecture, they will be eager to purchase a copy of his book. For more details and order information, click here: http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/BradfordOffer/offer.htm

More than a Prophet is the fruit of twenty years of Prof. Bradford’s painstaking research on the prophetic ministry of Ellen White. It is a long-overdue book that clears the air of prevailing misconceptions about Ellen White which have caused thousands of Adventists to leave church.

A dozen of Conferences have already donated a copy of More than a Prophet to each of their workers. For example, the Texas Conference ordered 200 copies. Other conferences have ordered fewer copies because of their smaller number of workers. Overseas conferences like the South African Union, ordered 300 copies. Your personal effort to promote this timely book in your church is greatly appreciated.

ANNOUNCEMENTS AT THE END OF THE NEWSLETTERS

A detailed description of the special offers on goods and services is provided at the end of this newsletter. Here is a brief listing of the announcements that are expanded at the end of this newsletter.

1. CALENDAR OF FORTHCOMING WEEKEND SEMINARS for the months of October, and November 2006. See the details at the end of this newsletter.

2. PROF. BRADFORD NEWLY RELEASED BOOK MORE THAN A PROPHET, AND HIS CD/DVD ALBUM. The CD/DVD album is offered free at this time with the purchase of two or more books. See the details at the end of this newsletter.

3. DR. BACCHIOCCHI’S NEWLY RELEASED DVD ALBUM ON THE MARK AND NUMBER OF THE BEAST. See the details at the end of this newsletter.

4. DR. BACCHIOCCHI’S PACKAGE OF ALL HIS RECORDINGS. The package consists of 5 albums which are offered for only $100.00, instead of the regular price of $500.00. See the details at the end of this newsletter.

5. PROF. JON PAULIEN PUBLICATIONS IN ONE CD ALBUM.  The album contains more than a dozen of books and scores of articles written during the past 20 years of research. See the details at the end of this newsletter.

6. PROF. JON PAULIEN’S 60 CD DISKS containing 120 lectures that explain verse by verse the book of Revelation. See the details at the end of this newsletter.

7. TAGNET SPECIAL NEW WEB HOSTING OFFER for Adventist churches and members. TAGnet provides an incredible number of webhosting services to our churches and members. This newsletter comes to you through their gracious and efficient service. For detail information, visit their website at http://www.netadventist.org or http://home.tagnet.org/ You may also call their office 800 - 9TAGNET. They are ready and eager to help you.

8. SPECIAL OFFER ON HITACHI PROJECTORS: HITACHI has offered an additional discount to help especially our churches and schools in developing countries. For examples, the special offer for the new 2500 LUMENS PROJECTOR CP-X260, WHICH I RECEIVED ON OCTOBER 12, 2006. IS ONLY $1195.00, instead of the previous SDA price of $2595.00. See the details at the end of this newsletter or call me at 269-471-2915

9. SPECIAL OFFER ON NEWLY RELEASED TOSHIBA LAPTOP TECRA A8 with dual processor and finger-print security. See details at the end.

10. REMOTE PRESENTER: Special offer on the smallest and most powerful REMOTE powerpoint presenter by Honeywell. See the details at the end of this newsletter.

11. BED & BREAKFAST FACILITIES IN LONDON, ENGLAND

If your travel plans call for a stop in London, will be pleased to learn about a most gracious Adventist couple that offer the best accommodation and breakfast I have ever enjoyed. See details at: http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/Promotions/BED&BREAKFAST.htm

“The Sabbath and Creation”

Samuele Bacchiocchi, Ph. D.

Retired Prof. of Theology and Church History

Andrews University

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION

This Bible study is excerpted from chapter 2 of my book THE SABBATH UNDER CROSSFIRE. For the sake of brevity, I have left out not only the footnotes, but also the historical debate about the creation Sabbath.

If you are looking for a book on the Sabbath to give to a friend, I would heartily recommend this book, rather than the other three Sabbath books that I have authored. The reason is that this book responds in a compelling way to all the major arguments used to negate the continuity and validity of the Sabbath.

During the past five years, this book has helped over 200 ministers to accept the Sabbath. In some instances, whole congregations belonging to the Salvation Army, Southern Baptists, Methodist, Pentecostal, and Mennonite churches, have moved their services from Sunday to Saturday. To facilitate the distribution of this timely book, we offer it by the case of 32 copies for only $200.00, postage paid, that is, $6.25 per copy, instead of the regular price of $25.00. For details and order information click here: http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=bookstore&Product_Code=BP-SUC-SP&Category_Code=specials

The study of the Sabbath and Creation is important because most Christians today, including former Adventist pastors and professors who recently left the Adventist church, attack the Sabbath by denying its creation-origin and reducing it to a Mosaic institution given exclusively to the Jews. Christ allegedly fulfilled the Sabbath by replacing the literal observance of the day with the offer of His rest of salvation. By rejecting the creation origin of the Sabbath these Christians attach a negative, “Jewish” stigma to seventh-day Sabbathkeeping, identifying it with the Jewish dispensation allegedly based on salvation through legal obedience.

Sundaykeeping, on the other hand, is associated with the Christian dispensation based on salvation by grace through faith. Thus, Sabbathkeeping is perceived as a trademark of Judaism, while Sundaykeeping as the distinguishing characteristic of Christianity.

This view is passionately defended by Dale Ratzlaff, a former Seventh-day Adventist Bible teacher and pastor who has written an influential book Sabbath in Crisis (345 pages). Recently, Ratzlaff has retitled his book as Sabbath in Christ, obviously because the title Sabbath in Crisis suggests that God Himself is in crisis, since He established the Sabbath in the first place. The truth is that Ratzlaff, not God, is in crisis. Most likely he has experienced the Sabbath as a burden, rather than as a blessing. Consequently, he is trying to find ways to negate the validity and value of the Sabbath.

