Why Christians must work on the Sabbath

More amusing leaks from SPCK, where a source tells me that staff have reportedly been given a strong theological Christian argument for why they must work on Sundays. And on Bank Holidays. And, incredibly, even Good Friday! If this is the case (I am still waiting to hear back from SPCK with a comment) think this is the first time I've heard of a Christian organisation telling its staff they actually must work on Sundays. Normally they're on the other side of the argument. But apparently, staff at the St Stephen the Great bookshops must be there on Sundays and holy days to fulfil their vital mission of selling bibles and other literature to the faithful who flock to the churches and cathedrals in which the bookshops sit. The argument of the heads of the company comes from the Council of Laodicea, which said that for a Christian to try to take the Sabbath of was to be guilty of Judaising. Willing and happy Judaiser that I am, I post this up on Friday afternoon before disappearing to have my sacrosanct Saturday off. I wish you all a joyful 'shabbat shalom'. (Update: sorry this post disappeard for a while yesterday, I took it down to change it slightly and then forgot to repost it. rg)

'Saint Stephen the Great/SPCK Bookshops
Press Release

'In an effort to exercise the objects of our Charity, Saint Stephen the Great SPCK Bookshops will begin offering its ministry and services on all Bank Holidays and Sundays beginning in May, 2007.  There will be some exceptions, however, it is felt by the Charity Chairman, Mr. Mark Brewer and the company president, Mr. Philip Brewer, that due to the nature of the Christian Charity of Saint Stephen the Great, the most important time for this ministry would be when the Churches are open and in use.

'According to Mark Brewer, keeping the bookshops open on Sundays is not only a vital part of the Charity’s ministry; it finds sanction in the Ecumenical Canons.   Canon 29 of the Synod of Laodicea (AD 343-381) states that “Christians shall not stop work on the Sabbath…”    (This important Council also ratified unanimously Canon 69, which decreed the present Books of the Bible.)   We want to make Bibles and spiritual books available as much and as often as possible – to pilgrims and seekers alike.   

'As Henry Percival wrote in 1899, the Canons of the Seven Ecumenical Synods – including the famous First Ecumenical Council (325 A.D.) at which the first half of the Creed was bequeathed to us –are “infallible and irreformable.”    It is to be remembered that the Canons were adopted during the Ecumenical Councils in unanimous decisions.  These decisions set forth Ecclesiastic definitions.  It was also the councils that accepted and defined other very important Church decisions, such as the doctrine known as the Trinity, establishing the books of the New Testament, acceptance of  the role of iconography to name but a few. 

'It is felt that a very important part of the Christian ministry that takes place on Holy Days and the Sabbath, should by necessity include providing believers, seekers and pilgrims an opportunity to garner much needed information about their faith from our generously supplied and well run Bookshops.  This policy is not only consistent with our charitable objects, but could be considered as best practice for extending the opportunity to those seeking information and knowledge about the Christian Faith at a most important time.'

Once again, for those interesting in researching the background of this story, let me point you to the best online resource on this, Dave Walker. And given my own strong sabbatarian beliefs and 'Judaising' sympathies, now might be the time to mention my story in today's paper from the Jewish Policy Research Institute, who have done a myth-demolishing study into the lives of Jewish people in Britain today.

Comments

[kate brennan]

If it is against British Law to sell Bibles on Sunday, then you can't.

A Sunday sabbath? Shabbat means 7.

James sums up what new believers must do in Acts 15:18-21

1. Keep from idols, fornication, things strangled and don't spill/eat blood.

Acts 15:21 FOR (becuse) Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogues every sabbath.

In English, do these 4 things for starters and you can learn the Torah each week - every Saturday....jesus has resurrected by now and the Sabbath is still Saturday.

If you are grafted into the covenants as part takers of them, then the covenants will not change for you. You must be changed by the Eternal's Spirit residing inside you.

However as Jesus is the Almighty veiled in flesh and as 'the Prophet' (ref deuteron 18"15-18ish) then He must speak with the words of Gd as well as being His own mediator. Jesus was around 40 days after the resurrection and didn't change the Sabbath(s) day(s)(as they are eternal ordinances to last forever as they are moedim (meetings) which are fixed dates in Leviticus 23).

