Sunday Sickness?!? (Morbus Sabbaticus)

 From time to time I read and utilize sermon illustration books.  Sometimes the illustrations aren't good or helpful.  Sometimes they are helpful.  Other times they just make me think.  Here's a humorous one that stuck out this morning in my studies: “Morbus Sabbaticus,” better known as “Sunday sickness,” is a disease peculiar to some church…

Sabbath: The First Day of the Week

Why has the Christian church historically called Sunday “the Lord’s Day” or “The Christian Sabbath?”  Why do we meet for worship on the first day of the week, and rest on it?  William Ames explains this well in his Marrow of Theology (II.XV.27-29): “Divine not human authority has now changed the last day of the…

Sunday and the Small Church

NOTE: This is a slightly edited repost from May 26, 2009. Here's some great stuff from Preaching and Worship in the Small Church by Willimon and Wilson (Nashville: Abigdon, 1980).  In this section (chapter three), Willimon and Wilson write about the primary activity of the small church: Sunday worship. The authors first lament the fact…

The 7th Day Sabbath: Buried in Christ’s Grave

I’ve been reading through Joseph Pipa’s helpful book, The Lord’s Day, and I ran across this amazing quote by Geerhardus Vos.  I’ve read it before, but I forgot its depth.  While there are a handful of biblical arguments against a Christian seventh day Sabbath, I believe the argument from redemptive history is one of the…

Sabbath and the First Day (Athanasius)

 Athanasius (4th C. AD) has some great words about the 7th-to-1st-day change from the old covenant to the new covenant.  This is one great reason why Christians worship on the first day of the week instead of the last day of the week. "In the time of the old covenant, the sabbath was highly revered.  Now under the…