Ratzlaff argues that the Sabbath is not a creational/moral institution for humans, but a ceremonial/Old Covenant ordinance given to the Jews. Allegedly, Christians no longer need to observe the Sabbath because Christ fulfilled its typological function by becoming our Sabbath rest. It is unfortunate that Ratlaff’s unbiblical teachings have influenced thousands of Adventists to leave the church.

The creation origin of the Sabbath has come under constant attack because what Christians believe about its origin determines what they believe about its validity and value for today. Those who believe that the Sabbath was established by God at creation for the benefit of human beings, accept its observance as a creation ordinance binding upon all, Jews and Christians.

By contrast, those who hold that the Sabbath originated at the time of Moses, or after the settlement in Canaan because of socioeconomic or astrological-astronomic considerations, regard the Sabbath as a Jewish institution not applicable to Christians. These implications make it to briefly examine how the question of the origin of the Sabbath.

Objectives

This Bible study has three basic objectives. The first is to survey what the OT and NT teach regarding the origin of the Sabbath.

The second objective is to examine the specific arguments recently advanced against the creation origin by former Sabbatarians. In most cases, their arguments are old, having already been used in the past by those who have attempted to negate the continuity and validity of the Sabbath. Yet these arguments deserve a close examination because they are used today to mislead many sincere people.

The third objective is to reflect on the human implications of the creation origin of the Sabbath. Specifically, we consider the significance of God’s act of resting, blessing, and sanctifying the seventh day for the human family. We shall note that creation week is in a special sense a human week because all that God did on that week was designed to have a lasting result for the human family.

Our ultimate objective is not to expose the fallacies of the various arguments raised against the creation origin and universal function of the Sabbath, but to encourage a fresh appreciation for the Biblical account of the Sabbath origin and meaning for today.

THE CREATION-SABBATH IN SCRIPTURE

The Creation-Sabbath in the Old Testament

The biblical view of the origin of the Sabbath is unequivocal: the Sabbath, as the seventh day, originated at the completion of the creation week as a result of three divine acts: God “rested,” “blessed,” and “hallowed” the seventh day (Gen 2:2-3). Twice Genesis 2:2-3 states that God “rested” on the seventh day from all His work. The Hebrew verb sabat, translated “rested,” denotes cessation, not relaxation. The latter idea is expressed by the Hebrew verb nuah, used in Exodus 20:11, where the divine rest fulfills an anthropological function as a model for human rest. However, in Genesis 2:2-3 the divine rest has a cosmological function. It serves to explain that God, as Karl Barth puts it, “was content to be the Creator of this particular creation . . . He had no occasion to proceed to further creations. He needed no further creations.”⁴ To acknowledge this fact, God stopped.

Genesis 2:3 affirms that the Creator “blessed” (barak) the seventh day just as He had blessed animals and Adam and Eve on the previous day (Gen 1:22, 28). Divine blessings in Scripture are not merely “good wishes”—they are assurance of fruitfulness, prosperity, and a happy and abundant life (Ps 133:3). In terms of the seventh day, it means that God promised to make the Sabbath a beneficial and vitalizing power through which human life is enriched and renewed. In Exodus 20:11, the blessing of the creation seventh day is explicitly linked with the weekly Sabbath.

Genesis 2:3 also affirms that the Creator “hallowed” (RV, RSV) the seventh day, “made it holy” (NEB, NAB), or “sanctified it” (NASB). Both here and in the Sabbath commandment (Ex 20:11), the Hebrew text uses the verb qiddes (piel), from the root qds, holy. In Hebrew, the basic meaning of “holy” or “holiness” is “separation” for holy use. In terms of the Sabbath, its holiness consists in God’s separation of this day from the six working days. The holiness of the Sabbath stems not from man’s keeping it, but from God’s choice of the seventh day to be a channel through which human beings can experience more freely and fully the awareness of His sanctifying presence in their lives.

The Importance of the Creation-Sabbath

The great importance of the creation-Sabbath in the Old Testament is indicated by the fact that it provides the theological motivation for the commandment to observe the seventh day (Ex 20:11) and the theological justification for serving as a covenant sign between God and Israel (Ex 31:17).

The theological reason given for the command to observe the seventh day Sabbath “to the Lord your God” (Ex 20:10) is “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them and rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Ex 20:11). The tie between the creation-Sabbath and the Sabbath commandment is so close that the former provides the basis for the latter. To keep the Sabbath holy means (1) to follow the divine example given at creation, (2) to acknowledge God as Creator, and (3) to participate in God’s rest and blessings for mankind.

The creation-Sabbath serves also as “a sign” (‘ôth) of the covenant relationship between God and His people: “It is a sign for ever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed” (Ex 31:17). The very nature of a sign is to point to something beyond itself, to mediate an understanding of a certain reality and/or to motivate a corresponding behavior.

As a covenant sign rooted in creation, the Sabbath mediates an understanding of redemptive history (i.e., covenant history) by pointing retrospectively and prospectively. Retrospectively, the Sabbath invites the believer to look back and memorialize God as the creator of an original, perfect creation (Gen 2:2-3; Ex 20:8,11; 31:17). Prospectively, the Sabbath encourages the believer to look forward and trust God’s promise to fulfill His “everlasting covenant” (Ex 31:16; Heb 4:9) to restore this world to its original perfection. Thus, the Sabbath stands as a sign of an “everlasting covenant” bet