The date of jesus' death, burial and resurrection MUST be the sign of Jonah, as it is the only sign he was going to give which must be 3 days and 3 nights. As he is the 'lamb of |God who takes away the sins of the world' he must die on Nisan 14 with the rest of the slaughtered lambs (male lamb, unblemished, bones not broken etc) Friday to Sunday does not fit.

In Galatians Paul is talking to new non-Jewish believers who think to keep times and dates e.g. Astarte's day and Sols day.

Justin Martyr is just too late, the church was going pearshaped during Paul's time. Although he does say to do only what the bible tells you to do - the only bible available to the apostles was the Tanach (O.T) the New Testament is for you to work out is this Jesus Messiah or not.

Isaiah 66:23 And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon (rosh hodesh) to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the LRD. aslo

Zecharia 14:16-17 And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LRD of hosts, and to deep the feast of tabernacles (Sukkot)

[Ben Keyes]

While some decry Sunday openings with "outrage," the Muslims are literally taking over this once Christian land - just as they are doing throughout Europe.

While we muse about quotes from Councils and Cannons, the application of Sharia spreads like cancer (witness the recent murder verdict in London against a Muslim man who had his own, 20 year old daughter brutally killed for straying from Sharia Law).

While we criticize a Christian bookseller for trying to sell the Bible on Sunday, Tony Blair offers a £1mm grant to teach "moderate" Islam, the same "religion" waging Jihad in Lebanon by which the remaining Christian remant is being murdered, raped and pillaged.

Compared to the real war for the soul of this country, arguing about Sunday trading of Christian books shows how blind we really are.

Condemning SPCK Bookshops for being open on Sunday afternoons is not just silly; it is absurd hypocrisy of the worst sort.

[Revd Eric Petrie]

Dear Ruth, I think that the theological response was my fault as I sent the following to the Shops Manager on 27th April:

Dear Simon,

I have heard that SPCK shops are to be open from 9am – 8pm Monday to Saturday and on Sundays and Bank Holidays.

I would like to comment on this and register a voice of dissent.

Firstly, have you been in any of the city centres where SPCK shops are after 6pm? The only premises open are restaurants and pubs.

Chichester, for example, is like a ghost town. This is true of almost all city centre shopping areas.

The Birmingham shop is in a side street nowhere near those shops which continue open in the evening. And particularly in the dark winter evenings this area can be very threatening.

The Chester shop too is in a side street.

The Winchester shop is close to the Cathedral Green and everything there is closed by 6pm. The Salisbury shop also abuts the Cathedral Close and Salisbury city centre closes at 5pm. This is also true of the shops in Exeter, Hereford, Worcester, York.

The Durham shop, being in the Cathedral, can only open when the Cathedral is open.

I believe this to be an uneconomic step for a company that has been struggling financially for a number of years. It would also place great strains on the staff and their families. And as regards Sunday trading, the Early Church Fathers were quite clear that on the first/eighth day of the week, the Lord’s day, Christians were to gather together for prayer and the breaking of bread and not for commerce and the selling of books. These Fathers are part of the Orthodox tradition of the church before the east/west schism. I quote just a short selection:

Justin Martyr (100-165AD) First Apology

CHAPTER LXVII -- WEEKLY WORSHIP OF THE CHRISTIANS.

… And on the day called Sunday, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability, and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given, and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.

Epistle of Barnabas 15:8-9 (c. 130 A.D.)

"Finally, He says to them: 'I cannot bear your new moons and sabbaths.' You see what He means: it is not the present sabbaths that are acceptable to Me, but the one that I have made; on that Sabbath, after I have set everything at rest, I will create the beginning of an eighth day, which is the beginning of another world. This is why we spend the eighth day in celebration, the day on which Jesus both arose from the dead and, after appearing again, ascended into heaven."

The Didache (or The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles) 14:1 (c. 70 A.D.)

"On the Lord's own day gather together and break bread and give thanks, having first confessed your sins so that your sacrifice may be pure."

Eusebius Ecclesiastical History, Book 5, Chapter 23 (c. 315 A.D.)

"The churches throughout the rest of the world observe the practice that has prevailed from apostolic tradition until the present time, so that it would not be proper to terminate our fast on any other but the day of the resurrection of our Saviour. Hence there were synods and convocations of the bishops on this question; and all unanimously drew up the ecclesiastical decree, which they communicated to all the churches in all places, that the mystery of our Lords resurrection should be celebrated on no other day than the Lords day."

Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons (c. 178 A.D.)

"The duty of celebrating the mystery of the resurrection of our Lord may be done only on the day of the Lord."

The idea of a day set aside for God does, of course, come from the 10 Commandments. This was a day when no work was done – slaves work seven days a week but free people can choose to take a day off. When God set the children of Israel free from slavery in Egypt he gave them a day off from working to remember how he had made them free. How much more should we who are free in Christ be given that day off.

St Dunstan, to whom the church opened by the St Stephen the Great Charitable Trust in Poole is dedicated, wrote the Coronation Oath which is still used in Britain. In it the monarch swears, “First that the church of God and the whole Christian people shall have true peace at all time by our judgment; second, that I will forbid extortion and all kinds of wrong-doing to all orders of men; third, that I will enjoin equity and mercy in all judgments.” Would that SPCK’s new owners had taken the same oath!

God’s freedom is about free grace and generosity of spirit not conforming to the values of the world of Mammon

Revd Eric Petrie (SPCK author)

[Geoff]

This is part of a larger document and is based on the Bible. I hope you find it helpful.

Identify key passages and consider other related passages (eg. Genesis 26:5, [Leviticus 23:32 ..Galatians 4:10 ..Colossians 2:16], Rev 1:10)

Compare Scripture with Scripture in context (eg. The context for Romans 14 is the whole Bible, Paul’s letters to the Churches, Paul’s letter to the Church in Rome, Romans 3:31 and Romans 7:12)

Comment:

- Compare translations for the meaning(s) of Galatians 2:17 (The NIV is different to the NASB)

Some of my own opinions:

- As I understand it, Galatians 2:16 probably refers to the weekly Sabbath (cf. 2 Kings 4:23, 1 Chronicles 23:31) as which specific day of the week is ceremonial ie. The morality consists in the ‘one-dayedness in seven’. Leaders are to assign within their responsibility, mainly by way of example and with gentleness, mercy and graciousness. Christian leaders generally regard this as Sunday but whichever day is observed it has the significance of ‘the Lord’s Day’ and ‘first day of the week’.

- Leviticus 23:32 refers to the Day of Atonement as a sabbath. This was fulfilled with the coming of Jesus Christ.

- We would not expect Paul to say in one of his letters that “the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” and in another letter to say or imply that it doesn’t matter about keeping the Sabbath day holy anymore. Depending on the chronological sequence of his letters, Romans may have been written, in part, to correct misunderstandings on the continuity of the Decalogue.

- The pastoral situation in the early Church concerning the Sabbath was probably extremely delicate for a number of reasons. Jesus' own teaching to release it from Pharisaic observances, His glorious resurrection on the first day of the week and the composition of the early Churches with believers from both Jewish and Gentile backgrounds would be likely to have made the matter of Sabbath observance very complex.

- Judeo-Christian influences may be the reason we have come to think of and have a weekend of two days in modern (western?) society.

[AILSA COOKE]

I thought that it was still against the law to sell Bibles on a Sunday or does that law not include the SPCK bookshops. Am I missing something here or am I right?

[Sunday]

Does this mean I have to work Sunday too? Your humble servant, God.

[Observer]

Regarding the Jewish and Christian observances of their particular 'sabbaths,' Moslems on the Continent have a saying: "First Saturday, then Sunday." Are there enough people on this site who know a bit about Islam's theological and political goals to understand this saying, or should I provide an explanation?

[Dr. Irene Lancaster]

Carrying the posting re 'judaizing' a bit further, when the Jews of Spain began to be forcibly converted to Catholicism, this wasn't good enough for some.

If you happened to have a wash on Friday afternoon, or didn't like the taste of pork, and you were a Christian, either by birth or inclination, you could still be shopped to the authorities and tortured or worse.

I remember teaching these facts to 2nd-year students at Manchester university quite recently, quoting chapter and verse in translation from first-hand sources.

My poor students just couldn't believe it.

[Christopher Gillibrand]

The Trust has an extraordinary version of historical reality. From their website

"Until the Norman Conquest in 1066 A.D., England was Orthodox. Subsequently, England “became” Roman Catholicism, as it was already under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman bishop at the time of the Great Schism of 1054."

I think they are alluding to the fact that William the Conqueror was given a Papal banner as a sign of approval for the expedition (in which arrived the Gillibrands in England), however to think that England was not Catholic prior to 1066 is a self-serving myth. The regular Anglican and Orthodox claim is that Christianity existed in England prior to the mission of St Augustine.

[Dennis Wheaton]

It is clear that these particular Byzantines don't even understand the infallible canons they claim to follow.

The Council of Laodicia says..

CHRISTIANS must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ.

This very clearly states that Christians SHOULD NOT work on Sunday unless absolutely necessary. I would have thought that the new Byzantine owners of SPCK are therefore breaking the infallible canons by making their employees work on the Lord's Day.

It is an unfortunate fact that many Byzantines are happy to insist on councils and canons without actually having much clue what they say.

[Stephen Wikner]

Ruth, Last Thursday (17 May) you undertook to write about the Catholic Communications Day service at which you led the bidding prayers. I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping you will still honour this undertaking. And by the way, did any of your Roman hosts say anything about the fact that this service was taking place on Ascension Day, celebration of which ancient Solemnity has been deferred by recent episcopal decree until tomorrow (20 May)?

[Rhys]

Cardiff's SPCK doesn't even open on a Saturday never mind Sunday.

[Doug Chaplin]

Like you, my first instinct was to find this funny. Not least because the canon they refer to encourages Christians to take Sunday off instead of the sabbath. However, and I've develped this a bit in my blog www.metacatholic.co.uk, the fourth century conflict in Asia Minor over "judaising" actually helped lay the seed-bed for Christian anti-semitism in its later developments. I find an uncritical fundamentalism about the Council of Laodicea raises some worrying questions.

[Thomas Renz]

If the canons of the council of Laodicea are right when they claim that you can tell what people worship by observing which day they take off, the proprietors of the SPCK bookshop are in trouble.

[Thomas Renz]

According to the link to the canons of the council of Laodicea provided in your story, the statement which begins "Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day," continues "rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians." In plain English: "Jews rest on Saturdays and work Sundays, Christians should work Saturdays and rest on Sundays, if it is possible for them, because you can tell someone's allegiance/religion by the day they (want to) take off."

[Peter Richardson]

Yes,Jeremy,there is an excellent book on the subject,the Bible.
I'm not convinced that Sunday Worship ought to be referred to as the Sabbath day.The Sabbath day, and other Sabbaths,were given to the early Hebrews as well as other observances to distinguish and separate them apart as God's people. They did not have Sundays or Saturdays,their calendar was, and still is, set differently they numbered the days of the week. The early Christians met weekly for Gospel study and collections for the widows and orphans, very much as the churches do today. At least that is my understanding. One needs to follow it all through the Bible from start to finish in order to get the picture, as one really needs to do with all of it in all things, in my opinion.

[Alec Corio]

Canon 29 of the synod of Laodicea states

"Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord's Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be judaizers, let them be anathema from Christ."

It seems fairly clear that the sabbath here means the Jewish shabbat, not Sunday.

Could St Stephen's Trust be twisting historical documents for their own profits?

[Jeremy]

I'm deeply persuaded by the theological argument. We'd better keep Sunday ordinary. In fact, surely it's a moral imperative to close the church doors on a Sunday. In fact, let's paste a notice in the porch indicating the location of the nearest SPCK bookshop - just below the new 'No Smoking' sign.

Have I lost the plot? I must nip along to SPCK and see if there's a helpful book on the subject.

[David]

Is it just me but I thought most Christians would be in church on Sunday morning and therefore not shopping for books? Maybe I'm missing something. ;-)

[Fran]

Ruth

It looks like this one could run and run.

But don't you think you might have been the victim of a spoof with this letter - surely even Philip Brewer's desk can't write as badly as that.

Even more chortlesome, however, was this paragraph from a Times article on the banishment of the Qur'an from SPCK shelves.

"In practice, the Koran is the only text affected because those of other religions such as Judaism and Hinduism were rarely stocked by the shops, which are located near many British cathedrals or in their precincts."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article658392.ece

Judaism's sacred text rarely stocked by SPCK?? Did they expunge the Hebrew Scriptures from their copies of the Christian Bible?

I bet you're glad you didn't write THAT, Ruth!

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America

Dear Ruth,

Oh dear, the question of Shabbat strikes again.

Is it really a holy day for you? Doesn't the greater good of selling Bibles trump the personal benefit of making the Sabbath holy?
Really, too much Judaizing brings confusion to foreigners.